Haruno Sakura; 1 Year Later

Age 13

-My Maturity-

I knew today would be a tender day for Sasuke.

All the genin who had passed the chuunin exam were receiving their vests today. Hinata had told me that Shino passed, but I hadn't told anyone else. Well, except for Ino. And Tenten. And a few other people I guess.

Sasuke was going to be down on himself so I had to make sure he was okay! And, at my mature, womanly age of thirteen, I would be able to impress him more than ever with my good looks and sexiness.

I must have combed my hair a thousand times that morning.

Then I realized that I wanted to take a shower first. So I showered. Then I blow-dried my hair and then I combed it again.

I decided to grow my hair out again. It's a little longer than shoulder length now, which is something I'm really happy about. I hope to grow it out nice and long and be able to tie it back into a ponytail. I'll be unique and really stand out to Sasuke, especially since Ino decided to keep hers short. She's so dumb! Everyone knows that Sasuke likes LONG hair!

I needed to paint my nails! I had to paint my nails! I got the most beautiful nail polish just the other day and I couldn't wait to wear it. I searched my drawers for it, I searched on top of my desk for it but I couldn't find it anyway.

"Mom!" I called. "MOM!!"

"What is it, Sakura?" my mom yelled back from downstairs.

"Where's my new nail polish?!" I shouted.

"I can't hear you, Sakura!" my mom yelled. "Come to the top of the stairs!"

It was so annoying when my mom forced me to do stuff like that. I went over to the top of the stairs. "Mom, I can't find my new nail polish."

"And?" my mom said.

"OBVIOUSLY I'm asking you if you know where it is."

"Why would I know where it is?"

"I'm just ASKING!!"

Wow, mom's can be SO annoying sometimes. And I'm not just saying that because I'm a teenage girl! I mean, moms are SO annoying.

I spent a good ten minutes searching for my nail polish but it was nowhere to be found. I got really upset for a minute or two, but then I figured there was always tomorrow to impress Sasuke! And the day after that! And the day after that! I had the rest of my life to impress Sasuke! After all, I AM the woman he is going to marry!

I was suddenly in a good mood as he skipped down the stairs.

"Mom, I'm leaving." I said.

"You haven't eaten." My mom said.

"MOM!" I scolded. "I'm on a DIET! Geez!"

What did I tell you? Annoying or what?

I knew that Kakashi was going to be late today like he is EVERY morning. But there's always that chance that he'll show up on time and then get mad at us for not being there. So, day in and day out I arrive on time, which is more than I can say for Naruto and Sasuke.

I sat down on the bridge and opened up my tragic romance novel. It was all about Frederick and Chelsea and their love that was so passionate and SO romantic, yet never meant to be!

I knew I should have been practicing my ninja techniques in the downtime, but really. I USED to do that but there's only so long I can be occupied with such activities early in the morning and by myself. So I had taken up reading. It's not as bad as you might think. In fact, it's quite relaxing. And Chelsea had lots of good tips on how to go about seducing Sasuke… I mean… Frederick…

I heard someone coming towards me. I looked up hopefully to see Sasuke but… unfortunately, it was Naruto.

"Good morning, Sakura!" he said.

"Naruto, I'm TRYING to read." I said. "But your loud and annoying voice is distracting me." He was so stupid for imposing himself on me like that.

"What are you reading?" Naruto asked.

"None of your business!" I said, situating myself so he couldn't see the words on the page. I wasn't embarrassed or anything, I just didn't want to give Naruto the satisfaction of seeing something I enjoyed.

Naruto didn't say anything to that. He only started pacing absentmindedly and every once and a while he'd let out a sigh. How I wished Sasuke were there. Everything would be good if Sasuke were there.

Speaking of Sasuke, I suddenly heard another set of footsteps. I looked up to see… Sasuke!

"Good morning, Sasuke!" I said, springing to my feet and throwing the book in my bag.

Would he notice my hair? Would he notice my new clothes? Would he notice my nails? Oh wait, I didn't paint my nails…

He didn't look at me.

I was sad.

"Sasuke, you are LATE!!" said Naruto, pointing at Sasuke. "I hope you're not going to make a habit of this!!"

I was ready to pummel Naruto for yelling at Sasuke like that, but suddenly Kakashi appeared.

"Good morning, students." He said. "Today, I'm late because—"

"Don't bother!!" I yelled at him.

"Well it's official." Kakashi went on. "Gai, Asuma AND Kurenai all have a chuunin on their team and I do not."

"That's not nice!" I said, looking at Sasuke just in time to see him cringe.

"Next time," he said. "I hope that at least one of you will make it to the tournament. I think it's imperative that we go over all the things that you need to improve on."

Kakashi continued describing the things we each had to improve on. For some reason, he seemed to focus a lot of his lecture on me…

"We're going to do a lot of individual training today." Kakashi continued. "It will be strenuous work, but I feel as though you three will—"

Then he stopped.

I like to think I patiently waited for him to continue. But SOME people, like Naruto, was unable to sit still and after only a few moments of waiting, said, "Will…"

"Can we get a rain check on this?" Kakashi said suddenly in response.

