And then his pale arms wrapped around her and pulled her close.

"I love you, Sayu – I know that now. And I'm sorry that – " She put a finger to his lips.

"Sh, I know. You don't have to say it. Just know that I never stopped loving you." Instead of responding verbally, Satoshi pressed his lips to hers and his hands moved to her obi, expertly untying the cloth as she moa–

"Che. Idiot."

"AH!" Sakura slammed the book she'd been reading closed, shoved it under her cushion, and snapped her head around to look at the boy who had interrupted her. "Sasuke-kun! Don't do that! I was – " Shoot, had he seen? "I was just – " Just what? Reading lurid love tales? How was she going to get out of this … shit.

"You're late for training." He was glaring at her. Whew, that meant he hadn't noticed what she was reading.

"… Oh." Ever since she had broken into Sasuke's house a few months earlier and seen that well-worn copy of Icha Icha he'd kept hidden from the world… her curiosity had been sparked. She tried to read a few of the Icha Icha series, but found them entirely too lacking in the feminism department. Every single woman in those bloody books was a useless harlot! If she could get away with beating Jiraiya without admitting her reason for doing so… she totally would.

Then one day, an old obaa-san had seen her surreptitiously attempting to find an Icha Icha worth reading, and had kindly told her that there were far (wink-wink, nudge-nudge) quote-better-unquote books for her to read. And thus: L'Amour. Over five hundred books published by one completely amazing woman who lived somewhere in Rain. And they were all about beautiful women who protected and loved their men whole heartedly, and who were never weak willed or irritating, and who got to have mind blowingly amazing sex. In every book. And it was hot.

… She was hooked.

She had the books sent to a post office box she'd registered specifically for this purpose, and got a new one two or three times a week. This was number twenty-seven. And she had almost made it to the end!

"… I'll be there in a minute, Sasuke-kun."

"Hn." He turned to leave without another glance. … Hey wait…

"Hold on, Sasuke-kun… how'd you get into my house?? All my windows are locked… DID YOU BREAK ONE OF MY WINDOWS?!"

"Don't be stupid, you left your front door unlocked." The words floated back to her from the front of her house, where he was likely waiting for her to get her stuff together so that he could leave just before her so that she could spend the entire walk to the training fields exactly five steps behind him. Bastard.

That was the other thing. Ever since that night, he'd been virtually in communicado! He'd come after her that night, barged into her bedroom where she'd just been snuggling back into her comforter, jumped on top of her, and kissed her bloody senseless. And then – nothing. He'd –poofed- away and it was like it'd never even happened.

Every so often she thought she'd been going crazy and that it had just been an incredibly visceral dream. But then she remembered how amazingly logical she'd been that day and knew that there was no way in hell that that had been a dream. Damn him and his idiocy and his stubborn nature and his tongue –

… oh now this was just ridiculous.

She grabbed her pack and as soon as she stepped through the living room and into the foyer, Sasuke was already walking out the door and … yup, five steps ahead of her. So bloody predictable.

She maintained her pace and contemplated the boy in front of her… what right did he have to pretend like he'd never touched her?! It was absolutely uncalled for and incredibly childish and immature – of course, she understood that it was Sasuke and so those actions kind of came with the territory… but honestly! She glared at his back. Him with his stupid cowlicked hair, and his broad shoulders, and his 'tush, which moved just so while he walked.

Actually, he kind of swung his hips a little when he walked … was he … swaying?

"Ne, Sasuke-kun?"

"Aa." His gait never wavered and he hadn't so much as marginally turned his head in her direction.

"You're getting a little… hippy."

………………..

After Sasuke had sufficiently turned her insides to ice by throwing her a genuine murderous look, they'd made it to the training area without further incident.

Stupid Sasuke. Such a jerk. She looked at his profile reflectively. An incredibly attractive jerk who has smoldering eyes and sneering lips which were so much smoother than they looked –

"Sakura-chan!" She stopped short.

"Hey everyone… sorry I'm late…" Naruto and Kakashi were staring at her. Either she'd grown another head or…

"Ah, Sakura… are you okay? Your face is flushed." She had to stop reading those books on days she was going to see Sasuke… or any attractive male, really.

"Aa… I'm fine, Sensei. Just got a little too much sun yesterday, that's all." … This was a lie. She'd spent the previous day reading, of course.

"Don't get sunstroke, Sakura-chan!"

"What? … what are you –"

"The Dobe sat in the sun for six hours two weeks ago because the dog idiot dared him." She stared at Sasuke – so he could talk. Wait –

"Naruto! Don't do stupid things just because Kiba tells you to!" She punctuated this with a punch to the side of his head. "Sunstroke is very serious!"

