Naruto 1. Agreeing to craziness

There was a sigh from the quiet freezing halls that would all too soon be filled with students that rather be anywhere but in this building. She glanced around the slightly different walls of the High School, Konoha High School. It wasn't much different from the middle school, beside the fact that it's a two story building and they could eat lunch in the courtyard, only juniors and seniors could leave the campus for the whole lunch hour. Konohagakure wasn't a small town like it was when her ancestors had moved here. Now it was a rather large town that was border line of becoming a city. In reality konohagakure was big enough that it _should_ be a city, but the government didn't want to Konoha any more money than they already had too; becoming a city meant they would give quite a bit more, they didn't like that idea. A woman with short dark hair sat behind the secretary desk in the office, typing away on her computer. The Principle's door was open, but she wanted to stop and chat with the secretary first. A small plaque sat on her desk, but she knew the name it read well.

"Hey Shizune-Chan, you look busy as ever." She smiled and gave a little wave as she moved close to the desk.

The woman looked up and smiled, "Sakura-Chan! You know Tsunade; always keeping me busy." She winked, "You look great. How was your fall break?"

"Pretty good, everyone wanted to go out so much that I'll be thankful when school keeps them busy again; since now I'm pretty much broke." Sakura chuckled.

"I'm glad you got to have some fun though, I know you're usually so busy." Shizune leaned back in her chair, rubbing her fingers.

"Yeah, though I plan on picking up a second job during Christmas holidays." Sakura smiled, thinking she might need to get out more. Although she already had her Christmas shopping done, so it was worth it.

A busty blond woman stuck her head out of the Principles office, "Shizune, want to go out for dinner tonight?"

"Yeah, that sounds fine." Shizune spun her chair to look at Tsunade. Shizune and Tsunade had been working together for a long time. Tsunade was a world renowned doctor, a genius; the best of the best. Shizune is the only apprentice Tsunade ever took on; she retired twenty years ago and was talked into becoming the Principal for Konoha by the Vice Principal Jiraiya. Who was rumored to be Tsunade's childhood friend.

"Sakura, you're here, good." Tsunade offered a small smile, "Come on in, let's talk."

Sakura had been in Tsunade's office more times than she could count, sophomore year she pretty much lived in here. She settled herself in the chair in the farthest corner by the bookcase, but she had the view of the parking lot and the forest just past that. Tsunade had become a mentor of sorts to her after freshmen year; she looked up to her a lot, even though Tsunade had a bit of a drinking issue.

"It's your senior year already, Sakura. Have you picked a college yet?" Tsunade asked as she took a drink out of a water bottle that Sakura knew didn't have water in it. Tsunade drinks Saki, like normal people drink water. Sakura smiled and thought about it, although she sent out several applications already she was pretty sure where she wanted to go.

"I think I still want to go to Konohagakure University." There are two colleges in Konohagakure; Konoha Community College and Konohagakure University. There are only number big Universities around which are the; Sunagakure (Sand) University, Iwagakure (Earth/Rock) University, Kumogakure (Lightning) University, Kirigakure (Water) Universirty, and the Konohagakure University. Each University is in a different country within the continent. The Sunagakure, which is in the Land of the Wind, is to the far west of Konohagakure and the climate is much different. "I think they have the best programs for me."

Tsunade nodded, "That's a good University, make sure to study hard." She put her water bottle down, "Now, I am sorry to ask you to come here on your break but, I need you to do something for me." She sat down behind her desk and pulled out some files. "Do you remember in your freshmen year I asked you to show around a transfer student and check up on him throughout his first week? Sakura, you went beyond what I asked and not only did you befriend him, but you made him feel more accepted in the school."

Sakura leaned back in her chair, "Yes, I remember, you're talking about Sai. I just saw him Tuesday, why?" She remembered Sai being quiet, weird, rude and nearly social unacceptable. It had taken her sometime to find out his personal interests, but when she had showed him the art rooms after her fourth day of dealing with him and his comments, she found that Said loved art; which was her in to finding him friends that shared a common interest.

Tsunade leaned forward on her desk, "We have a new transfer student, he is from the Suna and quite different from Sai. I want you to be his guide for the week and kind of look out for him." She stared at Sakura from across the desk. Sakura laced her fingers together, "Sure Tsunade, but what's the catch." There had to be one, for her to have this meeting now and not on Monday, when school started again. Almost like Tsunade wanted to give her time to prepare, but wasn't telling her what to prepare for.

Tsunade gave a hard smile, "He has a record, a long record. He has skipped school, defaced public property, got in fight after fight, cussed out his teachers and peers." Tsunade paused, "He has sent people to the hospital, he has been in a juvenile detention center, he has been arrested and last year he got in a fight and put a guy in a coma."

Sakura stared at the wall, taking this all in._ Does Tsunade really think I can handle this guy? Sai was one thing, but this guy sounds dangerous._ Sakura knew she could back out Tsunade couldn't, she wouldn't force her to do anything. She had a pretty clean record. "What happens if I say no?"

"Our school is his last option to graduate, no other schools will take him, and he has been kicked out of most the schools in the Wind country, the others wouldn't even consider it." Tsunade grimaced, "If you say no I can either have a different student show him around or I won't have anyone do it at all. I personally think you're the best student to do this, I see potential in him."

Sakura didn't say anything, she knew Tsuande wanted her to do this because she never treated people different no matter what the rumors or truths were; if she was pissed off, everybody got the same snappy short replies, if she was upset she ignored just about everyone, when she was happy she smiled at anyone. It never mattered to her. It's probably the same reason she wasn't popular like her old best friend, Yamanaka Ino. Sakura had been bullied about her appearance in elementary school; it really affected her until she met bubbly bright Ino. Ino had pretty blond hair and bright blue eyes, with a bubbly personality; she was Sakura's best friend from that moment on until middle school. Sakura closed her eyes, Ino and her's friendship had ended because Ino wanted to chase after a guy; who Sakura thought was cute, but she wasn't willing to throw everything away for._ Maybe this will be good for me, _Sakura opened her eyes, "I already agreed to, didn't I? I don't care about his record; it doesn't matter."

Sakura spend the next half an hour giving Tsunade ideas for school events, this years prom theme, how to make parents understand that cafeteria food isn't the same as a five star restaurant, what they should do for homecoming, is it worth it to try and raise money for homecoming, and a few other things Tsunade had been relying on Sakura's feedback for. They began to ignore the work in front of them fifteen minutes till three o'clock, opting for more relaxing chit-chat. Sakura often wondered how she became so close to her principal, but she really liked Tsunade. Sakura had just gotten Tsunade to agree to write a letter of recommendation when she found a good job, Shizune knocked on the door frame smiling at the clutter around Tsunade's desk.

"He's just arrived, I'll send him in."

A young man strode into the room; he glanced around for a moment before dropping himself into the only open chair in the room, by the door. His hair was disheveled, a shocking blood red color. The red head looked as if he almost never went out, but he wasn't pale enough to look sickly. His eyes stood out among his face, a piercing sea foam green, the black circles that encased them made his eyes look menacing. He wore torn up black jeans, some beat up old converses. He also wore a loose-fitting gray wife beater (muscle) shirt, a red and black hoodie zipped halfway up. He had two rings on his right hand, a metal bracelet on his left wrist, and he wore a necklace that disappeared into his shirt.

Tsunade introduced herself and gave him a lecture about her expectations of him at this school, what was allowed and what was not allowed. Tsunade told him about the lunches, where students could park, the standard; no drugs, no cussing, no fighting and no abusing privileges – or they could be taken away. "You can miss thirteen days all together; six because of sickness, four days for personal reasons, and three for just skipping. You can be late four times before a detention, seven times we'll call home, and nine times you get kicked out for a week. Ah, and don't even try to get out of gym class." Tsunade smiled evilly, "It's a required class every year."

He didn't look interested at all to Sakura, the whole time he had the I–don't–give–a–damn attitude. When he walked in, Sakura had stared he was gorgeous with the whole "bad boy" look; but he barely glanced at her. He hadn't looked anywhere but the wall behind Tsunade the whole time. He defiantly wasn't looking at Tsunade; his eyes had a glazed look, like he is trying to sleep with his eyes open or something. "You need a B or higher in every class this year, if you want to get into a college. Since it's your senior year, you are required to do some kind of volunteer work. Usually the kids have all four years of high school to get it done, but I'll give you until the end of summer. You only need forty hours of volunteer work Shizune will give you the paper work with everything else you'll get today, and you'll need the person in charge to sign off on it."

Tsuande started to clear off her desk, she gathered all the finical work she and Sakura were going over and put it away. Sakura had stood up and stared to file away the school events they were working on, proms theme, homecoming, and other things; she also grabbed the papers dealing with the cafeteria food. Tsunade watched her from the corner of her eye, "Sabaku no Gaara this is Haruno Sakura, Sakura this is Gaara." Tsunade said like Sakura hadn't been there the whole time or anything. Sakura rolled her eyes as she walked back to her seat. "I have asked Sakura to be your guide and helper for the first couple of weeks. If you need help with anything, tell Sakura; unless it's something that a student can't handle. If you need help getting around town, or want to know where someplace is, need information on getting onto a school team; Sakura can help you."

Sakura turned and smiled at the red-head, "It's nice to meet you Sakabu-San." Sabaku turned his head slightly, glanced at her and went back to looking in Tsuande's general area. Sakura's eye twitched,_ men are so insufferable._ Tsunade had gone on speaking, but Sakura was currently visualizing straggling the gorgeous boy next to her.

"…Is that clear?" Tsunade asked, Sabaku's eyes flicked to Sakura then back to Tsunade and gave a slight nod and "Hn." Which was more of a grunt than an answer. "Good." Tsuande seemed to understand the mysteries of speaking guy's languages. _She'll have to teach me someday_, Sakura smiled at the idea. "Well, that's all I have to say, Gaara Shizune has all your paper work waiting at the front desk. Sakura, thank you for coming in and all your help."

Sakura smiled and gave Tsunade a little wave, before following Sabaku out of the office. She bypassed him to grab her hoddie, which she left behind Shizune's desk. Sabaku stood in front of Shizune, who is busy on the phone, while trying to finish a letter to a parent by the looks of it. Sakura could see Sabaku's file and the she knew where the volunteer paper work was. Almost like on auto-pilot, Sakura pulled out the correct volunteer papers, grabbed a post it and wrote down the three best places to go, stuck it on top of the papers. She reached around Shizune to grab the files; Shinzune looked up at her and smiled before frowning at the guy on the phone. Sakura shoved the papers in the file and walked around the desk. "Here." She handed them off to Sabaku and walked out the door.


	2. Saturday

_"And all that counts is here and now, my universe will never be the same, I'm glad you came..."_

A groan came from under a pile of hot pink and black pattern blankets, a hand flopped around on one side of the bed looking for the source of the song. The cell phone stopped and a moment later there was a beep followed by a whistle. _Great a voicemail and a text message,_ Sakura thought sleepy, who is bugging me on a Saturday morning? She was so warm and comfy; she didn't want to get up. _"And all that counts is here and now, my universe will never be the same, I'm glad you came..." _Sakura sat up on her elbows and glanced around, "Where in the...? Oh, why are by my feet?" She asked no one. Picking up the phone, she flipped it open and yawned, "Hey, what's going on?"

"Sakura! What are you up to?" Tenten chipped happily from the other end of the phone, "Are you busy? Let's have lunch!" Sakura rolled her eyes and flopped back on her bed, pulling the covers over her. She had befriended Tenten a couple of months after hanging out with Hinata. Hinata and Sakura hadn't been close, but when she found some kids picking on her in middle school she found herself sticking up for Hinata. When Tenten says "let's have lunch" it means you're going to have lunch and everyone else is going to be there too. "I was very busy, sleeping, like normal people do on Saturdays."

She pulled the covers back and climbed out of bed, half falling out. Glaring at the sheets tangled around her ankle she asked, "Where are we meeting?" She knew that if she tried to say no, and go back to sleep Tenten would have Neji drive her over here and just drag Sakura out of bed. Tenten laughed, "Neji wants to go to P.F. Chang's China Bistro, Lee wants to go to a burger joint." Sakura looked around for her laptop and found it on the right side if her bed on the floor, "Tell Lee to get over it, P.F. Chang sounds amazing right now."

