A/N: Because I have an unhealthy obsession with Sasuke being the one in love with Sakura. (Probably because she takes so much bull from him...)I OWN NOTHING BUT PLOT!

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~Project Sakura~

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-1-

Uchiha Sasuke.

Dark haired god with a general brooding appearance, sculpted body, and eyes that could set fire to water. His ninja skills monumentally surpassed the measly 'genin' title he still had stapled to him, and his ability to intimidate most who stood against him made him a valuable member to any team, let alone a great friend. Or body guard. Or hit man. Sasuke had been hired to do both things on multiple occasions. Uchiha Sasuke was a 'rare-breed'. The last Uchiha. The first person to defect from a village and return to defend it during the war... He was a fine catch, if the Uchiha did say so himself (which he did, every morning). And yet...

There was a Yamanaka Ino, long, flowing hair and large blue eyes, blushing over Hyuuga Neji and completely ignoring Sasuke..

And yes, Neji was a pretty decent rival for the likes of Sasuke. But the problem was... it wasn't just Neji. As the months of probation began disappearing in the past and Sasuke began to assimilate back into the society of Konoha, he started to notice how girls- even his own fan girls- began fawning over other young shinobi. Suddenly, Ino's new fixation was Neji. Shikamaru recieved many letters from that sand kunoichi, Temari. Lee and Tenten spent considerable amounts of time together "training" (though knowing Lee, they probably were). Chouji and a new worker at Ichiraku Ramen were beginning to form a new relation ship.

The list literally went on and on. It got to the point where going out to eat with friends became irritating because there was always a girl who attempted to join in, uninvited might Sasuke add, and practically eye-raped whomever she was dating or crushing on or whatever. And none of them paid any heed to Sasuke- not even his fan girls. He hadn't even really been bothered by it until the fateful day when he went out to eat with his best friend and Hokage-in-training, Uzumaki Naruto.

Now, Naruto was an attractive guy. Blonde hair, blue eyes, sun-kissed skin. He was well built (though not like Sasuke) and strong (also not like Sasuke, as aforementioned shinobi mentioned day in and day out without much proof) and good man. At heart. At first sight, Naruto was an idiot. A loud idiot. One who used to make girls run for the hills at his presence. Used to. That used to bothered Sasuke to literally no ends, because all of a sudden, girls were flinging themselves at Naruto, begging to go on dates with him, dying to have a whiff of him after training.

All because Naruto was "the savior of Konoha" and "such a great friend" and "brave enough to go toe-to-toe with death" and all of that bull. Sasuke honestly wasn't impressed. He had killed Orochimaru and Itachi. Though he hadn't actually gotten rid of Orochimaru. And Itachi not only had a disease, but once he had been killed, Sasuke realized he had messed up a good one.

But anyway.

Sasuke's fan-girls liked Naruto now.

And it all pissed him off.

"Why the long face, Sasuke?" Naruto wondered as he ate ramen noodles loudly. Sasuke hadn't realized he had been stewing in silence long enough for Naruto to notice. Oops.

"Hn, nothing."

"You don't glare at nothing. Tell Daddy Naruto what's wrong." Sasuke tried to pretend that 'daddy Naruto' didn't sound as wrong as it had. It was a hard task.

"I told you, nothing's wrong." Naruto's blue eyes were soon all Sasuke could see as the blonde attempted to stare into Sasuke's mind. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his so-called-best friend and leaned backwards. "Get out of my face."

"No." Stupid stubborn Naruto. "Tell me what's wrong and I will, though."

"...Don't take this the wrong way?"

"Pinkie promise." Sasuke stared at the pinkie that nearly touched his nose. He was probably cross-eyed, the tanned finger was so close. He wouldn't have relented, but Naruto got annoying when he didn't get his way. So he wrapped his own pale pinkie with Naruto's as he spoke.

"I've noticed that a lot of guys are finding girls to... date." Naruto stared at Sasuke blankly, making no movements to sit back down or unlock pinkies with the raven haired teen. "And I... noticed... that the females of this village don't seem to notice me anymore."

Silence. Then-

"Meh, they're probably just afraid of you. I mean, you did try to kill us all," Naruto said as he plopped back into his stool. He hesitated after realizing what he had said. "Erm... no offense."

"Hn." Sasuke glared at his tomato soup before him. "Just bothers me that girls seem to like you more than me. Not that I care about a few ditzy females opinions but..." Things were changing. Quickly. Sasuke wasn't used to this new Konoha where people liked Naruto and he was the outcast. It was so... weird.

"You're being stupid," Naruto said, lifting his water cup to his lips. After three loud gulps, he set the empty glass down and gave Sasuke a grin. "Why don't you just ask a girl out! That'd sure make you seem less scary and get more girls interested in you and you might actually like whoever you decide to date!" Like? As in have feelings for? Sasuke wasn't sure he was ready to place those kind of emotions in a female. The closest girl to him was Sakura and she-

Sakura.

Of course.

"Why do you have that gleam in your eye? Teme? What are you thinking of? An evil idea? You won't try to kill me, will you?"

