MisoHime

Author's Note:

Original Note:
Hello again. It's the 23rd of July, which is Sasuke's birthday! Even though canon-Sasuke probably doesn't care, I still think it's a day for celebration. So, as tribute, I'm uploading this next chapter.

Special thanks to:

- Angelic101 : You are so sweet. Thank you so much for your review, I'm glad to know that you like this story and that the idea isn't too recycled. Thanks for taking the time to read it; I'll make sure to read yours too!

Updated 2015 Note:
This chapter was read and reviewed on the 13th May 2016.

This is one of the chapters that has changed the most since I first wrote it three/four years ago.
I've come to realized that the old version of this chapter included details that would really screw up what I have planned for the later chapters.
With that said, I still needed to keep the original intention of this chapter, so I've edited a lot.

If you're an old reader who's come back to re-read this one, I apologise for the confusion I might have caused prior to editing this.

Disclaimer: Naruto is Masashi Kishimoto's, and the inspired book for this story isn't mine either.

◊▫ 星の十字 ▫◊

Hoshina no Kurosu

Go

ヒーロー

Hīrō

A gentle breeze rolled over the campus grounds, tickling the blades of grass in the late afternoon. Blue skies were overcast with a thin blanket of white clouds that drifted overhead like a film, shielding the few students whom were pacing frantically to reach their classes as soon as they could from the golden sun.

One of those students was Haruno Sakura.

Her pink hair was a bright spot in the surrounding green grass and the grey concrete of the building structures, making her a visible anomaly as she all but rushed to cover as much distance as her short stature could manage.

The empty hallways just proved to show how behind schedule Sakura was. The massive campus grounds were littered with only a small handful of people - most of whom were administrating staff members who were not in a hurry to make it to their designated classes.

Despite the peaceful weather and deserted hallways, Sakura felt far from calm. Beads of sweat were popping up on her forehead and her back - dampening her shirt slightly as she cursed herself for being so completely forgetful.

The clocktower on the main floor resonated as the ancient bell rang the half hour past. Her unsettled emotions started to increase at the warning bell and she sped her brisk pace to a jog.

It was her fault, really. Sakura had known all her life that squeezing in last minute things in between her classes were a mistake - one that would make her pay dearly one day. She just wished it wasn't on the day that she just so happened to have next period with the most uncomfortable teacher there was: Orochimaru-sensei.

Ruthless, blunt and unquestionably creepy, the Anatomy teacher was the weirdest and most disturbing lecturer Sakura had ever had. She wasn't even sure why he was part of the faculty. Perhaps the rumors of him being good friends with their principal was true, because Sakura highly believed that any normal institution would have hired him otherwise.

She cringed at the thought of the frightening man. His penchant for punishments were almost as off putting as his fondness for dissection displays in the middle of their classes. The last thing she wanted was to become a victim of one of his "disciplinary examples". The last time one of her classmates had been late, he had made the tardy student stay back after school to assist the odd teacher in what was probably some sort of illegal experiment that later caused him to stumble around for days with a green face.

She would have much rather stuck needles under her nail beds than suffer any sort of attention from the too-pale, too-creepy, spine-chilling teacher.

One of the janitorial staff members frowned as she barged past him around the corner. Sakura didn't even stop, offering a huffed apology instead as she fled around another bend. Her book bag bounced repeatedly on her hip when the pinkette accelerated her jog even more, turning it into a light run.

Part of Sakura doubted that she would make it in time without some sort of teleportation superpower. Her allocated classroom was all the way across from where she was on campus, and seeing as she had been late, the campus parking had been filled to near complete capacity when she arrived. Sakura had been forced to park at the only available area that was left - which was so far from the main building that it might as well have been in another dimension.

'Why did it have to be today?' She silently grumbled to herself.

Her hair flew behind her, pink locks whipped at the back of her neck as Sakura slammed into the double doors of the next building block. Her breathing became ragged from the exercise and her calves burned from her physical exertion. Just as she dodged another staff member, she caught sight of the sign above - signalling that she was now in the Art Block.

