Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine!
A/N:
Gaah... So sorry again for the slow update, you guys... I'm just not as inspired as I used to be since my love for Sasusaku's not as strong anymore unlike before... Not to mention, school's still being such a complete jerk to me and I'm having trouble finding the time to continue writing...
I was supposed to upload this chapter early this afternoon, but for some unknown reason… fanfictiondotnet wouldn't want me to log in…
Anyway, I think I made you wait long enough. I hope you enjoy this chapter! XD
Chapter 3
It was amazing how a person's face could express so many different emotions in just a span of a few seconds. Sakura watched, or more like stared in surprised awe, as series of expressions flashed on her best friend's face as soon as she laid eyes upon her and Sasuke standing so close to each other outside the store.
"Sakura..." The blonde girl uttered her name, her expression priceless as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing right in front of her. "And Sasuke-kun...?"
"Oh, hey, Ino..." Sakura smiled as she turned to greet Ino with a small wave, but soon realized that she couldn't since she was still holding Sasuke's injured hand. With flushed cheeks and a mumbled apology, she gently let go of his hand before she returned her gaze towards the blonde girl.
She wasn't all that surprised when she found Ino directing her with a glare and a deep scowl. In fact, there was even a small part of her that was half-expecting her blonde friend to ignore her, march past her, throw her arms around Sasuke's neck, and make cute faces at him in attempt to get the Uchiha to notice her.
She grimaced inwardly at the thought. That was what Ino used to do months after they had first met Sasuke. Back then, both of them had been acting no better than Sasuke's fangirls who had nothing in their minds but their stupid, childish crushes.
Fortunately, they were 15 year-old teenagers now. They knew better than to compete with each other for Sasuke's attention like immature girls.
Her thoughts were cut short, however, when Ino suddenly squealed in delight. "Sasuke-kun! What a coincidence! I'm so happy to see you!"
Much to Sakura's surprise, Ino did exactly what she had thought her blonde friend wouldn't do anymore. Ino threw herself in Sasuke's arms and squeezed him in a really tight embrace, completely ignoring his grunts of protest. Not only that, Ino turned to look at her with a triumphant smirk, as if challenging her to top what she just did.
Sakura blinked.
Childish or not, the pink-haired kunoichi knew that her blonde friend was doing this on purpose only because she had caught her holding Sasuke's hand...
And believe it or not, she found herself doing exactly what she thought she wouldn't do anymore. Instead of ignoring the way her best friend was acting, she could feel her blood boil in response. She could feel her inner-self goading her to give in to the urge to rise up to Ino's challenge.
No matter how much Sakura tried to convince herself that she couldn't care less about how Ino was shamelessly sticking herself to Sasuke's side like a leech, she still couldn't help but feel... ticked.
"What are you guys doing here... together?" Ino asked after letting go of a scowling Sasuke and deliberately putting a slight edge in her voice as she said the word "together".
"I forgot my umbrella at home, so I'm sharing an umbrella with Sasuke-kun." Sakura answered as cheerfully as she could, planning to let Ino see just how happy she was about the whole situation.
Something at the back of her mind was telling her to grow up. It was really childish of her to do such a thing, but she wanted to get back at Ino for squeezing the life out of Sasuke a while ago.
Old habits can be so hard to let go sometimes...
Ino raised one sharp eyebrow at her answer before turning her attention towards Sasuke again, a small smirk forming in her lips. Wearing the biggest puppy-dog eyes that Sakura had ever seen her muster, Ino clasped her hands in front of her chest and stared directly at the Uchiha's eyes. "My umbrella's broken, Sasuke-kun. Won't you share your umbrella with me? Look!" Reaching out from one of her shopping bags from Shikamaru, she pulled out a pink umbrella, pointing at the huge crack at the center of its handle. Sakura surmised that probably with enough force, it could easily be broken in two.
"Oi, Ino..." Shikamaru suddenly spoke up and dropped all the stuff he was carrying on the ground, ignoring Ino's protests when the bags got mud all over them. With a heavy sigh, he bent down and grabbed something again from one of Ino's paper bags.
