Chapter Four
Out With the Old, In With the New:
A/N: I'm back after a long while and my excuse for not updating? I'm lazy. There I said it. In reality it took me like two days to write this. Yup, and I did not even have writers block, I was just really lazy. However, to make it up to you, I made a 30 page chapter so be happy.
Thank you to all the reviewers, I know some of you asked me stuff in your review, I'm sorry I couldn't reply, my comp. isn't fast enough… and to those who PM'd me, sorry if I don't know your name and don't mention you here, they got erased in my emails…. T.T
Emiko: smiling child (thank you to whoever gave me all the names, I'm sorry I lost your pm so I don't know who sent me this… but I would like to acknowledge you so if you can PM me and tell me who you are it would be very appreciated. Trust me I don't like to take credit for stuff I didn't do… I'm sorry again)
Disclaimer: Really? Do I even have to put this? I didn't own Naruto in the last three chapters and obviously nothing has changed cause you don't see Sasuke and Sakura hooking up on tv so save it!
"D-daddy?" Sakura repeated in shock. 'Did that little girl just call Sasuke her daddy?'
As Sakura tried to process what she heard Sasuke stopped spinning the girl around and went over to the door where Sakura saw a woman waiting. After a few words Sasuke just nodded and closed the door before returning back to the giggling little girl, who playfully tried to tackle Sasuke to the ground, earning a light, but still serious smile from him.
'Was that the mother… she looked a little old for Sasuke…' Sakura thought.
'My guess… Sasuke was drunk. She probably was too, who knows? But what I do know is that that little girl called Sasuke her father.' Inner Sakura said, actually being serious for once.
'Yeah…' Sakura thought saddened at the thought of Sasuke being a father so early in life.
'But still, I'm not surprised; the guy's obviously done it so many times he was bound to impregnate some woman.' Inner Sakura said, a little ticked off that Sasuke was so unfaithful.
When Sakura realized what she was allowing herself to think she mentally slapped herself. She couldn't judge Sasuke before she even knew the whole situation, it wasn't fair.
"Hello, Emiko." Motoko said, causing Sakura to jump at her voice.
"HALLO!!! Obaba-san!" The girl said smiling and laughing at the same time. Talk about multi-talented, and the name was definitely well deserved.
Motoko didn't object to her name, causing Sakura to be even more suspicious of Sasuke's relationship with the little girl.
"Good evening Emiko." Fugaku said in a silent and grave way or basically how he always sounded.
"Geez, could he be any more serious?" Inner Sakura thought though she was quickly hushed up by normal Sakura.
The little girl surprisingly stopped bouncing up and down and laughing and gave a very serious bow although she was still smiling. "Hello, Otou-san." Once again said person did not reject to their name.
"Emiko!!!!!!!!!!!! What have you been up to? Oh I haven't seen you since you were small! Or rather smaller..." Naruto piped up hugging the little girl and giving you her a death squeeze.
"Naruto-oji-chan!!!! You're going to squish me to death!!!" Emiko said trying to struggle free of Naruto's grasp. Naruto just smiled heartily and stopped hugging her.
Sakura felt very out of place at the scene and all she could think about was to get away. "Ah…" Sakura said very softly, hoping to get only one of the group's attention, but instead all eyes turned to look at her.
Once again, as he had done so many times, Naruto came to Sakura's rescue, "Oh!!! Um… Sakura, why don't I drive you home! Yeah, I think I'll do that!"
Naruto grasped Sakura's wrist and roughly led her towards the door and outside. Before she was totally outside the mansion, Sakura looked back to see the remaining people in the house.
Fugaku was staring at her gravely, Mikoto smiled weakly and waved but her eyes betrayed her worries, the girl, Emiko, had a questioned look on her face but just as she was about to go, she waved, and Sasuke… he refused to even look at her.
Sakura was very hurt. Okay, so what if she found out that Sasuke was a teenage daddy, did that really change anything? She sighed, of course it did. Come one the guy was a dad!!! Her crush was a dad!!! Sakura eyes widened in surprise when she realized that she had called Sasuke her 'crush', she really didn't like him that way!!! Did she?
Sakura shook her head, all this was getting her confused and Sakura really didn't need anymore problems to deal with right now…
Needless to say, the ride home with Naruto was unnerving and awkward. Naruto tried a couple of times to break the silence but he failed miserably.
Finally they reached Sakura's apartment, but instead of the silent goodbye Sakura had expected Naruto said, "Well Sakura-chan, this night probably has been a little confusing for you but don't worry about it! It'll all be cleared in no time! Don't worry about it! I was surprised when I first found out about Emiko but you'll get used to her! Well bye!!!"
And with that cheerful encouragement, Naruto climbed back into the jaguar he borrowed from Sasuke (he doesn't have a car, he doesn't even have a license!), and took off. Sakura just stood there, then she realized that it was raining and she was soaked through!
'Ahhhh! All that seriousness made me forget that it was wet!!! Heck, I forgot it had been raining!' Sakura thought running back hurriedly into her apartment.
The first thing she did was go to her kitchen, open the fridge, grab some ice cream, and plop down on the couch to start eating it. Yes, ice cream was her comfort food…
'How could he be a father? He's only sixteen!!!' Sakura thought continuously stuffing her face with ice cream. 'I mean, not that I'm judging, but he's got his whole life ahead of him!!! He could have been something!' Sakura remembered her second day in Konoha High in Anko's class. She, of course, had scored a perfect score on her test they had taken the day before, but so had Sasuke. As it turned out, Sasuke was incredibly smart and talented. Not as much as Sakura but he did have an extremely high GPA. Sakura again wondered how he could have gotten a girl, no, an older woman, pregnant.
'Well, my dear, I think it's time we had the talk of the birds and the bees…' Inner Sakura began.
'I know how babies are made!!!' Sakura shouted in her mind.
'Then why are you wondering? The guy obviously was drunk, and forgot to use a condom. And obviously someone forgot to tell him that abstinence was key…' Inner Sakura said.
'Hey!!! Just… shut up…' Sakura thought sadly. 'Okay this is not big deal! I mean I barely met the guy like a week ago and it's not like I loved him or anything so everything should be fine…'
'Who am I kidding!?! Everything is definitely not a-okay!! WAAAAHHH!!! Why did this have to happen to me? Whatever, I'll just enjoy my ice cream and… hey who the hell ate my ice cream?'
Sakura's eyes fluttered open and her jade orbs observed the room before she got up. It was a habit that she had grown into when she was back at Suna; you never knew when a snake or scorpion would accidentally be in your room. First, she looked at her alarm clock; it read 7:45, plenty of time to get ready for school. Second, she checked to see if everything was in place… wait why was she in the living room? Then, before she could totally freak out, that she must've fallen asleep there last night, thinking of Sasuke. Speaking of Sasuke…
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Sasuke winced at Sakura's scream as she finally realized that he was there.
"Will you shut up? God, you're as annoying as Yamanaka, probably worse…" Sasuke said.
