A/N: Okay, I already had the third chapter typed up as I am starting this. I just didn't post it sooner because…I wanted to torture people? No. But, well, I just felt like it. I was typing chapters too fast, and I really don't want to update my Twilight story right now, so I thought I'd procrastinate on everything xD. Sorry. But enjoy! Oh and by the way the "Day 1" thingies don't actually mean real days, since one or two of those pass in every chapter, but it's just my way of announcing chapters xD
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Day 4
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Five seconds. Ten. A million years later.
Tenten let out a sigh of relief. It did not appear that Neji was in his room.
Crreaaak.
She froze. Maybe she had judged too soon. Sure enough, the doorknob began to turn, and then the door began opening very, very slowly. Or maybe that was just her. She stared at the crack in the doorway, her eyes wide and directed towards her toes. Two slippered feet appeared in the crack…
"H-Hello."
Tenten looked up in surprise. Neji was a girl?
No. This was another person. She did look a lot like Neji though: they shared the same wide, pale eyes that Tenten had already realized were not blind, the same dark hair, (though this girl's was a shade darker than Neji's: a deep violet-black). They had the same nose. The same pale skin. Her expression was nervous, and a pink blush was across her nose. Who was she?
The girl tucked one of the strands of black hair that fell into her face behind her ear. She had the neatest bangs that Tenten had ever seen, as if she had just cut them in one stroke with shears. In back, her hair was so short that it stuck up.
"I'm sorry…is this Hyuuga Neji's room?" Tenten asked quietly, hoping very much that Hiashi had not led her to the wrong room on purpose.
The girl nodded timidly, her eyes still wide. Tenten realized that this girl must have been afraid of Tenten, but really couldn't think of a reason why.
"H-Hai, this is Neji-nii-san's r-room," she stuttered, as if she should not have been there, and stood to the side so that Tenten could enter.
"Gomen!" she bowed, and hurriedly ran down the hallway. Tenten was about to shout for her to wait, but thought better of it. Strange girl.
She had called Neji her older brother. Did Neji have siblings? The Hyuuga's family was so confusing already. She stepped into the room.
It was rather dark inside, as the blinds were shut and no sunlight penetrated through. What light there was came from a tiny skylight in the ceiling. Neji was sitting in a wooden chair across from a more comfortable looking two-seater sofa. Perhaps that was where the girl had been sitting. Tenten wondered what they had been talking about.
"Um…hi," she said softly, and sat down on the sofa.
Neji stared at her with a disgruntled expression on his face, his white eyes narrowed in annoyance. "You again."
Despite the fact that she was supposed to be there to help him in his recovery process, she felt her temper flare. "Look, I'm taking time from my precious free moments to be here, so I would appreciate it if you cooperated."
"Hn." He looked towards the blinded windows, and though his scrutinizing white eyes were no longer on her face, she felt like she was still being watched by him.
"Who was that girl that was just here?" Tenten asked after a few minutes of silence, unable to think of something to chat about. Boys in general were no where near as chatty as girls were, and Hyuuga Neji did not seem like a talker. At all.
He turned very slowly to face her, as if she were dragging him out of a dream. His white eyes were cold. "Hyuuga Hinata."
"Hinata? Who's that?" Tenten said, confused. Hinata…sun. Sun…that doesn't seem to fit her personality very well.
"My…cousin," Neji said stiffly, like he was still hiding something from her. Tenten felt something click. That was Hanabi's older sister? The one that Hiashi doesn't like?
"Oh."
Neji turned back to his window. Tenten sat with him there for what felt like millenniums but was actually just an hour, before Hiashi came in and announced that she could leave if she wished.
She hurried out as fast as she could without being impolite.
O0O
"How did it go?" Ino asked eagerly as soon as Tenten was in through the door, in a tone which clearly stated that Ino was eager for some new gossip. Shika, the boy with the weird ponytail, was sitting next to her on the bed again. Tenten noticed a bouquet of flowers lying on the bedside table. Had he brought them for Ino?
