The next morning it was if nothing had happened. Sasuke and Sakura had retreated back to their apartment in silence, both lost in thought over the waves of new information. When they got there, Naruto was still asleep- but the blonde was not Hokage-to-be for nothing. He knew something had happened last night.
He was just a little off about what exactly it was.
"Sasuke and Sakura sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I- ITAI SAKURA-CHAN!" Naruto clutched his head in pain and stuck his tongue out at his rosette teammate.
"Way to be mature, Naruto." Sakura rolled her eyes and grabbed her bookbag off the couch.
"What? It's not my fault that you two have the hots for each other." The blonde gave them a shit-eating grin, and was in no way oblivious to the slight blushes that appeared on both teenagers' cheeks.
"Shut up Dobe." Sasuke turned away and noticed the clock read 7:20. "Great. Now thanks to your antics, we're gonna be late."
"Well then let's go!" Sakura ran out the door, and Sasuke jogged forward to catch up with her.
"Come on Dobe!" He called behind him.
"I'll be right there!" Naruto jokingly called back. Once he was sure they were out of sight, his grin faded and he turned around and walked back into the kitchen. There it hung on the wall, mocking him with it's red markings and peaceful pictures of autumn leaves on a shrine.
"A shrine to hell." He muttered, walking forward and taking a red marker off the nearby counter. Naruto took his time drawing a large X through the day's date before capping the marker and staring at it.
'Eight days.' He thought with a scowl.
"NARUTO COME ON!" Sakura yelled, making the blonde snap back to the present.
"Uh, COMING SAKURA-CHAN!" He grabbed his things and sped out the door.
The resulting wind made the pages of the calendar flutter lightly. When they settled, the last of the ink dried on the newest marking on the page. A large red X that settled on the date-
October 2.
XXXXX
A day later, the three shinobi cleaned their entire apartment and hid all their ninja gear so well that Naruto feared that he wouldn't be able to find his things after their guests left.
Sakura had made them dress nicely for the dinner- while she wore the black dress from the mall, Naruto had on a white collared shirt with dark jeans, and Sasuke wore a black collared shirt and black slacks.
When the buzzer for the door to their apartment building, well, buzzed, at six o'clock, Sakura was in the kitchen, just adding the garnish onto a plate of appetizers.
"That must be them. Naruto, go let them in."
The blonde did just that, and a few moments later, a knock was heard at the door. Sakura stepped out of the kitchen, slapped Naruto's hands away from the plate of small sushi rolls she had prepared, and walked over to open it.
"Sakura-chan!"
"Hi Tohru-chan." The rosette smiled as Tohru gave her a big hug. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Kyo and Yuki watch the hug for a moment too long before turning away. The orange-headed teen walked passed her into the apartment, only to be accosted by a starving Naruto.
"Sakura-chan, can we eat now?" The blonde soon-to-be-Hokage whined, and Sakura rolled her eyes.
"Hai, Naruto- just let me get the food from the kitchen."
"No need- I got it!" He sped away and returned a moment later with a plate of sushi and a full mouth.
"Kami, Naruto- save some for the guests!" Sakura sighed loudly, making Tohru giggle slightly, and Sasuke smirked at his teammate from his place on the arm of the couch.
Sakura took Tohru into the kitchen to help finish getting the food ready (no matter how much the rosette insisted that Tohru should be visiting with people, the brunette just wouldn't hear it, and insisted that she help), leaving all the boys alone together.
Naruto plopped down on the couch that Sasuke was perched on, but the Uchiha didn't even flinch. Yuki took a seat on the other couch, while Kyo sat on the floor by the coffee table- what he deemed as a reasonable distance between himself and his pale cousin.
"You have a very nice apartment, Naruto-san, Sasuke-san." Yuki complimented politely, and the ninja nodded their thanks. "Does anyone else live with you?"
"Nope- it's just me, Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme." The blonde cocked his head to the side. "Why?"
"Oh, no reason, it's just," there was a strange expression on Yuki's face, and Sasuke's eyes narrowed slightly. "If you don't mind me asking, who's paying for this place?"
