Sasori sighed as he walked to school by himself, as always. It was the first day of his tenth year at school, which he was not looking forward to. I mean, what was there to enjoy, anyways? Loud chatter, loud bells, loud announcements, loud teachers yelling at brats to pay attention to the loud lecture... oh joy, what fun. But then again, when was Sasori Akasuna looking forward to anything in general?

A group of little kids ran by him, one of them tripping onto the ground with a loud cry. Sasori inwardly groaned. He did not need to deal with excess noise before the day even started.

Some said that he had a heart of stone, some said that he had no heart at all. But what more could you expect from a teen who had been living alone for nine years now? His parents had been involved in a car accident when he was at a young age, and his grandmother - the only family he had left - was extremely ill. So he was left alone, to fend for himself, for nine whole years.

Over that time, his heart froze.

At first, it was painful. Agonizingly painful. Reality had hit him very hard. The fact that his parents were no more was enough to tear the poor boy to shreds. Which it did, ultimately. During that time, Sasori had suffered extreme depression and even attempted to commit suicide. (However, he suddenly decided not to; he had felt a familiar presence near him at the time, and found it somewhat... comforting. Afterwards, the pain was replaced with general numbness. He wasn't aware of anything anymore. It was like he was a robot; oblivious to anything and everything except for the task he had to accomplish. Which was - in this case - living. But before long, Sasori learned to accept it, and eventually moved along with his life, as always.

However, his heart was frozen over. He had gone through so much emotional pain that he simply could not feel them anymore.

It had all started and ended with the death of his parents. The start of his new life with the end of his old. Looking back on it, he preferred his current state much better. Sure, he didn't have much of a family, but so what? He was over it. It wasn't like he could go through time and change the unfortunate events anyways, so there was no real point in sulking.

There was also no point in having emotions, either.

Back then, if he had assessed the situation in a calm manner - without any emotional biases - things would have been much better. He wouldn't have had to take therapy for a whole year, or summer school to make up for all the wasted days he spent in his room, crying. And not to mention the fact that he almost ended his own life by choice. No matter what way he looked at it, emotions were just a burden that clouded your vision from the things that actually mattered. But he was free of them, unbound by the chains that held humans back. He would even go as far as to say that his parent's deaths were not in vain, since he benefited from it greatly. But he did still hold a bit of respect for his parents. It wasn't quite love, just something he thought he'd ought to have. It didn't really mean anything to him.

Sasori turned a corner, and was faced with the towering, open gates of Kisaragi High. He could see the mobs of people crowding around the entrance way, eager to see old friends and whatnot. He could already envision what the school year would be like, how many people he'd have to face, how much noise there'd be with all the accumulated voices... it was enough to set his head spinning.

He checked his watch. 8:20. School didn't start until 8:30. Why had he come so early? Now he had to spend a whole ten minutes doing nothing among a bunch of loud brats. Or he could go look for some familiar people that he could consider "friends", like Pein, Konan, Kakuzu, or Itachi. They didn't really talk to each other, but they were all involved in similar situations. Pein and Konan were orphans that grew up together. Kakuzu had been kicked out of his house, and made his money off of e-marketing. As for Itachi, his whole family was a complete mystery, although Sasori had heard rumors saying that his whole family was murdered (with an exception of his little brother, whose whereabouts were unknown.) He didn't exactly remember when and how the "group" was formed, but he found himself subconsciously around them a lot. From a third person's perspective, one could say that they actually looked like they cared for each other, which was obviously the contrary. Well, at least he didn't care. Why would he? What have they ever done for him?

Leaning against his usual tree, he sighed. His usual group couldn't be seen from where he was, and he wasn't going to go out of his way to look for them. He checked his watch. 8:22. This was going to be a long wait. Maybe he could at least pull out a book and start studying or something.

"Sempaii! Tobi's riding the skateboard!" Ugh. Brats.

"Tobi, you f*cker! Give me back my skateboard! If you break it I'll-" Why were their voices so loud? How annoying.

"It's okay, it's okay. Tobi will be carefu- ahhh!" A loud thump was heard. Sasori looked up to see a group of guys not too far away. There was a guy with silver hair and magenta eyes, one with a swirly orange mask on his face, and one with really long, blonde hair. It had been the orange-faced one that fell off the skateboard, and the silver haired one that owned it. By the looks of it, they seemed to be first-years at Kisaragi High. Tch. First years were always such a bother to cope with.

8:26. At least the brats helped him kill some time. Might as well start heading in. But before he did, he heard the blonde speak up.

"Hey guys, it's almost 8:30. We should start getting to class, yeah." Yeah?

"Yeah, guess so. Don't want to be late on the first day of school," the albino replied.

"Sempaiii... Tobi thinks he lost the school map..."

"Jashin dammit! What did I say about losing the map, you little -"

"Hidan, calm down. We can just ask someone. There's no need to fight this early in the morning." Sasori agreed with the latter statement.

8:28. He should start moving. After all, he hated to make people wait. He started heading towards the entrance in a brisk walk.

"Excuse me, un!" Sasori kept on walking.

"I'm talking to you! Red hair!" Tch. Persistent brat.

"Hey!" The blonde had ran in front of him, blocking his way. Sasori deadpanned. Couldn't the child just leave him alone?

"Sorry for stopping you, yeah, but my friends and I were wondering where-"

"I don't know, and I don't care," Sasori cut off the blonde mid-sentence and kept on walking. Once again, he was stopped. By the same brat.

"Come on, man. We're first years here, yeah! Couldn't you lend us a hand on our first day?" The blonde was tearing out every remaining strand of his patience, one by one.

"You were given a map before you left for summer break. You should have at least taken a look at it," he replied in a monotone voice.

"But we didn't do that, and now we don't have a map either."

"That's your problem, isn't it?" It was more of a statement than a question. "Now, if you'll excuse me, brat." He walked past the blonde with a quicker pace. If he didn't hurry up, he'd definitely be late. And late people were almost as bad as loud people.

Almost.

"Fine then, be like that, yeah!" The blonde shouted behind him. "Freaking jack*ss..."