Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Fire ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

Fire

Chapter Two

Naruto

Buni-San

Rated: MA

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

“Talking”

`Thinking'

`Inner People Speaking'

*Motion/Sound*

*~* Scene Change *~*

*~*~* Flashback/ Dream Sequence*~*~*

(*AN: Authors Note *)

 

*~*

 

“WHAT?!”

 

Sasuke pulled the phone away from his ear and winced at the sharp pain the Hokage's loud and shrivelous voice had caused. Once he heard her rambling die down to a dull roar he put the receiver against his good ear and glanced to the large black leather couch where Sakura was sitting, watching her house on the news while drinking some mint tea to try and relax. He sighed and returned to his conversation with Tsunade when he heard her calling his name, wondering if he was even still there.

 

“Yeah, someone's been after her all week. I'm keeping her at my place where I know she'll be safe. Besides, it's not like I don't have the space.” He heard Tsunade scoff on the other end.

 

“How the hell do I know it's not YOU after her?!” Sasuke growled into the phone, getting silence form the other end.

 

“Even though she's annoying to no end I wouldn't intentionally harm one of my teammates! For all I know it was YOU- so keep your accusations to yourself!” He all but snarled into the phone. He heard silence for a moment, and waited until she spoke again, his arm impatiently tapping his kitchen counter.

 

“You honestly think I would try to kill my own student?!” Sasuke rolled his eyes.

 

“What I mean is that there's no proof saying that you or anyone else isn't the perpetrator at the moment! Right now I'm the only one I know didn't do it, and I'm protecting her until I or the authorities find out who's after her and why.” Silence greeted him again for a few moments.

 

“…fine. I'll allow it- BUT, I don't want you to leave her side for ANYTHING other than a shower until this is over! Do you hear me?! If anything happens to her I'll publicly execute you Uchiha Sasuke! That's a promise!!” Sasuke rolled his eyes.

 

“Fine. Look, do me a favor and tell Kakashi sensei that we won't be able to show up for training or missions tomorrow or the rest of the week for that matter.”

 

“What? Why?!” Sasuke couldn't believe her stupidity.

 

“Let's see, she's so out of it right now she can't even talk, her entire house blew up so she needs new clothes and crap, not to mention she's still a target! I don't think she could handle it right now.” He glanced over to Sakura again, frowning when he saw her staring down at her cup again. She still hadn't quite gotten over it yet…

 

“Alright, I get your point, fine. Just keep her safe for me, she's like a grand daughter to me.” Sasuke sighed and nodded.

 

“I will, you just inform Kakashi and I'll call you tomorrow to tell you how she's doing. Bye.” And with that he ended the conversation and hung up the phone. Sasuke sighed and stood there for a moment, trying to ease his exhausted nerves before walking into the living room and turning off the TV, the Uchiha flopped down on the couch next to Sakura and watched as she stared down into her cup more.

 

“Why are you helping me Sasuke-kun? Don't you hate me?” Sasuke was taken aback by her blunt and emotionless question. He looked over to her, a bit worriedly and sighed as he took the cup away from her and stood back up.

 

“No, I don't hate you- you're annoying, but I don't hate you.” Sakura let a small smile crack her emotionless face. He almost sighed in relief. Finally, she was returning to her normal self.

 

“But why are you helping me?” She asked, looking up at him curiously, even though her face matched her hair perfectly. Sasuke resisted the urge to laugh at her, and smirked instead. Though it quickly vanished when he realized that he didn't know the answer to her question himself. Why would he care if anything happened to her? She as a kunoichi- a Shinobi trained by the Hokage herself. Sakura could take care of herself… yet… Sakura, it seemed, had grown on him more than he had been willing to admit…

 

“Because… you're my teammate… and teammates have each other's backs.” That had earned a wide smile from Sakura, and Sasuke thought he felt his heart skip a beat when he saw it. It was unlike her normal smiles… it was warmer, and subtle. Not face splitting, forced or full of attitude like her smiles normally were… it was… beautiful…

 

“Thank you Sasuke-kun. I couldn't feel safe without you.” Sasuke could feel his face get a little warm and coughed to hide his blush, silently praying she hadn't seen it. He put the cup in the sink and put his hands in his pockets before walking back into the living room and offering her a hand to stand. She took it, not bothering to hide her blush, and followed him down a hallway of the mansion, exhostion clear on her face. She almost walked right into him when he stopped and opened a door.

