AN: Hey everyone, Cinnabunnbunn here.
So here's a new chapter. Don't have much to say here. Be sure to leave a review about what you thought of this chapter.
Onto the story.
"Brother."
Madara looked up from his computer as Izuna entered the study room, softly closing the door behind him. He glanced at the clock to find that it was nearly midnight, it was strange for him to be up at this hour.
"It's late." Madara stated simply, "Is it something important?"
Izuna dropped onto the plush chair in front of the table, "I have the intel you wanted, on that girl."
Recognition flashed in Madara's eyes as he took in the information appreciatively, "Well, what do you have?"
"Her name his Sakura, twenty years old. She works at Honeydew café as a part time pastry chef and goes to Konoha central university for Humanities and performance arts. She lives in a brownstone apartment complex at Kingston Avenue." Izuna paused before shrugging, "That's all I have."
Madara mulled over the provided information. It was pretty standard intel, though impressive just how fast Izuna worked, but something still struck him odd. "What was her name again, Sakura…?" He trailed off, waiting for the added input.
"Just Sakura," He got in return, "No mention of a surname."
"That's odd." Madara murmured with a frown, "Familial status."
"None. Most likely an orphan." Pause, "Not very sure though. Haven't seen any mention of a living relative in any official document."
That's even more strange, but he'll roll with that for now. He didn't need to concern himself with what the condition of her family is.
"Good work. I'll see what I'll do with this."
Izuna considered his brother for a moment more. It was unusual for him to show any kind of interest in knowing anything about a woman. That's not to say he never shows any attention to the opposite sex. The intimate women's clothing items he would sometimes find in Madara's room, gave him enough of an idea about his nightly endeavors. But that interest went just to that limit, a want for pleasure and warmth during occasional nights and nothing more.
This one was different.
"You're not thinking about harming her in any way, are you?" Izuna questioned hesitantly.
Madara paused in his typing and looked up with an annoyed glare, "I'm not heartless. She didn't do anything worth doing any harm to her."
Izuna released a slightly relieved breath at his admission. It would've been sad to see that girl get hurt. She was innocent in the fiasco, it would've been a shame to see her facing repercussions for something that harmless.
"Well, I'll get to bed then." Izuna stood up from his seat and walked out of the door, "Good night."
Madara waited a breath, mulling over what to do with the intel when he picked up the phone and dialed a number. Waiting through the ringing on the other side, the call was picked up by a voice heavy with sleep.
"Hello." The voice croaked groggily.
"Shisui, I have a job for you."
It was seven AM of a new day, as Sakura flutters her eyelids against the dim sunlight peeking through her drapes on the window. She stretched, still cursing in despair about the morning coming too damn fast. It felt like only minutes ago that she went to bed. Her eyelids still felt heavy from sleep and she moaned in discomfort at the stiffness in her neck muscles.
Her still sleep engrossed mind was still processing whether she was even awake or not as Sakura sluggishly dragged herself out of her bed and slumped her feet to her bathroom. Flinching against the harsh light to her sensitive eyes, she hastily switched it off and decided to finish her morning routine in darkness, much better than squinting and grumbling against the fluorescent harshness of the bathroom lights.
She methodically freshened up, brushed her teeth and took a shower before shivering her way to her small closet in her towel. Not having the energy to mix and match another outfit, she chose the safest option of black jeans and a crimson shirt, throwing on a dark jacket to fight against the chill of early autumn days.
Sakura checked her clock again and saw that she had a little under half an hour to get her ass to her classroom. Grabbing two protein bars, she shoved her feet into her shoes, grabbed her bag, locked her door and ran like devil was on her heel.
She barely made it to the bus stop to catch the bus but still had to sprint at full speed just as the door was about to close. Panting with her hands on her knees, she caught up some of her lost breath and grabbed onto the pole in the middle of the bus to keep herself from lurching forward and munched away on her protein bars throughout the whole ride.
After fifteen minutes, she was at the front of her university gate. The tall iron gates were still open, thankfully, that meant she wasn't late. Skipping past the gates, she came upon the huge, imposing white marble buildings of Konoha central university, spanning across the large ground of their campus, surrounded by lush pine and fern trees, the beautiful bushes and plants of flowers lining the way towards the entrance building.
She quickly scanned her ID card on her humanities building door and dashed in, running across the large hallway, up the stairs to the second floor and quickly entered the classroom, wheezing from her sprint across the whole building.
The class was still busy chattering, enjoying the few moments of freedom before the lecture started, so she was thankful that no one particularly paid any attention to her less than graceful entrance.
"Sakura- chan! Over here!"
