I've decided to put a title for each chapter. It helps to keep me on track with the story I've planned and not wander away.

Ok so…7 reviews! laughs Thanks to you guys who reviewed, now onto chapter 2.

Chapter 2: First Day on the Job

"I'm coming!" I opened the door with wide smile plestered on my face. There, leaning against the wall next to the door was Sasuke, arms crossed, staring at me, half smiling.

I felt a squeal coming from inside me, that's my stupid inner self just to let you know, she appears often when I'm either excited or mad…my troublesome self should I say.

"Ohayo Sasuke-kun!", I said happily throwing him the sweetest smile I could afford and before I could stop myself, I have spontaneously wrapped my arms around his neck and embraced him tightly.

He frowned a little and replied, "…let go, we don't have time to play around." With that, it was my turn to frown. "There, you see that?! We have only been together for a month and we hadn't seen each other for a week because he had been busy, but there he goes again! What a walking iceberg!" my inner self shrieked, then continued with a smirk "…but a very hot iceberg nonetheless". Rolling my eyes still to my inner self, oh yes, he's always like that, don't ever count on Sasuke to be warm towards people, well, maybe once in a blue moon, but other than that, never! If I couldn't put up with this particular facet of his, our relationship most likely wouldn't even have lasted more than a week.

Letting out a loud sigh, I retracted my arms from around his neck. "Ok, ok…why are you always like this…?" I kind of mumbled to myself, but apparently he heard it and said "Like what?", indifferent look on his face. I looked at him for a few seconds before shaking my head, "…nevermind…I'll go get my stuffs. Wait for me."

I rushed back to my room and grabbed all I needed before stepping out of my apartment door and locked it behind. I noticed that Sasuke was already at the end of the hallway waiting for me. "Great…" I thought "there goes my romantic morning…"

A while later on the parking lot…a one-sided argument was happening, which means I was the only one talking with Sasuke remained uninterested, walking with hands inside the pockets.

"What's wrong with showing your girlfriend a little affection in the morning?" I started, still pouting and walked faster so as to keep up with his pace.

I waited for him to say something back, but no answer as he kept on walking, eyes straight forward. Just when I was about to protest... one of his hands slowly slid out of his pocket and patted me on the back.

"Sakura……grow up."

I stopped and looked at him sideways, an amused smirk on his face. Both my eyebrows raised out of the sight…"Sasuke being playful? That's unheard of!". I took that as a good sign and smiled. Somehow Sasuke always has this affect on me, he might be cold yes, but in the end he often made up for it with only a simple gesture and managed to put a smile back on my face…though sometimes I had to convince myself that he loves me as much as I love him. Oh well, it's not like I can have everything all at once, right?

We walked in silence afterwards. In a minute we finally reached the car. Eventhough I lived here, I didn't realize this apartment had a parking lot so big, it sure took us a while to walk to the car. Well, I don't drive, that's why…"wrong, you don't have a car, that's why"…I glared at my inner self.

"This morning doesn't seem so bright, does it?" His voice broke the silence. Nani? What does he mean? I looked at him as he walked around the car to my side of the passenger seat. Before I could say anything in return, he's already inches in front of me, pinned me against the car's front door and in a blink of an eye, his lips was already pressed against mine…I was surprised but it didn't take long for me to react and return his kiss. Thankfully, there were only us in the parking lot.

We stopped for air after a while as I put both my hands on his cheeks and stared at him with a look of concern on my face "Sasuke-kun, what did you mean by 'not so bright'?"

"You saw the morning news, didn't you?" He pulled away and walked back to the driver side of the car getting inside. I followed and quickly got inside the car. From the look on his face, something was bothering him. I knew, that kiss was meant to make himself feel better, he had done that several times before. I noticed his face completely stern as he drove the car out of the parking lot and to the main street.

"Yes, I watched the morning news. What about it…? Something bothering you?" He didn't answer. Realizing that he's not in the mood to talk, I turned my attention to the scenery passing outside the window. Konoha really is a beautiful city, too bad…someone just have to spoil it.

30 minutes of driving, we arrived at a large facility, completely confined from other buildings surrounded with high walls and 3 main buildings inside. The Pathology Lab where I worked at was in the right wing. This is one of the largest and the most modern buildings in Konoha. Honestly, I was still in awe, never had I imagined to even manage to get a job here…and for someone new like me, it paid very well too.

