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Chapter One

I had been staring at Sakura sleeping soundly on her bed for a while now. She looked peaceful, serene, and beautiful. I thought back on my days of chasing after her and I couldn't understand why I wasn't satisfied. She'd gone from not even knowing I existed to falling hopelessly in love with me. She stirred and I smiled in case she woke up but inwardly I was thinking, please, just stay asleep. I can't deal with you right now.

I don't want to hurt her. I care about her. But for some time now I've been thinking this relationship is never going to last. She's been getting on my nerves. I can't tell the difference between love and lust and I'm assuming since I can't, that this isn't love after all. Every thought I have has been brought out carefully. She's too delicate for me to crush her but I really can't continue like this much longer. I always thought once I got Sakura that I would never need anything agian. That I would be happy forever.

My body tensed up as I saw her slowly stretch and open her pale green eyes. She pulled me towards her and I tried to hide how suffocated I felt. I'm tired of this.

"Hi, sweetie." She gave me a smile that read pure happiness. It made me ache, knowing that I would soon tear that smile from her.

"Hey, I was just waiting for you to get up so I could go home."

There it goes. "Oh, you don't wanna hang out or go out to eat or something?"

"Naw, I'm beat." I wish she wouldn't look at me like she's about to cry.

She crawled to where I sat on the edge of her bed, laid her head on my lap, and wrapped her arms around me. "I'll miss you, Naruto."

"You'll see me tomorrow." I almost wanted to reconsider. This is too sad. It's Sakura; how can I hurt her?

"I know." She hugged me tighter before I freed myself as gently as possible and stood up.

"See ya later." And I left.

The drive home was annoying. I was back and forth within my mind and wouldn't give myself a break.

I have to do this. It's too hard.

She'll be so sad once I do. I'll be miserable if I don't.

She loves me. I don't know what love is.

I have to. I absolutely have to.

Although it was Friday, I hadn't invited Sakura to go out with me tonight. I needed to think; how do I break up with my girlfriend without breaking her heart? I spent the remainder of the night doing anything to keep her off my mind. The further away I got, the better I felt. Eventually, I became immune to my relationship crisis. I lazed around my house while Tsunade, my grandma, yelled about chores and other stupid things. The night passed quickly and I comfortably went to bed, Sakura the last thing on my mind.

The next day, I woke up to Sakura jamming up our land line. I hadn't answered the phone but Tsunade barged into my room shouting, "That girl is calling nonstop! Get up already!"

I simply rolled over away from her and told her, "Get out of my room."

She slammed my door shut and mumbled about my being 'ungrateful and rotten.' Tsunade and I had always had a strained relationship, but things had gotten worse since my father died. Before then, it was merely my playing favorites: him over her.

I reluctantly picked up my phone and yelled at Tsunade to hang up the other reciever.

"Hello-" I was still half asleep. She was chipper as ever.

"Hi, Naruto! Did you just wake up?"

"Yes. Did you need something?"

I could hear her hurt. "No, I just wanted to see what you were up to."

"I was enjoying sleeping."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'll just go-" "I'm already awake. Besides I need to talk to you...you got time?"

"Of course!"

And then my body tensed up. "Listen...I can't do this anymore."

More hurt. "What?"

"Us, Sakura."

I could hear her try to not cry. "What do you mean?"

"I don't see this going anywhere. I don't want to waste your time."

And then she let it out. She cried. She pleaded. She yelled. I think she gave me everything she could think of. It hurt. I wanted to break down and tell her I took it back. I wanted to hold her and tell her everything would be fine. But how could it be? I didn't love her. I didn't want her out of my life but being her boyfriend was just not right for me.

After we finally hung up, I curled up in bed and I cried. I cried for her. I cried knowing I'd just lost someone important to me. I cried knowing it would be hard for her to recoup. I cried because I didn't know what else to do.

After I broke up with Sakura, Tsunade became a little more bearable; just a little. The school year ended and with all my friends busy with extracurriculars, I didn't have much to do over summer. I missed Sakura. But I knew I missed her out of boredom and I kept myself from calling. We didn't talk again after our breakup. Sometimes, we would see each other because of mutual friends, but we remained civil towards each other. On my part, there was no reason to avoid her other than not wanting to cause her more pain, but I missed her in a friendly way. All in all, it was a boring summer.

After a long wait, school finally started. I was a sophomore this time. At first, things were awkward whenever I'd run into Sakura. She would look the other way or pretend to be looking for something and I would always make it clear that I wanted to be her friend but she never seemed interested. That is, until our friends forced us to have lunch together. Now, I don't mean they sat me and her down together. I mean they all wanted to sit together and didn't care what problems Sakura and I had. So it was either sit alone or deal with each other, which I had no problems with.