"My grandma." Naruto said smoothly, immediately coming to the same conclusion that Sasuke had.
"What about your parents?" Kyo asked bluntly. Sasuke sent a calculated, but fierce look in his direction.
"What about yours?" That seemed to shut the temperamental teen up rather quickly. It was quiet for a few moments before Naruto and Yuki tried to work damage control, and started up a harmless conversation about martial arts. It really was something to watch them dance around each other with such straight faces- both were extremely skilled at the ups and downs of conversation (Naruto from his training, and Yuki from years of avoiding questions concerning his family) but the violet-eyed teen was clearly on the offensive, and was in no way about to get passed Naruto's high defenses.
"I'm going to check on Sakura." Sasuke said suddenly, wanting to make his teammate aware of the new situation before she came back in. Naruto shot him a grin that said he could handle the two Sohmas alone, and the Uchiha got up off the couch and walked towards the door.
"I'll come too." Sasuke froze for a minute and turned around to stare at Kyo, who was getting up off the floor. The orange-headed boy had been unnaturally quiet since the topic of parents had been brought up (by himself, none the less), and the prodigal Uchiha was slightly irked that he would pick now of all times to break that.
'He's going to protect Tohru.'
The thought was gone as quickly as it had come, but it made more sense than anything else Sasuke could have come up with in that moment.
'He might be in on this little thing,' His gaze slid over to where Naruto and Yuki were still speaking quietly, then back to the approaching teen. 'But Kyo's agenda is slightly different from his cousin's, whether he realizes it or not. Basic reasoning would have told him to stay and try to assist in overpowering Naruto for information- even if we were here to hurt them, we would never do anything so open as to injure Honda-san while they are our guests.'
'But his instincts kicked in.'
'Exactly. He doesn't trust us- that much is obvious. And he cares enough for Honda-san to defy what others want him to do.'
Sasuke smirked lightly and turned around to walk into the kitchen, Kyo following him.
'I could learn to respect that.'
XXXXX
Meanwhile, Sakura was in the kitchen appreciating two things about Tohru. The first was that she was undeniably handy in the kitchen. The meal that the rosette had cooked had burned slightly in the high heat of the oven. She had been more embarrassed then anything- she was a top ANBU for crying out loud! But Tohru showed her how to simply scrape off the burnt parts and season the raw parts so that it would all taste the same.
The second thing was Tohru's oblivious nature. In any normal situation, Sakura would have been quick to admonish the girl on how easily she spoke of things, and how unsafe the world was- but this wasn't any normal situation. So as it was, Sakura busied herself with setting plates out and divvying up the dinner while she asked Tohru questions that would make any normal person feel slightly suspicious.
Once again, normal being the operative word.
"So Tohru-chan, who are the other cursed Sohmas?" Sakura asked casually, not making eye contact to make the question seem less intense. Tohru was quiet for a minute, and the rosette could tell that she was weighing whether or not to answer.
"Well… since Akito-san says it's okay…" she said slowly. "You know about Yuki-kun and Kyo-kun, and then there's Hatsuharu-kun, Momiji-kun and Kagura-chan, and of course Shigure-san, Ayame-san and Hatori-san… oh, and Hiro-kun and Kisa-chan… then there's just Ritsu-san, Rin-san and Kureno-san."
Sakura gave her a calculating look.
"You're not friends with these people?"
"No, no it's nothing like that!" Tohru said, waving her hands in front of her as her frantically. "Ritsu-san- he's the monkey- is really nice to me, and he looks really beautiful in women's clothing, no matter what he might think…"
'What?'
"It's just that… Rin-san and Kureno-san are very private people." Tohru's eyes started to tear up. "And… and their stories are… are just s-so sad!"
A prickle of guilt rose in the back of Sakura's head as tears started to pour slowly down the brunette's face. With a sigh, she set down the plate she had been holding and moved to embrace the crying girl.
