As the minutes ticked by into hours, and she made her rounds with Sasuke and Ino and the others, Sakura found herself disliking Oto more than she thought she would.

She couldn't say anything to Sasuke, of course. These were his friends after all, and she didn't want to be the bratty girl who whined at shit that she just wasn't jiving with. But the more she saw of the Oto kids, the less she liked them. And the more she missed Konoha parties.

Back in Konoha, she and Ino were pretty much infamous as two of the wildest, craziest party girls around. She was cool with a lot of things, like drinking and even smoking pot (when it wasn't dance season of course), but that was about as far as she went, and as far as any of the rowdiest kids back in Konoha went as well.

They didn't seem to have the same restrictions here. Sakura was borderline appalled to see a bunch of kids in one of the corners of Suigetsu's living room winding a shoelace around his upper arm while his friends held a spoon full of something over a lighter. Heroin. Fistfights had broken out over the smallest things, and the guys here didn't seem to have many compunctions about making sure the girls were out of the line of fire. In another part of the house, kids took turns with a razorblade and a few lines of cocaine. She was offered a line as well, but Sasuke, having none of it, merely swept her along past the group without a word. As self-righteously pushy as ever, but something in Sakura was glad to see that he didn't mix with that shit and that he didn't want her to as well.

But she couldn't help but wonder what Sasuke was really involved in, or what he'd been involved in while attending Oto. Sure not everyone was bad, and the friends he'd surrounded himself with - Karin, Suigetsu, and Juugo - seemed pretty cool, if not a little eccentric. Juugo, for example, had taken one Jello shot and was now passed out on the floor, and given his massive size, the doctor in Sakura was somewhat shocked at how much of a lightweight he actually was. Weird to be sure, but none of them raised any alarm bells.

Still, she knew next to nothing of Sasuke's time in Oto. He rarely spoke of it and never in great detail. Juugo, Suigetsu, and Karin spoke about him like he was their best friend, but she'd never even heard of them before meeting them today.

It made her wonder, in a selfish corner of her heart, if the same was true for she and Naruto and the others; if Sasuke was such great friends with Suigetsu, Juugo, and Karin but never told his Konoha friends about them, then it was logical to think that he wouldn't have told his Oto friends anything about Konoha.

Suddenly, the chasm between she and Sasuke seemed endless. After giving him her virginity and her implicit trust just the night before, she felt farther away from him than she ever had, and the thought was stifling, constricting around her heart, and for a panicked moment she thought she might cry.

He didn't seem to notice her sudden change in mood. Her dislike of the hard street drugs being passed around like candy, coupled with her disapproval of the senselessly violent temperaments of most of the kids here, already had her wanting to leave. But this made everything worse. Now the fact that Sasuke wouldn't tell her how he felt about her was suddenly prominent over just about everything else. It wasn't so easily ignored anymore.

Sasuke had told her he wasn't using her. She wanted so badly to believe that, but when she got down to it, just how much of Uchiha Sasuke did she really know? The Konoha part of him, like the back of her hand. But as for his years in Oto?

Was she ignorant in assuming that he was above cocaine and heroin and needless violence? Was she pretentious in thinking that even while he was away, he'd missed her and told his friends about her? Was her trust in him, her trust that what they were doing was more than just sex, completely misguided?

It was certainly an odd occurrence, she mused. Sasuke had his arm draped around her shoulders, she could feel his hard musculature pressed against her side, and everything about them said that they were together.

Everything but Sasuke himself.

She wondered why the thought made her want to drive away as fast as she could and never look back.

xoxoxo

Naruto swiped some dry clothes from Suigetsu's drawers and took the moment to calm himself.

Hinata was soaking wet, out of her mind drunk and completely pathetic right now. And he didn't have the stony heart of Sasuke to browbeat her into submission while she was in such a miserable state. He had no idea where all this shit was coming from in the first place.

He didn't know why he was so angry. Besides the fact that Hinata had raised his hopes and then shot them right back down, of course. That stung.

Maybe it was because Hinata didn't act like this. Hinata never got sloppy and out of line, never yelled at him, never drank until she was senseless. That behavior was reserved for Sakura and Ino, and even they were only mildly humorous at their worst. Hinata was a nightmare.

It was his responsibility to look out for her, though. Sasuke and Sakura were busy negotiating the crowds of Oto students, apparently both of them hot commodities, Sasuke for his return and Sakura for being the girl on his arm. Ino and Kiba were both drinking heavily and locked around one another in a gooey display of public affection that made his skin crawl, and Shikamaru was asleep, as per usual.

