6 – For the First Time
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, just this story.
5 WEEKS AGO
Sasuke slumps in his Cadillac right across the entrance of the U&H Tower.
He's always been a punctual person. Time, especially his, is too scarce to waste. Yet here he is, hiding out in his car because he made a pink haired doctor cry.
Okay, she didn't cry. Worse than that, she had a fucking panic attack.
The fact that Naruto didn't come after him later makes him wary. The idiot didn't barge into his place promising pain, he didn't blow up his cell over the weekend. Even now, just a few minutes before the committee he's set up for the project is about to meet up for the first time, it's been radio silence.
It's not like he intended forherto break down. He knows what it's like, he used to have them a lot when he was younger. The day before the bar, before he went up for his first case. No one ever knew except Itachi. It's the shittiest feeling in the world, losing control of yourself for even just a second and knowing there's nothing you can do to stop it from happening again.
That doesn't mean he's going to let it go. It just means he's going to give Haruno Sakura the benefit of the doubt. He looked her up after that day in the orphanage, of course. She seems to come from a normal, middle class family. But there was nothing else except for a couple of mentions in her university's school paper and an article about Senju Tsunade. Which makes him all the more suspicious. If there is really nothing, then what the fuck was she having a panic attack for?
He can't get the thought off his head that somehow, she's in this just to make a quick buck.
He spots a dash of pink in his line of vision. Speak of the devil and she shall appear.
Haruno Sakura is dwarfed by the olive green peacoat she has on and he doesn't like to admit it, but she's a welcome change in a scenery filled with sophisticated neutrals. Sasuke observes as she walks to the entrance with a to-go cup from Jishin and then backtracks like she's about to leave.
She's not sure about this, he realizes. Is she afraid of seeing him or is it something else?
Well, he's not going to find out if he stays here. And he hates that he has to know.
Sasuke locks his car and strides to Sakura. It's a while before she notices him coming but she finally sees his reflection beside hers on the automatically sliding glass doors. "Uchiha-san. Good morning…"
"Hn." He nods to her and takes note of the way her lidded eyes stare straight ahead. She's angling her body away from his as she chews on a lip. Ah, so it is him.
"We should go in…?" She asks, still not looking at him.
"Aa." Sasuke goes on ahead and doesn't check if the doctor is following. They take the lift exclusively for partners and he tells himself it's not because he wants to show off. There's just less people this way.
The doors are just about to close when a long cane wedges itself between the panels. They slide back open and reveals Hyuuga Hiashi in his full haori and hakama. His father has given up trying to convince the man to wear a normal business suit. Sasuke personally thinks it's not a matter of tradition, Hyuuga Hiashi just doesn't want to look like everyone else.
"Hiashi-san," Sasuke greets simply.
The old man, staid as ever, looks from Sasuke to Sakura. "And you are?"
"Oh! Hi, I'm Haruno Sakura!" she shifts her to-go cup so she can offer her hand to the man. Sasuke can see Hiashi's eyes narrow at the cup, specifically the labeling that decorated its side, before he ignores her and turns his back on them altogether.
The ire Sasuke experiences at Sakura's miffed look catches him off guard. He's actually angry for her. Only because he'd feel the same way, he justifies to no one. And honestly, the man is an ass. The enemy of my enemy and all that. He addresses the Hyuuga, "You must be having trouble hearing again Hiashi-san, I believe the lady introduced herself."
The elevator stops seamlessly on the finance department floor. Hyuuga Hiashi half turns to him, looking so superior that it incenses Sasuke more. "Oh, don't worry about me, young Uchiha. The clock ticks."
They're left alone for the next couple of floors, stewing in the uneasy silence. Sasuke, on his part, vacillates on whether he should apologize to the doctor or not. Sakura seems content in not addressing the issue at all. With the way she answered him when he doubted her qualifications back in the orphanage, he'd think she'd have no problem at all railing him for his accusation.
Just when he finally decides to give a small apology, now with no one else to listen in, Sakura turns to him with a straight face. "How did I not notice him stick his cane up his ass?"
It's in that split-second where he disguises his laughter with a cough that Sasuke realizes the dangerous potential that he could actually like Haruno Sakura.
xxx
There are far more people inside the meeting room than Sasuke invited. Aside from Yamanaka's three-man PR team, there's also Hyuuga Neji, an associate partner and Hiashi's heir apparent, and some guy with the saddest haircut he's ever seen on a grown man and who he's pretty sure works as one of their court runners. They're both talking to a girl with twin buns on her head, Tenten, who's helped him in a couple of his litigations before.
Then there's Karin, sitting all by herself and scrolling through the tablet she's never without.
He addresses the redhead. "Why are you here?" Did his father need something or did he just send her here to spy?
