Song of a Cherry Blossom
by Diana-san

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 8

Sasuke smirked as he stood towering over Sakura. Sakura glared defiantly back up at him.

"What are you doing here at my party?" Sasuke asked. "Pinky?" he added as he stretched out the word. This caused Sakura's shoulders to hunch up even more as her eyes became what seem to be able to turn man to stone. Especially men like Sasuke.

"Who would want to go to your party?" Sakura spat out in anger.

Sasuke thought for a moment. "Uh, everyone?" he responded as he gestured to the crowd. "The whole school was invited." Sasuke frowned as he tapped his head. "I guess your invite was left out."

Sakura scowled. "Gee, what a pity. Who knew what could have happened if I received it?" Sakura said sarcastically. Sakura closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them, she stared right into Sasuke's eyes as if her eyes were doing all the talk.

"But you don't have to worry about me crashing your party because me and Idate are LEAVING," Sakura said coolly as she stressed out the word 'leaving'. "Isn't that right, Idate?" Sakura asked as she turned her head to Idate for support. What Sakura didn't expect was that Idate was nowhere in sight. Sakura turned around and searched for any signs of Idate. "Idate? IDATE?" Sakura called out into the crowd.

Sasuke smirked. "Looks like your friend is enjoying the party," he commented as he walked up behind Sakura and lowered his head to Sakura's height. Sasuke extended a finger out and pointed out Idate in the crowd.

Sakura followed Sasuke's finger and immediately found Idate in the crowd. Idate waved to Sakura and grinned. "The food here is AWESOME. You should come over!" Idate shouted to Sakura from within the masses of people.

The cherry blossom groaned as she buried her face in her hands in pure embarrassment. You sold me out Idate. How could you wander over to their side and still be oblivious to the fact that you did it?

Sasuke stood up straight and smirked. "So what were you saying again?"

Sakura lifted her head up and dropped her hands to her side. She took a few small breaths and plastered a fake smile on her face before turning around and facing Sasuke.

Sakura gave Sasuke a sweet smile and then turned her smile into a scowl. "So what if your party took over my friend to your evil little side? I still won't be convinced to agree to anything you do including these… these…" Sakura looked around her and waved her hands at the scene in front of her. "…these superficial parties full of fake and self-obsessed kids!" Sakura finished.

Sasuke gave a pretend hurt look. "Ouch!" he exclaimed dramatically. "That hurts."

Sakura glared at him. Sasuke draped his arm around Sakura and grinned down at her. Sakura eyed his arm and then eyed up at Sasuke's taunting face. "What?" Sakura asked flatly.

Sasuke sighed. "If you really want to stay then you can stay if you want. It's not like I can't afford to serve you food and entertainment."

Sakura blinked once and then twice and then a couple of times more. She shook her head as if to clear her head and maybe her senses. She tapped her ears a few times to make sure she was hearing correctly. "Excuse me?" Sakura questioned. Sakura gave a half-hearted laugh. "Are you saying that I actually WANT to come to your party?"

"Well, you are here already aren't you?" Sasuke commented.

Sakura was at a loss for words. "B-bu-but. I mean… WAIT!" Sakura pushed Sasuke's arm away from her and ran a few feet away to distance herself form Sasuke. Sakura extended an arm out as if to shield herself. "Okay," Sakura began. "Did you like hear a word I just said earlier? I said I wouldn't come even if you had invited me."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Women like you sure are hard to figure out."

Sakura gave a small frown. "What do you mean women like me? I will have you know that women like me are just as-"

Sasuke walked up to Sakura and placed a finger on Sakura's lips to silence her. "Shh," Sasuke said softly. "I don't want any of your long and boring lectures when it's supposed to be a Saturday night." Sasuke looked down at Sakura and gestured towards her stomach with his free hand. "It's a bit past the dinner hour so you probably haven't eaten anything. I'm sure that you are hungry-"

Sakura pushed Sasuke's finger away and retorted, "I'm NOT hungry. In fact, I'm perfectly content and-"

Sakura was interrupted when her stomach gave out a loud growl. Sakura blushed a faint pink and clutched her stomach with a grimace. Sasuke laughed. "Your stomach sure speaks differently from what your mouth says."

