154Summary:
Sakura and Sasuke sharing one umbrella...? It's Sakura's dream come true! Perfectly romantic... however, the others don't seem think so... including Sasuke himself.
Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine…
A/N:
Uhh… Hello again, everyone… -scratches head nervously- I know, I know… I've been a very bad girl for not showing up and updating my story for a few months now… I'm really really sorry about that! I mean… writer's block… I can't force myself to write…
So uhh…. I present you guys another SasuSaku fic… This fic is quite pointless (but extremely fluffy! XD), so, to anyone who doesn't want to read fics like this, you better head back... I wrote this to help me get over my writer's block… and I do hope that it's good enough for everyone to like…
Also, I wanna dedicate this to my dear friends, DemonicBlackCat and Bemobebe. Hello, you two! This is for the both of you because you cheered me up and gave me the inspiration to consider writing SasuSaku again! XDXDXD
Ehem… anyway… Please do enjoy!
Sasuke's Umbrella
By: Fascinatrix femina
Sakura hated this day now more than ever.
The pink-haired kunoichi couldn't help but let out a very frustrated groan after looking down at herself, her mouth curling into an ugly frown because of the mess she unfortunately had gotten herself into. Mud stuck on every part of her body, especially her legs, and her dress wasn't red and clean anymore for it turned into a brownish, ugly-looking rag soaked in disgusting mud.
With her fists clenched tightly at her sides, she tore her gaze away from her dress and glared at something in front of her, specifically the muddy ground where several fruits and vegetables were splattered.
So much for all her hard work...
She couldn't believe it... Her groceries, as well as all the damned stress she had gone through just to find and buy those said groceries, were gone in a blink of an eye.
"Watch where ye goin', brat!"
Sakura lifted her head to stare at the face of the man who was looming angrily above her. He was the man who had slammed his huge self against her a while ago, causing her to let out a small shriek of surprise, land on her rear, and accidentally bathe herself on a puddle of mud. He was the man who had forced her to let go of her bags of groceries, allowing all her hard-earned fruits and vegetables to tumble out of the paper bags and right into the mud-covered ground...
And now, that same man was threatening his fists at her, his expression furious, as if this whole mess was her fault to begin with...
She cracked her knuckles.
And the man was knocked out before he even had the chance to blink.
If this was like any other day, Sakura would have smirked in satisfaction at what she had done to the man who was now lying face-down on the dirt, his nose bloody and his face horribly swollen. Instead, she found herself groaning inwardly, reality slapping her hard on both cheeks.
The groceries...!
The groceries were ruined and, whether she wanted to admit it or not, this... accident... was still partly her fault... What would her mom say to her once she got home? She'd probably reprimand her for being careless, tell her to be more careful next time, and then send her back to the market again without another word or excuse from her.
Sakura groaned. It had been like hell going inside the market. The place had been so crowded that it had looked as if almost all the people in there were mobbing each and every stalls...
Well... it was either that or there was a great stampede of hungry people fighting over which one of them could grab and devour all the food in the market first.
This is going to be a really long trip... Sakura repressed the sudden urge to pull the ends of her pink hair in frustration. And she had been planning to sleep after finishing this errand, too...! She hadn't been able to get much sleep last night because yesterday's training with Lady Tsunade had been so intense that her body had cramped all over, making it hard for her to get a good night's sleep...
She just wanted to go to bed! She didn't want to go back in the market and go through hell again!
But then again... did she have a darn choice?
Already knowing the answer to that question, Sakura headed home, feeling even more glum than ever.
And then, just when she thought that things couldn't get any worse, something from above caught her attention. Sakura's eyes went wide when she looked up at the sky, noticing what the winds had brought...
A gasp escaped her lips. "Oh no..."
Thick, wide sheets of dark and menacing clouds.
She blinked, not believing her eyes...
Sakura wasn't exactly sure what she did wrong, but whatever it was, she must have done something really bad to receive such torture from the heavens.
As if to answer her thoughts, the heavens cackled loudly in her ears, and it almost seemed as if someone from above was mocking her for her distress and her ungodly bad luck. Soon enough, tiny droplets of rain came pummeling down towards her, splattering her flushed face.
