Summary: For Sasuke, it's just another town. Only more people. What makes Konoha different? And what additions to his coven have been kept untold? A very vague summary. It's AU, and I added an OC. Sorry!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto!!

I am really new! I'm sorry if I mess up on something or cross a line or anything.


The following seven periods had passed slowly enough. This was due mostly to the matter of one Uzumaki Naruto.

"Quit stalking me already!" Naruto comes close to throwing his books up. "I knew you were homo. What was that? Oh yeah, 'Oh Kabutooo, see you! Catch you later hunny bunny! '"

"Dobe, I did not say it like that," he breathes shortly. "What class do you have next?"

"I'm not telling you!" Naruto squints his eyes. "You're just gonna follow me again."

"I will not, idiot." Sasuke glares at the blonde, "I'm making sure I don't have to see your ugly face for the rest of the day."

"Oh, I have the ugly face, huh?" Naruto crinkles the schedule in his hand, "Woodshop, Room 102."

"A free," Sasuke says, evidently relieved. "Later, dobe."

"Dobe?" Naruto yells from behind him. Sasuke hastens his steps, but Naruto catches up, shoving him into a couple of freshmen. "Dobe?!"

Stumbling over a skinny boy, Sasuke prepares to push the shorter teen back but halts midstep. "Sakari?"

Behind Naruto, a pale girl looks up from jotting lines in a book. She leans against a long locker rack, one foot propping her up. Her auburn-black hair is binded in a ponytail, and her frozen hazel eyes turn straight towards him. Her lips part slightly, her gaze turning almost uneasy for a second. "Sasuke."

"You know Satoshi-sempai??" Naruto gasps dramatically. "How the hell do you know her--"

"Go to class," the Uchiha pushes him hastily; his arms are numb.

"Hell no, I--" The second bell chimes. "Sh-Shit!" Naruto grumbles, stepping to his left and then rolling into a full sprint.

Sasuke watches the blonde stumble and then disappear down the stairs.

"He called you here."

Sasuke pauses, expression dissolving and mouth curving warmly. "Last week," he murmurs. "You too?"

She looks to the ceiling, sidestepping as a boy rushes past her into a wide classroom. "I'm sure it's been two years already."

"And I didn't sense you at all--" Sasuke blurts, quickly turning around him to ensure no one had heard.

"That's Konoha." Sakari turns the rings of her notebook. Her fingers run smoothly down the metal spiral, and her eyes follow, winding like a twirling leaf. She tilts her marble-carved face, and her bloodless lips part, shaping inaudible whispers and breaths.

Color wills itself into his cheeks, and he restrains from moving closer. He averts his gaze guiltily. "What is this place?"

"Ask Itachi," she says. "Notice it's been two years since the last full oration. And over two years since you've had to move."

"Then," he asks tiredly, "what's going on?"

Hesitation. Sakari's gaze rests in his eyes. "How did he contact you?"

"By note, like always," he replies.

"Last week?" she asks, more to herself. Her languid voice soon flows back, "So he's alive."

"Of course--"

She smiles a little. "I didn't mean it technically."

Sasuke's lids lower, and he sucks in a hot breath. "He hasn't sent word to you?"

"Not for a couple of months," she says with forced ease. "You have a free period?"

He nods yes. "You too?"

"It's Phys. Ed," she shrugs.

"Let's go," he mumbles. "There's nothing else to do."

Sakari drops her notebook to her messenger back on the floor. "Leave, hm? On your first day."

"I have questions," he crosses his arms, "and Kakashi's doesn't give the clearest sort of answers."

"So ask me?" she tilts her chin. "What a wonder."

"He's rubbed off on you," he grumbles. "Let's go."

"Over a hundred years of attending high schools," she says, kicking off her locker and standing firmly. "It hasn't helped you at all."

He smirks. "I've done worse."


"So you've made a friend," Sakari says.

The two sit face-to-face at the corner of an old diner. R&B music hums in the background, with a twist of customers' whispers and the humdrum clicks of waitress' squabble.

Sakari's tongue runs over the tip of her straw while her lower lip holds it close.

Sasuke looks down uncomfortably, balancing his elbows on the table and folding his hands. "I wouldn't call it that."

"I would." She spins the straw with her forefinger, taking a sip. "He seemed," she hesitates, "eager."

"He knew you," he watches her.

"Did he?"

"Yeah." He prods the pastry in front of him. "Sounds like lots of people 'know' you."

"Hm."

"You still wear the ring."

Sakari pauses, flexing a left knuckle where a metallic band rests. Light brandishes off its thin jewel; it burns ruby. "If I didn't, I'd have Madara chasing me in the night, wouldn't I? And Fugaku rolling in his grave." She senses his tense reaction and elaborates. "If he is dead..."

