Chapter 4: Noon to 6PM:
Hello again, my readers! Before you read this fourth chapter, please take a moment to read what I have to say first. Ahem:
1. Sorry for how long this chapter is, and if it sucks. These ideas just kept popping into my head.
2. I actually finished this chapter a lot faster than I expected to. As soon as this gets posted, I will begin working on the 5th (and possibly final) chapter.
3. As usual, please read and review. And I ask that you please be constructive in your reviews. Say stuff like "you're an ok writer, but you can improve in some areas", not like "OMG U SUCK LOLZ!"
4. I warn you. There is some cursing in this chapter, but still within the bounds of the K+ rating.
5. There is some humor in this chapter, even though this is meant to be completely serious.
Other than that, have fun!
Ding, ding, ding
"Wow, it's noon already?" Anko asked, checking her watch. "Man, how time flies!"
Ouch. Sakura cringed at the very words.
"Tell me about it." Sakura muttered.
"What'd you say, Sakura?" Anko asked as Sasuke sat down.
"Nothing."
"I thought I heard you say something."
"You're walking into a minefield." Sasuke laughed.
"Shut up Anko!" Sakura bellowed, now significantly pissed off. "I said nothing!"
"Ok, sheesh, you didn't need to blow up at me like that." Anko grumbled, now also pissed.
"What a surprise. Two girls arguing about something stupid." Sasuke laughed again.
"Shut up!" They both yelled, nearly knocking Sasuke off his chair.
"Ok, I'm sorry." Sasuke said, righting himself back up and putting a finger in his ear to make sure he can still hear.
"Anyway, these dumplings sure are good." Anko grinned, biting into another dumpling.
"Wait a minute." Sakura said in her mind. "Where did all these dumplings come from? Is she like Naruto in that food seems to appear when she is around?"
As Sakura pondered this confusing (and yet utterly pointless) situation, something just now dawned on her. Sasuke was sitting right next to her, and more so, she was wasting some potentially valuable time. Ask him now, her mind said.
"Um, Sasuke?" Sakura spoke up. Sasuke turned around.
"Huh? You say something?" He asked.
"Yes I did, you stupid...no, no. Calm yourself Sakura. You can do this."
Sasuke looked quite confused as Sakura pushed her fingers together in a very Hinata-esque manner.
"What are you doing?"
"Oh, this should be good." Anko grinned evilly. She crossed her arms in anticipation of what might happen next.
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, nervously looking from side to side.
"You're acting like…like…well, like Hinata acts when she's around Naruto." Sasuke said. Sakura wasn't sure if he was insulting her or not.
"What do you mean?" Sakura said again.
"Sakura, what's bothering you?" Anko asked.
"Um, well, I wanted to ask Sasuke something, but I don't know if I can bring myself to do it." Sakura said, sweating a little.
"I'll give you two some privacy." Anko said, throwing some money at the man behind the counter and walking away.
"Sasuke, c-can I ask you s-something?" Sakura stuttered a little. This was seriously the first time in her young life she had even tried to ask a boy out, and trying to ask the one particular boy she had a crush on, on what might be her last day alive, out on a date was incredibly hard.
"What do you want, Sakura?" Sasuke asked, not daring to turn his head to meet her unsure gaze.
"Um, you know, I was j-just wondering if you wanted…to go…"
"If you're asking me out on a date, the answer's no."
Double ouch. Sakura felt like she had just been crushed. Sasuke got up and walked away.
"Hey Sakura!" Anko yelled. "What's up?"
Sakura, as you could expect, said nothing. She was crushed, as Sasuke had rejected her.
"Now what?" Sakura asked.
"Sakura?"
Sakura ran off crying.
"Geez, what did he do to her?"
Anko looked toward where Sakura had just run.
"What in the world happened?" She said in her mind. "I walk away for 30 seconds, and she runs off crying."
Anko was quite unhappy. She headed in the direction Sakura was going. What did she have in mind?
A little later…
Sakura went home and locked herself in her room. I guess she really was that sad over what had happened.
"Why?" She cried to no-one in particular. "Why did he say no?"
Sakura cried into her pillow. It was 12:30 in the afternoon now, but I really don't think she cared. As she continued to cry her eyes out, there was a knock at the door. Sakura, however, did not hear it.
