Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose, emerald eyes closed; a small frown marred her face. A shopping cart beside her and a piece of paper slightly crumpled in her other hand. She was too stressed for this crap, it was a good thing the grocery store is open 24/7 or she would have been completely out of luck. I can't believe its Wednesday, Sakura thought as she checked her list again. Sakura stood in the cereal aisle debating on which box she wanted. She had several other things in her cart; rice, beans, sugar, tomatoes, pasta, coffee, potatoes, flour, leek and several other odd combinations. As Sakura reached for a box, she looked back at her list, do I have enough money for all this crap? She had her bank card with her, but she didn't like using it much, she preferred using cash. What snapped her attention back to reality was the fact that she had grabbed somebody's hand instead of the box of cereal. Sakura's head whipped back so fast she felt her neck crack.

"Sabaku?" Her eyes wide, the red head looked completely emotionless, if you ignored his locked jaw.

Sabaku towered over her; he looked annoyed about being in the store. To Sakura he almost looked out of place in Mitch's wearing dark gray-silver baggy jeans that slid down enough for her see the V of his lean hips and the smooth skin that was left exposed by his maroon muscle shirt that clung to his well defined torso, and a black leather jacket that was left open; or maybe it was just because Sakura had issues picturing Sabaku just about anywhere that wasn't school. Sakura wondered for a moment what his house looked like, whether he had siblings, and what kind of car he drove.

"Hey." Sakura smiled at him, "You like Ninja Stars too?"

Ninja Stars is Sakura's favorite cereal even though Tenten claims they're a knock-off of Lucky Charms, only because Lucky Charms was Tenten's favorite. Sabaku stared at her for a moment like she was a crazy person. Sakura hadn't heard him talk more than a handful of times since Friday's incident, which had taken Sakura most of first period to calm down from. Sakura had talked to Tsunade about the whole ordeal and got Kiba an in-school suspension on Monday; she'd got Sabaku the lighter sentence of detention with Kakashi-Sensei on Tuesday. Whatever inner battle Sabaku had bout talking to her seemed to be over.

"I ran out of food." His voice deep and huskier than she thought it'd be. It lacked the raspy gravely sound it had the first time he spoke to her.

Sabaku kept a blank look on his face as he spoke, though his eyes glanced into her cart, a would be eyebrow raised just a tad. Sakura laughed at his scrutiny of her choices then gestured to the basket he held in his right hand.

"What's with your weird tastes?" Sakura eyed the frozen pizzas, beef, a strange looking fruit, and what seemed to be the ingredients for Sukiyaki.

"You don't have room to talk." The statement came out harsh and full of disdain.

Sakura laughed, "I picked up some food last week. These are just things I recently need."

She felt odd being around him, she'd barely seen him since Friday. Sasuke had seen the bruise around her wrist that Sabaku had left when she tried to touch his face on Sunday when he had helped her tutor Naruto. Sakura had shrugged it off, but Sasuke had decided that he need to keep Sakura away from anybody else after that and spent most of the next week monopolizing her time. Sasuke had also been adamant about keeping her away from Sabaku ever since her slip up, it would have been endearing but Sakura found it odd since Sasuke usually wouldn't care. There was also the fact that Sabaku himself seemed to be avoiding her as much as he could with then having several of classes together.

Sabaku grabbed a box of Ninja Stars, obviously done with dealing with her. He gave a slight nod and walked off. Sakura smiled, he is amusing outside of school. Sakura paid for her groceries by the time she made it out of the store it was already two in the morning. Great, I forgot I made plans with Seiichi, Sakura pulled out of the store and headed home. She knew she needed to work on her AP Calculus homework but she really rather do anything else; she hated the section they were working on.

"Sakura." The tone was cuttingly harsh, she jumped in surprise. Glancing up at Sasuke, his face hard and somewhat scary, Sakura wondered what she had done to warrant the Uchiha's wrath. Naruto had left them to go to the bathroom a few minutes ago, apparently giving Sasuke the perfect opportunity to give her a piece of his mind. Sakura leaned back in her seat, her left hand held her drink, Sasuke held her gaze for a moment.

