The party was a blast and eventhough I have never celebrated any of my birthdays I loved every second of it. Being thankful for the boys and girls I got up early, very early, and made breakfast for them after cleaning the house. Just because they threw the party it didn't mean that they were in charge of cleaning it after wards.
I was super tired myself but it was the least I could do for them.
"Good morning, Sakura.", Shikamaru entered the kitchen while I stood by the oven and cooked some eggs, Kiba followed quickly.
"Mhh, I smell food. I could use some hangover scrambled eggs.", he groaned and sat down slowly. He rubbed his face and and moaned.
"Shut it, Kiba. My head pounds, too. You're not the only one here with a hangover.", Shikamaru got up again and opened the door that led outside.
"I'll go for a little round with Akamaru, be back in 15.", he closed the door silently and I turned around to find Neji and Sasuke entering the kitchen now, too.
"Good morning everyone, how are you guys feeling today?", I chirped and gave Sasuke a little peck on the cheek. He ruffled his hair and groaned just like Neji who had his hair in a messy bun.
"Can anyone get Naruto? And where are the girls? Usually they would be up already?", I asked and put the hot plate of scrambled eggs in the middle of the table.
"I baked fresh bread for all of us.".
Sasuke was busy with his phone calling someone and Neji looked like he summoned all his power to not throw up on the table. I poured him a glass of orange juice and he drank it with one gulp.
"Come down, you drunk wanker.", with that Sasuke ended his phone call and I nodded at him, thanking him for calling Naruto.
"So, the girls are not here again, I guess?", I asked a little sad and Neji answered.
"They left already at 4 a.m., while the party was still going on.", he paused. "They had to get back to their tour. They just came back for that evening.".
"Oh, okay. It was so great to have them here and...", the kitchen door opened again and Shikamaru walked in.
"15 minutes are not over yet.", Kiba snickered with red eyes but Shikamaru did not answer, he just sat down.
"I threw up in the bushes.", and everyone ewwed at that. At this moment Naruto walked in, his blonde hair all over the place, wearing a pyjama with big green frogs.
"Oh my gosh, what a party. I still can't believe all the drinks that I had. Even Hinata was drunk. I hope that she'll be fine today.", he groaned and sat down, too.
I opened the oven and got out a steaming hot bowl of ramen and placed it right in front of him. Naruto gasped and his blue eyes shone even with dark black bags under his eyes. "You're the best, Sakura-chan!"
"For the best cousin in this world only the best!", I beamed at him still thankfull for that absolutely amazing car.
"No, you are the best!"
"Noo, you are the best, that's why you deserve this ramen at 10 in the morning!"
"Stop kidding, you are the..."
"Would you guys stop, please. You're making me gag about all this cuteness overload.", Sasuke mumbled and I placed myself behind him and started to massage his head.
"Of course you are the best, too, Sasuke. Why else would I be with you?", I chirped again and Naruto snickered at Sasuke being grumpy.
I guess working as a bartender gave me enough experience to know when to stop drinking. I was drunk too, but decided to drink water and sprite soon enough to not have a hangover like them.
The breakfast took a little longer because the boys had trouble keeping the food in, ecxept for Naruto. It was like the ramen filled him with energy and washed away all of the alcohol.
"Did you see Lee and Sensei Gai having a showdown again in the middle of the dancefloor?", I laughed and talked with only Naruto because he was the only one with enough energy to answer.
"Haha, yes! It got even better when Gai wanted to duel with Kakashi! I have never seen anything like that before!", Naruto laughed out loud remembering the moves of those men.
"You should see them at work, it is like they're always on a trip on who's better. They're both great and it's always when one wins then the other wants a rematch."
"It's not just Sensei Gai. It's also Lee. If I didn't know better I would think they're father and son.", Kiba smirked. "Especially when Kakashi and you were talking", I heard Sasuke grunt at this "Lee was there like a lightning bolt and tried to get into that conversation, too. That poor guy, eventhough he knows he has no chance he still tries."
"Don't be like that, Lee has a pure character. He would never intentionally try to be cheeky. It just happens with him.", I shrug.
"What did you get from Kakashi? And Lee and Gai?", Naruto asked while taking a sip of his orange juice and I placed a finger on my chin.
