Tomorrow Blossom (Sasuke Uchiha) - Book Two - I Don't Love You

Chapter Three- Chorus

"What the hell did you just say?!" Naruto growled, while I forced my breathing to stay steady and calm. I couldn't do with the weakness, and so stood up straight, deciding what to do while watching the scene play out. "Don't you dare-"

"Naruto." I stopped the blonde's yell with a simple word. All eyes settled on me. "Sai's right. Sasuke" I couldn't help but wince on saying it- it felt so right on my lips, and I hated every syllable, "left the Leaf village for selfish purposes. That makes him a rogue and therefore an enemy of the Leaf. An enemy of us."

"Sachi-chan-"

"No. He wanted to leave. We all tried to stop him, but we weren't enough, and we never will be. It's better for all of us if we just move on." my tone remained strictly blank, stature carefully poised. But I couldn't meet any of their eyes.

"Good to know that at least one of you is smart." Sai said, but I wasn't listening, "It seems that the only one that isn't hung up on a criminal is the criminal herself." my body tensed.

"Damnit, you're really asking for it now, Sai!" Naruto started, but Sakura held him back.

"I apologise on behalf of Naruto, Sai-san." Sakura said gently with a smile, despite Naruto's protests. "I hope you can forgive him for acting so rashly."

The strike came so quick that Sai had no time to react. Sakura had definitely improved- in both speed and strength. Her punch sent the weird dark haired boy skidding across the ground, all the way to the other side of the bridge we walked on.

"On the other hand... I don't give a damn if you can forgive me." Sakura said in a low, angry tone, as she lowered her clenched fist. Sai rubbed his cheek, and Sakura continued. "If you ever speak one negative word about Sasuke-kun in front of me again, I won't hold back."

I really needed to work on my reaction to his name.

"I see. What a realistic fake smile. I see that there are other uses for it than the ones I already know of." Sai said, standing up. "It would also seem that I have not quite gained mastery of it." he smiled.

"Why you-"

"That's enough!" Yamato cut in, seeming irritated, as he formed several hand signs and a cage of wood exploded from the ground. I gaped in amazement, "I much prefer a nice guy approach, but I will use force if you drive me to it! We don't have time for me to do this, but I will shut you all in there to learn to get along if I have to." he took a breath, and seemed to calm himself, "Now I don't know about you guys, but I would much rather spend the night at an Onsen than in a wooden cage. It all depends on whether you're all willing to get along."

The journey was near enough silent from then on, only punctuated by the brief, awkward moments when Naruto or Sakura attempted to broach conversation with me. Naruto seemed hell bent on finding out what I had been doing in the past two and a half years (though thankfully he didn't seem to notice Sai's comment about me being a criminal earlier) which always left me silent, not knowing what to say. I didn't feel right, lying to Naruto. But I couldn't tell him. At least, not yet.

With Sakura, it was mostly her just asking how I'd been, but I knew exactly what she meant by it. Somehow, despite the misguided attempt to keep the lie of a relationship a secret, everyone had known. This topic led to me just staring at her until she fell silent. I couldn't help but wonder why it was so difficult to be around them now. Perhaps, in the long period away from human conversation, I had lost all practice of conversing with people.

We finally reached the Onsen after a grand total time of about three hours- so it was just turning to dusk. The others went straight to the hot spring to relax after the long journey, and I soon discovered that you had a perfect view of both baths from the roof of the building- not that I was looking (I totally was). But not before Naruto had the chance to hassle me some more.