VitaminWater Fact Number 8: YES, I think 50 Cent's biggest accomplishment was getting his own flavor of VitaminWater (Formula 50). What now?

LikeVitaminWater
x. by ANGELforSHOW

Chapter Seven: Vital-T.
Purpose: More Vitality.

-

When Sakura walked into her psychology lecture a few days later, a box of chocolates and a tin of hot cocoa mix was forcefully stuffed into her arms, nearly toppling her over.

"Um, thanks?" she asked, sitting down next to Sasuke and examining the gifts he had so hastily shoved into her arms. "What are these for?" she asked, examining the chocolates. Godiva, she approved. Good stuff.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Care basket from last week," he told her, bored. "I hate sweets," he explained in his velvet-like tenor voice.

Sakura laughed, licking her lips as she opened the box. "I can't believe you can say no to Belgium truffles," she commented, quickly selecting a dark chocolate sweet and nibbling a bit off of it. "'Cause these are freaking delicious."

He didn't respond, opting for a sip out of his usual VitaminWater instead (Multi-V, lemonade).

"Your loss," Sakura told him in a not-so-sorry voice. "I mean, you can totally miss out on this lovely, lovely…"

Sasuke arched his back, popping a few vertebrae.

"…LOVELY, LOVELY…"

MacBook Pro…where was it? Sasuke fished around his seat, wondering where he put his laptop bag. Oh, there it was.

"…cocoa delicacy."

He emptied his VitaminWater bottle, tipping the bottle so far it rested on his nose for a brief moment. Crap, he didn't have any more bottles with him either.

Pouting green eyes stared at him. "…sighhhh, what a letdown that one could not appreciate this fabulous gift…"

Sasuke spared Sakura a dry look before pushing the power button on his computer. The Mac flickered to life with a holy-sounding "Piiing!"

"…It's such a SHAME though…only an idiot would say no to something like this…"

His brow twitched. Idiot?

"…Hell, even Naruto has enough sense to take one of this wonderful chocolates…"

Sasuke's hand reached out and snatched a truffle out of the open box sitting in Sakura's lap. Taking a bite out of it, he was pleased to see that he abhorred sweets even more now.

Sakura laughed slightly. "Aren't they great?" she asked, popping the rest of her chocolate into her mouth. There was a creamy dark chocolate whip inside of hers – deliciousss.

"Shut up, Sakura," Sasuke told her. He reached down into his bag where his VitaminWater was –

– to find that he had just drank it all before. "I hate sweets," he muttered to himself darkly, digging through his bookbag for a drink "Fuck," he cursed darkly, flipping between the books.

Sakura snorted. As if there'd be a drink between his notebooks.

Dropping his messenger bag to the floor in defeat, Sasuke's brow furrowed as he sank lower into his seat, arms crossed, half finished chocolate pinched between two fingers.

Sakura almost laughed out loud. He was actually pouting. In a twisted, Sasuke-y way, that is.

"Here."

Sasuke's ink colored eyes looked up at his shoulder. A half-drunken Rescue (green tea flavored) was dangling by his head. Reaching up slowly, he accepted it.

"Thanks…" he told her quietly, unscrewing the cap slowly to see if Sakura would protest about him sharing her drink with him. Sakura wouldn't mind. She shared everything with everyone. Tea with Ino, cookies with Naruto. Why would it be different with him?

Sakura grinned at him, ignoring Ibiki who was making his way up to the front of his classroom to begin his lecture.

"No problem," Sakura told him with an amicable smile.

Her grin turned wicked. "But really. What kind of pansy can't even eat a chocolate?" she asked, cackling. "I mean really they aren't harm – oof!"

Sasuke had thrown her VitaminWater back at her, hitting her square in the stomach. "Shut UP, Sakura."

Sakura coughed into her napkin for the umpteenth time, blinking away watery tears that had formed during her coughing fit.

"Shit, Sakura, what's gotten you?" Ino asked, leaning away from her friend as she coughed her lungs out. She couldn't afford getting sick, after all.

"I dunno," Sakura rasped out through her stuffy nose. "I guess it's time to start wearing a thicker coat?" she asked, coughing again.

Naruto peered at her skeptically. "Y'know, somehow, I don't think that's gonna help," he drawled out sincerely. "I think you should go see a doctor or something, Sakura." He stabbed a ravioli out of the bowl sitting in front of him, popping it into his mouth.

"Or use NyQuil," Sasuke added on dryly, contributing to the conversation for once.

