Another chapter!
Thanks for all the reviews!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but a recipe for tomato soup. And Naruto isn't tomato soup so by default I don't own Naruto!
Note: Spell-check keeps on trying to convince me that Pinkette is Pancetta. Now I'm no genius but I really, really doubt that Sakura is a 'pancetta'
Last time
But this case needs divine intervention from the Gods themselves.
I think I need to talk to Cupid again. Le sigh .
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Onwards!
It was a sunny day but Sakura still wore her sweater with the sleeves going past her knuckles tickling her fingers. She liked the way it felt like a warm hug a bit too much. It was into a quaint cafe that she went, sitting down at a small table near the window and sipped on a slushy as she waited.
A beautiful blonde man waltzed into the cafe and grabbed everyone's attention with the dimpled smile and the astounding air of love about him.
Sakura sighed into the cold beverage and sunk deeper into the plush red chair. This was why she didn't like meeting Cupid in public. He attracted attention in a way that made her exasperated(Although Ino thought she was just jealous that she didn't get such attention even with her pink hair).She always found it difficult to talk to a person with a million eyes and ears were attempting to follow the conversation. Though they were usually too dazed by his sheer beauty to actually understand the conversation.
"So," He said and took off the sunglasses. "Want to tell me about it."
Two cappuccinos, one watermelon sorbet and a shared chocolate brioche later Sakura had told Cupid about every single thing that had happened since she got her assignment. Even if he couldn't help her, maybe he'd just assign Sasuke to someone else after seeing all the misery she had gone through.
For God's sake she was just seventeen and she had just done the "Meet the Parents" deal! With a guy she wasn't even dating!
"So if I understand this right, Sasuke is an emotionally retarded person who has a huge crush on you, which is not reciprocated to the point where he doesn't even manage to hold on to your attention."
"Yes exactly!"
He leant back in his chair and she swore every person in the cafe apart from her followed his motion and sighed. "So are you sure you don't like him? It's not at all reciprocated?"
"It's just that I...I'm not attracted to him."
His face seemed to beg her to for an elaboration.
"I don't like him like that."
He cocked his head like a puzzled puppy though Sakura knew he understood what she meant very well.
"In the intimate way"
The sceptical look on his face made her eye twitch.
"For heaven's sake man, I just don't want to sex him up!"
It was then she remembered that they were in a cafe filled with people who were all staring at them.
A mother clapped her hands over her son's ears and glared at Sakura before huffing out the place as her son asked her what sex is and why the pretty lady didn't want to do that to anyone.
Awkward.
And then Cupid turned to everyone on the cafe and grinned and everyone was once again dazzled by him and calmed down.
"It's okay Sakura. You know I'm not the God of Love. I'm the God of intimate love. I'm literally a sex God."
"You just wanted to say God a lot of times don't you?"
"Why yes I just won a bet with Ares thanks to you."
"I loathe you."
"Of course you do. Now listen up girlie, just because Itachi is involved in this assignment doesn't mean that he needs to be the star of this show. You can use the fact that you're 'dating' him without him actually being there. Because it seems to me like he distracts you a bit too much for you to be able to concentrate on Sasuke. And for that matter you don't really hate this assignment."That said, he got up and Sakura followed him to the counter as he paid the bill, perplexed.
"Of course I do."
"No you don't .Admit it Sakura this isn't so much about the assignment as it is about your fear of failure."
"I guess. I mean it's been fun and all but if I fail to set up Sasuke with someone then I have two more assignments to deal with and I can't afford that right now. The new semester is beginning in a few months and I really need to focus on that right now."
"You know there's nothing you can do to make me believe that. You just want a perfect record. You're such a nerd."Sakura dropped it knowing there was no convincing him about it.
"Okay but what do I do about Sasuke's crush on me? I don't exactly have a lot of practice in that kind of stuff."
"Tell you what you can take as much help you want from Ino for this one."
The only reaction that statement garnered was a sigh.
"Aw cheer up. Tell you what I'm going to make this your last assignment whether you succeed or fail."
Sakura sighed. But no matter how many times she did that (which was 27 times in the past hour at last count) it wouldn't change his mind. He knew that in the end she'd be thanking him and that made him feel better.
