First day of the new year, and I don't really have any resolutions in stone. The last few years taught me that sometimes when you set things in stone, it changes against your will and breaks your heart. I'm going to just let what happens happen. :)

Today was basically relaxing, so I wasn't in a hurry to finish this new chapter. I'm gonna be done with the story in a couple of days at most, at this rate.

Chapter Six

Appreciation Versus Envy

Her dad was very surprised when she came home for her day off, and to be honest, it was the first real one she'd had in ages, but Ino and Kiba weren't available - not that she planned to let him know anyway because she wanted space all to herself to do what the hell she wanted, which felt so strange - to do anything, although she planned to head up to the center during Ino's break for lunch.

Kizashi was still adamant about her working for "the Beast", though he didn't say much anymore ever since she started working for Sasuke. But that was also when they sat down at breakfast, and she told him everything Kabuto told her. Word for word. When she was finished, Kizashi looked like he'd seen a ghost. "...so it's true," was all he could say, then shook his head. "But I never imagined he would try to take his own life like that..."

"I know." Just like when you at first thought you could do the same so you could be with Mom. But he didn't because of her, his daughter. In fact, Sakura could never imagine life without her father.

That day was when her dad started to feel a little more sorry for Sasuke Uchiha, and he smiled at her when she told him that she'd been getting through to the angry young man - and he even almost burst into tears when it turned out their mothers used to make them lemon honey on their sick days in childhood.

"However," Kizashi said after swallowing some chicken, "I don't think that his brother killed his parents because of simply 'great importance'." He'd worn his thoughtful frown, complete with the brows forming a single line. Thanks for figuring out what I just did, Dad.

"I don't either," Sakura agreed, looking into the cup of green tea, "but if only there had been enough evidence to have an idea..." Except it was impossible, and she wasn't even in the federal law to even get access like this, and she still needed more time to gain Sasuke's trust.

Now, on the day she went to give the package to the Uchiha Agency Board as she should have, Sakura found herself in the Great Room of the mansion, where she found herself bewitched. She'd never been in here before, but it hadn't been touched for a long time because it used to be filled with happier times - parties and gatherings when Fugaku and Mikoto were still here. Sasuke chose not to have them because of his asocial personality and this being too big and painful compared to everything else.

Forgetting about the packet was the first mistake I made - but good thing it wasn't too late.

Sasuke then showed up. "You covered for me on this thing for the board," he said with a little nervous laugh, pleasantly. "I didn't even think about it, and this was a first for me...and that's what I get for taking a day off."

Sakura had to laugh with him. "Me, too." We're both to blame for taking one day off, how about that? "But you were sick, and that's not much to help."

"Yeah, but it's not an excuse. But...thank you for what you did today." He then held out the newest pamphlet in front of her. "I would like you to read this analysis for me, see if it can be more...diplomatic." She could have sworn she saw the faint blush on his cheeks. He did look like a schoolboy again. "We can go over it tomorrow."

Sakura gazed into his eyes, seeing something she never saw before. Something glimmering on the horizon that stayed in her oculars even as he walked away to leave her to her job. For the life of her, Sakura Haruno had to compare it to the next day as promised when she found herself on the upper veranda level, overlooking the basketball court. She was rereading over what he'd written and she'd corrected overnight at home until he arrived to join her and read what she'd done. But she had to worry a little since it wasn't complete - almost - and he insisted because curiosity get the best of him. Humoring him again, she relented and let him see.

His reaction was what she should have braced for, and for a moment, she cursed herself for letting her guard down for even a second.

"'See the good in the manager'," he read. "'Respect the CEO; he brought you in. Too harsh, too critical...too mean. Why do you listen to criticism with no hope?'" When he was done, he looked up with hardened eyes.

"I was going to type them and explain what they meant."

His grip tightened to the point of partially crumpling the papers. "There's no need. They're quite clear. Why should I let you finish? There's more?" he demanded when she tried to take it from him. "In that case, I can't wait to hear more on you saying I fail at what I have to do," he snapped.

