I want to thank you all for still reading my story, you make me so happy. (:
Oooooh, I hope you guys enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!
~Lion3queen
The week flew by in what seemed like only hours. Sun-soaked days faded into sultry nights until it was once more a Friday afternoon. For once Sakura didn't just leave school when there was a football game going on. For the first time in years she was going to see it, and found herself strangely excited. More excited than she had expected to be. To neutralize this excitement, though, was this biting anxiousness she felt whenever she thought of the stuffed stands alongside the football field and how there was probably nobody there whom she knew. Or liked.
Because when she thought about it, the football games were mostly events for the 'popular' kids. The ones more popular than her, anyway.
Most of the students had already fled the building, she figured when she realised her space was for once not invaded by students trying to claw, nudge and shove their way past her. Had the game already started?
According to the clock hanging above the main doors, it was ten past three. The football game didn't start for twenty more minutes. Why had everybody already left?
The answer to that question came about ten minutes later, when Sakura scampered up the bleachers trying to find a spot to sit. There were so many people sitting on them that one could see little of the white paint underneath. Finally Sakura found a spot situated up high, all the way to the left. She slalomed and dodged her way over to it, squeaking shrill apologies whenever she bumped into somebody's knee or almost tripped over a lingering bag. People either ignored her or gave her narrowed stares, but continued talking and laughing like they had before.
They were teenagers, of course. Life was easy.
When she finally sat herself down all the way in the corner, Sakura was glad she had been able to find a place at all. The people arriving at the playing field right now just stalked off. It wasn't any fun to go to a game when you had to keep standing.
She couldn't remember the Wolves had been so popular the last time she went to one of their games. She remembered sitting here with Ino and a few other friends, with small groups of students surrounding them here and there. Not... this.
The girl directed her gaze upon the sky. The sky was bright blue just like it had been all week, but in the distance an ominous, thick line of dark grey was visible. It looked like, in a matter of hours, buckets of rain would be emptied above Konoha.
''Hello, Sakura.''
Sakura froze. Happy to find a spot like she had been, she had totally forgotten to look around to see if anyone she knew was sitting close to her. What if it was somebody that didn't like her?
Memories of people throwing coke and snacks in her hair flashed through her mind.
She was just preparing to make a run for it when the person next to her tapped her on the shoulder. ''Hello? Sakura? Are you alright?''
Wait a minute... That voice- it didn't belong to a bully.
Sakura whipped her head around. She came face to face with a friendly smile belonging to no one else than Itachi Uchiha.
''Itachi!'' She smiled.
''Yes, it's me.'' He replied, glad she seemed to be happy to see him. ''I haven't talked to you in a while.''
''I'm sorry, I've been busy.''
''I didn't expect you to be a football fan.''
''It's been a long time since I've seen a game. I'm mostly here for Naruto, to be honest. And what about you, didn't you tell me you didn't like it that much?''
''Sasuke.'' he said as an explanation. Of course he'd see a match if that was what his brother would like, Sakura thought. The two of them had always seemed close to each other to her.
''When is it starting?'' Sakura asked him dumbly, trying to stop a possible awkward silence from butting in before it had even done so.
Itachi didn't seem to notice anything odd about her question. ''It should start any time now.'' And sure enough, seconds after, the loud booming from the marching band stomping their way onto the field out drowned all of the noise from the audience. Alarmed by the sudden noise, Sakura almost toppled down backwards from the bleachers. Luckily she could grab Itachi's arm just in time. ''Careful!'' he warned the petite girl, steadying her with his arms.
Sakura muttered a soft thanks, trying to force the heat rushing up to her face down and to concentrate on the Wolves players entering the field, waving at the crowd enthusiastically. She tried to figure out which one of them was Naruto.
''Come on, Naruto! We love you!'' shrill voices squealed from the spots one row below Sakura and Itachi. They belonged to a few girls appearing to be a bit younger than Sakura. ''You're so hot!''
Sakura didn't understand the game one bit, so she spent the biggest part of the match trying to figure out. She just cheered along with the rest whenever the light blue uniformed team either kicked the ball through the goal posts or brought it to the end of the field (the 'end zone', Itachi had called it.)
At a certain point she finally learned to recognise Naruto. He was one of the taller guys, sporting the number eleven on his back. He was a more popular with the girls than Sakura remembered. Or maybe she just hadn't really paid attention to it. But the loud squealing coming from almost every teenage girl whenever he even breathed started to really annoy her. It was getting harder and harder to resist the urge to push the freshmen in front of her down the stands.
Was she jealous?
