Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

This story has been in my head for TWO years, so it is about time I finally got it out of my head, and onto some—figurative—paper.

Sasuke Uchiha is a prep. He had gone to private schooling his whole life, and is attending Konoha University to major in Business to soon work for his father's company after he graduates. Sasuke has been surrounded by wealth and his peers his whole life, but what happens when he is faced with some obnoxious, blonde commoner who hates prep life with his every fiber?

Sasuke was tempted to sigh.

However, he was an Uchiha, and Uchihas do not sigh like some mere commoner.

But he still wanted to.

He glared at his computer at his desk instead of sighing, as if it were its fault that he currently did not have anything to do.

He had already finished all of his homework, not that there was much to do. All the papers he had to do were due earlier in the week because of the fall break for this upcoming long holiday weekend. His dorm room did not need any cleaning as he always kept it tidy, and he had already re-arranged a few things earlier in the week.

His acquaintances in high school had referred to him more than one time as a Type 'A' Personality. He never bothered to dispute them, or even associate himself with them any more than what was strictly needed or expected of him.

Sasuke was an Uchiha, and it was only natural of him to be such a Type 'A' Personality, as it was apparently called. His parents expected nothing more than the best from him, and he would not settle for anything less. Even though numerous assignments were things he considered wasteful as he had already known the majority of things the professors babbled on about, he still put forth all of his focus and effort into all of his work.

Normally, such a trait of his was no sort of problem. It was admirable quality of his, as many around him had commented on so frequently.

But at the moment, this trait was a hindrance to him. He would not admit it, or even allow himself to say it out loud, but he had nothing productive to do and he was…bored.

He had, frequently, overheard classmates of his talk to each other about humorous social media websites, or other websites whose purpose was nothing more than entertainment. But Sasuke would never allow himself to stoop so low as to take their 'advice' to each other and to create accounts of his own.

The furthest he had ever gone with such nonsense was to create himself an account on 'Facebook' on the advice of his elder brother, Itachi Uchiha.

His brother had said that Sasuke should create such an account as a way to cement a network of opportunities between himself and other acquaintances that were bound for successful corporate work as he was.

At first, Sasuke was dubious; he had a feeling that those who he would 'friend' on Facebook would not view it as simply a network connection like Itachi had suggested. But then he was swayed by his mother, Mikoto Uchiha, who wanted to stay in touch with her son's life.

He had been tempted to remind her that he had a cell phone, as well as multiple e-mail accounts, and not to mention the ability to send 'snail mail' to each other, but he was stopped by his brother who had wisely told him to just go along with what their mother would say; life was easier that way.

So it was on her dictation what Sasuke created a Facebook account, as well as a 'Skype' account so that she can have the ability to speak face-to-face with her youngest son; despite the fact that their wastefully expensive phones had the abilities to do that very same thing.

But as Itachi had said, life was easier when they listened to their mother.

Even though he had a Facebook account, he rarely used it. To him, it was simply a tool for networking for the future when he was working for his father's business, Uchiha Corp.

No matter what, Sasuke would not stoop so low as to use that blasted website for entertainment. And all the 'requests' sent by his 'Facebook friends' for 'Facebook games' only served to annoy him.

All the same, account or not, Sasuke was still currently bored.

He stood up from his desk and walked over to his bookshelf on the other side of his room.

While he looked for a stimulating novel, he took a moment to himself to internally thank his parents for paying a hefty sum as a 'donation to the school' so that he was able to have a single for every year that he was attending Konoha University.

It was only his second year at the school, but he had already leant last year as a freshman as to how grateful he was for not having a roommate.

Thanks to his parents' donation, he was not forced to live in the dorm with communal bathrooms and was instead granted a suite style dorm—a dorm shared by freshman and sophomores—with two others on the opposite side of their bathroom who were also from privileged families such as his; Neji Hyuuga and Sai, both a year ahead of him. The three of them got along fairly well; well enough to consider each other as friends rather than simply acquaintances.

Although they were relatively well off with their out suites, they were very well aware of others in their same dorm, let alone on their same floor, who were not as civilized to say the least.

Loud noises, messy rooms, and questionable odors were only at the tip of the iceberg of complaints they had about their fellow 'classmates'.

The new dorm they lived in, still suitemates with each other, was better as it cost more on average than the ones freshmen were traditionally housed in—and thus was an excellent way to weed out such annoying commoners they had previously been forced to live near—but iceberg would still continuously exist for as long as they lived on campus.

Judging by the noise from somewhere down the hall, Sasuke assumed that the people in that room certainly did not have any shortage of activities to do. And apparently, they required alcohol and loud noise.

