Disclaimer: Naruto characters belong to Kishimoto Masashi.

Summary: Sakura is a poor factory girl, while Sasuke is the son of Mr Uchiha, a wealthy entrepreneur. Naruto is a delivery boy, while Ino is the consecutive designer of Uchiha Shopping Co. (Yes, this is an Alternate Universe!)

A/N: Out of curiosity, do you read from chapter one of my story or other stories when a story has many chapters already? Sometimes I click a few chapters ahead because I don't have the time and other times I prefer to skim read. Although there are some fics I like reading, they are also the ones, which has many reviews. Their story has truly earned its worth… =P

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed previously (shout outs):

# Esachasa (thanx for reviewing, I loved your lil rabbit .)

# Shy-lil-dreamer (who else has red hair?)

# Blink blink (thanx 4 coming back)

# Gromph (Yo, thanx 4 reading =P)

# Renn (aww… everyone has ups and downs -_-)

# Kitsune224 (hi, I updated!)

# Fruit-tea1 (hugs, thank you for reading this fic from the start ^-^)

~***Loving You From Afar***~

Chapter Nine

Sakura carried Naruto's tardily wrapped gift and placed it on her dressing table. She took a shower and went to bed early because she had to pick Kono up from the hospital the next day. She lay on her bed with her eyes closed and was about to sleep when she remembered Naruto's gift. She walked towards the table and switched on the small lamp. She unfolded the pink wrapping carefully so that the gift would not be damaged.

When the wrapping was removed a mahogany music box was revealed. She turned the small handle a few times before sweet music floated in her ears. The tune was canon and she thought it sounded great. She realised the box had a lid so she opened it and out popped a pink glass dancer. The little figure reflected elegantly on her glass floor. The gift was beautiful!

She soon forgot about her necklace, which was lying on the bathroom table. She turned the handle several times so that the tune could be played until she was asleep.

~*~

Sasuke was staring at his ceiling and smiling happily about the day's events. It seemed like he made a breakthrough with his relationship to Sakura. He remembered her sweet smile that melted his heart. Suddenly his precious thoughts were distracted by a phone call.

"Hello?" asked Sasuke as he listened to some bad news.

"I understand, I will be there shortly," replied Sasuke

He took out his car keys and drove to a hospital.

~*~

Naruto wondered what Sakura's reaction would be towards his music box. He sighed; it had taken him a whole day to search for the gift. It may not worth much but he thought the glass dancer reminded him a lot like Sakura. They both looked liked fragile glass angels…

He decided that a few beers would get him to sleep easier. He realised he had ran out of beers in his fridge so he decided to go to a bar. He drove his van to a bar that he would often go to with Shikamaru. But tonight there was no Shika and he hoped Shika had gotten over about his broken gift.

When he arrived at the bar he was shocked to see his boss. Kakashi was arguing with a woman with voluptuous breasts. She looked like a whore dressed in a mini skirt with a low cut top. The next minute shocked Naruto, the woman slapped Kakashi after ranting some swears. Kakashi had had enough of the lunatic woman so he punched her in the face… (D- Go Kakashi!)

"Kakashi that is no way to treat a woman!" cut in Naruto.

"She's not a woman, she's a trans-sexual!" explained Kakashi.

"Gwah she's hot though!" said Naruto with big popping eyes and added, "Why are you so cross with her, I mean him/her?"

"He sold my house to have his surgery…" said Kakashi.

"Ahem, our house in which I paid for too," cut in Kurenai.

"I can't believe I agreed to be your flatmate in the first place!" yelled Kakashi angrily.

"I gave you back half the money and I'm leaving! Good bye forever!" shouted Kurenai as she took off with an Aussie man.

"Great! Naruto…"

"Yes?"

"Would you happen to have a place for me to live?"

"Sofa?"

"Better than nothing."

"Omg… Kakashi are you gay?"

"G-A-Y? I'm 100% straight it's just I'm against transsexual's."

"Me too!"

When Kakashi arrived at Naruto's small unit with his luggage. He whined, "How small is this place? My house was triple the size of this, excluding the front and back yard!"

"Maybe you'd like to find yourself another place," said Naruto with gritted teeth.

"Oh I will! Give me a few days before I find a house. I do have a friend, Iruka my friend since childhood but then he married Anko another friend. I knew them too were meant for each other and now they have a few kids…" said Kakashi.

"Kakashi?"

"Yes?"

"I'm not interested in your private life so if you'd excuse me I'm going to sleep in my room. You can help yourself with that couch over there," ordered Naruto.

~*~

Sasuke looked at the sleeping figure lying on the hospital bed.

"How is he?" asked Sasuke.

"He's in critical condition right now and it's up to his will to survive tonight," replied a doctor.