"Uh, hi," she said to Shika instead. "I think I answered the door for you a few days ago."
Shika nodded lazily, and stuck out a hand. "Nara Shikamaru."
Shikamaru. More of a normal name.
"Tenten," she said, and shook his hand. He seemed like a nice enough person. Ino glanced between them apologetically.
"Oh, sorry. Forgot to introduce you guys. Tenten's staying in the dorm with me," she said in a tone that implied that Tenten was a bother. She turned to Tenten.
"And Shika's an old friend." Tenten looked again at the flowers.
"He brought those for me! Isn't that nice?" Ino beamed and buried her nose in the flowers with such enthusiasm that Tenten wondered if she had accidentally given herself a bloody nose. Shikamaru looked embarrassed, though it was hard to tell, because his face hardly moved from its constantly bored expression. Tenten wondered if he was stupid.
"Ino, you're too loud," he complained.
Ino laughed and hugged him. "My family owns a flower shop," she explained to Tenten. "Mom sent these with him. I wish he had enough sense to bring me some on his own," she sighed. Shikamaru sighed too.
"Troublesome girl. I can't bring you flowers. Temari would kill me." He stood up to go.
Ino scowled like she had an unpleasant taste in her mouth. "Yeah, why don't you go to your darling Temari? I bet she's waiting," she said bitterly, practically frog marching him to the door. Tenten stared at them, bemused. A second ago, they had been best chums. Who was this Temari? It felt like there were too many things that she didn't know about people lately. Ino had secrets, Sakura had secrets, Neji had secrets. This sucked.
O0O
Sakura had been gone all day.
Tenten was sick of Ino's sulking expression and silence. She didn't have enough books to read, and she was agitated with lack of something to do. At least when Sakura was around, she and Ino's bickering could provide her with entertainment.
At last, at half past seven when Ino was just about to drive Tenten insane, (though this might have been a good thing. They couldn't force her to give therapy to Hyuuga Neji if she was mentally unstable too.), Sakura appeared in the doorframe, carrying a brown paper bag, like the kind they gave you in grocery stores.
"Why do you have that?" Ino sat up curiously. She sniffed. Tenten sighed. Ino had been trying to hide the fact that she was crying all afternoon.
"Paper bags are better for the environment," said Sakura matter of factly. "Plastic bags just fill up the garbage dumps. Did you know that plastic doesn't just rot like paper and go back to the earth? Do you know that Styrofoam, for instance-"
"Yes, treehugger, alright!" Ino exclaimed, going back to her sulking.
"I think she meant she wanted to know what was in the bag," Tenten provided.
"Thank you!" said Ino from under her pillow.
Sakura went quiet, her usually flaming and mischievous green eyes suddenly shy as she looked down at her feet, her white fingers biting into the brown paper bag. Tenten glanced at her own tanned fingertips. Her pink hair was tied in a loose ponytail, and the loose strands fell forward against her face. Sakura fidgeted, and then climbed quietly up into her bunk.
"Well, what is it?" said Tenten.
"It's…nothing," said Sakura quietly, though the way that she set the paper bag very, very carefully at the foot of her bed did not suggest that it was just "nothing". Tenten pursed her lips, curious.
"Seriously, Sakura…" she said. "It can't be that important." She paused. "Wait. You don't…you know…"
Sakura raised her eyebrows, some of her usual spunky self back. "I don't what?"
"Well…like…deal drugs or something," Tenten muttered. After all, they knew very little of Sakura's personal history. Well, rather, they knew zip. She and Ino had caught each other last night trying to sneak into her trunk, and then Sakura had caught both of them over the heads with Tenten's own baseball bat.
Sakura chuckled. And then she gurgled. And then she was laughing so hard that no sounds came out. She kept thumping her chest, trying to breathe while her eyes streamed with mirth.
"You gonna have a seizure?" said Ino flatly.
Tenten laughed nervously too.
