Sakura plugged the patio lights into the light socket as Sasuke brought thier plates out and set them on the table.

"Did you want your champagne now or after dinner Sakura?"

"After."

"Want me to grab you a soda then?"

"Please."

Sasuke walked back inside and returned with a soda and a beer.

"This is nice." Sakura looked around her balcony. "I like how the lights aren't too bright and cast shadows on the glass top of the table." She smiled

"You really like it here don't you?" He asked her.

"I needed a change Sasuke, but yes, I do like it here. It suits me." She took a bite of her stir fry.

"How long do you plan on being here?" He picked out a piece of carrot and put it on the side of his plate.

"At least through the college year, there isn't much sense in leaving before then. I might stay for good though, who knows, or till I graduate." She took a sip of her soda.

"Konoha has the best medical program, you know that you'll be back," Sasuke said confidently.

"Maybe I don't want to be a doctor anymore." She ate a piece of shrimp.

"What? You've always wanted to be a doctor. You'll be back. I know you." Sasuke took another bite of his food and hummed.

"This is really good Sakura." He said surprised and she glared at him.

"One time, one time I burned the rice and now you and Naruto think I can't cook anything, sheesh." She stuffed another bite fo food in her mouth.

"Well, who doesn't know how to cook rice." He mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." He took a drink of his beer.

"Anyway, I like it here, you don't have to worry about me okay?"

"But you don't know anyone here, don't you get, I don't know, bored?"

"I know Sasori." She pointed out.

"Ah yes, the son of the International criminal," Sasuke said sarcastically.

"I know what your family does Sasuke, don't think I'm as oblivious as Naruto." She gave him a pointed look and he looked away.

"We don't sell drugs to kids." He tried to defend his clan.

"Maybe not but your clan has thier hand in a lot of things that are just as bad. Besides, maybe Sasori isn't involved with whatever his father does." She wasn't stupid.

"Arms dealing isn't that bad Sakura." Sasuke was getting annoyed. Selling drugs to kids, [utting innocent people at risk, that was criminal, he didn't consider what his family did as criminal behavior...he might be a little biased though.

"I know that's not all your family does, don't even try to lie to me Uchiha."

"Don't talk about things you don't understand Sakura, and even if Sasori doesn't have his hand in the family business, he grew up in it, people from "That world" know his face, know his name, he can't escape it." He was starting to get angry. She might think she knew what his family did but she was wrong, she had no idea and he was going to keep it that way.

"Whatever." She rose to take her now empty plate inside.

"You want another beer?" She asked him taking his almost empty plate and frowning at the row of uneaten carrots along the side.

"Yeah."

Sakura opened her bottle of champaign that she had put in the freezer and grabbed a beer and a flute from her china cabinet. Sasuke was leaning over the railing when she made her way back out to the balcony.

"Here." She handed him his beer and took a sip of her champagne.

"Hn."

They stood there leaning over the rail looking out into the woods in silence.

"Ino misses you Sakura," Sasuke said after awhile.

"I miss her too."

"Come home."

"I can't, I don't want to, not yet Sasuke. I need to be here on my own, at least for a little bit." She sighed, he didn't understand.

"You could move into the compound, mom would love you living with us. She always calls you the daughter that she never had. Sometimes I think she likes you more than Itachi and I." He huffed a little.

"I'm not moving back Sasuke, at least not anytime soon, if at all. If I moved into the compound, I wouldn't be on my own." She watched the sunset in the west.

"I don't get you."

"Exactly, you don't, just leave it alone." She drank the rest of her champagne and went to refill her glass.

Sasuke was sitting back at the table when she returned.

"Is it because of me? Did you move to get away from me?" He asked her.

"Yes, and that's why you're here right now, my plan worked wonderfully...idiot." She laughed and drank more.

"Why did you move, you never really explained it to us, you just said that it was something you had to do."

Sakura sighed. "I just, everyone in Konoha knows me."

"So?"

"So, I wanted to go somewhere no one knew me." She said exasperated with this conversation.

"Does it have to do with your parent's deaths, is that why you want to be somewhere no one knows you?" He asked finishing his second beer.

"Partly, I'm sick of the sympathy, the looks, the whispering. Partly because when they died I realized...I haven't done anything, ever. I haven't lived, I have only existed. I want more than that, I want to live." She looked at him.

