-Youtuber AU-

Warnings: N/A

Rating: T


"Hey, check it out," Tenten said one day as she scrolled through social media. Turning the phone, she showed the younger girl her screen. "That Shuriken guy spiked in subscribers again."

Sakura paused mid-sip of her drink, eyes following her friend's thumb as she scrolled down.

"Cool," was all she said before going back to gulping down her water bottle.

"I'll say." She huffed a laugh. "He really knows his stuff. Thanks to his videos, I found like two new topics for my report on medieval weaponry."

She didn't pay much attention when the brunette started to ramble. It'd been like this for the past two weeks, and she was beyond caring about whatever some guy on the internet had to say about kunai knives from 600 AD.

She'd checked out his videos before, but weaponry wasn't a sphere of interest and his bland, no-frills way of speaking completely lost her not even a minute in the first video recommended.

She hummed here and there, giving non-committal "Wow"s and "No way"s, if only to humor her friend. Tenten was the only person she knew in her martial arts class, and it would suck to lose her favorite sparring partner.

"-and yeah," Tenten was finishing, brushing her bangs out of her face as she put her phone away and got into position to stretch. "You should check him out sometime. He hits on some pretty interesting topics."

"I'll... think about it," she said carefully, setting the bottle down. "To be honest, I got a video of his in my recommended once and I was so bored I couldn't even watch half of it."

"Whoa, seriously?" The brunette actually looked surprised, slowly lifting her right leg into the air and holding position. "I'd never peg you for that type. You're practically a human supercomputer - since when does something uncommon bore you?"

"Just not into weapons, I guess," Sakura mumbled, helping her into the next position.

Nearby, one of the other students shot them an annoyed glance. One of the more experienced among them, Sasuke was quiet and methodical. Sakura had never beaten him in a spar, practice or otherwise.

Something about him was annoying, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

She held her legs in place for several seconds before letting go, and Tenten slowly rolled backwards until she was sitting on her knees.

"Well," the older woman grunted, getting up from the ground. "How's your studies going? Aren't you at midterms?"

"Almost at midterms," corrected Sakura with a heavy sigh. "I've still got a whole chapter left to take notes on. Then I've gotta start studying for real. I'm gonna die."

Tenten let out a sympathetic noise and patted her back. "If anyone can do it, you can do it. You aced the MCAT, after all."

"Yeah, well," she huffed, adjusting her ponytail. "Knowledge is half the battle."

Sasuke half-listened in, half-focused on his katas. The conversation from the beginning had been so dull he'd almost tuned them out, but then their senpai had mentioned his YouTube channel and his attention was turned.

Something warm filled his chest when Tenten mentioned liking his videos. He knew his content wasn't for everyone but it felt different hearing someone else talk about his work in such a positive light.

"Look, Sakura," Tenten was saying, pulling her in. "You sure you don't wanna watch Top Ten Worst Medieval Weapons By Design? It's literally his best video."

"Tenten," the pinkette's voice was flat, "no offense, but I honestly think he's overrated. His videos aren't that good."

Ouch.

Overrated? Not that good?

Yeah, well, his mind retorted, and he narrowed his eyes as he turned away, I'd like to see you do better. He'd been making videos since middle school; who was she to call him overrated? He only had a million subscribers; relatively small considering how long he'd been active.

"Sakura!" Tenten gasped sharply. "Sacrilege!"

"Sorry I don't like hearing someone drone on and on about a boring topic for sixteen minutes."

Double ouch.

It was hard keeping his cool and resisting the urge to whirl around and tell her to mind her own business if she hated them that much. Instead he took a deep breath through and out of his nose and shifted into his next kata.

How did she know what quality was? She probably didn't even make videos of her own.

"But you literally made a whole trilogy about passing the MCAT!"

Oh.

Eyes narrowed, Sasuke ventured a peek at the two older students. Sakura's face was pinched in annoyance and Tenten's eyes were wide as she raised her arms in exasperation.

"That's solid, helpful information that people deserve to know," she said coolly. "Besides, I'm not looking for fame. All I did was make a step-by-step process that I wish I'd had when I was studying to get into medical school."

Pulling out his phone, he began typing. Now he was curious.

The first result was "So, You Wanna Get Into Medical School", parts one through three.

The thumbnail was the same pink-haired girl with an unimpressed look on her face, gesturing towards a whiteboard labeled "MCAT: Dos and Don'ts".

"Ugh, whatever," he heard her sigh. "Thanks for sparring with me today. I need to get home and study."

"Good luck on your exams," Tenten replied quietly. There was a hint of bitterness in her tone. "If anyone can do it, you can."

He popped in a wireless earbud and began watching the first video as the two parted ways. He glanced up when he felt her walk by, air brushing by his shoulder with the short pink hair gathering about her shoulders.

"So," her voice greeted his ears as he turned his attention back to the video, "you decided to get into medical school." The Sakura in the video paused before continuing, "Let me tell you right now: this will either be the biggest mistake of your life, or the best thing you've ever thought of."

She wasn't as animated as he assumed she would be - her intro was short and to-the-point, and her voice naturally dipped and rose as she began to explain the topic in length. She certainly wasn't boring to listen to, as he'd spitefully thought; to his irritation, he actually enjoyed the video.

"Oh," Tenten's voice piped up, and he turned to see her with a lopsided smile on her face. "I didn't know you watched Sakura's videos."

He shrugged, pausing the video. "Never had a reason to," he murmured. His voice was quiet enough that she apparently didn't recognize it, because she kept talking.

"Well, I'll be the first to say she really knows what she's talking about." The brunette gave a short laugh as she hoisted her bag over her shoulder. "Hell, she makes me think I can retry the MCAT myself. I've probably watched this about twenty times."

Humming, he turned his attention back to the video, barely acknowledging her pat on his shoulder.

As annoying as it was to have someone trash his work... he wouldn't stoop to her level. He'd have to watch every video before he made his judgement.