A/N: yes this is just me being indulgent with one of my dumb ideas but aren't all my pieces like that? Modern day written in the US context by the way

Looking back, Sasuke felt bad because he honestly wouldn't have noticed Sakura if it weren't for two things: that curious pink hair and her stellar grades—which were even better than his. At the time, this was a bit of a sore spot for someone as prideful as Sasuke, but these days he's just proud to call Sakura his girlfriend. And his soulmate, of course.

But again, when they first met he hardly paid attention to her and never expected her to play such a large role in his life, let alone become his most precious person.

The Uchiha family moved to Konoha right before Sasuke's final year of high school. His father had been recruited to be the head of the police department and Itachi had landed a job at the local university. He would start out as a teaching assistant, then hopefully become a full fledged professor of anthropology. Sasuke's mother was excited to start working in a plant nursery again, and Konoha offered great land for her to garden in.

His mother's best friend, Kushina, lived in Konoha too, so the move was an easy choice for the family to make. His parents were soulmates, so no matter the circumstance, they would have gone anywhere together. Sasuke looked forward to having someone he could rely on like that, even if he still thought it was gross when his parents kissed in front of him.

Sasuke never particularly cared about forging friendships beyond mere acquaintances, so keeping to himself at a new school for one more year seemed easy enough. He was busy with schoolwork and he always had his family to go home to.

But Naruto, his childhood best friend who pestered him no matter the distance from Oto to Konoha, was determined to get Sasuke integrated into their school's social scene. Naruto's overwhelming presence was enough to make him hardly notice anyone else, let alone a girl who generally kept her nose in a book.

On Sasuke's first day, Itachi dropped him and Naruto off before heading to Konoha University across town. Even as Sasuke was nearing full fledged adulthood, Itachi always liked to keep an eye on him. And he wanted to make sure Naruto was on time too, Kushina and Minato had complained about his oversleeping at many family parties. Itachi was grateful to Naruto for being by Sasuke's side even when he could not be. He was comforted by the idea that in a few years, Sasuke could meet his soulmate who could take care of him and understand him even better than Itachi. He wondered what type of person they would be.

Naruto hopped out of the car and bounded up the front steps, not even bothering to look behind him to see if Sasuke was following. He wasn't.

He was still in the car (shotgun because no, Naruto, get in the back) with his eyes closed. This was going to be quite the trip, wasn't it? Itachi merely patted him on the shoulder and locked and unlocked the doors again, signaling that Sasuke should get out. "Have a good day."

One dark eye cracked open, "I'll try." With a sigh and much grumbling, he got out of the car to join Naruto on the steps before the blonde started yelling. It really didn't take much to set him off, and he was extra excited to have his best friend finally with him at school.

"Hurry up! You have to go to the office and stuff and then I wanna take you to meet everyone!"

Sasuke followed Naruto through the main entrance and he made his way to the office to get his papers in order. The walk to the office should've been a simple affair, but instead Naruto stopped them every two seconds to yell at someone, "HEY! THIS IS SASUKE! HE'S NEW HERE AND HE'S MY BEST FRIEND! OKAY, TALK LATER!" as Sasuke dragged him away. He didn't care about Naruto's other friends, really he didn't.

Sakura and Ino were chatting by the office doors Naruto had disappeared into before he could even greet them. The other set of best friends exchanged a look.

The guy with Naruto had to be new, there was no way they would've overlooked someone so hot. At least, those were Ino's words. Sakura kept looking at the door, hoping he would appear again. She just got this feeling in her chest when he walked by, one that she wanted to feel again.

"Forehead? Are you even listening to me?" Ino waved her hand in front of Sakura's face. Sakura blinked and shed her blank expression. She wondered which classes he would be put in.

Inside the office, Sasuke briefly wondered if this school allowed students to dye their hair such a vivid shade of bubblegum.

It turned out that Sasuke was placed in all of Sakura's classes, so she didn't have to wonder. For some reason, Sakura felt like it would've been a mistake if he was in any other classes but hers. What if his old school went at a slower pace and he needed her help catching up? What if he got lost on campus? What if he forgot his lunch? What if he was her soulmate?

Sakura tried to shake away those kinds of thoughts; it wouldn't do to pine over someone who could very easily have a soul bond with someone who was, well, not her. Soul marks blossomed on the skin at age twenty, so she would probably never know who Sasuke's soulmate was. Sure, a girl could dream, but nothing more. She shouldn't waste precious studying time on a boy. At the moment, getting into college was far more important—at least, that's what she told herself when her thoughts wandered to a certain dark haired classmate.

But despite genuinely wondering if he needed any help transitioning to a new school, Sakura spoke to people who didn't share a single class with her more frequently than she spoke to Sasuke. He was smart and studious, and already after the first week she could tell he wouldn't need her assistance. Beyond academics, Naruto took up a considerable portion of Sasuke's social life. He was just so excited to have his best friend with him, he could hardly stand to let Sasuke out of his sight. Group project? Okay, Sasuke, you'll do all the work and I can do the bibliography? Bathroom break? Naruto swore by the buddy system, so let's go Sasuke! Lunch? Naruto would have ramen with a generous side of Sasuke, please!

Senior year was going to fly by, so Sakura assumed she would miss out on making a new friend out of Sasuke. Even with her days jam packed with senior activities, she found herself looking around to see if Sasuke would show up. Wherever he was, how was he doing? Was he having a good year? (Later, Sasuke would reveal that he was just shy. He felt it was a pity that their assigned seats were never as close as he wanted them to be.)

To say she was surprised when he sought her out at the end of the year would be an understatement.

"You'll make a good valedictorian. I don't like speeches." He placed their final graded math test in front of her. The red ink of their teacher's pen wrote, "What happened?" with a big circle around a clearly careless (and costly) mistake. Grades didn't matter for college anymore, only for final class rankings. For his year's worth of smug looks when he earned a higher score, this was certainly unexpected. Had Sasuke purposely thrown his math grade so Sakura would be number one?

Sasuke walked away with his hands stuffed in his pockets before she could respond. She looked cute when she was surprised, but he knew she would look beautiful when delivering her speech. He noticed that her eyes sparkled when she spoke about something she was passionate about.

He just wasn't quite sure why he cared at all.

A/N: love retsuden telling us how much of a nerd sakura is

Also yes im an anthro major so i made itachi an anthro professor lmfao (or at least, he's on track for tenure lol publish or perish sir)

I hope this series unfolds in a pleasant way aka i hope you like it