At the Beginning

Glass Green and Midnight Blue

"We were strangers starting out on a journey."

Walking to school, a boy dressed in nearly all black with striking midnight blue eyes, stopped as he reached the front of his high school. He is a freshman, well into the first year, and still gets a tad bit nervous every time he walks near the school.

But today, he felt oddly calm and sighed.

It was the time near Christmas, and there was snow all over. Everything felt jolly, and there was decorative lights strewn across the school. But the snow covered nearly everything, including the sidewalk leading to the school, which was not plowed, much to his disdain, and there was at least a good six inches of snow.

He muttered a curse against the school principle, who decided that there would be school so long as the snow didn't reach a foot. He rolled his eyes, like that would ever happen, her e in the usually warm and sunny town of Konoha? This snow was already a miracle.

Sighing, he lifted his foot, his shoe covered with snow, and made tracks through the fresh, untouched snow. He had no particular feelings as he did so, only that he wished he wore a thicker jacket, or perhaps more under layers of clothing, ironically he hated the cold.

Lazily, at the speed of a dying snail, he trudged through, and cursed some more on how big of a space the sidewalk was away from the school. As he stomped he kicked up snow and his scowl deepened.

While in the middle of damning the principal, a blur of all his least favorite colors whisked by him, and ran ahead. Through his curtain of hair and hat, he saw a small girl with long pink locks dancing in the snow before him. She twirled, holding her arms out, and her hair and multi-colored scarf swirled along with her. He could hear her faint jubilant laughter.

She turned, and then all he could see was the peculiar shade of her glass green eyes. The ridiculous colors of her clothes were gone to him, her strange pink has was gone, and he didn't even notice the red creeping onto her heart shaped face.

He was staring. And soon, he noticed that he had stopped walking. Briskly, trying to cover up any interest that he had showed, he trudged on, turning slightly as he reached her.

Her doe like green eyes were still looking in to his, and he couldn't bear to break contact.

She had a sweet smile on that seemed meant for spring time, and she sang, "Sorry I ran ahead of you, I wanted to run on the fresh snow!" she laughed. The nameless girl twirled in the snow, laughing a little bit louder, and acting a little more exaggerated.

The boy proceeded to school, and tried to take no note of her, but, from the corner of his blank eyes, he saw her slip and fall, and he could mutter nothing more than, "Idiot."

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Impatiently, he tapped his pencil on his desk. He turned his ipod louder, and tried not to look at the couples around him, because, hell, they were everywhere. They were like freakin' cockroaches or rats, the numbers were multiplying and there was no shortage.

And he just could not stand how annoying it was to see them. He didn't know why it was annoying, it just was, and that was that for a boy like him. Maybe because he didn't like being the only one different, all his friends had girlfriends, except him. There was a little bit of jealousy in him, but he made no move to acknowledge it, not even to himself.

He squinted as he saw Naruto walk in, with his arm around Hinata's shoulders casually. He was baffled by the comfortability that idiot had with touching people so casually. He turned his head away and saw Tenten writing on Neji's hand. He didn't understand why Neji would allow something to do that, he didn't believe the trust.

He blanched and just glared forward, looking at the black board. There were no words yet, other than "new students today" in a messy, rushed scrawl. The child in him wondered who it was, if it was a girl or a boy, and all that stuff, but he didn't care. He dismissed it; he didn't need to care for such trivial things.

He sighed, and saw Naruto approach him, leaving Hinata by Neji and Tenten. Naruto played up his usual goofy grin and pulled up a chair by his desk. He was still smiling as he sat down, "SASUKE!"

Said boy twitched noticeably, and rolled his dark eyes, "What do you want?" Secretly curious again, he turned down the volume on his ipod significantly.

Naruto punched Sasuke's elbow jokingly and whined, "Can't I just talk to you without wanting anything? Come on, man." His smile was brighter still.

The darker boy ignored his chattering, avoided his azure blue eyes that seemed to only get warmer with the days. He kept his head up front and pretended to listen to his idiot friend. The music he was listening to was still loud, but it was drowned out by Naruto's loud rambling.

The boy just continued to talk and talk and then his tone changed, and Sasuke could make out the words, "Hey… look… girl… pink hair."

He looked up and saw the girl again. Her long pink hair was hanging in frozen clumps, and her clothes were damp with snow. She had her scarf wound up around her hand, and it was dripping icy chunks onto the floor. Her face was flushed a rose, lively color, her glass green eyes were bright. She had a smile on as she came into the room, and spun around the front looking for the teacher, "Sensei…?"

