AN: hello! I'm trying to get as many chapters up, as possible because school will begin within a few short weeks. Anyway sorry but it seems that Sasuke is trying to steal Sakura's heart, by buying dinner! Dun dun da dun!! -kitsunegirl1
Hey there! Haven't heard much from me lately eh? But as with what Kitsunegirl1 said, we're doing a before-school-starts-rush to get stuff in. After school starts production will slow way down! but I'm hoping that we can get in a lot. Plus, I may have a story of my own up soon...or not? -Kitsunegirl2
Chapter 9: Dinner Dates
"Geeze Naruto, that was a little overboard! Get a little control, ok? You scared the shit out of us!" I told him as I gave him a little shove. He dropped his head slightly and gave a small nervous laugh. "Heh sorry... are you sure you're okay?" he asked Hinata again. She gave a meek nod, still looking down at the ground. She tried to keep her head down, so that the others couldn't see how scared she still was.
Who would've thought that Naruto, would fall for a Hyuuga who looked like she might die from blushing so much? "Well... If you ever need help again, just tell me, 'kay?" He told her cheerfully; yeah, he was so in love. Hinata had Naruto wrapped around her finger, and she didn't even know it.
"Yeah, what are you gonna do, hot shot?" Kiba growled at Naruto...Oh Kami... LOVE TRIANGLE!! I thought snickering slightly, "Well I did a lot more than you." He protested, narrowing his eyes at Kiba. I could feel a spike in his chakra and immediately stepped in. "Ok, Naruto! Let's just let this go, ok? They left, that's all that mattered." I didn't want him to go all demonic again...that was not something that the others should have seen.
"So... what the hell just happened?" Sasuke asked from behind me, and I assumed he meant with the no-face. I suddenly remembered that he had actually seen it! Who would have thought that Sasuke would be the first to actually open his eyes? "You saw it," I addressed him. He nodded slowly, and everyone else just looked confused. "What you saw was a no-face. They're the souls of the deceased who have to stay on earth for some reason or another, and sometimes they become violent. That no-face was one of the strong violent ones, although why it's here or following us around, I have no clue." I finished and appraised him carefully.
Sasuke was silent, brooding over my words. "But why could I see it? No one else can, and I only saw it for a moment. Why did I loose it?" "You saw it because...well, because..." I trailed off. I really had no reason as to why he saw it. "Honestly I have no clue. But I think that your emotions might have been the key to it. Naruto first got the Sight when he fell asleep during meditation. If your emotions are haywire, then nothing is going to happen. You have to calm down and take a breather." I laughed to myself – it had been rather comical when he had first seen a no-face.
"So if we calm down and relax, we'll be able to see like you, Sakura-san?" Lee asked in an excited voice. I paused before nodding. "I think that it may work...but there's no guarantee." I said slowly, trying to drive the point of 'no guarantee' into his head. With a grin, Lee dropped into a sitting position on the ground, closing his eyes and forcing himself to relax. I sighed, exasperated. "Lee, it's not going to work just like that," I told him, shaking my head. I wished it was that easy as to just sit down and relax.
"You have to really believe...there are so many lessons you haven't learned!" Lee stared up at me with big, upset eyes and a pouting expression. "It's not your fault, though. Don't worry about it." "Wait a second...lessons; is that some kind of training? I want it!" Kiba demanded, but I was guessing that he had no clue what we were talking about. He had missed the no-face attack and therefore probably was totally confused; I bet that he was just trying to look cool and like he understood everything.
Why were boys so childish? Before I could say though anything, Naruto interrupted, "Ha! I bet you couldn't even last one lesson," He goaded. Kiba growled and said, "Oh yeah? Tonight, at midnight, sharp! I'll show you I can stand these lessons." I stood there, mouth open. "Don't I get a say in this?" I demanded. "NO!" Both boys yelled simultaneously. I gave Naruto a glare.
"You idiot, you couldn't teach him anything even if you wanted to. I'll be the one giving the lessons here; we can't have people disappearing or dying on us, now can we?" It was partially true and partially intended as a scare tactic, and I think the latter worked more. Kiba finally looked a little bit uncomfortable. "A-are they r-r-really that b-bad?" Hinata stuttered, looking frightened.
