Notes: Summer is over and school is back and I have to get up early! D: Understand that if I don't update for a while, it's because I have homework to do, okay? Please don't send ninjas to kill me. Please.

Disclaimer: Naruto is an anime of ninjas owned by a japanese dude with a great imagination, not by me.

Chapter fifteen

The ex-boyfriends' replacements

Sakura had thought the voice had been vaguely familiar, and now she discovered why.

"You are…" she started, but the red haired guy in front of her cut her off.

"Sasori." He offered his hand for her and smirked. "It's very nice to meet you."

Sakura stared at him for a moment, and then shook his hand briefly. "We already met."

"Really? Then you already knew my name?"

Sakura thought about it. "Uh, now that you mention that, I actually didn't."

"Then we didn't officially meet." His smirk widened. "You were the girl looking for her boyfriend in my, uh, sister's school. But I suppose you have a name, right?"

"I do. I'm Sakura. And you are the guy who jumped my school's fence illegally and started hitting on me when I was looking for my boyfriend." Ex-boyfriend, Sakura corrected mentally, but mentioning this to a complete stranger was unnecessary.

He chuckled lowly, and Sakura noticed that he had a very deep voice, which made his laughter sound kind of sexy. "I wasn't hitting on you, Sakura. Telling a beautiful girl how beautiful she is isn't necessarily flirting."

"Yeah, it's just weird."

Sasori smiled – not smirked, smiled, like in a showing-your-perfect-white-teeth smile, which made Sakura feel glad, because the way he had smirked before reminded her of Sasuke and she didn't want to see him smirk like that again – closed his eyes and shook his head. The movement caused his red curls to bounce against his forehead, and, for a moment, he reminded her of one of those handsome guys who model clothes for fashion magazines. Sakura caught herself staring at him with a dreamy expression, but it instantly vanished when she remembered how creepy that guy actually was, despite his good looks.

"Anyways," he said, opening his eyes. "You liked my paint, right?" He pointed the paint Sakura had been staring at.

"You painted this?" she asked, incredulous, glancing at the paint.

"Yeah. That's why I'm here. I'm an independent artist showing his art off," he explained. "And I like to do marionettes-themed paints. I couldn't miss an art exposition like this. Besides, there are a lot of important people here, looking for good artists. If they like my art as much as you like it, then I might have a chance to become famous."

"You paint only because you want to be famous?" Sakura asked, raising an eyebrow and not believing how shallow the guy was.

He shook his head and laughed in that sexy way of his. "Oh, of course not. That's just part of it. It's just that… well, for example, if you like to sing, you want people to listen to you, right? You want the world to like your voice. And it's the same thing with me. I want the world to like my art. That's why I felt so happy when I saw you smiling at my paint. It meant you liked it."

"Well, I accept it's, like, funny, I guess." Sakura stared at the paint thoughtfully. She actually didn't know why she thought it was funny. It was just a marionette couple dancing tango. "And, yeah, you paint well, but… I don't mean to sound offensive or something, but it's just good – plainly good – but not good enough to make me want to buy it and hang it on a wall in my house. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize; I'm grateful for your sincerity." He put a hand on her shoulder and she glanced at it. Since when was he allowed to touch her? She was about to tell him to take his creepy hand off her, but she realized his touch wasn't exactly unpleasant. His skin was actually very warm, so warm that she could feel it through her thin sweater, and it felt kind of good. So she kept her mouth shut.

"Besides, that only makes me even more eager to make you like my art. May I show you my other paints?"

Sakura was about to say no, but then she thought: Why not? Ino was probably very busy with her new guy, anyways. Besides, when she first met Sasori, she thought he was the typical womanizer –good looks included – and kind of creepy. But now she realized he was actually very polite and nice and friendly… and sexy. Definitely not the kind of guy a womanizer is – except for the sexy part, buy, hey, a guy can be sexy without being a jerk, right? So he wasn't that bad after all. And she was kind of enjoying his company, too.

A few minutes with him wouldn't hurt, would they?

"Okay," she finally said, smiling.

"Then follow me," he replied, smiling back, and she obeyed happily, wondering if Ino wasn't the only one who had recently found the perfect replacement for her ex-boyfriend.

"Ino!"

Ino turned around at the sound of that voice calling her name. There were a lot of people around her, watching the marionettes-themed paints and sculptures and photographs, and Ino thought it would be hard to find him among so many people.

