NaruBaby2496

The area all around me seemed to hush, not too sharply, but not easily ignored, from the corner of my eye, I could see Ino glance at me, her whole face reading 'Fix it, Forehead!', and I could see TenTen stop talking all together. She stuttered awkwardly before she just shut her mouth, obviously embarrassed for me, though that wasn't even a problem.

I didn't need pity. I don't need pity. Psh. Pity is for losers.

So, I straightened my back, forced those tears that were forming in my eyes back, imagined Lee singing in the shower to make my blush go away (and, Kami, trust me, that did work!), and steeled myself for looking into Sasuke's eyes.

Which might've been the biggest mistake of my life.

My mouth snapped closed fast, my teeth chattering afterwards.

I do need pity! (But, that doesn't mean I'm a loser, because I am opposite, thank you very much) I mean, the first things I ever said to my fucking soul mate were 'I like applesauce'! When I'm eighty years old and my adorable green-eyed, dark-haired grandchildren (notice the plural, because Sasuke and me are going to get busy like rabbits repopulating for world take-over) ask me what the first thing I ever said to Grandpa was, I would have to tell him about applesauce—because honesty is the policy. If you didn't know, I follow policy.

I always follow policy. Always, always, always, always—

My face disgruntled into something ugly at first glance of red, and I couldn't help but sneer. "Bitch…"

That. Thing. Walking. Toward. Me. Was…

KARIN.

Worse than HN1, but best friends with the pigs of Swine Flu.

Redder (and fatter) than a plump tomato, but as sour (and oddly shaped) as a strawberry.

Hairy as Elmo but as molester as Barney.

She is Karin. Kaori Karin. BEWARE!

It wasn't until I could see the determined glint in her eye, the one that reminded me so much of the same flash that would pass through my sister's eyes whenever she was on a boy scouting mission, that the gears in my brain finally started rotating, and my anger started unraveling. I followed her gaze to Sasuke's back, and I sneered again. She is not—

"Haruno." Sasuke said silkily, ripping me harshly away from my current dream of Karin falling face first down some never-ending, spiraling stairs.

I smiled brightly, drunkenly even. "I'm fine, Sasuke-kun. You shouldn't worry about me," I leaned around him, glaring, looking for the redhead and her posse of loyal kittens, just to see that they were all gone. Like air. Gone. Poof.

Psh. I'm not complaining.

"Do you want to come with us, Sasuke-kun? We're just going to hang out until we get hungry and then we're going to head to the food court and get a smoothie or something, and then we might shop, and it's always nice to have some different opinions on dresses and shoes and—"

Sasuke put his hands in his pockets and shrugged aloofly, though a smirk played on his lips, his eyes suddenly not as hard as before. "I—"

I shoved a finger onto his (perfect) lips and snarled, eyes narrowing deviously.

IT WAS MY WORST NIGHTMARE EMBODIED IN A KARIN!

The redheaded demon reappeared, snaking herself around Sasuke, gripping his arm for dear life, her boobs (ahem, toilet tissue stuffed bra) straddling either side of the muscular flesh. She nuzzled her head into the crook of his neck, smelling him like he was some type of smelling salt and like I was invisible. Like I wasn't just talking to him. Like I wasn't just inviting him to shop with us. Like he wasn't about…to say…YES!

My arm fell down from his lips like a limp noodle.

She cooed, "Ne, Sasu-chan, I missed you," she pressed herself closer, "so very much."

He didn't say anything, but even my friends could tell that his annoyance meters were reaching dangerous highs, seeing they had stopped talking to their boy toys and joined in my glaring at Karin and her trolls. They really are trolls. They live under bridges. They're kitty trolls.

Naruto was the last of the boys to stop talking, and when he did, he managed to whistle lowly, a smile tugging on his lips. "…Awkwardness…."

It was awkward, actually extremely awkward, but what made me think most were the tone Naruto had taken and the obviously agitated look on Sasuke's face. I could've sworn I saw a small pink tint in his cheeks, too. My apple green eyes roamed over to left to see Neji, arms crossed across his chest, jaw clenching angrily, and Shikamaru, who was muttering, "Troublesome parasite," over and over again. Hm.

