"I'm glad to see you're bringing up the right amount of money and facing me as yourself," the store owner told Sakura as she brought the juice she was purchasing to the counter.
"Uhh, did I do something to offend you?" she asked the man.
"Hmph," was the response. "You actually have to ask?"
"What are you talking about?" Sakura questioned hesitantly.
"That'll be three ryo," he said.
"But last week it was only two ryo," she protested.
"Prices went up," the man snapped back.
Frowning, Sakura reached into her pocket for the money and set it out before walking out of the shop with her juice. Seriously, what was with some of the civilians lately?
The pinkette had to move quickly when the man walking down the street ahead of her stumbled and almost fell over her. Probably would have knocked her down in that case.
"Are you all right?" Sakura asked quickly.
"Oh, nothing hurt at all little missy that I've never met before," the man said as he started to stand up and brush himself off.
Sakura arched an eyebrow and showed a little bit of confusion at the way the man answered that.
"Okay, well, glad you're not hurt," Sakura said.
"And I'm glad you're not hurt," the strange man noted in a friendly, familiar manner. "I guess I'd better watch my step better, or at least find an older cute girl."
"Uhh, okay, that just crossed the line to creepy," Sakura said. "So bye."
And she started walking away, rather quickly.
As she turned a corner, the man scratched the back of his head and sighed.
"I don't think that went well," he said before puffing into smoke.
From a nearby tree, Naruto scratched some notes down on a scroll.
His mind drifted toward Hinata, but if anything was bothering her, she'd characteristically decided not to worry him about it. He knew that some people were bound to tell him not to worry so much unless he wanted to become like Fate-sensei and turn into a big worry-wart, but he couldn't help it. He and Hinata had been the only two Konoha residents, only two residents of their world as a whole, around for two years. It was natural to worry about her.
He tried to get back on the task at hand.
"Sakura."
The girl in question stopped quickly and felt her heart beating rapidly as the beloved voice and cool, aloof attitude was revealed.
"Sasuke-kun," she said, turning about to look at him. "Wh...what is it? Do we have more training to do?"
"I was thinking that I should get to know you a little better," Sasuke told her, to her imminent delight.
Her face immediately flushed brightly and she restrained herself from dancing right there. Sasuke Uchiha wanted to get to know her better.
Take that Ino!
"What do you want to know?" Sakura asked eagerly.
"Well, how about starting with your favorite food," Sasuke ventured cautiously.
"I like anko dumplings," Sakura said excitedly.
"Okay, and is your favorite color, red?" Sasuke attempted as he noted the deep color of her tunic.
"That's right Sasuke-kun," Sakura said. "An..and...what's your favorite color."
"Orange," Sasuke said without thinking.
Sakura paused and her expression changed.
"Orange?" she repeated.
"Umm, huh, what? No, black," "Sasuke" responded. "Definitely black and not orange."
But by that time, the girl was already rearing her hand back and swinging forward with her fist. He could have easily dodged normally, but he was a little bit distracted just at the moment.
And the clone burst into smoke.
The friendly shop-keeper that charged her way under the normal price.
Naruto.
The little girl and her pet cat-rabbit thing.
Both Naruto.
The guy who delivered the newspapers.
Naruto.
And, here was another Sasuke.
"Sakura," the obvious clone said to her as she narrowed her eyes. "Has someone been following you today?"
"Really," Sakura said bitterly. "As if you didn't know."
"Hn," Sasuke noted with a nod. "I wasn't sure until now. It may be that someone is following me as well."
"Oh, a conspiracy," Sakura said, clearly in disbelief. "That's original, and I'm supposed to trust and work with you to find the person behind this, right?"
"That would seem intelligent," Sasuke noted. "We are teammates."
"Uh huh," Sakura said, "like I believe you're the real Sasuke."
"I...pardon?" Sasuke said.
"If you were the real Sasuke," Sakura said. "You wouldn't have told anybody about this, you'd just do something. And if you were Sasuke you'd have probably gone to Shino first and maybe spent five minutes calling me useless or just ignoring me or whatever. You certainly wouldn't come to me for help, because I'm useless and annoying! See quit trying to mess with my head and just dry up and die!"
