I've been fiddling with this fic idea since I first began writing on Fanfiction, so I figured I may as well post it up. Its a typical Japanese love story. I'm going to stay away from American-like aspects and focus on Japanese society-like relationships.

if you get what I mean.

Alot of my ideas have come from J-Drama's and animes and such. I have never been to Japan, but I will try my best to emulate it.

Please check for song playlist in profile. ANYTHING BOLDED IN THE ITALICS PARTS OF CHAPTERS ARE FROM THE SONG LISTED IN THE CHAPTER.

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Walking down the sidewalk, I listen to the sound of my feet crunching the snow underneath my feet. Its a relaxing noise, a noise I haven't enjoyed in years. I walk in a fluid pace, a rhythm coming from my steps. There isn't much in the way of snow. most of it has melted as spring is just starting. Even so, I walk along the little bit of snow left, feeling comfort.

I walk slowly, then stop in front of a shrine. I stand there, staring at the main temple for awhile. The memories this place hold are too great for me. All my past memories flash before me. The things I've done, the places I've been, and the people I've met. Life gave me things I'll never forget.

Heh, life is a funny thing, you know? It takes so long to build it up, yet it can crumble so fast. It took me forever to finally let someone into my life, yet it took me seconds to ruin it all. I have many regrets in my life, but I've learned to go past them. So much of my life changed when I finally let someone into it. It changed in good ways and bad ways, but it was probably the best thing I've ever done in my life. Its just too unfortunate for me how it ended.

She changed my world, and I did things because I thought it was for the best... but who was I kidding. I ruined things between us, and when things were mended between us, I lost the moment. Things between us since then have been fine. We haven't spoken in years, and I long to hear her voice.

"Once someone I loved left me and I thought it was all because of me, so I couldn't hold onto her. I thought that I could forget this pain, that another love will come to me.. but why can't I forget? All I can do is to look up at the sky and shout once again "love me", when this little hope in my heart becomes rain and falls."

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Map the Soul

Chapter One

Love Rain

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Open the box called love with the key of faith

Love Rain - Kim Tae Woo (Korean)

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Standing in front of the gates of Konoha Gakuen is not somewhere I want to be right now.

Why am I here? I have absolutely no desire to be here.

I don't need school. I don't need friends. I don't need happiness. I don't need anything.

So why am I here? First year of high school at Konoha Gakuen. I shouldn't have bothered taking entrance exams.

Or even trying for the matter. Just another lost cause on my part.

Standing at the gate way, many people pass me to get into the school. Girls begin giggling and looking at me all shyly. I glare in annoyance.

I begin turning my bicycle around, thinking I may as well not even go to school. Maybe I should just drop out and get a job, or go to night school if it comes down to it. I turn a full 180 degrees and became faced him.

"Oi teme! Where do you think your going!?" he says throwing an arm around my shoulder. I glare at him, "Go to hell."

"Don't be like that teme! It's the first day of high school. Just think man…all the freedom…and especially the girls!" he said letting go of my shoulder and looking in towards the school where everyone's walking. He makes a box with his thumbs and pointer finger on random girl. He begins to grin like an idiot. "This is going to be great!"

As he goes on, I began to make my escape, jumping back on my bike, ready to leave. As I'm about to pedal, Naruto grabs the back wheel. "Don't go teme!"

"Let go you idiot!"

"No!"

In annoyance, I pushed down on the pedal hard and Naruto automatically let go as the wheel turned. He yelled at me to come back, but I didn't care. I didn't give a shit.

I pedaled down into Konoha, not really knowing where I was going. It didn't really matter to me… anywhere but school was fine.

After casually biking, I found myself at a Shinto temple on the outskirts of town. As I got there, it began to rain, so I hid underneath one of the temple awnings. No one seemed to be around, which was perfectly fine by me. I closed my eyes and relaxed.

"ARGH!"

I slowly opened one eye and turned my head to the right, where I saw a girl with pink hair growl out in agony. The rain was coming down heavily at this point, and she seemed to be stuck. From her uniform, I could see she belonged to the same school as me. Her skirt looked to be hooked on the fence. She must have been struggling hard, since she wrestled to get it off for some time.

Eventually she gave up, kicked the fence about three times and then leaned against it. She was soaking wet.

I tried not paying attention to her, figuring she'd get it off eventually… but her struggling was getting to me. The fact she couldn't do something as simple as getting her skirt unclasped from the fence annoyed me.

"Stupid fence!" she screamed out. The rain was coming down harder and her frustration was only going higher. I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. It's unlike me to help anyone, but her useless efforts were annoying the hell out of me.

I walked out into the rain and over to her as she again struggled with it. As I put my hands on the metal wires of the fence, she instantly looked up at me. Her emerald eyes threw me off for a second. I have never seen eyes sparkle like that.

Without being incredibly fazed by her eyes I began fiddling with the fence. I unwind a wire which allowed her skirt open access to get out, "Pull it out."