"Itai!" He crouched on the ground while Kakashi looked on in amusement and Sasuke ignored in disdain. She sighed and gave her wayward teammate a hand.

"Tough love, Naruto, tough love." Two groans and a snort sounded her team's response.

"Okay, okay – you guys are here to train –"

"Come on teme! I'll kick your ass!"

"Actually, Naruto," Kakashi broke in before the scuffle began, "Sasuke will spar with Sakura today."

"What?!" Sasuke's voice broke the stunned silence. They looked at him strangely.

"Ummm…" She was surprised at his bout of passion - / ooooh, passion/ AGH! ANYWAY, too surprised to really be offended. Kakashi took this chance to grab Naruto –

"Ja ne!

"Wait!" She rounded on the spot that had just held the other two. Sighing in defeat, she turned back to Sasuke… who was sitting on the ground. "What are you doing?" He turned his head away from her.

"I'm not sparring you." She narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips.

"Excuse me?" And because he was Sasuke, he didn't repeat himself. So she threw her hands in the air. "Why the hell aren't you going to spar me?!" No answer. "It's not like we've never sparred before AND I believe I beat you last ti –"

"You cheated!"

"No I didn't!" Yes she did.

"You told Naruto I was hoarding ramen by sewing it into hidden compartments in my pants." He deadpanned. She tilted her head thoughtfully.

"…So?" He stood up.

"So he tackled me and RIPPED OFF MY PANTS." Only Sasuke could end such an emphatic statement with a period.

"Oh, right."

"And then you punched me with your stupid chakra fist and knocked me out. Idiot." He turned away again. "Anyway, I'm still not sparring you." She rolled her eyes.

"Seriously, Sasuke, that was like a month ago – " her eyes widened and everything came clear, "Ooooh." Sasuke's head snapped up –

"Why are you 'oooh'ing? Don't 'oh.' There's nothing to 'oh' about."

"Oh."

"Sakura, stop thinking." He'd grabbed her arm, "Let's spar." And then he let his fist fly towards her face. Shit.

Poofed.

"Sasuke!" All she saw was the sole of his sandal,

Poofed.

"SASUKE!" Nope, just a cloud of kunai hurling towards her,

Poofed.

"I AM GOING TO KILL YOU IF YOU DON'T –" And she was on the ground… while he was eight feet away leaning against a tree. "I loathe you."

"You're being lazy, are you going to spar or not?"

"No I am not going to spar with you! You didn't even want to fight me, what the hell are you doing?!" She dusted her knees off as she stood up, glaring at her teammate all the while. Sasuke, OF COURSE, didn't bother answering and instead just turned around and started to walk away.

Oh, hell no.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! UCHIHA SASUKE YOU GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT OR I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL TELL NARUTO ABOUT YOUR - MHMPHMMPHHHH."

"Sakura, stop licking my hand, that's disgusting." Ugh. She threw his hand away from her mouth.

"You don't even know what I was going to say." He shrugged,

"No matter, it wouldn't have been good for me." If this was L'Amour, she wouldn't have been licking his freaking hand. That's for sure. They'd have sparred, and she'd have won and ended the match sitting on his stomach, her hair curtaining their faces as she would lean down to take what was rightfully hers. Sigh. Why couldn't she live in L'Amour? "Please stop imagining whatever it is you're imagining." Bastard.

"I hate when you smirk. It makes you ugly." The smirk grew wider. "No seriously, Sasuke. All those pretty little angles that make up your face become grotesque when you smirk. Just so you know. That's why babies cry when they see you." This was only party true. They cried because some base part of humanity knew that Sasuke was a scary, scary man. "Any way, we've gotten off topic!" And predictably, he turned to leave again, but she was too fast for him! Ha HA! One chakra infused grip to his shirt later and …

… oops.

"Sakura, you just ripped my shirt off my back." Uh oh.

A/N: HAY GUYS WHAT'S UP LONG TIME NO SEE :D

So, yes. This is a sequel to Bloody Typical that I started like six months ago and has just been sitting on my hard drive along with all the other short stories I start and don't finish. This, however, WILL have an ending. I swear! You know why? Because this is a two shot. No more than that. Srsly. No lies here.

In other news: I am a bad writer and I suck at updating. Surprise, surprise, you all know that.

And despite that, I want to ask for everyone's help. I'm currently a month away from graduating w/ my masters in pub from NYU, and I'm working on my thesis right now. I'm trying to compile some data supporting the assumptions I'm making, and that's where you all come in. My thesis is loosely based on online writing communities, so I'd love for your input. I've created a short (prob five min) survey on Survey monkey, which you can get to by going to my profile and clicking on my home page. If you could fill it out, it would really, really help me out. Also, review to let me know you did it, and I'll give one of you lucky kids a gift fic!

Thanks everyone!