Chapter 22

Eriko Hoshigagki's POV

The moment Kisame runs out of his brother's study, Eriko slowly walks to his vacant seat and sits. "May I have a drink, brother?" Lethargically, he glances at the older man who sits across from him.

There's rage in his tired eyes.

Or maybe I'm fine being parched, he thinks to himself.

"I didn't ask for you to go after the girl. She's done her part." "Last I checked, I was a man of my own freewill. So what if I set my own plan in motion?" "He's still entranced by her! And you've set him off after her. Now he'll never run the family business." Eriko rolled his eyes. "You were doomed the moment you told him about manipulating that whore to do your bidding. If you kept quiet I wouldn't have felt inclined to say anything. Don't speak ill of me when it is you who started it."

His brother's wife places a calming hand on his brother's shoulder. Her eyes are hard as she regards him. "Do you truly intend to harm Sakura?" "I have no reason to bluff," he says while straightening his tie. "Why? She's done nothing to you," she says in clear disapproval.

He frowns and then smiles wickedly, "Oh? Is that what you believe?"

Catastrophes, freak accidents, or dying of old age is what he envisioned for his end, when he met his mortality. Never would he have suspected a pink-haired bitch would be the actual nuisance that would ruin him.

Sakura Uchiha.

Her defiant nature in their first meeting was the starting point of his unravel. His reputation was tarnished, his career was squandered, and his dreams and ambition for success were stripped away, all because of one pink-haired woman. He was alive. But it hardly mattered. Every other aspect of his life was in disrepair. Dying would have been more merciful.

And so, he would repay the favor… Only, her reputation wouldn't be the only thing she would lose.

Of course, he couldn't pass Sakura her judgment. Afterall, he wasn't stupid. Anything that would happen to Sakura, he would no doubt be a prime suspect. For he was the suspect. And so, he found someone else to do what must be done.

Kisame thought he could stop the wheels that had been set in motion, but he was wrong. The Uchiha would not permit him to get close to her at all, for he looked and sounded unhinged himself. They would likely deem him as crazy. For what danger could Sakura possibly be in, with her one threat, the redhead, locked away?

Surely the rational thought process would be to point fingers at Eriko, he was the threat, afterall. And they had history. However, to speak of him would also connect Sakura to his father. Kisame wasn't daft enough to also endanger his father? And criminalize Sakura? For she knew of the steps he made to secure the Hoshigaki company from the Uchiha, of which they acquired as thanks to Sakura. Bribery in Australia was an offense of ten years. In Japan it was a year.

To criminalize him would cause a ripple effect of arrests to the people he cared about.

What a pity.

Eriko laughed within himself as he stood from his chair. "Well then, if you won't offer your hospitality I'll be on my way. Farewell, brother. Let me know if Kisame ever does take interest in running the family business."

It was all jest. Kisame would never pick up the mantle, despite how much his brother wanted it. If anything, the young lad would likely waste away with despair, once Sakura met her end. And that suited Eriko just fine. More than fine, actually. Sakura's punishment was as much hers as it was his. He wanted Kisami to waste away. He wanted for him to fall apart.

Who cared about Mineral Resources? It was his life that was ruined. And like Sakura, Kisami had to pay for his part in that. If it wasn't for him, he could have done a quiet settlement with all the bitches that chose to sue him. But no, Kisami's meddling made things significantly worse. Yes, he knew it was him who tapped him to the billboard all those months ago. Consequently, Eriko was now a walking joke. No one would hire him, be seen with him, or fuck him.

His nephew retaliated against him? His own family? And for what? A girl, feeble-minded and cunning? Well, he would have to pay too. Only, his punishment would be psychological. His brother would never forgive him if he caused bodily harm to his only son. But who could ever measure how much mental torture an idnvidual could endure?

Kisame loved her so much? Well, it made their collective demise all the more sweeter.

Sakura's POV

Tuesday

Her driver braked at the curb before Uchiha Enterprise, opened her door, and tipped his hat in goodbye to her as she existed the vehicle. Slowly, Sakura smoothed down her soft pink form-fitting dress, hoisted her leather bag on her shoulder, and gripped her work files close to her chest as she walked towards the entrance of UE. Black leathered heels, pointed-toed and expensive, walked a straight line upon asphalt, the white marbled lobby's floors, and to her carpeted office. Walking into her department, she immediatly noticed that her assistant wasn't present, an unusual occurrence, but didn't immediately question this uncharacteristic absence. Her mind was much too troubled to wonder about her staff.

Kana in particular was a good worker, Sakura didn't doubt she would have a good reason as to why she was late or absent when she would unquestionably check-in with her. For now, she had to focus on the tasks at hand.

