Chapter Two

"Without even being told to be more open,"

It had been two weeks since Sasuke went to the new apartment and a week since he had last been to that little tea house. However, it was the boy's night out and he was in fact fated to go the tea house again. He was dressed in something more comfortable for him and walked out of the apartment and made his way towards the place. He hadn't seen Sakura in a few days and wondered how she was fairing since their breakup. Sasuke was certain that the boys knew more than he did in that regard.

The solitude of living alone was very comforting and rewarding due to the fact that he had more time for himself and his thoughts. Sasuke had found a new calm and he liked it and when he stepped outside the people bustling around him did not bother him as much as he thought it would. He walked through the streets in a navy blue shirt, the Uchiha insignia sewed onto the right sleeve, and black pants. Sasuke's hair allowed him to be picked out within this group of people since it was so unique.

His blonde friend did exactly that. He found Sasuke and threw himself onto him. Sasuke nearly tripped over his feet and looked back shocked at the laughing and smiling Naruto. "Hey, Sasuke."

"Idiot." Sasuke muttered but smiled regardless. The sky began to darken and the rain began to fall down onto the village. Sasuke and Naruto began to ran and made it into the tea house soaked, the rest of the guys where already sitting at their usual table. Both Naruto and Sasuke shook their heads and ruffled their hair to get a majority of the water out of it before approaching the table.

"You two are late." Kiba said.

Naruto made a face, pretending to be angry. "Sorry didn't know we were on a schedule." Naruto said sarcastically. Both Naruto and Sasuke sat in the seats against the wall. Sasuke's eyes glanced over to where the kitchen was. He saw Akina and the boss of the establishment. They both disappeared back into the kitchen and Sasuke looked back to the guys that were fighting. He sighed and fought the urge to sink into the seat.

After five minutes, Akina was over there with a tray filled with different colored cups, various shades of green, red, white and black. She expertly placed them in front of the designated drinker. She placed Naruto's and then Sasuke's, "Kukicha." She said, letting go of the cup.

A smirk touched Sasuke's lips. "Thank you, Akina." She smiled back at him and nodded. As he picked up the cup, she went off and the boys were practically on top of him. Sasuke could have spit his drink back out due to shock his eyes wide as they stared back with the same wide eyes.

"You know her… by name?" Naruto asked. "She's barely been here and you know her by name…"

Sasuke nodded and simultaneously everyone's jaw dropped except for Sai who smiled and tilted his head to the side. Sai opened his mouth and Choji and Lee who were the closest covered his mouth. Sasuke's eyes widened. Sai looked back and forth.

"Noooooooooooooo." Naruto said being dramatic and at the same time he had a serious tone.

"Is there something I don't know?" They all retreated away from Sasuke and close to Sai. Sasuke sighed and lifted his hands and cracked his knuckles. The boys shrunk slightly under the pressure. Choji and Lee released Sai.

"Sakura is thinking about talking to you about getting back together." He blurted out. Everyone grabbed Sai's neck and started shaking him as if it would take back the words he said.

"That's all?" Sasuke asked.

Shikamaru sighed and pulled out a cigarette from his pocket. "The girls asked us not to tell." He lit it and leaned back. "You know how women get with secrets and things like that." He blew some smoke into the air. "How annoying."

Sasuke sighed and put his elbow on the table in order to be kept up his head up that way. Naruto put his face very close to Sasuke's making him severly uncomfortable. "Have you moved on…?" Naruto asked with that look on his face.

"Yes." Sasuke answered simply. "Not that… I don't care about Sakura, it's just… I feel much more liberated. I don't mean to cause her any pain if I am."

Naruto crossed his arms and nodded, accepting the answer. "Do you like the waitress or something?" Sai asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

"No, she's just an odd ball." Sasuke replied. He smirked, "She didn't even know who I am until I told her my name."

"Already my tears brought my feelings along,"

Sasuke was dragged away from his comfort time. He had to get out of the white tee-shirt, casual pants, comb his hair that was already in perfect shape but worst of all he had to put down a good book. He had been called into the Hokage's office to report for a mission. So, the Uchiha heir changed into the navy pants, navy shirt and green vest that constituted the jounin attire. Once he got to the office of the missions admissions however he was thoroughly disappointed about the effort that he had put into preparation.

This was not a mission by any means; it was more of a favor. All of the other shinobi had been called in for small C and D missions and there were still more to fill. So they opted into sending jounin into C and D missions solo in order for them to complete the jobs after. So there was a favor asked of the Konaha hero, do a D ranked mission and they would give him twice the pay.

