Sasuke stared down at the leather of his uniform loafers, gently tugging at the edge of his tie. He was sitting in the office of his new school, having just transferred from the other side of the country. It was an unbelievably awkward time to transfer - at the end of November, when midterms were right around the corner and teachers were most likely piling homework on top of their students. But his father's job left nothing to be questioned and they quickly packed their belongings to be shipped to their new home in the District of Columbia.

Next to him, his mother sat quietly as she read through a few of his documents for registration. On Sasuke's other side, his older brother was flipping through a fashion magazine that a student had probably left behind. Itachi hummed as he scanned his eyes over an article on one of the pages.

The woman at the front desk called his mother's name and she rose to discuss even more about his paperwork. The credits he'd received last year and begun this year were proving to be a little more than complicated to negotiate at this school. Sasuke rubbed at his eyes. They'd only flown from California about three days ago, and he'd resorted to sleeping on a dusty futon since their furniture's shipping had been delayed. As a result of that, the only clothes he had at the moment were his uniforms and two casual outfits.

"I think this is a good school for you," Itachi said softly, tossing the magazine aside and leaning back into his chair. "It seems challenging. You look very professional in that uniform."

Sasuke grunted in response. It was only because the navy slacks and button-down shirt had already been pressed when he'd bought them. Fortunately, he hadn't managed to spill anything on the blazer that had the school's crest proudly displayed on the pocket—yet. He'd give it about two weeks tops before it became perpetually wrinkled. To him, it felt a bit too formal.

Itachi flicked him on the temple. "Are you listening?"

"Yes. I'm just yearning to learn."

Mikoto returned with the woman from the front desk just then, offering her youngest son a warm smile. "You have about fifteen minutes before school starts, Sasuke. Why don't you go get settled in?"

"I asked your homeroom teacher to send someone down so they could show you the way," the dark-haired woman smiled politely. Shizune, her name tag read, and Sasuke thought she looked nice enough. "Mr. Hatake's phone has been out of order for the past few weeks, so please bare with us."

He and his brother stood, and he smoothed out the wrinkles in his shirt. Itachi raised a hand to ruffle his hair, messing it up and leaving a few pieces sticking straight up into the air. After a moment of irked silence from him and a small, affectionate smile from his brother, Itachi leant away. "Much better," he said quietly.

Mikoto patted his cheek and pulled him down into a tight hug. He could feel Itachi's hand grip his shoulder lightly. She ran a few calming circles on his back, parting from him with a couple of light pats. "Good luck," she said, giving him an affectionate look. She fixed the few wayward hairs on his head. "Will you please try to make some friends?"

Sasuke frowned as Itachi chuckled. "It's only my first day."

"It wouldn't hurt to have someone to talk to every once in a while, would it?"

"No," he was forced to agree. "But not anytime soon. The SAT-"

"It's in two weeks, I know," Mikoto replied, a bit of sadness leaking into her voice. "It's only Monday. Try to find someone to walk with to your classes, okay?"

"Okay," he mumbled, letting her fuss over him for just a few moments more.

"If you really don't like it," Mikoto tilted her head to the side and stepped away from him. "As in you can't see yourself making any substantial progress, we can find a tutor to homeschool you-"

"Why is it that you favorite him?" Itachi interrupted, glancing down at their mother. He looked a bit more displeased with the matter than Sasuke ever thought he would. "You never offered for me to stay home."

"Itachi," she scolded, sending him a look that shut his older brother up within a few seconds. Itachi had always been the most social of either of them. Sasuke's mother pitied him because he always preferred to do everything by himself, always without a partner in crime. To be fair, Itachi's group of friends were very questionable, and he thought his solitude balanced that factor out.

The door to the front office chimed and a boy about his age stepped in, looking nothing less than devastated to be present that day. He lazily glanced around the office until he rested his eyes on Sasuke and rather rudely motioned for him to follow.

"Have a good day," Itachi wished as he shrugged his backpack on. "Be nice, Sasuke."

"Bye," he said, escaping the corner that his mother had backed him into. Once the boy saw that he'd moved away from his family, he left the office again, expecting him to follow.

Already irritated, Sasuke planned to ditch the other boy and get to his homeroom by himself. His schedule said that it was only on the second floor. The plan was feasible until the other bumped shoulders with him and his wet hair dripped onto Sasuke's shirt.

"Suigetsu," the other introduced himself, taking his time navigating throughout the hallway. Sasuke could already feel a few curious stares from the students just arriving.

"Sasuke."

Suigetsu grunted in acknowledgement and Sasuke was thankful for his disinterest. Glancing around, he took in the marble floor and high ceilings, the wooden plates placed here and there to point to different rooms. Student council elections were apparently running, bright signs with cheesy puns hanging from a main bulletin by the office.

