A/N: Okay, so...I really do have zero self control. This will be a multichapter story (and probably a very long one at that), but I will still be updating Homecoming, though it might be on a much less regular basis(this fic will consume my life in the meanwhile). I hope you enjoy the first chapter and please leave a review! Thank you and happy holidays! :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Naruto was in a predicament. Well, not really a predicament per se, but he was confused. Really confused. Because how in the world—which he knew quite a lot about due to his best friend's nerdiness (God, she was such a bookworm) —could somebody have three hair colors at the same time. Now, not three hair colors as in three separate colors, but three colors as in the color seemed to change from black to blue to purple depending on how you looked at it. It was the reason why Naruto was currently thinking of ways to see the mystery girl's interesting hair without being caught. She was seated a couple rows in front of him and to the right, so he had to crane his neck in order to even catch a glimpse of her and even then, he could only see her hair. Not that he was complaining, of course. Her hair was gorgeous.
Suddenly, Naruto felt the stab of a pencil in his back. He turned around to find his best friend grinning at him evilly.
"Ow! What was that for?" he complained. Sakura simply smiled at him.
"Hyuga Hinata," she said, all traces of her previous evilness gone. Naruto blinked at her.
"Eh?" Sakura rolled her eyes, pushing up her red framed glasses. Her long hair was kept out of her face by a matching red headband (a gift from Ino, her other best friend—though he was clearly better) and Naruto couldn't help but wonder how she managed to get the time to color coordinate her outfit like that. It even matched with her school uniform! His thoughts about Sakura's choice of clothing were interrupted, however, by her voice.
"Hyuga Hinata. That's the name of the girl you're staring at." Naruto blanched.
"I WASN'T STARING AT HER!" he screamed loud enough for his other classmates, who had just started filing in, to look at him with surprise. It was not the first impression he had wanted to make at his new school, especially one as prestigious as Konoha Academy. It was a complete surprise to him that he had actually gotten in, though he supposed that having a guardian who had just started teaching there had probably helped his case. Sakura, on the other hand, had gotten in solely by her smarts; she had won a scholarship that offered a free ride to attend and board at the school. It was more proof of her nerdiness. Said girl glared at him and clamped a hand over his mouth.
"Naruto, be quiet," she hissed. "And you totally were. Don't deny it." Naruto rubbed his head sheepishly, knowing full well that Sakura would see through any excuse he came up with. Sakura rolled her eyes again, though this time she was smiling. "It's only the first day and you're already head over heels in love."
"Am not!" he whisper-screamed. Sakura just smirked at him and he glared at her, sticking out his tongue like he did when they were kids. The pink haired girl whacked him on the head with her rolled up notebook.
"Pay attention. The teacher's here. You don't want to get detention on the first day, do you?" Naruto rubbed his head and turned back towards the front of the room, cursing inwardly because his view of the mystery girl—well, she wasn't a mystery anymore—was blocked by the kid next to him. His eyes zeroed in on said kid, who didn't even spare him a glance. He had spiky black hair and dark eyes and Naruto really wanted to yell at him to move the heck out of the way so he could stare at the mystery girl. He felt Sakura's pencil poke him again so he begrudgingly looked at the teacher's desk, where their teacher was finally, after fifteen long minutes of painful waiting, standing.
From the mask that covered half of his face, Naruto immediately knew who he was. Iruka had given him a quick briefing that covered all of his teachers, and Kakashi was by far the most interesting. Apparently, despite his chronic lateness, he was a tough teacher with even tougher tests, which meant that Naruto was screwed. Well, he could always just partner up with Sakura and get the answers from her. Unless of course, Kakashi was the type to choose partners for them. He really hoped that wasn't the case (though it would give him the chance to be partnered up with the mystery girl).
"Welcome back," Kakashi began, surveying all the students. "I'm your teacher, Hatake Kakashi. Just call me Kakashi-sensei." He clapped his hands together. "Well, before we get started, I'll be assigning your seats. Keep in mind that the person you sit by will be your partner for the entire semester." Naruto—and the rest of the class—groaned. Grabbing his books and grumbling the entire time, he made his way over to where Sakura was standing and slipped himself in between her and the kid who used to sit next to him, drawing a rather angry glare from the latter.
"Geez, what's up with him?" he muttered. Sakura looked up at him, confused, and then turned her head in the direction he was looking. When her eyes met onyx ones, she froze and abruptly turned back towards Naruto. Kakashi had started to list off names, but Naruto tuned him out, instead deciding to pay attention to the mystery girl (the name couldn't quite get out of his head). Her eyes were a pale lavender and she was quite petite. She looked like a doll, and Naruto couldn't help the awed gasp that came out of his mouth. Another guy—one with shaggy brown hair and strange red marks on his face—was talking to her, and Naruto briefly wondered if they were dating.
"They're not together," Sakura said. Naruto whipped his head back towards her. How did she know so much about the mystery girl? When he asked just as much, Sakura's eyes widened and she stammered. Before she could say anything, Naruto heard her name get called.
"Haruno Sakura." Kakashi pointed to a seat at the very back and Naruto snickered. He knew she would absolutely hate sitting back there. He, on the other hand, thrived on being in the back. Scowling at him, the pink haired girl walked to her seat and sat down. Kakashi looked at his list to check who would sit next to her and Naruto shut his eyes tight, silently praying for his name to be the next one called. There was no way he would pass this class if Sakura wasn't his partner.
