All We Once Knew

Chapter One: Art Project

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

Haruno Sakura was weird. Anyone at Konohagakure academy could tell you that, though not much else. She'd moved here with her parents almost a month earlier and she'd faded into the background almost instantly. She wasn't an interesting girl—on the small side with long hair she wore in a knot at the back of her head. She had an odd sense of fashion; ratty jeans three or four sizes too big, kept on with a studded black belt. Her converse tennis shoes were just as old, with long tears in the sides, the black material a faded grey. Her shirts were usually decorated with the faces of band members—from bands that had been popular years before she'd been born.

She never wore makeup—never made any effort whatsoever to fit in with her peers or try to make herself appear attractive. Sakura should have been interesting. She should have drawn people to her. Most of the "unique" kids were popular and created new waves of fashion statements. Sakura, however, wasn't one of them. She literally repelled people.

Said girl was walking the halls of her high school, a bag slung over her shoulder carelessly. Her torn shoes slapped quietly against the linoleum floors, lost in the noise of a thousand other feet. She was looking at a book in her hands, studying the embracing lovers on the cover with a look of distaste on her face.

Her cousin had sent her the book in the mail as her "birthday" present, along with a note that had been longwinded and irritating to read. Karin—her cousin—really had a hard time getting to the point when she was riled up about a subject. And her favorite subject to get riled up about was Sakura's love life, or lack thereof. Basically Karin was hoping Sakura would read the book and take some notes on wooing a man and finally snag herself a boyfriend. Though Sakura really couldn't see the period drama helping much.

She would probably end up reading it, though she knew it would be painful to sit through it. Karin would be coming to formally celebrate Sakura's seventeenth birthday with the rest of the family in a few days and she'd undoubtedly have a cow if Sakura hadn't read it by then. Sakura dodged a gaggle of girls who were laughing obnoxiously as they gossiped about boys in their class. It was girls like these that made Sakura wish her foster parents had given into her pleading to do the rest of her high school work online.

Sakura had even found some really great online schools that would help her graduate twice as fast, but they hadn't taken the bait. Sakura knew they wanted her to have a "normal" childhood, and they'd been doing their best to give it to her since she'd come into their lives, but she just really wasn't made to mingle with idiotic bimbos who cared only about their appearance in a mirror.

Not Sakura's favorite thing to have to deal with.

As if on cue the girl's cell phone began to ring; a familiar tune that meant her foster mother was calling. Sakura quickly fished out the phone from her backpack and answered the call. She hurried outside and away from the shouting, trying to hear the woman's soft voice. "Sakura? Honey?"

"I'm here mom," she replied, half-running towards a tree still on school grounds but not close enough to the actual building to hear the chattering teenagers. "What's up?"

Shizune sighed lightly and Sakura could hear her clicking her pen. It was a habit the woman had always had for as long as Sakura could remember. "I'm going to have to stay late tonight. Your grandmother and I have a case that we just can't leave."

Sakura leaned against the tree and nodded, though Shizune couldn't see her doing it. Often times her foster mother's work at the hospital forced her to stay through the night. "That's fine. No worries."

"Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"I'm fine mom," Sakura assured the woman. "Dad'll be home after awhile and I can make us something to eat."

"Alright, sweetie." Sakura had never liked pet names, but Shizune had been using them so long that it'd be weird not to hear them. "I love you. Be careful on your way home."

"I will, I will. Bye mom."

"Bye Sakura."

Sakura snapped her phone shut, pursing her lips and looking up at the stretch of blue sky overhead. It was unusually nice for late March; she was used to chilly weather around her birthday, but this year it seemed that she was finally going to get a warm birthday. The girl pulled out her car keys and made her way once more through students, heading to her beat up car. Her grandfather, Jiraiya, had bought it for her the previous year and it had taken a lot of elbow grease to get it running. Not all that well, but as long as it ran, Sakura didn't care.

Sakura slid into the driver's seat, tossing her backpack into the passenger's side. The car took a moment to start, groaning and spluttering to life quite loudly. She wasn't bothered by the noise and ignored anyone who looked over to stare at her beat up mini and laugh. The radio still worked, but only got oldies stations, mostly. She liked oldies, so she didn't mind this either.

