I don't own Naruto. AND I'M SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING SOONER. I've been tied down with exams and basically, I fail at life. Thank you so much for the continued feedback! :)

Confessions On A Bathrooom Stall

TheDominoEffect

Hinata twirled the thin rod of metal between her fingertips. She took another passing glance at the half sewn piece of cloth in her lap and sighed. It was futile. Trying to concentrate in sewing today was clearly an impossible task—

"You! You stupid piece of cloth, I will poke holes through you with strings, believe it!"

—and she was pretty sure it was thanks to the recent transfer into her class. The day before, Naruto had gotten his schedule changed after sewing, leaving her completely unsuspecting today. But today, lo and behold, came the loud mouthed blonde. The temptation to poke the needle through someone's eyeball became overwhelming, causing her to set it down onto the table. Her first objective would be to get the blonde to shut up if she wanted to sew in peace.

"Naruto…" Hinata started, extending a hand over the boy's shoulder.

Said boy blinked in response, the needle in his hand dangerously close to Hinata's eye. She laughed nervously, forcefully lowering his arm.

"Oh, you're Sakura's friend. Hinata, right?" He grinned, shooting her a brief wave, the needle swinging along. "At least I know someone in this class!"

Had it not been rude, Hinata would have snorted. Some people? Naruto was obviously friends with everyone in this class. She glanced from a girl with tissue stuffed up her congested nose to a scrawny looking boy taping his glasses together. Reluctantly, she looked over his toned arms and golden bronze skin. He gave his light blonde hair a shake and then focused his cobalt eyes intently on the…object in his hand. "Naruto. What are you trying to make?"

He blinked innocently and gave his head a slight tilt. "I'm supposed to be making something in particular?"

She was suddenly grateful she put her needle down, or she'd be facing charges and burdened with finding Naruto a new eye. Deciding to drop the nice approach, she sighed and settled a hand on her hip. "Uzumaki. Why are you here?" She glanced around pointedly, a brow quirked. "It's not exactly your social scene."

"Why not? Everyone here looks nice." At that moment, a lanky girl with uneven braids and tilted square glasses tripped over a chair leg, subsequently smashing a sewing machine into the ground. He frowned, the genuine look of confusion on his face paining Hinata slightly. "Okay. It was either this or Domestic Engineering with Orochimaru. Class size of 0."

Hinta grimaced. "You mean that creepy janitor?"

"The one with the long tongue?" He nodded with confirmation. "He gives me the creeps. I'd rather be sewing than learning how to fix clogged toilets. I don't enjoy smelling like shit all day, and sewing's cool."

When Hinata replied with unconvinced eyes, he laughed. "I'm serious. It's pretty chill how you guys make all this cool stuff with your bare hands. And without sewing we'd all be you know, walking around in our birthday suits or something."

At this, Hinata did giggle, despite the animosity she felt towards the boy for hurting Sakura. "Well," she ran a hand over the table top. "—We do use sewing machines a lot, so it's not exactly by hand. Here, let me show you how to do this."

He stuttered as she took the needle from him. "B-but." He scratched the back of his head. "I don't even know what I'm going to make yet."

She blinked in his direction, the needle in her hand. A smile made its way onto her face. "How about a cherry blossom?"

Nice as he was being, the guilt in his eyes did somewhat make Hinata feel better. Not because she was sadistic—but it indicated that he was a good enough person to still care.

It was nice to wear his jersey around, Sasuke decided as he leaned forward against the black table top of his chemistry desk. He could also attribute his good mood to the fact that Naruto was no longer in his chemistry class, leaving the room peacefully quiet.

He snuck a quiet glance at his lab partner for the first term, Karin, who replaced whoever the absent person was that he was originally matched up with. He didn't know much about Karin except for the fact that she had a somewhat scary obsession with him a few years back that, due to unknown reasons, had gone away.

He didn't know the reasons, but he was grateful.

"We're doing our tryouts while you have your practice today," she said offhandedly in his direction.

"Yeah…" he murmured. It was then that it actually occurred to Sasuke—the girls' team was still recruiting. In a spur of uncharacteristic curiosity, Sasuke asked, "Who's your captain?"