"You must save him!" yelled Sasuke.

"His head was heavily wounded and we've stopped the bleeding already," said the doctor and added, "Even if he does survive there may be some future implications…"

Sasuke told the doctor to leave because he did not want to hear anymore.

Sasuke asked the assistant to clear up what had happened. The employee told Sasuke about the incident thoroughly while Sasuke's fist clenched.

"You may leave now, I'll deal with the rest!" exclaimed Sasuke.

~*~

Sakura signed Kono out of the hospital and told him to stay home.

"Onee-chan, I want to go to school!" said Kono.

"But you…" trailed Sakura.

"I'll be alone at home," said Kono with his head down, "besides I want to see my friends and catch up with school work."

"OK, we'll go home so that you can change," declared Sakura.

When Sakura escorted her brother to school she came to work to realise Sasuke was not coming.

"He has some errands he must attend to apparently," said a co-worker.

That afternoon Sakura gazed at the walls wondering blindly at what might have happened. She shook her head and realised she could go home early. She decided to go pick Kono up as a surprise.

~*~

Sakura waited patiently for Kono to finish school and finally he came out. A head down Kono holding a sheet of paper with a grimace look as he stared ahead came into sight.

"Kono-chan, is your Mum and Dad going to come to the weekend holiday?" asked a friend.

"Haha, I'm not going to such dumb things!" lied Kono scratching his head.

"Really? I was hoping that you'd go," sighed the friend.

Kono looked up to see his sister, "Onee-chan, what are…"

"We're going to that trip!" declared Sakura and added, "It's about time we went on a holiday."

"But it's a Mum and Dad…" trailed Kono.

"Oh we'll just bring Sasuke along," exclaimed Sakura.

"Ok," said Kono happily. He really wanted to go to the beach side along with his friends.

When they got home, Sakura rang Sasuke's mobile to ask him.

#Ring#Vibration#Ring#Vibration#

"Huh!" said a sleepy Sasuke who had woken up from a doze.

Sasuke answered the call with anger, "If this is about work forget it!"

"Sasuke I…" said Sakura timidly.

"Oh Sakura hi," replied Sasuke kindly.

"Sasuke I was wondering if we could go…" trailed Sakura before Sasuke cut in.

"I'm sorry Sakura, something came up," said Sasuke.

"Like what?" asked Sakura curiously.

"I don't want to talk about it, I'm tired. Could we talk some other time?" asked Sasuke.

"Ok," replied Sakura and then there was dude.

Sakura felt hurt that Sasuke didn't even bother saying 'bye'.

~*~

Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to bother Sasuke. Sakura did not know why but she found herself walking up to Naruto's door at nighttime.

KNOCK KNOCK

A man in boxers with white hair scratching his thighs met Sakura in her PJs. As she saw the sight of the man, "Sorry I must have got the wrong door."

A familiar voice shouted out, "Sakura is there something wrong?"

"Wow, your girlfriend lives so close. How convenient…" said Kakashi elbowing Naruto.

"Shut up Kakashi! How may I help you Sakura?" asked Naruto and added, "Get back in you pervert!"

Naruto slammed the door behind him and followed Sakura further down the corridor.

"Naruto, I was wondering if you could go on a weekend holiday with Kono and I," said Sakura.

"Of course!" agreed Naruto.

"Ok, that's all. Thank you. Good night," said Sakura before planting a kiss on Naruto's cheek. She gave him one last smile and went back into her unit.

"Yes!" Naruto exclaimed.

"You're done so quickly?" asked Kakashi.

"Omg Kakashi, I was wondering if I could take the weekend off," said Naruto.

"Nope," replied Kakashi bluntly.

"Fine!" Naruto said while picking up Kakashi's clothing and luggage.

"Hey! Ok you can take the weekend off!" took back Kakashi.

"YES!!!" cried Naruto.

~*~

Durian: It's not unusual for someone to kiss the cheek and hug their friends here (Australia). Oh ye, Kakashi or the rest of the characters may be a little out of order. I went to a Jap site that showed all of Naruto character's profile. Kurenai is like 172 cm tall so yea… Another note, remember my future plans it might be a mislead. If you guys knew what I'd write next it wouldn't be cool anymore. Yes, I do intend to add Gaara in this fic but it's moving slowly… (It may take a while -_-)

I hoped you liked this chapter and only for the next chapter I'm opened for ideas.

1) Beach activities.

2) Parent interaction

3) Naruto lying in the sun, what do you suppose his body should look?

4) Sakura in a bikini? Or one piece? -_-

5) Introduction of Kono's classmates (Akane- the one who steals Inari's dog. Inari, Udon and that girl forgot her name. If nobody can help me let's call her Meilin.)

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