"Relax Uchiha, I volunteered for this and Fugaku-sama okay-ed it," Karin hisses. The redhead leans in to him conspiratorially. "This could be my in at the Uchiha Foundation you know? It's not because I want to spend time with your ungrateful ass."
Right. She wanted to get something to drink with him in exchange for her information and he… thought sending her a bottle of her favorite chardonnay would appease her. He guesses not.
"Oi! Took you long enough Sasuke-teme! You got lost in the parking lot or something?"
"The fuck?"Even the dobe is here?The blonde sits on top of the long wooden table, one leg under him. He's already snacking on something, based on the bits of food flying off of his mouth and Sasuke has no desire to find out what it is.
"Don't you have a job, dobe?" He flicks off the debris that fell from Naruto's mouth using a handkerchief. He's gonna have to burn that now. "Or did they fire you already?"
"I'll have you know," Naruto shoves an index finger inches away from his nose. "That Kakashi was so in awe of how well I've been doing lately that he decided to give me a vacation!"
Please. If Naruto's stories are to be believed— and they're not, not completely— then he's doing okay. But the blonde's terminally late boss isn't one to reward an excellent job with anything greater than a pat on the head. "You got suspended again, didn't you?"
"Again?" Sakura screeches and whaps the idiot on the head in disbelief. Sasuke can't help but respect the way she makes the dobe cower over her tiny closed fists. It's not unusual for Naruto to be reprimanded for his cowboy attitude or general ineptitude. His ability to crack a case is nothing short of unbelievable, but then, so was that time he handed evidence to a target for discovery before he was even charged.
He looks around the full room and his eyes settle on Sakura's pink hair as the doctor exchanges hugs and insults with Yamanaka. It's annoyingly eye catching.
It doesn't surprise Sasuke that she knows at least half of the people there already. Aside from him and Naruto, she already knows Yamanaka from their psych classes in med school. By extension, she also knows Nara and Akimichi, the PR team's strategist and social media specialist respectively and Yamanaka's second and third appendages. Even Karin, being their (having Naruto in common still sounds weird to him) best friend's cousin, isn't a stranger to her either.
Sasuke's known most of these people all his life— hard not to when they moved in the same circles— and yet, aside from that one vague memory in his childhood, he's never heard of her. She took the six degrees of separation theory and slashed it in thirds. And it looks like she's about to make more friends. He slams his briefcase down on the mahogany table before fuzzy brows could make his way to her.
"We've got things to do here Hyuuga, leave." Sasuke addresses the long haired man. "And you can take your friends with you."
"Your brother didn't talk to you did he?" Hyuuga Neji sends him the trademark Hyuuga look of smugness.
"What are you talking about?"
"He asked me to help out in your little project," He saunters to the table and takes a seat. "And he told me to find a couple of people who could help out."
First his father, now Itachi? He grinds his teeth together so he doesn't say anything that might amuse Hyuuga. At least he could count on his mother not to coddle him on this. To actually believe he could fix his own mistakes.
"Fine." Sasuke strides to the head of the table. "Let's just get this started already." He tries to stem an oncoming headache by pinching the bridge of his nose. The thought that his father could be watching his every move becomes his drive. He has more to lose here than just the partners' approval.
And maybe everything to gain.
Naruto and Karin fight for the chair on his left but the blonde out snarls his cousin. The petty contempt they have for each other is usually something that amuses Sasuke, but not today. The doctor on the other hand sits opposite him and for some reason it rankles him. It's probably because in the few board meetings his mother attends, she always chooses to sit opposite her husband, as his partner and equal.
Sakura stares back at him, observing him for what, Sasuke doesn't know. And he's not in the mood to figure all of it out. It hasn't been half an hour yet and he's already ran a full gamut of emotions when it comes to Haruno Sakura, with all of it solidifying into one thought: she's damned annoying.
"You can start with why you called us out here so goddamn early," Nara Shikamaru asks him mid-yawn. He may look like a lazy bum— he is— but he's also a genius with an IQ over 200. It'd be more surprising that he doesn't already know. He just wants him to admit it.
Bastard.
"I'm sure you've all seen how the Uchiha & Hyuuga LLC, and me specifically, have been reviled by the press lately. It's everyone's favorite flavor of schadenfreude." Sasuke notices Sakura's brows shoot up. Did she really not know? It's all anyone wants to talk about these days.
"To clean up the firm's image, we're helping out the orphanage this idiot grew up in. Your job," Sasuke tells Yamanaka, "Is to make us look good doing it. We have a month."
Sakura looks slightly scandalized, but not shocked. Hearing it out loud now, it does sound like a shit thing to do but it's just what it is. Big companies engage in disingenuous acts of charity to earn good will all the time. Besides, the orphanage is literally getting everything out of this deal, she has nothing to complain about.
