A/N: I couldn't pick either title. They both fit so well. For your reading pleasure, tell me how it is!

Disclaimer: Do you really think I'd be writing fanfiction for free if I owned them?

Noticing/Stupid Pink Hair

He was seven when he first noticed her. She was on his swing. He couldn't believe that some girl, who had pink hair, no less, was infecting his swing with cooties. He death glared at her from his spot on the playground, found it pointless, and marched over to her.

"You. You with the pink hair." Sasuke stated from the side of the swing. "Get off."

The girl slowed down. He could see that she was actually very little, with a red ribbon pulling her hair back from her face. He figured she'd be very easily convinced to go get her own swing with the right words.

"No." was the girl's reply as she started pumping her legs again to pick up speed.

Sasuke's face twitched for a moment, then relaxed. "Pinky," he began, "You will get off my swing now. You and your stupid hair can go swing somewhere else, but this is my swing. Now, move."

Sasuke smirked as the little girl gradually slowed to a stop. When she got off, he moved to get on the swing, but someone stood in his way. It was the little girl with the pink hair. He sighed and asked, "What do you want?"

Surprisingly, the little girl had a very determined look in her green eyes. "You," she said, "are a bully. I have a name and it is not Pinky. It's Sakura. It is not my fault you were late getting here. I got here first. So I got first dibs. Maybe you will get the swing next time. But not today, Bully. Today, this swing is mine." With that said, she got back on the swing.

Sasuke was stunned. All the girls did what he asked them to. Why wouldn't this Sakura person? All of a sudden he felt a jab in his chest. He looked up to see none other than Pinky herself. "And nobody makes fun of my hair!" She got back to her spot, and pushed off.

As Sasuke watched her swing back and forth, he couldn't help but think that this girl, Sakura, was an annoying pest. With a very hard poke. He rubbed the spot on his chest and moved to find Shikamaru. Maybe he would be willing to let him play shougi.

The next time he noticed her was after the Chunin Exams. He couldn't help it. She had protected the dobe and him. She had sacrificed that stupid pink hair of hers to escape. She had even stopped him from using the seal that Orochimaru had given him. She was turning out to be not such a nuisance. He might have even considered her a friend if she hadn't stopped him.

He had been all set to show the dobe that Chidori kicked the Rasengan's ass any day, and she had gone and thrown herself between the two. And it's not like they even could've stopped from killing her if their perverted sensei hadn't been there. But that wasn't even the last time she stopped him.

The last time she stopped him was when she found him, all set to walk out the Konoha gates, late at night. She begged with him, pleaded, confessed her love, offered to help, and threatened to scream, all to keep him in that stupid village where he would never get good enough to defeat Itachi. Which is why he was left with no other option but to knock her unconscious. "Sakura," his parting words were, "Thank you." Yes, he had said thank you. He wasn't sure why he said that though.

He noticed her again when he was fifteen and she was there, in front of him with the dobe, and two guys he didn't know. The one looked like a pansy and had been spouting nonsense while the other looked like a happy, moron of a sensei who had no clue what he was doing. Team Kakashi, they were called. He sneered. This was what her "happy little village" had gotten her. A lame team that could be beaten by a couple of Sound genin. It was sad.

Actually, he felt kind of bad for her. She didn't even know that he could kill them all. That their bonds had already been broken and there was no fixing them. And that this was the future he needed. Not wanted. Who wants to hang around with a perverted sannin who had a creepy tongue for two and a half years? He needed Orochimaru's strength to kill Itachi.

So, killing Naruto hadn't exactly been part of the plan, but he was asking for it. Then pansy boy jumped in to save him. Sasuke had just Chidori-ed them. The thing that surprised him though, was, after that, Sakura ran at him. She was willing to hurt her precious Sasuke-kun? What had happened to the twelve year old fan girl who fell head over heels if he told her to go away. This girl was not the Sakura he knew. But if it wasn't her, who was it? This person definitely had the same stupid hair Sakura did.

It's probably best that Yamato Happy Face jumped in to save her. He might have been able to kill Naruto without a second thought, but could he kill the girl who'd always needed his saving on nothing but a whim? He didn't know.

The time after that, he noticed her as he awoke from unconsciousness. When his eyes were fully opened, he blinked, looked up at Sakura and Naruto hovering over him with hospital white walls in the background, and winced as a hard slap crossed his face. He felt the blood trickle down his cheek and saw Sakura shift. "Sasuke," she stated, "If you so much as try to leave again, I will beat you into the ground so far, even your chicken hair won't stick out, got it?" He replied with a "Hn." Sakura stormed out of the room with her stupid hair swinging as she walked, muttering something about him having a two word vocabulary and Naruto just looked at him pityingly and shook his head. He left to go find Sakura, so Sasuke was all alone with his chakra drainers and his thoughts. Why hadn't Sakura added the "kun" to his name? Did she still like him?"

"Damn," he muttered. This was a suck-y situation. He was in the Konoha hospital room. He had no way of escape with these chakra drainers. And his hormones had decided to care what Sakura thought now?! He sighed. This was not going to be good. He could already tell.

The next time, it was Sakura who noticed Sasuke. What the hell is wrong with him? she thought as she watched him out of the corner of her eye. He was staring at her very intently as she worked on some ninjutsu. Couldn't he just behave like a normal person who happened to be under house arrest? Why couldn't he just let her train and baby-sit him at the same time? And, damn it, why did Naruto trade days with her to watch him? Sakura let out a small, exasperated sigh, and went back to her jutsu. She could feel Sasuke's eyes studying her and finally, she just snapped.

"Why are you watching me, Sasuke?!" Sakura exploded as she whipped around to face him.

Sasuke had no idea what to say. How had she seen him? He had been very discreet. So he just blurted out the first thing that popped into his head. "Sakura," he began, "You have the nicest hair I have ever seen."

Sakura stared at him. She began to panic. Where was Sasuke? How had he managed to escape? Oh shit, she was in trouble. She raced over to the clone that happened to be sitting on Sasuke's bed and slammed a chakra-filled fist into the side of it's face. The "clone's" face bean to bleed heavily. "Ow, Sakura, that hurt."

Sakura screamed. The real Uchiha Sasuke had said something that nice about her! She probably would have gone into some kind of epileptic seizure from the shock of it all, if she hadn't noticed that Sasuke was still bleeding. She started pumping green chakra into her palms to heal the damaged parts of his face. "Sasuke," she started slowly as she healed, "Why did you say that about my hair?"

Sasuke sat still, thought a moment, was about to say something completely untrue, then noticed the warm feel of her hands on his face, and simply answered, "I was just noticing some things."

A/N: Read and review, everyone! Reviews make me happy. I write when I'm happy! (And every other emotion as well, but that's irrelevent to what I'm talking about) Just tell me what you thought!

-SakuraDouble