So sorry it took so long since the first chapter, and while I am happy one person reviewed, I was kinda hoping for more. :( It's sad that very few people do that these days.

Not only the extreme brainstorming, but I'm almost done with another fic, "Sleeping Weasel".

Title is two of TaiGekTou's pieces put together, "Cool" and "Sleeve of Clouds".

Chapter Two

A Cool Sleeve of Clouds

Grandma and Grandpa really helped, as they always did. Hinata Hyuuga might as well be her new best friend on day one, and Naru Uzumaki would pray it would stay that way.

"I'm so sorry about your mom, Naru," the dark-haired girl said quietly when the blonde's grandparents were gone. "I know what it's also like to lose a mother."

When she died, I thought my life was over. But I had Grandma, Grandpa and Gaara. Hinata also lost hers, but it was due to cancer, and every treatment tried failed. She's been through a lot, too. And she needs a friend like me. "What happened to them?" she asked the other girl of her friends, sitting on the foot of this bed by the window so they could talk more. They had all day to get settled in, and tomorrow would be when their courses to get them started towards life would begin.

"Oh, Kiba and Shino - I've known them for a long time. Never had real girl friends, since a lot of them were too jealous of me. I never figured out why," Hinata said sadly. "The boys were my rocks, but now they are going to different places while I am here. Shino was accepted on a scientific expedition, searching for new species of bugs on an internship, and Kiba is off in Osaka for veterinarian school. The only saving grace is that we are still in touch." That smile was back.

"I have a friend going here, too," Naru said. "I'd love you two to meet sometime. Gaara is such a great guy...though he was a bit tough to get through to at first. His mom also died, but it was the day he was born. Wasn't his fault, but his father still blamed him." She gritted her teeth. "Even somehow manipulated the brother and sister into being distant from him as a result. The bastard was on my shit list for a long time."

Her language first made Hinata blush again, before she burst out laughing, covering her mouth with her hand. Naru liked that about her, and decided she could get involved with this stuff more often.

That also meant tonight, since she got a text from Gaara, saying he got a roommate, and asked her if she would like to meet them for dinner tonight; she wasted no time saying yes, and that Hinata would love to join them.

They headed down to the cafeteria - also known as the gakushoku - and here they could try out what this place had, so they would get used to their new lifestyles. Gaara asked for them to meet him and his new roommate here. Hinata was a little giddy, not only to meet new people, but also to show what she'd worked on all summer in preparation for her first designing class...and what Naru saw blew her away. Western styles were getting all the more popular here in Japan every day. This was daring as well as stylish, being a sheathe that had a plunging neckline, made up of a smooth crepe fabric, and the train's hem as well as the sides were illusion lace without being TOO revealing or showing any undergarments.

This place...it was broad, clean and simple. White-washed walls and high ceilings supported by rectangular pillars, and filled with everything for your needs. Tourists would come here anytime and expect anything like this. And when she saw what was on the menu, her mouth watered. Add that there was so much space. And nothing but a close seat near the food stations - hell, you could even leave your belongings at your seat, since this was a safe environment! - while this area was mostly empty, given students loved to get something out and bring it back here, even though the food here was all five dollars or under to be affordable for the student body.

On the menu: everything nutritional and thought out. Curry - mild as well as spicy - was included. And so was Naru's cherished RAMEN; she was so high in heaven that she could sing to the highest clouds. They have miso and chāshū pork, hell to the yeah! I love this place already! And hell, yeah again: FREE TEA!

All you had left to do was a nice prayer at the table and then wait for the boys, since Gaara texted that they were coming now and knew where they were. Didn't take long for Naru and Hinata - who got the steamed rice with furikake seasoning - to see him approaching, tray in hand, and there with him was his roommate...

...but when Naru laid her eyes on him, she thought she was going to choke at first, when she didn't even begin tasting her food. Hinata looked at her with concern. And Gaara had to ask her what was wrong while the baffled young man just looked at her as if wondering what he'd done wrong.