Sakura grunted and tried to concentrate on the game once more. She couldn't be jealous. She wasn't a jealous person. She wasn't anymore, anyway.
''NARUTO!'' A brown haired girl yelped so loudly that Sakura couldn't help but jump up in shock.
God, what was wrong with those girls? What were they, chimpanzees?
She tried to focus on finding out what everybody was getting excited about.
One of the Wolves' players pressed the ball down onto the field vertically, and Naruto ran up to him. A few of the players from the other team lunged at him, trying to keep him from reaching the ball. He dodged them effortlessly and kicked the ball with all his might.
Sakura jumped up from the bench and, before she could stop herself, joined in with the cheering from the rest of the supporters. ''YEAH!'' she roared when the ball soared through the goal post, earning the Wolves yet another goal. She froze with her fist pumped into the air. This time it was the girls sitting one row in front of Sakura and Itachi's turn to give her an icy stare.
She clamped her hand around her mouth and sat down again, ashamed of her outburst. Especially since Naruto appeared to have heard her. That's right, for a moment there, Sakura could see blue eyes trailing up to the stands to lock with hers. But to her surprise, his face erupted into a huge smile. He gave her two thumbs up and then started jogging backwards, not turning around for several feet.
One of his friends -Kiba, she thought when she could make out the faint red stripes on the person's cheeks- ran over to the blond yelled something at him that sounded like, ''Keep your head in the game, man!'' But Sakura could have easily misheard him because of the overwhelming noise coming from the bleachers.
Al of a sudden Itachi's voice filled her left ear. ''He really likes you, doesn't he?''
''Eh? What?'' She had forgotten all about him. Trying not to let that stupid fact show, she pondered over the question. Did Naruto like her?
Sure he did, they were friends.
She voiced those thoughts, but to her surprise Itachi only chuckled and shook his head. ''That's not what I meant. Forget it.''
The ball was kicked from the forty-yard line to the other side of the field and the game continued.
About fifteen minutes later, the ominous line of grey clouds had grown into a grey blanket that covered the entire sky. Almost immediately soft drizzle started twirling down.
At first, the people just put on hoods, popped out umbrellas or left and came back with their jackets. Later, though, people realised the weather wasn't going to get better any time soon and groups of people climbed down the bleachers and left the school grounds. In a matter of minutes at least three-quaters of the previous audience had stalked off already, leaving only Sakura, Itachi, and a few small groups of teenagers littered over the stands to sit watching as the rain crashed down with more and more force every minute.
''I'm cold.'' Sakura complained, wrapping the thin jacket she had been smart enough to bring with her around her more tightly.
''You can go home, you know.'' Itachi said. He held an umbrella he had borrowed from one of his friends that had left above the both of them, shielding them from at least a bit of rain. He himself always wore a thick layer of black clothing, so the rain didn't harm him. Sakura, however, wasn't dressed for this type of weather. He felt kind of bad for her.
''No I can't,'' she replied stubbornly, ''I promised Naruto I'd watch his match.'' A bit uncertainly she added, ''...How long do these matches usually last?''
''About fifty minutes. Only ten more minutes to go.'' he told her, taking a quick glance at his watch. ''Just concentrate on the game, if you don't focus on the weather it won't bother you so much.''
''Sure.'' Sakura replied. She clenched her teeth together to prevent them from clattering.
Stupid rain.
Long after the other players had left the dressing room, Naruto came strolling out.
Naruto flinched at the scowl he was met up with when he turned to look at the pink haired girl standing shivering underneath the canopy near the entrance. Judging from how soaked she was and the sulky expression on her pale face, she had been waiting for him for quite a while. ''What t-took you so long?'' she barked.
''Sorry, I needed to take a shower,'' he explained lamely. ''Come on, don't be angry. I just won the game!''
''Well done,'' she hissed, still glaring. ''can we go now?''
Immune to Sakura's angry expression, he rolled his eyes and mused, ''Geez, cut down on the enthusiasm. You're embarrassing me.'' suddenly he seemed to remember something, and his face erupted into a wide grin. ''Speaking of enthusiasm... Thanks for cheering me on. You looked like you had fun up there.''
''We are going NOW.'' Sakura ordered, taking his sleeve and pulling him with her. She ignored the whiny comments coming from the blond as they sauntered up the stone path alongside the football field. For some reason the lights that had flickered on halfway through the match, when the rain made it hard for the remaining audience and the players to get a clear view of the game, still weren't turned off.
The rain washed over them. During the time Sakura had spent waiting for her friend, the drizzle had grown into a downpour. She bit her lip and tucked a few damp hair strands that had been lingering in her line of vision behind her ear.
