Disclaimer: not mine.
A/N: parenthesis are fun to abuse.

Sakura was tired. (So tired.) All she wanted to do was sleep, but her ribcage felt like it was closing in on itself, squeezing itself tight. (Too tight.) No matter how she laid on her bed, she didn't feel right. Even the familiar seemed uncomfortable. (Foreign.)

She stumbled her way to her friend's dorm, where she hoped (maybe) a different bed would help release the squeezing feeling. (Maybe) She could get the rest she wanted. She was just praying she could get some sleep. Maybe after she slept she wouldn't be (so) tired (tired of everything.)

Sakura knocked quietly on the heavy wooden door of his dorm. Hoping that he would open the door and welcome her in. (He probably wasn't going to.)

After a couple moments of nothing, she rested her large forehead on the coolish wood. (She knew it was a long shot anyway.) She let her weight settle forward, sighing a bit. (Where to go.)

Suddenly, the door wasn't there. (Empty.) And she shut her eyes, waiting for impact. (Because you never see the world tumble around you, you only know you fell because you hear the thud and feel the sting of your person against ground.)

There was no floor, no thud. She felt her face against soft.

A deep voice that rumbled and vibrated against her face asked, "Why are you here?"

She spoke against his chest, voice cracking from a dry throat and mouth, "I couldn't sleep." (Too tight ribcages, and foreign normalcy.)

"Hn," the voice vibrated against her face again.

"Sasuke, please," Sakura took in a breath against his chest, "Could I sleep here?"

"What's wrong with your dorm?" He sounded annoyed. (She could tell after being friends with him for so long.)

She swallowed, (but her throat remained dry.), "I can't… get comfortable there."

"Hn," he lifted her face from his chest, letting her stumble into his dorm.

She walked in, crashing onto his bed face first. (Nice, different bed.)

She breathed a sigh against the bedding that smelled like him (a bit like sandalwood and other things.)

She could feel his presence hovering over her (so dark and commanding), "Why are you in my bed?"

She mumbled against the covers, "It… I feel safe in this one."

"Hn."

"Besides, isn't the other bed Naruto's?" She (really) didn't want to sleep in the overly energetic blond's bed.

"Hn," he shifted her so she was against the wall, and lay next to her.

He was warm; she wanted to snuggle next to him (so much.)

She knew he wouldn't want to (he didn't seem like a snuggler.)

But the heat seemed to pull Sakura like a magnetic field; she wanted to get closer to it (because the wall seemed so cold.)

Strong arms snaked around Sakura's abdomen, pulling her closer.

She snuggled into the embrace, feeling her eyelids getting heavy (she knew sleep would follow soon.)

Sakura was about to slip into sleep when the door slammed open (waking the two up.)

"TEME!" was shouted loudly (deafeningly, really.)

The (almost) slumbering girl looked at the (obnoxiously) loud almost-man that stood before her.

The person next to her sat up (taking his warmth with him.)

The pinkette tried to rub the sleep from her eyes as she also sat up.

The almost-man next to her (darkly) grumbled, "What, dobe?"

Using his indoor voice (which was still quite loud), "Why's Sakura in your bed, teme?"

A dark aura crept from Sasuke as he explained; (through clenched teeth), "She couldn't sleep."

Sakura could only nod (even if it was just a slight bobbing of her head.)

And then Naruto's phone was out, his fingers feverishly typing away some message. The buttons sounding like Morse code as he pressed them.

Sasuke could probably guess about what Naruto was texting about (it probably had to do with Sakura being in Sasuke's bed.)

Who the text was sent to, though, was a different story.

Sakura swallowed (dryly) as her mind when through the possible recipients of the text.

Her last thought was the worst. It could be sent to Ino, her beautiful best friend (and rival in love.)

Sakura ended up staying at Sasuke's regardless (because her dorm would offer no sleep.)

After changing out of her pajamas and into normal people clothes, Sakura headed out to her classes.

Sakura walks down the hall. Getting that feeling that she gets in her chest (too tight ribcage.)

She walks, feeling like she's not really there. She gets that feeling; the one when even breathing doesn't feel right, and all she can do is drift down the hallway. Just drifting with her legs feeling weak (like they'll collapse in on her any second) and the feeling that she's just living; she's not really alive.

