Cold Comfort

Chapter One- Appear and Disappear

"Sasuke Uchiha."

No reply came.

"No Sasuke today, eh?" Kakashi declared from the front of the classroom. "I guess not." He then marked an "absent" by Sasuke's name.

Green eyes took a quick scan of the class, but could find no trace of the one pronounced to be absent. They fell on the figure of a blond-haired boy with a vacant seat next to him. His eyes locked with the ones peering at him, and he gave a shrug.

Sakura Haruno frowned at her friend, Naruto Uzumaki, because she had no idea where their dark-haired counterpart was either. She looked down at her hands; it wasn't the first day Sasuke had been absent. He had been gone for two days now, and she had no idea what had happened to him.

"Maybe he's sick." Sakura thought. "He never did like calling either of us when he was sick. He says he doesn't want us to worry about him…. That idiot…not telling us just makes us worry more."

Sakura sighed and brought her eyes to the front of the class where their teacher, Kakashi Hatake, had already begun his daily lecture. She could only hope her assumption was right.

'"'"'"'"

Later that day at lunch, Sakura sat around with all of her girl friends. Her blond friend, Ino Yamanaka, was in the middle of telling some story to a shy, white-eyed girl named Hinata Hyuga. While her other blond friend, Temari, absentmindedly ate her lunch.

"Hello ladies."

All four girls looked up when the voice called. Naruto walked up to their table and took a seat by Sakura.

"Hey Naruto," Ino greeted, "where's your partner in crime today?"

"Beats me," Naruto answered. "I haven't seen or heard from him in the past two days." He turned to look at me. "You haven't either, right Sakura?"

Sakura shook her head. "No, but I did try calling him once."

"And?" Temari spoke up.

"He didn't answer. I don't know why, he always does."

"Except for that time," Ino stated.

"Yes, Ino, thank you for pointing out the obvious." I huffed. "I hope he's okay."

"Ah, there's no reason to worry too much about him." Naruto announced. "After all, the last time he didn't come to school was because he had broken his hands and couldn't dial or write, and that's why we didn't know."

"You do realize that just gives me more reason to worry." Sakura shot back. "I don't want to find out he's been hurt again or anything!"

"Awe, someone's in looove." Ino giggled.

Sakura glared at Ino. "No I'm not! Sasuke's one of my best friends and I want to make sure he's okay!"

Ino gasped. "Speaking of love, check out who's here!" She pointed behind Sakura towards the exit.

Everyone turned and saw who Ino was pointing at. It was Neji Hyuga, also known as Sasuke's successor in the fangirl realm.

"So?" Sakura questioned as she turned her head back. "He's just a guy."

"A very good looking guy," Ino clarified, "and a very single junior."

"So why would he take interest in a sophomore?" Sakura replied.

"Oh, just stay out of my dream land Ms. Reality." Ino huffed.

"Wow, now that was a crappy comeback."

"I have boys on the brain, cut me some slack."

"So why don't you guys ever act like that when I come in?" Naruto asked as he looked around the table at the girls.

Hinata flushed pink and the rest of the girls laughed and shook their heads.

"…What did I say?" Naruto asked which caused the girls to laugh once again.

"Oh, uh, just, you know…the thought of…." Sakura stammered before she, Ino, and Temari started to giggle some more.

"I'm not getting it! Hinata, what are they saying?" Naruto questioned and looked towards said girl.

"Oh, um…uh…well…." Hinata stuttered, her face becoming hotter by the second.

"Oh, not you too! What am I missing?" Naruto groaned.

"What's so funny?"

Everyone's heads shot up at the voice. Most of the girl's eyes widened as they saw Neji standing just a few feet from their table.

"Neji, oh, um…well…." Ino stammered.

Naruto turned his head to the new arrival. "Do you know what they mean when they do that? I'm just not getting it."

At that moment Ino looked like she wanted to strangle Naruto for taking Neji's attention away from her, Hinata was trying to regain her normal skin temperature, and Temari and Sakura were watching the whole thing unfold while Neji looked down at Naruto with a confused expression.

Neji then shrugged his shoulders and walked off like he had never even stopped at the table.

Ino groaned. "Naruto, you scared away the man candy!"

Naruto's eyes widened. "There's candy? How do you scare it?"

"You're an idiot." Sakura huffed. "Both of you."

"This is why I need Teme around! I gotta have guy-to-guy conversation! The girly-ness is gonna explode my poor head!"

"Feel free to explode, air head." Ino hissed.

"Low blow, Ino, low blow." Naruto responded.

