Okay, this is the final chapter of Slice of Life! I think I'm fairly satisfied with the outcome of this story. I hope everyone else has liked it just as much! I had a lot of fun writing it, even though I should be studying. So, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 7 - Final Choice

Sasuke smirked as he caught a glimpse of Naruto's signal from across the rooftop – unfortunately the signal happened to be Naruto performing some kind of dance that really only made him look like a monkey jumping around, but Sasuke smirked nevertheless. It was time to put the plan into action. Naruto's voice came over the communication device around Sasuke's neck.

"Are you ready to move out, Emo Chicken?" Naruto asked, sounding so completely serious that Sasuke did not catch the odd codename right away.

"Ah," Sasuke said, but then his eyes opened in frustration and annoyance upon registering the codename in his mind. "Emo Chicken? What the hell, dobe?"

Naruto laughed. "Heh-heh. It's your codename, Sasuke."

"What?"

Sasuke was sure Naruto was rolling his eyes off in the distance, even though he was the one acting like a complete idiot.

"CODENAME, Teme. It's what we have to call each other during secret missions. My name is Orange Fox. Me and Ino came up with the idea when we were trying to set you and Sakura-chan up by making Sakura-chan like that Daichi guy and thus making you jealous…." Naruto quickly shut his mouth, but Sasuke had caught his mistake.

"So let me get this straight," Sasuke hissed into the communicator, "you and that blonde-haired shopaholic are the cause of all this mess?"

Naruto's sheepish laugh was heard through the communicator. "Heh-heh. That may or may not be an indirect but not definite possibility…."

Sasuke took a deep calming breath. "Okay, dobe, for now, I'm going to let you off the hook. And that's only because I'm looking forward to kicking the ass of another blond-haired man at the moment." Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, until Sasuke continued. "But after this ordeal is all over, you and Ino are dead."

Naruto gulped. "Heh-heh. No need to get angry, Sasuke. After all, you really should be thanking us. It was all so that you could be with Sakura-chan!"

"And you see how well that worked out," Sasuke retorted sarcastically. Naruto, however, only seemed confused.

"What do you mean? I don't get it. We're still outside. It hasn't worked out yet…."

Sasuke rubbed his temples out of impatience. "That's the POINT, dead last. Nevermind…" Sasuke then turned his attention to a window in the rooftop. "Naruto, let's go."

Naruto grinned as he and Sasuke each broke through their respective windows leading down to the upper halls above the ball room.

* * *

Sakura was trying to figure out a way to escape Daichi's gaze when said man spoke up, and told Sakura something she never expected to hear.

"Sakura," Daichi said, clearing his throat dramatically. "I have something that I've been meaning to tell you."

"What would that be, Daichi-kun?" Sakura asked, once again using the honorific. She almost couldn't help it. It was hard to be cold to a man with such shiny hair and warm eyes.

"Sakura-chan….I love you," Daichi said softly, pushing a strand of hair behind Sakura's ear. Time sort of stopped for Sakura. She looked up in astonishment and shock at Daichi, who was much taller than her, though not quite as tall as Sasuke. His eyes seemed sincere, and inviting, almost as if he was praying that Sakura would trust him.

Sakura had to admit. It almost seemed as if all her dreams had come true. Whenever she was a young girl, she had dreamt of marrying a brave prince who would come and rescue her from danger with loving words and romantic promises. And of course, that dream had manifested into the dream of being with Sasuke. How long had she waited to hear those three words? How long had she been waiting to find someone to love that would love her back?

It all seemed to happen in a blur. Sakura didn't hear the music playing in the background, or the laughter of other couples and friends surrounding them. She couldn't feel the beating of her own heart. She barely even registered the fact that Daichi's face was slowly descending closer and closer to her own.

What she did hear was the sound of glass breaking from a hall above, followed by the familiar battle cries of her favorite knuckle-head ninja, and the familiar sound of chirping birds.

* * *

Seconds after breaking through the rooftop windows, Sasuke was met with several of Daichi's hunchmen – a variety of low through mid-class ninja. He was sure that on the opposite hallway, Naruto was facing the same situation.

Quickly dodging and evading oncoming shuriken, Sasuke hastily knocked out the shinobi enforcements, and then proceeded to run down the hallway. The hallways of the upper level formed an odd U shape, and at the curve of the U to the south was a balcony leading out over the grand ballroom. To get there, Sasuke needed to find an open door. Not wanting to waste time with doors, however, Sasuke simply settled on deciding to chidori his own entrance to the balcony.

After the debris had settled for a moment, Sasuke ran with speed over to balcony. He arrived at the overlooking railing nearly at the same time as Naruto, whose eyes were determined and bright. Sasuke's dark eyes scanned over the crowd until he found the owner of the bright pink hair that had recently caused so many problems in his life. His eyes narrowed, however, when he found the pink-haired girl in Daichi's arms.