He indulged himself by rolling his dark eyes as he stood up, book in hand. He did not envy those Neanderthals in the slightest. It certainly sounded like the idiots down the hall were indulging themselves in celebration that it was 'Thirsty Thursday', with no thought whatsoever that they had classes the next day. If it was who Sasuke thought it was, the idiots on the last door of the opposite end of the hall, then they would certainly feel the repercussions of their foolishness during their eight A.M. labs, as they had—loudly—complained about after their first 'Thirsty Thursday' celebration during the first week of school.

Sasuke walked over to his couch that his mother had chosen for him sometime last year when he was still in classes. Itachi had told him that she had done so in a fit of empty nest syndrome, so he had sucked it up and accepted the gift graciously, as was expected by an Uchiha; even if the gift was from a family member.

He sat down and began to read, but he was still bored and generally disinterested, so his mind was not focused on the words on the pages in front of him.

When his phone buzzed, notifying that he had just received a text message, he was not sorry in the least to put the book down.

He unlocked his phone, and saw that the text he had received was from Neji. 'Dinner?' it read.

'Where?' Sasuke replied. Last year, they were more formal with each other, and would write out the full question to invite members of their small group of friends to dine with each other. But as they got closer, the messages they sent to one another had gotten shorter to only one word for meal plans.

His phone buzzed again.

'Sai wants to go to that Italian place we went to last month. He already invited the others.'

Sasuke had to yet again suppress himself from sighing as he replied that he would go with them.

He had no problem with the choice of restaurant Sai had requested. The food was spectacular, and the owners knew who they were—or at least knew their family names—so they got special treatment.

What he did have a problem with, though, was that Sai had invited the 'others', meaning the ladies.

Hinata Hyuuga, Neji's younger cousin, was acceptable. She was polite in the refined way expected from the heir of Hyuuga Inc. Sasuke never had any qualms with her. At first, he thought that he would, since she would not speak to him when Neji introduced them to his cousin. But he soon learned that her lack of speech was because she was shy—almost painfully so—and was slightly embarrassed by how she would stutter because of that.

She, too, lived in a single to herself. Rather than using their donation to give Neji a single for his four years as he was bound to become at least the president, if not the vice CEO, of the family business, the Hyuugas ensured that Hinata would have singles in her own suite style rooms. Everyone agreed it was for the best, especially Neji, who was the one who insisted that this arrangement be done. Their whole family was worried that because of Hinata's shy and pacifist nature that others—such as a potential roommate—would take advantage of this and use Hinata's wealth and connections for their own selfish gains.

Her suitemates, though, the two ladies that also made up 'the others' Sai had invited were the true problem.

Their names were Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka; or as Sasuke referred to them in his head, the banes of his existence.

Both girls came from affluent families; relatively new money.

Mr. Haruno was a well-known doctor. There was not much more Sasuke needed to know, yet he knew all the inner workings of the Haruno household, right down to the new maid hired over the summer who apparently looked at Sakura the wrong way when she was getting ready to go out with some friends. Sasuke did not care, never shown any indication that he was remotely close to caring. But still, little Miss Sakura Haruno insisted that Sasuke be updated—by her—with everything to do with herself.

Ino Yamanaka was just as bad, in Sasuke's opinion; except she was better at not talking about her family life...but instead was a notorious gossip. No one on campus was safe from her, not even those who had thought they were not even blips on the social radar.

But through the combined power of the two banes of Sasuke's existence, the Uchiha also knew that Mr. Yamanaka was a highly respected psychiatrist, as was his father before him. They were still new money in comparison to the Uchihas, or even the Hyuugas, but old money in comparison to the Harunos.

As if their constant stream of inane babble was not enough, both fancied themselves to be Sasuke's future wife. Sakura Haruno was guilty of this in particular.

Both had most likely been told by their mothers to marry rich. And since Sasuke came from the wealthiest family at this school, their sights were set on him. Fortunately, though, neither girl wanted to lead a life as a housewife and were actively pursuing careers for themselves to follow in their fathers' footsteps, but the idea to marry rich as still in their heads.

Ino's view of this was broad. While her sights were on Sasuke for the moment, she was still open for some other rich man from a wealthy family to sweep her off her feet.

Sakura, however, was determined to make Sasuke her wealthy husband.

To say it was annoying would be a gross understatement of the very word.

Sasuke had to suppress a third sigh as he got up to grab a sports jacket from his closet. The restaurant they were going to was high class, hence the jacket, and was quite the hotspot for couples in love.

The banes of his existence were going to be hell, he knew it.

He grabbed his wallet and his keys by the door. As he did so, he made sure it was locked, as was his habit when he lived on campus due to the drunkards that were common on campus. He turned off his light and made way for the bathroom.

Sasuke knocked on his suitemates' door from the joined bathroom to announce his entrance as he walked into their room.

Both Neji and Sai were putting on their own sports jackets. Neji's was a pale color while Sai's was a black jacket. Ino had once commented that those two roommates' choice in colors were opposing, like yin and yang. She was ignored, though. None of the men cared about the colors of their clothes much, apart from looking presentable. It would be a disgrace to their family names if they were to dress like the commoners of their school, wearing torn jeans and dank T-Shirts.