"I think I understand."

He was trying, she could tell. It meant a lot coming from him. Sasuke was a great guy but he was also a very selfish, self absorbed sort of person. He didn't mean to be that way, she knew, it was hard for him, being the second, younger brother to Itachi Uchiha, who was...a strategic genius.

"I'm going to get another beer, you want me to bring your bottle?"

"Please."

He laughed, "We should have gotten more beer and more champagne."

"There is another bottle and another six pack in the pantry. I bought them after we had made plans for the weekend."

He laughed," Good one Haruno."

"Put my champagne in the fridge, I'm not going to drink two bottles in one night." She laughed.

"Are you sure? It might make things more fun." Sasuke grinned at her.

"Not a chance pretty boy Uchiha. We're just friends now remember."

"You broke up with me...I still wanted to go out with you." He called from the kitchen.

"Yeah well, then you shouldn't have gone home with that loud and obnoxious redhead at Naruto's summer party." She called back to him.

"I told you nothing happened Sakura, why won't you believe me?" He came back out to the balcony eyes heated.

"She sent me the pictures of you two making out asshole." Sakura countered.

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh."

They sat in silence for a little bit.

"Do you hate me?" He asked her quietly.

"If I did, you wouldn't be here in my apartment, no I don't hate you, but I don't love you anymore." She looked past him to the woods.

"I'm sorry Sakura. I didn't mean to." He started but she cut him off.

"Save it Sasuke, I don't even care anymore." She downed the rest of her glass and poured the rest of the bottle into her flute.

Sasuke opened his sixth beer and sat quietly beside her.

"Sakura?"

"Yeah?"

"I really am sorry. What we had was great and I messed it all up. I have regretted it ever since. Once...once I sobered up...I realized what I had done. I felt terrible. Karin, she."

Sakura stood up, "Do not say that name in my home."

"Okay okay, I'm sorry, I just want you to know, we aren't together, it wasn't like." He stopped, he didn't know what to say.

"I told you, I don't care."

"If you didn't care, you wouldn't get mad when I said her name." He shrewdly pointed out.

"Fuck you Sasuke. I'm going to bed. Sleep on the couch, be gone before I get up and do me a favor, don't call me for a while." She left him on her balcony and stormed inside.

Sasuke sighed and stood there drinking his beer looking up at the night's sky.

"I meant it Sakura. I really am sorry. I love you." He said to himself. Sighing again he went to make up the couch for bed.

Sasori sat quietly on his balcony, he heard the sliding glass door to Sakura's apartment close. He rose carefully from his sitting position and went back inside his own apartment, sliding his sliding glass door shut with an inaudible click.

Sakura got out of bed the next morning and went about her usual routine. As she passed by the couch she saw the blankets had been folded and the pillow was on top. She smiled. She knew if they hadn't had that little argument the blankets would be on the floor, the pillow probably half on half off the couch or shoved into it.

Sakura filled the coffee maker with water and pressed the button. While she waited for her brew she checked her emails on her laptop at her lunch bar.

She had one new email from Ino, one from Hinata and, she smiled, one from Sasori. She read Ino's email, apparently, she had a new man in her life named Sai and he was wonderful and hot and everything she had ever wanted. Same story, different guy. Sakura rolled her eyes and opened the email from Hinata. Hinata told her how Kushina had walked in on Naruto and her having sex, how she had screamed and demanded a wedding date among other things, and that the wedding was next month...Sakura had the read the sentence twice before it sunk in. Naruto and Hinata were getting married.

"Holy shit." She said out loud.

It was a little soon but not completely unexpected. Hinata had been in love with Naruto since they were all 5years old and running around the Konoha playground like wild animals. Naruto had taken a lot longer to see how much he cared for the girl but once he had, it was like lightning striking. They were meant for one another. She sighed, rose to get a cup for her coffee and tried very hard not to be jealous of thier devotion to one another.

Sakura opened the email from Sasori. She smiled, he was always straight to the point, never one to waste words. His email read:

Art exhibit. Looks interesting. Go with me. Pick you up at 8 pm. Black and White.

Sasori

She hit reply:

See you at 8 pm.

Sakura