Sasuke's POV
"Guys, we need to leave now. Naruto is already there!" I shout from the kitchen, hoping that my daughter and girlfriend hear me. I search through the drawers, trying to find my damn keys. As I keep moving I see the calendar at the corner of my eye, which marks June 5th.
"We will be right there!" I hear Sakura shout. What are they even doing? Picking an outfit for Sarada? It shouldn't take this long. Just then, I hear Sarada's voice coming.
"Sorry, Papa." I glance towards her and notice what she is wearing. Her hair is once again in a french braid and she is wearing her white button up shirt with short sleeves, and a black skirt that matches her black socks and shoes. "How do I look?"
"Very cute," I respond.
"Thanks Papa. Took Sakura and I forever to find a good outfit and to do my hair."
"Was that what you guys were doing this whole time?" I ask. Sarada avoids eye contact and laughs nervously. I let out an aggressive sigh. I don't understand girls.
"Don't mine your father Sarada. He's just crabby." I hear a feminine and more mature voice and see Sakura leaning against the wall. Her dress is a casual dark blue one with white floral pattern all over it, and her hair is tied up with a brown headpiece in it.
I grunt at her remark and continue to search for my keys. "Where are my damn keys?" I mutter to myself.
"Your keys?" I hear Sakura say from the back of my head. "Uhh... I have them. I knew you didn't want to waste time, so I took them so they wouldn't go missing." I turn around to see her holding the keys with the fan keychain she got me at the amusement park. "Sorry," she laughs anxiously.
I walk over to her and swipe them. "Whatever, let's just go." Sarada goes to open the door and Sakura goes to the living room and grabs her purse. Once all of us exit the apartment, I lock the door.
"I'm really excited to see your school Sarada," Sakura says as she climbs out of her car. "How do you like your classes? What's your favorite subject?"
Sarada jumps out of her seat. "My favorites are science and art. Especially science when we talk about space." While both of them talk, I pull out my phone to text Naruto.
Sasuke: Hey, we're here. Where are you?
I hear Sakura chuckle. "I figured something like that. When I was a kid, I like reading," she says.
Naruto: I'm at the front.
"I figured something like that," Sarada responds.
"Naruto is at the front entrance. Let's go." I then put my phone back into my pocket and grab Sarada's hand. All three of us walk together, mostly in the dark, with the only light coming from the moon and the outside lights in the parking lot. More adults with their kids emerge as well. Some I can recognize from waiting in the pick up area all the time, some I don't, probably from other schools.
Sakura interrupts my thoughts by saying, "When we get to Naruto, where should we go first?" Honestly, I don't really care. I have no interest in art that isn't Sarada's.
"Well, my art teacher said she wants all the students of hers to see her some time during the night, so, maybe we should go to her first."
The front doors become visible. "Sounds good," I say. "Do you have that paper, Sarada?" With that, Sarada stops walking and pulls out the pink paper she gave me before from her shoes.
"Right here," she smirks. We all keep walking to the door and enter into the school. There are way too many people that I don't feel comfortable at all.
I re-grip Sarada's hand and say, "Stay close. We need to check in and find Naruto."
"I don't think he went too far because he doesn't have the pink invitation." Just then, I see in a short distance a man with messy blond hair.
I start to force myself and Sarada through the crowd, while having Sakura grabbing Sarada's arm to stay with us. "Naruto!" I shout. He isn't able to hear me because of the big crowd. "Naruto!" I see him jerk his head to his right and left. He must have heard that. "NARUTO!" This time, he turns, and when he realizes who has been shouting at him, he shows off his huge grin.
The group of people eases up a little when I finally make my way to my best friend. "Hey Bastard! What took you so long? Some of the parents have been giving me creepy looks since I wasn't with anyone."
"Sorry about that. Somebody was taking forever to get ready," I say, glaring at Sarada and Sakura while giggling as if they have no idea what I'm talking about.
Naruto laughs. "Well, it doesn't matter now. Come on, let's go explore! I really want to see our little prodigy's work," he says as he rubs Sarada's head.
Sarada swipes the idiot's hand off her head and whines, "Naruto, it took forever to do my hair!" and then slides some of her baby hairs back.
Naruto laughs again. "Sorry sweetheart." The crowd keeps thinning down now that people are going through the hallways and exploring the exhibits.
"Well, shall we go?" Sakura interjects. I go to her and take her hand.
"Yes. I want to leave at least thirty minutes earlier than everyone else so we don't get into bad traffic," I say.
"But Papa, they won't announce the results until the end. If we leave early, I will miss it." Of course they are. God, traffic is going to be hell.