Naruto called to her, trying to act cool, "Oh, sensei doesn't get here for another thirty minutes!" He then took a bold move, always a little too friendly in Sasuke's opinion, and motioned her over, "Come, sit over here!"

The girl nodded, her smile widening at the hospitality to a new student. She weaved through slanted desks and back packs them, then she sat in front of Sasuke, but turned to face the both of them.

The blonde boy did not even give her a second to get settled and began to bombard her with questions, Sasuke just turned his ipod off then, keeping the buds in his ears though. Naruto grinned, "So, pretty girl, what's your name?"

She laughed, her cheeks flushing red, but her eyes happy nonetheless, "My name's Sakura Haruno!" She took of her gray gloves and shrugged off her orange snow jacket, revealing a yellow shirt and multicolored skirt. Sasuke internally raised a brow, and she just asked them back, "So who are you… handsome fellows?"

Naruto flipped his spiky bright hair, and his blue eyes dazzled from the compliment, "I am the great and almighty prince NARUTO UZUMAKI!" –insert fist pump,- "and this here brooding adolescent, is my lackey, Sasuke Uchiha."

Sakura giggled, her hand coming to cover her mouth, lady-like almost. Sasuke pretended not to hear, but reminded himself to punch the moron later. Naruto nodded approvingly to her response and continued, "So, Sakura-chan, where did you move from?"

She smiled like a sun that rivaled Naruto and sang, "I'm from Suna!"

Sasuke did arch a brow here and looked at her, "You came… from the desert." He made no question about it, just stated it.

She bobbed her head and then her eyes widened in realization, her cheeks flushed red even more violently and she peeped, "You're the boy from this morning!" She made no question about it either, just a statement.

He nodded.

Sakura flushed, "Ah, yeah, sorry about that… See, it was my first time seeing snow…-well not the first time! I mean I've seen it-well… I haven't actually touched it before and-uhh… and yeah. I'm from the desert, and I was excited to move here… 'cause I heard it was snowing…" She stopped rambling, ending it by trailing off.

Sasuke made no response and Naruto grinned, "Cool! Honestly Baa-chan should have cancelled school today because of the snow, but she's kind of stupid and bossy like that! You should meet us after school, it's tradition to have snowball fights after school!" –insert multiple fist pumps-

She laughed and nodded, "Alright! I'm excited now." She smiled and her eyes flickered to Sasuke who stared back mercilessly, not thinking about her becoming uncomfortable under his intense stare. She opened her mouth, readying to say something but she was suddenly pulled back.

A thin blonde haired girl was touching her hair, her pale sky blue eyes wide, "Whoa, girl!" She petted it, and held Sakura's hair (still attached to her head) up against the light, "Hun, is your hair legit?"

Sakura nodded smiling, "Yup! Purely legitimate, natural color and everything." Sasuke could sense a bit of pride in her sentence.

The girl put her hair back down and patted it into place and smiled, she held out a freshly manicured hand, "Anyway, hi! My name is Ino Yamanaka! Let's be friends!" She smiled.

Sakura took her hand, smiling warmly, and shook it really firmly, "Sure thing! And, I'm Sakura Haruno!"

Naruto and Sasuke stared at their exchanged and they were both baffled and confused. Sasuke blinked and decided that girls would never cease to confound him, and that girls were just weird. Sasuke scoffed and Ino turned to him.

Her eyelids fluttered and there were hearts in her eyes, "Good morning, Sasuke-kun!" She made an attempt to hug him and held out her hands. Sasuke stared at her and his eyes just read, "No way in hell."

Sakura giggled at her rejection and then she was pulled back again, like a major déjà vu, huskier girl voices came behind her, holding strands of her hair, "Dude, is this real? I mean, if it's not you did a wonderful job and-!" "Yeah, wow, this is legit."

Ino smiled and nodded, taking up a strand of Sakura's hair again, "Yeah, girls, this is the real deal. She said that it's natural and everything." Sakura raised a brow.

A girl with brown hair in buns twirling a mechanical pencil laughed, "Wow that is pretty sweet! I'm Tenten by the way, and I'm assuming that you're the new kid?"

Sakura laughed and the label "new kid" and nodded, "Yeah, Sakura Haruno, nice to meet you."

The other girl, a girl who was somewhat muscular yet feminine and graceful with the odd hairstyle of four ponytails nodded to her, "Temari."

