Clarity

"Sasuke?"

She alreadly held me by the end of my blazer, her grip pulling tighter as each second passed. Sakura was worried. I could only take a deep long breath as I attempted my best to face her but I immediately started choking. It took me an instant to realize that Naruto was right behind her, glaring straight at me.

He was definitely not happy of the fact that the both of us got close, or the fact that I was merely even less than a meter away from Sakura. He did have a palpable crush on her and I can't deny the fact that he was obviously jealous so, I responded to his glare with a smirk, tempting his temper.

"Hey, didn't see you there," I taunted with a smile, waiting for his response. Sakura wasn't able to say a syllable to stop the both of us. It might have been difficult to get through our aggressive aura and I guarantee that if any of us would have had started the fire, no one is capable to hold us back from a brawl.

"What did you tell him?" Naruto's glare then focused on Sakura as he asked but, he wasn't even waiting for her reply, "Sakura, what other things have you told him?"

She kept quiet, because I knew well enough that the things she had told me were only between her and Naruto however because of my recent involvement, she had explained things to me in which how things work out in this system which made Naruto worried about the information shared across with me. And I couldn't blame her for making things easier me because then, things would work smoothly since we would have the same tracked mind. Sakura wasn't the type to have the capacity to make things difficult for me. She did have a limit to becoming being the heartless girl going around and pushing people down to the grown and polish her shoes because truly, all her actions were controlled and had been haunting her despite the fact she put up such a plastered face of being fine with it. Sakura did everything she could for me because not doing so would burdened her any further.

For all the days I have spent with her, I know Sakura had a soft heart behind that mask she placed in school.

It was no wonder, the person next to her, had fallen head over heels for her and protecting her every move.

Naruto, his position then was seated on top of the back gates, abruptly leaped down to the rough gravel, recovered from his jump without hesitation and strolled towards the both of us. I forgot the fact that he was far fitter and hefty compared to me, considering he had been sending power pact punches to countless students for about two years now while me, on the other hand, had never really got the thought of using the gym since I had only spent the rest of my life moving around the world back and forth. It took a toll on my body, considering how pale and lean I was but other than that, I was a sure lost next to Naruto. The only sport I did, if I ever had the chance to brag about, was swimming but other than that, what was that going to do when I ever get into a fight? Nothing.

Look at all these past few days. I wasn't able to land a punch. Really, Naruto is the stronger one here.

"I know how Sakura can be," Naruto's eyes landed on me. It was terrifyingly glowing bright blue as he inhaled and exhaled each breath, really frustrated by the fact that Sakura was hanging around me, the loser, "But I still don't trust you, Uchiha."

His head then turned towards Sakura then, "You should know why, and I still don't understand why we have to deal with his sort."

My sort? What did he mean? Did he meant by the fact that I was from one of those families?

No, Naruto was in the same group as me if ever. What the blonde meant was utterly different and the fact Sakura took in his words, understanding them, meant that there were far more secrets I have yet to comprehend. To hear that from Naruto, I could only note of the fact that there were far more things kept away from me between them than I should have known. The thought of it frustrates me and really, this will be one of the endless things that will get me into another series of sleepless nights. I know I will be up late until latest by 3am to contemplate about all the things going through my head.

"Things just happened to be like this," Sakura mumbled, clearly uncomfortable about the fact that both Naruto and I were in such discontent with each other and Naruto's overbearing worry, "We can't go back to our usual ways since I already took the situation we are in now to them and they already approve of it without suspicion that it was the only way I could stop hurting people."

See...

I knew she was softhearted. She finally said her intentions and my heart lifted a little. I gave away a short smile to her, and she gave me the same.

And I know, from Naruto's perspective that he was incredibly unhappy about seeing that.

After what seemed like hours of staring at each other, we stepped into school through the back gate, and hadn't spoken a word from each other with how uncomfortable the atmosphere was between us. The questions that had been yet to be answered because of our unusual circumstances were lingering at the back of my head. If it weren't for having to be tangled with Naruto, I would have been able to get Sakura to spill the beans about what the hell "Daybreak" was and why she reacted like that towards it but, I guess, from today on, Naruto would be keeping a closer eye on her.

The school bell rang as loudly as it did each day, and by the time we were about to walk into class, Naruto grabbed hold of my shoulder, making my whole being swung back towards him. If it weren't for his excessive muscle strength, it wouldn't look like I flew right into his grip. It didn't encourage me when I knew well that I was going to lose to his beating since I knew how those punches felt each time they went straight for me. The only thing that was making me feel any better was that I was the one towering him with my tall structure.

"What?" I spat. We weren't in good terms anyway, so I wasn't holding me being crude back. Having me to not say a word throughout our journey to the classroom for Sakura's sake had put me into a limit and, since she was in the classroom and wasn't here to witness this, I don't mind letting my anger go here and then. I shoved his arm away from me but, he due to his reflexes, he twisted my arm and I was stuck under his shoe once again.

When it comes to strength, that fucker is winning. I definitely need to get a gym subscription from now on than doing those naked push-ups I did for half-assed reasons. I can't let anyone push me around like this.

"You better fucking stay away from her from now on," he held onto my shoulder as he shoved me straight into one of the lockers behind me, I heard a loud thud. He gave me another push, ignoring the screams of the other students witnessing our little brawl. And when he thought that his warning was placed across to me, Naruto left me there without another word, avoiding the eyes of our classmates that had gotten out of their seats to check out the commotion Naruto had caused with his anger. He didn't take more than two seconds when he caught Sakura's eyes because then, he fell over to his desk and took a nap as if nothing happened.

