Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Surprise, Blossom ❯ Deadly Gossip ( Chapter 3 )

Sakura's P.O.V

“Ms. Haruno,” the teacher didn't exactly look thrilled when I entered the classroom twenty-five minutes late. I tugged at the ends of my green sundress nervously as I tried to avoid Sasuke's curious gaze.

“I'm sorry, Miss. I had an emergency.” It wasn't exactly a lie. After my little breakdown in the change room, I'd also discovered my monthly friend had come to cheer me up.

“Alright, sit down.” Miss nodded towards Sasuke, because that was my usual spot. Now I had no choice, so I hesitantly walked over to our table.

Sasuke was the only one sitting there, of course, and he smirked and raised an eyebrow at me. “You had an emergency?”

Every other time in my life, I would've been able to tell him or Naruto very openly exactly what was wrong, but now it was different. Now I knew that Sasuke was stuck in just-friends territory with me. “My um…” I coughed, “Period.”

Sasuke just nodded knowledgably. “Hn.”

I sat on the edge of my chair, as far away from him as possible. Sasuke was right handed and I was left handed, so we always had an elbow-colliding problem when we wrote. Now, I tried to position my elbow in an awkward way so as to avoid skin-to-skin contact with the boy. It took a good five minutes, and then after that my writing speed was slowed down by at least three times. Miss started taking up the work and I was still writing the first sentence.

“Sakura, tell us what you have,” Miss suggested.

I sighed. “Um, `I think Poem Six was very inspirational for a lot of reasons',” I read.

Miss waited for more. “…And…?”

I stared at my empty page like I was reading something. “And um, I have reasons. Because line one was saying that, um… Love is challenging but um, we shouldn't give up.” I could feel my face growing red because there was no way I could make up the whole thing. That's when I felt Sasuke touch my knee beneath the table.

The contact made me jump and drop my paper. As I bent down to pick it up Sasuke shoved his own finished paper in my face. I picked it up and read: “Poem Six was inspirational in the concepts of success in the end after an unrequited love. The hero was able to win over the mysterious bar singer because he did not give up, did not let anything get him down, but most of all because of the overall power of his love.”

The class clapped. Sasuke smirked. I wiped the sweat off my forehead. “Thanks,” I whispered. Miss smiled and started scribbling on the board. I noticed class was almost over and started gathering my things. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at me.

“Are we going to play soccer?”

I swore inwardly and tried to face away from him. “Um, actually…today I can't.” I was a horrible liar, but right now I had to make it work. Sasuke tried to get in my range of vision but I didn't allow it; I completely turned my back on him. “I have this problem. That I can't fix right now. So um, I c-can't.”

Sasuke was silent until I turned to look at him. He looked at me knowingly. “Your period?”

I blushed. “Y-yeah. It's um, strong?” My best friend just nodded.

“Okay, no problem. Maybe we could get a drink or someth-”. Before he could finish what he was saying, the bell rang and I darted out the door.

I ran a couple corners, completely not seeing where I was going. There was a group of students my age in front of a classroom, which meant the teacher was late. I bet they had Mr. Kakashi. I was about to pass them when something small got in my way.

“S-Sakura…” I stopped mid-sprint and made myself look down calmly.

“…Hinata!” I had to admit, I was honestly surprised to see her here, talking to me. “Um, what's up?” I looked around, distracted and paranoid.

“I have Math now,” she spoke. I looked around and recognized the area.

“Oh yeah,” I said. “Where's Naruto?”

“Um, l-late.” Hinata looked up at me with her pale eyes. She looked more nervous than usual. “I have a…question. Um…” She stared at me some more and then took in a deep breath. “S-Sakura, should I sit with h-him, do you think?”

My eyes finally focused on her. “Hm? Yeah!” I grinned. “That's a great idea! I'm sure he'll be really glad!” I gave her a thumbs up.

That's when Mr. Kakashi finally showed up and Hinata had to go. I was more calm now. I straightened my back and proceeded walking ahead. The last couple of students were entering the classroom. As I passed them, I caught a slip of conversation.

“Hey, isn't that the one who likes Sasuke?”

I stopped in my tracks. “WHAT?!” I was about to run back when Mr. Kakashi slammed the classroom door in my face. I stood on my tiptoes and tried to peek in through the little window in the door. Sure enough, the two gossipers were staring at me. They were both guys I'd never seen before, and for some reason they'd known something very personal. I growled at them and they saw it. The first guy made a face as if to say `Wasn't us'. I swore and retreated from the door.

So, word was getting around. Someone was spreading my secrets. I stood for a moment, trying to breathe deeply. Then I gave up and kicked the wall. I heard gasps from inside the classroom and was forced to run off. I ran all the way home.

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“Sakura, honey. Your friends are here.” Of course, when I hadn't been there after school Sasuke and Naruto must've thought that something was wrong. And it was, it was incredibly wrong.

“I can't talk!” I shouted to her downstairs. “I'm in the middle of something REALLY important!”

I don't think she bought it, but she said something to make them go away. Then, she came up to my room. I hid my head under my pillow, forgetting to fake doing something `really important'.

My mom sat on the bed and patted my back. “Your friends just wanted me to remind you that you guys made plans to go to Ichi's Ramen shop tomorrow.” Then she got up and left. As soon as the door closed I groaned.

“Nooo,” I moaned. I had completely forgotten. It was going to be horrible. How on Earth was I going to face them, they probably thought something was going on. Suddenly a terrible thought struck me. What if the gossip about me had reached Sasuke?! He would probably avoid me like the plague! I hid my head under the pillow again.

I couldn't ditch, no. Then the two of then would just force their way into my own house- not that my mom would put up much of a fight. No, I had to go or else they'd really suspect something. I rolled over and stared at the ceiling. I hade to kill this rumor. I rolled over again, and then a more important thought hit me. I had to kill this rumor, and the person who had stared it. Whoever they were, they were going to get a taste of my anger.