Chapter 16: Come back.

...

Days passed, and now currently, was the day that we all had to attend school at Konoha High once again.

I was finally in my dorm room. The one I shared with my blonde pig friend who was helping me unpack my stuff, along with Hinata and Tenten. Thankfully the two got here earlier and was kind enough to help me and Ino-pig...unlike me…that fell asleep, ran late and almost had my Mom left me because she had a meeting to attend to, thus her being the one late when she had to drop me off here. Yeah, that was a crazy morning.

"So, Sakura. Did you get the chance to talk to Sasuke yet?" Tenten asked me curiously, while she was putting the folded socks in one drawer. I barely stopped folding the socks in my hands before I answered.

"No, Tenten. I haven't." She noticed the discomfort in my voice and threw a quick look at Ino and Hinata. Since the day I went to his house, I haven't talked to him for the rest of the following days. I tried calling him, but the strange thing was that either his phone was off, or someone else answered it.

I had wondered the whole time that day, if I had done anything or said anything wrong. How could that wonderful day, end so…wrong?!

"Don't worry, forehead. I'm sure he had a lot of things to do, or had a lot on his mind. He can't be mad at you. I don't see a reason for him to be." Ino reassured.

I told them everything that had happened after they had left my house, up until the part where he started his, I'm-not-talking-just-thinking-and-getting-annoyed-by-something mode.

"Why don't you go look for him and talk to him about it. He should be here by now." Hinata suggested.

"Yeah. Maybe I will, Hinata. But after we're done with my stuff." I said, hanging my pink shirt in the closet.

An hour later we were done, I didn't realize that I had brought too many things.

"Let's go find the guys and then we could go for something to drink, we need a reward for working so hard" Ino suggested and I gladly agreed with her, after all I felt my mouth dry and my throat longing for something fresh.

We found Naruto, Neji and Shikamaru sitting on a bench but Sasuke was nowhere in sight.

"Hinata-Chan I missed you so much!" Naruto said tackling his girlfriend in a bear hug his action made Hinata giggle and blush.

"You saw me yesterday Naruto-kun" Somehow our sweet shy friend has became more confident after the vacation, but she was still the same blushing girl whenever Naruto made the tiniest contact with her.

"Yeah and it wasn't pleasant" Neji took part in the conversation. Neji threw Naruto a glare that he returned.

"Why?"

"Last night we had family dinner together and he didn't stop embarrassing himself in front of Hiashi-san"

"Hey! How the hell was I going to know that the plate with water the butler put in front of me was to clean my hands and not to drink it? Usually people stand, go to the bathroom and wash their hands!"

"Hn you are so dumb Naruto, I wasn't even thinking about that but thanks for reminding me"

"Hey I think Hiashi-san had a wonderful impression towards me!"

"Yeah right, specially when you stood up so elegantly and hit the tray of food the butler was holding and caused him to spill all the remaining food on Hanabi making her cry, yeah that was a pretty good impression"

"Neji- niisan stop! That's enough" Hinata demanded him and he just grunted and didn't speak once. "I really had fun Naruto-kun" she said turning once again to her boyfriend with smile on her face.

"And what about your dad? You never did tell me if he told you anything about me" Naruto curiously asked.

"Errm... w-well… y-you see… h-he's a very quiet man and he didn't said anything about you"

Hinata nervously replied, knowing her dad and the unfortunate events that happened last night probably the impression Naruto made on Hiashi-san was that… well… that he was an idiot.

"What about if we go grab a few drinks guys?" Tenten asked the boys trying to ease the tension.

Neji nodded at his girlfriend question of course Tenten never had 'no' for an answer.

Shikamaru was being dragged by Ino murmuring a little 'troublesome' as reply and I followed in the back.

I wasn't paying attention to the road in front of me I was absorbed in my own little thoughts about why Sasuke wasn't here until I bumped into someone.

"Naruto why the sudden stop?" he stood there in front of me with his cheerful expression no longer visible instead he held one filled with worry.

"Why are you sad?"
My eyes widened for a fraction.

"Huh? How did y-? I'm not sad!" I told him with a fake smile creeping its way to my face but he didn't seem to buy my answer.

"Then what are you thinking?"

"I was just wondering where Sasuke was. Why isn't he with you? Is he at your room unpacking?"

His eyes narrowed as he averted his gaze from me.

After a few seconds, Naruto spoke again.

