Okay... Hi everyone! This is my first Naruto fic and I tried my hardest on it, even though I slipped into writers block halfway through it... I also started to watch the Naruto Shippuden episodes halfway through this and that might be why they act a little to mature for their age, being that this fic takes place after the Chunin exams...
Dedication: Alright, most people think that April 1st is supposed to be a very funny day full of pranks, but it means something else to me. I thought of this with inspiration from one of my best friends, and ex-boyfriend, Eric. Even though we broke up a couple days ago, April 1 would have been our 4 month anniversary. When we took the 'which character are you quiz' for Naruto, I ended up getting Sakura while he got Sasuke; and besides that, they are my favorite Naruto couple. I finished writing this about two weeks before I put it up, so even though we broke up, I still dedicate this to you, Eric.
Author's Notes: Okay, as I said earlier, they may be a little mature for their age. I also wrote this during writers block, so some stuff may be really weird or too detailed.
Update: I cleaned this up the best I could, which isn't very good and means that I did leave a few mistakes. I would also like to add that Scarlett (TheMysteriousAuthoress) checked this the first time I wrote it and I would like to thank her (Thanks TMA!). I also want to add that I may add another chapter, only that chapter would be "Naruto's Edition" (I'm not telling you anything about it yet! XP). Sorry for the long description and I hope you all enjoy.
Disclaimer:I do not own Naruto.
Sakura Petals and Chocolate Chips
"I'm sick of this Sakura!" The pink haired, emerald green-eyed ninja did not look at the boy who was yelling at her. Her eyes remained on her hands and what was placed in them. Chocolate chip cookies held in a white handkerchief-though that handkerchief was not tied, exposing the ten cookies held inside.
Another hand came crashing into the scene, knocking the cookies out of her hand and hurtling towards the dirt path. With the force he used, the bottom few snapped into millions of pieces and the top ones flew everywhere, breaking in the process, leaving a few still on the handkerchief that weren't cracked too severely or at all. All she could was watch.
Her arms were now like jello at her sides, which her legs quickly turned to as well, though she remained standing. Her heart feeling like it had stopped in a painful way and she held her breath at the sight, flinching at what came next.
"You bring cookies to me every week and every week I say no! What would make this week any different?!"
She wasn't used to getting yelled at by her crush. He would usually just say "no" plainly and simply before leaving to go elsewhere. She would more often than not stand where he had left her for a moment before leaving herself, hoping that maybe next week he'd accept her offer-she just wanted to talk to him.
Allowing her head to hang low, she just looked at the ruined cookies at her feet. The choice few that were intact didn't interest her as much as the broken ones; she had spent a lot of time over the past few months perfecting them, each batch getting better then the last.
"I don't want your cookies," he continued making her flinch again, "I don't want to talk to you!" She flinched again, her heart twisting in her chest by his words, "I don't even want to look at you anymore!" Shocked, the female ninja closed her eyes. Her heart was breaking-just like the cookies had-thanks to him. "If it wasn't for us being on the same team, I'd tell you I don't ever want to see you again!"
There was a pause, but she could feel his eyes burning into her skull-her head lowered prohibiting him to see her face. Her heart was shattering into millions of tiny shards that cut through her body making everything ache. Her legs shook, even though she remained standing holding onto whatever pride she had left in her so he wouldn't see her cry.
She could tell that he either was finished or was close too. He always glared daggers at the person he was yelling at before silently leaving, sometimes giving one last casual remark. It was who he was and always would be; she knew that to a fault.
"Remember that from now on-got it?" He growled, making her want to fall to her knees more then ever then, but she continued to stand. She didn't know how she could stand anymore, but somehow-even after that onslaught of words and rage-she was.
She could hear his footsteps heading in the opposite direction, slowly getting softer and softer until she could barely hear them anymore. That was when she fell to her knees, though she refused to open her eyes, afraid that by doing so it may make her cry.
The wind blew softly, rustling the trees and brushing her hair back and forth across her face. Leaves danced along the path, onto and off it, caught up by the wind.
Her fingertips drawing circles in the dirt, repeatedly, as she tried to get her mind off everything that happened and failed miserably. She bit down on her lip so hard she thought it might draw blood, though none appeared, as she tried not to let the sobs escape from her body through her lips.
Her heart was shattered beyond all repair-never having been yelled at like that by her crush. She just wanted to be there for him, was that so wrong?
Her head hung so low now her chin was resting on her chest, her shaking fingertips now latched onto her shirt as her heart pounded painfully in her chest.
