And They Were Seatmates
-8-
"What is going on with you, Forehead?" Ino demanded after she had ambushed and dragged Sakura off to a secluded corner of the Academy during the lunch break.
Sakura glared, not appreciating the manhandling. She'd taken pains to avoid bumping into Ino during the winter break, but back in school her luck finally ran out.
"Nothing's going on. Why do you ask?" she replied flippantly.
Ino gave her a hard look. "Oh, come on. If you're giving up on being my rival, at least have the common decency to tell me!" she spat out.
"What?" Sakura stared in surprise at her blonde nemesis. "Where did you get that idea?"
"Don't act coy with me!" Ino pointed a finger at her. "I saw you with that Madara boy during the holidays! You were on a date!" she accused.
"What!?" Sakura sputtered, flabbergasted at such a ridiculous notion. "Pig, are you nuts? What are you talking about?"
Ino narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "If it wasn't a date, then why were you hiding from me like a coward when he was buying flowers in my shop?" she questioned.
Sakura glared back unhappily, hands balled into fists at her sides. "Maybe because I knew you would say something weird like that to us. And for your information, I went with Madara to his mother's grave that day. Because I'm his friend," she stressed. The pig needed it spelled out to her.
Ino wasn't entirely convinced. "Oh, so why did you give him a gift too? And went with him to a restaurant?"
Sakura looked at her in disbelief. Honestly, how had that pig found out all of that? Was she spying on them? "It's none of your business, but I got him a gift because it was his birthday," she ground out in annoyance. "And we didn't go to a restaurant, it was just a dango shop. So no, I did not give up on being your rival and I'm absolutely going to wipe the floor with you and make Sasuke-kun fall in love with me," she declared hotly. "Now, are you finished with this stupid interrogation? Can I go?"
Ino huffed but relented. "Fine. I see you're serious about this. But I'll be watching you, Forehead! There's no way I'll let you surpass me and Sasuke-kun will definitely be mine!"
Their fiery gazes locked as the fighting spirit ignited in both girls. Matching wolfish grins sprouted on both of their faces.
"You know, you've been hanging out with Shikamaru and Chouji for years and I never got on your case like this," Sakura remarked idly.
Ino snorted. "That's because you've seen Shikamaru and Chouji. Cute, they are not. Nowhere near Sasuke-level."
"And Madara is?"
"Sure."
Taken aback, Sakura looked at her suspiciously, but Ino seemed not to be pulling her leg. Sakura rolled her eyes. "You only think so because you don't know him. He's not cute, he's… he's…" she stumbled, brow crinkling as she found herself unable to find the right word to describe what Madara even was. "He's just not!" she exclaimed out of frustration.
"If you say so," Ino replied in a sing-song voice that only grated on Sakura's nerves. "I've got to go. See you later!" she said and skipped away. Sakura growled low in her throat and made a beeline back to the classroom. Her stomach was rumbling with hunger and she'd lost too much of the break on Ino's nonsense.
She sat down abruptly, scraping the chair on the floor with a jarring sound, grabbed her bento, snapped the chopsticks with a sharp crack and viciously tore into her food. Madara, who was almost finished with eating, raised an eyebrow at that silent display of her agitation, but said nothing. For a while, Sakura stewed in thought as she polished off her lunch.
"Ino-pig is so stupid," she suddenly said. "Girls and boys can just hang out as friends."
Madara grunted in affirmative.
Sakura stabbed with her chopsticks and took another bite, then looked closely at his face, squinting hard. "Madara… no offense, but you're not cute."
This time his eyebrows shot up so high they reached his hairline. "Huh?!"
She took another close look. "Yep. Not even a little bit. I'm sorry to say you're as cute as a very angry porcupine."
"Sakura, what the hell."
She shook her head, relieved by her observations. Why did she let Ino bother her so much? This was silly. "Never mind. Forget what I said."
Madara gave her a flat look. "Right. Let me just take out my memory, wipe it clean and put it back in," he said sarcastically. "Not that I want to be 'cute'," he shuddered, "because I don't, but you're not exactly a picture of Miss Konoha either. Want to tell me what this is all about?"
"No. And what was that supposed to mean?" The vein on her temple twitched in annoyance at his comment.
Madara pointedly looked over her very sensible winter outfit—dark, long-sleeved shirt and olive-green pants which she pulled out from the bottom of her wardrobe. "Just that you won't be winning any fashion contest in the old rags you're wearing," he drawled.
In retaliation, she tried to stab him with her chopsticks, but he parried it with his own pair, letting out a gleeful laugh. Sakura kept up her furious barrage which Madara skillfully defended from, but their fight was cut short when the teacher returned to resume classes.
The whole topic of the so-called date was buried and promptly forgotten.
But Sakura couldn't get Madara's remark about her outfit out of her mind. It stayed there, like a little bit of gravel that got stuck inside her shoe, easily ignored when she didn't move, but making it uncomfortable to walk. When she trudged back home after practice, Sakura caught a sight of herself in the store window—ruffled pink hair clumped with sweat, warm grey coat and loose pants completely unflattering on her figure.
