A/N: Just a little clarification after fallingpetals96 pointed this fact to me…

In Japan, addressing someone with their last names without any honorifics is considered rude.

Thank you for the reminder, and yes to those who are wondering, I am aware of it. I just thought of turning this story into one of those fics which solely use English name-calling and no Japanese honorifics; but seeing as I've used "teme", "dobe", "Konoha", "Oto", etc. So I'll start using the whole "-san", "-kun", "-chan", etc. in this chapter.

Again, fallingpetals96, thank you!

Thank you as well to everyone who read, and also those who reviewed! I appreciate the time and effort you sacrificed just for this story. Thank you again! No words can really express my utmost gratitude. :D

Their Soccer uniforms can be found in my profile under the "Links" section – the one that Sasuke is wearing. Forgot who the artist was…

Also, after I re-read the chapter, and upon receiving the review from fallinpetals96, I edited the mistakes and added the honorifics.

Hell High
Chapter 2: Learning the Ropes

She twitched as her companion proceeded to stare off while drinking his can of cold black coffee, making her wonder just how bitter the beverage was.

However, that was not the very reason as to why she was holding back in screaming or punching the guy next to her, but rather because of how he continued to be a jerk.

"Why did you kiss me yesterday?" she seethed.

He glanced at her, and then looked back at the horizon.

"Answer me!" she snarled, turning her head towards him, only to yelp when his face was half an inch closer to hers. "WHAT THE HELL UCHIHA?!"

He blinked. "That was rude."

"W-what?!"

He smirked.

"Damn you..." she grumbled, turning away with a flushed face as she continued to bite off a piece of her onigiri, mumbling a few cursed words under her breath.

Sakura almost screamed when his hand grabbed her wrist and pulled it towards him, afterwards, took a bite from her own lunch.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

Sasuke didn't answer for a while as he judged the taste, eyes narrowed slightly before sighing. "I'd expect it to be… I don't know, better..?"

She scoffed and finished off her rice ball. "Hmph. Pack your own lunch if you're just going to critique mine afterwards."

"Hn," he finished his drink and set it aside. "I don't usually skip meals." He muttered. "It's not good for my health." He turned to her when she gave him a questioning look. "I'm the team captain of the soccer varsity."

"So why are you just having coffee?"

He shrugged and decided to lie down with his arms crossed underneath his head.

"Uchiha-san?"

He closed his eyes and let his thoughts drift, unsure how to answer her question.

"Doesn't your mother-"

"She's dead." He said in a monotonous voice. "To me, she's dead after she walked out on us."

"…Oh." She lowered her head and hid her face behind her knees, arms wrapped around her legs tightly after being told that information. "Sorry."

"What for?" he opened his eyes halfway, a glare present on his face. "It's not like it'll bring her back." And he sat up and sighed. "Ch. Don't bring anything regarding my family up again."

When the bell rang to signal the end of lunch, he rose to his feet and picked up the empty canned coffee. "Come on Princess."

She clicked her tongue and eyed him. "Stop calling me that."

"Isn't it a term of endearment?"

"No it's not." She answered. "Not when you say it in that tone…"

His eyes softened when he saw her expression, so he went to stand before her, and then knelt down on one knee.

"What?" she snapped.

"Seriously, you're weird." He smirked and then grabbed her arm, pulling her up with him. "Let's go."

Though it didn't show, Sakura felt giddy after that silent trip to the women's locker room, where they parted in order for him to head to the men's.

The hard floor seemed so inviting after those ten laps their gym teacher, Mitarashi Anko, just had them do.

Sakura had never ran so many laps in her life, and wasn't very athletic to begin with. She's always hated gym class, so even if she's new here, she still wouldn't love the period.

"Alright listen up!" Anko called their attention. "You see behind me a Climbing Wall, so I assume you all have enough common sense to know what today's agenda is."