But she should've remembered that it was impossible not to see a guy like him. He stood out from the crowd like a red ball among white ones with his pale skin, his black, long hair, his soul-piercing dark eyes, his incredibly good-looking features, and the weird yet cute marks under his eyes.

Ino had always thought Sasuke was hot, but his older brother, Itachi, was above hot.

God blessed Mrs. Uchiha for bringing them to the world.

Or well, actually, for bringing Itachi to the world. Sasuke should've stayed where people is before being born because of what he did to Sakura, Ino's best and beloved friend. He was a jerk who didn't deserve to be born.

So, yeah, God blessed the woman for giving birth to Itachi - not for giving birth to Sasuke.

Itachi's eyes didn't leave hers as he made his way towards her. Ino automatically turned into her sexy-mode: hands on the hips, mischievous smile, half-closed eyes and straight back. But that wouldn't be enough for Itachi, Ino realized; a guy like him probably knew thousands of sexy girls else, and Ino needed to stand out if she wanted to hook up with him and use him to forget about Sai faster. So she decided she needed to give more than the best of her best.

I can do this, she told herself, and the greatest part was that she knew she really could.

"Hey," she greeted when Itachi stopped right in front of her.

"Hey," Itachi replied, smirking in that sexy way of his that could make any girl faint. Luckily, Ino had pretty good self-control when facing hot guys, so she didn't lose her cool. "I'm glad you came, Ino."

"Yeah, I'm glad I came too." Ino's smile widened. "It's always good to see you, Itachi."

"Yeah, I've heard that before."

Ino laughed softly at his joke. Seriously, was this guy perfect and that nobody-is-perfect crap was just a big, fat lie, or was he just dangerously close to perfection? Ino didn't know; she just knew she was hoping she had met Itachi long before she met Sai. That guy had been just a horrible waste of time, and Itachi was everything but a waste.

"Did you come alone?" Itachi asked, and then his expression turned slightly worried. "If you did, then let me give you a ride home when the night ends, because I'd worry if I were to let you go home by yourself…"

"Oh, no," Ino said. "I didn't come alone. I came with a friend."

"Really? And where is she?" He smirked. "Don't tell me you left her alone just to be with me."

She faked a pout. "I guess I did. I left her watching some paints while I hurried to find you. Sorry. I'm a bad girl."

"It's alright, Ino. I already knew you were a bad girl, and I like it." He smirked, and the suggestive way he looked at her made her heart flutter.

Ino knew he was five years older than her, and she also knew what kind of things twenty-two-year-old guys liked to do with women, but Ino wasn't stupid; she was still a virgin, and she planned to stay like that. She was just looking for fun, and Itachi seemed to be the synonym of fun. She just wanted a few make-out sessions with him to fix her broken heart; nothing more, nothing less.

"We should go find my friend quickly, before she gets lost or something," Ino said, trying to push the nervousness she suddenly felt away. "Besides, I'm dying to introduce her to the sexy guy who invited me here." She smiled, and Itachi smiled back.

"Alright. Let's go," Itachi said, and then, the most surprising thing happened: he grabbed her hand.

Ino was stunned at first, and she froze, but then she remembered she couldn't lose her cool, not in front of him, and she forced her feet to move. As they walked – holding hands –, Ino realized she didn't even imagine she would hold hands with a sexy guy like Itachi less than a week after she lost the love of her life. That meant anything could happen now.

Anything.

Sakura couldn't help it: she gasped.

She had followed Sasori to a far wall of the museum, a wall that seemed to be pretty lonely. They had stopped in front of the last paint hanging on the lonely wall, a paint of a marionette woman sitting beside a window from which you could see a rainy, gray and lonely street that reminded Sakura of Italy. The woman was crying, holding a tissue against her cheekbone, and, she didn't know why, but Sakura instantly knew the woman was crying because her heart was broken.

"Her name is Elissabetta," Sasori explained lowly as Sakura stared at the paint with wide, sparkling eyes. "She's been waiting for her lover to come back from a trip for almost five years, crying every day, and the sky of Venetia cries too, sharing her pain. What she doesn't know is that she'll wait for many, many years more, because her lover has died in a train accident."

"Oh my God," Sakura whispered.

"And she's a lesbian."

