AN: I really appreciate the review someone left about not fully understanding where Sasuke stands with Sakura. This forced me to do some thinking, and hopefully future chapters will be stronger because of it.

This was a challenging question, because writing Sasuke scares the crap out of me. I've been imagining Sasuke as having his pre-Shippuden personality. Since this book is not in the Ninja world, idk how I could possibly justify how abusive and crazy he was if he were to live in modern day America as a high school student. This makes it more difficult to keep him in character because I'm not following Kishimoto's character development.

So far, I think Sasuke and Sakura's relationship is probably similar to how it was pre-Shipudden. He acknowledges that they have a history as teammates (here friends), and has a smidge of protectiveness and fondness. I imagine he still finds her somewhat annoying and isn't interested in her romantically.

Sasuke and Sakura's relationship will be the slowest developing relationship in this story, so I'm not surprised it's unclear. That being said, the feedback was extremely helpful because it made me realize I can't keep avoiding writing Sasuke. You won't see much of them this chapter, but hopefully you'll see their characters developing (both separate and together) soon.

Just a heads up- this chapter has a non-explicit sexual encounter. At least I don't think it's explicit...

Saturday, October 18th, 2017

Kakashi had assumed Sasuke was going to homecoming with a hideous troll by the way he grumbled about it. When Sakura and Naruto had talked to him after a scrimmage the other day and had shown him a picture of the girl, he had been shocked. He didn't want to be creepy, but— but NOTHING, he scolded himself. The girl did not look 15. He was actually quite disturbed by it. Kids these days seemed so much older than they really were.

Given she didn't have the appearance of a troll, Kakashi then had to assume the girl had the personality of a troll. When he had asked Sakura about this, she had laughed and said she could be a bit "much," but most guys would be thrilled to go with her.

In the end, Kakashi realized it was probably Sasuke's dislike of people and society in general, not any troll-like features of his date, that made him a poor sport about going to the dance. Kakashi had been like that sometimes as a teen. He could always seem to be enticed by a pretty girl, though…

He was told that the blonde girl had been tenacious, and in the end, her persistence had paid off, given Sasuke was going to the dance with her. They were all gathering to take pictures at six and heading to the dance afterward. Kakashi had the 'privilege' of chaperoning that night, which he was not exactly looking forward to. He would be sure to bring his prized literature along.

Sasuke had just started getting ready for the dance when Kakashi received an unexpected phone call. When Kakashi had worked for the police force, Sasuke's father had still been the chief of police. Danzo Shimura had only taken over after Fugaku Uchiha had died in the fire.

Danzo had always held a level of authority, though, and when he saw that name come up on his phone, his brow creased in concern. He had no clue why his old associate would be calling.

His brief phone conversation with the stern man had hardly enlightened him. He'd been told to come to the Konoha hospital immediately for an urgent concern.

Kakashi couldn't imagine what for. Aside from Sasuke, he had no remaining family to worry about. Fortunately, he knew Sasuke was home safe. Was it related to one of the cases he had worked on?

He let Sasuke know he had to run out but would be back to drive him to take pictures with everyone.

20 minutes later, Kakashi followed as Danzo silently led him down one of the stark white hospital hallways to a pair of stainless steel elevator doors. He followed the tall, formidable man into the elevator and watched in discomfort as he pushed the button for the lowest level. Kakashi had an unpleasant feeling he knew where they were headed now. The elevator dropped a little too fast, giving Kakashi a small semblance of the feeling one would get on a theme park ride. The doors opened to the windowless ground floor illuminated by fluorescent light panels. He saw a stock room full of unused medical equipment- IV stands and feeding tube equipment. They walked by that room, and Danzo greeted a man in blue scrubs standing by a set of double doors, apparently waiting for them to arrive.

The two men wordlessly followed the third man through the doors that opened automatically after he swiped a hospital badge to access the new space. Yep. They were headed to the morgue. Not Kakashi's favorite place, especially when he had no idea why he was there.

Danzo cleared his throat and turned toward Kakashi as they continued to follow the hospital employee down the hallway.

"You may have heard a body was found in the river Thursday." Kakashi nodded, inwardly becoming more and more nervous. What could this possibly have to do with him? His family was dead, his best friends were dead, he knew Sasuke was safe and sound, and even his family was already dead. Who could Danzo possibly be leading him to? He couldn't imagine he'd have any reason to be involved in a previous case after having turned in his badge.