Sakura spent her morning with her nose in reports and her computer busy. She ignored the stares that her hair warranted from passersby as she walked the halls to speak to Sai on relevant topics, and told Ino she was fine when she questioned her drastic hairstyle change and uncharacteristicly exhausted expression during their routine Tuesday meeting. Clearly, she wasn't fine. But the blonde didn't bother pushing the matter.

For this, Sakura was grateful. She didn't have the energy to lie elaborately. Or at all, for that matter.

Upon lunch hour she ordered in and ate at her desk, she was much too exhausted to deal with questions, prodding eyes, or speculation from the general public to eat anywhere else. Stabbing a fork in her salad she finally reached for her phone and noticed a notification from Leafbook that she clearly overlooked from the weekend. Thinking back on it, Sakura realized that she hadn't bothered checking her social media for the last few days. Not that she usually had anything to look at since she had such few friends. But still, it was a habit (even she liked a good meme).

Opening the social media app, she noticed the friend notification in bright green blazing upon the top right corner of her phone.

Naruto Uzimaki sent a friend request.

She hesitated before accepting his request, knowing that it'd been years since they talked but not finding it in her to be truly suspicious of his out of the blue desire to reconnect. They were both prominent people in Tokyo, they were bound to speak or connect again at some point.

She accepted his virtual friend request.

After looking through social for a few minutes, she moved to put her phone down and finish her lunch to suddenly hear the "ping" of her messenger app.

"SAKURA-CHAN! LONG TIME NO SEE."

For the first time in days she smiled. Sakura could nearly hear his raspy voice speaking boisterously within her office through his message.

She leaned back within her chair and messaged back, "Whose fault is that?" It was meant to be playful, but the moment she sent her message she wondered if she sounded moody, or mean. Tone was hard to dictate via messenger.

Her worries seemed to be for naught because he sent her a puppy dog gif, "Forgive me?"

She snorted and sent an emoji winky face. "Always."

"Ne, Sakura-chan, do you have time to meet up? Maybe tonight?"

She bit her lip, understanding that it wasn't strange to see old friends. But worried how Itachi would perceive her sudden desire to see an old male friend.

The last two days he'd become controlling. Choosing her clothes for her, making her see a stylist to fix her hair, and tell her how she would act around people so as to not embarrass him.

He hadn't exactly threatened her with harm. But he was stifling in a manner that she wasn't quite sure how to deal with.

Itachi would not be pleased if she spent time with Naruto, she knew that. But, if it was an old reunion amongst multiple old friends...

"I will if you invite Sasuke."

She's counting on Sasuke to say no.

While she's heard from Fugaku that he's changed for the better, she knows that the man-child wouldn't suddenly give up on hating her. He's detested her for too long to suddenly stop doing that. But if Itachi decides to check her phone, which he hasn't started doing but she wouldn't put it past him to start, she has proof that this hangout wasn't meant to be a one on one. It was meant to be a small reniune and Sasuke bailed on them. That's not so hard to believe.

Sasuke would never agree to willingly spend time with her. Hell, he hated her so much he wouldn't even come to her and Itachi's wedding. You'd think he'd be respectful enough to attend his own brother's wedding, at least. Apparently this was a task to grand for Sir Sasuke Uchiha.

He wouldn't come.

He'd never come tonight.

And she'd get to finally spend time with an old friend that wasn't related to Uchiha Enterprise or any of the madness that was associated with her current crazy life.

Sasuke's POV
He drank his water awkwardly, just as Sakura was doing with her glass of wine, sitting opposite of him at their table and with Naruto beside her. Her eyes were wide and downcast, fingers pressed firmly on her small wine glass stem. She hadn't looked him in the eye even once since she sat down. And besides saying hello, she hadn't said a word to him either. Nearly ten minutes had passed since she arrived.

It was hard to not take it personally.

"So, uh, we're all together again!" Naruto said, his face beaming despite the tension in the air. "Yep," Sakura said with a nod. Sasuke didn't bother responding. He felt worried that he would say the wrong thing. He hadn't considered that saying nothing was just as bad.

"Um, here's your appetizer!"

A waitress placed a cheese plate between the three old friends and left with a swiftness. Sasuke frowned. Wasn't she supposed to take their dinner order?

Or maybe she assumed this was a short outing for the trio? To be fair, he wasn't sure if it wasn't. He mentally gave the waitress some slack and stared at his glass of water with a deep frown.

"Sooooooooooooo, it's kinda crazy how long it's been, huh?" Naruto began weakly. "Nearly a decade for us to finally reconnect. You'd think one of us would have done it sooner. Sakura-chan, kind of funny that stick-in-the-mud over there was the one to get on it, huh?"

Sasuke felt his hands sweat.

Sakura blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Oh, you know, Sasuke called me out of the blue one day and told me what was up. Kind of crazy to think this all got out of hand because we were immature teens. Or maybe both of your dads are the ones to blame?" "Sasuke reached out to you? He told you about the-" She didn't finish her sentence.