"Get your hands off of her, Daichi," Sasuke seethed, an aura of menacing chakra seeming to flow around him. He was sure that even in his formal attire, he and Naruto must have seemed quite intimidating. The more experienced ninja in the room were wary of the sudden outburst, and the less experienced seemed downright nervous. But it was to be expected. Two of the strongest ninja were standing above them, looking like they were ready to kill.

Daichi, however, did not seem phased, which, of course, made Sasuke inwardly scoff. The musicians stopped playing and everyone turned their attention to Sauske and Naruto.

"Tsk, tsk, Uchiha. You and Uzumaki should know that breaking and entering is a crime," Daichi answered in a mocking tone. "Perhaps I should notify the hokage of the matter…"

"You bastard," Naruto snarled in anger. "Don't you dare give us any of that crap. You were the one who kicked us out wrongfully, anyway!"

"Hn," Sasuke responded coldly, following Naruto's lead and refusing to back down. "Don't make me say this again. Get. Your. Hands. Off. Of. Sakura."

Sakura's upturned face looked curiously into Sasuke's eyes. "Sasuke, what's going on?"

"Sakura," Sasuke answered. "Get away from him. He doesn't care about you."

"Don't listen to him, Sakura-chan," Daichi covered, trying to lead Sakura away by the hand. "The Uchiha is just jealous of our relationship."

"Nani?" Sakura asked, getting more and more confused by the minute. Her eyes moved from Naruto, to Sasuke, to Daichi, and back to Sasuke again.

"Bastard. Get away from Sakura," Sasuke nearly growled, suddenly appearing a few feet away from Sakura and Daichi.

"Tsk, tsk. Such a bad ninja you are, Uchiha Sasuke," Daichi drawled, obviously trying to make Sasuke angry. "Defecting from Konoha as a young boy, and thinking you can come back and it all be fine. And now you think its okay to crash my celebration."

"Tch," Sasuke simply responded.

Sakura looked with confusion toward Daichi. "Daichi, what are you saying?"

Sasuke addressed Sakura before Daichi could respond, all the while never taking his eyes off of the other male. "Sakura, don't listen to him."

Daichi chuckled. "Oh, don't tell me little Sasuke is jealous," Daichi teased. "You're jealous, aren't you?"

"Shut up," Sasuke growled, his sharingan threatening to emerge.

This only riled Daichi even more. "Oh, but you are. You care about Sakura, don't you, more than you let people believe?"

Sasuke looked shocked for a moment, and did not know what to do. He hated the fact that Daichi had figured it out so easily. Sakura carefully and slowly turned toward Sasuke.

"Sasuke, is this true?" Sakura asked. In response, Sasuke showed the first sign of weakness he had shown in years. He hung his head, ashamed to admit his own feelings. It, of course, didn't help that their were hundreds of other people in the room listening to the conversation eagerly.

Daichi laughed. "It is true, Sakura. Poor, pathetic Sasuke cares about you. But ha, where will that get you? I have everything you could ever want Sakura," Daichi said, taking hold of Sakura's upper arms and turning her to face him.

"I could give you the life you've always dreamed of. What has Sasuke given you? He left you on a bench when you were merely kids. He hated the village. He tried to kill your best friend – his best friend. He became a rogue ninja."

"I can give you power, Sakura. I can give you money. You'll never have to work aother day in your life. You'll never have to worry about another thing. I told you I loved you, Sakura. And I meant it."

"Now, Sakura," Daichi continued, "Choose who it is that you care most about."

***

Maybe it was all too much for Sakura to take in. Sasuke watched as Sakura took in the scene in pure horror. She looked so unsure, so fragile. Sasuke knew that there was no way he could win. He had done nothing but cause Sakura pain all of her life. He had never treated Sakura the way she should have been treated. He would call her annoying. He would turn her down. He would ignore her, and call her weak. For years, she had believed that she was not worth his time.

But it hurt so much worse to watch Sakura slowly take a step towards Daichi, and then another, and another. Sasuke felt his heart shatter into fragments as she walked away from him. Sakura had chosen Daichi over him.

***

Or so he thought. A second later, Sakura pulled back her fist, and a sickening crunch was heard as her face connected with Daichi's once-perfect jaw, and he flew backwards. She hadn't even used chakra, yet Daichi was sliding clear across the room.

"That is for saying all those bad things about Sasuke-kun," Sakura said proudly. "You don't know who Sasuke is the way Naruto and I do. There are times that even I'm unsure of what he's feeling or thinking, but one thing I know for sure is that he is hundreds more the man than you'll ever be."

Daichi gaped in shock as Sakura blatantly turned him down and then turned stubbornly to stand in between Naruto and Sasuke. Clearly satisfied by Daichi's disfigured jaw, she wrapped an arm through each of her teammates outstretched arms, and together they walked out of the ball – walls crumbling in the wake of Sasuke's chidori, numerous henchmen struggling to stand after Naruto's shadow clones disappeared, and an unworthy playboy sitting unhappily on the floor.

