Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ A Second Chance ❯ Tears ( Chapter 5 )

A/N: It was raining when I told you. “I love you.”

Tears

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She sat in an elegant booth, beautifully decorated with flowers and hand carved designs. The whole gallery was fully polished to a wonderful shine, the marble floor waxed and sparkling and the newly painted walls a light pale pink. Flowers and exquisite paintings lingered everywhere along the walls. With a cup of warm coffee in front of her and a pile of random magazines waiting to be looked through, Haruno Sakura currently sat staring out of a small bridal shop's window daydreaming.

“Sakura!”

“What?” She turned her head to face the annoying voice reluctantly.

“Fore-head girl, are you insane? Your wedding is in a week! You should be preparing not pondering!”

This got her attention.

“Do you or do you not want the wedding to be spectacular?”

She quickly hid her shocked expression.

Her wedding was in a week. How could she forget?

`I'm getting married.'

`I'm getting married.'

`I'm marrying Sasuke-kun.'

“No,” she said quietly, “I don't want to disappoint everyone.” With a fake plastered smile she began to look through all the catalogs that Ino handed her.

“I think that this color would suit you more! Don't you?”

“Hmm…”

“Sakura!”

“What?”

The blonde let out a regretful sigh. “Sakura, it almost seems like you don't want to get married.”

The moon kissed skinned woman slowly stopped moving and bowed her head. She tried desperately to hide her unwelcome tears from spreading.

“Sakura?”

She didn't look up.

“Sakura what's wrong?”

“Oh Ino… Everything is wrong!” Her tears came down at a faster pace.

All of a sudden, realization came onto Ino's face. She gave her best friend a reassuring smile and a quick pat on the back. “There, there… every bride gets cold feet, it's only natural.”

Sakura just wept more furiously. “It's not that Ino.”

“What then? What is it?” she questioned.

There was a pause before a barely audible whisper was heard.

“Ino, what if I told you that I love him? What would you say to me?”

“…”

Sakura rolled her eyes at the dense woman. “What if I told you that I was still in love with him? What would you do?”

“Sak -”

“What would you do if you loved someone but was still unsure about your feelings for another person?”

Ino gasped, finally understanding the situation. This was more than cold feet. She came up to Sakura and took her hand in hers. “Why are you talking about this Sakura?” She squeezed her hand like she wanted to squeeze some sense into her. “You're marrying Sasuke. The Uchiha Sasuke.” She stopped and looked into her eyes. “You know… the one you had a crush on since forever… since our childhood days.”

Sakura let go of her hand. “That's the thing Ino, what if it is just a crush?” She turned her head, unwilling to look at the blonde.

Ino's eyes widened, shocked to hear her best friend talk about something like this.

“How do I really know that I love him now? How can I be sure? What happens if I'm making a huge mistake that I'll regret for the rest of my life?” The emerald goddess cried, second-guessing herself.

There was an awkward silence.

“…Sakura… What is it?” Ino's eyes were over flowing with concern. She was going to be married in a few days and she was about to blow it! “Sakura, come on, you know you can trust me, we're best friends. I won't tell anyone, promise.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I'm sure, I pinky swear.” She held out her pinky.

Sakura smiled and wrapped hers around her best friend's.

“There, now that's settled… Spill.” She ordered.

“Oh… Ino,” the young bride collapsed on the table, “I'm not sure anymore if I did the right thing.”

Ino raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean… the right thing? For what?”

Tears filled her eyes and her next words came out hoarse. “Nothing… it's nothing, just forget I said anything.”

She gave her worried friend a small smile. “Sakura, you should know better than to hide something from me. I've noticed for a long time that something was bothering you. So Tell me. What do you mean, `I'm not sure that I did the right thing'?” She approached her calmly and carefully.

She still felt nervous around Sakura. It had been a month since Sakura caught her “little betrayal”. She apologized quickly after; she really didn't know what she was doing. One minute she was on her way home and the next she was making-out with Sasuke.

She slightly fidgeted.

She was so happy that Sakura forgave her. After all, she did owe her. Sakura was the one who broke up her old relationship - not purposefully of course, but she was still forced to end it. They promised each other afterwards to never put a man before their friendship and Ino was going to stick to that. She was kind of sad that Sasuke rejected her… she figured that he was only using her… for what reason she did not know, but it hurt to be fooled by the same man twice.

But enough about that, she had tougher problems to deal with. Using all the brainpower that she processed, the light finally went off in Ino's head. “It's about Hyuuga isn't it?”

Sakura gave her a surprised look.

“Whatever that is bothering you. It's about Neji-san isn't it?”

Sakura didn't say anything but looked away from her face.

“Don't lie to me Sakura, whatever is bothering you involves Neji. I know it does.”

She didn't speak but rather nodded her head.

“Oh Sakura…”

She looked up at the blonde's troubled appearance.

“I know, I know, I know, I shouldn't let him get to me, but I can't help it Ino. I just can't!”

The blonde's expression fell.

