Like A Star

02

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the characters that may sound highly familiar to you.

A/N: Thank you so much for reviewing, every comment made my day and this chapter was written for those who'd enjoyed the first one!

UPDATE!: OMG wtf much? why did I say South Asia? Aah im such an idiot! anyways forgive me, I make mistakes. I'm very aware of that. Please ignore it. I shall change it now.

Out of all days, months and weeks, today must have been more hectic than the usual busy buzz. Uchiha Sasuke just had had it with the continuous four-hour fan signing, the three-hour talk-show interview and not to mention the inevitable screaming crowd that would never leave him alone. It's been a few days since he'd really talked to anyone as Sasuke-The-Normal-Not-Famous-Dude and even his close friend, Naruto, was way too busy with his DJ-ing sessions in Ramen FM.

So he took his mobile out — all the while ignoring screeching girls — and contacted his long-distance penpal by text. Oh no, he couldn't call her or that would have messed everything up. He didn't want her to know that "Onyx" was really Uchiha Sasuke — not yet anyways— because he liked the feeling when he talked to her since she treated him indifferently, which honestly was rare considering he was idolized by every living human on earth.

Of course he was grateful for her patience of not knowing most vital important things about him, such as how he looked like and what he worked as and what not. But really, honestly, they were just online/cyber friends who had never actually met and seemed to really like each other's company through the modern world of technology.

So now he decided to invite her all the way to Seoul and to finally reveal Onyx's secret identity.

'Naruto, it's me.' Sasuke spoke quietly but loud enough for his friend to hear.

'What's up?' was a reply from the other end of the line.

'Need a favor, a friend of mine is coming over, I need an escort since I won't be available to pick her up.'

Naruto whistled which made Sasuke rolled his eyes in annoyance.

'Sure, is she hot?'

'Slap yourself for me please.' Sasuke grunted. 'I'd give you a picture of her and I have everything settled from there. Just escort her while I'm not there would you? She's a friend of mine so please try not to freak her out—'

Naruto snorted at that.

'—and treat her nicely.' Sasuke finished.

By now the other line was quiet as Naruto thought about whom this potential special "someone" could be that Sasuke was willing to do this much for.

'Dobe?' Sasuke called after enduring one whole minute of silence.

'Have I met her before?' Naruto asked curiously.

'Nope, and neither have I. We'd just talked before.'

And now the-already-confused Naruto was even more confused. Finally he answered: 'Sure' and both of them hung up as Sasuke made a run for it from a stampede of squealing fan girls.

The TV blared with recent news of the international pop-sensation Uchiha Sasuke in the living room as Sakura, Ino and Hinata sat on the couch with a tub of chocolate ice cream melting on their spoons.

'Isn't he just so…' Sakura said.

'—hot!' Ino finished dreamily and licked the last drop of ice-cream.

Hinata, out of the three, was the only one not star-struck, which basically made her one in a six billion — yes no exaggeration there — of being the only one not admiring Uchiha Sasuke as much as others did.

'So Saki, are you taking up his offer for the trip?' Ino asked.

Sakura thought for a while and shook her head, 'I don't know, it's a long flight and I'd never even met this guy before.'

'Maybe you should go.' Hinata said and smiled, 'That only gives you a week of school left if you take the offer, seeing that the flight is on first day of our spring break.'

'She's got a point there Saki, you should take the offer.' Ino supported and Sakura considered.

'Maybe…' Sakura thought and suddenly some sort of realization hit her in the head, 'but what about my parents?' and the atmosphere went silent as Sakura's question lingered in the air. 'Oh wait, they have that business trip for a whole three months tomorrow, so I'm good.' She smiled sheepishly.

Everyone sighed in relief.

'…so' Sakura drummed her fingers on the armrest, 'should I go?'

'Yep.'

'Definitely!'

Sakura was still a little bit doubtful when she finally decided to tell Onyx that the offer was accepted. One whole week in a city she'd never even heard of before with a guy she'd never met. But great opportunities come in odd chances…right? Oh whatever, Sasuke's concert should make up for all of her discomfort. After a few hours of lingering and chatting at Sakura's house, they all went back home. Sakura sighed, she still really wasn't sure if she should go; a thought that was practically eating half of her mind up at that moment.

'To go…or not to go…' she switched the TV off with the remote, '…that is the question.' She mumbled lazily and headed to her bedroom.

