A/N: All of my SasuSaku fics so far end up much longer than I plan... Anyway thank everyone who read or reviewed my first SasuSaku fic "FInally, Sasuke" and I've decided to continue writing for this couple. Here's a bit of information you may or may not find essential in understanding the fic:
The location is in Honshu, Japan, a more populated city like Tokyo. Tora means Tiger in Japanese, and Tora High is an elite school for grades 8-12. Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, Ino, and a few other rarely mentioned are freshmen while Tenten and Hinata are sophomores and Temari, Shikamaru, and Itachi are seniors.
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Excited chatter filled the white halls of Tora High as the children joined all together for yet another year at the prestigious school. Only a small amount of all Japanese students were blessed enough to have the opportunity to attend Tora High School for the Elite and an even smaller amount actually could afford to learn there. Despite this Tora had much diversity in their student body and numerous students made up the several groups. There are:
The Populars, of course, as every school had one of these. This group consists of Karin Yamamoto, Mei Terumi, Ino Yamanaka, Konan Omoto, Hinata Hyuuga, and Sakura Haruno.
The Athletes, or jocks. This group consists of Juugo Omoto, Naruto Uzumaki, Temari Sabaku, Kankuro Sabaku, "Rock" Lee Wakamono, and Sakura Haruno.
The Nerds (even smarter than the average Tora High elite student) were the third largest group of the school. This group consisted of Suigetsu Houzuki, Shikamaru Nara, Sasori Sabaku, and Sakura Haruno.
Lastly was the "weirdos" or anyone who didn't fit into the other categories. This group consists of "Rock" Lee Wakamono, Tenten Takkaku, Naruto Uzumaki, Gaara Sabaku, Sasori Sabaku, Itachi Wakamono, and a few others.
As one could easier tell, there was something—someone—odd in these lists.
...
"Welcome back from vacation, I hope it was a wonderful one for you all." Their homeroom teacher, Hatake Kakashi, greeted in his usual friendly albeit lazy tone.
Almost instantly the room burst into poorly-whispered chatter about what everyone did during their last term break.
"Okay, okay, you don't have to talk about it now. We're back in school and all of you know what I expect after summer," Kakashi announced, gazing at each of the familiar faces boredly. They ceased their talking once he began talking.
"We also have a new student here at Tora High. He enrolled just last weekend."
The class broke into fascinated chatter again.
"Wow, we haven't had a new student in forever. I hope it's another girl I can drag shopping, or maybe a sexy exchange boy from France!" Ino, one of Sakura's best friends, whispered loudly to Sakura, nudging the smaller but equally energetic girl.
"Yeah, I hope they're American," Sakura exclaimed, literally bouncing with excitement.
Naruto turned around in his desk to face Sakura as well as her other close friends to exchange more hopes and opinions.
"I heard he's a total loser." Naruto stated loudly. The girls rolled their eyes and Shikamaru scoffed.
"How could you have possibly heard anything about someone no one even knew about until today?" Shikamaru asked leaning lazily on his girlfriend, Temari,'s desk. Shikamaru almost always seemed to be tired, but he excelled in anything mental when he wasn't sleeping.
Naruto pouted and crossed his arms causing Hinata to giggle girlishly and Sakura to laugh.
"Alright, alright, shut up now." Kakashi ordered, barely raising his voice. After the class fell silent he lazily sauntered from his podium at the front of the room towards the door and turned back to his class who were craning their necks to try to get a glance at the newcomer.
"Now I expect you all to make him feel wel-"
"I TOLD YOU IT WAS A GUY!"
Some of the class looked over at the blonde teen standing with his fists raised in cheer and the many that knew him just rolled their eyes muttering "that crazy Uzumaki again".
Shikamaru smirked with his eyes closed still on Temari's desk and Kakashi just smiled.
"I see Naruto is already getting a head start." He called, motioning for the boy to sit down.
At a snail's pace Kakashi opened the door and students inched to the edge of their seats.
Even more slowly Kakashi pulled onto the student's sleeve and pulled him into the room before suddenly pushing him into the front center, the boy surprisingly didn't lose balance.
The first thing everyone noticed was black, and lots of it. The weather was still scalding hot yet he wore a black fitted hoodie, black skinny jeans with numerous chains, and plain black shoes. His hair was black with the slightest dark blue tint and his eyes were a scary dark black nobody knew existed that contrasted with his pale skin greatly.