Sakura shifted the vehicle into gear and it rolled forward. The girl was an excellent driver and she paid more attention to the road than most of her peers, so she was able to weave through the other teen drivers and out of the school parking lot in a matter of minutes—a far shorter wait than everyone else.

Free from the maze-like parking lot it would not take her long to get home; her house was close to the school. It was one of the main reasons her mother had insisted they spend the extra money buy the bigger house.

Less than ten minutes later, Sakura was parking her car in her allotted space in the driveway and getting back out. She paused to get the mail, shuffling through bills to see if she'd gotten anything. She had gotten something: two something's, to be precise. A letter from her scatter-brained childhood friend Naruto and another from her cousin. Not Karin this time, but Tayuya, Karin's younger and wildly eccentric sister. The girl skipped up her sloping drive and unlocked the front door, kicking it shut behind her.

She tossed the bills onto the marble counter in the kitchen and sat down on a stool next to the island counter to read her letters. Tayuya's letter was short; wishing her a happy birthday and assuring her she'd be getting a present. There couldn't more than two paragraphs, but there were at least fifteen curse words that Tayuya had somehow managed to squeeze in.

Naruto's was interesting. He'd drawn himself and Sakura on the inside of the envelope, though it didn't much look like them as much as it resembled two fat blob people with exploding heads that Sakura figured was supposed to be hair. Naruto assured her he'd be coming to her birthday and that he'd be bringing her an exciting present. Which was probably a bad thing, considering that Naruto and "exciting" were not words meant to go together.

Sighing in worry, Sakura pushed away from the table and headed upstairs to her room. She set the letters down with the book on her desk and flopped down on her large bed, sinking down into its soft plush. Faced with nothing to do for the rest of the afternoon, Sakura let her mind wander around her day. School was, well, school. She'd been bumped into a few times by the moronic cheerleaders who thought that they ran the school. And they practically did. Ino had every male student in that place wrapped around her slender finger.

And those who didn't want her, wanted to be her. Ino had beauty, money and the body that followed along, to make her the most eligible bachelorette in school. So it would only make sense that she would date her mirror-image Sasuke. Like Ino his pockets overflowed with money, and with money came privilege. He could have gotten by without either; his beauty was legendary and he had been scouted for numerous magazines, all of which had been declined to protect the image of his father's company.

For one reason or another, Sakura really seemed to get under Ino's skin. Not a day went by that Ino didn't have some sort of scathing remark for Sakura. It was becoming almost routine. Today had been a ritual example; Ino insults Sakura's clothing, Sasuke agrees in that bored "I don't really care" tone, and anyone listening in laughs.

It was nothing unusual; Sakura was used to people thinking she dressed like a hobo, so she hadn't been much bothered by it. Annoyed, perhaps, but her emotional attachment to appearance had long since been severed.

The girl sat up as the front door opened, followed immediately by her father's voice calling up the stairs for her. She leapt out of bed, not realizing how much time had passed and raced down the stairs.

"Welcome home. Sorry, I haven't started dinner yet."

Kakashi looked up from where he was toeing off his work shoes and smiled at his daughter, his handsome face made even handsomer with his smile. "That's fine, Sakura. Your mom staying late?"

Sakura nodded. "Yeah. She and grandma got some case they couldn't leave."

The man nodded and ruffled her hair as he passed. Already he was undoing the tie around his neck and sinking back into his normal appearance; loose tie, un-tucked shirt and some sort of soda in his hand. He ducked into the kitchen for the latter.

Kakashi and Shizune were an odd, mismatched couple that some how fit together perfectly. Sakura, though an unusually shaped puzzle piece, had somehow fit in as well.

Sakura's parents had died when she was six and whatever she remembered about them, she tried to ignore. Her grandmother Tsunade, an incredibly famous doctor who specialized in neurological disorders, had taken her in for awhile after their deaths, though it was a strain on her and her husband, since were ill prepared for a child. And then Tsunade had met Shizune—a newly wed bride who'd just gotten the devastating news that she wouldn't be able to have children.

It was a brilliant stroke of fate and Shizune had been more than willing to adopt Sakura. They'd given the girl love and attention and, despite Sakura's past trauma and reluctance to accept new parents, it had worked out in the end. Sakura could barely remember her parents anymore, and most of the time she tried not to. Kakashi and Shizune were her family now. She didn't need anyone else.

