Well Sakura's feeling the confusion rising, where will it end? No Itachi for the next few chapters sorry, we're going to concentrate ont he school group for a while, but there's a new character coming in the next chapter any guesses?

Disclaimer: the most depressing part of writing about our beloved characters is admitting I didn't think them up, and I don't even own them.

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Genuis' losing sight of the exit

Konoha High

Sakura tried to focus on the flapping paper in front of her.

"See? What d'ya think Sakura-sweetie? Are you in?"

Losing her paitence she grabbed the paper out of his moving hand and smoothed it down on the lunch table.

"Mixed relay." She said blankly reading the top.

She lifted her confused eyes to Naruto's happily grinning face.

"Yeah! Yeah! Sports Day is coming and everyone needs to do at least one event, so I thought why not the mixed relay, that way we can train together, and then..." Naruto's voice was muffled as Sasuke covered Naruto's mouth with his hand.

"'Lo." Sasuke muttered, sitting down pulling Naruto with him.

Hinata smiled quietly at Sasuke while Sakura watched him curiously. He seemed calm, a little too calm she thought. Maybe his Dad had finally found out that Sasuke'd skipped school a few days ago and ripped into him. Maybe he was just tired, Sasuke lifted dull eyes to stare at Sakura.

"So what does the idiot want now?" He asked without enthousiam.

Sakura frowned, this wasn't like him, usually he was...snarkier than that, a little more lively.

She flicked her hair over her shoulder and gave him a bright smile.

"Hi Sasuke!" She said.

Ever since his rather accurate attack about her lack of real feelings for him Sakura had decided to cool it a little on the fan girl act. Naruto pushed Sasuke's hand away and grumped at him.

"Hiya bastard." Naruto said.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted in return poking at his food.

Naruto frowned at the lack of reponse. Taking a deep breath he scooted away from Sasuke which put himself closer to Hinata. She blushed and promptly stared at her food as if it were the answer to happiness on earth. Sakura held down a giggle at Hinata's too cute behaviour.

"I was telling Sakura about us joining up for the mixed relay." Naruto said carefully.

Sakura looked at Naruto closely, what was he acting so wary for? He hadn't done anything stupid yet. Her eyes flicked back to the paper this time scanning further down. She frowned when she saw that her name was already written on it along with Naruto's and Sasuke's, what made her leap to her feet was the teachers counter signature at the bottom.

"What d'ya mean we're already signed up!" She yelled into Naruto's cringing face.

"Well, I figured you guys'd say yes anyway, so I signed us up. You have to do one event, and like this we can stay together." He said as reasonably as possible.

Naruto 'eeped' as Sasuke's blunt knife appeared under his nose.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't turn you into fillets right now." Sasuke growled a spark growing in his eyes.

"Because you have to do at least one event?" Naruto said a quaver in his voice.

"Why not take Hinata?" Sasuke growled

"She has a medical certificate, no sports for her." Naruto said looking at Sakura pleadingly.

"Sasuke put the knife down." Sakura said firmly.

Sasuke flicked his eyes over to her, then placed the knife down scowling and crossed his arms.

"Besides," Sakura said tossing her hair over her shoulder again, "I don't even know if I'm allowed to compete with you guys, we're not in the same classes."

Sasuke smirked.

"What's so great about you being a genius?" He asked snidely.

"Well I'm not in remedial for one." Sakura said folding her arms staring back at him.

"MIXED relay!" Naruto said with emphasis. "Doesn't matter what classes you're in, or what age you are, just have to be boys and girls and then be willing to run. And the best is that everyone is running the same races, so we get to compete against the higher forms!"

Naruto looked excited at the thought of trying his stuff against the older students.

"Neji will be participating." Hinata almost whispered. "Almost all the athletic team is in the relay race."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed and even Sakura felt a hum of competition enter her.

The snob is gonna be there? Hell yeah! He's going down! Sakura thought to herself internally smacking her fist against her palm, externally she sat down calmly smoothing her skirt.

"Awwww, Sasuke you have to say yes, it's our chance to smash down that Hyuuga bastard once and for all! At his own game!" Naruto weedled, adopting what he thought was a sweet expression.

When Sasuke made no response Naruto switched to Sakura.

"Pleeeease say yes. If you say yes Sasuke will be sure to say yes!" Naruto said a pathetically hopeful look in his eyes.

Sakura blushed, and Sasuke spluttered a denial. All the same Sakura and Sasuke found themselves bullied into agreeing by a pleading Naruto.

It won't be too bad, Sakura thought I'm kinda athletic, and it's only a relay.

How wrong she was.

Uchiha Mansion

For the umpteenth time Sakura regretted her choice as she puffed her way around the grounds of the Uchiha gardens. She'd been outstripped since the first lap by the two competing boys and now there was no hope of catching up to them. Jogging to a stop she leaned against the nearest tree panting.

