Chapter Seven

"Sasuke!"

Something jumped between and literally tackled Sasuke to the ground, making Sakura jumped back a little. She quickly realized the something was none other than her new friend, Ino. She was smiling and her cheeks a deep shade of red as she clung around his neck. However, she wanted to giggle; Sasuke didn't look so pleased.

"Get off, Ino," he said in an irritated voice, which she obeyed quickly. When he got his chance to stand up, Ino looked over to Sakura.

"Is this the cute guy you were talking about?" she asked Sakura, remembering how the girl had mentioned being embarrased when a handsome boy saw her blackened face. Sakura panicked, her already pink cheeks turning darker. Why did she have to say that out loud? Even then, she nodded, trying to keep her eye contact to the ground.

Ino shrugged and turned to Sasuke. "Hey, you have German next, right?"

"Yeah?" he replied, giving her a look. "How did you . . ?"

She giggled. "First class member of your club, my darling!" He grimaced, but he waited for her to get to the point. "Sakura has the same class as you; you can take her to it, right? I'll just go to the office for a pass."

For a moment he wondered why in the world she would offer an opportunity for another girl to be alone with him. The two had known each other for years, and while he couldn't stand how much she obsessed over him like all the other girls, he could tolerate her much better. Still, she wasn't one to be so generous for others. Maybe it was because she was new?

Deciding not to go any further on the subject he nodded and she waved as she walked away to the office, leaving the other two in the triangle by themselves in the hall. Sasuke thought nothing of it, but Sakura was still worrying over how Ino said she called him cute. She also said that to Naruto . . . maybe she should learn to keep her mouth shut.

As the two walked down the hall together in silence, Sakura kept glancing over to him, yet at the same time trying to be subtle about it. She didn't want to annoy him, especially since he seemed to be someone who was annoyed easily. She was just going to keep quiet, stare at his beautiful visage and wish he were a nicer guy . . .

"You like German?"

She was so surprised she stopped, but even more so the voice from nowhere shocked her a bit since she had adjusted to the silence. Before it looked too stupid, she started to walk again, catching up to him. She nodded, then, knowing he probably wasn't looking at her, she spoke.

"Yes!" she said, hoping she didn't sound too awkwardly excited. Sakura didn't want to sound like one of those people who was trying to hard to get someone's attention. She didn't like it when other people did it, so she was sure he wouldn't want that. "I love languages . . . my last period last is French-"

"Two?" Sasuke interrupted, and for once he really seemed curious. She wasn't sure if he was curious because it sounded stupid, or that he was impressed that she was smart. Or, at least to her it sounded smart, to be in two AP language classes and enjoying it. But then again . . . What if he didn't like people who showed off their intelligence?

She nodded again, this time not speaking since he was looking right at her. For the first time, a thin smile appeared on his face. She wanted to turn away, but not because it was a hideous site; it was absolutely gorgeous on him. He needed to smile more often.

"I've never met someone else," he said in a soft voice, "Who took two language classes before . . ."

'Else?' She suddenly felt excited, like she had finally found something to break the frustrating wall between them. She didn't feel nervous about talking to him at all now. "Really? You also take French and German?"

"Yeah," he replied, and she also felt like his guard was also down as well. The smile was gone, but he did seem to speak more calmly. "Most people just want to get their credits in and get it over with."

"Yeah, I know what you mean! But I don't know why people don't enjoy it. Learning how to speak to people all around the world, learning their customs and why their speech is the way it is . . . it's really amazing, don't you think?"

'Wow,' Sasuke though, actually impressed. Truthfully, he didn't take two classes for the love of language, but this girl just seemed to light up, and they only just started talking about it. When she looked at him this time, he noticed something was different. It was the way Naruto looked at him; not at some perfect face, but . . . this looked like she really wanted to talk. As a person.

He didn't want to ruin this; it was so rare to have people like that, especially girls.

"Yeah," he replied, something rising to his pale cheeks. He turned his face so she wouldn't see it as he spoke. "People outside of Japan are so much different . . . It's interesting to learn about it."

"Different?" Sakura said, and once again he was curious of her opinion. She looked up at the ceiling, her index finger tapping her lip as if she were in deep though. She finally smiled. "Well, I guess so. I never thought of looking at what was different, but I guess it's always good to see the other side of things!"

