"What's up with her?"
"Why do you keep asking that? You know I'm the last person that ever knows what's wrong with Sakura-chan at any given moment!"
"…true."
"I can hear both of you!" Sakura bellowed from behind her two companions as they trekked through the crunchy snow, en route to the small town not that far from the lodge. It was their idea to do a bit of exploring before the sun went down, their idea to invite her. Heck, she even agreed without much issue.
Until Indra freaked the living daylights out of her and prompted a very much justified amount of paranoia to rise up within her. Especially since Itachi was just so weird and insistent upon her locking her door. Which, honestly, she didn't pay much attention to…
UNTIL more people than she expected ended up showing up at the lodge. A creepy perv and a creepy guy with eyeliner and no sense of personal space. That's what's up with her!
"Nothing's wrong." But how's she supposed to articulate this amount of discomfort to them without ruining their winter break?
"That's a lie." Especially now that Sasuke has just made up in his mind that he knows her better than anyone with Naruto being a close second.
"You've been brooding more than me."
"And that's saying something!"
"Shut up, idiot."
"It's fine. Let's just keep going, okay?" She huffed as they meandered their way down the path toward their destination. It luckily wasn't too long before they happened upon the slightly bustling area aglow with lights and festive décor. It was Christmas time, after all. She ventured to guess most of the people in this area were visitors much like themselves.
"Are you upset about the Suna thing?" Sasuke prodded once more as they happened upon the main street littered with little shops and restaurants.
"Honestly? No. Suna is nice but it's just desert. There's not even a beach—."
"I heard Gaara has a huge pool at his place, though!" Naruto promptly received an elbow in the gut courtesy of Sasuke.
"…anyway, nothing wrong with having a white Christmas, right?" Truth be told, she could get used to a place like this. It was cozy and kind of cute. The shops were kind of old fashioned and people native to the area were very warm and welcoming.
"If you say…so…" Sakura turned at the sound of Sasuke sounding so uncharacteristically exasperated. She followed his gaze just to spot a familiar pair of faces in the distance.
"Is that Neji?" She called, spotting both him and Hinata exiting a coffee shop with the latter holding what looked to be a cup of hot cocoa between her gloved hands. Without much thought, Sakura bounded over excitedly. Could this be? A silver lining?
"Hinata!" The pinkette called from just feet away.
"It's Sakura! What brings you here?" As equally excited to run into a familiar face, Hinata met Sakura halfway where the two began to converse with one another quite amicably. Hinata chose to study in Kumo as opposed to staying in Konoha so it was rare they ever saw one another after high school.
"I was invited along on this trip by Sasuke's family. We're staying at the lodge just up the hill." She explained with a smile. Soon Neji joined his cousin, giving Sakura a polite nod before pinning his focus on the two who come up behind Sakura.
"Naruto. Sasuke." He greeted simply.
"Yo!"
"Hn."
"Naruto-kun as well! And Sasuke-kun! It's nice to see you both." Hinata greeted with a smile for the two males before she and Sakura continued to chat. Eventually the small group agreed to escape the cold by entering one of the nearby boutiques per Hinata's suggestion.
"Really? Condemned? Oh, Sakura…that must've been awful." After sometime, Sakura and Hinata decided to catch each other up on the latest happening's in their lives. Hinata had finally adjusted to life in Kumo and Sakura's life was always being turned upside down in some way, form, or fashion.
"Yeah, it wasn't great at all. But it all worked out somehow. Now I'm staying with Sasuke and…others." She made an offhanded comment that caught Hinata off guard.
"Sasuke-kun? Doesn't he live with his family?"
"And Naruto."
"Isn't that a little uncomfortable for you? They're all men…" Hinata whispered as if it were some scandalous secret and Sakura only suddenly realized that this is what she'd been missing all this time! A rational person!
"Right?! I mean I thought it was just me that found this arrangement to be strange if not just flat out wrong! Granted, they're all super nice and basically perfect gentleman so I don't feel like I'm in danger but—."
"It's the principle."
"Exactly! Hinata, please never leave me again."
"Heh, sorry to have left you for so long, Sakura."
"To make matters worse, I'm at this lodge with them all and more of their families showed up. I don't know if males just run strong between them but I'm still the only girl." She explained while superficially gazing at the clothing items on display.
"How many of them are there?"
