Naruto should've seen this coming the moment Sasuke-Ice Prince-Uchiha approached him and asked for his friendship. The blonde should've gone with his gut feeling, said no, and walked away.

But he didn't,because he foolishly hoped that maybe, just maybe...

He didn't know, and he didn't see it coming. So when his "friends" cornered him and beat him up, Naruto had the gall to be shocked. He looked them in the eyes, they were all disgusted. Sakura, Ino-even the sweet and shy Hinata- who wasn't so sweet after all. They were all disgusted. He was disgusted with himself, he was better than this.

Then he looked at Sasuke. Artificial cerulean met obsidian and what Naruto saw made him want to rage at his own stupidity. Sasuke's eyes were cold and uncaring, the complete opposite of what Naruto had been seeing in those pools for the past year. This wasn't the Sasuke he grew to know, this wasn't the boy who he began to trust. This definitely wasn't the Sasuke he had pictured himself coming to be really good friends with somewhere in the future-

But it was.

Or was it that the Sasuke Naruto thought he'd known simply didn't exist to begin with. Naruto really shouldn't have been surprised, fakeness was something Naruto should have been too familiar with. When Sasuke went on about how he could never care about a "parentless street rat" Naruto didn't listen. He saw the brunettes' mouth moving but the words never reached him.

It was a coping mechanism; whenever the insults began, Naruto disappeared into the darkest corners of his mind.

However, looking at each face, Naruto grew angry at himself. He really wanted to rage but he'd be damned if he gave them the satisfaction. He was better than that; he'd been through worse betrayals.

So then why did it fucking hurt so goddamn much?

"Because I stupidly allowed myself to hope, it hurts to have had and lost, than to never have had at all." Naruto thought bitterly "I should've known better. Someone like me could never be accepted like that…"

Because people like him were meant to be alone.

People like him aren't supposed to have friends, lovers, family...

Slowly, as if on auto-pilot, Naruto stood, gathered his school bag and broken glasses(it was time for a new pair anyway) and turned to walk away. He was back to having nothing- wait.

The blond went back and stood in front of Sasuke. He reached into the collar of his shirt wrapping long skeletal fingers around a stone necklace, and yanked hard. The string popped, and Naruto allowed the necklace to leave his grasp, and fall to the floor. He turned and left the school building without a glance back.

Over the next few days Naruto grew as empty as he'd been before he'd met Sasuke. All of his previous hope of a life with friends were gone, leaving a gaping hole in its wake. His betrayal and anger left him sooner than he'd expected, and the more he began to grasp how truly alone he was the bigger the hole grew. For Naruto, it was the worst feeling, but it was familiar, and even worse, he'd accepted his fate.

Summer vacation came about two weeks after that incident, but to Naruto time had passed so quickly he hadn't even noticed. The emptiness was still there; if anything the emptiness spread. It grew and dominated all of his other emotions completely smothering Naruto. Until nothing else remained. It was back to square one, and once again Naruto was simply existing, surviving. Naruto was himself.

U*Z*U*M*A*K*I*N*A*R*U*T*O

Uchiha Sasuke sat at the back of the library completely ignoring Sakura, Karin, and Ino. The three were arguing about something that Sasuke didn't, and never would care about.

"Sasuke, aren't you paying attention? I said Konoha High and Sunagakure High school are merging together because of their budget cuts and low funding!" Sakura paused to breathe.

"Which means we'll have more competition over who gets Sasuke…" Ino muttered, and Karin nodded her head in agreement.

"Though there really is no competition, everybody knows that Sasuke will choose me, he's just playing shy." Karin gloated with a grin. That was Sasuke's queue to tune out their argument and look out the window once more.

From what Sasuke had heard, Sunagakure High School's academic scores were on par with Konoha High, even though the school resided in the lower classed parts of the Leaf Village. But why merge two schools in the middle of the school year. Wouldn't it be better to do it next year?

The shrill ring of the first bell drew Sasuke out of his musings, and he collected his belongings before leaving the school's library and onto his next class.

"…new schools construction is complete, so we'll be moving in a week…" Sakura began talking again on the way out of the library and on to the next class. Neji and Shikamaru joined them in the hallway, and they all met up with Kiba, Choji, and Shino in Trigonometry. Sakura went to spread the information of the transfer.

Lunch came sooner than Sasuke would have liked, though the cafeteria was overcrowded as usual. It was one of the reasons why Sasuke enjoyed sitting on the schools roof during lunch.