I, on the other hand, breezed through the numerous numbers of people blocking me from my class and walked over to where Kiba's seat was, trying to muster up the courage to pretend that whatever happened outside the classroom didn't bother me. I kept continuing with Kiba's fiasco of complaints for taking his seat while Ino and Shikamaru just joined in laughter to our nonsense. I knew they were going to ask about what had happened outside but by the way I was acting, I guess they had taken the hint. It wasn't the right time.

And I wished they would never bring it up as I was just as confused to Naruto's outburst of anger too.

It was the end of the school day, and the only things that I remembered from today's classes was the fact that the Chemistry project was due by the end of the month, which was in two weeks' time, Kakashi had dropped another bomb of homework for us to do tonight despite saying it was just three questions but actually amounted to forty-eight individual questions, and the fact that we were to prepare for an upcoming exam in two months after prior to that was just... And fuck, it wasn't only that but, there were an endless streak of revision papers given to everyone for each subject.

"After the examinations are over, I want an Audi," Ino complained as she got her bag packed.

"I want a well-deserved holiday at the Caribbean," Kiba said as he zipped his bag open to check on his suffocated dog.

"I just want to get away from here," I heard Shikamaru utter beside me. I could only reply him with one questioning look before he reassured me with a smile. It was like that between as always. Yet, it surprised me that he hasn't told me about the things concerning himself. I waited for Ino and Kiba to get so distracted with their bickering about their vacation ideas while we had our steps behind them slowly fall back. The Nara then took a long pause, only to hear Ino and Kiba's argument and chatters slowly fading in a distance.

"I want to apologize," I heard him say, "I didn't tell you that it didn't have anything to do with the duo. By that, you wouldn't have to be caught up with them."

"You don't have to," I nudged him on the shoulder, "I placed myself into this mess. It's no one's fault."

I was relieved to see that Shikamaru returned my smile. And by that, he was back to his normal self and didn't hold his sarcastic thoughts, "Don't forget that you're fucking stubborn too."

"Thanks," I gave him a good kick; feeling "appreciated", and then made our way towards Ino and Kiba. We didn't speak about anything else then and simply spoke about nonsense to get away from all the built up stress we were dealing with. If the pressure was from having to deal with the upcoming examinations or of that sort with the burden of having to share that I might get into trouble for affiliating myself with Naruto and Sakura, we didn't want to bring up any of that.

For now, I was happy to be contributing to the nonsensical antics.

It was after dinner that I realized that my brother Itachi has yet to come home. The whole day and the whole time, I impatiently wanted to confront him about the many things that were inside my mind. The things that I meant to ask simply dropped by the fact that I was disappointed to know my brother won't be coming home until this next week.

"How sure could you be?" I asked my father from across the dinner table, clearly bothered by the fact that I have been raising quite a lot of commotion in their presence. Usually, everyone was silent on the dinner table and the only thing making noise were the clatter of dishes served in front of us or the constant business reports announced in my father's retro radio.

"Your mother received a text messaged that he was going on a business trip for a week just today," my father continued to chew on his sirloin steak, and nodding his head towards my mother if I had any more questions. But with that stern face of his, I guess it meant that I shouldn't have anything to say.

However, it just so means my brother was going to avoid me.

Without a second thought, I took one last bite from my own steak and took a quick leave from the dining table without a word to grab hold of my phone and called my own brother. However after seventeen rings to his phone and no still not an answer from him, I took in the fact that my brother was one to avoid me. I just had to wait for a week to retrieve his answer then. But I wasn't one to stand and wait. I wasn't going to tolerate a week without retrieving any information and therefore, I decided that I had to dig into any data I could find.

I snooped into my brother's room, surprised it wasn't locked, and went straight for his study. As much as I was praying that nothing else was locked, the drawers and cabinets were tightly shut.

"Ugh…"

I fell back onto his office chair, sinking in disappointment as I restlessly looked around the documents lying around his desk. As much as I have expected, there was nothing but simple business transactions about a ton of money going out of his bank. And if not, there was an incredible amount written in ink on a blank check signed under our family name. There wasn't a name to which all this money was going towards to, even all the documents. Strange, I looked through all the papers thoroughly this time.

I checked twice and it was definitely money going out from my brother's bank. The amount was about seven digits and I was worried where he got that amount when he was only given a secured job opportunity the month we had moved over. I didn't think he was able to earn up a lot of money, unless this was from all the Uchiha household savings. I skimmed through the bank transactions and there was think ominous set of numbers in his bank. I had a feeling all these had something to do with his company "Daybreak" and I don't think it was going to be any good.

What the hell is exactly is going on?

A/N: Hey guys! If you were wondering why there wasn't an update last week... well it was because I took a break hahahaha. If you were wondering what the hell is "DAYBREAK"... Well Daybreak or Dawn, in Japanese is written in 暁 which is pronounced as "Akatsuki" ;) Now you can click onto the connections so don't be surprised about the following events yeaa? Hahahha hopefully nothing confuses you! Thanks for all the reviews and favorites!

REMINDERS

1) Updates on the following stories would be ; Her Despotic Rule will be on Tuesdays & Thursdays (for Months: September October), Naruto's Lucky Bet will be soon be updated on Mid October Thank you for your patience !

2) CHANGE OF USER NAME BY END OF OCTOBER

HeirOfStars - Hitais

Hope you enjoyed this chapter :)