Sakura stood idly across the hall from the classroom Sabaku was currently in. She had gotten a detention from Kinjo-Sensei, for showing up to her creative writing class late. Sakura had tried to get out of it, since it was the first time she'd be late; but apparently when you're over fifteen minutes late to class Kinjo-Sensei has no mercy. Kinjo-Sensei even went as far as to give her detention for next Thursday, when Sakura had work so now she had to switch shifts with someone. Although Sakura was able to fully enjoy herself during last period running errands, copying papers, taking over for Shizune for a little while, and doing most of Tsunade's paper work. Interestingly Uchiha had come in while both Shizune and Tsunade were out. As soon as he saw she was the only one there, he looked like he would just leave without whatever he wanted. She had waved him over, helped him without a single ounce of disdain and wished him luck at the upcoming football game. Thinking about it reminded her of what Tsunade told her before she ran off to a parent/teacher meeting.

Sakura glanced up, "Hey, Tsunade-Shishou…why is Sabaku in such high-level classes?" She met Tsunade's eyes and flushed at how shallow she sounded, "I mean, because he was always ditching class, sleeping through it and it sounded like he didn't give a damn."

Tsunade shrugged, grabbing a file and looking for her water bottle, which Shizune had snagged a little earlier. She glanced over at Shizune who was innocently talking to a student who had a doctor appointment or something like that and needed to leave. Tsunade opened a drawer she kept locked and took a long gulp from a sake bottle before quickly putting it back and locking it securely

"I really can't say, but when he was in class his grades were impressive. On Tuesday and Wednesday last week, he took the district-wide tests and tested out of all the lower classes. Sabaku tested completely out of all the history classes." Tsunade pushed her bangs out of her eyes, "I guess he understood that this really is his last chance to graduate."

Sakura nodded, and chewed on the end of her pencil again, "I guess so. The way you made him sound, I didn't think he'd be in so many classes with me."

Tsunade snorted, "If you have scheduling issues, take it up with Shizune; she does all that crap."

Sakura felt her phone vibrate against her stomach; she dug it out from her hoodie pocket, and pulled up the message menu. She stared at the screen in surprise; she had nine missed text messages. Mom, Hinata, Naruto, Tenten, Tsunade were people that usually texted her, but the one that stuck out was from Ino. Sakura read the messages from everyone but Ino. On my own for dinner again, yay Sakura thought sarcastically.

Sighing she typed out quick replies to everyone, trying to figure out how much time she could give Naruto; between both their busy schedules. Glancing at the clock, she saw she only had less than a minute. She looked at the list again, and lingered over Ino's message. It can't be anything good, she knew, it never is anymore. Ino had gone from her best friend to her biggest enemy in the short span of a month. She opened it, with morbid intrigue.

Stay away from my Sasuke-Kun, bitch.

Sakura snorted, typical Ino, when will you grow up? Someone reached around her and hit the delete button. Sakura's eyes grew a little larger. She turned her head, insult and fury on the tip of her tongue. She met those piercing sea foam eyes; he was far too close for Sakura to be comfortable. She realized Sabaku's class had ended while she was wrapped up in her own little world. Sakura could feel the heat creep up her neck, she stepped back a little.

"Are you staying for lunch?" She asked, he shook his head, "Yeah, me either. What class do you have after lunch?"

Sabaku handed her his schedule, AP Calculus the same as her. Sakura was getting really annoyed with him, all this silence act was pissing her off. When she tried to give him back his schedule he pushed her hand back. He gave her a look and tapped his head with his left index finger. Sakura raised her eyebrows at him, "You memorized it?" Sabaku nodded once, and looked down the hall. "Go, I'll show you the cafeteria later." Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose.

She smiled when she saw he was taking the long way, and hurried to the second stair well, the one all the smokers used when they ditched class. She noticed the stairs where clear besides some guys chilling out smoking something under the top platform. She barely saw them, their stretched out legs as the only visible part of their bodies. Sakura turned right after pushing the stairwell door open. She could see Hinata, and Shikamaru standing by her jeep through the double doors.

"Hey Sakura, wait up!" She recognized Choji's voice from behind her and paused at the exit. He jogged up to her; he panted but gave her a small smile. "Sorry I had to give Aymai her notes back." Sakura couldn't remember who Ayami was, so she grinned and offered.

"You're fine, Cho. I have to show around a transfer student, so I was running behind too." As they walked to Sakura's jeep, Choji started telling Sakura about a project he was doing in cooking class. Sakura grinned when he said desserts, "I'll be your genuine pig Choji." She winked at him.

"Hey guys." Shikamaru greeted, leaning against the jeep, "Where are we going today?"

