Beaten Black and Pink
An AU Sasuke and Sakura Fanfiction
By Krabby Patties

Pairings: main ones - SasukeSakura, SakuraNeji onesided, NejiIno; by the end - SasukeSakura, maybe NarutoHinata

Chapter 1: Rest in Me and I'll Comfort You, I Have Lived and I Died for You
(formerly known as Country-side-sky-without-stars Black)

The final bell rang and kids rushed out of school to catch buses or catch up with friends. Chatter buzzed through the air. They spoke of what classes and teachers they got, and exchanged schedules. Two freshman girls hugged each other just in front of the front doors, crying animatedly. They didn't manage to get into any of the same classes, poor girls.

"We'll hang out everyday after school," the shorter of the two girls said, wiping her runny nose with the back of her hand.

The taller girl nodded, beginning to cry again. "Yeah, and we can text all day long in all our classes. It'll be like we're together all the time." The other girl also began crying again and they fell into each other's arms.

I would be devastated if I didn't get into any of Neji's classes. I would head straight to guidance and ask for immediate changes. Or maybe I could get Neji to do that since he's part of such an important family. The Hyuugas can get anything to go their way.

I pulled a little package of tissues out of my almost empty backpack and dropped it into the small space between the two girls. Without bothering to look back and see their expressions, I walked down the steps.

There's a tree to the right of the school that takes about three minutes to walk to but is still on school grounds. It's a weird tree. Its trunk is short but its branches and leaves reach high up. It's easy to climb, too, because of its short trunk. At the end of the summer until winter, clumps of yellow fruit/seed/things grow on skinny, flimsy stems. I call them yellow cherries because that's what they look like. During the fall, the yellow cherries turn brown and dark scarlet and fall off the tree. In the spring, the tree blooms beautiful white flowers. The flowers overwhelm the new green leaves making the tree look white. There are petals everywhere, falling into everyone's hair. When summer starts coming around, the flowers die and the leaves are all that grow out of the branches.

We—my friends and I—call this tree Samuel Philip Omar Tuscany, or Spot. He used to be called Spots—Samuel Philip Omar Tuscany, Sr.—but we pretty much dropped the S. Everyone considers Spot to be "my" tree and I like the notion. I was the one who suggested that we meet there everyday after school.

I really love Spot. Because of him, I've made so many new friends since freshman year. A few of us have added new people to out group and teachers and other students know us as the Kids at the Tree.

I ran across the green lawn of my high school toward the open area Spot grew in. I figured I would be the first there just like all the other years but someone else was there before me.

I slowed down as I approached the tree. "Neji," I cried, excitedly. I set my backpack down on an area that wasn't dirt from all the afternoons we spent under that tree, stepping all over the grass, eventually killing it.

I stepped over to Neji who was leaning against Spot, silently reading some advanced nonfiction book. "Hey," I said, my voice shaking a little. I don't know why but I was excited to see him. Maybe it's because I didn't have my last two classes with him. I was lucky though; I had the other five classes with him and lunch, too. I could tell this was going to be a good year.

Neji looked up. His white eyes glowed in the sunlight that leaked through the leaves and yellow cherries. "Hey, Sakura," he said.

I hugged the tree. I hadn't seen it in a whole summer and I had to admit that I missed it.

"How was your first day of school," I asked.

He shrugged, watching me. "I'm content with my classes, for one thing." He went back to reading his book.

"What about a second thing," I urged, looking over his shoulder through a fork in the trunk at the book. It looked pretty boring but if it was something Neji read, then I liked it.

"I like the lunch I have; you're in it," he said in a tone no different from anything else he said.

I grinned and patted Neji's head trough the fork. "I like my first five classes and my lunch because you're in them, too."

I rounded the tree and kicked up some dirt. " I do wish we had first or second lunch instead of third. It's so gross, all the trash lazy kids leave."

Neji nodded, agreeing with me. I was about to ask him about his last two classes when Naruto ran over yelling his head off.

"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!" He ran to me and pulled me up into a tight hug.

I pushed him away, annoyed. "Naruto, you just saw me last period…and at lunch, and second period."

Naruto put his hands behind his head and smiled his sheepish smile. "I know, Sakura, but I like the way your body feels. You've grown so much this summer!"

I clenched my teeth. "Naruto…" I glanced back at Neji. He was still reading that book, no expression change. I wanted him to be angry with Naruto for being perverted. Where was the chivalry? So I just did it myself: I punched Naruto square in the face.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto whined, holding his bloody nose.

Then the rest of the Kids at the Tree joined us. Hinata ran straight to Naruto to help him; Shikamaru sat down in the grass and looked up at the sky; Chouji waved at me, a potato chip in his hand; Kiba pounded Naruto on the back, laughing loudly; Shino muttered something about not being able to stay long and walked away; and Tenten started telling me about how disappointed she was finding out we weren't at the same lunch. I was so happy to see the whole gang back together.

And someone new approached: a girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes. I don't mind new recruits to the tree, but I usually don't bother introducing myself to them. So I just watched her approach Neji.

"Hi, Neji!" Her voice was high and loud.

Neji smiled a little, closed his book and actually put it away in his backpack. What is this?! He doesn't even do that for me but he does for some new girl?

