Sweetness

Chapter 4: Jealousy Bloomed

The following day Asagao woke up earlier than usual, wanting to be on his way before Ino or Mrs Yamanaka would wake up.

The market was already up and at it like it did every morning. Asagao hurriedly shoved a piece of toast in his mouth as he heard grumbling coming from upstairs. Not leaving any note, Asagao closed the front door behind him and made his way to the academy.

Stopping on the way there Asagao bought a cupcake to eat for lunch and continued walking. On his way there he had a few giggles, it seemed Naruto had pranked the villagers again and angry shouts could be heard all over the village.

"It seems that moron has done something stupid again" Spinning around, Asagao came face to face with Sasuke, who greeted him with a simple nod.

The two made their way to the academy in silence, while occasionally making a comment. That was until Sasuke was called out, without warning Asagao was left alone in the middle of the street, while Sasuke was running for his life with about nineteen girls on his heels.

Asagao hummed and shrugged, continuing to walk alone to the academy. When he got there, suprisingly his sister was already there, looking very winded.

"Hey Asa! Have you seen Sasuke-kun?!" Asagao shook his head and Ino groaned loudly in annoyance. She glared at Asagao for some reason, making Asagao rather confused.

"Why would he visit you anyway?! You two hated each other yesterday! Y'know, you should just stay away from him, so you don't affect him with your depressing orphan genes" She snarled. Asagao looked at his feet, trying not to let her words affect him and lash out in anger.

"Asagao, come here now" Asagao looked up and saw Sasuke standing little ways from Ino, who squealed in join, hearts practically pouring out of her eyes.

Asagao saw the ferocious look in his eyes and gulped, before obeying his command and walking closer. Ino was grinning from ear to ear, she of course thought that Sasuke was going to beat Asagao up and impress her.

Instead, Sasuke grabbed Asagao's hand and dragged him to the classroom. Ino was left standing there, watching as her crush held her adopted brothers hand tightly and walked away from her, not even greeting her.

Ino's eyes were welling up with tears and the corners of her mouth were down. She sniffled and fled the scene, running back home to tell her mom about what happened.

In the meanwhile Sasuke and Asagao had entered the classroom, Sasuke was wisked away by many girls, like usual and Asagao was called over by Naruto, who was suprisingly already there.

Asagao's eyes lit up and a smile appeared on his face. He walked over to Naruto, who was grinning ear to ear. Sadly, the door slammed open and everybody looked at the adult woman, a crying Ino and a conflicted Iruka-sensei. The woman seemed to search around the classroom, before her eyes landed on Asagao, who flinched under her harsh gaze.

Sasuke seemed confused. The woman, Mrs Yamanaka, seemed very enraged and Ino seemed to be actually sad, but he could feel in his bones that she was faking a part of it.

"Asagao-san, please join us in the hallway" Iruka-sensei requested, with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. Asagao stood up from his desk and awkwardly walked out the classroom, feeling the eyes of his judgemental classmates following him.

As soon as the door got closed, everybody started talking about what just occured. Sasuke had furrowed brows in deep concentration, blocking out the high pitched voices of the gossiping voices around him, along with Naruto's loud voice questioning who that woman was.

The next thing that happened was Iruka-sensei walking into the classroom looking quite remorseful and Ino right behind him, looking victorius and smug. Without any hesitation like usual, Naruto yelled out at Iruka.

"Iruka-sensei! Where's Asagao?!" It had not even been a full two days that the two were friends and Naruto was already beyond concerned about Asagao.

"Well, Asagao's parents have decided that it would be best for him to study and live at the temple in the forest rather than become a ninja" Iruka-sensei said. Naruto could feel his heart shatter as he slumped in his seat.

Sasuke frowned, very unhappy with what had occured. What happened to Asagao's promise? Iruka then started his lesson and Sasuke, who already knew about the subject, directed his attention to outside.

His eyes were wide. Asagao was still there, sitting on the swing where Naruto would usually sit. He couldn't see the Yamanaka anywhere. Sticking his hand up, all the attention went to Sasuke.

"Yes, Sasuke?" Iruka was curious to what Sasuke could possibly want to ask, not having seen him stick his hand up since the incident.

"May I go to the bathroom?" The fangirls went wild. Iruka looked annoyed at the sudden amount of noise, but gave Sasuke premission.

Sasuke walked past the toilet and went outside to Asagao, who was still sitting silently on the swing. Asagao's head shot up, startled by the sudden noise of Sasuke standing on a stick. That's when Sasuke saw it.

A large red mark was decorating Asagao's cheek and Sasuke linked it to the woman and Ino. Asagao realized who he was looking at and what Sasuke's eyes were aimed at, Asagso reached up and covered his cheek with his own palm.

"What happened, you're breaking the promise you made" Sasuke said walking closer to Asagao, who looked down in shame. Asagao moved a little to the side and Sasuke took a seat beside him.

"Well it wasn't exactly my choice to be sent to a temple, now was it?" Asagao growled out. Sasuke raised his eyebrow at Asagao's tone of voice and sighed.

"Than whose choice was it?" Sasuke asked sarcastically, not really expecting an answer.

"My 'mother' had found out that I 'stole' something or someone from Ino, so as punishment for my bad behaviour I'm being sent away" Asagao said just as sarcastically.

"When are you leaving?" Sasuke's voice seemed quieter than usual and Asagao felt a little saddened by his tone.

"Tonight, Mrs Yamanaka is probably already packing my stuff" Asagao said, his voice breaking near the end. Asagao then let out a sigh and stood up.

He turned to Sasuke and gave a smile.

"When you're a ninja I'll make sure to have chores for you ready. You should visit as well and maybe bring Naruto if it's possible" Asagao said and was ready to leave Sasuke alone, but in the spur of the moment Sasuke shot forward and hugged Asagao close.

"I'll make it a promise I can keep" Asagao smiled at that and hugged Sasuke back.

"I am holding you on to that"