Another umbrella...! Sakura scowled at the realization of what Ino was doing and directed a glare at her blonde friend, who was looking at her with her innocent expression still plastered on her face.
Sakura felt a vein twitch.
"Stop messing around..." Shikamaru suddenly blurted out, the expression he wore clearly showing what was on his mind, meaning that she was getting too troublesome for his own liking. "And start helping me with all your stuff. My arms are starting to get the cramps..."
Shikamaru motioned for her to give him back the pink umbrella, so they could use the other one and finally get the heck out of here. However, Ino stopped him with a frown. "You know... that umbrella's too small for the two of us." Ino muttered, ignoring the look of disbelief that Shikamaru was throwing at her. "Tell you what, you can use it." Ino smiled, stealing glances at Sasuke. "In fact, you can go right ahead. Sasuke-kun and I will catch up with you."
Shikamaru instantly protested. "What are you talking about?" He asked, frustration evident in his tone. "What about your stuff? You can't expect me to hold this umbrella," He then pointed at the loads of items on the ground. "while carrying all those things all by myself!"
Ino answered him by placing her hands on her hips, scowling at him as if he was a child daring to speak up to his mom. "Oh come on, Shika-kun! I'm sure you can come up with something! You're the genius here!"
Again, Shikamaru resorted to grumbling his frustrations out loud, complaining just how troublesome girls can really be.
"Come on, Sasuke-kun... Let's go." Without warning, Ino reached out and managed to grab Sasuke's umbrella from Sakura, flashing the pink-haired kunoichi with a smug smile. She was about to pop it open when Sakura's hand reached out, grabbing the top of Sasuke's umbrella with a deep frown on her lips.
For a moment, the two girls just glared at each other, neither of them wanting to back down. Sakura tightened her grip around the top of the umbrella, preventing Ino from opening it. "Let go of Sasuke-kun's umbrella, Ino-pig..."
Ino responded by clutching the handle of the umbrella hard enough for her knuckles to turn white. She didn't look like she was going to let go of it anytime soon. "You let go, Fore-head girl."
A sudden clap of thunder tore through the thick clouds, the hard plummeting of rain against the store's tent growing worse by the minute. No matter how hard Mother Nature tried to wreak havoc with her storm, her wrath was nothing compared to the dark and menacing atmosphere surrounding the two girls. Angry sparks ran back and forth between Sakura and Ino as they tried to out-glare each other, its intensity warning everyone around them to run off and stay clear... or else.
Their glaring match was short-lived, however, when their object of affection spoke up. And judging from the sound of his voice, he was really pissed off. "I don't have time for this." Sasuke snapped out loud and, without sparing Sakura another glance, turned his back on her as he marched alone into the rain, leaving her with his umbrella.
Silence.
It didn't take Sakura that long to realize just how much of a fool she made out of herself in front of Sasuke.
"Uh-oh... Sasuke-kun..." Ino was looking at Sakura with her eyes wide, her words barely registering in Sakura's mind. The pink-haired kunoichi was far too busy staring at Sasuke's retreating back to even care about how her friend was going to react or what she was going to do next. Because of this, she wasn't able to notice the accusing finger that Ino was currently pointing at her. "Y-You made Sasuke-kun upset!"
The rain was getting worse, and Sasuke's figure was slowly fading away into the distance.
"Fore-head girl?"
Without another word, Sakura yanked Sasuke's umbrella from Ino's grip. She was about to run towards the direction Sasuke was heading when she caught sight of Ino's pink umbrella. There's only one way to sort this out... She muttered to herself inwardly and, much to her best friend's surprise, she reached out and grabbed the pink umbrella that Ino was holding.
"H-Hey!" Ino exclaimed and stepped forward to retrieve her umbrella. "Give that back!"
"Sorry, Ino..." Sakura directed her with an apologetic look. "I'll give this back to you tomorrow, I promise!"
And with that, the pink-haired kunoichi opened Sasuke's umbrella as she ran towards the rain, her friend's umbrella clutched tightly to her chest.
The rain was pouring down harshly on him, but he didn't care.
Sasuke directed his suppressed anger on the damn rain. Before, he didn't really mind rainy days and even thought that the rain had this unusual ability to soothe his nerves with their steady and rhythmic patter as they plunged against the ground.
