Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Punished

Sakura was a good person.

Okay, maybe not that good. She was a little hostile and rough around the edges, but she didn't mean harm to the human race. She's actually taking this damned pre-med course that was becoming the death of her to become someone who can save lives – preserve it. To inflict harm upon anybody was not part of who she was.

Okay, so maybe that's not entirely true either. She had inflicted harm to some people – both intentionally and unintentionally – but that's only if they got on her bad side. It wasn't a habit of hers to wake up in the morning with a whole day agenda of just ruining people's lives.

So, yes – she concluded, she was a good person. Hence, there was nothing she could have done to deserve being woken up at an ungodly hour – twice in a row – by this fire truck siren incarnate of a best friend! It was probably three or four in the morning judging by the dark and quiet world outside her bedroom window. Suddenly, sleeping out there didn't seem so bad.

"Forehead!" Ino was at it again – jumping up and down Sakura's bed so forcefully that the bedsprings almost sounded like they were cussing at the blonde. Sakura could relate.

Maybe it will go away if I ignore it, Sakura thought, burying her face deeper into her covers.

"Billboard-brow, wake up!" Ino screeched. "I've got important information here!" She said as if Sakura would wake up for that. Heck, the kitchen could be going down in flames and she wouldn't care about it until she got that Bio test done – which was gruelling and scheduled later, by the way. She needed this rest!

"Who fucking cares, you inconsiderate wack-o," Sakura muttered begrudgingly.

"But this is important!" Ino insisted.

"Is it about my Bio test?"

"What? No!"

"Then it's not important."

"Ugh, give school a rest, you nerd. It's about Sasuke!"

"I would if you'd give me a rest! And what about that asshole? Leave me alone."

Ignoring the rosette's obvious exasperation, Ino pulled on Sakura's duvet until her pink head popped into vision. Feeling the lost of warmth, Sakura turned to Ino with her green eyes reflecting the murderous intent stirring inside of her.

"This better be good or I swear to Kami I'll raid your closet and mismatch all your stupid color-organized clothes."

It was a dumb threat, but it was realistic. The petrified look Ino gave her was testament to that.

"Don't you dare. I'm doing you a favor here, and that's what you do in return?"

"Favor?" Sakura scoffed. "You call waking me up at 3 am on a school day a favor?"

Ino rolled her eyes. "You'll see when I tell you."

"And this couldn't wait in the morning, why?"

"You don't have time in the morning. If you're not sleeping, you're working your ass off in school. You gave me no choice."

Sakura felt a tinge of guilt. It was true. She barely had time for her friends. Yeah, she was always with them, but she didn't have the time to be with them. They saw each other every day, but that was it most of the time– just 'seeing' each other. College was brutally busy, and not just for her but for all of them.

This was Ino's (outrageous, infuriating, insane) way of reaching out to her.

Sakura sighed. "Get on with it."

Ino squealed before jumping off of Sakura's bed to fetch the laptop she set on a nearby desk. Sakura scooted a little to give Ino some space as she sat next to her, the device's light blaring mercilessly from the monitor.

"Geez, could you adjust the brightness of that thing?"

"Oops, sorry. Anyway," Ino began as her fingers hovered gracefully over the keyboard. "I did some research about Sasuke Uchiha. To be honest, I just couldn't sleep, so might as well right?"

Sakura wanted to disagree, but she kept her mouth shut. Despite Ino's impossible physical perfection, she was your average teenage girl when it comes to the juiciest gossips and things that were 'in.' Sakura decided to just indulge her because, like what she told Sasuke, Ino was persistent. She should have known from the start that her attempts to ward her off were futile.

"Okay, so the first few things I found were basic information," she continued, and when Sakura's eyesight was done getting burnt by the radiation, she looked to where her best friend was pointing on the screen. It was the Konoha University's website. She clicked the 'Sports' section, and under that, clicked Konoha Twelve. There were various links on the webpage like Players, Achievements, History, and such. Ino clicked 'Players' and flashed before them was a list that consisted familiar names – on the very top was none other than Uchiha Sasuke's. When they opened his profile, Sakura saw that the school admin had graciously allowed Sasuke's photo to be posted up as well. She'd bet her life that she'd seen this photo of him somewhere. Oh – that's right. It's because majority of KU's female population had it on their phones–including Ino.

