Before anything else: I'm finally back with another chappie! Yey! 'Sorry it took soooo darn long to have any update or anything...I was so busy. But anyway, please enjoy!

Disclaimer: Nope, me dun own Naruto. grunts

They walked silently along the corridors and upon seeing that it was already four o'clock, Sakura made her way through the hallways faster. Sasuke didn't have any difficulty catching up at all. Finally, they arrived at the gateway and noticed that Naruto was already there.

"Geez, Sakura-chan," he whined. "What took you so long?"

"Well—"

"Whoa, you even brought Sasuke with you… What the—did you two do something I should know about?!" He eyed them suspiciously.

Sakura knew exactly what he meant by that, so not a second later, her fist made contact with Naruto's almost-too-pudgy face and sent him flying toward the street outside the campus. "You'd better think about what you're going to say before it comes out of your yap, Naruto…Or else…"

She held him up. "I'll punch you for real next time."

The two were already out of the school premises, and Sasuke merely stared at them from the other side of the gate. Naruto appologized to Sakura almost pitifully and promised her he'd treat her to a bowl of ramen while on their way to school. It was getting sort of chilly that afternoon, despite the fact that the temperature that morning was entirely different. Sakura took this as a sign that summer was finally leaving and autumn was approaching. She turned to see Sasuke walking towards them with his hands in his pockets and his bag slung to one shoulder. Naruto was still caressing his cheek because according to him, Sakura's hit hurt more than a sumo's would have. She laughed at him, thinking of how pussy he had looked, and said, "Sorry, Naruto. It does look good on you, though—you know—the punch mark."

A few girls who were walking past them giggled at Sakura's comment, making Naruto blush a good deal. This only made his best friend laugh more and even Sasuke seemed to smirk, although it was only a second or so.

By that time they were already by a riverbank, and left the hustles of the city a long while ago. As expected, Sasuke was among them, keeping to himself whatever he would've meant to say. Naruto, on the other hand, was talking about a certain teacher whose foot he had stepped on that morning. Sakura wasn't really listening as intently as she should have, for the blond beside her was so caught up by what he was saying. She instead paced as silently as she could, relieved that there was at last no fan girl who was going to glomp Sasuke and make all those annoying screeches. Sasuke seemed to be at least calmer too.

"Anyway, Sasuke," said Naruto, who seemed to be aware that no one was interested at his reports. "Do you want to come with us for some ramen?"

The Uchiha boy stirred from his silence. At first, he gave the impression of not wanting to. He stared at Naruto for about a short while and sighed, "I guess so."

They sauntered around the streets for a while as the sunset came to pass, painting the whole scenery with touches of lavender and shades of violent red, until they reached a petite bar with only a counter and about four or five chairs. Naruto, of course, took his seat first, leading the other two beside him. "I wonder if I should treat you too, Sasuke."

The other male raised a brow, saying, "Don't. Forget it."

Sakura smiled at the sight of the argument of the two boys next to her as she took out a couple of bills from her wallet.

Naruto barred her and grinned widely. "Sakura-chan, I'll be paying, right?"

She scrunched her nose in a playful manner and smiled at Naruto's being generous that day. She thanked him quietly and saw Sasuke with his elbows on the table, hands supporting the head. He's always like that…

And indeed he was. All the while they were eating, Naruto was conversing yet again and this time, Sakura did pay attention to him. But at some point here and then, she would steal glances at Sasuke to make sure he wasn't going to snore a minute later. When they finished, they set off on their way again. It was already past six.

Their walk that dusk was certainly a hushed one. Naruto's apartment, wherein he lived alone at such a young age, was the first stop. They bade each other good-bye, and Sakura strode off again, but this time, with Sasuke alone.

Oh, crap, she thought. That may not have been the best thing for an academic to say in her mind, but then again, she was very lost as to what to say to him. "Uh, Sasuke… Wasn't Ichiraku just the best place for ramen?"

He made no gesture whatsoever to tell her his answer. Sakura considered that the dumbest thing she had ever said, especially to a guy. Abashed, she looked down on the cobbled street and felt heat rising to her face. Sasuke seemed to have noticed, so he just said, "I guess so."

Unknown to her what else to say, she asked out of nowhere, "Sorry, but… Where do you live, anyway?"

