SMOKESCREEN
CHAPTER 11
thoughts.
PREVIOUSLY…
They ended up playing a game of Frisbee. They didn't have as much trouble as the previous time other than rejecting these four other random girls by the beach. They ended up having a couple of games with them, and it seemed that any breaks in between gave them opportunities to flirt with the guys.
Honest speaking, the girls score pretty much average in looks, plus he wasn't in the mood for chicks. He could easily turn them down by throwing icy glares, and so could Neji. Shikamaru could have pass off his meaness with a bored look. The only problem was Naruto who was far too cheerful. Furthermore, he seemed to be smarter then, not screwing up on his comments, and had not managed to piss any one of the girls then. It was quite a problem, that when a familiar figure with platinum blonde hair and amethyst irises called shouted for his name, Sasuke couldn't help but grin.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
SASUKE'S POV
"Uchiha!"
Instantly all company of said male and mentioned self turned towards the object of attention. Riko. Onyx eyes watch as the shapely figure enthusiastically ran towards him, open arms immediately wrung around his neck, squealing like a maniac.
Less than a minute, he felt her arms loosened as she quickly bounced towards the other guys, giving them all the same treatment. Naruto being the last, she casually clung on his arm then tugged him along.
"Gosh! I haven't seen you guys like in a million years. We need to catch up!" Riko yelled, a little louder intended for the strangers. Then slightly turning to face the girls, she gave a little wave.
"Sorry to have to leave you, but my boys and I need a reunion dinner. Ciao!" She spoke this in perfectly fluent English, ending it also with a perfectly pronounced Italian greeting. She even repeated it in Japanese as though insinuating an insult that girls like them probably wouldn't understand English. Hn, bitch. The young Uchiha thought as he smirked to himself.
Settling in a beach bar, four pair of eyes watched the attractive blonde female downed Ds before taking a breather. She was still on hyper mode, and seemed very amused by what she had done back at the beach, and Sasuke couldn't agree more. It was the first time he had seen Kuchiki Riko prancing around, her poise and refinement. Even when in her seductive mode, she held class and grace. Right now – as much as his ink black eyes tells him, the blonde girl held none of this and in fact showed more of a typical school girl, and the young man wondered if she was already tipsy. And as though she read his mind, the girl chuckled.
"No worries Sasuke, I haven't had touch a drop of liquor before we arrived here." Her hand waved nonchalantly as she continued to down her cherry wine. "But honestly, I was quite surprise how you guys could simply play along when you have absolutely no interest with them. Isn't that tiring?"
"H-hehhe, well. It's rude to do so…" The sunkissed male started and at once the other three men looked his way, deep within they had unanimously blamed Naruto. This, Riko seemed to have caught on, and instantly directed a smile at him. "Nah, I think it's cos you were too nice."
At this comment, Sasuke let an apparent brown rose skeptically in which he only received a grin from the girl.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
It was nearing dinner and they had agreed to meet the other girls. Upon hearing this, Riko excused herself to return to the hotel, and being surprisingly polite, Sasuke had his friends to go on first while he walked the blonde female back to the hotel.
Darting his dark coal irises toward her, she sure looked like Kuchiki Riko, yet during the entire time she was with him, he mannerism displayed only faint traces of the girl he knew. She didn't once cling to him nor flirt with him, even better how she managed to get along with his friends. Her alcohol level however, seemed to remained though, glasses of verified cocktails and she was still able to walk steadily by herself.
As he continued to study her in silence, he realized that Riko is the one and only girl that has attain a position more than just a partner for lust and also one to have gotten along with his friends. At least, it clearly showed with Naruto.
Throughout the whole walk, the blonde female had kept her hands of him, and he somehow felt comfortable with the lack of affection, that is until they arrived at the hotel.
Inching closer to the him, Sasuke finally felt her bore a seductive gaze into his onyx ones, one filled with glint of cheekiness. Her slim hands lingered from his waist up, tracing a line till they reach his collar. Fisting his top, she surprised him when she suddenly pulled him off balance, bringing him closer to her, so that her lips brushed his ears with every word.
"I've figured you out. And possibly, you haven't done so yourself. So unless you've found the answer and do something about it, I'm going to make you mine, and trust me when I say that you'll have a hard time escaping from me then."
Then with a slow lingering kiss on his lips, she turned with a flip of her long silver locks and retreated into the building, leaving the young man in daze.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Just when he thought he figured her out, Riko had thrown him off, back into the abyss. She was a real enigma.