If she was in her right state of mind, she would have ran home as fast as she could before the rain could get any worse, but she wasn't thinking quite clearly at the moment. She was too shocked, too frustrated to do anything else but to stare numbly at the sky and wonder if the fat droplets of rain were the heaven's tears of laughter.
And so, for a few long minutes, she just stood there, completely motionless, just glaring up at the sky...
...and she would have continued to stand there like that if only a certain someone hadn't called out her name.
Sakura almost jumped at the sound, the familiar voice effectively jolting her out of her trance-like state. Her head whipped at the direction of the person who had called her and her jaw almost dropped to the ground when she laid eyes upon the owner of the voice. "S-Sasuke-kun...?"
The young Uchiha was standing a few feet away from her and was looking at her strangely, his dark eyes narrowed in what Sakura guessed as curiosity. In his hand was an umbrella...
An umbrella... Sakura grimaced, her fingers twitching lightly after realizing that she hadn't brought one with her.
Silence reigned between them for a long while before Sakura assumed that Sasuke must be waiting for an explanation as to why she was standing there... alone... and completely soaked...
At that moment, she began to wonder the same thing.
"Uhh... I forgot my..." Her mind fumbled for an excuse and her eyes darted to his umbrella. "...my umbrella." Sakura mentally slapped herself for her lame answer and for letting Sasuke see her in such a disheveled state. In an attempt to regain some of her dignity in front of her precious teammate, she tucked her wet pink hair behind her ears and attempted to fix her dress.
There was a pause before Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her answer. Obviously, he didn't believe her excuse, but he didn't press on for some serious explanation and just turned to walk past her. "That was... careless." His expression was blank but his tone was harsh, as if he was accusing her for not bringing an umbrella with her when it was obvious that it would rain today.
Sakura felt herself shrink at his words.
Great. Just great...
She lifted her gaze to the sky and noticed that the rain kept on pouring down even harder. The wind started to pick up and she could feel it enveloping her in an icy embrace, making her shiver in response. "Umm... Sasuke-kun?"
She could faintly hear Sasuke's footsteps when she turned around and faced his retreating figure. She was almost afraid that he wouldn't hear her because of the rain, but thankfully, Sasuke did hear her and stopped in his tracks. He titled his head to the side, looking at her at the corner of his eye. "Can you... can you walk me home?" She stuttered the words out, her cheeks instantly growing hot.
He didn't respond.
Sakura bit her lip nervously, not sure of what to do or what to say next. The sudden silence was awkward and it was choking her, forcing her to feel uncomfortable until she couldn't bear the tension anymore.
Eventually, she lowered her head in disappointment, inwardly taking his silence as a no.
She had no choice. She'd have to walk home under the rain... alone... and without an umbrella...
Then, much to her surprise, before she could take a step forward, Sasuke finally spoke up. "Hn."
Sakura didn't need to be told twice. With a grateful smile, she walked under the protection of Sasuke's umbrella, sighing at the small comfort it brought and also at the warmth of the person standing right next to her.
When the two of them started walking in silence, it was only then that it fully registered in Sakura's mind that she was sharing an umbrella with Sasuke...
Her mood lightened and, for the first time that day, a small smile crawled its way to her lips.
Sasuke, however, wasn't all too happy at the sudden turn of events. He was supposed to be going straight back to his house, not waste his time and walk someone home!
But then again, could he really leave Sakura there? Alone, under the rain, and looking all helpless?
He could, actually...
...if she was just like any other girl.
She really should be grateful that she wasn't.
What the hell was she doing back there anyway? It had been a real surprise for him to see her standing in the middle of the road, looking so lost in her thoughts and soaking under the rain. She had been looking up at the sky, as if she was... glaring at something? For a second, Sasuke's eyes darted upwards to look for anything unusual...
He didn't see anything.
What was she looking at? What was she doing there?
...and where in the heck was her umbrella?
With a frown, he looked down at the girl who was now walking beside him, finally noticing her dirty clothes and her mud-covered body. If he was somebody else, he would have cared and asked right away what had happened to her, but...