"Kakashi's pretty cool," he said. They took a small flight of stairs into another hallway that had much more students. There was the classic and irritating sound of a few banging their lockers and, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a few heads turn as they passed the corridor. "Our homeroom teacher. Like, he doesn't get here until an hour after school starts."

"That's unprofessional," Sasuke said dryly.

"It's cool."

They took another turn into a smaller hallway that had a group of students chatting at the end. Suigetsu turned and entered a small room that was in multiple levels of pure chaos, the student's advisor missing just as he'd said.

"That's my friend Jugo," Suigetsu threw a nod to the large boy sitting in the corner of the classroom. A considerably smaller figure sat next to him, and Suigetsu threw her the bird. "See that bitch? That's Karin. Don't even bother with her."

"I can hear you," she called, looking up from her cell phone to glare at Suigetsu. Once they neared the pair, she turned and smiled at him. "Who's this?"

"He says he's Sasuke," Suigetsu stood just a few feet in front of them and Sasuke wasn't completely sure why he followed.

"Hi," she pushed her glasses higher up on her nose. "I think I heard something about a new student last week. Why are you here so late?"

"I moved," he said simply.

A bit of an awkward silence went on for a few moments as the other teens waited for him to elaborate. Sasuke stood calmly and pushed his hands into his pockets, glancing at the girl napping on the floor with a pillow and a blanket.

"What's your schedule like?" she asked, making a wide gesture. "Maybe we can help you out."

Sasuke sat down next to Suigetsu and pulled his schedule from his binder. He handed it to Karin so that she could share it with the other two.

"Wow," Jugo said after a few moments. "You're in a lot of senior classes."

"Smartass," Suigetsu put in, punching him on the shoulder. "The hell are you sitting with us for?"

Karin sniffed haughtily and waved someone out of Sasuke's view over. "My friend is in a few of your classes," she said. "You can-"

"Are you new?" A voice spoke, right above him. He glanced up at a girl with a pinkish tint to her hair, and to the view of the group of girls she'd parted with all staring at him.

"Yeah," Suigetsu replied for him. "But nobody knows where he came from. Rude."

She clucked her tongue and sat on the floor with them, crossing her legs and offering him a friendly smile. "I'm Sakura Haruno, advisory rep."

"Nice advisory," Karin mocked and rolled her eyes. "We don't even have a teacher."

"I'm sorry," she winced. "Ka… Hatake should have been here a really long time ago. It's not usually like this, I promise-" she was cut off when someone loudly knocked their chair over and a burst of laughter filled the classroom.

"Um," she began again, a light flush running over her cheeks as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "Yeah. He's the world history and psychology teacher here. Really laid back."

Karin interrupted her again. "Look at the classes he has!" At some point in time, Karin had snatched his schedule away again and he hadn't even noticed. But if he were to be honest, he could already feel the turn of the heads in the room and the growing whispers in that corner.

"You're in pre-cal too?" Sakura noted. "And we're in the same chemistry class, too. Did you have a lot of credits at your old school?"

"Nice try," Suigetsu snickered. "He talks as much as a rock."

"Yes," he replied, ignoring the other boy. "I doubled up on maths last year."

Sakura smiled again, absently nodding as she outrightly stared at him. Sasuke tugged at his tie uncomfortably and took a sudden interest in his schedule.

"Oh, yeah," she mumbled. "I'll walk us to math. There's only one other junior in that class, Neji. Now we can have a bigger study group."

Sasuke nodded and the classroom's ruckus quieted down for a few moments as an adult stuck their head in. He glanced around the room and stepped in a bit, looking for someone who didn't seem to be there. The room was now in complete silence as the man licked his pale lips and left again, his long hair sliding over the doorknob.

"Oh God," Karin said. "That was Orochimaru. Steer clear if you like your life the way it is."

He grimaced as a short summary of the teachers that taught their grade level was given to him. Sasuke wasn't exactly sure what group of people he had fallen into, but they didn't seem blatantly horrible Shortly after that, announcements came on, and they were dismissed to their first period without a trace of their advisory teacher.

As promised, Sakura escorted him to the classes that they shared, which was every single one except for English. The Neji boy he was introduced to was tolerable. He was polite and distantly familiar, but perhaps it was the long hair that reminded him of his brother.

Sasuke dealt with quite literally the whole class turning to gawk at him when he walked into the classroom. Not only did he have to deal with the other kids in his grade wondering where he had come from, but he'd received a few glares from seniors when he walked into their class, as if it were his fault he'd tested out of eleventh grade classes. He felt extraordinarily out of place in his English class, which had passed by at an excruciatingly slow pace with most of the students in the class staring into space or out the window. Sasuke got the vague (obvious) impression that he'd been put with students that barely knew how to spell their own name.