Sasuke stared in a bit of shock and failed to recover before the punch of enraged fangirl sent him up into the air and down on the other side of a fence, out of sight before Sakura marched away.
"Tssh," Sasuke said, rubbing his chin when he stood up. "What is her problem? I guess I will take care of this myself."
Sakura thought about what she'd said to "Naruto's" last Sasuke clone and immediately started feeling guilty about it. Why had she said such hateful things about how Sasuke acted? Certainly he was a little brusque, but that was clearly to be expected given the tragedy in his life. He just needed the right people to wake him up out of his shell of depression and anger.
She stopped as she looked down the street to see another Sasuke purchasing food from a store and having the same sort of high prices that she did judging by the look on his face. And that and the fact that he wasn't even looking at her gave Sakura the proof she needed that this had to be the real Sasuke.
Moving up to the figure with a quick walking pace, she was dismayed when he turned his glowering face her way and seemed to flinch, but that had to be her imagination.
"Sasuke-kun, you won't believe what's happened to me today," Sakura said.
"Hn," Sasuke noted carefully as he looked about with visible nerves.
"Ugh, Naruto has been following me around all day bugging me in all sorts of disguises," the pink-haired kunoichi declared.
"Naruto-Kun?" Sasuke said, blinking.
"Yes, Naruto," Sakura said harshly before changing to a sing-song speech. "He even tried to disguise himself as you twice."
"....Hn," the Uchiha repeated, glancing down at his bag.
"I mean it was bad enough when he was always asking me on dates," Sakura said. "But now he's following me? He's turning into a stalker."
"Maybe...it is for training," Sasuke noted in his normal low growl.
"Yeah, yeah," Sakura said. "What sort of training requires following me around the Village and bugging me?"
"Hn," Sasuke said.
"And the bad part is that the other day when I was being nice to him," Sakura said. "He just about told me to go away and then he hit me with some signless wind jutsu and literally threw me across the street."
"Naruto-kun would not do that without cause," Sasuke said faintly.
"Yeah, that was weird, he's a loser, but he's never done something like that," Sakura said. "Anyway, he's being a creepy jerk."
"I think you are overreacting," Sasuke noted.
The pink-haired girl flinched in response to the criticism even as "Sasuke" flinched from seeing Sakura flinch.
"Naruto-kun is a very hard working and good...friend," Sasuke said.
"Oh, Sasuke, you're so loyal and kind," Sakura said approvingly.
"Hn?" Sasuke said in confusion at the sudden behavior shift.
"I'm glad we talked," Sakura said. "I...I was worried that you didn't like me."
".....Hn?"
"Maybe sometime we can go out?" Sakura asked.
An encouraging tone of panic entered Sasuke's face.
"Uh, I don't think I...am ready...for..uh girls," Sasuke said. "Excuse me."
And then he did a quick hand sign before being replaced by a log.
Sakura blinked at that.
"Did...did, Sasuke say he doesn't like girls?" Sakura asked heart-broken. "Wait...Naruto-kun?"
"Well," Ino asked. "My day was boring. Shino has a funny way of talking that's easy to figure out, otherwise he's pretty bland. You guys?"
"I think Sakura figured out I was following her," Naruto said holding an ice pack to his forehead. "She actually came at me at Ichiraku's yelling about not corrupting her Sasuke. I think I'll I got out of her was that she liked anko."
"Sasuke is difficult watch too," Hinata added. "Or we just need more practice. I think I learned some however. I was able to talk to Sakura without her realizing it was me."
"So I guess now we try to study Kakashi?" Naruto said.
"We're doomed to failure," Ino said with a sigh.
Hinata nodded and slumped, though really she felt much better after an hour or so helping Kurenai and then studying Sasuke. And confirming that all the girls from her class where insane fangirls as she learned more about his mannerisms.
The three walked down the street not noticing a small gaggle of girls clump together behind them.
"Sakura likes Anko?" one of the girls said. "Then is Sasuke just her...beard?"
"No, because she definitely likes Sasuke," another said. "She must like Sasuke and Anko."
"Oh wow, you mean Anko Mitarashi? The one with the reputation," a third said.
"Sakura must be into some kinky stuff," a fourth noted sagely.
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(Posted Tue, 24 May 2011 01:22)
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