Okay, so I don't know how many of you know this, but there is a NEW Naruto movie coming out next month! Perhaps the most exciting part about that movie is... it takes place in an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE! It seems that almost everyone's personalities have completely switched around. I'm so excited to see it!

*Coughs* Anyway, I had a point to that ridiculous rambling... lol. This story takes place in that alternate universe. So EVERYONE'S (except Naruto's) personalities have been at least slightly altered in some way, according to what I've been reading about the movie. So if a character is completely OOC, that's why. XD

In the late afternoon three shinobi are in the training grounds, preparing for their next mission coming up in the next few days. The young man with raven black hair and the other young man with blonde hair finish up, wiping the sweat off their brows. Their teammate, the young lady with pink hair, continues fiercely, throwing kunai after kunai towards her target. However, each one she throws somehow misses the bull's eye point now matter how hard she tries.

Her pink brows are pulled together, arched up above the bridge of her nose. The part in her lips reveal her clenched teeth, grinding together every time she misses. Her usually wide emerald green eyes are narrowed, scrutinizing her target. Sweat drips down her chin, sliding down her neck as her chest heaves up and down with her heavy breaths.

Why can't I do it?

She's been imagining cocky, arrogant Hinata's face as the target, but that hasn't been helping either. She throws the kunai again, but it veers off just a few inches to the right of the bull's eye.

A smell abruptly tickles her nose. It smells like fresh cotton and some kind of cologne. The cologne smells exactly like a candle she once smelled in the market called "Midnight Hour". That is the exact reason it now sits on her dresser in her room.

Her body tenses and her eyes grow wide as a hand gently grasps her arm.

"You're doing it wrong," the smooth voice sweetly says in her ear, making her heart pound rapidly against her rib cage. The hand pulls her arm up, positioning it into the proper position. "Don't be so forceful with it. Go like this." His hand thrusts her arm forward and she releases it. The kunai finally hits the bull's eye.

He releases her arm and she swallows around the lump growing in her throat. "T-Thank you."

"Sasuke-teme!" The blonde screams, his eyes wide and his teeth clenched. "What're you doing, touching Sakura-chan like that?"

The raven-haired man rolls his eyes. "Relax, dobe," he says, his voice showing no trace of the sweet tone is just had. "I was just showing her the correct way to throw a kunai."

"And I suppose you'll be showing her the correct way to kiss next, right?"

Sakura's cheeks flush with a bright, rosy color, but Sasuke just raises his dark brow. "Um, no. But speaking of romance, I have a date I need to attend to." He hands Naruto the bag that holds all of the kunai and begins to casually walk away. "You can pick up all the kunai."

"WHAT?" The blonde whips around to face Sasuke, but he's already gone. His hands ball up into fists. "Damn you, teme," he grumbles.

"Don't worry about it, Naruto," Sakura says, her voice quiet.

Naruto looks at her, his angry expression quickly being erased off his face. She is looking down at a kunai in her hand, a frown on her face.

His eyebrows raise and his mouth curves into a frown. "Sakura-chan?"

"I'll pick up all the kunai."

He looks down at the bag in his hands, then back up at her. "Nah. It's really no big deal. I ca-"

"Really, it's fine, Naruto." She looks back up at him and smiles. It's a fake smile. Even Naruto can tell it's not real. It doesn't quite reach her eyes and the corner of her mouth twitches ever so slightly. "I'm going to stay a little later anyway. I want to get this right."

He stares at her for a moment, then slowly walks over to her. Reluctantly, he hands her the bag and she takes it from him. "Are you really sure, Sakura-chan?"

She nods her head. "Yeah. It's really no trouble at all."

"Okay." He scratches the back of his head. It's obvious that something is wrong, but he can tell she just wants to be alone. "I guess I'll see you later then."

"Yeah. See you later."

Naruto slowly begins to walk away, glancing back a few times to make sure his friend is okay. She doesn't notice. She's consumed inside her own little world now, tossing kunai after kunai at the target.

Time passes by, and the sun begins to set over the mountains. The once blue sky turns into pale shades of pinks and purples, the edges of it becoming a dark navy blue.

Finally noticing her surroundings and how dark it's becoming, she stops her training and begins to pick up all the kunai, doing her best not to think about anything except the task at hand.

She begins to count up the kunai.

One... Two... Seven... Eighteen... Twenty-three...

She pauses. There's supposed to be twenty-four. Where could the last one be? Slowly circling around their training area, she searches through the grass, but it's becoming too dark to see anything. Letting out a sigh, she decides to go and search for it in the morning.

She slowly makes her way back to the small building that holds the training weapons. She opens the door and places the bag inside. As she turns around to leave, she bumps into something and lets out a startled shriek.

