Race around the world: I love you Sakura Haruno!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and any of its characters and make no money from this story... support the official release and all that jazz!

Written by Ghostsammeo

AU/ Oops. Why am I writing another AU story when I'm already in the middle of another? Ah, who cares, I won't let possible lack of updates stifle my creativity! Enjoy!

Books, movies, television shows and any other medias that tell stories have always had this one humongous problem, the problem of the cliché. For each individual story made, if you want it to be a good one, you simply must not follow a cliché opening. I mean, you only have to look at all those boring, samey fairytales of the past which begin with 'a long time ago' to see that; that's not counting Star Wars, Stars Wars is awesome.

When some dude created the beginning which starts at the end and the whole adventure is a flashback, everybody thought it was the most awesome, none-cliché thing ever! Sadly over time people continued to use it; soon enough, it was a cliché.

My story, no matter how awesome I may think it is; is a cliché.

It starts with me floating on a little homemade, wooden boat down the river Thames in London. The sun was slowly lowering in the sky; making Naruto's beaten, bloody face slightly more beautiful than it would have been, as he lay there, moaning in pain next to me. On my other side was a crying Sakura Haruno, tears rolling down her delicate cheeks as she sobbed. Up on the streets, looking down at me, was the police.

Not just the police however, in-fact the group of watchers was mostly made up of SWAT team members, looking at me down through the barrels of their steadily aimed guns.

The sirens of their cars wailed as they shouted demands at me. Wiping blood from my bleeding nose, I placed my hands in the air... Cliché time!

Maybe I should start from the beginning.

Me, Naruto and Sakura all came from the same high school in the state of California. In our school, believe it or not from information to come, we were all friends. Sure we each had our side groups to go to; I'd go to the cool guys, Sakura the smart girls and Naruto the class clowns, but by the end of the day it was just the three of us.

Of course, since it was high school, flings happened and such. One year I was Sakura's boyfriend, the next year Naruto was. By the end of it all though, we had decided to just leave high school as friends and nothing more.

That was all years ago. Each of us are eager to learn academics at our respective universities and to stay friends forever and ever (in Naruto's words) we all agreed to meet every couple of months at our uni's.

This time round, Naruto and I were visiting Sakura at her university in California. We were only there for a week, but that was all we needed. To be honest, even though I hate to admit it, I love the both of them. Naruto for all his stupid remarks and annoyingly hyper moods is a great guy and Sakura... well. I'll be honest again, Sakura is fucking awesome. I love the girl. She's smart, good looking and kind hearted. What more could a guy want. Well for me, there isn't anything else I want because this week I have came to make Sakura mine.

Before being thought as some weird creep travelling across America to visit my old friend to win her back I'll make some things clear. I have liked Sakura for a long time. It's not just like High School ended and I suddenly thought to myself, oh, Sakura was actually pretty hot and she'd be a good wife, I'll go woo her! I've been waiting to see her for a long time and I know that this is really my last chance to have something special with this wonderful woman before she either gets with some new jerk or gets too concerned with her studies to see me.

I like her and I am here to make her mine.

So, I guess it all starts properly here, with the sun sparkling miraculously off my yellow car bonnet as I smoothly cut past another driver and into a parking space.

I turn the keys and step out my Lamborghini, flipping down my shades to look around.

It's a nice day. I'm currently in the uni car park; Sakura's housing area but a two minute walk away. Small trees dot the side of each parking space and birds chirp in the clear, blue sky. Sakura's got a nice university, not as nice as mine, but still nice.

With a beep I lock my car (automatically, bitch) and flip my finger at the driver I had cut off to get the parking space. With a jolt remember to get the flowers out the back seat.

A dozen roses for Sakura. Yes, roses, the flowers of love. I'm pulling all the stops this week!

Suddenly the blaze of some crappy rap music meets my ear as an old battered green car zooms into the car park with an apparent disregard for seriously damaging someone else's vehicle.

It spurts out black fumes from the exhaust and does some dodgy u-turn thing to park itself.

Naruto.

I see his blonde spikes come out the door first, then the rest of his body.

"Naruto," I call.

God I've missed this idiot.

He turns from locking his car and strains his eyes to look at me. It takes the dobe awhile, but I think he finally realises it's me.

I stroll over as he waves stupidly shouting my name to show me where he is... though I know where he is... because I found him first... dobe.

"Sasuke!" He grins and brings me into a big bear hug.

I jab him in the ribs and push him off, "Watch out for the flowers," I hiss.

"Oh yeah sure sorry," he smiles, "Man you've gotten taller Sasuke!"

"It's only been a year since we last saw each other and I stopped growing two years ago," I roll my eyes.

"Hahaha... yeah, good to see you again though," he smiles.

"Sure," I reply.

His blue eyes fall to the flowers in my hand then he gasps.

"Nearly forgot!" He yelps as he dives through his open car window and struggles around for awhile.

Eventually he comes out with a stick with what? Blossoms on it? Pink blossoms?

"The fuck is that?" I say, pointing at his stick.

"Cherry blossoms," He announces proudly.

"You've brought Sakura part of a tree." I state.

"Yeah, it's what her name means, romantic huh?" He grins.

My eyes narrow immediately.

"Not really," I shrug. I hesitate, and then to test out Naruto's reaction, I say, "My roses are romantic though, don't you think?"

Naruto's eyes narrow too, "Yeah, I was going to bring her some flowers but I think the blossoms hold more meaning."

My dark eyes meet his bright ones and immediately we both know it's on. He likes Sakura. I like Sakura. And we're both here today to win her.

This was unexpected.