Sasuke wondered. "You think of them as the same?"

"Well . . . yeah. I don't know, but something about that makes me think a lot too . . . Like, 'I wonder how we grew up.' With different languages, different foods, different customs, we still manage to communicate with each other."

For the rest of the walk to class, which wasn't much longer, the two didn't talk. But something about the atmosphere was rather comfortable. For the second time she had introduced herself to a new class, and while eyeing around she only recognized two people; Sasuke, of course, and that boy with the pointy hair tied back. He looked very bored.

This routine happened for the rest of the day, where the class would just ask her questions and she would answer them. She felt bad for those students who had to go through this several times a day. But in the end, she was happy to see that Sasuke had many classes with her, and he didn't mind talking to her so much now about school subjects. She later learned that Naruto and her had English second period together, as well as Gym and the three shared Japanese History together.

After school, she noticed Naruto and Sasuke talking next to their lockers. She had been given a lot of papers and books for the day; luckily for her, she was also excused from homework and only asked that she had forms filled out and materials covered. She smiled as they caught her eye and she waved.

"Hey Sakura!" Naruto greeted back, grinning widely. He hadn't seen her since fifth period, where he, Sasuke and Sakura shared Lunch together. "How was the rest of your day?"

"It was nice," she replied as she put her new books in her locker; the teachers said they wanted covers, but she would bring them to school so it would lighten the load. "A lot of the people are really helpful here."

"You didn't get into anymore trouble like first period, did you?"

Sakura saw a flash of protectiveness in his eyes, as if he truly were angry about it. It frightened her a little, thinking back to that brief moment, and she remembered how livid he was then as well. She was very glad, however, that she didn't get into trouble again. She liked Naruto better when he was laid-back. "No! None at all!"

"What happened?" Sasuke asked, and she was surprised to see he was actually inquiring about something from her personally. So far, the two only found a common passion in bookwork and when she had sat down from the class questionaires they would talk about it vaguely. He wasn't really much of a talker; more of a listener.

Naruto stuck out his tongue and pouted a bit when he spoke. "These assholes were hitting on her and made her cry." Then he smiled. "So I had to use some of my mad karate skills to knock 'em out!"

"It wasn't that dramatic . . ."

"Aw, c'mon Sakura!"

Naruto shut his locker at the same time as his friend and instinctively Sakura also closed hers, though it was much more quietly. She followed the two of them, noticing some of the same people looking at them and waving cheerfully. One of the people that stood out for her the most was Ino at her own cubbyhole, and coincidentally she was talking a bit with that black haired boy she saw in nearly all of her classes earlier.

"Who's that?" she asked as they walked by. Naruto was the one who answered while Sasuke only glanced at the direction the other two were looking in. "He's in a lot of my classes."

"That's Nara Shikamaru," he said. They didn't stay to stare of course, but he continued with his explanation. "He's some child prodigy or something. He's a always in a bad mood though!"

"A child prodigy?" Sakura inquired. "But he's sleeping in all of my classes."

"That's 'cause geniuses get to do whatever they want!"

"Not true," Sasuke said, a small smirk on his face. He spoke so rarely to Sakura that his words immediately caught her attention. His best friend also waited for an explanation. "Naruto almost always sleeps in his classes, and he's no genius."

"Hey!" he shouted back defensively, though he ended up laughing with Sakura. He was very open about it, earning attention from other students who wanted to see what was going on about it while she covered her mouth politely. Even Sasuke's smirk turned into a small smile and as she saw a glimpse of it before it turned into a scowl her heart melted.

'Wow,' she thought as the three walked out of the building, 'He's so beautiful when he smiles . . .'

Sasuke's home was in a completely opposite direction then the other two so it almost seemed like their parting was too soon. She really wanted to walk with the two of them, getting to know them better at the same time since they were so close. They both waved before saying their goodbyes and she inwardly sighed. 'I'll be able to see him tommorow.'

X x x x x

Of course Sasuke's gorgeous when he smiles. XD All dark guys are! When I saw Sasuke smile in like, chapter Two-hundred-forty-something . . . -Melts- It was perfect! Gosh . . . lol!