Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the songs used.

Chapter 2

iSuck At Life

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

Huff, huff…

Sakura dashed down the hallways of her medical college, monster textbooks still in her arms. 'Omigod, omigod, PLEASE tell me that I'm not—"

She burst through the doors of her class and immediately found a seat while the professor had her back turned to the class as she was writing a few biochemistry formulas on the board. Just as she sat down and was about to let out a silent sigh of relief, her professor, still having her back to the class, calmly stated, "Late, Haruno."

Sakura sighed before slumping in her seat. 'Of course…' she thought as she vaguely heard her fellow classmates snicker at her misfortune.

"Um, h-hello, S-Sakura-san…" sounded a timid voice.

Sakura turned around in her seat to see who behind her actually knew her. She smiled in recognition. "Hi, Hinata-chan! I didn't know you were in this class. I never knew you had wanted to major in biochemistry."

"W-w-well, y-yes, of course, Sakura-san. I-It's been my interest s-since high school."

Sakura grinned. Even though Hinata was the most timid creature on the planet, she was always an interesting person to talk to. Well, in Sakura's book she was. Maybe it was because Sakura was just nice… Oh, well. It didn't matter. What mattered was that Hinata (according to Sakura) was an extremely awesome person.

"Hey, Hinata-chan, after class, do you want to—"

"SAKURA!"

Sakura winced as she heard the professor's shrill voice connect with her poor eardrums. "Er, yes, Professor Tsunade?"

"Be quiet and listen to my lecture if you would like to learn, but if not, refrain from disturbing other people!" And with that, the blonde-haired professor continued her lecture on how different substances, if mixed together correctly, could create a nice stomach reliever and blah, blah, blah…

Although Sakura knew that Konoha University (consisting of over twenty colleges) was hard to get into and was rumored to have scary mental exercises, it seemed that the courses of the medical college were practically the same as those of the advance placement classes in high school, maybe even—dare she say it—easier.

But that was Sakura for you. She was a genius of her age, graduating from Konoha High as Valedictorian and voted by practically everyone in school as Most Likely to Succeed and, by the faculty staff, Most Well-Rounded Student.

It was a made-up award, but the school staff had loved her so much the four years they had her, they decided to make one up just for her (which got her a lot of dirty looks, but that was besides that point and definitely another story that Sakura would have to tell).

And it was true, too. Sakura had gotten herself involved in so many extracurricular activities that she could hardly count them, even now. There was badminton, National Honors Society, French Club, Mathematics League, Academic League….the list kept going on from there. And Sakura had to thank it all to her iPod.

Her iPod was there for her, keeping the stress away when finals came around in high school, throwing her into an alternate reality when she needed to escape from the real world. The iPod was basically her best friend.

'It's so sad if you think about it.' The rosette nearly keeled over laughing when she thought about how loser-like it was, having an iPod for a best friend. Well, it was semi-true. The iPod was there for her, for good and bad times, but so were her other friends. There was Naruto, Ino…and there was Sasuke.

The thought of the dear raven-haired boy—correction: MAN—made Sakura's lips give way to a sad smile. 'We've known each other for so long…and he just throws it away like that…'

'He just… throws it away…' Sakura's brow furrowed in anger. She slammed her fist into her desk. "AARGHH!"

"DAMMIT, HARUNO!" cursed a familiar shrill.

Sakura looked up from her revelry…and felt her face flush a deep, unattractive red. She was still in biochemistry class. In the morning. When everyone was feeling their least best. Unfortunately for Sakura, this crappy feeling included her professor, who was clearly not happy about Sakura's random outburst.

Professor Tsunade had snapped her dry-erase marker in half, spilling the ink all over her hands. She took a deep breath and let out an irritated exhalation. Then, she turned her death glare to the pink-haired genius that couldn't keep her mouth shut during a lecture. "Listen, Haruno," the professor hissed, "if you already know this material, then that's awesome. However, there are some people who don't. Therefore, I strongly"—her eye twitched involuntarily—"advise you to step out of the class and have a nice time in the library or something. You don't have to come to lectures if you already know the material." After the calm/irate professor finished her diplomatic tirade, she excused herself from the room, apparently going to wash off the ink that stained her hand from the broken dry-erase marker, and to, probably, grab a new one to replace it.

Sakura sighed. 'First day of medical school and I've already gotten on the professor's bad side…'

Hinata, still sitting behind the distressed rosette, patted her gently and apologetically before saying, "It's not your fault, Sakura-san. Everything s-sort of went downhill b-because of what I had s-started…" The black-haired beauty stared back anxiously at the pink-haired woman, hoping for an apology acceptance.