"Yo."

"Gaaah!" Somehow Sakura found the breath to yell as Kakashi slipped out from behind the tree.

"I knew running wouldn't be your thing." Kakashi said looking at her red face.

Sakura held back the urge to punch his stupid chauvinistic face in. Losing did not put her into a good mood at all, and having it rubbed in her face sparked her fighting spirit. She was getting just a little tired of Kakashi always assuming she'd be the weakest in everything

Tossing her sweaty hair over her shoulder she glared at him her eyes bold. Kakashi looked bemused for a second then clapped her on the back before strolling away. Grumbling half at him, half at her own stubborn nature Sakura started out again.

Later

Naruto was busy doing extra laps as punishment for cheating on two laps to beat Sasuke, so Sakura and Sasuke strolled back to the house together. Without even thinking hard Sakura just knew that Itachi wouldn't be there, he hadn't contacted her in almost an entire week, why would he be home now? So Sakura thought longing of the hot shower waiting for her instead, she was sweaty, and smelly and gross feeling, and why did sports have to leave her feeling so unfeminine? She remembered distinctly the other girls telling her exactly how unattractive and unfeminine she was because she liked to study and to do sports. She remembered dropping all her sports like hot rocks because of that. Thank goodness she hadn't been so stupid as to drop her studies as well. If she had she would never have met Itachi, and she would never have forgiven herself for that.

Sakura winced as her leg muscles protested all the exercise they'd been put through. Sasuke glanced over and sighed. Moving in front of her he crouched down. Sakura looked at him confused, wondering if his shoe lace had come untied.

"Well, get on." He said grumpily.

"Huh?" Sakura said intelligently.

"Get on my back." Sasuke said more clearly. "You've gone and injured yourself with the running. I can carry you to the house at least."

He turned his head to look at her coldly.

"But then you walk." He said bruscely.

Internally Sakura kicked his presented backside back to the house, externally she gave stiff smile and shook her head.

"I'm okay, I can make it."

Sasuke sighed.

"For once in your life stop being so pig headed stubborn and just let me help you."

"Not stubborn." Sakura grumbled trying to push past him.

She jumped when she felt his hand wrap around her ankle. Twisting around she glared down at him feeling her cheeks heat. He so did not look really cute kneeling like that looking up at her. So did not.

"If you really liked me, you'd be happy to let me carry you." He said quietly.

Well there wasn't much she could say against that, so she let him carry her on his back as gracefully as she could, and tried not to grumble too loudly about her embarrasment.

"You could be more grateful. All the girls in my class would kill for the chance to be piggy backed by me." Sasuke complained as Sakura tightened her grip around his neck.

"But Sasuke, honey, I am grateful!" Sakura said tightening her grip with each word.

You arrogant little prick! Internal Sakura hissed.

Sasuke leaned forward and jumped her further up his back to loosen her grip on his neck.

"You got a problem today or what? You're being pissier than normal." He grumbled.

Sasuke tried not to grimace as Sakura dug her pointy chin into the top of his head.

"I wanted to thank you, ow!" Sasuke slapped her leg as she gave an extra hard dig with her chin.

Sakura scowled and refused to rub the spot.

"Do you have to do that?" He asked complaining.

"Well, you, you." Sakura huffed not finding a response.

"I, what?" Sasuke asked.

"Nothing, sorry, I just don't feel very friendly at the moment." Sakura apologised grudgingly.

Sasuke stayed silent a while, Sakura felt her guilt building. She'd had no reason to try and hurt Sasuke, all he'd done was offer to carry her to give her poor legs a rest. It was just that after Kakashi's dismisal of her during the running, her feminine pride was hurting, and being carried was just a little too much. That and she was missing Itachi again. Sasuke was a convinent target for her frustration when his big brother was AWOL.

"You wanted to say something?" Sakura asked softly.

"Nothing important." Sasuke said.

Sakura wrinkled her nose, shaking her head as the spiky hair on the back of his head tickled her nose.

"Hey what 'cha doing?" Sasuke asked suspciously.

"You hair is tickly." Sakura said holding down a giggle as Sasuke snorted.

"Idiot, my hair is not tickly." He said firmly.

Sakura pressed her face against his hair and brushed it back and forth against the back of his head. It felt different from Itachi's hair, she breathed deeply inhaling the scent of Sasuke, different from Itachi's. She knew she should stop, that she was just replacing Itachi with Sasuke, but she missed Itachi so much it hurt. Being this close to Sasuke reminded her too much of Itachi. Slowly she drew her head back biting her lip to stop the tears from falling. It was so hard keeping everything a secret sometimes.