"Sakura, open the door!" Anko bellowed. Despite her incredibly loud knocking (and yelling), Sakura failed to hear it.
"I guess…I'll just…go do something else." Sakura said, wiping away her tears. She really wanted to take Sasuke to the new restaurant on a date, but I guess that's not how it was meant to happen.
As Sakura stood up, she faintly heard knocking at her door. She must've really not been paying attention, considering Anko was banging so hard she was probably close to breaking her knuckles.
"Now, who could that be?" Sakura perked up, hoping it was Sasuke. When she got downstairs and opened the door, her smile faded.
"Hey there kiddo!" Anko gave a cheery smile. "What's up?"
"Other than a lot of crap, nothing to talk about." Sakura grumbled. Anko noticed her tear-stained face.
"Ok, what happened?"
"It's nothing of your concern."
Sakura turned to go back inside, but Anko grabbed her arm.
"I think it's a lot of my concern." Anko said, now with a firm hold on Sakura's arm.
"What did that emo chicken-ass do to you?"
"How dare you call him an emo…"
Sakura was cut off by Anko swiftly slapping her.
"I have every freakin' right to call him an emo chicken-ass. Now tell me what the hell he did to you, or I'm gonna be pissed." Anko spat, scaring Sakura quite a bit.
"Jesus Christ, Anko! All he did was turn me down for a date!" Sakura exploded. "Great, I'm wasting my time arguing with Anko. I don't even like her that much."
"Alright, alright." Anko said, putting her hands up. "Let's stop arguing. I really don't feel like getting pissy with you anymore. Besides, I'm sure you'd like me to beat Sasuke over the head for turning you down."
"No thanks." Sakura said, grinning at the thought. "I really need to get going and do some more important things today."
Anko blinked, and then smiled.
"Yeah, me too. Sorry about all the yelling."
"Not a problem." Sakura said. Anko hugged her and left.
"Hmm, an interesting situation, to say the least." Sakura mused. "Ah well, I have some more things to do, so I'll be off."
Before Sakura left, she entered her bathroom and splashed her face.
"Let's just hope the rest of my day goes well."
Sakura changed into a more comfortable shirt than before, and headed back out.
"Alright, what to do now?" She asked. Before answering her own question, she saw Naruto headed in her direction.
"Naruto!"
"Hey there, Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed, running up to Sakura and hugging her.
"How've you been since this morning?"
"Ah, alright, I guess." Sakura said, looking down.
"Hey, cheer up. I have a feeling that this whole 'you're gonna die' thing isn't real."
Naruto tried cheering Sakura up.
"Oh Naruto, you don't have to say that. Whether I die or not, I can't complain. I've lived a good enough life."
"Yeah, but you can't die." Naruto started. "I mean, why would you? Why would God take you away so soon? It's not fair to anyone!"
Naruto hugged Sakura again.
"I mean, I love you Sakura!"
"I love you too, Naruto." Sakura said, hugging Naruto tightly. "But maybe this is how my story is being written. Maybe it was meant to end like this."
"Don't say that. You should be fighting this."
"You can't fight fate." Sakura said.
"Is this fate?" Naruto asked. "Is it, Sakura? Why would you, of all people, be giving up so easily? The least you can do is keep your head high and try to keep this going."
Sakura was blown away. For being so young, and not being the brightest person, Naruto had a good point. Really, for the first time all day, Sakura felt like she should be trying to fight this. After all, why would she have to die at such a young age? She had so much ahead of her.
"…Thank you, Naruto." Sakura said, once again hugging her orange-clad friend. "It really means a lot to have a friend like you."
"You're welcome Sakura." Naruto said. As I said, Naruto isn't the brightest person you'll meet, but he's very caring, especially when it comes to Sakura.
"Alright Naruto, I need to be going. Thanks a lot." Sakura said, kissing Naruto on the cheek.
"Bye Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed, waving to her as she left. He was grinning.
"Man, I love her."
Sakura once again had to decide what to do next. That seemed to be happening a lot lately, but then again, if you were living what might be your last day, wouldn't you be indecisive about things?
"Oh man, what should I do?" Sakura asked, wracking her brain in an attempt to decide what to do next.
(A/N: Sorry about constantly having this happen. I might be running out of good ideas, so bare with me.)
