Previous Chapter Summary: Sasuke and Sakura enter the first day of festival preparations. To the group's surprise, the Uchiha joins back in on the costume committee, ultimately winning their acceptance back with the materials he had managed to swipe thanks to Ari and Mako. On a mission to exchange some fabric, Sakura manages to find a job at the place Sasuke had gone to on the weekend.. only to find out that Orochimaru is now her boss.
A/N: Despite a little bit shorter than usual, another super fun chapter to write! This is mainly in Sasuke's POV.
Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto
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The Uchiha wove the last stitch in his fabric, pulling the piece into its final form. After finally finishing his get-up after what seemed like days, he let out a long sigh and closed his eyes to rest momentarily. When he thought about it, he could've opted to use his actual clothes for this festival instead. That is, if they weren't utterly tattered from the war prior to landing here.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow is D-day.
When he peered his lids back open, he took a glance around the busy classroom, realizing that the pink-haired girl was nowhere to be found. He hadn't seen much of her for the past few days ever since festival planning started. She was needed by almost everyone and everywhere. By the time he went to work after school and got home, she was already asleep in the bedroom.
He glanced down at his costume, staring at it briefly before deciding he might as well look for further instructions. Hastily, he shifted himself up from the ground and exited into the hallway.
As of today, the raven-haired boy wasn't sure if he had been going to a school or a commoner's market. Left and right, classroom doors were decorated in bizarre ways that urged visitors into their rooms, with colourful signs and posters all around its vicinity. Where is she? Sasuke pondered as he continued to stroll down the busy hallway.
He didn't have much trouble locating her initially, as his eyes immediately caught sight of the viridian-eyed girl at the end of the hall conversing with a student from their class. Just as he took a step forward and opened his mouth to call out to her, a body threw itself messily in front of his tracks, blocking the view of his destination.
Sasuke clenched his jaw, displeased at the interruption. Shikamaru, on the other hand, looked the Uchiha in the eye with a panicked expression. In his hand was a mysterious, giant black garbage bag.
"Sasuke, my dude." The shadow user dropped the bag onto the floor with a soft thud and daringly clutched the sides of the Uchiha's shoulders in a tight grasp. "Please- help a brother out."
"You're not my brother." Sasuke glanced at Shikamaru's hard grip, then peered behind the shadow users' shoulder and frowned at the disappearance of the pink-haired girl. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at the serious nature of his response.
Giving up, the raven-haired boy returned his gaze to his panicked classmate. "-What do you want?"
"Listen, I just got a call and I'm about to get in some real deep crap with my mom. If I don't make it home in the next five minutes, I may not live to attend the festival tomorrow."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the shadow user, watching as Shikamaru then bent to pick up the giant black garbage bag from the ground and subsequently shoved it into the Uchiha's chest.
"In here, lies Shuri-kun. Shuri-kun, Sasuke. Sasuke, Shuri-kun." He introduced, "He's cute, fun, a little bit angsty but great with people."
Sasuke stared at the bag in his chest for awhile longer, not quite understanding what the shadow user was getting at. And what's with that terrible pun?
Finally, he realized what he was trying to ask.
"No."
"Please."
"No."
Shikamaru gave a visible frown. "I just need you to model the prototype for the remainder of the school day. I gotta have some feedback on how much more practical I can make it, or else Sakura-chan might have my head too."
At his dilemma, the Uchiha smirked. "Good luck."
Sasuke shoved the bag back into the shadow user's hands before walking ahead to resume his search for the pink-haired girl. Shikamaru stood still in his spot for a few seconds before narrowing his eyes, immediately jolting his head back to the Uchiha.
Before he had the chance to get very far, Sasuke felt a hard grasp on his shoulder. Giving a tiny sigh, he turned around to face the shadow user once more, only to be hastily dragged into a nearby classroom.
--
"Oh my god, what is that?"
"It looks like some kind of cat. It's kind of cute.."
The raven-haired boy frowned at the audible chatter around him. After a dreadful few minutes, he was allowed to exit the classroom he had been abducted into, although those few minutes were probably the worst moments of his Tokyo life.
Sasuke squinted at his reflection inside the hallway window, only to scowl at the monstrosity before him. His head was placed inside a gigantic ball-like thing that was uncomfortably larger than the rest of his body. At the very top was a pair of tiny, pointed feline ears. And on his forehead? The worst headband he'd ever seen if ninjas were to ever exist here. Replacing the symbol of a notable shinobi village was a dinner plate with a small winky face in the center, accompanied by two forks on either side.