"Oh fuck." Sakura thought, sweating so badly as her mind started thinking up of good excuses to get out of this one. Her ears could pick up how her classmates were all itching to try it out, and what surprised her was that the girls were pretty excited to give it a shot, and she had to swallow hard to not let anyone know how much she hated the idea.

"Any volunteers..?" Anko asked, eyes searching among the sea of raised hands, with a selected few just remaining silent. "Such enthusiasm." She made the girls separate from the boys. "To make things quicker and much more exciting, let's have a game." She turned to the teenaged women. "It's also to prove how girls can beat the boys." She grinned playfully at the reaction. "So, choose your first players!"

The class had a total of forty students, and the school made sure to divide each class evenly – twenty boys and twenty girls.

Some of the female students showed guts and their athletic talent, while a few of the male variety turned out to be pretty pathetic in sports.

Sakura gulped when she realized she was next, and that she had to be up against Zaku – of all the guys.

She would have preferred to go against Sasuke, even if it meant losing – after witnessing how fast he was in climbing up, and how cool he was when he got back down by means of hopping.

Well, she called it hopping because it looked like he was hopping down…

"Heh. The Konoha Princess, this should be a peace of cake." Zaku said when he put on the safety gears, Sakura doing the same and staring fearfully at the tall structure.

"It was nice to live…" she thought, shutting her eyes as waterfall tears cascaded down her emerald orbs.

"Ready, set, go!" Anko ordered, watching how Zaku swiftly climbed up, with Sakura frozen on the spot and fists slightly shaking. "Haruno! Get moving!" she ordered, a bit satisfied when the pink-haired teenager flinched and began to climb, albeit slowly. "It doesn't matter if it takes her days to get up, as long as she tries." Anko thought, knowing how the girl wasn't used to roughing it. She eyed the other girls who looked as if it would be a total loss, already muttering how this game goes to the boys, since Sakura would definitely lose.

"Sensei," Anko was surprised to see the Uchiha teenager standing next to her yet eyeing Sakura. "I don't think she looks well."

Her eyes followed his gaze, seeing Sakura shaking yet attempting to keep going.

"You should let her climb back down."

"That would hurt her pride and dignity." Anko said, but still keeping an eye out for the girl. "If she does fall, the mattress will catch her, and the safety rope will be able to lessen the impact."

"I don't think she knows how to react fast enough."

The guys cheered when Zaku had made it up, and was now lowering himself back down, giving a taunt to Sakura who just made it to the top.

"She made it." Anko said, giving her a satisfactory grade. "Alright Haruno, come on down, it's okay! The important thing is you pulled through." She raised her head, expecting to see the girl lowering down, but gawked when her eyes saw how much the Sakura had shook. "Haruno! Get down!"

"I can't!" she yelled, eyes shut.

"Get down already Princess!" Zaku sneered, earning a few snickers from the class. "Or would you want Prince Charming to come and get you while riding a white steed?"

"Zip it Abumi!" Anko snapped, and then looked back up at Sakura. "It's alright Haruno, come on down!"

"I can't! I already said I can't!"

"Calm down Haruno and just climb back down."

"Easy for you to say!" she yelled, eyes still shut as she kept holding onto the safety rails. "You're not afraid of heights like I am!!"

"Geez." Anko sighed. "Haruno, if you don't face your fears now then when do you plan to?!"

"NEVER!"

The whole class could only stare and gasp when they realized that Sasuke was already nearing Sakura.

"Uchiha..! What do you think you're doing?!" Anko demanded.

He looked over his shoulder, ignoring the squeals from his fan girls. "Being a stupid knight and saving the damsel, what do you think?"

"Let her do it on her own for Oto's sake!" Anko roared. "She'll never learn to survive here if she keeps getting royal treatment!"

Sakura stiffened upon hearing that. It was bad enough that Zaku mocked her, and she could even handle Sasuke's joke about being a knight and her being a damsel (she actually thought it was cute), but for a teacher to even add salt to injury, it was too much.