Ino was mad (so very mad) at her "best friend" (rival in love.) The pinkette was in the same bed as the (devilishly handsome) almost-man Ino liked. Apparently, his arm was around the pinkette's waist, pulling her close to his (amazing) body.

She looked in the mirror that was hung up near the window and she say the blonde, baby blue-eyed girl creature that stared back. The more she looked in the mirror, the more she hated what she saw.

Why wasn't she the pinkette that Sasuke had let into his bed?

Grabbing the mirror, she threw it on the ground. Pieces of glass and metal lying spread out in front of the girl.

It made her feel better (so much better.)

Ino knew what she had to do. She had to destroy Sakura (utterly destroy her.)

Kiba watched as the blonde in front of him seethed (she was radiating anger.) She was already standing in the wreckage of every breakable thing in her dorm, the late morning light filtering through the half drawn curtains.

"Ino…" he reasoned, "there's no need to get so worked up, so what if Sasuke was sleeping in the same bed with someone."

The young blonde looked at him like he'd just insulted her God (and to her, Sasuke was) "but that girl wasn't me," she wailed.

Kiba enveloped her in his arms, her face against his (not-too-muscular) chest, sobbing, her warm tears soaking through the thin fabric of his shirt.

The brunet almost-man quietly muttered words of comfort to the (beautiful) blonde that now clung to his forearms, while softly petting the top of her head.

Hinata was a good listener. She could sit through hours of listening to her enthusiastic boyfriend's chatter.

Naruto could also be a good listener if he really wanted to be (and if the topic interested him.)

The blond and the blue-black walked hand in hand through the quad, on their way to get some coffee, talking about various things.

Right now, though, it was Hinata who was the listener (as she often was) and she was hearing the blond talk about how he found Sakura and Sasuke together in the same bed.

"-They weren't doing anything real intimate. The teme just had his arms around Sakura's waist and had her pulled in real close to his chest."

Hinata nodded, glancing between the almost-man and ahead of her (just to make sure she wouldn't collide with another person.)

"So I take out my phone and start texting Ino like she told me to if I found any girl that wasn't her with Sasuke in his dorm after 11 P.M."

Hinata let out an almost silent giggle. Naruto was almost too nice for his own good.

The crying had stopped and Ino had been released from Kiba's (comfort) hug.

Now came the time of hand wringing, and the maniacal laughter, and the muttering of different plots with hundreds of possibilities with no solutions (the time that scared Kiba.)

Kiba watched as the blonde began plotting different ways to destroy her "best friend".

He knew that trying to win the blonde over would be fruitless. Once Uchiha caught their attention, it was impossible to pry it away and make it your own.

Kiba looked at the blonde he fancied and wondered what made Sasuke so different that everyone wanted him.

It had been a couple days since Naruto had found Sakura with Sasuke, and stuff had been happening to Sakura (weird stuff.)

Small stuff at first, then big stuff (almost hit by a vehicle big. Like being hit by the rumor bus.)

Sakura didn't know what to do anymore (and Sakura always knew what to do.)

Something was getting to Sakura.

Sasuke knew it.

He could see it in the way she would walk around campus, sadness seemed to cling to her shoulders and her face didn't have that smile that it usually had (she didn't need that smile because she thought no one was watching.)

Sasuke had always thought that Sakura's smile was amazing, it was bright and infectious and heartbreakingly beautiful. He loved it.

He also hated it, too. Because every time he saw her smile at him, he hated the world a little less, didn't believe the approval of his father was that important anymore (he couldn't really handle that.)

Rumors were spreading (rumors about Sakura.) They spread like a sickness, jumping from one person to the next to the next (becoming an epidemic.)

Sakura could feel it in the air. She could tell by the way the people would subtly look as she walked past, immediately stopping their chatter and hiding giggles behind hands and poorly disguised points.

Sakura just strode past, holding her head high, willing herself not to cry (because if she did, they would win.)

And Sakura didn't like losing.

Sasuke sneered when he heard the rumors about how Sakura was sleeping around with Gaara, Lee, Shikamaru, even one of the teachers, and a long list of others.

