"Hey, Sasuke-kun."

Uchiha Sasuke, twenty-one and now among the most respected shinobis in Konoha, chose to ignore the call of his seatmate and girlfriend. Instead, he continued to eat his half-finished ramen, equally blocking out all other noises. He had just been from a two-week A-rank mission, and oh, just what he would give for some peace and silence of his own.

To Sasuke's misfortune, however, the moment he had arrived back and had stepped into the gates of Konoha, his self-proclaimed best friend, Uzumaki Naruto, had held him by the collar of his clothes and had pulled him to Ichiraku's.

To celebrate.

To celebrate getting together with the Hyuuga heiress.

Congratulations, dobe. Sasuke fought the urge to roll his eyes and fought the urge to snap as his pink-haired girlfriend kept calling him.

"Sasuke-kun!"

Silence. His ramen was quickly running out.

"Sasuke-kun, can you hear that?"

At that, Sasuke forced himself to turn to the girl. Naruto and the Hyuuga were on the other side of stall, whereas Kakashi was nowhere in sight. When did their ex-sensei leave? Sasuke could have left the same time Kakashi had, and by then avoid Sakura's nagging. He had no time for some nagging right now. As much as he appreciated Sakura, he was tired right then.

"What?" asked Sasuke, if just for the sake of asking.

Sakura chuckled to herself and looked down. What she was hearing must have been nagging her the same way she had been nagging him, Sasuke noticed. He looked at her untouched bowl of ramen. How long had they been sitting there? An hour?

An hour and she had not taken even a single bite.

Sasuke had always hated repeating himself, but when Sakura did not reply, he asked yet again, "What?"

"The cracking sound," said Sakura, a small, wry smile appearing on her face. "Can you hear the cracking sound?"

Just to humor himself and Sakura, he focused on any sound that could resemble cracking. All Sasuke heard, though, were the noises coming from the people around, utensils hitting bowls as people eat, pots clacking in the kitchen area of Ichiraku's . . . but none were of cracking stuff. He turned his attention to Sakura—she was staring at him intently that it almost unnerved him.

"Hn."

Sakura must have realized what he meant by his one-worded statement, and laughed quietly to herself. She looked away and stared ahead, appearing as though she knew something he did not know.

"You can't hear it? It's—there!" Sakura noted, and Sasuke noticed that her eyes were starting to glimmer with unshed tears. He felt his heart skip a beat. What had he done now? "Can you hear that? That's. . . ."

There was a pause, and Sasuke noticed that Naruto and Hinata had turned their attentions to them. The two looked at them curiously, silently asking what was wrong. Sakura, however, did not notice. She had her back turned to them.

". . . that's my heart," continued Sakura, the wry smile on lips finally slipping away. Hinata gasped in the background. "That's my heart; it's cracking and falling all over the place. And you can't hear it because . . . ."

All Sasuke could hear now was the loud thudding of his heartbeat against his ears. He had a feeling he was not going to like what Sakura was going to say next.

"You can't hear how my heart cracked so loudly because it's long gone from you already," Sakura explained as she pointed at his chest area. "And I'm not willing to return it there."

Sasuke watched as Sakura placed her bills beside her untouched bowl of ramen and unknowingly took something of his with her.

His heart.

The end.