Chapter Seven- Recollecting

I stared transfixed into Sasuke's dark eyes. I had no idea which emotion was stronger, my one of humiliation, or my one of fear for the outcome of our conversation.

Sasuke sat down in front of me as he held my gaze. "So, do you plan on talking, or do we need to play charades?"

The ball of nerves twisted tightly in my stomach began to loosen at his attempt at casual conversation. I smiled ruefully. "I…guess I don't know where to begin."

"Well, you yelled at Karin in front of everyone, that's one thing." Sasuke stated. "You said some pretty deep things…at least that's how I see it. Care to elaborate what you meant?"

I gave Sasuke a perplexed expression and he chuckled.

"Would you mind telling me where this all started?" He restated.

I began to fumble with my fingers just like Hinata when she's nervous. My cheeks began to change color and a little lump formed in my throat. "I-I…um…I guess it started…back around the time we became friends."

"Okay, so let's backtrack it to when we were eleven, then." Sasuke nodded in response. "I remember Ino fangirling after me, so what, you just followed her motion and never let it go?"

"Oh, hell no. I am not a stupid fangirl!" I burst out.

"You're right, because if you were, we wouldn't have become friends."

"It was Naruto who brought us all together."

"Even so, Ino was enough for me to have to take in. If you had been right along with her as an open fangirl, I would have just walked away. Of course…I always knew there was something different about you, and that's why I like having you as a friend."

I looked down at the ground. "Having me as a friend, huh? You really blew it, Sakura."

"Though I always seemed to know, no matter how many times I tried to reject it, that there was something more between the two of us." Sasuke suddenly announced.

I pulled my gaze from the ground to look at him. He continually watched me as I mentally fit together what he said.

"You mean like…how of the girls in the group I'm the closest one to you, like your best friend?"

"Well, I was thinking along some other lines. If the three of you girls had your own ratings in my list, and one of you had to be my best friend, it'd be Hinata."

My mind became completely confused by his statement. "What does that mean? Where'd I go?"

"Well, if Hinata is considered my best friend, and Ino's just a friend, I guess that means I'd have to consider you…more than a friend or best friend."

"More than…" I repeated the words to myself.

"Come on, don't turn into the Dobe. I know he has some kind of disorder about realizing when someone has strong feelings for him, but I'm trying to make it obvious."

I blushed a color close to cherry and buried my face in my knees. Sasuke looked alarmed for a moment until I suddenly began laughing.

"What's so funny?" Sasuke questioned.

My laughter reduced to choked giggles as I raised my head up. "Oh, I don't know. I guess I'm just…relieved…surprised…or something."

"So you don't need me to draw it out for you anymore?" Sasuke asked.

"Consider the picture complete." I replied with a smile which caused him to smirk at me.

"So, do you want to head back to the dance?" Sasuke asked. "I think things may have cooled down."

I held my hand out for Sasuke to take. He grabbed it and pulled me up to my feet. He didn't let go of it as we walked back up the field and into the inside portion of the dance.

When we entered, we were immediately greeted by Ino. She noticed our intertwined hands and grinned broadly.

"Well, did someone just score themselves a boyfriend?" Ino asked deviously.

I looked away and blushed. Sasuke replied with a "Hn," and led me off into the fray of people. We came into the crowd of people who were currently dancing to a slow song. Sasuke moved his hand from mine and put it around my waist. I responded by wrapping mine around his neck and we began to dance.

"Sasuke, there you are!" An annoyingly familiar voice shrieked and ran into Sasuke's back. Karin popped her head over his shoulder and made eye contact with me. Her eyes widened for a moment and she took a step away.

"So what's this? The 'pity dance' for forehead's embarrassing outburst?" Karin laughed mockingly.

I saw Sasuke open his mouth to reply, but I beat him to it. "No, it's a certain kind of dance you'll never get."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Karin questioned as she narrowed her eyes.

"Wait, Karin," I suddenly announced, "truth or dare?"

Karin raised an eyebrow. "Dare."

"I dare you to fuck off and let me dance with my boyfriend." I told her haughtily.

Karin's mouth fell open in a ridiculous looking gawk. She quickly dashed off in a random direction. I smiled devilishly as I knew she wasn't going to be a problem anymore.

"You know she's not part of the game." Sasuke remarked.

"I know. That was just a spur-of-the-moment thought." I replied.

"I think the most I did for that game was have Naruto pester me and Ino ask me her question."

"Oh, yeah, you never answered after I used that one to shut her up." I giggled.

"Actually…I did answer her…in class when she wouldn't stop bugging me about it."

I looked at Sasuke, shocked. "What did you say?"

"It was a truth question, so I told her the truth. Oh, so wait, I did use one. I dared her to shut her mouth about it so I could tell you."