Sakura heard her name being called by a very familiar voice and turned to see a tanned arm waving in the air and the connected head full of blond locks bobbing up and down.
Smiling slightly to herself, Sakura walked up to the cluster of seats in the right side of the classroom, right beside the windows. "Hello everyone." She greeted cheerfully at the group the five people sitting huddled close together.
"What's up forehead."
Sakura twitched at the familiar nickname from the young woman sitting the closest to the empty seat, her platinum blond hair sectioned into a ponytail and blue eyes sparkling with mischief.
"Good to see you haven't been roasted yet, pig." Sakura threw back as her eyes roamed across the various faces sitting around the tables pushed together. The furthest to the window in the row behind her sat Shikamaru, his pineapple head already dozing over his folded arms. Right beside the window was Hinata, softly laughing at some joke Naruto said.
And in the middle of the pair sat Sasuke Uchiha, right behind her seat. He always seemed to somehow fall into the seat right behind her.
Sasuke smirked at her as she narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion. One too many times she's had to threaten him with plucking his hair like a featherless chicken whenever he would tug at her waist length hair, sometimes twirling around his finger, other times attempting to braid it, very poorly.
"Hey Sakura- chan, are you doing anything this weekend?"
Sakura turned to her right where Naruto was grinning at her with his cheeks in his hands. Sakura thought over her plans for a minute, "I don't remember having anything over the weekend. I might have the closing shift on Saturday, and I'm mostly free on Sunday."
Naruto's grin widened even more, if that was even possible, "Great! We're going to movies on Sunday, and you're coming with us too. And I'm not hearing any excuses!"
Before Sakura could think of any, the door of the lecture hall slammed open and in walked her Classic literature professor, Kakashi Hatake.
For being a classic literature lecturer, he sure always had his nose stuck in the most vile, perverted erotic piece of literature she has ever seen.
"Alright class," Kakashi addressed, finally putting his book down beside him on the table and taking off the scarf wound around his neck to fight off the early morning chill. He ruffled a hand through his silver hair once, before taking his place behind the table, "How are you all." He asked offhandedly, not actually caring about what the answer.
The class rose in a low murmur of unintelligible words, the students not caring about giving an actual answer either. Sakura dug around in her heavy bad before fishing out a thick novel, a pencil and a highlighter.
"How are you always so serious in these classes?" She heard Naruto whisper to her as he dug out… nothing. She breathed a laugh at his so Naruto-like antics and focused in front as Kakashi's lazy voice drawled about some drama going on between two characters in the novel, a side plot no one really even cares about.
About fifteen minutes into the lecture, Sakura was getting real annoyed with the repeated tugging at her hair she has been feeling for the last three minutes. Her eyebrow twitched as she tried to ignore the tugging and refocus on where the story was going, but in about thirty seconds, her patience ran out quickly enough.
"Do you mind!" She whispered heatedly at the smug Uchiha sitting behind her, his head on his table, facing forward and hand halfway in the air, moving toward her long hair once again.
Sasuke smirked at her smugly, his eyes glimmering in satisfaction at having reclaimed his focus on him. He loved it when she looked at him, her focus solely on him, even when she is annoyed. It makes a kind of satisfaction spread through his chest that makes his head tingle.
He was the youngest Uchiha after all, pampered since birth and always with plentiful attention dedicated to him. He didn't like it when that attention is taken away from him, even Sakura's.
Especially Sakura's.
"Hn" he replied simply, knowing it would annoy Sakura even more. And it worked, as her eyes narrowed and the vein in her forehead throbbed. Sakura wanted to just slap him over his head and curse him out. Why does he annoy her so much?
Before she actually acted on her threats, Sakura took the deepest breath she could as she forced herself to turn away from the Uchiha before she actually bashed his head in the table. 'He's just baiting you, Sakura. He's just trying to get a rise out of you.' She repeated in her head.
Sasuke, apparently, did not like her taking her gaze away from him. He frowned before determinedly raising his hand to mess her long hair again, only for his wrist to get snatched halfway in air.
Sasuke looked at the owner of the tanned hand, and saw the glinting bright blue eyes of the young Uzumaki focused on him, "Teme." He said warningly.
"What, dobe." Sasuke replied just as annoyed, snatching his hand back and settling back comfortably in his seat, eyeing the back of Sakura's head and studying her smooth, rosy locks.
Naruto gave a last glance at Sasuke before resting his arm on the back of Sakura's chair. Him and Sasuke have been best friends since they were in diapers, and they still are, but sometimes he really just couldn't help but get frustrated at his nonsense. Someone might say that Sasuke is much smarter than Naruto has ever been, (Naruto would like to sincerely disagree), but he just thinks that the stunts Sasuke pulls on Sakura are nothing but grating on his nerves.
