A/N: Hello one and all! I've been on my term break for two weeks now and I want to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A ROCKING NEW YEAR! Dear god... AN UPDATE! It has been a really long time, hasn't it? I hope you haven't forgotten about me and this story. Last semester was just pure hell. There was a looming threat of failure last semester so I wanted to focus more on my studies. I surmise the same scheme for updates happening again next semester as it is my graduating year and my thesis is still ongoing. Just an update on my life so far: I'm down to my last semester in University and then I'm graduating (FREEDOM)! Then I'm off to medical school (hopefully the waitlist isn't too long)! Anyway, I won't be keeping you anymore. Please do enjoy this recent update of Before The Worst :D Please excuse any overlooked mistakes in the there. Again, this story is not proofread.

*DISCLIMER APPLIES*

BEFORE THE WORST

Naruto's Flaw

That day turned out to be quite the busy day for everyone. The kind of day that gives a person indigestion because of the sheer gravity the day had in store. It was a Saturday; and one helluva Saturday too. Inside the Haruno residence, Sakura sat haphazardly on the well-loved couch of the living room. The pretty teen bemoaned and slumped further and further down her seat willing the ornament to just eat her alive; the stress was getting to her in ten-folds. What she hated most in this situation was Naruto's obnoxiously loud singing just further up the hall. How in the hell was she staying relaxed?! They would have to support the Konohagakure football team in the finals against Uzushiogakure. That game was starting at noon! Three freaking hours from now! And to make matters more stressful, it was the National Street Dance Elimination round later that evening. Those who managed to pass the elimination round would proceed to the National Finals. The top team to come out of this competition will then have the right to participate in the International Street Dance Battle. There was so much pressure riding on Sakura's shoulders as Captain because for the past eight years Leaf Twist had always landed a spot on the top three in the Nationals. Three out of those eight years, the team was able to go International; so Sakura had every damn right to hurl in panic. Naturally, she found it absurd that Naruto, being the co-captain and Street Division captain (with their team going to a Street competition by the way), was in the kitchen making a damn sandwich like all hell wasn't about to break loose!

"I made you ham and cheese." Naruto chirped with a mouthful of what looked like a juicy all meat sandwich. Sakura groaned at the plate that was being handed to her. Her stomach wasn't exactly ready to accommodate anything edible at the moment.

"Urgh. I'll pass." The older girl took the plate and gently placed it down on top of the coffee table.

"So can you run by me the plans today?" The cheeky grin Naruto presented left very little to help Sakura restrain herself from beating up the younger girl. Then again, there should be no reason for Sakura to be surprised. Naruto was inceedibly notorious for her little-to-no attention span. No point in getting frustrated with something that was to be expected.

"We assemble the team at 11:15am by the benches to get dressed and prep up for the football finals. Given that the game doesn't go overtime, it should be finished by 1:30pm. From 1:30 to around 3:30, we can do runs of the dance at the auditorium before heading out to Tanzaku City. We'll be on the road for 30 to 45 minutes depending on the traffic. In any case, we should be at the venue on or before the 5pm call time. Technical run will be at 6 and competition starts at 8. I've explained the other details before but just be mindful of what I just told you and we'll be fine. I'll take care of the technical stuff later." Sakura flawlessly explained, having drilled the logistics into her head weeks ago. One could expect such level of planning from the Twist's Captain and, more importantly, the Student Council Secretary.

"Gotcha, chief." Naruto smiled, raising a thumb up to show her comprehension.

Three gruelling anxiety-filled hours later, Sakura admired the booming presence of the crowds. The stands were filled to the brim with students, faculty members, families, and local members of the community. The outstanding moral support was the primary perk of having a game on the home field. The pink-haired teen grinned, completely forgetting her previous apprehensions and began to round up the Twist cheer team plus one. Naruto had been pouting adorably over the fact that she was wearing the skimpy cheer uniform. It didn't help that Tenten and Ino began to tease and coo at the poor blonde. Sakura was about to join in on the innocent fun when Karin decided to make herself known.