Was rejection supposed to feel like this…? No, she had been rejected before and it sure didn't feel like this every time. It had to be what he said-it just had to be! The words were still fresh on her mind, echoing over and over in her head.
"Sakura…" A new voice-the other one of her comrades she always found so annoying. However, that didn't stop her from peeking open her eyes to look at the newcomer.
She saw his blue eyes first, realizing that he was squatting down in front of her, making them eye level. His glance was concerned, pity was shining in them as well, but at the same time, he appeared gentle.
Sakura continued to stare at Naruto straight in the eye, her gaze not faltering; though, she was trying to compose herself and was failing painfully at that. Her mind was racing, thinking only of if she was going to cry or not-and out of anyone. Naruto was one of the last people she wanted to cry in front of. Knowing that the blond ninja in front of her was going to ask many questions, she tried to brace herself for them, but his words never came.
She could see his arms move slightly, as if he was holding something that was close to the ground. Her emerald green eyes glanced down in a flash, having a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach about this and already a guess of what he could be holding. How could she be such an idiot as to not cleanup her mess?
She guessed that he was holding the cookies she had left forgotten on the ground-the ones that remained whole and not covered in dirt- the ones that had been lucky enough to stay in the handkerchief. He held them up to her, almost like a little kid, four cookies on the creamy white handkerchief, which in some lucky feat had not gotten dirty.
Anger and rage consumed her as she stared at the four cookies he held. Those stupid godforsaken cookies had gotten her hated at by her crush, so she could only be mad at them. Those sweets were causing her pain!
She could feel tears brim her eyes, making her widen them in sudden realization. She would not let anyone see her in such a pathetic state, so she turned to the only emotion she could turn to at this moment-the emotion that was quickly swallowing her heart: anger.
Turning away from the knuckle headed ninja, she shut her eyes letting the salty tears dissolve into the air. Her hand slapped his-hoping in attempt to rid the world of those cookies, only to fail. Naruto had seen this coming, quickly taking note of the pink haired girl's actions, grabbed onto the cookies, sparing three from her attack. The fourth cookie-the one on the top-flew out and into the air before landing a couple feet over, becoming dirt infested.
"Leave me alone Naruto!" She snap angrily, only for it to sound more like a sorrow filled whimper. She didn't open her eyes to see what happened, she didn't want to. She could feel the hot tears stinging her eyes and she knew that if she opened her eyes they would race down her cheeks.
There was silence other then the sound of the wind dancing through the trees around them. Sakura didn't know how long she was sitting there, it felt like hours but she knew it could have only been a minute or so. She knew she should apologize, or, at least say something for her actions, but the words never came.
Sakura heard Naruto run off a second later, leaving without saying a word. She couldn't help but wonder why, but then again, she was the one who yelled at him. Why else would he leave?
It was then that she noticed that he had placed the cookies down before her, still on the handkerchief. She couldn't help but stare, wondering just what she would do with them.
"Bastard!" The knuckle headed ninja yelled at Sasuke Uchiha, who was walking casually down one of the streets of Konaha; this one being a very busy one. Many people were up to their daily activities but most were just walking down this street to go somewhere else.
Naruto drew his fist, thrusting it towards an, what he thought was, unexpected Sasuke, who was turned the opposite way and still walking. The raven-haired boy knew one of his teammates was following him but had still chosen to ignore the fact. He quickly stepped out of the way at the last second, causing Naruto to fall flat on his face in the dirt right in front of him.
"What do you want idiot," he asked casually, his hands still in his pockets as he watched the knuckle headed ninja sit up, spitting dirt out of his mouth. On any other day, he would have found this rather amusing, though today had not been the best day of his life.
Naruto whipped his mouth, getting any of the dirt left on his lips off, as he glared at the nonchalant ninja angrily. He yelled, "What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"I should be asking you that. What do you want," Sasuke asked dryly, looking somewhere between frustrated and bored.
"I saw what you did to Sakura!" Naruto shot angrily, still sitting on the ground as he tried to get the last bits of dirt out of his mouth. He could clearly see the look of confusion flash in Sasuke's eyes for a second before going back to their normal cool.
It was true too, he had not seen most of what happened but had heard enough of it to understand what happened. He hid in the woods until Sasuke had left, watching Sakura try to calm herself down and fail. He knew he should do something, but he didn't know what. When he finally did something, and ended up being yelled at, he turned all his anger towards the man who had done that to her-hence why he was mad at the Uchiha.
"So, she'll be fine..." Sasuke replied as he started to walk off in deep thought, almost as if he was trying to avoid the subject. Naruto, on the other hand, would not let it go so easily. He quickly stood and followed him.