"Sasuke," she said calmly, "you asked me to help you with this."

"I know, and now I am telling you to stop." Her body reacted just as he turned around and threw the entire thing over the balcony railing, papers flying about, hitting the court and surrounding shrubs in random directions. He just about made a mess like in the early days for her. But no problem; it wasn't something she couldn't do. Sakura said nothing to him and walked down the stairs, not stopping until she was down there and picking up the papers written by her hand.

He once said I thought I knew his business because I can read. He claimed to know his clients better...but he doesn't know their emotions as well as I do.

Just like him to arrive when she was still in the middle of it, and in his coat, kneeling to help her. Nothing was spoken a few moments before he took the liberty. He handed her his pick. "I'm sorry."

"You have something you want me to do now?" She did this to him because it was just what he deserved, and he knew it. He sighed, reaching behind him to pull out a sticky note.

"Yeah, I do here, but don't worry about it right now."

Sakura shook her head, putting it into her pocket. If there was one thing she learned she preferred in her time here - "I'd prefer picking up your dry cleaning than have you yell at my work. You asked me to deal with it, and I have - but right now is where I can only go so far."

"Look, I'm trying to be nice!" So, he was now, huh? Sasuke stood up, but she stayed where she was, gathering more up and no longer looking at him. "You're correct about everything, but...I'm not used to criticism. Before you came along, I never took it well, and when someone gave it to me, I just pushed them aside," he admitted. "Even Kabuto." How ironic that someone critical as you cannot take criticism from someone else.

"...you got me there," he said when she spoke it aloud. "Sakura, come on." She looked up to see him offering his hand to her. She was stunned. Sasuke Uchiha, the man everyone called "Beast", was giving her his hand to stand when she was finished. When she was up, they began to walk away from this spot and down a path that led into a small forest, leading into another garden that looked like it was filled with rose bushes not yet in bloom. The archway even had slumbering branches that could only be climbing roses.

"I like to be out here when I need to clear my head," Sasuke explained. "This was my mother's garden that she planted with Kabuto's mother. She used to...be kind of like you. She was hard-working, she loved everyone around her - and she worked for my father. He was a strict man, but he did love us all." Sakura wasn't sure if she was surprised or not when she was being told more about his family. "And when they got married, she had to give it up. It never looks or ends well when personal and business combine. But Mother still helped Father at home the way she did." He gave a faint smile at the memory.

"She must have felt appreciated then," she said softly. He sighed, knowing where this was going.

"I didn't mean to disregard your work."

Sakura chose to change the topic. "The grounds are beautiful. What did your mother plant?"

The archway would have been in bloom with sweet roses white as an iceberg that lasted until the first frost. Then the grounds would be lush and splashing with more roses that were ruby red going into a white heart, as well as daisy-like asters and blue, yellow, white, and purple irises. Perfect like a painting. "I don't even bother touching it," Sasuke said, almost inaudible, "because I prefer it to be as she left it. Kabuto knows to keep it alive better than me, I think."

"It all must have been...more than hard for you," Sakura said. It wasn't a lot, but it did prompt a little nod. And then he announced he had phone calls to make, as his way of saying he didn't want to talk anymore about his past.

"I appreciate what you're doing."

~o~

He meant it all when he said he appreciated what Sakura was doing for him. But now he found himself wondering how he could...improve relations out there. He admitted he hadn't had the brightest ideas in a long time since he got this seat, but as far as he was concerned, he was still young and had plenty of time - but most of the old guys still on the board didn't, and as far as they were concerned, he was never going to be up to their standards.

But with Sakura, nothing was impossible. So, in other words, it might not be too late.

He watched her one day, things having gotten more...relaxed now, which he found that he liked as much as she did. He watched from the doorway as she worked on homework from grad school, impressed at how advanced it was. She got undergraduate English as part of her degree.

It wasn't long before Sasuke found himself returning the favor by pointing out an error in the formula she was on, and after that, what could he say? There wasn't a moment where it didn't seem like they might as well be becoming more than just boss and assistant.

