Jealousy

It was a well-known fact that Uchiha Sasuke was probably the most sought after bachelor in the whole of Konoha - despite his tender age of 16. He also supposedly as the largest unisex fan base since the departure of the late Fourth Hokage. After all, Uchiha Sasuke was dark, handsome and had a sad, emotionally scarring past - in other words, he was irresistible.

It was also commonly known that any belongings of Uchiha Sasuke (especially undergarments) that were not guarded with extremely complicated seals would be looted immediately and brought to auction to the highest bidder, usually at the Uchiha Sasuke Fan Club.

This was why it was practically unthinkable for said bachelor to be jealous of Rock Lee, who had, the previous day incidentally passed by Ichiraku and asked Haruno Sakura on a date. By some strange chance, Sakura had miraculously agreed to his proposition. Sasuke almost had to physically restrain himself for searching the skies for flying pigs.

It was also impossible for him to feel even the slightest envy towards Rock Lee when he did not, at the very least; harbour any feelings for Sakura. After all, Sakura was just another annoying member of the female species whose full-time interests had only probably included boys and the condition of her hair.

However, Sasuke did secretly acknowledge Sakura's competence at being a medic-nin despite previously showing nothing but nonchalance towards her abilities. She had also surpassed a surprising number of chuunin of her age in terms on genjutsu and her outstanding chakra control; despite her lack of any bloodline limits.

On the other hand, what had grated Sasuke's nerves the most was her ability to latch upon his arm or give him excessive physical contact for extensive periods. It admittedly had lessened, only appearing occasionally during the sporadic emotional bursts. Sakura had somehow begun to treat him as she had any of her male friends. It had somewhat caused him some unexplainable irritation.

Besides, everyone knew that Sasuke was a complete sucker for girls with long hair. Sasuke, in other words, thought that girls with long hair were reasonably more tolerable in comparison with those with shorter hair. In short (no pun intended), there was no way Sasuke would like Sakura.

In fact, even if he did like Sakura, no one with any dignity would feel jealous of the creature known as Rock Lee. In green spandex, a bowl cut hairstyle (which was painfully inferior to his own), beady eyes and blinding white teeth - Sasuke had no idea why Sakura had even agreed to grace him a few moments of her company.

His uneasiness was, of course, due to platonic concern towards Sakura as a fellow member of Team 7. After all, Rock Lee could be trying to take advantage of Sakura by drugging her or using a genjutsu technique on her. In addition, if Sakura were taken advantage of; Sasuke's conscience (or what remained of it) would make him feel guilt - which in turn would affect his prearranged plan of vengeance towards the other living person who shared the Uchiha blood.

Besides, he hated Rock Lee. It was all because of his... haircut... right. Its ugliness had repeatedly offended him.

Justified, Sasuke decided to trail Sakura and Lee. After all, Naruto was shockingly, not bothered about Sakura's date. Although Sasuke understood that Naruto's childish crush had passed and he was having a relationship of sorts with the Hyuuga girl, he expected an undying pledge to save her from Rock Lee - or at the very least, a punch to said person's face.

He had been thoroughly disappointed when all he received was a non-committed, mumbled response in between humongous bites of ramen on how it was 'about time she gave up on him'.

Sasuke was regrettably, forced to act alone

With the perfect disguise (unspiked hair); Sasuke proceeded to go to Sakura's house, where Lee had said to plan to pick her up.

Squashing himself behind a bush, a place where afforded him a rather reasonable view of the front door - Sasuke managed to acquire a reasonable dislike towards mosquitoes and other six limbed creatures that roamed the earth. As his patience wore thin, he decided to eliminate the insects discreetly.

However, his fireball was not as subtle as he hoped, as it managed to catch a few dead leaves nearby on fire. The fire then proceeded to happily spread towards the very bushes he had manage to take cover in and was about to convert itself into a miniature bonfire before Sasuke managed to put it out.

His respect towards Shino for his contract with the insects; though, had somewhat dwindled.

Barely a few minutes after he extinguished the fire and disposed of the smoke and ashes in the surrounding area, he could see a flash of black and white. It soon turned out to be Lee, wearing a casual white shirt and black slacks as he pressed the doorbell with an insanely wide grin pasted on his face.

Sakura’s father (who had the trademark Haruno pink hair) soon greeted Lee. Despite that, he had succeeded looking rather masculine - although it could be because he was at an impressive height of six feet six and had a build that surpassed Morino Ibiki. It was no wonder her father was not a ninja. With his size, he could barely manage any sort of stealth. His size, however, was rather effective in intimidating any suitors his beloved daughter may have. In this case, said suitor was an almost-trembling Rock Lee.

