This chapter is the longest I've written. Just because I have two events take place it in. Didn't want to give you guys another cliff hanger. There is a small lemon near the end. Nothing too graphic, but just thought I'd give you a heads up. And, reason for this being a little later than normal, is because instead of writing this the other night, I wrote the final chapter. The story won't end for anywhile, but I just needed to write it down, so I could outline the rest of the chapters. It probably will change a bit once I finally get there, but, I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Again, thanks for the wonderful reviews. Keeps me motivated to write more :). Next Chapter: Sasuke's never ending work day. Enjoy.

Dear Sakura

Don't feel bad about last night and the kiss. It wasn't a bad thing. I'm sorry if I scared you when I did it. If I could give any excuse that you would accept, I'd have to say this:

The kiss was a spur of the moment action. The lights, the surroundings, how we danced, everything, just felt right and I couldn't stop myself. To be truthful, I don't think I would have stopped myself even if that thought had crossed my mind. You looked so beautiful in your costume.

You're an amazing kisser by the way. I don't really have many to judge from, but it makes me never want to kiss anyone else again.

I hope what happened at the party won't ruin our relationship, because you're alright, for a girl.

While Sakura read the e-mail, memories from that night came back to her.

"What do you mean, you aren't going?"

"Ino, I just don't have time for stuff like that."

Sakura had her head buried in a book with Ino sat on her bed, looking at her like she was about to fall over and die.

"Where did my rebellious friend disappear too?"

"The medical section in the library."

"Well, I think it's time we went on a rescue mission and brought her back!"

"Maybe another time."

"You can't miss the biggest party of the semester."

"There'll be another one just as big next semester, when I'm not so crammed."

It was three days before Halloween and the campus was about to throw its annual 'Hollow's Eve Bash.'

'For a university with such a great medical college, it sure is a huge party school.'

Ino had been trying to get Sakura to go to a college party all first semester. But, being the 'by the book' student she was, she had yet to attend one.

"What do I have to do, to get you to go?"

Sakura stopped reading and began to think. If the only way to get Ino out of her room so she could study was to agree to go the party, then she had no choice but to say yes.

"If you leave me in peace, then I'll go."

"Deal! You better not flake out on me. Oh, and remember, it's a costume party. So we'll go shopping tomorrow to find something sexy to wear."

"Whatever, just go!"

The next day, Ino drug Sakura out of her dorm room long enough to go costume shopping for the 'Hollow's Eve Bash.'

When they stepped into a Halloween shop, Sakura couldn't help but think:

'Ino just had to choose the shankest shop in town.'

"Alright, I already know what I want to be."

"And what's that?"

"Playboy bunny."

"Oh, how original! I bet you'll be the only one at the party dressed like that."

"Fine, fine! I'll pick something else. Oh… Maybe we could dress alike."

"Um, I don't think so."

"No, no! I've got the perfect idea. We'll have so many guys gushing after us; we won't know which one to choose."

"How about you take all the guys and I'll just… Never mind…"

"Uh… Did you say something?"

"Nope."

"Oh my god! This is perfect!"

Ino had spotted a red devil costume that would be more appropriate in the bedroom, then on the dance floor. On the rack next to it, were angel costumes; they looked almost identical to the red devil ones.

"I'll be the devil."

Sakura resisted the urge to make a comment about this.

"And you'll be the angel. It's so perfect! It's like fate knew we'd be coming here."

Again, Sakura resisted an urge to say something back.

Ino pulled out a few sizes of the red devil suit for her, and a few sizes of the angel for Sakura.

"Let's try them on."

"Alright."

Sakura found the size that fit her right away. She had already paid when she sighed when she realized Ino was still in the dressing room.

"Come on Ino! What is taking so long?"

"I can't decide between the one where I can breathe and the one where my boobs look big."

"Can you breathe in that one?"

"No."

"Then pick the first one."

"But I like how my boobs and butt look in the second."