Sometimes she would bring him lunch - including tomatoes, one recipe being BLT, which surprised him. She couldn't have known when he never told her, but Kabuto must have done that. Sometimes they would also head into the basketball court because she used to play the sport in high school. All of this was when she wasn't doing the errands and writing the reports for him.

And then, one day, Sakura cooked up a luncheon feast with Kabuto's help. Fish, sushi, ramen noodles - you name it. Although, Sasuke had to let her know that he didn't like sweets when she made tri-colored dango. Not only did sweets make your teeth rotten, but they also made him think about Itachi. Although, everything else was wonderful. And even more was her cooking - "What did I always tell you, that we needed a woman's touch one day?" Kabuto teased him when she wasn't looking.

At the end of the day, he found himself wondering what else he could do for her. Their relationship was still professional as far as he was concerned, but that didn't mean it was permanent. His eyes opened in that what her father did was an accident, and that urn was really nothing he ever cared about compared to everything else that his parents had left him. He was sorely tempted to just toss her father's work number into the trash, but there was a chance he might need the man again.

Sasuke chose to just keep this aside for the time being and see what else would happen between him and Sakura.

Kabuto's newest suggestion was nothing short of a little clichéd. He'd heard about this being done before, but never did he think he would stoop low and be the romantic hero he believed didn't exist. He'd heard men used it as a trick to lure impressionable young women only for one day to slap them with brutal reality in order to show them there was no such thing as perfect. But Sakura Haruno was no idiot to think like that. Although she'd been like that once, a long time ago, never once had a serious relationship just as he never had. They were both amateurs.

"You remember what we were told when we were just kids, Sasuke? Trust in your feelings."

Trust your feelings...

Sasuke Uchiha knew there was something beginning that he never imagined would come into his life. It frightened him because personal was another subject he still had no experience with. If he'd had any girls looking at him a certain way, they were all just scared of him because of the stories still spoken.

Kabuto noticed, as always, his change in aura. "You seem happier, Sasuke. Can't be a grouch forever," he teased with a wink.

~o~

Never did Sakura think she would actually receive a visitor at her other "workplace", though lately, she'd found herself wondering if it was going to be that way any longer. It was on this day that Sasuke was showing her how to play pool since his father had taught him and his brother in childhood - and she ended up learning quickly to shoot the target and send it into any of the corners. The black ball with the number eight was focal.

She was winning when Kabuto showed up and informed her someone was here to see her, but didn't say who it was. Except she had a suspicion...and she was right.

There in the Great Room was Kiba, checking out the empty bird cage that carried nothing more than realistic-looking succulents and bamboo inside. "Kiba, what are you doing here?" Sakura asked, trying to be as nice as possible. Maybe it was being around Sasuke so much that she didn't feel so excited to see Ino's cousin whom she was aware liked her more than she did him.

He looked a little unhappy she wasn't thrilled to see him. After all, she DID tell him where she worked as another job - but she would never tell him why in her wildest dreams since she'd seen the man that nobody but a select few did. "Well, it's been a while since we were able to get together, so I wanted to see you," Kiba answered, hands in the pockets of his hoodie. She did the same.

"Well," she repeated, "that's sweet, but you should see me at my home, not here."

"You're never there." You caught me there. "I always try to catch you there, but you're either here or studying -" He stopped when they both heard footsteps, and they belonged to the man of the house, which Kiba snidely pointed out, and Sakura decided that outside was better, even though her coat was inside, but she didn't plan for them to be out here for long. Whatever it was Kiba was going to say, it could not be heard by Sasuke. He could be watching them from the glass doors and windows from the Great Room that led out here - and showed the path to his mother's gardens.

"Look, I'm sorry for not being around, Kiba," she said when they had each other's full attention. "I'm not going to make any more excuses for being busy, because Ino..."

"Just why I am here," he stated, a bit rudely now. "Ino is always disappointed when we make plans and you blow us off."