Sasuke silently approved at the glare he gave Lee but was soon disappointed when Sakura appeared and began chiding her father gently at the treatment of her... friend.

He silently noted that Sakura looked rather pleasant in the pale green dress with a hint of floral print that she wore. It, however, was too low-cut for his tastes. The dress might give Lee insinuations that Sakura herself failed to notice, being the almost stupidly naive kunoichi she was. Sasuke privately thought to himself that Sakura would have looked a lot better in blue.

After Sakura's father seemed to satisfied that Lee's intentions were entirely honourable, (Which had rather disheartened Sasuke who had thought her father could see through the web of lies and illusions that Lee was weaving around Sakura.) he shook Lee's hand, gave one last glare, bid his daughter goodbye and shut the door.

In a movement that would be thought as suave to some, Lee gently took Sakura's hand and kissed it, causing a colourful blush from the girl. It was soon proven to be rather fatal - towards Lee, of course as Sasuke was seriously considering killing him more and more the longer the evening dragged on.

"May we?" the eyebrow disaster asked idiotically.

Sakura giggled. Sasuke heard a strange growling. It took him a few moments to realise that the he was the origin.

They soon strolled towards their destination, an apparently new restaurant in Konoha. Sasuke was rather annoyed to find out as he followed the pair that he was acquiring rather unwanted information about Lee. Frankly, Sasuke could not have cared less about the many pets and stuffed toys that Lee and his many siblings once owned.

Sakura smiled at Lee. Sasuke's eyebrow twitched - purely in reflex, of course.

Sakura and the creature (it was easier for Sasuke to think him as such) entered the restaurant, after hearing rather obviously false compliments about their compatibility. It was impossible for Sasuke to skulk around the restaurant, trying to listen into their conversation and ensure Sakura would not be molested while remaining inconspicuous.

As a result, he had to pretend to be a normal customer, out to enjoy a nice quiet dinner by his own (although the Sharingan was used quite a few times to overcome the rather trivial matter of reservations) and seated himself to a table hidden from Sakura and the creature's view.

It soon proceeded to the point where Sasuke was trying to decide on the method of death - the messier, the better. After all, his hand was practically touching hers. The Public Display of Affection was completely scandalous. It was a wonder that the manager had not tried to throw them out yet. Worst of all, the evening was far from over, given that they have not even placed their order.

When a waitress approached him, Sasuke braced himself for his next move and... winked. Regardless that the wink seemed more like a grimace than a flirtation, it seemed to have worked as the waitress swayed on her feet slightly before scooting excitedly towards him. Whispering his plan to her, Sasuke silently congratulated himself for his utter brilliance.

---

Sasuke whistled slightly as he leisurely walked back to his apartment. The day had ended in an unexpected, yet welcomed, turn - a disaster; and there seemed to be no other probable dates with Lee in the future, judging by the expression on Sakura’s face. With the almost the entire restaurant in ruins, the staff probably had learned a lesson of utmost importance on the green beast of Konoha; Alcohol must not, under any circumstances, be given to said person in any place with breakable objects in the radius of a hundred metres.

He was so distracted with dignified joy that he almost bumped into a girl with pink hair.

Silently cursing his luck, he pretended not to notice and began to double his pace towards his apartment. Despite his utter brilliance in acting nonchalant, Sakura stood in front of him, blocking his way.

"Er... Hi, Sakura," managed Sasuke, as he tried to avoid the glare aimed at him. "Nice night for a walk, isn’t it?"

"It probably is," said Sakura menacingly, hands on her waist. "But you wouldn't know, would you? After all, you were too busy ruining my date with Lee-kun."

"Of course I wasn't," Sasuke replied, crossing his arms.

And he managed to convince Sakura for a few seconds before his eyebrow twitched.

"Ha! You're lying!" accused Sakura. "Your eyebrow twitched."

"Of course I'm not lying!"

twitch

"You are! Your eyebrow always twitches when you're lying to me!"

"It does not!"

twitch

Sasuke was about to attempt to cover his forehead with his hands when he realised how incredibly childish he was acting and how close Sakura was to unleashing her legendary anger on him. He decided to resign himself to Sakura's wrath, whatever it would be.

"What were you thinking?" Sakura shouted, emphasizing her point with waving arms. Sasuke was suddenly struck on how 'not unattractive' Sakura was. His eyes were drawn to her lips which were probably still berating him on his interference but all he could think of was how soft they looked.

"-You never cared for me more than just a friend and now you're ruining whatever chances I have to be happ-MMF!"

And Sasuke finally shut Sakura up with a kiss.

Sasuke leapt off into the night with a small, out-of-character silly grin on his face, leaving a bewildered Sakura behind.

Perhaps he preferred girls with shorter hair, after all.