TiMER
theeflowerchild
chapter 4
Karin is four years older than Sakura, but sometimes it feels like it might as well be a lifetime.
She's a kind of pretty Sakura just isn't yet. Her professionally dyed, fire-engine red hair is flawless and beautifully blown out. She wears daringly short skirts and has breasts Sakura only dreams about; Sakura is still an A-cup, and she feels like she'll always be one. Karin is curvy and petite where Sakura is slim and tall. Karin has a jaw that can cut diamonds; Sakura has baby fat.
Still, it's Karin that swoons over her. "You're just so cute," she gushes, leaning against the locker next to her's.
Sakura blushes. "Thank you."
"To be fifteen again," she whines, twirling her hair around a perfectly manicured finger. "I wish I still had your legs."
Sakura snorts. "I wish I had yours."
"Enjoy the skinny," Karin teases. "You still don't have to worry about your ass when you buy jeans."
"Let's trade," she bites, slamming her locker shut. They both begin their slow menader towards their classes. "Can you do my makeup?"
Karin shrugs. "Your skin is flawless, but sure."
Sakura wants to roll her eyes, and press down on the painful pimple she feels forming on her forehead. "Thanks."
"Have you thought about cutting your hair?" she asks, and starts running her hands through Sakura's long, pink hair. "You'd look cute with a bob."
"I love my hair," she admits, biting her bottom lip.
"Might make you look a little older." Karin winks, her pretty pink lips curling into a charming smile.
Sakura's eyes twinkle. "You think?"
"Sure," she says. "I could do it for you."
"I don't know…" she trails off. "Have you ever cut someone's hair?"
"I cut my own," she says, and flips her chest length hair over her shoulder. "Well, Ino helps."
Sakura nods. "Can she help me?"
"Of course!" Karin cheers. "Ino would love you."
Ino, beautiful and blonde; if the puberty train hasn't even made a stop at Sakura, it ran down Ino years ago. She's curvy, all sleek ponytails and immaculate, skin-tight dresses. Sakura is embarrassed when she wears her heel boots in the hallways, like she's playing dress up; Ino wears stilettos without a blush.
When Sakura grows up, she wants to be them.
"Does Ino have her TiMER?"
"What?" Karin, distracted by her phone, raises an eyebrow.
"Does Ino have a soulmate?" she asks again.
"Oh, no," she says, and then grins when her phone goes off. "Ino says she'll do it! You'll come over tonight? Do your parents care if I drive?"
Sakura shrugs. "I don't think so. I'll text them."
"I'm so excited!" she squeals, and wraps Sakura in a hug. "You're gonna look so cool!"
They're interrupted by the warning bell.
"God, if I'm late to chem again, Mr. Sarutobi will kill me," she grumbles. "I'll meet you at your locker after ninth?"
Sakura grins. "Sounds good. Can't wait."
She gets to her math class right on time, with an uneasy smile and her fingers twitching to braid her hair.
"Oh god, she's adorable," Ino raves to Karin, fingers in Sakura's hair. "Your hair is like, basically, pink. I'm obsessed. How old are you?"
"Fifteen," she supplies, embarrassed.
"I wish I was this cute when I was fifteen." She pulls Sakura's hair into a low ponytail, and Sakura gets a clear view of her TiMER: two years, three days, six hours, five minutes and four, three, two... "Thank you for letting me do this. Karin would never let me cut her hair this short."
"I let you give me layers," she reminds her.
"You love them," Ino says. She has scissors like Sakura has seen at a hairdresser, and she's snipping them expectantly. "Shoulder length?"
Sakura shrugs. She says, "whatever," trying not to seem as nervous as she actually is.
"Here goes nothing!" Ino cheers, and Sakura winces, eyes closed, and then suddenly there's a foot of hair on the floor.
Pink hair.
Her hair.
Ino squeals, pulling out the hair tie that kept her hair back and even. "It already looks amazing! I'm so excited!" she squeals, and then she's at work, snipping tiny hairs and making her hair all one length, and choppy, and with a fashionable messiness that Sakura didn't realize she could achieve.
All said and done, Sakura kind of loves it. It's different. It makes her chin look a little pointier, it shows her jaw a little more, it makes her neck look a little longer, and she looks a little older. And she loves that more than anything.
"Do you think…" she trails off, finally, playing with the blunt edges. "Do you think Sasuke will notice?"
"How can he miss it?" Karin asks. "You look hot!"
Ino, hands on her hips, proudly agrees with a nod, ponytail swinging. "It's awesome, if I do say so myself."
"Thank you, Ino," she whispers. She stands up and pink hair falls out of her lap. She brings the older girl into a hug that she returns readily. "You're amazing."
"Karin needs to bring you around more," she says, squeezing her. "You're like, literally, the cutest."
Sakura doesn't know how she ends up gossiping with two of the most beautiful, hilarious, strongest girls she's ever met, but Karin doesn't drive her home for another two hours. Her brother's ugly car is in the driveway, and so is Sasuke's brand new, typically black lease and suddenly, she's more nervous than she thought she could be.
