Disclaimer: Still don't own.
Holy cream, I just realized that in chapter 5, I forgot to replace the times for swimming! I put -INSERT TIME- and -INSERT ANOTHER TIME- D:
I'll fix that later... I really messed that up. XP Just ignore that. Or make up a time that can, you know, work. Forgive me.
Hooooly crap, it's been so long since I've updated. I'm truly sorry about this! I just haven't been in a good mood to write comedy and stuff, plus projects and lack of motivation. I wrote this a week or two ago, but I was afraid that it wouldn't be good, or that it's too short or stuff like that. I have the urge to change this story into an angst story and kill someone off, but I will resist that urge because I promised a comedy (or an attempt at one).
Anyways, thanks so much for the suggestions everyone! I'm not really in the mood to write at the moment, but I promise I'll work on it as soon as I can. Okay, so I'm bad at keeping promises. But once I get into a better mood, I'll work on it! OH by the way, this is basically Sasuke / Sakura.
Sakura couldn't sleep. But how could you blame her? Each time she rolled around to sleep on her other side, the sound of leaves rustling kept reminding her that she indeed did follow Tenten's idea to use leaves. Ino and Hinata were able to sleep easily, and that was what Tenten and Sakura envied. Both took a long time to fall asleep, but nonetheless, there Tenten was: sleeping like a baby, occasionally pulling on Neji's hair. He didn't seem to mind though, after a few minutes, he was asleep as well. Shikamaru obviously seemed like the type to fall asleep easily, and surprisingly enough, Naruto fell asleep quickly as well.
So there the pink-haired girl was, trying to sleep, knowing that one of her favourite pairs of pants would be unusable until they were washed. She flopped around on her stomach once more, hearing the rustling of leaves again, and sighed loudly.
"Could you stop?" an irritated voice sounded.
Sakura looked around, and saw Sasuke, staring at her through the clump of hair in front of his face. His eyes were barely open, showing how tired he was. Neither of them knew what time it was, but both knew it was late. The moonlight illuminated part of the cave, and casted the rest in shadows.
"Shut up!" Sakura snapped back bitterly. "You're in no position to tell me to stop! It isn't like you'd know what it's like to have blood pour out of you like a waterfall each month!"
Sasuke gave a nauseous look, dug his face into the ground, and covered his ears. "I don't care about your little girl problems!"
"Well then, I don't care about keeping you up!" Sakura retorted furiously, rolling over so her back now faced him.
"Fine!"
Sakura squeezed her eyes shut forcefully as though it would make her fall asleep faster. But just knowing that Sasuke was there, staring at her, made her angry, which kept her up.
"Look, I'm not in the mood to fight. So...if there's anything I can do about your...problem, just let me know."
Sakura gasped and clutched her heart. "W-What? Sasuke, was that you who said that?"
She could seen him blushed lightly and nod. "Wow," she continued, "what was that?"
"What was what?"
"That red thing on your cheek."
Sasuke cleared his throat and rolled over so his back was facing her. "N-Nevermind. Forget I even offered to say anything."
Sakura felt her heart sink. "N-No, that's not what I meant. I mean, it is what I meant, but I didn't mean it in a mean way that could offend you! I really want you to talk to me!"
Sasuke smirked and gave a loud snort, but he felt warm inside. "Really," he thought out loud. He turned to see Sakura nervously playing with her short hair and pulling her legs closer to her heaving chest. "Fine. What can I do to stop that waterfall of yours? It's not like I carry napkins around or anything."
"Do you have extra clothing?" Sakura inquired.
"That'll help?"
"ANYTHING will help," she replied with a heavy sigh. "Now, do you have any or not?"
Sasuke shrugged. "Yeah, sure. I brought an extra shirt just in case, you know, something happened like you pushed me into a lake or something like that."
Sakura laughed nervously and took the shirt he handed to her. "Turn around," she ordered, blushing lightly. He did as he was told, and a few minutes later, she said, "Okay, I'm done." She spun around on the spot, crossing her legs carefully, and faced Sasuke, frowning. "I'm bored. Entertain me."
"What am I, your court jester?"
"No, that's too medieval. Just my entertainment."
"Sorry, your highness, but I'm going to sleep," Sasuke replied sarcastically, plopping back down and pulling his jacket over his head as if using it as a shield against the angry pink-haired girl.
Sakura bit her bottom lip out of frustration. "You're just like my sister," she screamed. "I hate you!"