Upon entering the restaurant where his friends had gathered, the dark hair teen push away the excess thinking and entered, anticipation dinner with his mates, he has after all not seen his cherry blossom for the whole afternoon.
Little did he know how much of this he was going to dread.
INO'S P OV
From what she heard from her boyfriend, Sasuke should be arriving anytime, unless he happened to have carried away. Inwardly, the blonde felt incredulous at Sasuke's excuse of walking whichever skank back to the hotel. Wasn't an afternoon with her enough? Wasn't Sakura in anyway more important? And the more she thought the more irritated she felt, whether or not Naruto thought otherwise of Kuchiki Riko.
Calming herself down, Ino gathered herself. She needed a clear mind, or their plan wouldn't work.
Azure blue eyes scanned the private room that the elder Uchiha had booked. They were all currently seated according her intent. Sakura was seated between Sasori and Deidara, followed by Itachi and Kisame. She discussed it with Tenten so that Sasuke would have to seat beside her, directly opposite the pink hair girl so that he could only watch anything that goes on, while Tenten would be able keep a close watch that he does not get too aggravated. Ino then placed herself in between Shikamaru and her partner in crime, Naruto - who else but the two of them, to have to bother themselves to wake the onyx eyed Sasuke from denial, settled between the two protagonists for the evening. The rest simply filled up the remaining seats. Then, it was time to push a few buttons while they enjoy a good drama and an eight-course meal – fully taken care of by Itachi. How lucky we were to have bump into them, the blonde girl thought with a glee.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
SASUKE'S POV
"Please enjoy yourself sir." The waiter bade, as he left after leading the guest to the private room.
"Hn." The Uchiha grunted in acknowledgement. Pushing the door open, dark onyx eyes widen a slight fraction with surprise as he came eye to eye with one similar to his.
Greeting his elder brother with a slight bow, he noticed all the others turning their attention to him, and almost instantly he found the roseate. Sasuke thought he almost felt his heart lightened, it was weird. But the weirdness didn't discomfort for long once he realized that his usual seat beside Saskura was occupied. By a red head no less, Akasuna no Sasori.
A slight frown formed on his face as he took the only empty seat, between Tenten and Hinata, somehow awkawardly between the two girls. Wasn't it the case that the girls usually sat together? Why would Tenten purposely left a seat between her and the Hyuuga heiress?
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
As soon as the first dish was brought in, a topic was brought up by the Yamanaka, a generic question to the guys of how their day was spent, although it seemed like she was specifically targeting the younger Uchiha.
As usual the three others simply kept a passive expression, but Neji decided to politely answer Ino this time, possibly because the other presences with them.
"It was alright. We stayed at the beach the entire afternoon."
"Really? There wasn't any trouble? Say maybe another challenge by another group of guys?"
"No, there wasn't." Came his straight reply, until good ole Naruto offered to fill in the details.
"There wasn't any, but a group of annoying girls came by and wouldn't leave us alone."
"Aa? And you guys simply stayed by the beach and allow them to pester you?" Her tone had falter slightly, and sounded as though she was hurt that her Shikamaru was flirting behind her back. This caught the attention of everyone in the room, as they wait to watch the dramatic Yamanaka put up a scene. At this, Sasuke rolled his eyes – it was common. But still the show never failed to provide entertainment.
"Nah. Relax Ino. We only played a short game of Frisbee, until Riko saved us all."
"Riko?" Tenten asked in an unusually shrill pitch. "What was Riko doing here?!" One would say Riko almost ruled the whole campus as queen. Guys lined up to have dates with her. And she had a reputation of stealing other's boyfriends. The thought of the guys spending time with her worried the girlfriends. But Ino being already being let on earlier before, only needed to pretend, but the other girls, Tenten and Hinata seemed kind of upset. And possibly so did a certain pink hair girl – which totally went oblivious to Sasuke, who simply smirked at the sadistic entertainment of watching the girls strangle their boyfriends.
He, would dare say, personally knew Riko enough to not judge her that way. In fact if she hadn't thrown him off earlier, he would have possibly been right about her true emotions.
"Sasuke!" Ino shouted, instantly jolting the dark hair teen from his thoughts. His face remained passive, and the blonde seemed to have noticed his lack of attention and repeated her question.
"Naruto insisted that she merely dragged you guys away from the girls, and you guys simply ended up having a couple of glasses at the bar. Sure you guys didn't do anything else?"
Rolling his eyes once more he replied the blonde. "Aa." Subtly he caught the sight of Sakura, and she had seemed a little upset, until Sasori whispered something into her ear, then she gave a brief smile.