Home Sports Season Konoha Twelve Players Uchiha_Sasuke

Name: Sasuke Uchiha (Captain)

Jersey Number: 7

Position: Shooting Guard

Height: 6'4" (1.93 m)

Weight: 185 lbs

Birth date: July 23 (Age: 19)

Following his birth date was a ridiculously long list of achievements. It was then that Sakura had stopped wondering how a sophomore could have ended up as team captain. She'd be caught dead before she'd say it out loud, but seeing Sasuke's profile made him even more attractive to Sakura. Hey, she was still human after all; she had her senses that allowed her to appreciate art when she sees one.

The page ended and Sakura found out that it really was just basic information – since professionally, the school can't include personal stuff in there without risking the students' privacy. But the thing is, she already had a copy of this, minus the achievements.

"I'll have you know that this is basically what's written on his profile that was given to me. Hello, Coach Haruno, remember?"

"Chill, fathead. I'm not done yet. Plus, you may want to download his picture, too!"

Sakura wanted to gag – at least she wished she wanted to gag, not that she was tempted or anything. Not at all. "I don't."

"Pft, whatever. Moving on – I talked to a few girls last night, and they were very generous about allowing me to interview them and giving me links to Sasuke's exes."

Sakura snorted. "Does he even have one?"

"Fine," Ino rolled her eyes. "Alleged exes. Happy? God– you are such a child, Forehead."

"How am I a child, Hogulous? He obviously despises the double x chromosome."

"Sh'yeah well maybe it wasn't always like that. Maybe there's been a triggering cause or something."

"Why are you so interested in him anyway?"

"I'm not. But you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Not yet."

"Right – of course."

"You are so in denial."

"And you are so going to be hit by this lamp if you don't stop that."

"Alright," Ino said, ignoring her threat. She minimized KU's website and opened MS Word. If it wasn't evident enough with her color-organized closet, Ino was freakishly organized. Her vanity table consisted of products arranged by type, function and color. Even her toiletries were probably arranged alphabetically. How she found time to do all that, Sakura couldn't tell. Ino was like that in everything. That's why Sakura wasn't at all surprised to see that all the details she gathered were bulleted and in accordance with how important they are, at least according to Ino. She even bothered to sort out which statement was whose.

"First was this Rika person. She's not exactly his ex, but she's been around him long enough to know the happenings. She said that Sasuke hasn't always been that way. And by that way, I mean his elusiveness with girls. She even said that Sasuke had his playboy stage. Like two girls an hour or something.

"However, at one point, he entered a serious relationship. Rika didn't have the girl's infos – not even her name, but it she said it was because Sasuke kept it a secret, for security reasons and whatnot. It's sweet of him, don't you think?" Ino had a dreamy look on her face, and her hands were clutched together against her chest. Sakura leaned the weight of her head on her hand while she sneered at her best friend. She was both bored and completely appalled.

"Anyway," Ino said when she snapped out of it. "She was the first girl that Sasuke ever took seriously, right? Right. So you'd think it was happily ever after – but noooo. Because then, the bitch decided to cheat on him! Unbelievable, right? I mean, seriously. When Kami-sama decided to shower the world with perfection, he obviously played favorites on Sasuke. I'll bet that's what he bathes in, too. And that, that tramp decided that he was not enough for her. I can't believe it! But more importantly, I cannot believe you are sleeping on me when I am in distress – Forehead!"

Sakura didn't even realize that she was falling asleep until Ino's shriek had her limbs jerking and her eyes darting all over the place. "What – hm? Yeah, you're right. Wait – what?"

"Did you even hear a word I just said?" Ino's hands were on her hips as if reprimanding a child. She took hold on one of Sakura's pillows and whacked her with it.

"I'm up, I'm up! God, Ino," Sakura brought her hands to her face and swept strands of disheveled pink hair away from it. She sighed. "You lost me at 'seriously.' And I doubt I care about what you just said. But honestly, Ino-pig – are you even sure this isn't some fan fiction those girls made up?"

"Well – to be honest, I'm not. But it's still a source, isn't it?"

"Not a very reliable one, though." Sakura couldn't help the yawn that escaped her mouth.

"It's reasonable. Plus, Rika's on the school paper, so she's had a couple of chances to feature Sasuke since he started playing for KU last year."

"Still, Sasuke doesn't look like someone who'd discuss his love life for a school paper. And why are you even stressing over this? Besides, if you wanted something reliable, you could've asked one of my boys."

"I'll get to that," Ino winked before snapping her laptop shut. There was sudden darkness as both their eyes adjusted to their environment that was only lit by Sakura's nightlight.