"No she won't!" Naruto snapped, catching up to Sasuke while nearly tripping over his own two feet. "What's with you today?! You aren't acting right!" He continued dumbly.
"Hnn..." Sasuke replied blankly, probably not paying much attention to him.
"You're such a jerk!" Naruto yelled, hearing the Uchiha's catch phrase. Didn't he care about Sakura at all? "Why did you have to take your anger out on her?! What did she do to you," He continued to shout, not caring who heard.
Sasuke stopped walked, and turned to the knuckle-headed ninja angrily. Naruto could clearly see the flames in his eyes, causing him to take a step back.
"After being mobbed by fan girls this morning on my way to training and being jumped by them constantly while walking around town-I could hurt you now!" He hissed deathly, Naruto then noticing something different in the appearance of the Uchiha. His hair was slightly messier, his clothes were disheveled and his headband appeared to have some smudges of dirt on it.
"What the hell…?" Naruto asked blankly, studying his teammate's new appearance with shock. How hadn't he noticed this before?
"The spring crazy girls of Konaha did this to me, idiot, didn't you just hear me?" Sasuke growled, frustrated with how stupid the blond ninja was being.
"But Sakura didn't attack you…" Naruto continued, still in shock over what the girls in Konaha were doing to the Uchiha.
"She's still a girl with a crush on me though…" He grunted lowly, before turning on his heel and walking off. Naruto's feet stayed planted on the ground as he watched Sasuke leave. He knew if he followed him, he would only get the same reaction of shrug offs.
He started speaking before he even knew what he was saying, "You made her cry!"
The blue-eyed ninja must have struck a nerve or something, because the normally nonchalant boy stopped dead in his tracks, though he didn't turn to look at him. He could hardly see his black hair through all the people on the street now, each one of them weaving around the two teenagers. They stood there for what felt like hours, and then Naruto noticed something-Sasuke wasn't standing in front of him anymore.
He quickly raced forward, pushing people aside so he could try and find the Uchiha, though he quickly realized the raven haired ninja was no where to be found.
"Sasuke, you bastard!" He roared, kicking the ground angrily, wishing that the man might just pop out of thin air in front of him. "You better be apologizing to her!" He continued on a much more threatening note, thrusting his fist into the air aggressively.
The pink haired ninja let tears escape her eyes freely as she bit her lower lip in order to prevent sobs from escaping them. Her, now salty, emerald green eyes scanned over the grassy area she sat in; sakura trees all around her. She let her hands play with the hem of her shorts, trying to get her thoughts off the Uchiha and failing yet again.
Why was she so stupid to think that cookies could get him to talk to her? She could be such a idiot sometimes-only this time it cost her more then losing twenty yen in cooking material. She wished she could take everything she had done that day back...
Sakura petals fell around her as she sat in the shade of one of the trees; the petals carried by the wind, some catching in her hair. She found it futile to try to take them out anyway; after all, more would just become tangled in a couple minutes later thanks to the wind.
Maybe... Maybe it was time to give up on Sasuke. He never wanted to see her again-aside from their cell-so she should probably give up the lost cause of her love. Maybe if she was lucky she could get back to being on a friend level with him, but she should leave the pain of love behind. She didn't know how much longer she could stand its poison in her chest.
Sighing, she lowered her head in a last try to avoid her thoughts of him; slowing letting her hands fiddle with the grass around her. She sat in silence as the wind picked up again and sakura petals danced around her, her hair brushing back and forth in the wind. Silent tears passed her eyes still and she tried draining her mind of all thought in order for the pain to disappear, though with every passing second, she could still feel her heart throbbing more painfully in her chest.
She heard footsteps-almost silent coming towards her slowly. She barely heard them above the whistle of the wind and swaying of the trees. Upon acknowledging someone's impending arrival, she immediately tensed up-not wanting anyone to see her in this state.
Sakura did not turn around to see whom it was, almost afraid to in a way. She did not want anyone to feel pity for her, she was better then that.
She quickly tried to blink the salty mess in her eyes away, trying to make the streams of salty water flowing from her eyes stop by thinking of something else as well. She tried to think of anything funny or stupid-to try to get her to stop, but continued to fail.
The footsteps got closer, making her bow her head lower. She quickly wiped her hand across her cheeks, now forcing herself to stop crying, as she hoped she was cleaning up the mess of her tears. She didn't know if they'd start up again, and she didn't want them to, so she kept her mind racing to stop the pain.
She quickly noted the person was standing either right beside her or behind her now, though they had stopped. Slowly she looked out of the corner of her eye subconsciously, almost like she knew something wrong was going to happen there. She had placed the cookies there, still debating if she should toss them or destroy them by any other means.
