Querencia

Chapter Three

Just read, enjoy, have a good laugh or two. Have a tear slip here and there. Get mad at cliffhangers or late updates, and review. Even if it's just a one word review~

"Where the hell is this damn bus?" Sakura rubbed her arms furiously. "It's raining and it's a cold."

"Yeah! And Kakashi isn't even here and this was his idea!" Naruto shouted. "So not cool, that old man."

"He's probably all warm in bed reading that stupid, orange book of his." Some kid shouted. "Meanwhile we're here on his behalf for some stupid community clean up."

"We should have just done the animal shelter instead." Another muttered. "Picking up shit sounds better than dying in the cold like this."

Blocking out all of the complaints from her classmates, Sakura took a seat on the cold ground and wrapped her arms around her knees. This was definitely not how she had planned to spend her one free Saturday. She could be sleeping in or catching up on her tv shows, not freezing like this in the rain. Tugging her hoodie up, she tried to block as much of the biting wind from nipping at her face as much as possible. Her nose was pretty much frozen, she could barely feel it even when she pinched it.

"Stop it. Are you trying to become Rudolph?"

And that was when she felt a heavy material dropped onto her shoulders.

Looking up in shock, she saw Sasuke sitting down in the spot behind her. She didn't fall out of her stupor, letting his heavy jacket fall to the floor until Sasuke flicked her in the forehead and clicking his tongue in disapproval. "Not going to wear it are you?"

"Huh? Oh… aren't you cold?" She asked as she slipped her arms into the sleeves of the jacket. Sakura could barely contain the blissful sigh that left her lips as she felt the warmth wrapped all around her.

"Nope." Sasuke quipped, the corners of his lips turning upwards slightly at the sight of her completely dazed out and blissed face.

.

"This is disgusting." Sakura brushed some baby hairs out of her face with the back of her gloved hand. "Rain and city trash really don't mix."

And Sasuke couldn't help but agreed as he picked up another piece of trash, stuffing it into the black garbage bag. Any good mood that he could have had earlier disappeared the moment the bus dropped them off in the dirtiest part of the city to clean up. It really didn't help that their clean up route was an incline, so all of the water from the rain just continued to run through their feet like a river. Rather disgusting. Kakashi was gonna have a whole lot of angry students to deal with after the weekend.

His train of thought on how to kill the older man was cut short when he heard Sakura let out a little squeal of distress.

"Ugh," Sakura yanked her foot out of an ankle deep muddy puddle. "I am forever done with this community service. I would gladly do it any other day than today." Stomping up the hill to the to end meeting point she grumbled, "It's fucking cold, raining, and my socks are soaking. They should have rescheduled this damn thing. I'm going to get a cold from this."

Seeing her struggle, he took the garbage bags from her and helped her cross the tree branch littered path. Being careful on where he placed his foot, he extended out his free hand to her.

Sakura gratefully accepted it without a second thought. Tightening her grip on his hand, she allowed him to lead the way. With her not having to focus on carrying the bags and finding her path, it was so much easier to walk. They ended up covering twice the distance in comparison to before. Sure, they didn't pick up as much trash but it was more effective. Not to mention, they had to leave some things behind for the group far behind them to get, right?

Not paying enough attention to where she was placing her foot, Sakura lost her balance and stumbled into Sasuke's back, hitting her chin hard.

Wincing in pain, she moved her jaw a few times. "Well, that hurts." Punching him lightly on the shoulders, she complained, "Why is your back so hard? It's like hitting a brick wall, goodness."

He tightened his grasp on her hand and they continued on, not before mumbling a quiet, "Sorry."

"Stupid tree branch." Sakura grumbled. Examining her left sneaker, she groaned. The little tear that she had in the netting part of the shoe was now a huge hole. Her once light blue socks turned brown.

At the sound of her words, he caught onto what had happened as well. Letting go of her hand, he turned around and crouched a little. "Hn, get on."

.

As to the two teens entered the car, Itachi asked, "So how was leaving a changing impact on your community feel like, my dear little ones?"

"Literally crap," Sakura answered as she buckled in while Sasuke kept quiet and looked out the weather at the gloomy weather.

Glancing at them from the rearview mirror, he raised an eyebrow. "That bad, hm?"

"That bad," Sakura replied. "My shoes and socks are ruined. And maybe even my pants. It looks like I just came from a pig farm."

"What happened Sakura?" Itachi chuckled, "I've always placed you as the loving community service person. I thought you loved things like this?"