So it was through lunch period that Sakura and I finally became friends again and everything seemed right again. Everybody always had a great time together and soon, Sakura and I were a thing of the past. But of course, things can't always go right for me, Naruto Uzumaki.

I was at my friend Kiba's house playing video games when he suddenly stopped and looked at me seriously. I wondered if maybe he would ask me about girls even though the only person I had ever been with was Sakura, and everyone knew how that turned out. Instead he coned his hands around his mouth and whispered, "Wanna see something I just got?"

I was always curious. "Yeah!"

"Shh!"

"oh...sorry. Yeah..."

He stood and took a stool to his closet to reach up to the highest shelf. He took out a shoebox and I spoke up, "Is it a dead rat? Because I'm not interested."

"Stupid, why would I keep dead rats?"

He removed the lid and tossed me the contents. A DVD on milfs.

"Where'd you get this from?"

"Older cousin. Wanna watch?" He grinned.

"Uhhh. No offense man, but I don't really wanna be in the room while you get a hard on."

"Why? Afraid you'll like it and go gay?"

I threw the DVD at his face. "Stupid."

"Haha. It's no big deal. You can have that one. I have others."

This, I liked. "Sweet. I guess I'll leave then. Later, Kiba!"

He cackled. "See ya, Perv!"

Once home, I locked my door in case Tsunade came home and decided to barge in. I hooked up some headphones into my laptop and popped in the DVD. I lay down on my bed and unzipped my pants, ready to feel around in case I saw something good. I was actually really excited to watch it, but once it started, I was really disappointed. None of the girls seemed beautiful to me and I wondered if maybe Sakura really was the only girl for me. Completely turned off, I shut everything off and put the DVD back in its case to put at the bottom of my least used drawer. Like I'd ever give it back to Kiba so he could ridicule me on not enjoying porn.

A few weeks passed and things were really looking up. Sakura and I were friendlier than ever, even going out to eat with and without friends. She never talked about dating but she seemed a lot happier than months ago when I had left her. My other friends all encouraged me to date but I always said I was happy with things as they were. Nothing was wrong at all.

I cam home from school one day to find the house was empty, which was odd. Tsunade was usually home before me and was either cooking or napping. However, I wasn't about to complain about the privacy I seemed to have today. I ate all the junk I could find and watched TV as loud as I wanted. After a while, I got bored and locked myself up in my room to get some relief. It was nothing special, just a quick tug to pass the time. I always found it odd that I never really thought about anything while I did that. But honestly, nothing did the trick for me. Back then, I would think about Sakura but it felt wrong thinking about her when we weren't together anymore.

After laying around in bed for a while, I went into the kitchen to wash my hands. On my way back I saw something that made me go cold. Displayed on the kitchen table as though it were a trophy, was Kiba's DVD. Beside it lay a sheet of paper with words scribbled messily and obviously rushed.

Naruto. You're disgusting. I'm a grown woman and I've never thought about looking at something like this.

I instantly grabbed the DVD, broke it on my knee, and chucked it into the trash. I didn't even enjoy it. Fear gripped me as I thought of how Tsunade would unleash her anger on me until I realized something. The drawer I kept this in was full of crap I hadn't used since I was a kid. First of all, why was Tsunade going through my drawers? Second, why was going through the ones she knew didn't have anything useful in them? I grabbed my laptop and laid in bed with it. Upon clicking the power button, the screen instantly lit up to show my password screen. She'd tried to get into my computer too. That bitch.

I was furious. How dare she go through my things!? I paced around my room angrily trying to figure out how to deal with my frustration. Then, instinctively, I dialed Sakura.

"Naruto?"

"Uh, yeah. How'd you know?"

"Unlike you, I have a cell phone."

"You know Tsunade won't get me one, anyway I need to talk to you."

"What's up?"

"No, in person."

"Well, I was just about to go out with Kiba and Hinata right now."

"That's perfect. I need to talk to them too. Where are you meeting?"

"I'll just go pick you up, we're all carpooling tonight."

"Okay, hurry."

I hung up before she could say anything else and immediately dialed another number.

I jumped when I heard a tap on my window and knew it was Sakura. She made a habit of never knocking on the door in case Tsunade was angry. I grabbed my jacket and rushed out the door, not bothering to lock it. Sakura came around from my window as I was entering the car.

"Hey, man."

"Hey. Hey, Hinata."

"Ah..Hi.."

Sakura came in and we took off.

"So, Naruto, what did you need to talk to us about?"

"Oh yea, Sakura mentioned that. What's up man?"

I braced myself. "I'm leaving."

Sakura and Hinata looked at me confused while Kiba kept on. "What do you mean leaving?"

