Rated T for mild language, and some sexual themes/innuendo.

Please mind the gap between the train and the platform edge. Do not leave any baggage unattended. Thank you for travelling with KonohaRail Trains.

The woman's voice over the tannoy system was a stunted recording that Temari had already heard a thousand times before. The downside of attending a university so far from home was how long it took to get there. She had already spent four hours on the tracks and her body ached, her mind stagnating. Surely, it couldn't be much longer now?

Travellers are reminded that smoking is prohibited in all carriages.

Some travellers got off at this station, only to have their seats filled by others. She must be getting close – some of the new passengers were clothed in Konoha University branded sweatshirts. One of them loaded his luggage onto the racks and sat across the aisle from her, a few seats down. He was facing her direction but picked out a book as soon after he sat down and his face was obscured by the shoulder of another passenger. But something about him had sparked her interest. Something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

When the train set to moving again, speeding them through the land, she let her curiosity get the best of her. She walked down the centre aisle towards him, keeping a hand on the tops of the seats as she went to keep her balance against the rhythmic chugging vibrations of the train. She sat down in the seat in front of him, and leaned over the back to it to speak to him. Only when she spoke did he look up from his book.

"Do I know you from somewhere?"

He looked her over, considering her. He wore a green Konoha University sweatshirt, his black hair tied up in a short pony tail. His eyes were dark, giving nothing away of his thoughts. He wore a stud earring in one ear and sighed through his words as though he was already bored of her.

"I don't think so."

There was something about him that was so familiar. "Were you at the Open Day or something?"

She wasn't wearing anything that would mark her out as a student herself, but he cast her a glance of interest as soon he realised that they would be freshers together. "No, I never exactly got around to going."

"But you are a student. First year, right?"

He put a mark in his book and closed it so he could give her his full attention. He hadn't been able to focus on it anyway, his mind wandering and forcing him to read the same paragraphs over and over with nothing sinking in. "You too, huh?"

She nodded. "What course are you doing? Wait! Let me guess…" She tried to make sense of him. Those day-dreamy eyes, the way he seemed to carefully consider every word he spoke, a copy of A Brief History of Time in his lap… "You're a philosophy student."

"I wish," spending three years dreaming on the human condition sounded much easier than the scientific study he had actually sentenced himself to. "It's pharmacology, actually. I might end up in research or something. It's sort of a family thing."

"That's… actually quite impressive. I'm doing International Politics."

"That sounds like a drag. You aiming to be a diplomatic ambassador or something?"

"Maybe! I wouldn't mind seeing a little more of the world." Staying in the same place for any length of time had never been easy for Temari. She had restless feet and chronic wanderlust. Maybe that was one of the reasons she had applied to a University so far away from her home town. "Why did you apply to Konoha, anyway? If you didn't even go to the Open Day."

"My brother went to uni in Konoha. He always said it was a nice place to study."

"Has he graduated now?"

"He… he never finished his course." His brother Asuma had been just three months away from sitting his final exams when it happened. It still hurt. "He died last year."

"Damn. I'm sorry. How did it happen?"

He told her about his brother being home for a long weekend when he had witnessed some girl on the street being mugged and rushed to help her. But the mugger pulled a knife on him, and Asuma had died of his wounds in hospital two days later. He didn't tell her that Asuma had been on his way to pick his little brother up from his friend's house at the time. A part of him blamed himself for his brother's death.

"Wow. I'm sorry. I know it's not the same, but I lost both my parents when I was young so I can sort of empathise with what you're going through. Still got my little brothers though. The youngest one… well, he's going through some mental health issues at the moment. But the other one is starting a course at Suna University this year."

Their conversation had turned morbid quickly and he was glad of her changing the subject. "Your little brother is starting university at the same time as you are? How does that work?"

"I took a gap year," she shrugged. "Two, actually. So where are you living?"

"Leaf-block. Flat… uhm..." He took a number of folded papers from his pocket and flicked through to find one entitled Student Residence. "10."

"I'm in Sand-block, across campus."

"You know who you're living with yet?" Some flats could be specifically reserved, but most were randomly assigned. For most students, they wouldn't find out who they would spend the next year with until they moved in.

"That's a surprise."

"I know one. I knew him at school so we requested a flat-share." Choji had been a friend to him in school so when they found out that they had both been accepted into the same university, it was only logical to opt to share living quarters.

"So you've already got friends there, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess. Do you know anyone?"

"I'll make some friends soon enough." Perhaps she already had. "You never told me your name, by the way."

"I'm Shikamaru."

"Temari." She reached a hand out for him to shake. "It's good to meet you."

Hinata rode in the passenger side of her father's big car, her cousin on one of the back seats next to their luggage. Despite her offer for Neji to take the front seat, her father had insisted that as it was her first year at Konoha University and Neji's second, that it should be her who was offered the better view of their journey. Her cousin had said nothing, but she worried that it was the sort of thing he may silently resent her for.

It was a close-knit family. Their fathers owned the most successful opticians in their home town. But when the decision was made to open a new branch in another town, it was Neji's father who was sent away to manage it, leaving the boy with only his mother from a young age. Her father was the older of the two brothers, and took the best profits of the business, and Neji had never quite found his peace with this unfairness. She looked up to him, but he had never been kind to her. Truth be told, when he had left for his own first year of University last year, she had much enjoyed the quietness in the household that had taken his place.