"6…9…10. Wow, there's ten of them." She didn't even realize that until now. Just the thought made her grimace and it seemed Hinata felt quite the same.
"…here's a thought! Why don't you move to my family's lodge? Hanabi and I would love to have another girl around!" Hinata offered with a smile.
"Eh? Where's your family's lodge?"
"It's on the other side of the ski resort. Not that far at all. We have plenty of space and I'm sure Neji won't mind. It's just us and a few housekeepers we brought along." Hmm. Not a bad deal at all. Moving would sure alleviate some of the tension she felt being with the Uchiha plus Senju. Besides, who knows when she'll get to hang out with Hinata again like this.
"Sure! Sounds like a great idea. Thank you!"
"You've leaving, Sakura-chan?! What the hell!" Caught in the act of bringing her bags to the door, Shisui bellowed out his disapproval of her departure loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Could you be any louder?" He wasn't going to talk her out of this or guilt trip her in any way.
"Sakura's leaving? Aww, I was looking forward to getting to know her." That was the voice of Ashura evidently pouting from the top of the stairs. He was soon joined by the Senju brothers who eventually came down to the ground level.
Madara and Izuna would follow suit, curious over the yelling.
"You! What did you all do to make her leave? You haven't even been here a whole day!" An accusatory finger was pointed at the lot of them as Shisui definitely wasn't happy about her decision to part ways.
"Eh? We didn't do anything." And pretty much everyone felt the same way Ashura did as he spoke first in his own defense.
"I'm sure it's no one's fault." Ever the voice of reason, Itachi would join the group, carrying with him the last of Sakura's baggage to the door. He wore his coat and shoes, having every intention of escorting her to her new destination.
"Sakura has just decided to spend her break with our neighbors."
"Neigh–…you're staying with the stuck up Hyugas?!" At that, there was collective disgust on pretty much everyone's face.
"They are not stuck up! If anyone's stuck up, it's definitely you all!" All being the Uchiha. And it's like Sakura wanted to rile Shisui up. For he was heavily offended by her words.
"Stuck up? Stuck up? Me? Sasuke, definitely. Uncle, of course. Izuna, looks can be deceiving but he's the worst one. Indra, the king of snoots! Itachi, depends on who you ask. But me? Sakura-chan, just say you hate me and go!"
"You are so dramatic! I'll see around. Come on, Itachi." Unwilling to entertain such nonsense, Sakura grabbed what she could carry and out the door she went with Itachi not far behind, wearing a hidden smile on his face. This is definitely going to be interesting.
As they stepped outside to load Sakura's belongings into the back of Itachi's car, the remaining patrons of the lodge filtered out to witness her departure with a mix of expressions upon each of their faces. Needless to say, not one of them looked too happy concerning this unexpected yet understandable turn of events.
"You think she's leaving because of us?"
"Undoubtedly."
"But we didn't do anything."
"Would you want to be in her shoes?"
"Well…"
"Exactly."
Understandable, indeed.
It was odd but neither the Senju nor the Uchiha, save for Shisui, seemed to object to her leaving. At least, not outwardly. Inwardly, they were all pretty bummed and naturally felt bad that Sakura was evidently so uncomfortable, she leapt at the first chance to leave. Sure, it made sense, but it still stung in the end.
"…we should do something to make it up to Sakura-chan."
"Hn? Like what?" Sasuke responded, watching the car pull down the snowy driveway onto the main road.
"Hmmm…did you get her anything for Christmas?"
"A gift card—."
"Lame! Let's get her something really nice! Like…uh…necklace or something!"
"Does she even wear jewelry?"
"…."
"Hn. As much as I hate to say this, I think I know what Sakura wants but…"
"But what?"
"None of us are going to like it."
A/N: Ohhhhhhhhh. What is it that Sakura wants? Glad to be back and posting here again! I feel like I've gotten a bit of my groove back so hopefully I'll be able to post more chapters here and elsewhere.
Also quick note, I've gotten a couple of reviews that have made me raise an eyebrow. This story so far is mostly comedy with a hint of romance and if there is romance, please understand that Sakura will always be respected by the men in this story. So please don't send reviews with implications that they're going to violate her in some way. That's really gross and I can't say I would ever write about that. Aside from that, everyone is an adult and will be treated as such in this story.
Please don't make me write this kind of note again.
Thanks and see you all in the next one!