Why Were You So Good to Me?

Clang!

The hinges on the old wooden door gave way when Sakura Haruno kicked them. The entire door sagged off the frame, swayed a few times, then crashed to the floor.

Seeing this,

Sakura froze for a second, then ducked her head and sheepishly lifted the door back up, as if afraid Takasaki might find out.

She called Takasaki's name several more times, but still got no response.

Across the road, though, a cleaning lady pushing a garbage cart called out to her. "Young lady, I saw you here early this morning. So you're looking for Takasaki?"

"You know Takasaki?" Sakura turned around.

"I do. That child is very polite. His parents are both dead, poor thing. But when I got off work last night, I saw him packing his things and heading out. I asked where he was going, and he said he was moving."

He really had moved!

Sakura suddenly felt a surge of irritation.

What gave him the right to move without telling her, making her wait here all morning for nothing?

She could've spent that time waiting for Sasuke instead!

"Where did he move to?" Sakura still clung to a sliver of hope.

If she knew where Takasaki had moved, she could hurry over there.

With Takasaki's financial situation, he couldn't have moved very far. It had to be somewhere nearby.

The closer you got to the village center, the higher the rent, and Takasaki definitely couldn't afford it.

This area was near the outskirts, where rent was cheap.

Maybe Takasaki hadn't gone to school yet. If she hurried over, she might still have a chance to go to school with him and get written about in his diary.

"Takasaki moved to... I asked him last night, and he told me, but I can't remember the name of the neighborhood."

The cleaning lady thought for a moment, then pointed toward the village center. "It's that new development they finished last year. I remember now—it's called Konoha Bay!"

Konoha Bay?

The neighborhood beside the Shimizu River, with all that greenery and sky-high property prices?

How could that be?!

The cleaning lady finished emptying the trash cans across the road and pushed her cart away. Sakura still couldn't believe Takasaki could afford to move into Konoha Bay.

Not even Takasaki—

Even with all the pocket money she'd saved up, she could only afford one month's rent there.

How could someone like Takasaki, who relied on Konoha's monthly relief payments, afford such expensive rent?

"Takasaki must've been bragging to the cleaning lady. A dead-last student like him, with bad grades and a desperate need for people's approval, would naturally brag about all sorts of things. If I hadn't read his diary, I wouldn't have known he fantasizes every day about marrying lots of wives someday. What a ridiculous dream."

Sakura had waited so long for Takasaki, only to realize she'd been waiting in the wrong place. She was already annoyed.

Then she remembered what he'd written in his diary about marrying lots of wives, and she got even more irritated.

Why did Takasaki's diary say he liked this girl and that girl, but not her?

That kind of preferential treatment was so unfair, even if she didn't think much of Takasaki.

At that thought, she shoved open the wooden door she'd kicked in and stepped inside. After looking around, she confirmed Takasaki wasn't there. Sakura couldn't take it anymore.

She stomped outside, completely losing her temper, and cursed at the empty old house. "What the heck! Fine, you moved without telling me, but you even gave the cleaning lady a fake address? Was that really necessary?"

"You made me wait here all morning for nothing! You wasted so much of my time. I could've slept in instead! I even skipped breakfast just to wait for you. A girl's time is precious!"

Some distance away,

Sasuke, wearing the Uchiha Clan's uniform and carrying a shoulder bag, walked slowly toward her with his hands in his pockets.

The Uchiha Clan's territory lay on the outskirts of Konoha, and Sasuke passed Takasaki's house on his way to and from school. He often ran into Takasaki.

Running into each other often didn't mean he and Takasaki were close.

On the contrary, even when Takasaki had taken the initiative to greet him, Sasuke had ignored him.

The reason was simple.

He wanted only to grow stronger, so he hated dead-last students and weaklings. He hated Takasaki just as much as he hated Naruto.

Now, Sasuke saw Sakura standing outside Takasaki's house, angrily shouting at it.

After listening for a moment, he more or less understood what had happened. "Sakura Haruno."

At the sound of his voice,

Sakura stopped talking. She could recognize Sasuke's voice even with her ears covered.

Was Sasuke calling her?

Was Sasuke actually talking to her first?

Sakura turned around and saw Sasuke across the road, hands in his pockets, glancing over at her.

His haughty expression looked incredibly handsome to Sakura.

Her heart skipped a beat. She tried her best to act ladylike and answered sweetly, "Sasuke, are you talking to me?"

She forgot about venting her frustration at Takasaki's old house. If she could walk to school with Sasuke, she could accept this outcome.

"You waited all morning for that dead-last student Takasaki so you could go to school with him?" Sasuke frowned slightly.

Wasting time waiting for a dead-last student?

The strong never waited for the weak.

The strong valued their time and used it to become stronger.

Sasuke couldn't understand Sakura's behavior.

He tilted his head, his gaze turning disdainful. He scoffed. "Idiot."

After saying those two words, Sasuke turned away and left without a second glance, his hands still in his pockets.

Sakura stood rooted to the spot.

She felt as if she'd been struck by lightning.

She stood there dazed for a full half-minute before she managed to recover. Then her anger erupted into a furious scream. "Aaaaaah! Takasaki!! You made Sasuke hate me even more! This is all your fault!!"

Ichiraku Ramen.

Takasaki had no idea Sakura had waited outside his old home all morning.

In the end, she'd grown so impatient that she'd even kicked in his door, then gotten called an idiot by Sasuke.

At that moment,

he was enjoying a bowl of ramen at Ichiraku Ramen.

Hinata sat beside Takasaki, quietly waiting for him.

Hinata really wanted to start a conversation with Takasaki and get him to mention her in his diary more often. The problem was that she didn't know what to talk about.

After seeing Takasaki finish a bowl of ramen, she asked, "Takasaki, if you're still hungry, you can order another bowl. I'll pay for it."

Takasaki held the bowl, now filled with nothing but broth, and took a big sip. He let out a satisfied breath. "I'm full. Thank you, Hinata, for being so good to me. I've already eaten two meals with you. When I become a ninja and have money, I'll definitely treat you in return."

"N-no problem." Hinata's face reddened a little.

"Why are you so good to me?" Only after confirming Hinata had paid did Takasaki ask, curious.

The question caught Hinata off guard.

She met Takasaki's gaze, then hurriedly looked away.

She was never good at lying, and her first instinct was to tell him about the diary. But as soon as the thought crossed her mind, she felt a powerful sense of danger.

Her intuition told her that if she told anyone about the diary, she would die instantly.

It wasn't a girl's intuition. It was the diary warning her.

She absolutely couldn't tell anyone about the diary.

"Hinata, I remember we didn't know each other that well before. But ever since you took me home yesterday and taught me the Three Body Technique, you've been going out of your way to look after me. Why is that? I really want to know." Takasaki wiped his mouth with a napkin and asked again.