Uchiha Sasuke; 3 Years Later

Age 15

-My Choice-

I had just returned from a mission. The mission had been extremely long and annoying, but not incredibly dangerous. Only a C-rank one. Therefore, I had been sent on the mission with only one other chuunin; Ino.

"We completed our mission." Ino reported as she opened up the door to see Shikamaru sitting there. "Shikamaru?! You're not the Hokage!"

I must admit I was surprised to see Shikamaru sitting there behind the desk that had all the mission scrolls on it.

"Yeah well…" he said. "The Hokage's on vacation. I'm filling in."

"Aren't there OTHER people who are more qualified that could fill in?" I said with a raised eyebrow.

"I guess." He said, eyeing me. "You'll receive your payment tomorrow morning. You are dismissed."

I hated taking orders from Shikamaru and having to respond to comments like, "You are dismissed." He didn't even bother pretending that he didn't think he was above us!

"So Sasuke…" Ino said to me after we had left the building.

"Yeah?" I said.

"What are you doing for the rest of the day?" she said.

"A shower." I answered. "I don't know. Probably just hang out."

She paused slightly. I looked at her to see her cheeks turning red. What was she going to do? Say?

"Do you want to hang out maybe… together?" she said.

My initial thought was, "Yes." I quickly shook that away. Where had that come from? Of course I didn't want to hang out with Ino since she'd think it was a date.

But was there really any problem with it being a date?

There was definitely a problem with it being a date.

"Well…" I said. "I have…stuff…" I stuttered. "To do."

Why was I thinking up excuses? I had never done so in the past. Ino nodded, looking a little embarrassed.

"Well, I'll see you around." She said, shrugging and beginning to walk off.

Then I did something I didn't even consciously know I could do. After my mouth hung open for a moment, I finally heard, "Around when?" come out of it.

Ino stopped dead in her tracks. I bit my lip at her turned back.

"Around…seven?" she said.

"Around seven." I repeated.

She turned around with the brightest smile on her face. I had never seen a girl quite so genuinely happy.

"Okay!" she said.

I raised one hand and awkwardly waved to her. She waved back and skipped off. I got the feeling that I'd be doing a lot of awkward things today. Er… tonight.

What was I thinking? I had to train to beat Itachi. I couldn't get mixed up with girls. Sure, that philosophy was all right when I was twelve years old… but I'm fifteen now. Is this just an inevitable part of my growing up? Was there any use trying to control it? Besides, it's not like we were going out or anything. We were just 'hanging out'.

After all! It's not like it'd be any different from the past few days that I had spent with Ino! It would just be at a restaurant or something instead of out in the forest. Fighting ninjas.

Six thirty rolled around and I was beginning to feel like maybe I should just not show up. Then again…what kind of man would I be if I didn't show up?

Besides, Ino and I worked together on missions a lot and if I just didn't show up then it would be really tense from now on and we didn't need tense air between two teammates while on a mission.

"For the sake of future missions." I decided.

Should I eat? Were we even going to eat? What if we were just going to stay at her house and…do stuff?

I put my hands down on the table and took a deep breath.

"Calm down." I told myself. "This isn't a date. We're just hanging out."

I reached the front door and suddenly thought; …should I dress up?

I ran upstairs. If I waited for very much longer then I was going to be late. I didn't have very much variety to wear, but I still went through three or four different outfits.

"This is ridiculous!!" I said suddenly, throwing a shirt to the ground.

I looked at the clock. "7:05?" I said.

Maybe if I didn't look at the clock, time wouldn't pass. I scrunched up another shirt in my hands. What was I so afraid of? No, I wasn't afraid. I was just… apprehensive. Apprehensive of what? Ino misinterpreting this as a date?

WAS it a date?

I took one last look at the clock. 7:07…

It was now or never.

Now.

Pulling the closest shirt over my head, I rushed out the door as fast as I could. I was already late, but fashionably late. Right? She probably expected me to be late anyway.

I reached her door and cleared my throat.

"Ino, you are of course aware that this is not a date." I practiced to the closed door. I cleared my throat. "Ino, this is not a date. We're just two teammates hanging out. We should discuss some strategies for our next mission."

I knocked on the door.

It swung open almost immediately.

Ino was standing there in a purple dress and her short hair was pulled back with a matching purple clip.

"Hi Sasuke!" she said.

I blinked.

"Hi." I said.

She eyed me for a moment. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

I thought. "No." I answered. "Nothing."

"Okay." She said with a shrug, shutting the door behind her. "I hope you don't mind that I invited some people along."

"Some people?" was all I could answer with.

"Yeah!" Ino said. "We're only hanging out after all. I tried setting up—"

She continued to talk, but I didn't hear much of it. I was only looking at her as she spoke.

She trailed off. "Sasuke…are you sure you're all right?" she asked.

"Uh…yeah—" I said hesitantly.

Ino shrugged again as we reached a restaurant that I had never been to before. When I got inside, there was music playing and lots of people dancing in the middle of the floor. There were tables lined up around the floor with more people sitting at them.

"What is this?" I said. "It's not a restaurant."

Ino laughed. "It's a club." She said.

I had never been to a club but she didn't need to know that. "Oh." I said. "I knew that."

"Oh look!" Ino said, waving across the club. "There's Naruto and Hinata!"

"Naruto and Hinata?" I said. Since when were THEY together? But then again, they could just be hanging out. Like me and Ino were.

She grabbed my arm and pulled me over to where Naruto and Hinata were sitting.

"Hi Sasuke." Said Hinata quietly that I could hardly hear her. I nodded at her. Then I exchanged hellos with Naruto. It had been a little while since I had last seen him.