Sakura glared at her stomach and cursed silently. Damn you. Betrayed by my own hunger. Forget the fact that I planned to do fifty sit ups for you.

Naruto stepped up. "C'mon Sakura-chan. Have some fun. You can eat all the free food you want and it's all out of Sasuke's pocket!"

Sasuke gave Naruto a glare. "Idiot, you're better off with your mouth shut."

"Hey, don't you want her to stay?" Naruto asked.

"I could care less," Sasuke said before leaving and getting mixed in with the crowd.

Naruto sighed. "Don't worry about him. He's just being his usual grouchy self," Naruto explained to Sakura.

Sakura scoffed. "Worried? Who said I was worried?"

Naruto blinked. "Okay, then never mind."

Sakura grinned as she rolled up what is suppose to be her sleeves. "Okay! I'm going to go all out and eat that Uchiha out of all his money and then I'll make him come crying to me when he's all broke and out of money."

Sakura grinned mischievously at her brilliant evil plan while Naruto stared blankly at the pink-haired girl. "Uhh, Sakura-chan. Are you feeling alright?"

Sakura's eyes fired up. "I'll show him! Show me to the food table," she demanded.

Naruto pointed to the long banquet style table that was off to one side of the large crowd. Sakura walked over and stood at one end of the long table. Her mouth dropped open as she gaped at the scene before her. There were over thirty dishes of different kinds of food lined up one next to the other. A miniature sized fountain was placed in the center of the long buffet table. The fountain had three layers to it and each layer had a different kind of drink. Large trays of barbeque chicken were placed in the center and the shiny sheen of the barbeque sauce glistened from the lights of the Japanese lanterns hung overhead which gave the whole area a homey feeling to it. Five different kinds of pizzas were in rotating trays and they sat next to the liters of soda and apple cider.

Sakura was astonished as she stared at all the wonderful food. Her stomach growled as her mouth drooled. "Wow," she breathed. "You guys actually EAT normal food."

Naruto laughed. "What did you expect? That we will serve caviar with little square crackers."

Sakura darted a quick glance at Naruto before turning away. "O-of course not," she murmured. Actually, yes I was thinking that, Sakura thought to herself.

Sakura groaned. "I won't be able to finish all this food by myself."

"You wouldn't be able to finish it even if it was just one pizza being served," Naruto remarked.

Sakura stuck her tongue out. "Oh, just you watch. If my plan is to succeed then I need to eat until I can eat no more."

Naruto sighed. "If you're going to do something then at least make it realistic," Naruto replied but Sakura was already out of ear-shot.

Sakura hummed as she grabbed the top plate from a stack of silver plates. She frowned as she wrinkled her nose. What's wrong with just using paper plates? Sakura stood in front of the first tray and began dumping all kinds of food onto her plate. She worked her way down the long buffet style table until her plate was piled up so high that it started to get heavy. The pink-headed teenager took a fork and glanced at her plate. This is going to take awhile… Sakura thought with a sigh.

Ten minutes later…

Sakura groaned. The plate she was holding was barely even one-fourth done and it looked exactly the same as when she first got it.

Another ten minutes later…

Sakura leaned against the chair she was now sitting in with the plate sitting in the chair next to her. Sakura let her head fall back so that she was watching everything upside down.

Twenty minutes later…

Sakura slid off the chair and slumped against the legs of the chair while with the fork stuck dangling in her mouth as she held onto it with a lazy grip. The plate of food still sat in the chair next to Sakura looking like it hasn't been eaten from even though Sakura spent twenty minutes eating the top layer of the layer of food.

Five minutes later…

Naruto walked over to Sakura and bent down. Sakura was now slumped down on the sand with the fork stuck in the sand. Naruto gave Sakura a gentle poke and Sakura rolled over with a groan. "No more food," she moaned with her eyes closed.

Naruto laughed. "Not even dessert?"