…not a picture of Miss Konoha… old rags…
With horror, Sakura realized that Madara was completely right. She looked terrible. Just because it was winter, it didn't mean she shouldn't put effort into her appearance. Look at Ino! Sakura remembered the cute outfit her rival wore that day, chic leggings and a purple tunic. Even her coat was fashionable and fitted, not a shapeless lump like Sakura's. She was shocked that Ino didn't even mention a thing about her clothing. Normally, dressing so shabbily should have earned Sakura a mocking remark at the very least.
She was too busy making stupid insinuations to insult my clothes, Sakura thought, wrinkling her nose at her own reflection. Or maybe Ino realized that this was to her advantage in their competition. Sasuke-kun wouldn't want to look at a badly dressed, sweaty girl like Sakura was right now.
This is what I get for hanging out with a guy for so long, Sakura lamented to herself. I'm losing my femininity!
She would have wallowed in her self-pity for longer, but the shopkeeper was giving her a weird look as she kept loitering in front of his shop. Sakura flushed, realizing it was a bookstore with some orange adult books on the showcase, which seemingly she'd been intently staring at for the past five minutes, when in reality she'd been only checking herself out in the glass. She scampered away from the store and ran back home without stopping.
Sakura ate, showered and put on her pajamas. Then she clapped her cheeks to get herself motivated. She might have been failing at keeping up her appearance, but now that she realized the problem, she could do something about it! She wouldn't let Ino have the satisfaction of winning so easily! And she would show Madara that Miss Konoha had nothing on her! With fire ignited in her eyes, Sakura marched to her closet and threw it open, then started rooting through it determinedly. She was going to pick out the cutest outfit possible!
Next day, Sakura overslept. When she woke up and saw the time, she jumped out of the bed, dressed in record time, grabbed her schoolbag and ran straight for the Academy. She arrived in the classroom with half a minute to spare. Despite her abrupt entrance, barely anyone looked at her. For some reason people were all looking to the back of the room, some craning their necks, whispers and snickers flittering around. Sakura followed their gaze.
There was someone else in Madara's seat. She couldn't believe it! She'd never seen this boy before. He looked like another Uchiha, but that gave him no right to take Madara's place, family or not! He had some guts! Sakura tore towards him, preparing to give him a piece of her mind.
The boy was looking back at her as she approached, the scowl on his face fading into vague surprise as he scanned her from head to toe. Sakura self-consciously smoothed out her white blouse and straightened the pleated skirt.
"What's with the fancy clothes—"
"Who the hell do you think you are—"
They both began talking at the same time, then stopped in consternation. The boy's voice sounded familiar. He quirked his eyebrow at her in a way she'd seen a thousand times… Sakura gasped.
"Madara?!" she asked, stunned.
"Who else? Don't you recognize me?" he asked.
"But… your hair…" Sakura stared at his head. Gone were the natural spikes, the usually wild, black hair was slicked back with a hair gel. The new hairstyle brought out the sharpening angles of his face into focus. Madara looked like a different person.
"What about it?" he asked, giving her an expectant look as he awaited her response.
"It's… shiny… and smooth…" she described, still flabbergasted by the sudden change. She saw models and actors having that kind of hairstyle, but on Madara… "You look weird."
When she saw his darkening expression, she backpedaled. "No! I mean, it's not bad! It's just so new! I was surprised!" she babbled reassuringly. "You look so different, completely unlike you! But, it's really trendy! Not bad at all!"
To her despair, her words had the opposite effect to the intended. Madara didn't lighten up, instead a blankness came upon his face. The bell rang and Goro-sensei arrived to take the roll call. Heedless of that, Madara stood up and went past her, down the steps and to the exit.
"Where do you think you're going?" the teacher called. "The class has already started."
"Bathroom," Madara bit out and slammed the door shut behind him.
Sakura looked after him worriedly, wringing her hands. She said the wrong thing, but she didn't know what! What if Madara wasn't going to come back! It was all her fault, she should have said something nicer! Honesty was overrated! What if he never spoke to her again?
"Are you going somewhere too, Sakura?" Goro-sensei asked with annoyance, putting her on the spot. "Sit down."
Sakura shook her head and sank into her seat quietly, but she was watching the door anxiously. After around ten minutes it opened and Madara stalked inside. Everyone looked at him in surprise. His hair was wet, water dripping from the ends onto his indigo shirt and the floor. He looked like he'd just dunked his head into a river.
Goro-sensei sighed. "I'm not even going to ask. Go to your seat and don't interrupt me anymore," he only said to Madara.
Madara wordlessly passed through the class and sat down heavily next to Sakura who had to restrain herself from exploding with questions. When the teacher's back was turned, she took her chance.
"Why did you do that?" she whispered to Madara incredulously. Seriously, who washes their head in school?
Madara gave her a sideways glance. "I just felt like it," he replied in a bored tone.
Sakura frowned, but she couldn't continue drilling him because the teacher turned to face the classroom again. The whole matter of Madara's hair bothered her so much that she forgot all about showing him up for that 'Miss Konoha' comment.
.
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AN: To be continued in part two! The chapter was too long so I split it up. Please let me know how you like it and see you next week! :)