It's been a long time! I'm sorry I didn't update earlier but I had the scenario in mind and could not find a way to put it in words properly but I knew that this is what had to happen so I tried and tried and tried until finally I was relatively satisfied with what I had!
Anyways thanks for all the reviews and alerts and stuff like that!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Last time:
"Hana put that glass away! That's our daughter you're listening in on!" Tatsuya Haruno said but his wife shooed him away.
Onwards!
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Ino and Sakura sat across each other in the bustling cafe perfectly still as if in a competition to see who could go the longest without moving. They were after all, arch-rivals.
"So"
"So"
"You've been making out with a boy."
"No I haven't!"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Well he isn't exactly a boy now is he? He's a man."Sakura frowned," Which is a bit of an issue since I'm not 17 yet."
"At least you're getting some." Ino sighed. "I miss being in a relationship."
"Yes, because Sai was such a wonderful boyfriend. To Shin." Sakura deadpanned.
"Hey he wasn't that bad!" she looked away sighing dreamily," It was nice to be called Gorgeous all the time. Does wonders for the self esteem you know."
"Uh, yeah, sure." Sakura said sheepishly looking away from Ino at the floor tucking her hair behind her ear almost bashfully. She was a really good liar, except for when it came to lying to Ino.
Narrowing her eyes at Sakura Ino scowled, "What do you know?"
"Pft, nothing! I mean what could I possibly know? Really, ridiculous!"
"Sakura."
"I don't want to say." She said dropping all pretence. "It's mean."
"The guy dumped me."
"Yeah."
"For another guy."
"I know but-"
"I think I deserve to know."
Sakura took a deep breath before blurting it out at what seemed to be the speed of light. "Well he read in a book that you nickname people with the opposite of what you think of them."
"So when he called me Gorgeous he meant the opposite."
"Yeah."
A brief silence followed where Ino slipped into an almost catatonic state.
"Huh."
"I'm sorry-"
"And when he called you hag and ugly he meant-"
Sakura shook his head vigorously. "Oh no he meant that. By the time I met him, Deidara had told him it was wrong to nickname people like that and you're supposed be honest in that kind of stuff."
Ino proceeded to make a series of faces that ranged from constipated to the verge of crying. It was like a book of anime expressions was being enacted out.
"Are you going to cry?" Sakura started to panic a bit before Ino shot her an incredulous look. Really, crying over Sai who was ridiculously annoying to begin with! "I don't know what you saw in him to begin with. Really he was so pasty it was creepy. He looked like a paper version of Sasuke."
She noted the slight blush that grew on Ino's face with glee before her blonde companion changed the topic.
"Let's talk about the older version of Sasuke that you're getting comfy with shall we?"
"Itachi doesn't look like Sasuke! Sasuke looks like his mother whereas Itachi looks like his father. Plus Itachi's jaw line is so bloody beautiful! It's all chiselled and cut and -"
"Yeah okay I get the point." Ino grinned. Sakura was always amusing when in her rapturous, needy mode. It was a welcome change to the contemptuous pessimist that she usually was. It always surprised her that Sakura proclaimed herself to be a pessimist while being so ready to laugh and so willing to hope for the best in people. "You don't need to go into too much detail."
"Cool."
"No actually you do need to go into a bit more detail. What was it like?"
"Well it wasn't very-" Sakura was cut off by the waitress who came over with their drinks. A mocha latte for Ino and for Sakura a weird bubbling green concoction that looked like the potion from the cover of one of the Harry Potter books.
"What is that?"
"Split pea soda." Sakura said, nonchalant.
Cerulean eyes widened in horror.
"Oh look there's Sasuke!" Sakura said oblivious to the blonde's growing trepidation."Hey Sasuke, over here!" she said and waved her hand to catch his attention.
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"Hey Sasuke, over here!" Sakura beckoned him over to the booth where she was seated accompanied by a familiar blonde.
To say that Sasuke was confused when Sakura called him up on his brother's phone was an understatement. It had been five in the morning when his phone rang and the word 'Aniki' flashed across the display. He had picked it up still in a sleepy haze to hear a breathy whisper calling his name.