How…interesting…that Karin can get such a reaction from all the boys…

I'll have to investigate into that as soon as she pries her nasty claws off MY Sasuke-kun and goes to find a deep well in a middle of a dark alley and I accidently push her into it!

I composed myself, though I was still about two steps away from ripping the girl's throat out. "EXCUSE—"

No growling. That only gets you in more trouble.

Thank Kami for Jiminy Cricket, the ever-famous conscious/green bug thing. (LOL, I MEAN CRICKET!)

My voice calmed considerably, into a forced sweetness. "Excuse me, Karin, but, I was—"

She simply glanced at me, looking like she was about to retaliate, until she realized she had 'more important matters' at hand. She wrapped her hands around Sasuke's waist and forced a hug. "Mou, Sasu-chan, why won't you talk to me?" Her voice turned sultry. "Are you tense, I could give you a mass—?"

Sasuke, finally talking, looked more than pissed, and the almost red flash in his eyes made my heart skip a beat. He seethed like a mother fudging French snake!

"Back. Off. Kaori."

I could've laughed at her expression, somewhat crossed between a confused toddler and an abandoned puppy-dog, but either way, she looked defeated. And that, my friends, is the goal. It is always the goal.

"But, Sasu-chan—"

"My name is Sasuke."

"But, Sasuke-kun!"

"Sas-uke." He pronounced each syllable as if he was talking to an irresponsible toddler—whore.

Karin bounced around. "SASUKE-KU," She corrected herself before adding the honorific, and with much difficulty she whined, "…but Sasuke!"

He ripped his way out of Karin's grip, and just scowled. "I suggest scattering."

She and her puppets—now they're kitty troll puppets—, who had settled in behind Karin, flanking her her, stared analytically at Sasuke, reading him. The blonde chick with the glasses was on the right, the brunette trip with pigtails was on the left, and the trio stood their ground, not defiantly, or anything, but they stayed.

Karin removed her glasses and blinked (not so) prettily. "Scatter to your pen—"

"Now." He murmured darkly, not even sparing a glance in her direction. Because she is not worth it. It being your eyes burning out because you looked at such an ugly thing.

It took a few minutes, a few seconds, really, of silence, strained silence, until she whipped her head to the right with a huff and stomped away, high-heeled boots clacking on the tiled mall flooring.

The empty silence, quiet enough that I could hear my own heart pounding in my ears, lasted until the trio finally melted into the heavy mall-crowd, lost between the people. No one dared to speak.

"THAT WAS MEGA-TENSE!"

Until now.

The person who screamed was blonde. I didn't think to check who (as if it mattered), because Sasuke was back to looking at me, a look closest to apology glazed over in the obsidian.

I smiled. "Don't worry about it, I get it, really."

I, actually, more than got it. I used to be one of Karin's followers in elementary school, all the way up to the sixth grade, with Ino. She was the blonde (obviously) and I was the brunette (not so obviously). We called ourselves Kiss, because the first letters of all of our names are K, S, and I, and Kis just didn't look right on the t-shirts.

Yes.

We had t-shirts.

You're jel.

In the seventh grade, I got tired of following after the redhead and never being able to get any lead myself. Ino quit because the t-shirt didn't fit her cute enough.

Sasuke nodded, a smile tugging at his lips. "Alright. I'll, um, be right back."

I smiled wider, pink blush brushed on my cheeks. I chirped, "Yeah, sure!"

It was somewhat automatic how after Sasuke left, the three other boys stopped talking to my friends and made their own little huddle, as if they were talking something over. It was automatic how we did the same thing. BUT, we did it first, so they're the mega-loser-copiers.

To an outsider, we probably looked like a football team before tip-off. Er, kick-off? What's it called for football…? Again??

…

…

…

Whatever. We're in a huddle.

"Status, girls?"