Now, however, he was cursing the black skies for choosing to rain today of all times! Why did it have to rain today? Why couldn't it have rained tomorrow or even the day after that? Because of the rain, he was forced to bring his umbrella along with him.
His eyes narrowed at the thought. Instead of helping him, his damn umbrella became the cause of all his problems. If only he had known that he would meet those idiots on his way home and they would pick a fight over his stupid umbrella then he would have brought lots of umbrellas along with him! He'd give just about anything to shove those damn umbrellas to each of their faces!
No. Sasuke thought grimly. Maybe bringing an umbrella had been his mistake all along. It would have probably been better if he hadn't brought his umbrella with him.
If he hadn't brought his umbrella then he would have been forced to stay at the training grounds and wait for the rain to stop. This would have avoided the chance to meet a certain pink-haired kunoichi standing in the middle of the road with nothing to protect her from the hostile weather.
At the mention of his female teammate, his mouth curled into a frown. He could sense her running after him from behind.
She was the main cause of his problems. If it weren't for her, he would have been back home by now.
With a snort, he quickened his steps.
What does she want from me now? Sasuke scowled darkly. Damn it, she already had his umbrella! What more could she possibly want? His shirt?
"Sasuke-kun! Wait up!" He could hear her footsteps getting louder and louder by the second. Soon enough, she was walking by his side with his umbrella in hand. She reached up and held it over their heads, preventing the rain from having the liberty to get him even more wet than he already was.
Even though Sasuke wouldn't admit it to anyone but himself, he was a little grateful that Sakura followed him.
And no... it wasn't because he missed her company, but it was because he wanted to get his umbrella back.
After spending a few minutes walking out in the open with nothing to protect him from the heavy rain, he was starting to have a hard time pretending that he didn't need the umbrella and wasn't the least bit bothered by the weather.
He was dripping wet from head to toe and it was doing nothing to help lighten up his mood!
Damn, fucking rain...
"Sasuke-kun..." He could see Sakura fidgeting uncomfortably beside him as they continued to walk ahead. Sakura wasn't meeting his gaze and was looking down at the ground, her head bowed low. "Look, I..."
Sasuke sighed, already knowing what was going to happen next after seeing the look on Sakura's face. Here goes... Sasuke braced himself as he waited for her to plead and beg for his forgiveness as if a great deal of what had happened a while ago was her own fault to begin with.
It was pathetic, to say the least.
And he wasn't sure if she was the one who was being pathetic, or he, himself, for actually feeling a bit guilty for blaming all his bad luck on her.
"Thank you."
Huh? Sasuke wasn't prepared to hear that, so he looked at her oddly when she handed his umbrella back to him, a forced smile forming on her lips.
"I can take it from here now. Ino uhh..." She cleared her throat. "...let me borrow her umbrella." She brought her hand up and showed him Ino's pink umbrella clutched in her hand.
He narrowed his eyes at the umbrella she was holding, remembering the crack on its handle.
But, as usual, he didn't say anything about it.
Instead, he watched as she popped her umbrella open, noting how she gently wrapped her hand around the handle so she wouldn't accidentally break it apart. "Sasuke-kun... Sorry for the trouble." She still wouldn't look at him in the eyes and he was starting to get annoyed. "I-I'd better get going now. See you tomorrow." She gave him another forced smile before she turned her back on him and went on her way, heading to the other side of the street at the opposite direction.
For a few moments, Sasuke just stood there, his eyes glued to Sakura's slowly disappearing figure and her pink umbrella.
He then looked up at the sky that was still filled with dark and heavy clouds. Fat droplets of rain continued to make its way down against his umbrella, its noisy pattering ringing loudly in Sasuke's ears.
The weather didn't look like it would calm down anytime soon and the cold was starting to really get to him since he was practically soaked from head to toe. So, with one last look at his teammate's direction, he turned around and resumed his journey home.
Now that Sakura was gone, he didn't have to stick around outside the streets any longer than necessary. He didn't have to be forced to go to some damn place and do something that he didn't give a shit about.
No one or nothing was going to stop him from going home now...
