Arranged Meetings

Disclaimer: Same as all the other chapters

A/n Sorry about the horrible OOC of Sasuke in this chapter, but as I said before this is Fanficiton

NOTE: This is an unedited version so if the spelling bothers you wait a little longer for my editor YufVin-Valentine to edit it.

Recap of Chapter 9.2

"Sasuke-kun, do you love me?" she asked for the final time, except this time it was different from all the others. "I" Sasuke started.

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Chapter 10

- Konoha

After team 7's training

Hidden spot -

"I-" Sasuke started not meeting her face. He always had difficulty in expressing his emotions after the massacre of his family by the one man he was trying to win Sakura from.

Why does she even hesitate deciding who she wanted to be with?

How many times has she told me that she loved me?

It should be an easy choice.

Sasuke thought all within two seconds after Sakura asking him.

"I do." he answered, still not meeting her emerald green eyes that were swimming with emotion. He was afraid if he looked in them he would drown.

"Then say it Sasuke, tell me that you love me." Sakura knew it would be hard for him. If he truly loved her but couldn't say those three words then Sakura knew that it wouldn't be worth wasting the rest of her life with Sasuke.

Although was it really wasting?

Sakura slapped away the thought, and waited patiently for Sasuke to answer.

Sasuke clenched a fist.

Damn Sakura why do you have to make things so difficult, I answered your question.

Sasuke grumbled to himself as he said the words over in his head.

I lo-love you.

This so wasn't helping him, if anyone was listening to this conversation, then his reputation would totally ruined. Rock lee would most likely think of him as 'his rival in love' and that so wasn't a title Sasuke wanted.

"Sakura, I-I love you." Sasuke turned his head so she couldn't see the blush creeping up on his face, and the fact that he found it easer to tell her when he wasn't staring at her.

Please say she doesn't want me to tell it to her face, there is no way I'm saying it again!

Once he felt his face was cooling down, Sasuke turned his head so Sakura could see almost all of it, but he still wasn't looking her in the eyes.

Damn why isn't she saying anything.

TALK!

Never before had Sasuke wanted Sakura to actually talk, usually he wanted her to be quiet so he could focus and become stronger.

"Thank you Sasuke-kun for telling this to me. It will help my decision a lot." Sakura stood up and walked away with her mind swimming in the choice given to her. She didn't want to go home, not yet anyway. Sakura didn't want to face another barrage of questions from her mother, and her father would be getting home soon; after all, it was 3:45. Sakura walked towards the park where she spent most of the days of her youth crying from being called names and being made fun of due to her forehead. She went over to a tree and grabbed a branch, hoisting herself onto one of the lower branches, then onto another one, climbing higher up into the tree.

Finding the thick branch she was looking for, Sakura sat on it with her back pressed to the tree's trunk.

Who am I going to choose?

Sakura didn't even know why she was considering Itachi as a choice. He was a S-class criminal who killed his family and made Sasuke the way he was now, or was that the reason Sakura was attracted to Sasuke? Was it the secret, mysterious exterior that she liked about him? No! it couldn't be Sakura remembered in her youth that Sasuke was nice to her when she was young and told her that her forehead really wasn't that big, no larger then anyone else's.

Flashback

Sakura was leaning against the cherry blossom tree that she was always by when someone had made fun of her forehead.

"Hey Giant forehead girl, why don't you come play ball with us, with any luck we can make your nose big so that it matches your forehead" they teased bouncing the ball in their hands. Hugging her knees another tear escaped her eyes, remembering that from earlier that day.

Sakura took an arm and tried to cover her forehead so no one could see it every again, how could she listen to her mother's advice of not letting it bother her, she was probably never teased about a big forehead.

Footsteps could be heard coming up the cement walkway that went through the entire park, another tear escaped her eye, were they coming back to tease her some more? Surely they had teased her enough today, were they bored already? But as her eyes peered over her knees to see who it was. She saw a boy with raven hair standing in front of her. Sakura had seen him around before, he always had someone to hang out with, or he was with his older brother.

"Hey what's wrong?" Sasuke asked, seeing the crying girl before him raise her head to look at him.

"It's my forehead." Sakura said, not sure why she was telling him, he probably was going to tell the group how pathetic she was crying there all alone. "What's wrong with it?" Sasuke questioned not seeing a boo-boo on it.

"Did you hurt it?" he asked sounding totally innocent.

"No, can't you tell IT'S HUGE!" Sakura said more tears cascading down her pale smooth complexion.

"Doesn't look that big." Sasuke said holding out a hand and measuring it, then comparing it to his.

