This idea came to me while sitting in class today, so I figured I would put pen to paper (or more like fingers to keyboard) and see how it turns out. Not sure if I'll continue this, but if you are interested, please let me know! Leave a review if you enjoyed or have any questions, and please have a great day!

Warning: Slight!NaruHina. Already had one complaint, so please leave silently if you don't like the pairing. I plan on staying true to the manga and keeping the pairs the same, but I'm not focused on other couples more so than I am on Sasori. If I do mention another pairing, it will only be brief...personally, I can't stand SasuSaku, but I am not going to bash on them and I plan on keeping the two together. I'm more focused on the Akatsuki than anything and only a few characters outside of Akatsuki will appear in this story.

I remember sitting in my English class during the first year of middle school when my teacher passed out a slip of paper, and on it was written a brief question. It asked us to give a short paragraph about the happiest day of our life. Immediately, my pencil came crashing down upon the paper, my fingers moving quickly as I poured my heart out. Many of my classmates took their time thinking about what they wanted to say, but I already knew. While most of them wrote of the time when their parents took them to an amusement park, and others wrote of sentimental moments in their lives, I wrote of the day that I had met my first and only crush, Sasori Akasuna. It turned out that my short paragraph had extended to take up the entire slip of paper, but after proofreading the piece, I felt happy with what I had to say. The teacher had told us to keep the paper since she had only used it as a writing exercise, and so I kept it with me to hold onto for many years to come.

Indeed, I was completely infatuated with this boy, but what had brought me to this point? He was smart, handsome, friendly, kind, and an all-around great person. Of course, I never really talked to him much due to my shyness; however, I could tell we were fated to be together. Ever since that day...

I was one month into my second grade year when I first met him on the playground at school.

What was this feeling?

I could feel myself falling into a strange pit as my stomach did flips. It was like I couldn't breathe, but also as though I had taken my first breath of fresh air in a long time.

I couldn't be…

His smile etched itself permanently in my mind, but this memory wasn't enough. I could still feel his hand lingering on my own, and after a few moments of convincing myself that he had already left, I still had to check and see that he wasn't sitting beside me.

Was I dying? My heart is beating so fast…

I stood from my spot on the swing, staring at the other which hung adjacently to my own. His image still remained prominent in my mind and simply refused to go away, and I could still hear his kind voice in my ears. My hand unconsciously drifted to my chest, clutching the fabric of my sweater as a way to keep myself calm.

What did he do to me?

He was a really nice boy...thanks to him, my music box was as good as new. However, I think he did something else, too! He made my insides hurt...which was kind of mean, but I really liked him! I was hoping we could be friends, yet he was too quick and left as soon as he came…

I approached my mom and asked her why I was this way.

"A boy hurt you on the inside? I'm not sure what you mean, honey...did he call you something bad?" She asked, glancing to her right to stare at me. I didn't notice though, I was too busy staring out the window in search of him.

"No! He fixed my music box for me!" I proudly nodded my head, explaining how I gave the box to him as a gift for helping me. "He was really, really nice, Mama, but when he said he had to go, it made me sad and my body started acting weird."

"Ho?" She cooed, "it seems Mariko has a crush on someone."

"Crush? What's that?"

"It means that you really like him; more so than a friend… What's his name?" She asked, pulling into the parking lot of a private, music studio not to far from the school.

"I-I...I don't know!" I quickly became scared as I wondered how I had forgotten that one important detail. I wasn't exactly sure what a 'crush' was still, but I was afraid that I wouldn't see the boy again and get his name.

"It's alright, darling! Just ask him when you see him tomorrow, but for right now, let's focus on your lesson today with Mr. Yukari."

Obviously, I did end up getting his name in the end. I only chatted with him every so often, but I couldn't bring myself to hang out with him. I was always so awkward around him; however, I was that way with everyone I talked to.

I also learned what my mom meant by 'crush' after a while, but I decided to try and focus on other things rather than a silly infatuation. As I grew up, I noticed that he was hanging out with a different crowd, and the fact that we didn't have many classes together didn't help. I had gone from being the lovesick preteen to a timid highschooler with no life outside of school and music. I still had a crush on Sasori, but I just reigned it in and simply found him as someone to admire. I was pretty sure that he wouldn't recognize me if I told him my name...

My best friend, Hinata, is the only person who knows of my crush. Now that it's our final year here at Suna High School and coming very close to the end, we had both decided together that we would confess our love to our crushes. Hinata was just as introverted and bashful as I was, and it took us about three years to encourage one another to profess ourselves. Hinata was deeply in love with a guy named Naruto in our grade… I wasn't sure what she saw in him, considering that he was a dunce and basically the complete opposite of her, but she loved him so I felt the need to support her all the way. She probably questioned why I liked Sasori so much, but she knew that love was love.