The students all calculated him, deciding which group he'd fit in, guessing his past and future. After a few seconds a few gave disappointed "ugh"'s, a few more seconds and some just shifted their gazes, bored. After a full minute nearly the whole room was either uninterested or mocking, just waiting to insult and bully the teen they couldn't find a group for. They'd have to create an all-new group just for him, one they'd been waiting for just to tease someone to no end—emo.
"This is Uchiha Sasuke, as you can probably guess he's pretty quiet. I hope you all grow to like him and make him feel at ho-"
"I told you guys he was a loser." Naruto interrupted again.
For once everyone agreed with the loudmouth blonde and burst into laughter. Sakura was not one of these and Shikamaru was too lost in Dream Land to even hear Naruto.
Sasuke didn't seem to mind or even acknowledge the students hysterically laughing at him.
"I didn't think it was possible for someone to dress weirder than Sakura," Ino whispered to their small group in a friendly, joking way as she tugged the large neon yellow bow in the said girl's hair.
"Naruto. Hall." Kakashi said calmly, pointing to the door for enthuses. Apparently Ino was not heard by the silver-haired man.e
"Agaaaaiiin?" Naruto whined, picking up his bags and slowly walking towards the door dramatically.
A few giggled at the blonde's misfortune but for the most part everyone smirked at the raven-haired boy with plans forming in their evil minds. Sakura, again, was not one of these.
"Now that there is a free chair, take a seat in front of Sakura. Her hair is pink, it's impossible to miss her." Kakashi joked, grinning at the pinkette who smiled cheerfully back. No one had ever seen the girl not cheerful, even in the worst circumstances.
Her smile made everyone else smile which was part of the reason she was so popular.
Sasuke skillfully avoided the few childishly positioned legs and feet in attempt to trip him. It seemed he was used to it. He slid into the seat and stared blankly ahead, ever so stoic.
The period continued as a usual school day, as Sasuke was the only newbie Tora has had in years. Sasuke received a few poorly made spitballs and offensive notes but he seemed to easily ignore it and continued writing.
When the bell rang for the end of the period the students weren't as excited about bullying him, he didn't react humorously or at all and Kakashi didn't send anyone to the hall or office again. In fact, the class was sure he forgot about Naruto being in the hall for the hour-long period.
"Sakura-chan, that was torture! Nobody was out here at all, even the roaches left me!" Naruto whined childishly, pulling onto said girl's arm. Sakura giggled and pryed his arms off of her, using her amazingly strong arms after much training. She was voted best female gymnast for four years in a row. Naruto cried out and clutched his now throbbing hand while Sakura muttered a sheepish "sorry".
After that minor even the day went by normally until fifth period, the period right before lunch, rolled around. Sakura and her gang (Ino, Naruto, Tenten, Temari, Shikamaru, and Hinata) gathered in the hall outside of their classroom door. Everyone had the same class fifth and first as well as a few more periods.
"Ne, Sakura, let's ditch cafeteria lunch for the mall today!" Ino suggested, earning enthusiastic nods from the girls, even the two tomboys Temari and Tenten. Naruto and Shikamaru groaned, already feeling their arms aching from the thought of holding the girls' bags. Sakura glance to her left at someone leaving the building before looking back to the group and politely declining.
"Actually I don't think I can go. I really have something I need to catch up on. I'll call see you guys sixth though." Sakura announced, bowing.
The group deflated before giving their okays and see you laters.
"Sasukeeee~!" A loud familiar voice called, causing said boy to look up in surprise. No one had used his real name the whole day, usually mocking and offensive names like "Slicey the Cutter", "Sas-Gay", and the even less creative "Emo Kid". He was more surprised by the person who was actually calling his name.
Sakura paused momentarily when she reached him to catch her breath.
"Hey, why're you eating alone all the way over here? It's a pretty place though…" Sakura muttered thoughtfully as she looked around the park. He was currently sitting under a medium sized Sakura tree (so very original, note the sarcasm) with her a few feet away from him with her bag slung hurriedly over her shoulder.
It was only his first day at the high school but he already knew her place. She was popular, among other things, he had overheard and by seeing her in about all of his classes so far she had more friends than he could count.
She was outgoing, energetic, cheerful, compassionate, smart, athletic, and extremely crazy. Her talking to him right now only proved her to be even crazier than he previously imagined.
"Mind if I sit with you?" Sakura asked lightly, a smile coaxing him.
Sasuke merely grunted and looked away in response. She took this as a yes and plopped herself unceremoniously beside him, only a single foot, twelve mere inches, thirty measly centimeters away from him.