"It's not really your fault either, Hinata-chan," Sakura sighed tiredly before flashing Hinata an embarrassed grin. "I was just excited that there was someone in here that I actually knew."

"O-oh. Okay, then…." Hinata stuttered in relief.

Sakura laughed half-heartedly. "At least she didn't give me any psychological trauma, ne?"

Professor Tsunade was the scariest one on campus. Hands down. No one was as strict, as scary, and homicidal-sounding as she was. The typical professor would give you a pink slip if you had joked around in their college course class. Tsunade was a different matter; she would give you the biggest fright and psychological trauma you would have ever experienced. And she did it in the most diplomatic way possible. No one ever knew how she did it, one moment she's saying something that's seemingly really polite. Then, those that actually know what she's saying end up with the worst psychological trauma ever known to man.

A young man of the age of twenty-five had actually been found sucking his thumb in a fetal position, scrunched in a corner coming out of Tsunade's class.

Sakura shuddered at the thought.

"Sakura-san?" Hinata inquired. "Are you okay?"

Responding with a slight nod (any more sudden movements and then her breakfast would have come back up), Sakura managed to break out a small grin before saying, "Yeah. Don't worry about it, Hinata-chan." She shuddered a bit at the thought of a thumb-sucking twenty-five-year-old curled into a fetal position. "I just need to relax a bit with some music…."

Grabbing her knapsack, Sakura began rummaging through her bag, trying to find her precious iPod. Puzzled, she felt around for it. 'Huh, that's funny,' she thought. 'I could have sworn I had it earlier…' She dumped out her knapsack's contents, fumbling wildly through her notebooks and papers and pencils. "Where in the world could it be?" she cried hysterically.

Oh God. It was the end of the world! The world was ending! There was no iPod, there was no music, and in a few minutes, the trauma artist of a professor was coming back to smite her! So, what the hell did Sakura do?

The only logical thing a girl with a homicidal teacher would do: she panicked.

"Omigod, omigod, omigod!" Sakura hyperventilated, scrabbling into her notebooks and papers endlessly. "Where the hell did I fucking put my freakin' iPod?" Then, ignoring the stares of her fellow peers, Sakura straightened in her seat. "I…lost. It…." Her heart sank. The only thing in the world that made her calm, the only thing in the world that had helped her succeed through all of the times she spent in school, was missing. Missing.

"Where was the last place you put it, Sakura-chan?" Hinata gently inquired, surprisingly without stuttering.

Sakura replied frantically, "Well, I had it this morning and I was out of the car and I bumped into Sasuke and I had to—" Stop. Right. There.

"Omigod…" Sakura breathed.

Hinata looked at her expectantly.

"I bumped into Sasuke."

"So…?"

"This means that I probably left it where I had bumped into Sasuke…" Sakura's throat went dry.

Hinata frowned. "But, by now, it's probably anywhere." That was true. People liked to steal. Especially things like a classic, black iPod with pink, seductive headphones.

Sakura gulped down some of her water. "Yeah, but then, it wouldn't hurt to look there…"

Silence filled the air and weighed it down heavily.

"You think that the professor won't mind if we—" Hinata began before Sakura cut her off.

"Naw."

Gathering their stuff, Hinata and Sakura burst out of the room and headed back to the scene of the crime where the beloved iPod went missing.

"It better be there," Sakura hoped. But, seeing how hope was always rejecting her, the chances that the iPod was still there were slim to none.

-xxx-

The halls were empty when Sasuke had even started walking down the hallways towards his first morning class. Math 150. Yum.

As he walked nonchalantly through the doors, high-pitched squeals echoed from the huge number of girls that were apparently signed up just for him.

"Omigod, it's Sasuke-kun!"

"Hi, Sasuke-kun! Oh, did you see how he ignored me?" (squeal)

"Sasuke-kun! Sit next to me!"

"(squeal)! Sasuke-kun, can I have your autograph?"

And on and on the squealing went, fangirls ubiquitous. In the end, Sasuke had chosen a seat next to his blond-haired friend and the brown-haired genius.

The professor had not arrived yet (Dammit…), so the fangirls had time to be able to admire the Uchiha's perfect face and squeal over who got noticed more by him.

It was a hysterical game.

And it was even more hysterical being a person who watched them. Spectators were always fun to be.

