disclaimer: Not my characters

notes: needed to get something out.

Someday

Someday she was going to be something big. That was what she promised herself before the car accident. That was what she had chanted every morning before she left for school and every night before she went to bed. She used to think that Someday was going to be The Day. Now she just had to survive through Another Day. Another Day in a house that wasn't hers. Another Day with a family that wasn't really her family, bloodlines be damned.

She rolled onto her side and stared at the red numbers glowing on her alarm clock. 6:45 on just Another Day. She kicked her blankets off and tugged her fleecy bathrobe off the foot of the bed and wrapped herself in it. She slid her feet into her fuzzy slippers and sat on the edge of the bed until the rest of the winter cold chased the sleep away. Then she reached out one pale hand with perfectly manicured fingernails and pushed the family photo on her night table face down.

She sighed and shuffled across the cold wood floors to the en suite bathroom and turned the shower on. She cranked the hot water in the dark and slowly slid the dimmer switch to a soft candle-like glow. She hung her robe on the back of the door and dropped her boxers and her underwear and her tank top on the floor under it. Before she got in the shower she grabbed her loofah and looked in the mirror at herself. The tattoo that climbed up her back on the left side curved over her left shoulder and bloomed into a pair of tiny white lilies just inside the hollow of her collarbone. She looked at the tiny character for infinity she had tattooed on her ribcage and then she yanked the shower door open and closed it, immersing herself in the hot water and the steam. She let the heat seep into her skin, fortifying her for just Another Day in a city that wasn't hers.

"What's she doing up there?" Sasuke asked Itachi. His older brother, who was currently trying to get the coffee maker unjammed, shrugged.

"She's a girl, Sasuke," he said. "I'm sure her process is much more complicated than ours."

Sasuke snorted. This was coming from the guy who had a ponytail. "Sure, whatever."

"Just try to remember your tact when she comes down, all right? She already doesn't like it here, let's not give her a reason to hate it," Itachi stood up and dusted his hands off. "That should do it."

Sasuke watched him trying to brew a mug of coffee as he thought about what he'd just heard. Sure, they had never actually met her before, but Karin Lin was their cousin. And her parents were just killed in a fiery car crash a month ago. So she had moved out of Oto and into their house in Konoha. Sasuke knew how she felt because his parents had been killed in a home invasion when he was eight. Itachi had taken him to the movies as a reward for passing his first ever science test and their parents had been looking forward to a night quiet night at home. He often wondered what their last moments were like, but he had stopping thinking about it quite so often now that he was in his mid-twenties.

"Morning," Karin said as she walked into the kitchen. Sasuke looked at her and nodded. Itachi almost smiled at her and handed her a hot mug of coffee.

"How are your classes at the university so far?" Itachi asked, just because Sasuke had made it clear he wasn't going to be social. Sasuke crossed his arms and flipped the page of the newspaper that was lying on the marble island in front of him.

"They're good. I met this guy there. He's got a dog," Karin sipped her coffee. She grimaced when she swallowed and reached for the sugar. "We should get a dog," she said vaguely.

Sasuke caught Itachi's eye and shook his head slightly. There was no way they were letting one of those flea bitten animals into their house. Just no way.

"What have you got on the schedule for today, you two?" Itachi changed the subject. Sasuke glared at him when he realized he was also expected to answer.

"I have Comm 101 and Poetry today. God knows why I took Poetry over Fiction but for some reason I did," Karin rolled her red eyes and put her mug down.

"I have to talk to my advisor about my thesis. I can give you a ride in if you want," Sasuke said. He looked at Karin with is eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, cool. What's your thesis on?" she asked. He thought she sounded like she didn't really give a shit.

"I'm proposing a new approach to the mess that the International Monetary Fund made in the developing nations," Sasuke said. "You can be ready to leave in twenty minutes?"

"Twenty-five," Karin said, getting up from her stool at the island and leaving the kitchen.

After the painfully silent car ride Karin hopped out and headed for the lecture hall ten minutes early. She would get a decent seat this time. Last time she was stuck next to the guy who slept through class and breathed through his mouth. She seriously hated poetry. If it weren't for the fact that her prof was hilarious and extremely nice she wouldn't go at all.

She pushed open the doors and walked down the steps until she spotted an empty seat next to a girl wearing a bright red and magenta toque. The girl had her computer open and was surfing a social networking sight. Next to her a blonde with an I-Dream-of-Genie ponytail was chatting away on her bedazzled smartphone. She took a deep breath and walked over to the seat.

"Hi, excuse me, is this seat taken?" she asked.

"Hmm?" the girl in the toque looked up and smiled. Her eyes were shockingly green. "Oh no. Go ahead."

"Thanks," Karin said and sat down. People were starting to trickle in to the lecture hall. Karin wondered if she should introduce herself or something.

"I'm Sakura, by the way," toque girl said. "That's Ino," she gestured at the blonde.

"Karin," she introduced herself and managed a smile. Sakura grinned and tucked a strand of flyaway hair back under her toque. It was pink. Karin wondered what kind of dye she used to get colour that pale.

"Oh. My. God. I love your shoes!" Ino had hung up her phone and was leaning over Sakura, practically salivating over Karin's stylish black leather snow boots with red laces and white fleece on the insides.

"Ino, meet Karin. Do you want to switch places with me so you can gush over she shoes without suffocating me?" Sakura asked her friend.

"Oh, haha, yeah ok," Ino got up and Sakura shut her computer and climbed over into the seat her friend used to occupy. "I'm Ino, the most fabulous person you're ever going to meet. Sakura's boring. She wants to be a doctor. I'm going to be a TV news anchor one day."

"Ouch, Ino. That's harsh. I'm going to be the doctor that saves you from Botox one of these days you know. Don't sass me," Sakura said, popping her laptop open again.

"Botox? Moi? Never!" Ino cried, scandalized. Karin covered her smiled with her hand. She thought that she might have just found her Soul Mate in Ino.

"Hey, Karin," Sakura said. "What time is your break? If it's the same time as ours you should totally get lunch with us."

And Sakura might just be her Better Self.

Naruto was sitting on the floor next to the vending machine waiting for the Teme to get the hell out of his meeting with Kakashi. It was taking forever and he had already spent all his spare change on snacks so he had nothing to do except send blank texts to the Teme while he was in his meeting. He was on his eighth blank when he got a real text. From Sakura.

Sakura was practically his sister. Except she was way cooler because while she did live in his apartment, she didn't whine about how annoying his music and his video games were. She was also amazingly chill.

SakAttack: Hey, wanna meet us for lunch? We met a girl in class and she's got the same break. MAKE FRIENDS WITH HER!

NaruToeFace: NEW FRIEND?! I AM SO THERE! Where is there exactly?

SakAttack: HAHAHAHAHAHA the Courtyard you DOOF! Bring that boring angst-ridden guy you hang out with all the time. He looks like he needs an INOGASM to get him out of his lifetime slump.

SakAttack: Shit, sorry. Fucking Ino man. Ignore that last bit. She grabbed my phone when I decided to take notes.

NaruToeFace: Hahaha, no worries. I got it. I also kind of agree with her. Teme needs to loosen up. Seriously. I'll bring him when he gets out of his meeting with Kakashi.

SakAttack: Kaaaaaaaay. We'll be at our usual table by the window. With Hinata and Tenten. And possibly Hinata's weird cousin who only talks in proper English. With a capital E, bitch.

NaruToeFace: Hinata is going to be there?

SakAttack: Yeah…she's there pretty much everyday. What, do you want me to un-invite her?

NaruToeFace: NO! That's mean. I was just asking. Yeesh.

SakAttack: Mmmkaay. See you there.

Naruto flopped back against the wall and stared at the closed door for a while longer. Then he got bored and resumed his spam texting to the Teme. Only this time (because they had iPhones) he sent him WHALES.

Karin was sitting at the table in the small café alone. Sakura and Ino had nipped off to the washroom, leaving her to guard their bags. She was thinking about how weird it was that this café was called The Courtyard. It was all indoor. There was just a giant tree growing in the middle of the floor, bursting out of the roof. But other than that it was covered and heated. She shrugged and pulled out her phone, planning on telling Sasuke about the tree when some jerk walked by.

"Who died?" he called at her as he walked past with a ginger giant. Now, Karin was usually pretty laid back about people making fun of her clothes. She usually chalked it up to them being ferociously jealous of her stellar sense of style. But not this time. No one was going to make fun of her all black ensemble, that she was wearing out of respect, today. No fucking way.

Karin snapped her head up and glared at him through her glasses. He started laughing at her until she slammed her phone down on the table and snapped back at him.

"Your mom," she growled back. He stopped laughing abruptly.

"Bitch," he bared his teeth at her. One of his canines was slightly hooked. He had white hair, which was weird for a guy his age (he wasn't exactly old), and his violet eyes were narrow slits. The giant ginger guy he was with grabbed his arm and pulled him back a bit.

"Go fuck a donkey," Karin said sharply. She picked up her phone and ignored him as he stood fuming near by. There was something oddly satisfying about the hot fizzing feeling of anger that was crackling under her skin right now. And she could only seem to bring her self to care about one thing right then and there: the anger burned everything else away; the pain and the emptiness and the hate. It felt good.

"I swear to God, Dobe. If you send me one more goddamn whale I will fucking murder you," Sasuke said. Naruto grinned like a dumbass next to him, which only made him want to punch him in the face. The whole time he had been in a meeting with his thesis advisor, Kakashi, Naruto had entertained himself by sending him blank and whale texts. And now Sasuke was ready to kill him.

"Whatever, Teme. Come on, we have to go to the Courtyard. It's time for lunch!" Naruto shoved him roughly in the right direction. Sasuke stumbled into the wall. In retaliation he cut Naruto's cackle short by shoving him into the open doorway of the ladies room.

"Dude," Naruto staggered out looking horrified. "Not cool!"

"You started it," he pointed out. "I thought we were going to go to that ramen place you love for lunch…again."

"Sakura wants to meet up so we're going to the courtyard. She said that her and Ino met someone new in class and their all having lunch. She wanted my friendly presence there too make things more fun," Naruto explained.

Now Sasuke was mildly interested. He had never met the mysterious Sakura, but from what he had heard from Naruto the girl was Wonder Woman except shorter and she wore more clothing. He was inclined to believe that this picture of Naruto's famous roommate was over exaggerated, in the extreme.

"You finally get to meet her!" Naruto said, grinning. "Awesome! My two best friends are gonna be best friends!"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Sasuke muttered to himself.

"Trust me," Naruto rambled on. "You are gonna lover her! You two have so much in common! Hey, do you think we should invite Suigetsu to lunch? He did have that whole huge fight with his Oto friends a few days ago you know. I think I'll call him. And Kiba and Neji. "

"Yeah, call them all," Sasuke said sarcastically. "The more the merrier."

"Wow, Teme, that's cheerful of you. You feeling ok?" Naruto laughed at his own joke and then proceeded to ignore the sarcasm and called EVERYONE he knew.

"Yeah," Sasuke sighed, "I'm fine."

extras: so what's up! I can't actually decide if this is going to be a KaSui story or a SasuSaku story at this point…SO WHATEVER! I'LL JUST WRITE WHATEVER I FEEL LIKE! FUCK MIDTERMS GUYS! No, but seriously, don't fuck midterms. Ace midterms so you can pass the course. OMG I'M PANICKING SO MUCH! And I'm super excited for all my fav fall tv shows to be back. Also I need to get a job.

ANYWAY: follow me on twitter for more frequent updates/q&a/pretty much everything else. ( )goddessrunaway!

I MISSED YOU GUYS SO MUCH!