Karin releases her with a hug and a wave. "Go get 'em, girl!"
Sakura blushes hot. "I'll see you later."
"Text me!" she sings, and speeds off, windows down and Top 40's blaring.
Sakura makes her way to the door slowly, fiddling with her backpack. Her mom had been excited over the phone about her hair change, but the boys have no idea. They're likely sitting right there in the living room, unable to miss her, fighting over a controller or falling asleep on top of their political science textbooks. Sakura has the stealth of an elephant and there's no avoiding Sasuke and her rash decision.
She unlocks her front door and already hears them bickering. She sees the stairs like a beacon of freedom, but she can't get to them without passing the damn living room. Dejectedly, she drops her backpack and succumbs to her fate.
"Yo, Sakura!" Naruto calls. "Come here, tell me which one of us is…" Naruto trails off, shock passing over his face when she enters.
Sakura carefully twirls her hair around her fingers, nails stubby and bitten. "Which one of you is what?"
Sasuke looks up to greet Sakura, only to freeze as well. She thinks she even sees his cheeks dust pink. "Woah."
"Your hair looks cool, Sakura!" Naruto cheers, grinning, always the supportive brother. "Mom said something about it, but you look more awesome than I thought!"
"Thanks, Naruto." She smiles. Sasuke still hasn't said anything. She waits for a moment, and he still doesn't say anything. She takes a step backward, heart clenching when he looks down at his feet.
He hates it. She just knows it.
"Anyway, uh, what were you gonna ask?" she whispers, trying to stop her voice from cracking. She feels her lower lip tremble, so she bites it, hard.
"Oh, which one of us is taller?" Naruto's grin turns sheepish, hand scratching the back of his head, like he always does when he's feeling particularly awkward.
Sakura rolls her eyes and snorts. "Sasuke, obviously," she says, and while Naruto is whining, Sasuke is just… staring at her. And saying nothing.
She stares right back, and when he still says nothing, she allows herself to frown. "I'm gonna go up and start my homework," she whispers. "I'll see you guys later."
She runs up the stairs, without her backpack, and hears her brother call her soulmate a stupid idiot. She can't bring herself to disagree.
Sakura has her music on so loud and the song she chooses is so angry that she barely hears the knock at the door. When she throws open the bedroom door, Sasuke is standing there, hands deep in his pockets, a frown on his face and a fresh blush on his cheeks. Even uncomfortable he looks handsome and it makes Sakura's stomach twist.
"I'm sorry," he says, when Sakura realizes she's just been staring at him since she opened the door. "I like your hair."
She frowns. "You don't have to—"
"But I do!" he argues, and then he sighs. "I mean it. I'm just… bad at this. I'm sorry."
Her eyebrows furrow. "Bad at what?"
"At," and then he points between the both of them, for an effect Sakura still doesn't quite understand, "this."
"At… talking to people?" she asks with a raised eyebrow.
It makes him frown so quickly that she almost laughs at how offended he looks. Still, he admits, "I guess so."
"I…" she trails off, and then her cheeks get very hot. "I thought it'd make me look older."
His eyebrows knit in confusion. "Why do you want to look older?"
Sakura is torn between a look of incredulousness and embarrassment. "Well, I mean, because—"
He interrupts her with a soft, "oh," and then, before she can say anything else, he's hugging her.
Sasuke smells amazing. He smells like a man; he smells clean and his chest is hard, and he's very warm. She inhales deeply, and before she can be awkward, she lets herself enjoy the embrace of her soulmate.
"Sakura," he finally says. "Please don't rush this. We have our entire lifetimes. I don't want you to be older. I want you to be a kid."
"W-What?" she stammers. She takes a staggering step away from him, pushing out of his arms. "You don't… want me?"
He's shaking his head as fast as he can. "No, that's not—that is not what I meant! See? I'm not good at this! I just mean, I mean, there's no rush to grow up. Please don't rush yourself for me. I want you to enjoy everything like you're supposed to," he says. "You deserve it. I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like I wish you weren't exactly as you are."
Her look of hurt morphs into something soft. She closes the space between them again, and squeezes one of his hands. "I don't want you to think I'm a baby."
"I don't," he assures her. "But I do think you're a teenager, and you should enjoy that. I got to. Just because your soulmate is old—"
She's frowning again. "You're not that much older than me."
"You're right," he concedes, if only a little. "I still want you to be happy. And I love your hair." He tugs it gently, and it makes her blush. "But not because it makes you look older. You look beautiful."
"You think so?" she asks quietly.
"You're beautiful, Sakura," he reminds her, but then he ruffles her hair and Sakura swats him away. "Promise me you won't rush this."
She frowns, and grumbles, and he takes that as much of a promise he'll ever get from her. Then, she's pushing him out of her room and telling him to go fight her brother, or whatever it is they do. She gently shuts the door behind him and changes the music to a song she can dance to.
She swears she hears Sasuke laughing before she hears him descend the stairs back to Naruto.
