Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN IT!!!! Duh.

A/N: Well, since I haven't gotten flamed for this yet, I suppose I'll just keep writing it. So here it is. I really hate the ending, but I was having a bit of writer's block...sorry 'bout that guys. And there's an awful lot of dialogue too...grrr.

Please review. Or flame. Or whatever.

Chapter 2

Leaving his apartment, Sasuke proudly strode forward toward the Ichiraku noodle shop. He even remembered his wallet. His nice, new, brown wallet, thank you very much. Unlike a few hours before, he wanted people to see him now. Let them see the new Uchiha!

He strutted about for a moment. Then he stopped. Uchihas did not strut. They "graced". Of course. He did not need to strut about in other people's presences. Instead, he would grace them with his presence! The innocent bystanders on the street should all feel very honored!

"Thank you, thank you very much," He murmured under his breath, closing his eyes haughtily and mock-bowing to no one in particular. Oh yes, they loved him!

"Um….Sasuke, what are you doing?"

Sasuke jerked out of his overblown fantasy.

"What?" he snapped, all "gracing" momentarily forgotten.

"Nothing," Sakura answered. "I was just curious as to what you were doing spinning around on the sidewalk with your eyes closed."

"Gracing."

"Huh?" Clearly his very clarifying answer confused her even more.

Sasuke fought back the temptation to shrug, pout his lips, and ignore her as he continued on his way to lunch. But he couldn't do that. That was too emo-ish. It was also Uchiha-like, but it was such a fine-line….best not to risk it at the moment. Instead, he turned to face her fully, and put a hand coquettishly on his hips.

"I was just going to go get some lunch, Sakura," he said, making sure to display his new clothes fully. Any minute now, being Sakura, she would say something flattering to him like, 'Oh, Sasuke, you're not an emo like everybody says you are! You're just devilishly Uchiha!' or 'Wow Sasuke! You look so much stronger than you did yesterday! You look like you could go fight Itachi and just pummel his stupid girlie face straight into the dirt!'

True to her nature, Sakura opened her mouth to say something.

Sasuke half-smirked in anticipation of her comment.

"Oh…..Sasuke….you look…" Sakura was at a loss for words. Sasuke understood. It was hard to describe his glory, he knew.

"—different."

He waited for more.

And waited. Before the silence could get awkward, he prompted, "…And?"

"Uh….well, different. A good different though…but certainly different and…uh…." Sakura scrambled to save herself. Sasuke found her sudden inability to speak irritating.

"Hmph. If you've got nothing to say, I'm going to eat. I'm hungry," Sasuke crossed his arms. Sakura's eyes lit up.

"Oh! I haven't eaten yet! Can I come with you?"

She never missed an opportunity to ask him out on a date.

He never missed an opportunity to turn her down.

"Sure, why not?" He said, forcing a smile on his face. Emo people didn't smile, which meant he must smile—judging by Sakura's half-hearted reaction, he still wasn't obviously not emo. Smiling proved to be a weird action for him. It'd been so long, his muscles didn't quite know what to do, and he had a horrible suspicion he looked like a confused, misguided, awkward, delusional, and messed-up teenager. That wouldn't do. He'd have to practice smiling in the mirror tonight too.

Sakura's face froze in an expression of incredulous happiness.

"R-really? You mean it?!"

"Sure, why n—" Sasuke was repeating, when she glommed onto his arm.

"Oh my gosh, Sasuke! I thought this day would never come!"

Sasuke decided the situation was quite awkward.

"This isn't a date Sakura. Get off my arm."

"Oh….sorry," She let go and stepped aside. Sasuke immediately felt better. He didn't like it when people were in his special Sasuke bubble.

The rest of the distance to Ichiraku was fairly awkward too, but at least Sakura kept her distance. Sasuke kept waiting for her to realize that he wasn't emo any more, but she seemed unusually dense today. Tch. At least maybe there'd be someone else at Ichiraku who'd notice. Except Naruto. Anyone but Naruto. Which was actually a stupid train of thought, because Naruto didn't eat anywhere but Ichiraku. But today was a day for miracles, so perhaps Naruto would be absent. Sasuke hoped so.

They arrived at Ichiraku, and but who to his wondering eyes should appear…..

"What are you doing here, Uchiha?"

Rock Lee.

That was unexpected. Traditional irony suggested that Naruto would be the one to pop out uninvited. But Rock Lee? That was stupidly unexpected. Sasuke wasn't sure how to respond.

"Eating," he supplied intelligently.

"And I'm eating with him," Sakura asserted, grabbing his arm again.

"But not with me," Sasuke added.

"So I can't eat with you, Lee," Sakura concluded.

Lee's face was only mildly disappointed. "That's okay Sakura. I'm here with Ino, anyway."

Sakura's grip tightened on his arm. Sasuke coughed. Lee smiled. Sakura squeezed harder. Sasuke's eye twitched. His bubble was feeling very invaded.

"What the heck are you wearing Sasuke?!" asked Naruto through a mouthful of ramen.

That's not fair! Sasuke protested mentally. He was only supposed to meet one annoying person. Fate wasn't on his side anymore.