"Huh? How did you get into my apartment? And I'm not annoying!!!" Sakura asked confused.
"Yes, you are, you just haven't realized it yet. Don't worry, idiots are usually slow like that, Naruto hardly even realizes that he's loud too." Sasuke said, avoiding the question.
Sakura glared at him angrily and said through gritted teeth. "Uchiha, how in hell did you get into my apartment?"
"Is that really 'lady' talk?"
"Just answer the damn question!!!"
"Okay, enough fun and games, let's go." Sasuke said shortly and briskly walking towards Sakura's front door.
'He was just playing with me? That son of a bi..' Sakura thought but instead she said, "Not until you tell me how in hell you got into my apartment."
Sasuke sighed, annoyed, and replied, "Easy, I paid the owners of the building for a spare key. Now let's go."
"Wait! You what?"
"I paid for a spare key." Sasuke said, in annoyed voice that sounded as if he was speaking to a child. "You can get anything for the right price, now hurry up or I'm going to leave without you."
Sakura tugged at the mid-thigh length skirt that she wore. Luckily she had received her uniform for Konoha High School the day before, and she didn't waste time trying to decide what outfit to wear. Unluckily, it was still sprinkling and Sasuke didn't bring an umbrella.
"I still can't believe you came into my apartment…" Sakura mumbled grumpily.
"Hn."
"Can't you say anything other than 'hn'?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah, but it'd be a waste of words trying to talk to you." Sasuke retorted.
"Your right, I'd probably never understand 'Sasuke-speak' however, don't give up, I'm sure if you speak to the monkey's at the zoo, they'll understand you." Sakura said sweetly.
"What a nice comeback, Haruno, but couldn't you have found a better one on the internet?"
"…" Sakura was speechless.
"Never try to outsmart a smartass, Haruno." Sasuke said, smirking in his triumph.
"You do realize you called yourself a smartass, right?"
Sasuke shrugged, "Don't care."
Sakura rolled her eyes at his cockiness, "You know, one day someone is going to make you feel sorry for… Hey! Are you listening to me?"
Sasuke just said a simple "Hn.", before raising the volume on his ipod, he got tired of hearing her voice.
"Stupid Uchiha…" Sakura grumbled as they finally arrived at Sasuke's house.
"Sakura-chan!!!" Naruto's loud voice greeted her as they entered the gates. "Huh? Why are you two walking in the rain?"
"Haruno doesn't have an umbrella." Sasuke said simply, putting the blame on Sakura.
"Excuse me, Uchiha! I barely moved here! I don't know where the dollar store is!!!" Sakura said defiantly.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "You go to the dollar store?"
Sakura blushed in embarrassment and said, "Not everybody is as rich as you, Uchiha, or is your head to big for your eyes to see past it? Besides, why didn't you bring an umbrella?"
Sasuke shrugged. "Why should I have brought one?" Once again Sakura's eyebrow twitched at the Uchiha's uncanny ability to, oh I don't know, not care?
"Whatever, now that you're here we can go already." Sasuke said stoically heading towards his jaguar.
"Wow, I'm surprised you're using the same car you used yesterday." Sakura said sarcastically.
"It's already dirty, I don't want to dirty my other cars." Sasuke said simply. Sakura rolled her eyes once again and climbed into the back seat where she was greeted again by Neji and Shikamaru.
"Hello, Shika, Neji-kun." Sakura said cheerfully, raising said guys' eyebrows.
"Um… Sakura since when did you call me Shika?" Shikamaru asked, a bit puzzled that he was called his pet name by Sakura.
"Huh? Oh! Um… I guess since Ino-pig always calls you that, it sorta rubbed off on me, sorries." Sakura said, noticing her mistake.
"Ino called Shikamaru something other than 'lazy-ass'? Wow, that's a first." Neji hinted.
"Huh? But Ino always calls Shikamaru, Shika when she…" Sakura's voice trailed off, realizing what she was saying. All the guys looked at Sakura then at Shikamaru, smirking.
"Please, do not tell Ino! She'll kill me!" Sakura begged as memories of how cruel Ino could be filled her mind.
"Relax, woman, they won't tell. Now, I'm sleepy…" Shikamaru yawned and leaned against the doorway of the car.
'That guy doesn't have a care in the world…', all the guys and Sakura thought at the same time.
The other guys didn't press the matter and went on to talk about other stuff, including the game that was going to be held tomorrow and the dance after.
"So, Neji," Naruto began bravely, "Since, Hinata doesn't have a date yet, I was wondering…"
Neji looked at the poor blonde boy and inwardly rolled his eyes. "Yes, you can ask Hinata to the dance, I'd rather have her go with you than with any other guy in this school."
"Yes," Naruto said in triumph, "part one of mission: get a date for the dance, is a success. Now part two is the hard part."
The guys raised their eyebrows. One, in surprise, it wasn't everyday Naruto planned ahead, and two, he actually thought something was going to be hard. Usually he was confident that things would go his way.
"What's the hard part?" Sakura asked innocently.
"Getting Hinata to say yes, I'm worried that she'll say no. I mean I think she might like that Kiba dude and she'll say no to me." Naruto explained in a worried voice.
Everyone in the car sweatdropped.
"God, you're an idiot, dobe." Sasuke mumbled, pulling into the school driveway and parking.
"What did you say teme?!"
"You. Are. An. Idiot. Dobe." Sasuke said slowly.
"Teme!!! This is the day you die!!!!" Naruto yelled, raising a fist in the air, preparing to punch Sasuke.
"I get tired of hearing that all the time…" Sasuke replied, bored.
Sakura rolled her eyes at the familiar conversation and got out of the car only to suddenly find herself hugged by something in green.
"Oh my beautiful Sakura. You look gorgeous in our uniform. Never have I seen such beauty admitted from anyone else in our glorious school. Your springtime youth is surely multiplied by thousands every time you wear those clothes. Ah! It makes me want to read you a poem!"
Sakura stared at Rock Lee, 'mini-me' of her gym teacher, a.k.a, 'Bushy Brows'.
"Uh… thanks Lee, but could you let go of me? I can't breathe." Sakura said.
"Oh, I am so sorry, my beautiful cherry blossom!" Lee yelled out putting Sakura down from his death hug and brushing off invisible dust.
"Aww, how cute. Pinky, and bug eyes, you guys look so good together, it almost makes me wanna, oh I don't know, puke." Sasuke said from behind them.
"Shut up, Uchiha! And do not call me pinky, and don't call Lee bug eyes!" Sakura said, defending Lee. She was already used too Sasuke mouthing off at her, but now he was verbally abusing poor Lee too! What was wrong with him?
"Ooh, touchy when it comes to bug eyes huh?" Sasuke said, testily.
"Enough, Uchiha! I am able to endure your bad comments but I will not stand by and watch you hurt the beautiful Sakura." Lee said, finally standing up to Sasuke.
"Shut up, bushy brows and go back to whatever worm hole you crawled out of. I'm sure your mother misses you."