He wanted to go to the source of the rumor mill and put an end to it all (because he didn't want to feel so useless.)

Temari was furious (and she believed she had a right to be.) Her boyfriend was sleeping with one her friends.

She did what (she believed) any sensible young woman would do; she punched her boyfriend while he lazily ate a bagel on the chair in his dorm, sending the lazy almost-man toppling from the chair onto the wood floor (letting go of the bagel in his fall.)

Shikamaru rubbed his now-throbbing cheek while mourning the loss of his bagel (that had landed butter-side down on the ground), "troublesome woman, what was that for?"

"That was for cheating on me!" Temari wasn't one for crying (but that doesn't mean the tears didn't sting the back of her eyes anyway.)

"What are you talking about?" Shikamaru was confused (and he was rarely confused.)

"I've been hearing that you've been sleeping with Sakura!" Shikamaru could see tell that tears threatened to fall from her (so very pretty) dark green eyes.

He grumbled, "troublesome woman," pulling her closer.

She rested her head in the crook of his neck, letting the tears come.

Sasuke knew it was one of his fan girls that had started the rumors. He'd had a moment of realization during history, when he was tapping his pen cap against the spiral of his notebook, waiting for the class to end.

He just knew (he could feel it down to his toes.)

Naruto lay away in the dim light of the beside lamp (he had too much on his mind to sleep.)

He knew he had helped start the chain that had caused Sakura so much hurt (and it left a heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach.)

The guilt gnawed Naruto's insides like a fox creature (Naruto knew sleep wouldn't come to him for a long time.)

Ino plotted. She was always plotting (so much revenge, so little time.) Always pacing back and forth in her room, or sitting down on her bed just to stand back up again.

Kiba worried. He was always worrying about the blonde that he fancied from afar (because he didn't know how to win her over.)

Then the happy electronic chirps sounded from the blonde's cell phone, signaling a text.

He saw her read the text, eyes growing wider (in surprise or horror?)

The clatter of overly decorated technology hitting (now clean) floor was the only thing heard before Ino stammered out, "I'll be back in a bit."

Sasuke knew he was fucked.

All because of the (stupid) text the dobe had sent.

It had been sent to Ino (he'd found out from the dobe the other night, when he'd come home and found the blond staring the ceiling with the bedside lamp on), another one of Sasuke's fan girls that (always, always, always) threw themselves at him.

She'd come up to him outside of his dorm building, asking (demanding) why his arms had been around Sakura's waist, and why she had been pulled up against his chest.

It was the warmth she had radiated. Or was it the (absolute) vulnerability that showed on her face? Either way, it was as if she was drawing him towards her, silently whispering that he should pull her closer.

Sakura had smelled a bit like the flower she was named and promises (promises had a sickly sweet scent.) Her scent was dizzyingly intoxicating, and it left him (slightly) addicted.

But he couldn't tell any of that to Ino.

Ino didn't know what to do.

It was like she was trapped in a world of glass and fragile things and she couldn't move. She just stared at the (heartbreakingly) beautiful boy in front of her.

All he did was stare back, his dark, dark eyes looking into her baby blue ones. He had told her about the night with Sakura, and Ino didn't know how to react.

Ino felt horrible (so very horrible) that she'd jumped to conclusions and she'd claimed Sasuke as her own (when he wasn't hers to claim.)

So Ino ran. She ran and ran until she found the brunet boy that had been with her forever and worried about her (and he was always there, even when she wanted the one that never seemed to be around.)

And Ino buried herself into his warm (and soft) embrace and sobbed into his shirt.

Hinata listened as Naruto tried to rid himself of his guilt (the feeling in his stomach lessened, but it didn't disappear.)

Hinata lay in the loose embrace of the blond. Lightly tracing random swirls with the pad of her finger against his chest, feeling the slight vibrations as he talked. The early morning light was blocked from entering the room by the dark curtains.

The blue-black listened and comforted and fell for the almost-man a little more as he shared more of himself with her (and she was happy he trusted her enough to do that.)

Sakura was alone.

She liked it that way. It was the time when she didn't have to put on that (fake) smile, the time she could cry without feeling like she was losing to someone.

She sat on her bed, knees pulled up to her chest with her arms around her legs. Sakura waited for the familiar sting of the tears behind her eyes.