Ino's normally chipper and stereotyped Valley Forge Girl voice was replaced with a more serious baritone.

TenTen pulled out a piece of paper from who knows where, with plenty of bullet points scribbled in her messy cursive from who knows when. "Well, I asked him and he said that he didn't really care as long as we didn't make him carry too many bags and we don't go to, like, White Castles or anything like that at the court."

Ino nodded. "Hinata; status?"

"W-Well," The Hyuuga heiress began with a light stutter, "Naruto-kun says he doesn't mind, and that'd he'd enjoy company w-who wou-would actually talk t-to him."

"Forehead?"

All eyes were on me, and I shrugged my shoulders. "I almost got an affirmative."

Ino screeched. "ALMOST?!"

"Yeah, but then Kaori showed up and—"

A loud blonde boy ripped our huddle apart and stood proudly in the middle. "Let's go, mis chicas favoritas!"

I bet all my life's savings that it's a certain boob named Naruto~!

Shikamaru stared analytically at Sasuke, until the Uchiha began narrowing his eyes into a glare.

"Relax, Uchiha. You're like a dog going through heat."

Naruto laughed loudly, until Neji hushed him with silent warning.

The Nara rolled his eyes, muttering something like, "Troublesome," before focusing back on Sasuke.

"I thought you said there wouldn't be any fan girls."

Sasuke just grunted.

"Sasuke, we both know that's not a word."

Glare.

Tired glare.

Sneer.

Sigh. "I think Naruto has the best plan."

There was silence for a long while, until Sasuke spoke through clenched teeth, "I don't get the logic behind that. How would using her help with the—?"

"You're not using her, per se, Sasuke-teme. It's a…trade-off…you could say."

Neji rose a dark brow; interest piqued by Naruto's smartened tone. Whenever he started talking like that, no matter how many times he would deny if asked, the Uzumaki made some sense. "How so, Uzumaki?"

He smiled goofily. "Well, she likes Sasuke a lot, right?"

Collective nods.

"And we all want the fan girls—choughKARINcough—gone, right?"

Collective nods.

"Girls tend to leave boys they like alone once they're, I don't know, attached. Preoccupied. Taken. Not theirs."

Sasuke nodded a final time, though he knotted his brows together. "Why with—"

Shikamaru merely scoffed. "She freaking loves you, okay!"

"You never noticed, Uchiha?" Neji asked, genuinely taken back, because he knew since the third grade.

Sasuke just grunted. "Hn. Tell them we'll go, Dobe."

Am I that oblivious?

"You are." Shikamaru muttered from behind him.

My mother once told me when writing a story it was important to take time out to characterize each one of the characters in a scene with vivid imagery and colors, great adjectives, visionary phrases, and feeling. That I should skip out on sentences that didn't help in the characterization process, and avoid fragments at all costs. Well, I love my Kaa-san, but I'm kind of skipping that part until I'm bored and feel like writing pages and pages worth of all the people I know! (BECAUSE I KNOW EVERYBODY~!)

My Mom, Haruno Rei, you know you know her, is the author of the smash-hit of a book, Let's Pretend, For Real. She wants it to be a movie soon, though; she said the book title was too long and forgetful to be iconic. She wants something quick and amazing, memorable, like 100 First Dates, Hellboy, Super Bad, or, dare I say Twilight. All those are shortly worded, and easy to recall.

I'll help her think of a title once she gets a finalization.

Anyway, the book of hers is about a boy, Logan (like, how imaginative, right? sarcasm…), who is constantly hounded by fan girls, because, um, he's gorgeous. Mom says that he's, supposedly, more gorgeous than Sasuke-kun, and that has to be, like, Roman GOD. Anyway, since he's always being mentally raped by these fan girls of his, he goes ahead and decides to pick one that's closest to him, his childhood friend named Kennedy (again, imaginative), and eventually they become boyfriend and girlfriend, and they're adorable together. BUT, Logan is just using her to keep the fan girls away! GASP! So, she's all loverly with him thinking she's in love and stuff, while he's just putting on the affectionate mask whenever a fan girl comes by.

