Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
A/N: VERY OOC. One-shot. Kinda written for Sasuke's birthday. : 3
"Sasuke-kun, when's your birthday?"
He glared.
"No, really." She persisted, planting herself in a stance he knew all too well. He gritted his teeth. This was her "stubborn-stance" as he liked to call it – when she stood like this, nothing in the world could deter her from getting her way.
Which meant there was no way in hell she was going to leave him alone unless he told her.
So he sighed, and did.
"Really?" She squealed. "But…that's…" Her squeal became a squeak of horror; he could not fathom why it did. "That gives me so little time to get you something though!" She looked extremely troubled. Then she brightened. "No matter, I'll think of something, you just wait!"
He twitched, then told her not to bother, as there was nothing she could give him anyway.
And yet, even as he said that, even as she ignored him and dashed away in deep thought, he wasn't sure who he was really trying to convince: her…or himself.
---
The setting sun threw its rays across the training field and, as if a painter had gone into a frenzy, splashed the surrounding trees and leaves with a mixture of yellow, red, and golden hues. The lack of clouds in the dusky sunset sky, the faintest breeze stirring the unperturbed leaves, the gentle tranquillity of the forest – all served to evoke a sense of peace and stillness that was rare to see, and even rarer to be a part of.
He supposed, therefore, that he should be lucky to be a part of such a picture-perfect scene. Yet, he wasn't – and he didn't know why.
No. To say that would be a lie. He did know why he was feeling bothered. He did know why his mind kept wandering throughout the duration of his self-imposed training. He did know why he couldn't concentrate at all the entire day.
It was all Sakura's fault.
Damn her and her saying that she was going to get him something! For the stupidest reason, he couldn't stop thinking about it. He couldn't stop wondering what kind of a "something" she was going to get him.
He couldn't stop hoping that she hadn't forgotten that today was his birthday.
Something in him told him that she had indeed. The day was almost over. Within several more hours, the day was going to be over.
Uchiha Sasuke couldn't understand where the deluge of emotions came from. It seemed as if they materialized out of mid-air and declared that he was the best place to settle in, and thus did so. This turmoil, this confusion, this hope, this anticipation…
This disappointment.
It wasn't so much the fact that he was getting a gift that made him excited, even though that was part of it, for never in his life had he ever received a present of any sort. It was the fact that she was giving him a gift.
She, Haruno Sakura, who specialized in Genjutsu and annoying him daily with her lame attempts to get him to go out with her, had somehow managed to get under his skin.
He sighed angrily, pushing thoughts of her aside before picking up his kunais and retrieving his shuriken. He didn't want to dwell on her. Didn't want to remain bound to some hope that she was going to appear at the last second with his promised present.
"Sasuke-kun?"
He yelped, spinning around and flinging his kunai in the direction of the voice. Then flushed as he realized that he, the Avenger, the Sharingan user, Uchiha Sasuke, had actually…yelped.
How utterly embarrassing.
Even worse – and he flushed even more as he realized this – the kunai he had flung had missed Sakura's head by a mere five inches, embedding itself into the tree trunk beside her, which was already scored with a dozen marks before.
"Sakura," He greeted, as if desperately trying to pretend he had not just almost unwittingly murdered her. She looked a bit paler than usual. Still she smiled, even though, he could tell, the smile was a trifle forced.
A silence descended between the two of them. Then, blushing furiously, she reached into her pocket and gave him a tiny, hastily wrapped package, then silently bade him open it. Her face turned a darker shade of pink as he pulled aside the strings to reveal…a slender silver chain with an oval attached to the end of it.
"A necklace?" The gift completely bewildered him. Jewellery? Inwardly he sighed at the ridiculousness of the present, and though he was glad that Sakura hadn't forgotten, he was…disappointed. He lifted his head, forcing his lips into something resembling the ghost of a smile, and prepared himself to thank her politely.
But she shook her head before he could say anything. "Open it," she urged.
Frowning slightly, he glanced back down at the necklace he held in his hand, and only then noticed the clasp at the side of the oval pendant. Not a necklace – a locket.
He sensed her watching him as he fumbled with the catch of the locket. It was polished silver, he noted. Real silver. And it must have cost her a large sum to even purchase it.
Finally, he got it open – and nearly dropped the necklace in a numb shock. His head whipped up to stare at her in complete disbelief.
"This…" His voice cracked as his cool mask slipped, showing eyes that were filled with raw emotion and resurfaced grief. "How?"
Sakura felt a lump begin to form in her throat as she watched Sasuke cradle her gift wonderingly and almost sadly in both hands, as if afraid that if he dropped it, he would lose it forever. It was pure luck that she had chanced upon that photo when she was wandering through the area where the Uchiha clan once lived, in one of the larger houses. It had been tucked away beneath a dusty, moth-eaten mattress inside one of the larger houses, one of the few houses that had not been looted after the Uchihas had been slaughtered.
But she couldn't tell him that. Knowing his unpredictability, he would probably get angry with her if he realized she'd been snooping around that forbidden area, and she did not want that to happen. Especially not when he was in such a heartbroken state.
So she smiled at him, even though a traitorous tear slipped through her lids as she attempted a grin. Sakura knew exactly what lay inside the locket. On the left side was the symbol of the Uchiha clan, the famous fan that Sasuke himself had emblazoned on the back of his clothing. On the right…was a picture of his family, a picture taken when Sasuke was a much younger, happier kid, taken with his mom, his dad…and Itachi. It depicted the four grinning at the viewer in a rare moment of abandon, with the youngest boy – Sasuke himself – holding up two fingers almost proudly.
She didn't know the real story behind the picture. All she knew though – was that the picture captured a moment of pure joy and hope that the future was to be as bright as the day the picture had been taken.
It was a picture of happiness, of the past, and perhaps what could have been.
She cleared her throat then, and tried grinning again. He looked up, and she saw his eyes shining in the fading light. Gently, moved, she touched his cheek.
"Happy birthday, Sasuke-kun."
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Heh…what did you think? Wrote this with 5 minutes left of July 23rd…so if it sucked…am sorry...