"What is this?" He had grabbed her right arm just above her wrist tightly, forcing her arm up towards her face.

At first Sakura didn't understand, then she could see the disinvite difference in the ugly yellow color of a ring like bruise against her pale skin. Crap, she thought eyeing her wrist wryly; the concealer must have rubbed off earlier. The bruise actually looked much better than it did Friday, when she smeared the concealer over it. Sasuke had noticed her eyes widen and used her arm to pull her closer to him over the small table.

"Sakura," Sasuke looked murderous, "who did this to you?"

Sakura shifted and tugged her arm out of his grasp, "It's nothing Sasuke it's practically healed."

His gaze pierced her, and she knew Sasuke understood her more than anyone else, but Sakura didn't want him to know this. Sasuke had tricked her into thinking he let go of the subject then ambushed her when he dropped Naruto off first. Sakura told him that Sabaku had spaced out when she was getting the bandages and she startled him, it was an accident and nothing more. His reaction scared her.

"Sakura, you keep away from him, you understand?" His fingers dug into her shoulder, Sasuke had leaned across the car his face cast in the shadows and the faint lights from the street. "Sabaku…I don't want you around him, alright?"

Sakura nodded, "Sasuke, Tsunade asked me to keep an eye on him."

Sakura arrived at school fifteen minutes before class; she slumped in her government class nursing a large coffee. Several students had already settled into their seats, although they were unassigned most everybody liked to sit close to their friends forming scattered clumps of students around the room. Sakura learned over her accounting homework, finishing the last bit of work she didn't finish that morning.

"Hey," Sakura glanced up unsurprised to see Sasuke, "you busy today?"

Sasuke leaned against her desk, smirking at her work, amused that she waited until the last minute no doubt. Sakura took a long drink from her coffee, and pulled out her cell phone. She kept pretty much everything on her phone, she never let it out of sight for long and she would be completely screwed if she lost it or broke it.

"Sorry Sasuke I made plans with Seiichi after school." Sakura glanced up at him. Sasuke rarely showed any emotion, and usually only made plans with her and Naruto. He usually was busy with basketball and football practice, being the captain of the basketball team and the quarter back for the football team.

"Hn." He shrugged, "It's last minute anyway. Do you work tonight?"

Seiichi walked in and ruffled her hair before he flopped in his seat next to hers, Sakura scowled at him menacingly. "No, not today, I work tomorrow afternoon."

Sasuke grunted his usual "Hn." at her before finding a place to sit down. Asuma-Sensei walked in a few minutes later, and the class settled down. He grinned at the class, the same grin he gave them after he won a bet against Kakashi last year. Sakura really was beginning to regret staying up so late last night.

"Everybody has exactly a minute to partner up with someone else." He announced cheekily.

Sakura turned her head to Seiichi who shrugged unapologetically at her, a rather pretty girl stood beside him. Sakura smiled and Seiichi winked playfully at her, which made her laugh before scanning the room for a partner she wouldn't have to do all the work for. Something hit her ear, and fell to the floor. Rubbing the top of her ear, Sakura snatched it from the ground. In rather nice slightly loopy script read; partner with me.

Sakura glanced behind her to see Sabaku twirling a red ink pen between his fingers. Sighing, she grabbed her stuff and took the empty seat beside his; at least she wouldn't have to do his half. Facing forward Sakura's eyes met with Sasuke's dark angry eyes, his lips were pulled back baring his teeth slightly, and his hair made his face darken. Sakura bit her lower lip, she had forgotten that Sasuke didn't want her around Sabaku; it wasn't like she was going to listen anyway, although his reactions kept surprising her. She watched him expertly dodge a crazy fan girl and he slid quickly to Hinata's side and smirked at the shocked Hyuuga girl, annoyed the crazy blond fan girl retreated knowing that if she picked on Hinata she'd face Sakura's wrath.

