Revised: 1/10/15

Chapter 13

"Oba-chan?"

The old woman gives the girl a warm smile before turning around toward the glimmering light. The little girl stretched her arms to reach for her beloved person, but the presence of her family was only getting further and fainting until she was completely disappeared.

A pair of emerald eyes cracked open, Sakura blinked at the sudden brightness to adjust the light.

Oba-chan. The pink hair girl ran her hand to the back of her head trying to rub of the tingling pain.

Where am I? Her eyes wandered off in the expensive looking room when she came to realized it wasn't her little apartment. It wouldn't be her apartment anyway since she remembered she got kicked out.

Having no memory how she got here, Sakura struggled to sit up on the soft and warm bed. Her body reacted with a wave of pain screaming for her to lie back down, but she didn't listen as usual.

Wah. Sakura sat there quietly while her eyes sparked with curiosity. The room was the simple but it was the prettiest one she had seem in her life. The TV from across the bed was nearly the size of her kitchen, the room is mostly black and white, and for that part she thought it would look better if it was in rainbow colour.

As she looked around, what caught her attention the most was the mini owl clock lying next to the bed. Her hand tingled with an urge to touch it. It was just very cute. When she finally couldn't resist its cuteness, Sakura crawled over the edge of the bed and felt an excitement to touch the little button on its head.

"(cough, cough )…." The Uhicha faked a cough to get her attention. He was here a while ago but couldn't find the chance to interrupt because of her very sparkling round eyes was looking around the room. He felt like watching her like that for a few more minutes.

She stopped in midway before reaching the owl clock to look at who was there and her face immediately blushed in deep red when she realized who it was.

"S-Sasuke?" THAT WAS SO EMBARRASSING! SAKURA! She sat back down before her face gets any redder.

"I didn't mean to touch the stuff." She felt like slapping herself with the dumb line.

Sasuke didn't respond, he merely walked in and close the door behind him.

"Where am I?" Her pink face has settled back down now.

"My room." He answered simply.

"Oh." Why am I replying so dumbly again? She hoped she hadn't hit her head or something. The room fell in silent and Sakura could feel the awkwardness in the air. Maybe she should leave; Sasuke clearly doesn't seem like the kind of people who like people in their room. Nodding internally to herself, Sakura dragged herself out of the white mattress.

She crawled to the edge of the bed and cursed to herself when she felt an unpleasant pain in her ankle. Cannot be clumsy then she already was, her hand slipped on blanket and felt herself falling.

She closed her eyes waiting for her face to hit the floor. But it never did. All she felt was a pair of hands on her shoulder. A second passed, she thinks, before she peeked one eye opened, but all she saw was Sasuke's black shirt.

"That's freaking dangerous!" He pushed her shoulder back a little so he could look if she's ok.

Was he angry? Sakura's eyes were on his for a long moment.

"Gomen…" A soft apology came out her mouth.

Shit.

Now they are too close, way too close. His eyes were on hers and he couldn't find any words to say. A shade of pink worked its way to his cheeks. Feeling the uneasiness when she stared at him, he quickly shifted his eyes from those jade orbs. Didn't get the right place though, he looked down but all he saw was her shirt, well his, was slipping down on the edge of her shoulder revealing too much skin for his liking.

He was sure the room has gotten hotter.

He looked away again and quickly pulled her shirt back up so her shoulder wasn't shining for him to look again. Sakura didn't seem to notice he just fixed her shirt; her mind was too busy thinking the reaction the Uchiha was having earlier.

Now Sakura was a bit suspicious, he was acting really weird.

"Sakura!" For the first time, he was thankful Naruto showed up.

"Are you OK? Did you feel better? Are you hungry?" Naruto spilled out everything that has been bothering him since a few days ago. Sasuke took his chance to get away from the pinkette.

"Naruto…." His name came out softly from the girl.

Was he worried?

The blonde let out a sigh of relief when she responded to him, his biggest fear was memory lost like he seen in movies. It was getting him nuts the past two days. He really needs to stop watching those.