She noticed that she hasn't thought a single insult at the time, nor has she said anything offending to him. That made her wonder—that morning she was so furious at him, but back then she felt so serene. So many complicated feelings struck her like she was a tuneful shamisen struck by an impulsive musician then taken away by a calmer one. Was she really beginning to accept Sasuke's presence in her life?

"Why?" He replied, breaking her out of contemplation.

"Oh, nothing, really. I want to be sure of some things, just in case something goes wrong," she tried to act coolly and succeeded. "Are you in a rush or something?"

"No," he said curtly. He only gave her one-word responses and seemed to have no notice at all. The rest of the minutes went by as tormenting as ever. She kept hushed, which she simply can't stand, and Sasuke had his mind on other things as well. The excruciating silence was finally eased out of her when she arrived at a house surrounded by a lush garden and some street lights which she called 'home'.

She opened the well-painted gate and was about to go in when Sasuke called out, "Uh, Sakura…"

"What?"

"Thanks." He then continued on his way, leaving her dumbfounded. She certainly didn't expect a word of gratitude from the guy she considered a bastard, more than ever because he wasn't even talking to her before. She thought it best to just forget about it, and that she still had homework to do.

"Tadaima." And she entered the house without any other thought.

The next few days of school were indeed quite normal. They kept up the same routine everyday: Naruto and Sakura would wait for Sasuke every afternoon and they would walk home together. The last day of the week finally came, and the weather was as frigid as ever. Leaves fell from the trees by great quantities and covered the streets with blankets of red, yellow and orange. It was a picturesque landscape indeed, just like a canvas of the sea with the colors of the sunset smothered on it. Sakura was in a blissful mood, flouting the fact that Ino was present, as always.

"Ah, ohayou gozaimasu, Haruno-san," the pig exclaimed sarcastically as Sakura entered the room. "Why, you're in such a good mood today!"

Sakura thought it best to snub her, and took her usual seat beside Hinata. "Stop the formal talk, you porker. Don't you have anything else to do, like cram yourself with leftover pig feeds or something? The morning would be rather drastic without your presence if you passed out due to starvation, now, wouldn't it?"

The blonde kept quiet for a second and searched the room for something—or someone. When she seemed to have found what she was looking for, she made her way toward the end of the room and seductively sat on the chair in front of Sasuke (which had no occupant by that time). She pushed herself closer to him and you could clearly see the disgust drawn on Sasuke's almost perfectly sculpted features. She cast her azure blue eyes on him with a hint of playfulness and said, "Oh, Sasuke-kun, you look so…"

Then she turned to look at Sakura. "So handsome today… Oh, sorry. You look handsome every single day. What do you say, girls?"

Squeals erupted from every corner of the classroom. All of the girls, except for Sakura and Hinata, blushed and shrieked in shrill delight. Damn, Sakura thought. There're fan girls everywhere!

"Hinata, do you mind these people?" She asked.

"To tell the truth, Sakura-san," her friend replied. "T-they're really deafening."

"Do you want to put an end to this?"

"I do, yes—very much. But… How?"

"Well, I haven't got an idea right now, but I'm pretty sure we're not the only ones who're infuriated." She pointed at Sasuke, who was now fuming. "I was just making sure I'm not alone, if you know what I mean."

Hinata nodded quietly.

And the rest of the hours went by smoothly.

"Anone, Sakura-chan," Naruto whispered across the table in the Physics laboratory. "Since it's Friday and we have no homework, let's go to the—"

"Uzumaki, whatever it is you're gossiping there, you'd better save that for later," Ibiki-sensei spoke out.

"—the smoothie shack later," he finally said after waiting for the professor to turn his back. Sakura acquiesced and proceeded to copy what was written on the board.

The long period ended, at length. Sakura began fixing her things when Naruto approached her and put his arm over her shoulder.

"Someday, Sakura-chan," he started. "I'm gonna be a criminologist!""You're talking about random stuff again, Naruto," she replied. She glanced at him, smiling, and continued, "Not that it's unusual, anyway."

The other gave a hearty grin, went back to his seat across the table and began fixing his things for later. When the two had finally finished, they went outside to see Ino flirting with Sasuke.

"Seriously, Ino, when will you ever give Sasuke a break?!" Naruto demanded.

The cheerleader scoffed and gave Sakura a grimace. "You're kidding, right? Do you actually think I will give in to that girl who has a remarkably large forehead?"