"Your forehead is smaller then mine." He said looking confused on why she said it was so large, his forehead was average sized.

"What?" Sakura asked surprised lifting her head from her knees and measured her to his to make sure he didn't shrink it when comparing it to hers to make her feel better.

It was true, her forehead was smaller then his.

"I don't see why you were crying about that." Sasuke said but then heard his name being called.

"Sasuke, come on it's time to go!" it was his older brother calling him.

"Coming!" Sasuke yelled back starting to run away, but then turned around.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke, what is yours?" he asked looking once more at the small girl before him.

"Ha-haruno Sakura." She answered the boy.

"Bye then Sakura-chan." Sasuke said running to catch up to his brother who had already started to walk away.

"Bye Sasuke-kun!" Sakura called after him getting to her feet to wave.

End of Flashback

Sakura smiled at the memory, he really was too innocent when he was younger, although, now that innocence was gone, long replaced by anger and revenge. Sakura totally forgot about Itachi in that memory, why didn't she ever notice him?

"Itachi-kun." She muttered. He also seemed so kind, not the type of guy to go and kill his whole family.

Damn why did this have to happen to me, although I've never had two guys who I actually think are hot fighting over me

Sakura stopped, since when did she admit to herself that Itachi was hot, thinking back she never actually thought about that.

Sakura smirked, no matter what she would be Uchiha Sakura, she always wrote everywhere in her diary Uchiha Sakura, she liked the way it came out, but of course she always imagined Sasuke being her husband.

I should be happy Sasuke said he loves me, so why didn't I choose him straight away?

I've always loved him, or was my heart lying?

Shaking it off Sakura heard her stomach rumble and looked at the sun.

"I have to get home." Sakura said in shock, putting some chakra back into her feet and running off to her home. It was already 7:30, her family ate dinner at seven she missed it! Running past she saw Naruto eating Ramen at Ichiraku, with at least three bowls empty bowls beside him.

Swinging open the front door, Sakura saw the glass vase beside the door fall. Sakura's eyes went wide as she dived down to grab it before it hit the ground shattering into many pieces. Catching it just a couple inches from the ground Sakura let out a sigh of relief and put it back on the table. Taking off her shoes Sakura heard her mother from the kitchen.

"Nice to see your home, Sakura." She said knowing exactly that Sakura had hit the vase with the flowers form Ino's shop in it.

"Sorry I was lost in thought and lost track of the time." Sakura apologised to her parents while walking into the kitchen to see if they left her anything.

"Sakura I know how much stress you're going through trying to decide who to marry, but remember that your father and I will respect your choice no matter who you choose." Emiko said holding a small glass of green tea in her hands while sitting at the table.

"Where is otou-san?" Sakura asked finding no remnants of dinner anywhere.

"You won't find anything, we only made enough for two, figuring you would be out late" Emiko said with a laugh seeing the annoyed look on Sakura's face.

"And your father is packing for a mission, Hokage-sama asked him to go on one, just a simple A ranked mission, nothing an Anbu can't handle." She said pointing to where the frying pan was so Sakura could stop her search and finish making herself some dinner.

"Sakura, although I know your decision, no one else in the village besides for Uchiha Sasuke, your sensei, and the Hokage knows so, make sure to pay attention to your training tomorrow, don't let your mind wander until after it okay?" Emiko said pouring her daughter a glass of green tea and putting it beside the plate the Sakura had set down.

"Thanks oka-san and I will try." Sakura said flipping the food in the frying pan and grabbing her plate to put it on. Turning off the gas, Sakura grabbed her plate and sat down at the table grabbing her chopsticks and slowly eating the hot food.

"Remember we can always offer you advice if you ever need any" Emiko said standing up from the table and leaving the kitchen.

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Sakura lay in bed looking up at her ceiling, that night, her eyes just didn't want to shut, and sleep wouldn't come to her. She was thinking about how each life would be like, with having Sasuke or Itachi as a husband, and what she would do. That night Sakura did not go to sleep, she even heard her otou-san get up from bed, take a shower, eat some food and leave for his mission. Sakura sighed deciding that she was going to get up too, Sakura went to grab some clothing from her closet, seeing the her normal red dress wasn't there she just grabbed some other clothing and went to take a bath.

By the time she came out of the bath it was 5:50 in the morning and her mother was just getting up. Coming down the stairs she was surprised to see her daughter all ready up and cooking breakfast, usually she would sleep in as much as possible, ignoring her alarm clock and relying her mother to get up but here she was.

"Ohayo Oka-san." Sakura said in a cheerful fashion, the bath had given her energy and she was ready for the day.

