A/N: I got this idea from the song Next Contestant by Nickelback. So I hope that you enjoy! R&R!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto…I don't own anything except for the OC characters. It is as simple as that…
Summery: Sakura gets a part time job as a waitress, but when almost every man on the bar starts hitting on her how will Sasuke react?
Mine
Sakura sighed; she hated her part time job. She hated the smell of smoke and how every man that looked at her wasn't looking at her face. Instead they were looking just a little south of there. Once a drunk decided that she wasn't just for looking at and that touching was good. He left the bar with a nice black and blue face.
Her uniform didn't help much either. Considering that it was basically a black miniskirt and halter with a white apron. It just seemed to tell the men that it was ok to grab her ass. But she had to get this job to help pay for her mother's medical bills. Her mother had had a heart attack and since her father died Sakura was the only one able to pay and work, considering that she didn't want to tell anyone about her money trouble.
Now she would show up to missions tired and perform less then what she wanted to. At first it wasn't to bad, but then Naruto and Kakashi were starting to worry about her. Even though she told them that she was fine and that she didn't need help with anything they didn't seem to believe her. But the part that got her to think was that even Sasuke seemed to take a little interest into her life.
"Lady more sake over here!" Sakura sighed for what seemed like the millionth time that night.
"Be right there!" Sakura yelled to the man. She walked over to him and put the new bottle of sake onto the table while removing the old bottle.
"Hey lady how old are you." Sakura looked at the man who asked her. He was about thirty with potholes all over his face. All in all he was really repulsive, and he was the best looking one out of the group of about four men.
"Too young for you." Sakura answered.
"Oh come on lady, it is my birthday." The man protested, obviously drunk. The other men were all what seemed like sniggering like little schoolgirls.
"Well happy birthday." Sakura turned to walk away when she felt something grab her ass.
"But I want you to entertain me." He said innocently.
"You pervert!" she yelled, the empty sake bottle coming and hitting him in the head.
"You bitch!" one of the men yelled at her getting up to fight her.
Sakura just glared at him as the manager came running up saying, "Now, now. I am sorry for my employee she won't do that again. Just for that the next round of drinks are free. Once again I am sorry." He explained as he grabbed Sakura's arm a little to tightly.
This seemed to cool the men down as they nodded and sat back down. The manager nodded and pulled Sakura to the back room. Once he closed the door he sighed and yelled, "Sakura why the hell do you keep harassing the customers?"
"Harassing them they were the ones that touched me first!" Sakura yelled in return.
"But you aren't supposed to hit them with empty sake bottles!" he yelled. Sakura turned away from him looking at something over to the side of the room. "Sakura you know that I don't want to let you go, but if you keep this up I will have to." He got up and walked over to her, "Sakura you know that my offer still stands." He gently placed a hand under her chin moving it to her hair and pushing it out of her face.
Sakura pulled away while she said, "I know, but I just can't."
"You are of legal age, I mean that you are 18."
"Yes, but I just don't want to marry just yet." Sakura answered.
"Look I know that you have had a long day so why don't you just take the rest of the night off. Who knows it might do you some good." Sakura nodded and started to walk out of the room. "Oh and Sakura…" Sakura stopped. "Be careful on your way home. A pretty girl like you never knows what's out there." Sakura nodded and walked out of the room.
&&&&&&&
Sasuke yawned. He and his teammates had been waiting for their sensei for about two hours now. Even though they were all already 18 or 19 they were still with Kakashi, well for a week or so more. Their graduation was in a week or so and then they would be free.
It was now about seven in the morning and Naruto looked like he was about to fall asleep, as was Sakura. Sasuke looked at Sakura, she was normally the morning person, but lately she was the exact opposite. Her hair was a bit messy and she didn't look like she had gotten to sleep till really late or so. All in all Sasuke was worried. If this was the first time or so he wouldn't have cared, but this was how she had been for several weeks now. He had listened around and it turned out that Sakura had been keeping to herself lately and hadn't been getting home till about two am. Or so he heard.
"Where is Kakashi sensei? He was supposed to be here two hours ago!" Naruto complained.
"Shut up Naruto." Sakura answered.
