A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and no this isn't the last chapter

A/N: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters associated with it.

It All Started With A Dare

Chapter Eight: Not Just Yet

Sakura couldn't believe what she had just heard. She felt as if Sasuke had just taken a kunai and stabbed her in the heart. She ran out the room and slammed the door. She couldn't even take being in the same room with him. 'A dare? It was all a dare?!' She thought as tears began to fill her eyes. She knew it had just been too good to be true, but she still fell for it- every last stinking word. She threw herself down in her pillow and started slamming her fists on her bed. 'How could he?' A thousand thoughts ran through her mind while she struggled to fight back the tears. She had fallen for him, but now she had only landed on her ass and it hurt. It really hurt.

'How could he just play with my feelings like that?' She knew that he was cold hearted, but she never thought he could do something like this, especially not to his own teammate. Everything- it had all just been an act. Tears came flooding from her eyes as her head clouded with the memories from earlier that night. She was happy then, happier than she ever had been before in her life, but now she knew it had all been a lie. 'I actually thought he liked me.'

Suddenly, a thought ran through Sakura's mind. 'If Sasuke can play with my feelings so easily, then I'll just have to play with his.'

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Sasuke awoke the next morning with a huge smile on his face. He never thought that he could be this happy. He had finally found love. There hadn't been love in his life ever since his family had been massacred, and his heart had started to turn to stone. But he was saved from a life full of loneliness now, and his pink-haired teammate was responsible for it. She had saved him, just in time.

He turned over where his eyes fell upon a note on the bedside table.

Sasuke-kun,

I have gone out to get some groceries so I can prepare breakfast. I would have asked you to come, but I didn't want to wake you. I'll be back soon. Feel free to take a shower and make yourself at home.

XOXOXO,

Sakura

Sasuke smiled to himself realizing that he was the luckiest guy in the world. He groggily got out of bed and made his way to the shower as his mind wandered to the girl he had fallen for.

When Sasuke got out of the shower, a sweet aroma filled the house. 'Sakura must be back,' he thought to himself as he headed for the kitchen. He slowly rounded the kitchen corner to sure enough find Sakura at the stove. He slowly walked up and hugged her from behind.

"Sasuke-kun, I am trying to cook." She said coldly as she elbowed him in the stomach. Sasuke quickly backed off rubbing his stomach. That hurt, not just physically. He sat down at the table wondering what was up with her, but soon shrugged it off as Sakura placed a plate in front of him.

"Tomato Pancakes, Your favorite!" She exclaimed acting like nothing had happened.

"Thanks, you didn't have to go through all this trouble for me though," Sasuke said as he dug into his favorite dish.

"So honey… Did you sleep well last night?" Sakura smiled a very fake smile.

"Yeah, but I really don't remember anything after we left the village's gate," Sasuke continued noticing Sakura's smile, "Did I do something wrong?"

'So he doesn't even know he told me about the dare...' Sakura thought as she shook her head no.

"Oh, good," Sasuke replied even though he sensed something was wrong. "Do you want to do something tonight?" He asked with a lot of hope in his voice.

"I can't," Sakura replied coolly.

"Why?" Sasuke asked nervously.

"I…" Sakura said slowly trying to think of an excuse, "I have a date."

Sasuke's jaw dropped. She had a date? How could she have a date? 'I thought that we were…' Sasuke's thought cut off as he realized that he hadn't asked her to be his girlfriend or anything of that sort. 'She has every right to go on other dates then,' he resigned even though it still hurt. 'Maybe she already had this planned,' he hoped.

"Well… Do you want to do something this afternoon then? We could train or something together…" Sasuke said in a hurt tone.

"Sure!" She smiled, but this time genuinely. She hadn't sparred with Sasuke one on one in a long time so she could test how strong she has gotten. Plus, she figured it would always be a good way to let out some anger on a certain somebody.

"Great!" Sasuke smiled convincing himself that she had made plans for the night before their date. 'She does want to spend time with me even thought she has another date.' He thought to himself. This thought made him happy. He loved spending time with Sakura, and it seemed obvious that she wanted to spend time with him, especially if she wanted to train with him. He still felt like kicking himself, though, since he hadn't even asked her to be his girlfriend yet or even told her how he felt. Maybe if he had already told her, she wouldn't be going on another date with a different guy.

Suddenly, an idea popped in his head. "Sorry Sakura, but I have to go," he said as he finished his breakfast. He quickly scurried to Sakura and went to kiss her, but she turned away only allowing him to kiss her on the cheek. "I'll see you at 2:00 then!" He shouted as he ran out of the door.

"I wonder what got into him," Sakura said to herself as she placed her hand on the cheek he had just kissed. She blushed; his touch still felt so good. She felt bad for trying to hurt Sasuke as she remembered the look on his face when she lied about having a date, but she convinced himself that she deserved. She didn't know why it seemed to bother him so much since after all, it was just a dare. 'Maybe I'll lay off of that kind of stuff,' she sighed.

Sasuke looked down at his watch. He had exactly two hours until he had to meet Sakura. That didn't give him much time to figure out how he was going to tell her his feelings. He could just come right out in say it, but that was just too simple for Sasuke. Plus, he had to have a plan, if he didn't, who knows what he would say. Heck, he got butterflies just being around her. He knew that it would be harder than it would seem to confess his feelings, but before he could think of what he wanted to say, he had to find something- something perfect for Sakura.