The rest of his body was enclosed in a puffy onesie of a dark grey color to match the head, with a tail on his behind that was far too long for any human to walk without tripping on. Now, he'd go on to look at what the actual face of the mascot looked like, but he realized at this point that he had yet to care one bit. If anything, he felt a great equivalence to the chicken-wearing people KFC. Almost pitied them, even.
The worst part is? He couldn't see a damn thing in here. The net in front of him that was supposedly "vision-enabling" according to Shikamaru, was definitely too thick and obstructed almost his entire view.
"Don't take it off until the day ends, alright? I'll meet you in the class at the end of the day. Thanks man!"
Remembering the shadow user's words, Sasuke felt the irritation increase inside of him. In a split second, he placed two hands on either side of the huge cat head, attempting to tug it off with a single pull.
-Only to realize that the damn thing wouldn't budge. At all. How was that possible? It's not like it's connected to anyth-
Suddenly, the Uchiha reached around to the back of his neck, running his hand around the perimeter only to widen his frown. Instead of letting the wearer pull off the head right away, the damn Nara opted to use a zipper to enclose the costume, and now that zipper was broken.
Did I pull too hard? At this, Sasuke released his hands from the costume, slowly placing them back on either side of his body. He stood still for a tantalizing second, taking in a giant, deep breath from the bottom of his lungs as he stood on the side of the hallway. He'd let Shikamaru suffer the consequences later. For now, he was relieved that at least he wasn't claustrophobic.
Unsure of what to do from here on out, Sasuke opted to resume his original goal. Where did Sakura go?
As he took a few heavy steps further out into the hallway, the Uchiha continued to find displeasure in the difficulty of navigating in the proper direction. Spending the next few minutes slowly turning corners and dodging silhouettes, he never felt more dehumanized.
Suddenly, his eyes widened at the sight of a figure nearby with distinctly pink hair. Letting out a sigh of relief, he slowly made his way towards her vicinity. However, at the sluggish pace he was going at, the pink-haired girl only seemed to be getting farther and farther as he walked. At this, the Uchiha frowned, suddenly speeding up his pace. Once he managed to get close to her, he reached out an arm to grab her by the wrist to keep her in place.
"You're too difficult to locate." He started, "At this rate, I should look into getting a cellphone for myself soon."
"S-Sasuke-kun? Is that you?"
The Uchiha widened his eyes at the voice he heard. Immediately, he jolted his hand back from his grip at the sound that didn't seem to quite match the one he knew.
After he squinted his eyes and looked at the figure for a moment longer, he closed them short after and clicked his tongue in frustration as he took note of the spectacles on her face.
"D-Did you have a hard time finding me?" Karin's face turned into a beet red, shoving her glasses up to the bridge of her nose.
He contemplated leaving the scene right now in this instant, but he remembered that this girl once helped him on the first day of school. Taking this into consideration, he gave a single cough to clear his throat.
"Karin." He says nonchalantly, but nothing more as his gaze continued to search elsewhere.
The glasses girl immediately grinned at his friendly greeting. What does Sasuke-kun need me for?
"What're you doing in that, Sasuke-kun? Ah! Isn't your class-"
"Get out of the way, four-eyes!"
Karin suddenly stumbled to the side, her back hitting the inside wall of the hallway as two girls bulldozed themselves past her. The two of them then came to a sudden stop and paused after noticing the giant cat in front of them.
Ari blinked once before looking at Mako with an excited expression, "Oh my goodness! Is that the mascot for our cafe? It's so cute!"
"It's perfect! Let's take a selfie!"
The Uchiha stood, frozen in place as the two girls suddenly shuffled on either side of him, each latching onto his two arm and burying their heads into his shoulder. Before he had time to react, Mako immediately swiped out her cellphone, a white one with a bunch of things dangling from it on the bottom and held it into the air.
"Ready! 1...2.."
After a quick snap of the camera, the two girls retreated themselves from the mascot and looked down at the photo, pleased with its capture.
"Ahhh so cute!" Mako squealed, "I can't wait to serve in the cafe tomorrow! I wonder if-"
Suddenly, a giant deadly aura encompassed their vicinity, sending shivers down their spine. As the two of them slowly turned their bodies around, they met with the deadly, beady eyes of Shuri-kun.
"Uh.. I guess we'll get going then." Ari said. Not long after, the two girls disappeared as quickly as they had came.
Karin stood on the side, still against the wall with a widened mouth. After a moment, she shook her head to compose herself back to normal. Sasuke-kun.. he saved me.
