Us again! And actually, we're not in Asia anymore, we only thought this up in Asia. Not that that matters to you guys, but whatever. So obviously, we are continuing this. This chapter introduces Sasuke's girlfriend. And as for who writes who, can't you guys guess? ;)

And again, this chapter's for our Drizzle, who makes the world go round. We rock! We rock on!

Rum and Coke

RameniFIED: u r evil and i love u for it

Bombshellxblondie: everyone loves me for it, fool.

Bombshellxblondie: god, sakura's stupid drunk AND sober

RameniFIED: i know. i'm so proud of her.

RameniFIED: sasuke's been asking about her

Bombshellxblondie: seriously? like...what has he been saying?

RameniFIED: mostly wondering if she's on anything

Bombshellxblondie: well did you tell him the truth?

Bombshellxblondie: that she's completely sober (um, usually) and she's just insane, that is.

RameniFIED: i prefer to keep him guessing. i told him she doesnt like to talk about it

RameniFIED: to be fair, she makes it so easy

Bombshellxblondie: lmao, i love you. just for that let's be bff foreverrr.

Bombshellxblondie: at least she stayed sober last night tho. i'm proud of her for that.

RameniFIED: not that it helped her...

Bombshellxblondie: god, true that.

I'm Sasuke, and I think you're the girl that kissed my girlfriend."

Sakura grumbled a bit and rolled her eyes. "To be fair, I was aiming for you," she said, exasperated, flinging her arms up into the air as if to say "Jesus, I fucking give up."

She froze mid-fling, slender arms hovering next to her. Oh...shit.

Sasuke was giving her an odd look, as expected. But at least he wasn't calling the police or something, which was very poor consolation.

"Um. I mean..."

Finally, finally, Ino decided to come to her rescue. She popped up behind Sakura, looped an arm around her shoulders and said brightly, "It's not her fault. She was drunk out of her mind."

"Thank y--wait, what?" Sakura dragged herself out of Ino's strangle-hold, smacking her on one bare shoulder. "You stupid pig," she said in a whisper that everyone could hear loud and clear. "That doesn't help!"

Ino blinked her innocent baby-blues. "But... it's the truth."

Naruto grinned brightly next to Ino. There was a smear of chocolate on his front tooth from the half-eaten Hershey bar in his hand. "Ino's right, Sakura-chan," he said, shrugging, "You were fucking wasted that night."

Sakura paused briefly for a moment to contemplate why she kept two idiots around as her best friends. "You guys -- I don't -- the beer wasn't even-- oh, just shut up," she sighed miserably.

Sasuke cast all three of them strange looks as he struggled to find something to say. "Um...at least my girlfriend was wasted too?" he offered.

Sakura's cheeks burned, and she had to work to fight a smile. Sure, it sucked that such a hottie was taken - though it was hardly a surprise - but that had to be the sweetest thing she'd ever heard. He was trying to defend her complete stupidity!

Too cute.

"I'm, um, sorry?" she said lamely. What did you even say in a situation like this? "And, uh, we'll be going now, I--bye?" She backed away blindly, not taking her eyes off him, or paying attention to where she was going. As a result, she bumped into something hard, tall, and with a face.

"Not yet, Sakura. We've got fireworks to watch!" Naruto was grinning down at her in a way not unlike Ino, when she had first suggested the plan. Sakura swallowed, hard. Naruto's blue eyes gleamed. "And I'm sure you guys will want to talk," he added, jerking his chin in Sasuke's direction. "You do, after all, have a lot in common."

Sakura's face drained of all the color that had flushed it just moments before. "Um, that's not a good idea. I have work to do and, uh, I'm failing calc. 4 and um, I just...gotta go?" she stuttered out slowly.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "It's summer vacation, Sakura," he reminded her, grabbing her wrist and practically flinging her towards Sasuke. Sakura landed facefirst in Sasuke's broad chest.

Ooh, muscles, she thought briefly as she brought her forearms up to cushion her fall against him. "Augh, sorry," she apologized to Sasuke, stepping away from him quickly.

"Whatever. So uh, yeah. Um, so you know Sai?" Sasuke asked her, attempting to start a conversation before the weird girl with the weird pink hair started randomly kissing people again.

Yes I know Sai, Sakura wanted to say. The liquor at his parties is so strong he could get an elephant drunk, she thought. It was Sai's fault, she decided, that she had kissed Sasuke's girlfriend.

"He's an ex-boyfriend, but we're still okay friends," Sakura explained. "He was nice, good boyfriend, fabulous kisser, but then he like, cheated on me and stuff one night when he got super drunk so I had to break up with him," she babbled on, beginning to become nervous. "So yeah, it's over now...but you probably didn't need to know that...?"

