Sasuke's phone
Neji
Sasuke? Are you alright?
03/06/11
13:39:18
Ino
Where r u? Iruka-sensei
is relly mad! Xxx
03/06/11
14:12:06
Ino
you cant just walk out of
a lesson! Xxx
03/06/11
15:23:00
Dobe
Sasuke, Im really sorry
about Itachi.
03/06/11
15:46:02
Sasuke lay back on the grass, arms folded behind his head. He breathed in deeply, ignoring the phone in his pocket, which kept buzzing wildly, signalling a new text message. Presumably, news of his abrupt departure from class had reached his friends. Finally, when the vibrating became a little too annoying, he flipped the mobile open with a scowl, quickly scanning the messages from Neji, Ino and Naruto.
Delete.
The school was in his sights, he was lying on the hill opposite the building, watching the students file out in groups, even being able to hear their distant laughter and shouts. Tenten, with her noticeable hairstyle, hit Lee – equally noticeable, for other reasons – with her bag, laughing as he chased her, waving his arms in mock-anger. Sasuke could just make out Neji following behind them, too cool to give chase when Lee messed up his hair as he ran past, Tenten in hot pursuit.
Sasuke scrolled down his texts until he reached the one that he had quickly become obsessed with.
Itachi
I'm sorry, little brother.
17/05/11
01:33:19
Sasuke bit down on his lip, hard, and flung the phone away from him with a shout of anger.
He jumped when he heard an answering cry of pain. He sat up and looked in the direction of where he had thrown the phone. A girl of about his age lay further down the hill, rubbing her head. She had pink hair, the exact colour of bubblegum, an obnoxious shade that shone even brighter under the sun. She was wearing a smart, buttoned up pinafore, the kind you saw on little kids with strict parents or school dress codes, white tights and black, shiny shoes. She looked like some kind of punk doll with a stern sense of principles.
"Hey, what the hell?" She yelled, holding up his phone and waving it at him, "That really hurt!" Her eyes were edged with thick coats of black eyeliner, with dustings of pink glitter eye shadow.
Sasuke was struck by the absurdity of the girl's appearance, half nun-like, half punk. That, coupled with the fact that he'd somehow hit her on the head with his phone, was enough to make him laugh. He had a deep, startling laugh, and he found it difficult to stop once he'd started. The girl watched him, a dumbfounded expression on her pretty face, until she realised the humour of the situation and began to smile.
The girl stood up, brushing strands of grass and dirt off her clothes, and made her way towards him. Sasuke's laughter died down to a smirk as she approached. "Hey," She said, with a wry smile, handing him the phone back, "I'm Sakura. If you wanted my number, you could have just asked, no need to potentially maim me." Sasuke felt a flicker of surprise at the girl's flippant attitude, until he saw the light blush on her cheeks. He waited for a while, aware that she was anxious, waiting to be rejected, and finally took mercy on her and gestured for her to give him her phone.
She handed it over. It was shiny, expensive, and rose-red. He raised his eyebrows, before sighing and keying her number into his phone. He allowed her to do the same with hers, but only after giving her a dire warning not to spread his number around.
"So," She said lightly, sitting down next to him with a thump, "I've told you my name."
"And?" He closed his eyes, a smirk covering his face.
"And…" Sakura paused, "I need to know what name to put in my phone."
If he told her his name, she would know exactly who he was. He wasn't exactly flying under the press radar these days.
"No," He smirked even wider at the disappointment on her face, "It's not that easy."
"What the hell?" She moaned, throwing her hands up in disgust. She suddenly recovered, giving him a positively evil look, "You do realise this means I'm going to have to give you a nickname, right?"
Sasuke stiffened before shooting her a glare, already regretting giving her his number. It had been a spur of the moment thing; he hadn't really thought it through.
Sakura quickly typed something into her phone, squinted at the screen and gasped aloud.
"Oh my god! It's so late! I've got to go, sorry Sulky!" Sakura gathered up her things and made a move to leave.
Sasuke's death glare stopped her. "W-what?" She asked, a little scared.
"Sulky."
"That's my nickname for you! I really gotta go, sorry, bye!" Sakura ran off, apparently not noticing the look of utter horror on Sasuke's face at the appalling nickname.
For a full minute he just lay there, on his own.
"Sulky." He repeated in disbelief.
Sulky
Ever get the feeling that
everyone's talking about
you?
10/09/11
07:49:00
Sakura glanced at her phone when it trilled a cute little melody, signalling a text message. It was Sulky. They'd been texting each other for months now, since the day they first met. And he still hadn't told her his name.
She typed out a reply, fingers whizzing over the keys with practiced ease.