Sakura smiled at her, and they dropped her hair haphazardly, and before Sakura could even raise her hands to fix it, Ino swatted them away and fixed them herself. Ino began to muse, "Sorry, hun, I just want to be a hair stylist, so I'm a little… OCD about hair…"

Naruto suddenly hollered, "A LITTLE?! LIES! THAT'S ALL YOU EVER THINK ABOUT- OI! THAT HURT!" he rubbed his head from the bottle of lip gloss thrown at him by a hair stylist in training.

Sasuke smirked. And Sakura stared at him through the corner of her eyes, she turned to him, while the others were bickering and said, "Not really much for talking, are you?" Once again, her eyes took a hold of his.

The smirk washed off his face and there was a scowl marking it instead. He pulled the buds out of his ear and rolled it around his ipod and stuffed it in his pocket. After relaxing back in his seat and crossing his arms, he huffed out a simple, "Exactly."

She rolled her eyes, and for once her smile wasn't there. She turned away from him again and started to chatter animatedly with the rest of everybody. Sasuke closed his eyes and tried not to think about her response.

He told himself that there was nothing wrong about it, and it held no significance. He opened his eyes and then he saw Sakura twist in her seat to face him, she let her hair cover her face, but he still saw that she was really flushed. He raised a brow and let out a harsh, "What?"

She looked up and she had an uncomfortable smile and she whispered, "The guy in front of me is really pretty." She glanced over her shoulder and then looked back at Sasuke.

"Pretty?" Sasuke rolled his eyes, and tried to look around her to see him, but she hissed, moving her head to face him, "No! Don't do that! He'll see you!" She waved her hands, and Sasuke sighed, leaning back in his chair.

He rolled his eyes, "What the hell. He's turned around; he's not going to see anything." His voice was flat.

"Who's not going to see anything?" a voice called from behind them.

Sakura froze, her shoulders scrunched up and she had a "I just got caught" expression on her face. Sasuke smirked. Sakura turned to the side so she could see the both of them, and she said very coolly, "Uhm… hey."

The boy, who had dark midnight blue eyes, and black hair in a neat disarray. Sakura looked at him deeply then looked at Sasuke then looked back, she laughed uneasily then mumbled, "Uhm… Sasuke…?"

The boy laughed, and the other rolled his eyes. They were both boys of dark hair, and dark eyes, with pale skin and pink lips. They were the same, yet completely different.

The unknown boy, soon to be known, held out a hand and mused, "Hi, my name is Sai, yours?"

She stuttered at first, almost completely turning away from Sasuke, much to his annoyance, and mumbled, "Oh! Me? I'm Sakura Haruno." Her face was flushed from where Sasuke sat.

Sai boldly grabbed a piece of her vibrant pink hair and tucked it behind her ear. He said in an amused tone, "A pretty girl like you shouldn't be trying to hide their face like that." Then he turned his seat to face forward.

Sasuke imagined her face a million times brighter, and redder. He rolled his eyes, Sai was pushing it with the compliments, and it was starting to get on his nerves. It was so annoying.

Sakura nodded, to no one, and then faced Sasuke, her hands on her cheeks, trying to cool herself down with her icy cold digits. Her eyes were wide and she looked at him, hissing nearly, "Did that go well?"

He raised a brow and muttered, "Why ask me?"

"Because you're behind me, and I think that you were listening, so you might have thought that I was doing well or bad, or something in between, and oh my gosh, I'm making no sense, let me rephrase this. I know you're behind me, listening, do you think I made a good impression?"

"No."

"No?!"

"Hn."

"Why!?"

"You stuttered. And you were swooned too easily."

"Explain."

"Not about looks."

She paused there and looked at him. Her glass green eyes were troubled with his explanation, "What do you mean?" she put her hands down on his desk and he couldn't help but noticed that they were near touching his hands. Subtly, he pulled his hands back and shoved them in his pockets. She took no notice.

He simply stated, "You fell for him because of his looks, so shallow. And you are too naïve, with that kind of mindset, you're going to get played. Just give up on what you can't reach." He shut his eyes.

"How can you know so straight out that I'm going to get played?"

"Because you're not looking in deep enough."

"But, isn't that the thrill? The thrill of love by giving it your all, and not caring about anything else?"

"But why do that and get yourself hurt?"

"It's fun to enjoy the ride while you can, get the most thrill out as possible."

"Whatever, you're an idiot."

Sakura turned, a motion he could tell by the screech of her chair, and the sound of her faraway voice, "You know what, Sasuke-kun , I really hate people like you."

And he was fine with that.

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(ah, sorry this chappie sounds rushed! It was just a beginning, hah, oh the irony!)

Review please, lovies!

Lovelovelove,

Blankdreamer