I gave her a wink that no one else but she could see to calm her down a bit. "Oh yes," I said loudly, "They're really horrible. Many people don't survive even the first lesson, and after that, they can still die very easily." Naruto rolled his eyes next to me but didn't say anything – he was enjoying this as much as I was. "In fact, why don't you all come!" I said they all looked at me as though considering my invitation.
"Well if you want to come than show up here at midnight, but keep it secret - we can't have too many people showing up, and we really don't need Kyo-sensei finding out; who knows how he'll react." There was silence through the group. "See you at midnight, then," Naruto said, aiming his taunt towards Kiba, who scowled back at him. Giving everyone a mocking wave, Naruto smiled sweetly at Hinata before grabbing my hand and pulling me away. "Bye," I called, turning and heading away with him.
We waited a few hours for Kakashi (after all, Sasuke had come to get us to train in the first place) and then spent the rest of the day training. It was pretty boring, compared to what I was used to. All we were doing was chakra control! It was like going back and re-taking my very first classes, but thankfully practice didn't last long, so I didn't have to suffer too much. "Hey...Lets go out and eat again!" Naruto yelled happily after training, I gave a shrug.
"Sure whatever," I said nonchalantly, Naruto beamed happily and grabbed my hand to drag me away. When I noticed Sasuke, walking... all alone... with a sigh I asked "Do you want to come too Sasuke?" DAMN ME AND MY CONSCIOUS!! He seemed to jerk out of his thoughts, before he gave me a look and caught up with me and Naruto. We walked silently through the streets, when Sasuke stopped outside a nice, and small, restaurant. "Let's go here," He said, Naruto glared at him, "But I wanna get some ramen!" He whined childishly.
Rolling my eyes at Naruto I gave a sigh and said "Sorry but I was going with Naruto so-" "I'll pay," He said, giving him at look I replied "well what are we waiting for? I'm starved!" I grabbed his hand and began leading him into the restaurant. "Traitor!" Naruto hissed while glaring at me. Ok so I know I was being mean and a bit shallow for deciding to ditch my best friend just so I don't have to pay, but my wallet was running on empty and I needed to conserve as much money as possible. Naruto however did not see it that way, and in a huff took off towards the Ramen stand.
"Let's go," Sasuke said to me pushing me into the restaurant. We of course were seated right away, and were spoiled with attention, due to Sasuke's 'The last of my extremely powerful clan so shut up and do whatever I say,' status. I however had lost interest and regretted going with Sasuke after a few minuets; people (mostly girls) kept glaring at me and then Sasuke decided to take a freakin' vow of silence and wouldn't say anything. So I found it very difficult to stop my mind from wandering.
I thought back on all the happenings of today and then I began making a check list of all the things that I would have to go through in the lesson tonight. I would also have to explain the reasons no-faces are created, how dangerous they could be, and how they get more powerful. These things Naruto and I could manage, but then there was protecting them incase another no-face decided to show up. "Sakura...Sakura... SAKURA!" I snapped out of my thoughts to see Sasuke holding onto my forearm (which earned me more glares and a few hisses by the surrounding girls), looking into my eyes.
His eyebrows were raised, which gave him a slightly worried expression. "Uh wah? Oh...Sorry...guess I zoned out a little." "Hn," He said but his eyes still stared into mine. Nervously I pretended to fix the bun I kept my hair in. He looked me over for a second, before finally relaxing his position, and releasing my arm. "Sooo, what were you saying...?" I could see questions rising on his face. He looked away for a second before asking "How do you deal with it?" I gave him a look, with my eyebrows raised, waiting for him to elaborate, "With seeing those...monsters." He lowered his voice right here and practically whispered, "The no-faces."
I stared at him for a moment in complete shock; I never would have thought that the great Sasuke Uchiha would tremble... or that he would show it. "Well it's not easy" I said looking as honest as possible, "First I turned to drugs, and alcohol, and even a blade... but than I realized it was a lot more fun to have random hate sex with every guy that had a pulse." A growl came from his throat and he glared at me. "Would you be serious?! I'm trying to be honest with you!" I sighed, giving him an apologetic look.
"Look, Sasuke, I was raised with no-faces around me 24/7. I live with it as easily as you live with the sun going up and down every day. Once you can fully see them, it doesn't bug you as much." I explained, he looked away, I shook my head, and we sat in silence until the waitress came with our order, she was over perky and kept eyeing Sasuke like he was a piece of meat, I could understand why he was close to suicide risk.