"Well, fine since Sasuke says so, I'm forgiving you guys on this matter, but you're all dead if we found you lying to us."
"Duh, Ino. Lighten up!" The blonde male commented, his cerulean blue eyes widened, trying to emphasize his point. "Plus Riko is really a nice person; you guys should try getting to know her!"
The loud female merely pouted with a frown, clearly disapproving Naruto's idea. "Whatever, I don't care. If you guys like her so much, hang out with her all you like. Didn't know shopping with us was such a pain huh." She sneered, seeming to be honestly upset, and the pineapple hair male beside her hadn't any choice but to comfort his girlfriend. He noticed that she was already starting to make a big fuss, and possibly Sasuke's awaited drama might simply go on air anytime soon.
"So what did you guys did today?" Shikamaru asked, quickly changing the topic before Ino continued with her verbal brawl.
Fortunately for them, the blond seemed to easily drop the previous conversation and heartily replied her boyfriend, filling details, and Tenten and Hinata too managed to chime.
"Yup, so that's how we met Itachi nii-san and the rest too." By then Sakura too had joined in. She had seemed to be a tad happier on the topic of their day, and smiling a lot to the red head. At this, the young Uchiha felt as though a hole was eating his guts.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
By the time dinner ended, Sasuke knew either way, he was annoyed, with nothing that he could comprehend. Although one thing for sure everything had got to do with the coral hair girl.
They had walked back to the hotel since it was only a couple of blocks down from the restaurant, and Ino had insisted it was a good way to digest all the food they had. Ino again. The brooding raven head realized. Despite it being naturally Ino, an itching thought insisted that the blonde had something to do with this tonight. Tearing his obsidian eyes away from the red headed couple in front of the group, he noticed Ino whispering to Naruto whilst glancing back at him. Hn, make that double blonde trouble. The young man inwardly groaned. Once they were done speaking to each other, both blondes slowed down their pace and took a position on each of his sides.
"What are you guys up to?" He asked, deadpanned.
"Nothing," The blonde female replied in a sing sung voice, one obviously held with mischief."Well, we saw you walking by yourself, so as childhood buddies here we are to accompany you."
"Best friends dude. You know we wouldn't abandon you." Naruto chirped in.
"Like hell. You guys obviously have something up your sleeves."
"Oh really? Or is that simply an excuse?" Ino pointed, her tone sharper than usual.
"Yeah, you know… To cover your true emotions." The sunkissed male followed up.
"Yeah, you know sulking here all by yourself, because someone seemed to be happily entertained by someone else but you." Sasuke could see the girl was taking this 'I-totally-pwned-you kind of tone seriously and really loving her position as mastermind. But he wasn't ready to fall into their manipulation, or rather admit it. Instead he narrowed his eyes and shot her back.
"Really? But wasn't it all your intention that I would be left alone here. So that it seemed like I'd be sulking when I'm not? Just so that the both of you idiots can make yourself look like heroes."
The dark hair male was definitely smirking now. In a way, he was kind of glad they were his friends, of really knowing how to entertain him and make his day, especially when he saw the flabbergasted look on Ino's face and Naruto panicking without a lead.
"How could you say this about us?!" The long hair female exclaimed. "And here I thought we were friends." She was faking a sob, but the other blonde took it for real and chided his friend.
"Sasuke. How could you?! We really cared you know. And here we are working our asses off just to make it work so that you'd wake up and give it another go with Sakura, and here you are ticking us?! You really are a bastard." The blonde babbled all in a breath, not knowing he had entirely fell into Sasuke's plan, until Ino decided to scream. Effectively cutting Naruto off, and gaining attention from everyone else, embarrassing herself, and getting caught by her dark hair friend.
"No worries over here, just keep walking." She chirped, trying to cover her embarrassment, although she was pretty sure her face was already brightly tinted. Even Shikamaru had come over to check on her.
"Hn, caught you guys. And sure you were being idiots."
"Gah! Sasuke-teme!" Both blondes exclaimed.
"You really are an ass." Ino commented while punching him lightly on his arm.
"Thanks. But really, it's nothing between the both of us. Plus that was a long time ago. It's not going to happen twice." The younger Uchiha insisted, his tone was firm, as though he seemed to be convincing himself more, and both blondes couldn't help but look at him with skeptic thoughts.
A/N:
Okaays, so I've tried a jealous Sasuke here. No worries, but he'll show more of his possessiveness in upcoming chappies.
On random note, I really, really love Ino-Naruto combo, the platonic side. Gah.
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this one.