"What do you want for dinner?" she asked her father, following him into the living room as he lay out on the couch. Kakashi regarded her with his one good eye, scratching at his head with the hand not holding onto his soda.

"You know me; anything is fine."

Sakura thought for a moment. "Pasta?"

"Sounds great."

She smiled down at him and was rewarded with a thumbs up. "I'll get to it then." She stopped for a moment to look back at him. "Oh, hey, I forgot to ask."

Kakashi looked away from the television screen which was now showing a football game. It was an old game from a few years back. Sakura wasn't sure how he could watch the games over and over again despite knowing what was going to happen. "What's up?"

"Did you get an email from my teacher? She said she was going to send you that progress report."

Her father blinked up at her. "You're still wanting to graduate early?"

"Of course," Sakura said with a small scowl.

"I forget how much you hate high school sometimes." Kakashi rubbed a hand over the scar that had destroyed his left eye. "I'll check tonight and look over it, alright?"

"Thank you."

Sakura left the living room and wandered back into the kitchen, her mind on what to make to go with the pasta. Her parents were trying to be understanding about her reluctance to take part in social things—school being one of them—and thus far they'd been pretty good about it. She knew her mother wished she had friends (besides Naruto, who was now far away and "didn't count"). It was probably Shizune's way of pleading with Sakura to start hanging out with other females.

But at the same time they didn't know why Sakura hated her school. Had hated all of her schools. Sakura got out the pasta and a large pot to boil the noodles in. She filled said pot with water and set it on the stove, walking around her island counter while she waited for the water to reach a boil.

Sakura probably shouldn't complain so much about her school life—it wasn't as though she was treated well…horribly. She didn't have friends, no one talked to her and on occasion people might make fun of her or push her around, but she'd rather it be like this. Sakura didn't like people. The girls were irritating and got on her nerves; the boys absolutely revolting and the last thing she wanted was for them to try and make friends.

Seeing that the water had come to a rolling boil, Sakura poured the called for amount of noodles into the pot and watched them sink to the bottom. She probably should have salted the water, but Kakashi never noticed things like that, and she wasn't feeling up to anything but a moderate attempt to cook. She took a moment to crack open a can of green beans and poured it into a serving bowl. It wasn't that Sakura couldn't cook—she was quite good in fact. She just hated putting effort into things. It was the main reason she'd failed gym class eleven years running.

The girl stirred absentmindedly at the pasta and wondered about the next day, preparing herself for another day of horribly dull school life. Of course, had she known what was to unfold the next day, she may never have gone in.

_______________________________________________

Sakura entered her third period class the next day feeling tired and bored. School was easy; most of the time she had nothing better to do than study and she always ended up months ahead of her classes. A vast majority of her teachers had figured out in the month she'd been coming to their classes that, even if she spaced out or napped, she was still going to pass the class and didn't bother her. They may have forgotten she was even in the class; she always picked seats towards the back of the classrooms and the teachers didn't watch the back as closely. They always put the problem students up front.

This period she had art. Something she both loved and hated. Sakura enjoyed drawing (though she was in no way good at it) and playing around with clay, but the class itself was slow-moving and boring. She always felt like falling asleep just by walking through the doorway. Today seemed to be different, however. Their teacher, a frail, elderly woman, was bouncing with excitement.

"Class." She called in her high, reedy voice when the period had officially begun. "I have something new for us to try."

She walked the length of the classroom, peering at them closely from behind her huge, thick glasses as though trying to make sure they were paying attention. She seemed satisfied with what she saw. She returned to the middle of the classroom and smiled.

"We'll be doing some clay work," she paused as the class cheered loudly. They'd been waiting weeks to decide if they were ready. "However, we're going to be doing the work as partners!"

Sakura slumped in her seat loosing all interest in the project. She had no desire whatsoever in working with some loser from her class. She focused on the interwoven circles she was drawing on her notepad and not on the teacher. It was probably this that made her miss the pairings being called out. In fact, she didn't start paying attention until a chair was scooted rather violently against her desk. She looked up sharply, freezing in shock as she stared at the boy leaning over her.

He was tall, lean and very good looking. And, from the cocky smile playing on his lips, he knew it. Uchiha Sasuke in the flesh. Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"So," the boy said conversationally, ignoring the fact that most of the classroom was watching their exchange with interest. "Your name is Sakura?"