"Hmm, I've already said goodbye to Naruto, Kakashi-Sensei, Lee's team, Iruka-Sensei, Ino (sort of). So I need to say goodbye to…"
The image of Sasuke rejecting her flashed in her mind.
"Hmm, I don't know about him." Sakura said, having rare bad thoughts about Sasuke.
"After what he did to me, I really just don't know."
Sakura looked around, and for the second time today, she had the strangest feeling that someone was watching her.
"That's weird." She said. She glanced up into a nearby tree, and she could've sworn she saw a pair of eyes.
"What was that?" She asked, but when she looked again, she didn't see anything.
"Great, something else to bother me."
Sakura didn't know it, but somebody was following her. What she also didn't know was she had seen this person before, and was fully aware that he (yes, it's a guy) was there when she first saw him.
"Sakura Haruno…" The voice of the mysterious man trailed off. "I've got my eyes on you."
Who was this mystery man, and why was he following Sakura? She would find out soon.
Meanwhile, Sakura was in the middle of walking, when she had an overwhelming feeling to pray again.
"Whoa, this is a weird feeling." Sakura said. She wasn't exactly what you'd call religious, so praying was hard for her. She usually felt very uncomfortable doing it, but she felt like she needed to. Clear her mind and say a prayer. Maybe it would help her feel better, and maybe, just maybe, it would change what seems to be her fate.
"Ok, if you want me to." Sakura said, looking upward. "I will, but it might take a while."
Somehow, Sakura was expecting a response. When none came, she frowned.
"Alright, here I go."
Sakura breathed in, and got down on her knees. This time, she said a silent prayer. As she was praying, Sasuke walked up to her.
"What…are you doing?" Sasuke asked, quite confused. Sakura was caught quite off guard.
"Sasuke!" She exclaimed, jumping up and grabbing her chest.
"Um, hi." Sasuke said, feeling a little awkward. "Say, about earlier…"
Sakura cut him off.
"What you did earlier was pretty nasty." She said, turning her back to him. Sasuke spun her back around.
"I'm sorry, Sakura. I had no right to do that."
Sakura was quite surprised. Usually when Sasuke did something, he didn't apologize. This time, it was different.
"Sasuke, do you mean what you just said?" She asked, staring right into his eyes.
"Of course, Sakura. Now, about what you asked earlier…well, first of all, do you forgive me?" He asked, still with his eyes fixed on hers.
"I dunno. It can be hard to forgive someone for squashing someone else like you did."
Sasuke looked down.
"But I need to find it in my heart to forgive you. It's that important."
The man that was following Sakura was now in a different tree, watching everything.
"This is amazing." He said. "She is actually able to forgive him, despite what he did to her earlier. I must relay this message."
You can probably figure out who the man is now. If not, what he's about to do will probably tell you.
"Sasuke, I do forgive you." Sakura said. Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, the "man" (ok, I'll say it. The angel) shot up from the tree, significantly scaring Sakura, but strangely not Sasuke. Sakura buried herself in Sasuke's shoulder.
"Sasuke, hold me!" She exclaimed, now crying (again) because she was so scared.
"I don't think I wanna know what the crap that was." Sasuke said, looking down at the crying Sakura. He hugged her (gee, that seems to happen a lot).
"As I was saying, about earlier. I have something to ask you."
Sakura, still in tears, looked up.
"You wanna go out with me tonight?"
"Um, where?" She asked.
"Oh, I don't know." Sasuke said. "What place sounds good to you?"
Sakura wiped a few tears away.
"Well, that new place Dynamo's sounds interesting." She said.
"That sounds good. I've wanted to go there too."
Sakura brightened up.
"So, is it a date?" She asked hopefully.
"As long as you're free at 8:00 tonight." Sasuke smiled.
"Of course I'm free!" Sakura exclaimed, hugging Sasuke.
"Alright, I'll pick you up at 7:00."
"Ok."
Sasuke left.
"Oh my God!" Sakura yelled, jumping up and down because she was so happy. "Ok, I'm gonna go back home and pick out something to wear!"
Really, for the first time all day, Sakura was really happy. She headed home to pick out her, well, outfit. In a few minutes, she got home. It was almost 1 P.M., but Sakura didn't seem to be paying attention to that right now.
"Now, to pick out my outfit!"