 

“This is where you sleep, my room's at the end of the hall, and the bathroom's right across from your door. Goodnight.” Sakura gave a short bow and thanked him again before retiring to her new temporary room and closed the door. She looked around the dimly lit room, seeing that the walls were painted a lot like the rest of the house, the floors were a deep redwood color, and the walls were painted a deep red color while the roof's were black. It was dark, to say the least, but very nice. Sakura liked it, it fit Sasuke perfectly and it didn't feel evil, it kind of reminded her of… the 1920's in an odd way. She knew that it wasn't him who had decorated the house, probably his mother or grandmother…

 

Sakura sighed as she slipped under the warm and thick comforter on the large queen sized bed and was asleep in less than five minutes. Her last thoughts wondering what Sasuke's family was like before his brother had ruined it all.

 

*~*

 

Sasuke rolled over in bed, trying to get a few more minutes of sleep, not remembering why he had woken up in the first place, but slowly opened his eyes when he smelt a delicious aroma coming from his kitchen.

 

`Mom…? Bah, it must be Sakura.' And with that, Sasuke pulled the thick blankets off of his body and walked out of his room, wearing nothing but a pair of black pajama pants as he walked into the bathroom, not even bothering to open his eyes as he did his business. His head rolled back with a slightly confused face when he realized that the bathroom was unusually humid. Meaning that someone had taken a shower. The barley awake Sasuke shivered as he finished and flushed the toilet and rinsed his hands before walking into his living room to start his morning ritual.

 

“Today…Soil.” He stuck the relatively old CD in the sound system and proceeded to blast the music before flopping down on his couch and laying there for a few minutes while the music woke him up.

 

Sakura watched this from the kitchen, an amused expression gracing her face as she prepared breakfast. So, it seemed that not only was Sasuke not a morning person, but he listened to loud crazy music before he even showered. Interesting. Odd, but interesting. Sakura sweat dropped when she heard odd grunts and half moans coming from the seemingly miserable Uchiha, and chuckled nervously when she realized that he was attempting to… sing really couldn't describe it… along with the music. She finished preparing the plates and walked with them over to the table, watching as Sasuke turned his head so that his face wasn't buried in the leather cushions of the couch, and faced her.

 

“I'm a Seether fan myself.” Teased Sakura, getting a grunt out of Sasuke as he rolled himself off of the couch and walked to the table. The Uchiha flopped down in his seat, and just stared at his food for about five minutes, looking at the waffle, the sausage, the egg and the fruit almost suspiciously before looking up at Sakura, who was sucking on a pealed kiwi while reading the paper.

 

*Grunt*

 

Sakura looked up at Sasuke expectantly, wondering what he wanted. She saw him look down at his plate and rose an eyebrow when he stared at it some more, before looking back at her confused. She looked between him and the plate, a bit confused herself, and blinked.

 

“What?” She asked. Sasuke grunted again and looked down at his plate.

 

“…Looks so good I almost don't want to eat it. What time did you wake up?” Sakura had to stifle her laughter. Sasuke was definitely an odd person in the morning. She silently wondered if he would compliment her on lunch or dinner when he was more awake. The pink haired kunoichi simply shrugged, and continued reading the paper.

 

“I always wake up at around six. I didn't want to wake you up so I just cleaned up a bit, showered, and cooked when I got hungry. Why?” Sasuke finally grabbed his fork and devoured the sausage. What was it with men and cholesterol in the morning?

 

“I haven't had a big breakfast like this in years.” Sakura blinked. He sure did talk more freely when he was still half asleep… she'd have to remember that for later use. She watched him practically inhale his food and grunted again when he had to get up to put the plate in the sink. Sakura couldn't help but snicker at his antics when she watched him flop back down on his couch, grabbed the remote, and turned on the TV, not even bothering to turn off the music.

 

Sasuke sure was a lazy bastard in the morning…

 

*~*

 

*YAWN*

 

Sasuke shoved a piece of gum in his mouth, resorting to his never before failed method of using the almost unbearably strong mint of the vile piece of candy or whatever it was to wake him up a bit more. It seemed that Sakura had trained hard the day before and even though she halfway washed her clothes while he was still asleep, they were a bit smelly. He disagreed, saying that they smelled only like his shampoo, but apparently she's got a dog's sense of smell and says that she smelled like dirt, sweat, and Old Spice. She definitely didn't smell like a girl, but she didn't reek and Sasuke really, really, REALLY hated shopping.

 

“Oh! Sasuke-kun, doesn't this look cute?”

 

Especially with girls.

 

He just glared at her and the annoyingly bright pink tank top with a monkey on the front. Sakura sighed and put it back on the shelves, and looked around some more. Sasuke turned his head to the side lazily, and blinked when he saw one of his favorite stores. He looked between it and Sakura, and the bight, pink, and unbarably cute clothes around him.