Sakura took the opportunity to take a detour - knowing that the shortcut would shave off the good amount of time that it took to get to the Science building.

The only issue now was that Sakura did not anticipate just how messy the studio rooms of the art section were.

Dozens of half-finished sculptures, paintings, sketches and equipment littered every vacant spot around the long stretch of rooms. There was not a single hallway that wasn't occupied with half-set up easels and a few semi-completed projects.

Having an art major as her best friend should have made her aware to the chaos that littered the facility, but while Sai's room was occasionally cluttered with his materials, it always regained some form of organisation. The situation stretched beyond her was more like an obstacle course.

The rubber soles on her sneakers made harsh squeaks against the floor when she turned sharply, twisting her body simultaneously to avoid crashing into one of the canvases that was propped up to dry.

She had gotten lucky. Had any of the art stream students been nearby, they might have chased her out for even daring to run within the vicinity of their projects. Of course, with the speed that she was accelerating at, she doubted any of them could have stopped her.

Her eyes darted about the room, automatically picking up on the empty path that was mapped out in between the piles of paintbrushes and papers. She braced herself to jump over the bags of paint tubes scattered around, but just as she cleared by the obstruction, her stomach leaped to her throat at the sight of the hidden can of spray paint on the floor preceding it. She had only a moment to prepare herself before her foot landed on the object and Sakura was sent tripping over, her feet in a tangle.

Her disorientation threw her off, and Sakura prayed that she would manage to get through unscathed. Her arms flew about as she struggled to upright herself; the movement causing her bag to swing by and brush the stack of sketches on a desk nearby onto the floor.

Stumbling into a few sturdy tables, she managed to stabilise herself. With her balance now regained, Sakura breathed out slowly with relief. Her attention shifted to the scattered pieces of paper that she had knocked down and she was thankful that it had not been the extremely complicated painting nearby that she had staggered into.

Still - the inconvenience was costing her time. Scowling and silently cursing at her own carelessness, Sakura crouched down to gather the piles of paper, one eye warily watching the clock on the studio wall that moved at every second wasted.

'God damn it... Stupid art, stupid mess, stupid- Holy Fuck!'

Sakura had been straightening from her position on the floor when one of the doors nearby was slammed open - startling her wits.

"I'm telling you, my sculpture is the true form of art!" A loud, boisterous voice said.

She watched with a shocked gaze at the intruder, whom she was starting to realise, consisted of two individuals.

The male who strode in first did not reply to the statement she guessed came from the second male. He was a redhead, with dark amber locks that curled slightly at the tips. His skin was pale and young, his eyes a burnt brown. He was shorter than the man who followed close behind him.

The second male was taller, but walked with a more cocky gait. Long, blonde hair was pulled up into a half high ponytail, with long bangs that covered over one half of his face. The strands of gold were so bright that they reminded Sakura of Naruto's - whose own blonde hair caught light the same way. For a quick second, Sakura had thought it to be Ino - but the taller, more masculine form and deep voice quickly made her dismiss the idea.

Sakura recognised the two - she had seen them around often during the art exhibits that Sai dragged her along to.

Sasori and Deidara. Her seniors and the infamous Art geniuses of Konoha.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Sakura's green eyes widened with her alarm. One cold cerulean eye looked back at her from his position by the door.

Sasori's burnt brown eyes flickered towards her own still form. Sakura didn't doubt that she was captured in a perfectly guilty position - half crouched, one hand still gripping onto a stack of papers while the other braced on the table nearby, frozen within a circle of disarrayed artworks with pink hair that was mussed up from running.

She gulped slightly. Sakura had been hoping to escape without any notice. She did not belong here, and it was disrespectful to be using the studio as a shortcut when it was clearly off-limits when there was a project mid-way.

She just wished that her luck today wasn't so horrendous enough to get her caught by the two most moody artists on campus.