"Clothes," Sasuke answered with his usual curt intelligence.

"But those aren't you kind of clothes!" Naruto cried. Sasuke almost forgot about Sakura's annoying intrusion into his personal bubble—maybe Naruto, of all people, would notice his new attire!!

"They're not?" prodded Sasuke.

"No!" Naruto answered sagely. He paused to stuff another set of noodles into his mouth. Without much further chewing, he continued, "You always wear cool clothes. Those suck."

Crrrrrrrack. Sasuke literally heard his patience shatter. The dobe was so dead.

"EEEEEEEE!!!! Sasuke! Don't kill him!" Sakura knew from long experience that there would be a great deal of violence if she didn't step in like a good noble lady and put herself between the two rivals. Sasuke just looked at her. Did she have any idea how stupid she always sounded? Like he really cared whether or not she was in the way of his attack. Might as well be able to kill to annoyances with one chidori. Hmm. Such a clever turn of phrase. Kill two annoyances with one chidori. Maybe he should start saying it and see if it caught on…

"Wow. That was unnecessarily loud, Sakura," Lee commented, holding his aching ears.

"You try and stop those two when they start going for each other's throat," Sakura snapped.

"Why stop when you could watch?" Lee asked. "It is such a wonderful opportunity to study their individual techniques as well as their strengths and weaknesses, and Guy Sensei always says that—"

"Oh, shut up you over-achiever," Sakura muttered.

Sasuke gave Naruto a look of death. Too bad the murderous technique didn't exactly murder. If only he could kill people with a dirty look…….

"What? Are you trying to kill me with a 'murderous look of death'?" teased Naruto.

"I'm gonna come over there and strangle you with your beloved ramen if you don't—"

Ino chose this time to make her untimely timely appearance. She sidled casually up to Sakura's side, and quickly looked the situation over.

"Aren't you valiantly going to throw yourself in the way of the attack to stop them?"

"I already tried, but it must be pretty serious. Sasuke just ignored me. Luckily, though, I still have his arm. He can't do anything if I'm attached to his arm. And believe me Ino, I'll never let—"she made a fairly interesting squealing noise when Sasuke flung her off to the side on his way to strangle Naruto with lukewarm noodles. Ino clucked her tongue and shook her head. Sakura ever was the disgrace to the female race.

"How dare you insult my clothes!" Sasuke growled.

"Why? They look like you're over-compensating for being emo or something! I mean, come on, sky-blue shorts?!" Naruto asked disgustedly.

"They match my baby-blue bandages!!" roared Sasuke, grabbing his left wrist in preparation for a chidori. Naruto pushed his ramen to safety and stood ready for a rasengan. A tense moment held them both poised for the utter destruction of the other, and the simultaneous destruction of Ichiraku. Both waited an extra second to see if anyone wanted to stop them. Self-sacrifice, anyone?

No one volunteered to make the scene more dramatic, so—

"Did I miss it yet? Are they both dead?!" Orochimaru asked anxiously, poking his head in. Everyone turned to look at him. Orochimaru's golden snake-eyes searched around for a second, and then froze happily on Sasuke. His mouth turned up into a twisted grin.

"Omigosh, yay! I'm just in time!!!" The serpentine ninja clapped his hands gleefully. "Go Sasuke!!! If you can't do it, nobody can!!"

Silence.

"What's everyone looking at me for?" Orochimaru asked suspiciously. "I just came to see Sasuke." He gave the poor Uchiha an obvious once-over. Sasuke scowled.

"Go away Orochimaru, I'm not interested in you anymore. I've found a way to gain true power without you," Sasuke informed bluntly, shooing him with a wave of his hand. Orochimaru took the news easily. "Oh, of course you have, Sasuke-boy. Someday you'll see I'm perfect for you, but I'll go if you want me too. Just remember, I'll be waiting," he said, giggling in his best seductive manner. "By the way, nice shorts."

Orochimaru disappeared as randomly as he'd appeared.

Naruto summed up the entire group's feelings:

"That was weird."

Sakura, Lee, and Ino nodded in agreement.

"Ummm, let's forget about that," Sasuke remarked. "So, are you ready to die now?"

"You can't fight now!" complained Lee. "The mood has been broken. There is no point in fighting anymore." Again, everyone nodded in agreement. Sasuke thought they all looked like bobble-heads. How very undignified of them.

Still, it was obvious to all that the moment was over—they all lingered around awkwardly for a while, before finding convenient excuses to escape the awkwardness. Even Sasuke left and made it happily to his apartment with a growling stomach. In all the excitement, he'd forgotten to have lunch. But since it was not Uchiha-like to admit such a trivial mistake, he suffered until dinner. While waiting for the highly anticipated meal, Sasuke posed in front of his mirror and practiced evil chuckling and the bizarre motion of smiling. He also took a second look at his shorts. Perhaps Naruto was right. Maybe he was overcompensating just a little….

"Well, I'll just have to stop that," he told himself. "Heh heh heheheh heh." Sighing, he tried again.

"HEh HEh heEH…………………..no, that's not right either. Heeeeeeeheee heh ha heh….."

Damn, was it hard to laugh evilly.