Naruto shrugged, "Well yea. That's what I just said, silly." He reached for a knife and a small slice of bread.

"But, weren't you both speaking this entire time?"

Naruto laughed as he smeared soft brie onto the slice of bread in his hand.

Sasuke tried to control his urge to order a drink. He picked quite the time to become sober, he thought to himself.

"No, we got in a fight not too long after you two started being weird. Like I said, immaturity got the best of us." "So, you just reconnected?" She asked slowly. "Yes, Sakura." Sasuke's voice was tight with anxiety, he was aware that he sounded annoyed. He felt his foot tap beneath the table.

I can't fuck up. Stop being so uptight. He mentally chastised himself.

"Yea, ok, it was not that long ago, actually. Anyway, I'm glad you asked me to bring along this dobe, Sakura-chan. I think it'd be good for us to all take steps to being friends again. I mean, Sasuke feels it too, don't you? Otherwise you wouldn't be here."

Sakura's eyes shifted side to side. He couldn't read her, but she didn't deny that she asked Naruto to invite him tonight. He felt his shoulders unwind slightly.

He thought Naruto was mistaken when he got the call during lunch. And this was only heightened when he arrived and saw Sakura's shocked expression.

She wanted him here.

Question was, how did she feel about him actually arriving.

Slowly, her gaze rose from the table and pierced him into his seat. With her long hair gone, her emerald eyes seemed impossibly large. He felt exposed under her intense gaze.

"You want to be here?" She asked him, seemingly unsure. He chewed inside his cheek, "I'm here." He stated. He almost asked her if she wanted to be here.

"Yes, but… You hate me."

"I don't hate you. I never have."

She furrowed her brow and he felt his heart squeeze with anxiety.

He wasn't surprised that she was confused. After all, clearly, he acted and told her that he hated her regularly.

But that wasn't the truth. Not by a long shot.

"Look, I was just projecting. I was a stupid teenager with deep insecurities and pent up anger issues. I-I don't hate you. I never have." He cleared his throat and sipped his water. He was embarrassed by how much his hands shook as he hungrily gulped his drink. Once he was done, he carefully placed his glass back onto the table.

"But all these years-"

"I hated myself and projected it onto you, okay?"

The table was quiet for a moment.

Naruto poured him and Sakura more wine with a worried knit to his brow. "Great year, am I right, Sakura?" He began, referring to the wine, feasibly attempting to change the topic.

Obviously, it didn't work.

"Sasuke, that's not enough of an explanation. Why did you treat me so terribly for so long? Maybe I can understand projecting. But, why did I have to be the tail end of it? I didn't deserve it." "You were an easy target. Someone who wouldn't fight back. Someone who wouldn't disappear. We were bound to each other… At least back then."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" Her eyes whelmed with bitter and angry tears.

"No. It was wrong, selfish, idiotic, and immature of me." He sucked in a deep breath from his mouth and wiped his face with his hand. He was quiet for a moment, thinking about all that he had done to Sakura over the years, belittling her in every conceivable way. If he were her, he'd never forgive him. But, he had to try to make amends.

He had to try to explain himself.

"Look, I'm not good at this apologizing stuff. I'm in therapy, okay? I'm trying to understand my actions. I don't have the right words, and even if I did it wouldn't make anything I did right."

He had to make amends. Because Sakura was someone who was always precious to him. And despite fucking everything up, he had to help her understand how much he regretted his actions.

He suddenly edged out of his seat and stood upright, then got to his knees. "Sakura Har-Uchiha," he corrected himself, "please forgive me for my behavior in the past. I'll be better moving forward. As a friend… And as a brother-in-law."

He bent forward, his nose nearly touching the dirty wooden floor.

His eyes were squeezed shut so tightly that he could only see stars behind his eyes. But he heard Sakura move from her own seat and felt her hand on his shoulder. Slowly, he rights himself, his eyes too scared to open.

"Sasuke, we all make mistakes. Who am I to deny you a second chance?" She leans forward and hugs him.

It's more than what he deserves, and he knows it. He had been a living hell to work with, to be engaged with,and to even be associated with.

But Sakura… She somehow forgave him?

He was grateful, and confused.

He held onto her tightly anyway. Because for a moment, he felt like he wasn't the fuckup that he knew he was.

He tried not to think about how his eyes stung, or how his throat tightened. Sniffing once, he simply thanked God, or whatever entity that existed for this second chance with his childhood friend.

If nothing in his life worked out beyond this night, he wouldn't complain.

He mentally swore it.

Authors Note:

Sorry for any grammatical errors I may have missed, y'all! I wrote and edited this chapter on my phone (my laptop is temporarily out of commission). As always, I appreciate your support and reviews! Sending love and light to everyone. I also hope you're all staying sage during these troubling times.❤