disclaimer: disclaimed
title: hide-and-seek
note1: HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE~!
Today was the day she would leave the nest. Sakura had both waited excitedly and dreaded, the day which she would board the plane to Australia and fly off into the unknown. Not that she wasn't thrilled, she was, but that meant leaving Tsunade and the farm. Leaving everything she knew, and that was a scary thing. She had grown up with that farm. Twenty years were now being left behind to go to a foreign country and continent. It was only natural for her to be terrified.
The pink haired girl sighed loudly before looking back at the farm wistfully. She had said her goodbye's the night before, knowing that if she said any goodbyes before leaving, she would never actually leave.
"Goodbye." She whispered to the farm before turning toward the taxi waiting for her and silently getting in, not even bothering to wipe the tears falling down her face. She was going to miss everything. The random runs to the drug store, yelling at Tsunade to quit gambling their money away, sitting silently with the horses as she fed and brushed them, and even getting up in the middle of the night to crash with her guardian because of bad dreams. She was finally growing up.
.
.
"Good luck." Tsunade murmured as she watched her daughter get into a taxi and drive off to the airport. Though it was four in the morning, and she really should not be up, she had to see Sakura off. Even if the girl didn't see her. It was all for the best that way anyway. She definitely isn't a fan of the waterworks, so she would be damned if she let the pink haired girl see her cry; especially out of an emotion that the older woman couldn't pinpoint. She was both happy and sad, something that rarely happened, and was somewhat confusing when it did.
A lone tear made its way down the blonde's face before being wiped away and walking back into the warmth of her home.
"There's got to be some alcohol here somewhere…"
.
.
"Thanks!" Sakura exclaimed as she paid the cab driver and closed the trunk. She quickly looked over her bags, making sure she had all four of them, and turned to face the airport. Her flight would leave in two hours, and she needed to get through security and check in her bags and burn all of the left over time.
'Shoulders back, head held high, and one foot in front of the other; and march.' She thought to herself, as she walked into the airport and straight to the ticket booth. Surprisingly, there were only a few people a head of her so she was attended to fairly quickly.
Once all but one bag was taken into the plane and her ticket was handed to her, the pink haired girl made her way into the long line that was security. She had heard the stories about the horrors of security before, but nothing seemed to compare. The line twisted and turned, making it hard for her to find the end, the people were all aggravated, and the line itself didn't look as though it moved at all.
Groaning to herself, she walked up to what seemed like the last person in line and politely asked, "Excuse me, is this the end of the security line?"
"Hu? Oh, yes." The man replied before turning back to his device and proceeded to ignore her completely. Sakura couldn't exactly pinpoint what the device was being that he was practically curled into it, but being ignored by him suited her just fine. She could take the time to write her first letter to her guardian 9though she thought of her like her mother), figure out what terminal she was in, and what time the plane was supposed to be boarding.
"This is going to take forever…"
.
.
"Oi! Teme! You know what time were supposed to be on the plane, right?" Naruto asked the silent black haired man next to him. The man had large earphones on his ears, which all but guaranteed him ignoring the rest of the world, though it still irritated the blond.
"Teme!" He whined loudly before being interrupted by Sai.
"Naruto, if you keep screeching like that the whole airport will know that we're here, and then we're going to have to deal with publicity. Please be quiet." The man reasoned quietly. Naruto knew that what Sai said was true, and that was something that he definitely was not in the mood for. It was way to early for that kind of screaming and pushing and…. The blond shivered as his mind played out previous encounters with their fans in the middle of a public place.
"I'll be at the terminal in an hour. I want coffee." A deep voice brought the blond out of his nightmare. His bright blue eyes followed the dark haired man's back as he simply walked away from them toward what he assumed was the shops. They were barely past security, and he was already getting coffee?
"Seems as though he suffers from selective hearing." Sai muttered next to him as they both watched him walk. Though to their surprise, he managed to bump into a girl with the brightest of hair. Pink?
