Hello everyone
I do not own Naruto
Sakura could hear the crunch of approaching footsteps and covered her mouth to muffle the sound of her crying. The classroom door opened and Sakura could only shrink further into herself and hope the stranger would not take in his surroundings. Fat chance.
The footsteps that were oh-so-casual before suddenly stalled about a foot in front of her. Self consciously, Sakura slowly raised her head, first seeing a pair of white sneakers (oh God, she recognized those sneakers), dark, faded jeans (with a tear in the right knee from his skirmish with his friend that morning), a slightly too large blue t shirt (a present from his older brother) and above that...
Well, Sakura hadn't the heart to look above that - she already knew that Sasuke Uchiha, the most popular boy at school, the boy she'd crushed on for as long as she could remember - was probably looking at her with pity and revulsion. The same look he'd worn when she'd confessed her feelings for him a few days ago.
Still, in a wobbly hoarse whisper, Sakura couldn't help but ask, "How bad is it?"
Sasuke didnt say anything. Sakura, feeling more self conscious now, started toying with the ends of her hair, now significantly shorter.
"Who did this?"
Sakura jumped, not expecting the hostility of his voice. Gathering her courage, Sakura managed to make eye contact at last, and when she did, was surprosed to find that his face was a concentrated mask of determination, staring not at her shorn hair - her biggest loss - but at her bruised left cheek and busted up knuckles.
He finally met her eyes and raised his left eyebrow, a patented Uchiha move he'd picked up from his brother.
"Oh," Sakura said, trying to sound nonchalent and airy, "this. It was no one you know, trust me."
Which was a complete lie, they both knew that Sasuke knew everyone at this school, and it was stupid to pretend otherwise.
He narrowed his eyes, as though he could intimidate her into confessing, but eventually a look of surprised understanding crossed his face. "It was Ami, wasn't it? She did that to your face?"
Sakura huffed a breath of annoyance. "Well, sure, she did this to me but you should see what I did to her!"
Another lie. Ami and her friends had cornered her after school, in this very classroom, and proceeded to hold her down, cut her hair and then, just before they left, Ami had socked her. Sakura had tried to fight them off. Had squirmed and writhed until she'd busted her knuckles accidently hitting the corner of a desk. Her hair was her most prized feature, a source of envy to every other girl in class. The only thing that made her feel pretty.
She really was pathetic. The thought brought a fresh round of tears to Sakura's eyes, but this time, in Sasuke's presence, she would not succumb to them.
Sasuke sighed softly before he crouched down, sitting next to her. He picked up one of the locks of hair scattered around them and twirled it between his thumb and index finger.
Sakura bit her lip and looked away, fighting back a fresh wave of emotion.
"This," Sasuke said haltingly, "happened because of... what you said. The other day?"
And there it was. Two whole days without communication, only to be broken by Ami's actions. It was kind of ironic, when you think about it - the only reason why Ami had approached Sakura today in the first place was to warn her not to go near Sasuke.
And now here Sasuke was. Asking if what she'd told him was the reason Ami had attacked her. No, she wished she could say, not what I told you, what you told her. What you told your girlfriend.
But Sakura would never be strong enough for a confrontation of that magnitude. The confession of her feelings, and the subsequint rejection of those feelings by Sasuke, was enough of a cautionary tale in itself.
"I suppose so," mumbled Sakura, staring in seeming fascination as she flexed her bruised knuckles.
For a while, nothing more was said. The pair sat quietly in companiable silence.
Surprisingly, it was Sasuke who broke it, a half smile lifting the corners of his mouth. "Do you remember the time we-"
"Of course I do," interupted Sakura, sounding much calmer now.
"You didn't even let me finish," he teased, nudging her shoulder with his.
"It doesn't matter. I remember. I always remember everything about the time we spent together." And it was true, if a little sad.
When her eyes met his, she could tell that he'd already been looking at her. That wasn't quite right - it was more like he was studying her, every detail, every eyelash, and fleck in her emerald green eyes.
She'd seen him look at her this way in the past, mostly when he thought she wouldn't notice. It always sent the butterflies flying in her stomach. It gave her hope that one day, some day, there could be something more than friendship between them.
More than ice cream, and skateboarding, and skipping stones down at the lake. More than grocery shopping for his mother, and dinner with hers. More than playing pranks on his brother and then 'borrowing' his CD's. More than the time they'd slept camping out in the treehouse together. More than furtive glances when the other wasn't looking.
She knew better now.
"I should sweep this up," said Sakura, rising to her feet and gesturing at the hair on the floor.
"I'll help you," he replied, getting up and fetching the broom and dustpan.
"You don't have to," Sakura quickly replied, hoping in equal measures that he would just go and let her lick her wounds in private, and also that he would never leave.
"I'll help you," he repeated, not meeting her eyes.
They worked quickly, silently. And when they were done, as they walked home together, Sakura finally said, "You know, Ami is the worst."
"She really is."
Sakura and Sasuke exchanged a brief secret smile before parting ways.
After all this time (and it has been a long time, hasn't it) I still don't know how to do linebreaks!
Thank you for reading this! It's very slice-of-life, don't you think? I have no plans to develop this into a full story but I'd love to hear your theories about this one.
Please review.