Tenten laughed, "Hahaha, definitely an amazing breakfast, huh? Okay, we all meet up in an hour, do you need a ride?" Sakura glanced at the time, 12:15. She usually took the city buses everywhere or she walked if she was close enough. "No, I should be fine." Sakura sighed and walked to the bathroom down the hall, "Thanks Ten, I'll see you there."

"Anytime Sakura!" _Tenten sure is happy today, _Sakura thought as she basted music from her laptop, before starting her shower. Sakura stripped down and let the hot water wash all her thoughts down the drain; she scrubbed her favorite raspberry shampoo deftly into her pastel pink locks. Her hair was surprisingly naturally pink, and had been darkening little by little over the years. Sakura went through the motions of her morning routine, she let her mind wonder. Grabbing a towel she dried off before wrapping it around her, she took her tooth brush and headed down stairs while trying not to freeze to death. Sakura spat the toothpaste in the kitchen sink, rinsed the brush off and glanced at the open island. Her mom sat with her back to her laptop open, several documents scattered around her. She watched her mom for a moment while finishing brushing her teeth. Her mom was hunched over the laptop, typing that sounded more like hacking away at the keys, her dirty blond hair wasn't up like usual but cascading down her back, and she seemed tired.

"Morning mom." Sakura set the toothbrush down as she took the seat across from her. Her mom barely noticed, humming under her breath, which might have been a reply. She had her reading glasses on and she had a frown on her once happy face. Sakura sighed and left to get dressed after writing a note that she was going out and putting it on top of a document. After putting her toothbrush back and grabbing her laptop (still blaring music) she set about finding some decent clean clothes. For Sakura Saturday's were a day to sleep in and stay out all night, and Sunday's were for last minute homework, chores, and sometimes her job would call her in, but Sunday's were mostly her laundry day.

"I could have sworn I owned another pair of jeans…" Sakura grumbled, looking through her dresser. She pushed aside an old pair of slacks and found her only pair of dark jeans, "Ah-ha! Found you!" Sakura laughed at her childish self, before grabbing a bra, matching underwear and shimmied into them. She made her way to her closet, _hmmm….options, what to pick?_ She settled on her dark gray-black cami with her blue-green scoop neck quarter sleeve shirt over that, and her favorite crimson hoddie zipped half way up. A whistle sounded from down the hall. Sakura had just pulled on her shoes, when she hurried up to check the time, 12:36 pm.

Sakura scowled at her reflection, as lightly did her make-up; though she never brother with eye shadow, blush, or lipstick. She stuck to light-handed foundation, eyeliner, and lip gloss. Sakura grabbed her cell phone, wallet, keys, earrings, and necklace with a sliver wing charm. Sakura rushed down the stairs, about halfway down she grabbed the railing and jumped the last seven steps, she stopped in the between the living room and the kitchen Sakura clasped her necklace around her neck and pushed her dangly earrings in standing indecisive_. I should at least write a note,_ the thought was more of a habit, she wasn't sure her mom would notice it. Sakura stepped quietly in the big room; her mom had probably left while she was in the shower the island was clean besides a folded piece of paper.

"Have fun, I left you some money – mom" Sakura read aloud, she snorted, then opened the note, "Some money, huh?" She counted it, sixty bucks. Sakura threw the note away and ran out the door, shoving the money in her wallet. It took Sakura ten minutes to walk-jog to the nearest bus pick/drop off spot, another five minutes for the bus to get there_. I think I'm running late_, Sakura had found her black headphones in her hoddie pocket when she jogged down here, she pulled out her phone 12:49 pm.

Sakura sighed and texted Tenten as she climbed on to the bus, _"I might be a few minutes late, the bus took forever." _It was an easy exaggeration. Sakura rested her head against the window, it was a pretty day. She watched the people and buildings as the bus passed them by. The bus stopped at a light and Sakura noticed a guy on a black and red motorcycle; he had dark jeans, a black leather jacket that fit him really well, fingerless gloves and a full face helmet on. _I wonder what he looks like_ Sakura thought idly; _he's probably a cute college student._ She glanced at the street sign, 15th street and Market, two more streets. The bus rolled up to the next stop, her stop, Sakura hurried off and glanced at the light. Red, good, Sakura glanced at the cars again to double check before walking across the road.

"_All that matters is here and now, my universe will never be the same –"_ Sakura pulled her phone out, pulling out one of her ear buds, "Hey, yeah," She paused on the side walk, waiting to the light to turn red on the other side to get to the restaurant. "I'm literally like three minutes away."

Tenten laughed, "That's good. I was just calling to say I sent Hinata to the front so you wouldn't have to wonder around looking for where we sat." Sakura smiled as she hurried across the walk cross and to the second building on the blocks doors. "Sounds good." She hadn't been able to see Hinata much this past week, mostly on Monday, and Wednesday; though Wednesday didn't count. Sakura glanced behind her and stopped. The biker guy was standing on the other side of the road, helmet still on, watching her. Sakura laughed softly to herself that was a silly thought, he's probably just reading the sign above me. With that she hurried in and easily spotted Hinata.

"Hinata-Chan!" Sakura grinned, the shy girl smiled brightly. "You look good." Sakura appraised. Hinata wore light blue jeans, a cute off the shoulders soft pink shirt and brown boots.

Hinata blushed lightly, "Thanks Sakura-Chan…you look good too." She peeked out from under her banges. Sakura grinned, she and Tenten helped Hinata get over most of her stuttering in middle school. Now she only stuttered when she met someone new, intimidating, was put on the spot, was nervous or uncomfortable. "Everybody's waiting back here." As Sakura followed Hinata they made playful chit-chat, asking what the other had been up to, planning when to hang out next. Hinata made a joke about going shopping, which wasn't one of Sakura's favorite things at all, but Tenten was a different story. Sakura was surprised to see a blond haired girl next to Lee, but she smiled at everyone else.

They had pushed together two tables so everyone could sit together. Hinata slipped back in her seat between Shino, a quiet guy who usually spends his time outside and wears high collar shirts and sunglass, and Choji a kind hearted guy who loves to eat and is a little on the chubby side, but if anyone insult his weight his temper appears.

Sakura sat between Shikamaru and Tenten, "I'm surprised they were able to get you out of the house Shikamaru."

Shikamaru leaned back in his chair, and muttered under his breath, "My mom wouldn't stop bugging me about college…troublesome."

Neji snorted from the other side of Tenten, he wasn't much of a talker either but he used to have a really bad attitude. "Just tell her you want to make sure it's the right college and you're going to go look at some." He had long dark brown hair that he kept tied back, pale eyes that are unique to the Hyuuga family.

Shikamaru took a drink of his soda, and shook his head, "She'd want proof, like flyers or hand-outs."

Sakrua laughed, and then turned to Lee, who sat between Neji and a pretty blond girl. "Hey Lee who's your friend?"

Lee grinned like a crazy person, which is what Sakura thought he was when she first met him. Lee usually wore green, acted just like Might Gai the school gym teacher, and his black hair was cut in a bowl shape. "Sakura, this is Hiromi my girlfriend." He glanced at Hiromi, "This is Sakura, the one Tenten was telling you about."

Sakura shot Tenten a look that promised death, while the blond smiled, and offered a small wave, "Hi, it's nice to meet you."

"Same." Sakura smiled politely.

Shikamaru distracted Sakura and began to ask if she had anything that could get his mom off his back. While Sakura told Shikamaru that she did have several things he could have because she didn't need them anymore she let her eyes wonder over the table. Tomoko a pretty red head from Sakura's art class, who loved the color blue a little too much sat next to Sai who had short black hair and no expression they were deep in some kind of debate. Kazuhiro a loud mouth guy with silver-gray hair who met them all through Neji was telling Shuji a junior who was on the swimming team about some awesome party he went to the other day. Yuka and Yumi, twin sisters who both have green hair and dark amber eyes were talking about the basketball team with Ryota a blond haired green eyed sophomore who's older brother Nobuo played on as well as the football team.

The waiter broke their conversations and everyone ordered and began to talk about the upcoming holidays, what they wanted to and what they were going to get their families. Sakura glanced at Hinata, who was chewing thoughtfully on an appetizer. "Hinata, I wanted to tell you there's going to be a transfer student starting next week."

Hinata looked confused, "Okay, but why did you want to tell me that?"

Sakura paused, "Well, he looks pretty intimating and kind of scary, so I wanted to give you a heads up. He doesn't seem to like to talk; I think he's one of those guys who keeps to himself. But I wanted you to know in case you bump into him."

Hinata smiled and nodded, picking up her drink, "Thanks Sakura."

They spend two hours in the restaurant talking about everything they all had done, and who was doing what. Tenten wanted to throw a party during Christmas break and wanted to know every ones schedule so she could plan it on a day when they were all free. Sakura felt as if someone was watching her; she glanced around the restaurant but didn't see anyone she knew. Tenten complained about how college was so far away and she never got to see Sakura and Hinata as much. Sakura told Tenten that she and Hinata could stay the night the next Friday she was down here for so much needed girl time. Neji threw Sakura a grateful look before going back to his conversation with Kazuhiro. It took everyone twenty minutes to figure out who was paying for who and they all spilt up.

Sakura waved to Sai, Choji, Shino and Hinata. "Hey Sakura, you want a ride home?" Tenten asked, dragging Neji behind her who nodded to his friends with a roll of his eyes.

"No, I'll be fine." Sakura grinned at Neji.

"Well, alright then, take care." And just like that they were gone like the wind. Sakura laughed at poor Neji, before she decided to window shop before heading home. Maybe she'd make it home before ten today.


	3. And So, It Begins

"_Where did you think you could go? 'Cause everyone already knows. It's twenty to one, yeah, so you better run…"_

Sakura's eyes snapped open; she yawned, stretched like a lazy cat and rolled back into her warm covers. There was nothing better than a warm bed on a cold morning, she thought sleepily. She laid there for another five minutes before she remembered that it was Monday. Sakura sat up; "Fuck!" she pushed the covers off, and went straight to the shower.

Wrapped up in her towel, she pawed at her hair with another one while trying to think where she put her clothes last night. Sakura looked at the time, she had 30 minutes before school starts, and she shimmied into her underwear and bra. Pulling on her dark jeans, she grabbed her phone off the charger and skimmed through the three messages she'd missed. Sakura texted Hinata back; asking if she still needed a ride to school, although Sakura doubted it.

"_But you'll get nothing from me. You're like the burden we bear. You're all the hate that we share..."_ Her iPod sang from its little alarm clock stand.

Sakura shoved her feet into her black and pink Vans, as she rushed through brushing her teeth and putting on her make-up. Sakura finished putting her silver wing dangle earrings, and her black studs; she had her ears pierced twice on her fourteen birthday and she pierced the top of her left ear when she turned sixteen (she rarely takes the silver bar out). Sakura grabbed her cell phone and winced at the time and that Hinata did in fact need a ride_. I'll be there in ten!_ Sakura texted, pulling her arms through her gray shirt that was light at the top and got darker in the middle to black at the bottom, the shirt had see-through swirl designs were probably supposed to look like old runes. Grabbing her bag, she shoved books, headphones, two notebooks, a bag of pencils and pens, and her wallet. Sakura grabbed her black and pink stripped hoddie on the back of her desk chair as she reached over and silenced her iPod.

She jumped down the stairs, stumbling a little, and headed straight for the garage to her cherry red Jeep Wrangler 2011 Unlimited Sahara, it was her seventeenth birthday present from her mom. Sakura ignored at least three driving laws on her way to Hinata's; she pulled up to the huge house, and honked at Hinata, who sat doodling on the front porch. Hinata hopped in the passage seat and dropped her bag by her feet.

"You're crazy Sakura! Why do you have the top down? It's chilly this morning." Hinata frowned, pulling her jacket closer to her.

"Here." Sakura tossed her sweatshirt at the pale lavender haired girl, "Use mine. I want to stop by Starbucks." She grinned at Hinata, who looked completely terrified.

They walked into school with maybe two minutes before class. Hinata waved to her before running off down the hall to the class room, they shared first period and Sakura promised to grab her book. She hummed as she walked to Hinata's locker, two spins and it opened. With deft fingers she pulled the book out and slammed the locker. Hinata had issues with her locker at the beginning of the year, and Sakura ended up helping her out; but now her combo was instinctive to Sakura. Sakura shoved Hinata's book in with her stuff and pulled on her sweatshirt, it was funny how the school was colder to her than driving at 50 mph in her jeep with the top down. "Aw, damnit." Sakura hissed she'd forgotten to ask the transfer student where to meet up at. She took a long drink of her coffee, finishing it off, glad for the caffeine boost it gave.

