A/N: This chapter ends the three's elementary days - FINALLY. I know you guys are getting impatient with me, hehe. Well... R&R :)

For the next couple of days, all Sakura was thinking about was the bad news Sasuke's father revealed at the art museum. She lied in bed, sobbing at the thought of Sasuke moving at the end of the school year, which was at the end of the week. They were friends for a good seven years and Mr. Uchiha was jeopardizing their friendship! Not to mention any potential chance of Sasuke ever falling in love with the pink-haired girl.

'This is stupid.' Sakura snorted, punching her wall. The punch resulted in her cursing underneath her breath at the pain, knuckles slightly bleeding.

"Ouch…" she said to herself, getting up off the bed. There was no use in lying down and crying about Sasuke right now. Doing that wouldn't remove the pain located in her knuckles so she walked off to her bathroom in search of something to resolve her problem.

"There we go!" Instead of rummaging through her cluttered medicine cabinet, Sakura took a damp paper towel and cleaned up the blood off of her hand. While she did this, she was thinking, 'Sasuke-kun's definitely going to miss out on this once he moves. Whenever he injures himself in martial arts or gets a cut, he won't have me to help heal him or anything. Oh wait.'

Sakura's thought process paused for a moment, realizing something. 'If Sasuke-kun moves and I'm not around, a bunch of other girls will be over him the minute they spot him, volunteering to be his caretaker or something. This can't happen!'

And with that, the petite sixth grader exited her bathroom and made her way back to her bedroom. She plopped down on her bed, thoughts swirling around in her mind. Otogakure was at least three thousand miles away from Konoha, meaning that visiting Sasuke every day was out of the picture. And since such a city was so far away, Sasuke would be attracted to the foreign Oto residents there. This made Sakura's green eyes tear up – she needed to find a way to prevent that.

"I suppose Sasuke wouldn't go looking for an Oto girlfriend if he had a long-distance one in Konoha," she now thought aloud, a plan forming in her head. She gave herself a mission (which in her eyes was a very difficult one) to confess her love for Sasuke on the last day of sixth grade – two days from today. If her mission was accomplished successfully, she would win the guy of her dreams ('take that, Ino!' she thought) and wouldn't be so paranoid when he leaves town. It was simply an ingenious idea. Well, at least, to her it was.

The following Thursday morning, Naruto was found in Kakashi-sensei's classroom (early for once), staring outside the closest window. He didn't make small talk with his lackadaisical teacher because Kakashi-sensei was too absorbed in one of his Icha Icha books, written by Naruto's godfather himself.

The sound of a chair screeching against the tiled floor interrupted Naruto's gaze. Beside him was Sasuke who shifted in his seat until he found it comfortable. Naruto noticed that his hair looked unusually messy that morning. Normally, the jet black hair with a blue tinge was combed and parted perfectly, but today it seemed like Sasuke didn't even bother honing his appearance. Along with unkempt hair, Sasuke's clothes weren't like his usual. It wasn't the actual pieces of clothing that struck Naruto as odd, but rather the smell of them; they smelled like Naruto's laundry after two weeks of not being washed.

"Oh man, you reek!" Naruto exclaimed, getting up from his seat and flailing his hand in front of his nose to prevent the stench from making it up there.

Sasuke shot Naruto a deathly glare, silencing his friend from saying anything else that could potentially harm him. Not that he was afraid of fighting his best friend, but all of the fan girls obsessed over him would most likely join forces to injure the blond. "If you must know, Naruto, I have to rewear some clothes because most of them are already packed up," Sasuke retorted, vexed by the other's comment.

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun! Naruto!" a very perky pink-haired student greeted as she practically hopped in the classroom, the rest of the class filing in after her. When she approached her usual table, she halted at the unappealing aroma surrounding it.