It was the end of the day and he had a free period. Sasuke sat in the library, working on his economics homework with his earbuds in, having long grown tired of overhearing questions of who he was all around him. It had been a… taxing day. Of course homework had been thrown at him left and right, and he already had two chemistry labs to finish since he hadn't even been in the state when they were begun. Suigetsu, despite all of his name-calling and harassment towards Karin, had dragged him to sit with her and eventually their small group had grown into an overwhelming amount of curious people. Sasuke was exhausted just from hearing them all talk to—at—each other. For such a prestigious high school, there was some questionable factors in his favor, such as the homeroom teacher he'd yet to even see and the apparent rumors of a threesome happening between their teachers.

For him, the lunch was all too informative and he overheard many, many things that he wished he hadn't. The boys here were incredibly immature as the only thing they had talked about for their hour-long lunch was about a certain senior that had caught their eyes—more specifically, her chest.

Sasuke heard the librarian loudly shush a pair of chatting boys off to his right and turned the volume of his music up a bit louder. His peers were too exuberant and a lot of them didn't seem to care much about their classes.

He scooted his chair in as he felt someone pass behind him. Someone grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him, making his earbuds fall out and land in his lap. They had said something loud and he turned in his chair, slightly startled.

Another boy was looking at him like he'd murdered someone right in front of his eyes, and Sasuke sucked in a sharp breath at the proximity of their faces. Another boy with a more bored look on his face stood directly behind him. The other gave him an expecting look, and, unsure of what else to do, he blinked. "What?"

The blond boy backed away from him and stared again, looking as if he wanted to say something. The boy with dark hair behind him mumbled something into his ear and shoved him a bit. Sasuke dropped his pen on his paper and sent the other a confused and annoyed look.

"Oh, sorry!" he said loudly. His blue eyes were wide, though they narrowed a bit when the librarian hissed for him to quiet down. The boy pointed to him. "Do you speak English?"

Sasuke frowned, the first pang of offense hitting him strongly. He was aware that he looked distantly Asian, but never enough for people to question his first language. "Excuse me?"

The boy behind him punched the blond one in the gut. He looked at Sasuke with wide eyes again, and he glared right back into bright blue eyes. That had to be one of the most racist comments that Sasuke had ever heard directed at himself, and damn if this kid wasn't going to learn a lesson-

"Holy shit!" he whispered, shaking his hands out like he was clearing away smoke. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it like that-"

"Was that supposed to be funny?" Sasuke snapped, wishing he could push out his chair so that he could be face to face with the other boy, but he and his friend were blocking that from happening. "Because-"

"No, no!" he started to look a bit worried and he knelt so that the librarian would stop giving them both dirty looks. "I didn't know you had headphones in, and my friend gave me the idea that you didn't speak English. It wasn't a joke, I swear!"

Sasuke gave the other a suspicious once-over, ignoring that dark-haired friend that strolled away from them. The blond pressed his lips together and used Sasuke's knee to push himself off of the ground, inviting himself to sit next to him.

"Sorry," the other scratched the back of his head. "Can we start over?"

Sasuke, still a bit stunned from what had just happened so quickly, turned to study the boy sitting uncomfortably close to him.

"I'm Naruto," he offered, throwing his arm over the back of the chair. He glanced down at Sasuke's homework and pointed at his pen. "I didn't know you couldn't hear me. I just asked if you were left handed."

Sasuke blinked and, again, wished that he could go home. He glanced at the other boy's—Naruto's—patient face, awaiting an answer from him. Then he glanced down at his hands as he caught a glimpse of the raw sincerity in the other's eyes, knowing that he was telling the truth.

After a few more moments of silence, he looked up, frowning at Naruto. "What makes you think that?"

Naruto's face went blank and he motioned towards the papers on the table. "I… thought I saw you using your left?"

Sasuke nodded. "I am."

His face went blank again and he stared at Sasuke. Then, he broke out into a small, mischievous grin. "Don't be sarcastic."

He picked his pen back up and finished the last few words of an answer. "What exactly made you think it was okay to yell in my ear about it?"

Naruto stared at his hand as it moved across his paper. "It's just… cool. I'm right handed. There's only, like, ten people in the whole school that are left handed. Does your right hand suck?"

Sasuke shrugged. "I'd say it's like your left hand."

"Can you try to write with your right hand?"

Naruto left no room for him to decline, though he hesitated for a moment before picking the pen up. He tried, he truly did, but as soon as he tried to write his own name with his right hand, the pen fell from his fingers.

"That's so weird," Naruto said softly, picking it back up and writing something quickly with his dominant. He switched the pen to his left hand and struggled greatly to write the first few letters of the alphabet. "By the way, what's your name?"

He watched the way Naruto drummed the pen on his open textbook. "Sasuke."

"Oh," he replied. "You look new. You're a…?"

"Junior."

"So am I!" Naruto said, perking up and giving him another amicable smile. "I thought you were older. What school d'you come from?"

Sasuke shook his head. "You wouldn't know. I just moved from Anaheim."