A flashing light was beeping from the screen of her computer and everything that she worried about was forgotten as Onyx had just came online —after a whole three days of disappearing which irritated Sakura a lot somehow—

StrawberryShortCake75: Look who finally decided to show up.

Onyx Flame2: Sorry, had a whole extra 10 hours of work today.

StrawberryShortcake75: That's not cool dude ):

OnyxFlame2: Nope, not really.

StrawberryShortcake75: So how are you today?

OnyxFlame2: Could be better.

StrawberryShortcake75: Really? What's wrong?

OnyxFlame2: Everything is just so crazy right now, it's practically inhumane.

StrawberryShortcake75: You wanna talk about it?

And "talk-about-it" they did. From the weather in Seoul, to the topic where it involved Sakura's travelling there — which by the way, she still anticipated— and the arrangement of whom she was to search for the moment she reached the airport as well as some comfort of knowing that she would be taken care of in safe hands…a bit creepy if you ask me considering the fact that you have never even met the damn guy.

StrawberryShortcake75: So…are you sure this isn't one of your spamming schemes of stealing my house as I'm on the plane to East Asia?

OnyxFlame2: …I'm not even gonna answer that. -_-

StrawberryShortcake75: Haha I was just kidding! Well actually…

OnyxFlame2: Sakura.

StrawberryShortcake75: Okay okay! I was still just kidding you know. Anyways what else am I to prepare for — or need — for this trip?

OnyxFlame2: Do you have some sort of picture of you, a passport pic to send/fax over to me?

StrawberryShortcake75: Aha! I knew this was a scam!

OnyxFlame2: …

StrawberryShortcake75: okay okay, sorry. Yes I do. I'd email it to you and stuff.

OnyxFlame2: Sure, thanks.

Three straight hours since they'd talked online and it was the longest yet in a day. Don't get me wrong, they both talked to each other a hell lot when you sum up all the hours together, just never in one whole day. And that's only due to Onyx having to go in a hurry, but she had assumed that maybe he had taken a few days off work to have been able to stay up with her throughout the night. But just then, there was someone who had knocked at Sasuke's door and in his hotel-sponsored bathrobe he answered it, leaving the instant messenger running all the while. It was Karin — much to his disgust — and somehow she had managed to find out which room Sasuke was staying in the hotel. So much for confidential privacy.

'What do you want Karin?' Sasuke hissed and a part of his bathrobe fell over his left shoulder, revealing a perfectly toned chest.

A girl dressed in skin-tight clothes leaned in a provocative manner against the door, purring ever so slightly at the sight of Sasuke. He was really close to slamming the door at her face but she had rudely invited herself in and plopped herself on his bed. A snarl of annoyance escaped from his lips and quickly he slammed the door shut incase anyone else would have seen him.

'Get off.' He grunted and ignored the fact that he was almost fully half-naked as the bathrobe draped further down his toned biceps.

'Why would I?' she purred, releasing her red hair from its original high ponytail.

'Because if you don't I'd call security on you.' He hissed, ignoring her attempt of seducing him — which clearly did not work — and headed to his laptop.

Karin was slightly furious but she didn't give up. Instead, she daringly tugged on his bathrobe and pulled him over to her. Sasuke reluctantly followed, didn't really want his only piece of clothing to fall off. She traced her slim fingers across his collarbone which rewarded another disgusted grunt from Sasuke and soon turned his jaw so he would be facing her.

'How much?' he whispered and she looked at him somewhat pleased by his question.

'What do you mean?' she raised her arched eyebrow and purred seductively against his ear.

'How much would it take you to leave?'

Karin snorted and pushed him away, thinking that maybe he would quickly apologize but he was relieved by her reaction instead. She grabbed her leather purse and headed to the door, turning back to give one last look that pretty much said It's-Not-Over-Yet-Sasuke and went out the door. He turned around and grabbed his laptop and quickly typed in the empty box of the running messenger.

OnyxFlame2: Sorry I was—

-StrawberryShortcake75 is now offline-

Sasuke sighed and read the last messages which were sent to him before he came back.

StrawberryShortcake75: Yo yo yo! Picture is sent! Yattaaa!

StrawberryShortcake75: Ooo Oo, still checking out that picture of me huhhh? *wink*

StrawberryShortcake75: Sorry I was just kidding please don't freak out from my freakish sense of humor.

StrawberryShortcake75: La la laaaa…abit quiet there…what happened?