Sakura eyed him for a moment and then dismissed him from her mind, returning to her drawing. Sakura was shy by nature, but with boys like Sasuke, it was hard to be shy when all she could feel was an overwhelming urge to smack the superior smirk off his face.

He smiled slightly. "I guess you missed the part where we became partners?"

Sakura almost told him she didn't give a rat's ass they'd become partners and stopped just in time. Let him figure that out for himself. She made one of her circles into an eye and then gave the eye a massive eyebrow.

"Don't talk much?"

"No." Sakura told him quietly. Her voice was low and rough but still sounded pleasant, somehow. "You simply talk too much."

He laughed. "Do I really?"

She didn't reply.

"You know." A hand appeared in her vision and her notebook was taken from her in a smooth jerk. "You really shouldn't doodle during class. This project is worth a large portion of our grade and I'm not willing to fail because of you."

Sakura pressed her lips together in a line. "That so? Then you'll have to do it by yourself. Give me back my notebook."

The black-haired boy smiled a thin, un-amused smile. "I don't think so. Why don't we get to work Sakura?" He waved the notebook a little. "I really don't appreciate being ignored, Sakura."

"And I don't appreciate things being taken from me."

Sasuke studied her, obviously surprised by her sharp tongue. Sasuke wasn't used to being ignored or having his orders refused; his family practically ran this school. He'd been born into money and privilege and people had always automatically respected him for these things. He stared at the girl in front of him, studying her unappealing face with interest. Perhaps unappealing wasn't the right term; she wasn't beautiful like Ino, but she was no backwater hag, either. She was pretty over all—though her forehead was a little too wide for her face.

He held out the notebook. She frowned very slightly and took it back from him, looking suspicious. "Don't look at me like that," the boy said, his smile returning. "I'm not going to bite, really."

Sakura withheld the sarcastic retort on the end of her tongue, trying to focus on creating a matching eye for her first. As usual they were lopsided and not quite even. She finally abandoned the attempt to find Sasuke watching her, apparently not going to do anything until she did. She sighed in resignation.

"Fine."

The smile on his twisted into a smug smirk. Sasuke set down the clay he'd brought with him on her desk and raised his eyebrows, looking from the gray lump to her. "What shall we do, Sakura?"

"Don't care," she told him, putting away her notebook. While he considered what to do, Sakura rose to get herself a smock. While her fellow students might think her clothes were fit for a hobo, it didn't mean she didn't love them dearly. Everything in her wardrobe was comfortable and easy to wear. She picked one for Sasuke carelessly, not bothering to check and see if it would even fit him. Last she swiped some newspaper to cover her desk before making her way back to Sasuke.

He watched her with the blank, bored look he adopted most of the time. It was one of the reasons Sakura disliked him so much. Sasuke was—quite obviously to anyone who actually paid attention to him—incredibly bored with school and the people around him. Every smile he wore was fake, though well rehearsed and therefore a little harder to spot. Sakura, unfortunately for Sasuke, was very good at spotting false emotions.

She dropped the smock she'd brought him down into his lap, putting hers down in her chair. She took a moment to spread the newspaper over her desk evenly, not willing to have clay on her desk for the rest of the year—if the person who sat her chair in the art class after this got clay after all her work, she was hunting him/her down. Sasuke, with an almost bemused expression, lifted the smock and then smirked. Unlike his smiles, for the most part his smirks were pretty real. But then Sasuke was just a haughty asshole by nature.

Sakura ignored him and pulled on her own ugly green smock, making sure it covered her jeans. As it turned out, she'd grabbed the perfect size for Sasuke and he looked pleased that he wouldn't have to walk across the room to replace it. He sat back down, facing his chair on the other side of her desk so they could look at one another.

"Now," he said, flicking at some of the paint on his smock. "What will we be making, Sakura?"

She gave him a carelessly mocking look. "I already answered that."

"Oh right. You don't care." He abandoned the paint in favor of returning her mocking look with one of his own. It held far more scorn that her own—only because he had more practice, Sakura assured herself—and she bristled. He was looking around the room at everyone else getting to work on their clay projects. "The theme was animals. You can't think of an animal you like?"

"If it's such an easy thing to decide, why don't you pick?"