Deidara's lips pulled back and his gleaming white teeth snarled unhappily. His blue eye narrowed with suspicion from her silence, and he straightened away from the door, taking a few steps forward. The cocky and relaxed stride form earlier had changed to a purposeful one.

Sakura immediately sprung into motion. Gently placing the drawings clutched in her hand onto the desk, she readjusted her bag on her shoulders and stammered out an apology.

"I-I'm sorry. I know I'm not-"

"Damn right you better know! This area is restricted to Art Majors only, yeah!" He interrupted, voice fierce with his disapproval.

Sakura shifted away from the clutter that surrounded her, squeezing into the route that was furthest from the approaching blonde. If she was lucky, perhaps she could ease by without getting into any further trouble.

"Deidara," The other male intoned, his husky voice was quiet but firm, "calm yourself."

"Like hell, danna!" Deidara's loud voice seemed to echo in the vast studio walls. He turned his head to look back at Sasori, one finger pointed at Sakura offendingly, "she's trespassing, un!"

Sakura bristled from the accusation. While it was frowned upon to step into another department's sanctum while they were working, it wasn't as if it was completely restricted. They all shared the campus facilities, it just so happened that these two seniors were more... particular about the unspoken rule than others.

Sakura paused in her escape to glare at the tall blonde, her reply curt but firm, "I said I was sorry. I'm just passing through."

Both the elder males looked at her, one with bland eyes and another simmering with irritation.

Deidara scoffed, "Yeah, and that's why it's forbidden. Reckless ones like you come stomping by, destroying our art in the process, un!"

Sakura huffed with impatience. She glanced quickly to the clock again; she was nearly forty minutes late. There was no way she wouldn't be noticed by Orochimaru now. She wanted nothing more than to finish this conversation and hurry on her way.

The redhead ran his fingers through his hair, sighing. Deidara didn't seem to share his friend's laid back attitude. He advanced forward and stopped when he caught sight of something on the floor where she had tripped earlier.

His indignant exclamation nearly made Sakura jump two feet into the air.

"What the fuck, man!" Pale skin seemed to redden from anger and blue eyes frosted with a mixture of shock and fury, "she totally destroyed one of my beautiful art pieces!"

Startled by his words, Sakura stopped moving and looked back to see what the other male had been looking at.

Her heart dropped. By the floor, near one of the desks she jostled earlier, was a broken sculpture - small in size, but judging by how many pieces there were on the floor now, undoubtedly intricate.

Guilt shot through Sakura and she cringed at the situation. She really was in trouble now. She had thought she had only disturbed the drawings, but clearly she had missed the sculptures that now lay in pieces by the senior's feet.

Deidara's golden locks whirled as he straightened, his eyes like blue flames as his glare locked onto her shocked ones. The room seemed to chill from the coldness in his eyes.

Sasori moved with eerie calmness. He strode over and maneuvered past the obstacles with practiced grace to inspect the damage that lay by Deidara's toes. His eyes didn't hold any form of concern as his foot reached out to nudge the broken pieces of clay.

He huffed with nonchalance, "Stop making such a fuss," his voice bordered on blandness, "you're the idiot who says art is fleeting..."

Deidara's gaze cut from Sakura's to look back at burgundy ones, "It is! True art is a bang! An explosion! One that only happens when I," his emphasis was stressed, "am the one to cause it!"

His head whirled back around to snarl at Sakura, "Not this bitch!"

Anger erased her guilt for a moment and Sakura snapped back before she could think things through.

"Excuse me?!"

"You heard me, un! Look at what you've done!"

"I already said I was sorry! What more do you want?!"

Deidara seemed more and more irritated at her by the second. His long legs carried him from his spot across the room and Sakura moved back warily from where she was, uncomfortable from the force of his glare. She shuffled backwards, wedged between a shelf of tools and a workbench.

He was like a furious tornado, stomping past the easels that stood between them like they were nothing. He didn't seem to care much when he sent a palette of paints clattering to the ground.