The genuine surprise on her face made Sasuke frown. Why was it so surprising that he would try to continue the conversation? She quickly recovered and turned to face him. "Haruno Sakura."

The other best friend, huh.

He nodded his head in acknowledgement and she continued. "It should be interesting."

Sasuke blinked, quickly trying to decide if he should bother pretending that he cared anymore. Oh, why not. "Why?"

Karin let out a breathy laugh. "You'll see."

For some reason, the idea of a little girl with bubblegum pink hair being frightening suddenly became so much more possible.

"You're insane," Megumi hissed, but her tone was laced with the barest hint of concern.

"I think genius is the correct word for it," Ino retorted with the flick of her wrist.

Megumi rolled her eyes and Ino felt a pang of guilt when the first thing that popped into her mind was how boringly dull Megumi's eyes were. She didn't want to be a shallow bitch. "Don't you think this is taking it a little… far?"

Ino pretended to register her words before letting out a snarky laugh. She twirled the straw of the iced orange frappuccino she had just picked up from the school café. "Megumi. How long have you known me?"

Megumi hesitated, but soon, the reluctance in her body language disappeared and was replaced with eager eyes. "You're right." She laughed and hastened her pace slightly to match up with Ino's. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

"Exactly," Ino smiled. But on the inside, she felt like a bitch. The little freshman girl hadn't really done anything that bad. Part of Ino even believed that she hadn't necessarily meant to insult Ino—she had just spoken before her brain had time to process. Everyone let their mouths run off sometimes.

But she was Yamanaka Ino. And everyone knows you do not call Ino's perfectly golden skin "Oompa loompa-ishly orange" (though, Ino even doubted the freshman had used those exact words. Kiss-ups weren't very reliable sources, and the girl didn't have a bitchy reputation) and get away with it.

Which was exactly what brought her here, strolling down the hallway with a bright orange frappuccino in her perfectly smooth hands.

"Where did Hanabi say that little brat's locker was?" Ino turned to Megumi.

"First wing, second locker to the left of room 458." Ino painted a smirk onto her face when they turned the corner. Her blue eyes strolled past a flash of blacks, browns, and a pink before her eyes landed on who she was looking for. Shion something-or-other.

Forcibly shoving the pang of guilt in her chest and swallowing the lump in her throat, she came to a stop at the girl's locker and leaned coyly against the locker next to it.

At this, Shion stiffened and she froze, a book half raised into the top shelf of her locker.

"Hello there." Ino greeted with a double-edged smile—beautiful yet screamingly dangerous.

Shion didn't respond. She shoved her book into her locker and turned hesitantly towards Ino.

Ino gave her a quick glanceover and noted that she actually quite pretty. And her shirt. Designer. Expensive. New.

She felt like complete and utter scum. Her blue eyes rolled towards the frappuccino in her hand, to the people staring with anticipating eyes already surrounding the two. Biting her bottom lip, she tightened her grip on the cup.

"You know, you actually have really pretty hair."

Shion shot her a skeptical look before uttering a "Thanks."

God, Ino really sucked at life. "But it looks really heinous with your pasty skin." Ino's nose cringed upwards. Swiftly and efficiently, she uncapped the drink and with a flick of her wrist, it went flying. With precise aim, it splattered Shion's face, painting it an unflattering shade of chunky orange.

"There. Much better." She gave her one more glance and rested one hand on her hip. "Oompa loompa," she snarled.

She walked away without looking back, but she could hear the laughter of the crowd behind her. It may have seemed like she wasn't looking back because she was who she was, but Ino simply couldn't look at what she had done. She was a coward and a bitchy one at that. The only thing that reassured Ino that she wasn't a complete bitch was that she had avoided staining Shion's new shirt.

Ino laughed bitterly to herself—she was such a pathetic existence.

Sakura could barely believe what she had seen. She didn't even compute. How could anyone be so… horrendous?

She frowned and pulled a tissue out of her purse. She quickly turned to the girl with the locker next to her. She winced at the orange frappuccino still dripping from her face, and the tears the freshman was fighting back.

Sakura didn't say anything—she simply started to wipe the mess off the girl's face.