"All the way over here?" his jaw dropped, as well as the pen from his fingers. "Wow. Why? That must suck. You know, I just moved here from Missouri two years ago, 'cause I have family up here."

"It's not horrible. My dad moved branches in the company he works for, so we moved over here."

Naruto nodded. "How come I didn't see you all day? What homeroom are you in?"

He rested his cheek in his hand, wondering why they couldn't stay on one subject for too long. Naruto seemed a bit jittery to him. "I'm in a lot of senior classes, so that must be why. And I'm in… Kakashi's?"

"Oh! You probably won't meet him for a while. He's always so damn late. I'm in Umino and even though he's cool most of the time, he gives out a lot of demerits if you don't listen to him." Naruto pursed his lips and glanced out into the rest of the library. He reached forward to play with the string hanging from the desk lamp in front of them, wrapping it around his finger and then letting it dangle. "Let's see… have you met Sakura? Short pink hair?"

"Yes," Sasuke replied tensely. "I've… spent a lot of time with her today. Speaking of it, why is it like that? Do you not have rules about hair color?"

Naruto tilted his head in a curious manner. "She's smart, she'll treat ya nicely." he rocked his chair back on its hind legs. "Over the summer, all of the girls had a fad with dying their hair. It was bright pink back then, y'should've seen it. She did it with Kool-Aid or somethin'. But, it faded, so… it kinda looks blonde."

"Ah." Sasuke vaguely remembered the same trend just beginning to start at his own school. He watched Naruto slide his binder over, reading his schedule over.

"Damn. Are you gonna take a university class next year?"

Sasuke frowned. "I might. Or I'll just take another free period."

"Oh, that's cool. Still a big work load. Do you have enough time for sports?"

"It's easy if you do your work as soon as you get it," Sasuke said nonchalantly. "I was on the cross country and track team."

"You like to run? I'm on the lacrosse team. You should join soccer with me!"

"Actually, I don't like contact sports," Sasuke replied.

The legs of Naruto's chair slammed back onto the ground. "Baseball's not really a contact sport. If you're fast enough."

"I don't like it."

Naruto squinted his eyes at him. "Picky. You wanna start cleaning up? It's almost time to go home."

Sasuke tucked his loose leaf papers back into his textbook, raising an eyebrow at his companion. "If you're not doing anything, why are you here?"

"Well," the other pointed on the opposite side of the library. "It's not like I wasn't doing anything at all. You can get a study room whenever. I was with my friend Kiba, the one that was here earlier. Working on a business project."

"Were you," he mumbled, stuffing his books back into his backpack. He watched as a few other students stood up and waited for the dismissal bell to ring.

"Hey," the other said again, poking his arm. "I'm really sorry about that whole 'speak-English' thing earlier," Naruto made quotation marks with his fingers. "You really looked like you were gonna kill me."

"It's fine," Sasuke nodded. "But I don't think you should sneak up on people with headphones, period."

Naruto frowned as the dismissal bell rung. "I'll keep that in mind. Maybe I'll see you around? At lunch tomorrow?" he asked as Sasuke stood.

"Yeah," Sasuke nodded. "I-"

"Who'd you sit with?" Naruto walked alongside him, his hands stuck into his pockets. He noticed that they were about the same height, give or take an inch.

"Suigetsu?" It seemed like Naruto was trying to get as many answers out of him as possible. He wondered if he was in a rush to get somewhere…?

Although it was offensive and surprising at times, that had to be one of the most interesting experiences in Sasuke's life. Naruto had to be one of the most interesting people he'd ever met - just based from the sincerity he'd seen in his eyes earlier. He'd heard that people up North tended to be a bit ruder, but someone like the boy he'd just met could balance it out.

He shook those thoughts from his head and headed downstairs, knowing he had to go back to the main office. He dreaded the mandatory parent-teacher conferences that had to be set up with new and transfer students. Only his mother was able to attend, since his father worked early hours and late nights.

"Bye, Sasuke!" Naruto waved. "See you tomorrow!" he parted with Sasuke in the opposite way of the front office, heading towards the gym.

Sasuke watched him go with an odd look, and turned back around to see his brother already seated in the front office, this time reading through the thick novel he'd been stuck to for the past few days.

He frowned and pulled open the glass door to the office, walking over to his brother and tossing his backpack onto the floor. "Where's mom?"

Itachi looked up from his novel and dog-eared the page, setting it into his lap. "Speaking with the principal. Who was that?"

Sasuke stared blankly at him for a few moments before seating himself. Ignoring his brother, he took out a book to read for his English class, turning the pages to where he'd last left off.

"He looked very nice," Itachi said pleasantly. "What's his name?"

Thinning his lips, Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the spine of his book. "Naruto."

"Mhm," he hummed thoughtfully, resting his chin in his hand. Sasuke rather heard than saw Itachi pulling his ponytail over his shoulder. "So you did make a friend."

