You hate me. And that's okay.

Hiiiiii. Wazzup?! I know you must resent me a little. Sorry for the long pause. I kind of took an unannounced hiatus to get my shit together for senior year. I turned in most of my applications early and applied for scholarships and what not. Now all I need is to fill out the FAFSA and I'm done. But of course every day I was thinking about my fanfic that I'd put on hold. So I wrote a sentence or two every moment I had the time to. And here it is. And I don't really know when the next chapter will come out, but it'll be a lot sooner than it took for this one.

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Kabuto

He woke up a lot earlier than up a lot earlier than his usual time, the attempt at rest had proven to be unsuccessful. The few hours he'd of sleep he'd managed to get had been full of tossing and turning and disturbing dreams. He was feeling hungry and exhausted - he skipped his even meal the day before, he made a mental note not to do that again. As he took his morning shower he replayed the previous day's events in his head. He tightly clamped his eyes shut and leaned his head against the stone wall of the bath. He'd almost lost it. He'd tried to stay cool and ignore her at first but despite his efforts her constant prying got under his skin. Why do you work for Orochimaru….That question unearthed a certain memory he'd buried within the darkest recesses of his mind. He pushed it back down soon after but in his few moments of hesitation he wanted to kill her. It had seemed so easy, just a swift swipe at her carotid artery in her neck - that was all. But he knew better than that, she was stronger than she looked. He propped himself up and got back to his sense. He skipped his morning routine and instead went to the lab; he needed to catch up on the work he missed the day before. So he decided to tackle two shelves instead of one. Then he spent two hours experimenting with the new serum. As he did this he pondered on how to muster up the energy to put up with a certain bother for the day. He was already dreading the thought of having to make contact with her. Her naturally nosey attitude, her not so subtle attempts to weed information out of him, and the questions - god, the questions. Never had he experienced the displeasure of putting up with such an exasperating, childish and-

POOF!

He coughed. The suffocating scent of chemicals and smoke invaded his nose. He'd unconsciously added too many drops to the concoction he'd been making and it blew up in his face, literally. He noticed the ends of his bangs were singed, his face was covered in soot and tingled with a slight burning sensation from the gaseous combustion. He dropped his supplies and quickly abandoned his work to take another shower before the contact had harming effects. As he put on a fresh new set of clothes, he couldn't help but feel puzzled over the incident. He'd made a mistake, no matter how small it may have been, he usually never made mistakes.

….

….

…

"What the- where's the rest of your eyebrows?" Sakura inquired midway through the door.

"No questions," he replied icily as he locked the door behind her and walked away, but not before hearing her mutter something about a stick up his butt. He went on as if he never heard that.

...

"Hey"

"No," Kabuto cut in.

"You didn't even hear me out," Sakura retorted with frustration.

"I don't need to hear you out if I already know the just of what you're about to ask" he replied, eyes still glued to the board,

"I don't have to if I already know it's a question."

"It's about Sasuke." Kabuto's mask as placidity cracked as his fist slammed against the board. Game pieces flew into the air and gave muffled thuds as they hit the soft grass beneath.

"Is that all you think about?" Sakura actually winced. He continued, his voice between a forced calm and a vague pissed off.

"Sasuke this, Sasuke that. Do you not have a brain? There was a time when I thought you had actually changed from that dim-witted, love struck girl and actually made something of yourself. What a disappointment." He could've stopped there but he went on.

"He left you, for power. The only thing he cares about is revenge. Without thinking of an alternative he came here. He goes around sulking and reciting speeches of revenge like he's the only person who's suffered in this world. When in reality he's a self-centered, arrogan-". The sound of the slap seemed to echo across the dome. It took a few seconds of Kabuto to realize what happened. It didn't sting (it'd take a lot more than that to hurt) but a great amount of strength must've been put into it as an angry red bruise that faintly resembled a hand formed on his left cheek. He stared into her blazing cerulean gaze in shock, her hand still held over her shoulder post-slap.

"You can sneer, chide, and criticize me all you want. But you cannot insult those I care about. Especially when you know nothing" She swiftly got up and stamped to the door. Keeping her voice steely she added,

"I'll escort myself to my room." The slam of the metal door as Sakura exited echoed through the dome and down the halls.

Sakura

Her pitiful futon was thrown across the room, despite the force she'd thrown it with, it drifted a little in the air then landed softly on the ground. It wasn't as satisfying as she thought it'd be, especially when she was imagining that it was a certain gray-haired asshole.

"GAH!", she yelled in frustration as she started to throw punches in the air, bracelet bouncing on her wrist. Who does he think he is! Dimwitted? ME?! Teeth grinding, she grabbed the futon and threw it some more. She froze when she heard knocking on the door. The door opened with the futon still in her hands. She stood up straightly and directed her iciest glare to the visitor.

"What are you doing?" Kabuto asked, staring. Mimicking his placidity, she casually started rolling the futon against her chest.

"Folding my futon."

"Huh…"

"What do you want?" she implored impatiently, his gaze making her feel irritable. She noticed the bruise she left on his face had healed completely. How did it heal that quickly? It was a pretty big bruise; it had nail marks and everything. He readjusted his glasses then, after a pause answered,

"I came to apologize". When she didn't answer he continued.

"It was wrong of me to offend you or someone who you care about. I let my emotions overcome me then took it out on you. I'm sorry."

"...so…" he prompted awkwardly as the silence expanded to nearly a minute.

"Oh...um", Sakura was utterly dumbfounded. That was completely unexpected and out of character. Forgetting her anger and schooling her features, she gathered her bearings and continued to pretend to be rolling her futon.

" fact that you think I took suck a big offense to your rubbish is appalling. I'm almost indifferent. If I was really angry I would've punched you - let you choke on your teeth. Just make sure that doesn't happen again."

"Okay then," he said promptly as he exited the room. Before he closed the door, he peeked his head in and added,

"By the way, you have some cotton stuck your hair."

"What," Sakura said vacantly as she felt through her hair, and sure enough felt little cotton bits. Where'd these come from, she inquired as she plucked out the cotton. She took a closer look at the futon in her hands. It was tattered; all she'd been folding was the cloth that encased the cotton, which was strewn all over the room. She put her face in her hands and groaned of embarrassment.