This is a spin-off of A Bundle Of Promises! A lovely little reviewer named stormypeach1936 wanted a oneshot on Sasuke's initial thoughts on Naruto and I was like "WHY NOT!" So I opened a new document and just started typing this baby out c: I must say, I'm pleased by how this came out and I hope you all enjoy it!

Warning: If you haven't read A Bundle of Promises, then you're not really screwed. Technically this leads up to the story. So after you read this you should go over and check out A Bundle of promises c;! Also. This will be rated T for language. :D! And in Sasuke's POV. This oneshot focuses on Sasuke's freshman year. I jump around a lot when time periods switch but it shouldn't be too hard to follow.

Disclaimer: ... PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH. THIS WORD DOESN'T EXIST IN MY VOCABULARY!

Happy National Nutella Day everyone!

Before I Knew You

"Now Sasuke, the next four years are going to be very important so listen up. You're a freshman now but don't let that hinder your abilities. Take the best classes. Meet the right people. Expand your social networking and always come out on top. You're an Uchiha, boy, and Uchiha's dominate no matter what the cost."

I swear he tells me the same damn speech with each new grade level I go into. When I was in first grade my father gave me this "riveting" speech on how I should crush everyone like they're animal crackers and I was their animal cracker lion king. It was a little disturbing... at first. And really the only thing on my mind back then was coloring outside the lines and sandboxes. I nod anyways because I don't want to spend my first day of high school sitting in the back of our Mercedes going through the same speech over and over and over again.

"You have a bright future ahead of you, Sasuke." my father drones on and I bite back the temptation to stab him in the ear with my pen. It's brand new and getting it bloody would be a waste.

"I know, Father." I reply.

"Now Itachi has already taken the liberty of showing you the ropes to your new school—though if it were my decision I would be sending you to the private school up north..."

"Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't you agree earlier that me going to a public school would further broaden my horizons and get ready for the real world?" I cocked an arrogant eyebrow sky high. We've already been through this conversation a million times, and fought over where I should go twice as much. I resented the idea of going to Summit Private School because it was filled to the brim of arrogant dickheads who had the intelligence of a squirrel. I'm already aware of the size of my ego, I didn't need any other competition.

My father straightens instantly and narrows his eyes at me. "I was merely voicing my opinion."

"Well don't." I've had enough of this chat. I pushed myself out of the car and hoisted my book bag over one shoulder and my soccer bag over the next, making one big hell of a show because my father wasn't too keen on me playing soccer. He didn't see the sport getting me anywhere. "I'm going to be late for first period. As always, it's a pleasure talking to you, Father." I lean forward and smirk, the door handle cooling my extremely warm hand, "Have a nice day."

Slamming the door shut, I don't even look back as I head into the doorways of my new school: Kingsway High. As promised in an earlier text message, Itachi's standing by the lobby, leaning against one of the numerous columns that lined the hallway. Beside him was Hidan—one of his friends, not mine. I don't have many of those—and Pein—one of the only people I could stand that hung out with my brother. Itachi caught my eye and waved me over.

"How was the speech?" Oh I bet you were having a fucking riot while I was off suffering in Hell.

I narrow my eyes at him and nearly growl, "Fun. As always. Gets me in the mood to murder a few people."

Hidan lets loose a low whistle and jams his hands deeper into his insanely baggy pockets. "Damn your brother sure is feisty in the morning. Better watch your tongue, kid. The older kids around here don't really like the snappy ones."

Itachi rolled his eyes, "My brother's not an idiot like you are, Hidan. He knows when not to stick his opinions into other people's business."

Pein nodded while Hidan started throwing up a storm how no one could mess with him because he was such a freaking "boss"; or something bordering along that line of stupidity. I, honestly, didn't care. I had tuned them out a while ago to study over my schedule: Honors English first period, followed by Enriched Chemistry, and then later on Own Your Own Business. After that was Lunch A, primarily made up of freshman and a few sophomores. Then I had American History and finally Foundations of Art, the only elective I was able to pick out for myself.

Like I said before (or maybe I haven't, so I'll say this now), but my father wasn't one for the arts or sports. He was a man of numbers, equations, problem solving. If you didn't speak Arithmetic and Logic you might as well consider yourself a monkey in my father's eyes. An exaggeration, maybe, but it paints the picture a little better, right? The only reason why I was able to get Foundations of Art was with the help of Itachi and his ever-so-helpful persuasion skills.

"Oh, Otouto," Itachi finally detached his lips from Hidan's—how they got there in the matter of two minutes I wasn't paying attention I'll never know—and peered at my schedule, "Honors English with Ms. Kurenai, hm? She's an amiable lady."

"How many projects?" I asked immediately. Father expected the best out of me—not that I could care, but as for my pride and natural drive to be the best, I wanted to prepare myself for what was to come when I walked into the door of my first class.

Itachi shrugged, "Not many. Most are in class. The hardest thing you'll have to worry about is her final. A lot of vocab crammed in with different sections focusing on parts of texts you read in her class. She focuses on details and intricate meanings so watch out."

"Oh joy," I muttered sarcastically and move up my soccer bag. My shoulder was starting to kill.

