Hey guys, really sorry for the late update but my system crashed. Apparently, that still happens. So I won't waste your time anymore and let you move on with the story. So… Onwards!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Also, DJ Lolly is a work of fiction and is not pertaining to any human being.

Chapter 4: Few days to the Finale

Sakura sighed as she placed down the receiver of the phone to end a call. She rubbed her temples with her index and middle fingers. She stared down at the ipad in front of her.

"50 more guests to go". She groaned.

She leaned back in her chair and looked at the computer screen. She admired the image of Anemistí̱ras on the invitation she had emailed to the guests. She had only seen this beauty in pictures and now, she would get to see it live in action. She just couldn't believe it!

The image on the screen in front of her blurred as she got lost in her thoughts of her being on the cruise ship, breathing in the salty air with the ship sailing smoothly over the deep blue sea. She would be watching the sunset with maybe, a Pina Colada in her hand. Of course, she would have some work to do but in the breaks which she will get, she might relax too.

Before going to work, Sasuke had explained her the details of the cruise party. It was to be a week's party. They would be journeying to the Caribbean. The first to days would be spent voyaging to the Caribbean, three days would be spent there and the last two days would be the travel back to home.

She was alarmed by the fact that he asked her to invite around 200 guests. He demanded that she ask all the invitees to give her a confirmation of their attendance. So, she had been calling each and every person and asking them to verify if they would be coming or not. She still had 50 more calls to make.

"Better get down to work, Sakura." she muttered to herself.

After one and a half hour, she had made 49 calls and one was left. She was dreading to make this call. She looked down at the ipad to confirm the name she had to call. Maybe, she was reading the name all wrong.

Kiba Inuzuka

Nope. This was the correct name and she did not want make this call. She looked at the time. It was almost 7:30 pm. She had been working continuously for almost 9 hours. She sighed.

"Let me just take a quick coffee break and then I will handle this call" Sakura assured herself.

She went to the kitchen and made a cup of coffee for herself. After pouring it in the cup, she made her way to the garden. She walked down to the part where the roses were blossoming. She sat down near them and admired their intricate features.

Kiba Inuzuka

He was her classmate at Konoha High School. Why was Sasuke still friends with him, she might never know. He comes from a very rich clan, right after Uchiha and Uzumaki and felt everyone who wasn't rich was beneath him.

Sasuke had never been a friendly person. When they had joined high school, the only friend he had was Sakura. Sakura had met Naruto on the first day and had instantly liked him. As he started hanging out with her, he also established friendship with Sasuke. Even the anti-social Sasuke had seemed to like him. And, that friendship grew so much that now Naruto is Sasuke's best friend. He is cordial with Sakura but not to the level where they would call each other best of friends.

The second friend Sakura had made was Ino. Sakura had met Ino when she had taken up music. From there onwards, they had become very close to each other. She was happy that she finally made a friend that was a girl. At least she could now have girl talk with someone.

Ino knew who Sasuke was but never had any close relationship with him. She had not bothered to keep contact with him after high school. Actually, Ino had lost all contact with her school friends except for Sakura, who she felt very close to.

That explained why her name was not on the invitee list. Even Negi Hyuga was not on the list even though he was Sasuke's pal and she wondered why he wasn't invited. The thought disturbed her, but more than that, the knowledge that Kiba Inuzuka would be on the ship disturbed her.

Kiba was the second male friend she had made after Naruto. He was a very funny guy. He used to make her laugh with all his antics and accurate impressions of the teachers. He had even brought his dog, Akamaru, to school one day. She had enjoyed playing with the white puppy all day. Slowly, even Sasuke warmed up to him.

One day, the fact that she was the daughter of the butler who worked for the Uchihas, came out somehow. And that day, she realized how shallow Kiba was. She had always thought that people were friends with her because they liked her. But all her naïve notions were broken that day. Many of the girls, she had come to know and was on good terms with, had made habit of making rude comments on her. They made her feel inferior in every way possible but out of the lot the worst was Kiba.

After a harassing morning, she had made her way to the cafeteria.

As she reached the table she regularly used sit, she saw that someone was already sitting there. She looked over and saw Kiba. She smiled at him which he did not return.

"Hi Kiba" she chirruped. She pulled out a chair to sit down when she felt a very hard hand slap her across the face. She looked up instantly to find a murderous expression on Kiba's face.

"How dare you sit down with us, you lowlife!" he growled and spat on her face.

She was stunned and could just stare at him. How could a person who was one of her very good friends do this to her?

Her whole body jerked with the force he shook her.

"I asked you something, bitch!" he spat.

"I…..I…I…I" was all she could muster.

