Chapter 3: Cookie time!

The next morning...

Kakashi appeared. "I think that it is about time that you all returned home. We will continue training tomorrow. You have the rest of the day off."

"Yeah!!!" Naruto jumped up and down with excitement and punched his fist in the air.

"What are you so excited about?" His sensei questioned him.

Naruto tried to hold back his grin, but he failed to do so. "Cuz Sasuke is going to buy me ramen!"

Kakashi and Sakura both looked shocked. It was hard to believe that Sasuke, Naruto's biggest rival, was actually planning to buy Naruto some ramen. Sakura looked at Sasuke. "Is that true, Sasuke-kun? Are you actually going to treat him some ramen?" Sasuke nodded without looking at either one of them. Sakura just stood there with her eyes wide open.

"Why?"

"That doesn't concern you." Sasuke looked at Sakura through the corners of his eyes.

That was a cue for Sakura to back off and stop talking about the subject. So she let the topic rest. She looked at Naruto, who was still jumping up and down with a goofy smile on his face and wondered again why Sasuke has been acting so strange lately.

"Lets go." Kakashi said, reading his book. And they all returned to the village.

Sasuke opened the door to his apartment and threw his bag in a corner. He wanted to go home before going to the ramen bar with Naruto. Naruto however was too impatient, so Sasuke just gave him some money so that he could go by himself.

Now that he was finally home, he wanted to take a long bath and let his muscles rest for a bit. He let the tub fill up with water and took off his clothes.

The water felt so nice. At long last he could relax. That Kakashi really knows how to ware a person out. He closed his eyes and an image of Sakura appeared in his head. He quickly opened his eyes and sat up straight. "No not this again. Why can't I get her out of my head? Is Naruto right? Do I really love her? But how? She is just an annoying little girl, just like the others. She doesn't really care about me."

Sasuke continued pondering about this for a while and when his fingers were all wrinkly he got out of the tub. "It doesn't matter anyway, not until I get my revenge."

He put on some fresh clothes and decided to do some training to get his mind off of Sakura. There was a knock on the door. Sasuke walked over to it and opened the door. It was none other than Sakura. Sasuke was surprised to see her. "What are you doing here?" He asked with his normal expression.

"Uhh... When I got home I saw that my mother had made some cookies and I decided to bring you some." Sasuke looked at her and saw that she was indeed holding a box with cookies in it. He sighed and told her to come in. When Sakura walked passed him, he could smell the scent of cherry blossoms, which was his favourite flower. He closed his eyes for a second and closed the door.

Sakura went to sit on the couch. Sasuke could see that she was blushing like crazy. She had never been inside his house before. To Sakura's surprise everything was neat and clean.

Sasuke jumped on his bed, which was in the same room (there is only one room and a bathroom), and lay on his back with his arms under his head. He stared at the ceiling. His eyes slowly went over to where Sakura was sitting.

"Do you want some tea?" He asked her. Sakura looked up. "Uhh... Yes if it's not too much trouble."

Sasuke got up and walked over to the corner where the kitchen was. Sakura glanced through the entire room and stopped when she saw the picture of team 7 on the counter. She smiled. She then thought of Ino. "Hehehe, she is going to be so jealous when I tell her that I was in Sasuke's apartment." She smiled even more.

"Tea is ready." Sasuke signalled Sakura to come over to the bar. She went to sit on a stool and placed the cookies on the bar. Sasuke brought the tea to where she was sitting and went to sit next to her. They quietly ate the cookies and drank their tea. Even though it was very silent, Sakura was having the time of her life.

Sakura reached down to grab the last cookie, but at the same time so did Sasuke. Their hands bumped into each other and they quickly withdrew them out of the box. Sakura blushed.

She eventually grabbed the cookie. "Uhh... Here. Take it, you can have it." She looked at Sasuke, who was looking down with what seemed to be a blush on his cheeks.

"No, no, eat it. Your mother made them." He looked into her eyes and promptly looked down again.

"Yeah but..."

"Just eat it. It's just one cookie." Sasuke insisted.

Sakura looked away. She had a dissatisfied expression. She came up with an idea. "How about we split it?"

Sasuke looked up and vaguely smiled. "Sure. Why not?"

Sakura broke it in half and give one half to Sasuke. When they both finished eating, Sakura got up and was ready to leave. She said her goodbyes and walked towards the door.

Sasuke watched her leave. "Oh, Sakura." Sakura turned around, standing halfway in the door opening. "Thank you." She smiled and said: "Anytime." She closed the door behind her.

Sasuke smiled. He blinked and snapped back to reality. He walked over to the balcony and leaned on the railing. He looked down at the people on the street. It was very busy. He spotted a pink-haired girl in the midst of the crowd, walking away from his apartment building. He kept staring at her.

He then saw a yellow-haired boy walking towards her. "Sakura-chan! How is it going? What?! You just brought Sasuke bastard some cookies and not me?!" Sasuke laughed a bit. "Stupid Naruto. He needs to learn how to speak softer." They walked away and his eyes followed them until he could not see them anymore.

He went outside to go train. When he got on the street he bumped into Anko. "Ah, sorry Anko-sensei."

"That's ok Sasuke. Where are you going?" She asked.

"Train in the woods." He had his hands in his pockets and gazed in the direction that he was gonna go to train.

Anko looked at the cursed seal that Sasuke unknowingly had exposed by turning his head. She remembered her own seal and thought about something Orochimaru said in the past to her.

"You know Sasuke..." Sasuke turned his head to face the sensei, who was speaking to him. "There is a way to get rid of that seal."

Sasuke was surprised to hear her say that all of a sudden. "What?"
"Orochimaru once told me something about a way to get rid off the seal." She stared at him with a serious face. Sasuke looked at her, waiting to hear from her the way to wipe out this annoying seal.

"The cursed seal will go away once you find your true love."

Sasuke looked shocked. He didn't even know there was a way and now that he does he doesn't know if he liked the method. He hasn't even decided yet if he wanted the cursed seal to go away, since it gave him power.

"Well, I've got to run. We'll talk later. Bye." Anko rushed off and left a disturbed boy behind.

"True love..."