"Sasuke-kun? Are you alright?"
Sasuke's eyes slowly opened. Wet…very wet…
Water splashed onto his face as Sasuke realized he was lying on the asphalt next to his car. But why was there more than one face looking down at him?
"He'll be alright now, ma'am," a voice said. "He just fainted. Surprising, though, he's in the best of health. Well, it shouldn't happen again, he's just fine now."
"Sasuke-kun, how are you feeling?" Mikoto asked anxiously as Sasuke sat up, feeling his right shoulder all over.
"I'm fine, Mom, just disoriented," Sasuke said groggily. "Who's this?"
A face bent through the slow gray drizzle, and Sasuke found himself looking at a man who resembled him a little. Short black hair, a pale face, and a smile that was kind. Too kind.
It's fake, Sasuke's mind said. There's no way that's a genuine smile.
"Alright, ma'am, I'm going to leave now," the man said, standing up from where he knelt.
"Thank you so much for helping me when Sasuke fainted," Mikoto said warmly. "I was frightened out of my wits."
"You might want to drive the rest of the way there, just to be safe," the man said. "Sometimes the grayness of rainy days does funny stuff to a driver's head. Where exactly ARE you going, if you don't mind my asking?"
"Kishimoto University," Mikoto said proudly. "Sasuke-kun's a freshman this year!"
"Kishimoto, eh?" the man said interestedly. "I'm right nearby. Sarutobi Law School, ever heard of it?"
"No way!" Mikoto exclaimed. "I thought you were a medical student, you were so confident with the way you handled Sasuke-kun!"
"Please, call me 'Sai'," the man said with his fake smile pasted on again. "I'm right next door to the Sannin Med School, we law students share dormitory facilities with the medical students. You do pick up a few things around them," he laughed.
"Well, Sai, we won't take up any more of your time," said Mikoto firmly. "Come on, Sasuke, let's get back on the road."
Sasuke stood up and fixed Sai with his gaze. He was surprised to find that Sai was actually about his own height: six feet four inches. Black eyes met black eyes in a haze of gray rain.
I don't trust this man, Sasuke's mind said.
Oh well, you probably won't see him again, anyway, Sasuke replied. And good riddance.
Then it hit him. This Sai was a student at Sarutobi Law, which was right next to Sannin Med. And Sannin Med…
Oh, crap, Sasuke's mind said. SAKURA attends Sannin Med!!
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"Wow, what a beautiful place," Mikoto gushed, looking up at Sasuke's soon-to-be dorm building. "The quad is spectacular!"
"Mom, I think I can unpack by myself," Sasuke muttered.
"You sure, hon? I mean, you did faint earlier!" Mikoto said anxiously. Sasuke sighed.
"Did you HAVE to say it that loudly, mom?"
"Sorry, Sasuke-kun." Mikoto kissed his cheek. "Now be a good boy, don't do drugs, don't get in a fight, and play basketball the way you do best!"
"Bye, mom."
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"Hey, hey, hey, SASUKE-TEME, dattebayo!" Sasuke had just opened his door when he was blown back by the orange whirlwind that shot out from the room.
"OUCH! GERROFFAME! Is that YOU, Naruto?"
"You betcha, dattebayo!" Naruto grinned. Sasuke grimaced.
"Don't tell me YOU'RE my roommate?!?"
"Yeah, I got accepted to Kishimoto, so I decided to come, too!" Naruto babbled. "But I didn't get a spot on the team. You were the only one from Firestone to get on the Kishimoto Shuriken, Sasuke-teme!"
"Really?" Sasuke muttered as he rubbed the back of his aching head. "Where'd everyone else go?"
"Neji went to a private college, Bya Kugan, I think," Naruto said, scowling. "Hot shot. And Shikamaru's taking correspondence courses with Yale, way out in America. Kiba, Shino, and everyone else went to community college, I think."
"Great, just great," Sasuke groaned. "I'm stuck with you and only you. Isn't there anyone else from Firestone here?"
"Not from our building, except for Rock Lee!" Naruto cheered. "He made the track team and is expected to go to the Olympics. The OLYMPICS, teme! More than YOU can say!!!"
Sasuke lugged his trunk into the room and began unpacking, hounded by Naruto's ceaseless chatter. Over the next few hours, the walls went from plain, bare white cinderblock to the lair of a teenage guy.
"Hnn," Sasuke said as he finished pinning up a poster, "I'm done." He leapt off the bed and examined the poster. It was a picture of the '93 Fire Ninja, with Saki Haruno grinning in the foreground. Next to it was his old poster of the current Fire Ninja team, but Sasuke knew that the '93 poster would always hold a place in his heart.
"Here, Sasuke, I want you to have this." Sakura handed him a rolled-up poster. Sasuke turned it over quizzically.
"What's this?"
"It's my poster of the team my dad was on," Sakura said quietly. "The one that hung in our dorm that year I was at Firestone. I want you to have it, Sasuke, so you'll always remember me."
Sasuke carefully laid a framed photograph on the windowsill, close to the head of his bed. It was a picture of Sakura and himself, both in their Firestone uniforms, sharing a basketball. Sasuke was smirking, Sakura was laughing contentedly.
"Eh, I still can't believe you got the pretty girl, dattebayo," Naruto muttered. Sasuke stood up.
"Hnn, dobe, you had your chance. She was on the team with all of us, but I was the first one to figure it out. Besides, she was my roommate."
"Well, I'm your roommate now!" Naruto said, lying back on his bed. "And we're at Kishimoto University. Looks like we're college kids!"
Sasuke suddenly grabbed his shoulder, wincing in pain.
"Teme, you OK?" Naruto sat up. Sasuke ground his teeth and stared out the window over the quad, which was hung over with thick, black clouds.
Itachi…where are you?
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Somewhere far away, the rain was coming down in sheets so thick that it was impossible to see even two feet in front of your face. The thunder of the rain mixed with the grumbling of the clouds made it impossible to hear anything over the din. Every now and then, lightning flashed, but it barely made any difference to the grayness of the storm, only tinging it ash instead of charcoal.
Water droplets rolled down the barbed wire, down the intertwined metal strands, until they fell suddenly from the abrupt ending. The mud obscured the red pair of cutters lying in a mucky puddle. And the rain blurred any footprints that may have been left behind.
Lightning lit up angry eyes in a determined face.
Someone was going to pay. He'd suffered long enough…and someone was going to pay.