But she didn't know that yet.
As they walked out the cafe everyone in the cafe shook their head trying to figure out what had been doing the past hour. It was as if they had been mesmerized into a trance.
But the young (at heart) God and pinkette didn't notice the obsidian eyes trailing their figures.
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"Sakura! Itachi's here again."
Women are loud. Pregnant women are especially loud. At least that's what Itachi concluded after the ringing in his ears stopped.
He hadn't seen Sakura since the fiasco of a dinner that was Saturday and it was now Thursday already.
It had been a tiring week so far as his father had worked him to the bone. While it wasn't unusual for Itachi to work long hours he was still human and unused to going more than 48 hours without sleep. All the paperwork his father had him going over made his head hurt.
Itachi had just arrived at his home, exhausted and wanting nothing more than to fall onto his bed and sleep for a good ten hours when his PDA reminded him of his appointment with Sakura. Without wasting any time changing out of the suit he wore to work he rushed off to Sakura's.
So when Sakura piled down the stairs at a leisurely pace in paint splattered loose tee and sweatpants rubbing sleep from her eyes, he grew inordinately envious.
Here was another example of a genius not unlike himself and yet she was clearly allowed to be a normal person. He pondered then, the difference a last name can make.
"What year is it?" she said blearily and stared at him through sleepy eyes and then proceeded to slap herself awake.
On second thought maybe he was better off as an Uchiha.
"We were supposed to meet today."
She blinked and he noticed the bunny plushy she was dragging along with her.
She told him to go up to her room punctuating the order with a yawn and herself plodded off into the kitchen from where sounds of pots and pans were soon heard and he went up the stairs only to stand at the landing, staring at 4 doors with no idea which one led to Sakura's room.
"It's the second one on the left." Mrs Haruno's voice came from beside him. He hadn't even heard her coming and he was trained to be alert even when dead on his feet. He wondered how she was so light on her feet when carrying a child inside her.
"Aren't you worried that a strange man is going into your daughter's room?" Itachi asked, genuinely confused .Weren't parents supposed to be concerned that a much older boy was making his way into their young and impressionable daughter's room?
She shrugged and said," You aren't the strangest one to drop in to visit Sakura to be honest." before going down again.
And his family was supposed to be weird.
He entered the room not knowing what to expect. They say our personal space reflects who we are. What would Sakura's room be like then?
He swung the door with the poster of a ballerina open and found a room that was messy but in a lived in way .The deep brown of the large four poster bed was contrasted by a bedspread with the face of Heath Ledger's Joker on it, grey blankets messily thrown around and tons of big fluffy pillows. On a bed that was calling out to him.
"Sleep on me" it seemed to say. And who was he to ignore its call?
And so it was that five minutes later Sakura came up to her room again she found the Uchiha hair fast asleep on her bed.
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"Hn?" It puzzled Sakura that a syllable could have so many different meanings. It was almost as versatile as the word fuck.
"You fell asleep so I called your mother and told her not to wait up for you." Sakura said dryly from where she sat daintily with her feet tucked under her legs at the end of the bed where Itachi's feet rested next to her.
He pulled himself up the bed resting his head on the headboard, still a bit sleepy.
"How long was I asleep?"
"About two hours. You really shouldn't exhaust yourself like that you know. It's not good for your health. It's no wonder you have those stress marks under your eyes."
He waved her off still blinking the sleep from his eyes and remembered something.
"Didn't you just wake up when I came over?"
"Yes but I have insomnia."
"Hn."
"Hn." It didn't quite sound the same when she said it.
"What did your mother mean when she said you've had stranger men than me come over?"
"Oh that! It's nothing really. The Akatsuki boys like to drop in and pay me a visit sometimes."
"Hn."
"How can you sleep in a suit? Isn't it uncomfortable? You're still wearing your jacket! I'm surprised you fell asleep in that."
And that was all it took for Itachi to regain his self-assurance. He folded his arms behind his head sinuously almost in slow motion. And Sakura followed every move breathlessly.
"Is that your way of telling me to strip?"
He expected her to blush and stutter and look away nervously. He did not expect her to look him up and down and ogle him without shame.