"I was wondering when you'd call us, but what's with the time frame? It's a little steep don't you think?" Yamanaka slides her eyes along the table. "And why is Naruto-baka and Billboard Brow here?"
"Who?"
"She means me," Sakura answers, aggrieved. "For your information Porky Pie, I'm here in behalf of the orphanage the Uchiha Foundation is planning on helping out."
Sasuke trains his eyes at Sakura's forehead, not really seeing why it would merit her that nickname. "Shouldn't Iruka, the orphanage director, be here instead then?"
"We've already had this conversation before, Uchiha-san." Her tone is obeisant and her smile is convincing enough to pass for teasing. But no one would be able to mistake the mettle in her eyes. She's a far cry from the shaken girl he unintentionally rendered mute a few days ago. "You don't hear me asking why you're the one heading this project despite your lack of experience in the topic do you?"
And Sasuke's oddly pleased to know she's not above making threats of her own.
A camera flash goes off and Akimichi just grins at the shot he took of Sakura. "Oh yeah, we can definitely make Sakura-san the face of this. Pretty, smart, and passionate."
"Didn't you hear me? The point is to make the firm look good." Not some fresh out of school doctor, no matter how pretty she is. Or smart and passionate.
"We can't make you the face of this directly," Nara reasons out. "Or it'll just seem like pandering. I mean it is, but our job is to make it look natural."
Naruto chuckles at his expense. "The one time your pretty boy face could be good for something and it turns out to be the problem!"
Sasuke scoffs. It's not like he wanted to be the face of it either. He figured he could just take someone else from the firm's leadership— maybe his mother. But Nara's logic is sound. They're PR firm is where people who've done a huge, public blunder run to. Movie stars, politicians, social media celebrities— basically, anyone who has any measure of fame and could afford their services. He's loath to admit it, but he's one of them now.
"Well actually," Yamanaka eyes him and the doctor, "If people see you together with her, her clean and wholesome persona might un-contaminate yours. Have you two considered dating?"
Sasuke gives an emphatic no and Karin is more vehement. Even Hyuuga's bowl-haired friend registers his displeasure. The last thing he needs is to be gossiped about in the tabloids in addition to having an already shitty reputation.
The rejection that surprises him though, is Sakura's. He's long accepted that for some reason, women find him attractive, he blames the feminine features both he and Itachi inherited from their mother. It's not bragging, in fact he hates it. But fawning of some kind is something he's come to expect… Well, he did call her a goddamn liar to her face. That probably didn't endear him to her.
Yamanaka presses the doctor on it, teasing her about finally knowing what's it like to have a boyfriend so Sasuke knows it's not because she's already in a relationship. Sakura's cheeks flush darker the more she tries to bat away Yamanaka's insinuations. Again, he has the presentience that it's not about embarrassment; she just doesn't want to be in the spotlight herself.
"Alright," Yamanaka huffs. "But Shika isn't wrong. People can easily sniff out a PR stunt these days so if you want this to work Sasuke, then you're gonna need her. Sakura screams genuine."
"Fine. We can do it with Naruto." It'll make more sense since he has connections to the orphanage.
Sasuke starts dividing them into teams. He silently thanks all his years in student government and occasionally helping out in his mother's charity events. Even if all he got out of those are the names of the usual working committees needed for something like this.
Communications, he obviously gives to Yamanaka's PR firm. He reluctantly concedes the finance committee to Hyuuga and his tag-alongs. Getting money isn't a problem, it just needs to be allocated properly and he can at least trust him to be as anal retentive about it as he is in his post of quartermaster.
The Uzumakis… he begrudgingly acknowledges Itachi's interference. Without Hyuuga, he might have had to make one of them in charge of finance and he'd rather give away his Cadillac for free. But Karin's surprisingly good at finding things and he hopes the dobe's knack for convincing thugs to come to Kami can translate to convincing whoever to give them whatever resources they'll be needing. Sasuke gives them the logistics committee along with a threat not to fuck up.
That only leaves the actual planning of what to do. Fundraisers and auctions, he could plan in an hour. But he knows jack shit about children. Much less orphans. Unfortunately, there's only one person he can give that assignment to.
The pink haired doctor is already approaching him before he can tell her. "Do you want to work together on the program, Uchiha-san?"
Sasuke thinks of all the reasons why he shouldn't do this— he doesn't trust her, knows next to nothing about her, and there's something she doesn't want anyone finding out. These are things he's learned, and just recently re-learned, are warning signs when it comes to a client.
He admits there's nothing wrong with her on the surface level, but she has all these little tells that makes him wary. And if he has to guess, it has something to do with her previous employment in KMC. It's the topic she's cagiest about.