"I see that you didn't find your laundry hanging up downstairs, but that outfit looks better on you, and is more fitting for a ninja I must say" Her mother complemented taking some food that Sakura had cooked up.

"Did you decide last night?" Emiko asked grabbing chopsticks from the draw.

"Nope, but I didn't make it worse, I went over all the positives and negatives of each." Sakura said still sounding happy. Sitting down at the table she had plenty of time to talk with her mother while eating.

"Time for you to go Sakura" her mom said, also deciding it was time for her to go to work as well.

"Right bye oka-san, if I'm not back in time, could you at least make some dinner for me!" Sakura yelled closing the door and walking to the meeting spot, she found she was in no hurry to get there, Kakashi-sensei wouldn't be there for at least another hour.

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Reaching the meeting spot, Sakura saw the Sasuke and Naruto were already there, and of course no Kakashi.

"Sakura-chan you're late…" But Naruto stopped looking at her new outfit; Sasuke also seemed to look at her from his relaxed spot on the bridge. Sakura was wearing knee length beige shorts, the top looked like her red dress, but it was a tank top and it was cut off around the waist and it had the circle on her back.

"You look amazing Sakura-chan!" Naruto said almost drooling at how this new outfit was slightly more fitted and showed a bit more.

"Naruto!" Sakura said already clenching her fist and about to make contact when she stopped.

I'm better then that, I don't need to hit him.

Sakura slowly got her cool back and leaned against the bridge's railing. Sasuke looked away, trying not to stare, but this outfit looked really good on her.

No, not really good, IT LOOKS AMAZING!

Sasuke shook his head, getting the voice out of his head.

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Kakashi arrived two hours later with his perverted Icha Icha paradise book in his hand.

"Yo!" he said waiting for the usual shouts, and of course they came, both Naruto and Sakura yelling at him, Sakura telling him that he should set a better example as their sensei.

"Ah well a new edition of Icha Icha paradise came out and I had to read it straight away. Oh Sakura your new outfit looks good." Kakashi stopped with his excuse and returned to the book.

"What are we going to be doing today Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked eager to get to training, she knew the once training were over she could return to the tree, pondering some more on her decision.

"Ah well we will start with some throwing." Kakashi stopped turning over the page of his book, he assumed they knew what to do so he didn't bother with any more instructions.

Seeing this, they went towards their training grounds to where the targets where already set up. Sakura seemed surprisingly good at this today, all her throws were powerful and hitting directly in the center of the board, even though Kakashi blindfolded them all before they started telling them to 'look underneath the underneath' of course Naruto took this as looking underneath the blindfold when he threw.

Damn I hate this, why do they want me to choose?

I'm only thirteen for gods sake!

Why couldn't they come up with a competition with something that neither of them were good at, or Sasuke was good at and Itachi sucked at so they were even?

Thoughts like this ran through Sakura's head as she threw each weapon, letting all her anger go out in the direction she felt that the air stopped at something in which she presumed was the targets.

When training for that day was almost done and idea came to Sakura, she was already two days into the week she had, since she only had five more days Sakura knew that the time would go by fast so she had to make a decision before then so that she could enjoy her days of being single, and unbound from one of the Uchiha's.

Once training was over and Naruto went to Ichiraku and Sasuke went off to train, Sakura went over to her sensei, to ask him something.

"Kakashi-sensei, could I ask for advice or a bit of guidance?" Kakashi may be lazy and always late, but he was a good ninja and could help her out with almost any situation.

"What is it Sakura?" Kakashi asked finally putting his book away into his back pouch so he could listen to what Sakura was stuck with. She was a smart ninja and usually didn't need to ask him for help in her personal life.

"Well, I'm torn between two things, and I can only have one. I don't know which to choose, how would you go about deciding something like that?" Sakura asked not knowing what to expect from the copy cat ninja.

"Hm." Kakashi said rubbing his concealed chin that was hidden from underneath his mask.

"Well Sakura it depends on what two things you're stuck between, and how much you want it." He said wondering what in the world Sakura could be stuck between.

Sakura was having difficulty in how to ask Kakashi without giving away her current situation. "Uh...well, how would you decide if you were to choose between something that you would be with for the rest of your life, where both of the things are really close to you and you didn't know how your life would be without one of them?" Sakura answered hoping that her sensei was kept in the dark as much as possible.

"Well then if I were to spend the rest of my life with it, then I suppose that I would…."

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Ya I know that I left it in a weird spot but I need to think about some stuff before I continue on with the story, but by next chapter Sakura will have to give her answer, so basically the story is almost over, so R & R, and I hope that some idea's come to me for another story, It's winter holidays so I might update again…hopefully