AN: I am still not completely sold on this chapter, but it’s better than what I had written before, so I’ll go with it. Unedited. Also, burgeoning hints of NaruSaku in this chapter and this chapter only, but it’s not endgame, and it’s there for a reason.
Warnings: Description of panic attacks and associated symptoms; somewhat racist/ignorant comments from OCs, also lead-up to a physical assault which may cause victims of robbery/harassment/assault to possibly feel triggered. You have been warned.
Beta Reader: No one but me just yet.
Chapter Three: Chemistry
Sakura’s acceptance to Harvard is a shock, a sudden upset to Sasuke’s carefully crafted future which he didn’t see coming and didn’t think to prepare for. She never even told him she had applied, and whenever they’ve discussed the future lately it’s gravitated around the all-but-established understanding that they would be attending Keio together.
To know that she’s thinking of going somewhere else, he is overcome by an instant, acute sense of panic.
Which is why when Sakura asks him for advice, he has to fight his first instinct, which is to tell her the one thing he knows would stop her from going: that she won’t be able to handle it. Sakura has always had trouble with self-confidence, and if he were to tell her he doubted her abilities, she would instantly abandon the idea.
Within a half-second of thinking it, he immediately experiences a pit form in his belly and a shiver of wrongness up his spine.
Sakura is kind and good and smart, and she is more than capable of succeeding wherever she goes. One day she is going to be a world-renowned doctor, and she should go where she can get the best education possible. More than that, he thinks she would thrive in any of the college’s programs. If anyone’s happiness is important to him, it’s Sakura’s.
Though she isn’t aware of his mental lapse, he tries to erase it by immediately telling her that she has to go.
Never Tell Me The Odds [3/31]
Published
SasuSaku Month 