The 'no' is at the tip of his tongue but he remembers the way her eyes glazed over when he confronted her. The way she started trembling and struggling to breathe.
He supposes the least he could do is agree to this.
Quite frankly, he doesn't have the liberty of time to say no, so he agrees.
But Sasuke's sure of one thing. She's not going to be pulling one over him.
xxx
"When you said you wanted to work on this, I thought you meant today. We don't have a lot of time," Sasuke complains even as he walks Sakura out of the main lobby. It rankles him that all they've accomplished for now is assigning work, but that's pretty much how these types of projects go. Hopefully, things speed up when they've got a whole plan to work with.
"I'm sorry!" Sakura presses her hands together in front of her. "It's my first day and I have to get to Shinseikatsu soon. The older kids are about to come back from school."
"It's fine." It's not, but what can he really do? He's going to send everyone else back to wherever they have to be when he goes back up. There's no use continuing without an idea of where to even start. He needs the doctor's big brain for that. "At least it's not as time consuming as when you were still in KMC right?"
There it is again. A little twitch in her eyes, a tightening of her smile. She's defensive about something.
"You don't have to sulk Uchiha-san," she ignores his last statement altogether. "I'm sure you have a lot of stuff to catch up on."
"I'm not sulking," he says, which only makes Sakura laugh harder, the tension on her shoulders falling away. It's a deep-belly laugh he's not used to getting from people, aside from Naruto. It's not like the affected or strained chuckles people trying to toady up to him usually give. She's genuinely amused by him and Sasuke thinks he should be offended, but he's not.
Despite the fact that she's subtly lying to him about something, it's annoyingly refreshing.
No. It's refreshingly annoying.
"I'll be going now Uchiha-san," she half-heartedly waves at him.
"Sasuke."
"What?" she regards him with her green, doll eyes.
"My name is Sasuke," he presses the back of his hand to his mouth. "If you ask for an Uchiha-san here, they'll point you to six other people before me."
Sakura considers him again, her eyes still looking for something. Does she find it? The corners of her eyes crease and she gives him a slightly wider smile than she's given him before so he assumes she does. "Alright, Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke watches her long pink hair tied into a braid swinging side to side, and waits for her to disappear from his sight before he turns to go back up.
Sasuke-kun.
He rolls it off his tongue. It's weird. Annoying.
Refreshing.
"A new friend of yours?"
Sasuke flinches when his great uncle, Uchiha Madara, approach him. The old man has this annoying tendency of showing up out of nowhere and when least expected. Keeps people off their feet, he said. He's incredibly put together for his age, being older than Sasuke's deceased maternal grandfather— his younger brother. Looking at him, long white hair tumbling haphazardly down his ramrod straight back, no one would know he was already approaching his nineties.
"No," Sasuke says immediately before the old man gets any ideas, but Madara keeps looking at the direction Sakura disappeared to anyway. "Why are you here?"
His great uncle shrugs. "Can't a man visit his favorite great nephew?"
"That depends. Are you here for a chat or a lecture?"
To Sasuke, Madara has always been an easier book to read than his own father. For some reason, his great uncle has taken an interest in him, more than the elder Itachi. He thinks it's because they're very similar people in their core, with their gruff personalities and frank demeanor. Of course, that also means that when he fucked up, Sasuke could also expect to hear from the old man with a tongue lashing worse than his father's disappointed stare.
At this point though,
"Actually, I came here to see Fugaku. Been avoiding my calls lately." Sasuke arches an eyebrow at that. What business could he have with his father? "And since you already know you're in a shitty situation, I won't have to tell you not to bungle this. Right?"
Sasuke grinds his teeth together for a second before he can give him a clipped yes.
"Good. Remember what you're fighting for here Sasuke." Madara nods at him one last time and leaves the building himself. Sasuke scoffs, he doesn't need a threat. As if he'd ever forget how he's spent his whole life trying to prove to his father that he's even worthy of consideration.
Stupid old man really should just mind his own business.
He's a couple of floors up when he feels his phone vibrate.
Just wanted to see if you gave me a real number. See you tomorrow, Sasuke-kun.
Only one thing exists for Sasuke. Only one thing he's labored towards. But for the first time, Sasuke finds himself intrigued by something other than his job. So he checks himself. Part of Haruno Sakura's … appeal is that there's a mystery to her that he wants to figure out.
Just not at the cost of his goals.
A/N: Oh look, FFnet is back up again.
At least I was able to use the time make more stories. Check out LAKBAY: A SasuSaku PH Travel Zine on twitter! There are so many brilliant Filipino writers and artists and I'm so excited for the world to see their work!