Naruto grinned at Sasuke. "Hey, Sasuke-teme! Long time no see, ne?"

"Hn."

"DAMMIT, TEME! AT LEAST SAY HELLO TO YOUR AWESOME SUPERIOR!"

"Shut up, dobe."

Naruto puffed up in anger and annoyance at the raven-haired man's arrogance and pompous attitude and promptly turned away, pouting, "I wish that Sakura were here! She'd so take my side!"

Sasuke stiffened at the mentioning of Sakura, remembering their first meeting after four long years just a few moments ago. He remembered how angry he had felt when he saw her here, remembering graduation night (it was fun, but Sasuke would never admit that) and how much trouble he had gotten in. So, just to smite her, Sasuke had pretended that she was someone he had never known. But people who never knew other people didn't take other people's things. Speaking of which…. Sasuke still had Sakura's iPod in his pocket. And he still wasn't too sure why.

"Ne, speaking of Sakura, teme, have you seen her yet? She hasn't seen you in years! God, you should have seen how much she cried over you and how she talked about seein' you again and—"

Sasuke covered the blond's mouth, muffling the next words that should have come out of Naruto's mouth. "Yeah. I've seen her."

The Uchiha felt Naruto grin against his palm before saying a hear-able, "She really missed you, ya know…."

Again, the raven-haired man stiffened. "….I know…"

Shikamaru, the genius with the pineapple-shaped, brown hair, finally spoke up after a long silence. "Hey, Sasuke, better watch out. One of your fangirls is approaching." He pointed to a red-haired girl sporting black glasses heading toward them.

Sasuke cringed. 'Oh, God…here she comes…three…two…one…'

"Hello there, Sasuke-kun!" the red-haired girl chirped as she adjusted her glasses. "Did you miss me?"

Sasuke gave a soft snort. "Hn." Translation for 'hardly.'

However, the girl didn't exactly know Sasuke's language. "Great! I knew you did!" she cried happily as she smooshed her boobs up in his face.

The young man twitched in irritation. He absolutely hated close contact with people he disliked. No, scratch that. With people he hated with a passion. Disliked seemed a little too soft.

Sasuke stared at the other two boys in desperation for help, only to be met by a smirk from Naruto (who knew he had it in him?) and a small, wry grin from Shikamaru who was leaning back to catch a snooze.

Twitch. Oh, how the Uchiha hated his fangirls. And his friends. He looked up to the ceiling and closed his eyes, wishing for a miracle to happen. 'Can a miracle please come? Now?'

And so, his prayers were answered. The teacher came swaggering in with a new orange book (with a half-naked lady with a whip chasing a half-naked man on the front cover) in his hand, his face covered up with a mask except for his right eye, his gray hair sticking awkwardly to the side. Professor Kakashi. The gray-haired man stood in front of the class and smiled with embarrassment. "Sorry I'm late. I was driving on my way to school, and I had to help an old lady cross the street. And traffic! Oh, boy…"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. He had been here four years of his college life. And everyone who went to Konoha University, no matter which college they went to in the university, knew about Professor Kakashi Hatake. He was always late to classes, always making the weirdest excuses, and always—ALWAYS—carrying one of his orange porn books to class to read.

"Well!" the masked professor said with sarcastic enthusiasm, "let's get down to business shall we?" And with that, Professor Kakashi began handing out worksheets for his students to practice.

Sasuke stared at the paper, analyzing the contents before nodding in satisfaction. 'Just review…nothing to worry about.' Smirk. 'This'll be easy.' Quickly, the raven-haired man went to work, plugging things into formulas and solving derivatives. Soon, he was finished, sure that he had all of the answers correct.

Content with his handiwork, Sasuke gazed over at his two other friends to see how they progressed.

Naruto was staring blankly at the paper, having only done one problem. Sasuke smirked and tapped his pencil on Naruto's paper. Having caught the blond boy's attention, Sasuke voiced, "That one's wrong, dobe."

"SHUT UP, SASUKE-TEME!"

Smirk. "Hn."

Sasuke looked over to Shikamaru, still sleeping dreamily. Surprisingly, Shikamaru had completed his worksheet already. And all the answers were correct.

The Uchiha sighed. 'I didn't expect it to be that easy…' he thought before glancing at the clock that read 1:47. He scowled, muttering about how the stupid professor couldn't even keep his clock on time. 'So what the hell am I s'posed to do now…?'

"…."

(DING!)

