Sakura's POV
Is this good, or is it too much? Or maybe I should go with this one. "They both look great, Sakura," My best friend, Hinata says. I turn away from my closet to face her. She is sitting on my bed scanning through her phone. Her long dark hair down and straightened, while wearing a dark blue dress with sleeves, that stops right above her knee and has very small silver strips placed everywhere on it, not trying to be a pattern. Her face had a bit of eye makeup, a little concealer on small blemishes, and lip gloss that made her lips darker and shiny. I can tell she isn't excited at all for this. I just hope Naruto helps her realize that not all guys are bad.
"I know but I don't want to wear something that is too overdressed or too underdressed." Even though this night is for Hinata, I can't help but feel nervous about me and Sasuke. After all, this is our first official date as a couple, and I want to look good. It has been a while since I went on a date. When I was with Gaara, we didn't really go on dates, we went places together, but it wasn't what I would call a date. Just a normal couple hanging out together. "I can't decide between these two dresses." I hold up both in my hands to show Hinata. One of the dresses is a short, red dress. The top part covers me from the end of my neck down, but has lace so the area above my breasts are revealed in it. The bottom part is loose with ruffles. The other dress is a bit more simple. It is black and has small straps with a loose bottom as well.
"Hinata turns her head and examines the two outfits. "I like the red one. It's more you. The black one looks like something you would wear at a formal party, not a date."
"True, but don't you think the red one is too much for a date?" I squint when I ask her that.
"Maybe a little, but I don't think anyone will not nor care. You look amazing in it, so I say wear it." She does have a point. Red has always been my friend.
I place the dress on my bed and put the black one into my closet. "Okay, I will go with the red one." I make my way back to my closet to grab a pair of heels, when my mother barges into my room without knocking. "Mom!"
"Hello dear, I just wanted to know when you guys will be returning. Oh! You look lovely Hinata!"
"Thank you," she responds.
I interrupt their brief conversation to answer her original question. "I don't know Mom. We are having dinner so maybe in a couple of hours?"
"Well... all right, just don't put out on the first date girls."
"Mom! What the hell!" I feel my face getting red and Hinata's is already the color of my dress.
"Don't swear Sakura!" My mother points her finger towards me. "Let me know when you guys are leaving," and with that, she leaves my room, leaving the door open a little, again. Once she is gone a ding is heard, coming from my phone. Hinata grabs it for me and tells me the notification as I grab some shoes and the dress and go to the door.
"You got a text message from your boyfriend. He says he and his friend are on their way to the restaurant and will meet us there." I open my door all the way and glance back at her.
"Okay. Tell him we will be leaving in a few minutes."
Sasuke's POV
This place is fancier than I thought it would be. It's not that I hate fancy places, I just don't think I can afford anything that will be on the menu, just by observing the insides. Naruto was the one who recommended this place. Makes me wonder how the hell he found this place, and why he was here in the first place. This isn't his scene either. "Hey Sasuke." I end my exploration of the area and turn to Naruto who is sitting across from me. Tonight, he is wearing a dark gray suit with a dark red tie that doesn't look red from a distance. His hair is actually combed neatly. I guess he is taking this seriously, but then again, he isn't the type to mess around with people.
"What?" I ask a bit too harshly.
"Can you tell me something about this girl? What's her name again?"
"Hi na ta," I say as if he is learning a word in a different language.
"What does she do for a living?" I shrug. "How does she know your friend?" Naruto is under the impression that Sakura and I are just friends, and are third wheeling. I don't blame him, I never told him about Sakura when he was conscious. I shrug again at his question. "Do you know anything about this girl?"
"I know she has pale skin and dark long hair, and weird looking eyes. But she is friends with Sakura, so I doubt she's a bad person," I say with confidence.
Naruto scoffs and covers his face in his hands. "Oh great! Thanks Sasuke, that makes me feel soooo much better," he sarcastically responds.
"Will you just shut up?" Naruto grunts and squirms in his seat, trying to be patient but failing miserably. This is going to be a long night if he keeps this up. Hinata and him better get along.
