Chapter 7: Confrontation

"Sakura."

She opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was a bandage-wrapped ankle.  "Hmm?"  She rubbed her eyes tiredly.  Sleepily, she raised her head to look at who had woken her up.  "Oh… Sasuke…" she mumbled.

He stared down at her blankly.  "Is it comfortable sleeping on the floor?", he asked, his voice leaving no doubt that his question was meant neither jokingly nor tauntingly.

She sat up and rubbed her buzzing head.  "Yesterday I was just so tired, I guess I fell asleep right here…" she said quickly, but he did not seem interested in her explanations.  She stood up, trying to ignore her headache.  "It's great that you're back so soon, Sasuke.  How was your first mission as an Anbu?"

Actually, one glance at him had been sufficient explanation. He didn't have a scratch on him, and his clothes were even clean. He briefly replied anyway, though.  "Successful."

Sakura sighed inwardly.  How she hated it when he was like this.  She stole a glance out the window, guessing from the position of the sun that it was around noon.  "Uh, do you already know when you'll have to leave for your next mission?"

Instead of a reply, he just shook his head no. Something caught his attention then, and he wrinkled his nose.  "Have you been drinking?", he asked disgustedly.

"Oh." She lowered her head immediately. "We were celebrating a little and I underestimated the effect of alcohol, I guess."

"Hn." He brushed past her and entered the bedroom.

She remembered why she had been so depressed the day before and followed him. "Sasuke, wait a second.  I have to talk to you."

"Not now. I'm trying to get some rest, okay?"  He removed the bulk of his equipment and uniform and sank on the bed with an exhausted sigh.

"This is important!", she protested angrily. "I found out that you were talking to Tsunade about me!"  Even this didn't bring any change to his ever-stoic face.  "Did you tell her to transfer me to the Academy?"

"Yes."

Sakura had a hard time trying to keep her composure.  "What on earth were you thinking?  How dare you to decide such an important thing without talking to me?!"

He loosened the bandages around his ankles and replied calmly, "Can't you guess why?  If everything goes as planned, you will soon be pregnant." He looked her in the eyes. "Do you think I'll let you work as a ninja while you're pregnant with an Uchiha heir?"

His calmness made her even angrier. "And what about my feelings?  Don't I have the right to make my own decisions?"

"Were you planning to go on missions with a large belly?", he asked dryly.  "Maybe acting as a bodyguard? Well into pregnancy? I bet our clients would be exhilarated." His biting sarcasm was almost unbearable. "You are my wife now and I have to make sure that you're safe."

"I… I understand that!", she yelled. "But the point is that you cannot decide this without asking me first! I'm not your property, Sasuke! I have my own will and if you dare to make decisions for me again, then…"

"Then what?"  His eyes stared at her dangerously.

Angry tears filled her eyes. She couldn't hold back any longer. She moved to slap him, but he caught her wrist easily. The worst part about it was the smirk on his lips.  "BASTARD!!", she cried hysterically, tearing her arm from his grip. Before he could make another stinging remark, she stormed out of the door and left the apartment.

***

Sakura ran down the stairs and stormed out of the building, angry tears streaming down her cheek because there was nothing she could do but cry.  She was so absorbed in her anger that she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings and promptly ran into a person who had been about to enter the building.

The impact threw her off balance and she fell backwards, but someone caught her by the upper arms before she could hit the ground. "Now, now, Sakura, are we in a bit of a rush today?", she heard a teasing voice say as she opened her eyes.

"Kakashi-sensei…" she muttered, quickly wiping the tears from her eyes so he wouldn't see her crying. "I wasn't paying attention, I'm sorry."

"You look troubled, what's wrong?"

She stared at him hesitantly. Judging by the sparkle in his eye, Sakura could be pretty sure he was smiling beneath that mask. Kakashi was an excellent teacher and an outstanding fighter, but she had never seen him as the type you could talk to about your problems. He didn't seem so very trustworthy with his trademark copy of Icha Icha Paradise.

He seemed to guess her thoughts and assured her, "You can trust me, I won't tell anyone. Did you quarrel with Sasuke?" She just nodded in response. "Do you want to tell me about it?" She shook her head no. "Do you want me to bring you back upstairs so you can talk to him?" Once again she shook her head no.

Kakashi sighed. "You women are really difficult. Well, come with me then, you can't walk around like this." Sakura just then realized that she hadn't changed her clothes nor taken a shower since yesterday. She was positive that she was looking hideous right now. Of course, she didn't know that Kakashi was only referring to her reddened, puffy eyes.

In any case she nodded and followed Kakashi to his apartment.

***

The apartment looked completely different from what she had expected. Somehow she had been sure that Kakashi would surround himself with Ninja equipment or obscene posters from Icha Icha Paradise.  His living room was actually pretty normal though. From what she could see, one would not even know that a powerful Ninja was living there. She didn't even see a single kunai anywhere.

He disappeared into the kitchen for a moment and brought her a glass of water before taking a seat on the couch next to her. "What happened?"

At first she didn't want to talk to him, but she desperately needed someone to talk to. So she slowly started, "This thing about me getting transferred to the academy… I didn't know anything about it. Sasuke decided it without asking me at all."

She waited for Kakashi to defend Sasuke, but instead he sighed. "I thought so."  He seemed unnaturally serious; his stern expression did not suit him. "Sakura, may I give you some good intentioned advice?"

"Uh… yeah… sure.." she stammered. She wasn't sure why he was so serious all of a sudden.

"You should break up with Sasuke as soon as possible."

...tbc...