Disclaimer: Naruto is still Kishimoto Masashi's property, all right?

A/N: Hello again, minna – san! I'm now in my ninth chapter and I'm shocked to see so many reviews! The story started not so good at first but it's nice to know that everyone reads it. Enjoy the next chapter!

By the way, when I was browsing the reviews I came across a comment about my usage of dashes. Well, I use the dashes for emphasizing honorifics like "– san" or "- chan" in the story to make it formal and neat. Don't worry, I promise to minimize the dashes to suit the readers' taste. Please bear with me. Well, enough of those and let's move on to the story!

Chapter 9: School Affairs Part Four

"You're the girl from school!"

"You're the pink – haired hussy! And what the hell are you doing with Sasuke?"

"I'm not doing anything! And how dare you address me with such informality!"

"Why, you bitch!"

Sasuke sighed. Of all the worst things to ever happen…

…………

Ten Ten's nose flared. Her nails dug on the soft flesh of her palms as she gave Sakura a menacing glare. Sakura may have fooled Neji with her wily charms but she will prevent the pink – haired girl from taking Sasuke as well. She will kill the hussy if that happens.

And that is exactly what's going to happen to her right now.

"Get away from Sasuke or else I'm going to kill you bitch," she warned dangerously.

Sakura's green eyes flashed defiantly. "For the second time, I'm not doing anything to Sasuke – san! Why don't you believe in everything I say?"

Ten Ten stomped towards them. "Because you're nothing but Neji's little toy! That's what!"

"I'm not Neji – kun's toy! Stop calling me that…you…you…"

"I'm what? Are you afraid of muttering curses, sissy?"

Sakura's pink head twitched. That's it. No one messes with her and calls her a sissy.

Sasuke was stunned. Never had he seen Ten Ten get so fired up. And from the looks of things, she's on the verge of wiping Haruno's existence from the face of the earth.

He instantly smacked himself. 'Baka. What am I thinking? She's going to kill Haruno that's for sure. I have to stop her.'

"All right, that's enough," Sasuke intervened, pushing his body in between the two women. Seriously, out of all the worst things he never wanted to encounter was to be involved in a catfight.

Especially in a girl catfight.

But the girls were already heated up and ready to pounce each other. Ten Ten got into her fighting stance, while Sakura just glared at her with her fists clenched tightly.

Again, he tried to stop the girls from whatever they were about to do. "T! That's enough! You don't have to fight her!"

Ten Ten snarled. "Unfortunately, this little prim missy needs a little lesson about discipline. You stay out of this or you'll get hurt, Sasuke!"

He sighed as he slowly stepped away from them. The last thing he needed was to get punched by her.

The brown – haired girl licked her lips. "Ready, bitch?"

Sakura only glared at her.

On the other side of the alley…

"Geez! Where the hell is she? I only told her to get me something to eat," Naruto groaned as he scratched the back of his head out of irritation. He then turned on his heel and ran to the opposite direction, hoping to see any signs of Ten Ten.

…………

CRASH!

Sasuke's hands flung out to cover his eyes. Next, he heard a blood curdling scream and a body crashing against the garbage can. Spreading his fingers apart slightly, he winced as he saw Sakura trying to stand up due from the hit she received from Ten Ten.

'There's no way she could withstand Ten Ten's attack. Even Naruto and I are afraid of her strength,' he smugly thought.

Ten Ten balled her right fist. With a loud cry, she charged towards Sakura, aiming at her face. The other girl barely managed to dodge; the attack slightly grazed her cheek. Using her left shoulder, Sakura rammed Ten Ten at her abdomen. The impact caused the girl to stagger backwards, landing on her butt with a loud thud.

Sasuke blinked. 'Whoa. Not bad at all.'

Ten Ten coughed while clutching her waist with one arm. "You're pretty good…for a bitch."

Sakura finally steadied herself and smirked. "I'm not weak. You're the only person who thinks I am."

"Whatever. Sorry hussy, but I'm about to bring you down." Ten Ten cracked her knuckles.

She braced herself as the other girl made her move. Ten Ten swung a leg forward, in an attempt to lose Sakura's balance but she managed to leap safely away from the attack. She landed nimbly on her two feet when Ten Ten suddenly appeared behind her.

"What…the?" she never got to finish as Ten Ten pummeled her from the back and she toppled face first on the ground with a loud SPLAT! Sakura's face scrunched up when she realized that Ten Ten knocked her over a rotten pile of banana peels. Pretty disgusting, I tell ya.

"Ten Ten's pretty serious," Sasuke mused, seeing Sakura's heavily smudged face. Bruises started to form and marred her pale complexion. He ran a hand through his hair. Sweat dripped from his forehead. Like it or not, he has to stop the battle.

Before one of them gets hurt.

Well, apparently, Haruno would be the one in danger.

…………

Meanwhile, Ten Ten basked on her victory. She finally succeeded in humiliating the pink – haired hussy right in front of Sasuke. Serves her right, she thought. She already had Neji to toy with and now she wants Sasuke to become hers too? No freaking way. That's why she has to teach her a lesson.

