Hey, I'm sorry for freaking out about chapter 8. It's just that when you work hard on something you like to know that people enjoyed it, plus reviews inspire me to update faster and sooner. But I'm sure that's the same for any FanFic author. Anyway here is chapter 9! Please review. I LOVE feed back! Also sorry if the grammar and spelling is bad, I didn't spend much time editing it.

So this chapter is a timeskip. It's been a few weeks like 3 or 4. It's early October in the story. Also Sakura is a little more open and a little less tense around Sasuke and the others. Also Karin makes her first appearance. DUN DUN DUN!

P.S – Thanks for checking out Nova! I'm glad you guys are interested and I'm working on the first chapter. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should it's SasuSaku.


'How did this happen?' Sakura asked herself. It was Saturday. She planned to spend the day practicing cello, and doing some extra studying. But somehow she got talked into going to the mall with Ino, Hinata, TenTen, and Temari to shop.

She jumped suddenly when she felt a hand on her shoulder and she heard a soft laugh, she turned around to see TenTen.

"Relax Sakura. I'm not gonna hurt you." TenTen said grinning. Sakura nodded.

"You're always soo jumpy." TenTen said amused as she chuckled slowly.

"Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that… I'm glad you came. It means a lot…. to Ino and Hinata." TenTen said quietly.

"You really mean a lot to them. They care about you." Sakura was shocked. She thought Ino and Hinata hated her. Their friendship had ended so badly and Sakura knew it was her fault. She looked over at them, they were currently giggling with Temari while looking at jewelry. Sakura half smiled sadly.

"I didn't know…" Sakura said trailing off. TenTen looked at her quizzically.

"Didn't know what?" TenTen asked.

"That they still cared." Sakura said, TenTen smiled and grabbed Sakura's tiny pale hand in her own and gave it a comforting squeeze. Sakura looked at TenTen, shocked, who in return laughed and smiled.

"Come on, let's go see the others." TenTen said while pulling Sakura to where Ino, Hinata, and Temari were.


Sasuke yawned as he tiredly awoke from his deep sleep. He cracked his eye open to peak at his clock, 12:36.

He sighed and sat up rubbing his eyes. Standing up, he stretched his body back and went to the mirror to check out his hair. It wasn't greasy or anything, maybe a bit grungy, but that was because he showered last night and went to bed with his hair wet. He combed through it quickly till he was satisfied. Then he brought his arm up and leaned his nose towards his arm pit and sniffed.

"Ugh…" He grunted making a face and grabbed the stick of deodorant from his desk and applied it heavily and sniffed again this time content with the scent. He then looked on the floor where the majority of his wardrobe lay on the ground. He picked up a shirt and smelled it.

"Egh…" He made a face and threw the shirt back down, and repeated his process until he came to the conclusion that he had no clean clothes.

"Great…" He muttered as he went to his closet where his dress clothes hung. The clothes he only wore for recitals or the annual family Christmas picture. He glared as he grabbed the grey dress pant and went commando under them because of his lack of clean underwear. He then grabbed his crisp white dress shirt and pulled on, leaving it un-tucked and rolling the sleeves up to his elbow. He then grabbed the laundry basket in the closet and began to toss his clothes in. When it was full he groaned when he realized he'd have to make more than one trip. He decided to make things quicker by going into the living room and getting two garbage bags from the cabinet and returning to his room to fill them as much as he could with his dirty clothes.

He sighed. Two trash bags full of clothes.

'Great…' He thought as he lugged them up and walked out of his room and out of his dorm. Naruto and Kiba were probably still asleep.

When he got to the laundry room on the first floor there was another person in there. A girl named Karin. She was in musical theory class and part of the college freshman orchestra with him and Sakura. She played the flute. He knew Karin liked him and he also knew Karin didn't like Sakura. She seemed to be another person like Shikamaru who was aware of his attraction to Sakura.

"Hey Sasuke. Doing laundry in dress clothes?" She asked with a flirtatious tone in her voice.

"Yeah…" He said as he went to an empty machine and began to load it up to the top with his dirty clothes.

"You know, this is probably the first time I've seen you around without Sakura by your side. Where is she?" Karin asked as she finished unloading her laundry from the dryer. She walked over and began to help Sasuke with his laundry.

"You don't have to do that, and I don't know where Sakura is." Sasuke said. Karin grinned.

