Sasuke was 15 years old and a sophomore in high school, when he realised that things weren't always as they seemed.

His mother had insisted, he enrolled in a co-ed high school after Sasuke had brutally sent a girl running away in tears after she had confessed her feelings to him at the market earlier.

"How do you expect to ever have any grandchildren if Sasuke doesn't even know how to behave around girls, Fugaku?" Mikoto had sighed at the dinner table one evening shaking her head as she recalled the incident. "He really needs to interact more with the opposite gender! I don't want him to end up sad and alone without a wife to care for him. God knows how badly he will take care of himself. My little Sasuke doesn't even know the difference between a cucumber and a zucchini," she had dramatically added.

Sasuke had been quite horrified and ashamed by his mother's statement, almost choking on his rice while Itachi had laughed quietly next to him while patting him on the back as a sign of support for his lost little brother.

Sasuke's initial plan was to finish high school with good grades and afterwards enrol into the police academy, like his brother had done a few years prior. Itachi had passed high school easily with top grades and had went directly to the police academy where he also had been easily flying through.

Knowing his and his brother's importance to the Uchiha Clan and future, he fought tooth and nail to keep up to Itachi. It was never an easy task, and it seemed that whenever he'd accomplished anything, Itachi would have done better, and he was left standing in the shadow.
He had often experienced classmates and teachers alike, trying to befriend him to get close to Itachi and fall into the Uchiha Clan's good graces, which was the reason he had demanded his father to transfer him to a new school. A new school and new people, who wouldn't use him or compare him to Itachi.

As much as Sasuke loved Itachi, he also hated him. Hated him because he was left behind. Alone. Bitter.

In his sophomore year of high school Sasuke befriended a loudmouthed blonde named Naruto Uzumaki. Or rather, it was Naruto whom had befriended Sasuke, really.

He had just been transferred a few days prior and was sitting at his desk, reading for the upcoming lessons and glaring at whoever would dare disturb him, when the classroom door was thrown open with a loud bang, and a blur of a person was sprinting inside. Said blur was of course the Uzumaki kid. Registering an arm and the clattering of books falling unto the floor, Sasuke suddenly didn't have any books in front of him anymore. Instead a squatting Naruto was grinning down at him, from his new position on Sasuke's desk, yelling about challenging him to a one-on-one basketball game (because apparently girls dig basketball… and Sasuke…).
Sasuke responded the only way he found logical, by giving the blonde a glare and pulling his ankle, which resulted in the said boy's famous face-plant on the classroom floor.

Making a long story short… Sasuke and Naruto had ended up fighting, which had resulted them in detention for the rest of the week, and somehow Naruto had declared him his new best friend along those days. How Sasuke had agreed on that, he still wondered many years after, but he would plead to temporary insanity.

Sasuke soon came to realise that girl's in high school weren't very different from girl's in kindergarten. They were still annoying, chasing him and pining for his attention. Some would even squeal whenever he walked into a room. He would scowl and Naruto would be somewhere in the background, laughing at his expenses.
He didn't show them any interest, he just wanted to be left alone and would coldly glare at whoever would be foolish enough to confess to him. Rumours about him and his preferences were soon all over the school.
Naruto would later that evening at their weekly dinner laugh at him from across the table, while telling his mother about the absurd rumours floating around the school. "Sasuke only like girls with long hair, what the hell," Naruto was wiping away tears from laughing too much, Mikoto pitying whoever believed in the said rumours, while Sasuke rolled his eyes at his best friend, cursing whoever had made the rumour in the first place.

When they graduated high school a few years later, almost every girl their year had grown their hair at least past the shoulders.

Naruto was in opposite to Sasuke an extreme extrovert. He was sunshine in human form which would reach out to whomever was ready to accept, so it was no shock to Sasuke, when the blonde had befriended yet another person. Said person was a pink haired girl named Sakura Haruno, who was in the same year and class as him.
At first Sasuke had been suspicious of her, wondering if she was only using Naruto to get close to him, as other girls had tried before, but he soon came to realise that she genuinely cared for the blonde boy.

Sasuke had initially planned to stay clear of Sakura but as the days passed her presence, credit to Naruto's annoying meddling and ideas, seemed to knock onto his hard-made defences, cracking it little by little. It really didn't take long, before he found himself opening to the girl, and soon she would join his and Naruto's weekly dinners.

If Naruto was sunshine, Sakura was a flower. A flower which had not yet blossomed, delicate but still delightful. She wasn't as confident in her looks as her best friend Ino Yamanaka, but she would find her own strengths in books and knowledge.