At first he wanted to decline, however when he asked if there were any missions of his caliber they replied with a negative. Not even one B, A, or E mission. This left the young man with no other choice. He nodded and decided he would take on this burden. He was to report to a little garden outside of the village, they gave them the coordinates and he was sent on his way. He rushed there; figuring the sooner it was done the sooner he could go home and train for the afternoon.

When he got there he found what looked like a field of rows of bushes. He was confused by this. He was also confused by the sole person on the field. What looked like a young girl wearing a straw hat, a white ribbon was there for some embellishment and a deep green dress with a white apron and she held a large woven basket with green leafs in it. "Excuse me." The girl turned and both parties were shocked to see who it was. "Akina?"

"Sasuke…" She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. Her hair was in a low bun but her bangs where still in her face. "What are you doing here?"

"Um, I have a mission to help out with gardening here…"

"Oh! The boss said that a shinobi would be coming today, I thought it was going to be a group of gennin." She said, tilting her head.

"Short staffed today. There is a large number of D and C missions, they were forced to send upper level shinobi."

"Is that how the mission ranking system works?" She asked, he chuckled at her ignorance.

"Yes." She looked enlightened by that and nodded. "So what work do you need done?" He asked.

Akina put down the basket for a moment and whipped her forehead pushing her black bangs out of the way for a moment. "Do you know anything about tea leafs?" She asked.

"No." He replied.

She sighed heavily and placed her hands on her hips as she thought. Akina looked back and pointed towards a shed, "In there we have some sheers if you could do me a favor and trim the field. We need to keep it them in good shape." Sasuke moved to do it. "N-nevermind." She said quickly. Sasuke immediately stopped and looked at her. She looked like she was struggling.

"You can give me any job, really, it's fine."

"But trimming bushes really seems unbecoming of you though."

Sasuke smirked, "I've done worse than trim bushes." He said. Akina looked at him, her express changed from sincere to questioning. An eyebrow raised and Sasuke's smirk only grew. "I used to be sent on missions to chase down run away cats. Naruto would get his face all scratched up and it was so…" He was reminiscing in front of a girl he barely even knew. He recomposed himself and looked from the ground to her. "That mission was degrading." He replied, his tone more even now.

"Alright, fine. Please trim the bushes." She said with a smile. "I would appreciate it."

"Start from which side?" He asked. Akina pointed from the area where Sasuke came from. He nodded and went off into the shed to grab the sheers.

"And became a small sea at my feet."

It had been about two hours under the hot sun. They were working at a diligent pace. She was picking leafs and he was trimming right behind her. An efficient system however after those two hours the girl stopped and straightened her back. "Would you like some iced water?" She asked. Sasuke stood up straight after her. "It's midday, so it gets really warm."

He nodded.

She sighed and started walking towards the shed. There were three seats outside and Akina put her basket down in one of them before going inside the shed. Sasuke took the seat and dragged it away from the other two. Within a few moments the waitress was back, using her legs to open the door, one hand holding a tray and the other holding a foldable table. Sasuke stood to help her.

"I got it." She said once she saw him stand. She stepped outside into the shade that the shed provided and shifted the foldable table so it opened up and placed the tray with a pitcher of water and two glasses onto it. "There, help yourself."

"Thanks." He said and took the pitcher pouring himself a glass and sat back down. Akina took the basket into her lap and began sifting through the leafs. He watched her and noticed the gold locket around her neck. "Boyfriend?" She lifted her head and looked at him innocently. "Your necklace, it looks special, your boyfriend?"

She chuckled slightly and leaned back into seat. "No, my parents." Sasuke froze. "My mother died during labor and my father died years later during a mission. My boyfriend died during the war." She whispered and continued to sift through the leafs.

"Sorry, I brought up a hard subject."

"No, no its fine." She said, with a slight smile. There was a moment of silence. "What about you?" She asked and Sasuke looked up at her. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

He tilted his head at that surprised that the girl did not know things about something like that. He assumed women lived off of gossip. "I thought that my break up was the latest news of the village?"

"I don't listen to idle prattle." She informed him. "And I am sorry to hear about your relationship." She whispered.

"It was bound to happen." She looked at him curiously. "She and I wanted different things from the relationship."

Akina stopped sifting through the leafs, "And your alright with that? With just ending a relationship?" Sasuke nodded. Akina tilted her head slightly confused by that. "Huh? Interesting."

"You don't?" He asked.

"No." She answered simply.

