Having finished all the exams, the students were obliged to join a extracurricular activity in this last month of the school year while all their grades were collected and processed so that the final result would be their average of the whole year. This was a stressful time. Konoha High was a prestigious school that you could get in with a little money up your sleeves, but if you slacked off and couldn't attain the standard grading, you would be kicked out in a millisecond. But this mostly applied to the tenth graders since most of the students of the school tended to study abroad after the grade of eleven. And for those who stayed, they were simply impossible to be sent packing. Despite all the tension surrounding the school as maybe half of the freshmen would most possibly be asked to transfer the next school year, the festivities were as joyous and thrilling as ever.

The clubs were more active and had started to recruit the freshmen, taking advantage of the unofficial break to drag more members in so that they could have the minimum attendance required to stay an official club, the more the safer, for who knew how many of them would never be able to step on the school ground again. And there were also a few new clubs as well, psychology being one of them. It was dubbed "an experimental project to explore the mentality of teenagers and help out students in distress ". 'Basically some students would be guinea pigs for others' - Tenten had commented when Sakura shoved the idea of the club down her throat.

"I think it's somewhat immoral, this program." Tenten said vaguely. "I doubt anyone would sign up to be subjects to be fucked up in the head. I mean, there will be a tail following you around right? Wouldn't that be annoying, not to mention disturbing. Your every action is going to be recorded. And analyzed. It's scary to even think about." She shivered visibly.

"It's not immoral. It's just science." Sakura said defensively. "And if the subject of research feels violated in any way they can demand for another student to be their partner or just simply withdraw. But Kakashi is gonna be the one in charge so I don't really think he'll get us to do anything. I'm actually part hoping that I won't have to do anything in that club." Sakura grinned.

"Yeah I sure hope so."

...

But as if the Almighty had been indulging himself in sick dark humor against the two poor lassies, Morino had replaced Kakashi as the adviser of the club. "Holy hell." Simultaneously the two girls whimpered, entering the classroom nervously, followed by the two still-ignorant blonds.

"Bam." The sound of the ruler meeting the desktop caught everyone in the room off-guard, causing them all to flinch and silence. Naruto and Ino was now fully aware of the circumstance and their faces both noticeably paled. There were two rows of chairs and the foursome unspokenly decided to go sit at the farthest chairs from their intimidating professor. Trying to keep their profiles low, they went to their seats as quietly as humanly possible.

Ino glared at Sakura. "This better be worth it." Admirers were fawning over Haku and Sai, even after Morino had thoroughly made an announcement of his arrival, one might add, and no doubt Morino was not at all pleased with his being taken lightly. He found it in him to dismiss them all and put them into discipline with only one shift of eyes. But even that wasn't enough to compensate for the dread that was the impending four periods under Morino's supervision. Don't get them wrong, Morino was a great teacher, a brilliant one even but after attending every Mathematics lesson from the man, it was bound to get tiresome. "I can't believe I gave up four periods of freedom for..." Before Ino could finish her hushed sentence, the door to the classroom was lightly opening up.

Entered their school very own Prince Charming and his loyal friend, Juugo. "Sorry I'm late." His husky voice cited and the lovestrucks presented were very much defeated. Without a cue, they fainted in unison, creating a domino effect. Morino was not amused.

"Mister Uchiha, please come in and have a seat. We were only getting ready. And mister Juugo, care to attend a trial lesson with the club."

"No thank you Sir. I was only dropping him off." Juugo answered respectfully. "Bye then." He bid his friend goodbye and walked off. Sasuke then calmly proceeded to join Haku and Sai, the only people he was familiar with.

"Worthy enough for you my dear?" Sakura tauntingly whispered to Ino. But Ino took no notice of her challenging tone and continued to stare shamelessly at the raven haired senior, her jaw slacking, her mouth wide.

"Oh-my-god. What the "eff" is he doing here? You never told me he would be here." She inquired to her three friends without even sparing them one glance, still very much shocked from the turn of event.