When ends come to ends, Logan ends up falling for Kennedy, but, by that time, Kennedy was told by her friend Peter, who is Logan's friend too, that Logan is just using her. So, when Logan is about to give her a promise ring (cute right?), she is all, "Um, no, you jerk face, you're using me to be rid of fan girls!"

Of course, Logan explains everything, and, since it's a romance book, and Mom wants to make it a series, they got back together under the final note of "Can they make it work with the clouded past of trickery and deception?"

I know the end—they break up twice, go their separate ways, but then get back together—but I think that book is total jank. If I were with a guy as hot as Logan is supposed to be, I wouldn't care if he were using me. That is, like, refusing a helicopter ride with Taylor Lautner. (WHO IS SO FUCKING HOT!)

Ahem.

I was supposed to be talking to my friends. Look at you, got me going off track.

Right now, the eight of us, as in me, Ino, TenTen, Hinata, Naruto, Neji, Shikamaru, and Sasuke, are all walking to the food court, since the stores were ridiculously packed with kids trying to buy last minute clothes for the school year. At our school, once your in, your in, and once the gates close (metaphorically, of course), there's no coming out until the weekend, or, during the weeknights, six o'clock, but you have to be back by nine, lights out by ten thirty.

Have I ever expressed my anger toward jank curfews before?! UGAHW (!(_(#EAGAMES!

:P.

"Do you guys want food, or, like—" TenTen started, stepping down the semi-steep steps to the food court, which was as equally packed as the stores. I could almost growl. There is no other reason toward coming to the mall on Sunday besides avoiding crowds. Why. Is. There. A. Crowd. DAMMIT!

Naruto the human pumpkin pumped his fist in the air, almost bonking Hinata on the head in the process. "RAMEN?! Of course I want ramen, TenTen-chan! That's so kind of you to think of me like that."

He smiled innocently, then leaped over the staircase, full throttled speed heading toward Ichiraku, forgetting that we were in a group and if we lost one of another we could get in some deep shit.

DEEP.

SHIZ.

"We should probably get to eating if we want to make it by the Hyuugas' curfew," Shikamaru drawled, lazily moving the small bag of jewelry in his hand—Ino insisted standing in that long-ass line just to buy ONE pair of earrings—and slumping down the steps.

Neji shrugged, though that too looked extremely graceful and (admittedly) feminine. All the Hyuugas had that about them, even the males. Neji has a cousin who's a junior named Harou, and he's the Varsity quarterback. Like Neji, he's muscular and toned, yes, but somehow still very lithe, graceful, and artistic.

I am jealous of how beautiful they are.

"Hinata-chan," He addressed, his voice confident (as always), "come with me, I'd like to talk to you about something."

The girl giggled, I raised an eyebrow, then she winked toward Ino, I gaped in confusion, then she walked down the stairs happily. I almost wanted to slap myself. This was awkward.

Ino laughed too, and smiled widely, looking at me. "Well, lookey here, it's just you and you, isn't that interesting?" Her voice was heavily dramatized, and she looked like she was acting as she pointed between Sasuke and me.

Me and Sasuke.

Sasuke and I.

I and Sasuke.

(-kun.)

She smiled again. "I have to go now, so why don't you two sweethearts talk it up while we wait for you at Ichiraku, yes?"

NO! "Sure…I don't see why not." I shrugged, trying to keep the blush from rising to my cheeks.

Ino giggled. "Alrighty then!" She clapped, "I'll see you two later!"

NO! "Okay, then, bye!"

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

Sasuke finally turned to me and looked me in the eyes, black boring into green. "You're hyperventilating."

"I am not!" I shrieked, making Ino, way in the background, trip down her last step and land on the linoleum face first.

I ignored the thump as I stared at the Uchiha in front of me. I crossed my arms. "What makes you think that I am hyperventilating?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "You were just screaming 'No!' while having miniature seizures."

"NO!"

For the first time, I actually felt myself twitch.

