A/N: Okay, I'm so sorry for the late update! I went away for the holiday, but I'm happy to present chapter 3!

Otherwise thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I really appreciate it and I promise I will finish this fanfiction for you guys!

I hope you enjoy this chapter!

And I do not own Naruto.

'I can do this. It's just a simple concept: apologise and make up.'

Sakura shifted uncomfortably in her seat. It was her last class of the day, Calculus. Her lecturer droned on and on, and Sakura hardly paid him any mind. He was just background noise.

Her mind was fixed permanently on the fight scene of yesterday, replaying it over and over in her head. Sasuke had made her so angry! And she couldn't stop thinking about it. She remembered scraping the chair on the café floor as she abruptly stood up and she remembered yelling at him. She remembered looking into his eyes and she remembered how that jerk still had the nerve to ask her to pay. At this thought, her blood instantly began to boil and she felt her cheeks warm up. She was fuelled with anger. She glared down at the page in front of her and scowled.

'Wow. Now I'm becoming more like him,' she told herself sarcastically.

She inwardly groaned. 'There's no use getting mad about it now,' Sakura told herself, trying to calm down. What happened yesterday couldn't be changed. But she couldn't help but feel a little bit angry toward the Uchiha. After Ino had left the previous afternoon, Sakura had spent the rest of the day wandering around the vacant collage building. She was filled with a feeling of lonliness and emptiness and she felt utterly miserable. She was walking around aimlessly, not really sure where she was headed. But now, thinking back to the day before, she realised that she was subconsciously looking for Sasuke. She was hoping that she'd bump into him. She wanted to see him. The reason for that, she did not know.

'Okay, I know it wasn't my fault that we fought, but I'll still apologize for it because I know that if I leave it up to him, we're never going to get anywhere!' And as much as Sakura hated to admit it to herself, she actually wanted to date him. She needed to see who he really was. She wanted to show him that not everyone focused on looks alone.

Sakura rested her head in the palm of her left hand. 'Why am I so nervous just to talk to him!?' Just thinking about it made her feel flustered and she could feel her heart begin to race. Maybe it was because she was worried that she'd say the wrong thing. Something that would surely ruin any chance of him wanting to get to know her again.

'I was fine on the date! So why am I getting so worked up now?' Sakura inwardly sighed. She needed to calm down. She just needed to talk to Sasuke. No biggie. He was still the same as yesterday. 'Who am I kidding? He practically hates me! He doesn't trust me! He thinks I'm just messing with him!' the pinkette growled in frustration. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. 'Well, who wouldn't be afraid to trust others if…' Opening her eyes, she sighed. Sasuke sort of did have the right to behave the way he did. No girl was ever true to him. They only wanted to date him for his looks or for the status that he held as the most popular and desired boy. As well as the wealthiest.

Sakura looked up as her lecturer, Morino Ibiki, stopped speaking and stood in front of his desk. He looked around the room as if he was examining everyone, searching into their souls. He always seemed like he was doing that. He had deep penetrating eyes that seemed to see through lies. Which they probably could.

"This is the end of the lecture. You may leave now. The last to leave, please leave the door open." And with that, he nodded at the class and walked behind his desk, gathering some papers together and filing new documents.

The class broke out into a roar of chatter and laughter, but Sakura was frozen in place. 'Oh no! The end of the lesson? That means-!' The pinkette swallowed hard as she thought about her upcoming doom. Now she had to talk to Sasuke!

Looking back down at her books, she began to pack them away into her bag. 'What am I going to do?! I can't just say, "Sorry for yesterday," and walk off! Aw! I'm so nervous!' She hurriedly stuffed everything into her bag, not really caring that the pages of her notebook were bent.
'I feel like I'm walking into this blindly. Why can't he just apologize first?' Sakura moaned in her head. She felt her heart beat faster and her thoughts were running all over the place. 'Maybe he'll talk to me first,' Sakura thought hopefully. 'I mean, he does want the money…'

Taking a deep breath, Sakura clenched her fists. 'No.' If she wasn't going to do anything about this, then no-one would! She turned around quickly, just catching Sasuke as he stood up from his desk. There was an awkward silence between the two as the raven-haired boy glared slightly at the girl before him.