"I know I don't have too, but I want too. You know Sakura doesn't seem like the type of girl who dates. I think your wasting your time." Karin said nonchalantly as she started up the machine. Sasuke had three washing machines loaded with his clothes.

"You don't know anything about her." Sasuke said defensively as he began to walk out of the laundry room with his trash bags. Karin quickly grabbed her laundry basket and hurried to catch up with him.

"Oh I think I do. More than you'll ever know." Karin said as she walked down the hall with Sasuke. He suddenly stopped and looked her dead in the eye.

"What do you know Karin?" He asked. Karin smirked.

"I know that she's troubled and I know that she's not capable of the affection you want from her." Karin said. Sasuke glared. Karin knew something and she wasn't going to tell him it seemed.

"Karin. What. Do. You. Know?" Sasuke demanded. Karin just smirked.

"That's for me to know and you to find out." Karin said as she turned around and vanished into her room. Sasuke glared and went up to the second floor where he went straight to Sakura's room.

He didn't hear anything on the other side, but he knocked anyway.

No answer.

He knocked again.

"Sakura?" He called out.

Still no answer.

He knocked one more time and still she didn't answer. Sasuke assumed she wasn't there and sighed as he left and went back to his room.


"Oh my god! This dress is soo cute!" Ino exclaimed and she fingered the soft pink fabric of a dress.

"Ino, you've bought like four or five dresses today already." Temari said, holding two large bags and one small one, as she gestured to the five large shopping bags and two small ones on the ground next to Ino's legs.

"Yeah, but this one is pink and totally compliments my hair!" Ino whined. TenTen, who was holding two medium sized bags, rolled her eyes.

"Come on Ino, I think we've all shopped enough for one day. Let's call it quits and get some food and head back." Hinata said she was holding one large bag and two medium sized ones.

"Aaaah… Fine…" Ino muttered and picked up her bags and walked out of the store. Temari and TenTen giggled as they followed her. Hinata stayed behind because she noticed Sakura was standing there in a slight daze holding her one medium sized bag.

"Sakura?" Hinata called out, but Sakura didn't seem to hear her.

Four years ago

Sakura was walking through the local mall with her parents. They were about to go see a movie. As they walked they passed a dress shop and Sakura saw Ino and Hinata in there. Ino was trying on this long purple prom dress and twirling as Hinata laughed and clapped. Obviously complimenting the blonde. It was prom season and Sakura knew that Ino was going with Sai. Before the incident at Sai's party Ino, Hinata, and her talked about how excited they were to go dress shopping for Ino's dress together.

They looked so happy, like they didn't miss her at all.

She was supposed to be in there with them. Giggling and laughing and talking and joking.

This was supposed to be a special moment for all three of them. Shopping together.

It was supposed to be the three of them, and they looked like they couldn't care less.

End flashback

"Sakura?" Hinata asked again, this time bringing the girl out of her daze.

"Huh?" Sakura looked over at Hinata confused.

"Come one. We're gonna get something to eat before heading back to school." Hinata said warmly. Sakura nodded and Hinata began to walk out.

"Hinata?" Sakura called out. The pearly eyed girl stopped and turned around.

"Yeah?" She said. Sakura took a deep breath.

"I… I just wanted to tell you… I'm sorry about how things ended… between us." Sakura said softly. Hinata smiled and tears gathered slowly in her eyes.

"Sakura…" She said as she placed her bags on the floor and enveloped Sakura in a hug. Sakura stiffened at first but eventually put her arms around Hinata.

"I missed you so much." Hinata said with a slight sob. Sakura's eyes watered and she sniffed lightly. After a few seconds they parted.

"Come on…" Hinata said picking up her bags, "… the others are probably wondering where we are." Sakura nodded and smiled very soft and lightly at Hinata as the two walked out side by side.


"Fuck…" Sasuke muttered as he was unloading the last of his clothes from the dryers only to find that his favorite wool navy sweater had shrunk. He waded it up in a frustrated manner and through it roughly to the floor. He glared at it for a few seconds before continuing to unload his clothes.

"Sasuke?" He heard a familiar voice say. He looked up and over to the entrance to the laundry to see Sakura standing in the doorway with a shopping bag.

"Oh hey, I haven't seen you all day." He said. Sakura nodded and walked over to him setting her bag on a machine and bending down to pick up his sweater. She un-wadded it and held it out in front of her.