 

“Sasuke- Ah! Where are we going?!” Asked Sakura, shocked and confused that he had just grabbed her arm and started to lead her out of the store.

 

“To a better store. I think I'll go blind if I see any more pastels or bright colors.” Sakura sweatdropped when he practically dragged her into Hottopic. She looked around and gulped when she saw a few clothes that she knew Sasuke owned, and laughed nervously at all the black.

 

“Um… Sasuke, black isn't really my colo-… oh.” Sasuke smirked when he lead her to the girl's section and shut her up when she saw the pink, yellow, green, white, black, red and blue shirts with fairies, bands, words, or nothing on them. Sakura was about to say she didn't particularly like any of the clothes, but froze when she saw the most kick-ass black and red tank top.

 

Sasuke watched as she began to shop and looked around the store himself for something. In no time he had wondered over to his favorite area, the arm warmer, wrist bands, and glove rack. Winter was starting to get bitterly cold and he needed a new pair of gloves, the ones he had last year didn't quite fit as well as they had the year before and he couldn't keep his hands in his pockets all the time. The Uchiha walked around the rack and paused when he heard someone talking behind him.

 

“Hey, isn't that chick with the pink hair the one all over the news?” Sasuke frowned, but kept looking at the gloves, listening to see if they might have had information.

 

“Yeah, the cops say someone blew her house up trying to kill her! Man, is that what it takes to get a ninja these days? Blowing them up?” Sasuke bit back a growl. The way this idiot was talking about Ninja was pissing him off.

 

“Obviously not if she's still alive dork! Anyway, did you hear who the cops think it might be?” Sasuke silently berated himself for not thinking about talking to them earlier. He'd defiantly have to do that when he got home.

 

“Actually, they said the neighbor saw someone snooping around the house or something like an hour before the chick showed up with someone. They wouldn't say who because it's who she's staying with- but the neighbor said that the person she saw snooping around was defiantly a ninja, she saw the outlining of a side bag, holster, and the reflection of a headband.” Sasuke felt his blood run cold. So… it was a ninja after her…

 

“Did she say if it was a girl or a boy? Or could she not tell?” Sasuke was starting to like this kid, he was asking ALL the right questions!

 

“I think she said that whoever it was that was snooping around was skinny, like a girl, but it was so dark that she couldn't tell- besides, you know Ninja can do transformations and stuff.” Sasuke frowned. That was true…

 

“Yeah, but what if it was a girl? Look at the chick over there- she's a BABE, probably someone jealous or peeved that she wouldn't go out with them or something.” Sasuke nearly snorted. Sakura? A babe? Yeah right. He looked over to her skeptically, how could she be a babe? She was skinny, well, not skinny- in shape, and had pink hair! How could anyone be attracted to someone with…shiny, soft, light pink hair…? Sasuke tensed when he saw her look up at him and flash him a smile. Exactly like the one she gave last night…

 

`She's beautiful…' Sasuke's eyes widened at the thought and he quickly shot his attention down to the gloves, berating himself for thinking like that about a teammate and returned to eavesdropping on the other shoppers. They seemed to know information he needed.

 

“Yeah, she's definitely a hottie- a hear that she's got eyes for some ninja dude though, one all the girls are after- and she was even put on his team a few years back. I personally think that it was either on of the dude's enemies, or a jealous chick that was after him too.” Sasuke froze.

 

“Yeah, you know how insane chicks are- can you imagine how unstable they would be if they were a ninja too?! No thanks-!!” Sasuke heard the guys stop talking and frowned when they did, he needed to listen to them- he was finding out important information damnit! Why the hell did they shut up anyway-?!

 

“Hey Sasuke-kun, I think I found enough clothes for now. Oh, these look cool.” Sasuke sighed and nodded as she handed him the pair of thin gauntlets that he was gonna get when he finished listening to the two guys behind him. He nodded and gabbed them along with a smaller pair of pink leather gloves with metal plates to protect her in a fight. He looked to the medium pile of clothes in her arms and felt his face flush a little when he caught sight of a lacy nightly.

 

“Yeah, c'mon, let's get these and head back. I need to talk to you.” Sakura blinked and nodded as she followed him to the cash register and paid for the clothes with the credit card her parents left her with when they were away and within twenty minutes they were back at the Uchiha Estate, putting away her stuff in her borrowed room. Sasuke waited impatiently as she changed, and was about to yell at her to hurry up when something… amazing happened.