Wait-one was missing!
In a flash, she looked up at the person, though her eyes were not traveling as fast as her words. She started to yell at the stranger, "Don't eat-!" only to trail off once she saw just who was standing beside her.
Her emerald eyes met with none other then Sasuke Uchiha who stood beside her. His eyes were closed, one hand in his pocket casually while the other held a cookie up to his mouth-almost half of it gone as it appeared he had already taken a bite. He was keeping his cool, killing some of tension between them, but at the same time brought more.
Stunned, Sakura could only watch as he took another bite from the cookie in his hand. He opened his eyes, staring at the almost devoured cookie in his hand with a small bit of amusement gleaming in his onyx eyes for a second, though the usual cold stare returned a moment later.
He complimented, "Nice cookies..." softly, so softly in fact that she almost did not hear him above the light whistling breeze.
She could only watch-her eyes remaining glued on him as her mind was not able to function just right-as he bent down and grabbed another sweet beside her before standing tall again. He turned on his heel and began to leave as silently as he had come.
This had to be a dream-Sasuke Uchiha-the ninja who stood before her-had just given her a compliment. Her, Sakura Haruno of all people! This wasn't some hoax, but she just couldn't see any flaws in this other then what the situation was.
She snapped out her dazed state when she felt something warm in her grasp. Almost like waking up from a dream, she had realized the whole scene had changed.
She was now standing, her right hand grasping the raven haired ninja's arm in front of her-his hand no longer in his pocket thanks to her. Sakura petals danced in the air all around them, some catching in his hair now as well as even more tangling in her hair. She started speaking before she knew what she was saying.
"Sasuke-" She started, only to be cut of when the whole scene before her changed again. The onyx eyed boy before her had somehow gotten out of her grasp and now his face was less than six inches away from hers. Her eyes widened in sudden realization of what had just happened, and quickly closed in on his-which were much warmer then usual.
She could see pink all behind him, as the sakura petals continued to loom around them, though she didn't pay any attention to them other then the reflections of them in his eyes.
Before she knew it, he had leaned towards her-his lips brushed on her forehead softly, a blush creeping up her neck and onto her cheeks, making her cheeks the same color as the petals that fell around them. And as quickly as it had happened, it stopped.
He turned on his heel again, leaving her just to watch him leave with wide eyes. She still was letting everything soak in, her mind blank and her heart beating so fast in her chest she thought it might just explode. All she could think was "what just happened?" over and over.
Sasuke slowly left Sakura behind as he could only smirk at what he had just done-a new feeling bubbling up inside of him: pure utter joy. On one level, it seriously scared him, but on another, he strangely... liked it. As weird as that sounds, he might have actually liked that feeling.
Letting his eyes shut as he slowly walked out of the cheery blossom field, taking a bite of his cookie. Truly, they weren't that bad at all-in fact, they were very good.
Maybe his day hadn't been so bad.
He heard a light thud behind him and couldn't help but let a very light chuckle escape his lips. It must have just hit Sakura then what he had done-she probably falling to her knees, either that, or fainting. Whichever one, he was sure had made-up for what he had done earlier.
"How was that for a apology...?"
Sakura fell to her knees for a second time that day thanks to Sasuke Uchiha, this time out of shock, not sorrow. Her eyes could only watch him as he walked away from her, never faltering. Sakura petals continued to fall around them almost like snow now, and it was, in her words, breathtaking.
Her mind started racing, her heart beat getting even faster in her chest if humanly possible.
Sasuke Uchiha had just kissed her on the forehead. Her. The thing she never thought would happen in a million years-though she daydreamed about it almost every waking moment-happened. She didn't care if she suddenly died of a heart attack then and there-she didn't care if the earth suddenly exploded-she didn't care if she had cookie crumbs on her forehead from his kiss! She could die happy because of that one little thank you he had given her! That kiss was the best gift she had ever gotten!
If this was some dream, she never ever wanted to wake-up from it.
Her gaze slowly wondered back to where the chocolate chip cookies were once-only one remaining. A small, shy smile placed itself on her lips just looking at the cookie now. She no longer felt any sorrow or rage looking at it now, only pure happiness.
"Sakura petals and chocolate chip cookies, huh...?"
Hope you all liked it in its fluffy/cheesy glory...! I probably won't write a Naruto story for a long time, but I will reference it here and there or make a crossover with it. There is this Kingdom Heart crossover I was thinking about writing with it, only it would be centered around the Kingdom Hearts story line and only Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto would be in it with exceptions at the beginning and end.
Later . . . water and earth alchemist