"I did hear that." He answered, not letting his concern show.

"Fortunately, the body had been discarded recently. Likely the same day it was reported. Given the recent drop in water temperatures, the body still has some identifying features. We're waiting for DNA analysis to return, but we don't think we'll need it to confirm the identity."

"Danzo, can you enlighten me on whether this is a personal or a professional matter?" Kakashi asked, becoming irritated by the secrecy. Was he being asked to identify a corpse?

Danzo frowned at him, "you are no longer employed by the KPD, Kakashi," he said as if that were answer enough. Kakashi supposed it was- he didn't work for the county in any professional capacity anymore.

Kakashi was nauseous by the time the hospital employee swiped his badge again, and they entered an inner room of the morgue. He watched in horror as the man began to open one of the refrigerated drawers. As Kakashi first took in the body, he couldn't recognize who it had been. The water had already caused damage and some degree of composition. However, it only took Kakashi another ten seconds to observe enough to come to a conclusion. This was not good. His stomach dropped, and he closed his eyes, taking a shaky breath.

"Shit."

Naruto knew it wasn't an actual date, but he felt lucky to be taking Sakura to homecoming. One of the cheerleaders was hosting a "picture party" ahead of the dance so that parents could get pictures of their children, and the girls could force their dates into awkward poses they would one day regret. There were about ten cheerleaders and their dates at the house, and Naruto knew many of them. His closest friends there, though, were Ino and Sakura, and they were still waiting for Sasuke to arrive. Sasuke himself was timely, but he would be coming with Kakashi, who was known to be late.

Sakura looked beautiful, and he told her so as she was pinning a boutonniere onto the lapel of his suit coat. Sakura was used to the way Naruto never held back compliments, so she graciously smiled and told him he looked very handsome as well.

She didn't understand how gorgeous she looked. He wasn't giving her an obligatory "you look great." He really, really, really meant it. She was always the prettiest girl in the room to him, but she was breathtaking tonight. She wasn't particularly formal—her dress had a tight bodice, with a relaxed skirt that hit her mid-thigh. Her hair was down and wavy, and her makeup was light. She wore strappy heels, and he knew even though they'd make her a few inches taller, she would still complain about being short. He didn't know why that was a problem? Girls were strange.

Ino looked nice, too— aside from the grimace that had been stuck to her face for the last ten minutes while they waited for Sasuke. The group was about to start taking pictures without him when Jiraiya was interrupted by a brief call and walked away from the other parents who had been able to make it.

Ino's mother was there, but Ino was doing her best to ignore her as much as possible. Tensions were still high after Ino had visited her mother at her new place and met Kent. Sakura's mother was there too, already snapping pictures on her phone when they exchanged corsages and boutonnieres. Sakura had whined for her to stop, embarrassed, but Naruto hadn't minded. He wanted documentation that she had actually been his date this one time.

Jiraiya returned with a slight frown and walked up to Ino.

"Ino, that was Kakashi. He says there's been a family emergency, and Sasuke won't be able to make it. He won't be able to chaperone either," he said, turning to Tsunade for the last part.

Naruto and Sakura looked at each other with concern. A family emergency?? Between Kakashi and Sasuke, they literally had zero family. Jiraiya and Tsunada were exchanging their own set of concerned looks. Ino had immediately started whining and protested as her mother started fussing over her- adjusting her dress, and trying to assuage her disappointment.

"It feels weird going, knowing that something serious is going on with him," Sakura told Naruto quietly. He agreed. He would have liked to check on Sasuke and see what was wrong, but he knew he couldn't do that. Yet, at least.

"I know." Naruto nodded in agreement. "I don't think there's anything else we can do, though.

He watched her concerned face, and he wanted to take it away. He decided he would ensure that she would have fun and forget about her concern for at least a little while. Naruto Uzumaki would be the best date tonight. He would help them both forget.

Believe it!

Neji looked on at his little cousin with pity as he watched her do her best to dance next to Lee, who was doing the robot. She looked incredibly uncomfortable, not because of Lee but because she was a very tentative dancer. She was only moving her legs, and her arms were awkwardly held at her side. She looked around in an almost paranoid fashion as if she were making sure no one was paying attention to her. Meanwhile, her date was not at all self-conscious. His robot was rapidly turning into some dance that looked like he was pushing a shopping cart.