"I… I want to go back to Konoha…" she thought, her eyes letting tears to flow down. "I don't want to be here! I hate this place! I hate it!"

"How the hell do you expect her to stand being in this God forsaken place if all of you keep putting her down?!"

Her eyes widened at what Sasuke said, and it was directed to a teacher too, which made the class gape in shock.

"You keep saying she's a brat, but I think I can tell that you're a lot worse than what you claim her to be." He continued to climb up, not heeding Anko's warning. When he finally reached Sakura, he didn't expect to see her staring at him with wide eyes and a tear-stained face. "Not again…" he sighed and did not hesitate to pull her to him, his cheeks turning red like yesterday. "Stop crying, damn it."

He felt her fingers grab a fistful of his gym shirt, before her eyes let out a few more tears. "I… don't want to be here anymore."

Maybe what Naruto said yesterday was true, maybe he really does like her – it's the only reason why he tightened his embrace when she said she hated being there.

Dull green eyes stared at the soccer balls that were being kicked towards the net.

She pulled her knees up and buried her face onto it, deciding to shut out the world and let herself drown in her thoughts, since no one cared about her in Oto anyway.

Unbeknownst to her, some did care about her welfare. The so-called pedophile of a Principal worried over the fact that a former student of Konoha, the school his former teacher is a Principal of, was not happy here and had a hard time blending in.

"Come on Uchiha, do something." He thought, eyeing the captain of the school's soccer team staring at the girl and not at his players. "I don't think anyone else is capable of making an impact on her but you." He had a short flashback of last week, when the girl was brought to his office by Sasuke. Before he dismissed them both, he had called the Uchiha back and requested to keep an eye on Sakura in case things got ugly, and he promised he would, stating that Oto wasn't really a good place for a girl of Sakura's status.

Sighing, he turned his back to the field and left to head to his office, unaware of how Zaku had purposely kicked a soccer ball to Sakura's direction.

"Fucking hell!"

Sakura looked up in surprise to see her sexual harasser and mocker surrounded by the team, some helping him up. She could see the black eye he just got, and she wondered how he received it.

"I do believe you're aiming for the net and not Haruno-san."

"Tsk." Zaku just shoved the hands that helped him up and walked away, taking an ice pack from the team manager, who discreetly smiled and gave a thumb's up to Sasuke.

"Look, if you want to go, then just go."

"Huh?" Sakura asked, blinking and eyeing Sasuke who now stood before her with his arms crossed and eyes looking sternly at her. "What do you mean?"

"Stop moping around." He said. "I can't always be here to save you."

She narrowed her eyes and stood up. "I didn't ask for your assistance, Uchiha-san." she grabbed her bag and walked off, Sasuke cursing and running after her.

"Haruno!"

"So much for respect…" she snorted.

"Damn it, Sakura!"

She froze when he called her by her first name.

"Ch. I didn't mean it like that!" he said, stopping a few feet behind her. "It's… it's just starting to get annoying!"

"Oh and you think I'm annoying?!" she snapped, facing him with a glare. "Then bug off! I don't need you to protect me like I'm a child!"

"Fucking-" he cut himself off and turned away, sighing heavily to calm down while his fists remained clenched. She was so hard to deal with. "I'm not protecting you just because." He explained, a little calmer. "I'm doing so until you're able to get used to studying here."

"So, what, you'll leave me alone when I'm comfortable here? Is that it, Sasuke?!" she yelled. "First you act nice by showing me to the Principal's office, then you defend me from that guy, and then you start making deals and crap, and… and… ugh! And then you play the part as being a stupid knight! What the hell is wrong with you?! What's the point if I do get used to staying here if you'll just suddenly puff like a magic dragon when I'm okay here?!" she continued to rant despite the twitch of his lips when she compared him to a… magic dragon… "It's like first day of school all over again if you leave me be! Why don't you just leave me alone then so that I won't get used to you being a shadow who won't stop following me?!"

