The world seemed to stop for a moment for Sasuke. He turned around to meet face to face with her. Her, as in Sakura, Sakura Haruno, his Sakura. Relief flooded his features for a split second before turning back to his nonchalant expression. That's why he felt something was missing. It was Sakura after all, the most annoying person he had ever met. Which meant she clearly occupied a great part of his mind.
She was dressed in her usual red qipao dress, green tights and ninja shoes. Her hitai was on top of her head, a style she had grown accustomed to. Her face was bright and young, no traces of tiredness, stress and no blood. Her green eyes twinkled in the way that reminded him of how Itachi described the stars. Her pink hair was still long, since it was only a month before the chunin exams and they hadn't attended them yet. Her forehead was slightly pronounced more than he had been used to but all in all, she was still Sakura. The girl he loved the most and the reason why he decided to stay in the past and create a different future. He'd never admit that he loved the girl, he was an Uchiha but maybe on her he could make an exception.
"Hn," was all he said.
"Is something on my face? You're looking at me weirdly," the pink haired girl said in her sugar coated voice as she raised a pink eyebrow. The voice that the Uchiha longed hear like he existed in it. 'Now I'm being like a lovesick school boy,' the Uchiha thought. "Hn. Nothing," he grunted. Sakura gave him a weird look before greeting Naruto happily. He eyed the two of them out of the corner of his eye. He never really noticed how Sakura and Naruto had bonded to become inseparable friends over the years. Sakura was scolding Naruto calling him an idiot for being too stupid to not be able to go through the basic kata moves. Naruto was whining like a three year old who just lost his crayon. But behind that, he could clearly see the strong friendship the two had. Some would say that Sakura abused Naruto by hitting him or scolding him but it was actually a way of showing their friendship. Just like how he had pretty much argued with the blonde about everything but they were still friends, more like brothers.
"Oi Sasuke-teme," the Uzumaki boy called over to the blonde. Sasuke snapped out of his reverie and looked at the blonde with the most annoyed look his face could have. "What?" he said in clearly annoyed voice. "You are looking at me and Sakura-chan weirdly. What's wrong? Are you jealous coz Sakura-chan talks to me more than you?" he asked and grinned at the last part. "Naruto you idiot. My heart belongs to Sasuke-kun and Sasuke-kun only," the girl replied confidently as she looked at the Uchiha with soft eyes. "Awww, Sakura-chan. Why do you have to go for the teme?" Naruto complained loudly but the rest of the conversation drowned out to Sasuke.
"My heart belongs to Sasuke-kun and Sasuke-kun only."
Despite telling himself countless times that it meant nothing to him, Sasuke could not disagree with the fact that he had missed those words. Sixteen year old Sakura no longer spoke those words. He remembered that the last time he had heard those words was when he had left the Hidden Leaf Village. Sakura had confessed that she loved him and was willing to go with him just so he could be happy. Of course, he had rejected her and said thanks for everything before knocking her out and leaving her sleeping on a bench. He had furiously tried to ignore the painful gut-twisting feeling he had felt at the bottom of his stomach as he walked away from what used to be his life. But all was in vain. He endured that pain until the hatred had utterly consumed him.
"Sasuke-teme!"
The Uchiha snapped out of his reverie and glared at the blonde. "What?" he managed to say through clenched teeth as he barely managed to control his anger. "You were spacing out a lot. Are you okay?" Naruto asked, not bothering to hide his concern. "I'm fine," he snapped at the blonde. Naruto inwardly winced at his tone. "Okay. If you say so," the blonde muttered lowly, obviously hurt by Sasuke's snappy mood. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sakura glance worriedly at Naruto before looking back to the ground. The mood suddenly became gloomy. He sighed exasperatedly before continuing to glare at an imaginary Madara.
As usual, Kakashi had arrived three hours later. Ever since the mission to the Land of Waves, Kakashi didn't want his genin to do a mission outside the village. He had gone back to giving them D-rank missions. That afternoon, there were no missions so he decided to give them a training exercise. He had told Sakura to go through the basic kata moves and Naruto to practice his taijustu skills with his clone. Currently, he was teaching Sasuke how to better use his Sharingan, though the Uchiha had already mastered the Sharingan and even the Mangekyo Sharingan. But he perfectly played the role of the dumb student. After teaching Sasuke to dodge using his Sharingan, he sat down under a nearby tree to read his novel.