The three shared silent greetings, and then the two roommates grabbed their own wallets and keys and they were off.

They walked quickly by the other rooms in their dorm hall. Sasuke was found to be correct; the loud, drunk idiots were the room next to the elevator.

As they entered the elevator to go down to the first floor, Neji said, "Hinata will not be joining us this evening."

"Why not?" Sasuke asked. He did not care either way, but he had found that his life was simpler if he was seated next to Neji's shy cousin. She knew how much Sasuke disliked how the banes of his existence would bring up romantic ideas—for the usually involved him in the future—so she would politely steer clear of such topics.

Neji's pale eyes narrowed as he said, "She had been invited to eat with some friends from class at the cafeteria tonight, and she had chosen to accept."

Sasuke nodded his understanding.

Sai spoke up, "She called us earlier to explain herself. I believe she did so to alleviate her guilty feelings for not telling us earlier. She wanted us to apologize on her behalf to you, and has assured that the people she will be dining with are her friends and won't let anything happen to her. It sounded like there were others in her room when she called, and they were the ones who added in that last part."

They had probably needed to make sure to mention that Hinata would be safe with them, for it was well known to anybody who knew the Hyuuga heiress that her older cousin was fiercely protective of her.

Sasuke nodded his understanding again. He did not reply verbally, and he did not need to. Sai had been adopted to his current family, but he had a traumatic childhood that had caused him to suppress his emotions to deal with it. He had chosen psychology as his major to better understand emotions in general, and he often explained events out loud as his own psychiatrist had suggested.

Neji and Sasuke had no problem with this quirk of his, and at times had fun with it. Sai was honest—sometimes brutally so—when he thought out loud. So the two others would sometimes ask Sai for his opinion on other people who were within hearing range, many times the banes of Sasuke's existence, and Sai would reply honestly, and would often point out the person's flaws and insecurities. Sure, they might have been taking advantage of Sai's quirk, but it was too humorous to stop.

As they stepped out of the elevator, Sasuke internally mused that Hinata probably would not eat much at the cafeteria. The five of them—seven if counting her annoying suitemates—rarely ate there because of how utterly bland and distasteful the food was there; not to mention the disgusting students who regularly ate there.

Hinata had probably been too polite to disincline the invitation to eat with her classmates.

"Hello, ladies," Sasuke heard Sai call out. Sai had been told that women preferred to be called 'ladies', and so he called them that.

Looking around, the Uchiha saw that Sai was greeting Sakura and Ino, who were waiting for them.

Yet again, Sasuke found himself needing to suppress another sigh.

The two girls started walking towards them, revealing that they were dressed in—most likely new—dresses and needlessly tall heels. They, too, must be new since the girls were slightly wobbling in them and taking shaky steps that Sasuke had come to associate with those two wearing new shoes they had yet to break in.

No doubt that along with the inane chatter, there would also be complaints about sore feet. Never mind that they were inviting the pain onto themselves, the way they would intentionally wear these new shoes to places where there would be a fair amount of walking. None of that mattered to these girls, though, who were apparently set on making sure Sasuke and the other two boys knew exactly what kind of pain their feet were in.

Dinner was going to be annoying.

Commoner's love

As Sasuke had predicted, the idiots down the hall were certainly paying for their mistakes last night.

He walked past them on his way to the elevator to class as they were coming back from their morning lab. They were groaning to each other, darkly blaming each other for not keeping count of how many shots they had taken.

Sasuke allowed himself a smirk as the elevator doors closed behind him. It was always satisfying to see idiot commoners paying for their foolishness.

When he reached the bottom floor, it took no time at all for him to exit the dorm. The air was cold, but at ten in the morning of October eleventh, that was to be expected. His black sweater was enough to keep Sasuke from getting too cold. Besides, the buildings themselves would not be freezing as they had turned off the air conditioning near the beginning of the month.

He made his way to his class, statistics in the science wing. It went along with his major in Business, and it was an easy A.

The classroom was on the second floor, but after being on campus for more than a year, this hardly bothered Sasuke; especially since all the introductory classes were on the upper floors and the school had yet to install elevators in the older buildings that the business classes took part in.

After he entered the room, he made his way to his seat.

He sat by the wall in the corner, a habit he had started in high school to escape the heightened chance of being stuck near loud, foolish girls intent on making him fall in love with them due to the proximity of his desk to theirs.

Next to him was Hinata Hyuuga, who was seated between himself and Neji. Her elder cousin had insisted on this, as apparently the heiress had a tendency to feel incredibly sympathetic to those with test anxiety and had offered for someone to cheat off her test in high school. In between the two buys, Hinata would be safe from those who would hone in on this weakness of hers and use it to their advantage.