Neji himself was more like Hinata. He did everything he could to avoid the dance floor. The dance was held outside, in a large amphitheater- style space, and he kept pretending he needed to run inside for water or to go to the bathroom. People were probably beginning to assume he was having an exacerbation of IBS or something. When he was done with that, he'd peruse the snack table. He had yet to actually take anything from it, but he had walked by it slowly several times. He checked it much like he sometimes would repeatedly open the refrigerator at home, hoping each time something new would appear, only to be disappointed. He'd talked about homework with a few classmates, a recent football game, and any topic he could think of to prevent himself from being dragged to the dance floor. When those discussions fizzled, he'd make up some excuse about checking on Hinata, which was precisely how he found himself watching her and Lee. It appeared like he was pretending to catch her with a fishing pole and… was he reeling her in??? Hinata looked distraught, like she couldn't decide whether to humiliate herself or risk upsetting her date. It was moments like these that made Neji grateful he didn't have a date.

He had gone with a bunch of other football players who also hadn't asked anyone. Most of them had dispersed into the crowd at this point, though, probably dancing.

Neji found dancing to be a mortifying endeavor. In public, that is- In the privacy of his own bedroom, he could get down like Tom Cruise in Risky Business.

For Neji, different dance activities at events like these were different levels of demeaning. He could rate how embarrassing they were on a scale of one (the most tolerable) to ten (the most dreadful).

Slow dancing itself wasn't horrible. Maybe a 5/10. It was hard to mess up, and the music wasn't always bad. The uncomfortable part was usually more related to finding a person to dance with. He'd been to enough bar and bat mitzvahs to experience that more than he would have liked.

Dancing to party music was maybe an 8/10. It was uncomfortable, but you could sort of get lost in it (like he occasionally did in the privacy of his own bedroom) if he got really distracted.

Group dances were a 9/10. There were few things he feared more. It was up there with newborn infants, crying people, and people handing out religious pamphlets on the street.

The Cupid Shuffle had a category of its own. It was a 10/10. Nothing worse.

Actually, scratch that. Cotton Eyed Joe. 13/10.

Tenten noticed Neji standing off to the side of the crowd of dancing students leaning against the rough grey stones of one of the buildings. He looked bored and uncomfortable, with his hands stuffed in his pockets and his gaze shifting around the dimly lit outdoor space. He looked sharp in a suit, she thought to herself, not surprised in the slightest.

She had been busy socializing and dancing and couldn't imagine how someone could be having so little fun. It was a room of friends and fun music… what's not to like??? Okay, she understood that school dances weren't everyone's cup of tea. She just wished he wouldn't be so stiff all the time. When she heard Shake It Off blare from the speakers, she couldn't restrain herself from approaching the disinterested man.

"Neji, it's your favorite artist!" She yelled at him over music as she walked up to him with a teasing grin playing on her lips. He scowled, but she could see a hint of humor in his pale eyes.

"I told you that was Hanabi's music,"

"It doesn't matter; you know you want to dance to it," She smiled wickedly, pulling on his hands with both of hers and walking backward into the crowd. He tugged back and pulled her back closer to him.

"I absolutely do not," he told her, even though he was allowing a small smile to unfurl on his lips. Tenten wouldn't give in.

"I can see it in your eyes- how badly you want to dance." She made fun of his apparent phobia of the dance floor and gave his hands another pull. She felt triumphant when he allowed her to slowly drag him along. He dug his heels in a little bit, but she knew it was for show. He could have resisted more if he'd wanted to.

She laughed at him when they hit the middle of the dance floor, sandwiched between hoards of students, and he still refused to move more than a few inches at a time. He moved as little as possible, as if that would make him look less awkward. She tugged on his hands and tried to make him dance by moving his arms for him… or perhaps flailing his arms would be more accurate... He continued to give her a mixture of angry scowls and reluctant laughter, but she was making progress! She tried to go bolder by attempting to spin him around, but he was too tall, and her arm got stuck.

"You can't spin me around. I'm supposed to spin you around," He admonished.

