nothing on you
Callista Miralni
Disclaimer: nothing! Hahahaha, get it?
[I'm so lame, I'm cracking stupid jokes now... T_T]
.:loop00.2_3:.
.: best friends :.
"Sakura-chan~" Lily Southward danced around her. "It's time!"
She shrugged her friend off. "Time for what?"
"Oh don't be like that!" Lily exclaimed. "Playing ignorant doesn't suit you, sweetheart. After all, when it comes to me, what else could it be time for?"
"Lily, I really have no fucking clue what you're talking about," Sakura leveled her gaze. "Stop being obnoxious and just tell me."
Pouting, Lily cajoled her into guessing. "Just take a guess, Sakura-chan," she begged. "After all, there aren't that many things it could be..."
"It could be a ton of things," Sakura reasoned. "Cosplay work, con, a new book, a movie to watch, a new CD... Just tell me already."
"It's time..." Lily paused dramatically.
Sakura rolled her eyes.
"... to eat sushi!"
The Haruno girl froze.
Oh hell no...
Sasuke bussed the table in front of the door, stacking plates on a serving tray before wiping the whole table down with disinfectant. He moved back just before the restaurant door hit him on the ass.
"Why did I agree to this again?" Sakura grumbled.
Lily grinned. "Because you love~ me."
"You have a girlfriend," Sakura noted wryly. "Why isn't Sempai here with us?"
Pouting for the millionth time that day, Lily frowned. "I can't spend time with my best friend? Oh Saki, you're cruel sometimes. No wonder why no guy feels like they have a chance with you."
"More often than not, they don't have a chance in the first place. I'm married already, remember?"
"To a guy who lives an entire ocean away. You sure know how to pick 'em Sakura."
Sasuke tensed. She's married? At their age?
"I mean, c'mon, you're married to a Korean pop star," Lily laughed. "You're such a hopeless romantic!"
Laughing with her, Sakura clarified, "For starters, Kim Bum is not a Korean pop star. He's an actor. Second, I'm not a hopeless romantic; you are."
"Prove it!"
"You got the love of your life after waiting and moping around for two years before she noticed you as someone more than a friend."
Pouting, Lily stuck her nose in the air. "Fine! Fine! I give—I'm a hopeless romantic."
"Glad we can agree on that."
"Mou... Sakura-chan. You're so mean."
Rolling her eyes, Sakura pushed her best friend ahead of her as Ms. Chu waved them to a table near the back. "Tough love, babe. It's part of my charm."
They took their usual places—Sakura sat in the left corner chair facing the kitchen, Lily took a seat across from her. As the two girls chatted about silly things, Han came by their table with a cup of hot tea and asked Lily what she wanted to drink. Sakura laughed when he set the cup down on the table, thanked Han, and dumped two packets of sugar her cup.
Hearing her laugh put Sasuke at ease. The inner tension seemed to melt away. How could anything be wrong in the world if she's able to smile?
"Hello?"
"Hey Saki!" Naruto's voice on the phone cheerfully greeted her. "What are you doing today?"
Sakura stopped reaching for the orange juice in the fridge. "Why?"
"I was thinking about hanging out. You, me, and your brother. You guys are always busy doing other things..."
Her heart couldn't stop hammering in her chest. Was this it? Was this the return to normalcy between her and Naruto she dreamed of for the last three years?
"Um... I think we were heading out to Ann Arbor this morning. It's pre-finals week and we need to study," she answered sadly. "Sorry Naruto."
"Nah, it's cool," the other teen replied. "I should probably study too."
"Yeah, probably."
"See you around, Saki."
"Okay. Later, Naruto."
Sakura ended the phone call and dropped the device on the counter. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath.
Even after all these years, after all the fighting and the cold shoulders, Naruto still had the ability to render her speechless with the smallest gestures.
How did it start? How did things foul up between them? Sakura knew the answer for sure, but did Naruto?
More importantly, why couldn't she let it go?
-FOUR YEARS AGO-
"What do you think you're doing, bastard?"
"Go away Sakura."
"Answer me!"
"..."
"NARUTO!"
"Don't come near me."
It was like a bad dream — Sakura Haruno tried to convince herself.
He didn't leave her. He never left. In the morning, everything will be all right again.
"Sakura?"
Her twin's muffled voice filtered through the layers of blankets she surrounded herself with.
"Sakura, are you okay?"
On the other side of the door, Sai Haruno felt his heart break.
[name?]
The form was almost mocking. Picking up her head, Sakura penciled in:
[Sakura Haruno]
Her eyes skipped to the next question.
[age?]
[16]
[nationality?]
[Asian—Pacific Islander]
"You will have forty-five minutes for the Reading section. I will warn you when five minutes remain. Start..."
Her eyes were dull with grief.
"... now."
This test was everything.
