Summary: Eying the parcel, Sakura already knew what she had in front of her. Turning to clasp the phone in her hand, she didn't even glance at the number before pressing it to the side of her face. Her breath came out shaky with exhilaration—"Naruto. I'm in." [College Fic] [AU] [SasuSaku] [NaruSaku]
Kismet
Chapter 1
The weight of the envelope in her fingers felt enormous. Holding it up by the edges, turning it front to back then glancing up, down, and around her kitchen for a knife, she slapped the admissions letter—no, admissions parcel—down onto the counter and flung the drawers open. Finally, Sakura grasped the impossibly elusive pair of scissors.
Eying the parcel, Sakura already knew what she had in front of her. Laughing while hastily chopping the top corner off, she slit open the top and let the contents slide into her palm.
Congratulations! You've been awarded a place at Konoha College. We're thrilled to have you!
She knew it was coming, but the words didn't look any less thrilling in front of her eyes. Sakura's voiced pitched. She faintly scolded herself for squealing, but let the manila envelope sit on the top of the counter top as she leafed through the remainder of the parcel's contents. Stickers. Brochures. Buttons. A flag. She felt her phone start to ring behind her and recollection dawned on her features—Naruto! She should have called him!
Turning and clasping the phone in her hand, she didn't even glance at the number before pressing the phone to the side of her face.
"NARUTO! NARUTO! I'M IN!" Her voice betrayed her, erupting into squeaks a second time.
"HAHAHAHA—YES! WE'RE GOING TO KONOHA, SAKURA-CHAN!"
She laughed loudly into the phone and jumped. How ridiculous she must have looked, but in that instance she couldn't bring herself to contain her joy at all. Naruto had gotten his admissions letter two days before her but refused to open it until hers arrived in the mail. The sheer size of his parcel said everything: Naruto had been accepted. Her childhood friend and been accepted to the most prestigious college on the continent—possibly the most prestigious in the world.
The news had her equal parts elated and terrified. What was the likelihood that they both would have gotten in? Slim or next to none, surely, they had both been from the same neighbourhood and high school. Worse still, she couldn't bring herself to pinpoint the root of her fears: losing him to the west coast or not making the cut herself.
"All that worrying for absolutely nothing, Sakura-chan. I knew you would make it. Of course you would make it!" Naruto's reassurance left her feeling faintly guilty, and when his voice reverberated at her ear a second time, she nearly dropped the phone.
"Did you see the house list?"
"Ow—Naruto! What?" Sakura caught herself. House list? Turning to face the decimated remains of the parcel she lifted the opening and drew out a last sheet of paper. From where it was lying face down, she turned it over and examined it roughly.
We are pleased to welcome to you to Konoha College. Your freshmen year is full of new and exciting experiences—many of which will be shared with the other freshmen in your dorm house. At your request, we've had you filled into a co-ed house.
You've been assigned to Ichiban house. Feel free to connect with your housemates before you arrive—they have all been listed below alphabetically:
Haruno, Sakura
Hyuga, Neji
Nara, Shikamaru
Sand, Temari
Uchiha, Sasuke
Uzumaki, Naruto
Yakama, Ino
A suggested packing list will be emailed to you in a few short weeks. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me at the contact information below.
We look forward to meeting you,
Kakashi-Sensi
"Naruto… is this right? We're in the same house? We're going to be LIVING TOGETHER?"
"I can't tell if you're excited or horrified, Sakura-chan."
Sakura briefly snorted. "And what sort of name is Ichiban?"
"If we're going to laugh about names—'Sand'?"
"Naruto, she didn't choose her last name… Ichiban house on the other hand…"
"Okay, whatever you say, Sakura-chan." He chuckled and Sakura felt herself smile. "…How about some celebratory ramen?"
Naruto and Sakura had first met when they were five years old. Sakura's Mom had dropped her off at a mutual friend's birthday party and Naruto had accidentally spilled soda down the front of her white sundress. Embarrassed and upset, she'd returned home to change. Her closest friend at the time informed her that Uzumaki was "just a great big loser-face," and with that, coaxed her to ignore him for the remainder of the day. Finding themselves in the same Kindergarten class some months later, he had told her he thought she had the coolest box of crayons he'd ever seen. She'd only faintly recognized him, hardly remembered the soda down her sundress, but taken to him instantly. Though not quite yet friends, he'd figured she had forgiven him on the spot.