He held her gaze, before Sakura pulled away and looked around, realizing that she hadn't even noticed everyone leave. She was alone with Uchiha Sasuke.

Sasuke watched as the girl before him looked slowly around the room. 'Ha. She just noticed the room was empty. Classic air-head.' The Uchiha couldn't help but let a small smirk grace his lips. He didn't think Sakura would actually have the guts to confront him.

He watched her gaze drift around the classroom. As much as he wanted to avoid the confrontation and dash out of the room right under her nose, he had to admit that he was even more curious to hear what she had to say. In a way, Sakura intrigued him. She was definitely different from any other girls he had met before and she was intelligent and she did things that Sasuke didn't expect. She didn't apologize when she made him mad and she didn't suck up to him. Sakura didn't dress in almost nothing to impress him and she didn't try to flirt. She didn't tell him how amazing he was and how gorgeous he looked or how sexy his mysterious personality was. She wasn't clingy and she didn't change herself to impress him. Yes, the pinkette definitely interested him.

He figured she was going to try to talk to him about their date and the argument they'd had. But he couldn't believe she'd actually decided to do it. During the lecture, he could see how distressed she was. She was constantly fidgeting and looking at the clock. Obviously, she was very nervous to do this. And maybe, he was also a little nervous. He didn't know what she would say. What if she just started accusing him or what if she pushed him to go on the defensive? Sasuke inwardly sighed. There was no guarantee that this was going to go well.

However, this confrontation was obviously going to happen. Sasuke had even begun to pack his bag at a very slow pace. He had wanted to hear what Sakura was going to say. Though now, he felt he was regretting his decision. He didn't know what would happen. She was so unpredictable.

On the bright side, he could get what he needed from her. She still had an outstanding fee to pay him.

Sakura knew she owed him money, and he wanted to see if she would actually pay up or admit to him that she couldn't afford it. He scoffed at the thought. She hadn't even known how much he was asking for before she rented him. 'Typical,' he scowled. 'She probably just rented me straight away when she saw my picture, without even checking the price or reading the description I wrote.'

At this thought, he felt the familiar feeling of anger flood through his body. He clenched his fist at his side, in an attempt to control his rage. He hated that the pinkette might have only decided to date him because of his appearance or social status. He didn't know why, but he'd hoped that Sakura wasn't like the other girls. He didn't want her to want him like other previous chancers. He wanted Sakura to think he was beautiful on the outside as well as on the inside. He wanted her to know how lonely he sometimes felt. He always felt like he was just a prize to be won. He hated how no-one knew the 'real' him. He felt like he was forced to act cold and heartless. He wished she wasn't like his past women-experiences.

Coming back to reality, the Uchiha wondered how long she was going to keep him waiting. She was just sitting there, looking as nervous as ever. As if he was some ferocious beast that would bite her head off the minute she opened her mouth. Sasuke smirked at this. He was never the patient type for people who wasted his time, but for some reason, he enjoyed watching her squirm in her nervous state as she gazed around the empty room.

'What's she thinking?' he thought to himself.

"Are you actually going to say something or are you just going to sit there fidgeting?"

At this, the pinkette looked up at the raven-haired boy. She hadn't expected him to be so insensitive about her nervousness. She thought that he would have at least appreciated her efforts to try and talk to him.

She inwardly scowled. He knew she was struggling to do this, so why didn't he start the conversation since he was so eager to get it over with?!

Taking a deep breath, Sakura narrowed her eyes at Sasuke. "Alright," she spat, "I'm sorry for the other day."

"That didn't sound very apologetic," the Uchiha smirked, folding his arms across his chest. Now she was being sarcastic. Clearly she didn't like the way he'd addressed her.