Sasuke knew that sometimes Neji took his overprotectiveness to new levels, especially during last year when Hinata was a freshman, but after spending much time with the shy girl, Sasuke had begun to understand where the protective urge came from. He himself got mad at someone in one of the girl's other classes who had tried to convince her to buy the class some snacks as a reward for finishing finals. That boy soon learned to stay the hell away from any of the Hyuugas.

After Sasuke placed his bag down and got out his notebook and pencil, Hinata offered him a quiet greeting and handed him a coffee.

He accepted with a polite thanks, causing the girl to smile to herself.

The coffee was a little routine Hinata had shyly asked her cousin and Sasuke to take a part of with her. On Mondays Neji would buy the coffees, on Wednesdays Sasuke would, and Hinata would buy them for the three of them on Fridays.

When asked why she wanted to do this, Hinata's face resembled a tomato as she stuttered out, fidgeting her two pointer fingers and looking down, that a friend of hers did so with their roommate and another friend for their morning class together and that they said Hinata should try it. It had taken a long time for her to fully stutter her answer, so Sasuke did not ask for anything more on the subject, though he did note to himself that she had blushed more when talking about this friend of hers more than she had ever done before.

They still had a while for the class to start, so Sasuke asked, "How was your dinner last night?"

Hinata jumped a little and flushed as well. "Um," she said quietly, looking down and twiddling her pointer fingers together, "It w-was actually v-v-very f-f-fun!"

Sasuke did not answer verbally, but rather nodded as a silent gesture for Hinata to continue before taking a sip of his coffee.

She blushed even more, if what was even possible, and said, "I-I-It was a fr-fr-friends b-birthday yest-yesterday and a-a couple of u-us wan-wanted to th-throw him a s-s-surprise par-party. B-B-but none o-of us h-h-have a kitch-tchen s-so d-d-dinner was in th-th-the caf-cafeteria. W-we asked th-the chefs-s be-before t-to m-m-make a cake s-s-so we a-all s-s-sang h-him 'H-H-Happy Birthday' wh-when th-they gave h-him h-h-his cake."

Sasuke nodded again.

Neji took a sip of his own coffee before he said on her behalf, "After they had finished their meal in the cafeteria, the group proceeded to celebrate Hinata's friend's birthday in his dorm room."

"B-But th-there was n-no a-a-alcohol," Hinata intervened. Sasuke supposed it was for Neji's benefit. After all, they were college students living on campus at a large university. Underage drinking was an assumed given at any campus. Birthdays on campus usually involved copious amounts of alcohol no matter what age it was.

"Inst-stead," Hinata turned back to looking at her fingers, "w-we w-watched Dis-Disney movies."

"Disney?" Sasuke asked, a little off guard. He had never heard of a birthday on campus celebrated in such a childish way; he was far more used to overhearing stories about getting wasted and not remembering what happened.

Hinata nodded, ""Th-there w-w-was a v-vote for sc-sc-scary m-movies bec-because it is Oct-October," she paused, smiling a little to herself, "B-but I-I don't li-like sc-scary m-movies, s-so N-Naruto said n-no."

"Naruto?" Sasuke asked.

"That's whose birthday it was," Neji answered for Hinata as her face reddened again.

Sasuke nodded his understanding. Then the professor walked through the door with papers in hand. It was probably a sheet with some polls, or some news clipping; the professor enjoyed showing his students how statistics was a very useful tool in the real world by taking examples from current or historical events.

"U-um," Hinata stuttered.

Both Neji and Sasuke turned their heads to face her, slightly surprised that she spoke after the professor entered the room. Usually she was silent and would not speak until asked a direct question.

"D-do you…" she took a breath, "d-d-do you w-w-wan-want t-to m-meet my fr-friends?"

"Of course," Neji responds, almost immediately. His pale eyes were softer than usual. Sasuke glanced over at him, but did not have time to discern much as Hinata turned her head to face him.

Sasuke agreed as well, feeling quite reluctant to do so. But, it was as if he had no choice.

Hinata smiled, and informed them quietly, with her standard stutters, that she had already asked Sakura and Ino while they were putting on their makeup this morning and that they had both agreed to meet Hinata's friends as well.

This was the first time Hinata had straightforward asked Sasuke and her suitemates to be involved with her life, hence why Neji's expression had softened. The Uchiha was willing to bet that this was a rare moment for the elder cousin as well, with the way that Hinata was never apt to ask others for favors.

The professor handed out the sheets of paper to signal that class had started. When he received his sheet, Sasuke saw that the paper had the results of a poll about the country's current views on gay marriage.

He took a sip of his coffee and wondered what type of people he would be meeting that apparently thought watching Disney movies were the proper way to celebrate a birthday.

Commoner's Love

There were not many classes after two in the afternoon, so they had agreed to meet Hinata's friend in the quad near their dorms.

None of them preferred food from the cafeteria, so they had gone out for some Chinese takeout after their last class of the day was done.