A hand wraps around each of her wrists. "Relax! Sakura, it's just me."

She looks up slowly and sees Sasuke standing in front of her, his brows pulled together and his mouth in a frown. "Oh. Sorry. You scared me."

Briefly, his brow raises and the corner of his mouth curves up into a crooked smile. "I can tell." The look of concern quickly returns to his face. "Why are you still here?"

"I wanted to keep practicing so I could hit the bull's eye."

"Hn. Well did you?"

She shrugs, looking away from his face and down at her hands. He's still holding her wrists.

He follows her gaze and quickly releases her hands.

"What are you doing here?"

"Um... Well..." He holds something up.

She looks up and sees him twirling a kunai around his index finger. "Oh. I've been looking for that."

"I figured." He stops twirling the kunai and hands it to her.

She takes it from him and unzips the bag of kunais. After placing it inside, she starts to zip the bag back up.

"Are you okay, Sakura?"

Her hand freezes in the middle of zipping the bag and her body tenses. She closes her eyes and sucks in a deep breath. Putting on that fake smile again and she looks back at him. "I'm fine," she says, trying to sound as perky as she possibly can. "What would make you think something is wrong?"

"Let's see..." He puts a finger up and begins to count up the reasons why on his fingers. "You seemed angry while you were training. You stayed here really late, a lot later than you normally would. You really sucked during target practice, and you're normally at least somewhat decent at it. You had a sad look on your face like you were trying not to cry when I got here. You just gave me that cheap fake smile of yours that you always do when you're-"

"Okay!" She shouts, blinking back tears from her eyes.

He looks down at her, his eyes wide.

She lets out a heavy sigh and just shrugs her shoulders. "I just have a lot on my mind. It's nothing you need to worry about."

"Are you sure? You can talk to me if you need to you know."

She looks back up at him, then quickly glances away when she sees he's still wearing that look of concern. "I'll be okay. I just need to be alone."

"Okay." He steps back from her. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yeah," she says quietly.

She watches as he walks away from the training grounds. Tears flood her eyes.

Sasuke-kun, if only you knew...

She blinks back her tears again. It's stupid to cry over this. He always goes on dates. There's nothing different about him having a date tonight.

Sakura begins to slowly walk back to her house, staring down at her feet.

"He's not really my type," She had heard a girl with long brown hair say to another redheaded girl in the market. "But he sure does know how to have a good time. We danced all night long and had an amazing dinner."

The redhead giggled. "Did he kiss you?"

The other girl sighed. "No, he didn't." A wide grin spread across her face. "But he did hold my hand!"

"Oh, I'm so jealous! I wish Sasuke would ask me out on a date."

"Sasuke is so romantic," a girl with short black hair gushed to her group of friends. "We had a beautiful picnic under the stars."

The girls gasped in awe.

"I want a date like that!"

"Me too!"

"That's so romantic!"

Sakura shakes her head. She does not need to be thinking about the things she heard about his dates. She should concentrate on getting home and getting the proper rest she needs to continue her training tomorrow.

The nagging question in the back of her mind does not go away though. She fights to push it back, but it forces itself up long enough for her mind to grasp it.

Why hasn't he ever asked me on a date?

Is she not good enough? Is she not pretty enough? Does he think she's annoying? Is her hair too pink? Perhaps she should dye her hair to brown. He seems to like brunettes best. At least, most of the girls she's seen gossiping about their dates were brunettes. There have been a handful a blondes though, as well as girls with black hair and a couple redheads.

How many dates has he even been on? Ten? Twenty? Fifty? How many times has he kissed a girl? How many times has he told a girl that he loved her? How many times has... he...

Sakura wipes her eyes again.

What is wrong with her?

There must something wrong with her, right? Something she's doing wrong. Something she doesn't say or do. Or perhaps it's something she does say or do.

She shakes her head.

Snap out of it Sakura! Don't think about him.

Giggling interrupts her thoughts. She looks up and instantly wishes she hadn't.

Sasuke is sitting at the ramen bar next to that redhead who was talking to the brunette from the market. He must have said or done something funny because she just can't seem to stop laughing. A huge grin is spread across his face as he watches her giggle.

He looks over and sees Sakura, standing there staring at him. Her eyes are wide, brimming with tears and a couple of them trickle down her cheeks. Her bottom lip is trembling as she bites it.

The grin is instantly removed from his face. "Sakura," he says.

Then she's gone.

The moment he spoke to her, she turned around and began to run away as fast as she possibly could.

What am I doing? Why does seeing him with another girl bother me so much?