She panted, cheeks burning red from anger as she kept her eyes on him, waiting for an answer.

He looked at her, much calmer than earlier, before speaking.

"Do you want me to leave you alone?"

Her pride said yes, but her loneliness said otherwise.

"Would you really be alright without a friend?" he took a step back, watching how she stepped forward, but pulled back. "Hn. Fine." He turned away and walked back to the field, telling the team to continue practicing instead of answering their questions about Sakura.

Frustration; she hated that feeling. She despised it and loathed it, wanted it to burn in hell.

"I hate guilt even more though." She muttered, successful in sneaking out of her house and out on the streets to take a little night stroll.

Her father's mansion suffocated her lately, and she thinks it's because of spending nearly two weeks in Oto, wherein she learned bit by bit what freedom really was, and how it felt slightly good to be independent at times.

She stopped walking and eyed the park that was just across the street, before deciding to head over there and just linger. Slowly, she trudged, head lowered and mind wandering off to her argument with Sasuke, and she felt stupid at having taken him for granted.

"But…" her eyes half-closed. "It's true, what's the point of us becoming friends, if he'll just go away as soon as I'm fine staying in Oto?" her eyes widened when the beeping of an incoming car grew louder, and she turned her head to her left in shock when the headlights blinded her eyes, and soon, she felt the back of her shirt's collar being pulled, followed by an arm wrapping around her waist as she fell back, landing on someone else's body while the driver of the speeding car skidded to a halt and yelled at her, cursing her and giving her the middle finger before driving off.

"Like I said," her savior spoke. "Are you that much of a damsel to not be able to defend OR saveyourself?"

Sakura instantly got up and turned around, seeing Sasuke on the floor with narrowed eyes directed at her.

She eyed him for a while, thinking that he looked so normal wearing a black shirt and dark blue jeans and sneakers. His eyes were still on her, and for the first time, she felt conscious of how she looked, causing her head to lower and eye herself, thinking if a white tank top and red hooded jacket looked alright, and if her denim pants showed how skinny her legs were, or if she just wasn't very appealing to his eyes. Did she even look good in brown leather boots?

"Geez." He sighed and stood up, dusting off dirt from his rear, and it was only then did she see the green jacket around his waist. "You're really weird."

Sasuke had to admit that he was taken aback at her small smile.

"You have no idea." She said, rubbing her eyes with her hands when she felt how watery they've gotten due to the relief that washed over her when he called her weird. It was as if they never had a fight, as if they're back to being the way they were.

"Oh for crying out loud…" he grumbled, pulling her into a hug. "Can you ever stop crying?"

She just laughed as the tears continued to spill. "I'm a crybaby alright?! I'm spoiled! I've been daddy's little girl for far too long!"

He just listened to her, deciding that saying anything could lead to another verbal fight.

"It hurts when others call me a brat, a snob, or a Princess while using a sarcastic tone!" her arms wounded around his neck, and he stiffened at the embrace she gave him, and at how warm it felt – so inviting and relaxing. "It makes my heart beat so fast when something goes wrong and I see you there! It makes me consider staying in Oto worthwhile when you joke around with me, and it makes me a bit happy whenever you hug me each time my eyes cry…" she held him tighter, and he had to stop himself from pulling away from her, because it would seem wrong, and it would look as if he didn't like her, which was quite the contrary.

The only reason why he's still out at night was because he wanted to apologize to her, because he felt uneasy when they fought earlier.

"What the hell did this girl do to me?" he thought, pulling away when her hold had loosened. "Hn…" he looked away, feeling uncomfortable with the smile she was giving him. "Weirdo." He muttered and then smirked. "You're really weird, yet you're also amusing."

She only laughed.

"Ever been to Hokkaido?"

"No." he said. "You?"