Sakura
Actually, no. That sounds
like paranoia to me. Get
checked out, maybe? X
04/09/11
07:52:41
She went back to her early morning stretches, curving one graceful arm over to touch her ankle, over and back again, feeling her muscles stretch pleasantly. It was early morning, her first day at her new school, and she was exercising to take her mind off her worries. Her aunt, Tsunade, kept grumbling in her sleep loudly. She was in the only bedroom. Sakura had just spent a rather long and uncomfortable night on the sofa, hence the need to stretch out the kinks. Her breakfast was oatmeal with a side of grapefruit, cut into mouth-watering chunks, and a glass of iced water. All things considered, it was quite a peaceful start to the day.
Her phone trilled happily again. She peered at the screen whilst brushing her hair.
Sulky
Helpful. And no, it isn't
paranoia, actually. I'm
well aware of the fact that
people are talking about
me.
04/09/11
07:58:23
She grinned at the irritable reply and made her own a little sweeter, just to piss him off.
Sakura
That's what any self-
respecting paranoiac
would say X
04/09/11
08:01:57
The new school she was to be attending was the hot topic of her and Sulky's texting. Her worries, her fashion choices, etc. Not that he seemed terribly interested in the exact shade of eye shadow she was thinking of wearing. She looked around the tiny, cramped flat, and winced at the sight of all the unwashed dishes and cardboard boxes that littered the surfaces and tables. Tsunade always seemed to mess up the flat so easily, it was only ever truly clean when her assistant, Shizune, came over to visit. Somehow, the poor woman always seemed to end up cleaning the place whenever she came round.
Sakura ended up using a smoky grey eye shadow, thickly outlining her eyes in black eyeliner. Her lips were covered with cherry-scented lip gloss. Her hair was tied into a loose bun and she wore a demure white and pink spotted dress with a black cardigan and black tights. Her 'look' was chic with an attitude.
The sun had already risen by the time she left, bag on back and bottle of water in hand. She closed the door as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake her aunt. Her trusty bike was resting against the fencing outside the flat, not even chained up. It was a reliable purchase, because it was so banged up and hideous-looking that no thief in their right mind would go near it, let alone steal it. She hopped on, the seat warm from the sun, trying not to snag her tights as she began to pedal, water bottle clenched between her teeth. The pedals screeched noisily as she forced the bike up a hill, until she was forced to walk alongside it, pushing it along. She checked her texts on the way up, and smiled at the surprisingly sweet message from her text-buddy.
Sulky
Sakura. Don't worry about
starting school. You'll be
fine.
04/09/11
08:26:54
There were already students at the school by the time she got there, a few of them fighting, most of them laughing. Sakura pushed her bike into the bike rack carefully, and then gave it a fond pat on the handlebars and walked off in the vague direction of the main building. She'd been there a few times before, and was grateful that she didn't have to stop and ask a student for directions. Some of them looked downright hostile. The school was enormous, with signs everywhere proclaiming that they were welcome in every language. The floor was white with splashes of green and purple. Every room in the reception had glass walls, so as she walked in she could see the secretaries gabbing away on the phones, official-looking men and women in suits talking solemnly, rows of computers with employees with headsets typing furiously.
Sakura dodged a kunai instinctively, and turned, body already moving into a defensive position when she saw her assailant.
It was a boy around her age, with wild-looking hair and red triangle tattoos on his cheeks, a roguish grin on his face. He was with another guy, who was slightly taller, with dark, afro-like hair and sunglasses despite being indoors. A girl joined them, panting, having run to get to them. She had long dark hair and pale lilac eyes. Had she not already ran up to them without hindrance, Sakura would have assumed she was blind. "What the hell," Sakura said slowly, with emphasis, "are you doing?"
The guy with facial tattoos grinned even wider, revealing fangs. "Just testing. Your reflexes are good, by the way."
"You moved into a halfway defensive position whilst you simultaneously reached for a kunai." The guy in the sunglasses commented, "Offense and defence is a good mix, but when you don't know who is attacking you, it is best to focus completely on defence, to prevent injury or death."
Sakura stared. The tattoo guy looked a little surprised too, "Wow, Shino, didn't know you were physically capable of saying more than, 'interesting.'"
"Kiba." Shino sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
For a minute, Kiba just ignored him, but eventually became curious. "What?" He finally said, annoyed.
The girl coughed to get Sakura's attention whilst Kiba attempted to goad Shino into a fight.
"I'm Hyuuga Hinata." The girl smiled and gave a respectful bow.
Sakura barely remembered her manners enough to give a quick bow and murmur her name in reply.
"Oh!" She said, recalling the timetable Tsunade had printed off for her, "Could you show me how to get to the advanced Genjutsu class, please?"
She didn't miss the look of surprise on the other girl's face before it was quickly smothered by another polite smile, "Um, I don't know where it is, but I do know someone who does…" She trailed off.