She wheeled around on her heel and promptly walked into somebody. She scowled and rubbed her nose, she glanced up through her eyelashes and saw raven hair, dark charcoal eyes; Uchiha Sasuke her mind supplied. Sasuke glared down at her, his usual scowl on his face, he didn't say anything. Sakura stepped back away from him; she wasn't really fond of him, like she was in elementary. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she blamed him, although she knew he wasn't to blame and didn't care about her and Ino's issues.

"Sorry Uchiha." She said icily, she wasn't sure, but it always seemed like he let her take her problems out on him.

"Hn." He half grunted and stepped around her and walked off. She watched him for a moment before shaking her head, she'd never understand him. When she was much younger she thought Sasuke cute, smart and mysterious, now she knew he was smart, but she thought him arrogant, cold, heartless, and a jerk. Sakura sighed before running off hopping to find the transfer student before they were late. She rounded a corner near the auditorium, and tossed her empty coffee cup away; praying that she wouldn't have to search for too long, her teachers knew she was able to get to class on time. She found Sabaku by the office, and noticed his headphones were in as she neared.

She took his moment to fully look at him. His red hair stuck out, vibrant and bright; the rings around his eyes made his face look harsh and cold. If his eyes were open, they'd stand out from the rest of his face, piercing as ever, and cold with no emotion. He leaned against the wall, he probably stood around 6 foot something, he had broad shoulders, his legs were long and he had a lean build. He wore faded black jeans with rips in them, a dark red t-shirt with a logo she couldn't quite see, he had the same sweatshirt she last saw him in, and his beat up old converses. Sakura walked up to him and pulled out one of his ear buds. Sakabu's eyes snapped open, he tensed and she was pretty sure he might have punched her, if she hadn't taken a half a step back, holding up her hands.

"Woah, I didn't mean to startle you." _Even if I think I'm more startled than you,_ she thought to herself. "Sorry I'm late, my friend needed a ride." Sakura step close to him again, "So, can I see your schedule? I can show you around the grounds later."

Sabaku wordlessly handed over the folded paper. Sakura scanned it, her mind going blank for a moment. _AP Government & Politics, Germen, Environmental Science, and Introduction to Entrepreneurship I? These are all high level classes_, Sakura noticed_, I though he skipped out on classes, and didn't give a shit about school. Tsunade made it sound like he never did anything in school….I was expecting more of the basics._ Sakura realized he was staring at her; she flushed a little, embarrassed at being caught spacing out, and handed it back to him. "We have first period together," She smiled politely as she began to lead the way, realizing the bell had already rung, "Sarutobi-Sensei is a great teacher, he loves his subject. He usually will let people off the hook for being a few minutes late, though he is strict about homework, essays, make-up days and extra credit."

Sakura chatted on about Sarutobi-Sensei for a few moments, seeing as Sabaku didn't seem to like talking much. He didn't appear to be annoyed at her constant flow of chatter either, but it was all useful information. She stopped in front of a door and pulled it open with no hesitation, "Sorry we're late Sarutobi-Sensei, I lost track of the time." Sakura bit on her lower lip, she'd been late to his class five times already and it wasn't usual for him to be forgiving about consist late arrivers. Luckily, he glanced at Sabaku and waved Sakura to her seat. She grinned and slipped Hinata's book on her desk as she pasted her by to sit near the back. She slipped in a seat leaned to the right to bump fists with Seiichi. Seiichi has short dark hair, a strong jaw, and icy blue eyes. He stands at five feet and nine inches, not much taller than her five feet and six and a half inches; he was lean, with a build like a linebacker. Sakura met Seiichi in her freshmen year and they became fast friends. Sakura pulled out her notebook and watched Sarutobi-Sensei finished his quiet conversation with Sabaku about the papers he'd given him.

"Class this is Sabaku no Gaara, he's a transfer student from the Suna." He looked over the room, "Sabaku you can have a seat anywhere that's open."

Sabaku ignored everyone in the room and sat in the very back, he had a look on his face that made people shut up and look away. Sarutobi-Sesnei paused a moment before his lecture, then launched into telling them about current events in the government for twenty minutes. Sakura didn't like to take word-for-word notes, it took too long. With verbal lectures she wrote down everything that sounded important; dates, names, events, which part of the government did what, whether it was a good or bad decision, and how it impacted the people. Halfway through class Sarutobi-Sensei divided the class and let them debate. Hana had started questioning whether the government offices actually cared about anything other than money, which led to three people arguing over corrupt politicians more than they were debating when the bell rang. Everyone jumped to their feet and raced out the door.

"Read the next chapter and watch tonight's new!" Sarutobi-Sensei hollered after them, he chuckled as he opened the window and lit up a cigarette.

Seiichi handed a black book to Sakura, who ignored him for a moment to put her notebook and pen away. Standing she took the book, and tucked it under her arm, "Did you like it?"

He laughed and rubbed his neck, "I had to read it five times to understand it, but yeah, it was good." Seiichi grinned, "Sorry I took so long to get it back to you."

Sakura smiled as they walked out of the room, she glance back but Sakabu was gone. He must have left with everyone else, she mused. She chatted with Seiichi until the came to a fork in the hall. "Wednesday it is then." Seiichi laughed, before Sakura hurried to her locker to drop off her books. They only have five minutes between each class, and she wanted to find Sabaku. Sakura was fairly sure his next class was up stairs while her class was on the first level by the courtyard. _They really should give us more time to get to classes_, Sakura thought annoyed at the prospect of having to race around the whole school_; I should've asked where his locker was._ She ended up near the freshmen's lockers.

A stroke of brilliance hit Sakura; she reached out and grabbed the nearest freshmen by the arm. The poor kid looked startled half to death. _Probably thought I was a teacher_, that's an amusing thought. Sakura gave him a sweet smile, noticing his friends relaxing already.

"Hey, kid, have you seen a tall red-head guy around?" She asked.

The boys looked at each other for a second, thinking about it. I should have made that a little bit more specific, Sakura sighed trying to think about how many tall red-head guys there might be in the school. "Erm, he's pale with black rings around his eyes?" She tried again.

"Oh, I saw him earlier; he was outside by the band room. I think he might have been smoking or talking on the phone or something." One of the guys said, chubby short blond kid.

"Thanks kid. By the way, you all should get to class. Teachers like to pick to freshmen until second semester starts." Sakura said before taking off to the band room, weaving her way through the students.

By the time Sakura reached the band room, she was winded and the bell had already rung. Sakura pushed the doors open, slipping her jacket off; to have a way back in. Sabaku probably didn't realize the doors auto lock, unless you use a certain key; which Sakura only learned because she TA's for Tsunade. She walked over to where the red-headed idiot leaned against a shady tree. _Yeah, 'cause it's not cold enough,_ Sakura could feel autumn's biting winds press against her small frame. She shivered as she stopped in front of him, he met her eyes; uninterested, bored even. _Let's change that shall we_, Sakura thought irked.

In one deft fluid movement Sakura swiped his cigarette from between his lips, snapped it in two and stomped it out. She gave him a dirty look, "No smoking on school property, and furthermore no ditching class."

His expressions darken a little, but his eyes showed mild amusement. Sakura wondered why he found her anger amusing; it really just pissed her off more. "What's your next class?" She demanded more than asked, folding her arms over her chest.

He handed her his folded schedule, she stared at him for a solid minute, before realizing she was not going to win with the talking thing right after he let her win with the cigarette incident. She took it and skimmed the page, determined to memorize the damn thing. _I was right_; she knew where the art rooms were pretty much all of them were on the second story, except the basic art classes.

"3D animation is room 462, up stairs but the unused music room. Your business class is down the hall from there, room 408." She peered at him over the paper. "I'll meet you there after class, to take you to the cafeteria, although its meatloaf day so I suggest getting something from the vending machines or going off campus for lunch." Sakura paused, "Do you have a cell phone?" It was then Sakura realized he had no eyebrows as Sabaku raised what would be an eyebrow at her and didn't move at all.

"I am not hitting on you. Jeez, I don't flirt with guys who refuse to speak to me." Sakura fumed thrusting her hand out, actually fumed. She was rather surprised at herself, she prided herself in keeping a level head and was known to be clam and well-tempered…unless Naruto was around. Sabaku stared, blinking at her slowly before pulling out a red ink pen. He grabbed her right arm and he scrawled a number across the inside of her forearm, she noticed with a twitch that he had ridiculously good hand-writing. Sakura looked up and noticed him walking to the door.

"Jerk." She grumbled as she jogged to catch up to him, "Sabaku, next time you want a smoke break remember that the doors auto lock and don't let me catch you ditching class for your habit." He glanced at her over his shoulder and tossed her sweatshirt at her. Sakura caught the article of flying clothing and barely slipped through the doors. Glancing at a clock on the wall she took off running to her class, she was fifteen minutes late to one of her favorite classes, _perfect_. In her mind she blamed Sabaku, but she knew she should have caught up with him immediately after class;_ he's the type to run off the moment you blink, or make plans with a friend. _


	4. School Makes Your Brain Fuzzy

Sakura stood idly across the hall from the classroom Sabaku was currently in. She had gotten a detention from Kinjo-Sensei, for showing up to her creative writing class late. Sakura had tried to get out of it, since it was the first time she'd be late; but apparently when you're over fifteen minutes late to class Kinjo-Sensei has no mercy. Kinjo-Sensei even went as far as to give her detention for next Thursday, when Sakura had work so now she had to switch shifts with someone. Although Sakura was able to fully enjoy herself during last period running errands, copying papers, taking over for Shizune for a little while, and doing most of Tsunade's paper work. Interestingly Uchiha had come in while both Shizune and Tsunade were out. As soon as he saw she was the only one there, he looked like he would just leave without whatever he wanted. She had waved him over, helped him without a single ounce of disdain and wished him luck at the upcoming football game. Thinking about it reminded her of what Tsunade told her before she ran off to a parent/teacher meeting.

_Sakura glanced up, "Hey, Tsunade-Shishou…why is Sabaku in such high-level classes?" She met Tsunade's eyes and flushed at how shallow she sounded, "I mean, because he was always ditching class, sleeping through it and it sounded like he didn't give a damn." _

_Tsunade shrugged, grabbing a file and looking for her water bottle, which Shizune had snagged a little earlier. She glanced over at Shizune who was innocently talking to a student who had a doctor appointment or something like that and needed to leave. Tsunade opened a drawer she kept locked and took a long gulp from a sake bottle before quickly putting it back and locking it securely _

"_I really can't say, but when he was in class his grades were impressive. On Tuesday and Wednesday last week, he took the district-wide tests and tested out of all the lower classes. Sabaku tested completely out of all the history classes." Tsunade pushed her bangs out of her eyes, "I guess he understood that this really is his last chance to graduate."_

_Sakura nodded, and chewed on the end of her pencil again, "I guess so. The way you made him sound, I didn't think he'd be in so many classes with me."_

_Tsunade snorted, "If you have scheduling issues, take it up with Shizune; she does all that crap."_

Sakura felt her phone vibrate against her stomach; she dug it out from her hoodie pocket, and pulled up the message menu. She stared at the screen in surprise; she had nine missed text messages. Mom, Hinata, Naruto, Tenten, Tsunade were people that usually texted her, but the one that stuck out was from Ino. Sakura read the messages from everyone but Ino. _On my own for dinner again, _yay Sakura thought sarcastically.

Sighing she typed out quick replies to everyone, trying to figure out how much time she could give Naruto; between both their busy schedules. Glancing at the clock, she saw she only had less than a minute. She looked at the list again, and lingered over Ino's message. It can't be anything good, she knew, it never is anymore. Ino had gone from her best friend to her biggest enemy in the short span of a month. She opened it, with morbid intrigue.

_Stay away from _**my**_ Sasuke-Kun, bitch._

Sakura snorted, _typical Ino, when will you grow up?_ Someone reached around her and hit the delete button. Sakura's eyes grew a little larger. She turned her head, insult and fury on the tip of her tongue. She met those piercing sea foam eyes; he was far too close for Sakura to be comfortable. She realized Sabaku's class had ended while she was wrapped up in her own little world. Sakura could feel the heat creep up her neck, she stepped back a little.