Sakura didn't know much about her other than the fact Ino was close friends with Naruto, but if anything, she knew the last person she would want to get involved with was Yamanaka Ino. Because Sakura knew that if she thought the girls on the soccer team were bad—Yamanaka Ino would be the epitome of evil.

There were three special tables in the cafeteria right under the fancy glass dome that a bunch of rich parents with extra money chipped in to buy. Like any other high school, Konoha Academy consisted of social hierarchies, and the best place to observe this was none other than the cafeteria.

On the left, by the exit leading to another path to the Academy's outdoor campus, were the potheads and the dropouts who simply had too much money in their family, but who ended up in KA anyway.

To the right were the students labeled "most likely to succeed" or, in Ino's mind, "too snobby to function".

Near the front were the kids who seemed to be content to lie back without much care, using as little effort as possible and consequently accomplishing nothing.

In the back were the classic weirdoes, outcasts to the highest caliber.

And then, there was the center of the courtyard.

There were only three tables in the center and those were reserved for none other than the Populars. Situated in increasing order of popularity, from left to right under the dome, sat the most well-liked of Konoha Academy: the cheerleaders, dancers and the elites.

Though she was the alpha female of Konoha Academy, Ino sat with the first group. She hadn't before, but after becoming team captain, she felt it would be wrong of her not to sit with her team. The other two tables consisted of people that barely even knew each other, but sat together simply because of their high social status—she wanted to change that around.

But after the frappuccino catastrophe, Ino didn't have the energy to take her usual seat next to Megumi. She didn't want people to gush over how awesome she was and applaud her for taking shit from no one. So, for the first time in nearly a year, she walked up to the third table to the right, full of people she didn't even know, and slid into the white glossed chair next to Naruto. Said blonde paused in the middle of his lunch (ramen, of course) and did a double take.

"Well, well, well." He laughed , putting down his chopsticks. "If it isn't the almighty Yamanaka Ino. And what have we done to bring about this lovely visit?"

Naruto was pissed at her. Great.

Ino withheld a snort.

He may have plastered a smile onto his face, but she knew how to see through a mask better than anyone. Ino narrowed her ice colored eyes and leaned forward. "I don't have the energy to bicker with you."

"Why?" Ino's eyes darted to Karin, whose eyes held anger akin to the fire which colored them. "Throwing lattés at fourteen year old girls tire you out?"

She felt her stomach drop. "Actually," she swallowed, hoping they wouldn't notice the guilty quiver of her hands. "It was a frappuccino."

Her comment instilled a high pitched giggle from Ami, but only served to anger Karin further. The redhead simply glared. Ino noted with self-resent that the girl had ceased fire only because she had deemed Ino not worth the effort.

"God damn it, Ino." She nearly winced at the disappointment in her friend's cobalt blue eyes. Naruto shook his head. "Shion's such a nice girl. What could she have possibly done to you?"

"Don't talk as if you know anything," Ino snapped.

"No," Naruto's tone became furious. "I'm not the one who doesn't know anything—you're the one who acts without knowing anything!" He took his hand out of Ami's and ran it through his sunshine colored hair. "Seriously. You're throwing drinks at little girls based off petty rumors!"

Ino couldn't bring herself to muster up a response and Naruto continued. He stood and shook his head. "When'd you become like this?"

She bit her bottom lip, refusing to tear her eyes away from the table to look at Naruto's retreating back in fear that she would start crying. She could only clench her fists as the rest of the table followed suit and she was soon left nearly alone at the table, with only Sasuke calmly eating his tomato salad and another boy seemingly sleeping.

She couldn't take it anymore—she didn't know how she got up the energy, but after what she had just done, Ino felt the need to vent. Before she knew it, she had gracefully slinked out of her chair and soon her feet were taking her to the girl's room. She slammed the broken stall door shut and furiously scribbled her thoughts out onto the door until her arm was sore.

She was so sick of being the bitch.

If Sakura was being totally honest, she would probably say she was really bothered with the way Naruto had acted. Not only had he chosen his three month long hagbag of a girlfriend over her, his best friend since the kinder days, but he'd intentionally switched out of their Chemistry class to avoid her.

To avoid her! The little footlicker.