There was still her younger sister Hanabi at home. As the elder, it was assumed that Hinata would grow to own the business after her father had retired, but there had been a change of plan as the children grew. Hanabi was full of ambition, and Hinata was not. As the elder sister disappointed her father again and again for her lack of competitive nature, he had grown to invest more and more of his time in the younger girl. Only when Hinata had turned sixteen years old was it announced that she would not be expected to inherit the business as that honour would fall to her younger sister. Instead, she would be welcomed as an employee.

And so Hinata set off to study optometry, just a year behind her cousin. Between Neji, her father, and her sister, there was not much left of her pride. But she clung to the idea that university was where people really began to grow, and was hopeful for a new start. This was a whole new town, full of strangers, and a new life she must learn how to live. The whole thing was wonderful, and terrifying.

"I'm so nervous," she said to Neji, not for the first time in the journey. He showed her no sympathy but he had been through this himself just a year before and the thought that she was not alone went some way to comfort her.

His response was the same as it had been before. "There's nothing to be scared of, Hinata." She knew he was right, but it didn't help. Neji was smarter, and braver, and more capable than she was in every way.

"You made friends on your first day right? Tell me about that."

The first students Neji had met in his first year were his flatmates – TenTen and Rock Lee. Though he didn't have much in common with Lee, who was in the library or at the gym morning and night, he and TenTen had got on relatively well and he would be living with her in his second year.

"You know all of my stories already, Hinata. You will make friends. Stop worrying."

They pulled into Konoha town and Hinata's eyes grew wide in amazement. It was busy with students and parents, and general townsfolk. In truth, it wasn't much different to her own home town, but the unfamiliarity of the place captivated her. They continued through the town centre, and up a long hill towards the University. The sea of green-clad students grew thicker as they approached, and boxes and suitcase littered ever roadside.

"Here," Neji interrupted her thoughts. Her father pulled the car over and Neji grabbed his only bag and opened the car door.

"I'll see you soon, Neji," Hinata called after him, but he was already gone. She watched him walk across to his accommodation as the car pulled away again. The carparks by her own block were busy, but her father found a space near the entrance. From here she could see trees behind the buildings in one direction, and down the hill in the other direction, over the rooftops of the University buildings, to Konoha town and finally to the sea.

"Here we are," her father announced. "Let me help you with your bags."

She wanted to help him carry her things, but her body was frozen with nerves. A part of her wanted to hide in the family car forever. She fumbled through her bag to find her accommodation certificate. Her name was in large gold letters in the centre – "Hyuga, Hinata" – with slightly smaller, silver lettering below it reading – "Leaf-Block. Flat 8."

There was no turning back now.

"Out of my way, Pig!"

"Move it, Forehead!"

The girls squabbled to get on their long-haul coach. The driver had already placed all of their belongings in the storage lockers below their seating, but they each had bags of supplies to get them through the journey which they used to push each other around. They would be on the bus for nearly three hours so they each wanted to get the best spot, or at least be as far away from each other as they could.

"It's bad enough that you got in to the same university as me, now you want to share a coach?"

"Hey, I didn't ask for this! You just better hope we're not sharing a flat!"

The blonde Ino wrestled her way to the back of the bus, leaving the pink-haired Sakura to find a seat further down.

As their journey was underway, Sakura couldn't help but be filled with a childlike excitement. A new town, new friends, this was a whole new start for her…. But one thing in particular was making her smile.

She had met a boy at the Open Day. Sasuke Uchiha, he had said his name was. Not at all like the idiot little boys at her own school, Sasuke was dark and mysterious, charming and so handsome. She would never admit it to anybody, but he was the main reason that she had picked Konoha University. She didn't even know if he had chosen this university too, but she clung tightly to the hope that they would meet again.

She had spent all summer dreaming off him, thinking of all the ways she might meet him, of how they would first grow to love each other, of how they would spend their lives together. Every song reminded her of him. But to her despair, it had been so long that the memories of his face, of his hands, of his voice were starting to grow fuzzy in her mind. It was fate that they had met. She just had to find him again.

Her bag was filled of books and notepads and magazines to keep her occupied through the journey, but she was too excited to use them. She watched the world speed by, bringing her closer to her future, and closer - she hoped - to Sasuke.

At last, the bus pulled in to Konoha Town. All around them, other students were carrying suitcases around, some of them in green Konoha University sweatshirts, some of them with Konoha University bags. It was only a short taxi ride between the Konoha bus station and the University campus, so Ino and Sakura begrudgingly shared a taxi and split the fair. They were in the same block, but Sakura was relieved to find that they were in different flats. She was in Flat 7, Ino would be in Flat 10.

They wrestled through the doors into the front hall of their block and were faced with a broad stairwell, which would carry them up to the floor they needed. Flats 1-5 peeled off to the left, Flats 6-10 peeled off to the right. The whole place smelled fresh and buzzed with new students. At the second floor, Sakura let Ino continue her climb to the top floor alone and sat her bags down outside the door to her new home. Flat 7. She was finally here.

Each flat's door had the names of the inhabitants inscribed beneath the flat's number in removable little plaques that could be changed each year when the flat had new inhabitants. She read the names, holding her breath in excitement. These people would be her new family.

The plaques read:

Haruno, Sakura.

Uzumaki, Naruto.

And below these, to her shock and delight, was inscribed the name:

Uchiha, Sasuke.

I've never written an AU fic before, but I couldn't sleep last night for thinking of all of these adorable scenes. So I figured I might as well type the first ones up and share. What's the worst that can happen?

This story is just for fun, and I'm well aware of how much of it is super-cheesy. It's just an experiment so far, so please favourite/follow/review if you'd like to read more of this.

Thanks

Cosmic x