"No, Naruto. Senju Hashirama is the first Hokage. Senju Tobirama is the second one."

"Ugh. Why did they both have the same family name? It makes it so confusing."

"How can something as simple as that confuses you, Dobe?"

"Shut up, Teme!"

"I simply spoke facts."

"No. You want to fight with me, don't you, Teme?!"

"You asked for it, Dobe!"

"Guys, stop!"

Sakura slapped both of her hands to the low table they're currently sitting at. The living room in the Uchiha's main house had been turned into an impromptu study camp and the three of them had been studying for what felt like hours. It was peaceful at first, until Naruto started speaking what he was trying to memorize out loud, and messed it up.

"Naruto... maybe if you try to write down what you're trying to memorize, it will be easier for you to not mix it up?"

"Then I'll just waste more energy in writing, Sakura-chan."

"Everything is a waste of energy for you," Sasuke said under his breath.

"Hey! I heard that!"

"Guys…." Sakura sighed.

Sasuke and Naruto folded their arms and looked away from each other.

"You three are still full of energy!" Mikoto laughed and came into the living room while bringing two glasses of orange juice, one glass of tomato juice, bowls of fruits, and some dango.

"Here, eat some snacks first to refresh yourselves."

Naruto took his glass of orange juice and drank quickly, "Thanks, Mikoto Oba-chan."

Naruto eyed the rest of the snacks and smiled sheepishly, "Do you probably have some instant ramen that I can eat? Hehe."

Mikoto laughed at that and stood up, "Yes, I've stocked some seeing that you love it so much, Naruto. Come, let's get it from the kitchen."

Naruto bounced up happily and followed Mikoto to the kitchen. Sakura smiled at the scene before her and started eating the dango in front of her.

"You spoil the Dobe too much," Sasuke gave her pointed look.

Sakura glanced at him in midchew, "What did I do?"

"You kept explaining things to him. He needs to learn by himself more."

"But he kept mixing things up, if I didn't correct him then he'd go to the exam with wrong info."

"See. You do spoil him."

"Oh, come on. Don't tell me you're jealous of him," she teased.

Sasuke's cheeks tinged faint pink and his ears started to turn red.

"I don't!" He exclaimed.

Sasuke stood up and ran upstairs quickly.

"I'll bring down more books!" He yelled.

Jealous? What does she mean by jealous? Why would I be jealous of that Dobe? Huh! She didn't know what she was talking about.

Sasuke grumbled inwardly while taking some more books from his study table. The three of them agreed to study in Sasuke's house everyday after school until the exams started in a few days.

It was now the fourth day of their studying session, and Naruto never failed in getting under his skin every single day. He was always so loud, even when he was in the wrong.

I mean, how can one confuse Senju Hashirama with Tobirama like that? What kind of moron does that? Right? How can anyone be patient enough to deal with such a moron?

Sasuke exhaled his breath.

Sakura. Sakura is the rare few, if not only, who can be patient enough in dealing with that Dobe.

He narrowed his eyes at that thought. He didn't know what it was in the Dobe that made Sakura comfortable enough to be so close to him. She was an odd one, that much he could be sure.

Ever since before the academy, girls his age had always flocked around him with blushes on their cheeks and tried to get his attention by waving their hands. Older girls would come to him and sneak a pinch on his cheek as if he's some sort of cute tamed animal in a zoo.

When the academy started, it got worse. The girls his age got braver and some even sneaked a sudden hug from behind when they thought he had lowered his guard down. It wasn't that he allowed them to do so. It was because his mother taught him to be respectful and never resort to violence to deal with females unless they're enemy nins. If it was up to him, he'd shoved all of those girls away without mercy. Their touches gave him the heebie-jeebies.

Sakura, though, was never like that towards him. He didn't know whether it was because she never had the chance to join in the screeching girls and got influenced to do the same, seeing that she couldn't come to the academy for the first three weeks and after she came she was still too much in the state of mourning to join such a fan club. Or she simply wasn't the type to do so.

Whatever it was, he was glad that at least one girl was rational enough to have a conversation with. Though, the first few times of their encounters were quite bumpy because she misunderstood him for a mute. The nerve!

He had been interested in seeing the girl that his parents and sensei talked about. The only one who survived a massacre in an eatery near Konoha. He waited for weeks and almost lost interest completely before suddenly she made an appearance in their class after three weeks of absence.

She was odd. That was the first thought that came to his mind. He never saw such a girly pop of colour before, and it intrigued him. All of the Uchiha in the district had dark hairs, and on the rare occasions that he went outside the district with his mother or brother and cousin, he never encountered anyone with hair colour like that.

Her name fitted her appearance as well. With eyes as green as grass in a meadow, and hair as pink as cherry blossom flowers, the girl was an embodiment of spring in Sasuke's opinion.

She looked so determined when she got inside the class, but her calm demeanor faltered when she had to make an introduction. She quickly regained her composure, though, and was ordered to sit between him and Naruto.

After that he often chanced a glance at her whenever he thought she wasn't looking. He was still curious about the sole survivor of that eatery massacre. Her apparent friendship with Dobe and non-existent fangirling towards him made her even more interesting. She was also intelligent, so it was easy for him to strike a conversation with her.

Everything was good except for the fact that she spoiled Dobe too much. Whenever he and Dobe got into arguments, she'd step in the middle and tell them off. But then she'd offer some encouraging words to cheer Dobe up. Why didn't she do the same for him? What's with this favouritism? Yeah, he wasn't jealous or anything. He simply asked for justice, darn it.

Sasuke didn't realize the time spent mulling over his thoughts until a soft voice called out to him from his door. He was startled and turned his body towards her.

"Sakura? What are you doing here?"

"You took so much time up here, so I decided to check on you," Sakura said while looking around his spacious room.

It's her first time seeing his room even when she had been visiting his house for many times already. He always closed his door, and sometimes even locked it up, to stop Naruto from entering and possibly making a mess in his room.

"Can I come in?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke hesitated, "Is Dobe following you?"

"Relax. He's too busy eating his instant ramen. I don't think he even realizes I'm up here."

"Okay then," Sasuke nodded.

Sakura walked towards him and swept her eyes over the neat placement of furnitures and books.

"I thought a boy's room would be messy, but you prove me wrong."

Sasuke snorted, "If it's Dobe's then you're probably right."

Sakura grinned. She had learnt that Sasuke's cheeky comments about Naruto never had any malicious tone to them, so she decided that it was just his way of showing his friendship towards him, even if he would never admit it out loud.

"Do you need any help carrying those?" Sakura pointed at the books in his hands.

"No. Let's just go downstairs before the Dobe decides to come up here."

Sakura shrugged her shoulders and followed him after taking one last look at his neat room.