A/N: Hey, guess what! I lost my inspiration again! I have no ideas whatsoever for this chapter. It is getting frustrating, really. Oh, and I also lost my connexion to Internet. And I'm missing school because I'm sick again. Life is great. Oh well, I know someone else who isn't enjoying life either. Support the Sasuke-has-to-enjoy-life foundation and leave a review after reading. Please. I'm not asking much here.

Anyway, enjoy!

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He should be used to it by now. Travelling with Sakura gets you immune to anything of this sort. Really, nobody could get out of even just a conversation with her without having seen enough of all of it. However, Sasuke had seen himself welcoming annoyance back in his overflow of emotions as soon as he had set foot in this village, for it was full of what he had been trying to avoid for the past eight years.

Happiness.

The lights of the city were obsessing him, drawing him towards the front gates like a very stupid black fly who has no idea what's going to happen to itself after it got stuck on a particularly vivid neon. And there was also the pink-haired grass-hopper who was pulling him straight to it.

Life was cruel.

It was cruel because he just arrived to a village in the middle of a fair. It was cruel because he hated fairs. It was cruel because there was no way he could avoid the fair. It was cruel because Sakura loved fairs. It was cruel because she had asked him to go with her to the fair. It was cruel because he couldn't bring himself to tell her no.

That is why he was now dragged towards the (obviously mischievous) lights of the village, a pink-haired annoyance with a big smile on her face pulling his hand, with a slight feeling in his gut that told him something bad was going to happen.

That was when he started to wonder if his gut could define "bad".

"Come on, Sasuke-kun! I don't want to miss any of it," she hurried him.

Okay, no need for the gut to answer, he already knew how bad it was.

"Hello, miss! Welcome to our wonderful village! Are you coming to enjoy the fair?" Asked a man with a humongous moustache.

"Yes, I am!" Sakura answer (way too) happily (for Sasuke's taste).

"Well, play as much as you will, but you might want to keep your energy, the fair goes on for three days!" the man replied, giving Sakura a bright, gigantic smile which Sasuke chose not to trust. Who knows, he could be a maniac who wants to brainwash them both with his fair.

Did I mention Sasuke hated fairs?

They entered the gates and looked around, taking in the sight of the children running around their parents (most likely annoying the hell out of them) begging them to buy (dare he say) sweets and of the couples strolling two by two towards the endless line of people waiting to ride the Ferris wheel.

Pathetic idiots.

Sasuke felt Sakura's small hand grab his. Before he even had time to start to feel like it would be a good idea to maybe begin to wonder if he should try to probably someday ask her what she was doing, she started to (literally) drag him towards the Ferris wheel line. When she finally came to a stop, he was frowning and she was ranting about how great fairs were.

Sasuke sent dirty looks to men who either just came out of the Ferris wheel or possessed enough power over their girlfriends to convince them not to go on the machine of death (meaning the Ferris) who were passing by, looking rather amused at the fact that a mighty male like him had even been dragged to a fair by his pink-haired girlfriend (they only assumed she was his girlfriend) and was the last in line for the Dread-ish wheel.

Sakura noticed some men walking pass them seemed to be incline on peeing in their pants and running off whimpering with their girlfriends laughing their asses off running after them and turned to her companion. She intercepted the glares he was distributing to all and tugged on his sleeve. He turned his head towards her, still frowning.

"Sasuke-kun, what's wrong?" She asked, slightly worried.

"Hn," he answered flatly.

"Oh no, you don't! You are not starting the one-syllable words again, you hear me? I've had enough of those grunts no one can understand! Now will you tell me why you're sending those poor men change their wet pants?"

Uh oh, not good. She was hissing again.

"Nothing's wrong," he answered (still as) flatly (as ever).

"Sasuke-kun, I'm not dumb. You know I'm a good psychologist, I can almost read people's minds. I know something's wrong and I won't let it go until you tell me what's bothering you so much that you need to glare at everything that's moving. And stop trying to burn that ant with your eyes, it already fainted."

Sasuke snapped his eyes away from the (apparently unconscious) insect and gave Sakura an annoyed look.

"Oh, puh-lease, don't give me that look, I may have not seen it for years but it most certainly doesn't bother me anymore!"

Sasuke ignored her.

Sakura sighed. This was going to be one hell of a long night if she didn't do anything about his behaviour. She put a hand on his chest and rose on her tiptoes to level her mouth next to his ear.

"Sasuke-kun?" She whispered almost threateningly. "Do you want me to give you a little reminder of what happened last time you irritated me?"

She felt him tense up. She smirked, pleased with herself. Her plan was working like a charm. She took his silence as a no and continued.

"Now, will you tell me what's getting you so upset?"

He sighed, trying to relax a little bit. Of course, she didn't understand. As good of a psychologist she appeared to be, she just couldn't understand his hatred for fairs. Even he couldn't. Their minds were just too different. If she hadn't been threatening his power to reproduce, he wouldn't have bothered answering her.