"You sat with us pretending to be our friend but I know people like you. You are just after us for our money. I know you must have blackmailed Mr. Uchiha to pay for your education. You have even brainwashed Sasuke but not me. I know what you exactly are and you don't get to sit with us." he sneered at her.

He pushed her roughly and she fell on the ground hard.

"That is your place. Get it. You belong with the dirt." he said and kicked her.

He kicked her again and sat down on the table. She couldn't find her voice to say anything. She stood up shakily. Her whole body had trembled with the cruel he had said. Luckily, no one had seen the scene happen between them. She started walking towards the exit of the cafeteria. Once she reached the exit, she broke into a run. She escaped into the girl's washroom, entered one of the stalls and locked herself in. Only then she allowed herself to cry.

It was close to half an hour when she heard someone knock on her door.

"Sakura, Is that you?" she heard Ino' voice.

"Yea…Y…Yeah" she steadied herself, "I'll just come out in a minute."

She wiped her face with a handkerchief and stepped out of the stall.

"What happened?!" Ino asked. She looked alarmed to see Sakura's face so red.

"Have you heard the news that has been circulating about me?" Sakura asked calmly.

"Yes, but-" started Ino.

"The rumors are true so you shouldn't talk to me. I am beneath you." Sakura's voice broke and her whole body shook from the force of the tears.

Ino's eyes narrowed.

"Who said that?" inquired Ino.

When she saw that Sakura was in no mood to answer, she grabbed her arms and turned Sakura to look at her. She held Sakura's hands in hers.

"Who said that?" asked Ino softly.

"K..K..Kiba" her voice shook and she dissolved into tears again.

Ino, on the other hand, just pulled Sakura into a hug.

"Don't you dare listen to that creep. If he is saying that, then he never knew you at all. Take this as a blessing in disguise, Sakura. At least now you will know who your true friends are. Who are the people who love you for yourself and who are just there for some selfish gain." Ino soothed Sakura.

Sakura just hugged Ino tighter and cried on her.

"Ino, please don't tell Sasuke." came a muffled reply from Sakura. Sakura felt Ino nod and then, she cried her heart out.

Bullying started after that day. Girls would come up to her and tell her that a scum like her should stay away from Sasuke. They would call her names like 'bitch' and 'slut'. She could hear them whispering whenever she walked down the hallways.

One day, she was taking out her books from her locker and one of the girls came up to harass her again. Before the girl could say something, Naruto came in between the girl and Sakura.

"Think again before you say something." said Naruto menacingly.

The girl took one look at his face and ran away.

"You okay, Sakura" he looked at her with concern.

Sakura just slumped to the ground and nodded.

Another such day, three girls had cornered her in the gym. This time things didn't stop till verbal abuse. They were only satisfied when they physically abused her. They bound her hands and beat her up till they were tired. They cut her beautiful hair raggedly. She was panting so hard but not one tear escaped her eyes. She would not give them the satisfaction of enjoyment of her pain.

The gym's door burst open and in came Sasuke. The look he had supported at that time cannot be described. It was like he was the devil himself. It looked like he was going to tear them apart but all he did was to tell them leave. He untied Sakura, who was unconscious by that time, picked her up bridal style and took her to the hospital.

That was the second time she had woken up in the hospital. Though she did not have any severe injuries but whenever Sasuke used to look at her wounds, a grim expression would be supported on his face.

After a few days, Sakura had returned to school, wincing at the fact that she would have to face her haters again. She soon noticed that Sasuke, Naruto and Ino never left her side. At least one of them would always be with her. Soon, she came to know that Sasuke had used his power to get those girls rusticated. He had even made sure that they would never got admission anywhere. All her haters got the message and had backed away from her. Kiba also backed off, just showing his hatred in his actions towards her. But these things didn't matter to Sakura, she was happy with the friends she had, who loved her for herself.

Her mobile beeped, bringing her out of her thoughts, she had received a message from Sasuke. It went something like this:

Sakura, I forgot to mention this in the morning but please also call up DJ Lolly and tell him about the cruise party. Make sure that he will be there. If he is not able to make it, do inform me.

So, now she had to make two calls.

"I better finish up this work" she said.

She walked back into the house where Mia offered to take her empty cup back to the kitchen. Sakura smiled at her gesture.

She went back to the study to make that dreaded call to Kiba Inuzuka. She got his mobile number from the ipad and called him up from the study phone. He picked up his phone after two rings.

"Yes?" came a voice.

"Am I speaking with Mr. Inuzuka?" she asked politely.

"Mr. Inuzuka is my father, sweetheart. Call me Kiba. By the way, what is your name, baby?" he replied cheekily.

Sakura just rolled her eyes. "Insolent Bastard" she thought.

