Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Sorry it's a bit late, I was on holiday!

Chapter 4

3 years ago

8th April

I woke up this morning before my alarm had even rung. I am one of those really strange people who seem to be able to wake up early. My friends all think that I am some kind of monster, because, excluding Hinata, all of them are painfully bad morning people.

Take Ino for example, there was a time that I slept over at her house but had to leave early in the morning.

Being the good friend I am I woke her up to say goodbye.

Not so good idea.

Her usually so perfect appearance was quite obviously dishevelled, and her eyes were all red and bloodshot.

Then the rant came. That's what you get for trying to be thoughtful.

Naruto, he just refuses to wake up. I'm being very truthful when I say that you can scream in his ear and he will remain fast asleep.

I'm not even going to bother to describe Sasuke. Just know that it is bad. Real bad.

Moving on, today was my last first day of school (that is something I never get tired of saying!)

I met up with Ino and Hinata at the front gates after walking the last stretch.

I always catch a ride with either Naruto or Sasuke because although I am perfectly capable of driving myself, my father sees no reason in my owning a car when I have two perfectly good chauffeurs.

"Forehead-girl! Finally, I've been waiting for you for ages" Ino yelled at me.

At Hinata's face I realised that she was exaggerating. Again.

"Don't m-mind Ino, Sakura-chan, we've only been here for about 2 minutes" Hinata said while glaring at Ino who just shrugged uncaringly.

"Minute shminute, no one cares. But I am desperate to catch up with all the new gossip; I've just been deprived over the holidays!"

I rolled my eyes at her typical behaviour, and watched as Sasuke and Naruto walked past where we were standing.

Sasuke glanced over at me briefly before turning back to Naruto, and I knew that was his way of saying 'see ya'.

At least, at school.

I had long gotten over the feeling of hurt that came with the act I had to put up at school.

"Oh my God, did you just see Uchiha Sasuke look at me?! I knew it! I knew it!! There's no way anyone can resist my charms, and he's already been out with half the school's girl population." Ino almost yelled triumphantly.

Usually, this would be the part where Hinata would come in and reassure the blonde of whatever crazy things she announced. However, Hinata was surprisingly silent, so I looked over to see if everything was okay.

Hinata's beautiful pale eyes were abnormally wide and a deep blush contrasted with her usually pale skin.

I followed her gaze to see just in time my childhood friends round a corner.

I snapped my head back to Hinata "You don't like Sasuke as well do you?"

Nooooo! I screamed in my head, my only sane friend had fallen victim to the Sasuke spell.

I swore that as soon as got home I was going to smash that pretty head up so badly that he could never bewitch anyone again, but Hinata's violent shaking of her head stopped my plotting.

"Oh no no no!" she yelled (as close to yelling as Hinata could get) "Not Sasuke, he scares me a lot"

It took a moment for me to register what that meant, but Ino beat me to it.

"NARUTO?? You like Naruto?" The look of complete shock on her face made me want to stand up for my friend, but once again I was beaten to it.

"Don't look so surprised, Ino. Naruto is very handsome, funny and nice despite some of the people he hangs around with. I wouldn't be surprised if he was the most popular boy in school, if Sasuke wasn't here. So get over it and shut up!"

There was a silence between the three of us as Hinata clamped a hand firmly to her mouth.

"Whoa" I finally said "I think you've got it bad"

The mouse-like girl looked like she was going to faint, but somehow managed to recover from her sudden outburst.

She then grinned up at us "I don't think I've ever done that before!"

"Hinata's finally lost her temper, yes!" Ino cheered, as she always found it disturbing how her friend was just so… nice.

"When did this happen then" I added, getting back to the matter.

Hinata's face became flushed "In the holidays, I got a job in a café, even though my father disproved. I managed to convince him by saying that it would look good on my applications if I had some work experience."

Ino nodded her head "Mm, yes, carry on and get to the good bit"

"Well" the dark-haired girl continued "it turned out that this café is in the neighbourhood where Naruto lives. Actually, it's near where you live, Sakura. Did you know Naruto lives right near you?"

I shook my head, trying to appear innocent. Luckily, Hinata carried on with the tale.