That fell on him to take care of her, even if he'd much rather be by himself at the moment. He didn't think much of these Oto kids, besides Suigetsu, who seemed cool as shit, and Juugo, who seemed nice as shit. He hadn't met anyone else yet though. Maybe he was just being stubborn and closeminded because he didn't want to think that Sasuke had people out there as important to him as Naruto and Sakura were.

Either way, he was secure in his position as Sasuke's best friend, even if the bastard never really voiced it aloud.

But that still left a sopping wet, wailing Hyuuga Hinata for him to clean up after.

Fighting back his roiling anger at a thousand different things, he stalked back into the bathroom and found her exactly as he left her. Sitting in the tub, choppy black hair dripping water, her clothing soaked completely through as she sobbed loud and pathetically into her hands.

Such a fucking mess.

"Here," he mumbled. "Change into these and I'll put you to bed."

"Naruto-kun," she replied softly, looking up at him through baleful light eyes that seemed to focus in on him despite her current inebriation, "I'm so sorry."

"It's fine, Ino and Sakura-chan get pretty messed up too sometimes." He grinned a boyish grin that didn't feel authentic. He handed the clothes to her but she ignored them.

"No. I'm sorry for..." She sighed and started crying again. "I'm sorry I fell in love with you...and that I tried to say I didn't."

The dry clothes dropped to the floor.

Oh.

xoxoxo

Maybe now that she could see it for herself, just how well Oto deserved its bad reputation, Sakura would understand why he didn't want her at that party in the first place.

Leaving Oto was the best decision he'd ever made.

Sasuke knew most schools garnered reputations that they didn't earn. For example, Konoha was known for being home to tons of hot, slutty girls. But Sasuke knew you could find hot, slutty girls just about everywhere. Suna was known for being home to rich, snotty kids but besides Gaara and his siblings, no more than any other school. Iwa was known for being home to hillbillies. That was probably true.

But Oto deserved its hardcore reputation and then some.

Suigetsu, Juugo, and Karin were some of the rare exceptions to the rule. That was probably why he'd chosen them as his friends. Everyone in Oto was fascinated by him; the Uchiha family was well-known even outside of Konoha after all, and if there was one thing Oto prized, it was power. But even with so many admirers, he'd only really bonded with three misfits that all reminded him of his friends back home.

He did not like being back here. Sure it was great seeing Suigetsu, Juugo, and Karin again, but this was the last place on the planet he wanted Sakura and the others to be. He was satisfied that she was with him, where he could keep an eye on her, but even so, she attracted a ridiculous amount of attention. His eyes narrowed as he saw a bunch of guys giving her the once-over. Oto guys weren't necessarily deterred by the presence of a boyfriend-type.

He glanced down at Sakura and saw that she appeared uncomfortable. Her smile was tight as she chatted up a couple of guys he'd played baseball with. She hadn't even had a lot to drink, which meant she was trying to keep her wits about her. Smart girl, but he didn't like seeing her so nervous.

Sakura was the most popular girl back in Konoha, but she was still so frustratingly naive. Just because people didn't shoot up and carry knives where she was from didn't mean the same was true everywhere.

Would she see now? Why he'd been so against her leaving Konoha in the first place without him? Why he'd followed her so closely?

"You wanna get out of here?" he asked quietly as they extricated themselves from the awkward conversation and found themselves at the front door.

Sakura looked up at him and he was surprised at the different emotions playing in her expressive eyes. She nodded once, curtly, and without needing any further explanation, he reached for the doorknob.

"Oi, Uchiha, long time no see!"

Sasuke stiffened and turned back around to see Abumi Zaku standing behind him, a drink in his hand, his pupils dilated in the aftereffects of a drug Sasuke couldn't identify. Beside him were his friends Dosu and Kin, two of the hardest partiers Sasuke had ever met.

His eyes narrowed.

"Leaving already without even saying hi?" Zaku chuckled. "How've you been, man?"

Sasuke didn't answer, but Zaku didn't seem to need him to. His bleary-eyed gaze locked in on Sakura, whose grip around his hand became extremely tight.

"Clearly you've been doing pretty well for yourself!" Zaku stuck out his hand towards Sakura. "You look kinda familiar, baby, do I know you?"