Pouting, she countered, "I do! Just maybe not this one… I blame it on the weather."

"And your choice of shoes," Sasuke added as he continued to look out the window at the passing scenery.

Looking down at her badly beaten sneakers that was caked with mud and holes, she groaned. Sakura was hoping she could have extended the life line of her sneakers for a little longer. She was planning on getting new shoes after her next allowance month. But she guessed that wasn't going to happen.

At her words, Itachi caught his younger brother's gaze in the rearview mirror and raised a single eyebrow. Seeing Sasuke's slightly flushed face in response, Itachi couldn't help but chuckle a little.

"It's not funny Itachi," Sakura pouted.

"I wasn't laughing at you kiddo," Itachi began. Glancing at Sasuke once more, he said, "I was laughing at my brother and his inability to give a gift apparently."

Sasuke glared at him hard, shaking his head.

So his younger brother was a bit of a wimp and a scary cat. Not a problem, Itachi just needed to give him a little push to get him going. Smirking, Itachi asked, "When are you going to give it to her?"

"Give what?" Sakura asked curiously as she looked over at Sasuke's frozen body. She tried to meet his eyes, but he kept on averting his eyes anywhere else but hers. When she saw that she wasn't going to get an answer from the younger Uchiha, she turned towards Itachi and began bugging him for the answer to her question.

"You'll see, kiddo." Itachi told her as they pulled into the driveway of her house. Shifting the car into park, he popped the trunk open. Turning around, he knocked his knuckles against Sasuke's knees. "Go."

Sakura was confused beyond belief. What were the brothers talking so secretly about.

Sensing her confusion, Sasuke sighed and pulled her out from the car by her wrist. He led her to the back of the car and lifted the trunk up. Reaching into to the far back, he pulled out a black and white shoe box. Averting his eyes to the side, he shoved it into her limped hands. "Here."

Sakura's eyes widen to the size of saucers. Gripping the box in her hand, she spluttered, "W-what's this?"

Rubbing the back of his neck embarrassedly, Sasuke urged her to open it.

As she lifted the lid of the box and pushed back the tissue paper inside, a pair of brand new sneakers looked back at her. It was a simple and classic pair but she could tell from the stitching that it was expensive. She lifted one of the pair out from the box and gaped. He even got her one with memory foam. But what touched her heart the most was the specialization in the back of the heel of her shoes; two S's and the outline of a cherry blossom.

Quickly placing it back in the box, she shoved it back into Sasuke's hands. Playing with her fingers nervously, she said, "I can't take this. You didn't have to…"

"But I wanted to." Sasuke countered as he shoved it back into her hands.

"But…"

"No buts. Just wear the dang shoes Sakura. I know you've been planning on getting new shoes." Sasuke continued. "Your sneakers were reaching their end way before today anyways."

"They weren't that bad…," her cheeks turning rosy as she began to switch out her shoes.

Lending his arm to help her keep her balance he said, "Don't lie. You had that hole in your shoes for a few months now."

So he noticed, Sakura thought. She didn't think it was that noticeable. But then again, nothing could go unnoticed past an Uchiha's eyes. Sasuke noticed anything and everything. He had eyes of a hawk. If there was anything as better than 20/20 vision, Sakura was sure her best friend had it.

Finished with the lacing she stood back up and smiled at the sight of the new shoes on her feet. They were perfect. Gazing at him through her lashes, she smiled, face a little rosy as well. "Thanks Sasuke."

"Hn,"

Just as a blanket of silence came down on them, a comfortable one, Itachi just had to be the brother he was and ruined it, making it awkward. "What's taking so long? You guys better not be shoving your tongue down each other's throat."

{A/N}: Tried super hard to post this last night before I went to bed but I didn't want to give you guys an error filled chapter. Ended up being super busy this week and I went bowling last night so I really didn't have anything written until super early this morning. Hope you guys like this chapter as much as I did. It was super easy to write, smashed it out in only a few hours. Editing on the other hand, that's another story. I will go back later to make any edits I missed.

As requested by a certain reader, I've included Itachi in this chapter. Oh, what a great brother he is~

If you liked it, please leave a review! Speaking of reviews, I can not believe the number of reviews tripled just from chapter one to two. You guys are insane! Love you~

Thank you to: Multiple guest anons, ILoveSxS, Jena, MademoiselleRED, FlowSoreto, Emily da great, LuminaJu, naruhina, SierraJuliet518, and PrincessAkiraaa.