"This is just a question," Sasuke started, placing his thumb in his book so he wouldn't lose his place. "But why are you here?"

Itachi snatched the book from his hands and read the title. "Is there anything wrong with wanting to meet the people who'll be teaching my little brother?"

"Only if they think you're my father."

He turned and gave Sasuke a dry look. "I hope you didn't just learn that today."

"Learn what today?" their mother approached, setting her hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

"It's nothing," Sasuke said quickly.

Mikoto squeezed his shoulder once and let it go. "How was your day?" she asked, sitting down next to him. "Did you like all of your classes?"

"It was fine," he replied. "My English class may be too… slow."

She frowned as if she remembered something before glancing at Itachi. "But it's in your grade, right?"

"Yes… but this is something I learned last year," he continued. "I read half of the assigned books already." Sasuke noticed that his mother had leant forward slightly to narrow her eyes at Itachi. "What?"

Itachi cleared his throat. "There was no harm in a joke. I didn't realize that the registrar would take me seriously."

"What are you talking about?" he demanded.

"I may have let it slip that you weren't very good with words at your registration," Itachi said calmly. "But this can be fixed."

Then Mikoto muffled her quiet laughter behind her hand, leaning away from the both of them. She gave Sasuke a small, apologetic smile as he glowered at her. It seemed that his father was the only one who didn't get after him for not talking very much.

"How did you expect them to know that it was a joke?"

Itachi chuckled.

Sasuke and his mother walked exited a science hallway, having just finished a conference with his chemistry AP professor. Itachi trailed along behind them, silently observing the high ceilings and a few signs hanging off of the lockers.

About an hour and a half had passed since school ended, and the building was almost deserted. Everyone had already gone home, but a few were still waiting for their parents to pick them up. A while ago, Sasuke could hear some yells coming from the gym, but they had been gone by the time the fifth conference had ended. Sakura had mentioned that there were off season practices happening, and that it wouldn't be a hassle at all to join in.

They went back downstairs, where Sasuke vaguely recalled his history class being. A couple of members from the boy's basketball team passed by. He glanced down at the white-grey tiled floor and turned a corner.

A few boys and girls were leaving the gym, their practices just finishing. Sasuke walked a good distance away from them as they cleared from the hallway, loud laughter echoing from the gym. A few balls dribbling could still be heard, as well as the sharp whistle of a coach as he told them to knock it off.

Sasuke paused when Naruto walked into the corridor, out of uniform. Instead he wore a pair of basketball shorts and a sweatshirt that had their school's name on the front, dragging his duffel bag behind him.

Not surprisingly, Sasuke knew that Itachi sensed his slight change in demeanor and his brother quickly moved behind him, setting a hand on his shoulder.

"Isn't that your new friend?" asked Itachi, loud enough for their mother to hear, but quietly enough to be out of Naruto's earshot.

"Stop," he hissed, turning and roughly elbowing Itachi in the ribs; however, Itachi caught it with his palm and pushed him forward slightly.

The slight movement was enough to catch Naruto's attention, and when he looked up, he broke out into a wide grin. Sasuke thinned his lips into a straight line when Naruto approached them.

"Hey, Sasuke!" he raised his arm to scratch the back of his head, offering Mikoto a bashful smile.

"Who is this?" she asked politely, returning the smile with a smaller one.

Sasuke clenched one of his fists and stuffed it into his pocket. "Naruto…" he started. "This is my mother."

"HI!" Naruto stuck his hand out and, quite vehemently, took his mother's hand in his and shook it. She looked startled for a spilt second before smiling and placing her other hand over Naruto's, giving him a look of appraisal. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki."

"Naruto," she repeated, laughing softly and releasing his hand. "How nice to meet you. I hear that you helped Sasuke out on his first day?"

He pulled that sheepish look again, though his grin stayed as wide on his face as ever. "You could say that! We kinda had a rough meeting, but…" Naruto glanced over to him. "We smoothed it out."

There was a lull in the conversation as Mikoto took a moment to be surprised and glance over at her youngest son. It wasn't a look Sasuke recognized that meant he would be in trouble later - it was a sincerely baffled one. He guessed that he had a tendency to ignore any person outside of his family that upset him just once—rather, he'd immediately move from the dramatics and continue on as if nothing had ever happened.

Itachi seemed to take the advantage of the silence and held his hand out. "Hello," he said. "I'm his older brother, Itachi."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes as Naruto took the hand, shaking it firmly. He recognized the faintly intimidated look in Naruto's eyes. It was all too common when others made acquaintances with his brother. But of course, they'd learn to see that Itachi had the temperament of a lazy cat.

"Did Sasuke mention that we just moved from California?" Mikoto said. "Maybe you could show him around one day, Naruto."

"Yup, he did. I'm still not really sure where the kids our age hang out, 'cause I just moved here two years ago, but…" Naruto scratched his chin. "I like to go to the Smithsonians and a couple of the malls around here every once in a while. My parents do, too."