As he continued to near, Sakura withdrew. Her anger slowly dissolved into one of mild panic and fright. No matter what he had said, she was in the wrong, and clearly he had the right to be angry, but there was no telling what this moody artist would do in retaliation to her smart-ass comments now. His frigid eyes were two cuts of ice chips that seemed to demand vengeance for her carelessness.

Sasori remained by where he was standing, his hands tucked carelessly into his pockets as he observed Sakura and Deidara with a blank expression. There would be no help from him, he didn't even seem to be bothered by the fact that Deidara looked as angry as a rabid dog.

The blonde continued to stalk towards her, until Sakura felt her back hit the wall behind her, cornered by the shelf of wood-carving tools.

She was trapped, and he was still working his way towards her like a cat to a mouse.

This would not have been the first time Sakura had angered someone. She and Sasuke seemed to be angry at each other all the time, but it was rare when Sakura seemed to make someone other than Sasuke as mad as Deidara looked now. No matter how out of control she had been over the situation of his now-broken sculpture, she should not have been so careless in the first place.

Sakura gulped slightly when he stopped in front of her. His anger seemed to spark from his blue eyes, which glittered like uncontrolled electricity. His teeth were white, sharp, just like his next words.

"You should have thought twice before destroying my masterpiece."

Through the golden strands that obscured the other half of his face, Sakura could make out the colour of his other, more inhumanly blue, glass eye.

She felt her heart rate pick up at the anger in his voice. His entire aura exuded a type of fury that seemed to encompass the air around her completely. Her muscles tensed from panic and her hands started to feel clammy. She stared back into the blue eyes glaring into her's - frozen with fear. All the blood in her veins seemed to rush into her head from his intense, volatile anger.

The blonde was well known for being a bit of a pyromaniac, obsessed with his "creativity" for explosive arts. His experiments, mixed with his short temper, made him somewhat volatile and unpredictable.

Dangerous.

Sakura had heard the stories. The whole reason why he parted his hair so that a long, thick fringe fell over one side of his face. It was because the other half was scarred and replaced with a glass eye. A result of his actions that belonged to his shady background - filled with tales of violence and explosive incidences. The stories that floated around their campus painted him as a former delinquent who had one day set off one of his own creations after intending to hurt one of his enemies for insulting the "beauty of his art". It had costed him half of his face and a good eye.

If he was as short tempered and harmful as the stories said, Sakura was about to be up shit creek without a paddle.

Her fear escalated at the sight of the glass eye. Her vision became slightly blurry as he edged forward - boxing her in. Sakura's lungs started to constrict as her breathing became sharp and uneven. In spite of the fact that there were large windows that allowed light to beam into the room, her vision began to darken around the edges. He was intruding into her breathing room, and his dark aura was beginning to make her dizzy.

He seemed to notice her discomfort as his lips curled into a fearsome snarl of satisfaction.

Before either of them could speak, the sound of footsteps diverted their attention.

Uchiha Sasuke's lithe form moved into the edges of their view, his movements casual, but powerful. He caught sight of the commotion and stopped by the edges of the doorway. With eyes narrowed suspiciously, Sasuke's gaze moved from an uninterested looking Sasori to an irate Deidara, whom towered over Sakura's small, trembling form.

There was a moment of tense silence before he spoke.

"What's going on here." The rich timbre of Sasuke's voice made his words sound more like a statement than a question. He was not asking, he was demanding.

Had Sakura not been in the middle of a mild panic attack, she might have been relieved to see another soul. But at the edges of her consciousness, part of her groaned at the fact that it just had to be Uchiha Sasuke.

Seeing as they were both purposefully sectioned to have as little classes together as possible, Sasuke must have been in the art wing for his Tech classes - a subject on the complete other half of the spectrum as her Anatomy lesson was. His coincidental passing at the very moment was a sign that he was leaving the Art Wing; having finished his class early.

It amazed her, sometimes, how often they managed to bump into one another despite being segregated on purpose, and she would have to be a fool to assume that he would save her from the older man's wrath right now.

