Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: Sorry, I know, another short chapter. I apologize. My life has become... dramatic lately. Ugh. I hardly have time to type anymore -or the inspiration to. But please, be patient, and I promise it'll be worth it.

"Um…Sasuke?"

Sasuke Uchiha turned his icy dark eyes on a petit little blonde girl who had been standing behind him; no doubt another fan girl, hoping to get a scrap more of attention from him than the others did. Sasuke wondered how long she had been standing there, and why hadn't he noticed her presence? He raised an eyebrow and relaxed against the bridge wall. "Yes?" he asked coolly.

She was shaking, he noticed; trembling visibly. Nerves? Internally, he sighed. It looked like it was just going to be another one of those days. "Sasuke, I- I… ah…." It was bad enough that she wasn't speaking loud enough for him to really hear what she was saying, but her voice came out as a girlish squeak. Sasuke felt the corner of one of his eyes twitch.

Before the girl found the words to say, or the strength to say them, he walked up and patted her on the shoulder, staring into her deep blue eyes.

They were very familiar eyes. He wondered idly why he hadn't run into Naruto yet, especially since he had spent some time in the ramen shop of all places.

"Sorry," he apologized to the girl. "I don't make commitments with mindless obsessive girls- especially ones I've never met before." With that, he turned her a cold shoulder and walked away.

Poor girl. She must be "heartbroken" already.

Suddenly Sasuke felt something very hard smack against the back of his head, and he stumbled forward a bit. After catching his balance - I only stumbled because it caught me off guard, dammit - and rubbing his head a little - that had actually hurt! - he spun around to see that same, innocent-looking girl standing there glaring at him. The most Sasuke could do was stare back at her with his mouth hanging open. She had thrown one of her shoes at him!

Sasuke had never seen a fan girl actually get angry with him before. Oh sure, he had turned down plenty of them, but that always only made them even more determined. Never before had any one of them gotten mad about it. Well, there was supposedly a first time for everything, and he guessed that this was no exception. "You- You threw a shoe at me!" he accused, knowing he sounded childish even before the words had all left his lips. That only irked him even more, making him growl under his breath and glare back at her. She met him stare for stare.

The girl crossed her arms under her breasts and frowned at him. "Hmph. Well it's less than half of what you deserve! At least let me say something before you immediately jump to the conclusion that I'm just another stupid girl asking you out- conceited!"

Her words stung like ice. She wasn't asking him out? She wasn't a fan girl? She had called him conceited! What the hell? "So…" he started when he found his voice again. "What the hell do you want then?"

The girl allowed him a tight smile. "What, Sasuke? Don't recognize me?" The girl walked up to him slowly, and then began to dance around him in playful little circles, smiling and giggling slightly. Sasuke just didn't get it. Women were so confusing.

"I don't think I've ever seen you before in my life," he growled. This girl was more than annoying.

Finally she stopped the twirling and giggling and planted herself firmly in front of him with her hands on her hips, rounding on him like rabbit cornered by a wolf. "Still don't remember me, do you?" she demanded. He wondered if she was going to stamp her feet and have a temper tantrum.

Well what was Sasuke to say? He had never seen this girl before in his life! What could she possibly want from him? Finally he gave a sigh and rubbed a hand across his forehead. His headache was starting to come back, probably thanks to her shoe. "Can we hurry this up a bit please?" he asked in a pained voice, wincing slightly.

Suddenly the girl was all concern. "What's the matter? Are you hurt? Sasuke, what happened?"

"You threw your shoe at me," he pointed out to her through gritted teeth, putting emphasis on each word so that maybe she'd understand that he just wanted her to go away. He really wished she would just leave him alone. She defiantly wasn't helping the headache situation. "Either tell me who you are and what you want or just go away. I have no time for this now."

"'No time?'" she quoted. "You were walking around like you had all the time in the world! And just standing there at the bridge..."

Sick of her behavior, Sasuke turned his back on the girl and began to walk away again.

"I told you I'd never bother you again…" she called after him. Sasuke froze in his tracks, not quite sure of what she was talking about. "That day before the party? I told you I'd leave you alone but…." Sasuke's body tensed, and he turned back around to see that the girl actually looked sad now. Why was she suddenly upset? This made absolutely no sense at all. The girl was shaking again, and her voice cracked when next she spoke. "I'm sorry, Sasuke, but it looks like I… I can't walk out of your life just yet."

Sasuke somehow found himself in Sakura's - Sakura's! - apartment. What the hell was he doing here? And could this girl really be Naruto? She had suggested it, but hadn't explained anything at all to him after she had started crying; after a while she had simply said for him to follow her and she would explain everything. Now here he was in Sakura's apartment, waiting on the girl while she fixed some tea in the kitchen.

"So… why are we… here?" he called to her.

She smiled a nervous little smile as she walked back into the room, two cups of tea in hand. "Sakura found me on the street one day and asked me if I would like to stay with her." She paused for a moment. "Well, that's... sort of what happened anyway." There was no way this girl could be Naruto. Sasuke would admit a resemblance between the two, what with the girl's golden hair and big blue eyes, but there was just no way…. This girl didn't act like Naruto at all.