"Naruto came into the café everyday when he was on his runs. He seems to have no limits to his energy! He would pop in for a quick snack and then was on his way again. I don't think he recognised me from school, but he would smile at me every morning."

I didn't mention the fact that Naruto knows full well who she was; after all, she was my best friend.

"There was one girl giving me a hard time, Midori, and she was being particular unfair, and he stood up for me! Sent Midori running in shame!" The proud look on Hinata's face made me giggle a bit.

"And let me guess" Ino butted in "you've been head over heels ever since?"

Hinata ducked her head and nodded.

Ino smirked and I knew she was planning something.

"Ino" I said warningly, but as usual, Ino ignored the warning.

"Well that only leaves one option…" she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world "we tell him!"

Hinata gasped, her eyes huge with fear, and she shook her head violently "No, no way, not a chance, please Ino, I'm begging you, no no!"

"Come on, Hinata; don't be a baby, how could he resist you?"

I was staying silent so far; I knew Ino wouldn't really go tell Naruto. It was just part of her grand plan to make Hinata braver. I think.

"It's alright for you to say that Ino; you're beautiful and brave and boys are interested in you. If you wanted to, you could become really popular."

It was true; Ino had all the qualities that were needed to be popular. Apart from the fact that she was unbelievably beautiful, she was also bold and could speak to anyone like they were her best friend.

I wasn't saying that she had never tried, either.

When we first entered high school, she was easily singled out as a popular girl and people flocked to her. However, she found that her new found status was pushing her away from her very best friends.

So, she gave it up. Everything. I hadn't realised how wonderful a friend she truly was until that moment.

She prepared herself for a life of invisibility for her two friends unsuited for a life of popularity.

"So what, Hinata? So what if you're a little shy, Naruto's got enough bravery for the both of you. He's perfect now that I think about it! Yes, this shall be my new mission. Operation: Get Hinata and Naruto together!"

"Okay, that's going too far. Come on already you guys, we have to get to class, and I'm sure Hinata's probably exhausted from all this arguing." With that, I set off, and I smiled when the two of them caught up with me.

When we arrived at our homeroom, we sat in the places we always occupied; in the middle by the window.

As always, Sasuke, Naruto and their 'crew' were at the back.

So here we all were again, in our last school year.

It better be good.

Present

"Sakura" Ino said, dumb-struck "How do you remember every single event like that? Are you some kind of machine?"

I managed a short giggle while shaking my head "No Ino, photographic memory, remember? And anyway, it helped my vent my anger sometimes to write it all down"

Ino simply rolled her eyes and muttered "nerd" then turned back to the book.

Hinata was flicking through it quickly "Nothing really happened until the birthday party, did it? I don't see the point in reading it all if it's all going to be as long as that."

Ino looked hard at me and I shrugged nervously.

"Here we are, July 23rd" Hinata revealed, and all of us peered over the little black book once again.

3 years ago

23rd July

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Ino asked for the millionth time, and once again I replied with the same answer.

"Alright then, it's your loss. Hurry up and drive, Shika-kun!" Ino waved goodbye.

I couldn't help but laugh at Shikamaru's grumbling at Ino's bossiness, and I could still hear Ino's screams at him from down the street. Those two didn't realise just how perfect they were for each other.

Where were they going? Uchiha Sasuke's birthday party, that's where. One of the biggest events of the year.

Sasuke always rented out a big venue, this year it was a classy hotel, and basically every teenager in the whole of Konoha attended it. After Naruto's (not so surprising to me because I got Naruto to finally notice) asking out of Hinata it was obvious that even she was going. So, every teenager, except Haruno Sakura.

But what most people didn't know was that Uchiha Kokoro was going instead in her place.

It was the one night a year where I could actually be associated with my two childhood friends, all I had to do was put on a wig and contacts, and voila, the cousin of the school heart throb had appeared.

Every year I came to watch out for the other two, as they usually got a bit out of hand.

Oh yeah, at Uchiha Sasuke's birthday there was a lot of alcohol.

After getting into my disguise, I looked into the mirror, liking what I saw. It felt good to be a different person for once; my skin was being good tonight and the black hair and eyes looked good against my pale skin. The daring red dress I wore seemed to make my figure look great, and for once I wasn't under the barrier that good girl Sakura provided.

Tonight, I was the cousin of Uchiha Sasuke.