"I am always alright." She smiled.

Watching her smile made his stomach lurched in an uncomfortable feeling. It was all their fault she ended up this way, she should be mad and maybe smack them, but she didn't.

"Ano…. Sakura….." How should he continue….

"Huh?"

"I…you…" What now?

Taking a long deep breath, he let it out. "GOMENASAI," He made a perfect ninety degree bow. She might not forgive them but it doesn't matter, he just have to apologize.

Turning to the Uchiha, "You apologize too," Naruto grabbed a hold of Sasuke's sleeve and yanked him down which earned him a hard glare.

His pride was telling him to say no, but inside he wanted to, it was his fault after all. The Uchiha glance at Sakura and saw all those injuries on her body.

"Come on, teme, apologize." Naruto held onto his ninety degree bow only turning a little to whisper to him.

There was an innocent and questionable look on her face, and then Sasuke clenched his fist.

"Gomen…." He turned his head so he wouldn't face her. It was a very soft apology but she heard it.

Sakura was taken by surprise but smiled when she saw Sasuke's ear redden.

"Sakura-chan…..," Naruto looked at the floor with guilt. Asking for forgiveness wasn't enough, she needed to be mad and slap them.

"Can you smack us?"

Sakura blinked a few times not trusting what she just heard. But she stood up from the bed knowing he was serious. After all it was the first time he called her by her name.

Sasuke shifted his position to indicate he will let her as well, he knew he deserved it and is willing to let her beat him up. The more she could get rid of her anger, the better.

"Ok, then be ready." She blew air onto her fist. " I won't go easy on you two." Naruto closed his eyes waiting for her to punch him. Sasuke stood still as she came closer.

"Yosh! You have been forgiven." She flicked their forehead with each of her index finger then hugged them. Something she has always wanted to do.

"Naruto, Sasuke…" She buried her head between their shoulders. A smile work itself to her face.

The blonde froze right where he was, he never expected that will be it. He doesn't want her to forgive them. They need to pay for what they had done. But now seeing her like this, she would never.

W-What should I do? Sh-Should I hug back? He struggled when she didn't break off the hug.

Looking to his right, Naruto glanced over Sasuke for help. What is Sasuke going to do?

TEME! HELP ME!

No response.

He turned a bit more to make sure he can notice him. Sasuk…...FUCK! That bastard's face is redder than mine!

The Uchiha didn't sense the blonde sending signals because his damn mind was too focused on her. Is not like Sakura is the first girl to hug him, hundreds or maybe thousands did, he even bed them! Then why does he felt so heat up just by a mere hug.

After a long moment, the Uchiha was unable to control his temperature anymore. "That's it, " He broke off the hug before his face turn to ripe human flesh. "Get back on the bed, your fever is not down yet."

Nice! Teme. Naruto gave him a thumb up and a 1000+ watts smile. Sasuke ignored him.

With a simple lift, he carried Sakura carefully and lied her down on the bed. Even though she didn't say anything, he could tell her body was in pain the moment she stood up. Hugging them should have taken a lot of effort since she needed to tip-toe to reach their shoulder. He does not want any more damage to her already painful ankle.

The pinkette didn't want lay there but looking at the two, she knew they wouldn't let her walk around. Sighing in defeat, the pinked hair girl rested her head on the pillow and tilted sideway to look at them. A smile plastered on her face.

The Uzumaki blushed and placed his hands in his pockets, a nervous habit he has ever since he was little.

"I-I.." He needed to get himself out here.

"O-oh, Yeah, I need to participate in today's basketball tournament so…so I gotta go." He stuttered but the reason seems legit, to him at least.

Sakura could tell he was nervous from the old habit she remembered, so she gave him warm cheer. "Do your best." It was true that there is a basketball tournament today, but he never participated in any of this kind of stuff before anyway. Even if the people begged him to play since he and Sasuke were considered the geniuses at any type of sports, he would not play.

But thank to it, he could get himself out now. And since Sakura wanted him to win, he will win.