As everyone else laughed, Sakura looked off into space. Her mind was consumed with burning questions concerning Sasuke. Was he alright? Would he be back soon? Was he sick, injured, or just away with his family? She knew she shouldn't worry too much, but this time she just couldn't help it. Something felt…different about his absence, and she had no idea whether that was a good thing, or a bad one.

'"'"'"'"

The bell rang, and teenagers poured from the doors of their school in anticipation to go home. Sakura was swept along by the crowd until she found herself outside. She began to walk towards the exit of the school; her home was a little under half a mile away, so walking was always the simplest way home.

"Sakura…Haruno?"

Sakura turned as someone called her name, and was almost surprised to see Neji behind her.

"Oh, uh, Neji…yes, what is it?" Sakura asked.

"Are you going to walk home?" He questioned.

Sakura nodded her head, not entirely sure where the conversation was going.

"Can I…walk you?"

Sakura's eyes widened slightly. "Oh…well…I…guess that'd be okay…."

Neji smiled a little, and walked up to Sakura. "Good, let's get going."

Sakura nodded her head again, and the two began on their way. Sakura fidgeted a little nervously with her bag; she didn't know much about Neji, and now here he was asking to walk her home.

She couldn't resist the urge to press. "So what brought this on?"

Neji looked over at her with such an innocent expression Sakura had to look twice to make sure it wasn't just her eyes messing with her. "Should there be a good reason? I see you walking home a lot and I thought since I go the same way you could use some company."

"Oh…." Sakura responded. She felt a little bit confused with Neji's accusation; sure she walked a lot, but normally Sasuke walked with her since they lived in the same neighborhood.

"I guess maybe he noticed Sasuke wasn't here today and decided to do this…." Sakura thought. "Yeah…I guess…."

"So do you know where that Uchiha has been?" Neji suddenly asked.

Sakura turned to Neji. "Sasuke…? I don't really know…he hasn't called me or my friends."

Neji grunted, which Sakura believed was his indication that he understood, and things fell silent between the two for a while.

Finally, Neji broke the silence. "You're younger than me, aren't you?" –Sakura nodded her head— "Then why is it I see you in some of my classes?"

"Oh, uh, well, I'm just an overachiever I guess…." Sakura answered. "I'm taking mostly advanced classes."

"Yeah, I'm the same way, but I stuck to advanced classes in my own level. Don't you feel kind of left out when you're in a class of mostly juniors?"

"Oh…well…a little…but my friend Temari is a junior too, and she's taking the advanced math class I'm in."

"I see…and I'm in your science and History classes."

Sakura nodded. "Yeah, you are…my friend Ino is so jealous of me because of that."

Neji looked over at Sakura quizzically, and Sakura realized she had said more than she had meant to.

"O-oh, you know…the girl who was talking to you at our lunch table…that's Ino…. She's…guy crazy." Sakura stammered.

"Yeah, I got that impression a while ago." Neji responded, and turned back to looking forward.

Sakura looked down at the sidewalk absentmindedly. Talking to Neji felt awkward, yet it also felt a little comforting, like she was talking to Sasuke. The two were pretty alike.

"Is this your place?"

Sakura looked up; Neji had stopped and was looking away from her. Sakura turned her gaze in his direction, and realized he was right; they were at Sakura's house already.

"Yeah, it is." Sakura replied, and started to walk forward into her front yard. "I'll see you at school, Neji."

"Wait, Sakura." Neji called.

Sakura spun around to face him.

"Next time our science teacher assigns us to find partners…why don't you and I get together?" He suggested.

Sakura blinked a couple times as she processed what Neji had said. "Oh, um…sure…I'd love to."

Neji smirked at her. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, bye." Sakura muttered as Neji began to walk down the road.

Sakura stood there for a couple of seconds until she finally managed to gather herself back up and turned to her front door.

"I guess this means…I've made a new friend…. Ino is going to be brooding over this for a week." With that thought, Sakura smiled a little as she stepped through the door of her house.

And that concludes chapter uno! (Yes, I am actually partially versed in the Spanish language. But now I can barely speak it for shit….) Anyway, kinda…different from what I normally write, we've actually got some other guy in there causing a ruckus! And where's Sasuke? Well, most of that should be answered next chapter. So, this goes to bLuEniGhtRaVe since she's the one who actually asked that I make a story like this. Whatcha think so far? Good, bad, meh, idk, idc (so mean), wtf is wrong with you, you spazz of a writer? (Ain't I though?) Okay, yeah…right…well then, till the next chapter of whatever I update!