Deidara made it no secret that he disliked the Uchiha's either. It was a well known fact that he and Sasuke's elder brother - the illustrious and flirtatious elder Uchiha prodigy - had never seen eye to eye. He probably hated the younger Uchiha just as much.

Sakura's knees began to tremble from weakness and she clutched her head discreetly to fight against a wave of light-headedness. She could not allow herself to pass out now.

Upon the arrival of another, Deidara's wrath was momentarily misdirected to the younger male who continued to stare at him with a unbending look.

"Bugger off, Uchiha."

A dark eyebrow raised and a frown twisted on the corners of Sasuke's lips. For a moment, his gaze flickered to catch Sakura's before he focused back onto the blonde's.

He said nothing, continuing to stare the other man's gaze down.

It seemed to do nothing more than irritate Deidara more. He moved back from where he had been boxing Sakura in and twisted around so that his body was now fully angled towards Sasuke's.

"This is none of your business, yeah."

"Hn," Sasuke's eyes moved to Sakura again, "I might just make it so."

The pressure in the room began to climb as Deidara's form tensed from Sasuke's response. From where Sakura had been standing, she could not see the blonde's expression, but it must have been nothing short of furious.

Sasuke didn't seem fazed by the older male's unwavering anger. He stood strong and tall, with hands crossed over his chest as his own features sharpened with coldness.

Silence continued to fill the uneasy gaps in time. Both remained still as the stare down continued onwards for another minute.

An impatient sigh broke the taut moment. Neither male moved, but Sakura saw Sasori shift from his observing position.

"Leave them be. Let's go, Deidara."

The blonde's still form cracked and his head moved as he broke eye contact with the younger Uchiha. He looked at his companion with stunned outrage.

Sasori disregarded the blonde's look and shot him an impatient glare as he shifted his weight to his other foot.

"Now." His command was authoritative, "I hate to be kept waiting."

Something in the other man's voice must have registered in the blonde's mind as he moved to direct another glare at Sasuke.

"Next time you won't get so lucky, Uchiha." His voice ragged with his restrained fury. His head twisted around to glare at Sakura's still weak form from the corner of his eye, "You either, girl."

The redheaded senior didn't bother to bid anything to the two juniors as he pivoted from his position to stride out of the room, his lazy gait unhurried as he walked out. Deidara's own departure was less composed. He all but stomped out, fists clenched as he threw more harsh looks over his shoulder before he disappeared down the hallway after his companion - golden locks trailing behind like a lion's mane.

With the absence of the two older males, Sakura began to feel the room relax into a less tight atmosphere. Her weak knees nearly buckled from her relief and she leaned heavily against the wall, one hand braced on the surface beside her as she took deep inhales to calm her nerves. Sakura's bottle green eyes shut and she felt her light-headedness slowly clear.

"Tch. What's wrong with you?"

The gruff question immediately made the muscles in her shoulders lock once again. Her eyes snapped open to meet Sasuke's.

She had almost forgotten he was here.

Feeling somewhat flustered from having appeared so weak in front of him, Sakura fought to lean more of her weight into her propped hand, her eyes slipping from his as she quickly recollected herself. She was in no mood to deal with the Uchiha, and while he may have saved her, he clearly did not do it out of affection.

"Nothing. Just... breathless."

His eyes narrowed slightly at her reply as he took in her frail form. Hunched over, pale and with a sheen of cold sweat coating her weathered face, Sakura didn't doubt that she wasn't looking so great at the moment.

She had dodged a bullet today. Sakura had always known she was somewhat too quick with her words. Though she and Sasuke argued all the time, they rarely reached to a point of physical violence; save for the few and far occasions in between. After their incident during their first meeting, most of their disagreements consisted of harsh words, lots of glaring and indirect sabotage. She had grown to know his way of attacks. Always verbal, rarely physical.

She was foolish to forget that while Sasuke seldom resorted to physically actions (though part of her didn't doubt that he wanted to on more than one occasion), others were not as restraining. Particularly explosive, hot tempered artists.