Sakura sat up immediately. "Dessert?" Sakura said excitedly. Sakura jumped up to her feet and ran over to the dessert table. Her jade eyes sparkled as she looked over at the display of cakes, cookies, and sweets. "All of them look so good," she murmured to herself. She grabbed the small dessert plate and then examined it for a second before putting it down. Then she went over to get a regular dinner plate and carried it back to the dessert table. Sakura carefully examined each dessert that was laid out before her. "Lemon bars, macarons, cream puffs, gelato..." Sakura silently counted off in her head. "So many to choose from," Sakura said wistfully as she rested the rim of the plate on the edge of her chin. "How to decide…"

"Why don't you just get a little bit of each?" a deep voice said.

Sakura gave a small jump in surprise as she turned around. "Y-y-you're that guy."

The stoic white-eyed man frowned. "That guy? Is that how you remember me?"

Sakura's eyes widened. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to be so rude like that," Sakura said quickly as she gave a bow.

Sakura heard a light giggle and she frowned. He doesn't have to laugh at me like that. Wait a minute, did he just giggle?

Sakura raised her head to find herself face to face with a girl peering at her face. Sakura jumped back in surprise and couldn't help but gawking. "You were a guy a moment ago weren't you?"

The girl laughed as she stood back. "I always knew there was something about you that made you different from all the other girls," she remarked. She gave out a hand to help Sakura up who was sitting on the ground with a shocked expression on her face.

"I'm Tenten," the chocolate-haired introduced herself. "And…this is my boyfriend, Neji," Tenten went on to say as she pulled the white-eyed man from behind her. Neji gave a brief nod and turned his head.

Sakura glanced away from Neji to Tenten. "Uhh, I'm Sakura, I guess," Sakura mumbled. Sakura was still a bit confuse at what is happening.

Tenten smiled. "You work at Icha Icha right?"

Sakura scratched her head. "Well, yes I wor-"

Tenten interrupted, "I've been wanting to meet you! You have spunk and I like that. Keep it up!"

Sakura blinked. "Thanks…I think."

Tenten smiled. "I'm a year older than you but I hope we can be good friends. You know, I can show you how you can really irritate Sasuke. Did you know-?"

Neji interrupted, "Tenten, I don't think you should be trying to use Haruno-san to make Uchiha's life a living hell."

Tenten gave a pout. "But I still need to get back at him for all that stuff that he did."

Neji sighed. Sakura gave a blank look. "Settle scores? What do you have against Sasuke?" Sakura asked Tenten.

Tenten explained, "Ever since childhood, Sasuke and I would play pranks on each other and right now he's leading by 108 wins and 107 losses. One more loss and we'll be even.

Neji sighed and crossed his arms. "Tenten, you will be graduating this year so maybe you should just let it g-"

"NO! Don't say it! I can't let it go! I will make that boy suffer a million times worse than what he did to me 108 wins ago," Tenten exclaimed loudly.

Sakura was tempted to ask what happened 108 wins ago but seeing the look on Tenten's face changed her mind. Sakura picked up her plate of desserts and indicated that she was going to go.

"Ok, I think I'll just go over there and eat my desser-"

"WAIT!" Tenten called out as she placed her hand on Sakura's shoulder to stop her. "Why don't you dance with Neji?"

"WHAT?" both Neji and Sakura exclaimed.

Tenten smiled. "Go on, you two should dance. It's no fun to just eat at a party."

"No really, I'm really just here for the food. I'm not much up for dancing right now," Sakura said quickly.

Tenten grabbed both Neji and Sakura by the hands. "C'mon you two. Go and dance."

Tenten whispered in Neji's ear. "And try to get her near Sasuke when I give you the signal."

"The signal? What signal?" Neji asked.

"You'll know soon enough. Just do what you have to do," Tenten whispered before going away.

Neji cursed to himself silently. How did I get myself into this mess? he thought grimly.

Sakura rocked back and forth as she swayed silently by herself. Neji sighed as he walked over to Sakura. He extended out an arm to Sakura. "Will you dance with me?"

