Summary: Sasuke, a rock star, meets one of his fans as they were about to buy the same and last copy of a certain CD. Who says they can't fall in love since this is just one world after all. Completely AU. Mainly SasuSaku.

Pairings: SasuSaku, NaruHina, NejiTenten, ItachiNoOne, AnkoKaka

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and if I did, I would probably promote the pairings up there.

Just One World After All

Chapter Six – They Know

Sasuke sat down at one of the stools in the kitchen as he waited for Sakura to finish fixing up. His onyx eyes watched her every move, as she stooped down to get a metal bowl, as she reached into the cabinet to get a whisk, as she plugged all the appliances that they were going to use. He still didn't know why he had asked her to teach him how to bake. It's not like he needed an excuse, a good one at that, to see her. She was just another person in his eyes. However, she was just another person who didn't seem to care that he was a rock star. Rare enough to find someone like that, let alone a girl.

"Okay, ready!" said Sakura with a smile as she stepped aside to show him the clean and fixed workstation. His brow creased slightly as he looked at everything. "What do you want to bake today? Cookies? Muffins? A Cake?" Sasuke shrugged and left it all up to her to decide. He didn't care which he'd learn how to make, as long as he did. "Cake then," she said cheerfully as she walked over to him and forced him to stand. "Get an apron will you? There's one in the cabinet over there," said Sakura as she pointed to a wooden cabinet, "I'll just tie my hair tighter and pin my bangs." With that, the pink haired woman walked over to a section of the kitchen with a mirror, a brush and a few hair ties. It seemed to be a must to tie ones hair, if it was long that is.

Glancing over to the cabinet, he strode over to it and opened it. His eyes were greeted with a pink, a red, a purple, a yellow, and a teal apron. Staring harder, he tried to find something that wasn't a color that a girl would wear. Even if it was just plain white, he'd take it, for so long it was something a guy like him could wear! As he stared harder, a dark blue apron seemed to take shape at the far right of the cabinet. Stretching out his hand to grab it, he pulled at the blue material and out came an apron. A barely audible sigh of relief escaped him. At least there was a decent colored one in the entire cabinet.

"Okay?" asked Sakura as she faced him. Her hair was still neatly tied in a ponytail but this time, her bangs were pinned close to the rest of her hair, so it wouldn't fall. Sasuke blinked. He vaguely remembered seeing her hair like that when he went to Blossoms last. It must be something that every person with long hair should do. He nodded curtly as Sakura strode over to the same cabinet and pulled out the red apron. Ah, so it was hers. He couldn't imagine her using the apron with another color and the pink one just clashed with her hair. Not that he was someone who was very much into fashion but he still had enough taste to say the pink would clash with her hair, especially since they were almost the same pale shade.

"So...?" asked Sasuke as he pocketed his hands in his pants that were being covered by the blue cloth. Sakura, after tying her apron, walked over to a bookshelf and pulled out a book. Walking back towards him, she handed the book. "What?" asked Sasuke as he eyed the book, after taking it from her.

"Choose a recipe," she said as she motioned for him to do so, "It's your lesson. I'll just help you with the actual baking process." Sasuke shrugged then nodded as he flipped open the hard cover and began looking through the pages. Luckily, each page had a colored picture of how the cake was supposed to look like so it wouldn't be hard for him to choose which one might look and taste good at the end. Stopping at a page, he showed it to her and waited for her approval. "Ah, Chocolate Cake with Mocha Filling," she said, "Although the filling and the icing might take a while, the cake is all good."

Taking the book from him, Sakura set it down on a table, with the recipe facing the marble top, and she began collecting the ingredients. Sasuke just stood and watched her do her work. She looked different when she was in the kitchen. Not different in the bad sense. She looked happy as she worked in the kitchen. Although despite her happiness, Sasuke could see that there was something wrong with her. He wasn't in any position to ask her what it was so he didn't bother.