She glances back over her shoulder and sees him chasing after her, catching up quickly. She pumps chakra into her legs, hoping to boost her speed enough to lose him. The rough training she had put herself through is starting to show how much it exhausted her body.

Her legs begin to burn as if they're on fire. A sharp pain stabs the inside of her gut and she gasps, desperately trying to fill her lungs with enough air to keep going. The taste of salt coats her tastebuds as her tears enter her mouth.

"Sakura!" He calls out to her, sounding even closer than he was when she first looked back.

She wants to shout back for him to leave her alone, but she can't. She can barely get enough air as it is without speaking. A pair of strong arms suddenly wrap around her waist and she's tackled to the ground. She tries to pry herself out of them, but they're too strong. "Let me go!" She screams.

"No." He says, burying his face into her shoulder. "Not until you tell me what's wrong."

Sakura stops struggling against him. He lifts his head from her shoulder as she rolls onto her back to face him. Her eyes are red from crying. Then, before he can react, a stabbing pain strikes his cheek along with a rush of heat.

She slapped him.

"You are such a fucking idiot!" She shouts as more tears slide out of her eyes.

He looks down at her, his eyes wide and his mouth open.

"You're always on dates with other girls, most of them you don't even know! I must be the only girl in the whole village who hasn't gone on a date with you! Hasn't it been obvious that I love you, Sasuke-kun?"

His eyes somehow grow even wider and he sits back on his heels. "You... Love me?" He asks quietly.

Sakura sits up too. "YES! You baka!" She wipes her eyes as she fights back sobs.

He stares at the ground for a moment. He shakes his head and closes his eyes. "I'm such an idiot," he says quietly.

"Yes, you are," Sakura says.

He looks up at her.

"Am I not good enough for you or something? Or is it my hair? Or maybe you think I'm annoying? Do you think I'm annoying? It could be my ugly billboard brow too. Or maybe it's-"

Before Sakura could finish her rant, Sasuke had leaned over and pressed his lips against hers. Her eyes grow wide in shock.

Sasuke is... kissing me?

Never in her wildest dreams did she ever think he would kiss her. His lips feel so soft and warm against hers. She had always thought that he would probably kiss rough and passionately, but that's not how he's kissing her now. It's soft and gentle, almost as if he's not sure of himself.

She closes her eyes and begins to kiss him back. She can feel him smile against her lips, and he reaches up, combing his fingers through her hair. The whole world seems to disappear. They're the only two beings in the whole entire universe.

Then, too quickly, he pulls back from her, leaving her with her mind racing and her head spinning.

He looks up at her and his obsidian eyes seem to soften. "The only reason I haven't gone on a date with you is because..."

"Because what?" She asks softly, still a little dazed.

He bites his lip and swallows hard. This is going to be difficult for him to say. "I was... Afraid."

She blinks her eyes a couple times, raising her brow in disbelief. "You were afraid?" Sasuke, the cocky, flirtatious ladies man was afraid? It's almost too ridiculous to believe.

He closes his eyes and sighs. "I was afraid that you wouldn't want to go with me. Or even worse, that you'd turn out to be just another stupid fangirl that only likes me for my looks."

Sakura frowns and he looks back at her. "I wouldn't reject you, and I'm not one of your ridiculous fangirls. I love you for you, Sasuke-kun."

A grins spreads across his face. "That's good to hear, because I feel the same way about you."

She smiles back at him.

"Oh, and by the way..." The corner of his mouth curves up into a crooked smile. "I saved that for you."

She blinks at him, her brows pulling together. "Saved what?"

He leans forward and presses his lips against hers for a moment, then leans back. "That."

A huge smile spreads across Sakura's face.

So seriously, be honest with me. Was that corny or what? Lol XD

I had to force myself to write that stupid kissing scene because it just seemed TOO predictable and so unoriginal. But I know that there's so many fanfics out there where Sasuke is miserable or completely emo (and yes, I know I'm guilty of writing those kinds of stories too). That's why I wrote this. I wanted Sasuke to be HAPPY for once. instead of being the usual "life's-punching-bag" that he really is.

Oh, and just something fun for you to know. If you want to know what I imagined him smelling like, I have a fresh cotton candle (it's a Main Stays brand from Wal-Mart, though I'm sure the brand doesn't really matter), and I also have a candle called "Evening Air" by Yankee Candle. (Yes, I'm a candle collector.) Combined, I think those two make an absolutely AMAZING smell. Of course, you could imagine him smelling like any cologne you prefer, lol. XD

Anywho, now that I've talked your ear off... I hope you all enjoyed this story! If you have the time, I would GREATLY appreciate reviews! And don't worry, I don't bite... much.

Hahaha, just kidding. =P