Naruto pouted as he thought about how they actually seem to work on gaining her attention.
The hour passed by as Sakura's focus flitted in and out from the lazy drawl in her professor's voice, and went to the less favorable topics.
Like the envelope she received yesterday.
She has been trying hard to just not think about the ivory piece of paper tucked in the deepest corner of her top drawer. It wasn't hard to not think about when she woke up and was in a rush lest she missed her lecture, but now as her mind drifted away from the boring section of the novel, she found it extremely hard to not remember it.
It made her antsy. What is written in the letter? Did something happen at home? Is he just checking on her? But he has been doing that without writing directly to her for years. It must be something serious.
Millions of questions and what ifs floated through her mind. She could just open the letter and be done with it instead of losing her mind over it. But just the thought of opening the letter gave rise to a whole different kind of terror in her chest.
What if it's worse than she thought. What if it's her fear coming true.
What if it's the end of everything for her.
As Sakura hands started minutely shaking under her table and her brow started getting a sheen of sweat even in the chilly weather, the bell rang loudly through the whole building.
The hour is already over?
Shakily putting her book away in her bag, she slid back her chair to get out of it and barely heard Naruto say something to her.
"Sakura- chan, what class do you have next?" Naruto slung his bag over his shoulder and turned to the pinkette, only to frown when he saw her eyes hazy and hands trembling. "Sakura- chan," he called out again, softer than before, as Sakura snapped into attention, "Are you okay?"
Sakura released a shaky breath and tried her best to give him a convincing smile, "I'm okay, just sleepy. I got home quite late yesterday, haven't gotten enough sleep."
Naruto believed her fast enough, giving her a bright grin and loud laugh and they moved along with the rest of the troop, each going towards their next respective classes. Sakura narrowed her eyes every time Sasuke brushed his arm with hers and would smirk whenever she turned her annoyed glance toward him.
The rest of the day just flew by surprisingly quick. Smacking Naruto over his head whenever he got too loud, giving Sasuke annoyed glares whenever he messed with her hair, listening to Ino chatting insistently about her new crush and the date she went on, all the while trying to study whatever was on the schedule that day, the day was over and it was already four PM and she was dragging her feat to her home. Her shift didn't start until six, so she might as well get some rest.
She went home, took a shower, and forcibly ripped her eyes away from her top drawer when she lied down on her bed. Shutting her eyes and shoving the thoughts of the envelop to the deep corners of her mind, she put the alarm for an hour and drifted off to a power nap.
She just hoped today will be better than yesterday.
A sigh escaped through a pair of pale lips in the chilly evening as the young man shoved his hands in his pockets and red eyes looked around the establishment he had just walked it.
Shisui gave another sleepy sigh and looked around the room for pink hair. He does not know why his uncle is so fired up about some girl. He wouldn't explain why he was so interested in a girl, but apparently, according to his other uncle, Izuna, the girl was stupidly brave to have stoop up to the fearless leader.
Whatever, he wasn't concerned about that.
He walked to the pastry counter, look for anyone who might clue him about some girl with pink hair, (Sakura, was her name, as he has been told by Madara), of all colors. Shisui almost didn't believe his ears when he heard that he was supposed to look for a girl with pink hair. Who has that kind of coloring? Whenever he thought of the color pink, his mind always conjured up pictures of little girls, annoying fangirls and pink boxes of chocolates he has received all throughout his school and college days.
Don't get him wrong, he reveled in the attention from the opposite sex, but the high- pitched screeches and uncontrolled giggles that would follow up whenever he flashed a grin or a wink, were freaking annoying.
"Ah, Sakura- san, she's in the kitchen." The waitress that came to his table to take the order, managed to stutter out when he flashed her a smirk, and nonchalantly asked about a girl named Sakura with pink hair. He chuckled a little and hushed her, "Don't tell her that I asked for her, okay, pretty?"
The waitress blushed brighter and bowed once before walking away. Shisui looked at her for a second more before looking out of the window to the darkening sky. Sakura for a name and pink hair, all that information gave him the mental picture of a mousy, petite girl with a perpetual blush on her face and delicately making cookies for children and elderly, who, in a moment of foolishness, stood up to the intimidating Madara Uchiha and now, Shisui has dig up information on her.
Shisui sighed again and opened his sleek cell phone, swiping his thumb on the screen to see the texts he has received. He was typing a message to Itachi, when a flash of pink in the corner of his vision caught his attention and snapped his eyes up towards the pastry station, and found her right away.
