did it hurt? you know, when you fell from heaven?

by: aNdreaa

木

"Oh my god, get down! You're gonna break your face or something!"

Sakura stretched her arm out a little higher to retrieve the kite that she'd gotten stuck on, of course, the highest branch of one of the trees on campus. She and Ino had been required to fly one outside and document the ordeal for a class aerodynamics experiment. So far, so not good.

"Sakura!" Ino shrieked from the base of the tree. "I'm serious! We can get another kite! Do you know how lame of a college student you look like right now?"

"I almost have it," Sakura said, ignoring the pleas. "Would you relax?"

Ino folded her arms huffily. "I'll relax when you're back on the ground, Sakura. Seriously! The kite was like, five bucks. Get down."

Sakura rolled her eyes and lifted herself up further before grabbing the kite with her fingers. Snapping the tangled string off, she began to descend. "You can breathe again, Miss Paranoid. It's not a big deal. Oh, we have an extra string spool right?"

"Not a big deal enough for you to climb freaking twenty feet! Ohmygosh, take your time. You're gonna slip!"

"I'm okay. Please do not start freaking out again."

"Oh, yeah, fine," Ino said, waving a hand. "But I get to be the first one to sign the freaking BODY CAST THAT THEY PUT YOU IN."

Sakura paused on a branch to scowl down at her friend. "You're hilarious."

"I try."

"When I'm back on the ground, I am so going to stuff my sock in your big mouth." Sakura let the kite drop to the grass so she could use both her hands to climb down. "I'm halfway right?"

"Yeah, about."

"Will you just re-tie the kite already?" Sakura snapped, bending one knee and stepping on another branch.

Ino picked up the object of concern and walked over to where their backpacks were to retrieve the spare string.

"Where'd you put it?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. Check my purse and if not, it's probably in the front pocket of my ba-AH!"

"SAKURA!" Ino shrieked, whipping around.

BAMSNAP.

Sakura's foot had slipped clean off the limb she'd been standing on and she'd tumbled downward. A tree branch and a lot of leaves had whipped her forehead as she fell (that was gonna leave a mark) and she would have landed flat on her face if it hadn't been for another body cushioning her fall…well, sort of cushioning. Uchiha Sasuke, in all honesty, had been walking by. A complete innocent victim. He definitely had not been planning to rescue any damsels in distress today. Especially the ones that fell from trees.

"Shit…" he grunted.

Sakura had to admit even though she hadn't landed smack on the ground, landing on another set of limbs from ten feet up probably caused the same or more amount of pain. For the both of them. She'd heard a snap that sounded sickeningly like a breaking of a bone.

Yeah, Sasuke was in a lot of pain. Definitely the snap.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Sakura coughed, rolling off her victim as fast as possible. It was hard work. She could positively feel the bruises beginning to blossom all over. "Are you…of course you're not okay, I just gave you a vertical body slam…oh god, I'm so, so, so, so sorry…"

Sakura helped him sit up. He looked a little worse for wear; there were a few leaves stuck to his head and his white shirt was now grass-and-dirt-streaked.

Ino was still clutching the kite, her jaw dropped in gleeful shock. Whoever her best friend had just landed on, he was hot! Oh, right, she'd better make sure Sakura was okay and all…

"It's fine," he said shortly. He winced when he tried to move his wrist. "Uh…"

"The snap was you!" Sakura practically mourned in guilt. "Oh god, I broke you!"

"What just…happened?" he asked, wincing again as he tested his hand.

"I fell out of the tree. Our kite was stuck- we were doing this stupid assignment. I'm so sorry! We have to get you to the nurse or something…"

"You scared the shit out of me," he coughed. She'd completely knocked the wind out of him.

"I'm sorry…I don't usually fall out of trees," Sakura said lamely as if she usually scared the shit out of strangers a different way. "Can you stand?"

"Yeah, it's fine," Sasuke replied. "I'll go…see the nurse on my own. It's fine."

"But I fell on you!" Sakura said, bright red. "I fell…you're in my class aren't you? I fell on my classmate…this is so embarrassing." She smacked her palm to her face in distress and immediately felt stinging pain followed by a warm, damp touch.

Her forehead was bleeding.

"Oh, brilliant."

Sasuke at last caught his breath long enough to focus on the person who'd just scared him half to hell by falling out of nowhere. He blinked at dark red blood trickling down her face.

"I, uh, think we both need to get to the nurse."

木

"A girl fell on top of you."

"…yes."

"A girl."

"…"

"Fell. On top of you."

"Do you have a point to your ridiculous articulation, dumbass?" Sasuke hissed. Naruto immediately backed up in his chair, hands raised in defense.

"I'm only repeating what you told me," the blonde said quickly. "A girl fell out of a tree and landed on top of you."

"Stop saying it like that!" Sasuke snapped, ears turning pink.

Naruto grinned, but his eyes were feigning puppy dog innocence. "Like what, Sauce?"

"Stop calling me that. You know…like—!"

Sasuke was going to tear his own hair out in rage. Seriously.

"Screw you, pervert," he scoffed, turning the other way. He was currently sitting in the nurse's office occupying one side of the dividing curtain and examining his just-bandaged broken wrist. On the other side of the curtain was the girl who was getting a bandage too. On her forehead.

It was a little funny.

But the worst part that had hit his ego the most was that she really, seriously scared the shit out of him. A body had tumbled out of nowhere, hit him, and he lost his cool and nearly had a stroke. And on top of that, he was now confined to a cast for the next three months.

