Guess who is back, back, back, back. Back again. ME!
Oh my lovely SasuSaku lovers, I've missed you so much!
&& for my new lovers, welcome :)
Disclaimer: I'm still on planet Earth and kickin' it! Haven't been around for a while on here, so what does that tell you? I don't own Naruto :'(

Let Me Breathe

There's a girl that hides behind her glasses and clothing. And for what reason she has for doing that? No one knows besides her and her family. Because of the way she acts and dresses, no one takes her seriously but if you got to know the real her, you'll be amazed by what kind of person she is.

Do you know what it is like to pretend to be someone who you aren't? Do you know someone that does? If you asked them what their story is for doing so, they wouldn't tell you the truth wouldn't they. That's how I am. I'm a total fake but I have my reasons for doing so. I don't like hiding my true self, but it's for my own good, well according to my father. You see, my father's past has come back to haunt him recently and now I'm forced to wear this ridiculous disguise.

He tells me soon I'll be able to walk outside without fearing for my life. If he knew the truth, this disguise makes me fear for my life even more. I only cope with it because I don't want to worry my father. He constantly reminds me that I'm their main target.

'Their'. I don't know who these group of people are which freaks me out because what if I befriended one of them?

For what my father did in the past to make me their main target is beyond my imagination. My father is a business man, too busy to be staying at home but always makes time to ensure my safety. As for my mother, well, she's...dead. I'm not the type to get all emotional but when it comes to my mother, then that's a whole other story. I never knew my mother but I feel connected to her even though she is dead.

I brushed my hair back to put into a slick, high ponytail. This happens to be my typical school hairstyle. Some boys like to pull on it, hoping I'll get mad but I just sit there silently. But if they truly knew how I act, they wouldn't dare to tug on my ponytail again let alone touch my hair. At school I put on a shy, quiet act. I come off as this innocent, good girl but if they only knew I was acting. Smirking at thought of my amazing acting skills, I gave myself a quick up and down check in my mirror, even though it didn't matter, and went downstairs to be greeted by my father.

It's rare to see him early in the mornings, but his presence makes my day. He quickly glanced at me and nodded. His nod was the sign of acceptance towards my disguise. For a guy, he is quite picky when it comes to clothing. If I'm not dressed accordingly to the way he wants me to dress, he'll go pick out my clothing and what teen wants their parent picking out their clothing, especially your father! I just do what my father says because I fear for him, not for myself. Good daughter right? Right. That was a joke actually. Anybody who knew me before I had to start hiding my true self knows I'm a risk taker and trouble maker. Heck! Even my father knows and approves of it. Guess that goes to show you what kind of teen he was.

My father went back to reading the papers he held in his hand and then I realized an unopened envelope on the table. Upon approaching the table and about to touch the envelope, my father swatted by hand away. "Haven't I taught you not to touch what isn't yours?"

"Yes, well, kind of. You said and I quote: "You aren't supposed to touch what isn't yours but there are times when you have too, regardless if you have the other person's permission to or not." So father, if I may ask…what was your reason for swatting my hand away from this mail?" I raised an eyebrow. I do this a lot. Usually when I'm curious about something and the other times, I do it unconsciously or so I've been told.

At first he was mumbling to himself, something about how my wittiness reminded him of my mother, his deceased wife. "If I tell you, do you promise not to touch anything of mine again?" His voice was stern and I knew he was being serious. I nodded my head. But we both knew my nod shouldn't be taken seriously. "Another business wants to make some negotiations, so they sent me a list of what they want to talk about. I can't bother with that nonsense right now, so I left it closed."

As I squinted my eyes and I retorted back saying "How do you know it's about negotiations if you didn't open it?"

He stared at me for a good few minutes and coughed. After taking a sip out of his mug, he spoke "I can never get anything past you, can I…" That's not true, he has been hiding stuff from me that I have not yet to find out about, continuing to listen to what he had to say "Fine, you caught me. So I don't know exactly what it is but the negotiations part is true. This brings me to what I want to tell you. I won't be home till after midnight tonight because I have a feeling this meeting is going to take a while. So- "

"Yes, I know. Stay somewhere in the center of this house so no one can tell if someone is home or not." He smiled and nodded once again, giving an approval to my answer. I just rolled my eyes and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. "Well, I better get going. Don't want to miss math class, yaay!" My dad just chuckled and shook his head.