Too bad he wasn't somebody else...
It was none of his business, so why should he care?
But then again, if he didn't care, why did he kept on wondering what she was doing and even agreed on walking her home in the first place?
Simple.
Because she was different from all the other girls... Different in a sense that she was his teammate and he wasn't that much of a dick to leave a teammate behind just like that...
Sasuke frowned at his thoughts.
Just who the hell was he kidding?
With a muttered curse, he mentally noted to himself that next time, he should think of a better excuse... If he could come up with a more convincing excuse, then it wouldn't be so hard for him to deny that he actually cared - much more than he was letting on - about his pink-haired teammate.
"S-Sasuke-kun...?" His thoughts were interrupted by her voice and he could sense the stare that Sakura was directing at him. "Thank you." He knew she was smiling at him with that smile on her face, so he ignored her, not daring to meet her gaze.
Her smile was annoying. It irked him a lot because her smile was different from other people's smiles. It was as if hers radiated... something.
And he didn't like that... something because there was... something in there that was affecting him so.
And he'd rather not think about whatever that... something was.
Sasuke let out a soft curse, wanting to get rid of those unwanted thoughts inside his mind and thinking that it was so unlike him to ponder about something that was absolutely nonsense. He forced himself to look straight ahead, his grip on his umbrella unconsciously tightening.
And then, much to his irritation, she began talking to him. He cringed, not bothering to understand or to respond to whatever she was babbling about. Damn her... Why did she have to start talking to him? Her voice was grating his nerves!
Why? He didn't know.
Before, only Naruto had that power to annoy him that much, but for the past few days - or months, he wasn't quite sure - she was becoming much more annoying than that clumsy idiot.
He turned to gaze momentarily at the sky and was just in time to see a crack of lightning tear through the dark clouds. Seconds later, the heavens boomed, followed by an even louder pattering of rain against his umbrella.
Obviously, the weather was getting worse, but Sasuke wasn't bothered the slightest bit. In fact, he was grateful for it because the rain drowned out Sakura's chattering, turning her high-pitched voice into a light buzzing sound in his ears.
However, much to his annoyance, the rain sure made him much more aware of her presence beside him. At the corner of his eyes, he could see her every moment, how she flailed her hands in the air in order to elaborate further whatever she was talking about, the way she grimaced when her damp pink hair irritated her for sticking at the sides of her cheeks, how she uncomfortably fiddled with her dress that was as dirty and... clingy as hell, and how hard she tried to quicken her steps so she could keep up with his long strides.
Muttering a curse under his breath, Sasuke walked even faster, not caring whether his teammate would be able to keep up with him or not.
Hell, he wanted to get her home as quickly as possible...
Just who the fuck said that walking Sakura home was a good idea, anyway?
All of a sudden, the heavens roared loudly from above, startling him a little. His teammate, on the other hand, gasped in alarm and before he knew it, two shaking and icy cold hands made a grab for his right arm, nearly forcing him to let go of his umbrella.
Sasuke heard himself curse under his breath, his narrowed eyes turning to look down at his teammate. His mouth curled into a scowl and he wasn't sure if he was irritated at how she reacted so childishly at the thunder, or the fact that she was holding his arm so tightly as if there was no tomorrow.
He wanted to tell her to let him go... or he'd push her away himself, but when he was about to do just that, something - or someone - from behind caught his attention.
"Shit! Shit! SHIT!"
Sasuke sighed. He didn't need to turn around to know who it was. The person's overly loud voice was a dead give-away already.
Just exactly what he needed right now... A much bigger pain in the ass...
To be continued…
A/N:
I think anybody here already knows who that "bigger pain in the ass" is… -grins-
So, uhh… what do you guys think? Please let me know, okay? Thank you so much for reading, and your reviews are greatly appreciated! XD
Umm… before I forget, I'm real sorry about this, but it'll probably take me a week or something before I update this story. School's being such a jerk to me and my lack of SasuSaku love are keeping me from writing… -sighs-
Anyway… Thanks so much again! I hope I'll see you again next chapter!