Sakura must have remembered incorrectly, because for some reason, she thought she was the one who was supposed to be upset against him instead of the other way around. Wasn't he the one acting like some hotshot because Ami Watanabe agreed to be his girlfriend? Wasn't he the one completely ignoring her opinions and thoughts now when she could have sworn he used to value and treasure them not even a year before? Wasn't HE the one turning his back on their decade long friendship?

She just didn't understand how he could possibly justify his childish actions and the gall he had for acting like some god forsaken victim when in actuality, he was the one who put it upon himself to slowly gnaw his way through the ropes that bound their wrists together.

Really.

She wouldn't pretend like she hadn't been a bit immature herself, but the brunt of the strain between them weighed far heavier on his side. Sakura wouldn't shoulder his burden this time. Oh no. If he was so bent on being a blind moron, he could do it on his own.

Besides, she wasn't even bothered by his refusal to seek her out.

If anything, she was happy.

"Why do you look like you're ready to burn baby seals?" Sakura twisted her torso to the right, stretching out her abdominal muscles and pulling until they were stretched taut. She stuck her tongue out at Anko. "Actually, don't tell me. I really don't care. I named you captain of the soccer team for a reason, Haruno, and I expect you to give your everything for this team." Anko sent her a pointed look. "So leave your teenage dramas off the field."

Sakura rolled her eyes and continued to stretch out her limbs. "Thank you so much for your concern, Anko. You never cease to make me feel loved." Straightening her legs along the grass, she swiftly touched her toes with her fingers and proceeded to inch upwards until both hands were flat against the ground past her sneakers. "So. How many dreams are we planning to kill off today?"

Anko snorted. "You know as well as I do that most of these girls don't dream about anything soccer." Sakura shrugged until a feral sneer made its way onto her coach's face. "There's a special tryout today. I'm sure you remember it from your freshman year—"

Unbidden, a dark smirk crossed Sakura's lips. "You mean—"

"Boys versus Girls," she grinned, "—my favorite day of the year."

And with that, Sakura watched her coach hum her way to the wire basket of soccer balls.

Boys versus Girls… She remembered freshman year when she tried out for the soccer team and Anko, still the soccer coach, had declared the name of the game. She remembered being so excited, too. When she was growing up with Naruto and Neji and Gaara, they'd always play a little two on two and it had always given Sakura a thrill whenever she'd surpassed all expectations and won.

She'd never had any trouble playing with the boys but when the boys' soccer team had come onto the field with their soccer shorts and shirts, Sakura had known she'd be in trouble. She'd always had a thing for guys who could play soccer, and well, when most of the boys were damn good looking to boot, she knew she'd never stand a chance.

It was only when she'd seen Naruto among the ranks did she find her heart calming and her resolve strengthening. Most of the other girls hadn't been so lucky. Half of the girls who'd come for tryouts that day had been cut and Sakura would always gloat that she, as a freshman, hadn't been one of them.

She couldn't wait to see how the girls fared this year.

"Whoa," a familiar voice said from above, "—why is there a creepy smirk on your face?"

Sakura laughed and rolled her eyes. "Karin, you are going to have so much fun today."

She watched as the redhead frowned and sat beside her, mimicking the stretches Sakura had started earlier. "Uhm, I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not. And I'm not going to ask. God knows what goes on in that head of yours."

"Two words, Four-Eyes: Freshman year."

Karin raised an eyebrow. "A lot of things happened in freshman year, Sakura, my bitch. You're going to have to elaborate or I'm not going to have a fuckin' clue about what you're talking about."

Smirking, Sakura shrugged and flopped onto her back. "Just trust me, Four-Eyes. You're going to be ecstatic when you see those brats swoon—"

"TRYOUTS START NOW SO GET YOUR ASSES OVER HERE."

Karin looked over her shoulder and sighed. "Anko is going to make the half of them cry. Again."

"You have to admit, it's kinda funny."

"Only because we've gone through it before," Karin snorted, as they made their way over to the group of huddled girls. "Don't look now but Sakura Number Two is giving you this massive stink eye."

"I'm not surprised," Sakura deadpanned, glancing swiftly over the girl. "She's always giving me the stink eye along with half of the girls here."