 

“So what do you think Sasuke-kun?” Sasuke looked up from his seat on the couch and froze. Sakura was wearing a black tank top with two pink lace strips running down her chest that could have been mistaken for suspenders with a black fishnet shirt with low shoulders that stopped at her elbows, and had on a pair of black shorts under knee length black skirt that had long slits running up either hip much like her red dresses, and had a layer of pink fishnet stitched on the black clothe of the skirt. And he noticed the pink gloves he got her on, hell, his heater never really worked and it was fourty degrees outside the house, and not much warmer inside… but then why was it so hot in here?

 

“Sasuke-kun!” Sasuke was jarred out of his state of shock when Sakura ran over to him and started to wipe his face with a tissue from the box sitting at the in table he left there from when he was sick with a runny nose. But now it seemed he had a bloody one.

 

“I got it.” Sakura frowned and let him go when he jerked the tissue from her hand and stood before storming over to the bathroom and slamming the door shut. This left Sakura incredibly confused. Out of nowhere, Sasuke got a bloody nose when she walked into the room and looked at her- but people only get bloody noses when they pick it, or see something incredibly sexy… and she didn't see Sasuke with a finger up his face…

 

`D-dose that mean Sasuke thinks I'm sexy?!'

 

`CHYA!! OF COURSE HE DOSE!! HOW ELSE COULD YOU EXPLAIN IT?! HE'S ALL OURS!! CHYAA!!!' Sakura blushed beet red when Sasuke came back out into the living room looking highly peeved… she noticed that he was also avoiding looking at her. Now, Sakura, being the inletectual that she was, meant that when she had a theory, she tested it. And like any female, she wanted boys to look at her- especially a certain Uchiha… so, how was she going to prove her suspicions? How else of course, she would need to get him to look at her.

 

`*Grins Evilly*… perfect…'

 

“Sasuke-kun… it's so hot…” Sasuke looked at Sakura, his eyes widening when he saw her hand on her forehead while her body looked unbalanced before she suddenly became limp and headed for the ground fast.

 

Sakura faked a faint, and made sure to push her chakra in her body to make it seem like she had a temperature, but wouldn't be noticeable that she was indeed faking it. She felt him catch her before she hit the hard wood floor and bitterly held back the urge to grin like an idiot when she felt his hands cup her face and check her forehead. She mentally sighed in relief that her blush could be passed off as the temperature.

 

“Sakura?! Sakura wake up!! Sakura!!” Sasuke swore colorfully when she was unresponsive and picked her up bridal style for the second time in as many days before rushing her straight past her room and laid her down on his bed. Being the lazy bastard that he was in the morning, when he needed to get up fast he kept smelling salts in his drawrs. One would be perfect at the moment, if he could just FIND them that is.

 

Sakura was so surprised that Sasuke had taken her straight to his room and laid her down on his INCREDUBLY soft and comfy bed that she almost squealed. No WONDER Sasuke hated getting up in the morning! This bed was like laying on a cloud! She slowly took a deep breath to calm herself before barley opening her eyes, she could faintly make out a dark blur that she guessed was Sasuke and silently watched as he rummaged through his dresser for something.

 

“Where the hell are they?! DAMNIT!!” Sakura watched a little bit guiltily that he was getting so strung out over her and was about to tell him it was a very bad joke, but froze when he suddenly turned around faced her.

 

`Sasuke-kun…' She bit back tears when she saw his worried expression. She decided to shift in the bed, making it seem like she was asleep but waking up. She was REALLY starting to like his bed…

 

“Sakura!” Sasuke flew on the edge of the bed, his hand on her forehead to check her temperature, sighing in relief when he felt that her temperature had gone down some more. He pulled her hitai-ate and gloves off of her before pulling the blankets up to cover her. If she was sick then he'd have to make sure she got some rest no matter how badly he needed to talk to her. He was about to get up when she shifted again in her `sleep' and rested the back of her now bare hand against his.

 

“…sasu…ke…” Sakura felt like an idiot but she wanted to see what his reaction would be. She was also blushing from head to toe because of him tucking her into HIS bed and nearly fainted into a real sleep. She felt him slowly move, and caught herself before she gasped when she felt his hand brush against her face and run through her hair before sliding across her cheek again.

 

“Beautiful…” And that was all it took, she passed out from shock. Not quite having a heart attack, but dangerously close never the less. Sasuke sighed and stood up to look at his alarm clock. 7:38, bah, it was early but with being out all day and nearly having a heart attack just now he was feeling kind of run down himself.

 

Sasuke sighed again as he pulled off his shirt, gloves and headband, laying them next to Sakura's on the in table before walking over to the other side of the king sized bed and crawling under the warm covers exhausted.

 

Tomorrow he would definatly have to talk to Sakura.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

~Buni-san~