As I continue to loath, Naruto walks behind me and smacks the back of my head, making a headache come on. "Don't worry Sarada, we'll stay for the whole thing," he says.
"Great! Let's go!" Sarada, along with the pink paper, runs through what is left of the crowd and to a table that's right in the middle of the hallway, where two teachers must be checking people in. Us three follow behind her while trying not to get too separated.
Once we get to the table, Sarada is already there and talking to the teachers and giving them the paper. One of them, a small young woman with blond hair tied in a low ponytail and glasses, raises her head to me. "Oh, you must be Sarada's father!" I reply with a nod. "It's very nice to meet you , I'm Ms. Miller, the librarian here." The woman brings up her arm that is filled with dark brown bracelets, waiting for me to shake it.
Deciding to be nice, I shake it. "Nice to meet you too. Do you know where Sarada's work might be?"
"Hers is probably by her homeroom." She then points out to the left.
"Thank you." After speaking to her last, I lead Sakura and Sarada forward from the table, while having Naruto trail behind.
"Bye bye !" Sarada waves to her.
The first thing we do is go see Sarada's art teacher. Unfortunately the art room is in the opposite direction of Sarada's homeroom, so we have to go through more hallways and more people to get there.
Some of the art is displayed through the hallways, and some of it isn't that bad. Mostly the high school work though. Every time we spot art that looks like it has some deep meaning, Naruto always tries to figure it out, and according to him, the closer you are physically to it, the easier it is to decipher. "Hmmm... it seems that the artist is trying to display loneliness."
"That's what you said about every other art that was black and white," I groan.
Naruto steps away from the drawing and gets into my face. "Well maybe all these high schoolers are lonely! You ever think that, you Bastard!?"
"That's not the point. What I'm trying to say is you have no idea what you're talking about Moron!" I recuperate with. "And get out of my face!"
This makes Naruto get in my face even more, which I didn't think was possible. "I'll get in your face if I want to!" Now, all we are doing is arguing about dumb shit, kinda like back in high school. After a minute we finish, and I draw my attention to Sakura and Sarada, however, Sarada isn't there.
"Where is Sarada?" I ask Sakura.
"While you two were arguing like children, I told Sarada to go to the art room and we would catch up with her. Are you guys done now?" By the way of Sakura's stance, how she is crossing her arms, and by her overall annoyed look, I can tell how much Naruto and I are testing her patience.
"Sorry about that. Let's just go." Sakura doesn't respond. She just whips her head around the other direction and walks away, still crossing her arms, and giving me the silent treatment. I jog up to her and say, "Did I ever tell you how pretty you are today?" Unfortunately she doesn't respond. "Also, every day you become prettier and prettier, which I didn't think was possible."
Sakura stops. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asks sternly.
"What?"
Sakura's eyebrows narrow down even more. "Was I not pretty when you first met me? Did you think it was impossible for me to be pretty?!"
My mind draws a blank. "What?"
"You just said that you thought it would be impossible for me to be pretty!"
"No I didn't. I said I thought you couldn't get even prettier than you already were." I smile at her.
"So you thought I would always stay average pretty?"
What is even happening anymore. "No. You are more than average, pretty..." Whatever that means. "I mean you are the most beautiful girl ever, that I never knew you could raise the bar."
That doesn't help. "Whatever," Sakura mutters harshly. I start to feel my frustration rise from this dumb argument.
"God, what's with your attitude, are you on your peri-" Sakura puts her hand to my mouth and stops me from ending my sentence.
"Think about what you are about to say. Think," Sakura commands. Once she puts her hand down, I keep quiet, realizing what could happen if I finish that thought.
I clear my throat and continue to walk. "Come on. We are almost at the art room, and Naruto, quit it with the art."
Another ten minutes passes by before we get to the art room. When we enter, there are multiple children along with their parents inside, some are playing with the clay that has been set out, others are looking at the projects on the walls, and the rest are talking to an older woman and tall woman, who is Sarada's art teacher, but I don't see Sarada.
"She's not in here."
"Maybe she already went to her exhibit," Naruto offers from behind me.
Sakura continues with his thoughts. "Yeah, she must have finished talking to her teacher and was hoping to meet up with us there and not here. Let's go to her exhibit."
"Yeah." As we exit out of the classroom. I can feel my heart beating faster and my breathing speeding up. I know that this is Sarada's school, so she wouldn't get lost, but with all of these people, mostly people I don't know, I can't help but worry. Sakura must have noticed this because when we were walking into another hallway, she intertwined our fingers and rubbed invisible circles around the side of my hand, near my thumb. Not gonna lie, it does comfort me when she does that.