As if you don't remember me. I sure as hell do. I'll never forget what you said to me or the way you looked at me when all I wanted was respect and acceptance.

~o~

Thirteen years ago...

On the very first day when she came to this school, she was very nervous and shy. Mama even had time to come and see her off on her first day, just like Grandpa. Grandma was too busy at the hospital. She was quivering on her legs and hiding behind her mother, clutching at Kushina's green skirt, making the woman laugh.

"Oh, honey, it's okay. I know how scary it is." Kushina knelt down then and took the five-year-old in her arms. "I was scared when I first came here, too." She then kissed the small, golden forehead. "You'll do great. Just have fun, do your best, make friends - and have people who help you when you need it. You help them in return, as well."

"Yeah, and sweetheart, I hope she gets a boyfriend, too," Jiraiya added, and those icky words made Naru scowl deeply. She hated boys; they were just gross and mean.

"Dad," Kushina hissed through her teeth, "wrong time, wrong place. She doesn't even like boys that way. I hated them, too, at her age."

And that was when they had to get inside, Mama added. They had to meet the one who was going to be her new teacher - and it was a young woman by the name of Miss Yui. She had long black hair and the prettiest red eyes Naru had ever seen. She liked her already; she was so nice and warmly welcomed her. And of course, Grandpa wasted no time flirting with her much to the embarrassment of his daughter, though Naru didn't know a lot about this stuff except what she saw of him and Grandma.

She looked around at the white room, amazed at how clean it was like home and every other place she could remember going to. And there were other kids, but not all of them looked at her a second time - and there was one which stuck out at the crowd in Kurenai-sensei's classroom. He had black hair, wild like a bird's butt - best she could think of - and his eyes were the same color. His skin was white like snow, and he was in a dark blue sweater.

But he didn't even look at her, nor did he look at anyone around him except the paper before him. He looks mean. But Mama said never judge the book by its cover.

Except how wrong she was as soon as Mama and Grandpa were gone, and Kurenai-sensei introduced her to the class - they welcomed her with nice words and smiles, except that one boy - before showing her to her seat in the middle of the room...and just her luck as to WHO she was beside.

That rude boy who just grunted and glared at her from the corner of his eye, which made her sniff and turn away from him. If he didn't want to talk to her, he wasn't worth it. Mama hated a guy once herself.

~o~

Back to the present, he was right in front of her after all these years.

She should have guessed he could end up here of all places, but there were plenty of other high spots for his kind. She felt all the long-suppressed and slumbering hate and rage bubble back to the surface thanks to the simple trigger of seeing him again.

His hair and eyes as well as his skin were the same as she remembered, but his jaw was angular instead of round. Handsome, yeah, but it did NOT erase all those bad times that hurt her so much she would do her best to avoid him altogether, and whenever the teacher put them as partners when there was no one else, they sure as hell competed until they were forced to find common ground...in a way.

In the beginning, Sasuke Uchiha didn't think she had it in her since she was just a girl, and wasn't anything compared to him. Especially when she tried asking him for help early on, and no reassurances from Kurenai-sensei could boost her self-confidence and self-esteem early on.

Each day that was also sunny, there would be clouds figuratively if not always literally, because of her mood.

She had to do her best and be happy going to school, learning even as she struggled.

Things were different now, so she'd see how this would go.

"Y-you two know each other?" Hinata finally asked softly, nervously putting her teacup down in worry of spilling or cracking the porcelain.

"I could ask the same thing. Sasuke?" Gaara asked suspiciously, which told her definitely that this befuddled jerk did not recognize her at all. She wasn't surprised; jerks usually didn't remember a face when they wanted to in pleasant terms.

Uchiha shrugged. "I have no real idea."

"Then you don't remember what a mean boy you were back in the day," Naru had to sneer, standing up and keeping her livid fury on him.