Sasuke mentally slapped himself for thinking about it so much.
He could faintly smell her bubblegum scented shampoo in the late summer breeze. He expected strawberry to go with her hair or cherry like the cherry blossoms she was named after but bubblegum was okay too, just surprising.
"So why did you exchange to Tora and where are you from?" Sakura asked, turning to give him her full attention.
"Hn."
Sakura pouted playfully and lightly pushed him on the shoulder.
"I'm just asking a question, don't be all shy. You know, you sort of look like Itachi…" Sakura said, tilting her head and tapping her bottom lip in thought.
"Aa." He replied, nodding slightly but still looking away from her at the students walking to random restaurants and gas stations for their lunch break. They all were walking with friends or lovers and seemed unbelievably happy, almost glowing.
"I guess you don't really care," Sakura muttered sheepishly, grinning like a fool.
He didn't say anything and they fell silent for a moment.
"I'm not going to leave you alone until you speak something understandable, even after the bell rings." Sakura stated with determination, scooting closer to him.
"Where were you born?"
"Hn."
"How old are you?"
"Hn."
"Do you like anyone?"
"Hn."
"Are you emo?"
There was a pause before a hesitant "hn".
Sakura grinned. Progress, this meant progress.
"So that's a yes?"
Sasuke just shrugged and spared her a curious glance. She was so close it startled him.
"No."
Sasuke made a small noise of surprise when the bubbly girl suddenly tackled him into a hug, causing him to almost lose his balance.
"Kyaa, you finally spoke!" Sakura cheered, nearly crushing him to her.
"Aa." He shyly replied, pushing her off and trying to hide his blush.
Sakura merely smirked and pinched his cheeks to increase the blush. He slapped her hands away lightly and she laughed lightly. He was just too cute!
"I wonder why everyone calls you emo, you don't seem like it at all." Sakura murmured, watching the leaves of surrounding trees flutter and light green grass sway in the warm breeze.
"That's not what the rest of the world thinks," Sasuke added, opening up a bit.
"You shouldn't care what other people think." Sakura countered, leaning back again the tree, now even closer to Sasuke.
"Says Miss Popular."
"I'm not fond of labels*."
"Total double standard." Sakura laughed at this and even Sasuke couldn't help but to give a small smile. He couldn't recall the last time he'd smiled, she just somehow cracked his shell to bits.
They relished in a comfortable silence for a while, just listening to the busy street quite a few yards away and the sounds of chirping birds behind them in the dense forests. It was a perfect moment for them both, one not being annoyed by idiots for once and the other not having to keep up with multiple friendships.
"If you were labeled, what would you want to be considered?" Sasuke suddenly asked, breaking the silence.
Sakura blinked in surprise at the longest and most complete sentence she'd heard from him and looked up at the light baby blue sky thoughtfully.
"Sakura Haruno." She answered seriously.
Sasuke looked over at her and raised an eyebrow in questioning. Sakura smiled and shrugged, looking down at her forgotten bag with her forgotten lunch.
"I said I don't like labels, because there's no single label to define me."
With a short glance at her rainbow socks and Gir backpack he realized that maybe she was probably right.
"Well," Sasuke began, smirking at the now confused girl.
"Can I label you?"
"Label me what?" She asked curiously.
"My girlfriend." He leaned over to lightly kiss her on the lips.
A/N: Ah, I'm officially addicted to SasuSaku! This is really fluffy but that's just my style sometimes.
I sort of wrote this since many people I talk to, even complete strangers, always ask me if I'm emo. e.e Really, by definition about everyone is "emo", as emo is a shortened form of emotion or emotional. It was, like scene and punk, derived from a style of music which branched out into a fashion and look. I dress in a lot of black but I also wear bright, neon colors like scene. I'm a nerd too, as I'm in National Junior Honor Society, and Honors English but I'm also in ballet which I consider a sport (come one guys, we have competitions, injuries, practice, and a LOT of hard physical, painful work just like soccer, football, volleyball, or any other sport) so I'm athletic, I also dress and act weird so I fit in that category too. I don't like being labeled (unless some hot anime guy asks me to be his girlfriend!) and I don't like labeling others either (unless they deserve it). This was long and really personal skit nobody gives a shizz about. o.o
Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!
P.S: This was based slightly off another fic titled "Lovely" in which Sasuke tells a photographer Sakura and him aren't fond of labels. The author's username slipped my find but a quick search on can fix that.
