"Ha! Another point for Team Naruto!" Naruto exclaimed throwing his fist up.
"Hey! That is not our name, if anything we should be Team Youth!" Lee exclaimed defensively as he mimicked Naruto's hand motion.
"Wha-! That sounds so lame. What do you think our team name should be, Seitsuki?" Naruto looked over to me.
I laughed as his stomach growled right after he asked me that question, "I think we should not worry about that and call it a game so we can eat." I said with a giggle.
"AH?! But the game's still tied!" Kiba yelled from his side of the team, which wasn't to far from us.
"Yeah, but I think that's good enough. Two-to-two game after about an hour, and the winning score is seven.. That could take a while. I agree, let's just call it game and tie." Tenten said with a smile as she looked over to me.
"Then it's settled!" I said clasping my hands together.
Kiba, Lee, and Naruto all kind of mumbled and pouted as we walked over to the rest of our group now.
The day had went on as if I hadn't been late in the first place. I convinced Sasuke to play frisbee, even though he was extremely reluctant. Now all of us sat around eating and talking about everything and anything. I thought that the whole day would go off without a hitch, but I was stupid to think that.
All was fine until Ino asked the question, "So what's it like working for Madara Uchiha?" She said excitedly.
I tensed up a little and laughed nervously, scratching the back of my head, "Oh.. It's alright, I guess."
I briefly looked over to Tenten to see a weird look in her eyes, anger maybe, but I'm not really sure.
"What do you mean alright?! Do you know how many girl's are jealous of you right now?!" Ino exclaimed.
"She's not joking." Sakura added, "He's one of, if not the most, influential teacher's at our school."
"Not only that, but there are so many girl's that would love to be working under him." She said with a wink. That's when I felt an angry tension begin beside me, otherwise known as Sasuke. I decided it'd be better if I just pretended like I didn't realize it and not make eye contact.
"It really is a privilege to work with him." I said trying to sound as professional and sincere as possible, the sincere part wasn't hard. "But with how much of my time it takes.. I think I'm going to resign from the position." I said looking over to Tenten.
Her eyes went a little wide in disbelief and then she smiled. "Wow, that would be amazing."
"Y-yeah.." Hinata said as she nervously played with some food still on her plate, "We've really missed you.." Everyone nodded.
"But that doesn't mean she should resign." Neji said from beside her, now looking at me. "As your friends, we wouldn't want you to give up this opportunity either."
"He's right." Shikamaru stated, "This could really benefit your future. Especially since you clearly have the drive for it."
"Yeah, not like this lazy guy." Choji said as he gave Shikamaru a pat on the back. Which in turn made Shikamaru shrug his shoulders, "Whatever.."
"But it's totally absorbing her life! When's the last time any of us have really hung out with Seitsuki?!" Tenten exclaimed, clearly annoyed.
"I don't think I've seen her outside of the hallways since school started. We don't want her to overwork herself!" Kiba added.
Before I knew what was happening, they all seemed to start arguing over it.
"Wait-".. I tried to get their attention, "Guys I-"
"It's Seitsuki's choice." Shino's voice made everyone go silent.
Shino never really said much, so when he did people tend to listen. He continued, "There's no use fighting about this. There's good reasons for either decision and ultimately that's up to Seitsuki. As friends, we should just support whatever decision she makes."
Reluctantly everyone began to nod and look over to me, as if they expected me to give them an answer as to my decision. But now, I didn't have one. Earlier today I had convinced myself that it would be best for me to quit, but now they had brought up some valid points as to why I should stay. If I quit, I'd have more time for everything else in my life. But all the hard work I had done would be for nothing. At this point I was just really confused.
"I-" I began to say, but Naruto interrupted me. "You don't need to explain anything to us right now. You just do whatever, and be with us when you can." He said with a bright smile. He obviously could see the conflict and how uncomfortable this had made me, which is why he stopped me from answering. This is one of the reasons I really valued his friendship.
After that awkward conversation, Ino had managed to come up with a new topic to distract everyone, which I was thankful for. In the end, we all had a really fun day at the park. A day that was long overdue. We all finished packing up our things into Hinata's picnic basket and said our goodbyes.
I began walking back to our dorm room with Tenten, until Sasuke fell in place next to us. "Think I can steal her away for a little while?" He asked Tenten.
She gave him a skeptical look before she laughed a little, "I guess so, but bring her home by a decent time young man, or you'll be in trouble."
Sasuke gave a small smirk, the closest to a smile he would allow in front of other people, "Understood."
"Have fun!" Tenten said as she waved back at me while continuing down the path. I stood there and waved back at her until she turned the corner behind a building. That's when I looked up to Sasuke, who was standing right next to me. "What's up?" I said with a small smile.
He looked down at me and then away to the side with his hands in his pockets, he looked like he was seriously contemplating something. After a few moments of silence he finally spoke, "Let's go the coffee shop."
I raised my eyebrows at him, questioning what his real motivation was. "Only if you're paying."
He let out a small chuckle and rolled his eyes, "Yes, I'm paying."
"Then I would love to go!" I said with a giggle. He chuckled slightly before motioning for me to follow him.
We walked side by side as I followed Sasuke through the campus. I gave him a questioning look as we passed the building that held all the public student facilities; Like the library, cafeteria, a few small shops, a coffee shop.
"Umm..?" I started, but he answered before I could ask, "I want to go to the coffee shop we like that's off campus. My car is outside of my dorm."
With that I just nodded. There was a nice coffee shop right in the middle of the city that Sasuke and I frequently went to while we dated. I knew that it was still open, but honestly I hadn't been there since we broke up.
