Sakura's Point of View

A week passed since the weirdest incident on the face of the planet, and I was in the hospital, standing beside Keiko's desk as I leafed through a thick medical file.

Sasuke and I had only met face-to-face once since then; I had also sensed his presence in the house the very same day after the incident. Whether that was because we were busy with our hectic schedules that never did match or because he was avoiding me, though, I had no way of knowing.

I had been lying on my stomach on the edge of the pool that aforementioned day. It had been unusually warm for that time of the year and I told myself that had nothing to do with my personal state. Whatever the case, I had felt the need to cool down, so I took advantage of the sunshine, put on my bathing suit, and jumped straight into the pool.

Thoughts were roaming through my head just as they had done all night in my dreams. I kept recalling the way his hard body felt against mine, the way his surprisingly soft lips moved on my own, the way his thick hair felt in my hand, as well as the effortless way he grabbed my waist and slammed me down on my desk. I supposed it was logical of me to feel all that I was feeling, because it had been a hot make-out session, no matter which angle I tried to study it from, and if that was my body's way of telling me I needed to get laid, then fine.

But still. This was Sasuke. Sasuke, whose guts I hated with all the passion contained in my—admittedly, rather small—body.

So, of course, one could say I hadn't been in the best of moods and because of that, submerging myself in a freezing pool in the midst of autumn hadn't been my brightest idea, no matter how warm the weather was. At least I had a justification.

I was sipping from a cold drink and thumbing a thick book when I sensed his chakra approaching—most likely passing through the living room. I had been aware of the fact that he was in the house, of course. He lingered; I never looked up, and he never made a move to face me. That was most definitely not because he didn't know I was there, because he must have; his chakra control lacked finesse, but he was a ninja, and a powerful one, at that. But he left without saying a word, no doubt teleporting himself to his office.

His demeanor was frustrating, of course, and it continued as such for the following days. He was acting as though that kiss had never happened, and not that I was particularly eager to discuss it, but there was a part of me—a foolish, long-forgotten one—that decided to wake up and feel unexplainably hurt because of this whole charade. Because of that, I spent the entire week feeling strange and stupid. It was obvious he had kissed me out of anger, a sudden outburst of emotion that not even I had been able to control, but still… to look at me in the eye, with no shame and absolutely no recognition of what had transpired between us… It was infuriating and that was that. It was frustrating, painful, and almost embarrassing.

Towards the end of the week, however, my rational side decided to spring up unannounced—and, in return, I decided to hand control over to it. It told me what Sasuke had no reason to avoid me, since he was a selfish, unfeeling bastard that had no conscience whatsoever.

That was reason number one.

Reason number two was that it had been a simple kiss which had meant absolutely nothing. I told myself that was my case, too, and made an effort to act accordingly.

It was ridiculous he was even on my mind what with everything I had to think of and all the matters I had to attend to.

"Sakura-san?" a timid voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I looked up to see two interns staring at me expectantly.

I blinked. "Yes?"

The two women glanced at each other and smiled. "We wanted to ask you something."

I shut the file to show them they had my full attention. "Go ahead."

"We are having dinner tonight," one of them explained. "We try to do once a month—to bond, I guess. What with everything that happens around here… Let's just say it's necessary." She laughed, and I smiled. I knew exactly how important it was to know the ones you worked with, as well as spend time coming down and relaxing with people that knew what you were talking about and felt the same as you did. "And we were wondering if you'd want to join us tonight."

I almost drew back in shock. "Really?" I asked, blinking.

"Yeah," she answered.

I shook my head, flabbergasted, but smiled, nonetheless. "I'd love to," I said. "Thanks."

"Great!" they exclaimed, smiled, and walked away.

I went on with my day feeling much brighter and, strangely enough, more optimistic about the future. Having people stop glaring at my every move was one thing; having them invite me to participate in what I could only call a tradition of theirs was something entirely different.

It was a slow day. I had to scrub in for an emergency surgery at noon, but other than that, there were no major problems that needed my assistance. I checked up on a couple of patients whom I was keeping tabs on, and then made my way to the vending machine in the doctors' lounge to pour myself a cup of hot caffeine. As I was waiting for it to be made, Ayame came to stand beside me, her own plastic cup in her hand.

"I heard you're coming tonight," she declared.

Since our last conversation, one could say our relationship had improved. She wasn't going out of her way to become friends with me, but she was nice and made conversation when I was near her.