"Hm-hm. I bet Kiba would love to indulge you on that."

Despite the dimness of her bedroom, Sakura saw the pink tint that stained Ino's ears. The blonde fidgeted for a bit, thinking of a way to respond to her. When she did, a shit-eating grin made its way on her perfectly moisturized face.

"You want to bet with me? Fine. I bet that by the end of the season, you'll be head over heels for Sasuke Uchiha."

It was Sakura's turn to blush, but despite herself, she rolled her eyes. "You're delusional, woman."

"At least I know I won't be eating my words."

It was 7 am when Sakura woke up again. At least it was her alarm that did it this time. It was a few weeks before midterms, so she and the girls did their morning routine a little quicker than usual – shower, coffee (because breakfast is a luxury at that point in time), and reviewing last night's notes.

Hinata had the earliest class among them, which was at eight, so they all had to leave at 7:30 even if most of them had first period an hour later. The Hyuuga heir tried to convince them that they didn't have to leave as early as she did, pointing out that she had her own car and that she could take care of herself, but the girls insisted. They made their parents a promise that they would look after one another after all – and that they'd save energy and take one car to school at a time.

They rarely have the same class, and that was fine. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, that's what they say.

The rest of the day passed by unceremoniously; except for that Biology test that she had totally aced. Professor Orochimaru had his brows furrowed as soon as she handed in her paper. It spoke volumes for her because it meant that he was disappointed someone actually passed his dreadful exam. Normally, she'll know she failed if he smiles at her. It was a creepy smile anyway, so even if she didn't know what it meant, his smile would still upset her.

Lost in thought about creepy professors and sadistic tests, Sakura didn't notice the tall, dark figure that hindered her way until she collided with it. She felt the air getting knocked out of her as she landed rather ungracefully on the hard tiled floor.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry," she started to apologize as she was the one who wasn't mindful of her surroundings. "I wasn't looking, and – Uchiha?"

When she managed to pick her person off the ground, she was indeed, greeted by the towering six-foot-four stature of Sasuke.

"Klutz," He grunted, sliding his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He didn't even help her up! He was just staring at her, as if she was the biggest idiot in the world.

"Not everyone's perfect like you, pretty boy," she muttered bitterly, glaring up at him. So much for apologizing.

Sasuke smirked. "You think I'm perfect?"

Sakura fought her own system by stopping the rush of blood that wanted to conquer her cheeks. "Perfectly annoying."

"Shit," the Uchiha had his mouth halfway open with a retort when it turned into a curse. "Let's go."

Sasuke pulled on Sakura's wrist as he made a sharp turn. Not long after, she heard a group of girls talking excitedly amongst each other. She heard Sasuke's name pop quite a lot in their conversation, and it didn't take long for her to catch up on what's gotten into him

"What the hell, man," Sakura hissed, trying to tug her wrist from his iron grip. It didn't hurt, but it was a firm hold and she was getting uncomfortable.

"Keep walking," he muttered under his breath.

It didn't take long before one of the girls screeched the taboo word, "There!"

Sasuke didn't miss the way Sakura stiffened when she realized the impending doom that was coming for them. He tightened his grip on her wrist, and repeated himself. "Keep walking, Haruno."

"Why are you even dragging me into this?"

"Fine, you wanna deal with them instead? They saw you with me already."

"What – are they gonna torture me for getting near you or something?"

"Who knows," Sasuke shrugged before they burst out of the main building and went straight to the pavilion.

A/N: I'm currently surviving on pocket wifi T_T Something happened to our wifi and yeah, shit won't get done until later this week. I planned on adding more here, too. I just didn't feel like it. I'm sort of dealing with something right now, so yeah.

I am also realizing that this the Sasuke here has a bit of character resemblance with RTN's Charasuke. It's a parallel universe, right? With his parents alive and everything, so maybe this is how he is had they really been alive in the Narutoverse. And maybe Sakura's parallel self was a tsundere. Idk, man. She'll be more like herself as this story progresses.

In other, but related news, we have our own basketball team in my university, and it is kind of a big thing. Of course, not everyone's good looking, but they had their appeal. And during my freshman year, I actually saw a few girls (and guys maybe, I'm not quite sure) chasing after two of them. Like, an actual fangirl stampede. Man, and I thought that never happened in school and that this whole Sasuke being chased was just fiction that some SS writers loved to feast on.

Tell me what you think! I promise to update as soon as possible.

Ayel x