"Ehh, let me think, I have received so many presents that I can't even remember all anymore."
"You received a shopping gift coupon in the amount of 200 Dollars from Lee and Gai and Kakashi said he would pay all the food you order for the next month while you're both working.", Sasuke hissed a little.
"Oh, yes, right, that's nice, isn't it?", I smiled and his black eyes stared at the glass in front of him.
"I'll try to go one more time to get a little fresh air.", Shikamaru mumbled and left and noone said anything to him.
"Yes, I think that's nice, too. What a great man. I mean... What great men. You received lots of nice presents yesterday.", Naruto corrected himself and we all knew that he was trying to piss off Sasuke one more time.
While the boys had fun because of Sasuke being jealous the first time in his life I looked at them and smiled to myself.
I had no parents anymore, no sister or brother. But these guys were all I would ever need and it reminded me of something.
"Hey, when exactly does the radio tour start?", I asked. I hated being alone since I moved in and hoped that it would start when the girls' tour ended.
"In three weeks and we'll be out of here for about 4 weeks, maybe less. Depends on how fast we can get from one radio station to the other. The girls will be back in two weeks, so you won't be all alone.", it was like Sasuke knew what I thought and my heart melted at that.
We changed the topic a few times and laughed while the boys got better with a few more bites of food.
We talked about the party, Karin, how Naruto had to save all the girls from Jiraya and them thinking that Naruto was peeping on them, too.
"I honestly see some similarities between you two. I even had the feeling that you liked each other.", I stated and Naruto talked about some things he 'learned' from Jiraya about girls. Sasuke started to make fun of Naruto because of that and they bickered again.
While they were occupied Shikamaru came back in with a few letters in his hands and even handed me one. I looked at him quizzically but opened the big brown letter on which was only my name, no adress, just the name in thick, big, black letters.
"Since when do you receive letters here?", Kiba asked and I shrugged and got up from the chair so that I could open it without listening to Sasuke's hissing at Naruto.
I leaned against the fridge and saw that there were lots of photos in that envelope. I took them out and looked again into the envelope but there was no letter, just the photos.
I smiled at the first two, there were photos of me when I first went shopping with the girls, me stretching to get to something on a high cupboard, me going to a small cafe and grabbing a coffee to go.
"What's that?", Sasuke turned around on his chair and everybody was looking at my hands.
"Nothing, I guess that there was a paparazzi that couldn't sell those pictures and decided to send them to me.", I laughed and gave the first few pictures I have already seen to Sasuke who already held his hand out for them.
There were again pictures of me with the girls, when we tried to go for a run but ended up talking, again me doing some grocery shopping, me mixing drinks behind the counter at the joker, me and Kenji kissing in front of the house. What? Why was there someone that took only pictures of me living my life? I was no celebrity.
I furrowed my brows "Strange.", I mumbled and ignored Sasuke's What is it's.
The next photos were of me walking out of the company's building and arguing with Sasuke. The more photos I saw the quicker I wanted to scan through them.
The next one was me sitting in the dark in that bus station, the one after that was Sasuke throwing my shoes in his trunk. I didn't realise that Naruto got up and snatched this one out of my fingers.
"What the...", he scratched his head and Sasuke got up too, snatching the rest I have already seen from my hands. "What the fuck, I knew that the paparazzis took photos of you, but that", he pointed at the one in Naruto's hand. "They would have published this one immediately. We weren't even together at that time."
The other guys got up too and looked through the photos and discussed them while I watched the rest.
There was me standing in the middle of the garden, stretching myself while enjoying the sun on my skin. It were always different days because I always wore something different.
The next photo shocked me a little if that was even possible.
The picture is dark but you can clearly identify me standing in front of the poolhouse and about to walk in and one of me standing in front of the bushes and trying to look through them. So my feeling was right after all.
I was being watched.
In the back of my mind I heard the guys discussing and even gasping at the last two photos but my inner and I... had some trouble in putting the pieces together.
Why would someone do that?
Is there a crazy stalker?
Was it Karin?
Was it some crazy fangirl?
With shaking hands I looked at the last few photos. My breathing quickened and my eyes widened in shock.
Me sitting on a table pouting at me eating alone.