"Naruto, if you're going to fart, go outside or something! Sheesh," she commented, obviously disgusted. Naruto opened his mouth to protest, but Sakura continued to talk, this time to Sasuke. "My gosh, Sasuke-kun! You look so handsome today. N-not that you don't look good every day because you totally do. But I love what you did to your hair…" she rambled on. Soon, all of the girls in Kakashi-sensei's class swarmed around Sakura and Sasuke, also complimenting on his good looks and shooting Naruto disgusted looks when inhaling the repulsive air.

'Are all of these girls just as oblivious to the smell of Sasuke's clothes as Sakura?' he screamed in his head, rolling his eyes at the pitiful sight. After thinking that, the bell rang, signaling the beginning of the second-to-last school day.

Ring… ring… ring…

"Hello?" Kakashi Hatake answered lazily into the telephone perched on top of his desk. He leaned back in his chair and lifted both of his legs up so that they were resting on the desk as well while his students were working in solitude.

"Please send Naruto Uzumaki to my office," the principal ordered from the other line.

Kakashi replied, "He's on his way, Tsunade-sama." After he hanged up, he called to Naruto, "Naruto, the principal would like to see you." He smirked, used to Naruto's weekly visits to the principal's office.

Naruto was used to them too, but he hated the punishments he received. As a dear friend of his godfather, Tsunade-sama made sure that Naruto's consequences were more ridiculous than some other student's would be. He found them torture, but she found them hilarious. "What did I do now, Kakashi-sensei? I've been good all week!" he groaned. His teacher just chuckled and dismissed the poor boy.

When he entered the principal's office, he recognized a figure lounging in front of her desk with light gray, unruly hair. It was Jiraiya, his godfather – he was sure of it. Tsunade looked up from her stack of papers briefly, motioning her expected troublemaker to the vacant chair next to Jiraiya.

"Granny Tsunade, what did I do?" Naruto whined.

Tsunade's attention was focused on her paperwork once again, not bothering to look up at Naruto to answer his question. "Jiraiya and I were discussing some things pertaining to you, Naruto." Her reply caused Naruto to blink several times, unsure of what was occurring. It was already peculiar to find his guardian there as he was never needed around when Tsunade gave the boy his assignments.

Arranging her papers in a neat stack, Tsunade cleared her throat before speaking. Shortly after, she said, "Jiraiya has informed me of his three-year journey to various places, thus being unable to care after yo—"

"But, Granny, Ero-sennin's never home to take care of me. Why is it a problem now?" the sixth grader obtruded, referring to his guardian as the Perverted Hermit. Jiraiya cringed at the nickname he loathed while Tsunade massaged her temples, ready to burst at any moment. Instead of charging at Naruto, she exhaled a deep breath to calm her temper down.

"Anyways, Jiraiya will be travelling around the country for three years straight with no visits back home unlike his usual journeys. We can't have you, Naruto, alone for that long period of time without wreaking havoc so it's been arranged that you accompany Jiraiya for the summer before spending the next three years in boarding school," Tsunade-sama declared, grinning.

What was there to grin about though? She just announced that Naruto was leaving town to go to boarding school, a place that he specifically dreaded. Sure he's never actually been to one before, but he didn't want to start the upcoming school year. He didn't want to leave his friends either like Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Sakura… Sakura. He especially didn't want to abandon one of his best friends. The same person that he liked for seven years.

No. He couldn't let this happen, but what else was he supposed to do? Everything was settled already so the plans couldn't be altered. He would just have to deal with boarding school for the next three years… 'Oh shit. Three years?'

How was he supposed to break the news to Sakura? Sasuke was fine to tell to since he was moving anyways, but Naruto had no idea how to tell the other friend. 'Maybe she doesn't have to know. At least from me. I'll tell Shikamaru and the rest of them and they can inform Sakura once middle school starts. That's perfect!' he thought.

The last day of sixth grade was hard to bear for Sakura. During class, all she ever thought about was Sasuke 'this' and Sasuke 'that,' anticipating for the bell to ring so she could carry on her mission of confessing to Sasuke. When the chorus of rings echoed in the Academy, she jumped and squealed from her seat, almost knocking it over from the excitement.