Karin opened her mouth to agree when Anko cut her off with her obnoxiously loud voice. "If you thought soccer tryouts were intense the other day, you haven't seen the half of it! If you thought you were sore the other day, you won't be able to walk after today. IF YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD A CHANCE GETTING ON THIS TEAM WITH SOME HALF-ASSED ATTEMPT, I LAUGH."

Sakura heard Karin snort from beside her when more than ten girls shifted and sent looks of apprehension to the others. Anko continued with a dark leer on her face and her voice considerably lower. "Today, I've recruited some help with today's tryouts, and I'm sure the half of you won't make the cut." Anko's sneer was almost feral now when she looked past her shoulder and a smile cut across her lips. "Here they are now."

Sakura was pretty sure the scene was playing out in slow motion for the majority of the girls assembled for today's tryouts and judging by the quick intake of breath from beside her, Karin was feeling the effects as well. Really, it was only the boys' soccer tea—shit.

She let her eyes wander over their carefully muscled legs and the slow, dangerous swagger in their masses and restrained the appreciative whistle itching to escape her lips. Sakura tore her eyes away from them and felt herself blush. "Four-Eyes, you're drooling."

"At least I'm not raping them with my eyes," she snapped without looking away. "They've got some pretty hunky additions to the team, don't you think? I would tap half of them for sure."

Sakura laughed breathily before shoving her in the arm none too gently and making her way to Anko's side. She started speaking before Sakura even got to her side. "If you watch close enough, Haruno, half of them are ready to drop. Why didn't we do this last year?" Sakura opened her mouth but Anko cut her off. "No, don't say anything. I don't care. The point is, these girls are so pathetic, I'm ready to vacuum my own eyes out and skewer them to Kakashi's dog. And you know how much I hate dogs."

"No, not really. But I can tell you hate medication, because I think you forgot to take yours tod--"

"You're interrupting me again, Haruno. I never did trust you. What, with that bubblegum hair of yours. And how many doses of medication I need to take a day is none of your concer—Don't look now but Kakashi is ready to get the shit kicked out of him. That'll wipe the smug grin off his face."

Sakura watched, amused, as Anko sauntered up to Kakashi, the boy's soccer coach and started waving her clipboard around. Sakura took it upon herself to snap the girls out of their fantasies. "Okay, so you're probably wondering what's going on right now—"

"—No, not really." Half of them chorused. Counting without really counting, she noticed five pairs of arms were crossed and two girls were glaring. Oh joy. Bitch squad, assemble!

Ignoring the interruption, Sakura continued. "—so I'll be taking the liberty of explaining to you. This is the annual Boys versus Girls tryout. Konoha's boys' team will be helping out today. It's going to be girls against boys, unsurprisingly. We'll start off with some quick exercises first, build up to a few scrimmages before getting to an actual game. I advise you all to give your best because that might be the deciding factor on whether or not you make the team this year."

"Bitch," someone called out.

Sakura rolled her eyes. Like an insult that generic would bring out the five year old child within her and make her drop into the fetal position. Please.

"How is that fair, though?" a junior whose name, Sakura was almost sure, was Mikan. "They're boys. How are a bunch of girls supposed to beat them? I mean, we're not going to be cut because we lose in a match, are we?"

Before Sakura could answer, another voice spoke up. "Don't talk to her, Misaki."

Misaki, Mikan. She was close enough.

"Attention up here, soccer players." Immediately all of the female heads snapped over to where the two coaches were standing, Sakura's followed. She didn't blame them. Kakashi-sensei had a damn sexy voice. She briefly wondered what his face would look like if he didn't wear that stupid cough mask. "Why, hello ladies." Anko elbowed him in the stomach.

"Stop hitting on my girls, Asswipe. Listen up. I've taken the liberty of pairing you all off with players of the same caliber. You will bring them down. If you do not beat them, you are off the team. If you cry, you are off the team. If you ask them out, you are off the team. If you do anything other than win, you are off the team. Have I made myself clear?"

Several voices mumbled.