She would have to be more careful next time. Though Sakura doubted she would ever use the Art wing as a means of a shortcut anymore. This experience had been more than enough of a warning.

She was well into an hour late now anyway. There was no way she was going to class anymore.

Inhaling and exhaling deeply, Sakura felt strength return to her numb limbs and she straightened slightly, pushing away from whatever she had been leaning on.

Sasuke, whom had remained observing her from his place by the doorway, unfolded his crossed arms. His eyes widened with alarm as his back straightened.

"Haruno-"

Confused by his sudden distress, Sakura felt, more than heard, the groaning of wood behind her. All of her muscles stiffened up as she twisted around to see that the surface she had been leaning so heavily upon was the old, wooden shelf of carpentry tools.

The grains of the wood seemed to creak with an anguished moan as the structure tilted dangerously from side to side.

Sakura watched, petrified still, with a gasp frozen on her lips, as the wooden shelf buckled from it's instability, shifting more dangerously before toppling over her slight frame.

Before she could even blink, a sudden force slammed into her side and she was sent slamming into a nearby desk, her entire side jarring from the pain. Her teeth clattered from the force of being thrown and Sakura imaged that her brain must have also been jostled rather painfully around in her head. She gasped from the sharp pain that shot up her rib cage. The collision rattled her bones and sent all her breath of sputtering past her lips pathetically.

The force of her form against the steel worktable was nothing short of hurtful. Her other side remained crushed under the weight of something heavy. One arm was wedged under something strong and firm, while her entire face was smushed under the same surface. She vaguely registered that while it hurt to be pressed so firmly against something, it was not as rigid or stiff as the cool surface that was slowly digging into the skin of her other side.

Dust and pieces of all sorts of artworks clouded around them. Papers flew everywhere and supplies of all sorts scattered around, falling all over the floors from the force of the falling shelf. The sound of the heavy wood crashing had been so deafeningly loud that her ears still rang.

Sakura's vision swam with multicoloured, phantom fireflies and she blinked furiously at the tears that pooled in her eyes from the pain. When she was once again refocused back on the world, she noticed that she was not pinned against the desk she collided on, but was instead on the floor. The surface her face had been wedged under moved and shifted, it's weight disappearing from above her.

Sakura sucked in short, greedy breaths as she continued to adjust against the harsh lights that beamed from the ceiling bulbs. A dark shadow obstructed her view before a voice caught her consciousness.

"Sakura."

The husky voice drew her attention and she realised that it was Sasuke whom loomed over her. He must have seen the shelf about to topple and moved to push her away in order to prevent her from being crushed.

'But why?'

Still somewhat disoriented and confused, Sakura could only blink up at him. The fact that he had addressed her by her first name and not the hostile "Haruno" he had always called her was lost to her dazed awareness. His forearms were braced on the floor beside her head. His knee caught in between her two legs as he stared down onto her, careful not to lean any of his weight onto anywhere she may have been hurt.

It took her a moment to collect herself, before Sakura realised just how close she was to him.

It was by far the most intimate position she had ever been. His face was so close to her own that her breath was lost in her lungs. The light overhead casted his features in shadows, but she could still make out the depths of his face. Every feature was perfectly symmetrical and unblemished. His pale skin was flawless and smooth, lips turned down slightly from his current expression and strong nose set proudly into his face. His jawline was blunt and strong, matching the other hard contours of his face and body. Though he had not been leaning on her anymore, Sakura could feel the ghost outline of his firm muscles and abdomen on her smaller frame. Dust and a few pieces of small, stray splinters caught in the spikes of his hair, making her fingers tingle with the urge to run through the strands to dislodge them.

But that was not what had her frozen and breathless on the floor.

It was his eyes.

Dark and black, Sakura had always seen nothing but contempt, fury and hatred in his gaze. She had thought nothing more of the colour of his irises - thinking them to be as black as his soul.

But Sasuke's eyes right now we're far from it.