"I do remember that, and as much as I hated myself then, I was just a kid. I don't remember everything there is about being a child. Who are you exactly? Maybe your name could trigger my memory."

Oh, I'm happy to oblige. "Naru Uzumaki."

It was then and there that his eyes widened at once, and a startled, wordless sound escaped his lips, followed by: "Y-you..."

~o~

Thirteen years ago...

That girl in the orange and blue jumpsuit - he knew she was an idiot the first moment he laid his eyes on her. They all were; very few could take anything seriously other than BOYS. His father warned him of this, but assured him that they were not all the same. Even his mother said girls just wanted to have fun, so it wouldn't hurt for him to join that once in a while.

They almost lost the dodgeball game because of her, in gym class. Outside, the spring weather was warm and sweet, some clouds if not blocking the sun, but they were indoors. Once did she get hit in the face and fell down crying, but all he could do, like everyone else, was stand by and watch, and only Rock Lee as well as Gai-sensei were kind enough to get her out of there so she could get looked at before she came back into the game.

Close call, but their side still scored great. Sensei said it was just fun while "firing up your youthful passion", except Sasuke Uchiha took things much more seriously than most kids his age.

That girl, Naru, was just an annoyance who sat next to him, and he was stuck with her for the next five years unless his father made the choice to find a better school and pull him out.

But, despite her struggling and her spitting at him, nothing ever seemed to stop her. She knew how to get people smiling. He never even noticed until now. That was all there was.

~o~

He thought he'd seen her somewhere, and he hardly ever expected it to be from childhood. He hadn't thought of her for YEARS, so that was why.

That annoying crybaby - who wailed over every little mistake and screamed at him for every insult - had grown into a hell of a babe...and still feisty as ever. She never forgot about him for a second, and it was expectedly far from positive. Sasuke had no idea what to think of this, but all he knew was that he wanted her to know he wasn't that boy anymore.

And this girl was Gaara's best friend. Turned out that she must have told him about HIM - by "him", Sasuke meant himself - and then his roommate glanced at him, though devoid of emotion. That meant a serious talk when they were alone. And on day one of all times, when they had only just arrived!

"Well, whatever happened between you two," Gaara said instead, clearing his throat, "was a long time ago, and we are all adults now, so you two can try to work this out -"

"I don't think we can, if you think I'll owe you any kind of apology," Naru snapped at Sasuke directly, only for Hinata to step in.

"Come on, you two, don't fight already. Naru, will you do this - for me?" Her sweet question only calmed the blonde down, but he knew that wasn't the end of it. He heaved a quiet sigh of relief.

However, he somewhat had a hard time keeping his unagi - grilled and sweetly flavored eel - down. He almost lost track of what the conversations would be about, including introductions, and onward to their plans of the future, and what he learned about Naru Uzumaki surprised him, but didn't at the same time: she wanted to be an artist as well as have her own gallery, if it were possible. Hinata Hyuuga's family owned the museum of art and antiquities, so she could always ring her old man up as a possible sponsor or let her new friend in on a job as a presenter when she didn't have new pieces to be made.

"What about yourself, Sasuke?" The way the blonde girl said his name made him flinch. "You going to join the police force like I heard your family has?"

He scowled at her. "I'm here for myself, not my father. My brother is doing just what you said. I plan to be either a high school or college professor on mythology - worldwide, other than our own." She was just making this harder than it needed to be; it made him wonder how he could ask Gaara for help when it was just the two of them - and that also meant he owed his roommate his side. He got his chance later when they were back in their room.

"I didn't even know you were the same one she talked about a long time ago," Gaara said, being the first one in, leaving Sasuke to lock up behind them. "Guess that explains why you didn't tell me your entire name today, but you didn't know who she was until now, right?"

"Yes to all," Sasuke grumbled, slinging his jacket over his arm and then slumping on the platform between the doorway and the room itself, taking off his sneakers. "You didn't know what she was like back then."

