Author's Note: Okay, so first of all I would like to just say how sorry I am that it took so long for me to update! I've been so busy with school ending, and then I was away most of the summer, so I didn't have much time. Anyway, before everything starts again I'm going to try and update more. If you're still reading this, please review and tell me what you think. :) And thank you so much for the reviews, you guys are awesome!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

"Aah!" I couldn't help shrieking when someone familiar and blond knocked into me.

"Oof." Naruto hit the ground with a grunt. For a second, he sat stunned on the floor looking at me. I resisted telling him off, since we weren't exactly close anymore. "Sorry," he said, standing up, "I didn't see you there... are you new?" He blurted.

"No," I said, my patience waning now. It was now late September, and I had barely gotten anywhere on the Sasuke front. I mean, we had made it to conversational chatting during Calculus, but that was it.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki." He grinned, oblivious to my irritation. "What's your name?"

"Sakura Haruno," I replied, "I took your picture last week." Naruto had joined culinary arts (for reasons unknown to us all) and I had taken his picture for the school newspaper (a job that somehow went synonymously with working on the yearbook, and I had been chosen to take Naruto's picture for an article someone was writing about him - some people can't get enough of the football players).

"Oh yeah!" He said. "That was you!"

I sighed. "What were you doing, anyway?"

Naruto looked dubious. "I was going to see if I could catch a football that Kiba was going to throw down the hallway - good practice for when we're trying to dodge people on the field."

"Yeah, but it's sort of a hazard to everyone else." I said, automatically rubbing my arm. It was starting to throb from where Naruto had knocked into me.

"Sorry about that," Naruto apologized, "I guess I didn't think-"

"You never think." To my surprise (and utter delight) Sasuke had appeared, and rapped Naruto on the head with his knuckles. They were roughly the same height (taller than me), but Sasuke seemed leaner, less muscular. I couldn't keep my eyes off of him, though. If only I realized this before the accident.

"Hey!" Naruto scowled for a second, before his face brightened again. "Look at the new friend I just made! Her name's Sakura!"

Sasuke looked at me for the first time in awhile. "I'm sorry for my friend." He said, looking exasperated. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"Not at all," I said. "I ran into her!" Naruto said at roughly the same time.

Sasuke eyed us for a moment, and then shrugged. "Naruto," he said, "I came to find you. We're having a team meeting in five minutes."

"See ya, Sakura!" Naruto called as he and Sasuke walked down the hallway. I wondered why they got to skip when I still had to go to AP Biology. Some people got all the luck.

To my dismay, Sasuke didn't say anything else to me. Not that it was surprising anymore, really.

The bell rang right as I stepped into the classroom. I liked Biology okay; Tenten was in it with me, so I always had a lab partner. Sadly, Ino and Shikamaru were in it too (as well as Sasuke and Naruto, but they weren't there. Obviously.) but we didn't talk. I was still recovering from the cafeteria humiliation that everyone that mattered witnessed (well, I wasn't sure about Sasuke, but still, it was mortifying).

However, I was making up for it. I would always make some sort of effort to catch Sasuke's eye in any of the classes we had together. I tried to draw on the techniques I used on Kiba last time (before I realized that he was a huge jerk... or at least, started acknowledging it) - things that included waking up early to perfect my hair and make-up and make sure I had something nice to wear everyday. He had to like that, right? Besides, doing that made me feel like I had at least some control in my new life.

"Hey." I said halfheartedly, taking my seat next to Sasuke in calculus. Seeing him today had made me realize, once again, how hard I would have to work at getting him to like me again.

Sasuke nodded, already working on an equation - sometimes he would get so immersed in something that it would be hard to get his attention.

"How's your arm?" I persisted. When we first became friends, I used to just keep talking until he would stop with whatever he was so intense about and answer me. Sometimes I still did it.

Sasuke looked up at me, and then at his wrist, which was still in a cast. "It's okay," he said, "the doctor said it wasn't a clean break so it's going to be in a cast longer, but that's okay." Sasuke shrugged; I noticed he hadn't started working on the equation again. I also noticed that he hadn't let anyone sign his cast yet. Or draw on it.

"For how long?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer. Anything to keep him talking to me.

"At least six weeks," Sasuke said, "but it could change, depending on how everything is healing."

I had to stop talking then, because our calculus teacher, Azuma, started lecturing.

It was Wednesday, so I had to go to another one of Tenten's yearbook club meetings. She had recruited a few more people in the last week, which included two freshmen (they seemed too intimidated by Tenten to really do anything, though) and Hinata, who just turned up.

"Okay," Tenten said, eying all of us, "I need someone to be in charge of taking pictures for the girls basketball..." I stopped listening after that - who cares about basketball when I'm so busy trying to get Sasuke's attention?

Now, what could I say to Sasuke that would make him talk to me that didn't sound stalkerish? This was surprisingly hard, since I knew him so well that I was used to just blurting out anything in his presence. Thankfully I hadn't had anymore slip-ups since the first day-

"Sakura," Tenten huffed, "are you even paying attention?"

"Yes!" I replied indignantly.

"What was I saying just now?"

"Er... you were just about to tell me to take pictures for something?" It was a shot in the dark, admittedly, but I didn't really care whether I looked dumb in front of these people. Unlike the popular crowd (my old friends), I could get away with looking idiotic and they wouldn't judge me.

There were a few snickers from the newer members, but Tenten glared at them. "As I was saying," she said, "the homecoming dance is in a few weeks and we need to figure out who's going to cover it. Since I'm on the Dance Committee I am, unfortunately, unavailable. Does anyone volunteer to document the homecoming dance? It's a very important task."

