Chapter 10 ---- The Seed of Love

Another week started. Sakura had been thinking of the accident at the camp all weekend. Although she could not have feelings for Sasuke because of Neji, now that Neji had come back to her to direct her to someone else, she was ready to open her heart. However, she still did not want to think too much about it. She did not want to suffer and torture herself because of a foolish assumption, like she did with Neji.

After school, Sakura was walking with Sasuke. They were chatting normally as they usually did. However, for some reason, the atmosphere was awkward and oftentimes, she could not find anything to say. They came to the bus stop.

"Ok, see ya tomorrow."

"Yeah. See ya."

They parted. Sakura was walking towards her home and someone came out of the park.

"Hey, hey, hey, pretty girl. Whatcha up to right now?"

The sloppy looking, middle-aged man stepped into Sakura's personal bubble. She felt frightened and tried to walk away.

"Hey, let's go somewhere. Just come with me," the man grabbed Sakura's wrist.

"Hey."

Sakura turned around. Sasuke was standing there, slightly panting, with his hand on the man's shoulder.

"Sasuke-kun!" her eyes widened.

"Let go of her," Sasuke gave the man an intense glare. His eyes said, "Back off."

"All right, all right," the man let go of Sakura and walked back into the park.

"Thanks, Sasuke-kun…But why are you here?" Sakura asked.

"I was walking home and overheard housewives talking about this guy that's been around approaching girls," Sasuke said solemnly.

Sakura thought it was kind of funny to hear that from Sasuke but she was happy that he came running for her.

"So, you came for me?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke was quiet for a while and said, "Yeah."

They were looking at each other. Sakura looked away.

"So, I'll walk you home," Sasuke said.

Sakura looked at Sasuke.

"Why is he doing this? I mean…I guess because..," Sakura wondered. "Thanks," she looked at him and smiled.

They started walking.

After a short moment, Sakura opened her mouth.

"So…how is your family?" ("That was such a random question…")

"Good"

"Mm… So…what's on your agenda this weekend?"

"Movies," Sasuke answered immediately.

"Movies? Which one?"

"The Ninja Spies."

"Oh, that. You like Ninjas?"

"Yeah…I've always like them since I was little."

"I'm a girl, so I'd be a kunoichi, right?"

"Right."

"Haha. I can't imagine myself as a kunoichi. That's kind of funny," Sakura said laughing.

"I think you'd be a pretty one."

Sakura stopped laughing.

"Did he just say I'd be a pretty one?" Sakura asked herself and asked Sasuke, "What? What did you say?"

Sasuke blushed and said, "….I said I think you'd be a pretty good one."

"Oh…Ok," Sakura said.

"Do you want to come to the movies?" Sasuke asked with a serious and half-worried face.

"Do…Do I want to come to the movies? You mean…with you?"

"…….Yeah," Sasuke bit his lips a little.

"Sure!" Sakura answered exuberantly.

Sasuke seemed to be smiling but it was hard to tell. Sakura was happy that he expressed his feelings and that she could sense them.

Sasuke was thinking of a conversation that he had with Naruto after lunch that day…

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As he was walking down the hallway, Naruto stopped him.

"Yo!"

"Hey."

"So, how's it going?"

Sasuke stared at Naruto's face and looked away.

"You need to express your feelings to her. You know she's had enough of misunderstanding. She needs to know, for sure, what she is thinking."

"I'll protect her."

"I'll protect her," Naruto made a stern face and copied Sasuke with a low voice.

Sasuke sighed.

"All right. It's not that kind of thing, Sasuke. Yeah you can do that from behind a tree and following her around like a stalker, too. You've got to do something. Well… she likes movies. You can ask her out to one. Let's see. She might like 'Ninja Spies.'"

Sasuke was slightly panicking at Naruto's sudden suggestion.

"I don't go to the movies," Sasuke told Naruto.

"C'mon! That doesn't matter! Just… you know…Compliments are important, ok!"

Naruto patted Sasuke's shoulder and ran down the hallway, back to the classroom. Sasuke figured out that Naruto was not an expert at the matter, either.

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Naruto looked out the window from the second floor hallway. In the distance, he spotted Sakura and Sasuke walking together.

"Heh, heh!" Naruto brushed under his nose and went downstairs for a cup noodle.

Author Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I enjoyed reading the reviews while trying to fix a laptop adopter problem…and I'm back again to write! Please let me know what you think about the chapter!