He shot up in bed wondering if one of his fan girls had kidnapped his brother.
"Sasuke! This is Sakura."
"Sakura?" He said in a slightly high pitched tone. After all, it isn't everyday your brother's girlfriend (whom you have a massive crush on) calls up from his cell phone at dawn.
"Yeah look I'm whispering cause I don't want Itachi to hear this and wake up," Sasuke wondered if it was possible to be punched in the stomach by someone's words, "and I was wondering if you could meet me today?"
"Today? I suppose so...Wait why don't you want Itachi to know you're talking to me?"
"I don't care if he knows I'm talking to you! Where'd you get that idea?" She said her voice rising to a normal volume.
"Well then why were you whispering?"
"I just didn't want him to wake up."
"Did he wake up then?"
"Nah He's sleeping like a baby." Sasuke shuddered at the thought of what activities had tired Itachi to that point. "So could you meet me today? At the Soleil Cafe at around 11 or so?"
"Yeah sure."
"Awesome! I'm sorry if I woke you up but I just remembered and I needed to make sure I called you before I forgot that I had thought of you."
Oh look there's that punched feeling again. Ouch.
"Thanks that's what every person wants to hear."
"Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that! It's just that I forget stuff and you don't come up in my mind a lot so I wouldn't have been reminded to call you."
Again, Ouch.
"Agh! That's not what I meant! You get it though, right?"
"Hn."
"Yeah so 11 at Soleil, see you there."
And so it was that Sasuke found himself standing in front of Ino and Sakura at 11 sharp.
"Yo." Sakura said with a nod of the head. Ino rolled her eyes at her friends greeting and turned to Sasuke with her own conventional hello.
"Hi." He stood a bit away from them .There was a voice in his head that was telling him to proceed with extreme caution.
"Why are you standing there? Sit down silly!"
He shuffled into the seat opposite the two girls. Sakura was staring at him with mild interest while making raspy slurping noises loudly using the straw that was wedged in her mouth and Ino was staring at the weird bubbling concoction that Sakura was having.
"Hn."
Sakura glared at him and forgot about the drink responding with a 'Hn' of her own.
"So why'd you want to see me?"
She took the straw out of the concoction and licked the end. His breathing turned shallow as he stared at her fascination. Finally she turned to him.
"I wanted blackmail material on Itachi."
"I don't know..." Itachi was his Aniki after all. Yes he had taken Sakura away from him and okay he may make fun of his obsession with tomatoes every chance he got. And then there was the fact that talked to him in that patronizing tone and ruffled his hair like he was 4 years old again or that he took every opportunity he got to call him foolish little brother in front of his friends in a way that made even Naruto snigger at him. "Yeah okay."
Four hours later found Sasuke still there with Ino and Sakura. He hadn't realised it could be fun to hang out with those of the other gender. All the girls he'd ever known were either psychotic (Temari, fan girls etc) or kept on fainting (Hinata).
"-and he was so high on the Nyquil that he jumped around in the kitchen singing a baking song!"
"Are you serious?", Sakura said between guffaws.
"Absolutely! He was singign it to the tune of that bone song.I think it was something like,The muffin tray goes into the oven, the oven is set to 350 degrees-" he started singing much to the amusement of the two girls .
Finally when all the laughing was done Ino wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes and turned to Sasuke.
"So what were you planning on doing today? You know if you hadn't been commanded to meet us by Miss Wannabe Hitler here." She said pointing her head towards Sakura who rebuffed the accusation with a roll of her eyes.
"Nothing actually. That's the thing with summer vacations. You never really know how you'll end up spending them. You could be force fed ramen by an idiot one day and you could find yourself in the company of two beautiful women the next."
Sakura snorted and wound up choking on her drink while Ino accepted the compliment graciously.
"And here I was thinking you were socially inept." Sakura quipped.
Sasuke had no idea where people got the idea that he was unable to interact with people in a normal fashion. He'd been trained in manners and social conventions since a very young age after all.
