Disclaimer: Not Mine.

---Wednesday

"Make the Connection and defend the connector."

Wednesdays were always the worst. Smack dab in the middle of the week; you were already tired out from Monday and Tuesday but Saturday still seemed infinitely far away.

Most people got lazier as the week went by, so the subway became more and more popular until there was a huge crash on Saturday. Once, for a Statistics class, Sakura had graphed the number of people taking the subway with Microsoft Excel. The graph peaked at Wednesday.

Most of the time, the subway was midway-full. The good seats were taken and a fair share of the bad ones too, but the people weren't packed like sardines. Usually, Sakura was able to find a pretty good seat…not so today. She was delegated to standing up, leaning against a pole, her hands clasped around it. Her eyes were closed, her face makeup-less, and she didn't notice the man sitting in the seat closest to her.

He looked up, and his eyes narrowed.

"Haruno-san?"

"Oh, Uchiha-san. I didn't notice you there. You can call me Sakura, none of us are stuffy, right?"

"Same to you."

"Ah. Sasuke-san, why are you here? Didn't you pick up your car yesterday?"

"I need to talk to you, and I can't take time off of work. And the car is also too flashy."

"Is there a problem?"

"Yesterday, I went to the hospital, as you may have noticed."

"Yes. Ino told me that you talked to the other receptionist?"

"Yes. Do you know why?"

"No, I have no idea. Are you ill?"

"No. And if you have no idea, perhaps it is best not to get you involved. All I need is information, after all."

"What sort of information? Did you ask the receptionist?"

"They both were highly incompetent, and I did not wish to share very much information with them."

"What is your question about?" Sakura said slowly, not necessarily wanting to get involved in anything that would further stress her out.

"My mother. She was in the hospital about 14 months ago."

"I started at the hospital two years ago. You believe that she was my patient?"

"Yes."

"If you need information, why don't we arrange a time to meet so we can talk?"

"My house, or a café, or whatever you would like is alright."

"Where do you live?"

"Ah. I live on Fire Street, do you know where that is?"

Sakura was taken aback. For a CEO to live in merely a condominium was unheard of. Fire Street was in a nice neighborhood, but definitely nothing like the Heights. Sakura knew that Sasuke didn't like to flaunt, but he was becoming too much of a foil for Hyuuga Neji…She was curious now.

"Yes, of course. Unfortunately, I have almost no time on weekdays, so the closest day I'll be free is Saturday…"

"Ah, that's fine. Here is my address and phone number, in case you have an earlier date or something." He handed her a small slip of paper, and then took out a mildly-expensive looking cell phone with something engraved on the back, where the battery pack would be. He looked at her expectantly.

"Oh, my phone number. (777) 321-3687. Um…when are we going to meet at Saturday?"

"Is 2 in the afternoon alright? I believe that I am meeting with the Hyuuga family in the morning."

"Yes, that's fine. I also have a prior arrangement in the morning."

"Hn. Which is?"

"I am taking Ino and Hinata-san out for brunch. Just some girl bonding. For me and Ino, it's just been the two of us for a long time, so it's nice to have a new face to talk to."

"Have you considered taking Tenten with you?"

"Hyuuga Neji's girlfriend?"

"Aah. He's always complaining about her lack of female company."

"Um, yes, that sounds alright. If you could pass along the message? Tell her that we are meeting at Konoha café on the corner of Konoha Street. It's only a stop away from Doujutsu on the subway."

"Hn."

"So…how is Naruto working out as junior PR?"

"As if, he's not doing any public relations! I know they throw darts. The only reason I hired those two is because they needed jobs and they're comic relief. Anyways, Hyuuga probably embezzles so much that he doesn't care if he needs to pay two more employees."

Sakura was struck by the sincerity of the statement. Sasuke knew that he was hiring those two for no reason? Maybe he wasn't emotionless after all...

"The real work gets done on the third floor. Hyuuga has no control over what happens in the company and he knows it. The real masterminds behind the company are me and Nara Shikamaru."

"Shikamaru-san? Ino's other best friend?"

"Due to that statement, my respect for him just fell down a few notches." His eyebrows furrowed, but the left side of his mouth also quirked a little bit. "Perhaps he is not as brilliant as he seems if he is friends with that incompetent blonde."

"She's my best friend, you know? And though she may be incompetent and blonde, she does care about the two of us."

"Hn. How did they get to be friends? College?"

"No, Ino is still in college, she's had to prolong her stay because she does work-study. Their parents, along with the Akimichis, are best friends. They grew up together, and Shikamaru's birthday is one day before Ino's."

"Akimichis?"

"They're the famous restaurant owners? A lot of their extended family has won Iron Chef?"

"I don't watch television very much."

"Their food is delicious, you should really tell your company to go to one of their restaurants for a business dinner."

"The point of business dinners is not food, it is alliances."

"Good food is an added benefit. Anyways, the Akimichi food is super healthy and good for you. Even though they are a little rotund themselves, they make sure to have exactly the right serving sizes and everything. Unfortunately, the food is also super expensive, so I only get to go when Chouji treats us."

"I am assuming that Chouji is an Akimichi and us refers to you, Yamanaka, and Nara."

"Exactly."

"How much…do you know about Nara?"

"Not too much, you?"

"He has the reputation for being quite mysterious. He's a genius, but doesn't seem smart, isn't motivated, doesn't date, has no goals in life, and likes saying 'Troublesome.' He doesn't answer any of our questions, but produces top notch work in ridiculously short amounts of time."

"I'd forgotten about that phrase of his. I think he got it from his father…In fact, that was Ino's nickname for him."

"I'll take note of that."

"And if you need information about Shikamaru, you could always ask Ino. I'm sure she'd be happy to hear from a CEO like you. She tends to be a little bit materialistic."

