I'm feeling slightly sad……this story is slowly coming to an end.

And my Internet connection is retarded.

Chapter Twenty One

On Monday, back to school, the boys were all just bored out of their minds. The girls haven't arrived yet, and Sasuke was in a sad, self-hating mood. Naruto was hanging from a tree, Shikamaru was sleeping, Sasuke was sitting on the bench, his head in his hands, Neji was staring into space, Gaara was staring at the gate, and Sai was poking and punching Naruto to make him fall out of the tree.

That's when something kinda bad happened.

Francis and Cameron came up to them, glancing around. Obviously they were looking for the girls. They had actually noticed that they were friends of the girls, but dense enough to not notice that four out of six of them were the boyfriends of the girls. Sure, they didn't really show that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. But that's at school.

Francis came up first to Naruto and Sai. "Bonjour, have you seen Mademoiselle Hinata?"

Both of them shook their heads. "Haven't seen them since Saturday. Why?" Sai said, landing a punch of Naruto's stomach. He nearly fell out of the tree.

"Because I would like to speak to her." That was all he could say before Rika came skipping up and knocked Naruto out of the tree. He glared at her, but she threw a bowl of instant ramen at him.

"Here ramen boy, eat that." She turned towards Francis, glaring at him. The glare said "Stay away or I'll kill you. I'll just plain kill you," mimicking and combining Sasuke, Neji, and Gaara's glares into one powerful heck of an evil glare.

"Excusez-moi, Mademoiselle. I do not think I have seen you before." He bowed to Rika.

She sniffed and turned away and leapt on Gaara's lap. "Go away. Before I hurt you." Rika yelled in an alarmingly calm manner. Cameron and Francis disappeared from view, slightly frightened of the tiny redheaded ferocious female who was currently eating Skittles with a vengeance. Don't blame her. That's her breakfast.

She yawned widely and blinked. "Good morning. How come Sasuke is all emo and brooding and dark today? Here, ramen boy, eat more." She tossed another cup of ramen at Naruto. "Hey, someone answer me here. Or I'll burn you all like I burned the ants. And my brother's clothes. And those cookies. Hi, Sei-chan!"

The dark-haired female walked up, munching on a bagel. "Hi Ri-chan. Hi everyone." She sat on the floor next to Naruto and Sai.

Neji obliged her by saying, "Good morning, Rika and Seilin. On Saturday, Sasuke thinks he made the biggest mistake of his life. It was after you all left and the other three stayed a bit."

"Yeah, teme has been on the dark side since Saturday. He's been beating me up more than usual, provoking Neji and Gaara, annoying Shikamaru, and trying to kill Sai-teme and dump all his paints." Naruto said muffledly, his mouth was full of ramen.

"Uh, the bell's going to ring. Troublesome." The bell rang at that moment and everyone rushed to the school.

In homeroom, everyone was just lazing about, generally being sane and normal-ish. Rika was feeding Gaara Skittles through kisses. Shikamaru and Ino were being cute and annoying all over the place. Seilin was lying into Sai, and they were dozing. Hinata and Naruto were laughing.

Neji was sitting with Sasuke, but every so often shooting glazes at Tenten, who occasionally caught him staring and smiled. Tenten and Sakura were sitting together, drawing on the back wall an elaborate mural of street art involving their homeroom so they wouldn't get in too much trouble with Kakashi about it, drawn in pencil and they were planning to colour it later.

There was an exception.

Sasuke, of course.

He was stoic more than usual, he punched Naruto painfully in the back of his head, and he was really, really sad and angsty looking and emotion was visible. VISIBLE! He kept sadly glancing at Sakura sorrowfully and painfully. It was seriously painfully sad to see, the Uchiha looking so defeated. I feel bad for Sasuke. Really! And all the poor boy got was an interpreted wrong message.

Sakura other the other hand, was very engrossed in her part of the mural. She didn't notice or feel the heavy cloud of emotion. But deep underneath, she was very anxious and worried, and glanced at Sasuke a couple times. He looked like a little boy who's lost his way. She was thinking really hard when the intercom blasted loudly with Anko's overly cheerful voice with the hint of mischief.

"Hi, people. Good morning to you all. At lunch, may I see Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno for actual rehearsal, please. Coco Misuta, you have detention, and Ryu Saimyosho, go see Tsunade. Yes, you are in deep shit. Go now. "

Sakura stopped to look up. Sasuke half-sat up properly in his seat. Then Kakashi came in and started attendance.