I got out of the car and as I parted with Sasuke, "This is your first day right? Good luck! I'll come and pick you up at 5." I nodded and smiled, then kissed him on the cheek, "Bye………ano, Sasuke-kun, whatever it is that's bothering you, don't think about it too much…and be careful driving." I grabbed his arm with more pressure to tell him that I mean it. He looked at me and then nodded, "I know, bye." With that short reply, he got in the car and drove away.

That left me outside the building still waving my hand. Finally I turned around and walked inside as I showed my pass to the guards. Inside the main hall, I was greeted by the receptionist who was telling me to wait for the supervisor. I looked around, "this is HUGE for a lab, can't believe this side of the building is only used to handle researches of diseases and dead bodies…"

"Ohayo, you're Haruno Sakura right? I'm Shizune, your supervisor here." A voice startled me. "Oh, ohayo gozaimasu! Yes I am, nice to meet you Shizune-sama. Call me Sakura."

"And call me Shizune." She replied. The woman looked like she's around 30-ish, with short dark hair. She's friendly, very talkative and a lil' clumsy…I liked her already. We talk for a while before she gestured for me to follow her "C'mon, I'll take you to your division to meet your new co-workers."

As we walked down one of the halls, Shizune asked in a teasing tone, "What is a lovely young lady like you doing in this department? There are another girl just like you here. Honestly you ladies are the last type I would expect to apply for a job here…" She laughed. "You know what…all the guys are going to be so very please!" She teased again. I could only blush and replied giving her a totally honest answer "Well, it's because my boyfriend's a criminal investigator…so I thought applying here might allow me to somehow help him with his job since I heard this facility had aided the police department a lot in the past, besides…not to sound arrogant, I think I'm good at handling surgery."

"I know you're good, I saw your training report. You'll be a useful addition to our team." Shizune replied with a smile then continued "…too bad you've got a boyfriend though. Do you know how many broken hearts you would generate with that statement alone?" I smiled uncomfortably over the small talk. "You know you love to hear that…" "Oh shut up!" I hissed quietly. "What?" Shizune looked at me confused. "Oh nothing…I'm just talking to myself." I replied, with a fake laugh.

After several turns, we arrived at somekind of corridor with metal double-doors with small card-reader mechanism on each side. "This looks more like a secret advanced government facility than a regular lab. It is surprisingly clean too…and not smelly." I thought to myself as Shizune pointed to the door on the right "That's our autopsy room. Since our division is to aid the police, it's reserved for investigation purpose only. Those who were killed instead of those who died of disease were brought here…including those from this morning, we've had our hands full with handling all these victims lately. By the way, you've heard about what happened this morning right?" She asked with a serious tone.

I nodded "Yes…" She continued "…that was the 7th time in 2 weeks, and this time 2 huge muscular men were killed in a single blow." Shizune now sounds a little frustated. My eyes widened, it took me a while to digest what she just said "ONE single blow?! What is he? Super human?!" Shizune nodded and then slapped my shoulder, "I'm not trying to scare you, let's just leave this for some other time. Just forget about the autopsy room, for now that area is not your concern. It's only for seniors anyway." She then guided me to the door to the left, "Now here will be where you work from now on, and let me introduce you to your colleagues." She swiped her card to the control panel and we both stepped in.

Inside, a blonde girl with ponytail and 3 other guys were completely absorbed in their works in front of the microscopes examining…things. "Ok, children." Shizune clapped her hands to get their attention. All of them looked up immediately almost at the same time. A guy with strange white eyes grumbled a little "We're not your children." I giggled at the remark. Shizune didn't seem to hear it though as she continued introducing me "This here is Haruno Sakura, she will be with us in this devision starting today." Shizune said, her face all too happy. Just when I was about to say something, a man with bowl cut and very thick eyebrows wearing green under his medical robe rushed forward and in a blink of an eye already holding my hand in his, "I'm Lee, nice to meet you!" a flash coming from his teeth.

Still dumbfounded, I blinked "N-nice to meet you too…" Everybody except Lee sweat-dropped. Shizune interrupted the all too excited man, "Ok, with Lee out of the way, over there is Hyuuga Neji" She pointed towards the the white eyed guy. "And this is Yamanaka Ino." The blonde girl smiled and nodded. I did the same. "And that is…" Shizune's words were cut off by the silver-haired guy with some kind of mask covering the lower half of his face "Yo! I'm Hatake Kakashi. Senior here, so if you need anything, just ask me." I could tell he's smiling under that weird mask of his.