Sakura huffed. "I see her at work all the time, but it's not enough, and I know that. She would have told me herself. We've known each other all our lives." Obviously, that wasn't enough for him.

"Okay, I do get that, but on my part, I hate being disappointed. I want to see you more."

This was one problem she hated, and why she never got serious with a guy in her life: she had a career and a life, and as much as she always wanted to, she had to put her independence and other people's needs before her own. A guy was among her own needs - unless the right one came along simply because it was fate. "I know, go out to dinner and movies - but Kiba, you're a really nice guy, you're Ino's cousin, and she's trying to do us both a favor because she cares...but I can't just drop everything to go to a movie with you. Nor can I ditch my father for a restaurant."

"...but you ditched him for HERE. I stopped by the other day, and your dad said he hardly sees you anymore." Now that was uncalled for. She made a habit of huffing again.

If her patience wasn't short with Sasuke in the beginning, it was starting to be that way with this guy. "Why are you getting into my life?" she asked angrily. "I barely know you, and you're visiting my family?"

He was getting short with her, too. "I'm not getting into your business, Sakura. But I want to know...are you dating this guy?" Oh, he was going there now, was he? She was about to burst and say no when he really burst her bubble with this: "If you are, not one of us can compete with Mr. Riches."

"Kiba Inuzuka, you're being mean now."

"Well, I just don't want you getting dragged down to his level because you're spending so much time with him."

"His LEVEL!" she countered. "You know, despite what you and others may think, Sasuke is actually a nice guy!"

Kiba scoffed and burst out laughing, both because she defended the reclusive rich guy who treated everyone beneath him like dirt for years, and because she called him by his first name instead of his last. "Sasuke? That's informal," he said, still sniggering. "It would make me feel better if you just call him 'Uchiha-san'."

"Ino and I call Tsunade by her first name, so what's the difference?" She couldn't believe they were even having this conversation. But F.Y.I.: he chose to come here himself, though, on the other hand, she was half to be at fault.

Kiba knew nothing. Yes, she didn't see her dad all the time anymore, but he knew her way better than Inuzuka ever would. "The difference," the mentioned guy replied heatedly, "is because your boss here is rich and questionable."

Questionable?! "I have to get back to work." But just as she opened the door and was about to go in, she just about snapped and cursed the living daylights out of him.

"Fine, just be careful. Sakura, I don't like the idea of you working for this beast."

"Don't. Call. Him. That," she growled, clenching her fists as she looked down at him, forgetting the door behind her was halfway opened - and neither did she notice that the man himself heard every word. "I appreciate all your concerns, Kiba -" She practically choked on her words, because it hurt that he had such little faith in her, in Sasuke. "- but I won't let you disrespect him. Especially when you're standing on HIS property."

He snorted and turned to leave, but not before - "Before I go, I should probably tell you that he broke my nose when we went to high school together."

It no longer surprised her with Sasuke's teenage habits, but to learn from Ino's cousin, the guy interested in her - but now she was having second thoughts - it shocked her so much that she wanted to know what happened, but not from this one in front of her. She was done with him, and that was that.

After today, she would speak to Ino in the near future about her cousin's uncalled envy. Because Sakura decided that Kiba Inuzuka got jealous too easily, and wasn't going to take no for an answer. She tried not to worry because he wouldn't do something so drastic...would he?

Sasuke Uchiha was a jerk in the beginning, but Kabuto was right in that we all deal with hard times differently. Me and Dad, Sasuke...everyone. And speaking of which, as soon as she closed the door, she saw HIS reflection in the glass. "How much...did you hear?" she asked, turning her face halfway to look at him. His shoulders slumped.

"Everything. Maybe I owe you an explanation regarding him..."

Wow. Man, you can guess where this is going now with Kiba's growing jealousy. :S

Oh, and if anyone has any suggestions regarding Itachi (IF I bring him back in besides being mentioned), I'm open to suggestions via PM only. Thank you! :)