As she exited the building, she attempted to scout her crush through the horde of people crowding around, saying 'see you around' or 'have a great summer' to their friends at the last minute. Only until the students cleared away did she find Sasuke, waiting for his ride.

"Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun!" she chanted. Leaning against the Academy gates, he craned his neck over to find his overly giddy friend jogging towards him. When Sakura approached him, he smiled gently. Too bad that would be the last time Sakura would see the breathtakingly cute smile that painted his face.

"Um, Sasuke-kun…"

She was going to miss Sasuke and everything about him terribly. She was going to miss his spiky, raven-colored hair and his dark eyes that didn't appear so malicious-looking whenever he was with real friends, along with his warm smile. She was going to miss his cool composure and gentlemanlike manners. She was even going to miss his bickers and squabbles with Naruto about who-knows-what. They amused her and made her giggle every day.

"Sasuke-kun…"

'Dang it, Sakura, get a freaking hold of yourself. We've gone through this scenario plenty of times so why can't you just confess to Sasuke-kun right now?' the pink-haired girl's inner self shouted at her.

"Sas—"

"Hey, Sakura, could you hurry up please? My ride's waiting," Sasuke turned around to hold his index finger in the air, letting his father know to give him just a few more seconds.

'All right, Sakura. You heard him. He has to go so just let it all out…'

"I love you, Sasuke-kun! I've loved you since the first day of kindergarten and up until now. I love everything about you too. You're the most good-looking, talented, skilled, artistic, trustworthy, caring, and intelligent guy that I've ever known. I know you're moving to Oto tonight, but you should let me be your girlfr—"

"Sorry, Sakura. I'm not interested in relationships right now, especially the long-distance types. Plus, you're one of my best friends. I've never pictured you as more than that. Have a nice summer. Say bye to Naruto for me," Sasuke waved then placed both of his hands in his pockets, heading over to the Uchiha mobile.

When the vehicle pulled out of the curb, the girl finally started crying. Tears gushed from her dull-looking eyes like waterfalls. Her sobs she released were heavy and loud. Good thing she was the only student left outside the building for witnesses would've pitied the poor girl.

All of a sudden, Sakura felt someone embracing her from behind. She looked down at the arms hugging her, trying to make out through a blurred and teary vision which person the arms belonged to. Although she couldn't really see at the time, she did recognize carrot-colored sleeves.

"Naruto…" Sakura managed to choke out her best friend's name, but it came out all frail and raspy. She turned around; wiping her eyes, and saw a pair of shimmering blue eyes gazing into her bloodshot ones. Just when Naruto thought Sakura would slap him for surprisingly hugging her, she buried her face into his chest, crying even louder than before.

The boy patted his crush's back softly, trying to comfort her. He allowed her to soak the front of his jumpsuit up with her tears, not caring the least bit that it was his favorite piece of clothing. The two stood there for a while, still embracing each other. Naruto cherished the moment he had with Sakura for as long as possible.

When school ended that day, he changed his mind about not telling Sakura about his bad news so he ran off to go find her in the crowd of summer-craving students. Eventually, he found her, only to be talking to Sasuke. Naruto didn't want to obtrude their conversation, hiding behind a nearby tree. At the sound of Sakura's confession, he balled his fists, wishing to be in Sasuke's shoes at the time. However, envy quickly transitioned to anger at Sasuke's words. He couldn't bear to see Sakura's devastated phase, rushing over to comfort her with a hug immediately.

Now Naruto didn't have a choice. He couldn't possibly bring up his departure and the transfer to a different school right after Sasuke rejected her. The news would add on to the sadness she was pouring into his jumpsuit.

Right then, all he could do was pat her back, fingers brushing long strands of a pale shade of pink hair. "Everything will be all right, Sakura-chan. I'm here," he murmured softly, instantly wishing to take back his words for they were a lie. Judging from her current state, everything won't be all right. And Naruto was leaving the next day so really, he wasn't there for her.