The three smirked as they exited the ball, and others of their friends followed suit, taking to partying and dancing in the streets of Konoha. The musicians originally hired for Daichi's ball came out of the now deserted building and began to fill the streets with music. Naruto, with a grin, unhooked his arm from Sakura's left arm and scooped up a blushing Hinata before asking her to dance.

Sakura giggled as she watched her friends enjoying the night air. Sasuke's arm was still linked with hers, and he smirked down at her.

"I can't believe you punched that guy in the jaw," he said, failing to contain his amusement.

Sakura grinned. "Hell yeah! And admit it Sasuke-kun, you were SO worried that I was going to go with Daichi!" Sakura nudged Sasuke playfully, and he scoffed while looking away.

"Tch."

"Oh, stop being such a baby, Sasuke," Sakura assured. "Did you honestly believe I wouldn't choose you?"

"Hn…."

"Sasuke Uchiha. Did you really think that?"

Sasuke couldn't help but smirk at noticing that she still hadn't let go of his arm. "Well, you did seem rather friendly with him…"

Sakura glared and turned away, only to feel Sasuke's hand on her cheek. He carefully turned her face towards him.

"But too bad for him, Sa-ku-ra," Sasuke said teasingly, "because you're MINE."

Sasuke smirked at Sakura's blush, and then he bent down carefully to capture her lips in a kiss. It had been something they had both been waiting for, and somehow, even the stoic Uchiha knew that his heart now belonged to the pink-haired girl fully and unconditionally.

They broke apart after several moments, and Sakura smiled as she hugged Sasuke tightly. He smirked in return.

Unfortunately it didn't last long, because before they knew it Konoha's number one knucklehead ninja was bouncing up and down in front of them.

"Way to go, Teme!" Naruto screamed, attracting all kinds of unwanted attention. "You finally kissed her! Now me and Kakashi-sensei won't have to suffer through the obvious sexual tension between you two on missions and on training days. But you know, now that you two are a couple, please keep the PDA to a minimum. Because as much as Kakashi-sensei would love to watch your heated make-out sessions, trust me, he's been wanting to for years, I just have to tell you that I really don't want to see my two best friends sucking face all day like there wasn't going to be another opportunity…"

"Naruto…" Sakura seethed, obviously prepared to punch Naruto across the jaw as well. Sasuske glared, and Naruto effectively shut up.

"What I MEANT was….um….look, Sakura-chan, don't eat me! I swear I've been good! I'm a good person! All me and Ino wanted to do was to set you and Sasuke up by making him jealous of Daichi!" Naruto tried to cover his own mouth after realizing what he had just said in his outburst, but the damage was already done.

Sasuke smirked. "Oi. That reminds me. This was all Naruto's fault, Sakura. And Ino's."

Naruto and Ino, who had come over to congratulate her best friend, gaped as Sasuke effectively sold them out. Sakura looked like she was an angry volcano about to blow.

"Ino-pig, Naruto-baka…" Sakura seethed, remembering what Shizune taught her about counting back from ten when she was mad. "You two are SO going to pay for this."

Sasuke smirked as Sakura took off after Naruto and Ino. Both seemed to be pleading for their life, afraid of what would happen if Sakura's fist got too close.

"Oh, Forehead, you know it was all for the best!" Ino tried to laugh dismissively, but Sakura did not seem impressed.

"Yeah, Sakura-chan! We did it because we loooooove you!" Naruto called out, also not helping the situation.

"Hey! I have an idea!" Ino exclaimed, trying to avert Sakura's attention. "Let's all go get some pie!"

Naruto grumbled. "Yeah, sure. NOW you all want pie. This was probably all a lie! This all started because Ino had to be rambling about some pie that I didn't get to eat, and how Sakura needed to take a big slice of the 'life pie,' whatever the hell that is. This is all the fault of the pies!"

That comment made Sasuke roll his eyes, and Sakura calmed down enough to giggle.

"Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea," Sakura mused, placing a finger on her chin. "But are you saying you don't want the pie, Naruto?" There was a moment of silence.

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"No, no! I definitely want the pie!" Naruto exclaimed, running off in search of the nearest bakery.

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Sakura shook her head as she watched Naruto leave, and Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"You know that crazy person is our best friend, right?" Sasuke asked, motioning to Naruto in the distance. Sakura nodded.

"Mhm, but I still love him," she said, and then smiled, adding, "And I love you, Sasuke-kun."

"Ah, I love you, too," Sasuke responded, wrapping an arm around her as they followed their group of friends.

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Meanwhile, in a bakery shop in Konoha, an obnoxiously loud voice broke the silence of the night air.

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"What do you mean, there isn't any more pie?"

THE END.

YAY!! It's done. My first short story finished! I hope it lived up to expectations, and I hope you enjoyed reading it! Review and tell me how you liked it, please!

Peace ;)