Three reviews for the first chapter? -tears up- Nah, I'm just playing with you. I'm sure you guys just couldn't spare the time to leave a review... it's not like you just didn't bother to leave one, right? Ha ha. Ha.

Ha.

...

Seriously, leave a review. I needz'em.

Enjoy the chapter!

"Sasu, do you ever feel… alone?"

"Sometimes. Why do you ask?"

They were seated in the shadow of a jungle gym. A web of metal bars above them scythed the light in half, and left shadows that crisscrossed their small frames.

"Mom's always working. Dad's always working." Naruko murmured, as she picked at the grass between her legs. She sighed, and shook her hair out of her eyes. "I dunno, Sasu… I always feel like they ignore me, even if I know that it's not on purpose."

Sasuke frowned. "At least your dad cares about you." he said. "And besides… we have each other, right?"

She grinned. "Sasu, there's a difference between my best friend and my Mom and Dad, 'ttebayo!" Naruko said.

"So what?" Sasuke said. "It doesn't mean anything to me; I enjoy spending time around you more than I do my parents."

Her grin fell for a moment. Sasuke's gut clenched for an instant, until a smile curled her lips. It was a guilty smile, but still an expression of happiness nonetheless.

"You know what? I think I feel that way too, Sasu."

Sasuke was not the type to fiddle with his thumbs. He was obstiant about protecting his reputation, and things like fiddling or anything of that nature were below an Uchiha… or so he had been taught. As much as he abhorred his father's constant lessons-mostly directed at Itachi with Sasuke listening in-some of them had stuck with Sasuke even all the way through high school.

In that moment, he couldn't stop himself. His mind was racing. His heart beat thumped in his ears. The teacher's instruction bleeded out to a faint echo that did not register for even a second in Sasuke's brain.

For an instant, the fog that shrouded his thoughts lifted. With a crystal clear clarity that had avoided him for the past five minutes or so, Sasuke realized the truth-the irrefutable, irrevocable truth.

'It wasn't that she didn't remember me. It wasn't that she was ignoring me. She… she cannot remember me. She just can't.'

He swallowed, and it felt as if a hot ball of lead went down his throat.

All of those memories... gone, gone like the wind and with only the slimmest chance to return. Some thin portion of his mind had hoped that just being around him would jolt her memories. Now that he knew a car accident of all things had stolen those recollections from her… that hope was completely and utterly crushed. 'Like everything good in my life.' Sasuke thought.

He saw red yet again, but this time, his anger wasn't directed at Naruko. If the man who had rammed into the side of her parent's car wasn't already dead, Sasuke would have half a mind to find him and kill him. Maybe he could track down his grave; if anyone deserved to have their burial place desecrated, it was that piece of work.

Sasuke glanced at Naruko, before he looked back at the teacher. He wasn't sure whether he thought she was lucky to have been freed from the burden of her parents, or unlucky. Sasuke was sure that if he had been thrust into the same situation, he would have felt liberated. Naruko, though… Sasuke knew that her parents were actually well meaning, not borderline-narcissistic like his father and a bystander like his mother.

He rubbed the back of his neck, his chest stirring with something akin to guilt. Normally, he wouldn't have cared for an instant about someone else's losses in life; then again, Naruko had been the exception to nearly every rule in his life-it was unlikely that trend would stop now, for no discernable reason.

Fortune seemed to favor him for once, as Home Economics went by fast that day. That was a rarity that would usually improve Sasuke's customarily dark mood; however, it didn't do anything like that today, as one might expect.

Naruko was the first one out of class when the bell rung. Home Economics wasn't his last class of the day, so it was back to the homeroom for Sasuke. There, at least, he could ignore Naruko; it was sheer torture to have her presence flaunted with every sound she made, every breath she took, every cute thing she did as it was in Home Economics.

The rest of the day passed by without event. An outrageous amount of homework was given to them, which most of the student balked at; Sasuke merely slipped it into his rucksack without comment. It wasn't as if he was worried, after all, there was a reason he got back from free period every day to see an 'A+' scribbled at the top of a classwork sheet.

"Hey, Sasuke." Suigetsu said. He had been standing at a corner just down the hall from Sasuke's class; Sasuke offered him a nod in response. Neither of them questioned the absence of Juugo. It was a Tuesday after all, and Sasuke knew that his orange haired friend would be spending his time after school with the Chess club. "So is there any reason for me to talk? Or are you just going to ignore me like you did yesterday?"

"I ignore you most days." Sasuke said.

Suigetsu bared his teeth. "What is it with you and Juugo? Can't I have a friend who actually listens to what I say?"