A really hard lesson about life.

"So, ready to give up? You're in no condition to fight, and it looks like your pretty face needs some serious wiping," she drawled. She may not hit Sakura at school but here outside, she had all the rights to. All the dark alleys are considered her territory.

Sakura became quiet.

Ten Ten continued. "If you don't want to be in a serious bad shape, give up now and leave Sasuke alone! You have no right to be with him."

"…………"

"T! That's enough!"

She glared at him. "Shut up, Sasuke! She was already meddling with your life too much. Don't you think you should be annoyed because she follows you around like a sick puppy?"

Sasuke raked his hair with his fingers. "I am annoyed. I'm annoyed because here are two girls right in front of me who are fighting each other just because of a misunderstanding."

Silence hung in the air.

"Misunderstanding? What do you mean by that?" Ten Ten asked.

He sighed. It was obvious that she didn't know. He made a step towards them. "A misunderstanding. Apparently, Haruno – san is not making any moves on me. We just had a little talk."

"A talk? Asking you out for the festival was a talk? Do you seriously know what that 'talk' means, Sasuke?" Ten Ten asked impulsively.

His brows furrowed. "A conversation?"

Ten Ten almost bit her the inside of her cheek to keep her from crying out of frustration. "No! A date! A freaking date!" God, how she wanted to strangle his neck and wring out some sense into him!

Confusion racked Sasuke's mind as he pieced Ten Ten's words together. A date. Was Haruno asking him out on a date? He pondered. Was that she asked him earlier? Was that counted as a date?"

"There's a festival at our school tomorrow and I was hoping if you could come with me."

Oh. I see.

"Yes, she asked me about coming to the festival with her but," Sasuke's eyes grew serious, "that's still not counted as a date to me."

Ten Ten screamed inwardly. No, no. Sasuke was not totally getting it. Why is he so dense when it comes to situations like this? "It is counted! What more do you want me to do just to convince you? Don't you see? She's playing you for a sucker, you baka!"

His eyes widened slightly.

"Sasuke – san is not stupid," Sakura interrupted weakly. Both teens turned around to see her struggling to get up, her face still smeared with dirt. She wiped her face with her sleeve as she glared at Ten Ten.

The other girl glared back. "So you're still able to stand from my attack? I thought you'd fall back and cry, sissy."

Sakura's expression grew stern. "You may insult me in any word you wish but calling your friend stupid is not a very good thing to do."

"So you're implying that I'm ill – mannered now?"

"Unladylike."

Ten Ten's ears turn red and started to make another move to hurt Sakura. "That's it! I'm going to kill you this time, bitch!"

Sakura didn't make any move to run away from her spot. She just stood there with her hands curled into fists, accepting inwardly the pain she is about to receive from Ten Ten's attack. She closed her eyes.

Ten Ten finally reached Sakura and is about to impale her sharp fingernails on the other girl's face when a hand shot up and gripped her wrist. Ten Ten turned angrily towards her attacker and her brown eyes went wide as saucers when she saw who it is.

"Sasuke! What do you think you're doing?" she yelled angrily.

He glared at her. "What do you think I'm doing? You're hurting someone out of reason!"

"I do have a reason! Let me go!"

He grabbed her other wrist and held it tight. "No."

"Let go!"

Tired of arguing pointlessly, Sasuke dropped her wrists. Instead, he stood in front of Sakura, shielding her from any attacks of Ten Ten's long fingernails. His onyx eyes were filled with irritation as they bored into Ten Ten's brown ones. He crossed his arms. "Fine. You want to hurt her so badly?"

She was already screaming bloody murder. "Yeah! I'll bloody rip her apart with my fists!"

Sasuke dropped his arms on his sides. "Then come and attack me. Rip me apart with your fists," he ordered coolly.

"What? You know I can't possibly do that to you!" Ten Ten exclaimed, aghast.

He shrugged his shoulder as if it was nothing to him. "It's better this way. You're hurting her with no reason at all. I have to stop you since it was my fault at the beginning. 'I' was the one who dragged her out here in the alley to talk. So you had all rights to be angry. At me, not her."

Instead of accepting Sasuke's answer, Ten Ten tried to sneak past him. She still attempts to inflict pain on the pink – haired girl. In truth, she had her own reasons for hurting Sakura. "Let me at her, Sasuke! She's supposed to be Neji's girl but what is she doing? She's flirting with you!" she growled.

Sasuke grabbed Ten Ten's wrists again and pinned them on either sides of her body. "She was not flirting with me, T. She was just asking something about the Hyuuga brat when you came. Nothing more."

"But…!"

He gave her a dark look. "I told you everything you need to know about the truth. Now, if you really don't want to believe me, then fine. But if you're going to attack Haruno – san again because of foolish reasons, I'm sorry but I'm not going to let you."