Sakura huffed, "Well, at least I tried to apologise! You're not even making an attempt to say sorry! It's like you don't even want us to-!" she cut herself off. What if Sasuke didn't want to apologise because… He didn't want them to date again? What if he thought she was terrible to go out with and what if he didn't like her? Maybe he was acting the way he was because he knew she would try to make up with him and then suggest another date. Maybe he thought she was just another stupid girl who was head-over-heels for him. 'That's probably what he thinks: that I'm just another fangirl! Aargh!'

Sasuke raised a delicate brow when Sakura suddenly stopped talking. 'even want us to- what?' What was she going to say? He was… curious. What was she thinking? Did she think he didn't like her? That he just thought of her as another college girl? 'But what does she 'want us to-' do-? Together? Another date?' Thinking about it, Sasuke realized that he wouldn't mind going on another date with the pinkette. She was definitely different from any other woman he'd ever met, let alone, shown an interest in.

.

.

.

'Wait…'

Did he just admit that to himself? That he was… interested… in Sakura!?

"Uh- anyway," Sakura quickly said, bringing Sasuke out of his thoughts. "I- I just think we should make up. And let's forget about the other day, okay?" The pinkette spoke softly, lowering her head.

"Hn." Sasuke noticed that she wasn't looking at him. 'She's probably hiding a blush,' he thought, 'Maybe she thinks I don't want us to make up.' He looked at the door of the classroom, and after casting Sakura one more glance, he picked his bag up and headed toward the exit.

Sakura looked up immediately after she noticed the Uchiha begin his departure. "Hey! Wait!"

Sasuke stopped at the door, not bothering to look back at the girl who had called him. What did she want now?

"You haven't said your part of the apology yet!" she said indignantly, getting up from her desk and coming to a stop right behind Sasuke. 'Swallow your pride for once Uchiha and say sorry!'

"You're right," Sasuke said, turning around to face the girl, "Let's forget about it." He felt like he owed her that much. An apology after the way he had made her so angry on their date. He knew he may have been a little harsh on her.

Sakura smiled at him, and it was only then that he actually took the chance to look at her. Even though Sasuke hated to admit it, she was… attractive. Beautiful. She was modest about her body and didn't hitch her skirt up or unbutton her school shirt whenever she saw him, unlike his fangirls did. She had unique hair and she had beautiful eyes to match it.
He felt his face heat up a bit, but it was too slight for the pinkette to notice. He clenched his hands into fists and bit back a growl. Gosh! He was turning into such a loser!

"A-Are you okay?" she asked, leaning a little closer to him to get a better look. Sakura noticed the way Sasuke was clenching his fists. 'He's staring… is there something he wants to ask me?'

Sasuke immediately caught himself. He was staring? "I'm fine." He was grateful that he hadn't stuttered.

"Great!" the pinkette chirped, not really feeling what she was displaying. She was a little worried about what would happen next. They'd made up but that didn't guarantee that they would date ever again. This just made them classmates once more. 'Looks like I'm back at square one.'

She watched as he walked out of the classroom and down the corridor. 'Well,' Sakura sighed. 'That whole rent a boyfriend thing totally backfired.'

"Oh, hey Sakura!"

Sakura turned around after hearing her name being called. "Tenten!" She smiled at her friend as she approached her from the opposite side of the passage. Tenten stopped in front of Sakura, smiling back, "What are you still doing here? Class ended about fifteen minutes ago."

Sakura chuckled nervously, "Oh nothing. I just sorted something out with… a friend."

"Oh, is everything okay?"

"Of course!" Sakura waved the question away with a light-hearted laugh. "Just an awkward encounter, that's all."

"Oh," Tenten suddenly smirked. "Was it Sasuke?"

"Sort of," Sakura answered honestly. "But we sorted it out."

"You sure? 'Cos you can talk to me about anything, you know that, right?"

Sakura nodded, "Thanks, Tenten." Then she realized something. "Hey, shouldn't you be at basketball training?"

