Like Water, Like Love
Chapter 8: Desire
Summary: nejixten, sasuxsaku She pushed him away, he drew her in. She wanted an embrace, he wanted to embrace her. She loved someone childishly, he loved her passionately. Their relationship was like water, like love.
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I've never thought
That I would do this
Never loved before
So I loved wrongly
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Sasuke
I must have looked drunk for a wild moment when I turned around, hungrily anticipating the cherry blossom pink hair. An expression of desperation and impossible hope spread across my features, but immediately vanished as I realized that my addresser was none other than Ino. Hastily swallowing my disappointment with a look of disdainful indifference, I stared at her scornfully and replied with a short "Hn."
Ino brushed aside my coldness and quickly hastened to my side. After scanning the area for any likely listeners, she whispered, "Follow me." Assuming that she didn't want to be noticed, I allowed her a head start before shuffling after her, scowling down at my sandals. We walked in silence until I wondered when the road would ever end.
The footsteps ahead of me stopped abruptly and a warning hand signaled me to stop as well. Still scowling, I looked up to see my blonde-haired fangirl beckoning me into a dark alleyway. Vaguely wondering what in the world we were doing in this dump of a place, I followed her obediently.
"Don't say anything when we enter," she breathed into my ear.
Reluctantly, I agreed to her request, or from what it sounded like, command. This wasn't the incredibly annoying Ino from Konoha, she was in some way… different. Perhaps it was the kimono that looked a bit ragged at the bottom where it unceremoniously brushed the pavement with her every step. Or perhaps the peculiar fashion in which she wore the kimono, which looked as if it was hastily put on. Her expression of mild panic mixed with firmness was so out of character that I felt as though I was talking to a completely different person.
Before I could dwell longer on her strange new appearance, she was dragging me by the arm down another alleyway. Hissing slightly, I withdrew from her grasp, but she turned around and gave me a both angry and purposeful look.
"Don't you want to find her?" she mouthed.
I was about to open my mouth to ask why she was acting as though someone would overhear us in this obviously deserted alley, when I realized she was standing in front of a door. The color of the door blended in exactly with the surrounding wall, rendering it almost impossible to distinguish except for the inconspicuous hinges and door knob.
Preparing to follow her through the said door, I suddenly wondered why Ino was here and how she knew I was looking for someone, much less a female.
The attacker! I thought wildly for a second, before remembering that the ninja had been male. Scowling in confusion, I tried to stop Ino, who was already turning the doorknob. She whipped around in a completely un-Ino fashion and grabbed the front of my shirt.
Whispering so softly that I could barely catch her words even though she was a mere two inches from my face, she once again assumed the panicked expression from before.
"Do whatever I tell you," she breathed.
Considering that it would be safer at this point not to refuse, I allowed her to take my wrist (I noticed she was obviously avoiding my hand) and open the door.
I blinked in mild surprise as we stepped into the room. It seemed like a rather normal entrance hall to something like a hotel. A middle-aged woman was sitting idly behind a small desk in the middle of the room, which was otherwise empty.
At the sound of the opening door, her head jerked up sharply, apparently waking from a light sleep. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of me standing behind Ino. I scowled.
"He's with me," Ino announced confidently to the woman.
At first, I thought the woman had not heard, for she had no reaction to Ino's words, but after digesting their meaning for a while, she spoke.
"You never bring customers," the woman hissed in a wheezy voice.
In the second of momentary silence, I thought Ino might not have an excuse in reply to the woman. However, when she spoke, it was with the same firmness and confidence as before.
"He asked me on the street." Her grip tightened around my wrist.
For a moment, the woman looked unbelieving, but very slowly extracted a key from the desk she sat at. Ino reached out for the key, but the woman suddenly snatched it back.
"He needs to pay first," she snarled.
"He already paid me," Ino said a little too quickly, extracting a thick stack of bills.
Still looking skeptical, the woman finally dropped the key into Ino's waiting hand. Without a word of thanks, Ino marched to a narrow staircase in the corner of the room, still holding tightly onto my wrist.
"Where are we?" I hissed when we were well up the stairs.
Ino did not answer.
Finally, we reached a landing lined with doors. One of them burst open with a slam and a lady walked out clutching the arm of a man who was much older than herself. She giggled drunkenly while his hand strayed all over her body. I turned away in disgust, but Ino seemed to take their image as an example, for she too was soon hanging off of my arm in an instant.
I tried to withdraw again, but her grip was iron-like.
Why was I looking like a perverted fool for a teammate? I thought angrily.
Still sulking, I walked briskly into the door that Ino had unlocked with the key the woman at the desk had provided her. The dimly lit room had no furniture other than a futon that had been slept on ten too many times and a small dresser.
Dropping my arm the instant she closed the door, Ino sighed heavily. "I think you know where we are now."
I scowled, but did not comment. Where else would there be these insane kind of people?
"It's not that easy, living this life," Ino said bitterly, removing her hair ornaments. "Old perverted men."
I didn't say anything.
"Well, I guess it's time for a nap." She flopped down onto the battered futon.
"What about Sakura?" I asked sternly. I did not come all this way to bed a former classmate.
"She's next door. She'll be done in an hour." The blonde eyed me and laughed a little. "And don't get any ideas," she added mischievously. "Unless…"
I snorted. Who would ever be interested in such an obnoxious person?