The morning classes went with a blur, and lunchtime arrived too soon for Sasuke. He was still the same, and didn't want to go through the whole damn rehearsal with Sakura. He thought it would be painful, but Neji dragged him there, and told him he had to stay anyways, so Neji was coming with him because Anko had requested that Neji come and play a small part. Which made it slightly easier for him to handle the situation.

Sakura on the other hand, was happy with it, but was really worried about Sasuke. He seemed, to her, he was ignoring her and purposely avoiding her. He already beat up Naruto in gym, and provoked Neji into bashing him a little, and he ignored everyone. She and Tenten walked over happily to Anko's classroom, as Tenten had to help with the scenery.

She and Tenten sat perched on a tall box. A few minutes later, Neji and Sasuke came in, taking a safer spot to sit on, which was a bench. They didn't have to wait long when Anko came in. "Hi, everyone. Glad you made it."

Everyone nodded. "Now, Tenny-chan, I want you to start turning these boxes into a castle and a house. I don't care how you decorate it, as long as it looks like a house and a castle of a sort. Spray paint's over there." Anko picked at her fingernails as Tenten nearly hit the ceiling in happiness and pulled out a pencil and immediately began to sketch.

Anko turned to the other three. "Neji, you're actually not really needed, since the role was filled in my last class, but you can stay and help me or Tenten, depending on who needs help." Neji nodded.

"Okay, you two, start your lines anytime. Start from entering. Stay in somewhat character." And then it began. Sasuke mumbled his lines, Sakura said her lines perfectly as Anko began to measure their bodies.

"No, Sasuke. Actually put emotion in your voice, and stop mumbling." Anko said as she measured him and jotted the measurements on a clipboard. "Sakura, you know what? Your costume, you don't need a costume. Dress in a hoodie, and jeans. You're going to fucking stand out, girl. Everyone else, dresses and all that shit. Includes you, Sasuke." She straightened up. "I'm going to get something to eat; can I trust you not to burn down my classroom?"

Everyone shook their head sarcastically. "I need you two, Sakura and Sasuke to act it out while I'm gone." She grinned and left. Tenten dragged Neji into Anko's back room to grab some paint. Not on purpose. She was done drawing, now she had to paint.

Sakura and Sasuke stood awkwardly across from each other. Neither of them spoke or moved.

Sakura decided to start. "This is so boring, why did I come? The music's boring, everyone's all dolled up, and it smells like really heavy perfume." She sat down in a chair. "Where's the food?"

Sasuke didn't move or say anything. Sakura looked at him. "Sasuke?"

He ran out of the door. Sakura blinked, and ran out after him. She was faster than him, so she tripped him. He obviously fell, and Sakura sat on his stomach.

She looked down on him. "All right, I'm not letting you up until you tell me why the fucking hell are you so sad and pissed off and in a grumpy mood? And don't try to throw me off, I'll pin you down easily." Sakura crossed her arms and tucked in her legs a little.

"Believe me, I can. Now tell me. You're ignoring everyone, beaten up Naruto, provoked Neji, and nearly smashed Shikamaru's head into a desk. And you've been avoiding me. Why in the fuck is that?"

Sasuke turned his head away heavily and stared off into the distance, where he could see Hinata and Naruto, who were laughing. Naruto was pantomiming, and Hinata was laughing. He saw that Hinata placed a kiss on Naruto's nose and the idiot blushed. They looked so happy, so carefree, and so oblivious to the world around them. He wanted that. He wished for that.

Sakura looked in the direction he was looking in. She noticed the same thing. She looked down at the poor Uchiha, whose eyes were saddened by the sight he beheld. She softened a little.

She finally understood, a bit. What he wanted was actual love. Not fangirl bullcrap. Actual love where both people actually loved the other for who they were, not for what they were.

She snapped back to the present. She felt like she had a reality check. She grabbed Sasuke's chin gently and turned his head to face hers.

She leaned down a little. "I understand. Well, in order to help you achieve that-" She pointed in the general direction the couple was in- "I need you to get out of the stupidly sad and pissy mood you put yourself in. I'll let you up, and you're gonna look me in the face. You're not gonna leave." She stood up and offered her hand to him.

Sasuke hesitated and took her hand in his bigger one. She pulled him in a sitting position. He slowly looked her in the face. She looked worried, angry and sad. She took a few steps and sat behind him, her small back leaning against his. She rested her head on his shoulder. They were sitting back to back, for all the people who can't see that.