"What?" the three of us said in unison.

"I have to go."

With that, he disappeared.

"WHAT was that?" Sasuke said.

Oh, it was now my chance to ask Sasuke out on a date!! I would have to be subtle about it and use the correct words so I wouldn't seem straight forward or rude for that matter. "Obviously he was preoccupied by something! So let's all go out to lunch! It'll be fun!"

"Yeah!" Naruto said.

I had momentarily forgotten about Naruto. I didn't want HIM to be there on my date with Sasuke.

"Um…Naruto." I said. "YOU'RE not invited."

"What?!" Naruto pointed out irrationally. "You said ALL!!"

"But when I say ALL, I actually mean just me and Sasuke."

"You implied that you were inviting me too!!"

"Well, then that was an accident. I didn't mean to imply that I was inviting you as well!"

"Sure."

I looked over at Sasuke. Did he just say, "Sure."? Did he just agree to go out with me? This wasn't real! This was a dream or something!!

"Really?!" I said.

I guess I was so excited and giddy with happiness that I didn't even realize Naruto was still there until we got at the restaurant and it was time to tell the host that there were three of us instead of just two.

Ideally, there would have only been two people but most unfortunately, Naruto was there.

It was a round table so I sat myself next to Sasuke. No matter where I sat, I got to sit next to Sasuke!

"Sasuke, this is a DREAM!" I said, moving my chair closer to him. Then Naruto did the most annoying thing possible. He moved his chair closer to ME! As if I wanted to sit next to him!!

Because of his stupid action, Sasuke moved his chair around the table again.

I moved my chair slightly, but only so I was in the middle of the two. Even though I wanted to be closer to Sasuke, I knew if I got closer to him then Naruto would move closer to me and we would be doomed to just circle the table for the rest of our lives.

Well, maybe not our lives but for a long time.

"Hey, Sakura!" Naruto said randomly the moment I picked up my menu to look at it. "What are you going to order?"

"I don't know." I said. Then I caught Sasuke out of the corner of my eye. It was time to impress him by showing him I was watching my weight. I didn't want to look like a glutton in front of him. "Probably nothing. I'm on a diet, you know."

"You don't need to be on a diet, Sakura!" Naruto said. "You look just fine."

"What would YOU know, Naruto?" I said.

"Sakura, did you do something different to your hair this morning?" Naruto said. "Because it looks REALLY nice today!"

I knew exactly what he was trying to do. He was trying to impress me with compliments but I wasn't going to fall for it. "Naruto, that is not going to work on me."

"I'm just trying to be nice!"

"I can tell you're just trying to win me over with compliments!"

"Sakura!!" Lee yelled as he ran over and talked and talked and talked about absolutely nothing. When he finally took a breath, I tried to tell him that I was with middle of dining with Sasuke. But I didn't want to hurt his feelings because I considered him to be my friend even though he was madly in love with me. But I can't blame him for THAT!

"Lee…please…" I said.

"Will you do me the honor of dining with my team and I?" Lee requested.

"Lee! It's a TEAM thing! And THEY'RE obviously doing a team thing too!" Tenten said. I looked up and noticed that Tenten and Neji were there. I was glad she had butted in because then I didn't have to hurt his feelings. Tenten grabbed Lee and dragged him off and just when I was going to turn to Sasuke and tell him that Lee was definitely not my boyfriend, I noticed Sasuke was gripping his menu tightly with an angry look in his eyes.

"Sasuke, are you all right?" I asked him.

He must have been thinking about something awful. He threw his menu down on the table and stood up. He made his way toward the door.

I didn't want to be left there alone with Naruto!! "Sasuke, where are you going?" I called to him, but he only quickened his pace.

I hurried out the door and rounded the corner to find that he was nowhere in sight. He must have used his superior ninja abilities to get away quickly! Oh Sasuke!

"Sakura, wait up!!" I heard Naruto yell as he ran around the corner and crashed into me…probably on purpose. "Hey, where'd that stupid Sasuke go?" I asked her.

"I don't know!" I said.

"Oh well!" Naruto commented. "He was annoying anyway!"

"Naruto, you don't know ANYTHING!" I yelled. How DARE he insult Sasuke when HE was the annoying one!

I walked away from him to continue my search for Sasuke.

"What do you mean? Explain it to me!"

"I don't owe you an explanation."

"Sakura, you're acting like it's MY fault that Sasuke suddenly left for no reason!"

I stopped. Of course it was his fault. Obviously Sasuke got annoyed that he had to be spending time with Naruto so he left.

"Naruto…you just don't get it." I said. "You are talking to the future Mrs. Uchiha Sasuke here! If I am going to be the one who marries Sasuke then I can't have him just getting up and leaving in the middle of dinner!"

"Technically, we hadn't started yet." Naruto said stupidly.

"You know what I mean! I'm going to go and find Sasuke! And don't bother trying to stop me or follow me!!" I turned my back to him and didn't look back.

I was only walking for a few moments when suddenly, I heard Naruto call my name.

I turned around. "What?!" I demanded, getting very sick of Naruto.

He only smiled. "See you tomorrow!"

What an idiot.