"If you can't breathe, you won't be able to kiss any guys."

"First one it is then!"

The night of the party came and Ino was as giddy as, well… Ino was just always giddy. As they walked to the spot where the party was, Sakura held a coat over her costume while Ino walked uncovered waving to every boy in sight.

"Chill out Sakura. You know I'm going to rip that coat off you when we get there. So you might as well take it off now, when you can still do it with dignity."

She reluctantly took the coat off.

"Oh my gosh!"

The girls turned to see Naruto walking up to them, Hinata firmly latched onto his arm.

'Jeez, he couldn't pick anything more childish.'

Naruto was dressed like a ninja. He would say he was a samurai, but he looked like a ninja to Sakura. His outfit was mostly orange, with blue here and there.

'If people can't tell by this, that your favorite color is orange, then they are dumber than you.'

Hinata was wearing a geisha costume.

"Oh my god! Hinata! You look so beautiful."

"We decided to theme our costumes to match each other. I'm the samurai, and Hinata is my beautiful geisha wife."

"Naruto… geishas aren't…"

Sakura was cut off when she saw Hinata shaking her head at her.

"Never mind. You guys look great together."

"Thank you, Sakura."

"Yeah, we decided to theme our costumes too. I'm the evil girl, and Sakura is the good girl."

"It fits."

"Oh my gosh! Have you guys seen Sasuke yet?"

They shook their heads.

"Well, I'm not surprised. It's hard to notice him with all the girls crowding around him. For a guy who isn't interested in attracting a girl, he sure picked a hell of a costume for this party."

"What did the former love of my life dress up as?"

"Oh, you'll see. Ah, here he comes."

They turned their heads to the direction Naruto was looking. Sakura's jaw almost dropped when she saw him. He was wearing an S&M type of costume. He had on leather pants with a spiked belt. No shirt, but spiked bracelets on both wrists. Around his neck he had on a spiked collar with a chain attached; he held the end of the chain in his right hand.

"Oh my… I think I just wet myself." Sakura heard Ino whisper and look away.

"Hey Sasuke."

"Hey."

"Nice Costume."

"I guess."

"You guess! Man, you've got every lady in this place after you. Well, almost everyone. You'll never pull my Hinata away from me."

Naruto pulled Hinata into a sweet embrace and gently kissed her.

"You guys make me so jealous. Alright! It's time to find myself a boyfriend. If you'll excuse me, I'll be back later."

Ino walked off towards the drink table, and wasn't seen again for the rest of the night.

"We won't see her till tomorrow."

"She means well, she's just too… eager."

As a song changed, Naruto's eyes lit up.

"Oh My Gosh! Hinata, it's our song."

At that, he pulled Hinata onto the dance floor, leaving Sakura alone with Sasuke.

The silence might have seemed awkward to another person, but Sakura was use to this by now, when it came to Sasuke. He wasn't a talkative person, and she wasn't in the mood to chat either.

"Wanna dance?"

She looked behind her to see a 'Zorro' extending his hand to her.

"No thanks. I'm not in the mood."

"Maybe later then, my lady."

"Maybe."

'Not in your life, cape boy.'

He walked away and she noticed him stop and ask another girl to dance. She was glad she had declined him. If he wasn't punched out in five minutes, she might have to deal with him again later.

"Not much of a dancer?"

"I don't mind dancing, just not with scum like him."

"How about you dance with me then?"

Sakura looked at Sasuke with an extremely confused look.

"Just thought it would help us out."

"Help us out? How?"

"If I danced with you, I won't have to deal with all those girls over there, and if you dance with me, you won't have to deal with all those guys behind you, who are staring at your butt."

She whipped her head around to see no less than twelve heads suddenly fly in multiply directions.

"They'll still stare at me, even if I'm dancing with you."

"True. But I can pretend to be your boyfriend and give them dirty looks when you head is turned."

"That might hinder their gazes."