Sasuke smirked. "Keep dreaming of that, it's never going to happen. You still have a ways to go before you stop being a pest, Suigetsu." he said.

Suigetsu huffed. "Hmph! Whatever. Did you see pinky today?"

"Sakura?"

"That's right, it's Sakura. I swear, I had her name on the tip of my tongue." Suigetsu said.

"What about her?" Sasuke asked.

Suigetsu smirked. "She got dumped by that mutt, Kiba." he said. "It surprised me too. I thought that idiot would realize there's no chance that he's going to get a girl better than pinky."

"Hmm." Sasuke was ambivalent to Sakura's plight. The two of them had gone to middle school together, but they had never talked; she'd had a crush on him last time he remembered, but that had been years ago.

"'Hmm', what?" Suigetsu said.

Sasuke looked at him. "Am I supposed to care about who dumped who? I'm not exactly interested in ridiculous high school romances." he said.

"Jeez! Have a heart for once. The poor girl was in the girl's bathroom crying for most of the day." Suigetsu said.

Sasuke scoffed. "She didn't like Inuzuka that much, idiot. Anyone could see that. She's probably just embarrassed that he dumped her before she could dump him."

Suigetsu frowned. "I mean… maybe. It's not like either of us know her that well."

"I can get a good grasp of a person even if I don't know them." Sasuke said.

His silver haired friend looked at him. "Really. What was your initial impression of me, then?"

Sasuke couldn't help the smirk that curled his lips. "That you were an idiot."

Suigetsu rolled his eyes. "I'm half tempted to leave you to walk home on your own." he said.

"Go ahead. I'm not about to shed any tears." Sasuke said.

Suigetsu chuckled. "I think the sky would fall before you ever cried, Sasuke. You actually need a heart to cry."

Sasuke felt strangely defensive. "What? Because I don't care about Sakura getting her heart 'broken' I don't have one?" he said.

He raised an eyebrow. "You seem a little worked up over something I've said to you a thousand times." Suigetsu noted.

Sasuke cursed inwardly. If there was one downside to being Suigetsu's friend, it was that he could be extraordinarily observant when he wanted to be. "I'm not worked up over anything." Sasuke said.

Suigetsu nodded. "Sure," he said. "Whatever you say, Sasuke."

Sasuke scowled for what felt like the tenth time that day. "Let's get going." he said.

"Sure." Suigetsu said.

Routine was not something that existed when you went to a school with Uzumaki Naruko. She was eccentric, she was rabid at worst and energetic at best. To try and contain her, or keep her set to a specific tempo throughout the day was a foolhardy attempt.

She had spent their free period on her first day… somewhere. Sasuke wasn't sure where, because he had been at his usual spot with Suigetsu and Juugo behind the school. The second day, he still was not sure. The third day, however, things... changed, rather radically. Suigetsu was out sick and Juugo was finishing up a test in his home room; and as a result, Sasuke was left to his own devices for that particular free period. Much to his eventual elation.

He loitered for a few moments in the halls as he pondered on what he could do. Sasuke was tempted to out to the usual spot behind the school, but decided against it-without Suigetsu and Juugo there to back him up, he was aware that one of those girls with a pesky crush on him might summon the courage to approach him. He wasn't in the mood to deal with a crying woman once he had broken her heart with a stern "No." and so Sasuke decided on something else.

Namely, the library. A brightly lit, spacious place centered in a building near the corner of campus. Rows upon rows of books, as far as the eye could see, that stretched all the way around the room. Tables filled the spaces between them; chairs were pushed beneath them and helpful papers to aid a man in locating a specific genre of book rested on top of the polished wood.

Not many of his fellow students tended to spend their free periods in the library. Who would want to spend their one reprieve from the grind of the school day studying? Sasuke wasn't sure. Then again, he had chosen to spend his time in the library, so perhaps it wasn't the best idea to criticize others for doing the same thing.

He was met with the same problem that he had outside of the library. What could he do? There were too many books for Sasuke to even get started on finding one to read. There were computers, but they were protected with programs that would restrict him from anything mildly interesting. He didn't recognize anyone in the library at first either, and he wasn't going to walk up to anyone and make friends.

Sasuke ended up walking through the hallway, from aisle to aisle, his gaze sweeping past vast sections of books and dismissing all of them. Being stuck in here with nothing to do was almost as bad as doing it outside of the library.

At least here, Sasuke thought, he could get away from the hall monitors that would glance at him suspiciously-who had been under the impression that he might have skipped class rather than simply on his free period. That alone made the library only a tad better than wandering the halls.