"Dear, you know it will come in handy" I heard him said as I walked towards the front door and right before I twisted the door knob, I stopped to shake my head at what he just said, but I know it's true. It will be beneficial later on in life.

Wouldn't you give weird looks at a person if you saw them wearing unattractive clothing, getting a fancy car door opened by a personal driver? Yeah, so would I. Ignoring the remarks and stares I was getting from some people, I headed straight towards the school doors.

As I made my way down the hallway towards my locker, someone shouted "Look out!" I turned around to see what the issue was and the football that was soaring in the air, met my face along with the male's elbow who was trying to catch the ball. Darkness engulfed me.

"Is she okay?" I heard a male voice.

"Well she's breathing, so she must be" another guy said.

I placed my hand on the spot where the ball hit me and gently rubbed it. My hand then moved down to my eyes to see if my glasses were alright but something was wrong. My glasses were missing. At that moment, I felt like I was going to have a Velma moment and will end up repeatedly saying 'Where are my glasses?' I then felt someone place something into the palm of my left hand and heard a grunt. A male I presumed, placed my glasses into my hand. Placing the glasses on, I slowly opened my eyes to be greeted with a group of students surrounding me.

"She's alive!" a blonde haired boy said.

"Of course she is, you idiot. She isn't going to die from being hit by a football" On the contrary, you could. But I'm not going to let out my smart remarks. A hand stretched out before me to grab and I nervously accepted the invitation for the help and gripped the blonde haired boy's hand.

"Strong grip you have there" I made no eye contact with those around me. I silently said thanks, collected my books and made my way to class.

Sasuke's POV

I stared at the petite figure disappear around the corner and turned back to be greeted by a huge smile on the idiot's face. "Naruto, what are you smiling about?"

"I saved a girl's life!" I heard Shikamaru sigh.

"Naruto, you barely saved her life. You're the one who through the football at her and you" I raised an eyebrow at Shikamaru. "You should have known better that she was standing right behind you. You two are something else." He rubbed his eyes. "I'm off to class. See you two there or not." Grunting at what he said, I begin to follow him.

"Sasuke! Wait up!" I just kept walking, not bothering to wait for Naruto. As I step foot into the classroom, I noticed that girl from just now. She was staring out the window at the tree, so I assumed, that was located on the hill near the school. She looked calm. Then she suddenly shifted her eyes from the tree to me. I just stared back and I saw her squint her eyes.

Strange. She wears glasses but squints.

Clearing the thought from my head, I made my way over to my seat to be greeted by the rest of the gang. "Hey guys! Guess what!" Naruto shouted and from that moment on, I knew today was going to be a long day because of this morning's incident. Great.

Curious about what this boy had to say, I slightly tilted my head back to listen better. It's not like I had to because this boy sure speaks loud, but I just want to make sure I catch every single word properly.

"I saved a girl's life today!" I shook my head and silently chuckled. Saved? More like harmed me.

"I see that you didn't hear a single word I said back in the hallway" Shikamaru. He's one of the smartest boys in our class. I've only had a few intellectual conversations with him. As a matter of fact, he's the only person I've talked to ever since I came to this school. For the others, no more than two sentences were exchanged between them and I, and that's how I wanted it to be.

It's strange, right? I hate pretending who I am and want to be myself, but at the same time I want to hide from these people. Perhaps I'm actually afraid of showing my true self to them and what their reactions would be. Or maybe I just enjoy avoiding all unnecessary drama that revolves around a teenager's life. Hearing the screeching noise the chair made beside, I knew the unnecessary bullshit was about to beginning.

"Hey four eyes" I turned to look at the boy sitting next to me. If I could punch him right now, I would. "Holy! What happened to your forehead? You aren't growing another eye are you?" the boy laughed and so did a couple of other students. See what I mean? I sighed and just shook my head. Silly boy. "Hey! Aren't you going to answer me? Aww, don't tell me I hurt your feelings." Yeah, he's definitely silly. I just sat there, staring straight ahead. "Sheesh, you're no fun." I'm no fun? This boy is begging for it! I kept clenching my fist under my desk.

Frustration was building up inside of me and I needed to get rid of it…quickly. I made my move once the boy got up from seat. The chair that he was sitting in was slightly bent already, so I decided to bend it a bit more. Just a tad more to the point where when he sits down on it, the chair would tip over. What? If I can't punch him, the least I can do is making him fall without making it seem like it was my fault. As soon as I finished bending it, I quickly sat back up straight and smirked. Let the fun begin.