"No way! I am afraid I can not do that Uchiha. Not until I make sure you will apologize to Sakura." Lee said defiantly.
"Apologize for what?"
"For calling her 'pinky', you know she does not like that! It makes her angry, now apologize." Lee demanded.
"How about… no? Now go away, and what the heck did you come over here for in the first place? You aren't allowed here, go back to the loser side, and if you were planning to ask Sakura to the dance do it some other time and not in front of me. It makes me sick." Sasuke said coldly causing Lee to tear up a bit at the harsh words.
"Uchiha! Why don't you…"
"Lee!? Oh my god! Why do you look like you are about to cry? Lee? Where the heck is your youth or whatever? Lee! Snap out of it!"
Sakura stared in surprise at TenTen who was now shaking Lee roughly back and fourth.
"I am okay TenTen. Uchiha is just…" Lee tried to explain.
"Uchiha?" TenTen echoed before turning back to Sasuke. "What did you say to him Sasuke?"
"The truth." Sasuke replied simply as the rest of the group arrived to their side of the car.
TenTen narrowed her eyes then whipped back to Lee and repeated the question, this time addressed to Lee.
"Really, it was nothing TenTen." Lee said smiling, trying to avoid TenTen going homicidal on Sasuke.
TenTen stared at him intensely and then after a while, Neji stepped forward and grabbed TenTen's backpack that was on the floor. After a few more minutes of hardcore staring Lee finally gave in and mumbled something only TenTen could hear.
"HE SAID WHAT?! Uchiha, you are so dea… hey! Who the hell took my bag?" TenTen said looking around once she realized that her precious bag, which held all of her scissors, needles, and pins, was gone.
"I did, if I didn't you'd probably be put in jail for the murder of Uchiha Sasuke." Neji said calmly.
"I don't care if I get put in jail! Do you know what he said to Lee? Aargh! It's too terrible to even repeat! If I don't punish Uchiha what kind of big sister would I be? Neji give that back!!!" TenTen yelled trying to retrieve her backpack.
Neji stretched out his hand causing the backpack to be out of TenTen's reach. "No, and you are not Lee's sister."
"Hmph, fine, you are so lucky Sasuke." TenTen said.
"Hn." Sasuke replied, not caring and not bothering to say 'thank you' to Neji who had just saved his life.
Flash
Ino looked up at the thundering sky and sighed. "I hope this rain will be over in time for the dance. I was planning to do my hair for the dance."
Hinata and TenTen nodded their head in agreement, while the guys just rolled their eyes at her womanly worries. The group headed towards the building.
"Speaking of the dance," TenTen piped up, "Who the heck are you guys going with?"
"I-I don't know…" Hinata mumbled in reply. "A lot of guys asked me but…"
TenTen grinned. "Don't worry, I already know, the question was mostly directed to Sakura and Ino, anyways."
Hinata sighed in relief before looking expectantly at the other two girls who stared right back.
"What," Ino said, getting sick of playing a staring game, "I don't know."
"So all of the guys who asked you weren't worthy to go with you?" TenTen said teasingly.
"Shut it TenTen." Ino said slightly pink at what TenTen was getting at.
"Who asked her?" Naruto suddenly asked, butting into the conversation. The guys were still with them; they just rather listen to the conversation rather than join.
"Huh? Oh, just about half of the male population of the school." TenTen replied casually.
"Why didn't she go with one of them?" Naruto asked confused. Girls were like a whole other species to him. If a girl asked out a guy, guys usually would go for it no matter what, but vise versa it seemed that girls actually thought about who they were going to go out with.
"Because she doesn't want to go with any of them, she wants to go with a certain someone." TenTen said, earning a glare from Ino. "What, I don't see what the big deal is, it's just a dance, and does it really matter who you go with?"
"That's easy for you to say, you already got a boyfriend." Ino said, nudging her head back towards Neji who just looked up before turning back to his conversation with Shikamaru.
TenTen rolled her eyes then turned to Sakura, "Who are you going with?"
"Huh? Oh, I'm not going."
"What?!" Ino yelled out, alarmed at what Sakura had just said.
"What, did no one ask you out or something?" Ino asked, a little worried that her friend was suffering from an emotional breakdown or something.
"No, no, some people did ask me out, but I decided not to go." Sakura replied.
"What? Sakura that is social suicide! You have to go! It's gonna be a disaster if you don't go!"
"How is it going to be a disaster?"
"It just will! Come on Sakura, why don't you want to go?" Ino asked, nearly crying because her best friend didn't want to go to the most important dance of the year beside prom.
"Because, well, I don't know… I don't think I'm going to get to go to the game either…"
"What?!" Naruto yelled. "Why aren't you going to the game? You have to go to the game! You have to come and cheer me on, if you don't come we're going to loose!"
"Aargh! Naruto now you jinxed it! Okay, Sakura whether you like it or not you're gonna have to come now, Naruto jinxed it." TenTen piped in.
Suddenly Sakura found herself the middle person of the argument of where she should go tomorrow and she didn't even get the chance to present her half of the argument.
"Look, I'll go to the game tomorrow," –Naruto grinned proudly- "but I am not going to the dance." Sakura said firmly.
"Yes, you are forehead, even if I have to drag you there myself!" Ino said stubbornly.
Sakura rolled her eyes and said, "Okay, let's assume that I actually do want to go, what the heck am I going to wear?"
"That's easy! I'll just loan you one of my dresses!" Ino offered.
"That's a great idea and all but I don't even know where you live, how am I going to get the dress." Sakura said, pointing out the flaw of Ino's great plan.
"Hmm… I know, why don't we all have a sleepover at Hinata's place tonight? That is, if Hinata doesn't mind of course." Ino suggested.
"No, I don't mind." Hinata said softly, patiently waiting for things to smooth over before heading to their class.
"Wait, what does that have to do with anything?" TenTen asked confused.
"Everything! If we have a sleepover, I can loan Sakura a dress, and we can make sure she goes to the game and the dance tomorrow!" Ino explained.
"Good idea, Ino!" TenTen complimented.
"Okay, it's settled, tonight at 7:00 we meet at Hinata's place!" Ino exclaimed.
"You're going to Hinata's today?" Naruto asked.
The girl nodded.
"What a coincidence, so are we! Well, we're going to go for basketball practice that's all." Naruto said cheerfully as Hinata blushed at the thought of her crush at her house.
"Huh? That's great, then that means you can give Sakura here a ride!" Ino said before whipping around to Sasuke and saying, "Sasuke-kun, make sure you give Sakura a ride to Hinata's today, 'kay?"
"Tch, whatever." Sasuke said rudely before stalking off somewhere.
"Naruto," Ino turned to the blonde, "Make sure Sasuke-kun gives Sakura a ride."
"No problemo!!!" Naruto agreed before saying, "haha, I know Spanish and you don't!"
The group rolled their eyes before:
Riinggg!!!