"Do I have a choice?" Sakura questioned.

"No."

"Then okay," Sakura responded as she linked arms with Neji. "One dance with you can't hurt."

A slow song came on and Sakura awkwardly placed her hands on top of Neji's shoulders. Neji kept a safe distance away from the pink-headed girl as he glanced over at Tenten. Tenten smiled and waved back and pointed over to Sasuke who was with Ino. Neji sighed as he guided Sakura a little bit over to the left and closer to Sasuke. Sakura stiffly followed Neji's lead but wondered what kind of dance he was trying to do.

He seems more like pulling me over than dancing. Poor Tenten. He may be good looking but he sucks at dancing, Sakura thought to herself as she got half-dragged along in the somewhat dance. Sakura felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to see a guy behind her. He had dark wavy locks of hair that covered part of his eyes and when he smiled, dimples were revealed.

"May I cut in?" he asked.

Sakura glanced at Neji who didn't seem to be too pleased. This is my chance to get away, Sakura thought. She tiptoed up to Neji's ear and whispered, "I think you should go dance with Tenten. She seems a bit lonely."

Sakura flashed a quick smile at Neji before completely detaching herself from Neji's side. The pink-headed girl took the dark-haired man's hand and disappeared into the crowd. Neji gave a grim frown. "Tenten's going to kill me for this," he muttered.

Sakura poured a cup of punch as she drank thirstily out of it. Dancing had made her thirsty and it took her forever to get through the crowd to get to the drinks table. Sakura turned around to surveyed the whole party. Many of the girls wore lavish dresses like they were attending homecoming instead of a party on the beach. She made a face. Geez. Do they have to flaunt their riches on a public beach? It's bad enough they do it at school, but on a beach?

Sakura glanced at some guys. Most of them were dressed pretty casually but some were dressed a bit more formally.

Sakura sighed as she looked at the scene in front of her. "A girl like me just doesn't fit in," she said absentmindedly.

"You're right," a voice said from behind Sakura.

Sakura whirled around. She made a disgusted face when she saw who it was. "Oh, it's you."

Sasuke smirked. "How come you don't sound happier to see me?"

Sakura thought for a moment. "I don't know. Maybe because I'm not?"

The cherry blossom grabbed her drink. "Now if you will excuse me-"

Before Sakura could finish her sentence, the DJ started to speak into the microphone.

"ALRIGHT YOU PARTY-GOERS! WE'RE GOING TO MIX IT UP A LITTLE RIGHT NOW. THIS IS HOW IT WORKS. EVERYONE HAS TO PICK OUT A CRAYON COLOR FROM ONE OF THE BOXES THAT TENTEN AND NEJI ARE HOLDING. THERE ARE TWO SETS OF CRAYONS AND THE GIRLS WILL PICK ONE OUT FROM TENTEN'S BOX AND THE GUYS FROM NEJI'S. HOW THIS WORKS IS THAT THERE IS ONE CRAYON THAT WILL MATCH YOUR OWN CRAYON AND WHOEVER THAT PERSON IS WILL BE THE PERSON YOU HAVE TO DANCE WITH FOR THE LAST SLOW SONG OF THE NIGHT."

The DJ stepped down from the mike and the crowd began to talk excitedly.

"Oh my gosh. I hope I get the same color crayon as Sasuke-kun. Kyaa!"

"No fair. I want Sasuke's!"

"I hope I get to dance with Neji!"

Sakura sighed. This could get ugly, Sakura mused with a laugh. Sakura stole a glance at Sasuke who was staring off into the distance. Sakura smirked. "This party is going to get interesting."

Sakura started to turn away from the crowd when someone stuck a box of crayons in front of her face. Sakura stared at it for a few seconds before looking up. Sakura's emotionless face met with Tenten's bright smile. Tenten grinned as she inched the crayon box closer to Sakura's face.

"No," Sakura flatly stated.

Tenten frowned and moved the box of crayons closer to Sakura. The cherry blossom shook her head but Tenten remained persistent. The brown-headed girl took out a single crayon from the box and slapped it on the palm of Sakura's hand.