Sakura began to talk. "First off, I would like to know why you're so messed up right now."

Sasuke mumbled something incoherent, and with a poke from Sakura, he spoke louder. "Because of Saturday."

"What about Saturday?" She asked, genuinely curious and oblivious to the facts.

"Because………..because………..because……." He trailed off, unable to continue.

Sakura breathed out, finally remembering. "Um, I'm sorry I ran off, I was extremely confused, mixed up, scared, and was feeling too many emotions at once. I couldn't think, so I did the only thing I could, I ran. I'm so sorry, I was overloaded in emotions from…..that kiss. And that little kiss before I left, was…kinda a sort of a thank you-ish, inexpressible emotion. I figure, I like you." She bowed her head, looking down at her gloved hands.

Sasuke cocked his head to the side, looking over his shoulder. He was suddenly relieved it wasn't really anything he did; it was the result of what he did. He felt elated, and happy, and cocky. He turned his body, and captured one of Sakura's hands. "Thank you, Sakura." He whispered before pressing his lips to her hand.

Sakura immediately flushed, and the tension was lifted. She was furiously blushing at the gentlemanly act. Sasuke looked up and smirked. She smiled embarrassedly.

"We-we still have to practice for the play." Sakura muttered. Sasuke smirked again, and scooped the girl up.

She shrieked, and he swung her around effortlessly. "AHHHHH SASUKE!! EVERYONE CAN LOOK UP MY SKIRT!!" And he slowly stopped, and she was grasping his neck. Instinctively, Sasuke ducked down and captured his lips on hers.

It was a cheesy, cute, cliché, movie moment. Guy holding girl in bridal style, girl holding on to the guy by the neck, and kissing.

Sakura broke the kiss and wriggled out of his arms. Then the bell rang. "Oh shit." They both ran into the school.

Later, in their next class with everyone, which was English, which the teacher was Kakashi, who let them talk.

Sakura grinned and skipped her way to the corner where everyone was. Sasuke wasn't far behind. To everyone's relief, Sasuke was in a happy mood. The boys sat talking about boring stuff, while the girls were scheming.

They were scheming to get rid of the foreign boys.

They were seriously fast-moving player-like males trying to get obviously unattainable girls into their beds. They already tried to pick up Hinata, Rika and Seilin. And the boys don't look like they're going to be joining or helping at all. And the foreign boys know how to charm everyone around them. Except for the skater girls, of course. They easily saw through like glass.

"Well, we could…."

"No."

A small argument came between the impractical imaginative Rika and the practical Hinata.

Ino and Sakura were whispering evilly-sounding, and Tenten and Seilin were discussing tactics.

"Please, I really don't like Francis; he's very, silky and sly. Cameron's a Naruto, an idiot, but he has a brain."

Sakura and Ino, trouble-makers extraordinaires, were having trouble. But they did have an idea. It was dangerous, had usage of sharp pointy things, damaging school property and possibility of going to a hospital.

But the bad thing about it, they had to ask permission. Luckily, all the girls went to Tsunade often enough for the busty blonde to know their intentions, and usually follow enough even without permission anyways, so she always gave permission. The girls get in trouble enough.

Plus, they were her favourite students. They always bought her Christmas presents of sake every year traditionally and faithfully.

Ino hushed everyone and they leaned in. "Alright, this is a plan. I don't know if you would agree or not. It involves a lot of things. It involves sharp cutting things, paint, possibly food, a lock picker, garbage, walls, paper, tricks, and Francis and Cameron. In, or out? Sakura has already agreed, and if you commit to this, no backing out. And it's foolproof. All we need is Tsunade's permission."

Each girl solemnly nodded and pinky-swore with Sakura and Ino. "We all swear by chocolate, Skittles, keys, broken windows and skateboards that we will not break the commitment to get rid of the foreign boys." They all whispered.

"Alright, down to business." Sakura said briskly. She leaned in even closer to everyone and began to whisper her plan.

Sai took notice of the plotting girls but said nothing. After all, it wasn't really his problem.

Sitting across the room, where the two unknowing targets, having flocks of females around them.

Sasuke was sitting and not really paying any attention to whatever Naruto and Shikamaru were saying. He was lost in his little world, so happy that Sakura liked him and allowed him to kiss her. He was just really happy. He felt like the happiest damn guy in the whole damn world.

But still, tomorrow is to bring surprises.