"Okay, then do it," She spoke over the music. He lifted her arm, spinning her, and they devolved into a pseudo-swing dance to pop music that had her giggling incessantly. He was a shockingly decent dancer for someone who had to be dragged onto the floor. He just needed to loosen up a bit.

"Stop looking so smug," he said as the song ended.

"I should be allowed to be at least a little proud I got you onto the dance floor," she laughed, giddy from her success— And maybe because Neji was smiling at her like he was having fun. Begrudgingly.

The song that came on next was slow, and her heart began to beat faster out of a dizzying combination of excitement and awkwardness. They shared several tentative glances with each other, trying to decide if they should stay and dance or flee.

Neji hesitantly put an arm around her waist, so Tenten looped her arms around his neck.

"You miss Tayler Swift, don't you?" She teased, trying to diffuse the tension.

"Do you have something against Taylor Swift?" He asked, looking down at her with his characteristic stern gaze. The ampitheater was sparsely lit with twinkle lights, and she couldn't help but admire him in the lighting. She remembered admiring him in the dark light when they had talked that night on campus about his dad. There was something about him that was more magical at night.

"Not at all. You're just very secretive about being her biggest fan." She repressed a smirk and eyed him warily, ready for his embarrassed defense.

"I am not her biggest fan. You've heard me listen to like one of her songs. I don't understand why you're so hung up on it," he muttered in her ear as they moved slowly to the music. Tenten knew they were both moving toward argument to cope with their new physical proximity. It seemed like if they were going to be so physically close, they both had a subconscious desire to keep things emotionally superficial.

"Because you've been so weird about your music!"

"Pfshh, that's totally untrue."

"I think your precious masculinity is too threatened by the prospect of admitting you're a fan."

Neji raised a brow in amusement, "my precious masculinity?"

Tenten shrugged but didn't say anything. They danced in silence for a moment.

"I don't think it's emasculating to admit tha— Oh God," Neji muttered; his train of thought had been cut off, and his eyes were now glued over Tenten's shoulder. She instinctively turned to see what he was staring at. She burst into a fit of giggles as she saw Lee performing some awkward box-step dance with his arms stick straight and resting on Hinata's shoulders. Was he counting?

"You look so horrified right now," she laughed at him, turning from Lee and Hinata back to him. He moves his gaze back to her, a small smile playing on his lips. He looked down at her like he wanted to say something but paused for several seconds.

"I can't believe you did that to my poor cousin," he said, referring to Tenten setting them up as dates.

"Are you kidding?! Lee looks like a great date. He's having so much fun out there. You could learn a thing or two from Lee."

"….I'm fun…." Neji muttered dryly, his hands still firmly planted on Tenten's waist. She laughed in response, but neither said anything for the remainder of the song. It was coming to an end, and she felt herself drop her arms as the last few notes were concealed by a louder song.

"You look… really pretty tonight, by the way." Neji's cheeks were pink, and he had averted his gaze from her. The compliment had sounded so strange coming from his lips. Tenten looked down bashfully.

"Thanks, Neji," she smiled softly, willing her own heated cheeks to recede. This was weird. And awesome. She felt incredibly awkward but in a happy way. She hadn't really thought he'd returned any of her feelings, but maybe he did. She had a feeling that a compliment like that from Neji Hyuuga might be a big deal.

"Where's your date?" Ino heard a slightly familiar voice ask behind her. She spun around to see the cute football player from last night. She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face.

"Kankuro- hey! Where's yours?" She asked, ignoring his question and looking around for the older brunette named Tenten. She spotted her talking to a sophomore football player and grinned. "It looks like she's got her eyes on someone else."

Kankuro grinned, and their eyes met, "I've got my eyes on someone else, too."

Ino gave him a coquettish grin and realized maybe she could salvage the night. She had thought about it after they had made out the night before. She had reflected on what she had told Sakura, and Kankuro met all the criteria for a candidate to lose her virginity to. Not only did he not go to their school, but he seemed like he'd probably have some experience. She couldn't be sure, but the way he kissed her last night and the fact that he was older gave her high hopes. He was also cute, and she was definitely attracted to him. She hadn't realized they'd be able to spend time together tonight, though.

Whereas last night she had only been musing about how he checked off a lot of her boxes, she hadn't been entertaining it realistically. Now though... it was a real option. She decided to flirt back a little bit, dance with him, and see where things went from there—no need to plan too hard.