Once she left I dug into my food, while Sasuke merely picked at his moving it from one side of the plate to the other. "What's the Imperial Academy?" I gave him a questioning look before saying, "Well well, aren't you the curious little Uchiha today, huh?" He shot me another dirty look before I continued seriously, "The Imperial academy is a training program of sorts, only the best of the best are selected." He nodded slowly mulling over my words before asking another question.
"So why don't you want to go there?" His eyebrows were raised slightly, "Well you see the training is excruciating, and the hours are long, and it's hard to..." My voice trailed off, and I automatically looked away; a blush was taking over my face. "Hard to what?" He asked; biting my lip nervously, I said; "It's hard to... to raise a family." He gave me another look that said 'What the fuck?' I shook my head, deeply embarrassed. "Can we stop playing twenty questions now?" I asked, now playing with my food as well. He gave a curt nod in my direction, and allowed a comfortable silence to settle around us.
'Why can't our Neji-kun take us out for dinner instead?!' My inner voice whined, mentally I growled at her, 'He's not our Neji-kun!' I screamed at her. 'Ha you called him Neji-kun! Shannarro!' I let out a groan and began massaging my temples. Why couldn't she just let me have a moment of peace? Sasuke turned my way at my groan. "Headache," I mumbled, still rubbing my head.
Just then the door to the restaurant opened, and I absentmindedly turned to see who had entered. In came a girl with long very blonde hair, a guy with dark hair up in a high topknot and a bored expression on his face, and another guy who was chubby and holding a bag of chips. The blonde girl's eyes swept the restaurant before landing on Sasuke, and she let out an amazingly annoying and high-pitched squeal before bounding over. "Why hello Sasuke-kun!" she said brightly, although Sasuke couldn't have been further from her enthusiasm if he was dead.
"Hn," he said, crossing his arms over his chest with an annoyed expression on his face. I was slightly annoyed too – my inner had already given me a headache, and a loud high-pitched squeal wasn't the best medication for them. I glanced away from her and towards the street. There, standing directly in front of the window, grinning arrogantly, was Etsu. She caught my eye and winked mockingly.
"I'll be right back" I said quickly to Sasuke, standing and heading towards the door. He shot me a look that clearly said 'Oh-I'm-so-gonna-get-you-later-for-leaving-me-alone-with-the-crazy-blonde-girl' and then I took the opportunity to leave. Walking outside I dashed towards Etsu, who shifted into a little bit of a crouch. "Well well, Sakura, getting a little close with your teammate there, eh?" She goaded, raising an eyebrow at me. I ignored her taunts. "Go to hell, Etsu," I snarled, whipping a switchblade out of my weapons pouch and jumping towards her.
She caught my wrist, spun me, and then sent me flying through the glass window. It exploded around me, and I ducked and pulled my head into my arms before crashing on top of the table where Sasuke and I had sat only a few minutes before, and where he was still sitting, this time with the annoying blonde. I landed on my back, everything crashing around me. The waitress stood openmouthed. Coughing up a little blood, I said, "Can I get the rest of my food in a box to go, please?" She still stared at me but nodded dumbly and slowly retreated.
Wincing, I slid off the table, plucking bits of glass out of my arm. Sasuke stared at me and then glanced outside, where Etsu waved and then disappeared into a crowd. "Her again?" Sasuke growled, and I nodded. "Yup. Etsu." I pulled more fragments of glass out of my other arm. The blonde was staring at me like the waitress had, and I shot her an annoyed look. "What?" I asked sighing as the last piece of glass slid out. I had to remember to stay away from glass next time I was fighting with Etsu – pulling it out of your arms wasn't fun.
"Uh...who're you?" Finally the blonde managed to find her voice. "Haruno Saukra, and you are?" I asked. "Yamanaka Ino," she said slowly, glancing towards Sasuke and then me. "I've never seen you around before. How do you know Sasuke-kun?" She asked, and I guessed that she was probably another Sasuke fangirl. "This is such a drag," a voice complained behind me, and I turned to see both of the guys that Ino had entered with; the one with the dark hair and the still-bored expression had spoken.