Sasuke's POV

"Last period, thank God!"

"Naruto, do you ever shut up?" asked Shikamaru.

"Of course I do! Well, only when I'm eating." I looked over and Shikamaru and I knew he was thinking the same thing as I was. How we are friends with Naruto is something that's still unknown. I then saw the same petite pink headed girl from this morning.

"Hey Shikamaru. Who's that pink headed girl sitting over there?"

"That pink headed girl happens to be Sakura."

"Sakura what?" butted in Naruto.

"I don't know her last name and neither do any of the other students. She hardly talks and neither would I if I were her. Do you hear the things people say about her?"

"Yeah, I do. I agree with what some of the things they say."

"Aww, come on Sasuke! Why do you have to be mean! I'm going over there to talk to her!"

"Naruto do-" but Shikamaru just stopped mid-way as Naruto was already gone over to talk to her. Sakura.

"Sakura-chan!" Did someone just say my name just now? "Sakura-chan!" I turned around to be greeted by the blonde haired boy from earlier this morning. I just stared back at him and never responded back, hoping he would realize that I wasn't going to respond to him. Unfortunately, I shouldn't have even thought that was a possibility. I guess what students say about him is true. He just doesn't listen. He slammed his hands down onto my desk and shouted right into my face "Sakura-chan! Hey! I'm Naruto. You see those two guys over there?" He turned around to point at Shikamaru and some boy sitting next to him who seemed to have no care in the world what was happening right now.

Intriguing. I have to do some research on about that one.

I saw that this boy standing in front of me was still talking, "yeah and that one on the left is Sasuke Uchiha. But never mind about them. I just wanted to come over and say hello, and don't be afraid to hey to me in the hallways or in class!" He stood there and I knew he was waiting for an answer, but I just couldn't bring myself to say anything. Assuming he got the hint, he nervously giggled and walked back from where he came from.

I let out a sigh. Was it a sigh of relief? That's something I'm not sure about. I saw a supply teacher walk into the class. This was expected from our beloved teacher Kakashi. It was rare that we ever saw him here in class. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that everyone should be passing this course. Everyone should have 100 but you'll be surprised to know that isn't true. I don't know how but some people are nearly failing.

I sat there with a straight face. How do I it really amazes me. The urgency I have to turn to someone and talk to them, has caused me to twitch a bit from now or then but whenever I end up talking to someone the twitching goes away.

I guess I've been putting up this act for quite some time that is has led me to become anti-social. It sucks, really it does. I'm not anti-social! My father and I need to have a little chat. He made me wear an orange wig once to when we went to the zoo a few years back. To make a long story short, supposedly I looked like a lion from the back when I was sitting down on the bench and was attacked by one of the workers. Either they had bad eye sight or they can't tell the difference between a human and an animal. I shook my head at the memory and saw a few students staring at me. I then turned around to see that boy, Naruto, staring at me as well.

"Sakura-chan. You laughed!" he shouted excitedly.

"Is it wrong to laugh?" I nervously asked.

"Not at all! You should laugh more, you have a cute laugh" I blushed at what he said. I gave a slight smile and turned back around. I glared at some people to get them to stop staring at me. Finally, the bell rang and I quickly grabbed my things and exited the class.

Click. Clack. Click.

The sound of my shoes was the only thing I heard as I ignored all the remarks I was receiving again. Being out of zone, I quickly flinched at the arm that wrapped around my shoulder and my heartbeat was rapidly increasing. I walked faster and turned around to see Naruto standing there with a confused face. "Sakura-chan? Is everything fine? I didn't mean to scare you".

"Everything is fine. Sorry, but I'm in a rush to be somewhere." And continued the fast pace I created when Naruto came.

I slammed the house door and dropped my house keys into the bowl located near the door. I kicked off my flats and made my way to the living room, where I threw my bag onto the couch and laid down on the other couch. I pulled out my phone and started to flick it on and off. I then unlock the screen and opened up the web page. I clicked the search engine and started to type in 'Sa' but soon darkness engulfed me once again, as I dozed off into a long nap.

AHH! I did it! I managed to write this chapter in one night!
I'm getting my writing fever back! Watch me go on a roll!
Was aiming to write 2 chapters for tonight but I didn't succeed, clearly.
Hmm, I wonder who Sakura was searching on the web…any guesses? Hehe.
Until next time!

PureElegance