"Sakura! Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, would you!"
Sakura flailed before finally coming up with an argument while Sasuke continued to watch in amusement as the two girls fought over his charm or lack of it thereof.
"The Trojan war! They didn't look the gift horse in the mouth either and look where they ended up. Dead, that's where! And I'm just saying that it's like accepting candy from a stranger. You need to be sure of the motives behind the offering."
"What?"
"What? Look if a man came up to you and handed you a lollipop would you honestly accept it?"
"No but this isn't a random man, this is Sasuke .So I'd just take what he'd give me and stick it in my mouth." Ino said with a flourish and leaned back in her seat, content with her argument before frowning. "Wait, that didn't sound right."
"Oh I think we've heard it just right!" Sakura drawled out and laughed as Ino pouted.
Before she could defend herself, her cell rang and she excused herself to answer it leaving Sasuke and Sakura alone together for the first time since they were tiny tots.
"Why was Itachi staying over at your place?"
"Oh he was picking me up for a date but was really exhausted so my mum didn't let him leave since she was afraid he'd kill himself if he drove himself back in that state. Personally I don't understand how that's any different from normal really, he drives like a crazy person who forgot their meds. I half expect him to go all The Joker on me and start laughing and saying 'Why so serious!' while the car swerves like a snake in the Amazon River."
"Hn."
The word annoyed Sakura to the point where she asked bluntly what she had planned to ease into gently ."You know Ino said you had a crush on me when we were in kindergarten."
"WHAT?" They heard a sudden deluge of shrieks and death threats aimed towards Sakura and turned to see a bunch of Sasuke's fan girls glaring at her ominously through the window.
"Get a life!" Sakura yelled so loud Sasuke visibly flinched before turning to Sasuke with a polite smile. "So, how does that make you feel?"
"Are you trying to psychoanalyse me?"
"Nah I'm trying to find a way to link the past to the future. Like predict how a person might be now on basis of the events of their life."
"So you're psychoanalysing me."
"Yep."
"Huh."
"OMG Did you just use a syllable other than 'Hn'? This is so exciting! It's like those wildlife photographers must feel when the rare creature is within reaching distance!"
"What the hell was in that drink?"
"Split pea soda."
Sasuke's eyes widened not unlike Ino while Sakura continued to sip delicately.
"So you had a crush on me?"
He shook his head to clear his mind.
"Yeah I guess you could call it that."
'Or you could call it an utter obsession where I spent hours and hours dreaming of you and I eating tomatoes together', Sasuke thought sighing wistfully in his mind. 'That would be more accurate.'
"Yeah, so why exactly did that occur?"
"I don't really know?"
"Okay how about this; what is your first memory of me?"
"My first memory of you..."
Sasuke's mind flashed back to an image of Sakura holding a tomato out to him, red like the ribbon in her hair.
"You gave me a tomato once in recess. My mom had given me the wrong bento and I ended up with Itachi's onigiri instead of my tomatoes and you gave me a tomato."
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"My assignment that sucks part five
Sasuke has a crush on me because of a tomato. A TOMATO!
That boy's obsession with tomatoes is scary really. Who the hell likes a person on basis of a tomato?Although it is a fun word to say. To-may-to. To-mah-to.
I think he's getting to me.
Anywho I was just about to say something when Ino came back(she had left to answer a call) and he clammed up when she came back and since she had to leave we decided to disband and invited us to the carnival with his friends.
Does he honestly expect me to keep this from Ino? I mean she's the one who pointed it out to me in the first place! Well not the tomato bit, but the he-has-a-crush-on-me bit was totally deduced by her.
I wish I remembered more about my childhood though. I don't remember ever giving him a tomato. I didn't even like them when I was in a kid. In fact Ino was the one who-
Holy shit! I just remembered! It was Ino who told me to give the tomato to him! She gave it to me in the first place because the tomato plant she had been growing had fruited!
INO IS THE ANSWER!
I have to go now because I need to do my happy dance and then call Itachi and scheme!"
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Review! (Please?)