"This is Sakura Haruno. I am calling on behalf of Sasuke Uchiha to ask you whether you will be attending his cruise party." She asked coolly.

"Oh, it is the bitchy maid" he replied, "And here I thought I was talking to a sexy babe."

She flinched.

"Sir, could you-" she started.

"Finally, you are where you should be. Hats off to Sasuke to finally understand where you belong." He sneered, "Tell me do you clean his dirty underwear? I bet you do. The only excitement in your life would be to clean the bed sheets on which he had fucked a girl senseless-"

"Ok sir, I will tell him you won't be able to make it" she cut him frostily. Her whole body shook. She was so angry at him.

"No wait" he cried out. "Tell him I will be there" he replied hurriedly.

She smirked as she heard him squeal. She just slammed down the receiver in reply. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down and then busied herself by making the last call to DJ Lolly and he was more than happy to attend the cruise of the youngest Uchiha.

After making the calls, she went out of the study room. She found Mikoto sitting in the dining area.

"Sakura, why don't you come and sit with me." she asked softly.

"Yes, ma'am" Sakura replied. She started making her way towards Mikoto.

Mikoto looked at Sakura and admired the women she had become. Sakura was wearing a red, short, sleeveless top coupled with a black pencil skirt which reached her knees. She wore black ballet flats on her feet and her hair was braided in one braid. She looked beautiful and the top complemented her slender arms.

She reached Mikoto, pulled a chair beside her and sat down.

"Sakura, Sasuke told me about the cruise party and that he is taking you with him." she said.

"Oh yes! He asked me to manage everything on the cruise. He said he trusts that only I can carry out this job." Sakura replied proudly.

"I know, sweety and I agree with him completely" Mikoto replied kindly, "But these parties are a lot different from the ones we have at the manor. They are less formal and more….err…open. I just hope you are able to handle it."

"I know that you are concerned that the cruise will have many people and also it would be an unknown domain for me. But I feel that I can do this and maybe even enjoy myself." Sakura smiled at Mikoto.

"Umm…..That is not what I mea-"she started but was cut off as they both heard Sasuke's Mercedes pull in.

"Thank you so much for your concern, ma'am but now I must tend to Master Uchiha" she got up, gave a bow to Mikoto and sauntered off to meet Sasuke.

She saw another maid, Ginger, coming out of the kitchen. She was balancing a dish of tuna in one hand and a tray carrying a glass of cool water for Sasuke in the other. She came over and took the tray with the glass from her.

"Let me help you with this" she said to Ginger, who just smiled gratefully at her and walked off to lay the tuna dish on the dining table for dinner.

As soon as Sakura appeared near the door, Sasuke walked in looking hot and bothered. She offered the tray with the glass of water to him. He smiled at her and picked the glass up to drink.

There was something about watching a man drink with so much thirst. She watched his throat muscles pull down the cool liquid as rapidly as he could. A drop escaped his lips and travelled slowly down his chin, then onto his neck. Lower and lower it went as if tantalizing Sakura with the fact that it was going to know more secrets about him than she would. Her own throat dried in response. The drop disappeared slowly in his shirt. She heard Sasuke give a gasp of relief, which snapped her back to reality. He handed her the empty glass.

"Thanks Sakura that did the trick" he gave her one of his signature smirks. "Whew! I am beat. Sakura, I won't be having dinner as I have already had one with some business clients. I am just gonna go and crash on my bed. I am really tired." he replied.

He really did look tired.

"That's okay, Sasuke. I have invited everyone and they have all consented to be on the cruise, including the DJ" she said.

"That's good" Sasuke nodded.

"Well, good night then" she smiled shyly at him.

"Good night to you, too" he said, "By the way, you should wear red more often. You look good in it."

He walked off towards the stairs to make his way to his room.

She just stood there smiling at his retreating back and she didn't know why but she felt as if her heart would burst with joy.

She was sitting in her bed and reading a neurobiology book. Even though she had given up her dream of becoming a doctor, she still found solace in reading medical books. She loved it so much that she would buy medical books from her pay checks and tried to keep herself updated by accessing various journals online.

But tonight her thoughts were miles away. She was dreaming about spending her days with Sasuke on Anemistí̱ras.

She just couldn't wait to go on this trip. She glanced at her bedside clock and saw that it was way past her sleeping time. So, she closed her book and turned off the light.

"This month will be over sooner than you know." She thought "Anemistí̱ras here I come!"

Thank you guys for all the support you have given me by reviewing, favorite and following my story. I would like to apologize to all the Kiba fans. In this story, he will be paying a little negative role but I can assure you that he is not the main villain. I would like to say I am really sorry for this late update. Thank you again everyone.

Katty09 signing off