"Uchiha Sasuke." Naruto deflated and watched in seething anger as the grumpy, spiky haired kid from before took his seat next to Sakura. It wasn't fair. Glaring at Kakashi, who had already moved on to the next seat—which was at the front—he crossed his arms.
"Hyuga Hinata." Wait. Naruto's arms quickly dropped to his sides as a realization occurred to him. He could be the mystery girl's partner. Then, he could stare at her for as long as he liked, or actually talk to her, though that would require an intense training session with Sakura (he would try to remember to ask her for that later). He crossed his fingers as Kakashi's eyes hovered over the page.
"Uzumaki Naruto."
"Yes!" the blond shouted, pumping his fists in the air. He heard somebody slap their forehead—most likely Sakura—at his antics, but he found that he really didn't care. He got to sit next to the mystery girl—though he should probably stop calling her that—and that was all that mattered. Grinning, he walked over to his seat and dropped his books onto the desk. This school year was going to be the best one ever.
This was going to be the worst school year ever. Sakura slumped in her seat—which was in the back, for God's sake—as Sasuke walked over to her. Though he looked indifferent to their seating arrangement, she could tell that he was just as bothered by it as she was. It would've been so much easier if they were sitting on opposite ends of the room, but because of their stupid teacher—she had never been so angry at a teacher in her life—they were stuck sitting right next to each other. Naruto had been lucky, scoring a seat with his crush. She glanced over at them. Naruto was currently staring at Hinata, but the dark haired girl didn't seem to notice, keeping her gaze trained on Kakashi as he talked. She didn't know Hinata personally, but from what Sasuke had told her, she was a shy, quiet girl who could barely say two words in front of someone. Naruto, on the other hand, couldn't go two seconds without talking. They really would make a good couple.
Shaking her head at Naruto's sudden luck, Sakura turned her attention back to her own seat partner. She wasn't sure she could handle sitting next to him. Sasuke's eyes met hers for a moment as he sat in his seat and her heartbeat sped up significantly. God, she hadn't seen him in so long. She stared at him as he opened up his notebook, taking in the way he so meticulously arranged his pencils. He was such a neat freak. This was the first time she'd be able to see him at school and, despite the fact that it made it extremely difficult to act normal, a part of her was actually excited about it. Sasuke seemed to be of the same opinion because his hand slipped into hers under the table, squeezing tightly so as to reassure her. They would figure something out. They had to.
The rest of the class passed by quickly, and Sakura's excitement had increased tenfold because she realized that she was really at Konoha Academy. The Konoha Academy. A fact that was made increasingly clear to her the longer she spent time in its halls because she had just passed by Senju Tsunade, the principal and the most reputed doctor in all of the country. Rumor had it that she had taken up the job of principal because the previous one had asked for her by name. Well, actually, he had chosen somebody else, but he refused and recommended Tsunade for the position. Nonetheless, it was an honor to even breathe the same air as the woman.
Sakura opened the door of her locker and took a deep breath. After biology with Kakashi was English with Jiraiya. Mentally repeating the room number, she slammed her locker shut as the bell rang. Crap. She was late.
"The school uniform looks good on you." Sasuke's breath tickled her ear and she whipped around to find him smirking at her. His hand was placed just a few inches away from her head, and he was close enough for her to smell the familiar scent of pine that seemed to follow him wherever he went. Her mouth went dry, but she shook herself back to her senses.
"Sasuke-kun!" she exclaimed. She then dropped her voice to a whisper. "What are you doing? Somebody could see—" She was interrupted rather rudely by Sasuke's mouth on hers, swallowing up her words and making her forget what she was doing. His other hand came to rest on her waist as he pushed her none too gently against the locker. When his tongue slid inside her mouth, she completely lost the ability to think coherently and instead wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. Sasuke was the first to break away, but not before biting sharply on her lip. Sakura stared up at him, out of breath and red in the face as the Uchiha ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.
"How the hell are we supposed to do this?" he muttered. Sakura, upon seeing the conflicted look in his eyes, tugged on his sleeve.
"What's wrong?", she asked, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. He was usually even more rigid about the clandestine nature of their relationship than she was, so he would never do something as brash as kissing her in the middle of the hallway. Sasuke didn't answer, but simply dipped his head down so that their foreheads were touching.
"I love you."
"I love you too," she said, standing up on her tiptoes to give him a small peck. "But what is it? You're acting weird."
"Come to my room at midnight. We can talk then," he whispered.
"Why not now?"
"It'll take too long," he said, pushing Sakura's glasses back up to her face and smirking when she lightly swatted his hand away. His eyes turned serious once more. "And I need some time to think about it."
"Okay. But what about your roommate?"
"I'll handle him."
"Who even is he?" Sakura asked. If Sasuke needed to convince his roommate to leave at midnight, then he sure as hell needed to know his personality.
"I don't know."
"What do mean you don't know?" she whisper-yelled, panic threatening to seize her. Whatever Sasuke wanted to talk to her about seemed important and she did not, under any circumstances, want to get caught in the middle of discussing it. Or just caught period. Sasuke sighed.
"I'll figure something out. Don't worry," he said, pressing his lips to hers once more. When he pulled back, Sakura frowned.
"We're late, you know, so you can't keep doing this."
"I know," he whispered, pulling her in for another kiss. "Just this once."
In the end, she completely forgot the room number of her next class.