Thankfully Pein noticed my uneasiness and offered to take my bag to the locker room. Pre-season had started over the summer and I was one of the few lucky freshman who actually made it to the high school team and didn't get bumped down to middle school. I heard the jealous whispers that I only stayed because of my brother. I shut them up with my skills though. It's hard to complain when the wind's knocked out of you from contact with a soccer ball kicked at dangerous speeds.

"I'll take this." with a nod—Pein's signal of goodbye—he wondered off to the boy's locker room, leaving me alone with the horny couple.

"I'll just head to my locker," it's like I'm talking to air now because Itachi went back to having Hidan's tongue down his throat. I'm immune to their random urges of tongue-fucking by now. Three years of exposure had to wash away eventually. I wasn't in the mood to stand there and watch them go at it.

My locker was all the way up on the third floor along with the other freshman's lockers. It wasn't that hard to find where it was thanks to numerous signs and my acute sense of direction. When I got there a small boy with a ridiculous spiky head of blond blocked my locker.

"Move it," that was all the politeness I could muster up sincerely.

The boy turned around and my eyebrows shot up slightly in shock. His eyes were so... blue. And he had whiskers scarring his cheeks. Was he American? He looked like it, but the paper taped to his locker clearly screamed out that his name was anything but American.

Naruto Uzumaki.

That name sounded so familiar.

We sort of stood there, standing like awkward penguins, until he narrowed his eyes and flipped me the bird. Yup. My first day in high school and I've already been told to fuck myself. What joy.

"This is my locker, you prick! Why should I move for you?"

I instantly didn't like him. He was way too loud and annoying for my tastes. Though I had to admit... I really liked his eyes.

"You're in the way of my locker," and to prove it I pointed at the piece of paper stuck to my green locker. He looked at my finger, then back to my locker, then to my finger again, then to my locker...

"Oooohhh! Sorry about that!" He laughed awkwardly and scratched at the back of his head, stepping aside. Okay. So one minute he's biting my head off and now he's acting timid. If I have to spend time with a bipolar blond for the next four years I may have to shoot myself. "But seriously, you could have been a little nicer! Would it have killed yah to say please?"

I snorted and pulled out an orange slip of paper with my locker combination on it. "That was being nice. I could have been much worse." which was true, I've said meaner things to strangers on a daily basis. Don't ask me why I was civil to this guy then. I'm guessing it's because of his eyes or his whiskers. He was different...

The blond seemed to mull over my words for a minute before shrugging and throwing his hands in the air. "You should really work on your approach."

My lock opened with a click and I swung the door open, nearly hitting the blond square in the face... not on purpose, of course. "My approach with what?" I threw in random folders and binders I probably wouldn't need since most of my classes would just be going over syllabuses and expectations for the day and engrossed myself with stacking everything in order.

"With people," he answered simply. "You already got the 'Don't fuck with me' vibe going on for yah and your words will just drive people away."

I shrugged. "That's fine. I'm not in this school to make friends, anyways." I slammed my locker door shut and turned my back on him, Naruto Uzumaki, and headed off for class. A few things crossed my mind then, like why his name was so damn familiar to me. Or why I've never seen him before. Granted, he probably never saw me before either since he didn't realize who I was despite my name being taped on the locker. Our grade had over three hundred kids so I was terrible with names and faces. And I didn't get out much to know all their names and faces.

By the time I settled into first period the bell rang and Ms. Kurenai took center stage.

"Welcome to your first day of ninth grade, class. My name's Ms. Kurenai and for the next ninety days I'll be teaching you all about the wonderful world of English!"

Shoot me. Just freaking shoot me now.

+Before+

Itachi met me by my locker during the changes between kids going to Lunch A and kids going off to fourth period.

"You're looking dapper," he smirked as I shot him a glare.

"Fuck off," I said not-so-nicely and slammed my locker door shut. All of my teachers this morning were so damn... perky! I'm not a morning person. I don't do perky. I don't do happy and enthusiastic about everything. Just the word hyper makes me want to vomit.

"Glad to see your colorful language hasn't changed."

"Aren't you going to be late for class? Get out of here."

"I will in a minute. I just wanted to remind you about soccer practice today."

"What about it?"

"We're not going to meet on the turf today like we did for pre-season. We'll be up on Field 14."

"All right. Good to know. Anything else?"

Itachi smirked once more and ruffled my hair. I hated when he ruffled my hair. I growled and slapped his hand away, but that only made him chuckle. God, I hope he chocked on that chuckle.

"You're the talk of the school, apparently. Well, to all the sophomore and freshman girls at least."

"Oh God..." I groaned and ran a shaky hand through my hair. "Every damn time..."

"There's nothing to groan about. You're going to want all the attention if you plan to find someone—boy or girl."

I shot him a look. "What makes you think I want someone?"

Itachi shrugged. "You always look so lonely. It was just a thought. You can stay asexual and pissy for the rest of your life if you wish."

"I'm not pissy!" I growl.

Itachi grinned, "Moody, then?"

"Get to class!"

