Hello everyone, this is Nonumaru. This is one of my many fanfics wrote for the Naruto Shippuden series, but the first one based on my own experiences with swimming. My friends and I lead crazy lives, so why wouldn't they be perfect for telling stories with? This story was previously called Swim Good, but I decided to revise it a tad and give it more of a plot. Enjoy, read and review always!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and never will. Though as relatable as these characters are, I don't see why we don't own this fandom already.

XXX

May 15, 7:05 P.M.

The one and only Sasuke Uchiha sat in the middle of the weight lifting section of Planet Fitness, brooding. His long black hair, which usually was gelled up to appear spiky, was left down so chin length bangs brushed his face.

Being at school for almost one hundred and eighty days was killing him. His house was killing him. This life was killing him.

He slammed the one hundred pound barbell he was lifting so loud on the rack that the employees at the desk looked over at him curiously. Damn it all. Couldn't he get a little peace anywhere?

The more Sasuke thought about it, the more he thought people tiring. So frequently was it that he had to fake emotions just to go through the day.

It was a Friday night. He should've been going out with his friends, or at least studying for final exams. All he could manage to do though was work out to let out some steam. Every night for the past couple weeks he had been going through the same routine.

Home was suffocating. Sasuke's father, Fugaku Uchiha was almost never home, since he was a big leader in the corporate world of Kohona. Even before his mother had died he could never remember speaking more than a couple words to the man. None of these short conversations consisted of 'I love you'. Sasuke didn't think that 'love' was even in the man's vocabulary. Hell, he had let his wife go so easily, why in the world would he give more than two shits for his son.

His older brother seemed to be on the same track as his father. Except for the fact that his brother hid his feelings behind piles of college work and a computer screen. Itachi was seen as the bright one. He had a reputation for excellent grades and a professional approach to people.

All of this stuffing feelings and emotions behind the pretense of work left Sasuke drained. Most people never saw the real him, just a husk of what he once was before his mother died.

He thought of it more today than any other day of the year. It was the anniversary of her death after all.

Sasuke was just about ready to leave the gym before he spotted something blue moving out of the corner of his eye.

Planet Fitness happened to have two levels. The first level held the work out machines, yoga mats, weights et cetra. The lower level had the tennis area, basketball court, and a pool. The first level was built around a large cylindrical like space that had windows facing down to the entire length of the pool. It was from those windows that he saw the bright flash of blue.

Why anyone else would be crazy enough to go work out on a Friday night besides himself puzzled Sasuke.

When he looked closer he found that the person walking across the pool deck was a girl about his age. Her long black hair cascaded down her back to end just below her shoulder blades. She had big purple colored eyes and a cute round face. Despite this she looked very sad.

He saw her lightly place a fluffy white towel and locker keys on one of the chairs on the deck, but it was done almost as if she was in a daze. Even though Sasuke knew nothing about this girl, he knew what she was feeling all to well. She was trying to separate her mind and her body in a desperate attempt to save her sanity.

To save herself from self-destructive thoughts.

For the first time in a long time Sasuke thought about someone else beside himself. What train of thinking was she so engrossed in that she had to do something so drastic?

Still staring, he saw her stretch a black silicone cap over her head and place matching vanquisher goggles with reflective lenses over her beautiful, solemn eyes. With a barely visible sigh she gracefully slid into the pool. Not fazed by the cold, she placed both her hands on the ledge and pushed off to streamline across the water. A few seconds later she pulled back her arm to begin a freestyle stroke.

Sasuke was floored. Her concentration to her craft was unparalleled. He had been to many swim meets in his lifetime, thanks or no thanks to his best friend Naruto who happened to be a swim junkie.

Never before had he seen perfection like this in the water, especially not at night in such a stressful time.

What was she running from?

XXX

June 10, 11:58 A.M.

Sakura sat on her best friend's plush leather sofa, brooding. Her bright pink hair stood out like a sore thumb in the fairly mute colored room. She pushed her knees up to her chest; arms folded around them while she slid open and shut her cell phone.

Sakura sighed and gazed over at Ino, her friend, who seemed to be fairly content to text on her new IPhone. All and all, Sakura couldn't help but be jealous. Ino's long blond hair and large chest attracted many males near the end of junior high. The attention got even worse once she got into high school.

Ino made Sakura feel really undeveloped in that department at least. Her chest could barely fill out a B cup. Her skinny, wiry figure did little to catch the eye of the opposite sex she thought, and her short hair didn't help. Although, she liked the hairstyle that way, it made her feel more sophisticated. People would take her more seriously.