.
.
"Oh sorry!"
"Excuse me."
The two figures spoke at the same time as they bent down to gather their things. However, as soon as Sakura saw the man's face, she froze. It was just her luck that the band that she had 'joined' would need to leave from the same airport as herself at the same time as she did. Better yet, that she would, quite literally, run into the 'leader' and jeopardize all that her brother and manager had worked so hard to achieve.
Before Sasuke could realize what happened, Sakura straightened and ran away from the man.
"Miss! Your plane ticket!" He called after her, though she was too far to hear him. Gathering the rest of the things, he followed her.
.
.
"What to do! What to do?" Sakura repeated to herself as she quickly walked away from the pale man following her. She couldn't let him see her, and risk him figuring their plot out. It was just not an option. But why the hell was he following her in the first place? Did he already discover her?
Freezing in her place, she turned to look for the man. It couldn't be. She had covered her face before he even looked at her! He couldn't have known that she pretended to be her brother. It just wasn't possible. Her eyes wandered as she found the man, Sasuke she remembered, a level below her with something in his hand.
Her ticket.
Sakura let out a scream as she looked at her hand and realized it was an iPod in her hand, not her ticket. His iPod. How could she have been so stupid? She should have made sure she had it before she high tailed it away from him. It was a reckless move and now she might have just thrown away her saving from the last year. That ticket was not something she could have just lost like that.
"Stupid!" She chastised herself as she quickly made her way over to the man. Maybe, if she catches him by surprise, she might be able to yank it out of his hand. He was distracted anyway.
.
.
"Yes. A pink haired girl. And she took off before I could give her the damned ticket." Sasuke growled into the phone. This was a girl with pink hair, how is it that he managed to lose her? That was possibly the most obnoxious color of hair that could possible exist. She was right in front of him one second, and the next, she had vanished into thin air. Just like that.
"And you lost her?" He could hear Sai reply. He knew the man was smiling, and teasing him while at it.
"Just help me find her, god damn it." He nearly shouted back before ending the call and looking around once more. He needed his iPod and the woman needed her ticket. Why the hell was she running away from him?
.
.
Checking her shoes, making sure they were tied and she wouldn't trip over them, Sakura went over her plan once more. She would run from behind him and pull the ticket from his hands and be gone before he even knew what was going on. It was flawless.
She checked that the coast was clear from behind the advertisement, and sent a prayer to whoever was listening that it would work out for her. Then, she ran.
.
.
"I looked, but I couldn't find her." Sai said as he walked over to Sasuke. The black haired man looked at the ticket in his hand and exhaled loudly.
"Her plane leaves in five minutes."
"Ours leaves in ten. We need to go, Teme." The blond exclaimed as he bounded over to his two best friends. The blond had searched high and low, but he couldn't find the woman either.
While Sasuke hoped that they would be able to give her the ticket and he could get his iPod back, if they kept at this hide-and-seek game, they would miss their flight which would make Gai very mad. Sasuke shivered slightly at the thought.
A mad Gai was not something that he wanted to see.
.
.
Sakura barely managed to stop herself before she ran into the band. Now it was not only one, but all three of them. Together. One thing was certain. She was not getting her ticket anytime soon.
She quickly ran back to the safety behind the advertisement and to her bag. Not only were all of her things on the plane, but she had spent an entire year of savings to get that ticket. The only flight that was more expensive was Japan!
"Why me?" She whispered to herself as she went to sit by the window that overlooked her flight. She watched silently as got ready to take off, taking the caterpillar thing away and closing the door to the plane. She put her palm up against the cold glass, reaching out for what she couldn't get.
.
.
"Please, Sakura. Just one month." The blond man pleaded, outside of the airport.
Sakura paused.
"Fine."
note2: Hope you enjoyed it and, if you want, leave me a present of my own :)
note3: this is the Christmas present I spoke of.
~Aj