"This is so troublesome." Sakura's guide complained for the seventh time as they walked side by side, down the hall.
"Shikamaru-san?" Sakura raised her eyebrows.
He grunted in response.
"How is you walking me to where you were originally going, troublesome?" Sakura questioned politely.
Shikamaru was silent for a while, presumably pondering this.
The halls were getting noticeably fuller as the time came closer to nine o'clock; Sakura saw instantly that the Konoha students were a mixed breed. The gangs of people in the corridor were not grouped by a certain category –e.g. Emo, Skater, Prep, - but all seemed rather unique in themselves. She saw a boy with a handsome, absent-looking face and slick black hair, sitting on the floor outside a classroom, inking thick black lines onto paper. When she looked closer, she was stunned by the distasteful phallic imagery. She saw a teacher with a shock of white hair despite his obvious youth and a scar running down one eye. There was a girl who had hair similar to Sulky, spiky and somewhat lopsided, though hers was bright red and she wore fashionable thick glasses and slightly revealing clothes.
And even her guide was interesting, with his fishnet shirt, spiky ponytail, single silver earring and nicotine-stained fingers.
They eventually reached a room with a plaque above the door reading, 'Advanced Genjutsu,' with a sheet of paper stuck below it with, 'For Freaks and Geeks,' written in penned scrawl.
They ground to a halt outside.
"Is…this not a popular class?" Sakura asked, a little uneasy. She and Shikamaru were being stared at pretty hard. Even the handsome artist had put down his pen in order to stare in their direction.
Shikamaru shrugged and said easily, "Does it matter?"
"I guess not."
He – rather considerately, she thought to herself – opened the door for her. Inside a few students were already seated, gossiping about the summer holiday and who did what with whom, like ohmygosh! Sakura rolled her eyes. And then promptly panicked, because Shikamaru had left her side.
"Shikamaru-san!" Sakura hissed. He stopped, wheezing, halfway to collapsing into his chair. He appeared to have the stamina of a badly injured eighty year old man with no knees.
"What?"
"Where do I sit?"
"You'll have to wait at the front for the teacher to assign you a seat." He yawned.
And so Sakura stood beside the teacher's desk, wishing for millionth time that her hair wasn't quite so noticeable or resistant to dye, as every student that walked in the room gawped at her. It was quite exhausting, keeping up a cheerful smile whilst every other student – none of them seemed to have any sense of personal space – stared at her.
A young woman with a surprisingly beautiful face walked into the room, a dark mane of hair making her pale skin stand out, especially next to her dark red lipstick. She sat at her desk and tapped it once with a ruler. The class immediately fell silent. The teacher made a sharp gesture with the ruler, and they all sat down. Except for Sakura, who was desperately clutching onto her beatific smile and standing like a freaking gooseberry, horribly conspicuous as she was only one standing.
The woman, seemingly unaware of her presence, began to call out the register.
Students drowsily answered as their names were called.
The teacher reached the 'H's and called out, "Hyuuga Neji?"
Sakura watched as a smartly dressed student with long hair raised his hand. He had the same last name as Hinata… Sakura was just musing on this when she realised her own name was being called.
"Haruno Sakura?"
"Oh! Present! Here, yes!" She babbled, flustered. Hyuuga Neji was giving her a contemptuous look.
"I'm sorry," The teacher smiled, "I didn't realise you were the new student. I'm Kurenai-sensei. Would you like to take your seat next to Hyuuga-san?"
Great, the scary guy with the strangely luscious-looking hair. She took her seat with great reluctance. Neji gave her a sideways glance as she sat down. Yes, his eyes were the same, strange pale shade as Hinata's. Definitely a relation of some sort.
The door opened and another student strolled in casually, as though his being late was a privilege they should all appreciate. Kurenai gave him a slight glare and ticked off his name on the register pointedly. "Yes, thank you for finally joining us, Uchiha-san. Take your seat."
Sakura looked up to visually bitch-slap the tardy student with a glare, and felt a jolt in her stomach as her eyes landed on his frozen form. He appeared to have spotted her as well. She felt a bizarre urge to check her phone as she stared at his sullen, gorgeous face.
It was Sulky.
I hope everyone likes this! In case it's not clear, Sulky = Sasuke, he never tells Sakura his real name for reasons that will be withheld until further chapters. They've been constantly keeping up a text conversation for about three months but haven't met again till now…
I've been toying with the idea of a NejiSaku fic for a while, but this is obviously going to be Sasusaku, I'm just not sure whether or not to add a degree of unrequited affection on either Sakura's or Neji's part, just to make things interesting. Naruto, Ino and Lee will show up, just obviously, not in the Advanced Genjutsu class.