Ino loved dancing. She loved that she could capture people's attention and be bolder than she would otherwise. When she was dancing, she could move her hands over his body, and no one but the two of them noticed. She could take his larger hands in her own and bring his wherever she wanted them. She could lean in closer and watch him react to the show she was inevitably giving him. She was sexy, and she knew it. She wasn't bashful, and she wasn't going to pretend she didn't know when she was wanted. She watched his eyes trail over her body as she moved, and she made sure to give him a similar look of her own.

They danced for an hour before Ino made up her mind. Tonight would be perfect— she and Sakura were supposed to sleep over at one of the cheerleaders houses after the dance. She'd send Sakura a quick text so she'd know not to worry about her. Then, the room would be hers.

She wanted it to be like a movie. She envisioned a scene in a rom-com where the main characters kiss passionately, and effortlessly take each others clothes off and make the most idealistic faces and sounds. Then, right as things were getting heated, the camera would pan away from the main characters and focus on a city skyline or something like that.

She didn't want the awkward in-between moments where they stumbled and checked on each other. They had made it back to her dorm room, and Kankuro hovered over her. He was pushing up her tight black dress when he asked her,

"Have you done this before?" She was a little irritated he had to bring that up. It didn't match with the effortless, confident vibe she was going for. After all, she couldn't think of many virgins in rom-coms...

"Does it matter?" She said, a little snappier than she should have while he ran his tongue up her neck. His lips had returned to her own, and his answer was muffled between heated kisses.

"Mmm yea, kind of" he moved his lips away from her mouth to her ear so she could hear him, "I don't want to hurt you," She drew in a sharp breath when his hands started moving up her dress again. She was becoming impatient, and she found herself thinking less about how she wanted things to be, and more that she just wanted them to happen.

"I don't care," she moaned, trying to keep his body as close as possible.

She heard him sigh, and he leaned close to her ear once more.

"Look, Ino, I'm really into you," he groaned as she pushed herself against him again, "but I live two hours away, so if we do this, it's just tonight. I get it if that's not how you want your first time to be."

He looked surprised when she only nodded and kept kissing him with more urgency than before. She was telling the truth when she told Sakura she wanted experience. She didn't need a boyfriend.

The rest of the night went quickly. Some parts were like a movie, and some weren't.

There was awkwardness in moments she had never really thought about. She'd never realized it would be so literally messy. She was shocked when she was getting dressed, and blood was smeared on her thigh. There was the uncomfortable moment when he said, "You're on the pill, right?" She nodded uncomfortably and knew she'd have to run to get Plan B first thing in the morning. There was no need for him to know.

That wasn't the only moment she'd had to lie, either. She had nodded stupidly when his exhausted, dead weight collapsed on top of her and he asked her if she'd come.

She'd kind of imagined that right before the big moment, a guy would look at her and whisper romantic notions and sweet nothings- "You're so beautiful," or "I love you." She knew Kankuro certainly wasn't in love with her, but she hadn't exactly been envisioning, "Shit, Ino, your so fucking hot." It wasn't exactly romantic, but it was flattering…

Despite some of the less glamorous moments, she wasn't upset. He'd been sweet and sexy, and aside from there not being any blinding fireworks at the end, she'd had fun. She kept her expectations in check. They'd laid there together for some time whispering and giggling, but she knew he had to find his sister and her friend. He kissed her gently and told her to text him if she was ever in Suna, and then he left.

She was left alone to think about what had just happened. Was she happy she'd done it? She thought so. She didn't feel different or enlightened in any dramatic way.

Lying on her own, she wished Sakura was coming back that night. She needed to debrief and perhaps brag a little about how much more experience she was now. She wasn't sad that Kankuro had left, but she was a little lonely. She wrap herself tighter in her blanket and turned on her side.

This was exactly what she had wanted. There was no turning back now.

AN: After all the googling I've done for the murder mystery component of this story, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be on some kind of government list...

Not that anyone cares, but it turns out, they don't have very fancy names for morgue refrigerator drawers, but I promise I did my research lol (okay maybe a 3 minute google search...) I also asked my husband who's a resident and has had a pathology rotation or two. He had no clue, so I'll be directing all further questions to the internet. Or maybe Chat GPT can help me?