"Well, I don't really want to, but I have to."

Sakura placed her hand warily over mine. "What happened?"

We stopped at a burger joint and I waited until we were seated to continue.

"It's Tsunade. She's been digging through my things."

Kiba scowled. "So what, my parents do that shit all the time."

My anger flared up again. "Yeah, well, Tsunade's not my mom. It's not like I asked to stay with her to begin with. I shouldn't have to put up with her shit."

Sakura caught my attention once more. "Are you sure about this, Naruto?"

I squeezed her hand softly. "Yeah. Otherwise we'll end up killing each other." I forced out a laugh. "I'll miss you guys."

"Man, if we had room at our place I'd let you stay with me."

"Yeah, like I want a perv for a roommate."

Hinata blushed at my comment towards her boyfriend.

"So who will you be staying with then?" Sakura asked.

I let out a heavy sigh. "My only other family. Jiraiya."

Kiba scowled again. "What?! That guy's the hugest perv there is!"

"Well it beats Tsunade's craziness any day."

"Doesn't he live in Suna?"

I drooped my head knowing I wouldn't be able to see my friends every day. "Yeah."

"B-but all your friends are here i-in Konoha."

"I know."

"Umm...Naruto...when will you be leaving?" Hinata blushed deeper as though talking were embarrassing.

"Tomorrow." The silence was tremendous.

Tsunade hadn't come home at all. It felt as thought she were waiting for me to leave before coming back. Not that it bothered me, packing up and leaving would be easier without her shouting. I love her, but she drives me nuts. I spend the rest of that night with my friends before going home to gather all my things. Jiraiya, Tsunade's brother, would arrive the next morning and I had to be ready by then.

He arrived a little later than notified but it wasn't a big deal. He helped me carry my bed into his truck before I loaded the backseat with all my clothes and junk I couldn't live without, and we were off. He said Tsunade would be taking care of my school withdrawal while also transferring over guardianship to Jiraiya.

The ride with Jiraiya was awkward. Normally the old guy teased and joked with me about all the women he'd seen and peeped on. He really was the biggest pervert ever, but today, he was calm. As though he was waiting for the storm within me to settle.

We arrived to his quaint apartment late at night and exhausted from the trip, we only removed my bed so I'd have something to sleep in before the two of us knocked out.

The next day Jiraiya was still apprehensive towards me but informed me where I could find anything I needed before leaving to work. He didn't really need to work but he said it kept him near pretty girls.

I removed all my things before he left and spent the day arranging everything in my new room. It took a week for my guardianship papers to arrive and so I could finally return to school after being stuck in the apartment bored for days.

The morning of my first day at Suna High, Jiraiya walked into my room and threw something at my head. I glared angrily at him.

"What the heck was that!?"

He laughed in his throat. "Look before you ask."

I couldn't believe it. My very own cell phone. I had always asked Tsunade for one but she insisted I get a job and buy one myself even though I'm still a minor and can't work.

The first week of school was uneventful except for making a handful of friends. It was really a completely different school than Konoha High was. Here the students weren't afraid to act up against their teachers. I saw countless kids get kicked out of class for behavior problems and countless more skipping class. I was never fond of going to school but knew the importance of it and attended daily. It was hard to imagine that these kids didn't care. What kinds of lives must they lead? Regardless of how different it was, I managed to fit in pretty well even though most people knew me as the new kid rather than by name. In most my classes I was teacher's pet even though at Konoha I wasn't well liked because of my troublemaking. I didn't even have to try at Suna for the teachers to like me. That's how different it was.

But it didn't take long for me to get on the nerves of one teacher. Kakashi Hatake. He made us call him Kakashi and he was a really laid back teacher. He usually let the class do whatever they wanted as long as they kept the volume down and their grades up. It wasn't that he particularly disliked me or anything like that. It was that I always made a fuss in his class. The first few weeks I was there, nothing ever happened in his class. It was boring, just like all the other ones, but then I noticed this guy. He was so handsome and he just stood out from everyone I had ever met in my whole life. And I don't even mean it in a gay way. I mean, I can acknowledge someone's looks without it meaning anything, right? I immediately texted Sakura about him the moment I saw him. Sakura! You're not gonna believe this guy in my class. You'd drool at the sight of him!

Before I got a chance to check if she'd replied, Kakashi walked up to me and said aloud, "Naruto~ I don't allow texting unless you read the class your conversation. Go drop your phone in the bin by the door."

Annoyed, I stood up and walked briskly to the bin and back. As I sat I heard that handsome guy behind me whisper under his breath, "Don't piss him off, it's an easy class."

I turned in surprise at hearing the guy's voice. That was my first encounter with Sasuke Uchiha.