Unfortunately, life's a bitch and so was she.

"I-…" he started.

"Yeeeees?" She urged him innocently, her smile widening.

He stared at her dumbly for a second (and a half), deciding inwardly if he should tell her or not. The part of him that was rational (and that cared for his balls' safety) was screaming at him to tell her he hated fairs. Unfortunately, the other part of him that remembered he was (supposed to be) a proud Uchiha was beating the first part to a virtual bloody pulp at the same time as preparing a thirty minutes oral presentation to show his point on why he shouldn't let a pink-haired girl's threats get to him.

He buried the thoughts of his two sides deep into his "to-be-dealt-with-later-(meaning never)" drawer in the back of his mind and reported his attention to the girl who was standing (a little bit too) close to him. Best thing to do was to answer her, he decided.

"I don't like fairs," he let out.

Sakura's eyes widened a little, and her mouth opened in an O shape. Needless to say she was surprised. She thought he would say something like "I don't want to be stuck in there with you" or something like that, but saying he hated fairs was not something she had planned on hearing. Of course, Sasuke in his normal thirteen-year-old state would probably have said both, but this wasn't Sasuke in his thirteen-year-old state. This was Sasuke in his seventeen-year-old-pretty-confused-and-confusing state.

If Sakura's brain had been working properly at the moment, she would have said something witty to mock him, but as I said, life's a bitch.

"You don't?"

Yeah.

Witty.

Ahem.

Sasuke looked at her intensely, either trying to show her he was dead serious or to burn her brain through her eyes. In both ways, she felt slightly uncomfortable and shifted under his gaze, something she hadn't done for years.

"No, I don't," he said a little bit angrily. "And I don't understand how come you like them so much."

Uh oh.

Another tantrum coming up.

"I mean, look around us! Mechanic rides that make you want to throw up, games that can't even a normal person's skill in aiming, ridiculous prizes, a useless and slow round thing that has way too many lights on it and happy couples that seem to be pulled straight out of the most cliché movie there's ever been in all history!"

Okay, he didn't like all that. Why did he agree on coming if he didn't like it?

"And you! You're laughing, you're playing, you're going on rides all night long and you don't even bother to ask me if I'm fine! And let me add that you make me pay for all of it! You have no idea how annoying that is! How annoying it is that you smile at me all the time, that you drag me everywhere you want to go, that you ask me to do so many things for or with you and that I just can't tell you NO!"

Sasuke panted hard. It had taken him all his might not to scream until the end of his speech. His face had transformed into a mask of fury and his whole body was shaking. He didn't even know why he was so angry. His eyes were blinded by anger until he heard someone whisper "Oh my God" somewhere behind him. His vision steadied itself and he looked in front of himself, trying to see Sakura's face.

When his eyes finally made it out neatly, he felt something in his chest sink and crash in his stomach. Sakura's frame was trembling but her cheeks were dry. Her eyes were watering but not one tear dared to slip out and slide down her face.

"Well, now you just said it, didn't you?" Her voice was low and angry, almost threatening. She raised her eyes, glaring. This time, there was nothing funny about it.

She stepped around him and left the line of the Ferris wheel. She walked high and mighty straight towards the forest that surrounded the fair and disappeared under the trees. Sasuke's body was frozen on the spot, but internally, he was vividly slapping and punching himself for being such a moron.

People around him started to whisper, telling each other how stupid that boy was. The women ranted about "the poor little pink-haired girl who didn't deserve such a treatment" while the men grunted out that "if they were that little girl's brothers, they would kick his sorry ass all the way to the fire country".

"What's the matter with you, man?" One of them asked. Sasuke turned his head to him, dumbstruck.

"Dude, don't stay there drooling like a retard!" He continued, apparently oblivious to the fact that he was currently putting his life in danger by provoking the young Uchiha.

"Go get her! Unless you want someone else to do it and steal her from you!" Sasuke sent him a questioning look. What was he talking about? Steal Sakura from him? She wasn't even his to begin with!

Oh, right. Those imbeciles still thought they were a couple.

"Try to imagine, mate. In a few moments, she'll come out of the woods with another guy's arms around her and she'll say you and she are over, and all that because you happen to dislike fairs. Don't let it happen! Go get her, now!"

Sasuke looked at the guy strangely. All his anger was gone, but there was still something crushing his chest. He tried to ignore it and turned towards the woods. He tried to imagine Sakura coming out of the woods with another guy, his arms around her, her smiling at him.

Nope.

Nothing.

Although, he still needed her to get back in Konoha and she wouldn't do it if she met someone. Also, if she were to be found and killed by some blood-thirsty creature, he, somehow, would never forgive himself.

Without another glance (or well-deserved glare) to the (very) brave (or completely oblivious to the fate he just escaped) guy who had provoked him, he ran after Sakura under the trees where she had disappeared just a few moments ago.