"What? Oh, uh, n-no, there's no training today! Nope, not today!" Tenten said in a rush.

Sakura raised a brow at her friend's sudden change of mood. 'I bet it has something to do with Lee. Maybe he's overworking her again.'
Well, it was Tenten's idea to join the basketball team, even though the teachers had refused to let her take part, considering it was only a boy's sport. But because Tsunade was the principal (and a very powerful woman), she insisted that she was not about to run a school where there were gender inequalities, and thus, let Tenten join the team. On the condition that she would have to take extra lessons to catch up with the other boys. Tenten had agreed, although she had her doubts about being allowed to play matches against other schools, because it would be unfair. But she didn't mind. Besides, Temari also did basketball now and the two of them loved to work together on a team. But unfortunately, the coach thought it would be funny to make Tenten's personal trainer the most motivated person in the whole school. In other words, Lee.
Sakura chuckled at the thought.

"Okay," She said.

"Oh, and don't forget my match tomorrow."

"Are you playing?!" Sakura asked, clearly shocked.

"I'm an extra," her friend smiled brightly, "that's an improvement at least!"

"Wow! So there's a chance you'll play?!"

"Yep!"

"Awesome! I'll totally be there and I'll tell the others!" the pinkette said enthusiastically.

"Thanks!" Tenten smiled at her before waving a hurried goodbye, obviously avoiding Sakura's suspicions about her avoiding Lee, and started heading in the opposite direction to the basketball courts.

"Just don't bunk basketball practice!" Sakura called out to her friend who was already on the other side of the passage.

Tenten tensed slightly, then turned around and shouted, "I-I'm just getting more balls!"

Some students passed by and snickered at the comment.

'Immature,' Sakura thought as she made her way out of the college and onto the grounds. She skipped down the stairs at the front of building, still seeing some people hanging around on the scattered benches or sitting on the stairs.

She made her way to her dorm quickly and went to her room.

'Tough day,' she thought, before pulling out her laptop and opening it to start studying the week's work.

After Sakura realized she had been re-reading the same sentence six times, she gave up. She just couldn't stop thinking about Sasuke! And he was the whole reason why the pinkette couldn't even make sense of any of her advanced calculus notes!

"Stupid Uchiha." Sakura muttered to herself. She felt angry at him but she didn't know why! Sakura knew she didn't really have a reason to be mad at him. Or maybe she wasn't mad at him, but at their current situation. She couldn't deny that she wanted things to change between the two of them. She didn't want to know him as just her calculus classmate.

At this rate, they wouldn't have another date or romantic encounter or anything! Why was it so difficult for a girl to win his heart?

Sakura sighed. She knew now that she actually did want him to fall for her. She wanted him like her and maybe even, hopefully, love her. She wanted to get to know him like no-one else did. She wanted to see the Sasuke he hid from everyone else.

But now, even their 'make up' didn't seem like it helped one bit!

Great. Things are going to stay how they are. She was stuck in a ditch. There was no way he was going to speak to her and she couldn't start a conversation with him because 1: he wouldn't listen to her, 2: she wouldn't know what to say and 3: …his fangirls…

Sakura sighed for what felt like the millionth time that day, 'This is hopeless! I really thought this whole bet would work in my favour. I thought I would be able to get to know him better and maybe, just maybe, make him fall for me. But he's just too cold for that,' she thought bitterly.

She shoved her laptop to the side, deciding that going to bed was the best thing she could do at the moment.

The pinkette prepared to go to sleep, and after brushing her teeth, she sat in bed and read a book for a few minutes.

Suddenly, she gasped. She shut the book and quickly shoved it onto her bedside table. She grabbed her laptop from where she'd previously discarded it and pulled it onto her lap. 'I can't believe I never thought of this!' she cheered. Just when she thought things seemed hopeless, she remembered something. She quickly logged onto the site she knew all too well…

"I have his email address!"

"Okay. Talk later then."