"Can I sign it?" Naruto asked eagerly, whipping out a thick black Sharpie.

For once, Sasuke was too exhausted to even argue. "Whatever," he muttered.

As Naruto scribbled his name in childlike capital letters, Sasuke stared at the curtain in front of him. He could see the girl's vague silhouette as she conversed quietly with her friend.

"You know her name?" Naruto asked.

"Sakura."

"Sakura. The Girl Who Fell On…Top of You."

Sasuke positively fried him with a sharp glare.

木

"But he's HOT."

"Ino, I'm begging you. Lower. Your voice. He and his friend are right there!"

The blonde cackled gleefully. "This is so cute. What if you guys end up going out and then get married? Do you know how freaking hilarious of a story this will make whenever someone asks you guys how you met?" She put on a poor imitation of Sasuke's deep voice. "Uh…yeah, she fell out of a tree and I caught her. Seriously."

"Except he didn't catch me," Sakura moaned. "I CRUSHED him. He's broken and it's all my fault."

"Yeah, but you got a wound there too, missy," Ino mused, tapping the large bandage on Sakura's forehead. "Maybe even a concussion." She gasped, thinking of an idea. "He'll have to carry you home and take care of you because you'll be so delirious from the hit—"

"Ino, stop talking. And try to keep it in your pants."

"How did it feel when you fell on him? Did you touch his abs? He looks so fit…"

"Ino!"

"But he's HOT."

木

"Hey, hey," Naruto piped up, thinking. "You know what line you should use to score a date with her?"

"I don't want to score a date," Sasuke said in obvious distaste of Naruto's crudeness.

"Yeah but she's cute and you know it."

"Shut up." A small pink tinge appeared in the Uchiha's cheeks.

"Did it hurt?" Naruto began. Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "When you fell from heaven? Because with a face like that, you gotta be an angel!"

Sasuke just rolled his eyes and leaned back to lie down on the bed. "That's the dumbest line I've ever heard," he remarked dryly.

"But considering the situation, it'd be great—"

"No."

木

"So are you going to talk to him?" Ino gushed. "You should at least say hi. And maybe introduce yourself. And…then apologize for falling on him…"

"This is so embarrassing," Sakura hissed. "I think I've spoken to him like only once since we've been at Konoha U and I'm pretty sure we've had more than five classes together."

"Why haven't you guys ever spoken?"

"I don't know…" Sakura mumbled. "You said it yourself. Look at his face."

"He's hot?"

"…well, yeah."

木

"Are you gonna say hi at least?" Naruto pressed.

"I don't know."

"So yes?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "…do you intentionally ignore everything I say?"

"Not unless it's what I want you to say." Naruto actually had the gall to grin widely at this. "But seriously. I've talked to her a couple of times. We had English together. Did you have any of the same classes as her?"

"Art History, Psychology, Personal Finance, Writing and Literature, Statistics, and Economics."

A beat passed.

Sasuke blanched. Did he seriously just rattle those all off the top of his head?

Naruto beamed.

"You liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike her!"

"Shut up."

木

Ino was tired of waiting. Pushing her long ponytail behind her shoulder, she stood up and folded her arms, facing her best friend.

"Go talk to him."

"Wha-now?"

"Yes."

"No—" Sakura protested but Ino grabbed her arm and practically dragged her to the curtain. Courteously, she waited before pulling it back (what if he were shirtless or something…oh wait, that would actually not be so bad maybe she should pull it back now to get a glimpse).

"Excuse me? Um…"

"Sasuke," Sakura whispered helpfully.

"…Sasuke? Can we say hi for a sec?"

A blonde boy pulled back the curtain grinning widely at the two girls. "Sure! He doesn't mind." Sasuke gave a small wave from the bed as he sat up.

Ino waggled her eyebrows suggestively at Sakura, whispering, "Look- he has a cast. He looks even hotter when he's injured." Sakura blushed.

"Hey," the blonde boy introduced himself. "I'm Naruto. This fella's best friend."

"I'm Sakura," Sakura replied. "This is Ino. Um, we just wanted to see if you were doing okay…"

"Did it hurt?" Naruto asked offhandedly. Sasuke stiffened abruptly and tried to kick him from behind.

Sakura was clueless. "When I fell out of the tree?"

Sasuke kicked Naruto again but the blonde was undeterred. "No—OUCH—when you fell—STOP IT YOU BASTARD—from heaven. Because Sasuke here—OUCH—thinks that with a face like yours you gotta be an ANGEL—AGH—!"

The last kick gave him a dead leg and he fell on the floor at Ino's and Sakura's feet- the latter not being able to help turning bright red. Ino just coughed.

"I didn't say that," Sasuke declared immediately. "Uh…not that I think you're hideous or something…I just…that stupid line was all him…"

Sakura tucked a lock of hair behind her ear nervously. "Well, it was, um, cute despite the cheesiness…"

Sasuke rubbed the back of his head.

From the floor, Naruto rolled his eyes dramatically.

"Just ask her out already, bastard."

木

Naroodo is great at matchmaking.

Based off of how Nadeshiko and Fujitaka met in Cardcaptor Sakura. First fandom, ohhh yeah.

Have any of you fallen out of a tree before? If so, the follow-up question would be: Did you fall on a hot guy or did a hot guy catch you? Lawl.