''You really are cold, aren't you?''
Sakura had almost forgotten Naruto was with her; the feeling had long since disappeared from her numb fingers and she couldn't even feel she still had a hold on his jacket. When she looked behind her, she noticed Naruto had managed to free himself from her hold and now strolled next to her. ''No.'' she lied. She was sure that, if she told him the truth, he'd give her his jacket. And if there was one thing she hated more than rain, it was feeling like a damsel in distress.
''You sure are a bad liar for a girl.'' came the irritated reply.
''Not all girls lie, you know.'' Sakura attempted to change the subject. Her friend wasn't fooled.
He reached into his sports bag and fished out a wrinkled shirt. ''Here. put this on.''
Sakura stayed silent. After about two seconds -Naruto wasn't a really patient person- the blond got tired of waiting and just pulled it over Sakura's head. She squeaked and tried to throw it off, but soon gave up and poked her arms through the sleeves.
The shirt was a tiny bit moist from the time Naruto spent running around in the rain, but it was dryer than the rest of the clothing Sakura was wearing. ''I wore it during the game, it probably smells pretty badly.'' Naruto snickered. He seemed to finally realise it was raining and pulled the hood from his jacket onto his head.
Sakura tried sniffing the shirt inconspicuously, just in case. She didn't know what he was talking about. It smelled like fabric softener; kind of flowery and sweet. ''It's fine. Thanks.''
''You're always like this.'' Naruto chuckled, shaking his head.
''Like what?''
''I offer you something, and you refuse to take it. Until I force it upon you, then you get all thankful and happy.''
''It's not my fault you go all gentleman on me all the time. It's the twenty-first century; women can do things on their own. Men aren't necessary anymore. You're all last year.'' Sakura teased.
''You forgot something. Here, it goes with the shirt.'' Naruto smirked before pushing something onto her head dull clunk. Sakura squeezed her eyes shut, letting a squeak escape her mouth for the second time that afternoon. This one sounded even more high-pitched and girly. When she opened her eyes again, she saw the world through something that looked like white chicken wire.
Naruto has pushed his football helmet onto her head.
''Really cute, Naruto.'' Sakura grunted. ''Get this thing off me!''
The blond didn't appear to plan on obeying. ''So you're saying men and women are alike?'' he mused, as if she had never spoken.
''In everything.'' Sakura confirmed. She gave a tug at the helmet. It didn't budge.
''And you mean that men and women are equal even in abilities and stuff?''
''Totally equal.'' came the reply.
''Well, then I dare you to play some football against me.''
Sakura halted with her arms still lingering in the air. ''Excuse me?''
''You heard me.'' Naruto halted in his steps. When Sakura looked over her shoulder, the first thing she noticed was her friend's wide smirk.
She swallowed back a comment on how playing football against him would be unfair because he was too good. He did so not need the ego boost. ''Okay, fine.'' she said, putting her hands on her hips. ''Bring it on.''
He threw his bag aside -he seemed not to care whether it would get wet- and gracefully hopped over the low fence surrounding the field. He jogged his way to the center of the football field. Sakura tried to imitate the flexible way the aforementioned boy had jumped over the fence, but, instead of elegantly leaping over the iron fencing, she clumsily and cautiously climbed onto it, lost her balance when she was on top of it and fell onto the damp grass in a heap of limbs. ''You okay over there?'' she heard Naruto yell at her over the sound of the clattering rain.
''Yeah!'' Sakura got up swiftly and spat out whatever amount of mud had entered her mouth during her fall. ''Let's play!'' she shouted when she had finally closed in on Naruto and took place in front of him. She dug her feet into the sand.
''Okay, are you starting on attack or defense?''
''What?'' Sakura asked, one eyebrow arched. What was Naruto blabbering about, couldn't she just pick when it was time to stop him or to go for the goal?
''You don't know how to play?'' Naruto asked her. He looked
''Itachi explained the game to me a bit...''
''Ugh, Itachi doesn't even like football. Tell me what you know.''
''Er, well... So there's two teams, and one of them tries to score- and they either do that by throwing the ball through the goal post from the other team or by bringing the ball to the end zone.''
Naruto nodded. ''Alright, that's pretty much it.''
'But...' Sakura thought.
And indeed, ''But,'' Naruto started. ''There's a few more things you need to know. See those lines? They're everywhere.''
Sakura nodded. It was hard to miss the white lines and the huge numbers between them.
''They're called yard lines. At the start of a game there's a coin toss to decide which team starts on offense and which team on defense. The team on offense scores, the team on defense stops the offense team from scoring. Got it so far?''