I tried walking away from him and going to Ichiraku, just to save myself from the embarrassment. Two steps to the cool stools and Ino popped up right in front of me, so closely that I almost fell down and onto my butt.

"What are you doing, Sakura?" She said, once again in her sergeant voice.

I scratched my head. "IDK, walking to go and get some ramen?"

"Negatory. You're talking to Sasuke-kun and fulfilling your mission."

I stared blankly at her. Since when did I sign up for military school? Boot camp?

Ino rolled her baby blue eyes. "You are going to get Sasuke to start thinking about you in a different way. To. Night."

"But—"

"No complaints. You want him, right?"

.

I want him more than butter demands toast.

.

I nodded quickly up and down.

"Okay then. Get your flirt on!"

Now, we reach now, right after I was literally pushed up stairs to Sasuke, and forced to talk to him. To converse. To 'get' 'my' 'flirt' 'on'.

To be honest, I really did not feel like it. I was hungry, my stomach growling loud enough to be considered a freaking earthquake, I was starting to get all sweaty because I was so nervous, I really, really, really needed to piss because I just so happened to drink three cups of water from the water fountain about ten minutes ago to calm my nerves, and, if you couldn't find out by now, it is not working! I just want to go hide in some type of hole and cry!

I pouted. "Ne, Sasuke-kun, isn't Ino the worst?" I whined, slinking down to the ground, leaning my back against the wall Sasuke was leaning against. It was actually more like a beam, to be completely honest. That's beside the point though, because, unlike what I expected, Sasuke stopped staring into space, looking like he was brooding over something, and sat next to me.

"Enlighten me."

IS IT JUST ME OR DOES THIS GUY REFUSE TO ASK QUESTIONS!?

Since I was currently mad at the girl for disapproving me my freaking meal, I groaned. "Well, for one, she's kind of pushy."

He nodded.

"And like," I readjusted my position facing him fully, my eyebrows furrowed in that 'I'm steaming away my pent up anger at a person by talking with full concentration' face, and my hands started moving on their own, since I talk with them. Deal with it you lames. "I've always been her best friend since I was like four, when kids used to tease me for my forehead, okay? So, she would, like, stick up for me and stuff, and, admittedly, she taught me how to stand up for myself and in a way she kind of molded me but, now I'm kind of making myself sound like her puppet or something. I'm not, I swear!"

Sasuke rested his head on his palm, lightly frowning. "Finish the story."

"FINE! And, like, she's always made me do whatever she did and stuff, and she's like a freaking lieutenant general or something and we're her little follower soldier people and if pisses me off! Like, I can live on my own, you know?"

He nodded.

"So, we're in the third grade and she wanted to do swimming, but I was freaking terrified of water because my dog drowned the last month, but she had me sign up for the lessons anyway. It was terrible, Sasuke-kun! I couldn't even focus on learning; I was too busy asking Kami to spare my life!"

Sasuke smirked lightly. "You're afraid of water."

I wanted to thump him on the head. Hard. So, I did. "That's really mean, Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke was on the swim team last year, so I guess he would find the fact that I'm terrified of all things that have to do with me and swimming and water a little humorous. I understand completely, really, I do. That doesn't take away the fact that it hurts. It hurts on the inside.

He flinched a little, but, nevertheless, he found the time to thump me back.

It's safe to say within the next thirty seconds, we were in a full out thumping war (maybe later we can find time to remove the't' from thumping and have one of those wars? :P) laughing, chuckling, in his case, and smiling. Yes, you're jealous, because I actually saw Sasuke smile. It wasn't an 'OH MY GOD, THAT'S HILARI!' smile from ear to ear, but, I'll take what I can get.

Through uneven breaths, I smiled. "Ne, Sasuke-kun, how come you're being all nice to me now?"

I don't need to tell you the story, do I? The story of how I was nonexistent? The story of how I was invisible? The story of how—you get the gist, yes?