'The iPod…'

Sasuke brought out the pink-haired girl's iPod, careful to hide it from any nosy fangirls that would find him with the pink headphones. He looked around suspiciously; then, finding the fangirls still cracking at the math problems, Sasuke slipped on the ear buds and tapped the iPod's touch pad.

At first, the young onyx-eyed man had expected the iPod to not have any music playing. He had paused the first song…right?

Wrong.

Sasuke had totally forgotten about pausing The Great Escape. Now, the song that was currently playing (because the iPod was put on shuffle, apparently) was a familiar country song that was sung by a familiar voice.

Taylor Swift's Love Story. Well, not yet anyway, but by the intro, the Uchiha could tell that this was Love Story.

Sasuke scowled at the iPod and at the unmanly fact that he had actually recognized this song.

"Hn," he muttered, scrolling through the iPod's list of songs to try and find a good song. Just before he could press on a different song, the first verse began to play. Sasuke's thumb froze in place.

We were both young when I first saw you

I closed my eyes and the flashback starts

I'm standing there

On a balcony in summer air…

Sasuke smirked. 'We were both young when we saw each other…' Wait. Hold it. RED LIGHT! This was definitely not the Sasuke Uchiha. The Sasuke Uchiha did not reminisce. And he shouldn't like it. But, in truth, Sasuke really did like remembering things from the past.

It was like a game to him. A game that he wanted to play over and over again until he memorized it.

And that was what he was trying to do. Memorize his memories by reviewing them over and over again.

This song brought back memories. Lots of memories. From when he had met Sakura under that cherry blossom tree to the Romeo and Juliet play in middle school.

'Hm. So I met her back then…'

(Flashback)

It was a warm summer day. Sasuke had only been five years old at the time and he already had his share of fangirls.

"SASUKE-KUN! COME BACK!"

Little Sasuke ran through the cherry blossom woods, huffing and puffing. 'If I could just lose them for a moment or two…' The mini raven-haired boy dashed toward a large crowd near Ichiraku's. 'I'll lose them there!' He sprinted through the throng of people, nimbly heading out of the way of others and quickly achieving his goal of losing his fangirls.

He smirked when he heard the loud disappointed squeals of the fangirls that he successfully managed to leave behind. "Now I can finally go to my secret hideout without those scary girls bothering me!" Little Sasuke managed to huff between heavy gulps of air.

As he walked towards the cherry-blossom woods in the vicinity of his neighborhood, the small raven-haired boy muttered, "I wonder if big brother has problems with girls, too…" before walking into a meadow of beautiful sakura blossom trees.

Just as little Sasuke was about to sit under a tree and relax in the shade, he heard giggling and tensed. 'Are those girls here again?' he thought before he cautiously moved toward the source of the giggling to be sure.

Sure enough, Sasuke found that there were girls alright…but they weren't giggling because they were chasing him. They were giggling because they were making fun of a small pink-haired girl who sat near the base of a tree, crying her eyes out.

"Please," Sasuke heard the little pink-haired girl say softly, "stop making fun of me….You're hurting my feelings. You're being mean!"

A five-year-old girl with red hair and glasses laughed evilly. She seemed to be the one in charge of the group that was picking on the poor rosette. "Why should we do that…" the redhead asked sinisterly before poking the tiny rosette's forehead. "…Billboard Brow?"

The four girls that surrounded her tittered in agreement, poking the poor pink-haired girl's forehead.

Sasuke had seen enough. "The girl told you guys to stop." By now, the little raven-haired boy had stepped out of the shadows of the cherry blossom trees, onyx eyes flashing dangerously.

All four of the girls, once laughing at a girl's misfortune, stepped away, heeding the little boy's command. "S-Sorry, Sasuke-kun… we didn't—"

"You did know, and you wanted to hurt her," Sasuke murmured dangerously, holding on to the tiny rosette's hand. The boy looked at them again, anger clear in his eyes. "Go. Now."

Muttering angrily before they stomped away, the four girls, including the redhead with glasses, left the two alone.

Sasuke turned to the pink-haired girl that was still crying as he held her hand. "Are you okay?"

The rosette looked at him. "N-No. They h-hurt my feelings…" She hiccupped before drying her tears with the hand that wasn't holding his.

"Well, I chased them away for you," Sasuke murmured. He looked at the pink-haired girl who stared back up at him with deep, soulful green orbs. Sasuke was curious about her. "What's your name?"

She gave him a shy smile. "Haruno Sakura." She stood up. "And yours?"