It doesn't take long for us to find Sarada's homeroom, where she and her exhibit are. I see her in the distance, which makes the weight I feel in my chest and on my shoulders disappear. From what I can see, Sarada is having a conversation with three girls who are probably in her grade judging by their height. After one of the girls speaks, all three of them laugh. I can't see Sarada's face because her back is facing me, but I can tell that she isn't laughing. Instead, she lowers her head. What's going on over there?
We get closer to her and the girls, and one of them notices me coming to them, and she whispers to the girl who spoke before, and then all three leave. "Who were those girls Sarada? Your friends?" Naruto asks. Sarada's head rises back up again after he talks, and then she turns around and smiles softly at us.
"Yeah, they just came by to see my stuff." I'm starting to get the feeling that Sarada is lying. She won't look at me, and she also won't look at Sakura, who has a face of concern.
"Are you sure?" I ask her.
She then laughs a little and says, "Of course Papa. What kind of question is that? Anyway, these are my paintings." Sarada turns to the wall. Is she trying to change the topic?
"Wow Sarada, they look great!" Sakura exclaims. I move my focus from my daughter to the wall as well. All of the paintings are space related. One of them has a meteor flying down, another is of Saturn, and the final one is the constellation Leo. In each painting, there is a dark background with tiny white dots that represent stars in the distance, and some have tiny rocks too. Sakura is right, they do look great. Where does she get this talent?
In the bottom area of my eyes, I see a small figure walk in front of me, my child. "Do you like them?" she asks a little shyly, while playing with her fingers.
"Like them...?" A big smile forms on my face. "I love them." Sarada's eyes light up when I say that. "I'm very proud of you." That makes her smile again.
Sarada goes off to Sakura and Naruto and explains to them what inspired her to paint the planet, constellation and meteor, and I just listen from afar. "Pretty good aren't they?" Someone then walks next to me. It is the old and tall woman from the art room. Sarada's art teacher.
"Yes. I can see that her obsession with space showed up," I respond with.
She laughs at my response. "She's one of my favorites. Always coming to class happy and eager to start. And when she stays after school she is always helpful when she isn't working on anything." I feel a surge of pride run through me as she keeps talking about how great Sarada is. "Very talented as well. I will be surprised if she doesn't win anything in her grade. I can't help but think about where she can go if she gets the right practice."
"Practice?" I question.
The woman chuckles. "Yes, practice. I believe she has the potential to be a great artist. She just needs to go to a good school or take classes. Get more experience." I listen intently as she continues to talk. "When I was young, I went to Parker's School of Arts, which is just outside the city. I now go there to teach summer classes. I once asked Sarada about the school, and she always ends the conversation by saying it would be impossible for her to go there."
"Is it because she isn't confident in herself?" I ask with concern.
She shakes her head. "Possibly. She told me she wouldn't be able to get a big enough scholarship to go there, which confuses me a bit because you don't need to get a scholarship, but it does help." I'm more worried about her saying she can't get a big enough scholarship. What does she mean?
"It's great that you got an honorable mention Sarada, especially since there were a lot of kids in your grade division," Sakura says as we walk back to the cars. It's taking longer than I wish it would to even get to the car because of all the people who are trying to do the same thing. We said goodbye to Naruto before we exited the building since his car is on the other side, and now it's Sakura, Sarada who is on my back, and me trying to get past all the cars slowly leaving and the people too.
"Yeah," Sarada mutters sleepily.
"We are going to have to bring Sakura home before we get home, so you can sleep in the car," I say to Sarada. "By the way, Sakura, are you sure we can keep your car at our place?" I ask her. Since I don't have a car, we used hers to get here.
"Of course it is. Besides, what would you guys do if you dropped me and the car at my home first? Walk home? Plus, you're coming to pick me up for work tomorrow, so I don't care." Well, you could spend the night at my place, but it's too early for me to say that.
After what had seemed like hours, we finally got out of the parking lot and drove away. The traffic isn't good though, so we spend a lot more time driving than normal. Sakura and I keep quiet conversations and Sarada sleeps in the back until we get to Sakura's house.
Sakura then unbuckles her seat belt and leans in to kiss me. "Good night," she says after we break.
"Good night," I whisper. Sakura opens the door, and before she exits the car, a small and tiny voice speaks out from the back of the car.
"Bye bye Sakura," Sarada mumbles.
Sakura leans to the back of the car and rubs Sarada's knee quickly. "Bye, Sweetie," she says to her. When she closes the door after getting out of the car, I stay and watch her until she gets inside.