"You mean loud, crying a lot because of bullying for no reason, and struggling a lot of the time? She's my best friend; she tells me everything." Gaara then walked over to his side of the room, opening the top drawer of his nightstand to pull out a manga comic he loved since he was a boy. "You really didn't have it in you to even try making friends with her. She's a rare wonder of a woman. When we first met, I didn't think I could trust her since I never had friends. Imagine my surprise when I learned she never did, either. She helped me get out of my shell just by being the sunshine she was; she was bullied because no one knew her well. They were just jealous for no reason. Might as well have been your case, Sasuke."

Sasuke stiffened, staying that way even as he sat on the foot of his bed, turning his back to the other boy and looking out the window. I never...thought of it that way.

"I didn't let myself make any friends, because I was under pressure. My father - no matter what I did - didn't exactly care less about what I did with my life. It used to be his words: 'keep excelling like this, and you'll be like your brother in no time.' Never called me his boy, like my elder brother. Itachi was always there for me, so eventually, he set me straight even after our mother died. But by then, it was difficult to keep a friend for life. A lot of them moved away or just lost interest in me...and the first girl I thought I loved was too much for me to handle. My brother even said I deserved better than that, so he made me promise to do better now that I am here."

He turned his face around the left corner of his range to see Gaara smiling, back up against the wall and sitting in the lotus position on his bed, comic opened up but no longer heeded. "Then you got your work cut out for you, if you want to show her that you're not the boy she remembers. I'll help you by trying to convince her when we have a class."

~o~

A small percentage of college students drove their own cars, while the rest who didn't live on campus would take the train as well as the bus. Naru and her roommate and new friend could be counted among that small number.

She didn't yet have a car of her own, but Hinata did. They would take turns for anything, but it was walking much of the time. Such was the norm.

They ended up having the same art class - in one of the temple-like structures in the southeast of the campus - and their sensei was a young man named Iruka Umino; he had brown hair in a somewhat spiky ponytail and a scar slashing across his nose. But he was full of energy and encouragement - and he turned out to be the very same man who was Naru's counselor. She was very excited to speak to him after class about this.

"There's a very famous quote: 'Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art.' An artist does not just wallow in the art; rather, find something in yourself in order to contribute to the art, and everyone - especially all of you - have something to contribute to. Of course, it does require polishing first, practicing your craft, and I'm sure some or a lot of you have been doing this since some time ago, whether it's early childhood or teen years, but it doesn't matter," Iruka-sensei told them all with a warm smile. "When you get yourself cemented, then that means you will get people on board in asking for you."

Naru had to give a smile at this; she looked forward to the challenge. She found a passion for art in everything else. She was over the moon excited, but she had to push it down to a minimum since there was such a thing as too much, which could get you in over your head. She glanced around at the hopeful faces around her, though some were nervous; all of them, as well as herself, were wearing crisp white shirts should they get any paint on them, and white could be bleached of the colors.

However, there was one slight issue she never counted on: Sasuke Uchiha would come in as a biweekly human model for them to work on.

Oh, you got to be shitting me.

I watched a YouTube video, "Day in the Life of a Typical Japanese University Student", and included is the cafeteria which is called gakushoku in Japanese. Students choose to order their lunch there or bring their own from the local little stores. :) Take a watch since there' a little more.

Furikake is a Japanese seasoning sprinkled atop cooked rice, usually consisting of dried fish, sesame seeds, chopped seaweed, sugar and maybe salt; it could also have a powdered form of miso, freeze-dried salmon pieces, egg and any vegetable.

Unagi is grilled and flavored eel.

Don't remember who said those words about "the artist does not JUST wallow in the art", but Crispin Freeman (voice of Itachi-kun) says them especially in the first part of "Crispin Freeman | Talking Voices (Part 1)" on YouTube. That man is so awesome. :D

REVIEW! :3 And I would love much more detail, too.