Not that you're any better, I reminded myself. Deciding it was best just to ignore her, I sat down in a corner and engaged myself in counting the stains on the wall and floor, immersing myself into thoughts I had struggled to keep back for years.
It never occurred to me that the emerald-eyed girl who had always sat directly in front of me could be any more special than all the other eyelash-batting fangirls. There was something captivating about her that always caught my attention no matter how amazingly boring class was everyday. The way that she kept on playing with her hair mindlessly and how she chewed on her nails right before a test could keep me transfixed for minutes at a time, which was saying a lot seeing as how I usually turned my head disdainfully from any other female in less time than it took Naruto to finish a bowl of ramen.
What captured me on that sunny afternoon wasn't love, but the desire to love. How could I even imagine the feeling of an emotion after seeing my entire family brutally slaughtered before me? It was guilt that kept my emotions at bay, but I never tried to break through the guilty barrier before me. Shinobi should never show emotions.
She dropped her pencil just as the bell rang for the end of the school day. In the chaos to exit the classroom, a hasty sandaled foot crushed the pencil easily. Without further thought, I lunged out of my seat in a style very unlike myself and grabbed the owner of the foot by the collar of his shirt.
"Apologize," I snarled, although my mind was still quite unaware of what I was doing. It felt as though a movie was rolling before my eyes; everything seemed quite distant and vaguely absurd.
"Sasuke-kun… Stop…" Her voice sounded far away.
"Apologize!" I demanded loudly. The class had gone completely quiet. People had stopped in their tracks and turned their heads, even shifting around to get a better look.
The boy narrowed his eyes and glared at me. He threw my hand off of his collar and dusted it a bit, never breaking his death glare. A cold wave swept through the classroom. The sound of someone dropping a sheet of paper was deafening. I considered rearranging his face with my fist, but decided better of it.
"Apologize," I ordered firmly for the third time.
He looked as though he would punch me this time, but instead he shifted his glare from me to Sakura and back to me before turning and briskly walking to the classroom door. As he exited without a backwards look, the entire class shifted their staring to me and Sakura instead. A steady wave of whispering ensued and people unfroze from their positions and proceeded to the door.
Ignoring the questioning glances classmates threw at me, I began carefully packing my bag. Someone tapped or perhaps a better verb is "jabbed," me on the shoulder as I bent down to retrieve my notebook from the floor.
I turned around in mere annoyance and asked bluntly, "What?"
However, the owner of the abusive finger that touched my shoulder was much too close for comfort. An expression of surprise flitted across my face, but I regained my sense of calm not much later.
"What's going on between you two?" Tenten asked me strictly with a trace of earnest.
"Nothing," I replied evenly, stowing my books away and shouldering my bag. Stiffly, I walked down the stairs towards the door.
"Hey! Sasuke-kun –"
"Uchiha Sasuke!" Someone bellows in my ear, waking me from my reminisces.
Rubbing my head, I glare at Ino before realizing that she is the only one who can help me now. "What is it?" I shoot at her in the most polite tone I can muster.
"An hour is up," she explains briskly, already at the door. I follow her obediently into the large open landing. "She's running late…" Ino says more to herself than to me.
Exactly thirteen seconds later, the door just beside the one we had just exited bursts open, causing a wave of giggling to fill the hall. A beautiful woman with a glittering smile pulls a young man out of the room after her.
"Yes, of course…" he mumbles with a dazed, happy look on his face, which looks slightly familiar.
She leans in far too close to him and whispers something in his ear that makes him smile even more. I march right up to him and grab the collar of his shirt just like how I grabbed a boy's shirt so many years ago. His expression changes instantly from the sleepy, blissful state to a hard, cold glare.
"What do you want?" he spits, grabbing my wrist and yanking my arm down.
"Well?" he demands loudly after I remain silent with anger.
I punch him in the face with all my bottled up hate and anger.
"What the hell?" He feels the blood on his broken nose and punches me in the stomach. "What the hell do you want?" Some people are peering out of their doors now.
"I'm talking to you!" the man yells in my face, landing a punch on the right side of my face.
"Stop it!" Sakura says firmly, stepping between us. Her back faces me.
"Move out of the way!"
He's really pissing me off now.
"No." She doesn't move an inch.
All of a sudden the reception lady came stumbling up the staircase, wheezing and panting.
"What are you all doing?" she asks angrily. "Back to your rooms!" she snarls at the onlookers. They hastily lock themselves in.
"You all come with me," she orders in a nasty tone. "Except for you," she adds sweetly to the man I was yearning to beat to a pulp. He stalks angrily to the stairway and disappears down the steps.
"You three, come." Her eyes are narrowed dangerously, almost disappearing behind all her wrinkles.
She leads us downstairs as well and orders for us to sit on three stools behind the reception desk before locking the door to outside. I notice that there are no windows.
"Explain yourselves," she hisses, seating herself in a chair before us.
"Ino was bringing her customer out of her room, and I tried to seduce him."
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Notes: If you finished reading this chapter, I am so happy! I seriously need to get back on track with fanfiction XD;; Sorry, sorry, sorry! You can hit me on the head :D My only excuse is that my computer got infected with a virus and I've been typing on my friend's computer whenever I can. Sorry again.
Yes, I lied. Another chapter of SasuSaku will be coming. Then I promise it will be back to NejiTen XD;;