Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

OK..this is a long one...still on the happy side...but a bit more serious..well cuz there's lemon in it. So here's the deal..if you DON'T want to read the lemon read this chapter...and not the other version of it..because that one has the lemon..you won't miss anything major...so don't worry about that...i just don't want to be reported for something stupid..so im giving you all a heads up.

Anyways..enjoy!

Chapter 9: Birthday

Days. It's been days and days since I've stood, sat, and then stood up again, waiting for her. She's not a late person, she was always very on time (which used to annoy me) but she loved to be late on purpose just to see how mad she could make me. She wouldn't show up for 5 minutes then 10 minutes and then 15, just to see how worried I would get before appearing, giggling and then kissing me to make sure I wouldn't stay angry at her. It was a wonder that I didn't just get fed up and leave, but I knew that she would always show up and kiss me, and deep inside of me, I knew that that was what I was waiting for.

Flashback

Why does she always insist on doing this to me? Late, again she's late! Was it just me or did she just conveniently become a late person after we started dating? Even after 10 months of dating her, she was still able to find new ways of frustrating me.

Us meeting today is her idea and hers alone because I definitely did not want to be here on today of all days. It's July 23rd, and I could safely say that I thoroughly hated this date. It was my 19th birthday. Ever since the massacre of my family, I've never allowed anyone to celebrate my birthday. What the hell's the point anyway? So, some people give you a few cheap gifts and sing you a damned lame song, it was so pointless and I didn't need that… and I had no one to give me that even if I did need it. My past few birthdays have been the best in my entire life…non-existent. No one at Sound even acknowledged that July 23rd was different from any other day, which suited me just fine.

But I wasn't lucky enough this year. Sakura said that she would give me "the best birthday that I've ever had." Her eyes shined with so much happiness and excitement that it was impossible for me to say no but I made her promise not to sing any cheesy songs or buy me any presents.

So that is why I'm waiting here today, waiting for her to show up. She was officially VERY late. Later than she usually was when she was trying to annoy me and despite me trying to stay calm, I started to panic. What if something happened to her? Or worse, what if she finally realized that I didn't deserve her? An hour passed by and for as long as I've known her, she has never been this late. Shit, I should have went to go look for her a long –

"Sasuke! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

I turned around, relieved to hear her voice and then a little annoyed. If this was one of her tactics to annoy me again, it definitely was NOT funny. But when I saw her face I knew that it wasn't a prank.

"Sasuke, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be late but at the last minute there was an injured boy who was brought in, and I couldn't leave him there. I'm sorry."

"It's fine, you don't have to apologize." I felt a little sheepish for having been annoyed at her and thinking that she was joking again.

"No, It's your birthday and I'll make it up to you. I promise!" She said in her determined voice.

"Hn, remember your promise."

"Yeah yeah, you should lighten up." She said with a smile and pulled my hand in a direction that led to wherever she was planning to go.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see." She had an excited and partially nervous look on her face and I knew her enough to be a little scared…in a good way.

We walked for a few more minutes until we stopped right at my front door. She turned her head to look at me and I raised my eyebrow, questioning her.

I had given her the key a while ago and she now used it to unlock my door and pull me in.

I was in complete shock. She had lit the room with some candles and there was a dinner setting for two in my dining room. I never knew my house had the potential to look like that but somehow, it looked warm and inviting.

She turned to face me. "Do you like it?" She asked nervously.

I was still trying to figure out how she managed to pull this off in my house and when I didn't answer, she kept talking out of nervousness.

"I mean, I know you didn't want a party and you usually don't like going to fancy restaurants and we always go to that old tree and I wanted to do something different. I know the candles are a bit much but I –"

I kissed her to make her shut up and because I was grateful. I knew she had put a lot of thought in it. In my entire life, I don't remember anyone putting that much time and effort in celebrating my birthday.

When I pulled away from her, I looked straight into her eyes, " I love it."

She looked at me and blushed before giggling and saying that I didn't have to take things so seriously. But I could tell she was relieved.

She pulled me over to the table where she had set up the food and a single rose. The setting was what any woman would describe as romantic and I smacked myself for not thinking of doing this for her.

When she unveiled the meals I was once again surprised. They were the most elaborate and delicious looking meals I had ever seen. "Did you make this?"

She blushed again, "Yeah"

"It looks really good." I said smiling at her.

We were both pretty hungry and we started to eat the food in front of us, making small talk here and there. When we got down to dessert, we slowed down our eating and started to talk more. I took the time to notice her fully and realized that she looked incredible. I didn't even think about it before since I was so caught up in wondering where she was and then the shock of her surprise.

But something seemed off, "Did you lie to me then?" I asked abruptly.

"What?"

"You weren't at the hospital?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Well you look so damned good, you couldn't possibly have dealt with an injured child looking like that."

She laughed and blushed for the third time that day. I was on a roll.

"Not really, I was here, but I did get held up at the hospital with the boy. It was before I came here so that's why I was late."

With that we settled back to our quiet conversation. Again, I took the time to admire her in her beautiful black dress. I felt a strange pride to see her here in my dining room. I looked at the meal we were finishing up and again, the pride struck me. I realized that I loved seeing her looking beautiful in my house and I was strangely proud of the fact that she was such an amazing cook and proud that she helped the boy at the hospital. And it was pride, not a sense of achievement that I got a girl who could cook my meals. It wasn't like that at all. It was strange to me because I always labelled her as weak and here she was apparently able to conquer anything she wanted to.