Sasuke blinked.

Sakura had to steer this conversation out of the awkward circle. "Your girlfriend was a good kisser too though!" she said brightly, smiling brilliantly.

She stopped half a second later. Oh. Shit. Just...shit.

But Sasuke only gave her that weird half-smirk, half-smile thing again and said, "I'll be sure to let her know." Then he turned to head back into the room at the end of the hall, shutting the door softly behind him.

Ino turned to look at her, and brought her hands together to applaud her. "Never heard that line before," she said sarcastically.

Sakura sank onto the couch and shot her so-called best friend a very sour look. "Oh, bite me."

RameniFIED:

RameniFIED: i have to stop getting trashed every night

Bombshellxblondie: but it's so FUN

RameniFIED: not the waking-up part

Bombshellxblondie: tomorrow night we need to stay slightly sober-er so we can watch sakura again though, lmao

Bombshellxblondie: just take a tylenol and throw up, you'll feel better then

RameniFIED: watch over, or just watch?

RameniFIED: and i did. right on the floor. my dad's gonna kill me

Bombshellxblondie: oh, definitely just watch. i wonder who she's going to make a move on next time.

Bombshellxblondie: and use some stain remover on that shit pronto.

RameniFIED: maybe next time, it'll be you. i'll say a little prayer tonight

Bombshellxblondie: or YOU, buttface. i just never thought she'd pull a move on HIM next.

It was a relief to get out of the apartment. Ino and Naruto wouldn't let her leave (Ino even, at one point, sat on her), and if she was honest, she didn't want to. Because Sasuke thought she was a psychopath, but he was still pretty to look at. And besides, she couldn't miss the fireworks--

"Guys!"

Two figures turned to her in the growing darkness as she scurried down to the beach. Her feet slipped in the sand, but she made it down the slope, and Kiba caught her by the arm. "Still tipsy?" he asked.

"Screw off." Was anyone ever going to let her forget the night before?

Kiba gave her a wolfish smile before lifting her up by her arms and placing her back on her feet again. "Hey, you're the one who got drunk."

"You got drunk too," Sakura shot back. "Besides, how was I supposed to know coke and rum did that much to you?" She steadied herself in the sand and proceeded to walk towards the middle of the field where Shino was waiting silently with a large box of fireworks.

Kiba made a face. "Dude, Sakura, when you have 26 and a half glasses of anything it'll make you drunk."

Sakura blanched, tripping in the sand again.

"You're so klutzy," Kiba said to her, laughing. "Here." He stopped and let Sakura climb onto his back as he piggy-backed her down the rest of the grassy hill. She sighed, ignoring the suggestive looks Ino was giving her.

"If you touch me inappropriately, I'll break your face," Sakura warned him.

Kiba laughed, adjusted his hands so one just barely grazed the back of her thigh for a split-second so she couldn't do anything about it, and said, "You can't pull that on me anymore, Sakura." They reached the edge of the water where Shino was waiting, and Kiba dropped her unceremoniously to the ground.

"Asshole."

"That's what they call me."

The others were nearing, and Shino held out a hand for her. She grabbed it, hoisted herself off, and brushed the sand off her skirt. "Thanks."

Shino nodded, and Sakura wasn't expecting much else - Shino was a man of few words, after all - when--

"Are you feeling any better after last night?" he asked formally, but Sakura somehow knew he was laughing at her.

She threw up her hands as Kiba started laughing, and stomped away. The entire world, it seemed, was against her.

"Can we please just start the fireworks already?" Sakura asked, sulking a bit.

Naruto shook his head, "No, we have to wait for other people to come still." He sat down in the sand and laid back, stretching out like a cat.

"Who?" Sakura asked curiously. Their entire group from school was already here, and other people were wandering the beach.

Naruto sighed as he made sand angels. "Just Sasuke's girlfriend."

Sakura dropped down into the sand. And for the umpteenth time that night, "Oh...shit."

Ino took a seat beside her, crouching so the sand wouldn't actually get on her skirt, and patted her hand comfortingly. "Which one are you sad for? Sasuke? Or his girlfriend?"

It was bad enough that all her friends were making fun of her, but worse still when Sasuke glanced over from where he was popping open a cooler. He raised an eyebrow at her when their eyes met, and she felt her face flush for the nth time that day.