Tenten rushed off before Sakura could protest. Sakura glanced at the crayon in her hand.

"Macaroni," Sakura read off the crayon label. "What are they doing to crayons these days?" she grumbled.

Sakura turned to Sasuke. "What did you get?"

Sasuke arched his eyebrow. "Do you care?"

"No," Sakura replied flatly.

A screeching sound from the microphone made Sakura winced as the whole crowd turned to see what was going on. Tenten grinned as she waved to the crowd. "Okay everyone! All the crayons have been passed out and now you will have to find the partner whose crayon matches yours. There's no switching or anything and you MUST dance with whoever you get. Take it as a match made in heaven."

People began to move around as they tried to find their dance partner. Sakura groaned. "How is anyone going to find who they are looking for like this?"

Someone gave a tap to Sakura's shoulder and she turned around to find Tenten smiling at her. "You!" Sakura cried out. The cherry blossom grabbed Tenten's wrist and dragged her out of the cramped up crowd.

"Okay, you got me into this mess so you have to get me out of it."

Tenten's eyes widened. "What did I do?" she asked innocently.

Sakura raised an eyebrow and held up the macaroni crayon up to Tenten's face. "You see this? You gave me this!" Sakura said as she waved the crayon around. "And now you can take it back and pretend that I never touched this crayon in my life so I can get out of here instead of dancing with whoever you try to set me up with."

Tenten placed her hands on her hips and frowned. "Now why would I do that?"

Sakura arched her eyebrow at the girl. "Because I'll be leaving right now."

Sakura held the crayon out and offered it for Tenten to take it.

Before Tenten could, a voice called out Tenten's name. The two girls looked over to see Sasuke jogging over. Tenten's eyes brightened up when she saw Sasuke.

"Hey Tenten, this little game of yours is driving me crazy. I can't even find the girl I'm suppose to be dancing with," Sasuke said.

Tenten smiled. "That's because… she's RIGHT HERE!" Tenten exclaimed as she dragged Sasuke over to Sakura.

Sasuke and Sakura looked at each other until a look of realization came upon their shocked faces.

"No!" the two of them both exclaimed.

"YES!" Tenten said happily. "Okay, have fun you two," Tenten said as she disappeared into the crowd.

Sakura stared at the back of Tenten's retreating back in shock. The pink-haired girl then looked over to Sasuke in shock.

"Of all the people," Sasuke grumbled.

Sakura glared at him. "What did you say?"

Sasuke scoffed. "I said of all the people, I had to get the FOREHEAD GIRL."

The cherry blossom gave Sasuke glaring daggers with her eyes. Sasuke snickered as he waited for Sakura to respond. When no response came, Sasuke waved a hand in front of Sakura's face. Sakura looked at Sasuke with her jade green eyes and Sasuke stopped waving as he dropped his hand against his side.

Sakura turned around and walked away leaving Sasuke standing there watching her retreating figure. Sasuke sighed as he followed the cherry blossom.

Sakura stopped walking as she got farther away from the loud noises and music of the party. Sakura sighed as she stared at the waves washing up the shore.

What's gotten into me? He said one insult to me and reduced me to this.

Sakura gave a small laugh to herself. Oh that's right. Mom and Dad would always tease me with that name.

The petal-haired girl crouched down on her knees as she sifted through the sand with her hands. She watched the sand fall in between her fingers as she rocked back and forth on her feet. A slight breeze brushed against her skin softly causing her to shiver.

"You're so stupid," Sakura scolded herself quietly. "Getting upset over nothing."

After all, that was so long ago. And that idiot Sasuke has been called me that name before.

Sakura threw a handful of sand at the waves in frustration. She thought that it would be easier to forget the pain of her parents' death with time but today was just all too much to bear. It was difficult to forget when everything seemed to remind her of them. She raised a hand to her cheeks and was surprised to feel a wet streak of tears on her face. She quickly wiped away the tears with the back of her hand as she clutched her head hoping to get rid of the pounding sounds in her brain.