Sasuke fully expected Sakura to run away screaming, but once again she surprised him. She squared her shoulders, ignoring the hand he offered, and snapped, "Maybe. You jumped me in middle school and took my money. I probably look a little different nowadays without the black eye."

Zaku, Dosu, and Kin all burst out laughing.

"I remember that!" Kin exclaimed, like it was a particularly fond memory. "Geez. From the trip to Konoha? You ran out of money for weed."

"Had to get it somewhere," Zaku shared in the recollection. "Let's let bygones be bygones, huh, sweetheart?"

"Say another word to her and I'll drop you where you stand," Sasuke said darkly. He suddenly found himself more than capable of murder. This was his fault entirely; he should never have allowed Sakura and the girls to come to Oto, and now Sakura was forced into a confrontation with the guy who'd mugged her and beat her up in middle school.

"I don't know what you're getting so bent out of shape for man," Zaku chuckled. "You were there to save her back then and looks like you're still doing the same thing. I'm not starting anything. Just wanted to catch up with an old friend and meet his sexy little girlfriend."

"Sasuke-kun let's get out of here," Sakura said nervously. He wondered why she was so scared all of a sudden, having been thoroughly able to speak her mind to Zaku just seconds before. She tugged on his arm impatiently. "Come on, this is stupid."

He'd kicked Zaku's ass years ago for messing with Sakura. Luckily, he and Naruto had arrived to help her before it had gone too far back then, and he'd landed a few satisfying hits on the bastard before they were found by a teacher. But now that he stood in front of Sakura screwing with her head again, teasing her like what he'd put her through was just a big joke, flirting with her right in front of him, he realized that maybe he didn't hit him as hard as he thought.

His muscles flexed impatiently as the need to beat Zaku into a bloody smear on the floor became overwhelming.

Maybe he needed to impress upon him what happened to the asshole who put his hands on Sakura.

xoxoxo

This was bad. This was bad.

Sakura didn't like seeing Sasuke fight. It had happened a few times over the years, and to her distress, more often than not he got into fights because of her. He'd laid Kiba out back at the lodge for the attempted sabotage over her. He'd beat Zaku six ways to Sunday in middle school for smacking her around.

Now it seemed like he was about to do so again.

His eyes, which had been so warm and inviting when looking at her, were suddenly steely and entirely devoid of humanity. He was so cold she thought she might get frostbite just by holding onto his arm.

But it seemed like she was the only thing anchoring him to reality. He wouldn't fight if she was in the way, and she didn't care what useless shit Oto kids got into scuffles over, this wasn't a situation that called for it. She was no longer the skittish, crybaby 12-year-old who'd needed Sasuke and Naruto to save her at every turn.

"Come on, Sasuke-kun," she coaxed. "Let's get out of here. It's not worth it."

"What's not worth it?" the girl Sakura recognized as Kin sneered. She remembered Kin, who'd held her arms down while Zaku stole her money and cell phone on the sidewalk. Bitch. "Whatsamatter? You're not scared of us, are you?"

"Nope," Sakura shot back impatiently. "Sasuke-kun let's go."

The muscles in his arm felt like steel and he was trembling. Sakura knew what was going to happen and she yelled out, "Naruto? NARUTO! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE!"

Their confrontation was attracting quite a bit of attention. If it was going to come to blows, as it appeared it might, she didn't want Sasuke taking on Zaku and Dosu alone, and there was no way he'd let her duke it out with them, he was too much of an overprotective snot.

But Naruto didn't come. She hadn't seen him all night, now that she thought about it, and she cursed his sudden departure from Sasuke's side.

People began chanting "FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT" all around them. They gave Sasuke and Zaku a limited berth and as more and more people crowded around, someone bumped into Sakura hard enough to knock her down.

It was an accident, but Sakura knew Sasuke would take it as his cue to wreak absolute havoc.

Shit.

"SASUKE-KUN! DON'T!"

But Sakura was rewarded with the sound of knuckles slamming into skin, and all hell broke loose.

xoxoxo

note.. Inspired partly by my fiancee fighting some dude when he hit on me at a bar, but mostly because the Phillies lost so why should anything good happen to anyone. Much angstier than most chapters, but did you really think that, without even admitting to one another how they felt, that Sasuke and Sakura could continue happily boning one another like nothing was wrong? More to life than sex, y'alls. Gotta handle that emotional shit, too.

Thanks for sticking around. See you soon! xoxo Daisy