"Okay, everything is ready," said Sakura as she turned to face him, "Come on. Let's not waste time and get this cake all ready!" Sasuke shrugged and nodded, resisting the urge to tilt his lips upward, even slightly. There was just something about her that he couldn't help but like. Though it wasn't anything deeper than a friendship, still, there was just something about her. "What made you want to learn how to bake, Sasuke-kun?" asked Sakura as she watched him get a bowl and a wooden spoon and read the instructions before he began mixing the ingredients.

"To give me something to besides play the guitar and think of songs," he replied with the same stoic voice as ever. Pausing, he took a measuring cup and stared at the bag of flour. He knew there was a way to do this but... Sakura took it from him and dipped it in the bag of flour, grabbing quite a bit. Smoothing the top portion out with the smooth part of a butter knife, she gave it back to him. He softly said thanks and dumped the contents into a bowl. "Also gets me out of the house so I can see less of the bastard," said Sasuke mentally as he added a couple more ingredients into the bowl filled with flour. The book had said to mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet in another, and then slowly incorporate the mixed dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.

"Ah, I see," said Sakura with a slight smile, "It must be tiring to do the same things all over again, day in and day out, mustn't it?" Sasuke looked at her and slowly nodded as he concentrated on making the chocolaty batter that would be the cake itself. There would be two cakes and the mocha filling would be sandwiched in between. Then, there would be chocolate fudge icing to cover the entire thing, finishing it off. It looked good in the picture, since it was a picture of a sliced cake where you could see the layer of cake, a layer of the mocha filling and the last layer.

Minutes ticked by and Sasuke was doing a decent job, for his first lesson. Then again, Sakura was there, giving him instructions, clearer ones anyway, on how to do things. Sasuke actually felt good at this time, actually receiving praise every once in a while. Always, it was his brother receiving praise. Always, he was being compared to his brother. Never once did he hear his father utter words of praise directed at him. Always for the son who would truly follow the path that they wanted the both of them to take. Never for the one who still brings pride to the family, however, in a different manner.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Mall

Hinata looked around at the different shops somewhat calling her to go in them. If she were with Sakura, she would have asked her best friend to go in with her but she wasn't with Sakura. She was with Naruto. And besides that, there were girls looking at her every so often, mostly glaring daggers at her because she was walking with –the- Uzumaki Naruto. It caused her to be more nervous than usual. She didn't deserve the spiteful looks being sent towards her, she was just Hinata and she was too kind to even think of asking someone to do something, even something so simple, for her.

"What's wrong, Hinata?" asked Naruto as he looked at her, a slight look of concern passing through his face. He didn't like it when his friends were feeling uneasy. Well, his friends not in the band anyway. Sasuke, Neji and Itachi could handle themselves and besides, they had the same status as Naruto so it was different. When he hung out with people who weren't quite as famous and more especially if it was a girl, they were always so nervous and jittery.

"Nothing, Naruto-kun," said Hinata softly, forcing a smile. Naruto raised a quizzical eyebrow as he looked at her once more. She was always like that, jittery and nervous, but it seemed that she was more nervous than usual today. Naruto slowly nodded as he looked straight ahead. It was ten-thirty already and in thirty minutes, they could have lunch already or at least start thinking about where to have lunch.

"Hey, Hinata, do you want to buy a new outfit, shirt, pants or skit, shoes, everything! My treat since you bake so well!" said Naruto happily as he faced the white-eyed girl. Hinata's eyes widened as she heard his offer. He was so generous, offering to buy a full outfit for her. She declined politely, thanking him anyway for the kind offer. "I'll buy one for you anyway! Come on!" said Naruto cheerfully as he took hold of her wrist and dragged her to a shop, one of the most expensive in the entire mall. Hinata blushed as his hand made contact with her wrist, following him anyway. Naruto wouldn't take no for an answer for this particular offer.