Not even Sakura and her stupid umbrella with a huge crack on it. From the looks of things, she probably had the handle of her damn umbrella broken in two now.
With a snort, he decided to quicken his footsteps before his conscience could force him to change his mind.
All of a sudden, the clouds boomed and a strong gust of wind made its way towards his direction. It reached him with a dangerous intent and Sasuke struggled against the strength of Mother Nature as she started to take the umbrella from his grip. It was as if some invisible force was yanking the umbrella violently from his hands. Fortunately, the force wasn't strong enough to pull the umbrella from his tight grip, but by the time the wind was through with him, he was once again shivering cold and dripping wet.
Sasuke didn't know if he could get anymore wetter than this...
And then, from out of nowhere, a flash of something pink suddenly flew past him with incredible speed. He stopped in his tracks, wondering for a moment what that pink thing could have been. The object rode against the strong gust of wind and it landed right in front of him. Narrowing his eyes at the said object, it took him a few seconds to realize what the object was...
Sakura's umbrella.
Its handle was completely broken, the other half of it missing.
Before he could marched towards it and pick it up, the wind carried it again. It traveled down the street until it suddenly swerved to the right and got caught on one of the trees at a nearby empty lot.
He blinked. If he wasn't in a damn mood right now, he would have considered this whole situation as comical.
"Sasuke-kun!" Hurried footsteps from behind caught his attention and he saw his female teammate running towards him, looking even more disheveled and stressed out than before. Before she could open her mouth to ask, he beat her to it by tilting his head to the side, pointing at the direction of the empty lot. "Umm... Thanks!" She muttered breathlessly with an embarrassed blush on her cheeks as she ran to where he had just pointed.
A part of his mind was telling him to walk away now, just leave her and go home when he still had the chance. After all, she had her own umbrella now... even if it was stuck on top of a tree. Getting it from the top of the tree wasn't his problem anymore...
With a snort he tore his gaze from her direction. He was just about to will his body to start walking away, when he heard her cry out loud. Before he knew what he was doing, he was already marching towards where Sakura was. She had managed to get the umbrella from the tree and was now looking down at it with a scowl on her face.
"I can't believe this..." He heard her mutter as she ran her hand over the umbrella. Sasuke wondered what she was talking about until he got a clear look on the umbrella that she was holding.
It got ripped apart.
"How am I supposed to get home now?" Those words were uttered almost in a whisper, as if she meant to say it only for herself to hear. Sasuke heard them out loud and clear though, and he couldn't help but curse this day in his mind over and over again.
In the end, he sighed resignedly to himself.
Maybe it really was his fate to walk her home after all...
"Come on." Sasuke muttered, not caring if his tone sounded grim. This made Sakura look up at him with her eyes wide. When she didn't move an inch from her spot, he directed her a glare. "Do you want to come or not?"
He could see the hesitation on her face, but eventually, she nodded and walked under the protection of his umbrella. Sasuke saw her mouth open to say something to him. He didn't get to hear what she was about to say, however, after noticing the figure standing silently behind her.
The urge to haul her up to his shoulders and get the hell away from here as fast as he could suddenly welled up inside him. It was almost too overwhelming to resist.
Just as he was about to do just that, however, the figure finally decided to make his presence known to the both of them.
"Sakura-san...?" His unusually thick eyebrows was raised in utmost surprise, but it sure didn't stop him from showing them his perfect rows of white teeth that seemed to glimmer so sickeningly bright even under the dark sky. "And... Sasuke-san! What are you two doing here?"
Sasuke cursed under his breath.
Of all people they had to meet…. It had to be the beast.
To be continued...
A/N:
As usual, tell me what you guys think, all right? XD Thank you so much for reading, and reviews are very much appreciated!
Oh, and I may not be able to update the next chapter anytime soon, because I'm still having a major hangover with the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean 2: The Dead Man's Chest"... XD Have you guys watched it? It's an awesome movie! And I LOVE Jack Sparrow to death!
Also, I'm quite addicted with the game O2Jam... Anybody here wanna play with me? Mga kabayan? Laro tayo O2Jam? Teehee! XDXDXD
Uhh... anyway... thanks again and see you again next chapter!