"Then let's get started. Two girls will be assigned to every boy. Group One: Miyazuki S., Ryuzaki L., and Ayuzawa M. Group Two: R—"

Sakura glared at the Uchiha currently lounging on the grass watching as everybody else played. In actuality, she was supposed to be playing a game of one on one with him, but due to two girls walking out on the tryout, Sakura was stuck kicking at the grass with Naruto standing opposite her. Sasuke had bailed when Kakashi had asked who wanted to play, claiming, "The Dobe could use the practice."

She could strangle him.

After strangling Naruto.

She sighed. Somebody upstairs hated her. Of this, Sakura was sure.

"So," Naruto coughed exaggeratedly, balancing the ball with the front of his foot, "—just like the old days, huh?"

"The old days," she couldn't help but hiss, kicking his foot so that the ball flew to the side. "You mean the old days when you were a decent friend who didn't have the tendency to act like a bat and who would never think of switching out of Chemistry to avoid me? You mean those days, Naruto, you freakin' bitch!"

"I'm not avoiding you!"

"Oh yeah?" Sakura hissed. She dribbled the ball away from him, over to her side, back to his and scored one point in the drill. Naruto half-scowled as he retrieved the ball. "Then what do you call running away with your tail in between your legs, Smart One?"

A flash of something dark crossed his eyes but Sakura didn't have much time to dwell on it. They were already being called in and were being split into teams of six. It was no surprise to Sakura when she and Naruto were, once again, paired against each other.

She could've sworn Anko was smirking at her in that completely I'm-capable-of-ruining-your-life kind of way when she'd read out the teams. Fuck.

Thank God Karin was on her team.

"So. Trouble in paradise?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sakura sniffed, shaking out her legs.

"C'mon, Flash. You're saying that incessant yelling everybody heard coming from you from across the field was just some friendly banter? I'm not that stupid and I've been playing soccer with you for years. I may not be your best friend but I'm not Sakura Number Two or Watanabe for that matter."

Sakura darted a quick glance at her fellow redhead and grimaced. "I was that loud, huh?"

"Let's just say, my dad could probably hear you in his office, Flash."

"I told you to stop calling me that," Sakura sighed, watching warily as Sasuke took up his stance as referee while Anko and Kakashi watched the other three games interchangeably. "And your dad's in America, smart ass."

"That's kind of the point, Brainless."

"Would you two stop bickering already?" Sasuke barked warily.

She sent him the dirtiest glare possible and walked forwards to act as a striker and a winger and mentally groaned when she saw Naruto do the same. "Do you have to act as centre right now?"

"Sakura," Naruto all but whimpered, "—I don't want to fight with you right now."

"But you want to fight with me later, do you? Or are you going to avoid me again?"

"Do we have to do this? What do you want me to do, apologize?"

"I don't want you to just apologize, Uzumaki. I want you to grovel on your hands and knees and know, honestly, what you've done that's got me so angry. But seeing as you're bent on being blind towards my reasons, your apologies mean nothing to me if you don't mean them."

Naruto scrunched up his nose in confusion. "Are you that bothered playing against me? Then just switch with somebody else. This is my position."

Sakura threw up her hands in disbelief. "I'm not bothered. For God's sake, Naruto, you're not that good!"

Naruto's sky blue eyes flashed with something akin to annoyance. "I'm not that good, Sakura? What is up with you?"

Sakura could feel her pulse fly through the roof. "You know what? Don't talk to me. I'm done arguing with a fuckin' wall with an ego the size of Canada."

"Then play, dammit," Sasuke interrupted smoothly, and dropped the ball in front of them.

Sasuke had never seen Haruno as focused as she was, he decided.

That wasn't saying much, of course. He was never around when Naruto invited the girl along and he never cared much for getting to know her. She was just some girl with obnoxious pink hair, a childish face and a temper known to be akin to the dobe's little brother, Konohamaru.

But he found himself watching her more closely than he ever had before. This was the idiot's childhood best friend and their yelling match rivaled ones he remembered having with Itachi. Not to mention she was kicking the dobe's ass. She'd scored twice in the span of fifteen minutes.

Sasuke was never letting him live this one down.

"Flash, watch your five o'clock!"

Briefly, Sasuke snuck a quiet glance at Karin who'd been assisting Haruno with the goals. He hadn't noticed the first time but after several more calls of Flash, Sasuke concluded this was some sort of nickname. It must have been due to the girl's speed. Admittedly, her foot flashes could rival his. Sasuke didn't know if this bothered him or impressed him.

