𝐀 𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐂𝐇 𝐓𝐎 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐄 ━━ S. UCHIHA

XLIII

I've never seen Sasuke, in my entire life, get upset over something trivial. By now, I know him enough that to know it's more than shocking to see him overreact to something as small as someone borrowing a pencil.

As if enough context hasn't been given enough, Ryuken forgot his bookbag. Yes, the entire thing. As a result, he asked his classmates to borrow a few things as not to burden a single student with all his requests. Being a part of the class that was able to lend something, I gave him a pencil.

Sasuke, evidently, was not happy about that. I understand Naruto's rant, but Sasuke pitching in surprised me and Sakura both.

"This is unlike them," Sakura tells me, biting her thumbnail anxiously. "I mean, they've never acted like this before!"

I pat Sakura's back despite the fact my confusion matches hers. Sakura has been friends with Naruto and Sasuke since before they even knew the word friends. After getting to know them, and studying one of them (#romantically), I'm sure it must be perplexing to find them acting this out of character over someone they don't even know.

"Naruto, the most! H-he always is the first to be someone's friend and doesn't care if they could be a bad person cause for some reason, he can just change them, like this superpower he has, and that's how he got Sasuke back, but that's not the point because right now he's acting completely different from before without giving Ryuken a chance, like why aren't they giving him a chance? He should be given a chance instead of being tossed like that or giving him a bad look even thought he doesn't deserve this bad look or whatever and—" she gasps for air for the first time, "—and it sucks cause Ryuken's been nothing but nice this whole time, right? You've hung out with him a couple of times like he was nice to you, right? Right?"

My mouth dries. "Uh, Sakura?"

"Of course, he's been nice to you, I mean why wouldn't he? You're like super nice and sweet and you were the first person he talked to so like he shouldn't be mean to you, but Naruto and Sasuke think he has bad vibes or whatever which is so totally not true, I mean, like, they have to have a real reason why they don't like him, right? They should at least cause—"

"Sakura! Hey, girl?"

"Yeah, what?"

"It's gonna be okay. You know that, right?"

"But what if it's not?"

"You know that's not true. You're best friends with them, and they wouldn't do anything that would end up hurting you. I know that for a fact."

"I know, I know," she sulks, putting her hands in her lap, fingers tightly intertwined. "But that doesn't mean they can just shun Ryuken like that. It's... it's not fair to him."

Instinctively, my arms wrap around Sakura's shoulders, pulling her into my body. In response, her arms lace around my back, face wedged into the crook of my neck.

"I just want them to be friends."

Me, too.

💮          💮          💮

Thanks to a quick recovery, Sasuke was able to play this Saturday. Hinata and I both decided to go watch again together. Unlike last time, I wasn't going to disappear without a warning. Hinata might have forgiven me, but the underlying guilt still eats away at my stomach.

"Since your mom is coming home, my family was hoping to invite you guys over sometime," Hinata chimes before taking a sip of water. "Hanabi and Neji really miss your mom."

"Neji!" I squeal. "Oh, how I have missed him."

She giggles and smiles. "I'm sure he feels the same."