Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, blah, blah, blah.

A/N: I'm so sorry, I know it's been a long time since I last updated but I was very busy with school work and so I couldn't update earlier. I would like to thank those who read and reviewed the previous chapters, I'm glad that you are liking my story so far. I think this is the longest chapter I have written so far. I hope you like reading this chapter as much as I liked writing it.

Chapter 10 - I love you

Sasuke lay on his bed staring at the ceiling. He missed her, a lot. He missed seeing her turning different shades of red in front of him, he missed her beautiful emerald eyes looking deeply into his and he missed her heart beating fast against his.

He had met Sakura that very same day and even though he nearly knew nothing about her, apart from what he had heard from the media, he missed her. Was it even possible to miss a person you barley knew?

She didn't go to their rehearsal and even though Tenten and Hinata had told him she wouldn't have gone he kept waiting for her to appear in the theatre's door, the same way she had done that morning, but that didn't happen.

Suddenly, Naruto came into his room interrupting his thoughts. Sasuke and Naruto had been friends from childhood. They fought night and day, mocked each other a lot, but everyone who knew them, knew that they were best friends and inseparable.

They talked to each other about their problems and sustained each other when the occasion called for it, they were like brothers, but Sasuke couldn't talk to Naruto about Sakura, not when Sakura was the object of Naruto's infatuation since the first time he had heard her sing on MTV.

Hinata had been in love with Naruto from the very first time she met him, but he was too blind to notice that. She had been throwing hints at him for years, but he was totally oblivious to the things that happened around him and she was too shy to tell him directly.

Naruto's was just an infatuation towards Sakura, because deep down he cared for Hinata more than he thought. Naruto's deep affection for Hinata was revealed last year, when a guy asked Hinata to accompany him to the school dance.

Naruto followed Hinata throughout the dance stating that he wanted to protect her because she was like a sister to him, but everyone knew that that wasn't the real reason behind his ambiguous behaviour. He was jealous, but he'd rather die a thousand deaths than admit it.

But was Sasuke in love with Sakura or was it just an infatuation like Naruto's? Sasuke was sure that his couldn't be just an infatuation. Sasuke was sure that what he felt for Sakura was love and nothing less.

He was in love with Sakura, from the very first time he saw her. The so called love at first sight had hit him, hard. The only problem was, did she feel the same way?

Sasuke was almost sure that Sakura felt the same way. He had made her blush a couple of times, she didn't break their eye contact and when he was holding her in a tight embrace that morning her heart was beating as fast as his was. She must have felt something for him or else she would not have reacted the way she did to his actions.

He knew that a connection like this with another person would only happen once in life time, but he didn't want to act on these feelings, not until Naruto had sorted out his own feelings.

Sasuke also didn't want to scare Sakura away. They had met that very same day; he couldn't go declare his love for her, after just one day. Not being fully aware of her feelings for him scared him a lot too, and he was afraid to get hurt. So, he decided to wait for her to make the first move, for now, he would just be friends with her.

Naruto had been blabbering about how life was unfair for about thirty minutes, when Sasuke realized he wasn't paying attention of what Naruto had been saying, then Naruto said,

"Hey, are you listening to me? "

"Hn."

"Life is so unfair. Tenten got to talk to Sakura, Hinata got to talk to Sakura, you also got to talk to Sakura, am I the only one who didn't get to talk to her?"

"Dobe, don't worry, you'll get to talk to her tomorrow."

"I hope so Sasuke-teme, so what did you two talk about?"

"I invited her to come watch our rehearsals."

"What? But she didn't come."

"No, she declined; she said something about having lots of things to do."

"Oh, I see, hopefully she will come next time. Now, I'm going off to bed. I can't wait for tomorrow, the day that I will finally meet and talk to Sakura Haruno."

"Hn."

"Goodnight, Sasuke-teme."

"Goodnight, dobe."

Sakura woke up in the middle of the night. It was raining heavily outside. Lately, she had grown fond of rain, maybe because it represented her mood at the time.

