Kisame: Kitty-chan does not own Naruto.

Chapter 9

For the next three hours, Sakura and Sasori did the boring and uncomfortable task of writing the paper for their project. Or at least it was awkward for Sakura.

Every now and then she would look up at Sasori, only to blush and look back down. Knowing that her and Sasori's look-alikes had an intimate relationship was making her nervous. Her hands trembled as they scribbled down the important information that they needed for the essay portion of their project. Inner wasn't making the situation any better either. She would make vulgar comments that made the pinkette blush and try to hide behind her hair.

"It's rude to stare, Geek," Sasori finally sighed after catching Sakura in the act. Whether she knew it or not, he was also having difficulties focusing on their project, he was just better at not getting caught.

Sakura exhaled loudly.

"It doesn't bother you? After reading that, you're not uncomfortable or embarrassed in the slightest?" she asked.

"Nope," he lied, feeling his heartbeat pick up after seeing the annoyed glint in her eyes.

He was having a hard time being around her, but it wasn't just because of finding out what they did. He had noticed the feeling even before, and as their closeness grew, the feeling was getting harder and harder to ignore—"Liar," she responded—and she was getting better and better at figuring out his feelings.

Feeling it was time for them to get out of the house for a while, and for him to change the subject, Sasori stood up from the computer where he was typing up his part of the essay.

"Let's go out," he said, and Sakura's face brightened to a deep red.

"W-what?" she stuttered, and he rolled his eyes, secretly enjoying her reactions.

"Not out. Out. As in we-need-to-take-a-break-because-I'm-hungry kind of out," he explained.

"O-oh, okay," she nodded as she tried to calm her pounding heart.

"What? Did you think I would take you out on a date, Geek?" Sasori teased.

"As if I would ever agree to go out with you, Puppet Boy," Sakura snapped back, her cheeks flaring.

"You know you want me."

"In your dreams."

They bickered like this back and forth all through dinner and when they got back to his house. It wasn't until later that night, when they were working on the project again, that Sakura realized that they were supposed to go back to school the next day. Surprisingly, she couldn't wait, especially after spending the past few days cooped up in Sasori's house doing nothing but reading and working on their English project.

"We have school tomorrow," she blurted all of a sudden.

"Yeah, and?" Sasori retorted.

"Do I have any clean clothes left here?" she asked, heading over to his dresser and opening up the bottom drawer.

Why do I have clothes here to begin with? It's not like I'm his girlfriend or anything, Sakura thought to herself.

No, but you want to be, Inner replied.

Will you quit that? I'm tired of all your crap about wanting to get me with Sasori, Sakura snapped in irritation.

You're just mad because it's true, the voice declared. Sakura hated it when her inner was right.

She dug through the drawer, finding a pair of clean jeans, but no shirt.

"Dammit," she muttered.

"What?" Sasori questioned, he had already turned back to the computer.

"I have clean pants, but no shirt. Everything else is dirty," she answered with a sigh.

"Then why do you put it back in the drawer?" he asked.

"Would you like my dirty laundry all over your floor?" Sakura muttered.

"I could live with it," he shrugged with a sly smile.

"Pervert," the pinkette snapped, throwing her jeans at his head. He caught them easily and threw them back at her.

"Just borrow one of my shirts. I'm pretty sure they're not that much bigger than the size you get," he suggested.

"Oh, can I wear that really cool Disturbed t-shirt? That one's my favorite," she asked, rifling through his drawers to find it.

"I don't care," he shrugged.

Sakura found he shirt, sniffing it to make sure he hadn't put it back in the drawer dirty, and was pleased to find that it didn't smell bad. It smelled like wood with a hint of paint and the smell of whatever fabric softener he used. With a shrug, she folded it back up and laid it on top of her pants, which she put on top of the dresser as a reminder of what to wear the next day.

