It was pouring rain outside (somehow it was January and it hadn't even snowed yet) and Sakura couldn't fall asleep.
Since when did Sasuke give her tingles? She couldn't stop thinking about it. It was ridiculous, especially because Sakura knew what that feeling was supposed to mean. She knew what Ino would say if Sakura told her (which she was not planning on). The only time she'd ever felt a similar feeling was a few of the times she'd kissed boys. And even then, this was different.
But with Sasuke? Sure, he had a sense of humor now, and he was considerate of how other people (or at least her?) felt. He was still extremely serious and occasionally cocky, but he was incredibly different. Not to mention ridiculously attractive, but his looks weren't the reason she'd felt something. If that were the case, she'd be furious with herself (but infatuation like that would never happen to her in the first place, not anymore).
This was different. And Sakura didn't like it. After all those years, all the angst, the decision that Sasuke would never have any power over her…Was she falling for him?
This is ridiculous, Sakura thought angrily. Even if it was completely different from the feelings she'd had for him when they were younger (obsession), this wasn't something she wanted. Why can nothing be cut and dry with him? The minute I think we actually stand a chance at a normal relationship, there's something else in the way. Not that Sasuke knew about this.
And there's no way he's ever going find out. Not this time.
Sakura didn't know why she kept trying, after they'd decided to move on. But despite everything, something deep down told her that this could work. Somehow she'd felt better after moving on with him, and if there was one thing Sakura was done with, it was going backward.
Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, and Sasuke met up after school on Thursday for the basketball game against Kumo. The gym was packed, but somehow they found seats (mainly because of several intimidated freshmen, who scooted all the way down the row at the sight of Sasuke). Sakura sat between him and Shikamaru, making sure to leave a few inches of space between her and Sasuke to minimize any more weird feelings.
And then Choji, Sai, and Shino arrived, and Sakura realized with horror that her strategy wasn't going to work. At all. The three of them squeezed in next to Ino, filling up any extra space and pushing Sakura right up against Sasuke.
"Sorry." Sakura said.
"It's fine." Sasuke muttered, his mouth twitching in what almost looked like a smile.
"Jesus, Choji, we're not sardines!" Ino said from her tight position between him and Shikamaru.
"Sorry, Ino!" Choji laughed uncomfortably.
It was a good thing Sakura was wearing a long-sleeved sweater, because Sasuke was wearing a t-shirt, and his bare (muscular) arm was pressed against hers.
Jesus Christ. Sakura rolled her eyes at the immature, hormonal part of her brain.
"What?" Sasuke was frowning at her and she realized he'd seen her roll her eyes.
"Nothing." She glanced around for something to use an excuse. Naruto was waving excitedly at them from the team's bench across the gym. Saved. "Just Naruto being Naruto."
Sasuke looked over at him. "Tch. Idiot."
Sakura gave him a slight wave back and he gave her a huge grin and a thumbs-up.
Kiba, sitting next to him, grinned at her and saluted. Sakura rolled her eyes but smiled.
The pregame music being blasted over the speakers stopped just then, and both teams huddled together before running out onto the court.
The Kumo basketball team was almost as big as the football team, but none of the Konoha players (or fans, for that matter) seemed very intimidated as they clustered in the middle of the gym. The ball was dropped and Kiba took possession to cheers from the crowd.
It looked like Shino's speculation wasn't at all accurate: Kumo's team hadn't improved at all over the past year.
"Looks like all their effort only goes into football." Ino said smugly after Naruto dodged several players with ease and made a layup, bringing the score to 18-3.
"Which didn't turn out too well." Shikamaru said, smirking. Ino laughed.
The buzzer sounded for halftime and the winter cheerleading squad ran out to do their routine. The fall squad was a very different group; the winter squad's routines weren't at nearly the same level (they were also big fans of pompoms). Many of the girls who didn't get onto the fall squad did cheerleading in the winter. When begged, Ino would help with their choreography (Sakura didn't know what they were going to do without her next year).
"Did you choreograph this one?" Sakura asked Ino as the squad was taking their positions.
"Funny story." Ino said, rolling her eyes. "I started working on it with Ami. Bad idea, because she wanted to include a ton of call and response stuff, during the routine. I totally vetoed that, it was ridiculous. And she wasn't too happy with me, so I quit."
"At the risk of ruining our reputation from the fall?" Sakura said, raising an eyebrow and smiling slightly.
"If this one's cringe-worthy I'll step in." Ino said firmly. "I can't let our work go down the drain, even if it's just the winter squad. I'm not worried about our fall girls."
Sakura just shook her head at Ino's blatant dismissal of the winter girls and turned to watch the routine.
It was slightly cringe-worthy. The pompoms and cheesy Konoha cheers that they used throughout the routine turned the group into just another cheerleading squad. It also reminded Sakura of all the reasons she didn't like cheerleading.
She glanced over at Sasuke. He was watching the routine with eyebrows raised, looking slightly unimpressed. She'd never asked him what he thought of their football routines; cheerleaders didn't seem to be something that Sasuke was particularly impressed by (not that she'd care about his opinion either way during football season).
She caught his eye by accident.