"Uchiha Sasuke."

(End Flashback)

Sasuke managed to stifle a chuckle when he thought about his meeting with her. It was the sweetest thing. If he had ever thought about helping her now while he was still made at her (The Uchiha can hold a grudge…), it would never happen.

Sasuke sighed, still listening reluctantly to Love Story. 'Man, if anyone had ever caught me listening to this…' He stifled another sigh before returning his thoughts to his memory bank.

Love Story was basically a retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Sasuke smirked. 'She probably has a video of the play on her iPod,' Sasuke thought as he ran through the iPod's videos. Sure enough, it was there.

Sasuke flashed his trademark smirk again. "Hn…" He still remembered everyone's parts in the play. He himself had been Romeo (he could still hear the fangirls squealing), Naruto had been Mercutio, the jokester of a best friend, Neji was Benvolio, Kiba was Tybalt…and Sakura was Juliet.

The raven-haired man remembered when the famous balcony scene was set for the stage. He had stated his lines perfectly, acting everything out on cue as he was supposed to. 'Speaking of which…'

The Uchiha skipped the first act of the play to go to the balcony scene where Romeo and Juliet declared their love for each other, running his thumb across the touch pad. Readjusting the pink earbuds (why did they have to be pink?), Sasuke squared his shoulders and pressed play.

Shakespearean language spilled into his ears, his own voice the director.

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

'Tis the east and Juliet is the sun.

Sasuke twitched as he heard the words come out of his seventh-grade mouth, then returned his eyes to the iPod's screen where the whole act played out. His jet black eyes watched the scene play out, from Romeo's declaration of love, to Juliet's, to the added kiss at the end of the scene at the top of the balcony that Sasuke had to climb.

He paused it at the moment of the kiss, ready to put the iPod back in his pocket…

Before a girlish hand reached out to stop him.

Sasuke looked up to find Karin, adjusting her glasses, standing at his side and intensely gazing at the kiss that Sasuke had shared with Sakura on their middle school stage.

"That's Pinky, right?" Karin murmured quietly.

"…."

"Right, Sasuke-kun?"

"Hn."

Karin whined. "Sasuke-kun!"

"No."

"No?"

"It's Sakura. Haruno Sakura."

This time it was Karin's turn to stay quiet. "…Okay then. Thanks for letting me see it, Sasuke-kun!" Karin chirped before turning around and heading back to her pack of Sasuke worshippers.

Beside him, Naruto shuddered. "Jeez, Sasuke, I'm glad I'm not you. I wouldn't wanna have those creepy girls drooling over me all the time." The blond looked Sasuke over. "They have such bad taste…"

Sasuke replied with a sound 'thump' to Naruto's head before pocketing Sakura's iPod.

-xxx-

Karin sat down at her table of Sasuke admirers.

Lowering her voice, she whispered, "Sasuke-kun's got a girl in mind…"

The fangirls immediately piped up, cheerfully making exclamations and excited questions like:

"Omigod, is it me? Is it?"

"(sigh) He's finally recognized my beauty and wants to take me on a date!"

"(squeal) Hi, Sasuke-kun! See, he's ignoring me again. But I know his secret!"

Karin fisted the table. "SHUT UP, MORONS!"

The fangirls quieted.

"That's better," Karin cooed before continuing with her interrupted speech. "As I was saying. He's got a girl in mind, someone that he's know in the past. Pinky, AKA: Haruno Sakura." The redhead hissed the name out hatefully before continuing once again.

"We've got to make sure that this whorebag does get to our Sasuke-kun. Or else it's all over for us."

The fangirls nodded, voicing mutters of agreements.

Karin raised up a hand to silence them. As the roar died down, the redhead slowly gave a feral, cat-like grin. "So…I've got a fool-proof plan. To get rid of her. Once and for all."

Gathering her minions in close, the red-headed girl with glimmering glasses began their plot against the unknowing rosette.

A/N: WH00T WH00T! Finally done! 12 pages down on Microsoft word. (whew). Anyway, I'm happy for the few review that I got. I'd appreciate more please! I know how many of you out there have already story alerted it and all but haven't reviewed it! :D Come on, you guys! Reviewing helps me write!

Anyway, I've made it so that the other peoples are plotting and scheming and all. You'll see how the story unfolds next chapter. Forecast: Next meeting between Sasuke and Sakura! :D

Imagine me playing you a song with a cup at my feet saying "Reviews."