October was coming to an end. It had been six months since her brother died. She hadn't dreamed about Sasuke that night, even though she would have loved to. What she dreamed of was the night in which her brother died. She had been having nightmares. They started not long after her brother's death, she thought they would stop but they didn't, on the other hand, they increased.

She started sobbing; tears started falling down her cheeks. No one could give her the comfort she needed, no one could cancel the guilt she felt for her brother's death, no one, not even Joseph or her father, but now thanks to Sasuke, she had hope that maybe someday the guilt would go away.

When he embraced her that morning her heart felt lighter, the guilt she was feeling for her brother's death disappeared for a few seconds, she felt protected and safe but now he wasn't there beside her, no one was. Alone and scared, that's how she felt the majority of the time and that's how she felt now, it was only when she was with Sasuke that she felt love for the very first time in months, that morning.

She woke up from the bed and started heading towards the door. She thought that maybe a glass of water would help her calm down a little bit, but she never reached the door.

She suddenly felt light headed. When she touched her face, she realized that she had a fever because her face felt warm. She started shivering uncontrollably and she started sobbing even harder than she was. The only solution was going back to bed, and that's what she did. She lay there staring at the ceiling until she fell asleep, and this time Sasuke was in her dreams giving her the comfort she needed.

The seat next to his was empty. Sakura did not go to school the following day, but why? That's what Sasuke kept asking himself all day long.

He was so out of it that Eclipse had to cancel their rehearsal that day, because he kept forgetting the lyrics of Eclipse's hit song, which was quite a difficult task since he sang it about a thousand times, that week only.

During the break Naruto, who was also devastated when he found out that Sakura wasn't present in class that day, approached him with Tenten and Hinata and said,

"Sasuke-teme, we were thinking about going to visit Sakura, do you want to come with us?"

"You know where she lives?"

"No, but Tenten was going to ask Tsunade-sama to give us her address. So, are you coming or not?"

"Yes, I'm coming."

"Okay than, we'll go straight after school."

Time seemed never to pass but finally school was over. Tsunade-sama had given Sakura's address to Tenten and now they were all heading to Sakura's house. Sasuke had a driving license, so he drove everybody in his black Porsche.

Sakura's mansion was old, surrounded by a huge garden, with different kind of flowers planted in it. When Tenten knocked on the door the butler or who Sasuke presumed was the butler, because the aura surrounding him screamed gangster, opened the door. The man who opened the door was bald, very tall and his arms were covered with tattoos. He wore leather pants and jacket, white shirt, and black shades.

He was scary but not for Sasuke, he had seen worse among the men that worked for his father. He could feel that this man wasn't of any danger to Sakura, on the other hand, he must have been the man who was hired to protect her during her years of stardom and remained working with her family even when Sakura quitted her musical career.

Tenten gulped and made a step forward,

"Hi, my name is Tenten, we're friends of Sakura from school, can we see her?"

"Come in."

He led them to the living room and then went to call Sakura. A few minutes later he came into the room and said,

"I'm sorry but she's not feeling well. She's got a high fever and is contagious. If I'm not mistaken some of you are members of a band, that's why she doesn't want to risk coming near you guys, but I can assure you that she'll be back to school as soon as possible."

Then Tenten said,

"I see, than tell her that we can't wait to have her back at school and that we all miss her…"

Then Sasuke interrupted her,

"Before we go, can I use the bathroom, please?"

"Yeah sure, go up the stairs, the bathroom is the last room in the corridor on your right."

"Thank you very much, I'll be right back."

Sasuke ran up the stairs, but he wasn't looking for the bathroom, he was looking for Sakura's room because he wasn't going out of that mansion until he would see with his own eyes that his Sakura was going to be fine.

He went on his right, hoping that the bathroom and Sakura's room were in the same corridor and it was. The room next to what he presumed was the bathroom, had its door ajar. He pushed it slowly and entered the room.

Her room was enticing. Everything in it was coloured in white with a mixture of silver. The curtains, the cushions, the sheets, the pillow covers, the fitted carpet and even the furniture.