"Okay, sorry, that was stupid," she muttered. "Just forget I ever said it, okay?" Sakura shook her head at Tenten.
"No, I do not deal drugs," she gasped, trying to breathe properly again. "What the Hell gave you that idea?"
"Well…" Tenten gestured helplessly at Sakura. Sakura seemed to take in what she meant. The pink hair, the clothes, all of the heavy mascara.
"You know, my hair is naturally this color," she said conversationally. "And it's a free country. I don't have to dress like everybody else." She said it gently, but there was a hint of a reprimand in it.
Tenten shrugged. "Yeah. Wait. Your hair is naturally pink?!" Sakura laughed uproariously.
"Yeah! I get it from my mother's side, Little Ten. Crazy, huh?"
"Did you just call me 'Little Ten'?! I'm taller than you are!" Tenten protested indignantly.
Ino sat up again, irritated. "Could you two shut the Hell up?! Sakura, just show us what's in the bag already, if it isn't drugs." Ino sounded doubtful. She probably was just searching for a reason to call the FBI and throw Sakura into jail with all the other furry men with tattoos.
Sakura sighed, resigned, and picked up the bag again. She opened it. And tilted it towards Tenten and Ino below her so that they could see…
Plop.
A perfectly red, perfectly ripe tomato fell into Tenten's palms.
Plop.
Another fell into Ino's. They both looked up in surprise at Sakura, who was smiling awkwardly.
"Throw 'em back up," she said. They both tossed her back the tomatoes, and she put them carefully back into the bag.
"But…why did you buy all of those tomatoes?" said Ino, completely bewildered.
Sakura smiled. "There's sixteen of them. And they're not for us. I'm taking them to someone special to me in the morning."
Ino and Tenten exchanged an incredulous look. About the only thing that they had in common was the fact that they were wary of Sakura and her strange ways, and that neither had ever stopped to consider that Sakura had friends.
"Somebody special? Who?" said Ino.
Sakura smiled mysteriously. "Somebody that owes me his soul."
And leaving them to ponder this strange statement, Sakura reached over to flip her light switch, right above her head, and the room was bathed in darkness.
O0O
The next morning, Tenten was up earliest.
She lay in bed quietly for about half an hour before Ino blinked blearily at her from across the little piece of empty floor in their dorm at her, and then they both got up as quietly as they could and got ready in the bathroom. Another hour later, Sakura was up, and a tad confused at the absence of her two roommates. Shrugging, she made her way into the bathroom and also got ready.
When she went out of the door, fully dressed in a pair of striped leggings and a school girl uniform with her trusty combat boots, a French hat perched on her head, and clutching the fateful bag of tomatoes, Ino and Tenten followed after her.
Tenten had never tried stalking someone before. She noted how this could turn out to be a profession: you had to have some real skill to do it properly. She and Ino carefully followed Sakura, but the morning crowd often made them lose their view of her, and if they followed too close, they were afraid she would see them. They had to follow at just the right distance, with building corners to hide behind at their convenience.
Once, Sakura looked straight at Ino, but the blonde had a goofy jean wide-brim hat on, along with a high-collared sleeveless green turtleneck shirt, both clothing items that Ino would never wear. All of her hair was hidden. Ino pretended to walk the opposite way, away from Sakura, and the pink-haired girl did not look at Ino again.
After much walking and too many dangerous stops at the intersections, where they had to follow closer than usual because if they missed the light, then they would lose Sakura too, they finally arrived at a seldom-visited district of town.
It was all owned by some rich, very large, and well known family, but this was about as much that either Tenten or Ino knew. They curiously and quietly followed Sakura down the empty street, taking care to stay in the shadows, adrenaline pumping in their systems.
At last, Sakura came to a medium-sized home marked with a white and red fan on the door. She knocked, and it might have just been the fact that they were looking for something unusual, but Tenten noted that Sakura's eyes were uncertain and that her hand was shaking slightly.
The door opened.