"Are you staying for lunch?" She asked, he shook his head, "Yeah, me either. What class do you have after lunch?"

Sabaku handed her his schedule, AP Calculus the same as her. Sakura was getting really annoyed with him, all this silence act was pissing her off. When she tried to give him back his schedule he pushed her hand back. He gave her a look and tapped his head with his left index finger. Sakura raised her eyebrows at him, "You memorized it?" Sabaku nodded once, and looked down the hall. "Go, I'll show you the cafeteria later." Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose.

She smiled when she saw he was taking the long way, and hurried to the second stair well, the one all the smokers used when they ditched class. She noticed the stairs where clear besides some guys chilling out smoking something under the top platform. She barely saw them, their stretched out legs as the only visible part of their bodies. Sakura turned right after pushing the stairwell door open. She could see Hinata, and Shikamaru standing by her jeep through the double doors.

"Hey Sakura, wait up!" She recognized Choji's voice from behind her and paused at the exit. He jogged up to her; he panted but gave her a small smile. "Sorry I had to give Aymai her notes back." Sakura couldn't remember who Ayami was, so she grinned and offered.

"You're fine, Cho. I have to show around a transfer student, so I was running behind too." As they walked to Sakura's jeep, Choji started telling Sakura about a project he was doing in cooking class. Sakura grinned when he said desserts, "I'll be your genuine pig Choji." She winked at him.

"Hey guys." Shikamaru greeted, leaning against the jeep, "Where are we going today?"

Hinata smiled and looked at Sakura, "Aren't we going to the BBQ Grill today?"

Choji let out a thunderous roar of excitement, and the others laughed. Sakura hopped in and stared her jeep up, "Hold on guys, I left the doors at home." She smirked.

Sakura loved the feeling of the wind through her hair, she wanted a motorcycle at first, but her mom was firmly against it. _"It's too dangerous Sakura. You just got your license why don't we get your something a little more practical; that has some of the freedom you're looking for at the same time." _Sakura hadn't believed her mom would get her a car that would give her freedom like a motorcycle would; but it was a damn good compromise. Sakura was hopping to be able to buy one after high school.

She had to circle the block twice to find a parking spot. The BBQ Grill is off the Square of town. The main square were most the hotels, restaurants, shops, and practically everything else was. The mall is about a five minute drive from the Square. Hinata unbuckled herself, "Is your car going to be safe without the doors?"

Sakura nodded, "Yeah." She hopped out, "I have an anit-thief method, and she pulled out a lock bar from under the driver's seat and locked the steering wheel to the door frame. She held up a key to Hinata, "There are only two keys, ones always with me and the other is hidden."

Hinata looked panicked, "In the car?"

"Wait, What? No, in my house silly." Sakura shook her head and grabbed Hinata into the restaurant. "I swear school makes your brain fuzzy."

Shikamaru and Choji sat at Choji's usual table, Choji waved and as they approached, "I order your drinks…I hope that's okay."

Hinata giggled behind her hand, "Of course Choji-Kun, thank you."

Sakura sat besides Shikamaru, "Hey did you finish the Accounting homework?"

Shikamaru's head was lying on his arms, "Yeah, I did it this morning. Why?"

"Because she forgot about it." Hinata chimed in, taking a drink of Choji's Pepsi, "I can't believe you actually spaced it."

"I was late to work." Sakura grumbled but thumped Shikamaru on the shoulder, "Can be turning into Shikamaru, now can I?"

Lunch went by fast, as it always did when they left campus. Sakura had enough time to swing by her house and grab Hinata's French notes, before heading back to school. Hinata sat in the back, chatting with Choji, while Shikamaru fiddled with her radio. Sakura pulled into the lot with eight minutes left of lunch. Everybody piled out and Sakura waved before leaning against the back of her jeep. Sakura had her stuff, it had been the in back under a blanket the whole time, and she fished it out now so she wouldn't forget when Sabaku showed up.

She ended up setting on the tailgate of her jeep, doodling in her sketch book. It started out covered lines, a little bit of background here and there, and it ended up being a vague outline of a motorcycle on a street. Sakura looked at it, and made a few changes as needed before glancing up, she still didn't see him. _Five minutes left_, Sakura acknowledge, _he still has time_. She began to add shading, smudging a line or two that was too crisp but shading wouldn't do. Sakura began to add a tree, secretly so she should shade the motorcycle to make the body pop more.

Sakura was snapped out of her artsy trace when she heard a car door slam and high pitched giggles. Sakura put her sketch book away, and looped her messenger bag over her head. _Maybe I missed him,_ she thought closing the tailgate. She made her way towards the building, but barely made it past two cars before and hand snagged her left forearm. She lifted her head, half excepting to see Sabaku or someone. What she hadn't expected was Ino and her cheerleader friends._ I am not getting another detention today_, she thought venomously. Sakura glared at Ino, ignoring her little followers all together.

"Forehead, you better know your place." Ino spat, "Stay away from Sasuke-Kun."

Sakura raised an eyebrow, "Oh, that's what this is about. Next time he needs help getting out of a detention and scheduling a missed day because of a doctor's appointment. I'll be sure to tell him it's your fault that he has to miss the football practice and his appointment, which I'm sure he'll be glad he missed." She tried twisting her arm away, but being a cheerleader wasn't just parading around.

Ino's checks redden a little, her finger nails dug into Sakura's sweatshirt, "Don't think I haven't seen the way he _looks_ at you." She hissed, "I know what's going on here, you're trying to lure him away aren't you?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow, _the way he looks at me? He looks at me, the same way he looks at everyone else. _She opened her mouth but paused when she noticed Ino's open-palm pulled back. She arched her back, dodging the slap. "You're such a brat Ino, grow up! Uchiha doesn't look at me any differently than he looks at you!" Ino back-handed Sakura, apparently that was the wrong thing to say, she thought rubbing her stinging cheek.

"You're such a slut Sakura! I can't believe you just said that! You just had to try and get him for yourself, didn't you! You didn't see it in middle school, but you see it now." Ino tried to punch her, but while Ino had wanted to learn cheerleading as a kid, Sakura had learned Karate. She blocked the punch and broke Ino's hold on her arm, putting a few feet between them. "You just had to get between us! You ruined everything Sakura!"

"Get over your self Ino! You're nothing but a spoiled little girl who hasn't got her way." Sakura shot back icily, unable to believe her e-best friend had just hit her. Sakura's memory of Ino in her childhood shattered in her mind, the blond girl in front of her wasn't the same girl at all. Sakura felt the heaviness in her heart lift and disappear. She had never really put up a fight with Ino, because she had been her best friend, now she saw that her best friend was gone forever. "I don't know if Uchiha likes anyone, but I'm pretty sure it isn't me. And if he does like someone else, you should be happy for him, instead of attacking whoever you think it is. Ino, if you actually love _Sasuke_ then you'll let go of your childish crush and be happy that he has found someone who makes him happy!" Sakura gave Ino a hard glare, "And then you should move on."

Ino let out a shrill scream and her first flew at Sakura, she probably could have blocked it, but Ino's scream had startled her and her hands had shot up to her ears. A hand caught Ino's first from behind Sakura, who stared at the pale hand in shock. She hadn't even noticed anyone approach them. Ino was staring at the person behind her in complete shock, her lips trembled. Sakura craned her head back, bumping into a guy's hard chest when she did so. Her eyes met dark hair, pale skin, the usual scow, and charcoal eyes, the subject of their fight; Uchiha Sasuke.

"Sasuke?" His name escaped before she could stop it, she was confused. She had befriended Naruto, before all the drama between her and Ino happened, she ended up befriending Sasuke in the process. They had been close; the three of them had all become a tight-knit group for three years. When Ino ended their friendship, Sakura had stuck even closer to Sasuke and Naruto; leaning on them. After a year, Ino started picking on Sakura; while she became more and more popular she got other girls to do it with her. Naruto and Sasuke kept them all away from her, but Ino targeted Hinata when she couldn't reach Sakura. It was just after Christmas break of their eighth grade year that Sakura found out and began to distance herself from both Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto had managed to worm his way back into her life in ninth grade and even though he became popular with Sasuke, he always found time for her.

"Ino we aren't dating. We never were. I don't know how you got the whole school to think such ridiculous things." Sasuke's voice cold as ever, "Leave Sakura alone. Stop bugging me and get lost already."

Ino burst out in tears and took off, her little cheerleader squad raced after her. Sakura sighed and leaned against Sasuke, who stiffed. _Probably because I've been a bitch to him,_ Sakura thought, _although he never went out of his way to talk to me._ She pinched the bridge of her nose and checked the time, three and a half minutes left. She stepped away from Sasuke, and looked at him.

Sasuke's face was guarded, as it always had been, but his eyes held a sliver of remorse. Sasuke didn't say anything, which was typical of him, but Sakura remembered the slightly differences of his emotionless mask well enough, just as she knew when Naruto's smiles were fake.

"Sasuke, I'm sorry I've been a bitch to you for the last two years. I'll get ahold of you later, but I can't be late again." Sakura offered a small wave, before taking off. A quick glance over her shoulder assured her she'd at least get to talk to him, seeing a small nod he sent her way. Sakura found Sabaku at her locker, when she skidded to a stop and practically rip the door open. She blinked once, looked at Sabaku, then grabbed her books and slammed the poor locker shut again.

"I'm not even going to ask how you knew I'd be here. Let's go, we only have another two minutes." She grabbed his wrist ignoring his expression all-together as she dragged down two halls, up the stoner stair case and slipped in a hard to notice hallway and enter the second classroom on the left.

Once inside, Sakura let go of Sabaku and grabbed the closest seat. It was weird to enter from the back of the class, but Sakura never liked going the extra six feet to the door which opened at the front of the class. The AP Calculus room is actually an old science room; there are two ways in and out. Sakura was pretty sure that the back of the room used to be the front and the front used to be the back. Hatake Kakashi taught this class, and like always he stepped in ten minutes late. Kakashi is probably somewhere in his mid-twenties, with silver hair the sticks up on one side, tall, and most the girls thought he was sexy. Nobody had ever managed to see his face in the three years he's worked here, he usually wears a mask over his face, or he'll have one hand sprawled over his face, or his perverted orange book will be in his face. They only part of him they ever see his right eye, which is a light gray-silver color, kind of like his hair.

"Afternoon class!" Kakashi said cheerfully, as he walked over to the chalkboard, "Today, you're all going to pair up with whoever is nest to you and do problems 1 through 25 on page 263." Once he was finished writing he plopped down behind his desk and flipped the page.

The whole class sighed, people moved their desks to better work together, others completely ignored their partner, and people like Kiba complained loudly about their partners. Not like the boy next to Kiba wanted to partner with him, Sakura thought his name was Ginta or something. Sakura highly doubted that Kiba should even be in the class, but he probably got the football couch to pull some strings. Sakura pulled out her book and flipped her notebook to an empty page. She watched Sasuke smack Naruto for not listening to him. Ino hadn't shown up to class, which probably met she was at the nurse's office. Her little followers had paired off with each other, and Eriki was completely ignoring a football player who was supposed to be his partner.

"Sato-Kuuuun." Kakashi sang throwing a paper ball at Eriki's head, "Play nice and pair up with Fuji-Kun." Kakashi scanned the room and spotted Sakura, who realized when she snagged a spot in the back there were a few empty desks around her. Sabaku sat two seats away in the same row, book open but he was staring off into space.

"Hey, who's the newbie?" Kakashi is such a weird teacher.

The class all glanced at him then at Sabaku, who ignored them, half didn't know. Naruto freaked out that he hadn't heard about Sabaku yet. A few guys were sizing him up, probably thinking about asking him to join a sports team. Sakura wondered if she should answer, since she knew his name. Sasuke beat her to it.

"He's Sabaku no Gaara from the Suna, Kakashi." Sasuke didn't even look up from his notebook. Sakura noticed that got Sabaku's attention; his eyes slid to Sasuke and watched him for a moment before ignoring the class again. "They probably talked about it at the meeting you skipped out on the Thursday before break."

The class had gone back to their work, everyone was used to Sasuke knowing things like this, although no one was really sure how, when or who he got the information from. Even Naruto didn't know. Kakashi hummed under his breath, "Sabaku work with Haruno."