He spins his fork and gives her a meaningful look. "If he is dead, then it means he was a great leader, worthy of moving on. Moving on from whatever existence we lead." His left hand absent-mindedly draws closer to her. "He told us that death would come to all of us, soon after our greatest moment--" he exhales, running a finger through his hair. "That it was a reward."

"I'd have been scared," she says, twirling the straw again. "How long ago was it?"

"Fourty-two years," he shrugs. "Ten years before he and Mother actually disappeared."

Her eyes unfocus thoughtfully. "Eight before we met."

Sasuke's lips tighten. "One year before that, when the two of you had met..." She looks at him. "Did he ever talk about us?"

This time she shrugs, tilting her chin a little and sipping her drink. "We talked about other things." Her gaze falls on the ring again, lids lowering intimately for a moment's breath. "You said you had other questions?"

"I did." He could almost hate his brother sometimes; he could convince, maybe charm, a child into killing its mother. Much less keep a closed mouth. But he was forced to digress, for that was the very reason Itachi had become the next leader. Sasuke watches her spin her straw a third time and wrinkles his nose in disgust. "How can you drink that stuff? Doesn't it make you sick?"

"A little."

Sasuke shrugs and continues, "Do you know a Hideki Tobi?"

Sakari breathes amusement. "Kakashi didn't point him out to you?"

"He didn't even tell me you were here," Sasuke mutters. "So I wouldn't guess he was preparing to."

"He's just one of us. Youngest in years," she pries her attention to a faded scratch across her forefinger.

"Younger than you?" he asks.

"He's a baby."

Sasuke considers before asking another question. "Do you know how many of us there are here?"

"Your brother's been sending more and more here over these two years," Sakari answers. "But there're even more vegetarians."

Shaking his head, Sasuke grits his teeth. "They'll just turn into rogue vampires. Like a human's horror movie. Living solely on animal's blood...It's disrupting the way we were created."

"You say he's rubbed off on me," she muses.

He pauses. "You've become softer," he whispers.

She snorts. "It's been one day."

His voice lowers, "Sakari, I--"

"Any more questions?" she says quickly, though her tone is the same.

He bites his tongue, inwardly chiding to himself. "Well, Yakushi Kabuto. Do you--"

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke sees Sakari shut her eyes in annoyance before he looks past. "Yakushi-s--"

The familiar silvery teen steps from behind Sakari, followed by two boys. "Just call me Kabuto." His hand falls onto Sakari's shoulder, and he kneels forward. "You're here with Sakari-chan?"

Sasuke flinches at their close touch. "Yes--"

"And I heard my name," he says casually. "I hope only good things were said."

"Hope is an illusion," Sakari says, shrugging off his hand.

"Being tough again, Sakari?" one of Kabuto's companions smirks. "Kabuto, I think she prefers me."

"Obviously, Suigetsu, she prefers Uchiha," Kabuto says, slantedly eyeing her. "Since they're here together."

"No, he's younger than her, ain't he?" Suigetsu licks dried lips. "Ain't he, Kimimaro?"

Their third party member stands cross-armed, icy eyes pointed toward Sakari. "Kimimaro?" Suigetsu repeats.

Kimimaro shrugs, white-silver bangs falling past his ear. His white-collared button-down, opened partially near his tight chest, wrinkles at the slight movement. A vein at the juncture of his neck and rugged collarbone throbs, as he flexes his shoulders. His voice is a course ballad, "I can't imagine her favoring anyone."

Uneasily, Sasuke looks from the new figure to Sakari. "Uchiha Sasuke, I take it," Kimimaro says lowly, shifting his gaze for a minute. "There's been wide talk of you."

"Not unlike Sakari-chan," Kabuto says, "showing up from thin air and somehow captivating everyone."

"If I showed from thin air," Sakari cuts in, "could it mean you crawled here from a cave?"

"Ouch," Suigetsu grins, "there's a girl to please."

"We're late, Kabuto, Suigetsu," Kimimaro broods. His blue eyes freeze over Sakari again, and she looks back, curious.

"Alright, alright," Suigetsu grunts. He looks back to the two with a short laugh before heading out the door. Kimimaro follows, catching up in three smooth strides. Kabuto stays back for a moment.

"I'll see you in homeroom, tomorrow, Sasuke," Kabuto says, pushing up his thin glasses. He turns to his left. "We'll talk later, Sakari."

He walks out as quickly as he had come, the atmosphere swiveling back as if the trio had never visited. Sakari and Sasuke slink back to their seats, no longer facing each other; their faces move farther, and their heads further.