Her fingers swivelled the cool metal ring around her finger, the engraving in it, imprinted into to her finger for the long period it had hugged her finger. It shaded her finger from the sun leaving her hand tanned and a ringlet of white skin untouched.

She couldn't conceive the idea of finally graduating high school and starting college that following fall. Hope got her here, he got her here.

She was currently looking at the campus map to find her dorm; apparently her roommate had dropped out before the beginning of the semester leaving her alone in the two man suite. She was relieved at that, because she had barely been able to convince her parents to study out of state, and when she told them so, they agreed, which of course surprised her. All of high school she had led the torturous idea that she was excluded from studying away from home, her parents brought her many pamphlets from the many local in state universities, but she had always denied them loosely. What was the thrill of going to the university down the street, she wanted to remember this time and experience it at its best and revel in its memories.

She planned wisely and had asked her parents if she could apply to the University out of state, after they had gone through a whole glass of red wine. When they agreed, that same night she drove down to the local post office and dropped her application letter, kissing it before placing it in the drop.

Not long after, she had received an acceptation letter from the University and had been given the course outline and paper work for enrolment.

Her mom of course was weary, her dad a grumbling mess. Don't get them wrong they were happy if not proud of their daughter's success in gaining entrance in an established university, but she would be away from their watchful eyes. They trusted her, but simply didn't trust the people that she'd be around.

So they called for an alliance to attempt to change her mind, which failed miserably.

'Honey?' Haruno Kana spoke as she and Sakura made their rounds in a store, the trolley pregnant with stationary, bed dressings and other knick knacks.

'Yes Mama' she looked to her mother as she grabbed a box of laundry detergent.

Her mother fiddled with her fingers, it was rather pathetic, like a girl shyly confessing her love.

'Well…you're going to college soon...'

Sakura nodded towards her mom to proceed.

'And you'll be rooming with someone'

Sakura grabbed at another item on the shelf. Her mother continued.

'whatifyourroommateisamurderer' Her mother heaved and shut her eyes

Sakura looked at mother ridiculously. Sometimes she wondered who the hell was the adult here?

'Mama my roommate dropped out, so I'll be having the dorm to myself.'

Sakura continued to stroll down the aisle, as she left her mother dumbfounded, Plan A was a bust, and later B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I and J were a fail too. She simply kneaded her temples and walked along her daughter whose sole happiness was her distress.

Sakura walked blindly down the hall with two boxes towering her tiny stature, she still had to climb another flight of stairs and she'd be on her floor, then walk down the hallway and make a left into the west wing.

She grumbled at the heavy weight but continued her trek up the stairs, where other students were crowding chatting away and catching up with one another.

She made it down the hall making a left to the west wing. As she entered the west wing, a pair left the east wing, not noticing her.

'All I'm saying is it's my year! I just know it!' The one exclaimed

The other spared a roll of the eyes, he was clearly annoyed.

His friend had been having the strangest and most unconceivable stroke of luck the past few days, but he wasn't.

His car got impounded during the holidays, and he couldn't get it back until the end of the holidays, to make matters worse his cell phone and belongings had been left in the car during the impoundment. So he had no way of making his way around in the holiday, he got stuck one state over, and when an old lady spared him a quarter, he tried to phone his friend on a payphone to come and pick him up, but of course his friend did not answer and so he was stuck.

He ended up hitch hiking with some weird truckie who was traveling one town over from his campus. He endured five long hours of the truckies failure of a life story, he tried not to laugh during this time, his mother taught him better. But honestly who fails the first grade, gets held back in kindergarten for three years and then drops out of school because they 'had a calling'? He thought his friend was academically challenged but was proven wrong when he had miraculously made it into college. The guy's calling had turned out to be a fluke and at that stage in his life he found the one thing he was good at, driving trucks.

He ended up staying on campus during the holidays taking some extracurricular courses, and lifeguarding at the local pool. At the end of the holiday he went back to get his car back, and found everything that was in the car stolen. He spent the day calling his credit card company, bank, and insurance company trying to cancel his cards and then he had to cancel his phone plan and buy a new phone. Things just didn't go his way.

Just yesterday, he had to move dorms and room with the twit of a friend because his dorm's indoor plumbing got messed up and flooded the entire room. The damage wasn't fixable, relaying him having to stay the rest of the semester with the moron.