He looked around at all the various shops within the village, but nothing caught his eye. He sighed. 'I'm never going to find anything,' he thought. He started to give up on the idea when he happened to pass by a jewelry stand. 'It's perfect!' He thought as he looked down on one of the pieces. 'She'll love it…'

"Ah, shopping for someone special, eh?" The shopkeeper asked as saw the piece Sasuke was looking at.

"Uh, yea…" Sasuke blushed feeling a little embarrassed, "Can I see this?" He pointed in the display counter. The shopkeeper handed him the piece of jewelry and Sasuke examined it. 'This is it,' Sasuke thought as he continued to examine it.

"Birthday?" The shopkeeper asked as he watched Sasuke closely examine the item.

"Not exactly…" Sasuke replied quietly.

"Ah, you really like this girl don't you?"

"Who said anything about a girl?!" Sasuke snapped at the surprised shopkeeper, but immediately felt guilty.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to choose such a touchy subject…"

"More than anything…" Sasuke mumbled. The shopkeeper smiled at him.

"She's a lucky girl," the shopkeeper stated.

"No," Sasuke corrected him, "I'm the lucky one." With that being said, Sasuke purchased the item he had been examining and raced off towards his apartment. He only had 10 minutes to figure out what to say.

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"I can't believe that he sat me up." Sakura said as she looked at her watch, 'So everything I thought he felt really was fake…" She knew that it was a dare, but somehow, se didn't want to accept it. She couldn't believe that those feelings he seemed to have weren't real, but now it seemed like she didn't have a choice. Sakura looked around once more to see if Sasuke was anywhere in sight, but he wasn't. She sighed as she got up to return to her apartment.

"Sakura! Wait! I'm here, I'm so sorry I'm late!" Sasuke shouted as he came running to the training field. Sakura turned around to see the raven-haired boy out of breath.

"You're lucky I'm a patient person." Sakura said as she turned around sliding on her black gloves in a clearly annoyed tone.

"Look, Sakura, I really need to talk to you." Sasuke said grasping one of Sakura's hands.

"Train now, talk later." Sakura said pulling her hand away from Sasuke.

"Okay, hold-" Sasuke was interrupted by Sakura slamming a fist into his face. "We hadn't even started!" Sasuke stated rubbing his face.

"I know; that was for being so late."

And so the fight began. Sasuke clearly had the upper hand, but Sakura was putting up a good fight. Every now and then, she would land a hit that would send Sasuke flying back in the air. 'Good anger management,' she snickered to herself. Sasuke had thought he was going to have to go easy on her, but he couldn't take that chance; Sakura was serious, and if he let his guard down, she might kill him.

After an hour of intense fighting, Sasuke was getting extremely tired, but Sakura showed no signs of backing down. 'How am I going to get her to stop' Sasuke thought as he dodged one of Sakura's attacks. An idea popped into his head, but he had no idea if it was going to work or not. 'Might as well give it a shot,' he thought as he pinned Sakura to the ground. He smiled at her.

"What are you doing Sasuke-kun," Sakura hissed having been pinned down. Sasuke took this chance to kiss her, like he never had before. Sakura began to protest but quickly gave in to Sasuke's kiss. With in minutes, Sakura's arms were wrapped around Sasuke's neck as if she knew nothing of the dare, but in that moment, the dare was far from her mind.

Sasuke finally pulled back leaving Sakura and himself gasping for air. "Can we talk now?" Sasuke smirked.

"I… suppose…" Sakura said still gasping for air as she sat up. 'This better be good.'

"I'm sorry," Sasuke said looking Sakura in the eye. 'Could he know that I know about the dare?' Sakura questioned herself.

"For?" Sakura asked raising one eyebrow to see exactly what Sasuke was sorry about."

"For everything I've ever done to you. I've been stupid all along. I never appreciated you; I always took you for granted. I guess I figured you'd always be there because you always were. I never gave you a chance and always treated you coldly. I've been hurting you all along because I only cared about me, but you- you always cared about me, always putting me first, no matter how hard I tried to push you away and I'm sorry for that." He said still looking her in the eye, but getting quieter in tone.

"Sasuke-kun" Sakura whispered.

"No, let me finish." Sasuke took a deep breath. "I only know how stupid I've been all along now that I know the better side of life. I was one a one way road to self-destruction, but you, you saved me from that. My only regret is that I didn't give you a chance earlier, but after all this time you still gave me a chance."

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura whispered again, "What are you trying to say?"

Sasuke took another deep breath. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I-" Sasuke stopped as he started to find it harder to breath.

"You what, Sasuke-kun, you what?!?" Sakura asked anxiously.

"I love you Sakura."

Sakura stopped. 'Did he just say what I think he said?' She kept asking herself over and over again. She wanted to doubt what he had just said, but somehow she couldn't. She believed every word he said. He wouldn't go this far for a stupid dare. He couldn't. He wouldn't, would he? She found herself questioning her thoughts.

"And," Sasuke continued, "I want you to have this." He pulled out a small, silver ring with little emeralds all the way around the band. "They match your eyes," He whispered as he handed Sakura the ring. "I even had it engraved." Sakura looked inside of the bad which read, I'll always love you, forever and for always.

Sakura looked up with tears in her eyes. "It's a promise ring," Sasuke said as he slid it on her finger, "and I mean every last word of it. Sakura, I want you to be my girlfriend." Sakura was shocked, but couldn't help but think if Sasuke was serious or not.

"You don't have to answer now, not just yet." Sasuke said as he kissed a surprised and shocked Sakura before running off.

Sakura laid there in amazement, "Not just yet...?" she repeated his last words still in awe.