It hadn't been too long since she had left, she shouldn't be too far from the tree line, unless she had started running after vanishing from their view. Sasuke looked around, trying to spot her. The sun had set long ago and the darkness was even more intense now that he was away from the lights of the fair.

He ran a little (more like ran fast), the crushing feeling in his chest getting heavier by the second. What if he couldn't find her? What if she had really run away? Maybe she had left him behind and chose to go back to Konoha all by herself. How would he go back then? What if he got there before her and got accused of killing her?

When he finally found her, she was sitting cross-legged on the ground of a clearing. Of course. She couldn't have waited for him under the cover of the trees, she just had to stop where any flying thing could see them. Her back was facing him, but he could tell by the sharp movements of her shoulders and the ripping sound she was making that she was busy tearing bits of grass from the ground.

He approached her cautiously, not wanting to get another one of her punches. When he got next to her, he stopped and looked at her hands. They were indeed pulling grass out of the earth, but the bits of grass were actually handfuls of it with a big chunk of earth under each. He raised his eyes to her face to see it was occupied by a mix between a frown, a pout and a glare.

He slowly sat down next to her and began ripping grass like her. He fiddled with the bit he had just pulled before opening and then closing his mouth, not knowing what to say. Sakura seemed to sense it and spoke in his place.

"If I'm such a pain in the ass, why are you still here?" She asked with an annoyed voice.

Sasuke stayed silent, trying to find the right words. He knew she was easily pissed off and the least thing he wanted to do was to anger her. He sighed, leaned and closed his eyes. He could almost feel her gaze on his crouched body. After determining what exactly it was he wanted to say, he rose up again, inhaled slowly and finally spoke up.

"You're not a pain in the ass. Well, sometimes you are, but not today. I just didn't like being in that fair, surrounded by happy couples and families. It irritates me, because it reminds me of what I wasn't able to have because of my brother," he said, looking at her, wondering how she would react.

This time, she was the one who remained silent. She had stopped depriving the ground of grass around herself and had started fiddling with a clover she had picked up a few seconds before. She stared at it intently, not wanting to look at the young Uchiha next to her.

Sasuke brought his eyes back to his hands. It was all he could say. It was his only reason. Well, his only valuable reason. There were other reasons, but they were all stupider than the others, like the fact that he was uncomfortable having everyone think of them as a couple when they were absolutely not.

"Why did you come after me?" He heard Sakura say.

"What?"

"Why did you come after me? Why didn't you go and wait for me at a hotel in town?" She repeated.

"I-…" he started.

Sakura turned her head towards him. He looked confused, staring at his hands. She looked back down at her own hands. She tried to figure what exactly a by-passer would think if he saw both of them sitting there. That by-passer would probably think they looked like two complete idiots unable to tell each other what they really want to say.

"I was worried," Sasuke suddenly blurted out.

She turned her head towards him. Not only did he seem confused, he also had a look of incredulity and dreadful realization plastered on his handsome face. Sakura smiled. That was all she wanted to know. She wouldn't push him any farther for the rest of the night. She rose to her feet and offered him her hand. He looked up to her in a questioning glance.

"Come on, we need to get to that hotel before they run out of rooms."

He (almost) smiled and took her hand. She pulled him on his feet and started to walk, still holding his hand, a content grin on her face.

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When they got to the hotel, the manager told them they were lucky that most of the people who came to the fair lived in the village. After making Sasuke pay (he still was the only one who had money), he led them to a room on the second floor.

As soon as the door was closed, Sasuke let himself drop on the bed with a long sigh. Sakura looked at him for a moment, her lips curved up in a small smile, then approached him slowly and sat next to his lying figure on the bed. She observed his face, the way his shorter bangs brushed against his closed eye-lids, how all his facial muscles seemed to relax, how his skin reflected the blue light coming through the window of the room.

She slowly approached her hand to his face and let her fingers brush against his cheek, his eye-brows, and push his hair out of the way. He opened his eyes, slightly startled by her touch, and locked his eyes with hers. She smiled again, a little more widely, let her hand softly drop on the mattress, leaned down, pressed her lips against his forehead, just above his left brow, leaving there the first kiss she had ever given him then pulling away slightly.

"Thank you, Sasuke-kun," she whispered.

She went under the cover of the bed, took off her skirt, rolled on her side and closed her eyes. She felt the mattress move before his warm body joined hers under the sheets. She unconsciously snuggled towards him, drifting away, and, before sleep overtook her, she heard him say:

"Anytime."

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A/N: Oh my God, I'm so sorry it took so long! I just really blocked on this one because I had no idea what to write in it. At first, it was just meant to be a chapter-link (a chapter-link is a useless chapter that some authors use to link to parts of the story that don't really coincide).

Don't worry, the other chapters won't take as long as this one since I already have the plot for them. Next chapter I post will probably be for France, and I might do a few other oneshots, then I'll try to finish the second chapter of Band Camp, and I'll try to make it all and more for you as a Christmas gift. If you don't celebrate Christmas, then consider it an early New Year's present.

Ja!

Queen of Pascalities