It had been forever since the last time me and Sasuke had gone out anywhere together, just the two of us. The simple fact that we were going to the coffee shop that we frequented as a couple only made me more nervous.
As we neared his car my heart gradually started to beat harder and harder.
Why does he suddenly want to talk? Things have been great between us up to this point.. What could I have done to make him feel that there's something we need to discuss alone?
I stopped just before the passenger side door to Sasuke's car. I could feel my eyes widen and my breathing stop as the next thought went through my mind.
What if he found out about me and Madara?
"Are you okay?" Sasuke's voice broke me out of my trance.
I looked up at him, noticing the weird look that he was currently giving me, as he reached out to grab the handle to hold the door open for me. I just nodded as I gave him a smile and tried to calm my nerves as I sat down. "I'm fine" I tried to say reassuringly.
He just looked at me for a moment before returning the smile and shutting the door behind me. He then walked over to the drivers side and sat down. Thus beginning our trip to the coffee shop. In reality the drive lasted about 10 minutes, but for the worrying mind.. 10 minutes feels like an eternity.
Have you ever revisited a place that you hadn't been to in years? A place that you spent most nights at? Well the feeling of nostalgia is overwhelming.
I was expecting to walk in to the shop and see something completely new, but I couldn't be more wrong. Walking in there was like taking a step back to 3 years ago.
Sasuke led the way back to our usual spot, a small couch right next to a big window looking out at the street. The couch had a small coffee table in front of it that Sasuke would put his feet up on and I sat with my legs folding underneath me on the couch. Our exact same positions, in our exact same seats, in the exact same place and time that would have been years ago.
A waitress walked up to us with a small notebook, pencil, and a smile. I guess some things do change, because she was not a familiar face. But what can you expect? Most people don't want to spend their entire lives serving coffee. Sasuke ordered his usual black coffee and I ordered my usual chai latte. I was so caught up in the memories that I completely forgot how strange I felt about Sasuke bringing me here before. We had been silent all the way up until the point, when Sasuke spoke.
"You don't sing anymore."
I looked at him with a questioning look, "Huh?"
He was staring out the window as he spoke, "You use to sing.. Or hum. Or whistle. Anything, any sound really.. But you'd make music." A small smile came to his face as he continued, "While we were walking, or in class, when you ate.. There's no way you could have gone through the whole car ride in silence.. You use to sing."
He suddenly turned to face me, looking into my eyes, "Why don't you anymore?"
Sasuke's stare was nerve-wrecking, but also kind of enchanting. I wasn't use to him seeming so serious about things with me, especially about something I wouldn't think would be a big deal. "I-I don't know.." I started nervously, not really having an answer. "I guess I just have other things on my mind.."
He scoffed and looked back out the window, "Like lesson plans and grading papers? Maybe what you're going to make Madara, oh I'm sorry, Uchiha-Sensei for lunch, ya know, since you spend it in his classroom."
I glared at him, not really in the mood for his sarcasm. "That's enough, Sasuke."
He turned once again to me, this time with a small glare of his own. "Is it? You were late today, to the one thing that we've all planned together in months. And if Tenten hadn't called when she did, you might not have shown up at all."
My heart pounded in my chest at the mention of Tenten, did she possibly tell him? Did Tenten tell him about me Madara, and this is how he's going to tell me he knows? I dropped my glare and kept a blank look on my face as I stared at Sasuke. I just sat there in silence as I waited for him next words.
His glare gradually faded before he looked down a sighed, "Look.. I've just noticed that you haven't been yourself lately, and I think he has something to do with it."
I was pretty confident then that he didn't know about me and Madara. If he did, then that would have been the perfect opportunity to say something. Which meant that Sasuke just genuinely is worried about how different I've been. I sighed as well, "What do you expect me to do? This is my future we're talking about."
He looked into my eyes with a mix of sadness and anger, "And you can still have the same future without him. You don't have to lose yourself in the process."
I shook my head, "You don't get it.."
His anger only grew, "What is there to get? You aren't losing anything by quitting. But you'll lose the people you love when you toss them to the side, and for what?"
I was getting really tired of this high and mighty act from him, and couldn't stop the words about to leave my mouth. "That's hilarious coming from you."
His eyes widened before turning into a full on glare. Initially I felt bad for what I said, until of course Sasuke had to retort. "Do you really want to go down that road? You're the one who fucked my brother."
As soon as those words left him mouth I stood up and walked out the door. The waitress looked at me confused as I walked out, she was holding our beverages and was clearly just about to deliver them to us. But I didn't care. I began to walk towards the school, keeping my eye out for any taxis. But because it was a Saturday, and the night had just started, I wasn't really counting on getting one.
A few moments later I heard foot steps running up behind me, but I just kept my pace, knowing that it was Sasuke. He came up to my side and began to speak, "I'm sorry, okay? Don't leave."
"Too late." I said as I continued walking, not even looking at him.
He walked in front of me and took hold of my shoulders, keeping me in place. "Stop running away from this conversation!"
I glared up at him and pushed his hands off of me, "What conversation?! The one where you blame me for everything that went wrong?! For fucking addiction?!"
People were staring at me as they passed, but I didn't really care. I was to angry at the moment. But Sasuke clearly was uncomfortable, watching people pass us by.
"Can you please just let me take you home, then? I don't want you walking around alone at night." He pleaded.
I wanted to tell him to fuck off. I wanted to say no and just keep walking, but I knew that would be a very stupid idea. My pride is not worth my safety. I didn't say a word as I turned and headed back to his car.