"Do you always talk like a girl from a fifties movie?"

"Do you always dress like an S&M slave at parties?"

"Eh, lost a bet."

"Ha!"

"It's not funny."

"Oh, but it is. The mighty Uchiha, losing a beat. That's pretty funny."

He scowled at this.

'Oh, I think I hit a nerve.'

"Do you want to dance or not?"

"Sure, if it will keep the perverts off me for at least a little while."

It didn't take long for Sakura to notice all the stares were gone. Sasuke had done a great job convincing everyone that she was here with him.

'He would even be fooling me.'

He hadn't actually touched her, but he had gotten fairly close numerous times. To anyone else, it would appear that he was caressing her leg as she pulled him down like she was going to kiss him. But in reality, his hands only slightly hovered above her skin and her hands held onto his chain, but not applying any pressure to bring his head down.

She hadn't realized the length of time that had been dancing, until the lights were dimmed to count down to November 1st. That was when it happened.

Sasuke spun her around and placed his hands on her waist. He looked into her eyes for only a moment before he placed his lips on hers. The kiss grew more passionate by the second, and as the crowd around them counted down the seconds to midnight, Sakura counted the seconds Sasuke's lips held hers. When everyone reached zero and started cheering, Sakura pulled away from Sasuke. She quickly gave him a 'What the fuck' look and walked away.

She avoided everyone else for the rest of the night; which for her was only thirty minutes before she found Ino and left the party. When they reached her dorm room, Ino collapsed on the bed and gave Sakura a worried glance.

"What the heck is wrong? What was so important that you had to drag me away from that cute guy?"

"Sasuke kissed me."

"WHAT!"

"We were dancing and when the lights went off and everyone started to countdown; he just, all of a sudden, kissed me."

"Wait… He was dancing with you? For how long?"

"We started shortly after you left. We wanted to avoid the two groups that were ogling us."

"Sakura! You danced with him for over an hour!"

"So, that's not the point. He kissed me Ino. For ten seconds."

"How do you know it was for ten seconds?"
"I was counting."

"Oh really!"

"Shut up."

"How were you dancing?"

"Well, we were pretending to be together… So a little closer than I normally would."

"You dirty tramp! You lead him on! No wonder he kissed you."

"I did not lead him on. And I'm not the tramp in this friendship, you are!"

"I still say you lead him on when you allowed him to dance with you like that."

"You think he'll be mad with me?"

"Why would he be mad with you, with him kissing you?"

"No, I kinda of… Pushed him away and left him without saying a word afterwards."

"I say, don't worry about it. He probably was thinking the same thing you were. 'What the fuck just happened?' Everything will be back to normal in a few days."

Sakura finished reading the e-mail for the third time, and remembered that Ino had been right. She ran into Sasuke a couple days later and everything seemed to be fine. He didn't bring up the kiss, or act weird towards her in any way.

'If only I had gotten this e-mail. I would have known differently.'

She closed it down and opened up the next few e-mails. Most of them were just Sasuke telling Sakura about things he was thinking about when he was spending time with her. She smiled more and more, as the compliments he would give her interested in number and affection with each e-mail she read.

As she scrolled down, she noticed the dates between each e-mail decreased in the distance between them. Starting to become almost an every-other-day thing around the time when they had first…

'Oh my… He wrote me about that.'

Dear Sakura

What would you call what we did last night? Would you call it just plain drunken sex, or would you say, we made love? As I look at you, sleeping in my bed, I kind of think it is a little of both. I don't think you would have slept with me, if you had been sober, but I hope that if we ever do this again, which I really would like too; that you won't be drunk the next time around.

I honestly think it would have been ten times better if we hadn't been stone cold drunk. Not that it wasn't great to begin with Wink.

Sasuke

"I can't believe he wrote about that. And… did he really add a 'Wink' at the end."

She was blushing now. It was hard not to remember that day, and the events that lead up to her waking up in his bed, naked.