Sasuke selected a novel at random, and spent a moment leafing through the pages; he tried to read a paragraph-he really did-but it was tedious and boring, and it only took a moment for Sasuke to set the book back down on the shelf.

Something caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end. "Is this the book you were talking about, Sakura-chan?"

"No," a quiet voice said. "This is close, Naruko-but I need Volume Four, not Volume Three."

"Gah! I really thought I had it this time."

He began to breathe a little quicker. His chest heaved up and down. His hands felt clammy, and he wiped them off on his trousers-only to wipe them off again only a moment later.

Sasuke poked his head out from around the corner of an aisle. She stood only a few meters away from him, and behind her frame, he caught a glimpse of distinctive pink hair.

He was struck dumb, as he seemed to be every time he saw her. Sasuke took in her appearance. She was still clad in the baggy boy's school uniform-but Sasuke considered it a crime in his mind to even fathom the idea of Naruko not looking attractive. She could be wearing a sweater, a tutu, or even a trench coat and Sasuke would still find her beauty second to none.

Perhaps he was still a moment too long. It was only a matter of time before Sakura looked past Naruko to see him. "Sasuke-kun?" Sakura said, and Naruko whirled around to face him.

"Hey, Sasuke!" Naruko said, as if she were greeting an old friend. The irony was not lost on Sasuke-the throb in his heart made sure of that. "Wait… 'Sasuke-kun'? Are you two friends, Sakura-chan?"

Sasuke opened his mouth to say something, but Sakura's next words stopped him in his tracks.

"We are." Sakura said. "We've known each other since middle school-haven't we, Sasuke-kun?"

He was infinitely glad that he could think on his feet; it wouldn't be prudent to be caught gaping at a response like that, especially in front of her.

"Yeah." Sasuke said. "It's been awhile since we've talked, though." He shifted a little awkwardly. "I… erm… heard that Kiba broke up with you. My condolences."

She smiled at him. "Oh, it's fine. I mean, I-I really liked him, but… I guess he didn't like me back. There's nothing else to it. Now that I think about it, do you two know each other?" Sakura asked. She glanced between Naruko and Sasuke.

"We sit next to each other in Home Economics." Naruko supplied.

"Oh, I see." Sakura said.

Sasuke rubbed the back of his neck. "What were you two looking for?" he asked, after the silence stretched for a second too long.

"We're studying for that project in History, the one where you have to pick a Chinese dynasty and do a report about it. The book we're looking for is 'Chinese Dynasties Throughout the Ages', only it's sorted into six volumes. This library is so ridiculously unorganized though! We've been here since free period started and we haven't gotten any progress… and that idiotic librarian is no help. We did manage to find Volume One on one side of this place, and Volume Two on the other, but nothing further then that." Sakura said. "Say, you're in the class too-which dynasty are you doing, Sasuke-kun?"

"The Qing dynasty." Sasuke said.

Sakura cursed. "That would probably be in volume six," she said. "I was hoping you could help us…" That last bit was an after murmur that she likely didn't intend for Sasuke to hear.

Naruko blinked. "Wait… he's in our homeroom?" she asked.

Sakura nodded. "Sasuke-kun is very quiet in class, so I'm not surprised you didn't know he was in there."

Sasuke couldn't help but frown. "Which Volume were you looking for? Number four? I can help you look for it."

"That would be very helpful, Sasuke-kun." Sakura said.

"Awesome! The more the merrier." Naruko said. "We've already searched this row and the one before it. So I guess you could get the one after it, and then I'll get the one after that. Sakura-chan can help you."

He tried not to let his distaste for that particular arrangement of labor show. "Fine, whatever." Sasuke said. "Come on," he told Sakura. "Free period is already half over."

"Of course, Sasuke-kun." Sakura said.

They went to the next row. Naruko walked past them, and it was only a minute before they heard her sifting through the books just a meter or two away.

Sasuke began to look through the books. Admittedly, it wasn't that Sakura was overly irritating or anything-she had become much more tolerable after that crush she had on him faded away-but when he had signed up to help them look for this book, he had envisioned being able to bask in Naruko's presence as he did so.

"Is everything alright, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked. "You seem a little… stiff."

"I'm fine." Sasuke murmured. He took a deep breath.

Sasuke was more than well aware of the fact that Sakura would likely try to chat his ear off while they looked for this book. He was anything but social-as previously mentioned-but he would rather start a conversation off on his own terms rather then have to answer her questions.

"So… how did you and N-Naruko meet?" he asked. Sasuke cursed himself for the way his voice shook on her name, and prayed that Sakura didn't notice.