StrawberryShortcake75: Hello? Onyx?

StrawberryShortcake75: U there?

StrawberryShortcake75: Hey I have to go now, school tomorrow, goodnight!

Some — okay well, most — of it made him laugh as he checked the time on the bottom right screen of his computer. 3 a.m.? No wonder she had to go off. He felt rather bad to have left her hanging like that, but oh well he could always talk to her tomorrow and apologize, but for then he just needed his sleep after a whole week of chaotic work.

Not to mention the creepy visit from Karin. Eugh.

Sakura lay awake in bed, staring ahead at the gigantic poster of her favorite popstar plastered to her wall. The darkness had made it look quite shadowy and it was hard to decipher the image. She stared at it absent-mindedly, feeling insomniac for that particular night and she blamed the fact that she had agreed to travel to Seoul. It disturbed but yet it comforted her, all at the same time it had also excited her in some ways even she couldn't explain.

The room was dark and the moon was sitting perfectly framed in the window of her bedroom. Blue light casted through the glass that caused an exact reflection of its window, squares to appear on her wooden floor. The moon however was not reflected in the shadows, just the ghostly reflection of pale blue. To her side was the silent digital alarm clock, which calmly beeped the time in neon red against the black backdrop. Everything at that moment seemed still and quiet, not only did the sound of her air vent annoy her but the sound of her breathing did too.

She turned to her side, maybe the position of how she slept might be the problem and so she tried to make herself feel comfortable. No luck, it was definitely not the way she was positioned in. And she was sure the thought of travelling was not the only problem bothering her, it was the thought of Sasuke that lingered somewhere in a hollow corner of her mind.

Laugh all you want, but that dream she had the night before, of him singing to her, felt so real she could practically have sworn that it had happened. But Sakura was naïve not stupid. Suddenly the image of Sasuke onstage she had seen earlier from TV played in her mind, replaying his voice which had enticed her and the thought made it harder for her to sleep. Feeling her eyes shut, she roamed her free hand under one of her pillows and grabbed her iPod player. Blindly scanning through the list of songs, she had chosen one that was the most familiar to her.

And a song that never failed to make her cry.

In the darkness, and behind closed eyes, the first few guitar chords were played and Sasuke's voice sung to her.

Surely if you remember,
I have not failed you.
I only did what I was told,
What you wanted.

The rest of the song was a blur as her heart and mind sang along with it from memory. Even the darkness she hid behind became a moist blurry wall. Slowly, the warmth of her tears mixed with his voice was the only thing she needed to fall asleep.

Naruto whistled and it echoed through the silent café.

'So this is her?' Naruto stated more than it was a question, flipping the picture in his hands as he admired it.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, 'Yes it is. So everything's settled right? She'd be here next week.'

Naruto was still distracted by the picture, especially that vibrant pink hair which reminded him an awful lot of Cherry Blossoms.

Slap.

'Ouch!' Naruto yelled and rubbed the back of his head, 'What was that for?'

'Can you not be so engrossed in the picture and actually try to participate in the damn conversation?' Sasuke scowled and Naruto rolled his eyes up to the heavens.

'Sorry teme, the girl is pretty.' Naruto said as his eyes arched upwards in glee.

Sasuke twitched ever so slightly.

Naruto held the picture up as though missing out a part that he hadn't seen, 'Don't you think so?' he admired it again.

Sasuke grunted in reply, and pushed his dark tinted sunglasses up his nose bridge.

'Okay, okay', Naruto waved his hand dismissively, 'Next Week. Escort. Not freaking her out.' Naruto squirmed a little at that and felt somewhat offended by it, 'Got it.'

'Good.' Sasuke drummed his fingers on the table, 'Anyways I got something to ask you.'

'What is it?' Naruto placed the picture carefully in his wallet.

'Yesterday,' Sasuke sighed and leaned comfortably against his chair, 'Karin came bursting through my door—'

Naruto snorted in disgust.

'—and pretty much violated my privacy.' Sasuke finished. 'How the hell did she get my room number anyways?'

'Eh teme, I don't know.' Naruto scratched his head in confusion. 'Bribery, maybe?'

Sasuke snorted, 'What could she possibly bribe with?'

Naruto snickered mischievously as if he had just thought of a naughty idea but was silenced by Sasuke's stern gaze.

'Nevermind.' Sasuke sighed, 'I forgot the boundaries she was willing to cross to get what she wants.'