I smiled coyly and blushed. "When had you planned to tell me, then?"

"Today. Of course, I think you took care of leading into it. You also helped me confirm that I wasn't going to get rejected."

"Gee, so does this mean for every time I embarrass myself in front of people I'll get a boyfriend?"

"What, you don't want to stay together?"

"Fine, let me restate that, every time I embarrass myself in public I'll have you to be there for me?"

"Of course. Whether I'm your man or not, I'll always be there to help you."

"That's sweet to hear…. Oh, wait. Hey, Sasuke."

"What?"

"Truth or dare?" I asked.

"Hmmm, dare."

I smiled playfully. "I dare you to kiss me."

Sasuke smirked at my demand and his eyes glowed with a streak of happiness. "As you command." He chuckled as he leaned down eagerly to comply.

'"'"'"'"

"See. Am I a genius, or what?" Ino boasted merrily the following Monday.

"I have to admit, Ino, while the thought itself may have pissed me off, I quite like the results." I laughed as I walked down the hall holding Sasuke's hand.

"Even Naruto and Hinata turned out great!" Ino exclaimed.

"Where are they, anyway?" I asked.

"I called the Dobe a while ago. He has a new answering machine." Sasuke clarified while he took out his phone and called Naruto's number on speaker.

Beep!

"Hey, this is Naruto Uzumaki! I can't answer my phone right now for…reasons of my own…"

Thud!

"H-Hinata, are you alright? Gotta go wake up my girl, call me later!"

Beep!

Ino and I stared at each other with our mouths open, but both of us had goofy grins on our faces.

"Hinata and Naruto!" Ino squealed.

"You called?"

We looked up and saw Naruto and Hinata coming our way. Naruto had his arm around Hinata.

"Well, well, don't we have an interesting story to hear!" I cheered.

"Wait, first things first," Ino interrupted, "we need to tally the truth or dare results!" Ino announced.

"Oh, yeah, let's see if anyone busted." I agreed.

"Okay, raise your hand if you got a truth or dare from Sakura." Ino instructed.

Ino and Sasuke raised their hand.

"What did Sakura ask you, Teme?" Naruto grinned.

"Hn, tell you later." Sasuke replied as he and I glanced secretively at each other for a moment.

"So, Sakura's safe. Raise your hand if…okay…I'm pretty sure Hinata never used one—" Hinata nodded her head in confirmation. "—so, Naruto, who got dared by Naruto?"

Sasuke raised his arm.

"Oh, yeah, Teme, did you do it?" Naruto asked.

"Well…technically." Sasuke answered.

We all looked at the two, perplexed.

"What do you mean 'technically'?" Naruto questioned.

"What was the dare in the first place?" I asked.

"The Dobe had dared me to kiss you after I told you how I felt. Of course, during the dance after I did tell you how I felt, you dared me to kiss you. So, technically, it's unfulfilled." Sasuke explained.

"Wow, that's interesting." Ino commented.

"Ha, so Teme still has to kiss Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Oh, there'll be plenty of time for that…and more." I clarified.

Sasuke gripped my hand tighter for a moment and I giggled.

"So, Naruto's safe. Who was dared by Sasuke?" Ino continued.

Ino was the only one who raised her hand.

"Who got asked by Ino?" I questioned.

I, Sasuke, and Naruto raised our hands.

"Awe, so close," Naruto pouted.

"I-Ino asked me, too." Hinata announced.

We looked at Hinata for a moment, and then looked to Ino, who was freaking out with her guilt at the moment.

"Someone broke their own rules." I grinned.

"What'll her punishment be?" Naruto laughed.

"Well, seeing as Ino did help bring us all together, the least we could do is just make her our slave for the week!" I proclaimed. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

"Being a slave for the week. How hard could that be?" Ino huffed.

"Ah, dear Ino, all I can say is…there will be hell." I answered gleefully. "There will be lots of hell."

THE END

Done with the finale! …Holy crap there's no light in my room. I just worked for a couple of hours on this, and now my laptop is kindly providing me light. Anyway, now that this is done, I can start focusing on new stuff! (Maybe get around to finishing old ones.) I'd like to give a couple thanks to reviewers like FilipinaChick29 and Onyona for all the well appreciated reviews! It's always a joy to receive some of the longer reviews. Ummm…next story, as I plan it, will probably be a humor. Of course, a couple days ago I was getting some good oneshot sounding ideas…but I didn't write them down and I forgot them! TT_TT This is what I get…. I even had a little idea for…wow I just remembered one of my ideas! Of course, seeing as it's a little off from who I usually use, I may put it up for poll first. I think the idea is quite interesting. So, just wait for the poll I guess! Later my fellow fanfiction-ers!