Sakura wrinkled her nose. "I don't think I need to do that yet," she told her friends, unwrapping her scarf and wrapping it around her neck even tighter. She pushed away her tray. Her stomach was starting to do flips and somersaults inside of her abdomen – not from being nervous or anxious either.

She slid further down into her chair, sagging against the armrests tiredly. Gently, she massaged her head slightly with cold fingertips. She only had a chemistry lecture later today…she could make it through that at least. She closed her eyes as she rested her forehead against her cool fingers. Only one more class…

--

Naruto glanced at Sakura while he was finishing up his lunch. "Sakura's asleep, right?" he asked, biting into a particularly well-stuffed ravioli. Cheese trailed from his fork to his mouth as he tried to suck all of the gooey mozzarella into his mouth.

Ino turned her head. Sakura was indeed slumped down in her chair. "I wonder what's gotten her," she muttered as she reached over to touch Sakura's forehead. "Oh, fuck!" she instantly jerked her hand away. "Her fever's really high," she said to Naruto and Sasuke's questioning looks.

"We should get her into bed," Naruto suggested, grabbing his tray and standing up. He tossed the tray out and was back in a heartbeat. He put on his bookbag (tangerine orange, just like his personality), pulling his single-strapped backpack across his chest hurriedly. Naruto moved to start picking up Sakura when –

"Ew, Naruto, don't touch her, you have meat sauce all over your hands," Ino interrupted, waving Naruto's hands away from Sakura. "Take her stuff instead. Sasuke…can you take Sakura?"

Sasuke gave Ino a dull look before standing up slowly, pocketing his Blackberry and putting on his messenger bag. Carefully, he scooped Sakura out of her chair. Heat from her fever was clearly felt, even through her coat.

"Who doesn't have classes for the rest of today?" Ino asked as they set off to Sakura's dorm. "I think someone should watch over her, or at least check on her."

Naruto shook his head, cerulean eyes apologetic. "I have a poli-sci class in an hour," he told Ino with a sigh. "What about you?"

"That's why I'm asking you guys," Ino replied. "I have biology in forty-five minutes."

The two blonds turned to the last (conscious) member of their group. "Sasuke…?"

The Uchiha nodded, "It's fine, I'll do it," he told them in a soft voice, not wanting to wake the sleeping girl in his arms.

"You don't have a class?" Naruto asked him, puzzled. "I coulda sworn you did…" he trailed off, shrugging it away. "Whatever."

Sasuke shook his head. "I don't have a class," he told them. "Come on."

--

"We'll just come back here whenever our classes are done, okay?" Ino said to Sasuke, tucking the corners of Sakura's blanket in before swinging her bags over her arm. "If anything's wrong, call us," she prattled on, much like the worried mother Sakura never had. She gave Sakura one last worried look before exiting the small dorm.

Naruto nodded, "See you later bastard," he told Sasuke cheerfully before following Ino out through the door.

Sasuke "Hn."'ed in response and shut the door after them before sitting down on the floor, back against the wall so he was facing Sakura.

He pulled out his laptop. It was probably best to start composing an e-mail to Hyuuga Neji, a boy in his financing class.

Perhaps he would e-mail him the notes he would be missing during today's lecture…the lecture that started about twenty minutes ago.

"Is she still not better?" Naruto asked the next day at breakfast when he saw Ino enter the cafeteria alone.

Ino sighed and pulled out her chair, slumping down into it. "Yeah, she was basically vomiting her guts out all last night," she informed her two tablemates dryly.

Naruto flinched outwardly in response to Ino's comment. Sasuke however, being Sasuke, showed no reaction at all, taking a satisfying bite out of his buttered toast.

"What's her fever right now?" Naruto asked through a mouth of Lucky Charms.

"101.4," Ino sighed miserably. "I wonder what got her sick," she wondered, sipping at the espresso she had clutched in her hands. "Her throat is really irritated – I swear I saw spots on it – and she's been blowing her nose a lot."

Naruto ate a red balloon marshmallow and dug his spoon around his bowl, chasing a rainbow and a shooting star around in the milk. "Not to mention she has a fever and she's throwing up."

Sasuke took out his VitaminWater and cracked open his brand new bottle. Vital-T – Lemon Tea flavor.

Ino eyed the bottle with distaste. "I bet that's what got her sick," she muttered with an eye roll. "I locked her fridge, so she can't drink any until she gets better."

"No such thing as bad VitaminWater," Sasuke interjected monotonously.