And so, this brings us to today. The final day of school before we leave for the art academy...we both have waited so long for this moment, but now that it was here, I couldn't help the surreal feeling that coursed within me. The hallways weren't as crowded now since the final bell had rung a few minutes ago, but my heart wouldn't stop fluttering wildly. This was it...this was my moment to proclaim my love to Sasori Akasuna and hopefully...he will accept it.

However, as time went on, I started to lose faith. I was standing a few lockers away from his, but he never came by once! Was I too late? He must had gone home early or something. I knew I saw him today in the hallway...but I made sure that I got here quickly! Maybe this wasn't meant to be like I had originally thought.

Clutching the handle of my instrument case tightly, I was ready to turn the corner and go meet up with Hinata like we had planned. She had probably already talked to Naruto...I really hope things went well for her-

"Maybe you should stop whining and give up already." A beautifully smooth voice spoke. It was rather flat, yet silvery in tone...

It was him.

Although, it sounded like he was with someone. My emotions went from "panicked" mode to "extremely overwrought" mode when I saw him approaching with a friend who appeared to be angry with him. His scarlet red hair shined prettily from the sunlight that entered the halls, and it was only a matter of seconds before his chestnut eyes collided with my own. Here we go…

"It's not my fault the bitch threw her shoe at me-! Oh...Danna, you think she's another one?" The redhead's friend, who I knew to be Deidara from my Physics class, whisper-shouted his last statement, blue eyes darting toward me as I cursed my lack of planning. There was no going back now though.

"I-uh…" I hesitated, going through all the scenarios in my head at a rapid pace.

"What is it?" Sasori's voice urged me on to continue, my eyes trailing up to see him with a blank stare on his face. He seemed to be focused on something behind me, almost as though he were trying to seem uninterested with what I had to say.

I could feel my instrument case sliding from my hands a little as I shifted my weight from foot to foot. "I just...I've been wanting to tell you this for a while…"

Suddenly, almost as though I had said something extremely offensive, I watched as my crush began to shake his head a little. Annoyance flooded his features as if I had already wasted his time with my words. The butterflies in my stomach started to kick up again and my eyes widened slightly from his reaction, the words on my tongue unable to come out.

"Worthless…"

And in that moment, my heart shattered into a million pieces. I hadn't even told him what I wanted to say, and he called my confession worthless. Therefore, I was worthless to him and so was my existence in general...or at least, that was how it felt.

All these years of writing him those letters, and sending him secret valentines, and slipping birthday cards into his locker all went down the drain. All the time I had spent focusing my heart on him had gone to waste in just a matter of seconds. Maybe if he had simply declined, then I would be ok...but he called me worthless and seemed to sneer at my appearance.

If I had only known Sasori was this way...I always watched him from afar, and from what I could tell, he was a very nice person. He bought lunch for a kid once because he forgot money and he let someone use his book to study from and even helped me with a few problems in math class. He was the type of person to be a hero, but never want credit or anything in return. I even watched him save a stray cat from a few freshmen who thought it was funny to mess with it! He seemed like an angel on the outside, what with his skills in art and perfect muscles and hair and face and eyes and...oh what am I saying! He's a jerk!

I felt like something had snapped within me, and my shy persona disappeared as I glared at the floor. I knew this was stupid...stupid, stupid, stupid!

I hadn't noticed that Sasori and his friend had already left me in the hallway, the two turning the corner as I heard them continue on with their conversation. I knew I was taking the risk of rejection, but I didn't expect it to end like this.

But the one thing that I felt more than anger at myself was embarrassment. Really...a girl like me asking a guy like him to accept me for my love? It was like a homeless person asking a celebrity to marry her and actually have hope that he would say yes; it was simply unethical and impossible.

All I knew now was that I wished to never see Sasori Akasuna again. Especially after how foolish I sounded in front of him…

I had met up with Hinata at the local park after my lessons to talk about how our confessions went. The sun was already setting but since Hinata was on the volleyball team, she had to stay for the going away party and I had my last session after school as well. We still always found time to hangout together though.

"So how did it go..?" Hinata hesitantly licked her ice cream, wincing a little when it came in contact with her teeth. I smiled a little at her dilemma and remembered how her teeth were sensitive, but she really liked the taste of the cold dessert.

"It was an utter failure on my part…" I sighed, the dark-haired girl nodding her head in understanding. "I just felt like crawling into a hole and dying after what happened."