The introduction went smoothly, I felt lucky to have these cool and interesting people in my division. As I was lost in my thought, Shizune said again "So you guys treat her well, and don't forget to show her around. I'll be at Tsunade-sama's office to discuss something. So ja!" As Shizune disappeared behind the door, everybody seemed to abandon their work for a while and surrounded me with questions and comments.

This being my first day, I didn't get to work a lot, only doing some examining and reports here and there. Ino and I quickly got close, as we are the only females and we shared a lot of similarities. She along with Lee happily showed me around the facility as we exchanged stories and experiences. This building consisted of 7 floors. There were 2 cafetarias, a bunch of halls and labs other than the usual autopsy rooms and morgues, cliniques, workers' rooms…in one word, this place is HUGE. Anyway, although we have our cafetarias, we are also allowed to go out for lunch during lunch time since some workers often lost their appetites in a place like this.

Hours later at 4:55 PM, we were all ready to go home except Kakashi who still had night shift. Before going out of the room, Ino took her time to tease him a little in a fake sexy voice "Oh, the privilege of a senior…want some help?" We laughed and rushed out as fast as we could as we saw veins popped out on the usually calm man's forehead and slammed the door behind before he could do anything.

Still laughing, as we fastened our pace to the entrance area, Ino asked "Say Sakura, we are all going to see a play tomorrow night…" Lee cut her off mid sentence, "We didn't want to, but Ino insisted…ack!" Ino's fist landed on his head, "Shut up!" she faced me again with smile "So Sakura…wanna come with us?" I immediately realized what play she's talking about, suddenly interested I replied in an excited voice "I know what play you're talking about!! The Phantom of the Opera right?!". Ino replied with the same excited tone "Right on girl, you're pretty quick!" I giggled "It's popular so of course I know. Some of my girl friends went to see it 2 days ago, they asked me but I was out of town to visit my parents so…well…they wouldn't stop talking about how great it was, especially about a certain actor…" I laughed but then stopped, noticing a slight tint of pink on Ino's cheeks "Ah Ino, don't say you too…?"

"That actor is the reason why Ino insisted to go see it the third time." Neji suddenly talked, emphasizing on the word 'third'. "Neji! Shhhh..!!" Ino freaked but too late.

Trying to suppress the giggle tickling my throat "Third times?! That's too much…what about him that make you guys so crazy about?!" I exclaimed with a laughter afterwards. Lee and Neji nodded in agreement. "Hn! You guys will never understand, you haven't even seen him act. He's the most gorgeous man I've ever seen! So stop talking like you know what you're talking about!" Ino now mad, facing the other way with arms crossed in front of the chest then peeked and glanced at me from behind the shoulder "Sakura, so are you going or not?!" her tone sounded impatient.

I stopped mid-laugh before answering, "Believe me, I would LOVE to, but I'll need to ask my boyfriend first whether he wants to go with us or not. We haven't been together much this whole week so…"

"You have a boyfriend?! Why didn't you tell me?!!" Ino exclaimed loudly, almost yelling. People started looking at her.

"Noooo…" Lee followed, his voice sounded squeaky and discouraged.

"That's not surprising, considering how beauti…" Neji said in his usual calm tone then stopped abruptly realizing what he was about to say. Face red like tomato.

Before I could open my mouth to say something, my cellphone rang. I quickly reached into my bag for it, "Moshi moshi…Sasuke-kun…ok, I'll be right there in a minute." The conversation ended and I looked up at my 3 fellow workers, whose eyes stared at me curiously. "I'm sorry guys, but my boyfriend's already here to pick me up. Ino, I'll call you! Bye guys." I waved at them then hurried to the entrance and to the wide area outside the building and out of the gate. I said a quick 'hi' to Sasuke before getting in the car. As I closed the door, my eyes caught the sight of Ino and Lee rushing towards the gate, Neji followed hesitantly and unhurriedly from behind, eyes fixed in my direction. I giggled "Maybe they're curious to see Sasuke-kun…I'll have to introduce him properly to them some other time." I smiled to myself.

As the car rolled on the street, I was being very talkative telling him all my first day experience and new friends. Sasuke stayed silent and nodded a few times with occational "hn" in between to show that he was listening. I decided to tell him about the play tomorrow night when we were getting close to my apartment.

"Sasuke-kun…ano…my co-workers have asked me to go with them to a play tomorrow night. You know the Phantom of the Opera? I really want to see it so…I'm wondering, do you want to come with us…I mean, with me?" I asked, cautiously.