The quad they had chosen was one of the more populated ones, as it was by the cafeteria and dorms. But they had found a tree to themselves and sat down by it.

It was a rather large tree, and it was quite famous on campus for Konoha University; it was on all the official brochures and everything. They even had pictures on the official website of classes being taught under this tree, but everyone knew that those type of things only happened on days they were advertising for the university.

Still, it was comfortable, and it was also the unofficial guardian of the campus. It was the reason they were the 'Leaf' University; something the student body had taken in stride. There was also a tradition on the ridiculous side for students to place offerings to the tree during Finals Week. No one knew when this had started, but it would certainly be kept for years to come.

While they waited, the six of them shared in idle small talk. Ino was excited for her professor bringing in her children in her developmental psychology course. Sai had inadvertently insulted Sakura's outfit when he had openly wondered why she would wear such a low cut shirt on a day that required most to wear a sweater to keep warm, insinuating that she had very loose morals about her sexuality, to put it in a polite way; which he had not.

He had gotten a punch to the jaw while Ino yelled at him on Sakura's behalf, and Hinata was fretting between the three of them, unsure of whom she should help. Sasuke and Neji, however, smirked to themselves as they knew without a doubt that the reasoning for Sakura's choice in revealing clothing was to hopefully catch Sasuke's eye; which it had not.

The three that were bickering were interrupted by a loud, "HINATA!"

The six of them by the tree turned their heads to see who had shouted.

A guy in a green sweater was waving wildly as he ran towards them; a girl wearing a light pink jacket was not too far behind him.

The guy reached them first, and had exclaimed that he was first quite loudly before he turned around and reached out his hand.

Behind him, Sasuke and Neji shared a look that they had clearly made a mistake in agreeing with Hinata to meet her…friends.

The reason the guy had held out his hand was soon revealed as the girl ran by and slapped it hard in a high five.

"Excellent!" the green sweater wearing guy with a brilliant bowl cut cheered as the girl bent over to catch her breath, "Only six seconds behind me! You are certainly getting faster!"

"Six….seconds…." she heaved deep breaths between every word, "is still…too large….of…a gap…"

"You must not be too harsh on yourself!" the guy exclaimed, walking over to her and letting her lean against him as she stood up.

"Really, TenTen," a new voice said from behind them. Upon focusing on the source, Sasuke saw that a guy with a ponytail and a lazy expression was speaking, "You're running against the school's leading track star, and you are complaining about six seconds?"

"Indeed," another person, someone wearing a hoodie and sunglasses, "you need not feel ashamed. Why? Because you have ran faster than some of Lee's teammates."

A third guy—a rather fat fellow—walked up from behind the others and offered the girl, TenTen, a water bottle.

She took it gratefully and threw her head back as she gulped down the water with enthusiasm.

As she did so, the guy in green exclaimed, "Yes! TenTen has indeed improved on her running speed! Yet none of you seem to have done so." He said this in a cheery tone, clearly not accusatory even if the words sounded like he was blaming them for anything.

The fat guy groaned, "C'mon, Lee! Don't make us run again."

"But these are the years that we are in our prime! It would be a waste to not make the most of it!" the Lee guy told the others, striking a pose.

The guy with the ponytail sighed and said, "We'll leave the active things to you two sports people, and the two other idiots."

The fat guy nodded along and produced a bag of chips from somewhere on his person. "Yeah, and we'll take care of the wasting away for you guys."

Lee looked like he was going to say something in reply, but the girl leaning against him slapped him on the shoulder and said, "Aren't we forgetting something?"

He looked at her questioningly, but she gestured towards Sasuke and the five others by the tree with him.

Lee turned around, revealing that not only did he have one of the worst bowl cuts known to man, but he also had the largest eyebrows anyone had ever seen!

"Hello!" Lee exclaimed loudly with a polite wave, "My name is Lee, and it is so very nice to meet y—"

He suddenly cut himself off as his surprisingly wide eyes spotted Sakura, who flinched a little under his scrutiny.

The man was silent for about two more seconds before he burst out, "MY LADY!"

The girl who was leaning on him let loose an indignant squawk as Lee lunged forwards and kneeled upon one knee in front of Sakura. Luckily, the ponytail guy caught TenTen.

"YOU ARE TRULY THE FAIREST MAIDEN I HAVE EVER LAID MY EYES UPON!" Lee shouted dramatically to the pink haired girl in front of him. She looked like she was very human incarnation of humiliated and creeped out, but Lee's friends did not seem surprised by his outburst.

Instead, the girl walked up behind him and smacked the back of his head. She then turned to face Hinata and said, "Hey, Hinata. Want to introduce us?"

"Uh-um, wh-where are N-" she began to ask.

"They are running a bit late. They got caught up with talking to one of the cafeteria chefs. But they promised they won't be too long," TenTen cut Hinata off with a small wave of her hand and an easy smile.