"That sounds wonderful," she smiled again. "You two should look into it sometime. Sasuke, would you like to stay behind while I finish up the last meeting? Maybe you can speak with the cross country coach…"

"Ah," said Naruto. "All the offseason practices and everything just ended. But if you're hungry, there's a Panera right across the street?" he turned to Sasuke. "I go there all the time."

"Of course, you're probably hungry," she shook her head and gave Sasuke a slight push on the shoulder. "Go and eat. I'll pick something else up for Itachi and your father."

"Why don't I make dinner?" Itachi volunteered. "I'll only be here once in a blue moon."

"That's really fine, Itachi," Mikoto gave him a strained smile. "You shouldn't push yourself."

Sasuke snickered as the amused smirk on his brother's face disappeared.

It took a while for them to cross the busy street. Maybe, for a few moments, he'd dreaded leaving with Naruto. Maybe it was only because he didn't have the option to say no in front of his mother. But now, as the scent of fresh bread wafted down the street, he realized just how hungry he was. It was chilly out, windy enough for him to be thankful that he'd left his school blazer on.

Naruto hadn't been kidding when he'd said the Panera was right across the street - facing their school. Most of the restaurants lining the opposing side of the street had their fall decorations out, small bays of hay and artificial pumpkins that were constantly rolling away.

Since it seemed to be a rush hour for the restaurant, they had ordered and struggled greatly to find a table for themselves. They'd had to resort to sitting outside where it was a bit louder than Sasuke would prefer, but it would have to do.

Naruto crossed his legs in his chair so that Sasuke could see the tops of his knees. His bright blond hair kept smacking him in the face.

"So what'd you think of your first day?" Naruto asked him, playing with the plastic leaves decorating the sides of the table.

"It was fine," he replied. "I think I would appreciate it if everyone would stop staring at me like a fish out of water."

The other shrugged. "That's what they did to me. They'll get used to you, I promise. Just takes a bit of time."

"Is it that you don't get transfer students often?"

Naruto frowned. "I guess it's like… everyone here is so competitive. With grades, I mean. That's why it's nationally recognized and expensive. There's not really a lot of room to make friends when you're head to head for a spot at your college of choice, you know?"

Sasuke grunted. "What makes you think I'm not going to take up your spot at your college of choice?"

Naruto gave him a mischievous smile. "I'm sure you'll go to an Ivy League school or something. Not NYU like me."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why-"

"Don't look at me like it's not a good school. It's just that I want to be a pediatrician, and you know how rough it is in New York. I just wanna help out, I guess. I'm not a hotshot that just wants to go there cause it's New York." Naruto made a wide gesture with his hands. "Yeah. They really do need a hand up there. But what about you? You come off as some future CEO or something."

"I do like law," said. "And Princeton-"

"See!" Naruto leant across the table. "I knew you were an Ivy type of guy. W-"

"Stop interrupting me," Sasuke snapped. "I didn't even get to finish."

"Sorry," Naruto mumbled, though he didn't sound like it at all.

He pressed his lips together. "Like I was saying, Princeton or Brown appeal to me."

"That's gonna be a lot to pay off. But it'll be easy to pay off once you're a real lawyer, right?"

"I guess so," he took a sip of his water. "What is it that makes you so sure of being a pediatrician?"

"I like kids," Naruto swished the punch in his cup in circles. "And I like helping people. I dunno where it came from, 'cause my parents own a restaurant. But it's just there, that want to help people."

Sasuke hummed. He moved his cup out of the way as a waitress brought them their food and apologized for the apparent wait he hadn't even noticed.

"Is macaroni all you're going to eat?" he asked Naruto.

Naruto glanced up from his bowl and furrowed his brow. "Yeah. I could eat, like, a whole swimming pool of it."

He chuckled. Sasuke watched a couple with their hoods pulled over their heads run across the street. In the distance, he could hear a street performer strumming his guitar and singing softly. Naruto hummed his approval of his meal across from him.

"About family," Naruto started. "Your brother seemed pretty cool. I haven't seen long hair on a guy in a really, really long time. And you look a lot like your mom!"

"Do I?" he asked, chewing on his food thoughtfully. "I would say that I look like my father."

"It's your mom, hands down," Naruto smiled. "Wanna see my dad? Sometimes my mom gets us confused.

Sasuke rested his cheek on his hand as Naruto pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and quickly scrolled through his pictures, sliding it across the table towards Sasuke when he did.

To say in the least, it was… scary. It was almost like there were two of Naruto staring back at him from the cracked screen of his cell phone. He could easily tell the difference between them - Naruto's father, of course, looked a bit older and had longer hair, and appeared to be surprised at the surprise picture Naruto had taken with him. They both had golden blond hair and shockingly bright blue eyes.

Sasuke blinked. "Why are you showing me this already? We just met a few hours ago."