Itachi flicked my on the forehead and laughed before sauntering off to class. I shot death-lasers at him with my eyes and prayed he would have fell.

He didn't fall.

+Before+

I'm a people watcher, though I rarely show any interest in the subject. I've been told I'm a quick study. I can figure people out by the way they act, through their eyes—whatever. Sometimes, if I actually cared, I'd go out on a limb to figure out what made a certain person tick. Those moments were rare and they were normally reserved for family members or some random business associate of my father's.

Today was different.

I saw him again. Naruto Uzumaki. And my heart did something funny I can't even explain. Our eyes caught in the lunchroom. He had walked in a little awkward and lost but then we saw each other. I wanted to smile, don't know why, but I did. He smiled first. I didn't do anything back. And I saw him deflate.

My heart did something funny again.

I was sitting all the way on to the left of the lunchroom, back corner, hanging out with the sophomores and the few freshman from the soccer team. Neji was there, same with Suigetsu and Deidara. Neji was one of the more tolerable out of the three but they all annoyed me equally.

I'm just an easily irked person, I suppose.

"So then she started to..." Suigetsu started to go on about his latest lay. He was bisexual and pretty proud of it. Deidara was the gayest man I knew compared to Itachi. And Neji was a narcissist so there you go with that one.

I was a pro at tuning people out by now and started to scan the lunch room for Naruto Uzumaki again. Don't ask me why I've become so hooked on finding him. I wouldn't be able to tell you. Maybe I just wanted to see his eyes again...

Or perhaps I just wanted to shut up my heart that was doing funny things to me at the moment.

I found him on the other side of the room, at the very end of the table; alone.

I hated that word. Alone. It was terrible and meant a lot of different things than the definition could describe.

He sat with his shoulders hunched and his eyes on the table. No one paid any attention to him, which wasn't too surprising considering how in high school you had cliques and you pretty much blocked out everyone else. I was surprised that he didn't go out and talk to people, though. I got the suspicion that he was a really social person.

Maybe it was just first day jitters?

+Before+

For the next three months all I did at lunch was watch Naruto Uzumaki. For three months he sat in that corner alone, eyes lowered, mouth barely moving. I wanted to go over and talk to him, but my feet never moved. My eyes did all the moving. My thoughts painted all the scenarios. What I thought I could do in reality was only real in my imagination.

Finally, two months later, he made new friends. And I saw some light encase him, making him glow. I would purposefully walk by his table when I went to throw out my trash so I could catch his laugh. I liked his laugh. It was... nice. And it suited him. Just like his eyes.

This went on for about the rest of freshman year. Before I knew it I started to see him every time my eyes closed. We rarely conversed, but whenever we did it would always be in the morning when it was just the two of us and no one else could bother us.

I liked those moments.

+Before+

And then one day he was gone. It wasn't a disappearance that shattered the whole student body and called for some attention. It was brief, and silent, like a ghost's touch. I noticed it. His friends had noticed it. But no one else bothered to care.

When I stood by my locker I always expected to see him there right beside me, jabbering away at something I pretended I wasn't listening to when really I was etching away every word into my mind to replay later on.

A few days passed and he finally came back.

Only difference was he lost a little light in those eyes.

I don't know how. And I don't know what drove me to this point. But by the end of freshman year I decided to pick up my resolve and do something to bring back that light. It would come back once in a while, but it never really stayed. Normally it came when he was talking to his friends or the leech Sakura Haruno.

It was sad, I could see that he liked her—which made my gut wrench horribly—but she was always attached to me. Some days I was tempted to tell him the truth, that she'd never like him because somehow she warped her heart around me. I wasn't dumb. I knew he could see it. And that's when we started to drift apart...

Our morning talks ended. Our glances during lunch ceased. We were strangers, caught up in a divide from one-sided jealousy.

The gap was so huge, some days I thought I could see it coming out from the ground to swallow me up alive.

+Before+

Last week of summer vacation and I had decided to get out of the house. I couldn't stop thinking about him; Naruto Uzumaki. The boy who had somehow managed to weasel his way into my heart with just a glance.

A glance stole it all.

I had this idea running around in my mind. Simple, maybe a little stalkerish, but I had to run with it. Sophomore year was about to start and I wanted it to be the year I would bring back that light, close up the gap... and claim Naruto Uzumaki as my own.

I stepped into a flower shop owned by one of my mom's friends and asked her for thirteen roses. One to give to me today, and the other twelve to keep for me until I needed them.

"Got a special someone you're going to give them too?" she asked after I went over the details of what I wanted. She was really helpful and gave me a few ideas of what I could do with the roses.

I gripped the single rose in my hand, mesmerized by the color that would soon glow with the meaning behind the flower.

"Soon." I told her, leaving the shop with the rose in my hand and a promise on the top of my lips.

'When I see him, I'll give him a smile.'

Stormypeach1936 I hope you enjoyed your oneshot :D! I guess my next stop on my hit list would be the wedding for Naruto and Sasuke... Eh. We'll get there when we get there.

FOR THE PANDAS, EVERYONE! AND NUTELLA! I hope Sasuke's POV was okay... If not I'll just go hide in a box for the rest of my life ;A;