After a minute of trying not to blow up at Naruto's constant taping, the two women arrive. As soon as I see Sakura, my heart pounds out of my chest. It fits so beautifully on her, the color and style look amazing with her. Her soft pink locks are now in a bun, but her bangs are escaped from the bun and are framing her face perfectly. Her makeup looks natural, but a little more fancy so you can tell she is wearing it.
"Hello guys, sorry for making you guys wait," she smiles. This is when Naruto turns to see the girls for the first time. As soon as he does, he rises from his seat and looks like he's a deer caught in headlights. The dark haired woman slowly walks towards Naruto and stares at him the same way. I quickly turn back to Naruto who is now blushing, then back to her, and she is even more red. I don't believe in love at first sight, but these two are making me question if it is real. "You must be Naruto," Sakura interrupts their staring contest, making Naruto break out of his daze and look at my girlfriend. "Hi, I'm Sakura, and this is Hinata."
After saying the other woman's name, my best friend traps himself into another staring contest and holds his hand out to shake hers. "Hi," and mutters. When has Naruto even been this shy? The girl slowly brings her hand to his and shakes it softly.
"Hi," she says even quieter. Those two keep acting like they are the only two in the room, and it makes Sakura shift uncomfortably from one foot to the other.
She then clasps her hands together to break to silence. "Alright, shall we sit down now?" Sakura walks over to the empty chair next to me. I rise from my seat and hold out the seat for her to sit down. "Thank you Sweetheart," she whispers.
As she sits I push the chair in and teasingly say, "You're welcome... Sweet Cheeks." Sakura punches my arm in a playful manner, but it actually hurts a little.
Once we all take our seats, a waiter comes up and gives us menus, along with drinks, which we settle on a bottle of wine that all of us will share. I'm afraid to look at this menu. While Sakura, Naruto, and Hinata examine it, I stare at the cover and play with the flap. "Are you okay?" I glance to my side and see Sakura's face in the menu, but her eyes are on me.
"Yeah, just spaced out a little." There's no point in waiting any longer. I'm going to have to order something. I lift the menu up and open it, realizing that I was completely right about the prices. I can't afford this. What am I going to do? If I order something, I might have to cut back on groceries, or I will need to take more shifts, but if I take more shifts, I won't be able to pick Sarada up from school or spend a lot of time with her. I would need someone to watch her, and I already do that too much.
Maybe I will be able to get a side or something. Turning more pages in the menu, I come across side soups and salads. I'll just get the cheapest one. The onion soup. I place the menu back down after figuring out what I will get, and see Naruto and Hinata trying to have a conversation without one of them passing out of embarrassment. It kinda makes me cringe. "So, where do you work?" Naruto asks as he plays with his fork.
"I'm a substitute teacher at an elementary school, but I'm hoping that I will be able to get an actual teaching job there," she mutters.
"That's cool. What subject do you hope to teach?"
"English. I love to read." As they keep talking, the tension in their shoulders disappears.
"Yeah, Hinata really does love reading. That's how we both met. We joined a book club and sat next to each other during the meetings. While everyone would get into heated conversations about it, Hinata would just sit there and listen intently," Sakura interrupts.
Hinata blushes more at Sakura's remark and Naruto rubs the back of his neck and chuckles. "I'm not really into reading. Actually, English was my worst subject."
"You can't say it was your worst subject when you did just as horrible in every other one," I tease. Naruto glares at me. I can tell that if we weren't in a fancy public place, he would have reached over and hit me.
"Shut up, Jerk! You weren't the greatest in school either."
"I only struggled in literature, Dumbass. Even then, I was still on the honor roll."
"At least I graduated from college," Naruto barks back. Damn, that actually hurt a little.
Sakura clasps her hands together to end our feud. "Anyway, Naruto! Why not tell us what you do. I don't really know much about you either and I would like to know too. After all, I think I'm going to be seeing you more often now." As soon as she says that, I feel her small, soft hand land on top of mine. I bite the inside of my cheek to stop from smiling.
While I move my hand from my lap to Sakura's lower thigh, Naruto explains himself. "I work in a boring little cubicle for a large corporation. I went to college for economics and business, so I'm hoping that I will someday move up in the ranks."