In the next room over, Sai heard his twin sister's muffled sobs.
He wanted to crawl into her bed like they did when they were children and cling onto each other like a lifeline. That's what happened when Sakura was bullied in kindergarten. That's what happened when Sai's painting got ripped off the wall and shredded to pieces in second grade. That's what happened when their dog died, when Tou-san got mad at them, when they needed someone to pick them up after the reality of the world came crashing upon them.
Getting up, Sai knocked on her door.
She didn't answer.
Opening the door, Sai saw a lump curled up on the center of her bed.
"Fuck off Sai."
Her voice was throaty.
He sat at the edge of her bed and peeled off the covers. Immediately, Sakura sat up to pull them back over herself but Sai grabbed her around the middle and cradled her in his arms.
"I'm not going to leave you when you need me the most."
Tears rushed to the surface as she buried her face in her twin's shoulder and cried.
"Why does it hurt so much?"
The results came in.
"What is this?" Kenji Haruno brandished the paper before his daughter's eyes.
"I don't know," she answered dully.
"This is a disgrace," Kenji snapped. "I didn't send you and your brother to that prep class for nothing."
"It wasn't for nothing, Tou-san."
"Then what is this?" He bellowed. "Why is it that your brother seems to have benefitted from it and you haven't? Look—30, 31, 31, 32, 33 composite score. Whereas you, Sakura, received a 31, 29, 35, 33, and a 32 composite score. What's different?"
"Sai got a point higher."
"Sai shows improvement," her father said frostily. "Where you show lower marks. Is this cosplay thing you're involved with taking too much of your time?"
Something in her eyes snapped.
"It has nothing to do with it."
"You said it wouldn't interfere."
"And it hasn't," Sakura exclaimed hotly. "Why can't you just believe me when I say I had an off-day that day?"
"You don't have off-days when it comes to standardized exams."
"Well, I do."
"Don't speak to me like that."
"You don't believe me!"
"That's it." Her father slammed the score report onto the kitchen counter. "You're grounded. And you can forget about going to that anime convention next month."
"You can't do this to me! I already paid to go!" Sakura was borderline hysterical.
"Maybe you should have thought about that while you taking this test." Kenji answered coldly before leaving his daughter in the kitchen.
Satsuki Haruno knocked on her daughter's door.
"Hinata's on the phone."
She looked up from her calculus homework. "What does she want?" Sakura asked dully.
Her mother threw her a worried glance.
"I didn't ask."
Sighing, Sakura got out of her chair and plucked the phone out from her mother's hand.
"Hello?"
She asked wearily.
On the other end of the line, she could hear Hinata sobbing.
"Just... take me away... I can't stand it, being locked here in this house with him. He's changed so much... he's not the same person anymore. I don't recognize this asshole standing in front of me."
Sakura looked at the clock. 10:15 PM.
"I can't."
Sai pulled up to the curb of their private high school, the Bishop's Academy, in their Nissan 350 Z convertible.
"Sakura."
She stopped. Sai tossed her something through the open air and Sakura caught it easily.
"What's this for? I'm grounded, remember?" She dangled the remote starter of their Toyota Prius.
Sai shrugged, slamming the car door shut.
"Tou-san changed his mind. He's dropping off the Prius later. And Kaa-san's packing all your clothes. You did finish that costume you were supposed to do, right? 'Cause she's just packing whatever you left in the crate labeled 'FOR THE CON.' Honestly Sakura, you need a better organization system."
Her purse, a white Coach handbag her mother disapproved of after Labor Day, clattered to the asphalt.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you Sai; you're the best brother a girl could ask for." She hugged him tightly.
As he hugged her back, Sai's mind flashed back to the conversation he had with his parents a few days before.
"Can Sakura go to that anime con?"
"Absolutely not." Kenji threw out over his newspaper.
"Why not?" Sai challenged. "It's not like her grades are in a free fall. Sakura's proven for the last two years that she's perfectly capable of juggling her hobbies and her homework at the same time."
"You know why, Sai."
"The ACT is a hard test. She got nervous and freaked out. I don't see why you have to punish her for that."
"This is more than just a test, Haruno Sai." His father set the paper down and leveled his gaze on him, switching languages at the same time. "This is instrumental to deciding your future. Neither you or Sakura can take it lightly. I'm not blind—Sakura's been spending more time sewing or going out with her friends than she does studying."
Sai glared. "I spend more time than she does out of the house because of soccer practice. And I go out with my friends."
"What's your point Sai?"
"Do you have any idea what has been going on in your children's lives as of late?"
Kenji paused. "Well, Sakura's phone bill has gone down while yours has gone up. Are you dating someone?"
"No," Sai ground out between his teeth. "And you're not even curious as to why Nee-san's near constant bill is fluctuating?"