"Yes," I answered, reaching for my full cup of coffee. "Any dress code I should know about?" I brought the hot beverage to my lips. It smelled divine; my mouth watered and I almost groaned in pleasure.

"Hmm… Sexy," she concluded after a moment of contemplation, nodding.

"Sexy it is," I confirmed, and smiled, because she reminded me of the other best friend I had left behind at home. With Ino, everything was always about being and feeling sexy. I hadn't realized the full extent of how much I missed her until that very moment.

Ayame laughed lightly, but it stopped abruptly and turned into a choked gasp. My head shot up to see what had happened, and when I did, I almost rolled my eyes.

But, of course. Sasuke.

He was standing in the doorway, talking to someone I hadn't seen or met before; judging by his uniform, I assumed he was either a random shinobi or part of his personal guard—though I very rarely saw him with one. I was tempted to ask them both what the hell there were doing strolling through my hospital, but I bit my tongue. My personal relationship with Sasuke would not interfere with my work in Otogakure—not more than it already had.

That one time we had faced each other since the incident, it had been on the very corridors of the hospital. I had been pissed for a reason I couldn't quite remember now—perhaps it was lack of sleep—and he hadn't seemed in a much better mood. I had hissed at him, he had hissed back, I had glared and pushed past him.

I'd assumed we were back to normal, and apparently, so had he. (In case something truly had been different in his head.)

Suddenly, Ayame turned to face me, a contemplative look in her eyes. "Do you think… inviting him to have dinner with us would be a great chance that I should take or a stupid mistake that I should avoid?"

"Stupid mistake," I answered automatically.

She blinked, seemed to run what I said through her head, and then nodded to herself. "I'll do it, anyway," she declared, before turning around and making her way in his direction.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, but decided to watch the scene unfolding before me.

Ayame was her usual confident self as she walked up to Sasuke and interrupted his discussion with the stranger, presenting the issue to him without delay or hesitation. She pointed behind at me once, probably to let him know that I would be there, as well, and I almost snorted, because why would someone think that placing the two of us in the same room would be a good idea or something that either of us desired? With her prompting, Sasuke glanced over at me.

I put on a bored face and brought the cup to my lips, willing this ridiculous situation to come to an end.

Then he smirked, turned his gaze back to Ayame, and I frowned. Gazing down at my coffee, I wondered what it was about me that had him so amused.

Apparently, I was to find out in the seconds that followed.

Ayame squealed. My head snapped up to look in their direction, and I saw Sasuke smirk. Realization hit me. Then I promptly spit out my coffee.


There was a large grin on my face as I stood in my room, gazing at my reflection in the mirror. Slowly, I ran my hands down my body, over the burgundy lace dress I had donned. It was tight, with sleeves that reached past my elbows and hems that barely brushed my mid-thighs, clinging to my every curve, complementing and enhancing them. My pink hair was up in a somewhat messy up-do I had managed to nail in a matter of five minutes, with strands escaping their place and framing my face. I had chosen to wear the darkest eye-shadow I owned and put every knowledge I had about make-up to good use. My eyes had never looked brighter and my expression had never seemed sultrier.

This was it. If Sasuke wanted to play games, I would happily play them. He obviously had no idea, but the Haruno Sakura I had become never backed down from a challenge. And it was obvious that the trick he had pulled earlier that afternoon with Ayame had been a bone thrown in my direction.

Running my hands over my hips one last time, I smirked, before turning away from the mirror and walking to my wardrobe to retrieve a pair of black heels. I slipped them on and smiled, even more satisfied with my appearance. My legs seemed to go on for miles and miles, and with another grin, I turned around and made my way out of my room and down the stairs.

Sasuke was in the house, I had been able to feel him clearly for a couple of hours; whether he planned on joining me on the walk to the restaurant or had other intentions, I didn't know and it didn't matter.

He was leaning against the counter when I walked into the kitchen, his legs crossed at the ankles and his hand wrapped around a tall glass of water, from which he occasionally sipped.

Completely aware of what I was doing and what it was causing him, I sauntered my way past him, twirled in a circle once, and came to lean against the table, hands behind me, on the wooden structure, lips twisted in a smirk.

It was his turn to choke on his drink.

No one should look as good as I did in a simple lace dress—I knew that, and judging by his expression, he had found out, as well.

I'd give him that, though—he was much more elegant in hiding his reactions than I was.

Game on, Sasuke.


The restaurant that was chosen to meet up in was small, classy, and intimate. The interior was decorated tastefully with hues of brown and green, with the occasional speck of red and gold, and the atmosphere was calm; the air was filled with timbres of good music, there was a dance-floor in the middle where people could gather to feel its beat, a band was playing live, and, I would later find out, the food was delicious.