"Are we just about done showering this dweeb attention? You are aware that we have a job to do." Karin reprimanded her two teammates. Her scolding earned her harsh glares from Ino, Naruto and Sakura. Tenten sighed and chose to keep herself out of the crossfire that was bound to happen.

Ino – the Cheer Division captain– bristled; but before she could get a word in against Karin, Sakura thought it better judgment to avoid the unnecessary display of discord in the cheer team during the game finals. "Cool it! Everyone to your positions! Let's get this crowd pumping!" The pinkette ordered, to which Karin smirked triumphantly at Ino.

Soon enough, the Konoha side of the field was singing the cheers in unison, amping up the school spirit. On the other side of the field, where Uzushio's masses gathered, their own set of cheers was booming with equal vigour. It was an admirable effort on the opposing side's part since Uzushio's crowd count was noticeably less than Konoha's. The cheers grew stronger and stronger, as if to urge the athletes out of their changing rooms and onto the field where the match could finally begin. The shouts became louder and louder, exhilarating, thunderous and invigorating. Then, as if granting the swarm what they wanted, the two teams stepped onto the field, hyped and aching to take the win. The masses roared along with them.

Despite the athletes being revved up and soaking in the booming adoration from the audiences, one stood calmly, too focused to even hear the uproar. The fine hairs on his skin rose, his eyes dilated, his heart beating twice -no- thrice as fast from the adrenaline. All around him, declaration of his name was chanted; the booming sound of the speakers amplifying the just introduction of his role and identity.

Uchiha, they recited his last name as a mantra.

He stalked towards the congregation at the centre of the field. A simple coin toss was required to determine the kick-off. The coin was tossed and Sasuke quickly called Heads. Seconds later, the referee caught the coin and slapped the item down to the back of his free hand to reveal the decision of the toss.

The Uchiha smirked. He who strikes first, wins; and Konoha had the first kick-off.

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"PULL THROUGH, UCHIHA!" Naruto screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice being washed away with the crowd's wave of yelling. The 90-minute game time frame had resulted in a draw of 3-3 and as such the game was called to have overtime. The air was laden with tension as it was the last two minutes of overtime and Uzushio was ahead by one point. Konoha would need a miracle to get a goal in under two minutes; but if anyone could pull off a miracle, it was Uchiha Sasuke.

There was a severe look of concentration on Sasuke's face. His breathing was swift, and he moved fluidly through the opposing team's defences. He feigned steps and weaved his way through field closer and closer to the goal.

One minute left.

The spectators in the Konoha side began to clench and sat at the edge of their seats.

The goal was only a handful of metres away, yet Sasuke clicked his tongue in frustration as two Uzushio athletes, one of which was Uzushio's captain named Nagato, gave Sasuke a run for his money.

Only half a minute left.

Sasuke did haste footwork on the ball so as not to let the opposing team steal it away from him. He had to think of something quick lest Konoha lost the game. The goal was so close.

Another ten seconds passed.

Then everything started to move in slow motion. At the corner of his eyes, Sasuke saw his teammate Juugo open. He twisted his body around and perfectly performed an unexpected Maradona. As he feigned to run away with the ball, Sasuke kicked it behind his leading leg and passed it to Juugo.

Everyone felt their breath catch in their throats.

Juugo, who now had the attention of the opposing team, accepted the ball. That singular brief moment when Uzushio took their eyes off Uchiha Sasuke was a fatal mistake.

Just five more seconds.

Sasuke beelined for the goal without breaking eye contact with Juugo as well as being mindful to refrain from being offside. In a quick turn of events, Juugo passed the ball back to Sasuke. The raven-haired teen naturally secured the ball then swiftly took a half second to properly aim his kick to the farthest corner of the goal where he knew the goalkeeper would be incapable of reaching in time.

Two seconds.

He kicks.

On the last second, the satisfying swooshing sound of the ball hitting the net seemed to echo despite the wailing masses.