"Shut up, Dobe, I just thought of an idea."

"Yea, no kidding." Sasuke glared at Naruto who merely gave Sasuke a cheeky grin.

"...I should just date Sakura."

...

"That's a bad idea, Teme." And now Naruto looked pissed. As in, pissed enough to unload a rasengan upon Sasuke's male assets. The Uchiha sincerely hoped this anger wasn't related to the possible crush Naruto might've still harbored for Sakura.

"You don't still like her, do you?" Sasuke asked. Naruto shook his head.

"No. I don't. But she's like a sister to me. I love her. And if you're using her just to fit in with the others and end up breaking her heart, I will feel no qualms against ripping your dick off."

The threat, so serious and full of blood-lust, silenced Sasuke for a good long while. He had never heard Naruto sound so scary, aside from the moments he had slipped into a Kyuubi-induced rage session.

Perhaps dating Sakura would be a bad idea. But then, who else would he get to date? Surely, his most loyal fan-girl would still be in love with. Sasuke nodded his head at the thought. Konoha might have changed, but he knew he could count on Sakura.

"Sasuke." He looked to the blonde curiously. Naruto looked unusually somber as he began swirling his bowl of ramen. His eyes were down cast. His voice was low. "Sakura isn't the same girl you once knew. I know you think she'll jump at the chance to be with you but..." Naruto hesitated, looking up to lock eyes with Sasuke. "She isn't the same fan-girl you left at Konoha's gates. Trust me."

Konoha hospital was easy enough to find. After another threat from Naruto and a brief argument over who would pay for the food (Naruto did), Sasuke found himself wandering the halls, looking for a certain pink haired medic. The nurses who passed him by all cast him weary glances, passed nervous whispers to those around them. It was as though they were completely unaware to the fact that Sasuke could hear them.

It's Uchiha Sasuke.

What's he doing here?

I hope he doesn't hurt anyone.

Nonsense, he's been back for three months now. He should be safe enough.

And yet they still looked at him like a monster. Sasuke forced himself not to glower at them, knowing it would only make everything worse. A short while later, he located Sakura. She was in an empty hospital room, stuffing a pillow into it's case. Her back was to the door. Sasuke stood on the threshold, wondering how he should go about asking her out.

Would the traditional way be to boring?

Perhaps he should have brought flowers. Did Sakura even like flowers? Yes, her name was Sakura, but one couldn't just assume that just because-

Wait.

Sasuke was freaking out over nothing.

Sakura was going to say yes. She had to. She was in love with him!

"Sakura." The pinket jumped, dropping the pillow to the bed before turning on the balls of her feet. A smile spread across her face once she saw Sasuke, and her eyes brightened.

"Sasuke! Hey!" Sakura exclaimed as she placed the pillow in it's proper place and began to fix the bed. "Something you need?" Sasuke stared at her. Really stared. Could a girl who wasn't in love with him really look that happy to see him? He didn't think so. Naruto had his head up his butt if he couldn't see that Sakura was so totally in love with him.

"Sakura... will you go out with me?" There was no hesitation in her answer.

"No." Well that hadn't went at all like the way he had imagined. Not that he imagined these things. Because Sasuke didn't think of Sakura like that. Seriously. He didn't. He did narrowed his eyes, though, because Sakura had to love him. She just had to.

"What do you mean no? Don't you love me?" Okay, he hadn't meant to make it sound like that. But it had and there wasn't much taking it back. Sakura looked over her shoulder, curiously raising an eyebrow.

"Sasuke, are you okay? Do you have a fever or something?" Silly woman, Uchihas didn't get sick.

"Are you okay, Sakura? I'm asking you on a date." Now Sakura seemed a little annoyed.

"Yes, I heard you. I just said no."

"But...why?" Sakura shrugged her slender shoulders as she leaned against the hospital bed, a smirk outlining her pink lips.

"Um, I don't know, maybe because we're best friends and that would be weird?" Had Sasuke just been friend-zoned? Was that the sound of the resounding 'failure' filling the room, or was he going crazy? Was it all in his head? Did Sakura seriously not want to go out with him?

"I uh... don't understand," Sasuke said, walking over to Sakura. "You can't be serious."

"Oh, I am. Now tell me, who put you up to this? Ino? Naruto?" She really believed that she didn't love him anymore. She must have tricked herself. It made sense. Her heart had been broken too many times, so now this was her defense. Denial! Sasuke would break her walls and make her love him once again. For the sake of Konoha's past and all that was good back in the day...

"So..." Sasuke took a step closer to Sakura, making sure that his chest was nearly at her back, his nose just centimeters away from her cherry-scented hair. "You're not in love with me?" She turned on him, completely unaffected by his close proximity.

"Nope," she deadpanned before shoving passed him (HIM, THE LOVE OF HER LIFE) to go attend to patients elsewhere.

What do you think? I don't think it was as funny as I could have made it, so I will definitely incorporate more humor later on (but still keep the integrity of this story).