He shot her one of those impressively fake smiles. "Don't you want some part in this project?" So that's what it was. He was becoming annoyed with her. Feeling smug, Sakura decided to cave in this once. She ran a quick mental check for any animals she liked and could only think of Jiraiya and Naruto's odd love of frogs. Naruto would be visiting this weekend, by which time the frog would be done, so she could pawn it off on Naruto.

"A frog." She replied at length, surprising the boy, who'd begun to try and think of something as well. "I get to take it home."

"Sure," Sasuke said. His smile was now a touch amused. "Shall we start? I'll work on legs if you'll take the base."

Sakura nodded as way of answer and took a large slab of clay, dipping her fingers into the small basin of water Sasuke had gotten at some point. Probably while she'd been getting the smocks. She rolled the gray mush into a ball and began flattening it out, trying to lengthen but keep it round. Somehow she got the feeling instead of looking like one of his pet frogs, this was instead going to end up looking more like Naruto's frog wallet Gama.

Unlike the majority of the classroom, now that they were working, Sasuke no longer had a reason to keep up his conversation with her, and the silence was preferred. Sakura had said more to Sasuke in this one class than she'd said to anyone the entire time she'd been coming to this school. Later, when she was away from him and the curious eyes of their fellow students, Sakura would reflect on all she'd said and probably regret most of it. For now she wanted to concentrate on keeping her frog as frog-like as was possible.

She'd gotten the body finished and was working on the head when their teacher came back around, clearing her throat and sounding like she was trying not to choke up something. "Class," she called, "it's time to clean up for today. Please place your work in your cubbies and we'll continue tomorrow. Don't forget to put them back into the bags and get as much air out as possible."

Cubbies? Sakura snorted, putting the head and torso into the bag Sasuke provided her with. What was this—first grade? Sakura hadn't heard a locker by called a cubby ever.

"That was fun," Sasuke said, not sounding like her really meant it. He had removed the smock and was brushing off his expensive silk shirt. As usual he was dressed in clothes that were as flamboyant as they were pricy. Sakura had to admit that they were stylish and that he was suited for them, but it didn't make her any less disgusted.

She nodded tersely, finished with conversing with him for the day. She grabbed up her bag and headed to take the frog body to her locker. Sasuke watched her go, not saying anything. His eyes drifted down to the mess of newspapers and smocks she'd left behind for him to take care of. He grabbed up the discarded items and put them into their proper place, allowing his mind to wander.

Sakura was interesting in an outlandish, not his cup of tea sort of way. She made for interesting speculation and had helped the normally boring class pass much faster. But beyond that he could care less. Sasuke walked the frog limbs to his locker, allowing Haruno Sakura to slip from his mind effortlessly.

______________________________

Sakura stretched out her fingers, having set down the pen she'd been using to let herself rest. She was trying to finish her belated letter to Temari—a friend she hadn't seen since the move—and it was taking all her strength of will to do so. Temari wouldn't be able to make the drive down for her birthday this year and it was to be the first birthday she'd missed since Sakura was seven. It made the distance between Konohagakure and Suna seem even greater. She missed the heat and the food. She longed for her friends and the monsoon season that she was about to miss. Shizune had needed this move—they would make more money in Konohagakure, where Shizune's medical degree could be put to use.

And Kakashi finally had a job again after the company he'd worked for in Suna had gotten shut down. It'd been hard financially until they'd moved her and she knew she shouldn't be selfish about it, but she still longed to be home again. Konoha was no home, and there was nothing that tied her down. She had to friends. She still wasn't used to driving down the street and being blinding by outrageously green grass. And most of all she hated the people here—all of whom were as thick-skinned and selfish as the next.

Uchiha Sasuke was an excellent example.

He swaggered through her high school everyday, using his money to throw his weight around. It made her sick. Gaara—who was himself wealthy thanks to the inheritance his parents had left behind—would never have done something so prideful. Sakura cast a glance to her calendar, eyes lingering on the one day when she'd be able to pretend that life was moderately normal again.

Sighing, Sakura picked back up on the letter. The sooner she finished, the sooner she could finish her homework. The faster and better she did her homework, the quicker she could leave Konohagakure behind.

Hi, I'm Rukagohime, and you've just finished chapter one! Please review and let me know if you liked it, I'll try and have chapter two out soon.