Sakura's eyes widened again, but this time from utter shock. She turned to Sasori, frowning. "What?"

"Her lover is a woman," Sasori said casually. He looked at his paint, smiling. "So what do you think? You like this one more than the other one, don't you?"

"Wait," Sakura said. "A lesbian? Elissabetta is a lesbian? But… why?"

He shrugged. "She just got tired of men. And Manuela loves her very much – well, loved her. She died in a train accident, remember?"

Sakura nodded and looked down at the floor, kind of disturbed. It was cool that Sasori had made up a story for his paint, but this story sounded more like an adult drama/romance novel. She thought that said story would've been interesting to watch in a movie: a woman tired of men who became lesbian and waited for her lover to come back from a trip, not knowing she had died and would never come back. Sakura bet she'd need a box of tissues if she watched that movie.

And then she thought about Elissabetta getting tired of men. Sakura herself wasn't exactly tired of men, because the only man she was tired of was Sasuke. One man wasn't enough to become lesbian all of sudden. Besides, she liked men; they were sexy. There was Sasori, for example. That was a man she would never get tired of.

She bowed her head lower, trying to hide her blush. It was so weird: she just met – officially met – the dude and she was already thinking about never getting tired of his sexiness. Who was the creepy now?

When she raised her head again and turned to Sasori, he was smirking at her. She blushed again, three words printed in her mind: YOU GOT CAUGHT.

"I know what you were thinking about," Sasori said, and Sakura wished the sky would open and swallow her into the nothingness.

"You do?" she asked, also wishing for some self-control to hide her blush.

"Yeah. You were considering becoming lesbian, weren't you?"

Sakura almost laughed, but she managed not to. His guess was kind of less embarrassing that the truth. And she didn't want him to know she was the creepy one, thinking about how sexy he was every five seconds.

"Uh…" was all she said. She wasn't good at lying, so she didn't say yes - she didn't practically lie. And that seemed to work for Sasori.

He sighed. "Sakura, I understand girls like you feel like abandoning everything when a guy breaks their heart, but there are a lot of men out there, and your ex-boyfriend doesn't represent the entire male population of the world. We're not all jerks; so, before you consider liking people of your same sex, think that you'll meet many more guys, better than the jerk that hurt you."

"Thank you, doctor, how much for the session?" she replied, smiling.

"It's for free," Sasori said, smiling back. They stared at each other for several moments, in which Sakura thought she would look away soon, uncomfortable, but she didn't. She actually felt good when he looked at her, and his brown eyes were pretty and she liked to look into them.

When Sasori spoke again, she blinked, like waking up from a dream. "So, what? You're not becoming lesbian, right? It would be such a waste. Any guy would die for a date with you, believe me."

"Any guy?" Sakura repeated. "Including you?"

Oh God, she didn't. Really, she really didn't. Sakura Haruno didn't flirt; that was Ino Yamanaka. Sakura Haruno couldn't have practically asked out a guy like Sasori. She couldn't.

But she had. And now Sasori was smiling at her, very amused, and she wished for the second time in the day that the sky would swallow her into the nothingness.

But the sky did nothing, and Sasori spoke again. "Are you serious?"

Oh no, now he thought she was a total loser and felt pity for the pathetic little girl failing to flirt properly she was. Sakura knew the sky would never swallow her, so she didn't waste her time and wished for the ground to swallow her into the nothingness instead.

"I guess so…" she said awkwardly.

Sasori chuckled. Sakura was sure he was going to say, "Get lost, pathetic girl, and flirt with losers of your own level," but he just stared at her, as if she was the funniest thing on the world and he would never get tired of watching her.

"Um," she started to say, trying to push the horrible, big awkwardness away, but Sasori spoke before she could finish.

"Alright," he said, nodding. "Are you free tomorrow night? Give me your address and I'll pick you up. You choose the place. Oh, and you're still a high school girl, so if it makes your parents feel less uneasy by letting their daughter go out with a twenty-one-year-old guy, I can have a chat with them to show them I'm not a creepy pervert, in spite of what you used to believe." He smiled. "Is that alright for you?"

Sakura needed a few second to understand what was really happening, and when she did, her green eyes widened and she asked stupidly, "Are you asking me out?"

"Yeah," Sasori responded. "But you were the one who suggested it first. I just followed your advice. So don't blame me."