"Hey Ino, didn't you say that Sakura was coming?" Naruto said.

"She said she might come if she felt like it." Ino said, sitting down in her chair. Oh man… wasn't I supposed to pull her chair out for her? Next time.

I sat down, not knowing exactly what came next.

"Hey guys!!" came a voice behind me. I turned around to see Lee coming over. We all greeted him but he was obviously looking for someone. "Is Sakura not here?"

"Weren't you picking her up?" Ino asked.

"She wasn't at her house so I figured she was already here." Lee answered.

So, Ino had set Sakura up with Lee and Naruto up with Hinata. It was nice consideration on her part, but I knew that Naruto liked Sakura too much to switch over to Hinata. Besides, didn't Hinata like Kiba? Maybe not.

Lee sat down at the table anyway and sighed.

"She'll show up." Naruto said, but he sounded like he was convincing himself.

"Um…hey, how about we dance?" Ino suggested. "Sasuke? Do you know how?"

"Uh—" I began. "…Yeah…"

"Okay, let's go!" said Ino, grabbing my arm and pulling me up out of my chair.

She had very slyly chosen her words just then and tricked me into dancing with her. She took my hand and guided my other hand to her waist. I had never really danced before, but it's not like it was hard.

"Sasuke, you're supposed to lead." Ino said with a laugh.

Lead? "What?" I said.

"You're letting me lead." She giggled.

"Um…okay?" I said.

"That's okay, I don't mind." She said, looking down and blushing.

It was really uncomfortable as we silently danced to the music.

"So um…" I started. "That was uh…nice of you. To set up Hinata and Naruto. And Lee and Sakura."

Ino looked past me at the table. "Yeah…" she sighed. "But I don't think Naruto likes Hinata very much. But she likes him so much! The same with Lee to Sakura and Naruto to Sakura. And Sakura to…" she paused and looked down again, dramatically lowering her voice. "…you…"

She cleared her throat and dropped her hands to her side.

"Sasuke, I'm forcing you into this." She said. "I'm so sorry."

"Forcing me into it?" I said, confused.

"It's okay," she said, waving it off. "I didn't have any right to do this sort of thing to you."

"What sort of thing?" I asked.

"Are you kidding me?" she said. "You don't want to date me. You never have and you never will."

Ino said the 'D-word'.

"I'm sorry." she repeated.

I looked at her as she began to fan her face with her hand.

"Ino, I'm sorry." I said suddenly. I didn't even mean to.

"What?" she gasped.

"I don't know." I answered truthfully.

That's when Sakura came out of nowhere. "Who do you think you are?!" she demanded of Ino. "How DARE you do such a thing! You ask Sasuke out behind my back and trick him into coming out with you and then you try to cover it up by making it a group get together thing! You KNEW I loved Sasuke!!"

Sakura looked at me.

"Sasuke, look deep into my eyes." She said.

"I'm looking." I said.

"And tell me you don't love me." She finished.

That was an odd request. But if she needed me to tell her once again that I didn't love her then I'd do it. "I don't love you." I said.

Sakura blinked, looking shocked. Was it really all that shocking?

"NOW," she continued. "Look deep into my eyes again!"

"And?" I said.

"And tell me that you love Ino."

I swallowed hard. That one was a little bit harder.

"Well?!" Sakura said after a moment's pause.

"I…" I began. I was in a lose-lose situation. If I said I loved her then Ino would think I loved her. If I said I didn't love her then Sakura would think she still had a chance.

But it's not like I loved her.

"I…" I started again.

"Sakura, don't put Sasuke in this situation!" Ino said suddenly. "You're a terrible person and you seriously need to reevaluate everything you stand for!"

"How dare you, Ino." Said Sakura. "I thought you were my FRIEND."

"Well, I thought so too." Ino said. "But not anymore."

Sakura gaped at that comment and stormed off without another word.

Ino looked at me. "I'm SO sorry, Sasuke." She said.

"It's not your fault." I said. "I know you just invited everyone else so that I wouldn't feel as awkward, and not so you could make it look like we were just hanging out instead of having—" I faltered on the word.

"A date?" Ino tried.

"Yeah, one of those." I said, clearing my throat. "But you didn't have to."

"I wanted to." Ino said.

I looked back at the table where Naruto was staring at me. Hinata and Lee were also watching, but trying not to make it so obvious.

"I'll walk you home." I said.

She nodded solemnly.

"I hope Naruto and Hinata's date goes okay." Ino said.

I nodded. I didn't care much for Naruto and I didn't know Hinata too well, so I didn't know what to think of it all. In fact, I didn't know what to think of any of things that had happened tonight. A very short night, but still… a very confusing night.

"Sasuke, I'm sorry." Ino said.

"WHY do you keep saying that?" I asked.

"Because I AM sorry!" Ino said, stomping her foot. She was wearing high-heeled shoes and, after stomping her foot, the heel collapsed and broke off, sending her flying forward into me. I caught her.

She looked embarrassed.

"I didn't mean for that to happen." She said. "And these heels were really expensive too… they were my mom's. I borrowed them from her because I didn't have anything that would match this dress…it's actually Tenten's since I don't have any dresses and—"

I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I leaned forward and kissed her.

I don't think Ino knew how to react because she didn't.

I finally pulled away from her. Ino let go of me and stood up straight. She had a smile creeping out across her face but she looked like she was trying to hide it.

"Good night." I said.

She finally let out the smile. "Good night." She said, opening the door and shutting it behind her.

I slowly walked away from the front steps.

Oh no.

What. Had. I. Done.