A/N: 'Bout for an update, wouldn't ya say?

As always, I offer my eternal gratitude and thanks to all my lovely readers and reviewers. I would have honestly dumped this fanfic if it wasn't for all your support. I hope you at least enjoy this chapter! Summer is now over, school begins!

Chapter 10

The lobby was filled to the brim with excited laughter and nervous teenagers. Freshmen crowded together, looking wearily at their older schoolmates who wandered confidently between groups.

The first day of school was beginning, open to many possibilities, but Sasuke stood secluded from everyone else. Indifferent to the classmates surrounding him.

"Sasuke!" Called Sakura in a chirpy voice. Sasuke nodded his head slightly in acknowledgement as Sakura skipped over to his side. From the crowd also appeared Ino, a perfect image of an excited high school girl. Perhaps a little too excited. . . .

"SASUKE~!" She yelled enthusiastically, startling Sasuke with her over the top ecstatic appearance.

Both girls seemed to be possessed by some overly happy demon.

"Aww," Ino pouted, analyzing Sasuke's stoic expression. "Aren't you at least a little bit excited?" she asked. "It's the first day of school!"

No, Sasuke wasn't excited. But he would be lying if said he wasn't looking forward to his senior school year. But he didn't want to admit that to Ino or Sakura so he just looked away from their endearing eyes with a "Hn."

"I can't believed it's the first day of school!" whined Naruto who managed to shift his way through the crowd to Sasuke. Actually, Sasuke noticed he was no longer secluded, but rather surrounded by a large group of his classmates. Ino, Sakura, Naruto, Kiba, Shikamaru, and even Shino were already gathered around.

But no Hinata.

Sasuke didn't dwell on that thought for long, he realized he hadn't seen many of his classmates over the summer (except for Naruto and Hinata), and everyone seemed eager to catch up with one another.

Apparently Ino had went on a trip around the country with her parents the entire summer. Kiba had wasted most of his summer playing video games, and Sakura, Shikamaru, and Shino had all gotten themselves summer jobs.

"How about you?" asked Ino, turning her attention from Sakura to Sasuke.

Sasuke felt himself frown. Honestly, he hadn't done anything with his summer. He had spent most of it with Naruto. He felt ashamed and embarrassed, he had been even more lazy with his summer than Shikamaru had. Now that was an all time low.

"Oh, Sasuke and I didn't do much at all," cut in Naruto. He grinned, throwing an arm around Sasuke's shoulder, much to Sasuke's annoyance.

"You wouldn't believe how lazy this guy is!"

Sasuke roughly pushed Naruto away, which only seemed to amuse the blond.

"Speak for yourself," muttered Sasuke.

Naruto only laughed, embarrassing Sasuke further. Luckily for Sasuke, the bell rang, signaling it was time for classes to begin. The excited buzz of students seemed to escalate further and before Sasuke could wrap his head around it, everyone began to walk happily to their first class, which for today was actually homeroom.

Sasuke leaned back in his seat, ignoring the annoying chatter of his fellow classmates. The homeroom teacher slowly passed out the mandatory papers that were passed out each and every year.

Deep in his thoughts, Sasuke wondered curiously how his last year of high school would end.

College. Damn. That was a thought Sasuke had pushed away all summer, but since today was the first day of his senior year, college seemed like a much more pressing and eminent subject.

Alas, the oppressing thought didn't have time to settle and was drowned out quickly by Naruto's obnoxious voice.

"Hey! Sasuke! Let me see your schedule, I wonder what classes we have together."

Sasuke surrendered the schedule impassively, knowing if he didn't, Naruto would take it for himself anyways.

Quickly comparing their two schedules, Naruto grinned foolishly. "Whoa, we have four classes together. Awesome."

Mildly curious, Sasuke leaned over to glance at the classes that he had in common with Naruto. They had second, third, fourth, and sixth period together. Strange they would have so many in common, but Sasuke shrugged nonchalantly and leaned back into his seat.

"Damn," he mumbled, knowing what he would say next would annoy Naruto. "I can never get away from you can I?"

"Hey!" Naruto swatted at Sasuke's head in retaliation, but Sasuke dodged it easily. The bell rang and he strolled out of homeroom, ahead of everyone else and headed to his first period which was AP Calculus. At least he didn't have that class with Naruto. Besides, the idiot would fail that class anyways.

AN: Yeah. . . that's it, I'm so sorry. I haven't had much inspiration these past few months, nor a lot of time. I too am experiencing my senior year and life has suddenly decided to speed up much faster than I anticipated. I've decided that chapter updates will be a lot shorter from here on out. I know, shorter chapters aren't any fun, but it will insure more frequent updates rather than me attempting to make one long chapter over the period of two-three months. (Seriously? Man, I am SLOW at updates, I am so sorry.)