She couldn't answer Ino's question without digging herself a deeper hole, so she remained silent and pouting. Eventually, Ino moved on, people stopped disturbing her unless it was to tell her to get out of the way, and just as Kiba was preparing the fireworks - "Is it safe?" she had asked him nervously. He responded immediately with a, "I'll protect you, Beautiful." - there was the pounding of heels on sand behind her, a shadow over her, and Sasuke glancing over.

"Sasuke!" sang a redhead, all but leaping into his arms. She turned her face up to him, but Sasuke was looking at her. He looked amused.

Sakura realized who the girl must have been with a jolt, just as Sasuke pulled her closer to where Sakura was sitting and said, "Sakura, this is my girlfriend, Karin. You've met, of course."

Karin was a pretty redhead, Sakura had to admit, but her haircut was awful. It was cut in some half smooth/half layered style, and she wore glasses that made her look like a secretary.

"Um, hi Karin, I'm Sakura," Sakura said in the most friendly voice she could manage. This situation was terribly awkward at best, and she honestly felt like sinking into a sand dune and never coming back out.

Karin surveyed her with dark brown eyes, a look that was a twist between disgust and amusement forming on her face. "Oh, hi. You're that girl from the party," she said stiffly.

Sakura rocked back and forth on her heels a bit. "Um, yeeeeah," she replied, glancing around nervously for help. Out of all the times Naruto and Ino chose to vanish...

"Sorry to disappoint you," Karin continued, her voice oozing with confidence, "but I'm not into girls, so you can just go and find yourself another girl to cozy up with, 'kay?" she told Sakura matter-of-factly, perching a hand on her hip.

All of Sakura's shyness disappeared in half a second. "Excuse me?" she asked, her eyes turning steely. "If I recall correctly, you kissed ba--!"

"She was aiming for me, Karin, if that's any consolation," Sasuke interrupted, shifting his body so he was standing between Karin and Sakura.

Karin flushed scarlet but, unlike Sakura, it was from anger. "Sasu--no, that isn't any consolation!" she sputtered. She narrowed her eyes behind her glasses at her boyfriend, but he ignored it. Sakura, sensing the tension - and another potential awkward moment - stood, dusted herself off, and backed away.

"Um, nice meeting you." A blatant lie, but she wasn't going to tick the girl off any more. She might throw her into the ocean.

What did I see in her? she wondered. Then, she paused. Blinked. Blinked again. "I did not just think that," she muttered angrily to herself, whirling on her heel and heading for Shikamaru, standing by the cooler.

"Fireworks are starting soon," he said, looking her over lazily. "You might want to step back."

Finally, she thought, relieved, Someone who didn't mention last night."I'm good," she said happily. "Hey, Shikamaru, wanna be my new best friend?"

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at her, said, "You're too loud for me," and wandered away.

Ouch, she thought, sticking her tongue out at his retreating form.

Lucky for her ego, Kiba chose that time to wander by. "C'mon," he said, waving her over. "They're starting."

Gleefully, Sakura padded over to him in bare feet, having kicked off her flip-flops long ago. She stood beside Ino, tipped her face to the sky, and watched the starbursts of color. Green and blue and pink and purple and red.

"I love explosions," Naruto sighed from Ino's other side.

"You would," she snorted.

Kiba came up beside her, tugged on her hand, and pointed, "This one's for you," he said, as pink and white burst overhead. Sakura flowers.

Sakura grinned. "Romantic. What's the occasion?"

"The Katy Perry Incident, of course."

In response, Sakura jabbed her elbow into his gut, but his remark made her look over and scan the little groups on the beach for Sasuke and Karin.

He stood with his arms crossed, she was twirling a lock of hair around her finger, both stared straight ahead, at the sky, from their position a few feet back from the rest of the crowd.

And they didn't look happy.

Sakura gulped, turning to look back at the fireworks before someone caught her staring. Sasuke and Karin weren't her problem, no matter what she might've done when drunk (and said while sober).

Instead, she stood in the slightly chilly summer evening, dug her toes into the sand, and watched silently with her friends as lights shattered the sky, and resolved to stop sticking her nose where it didn't belong.

At least, until later, when the show was over, and Kiba was snapping open the coolers. "Alright, who wants a drink?" He looked over at her, smirking slyly. "Sakura?"

"I—"

"I don't think that's such a good idea," said a deep voice from behind her, and she turned, and there was Sasuke, looking maddeningly smug. "Don't you learn from your mistakes?"

"Mind your own business," she snapped, flushing once again. This was getting ridiculous.

"It is, actually," he pointed out. "This time, Karin's not here. You might get me next."

Alright, the resolution was broken. This guy was infuriating.

This was going to be a long night.