Sakura sat down in the sand and was about to lie down on the sandy beach when a object stopped her back from going down any further. Sakura looked up to see Sasuke towering above her.

"What do you want?" Sakura asked in annoyance.

You seemed depressed so I followed you, Sasuke thought. "I was seeing what the little pig was doing out here all by herself," he said in response.

Sakura gave a glare at him and turned her head away. Sasuke sat down beside Sakura. "Are you still angry at me because I called you forehead girl?"

Her body stiffened. "No," she replied stubbornly. "I'm not mad," she replied coolly.

Sasuke laughed. "That's true. If you were mad, then you would have shouted your head off at me and called me a chauvinistic pig."

The cherry blossom turned and looked at Sasuke. "Stop acting like you know me so well."

Sasuke stared at the calmness of the ocean. "But isn't it true? You're not really hard to figure out."

Sakura crossed her arms. "You don't know me. No one really truly knows me."

"Fine, fine. No one knows you. How can anyone understand a poor girl like you?"

Sakura restrained herself from hitting the Uchiha hard on the head. "Hey!" she warned. "Watch yourself. I already stopped from being mad at you so don't try to make me mad again."

Sasuke shrugged. "I thought you weren't mad."

"What do you mean I wasn't mad? Of course I was mad! You-" Sakura paused. "You tricked me."

"What? I didn't do anything. You said it yourself," Sasuke said in defense. "You were-"

He was interrupted as a splash of cold water doused his face. Sasuke slowly wiped off the water away from his eyes as he stood up.

Sakura laughed as she stood in the cold waters of the ocean. "You're right. I was mad but now I feel a lot better after doing that."

Brushing his wet hair aside from his face, Sasuke glared at Sakura. "Oh, do you now?" he asked almost menacingly.

Sakura gulped as Sasuke came closer to her. Sakura stepped back into the cold icy water of the ocean as Sasuke neared her. She stuck her arm out to distance herself from the approaching Uchiha and waved it frantically as she shut her eyes tight.

"Don't try anything or I'll hurt you!" she threatened.

Sakura could hear Sasuke snicker. "Yeah, I like to see you try."

The sixteen-year-old girl opened her eyes and glared at Sasuke. "What? You don't believe that I can easily-"

Sakura's sentence was never finished as she took a last step back and started to fall. Sasuke reached out to try to catch Sakura by the arm but his efforts were useless as he took hold of Sakura's hand and fell into the cold waters with her. Sasuke stuck his head out from under the waters as he gasped for air while pulling Sakura up. The petal-haired girl spit out water and coughed as she wiped the water away from her eyes.

Sasuke groaned. "Man, this was a new shirt too," he grumbled.

Sakura sneezed. "Send it out for dry cleaning," she responded monotonously.

The Uchiha gave a sarcastic laugh in response. Sakura sneezed once again as she shivered in the icy cold waters. The pounding in her head was now a throbbing pain and suddenly she felt cold all over.

Sasuke sighed. "C'mon. We're going to catch colds if we stay in here too long."

Sakura nodded but was too numb to move. Her eyes started to close slowly as her head bobbed in and out of the water. Sasuke grabbed the cold girl by the shoulders and shook her gently. When Sakura showed no reaction, Sasuke quickly carried her out of the water.

Sasuke laid Sakura gently against the sandy surface of the beach. Sakura moaned as she rolled over to one side. The perplexed Uchiha placed his hand on Sakura's forehead and compared temperatures with his own.

"You're burning up."

Sakura only moaned in response.

With a sigh, the ebony-haired teenager picked up the feverish girl in his arms and began walking to the paved road that lead into the city.

"Boy, you are a lot of trouble," Sasuke muttered as he glanced down at Sakura's sleeping face. He gave a small chuckle. "But you're kinda cute when you're sleeping. The only time when you probably keep your mouth shut anyway."

Sasuke lifted Sakura up carried her up the rocky steps that led to car. "Man, you're heavy. What did you eat today?"