Sasori turned back to the computer and tried to finish his part without getting distracted by Sakura again. He found it to get increasingly difficult—what with her sighing and rolling around on his bed in boredom—but within the next half hour he had completed his contribution. He got up and Sakura took her seat in front of the computer. It didn't take long for her to complete her share, which amazed and slightly irritated Sasori—wasn't she distracted by him as well?

"How did you get that done so fast?" he asked.

"I actually read her diary. You just got bunches of different tidbits of information on your guy from different websites. I've already finished the works cited page too, so we're done. All we need to do is staple this to the pictures, and turn it in tomorrow and we don't have to worry about it anymore," Sakura explained without giving him any room to question her. She hit the print button on the top of the screen and turned around to stare at the redhead.

"Bookworm," he grumbled.

"Slacker," she shot back with an angered pout.

"You're such a geek," he chuckled.

She was quiet for a while. As much as Sasori was pain in her butt, she had been plagued with one thought for the past hour or so.

Now that we're finished with this project, will we stay friends? she thought. It was a strange thought considering the way they had connected, but it really bothered her. The only reason they began talking in the first place was because of the project . . . now that the project was done, would they still hang out like this?

"Hey, Sasori . . ." she hesitated, catching the redhead's attention. He had never heard her sound so somber. Apparently she expected an answer because she didn't say anything.

"Yeah?" he waited. For the first time that he had seen, she seemed like she was having a hard time putting her words together.

" . . . Are we still going to be friends after this?" she asked quietly. Sasori balked.

Friends . . . he thought slowly. The word didn't sit right with him. It took him longer than it should have to answer, and the space between them felt larger than it ever had.

"Friends with a geek like you? I don't think so," he joked shakily. Hopefully she hadn't noticed how nervous he sounded. She smiled and time seemed to stop for him. It was like he was looking at her for the first time.

"Thanks," she replied happily, and it was then that he realized that she was something he could never have. Whatever kind of friendship they had, he realized, should never be ruined by such a selfish desire.

Friendship should be enough, he told himself no matter how much he really didn't believe it.

~(^-^)~

All they were doing was fighting now. Sakura had never had such a dysfunctional relationship with another person—granted she hadn't much of any kind of relationship with anyone, but this was ridiculous.

They were starting to fall apart—this hurt both of them.

Sakura was frustrated by her new job as a waitress, frustrated by Ino and Co.'s new determination to excessively harass her, and frustrated because she didn't know how to tell Sasori that she might have a teensy-weensy, itty-bitty, tiny-winy amount of feelings for her.

Sasori was frustrated by his new job, frustrated by Sakura's obsession over Nathaniel—his own look-alike!—and frustrated because he couldn't find a way to let the pinkette know that he might like her just a tiny, little bit.

In response to these frustrations, they took it out on each other.

They were starting to fall apart—this worried their friends.

Sasori and Sakura were almost constantly fighting sometimes—even at school. Their friends were starting to worry about whether their friendship would last-whether the two would be able to get to tell each other about how they feel. Their friends were starting to worry that Sakura and Sasori were pushing each other away.

They were falling apart.

That night Sakura had an early shift, so Sasori decided to take her home so she could change instead of going straight to his place. They had started fighting after school.

Sakura accused Sasori of starting it. She was hoping she might make Sasori jealous by talking about her past crushes. She didn't think that something so small and childish would make him respond so outrageously.

Sasori blamed Sakura for starting it. He had bluntly responded to her spiel by telling her that having crushes was stupid, and she should grow up. Jealousy raged in his thoughts though. She had no idea what she was doing to him.

Of course she was offended and she reacted defensively.

"Well, I think playing in that stupid workshop of yours all day long is a waste of time," she retorted angrily, while in reality, she just missed not spending time with him anymore because both of them were always working at different times.

Sasori was silent after that. He bit back whatever comment he had prepared, put on his helmet and mounted his bike. They had ridden the rest of the ride to her house in tense silence.

Both of them wished they could take back what they had said, but it was so frustrating trying to hide feelings they both thought would be rejected.