The waiter comes back to our table before Naruto can continue his talking, and places cups of water, and some bread. "Are you guys ready to order?" All of us look at each other, and nod in agreement. Sakura and Hinata start with what they are getting, then, Naruto. Hearing what they are ordering made me feel a little bit like an outsider since they sounded like doing this was a normal thing to them and the prices are ones they see all the time, while I'm making a big deal about it.
After writing down what Naruto said, he turns to me. I clear my throat and mumble, "I'll have to side onion soup," and with my head down, I hand him the menu.
"What will the entree be with that sir?" he asks. Why must you make this so difficult?!
"No, just that. I'm not that hungry." I can feel the waiter's eyes staring at me with confusion, but I choose to ignore it.
Following the waiter leaving, Sakura and Naruto look at me with concern. I know Naruto understands why I ordered the cheapest thing, but I am surprised Sakura caught it too. Her hand that was once on top of mine moves to my shoulder and caresses it. In order to end the silence I grab one of the breads, break it, and say, "So, you were talking about your job. Has it been any better than it was before?"
I finish my meal pretty quickly, obviously. The other three take their time with their food. Naruto and Hinata haven't been talking to us, but to each other. Instead of all of us having one conversation, Sakura and I were having our own separate conversation and they were too. "I think they are getting along now," Sakura whispers in my ear. " They aren't so shy around each other anymore."
"Looks like you were right about this idea," I whisper back. This boosts up Sakura's confidence. She holds her head up a little too much.
"I'm such a genius," She says, partly sarcastically, partly not.
Before I can respond with the smug comment I had, my stomach growls very loudly. I know this because Sakura hears it too. Shit. "Are you still hungry Darling? Do you want some of my pasta?" She points to her meal with her fork.
A part of me really wants to say yes, but my pride gets in the way. "Don't worry, I'm not actually hungry. I just have a small stomach ache."
"Because you're hungry." I hear Sakura mutter that. She probably didn't want me to hear that, but I do.
A loud, obnoxious laugh stops me and Sakura. I can recognize that annoying laugh anywhere. "What's so funny?" I ask Naruto.
Naruto wipes some of the tears that formed in his eyes and says while trying to stop laughing and start breathing, "I was just telling Hinata about the time you wore women's jeans to school. I laughed so hard when I saw how high the waist was." Naruto breaks into another laughter fit, and I hear Sakura giggle a bit too. "The pants were all the way up here." He holds his hand up to where his nipples would be and starts to cry from laughing again.
"Hey! They were in the men's department! How was I supposed to know they were women's pants?!" I can feel my face heat up. At this point Sakura is laughing up a storm too.
"By looking at the damn pants moron! It doesn't take a genius to figure out the difference between male and female jeans!" Naruto shouts.
As everyone but me breaks into more laughter, I mumble, "It's not that funny."
"You, you should have seen the faces people were giving you that day!" None of us realized how loud we were until the waiter came back and took some of our plates away. Then, I look around the restaurant to see everyone glaring at us.
"We should probably grab the check now," I mutter to the table. "Can we have the check please?" I ask him.
"Sure. Are all of them going to be separate?"
I am about to respond to him when Naruto says something first. "Ours will be together," he says and points to himself and Hinata. Damn you Naruto! Now I have to do the same for Sakura and I or I'm going to look like a shitty boyfriend.
"Ours will be separate." Sakura points to the both of us. The waiter walks away with some of the plates, and Sakura looks at me and smiles. She honestly can be amazing.
Once we leave the restaurant, all four of us walk together. Naruto and Hinata are ahead of us and keep talking to each other, looking like they are having a good time. I take this chance to grab Sakura's hand and walk with her. Sakura and I don't talk. We just spend our time together in a comfortable silence while listening to Naruto and Hinata.
After another couple of minutes of walking, Naruto and Hinata stop, and Naruto whispers something in her ear. She nods to whatever he said and walks back to us. "Um, Sakura. I know we were supposed to go to your house, but, N-Naruto offered to take me h-home." Hinata starts to act a bit different than she was earlier. A lot more shy and nervous.
"That's fine Hinata." Sakura leans into Hinata and teases her. "Just remember, don't put out on the first date."
"Sa-Sakura! Now you're acting like your mother!" She giggles after her remark.