"Yeah, Ino, Hinata, TenTen and Temari took me shopping. Is this yours?" She asked as she noticed that it was much too small for him. As she held it out Sasuke noted that the sweater was her size, maybe just slightly larger.

"Yeah… I shrunk my favorite sweater." Sasuke said embarrassed. Sakura nodded and looked at the tag.

"It shrunk because it says here it needs to hang dry." Sakura said, stepping closer to show him.

"Oh…" He said. Sakura looked down to see two trash bags filled with his clothes. She noted that some was wrinkled from being left in the dryer to long and that a few of his whites were tinted a light pink.

"Is this your first time doing laundry?" Sakura asked. Sasuke shrugged.

"I did it once before when I was 14 and my parents grounded me, but I ended up shrinking my mom's favorite dress and I turned all dad's shirts pink… after that I never had to do it again… until now…" Sasuke explained while scratching the back of his head in a fashion similar to Naruto. Sakura gave an amused miniscule smile.

"Wow…" Sakura muttered as she folded the shrunken sweater neatly and placed it on the dryer and started helping Sasuke unload his clothes.

"Sakura, you don't have to help." He said as he placed his hand over hers to stop her. Sakura tensed and Sasuke removed his hand remembering that Sakura wasn't one comfortable with contact, especially contact form the opposite sex.

"I don't mind… Besides there's only three items of clothes left." Sakura said as she picked up a grey t-shirt from the dryer and folded it and placed it in the garbage bag. Sasuke smirked again.

"You don't have to fold it." He said as he grabbed the last two shirts and stuffed them in the bag.

"I know. It's just out of habit." Sakura said. There was a pause between them before Sakura awkwardly inhaled and grabbed her shopping bag as Sasuke tied up the trash bags and shut the dryer. Sakura picked up the folded shrunken sweater and held it out to Sasuke. He smiled and shook his head.

"No it's too small…" He said, Sakura nodded and then Sasuke remembered that the sweater would fit Sakura.

"You could keep it though…" He said trying to keep his blush down. Sakura nodded and placed the sweater in her bag.

"Thank you." She said. Sasuke nodded and smirked.

"Do you want to grab some dinner or something?" Sasuke asked. Sakura shook her head.

"No, I already ate. Thanks though." Sakura said and began to walk away; when she got to the door she stopped and waited for him. Sasuke smirked and picked up his trash bags, and walked out with Sakura.

"So, what did you get?" Sasuke asked gesturing to Sakura's shopping bag.

"I just got a new dress, a couple cardigans, and some jewelry." Sakura said. Sasuke nodded. They walked in silence until they got to Sakura's door.

"So, I'll see you later." Sakura said, unlocking her door and opening it about to head inside.

"Hey…" Sasuke said, Sakura turned around and looked up at him, "… Maybe next time I do my laundry you could help me?" Sasuke asked with a slight smirk. The corners of Sakura's mouth twitched up slightly and she nodded.

"Yeah, I'd like that." Sakura said.

"Ok, I'll see you later then." Sasuke said.

"Yeah. See you later." Sakura said and went into her room and closed the door. Sasuke sighed and continued to walk to his room. When he got there he saw Kiba napping on the couch with his dog Akamaru on his chest and Naruto watching TV with a cup of ramen in his hands.

"Dude, where've you been all day?" Naruto asked. Sasuke gestured to his bags.

"Laundry." He said.

"Ah man! Why didn't you tell me you were doing laundry! You could've done mine too! I haven't worn clean underwear in three days!" Naruto complained. Sasuke glared at him and went into his room and dumped the clothes into his dresser and closet. He then grabbed a pair of boxers, a wrinkled pair of pajamas, and a once white but now pink shirt and changed. The he tiredly turned off his lights and flopped down onto his bed and put his headphones on and listened to music.

After awhile his mind drifted to his conversation with Karin from earlier today.

"You know Sakura doesn't seem like the type of girl who dates. I think your wasting your time."

"You don't know anything about her."

"Oh I think I do. More than you'll ever know."

"What do you know Karin?"

"I know that she's troubled and I know that she's not capable of the affection you want from her."

"What does she know?"


Did you like it, or love it, or want some more of it? Any one else remember that Tim McGraw song? No? Ok never mind. Please review!