(It never came.)

Sasuke hesitated outside her door. He was about to knock when there wasn't a door to knock on anymore (just a doe-eyed girl with the candy floss hair and the heartbreakingly beautiful smile that wasn't playing on her lips.)

"Sasuke?"

She looked at him. She (always, always, always) had those big little girl eyes; they were a strange shade of green that (almost) complimented her cotton candy pink hair.

When he didn't respond, she just blinked and pushed past him to walk to somewhere.

Sasuke stood there, standing in front of the (empty) open door. He reached for the doorknob, having to lean in a little to get to it. Her dorm had the same (slightly addicting) smell she had. That sickly sweet cherry-blossom-and-promise smell that was entirely hers. He breathed in deeply, and shut the door.

Sandalwood and other things. That's what Sasuke's bedding had smelled like.

That's what Sasuke smelled like when she'd walked past him, bumping into him ever so slightly.

Sakura walked through the quad, late-afternoon-almost-evening light hitting her face. She walked and tried to figure out what the 'other things' Sasuke smelled like were.

It had been darker and less woody (and more subtle) than the sandalwood.

Disappointment, she decided. Disappointment in himself, for not meeting his father's expectations, for never seeming to measure up to his brother.

She could always see it in his eyes; they looked tired (like he was done with everything. Like he'd failed at something.)

The thought made Sakura sad, he was just an almost-man (teetering on the cusp of adulthood, infinitely close but never quite there) and he was handsome in the most heartbreaking way. He was handsome in the broken boy kind of way (the way that makes people admire from afar, but makes them afraid to actually approach him.)

Sakura thought that maybe (just maybe) that's what attracted her to him in the first place. The fact that he wasn't perfect (because isn't everyone a little broken?)

It was a quiet night, the dark enveloping her as she lay on the grass, a blanket between her and the ground. Sakura was looking up at the stars that twinkled like Christmas lights (like the kind that were on the Christmas trees from her youth.)

She lay there, counting the starts, absentmindedly wishing that there were someone with her (especially if that someone smelled of sandalwood and other things.)

Sakura wanted Sasuke's magnetic warmth again. She wanted his strong arms around her middle again. She wanted the broken-boy-beautiful almost-man. She wanted to count the stars; point out constellations, just lay in the quiet dark with him (because life would be nicer then.)

Sakura stands in the afternoon light that passed through the window.

Sasuke looks at her and thought she was so pretty just then (she looked like a doll person. The sun makes her hair glitter, and her eyes seem brighter.)

She swallowed (her heart was in her throat and she wanted it back down.) She was staring into the (tired) eyes of Sasuke.

They both open their mouths to speak at the same time, only to close them and glance away with a sheepish laugh (as if they'd rehearsed to get in such perfect unison.)

The almost-man spoke first, "Sakura…"

The pinkette just said, "Sasuke."

He opens his mouth to speak again, before she cuts him off, "no, Sasuke. Please, don't talk."

Sakura inhales, gathering the leftovers of her confidence, "I… like you, Sasuke. I want to lie next to you, and maybe look at the stars. I want us to confuse falling stars and satellites. I want to smile with you, Sasuke, I want to talk with you, and walk with you, and just be with you," Sakura pauses for a breath, "I want a lot of things to do with you, Sasuke."

She waits for Sasuke to answer (and it's taking everything she has not to cry.)

Finally, he answers, "I can tell, you know. That something's wrong."

She looked at him with her big-little-girl eyes, he continues, "and it bothers me more than it should. Seeing you without your happiness is like…." He wracked his brain for a possible analogy, "Naruto without ramen."

A tiny smile danced across Sakura's lips, a small, breathy laugh escaping her lips.

Sasuke asks, "What?" (He's annoyed, but she just doesn't care.)

"You just… amuse me, Sasuke. I tell you I like you, and you make analogies to soups."

Sasuke roughly ran his hand through his hair, sighing with frustration, "I'm trying to tell you that I like you, Sakura."

Candy apple eyes widen a fraction as the words sink in.

(And maybe he finds himself falling for her a little more.)

A/N: This was ... different. I liked writing it, though.

Constructive criticism is welcome.