There were people who had yet to arrive when Sasuke and I did, the table not yet filled.

Contrary to my expectations, he did join me on the walk to the restaurant. We bantered infuriatingly—though, in some places, also quite satisfyingly—back and forth all the way there, as seemed to have become so characteristic to us.

I flopped down in a chair at Daichi's right and almost groaned out loud when I saw Sasuke directing his steps in Ayame's direction, who was waving her hand in the air excitedly. I didn't know what was worse: the fact that she thought each and every one of her fantasies was about to come true when I didn't think Sasuke had any intention of participating in any of them, or the fact that he would be sitting across from me and I would therefore have to see him while I ate my food.

Daichi noticed my quickly deteriorating mood and stifled a laugh behind his hand. Sometime between our lunch and the present moment, he seemed to have caught on the tensions that existed between Sasuke and I—and he seemed to find them very amusing.

In response, I looked up at him and threw him a quick glare. He had his arm around a beautiful, petite woman with dark hair and light blue eyes, who I immediately assumed was his girlfriend, since I had seen her visiting at the hospital more than once.

"Shut it," I told him.

He laughed, and I signaled a waiter to come over. I needed a drink, because it was quickly becoming obvious there was no way I would survive the night otherwise.

While he went to get my Corona, I introduced myself to Daichi's companion. Her name was Leila, and they both claimed they were only friends, having known each other since childhood, but I had a feeling they would soon be more. Neither of them seemed to like hearing that, so I decided to save the subject as teasing matter for whenever Daichi decided to laugh at me again.

By the time the others joined us, I had already finished my first bottle of beer and ordered another.

Conversation flowed easily around the table, and it dawned on me it had been such a long time since I had last felt so relaxed, so at ease. I actually didn't think there had ever been a moment in which I had felt truly comfortable and at home in Otogakure, and I realized then how truly grateful I was that these people had invited me to have dinner with them. Apparently, it meant more to me than I initially thought it did.

As time wore on and we ordered our food, I discovered I had a lot in common with Leila, so we ushered Daichi over to her place so that she could stand beside me and he wouldn't have to hear every last bit of our conversations. She was a shinobi and had a team of genin under her care, that she seemed to love teaching and protecting.

On his part, Sasuke seemed to be enjoying the night, as well. I tried not to glance at him, because that would only damper my mood, but it was clear he was hardly uncomfortable, because as much as I tried to ignore that, I was perfectly aware of the fact that everybody respected him and I knew that there were persons at the table that he respected in return and that he deemed worthy of conversing with. I still wasn't sure if Ayame was part of that group or if he was just humoring her, but I decided I didn't care much, either.

Eventually, the night died down. Some people left, while others decided to hit the dance-floor.

I was enjoying a slice of chocolate cake when I raised my eyes and noticed Sasuke was alone.

It could have been the alcohol that made me address him, but I grinned as I licked my spoon clean.

"Why so alone?" I crooned. He heard me over the noise in the restaurant. "Where's your girlfriend?"

His eyes darkened momentarily before his mouth opened to shoot out a response.

"That's not your problem," he said. "Your problem should be trying to be more careful about what you eat. Because that," he titled his head towards my dessert, "will go straight to your ass."

I blinked innocently and cocked my head to the side. "What do you mean?" I did my best to sound confused as I stood. "You mean my ass isn't perfect?" Slowly turning around, I showed him my backside, running a hand over it while watching him over my shoulder.

Sasuke was Sasuke, but he was a man. And if there was something I knew other than medicine and shinobi-related information, that was what drove men crazy. Uchiha or not, he wasn't the exception to the rule—oh, no.

As expected, something shifted in his eyes at my action. His gaze lingered for a moment more than was necessary on my ass before flicking up to meet mine as he took a swing of his beer.

"No, I don't think so," he said. His voice was raspy as he spoke.

Daichi and his future girlfriend were trying and failing to hide their laugher at what I could only assume was our interaction.

I could hardly care about them, though.

I grinned, sat back down, leaned back in my seat, and enjoyed watching him squirm, for the very first time, under my gaze. "I think you're lying," I eventually said, scooping another spoonful of cake and bringing it to my mouth. "You're good at it."

If there had been any doubt before, there was none left now. I was truly beginning to enjoy the game we were playing.

Also… I was in the lead.


A/N: Wait for it! Sasuke's point of view is next!