Naruto froze. "Y'know Sakura's sickness sounds a lot like what Sasuke-bastard had," he said slowly. "I wonder…"

Sasuke blinked, remembering the chocolate incident from a few days ago. And how he had some of her VitaminWater. And how he was probably still contagious when he had drank after her. And then given the bottle back. "…Hn."

Which in Sasukenese totally meant "Oops."

"Our final exam is coming up in a few weeks. I want you and your partner to spend the rest of today reviewing while I grade," Ibiki told his freshman psychology class shortly after the completion of his lecture. "Go."

Sasuke scowled as he realized he was partner less. Dammit Sakura, he thought, opening up Microsoft Word on his MacBook and scrolling through months of notes.

"Uchiha."

Sasuke's head snapped up from his screen to his teacher. "Yes sir?" he asked politely as he stared at one of Ibiki's face scars. He hated making eye contact.

Ibiki looked down at Sasuke indifferently. "Where's Haruno?" he asked.

"She's sick."

Ibiki shrugged slightly. "Make sure she gets today's notes, and tell her that our final is soon," he told Sasuke, before turning his heel to walk back towards his desk.

"Someone take Uchiha into their group so he's not straggling," he called out, black coat swishing around his knees as he strode back to his desk.

Several groups of girls squealed, and began to bicker about who would get Sasuke in their group.

Sasuke decided to take the safe way out and go sit with Naruto and Ino…

…only to get stuck listening to their plans about attending the latest "hot" party this Friday night.

Honestly. Getting intoxicated so often was obviously not healthy.

He slid further down into his chair before opening his textbook to flip mindlessly through the pages.

Class sure sucked today.

Sakura struggled to sit up in her bed as she awoke again for the third time. She had been sleeping for the past two days, but she still felt like shit.

Blowing her nose into a tissue, she tossed the crumpled napkin to the growing pile in her trashcan.

A pale hand reached out from underneath her warm blankets to the nightstand, reaching for the glass of water Ino had kindly left on the small table. She scowled as she sipped at it, pink lips twisting into a pout. Ino had forbade her from drinking any VitaminWater until she was over her cold slash fever slash whatever-it-was, taking the liberty to padlock her fridge.

Sakura set the glass down, her hands automatically reaching for a lock of hair for her tug at in irritation – until she realized her pink tresses were all tied up into an angry knot at the top of her head.

She was well aware that the knot was probably not a fashionable bun either, and most likely a literal giant knot.

She sneezed.

Life sucked.

--

A light knock on her door woke Sakura up a fourth time, right after she had fallen into a fitful sleep.

Sliding her feet into slippers, Sakura slumped slowly to the door. Opening it up, she found no one there. Except for a strange basket on the floor.

She dragged it inside, examining the contents as she crawled back in bed, one arm picking at the package on the floor. Sakura smiled.

Chocolates, oranges, tomatoes, and several bottles of VitaminWater sat inside of the woven basket, cheerfully waiting for her. A tiny bottle of NyQuil was tucked in between a XXX and a Defense. Pour vous, the tag on the basket said in a familiar scrawl, neat and professional.

And suddenly, life just got better.

Naruto, Sasuke, Ino, and Sakura had a designated breakfast time – 8:30, everyday. If you weren't there by 8:35 (Ino was usually tardy), you probably weren't going to show up at all.

So naturally, it took the first three by quite a surprise when Sakura managed to drag herself into the cafeteria at 8:45 the next morning.

"Do you feel better?" Ino asked in astonishment as she popped a grape into her mouth.

Sakura smiled. "Nope, I still feel like shit," she informed her friends cheerfully. "But I figured I'd try to make it to psych. today. We have that final soon, after all."

Naruto laughed. "Ibiki's class isn't worth it," he told Sakura. "It really isn't."

Sakura shrugged. "I still don't want to miss it," she said airily. "Oh, and Ino?"

"Mm?"

"Unlock my fridge."

"I don't think I remember a single thing about the philosophers," Sakura told Sasuke as they flipped through their textbooks during psychology class. "Hmm, this could be potentially bad, wouldn't you say?"

Sasuke snorted softly. "Probably."

They sat there quietly, both slid way down in their plastic seats, knees propped up against the backs of the chairs in front of them.

Sasuke glanced at his psych partner. She was there, green eyes wide, absorbing knowledge. She was there, chewing on the eraser of her pencil. She was there, cherry colored locks in chin-length waves because she didn't feel like straightening her hair this morning. She was there.

And suddenly, psychology class got a whole lot better.

Sorry about the delay. Lost my muse for a bit.
This chapter was definitely not to the best of my ability. I'm sorry, the next one will be better, I promise.

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Review. (: