Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Summary: When an unexpected series of murders befalls a small town, life changes for a certain pink-haired girl. Mysteries take over the city – and most of all, her life. In times like these, it is not smart to make unexpected moves.
C1
In a small bookstore at a remote corner of the campus, a girl sat hidden behind the counter. The girl was fast asleep, it seemed. You couldn't blame her, really. The musty scent in the air was very dominating and made anyone who was in there for more than twenty minutes sleepy. Maybe it was time for renewal – there were so many books that were on the verge of falling apart, it was ridiculous.
But the girl didn't really mind it; she loved books. She could spend all day in that bookstore and so she had the perfect side job. Although – if she didn't wake up fast, she would lose that job. Her employer could get really intense, though she was a real sweet heart. Chiyo was her name; she was quite old already. It had made the sleeping girl wonder why she was working on a campus. The thought had haunted her mind when she started working there, but she had given up on it after a while.
Said girl had an odd hair colour of which everyone thought it was unnatural. It annoyed the girl to no end. She had dyed it several times. Colours like brown, blonde and even black. However, it just wasn't her. She had even tried to dye it red, but even that just wasn't it. Because of all the bleach and dye, her hair had gotten quite stiff.
The girl sat in an unnatural position and it wouldn't go unnoticed when she would wake up. Her bubble-gum hair covered her face and a book lay open in her lap; that was the position Chiyo found her in. A smirk made it to her face. She was both amused and annoyed. Amused, because this had happened before. Annoyed because this happened around twenty times already. ''Girl, wake up. You were allowed to leave half an hour ago.'' Chiyo grabbed the book from the girl's lap and hit her on her head, muttering something along the lines of ''today's youth…''.
The girl awoke from her slumber and her hands went to her head immediately. ''Ow…'' she muttered in pain. Slowly, she looked up to see Chiyo towering over her with a stern look on her face. ''I did it again, didn't I?'' she asked ashamed. Just then, she saw the clock hanging on the wall behind Chiyo. Instantly, her eyes widened. ''Oh no, oh no, oh no.'' she said again and again.
''Go to practice already, Sakura.'' Chiyo said with a grin on her face. Stepping aside, the young girl jumped up and grabbed her bag that lay on the ground. Sakura rushed out of the store, on her way thanking Chiyo for waking her up. Outside, said girl was greeted with a dark sky. It wasn't thatlate, but it seemed there was storm coming. She had to hurry to make it inside dry.
A loud cry echoed through the halls of an almost empty school. Almost empty, because one classroom was occupied by a small group of boys. The boys, four in total, were in a room with great acoustics, one had said earlier. The music classroom was located in an underground part of the school. Those classrooms were mostly used for band practice, stuff like that.
''Really, Naruto? Again?'' a boy with onyx eyes commented, his voice full of disbelief. He leaned back against the wall. The boy he commented on, Naruto, stood a meter away. A sheepish grin had formed on his face. ''This is the third time this week.'' the onyx-eyed boy muttered full of aggravation. I don't get how he does it, really. It's going to cost us a fortune if this keeps happening.
''Did Naruto break a string again?'' a loud voice said from the other side of the room. The boys all turned their heads towards the source and saw a pink-haired girl heading towards them. She also had a grin plastered on her face. The wavy, pink hair framed her face as she came closer to the group. A thought went through her head; I should've known when I heard Naruto yell. But then again, I can't really complain. I'm the one that keeps coming in late.
The whole group was now assembled, Sakura being the final member. Some of them were quite intimidating if you didn't know them, you see. There was Naruto, who played guitar. He wasn't that scary, but sometimes he could get a bit too excited, causing the strings to snap. He had blonde hair – almost yellow – and three scars on each cheek marred his face. Most of the time, he had a wide grin on his face. Another noticeable detail was the colour of his eyes – ocean blue. You can get lost in those, Sakura thought.
She knew for a fact that one girl had indeed gotten lost in them already. Hinata was her name; she was very pretty, Sakura had to admit. Long, dark hair and pearl-coloured eyes. Hinata was very shy and it seemed Naruto had taken a liking in her, too.
Then, you had Sasuke. He was a good friend of Naruto's and played the keyboard. He could be really intimidating if he wanted to. But then again, he and the boys could also be really sweet, from time to time. Sakura being the only girl in the band, they often reacted very protective towards her.
Sasuke had, as earlier mentioned, onyx-coloured eyes. His hair had a similar colour, but when the sun fell on it, it almost seemed to be blue. Two locks of hair framed his face and the back of his hair stood upwards. Sakura suspected he used a lot of hair products to get it like that. But, up to this moment, he had always denied it.
''What else?'' Kiba scoffed from behind the drums. He was another member of the band. Kiba, of course, played the drums. Besides that, he had a real passion for dogs. While they actually weren't allowed on the school grounds, Kiba had managed to sneak one in. To this day, Akamaru – his dog – still lived with him. He didn't think a teacher suspected him, but Sakura thought otherwise. She assumed they just didn't say anything about it. Kiba was much like Naruto, being loud and all. Instead of the six lines like on Naruto's face, Kiba had a red triangle on both of his cheeks.
Second to last, you had Gaara. He played the bass. Gaara was a very quiet, but also intimidating, guy; he'd rather not have too much attention. But with his extreme looks, he didn't go unnoticed. Gaara had short and unruly hair. Sakura wasn't one to talk about odd hair colours, but Gaara's was blood red. It was the same colour as the tattoo he had above his left eye. Another detail about him was his lack of eyebrows. Sakura didn't actually know the story behind that, maybe he had an accident in chemistry a long time ago? But all in all, he was a good guy.
Finally, there was Sakura. Sakura, the only girl in the band, took care of the vocals. The band had been looking for a singer, 'till they found her. She had been singing on her way to class once and Naruto was the one to ask her to join. Although she was hesitant at first, the boys really persuaded her. Her bubble-gum hair matched with her emerald eyes; a real boy-magnet. ''What are we gonna do then?'' she asked the boys.
''We should get new strings for Naruto first – a whole lot of them.'' Sasuke answered her, looking sideways at Naruto, who was fumbling with his guitar. Sakura went to sit down on a table and placed her bag beside her, looking at Sasuke.
They normally rehearsed in the other music classroom; that brought the pink-haired girl to an idea. ''Well…'' she started, ''maybe there are some spares around here?'' Sakura jumped up from the table and walked over to Studio 1, a smaller room with some music instruments and other things music related.
''Can't we just take another guitar?'' Gaara mumbled in response as he set his bass guitar behind him. He went after Sakura into the studio. Sakura, in her turn, was already looking though different drawers. ''Sakura?''
''No,'' she started, ''Tayuya put them under lock and key.'' Just our luck, Sakura thought. Tayuya was a substitute for their normal music teacher and she didn't seem to like them. She was pretty young, too, but it seemed she had taken a liking in the Sound dorm. You see, Sakura lived in a boarding school. There were five different dorms for the students. Boys and girls could live together in a dorm, but they didn't room together. They were under no circumstances allowed to be in the other genders' room after seven o'clock.
Sakura lived in the Leaf dorm, along with Sasuke, Naruto and Kiba. She herself roomed with her best friend, Ino. Sasuke and Naruto roomed together while Kiba roomed with Shino; he was a bit of a silent type. It seemed perfect that they roomed together as they both liked animals. Gaara was the only one in their band who lived in a different dorm: Sand dorm. He roomed with his brother Kankurō, though that wasn't always ideal either.
Sasuke walked into the room, though he didn't help Sakura with looking for the strings. Instead, he just frowned. ''Sak, let's just leave it. We'll just go to the music store in town, tomorrow.'' But, Sakura went on with searching.
''Yeah, right.'' she muttered in response, not looking at him to answer. ''You think she'd let us? Last time you and Naruto went, she didn't approve, either.'' she continued. Their dorm's head was Tsunade, a very strict woman.
''Well,'' Sasuke started, ''if you'd ask, she'd say yes. You're her favourite, after all.'' Gaara snorted to his answer. It was true, Tsunade really liked Sakura. Maybe because Sakura seemed to be the only one close to 'normal' in the entire dorm, except for a few.
Sakura stopped looking and turned around. ''Fine, fine. But I'm not going alone.'' she said in response.
So there she was. In Tsunade's office, along with Sasuke. They hadn't asked yet as Tsunade was actually asleep, lying with her head on her desk. A lone bottle of sake accompanied her. Luckily, Shizune, her assistant, walked in. She wasn't even surprised. She rushed to Tsunade's side, whispering something in her ear. ''Please wake up, Tsunade.'' she said. After a while, the blonde-haired woman finally woke up. Not silently, though.
''Eh–what? What now, Shizune? Can't you see I'm working?'' She wiped away a slight trail of saliva at the corner of her mouth. Shizune let out a nervous laugh, while Sakura and Sasuke still stood there awkwardly.
Sasuke rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. In response, Sakura nudged him with a stern look on her face. ''Eh, excuse me – we came to ask permission to leave the school grounds tomorrow. You see, we need to get some strings at the store.'' Sakura butted in.
''What– oh, Sakura. Sure, you can go. Not alone, though. Take that Uchiha with you.'' Tsunade said, waving at Sasuke. ''Naruto broke them, I presume? Unbelievable, that kid. I don't get how he does it.'' she continued, muttering the last part. Sasuke snorted at that, that's what I thought.
The head of their dorm, Tsunade, had a drinking problem. It was no secret around the campus. She also taught a class, biology. Her niece, Shizune, often assisted her with paperwork and keeping watch. Although she wasn't alone with that – Jiraiya, a friend of Tsunade's, also helped out a lot. While Shizune was often at the girls' side, Jiraiya was at the boys' side.
Tsunade wasn't only known for her drinking problem, oh no. If you'd mention her around the city, they would immediately know who you were referring to. The Legendary Sucker, that was her nickname around town. With her awful gambling habit, she'd definitely earned it.
''Thank you, Mrs Tsunade.'' Sakura said in response. ''We'll take our leave, then.'' With that, both she and Sasuke left the room.
''We'll go to town after English, as it's both our last class.'' Sasuke suggested to Sakura with a monotone voice. It was noisy around the dorm, which was a normal thing around dinnertime. ''I'll see you at dinner.'' Sasuke said and walked away, probably to his own room.
When Sakura arrived at her room, she immediately changed into her everyday clothes. She hadn't really had the time to do so earlier as she had to go to the bookstore after her last class. The pink-haired girl wondered where her roommate was. A thought went through her head, maybe she's at Chōji's room. She had spent an awful lot of time there lately.
Chōji was Ino's boyfriend. He had been for a few months already, which was unusual for Ino. She usually jumped from guy to guy. She had also dated Chōji's roommate, Shikamaru. Shikamaru was Chōji's best friend, though dating the others ex didn't seem pose a problem.
Just as Sakura put her shoes on, Ino walked in. Ino, who had a real passion for gossip, had been Sakura's friend for a long time already. They met when they were around the age of five and had been inseparable ever since. ''Oh, Sakura! Are you ready to go?'' she asked her roommate.
Sakura lifted herself from the bed. ''Yeah, let's go!''
A/N: Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this first chapter so far, hopefully, if people want me to continue, there'll be more. To conclude this, I'm asking you not to be afraid to ask any questions or point out any mistakes. I want to learn from them and improve my writing skills.
Also, please check out my other fanfic, Playing God. It's not Sasu/Saku but Ita/Saku instead.