"I kinda got a weird feeling about Konoha merging with another school." Kibas voice rung loud and clear, and the rest of the group turned their attention to him.

"What do you mean Kiba?" Hinata asked and the rest watched to bay with an expecting curiosity.

"I don't know…I just got a weird feeling…."Though Kiba was confused, he tried to hide it, but Sasuke could tell by the look in the boys eyes.

"Maybe you're just hitting puberty, about time too." Ino snickered behind her hand, effectively lightening the mood. Sasuke tuned out their arguments again.

Sasuke looked up at the clouds. He had noticed that each day they were growing darker. A storm was coming, and it would be here soon. Taking a deep breath, he let the smell of civilization dominate his senses. Sasuke leant against the gate that stopped him from falling to his death and closed his eyes. It was wishful thinking but he wanted this moment to last for forever, surrounded by friends and acquaintances…

The house was empty. No surprise there.

Sasuke's parents were on a business trip.

Again

Itachi wouldn't be home for a few more hours, and so like most days Sasuke found himself home alon-

"Mrow…" correction, Sasuke found himself stuck with the family pet Susano. Susano was a round black cat with large green eyes, and with slight hesitation Sasuke bent down to pet the animal, which was a rare sight to see. Susano hated Sasuke and preferred to hang around Itachi-like everybody else. Normally the thing wouldn't go within a five-foot radius of Sasuke, hissing and scratching at the raven when he got too close. So why was it approaching him now?

A loud clap of thunder made Susano jump at Sasuke who caught her with ease. Of course. Susano hated storms more than she hated Sasuke, and Itachi wasn't home, so why not use the second best thing for comfort.

When he got to his room Sasuke flopped down onto his bed, absently petting Susano who quickly fell asleep. Sasuke stared out of his window at the pouring rain, and then he closed his eyes and fell asleep as well.

U*C*H*I*H*A*S*A*S*U*K*E

Shikamaru was fast asleep on top of a hill when Neji and Choji found him. This wasn't new sight for Neji, and he had to wonder if Shikamaru was stupid enough to think that a random stranger wouldn't walk up to him and do something, or if the boy was just too lazy to care. Knowing Shikamaru it was most likely the latter.

"Shikamaru don't you know better than to fall asleep outside? What if somebody tried to kill you?"Neji nagged at the sleeping boy who didn't even move. This infuriated Neji all the more.

"You're too loud…"was the only reply Neji got. Shikamaru slowly cracked his eyes open but didn't spare Neji a glance.

Neji opened his mouth to tell the laggard off, when something strange moved in his peripheral vision. Normally the brunette would have ignored it for when he looked, it was only a dog. A huge ass fucking dog at that; it stood at maybe three to four feet tall and could have easily been a head or two taller than Neji if it stood on its hind legs. Its short fur was a reddish brown color and it paws could fit in both of Choji's hands.

"That's a really big dog…"Choji muttered through his mouthful of chips sitting next to Shikamaru who was sitting up as well. Running with the dog was a person at maybe 5'6",5'7". Judging by the small, slender frame Neji guessed the person was a girl, no older than a teenager. She wore a teal and black striped hoodie. It didn't help that her hood was up and covering her face, though Neji caught a small glimpse of white hair and teal glasses.

"Those two come here for an hour every day. The boy looks really familiar but I can't remember where I've seen him…It's really annoying."Shikamaru grumbled a troublesome under his breath.

"Boy?"Neji asked

"Yea…sometimes he sits down by the lake and reads sometimes I find him up here sleeping and there are times when he's here with another boy…a redhead I think." Shikamaru flopped back down on the grass and closed his eyes.

"Aren't we interested in a certain somebody?" Neji gave Shikamaru a knowing smirk.

"His face keeps nagging at the back of my mind; I just can't remember where I've seen him, it's rather annoying." Shikamaeu yawned and flopped back down onto the grass, closing his eyes again.

Neji considered this for a moment; he had never seen a person with white hair in Konoha. Not even that Uzumaki loser. Speaking of Uzumaki, whatever happened to the boy? He disappeared after junior high school, and Neji was in his junior year in high school. It had seemed like such a long time ago, though Neji would probably never see him again.

H*Y*U*U*G*A*N*E*J*I

a/n: SoI finally got my first chapter out(I'm really nervous about it). Reviews (and flames) are accepted with an open mind, so please don't hesitate to give me your opinions... I'll be waiting with crossed fingers...
-Until then Alexsai