Then as the overtime clock reached zero, Konoha locals roared. Sasuke was still coming back from his adrenaline high when his teammates swarmed him. Konoha had managed to tie the game at a very crucial moment. They weren't out of the woods yet, of course. Penalty shoot-out was thus called.

Although quick preparations for the shoot-out were made, Sakura had to pull back members of her cheer team. They had to be leaving the field soon otherwise they would certainly be late for their own competition's call time. The Head Captain hastily gathered all the participants for the Street competition. The pinkette then said a few reminders to the girl in charge while she and the two division captains were away. Once she had finished the task, she accounted for the competing members of the team, noticing that one was still missing. After instructing Ino to lead the competing team and proceed to the bus waiting for them at the gates, Sakura promptly began to search for the ever missing Naruto.

The pinkette found the blonde amongst the football team, excitedly speaking with Sasuke. "Naruto!" Sakura called out. When it appeared that Naruto had not heard her, she called out a couple more times. It was Sasuke who'd heard and promptly pointed Sakura out to Naruto. Sakura quickly praised Sasuke for the miracle he just pulled but she didn't dwell on it, immediately going to business. "Naruto, we can't stay anymore. We have to head out now or we'll be late."

The two girls shot an apologetic glance at Sasuke and the football team. Truly, it was a shame that their competitions ended up on the same day. Sasuke shrugged, completely understanding why Sakura had to steal Naruto away. "Go. I promise we'll win this." Sasuke smiled and fondly poked Naruto on the forehead.

"Yeah. You better. Win us a championship, Uchiha." Naruto grinned, "You're coming to watch us, yeah?"

"Why are you asking stupid questions?" Sasuke smirked. It was then that the referee called to begin the penalty shoot-out which Naruto and Sakura took as an opportunity to leave campus.

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They won! Sasuke won!

Naruto sighed in relief at the text she received from Hinata. The blonde had been getting update after update ever since they left the field. Imagine her anxiety once she found out that Konoha had yet again tied with Uzushio in the penalty shoot-out. What the hell, right? In a last ditch effort to end the game, a sudden death penalty shoot-out was called to which Sasuke was chosen as the sole player to represent Konoha while Nagato represented Uzushio. The two captains battled it out, each of them scoring goals hoping the other would finally miss.

As it so happened, Nagato missed one shot, thus promptly declaring Konoha the victor in the football finals. God, how she wished she could have been there! Hopefully someone had been nice enough to at least take a video of what she had missed.

Thanks, Hinata! See you all later!, Naruto texted back.

Congratulations, Uchiha! Wish I could have been there! Love you! See you later! We're thinking of heading down Hokage for the after-party. Wanna meet us there? Or do you wanna meet us backstage then head down together?, the blonde quickly sent a message to her boyfriend before resuming with taking care of her costume and make-up. Technical rehearsals were still ongoing; however she wanted to manage the time and finish the things that could be done presently so they could avoid getting panicked before the actual competition began.

Just as she was applying bronzer on her smooth tan skin, she felt her phone vibrate, signalling that she had received a text. She expected it to come from Sasuke but once she checked her phone screen, she saw the message had come from Hinata instead.

No problem. I had Shino take videos for you just so you know. Tell Kiba he left his phone with me just in case he starts to realize it's not with him and starts panicking. We'll see you all on stage later. Break a leg!, Naruto smiled. God bless Hinata and her thoughtfulness.

The Uzumaki girl stared at her phone for a few seconds just in case Sasuke decided to text back as well. None ever came. The blonde shrugged this off, thinking that Sasuke was probably still just basking in the celebration of winning the final. So Naruto continued with preparations, even helping some of her juniors get ready. She was, after all, the Street Division captain and this was her event. And as the hours ticked on, she simply just forgot about checking for Sasuke's response altogether. And it was better that way too because she would never get one.

Approximately three hours had passed. Every team backstage had begun their respective pep talks and were audibly starting to rev up as the voice of the emcee signalled the commencement of the competition.

"We are gonna kill, Twist! Let's give it our all out there!" Naruto, amped up with adrenaline, yelled from the centre of their team's circle. She drank in the sound of her teammates hollering along with the sound of the crowd's cheers from the front of house.