"Not a fan of cheerleading?" Sakura asked when he glanced at her. A corner of her mouth tilted upward.
"Hn. Too obnoxious." He said.
Sakura laughed even though deep down it stung, just a little bit. "Yeah, that's kind of what the sport's all about."
"Not for football." He frowned. "Your stuff was serious."
Sakura raised her eyebrows. "You think?"
"Yeah." He said. "I'm not stupid."
Sakura pushed down her surprise. She'd felt a sudden burst of satisfaction from his opinion, which seemed stupid. "You should've seen our squad a few years ago." Sakura said.
Sasuke smirked.
Ino leaned over Shikamaru as the applause for the cheerleaders stopped. "This calls for desperate measures, Forehead. You might have to step in with me."
"Leave me out of it." Sakura said immediately. "You know I'm done with cheerleading."
Ino sighed. "Fine."
The rest of the game went about as smoothly as the first half; from the beginning, Kumo hadn't stood a chance. The final score was 48-18.
A group of them gathered outside the locker room door to meet the team when they came out. Naruto banged through the door first, pumping his fists in the air as he met the crowd outside. He pulled Sakura into a crushing hug and then did the same to Ino, who put up with it for about a second before punching him in the shoulder.
"I wish Hinata-chan was here. I can't believe she missed the game!" Naruto said. Hinata was out of town visiting Kusa University, and Sakura knew Naruto missed her.
After a bunch of congratulations, the group walked back down to the gym, where the team was taking a picture to celebrate their win. The non-members broke off outside the door.
"You going to go study now?" Ino asked Sakura.
"Yeah. I have to do Mr. Sarutobi's paper."
"Already done." Ino said with a grin.
"Seriously?" Sakura raised her eyebrows.
"Why so surprised, Forehead?" Ino challenged.
"Not surprised. Jealous. I put it off." Sakura had felt more relaxed recently; she'd decided that the history paper could wait.
"You, procrastinating?" Ino gasped dramatically.
"Oh, come on." Sakura rolled her eyes.
"No, I'm proud of you, Forehead. You're not a robot!"
"Shut up, Pig." Sakura glared at her.
"Yeah, okay." Ino shouldered her bag. "I'll talk to you later, Shikamaru and I are going to get dinner."
"Alright. Have fun." Sakura said.
"I always do." Ino said with a smile. The two of them split up.
Kiba caught up to her a minute later in the hallway, still in his jersey.
"So how'd we do?" He asked her, grinning.
"Oh, I don't know. I guess it was okay." Sakura said with a smile.
Kiba rolled his eyes.
"I'm not just going to feed you compliments, you know." Sakura said with a laugh. "Your ego would be through the roof."
"Yeah, probably." He grinned. "But is that a bad thing?"
Sakura rolled her eyes and kept walking. "A little cockiness is okay. At that level I wouldn't be able to talk to you."
"Touché." Kiba shrugged. "So what are you doing now?"
"Homework." Sakura said. She grinned at his appalled look. "What? Are you surprised?"
"We just had a freaking huge win. Against Kumo!"
"And I have a giant history paper due tomorrow!" Sakura said, mocking his tone.
"Wow. Fine. Even though you should be celebrating."
"It's not like you and Naruto are organized enough to plan something, anyway." Sakura said. She reached her locker and started loading books into her backpack.
"You are harsh." Kiba said.
Sakura rolled his eyes. "Just go and celebrate with the team." She said.
"Well, yeah, now I'm going to." Kiba turned around and started walking away.
"And stop trying to make me feel guilty!" She called to his back.
He held his hands up in the air in surrender and laughed.
Sakura rolled her eyes and closed her locker.
The parking lot was full of basketball spectators; that was the bad thing about leaving right after a game.
She pushed through the crowd to come face to face with Sasuke.
"You're not going out with Naruto?" She asked him.
"Hn. Definitely not. Basketball team dinner."
Sakura nodded. "That'll be crazy."
"I've got homework, anyway." Sasuke said, frowning. "History paper."
"Yeah, me too. Are you in Sarutobi's class?"
"Aa. Have you started?"
"Just an outline. I put it off for way too long, I'm such an idiot. Normally I hate procrastinating."
Sasuke smirked. "That doesn't surprise me."
Sakura rolled her eyes, thinking of Ino. "All of my friends are the same, aren't they."
"We're friends?" Sasuke was still smirking slightly, but his eyebrows contracted. Suddenly Sakura regretting saying that. It still felt too weird to refer to Sasuke as a friend. Should he have his own category?
No, that was ridiculous.
"Um...Yeah. I think so?" She frowned at him, questioningly. "Are we?"
Sasuke nodded. "Aa." He hesitated for a second, like he was going to say something else, but instead he just frowned.
They reached Sakura's car. "This is me." Sakura said, stopping by the driver's side. "See you tomorrow?"
"Aa. See you."
A/N: So I published a new story, and it would be awesome if you guys checked it out (it's called Ignition). It's another AU sasusaku, but with much less pre-relationship angst (lol). I'm really excited about it (and seriously, if you read it I will love you sososo much).
Also...Review! It means a lot. Thanks :)