Chapter One

Sasuke held the tiny dish in one hand before him, his other hand properly holding two chopsticks. He looked down suspiciously, eyebrow raised at his meal. It was a burning hot host for miniature stringy snakes, all golden and tangled in a thick hot spring. He fished out a few, some fighting back by sliding back into their habitat, and he took a bite, quietly sipping in a few of the reptiles that tried to escapse from his mouth. He grimaced.

"This is terrible," he said, his face reflecting his disgust. He turned to the boy next to him, one with spiky, almost oily looking sunny blonde hair and clear river blue eyes. The boy smiled as he chuckled and gratefully took the bowl from Sasuke's hand, immediantly chowing down.

"Geez, how can you . . ." he paused as he loudly slurped in his food, ". . .hate ramen?"

"How can you like it so much?" Sasuke asked back, staring at the bowl - which was quickly emptying.

"'Cause it's good."

Sasuke managed a smirk, then turned his head forward as a car before them hurtled by on the streets, since he had nothing more interesting to say and his friend was eating. They were sitting on the steps of one of many run down town houses, next to a few equally tarnished boarding homes. As another rather beat up looking vehicle drove by; a stench filled his nostrils and inwardly he wished they had gone to his house today instead.

These streets were part of the neighborhood of his best friend, Uzumaki Naruto.

"Hey, Sasuke!" Naruto said, poking his shoulder with the chopsticks. "If you're hungry, I can get you something else, you know."

For a moment Sasuke continued to observe the now familiar world before him as if he hadn't seen it before; from the cracks on the now 'much needed to be paved again' sidewalks to the fellow students he recognized from school playing sports like kickball in the middle of the street. He felt something nudge his shoulder again, and turned to Naruto, who had put his now completely empty bowl on the step beside him.

"You're holding them wrong," Sasuke pointed out, taking the chopsticks and showing him the 'correct' way to grip them. Naruto shot him an annoyed look, sticking out his tongue, but it wasn't more than a second later that he already was laughing.

"Gawd, I hate you!" he said jokingly through snorts, throwing his head back and holding his stomach as if to show emphasis. "You're too uptight with the dumbest things!"

Sasuke looked at him like he was stupid. "Get over it."

"Asswipe!"

Sasuke smirked again, knowing that his calm exterior annoyed his best friend, but in an amusing sort of way. Just a second later Naruto's anger was forgotten and he was laughing again as if someone had told him a fantastic joke. That was the best part about teasing him; he was always quite resilient. Or perhaps it was his way of . . . venting? It didn't matter, because the black haired sophomore was more than used to it. It was almost like if his laughter wasn't there, then something in the day would be missing.

For as long as anyone in the tightly-knit neighborhood could remember, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke were as close as friends could be. It was a bit of a strange relationship, one almost always throwing rather vulgar insults while the other acted like he was ignoring it, only to make him throw more remarks. The two were mismatched, so different, so impossible to imagine as anything more than bickering children.

But it was more than that. It was almost impossible to explain, but it was.

Sasuke stood up, stepping down to the sidewalk then turning to Naruto. "I'm going to go home. School is tommorow."

"Study?" Naruto said, and he nodded. He didn't even have to say something full and he would understand it. "But why? Exams are four months away."

"There are things to study for other than exams," Sasuke replied, putting one hand on his hip. He chuckled a little. "You would know that if you actually paid attention."

"Shut up!"

Even then, Naruto waved and said his goodbyes, and Sasuke knew that his anger would subside in a few minutes when his guardian came home with more ramen to consume. To be honest, he had never had ramen before in his life, and today was the day Naruto finally convinced him to try it. He was very, very picky with what he ate unlike his best friend, and something so slimy wasn't very appealing. And of course, he was right. He didn't like it afterall.

As he walked down the sidewalk, he started to think about trying to get Naruto to study more. While he read over his notes taken down in class and memorized every single word in his textbook needed every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, he was just at home chowing down. If he didn't copy off of his tests all the time as well as his homework, he would have still been in fifth grade, as brainless as he was.

"That Naruto," he said with an annoyed sigh under his breath, shaking his head in dissatisfaction a bit. Then, he smirked a little to himself. 'Then again, if he didn't do those things . . .'

He wouldn't be Naruto.

"Um . . . Excuse me?"

Sasuke stopped walking when a small voice jogged him out of his thoughts. When he felt a tap on his shoulder he turned around, coming face to face with a lady. She had large emerald eyes and light, almost colorless skin it was so pallid. Her mid-lentgh hair was a very rosy tint and framed her cheeks, which had started to glow the same color as soon as she saw him look down on her. He didn't falter though, as he was used to the same reaction with many girls.

After a moment of seeming very timid under Sasuke's rather hard stare, she took a deep breath and smiled at him, the blush on her visage fading away as quickly as it came. "My name is Haruno Sakura. I just moved here yesterday, and I'm trying to get to know people better!"

"Is that so?" he replied. If he was surprised about someone moving here in this rather poor environment he didn't show it. Most who moved here often planned to stay here, since it was economical and the prices of quality houses were ridiculous. In that respect, it was rare to see new people since no one moved out.

Sasuke didn't say anything more and just waved to her a little, not bothering to introduce himself. He turned around and continued to walk home, but then he heard a few excited steps. Sakura was walking beside him with a smile, trying her best to keep eye contact.

"Yeah, this place is a real downgrade from where I used to live," she admitted, taking a glance around. "My parents ran their own business, but now it's gone so we don't really have much anymore."

Another pause sounded between them for a few more seconds. She found it a bit awkward, but he acted like she wasn't even there. She tried to think of other things to talk about. "I'm . . . I'm going to start going to Konoha High school starting tommorow." He finally looked at her, and she felt she had suceeded in her task to get his attention. Sakura smiled. "Oh! Do you anything about it?"

"I go there," he replied, and for a moment she thought he wouldn't say anything more about it. "A lot of people in this neighborhood go there. Just ask anyone, they'll tell you about it."

'Bummer,' she thought, pouting a little. 'I don't want to talk to anyone else about it . . .' It was hard enough for her to gain the courage and approach one complete stranger. Now he was suggesting that she go and talk to more? What if one turned out to be a stalker?

'Then again, he could have been a stalker.'

Sakura shook the thought out of her head, noting what drew her to talk to him in the first place. While he obviously wasn't too talkative, his features made up for it. His sooty black hair was prickled in many directions, and much hung over his coal colored eyes. In comparison, his skin was almost as pale as hers, however he had covered most of his body up with a dark azure long sleeved shirt and loose-fitting denims.

"For someone so cute, you sure don't dress well," she muttered. She stared down at the sidewalk, her hands held together in front of her. She only averted her eyes this time to see if she caught his attention, but he disregarded her insult as well. She stopped completely, suddenly realizing that she was going a little too far away from her home with someone she didn't even know. That, and she felt annoyed that someone could be so rude as he was.

"Well, like I said," she started, holding out a hand to shake it, "My name is Haruno Sakura. If we see each other in school or something, I hope we can be friends."

Sasuke looked at the young girls' hand like it was something foreign, but shook it anyway out of respect. Instead of saying goodbye, he simply said, "Uchiha Sasuke."

'Sasuke . . .' she thought, feeling a sort of satisfaction that she was able to get his name. She smiled charmingly and turned around, walking home and hoping that since he was the only person she met that they would see each other again.

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The first chapter has finally been edited. :D Hopefully no mistakes remain now!