A pregnant silence weaved its way through the thick atmosphere. Sasuke regretted how he had acted. He just meant what he said as teasing; he never thought Sakura would actually take it seriously. But there she was, hugging her legs towards her chest, staring at the cold ground with blank eyes. He fidgetted around with the zipped on his jacket uncomfortably, not sure of what to say next. He glanced over at his friends and the girls, only to see they were all sleeping (he was sure at least one of the other six people would have woken up after that scream).
"I'm sorry," Sasuke said, glancing over his shoulder to see her reaction. She did nothing. "What...what did your sister do?" No response. "You shouldn't fight, you know. You're siblings. Your sister cares for you a lot, I'm sure. She may not show it in ways that most would, but she does. There's no way you can seriously hate your own sister."
"Where did you get that from, a movie?" Sakura spat incredulously, a thick crease developing on her forehead. "Of course I hate her. She doesn't care about me, she always leaves me out to dry, ditches me, pretends not to know me around her friends, and uses me constantly to get what she wants. Plus she's so much smarter than me, and my parents always praise her. I mean, sure, they praise me, too, but it's obvious that they like her better. Is that what a sister is supposed to do?"
"Do you want her to pretend to be stupid for you?"
"I don't need her to be stupid. Just stupider than I am."
"You're being unreasonable and selfish. Your sister isn't going to bend to suit your every desire," Sasuke barked, angry at her immature response. He didn't know she was serious. "If you really want to surpass her, you need to stop complaining and do something about it!"
"Do you think I want her to walk over me like this?" Sakura exclaimed. "Why are you even butting into this?"
"You brought it up."
"Because you were being a jerk!"
"I told you, I'm sorry. Do you want me to get down on my knees and kiss your feet?"
Sakura pondered this for a moment, then replied, "No."
They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. The only sound was the loud snoring coming from the sleeping teens. Sakura, fixing her gaze at Sasuke's eyes (which made him quite uncomfortable), took a deep breath in and shifted so that she was leaning against the cave wall.
"When we were younger," she began softly, "my sister, Ren, and I were at the playground. Ino, Hinata, Tenten, and her brothers were all there. Ino, Hinata, and I were six, Tenten was seven, and her brothers and my sister were ten. We were playing Marco Polo, and we could play it so easily because we practically had the jungle gym memorized after playing there so often."
&FLASHBACK
Sakura began spinning around, listening to the people around her chant how many seconds left until she could stop. When it reached zero, she stopped and tried to regain her balance, giggling at how dizzy she felt. Slowly, she made her way towards the jungle gym, where everyone was climbing and hanging from edges, hoping to not be caught. As she ascended up the bars, she felt a strong pressure push her forwards. Sakura crashed against the wooden platform. She felt the bitter taste of blood oozing through her lips, and she opened her eyes to see what was going on. Ren was standing above her, biting her cheeks.
"Sakura, are you okay?" Hinata gasped, jumping off of the swing and running towards Sakura. "Oh my gosh, you're bleeding!" She took a flower-patterned handkerchief out from her pocket and wiped Sakura's lips with it.
"We should get her back to the parents," Ino suggested.
Tenten and her brothers jumped down from the slide and joined the crowd around Sakura, who was sitting up against one of the short walls. "What on earth happened?" Tenten exclaimed.
"I was trying to crawl on the other side of the bars to get up before Sakura, but I accidentally stepped on her dress, slipped, and fell against her," Ren admitted, tears welling up in her eyes as she fell to her knees and looked at Sakura. "I'm really sorry!" She took the handkerchief from Hinata and wiped Sakura's face with it. "Oh, Sakura, your lip is swelling, your chin is bruised, and your dress is stained from dirt and speckles of blood! Here, let me help you up."
"We'll go get the parents," Tenten's brothers said in unison, nodding to Tenten, and the three of them ran back.
Ino looked at Hinata. "We should rinse this cloth in the water fountain," she said. The both of them ran off to the nearest water fountain, which was a hundred or two meters away."
Ren watched their small figures shrink, then turned back to Sakura, stood up, and extended her hand. "You'll have to change out of that dress once we get back, if mom and dad even let you join the party again."
"I know," Sakura mumbled, wiping the tears from her eyes. She wouldn't cry in front of her older sister. She grabbed Ren's hand and said, "You were right, Ren. I shouldn't have worn this dress. And I really liked it, too." Ren pulled Sakura up so that Sakura's delicate ear was only a few centimeters from Ren's lips.
"I know," she whispered, her words slathered with greed. "You should listen to me." Sakura's shocked eyes trailed up to Ren's face. A thin, smug grin stretched from ear to ear.