Sabaku turned his head, raised a where an eyebrow would be, his hair shifted and Sakura's eyes zeroed in on a red tattoo on his forehead. The kanji for "love" was tattooed above his left eye. Sakura wondered how she missed that. _How do I miss things like that? _She frown, _I missed the missing eyebrows at first too._ Then what Kakashi said caught up to Sakura, that's right, Tsunade never said my last name.

"He means me Sabaku-San." She glanced over at him, offering a small smile, "I forgot you didn't know my last name."

He nodded, and watched her gather her things to move to the desk next to him. Sakura had figured he wouldn't move, picking a chair closet to the door for a reason. Sakura settled down again and looked at the textbook page and paled. Separable Differential Equations, Sakura wished they were working on theories still. Sabaku ignored her, just as he had been before. His notebook wasn't even out; Sakura questioned whether he even had a pencil. She looked at the first problem and copied it down.

∫ y dy = ∫− x dx ⇒ y 2/2 = − x 2 /2+ C 1

Sakura stared at the question for a while, biting on her lower lip and occasionally her pencil. When the bell rang, Sakura nearly jumped out of her skin. She saw Sabaku watching her; amused. She huffed and put her things away, wondering how she zoned out so bad. Then Sakura remembered Sabaku had the next two classed with her.

He followed her to gym, where he got to see Gai-Sensei for the first time. Sabaku had stared at Gai-Sensei when Sakura introduced him to Sabaku, Gai-Sensei rambled on about "youthful" this, that and all the 'youthful" things. Saukra pointed at Sasuke and shooed him off to the other side of the gym where the boy's locker rooms were, before hurrying to get changed. Gym went by quickly enough; they had to play kickball, which wasn't too bad although Naruto and Sasuke's team dominated her team, who weren't trying very hard. Sabaku did very little barely playing at all.

Art class was relaxing for Sakura, the windows were huge, long rectangles, and they filled the room with lazy warm afternoon light. Oonishi Chinatsu-Sensei is a petite woman, her hair fell in long big springy curls, her blue eyes were soft and her face was almost an oval shape. Sakura liked her a lot; she had a friendly personality, kind, sweet, soft-spoken, Sakura had never seen her raise her voice.

"Natsu, you look lovely today." She meant it too; Natsu wore a knee length green dress with a brown belt and flats. Chinatsu-Sensei let all her students call her Natsu she said she liked it better than being called Sensei; which made her feel old.

Natsu noticed Sabaku instantly and began to tell him about the class, and held out a ridiculous looking porcelain bunny bowl and had him take out a slip of paper, telling him that would be his first project. He had missed two already, the class was working on their third project. Sakura told him so, and told him the second project's subject was up to him. Art class ended too fast for Sakura's liking. She had to stay after for Tsunade. She ignored her art supplies and stood next to Sabaku.

"Can you stay after school today? I'd rather show you around when the school's empty than doing it between classes." She watched as he nodded, "Great. I have to do something real quick. I'll be back in 20 minutes." Sakura paused in the door way, "Don't disappear on me." For a spilt second Sakura thought she saw the corner of his mouth lift, and then it was gone.


	5. Finally Friday

Light from a street light crept into the darken room, the TV running a video game showed a "game over" screen, the light from the screen flickered ever now and again. A young man sprawled out on top the unkempt bed; a hand under his messy red hair, his other hand resets on his shirtless stomach, his left leg laid flat on the bed bent at the knee to the side, his other leg was bent upward, his foot flat on the end of the bed. His eyes closed for once, his lips were barely parted, the shallow rise and fall of his chest showed he must have dosed off. The clock on his night stand read 5:59 am. The seconds counted to sixty and just when the numbers changed so did the young man's breathing, his eyes flickered under his closed lids and some of the fingers on his right hand twitched.  
>Sabaku no Gaara opened his eyes, he stared at the ceiling. <em>I must have passed out<em>, he acknowledged before looking at the time, _only an hour of sleep_. Sitting up he turned off his game, he ran a hand through his hair as he stood, he stretched for a moment, and his black cotton sweatpants slid down his lean hips a little. Heading to the bathroom connected to his room, he paused long enough to grab his Zune and plug it into portable speakers. Gaara stayed in the shower until the hot water ran out, which took a good thirty minutes, when he stepped out and grabbed a towel his skin was red, irritated and when he walked into his bedroom he could see the steam rise from his body.

He wrapped his towel securely around his hips and headed straight out his room towards the kitchen. He passed by his living space, and headed straight for the pantry. He pulled out a few things and threw it all in a pot, turning the heat on low he walked back into his room. Gaara wondered why his closet was as big as it was, but he didn't really care; it was just odd since his clothes only filled up less than a quarter of the room. _I bet Temari picked it out,_ he thought as he pulled on some faded silver-gray jeans on. Gaara had been annoyed that he hadn't be able to pick out the apartment, although they had only let him pick out where they dumped him once.

He walked back into the kitchen and stirred the pot twice before throwing some pre-cooked rice it as well. Gaara opened a cabinet and started at the small stack of paper plates and realized he had no glasses either. He had to furnish his apartment, which he had done in three days, and apparently speed shopping wasn't something he was good at. He filled a paper plate and simply put the whole pot in the fridge, since he didn't have anything else to put it in. _Fuck, I have to go shopping again,_ Gaara snarled in his mind. He hated shopping for anything, if he didn't need to eat, he probably wouldn't bother ever going out.

After he found chopsticks he walked into his room with his food and proceeded to finish his AP Chemistry homework, had gotten the day before. Devouring his food, he pushed the plate aside, focusing on his AP Government and Politics essay that he had been adding to off and on, when he decided to give a shit. After an hour it was done, Gaara was glad that he had gotten more than halfway done last night since the damn thing is due today. He grabbed a band t-shirt, barely looking at it before packing his things in his messenger bag. _Friday_, he though in relief he had spent way too much time around the girl-headed girl who was supposed to keep him in line,_ what was her name again... hn I'll remember later._

He smirked; if his family knew just how good he had been this past week, he was sure his father would have a heart-attack from shock. _Now there's an idea,_ his sadistic side came out. His hatred for his father knew no limits, if Gaara had the opportunity he'd most likely kill him. Gaara pulled on his black leather jacket, grabbed his bag and after locking up he headed down stairs to his bike. His motorcycle was the only vehicle he ever had, he knew how to drive a car; Gaara was forced to learn but had only done it once for the test. Motorcycles gave him the freedom he wouldn't be denied, and it was easier for him to get away from people than a car would. Gaara pulled on his full face helmet and took off; he would to a loop around town before heading to school.

_I should show up with two minutes to spare_, he thought he had been entertained all week by the pink-haired girl who was supposed to keep an eye on him. She was so easy to rile up, it was probably the only reason he hadn't gotten in a fight yet. His school days consisted of zoning out, and pissing off that girl. Wednesday he had gone to the roof for lunch and by the time she found him and was done telling him off, he pointed to her face which had been bruised (he still hadn't actually spoken to her or in front of her). After she was distracted he left her on the roof, forgetting that his bag was the only thing keeping them from being locked up there. Only when he got to class did he realize he accidentally locked her out up there. Gaara hadn't gone back for her. She apparently scaled part of the building and climbed onto a tree that leaned on the building, Gaara had been disappointed she wasn't stuck up there with a sun burn.

He pulled into the school lot and set his helmet on the back of his bike, he glanced around. Some of the guys who tried to pick fights with him earlier this week where already here. He could see them heading into the building, with that in mind Gaara walked to the left side of the building to enter from there. He headed straight to his locker, for whatever reason his locker was in the middle of a wall of all the jocks lockers. Someone bumped into his side, he glanced over then up at the idiot he turned down a few days ago about joining the football team. Gaara was pretty sure the guy was in his AP Calculus AB class, but he wasn't quite sure _how_.

"Hey," The brunette moron said, "I think you should reconsider what I asked you about on Wednesday." The guy was tall, muscular, with shaggy hair that fell into his face, on his face he had two red upside down triangles tattooed under his eyes.

Gaara ignored him and started to turn the dial on his locker, he was pretty sure he left his book in here. A rough hand grabbed his shoulder and forced him around, Gaara mentally scoffed; _this guy thinks he's strong, does he?_ Gaara had faced things that would send this guy running to his mother. Gaara met the guy's eyes, unafraid.

"I was talking to you, you little shit-head!" His face was angry and a vein on his forehead throbbed a little. _Easy to piss off,_ Gaara mentally noted for later, _people really do make this too easy for me._ "You'll answer me you red-headed little freak. I don't care if you're mute or deaf or what, you better fuckin' answer."

Gaara raised a would-be-eyebrow he had forgotten about that strange rumor, people apparently thought he was deaf, mute or stupid. It wasn't that he couldn't talk he merely didn't see the use in talking to people too stupid to understand him. He hadn't been paying any mind to the meat-head who still had his shoulder in a vise-grip, so when the locker next to his face was slammed into, denting the locker next to his, Gaara turned his eyes back up to the face-tattoo kid.

"No." The mini crowd that included jocks, cheerleaders and a few random students all looked surprised and shocked probably not only at the fact that he could speak but that he had just said no to the dumbass in front of him. "I refuse to join anything that has to do with a dumb-shit like you."

The guy in front of him pulled back his first and one of the Barbie like girls threw herself at him, "No, Kiba he isn't worth it."

Gaara made a click sound with his tongue, _Kiba that was his name that's right, he got in trouble on Wednesday_. Gaara looked at Kiba, eyes mocking, "So that's what your name is."

It was instantaneous, his head snapped back and slammed into his locker a bruise was probably forming on his cheek bone. He didn't care, he smirked and noticed half the crowds flinched it never was a pretty sight to see; his smirks were always crazed, dangerous and terrifying. _I've missed this,_ part of his mind hissed as he punched Kiba back hard enough to knock him into a guy behind him. Kiba staggered back to his feet, he yelled something at Gaara but it only sounded like another insult so he ignored it. Kiba punched him in the face again, busting his lip, before kneeing him in the stomach.

Gaara punched the side of Kiba's temple and waited for him to straighten himself before slamming Kiba's head into the locker. Kiba shoved him back a few feet and spat out some blood. Kiba slammed his elbow down on Gaara's collar bone, it hurt like a bitch which made Gaara chuckle darkly. Gaara kicked Kiba away from him, Kiba somehow managed to land on his feet, which made Gaara raise a non-existent eyebrow in interest. Kiba managed to land a few more hits on Gaara before someone ripped him off Gaara.

Gaara stared at the dark-haired guy who he didn't like on his second day of school. The same guy who knew his name in AP Calculus AB. _Uchiwa or something like that_, he thought. Who was standing behind the Uchiwa was more interesting to Gaara, the pinkette who had been his recent entrainment. She was interesting, when they first met he expected her to be scared of him, there's no way the principal didn't tell her about his past; but she had treated him like anybody else. _Are you scared now?_ He challenged with his gaze. She looked it, paler than normal, her left hand raised to her lips, and her eyes were wider than they usually were.

"Sakura…" The Uchiwa kid said.

"It's okay Uchiha, it wasn't nothing." Kiba slurred, rubbing his jaw, "Just some horsing around got a lil' outta hand, ya know?"

_Ah, it's Uchiha,_ he corrected himself, _I'll remember that for later_. He felt something run down his face and realized he was bleeding at his hairline. He watched the others for a moment, but he zoned out for a few moments. When he refocused half the crowd was gone and Kiba and Uchiha were arguing with each other. "the up-coming games…homecoming…kicked off the team…you're an idiot…" Gaara noticed the pinkette, Sakura. She touched Uchiha's arm.

"Get him out of here Sasuke. I'm going to take Sabaku to the nurse. Will you tell the teachers for me?" She spoke to him familiarly, Gaara narrowed his eyes for some reason he didn't think she should hang out with him. Sakura walked over to him, he watched her. She had to stand up a little straighter to see where the blood was coming from, frowning she grabbed his bag and slug it over her own.

"Can you stand?" She asked unsure, and unafraid.

