SasuSaku: Worth The Risk

Chapter 9

Here's a chapter for you <3 

I'm getting a little bit of feedback from ff.net, but not much here. If anyone knows how to get more views or anything, please let me know! I'm a SUPER novice at this type of thing. Any advice helps! 

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy it!

"What did you do to that girl?" Itachi hissed at his younger brother as he helped him upstairs and into his room so he could rest. "She looked like she was waiting to be hit! Tell me you haven't been-" "I haven't laid a hand on her."

Sasuke was angry enough at himself for intimidating that poor woman to the point that she all but cowered before him in the kitchen just then; he didn't need Itachi to join in.

"Then why did she act like that?"

The younger sibling sighed, standing with a hand on his forehead to rub his temples with a furrowed brow and a frown, "I haven't touched her, but I haven't been...treating her all that well...either...."

There was a long pause before the recovering man asked, "What's going through your head right now?"

'Itachi's the only one I can tell about this. Anyone else might try to use it against me.'

So, Sasuke told his older brother everything. He explained how confused Sakura made him feel and how his perception of her had changed after last night. He even admitted his regrets: "You saw how scared she is of me. I don't know how to make it...better, y'know?"

"You understand little about forming true bonds with someone."

The younger brother nodded but said nothing. He didn't want to say anything because the topic of how Itachi knew about such things might arise. You see, he was twenty-eight, six years older than Sasuke, and had married his high school sweetheart, Izumi, at twenty. The woman was no longer among the living, and the fact would likely forever be a sore topic for both Uchiha brothers.

'Don't dwell on that right now. It'll only get you worked up.'

"I don't want to form any bonds with Sakura, and you know why. That's the problem. How do I do this without letting it get to that?"

Itachi frowned but understood. After pondering, he sighed, "You want to figure out why she's different, right?"

Sasuke nodded.

"Then maybe you should try being her friend. Plenty of people try hooking up and return to being just friends."

The younger brother crossed his arms, leaning against the dresser with a glare, "I don't have female friends."

"There's a first time for everything. Just get to know her a little better."

After receiving a little more advice from Itachi, Sasuke left so he could rest, wandering back downstairs to work on his school assignments in the kitchen while Sakura cooked. It'd become normal for them to be in the same room because it made her feel safer, and the Uchiha man didn't mind anyway. Even if she still feared him, she did so the others to a more substantial degree.

Upon noticing his arrival, the woman clicked off the video on her phone she'd been watching while cooking, pointedly refusing to look his way. Sasuke sat there, his laptop open and an assignment pulled up to work on, but he couldn't stop glancing at Sakura every few seconds.

'I bet her parents taught her to cook while growing up.' Everything the woman prepared for the Akatsuki house was delicious, never bland or improperly cooked.

He watched as she placed a lid over the pot of whatever she was preparing and froze. It was evident she had nothing left to do but let it simmer but didn't know what to do since his gaze was on her.