Ten Ten lifted her chin up to meet his cool gaze. A part of her wanted to break down right in front of them but the other part of her stopped her from doing so. Instead of releasing all of her pent – up frustration, she pried her wrists out of Sasuke's grasp. Without a word, she bolted from the scene.

…………

Sakura stared at the boy in front of her, unsure of what to say. She saw his shoulders tensing and is about to lift a hand to touch his shoulder when he spoke.

"I'll be right back." And then he went off.

Now standing alone in the alley, the pink – haired girl stifled a sob when she remembered what Ten Ten had said earlier. She was Haruno Sakura. She was Neji's girlfriend, the supposed popular girl in Konoha Academy. The pink – haired hussy as the brown – haired girl had claimed earlier.

She only invited Sasuke to the festival so that she could help him to open up to other people. After Itachi – san told her about his past, Sakura fully understood that he wasn't rude from the beginning. He just didn't want other people to hurt him again. He didn't want others to get hurt because of him.

Dropping down to her knees, she couldn't take the pressure anymore. It wasn't fair. She only wanted to make friends but now, look where it led her. "I almost forgot, I never apologized to that boy about that scene at the cafeteria," Sakura thought sadly.

He even finished all of the paper flowers by himself leaving her with nothing to do. She was grateful and even invited him for ice cream, but he declined, saying that he was afraid of her jealous boyfriend.

Sakura sighed as she stared at the night sky. "I wonder if I would be strong enough to leave Neji's shadow…I envy that girl…she's strong enough to fend for herself. She even earned Sasuke – san's admiration," she thought wistfully.

"She must be pretty lucky that she had Sasuke – san to run after her," she added as a tear trickled down her cheek. "I wish Neji would've done the same thing for me…"

Ten Ten increased her speed as she did her best to run away from the two people she inevitably encountered. She almost tripped over a banana peel when a hand trapped her wrist.

She shrieked. "What the hell…?" She immediately curled her hand into a fist and smashed it onto the face of her attacker. He yelped in pain and she gasped when she saw the attacker's intense onyx eyes.

"S…Sasuke!" she exclaimed.

Sasuke rubbed the spot where her fist made contact with his cheek. "Tch, as always, your power is still extraordinary."

Now she really wanted to die right then and there. "I…I'm sorry! I didn't mean to punch you!"

"It's all right. I kinda deserved it." Sasuke stared at her. "Care to fill me in?"

Ten Ten blushed. She really didn't know what to say in front of him. Her hands trembled so she curled them into fists. Damn, why does she always experience all these sorts of things whenever Sasuke's around?

"I," she began. What was she to say? Will she be able to gather enough courage to tell Sasuke that she was furious when she saw him and that Haruno girl together?

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched. "Well?"

"I…I…argh! Stop playing mind games with me, Sasuke! You already know what I'm trying to say!" she ranted.

He crossed his arms. "I obviously don't know. Who knows? I'm such a stupid baka since I don't know what you're trying to say."

Ouch. He got her right where he wanted her.

Ten Ten lowered her gaze on the ground. Even if she tried to defend herself, there was no way she could escape from Sasuke's psychoanalysis. Sasuke took an advance class in Psychology and eventually got an A+ the following year. His mode of expertise was to continuously interrogate people until they turn to mush.

She had no choice but to give in. "I'm sorry, all right? I acted right out of proportion." she shuffled her left foot over her right. "It's just, I thought that that girl was giving you a hard time. You know, bothering ya."

"Too bad, but you're wrong. She was not bothering me. And I'm pretty sure that's not the only reason," Sasuke retorted coolly. She attacked Sakura with a killer intent. There was no way he would've missed that.

"I…" I like you! Couldn't you see that? "I…I was just protecting you from your rabid fan girls! I judged that girl as your fan by mistake. Does that answer your question?" Ten Ten answered sheepishly yet loud enough for him to hear. She saw his brows rose up in surprise and confusion was etched into his face. Finally he nodded, as if that answer was already enough for him.

Sasuke sighed. "Fine. But you owe me one." He tapped his already bruising cheek in emphasis.

"I know! And I'm sorry!"

"Apology accepted. Just don't do it again, Ten Ten."

Ten Ten immediately froze. He called her again by her real name! Sensing her stiffness, Sasuke patted her head. "I was just kidding, T. To tell you the truth, your name doesn't sound that bad at all."

Her head still bowed, she began to mumble. "Uhm…Sasuke…what if…"

Sasuke leaned a bit closer. "Hn?"

"What if," she began and clenched her fists tighter. "What if…what if I told you that I like you what will you say?"

Author's Note: Chapter 9 is finished! Sorry for the long wait, but I have to finish all of my summer duties in order for me to face the computer again. Sorry for the short chapter, I dedicate this one to all the readers especially you guys who correctly guessed the answer last time. Yep! They had a girlfight! But like the other chapters, you guys will have to guess again!

"Now that Ten Ten asked Sasuke a question, his answer will be…?"

Sorry to keep you guys guessing! But it's for the good of the story! I'll be waiting for your answers! Thanks for the reviews and suggestions in the last chapter! Ja!