Tenten and Naruto shrugged their answers. "Well I didn't know. If the gossip mill here actually offers accurate information then he may just be sad and wants to get his head out of the turmoil he's been going through being separate from Karin." Sakura voiced out her thoughts breathily. "Hey. Any idea who broke up with with whom?" Her question addressed at Naruto.

"I don't know. But I bet it's something related to her plan to study in England. I once heard my cousin said that they agreed to study in America together or something then about a week before, the announcement of going to England instead hit. Then this happened. Must've been the crux of conflict then." Naruto mumbled, eyes repeatedly darted at Sasuke, checking on him to see if he could hear them.

"That must've been a blow." Tenten remarked. "Having everything planned out only to be brushed aside like that." Said Tenten pitifully. Glancing at the topic of their chat, they saw that he still seemed collected as ever, making small talk with the charismatic Haku and awkwardly charming Sai. His lips from time to time turned slightly upward at something funny they other two said.

Ino was still gaping at him, eyes wide, earning her a smack from her pink-headed friend. "Discretion, woman. Do you have it?" She whispered vigorously, pushing her friend's head back to the direction of their group and snapping her mouth shut. "Stop attracting unwanted attention." She flicked her head at the staring professor and gestured for the others to sit up straight.

Morino's stern voice boomed. "Today is the first day of activity for this so called "club". Hatake was absent and so I was sent in his place as the temporary director." The professor said cynically, his eyes still sending daggers, threatening those who dared rebel. There had been a rumor from three years back that he, before coming to teach Math at Konoha, had actually been the head of the Interrogation Department of some secret organization, and his facade as a professor here was part of his international confidential mission of some sort. God bless the gossip circulation in this school.

"This is a newly created project of the school and it is extremely flawed so I have absolutely no idea why it was launched since it will most likely attract stalkers of many kinds other than the people who actually wants to practice 'science'." Again with the underlying cynicism and sarcasm. "So there are twelve of you, six who agreed to be the subject and the other six who will do whatever they have to do with you. Now the latter please come up here and take out a piece of paper, will ya." He took out six pieces of paper from his jacket pocket and put them on the desk. He then gestured the reluctant students to stand up and grab themselves a partner. "Isn't this going to be so full of excitement that's going to knock your pants of." He commented boredly, as if he was ready to start dozing off any moment now.

From Sakura's observance, this attitude had been the result of spending too much time with the adolescent-minded teenagers whilst not possesing much tolerance for any type of baloney. Sakura felt sorry for the man, truly. How she would have felt being a no-nonsense person with an upright professional attitude in the environment filled with frivolous teenagers, she could never imagine. And it would have been all the more horrid for Morino had he actually been an agent in disguise. Three years surrounded by pampered kids from priveledged households was really not worth it, even for the sake of a mission.

She, in the midst of her unsaid pity towards their teacher, stood up and slowly walked forward to fetch a piece of paper along with five other hesitant pupils. She wondered who she would have the pleasure of researching. Bordering the desk, she closed her eyes and wished for someone pleasurable and in all hopefulness, picked up a small note that after opening her eyes she read, Uchiha Sasuke.

…

"Let me introduced my self. I'm Haruno Sakura." Sakura smiled mildly in her attempt to be professionally friendly as she approached the senoir under the discreet stares of her three friends. Tenten got paired up with Sai and was keeping close tabs on her and the senior whilst also engaging in her own introductory session. The other two got told to do whatever they wanted to by Morino since they were without a club to attend just as long as they kept quiet so they just engage in a suspicious rambling conversation with their eyes keep shifting back and forth.

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke and I am to be your partner in this project." He softly bowed and said absentmindedly in his cold tone of voice, looking directly in her eyes, face expressionless and stance upright.

It had been Sakura's first time seeing the subject of the school's gossip up close as she certainly did not had any business with the senior. He was only her best friend's cousin's boyfriend and they were two years apart so they weren't so likely to have met one another. He was as stunning as they made him out to be though. His eyes were of a glistening onyx, and despite the flimsy bag under each of his eyes, she was sure she had never seen any eyes so graceful and dignifying and most certainly never would again in her lifetime. Sakura, however, rational as ever, kept herself quite composed under the effect of the brilliantly shapely pair as she started her session with him.

