SakuIta Chapter 4 The Interrogation
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*RECAP*
"`Night, Itachi," Sakura whispered as she hugged him.
"Good night, my cherry blossom," Itachi whispered back as he hugged her back. "Sleep with the angels. It's where you belong." He petted her head once before stepping away from her reluctantly, giving her the chance to go to sleep.
The last though Sakura Haruno had before she slept that night was of how perfect that night had been. As she touched her lips with pure delight, she wanted nothing but to do it again.
*END RECAP*
The late morning sun stretched lazily over Konoha, sending its warm sunshine to everyone on the ground below. Sakura smiled, still asleep, as she felt the sun on her bare arms, creating a warm comforting sensation…so similar to Itachi's touch…
At the thought of Itachi, Sakura's eyes snapped open. "CHAA!" She exclaimed as she clumsily jumped out of bed, failing miserably in her excitement and thus falling to the floor, with bad covers and all.
"I went out with Itachi Uchiha!" she gasped in delight, flailing her body around, trying to untangle herself from the mess she'd created. She suddenly froze like a statue for a couple seconds as she remembered the night before. "Oh, my kami," she breathed, as a new twinkle in her eye shone and a deep blush rivaling her hair's colour rose to her whole face. "I kissed Itachi Uchiha!"
She squealed, in a very un-lady-like fashion, but she couldn't care less. She was reliving the most glorious day of her life! Who cared if she sounded like a banshee? She had just had the best date ever, with the best guy ever, on the best night ever, with the best restaurant ever, with the best food ever, with the best dessert ever, with the –
Her thoughts were suddenly cut short as her eyes glanced at the clock on her nightstand. The clock read 9:12am – oops, now 9:13 – and she gasped, this time in shocked frustration. Her shift at the hospital started at 7:45.
"Darn it!" she yelled as she scrambled out of the tangled mess on the floor. "Darn it all! I forgot to set my alarm after last night!" As she rushed around trying to make her breakfast, get showered and dressed, a brief thought flashed into her mind.
How come you're not darning your date with Itachi? It was the date with him that made you this late, Inner Sakura spoke up. Sakura replied with her own thought.
Please, she snorted mentally. That night was the best night I – we – ever had! Plus Itachi-kun was such a gentleman…
O-ho, mused Inner. So it's 'Itachi-kun' now, is it?
Oh, put a sock on it.
Inner Sakura did, for now. As Sakura wolfed down her breakfast and shot to her bathroom to brush her teeth, she thought that Inner could be as annoying and fun as a drunken Naruto; but she was, after all, her 'inner thoughts' who had become a separate spirit of her soul, a separate part of herself like her emotions are separate from her thoughts. She smiled, deciding that yes, she had just had a guru moment.
Setting her thoughts back in the present, Sakura grabbed her briefcase and purse then decided to take a shortcut to the hospital: she opened her window, jumped out easily onto the big tree branch that was connected to a huge Cherry Blossom tree, reached over and closed her window before using her ninja skills to jump onto the roofs of houses, making her way across the village.
As she neared the Yamanaka flower shop, she saw Ino waving her over. She shook her head 'no,' but Ino was either not paying her much attention or just ignoring her completely. When she neared a little more, she shouted a "Sorry, Ino, but I'm way late! I don't have time to chat with you now, sorry!" before attempting to go on her way.
Suddenly, she was no longer in control of her body. She jumped off a building's roof, doing three surprisingly graceful spinning back flips, landing on the street and heading over to a suspiciously smug-looking Ino. "Ino," she growled. "I don't have time for this. I'm late!"
"Me? What did I do? I'm not doing anything," Ino smiled innocently.
"I know this is Nara's jutsu, but I know you're the one behind it," sighed a now exasperated Sakura.
"Good job," approved Ino. "Okay, Shikamaru. You did your thing, you can go now."
"What a troublesome drag," sighed a bored-looking Shikamaru as he hopped down from the flower shop's second floor window. "Sorry, Sakura," he shrugged as said kunoichi glared at him. "She gave me a bargain."
"What bargain?" Sakura demanded.
"She said that if I stopped you for long enough to talk to her, she would give me a discount for flowers and free wrapping."
"What do you want flowers for?"
"It's my mom's birthday next week."
"Then why didn't you-" She was cut off by an impatient Ino.
"Listen Sakura, don't worry. I called the hospital last night to tell them you would be a few hours late today." Sakura's eyebrows rose slightly. "And Shikamaru, what's with your first sentence?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, a confused frown setting in place.
"Well, you either say 'what a drag' or 'troublesome.' Today you just said 'what a troublesome drag.' Couldn't you make up your mind, or what?"
Shikamaru massaged the back of his neck with one hand as he looked to the sky, while his other was stuffed in his pant's pocket. "Sheesh," he sighed. "Troublesome woman." He didn't bother to elaborate.
Before Ino could bother him any further, Shikamaru left, saying he'd be by later next week to get her side of the bargain. Both girls waved him good-bye. Once he'd gone, Sakura turned on Ino, a frown apparent on her face.
