Blah, this one is kinda short, but it's only been a few days so whatever. Hope everyone enjoys and see you next week, back to the regular update schedule!

Addi out

"Did you get my email? I sent you the link to two different scholarship programs, and one site that has tips for students who want to go to college but aren't sure if they can afford it. I thought you could look at them and decide which one you want to apply for."

Sasuke sat down at his desk, operating his mouse with one hand as he cradled his phone between his other shoulder and his cheek. The message in his inbox said the email had sent, so he nodded and leaned back in his chair.

"No, not yet- oh, wait, there it is!" Sakura's tone grew excited on the other end of the line as she scanned through the links Sasuke had sent and the brief descriptions of each he had provided. "Wow, these are great! How did you find them?"

"The scholarships came on my father's recommendation, but I found the other site myself when I was going through my own application process." Sasuke leaned back in his desk chair, trying to keep his smugness from his voice. "I thought it would be a great resource for you, so I included it."

"No, it's great! Thanks!" Sakura's voice drifted off as she started reading through the materials Sasuke had sent her on the other end of the line. "Alright, I'm going to look through all these. Was there anything else you needed to tell me?"

"Yeah, actually. I wanted to ask you if you had any teachers you knew of who you could ask for recommendations, because a couple of the scholarships need them."

"Sure, I know a couple, but school hasn't even started yet. It's still only August."

Leaning forward in his chair, Sasuke exclaimed excitedly, "Which is all the more reason to figure out everything now! Some of the scholarships are school-specific, and you need to apply by the first early decision deadline in early November to even be considered. Now, the applications are evaluated all together after a deadline and not on a first come, first served basis, but it still doesn't hurt to get in the top of the pile. Therefore, I think we should have all of the applications you plan to send in done by the middle of October."

"October?!" Sakura yelped so loudly in Sasuke's ear that he almost dropped the phone, and he had to bring it away from his ear, wincing. "Are you crazy? It's already August!"

"I thought you just said that it was only August," Sasuke teased lightly, then his tone turned serious. "I'm not kidding, Sakura. If I'm going to help you with this, we're going into it with no holds barred, and that means at top speed. Do you think you can keep up with that?"

"I… I'll try," Sakura said dubiously, her voice ringing cautiously through the connection. "I don't know, but I'll try."

"That's all you need to do." Sasuke nodded, pleased. "I'll let you go so you can finish reading what I sent you. Unless there was something else you wanted to ask me?"

"No, I think that was it. I'll look through these and decide which ones I want to apply for. Thanks again for doing this for me, Sasuke. I don't know how I can ever repay you."

"Ha!" Sasuke chuckled good-naturedly. "Let's see if you're still saying that after October rolls around."

"I look forward to it," she teased right back. "Bye, Sasuke. Talk to you later."

"Talk to you later," he echoed, and heard Sakura laugh lightly before a click told him she'd hung up.

The smile only remained on his face for a few more seconds before it slipped down his face like thick mud off a shirt treated with hydrophobic chemicals. Sakura was a wonderful girl who never failed to lighten his spirits, but after letting her go, Sasuke couldn't help but let himself slump back into the depression he'd been feeling ever since he'd heard the news that Itachi had left. Helping Sakura with her dream had, for a time, given him something else to concentrate on, but when he wasn't actively doing anything, like right now, the dim lethargy would start to creep over his body again, and he'd feel the urge to lay back down on his bed and ignore the world.

Just as he was about to give in to the base urge and let the darkness swamp over him again, Sasuke's phone rang. Glancing down at the caller ID, he saw that it was Sakura again, and a slight frown tugged at the corners of his mouth. Did she have a question about the materials he'd sent her? Or did she have something she'd forgotten to tell him? Either way, why had she decided to call and not text? These questions in his mind, Sasuke answered the call and held the phone up to his ear.

"Hello?"

