2:

Sakura waited several days before attempting to use the potion; she only had one shot at this and she wasn't about to mess it up just because she got impatient. Therefore, the bottle containing the love potion sat temptingly on her windowsill for more than a week, casting pink light on her wall as the sun shone through it.

Finally, she decided she couldn't wait any longer. It was a perfectly romantic day in Sakura's opinion, with a clear blue sky that had a few cheerful, fluffy white clouds in it. After checking and re-checking that it was the day she thought it was and Team 7 would be meeting for training that morning, she measured out her dose. The woman had said 'precise' and Sakura made painstakingly sure that there wasn't a drop extra on either side.

Picking up the glass that held her dose, she inspected it a little warily. The liquid looked completely innocent—if Sakura hadn't known what it was she would have thought it was a cherry soda or something. She was pretty sure Sasuke wouldn't want cherry soda, so she would have to find some way of disguising his dose.

"Well," she said finally, trying to encourage herself, "it's sure not getting anything done just sitting in the glass like this." Closing her eyes, she put the glass to her lips and drank it down.

To her surprise, the love potion didn't have much of a taste, although it tingled when it went down. The only flavor she recognized was a vaguely rosy one. This was a good thing, she decided: the lack of flavor would make it easier to trick Sasuke into drinking it.

After getting all ready for Team 7's training (wearing the perfect outfit that she had spent several days planning) Sakura took Sasuke's dose, which was still in the jar, and put it in her bag, wrapping it in a sweater first so there was no risk to the glass container. Her mother called a good-bye from the kitchen as Sakura walked out the front door, and Sakura replied cheerfully.

She had a love potion and twenty-four hours in which to get Sasuke to drink it, and there was no way she was giving up.

Naruto and Sasuke were already on the bridge where Kakashi had told them to wait when Sakura arrived. Naruto was performing acrobatic tricks on the railing, and Sasuke was ignoring him. As far as that was concerned, things were perfectly ordinary. Unfortunately, since Sasuke wasn't paying any attention to anyone else (his inattention had spread to Sakura on her arrival) he would most definitely notice any tampering with the thermos sitting next to him. Sakura was sure it was his thermos, as it was black and therefore certainly not anything of Naruto's.

Perching on the railing Naruto wasn't playing around on, just far away enough from Sasuke that he wouldn't move away from her, Sakura considered the situation. The thermos was a pretty basic one and would only take a few seconds to open and close, but she would have to get Sasuke's attention away from it first. Now, how to do that…

To her surprise, Naruto provided the exact opening she needed. "Hey, bet you can't do this!" he yelled suddenly, just before performing an elaborate one handed somersault/cartwheel combination. It started out well, but he grabbed the railing wrong at the end. Naruto yelped, flailing for balance, before tumbling into the water below with a splash.

Sasuke sighed and stood up slowly, his hands in his pockets. "Looks like somebody has to rescue the idiot yet again," he said, walking away from the thermos and off the bridge.

Masking her chakra the best she could so Sasuke wouldn't be able to tell what she was doing, Sakura fairly dove off her perch on the railing and grabbed the thermos. After taking the bottle with the other half of the love potion out of her bag, she opened the thermos and nearly gagged as she smelled what had to have been the strongest, blackest coffee ever known to mankind.

Well, he sure isn't going to notice the taste, she thought, withstanding the urge to pinch her nose since she needed both hands to open the bottle of love potion. Seriously, you could strip paint with this stuff.

Dumping Sasuke's dose into the thermos, Sakura closed it and gave it a little shake to distribute what she had just poured in. She put the now-empty bottle back into her bag and climbed back to her seat on the railing just as Sasuke came back into sight, a sodden, bedraggled Naruto following behind.

…

Sakura kept a close eye on Sasuke (or rather, Sasuke's thermos) for the rest of the time before Kakashi arrived. She had seen him drink out of it several times—he didn't seem to have noticed anything out of the ordinary at all—but wasn't sure he had finished the coffee-love potion mixture.

Once Kakashi got there, she was too busy to watch Sasuke, although she tried to look over at him whenever she had a spare moment. Nothing seemed to be happening yet, so either he hadn't finished it or that ridiculously powerful coffee had gone and ruined the effect.

They were supposed to be practicing shuriken throwing, but Sakura was so distracted that she performed rather poorly. She had never been that good at it in the Academy, but today she was just dismally off. She had been expecting Kakashi to scold her, but he wasn't really paying attention to any of them, instead reading that book he carried around all the time.

Finally, Kakashi let them take a break for lunch. Sakura had come prepared, and dashed over to offer Sasuke a lunch. He didn't even look up as he refused. Sasuke hadn't brought his own lunch, so maybe he just wasn't hungry? In any case, there still didn't appear to be anything happening from the love potion.

Sakura watched Sasuke from a safe distance all through lunch. She was pretty sure he knew she was watching him, but he didn't do anything other than occasionally moving a little further away.

At last, just before Kakashi called them back, Sasuke opened the thermos and drank the last few ounces of the coffee. Sakura sighed in relief and realized she had been holding her breath.

Nothing happened.

Sasuke went back to throwing shuriken without sparing Sakura a glance. Not wanting Sasuke to realize she had been plotting something, Sakura hurried back to the training field and started hurling shuriken frustratedly at her target. The emotion seemed to improve her aim, she realized.

What had gone wrong? She had set everything up so well, but Sasuke seemed just the same. Hoping it was just a delayed reaction, she tried going up to him after training, only to get firmly ordered to 'just go away.'

It was very depressing, but it would be too embarrassing to go back and ask for a refund now. Maybe she had messed up the measurements, or maybe it had been the coffee, but something had gone wrong and now the perfect future she had dreamed up was ruined.

Sakura was still sulking when she got home. Ignoring her mother's greeting, she stomped up the stairs and into her room, slamming the door behind her. She didn't even bother taking her weapons belt off before flinging herself down on the bed and screaming into her pillow.

After that little outburst, she felt a bit better and decided to freshen up and then study for a while, so she would have an excuse not to leave her room if either of her parents asked.

"Now what?" she asked herself as she started to brush her hair out in front of the mirror. She had been keeping it long, despite the inconvenience, since she had been informed Sasuke liked girls with long hair. If she hadn't been able to get him with an honest-to-goodness love potion, though, she sure wouldn't have any luck with her hair style. Maybe she should cut it. Grabbing her pink locks, she tried to imagine how she would look with her hair just above her shoulders.

Sakura decided she liked it. The short hairstyle was cute and cheerful, and would definitely be more practical for her ninja lifestyle. Once, she had gotten her hair tangled around a shuriken and it had taken her a good half-hour to get it loose. Naruto had offered to help, but there was no way the class klutz was getting anywhere near her hair.

Feeling just a tinge regretful, Sakura stood and grabbed a pair of scissors off her dresser. She wavered a bit as she brought them towards her hair, and took a deep breath to steel herself.

"Okay, now or never," Sakura said finally, and cut.

Just as the last strands fell free, there was a soft rustle at her open window just behind her. Startled, Sakura whirled around, still clutching her severed hair in one hand as she raised the scissors defensively. "What—"

"Sakura," Sasuke murmured, pushing the lace curtains aside as he alighted from the windowsill. "You look beautiful."