"Sakura!" He whined.
Sasuke stood at one end of the bed, Sakura at the other.
"I have to get back to…" She hesitated, remembering her boyfriend.
Sasuke scowled.
"You have to get back to Miruko? Oh, please, Sakura, you just cheated on him. With me! Miruko doesn't like cheaters, remember?" He smirked, and attempted to caress her cheek.
She narrowed her eyes.
"Well, you just eliminated any chance of getting this Sakura back." She threw off his hands and stomped off, not looking back.
"Hey!" He called, disgruntled. "Where are you going? This is my house!"
"I'm LEAVING!" She yelled.
"What for? You smell fine the way you do! Just like me!"
"See ya, Sasuke!" She skipped out and skidding out the door, grinning madly.
He poked his head out.
"You promise you'll come back?" He called after her.
"I PROMISE!" She yelled back happily.
She laughed, and raced out the door like she was on top of the world. Slamming the front door, she rested against it, breathing heavily. Sliding down and sitting, she looking up at the still dark sky. She had stayed for an hour, no more, and no less. But it felt like she had stayed for days.
Nothing happened.
Liar.
It's true! We talked, and caught up. Watched TV, ate popcorn.
And you kissed him.
I didn't kiss him. He kissed me!
You want to hold him, you want to kiss him, you want to—
She stood up and smacked her head.
Ouch.
"Goodbye, Sasuke-kun."
She gasped, and slapped a hand over her mouth.
She had said it!
The dreaded three-letter suffix that had her crying out his name.
Sakura groaned, and buried her head in her hands.
It was all coming back now.
All the feelings she thought she had left behind, all of the things she had wanted to throw away…
They were all flooding back, and there was no way to stop them.
-
"I'm going to regret this…" Sasuke muttered under his breath. Picking up the phone, he plucked up his courage and for the last time, went through with the whole thing and reluctantly dialed the number.
"Hello? Yeah…this is uh…Sasuke." He muttered.
"What? Who is this?" A male voice said at the other end.
"This. Is. Sasuke!" He said through clenched teeth.
"Fish fillet? They're not bad, but what does that have to do with—"
"SASUKE!" He roared into the phone.
"Sasuke?" The voice whispered, awed. "Is that really you?"
"No, it's a mutant turtle."
Silence.
"Oh, alright then, well, I'll—"
"NARUTO!"
"Oh hiya Sasuke! What do you want?" The voice said cheerfully.
Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"I need…help."
"Anytime! What kind of help?"
"Well, in simple terms…girl help."
-
"Alright, so let me get this straight: Sakura is with a wimpy guy named Miruko but she cheated on him with you and you want to get her back but you don't know how because she keeps on sticking with Miruko and evading you?"
Sasuke flopped onto the couch and smacked his head.
"For the last time, Naruto, YES, THAT IS IT!"
I knew I was going to regret this.
Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji, and Sasuke were draped in various areas of the room, developing a plan for Sasuke's problem. So far, the furthest they had gotten was the objective.
"Alright. So…what are we supposed to do?" He questioned, looking confused.
Neji bit the end of his pen and furrowed his brow.
"Okay, we'll take this step by step. First, we'll bust into Sakura's house. After that, we'll be tired, so we'll invite ourselves for sake. Then, we'll order this Miruko fellow to surrender Sakura or we'll fight him."
"You idiot, we can't do that." Shikamaru drawled lazily, picking at his nails with an upturned nose.
"Why not! It's a brilliant plan!" Neji defended.
"Because I can't be bothered." He stated.
Sasuke buried his head in the corner between the couch and the cushions.
"Kill me now." He mumbled.
-
Sakura carefully opened the door to her house and tiptoed in, placing her bag down and hanging her coat back up.
Instead of getting her head cleared, she had just gotten more confused.
She made her way to the kitchen, taking one last look behind her before stepping inside, flipping the lights on and—
"AHHHHH!" She squealed, jumping about a foot in the air as she bumped straight into Miurko, his arms over his chest.
She stared blankly, trying to think of a reasonable lie.
"What were you doing?" He asked, obviously trying to keep his cool.
She quickly recovered.
"Oh, I was just at the park, clearing my head." She brushed past him and went to the fridge, trying to look nonchalant as she got out a glass of water.
He sounded surprised.
"Really?"
"Really." She turned to face him and smiled.
"I'm sorry." She took his hand and led him to the tatami room.
"I'm sorry, too," he bowed his head, "I shouldn't have accused you."
Sakura didn't say anything. Instead, she closed her eyes and rested her head at the crook of his neck. In an attempt to dissolve some of the guilt that was rising, she gave him a quick kiss and stepped inside the dark room.
"Let's go to sleep. It's late."
-
Sakura was up early the next morning.
I'm going to settle this with Sasuke once and for all. She thought fiercely.
"Miruko, sweetie, baby…" She whispered, wiping back his hair. His eyes slowly opened, and he smiled groggily.
"I'm going out. I'll be right back." He smiled in way of consent and rolled back to sleep. A slight smile formed on her lips, and she retracted from her crouching position, slowly making her way to Sasuke's.
-
Sakura found that the door was open, so she cautiously invited herself in.
"Sasuke?" She called, staying by the door. "Sas—"
She was cut off by a pair of lips pressing themselves against hers, forcing her mouth open and gently nipping her lower lip, causing her to roughly hook a leg around his and yank him forward. They toppled to the floor, and stopped to catch a breath.
She grinned and exhaled.
"Wow. That was—"
"WRONG! Jeez, Sasuke-teme, what did we go over—"
"NARUTO!" Sakura cried indignantly.
"What!" He looked up, his brows furrowed, reading glasses with the lenses popped out resting unsafely on the bridge of his nose, a checklist in one hand, a pen in the other.
Two other figures appeared out of the shadows.
She got up angrily. Sasuke rolled his eyes and collapsed in a heap on the floor, groaning.
"Neji…Shika…SASUKE!" She put her hands on her hips and glared at the people around her. "How could you do this! It was all a plan!"
"NO!" Sasuke got up and took her hands in his, shaking his head profusely.
"Then what is it, huh?"
"It…I…it's all Naruto's fault!" He pointed.
"What! I was only trying to help!" Naruto pouted.
"Hi Sakura." A figure said.
"Hiya Neji. Anyways, so what is this—"
"Sakura." The other yawned.
"Shikamaru. Just some sick plan to…to confuse me?"
"Whatcha been up to?"
"Oh, not much. Got a decent first floor apartment. So here it is, the master plan. Break Sakura's heart again!" She cried angrily, flopping onto the couch.
"Well, actually, what we were trying to do was—"
"Wait…" Sasuke sat across from her, their knees touching. "What was that you were saying? About…breaking hearts?"
She glared at him, and swatted him away.
"You oblivious little thing," she spat. "Even Miruko wouldn't do such a thing. That's the thing about Miruko. He loves me."
Sasuke grabbed her hand and pulled her to the couch, looking furiously into her eyes.
"And what makes you think I don't love you?"
All eyes were on Sakura.
"I just don't think that after all these years of hating me, and most of the people around you, you could suddenly turn around and start to love me."
Sasuke looked at her, unsure of what to say.
He stood abruptly, and made his way for the door.
"Well," He said rigidly, "if that's what you think, fine. Goodbye, Sakura."
And with that, he walked out of the door, never turning back.
Hey!
Phew. Three pages longer than the usual.
Well, have fun rating! (hehhehe...)
AlternateEndings