Sakura peered over Ino's shoulder and wondered who she was texting. The blond tending to have feelings for multiple guys at once, any of which Sakura would be glad to even pay attention to her.

When she looked at Ino's phone, instead of seeing Neji's name light up the screen, it was Shikamaru's instead.

"Ino, don't you think that you're hopping between boys too much? I mean, what happened to you and Neji?"

Ino put her phone down and looked at her friend. "Neji? I'm kind of disenchanted with that guy. We went to see that movie the other day, and he just seemed so… I don't know, distant."

Baby blue eyes met emerald green in an instant. "Maybe he's just shy," Sakura said, "I'd be nervous if I was him too. You are his first girlfriend after all."

"I know Sakura, but that's not half of it." Ino ran a hand through her soft hair and averted her eyes. "He's been like this since we started dating a month ago. I'm okay with shy guys, but this was to the point to he wouldn't talk to me in public. He was cold and spoke to me like I was a terrible distant relative. He waited a long time for me to decide to date him, and don't get me wrong, he was really sweet for a while, but his personality has changed. I can't live with that forever. Especially for the start of junior year, I need a guy who is fun and carefree, like me." She smiled brightly.

"So what are you going to do about it?" Sakura asked, a tad naively.

"Well I already broke up with him-"

A gasp came from Sakura.

"-so I'm moving on now."

"Ino! But-"

Before Sakura could protest further, Ino put her index finger right between her friend's eyes. Sakura fumed.

"Forehead. Calm down."

Sakura squirmed. "You're breaking his heart, Ino-Pig."

Ino sighed happily and hugged Sakura's larger, skinny figure for all she was worth. "I know Forehead, I know. But we're tough competitive swimmers right?" Ino nudged Sakura with her elbow and smiled. "Our lives are tough ones. Neji is just going to have to deal with it."

XXX

June 11, 5:25 A.M.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Hinata struggled to reach her alarm from her bed. In her haste she fell flat on her face on the floor. Luckily she had her nine-tailed fox plushy to break her fall. The little animal grinned sweetly up and her and she groaned.

This was another start to another grueling day with their coach. CFH everyone called her. Coach From Hell, Miss Tsunade.

Hinata couldn't go a day without being in water, or even taking a short shower, so swimming to work out was the closest she was going to get to being around the liquid all the time. Plus, since she was working out so much, she didn't have to constantly worry about her weight or what shit she ate.

Hinata had always been a weighty girl. Her mother never seemed to let that fact escape her. She would constantly nitpick and comment on what she was eating, when she was eating, and the whole deal. Hinata couldn't understand it. She looked like a normal kid, why did she have to worry about her weight? As a result of the constant commenting, the view of herself and her body diminished bit by bit throughout the years. Her curvy body, large chest size and muscular limbs were no longer something she thought others considered attractive. The fact that she had never had a boyfriend yet starting junior year made her self esteem drop even lower.

Regardless though she swam, in hopes that someday, she would get praise.

Hinata hoped that someday, she would feel beautiful.

Little did she know, she was already beautiful. She just needed someone to tell her that.

After a quick breakfast of Raisin Bran and milk, Hinata suited up. Since today seemed like a purple day, she donned that color one-piece TYR suit. Shorts, a tee shirt, a jacket and her swim bag she also added on her back.

It was only a five-minute bike ride to her high school pool. The early time and freezing cold air made it feel even longer.

By the time she got there, she noticed that the bike rack was fairly full. Ten-ten's and Sakura's bikes were already there.

Opening the locker room door she heard a light groan and an agitated voice whine, "Why the flying fuck am I still here? It is too EARLY!"

She walked in to see Ten-ten, lying on the bench, swim bag completely covering her face. Her dark brown hair was placed in a messy bun on the top of her head.

She could hear Sakura sigh, "Oh shut it Ten-ten, don't get your panties in a wad."

"Too late, I'm not wearing panties." She pulled up her shirt to reveal an Uglies brand swimsuit.

Hinata laughed slightly at the exchange. "Come on guys," she said, putting away her bag and getting out her goggles and cap, "Let's get out there before CFH gets on our cases."

Ten-ten groaned. "Go to hell. No, scratch that, CFH can go burn in hell."

Sakura whacked her in the arm, hard. "Stop being such a trashy hoe, I really am not in the mood to do a set of 500's today. Remember what happened last time you opened your huge mouth and she heard?"