"Uchiha-senpai…"

"Sasuke-san is fine." He cut in.

"Okay um Sasuke-san, and please call me Sakura." She went along. "How about we go to our designated room to get the session started. She smiled and slowly led their way out of the class to enter the room next door.

After they'd both settled in their seats, she leisurely began. "So to start off, why don't we talk about why you volunteer to be apart of this newly-launched project of the school."

"It is rather personal, my reason for this." He looked down, his thumbs fiddling, voice stern. She deduced that the man was hesitant to open up and she could wholly comprehend the reason why. Admitting a wounded heart is not something easily done, especially when they had been smiling and laughing and looking the part of the happiest pair of lovers ever to grace the face of the Earth only a few weeks before. Also when you carried around the proud Uchiha heritage that should never showed any signs of weakness or vulnerability, ever. She looked at him with attentive green eyes and said in a serene tone of voice.

"This program offers consultation and also comfort. It is very much like having a psychologist without having to pay loads of cash just for a one-hour session." She tried to stir a joke and smiled awkwardly. "So I suggest you pour your heart out as clogging up emotions and feelings don't usually work out. That's why psychologists exist… That's why this session exists, so that you could let lose of what you're holding back." She indicated the empty class. "And I assure you, nothing will ever leave this room." Dark eyes met her own turquoise ones.

"Can you really do that?" Sasuke raised a brow, voice dubious.

"Dissecting your mentality has to have a price after-all."

And there was silence.

The classroom had been discerningly somber. Aside from the small occasional thuds of snow hitting on the the glass window, no noise, not even in the most minute of volume, were to be heard. Looking out to the source of the only sound that was very much the sole thing keeping her quite sane, all she could see was white. And as much as it sometimes helped ease her mind and put her in a state of grace, Sakura couldn't help but fidget. A whirl of nausea stirred in her stomach.

She scanned her eyes throughout the room and took in all the details she could attain, hoping it would distract her from the questionable disturbance. It sure was neat, the class, considering it was class 1-9 they were sitting in, a class famous for their liveliness and energy. Observing the lovely decorations visible in every corner, she felt livened up. The vibrant colors were refreshing, soothing her agitated mind.

"So…" Sasuke chimed after one whole period of silence, Sakura's attention was caught.

"Yes…" She chimed in with the Uchiha, trying her best to contain her eagerness.

"So you must know of Karin and I." He initiated lightly, his eyes glancing up at hers, searching for afirmation in them. She nodded in return as he continued. "Then you must've noticed her absence starting last week, yes?"

She looked at him and then began to recollect her memories of Karin's presence the past week. There were none. Then it hit her how they should've seen it coming, the seperation of the couple that was, as Karin was nowhere to be found and Sasuke had been randomly timid for a week now. When the last time Karin was out of town, he had been quite the wild child with his friends, doing bachelor activities that he could not have done with his sweetheart around. For a school abundant with smart kids who had exceptionally sweet teeth for rumors and gossips, they sure were ignorant.

"She hasn't come to school for days." She answered meekly. "You know why."

"She didn't come to school on Monday and before that, I couldn't get through to her. I was worried and so I went to her house and saw her grandma. She was surprised to see that I didn't know… about the fact that Karin was in England and intended to go to college there." There was a long pause before he continued. "You wouldn't know that she and I… Karin and I," He suppressed a hiccup. "we uh had plans to go to the US, together. I was confused, I tried contacting her and when I finally managed to reach her, she told me that she was just visiting an old aunt in the country so she took a week off from school." He broke out in a broken hysterical laughter. "Like what kind of fucking excuse is that?" He muffled the laugh but it just went on and on while slowly turning into a fusion of grunts and chuckles. His hands were tugging at the dishelved mass of raven, his elbow leaning on his thigh for support as his head lowered and his body began to midly stirred. "Sick aunt." She heard him mutter the word again and again in a tone so bitter, she found her mouth tainted with the scent of mild venom. And then she wondered what the taste on the tip of his own tongue was like and how he could have borne such foul.