"Aargh! Damnit, why do we have to have school? I already used up all the brain power I had on creating those brilliant ideas!" Ino complained as the group headed towards their first class.
"Here we are!" Naruto said cheerfully as he climbed out of the car and opened the door for Sakura to get out.
Sakura stared at the Hyuuga mansion in awe.
"Heh, it's big isn't it? It's bigger than teme's even!" Naruto said proudly, as though he was the one who lived at the mansion.
Sakura agreed with him, the mansion itself was big enough to, well, pass for rich, but the garden was what qualified it to be extraordinary!
There were bushes shaped into animals of all sorts and flowers were in full bloom. There was a small pond in the middle of the garden with water lilies framing it. Exquisite birds were also scattered around it, and ducks were swimming in the pond. At the middle of the pond a bridge was build across it, allowing people to peer into the water below and admire the colorful fish that lived within the pond.
The trees were all fully grown and most had some sort of flower or fruit growing on it. Vines climbed along the wall of the fence and various bugs buzzed around enjoying the sweet nectar of the various flowers growing there. Fountains were placed randomly around the garden and each featured a statue of some sort of greek god.
The most extraordinary thing to Sakura was the lights, however. They were strewn all across the garden and sparkled at every angle. They were plain white, but to her, they were absolutely… colorful, and this did not go unnoticed by a certain Uchiha.
"Okay, we're here, and we saw the garden, could we go inside already?" Sasuke commented in an annoyed tone.
"Just because you didn't bring a jacket and you're cold doesn't mean you have to ruin it for the rest of us, I want to look at it a bit longer, it's so beautiful." Sakura said, dazed at the dazzling lights.
"I'm not cold, I just see no point to staying out here longer than necessary. We should get in, deliver you to Yamanaka and hurry to the backyard to play basketball already."
"What am I, a package?" Sakura asked, sarcastically.
"An annoying one at that." Sasuke remarked.
"Teme be nice! We got plenty of time to practice, let her enjoy the view for a while!" Naruto said, smiling ear to ear, as if the garden was his.
After a couple of minutes of looking, they all finally headed towards the house.
Ding-Dong
Naruto hummed to himself as the doorbell rang throughout the house.
"H-hello?" a soft voice greeted them. "Ah! Hello, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, come on in. You guys are half an hour early, so I was surprised when the doorbell rang. Neji-nii is in the back, if you guys wanted to know. Shikamaru hasn't arrived yet."
Sakura smiled at Hinata's soft and timid greeting, and politely said hello, while Sasuke nodded his head, but Naruto said, "Hey Hinata! Sorry if we surprised you! Hey, you have any ramen? Sasuke-teme wouldn't let me eat in his car."
The shy girl blushed at nodded. "I-it's in the k-kitchen; t-the cooks knew y-you were c-coming s-so they m-made p-plenty."
"Alright! Let's go Sasuke-teme, bye Sakura!"
The two boys left leaving Sakura alone to tour the house with Hinata.
"Hey Hinata, thanks again for letting me come."
"No problem, you're the first one here; I'll show you where everything is." Hinata said as Sakura went into the house.
"Down there is the cellar, we don't usually go down there. It's basically where father keeps all his expensive wine," Hinata said, pointing to the left, "And there is where the kitchen is."
She led Sakura up the stairs and showed her where all the bathrooms were, where the rooms were, the closets, what doors not to go into, and son on. Sakura was sure she'd never ever remember where all the stuff was.
Ding-Dong
"That's probably Ino, or TenTen." Hinata said, leading Sakura down to the front door.
It turned out to be the latter.
"Hey guys! Am I the last to get here or something?" TenTen asked, stepping in.
"Hey TenTen, naw, Ino-pig and Shikamaru haven't arrived yet." Sakura said slyly.
"Heh, wonder what they're doing, that's taking them so long." TenTen grinned.
"Nothing, really, I just had to get this lazy-ass out of bed, so he could drive me here." A voice behind them said through gritted teeth.
The three girls turned to see a very angry Ino and a sleepy Shikamaru.
"Oh, hey, Ino, didn't see you there…" Sakura said in a small voice.
Ino huffed angrily while all Shikamaru said was, "Geez, woman… we're early. You woke me up for this? I could have at least slept ten more minutes. It's so tiring having to drive for you."
"Shut up you lazy ass! We're not that early, and how is it tiring? You sleep 23 hours a day! You should be energized!"
Shikamaru just looked at her with lazy eyes that read: You are so troublesome. Then he nodded to the other girls before leaving.
"Okay, now that we're all here what the heck do we do first?" TenTen asked.
"Well, first we have to get snacks, then we see movies, then we talk, then we do makeovers and other stuff." Ino said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Glad you have our whole night planned out, Ino-pig. Hinata, we're going to need a lot of snacks for piggy here." Sakura said, imitating Ino's tone.
"Take that back forehead!" Ino screamed out jabbing Sakura's forehead with her finger.
"Don't call me forehead, pig!"
"Forehead!"
"Pig!"
"Forehead!"
"Pig!"
"Hey, hey, stop fighting! Now, are we going to get snacks or what?" TenTen asked.
"Hell yeah!!!" The other two girls responded while Hinata smiled and led them to the kitchen.
(Hinata's Room)
"Okay, we got our snacks, we got our pajamas, we got our blankets, and now all we need to do is decide what movie we're going to watch. Let's see what our selection is…" TenTen said as she gathered Hinata's movies around her.
"Okay we got, John Tucker Must Die! Yes or no?"
"No, I've seen that movie like a dozen times last week, that's all HBO was showing." Ino said.
"Okay, then, sorry John Tucker Must Die, off into junk pile you go." TenTen said as she threw the movie to the side recklessly.
"Now we got… Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."
"No, I've seen that movie so many times I probably know the whole thing by heart." Sakura declared.
"Junk pile; Okay now we have… A Cinderella Story."
"N-no, I'm not too fond of that movie." Hinata said softly, "But if you guys want to, you can watch it."
"Naw, junk pile for it. Another movie… The Covenant? Hey, I like this one!" TenTen announced. "What do you guys think?"
"Never heard of it, what is it about?" Ino asked, surprised she didn't know about it.
"It's supposed to be a scary movie, but it's not. Trust me, Barney is scarier than it! Anyways it's about four boys who are supposedly the decedents of five witch families. The fifth is supposed to be dead, but as it turns out, that decedent isn't and then all hell breaks loose. It's also a romance at the same time." TenTen explained.
"Well if it's not scary, I suppose I could watch it…" Ino said; she hated scary movies!
"Fine by me, I haven't seen it in a while." Sakura said.
"O-Okay, if it's romantic…" Hinata agreed.
"Then it's settled, we're watching The Covenant!" TenTen said happily as she popped the disk into the DVD player and then sat down with the other girls to watch the movie.
(With the guys)
"That was a good practice don't you think?" Neji commented as he and his fellow teammates headed towards the front door of the Hyuuga Mansion.
Although it was still chilly outside, they all refused not to have a practice game. Besides, the exercise warmed them up in no time at all.