She really had pink hair. And not just a dusky, barely pink. Her hair was the color of pale, young dawn. The petal pink color reminding him of the pale pink roses in aunty Mikoto's garden.
Her back was to him, hafting two large trays of croissants and macaroons as he put them on the counter behind the glass shelf in the front. Her rosy locks wound up in a ponytail at the crown of her head, swinging down her back as she bobbed and walked. He estimated it must be waist length.
She wasn't as short or dainty as he assumed though. Her stature a solid five foot' six, her back rod straight and posture proud even as she carried around the plates that even looked heavy.
Shisui released a breath as he stood up and dusted his jacket and prepared to walk to the pinkette. He graced his face with a boyish grin that has turned many of his female peers to goo and ruffled his short, curly hair and leaned on the marble counter beside the glass shelf and rang the waiting bell.
Shisui was prepared to up his charm and just flirt his way through to getting whatever information his uncle wants. He would flirt, she would blush, she would be hesitant to share anything at first, but give in everything as he would calm her down enough to get her guard down. He would relay the information to his uncle, and that would be the end.
The way it has happened so many times before.
But what he did not account for was his inability to even utter a word as the pinkette turns around to face him.
He has thought the green color of his aunt's garden bush was bright, under her care. But this girl's eyes have to be the greenest green he has ever seen.
As she whipped her head around to look at the new visitor, her ponytail swung to the opposite direction as it revealed her peachy face, plump lips pressed together from her struggle with the trays, and her eyes, oh her eyes. Her feline like eyes, as green as the meadows behind the compound and minute surprise momentarily flickering across them.
Shisui was still silent when she flashed him friendly smile and welcomed him in a light, airy voice.
"Welcome to Honeydew café. What can I get you?"
Shisui still took a moment to blink and cough into the collar of his jacket, his ears heating to a brilliant red and composed himself to some form of calm state, despite the recent embarrassment of being caught staring at the pretty pinkette.
"Hey." Shisui winced when his voice came out lower than normal, "Can I get two croissants and a cup of flat white, to go?"
The girl, Sakura, nodded as she jotted down his order on a notepad and gave another heartbeat- skipping smile as she replied to his order, "Sure, it'll be coming up right now. Please wait at the tables for a few minutes."
Shisui took the minute when she was writing his order to compose himself, ruffled his hair, cleared his throat and the boyish smile came easy and genuine. "Or, we can just stand here and talk about the beautiful incidences in one's life."
Sakura paused in her motion of giving the waitress the order for coffee to deliver the paper to Neji, and raised an eyebrow at the guy. She sized him up and down, eyeing his varsity jacket, his rakish grin and laughing eyes. She will have to say, he was handsome. Like, really handsome.
"Store policy forbids me from flirting with the customers." Sakura flashed him a smile as she tucked the coffee order into the passing waitress's palm.
"They don't have to know." Shisui grinned slyly, leaning more of his weight on the counter, clearly indicating that he isn't going away anytime soon. "What's your name, gorgeous?"
Sakura stared at the man in front of her, his grin never faltering and sighed as she went back to packing the croissants in a brown paper bag, "My name is none."
"None what?"
"None of your business."
Shisui's grin widened, if possible. Instead of being put off by the lack of cooperation, he felt a rush of excitement in his nerves. "Come on, sweet, don't be like that. Just your name, please."
Sakura didn't even bother looking at him, and pushed the fresh batch of lemon macaroons into the glass shelf. "Will you keep quiet and leave me to work if I tell you my name?"
"I promise."
"But it's not nice to ask for someone's name without giving yours first." Sakura replied airily, won't admit it, but she was enjoying the harmless flirting from this young man.
With her mostly working in the kitchen and busy with her books at her university, she doesn't get much attention from her male peers, let alone the handsome ones. It doesn't bother her most of the time, but she isn't above enjoying some harmless and fun attention once in a while.
Shisui gave a light chuckle and put his elbows on the counter and stared at the cute pinkette bustling around the shelf, her apron swishing in sync with her hair. He didn't need to push her for her name, he already knew that. But it was so fun to just watch her resist his interrogation. "The name is Shisui Uchiha, dear."
Sakura gave a pause at the name, "Uchiha, huh? Funny, I have a friend with the same last name."
Shisui gave a look of surprise "Who?"
"Sasuke Uchiha. You know him?"
"Sasu- chan?" Shisui almost slipped to the ground in shock. That shrimp knew Sakura? "You know our little Sasu- chan? He is my baby cousin."
Sakura looked delighted at the discovery, looking much more inclined to continue the conversation with the Uchiha, "He is your cousin? What a pleasant surprise! He's actually in my classic literature and political science classes. We're friends." She laughed.