She looked a little surprised by his inquiry. "Well, it was after Kiba… dumped me. I spent most of yesterday just sobbing away in the restroom; I ended up tucking myself away in one of the stalls, and the tears just started… pouring. Not that anyone cared-at least for the first hour or so. Naruko came in… she heard me crying, and practically kicked down the stall to get to me. She consoled me… she let me ruin her shirt crying into it… and we started talking. It turned out we sat near each other in homeroom, so we talked there. She's just the kind of person that you can befriend easily, you know?"

"... yeah…" Sasuke whispered. Sakura didn't seem to notice that either.

He cleared his throat after a few minutes of silence.

"Here it is." Sasuke said. He pulled the rather hefty book off of the shelf. Sasuke gave the cover a glance, and there it was, 'Chinese Dynasties Throughout the Ages, Volume Four', complete with an elaborate Chinese dragon on the front cover.

"Excellent." Sakura said. She took the book from his hand. "We found it, Naruko!" she called to the blonde, who could still be heard sorting through the book.

"Yippee!" Naruko cheered. She bounded around the corner a moment later, and Sasuke's jaw slackened as she came to a stop before he and Sakura. "Just in time, too. We'll meet up at your house to study later, right?" Naruko asked Sakura.

Sakura nodded. "Of course." She turned to him. "Thank you for the help, Sasuke-kun."

"We're going to be studying during our free periods too, Sasuke!" Naruko chirped up. "I didn't know that you were in the same homeroom-but I mean, if you're doing the same project as us, you might as well study with us too, right?"

Sasuke declined to mention that he had already finished said project.

"I'll think about it." he said. Sasuke jammed his hands inside of his pockets. "I'll see you two later." Then, he walked out-Sasuke desperately trying to keep his cool.

Whenever those blue eyes were focused on him, it felt like she was staring right through him. As if she knew about his affections and had simply declined to say anything out loud.

He heard their goodbyes as he walked away from them; Sasuke only breathed a sigh of relief when he was safely out of the library.

Sasuke ran a hand through his hair. Secretly, he abhorred the thought running through his mind-that his free periods were about to get a lot more interesting with an opportunity like that.

"We're not going to spend our free period in the library, Sasuke." Suigetsu deadpanned. His voice was hardly audible over the sound of sneakers squeaking on the gym floor, and the sound of bouncing balls.

Sasuke looked at Juugo. "What about you?" he asked.

Juugo chewed the inside of his cheek. "I enjoy the fresh air… the sound of the birds chirping in the trees, and especially being able to get out and stretch my legs. I don't fancy the idea of being stuck in that cramped library for the purposes of a project that Suigetsu and I aren't even doing."

Sasuke had of course neglected to mention that they would be studying with Naruko and Sakura. The way he had phrased it to his two friends, it had seemed as if it would be the three of them. Then again, it wasn't as if Sasuke had planned on them accepting his offer in the first place.

"Fine." Sasuke said, and he shrugged.

Juugo and Suigetsu exchanged a glance. "If you want us to come in from time to time and visit you…" Juugo began.

"Like I said, it's fine." Sasuke said. "I might come out for a smoke every now and then. The project is due in a month, so after that I'll go out with you two again."

Suigetsu shrugged. "We've still got P.E. too. It sucks we can't hang out after school anymore… your dad is a real pain when it comes to that kind of stuff, huh?"

He frowned. "The man has his moments." Sasuke said neutrally-as much as he loathed his father, he was an Uchiha. An Uchiha would never badmouth family in front of anyone, unless you could ensure their silence. Sure, he and Suigetsu were friends… but Sasuke knew that an idiot like him couldn't be trusted to keep quiet about his personal affairs.

Sasuke eyed Sakura from across the gym floor, the pink haired girl in the middle of a conversation with her blonde best friend, Yamanaka Ino. It seemed strange to him that Naruko wasn't in their Physical Education class-but he could live, he supposed.

Before, he'd only had those brief moments during Home Economic class when the teacher wasn't busy speaking. He and Naruko only had brief conversations there, and it was nowhere near enough to entice her into a friendship… which would be the first step to something more in Sasuke's mind.

Now, with his entire free period devoted to studying with her-and to a lesser extent Sakura- maybe, just maybe, Sasuke would be able to inch his way into her heart.

Maybe, she could finally recover the love for him that fate and a reckless driver had so cruelly taken.

At least, Sasuke hoped that would be the case. Hope was all he had at this point.

Where's the Sasuke/Female Naru, I might hear you asking. Just wait... it's coming, and it'll be all the sweeter once you get past the build up, trust me. Don't forget to leave a review-and as always, have an awesome day.