Asuma-Sensei went on to explain their assignment, a two page essay about today's politics and what new ways the government could do use to keep itself in check. He then outlined a few more essays they would do later and told everyone that the partner they picked would be working with them until next semester. Asuma-Sensei also handed out several things they would need for mid-term, because he wanted them to have enough time to study over everything. They finished the debate they had started on Monday, and Asuma-Sensei dismissed them four minutes before the bell rang.

The day flew by to Sakura, she barely remembered what they had talked about in creative writing and Tsunade worked her to death by goofing off and making Sakura do everything. Sakura swore she could open her own school if she wanted to by now with how much she learned from doing Tsunade's work. On the flip side Tsunade often would sit and watch Sakura filing things away and tell her about the medical world, tips for talking to families, what course really were best for the degree, which books to buy over the books that were typically referred and people Tsunade had worked with; which could help Sakura out later. Gym class literally knocked the wind out of Sakura.

One of her teammates passed her the basketball, Sakura caught the ball clumsily against her stomach nearly falling over. Instead she bumped into someone behind her; Sakura looked over her shoulder before glancing slightly up. Sea-foam eyes pierced her, as his hands steadied her, his expression void of anything. Stepping away she passed the ball to him to avoid getting in trouble for traveling. Sabaku caught it with ease and shocked everyone by taking the ball and making a basket from where he stood, which was almost at the half court line. It took Sakura a full minute to realize that people were openly staring and others yelling.

"What the hell Sakura?" A random guy from her team yelled at her. Sakura caught sight of Sasuke's enraged face, and with sinking despair remembered that Sabaku was on Naruto's team and she was on Sasuke's. Naruto's laughter rang through the gym.

"Way to go Gaara!" The blond teen grinned.

Art class was better, Sakura didn't fall sleep and felt that she was at least somewhat in tune with everything around her. The detail work she was doing help make her feel more awake, it wasn't helping that some of her friends were texting her non-stop. When the bell rang everybody jumped up and hurried to put their things away. Sabaku and her were the last ones left in the room. Sakura rolled up her paper, her eyes slid to Sabaku who carefully folded up his easel.

Tsunade had talked with Sakura about him briefly before lunch; he still hadn't reached out to anyone. There had been a few more brawls with the football team, but Tsunade didn't think it was serious. Only Naruto and herself had been the only ones to approach him, and according to Tsunade if anyone went up to him with something unrelated to class Sabaku simply tuned them out and walked off. Sakura honestly wasn't surprised that Naruto was able to get close; Naruto could tame a mountain lion and claim it was easy. Sakura picked up her bag as she turned towards Sabaku, she leaned against the surface of the table.

"That was a pretty impressive shot today."

Sabaku didn't bother looking at her; he placed the easel with the rest before heading over to the sink to wash the paint from his hands. Sakura sighed, glancing out one of the windows. Sakura crossed the room, picking up a towel, standing near the sink. She gave him a wry smile.

"You really don't like talking much, huh?" She tossed the towel at his chest.

Sabaku dropped the towel on the counter and stepped closer to Sakura, trapping her between the two walls and the countertop. She could smell his cologne and cigarettes. His sea foam eyes caught hers; she became distinctly aware of how attractive Sabaku really is. Her heart sped up at the lack of space between them; Sabaku's face no more than a few inches from hers. Sakura couldn't read him at all, not that she had ever been particularly good at reading him, she was aware that anything could happen. They stayed way to close for what could have been hours, his breath fanning across her checks; Sakura found herself wondering if he was going to kiss her which would be odd for him to do, yet she found herself longing for just that. A loud whistle came from the work benches; Sakura who jumped nearly out of her skin recognized it a second later as her message tone. Turning she glanced at her lit up phone from beside her bag, she had excepted Sabaku to be where he had stood trapping her against the wall, but he was half way a crossed the room already. Once the door snapped shut behind him, Sakura sagged against the wall remembering to breath.

"The hell?" She caught her breath and fled the room, suddenly in a hurry to get to Seichii.