Shisui still hasn't recovered from the shock. He always teased Sasuke because he has never been friends with any girl, seems like he was wrong. He felt a little annoyed that that shrimp knew this beautiful pinkette before him.
"Wow… the world really is small huh." He mused while still gazing at the pinkette through his long lashes. But before he could continue, a cup of coffee and a brown of bag with warm pastries was thrust in front of his face.
"Here is your coffee and croissants. Enjoy, Sasuke's cousin." Sakura chirped with a teasing giggle, while she noted the order from another customer for her box of butter cookies and strawberry shortcake.
"Yeah." Shisui murmured as he stared at the go-to cup of flat white, the light froth on top giving off a slow steam. "So, your name?"
The pinkette gave a beautiful smile that made his eyes widen and ears burn uncharacteristically, "It's Sakura."
He knew that though.
The bell above the door jingled as Shisui stepped out of the café onto the pavement road and tentatively took a sip of his coffee. It was warm, and sweet. He liked it. Looking at the paper bag, he dug his hand in and took out a croissant, golden and buttery, and bit into it, and almost melted on the spot.
It was a little sweet, and buttery, and flaky, and warm. Whoever made this deserve to be worshipped. Shisui promptly blushed when he remembered that Sakura is the one who made this.
Shisui slowly chewed as he thought over his meeting with the pinkette while walking toward his motorcycle. She was adorable, that was all he could think about. Intriguing as well, quite a strange creature she is.
He almost choked on his dessert when he realized that he was supposed to be collecting her intel, instead he has been mindlessly flirting with her.
'Aww fuck.' Shisui grumbled in his mind, 'I'm screwed.'
But he did find out somethings about her. One, that she was friends with little Sasu- chan.
Second, she made the most mouth- watering desserts.
"Ahhh… I'm beat." Sakura stretched like a cat as she put on her nightwear, and combed her fingers through her hair. She needs to get it trimmed; the split ends were starting to look really frizzy.
Her thoughts drifted to her schedule for the next day and she opened her cell phone, opening the fingerprint lock and saw that she had a couple of texts from Ino, begging her to accompany her to shopping the next day. That reminded her, it was Sasuke's birthday in a week. And she reminded Ino as such.
"That's what we're going for!" came the reply.
'Eh, whatever.' She'll go with her, just a few hours. It'll be fine.
Prepping her books for the next day, she soaked some oats and berries in milk for her breakfast for the next day and slipped in her bed inside her blanket. But this time, she almost hesitated to turn off her table lamp, a familiar cold feeling creeping in her chest.
Her heartbeat escalated, her pupils dilated and hands shook as her eyes searched around the table in silent terror, as if waiting for another ivory sheet to pop out any second, any trace of the scent of lavender and cinnamon that accompanied it.
Her pulse gradually returned to normal and her hands seized their shaking as she found no such letter again. Sakura released a heavy sigh, full of relief, before darkening the room and snuggling in her blanket. She has another long day tomorrow, and she needs her rest.
And once again, she missed the floating projectile outside her window, hidden in the leaves of the maple tree in front of her apartment.
"Leader." A voice called out in the dark room, the only source of light, the small table lamps at the corner, exuding little warm light. A large table sat in the center of the room, nine people sat around it, four on each side and one on the head of the table, presumably the leader. Someone from the right side called out to him.
"What is it?" grey ringed eyes looked at the speaker in question.
"We have some news about those pesky Uchihas." At the interested gleam in the leader's eyes, he continued, "Bastard Madara Uchiha is, apparently, going after a girl."
"What do you mean, going after?"
"Going after, as in, he's interested in her. He put his nephew to get intel on her."
A contemplative murmur rose through the table. "If he's interested in her, she must be of some importance." was the most probable conclusion.
"Did you get her name?" the leader asked.
"No, but she has pink hair, from what I've heard."
'Pink hair? That's odd.' was what was going through their heads.
The leader put some thought into the information, mulling over the next course of action, before addressing the speaker again. "Keep your ears open. For now, we'll look more firearms shipment, but if we hear anything about them establishing any relation with this girl, we will make a move."
"For now, when is the baby Uchiha's birthday again?"
AN: so, how was it? Did ya'll like it? I hope so.
So, Sakura got some more Uchiha interaction, and we also see the first appearance of (I'm just gonna ruin it for you) Akatsuki! Not that it's much of a surprise anyway. I think all of you guessed it. Anyway, the next chapter, we will see more of Akatsuki interaction and what's going on back home. So stay tuned.
Happy reading
Bye bye!