The next thing I noticed was that she was standing up in front of me. "Come on" She said.

I got up and followed her into my room where she reached into the drawer of my nightstand. She turned around and handed me a simply wrapped package. I looked at it and then her.

"You promised!" I accused.

"I know but you can't have a birthday without any presents!" She looked at me pleadingly and after 10 months, there's no way that I could ever say no to her. It was my biggest fear but in the end I didn't even care that she had so much power over me.

I took the gift and sat down before I started to pull the ribbon apart. I lifted the lid off the box and inside lay a shiny silver plate resting on top of a dark blue band.

When I had left Konoha, I left behind the only thing that I had that reminded me that I was a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf village. When I can back and when the village finally decided to re-instate my status as a shinobi, they gave me a new headband and I never saw my old one again.

Until now. When I looked at it, I could see all the small and large gashes that marred its surface. It reminded me of each and every battle that I had taken part in along side Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura. I was speechless because I never expected to see this again and because Sakura had done so much for me. She could have just as easily bought something that meant nothing to either of us but she didn't. And I guess you could say that was the kind of person she was. She took the time to do things that expressed what she felt in every aspect of life. I admired her for it.

I looked up at her, "Where'd you get this?"

"I asked Kakashi-sensei and he had it."

I ran my fingers over it reminiscently.

"Sasuke?" She asked unsurely.

"Thank you." I said looking at her.

She smiled at me and blushed again. "Do you really like it?" She asked nervously.

She was acting really weird all day. She kept blushing and although I loved it, it was weird since she usually didn't do it this often. She kept fidgeting with her hair and her dress and acting nervous which usually wasn't a trait of Sakura. I hadn't noticed all day but now that it was just us alone in a room, it became very apparent.

But I chose to ignore it. I opted to kiss her instead, to show my gratitude… of course. I kissed her with all the appreciation and pride I felt that day. She didn't disappoint when she said she would give me the best birthday, and I wanted to thank her in my own way. I deepened the kiss and pushed my hand into her hair, which I loved so much, and my other hand went to her waist, leaving the gift forgotten in my lap. She pulled away and I was dumbstruck until I realized that she was just putting the gift onto the nightstand.

She turned back to me and smiled and kissed me. She rested her hands on my shoulders for a while but then they moved up to my neck when she pulled me in closer to once again, deepen the kiss. I slid my tongue lightly across her bottom lip. My head was experiencing the familiar heady feeling and I needed to taste her. But she surprised me by pushing her tongue into my mouth greedily. We took turns exploring each other's mouths and then she pulled away slightly only to start sucking seductively on my bottom lip. I couldn't help but groan into her lips.

Oh god! She was killing me. I knew that she was trying to allude to other things when she did that and she knew that it always got to me.

Even after all these months, we still hadn't gone all the way with each other. She's told me before that she wanted it but I was still reluctant. She wasn't like any other woman and I couldn't treat her like any other woman. I wanted and needed her to know that she was more than any woman that I've ever been with. And it has taken so much self control to prove that to her that at times, I'd go home with the urge to 'finish things off' by myself. But I always managed to fix things with a nice cold shower. I didn't think I was going to be that lucky now but I could at least try.

Reluctantly, VERY reluctantly, I pulled away. "Sakura" I rasped out.

She tried to continue kissing me but I held her face, "Sakura" I repeated.

"I want this." She said seriously, and seductively. She was definitely going to be the death of me.

"Sakura, we –"

"Sasuke, I trust you. Completely and forever, I trust you." She was breaking my resolve and I couldn't help it, she looked and felt so damned good and I knew that the one thing I was trying to protect would be my downfall.

I groaned again. (some how I felt like I would be doing that a lot tonight)"Sakura, are you sure?"

She leaned in and kissed me again. "Sasuke, please." She whispered seductively against my lips.

There, I was done for. I knew that at that point, I would give into her every desire.

And I did. We fell onto the bed and let desire, passion, and love take over.

After we were finished, and had both completely caught our breaths, the sleepiness had caught up to us. She lifted her head up to my ear.

"Happy Birthday Sasuke," She whispered, " I love you"

" I love you too"

End Flashback

I never did thank her for everything she had done for me that day. I don't think even I realized the full extent of what she had done. She loved me enough to give me a birthday that was unlike any other. And even though I was a hard person to please, she dealt with me anyway and she did it better that anyone else. All the little things she did for me that day made me realize how important it was to her that I had a proper birthday and the fact that she cared about that showed me how much she really loved me. The truth was that I needed her to do those things for me; to show me what love meant.

I need her to come and kiss me and tell me it was all a joke.

hello everyone!

Ok this chapter was one of the easiest to write...i have no idea why but it was a relief. I'm really sorry to all my reviewers but i won't be able to reply to them this week because i am majorly pressed for time..turns out summer school is not as easy as i expected..and the work has just piled on!...i almost didn't get this chapter in..and if i had to reply to reviews..it woulnd't have at all. I'm really sorry for that because i love replying to u guys..but thank you all so much for your reviews and support.

Also, i'm sorry for changing the rating so abruptly but it obviously had to be done for this chapter..and i hope it didn't make it too difficult to find the fic for any of the past readers.

Anyways..its getting really late...tell me what you think of this chapter...and remember...lemon is the next one..so DON'T read it if you don't like that stuff

see you next week!