"Once." She answered. "That was three years ago, and…" she smiled. "I want to go back actually." She leaned on the back rest of the bench they sat on. "It felt so serene staying there, as if… nothing was wrong in this world, like everything was so peaceful…" she eyed the fountain before them, mesmerized by the flowing water and how the lights were strategically placed to illuminate the masterpiece. "It's really nice there." She smiled, and then faced him, glad that he had his gaze on her, meaning he listened to every word she said. "How did you become the captain of the soccer team?"

He smirked and looked at the fountain. "Naruto." He said. "He nominated me, and the rest just decided I may as well take the position."

"Are you sure it's not because of your skills?"

He shrugged. "Maybe." And that earned him a playful punch from her. "What about you? How come you haven't joined any clubs?"

"I'm… still looking." She shrugged. "No one has even bothered to ask me to join."

"Want to be Assistant Manager?"

She giggled. "Stop joking."

"I'm not." He told her. "You and Hinata would get along pretty well."

"You think so?"

"Aa." He leaned back and sighed. "What do you say?"

"I guess."

"Hn." He turned to her and smirked. "You owe me, by the way."

"Owe you what?" she asked, blushing when he leaned closer to her. "U-Uchiha-san?"

His lips touched hers for the second time, but it didn't last for more than a second, because he soon pulled away. "I didn't smoke a single stick today."

Sakura wondered why her hand didn't move to slap him like last time.

"What." He stated rather than asked, eyeing his best friend. "You're irking me."

"You do like her." Naruto accused, smirking. "Admit it teme, you're crazy for her!"

He just ignored his best friend and continued walking, hoping that Naruto would trip and not get back up because of hitting his head too hard which would knock him unconscious.

The dumb blonde was just beginning to grow much more annoying.

"And then soon you'll get married and make a lot of babies, and I'll be spoiling them rotten because I'll be the best damn godfather for them! And then they'll wish I was their dad instead and you'd cry and tell them not to say such things, and-"

"Oh shut the fuck up already!" he snapped, slapping a hand on his forehead and bringing it down to his face. "It's too damn early for you to be so goddamn annoying!"

Naruto blinked, stared, and then continued talking again.

"Nothing, I repeat, NOTHING will get this idiot to shut his trap." He sighed and just walked faster, raising a brow when he saw someone he was not supposed to be seeing right now. "Why are you walking?" he stopped when the person he addressed the question to had turned around and gave him a smile as a morning greeting, making his annoyance towards Naruto disappear. "God, please don't make me think of mushy things…"

"Good morning Uchiha-san, Uzumaki-san." She greeted.

"Eh? Konoha Princess is walking?!" Naruto exclaimed in shock. "I must be having a nightmare!!" that earned him a punch from Sakura, and Sasuke was thankful at that assault. "Hell, that hurt!" he held his nose and turned to Sasuke. "That seriously hurt man! How can the Konoha Princess punch that hard?!"

Sakura smiled innocently at them and turned to Sasuke. "Ready for day three of No Smoking, Uchiha-san?"

He smirked. "If you don't mind, I'd rather you call me by my first name instead." He walked pass her right after saying her name in a soft yet teasing voice, causing her to flush and turn her head to him, Naruto wondering what was happening. "Come on Princess." He glanced at her, still smirking.

She just laughed and jogged after him, walking side by side as Naruto twitched and yelled: "Thanks a lot for remembering my existence!"

To be continued…

Next Chapter: Bluish Black Hue

"You suck."

She huffed and crossed her arms.

"No, seriously, you do."

"Yeah, yeah. Rub it in for all I care."

"Alright," he smirked. "You. Suck."

"Fuck you to hell Uchiha!"

The people around them stared at her with wide eyes.

"…Retard."

"Asshole..!!"

A/N: Okay, chapter title relation: Sakura is just starting to learn to adjust in Oto, and that can be seen with the last part, in which Sasuke sees her walking instead of riding a car.