"So?" Naruto asked. "You're not sketchy or anything. And I already met your mom. You can't back out of it now."

He rolled his eyes. "If you think she's fond of you, she's just being nice."

Naruto gasped dramatically. "Is that why she practically begged me to drag you out of there? If she didn't like me, she wouldn't trust me. For all she knows, there's not a Panera across the street, and you're in a ditch somewhere."

"What would you do if I said I'd rather be in the ditch?"

"Hey!" A plastic fork came flying at him. "At least I'm being nice! I could have made fun of you and tripped you in the hall. Or push all your books down the stairs and nugget your backpack. But look where we are." Naruto twiddled his fingers. "Southern hospitality."

Sasuke snickered at the imagery and folded the corners of his napkin, giving Naruto a suspicious look. "You must be in all regular classes if I don't see you all day."

"I'm in two AP," Naruto told him. "But we're probably in different sections or something."

A pause in their conversation. Sasuke finished off his water and checked his phone for a text from his mother, but found none. He watched Naruto text someone for a few moments before glancing across the street to the entrance of their school, where the parking lot was mostly empty save for his brother's car and a few others.

"Do you miss your friends? Leave a girl behind?" asked Naruto.

He kept his eyes on their school's billboard. Sasuke had a couple of people he would stick around during school, but they couldn't be considered friends. Sure, they would hold a small conversation every once in a while, but they weren't close at all. He mostly kept to himself and enjoyed (dreaded) the long breaks when his brother would return home from Yale's business school.

"Not really," he said simply.

A corner of Naruto's lip went to the side, but he said nothing. "Well, there's some cool people here…" he glanced to the sky. "My friend Shika's in your homeroom, but he always gets there late. A lot of the girls are in there… Ino, Sakura, you know, the one we talked about earlier? Oh! And my cousin Karin's in there." Suddenly, the warm grin on his face he'd gotten from speaking of his friends turned into a solemn and blank stare. "She's off limits."

Sasuke sniffed. "Not interested."

"What!" Naruto blurted. "I mean, not even the rest of the-"

"I'm not interested in girls," he said bluntly.

After that, Sasuke paused and his fingers tightened around his cup. To him, it seemed like minutes rather than seconds had passed. He didn't know what on Earth had possibly made him tell that fact to Naruto—because impulse, chance, and nerves had nothing to do with it. Now he felt… too open, too exposed, and Sasuke almost felt as if Naruto was trying to pick him apart with his curious eyes. It wasn't a subject that had gone outside of his bedroom walls when Itachi would very gradually poke it out of him.

"Geez…" Naruto sunk down onto the table, pressing his face into his arms. "I keep messing up today!" He let out a frustrated grunt and sat up again. "Sorry I keep talking about girls, then. It's so stupid."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the other. "It's fine."

"I dunno…" Naruto mumbled, picking at the decorative tinsel lining the window next to them. "'S like I've been pulling dick moves around you all day."

"I'm over it. It doesn't matter because you didn't know."

"You're right," he replied. "So did you leave a guy behind?"

"No," Sasuke replied after a moment. He… hadn't exactly left one behind, anyway. Even if it were true, it happened a good deal of time ago, and it shouldn't matter anymore. Sasuke was fifteen, confused, and altogether much more stupid than he was to the present day. It had taken him a long time to trust the guy, anyway, and even then Sasuke had only found him mildly attractive.

"Eh, you can't really take high school relationships seriously, right?"

"Not when everyone is so immature."

"That's true," Naruto gave him a thumbs up. "Are you ready to leave? We've already been here a while…"

"Sure," he said, rising to his feet. He fished around in his pocket for a tip to toss on the table. Naruto tossed his half on the tabletop as well.

As they waited for their crosswalk to clear up, Naruto's teeth chattered audibly next to him.

"Did it ever snow in California?" he asked, stuffing his hands in the pocket of his hoodie.

"In some parts," Sasuke said. "But I mostly saw snow when we went on vacation to Oregon or Chicago."

"That's cool. It snows a lot up here. School gets cancelled and everything." Naruto elbowed him when the light above their heads blinked green and the crowd around them surged forward to cross the street.

"Wouldn't you have to make it up?"

"Agh!" Naruto winced. "Don't talk about that. It's horrible and I wouldn't show up, anyways."

"Dumbass," he grumbled. "They'd make you come back on your own time to make it up."

"Fuck off!" Naruto growled, earning him a few dirty looks from the adults around them. "They always think that we don't have lives outside of schoolwork," he added.

"And you do?" Sasuke scoffed.

"Yeah," Naruto narrowed his eyes at him as they entered the front gates of their school. "I've got family, I've gotta help out my parents 'cause they're always so busy, I have to… keep up my social life. Basic stuff."

"You have siblings?"

Naruto tapped his chin. "Nah. But I have a cat."