Sasuke often related Sakura and Ino's relationship to himself and Itachi. One always in the front, always in the spotlight and always shining. One always chasing, always running in the shadows towards the lights and always fighting to shine just as bright. He would never admit it out loud, but he had developed a soft spot for the girl, and he suspected Naruto for having done the same. Silently they vowed to protect the blooming flower until it was ready to stand for itself in all its beauty.

Mikoto absolutely adored the pink haired girl and doted on her, whenever she was visiting. Sasuke suspected it being because his mother always had wanted a daughter but ended up with two sons instead, and he would often suggest the weekly dinners to be at his place, to humour his mother. After all, he would do anything to see his mother happy.

Everything had seemed perfect and he was truly enjoying his high school life, until he had been confronted at school by two girls from the same year.

He was on his way home, when a girl with red hair and a girl with purple hair blocked his path in the hallway. He recognized them as the fangirls, whom had started all the absurd rumours about his preferences and whatnot.
He glared at them and tried to walk past them when the purple haired girl spoke, "I would stay away from Sakura, if I were you". He ignored her, almost having reached the doors when she yelled, "She's just using you to get to your brother!"
That made him stop in his tracks, cold chills running up his spine as his stomach felt as cold as ice. He turned around, lifting an eyebrow as if telling her to continue. The red headed girl spoke up instead, "yeah, she told the other girls that you brother was a lot better than you and that she would use you to get to him".
His stare turned into a full glare as he tried to ignore the crippling doubt that was beginning to slither into his head. The girls gulped at that but hadn't backed down, "just wait, she'll soon make a move and you'll know we told you the truth," the read headed girl stuttered before he walked away from them hands clenched tightly into fists.

With his back turned to them, he never saw the two girls smirking at each other.

That night, doubt and suspicion wrapped itself in his head, coating his mind in shadows and distrust. The cold in his stomach only blinded by the clenching feeling in his chest.
He would not believe them! Sakura would never betray him!

The next day Sasuke had tried to forget about it all, when he was confronted by a nervous but smiling Sakura at the lockers. "No, please no!" his mind screamed at her, but he held his tongue and waited for her to speak.
"Good morning, Sasuke," she greeted him with a smile while he nodded in return. "I really need to tell you something," she told him, and he froze. He looked at her, begging her in his mind not to confess, when she took a dep breath and professed her love for him.

His eyes narrowed, and the only thing he could hear, was his own heartbeat and a voice taunting him, "She's using you! You mean nothing! Again, you've lost to Itachi! Foolish!". In a moment, his defenses around his heart were build up again and he hissed at her, "as if I would like an annoying, attention seeking girl like you". Sakura froze, "I… I don't understand," she stammered, and he could see her fight to keep in her tears. "You're annoying and useless," he didn't even try to hide the distaste in his voice, and a tear fell down Sakura's left cheek, but refused to feel guilty. She had been the one to betray him.
"Oi Teme! That was rude and totally unnecessary! Apologize to Sakura!" Naruto shouted and grabbed him by the collar, fist already clenched in the air. Sasuke didn't register the rest. He and Naruto got into a fist fight, which was stopped by their PE teacher, Maito Gai. He never realized a crowd had formed. He never heard Karin's taunting laughter at Sakura's misery. But he would never forget the heartbroken look on the pink haired girl's face.

Sasuke and Sakura didn't talk to each other after that. He knew that Naruto was miserable from being torn between his two best friends, but he was too hurt to care. Locking his thoughts of Sakura deep down, never to think about again, he fell back to his initial goal of graduating high school and enroll into the police academy.
Naruto had made a choice to stay by his side, as his support and as his un-biological brother. Sasuke would never admit it, but he was thankful for his best friend's support even though it had been hard for him too.
Mikoto never said anything out loud but Sasuke knew his mother's heart, and that she was sad to see that Sakura no longer would be visiting. The only reason she didn't say anything was because she didn't want to push him away.

Often, Sasuke wanted to apologize to Sakura but his pride wouldn't let him, reminding him that she had been the one to use him to get closer to Itachi. He had often scolded himself for missing the pink haired girl, making extra effort to avoid her at any time.

Sasuke was 15 years old and easily one of the students with the best grades at his high school and yet he had never felt more stupid.


A/N: Finally posting the second chapter... I'm really busy with university so I'm having a hard time finding time to write - and whenever I do, I'm out of ideas, so sorry if it seems jumbled