"So…" Sasuke started again. "Why are we here?" It was the same question, but it was asking for something more this time.

The girl sat with her own cup of tea - Sasuke sipped at his - and she took in a very deep breath, letting it back out as slowly as she had let it in. "Sasuke I..."

Suddenly, of all moments, Sakura came bursting through the front door. "You will not believe…!" she ranted. "Ayako! You will not believe what that- that Ino pig did in town today!" The pink haired delight stormed into the kitchen without so much as glancing Sasuke's way, and some of her shouts were a little drowned out by the sounds of her angry pounding against walls, tables, and counters, or slamming cabinet doors open and shut while she talked. "You know how, like, every guy in town wants you right? Yeah. Well, today, when we were in town, we happened to see a few baby things in the window of, y'know, just some random store-" Obviously by that Sakura really meant that they had purposely gone to a specific store to see said baby things. "-and we went in thinking, you know, how one day it might be kind of nice to have a little baby around 'cause, well, you know. So anyway, I told her about you- you did say it was okay, right? Well, anyway, I told her and she… well, she pretty much had the same reaction that I did, but still it'll be nice to have a little baby around here someday…."

Sasuke sighed, wondering if she would ever shut up. It was hard to get what women were really saying when they went on and on rambling like this.

Sakura continued blathering on, though….

"So, we're in there, looking at cute little baby clothes, and Shikamaru sees us in there. So he starts going off on Ino right there in the middle of the street because he thinks she is pregnant. So then Ino gets all mad and of course they get into a fight right there outside the store - in the middle of Konoha and she freaking announces it to the entire village that you're pregnant. And you know how fast word travels in this town; everybody must know about it by now. But honestly, I never meant for it to happen!" Sakura -finally- came bursting back into the living room. "Oooh, I'm so mad!"

That's when she saw Sasuke and the girl sitting there on the couch, both staring at her. Sakura's eyes got really wide, and her face turned from ghostly pale to a shade almost as pink as her hair. "O-oh. Ayako, you uh… you have company. I'm sorry Sasuke-kun, you'll have to forgive me for… for that little outburst." She bowed quickly, but her eyes were still wild when she stood straight again, her face still red from embarrassment. She shot the girl -Ayako?- looks that clearly said she would explain later.

Sasuke nodded, acknowledging her bow, but didn't say anything. Finally he turned to this 'Ayako' girl. "So…." He lifted a questioning eyebrow. "Who are you again?"

From behind him, Sakura laughed lightly. "You didn't even tell him who you are? What did you do, pull him in off the streets?"

Sasuke nodded again. "Literally." Sakura laughed a little more, but her eyes burned even more fiercely with curiosity now.

"Um… Sakura?" Ayako asked shyly. "Could you- could you please give me and Sasuke-kun a little privacy?"

Sakura shot Ayako a... different kind of look this time, before nodding slowly. "Sure, Ayako. I'll just be in the kitchen then, I guess."

Once the fiery pink haired girl was gone, Sasuke turned to Ayako again. "Please, let's get this over with. I don't know who you are… Ayako… or what you want but… just tell me what you meant by what you said earlier."

Ayako took another deep breath and stared down at the carpet. Why wouldn't she look him in the eye? "Uh… Sasuke. Don't you- don't you recognize me at all? Even a little?"

Sasuke was quiet for a moment. "Are you really trying to tell me that you are Naruto?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"You act nothing like Naruto."

"Of course I don't!" Ayako shouted defiantly, now staring him square in the eye. "I've been a woman ever since the night of your stupid party!"

"My party? Don't say it like it was all my idea! If you really are Naruto, you know very well that the whole set up was all your fault! You practically forced me into it!"

"Did you not hear what I just said?!" she cried loudly - and it was a cry, or just short of it at least. Why did she look as if she were on the verge of tears suddenly? "I have been a woman ever since the night of the party!"

That made Sasuke stop to think a moment. Finally, he demanded incredulously, "Why?"

Ayako -or Naruto- sighed. "Because. I couldn't get out of my jutsu. My chakra level was -is low."

He hesitated a moment. Again he asked, "Why?"

Another sigh, this one a little more heated; frustrated. "Because Sasuke… because I…." She -or he- swallowed hard. "Because I… I think- no, I know that… you and I got very drunk at the party and- and we slept together that night." Sasuke blinked in surprise at that. Well, he certainly hadn't exapected that, although he probably should have seen something like it coming. "And…" she -or he- continued, putting a hand on her -his- stomach. "…there is now a little baby inside of me, draining me of my chakra."

All was silent in the whole house. Not even Sakura, who was still in the kitchen and probably eavesdropping, made a sound. Sasuke sat there staring at- at this Ayako girl for a moment… then he stood up, and walked silently out of the apartment.

He shut the door easily behind him, trying not to think of how the girl's eyes had filled with tears when he stood. Once the handle clicked, he heard Ayako start crying inside.

With a sigh, Sasuke walked away.