Hinata blushed a little and nodded. She stood up, while the other five stayed seated on the ground.

She turned around to face the five on the ground and said quietly, "Um, thes-these are my f-f-friends."

She gestured towards the girl, who had styled her brown hair into two buns on her head, and said, "Th-this is T-T-TenTen."

TenTen smiled and said, "Hey," as a greeting. She then used a single arm to pull Lee upwards from his kneeling in front of Sakura.

"And th-this is-s L-Lee," Hinata said as she gestured towards Lee.

"Will you be my girlfriend?" Lee asked Sakura, ignoring everything and everyone else.

Sakura was shocked into silence, though anyone could see that her expression clearly stated a firm NO.

"Uh-uh-um," Hinata stuttered, turning everyone's attention from Lee and Sakura to herself. She blushed at the attention and continued introducing people, "Th-this is Shi-Shikamaru,"

Shikamaru said nothing, but rather barely lifted his arm in greeting as he openly yawned.

"A-and thi-this is Ch-Chouji," Hinata gestured towards the fat guy.

"Hey there," he said. The greeting would have been well met with how polite he sounded, but he had said so between bites of his chips. Sasuke did not blame Sakura for shrinking back a bit.

"And th-th-this is Sh-Sh-Shino, he w-w-was in one o-o-of m-my classes l-l-last y-year," Hinata explained, gesturing towards the boy in a hoodie with sunglasses on.

He nodded as a greeting, but did not say a word.

It was not hard to tell that Sasuke and the others were severely underwhelmed with the 'friends' Hinata had chosen. But, they had all been raised properly—which was much more than what could be said about the fools in front of them—and that dictated polite introductions from their side as well.

But being polite was only a courtesy for those of the same social and economic standing as they, so they needed not to waste it on these commoners.

"Hello," Neji greeted, though he did not stand up like he would have for more worthwhile people, "I'm Hinata's cousin, Neji."

They would have moved on, but Lee and TenTen suddenly looked at each other, and then back at Neji in unison.

"Hey, I think you're in our year," TenTen said, looking at Lee for confirmation.

Lee nodded, "Indeed. I believe I remember you from orientation. We had worked together in those teamwork exercises! You were most helpful!"

"Of course," Neji said as he recognized the two in front of him.

There was a silence for a moment, but it did not last long.

"Hi!" Ino chirped, she did not stand up either, but her inner cheerleader from high school—as she had reminded them often—had come out as she said, "I'm Ino Yamanaka."

"I'm Sakura Haruno," Sakura greeted after her roommate, though not as cheerily as the blonde did.

"SO THAT IS MY BEAUTIFUL BLOSSOM'S NAME," Lee burst out, once again kneeling in front of Sakura, who had squeaked a little and shrunk behind Ino.

TenTen was about to pull Lee up—by the ear by the looks of it—when they heard a loud, "YO! WATCH OUT!"

Everyone turned to the source of the noise, and Ino and Sakura shrieked as a soccer ball flew towards them.

But it did not hit them, for Lee jumped up and caught the ball before it could.

He turned around and declared, "By my life, I give you my word that I shall never let harm near you," and he topped it off with a wink.

Sakura cringed and shivered with thinly veiled disgust.

TenTen grabbed the ball out of Lee's hands and called put, "What's the big idea here?"

Sasuke leaned back and saw that she was talking to two approaching figures; a blonde and a brunette.

The blonde said, "It looked like Lee was traumatizing some poor girl, so I thought that I would help her out a little."

"By throwing a ball at her head?" deadpanned TenTen.

The two of them caught up with the rest of the group. "Nah," the brunette said, "He was aiming for Lee's head, but we all know that Naruto is a terrible shot."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" the blonde exclaimed. Then he tackled—tackled—the brunette to the ground and they started to wrestle with each other.

"I said—umph—that you're a…. terrible shot!" the brunette grunted as he flipped the blonde over and pinned him down.

"The hell I am!" the blonde retorted, pushing forwards and succeeded in switching their positions.

The brunette moved so they were both on their sides grappling at each other, "Yes you are, you fu—"

"WAIT!" the blonde exclaimed, freezing.

The brunette froze as well.

The blonde stared deep into the brunette's brown eyes with his own blue eyes, both breathing heavily, and said, quietly, barely above a whisper yet everyone was silent enough to hear it, "We're in the presence of a Lady."

Both gasped in an overdramatic, cheesy way, and in unison, they stood up.

It looked like they were headed to Sakura and Ino, who were attempting to suppress grins as they clearly thought that the blonde was referring to one of them. But then they took a side step and walked directly to Hinata without saying a word.

When they reached her, they knelt down in front of her—like Lee had before Sakura—and bowed their heads.

"We apologize, my dear Lady," the brunette said in a dramatic tone.