She pointed her finger at Sakura, who, at that time, was about to pin the pig to the wall and give her a gravely sadistic beating. "Do you, I daresay, consider me as a rival?"That was unexpected.

"Shut up," Ino snapped. "As if I really would. I just thought it would be a big waste if Sasuke went out with you."

And with that, Naruto quickly tugged Sasuke out of Ino's clutch and left with haste, eager to get out of that hellhole. Sakura, of course, followed just as impatiently and hissed, "Damn her."

Naruto soothed her, saying, "Aw, it's okay. Sasuke'd never go out with a girl like her, right, Sasuke?"

The raven-haired male smirked and said, "Whatever."

They arrived at the smoothie shack by five o'clock that afternoon, doing their usual everyday routine. Naruto ate about three times faster that day (which was about the equivalent of a minute and 10 seconds), saying something about having a 'meeting' and leaving the two behind.

Another one of those agonizing silences came through Sakura and her companion. She reasonably hated it since almost nothing stroke into her mind everytime they were left alone. Despite that though, she never felt insecure around him. It was just about as if she'd known him for longer than she knew, and yet, had never actually met him—somewhat like an unknown person you've had dreams of for such a great length of time.

"So, Sasuke," she mumbled while playing around with her noodles. "What do your parents do?"

It took awhile for him to raise his head up and pay for their orders. He gave Sakura no response and walked away from the counter, leaving her puzzled, mouth gaping.

"Hey!" She yelled as she caught up to him. He turned his head around, meeting her glare, and giving one of his own. "What did you leave me for?"He shrugged. "Nothing—I just remembered something."

"You said 'Nothing' and yet, you did remember something? What the hell?" Sakura easily grew impatient those days, apparently—her rational self being a reason why she didn't have any fantasies of some sort.

Sasuke merely scoffed at his cohort's edginess. Sakura grew pink, realizing that one of her temper management issues prevailed yet again. "But anyway, you still haven't told me about your family. I'd like to know—as your guide, of course."

She managed to keep herself somewhat collected. She brushed the strands of gum-colored hair that were annoyingly covering her face away and saw that they had already reached the bay.

"Well?"

Sasuke still didn't make any notion of saying anything, but then suddenly paused in his tracks and face the body of water that was reflecting the colored particles of light being emitted by the sunset.

"My family," he mumbled quietly.

"What?"

"Well, my family's gone."

Sakura was struck by what the first thing that came to her mind. That was one of the disadvantages of having very high intuition—the fact that you can uncover so many things fast can get very exasperating when you don't want to know about them. She averted her gaze to the shimmering bay instead, observing the specks of orange luminosity and felt the nippy autumn breeze sneak up her smooth skin.

"By gone you mean—"

"They're dead."

A jolt of guilt seared into her guts like she was being electrocuted by some sort of ligthning bolt. Oh, no… This really isn't the best situation to be in...

Sasuke, on the other hand, seemed to be having one of those keepin'-it-cool moments of his—the typical frown, hands in his pockets, and staring at the sky for a sentimental moment. But, Sakura, being the cunning person that she is, took his arm and led him to one of her favorite parts in the city.

"Damn… You broke the moment, you freakin' woman," said Sasuke as he was being pulled through some sort of weird tea garden or whatever you call that. Sakura laughed sarcastically, encouraging him to shut up and look as they went down a long flight of stairs.

In front of him was still (yes, still) the bay. "There really isn't anything special here, is there?"

"Why won't you let me do the talking for once?" Sakura whispered, pointing to something. He followed the direction of her finger, and saw the most beautiful thing he'd seen in years.

"Nice, isn't it?" Sakura said, settling herself on the cement railing. It took Sasuke a little bit over a minute to distinguish how lovelier the view was there than that of above. It consoled him, in truth, and gave him the feeling he hadn't felt for a very lengthy time. He considered Sakura was just being nice and felt nothing more, but there was that mysterious glint in her eyes that just made him wonder.

"Really, Sasuke," she muttered sadly. "I'm sorry. I should've been more careful… I mean—"

"Whatever. It's not like I was going to die the moment I told you that."

She smiled. It was a really good thing that he opened up to her. "I mean, I haven't experienced losing someone before, so—"

"I said it's okay," he snapped. "Seriously, how many times do I have to rephrase that?"

"Sorry," she chuckled softly. "But then again, Sasuke, it was very nice of you to actually tell me, even though we've known each other for only a few days."

"Yeah, whatever."