Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 4: The Discovery

This chapter is a little longer than most, but then again, its the turning point in the story and alot happens. Thanks for the reviews. Next Chapter: Their First... Everything. Enjoy

The wedding was Saturday, the hangover lasted until Monday morning, but that was the highlight of Sakura's week. All week, things seemed to predict Friday to be a very bad day. The weather man said it would thunderstorm, but Sakura hadn't trusted weather men since the blizzard of 2002.

'Three inches of snow my ass.'

Ino would have another date with Chouji that night, but Sakura found the week leading up to it more troublesome than it would be the night off.

"Yes, I can say troublesome! Shikamaru doesn't have a patent on the word."

"Whatever."

And on Tuesday she realized this Friday would be Friday the thirteenth.

'Great, more bad luck.'

But she had to admit, among all the events that were predicted to happen on Friday, going over to Sasuke's apartment ranked number one of the 'Very Bad Things to Happen on Friday List,' that Ino had made for her.

"Have you made a checklist?"

"Checklist for what?"

"Of the stuff you've left at Sasuke's!"

It was the night before and Sakura sat on Ino's bed watching her get ready for her date.

'One thing I can check off my list.'

"No."

"Liar! The day Sakura Haruno doesn't make a checklist is the day… is the day… it's the day I dye my hair pink!"

Sakura couldn't help but burst into laughter. Tears were trickling down her face when she noticed the stern look she was getting from Ino. She suppressed her laughter and cleared her throat.

"I've made a mental checklist. If I actually write it down, then that will lengthen the amount of time I'm in his apartment."

"Good point. Alright! Let's go over the schedule!"

"Schedule? When did I make a schedule?"

"I took the liberty to draw one up for you!"

"Um… thanks! I guess."

"Alright, when do you plan to get there?"

"Well, let's see. Sasuke has work from ten to six, so… Eleven I guess."

"Eww, why so early?"

"Because if I go later, I could run the risk of him coming home for lunch; and I really rather not see him."

"Good point. Alright next, where is everything of yours in his apartment?"

"I have three things in the kitchen, four things in the living room, seven things in the bathroom, and one thing in his bedroom."

"Alright, save the thing in the bedroom for last."

"Why? It'll be easier if I got that first."

"Well, it's because… of your… little condition."

"What 'little condition'?"

"Sakura, I've never brought this up before, because it's never been a problem until now."

"For goodness sake Ino, I'm almost twenty-two! I can handle it, stopping treating me like a sensitive baby."

"Well, you have… a smell fetish."

Ino quickly looked away, as if the window had suddenly become extremely fascinating.

"A… smell… fetish… I MOST CERTAINLY DO NOT!"

"Oh please, you might not think you do, but you do."

"Oh really… please explain to me then, how you came about your information."

"Back in high school, it was the smell of new books, then it went to new car smell when you got that car from your Grandmother, then it was smell of your dorm room, and now… It's Sasuke's smell. You go absolutely crazy when you are around it. But since before the break up, he was always around when you smelled it, you haven't noticed what you do when you actually get a whiff of the Sex God."

Sakura was processing all this in her mind.

"I actually think… your right…"

"I know I'm right! That's why you have to save Sasuke's room for last. Because if you go first, you might be distracted and never leave; that's why you have to be in and out of that entire apartment in fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen Minutes! I won't be able to find everything in fifteen minutes."

"Think of it as keep away with Naruto and you can do it!"

"That man will never win against me!"

"Focus Sakura, focus!"

"You gave me the thought."

"And I can take it away. Now, I want you to call me before you go in at eleven and call me when you get out."

"Why?"

"Well, that way… if you don't call me after fifteen minutes, I'll call you after twenty and reminder you to get out of there."

"Fine, fine. By the way, I thought your date with Chouji was tomorrow night?"

"Oh, we are still going out tomorrow, but tonight is our six month anniversary and he wanted to treat me!"

'Back on the list, Dammit.'

Sakura heard the sound of her alarm buzzing and telling her that it was now nine a.m. She was mumbling something about taking a hammer to it as she turned it off, when she noticed her calendar. She saw that Friday was circled in a big, black marker. She mumbled again.

'Stupid alarm clock. Stupid Ino. Stupid Friday. Stupid…'

No, she wasn't going to call Sasuke stupid. She reserved that word for Naruto… and Ino on occasions like today.

While she stood in the shower, she held her face up with her eyes closed at the oncoming water. She visualized everything of hers in the apartment. If Sasuke hadn't moved them yet, she would know exactly where to locate them.