Everyone looked around nervously - except Hinata, who seemed used to Tenten's antics by now. I wondered if Tenten had always acted this weird, or if it was a stage she would grow out of.

One of the freshmen raised their hands, like they couldn't take the pressure of Tenten's gaze on them anymore. Luckily, the rest of us were dismissed so Tenten could discuss the picture taking for the dance in more detail.

"Is she always this obsessive?" I whispered to Hinata on our way out of the classroom where the meeting had taken place.

"As long as I've known her," Hinata admitted, "she's really not that bad once you get to know her better."

We walked together chatting to the parking lot. To my surprise, Neji Hyuga was staring at us and leaning against a car. I was about to ask what his problem was, when Hinata nervously said, "That's my ride - I should probably go now. See you tomorrow, Sakura!"

I gaped as Hinata got into the car with Neji and drove away, thinking about how stupid I was. Of course - Hinata and Neji were cousins! I just forgot about it because they were never around each other. Even though they were related, Neji was mostly present with the popular group (in fact, I had hung out with him a lot before - he was okay, but pretty quiet), while Hinata only associated herself with the nerdier people like Tenten. If I had thought of it earlier, I could have been getting closer to Hinata to get to Neji... which would get me to Sasuke! Right?

Okay, I admit it was a stretch, but I was desperate!

The next day, I cornered Hinata in the hallway, "Hey Hinata," I said, "wanna go shopping or something?"

At first Hinata looked stunned. I mean, I'll admit I've been so preoccupied that I haven't exactly made an effort to hang out with my new "friends" outside of school or anything. Okay, so I thought I would have already gotten my old friends back by then, but that doesn't matter. "O-okay." Hinata stammered a bit. She must have been surprised. Back in elementary school Hinata had a stuttering problem that she had to go take special classes for. It didn't go away until the summer before we all started middle school. Now it only came out when she was caught off guard.

"Cool," I replied, trying to sound nonchalant, "I'll come pick you up tomorrow!" To my surprise, it was hard not to sound excited. I hadn't gone shopping with someone in so long (I had done it plenty of times alone), and just the thought of having someone to talk to made me feel strangely happy. I guess I hadn't realized that I had missed hanging out with people in so long.

The next day, I ended up at the mall with Hinata.

"Yay, I found it!" I cried, snagging a familiar green dress off a rack. I had bought the dress last year, and it had been one of my favorites - it made my eyes pop.

Hinata seemed uncomfortable, probably because she was out of her comfort zone (which I would assume would be staying home and reading or doing other boring stuff). "C'mon, Hinata!" I said, handing her a few items. "Try these on, I have a feeling they'll look great on you."

After about half an hour of forcing her to try on different pieces, Hinata seemed to open up. "Thanks for doing this, Sakura." Hinata said, looking at her reflection - this time, she was trying on a lavender dress I had found.

"No problem," I said, "what are friends for?" My response made me stop for a moment. Was I friends with Hinata now? I guess I had always assumed that after I became friends with Sasuke and everyone again, I would just ditch the losers I was hanging out with now.

Thinking about it some more, I realized that I didn't want to stop being friends with Hinata. Unlike some of my old friends/acquaintances, she didn't care how I dressed.

"What do you think?" Hinata said, and twirled around. The dress shimmered in the light, turning different shades of light purple and blue.

"I think it suits her, don't you?" Konan said.

I shrieked, and then realized that Hinata wouldn't have heard me. My new friend was now frozen in place. "You have to stop doing that," I told the woman/witch/thing, "you're going to give me a heart attack!"

"I see you've made some new friends." Konan smiled that unearthly smile - I realized that her eyes were a glassy blue.

"I had to," I snapped, "since you've made everyone forget about me. I thought you said that it would only be Sasuke!"

She only smiled. "You're running out of time, you know."

"Don't remind me." I groaned, feeling like I wanted to sink into the floor.

"What?" Hinata said, eying me - I realized that Konan had disappeared.

"Nothing," I said hastily, "that dress looks great. Get it."

We continued like that for the rest of the day, and I learned a lot about Hinata in the process. Like how her father had a twin brother (Neji's father), and they were both heirs to Hinata's grandfather's large corporation. There was always some tension, though, about how Hinata's father was the favored one.

"Neji and I are trying to get to know each other better now," Hinata admitted, "we decided that to avoid our father's mistakes, we shouldn't spend our lives hating each other." It also kind of helped that their father's were becoming closer, too.

I also figured out something very interesting - Hinata totally had a crush on Naruto. Of course, she didn't admit it to me, but I could tell that she did by the way she blushed whenever he was brought up. I made a mental note to help get them together at the end of the year. If I couldn't be with Sasuke, then at least I could help Hinata.

"Tenten," I said, "what's going on?"

My brunette friend and I were staring at a rather odd occurrence happening in the hallway - Sasuke and Karin were walking and... holding hands?

"Are they going out?" I blurted - I couldn't help myself! Leave it to Karin to mess up everything!

Tenten nodded, "They started dating this weekend; he asked her. Basically all of the girls in the school are devastated - including you, it looks like." She was always one to state the obvious.

I shook my head, "I've got to go."

Before I could do something stupid - like cry, again, why was I always crying? - I ran into the art room. Thankfully, only Deidara was inside, and he only nodded as I pulled out the acrylics we were working with.

As I painted, I imagined Sasuke asking out Karin - Karin! What hurt the most was that it could have been me - it was me - but I broke his heart.