Hinata smiled and looked at Sakura, "Aren't we going to the BBQ Grill today?"

Choji let out a thunderous roar of excitement, and the others laughed. Sakura hopped in and stared her jeep up, "Hold on guys, I left the doors at home." She smirked.

Sakura loved the feeling of the wind through her hair, she wanted a motorcycle at first, but her mom was firmly against it. "It's too dangerous Sakura. You just got your license why don't we get your something a little more practical; that has some of the freedom you're looking for at the same time." Sakura hadn't believed her mom would get her a car that would give her freedom like a motorcycle would; but it was a damn good compromise. Sakura was hopping to be able to buy one after high school.

She had to circle the block twice to find a parking spot. The BBQ Grill is off the Square of town. The main square were most the hotels, restaurants, shops, and practically everything else was. The mall is about a five minute drive from the Square. Hinata unbuckled herself, "Is your car going to be safe without the doors?"

Sakura nodded, "Yeah." She hopped out, "I have an anit-thief method, and she pulled out a lock bar from under the driver's seat and locked the steering wheel to the door frame. She held up a key to Hinata, "There are only two keys, ones always with me and the other is hidden."

Hinata looked panicked, "In the car?"

"Wait, What? No, in my house silly." Sakura shook her head and grabbed Hinata into the restaurant. "I swear school makes your brain fuzzy."

Shikamaru and Choji sat at Choji's usual table, Choji waved and as they approached, "I order your drinks…I hope that's okay."

Hinata giggled behind her hand, "Of course Choji-Kun, thank you."

Sakura sat besides Shikamaru, "Hey did you finish the Accounting homework?"

Shikamaru's head was lying on his arms, "Yeah, I did it this morning. Why?"

"Because she forgot about it." Hinata chimed in, taking a drink of Choji's Pepsi, "I can't believe you actually spaced it."

"I was late to work." Sakura grumbled but thumped Shikamaru on the shoulder, "Can be turning into Shikamaru, now can I?"

Lunch went by fast, as it always did when they left campus. Sakura had enough time to swing by her house and grab Hinata's French notes, before heading back to school. Hinata sat in the back, chatting with Choji, while Shikamaru fiddled with her radio. Sakura pulled into the lot with eight minutes left of lunch. Everybody piled out and Sakura waved before leaning against the back of her jeep. Sakura had her stuff, it had been the in back under a blanket the whole time, and she fished it out now so she wouldn't forget when Sabaku showed up.

She ended up setting on the tailgate of her jeep, doodling in her sketch book. It started out covered lines, a little bit of background here and there, and it ended up being a vague outline of a motorcycle on a street. Sakura looked at it, and made a few changes as needed before glancing up, she still didn't see him. Five minutes left, Sakura acknowledge, he still has time. She began to add shading, smudging a line or two that was too crisp but shading wouldn't do. Sakura began to add a tree, secretly so she should shade the motorcycle to make the body pop more.

Sakura was snapped out of her artsy trace when she heard a car door slam and high pitched giggles. Sakura put her sketch book away, and looped her messenger bag over her head. Maybe I missed him, she thought closing the tailgate. She made her way towards the building, but barely made it past two cars before and hand snagged her left forearm. She lifted her head, half excepting to see Sabaku or someone. What she hadn't expected was Ino and her cheerleader friends. I am not getting another detention today, she thought venomously. Sakura glared at Ino, ignoring her little followers all together.

"Forehead, you better know your place." Ino spat, "Stay away from Sasuke-Kun."

Sakura raised an eyebrow, "Oh, that's what this is about. Next time he needs help getting out of a detention and scheduling a missed day because of a doctor's appointment. I'll be sure to tell him it's your fault that he has to miss the football practice and his appointment, which I'm sure he'll be glad he missed." She tried twisting her arm away, but being a cheerleader wasn't just parading around.

Ino's checks redden a little, her finger nails dug into Sakura's sweatshirt, "Don't think I haven't seen the way he looks at you." She hissed, "I know what's going on here, you're trying to lure him away aren't you?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow, the way he looks at me? He looks at me, the same way he looks at everyone else. She opened her mouth but paused when she noticed Ino's open-palm pulled back. She arched her back, dodging the slap. "You're such a brat Ino, grow up! Uchiha doesn't look at me any differently than he looks at you!" Ino back-handed Sakura, apparently that was the wrong thing to say, she thought rubbing her stinging cheek.

"You're such a slut Sakura! I can't believe you just said that! You just had to try and get him for yourself, didn't you! You didn't see it in middle school, but you see it now." Ino tried to punch her, but while Ino had wanted to learn cheerleading as a kid, Sakura had learned Karate. She blocked the punch and broke Ino's hold on her arm, putting a few feet between them. "You just had to get between us! You ruined everything Sakura!"