"Yeah it was, I didn't know we were that rusty at the basics, guess we were so used to doing all the complicated tricks and stuff…" Shikamaru said.
"Hn.,." Sasuke said angrily, "I still think we should have gone over a new strategy instead."
"Oh get over it teme! You're just mad cuz' we used Sakura's advice." Naruto threw in.
"Advice that she got from Gaara." Sasuke reminded him angrily.
"So what? That's just adds to the reason we should do it. Whether you admit it or not, Gaara is a good basketball player, so he should know his stuff. Be grateful that we know Sakura who knew Gaara, so that we could know more strategies." Shikamaru chipped in, while the other guys just stared at him, surprised that he practically said a whole paragraph without using the word 'troublesome'.
"It doesn't.." Sasuke tried to say.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
All the guys froze as they heard an ear-piercing scream coming from a certain room in the house.
"Was that… Ino?" Shikamaru asked before all four guys dashed upstairs.
(Hinata's Room)
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"What the hell?!" Sakura screamed as she moved away from her screaming friend accidentally bumping into TenTen, who, in turn, crashed into the tv causing it to knock over and turn off, leaving the room pitch black.
After that, Ino screamed even louder.
"Pig shut up! I'll just turn on the damn lights! Where are the switches again?" Sakura said moving and bumping into someone again, this time Hinata.
"Aargh! W-who's there?" Hinata jumped in surprised, causing the popcorn in her hands to fly everywhere.
"Relax, Hinata it's just me! I'm trying to get to the light switches. Aargh, Ino will you shut up!" Sakura yelled frustrated.
"Sakura! You're stepping on my foot!" TenTen's yelled out, trying to free her poor foot.
"That's not me!"
"Then who is it?"
"Aargh! There is someone in this room other than us!" Ino yelled out, paranoid.
"No there is not!"
"G-guys, let's just calm down…" Hinata began.
BOOM!!!
"Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!" All four girls screamed as the sound of thunder filled the room.
"That's it! I am so out of here!"
"Me first Ino-pig!"
"Aargh! Will you guys slow down! You guys nearly knocked me over! Aargh…. Okay, you knocked me over."
"What was that?"
"What?"
"That! I heard footsteps!"
"…"
"Aargh I hear them too!"
"I told you someone is coming to get us!"
"O-oh no!"
"Aargh! Take TenTen, not me!"
"Why me?! Hey, what are you doing?!"
"Move it!"
"Ino-pig! Move your fat ass!"
"I'm not even near you! And I do not have a fat ass!"
"Whatever! Aargh! I felt something move!"
"What's going on?"
"I can't see!"
"TenTen kick their asses!"
"There's no one here, dumbass!"
"Aargh!"
Click!
Four boys couldn't believe what they were seeing, well they could believe it, but it was so… weird.
They had come up to Hinata's room and they did knock, but no one answered, and there was a lot of yelling inside so they decided to enter anyways. As soon as they did, they turned on the lights temporarily blinding the four girls inside.
This is what they saw: Ino was hiding behind TenTen, who looked annoyed, scared, and angry at the same time. Sakura was sprawled on her back on the floor, and looked as if she were trying to get to the lights. Hinata was on the bed, under the sheets, with only her eyes peeking out. The tv was knocked over, popcorn was everywhere, snack wrappers were anywhere but the trashcan, movies were lying around the floor, blankets were lying randomly across the room, and to top it all off, each girl was staring at the boys like they were aliens.
"What is going on?" Shikamaru asked, but he regretted it soon afterwards.
"Aargh!" The Ino, Sakura, and Hinata screamed.
"Will you guys stop screaming, I'm going to go deaf! It's just Shikamaru, god!" TenTen yelled out in an annoyed voice.
The girls looked at Shikamaru then at the other boys. "We knew that." They said quickly and sheepishly as TenTen rolled her eyes.
"Okay, hopefully I won't regret this, what is going on?" Shikamaru asked again.
"She," Ino pointed accusingly at TenTen, "said that the movie wasn't scary, and it wasn't. It was terrifying!"
"Why are you blaming me? The movie wasn't even at the good part! And it wasn't even scary!" TenTen snapped.
"Yes it was! Are you blind or something? Did you not see the billion of spiders crawling all over her?"
"That was a freakin' dream! If you had watched a little while longer you would have seen that!"
"Will you guys just shut up! I'm tired of all this yelling!" Sakura shouted.
"You shut up!" TenTen and Ino yelled back childishly.
"G-guys?" Hinata started but was soon hushed up.
"Hey, hey, will you guys stop fighting? What movie were you all watching anyways?" Neji asked.
"The Covenant." TenTen replied.
"Why did you all watch it if you knew…" Shikamaru started.
"We watched it because it wasn't scary." TenTen snapped at him while looking at Ino.
"It was too! I'm telling you, Shika! There were spiders everywhere! On her, on the ceiling, on the floor, everywhere!!!!" Ino yelled out like a child telling their parents their part of the story.
"Hold on both of you, what I was going to ask was why did you all watch it if you knew Ino has arachnophobia?" Shikamaru finished.
"… Ino has arachnophobia?" TenTen asked.
"Yeah, she's always been terrified of spiders since she was small." Shikamaru replied.
All the girls looked at Ino. "Why didn't you tell us that sooner?!"
"I thought you knew! Besides, how was I supposed to know that the movie had spiders in it?" Ino said, determined to defend her last amount of dignity.
"Well, what's done is done. Now can we get back to the movie?" Sakura suggested standing up and wiping off the popcorn off of her and heading to the tv to pick it up.
"I'll get that for you Sakura-chan!" Naruto chimed in, finally able to get over the shock of what happened.
"What do you mean 'back to the movie'? I am not watching that thing for as long as I live!" Ino declared backing away from the tv like it was some sort of poisonous snake.
"Aww, just close your eyes then! I want to watch what happens at the end!" Sakura said.
"Why can't we just watch normal tv? I mean, all that's on is the news, but it's not that bad right?"
The entire group looked at her like she was some sort of alien.
"You'd rather watch the news?" Sakura asked.
"As long as there aren't any spiders in it, yes." Ino snapped.
"Heck no, Yamanaka! I want to finish the movie!" TenTen yelled.
"Don't even start. Look, Ino why don't you just close your eyes whenever spiders come and then open them when there aren't any." Shikamaru suggested. It was either side with Ino, or side with TenTen, and since TenTen's side had Neji on it, he was gonna go with TenTen.
"Nnn.. fine." Ino finally said.
They cleaned up the room under the supervision of the boys, who were too lazy to help, and finally all the girls were ready to continue the movie, well, except Sakura.
"Neh, I got butter all over my clothes." Sakura complained looking at her butter-stained pink pajamas.
"Don't worry, I brought extra, forehead, I'll lend it to you." Ino offered grabbing her bag and opening it to reveal a million set of clothes!
"Damn Ino, why didn't you just bring your whole house with you?" TenTen remarked.