"Alright, Ino, what do you want and how did you know I was going to be late?"
"Now, now, Sakura," Ino grinned mischievously, sending warning lights in Sakura's head, effectively annoying and getting Inner Sakura on her guard. Sakura's frown deepened as Ino continued. "I'm the one asking the questions here."
Ino encircled her arm around her pink-haired friend's, guiding them into the flower shop.
"Listen, Ino," Sakura said. "I appreciate you calling the hospital for me, but the less late I am the better." She was stopped by Ino's firm grip when she tried to leave.
"Have a seat, Sakura-chan," Ino sat her on a chair by the window. "Would you like some tea?" Not waiting for an answer, she waved someone over from the kitchen at the back of the store. Sakura's eye widened considerably when she saw Hinata come out carrying three brightly colored mugs filled with steaming lemon-apple-chai tea blend. Her favorite tea blend, which they both knew.
Sakura became wary. Lemon-apple-chai tea blend and not only Ino, but Hinata was involved too? This ought to be good… or bad.
Hinata handed Sakura a mug before handing one to Ino and taking the last one for herself. Ino grabbed two seats from outside and brought them to the table where Sakura was seated. Hinata and Ino sat there and glanced at Sakura between sips of the tea.
After a few more moments of this silence interaction, Sakura grew more wary and way more suspicious. What exactly was going on here? Finally, bless fully, Ino broke the silence.
"So, Sakura," she began casually. "I didn't know you had a thing for Itachi Uchiha."
Sakura choked on her tea. So that's what they were getting at! How? When? Why? HOW? Hinata got up and patted Sakura on the back, trying to help, although not sure how patting someone on the back when they're choking helps. Once Sakura held up her hand to show that she was fine, Hinata sat down across her, beside Ino.
"You - How? When? Huh? How did you-?"
"Now, now, Sakura," grinned Ino wickedly. "Must you really ask?"
"Yes!" It was supposed to be a secret until she decided otherwise, darn it!
"Well, after you left for your shift yesterday, looking pretty surprised I may add, I went on as usual, when Lady Tsunade popped by the shop to buy a bouquet of flowers. My mom took care of that purchase, but since I was on my break, I heard what they were talking about; it turns out that the bouquet Tsunade was buying was for the Uchihas, which I already knew were coming back later that day. When my mom asked Lady Tsunade if she wanted the shop to hold on to the flowers to keep them fresh, Lady Tsunade said no, because the Uchihas would arrive in four hours and she wanted to personally hand them the flowers, which, let me tell you, were not in small amounts. It was probably the biggest purchase our shore had sold since the Uchihas left four years ago. Remember how nearly all our shelves were stripped bare? I almost had enough money to buy me a whole new -"
"Ino, get to the point, please," Sakura begged while Hinata just chuckled. Ino could talk your ear off, and that was not exaggeration.
"Oops, sorry. Anyway, when I heard that I figured I'd catch you on your break, but I couldn't because others wanted to the same as Lady Tsunade. I thought that I could tell you the news after we're both off work. When I went to the hospital at seven to treat you to dinner while we talked, I saw you with Itachi and Sasuke. Although I hadn't seen them in a long time, I got curious so I hung back and watched. I saw Itachi hold your hand. And kiss you. So I followed you."
"You didn't!" Sakura protested, both for the fact that Ino had seen those two special events and that she had dared to intrude, although completely unnoticed.
"Ino," Hinata cautioned. "That was not nice. Especially for Sakura, who is a little naïve and probably didn't figure it out until later."
"Hinata!" Sakura whined, It was true, but that didn't stop it from sounding like she was a complete fool.
"Relax, Pink," Ino soothed her as she took a sip of her tea. "I only followed you as far as that fancy little restaurant. I figured you'd tell us the details later." Ino and Hinata shared a wicked smile before leaning over the table, eyes intent on Sakura as if her words were sacred. Sakura couldn't help but giggle at their antics.
"Come on, Pink, tell us already!"
"Hold on to your flowers, Ye, that's what I was doing!"
Sakura told her two friends everything. Absolutely everything. The walk from the hospital to Ichiraku Ramen to the other restaurant. Itachi denying a table because he had a special table on the balcony. Getting his friend to reserve the whole restaurant for the two of them. The food. The dessert. Itachi making himself less presentable to make her feel more comfortable (at this the two girls sighed dreamily). Walking her home. Once she got to the part where she and Itachi kissed, she was blushing furiously, timidly looking out the window while her two friends cheered and said stuff along the lines of "what a man!" and "So lucky!" and "oh, wow!"
After further pressing with questions, squeezing every little detail out of a giddy and tomato-faced Sakura, the girls squealed in delight, jumping around the store, dancing hugging and singing and congratulating their friend.
"This calls for a celebration! My house, tonight, six sharp, BE THERE!"
After finally calming down because Ino's mom told them to cut it out because they were scaring away customers, the girls settled in a giggling huddle.
"I can't believe you scored with an Uchiha!" Ino exclaimed, not for the first time. Hinata nodded.
Sakura couldn't believe it either. But she wouldn't change it for anything.