Everyone in the vicinity groaned at the thought of having to do sets of twenty laps over and over again.

Simultaneously they looked at each other, then scrambled out of the room, scattering a couple middle schoolers who were in the way.

Once on the pool deck, the three girls noticed even more of their friends on the bleachers. Some of the guys were there that day too.

Sai, the antisocial bastard, looked like he was about to kill something as Ino talked to Shikamaru. The genius brained Shikamaru really tried to be invested in the conversation, but he never was a morning person, or day person at all for that matter. His dark brown hair was shuffled up sloppily in a ponytail on the top of his head. The Speedo he wore was stretched out so much that it looked like a diaper. Sai on the other hand wore jammers, down to his knees. His hair was neatly cut army style. The strong muscled shoulders of his supported his defined biceps in a way that would catch anyone's attention.

Before the girls could even begin to sit down, a stern voice came from the left side of the bleachers. "Has anyone seen that idiot of a coach yet?"

Ten-ten froze, whispering to Hinata and Sakura, "It's her…"

Murmurings of CFH spread through the thirty or so swimmers like wildfire. Luckily the coach was still in her office, so they didn't have to face her wrath face to face.

Her voice suddenly seemed decibels louder. "Are you people awake? I SAID, where the bloody hell is that blasted idiot Kakashi! It is already 6:05! I AM NOT WASTING TIME WAITING FOR HIS SILLY ASS TO GET HERE AGAIN! THIS IS THE SECOND WEEK OF CAMP FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!" Yep, that was definitely a megaphone she was holding.

"Yo."

The voice seemed magically to come from above their heads. A shock of silver hair could be seen bobbing up and down on the bleachers on the second floor deck. That kind of hair could only belong to one person only.

"What the hell are you doing Coach Kakashi?" Ten-ten whispered.

"Yeah," Ino said, "Are you trying to get us dismembered?"

They all could see Kakashi's hand rub the back of his head in a sheepish gesture. "Well I kind of ran into a snow-"

"It's the middle of summer." Sakura interrupted.

"-sand-"

"We aren't in the desert."

"-grass storm on the way here. The cutters completely blinded me from seeing the road. You kids should know, safety first."

Sai held up a hand. Everyone turned to stare at him. The hunk was always very silent. It was very rare that he said more than a comment in one day. So to see him confronting a teacher about something was a once in a blue moon event.

"Leave it Coach Kakashi. We all know who you're sleeping with, so try not to make it even more obvious."

No one saw that coming.

But before things could go into a chaotic state, Coach Tsunade strutted out in her usual sweatpants and light jacket combo. Her long blond hair was tied in a low ponytail that just added to the sharpness of her angular looking face. Rumor said it that she made Junior Nationals at the age of 8 and that she continued to rank high among her peers the years following. However, when she finally qualified for the Olympics, a terrible shoulder injury took her out of the running.

"So," she started.

"Here we go," Ten-ten sighed in Hinata's general direction. "We're going to get the nutrition talk," her face paled, "Again."

Coach Tsunade cleared her throat. "As I'm sure all of you are aware, Kakashi and I brought this camp up from nothing. We trained all of you kids, who were once diamonds in the rough, to almost polished stones. Not only that, but we have the built the best facility in the Kohona area."

No joke. Tsunade and Kakashi actually helped with the construction. There was picture in the office of them with shovels. Though the thought of Kakashi actually doing anything helpful without making excuses for himself first, never ceased to surprise anybody.

"Many of you more dedicated swimmers have made Regionals and State in individual events under our instruction. However, we concluded that something was missing from our repertoire."

Whispers and speculations spread through those seated like wildfire. Ino gaped. "Don't tell me she actually is going to let us do Zumba!"

Sakura stared at her best friend pointedly. "No Ino-pig! Are you crazy? This is probably some new kettle ball regimen or something. Besides, you know how much she loves the P90X yoga guy."

"Silence!"

Everyone shuffled in his or her seats guiltily.

"We want to create the ultimate state guys think that you're all so great? Well let me tell you this," Coach from Hell said. "You're no part of this team, this relay, until we choose you. You've got to earn it first."

She appeared very smug. All the swimmers could do was look at her and gape. "So… you guys ready to start the set and show me what you've got?"

The swimmers had no choice but to high tail it into the water.

XXX

The songs I listened to while writing this were… Don't Wanna Fight by Alabama Shakes, My Type by Saint Motel and What Now by Rhianna

Tell me what you think of the new revised version! Review!