"Wait for my good news." He winked. " Oh, and don't worry, Sasuke-bastard will stay here, so order him whenever you want." He gave them a wave before slipping out the room.

Freaking Naruto, how is he gonna deal with this now? Sasuke cursed at his buddy before he sighed.

The room was left in a complete silence again once the blonde was gone, the quietness was really getting Sakura's nerve, she opened her mouth to say something but Sasuke beat her to it.

"Are you hungry?"

"Hm." She nodded slightly while she felt like covering herself up with blankets. Though she was really hungry since there wasn't any food in her stomach for maybe 3 or 4 days, she felt she was asking too much from them.

"Stay in bed." Sasuke walked out the room and shut the door without turning back to look at her.

I think I got him mad. She will make sure to thank him later.

"Uchiha-sama, I washed t-"As she spotted the Uchiha walking in the hall, the maid hurried to her master so she could tell him Sakura's clothes has been washed. But too bad, the Uchiha was totally not listening, he walked passed her as if she was transparent.

"Uchiha-sam-" She tried again but was too late, he was already gone.

Why is his face so red?

So, this is Sasuke's room….. The curious feeling came back stronger once she knew who the room belongs to. The pink hair girl glanced around the room trying to locate any unusualness. To her surprise, nothing seems out of place; in fact it was even too normal. She was expecting some kind of boxer poster or food poster (that's what she would have in her room) but none. It looked very organized and clean, but something just doesn't seem right. She couldn't pin out exactly what, but it felt so… empty is perhaps the word.

And lonely maybe.

After a minute of staying in bed, Sakura was finally unable to lie still so she got up to look around. Yes, yes, she knows it wasn't right to look or touch other people's stuff, but the room was giving her goose bumps and an uncomfortable feeling that she wanted to know why.

She got off the bed and dragged her feet slowly towards the small clock, not the little cute owl one, but one familiar one saw across the room.

This clock…..

This clock, she remembered, was the clock Sasuke used to have in his old home when they were little. She has always liked it since it has a very pretty craved pattern around the side.

She slide her finger around the design to feel the smoothness of the beautiful handwork. But taking a minute to look closer at the clock, she noticed that it was already broken, the time stopped at 7:10. On the edge, she could see some red substance covered on the side.

Blood? She took the clock down from the shelf to have a closer look if it was bloodstain or not. In between the process, the book lying below the clock fell down from the shelf.

Sasuke's journal? She bended down to pick up the familiar dairy Sasuke used to write on every day. He loved writing in it. He wrote on it every single day sometimes even twice a day to record the details of his life.

Don't even think about it. The fight began again with her inner. The unreasonable changes between her two friends, she wanted to know why. And now the only clue that might reveal the truth is right in front of her, she couldn't let it go.

Gomen Sasuke.

She picked out the journal and start flipping through the pages to find the pieces she needs. 7/25…7/30…8/14. 8/14 20XX, the date I left Tokyo.

It was heartbreaking to remember the day of her departure, so she decided not to intrude his privacy for reading his inner feelings.

She continued on to search for the one she needed. 9/10..10/2..12/25…4/24…..6/2. It stopped there. June, now she recalled, was about the time when Sasuke and Naruto stopped replying to her letters.

She stood still reading over what had happen on 6/2. Park…. Old man….. gave him something…. He said it was a joke… Nothing unusual. It sounds just like a normal day with nothing much happen.

Refuse to give up the search she flipped the book towards the further back, maybe he would write on the back like she does sometimes.

The blank pages flashes by pages by pages making her more apprehensive as she's hitting the near end. There it is.

It is on the back. Sakura paused for a second to examine the pages. Compare to the previous ones, this looked different. On the first page of this passage, there were two words written in huge letters.

DON'T FORGET 6/3 20XX

(AN: Got idea from FMA)

There were finger prints of blood all over the pages. Sakura swallow the anxious feeling stirred in her throat before she started.

6/3 20XX,

Why? It started off.

OK, so back story is coming. I will write it in third person pov, I don't really know how to write it in Sasuke pov, so ya. I will write Naruto's back story in as well.