"Without much further ado, I give you the first team for the night!" The emcee announced, cueing the members of one of the rival teams to relocate to the side stage. Naruto smirked when a new wave of shrieking came from the audience. She could hardly wait for their turn and see her friends and family while on stage.

In the crowd, a huge section of the venue had been occupied by Konohagakure. The younger members of Leaf Twist waved banners and led the cheering as they had in the winning football game. The Troublesome Trio made it a point to get each and every person from Konoha to scream at the top of their lungs. Hinata along with Shino, Neji waited in anticipation while Lee enthusiastically obliged the Konohamaru's requests for louder cheers. Chouji and Shikamaru were out scouting for snacks. Tsunade, through some miraculous means, had managed to smuggle in alcohol in the venue and was handing Jiraiya his first glass for the night. Generally, the Konoha crowd didn't seem the least bit weary from that afternoon's excursions and was as amped as they were a couple hours back. The only person seemingly out of place was Kakashi whom kept anxiously glancing around his vicinity, appearing to be searching for someone.

Kakashi frowned beneath his scarf. He took out his phone and scrolled through the contacts so he could give another call. This attempt, same as his first million attempts, was also ignored. This caused the man to wince. When the next attempt at a call was also unaswered, the silver-haired teacher slackened. If he could recall correctly, Naruto said that Twist was the seventeenth to perform out of the twenty teams. Kakashi forced himself to calm down. There was still plenty of time. The man trusted his ward not to miss this important occasion. Sasuke wouldn't dare miss this competition when Naruto had been raving about it for the past few months, more so since this was her last year and she was the Street Division head for Twist.

Kakashi decided to settle with asking Sasuke of his whereabouts via text. There must be a perfectly legitimate reason why Sasuke wasn't there yet.

Unbeknownst to any of them, Sasuke was already in Tanzaku City but was in the complete other direction of the competition. He was currently in the Orochimaru's office, reviewing and rearranging data on the computer and contacting various clients and middle men. Someone had apparently royally messed up, a group supposedly under his supervision. He'd gotten a quick scolding from Orochimaru after the game as he was alerted that the group the young Uchiha appointed for the task of managing logistics had screwed up. Sasuke was supposed to be keeping a watchful eye on the employees however with the game finals and the stress of balancing academics, other extracurriculars, and social life, the poor boy had somewhat fallen short of his role at Amaterasu. Now, there were late deliveries, various issues with customs in a handful of countries, and so on and so forth; he had to personally remedy this mess if he was to gain Orochimaru's confidence in him.

He was swiftly typing on the keyboard, eyes trained on the glowing screen of the computer. The eighteen-year-old vaguely remembered feeling his phone vibrating time and time again in his pocket but that may have just been his imagination. Sasuke was alerted of an incoming email. Reading the name of the sender, he quickly opened the email and hastily read its contents. The raven clicked his tongue in disappointment and pressed the heel of his palm against his eye due to frustration and exhaustion. The action caused him to flicker his gaze at the time found at the bottom of the computer screen. A deep frown marred his handsome features. Last time he checked, it was 7:25pm. How could it have been 8:13pm already? Shit. Naruto would be performing soon if that was the case. Considering it was a Saturday night, there was sure to be traffic.

Sasuke groaned out loud. He quickly typed his response to his received email, closed a couple of windows and files and jetted out of the office.

Just as anticipated, traffic was horrible. What would have taken a fifteen minute car ride to the other side of the city, took Sasuke forty-five minutes. It didn't decrease his agitation level in the slightest when Kakashi kept on trying to reach his cellular phone on the way there. He carelessly parked in some random vacant spot, certain that he would get a ticket for doing so but he didn't give a fuck anymore. The young man was running as fast as his athlete legs could take him. He passed by stalls and a few groups of people having a break outside the main theatre, even bumping into a few strangers and earning himself rude comments. When he pushed through the last few throngs of people that impeded his way, what greeted him was the sight of Twist already on stage performing what he recognized to be halfway through the dance.