"How does a cat count as a sibling?" Sasuke grimaced.

"If you meet him, he's got a hell of a personality," Naruto shook his head to himself. "He's always so grumpy-"

"Isn't that the way all cats are?"

"That's enough of your questions!" he poked Sasuke in the temple. "Anyway. You think I'm kidding, right? He hates literally everyone and everything. Once in a blue moon, he'll be in a cuddly kind of mood, but that's it. He hisses if you try to pet him and he just glares at the ground in a corner of my room all day."

Sasuke frowned. "Are you sure your cat doesn't have rabies?"

"Funny," Naruto grumbled. "I dunno how seriously you're taking me, but he's been like that since the day he was born. He's gonna turn ten pretty soon."

"What a character," a corner of Sasuke's lip curled up. "I had a crab once. It didn't have much of a personality as your cat does."

"Why a crab?"

"I found it on the beach when I was little," he answered. "A hermit."

"How long did you have it for?"

Sasuke glanced up, barely remembering the small crab moving around his sand bucket he'd brought back from the beach. "A few days, maybe."

"Did it die?" Naruto asked, wavering when Sasuke gave him a look. "Do I wanna know what happened?"

"If you do," Sasuke let a lighthearted smirk spread on his lips. "My brother stepped on it. He must have been ten."

Naruto tilted his head back as he laughed, coming to a stop in the middle of the parking lot. "Oh my God, what? Your brother's a crab murderer?"

"You can call it that," he chuckled.

"Wow," Naruto sighed as he leant against the stairwell to the front of their school. "The only pet you had."

Sasuke lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug. "That may be the sole reason we never got a pet again."

"You're responsible, right?" Naruto smiled. "Maybe you can adopt my cat…? He's free."

He snorted. "No thank you. He sounds like a demon."

"I swear he is sometimes," the other mumbled, scratching at the nape of his neck.

A comfortable silence fell over them as they made their way up the entrance steps. Sasuke hadn't noticed before, but Halloween lanterns surrounded the front door of their school, crudely carved out by hand. He prodded at a smaller one with his foot.

Naruto cleared his throat. "The freshmen student council made those. They look worse and worse each year."

"I can see that," he said dryly, leaving the pumpkin he'd been kicking at alone. It almost felt as if they were stalling their goodbyes, even though they'd see each other in the morning. Naruto's skin looked a bit tanner in the dimming orange light that the sun allowed.

"You think your mom's done?" he asked, scuffing the toe of his shoe into the cement.

"Probably," Sasuke pointed out, opening the swinging door. "Is your stuff inside?"

"Nah," Naruto sounded a bit put out, gesturing over his shoulder. "It's still out on the field. I'd better go get it 'cause my ride's gonna be here in a few."

"Okay," he said, holding the door open with his shoulder. "Bye."

"See you tomorrow!" Naruto sent him a wave over his shoulder as he ran down the stairs, hand skimming the marble rail.

It took a few moments for him to reach the bottom of the stairs, and then Sasuke realized he'd been watching him the whole time. Naruto gave him a curious glance.

"Thanks," he called. "For taking the time."

The other chuckled. "Any time," he gave Sasuke a mock salute. "Later."

This time, Naruto actually jogged towards the soccer field neighboring their school, where a few boys had stayed behind to practice longer. He turned and stepped into the hallway, clenching his hands when he realized just how frigid it had been outside.

Sasuke sent a text to his mother asking where she was, receiving a reply for him to just wait by the front door. When she came by without any trace of Itachi, he raised an eyebrow.

"Where is he?"

"Went to the men's room," his mother replied, smoothing down the front of her dress. "How was dinner with your friend?"

"Fine," he murmured, leaning against the wall and shutting his eyes.

"He seems very nice," Mikoto noted, a small, pleased smile coming onto her face. "I hope he sticks around. I think your father would like him."

Out of her sight, Sasuke rolled his eyes. His father never specifically liked anyone outside of his family, just tolerated them in the name of hospitality. Fugaku was never rude to Itachi's friends or Mikoto's coworkers, but Sasuke knew that his father was more comfortable around people he'd known for a long time.

Soon after, Itachi returned and patted him on the back. Right before they left, Sasuke studied the photos of the most recent graduates of the high school on the wall.

Maybe… it could be this year that his path became a bit clearer. Maybe it could be at this school where he'd utilize more of his lesser abilities and they could all fit together like pieces. Just maybe, and dare he say that a very, very small part of him hoped for it, something in his life could turn change completely.

A/N: Sasuke is a BRAT. This fic is going to be under 10 chapters. That's really all I have to say, eh... about the pace. It'll slow down after this introductory chapter, but I'm challenging myself with this fic. I hope you all like - this follows the first prompt of SasuNaruSasu month on tumblr, first impressions. In a few days will come the accompanying one, meeting the family. An excerpt of that will go up on tumblr. So much fun. Let me know what you think!