As they walked in the store, a swarm of attendants surrounded Naruto, forcing Hinata to stand behind them and watch helplessly. Groaning in slight annoyance, Naruto pushed his way out of the tiny crowd of attendants and over to Hinata. Putting a hand on her shoulder, he spoke. "Not for me, for her," he said with a slight smile, "She's my friend so please help her out as you would me." The attendants nodded as they asked Hinata what she'd like to look at first.

Hinata looked helplessly at Naruto who just shooed her into the store and told her to have fun shopping. Sighing in defeat, she walked over to the shirts and began looking at them. Like the same color as her current shirt, she looked at the purple ones. They were all so pretty. There was one that was plain on the upper portion but when you looked near the hem, there was a spiky pattern that reached until her midriff, all covered in dark amethyst-colored rhinestones. Another was a dark plum colored shirt that had a cut from the middle of the left side that would cover her stomach and was diagonally cut until the right part that was just above her hip. Beneath that was a whole shirt that had a pale lavender color. On the plum portion that was directly above her chest, there was an amethyst-colored spiral pattern.

"Don't tell her how much it costs, the things she'll buy," said Naruto to the manager who was standing close by, "She'll just decline that I'll buy it for her." The manager nodded and went off to tell the attendant who was waiting on her. In this particular shop, they didn't have the price pinned onto the article. Each and every price was memorized by the attendant, that's why the pay was pretty high here, at least compared to the attendant's pay in other shops.

About an hour later, Hinata was standing in front of Naruto, blushing slightly. The attendant who was waiting on her was carrying a lavender colored shirt that had an amethyst dragon's tail poking out at the right side of the shirt, which snaked around the entire material, with its head resting on top of the portion that covered her left collar bone. She was also carrying a pair of black slacks. Slung over her right forearm was a triangular shawl that was plum-colored and in her hands was a silvery-colored box that held a pair of black square-toed stilettos which had a single strap to keep her foot in place.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun," said Hinata with a genuine smile as Naruto followed the attendant to where he would pay for it all. Naruto merely nodded and returned the smile as he took out his wallet and pulled out a plastic card. With the prices in here, it would take an extremely thick wallet to be able to pay for the things Hinata had chosen so it was more convenient to pay using a credit card. Anyway, he had more than enough to pay for this all. After all, he was a rock star.

"And the total is 200,000 yen," said the manager as he gave Naruto the tab. The blonde drummer nodded as he handed the attendant the gold colored piece of plastic. Naruto didn't want Hinata to know the price because she'd just make him take it all back and give it to someone else more deserving of that amount of money to be spent on her. As Naruto signed the paper with his sloppy handwriting, which the manager didn't seem to mind, the attendant had packed the things chosen and left it on the table. "Okay, thank you very much, Uzumaki-san," said the manager as he gave Naruto his copy of the paper he had signed, "We hope you'll shop again here." Naruto nodded as he picked up the two fairly large paper bags that held Hinata's things.

"Here you go, Hinata," said Naruto cheerfully as he held the bags tightly and directed her out of the shop, "Let's go back to the car and let's have lunch at this Italian restaurant I think you'll enjoy." Hinata blushed slightly as he smiled at her. Seeing the faint reddish tinge on her cheeks, the rock star slightly blushed too. Hinata just looked so pretty with a faint blush on her cheeks. With that, the pair began walking towards the parking lot and then they'd go to that restaurant he was talking about.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At Blossoms

"So why don't you just let it out of your system," said Sasuke impassively as he stirred the batter the way Sakura had shown him to, "After all, it is your life and your decision. What people think shouldn't be the reason why you'll inch for the no when you know you want to do it." Sakura shrugged slightly as she watched him stir. She didn't know why she told him, but she did anyway. Maybe, because there was just something about him that made her feel she could talk about anything, and perhaps, even trust him, despite knowing each other for such a short time.

"Because! It's so hard to leave! Blossoms has been doing well for the past three years and it's hard to just leave without any preparations," said Sakura stubbornly as she continued eyeing Sasuke whisk the batter. "If I'm going to leave, it'll be next year and it's too soon! In a few days, it'll already be autumn." She furrowed her brow as she continued to watch him whisk.