"But Sakura…" Naruto never finished as Sasuke cut him off.
"Naruto no one wants to hear your annoying voice now shut up."
"Hey what the hell do you mean by that?" Naruto was about to start a fight when their ever so late teacher appeared.
"Oh how I am going to miss these sweet moments of yours." He smiled under his mask, his book in hand.
"So why are you so late?" Naruto asked.
"Funny story you see there are many paths in life and today I just so happened to go down the wrong one…."
"Never mind." Naruto said as he hung his head down.
"So why are we here?" Sakura asked her voice all crabby.
"Wide awake aren't we Sakura? Well I just wanted to tell you that your graduation is next week the 30th at 3 o'clock in the afternoon."
"That's it?" Sakura asked, all three of the students sweat dropped as Kakashi nodded a yes.
They all started to walk away when Kakashi said, "Oh and Sakura you look really out of it. You should go home and get some sleep or something."
Sakura looked at Kakashi and nodded. As she walked home Naruto decided to open his big mouth again. "So Sakura," he asked, "Would you like me to walk you home?"
"That's ok Naruto." Sakura answered as she yawned.
"Ok." Naruto seemed a little disappointed but Sakura just shrugged it off. The three of them just continued walking in silence. At one point Naruto nodded his goodbye and walked down a different way.
This left Sasuke and Sakura walking on their own. After awhile Sasuke broke the silence, "So Sakura." He started, "Why have you been so tired lately?"
Sakura smiled sweetly at him and said, "I have been caught up in this book series and I read it every night. I have just been loosing track of time, that's all." 'That was so lame, there is no way that Sasuke would have bought that." Inner Sakura thought.
"Ok." Sasuke dropped the subject. 'What the hell is she hiding from me? Whatever, if she doesn't want to talk to me about it then fine I won't pry.'
They walked in silence for a couple more minutes. Right before Sasuke turned the corner to his house they heard a man yell, "Hey isn't that the bitch from earlier?" Both Sasuke and Sakura turned to look at two men. They had a sake bottle in each of their hands and were leaning on each other, clearly drunk.
"You two are still drunk?" Sakura looked dumbfounded as she stared at the men that tried to hit on her from the night before.
"You know these men?" Sasuke asked Sakura. Sakura just smiled sweetly at him not responding, but Sasuke could see shame all over her face.
The men walked up to her smelling heavily of sake. "You still own me a birthday present!" he said his words all slurred. "And a apology for hitting me with that bottle."
"I don't own you anything." Sakura answered.
"I'll tell your boss!" he said, smirking at his own lame comeback.
"We aren't at the pub." Sakura said smirking. "And now I can kick your ass!"
"Why would you want to do that?" the other man asked.
"You don't remember? You groped me!" Sakura yelled.
"They did what?" Sasuke was a little shocked. He saw the men were sniggering at this and Sasuke felt an anger rise in him that he hadn't felt since the last time he had seen Itachi. "Sakura what exactly were you doing last night?"
Sakura's face was bright red from embarrassment. "You see…. I…" Sakura couldn't find the words to tell him. Then one of the men staggered up to Sasuke and draped an arm over Sasuke's shoulder.
"Don't worry young man. You can come with us and we will show y-" He never finished his sentence as Sakura punched him in the face. The other man looked at her and was about to yell and start a fight as he came towards her. But as he started to pass Sasuke, Sasuke elbowed him in the face. The man fell to the ground with the other, both drunks now incapacitated.
"Sakura tell me, what is going on?" Sakura saw genuine worry in his face.
"I am sorry Sasuke I just can't…" Sakura was so ashamed of her job and herself; she just couldn't bear to tell him.
"Sakura." Sasuke's voice was forceful and pleading it made her legs feel like jelly.
Sakura didn't know why but she let all the anger that she had been holding in out at that one moment, regretting it instantly. "Why should I tell you? You never tell me when things bother you, when you have problems! I can't believe you Sasuke!" Sakura took off running to her house leaving a stunned Sasuke.
"Sakura…." He whispered as he watched her retreating back. "What is wrong?" It was then that Sasuke decided that he would fallow Sakura that night to see what she was up to.