They were dark charcoal, a shade lighter than midnight and swimming like molten liquid. They were the purest form of shadow that seemed bottomless, deep enough to fall into. They continued to look back into her green ones with nothing but worry. The emotion that lined his eyes seemed to swim within the dark waters there. There was no trace of maliciousness or anger. There was nothing but sincere concern.

She could have lost herself in his eyes.

The world beneath her fell away. The sharp pain that had been shooting up and down her side seemed to dull into nothing more than a background ache. She didn't seem to register the fact that she was lying on the cold, hard floor, surrounded by a decimated room of art works, staring up, winded, into the eyes of a man she swore she hated. Those eyes became her whole world.

Something unknown fluttered within her ribcage.

And just as fleeting as the tender moment arrived, it vanished.

The worried look that had been in Sasuke's eyes disappeared with a sudden blink. His form quickly jerked from above her before he fired himself from her proximity, straightening up and distancing himself from her immediately.

Simultaneously, Sakura's own muscles twitched. She scrambled back from where she had been lying underneath him, her back colliding with a toppled over table. The action sent pain shooting up her injured side and the feeling cleared away the hazy dreaminess she had been experiencing just seconds before.

They remained apart from one another, still and unmoving as they stared at one another with guarded expressions.

'Uchiha Sasuke just... saved my life'

As ridiculous as the thought seemed, that was indeed what had just happened. The bizarreness of the fact was almost too much to comprehend. Questions immediately followed.

Why had he done that? Did he hope to gain something? Was he trying to corner her into a debt? Why had he even bothered to save her? Why did he even care?

And why had he been staring at her like she meant something to him just moments before?

They flew through her mind and as each unanswered question grew, the puzzlement on her face increased. Pink brows furrowed and Sakura cast a wary look to Sasuke's own somewhat confused one. He didn't seem to understand why he had done what he did either.

They remained that way for another handful of seconds, before Sasuke's crouched form straightened into a stand. His confused expression morphed away to his usual bland one as he looked down onto her, sitting against the floor with one hand clutched to her aching side.

All traces of his compassionate side dissipated like a foggy mirage. When he opened his mouth the speak, his voice was cold and unfriendly - a tone Sakura was well acquainted with.

"You were careless," lithe posture turned rigid with discomfort, "Nobody's going to save you twice. You should remember that."

The combined implication as well as his condescending tone made the prickles of anger in Sakura rise. She seemed to have sorely misjudged the younger Uchiha brother. He was not concerned for her. He was only concerned for himself. Whatever she had thought she saw in him moments ago was nothing - merely as illusion that masked the cold, uncaring man underneath.

"...I don't need saving."

His shoulders shrugged and his eyes were almost mocking. He clearly didn't believe in her ability to take care of herself, after having just saved her from being crushed like a bug.

The expression he wore slowly brought her to her feet. Sakura ignored the stinging discomfort that settled into her ribs and grinded her teeth together to keep from outright hissing.

Her jade green eyes sharpened into knives as she focused her anger on Sasuke. From everything that had just happened in the past half hour, the last thing she needed was to hear how little he thought of her. Sakura might have almost gotten herself into more trouble than she could handle, but she did not want, nor need, him to rub salt into the wound.

He didn't even seem fazed by her glare and merely "tsked" his tongue.

Without another word, the younger Uchiha brother flicked a stray, wooden splinter from his shirt, shook the dust from his hair and swiveled on the balls of his feet. He sauntered out of the room, restored back to his perfect, cold self, uncaring of the chaotic mess that lay strewn about their feet.

Leaving a seething Sakura behind.

End Note:

Updated 2016 Note:
Do any of you who are in university also experience problems finding parking on your campuses?
Mine just so happens to be infamous for having bad traffic & impossible parking when it comes to arriving anywhere after 7:30 a.m or leaving before 8:00 p.m.

Also, if you're wondering why I made the Art Block in this story so messy... well, it really is like that.
At least, in the Architecture Wing it is - during Project Submission Week. We've got students sleeping under desks, tools and drawing tables littered everywhere. Even a few empty cup-noodles lying around.