She did so, and moved back a step, looking at the nice sized hole in her skirt. I grabbed her hand and pulled her under the Shinto temple awning.

I let go of her hand once under and shook my head, trying to dry it off. She immediately bowed down water dripping from her hair, "Arigatou gozimasu!"

I sighed and looked off in the distance, "Hn. Don't worry about it."

She looked up at me and smiled - which threw me off for a second. People smile at me all the time, but her smile made me freeze for a moment. it was the strangest thing that had ever occurred to me. I quickly looked away before I became more tranced by her smile.

I don't want to let this girl into my life. I should just walk away, but before I could do that, she put her hand out in front of me, "I'm Haruno Sakura."

I looked at her hand and then away as I continued trying to dry myself off. She looked surprised I didn't shake her hand, or introduce myself for the matter and put it down.

"We go to the same school, don't we?" she said pointing to the school emblem on her shirt. I looked at her shirt for a moment, then slowly turned away. she failed to realize her shirt was completely see through at the moment.

She raised an eyebrow at me as she turned around, and then looked down at her shirt. She eked in embarrassment.

"ah, gomen!" she began apologizing turning away, hands over her chest. I said nothing.

She quickly regained her composure and peered around me, "Anou, do you talk?" she asked.

This is why I don't help people–especially girls. I don't want to be dragged into stupid conversations like this and pestered to the point where I want to pull my hair out.

"You're annoying."

She was taken back by words. I looked at the sky and noticed the rain had lightened up to a mere spit. I grabbed my bike from the temple wall, ready to leave before this stupid girl continued talking to me.

She looked down at her watch and wined in surprise, "Oh no! I'm so late!" She said. She walked to one end of the awning, and then tilted her head. She pulled out a piece of paper from her kilt pocket and looked at it, only to see whatever was on it, to be completely smudged from the rain water.

My guess was that it was a map of some sort.

I took this as a chance to get away. I got on my bike and began biking in the rain, hoping to find somewhere else to stay where it's quiet.

I had biked down the road from the temple, and was about to turn the corner, when I saw that girl looking back and forth, with a confused face. How could she not know where the school is? Its not rocket science.

I sighed again and knew I would regret this. I don't even know what came over me that made me want to help this girl. I biked back towards the girl. She wasn't currently looking my way, but when I skidded next to her, she looked right at me with wide eyes.

"Get on."

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"Being late on the first day is a big offense." Tsunade said in a stern voice. She didn't seem too thrilled when she saw us biking up onto school grounds in the rain.

Why did I help this girl again? I was never planning to come back to this place.

She sighed and then continued, "But because you are both first years, its the first day of school and it is raining, I'll let this go this time. Now get to class."

We both nodded and walked out of the classroom, with towels in our hand. Once in the hallway, Sakura stopped and turned to me. "Arigatou again. I'm really grateful."

I turned and began walking down the hallway, leaving her standing there. "Hn. Don't let it get to your head."

She gave me a perplexed stare and ran until she was walking next to me. "What?"

"I didn't help you to be nice, or to make friends or anything stupid like that."

"Oh…" she said in a disappointed voice. she then looked up at me, "then why did you do it?" she asked as we continued walking down the hall. I still didn't know why I did it. I never answered, and she seemed to notice. She stopped and smiled. "I'll pay you back somehow."

I stopped and looked at her with my eyebrows raised. I'd prefer for her to not pay me back. "Don't bother."

She shook her head. "I will pay you back!"

I rolled my eyes and walked back down the hall, until I stood in front of the back door of classroom 1-B. She looked at me surprised, "Ah, you have Kakashi-sensei too?"

I felt like hitting my head against the wall. How is it that I got stuck having class with this girl?

I slid the door opened and walked in, her following behind. The man at the blackboard turned around to us, as did the class.

"Ah, the two stragglers?" he said putting his book down. I saw Naruto near the front of the class, next to the hallway windows grinning as he saw me. Many girls in the class began giggling.

Ah, what else is new?

"Uchiha Sasuke," he said pointing to me, "and Haruno Sakura?"

Sakura nodded, "Hai. Gomenasai for being late." She said bowing down. Kakashi smiled through his mask, which I found odd for a teacher to wear. "Its fine, but don't make a habit of it. Since you two are late, there are only those two open seats at the back. Please take a seat. We'll be changing desks later in the week."

Sakura nodded and took the last seat in the second row. The class had five rows with six desks in each. She took the last seat in row two while I took the last seat in the first row, which was fine with me, since I had the window.

Class resumed and I turned to the window, zoning out.

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"So teme, who's the girl you were with this morning?"

How'd I know he would eventually ask? "No one important."

"But teme, did you see how pretty she was!? Her pink hair and her green eyes make her stand out… and not to mention her body was a perfect ten! … Although she's kinda flat." he said making the okay sign with his hand. I rolled my eyes–sometimes I wonder how I'm friends with this idiot.