The crowds were going wild and in the centre of all that attention was his pretty blonde. She took centre stage and led Twist into a series of highly complicated yet superbly synchronised movements. Each beat of the song corresponded to a precise movement that each member of Konoha's Leaf Twist perfectly executed. The team appeared as one, like a school of fish in perfect sync with each other.

The members of Twist suddenly crouched down low just as Naruto did a difficult quadruple full twist which garnered the girl a roaring reaction from the audience. Sasuke smirked to himself, feeling nothing but pride for the blonde. She'd been practicing that particular somersault for months, not getting it quite right the first few practice runs. Lord knew how many times Sasuke had to deal with Naruto in various bandages due to sprains.

The Uchiha knew that the performance was drawing to a close since Naruto had started to do her brief solo which would lead to the final set of choreography. Naruto swayed, popped and locked flawlessly and soon she was joined by the whole team. They were stomping and moving their bodies in one fashion, yet again assuming such an intricate degree of one-ness. It was truly the impressive sight; but the person that undoubtedly stood out to Sasuke was none other than Naruto. Another series of perfectly synchronised and strong movements were performed which had Sasuke gaping. Sure he'd seen the routine a couple dozen times but never with the same intensity that Twist was doing it at that particular moment. On the last pose, Konoha's Leaf Twist collectively made their group hand sign, a hand seal that was traditionally called The Ram that resembled the Konohagakure Leaf emblem. The dance group held their positions, drinking in the applause for as long as they could.

"What a fantabulous performance by Leaf Twist! Give it up for Konoha, guys!" The emcee declared. That was Twist's cue to take their bow and to exit stage.

Sasuke was regally yet by all means proudly clapping his hands. He was just about to text Naruto that he would meet her backstage when he noticed that the calls he'd been ignoring had not been Kakashi's nor from any of his friends but from his mentor. The Uchiha frowned as he read all the unread messages from Orochimaru. Skipping past all the scolding words, Sasuke understood that he was requested back to the office; that the issue could not be put off to tomorrow and that everything must be resolved tonight.

With a heavy heart, Sasuke exited the front of house. He stood at the hall that would lead him to the exit to complete his message Naruto.

You were fantastic. You guys would easily get in the finals. I might be a little late to the afterparty. I've got some stuff to take care of. I'm sorry, Naruto. I'll rush on over as soon as I can. See you later. Congratulations.

The raven-haired teen sighed as he pressed send and then went on his merry way. The sooner he got back, the sooner he would finish; and the sooner he would finish, the sooner he would get to celebrate with his girlfriend.

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Despite her previous proclamations of bliss over the fact Twist had gotten into the Final round (even garnering an impressive top place in the Eliminations), Naruto could not help but frown after reading Sasuke text. The occurrence of Sasuke coming late or completely missing a couple of their get-togethers had become exceedingly frequent once they'd started senior year. Although somewhat miffed that Sasuke had yet again expressed the possibility of being late for yet another occasion, the blonde for the life of her could not stay mad at her best friend. She had after all promised to support him in all his pursuits, and Sasuke successfully taking over the Uchiha family's multi-million corporation was his number one dream. And so with a sigh and a nod of understanding, Naruto responded back.

Thanks, Sasuke. Yeah. Don't worry about it. Hurry up doing what you have to do, yeah? I'll be counting the seconds til you get there. :)

Naruto tuned off the screen of her phone then prompted her teammates, players from the football team, and all their supporters to head down to Hokage to properly celebrate.

The party raged on for hours as was expected from two teams getting a taste of their own respective victories. They had all made such a grand mess of the place, but Naruto (who was usually tasked with cleaning up the restaurant) couldn't even find it in herself to give a damn about it. There was just so much to be happy for so why frazzle herself with something that seemed inconsequential compared to the utter bliss she was experiencing. She wanted to take in everything she could from the celebration; this was after all her senior year. Whether she liked it or not, the winds of change were just around the corner.