"W-wow, you really come prepared." Hinata said softly.
"Of course, but only one of these is another set of pj's. This is my dress for tomorrow, this is my uniform, this is the dress I'm going to lend forehead, this is the other dress I'm brought in case I didn't like the first one, and this is the pajamas!" Ino said, bringing out the pajamas.
"Uh… Ino, I don't think I like the idea of walking around in that." Sakura said, staring at a very see-through black top and silk short that probably wouldn't reach halfway down her thigh.
"Relax, forehead, I got an undershirt for it." Ino said rolling her eyes.
"Yeah but what about the shorts?"
"You're skinny, you have nothing to worry about." Ino said.
"Okay, you may like to dress like a slut, but I sure as hell do not." Sakura said.
"I do not dress like a slut!" Ino declared.
"Then why do you have that… thing?" Sakura asked.
"It was a gift, and for your information, I haven't worn it since I got it!" Ino said.
"Who would give that to you as a gift?" Sakura challenged.
"One of her horny ex-boyfriends!" TenTen answered laughing.
"Shut up TenTen! Sakura, are you going to take it or not?" Ino asked, already preparing to put it back in her bag.
"Why can't she just wear her other pajamas?" Naruto asked innocently.
"Because, Naruto, if she does, tomorrow she'll wake up with pimples all over her body!" Ino said, causing Sakura to shudder at the terrifying thought. "Okay, forehead, what'll it be, pimples, or this? Or if you'd prefer to run around commando style…"
"Hell no!" Sakura yelled back, horrified at the thought.
"Well, then?"
'Okay, another difficult decision. Do I go to school tomorrow with planets all around my face or do I dress like a slut tonight? Aargh what do to, what to do… Oh! I have a great idea!' Sakura thought before turning around and asking, "Neji, do you have a shirt and basketball shorts I could borrow?"
Said boy looked a bit taken aback for a second before replying, "Sorry, Haruno, I just used my last pair."
"Does anyone else have extra clothes?" Sakura asked aloud meekly.
Everyone shook their head.
"Damnit. Ino give me the damn clothes." Sakura demanded rudely before Ino gave her the clothes while laughing. "All boys out!"
"Huh? Why? We wanted to watch the movie!" Naruto whined.
"I thought that you guys were going to go home after practice?" TenTen asked.
Shikamaru shook his head, "Nope, it's raining really hard, I think tonight's gonna be a storm for sure. All the streets are flooded, so we'll be staying here tonight anyway, at Neji's." (a/n: Neji's house is separate from the main one. It's across the pond and you have to go across the bridge to get there. It's pretty plain since Neji's always at the main house)
"Oh." TenTen said simply. "Well you all have to leave anyway, right now." She said pushing them out the door.
"Okay, forehead, hurry up and go to the bathroom and change." Ino said as Sakura nodded and headed to Hinata's personal bathroom. When she finished changing she had on a black tank top covered by the see-through pajama top. The shorts were also black and barely reached her thighs. 'Damn I look like a hoe! Why did Ino bring this anyway?'
She stepped out of the bathroom and crawled into Hinata's bed and put the sheets over her signaling Ino to let the other girls to let the boys in.
Everyone then came sat randomly across the room and they finished the movie, but not after Ino let out a few screams every now and then. After the movie, though, they didn't know what to do.
"Ino-pig, I thought you were the one who planned this out. What do we do next?" Sakura whined from her spot on the bed. She refused to come out and show everyone what she was wearing.
"Well, when I planned it out it was supposed to be us girls only." Ino said, looking at the four boys who were, at the moment, looking very bored.
"Well, that's an easy problem to solve! Look," TenTen said, "all boys go to bed."
"What?! But it's only ten! I don't want to go to bed early!" Naruto whined.
"Too bad, Naruto, you are going to have to go." Sakura said.
"But… Hinata, this is your house, can't I stay up? Please?" Naruto asked with puppy dog eyes at Hinata, who turned redder than a tomato.
"U-um… w-w-w-w-w-w-well, N-naruto, I-I d-don't s-s-s-s-see w-why n-not…" Hinata stuttered.
"Alright! Ha! We can stay! Thanks Hinata!" Naruto said cheerfully as the other girls groaned.
"S-sorry." Hinata apologized sadly.
"Don't worry about it Hinata, we understand." Sakura said. 'She could never refuse Naruto…'
"Well, I guess we'll just talk about random stuff." Ino said, defeated. "So, what's going on in your guys's world?"
"…"
"I thought so…" Ino said nodding her head up and down as if agreeing with it.
"Why don't we play a game?" Hinata suggested.
"Depends on what the game is." Ino replied.
"Um, maybe truth or dare?"
"Not in front of these guys, they'd probably use all the stuff to blackmail us later." Ino said jabbing her thumb towards the four guys.
"Ah! Sakura, why don't you tell us what it was like at Suna?" Hinata asked innocently.
"Yeah forehead! You never told me what it was like!" Ino said enthusiastically.
"Well, what's to tell? To sum it up... hot." Sakura said bluntly.
"That's not what I meant! I meant like what sorta places were there, who were your friends?" Ino said.
"Well, there were a lot of clubs, there was a mall, and there were other buildings…" Sakura trailed off.
"Okay, who were your friends?" Ino asked.
"Friends? I had lots of friends." Sakura said nervously.
"I meant your closest ones."
"Oh, my closest ones? Well, let's see, there was… Temari, Kankurou, and…"
"Sorry, didn't catch that last one."
"…"
"Still didn't hear it."
"…Gaara…" Sakura said soft enough so that only Ino could hear.
"GAARA?!" Ino shouted immediately making all eyes turn to Sakura.
"Gaara was one of your closest friends? Gaara, the one with red hair and a tattoo on his forehead?" Ino asked, completely in shock.
"Gaara, the teen with an jerky, arrogant attitude, who looked like he was going to kill you every time you got too close to him?" TenTen asked.
"Uh… probably, definitely him." Sakura answered.
"Why didn't you tell us this sooner!!!" both girls asked at the same time.
"Well…"
"Okay, when you say 'close' how 'close' do you mean?" Ino asked.
"Close? Well I've known him ever since I moved there so I guess you could say we were pretty close." Sakura answered. "Actually, he was the one who got people to stop teasing me, and he was the one who taught me how to play basketball."
"Sounds like you two were pretty close." A voice said.
The group turned to Sasuke, who up until now, hadn't said a word. He was staring at Sakura intensely.
"Aww, lighten up Sasuke, just because she knew your mortal enemy doesn't mean you should be mad at her." Naruto said.
"Tch, whatever."
"Anyways, he sounds totally different from how he acted towards us. Like two different people." TenTen said in a matter of fact tone.
"Well, yeah, he sorta hated you guys, for reasons I can't say." Sakura explained.
"Do you still keep in touch with any of your old friends?" Hinata asked.
"No, I know their email address, but I still don't have a computer, heck I don't even have an umbrella!" Sakura said laughing. "But still, even if I did have a way of talking to him, he wouldn't talk to me."
