14. You Have To Be Dating To Be Dumped.
Kakashi had poofed off and Naruto had run off to meet with Iruka leaving Sakura alone with Sasuke for the first time since…well, ever. Not being one to waste such a precious opportunity she quickly acted.
"Looks like it's just you and me Sasuke-kun." She chirped before blushing "Maybe we could go do something together?"
Sasuke sighed and looked aggravated. "Look, Sakura. We're on a team together so I really think that it needs to be put to rest sooner rather than later."
"Wha?"
"I'm not interested. I would say it's flattering but nigh on six years of stalking from all the girls in our class makes that pretty much impossible. I don't want a girlfriend. I'm not looking for love and I definitely do not need someone to 'heal' me."
Sakura flushed red and looked at her shoes "Eh, ah, I'm sorry Sasuke-kun."
He sighed in a frustrated manner. "Sakura, I want to be able to work with you and Naruto. We're supposed to be a team. More to the point, I'm trying to get into the medic-nin programme right now and I'm up to my eyeballs in work."
"Sasuke, how do you know? Maybe if we went on a couple of dates."
"Sakura, why do you turn Naruto down?"
She leaned back in horror "I'm not interested in that goofball. He always asks me out no matter how many times I turn him down. It's as if he just can't get it through his thick skull."
He folded his arms and gave her a flat look. "It's not as if you ever sat him down and quietly explained that you weren't interested. You do know that is precisely the way you treat me. If I didn't know any better I'd say you didn't respect me enough to honour my wishes when I respectfully decline your advances."
Her eyes widened in shock as his words sank in and Sasuke looked uncomfortable.
"Sakura, maybe you should really think about what you're doing here. I'm training hard all day to be a medic. Naruto works on all sorts of mission simulation problems for Kakashi-sensei on top of his training because he's taking this seriously. Why are you doing this because if you can't figure it out, now's the time to get out."
When Sakura went home, she went to her room and cried for a while. It's difficult to let go of something you've clung to so desperately for so long but Sasuke had pointed out something obvious to her.
That she had spent so long holding on tight to something that wasn't hers, that she had forgotten why she had done that in the first place.