In the doorway stood what they assumed was the person she was looking for. He was really rather good looking. His ebony hair contrasted starkly against his pale skin, almost paler than Sakura's, and his onyx eyes were set like dead jewels into his face. Even his clothes were black: a black button-down shirt, black jeans, and a golden hoop with a shark tooth on it in one ear. Tenten shuddered. He was even scarier than Sakura. Granted, Shikamaru and Ino both had little silver hoops in both ears, but Shikamaru was hardly threatening.
They could barely hear what the two were saying, but Sakura shoved the bag of tomatoes at the guy, and he took them without so much as a thank you. At first, their voices were soft and murmured, as if just exchanging a few greetings. Then, Sakura shoved him. Ino choked in surprise.
"You nasty bastard!" she screamed. "If you ever leave again, I'm going to pound your face in until they have to bury you in that Uchiha graveyard! Do you hear me? DO YOU HEAR ME, UCHIHA SASUKE?!"
She had already forced him through the door, so Ino and Tenten crept nearer to see what was happening. Sakura was now punching every inch of this Sasuke that she could reach. Tenten felt a jolt of surprise when she realized that Sakura, though her expression was furious, had tears rolling down her face.
She was about to throw a well-aimed punch at the guy's jaw, (Tenten was impressed. She was trained in martial arts, and she could tell that Sakura wasn't. The pink-haired girl's knuckles were bleeding and bruised, but that punch would have hit home), when he caught her wrist, his eyes still very calm despite the growing bruise spreading across his cheek.
It was almost as if he had let Sakura hit him.
"Stop."
His voice was cold and unfeeling, even more so than Neji's. Tenten shuddered.
Sakura kicked him, and he released her. "You owe me, Uchiha," she spat at his feet. "Here I am, bringing you a gift, and that's what you tell me?"
"It was your choice to react," he replied calmly.
"Like Hell, Uchiha," Sakura spat again.
"Uchiha?" His eyebrows were raised. "Since when was I Uchiha?" he probably should have sounded hurt, but instead his black eyes danced with amusement. "What happened to me being your Sasuke-kun?" he whispered the last bit in her ear, just loud enough that Tenten and Ino could hear.
Ino glanced at Tenten. Tenten glanced at Ino. What the Hell was going on? First she brings him a gift, then she punches him, and now they look like they're having some kind of twisted reunion?!
Sakura shivered. "Shut up," she said weakly.
"Thank you for the tomatoes," said Uchiha Sasuke, and he closed the door in her face.
O0O
Tenten and Ino didn't have the heart to follow Sakura home. Instead, they made their presence known, and walked with her. The pink-haired girl seemed to forget to be mad at them for stalking her all morning. Her eyes were furious, and she hastily wiped at the tear tracks on her cheeks.
"DAMN YOU TO HELL AND BACK, OROCHIMARU!" she suddenly and very randomly screamed to the sky in the middle of the sidewalk on the way back. People stared. Tenten stared. Ino stared. Hanabi, as she once again passed by in her father's car, flicked a coke bottle cap at them. Tenten caught it and shouted a thank you after her as they drove away. Why did Hyuuga Hiashi and his youngest daughter always have to see Tenten at her worst times?
"Sakura," Ino prodded her in the ribs, and Sakura quieted down again.
"I hate him," she kept cursing vehemently under her breath all the way back. "I hate him."
"Yes, we know, Sakura. You've already said so," said Tenten carefully.
"I want to chop Orochimaru up into little bits with Ino's meat cleaver and feed them one by one to Sasuke-kun," she sneered. "The nerve of him! Sasuke-kun. Stupid. Damned Uchiha prodigy."
"Prodigy?" said Ino.
"Ino has a meat cleaver?" said Tenten.
"Your mothers," said Sakura.
They spent the rest of the walk in silence, as attempts at conversation were not doing them any good. Any attempts to worm what was going on out of Sakura were failed, as she tried to bite them.
O0O
A/N: xD That was a fun chapter to write.