"If Sakura wants to share something with me, then she's more than welcome to."
"Doesn't Kaa-san ever tell you anything?"
"That is between your mother and me."
"Dammit!" Sai yelled in English. "Pull up our phone bills from the past year and tell me who's on it. When you realize what's missing, you know how to find me."
The next day, when Sakura was out running around town with Lily or somebody, both of his parents hauled him to the kitchen table after he got home from soccer practice.
"Your father told me about the conversation you two had," his mother began.
He kept silent.
"And we wanted you to know that we both are completely aware of the Naruto situation. But what I don't understand is why your sister going to that con has anything to do with her estrangement from Naruto."
Sai let out a harsh laugh.
"You don't get it, do you? Anime, manga, cosplay... that's all that's really keeping Sakura together. If she doesn't have something to focus her energy into, she'll be crying her eyes out every night before she goes to sleep. There's only so much studying a kid can do," Sai added in the last part when he saw his father open his mouth to contradict him.
"Her little group of otaku freaks... they're safe. They are completely separated from the Japanese-American community we've built up and been a part of throughout the years. When Sakura's with them, she can forget whatever happened last summer. I know my sister... she needs to stay away so she can compose herself. All you're doing is tearing whatever progress she's made since then apart."
His parents sat in silence before his father tossed him a set of keys through the air and barely nodded.
"Go."
Running around the Sheraton Hotel in full costume, under layers of clothing, make up, and a wig, Sakura felt a little bit more like herself than she had in months.
Ironic — she thought as she smiled for another camera lens — for Sakura looked nothing like herself.
She was dressed as Yuna from Final Fantasy X, one of her usual green contacts replaced with a striking blue. The white wedding dress she wore made her feel like a princess but the heels were murder on her feet.
Is this really the kind of person I am? Sakura wondered to herself as her best friend Kira led her through the crowd of people in the dealer's room.
Can I only be myself when I'm hidden behind a mask?
It was winter break.
Sakura dreaded the downtime, wishing her family was leaving earlier for their trip to Colorado to visit her mother's relatives. On the Sunday before the Christmas holiday, they were having an early party.
She hadn't seen any of the "Asians" since the summer and the occasional hellos in the packed hallways at Bishop's. Her brother, on the other hand, had seen their childhood friends more often but not as much as he used to.
"Yo, my man! It's been a while!" A bleached blonde teen bumped fists against Sai's. "How've you been? You play Assassin's Creed 2 yet?"
"Dude, Saki gave it to me the day it came out. But Coach has been working us to death this season and I haven't gotten to play it much."
"Saki gave it to you? For what? Your sister's a bitch when it comes to money."
Sai frowned slightly before laughing it off. "You know that's not true Naruto. I'm the one with a close eye on my wallet."
The blonde — one Naruto Uzumaki — flinched momentarily. "Is that so? I never noticed."
"Really?" Neji Hyuuga joined their conversation. "You should know better than all of us. Saki used to treat you all the time."
"So why'd she give it to you?" Naruto steered the conversation away from that sensitive topic.
"I talked Tou-san into letting her attend a con," Sai shrugged, helping himself to a plate of food.
"And that merited a brand-new game? Lucky... I wish your sister was my sister," Naruto stated enviously.
Sakura choked on her soba stir fry when she heard that. Hinata Hyuuga gave her a strong whack on her back to help dislodge the food stuck in her throat.
She climbed in behind her brother into the backseat of their mother's Toyota.
"Isn't this exciting?" Her mother gushed. "It's like the old days, when you two used to be dependent on your mother for everything. Rides, food, money... now you two don't need rides from me anymore."
"Kaa-san," Sai shook his head. "You're being dramatic."
"Whatever you say, Sai-kun. I have a special treat for you two today."
"What is this treat?" Sakura sarcastically asked. "Is it such a big deal that you had to take away the car keys and make us look like total losers in front of the whole school?"
Their mother laughed. "Oh Saki-chan, you'll thank me later. We're here."
She and her brother looked out the window. "Tapioca Express?" Sai read the sign.
Her brother opened the door and they stepped inside the cool restaurant.
"Welcome to Tapioca Express!"
That was the day she first met him.
Sasuke Uchiha.
Her life would never be the same again.
Then again, Sakura smiled softly to herself, she wouldn't have it any other way.
As one chapter closes, another brighter one begins.
It's time to close these teenage, angst-riddled years.
Author's Notes:
Well... this sucks. Truly. But it was unfortunately necessary. The entire flashback was actually the initial draft for the first chapter. I thought it was necessary for readers to emotionally understand why things are so complicated between Sakura and Naruto in the first place [but I never told you what happened either! XD].
Thank you for reading! And to all my reviewers for their continued support. Don't be afraid to leave a comment-I love hearing from you! :D
Ja ne!
Callista Miralni