"I don't know where he is. I think it's weird that he's not here yet as well. I already tried calling him many times but he doesn't pickup his damn phone!" He said with a thoughtful expression.

"Do you think something happened to him?" I unconsciously gripped the hem of my shirt, that weird feeling, the one I felt the last day I saw him, that feeling that told me that I wasn't going to see him again was returning.

"No, I don't think so. Don't worry, Sakura-chan. If something did happen to teme, we'd know the news by now." He said with a confident voice. His answer sent a wave of relief through my body. It wasn't that powerful though, something still didn't feel right.

"You really care about Sasuke, don't you, Sakura?" He gave me a small smile as he ruffled my hair like a big brother would do to his younger sib.

The pink tint expanded on my cheeks as I replied with an audible, 'Hai.'

"Let's not worry, okay? Teme never really cares about his cellphone, so he probably lost it again."

We resumed our walking to catch up with the others.

"You'll see. He'll arrive later. After all, the day hasn't ended yet, now has it?" He wounded his arm around my shoulder and I looked up, meeting his grin. And well, that gesture helped me.

"Yeah. He probably will arrive later, to evade his fangirls.

"You got that right Sakura-chan" he said laughing.
"Thank you… Naruto"

After getting our drinks and finished them everyone parted ways, Naruto left with Hinata and now without him I can't know when Sasuke is going to be finally here. Instead I found myself sitting down at Ino's bed trying to comfort her. She had been crying since we entered our room after we left everyone. But now that I think of it she seemed to be discussing something with Shikamaru.

"What's going on Ino?" I asked her, worried for the third time getting her light sobs as my only answer. After she calmed down a bit she answered me.

"I think Shikamaru is cheating on me" she responded between sobs.

"WHAT? But why? What makes you think that?"

It was hard to believe that Shikamaru could be cheating on her they were friends since…well, forever! I doubt that he could do something like that to Ino.

"I found some mails that some Temari girl sent him and she wrote things like 'it was so much fun, let's do it again some time' and 'I was so happy to meet you, let's hang out again'"

"Are you sure Ino? Maybe they're just good friends"

"Then why the hell didn't he say anything? He never mentioned her before! And whenever I ask him about her he just shrugs it off and says it's too troublesome to argue with me and then he falls asleep"

"That's just the way he is… I guess" I said uncertainly.

"Aw Sakura" she said hugging me while I patted her back.

"I'm scared to loose him, I love him"

"Just talk to him, I'm sure he loves you enough to not cheat on you" I felt her nod while she kept drenching my shirt until I forgot about everything, the only thing on my mind was to cheer up my best friend.

…

...

Monday…

Tuesday…

Wednesday…

Thursday…

Friday…

Saturday…

And then Sunday came…

One week had passed and there was still no sign of Sasuke anywhere, I didn't have a clue on where he was or if he was okay.

Was he even planning on coming back to school?

...

...

...

Monday morning.

Sasuke's Point of View

It took one long week to convince my father to let me stay at Konoha High to atleast let me finish this school year.

And the convincing succeeded, thanks to Itachi.

I don't know what he did or told my dad, but he managed to convince him to let me stay here.

Why didn't I think of that before? Itachi, the favorite.

Dad never listens to anyone, not mom, not me, not even those financial counselors of his, no one but Itachi.

The power Itachi had on father bothered me before, but this is the first time that I'm grateful for the little power he owns on him.

Too bad he couldn't get out of his mind that stupid idea to send me to Sound.

I was on my way to the dorm room I shared with the loud mouth idiot. When I got there I found nothing but a nasty room with cups of instant ramen left everywhere.

One week and he can't even put the ramen cups in the trash can. How does he manage to mess up the damn room in so little time? That is something out of my understanding.

I left my bags and everything I had with me in my room and started to walk to my first class. I got there in no time but the class had already started five minutes ago.

When I opened the door the only thing I could hear were whispers and my fan girls' squeals.

"So you finally decided to show up, huh Sasuke?" Kakashi sensei told me as I stepped in the classroom.

"Hn"

"Please take a seat beside…" Kakashi's eyes scanned the room for an empty seat.

There was no way that I wanted to end up sitting next to a fangirl or else Kakashi wouldn't be seeing his precious book anytime soon. Naruto was sitting next to Hinata who was sitting right next to the only empty seat which was taken by…

"Sakura" I nodded before walking towards my seat.

She was looking intently at me until I took my place and she dropped her gaze to her notebook.