After an hour or so, he was disturbed by Sasuke who was now standing in front of him. "What is it Sasuke?" the lone eyed jounin asked his student. "Back in the Land of Waves, you said Sakura has the best chakra control among all of us right?" he said. Kakashi nodded. "Why don't you try to teach her genjutsu since most genjutsu users have precise chakra control," the Uchiha said, his gaze boring into Kakashi's unflichingly. Kakashi did a double take. Was Sasuke actually concerned about Sakura? Now that was new. "Hmmmm. I suppose you're right," he drawled out lazily. "I'll do just that after I finish my novel," Kakashi replied as he went back to reading his book. "You can do that later. She can't spend the entire afternoon session going through the basic kata moves which wouldn't save her life from an S-rank criminal," the Uchiha male said. It took years of practice to avoid surprise being evident on his features right that very moment. Kakashi blinked lazily before closing his book and pocketing it. "Hai hai, I hear you Sasuke," the silver haired jounin said as he stood up. He walked over to Sakura who was practicing kata moves for the umpteenth time that day.
"Ohayo Sakura," the jounin greeted. Sakura stopped what she was doing and greeted her sensei back. "Since you have the best chakra control, I've decided to teach you a few genjutsus," Kakashi said. "Really?! That's so cool! Thank you sensei!" Sakura said gleefully. "And if you complete every genjutsu I give you, I'll tell you the real secret why I've decided to teach you genjutsu," he finished with with twinkle in his eye. "Hai sensei!" Sakura replied, determination written in bold letters across her face.
From the tree, Sasuke watched as the two conversed about the genjutsu. He couldn't hear what proposal Kakashi had said to Sakura which got her all hyper but it was good to see that the lazy jounin was doing something worth while than leaving Sakura to fend off on her own. He remembered that in his previous timeline, Kakashi had taught Sakura nothing except the statement about comrades and teamwork. Otherwise, Sakura became what she was because of her own hard work. With that, he left the two and joined Naruto to practice taijustu with.
Practice ended late in the afternoon. Team Seven was fairly exhausted. Kakashi had immediately poofed away after he said that training was over. The three genin sweat dropped anime style at his actions. "Sakura-chan, let's go on a date," Naruto said to Sakura gleefully. "No thank you Naruto," the kunoichi replied dismissively. Then she turned to Sasuke. "Sasuke-kun, let's go on a date," she said to Sasuke pleadingly. Naruto's face fell. "Awww, c'mon Sakura-chan. We don't have to bring the teme along," Naruto complained as he pouted childishly. "Let's all go together to Ichiraku's," Sasuke interrupted quickly as he sensed an arising argument. He had forgotten that during their genin days, the two hadn't yet established their best friend relationship so he decided to fix their friendship now. Better do it now than never.
"That's a great idea teme! Never knew you had it in you," the blonde said as he grinned. Sasuke snorted. "Yeah, that's good," Sakura agreed but Inner Sakura was on a rampage. 'Why that stupid Naruto. Stealing my Sasuke-kun. Shannaro!'
Team Seven went to Ichiraku's late in the afternoon. They had a quite enjoyable lunch. As much as Sakura hated to admit, Naruto wasn't as annoying as she thought. She thought about the time Sasuke got mad at her because she called Naruto annoying just because he was an orphan. Talk about talking to an orphan about another orphan! Ever since that day, she vowed to never do it again.
They bid farewell to Ichiraku and Ayame after paying their bills. They were walking in the streets of Konoha. "Why don't you guys come over to my house after dinner and train? I heard the chunin exams are only a month away," Sasuke said, interrupting the silence. He figured he might extend their teamwork and teach Sakura something to help her during the chunin exams. "Really?! That'd be awesome!" Naruto said, more of shouted as he punched the air. "Sure Sasuke-kun," Sakura chirped happily. 'I'll get to show Sasuke-kun the genjutsu I learned today. Shannaro!' she thought happily. With that, Team Seven disbanded and everyone headed their own way.
Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were at the Uchiha training grounds. They were all dressed in their assorted genin clothes. "So let's start with a warm up exercise before we proceed," Sasuke instructed, hdi serious expression in place. The other two members of Team Seven nodded with the same seriousness. They did ten laps around the grounds, pushups, situps and basic kata moves. "Naruto create clones and fight against yourself. Try to see your weaknesses," Sasuke said to the blonde. "Hai Sasuke-sensei!" the blonde saluted in mock sarcasm before walking away to a secluded part of the grounds.
Sasuke watched Naruto's retreating figure. He formed three clones and began fighting them. He nodded in satisfication. He turned to Sakura who was blushing. His eye twitched in annoyance. This Sakura was still a a fangirl and it nagged him to the very end. 'Guess I'll just have to endure,' he thought as he eyed the pink haired kunoichi warily. "We are going to have a sparring session. You can use both ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijustu. Begin!" he said. In a moment, he was already in front of Sakura with his right hand cocked back.
Sakura dodged the flying fist by sheer luck but didn't notice the knee which was making its way towards her stomach. His knee connected to her gut and Sakura winced in pain. He then punched her in the face which sent her flying a few metres away. She landed the ground with a loud thud. Sasuke watched her as she regained her bearings. "I'm not playing games Sakura. Give me everything that you've got," he said as he narrowed his eyes seriously. Sakura coughed a bit and wiped away the blood which was on her split lip. 'Sasuke-kun is very serious. I'll have to become more serious,' she thought as adrenaline rushed in her body. She bolted towards Sasuke and the two became involved in a taijustu battle. 'Her taijustu is worse than Konohamaru's at genin level,' he thought as he dodged a poorly aimed punch and kicked her in the stomach. She staggered back a little and threw another punch which Sasuke let connect to his face. It was too weak to injure someone but he could still sense the brute strength behind that punch.
He jumped back and went through a series of handsigns. "Fire Element:Grand Fireball Technique!" he shouted as a big fireball erupted from his mouth towards Sakura. Sakura was too slow to react and was engulfed in the bright flame. He narrowed his eyes as he surveyed the area. A cloud of smoke was blocking his view. The smoke cleared and Sasuke found Sakura sprawled on the ground, covered in soot. Sasuke frowned. She was supposed to have dodged that.
He walked over to Sakura. Just as he was about to pick her up, she poofed and was replaced by a log. 'Kawarimi,' Sasuke thought. At that very moment, his ears tingled and he turned around to block Sakura's kick. Sakura frowned as Sasuke blocked her kick. She jumped back few metres away. 'I almost had him,' she thought disappointedly. "That caught me by surprise," Sasuke commented with a hint of pride. Sakura smirked. "Understimation is one of my best strengths. It's easy for me to catch an enemy by surprise because I'm underestimated," she pointed out. "Hn," the Uchiha replied. "Shall we proceed?" she asked. He nodded.
Sakura jumped and threw a fist at him. He dodged and punched her in the gut which sent her crashing into a nearby tree. He walked over to the tree but saw no one. 'Sakura?' he asked himself. Suddenly, a circle of leaves began to spin around him. But died as soon as it came.
"Sa-Sasuke-kun," a voice from behind said. He spun around and met face to face with a dying Sakura who was kneeling on the ground. "Sakura!" he cried as he ran over to her. "I-I'm sorry…f-for being s-so reckless…." she croaked and coughed up blood. A large hole was in her chest. She looked down then up at him. "You killed me," she said as tears of blood ran down her cheeks. "I-I'm sorry," Sasuke said as fought back the tears. "You took my life away from me. That's what all of you Uchihas are," she spat icily. "You're a murderer. Firstly, you kill your brother then me. What's more left?" she said as tears continued to slide down her face. "No! I'm not a murderer! I'm sorry! Please, I'm really sorry," he screamed frantically as tears now cascaded down his cheeks. "I hate you Sasuke Uchiha. I hate you and I really mean it," she spat. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry…." He chanted the words like it were a mantra.
Slowly his consciousness began to slip. The last thing he heard was "Kai!" and shouts of concern before everything went black.
I'm done with Chapter 4. I see that people aren't really reviewing but are only favourating (does that word even exist) and following me and the story. Thank you for your support. Read and review.
Toonana
AfricanFire