Her summer job didn't start till Monday, so she walked around her apartment for the next hour, prepping herself for her ex-boyfriend's apartment.

'In-Out. Fifteen minutes. In-Out. Fifteen minutes.'

She glared at the clock when it read only 10:15.

'GO FASTER!' She screamed in her head. She wanted nothing more than to be done with all of it.

Thirty minutes till and she left Ino's apartment and drove over to Sasuke's. She stopped by the Landlord's building first to get him to let her in.

"Here's the key, just return it before you leave."

"You're not coming with me."

"Are you kidding?"

"No."

"Oh… well… I'm a little busy at the moment, so that's why I won't be escorting you to Sir Sasuke's manor."

His sarcastic tone had always pissed Sakura off. If she wasn't tense from having to enter Sasuke's place, she would have punched him in the face and finish him off with a swift kick to the balls.

'I'll save that for when I leave.'

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I had no idea. I, of course, will return it quietly when I leave."

When he closed the door, she stuck her tongue at him.

"Jerk."

She got back into her car and drove to the building that housed Sasuke's apartment. She stared at the clock. It only read 10:50.

'Ten more minutes. Must walk in right at eleven.'

She waited while listening to the radio, that she remembered Sasuke had given her after his first trip in her car. She stared at the clock again. 10:59.

'Finally!'

As she got out of her car, she dialed Ino's number.

"I'm going in. Call you in fifteen."

Click.

She didn't bother waiting for a response. She unlocked the door and walked in.

'Ino was right.'

As she entered her ex's apartment, the faint smell of Sasuke meet her nose. A huge smile drifted across her face before she quickly shook it away and set herself on her mission.

She had brought a box to hold all the things in, so she wouldn't have to leave constantly to take things out to her car. She went into the kitchen first and picked up her three cooking instruments. After that, she hit the living room. All four things lay in plain sight on the coffee table.

'I see he hasn't touched a thing.' Her heart sank a little.

Next came the bathroom; she found the first three fairly easy, but the other four were in unlikely places from where she had thought.

'Maybe he did touch some of my stuff.'

After the majority of her items lay motionless in her cardboard box, she faced Sasuke's bedroom. She stood staring at the door for a few moments. Until she looked down at her watch and realized what time it was. She had wasted most of her time in the bathroom and only had three minutes left.

'Get in, get the brush, and get out.'

She gritted her teeth, turned the knob and stepped into the room.

The same smell reached her nose, but stronger than in the rest of his place. She could also smell a little bit of her own perfume in the room. This was her favorite room in the whole place after all.

'Most time spent would be awarded to this place.' She eyed the bed.

She loved his bed, it was a king; twice the size of her pathetic double in the dorms. There was so much room to move around. Although most of the time, she was on the right side, snuggled up to Sasuke; when they weren't having sex, that is.

'What are you doing? Get the brush and get out of here!'

She walked to the side table and found that her brush wasn't there.

"Where the hell is it?"

She looked on the floor, underneath the bed, and even on Sasuke's side.

"What the heck? Did he throw it away! That was my best brush."

As she turned to see if it might be in the bathroom, she spotted it on his desk.

"Ah! There you are."

As she reached for it, she noticed Sasuke's laptop was open.

'He never leaves it up.'

She saw a picture of her as his desktop. She was in her middle school outfit and looked down at herself and noticed she was wearing the exact same thing.

'Laundry day. How I hate laundry day!'

She was about to leave, when she noticed a program blinking on his toolbar.

'Mailbox?'

She was telling herself not to open it.

'His e-mail box is private. I shouldn't open it. I never even opened it when we were dating. He would hate me if I did it now.'

She continued to stare at the blinking square.

"Then again, I probably won't get another opportunity to read it…"

And that settled it. She clicked on the box and Sasuke's outlook popped up. She read the box that was blocking her sight to his mail.

Do you wish to save draft?

She didn't know what to do. She figured the only way for her to see his mailbox was to push yes.

Your message is now saved.

'Finally!'

She looked at his inbox.

'Empty.' She pouted a little.

She then looked at his outbox.

'What! Empty too! What's the point of having it up, if you don't send or get anything?'

She then remembered the message box. It had saved a message as a draft. She clicked open the draft drop down menu and was shocked.

"Three hundred and fourteen saved draft messages! Why would he have that many? And who the hell was he going to send them too!"

After a long drop down menu opening, she reached the folder that actually contained the messages. It read:

Sakura Mail

Her jaw dropped.