Sasori couldn't take it anymore. All this pent up frustration, this pining—it had to stop. As soon as they stopped in front of her apartment, he climbed off the bike with her, and grabbed her arm before she could shut the door in his face.

"Sakura . . ." he murmured tiredly, his heart clenched at the unshed tears that wet her eyes. His stomach knotted and his throat went dry at the thought of what he was about to tell her.

"I'm sorry . . . I'm just so frustrated, and I . . ." he didn't know how to tell her that he missed her smile, that he missed her playfulness, that he missed the light in her eyes that she used to reserve just for him. He didn't know how to tell her that he loved it when she teased him, that he loved the way she blushed when she was embarrassed, that he loved the way her nose crinkled when she laughed.

"I just . . . I don't understand what happened, Sasori. I know you're frustrated, I'm frustrated too, and I shouldn't be taking it out on you . . . I just . . . I don't understand," she blinked back tears. "This would have never happened with Envy . . ." she mumbled as an afterthought, and almost immediately regretted it, but there was no way to take it back now that it was said.

"You really think that if I acted like your little prince charming Nathaniel things would still be okay?" he asked angrily. "Sakura, I'm not even sure that what those two had was even real. I don't even think you're sure that what they had was real. Whatever was in that journal could have been written for so many reasons. She could have loved him because they had an amazing sex life for all we know," he ranted.

"But that's not what—"

"That's not what she said? Or that's not how you interpreted it? To be so smart Sakura, you can be really dense. Think. Nathaniel was a man. He traveled a lot. For all we know, he could have had a woman for each town he was in. I will not let you chase after whatever fantasy you have of this guy," Sasori wasn't thinking rationally. He just couldn't let Sakura fall in love with what she thought Nathaniel was like, and he couldn't be that for her no matter how much she asked it of him. She had found his breaking point.

"But you don't know that!" Sakura protested, her cheeks were dyed red with anger and embarrassment.

"Neither do you!" he roared. They were both quiet for a while.

"Why can't you just let me be happy believing what I want to believe?" she murmured pitifully.

He wasn't thinking; he just acted.

Sasori pulled her roughly forward and pressed his lips firmly against hers. Every bit of the kiss burned with passion and longing, and Sakura didn't know how to react; she couldn't react. He had pulled away all to soon.

"Is this what you want me to be? Someone I can't be?" he asked her angrily.

Sakura let the words sink in, and all hopes of thinking that he might just like her vanished before her very eyes. The tears she had been desperately holding back spilled over, and she slapped him hard across the face.

"You're such a jerk Sasori Akasuna!" she shouted and slammed he door in his face.

It took only a few seconds for him to realize he had gone too far. The look of shock changing to hurt changing to fear would never leave his mind. He had hurt her more than he believed he ever could.

~(^-^)~

She wanted to run to her room. She wanted so badly to get as far away from him as possible. But her body refused. It shut down. She couldn't even feel her legs as she tried to lift one to push her in the direction of her room. Instead, she crumbled to the floor and let out a loud, injured wail. She didn't care if he heard. Actually, she wanted him to know how badly he had hurt her that time. Her body shook violently as she cried, her arms trembling as they tried to support her.

Those words still rang in her ears. She couldn't get them out of her head. No matter how amazing the kiss was, she knew that he would never feel the same way she did. Not with those words he said. Words meant to cut.

We're impossible, she despaired.

~(^-^)~

Sasori stood on the other side of her door, listening to Sakura cry. He could taste the guilt on his tongue like a bitter lozenge. He looked down, rested his forehead on the white door, and listened to her cry. This was his consequence.

And it hurt more than any kind of wound anyone could give him.

Kitty-chan: Well, guys. I'm done revising English Project. I hope you enjoyed this edition better than the last. I'll be working on revising the sequel Goodbye, and I hope you enjoyed it.

Please review. I love you guys, and I wouldn't have nowhere near as much confidence to keep writing if it wasn't for you guys. Thank you.

~nomorehappykitty