"Fuck!"

Sasuke turned to watch Haruno steal the ball from Naruto once more and was certain he hadn't imagined the grin that appeared swiftly onto her lips. That was another thing about Haruno Sakura that piqued his interest.

Throughout the game, she hadn't uttered a word.

She passed the ball wordlessly to players with their backs turned, and Sasuke was given the impression her presence was enough to warn them. The two goals she'd scored had been with silent assists between both redheads and Sasuke was reminded of Itachi who had been much like a phantom when he played. Even her kicks made little to no noise.

Sasuke called a foul when Glasses, on his team, (he couldn't quite remember his name) tripped Sakura. "Get your shit together, Uzumaki! You're getting beaten by a girl!"

"You're not helping, you ass," Naruto snarled darkly, wiping the sweat from his forehead and watching as Sakura went to the sidelines for her throw-in. "Why don't you shoulder your own weight for once?"

"I would if you'd stop hogging the fuckin' ball!"

Sasuke could feel his temples throbbing.

What time was it anyway?

This practice seemed far longer than usual and Sasuke could only count the seconds until he could get into his car and head home. Any minute now, he'd probably strangle the dobe who had been mouthing off for the past ten minutes whenever Haruno bested him. Judging by the sun, it could only be a quarter to five.

Thank God.

"Teme, are you even watching this? That was a foul!"

"Do you even know how to play, Dobe?" Sasuke slid his gaze to the loud blonde and raised a brow. "I wouldn't care even if it was a foul. And it wasn't."

"You weren't even looking!"

"You're an idiot."

Naruto growled from his position on the ground and slowly got to his feet, not caring enough to brush the grass from his shorts. "I hate you."

"Dead last."

Sasuke felt the presence behind him before he heard Kakashi's voice. "You two really are made for each other. The sexual tension is making me hot under the collar."

Sasuke forced the bile from his throat. "You're sick, Kakashi."

"That's sensei to you."

"You wish. Shouldn't you be ref'ing your game?" Sasuke peered over his shoulder and saw that more than half of the players were busy sitting on the grass, drinking water or watching the game he decided would be called Uzumaki vs. Haruno. Sasuke turned back to his teacher and raised an eyebrow. "They're done already?"

Kakashi shrugged. "I was too bored to keep watching." He nodded towards the only ongoing game and said, "Naruto's making the team look bad, huh?"

"He looks like his balls are going to fall off. Told you he didn't know how to play," Sasuke returned mildly, swinging his whistle idly around one finger. "His head's out of the game. His form is worse than usual and he's just swinging his leg and hoping to hit something. He loses the ball too easily against Haruno. His dribbling is off and he's passed a total of two times."

Kakashi didn't say anything from beside for a minute and they both watched as Naruto bumbled his way around the field while Haruno danced the ball around him. Sasuke felt his spine tingle in warning when Kakashi said, "So."

He rolled his eyes when Kakashi finished, "Why don't you replace Naruto for this round so that the boy's team isn't completely humiliated today?"

"No thanks."

"I was asking to be nice. Naruto, come here!"

Sasuke grumbled and proceeded to shake out his legs. He hadn't even stretched, dammit.

Sakura could only come up with three word thoughts after she'd finished the game with five goals, two assists and a final winning score of 5-7 against Sasuke's team.

When Naruto had gotten called off the field and was told to sit out for the rest of the game, Sakura thought, take that, bitch.

When Sasuke had replaced him on the field with a dark scowl on his face and his deep set onyx eyes glaring at her, Sakura thought, fuck my life.

When Sakura proceeded to score twice more against Sasuke and high-fived her five teammates with a face dripping with sweat and legs singing with exertion, she thought, Good workout, Haruno.

When Sasuke reached for the hem of his fucking shirt and pulled it over his head to show lean muscles, tight abs and a fan-fuckin-tastic chest glistening with perspiration, Sakura thought, holy fuck, Jesus.