Sasuke stopped walking, Sakura's breathing hitched and she felt the need to cry press even more strongly on her. Slowly he lowered her to the ground and turned to face her. Sakura sucked in her breath and turned away from him.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me." Sakura began. "But I'll never be so forward with you again, please forgive me."

"Sakura, what's wrong?" Sasuke asked placing a hand on each shoulder.

Sakura felt tears tremble on her eyelashes and blinked fast to remove them. Turning to face him she smiled brightly.

"I'm so embarrassed!" She said a little too happily. "I don't want you to get the wrong idea about me."

Sasuke cocked an eyebrow at her overly bright eyes.

"I don't normally go around doing things like that. But well you just smelled so good I thought I'd..." Sakura clapped a hand over her mouth to stop the babbling noises coming out.

Sasuke looked at her strangely one of his hands slowly rising to the back of his head, he briefly touched the hair there, then lowered his hand. Standing there so still and quiet the resemblance between him and Itachi was overwhelming, especially the eyes. Sasuke had the same hypnotic eyes as Itachi, looking at her with that deep look. She never knew if Itachi was happy or sad when he looked at her like that, as if he wasn't really seeing her rather something deep inside himself, or her. The look always made her shake and want to wrap herself around him until the emptiness left his eyes.

Slowly Sasuke's eyes regained their focus and stared at her with a sad, half empty look. He took a step closer, putting one hand behind her head. Sakura clamped her hand down harder over her mouth wimpering half in fear, half in something else she didn't want to identify. If he noticed he made no sign. He half closed his eyes and his other hand brushed against her exposed cheek.

"It's normal to want to touch the people you love." He whispered.

Surprised Sakura failed to react as he closed the distance between them. His lips brushed against her forehead, and she could only note that they were warm. Tears slipped down her cheeks as he leaned back and smiled at her. She found that she didn't mind at all when Sasuke wrapped his arms around her crying form. After a while Sakura stopped crying and sniffled pathetically. She felt miserable.

"You have your period huh." Sasuke said wisely.

"Huh?" Sakura said jerking back her head from his chest to stare at him shocked.

A germ of embarrassed anger sparked in her eyes. He poked her wide forehead with one finger grinning at her in a good imitation of Naruto.

"That's the Sakura I was looking for." He said grinning even more.

Spluttering Sakura judo threw him to the ground and tried to pin his face into the dirt.

"You...you...MALE!" Sakura screeched.

Sasuke overpowered her frenzied movements and pinned her clenched fists against his chest, trapping them between his body and the ground. Sakura ground her knee into the small of his back trying to force him to let go. He laughed around a faceful of dirt and looked up at her flushed face from his awkard position.

"Ow! Ow,owow." Sasuke complained.

Sakura gritted her teeth and pressed harder into his back.

"I knew you like it rough." He said a spark she was coming to know too well, in his eye.

Momentarily shocked into inaction, Sakura cursed as Sasuke used the instant to roll her over so he pressed her back into the ground, his back pressed against her front pinning her down with his greater weight.

"My my, what language for a lady;" Sasuke said sarcastically over his shoulder to her red face.

"Get off me you bastard!" Sakura warned trying to free her hands so she could strangle him.

How dare he humiliate her like this, did he think she would just lie down and take this? Wait, wait, was he rubbing against her? He was dead, he was so dead she didn't have words for how dead he was.

With a scream of rage she wrenched her hands free and tried to claw for his face. She heard an 'oops' from Sasuke before he was up and off her crouching opposite from her a wary look in his eyes.

"Hey, I was just returning the favour, you're the one that started the unasked for touching." He said holding his hands out in a calming gesture.

"I touched your hair, you...you..." Sakura spluttered trying to forget the brief moment she'd enjoyed it.

Unable to finish her sentance, she struggled up to standing and glowered at him as she tried to arrange her hair and clothes.

"I what?" Sasuke smirked. "Got a good feel of you?"

He sighed dissapointed.

"Not even close, but if you're keen to let me try again." He leered at her, and Sakura realised he was playing.

Was the inconsiderate bastard trying to cheer her up by trying to sexually molest her? Well maybe molest was too strong a word, but still a girl had some pride. She choked down her anger and tried to present a proud haughty face. He sniggered and Sakura wapped him on the head glowering at him.

"I told you before, you can do what you want to me, as long as I get the same rights." He said that spark coming back into his eyes.

"So if you don't want me to touch you, stop touching me. If you can." He said smirking at her open mouthed expression.

"You snide, arrogant bastard." Sakura gasped.

"Yep, but it doesn't stop you being hot for me." He said turning and walking away.

Sakura reflected this was not the first time she'd finished chasing an Uchiha male because of a comment about her inability to control her hormones.