The girl started on a long, long rant that spoke about everything wrong and different at our school compared to her old school. Neji listened to every word of it, nodding and smiling occasionally.

I walked over to the rest of the group when I was tired of looking at them.

"Who's that," Naruto asked.

I shrugged and Tenten answered, "That's Ino. She moved here from some…place."

"Is she a junior," Chouji asked.

"I'm pretty sure," Tenten answered again, nodding.

"She looks like a slut. Neji shouldn't be talking to her," I said, turning and looking at the two. I wished Neji would smile at me like that.

"Sakura's jealous," Shikamaru's dull voice sang. Naruto, Chouji, Kiba, and Tenten laughed. I was really thankful to Hinata at the moment, who stayed silent.

"I am not," I yelled back at Shikamaru. "I mean, look at her!" I pointed at Ino. "Look at how short that skirt is. That's gross. No one wants to look at 97 percent of her legs."

"I do," said Shikamaru. Naruto and Kiba laughed, and reward Shikamaru with a round of high-fives.

"I hate you guys," I said. The boys laughed again, so I sat down in the grass next to my backpack, facing away from everyone and toward the sidewalk down the hill.

Two freshman girls, I could just tell, walked slowly down the sidewalk, away from the school. They giggled uncontrollably and looked behind them periodically, taking turns. When they walked out of my view, hidden behind other trees, I then saw exactly what the source of those two girls' madness was: Uchiha Sasuke.

He was the god of Fourth Hokage Memorial High School. I didn't know a girl alive in my school, or even all of Konoha, who didn't know or like Sasuke. Even I had to admit he was amazingly amazing looking. Sure, that's redundant but Sasuke's beauty was exponentially greater than any other man's on Earth. Just about the only person to rival Sasuke's beauty was Neji, but Neji's personality beat Sasuke's tenfold. Sasuke was an extreme jerk. I'd never heard him say a nice thing.

But…I almost couldn't blame Sasuke. His beloved brother destroyed their family. The man rounded up every gun he could get his hands on (which happened to be a lot. He had a butt-load of money.) and obliterated the Uchihas. Itachi was still on the loose and it scared the crap out of a lot of people in Konoha. I heard that the police, to see if they can squeeze any more information out of him, regularly questioned Sasuke. What more was there to squeeze? Did they think Sasuke was hiding vital information? I doubt that. If my brother killed my parents and grandparents I'd tell the police absolutely everything I knew.

I watched Sasuke walk down the sidewalk. His stride was long and almost graceful. He had and messenger bag on his shoulder, the strap crossing of his chest, ruining the collar of his black polo. His hair looked fabulous in the sun, shiny blue highlights becoming more prominent.

And then I started wondering, why was the richest person in all of Konoha walking home? Where was the shiny limo? (Oh, I knew Sasuke never rode in a limo home from school, but it was nice to think about.)

Sasuke's gait slowed down and he came to a stop. I wondered what he was doing until he pulled a cell phone out his pocket (a new one from the last one I'd seen him use) and pressed a button on the side. He checked the time and put the phone away.

Then he looked up the hill straight at me. The breath caught in my throat and my stomach flipped. He was looking straight at me.

His eyes were the opposite of Neji's: country-side-sky-without-stars black. They were so beautiful. And so lonely.

Sasuke's mouth was in sad frown, different from the usual scowl or smirk or indifferent frown. His lovely eyebrows furrowed together like he was thinking hard. And he looked so lonely. He had probably noticed the group of laughing friends behind me and was jealous. (I had never seen Sasuke with a friend. He was such a jerk to everyone. I didn't think anyone wanted to be around him…except for the obvious fangirl.)

But I sat out of the group, alone like Sasuke. And for a moment we were in our own little world: Alone Anonymous.

He took a step the hill, toward us, and I had no doubt he would come up and stand with us just to tell himself he wasn't alone anymore. That was how lonely he looked.

A car pulled over behind him and he looked away. It wasn't a limo but a black Rolls Royce. Still nice. After opening the back door, he got in. The car glided away down the street and Sasuke never took one look back at me or the Kids at the Tree.

A.N: You've got to bear with me. There will be plently SasuSaku fluff soon.

So, I was planning on having this based in America, but Lee Rock sounds a little wierd. Same with Mr. Hatake. I decided that this would be an extreme AU, sort of a world where American, Japanese, and Naruto-nese cultures are combined. You'll see what I mean, hopefully.

If you find some sort of grammatical error, TELL ME. I'm talking everything: misspellings, missing commas, the whole shabang. I love correcting grammar, but it doesn't seem so good if my own grammar is bad.

I typed this while listening to Lucky Number Slevin. Yes, that is a movie, a good one at that. And it's still good only listening to the audio of it; there are so many amazing quotes.

REVIEW.

Thumbing through the pages of my fantasies,
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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 2 Preview:

I Know You, I Walked With You Once Upon A Dream

"So," I said, "who's that Ino girl?" I tried to sound like I didn't really care.

"Oh, her..." Neji paused and I figure he was deciding on a good way to describe her without letting me know his opinion of her. "She's in my last two classes: physics and journalism."

"Oh...I wish I took physics instead of Vertebrate Anatomy. Maybe we could have been in the same class."

"Five is enough."

Edited 01.29.09