'Anyways, off the conversation of Slutty Karin.' Naruto said and shook his head.

Sasuke laughed silently at this.

'So next week it is then,' Naruto went over the things he'd been told in his mind, 'I'll make sure to call you as soon as.'

'Hn.' Sasuke replied.

'Aight.'

In her favorite clothes store, Sakura scanned through the clearance rack and hoped that maybe she'd find some valuable bargains. There were about two piles of clothes she wanted to try on before deciding whether or not if she should buy it. One whole week, just one whole week she repeated in her mind as she tried to imagine what kind of outfits they wear in Korea.

'Can I help you ma'am?' a lady, sale's assistant, asked politely.

Sakura looked at her and smiled, nodding as she told her what she was searching for. But the moment she reached the topic of Sasuke's concert and trying to find the perfect outfit to attend in, the lady's eyes grew pumping hearts all over. Quickly she grabbed Sakura's hand to another different aisle filled with glamorous clothing —which Sakura couldn't help but to notice their prices, expensive — and automatically grabbing piles after piles of clothes from it.

The lady thrust the clothing pile she had chosen to Sakura, 'There try it on!' She beamed.

Sakura almost fell back from the weight of the pile and she smiled sheepishly before walking into the fitting room. That lady, Sakura thought, must obviously be one of Sasuke's fans as well. But then again, who wasn't? Sakura headed into the fitting room and tried various of different apparels that didn't really suit her. But after a while, she tried on the very last outfit and emerged —slightly doubful— from the fitting room and the lady eyed her admiringly.

'That is gorgeous!' the lady exclaimed, her tight ponytail bouncing off her shoulder.

It was a mini black dress more of, only with a little twist to it. The black satin was cinched to her waist with a wide golden belt fastened around it. The hem of her dress ended inches above her knees and was lined with sparkly sequins. It was strapless, so the bust slightly enhanced her cleavage alluringly. She wore the jet black stilettos with straps that wrapped around the calves of her legs. All in all, she looked hott.

'You my dear are blessed with a god-sent body!' the lady said, winking admiringly at her customer. Sakura blushed and mouthed a thank-you, she wasn't used to wearing something so revealing. 'A very lucky one as well to attend,' the lady stared dreamily into space before muttering: 'Sasuke's concert!'

Sakura giggled, she knew very well how it felt to dream about Sasuke. How couldn't you? He was just simply irresistible, yum. And now she was attending one of his concerts! Oh lord, help her.

'How much is it?' Sakura asked, looking down dreamily at the outfit. But after she had told her the price, Sakura's dreams and hopes were crushed once again. She dared not to even have asked her to repeat it again. Gomen Okaasan, Sakura thought, that emergency credit card will officially be used. Her eyes rolled up to the heavens as if that would let her off as forgiven. Eh, it wasn't like everyday she got chances like these.

'I'll take it.'

'Saki-chan! I'm gonna miss you.' Ino frowned and hugged Sakura.

'Take care Sakura-chan,' Hinata smiled and joined the group hug.

'Awww guys!' Sakura said and her eyes were glistening, 'I'm gonna miss you guys so much!'

'Get us some souvenirs!' Ino chirped.

Hinata giggled and pinched Ino's arms which made her flinched.

The day had finally arrived where Sakura would be travelling to Seoul, the day she had both dreaded and looked forward to. Sakura dragged her luggage across the floor and before she went through the boarding pass she took a last glance of her friends who were waving goodbye. She couldn't help but to notice Ino's tears slowly falling off her eyes like glistening pearls which made her wanted to cry too. Hinata's eyes shimmered but she didn't cry, maybe she would after Sakura had departed.

'Take care of yourself, Saki-chan.' Ino said and her lips quivered.

'We'd be waiting here for you!' Hinata waved.

That had made Sakura cry. But she smiled back and took her mobile out, texting Onyx that she was to depart in two hours. After a while lingering before the escalator, she reluctantly went through the boarding pass and her friends —sadly— disappeared out of view. In a while, she thought about it again for the sixth time that day, she'd be in Korea.

And finally meet Onyx.

A/N: Alright so here it is;

1.I'm sorry for the late update.

2. I have no internet in this new house of mine and am very unhappy with the internet-for-a-day cable that we bought.

3. I hate Karin

4. I love you all for reading.

5. I love you even more when you review.

Thank-you and have a nice day (:

Read/Review/Fave!

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