&&&&&&&
It was almost 10 o'clock by the time that Sakura left her house for work. Once again she was in the uniform that she despised, but she had a big jacket over it. Sakura just walked, not realizing the shadow following her.
Sasuke followed the girl all the way to what looked like a pub. He noticed that she stopped right before she went in and sighed as she looked down at her feet. Sasuke could have sworn that he saw a tear fall down her beautiful face. When she lifted her head there were no remnants of the tears and she was taking a deep breath right before she walked in.
Sasuke waited a minute or so then walked in. It was a dirty bar full of cigarette smoke. There were several waitresses all in little black outfits and drunks everywhere. But the thing that made his heart stop was when he found Sakura. She was at a table in the little waitress outfit, serving people who had more interest in her boobs then in anything else.
He had no idea why this pissed him off so much but Sasuke just walked over to the bar. Sitting down he ordered a drink never taking his eyes off of Sakura. "You like her too hmm?" Sasuke turned to see the bar tender looking over at Sakura to. "I wouldn't try anything with her though. From what I have seen she has a mean left hook. But in a place like this I don't blame her. Poor kid, out of every one she has it the worst."
"Why would you say that?" Sasuke asked.
"Just watch and you'll see what I mean." The bar tender then went over to help another customer.
Sasuke slowly sipped his drink watching Sakura. She was now taking care of a group of two men. From the looks of them they weren't to drunk, but well on their way. Sakura nodded and as she turned around to walk away one of the men grabbed her ass.
It took all of Sasuke's self control to stop from getting up and killing the man. Sasuke watched as Sakura sighed and removed his hand. The man said a couple of things to her that made her whole face go red. Sasuke couldn't tell if it was anger or embarrassment though, but when she slapped the man he guessed the first.
Sakura quickly walked away as a man in about his late twenties came up to the table, clearly apologizing for what Sakura did. Sakura finished up with another table as the manager came up to her and grabbed her upper arm as he led her to a back room. Sasuke noticed how when he grabbed her Sakura winced in pain. Everything that he had just seen made him angrier and angrier, and this didn't go unnoticed by the bartender.
"Relax son." He said. "This happens at least twice a week. She gets groped and the manager apologizes for her behavior. The only reason that she isn't fired by now is that the manager plans to either marry her or get in her pants. Either way she hasn't agreed yet. The funny part is that the regular customers have made a game out of who can grope her the most and get away with it. Like I said before she has the worst luck." He went back to whatever he was doing before, and Sasuke heard him whisper "Poor kid don't belong in a place like this"
'So this is why she didn't want to tell me. But why did she even get this job?' Sasuke watched as Sakura walked out of the room and to another table. 'Well she seems to be handling herself ok, but still she shouldn't be here. I mean if she were mine I wouldn't allow her to be within a hundred feet of this place! Wait if she were mine? Oh well I guess that I fell for her long ago…wait what is going on over there?'
Sakura had finished with the table that she was taking care of and walked back to the one with the man that had groped her. The man said something that made Sakura shiver, and Sasuke noticed that his hand was sliding up the front of her skirt. Sakura pushed the man's hand away and stepped back, quickly moving to take care of the next table.
Sakura walked forward to the bar carrying a try of empty bottles and froze when she saw Sasuke. Her eyes were wide and Sasuke thought that he saw fear in them. They just stared at each other for a while until they heard a voice in the background yell, "Hey lady we want more sake now!"
Sakura quickly moved her head to the side as she walked up to the bar. She was right next to Sasuke taking the bottles off of the try and replacing them with full bottles.
"Sakura…" Sasuke started, but Sakura interrupted him.
"Please don't Sasuke. I have to work." Sakura never looked up from her little chore.
"You call this work?" Sasuke was stunned.
"I need the money…just please leave it be." Sakura looked up into his eyes. Sasuke had never seen such pain in them. In that moment he knew everything wasn't ok with her, and that no matter what he said she wouldn't listen. Sakura then walked towards the men, the fakest smile that he had ever seen on her face.
"Sakura…" Sasuke whispered. Sasuke ordered another drink, just to get her eyes out of his mind while never taking his gaze off of her. He turned his head for just one second and regretted it instantly.
"AAAIIIEEE!"