He stared at me for while before turning his attention back to the road and replied "I can't. I'll have an overtime tomorrow. The Sand Man's case is getting worse you know."

There was silence afterwards.

"I see, then…" Didn't bother to finish what I was going to say, I looked away, to hide my disappointment.

The car entered the parking lot of my apartment not long after. We stopped and as the buzzing sound of the machine died down, we sat there in silence.

"I'll allow you to go if you do what I say." Sasuke's voice broke the silence. I turned to look at him "What?" I noticed the smirk on his face. He grabbed my wrist and gestured for me to sit on his lap. I did as he said.

"So, I'm here. What do you want me to do now?" I whispered near his ear as I straddled his hips with my arms around his neck. I blushed with anticipation of what's coming next, somehow I knew what he was about to say.

"Make love to me, now." He whispered back. Eyes filled with lust. I knew he would say that and I felt the heat creeped up on my face.

But then my inner self kicked in "Don't give him what he wants so easily, you whore! It's not because of us, you know clearly, this is his way to free himself from stress. Completely selfish! We will go wherever we want to…whether he likes it or not. Besides, he had been cold this whole day, and many days before. He has no right." Those words made me paused, and I felt my temper started to rise. "I'll give him half of it then…"

2 hours later…

I'm now sitting on my bed, still blushing at what had just happened in the car. We made out…well, not what you think but made out nonetheless…

Sasuke was pretty satisfied I guess and he had given me the 'go ahead' for tomorrow, as he drove away, back to his office. He had said he still had piles of reports needed to be done.

Sighing loudly I got up, reached for the phone and searched for Ino's phone number. I dialled her afterwards, after three tones, someone answered.

"Moshi moshi…" it's Ino's voice.

"Moshi moshi, Ino? It's me Sakura. Good news, I'm going with you guys tomorrow." I said happily without wasting any time.

"That's great! Will you bring your boyfriend along? I saw him! You've got yourself a hottie!" Ino responded with excited tone.

"Why thank you! I'm flattered, but unfortunately…he'll be busy tomorrow. So no, he's not going with us." Was my respond, a little sad.

Ino replied, trying to cheer me up "Aww…c'mon, cheer up! We'll have a fun time tomorrow, trust me when I say it'll be amazing! Besides, my love will be there to make everything better!"

"Your love?! Oh my God, that's so corny…! Wait, are you saying…"

"Who else? The man who plays the phantom himself of course. He's amazing! You just have to see him for yourself. He can control sand and…"

"What did you just say?!"

"What…umm…control sand…? Oh…I meant since it's a play, I believe it's just some kind of special FX but it looked extremely real, he even flew people with it. Maybe he's a magician…but who knows."

I gulped at her answer. I don't know if this's a bad feeling or not but something inside me began to stir… "…Ino, the phantom…he doesn't happen to have red hair, does he?"

"What? Of course he does…how do you know?"

"And…an 'ai' tattoo on his left forehead?"

"Ok…Sakura, that's too good for a guess. Care to explain? You said you haven't seen the play…"

"Oh…I…I just…bumped into a person near the theater just like him, he was showing some kind of sand magic to some kids…" I lied.

"What?! YOU bumped into him?! I (–and a whole bunch of fangirls–) had waited for him almost everyday outside the theater to no avail and YOU of all people, bumped into him?!! No fair!" Ino shrieked.

"Hey…calm down…you can always hunt him down backstage you know?" I said whatever crossed my mind without even thinking.

"Oh my god, that's a good idea! We'll sneak in and…"

I stopped listening…I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. I was filled with emotions, strange emotions, I was happy, sad, scared, anxious, curious, eager…all at once. It's him again, after 10 years…but to know that he's doing well, to know he's in the same city, why am Ihappy? I really shouldn't. I barely even know him…he must have forgotten about me anyway.

Ino's voice snapped me back into reality "hey…anone! hellooo…woman…are you listening?"

"huh? Uh…gomen…"

"What do you mean 'gomen'??? Neji is the one who drive, so he'll pick up all of us tomorrow at 7. Be ready ok! The show will start at 8PM."

"Ok! I'll be waiting…"

With that, we said our goodbyes and hung up. A lot was going on in my head as I sat silently on my bed for a long time before drifting off.

"Tomorrow………"

To be continued… Chapter 3: The Phantom of the Opera.

I'm sorry for the simple English or wrong/shallow choice of words, this is the best I can do currently with my very limited vocabulary. Hope whoever read this can still find some kind of enjoyment out of it.