"Oh right, my name is Haruno Sakura." I took the liberty of introducing myself. "These are my teammates, Nara Shikamaru and Akamichi Choji," Ino said, pointing to each person in turn – the dark-haired one was Shikamaru, and the chubby one was Choji. "Hey!" Choji said cheerfully, I smiled at him, and blinked in surprise when a blush covered his cheeks. "This is so troublesome," The other boy – Shikamaru - said. "Couldn't agree with you more."
A toothy grin plastered onto my face as I shook my head. Then the waitress came back with the rest of my food boxed up, and handed it to me. "Hey Sasuke thanks for dinner," I called to him, hoping that he would hear over the obnoxious blonde's voice; he sent me a glare that clearly said 'If-you-leave-me-with-her-I-will-so-kill-you', I however chose to ignore it.
"So are you two gonna wait for her to stop harassing my teammate or do you wanna go for a little walk?" I asked the boys out of pity. Both shrugged. I then hopped back up on the table and prepared to leap out the window. "What are you doing? Why don't you just use the door?" Choji asked, and I replied, "Doors are for people with no imagination." I then leaped out the window, being careful to pull my arms and legs in as to avoid the edges of the shattered glass window.
I began walking again, inspecting my arms as I went along; then cuts didn't look too bad, they weren't long or deep, but my arms would be sore for the rest of the day. I let out a small grunt as I poked at the cuts; shaking my head I used a simple medical jutsu to heal both arms. And as I thought both of my arms were still sore and tender. 'Damn that Etsu to the fiery pits of hell!' My inner voice hissed at me. 'Sorry I already did that if you were listening earlier when she attacked you would know that.'
"Sakura," I turned my body slightly to face whoever was calling me, it was Sasuke followed by Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji. I nodded in their direction before I continued to walk slowing my pace slightly. Sasuke caught up with me quickly; Ino, of course, was trying to get him to talk to her, date her, anything – and it wasn't working. Everyone walked in silence – well, accept Ino. I think I must have made a wrong turn or something because now I was walking on a bridge.
And if that weren't enough, Ino would just not shut up! I could understand how Sasuke could flat-out reject her. Giving a sigh, I looked over the edge of the bridge. It was pretty far above a rushing river. And then, an idea popped into my head. It was mildly – no, wait, hugely – dangerous, and stupid, but better than listening to Ino babble all day. So taking a deep breath, I jumped up and onto the railing of the bridge. No one really noticed at first, until I said, "Do you think that I could die from this height?"
Sasuke's head snapped up. "What the fuck are you doing?!" He hissed angrily. "Honestly, I believe that this could be called a suicide attempt." I said, rolling my eyes at him. "Duh, anyone should know that." And then I readied myself to jump into the river. I jumped up, but landed back on the railing, sensing Sasuke's chakra spike. I turned, narrowing my eyes at him. "Did you really think that I would try and kill myself? Honest, Sasuke, not everyone is as suicidal as you are." I turned and kept walking, balancing myself on the railing.
He sent me his all powerful Uchiha glare. Choji, Shikamaru, and Ino were all looking at me like I was crazy, and I probably was, considering that I had this urge to piss of Sasuke and Neji, who were both from extremely powerful clans... I think I will probably get myself killed before I can make it past genin. "You...you... YOU'RE INSANE!!" Ino screamed at me, Shikamaru and Choji just nodded, still in shock. "Yes I probably am," I said in reply, I could still feel Sasuke's piercing glare, still boring it's way into my back.
All that was needed now was for Lee to come running and say how he could do anything for me. Vaguely I heard someone say, "Lee stop running so fast you'll ruin the flowers!" Wow I must be a fuckin' psychic! "Sakura-san, my love, who is the most youthfully inclined person I have ever met... would you honor me with your presence on Friday night?" ...Did he just ask me out? I stood, feeling my cheeks go pink. "Lee, thank you for asking, but I'm not sure. I'll have to check with Kyo-sensei ok?" I smiled at him and he held out a bouquet of flowers.
I noticed Tenten standing behind him, and she was watching me with a smile on her face. I leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and he turned very red and looked as if he was about to fall over from joy. 'What in the hell are you doing?! You can't kiss Lee or go out with him, what about our Neji-kun?' My inner screamed as soon as I pulled away. 'First, HE'S NOT OUR NEJI-KUN! Second, I can do whatever I like, even if that includes going out with Lee.' I didn't want to flat-out refuse to go with him in front of everybody...that would be mean and besides, what was the harm in telling him that I didn't know if I could or not?