"Get over your self Ino! You're nothing but a spoiled little girl who hasn't got her way." Sakura shot back icily, unable to believe her e-best friend had just hit her. Sakura's memory of Ino in her childhood shattered in her mind, the blond girl in front of her wasn't the same girl at all. Sakura felt the heaviness in her heart lift and disappear. She had never really put up a fight with Ino, because she had been her best friend, now she saw that her best friend was gone forever. "I don't know if Uchiha likes anyone, but I'm pretty sure it isn't me. And if he does like someone else, you should be happy for him, instead of attacking whoever you think it is. Ino, if you actually love Sasuke then you'll let go of your childish crush and be happy that he has found someone who makes him happy!" Sakura gave Ino a hard glare, "And then you should move on."

Ino let out a shrill scream and her first flew at Sakura, she probably could have blocked it, but Ino's scream had startled her and her hands had shot up to her ears. A hand caught Ino's first from behind Sakura, who stared at the pale hand in shock. She hadn't even noticed anyone approach them. Ino was staring at the person behind her in complete shock, her lips trembled. Sakura craned her head back, bumping into a guy's hard chest when she did so. Her eyes met dark hair, pale skin, the usual scow, and charcoal eyes, the subject of their fight; Uchiha Sasuke.

"Sasuke?" His name escaped before she could stop it, she was confused. She had befriended Naruto, before all the drama between her and Ino happened, she ended up befriending Sasuke in the process. They had been close; the three of them had all become a tight-knit group for three years. When Ino ended their friendship, Sakura had stuck even closer to Sasuke and Naruto; leaning on them. After a year, Ino started picking on Sakura; while she became more and more popular she got other girls to do it with her. Naruto and Sasuke kept them all away from her, but Ino targeted Hinata when she couldn't reach Sakura. It was just after Christmas break of their eighth grade year that Sakura found out and began to distance herself from both Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto had managed to worm his way back into her life in ninth grade and even though he became popular with Sasuke, he always found time for her.

"Ino we aren't dating. We never were. I don't know how you got the whole school to think such ridiculous things." Sasuke's voice cold as ever, "Leave Sakura alone. Stop bugging me and get lost already."

Ino burst out in tears and took off, her little cheerleader squad raced after her. Sakura sighed and leaned against Sasuke, who stiffed. Probably because I've been a bitch to him, Sakura thought, although he never went out of his way to talk to me. She pinched the bridge of her nose and checked the time, three and a half minutes left. She stepped away from Sasuke, and looked at him.

Sasuke's face was guarded, as it always had been, but his eyes held a sliver of remorse. Sasuke didn't say anything, which was typical of him, but Sakura remembered the slightly differences of his emotionless mask well enough, just as she knew when Naruto's smiles were fake.

"Sasuke, I'm sorry I've been a bitch to you for the last two years. I'll get ahold of you later, but I can't be late again." Sakura offered a small wave, before taking off. A quick glance over her shoulder assured her she'd at least get to talk to him, seeing a small nod he sent her way. Sakura found Sabaku at her locker, when she skidded to a stop and practically rip the door open. She blinked once, looked at Sabaku, then grabbed her books and slammed the poor locker shut again.

"I'm not even going to ask how you knew I'd be here. Let's go, we only have another two minutes." She grabbed his wrist ignoring his expression all-together as she dragged down two halls, up the stoner stair case and slipped in a hard to notice hallway and enter the second classroom on the left.

Once inside, Sakura let go of Sabaku and grabbed the closest seat. It was weird to enter from the back of the class, but Sakura never liked going the extra six feet to the door which opened at the front of the class. The AP Calculus room is actually an old science room; there are two ways in and out. Sakura was pretty sure that the back of the room used to be the front and the front used to be the back. Hatake Kakashi taught this class, and like always he stepped in ten minutes late. Kakashi is probably somewhere in his mid-twenties, with silver hair the sticks up on one side, tall, and most the girls thought he was sexy. Nobody had ever managed to see his face in the three years he's worked here, he usually wears a mask over his face, or he'll have one hand sprawled over his face, or his perverted orange book will be in his face. They only part of him they ever see his right eye, which is a light gray-silver color, kind of like his hair.

"Afternoon class!" Kakashi said cheerfully, as he walked over to the chalkboard, "Today, you're all going to pair up with whoever is nest to you and do problems 1 through 25 on page 263." Once he was finished writing he plopped down behind his desk and flipped the page.

