Hi! I realised that I had to upload, so ... here is the next chapter of this story! Enjoy!
I glared at my reflection in the mirror. It glared back, but even I could see that it wasn't very scary. My already pale skin looked even paler, enhanced by the dark circles ringing my eyes. I briefly considered using concealer or makeup to hide it, but discarded the idea. Naruto and Kiba already teased me about my rather… feminine features. As was the rule nowadays, the thought of Naruto made an image of rose hair and emerald eyes appear in my head. Growling, I banished the image from my head. It was all her fault. She was the reason I spent so many nights awake, hoping that she still had some small romantic feelings towards me, and hating Sai for being the one who took her out, and kissed her, and… I usually stopped thinking at this point, as I was pretty sure I would otherwise hunt Sai don and kill him, while laughing maniacally (which would earn me a one way ticket to missing ninja-hood. While I wouldn't usually mind, I doubted she would come with me like she had offered the last time). I sighed. This was getting rather annoying.
Ever since I had realised that I had fallen for Sakura, I had been avoiding her. I was pretty sure that she realised this, due to the incident two days ago, when I had been shopping, and had literally bumped into her. I had not been prepared for the confrontation, and had thus made a tactical retreat (i.e. I ran like Orochimaru was chasing me, and locked myself in my house. After Sakura came and broke the door down, I ran into the Hokage's office and hid under the desk. She apparently hadn't realised where I was yet). But now she knew I was avoiding her. Damn. As Naruto had told me when I confessed (I had told him I liked Sakura in exchange for sanctuary), I was 'in shitloads of trouble when Sakura-chan found me'.
I concentrated, used my Sharingan, and, not seeing or feeling any chakra signatures, decided the coast was clear. Walking out of the Hokage Tower, I suddenly felt the world tilt upside down, and saw a network of threads appear in my field of vision. When I regained my sense of equilibrium, I winced. I was suspended inside a net. Like an idiot, I had been caught in a trap, and I knew just who had done it. I glared at Naruto, who rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, saying, "I'm sorry Sasuke, but she threatened to tell Hina-chan that I wrote an Icha-Icha book." I looked at the angry girl at his side and cursed before hissing "traitor" at Naruto. She cut me off by saying "don't blame him; I had to bribe him with ramen and threaten him before he agreed. Now, why are you avoiding me?"
I glared at Naruto and then turned to Sakura, saying, "You'll never get it out of me alive!" Her eyes narrowed, and she said, "Oh? We'll see about that. Naruto, bring in the Weapon." Both Naruto's and my eyes widened at this, and Naruto asked, "Ne, Sakura-chan, is that really necessary? I'm sure he would be willing to tell us…" Sakura glared at him, and he stopped. I summoned my courage and said, "Perhaps we should have this discussion elsewhere? Somewhere that doesn't have civilians staring at us like idiots with nothing better to do?" the aforementioned civilians quickly began busying themselves. Naruto and Sakura glanced at each other and nodded, before Naruto grabbed me and we shunshined away to my house.
At home, I found myself staring at the sharp end of a kunai as Sakura said, "Well? I'm waiting." Gulping, my quick mind concocted a story. But first, to see how much she knew. "Why did you think I was avoiding you?" she glared at me and said, rather darkly, "Well, you did run away with a girly squeak when we, erm… met in the shop." We both ignored Naruto's snigger at the mention of me squeaking. I said, with as much dignity as I could muster, "I was not avoiding you. You see, when I saw you, I saw your pink hair, and when I saw your pink hair, I thought of colours, and when I thought of colours, I thought of how I didn't have any coloured shirts, except for my red formal shirt, and then I remembered that I had put that for wash with my other shirts and so I ran to save my shirts. And I do not squeak." Sakura gave me a disbelieving look, and then said, "Well, how come I haven't seen you around much for a while lately?" luckily, I had an excuse for that too. "I thought, since you were dating Sai, you would prefer not to be seen too much in the company of other men. This book says that women like spending time with their girlfriend…" I stopped at the shocked look they were giving me. Then Naruto walked up and poked me hard, before ruffling my hair. I swatted at his hand and backed away, glaring. Naruto broke the tense silence. "You-you… did you just say that you got something from a book?" he practically squeaked out. Sakura stared at me in shock. I raised an eyebrow at them before I suddenly remembered that Sai usually started his sentences with "this book says that…" my eyes widened, and the three of us looked at each other, before I said, "This is not to be mentioned again. And Sakura, maybe I need a check-up – just to see that this is not serious." Sakura, her eyes wide, nodded and said, "Agreed. Come by my office tomorrow? And maybe I should put Sai under quarantine, just in case?" Both Naruto and I nodded frantically. Then Sakura said, "Fine. I will believe that you aren't trying to avoid me, Sasuke-kun. But don't ever try something like that again. Ja!" She shunshin-ed away, leaving Naruto and I alone in my room. As soon as she went, Naruto turned to me and said, "Why the hell didn't you tell her? I mean, she's liked you for a long time, and now you like her too, so why don't you tell her?" I glared and said, "Sai." Naruto scoffed. "Since when did you care about other people, least of all Sai? I mean, before, you would have told Sakura and just expected Sai to get out of the way." I could see the pain he still felt at my betrayal in his eyes when he said this, and sighed, before I sat down next to him on the bed and said, "Naruto, I am trying to change. So I'm not going to act like I did then. Besides, I care about you and Sakura, and Sai is precious to you two. Which is the only reason he isn't lying in a ditch somewhere." Naruto smiled at that and said, "that, and Sakura would kill you if anything happened to Sai, and you're scared of her." I reluctantly grunted assent to this, and Naruto laughed. Then he said, "Thanks, Sasuke." I grunted again and he cheered up, remembering something. "Oh! I almost forgot! When me and Hina-chan get married, can you be best man? Please?" Looking at his happy face, I couldn't really refuse. He danced around in joy for a while and then left. I sat there for a while and suddenly realised that I didn't have a crush on Naruto. Letting a small smile escape onto my face (which was my equivalent of grinning widely), I sat down and got out a scroll and some ink. It was time to come up with a plan to seduce Sakura (and get rid of Sai).
I woke up to the sun shining bright and the birds chirping. Unfortunately, I had stayed up late, and I wasn't really in the mood for happy morning time, and a few birds sitting outside my open window (Most ninja keep their windows open, in case they were called in the middle of the night. If someone was stupid enough to sneak in, they would be caught in the very painful and sometimes brutal traps all ninja had. If they didn't get caught, they were probably a powerful ninja, and a closed window wouldn't have stopped them anyway) sadly passed on from this world thanks to a few well aimed kunai. I stumbled out of bed and drank the coffee place on my table for the express purpose of waking me up. Feeling better, I surveyed the room in glee. I had a plan. Operation: seduce Sakura would begin today.
And that was the next chapter. It was mostly kinda a filler, because I'm going to be cut off from the internet of about two months. Sorry...review please!