"Yes, please forgive us," the blonde said in the same tone of voice. There was a pause, and then the blonde added, "Although it's really this guy's fault," he bumped his shoulder against the brunette's, "so you should forgive me and leave him in the doghouse where he belongs."

The brunette shoved his shoulder back at the blonde in retaliation, but did not say anything.

The friends of the two idiots kneeling were trying to suppress laughter behind their hands, but failed in being silent as muffled laughter was regularly heard.

Hinata giggled and nodded.

"You have to say it, or else we'll stay like this," the brunette told Hinata, who blushed in response.

"Y-you are f-forgiven," Hinata stuttered.

The two boys leapt up with positive exclamations and bowed deeply in front of her, each grabbing one of her hands.

"We are truly thankful for your forgiveness, my Lady," the blonde said theatrically. And with that, the two of them kissed Hinata's hands and then stood up.

Hinata blushed so fiercely, Sasuke was a little worried that she might pass out.

Instantly, Neji was by her side.

The two laughed easily as the blonde said, "One of these days you'll get used to us, Hinata."

"And who might you be?" Neji practically hissed.

"Us?" the blonde grabbed the brunette's shoulder and pulled him to his side.

"Yes, you," said Neji, his overprotectiveness rearing its head.

The blonde smiled widely, making Sasuke notice that the blonde actually had whiskers on his cheeks, fucking whiskers! And the brunette beside him had red triangles tattooed on his cheeks!

Fucking commoners.

The blonde said, "My name is Kiba, and this is Naruto!"

"No, you idiot!" the brunette said, "I'M Kiba, and YOU are Naruto!"

The blonde's expression was aghast, "But…but I've always been Kiba!"

The brunette—Naruto…Kiba…whoever—was trying to maintain a glare, but it kept failing as the blonde went around to their friends telling them that they knew the truth, that he was Kiba.

Finally, the brunette burst out laughing, along with all of those friends; including Hinata, who was giggling into her hands.

Neji, however, was not laughing.

He cleared his throat.

It was futile, though, as the others kept on laughing, even Shino behind the collar of his hoodie.

Hinata touched Neji's shoulder, smiling, and said, "He," gesturing towards the brunette, "is K-Kiba. And he," gesturing towards the blonde, who was leaning on the fatty as he laughed, "is N-N-N-Naruto."

After they were properly introduced, Naruto and Kiba stopped laughing, though they still had cheery grins on their faces.

"Alright!" Naruto cheered, grabbing the ball from TenTen's hands, "Now who wants to play a bit of soccer?"

Shikamaru groaned, "You guys are determined to keep me from my daily nap."

Chouji laughed and hang an arm around Shikamaru's shoulder, "C'mon, you know those two will only make it worse for us later if we don't agree now."

Shikamaru remained unenthusiastic, "Doesn't that qualify as torture in some countries?" he asked.

Kiba shrugged, "Wouldn't know; YOU'RE the international studies major."

Shikamaru was about to answer, but he could not, in favor of catching the ball that was thrown at his face.

"Alright!" Naruto cheered again, "Regular teams then?"

"You can be on our team," Kiba said to Hinata as he offered her his hand.

"A-are you s-s-sure?" Hinata asked timidly, looking at the others who were about to head towards the center of the quad.

Naruto smiled at her a blinding grin, making Hinata blush yet again, and said, "Of course! You're our important friend!"

"Besides," Kiba chimed in, "this way, the teams are even. If we don't have you, it would just be me, Shino, and Lee against the others."

Hinata faced downwards and said quietly, "A-A-Alright…"

Naruto and Kiba cheered, and the others smiled and said words of encouragement to Hinata as well.

They were about to head out, when Neji said, "Hold it."

Most of them turned around, but Naruto and Kiba decided to take things up a notch and struck poses, and held each other in place to help each other balance.

Hinata looked worried, "I-is th-th-there a-a-a-a pr-pr-prob-b-blem, N-Neji?"

Whatever Neji was about to say was lost as his cousin fidgeted with obvious discomfort and anxiety, so he just said, "We have yet to introduce ourselves to the rest of your friends."

Hinata's face lit up in relief as she said, "Oh! W-Well, u-uh,"

"Nah, no need."

The five still sitting by the tree turned their attention towards Naruto, who had abandoned his ridiculous pose, but was not looking back at them.

"Excuse me?" Neji asked, his pale eyes narrowing a little.

Naruto turned back to face them, all of them, and said with a smile so wide he squinted a bit, "I said there's no need. You don't care about us. We are below your social standing, and not worth the effort. You're going to forget our names as soon as we leave, so there's no need for us to learn your names."

His smile was still wide, but he opened his startlingly blue eyes, that clearly did not reflect the joy his smile was supposedly portraying and said, "We're just a bunch of commoners to you, and you are nothing more than another group of preppies."