He nodded, his brain whirling. _Why isn't she afraid? She probably saw some of the fight; I know some of those kids would have told them._ Gaara wasn't sure why she had so much respect from the teachers, but several of the teachers didn't treat her like a student. He wondered if it was because she TA-ed for the principal. _It doesn't matter, she should be afraid_. Sakura didn't try to help him as she guided him to the nurse's office. He hadn't been there before, never really needed it before. The office was empty, but Sakura walked on in anyway. Gaara shut the door behind him; blood had started to get in the way of his vision.

"Here, sit."

She must have noticed he hadn't moved. She pointed at the edge of an empty bed. Gaara sat, mostly because he knew if he didn't she'd just man-handle him to the spot. He watched her rustle through the cabinets, grabbing some bottles, bandages, a small bowl of water and a cloth. She wore a fitted black and white quarter sleeve baseball styled t-shirt with a local café logo a crossed the front, tight dark jeans, worn black and pink Vans. Her hair reached just past her shoulders as she had left it down today, which she did something different with it almost every other day. It bothered Gaara that he noticed all of this, but he had been forced to spend a week with her, and her somewhat bossy personality.

Gaara sighed, _I bet she knew this would happen and that's why she added that ridiculous rule._ Senju Tsunade was a well-known woman not only for her capabilities as a doctor but for her monstrous quick temper. He had thought about just ignoring the both of them, although he had nowhere to go if he fucked up this time. _Senju probably knew that too,_ he thought. His family had pretty much disowned him not legally yet anyway. The only reason he was even bothering is the offer his father told him about before shipping him off. Gaara remembered what she told in during that meeting all too well.

_Senju leaned against the top of her desk, and gave him what was probably an intimating smirk to anybody else. He hadn't really cared what she had been going on about it was the same as everywhere else. "Oh, and I almost forgot, if you start straying from the right track your grades start to slip, you get into fights anything like that, I'll be informed. If a teacher feels that you are behind in class, or you're sleeping in class, if you cuss out any of my teachers, I'll know. Then depending on what it was, how bad it was; you'll have to spend more time with Sakura."_

_Gaara started at her, was she serious? That tiny petite girl probably couldn't even take a joke, verbal abuse or any kind of teasing more less him with his violent streak, and he didn't think he could be nice to a girl if he tried. Gaara narrowed his eyes and shook his head back and forth; there is no way I'm dealing with this crap. Senju glared at him, "You will spend time with Sakura, you don't have to like it, but I know she will be able to take your crap. More than just that, she'll be able to help you graduate, and maybe if you're lucky she'll help you more than that." She took a moment to glance at the girl, Gaara did too. Petite frame, long pink hair that fell past her shoulders and disappeared down her back, skinny yet he could see some muscles on her arms and her legs; she's probably on the track or swimming team. Slightly sun-kissed pale skin, large emerald eyes, oval shaped face, full lips, long thin neck, and she seemed to have a big forehead, but with her bangs swept to the side it didn't look that bad. __**Not my type**__, he noticed not just her hair but the whole way she held herself. Then he wondered if he even had a type, __**probably not**__. _

"_You will spend time with Sakura, as your guide for the first week, and over and over each time you mess up. That was my one condition for allowing you to come to this school, you'll follow it or you'll never get anywhere in life…is that clear?" Gaara felt his disdain for this women increase ten-fold, but he nodded, he need to graduate. "Hn."_

Gaara snapped back to reality when someone tried to touch his face, he caught the wrist and twisted it harshly. Gaara realized his right hand was balled up ready to smash the person's face in, but he dropped it when he noticed Sakura wincing at his grip on her wrist. Her face was clam but she had a small grimace from him nearly breaking her wrist. And he could, very easily, if he applied a little more pressure and twisted. Gaara dropped her wrist as if it burned him, met her gaze and challenged her to say something.

"This might sting a little, so just bear with it for a moment, alright?" She had stopped rubbing her wrist and dipped the cloth into the bowl of water.

He didn't know what he expected but this wasn't it. She was gentle, she made sure not to irritate the cut more, and she only hesitated once after the area was clean to stare at what he could on assume is his tattoo. Gaara gestured to the medical supplies then to her. She had been very good with his game of charades so far, only getting it wrong a handful of times; which is just as amusing as her getting pissed off about it. She happened to get pissed off about it more often than he expected it would.

"I took a summer job at the Hospital last year. I'm considering becoming a doctor, which Naruto found funny since I've landed him in the nurse's office more times than anyone can remember." She paused, "I have decided yet, I'm not sure if it's what I actually want to do."

She looked Gaara in the eye and she must have found what she was looking for because she pulled out the bandages and began to patch up his cut. He tried to stay still but she kept moving his hair. It was weird for him, they had only touched maybe three or four times since they met. When he wrote his cell phone number on her arm, when she dragged him to a class because they were late, and again when he decided to help her with their AP Calculus homework. He stilled himself and let his mind wonder. He watched her smooth some cold cream over his busted knuckles and wrap up his hand. She looked at his lip from under her eyelashes for a moment; he watched her eyes darken slightly.

"You have a bruise on the back of your head, and the one on your check should heal up in a few days. Try to take it easy, no running around too much." She handed him the cream, "Here, put this on your knuckles for the next two days and remember to clean your cuts. I mean with soap and water, do not just pour rubbing alcohol over it." She gave him a look that could have been a glare but he merely found it amusing.

He realized she hadn't bothered to turn on the lights, the sun gave the room enough light for them to see. It was a cloudy day but the sun, when it was visible it was a bright enough day. Gaara looked out the window while Sakura hummed under her breath putting away the items she had taken. He heard a snarl in his head, his vision went blurry and he put a hand to his head. _This girl does not fear us?_ Shukaku's voice echoed in his head. _Why do you let her turn her back to us?_ Gaara gritted his teeth as he pushed back Shukaku's will.

His vision cleared as he gained full control over his mind, _she doesn't fear me, and I don't know why she doesn't. She simply treats me like everyone else._ Gaara's hand fisted in his hair, Shukaku was a product of his childhood and the way his family treated him. Shukaku first appeared when he was four, Gaara blacked out for two days and woke up in his room. His family hadn't realized that anything had happened to him. By the time he was six, he had five more incidents where he couldn't remember anything. When he was ten he could hear a voice in his head, it had a name; Shukaku.

"Sabaku?" Sakura's soft voice called out, she leaned against one of the counters. She looked at him funny. "Does your head hurt?"

_I want to hurt her,_ Shukaku stated with rage dripping off his words. _I don't like her around._ Gaara closed his eyes and tried to imagine Shukaku behind steel doors. _She won't be around us for very much longer_, Gaara informed him, _in fact today is the last day_. Shukaku snarled but backed off for the moment. Gaara shook his head at the pinkette. Gaara hadn't heard from Shukaku in nearly three weeks, it caught him off guard to hear him again. A doctor had informed his father that he had a spilt-personality; Shukaku was the other half of his personality. His embodiments of his rage, hatred, disdain, want to fight, and his lust to harm people.

Gaara tensed his body and slowly slid his eyes to the young girl in front of him. Too close, he acknowledged, he could see her eyelashes, long and full. Her face concerned, her brow winkled slightly, her lips parted a little, as if she had been speaking. This close he could see that her hair color was actually natural, there was no way that it was a dye job, when her eyebrows where the same pink color. She smells like raspberries, he had no idea where the thought came from, but it wasn't a good one since Shukaku hated her on sight. Gaara hadn't felt angry at the girl in front of him more than a handful of times.

"Sabaku?" She touched the left side of his face, biting on her lower lip.

Shukaku roared from the back of his mind, in a crazed crescendo, the sheer loudness of it made his eyes unfocused. Unlike his other experiences with Shukaku, Gaara could feel the shift in control, and he could still feel, hear and see. Something that had never happened before; usually he just blacked out. It scared him that he could see everything, and have no control. Gaara screamed at Shukaku, and fought to regain control. He cared little about hurting the pinkette, he'd seen her fight with the blond cheerleader, it was clear to him she could defend herself. All Gaara wanted was to be able to control himself, he refused to be pushed aside like this in his own body; Shukaku was the intruder here. _This is my body, get the fuck out! You shit-head! I'll kill you! _Gaara tried every trick he built to push Shukaku back, but it seemed he'd need something better since Shukaku was able to grab ahold of his body.

A cloud eclipsed, darkening the room the sun but light from the window in the door spilled in the room giving enough light for them to see. He watched his own hand grab Sakura's throat, and felt his body shift as Shukaku stood. It hit him just how small Sakura really was, she only stood to his mid torso, and she never looked more fragile in the week he'd known her. Gaara could feel her pulse, her life beat steady against his palm; unafraid. It pissed both of them off, Shukaku more so, since he'd never been stood up to before. Gaara because the stupid girl in front of him didn't seem to care about her life, he'd never met anyone who would risk their own life for such a stupid reason. _Maybe she hasn't noticed the difference, _he wondered, _maybe she has been prepared for this the whole time?_

"_Are you afraid__?"_ Shukaku asked, his voice a low raspy sound as if he didn't drink enough. He drug their fingers into her throat a little, they could feel her wince at the pressure.

"No." Shukaku stiffed entirely, his rage causing them to see red for a moment.

"_What__?"_ He snarled viciously lifting Sakura off the ground enough to hold her above his head; he made sure not to crush her throat from doing so.

"No." Sakura's eyes searched his for a moment, "I am not afraid of you." One of her hands loosely grasped his wrist, her hair hung in her face.

Shukaku growled and squeezed her neck giving her a twisted grin. Sakura grimaced but she began to put pressure on his wrist a little ways down from his pinky finger. Shukaku, who was never one to let his victim fight back, shoved her into a wall by the window. Using the force he knocked the breath out of her. Sakura gasped a little, her feet scraped against the wall trying to gain traction. She grabbed his wrist between the bone and the hand and squeezed. Shukaku hissed in pain and let go of Sakura's throat.

Just as Gaara had assumed Sakura could fight back, she took in large breaths of air but she had landed on her feet instead of crumpling to the ground. She held herself steady and after a few heartbeats she was breathing normal, but Shukaku had recovered by then. Shukaku grabbed Sakura's hair and beat her head against the wall; she groaned and grabbed his shirt. Gaara watched with morbid interest, as Sakura didn't fight back again but simply steadied herself against him. She fought back when he was going to kill her, Gaara realized, she doesn't until that point. Stupid girl.

Sakura turned her face to look at him, Shukaku left bruises on her neck, small circle like ones that were a harsh purple against her skin. _Surely not all women allow men to beat the crap out of them?_ Gaara had only really fought men and broken quite a few of them, but women tended to tread on the safer side of been seen but not heard around him. Shukaku let go of her hair and Sakura reacted within that instant and pressed herself to him, her face against his chest, her arms locked around his back.

"_What the hell?_" Shukaku tried to grip her from him, annoyed by her actions, how was he to hurt her if she clung so tightly? _"Woman…"_ He growled angrily.

Gaara noticed the deft fingers sliding up to his neck a moment before Shukaku. Shukaku moved his hand but Sakura had injured it slightly with the pressure points she abused earlier. Finding something, Sakura jabbed a finger into a spot on the base of his neck that made everything go black for a minute, it was the distracted Gaara needed to re take over from Shukaku. With mental chains he grabbed Shukaku back into whatever dark place in his mind he'd come from. Gaara's head pounded as he came back from the reassess of his own mind, he stiffed when he noticed his body leaning on her much smaller one. One of her hands was still by his neck, cupping it when his head had started to fall back. His hands which on her, one in her hair, the other on one of her arms immediately relaxed and dropped to his sides.

Sakura looked up at him, her body still tense; meeting her eye he watched in shock as she relaxed her body and released him. She stepped away instead of running and sat on the bed next to them instead of beating him. She rubbed her head a little and massaged her neck, and then she cracked it a few times. Gaara stood there, watching her, as if he hadn't just attacked her. Well, he didn't Shukaku did, but she didn't know that. She stood and he tensed up all over again, but she walked past him and found a bottle and shook out two pills that she took dry. She filled a glass with water and shook out two more before walking back to him and holding them out. Gaara looked at the pills then at her.

Sakura let out a shaky laugh, "It's just aspirin."