Nothing. Abject silence. Not even the sound of breathing came through the phone line, and Sasuke's frown deepened. What was Sakura doing? Had he been butt-dialed, or was it a prank? Or, perhaps, had she already hung up, realizing the mistake before him? He pulled the phone away from his ear, glancing down at the screen to verify that the call really was connected, and Sakura's name glowed at the top of his screen, along with a time to show how long the call had been. Bringing the phone back to his ear, he listened harder, but was still unable to pick out even the sound of breathing on the other end, though he thought, now that he was paying attention, that he could very faintly hear the sound of laughter from a few rooms over.

Finally deciding that he'd had enough of the charade, Sasuke snapped into the phone, "Look, I don't know who you are or why you have Sakura's phone, but this isn't funny. Either start talking, or I'll hang up." He waited a good five seconds more, but still heard no sound from the other end of the line, so he snapped, "Fine. You had your chance."

Grimacing angrily, he disconnected the call and let his phone fall on his desk while his head fell into his hands. Well, he had one thing to thank the mysterious caller for: the irritation the incident had caused was just enough for him overcome the creeping dark depression that urged him to give up and galvanize his mind to focus on something other than Itachi.

Unsurprisingly, the issue his mind settled on to distract himself from his current situation was one that had been unconsciously nudging at the back of his thoughts ever since Sakura had told him of her own dream and he'd promised to help her achieve it. He'd been too afraid to act on his dream so far, but Sakura's determination had shown him that dreams were achievable, if only one decided to reach toward them.

It took quite a few minutes of staring blankly at his computer screen before he could work up the motivation and courage to open up an email to his academic advisor and start typing.

Halfway across the country, Naruto stared blankly at the screen of Sakura's phone, which he had grabbed as soon as she had left the room and stopped from falling asleep and locking. He knew she hadn't known he was listening while she'd spoken on the phone to Sasuke, but the fact that she could speak so jovially to him while the same pleasure was denied Naruto really stung. As badly as they'd fought and as hurriedly as they'd made up before he'd left Konoha, Naruto missed him terribly, and it hurt to hear him joke so casually with Sakura while he was standing right there.

So, in a moment of weakness, he'd pressed the redial button on the phone in his hand and called Sasuke back, desperate to even hear his voice. His heart had jumped at the first hello, and he'd launched into a tirade of how much he missed Sasuke without giving him a chance to answer any of his questions or even respond to anything he said. This continued for almost a minute before Sasuke's voice had cut sharply through the tirade, clearly irritated and having heard nothing Naruto had been saying.

"Look, I don't know who you are or why you have Sakura's phone, but this isn't funny. Either start talking, or I'll hang up."

The harsh words and biting tone had shocked Naruto enough that he had frozen, the words about to leave his mouth trembling instead at the tip of his tongue, trapped by the tears that suddenly threatened to spill from his eyes. Unable to speak, he'd head Sasuke's voice again after a few seconds had passed.

"Fine. You had your chance."

The call had disconnected, leaving Naruto still shocked speechless, staring down at the phone screen as it dimmed and then faded to black. He only noticed he was crying when a droplet of water splashed down from his cheek and landed on the screen before fading away into nothingness. Angrily, he swiped a hand across his cheek to dispel the remainder of the tears and threw the phone back where Sakura had left it.

He didn't know why he hadn't realized earlier that Sasuke wouldn't be able to hear him. After all, ghosts didn't appear in video and audio recordings and didn't show up in pictures- they even had no reflections, even when they were standing directly in front of a mirror. Therefore, there was no way his voice could have been picked up by the cell phone microphone and transmitted to Sasuke, even though the Uchiha was normally able to hear him.

Wiping his hands across his cheeks one last time to assure himself that no tears remained to accuse him of emotional weakness, Naruto pushed himself off the floor and floated through the ceiling, looking for one of their gradually diminishing group to harass someone living with.

"Kiba! Where are you? I wanna prank someone!"