They had just recently finished moving all his belongings into the dorm room, heading down to the parking lot to meet up with some friends at a local diner. As they weaved their way through the crowds of students, his friend continued to buzz on about the classes that were commencing tomorrow, grumbling about an early eight o'clock lecture and then another 4 o'clock that afternoon.

In all honesty, he was happy to finally get back into the rhythm of school he missed the balance in his life, he looked forward to it. His mind would sometimes drift back to his first year in college just last year, when he was struggling and wanted to give up, but remembered the faithful words of the saint that re-ignited his fire. Unconsciously he looked at his hands, remembering the presence of his old ring, which he now replaced with another which had the word 'remember' engraved in the inside so that he would never forget. He sometimes wondered what had come of the girl where she was now, and did she still have the ring. He kept telling himself it meant nothing, but he would be lying.

They both stopped in front of navy blue car, he the shotgun and his friend the driver, as he waited impatiently for his friend to open the door, he could hear the all too common nervous laughter of his friend, 'funny story…' He knew this wasn't going to be a funny story.

'I forgot the keys in the dorm.'

To say he was surprised would be a lie, many 'funny stories' were a common thing in his friends arsenal. He said no more but gives him a glare.

His friend retreated, sprinting back to the dormitories, leaving him to sit on the hood of the car.

His friend ran up the stairs to the second floor, not looking in front of him, and so was another, and in a second they both knocked each other down.

The other person stood first standing up, and sticking out her hand towards him, 'Sorry about that I wasn't paying attention' she commented shyly

The boy looked up to see a new face, one he hadn't seen on campus before, a freshman. He took her hand and picked himself up. He gave a friendly smile, scratching the back of his head timidly, 'I should say the same. The names Naruto Uzamaki.' He stuck his hand out towards her.

She took his hand and returned a shake, 'Pleasure to meet you, my names Sakura Haruno, I'm new here, so bear with me.' She smiled back

She seemed friendly enough, warm hearted too.

'So…you just getting settled in?' He asked

'Oh yeah, I just got here an hour ago, I came from Kiri, I just finished with administration, so I'm still in the process of unpacking.'

'Wow, all the way from Kiri that's pretty far, well you made a good choice in coming to the Fire country, Konoha University is one of the best, I've been here for nearly two years it's my second year here now.'

They continued their conversation and didn't even consider the time, until Naruto felt his phone vibrate seeing his friend's number on the caller idea, 'crap'.

'Hey Sakura-chan, I'm really sorry but my friends waiting for me in the parking lot, and he isn't a patient person.'

'That's alright' She replied good-naturedly 'I've gotta settle in anyways, I'll see you around Naruto, hey?'

He smiled, 'Yup see ya around'

She waved him off and began down the stairs towards the parking lot. She had felt somewhat relieved of actually knowing somebody on the campus, she wasn't lonely anymore, and she smiled to herself.

This feeling was nostalgic, she was used being the new girl at school always transferring to a new school, never getting a chance to establish a good stable network of friends, and she was happy to say she would finally get the opportunity here, she would be here for a good three to five years, she was bound to make good friends during that time.

She jingled her keys, twirling them around her fingers, the ring glimmering in the setting sun. It was only in a few hours her occupation as a student at Konoha U would became real.

She began nearing her car her Chucks grating against the gravel. He heard footsteps nearing the car, took the moron long enough, he got off the hood of the car and stuffed his hands in his pocket.

In her peripheral vision she could see a girl struggling with a box in her hands, her knees bucking and the box threatening to spill its contents, the girl winced waiting for the box to fall on the ground, but the box stayed steady on her hands.

'Need a hand?'

The girl looked over the box to see another girl who broke into a smile; she breathed a sigh a relief,

'Thank you so much, I'm sorry for the trouble!'

'No problem'

The two girls hoisted the box across the parking lot and towards the dormitory, both talking to each other over the wall of the box. They both found out they were freshmen and their dorms were next door to each other. The sound of airy laughter echoed through the parking lot as the two conversed, each stifling a laugh at their situation, the girl enquired, 'Where for out thou thy Romeo?'

'Thy over thy boxith' the other mused

Sasuke looked over the top of the car and realised it wasn't Naruto who was walking in the parking lot, but two girls. One with inked hair and as she turned her face lilac almond eyes, he immediately associated her as the cousin of Neji Hyuuga, she was freshmen. He could only make out the other girl's jean clad legs paired with worn Chuck's, as the box covered her upper body.