Sakura cracked a nervous smile. All she could think of was, Thanks, earth and sky, for not swallowing me into the nothingness, because now I have a date with a hot guy.

"Okay," she finally said. "Tomorrow night is fine."

Ino felt so exasperated and embarrassed. She was dragging Itachi around and probably making him feel bored and tired – totally not good if she wanted to hook up with him! – because pretty, little Sakura wasn't anywhere to be found.

"I can't believe it!" she exclaimed, stopping in front of a creepy human-sized sculpture of an old man playing with marionettes while sitting on a bench who looked too real for his own good. "She has pink hair. Freaking pink hair! And I can't find her? Come on!"

"Ino, sweetie," Itachi said softly, pushing a blond lock behind her ear delicately. "Calm down. She's got to be here, somewhere. I don't think she's gone home."

Ino did. If she had been in Sakura's position, that's what she would've done: got tired of waiting for her to be done with her new guy and left her alone. Evil, but possible. And it didn't matter that Sakura was her best friend; everyone had their bitchy moments. But this bitchy moment of her could cost Ino something big, because now she was alone with an older guy who would probably offer to take her home and, who knows, in spite of his good looks, Itachi could be a crazy sociopath who would take her to his place and then do horrible things to her before killing her.

Ino shook her head. No, she had to trust Sakura; she couldn't have left her alone. And she had to trust Itachi, too. He couldn't be a sociopath… right?

"Look: pink hair," Itachi suddenly said, pointing something behind her.

Ino turned around and was relieved to see Sakura walking towards them with a smile on her face. The relief turned into anger as soon as Sakura stopped in front of her and said, "Hey."

"Where the hell where you?" Ino yelled. She knew it made people stare, but when she was mad, she didn't care about yelling and making a fool of herself.

Sakura rolled her eyes calmly. "Chill out, Ino. I was with a friend, and he was showing me his paints."

"But I looked for you everywhere!"

"We were at that wall." Sakura pointed behind her, at a lonely wall with five or six paints hanging on it. "I bet you didn't look for me there, huh?"

"Whatever." Ino frowned at her best friend. "Since when do you have a friend who makes marionettes-themed paints?

Sakura just shrugged, avoiding the question mysteriously. She glanced behind Ino and smiled at Itachi. "Hi, I'm Sakura." Then her smile suddenly disappeared and her eyes widened slightly. Ino forgot about her anger with this. She knew why Sakura had tensed so suddenly: she had recognized Itachi as Sasuke's brother.

"Yeah, I know," Itachi said, and even though Ino was busy looking at Sakura with worry, she could hear he was smiling back. "Actually, I know it since you, Naruto and my little brother were kids and used to play around all the afternoons after school in my backyard. Do you remember me, Sakura?"

"Of course I do, Itachi," Sakura said, doing her best to smile again. "You're just… so different and, I don't know, tall." She laughed nervously. "And even if I didn't know you since I was a kid, I would recognize you because… you're so similar to your brother!"

Itachi chuckled. "C'mon, Sakura, please don't insult me."

Sakura laughed again, but the lack of humor in her eyes was so clear it hurt. Ino tried to think of something to change the subject desperately. "Um, this exposition is kind of boring," she said, trying to sound as if nothing was happening, but failing. It was funny how she didn't lose her cool with hot guys, but she did lose it when her friend was feeling awkward.

She turned to Itachi and he smiled at her. "Yeah, it's boring me too." He looked at Sakura, and then back at her. "How did you guys get here? Do you have a car?"

"No, we took a taxi," Sakura replied, and Ino was glad she sounded glad of changing the subject. "We have seventeen years old, but our evil parents don't trust us and won't let us get a license and a car until we finish high school."

"Do you guys want me to take you home?" Itachi asked.

"Actually, I'm hungry," Ino said, and then looked at Sakura. "Why don't we go to Sakura's favorite place? That Italian restaurant, where they make that weird pizza… how is it called?"

"It's a weird name," Sakura said. "I just remember the address."

"Okay, then let's go there," Itachi agreed.

They exited the museum and got into Itachi's convertible (Ino liked him a tiny bit more for having a car as cool as that, but don't tell anyone). As they headed to the restaurant, Ino did more than the best of her best, not to make Itachi like her more, but to make Sakura feel less uncomfortable for being hanging around with her ex-boyfriend's brother.

Notes: Aww, c'mon, you know what to do now! :3