The numbers of the individuals of in the party began to slowly trickle and dwindle until only her closest handful of friends remained. As expected, all the lingering teens were tasked with returning order in the restaurant. Naruto had helped for a couple of minutes until she decided to stand outside the restaurant and wait. She checked her phone for any messages; and when she found that there was none, the blonde slumped.

She shook the disappointment off and stood her ground. She told him she would wait, so she would wait.

She counted seconds, then minutes, and then another hour had passed. Every few minutes, she'd wave goodbye to a few friends that had finished their task and decided to go home.

Having felt an uncharacteristic wave of anger directed towards her boyfriend, she finally decided to give him a call. She'd been avoiding doing so the past hour but she didn't want to risk bothering Sasuke; but enough was enough. Naruto rang Sasuke and unsurprisingly enough, the Uchiha did not pick up. The blonde glared down at the screen of her phone, clicking her tongue while doing so. She swiftly typed a message on her phone letting Sasuke know her whereabouts when the creak of the restaurant entrance alerted her attention. There came out Sai and Sakura; the last two people to remain in the area.

"Hey. Let's call it a night." Sakura brightly beamed at Naruto, unaware of the blonde's sombre state.

The blonde half-heartedly smiled. "You go ahead. I wanted to wait for Sasuke."

This response brought upon a grimace on Sai's features. "I can tell that you're exhausted, Dickless. Go home and get some rest already. It's pretty obvious that Hardass bailed on another party."

Naruto looked like she was about to mouth off and defend Sasuke when Sakura decided to quell the beginnings of a fight. "Look. We're all tired and it's pretty late. Let's just wait another half an hour and then we'll all head out together. Agreed?" Sakura, ever the voice of reason, suggested a fantastic compromise to which both of her companions approved of. So the three teens sat in front of the Hokage entrance after Naruto had locked up the place. It was past 4 a.m. when Sai and Sakura decided to call it quits and forced Naruto to go home.

The flaxen-haired teem pleadingly peered down the street one last time, hoping to see any hint of Sasuke's arrival, but nothing; and so the three teenagers climbed inside Sai's car and left.

Nauto was the first to be dropped off at her house to which she was thankful for. Mumbled words of comfort came from inside the car yet the she did not acknowledge them; opting to just get in the house and sleep. The blonde hurried inside, haphazardly removed her shoes and tossed them off to some random corner, ran upstairs to her room, then plopped on top of her bed.

Before she let unconsciousness get the better of her, she typed one last message to her Uchiha.

You could have just told me you wouldn't be able to make it. Don't tell me lies like you coming late to the party just to make me feel better. I'd rather you tell it to me straight up. Then at least I wouldn't be up all night still waiting for you. Stupid Sasuke.

She quickly pressed send and passed out on her bed, more emotionally exhausted than anything.

The next morning had one certain Uchiha waiting outside Uzumaki Naruto's home with a bouquet in hand and a take-away box of hot ramen. The young man the doorbell bracing himself for the confrontation that was bound to happen. The door opened to reveal a tired-looking blonde who was still in her pajamas.

"I'm sorry." Sasuke immediately presented his peace offering, hoping to quell a fraction of Naruto's anger. The girl rolled her eyes at the gifts but let the other teen inside her abode anyway. Truth be told, the moment Naruto saw Sasuke in front of her doorstep, she had already forgiven him. Not that she was a pushover, but because Naruto would always have a soft spot for Sasuke. So much so that she had the tendency to overlook the showing signs of their own winds of change. This was her biggest flaw.

"We're going to next year's party. No buts. I don't care if we already graduated. We're going." Naruto demanded after drinking a few gulps of her ramen broth. Sasuke obediently nodded before excusing himself to make an important phone call.

Naruto unconsciously ignored such signs because there was the powerful faith that Sasuke would be a constant in her life. And it wasn't as if you could blame her for innately believing this. They'd been joined at the hip for fourteen years.

It was their final year in high school. The winds of change would not touch them; and they would step out and conquer the real world together.

Oh how little did Naruto know.