"Sakura! Ino! Happy last day of school!"

Sakura, Ino, Naruto, and Hinata were sitting at a table outside the student center, celebrating their last day of their first year.

"I'm so glad that it's over. I thought I would die a few times."

"Well, only three more years to go."

"Gah, Sakura. You just had to ruin the moment. Why can't you be like Naruto?"

"Why would I want to be like Naruto?"

"Hey! I'm sitting right here!"

"Oh please. Just go back to whispering into Hinata's ear and be quiet."

He pouted a little before turning back to Hinata, to place butterfly kisses on her neck.

"We need to throw a party!"

'Why did I have to be cursed with this party school?' Sakura thought as Ino and Naruto started spouting off some ideas for the party they would throw that night.

"We'll have it at Sasuke's place!"

"I thought Sasuke lived with you."

"Nah, he moved out of the dorms after first semester; said something about needing peace of mind, or something like that."

"Probably peace and quiet."

"Hn… Whatever, all I know is that I got the room to myself now. Hinata loves it too. Right… baby?"

Hinata blushed as Naruto placed a kiss on her lips.

"Anyway, he has a nice place now. It's not huge, but it could fit the whole gang."

"What makes you so sure he'll agree to this?"

"I'll make a bet with him. Last bet he lost; so I'm sure he wants to settle the score."

"Oh! So you're the reason he wore that costume to the Halloween party."

"Yeap!"

"What would have happened if you had lost?"

"I would have worn it instead."

'I'm glad he lost.'

"I'll call him right now; hold on."

He quickly dialed:

"Hey Sasuke, we're having a party tonight at your place."

"No."

"Oh come on. If you let us use your place, I'll make a bet with you."

"What are the terms?"

"If you don't kick anyone out the entire night, then I won't talk for an entire week."

"And what if I lose?"

"Then you have to buy me ramen for said week and listen to me tell you my life story."

"…"

"Well, what do you say?"

"Deal. When's it starting?"

He placed his hand over the phone and asked Ino what time they should start the party.

"Eight."

"Fine, I'll get it ready. You bring the beer."

Click.

"Well, he never was much for good byes. But yeah, he agreed."

Sakura, Ino, Naruto, and Hinata arrived at Sasuke's apartment thirty minutes to eight and started setting up. They had just finished when everyone else appeared. Naruto was right when he said the place wasn't big, but it fit their group nicely enough.

The party was in full swing and by eleven p.m. everyone else was drunk and Sakura was getting there. It was around this time, that she heard Ino calling her name from the living room.

"Sakura… there you are… We were just talking…"

"About?"

"Oh… you!"

"Well, thanks for including me in on the conversation… I guess…"

All the girls were seated on the couches and the guys were at Sasuke's pool table; betting, most likely.

"Sit down, sit down."

"Yeah, Ino was telling us about how you…" Temari leaned in and whispered, "Kissed Sasuke!"

"Ino!"

"Shush, be quiet. We don't want them to hear us."

"Sakura, why didn't you tell us you kissed Sex God over there?" Tenten said, as she lifted her bottle to take another drink.

"I… forgot…"

"HA! Yeah right. Who would forget they kissed Mister Sex God?"

She turned to look at Temari.

"Me."

"Well, I doubt you forgot about it. But I bet Sex God did."

"You're probably a lousy kisser."

"Tenten!"

"What? You're my friend Sakura. It's only right that I be honest with you."

"Can't you all act like other drunks and pass out after you've drunken this much?"

"You're one to talk."

"I might be drinking, but I'm not drunk."

"I bet he did."

"Bet who did?"

Sakura was getting slightly annoyed with her drunken friends. They always meant well, sober.

"Sex God, I bet he totally forgot about the kiss, or no, wait. He didn't forget, because it was so BAD!"

The group, minus Hinata, somehow found this extremely funny.

"You wanna bet, then fine. Sasuke, come here for a second will you!"