When Sakura opened her closet, she was greeted by quite a surprise.
"What the crap?!"
It was the angel! He had obviously decided (or maybe he was told) to pay her another visit.
"What do you want now?" She asked. "More bad news?"
"No, actually I wanted to say I'm proud of you, Sakura." The angel said.
"Proud of me? Why?"
"Well, you forgave Sasuke. And I feel like you've spent your day well."
"Well, ok. Did you come here just to tell me that? Thanks a lot." Sakura turned around. "I really wish you would just let me off the hook, and let me live."
"I would love to." He said, looking down. "But sadly, I don't possess that power."
"…And God does. I was actually in a good mood a few minutes ago, but now I'm not."
"If you so choose to be that way, very well. Maybe God will let you off the hook. I can't say one way or the other."
"Well, I wish he would reconsider." Sakura said, trying to push her way into the closet. "I really did have a lot of plans for the future, and I'd hate to know that they had been dashed."
"You sure seem a lot more confident about this than you did earlier." The angel laughed.
"Well, I do wish your luck in your endeavors for the rest of the day."
The angel bowed, and began fading.
"Wait!" Sakura yelled. "What's your name?"
"My name is Gabriel. I will see you at a later time."
The angel faded out of view. Sakura sighed, and then picked out a dress for the date. It was a blue strapless dress.
"I sure hope he likes this dress. This is one of my favorites."
Sakura decided since she really couldn't think of anything better to do, she decided to take a shower.
"Yeah, I'll do that."
Sakura went into her bathroom, which was next to her closet. She proceeded to take her clothes off (A/N: Don't worry folks, we don't see her completely naked. This story is K+ after all).
While she was in the shower, she thought hard about what had transpired in just the last 13 hours, and what might happen in the next 11. She now had plans for the night (well, at least from 7:00 on).
"Ok." Sakura said. You can probably imagine that her day had been pretty crazy. All she hoped for, besides obviously having fun on her date, was for her life to be extended beyond midnight. But she wasn't sure if that would happen, because she seemed to think that Gabriel was real. Still, she was determined to stay positive about this whole situation.
20 minutes later…
Sakura started to wrap up her shower. She turned off the water, grabbed her pink towel and wrapped it around herself.
"Alright, now that that's out of the way." She said to herself. She took her hairdryer off of the wall and switched it on. It came on at first, but died seconds later.
"Oh, come on!" She yelled at the apparently not-recently charged hairdryer. "The least you can do on this particular day is work, you piece of…calm yourself, Sakura."
Sakura stopped, and put her hands up to calm herself down. She didn't want to overreact about anything, because she believed Kakashi's words were true. She shouldn't overreact, otherwise she'd probably hurt herself.
"Now then, since my hairdryer isn't working, I guess I'll just comb my hair…but I bet that I won't find one of those."
Sakura scoured her bathroom for a good comb. It took her a while, but she finally found one, but, of course, it wasn't her favorite.
"This piece of crap comb is the one I find?" She asked in disbelief, getting slightly agitated at the fact that nothing seems to be going her way since she got out of the shower.
"Alright, alright." Sakura sounded defeated. "If you don't want me to have a good rest of the day, I don't really care."
Ok, now Sakura was mad. Less than an hour before, she had finally been feeling better about everything, but now she was getting mad again.
"Grr." Sakura groaned as she combed her hair. Since she didn't really have anything to do right now (she was basically lying when she said she had things to do. Don't ask why, but she was just being weird), she decided if nothing else, maybe she would go get some training done. After all, she hadn't really wasted any part of her day (yet).
"Maybe some good hard training will get my mind off…wait a second."
And then a thought dawned on her. Why would she go train…if she had just moments earlier gotten out of the shower?
"Oh, craparoni and cheese. Heh, heh heh. I must be in a strange mood." Sakura laughed at what she said. Ok, since that wasn't a good plan, maybe she'd go watch somebody train.
"Ok, I guess I'll go do that. Of course, that is if anyone's training."
Sakura went to the training ground that she had gone to earlier. Once again, Lee's team was there.
"Neji, you're so amazing!" Tenten yelled, for some reason thinking nobody was listening. That might be a safe bet, considering Gai was teaching Lee about the importance of youth, and Neji didn't seem to be paying attention.