"If I said yes, would you?" She smiled at him mischievously, waggling her eyebrows and biting her lip. She laughed when his composure faltered a bit. "Relax I'm not going to rape you. Plus it's nothing I haven't seen before. That was my way of asking you if you wanted something more comfortable to wear. I can get you some of my Dad's clothes if you want."
"That would be adequate."
She flounced out of the room and left Itachi to his thoughts.
"What does she mean by nothing I haven't seen before?"
While she was out Itachi got up and wandered about the room looking at the knick-knacks she had gathered. Photos were lying around in frames and some on the walls. One of her in lime green spectacles in graduation garb with her parents made him laugh. Some of the most recent ones had a blonde girl with a fondness for purple and Deidara in them with occasional cameos by Sasori and the rest of the Akatsuki boys. He noticed a small trophy of some kind on one of the desks but before he could get a closer look she came back in with a small bundle of clothes in her arms.
"You can change in the bathroom."
By the time he came back she had settled down on the foot end on her bed again and he took a closer look at the trophy to realise it was made of Paper Mache and shaped like a misshapen thumb.
He picked it up. "And what might this be?"
She took a deep breath and puffed up with pride." That would be my trophy for being the winner of the Konoha University Thumb wrestling tournament."
"Really?"
"Yep."
"A Thumb wrestling tournament?"
"Yep."
"And how exactly did that happen?"
"Long story short, we were all bored and the snowstorm had resulted in the lines for power going down."
"Really?"
"Yeah that's how I met the Akatsuki boys. I beat them all at Thumb wrestling."
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah. I beat Sasori in the finals to emerge the winner of the first ever Thumb wrestling tournament held in the history of Konoha University. Ridiculous, I know but those guys are pretty competitive. Deidara was the only one who wasn't sore over losing to me and made this silly little trophy shaped like a thumb in one of his art classes and gave it to me so that I could permanently lord it over all the other guys."
A nostalgic smile took over her face.
"Do you miss it?" He asked wondering what she would have been like as a fourteen year old.
"Don't you?"
"Well I was twelve years old when I was in college. People kept on talking about how I only got into the college because of my parents. I didn't really have any friends there."
"Sucks to be you." Sakura said. She was nothing if not blunt and honest.
"Hn."
"Again with that word!"She threw her hands into the air exasperated and gestured wildly while complaining about Uchihas and their moronic monosyllable answers.
Itachi smirked at her from where he sat across her.
"Let's make a bet. If I lose I'll never use the word 'Hn' again."
She looked at him suspiciously.
"Go on."
"We'll thumb wrestle for it." He said with such relish, it scared her.
"And if I lose?"
He clucked his tongue at her."Such confidence in your abilities?"
She narrowed her eyes at him and growled, scrunching up her nose.
"You're on."
They started the game and linked their hands in a monkey grip their thumbs outstreched and grappled to pin the others thumb under their she concentrated on their hands he concentrated on her. The way her tongue peeked out as she tried to pin his thumb down and the grin that took over her face made him smile. She looked up wondering why he wasn't even trying, only to find his face a bit too close to hers. He leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her lips and pulled her closer using the hands that were entwined.
He waited for her to respond and as soon as he felt the Cherry Blossom's namesake slant her mouth against his, he deepened the kiss moving his hands to her waist as she raised hers to his head, burying them in his clung to each other as if trying to occupy the same space.
They broke apart breathing heavier and she smiled softly, leaning her forehead against his.
"So who won that round?"
A husky chuckle sounded through her room and he spoke, his voice sounding lower than normal. "I'd say it was a tie this time. Maybe we should try again to determine a winner."
She smiled again rubbing her nose against his in an eskimo kiss before looking up at him bashfully. "I think I'd like that."
With that said he pulled her even closer and continued 'trying'.
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"Hana put that glass away! That's our daughter you're listening in on!" Tatsuya Haruno said but his wife shooed him away.
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That was my longest chapter to date! I edited it five times before actually posting it and this is my first time attempting to write anything relatively fluffy (in my entire life) so...
Please Review!
Oh and Mikoto is not a sadist. She's just an agent of Chaos! Muahahahahahahahaahhahah