25. Guilty Conscience
Wow. That was unexpected.
When she had seen them, everything had been so clear to her - everything going on lately had started to make sense… that's why she hadn't even wasted a thought to having misinterpreted things – how very wrong she had been.
If she now thought back to the situation she had caught them in, she finally realized that Sayuri really had looked rather intimidated. In the last couple of days, this scene had involuntarily invaded her head for numerous times, but every time it had looked totally different to her, than it had actually been: she had seen him, lingering over her with an eager smirk on his face, while she looked up at him through half-closed eyes, and pushed her body closer to his, trying to seduce him.
How much her own version just differed from what had actually happened… and it had taken her until now, to finally realize the mistake she had made… She had behaved like a goddamn fury the last couple of days even though nothing had happened at all.
She sighed, occupied with her thoughts – on one side she was seriously relieved, that things were the way they are, but then she was also deeply embarrassed about her behaviour and ashamed that she had been able to get so worked up about that whole thing, that she had even mistaken her distorted imagination for reality.
Unforgivable.
She really had to apologize for her behaviour and not only to Sayuri, but also to Sasuke and Naruto, since they had gotten their share of her bad-mood as well…
But how should she apologize to them, without even telling them the reason for it…
She sure didn't want to tell Sasuke, that she had behaved like a complete bitch lately, because she had thought he had cheated on her, since in her mind, they were having something like a close connection you could even refer to as a relationship and talking to other girls was definitely a breach of trust…
Like hell she would say any such thing to him!
And then she had literally accused Sayuri of being a whore and had even broadcasted that story to Ino, which means the entire village should know about it by now … and then she had also smashed a table…
A desperate sound escaped her throat – she just hoped the earth would swallow her up right now, but she knew that there was no way she would get away that easily – It was simply exasperating.
While she was standing there in the rather deserted corridor, she hadn't noticed, that a black-haired boy was watching her, unsure whether he should approach her or not, eventually choosing the first option. He looked down at the flower bouquet in his arms - he had actually wanted to visit someone else, but he figured that there was no need to hurry, since that person had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days anyway. So, to encourage himself, he took a deep breath in and walked, beaming with pride, to the pinkette standing at a wall, just about five metres away from him.
"Good afternoon, Sakura-san." He greeted her politely and bowed down slightly.
"Oh… Lee-kun…" Sakura replied in a still rather choked voice.
"Sakura-san, what…" Lee started – it was just then, that he noticed the girl's tear stained face and the desperate look in her eyes. "Are you okay, Sakura-san?"
"Hm… yeah, I'm just horrible – that's about it…"
"You and horrible? Who said that to you? Seriously, I won't let anyone insult you like that – tell me who it was and I –"
"No, Lee…" The emerald-eyed girl interrupted him. "I did something very stupid and I don't know how to make up for it…"
Lee looked at her in puzzlement, not really understanding how something his Sakura had done could be stupid and how someone could actually be mad at her. He eyed her closely and then reached the flower-bouquet, which he had actually meant to give Tenten to her and said: "Just try to smile – there's no way someone could hold a grudge against you, when you direct your beautiful smile of youthfulness at him."
The pinkette smiled slightly – this statement was just soo Lee; then she took the flowers from him and thanked him quietly.
"See? That's the smile." He said encouragingly and with a light giggle, she started wiping the tears from her face.
"Thanks, Lee-kun." The pink-haired Kunoichi thanked him again but this time not for the flowers, but for his solace – normally his rather sententious language, was something you could just shake your head at, but right now, his words were just what she needed.
With a last smile, she took leave and decided to talk to Sayuri first, before she'd take any actions; she just hoped that she was still in the hospital… if possible, she wanted to speak to her before she got home and had the chance to inform Sasuke and Naruto about why she had behaved this bitchy lately, even though that was probably exactly what she deserved…
The pink haired girl started to run through the corridors of the hospital, until she finally reached the entrance hall, where she went right to the reception desk and inquired after Sayuri, but unfortunately the nurse behind the counter told her, that she had left about fifteen minutes ago, but was unable to tell her exactly where she had wanted to go to, so Sakura figured, she had gone home and went right after her.
…
…
As she arrived the Uchiha-mansion, she went through practically every room, without finding anyone at all.
She wondered where her housemates might be, until it occurred to her, that she hadn't seen Scootie either, meaning that Sayuri was probably just walking the dog, while the other two were probably just pursuing their favourite activity again, which would be training, of course.