Sakura blinked and stared blankly at the sobbing senior. Goddamn, was the school's official sex mascot emotionally unstable. After thinking to herself in both frustration and compassion, she tried approaching Sasuke. Her body slightly bended, she reached a hand out to him. Fingers nearly touching his shoulderblade, she sighed. "Sasuke-san." She raised her voice up by just a small notch. "It's okay. Can you continue or…?" She trailed off. Her voice was shaken, her eyes concerned as she looked at the man. She felt as if this upper classman of hers could be jumping out the window at anytime now. She inched the chair and herself closer to him, placed a hand on his back and gently stroked it. His breathing was heavy and ragged, even more so than that of a normal person in this type of situation. She wondered if he was really allright, not emotionally but phisically. "It's okay now. Just calm down." She purred. "Just tell me everything."

"After that," He continued in thick voice, she could feel his body's restrained trembles. "I just casually asked her where in America, she would like to live, as a reference, I dubbed. She just utterred some gibberish about mobile connection or something and hung up. I haven't been able to contact her ever since." The pace was calm, but the tone of his voice was definitely not. "The day after that, I came back to her house. Her grandfather opened the house and asked me to leave. I simply complied."

"I'm so sorry." One hand lightly placed on his back, her other reached in the pocket to take out a pack of tissue. "Tissue?" Her offer merely a murmur. He mustered a hasty 'Thanks' and took it, not bothering to look up.

After the last stroke, she slowly stood up. "Do you want me to go get some ice?" Knees bended, head cocked, she asked considerately. "For those eyes of yours?" His weak "Hn" in return was her cue to leave. As she left the room, she wondered what the expression he had after confiding in a complete stranger was. After a quick trip to the ice machine on the hallway, she returned with a cup of ice. Opening her bag, she pulled out a red handkerchief embroidered with a small white circle at the corner and then began to stuff it with ice.

"What's that?" Sasuke silently asked out of the blue.

"What's what?" She looked up from her hankie. "The… hankie?" She raised a brow at a now looking-up Sasuke. The before insignificant bags under his eyes had become no doubt attention-drawing and in his eyes, there were red vains popping up, surrounding his dark pupil. So this was the affect a break-up had on a man, she mused.

"The circle. On the hankie. What is it?"

"Well aren't you a curious one?" She quipped, eyes twinkling. Maybe if I try hard enough, he will at least be less depressed, she thought. "My mother. She sewed that on. 'It is the symbol of our family', my mother said to me when I was four." She smiled as she completed knotting up the handkerchief and handed it to the older male.

He took it from the freshman and perused it. He raised a brow at it and she deemed it strange. "It must mean a lot to you then." He remarked out of the blue, again.

"Oh no." She giggled daintily while one of his eyes lightly widened in confusion, the other was already being kept under the icy pack to keep up with its comrade. "And what do you mean by that anyway?" A restrained question.

"It's in a very good condition. I just thought it must've been well-kept."

She looked at the ice pack, the small corner of her lips rising. "It's not that. We have tons of it at home. My mom just likes buying hankies and sewing them. It's her favorite part-time I think." She words somehow hung in the air as the misty puffs rolled out of her curled lips, lingering. And her lips kept subconsciously stretching out while she fought to keep it a collectively bland, resulting in the tiniest of a full-bloom smile.

They sat in silence after that, both looking out into the sheer whiteness of the outside world. And suddenly, the silence didn't churn Sakura's stomach all that much any more.

They sat there until the sounding noise of the lunchtime bell rang in both their eardrums. Sakura's turned her head to meet Sasuke's firm gaze. "Let's meet again tomorrow, yes? I feel that's enough for today." She offered a fluttering smile.

"Hn." He stood up. "Thank you." He said with his back turned and departed.