"The sky doesn't move, it's just the sun that comes and goes"

After another hour under the sun, they were done. "Thank you for being here, Sasuke." He nodded and approached her. "This will be the tea we use for your next cup of Kukicha." She said with a small smile.

He smirked at that. "Then this was time well spent." She nodded and smiled.

"Do you know when you and your friends will be coming for your next visit?" She asked. "The boss and a majority of the staff thoroughly enjoys your presence."

"A majority?" He asked, now he was just teasing her.

Akina fell for it too and immediately got flustered. "I mean, that there are some employs that haven't met you and… and…" Sasuke smirked. "Oh!" She said figuring it out; she grabbed her hat with both hands and covered her face with it as she blushed because of embarrassment. He chuckled at her.

"I'll see you later Akina."

"Yes, Sasuke…" She whispered but it was still audible despite the hat. He walked began to walk away from the tea bushes and saluted her. She took the hat, raised it from her head and taking her hat off to him and bowed her head slightly. From a distance she thanked him for his work. Sasuke smiled and continued his descend back to the village.

"The ground doesn't move, it's just you who walk upon it."

"I swear I brought it." Naruto said as he ramaged through his kunai pouch.

Sasuke sighed heavily. "You forgot it at home." Sasuke told him and it only frustrated Naruto even more.

"Naruto, you are such a pain." Shikamaru muttered. Naruto pulled a fat little frog coin purse from his kunai pouch.

Naruto held it up victoriously. "I told you I had it. I never go anywhere without this thing! Now, huh, how much was the tea?"

The waitress chuckled a little. "236 yen." She stated. Naruto opened up the little pouch and handed her the coins. "Thank you, Naruto." The boy smirked proudly. The waitress had been there long enough now to learn their names, just as many of the waiters and waitresses had as well. "Would you all like a sweet before you leave?" She asked.

"Dangos." Choji said and the waitress nodded going off to give the order. "Do you know how good the dangos are here? So tasty."

"Jeez, Choji does that black hole in your stomach ever stop, you're going to get fat-" Kiba started and got interrupted by Sai and Naruto who covered his mouth. Choji gave him the death glare and Kiba got caught in cold sweat from fear.

Lee smiled. "You know these bond strengthening visits for tea and chatting are amazing! I don't know why we didn't do them when we were younger!" He said.

"By bond strengthening do you mean talking about women?" Sai asked and Naruto laughed at the answer.

Kiba elbowed both Sai and Naruto. "No man, that's not it!" He responded.

"Isn't it the fact that we actually talk instead of harboring our feelings?" Shino asked.

Naruto shivered a bit in his seat. "Shino, you never talk in these things to begin with." He muttered under his breath.

A dark cloud came over Shino's head. "Naruto, you just don't realize it when he speaks…" Kiba whispered. Naruto chuckled nervously at that.

The waitress came back and placed the plate of dangos in front of Choji. "Thank you very much."

"No problem." She said and left. As she walked away everyone caught Sasuke glancing at her.

Naruto slammed his hands onto the table knocking the boy out of his daydream. "So you do have a thing for the waitress." He said and Sasuke's eyes widened a bit at the accusation. "Spill everything."

"I…" Sasuke began when everyone leaned into his face. He took a moment to examine everyone's eagerness. "Alright, so I was assigned a small mission and she was at the field… cultivating the tea field outside of the village. Her hands are scratched up, I was wondering if it was from the tea." Sasuke explained. "I don't have any interest in the girl. I don't even know her well." She's just a normal girl with a normal job, nothing special.

The boys groaned and leaned back away from him. "She is pretty though." Choji commented. All the boys and even Sasuke looked at her. He felt odd just down right staring at her so he looked away his hand under his chin and his fingers covering his mouth. Naruto caught this action out of the corner of his eye and smirked a bit. He wrapped his arm around Sasuke's neck and Sasuke freaked out.

"Oi, Naruto! Get off of me." Sasuke said and pushed against Naruto.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun." Naruto said in a sultry voice and began to make kissing faces at him.

"You idiot!" Sasuke snapped and put his hand on Naruto's face to push him away. After a few more laughs and teasing each other the boys gathered their things and began to leave the place.

"Have a great evening!" The tea brewer from the back called.

"Good night old man!" Naruto called back.

As they left, Sasuke glanced back at Akina. She caught his glance and raised her tin tray to her head and lifted it as if it was her straw hat, saluting him as he departed again and Sasuke smirked at her before turning his head back around. Absolutely nothing special at all.