"Yeah. Bye." Sasuke hung up, silencing anything that his brother may have wanted to say. He wasn't in the mood to talk.

Stepping into the shower, Sasuke sighed as the warm water cascaded over his toned body. His muscles were stiff from the long day of training for the basketball match that would be played the following day. And the raven-haired boy just felt so tired.

He had so many things to think about. And the most persistent thing on his mind was Sakura.

Sasuke grunted. He'd just left her in the classroom. He hadn't said a word that would make things less awkward. And for some strange, twisted reason, he wanted things to be okay between them.

He hated how he wanted to see her again. He wanted to talk to her and find out why she had really rented him. She couldn't have done it out of sincerity. She had purposely chosen to rent him when she could have just asked.

'No,' he thought to himself. She was right. He would have just said 'no'.

But he still didn't understand. Why him? Was there something Sakura was secretly after? She had never seemed even remotely interested in him before. Did she have an ulterior motive? Did she plan to make him fall for her using her charm and beauty? Not to mention that she wasn't a fangirl; everyone knew that he avoided his fangirls. But then what? What did she plan to do once he had fallen for her? Dump him and laugh about it with her friends when his heart was broken?

Sasuke realized now how afraid he was to open up to people. He'd never been in an actual relationship. He was afraid of being rejected. He hadn't ever been in a situation where he wanted to show others who he really was. Everyone just liked him for what he seemed to be; stoic and distant. Sometimes even arrogant.
And in his opinion, opening up to someone like Sakura would just be bad news. She was too... different. She wasn't like the other girls and he wasn't sure why. She had never paid any attention to him and then all of a sudden, he was DATING her! It just seemed unrealistic. She couldn't possibly expect him to believe that she really wanted to be in a relationship with him. It was just too sudden.

But what if she was sincere? What if she truly did want to date him? And not as a joke?

The Uchiha growled and aggressively shut the shower off. He couldn't think straight. He was just making himself even more tired. And he had a game on the next day.

But he couldn't help but admit that he wanted her to be sincere. Going on that date with her was just so… unlike any of the others he had gone on after signing up on that website. She didn't gush over him and try to impress him with stories of past boyfriends or what she was good at. She just spoke to him without the sultry, seductive voice the other girls had. And he had to admit that she was actually nice to talk to. She was the kind of person that he could argue with and she would stand her ground and actually try to win the argument. She wouldn't just give in to make him like her more.

Snatching the towel from the rack, he began to vigorously dry himself off. He was just frustrating himself. He needed to stop thinking about the pinkette.

Tying the towel around his waist, Sasuke stepped outside his bathroom, not expecting to see his blonde friend sitting on his bed.

"Hey!" Naruto waved, "You sure took a long time in the shower!"

"Whatever," Sasuke grunted, annoyed that his friend was in his room grinning like a mad man.

"So, what's up? You seemed distracted during basketball today."

"Nothing. It's none of your business."

The blonde nodded absently, knowing that Sasuke wouldn't tell him the truth anyway. He was like that. He didn't let anyone know how he was feeling. Except for those rare moments when he confided in his friend. Naruto smiled to himself.

"Now get out of my room," the Uchiha said coldly.

"Aww! Come on!" the blonde protested.

"Out," Sasuke continued, pointing to the door and pulling out a pair of shorts from a drawer.

"I'll look away if you're so shy or something!" Naruto laughed, watching the way Sasuke closed his eyes in annoyance.

"Fine, fine. I'm leaving." Naruto grinned, getting up and heading towards the door. He smiled when he heard Sasuke mutter, "Goodnight, Naruto."

A/N: First of all, thank you for reading it and reviews would be appreciated.

Second of all, the next chapter is definitely going to be more eventful and there will be some FLUFF!

And lastly, I know most colleges don't really have matches and that only the really big, famous ones do, but this college does because I really love basketball and because it is actually a thing in some universities.

Plus I'm only in high school, so I have no idea what college life is like.

And I apologise for any spelling or grammatical errors.