He hadn't realised Naruto slyly slipping into the driver's seat of the car, as he looked at the girls until Naruto tapped the window at the passenger seat his curiosity of the girl behind the box was dismissed. He grumbled, Naruto grinned,

'What took you so long?' He said sarcastically

His friend only grumbled in response and sat in his seat and commanded, 'Drive'

Naruto rolled his eyes at his friend's lack of vocabulary but obliged to his command, even though inevitably he would 'drive', the car pulled out of the parking lot and turned out onto the main road that branched out to the downtown of the area.

Naruto began to make light conversation, apparently he'd run into some freshmen, Sakura was it? And they had a conversation; she was from Kiri he added. On that note Naruto elbowed Sasuke knowingly, 'Don't you remember our freshmen year, you were a sight for sore eyes weren't you.' Naruto chuckled.

'But look at you now, you not only roll your eyes and grumble but you can speak now! They grow up so fast.' Naruto comically sniffed

To Sasuke's dismay Naruto did have a point, last year he was a mess the first semester at K.U., he just didn't know what he was doing, and all he knew was he was there, now what? He tried and tried, and failed and failed. There was no passion no drive; his eyes lacked the lacklustre of others who were actually enjoying their lives as students. He just couldn't apply himself to anything, the more he tried the less motivated he became, and nobody even seen his struggle. Everyone that he knew thought he was the model student, 'super smart'. When his friends were venting out their troubles and struggles in classes they all supported each other, and he decided to actually to put himself out there and do the same, expressing the same difficulty in his courses. Though he was immediately shutdown with, 'what do you have to worry about' or 'I wouldn't think you're the kind of person who'd struggle with this.' And his all-time 'favourite', 'is there anything you can't do?', this one had made him feel worse, because apparently he can do everything, but he was struggling to reach those expectations, he just needed someone to tell him, he can do it, not beat around the bush. Sasuke like everything to be straight forward, point blank, black and white, right or wrong, this was something he never got from his friends. They only thing they did were keel the fire within him and covered it with a wet blanket.

He was at the point at the end of the semester after consulting his professors, dropping out, and just leaving everything behind go somewhere anywhere as long as it was away from the pressuring atmosphere of college life. He had no family to turn to, but only memories of what was left. He needed a beacon he needed a hope.

He humoured himself; he could have become a truckie. Picked up college kids and told them about how he flaked college, and assuring them he was happy the way his life was then, 'look at me now'.

The semester holiday he was just passing through the countries, anywhere but the Land of Fire. He ended up in Kiri of all places. He was upset in the beginning of how he ended up in Kiri, but today he was glad the angels had tied his string of fate with the girl's. She had indirectly helped him, with just four words, 'you can do it'. Even though she may have not understood the metaphoric function this withheld in his heart in mind, he thanked her existence. It sounds cheesy when he thinks about it, somewhat cliché, of how just a girl's words changed his life, but for him it awakened the yearning that was clinging within him.

After that incident he'd changed. He immediately went back to the University, and got his 'shit' together; he went to each professor and asked if he do an extra credit assignment for that class as to improve his weighting in the class. The professors were surprisingly supportive of the whole idea, and so he slaved away his six weeks' worth of holidays on extensive research assignments and when he had completed them at the end of the holiday as his friends came back from their relaxing holidays, he felt pride and redemption swell in him as he handed his work to each professor, each saying, that he had the ability to succeed, he felt like he could soar, and that only fired him up more. Things started pitching up for him, life just went on, and got better.

'Thank you' he said but, he wished fate would tie the strings again so he got the chance to thank the girl again, to show her how far he had gotten because of her.

His saint he called her

He didn't even know her name.

O_o_O_o

Before I comment: PEOPLE PLEASE REVIEW! I'm really happy that I had about 15 of you favourite and put me on your alerts but please, REVIEW, it makes a whole difference, Review make me super happy, it's really scary because for the next twenty-four hours I just keep refreshing my email inbox for a review and face palm myself when it's not one, just say anything, if you like cheese, say you like cheese, but when you guys review I start dancing like a little school girl and get happy

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Than anticipation is building up they will meet, patience is virtue

How'd you find this chapter, what do you think is gonna happen next? Suspense….Dun DUN DUNNN

Oxza-