The Uchiha continued to brood silently on his own, wondering why those two seemed to appear everywhere he went. After awhile, he turned his back on the glasses girl and started his way to the other side of the hall.
"Sasuke-kun!" Karin quickly jogged up to his side, poking her head a little bit ahead so that she was in his field of vision. "T-Thanks for that. If you aren't busy, mind if I hangout with you a little bit for the day?"
She couldn't really tell if he heard him underneath the thick cat head, but he did. He thought about her request for awhile, and even though his initial reaction was a hard no, he contemplated it for a moment longer. This way, he'd have another set of eyes to help him catch Sakura.
"Do what you want."
The redhead girl beamed at his compliance as she followed by his side. Like this, the two of them continued along the hallway in an acquainted silence. Neither of them bothered to strike conversation, to which the Uchiha appreciated as he maintained a distance with the girl.
"I didn't get a chance to finish my question. What's your class doing for the festival, Sasuke-kun?"
Too soon.
"A cafe."
"A cafe? What kind?"
"Ninja."
"Is that so!?" Karin beamed, letting out a chuckle. "That sounds like so much fun! No wonder your mascot looks so shinobi-like! What sorts of things you guys have on the menu?"
"I don't know either."
"Really? Even though it's your own class?"
"It's not my division." And maybe if I could find Sakura, she'd tell me all about it.
"Ohh, I see.." Karin nodded her head, "Then, I'll come visit you when its open, if you don't mind."
Sasuke appeared indifferent at her proposition, but she took his silence as a sign of confirmation.
Within that silence, the Uchiha couldn't help but think that when this person talked, she sounded relatively similar to his own companion. Especially when she accented certain phrases and did that little laugh after she found something amusing. She definitely isn't like this back in the shinobi world.
Karin continued to smile happily to herself, her strides continuing with a tiny skip.
"-Our class is doing fortune-telling. I hope you'll swing by as well if you have time."
"Maybe."
"I see.." Karin placed a finger on her bottom lip, tilting her head to the side to observe the cat's head.
Although she wasn't able to see his face underneath, Sasuke picked up on her gaze from the silence. "What is it?"
"You're a little bit unapproachable at first glance, Sasuke-kun, but you're not an unfriendly person. You should warm up to people more."
The Uchiha blinked at her words. Sakura also said the same phrase to him before. How uncanny.
"-Unless if you have people messing with you like those two earlier!" Karin made a fist, shaking it in the air in frustration. "Jeez, I swear I'll let them have it the next time I see them. Even though we aren't from the same class, they're always causing trouble for others.. pisses me off!"
At this, Sasuke gave a little smirk in amusement.
"-What do you mean, we don't have enough bamboo shoot pillars!? I just ordered another batch a few days ago!"
The raven-haired boy suddenly stopped in his tracks at a feminine voice from afar.
"I-I don't know! I'm so sorry, I think I gave you the wrong address so the shipping must have gotten lost.."
A slight pause ensued. "It's fine.. I'll work something out after I finish doing a final run on everybody's costumes."
He registered her voice immediately- the one thing he expertly recognized her by after many days of listening to her at the bridge when they were young. It was almost like second nature.
He sensed in her tone that she seemed to be in a panic. It was to be expected, really, with all the commotion surrounding her and with the festival drawing in within less than a day.
Squinting his eyes hard, he slowly made out a pink figure inside of the classroom to his left. When he opened his mouth to call out to her, he immediately closed it short after.
"Sakura, I need you to oversee our work with the banner when you've got the time."
"-Sakura, I think the lanterns need a different kind of light inside of them or they won't be bright enough. Did we get anything on that?"
"I'll come over in a bit, Misaki-chan. I just need to pop out for a second." The pink-haired girl exclaimed, "-As for the lanterns, I think they'll look better if its a bit dimmer anyways. Be right back- okay?"
Suddenly, the Uchiha blinked as a pink blob rushed out of the classroom and past his vicinity before he had a chance to react. When he turned his heavy head around to look for her, she was nowhere to be seen once again.
"Sasuke-kun? Is something the matter?" Karin inquired, poking her head in front of his eye nets so he could see her.
He hesitated to respond for a second, but finally closed his eyes in defeat.
"It's nothing."
--
An hour after the bell had rung for dismissal, Sasuke remained inside of his classroom on the floor in the back of the class, exhausted out of his mind.