"I'm just kidding Hinata. Just text me later so I know you got home safe."
Hinata hugs Sakura and says, "I will," and with that, Naruto and Hinata cross the street and head into a different direction. Now we are alone.
"I'll walk you home."
"Okay." I grip Sakura's hand a little harder and take a step, but before I can take another, my stomach grumbles aggressively again. Damn it.
I try to ignore it but Sakura doesn't. "You know, I'm still feeling a bit hungry. The portions at fancy places are always so small. Let's go get some burgers."
"...Alright."
It takes about five minutes for us to find and get to a fast food joint. When we enter, there are a few people sitting and eating something small, which makes sense, since it is quite late. The worker behind the counter is playing on their phone, obviously just waiting for her shift to end, but unfortunately for her, we are hungry.
Sakura and I look through the menu before going to the counter. "Hmm, I really want to try that all out burger, but I don't think I should eat something that big with that many calories this late at night. What do you think, Sasuke?" I glance at the burger she is talking about. She's right. That thing is huge, with possibly everything you can think of to put on a burger on it. My stomach growls again.
"Maybe I will get it," I say. Sakura moves her eyes from the menu to me.
"Really?" I nod. "Then, maybe I will get it too. Oh and fries, and a vanilla shake! No, strawberry shake!" Sakura's eyes start to gleam from thinking of the food she is going to order. It makes me chuckle.
"How about you and I split a fry, get the burgers, and the shake. I'll have some hot tea."
"Sounds good to me. If we're going to get fat, let's get fat together." I laugh at her and we go to the counter and order.
The food comes out in less than ten minutes. When we reach an empty table, I devour my burger without a second thought. Sakura takes a slower time, but she eats pretty quickly too. Then, she puts down her burger and reaches for fries, dips them in ranch dressing, and eats them. "You eat your fries with ranch?" I raise an eyebrow to her.
"Yup!" Sakura flashes a big smile, not opening her mouth of course, with chubby cheeks because her mouth is full of fries.
"Weirdo," I mutter.
"You're a weirdo!" she replies back.
Both of us finish our food quietly, and take small sips of our drinks. "Sasuke?" I look back at her. "Can I ask you something?"
I place down my tea and fold my hands onto the table. "Sure."
Sakura then places her shake down and does the same thing I do. "Are you having money problems?"
"What? What are you talking about?" I try to sound surprised, but fail miserably.
"Come on Sasuke. First you ask about raises, then you order the cheapest thing on the menu, and when you were hungry, you denied it. I know this is a bit personal to ask, but I would like to know. If I knew this before, I wouldn't have agreed to go to an expensive place tonight."
"That's the thing, Sakura. I don't want to be seen as an issue. I don't want you, or anyone else to miss out on something just because I can't afford it. Sarada has been missing out on so many things already because of this, and it makes me angry to think about it. I knew what I was getting myself into, so you don't have to pity me."
"I'm not trying to pity you or anything. I'm just worried about you." Sakura moves her hand across the table and grabs mine. "I know not having a lot of money is difficult for you, but you need to accept the fact that you have money issues and can't just spend it recklessly just because you will feel like a burden if you don't. You are not a burden. Not to me, and not to your friend Naruto. I don't know if you saw, but he kept looking at you with concern when you finished your tiny soup."
"Sakura-"
"Listen, I don't care where we go and what we do. If you can only afford to go to fast food places, and watch movies at home, that's fine. I don't care where we go or what we do. If I'm with you, I'm happy, and so is your friend. So drop your pride a little and do what is best for you and your daughter."
Once again, Sakura leaves me speechless. It's hard for me to admit it, but she is right. I guess I do let my pride get in the way sometimes. I take the hand that Sakura isn't gripping, and grab her hand, then with the hand that she was grabbing, I reach to her face, caress her cheek, and put her lips on mine. I do it a little too aggressively, but Sakura doesn't seem to mind. After a couple of seconds, she puts her hands on the back of my head.
When I release her, I whisper, "I'm sorry."
Sakura responds by chuckling. "Silly." For the rest of the night, Sakura and I walk to her house holding hands, and talking about crazy customers again. A perfect way to end the day.