'Sakura… Mail…'

She didn't know what to do. Should she click it open and read the email… Or close the program and run out.

"I hate to sound like Ino… But… I've come this far, might as well go all the way."

Click

Password Needed

"What! Alright… Sasuke's not that hard to figure out… Right?"

'Wrong.'

She typed: Sasuke

Incorrect, Please Try Again

'Alright, how about…'

Uchiha

Incorrect, Please Try Again

"Jeez, I thought that would be it. Alright then…"

Naruto's an idiot

Incorrect, Please Try Again

'Darn. I thought for sure that would be it.'

She realized if she didn't get it this last time, that it would lock up for good and she would never find out what e-mails were inside.

"Last try."

Sakura

Correct

'Why didn't I think of that before? Naruto's idiocy must be rubbing off on me…'

It took a couple minutes for the program to load all the e-mails. She looked at the titles of the first few that appeared on the screen. It was after the first five that she realized they were all labeled: To Sakura. It was only after a couple seconds that she recognized the date of the first one listed. It was dated three years ago.

'That was when we graduated! We weren't even going out then!'

She stuck with her originally decision, that she had come this far, and decided to open it. She didn't really know what to expect, but what she read certainly wasn't at the top of her list.

Dear Sakura,

I don't really say this to many people, but Congratulations. When I had first heard that I would share the Valid Victorian position with someone, I was extremely pissed. But when they told me it would be you, I wasn't that mad anymore. Out of everyone, I think you deserve it the most. You worked the hardest in school, next to me anyway.

Sakura couldn't believe what she was reading. At first she thought it must have been a joke. Sasuke must have set this up on purpose, to mess with her. But then… how could he have done the date thing. He was smart, but he wasn't very computer literate.

But don't think I will let you become top in our class in college. I think only fate could have caused us to end up going to the same University. Prepare for the fight of your educated life.

Sasuke

Well, she had to admit, the e-mail wasn't a romance novel, confessing his love for her, like she had secretly hoped. But, he had given her a compliment. And he actually joked a little near the end.

She thought back to her high school days. At first, like every other girl, she had a crush on Sasuke. That was until the end of eighth grade. Her parents started pressing her on what she wanted to do when she got out of school and college. They were both doctors and told her she had the mind for it and had no doubt she would make an excellent doctor. That is, if she got her head off boys and into her school work.

That summer was sort of her awakening. She had decided to take her parents advice and decided that she would become a doctor. That was when the checklist, schedule making, and by the books Sakura appeared. She had reviewed her schedule and realized that she wasted the most time thinking about Sasuke. That was when she became a rebel and stopped crushing on him.

"You did what?"

"I've decided to stop crushing on Sasuke. It's not a big deal."

"Not a big deal! Not a big deal! What are we going to talk about now? If you don't like Sasuke anymore!"

"Poor poor Ino. Don't worry! Soon you will join me on the dark side and stop crushing on him too."

"Never! I will never join the dark side…"

"Too bad… The dark side has diet drinks and low fat cookies…"

When she closed the e-mail, she looked at the one below it and saw that it was dated some months later. November 2nd.

'Freshman year. Wait… That was right after we…'

She clicked it open and began to read.

Dear Sakura

Don't feel bad about last night and the

Her cell phone broke her away from the e-mail. She looked down and noticed the number.

"What!"

"Sakura… You never called… I thought I'd give you some extra time. But it's already 11:25! What are you doing in there?"

"Can't say. Bye."

She snapped the phone shut and looked back at the screen. It rang again.

"Did you just hang up on me?"

"No, I'd never do that. Bye."

She turned it off before snapping it close again.

On the other side, Ino was glaring at her phone as if it were Sakura herself.

"That little tramp hung up on me! Oh she is so gonna get it!"

She pressed two on her speed dial and waited for Sakura to pick up.

"Hi, You've reached Sakura's phone. Sorry I can't take your call right now. But if you leave you name and number and why I should call you back… I'll think about it…"

Beep

"WHY THAT LITTLE! UGH!" She threw her phone against the wall before running after it.

"Oh, I'm so sorry baby. Mommy didn't mean it. Are you okay?"

The phone just buzzed in response.

"What the," She looked at the number. "Yay!"

She flipped it open, "Hi baby, I'm so hungry, wanna grab a bite to eat."

'Sakura can take care of herself.'

Sakura sat in her ex's chair, looking at the screen of her ex's laptop, reading messages he had all addressed to her.

"Oh… My…"