Itachi came to pick me up, as his parents had put him in charge of supervising his little brother's party.

The thing was, Itachi got into the party just as much as Sasuke, and liked bugging his brother by seeing how much attention he could steal.

Sasuke couldn't believe how I could possibly like his brother, and it was simply because Itachi had always been a perfect gentleman to me.

The party was amazing, as always. I found Naruto almost straight away, and so was 'introduced' to his girlfriend Hyuuga Hinata and their friends Yamanaka Ino and Nara Shikamaru.

I spent the most of the night with them, and they found that they liked Kokoro very much.

Naruto was grinning at me nearly all the time so I was so sure of being found out. Luckily, Hinata was too infatuated with Naruto and Ino too drunk to see the real resemblance between Kokoro and their best friend.

Towards half two in the morning, the party started to end, so I went to find Sasuke.

I hadn't had any drink, because I knew that it was now my mission to find and drive home the famous Uchiha.

When I finally found him, I really wished that I hadn't.

He was surrounded by his friends and a lot of girls, a beer in one hand and a… right then I forgot all my nervousness about his friends and dived into the crowd in a rage.

When I got near him, the one with the triangle, Kiba, whistled at me, and although I was a bit shocked because I didn't get that kind of attention usually, I ignored him.

"Sasuke, we're going" I commanded and grabbed his arm.

He must have seen the raging look in my eyes, so he didn't resist, or he might have just have been too drunk.

A few of his friends sniggered at the Uchiha getting pulled away by his cousin, but I didn't care. I did feel a bit nervous when I spotted the most dangerous of the lot, Gaara, leaning on the wall near the door, his red hair still obvious in the dim light.

His strange eyes followed me as I left, and made me feel like they saw through me. He was scary.

When we got outside, I got a clear look at Sasuke and what he was holding.

"Sasuke" I said darkly "not only are you incredibly drunk, but you have been smoking as well! I can't believe you!!"

Sasuke flicked the cigarette away, not answering, and staggered towards his car. Well, two could play at that game.

I jumped into the driver's seat and snatched the keys from him.

After a while of driving, the Uchiha spoke to me, in slightly slurred speech.

"Are you mad at me, Sakura?"

When Sasuke was drunk he always seemed more childlike, and now he sounded like a little boy in trouble.

"What do you think?" I snapped.

"I'm sorry" he said quietly, so un-Sasuke like, it made me softer.

"Don't you realise that you were getting totally out of control there, Sasuke? You know that I hate it when you get smashed and you went one step further. For all I know you could be getting high all the time with those idiots you call your friends. I suppose this is a regular occurrence?" The more I spoke, the angrier I got again.

Sasuke looked away.

I growled and pulled into the side. Then I turned to him.

"You've got to stop this, right now" although I knew he wouldn't "you're my best friend, and you're scaring me. You're really scaring me. The person I saw in there was not the Sasuke I know"

I found memories of all the good times I'd had with him and Naruto flying through my head. When we went to the beach, the first time at a theme park, learning to ride bikes together, and these were only a few.

"Is Naruto getting dragged into this risk taking?"

Sasuke shrugged and said "Sometimes, he usually just stays out of it, too wimpy"

I could feel tears building up behind my eyes. Even in his drunken state, he could see I was upset.

"Come on, Sakura, I don't like it when girls… when you cry… hiccup… please" I could really see now that he wasn't in a right state of mind, but I still allowed him to lean over me.

I turned my head to look into those deep pools of black and realised just how close he was to me.

"You're much p-prettier than… than what I thought" he said, stumbling over words.

And then he kissed me.

Present

"Then what? What happened next Sakura?!" Ino shrieked at me.

"Nothing; he passed out and I drove him home. I'm not sure if he even remembered it the next day."

"But you did" Hinata spoke so softly it was almost a whisper.

"Yes" Oh yeah, I remembered. Even when he was drunk, Sasuke was still the best kisser I'd ever known.

My heart hadn't stopped pounding for ages afterwards.

A moment of silence passed, which was then interrupted by Ino.

"Oh my God, you've got to read this…"

Chapter 4 is up, finally. I would love feedback, so please review to tell me what you think.

(Even if it's terrible, but I hope not!)