“I think of him more and more every single day. He haunts me now. It won't stop. And whenever I try to forget about him, I think of him even more.” She started crying. “I can't help it! I just can't!”

Ino walked towards Sakura and put her arms around her in a caring hug. “Shh… There, there, it'll be okay.” Ino started to rock side to side trying to stop the woman's distress. When her sobs died down she said reassuringly, “Sakura, you can't do this to yourself. Don't do this to yourself.”

Sakura held back some sniffles.

“You love Sasuke.” She emphasized every word. “You've loved him for the longest time. Remember all the times you cried and worried for him? Do you remember all the things you did for him?” She stopped and gave Sakura an all-knowing look. “Are you willing to give it all up for a man who turned you down?”

Her eyes widened.

“Remember Sakura, Neji left you. He left you. Just remember that.” She leaned back down on her chair and gently ran her hand around her mug of coffee. “He left you and you moved on.” She folded her hands on the table and surveyed Sakura with crucial eyes. “You did move on right?” the blonde said suspiciously.

“Of course… Of course I did.” She said none to convincingly. “You're right Ino. You're absolutely right. I love Sasuke-kun. I'm going to marry him. I will live happily ever after with him. He is everything that I have ever wanted.” She said encouragingly to herself.

“Ah… that's good.” Her eyes softened. “Oh yea, one more thing Sakura.”

“Yeah?”

“Just remember something.”

“What?”

“Just remember that it was no one's fault…but his own.”

She smiled softly. “Yea,” she agreed.

“Good. Now come on Sakura, we have a wedding to plan! Now I don't agree with your choice of flowers, I still say that roses would be better than lilies but…”

“Yeah, totally, whatever you want.” She said absent-mindedly.

She was just so happy to have such a great friend like Ino. What would she do if she didn't have someone like her?

“And I totally disagree with the catering you have…”

She zoned the loudmouth out and whether she could help it or not, her eyes turned misty. `Yeah… it was no one's fault…but his own.'

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“Sakura-Chan!” The blonde said impatiently. “Hurry up, I've been waiting for ages, I want to see how you look.”

“Okay, I'm coming. For goodness sakes, you don't have to whine Ino.”

The glare Ino shot her soon turned to one of out-right admiration. “…”

“What? What is it? Do I look that bad in it?” Sakura questioned. She pushed Ino out of the way and ran up toward the full-length mirror hoping to survey the damage. “I knew it, I shouldn't have tried on this dress. It's stupid. I probably look horrible.” She tightly closed her eyes and braced for the worst. `Here goes nothing.' She slowly opened her eyes and let out a hushed gasp. She stood gaping at the mirror. In front of her was a striking bride, not the bride of Frankenstein. She looked different. This was not her staring back in front of her. It just couldn't be. She tried on the dress. Ino was right; it did look gorgeous on her.

It was a simple slender pure white dress. It didn't stick out at the bottom or was extremely over done with beads or lace or anything for that matter. It was just a plain but stunning dress. It was a shoulder cut dress fitting nicely into place and ran all the way down to the floor covering her shoes. A second layer of soft fabric was on the top of her dress for design. It came with a matching veil and small train that she positively adored. The lightweight material nicely showed off every curve she processed. It wasn't puffy at all but rather airy at the bottom.

She loved it.

That was of course what she was aiming at, a simple but magnificent wedding. And this dress was perfect for the wedding.

“Wow… Forehead, you look beautiful.” The young blonde said in awe. She seemed to have collected her words. “See! I told you this dress would look great on you.” She giggled gleefully. “I'm going to check out the bride's maids' dresses. You better pick the one I want Forehead!” She warned. “I'm not wearing a ugly ass dress to the wedding.” She flipped her long golden hair to one side. “Even if it's your wedding,” She smirked. “I'll tell you what. I'll even try my hardest not to look prettier than you, but I highly doubt that will happen.” The blonde teased.

“Ino!”

She laughed and ran out of the room eager to browse for the perfect maid of honor's dress.

Sakura smiled and ran a hand through her hair. She was now alone with her thoughts.

She stared at herself in the mirror. Ino was right; she did look amazing. She twirled the gown around and held up the bouquet of flowers that were resting a few inches away from her. She studied herself.

`I'm getting married.'

`I'm getting married.'

`I'm marrying Sasuke-kun.'

She spun around and watched in amazement as the dress precisely and beautifully fell at the side with each spin. She straightened up her dress and smoothed out all the wrinkles. She put the flowers down. A small smile tugged at the edge of her rose petal lips.

`No… I'm marrying Neji-kun.'

Somehow, she seems happier with this thought.

`Yea… it was no one's fault…but his own.'

She stood there staring at her reflection for a long time.

A/N: Beta me baby. I got myself a beta! Thanks SatuAka. You're awesome! But, it's always nice to have more… Interested? I'm overworking mine.

I made Ino nice again. I actually like her. But I need a character to fill her part in the story and for some reason I chose her. Sorry Ino lovers.

Hopefully all the editing was worth it. It killed just to reread it. Writing is hard!

Thank you for all the reviews, it makes my day. It really does.

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