_So I did scare her, or is it because I nearly crushed her throat in?_ Gaara decided it was because he scared her. _Who wouldn't be scared after that?_ He took the pills silently and took them with a small hesitation. He watched her and she pulled out what looked to be make-up and a mirror form a cabinet. She touched the skin lightly and began to do what he didn't think was possible, in about the same or even less time that it took him to make those marks she made them disappear. Gaara corrected himself, there was a few on the right side of her neck that it didn't quite cover. Sakura seemed to notice this too and with her fingers brushed some of her hair over to that side so it fell perfectly to cover her exposed neck. When she shook it a little she smiled at herself in the mirror and it barely reached her eyes. It was then that the sun came back out, bathing them in light.

"Sabaku?" Gaara's head snapped back to her, hurting his neck in the process, "I'm going to go back to class now. I'll tell Asuma-Sensei that you're not feeling too well, and I'll be back to make sure you don't skip and get to second period, okay?"

Gaara nodded mutely, unsure how she could act as if nothing had happed. She tossed him a half-assed smile and walked over to the door. He noticed that she squared her shoulders, getting ready for the questions the class would probably ask or the rumors that might start with how long she took. Sakura paused in the doorway, the door knob turned but not quite opened yet. She seemed to be having a mental struggle, Gaara wondered if she was going to cry or yell at him.

"Sabaku," She had looked over her shoulder at him. He noticed that she had the same look in her eyes as when she yelled at him for smoking, "I'm going to talk to Tsunade about Kiba. He's been getting out of hand lately, the way he attacked you for turning him down was wrong." Then she left.

Gaara wondered what was wrong with that girl. _The way he attacked me was wrong, yet the way I attacked you wasn't?_ Gaara shook his head, he didn't understand her. He sighed and thought about skipping but in the end, he laid across the school bed and zoned out for the next twenty to thirty minutes.


	6. Old Flame

Sakura probed at the faded purple marks on her neck, she winced. They were hard to see now, a ghost of the bruises they were before. They still hurt a little, but they would probably heal by Monday morning or even by Tuesday. Sakura sighed a little leaning on her bathroom sink she applied more make up to her neck, concealing the small marks_. I'm glad it's Sunday_, she thought relieved. Her mother was gone for some work bunch and business meeting that she _simply_ couldn't get out of. Sakura rolled her eyes at her reflection, she knew better. Her phone whistled at her from its spot on the inside corner of the sink. _That's probably Naruto,_ Sakura smiled softly. She had agreed to help him study today at her house, which is the only reason she even bothered with covering the three marks left on her neck. Sakura made her way to her room to double check everything. Naruto had been to her house many times, but she liked to have her dirty clothes hidden in the closet and several of her other things put away.

Satisfied Sakura headed down stairs where she had spent the better half of her morning baking all kinds of things. Oyaki, all types of cookies, Ohagi, several different types of cupcakes, Mochi, and several small cakes all sat in containers on the kitchen island, Sakura stared at all the sweets wondering what she would do with them. _Maybe I can send some home with Naruto?_ She wondered, the boy never stopped eating. Hearing another whistle, she made her way back up stairs and flopped on her bed. Laying on her side she opened up the last two messages, she forgot about the first one.

_Hey Sakura-Chan, we're on our way! I had to get a ride from the teme_

Sakura laughed, Naruto was always asking Sasuke for a ride. For whatever reason, he never bothered driving his own car, Naruto has a pretty nice one too, but Sakura was pretty sure he was worried about wrecking it. Smiling Sakura opened the next one.

_Sakura-Chan we're about a minute away, do you want some snacks for the store?_

Typical Naruto always thinking about his stomach, Sakura texted back that she didn't need anything considering they were meeting at her house. Sakura turned her head to the left to see herself in the mirror. A girl with messy pink hair with emerald eyes wearing faded light blue jeans, a gray camisole that started as a soft gray at the top and faded darker as the shirt went to her stomach finally fading to black near the end, the four straps, two on each side connected to a small silver hoop which connected it the them to the shirt, you could see her lean hips and flat stomach from the two slits at the bottom of the shirt that showed off her sides. She wore no socks or shoes, and her small feet hung off the bed barely touching a toe to the floor every now and again. Sakura tugged on her small silver hoop earrings and with her left hand she played with her two necklaces, she had her silver wing necklace and she also wore a necklace with a Sakura flower charm that has a small yin and yang in the center. It had been a birthday present from Sasuke a few years back. Chuckling she thought about the quiet raven haired friend of hers.

_Sakura had been heading to her locker, she wanted to put up a few things she didn't need for her first three classes before she went to find Sabaku. She was a bit worried about all the jocks who seemed to be fighting over Sabaku, and Sabaku just didn't seem interested in them. Sakura knew she wouldn't have to worry about the basketball team, Sasuke was their captain and he wouldn't let them pull stupid shit like Kiba, captain of the football team, or Hiei, captain of the rugby team or maybe Akito, captain of the swimming team. Sabaku hadn't made any friends, but other than the few mishaps Sabaku had been doing what Tsunade asked of him. Sakura shut her locker, running her hand through her hair with a sigh. _**I can already tell that Tsunade's going to want me to help this guy out.**

"_Sakura." She nearly had a heart-attack at the sound of someone behind her. Whipping around she smacked Sasuke's chest._

"_Christ! Sasuke, you scared me half to death!" She fake glared at him, her heart-rate slowing back to normal. _

_Sasuke smirked, but it faded after a second. "Sakura about the other day, you didn't have to apologize. I never made the effort to stay friends, like Naruto did. So, I understand why you were upset with me." She knew that Sasuke understood better than anyone else, she had leaned on him when they were younger, but he never leaned on anyone. He had Naruto, but Sasuke and Naruto were like brothers, she was sure there were things that Naruto couldn't help Sasuke with. "I never went out of my way for you, and you did a lot when we were younger. Even now, with Ino and everything I never bothered to step in."_

**That's why he never stopped me from snapping at him all the time**_, Sakura realized. "No, I should have found a way to help Hinata and keep you and Naruto close. You're not the only one at fault." She paused, "I do miss you though. Can we go back to the things were?" Even though Sakura knew it wouldn't be the same exactly, but she'd take what she could get. _

"_Yeah." Sasuke nodded, and that was all she needed. Sakura grinned at him, and he stayed emotionless to most people, but she saw his eyes soften slightly. _**Ino was wrong, he doesn't like me romantically, he simply wanted to be friends again, and I'm sure Naruto helped him realized it.**_ Sakura asked about the basketball team as they head to his locker. Strangely all the jocks somehow ended up in the same hall every year, but they seemed to like it better that way._

A knock at the door snapped Sakura out of her mental wondering, she touched her neck again. Remembering the events that had happened after they made it to the jocks lockers, she never been so furious with Kiba in her life. Seeing the blood drip down Sabaku's face and his eyes unfocused momentarily after his head was bounced off the wall. Sakura shivered as she recalled the smirk Sabaku had when he fought back, like he enjoyed beating the shit out of Kiba. Rubbing her arms, Sakura made her way down the stairs and to the door, ignoring the second set of knocks. Naruto never was a patient guy. She pulled open the door and grinned at her old friends.

Sasuke stood a little behind Naruto, his hands in his dark jean pockets, his hair disheveled. He wore a black and red spattered styled t-shirt, he wore his three necklaces; the black sting one with the Uchiha fan on it that fell just past his collar bone, the silver chain with a black dragon charm with ruby eyes holding a sword in its talons that she had gotten him for Christmas, and a black cord necklace that has a silver lion holding a small name plate which has his first name in script. She knew he never took the lion name plate necklace off; it was the last thing his mother, Mikoto had given him. Sasuke gave her a small smirk, she could see his black 2011Ford Mustang GT parked behind him. His elder brother, Itachi bought it for him at the beginning for the year. Itachi had claimed getting Sasuke a car for his sixteen birthday would be a given, so he made him wait another five months before he could drive himself around.

Naruto was all kinds of bright in light blue jeans, a blue t-shirt and his ridiculous orange and blue hoddie that he wore everywhere. Naruto wore the blue–green stone pendant necklace Tsunade gave him when he was thirteen, a black and silver metal bracelet with a spiral design on it that Sasuke had given him when they were fourteen for his birthday, and Sakura couldn't remember when Naruto got his ears pierced or why since he didn't wear earrings often, but today he wore the small black hoop earrings she bought him this last Christmas. He had his backpack (also orange and blue) slung over his left shoulder, and his trademark smile that brighten everything around him.

"Hey Sakura-Chan! Sorry we're a little late, my alarm didn't go off it's a good thing Sasuke called me." Sakura let them pass, shooting Sasuke a confused look when he came in too. She closed the door behind Sasuke; she didn't know this was a group study. Sasuke didn't need any help anyway, he's a genius. Naruto dropped his bag on the couch and glanced at Sakura, "Do you have anything to eat Sakura-Chan?"

Sakura grinned, "Yeah, I had a sweets frenzy this morning, there's cookies, Mochi, Oyaki, cupcakes, and Ohagi." She had ended up learning how to cook since her mom was a terrible cook and could burn anything. "I'll grab a little of everything, you two make yourselves at home."

Sakura back tracked to the kitchen. She ruffled through the cupboards; she found the three tear severing stand on to the top shelve. Why does mom have to put everything so high up? Sakura stood on tip-toes trying in vain to reach the simple serving tray. She felt a warm, hard body pressed against her back, her face began to burn, muscular sun-kissed arms raised around her petite frame and long slender fingers wrapped around the tray.

"Next time you should just ask me." A low husky voice said hot breath fanned against her ear and neck. Sakura shivered, he set the tray in front of her, and Sasuke chuckled at her. Sakura turned in place and smiled at him softly.

"Thanks Sasuke."

He was closer than she thought he'd be their faces a few inches apart. She could feel his breath on her face; Sakura could hear her heart racing. She could smell his cologne, a woodsy sort of smell, a strange type waxy scent and his body wash. Emerald eyes met obsidian, she wore he could hear her heartbeat. Sakura had a small crush on Sasuke when they first met, it lasted a few months until she found out that he hated his older brother, Sakura could never be with someone who hated their own sibling. All the same, she felt an attraction to him. Sasuke's eyes glinted with an emotion she couldn't name, but for he stepped away.

Sasuke helped Sakura load the sweets onto the tray, he joked about her trying to fatten them up. As she carried the tray, Sasuke held the door open. Sasuke smirked, "Got me."

Naruto had already dragged out his book and notes which he had scattered a crossed the table. After placing the tray on the coffee table, Sakura scanned over Naruto's notes. _No wonder he's failing I can barely follow these notes, _Sakura thought seeing Naruto had already started to devour the sweets.

She, with help from Sasuke, spent the next two hours going over the important points that would most likely be on the test.

"Alright, I think we covered more than I planned." Sakura ran a hand through her hair; she sat on the other side of the coffee table closest to the fire place. Naruto lounged on the couch and Sasuke sat to between the two in a recliner chair, Naruto had eaten most of the cupcakes and Oyaki. Sasuke and her had eaten some of the Mochi and Ohagi, Sasuke mostly stuck to the Mochi, it being less sweet than Ohagi. "So what now guys?" She asked.

Naruto grinned, sitting up and Sasuke smirked, his hands on his knees held to his lips. _I feel like I just set myself up for…maybe I should rephrase that._ Sakura gulped and smiled wry at her two oldest friends, _I'm so done for._ Naruto swept his things into his backpack without care and Sasuke had already begun to help her up. Sasuke pushed her towards her room. "You're going to want your shoes and a jacket."

Sakura paused for a moment. "If I don't?"

Sasuke gave her a look that promised that she would no matter what. "You have two minutes before I come up." He smirked.

Sakura recognized the threat and raced up the stairs. Last time he said that he hadn't let her changed out of her pajamas before taking her to school. Sakura had ended up stealing his sweatshirt, which caused her a lot of trouble with his fan club.

* * *

><p>Hey guys! So...I haven't really decided where to go from here with this. I have a vague idea of how I want the plot to go, so this was really more of a filler although some things from in here are important to the plot. Reviews would be awesome! Let me know what you think. And I'll be updating A Hyuuga's Word soon. Sorry for the wait on that. I wrote two chapters then realized I completely messed up, sorry that should be out sometime later tonight or early tomorrow, depending on where you are I guess?<p>

Mochi – a Japanese rice cake made of mochigome, a short-grain japonica glutinous rice.