It was strange to see the class this way, stripped of all desks and replaced with round tables in addition to two or four chairs on each side. Like this, the room looked a lot bigger than it had been when they were going through lessons. He'd take his time in observing what had actually been done to it throughout the day, but this costume was still stuck on his body, which meant that he still had some trouble seeing things clearly.
The thing was getting extremely stuffy, too. But there was nothing that could be done until that idiot comes back for him like he said he would. So he waited.
The sky had already taken up a golden color by the time most people had left the school. Karin ended up hanging around him for a lot longer than either of them expected. Maybe he was already used to her following him around just like she did in the shinobi world. The two of them mainly roamed the hallways and poked themselves in random classrooms, to which he regretted each time students would flock themselves towards the cat mascot.
On the contrary, when he thought about the pink-haired girl, he realized he never managed to get in touch with her at all throughout the day. At this time, she must've already gone home. It was a strange feeling, not having her around.
.. But he's done it for so long, it should also be something he's used to. So why now?
Dropping the thought and leaning the heavy cat head against the wall, he felt his exhaustion begin to take him over, closing his eyes for a brief rest.
"What a day..."
Suddenly, he shot his eyes open at the sound of a voice belonging to the person he had just been pondering about. As he sat still in his spot, he felt the pink-haired girls' presence as she took the space next to him on the floor, sliding down from the wall with a soft thud.
Aa. There you are.
"I'm completely exhausted. I didn't know being someone like the class president could wear a person out like this."
Sasuke maintained his silence, listening to her converse.
"It doesn't look too bad, eh? I'd say we did a pretty good job on our classroom."
It was rather frustrating that he wasn't able to make eye contact with her as she spoke.
"-And you did a really good job with helping everybody fix up their costumes, Ino."
At this, the Uchiha paused all of his thoughts, his lips parting at her words.
Sakura grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I hope you're okay with wearing the mascot for the festival tomorrow. I'll make sure to let you and Hisako-chan switch after lunch so you can do some serving too. But hey, I have to admit it looks pretty cute on you!"
Oh. So she didn't know that Shikamaru borderline assaulted him this morning to get him in this thing.
Despite so, he opted to keep his silence without moving an inch. From the outside, it seemed as if the pink-haired girl were speaking to a giant cat plushie.
Sakura also leaned her head against the wall, her chin slightly tilted into the air. "I hope it all goes well tomorrow. There were a few things that made me a little bit nervous today.."
You probably did fine.
"-Well, I'm just happy that I managed to pull through. I haven't told you guys, but events like this make me feel at peace. That is, when everybody comes together and spends time with one another."
He couldn't remember the last time he felt that way.
She paused a moment before hooding her eyes, "Things.. are bit difficult right now, at the place where I came from.."
The Uchiha thought back to his attempt at hurting her, his declaration of becoming Hokage, up until the moment he placed her under his genjutsu.
"-I don't know how much longer I'll get to stay by Sasuke-kun's side."
Yet, at the end of the day, all she cared about was whether or not he'd still be able to sit with her like this.
Sasuke appeared neither surprised nor empathetic, but swallowed once as he stared blankly ahead of him.
Sakura widened her eyes, suddenly flustered. "A-Anyways, I talked too much. These are just some random things I worry about here and there- Ah! Don't tell anyone about it, okay?"
She felt relief as the mascot gave a single nod.
"Thanks, Ino. You really are a good friend.."
The Uchiha remained silent, anticipating her next words. However, she didn't seem to continue from where she left off. At this, Sasuke slowly turned his heavy head to the side to steal a glance at the pink-haired girl, who was now fast asleep with her head tilted slightly up against the wall.
Within the close distance between them, he was able to see all of her features clearly, her shallow breathing falling up and down with intricate motions.
A second wave of exhaustion ran through him as he observed the pink-haired girl to himself. Without hesitation, he too closed his eyes and leaned back on the wall to find some rest.
"You don't have to worry about anything right now." He says out loud in a quiet voice through her tiny breaths.
Just as he was about to give in to sleep, a sudden weight dropped onto his shoulder, taking him by surprise. When he shot his eyes back open and looked to the side at the pink blob resting on his shoulder, he contemplated discreetly moving her back in place. However, as he felt his lids begin to grow heavy once more, the Uchiha gave in on the brink of unconsciousness and let his own head slowly slide onto the top of hers. The sun gleamed through the dusky sky as it breathed through the window and onto the round tabletops. Small particles of dust scattered around, showcasing themselves in the light with every rhythmic breeze of the curtains.
And for the first time in a long time, he managed to fall asleep with ease.