Since she was all alone in the huge house and it was already six o'clock, she decided to prepare an extra big I'm-sorry-for-being-a-stroppy-cow meal that would make it at least hard for them to be too mad at her any longer…
It took her almost two hours, to have all the courses prepared and still none of her team-mates had returned home yet. She was really starting to wonder what took them so long, since they were usually back somewhat around seven o'clock, so they were already an hour overdue.
She just hoped they would make it in time, so she hadn't prepared her spectacular meal for nothing - well, you couldn't say for nothing; she would surely not miss on eating this way too delicious food; her mouth was already watering at the mere thought of it…
She had just finished setting the table and was again worrying about her meal getting cold, when she heard how the door was opened and some familiar voices rose to her ears.
With a smile on her face, she greeted the two boys that had just entered the house and were about as ragged as usually after their training. However those just eyed her warily, hesitant to return her cheerful greeting, since they were still busy estimating whether she was having another mood swing or not. But the pinkette just ignored these looks - she knew she deserved them, and announced that dinner was ready.
The two shinobi looked at each other again, clearly puzzled, before Naruto asked hesitantly: "Really? You made dinner...? - Well I guess I'll have to take a shower first, then, I –"
"There's no need to – just come!" She cut him off, earning further disbelieving glances.
"Are you serious?" Naruto wanted to make sure he had really understood her right, since he had grown rather timid of her lately and didn't want to upset her by any chance.
"Yes, Naruto-kun, if you waste any more time, the food will probably get cold, so come on. Ah – and where is Sayuri?"
Now the two were really baffled, what the hell had happened to Sakura? This morning she was still on the warpath with just about everyone and now she was all bright and cheery again – something was terribly wrong.
"Uhm, I don't know, she'll probably come back soon, I guess…"
"I see..." Sakura said and with another beaming smile, she went into the kitchen, so she didn't see how Naruto leaned closer to Sasuke and muttered under his breath: "You don't think she has poisoned the food, right? I mean it's Sakura after all, right? – she wouldn't do something like this…"
"Hn."
"I mean, she is a medic-nin, maybe it's no deathly poisoned, but it could still be something with unpleasant side-effects like diarrhea or something…"
"Tze – shut it dobe." Sasuke smacked the back of the blonde boy's head and then went into the kitchen, closely followed by his team-mate, who's jar dropped open as he caught sight of the delicacies that were picturesquely arranged on the table.
"Wow!" was all Naruto could say, but Sakura just smiled cheerily and motioned him to sit down.
"I kind of wanted to apologize for being so… well strenuous lately… so I hope you like it - shall we wait for Sayuri?"
"Well, I guess she'll be here soon, so we might as well start! Enjoy your meal!" Naruto stated putting a little bit of everything on his plate, until he remembered his theory from earlier on and stiffened up slightly. This wasn't good – he had an easily irritated stomach anyway, he sure didn't need something like diarrhea right now – but everything looked so damn delicious…
He gazed surreptitiously at the Uchiha, who was staring rather unsettled at his plate, too and then at Sakura, who was still beaming at them like a Cheshire cat, but hadn't eaten anything likewise.
'Okay here's the plan' Naruto thought to himself 'if I eat the same things that Sakura eats, I should be on the safe side' – but since Sakura hadn't eaten anything yet and he was like starving, he really had some trouble in sticking to this plan, so after about 30 seconds, which felt like eternity to him though, he just couldn't hold back anymore and started to dig in, regardless of the consequences.
After he was done, he really felt somewhat queasy and his stomach was aching too, but he soon figured out that this wasn't because of any poison, but because of his gluttony – he had really exaggerated a little, but the food had just been way too good, Sakura was really a goddess in the kitchen – well as long as she wasn't making her soldier pills at least…
"Thank you Sakura-chan, that was really awesome, seriously!"
Naruto beamed at his team-mate and Sasuke grunted in approval, making the pinkette smile even more, however none of the two guys dared confronting Sakura with her sudden change of mind, they just hoped it would stay like this…
However Sayuri hadn't returned yet and Sakura was having a slightly guilty conscience, she had been really mean to her and regretted it deeply, but she couldn't turn back time, so all she could do now was trying to make it up to her, which would prove to be pretty hard, if she wasn't to return any time soon…
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