Oyaki – a Japanese dessert often found at festivals, which is fried, cooked in a bun shaped pan and filled with sweet azuki bean paste (can be filled with other things) and severed hot

Botamochi – a Japanese sweet made with sweet rice and sweet azuki (red bean paste). Made by soaking the rice for six hours, and the rice is then cooked and a thick azuki paste is hand packed around per-formed balls of rice. (Usually made in the spring)

Ohagi – a Japanese sweet made with sweet rice and sweet azuki. Soaking the rice for six hours before cooking. Packing on the azuki paste, the step that makes this different from Botamochi is, adding a coating of soy flour after the azuki paste. (Usually made in the fall/autumn)


	7. Jealousy

Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose, emerald eyes closed; a small frown marred her face. A shopping cart beside her and a piece of paper slightly crumpled in her other hand. She was too stressed for this crap, it was a good thing the grocery store is open 24/7 or she would have been completely out of luck. _I can't believe its Wednesday,_ Sakura thought as she checked her list again. Sakura stood in the cereal aisle debating on which box she wanted. She had several other things in her cart; rice, beans, sugar, tomatoes, pasta, coffee, potatoes, flour, leek and several other odd combinations. As Sakura reached for a box, she looked back at her list, _do I have enough money for all this crap_? She had her bank card with her, but she didn't like using it much, she preferred using cash. What snapped her attention back to reality was the fact that she had grabbed somebody's hand instead of the box of cereal. Sakura's head whipped back so fast she felt her neck crack.

"Sabaku?" Her eyes wide, the red head looked completely emotionless, if you ignored his locked jaw.

Sabaku towered over her; he looked annoyed about being in the store. To Sakura he almost looked out of place in Mitch's wearing dark gray-silver baggy jeans that slid down enough for her see the V of his lean hips and the smooth skin that was left exposed by his maroon muscle shirt that clung to his well defined torso, and a black leather jacket that was left open; or maybe it was just because Sakura had issues picturing Sabaku just about anywhere that wasn't school. Sakura wondered for a moment what his house looked like, whether he had siblings, and what kind of car he drove.

"Hey." Sakura smiled at him, "You like Ninja Stars too?"

Ninja Stars is Sakura's favorite cereal even though Tenten claims they're a knock-off of Lucky Charms, only because Lucky Charms was Tenten's favorite. Sabaku stared at her for a moment like she was a crazy person. Sakura hadn't heard him talk more than a handful of times since Friday's incident, which had taken Sakura most of first period to calm down from. Sakura had talked to Tsunade about the whole ordeal and got Kiba an in-school suspension on Monday; she'd got Sabaku the lighter sentence of detention with Kakashi-Sensei on Tuesday. Whatever inner battle Sabaku had bout talking to her seemed to be over.

"I ran out of food." His voice deep and huskier than she thought it'd be. It lacked the raspy gravely sound it had the first time he spoke to her.

Sabaku kept a blank look on his face as he spoke, though his eyes glanced into her cart, a would be eyebrow raised just a tad. Sakura laughed at his scrutiny of her choices then gestured to the basket he held in his right hand.

"What's with your weird tastes?" Sakura eyed the frozen pizzas, beef, a strange looking fruit, and what seemed to be the ingredients for Sukiyaki.

"You don't have room to talk." The statement came out harsh and full of disdain.

Sakura laughed, "I picked up some food last week. These are just things I recently need."

She felt odd being around him, she'd barely seen him since Friday. Sasuke had seen the bruise around her wrist that Sabaku had left when she tried to touch his face on Sunday when he had helped her tutor Naruto. Sakura had shrugged it off, but Sasuke had decided that he need to keep Sakura away from anybody else after that and spent most of the next week monopolizing her time. Sasuke had also been adamant about keeping her away from Sabaku ever since her slip up, it would have been endearing but Sakura found it odd since Sasuke usually wouldn't care. There was also the fact that Sabaku himself seemed to be avoiding her as much as he could with then having several of classes together.

Sabaku grabbed a box of Ninja Stars, obviously done with dealing with her. He gave a slight nod and walked off. Sakura smiled, _he is amusing outside of school._ Sakura paid for her groceries by the time she made it out of the store it was already two in the morning. _Great, I forgot I made plans with Seiichi_, Sakura pulled out of the store and headed home. She knew she needed to work on her AP Calculus homework but she really rather do anything else; she hated the section they were working on.

* * *

><p>"<em>Sakura<em>." The tone was cuttingly harsh, she jumped in surprise. Glancing up at Sasuke, his face hard and somewhat scary, Sakura wondered what she had done to warrant the Uchiha's wrath. Naruto had left them to go to the bathroom a few minutes ago, apparently giving Sasuke the perfect opportunity to give her a piece of his mind. Sakura leaned back in her seat, her left hand held her drink, Sasuke held her gaze for a moment.

"What is this?" He had grabbed her right arm just above her wrist tightly, forcing her arm up towards her face.

At first Sakura didn't understand, then she could see the disinvite difference in the ugly yellow color of a ring like bruise against her pale skin. _Crap_, she thought eyeing her wrist wryly; _the concealer must have rubbed off earlier._ The bruise actually looked much better than it did Friday, when she smeared the concealer over it. Sasuke had noticed her eyes widen and used her arm to pull her closer to him over the small table.

"Sakura," Sasuke looked murderous, "who did this to you?"

Sakura shifted and tugged her arm out of his grasp, "It's nothing Sasuke it's practically healed."

His gaze pierced her, and she knew Sasuke understood her more than anyone else, but Sakura didn't want him to know this. Sasuke had tricked her into thinking he let go of the subject then ambushed her when he dropped Naruto off first. Sakura told him that Sabaku had spaced out when she was getting the bandages and she startled him, it was an accident and nothing more. His reaction scared her.

"Sakura, you keep away from him, you understand?" His fingers dug into her shoulder, Sasuke had leaned across the car his face cast in the shadows and the faint lights from the street. "Sabaku…I don't want you around him, alright?"

Sakura nodded, "Sasuke, Tsunade asked me to keep an eye on him."

* * *

><p>Sakura arrived at school fifteen minutes before class; she slumped in her government class nursing a large coffee. Several students had already settled into their seats, although they were unassigned most everybody liked to sit close to their friends forming scattered clumps of students around the room. Sakura learned over her accounting homework, finishing the last bit of work she didn't finish that morning.<p>

"Hey," Sakura glanced up unsurprised to see Sasuke, "you busy today?"

Sasuke leaned against her desk, smirking at her work, amused that she waited until the last minute no doubt. Sakura took a long drink from her coffee, and pulled out her cell phone. She kept pretty much everything on her phone, she never let it out of sight for long and she would be completely screwed if she lost it or broke it.

"Sorry Sasuke I made plans with Seiichi after school." Sakura glanced up at him. Sasuke rarely showed any emotion, and usually only made plans with her and Naruto. He usually was busy with basketball and football practice, being the captain of the basketball team and the quarter back for the football team.

"Hn." He shrugged, "It's last minute anyway. Do you work tonight?"

Seiichi walked in and ruffled her hair before he flopped in his seat next to hers, Sakura scowled at him menacingly. "No, not today, I work tomorrow afternoon."

Sasuke grunted his usual "Hn." at her before finding a place to sit down. Asuma-Sensei walked in a few minutes later, and the class settled down. He grinned at the class, the same grin he gave them after he won a bet against Kakashi last year. Sakura really was beginning to regret staying up so late last night.

"Everybody has exactly a minute to partner up with someone else." He announced cheekily.

Sakura turned her head to Seiichi who shrugged unapologetically at her, a rather pretty girl stood beside him. Sakura smiled and Seiichi winked playfully at her, which made her laugh before scanning the room for a partner she wouldn't have to do all the work for. Something hit her ear, and fell to the floor. Rubbing the top of her ear, Sakura snatched it from the ground. In rather nice slightly loopy script read; partner with me.

Sakura glanced behind her to see Sabaku twirling a red ink pen between his fingers. Sighing, she grabbed her stuff and took the empty seat beside his; at least she wouldn't have to do his half. Facing forward Sakura's eyes met with Sasuke's dark angry eyes, his lips were pulled back baring his teeth slightly, and his hair made his face darken. Sakura bit her lower lip, she had forgotten that Sasuke didn't want her around Sabaku; it wasn't like she was going to listen anyway, although his reactions kept surprising her. She watched him expertly dodge a crazy fan girl and he slid quickly to Hinata's side and smirked at the shocked Hyuuga girl, annoyed the crazy blond fan girl retreated knowing that if she picked on Hinata she'd face Sakura's wrath.

Asuma-Sensei went on to explain their assignment, a two page essay about today's politics and what new ways the government could do use to keep itself in check. He then outlined a few more essays they would do later and told everyone that the partner they picked would be working with them until next semester. Asuma-Sensei also handed out several things they would need for mid-term, because he wanted them to have enough time to study over everything. They finished the debate they had started on Monday, and Asuma-Sensei dismissed them four minutes before the bell rang.

The day flew by to Sakura, she barely remembered what they had talked about in creative writing and Tsunade worked her to death by goofing off and making Sakura do everything. Sakura swore she could open her own school if she wanted to by now with how much she learned from doing Tsunade's work. On the flip side Tsunade often would sit and watch Sakura filing things away and tell her about the medical world, tips for talking to families, what course really were best for the degree, which books to buy over the books that were typically referred and people Tsunade had worked with; which could help Sakura out later. Gym class literally knocked the wind out of Sakura.

One of her teammates passed her the basketball, Sakura caught the ball clumsily against her stomach nearly falling over. Instead she bumped into someone behind her; Sakura looked over her shoulder before glancing slightly up. Sea-foam eyes pierced her, as his hands steadied her, his expression void of anything. Stepping away she passed the ball to him to avoid getting in trouble for traveling. Sabaku caught it with ease and shocked everyone by taking the ball and making a basket from where he stood, which was almost at the half court line. It took Sakura a full minute to realize that people were openly staring and others yelling.

"What the hell Sakura?" A random guy from her team yelled at her. Sakura caught sight of Sasuke's enraged face, and with sinking despair remembered that Sabaku was on Naruto's team and she was on Sasuke's. Naruto's laughter rang through the gym.

"Way to go Gaara!" The blond teen grinned.

Art class was better, Sakura didn't fall sleep and felt that she was at least somewhat in tune with everything around her. The detail work she was doing help make her feel more awake, it wasn't helping that some of her friends were texting her non-stop. When the bell rang everybody jumped up and hurried to put their things away. Sabaku and her were the last ones left in the room. Sakura rolled up her paper, her eyes slid to Sabaku who carefully folded up his easel.

Tsunade had talked with Sakura about him briefly before lunch; he still hadn't reached out to anyone. There had been a few more brawls with the football team, but Tsunade didn't think it was serious. Only Naruto and herself had been the only ones to approach him, and according to Tsunade if anyone went up to him with something unrelated to class Sabaku simply tuned them out and walked off. Sakura honestly wasn't surprised that Naruto was able to get close; Naruto could tame a mountain lion and claim it was easy. Sakura picked up her bag as she turned towards Sabaku, she leaned against the surface of the table.

"That was a pretty impressive shot today."

Sabaku didn't bother looking at her; he placed the easel with the rest before heading over to the sink to wash the paint from his hands. Sakura sighed, glancing out one of the windows. Sakura crossed the room, picking up a towel, standing near the sink. She gave him a wry smile.

"You really don't like talking much, huh?" She tossed the towel at his chest.

Sabaku dropped the towel on the counter and stepped closer to Sakura, trapping her between the two walls and the countertop. She could smell his cologne and cigarettes. His sea foam eyes caught hers; she became distinctly aware of how attractive Sabaku really is. Her heart sped up at the lack of space between them; Sabaku's face no more than a few inches from hers. Sakura couldn't read him at all, not that she had ever been particularly good at reading him, she was aware that anything could happen. They stayed way to close for what could have been hours, his breath fanning across her checks; Sakura found herself wondering if he was going to kiss her which would be odd for him to do, yet she found herself longing for just that. A loud whistle came from the work benches; Sakura who jumped nearly out of her skin recognized it a second later as her message tone. Turning she glanced at her lit up phone from beside her bag, she had excepted Sabaku to be where he had stood trapping her against the wall, but he was half way a crossed the room already. Once the door snapped shut behind him, Sakura sagged against the wall remembering to breath.

"The hell?" She caught her breath and fled the room, suddenly in a hurry to get to Seichii.


End file.

Naruto, Drama, Romance