"Was he that b-bad? She stuttered out, "he seemed like a really nice person in class…"

I sighed a little, keeping my gaze on the picnic table we were sitting at. "Before I even got my confession out, he called me worthless, Hinata...that's how bad it was." I could hear a few kids screaming in the distance as they played in a sandbox, my mind finding itself as it wandered back to many years ago. Things had changed so much since then… It was kind of ironic. I remember when I couldn't wait to grow up so I could do things that I couldn't do when I was a kid, like ride in the front seat or cook on the stove or get married… Now that I was older, I wished that I could go back in time and live when things were so much more simpler.

"It's alright though!" Hinata's voice brought me out of my thoughts. "I-I mean there are so many other guys out there just waiting for y-you! If anything, Sasori made a bad choice by rejecting one of the most t-talented, smartest, prettiest girls that I know. You just have to believe in yourself…" I grinned at her short motivational statement.

"Thanks...hehe! You kinda sound like someone from a Disney movie." I laughed, but was grateful for her words. Hinata always meant well and was a very soft-spoken person. She used to stutter a lot back in middle school when I had first met her, but now she only slipped up once or twice. My best friend was really pretty to say the least, but she always kept her eyes on Naruto. She turned down every guy who approached her (with a little help from her older cousin, of course). She was known for sounding a little cheesy when she spoke and still believed in the idea that "the good guy always gets the girl in the end."

The dark-haired girl was right though. I was going to have to get over my nine-year crush on Sasori, and just look to the future. We both were going to the Konoha Art Academy next year together, which I found very exciting. It was my dream to go there for schooling and to perfect my musical abilities...I needed to forget my stupid crush and move on with life.

"What about you though? How did it go with Naruto?" As soon as I said his name, Hinata's lavender eyes drifted down, the tiniest of frowns forming on her lips. Naruto was too much of a nice guy to give Hinata a hard time like Sasori did to me...

"Not as good as you may think…" Hinata sighed, her determined tone diminishing as she reminisced on what happened, "I told N-N-Naruto that I really admired h-him, and he thought that I meant it in a friendly way."

"But that's still pretty good, right?"

"Y-yeah. I got his phone number, and he wants to h-hang out as friends sometime."

I grinned at her form, watching as she set her empty ice cream cup to the side. "Perfect! Now all you have to do is convince him that you want to be more than friends! This is great news, Hinata!" Her face turned a deep shade of red at the thought of being with Naruto. At least one of us was successful with our confessions...even if Hinata was going to hang out with Naruto just as friends.

"You make it sound e-easy… I just wish things could have worked out between you and Sasori."

I shook my head at Hinata. "Things just weren't meant to be." No matter how much I wished for the gorgeous redhead to reciprocate my feelings, in the back of my mind, I knew the chances were extremely slim. I was just glad I could get out what I wanted to say so I could realize how much of an asshole he was.

In the corner of my eye, a flash of red caught my sights as I flung my gaze over wildly, heart quickening its pace when I found myself disappointed. It was just some guy wearing a red ballcap…

Ugh! Stop it, Mariko! Old habits die hard I suppose, but why won't this feeling go away?

"So are you excited for school next year?" Hinata shook me out of my thoughts when I realized she was already standing and moving to leave the park. I quickly stood up as well in an attempt to cover up my lack of attention, tripping over the bench as I laughed it off nervously.

"More so than I have ever been, haha~." Rubbing the back of my head, I joined Hinata as we both walked down the street. The sun was just barely peeking over the horizon now, yet our houses were just a few minutes away.

The two of us chatted for a while, talking about our families and the academy and life in general. It wasn't long before we found ourselves at my house, but we talked at the front of my gate for a long time.

The air was cool and light, setting the atmosphere perfectly as I waved goodbye to Hinata. Summer vacation had officially started, and I had a lot of things to get done around the house before I would have to leave for school again. For a moment, Sasori began to creep back into my mind, but I pushed him to the side, hating how my broken heart ached at the thought of him.

I then made a promise to myself.

I will get over the arrogant jerk by the end of the year and move on with my life. He wasn't worth crying over, and his stupid face could get run over by a car for all I care.

Little did I know how hard it was going to be for me to keep that promise.

If the main character seems faulty with her infatuation with Sasori, that's the point :). We can't have a character who doesn't grow within a story, so I did this on purpose because who wants to read about someone who is perfect and never changes? So now the question is...should I continue on with this story? I made the first chapter short on purpose to see if I could catch a few readers, but I have A LOT of crazy stuff planned out for you guys. Leave a review and let me know what you think!