"Hey guys!" Sakura yelled, snapping everybody out of their seeming trances.
"Sakura, hi there!" Lee waved, turning away from Gai.
"Lee, why are you not listening?" Gai asked. "This speech could change your life!"
"Hi Sakura." Tenten said, stepping away from Neji, who still wasn't paying attention.
"What're you guys up to?" Sakura asked a painfully obvious question, but nobody made fun of her because of forced circumstances.
"Just training, as all." Lee said.
"Cool. You guys mind if I sit and watch?"
"Sure! Watch us train in all our splendid youthfulness!" Gai exclaimed, giving the thumbs up.
"O…k." Sakura said, sweat dripping on her brow.
3…hours…later…
"…Wow, you guys don't seem to know when to stop." Sakura was surprised. "But at least it helped me pass the time."
It was now about 4:30 in the afternoon. To Sakura, it seemed like time was flying by. It was only 2 ½ hours until she would be picked up for her date, and only 3 ½ hours until her and Sasuke would be at the new restaurant, Dynamo's.
"Well guys, I gotta run. I have a date in a couple hours, so I'll be heading off."
"Ooh, who's the date with?" Tenten asked.
"Sasuke." Sakura said dreamily.
"Well, I hope you have a nice date, and I hope the food is good at…where are you going?" Lee asked.
"That new place Dynamo's." Sakura said.
"Dynamo's? Have a lot of youthful fun and goodness!"
Lee gave the thumbs up.
"I plan on it. I hear nothing but good things about that place, and they only opened two days ago."
Gai, Lee and Tenten all waved as Sakura left. When she was out of view, Neji turned around.
"Was somebody here watching us train?" He asked. Tenten shook her head.
Meanwhile, Sakura was heading home to kill a little time before getting dressed and going on her date. When she got home, it was almost 5 (she took her time getting home).
"Alright, what to do for the next hour?"
Before she answered her own question, Gabriel appeared again.
"Hello again." Gabriel greeted her.
"Hey." Sakura said, flopping down on her couch.
"Something wrong?"
"I dunno. Do you have any…updates about my situation?"
"Well," Gabriel began. "I'm being told that there's a chance that your life will be renewed."
"Really?" Sakura asked, springing up.
"Yes. God tells me he's reconsidering what he has done to you." Gabriel informed her.
"That's great." Sakura yawned. "Tell ya what. I might catch a couple z's here before my date."
"Suit yourself. But be aware, your date is in three hours."
"I know." Sakura yawned again. "Good night."
"Good night." Gabriel said, disappearing from view. Was this such a good idea for Sakura to sleep this close before her date?
45 minutes later…
Sakura opened her eyes.
"Huh? Wh…where am I?" She asked. She then was struck by the thought that she may have overslept.
"Oh no! I probably overslept!"
Sakura was now panicking. She ran upstairs to get her dress, assuming that Sasuke would knock on her door any minute. When noticed the clock in her room, she calmed down a little.
"Phew, I thought I overslept." Sakura said, breathing a sigh of relief. It was 5:45, so it was 1 hour, 15 minutes until Sasuke arrived, and 2 hours, 15 minutes until her date.
"Oh wow. I really shouldn't have done that. What if I had overslept?"
Sakura walked into her bathroom, assuming her hair was messy because she fell asleep on her couch. Surprisingly, it wasn't very messy.
"That's good." She said. Suddenly, her stomach began grumbling.
"Ooh, I wish my date was earlier. I'm getting hungry."
Sakura decided to grab a quick bite to eat before her date, so she wouldn't "die" of hunger before the date at Dynamo's.
"Yum." Sakura said happily as she munched on a cookie. When she finished, she went upstairs to brush her teeth. It was now 5:55, and Sakura felt confident that these weren't her last 6 hours. I guess what Naruto had said, and more so what Gabriel had said, had instilled confidence in her.
"And God…" Sakura said, looking upwards. "If this is really my last 6 hours, please make it good for me."
Sakura then began laughing.
"But, you know, try and think about letting me live on. Please?"
The clock struck 6:00 P.M. I think wherever he was right now, Gabriel was smiling.
"She really is confident." He said. "Even if my Lord does not reconsider her fate, she seems confident that he will."
End of chapter 4
Wow, what a long chapter! Please read and review!