"You're welcome." Sakura said in a sing-song voice when he was out of sight.

…

"Soooo," Ino drawled in gushing affection. "How was the four hours spent with the elusive U-chi-ha Sa-su-ke?" Her tone deliberately lowered, eyebrows raising suggestively.

"Yeah how was it?" Naruto was also in ardent.

Tenten was the only one not pushing Sakura on the subject, and it was only because she was exhausted with her own periods as a researcher. With her arms sprawled across the table, she let out a tired moan. Sakura looked at the poor thing and patted her on the back.

"What about it?" She asked in return.

"Did he say anything about Karin and their relationship?" Ino shot up from her seat, her body visibly shaking. Her aggression was characteristic but it had never been shown in such extremity. "Did he? Tell me!" At this point, Ino was veritably shouting at her friend's face despite her hushed voice. Naruto was cheering on the side while Tenten only looked up once and got back to being exhausted once again.

The pink-haired blinked at the unnerving blond, face straight. And then she proceeded to blink some more. "Sit down, Pig." She softly commanded her friend, who still seemed like she was in a staring contest with a cat and did not comply. She got out of her chair and walked across the table to the blond, swinging her arms around her. "Ino, did you," She spared the eye-twitching male a glance. "-and Naruto have too much sugar again?" And without missing a beat, Ino burst out crying, bear-hugging the pink-headed female. "Choji recommended me this really good snack and because Naruto and I had nothing better to do, we bought it in the cafeteria and started chugging down on them. It was horrible, horrible I tell you." She dug her head deep into the pinkhead's shoulder's crook. "I've seen things Forehead. Things." And she, along with Naruto, started to weep.

"Okay… Why don't you sit here with Naruto," She said as she shrugged out of their embrace and tugged Ino back into her seat. "and Tenten and I will get you some water. Normal water. And some food to eat too, how does that sound." She tapped Tenten's shoulder and pulled the bun-head with her to the food-bar. Ino gulped and nodded. While the two was on their way, Ino simply stared blankly at the them and sniffed.

"Okay there ya go." Sakura returned and put down two cups of fresh water in front of the blonds and they immediately snagged them and chugged the water down. It must've soothed them as they let out a simultaneous contented sigh of relief and smiled goofily together like a pair of fools that they were.

Tenten followed suit behind her and she was carrying four trays of food for the group. She laid the table and sat down by Sakura. "What's up with the dude?" So she too had joined the club.

"I'm not allowed to share his secrets, especially when he has chosen to believe in me instead of doing the otherwise." Sakura answered matter-of-factly. "And how was your session Tenten?" She changed the subject. "You were paired up with Sai, am I right?"

Tenten's eyes shot open at the mention of his name and she shook her head, her face taut while her body shivered in furious and disapproving manner. "That guy was annoying on so many level." She exclaimed indignantly. "He had the gall to ask me if my family was "okay" with my "sexuality" and if my head-buns were to represent my non-existent testicles in order to attract girls. Fucking testicles." She emphasized. "Okay first of all," She took a deep breath, placed her two hands on the tabletop in a calm manner and exploded. "-how the hell did he come to such a conclusion that I'm a lesbian? I am a bit boyish but that doesn't warrant for his misconception of me. And secondly, does my hair look like bloody testicles to you? Does it? And if you were a lesbian, would you be attracted to a damned peen? With balls? I think not." Tenten strongly proclaimed.

"Well isn't he one distasteful bastard?" The pinkhead patted her overwhelmed, raggedly-breathing friend on the back, irritated at the seemingly ghastly Sai, but also amused at the same time.

"How about we go home?" She suggested to the whole table after considering her thought for a lite moment. "It's not like we are needed at school this afternoon. The club activities are quite done. We aren't obliged to any committees or are we assistants to any teachers. If we had to stay, they would've told us in advance anyway."

The opinion was commonly shared and after their coveted lunch and their even more desired nap, the quartet set off to depart and gathered in Naruto's house and spent their time there until it was time for them to go back to their homes.