"I'm not surprised. With hair that peroxide-tinged, I'm surprised she has any braincells left."

"It's natural, actually." Sakura sounded defensive, obviously being used to hair comments.

"That's what she tells you."

"You can ask Shikamaru."

"Those two---"

"No, they aren't together. And they probably never will be together again. Ever."

"…A lot of emphasis there."

"It was awful when they were together. It was like 3 years ago, and they were together for a month. Shikamaru didn't want to take her out. His idea of a date was watching the clouds together, but Ino likes to be taken out to clubs and restaurants and the like. He broke up with her, actually, said that it was better when they were friends.

They only dated for a month, but they didn't speak for a year…I think it was Chouji that made them friends again. They still tread carefully around each other, so be careful when you interrogate Ino.

Shikamaru probably hasn't dated anyone after Ino, but she's gone through guy after guy. I'm not surprised that Shikamaru desisted from going out because of that bad precedent.

Some people might say that the chemistry is there and that they'll end up together eventually...but they didn't see them." Sakura shuddered. "I'm just glad they're friends again. Don't ruin that for them."

"I'll try. I just need some basic information. We tried to get it out of him when we hired him, but he refused. And he was too brilliant to let go."

"I never would have thought that I would hear you compliment someone."

"Your hair looks nice today."

"Whaa?"

"Another example of my polite charms."

"Lovely. And thank you, I used conditioner today." (Usually she didn't have time to just stand around in the shower for 3 to 5 minutes while she could be getting Starbucks. She should look into getting leave in conditioner.)

"I use conditioner everyday."

"And how early do you like to wake up?"

"I shower at night."

"Weird. Kinda smart though."

"You need to be 'kinda smart' to be a CEO."

"Don't mock my intelligence, I graduated as valedictorian in high school and college."

"And how much did you study?" Sasuke smirked, mimicking Sakura's earlier comment. Sakura blushed.

"You need to study to be a doctor, retard."

"Oh really?"

"Umhm. Or else you didn't meet my medical school exam. Or Professor Sarutobi."

"Sarutobi? Sarutobi Asuma?"

"Uh, I don't think so. Sarutobi-san was old."

"Interesting."

Finding little else to talk about, the two both turned away, Sakura pivoting around the pole with her tote bag on her shoulder, weighing it down with numerous medical papers and some textbooks. Sasuke stared down at his feet, then said,

"Have you really only known Naruto for 2 days?"

"Ah, yes. You?"

"Hn."

"Maybe you guys should get to know each other better. I get along alright with both of you, so you have something in common, right?"

"Aah. Sure…." He sounded completely unconvinced.

"I mean, you shouldn't just judge him. He's a good guy, stuck by his girlfriend, knows what's right. At least that's what it seems like to me…Just give him a chance."

"Hn."

He left and Sakura took his seat. Some polite charm, not offering her his seat in the first place.

.snapshots.

A man and a woman with long dark hair.

A man pressing the elevator button up, and then 3.

A navy-haired woman, staring at a picture.

A pink-haired woman dressed in scrubs, large-ish forehead crinkled.

Sakura didn't get into her usual subway car that evening. Usually she chose the 3rd from the last one, to be consistent, but this time it was too full and she had to choose the last one instead. She didn't expect to see her subway-friends, so she parked herself in a seat and took out her cell phone.

Highly bored and with nothing to do to pass three quarters of an hour, Sakura chose to overabuse the camera option on her phone, taking pictures of the random graffiti that had been scrawled on the walls over the years.

There were numerous hearts, initials, profanities, poems, and of course, was here. Some of them had become worn, some were carved and some were written with what looked like Sharpie and even just normal ballpoint pen.

There was this one intricate drawing. It looked like it had been done in paint rather than the more normal mediums of graffiti. It was a heart made out of flames, with highly delicate-looking names in the center. It looked like someone skilled with art had done it; the names were intertwined nicely and each style of writing seemed to give off a certain sort of characteristic.

On top was the name "Mikato", looking pretty and girly with curlicue script and flowers woven into the vowels. The "x" between the two names was bold, strong, assertive. It was similar to the name below, "Fugaku", which was written highly slanted but also strong, with the tips of the letters flaring out. Below the names, there were numbers, "5/4/71".

Even though other areas of the subway car were completely covered with graffiti drawn by idle hands, the heart seemed to have been given a wide berth of about a 2 feet radius, as if no other graffiti could possibly stand up to the beauty of this ancient one.

Sakura zoomed in on the heart and took a photo of it, then set it as her background instead of the boring Grey's Anatomy picture she had before.

Then she remembered the slip of paper that Uchiha Sasuke had given her, and methodically typed that into her contact list, right above the entry "Uzumaki Naruto". (Naruto had conveniently given her his phone number along with Hinata's, reading them both off of his shockingly bright orange phone that had been so over-blinged that it was blinding.)

Then she absentmindedly shredded the slip of paper into ever smaller pieces, watching them fall to the ground as infinitesimally tiny scraps as the 'ground' moved below her, hurtling her into the darkness.

A couple miles away, Uchiha Sasuke watched as his life came together, tiny scrap after tiny scrap, many black, some tinged other colors; orange, green, blue, pink.

A/N:

Hey everybody! Hopefully you are enjoying the story so far. I have a request to make of you, or rather a demand. Review, please! I probably won't update until I get at least 7 more reviews.

There's this weird phenomenon that more people have this story on their alert list than are reviewing it. This makes Afterword highly annoyed.

Right now I'm updating really fast because I'm getting these epiphanies of ideas, but I don't know about later.

What do you guys think about the idea of having Saturday and Sunday be full days instead of just two 45-minute subway rides?

I'm sorry that the second 45-minute subway ride today was so short, but I felt that it was a good place to end.

Anyways, I hope you oblige my request.