Since when did Naruto like Sakura? Perhaps he's had the same feelings as me all this time. I mean we did fight over her a bit all those years ago in school but we agreed to get over it and move on. I didn't but I expected him to.

"Well it's good to see you again, dobe," I say and turn on my heel, "Shall we go meet the girl then?"

"Sure, let's go!"

After a quick walk down the blazing hot street we find ourselves climbing up an ever turning stairwell, looking for room five hundred and three.

"So," Naruto breaths as we climb, "How's life going for you Sasuke? How'd you get that snazzy car?"

"My dad and I went half and half to buy it," I reply airily.

"Minato didn't help me buy my car," Naruto converses, "He said it was his 'fatherly duty' to let me work hard and prosper by myself... I don't even know what prosper means."

I smirk then stop, "Ah, here's the floor she's staying on."

We both go through into a brightly lit corridor, a light green carpet running along the floor.

"Room five hundred," Naruto reads the first door he sees then takes a step forward to the next door along, "five hundred and three!"

His hand goes to the handle but I quickly grab his wrist, "Don't you wanna knock first?"

"No," he shrugs and opens the door shouting, "SAKURA!"

Except there is no Sakura. Instead we are met by a slightly messy room, clothes flung here and there, and a blonde girl passionately kissing some white haired guy on the sludge green sofa directly in-front of us.

"Whoah- o-o," the guy stammers, pushing the blonde's face away with his hand.

"What the hell?" The blonde growls, flipping her long ponytail behind her shoulder.

She follows his gaze and then her face lightens when she sees us.

"Oh, Sakura's friends right?" she murmurs, sounding slightly annoyed.

"I'm going," the white haired guy says immediately, standing up and shoving past me and Naruto, both standing in the doorway with our eyebrows raised.

"Suigetsu, call me!" the blonde calls after him pathetically.

"Sure," he says back as he disappears behind us.

Me and Naruto still stand looking at the girl.

"Hi," she says and stands up, "I'm Ino, Sakura's roommate... and that man-whore was Suigetsu."

"Hi, I'm Naruto and this is Sasuke," Naruto smiles. "Was that your boyfriend?"

"No, no like I said, just some man whore from the night before," Ino grins back.

"We're here to see Sakura," I intervene before Naruto can strike up some totally unrelated conversation as I remember him often doing in school.

"Yeah, she's gone out," Ino explains as she goes around the sofa towards some cupboards at the back of the room.

Gone? "But, she knew we would be coming," I say.

"That's why she told me to tell you she's gone to Canada," Ino says as she munches on some cornflakes out of a cereal box.

Both Naruto's jaws and mine drop.

"Hey, what are the flowers for?" Ino asks us.

"They're for Sakura, hey why did she go to Canada, is this some kind of joke?" I question quickly after snapping out of the confusion, my mind not quite getting what's going on. Canada? What the hell?

"No it's not a joke, she just packed a bag slightly teary eyed and told me to tell you guys she's going to Canada, nice girl as well, only been living with her a couple of weeks... I'll miss her," Ino shrugs.

There's a silence in the room.

"What the fuck? Why'd she go to Canada?" Naruto suddenly bellows out, throwing his hands in the air.

"This is insane," I shake my head, "Do you know where in Canada she went?" I ask Ino.

"No. No I do not," Ino affirms.

As Naruto starts questioning this Ino girl some questions I've clearly already asked, I take out my phone and dial Sakura's number.

After a few seconds, a vibrating noise comes from under the sofa cushion where Ino and Suigetsu had been sitting.

Ino smiles wryly and fishes under the sofa cushion until she pulls out Sakura's pink mobile.

"Yeah. She couldn't find that when she left. Guess it was cuz I was sitting on it," Ino says with a light laugh.

"Are you high or something?" I demand of her.

"No," Ino replies abruptly.

This whole ordeal is insane. Sakura just going to Canada doesn't make sense! As my mind continues to process the situation, Naruto suddenly speaks.

"I'm going after her."

"What?" I snap.

"I'm going after her," he repeats, then smiles at me.

Going after her? What would be the point of that? We don't know where she's even going exactly. There'd be no point.

"That's a stupid idea, where would you find her?" I demand as Ino munches on cereal behind us.

"I don't know, I don't care Sasuke- I need to see her cuz I have something serious to tell her, I can't wait to say it so I'll just have to go after her."

So typical of Naruto to do stupid things and force me into them. If he's going then I'm going. He's not telling her he loves her before me!

"My car is better for long distance travelling, I'll go, write down your message or something," I say before I even know I've said it.

"Message? No Sasuke I'm serious I need to speak to her," Naruto shakes his head.

"Well I have something to tell her too and seeing as my cars better for long distances I'll just go instead... don't worry I'll phone you when I get there," I say through gritted teeth.

"Sasuke, dude, I'll go."

"Why don't you both go?" Ino interjects before I start arguing like a child, "Kinda race to meet her?"

Ino's stupid suggestion actually makes sense in this scenario, even though she doesn't know that we both like Sakura.

"And the first one to get to her..." Naruto says.

"Wins her," I finish.

"Wins her?" Ino repeats.

"I'm off, see you around Sasuke!" Naruto announces suddenly and hops out the window.

Wait what?

I run to the window to see Naruto cursing loudly as he slowly crawls down a drainpipe. He looks up at me, grins sheepishly then continues to crawl downwards.

"Shit, Ino's here's my number, contact me if you get any news," I says as I scribble down my number on a piece of paper nearby.

"Why? What's happening?" Ino asks.

"I'm going to win Sakura!"

AU/ not a very good starting chapter to reflect this story but I struggled getting it going, hopefully you can get past this and get ready for the next chapters! –Re-drafted!