Me lying in a bed, bra strap showing, smiling.
Me sitting on a couch.
Me sitting near the window looking at the rain.
These photos. I took them.
Those were the pictures I sent Dean when he was away for filming. Those were the pictures I used to escape from this psycho!
My hands were unable to hold them any longer and they slipped all out of my hands, I felt cold sweat running down my spine, my head was full of questions and blank at the same time.
The pictures seemed to fall down in slow motion and I had to hold myself on the counter to not fall with them. While they fell down one of the pictures turned and on the back was again with thick black letters a message.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LOVE. X
Eventhough I knew that it was him, my heart was pounding so hard that I thought it would explode as soon as I would say his name out loud.
Sasuke and Naruto picked up the photos from the floor and I barely heard them asking me what all this meant.
I looked at Sasuke who waved the message at my face and asked me what the hell that meant.
I saw Naruto looking at the pictures of me in the garden and the poolhouse and they were discussing but all I heard was my blood rushing through my veins, my heart pounding, him calling my name.
I tried to speak but nothing came out. Hot tears which formed in my eyes fell down my cheeks and they did not stop. I touched the place where the drug hit me in my neck with my shaking fingers.
„I... he... he is... bbb...", I stuttered and Sasuke placed his big hands on my shoulders and shook me lightly. I still did not hear what he said to me right now.
A sob was all I was able to give away.
This couldn't be true! It just couldn't be true!
Why! Why?! I left him behind, he knew Sasuke would be stronger than him! He was scared that night on the roof and left Konoha!
"Sakura! What is that!", Sasuke practically shouted now at my face and I looked at him, wanting to explain it but something inside of me still did not want to talk about it. The guys looked at me, their eyes full of pity, only Sasuke was still trying to get me to talk.
His big hands grabbed my shoulders and shook me.
"Sasuke, I... I don't know how to explain it!", I whispered while the tears still fell down.
"How about you start explaining those pictures!", he held the ones of me up that I took myself.
"It's not that easy!"
"It is, Sakura!"
Still refusing to explain it I decided to chose the easier way.
"You guys don't need to worry, I'll move out today. You won't be bothered anymore, you won't need to worry anymore-", I couldn't even end my sentence because a hand hit me hard on the cheek.
The clap was kind of echooing in the kitchen and everyone gasped at Naruto.
My tears stopped, the pain from my cheek felt good. Slowly I turned my head to look at my cousin, whose eyes were pracitcally glowing at me. The anger radiated off his body. I have never seen him in a state like this before.
"Who do you think you are.", he grittet through his teeth.
"Naruto! What-"
"Mind your own business, Sasuke!", Naruto spat at Sasuke who was shocked and looked back at me.
"Tell me! Who do you think you are, Sakura! Why did you keep this a secret!", he threw the pictures at me and my eyes fluttered a little.
"I'm sorry.", I whispered and did not know how to explain myself.
"You are sorry? You are just fucking sorry? There is someone taking pictures of you in our garden for god's sake! And it seems that you had already contact with him, or how did he get those selfies from you! And now you think you'll move out and everything will be okay?! He even took pictures of you waiting for the freaking bus!", he yelled, his fists balled hard and his knuckles turned white. My head hung ashamed as I heard Naruto yelling at me.
"He is a stalker, Sakura! He could be dangerous for all we know!", Naruto's fist now slammed the table, shaking the dishing with it.
"He is.", I whispered back and did not dare to look up again.
"What did you say?", Sasuke asked. He heard very well what I said. I looked at him and whispered again I'm sorrys. His black eyes turned to slits.
"You knew he was dangerous but still you had contact with that person? Who is he? Did you know that he was watching you?", he crossed his arms and sighed out loud.
"He was the reason I moved back to Konoha.", I had to tell the truth now.
"Oh shit." "You can't be serious." "Seems like it's gonna get troublesome.", I heard the other three guys groaning in the background.
Naruto and Sasuke stood now in front of me, like two big walls towering over me. The black and blue eyes watched me intently and I knew I was cornered. I had to say it now. I looked at them bravely, it was time for me to come clean with the ones I loved.
"The person that sent those pictures is also the same that drugged me on the roof at the joker."