In the corner of the room there were also some empty boxes. Apparently, she still had things to unpack. What he found strange was that considering the fact that she was a singer, there were no musical instruments in the room.

Then he saw her, she was sitting on her bed and was wearing a set of white silk pyjamas. She was staring out of the window. She was so pale and cold; he knew she was cold because she was shivering. She also had a slight tint of red on her cheeks, most probably because of the fever. Then he said,

"You should be covering yourself up, so that you'll get well soon."

She suddenly turned around. At first she was surprised to see him there but then she gave him the sweetest smile ever.

She couldn't believe it; Sasuke was there in front of her. He shouldn't have been there; she didn't want him to get sick, especially not now, knowing that Eclipse had two concerts planned for the following week, but she couldn't help smiling at him, she was too happy that he was there.

Then she said,

"What are you doing here? "

"I was looking for the bathroom."

"Well, this is definitely not the bathroom."

"I'm lying, I was looking for you to see how you are, I was worried."

"You were? "

"Yes, I was."

"You shouldn't be worried, it's just a fever, I'll be back school soon."

He started walking towards her, and then she said again,

"You shouldn't come any closer; I might give it to you."

"I wouldn't mind, as long as it came from you."

"Don't be irresponsible, Tenten told me that you've got two concerts planned for next week. You can't get sick!"

"We can still cancel them."

"Don't be silly. You are so lucky you still have the opportunity to do what you love, so please, do it for me and don't waste it."

"Sakura, why did you quit singing? "

"I don't want to talk about it."

"You know, I don't believe all that nonsense about quitting to concentrate on your studies."

"Please Sasuke don't insist, I'm not ready to talk about it yet, it hurts
too much."

Tears started falling down her cheeks. She was crying again. She had been crying a lot in the past six months but she always made sure she was alone, but this time Sasuke, the guy whom she fell in love with, was there.

In a split of a second, he was sitting beside her. He hugged her again, this time tighter. She felt safe and protected in his arms. That was the type of comfort she needed. She needed someone who could protect her from her fears, who could give her comfort when these fears resurfaced and Sasuke was that someone.

He was there, mind, body and soul and that's why she loved him. Whenever she looked into his eyes, his gaze told her that he would always be there for her, that he would never leave her alone, ever. When she calmed down a little, he whispered in her ear,

"I'm sorry, I didn't want traumatize you in any way but I want you to know something, whenever you want to open your heart with someone or you feel scared or alone, I will always be there for you, always."

She gave a small nod, still being held in his arms. They remained like that for sometime until he slowly pulled away. He had a look in his eyes that said he didn't want to leave her and she didn't want him to leave her either, but he had to.

Sasuke helped Sakura lay on her bed and covered her up with the sheets until he was sure she wasn't feeling cold. He didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay there, to make her feel better and protect her because clearly she was suffering a lot. He couldn't stand seeing the girl he loved like that, weak and helpless. He knew that he gave her comfort but he couldn't stay there with her, for a lot of reasons. He was worried for her and he was also blaming himself for making her feel worse than she already was.

He shouldn't have brought up the musical career subject but he managed to make her feel better afterwards. He took out a piece of paper from his pocket and gave it to her and then said,

"This is my phone number, whenever you need something, day and night, give me a call, I'll come running if you need me, even if you just want to talk, do you understand?"

"Yes, thank you."

"You don't have to thank me; I'd do anything for you."

She looked at him in a loving way. In that moment he knew, that she loved him too. There was no mistake in the look she was giving him, as if her life depended on him. He didn't resist the urge to plant a kiss on her forehead. When he did that, she took his hand into hers and they stayed like that until she fell asleep.

Then he stood up, and started heading towards the door. Before leaving the room, he looked at Sakura again, who now had a serene look on her face, and whispered,

"I love you."

With those words he left the room.

A/N: What do you think? I hope you liked it! If you can please review, as I said before, I would really appreciate it.