B r o t h e r

•17•

The bus ride was long,

and loud,

and annoying.

Sasuke sighed as he looked out the window, attempting to drown out his obnoxious blonde best friend who was sitting beside him. He turned his head and quickly caught sight of his 'girlfriend's' pink hair, who was sat next to a grumpy looking redhead. A look of discontent took over his features as he wondered, who exactly was that?

___

"Cheer up, Gaara!" Sakura tried to get her far from happy friend to stop moping.

Temari had practically dragged Gaara by the ear, and forced him to go on this field trip.

"What for? This bus smells like old running shoes and I'm going to be surrounded by snow for a whole weekend." He leaned his head back on the seat, closing his eyes.

"Yes, but we can go skiing! Oh, and I heard there's a spa! We can go together if you'd like." Sakura offered, hoping she could get him to look forward to at least one thing.

"I will never go skiing. Ever." He quickly replied, not before catching Sakura's sad face.

He sighed, "I don't mind going to the spa though, anything indoors is fine with me actually." he said.

Sakura's face lit up at that, and Gaara offered her a small smile in return.
___

For a school trip, the ski resort was quite luxurious. Of course, each student had to pay a fee so it was expected to be a little over average. This resort however, felt like it was straight out of a movie. So much so that Sakura felt as if she were the main character. She imagined this place would look even more magical had they come closer to the holidays.

The walls were beige, and gold decorations were sprinkled around making the main lobby look as if it were sparkling. A large chandelier hung in the middle of the room, casting a beautiful glow upon the rest of the lobby. The dark oak floors paired well with the fireplace near the lounge, giving the resort a warm, homey feeling.

"I'm going to my room, I'd like to get there before my roommate." Gaara said, not waiting for a reply as he lugged his bag towards the elevator.

Sakura decided that was a good idea, and set off to find her own room.

She crossed her fingers that whoever her roommate was, wasn't someone she knew.

However, it seemed as though she jinxed herself. As she walked into her room, a familiar raven haired girl turned around to greet her.

__

"SASUKE~!" Naruto shouted after his friend, who had raced down the halls to lay his claim on the best bed first.

Naruto panted as he caught up, only to see his friend sitting on the bed nearest to the window, overseeing the beautiful landscape.

"I hate you." he mumbled, Sasuke only chuckled in return.

"So how's it going with Sakura, if you don't say fantastic I will beat you up." The blonde causally questioned.

"Fantastic." Sasuke replied, "Why did you bring that up so suddenly anyways?"

"I've been meaning to ask this whole time, but you looked like you were in your own world so I didn't bother."

"Ah.. sorry. it's just-" Sasuke hesitated.

"Hmm?" Naruto egged him on. He already knew what Sasuke would ask about.

He wanted to know who Gaara was.

"Who's the redhead?" He asked, quickly going back to looking through his bag as he did so.

Naruto wanted to grin, it seemed like his sister's feelings weren't so one sided after all.

"That's Gaara, him and his siblings have been close friends of ours for a couple years." Naruto explained. "He didn't wanna come here, so Sak's been trying to cheer him up."

"Hn. Thanks." Sasuke nodded, before walking towards the door.

"I'll see you downstairs." He said, not leaving any time for Naruto to reply before he left.

Naruto finally allowed his grin to show, his plan was going perfectly.

__

The teachers hosted a mini orientation, going over a few things like expected behaviour and what to do in case of an emergency. After that, they were set free to do whatever they pleased for the weekend.

Sakura immediately set out to find Gaara, hoping she could catch him before he ran back to his room. He had agreed to play a game of UNO with her later, but she really hoped she could get him to do more with his day.

"Sakura." She heard someone call her as she turned around.

"Oh, hey Sasuke!" She grinned, feeling abnormally nervous around him all of a sudden. This never happened before, why now?

"Come on, let's go get some food or something." He nodded his head towards the dining area, where you could buy cheap sandwiches and drinks.

Then Sakura remembered, she promised to spend the weekend with Sasuke so he wouldn't have to see Ino and Shikamaru.

She had also promised Gaara she would basically spend the weekend with him.

Oh no.

She supposed she could let Gaara spend today in his room, and meet him later on.

"Alright, but I promised my friend I'd hang out with him later." She said, unsure of why she was so anxious to tell him.

Was it because Gaara was a guy? That wouldn't make sense though, Sasuke wasn't even her actual boyfriend. Plus, she'd still hang out with Gaara even if they were dating. He was one of her closest friends after all.

"That's fine, Naruto wants to go out for dinner with the rest of our group later." Sasuke replied, as he was reminded of the redhead.

It's not like he was jealous or anything, why would he be? He had plans too, so it's not like she's ditching him anyways.

Sakura thanked her lucky stars for her brother, despite him not know he helped her out a bit. "Alright, let's get something to eat and then maybe walk around for a bit?"

"Sounds like a plan."

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[UNEDITED]

I-I updated?

and it made it past 1000 words?

There is no way that I'm konohaguild 🤨

Hehe as always sorry for the late update...