"Why not?" All the girls and Naruto asked at the same time.
"Cause we… got into a bad argument before I left so we were on bad terms." Sakura explained.
"Oh… hey it's already 11:00! We should go to sleep now." TenTen said.
"Huh? But it's still early!" Naruto whined.
"Don't forget that you guys have a game tomorrow and have to be energized."
"We'll just sleep during class!" Naruto said.
"Well, we girls need to get our beauty sleep! Now out!" Ino said shoving them. "I need to get to sleep before the storm is in, or I'll never sleep at all!"
"Okay, okay, we're going!"
"See ya guys tomorrow! Goodnight!" the girls said before drifting off to sleep.
Boom!!!
Sakura's eyes opened wide at the sound of thunder. She was a light sleeper when it came to storm nights and right now the storm was thundering in full force. She sighed, now she was never going to get to sleep…
She got up and grabbed a spare blanket to wrap around herself. 'It's freezing!' She thought as soon as she stepped onto the bare floor. 'Haven't they ever thought of buying carpet for this place?'
She went out of the room and before she knew it, her feet led her to the kitchen. 'Neh, I'll get some hot chocolate, I guess…'
She heated up some water in a pan she found and poured the chocolate mix into it. In no time at all she found herself sitting on a kitchen stool drinking hot chocolate. 'I guess I'll do the dishes after, it'll be rude just to leave them lying there.'
God she was so bored! Wasn't there anything to do around this place? She looked at the clock on the wall, it read 2:30. Great she only had three and a half hours of sleep, now she was going to be bitchy all day tomorrow. When the clock read ten till three, Sakura noticed that the storm had finally died away.
'Neh, might as well wonder the gardens, it's bad for you to drink and then go to bed… I think.' Sakura thought.
As soon as she went outside she tightened the blanket around her; the storm had died down but it was still cold outside. 'At least there isn't any wind.' She thought gratefully.
'Hey, I never did have the chance to stand on the bridge, did I?' Sakura thought happily as she headed toward the pond.
Once she was on the bridge she peered down into the water, expecting it to be frozen, but it wasn't. 'Oh, there are water heaters, I guess they want to help the fish out… hey look at the fishy!'
Sakura smiled as a school of fish swam under the bridge and her smile brightened when she saw a baby duck trying to catch one of them.
"Sorry little ducky, I would help you but I think I'd be worse than you are trying to catch a fish." Sakura said to the baby duck when he failed to catch one fish.
"Great, you talk to ducks. Have they ever considered putting you in a psychiatric ward?" a voice said from behind her.
Sakura turned around and saw none other than Sasuke Uchiha leaning against the railing of the bridge. "You know I was enjoying the scenery until you came up, you just ruin it with you big ugly head, Uchiha." Sakura said, angry that he was already making fun of her when she hadn't done anything.
"I'm not in the mood to argue with you right now, Haruno." Sasuke said coldly.
"Who's arguing? I'm just stating facts." Sakura said sweetly.
"…"
'That's weird, he didn't say anything…' Sakura thought.
"Sasuke?"
"What do you want, Haru...Ah-choo"
"You okay Sasuke?" Sakura asked a little worried.
"I'm fi- ah-choo, ah-choo ah-choo."
"Well, you sure as hell don't sound fine to me." Sakura commented as Sasuke continued sneezing. "I think you're getting sick…"
"No, I am not getting sick." Sasuke said stubbornly but once again he started to sneeze.
"Seriously, I think you're getting…"
"Haruno, will you shut up for once? I am not getting sick!" Sasuke yelled.
'Man, when he's sick he has an even crappier attitude! Oh no! He's probably been sick since this morning! That's probably why he snapped at Lee so easily. Come to think of it he's been in a bad mood all day! Aargh, why didn't I notice this before? Some doctor I'll be…' Sakura though as Sasuke continued to sneeze.
Suddenly, on impulse, she grabbed Sasuke's arm and started to drag him towards the main house.
"Haruno, what are you doing?" Sasuke asked as he tried to get free of her grip on his arm.
Sakura didn't respond just continued to drag him towards the house. When she got there she led him to the kitchen and made him sit down on the stool like a little boy.
"Haruno, I hate to repeat myself, now tell me, what are you doing?" Sasuke demanded as Sakura put some water into a pot and set it on the stove.
"I'm heating up some water, what does it look like I'm doing?" Sakura responded.
"I know that! What I was asking was why! God, even a monkey could figure that out!" Sasuke snapped, his head was throbbing and he was getting annoyed.
"I'm making soup. Whether you admit it or not, you are getting sick, and your voice is getting hoarse, I can tell. The soup will help you feel better." Sakura said her voice a little tight.
Out of the corner of her eye Sakura saw Sasuke put his head onto the table. 'Probably has a major headache.'
"I cannot get sick." Sasuke said doggedly.
"Well, that's what you get for walking around in the rain with no umbrella or coat." Sakura said as she poured the sauce and noodles and other ingredients into the now-boiling water.
"I had no choice! I couldn't find any of my old jackets or any umbrellas anywhere. And" Sasuke stopped suddenly and then began to cough, badly.
Sakura sighed and went towards the sick teen that was now slightly shivering even though it was fairly warm inside the kitchen. Not caring that he would see her in the stupid pajamas Ino had lent her she took off her blanket that was put around her shoulders and put it onto Sasuke. When he tried to take it off she said, "Don't even think about it Uchiha. Now open your mouth so I can see your throat."
"I'm not a baby Haruno, so don't talk to me like I am one." Sasuke said annoyed but he complied and let Sakura check his throat.
"You have a sore throat…" Sakura commented.
"Gee, why didn't I realize that before now?" Sasuke said sarcastically before he started to cough again. After about a minute of coughing which burned his throat, Sasuke put his head onto the counter again and mumbled, "I feel like shit."
"How do you feel?" Sakura asked worried about the answer; Sasuke could be really sick.
"I thought I just said I feel like…"
"No, your temperature." Sakura said.
Sasuke looked down and said, "It sounds stupid but for some reason I feel really cold and yet hot at the same time."
Sakura pressed her hand against his forehead quickly and said, "You have a slight fever."
"Like I didn't know." Sasuke responded rudely.
Sakura ignored the comment and went to the soup. When she decided it was done she poured some into a bowl and gave it to Sasuke who looked at it disgustedly.
"Is it supposed to look like vomit?" Sasuke asked poking at it with his fork.
"Please, just eat it…" Sakura said, well, forced herself to say. She hoped she could help him get better as soon as possible, if this didn't work then Sasuke could possibly get pneumonia and she didn't even want to think of what would happen then.
Sasuke, however, just raised an eyebrow at Sakura's worry and amiability. Finally he took a bite out of the soup. It turned out to be not so bad; it tasted like tomatoes, his favorite food. While he ate Sakura rose and mumbled, "I'm going to go see if Hinata has any medicine or something."