"Your choice, I never said you had to," he replied passively as he stopped whisking. Turning to face her, he dropped his grip on the metal handle. "What now?" he asked as he looked at her. The cake pans were ready and he didn't know if there was an exact way to pour the batter into them. Taking the bowl from him, she took a rubber spatula and began to move the batter into the metal pan. Looking at him, she mentally asked if he understood. "Okay," he said as he took the rubber spatula and the bowl from her.

It was quiet as they continued with the lesson. Every once in a while, Sasuke had to stop since his right arm was numbing considerably with all the whisking he had to do. Even if Sakura took over the whisking while he rested, it was still pretty painful. With even the slightest motion, the pangs of doing the same stirring motion again and again coursed through his arm. However, he was allowed to have a spoonful of the mocha filling, which was extremely good. Not too sweet but not too bland either.

The fudge icing was done in the same manner, except, of course, it was just chocolate. It had a thick consistency and, of course, was very chocolaty. It was the same fudge icing as the Chocolate Fudge Cake and they were both almost the same cake, except this one was double in size and had a filling in between the two cakes. Soon, the cakes were baked and Sakura took them out to cool as Sasuke kept the fudge icing and the mocha filling on top of two pots with boiling water in it so the steam would keep the filling and icing warm.

"You know, talking to you about going to Paris to study made it an easier decision for me," said Sakura honestly as she faced Sasuke who wiped his forehead the back of his sleeve. Sasuke raised his eyebrow as he looked at her passively. "Well, it didn't help me choose to go for it or to wait for another year or so before I go but it did help me realize that maybe, I have to talk about it with someone so the decision will be easier," said Sakura plainly as she kept a close look at the cakes. "Oh, and the cakes, the filling and the fudge icing turned out beautifully," she praised as she turned to face him, "Maybe you're a born baker and you just don't know it, along with the rest of Japan." Sasuke blushed slightly, though still extremely unnoticeable, since praise, for him, was as rare as Naruto ever getting sick of ramen.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To Be Continued...

Sorry for the wait! This time, I have an excuse! Since my tests are coming up, I can only use the computer for a limited time and right now, I snuck time while researching for something.

This is just all date filled, isn't it? Well, date on the part of Naruto and Hinata, which I find extremely sweet! I just planned this to be a Sasuke and Sakura only chapter but it was hard, I just couldn't resist inserting that part! Anyway, you guys didn't mind, I hope.

I really think that Sakura should go to Paris. It'll make an impact on the story and, yeah. Don't get mad at me for it if I did push through. Just read on, after the chapter (or two) after she goes to Paris and you'll see why. It'll be towards the end though, if and when it happens.

This fic is set in late August, nearing autumn, pretty much why Sakura said it'll be autumn in just a few days. I'm using the American seasons and I'm assuming Japan has the same months per season, since they're both in the same region with four seasons anyway, unlike here where it's just either dry (whether hot or cool) or raining.

Anyway, I really hope I can update as often as I canPlease read my new fic, When Worlds Collide which is also a SasuSaku, completely AU (different plot, of course) and I might have other pairings but the main one will be Sasuke/Sakura! Another tidbit about it, Sakura is a princess, Sasuke is a prince (and so is Itachi! And their parents are alive!) and Neji and Hinata are prince and princess, but Hinata is directly in line for the throne, like in the anime! Except... it's not a throne, exactly, there.

And here, like always, is my regular next chapter introduction! Whee! It's chapter seven! 10 more reviews until 100 –counts down XD-

Next Chapter: Chapter Seven – They Learn

Chapter Preview: Three months since they met each other. The first signs of a snowstorm were appearing. Sakura was wrapped up in her thick black jacket and a red flannel blanket and was in front of a warm mug of coffee, within the confines of the apartment. Hinata was out on a date with Naruto and luckily, they were both getting particularly close. So had she and Sasuke but they were just friends, truly just friends.