By the seventh grade, they were near-inseparable. He'd been goofy, a terrible mathematician, and liked the wide expanses of their school field. She'd been a thorough student, a horrendous singer, and liked colouring solidly inside the lines. Regardless, living a short 6 minutes away from one another and maintaining a solid 12 consecutive years in the same class, the two grew up together. Literally.
"You're practically married," Tenten would say. Living adjacent to her, Tenten was the closest thing Sakura had to a sister… 'Not that it meant she knew anything about her completely platonic relationship with Naruto,' Sakura insisted to herself.
"Are you really going to take this back to the fourth grade, Tenten?" Sakura hissed. It hadn't been anything particularly big, but the fourth grade had been the odd year Naruto and Sakura had spent somewhat apart. Naruto had admittedly harboured a light crush on her then, but that had been that. Teasing had borne down on them from classmates, drove itself in between them, and nearly broke their friendship apart. She'd sworn he'd gotten over it since; the topic had never been breached again.
But there had been times that incited incriminating thoughts to flicker across her mind… times like this one, in the last few hours before they left for Konoha, where Naruto was standing on her doorstep, car parked somewhere behind him, shoulder leaning against her doorframe with a strange smile on his face that had her striding around frantically in her pyjamas. The early morning light had his eyes glowing intensely at her and, feeling the ghost of a flush rise against her cheeks, she quickly turned, hollered at him to help her move her things before they were late for their flight. In her mad dash up the stairs, she carried an echo of his image in her mind's eye.
They'd sparsely made it in time. Finally arriving at the airport, the woman at the check-in test bugged out at the time they had left and called another woman to escort them as quickly as possible through security. They narrowly made their final boarding call and, collapsing into their adjacent seats, Naruto let out an anxious breath of air.
"That… can never happen again."
"The wild driving or the stopping for breakfast or the waking up late?"
"All of the above."
Sakura turned in her seat. "Since when do you get to be the one that calls the shots? We know who wears the pants in this friendship!" She cackled and Naruto cracked an eyelid to smile lopsidedly at her.
"Don't drop jokes like that when we first get there—we won't make any new friends if you're scaring them off with your geekiness."
"Hey!" She attempted to elbow him, but he caught both her arms and held them against the armrest that divided them.
"…Lucky for you you're somehow friends with this stud of a scholarship athlete."
She burst out laughing at the look at his face—eyes lidded once again and smile purposefully lecherous—before he dropped the act and smiled genuinely back at her. His gaze was followed her, even after she freed her arms, ("Pfft, don't you start with that. Football scholarship or not you're twice the dork I am…") turned, and lifted the window blind to look out at the airstrip outside.
Though not as large as Naruto's, Sakura had also received a hefty scholarship to study at Konoha College. She'd applied for the extremely competitive pre-med program and, in full honesty, hardly expected to gain admission. To have an entrance scholarship follow that—she'd hardly known how to react. The summer earlier she'd worked two jobs in the hopes she'd raise enough to make a dent in her tuition fees… but that was riding on the faint hope she managed admission in the first place.
Naruto had driven her to work every day that summer and was always waiting to meet her the second her workday ended. "Working this much during the summer should be illegal, Sakura-chan. Honest."
Smiling to herself at a luggage cart that had dropped two suitcases on the runway, she turned back in her seat to face Naruto and found herself only faintly surprised at the expression on his face. Her arm reached up to finger the shoulder length rosette hair at the back of her head. "Is there something in my hair?"
Surprise coloured his eyes at her question before he blinked and smiled again. Surreptitiously rubbing the bridge of his nose while turning to face the seat in front of him, Naruto's hand came to rest behind his head, while his eyes slipped closed a second time. "I'm really excited for this, Sakura-chan."
She felt herself smile at him. He'd really grown up over the years. The last time they'd travelled together was on a school trip to Sand. She could have sworn he'd literally been bouncing in his seat the whole trip there. Now, he sat so very still and tall in his seat, his eye lashes resting stoically against his cheeks.
"Me too, Naruto. Me too." She knew she really couldn't ask for a better friend to share this experience with.
To be Continued
A/N: First of all—I'm torn as to whether this will be a SasuSaku or a NaruSaku. There might be a lot of NaruSaku overtones here from the start, but I'm just trying to give the story somewhere to begin. Likely a bit of a triangle before I decide, but if there's a definite preference for one over the other by reviewers I'll lean towards that. Make your voice heard! The review box is right there.
Secondly, please, more than anything the reason I took to writing was for hard criticism. If you enjoyed it, that's great. If you think it needs work, that's even better! If you have the time, let me know where my writing is lacking and I'll do my best to take what I can from it.
All the best,
papernoted