''Got it.''
''Okay, well, the team on offense starts with a snap. A snap is this tactic in which the players line up and the player in the middle -the 'center'- snaps the ball towards the quarterback -that's me- and then the quarterback passes it to, well, wherever he wants to pass it to. The offending team has to try and get the ball at least ten yards towards the defensing team's end zone. They have four attempts or downs to do that. When they've done that, they start a new series of downs.'' He fished a coin out of the pockets from his jeans. ''Heads or tail?''
''Tail. Wait- aren't you going to explain further?''
''I believe on learning on the job.'' Naruto explained calmly. He flipped the coin. ''Heads,'' he announced. He grabbed the football he had held in his hand the entire time more tightly and sprinted past her. Sakura spun around and watched Naruto dash off towards her side of the field.
''H-hey! You can't do that!'' She called after him lamely. The pink haired girl had no idea what she was supposed to do or how she was supposed to do it. All she knew was what she had seen earlier that day. If she recalled correctly, she was supposed to get the ball away from Naruto before he came too close to a goal post. He had a sharp aim.
She took off running, trying to catch up with her friend. The weather had become even worse. There was a thin layer of water covering the entire playing field. Wherever her feet touched the ground Sakura sent an explosion of water droplets flying into the air.
She went faster and faster and faster... In a matter of seconds she was only a few feet behind Naruto. He might be good at sports and all, but she was quick.
Now all she had to do was get the ball away from him. But how?
She had to concentrate on looking at the ground. Because of the helmet in combination with the rain, her vision was limited. She knew that if she slipped, Naruto would score.
Naruto hadn't noticed her yet, luckily. The rain didn't just hinder Sakura, but Naruto too. Because of the loud crashing of the water colliding with the ground it was hard to hear her footsteps at all. In a moment of inspiration she increased her speed so that she was running next to him and then threw herself to the side. Sakura tried yanking the ball out of his grasp but failed and took a nosedive onto the field. She rolled about for a few seconds before remaining motionless on the grass.
''Holy shit!" Naruto gasped when he realised what had happened. He spun around and rushed to her side. ''Shit, Sakura, are you okay?''
No reply.
The blond let himself fall to his knees. He rolled her over and shook her shoulders. She looked like she had fallen quite hard. Somehow, the helmet she had been wearing was still in place.
''Come on, Sakura! Answer me!"
Still no reply.
He looked around and considered calling for help. It was no use. Nobody would hear him. He looked down onto the unmoving girl on the grass once more.
Just when he expected the worst, her eyelids fluttered open and she grinned at him. ''Never underestimate your opponent,'' Sakura snickered. Before he knew it she had grabbed the ball out of his unsuspecting hands and jumped up. She took off towards his goal post.
''You're cheating!'' he yelled after her when he realised what she had done. ''You're not supposed to go for the goal yet! You're defending, remember?''
Even with the distance and the blur of the rain between the two of them it was hard to overlook the middle finger Sakura flicked up at Naruto without even turning to look at him. He couldn't help but laugh -out of amusement or relief, he didn't know- and start running after her.
By the time he had finally made his way over to where she was she had entered the end zone already, arms raised into the air in victory. ''Yeah!'' she cheered. ''Touchdown!''
The girl turned around with her lips stretched into a huge smirk, opposite to the sulky expression of her friend. ''Fine, alright. You've scored a touchdown, so?''
''Now don't be like that, Naruto.'' She tittered, ''I'll go easy on you from now on, okay?''
''No need. At least I don't need to cheat to score a goal.'' he stuck his tongue out childishly.
''Too bad you do need to distract me before you had even the slightest chance to get to the goal before me.''
''Does that sound familiar to you?''
''Let's start again.'' Sakura ignored his previous comment by innocently gazing at the cloudy sky. ''You're defending. The one who scores a point first wins, okay?''
''Fine.''
''Fine.''
''Fine.''
''Fine.''
After this conversation -in which a stranger would have guessed their ages to be no higher than four- both teens stomped to the center of the field.
''Thee, two, one- go!'' Sakura screamed at the top of her lungs. She hugged the ball against her stomach and attempted to take a run for it. Naruto, though, blocked her way. With difficulty she managed to dodge him, but quickly slipped and landed on her rear. She stood up, brushing the mud and dirt off of her denim skirt.
''Going anywhere?'' A voice asked from behind her. Before she had the chance to reply, though, Naruto reached for the ball. With a yelp Sakura threw it into the air to prevent her opponent from getting it. And with success.