When she returned she was carrying two bottles. "Here, this is all I could find." She mumbled sadly, handing him the medicine. "Just put it in your soup; you'll eventually eat it."
"Will you quit acting like I'm going to die? You're making me get annoyed." Sasuke said as he rose up and poured himself some more soup.
"Sorry, it's just, I didn't even notice until now… it makes me sad when I think how bad of a doctor I'm going to be." Sakura confessed, ready to pour her whole life story onto Sasuke.
Sasuke sensed this and said, "Look, before you get all sappy on me, just forget it. It's my problem not yours, and do not make it yours. I don't want your sympathy."
"I'm not giving you my sympathy, I'm just sad whenever I think that all this time…"
"Then think about something else." Sasuke said as he continued to eat.
"… Who exactly is… Emiko?" Sakura asked.
Sasuke stopped eating and stared at his bowl. "What are you going to do if I don't tell you?" he tested.
Sakura shrugged. "I guess I'll ask Naruto, if he doesn't tell me, then I'll stop asking about her."
Sasuke looked as if he was trying to decide whether to tell her or not. Finally he spoke, "She's a little girl I met at the hospital."
"At the hospital?" Sakura echoed. Sasuke nodded. "What was she doing at the hospital?"
"She has a tumor so she goes there a lot. My family helps her mother with medical bills and we're financing a medical research company." Sasuke replied.
"Oh. Why does she call you 'daddy'?" Sakura asked, deciding to get the whole story when she could.
Sasuke shrugged. "It's a habit she grew into. She doesn't know who her real father is, I don't even think her mother knows, so she decided to call me that."
"Oh, so why were you all so quiet and sad when I found out about her?" Sakura asked, soon regretting the question from the look Sasuke gave her.
"Because we didn't want people to find out about her."
"Why not? I think people would think it's cute to know that you're taking care of a sick girl. Heck, considering how famous you are, you could probably get a lot of people to start financing hospitals and stuff." Sakura said, trying to encourage Sasuke, however Sasuke just gave her a cold look.
"It won't work." He said.
"Why wouldn't it?"
"Because Emiko's going to die." Sasuke said bluntly.
"Wh-what? What do you mean?!"
"I mean that Emiko only has two months to live." He said passively.
"B-but how?"
"The tumor is going to kill her. It's too late to do surgery."
"B-but can't you guys do anything? Doesn't the mother…?"
"The mother couldn't care less about her. She doesn't even care if Emiko dies or not." Sasuke said in an even tone, though Sakura could see he was clenching his fists.
"Oh, Sasuke, I'm sorry." Sakura said in a sad tone.
"Don't be, she's not your problem and you mean nothing to her." Sasuke said icily.
"Still, she's means a lot to you, so… I'm sorry." She didn't know what else to say, and she felt downright pathetic for not being able to do anything.
"Will you stop looking all sad? It ticks me off. People die, Haruno, if you plan to be a doctor you better get used to it." Sasuke advised her, then he started to cough again, bringing her back to what was going on now.
She checked his temperature again, and sighed, earning yet another annoyed look from Sasuke. "I don't think this is going to get better overnight, Sasuke-kun."
"It has to, we have a game tomorrow." Sasuke said stubbornly.
"Well you're not going to school tomorrow that's for sure." Sakura said getting up and heading towards the kitchen phone.
"Yes, I am. We have a game tomorrow." Sasuke said grabbing Sakura's wrist to prevent her from calling his parents.
"I know that, I said you weren't going to go to school tomorrow. I never said you couldn't go to the game. If you go to the doctors and get a shot you could get better in time for your oh-so-important game. And don't worry about them not letting you play, it's your school; I'm sure you can pull some strings."
Sasuke smirked at the plan. He got to skip school and still play in the game, simple but brilliant. Then he felt his head throb again. 'Damn this better be over quick…'
He saw Sakura pick up the phone and dial his house number.
"Hello?"
"Hello, can I speak to Mikoto-san please?"
"This is she, who am I speaking to?"
"It's Sakura." She replied briskly.
"Oh, Sakura-chan! What can I do for you?"
"Well, we're at the Hyuuga's and Sasuke sorta got sick…"
"Huh? Sick? How bad?"
"Not that bad." Sakura replied, then she decided to get back at Sasuke.
"Says who?"
"I've been taking care of him. Don't worry your little boy is in good hands, I'm studying to be a doctor." Sakura could practically feel the murder vibes coming from Sasuke but she felt like laughing.
"Thank you, is that all?"
"Well, I just called to tell you that Sasuke should go to a real doctor tomorrow during school and rest up while he can." Sakura said, finally getting to the real reason she called.
Sasuke watched Sakura as she continued the conversation, catching a few words here and there. Of course her definitely heard the words 'little boy' and didn't think she was talking about anyone else.
It was while she was watching her that Sasuke realized how short her pajama shorts were. They revealed, well it was easier to say, they covered hardly anything.
'Damn, she has nice legs… oh crap! What the hell is wrong with me? Stupid hormones… Damnit I have to get better soon and stop these stupid thoughts.'
He made himself stare at her head as he watched her hang up the phone and say, "Well, everything is set up Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke nodded, and said, "Can I go now?"
"Yeah, you can go, just take the blanket with you so that you don't get worse. See ya tomorrow Sasuke-kun." Sakura waved and yawned at the same time.
"It's already tomorrow, Haruno" Sasuke said pointing at the clock then leaving.
"Oh yea, hehe." Sakura chuckled before heading off to bed herself. It had been a long day.
(Uchiha Mansion)
"Itachi! Your plan worked!" Mikoto's said cheerfully to her son.
"I knew it would. Now mother, you mind knocking before you come barging into my room like that?" Itachi replied sleepily.
"Sorry, I'm just so happy, I was afraid something would go wrong…" Mikoto said.
"Nothing was going to go wrong, now when can I put all the umbrellas and coats back to where they belong?" Itachi asked.
Mikoto looked at the pile of umbrellas at the corner of Itachi's room and at the coats thrown recklessly around the room.
She laughed and said, "Later on of course. Bye Itachi"
"Bye."
A/N: So what did you guys think? I never really planned to make Sasuke a father, and I know it's sad about the little girl but the story will all come into place soon. I already got a good idea about the next chapter so it'll be out a lot sooner than this one.
Of course, there is finally a little fluff going on between Sasuke and Sakura, and some between Ino and Shika. I say this chapter is the best so far neh?
If you think Lee is too emotional, I don't think he is. Remember this is Lee we're talking about. He's the dude that's in love with his sensei!
Problemo is not Spanish! It is problema. Yea I know, big diff. huh? But if you try to talk to any latino person using problemo, you will be laughed at. Take it from me, I laugh at so many ppl when they don't know Spanish and try to speak it. Although, I suck at reading, grammer, and spelling it I do know how to speak it. If you do not know proper Spanish do not try to speak it!
Okay, please review! . And in your reviews could you please tell me if any of the characters are really OOC? I know Sasuke definitely was (was he? Idk). Anonymous welcome.