He brushed his bangs out of his face, his strong hands running through the no-doubt silky, soft, smooth raven locks. I couldn't help but notice how his bicep just flexed with the rising of his arm, the thoughtful look in his obsidian orbs as he sighed lowly.

Sasuke shrugged. "It's a long story."

A pregnant pause fell over the atmosphere as soon as our breaths evened, and I propped my knee up, laying my head on it and staring at him. Sasuke really is handsome, but he's not perfect. I could go on and on talking about the aristocratic shape of his nose, the model-worthy cheekbones, kissable lips, somehow always soft-looking, never chapped, and don't get me started about his eyes. The dark, hypnotizing, deep wells of black that I'd have no problem falling into, as dark as night, as mystifying as the stars that accompany it. I giggled lightly, and he quickly glanced in my direction, and, like to opposite magnets, our gazes were locked.

If I don't know anything, I know I really like this guy.

But, sometimes, he could be really cold. You have to be extremely close to him to know why he's so distant at times, so detached. My mind can go on plenty of different routes that lead to the roots of the problem. I won't be happy until I know, I won't be content until he's the one who tells me. Right now, I think it's because he had severe clown trauma and every time he sees something that reminds him of a clown, he gets all Emo and snappy. I'm pretty sure that's not it, but…

Everything about Sasuke is left at an open end, like those cool activity books that leave blanks in the middle of sentences, open for you to fill in with your own verbs, adjectives, or nouns. Sometimes I wonder what it'll take to fill in Sasuke's empty spaces, if he even wants them to be filled in, if he'll accept it.

It was now that I realize how close we were, I could feel the heat radiating off his body, and it was somewhat automatic how we both leaned closer together, how, at the moment, I didn't think anything was really wrong. My mind was in too much of a blur, a fast, bundled blur of thoughts all focused on Sasuke-kun, and the fact that he was this close to—

Suddenly a loud group of giggling girls arrived, smiling ridiculously, blush dancing across their cheeks. My head whipped in their direction, and I could quickly and easily label them. Fan Girls. Stupid. Retarded. Fan Girls. I wanted to freaking growl like a ballistic animalistic at them, full on beast mode! Do they not understand that I was this close to—

A hand gripped my shoulder, twisting me around, face to face (more accurately, lips to lips) with Sasuke.

My mind whirred faster than I could process. Like, do you know how it feels to be randomly kissed!? I don't care if it's Sasuke, I couldn't help it! I held my lips in a hard, straight line, almost refusing to believe it was true, and that I wasn't playing games on myself. When I get hungry, it happens. When I felt him actually trying, though, his hand pressing me closer to his body, the other stroking my cheek softly, and sending strokes of heat like fire over my face. He was being persuasive, almost daring me to try to ignore it any longer, ignore the feel of his lips on mine, the closeness.

Well, shit.

It looks like I just lost this dare, because, psh, shock overload is O-V-E-R.

Immediately, I feel into rhythm, our lips moving in complete synchronization. My breath hitched when I felt his tongue brushed my bottom lip, like, what the fuck? He's doing it on purpose and he knows it! He knows I really have to piss myself and he wants to embarrass me right in the middle of the mall!

That bitch.

Before I could end the kiss myself—not because I was mad or anything, air is a necessity—he slid his lips off mind and he smirked, half out of breath himself, though he found a way to keep a steady voice.

"Be my girlfriend."

My mouth hung open in time with the fan girls'—well, the ones who stayed to watch the show :P—gasps, and my heart demanded to pop out of my chest.

If his goal was to get me to empty my bladder in public, he's doing a pretty damn good job of accomplishing it.

Tension built, the fan girls were waiting, obsidian eyes bore into mine, and I couldn't help but feel like I was the deciding factor of whether the sky was blue or chartreuse.

"Say…," Sasuke murmured softly, moving his mouth to my ear, breath hot and tingly against my earlobe, "yes, Sakura."

The fan girls huddled closer, itching on every word.

I bit my lip. "I-I-I—yeah, sure…"

There go the contents of my bladder.

Review!

~NaruBaby2496

Monopoly