Sasuke looked up for the pool game and walked over to the drunken girls.

"What do you…"

Before he could finish, she grabbed his tie and pulled him into a kiss.

Shocked responses came from all the girls in the room. The boys looked up from the pool table, but being extremely drunk, didn't bother to notice Sakura and Sasuke kissing.

When she tried to pull away, he only pulled her in more. After a few more seconds, he finally released her to breath.

"Sasuke…"

"Sakura…"

She unknowingly shifted her eyes at his bedroom door.

"Everyone Out!"

"What?" was the group response.

"OUT!"

Everyone quickly got up, gathered their things and left the apartment.

"This means I've won… again… YES!" Could be heard from the hall.

The door had barely closed when Sasuke pulled Sakura into another kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck this time. Before she realized it, they were in his bedroom, undressing.

Being drunk by now, Sakura never heard the voice in her head telling her to tell him to stop. She was caught by now; caught by Sasuke. He lowered her onto the bed as the last of their clothes flew to the floor.

As he kissed his way down her body, stopping every so often when he found a ticklish spot, her moans grew louder and louder. When he reached his final destination, she clenched the bed sheets and moaned.

He didn't let her rest, for as soon as he moved his head back to her face, another moaned escaped her lips as pleasure sweep over her, from the same place, once more.

Sakura remembered that night better two years later than she had two days later. She remembered the pain, then the pleasure, then the pleasurable pain. She couldn't help but blush when she recalled how many times Sasuke had kissed her, everywhere. The next morning was what she liked the most.
Sakura woke the next morning fully expecting Sasuke to not be there. She didn't feel him when she started to move around. It was only till he spoke that she opened her eyes.

"So… You're awake."

Her eyes quickly adjusted to the light and soon she located Sasuke, sitting at his computer desk, laptop closed.

"What time is it?"

"Quarter till eight."

"Oh, my head hurts."

"That's just the hangover, it'll pass soon."

"I've never gotten drunk before… Actually, I've never had beer, before tonight."

"I kind of figured that."

"What should I take for my head?"

"Just rest for awhile. Until you know how your body reacts to being drunk, you should just stay in bed."

She didn't know if she should ask him to take her home, to her bed, or stay in his.

"Do you like tea?"

"Yes."

"I'll make you some. Be right back."

A few minutes later, Sasuke walked back into the room with two cups of tea on a tray. He walked over to the bed and placed the tray in-front of Sakura, before crawling in himself.

"Thank you."

He moved a little closer to Sakura and took his cup. She picked up her cup and took a small sip. The tea wasn't that bad. She had lied when she said she liked tea.

"You're cute when you're sleeping."

"What?"

"I had to write someone an e-mail, and couldn't help but watch you sleep. You're really cute when you're asleep. Not that you aren't cute when you're awake too."

Sakura didn't understand why he was saying all this. She looked into his eyes and assumed he was still slightly drunk.

"Thanks."

"What are you doing tonight?"

"What?"

"Got any plans? Going any places?"

"No."

"Wanna have dinner?"

"Why?"

She thought she could see a little hurt expression come across his face.

"Do you think I'm that heartless?"

"What! No… I don't think you're heartless."

"Then why do you ask why, when I ask you to dinner?"

"I guess… I just don't know why you would …"

"Because I want too. Plus, we did it backwards."

"Backwards?"

"Yeah, you're suppose to go out to dinner, then have sex."

She blushed at this. Was he asking her out?

"So? Dinner, tonight?"

"Mmm, alright."

Sakura was blushing as she remembered that morning. That had been their first date, and it was among the days when he actually talked to her and slightly relieved his feelings. She sighed as she moved the mouse to close the e-mail.

"I miss those days. If they hadn't stopped, we would still be together."

She noticed a little extra of the e-mail she hadn't seen before

P.S. Last night was worth losing that bet to Naruto for and, love your tattoo.