Even the slightest movements made him ripple in a way that made Sakura forget how to swallow. And breathe, for that matter. With the setting sun alighting him in the way it was, his skin looked almost ethereal, his hair defied gravity and his face, which she'd always found pretty freakin' good-looking, made her weak in the knees. Adding the fact that he played soccer like a pro made her want to sigh almost dreamily.

Too bad he caught her staring and raised that damned eyebrow. "Did you need something?" His voice was quiet and smooth.

Sakura shook her head to rid her of her thoughts and looked at him warily. "Thanks for helping us out today, Uchiha. You play well."

He turned to face her, suddenly, and Sakura took a step back when he looked at her with those eyes of his. They were dark, like he had a secret behind his eyes, and it made her heart speed up just the slightes—"You could work on your passing." Then he turned away.

Sakura saw red.

Before she could do much of anything, however, Naruto reached for one of the balls by her foot. "Thanks for humiliating me, Sakura," Naruto scowled, kicking the ball to the wire basket and missing by a mile.

Sakura made the shot and it went in with a satisfying clang! She turned to Naruto with an eyebrow raised and watched while his eyes darkened. "You did that all by yourself, Naruto. Don't try to push the blame on me."

He shook his head. "What happened to you? You're not acting like yourself at all and you're so frustrating now."

"What happened to me? What happened to you, Naruto! I've had this conversation with you about a hundred times and I refuse to repeat myself again because apparently, no matter what I say, you're not about to listen anyway! So go dive back into your fantasy world where everybody bows down at your feet, where you're the biggest hotshot on the planet and where you can do no wrong! Go ahead and forget about who you were before! But don't you dare blame any of this one me. I'm not your bitch, Naruto. So while you're drifting off on your clouds and fighting demons with your nonexistent ninja skills, don't expect me to wait for you to come around. When you come around, Naruto, and finally see what the hell you've been missing, don't expect me to be waiting for you."

With one final glare, she turned her back on Naruto's wide blue eyes and headed straight to her stall. God forbid she let him see just how hurt she was that he was being such a dick.

She thanked the Gods she was too angry for tears.

When she all but slammed the bathroom stall door closed, Sakura felt relief when she saw the streaks of purple staining it in script she could now call familiar. Sticky with sweat and still in her soccer uniform, Sakura read:

Social Monopoly, huh? That's definitely one way to put it. In a way, Pinkie, this is the game of Life.
This is the only Life I know. This is the only life society has taught us.
You go around school watching kids huddle together in their little cliques and you don't even bat an eyelash.
It's normal. It's expected.
You expect to see the bitch dumping drinks on people's heads.
You expect to see the athletes tormenting the kids in Glee club.
You expect to see the Dancers and Cheerleaders gossiping and thinking they're better than everybody else.
We're all stuck in a world where these things don't even surprise us anymore.
We're all stuck in a world where these standards are expected of us, where facades and masks are our greatest comfort and where being true to ourselves is just a fantasy we dream about when our eyes are closed but is just that, a fantasy, to us when our eyes are open. It's something we can only hope for, that almost seems to be in our reach, but in the end, it's always going to be an arms length away.
You try to escape it, but the more you try, the more you realize:
There is no escape.

Sakura didn't know how long she stood there. No two words could sum up the thoughts revolving around her mind. She'd thought about pulling the pink Sharpie she kept taped to the top of the stall wall to write, but there were too many things she wanted to say. She wanted to tell Purple about those damn soccer girls. She wanted to tell her about Yamanaka's stunt today. She wanted to go on a fuckin' rant about Naruto and how much he's changed and how much she was right about there being no escape from this scene where popularity was so important and where girlfriends made a boy forget about his best friends and how priorities changed so drastically.

Sakura had so much she could say on that door where pink and purple clashed horrendously against puke green paint—but instead, Sakura unbolted the stall door, washed her hands, despite not even going to the bathroom, and headed to the girls' change room.

Sakura had a lot to say, that was certain, but everything she wanted to say would take more than a fuckin' door to write it on. She would write on it tomorrow morning, she decided, when she wasn't drunk on endorphins and angry as hell.

As she collected her things from the girl's change room, the only vivid thought in her head was the fact that Sakura wanted to meet whoever Purple was. She sounded like a girl who knew what she was doing.

Let the pieces fall where they may,

TDE