"Well kids, vacation is over and now we're going to have fun with math, today's subject is…"

"Welcome back" Sakura whispered without lifting her stare from her notebook, taking away my attention from Kakashi, not that I really cared about his class. I turned to look at her and she slowly lifted her eyes until she met it with my black ones.

"Hn"

"So you wanted more vacation time so much that you skipped one week of school?" she tried to joke but…

"I was sick" I answered in a rude tone, I knew that what I had said was a lie, but the last thing I wanted was to take this conversation beyond.

"Oh Really? Are you okay now?" she asked with evident worry in her voice, placing the back of her hand on my forehead for any sign of fever.

I fought the blush off of my face at the contact with her skin.

"I'm okay" I said taking off her hand from my forehead not too gently and she opened her eyes wide with surprise at my behavior.

How does she do to make my blood go wild with just a simple touch?

But I can't let this feeling control me.

"I'm glad you're back, I thought that you weren't going to come back for a minute" she said forcing a smile grace her features.

"Hn"

'if only you knew…'

…

...

"Teme! Finally! You decide to drag your ass back to school! I was hoping though that I could have more room to keep all my instant ramen. I barely even have space right now." Naruto started saying once Kakashi's class was over.

We were already walking to our next class.

"Shut up dobe, you can't call that mess a room"

"I'm busy teme! I don't have time to clean, you know I have a life to live!"

"Well you better clean it dobe I won't be living with cups of ramen surrounding me everywhere, if you don't then I'll have to throw all your ramen so you wont be able to eat"

"You wouldn't dare!" Naruto said, his eyes widening with fear.

"Try me"

"Okay, Okay, teme! I'll clean!" he answered defeated. "But you'll help me, right?" I threw him a dangerous glare. Does he really think I was going to clean his mess?

"No"

"Whatever, I'll ask Sakura-Chan to help me" he didn't notice my glare this time. Why her? Why doesn't he ask his girlfriend?

"By the way…" he stopped walking to turn to me. I raised my brow startled by his serious face. "She was really worried when you didn't come last week, we tried to call you but you never picked up your phone, why didn't you answer it? At least you could've called her back"

"I was busy and what I do or don't is none of your business" His eyebrows furrowed suddenly.

"I noticed what happened at Kakashi's class, she was just worried for you and yet you push her away, what the hell teme? Why are you acting suddenly like a jerk?"

"Just leave me alone Naruto"

"What is wrong with you? We didn't know anything about you for two weeks! We were worried about you and now you come back and act all pissed over something we don't even know. Seriously man it's time you realize when you're acting like a complete bastard" Naruto said stomping away angrily as I stood there watching him leave.

I was mad because everything he said hit me like a punch straight to my face. They are my friends, and I just made them worry over me. It wasn't Naruto's fault and yet I was letting out my annoyance on him.

I knew I was acting like a bastard.

I knew I was making them feel bad.

I knew I hurt Sakura's feelings.

I knew Naruto was right.

But I needed to do this.

I need to put distance between me and Naruto, being friends with him I knew that I would end up telling him everything that's going on in my life and he may end up telling everything even if told him not to.

And the most painful thing that I ever felt I had to do was that… I needed to stay away from Sakura.

My feelings for her are growing more and more everyday and I can't let this feeling get stronger… or I won't be able to leave. And there's no turning back, Dad won't change his mind and there's no other choice for me. I'll have to leave even if I don't want to.

The best I can do is stay away from her.

To protect my feelings.

This is for the best…

Because when the right time comes, I know that it won't hurt as much compared to the pain I'm feeling now.

Chapter 16 has arrived! I'm sorry for the long delay I was having trouble with the upcoming chapters… blame the writer's block and lack of free time and sugar. U_U

But at least the writer's block is almost gone…

Well anyways thanks a lot for your sweet reviews! I hope you'd enjoyed this chapter. And Thanks a lot to my wonderful beta for her help, I don't know what I would do without her.

And check out my new story called 'A New Kind Of Game", well it's not that new anymore but yeah, just read it if you haven't!! :)

Oh yeah and don't forget to push the little button below with green letters to review!

Chapter 17 is almost almost done! so the more reviews I'll get then more quickly I'll update.

Oh yeah and Hinata-chan is fine yeeeii! :D but this is old news you probably knew that so I'll just shut my mouth for now.

Have a nice day everyone :D

Ms. C