"Shhh, it's okay Tohru-chan. We don't have to talk about it if it makes you uncomfortable." She soothed, and soon the tears slowed to occasional hiccups as Tohru got a hold of herself.
Unfortunately, Sasuke chose that exact moment to enter the kitchen. Seeing the crying Tohru, and being aware of the orange-headed boy entering the kitchen behind him, the Uchiha barely had time to think.
'Honda-san is crying. Kyo won't even ask questions- he'll just see that she's upset and jump to conclusions. Then he'll go running back to Yuki and Ayame and tell them we were torturing her- SHIT.'
So Sasuke did what he felt was necessary.
Just as Kyo began to cross the threshold of the kitchen, Sasuke stuck out his foot. The temperamental teen stumbled and began to fall…
… right into a very startled Tohru.
XXXXX
"Whoops." Sasuke said in a monotone, while the orange cat on the ground hissed angrily at him. Tohru was having a panic attack and Sakura just raised her eyebrows at her male teammate. He blinked three times, meaning they had to talk. She rolled her eyes and smiled at the still-freaking-out brunette.
"Tohru, the bathroom is down the hall- why don't you take Kyo and his clothes down there so he can change?" The girl quickly nodded and scooped up Kyo- who was protesting half-heartedly- before proceeding to dash down the hall.
Sakura moved some dishes aside and hopped up to sit on the counter. She crossed her ankles in a very ladylike manner and Sasuke couldn't help but let his gaze wander up from her black high heels- up those creamy white legs to where that dangerously short dress came to a halt.
"Eyes up here, Sasuke." The rosette's voice jolted him out of his hormone-induced stupor, and his eyes met hers. He could feel the heat rising to his face- worse then all those damned nose bleeds because she had called him out on it. But if she noticed it, she didn't say anything. In fact, he could easily see a twin blush on her pale face, and an amused twinkle in her eye.
"Hn." He managed to get out, keeping eye contact.
"Wonderful." She clapped her hands together. "Now was there a reason for that little display, or are we just confirming what we already know?"
"Ayame has them information-digging." Sasuke leaned in close and kept it quiet. "They're not very good at it- Naruto's handling Yuki on his own- but they're suspicious enough as it is."
"I see." Sakura said with a small frown. "I should have seen this coming. We'll let Naruto make up the back story as he sees fit- he knows more about keeping secrets then either of us."
Sasuke winced a little, trying not to think about all the years his best friend had spent feeling alone and unloved because of a certain secret.
'But… why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?'
"SASUKE!" Sakura yelled, and the blunette shook his head and tried to focus on her worried expression. "Are you sure you're okay? You've been spacing out a lot lately…" She bit her lip nervously, and Sasuke was momentarily entranced by how cute she looked. The rosette looked up at him with wide green eyes as he leaned closer, placing both hands on either side of her on the counter.
"Sasuke… what are you doing?" She asked, in a breath that was close to a whisper- but there was something else to it. An edge. Blinking in confusion, the Uchiha stepped backwards as Sakura gracefully slid off the counter and smoothed out the wrinkles in her dress. Avoiding his gaze, she picked up a tray of appetizers and walked towards the living room. When she reached the doorframe, she stopped.
"Grab the other tray, will you?" She turned her head- not all the way around- but just far enough for Sasuke to see the odd look on her face. It was a combination of sadness, wistfulness and… regret?
But before he could look any further into it, she was gone.
So, thoughts still slightly fuzzy, he picked up the tray and followed her.
XXXXX
Bet no one saw that coming.
Long time no see, everyone :D Sorry this update took so long- life is not giving me any breaks lately, and it took me a long time to decide what I wanted from this chapter. Now I have a set idea on certain things I want to happen, so the next chapter should be out sooner. By the way, it has just occurred to me that I've never put a disclaimer on this story. I hope you guys aren't insinuating that I own any of this- because except for the plot ideas, I don't :D Reviews are good- motivationally, anyway- and send me a shout out if you're going to AnimeNEXT this year. I'll be there working at my best friend's table. :D