The whole class sighed, people moved their desks to better work together, others completely ignored their partner, and people like Kiba complained loudly about their partners. Not like the boy next to Kiba wanted to partner with him, Sakura thought his name was Ginta or something. Sakura highly doubted that Kiba should even be in the class, but he probably got the football couch to pull some strings. Sakura pulled out her book and flipped her notebook to an empty page. She watched Sasuke smack Naruto for not listening to him. Ino hadn't shown up to class, which probably met she was at the nurse's office. Her little followers had paired off with each other, and Eriki was completely ignoring a football player who was supposed to be his partner.

"Sato-Kuuuun." Kakashi sang throwing a paper ball at Eriki's head, "Play nice and pair up with Fuji-Kun." Kakashi scanned the room and spotted Sakura, who realized when she snagged a spot in the back there were a few empty desks around her. Sabaku sat two seats away in the same row, book open but he was staring off into space.

"Hey, who's the newbie?" Kakashi is such a weird teacher.

The class all glanced at him then at Sabaku, who ignored them, half didn't know. Naruto freaked out that he hadn't heard about Sabaku yet. A few guys were sizing him up, probably thinking about asking him to join a sports team. Sakura wondered if she should answer, since she knew his name. Sasuke beat her to it.

"He's Sabaku no Gaara from the Suna, Kakashi." Sasuke didn't even look up from his notebook. Sakura noticed that got Sabaku's attention; his eyes slid to Sasuke and watched him for a moment before ignoring the class again. "They probably talked about it at the meeting you skipped out on the Thursday before break."

The class had gone back to their work, everyone was used to Sasuke knowing things like this, although no one was really sure how, when or who he got the information from. Even Naruto didn't know. Kakashi hummed under his breath, "Sabaku work with Haruno."

Sabaku turned his head, raised a where an eyebrow would be, his hair shifted and Sakura's eyes zeroed in on a red tattoo on his forehead. The kanji for "love" was tattooed above his left eye. Sakura wondered how she missed that. How do I miss things like that? She frown, I missed the missing eyebrows at first too. Then what Kakashi said caught up to Sakura, that's right, Tsunade never said my last name.

"He means me Sabaku-San." She glanced over at him, offering a small smile, "I forgot you didn't know my last name."

He nodded, and watched her gather her things to move to the desk next to him. Sakura had figured he wouldn't move, picking a chair closet to the door for a reason. Sakura settled down again and looked at the textbook page and paled. Separable Differential Equations, Sakura wished they were working on theories still. Sabaku ignored her, just as he had been before. His notebook wasn't even out; Sakura questioned whether he even had a pencil. She looked at the first problem and copied it down.

∫ y dy = ∫− x dx ⇒ y 2/2 = − x 2 /2+ C 1

Sakura stared at the question for a while, biting on her lower lip and occasionally her pencil. When the bell rang, Sakura nearly jumped out of her skin. She saw Sabaku watching her; amused. She huffed and put her things away, wondering how she zoned out so bad. Then Sakura remembered Sabaku had the next two classed with her.

He followed her to gym, where he got to see Gai-Sensei for the first time. Sabaku had stared at Gai-Sensei when Sakura introduced him to Sabaku, Gai-Sensei rambled on about "youthful" this, that and all the 'youthful" things. Saukra pointed at Sasuke and shooed him off to the other side of the gym where the boy's locker rooms were, before hurrying to get changed. Gym went by quickly enough; they had to play kickball, which wasn't too bad although Naruto and Sasuke's team dominated her team, who weren't trying very hard. Sabaku did very little barely playing at all.

Art class was relaxing for Sakura, the windows were huge, long rectangles, and they filled the room with lazy warm afternoon light. Oonishi Chinatsu-Sensei is a petite woman, her hair fell in long big springy curls, her blue eyes were soft and her face was almost an oval shape. Sakura liked her a lot; she had a friendly personality, kind, sweet, soft-spoken, Sakura had never seen her raise her voice.

"Natsu, you look lovely today." She meant it too; Natsu wore a knee length green dress with a brown belt and flats. Chinatsu-Sensei let all her students call her Natsu she said she liked it better than being called Sensei; which made her feel old.

Natsu noticed Sabaku instantly and began to tell him about the class, and held out a ridiculous looking porcelain bunny bowl and had him take out a slip of paper, telling him that would be his first project. He had missed two already, the class was working on their third project. Sakura told him so, and told him the second project's subject was up to him. Art class ended too fast for Sakura's liking. She had to stay after for Tsunade. She ignored her art supplies and stood next to Sabaku.

"Can you stay after school today? I'd rather show you around when the school's empty than doing it between classes." She watched as he nodded, "Great. I have to do something real quick. I'll be back in 20 minutes." Sakura paused in the door way, "Don't disappear on me." For a spilt second Sakura thought she saw the corner of his mouth lift, and then it was gone.