Both teens launched into the air, attempting to grab it before the other did so. Naruto, being the tallest among the two, touched it first. Sakura 'accidentally' nudged him in the side, though, causing him to miss the ball. Sakura took this chance and nudged him again. Then she caught the ball and took off running.
''Cheater!" she could faintly hear Naruto shout at her once more.
The field seemed smaller than usual and Sakura felt like she had bridged it in a matter of seconds.
She dared to look over her shoulder once and then almost tripped when she noticed Naruto was nowhere to be seen. Sakura cursed the helmet on her head for blocking so much of her vision.
''Looking for someone?''
Before Sakura could look around to see where Naruto had come from all of a sudden she could feel her legs being swept out from underneath her, pressure against her side and then the feeling of all air being pushed out of her lungs. ''Oomph!'' she managed to splutter when her back hid the grass.
She groaned softly. She didn't know she had squeezed her eyes shut until they opened again and she was met up with the -surprisingly close- sight of blond spikes.
Wait- how was that possible? It couldn't be that- maybe-
He was on top of her?
This theory was confirmed when Naruto heaved his head up and flashed a smirk. ''I won!'' he announced. She could just notice a tiny speck of brown in the bottom left corner of the window-like hole in her helmet.
The ball.
He had fiddled it out of her grasp when she was too busy whining over her crushed lungs.
Which reminded her... ''Can't- breathe...'' she wheezed.
'''Right, sorry!'' Naruto said, jumping up. He offered her a hand. Her balance still wasn't that great from the crash she had made on the ground, resulting in the girl stumbling forward after Naruto had pulled her up. ''Woah,'' he said, grabbing her shoulders to keep her from crashing into him. ''What's wrong?''
''Wrong? Don't be weird. I was just running, until all of a sudden this idiot crashed into me.'' Sakura looked up at the blond dizzily. ''Get this thing off my head, please.''
''It's all part of the game,'' he snickered. ''Plus, I did the exact same thing you tried to do earlier. Only I succeeded.'' He meant creeping up to him and trying to knock him to the ground, obviously. Seeing how he was right, she decided not to respond. Naruto grabbed the helmet Sakura wore and after a few seconds she could finally see all around her again. ''Better?''
''Er- yeah.'' Sakura said. She shook her head so that wet strands of pink hair whipped her in the face. Then she smiled up at Naruto, who smiled back down at her. ''But just for the record, you were only able to tackle me because I was wearing that stupid helmet.''
''Oh yeah? It saved you some brain damage though, when you tried to take the ball from me.''
She rolled her eyes, but couldn't stop the laughter from bubbling up her windpipe. Attempting to hide her idiotic giggling, she buried her face in the thing closest to her.
Only then it occured to her that that thing was Naruto.
And how she was still holding onto his shirt for dear life.
And how close they really were.
And how unbelievably good he looked with cheeks red from exertion and raindrops dripping down his spikes and eyelashes.
Her smile slipped away. So did Naruto's.
They stood there for what felt like ages, looking at each other. Quietly observing. Waiting.
Sakura hesitated. What was she supposed to do, kiss him?
Did she want to?
Naruto interrupted her chain of thoughts. His eyelids slowly drooped. He put his hand on her shoulder and leaned forward, slightly tilting his head to the side. Sakura didn't move away. She found herself frozen. Petrified. Like somebody had glued her feet onto the grass.
Naruto stopped leaning, giving Sakura some time to think.
''How about a tie?'' she managed to whisper, her lips centimeters away from his.
He smiled, ''Sounds awesome.''
Just when his lips were about to make contact with her own, a booming, masculine voice echoed over the playing field, causing both of the teens to flinch. ''WHAT ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE, YOU BRATS? THE SCHOOL IS CLOSED!''
Sakura noticed the unmistakable silhouette of a man hopping onto the field, shaking his fist at them angrily. He was all the way across the field, but appeared to be walking very quickly. ''Shit, Sakura, let's get out of here!'' Naruto shouted. He grabbed her arm and started running, dragging the girl behind him like a rag doll.
''I'll see you Monday, alright?'' Naruto asked her when they were certain they had lost the man who had been chasing after them. The blond bent down and picked up his bag from where he had dropped it earlier that afternoon. He appeared uncharacteristically awkward.
Sakura nodded stiffly, feeling pretty uncomfortable herself. ''Goodbye.''
She could see him waving at her before he turned around and stalked off in the direction of the school building, his tall form quickly disappearing in a blur of falling raindrops. When he was out of sight, Sakura finally dared to touch her flaming cheeks. She put her hand on her heart, trying to get it to return to it's usual rhythm.
'What just happened?'
I'd love for you guys to review, please!
~Lion3queen