I'm not one for friends, or admires…or anyone really. I'm not a people person…and its not like I'm shy or afraid of girls, or anything stupid like that–I just don't give a damn for people and their fake faces. Do girls who fall at my feet really give a damn about my well-being? …or do they just want to have a good-looking boyfriend to gloat about to everyone? I don't need that kind of shit. I don't need any guys hanging around me because they think that if they're friends with me, they'll be great with the girls or that they'll be popular. Fuck that logic. This is why I isolate myself.

But Naruto…he's different I guess. I can only tolerate him because we fight, which makes no sense when you think about it. He's the one person I found that's not fake. He is who he is, and doesn't care what others think. I guess that's what makes him admirable.

And it's the only thing.

But that's the only thing I can admire him for. Otherwise, he's a pain in the ass.

I rolled my eyes as I get back on topic, "She's just some stupid girl I helped in on the way to school."

I shouldn't have said anything, as Naruto nudged me in the shoulder, "Eh teme…you don't help anyone!"

I glared at him as I packed my lunch back up, "Shut up."

The bell had just gone to signal lunch was over. The classroom began to flood in with people as they came back in from lunch. Naruto looked like he was waiting for something.

"Go back to your seat already." I told him. He scrunched his face at me. At that moment, Sakura walked back into the classroom, heading for her seat next to me.

Naruto put on a true grin, "Hi! I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" he said introducing himself to her. She looked at him and nodded, "Oh, Konnichiwa. I'm–"

"–Sakura right?" she nodded, a little surprised he knew her already. "I'm the teme's friend," he said pointing to me, "sorry if he was mean to you or anything."

She shook her head with a smile, "No its fine. Arigatou anyway."

"Ne, can I call you Sakura-chan?" he asked. She seemed surprised by his words, and simply nodded. Naruto seemed to be blushing at this point and I couldn't take his stupid conversation anymore. I pulled out my ipod and plugged myself in, drowning out their conversation. I looked out the window watching as the rain continued to fall. Ten minutes later of completely drowning myself out of any classroom activity, a large slap was made on my desk. I nonchalantly looked over and saw an angry looking woman at my desk. "Music is prohibited during class time! Secondly answer when your name is being called for attendance." She said angrily. She put her hand, "ipod please, and to the office with you."

Stupid old hag. I put my ipod in her hand and walked out of the classroom, sliding the door behind me angered.

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This school is fucked.

Gai-sensei, the gym teacher and his idiot-in-training Rock Lee are in charge of the detention room while the whole school is at the opening ceremony.

I hope I never have to come back here.

"Young man, how could you fill your head with this music while a youthful lesson is going on in front of you? Class is important you know!" Gai said, doing some lame super hero pose. I scoffed and turned to the side.

He wasn't impressed, but didn't want to deal with me. He told Rock Lee to watch over me as he went to go do something. He agrees without a second thought.

Stupid second year.

I sit there with my arms folded, wanting to get out of that hell hole as fast as I could. Lee keeps asking me about my youth and shit that I really don't care about. Its not like I'm answering him.

A knock was heard at the door and Lee went to answer it. Standing there is Sakura, and instantly, Lee's eyes have hearts.

"Ano…" she begins. She looks around, "is there not a teacher here?"

"Gai-sensei went to get something. Can I help you?" he asks, blushing. I roll my eyes. What an idiot.

Sakura looks at me and winks. She then turns to Lee, "Can you…let my friend go? I know he did wrong by listening to music, but it's the first day." I looked at her with my eyebrows raised. Friend? What the hell is she trying to do?

Sakura keeps talking to Lee about getting me out of trouble, and the bushy eyed freak is just staring at her longingly as she puts on her cute act. Her innocent has him hooked.

Of course I'm not fooled, but I'll let her continue. Anywhere is better then in this room with those spandex wearing freaks.

"Well I'm not supposed to be doing this Sakura-san, but because you bring up such good points, I'll let him go." He said turning to me. He handed her my ipod. "You can go."

I get up, hands in my pockets, heading for the door. Sakura thanks Lee and walks out, myself following behind. We walk down the hall in silence, and once were down the hallway far enough, I stop. "Why did you do that?"

She turned around and smiled. "I said I'd pay you back, didn't I?"

And when she smiled, I couldn't help but smirk. This is her way of paying me back?

She walked up to me and grabbed my right hand. She opened it up and put my ipod in my hand. She looked up and smiled, "Now lets hurry up and go to the opening ceremony. We don't need anymore trouble, do we?"

She begins walking down the hallway, skipping happily. I don't know what's with this girl, but there's something about her that I actually may tolerate.

Tch. She's still annoying.

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I remember my first glimpse of her face
I saw you smile, then I smile
I was straight blown away

Map the Soul

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Its starting off slow, high school fic-ish. I encourage listening to the songs in these chapters. Although the first song really doesn't have alot to do with this chapter, I love the beat, and although its Korean, its a real good song, compared to the music we listen to today.

Songs will be in a playlist under my profile. Each chapter I will add a new song :D

- Shellzonfiree