With that, Naruto turned to leave. He ran up to Shikamaru, and grabbed the ball out of his hands, laughing as he did so. "LOSING TEAM PAYS FOR COFFEE FOR THE REST OF THE MONTH!"

Kiba immediately ran after him, "SCREW YOU, YOU DON'T EVEN LIKE COFFEE!"

"BUT I LOVE THE SMEEEEEELLLLLL," Naruto called back, laughter in his voice again.

Those left behind were still stunned, but the group of friends recovered quickly, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Shikamaru sighed deeply and mumbled, "Troublesome," as he placed his hands inside his pockets and made his way to where the other two went.

"There's no way we're going to lose!" Chouji called out after Shikamaru.

"Of course not," Shikamaru's voice drawled, sounding every bit as bored as his posture suggested.

TenTen touched Hinata's shoulder, "Hey, you still want to play?" she asked in a gentle tone.

"I…I" Hinata stuttered, a little flustered, probably torn from between obviously wanting to play and staying with her seething friends by the tree.

"You need not be ashamed if you cannot play with us," Shino said, seemingly appearing out of nowhere at Hinata's side, "Why? Because we know that you have wanted to play ever since Naruto and Kiba promised to teach you how, and we would not hold your cousin or friends holding you back."

"Exactly!" Lee cheered, standing a respectful distance from the Hyuuga heiress, smiling widely at her, "And you do not need to feel bad about lopsided teams if you cannot join us! Chouji and Shikamaru usually take turns sitting out of the game to keep things even."

TenTen laughed as she squeezed Hinata's shoulder, "If they had their way, BOTH of them would be allowed to sit out of the games Naruto and Kiba make us play. But you know Naruto; he never lets anyone feel left out if he can help it."

Shino patted Hinata's back gently, "Those two are going to insist on doing a warm up shot against each other, so you have plenty of time to make up your mind."

With that, the three remaining friends started to jog their way to the others. Shino seemed to be speed-walking, while TenTen was actually jogging and Lee was simply bounding away at a controlled, slow pace.

Hinata fidgeted minutely, and kept quiet. Her own pale eyes were set on the ground.

Neji walked up to her and said, "You should go play with them."

Hinata's head shot up, as she stuttered, "R-r-rea-really?"

Neji nodded his confirmation.

She did not need telling twice. She gave her cousin a hug, and she speed walked to catch up with the other three, who stopped once they noticed her approaching and waited for her.

After a moment, when Hinata was out of hearing range, Sakura announced, "I don't like them."

"Oh c'mon," Ino laughed, clearly amused, "You're just saying that because that Lee guy creeped you out."

"DUH!" Sakura practically shrieked, shuddering a little. "What's wrong with him?! Has he done that before to anyone else?"

Ino shook her head, "Nope. You're the only one he's done that to!" The gossip simply laughed in amusement as her roommate shuddered again.

"Well, besides that," Sakura said, moving on from that Lee guy, "I don't like that Naruto guy. Calling us a bunch of preppies, BAH!" she scowled.

"I now, right?" Ino agreed with Sakura, and then she turned to face Neji, "Why did you even let Hinata go with them? Usually you're all 'Mr. Protective'!"

Sasuke agreed with her, though he did not admit it out loud. Instead, he turned his head to face Neji as well, to show that he, too, was interested in the answer.

"I don't like them either," Neji told them, "But they seem to be Hinata's friends nonetheless. She is old enough to be making these decisions by herself."

Sasuke stood up, gaining the attention of the two girls. He added in his two cents, "Besides, it's like that blonde guy said: they are not worth the effort. After we graduate, we'll be working on our careers, while they will probably end up pumping gas or running numbers for a living."

He did not need to turn around to know that Sakura and Ino were grinning. "That's right!" Sakura chimed in. He heard some shuffling around, which meant that they were standing up as well.

But he didn't care; Sasuke continued to walk back to his single room in his dorm.

It was like that blonde kid said: there was no need to learn some commoner's name that he would eventually forget.

Though try as he might, Sasuke just could not get those whiskers or blue eyes out of his head.

And that was the chapter.

Ahhhh, oh nooooo, I'm starting another story. Yes, ANOTHER story. But it's ok; it won't get in the way of my other updates…much.

See, I've had THIS story in my head ever since I created my account and began writing Enslaved Angel and The Ultimate Weapon. But I wanted to make sure I had an entire outline to plan out beforehand, so that took about a couple months. THEN I made myself all set on making this story go along with the actual timeline of reality (for myself as I write it, and those who are reading it along the way). But I missed my deadline to write this first chapter last year, and I was all, "Oh well, NBD," because I was working on other stories.

But I'm not skipping out another year, so yes, another story. But these are mostly pre-written (hopefully) and set to a timeline, so no worries. Out of the way—mostly—from the other updates.

So please review, and let me know what you think of it! I've worked really hard on creating the complete outline, full of little details, and I am eager to see if they are noticed or not.

See you next chapter!