They stood there in silence. A sudden gust of wind sliced through Sakura's ears. Nothing else dared to move, except for the cherryblossoms falling from the tree above them and the tumbling leaves dancing around them. There was nothing else that Ren required to say. Her short words and her expression explained it all.
When Ino and Hinata were only a few meters away, Ren quickly pulled Sakura into an embrace and began stroking her hair gently. Ren buried her face in Sakura's hair, trying to hide the smile on her face. "It's okay, Sakura. I promise today will get better," she said softly, but loud enough for Ino and Hinata to hear.
Sakura wanted to push away, but couldn't. I'm too weak, she thought, fighting back the tears. She desperately didn't want to let her sister know she won, but she couldn't help it. She didn't know if it was the pain of being backstabbed, or if it was her chin, lips, and teeth. "I want to go home!" she cried, just as Tenten, her brothers, and the parents were coming into view.
&END OF FLASHBACK
"What was so important about that dress?" Sasuke inquired.
Sakura sighed. "Every time I went to the mall, I would always stare at that dress from outside the window. I couldn't afford it, though. My parents could, obviously, but they said they wouldn't get it for me because I already had so many dresses. My sister really liked that dress too, and we decided to pull our money together and buy it when we had enough. And suddenly, on my birthday, before the party, my parents showed up with a wrapped box, and inside was the dress. I immediately ran to my room to put it on. When I came out, my sister told me it didn't look very nice on me because of my forehead and my eye colour, and said I shouldn't wear it. And she said it was a bit too long, and that it could be dangerous if I wore it. But I didn't care. I had the dress I loved, and I was going to wear it. The rest is obvious."
"She purposely fell on you, hurt you, and messed up your dress," Sasuke answered, even though it wasn't necessary. "If she couldn't have it, then neither could you."
Sakura nodded gloomily. "And that was when it first began. After that, she's embarrassed me in front of my crush, taken my stuff from my room, blamed her mistakes on me, and skipped two grades ahead."
"Wow, what a..." He trailed off, knowing it was more than implied.
"Yeah. So, what were you saying about me being selfish?"
Sasuke frowned. He hated losing, especially to a girl. "If that's how you truly feel, then go ahead and think that." He couldn't think of anything else to say, and instead decided to leave it at that.
"You could never understand how I feel," Sakura finished before lying down and drifting into sleep.
Sasuke smirked. "That's what you think," he whispered, then soon joined her.
&--
Hinata woke slowly, her eyes fluttering open at the sight of light.
"Finally," someone, who sounded a lot like Shikamaru, muttered. "Even I woke up earlier than her."
Hinata rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times, waiting for everyone to come into focus. The first person she saw was Naruto, who was trying to stifle a laugh. The next people she saw were her friends. Ino, Sakura, and Tenten, who all looked energized and ready to take on the world. The rest of the guys were standing around the cave, posing as though they were getting ready for their pictures to be taken for a male swimsuit calendar. (A/N: Don't ask...it just popped into my head.)
"W-Why is everyone staring at me?" she asked, automatically scooting away and covering her reddening cheeks with her warm hands.
Naruto's grin stretched from ear-to-ear. "Aww, you don't have to look so worried, but it makes you look cute." He winked playfully, not realizing he was flirting, being the oblivious person he is with romance. The hue of Hinata's face changed. "We were just waiting for you, no big deal, really. We can set off anytime now, whenever you're ready."
"I-I'm really sorry for holding you guys up! You should have w-woken me up!"
"Naw," Tenten said nonchalantly, "we didn't want to wake you from your beauty sleep. Now upsie-daisy, and let's get going, hm?"
Hinata nodded. "Okay."
--
"Okay, ma peeps," Gai said, giving a thumbs up. "Is anyone missing?"
"You're only asking this now?" Kurenai sighed, slapping her forehead. "Wouldn't it have been better to ask this right after we got back from the hike?"
Gai merely stared at her, as though she was speaking another language.
"Nevermind."
Gai cleared his throat and continued ranting as though nothing was wrong. "Now, attendance for cabin three. Are you all here?"
Silence.
"Okay! Cabin four?"
"Gai!" Anko exclaimed, whacking him over the head. "Nobody said anything! That means they aren't here!" She glanced around the room. "And, by the looks of it, the cabin four boys aren't here either. So, let's go crash in their cabins and blame the mess we're going to make on them!"
Kurenai gasped dramatically. "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! WE HAVE TO FIND THEM!"
"Hell no," Kakashi muttered. "I just got my hair done."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Kurenai bellowed.
Kakashi winced. "I said...hell...o. Of course I'll go!"
Yes, that was 2500+ words of crap. Please forgive me.