'You. Kissed. Him. You are not supposed to be kissing Lee. You're not supposed to kiss Lee when you're going to be raping Neji in the near future!' 'I will not rape Neji-kun...I mean Neji! I will not rape NEJI!' I mentally screamed, 'Oh yeah? Let's see if you can resist this!' She said cackling evilly, and suddenly I was attacked by a barrage of mental images of Neji, some of them had me in them... in suggestive positions. My eyes went wide with horror...or was it the opposite? 'YOU'RE A REALLY, REALLY TERRIBLE INNER, YOU KNOW THAT?' I screamed at her, and then I noticed that Sasuke was staring at me, as was everyone else.
"Um...oops? Guess I must have zoned there." I ginned sheepishly and adopted Naruto's trait of scratching the back of my head. "You seem to be zoning a lot," Sasuke noted, narrowing his eyes. "Sure you don't have a mental problem?"
"Well, I never exactly said that I was sane, did I?" He said nothing but a disgruntled, "Hn." Lee was still staring at me in admiration and now Tenten really looked as if she was going to start laughing. "Well, I guess I'll see you later, Lee." I waved and put an emphasis on the word 'later'...hopefully he knew what I was talking about.
It really was getting late and Naruto would whine if I got home too late and he had to wait for me. Plus, I had to see if Friday was open. 'No, you're not...You're going to go find Neji-kun and rape him!' My inner put up one last protest about going with Lee. I carefully ignored her. I turned and headed back towards the apartment.
The Apartment
"I'm back!" I called as I shut our apartment door behind me. I walked into the kitchen to see Naruto sitting with a bowl of ramen. Did he never stop eating? "How was dinner with Sasuke?" He asked sourly as I came in, and I remembered that I had sorta dumped him for the Uchiha. "Look, about that, I'm sorry, ok? But I wanted to see his reaction to the no-face. And besides, Naruto, eating with you is going to leave me bankrupt! Also, I can eat with my teammates."
He pouted a bit as I sat down across from him. "I met another team of genin today. And Sasuke suffered for it." He looked up, a grin slowly spreading across his face. "Tell me all about it, gruesome details and all." I retold meeting Ino and her teammates and the brief fight with Etsu, and Lee asking me out. His grin got larger. "So...are you going to go?" He asked. I sighed.
"I think so, but more so because I think I'd crush him if I said no. Besides, what's one little date?" He laughed. "With Lee, it may mean marriage and three kids." I scowled at him for making fun of Lee, but then his infectious laughter got to me too. Kyo-sensei came into the kitchen with a bemused expression on his face. "What's so funny?" He asked, and I shook my head. "Nothing you would find funny." He rolled his eyes but said no more.
"Oh! Kyo-sensei! Did Naruto tell you that Sasuke saw a no-face?" He was suddenly very serious. "Really? Please, explain." I told about how the no-face had attacked us and how he had seen and heard it. I may have said a little about how he was sorta freaked out by seeing them, and Kyo-sensei nodded his sympathy. "His reaction is natural. For someone who hasn't known about the existence of such creatures to suddenly have to deal with seeing them can be something of a traumatic experience." I rolled my eyes.
"It's not like he's traumatized, just freaked out." He shrugged and was silent. "Well, good job on keeping the others protected while the no-face was attacking – they're most dangerous when they attack and you can't see them." I yawned suddenly, stretching my sore arms out. "I'm gonna go to bed," I told Kyo-sensei, standing and heading towards the bedroom. "So early?" He asked, and I nodded. "Long day. Naruto, aren't you tired too?"
I gave him a look that only he could see that said 'sleep-now-because-if-you're-sleeping-during-the-lessons-then-I'm-gonna-kill-you' and then shut the door behind me. I could hear Naruto telling Kyo-sensei the same thing and then a moment later he was coming through the door behind me. "Just stay in my room tonight so I don't have to get you up later. And you can sleep – I'll wake you up before midnight so we can go. You need to be rested...because if you're tired and screw up and get us all killed, I'm gonna kill you!"