Author's Note: I decided to post something to one of my WIPs for New Year's with the hope that it will set a precedent for more updates in the future. As luck would have it, Never Tell Me The Odds had the most complete next chapter and didn't require too much effort. I haven't really felt much like writing anything new or requiring in-depth thought since my grandmother died, but I do want to try to start 2019 on a good and hopeful note so when I actually get back in the writing mood, I'll have the inspiration and motivation to complete a bunch of old and new stories.

So, here you guys go. Happy New Year, everyone! Thanks for supporting me this past year, and I hope 2019 is a less shitty year than 2018 has been.

This is unedited for obvious reasons. I'll get to it when I get to it.

_____

Sasuke debates with himself for a while before telling his parents about Sakura's departure. He's not entirely sure if it's fear over their reactions, or the fact that telling them makes the whole situation more real.

In the end, he chooses to confide in his mother first, knowing that she will keep his revelations to herself and if she does tell his father, she will know what to leave out.

He waits until his father has left for work one morning and shuffles into the kitchen where Mother cleans away the breakfast dishes. It takes a few minutes of hovering and trying to decide what to say before she takes pity on him and asks him what's wrong.

The entire story bursts from him then, like a tide that can no longer be held back. Sasuke is disgusted with himself to realise that his eyes have begun to tear up halfway through the tale.

Mother listens to him with her usual patience and an uncharacteristic gravity but does not comment or interrupt. When Sasuke closes his tale with Itachi's advice, she sighs wistfully. He expects her to say something comforting or sympathetic, but to his surprise a frown appears on her face.

"I would have expected more from Sakura," she says, a note of disappointment in her voice. "Going off without even a goodbye? She was raised better than that—and I should know, since I had a hand in it! And I'm a little surprised Mebuki never said anything about it to me..." She sighs. "Then again, considering how badly our children have mucked up simple communication, maybe it's not surprising. She likely thought I knew already."

"Mother?"

"I won't rehash it all now—from what you've told me, your brother did a good job of it already." Seeing his face, her expression softens. "Oh, sweetheart, I am sorry you're hurting through all this, and that Sakura left without telling you. If it makes any difference, I doubt it was any easier for her."

"How do you figure that?" Sasuke demands, distanced enough from his initial shock to start feeling a note of anger toward Sakura. It's a new sensation, one he doesn't like. "Between sending a text and not sending a text, one requires more effort than the other."

"I don't mean easier like that, Sasuke. I meant emotionally. It's a big decision to separate yourself from someone you love, even if it's for the best." Her eyes flit to the photo of Itachi as a baby, which has in recent weeks gravitated back to the mantle. "There aren't many people who are self-aware enough to recognise such a thing—even fewer with the strength to act. Perhaps the only way she could go through with it was by cutting herself off from you."

"But she never said—!"

"She could have handled it better, I won't argue that. But you're the one who should have actually explained how you felt about her and discussed your hopes for the future instead of simply assuming it would come to be just from you willing it to be so." Mother shakes her head. "Mistakes were made, on both sides. But you are both intelligent, and I trust you will figure it out."

"If we couldn't figure it out living in the same city, I doubt we'll figure it across an ocean."

"What ocean? Did you not just finish telling me that you got into Harvard?"

"I may have gotten in, but that doesn't mean I should go. Given the pains Sakura's gone through to avoid me, it might be better not to." All of his initial determination to track Sakura down and make her understand seems to have vanished, replaced with a chilling uncertainty.

"Don't let this situation with Sakura make decisions about your future," Mother chides. "Whether you reconcile with her or not, that is an excellent school, and giving it up because you want to avoid emotional discomfort is foolish."

Which, yes, sort of makes sense, Sasuke admits to himself grudgingly.

"Why not accept the offers of both universities?" Mother suggests. "And like your brother said, take a few months to consider your options. You can easily withdraw from the one you don't choose without even having to enroll in classes."

"Father will expect me to have made a decision before then, though."

"You leave your father to me. He wants what's best for you, and taking your time is what's best for you right now."

Sasuke looks away, grateful but miserable at the same time.

Mother hugs him and he lets her. Then she sighs, sounding more amused than the situation should allow, and sits back with him against the wall. "When I had boys, I thought I wouldn't have to deal with such heartbreak and drama. It seems I was wrong. And about which son I'd have to worry about, too..."

"Mother..."

"Ah, hush, and let me have my moment." She nudges him with her shoulder and he leans into her. Mother is one of the only two people in the world he is comfortable touching. "Oh, my son, you have so very much to learn. Trust me when I say it's good that you're doing it now, and not when you're my age."

Which he thinks is debateable, but he's not about to argue with her right now.

Instead, he does what she suggests.

He folds his acceptance letters away into a drawer in his desk and does his best to forget about them for a while. Mother is as good as her word, because Father doesn't ask about his future plans anymore when he gets home from work.

It probably helps that he spends the summer working for the company.

It's full-time work, which is both the same and different from the way he spent his time during school. He follows a daily routine, which is boring but comforting somehow. And he sees his father's eyes gleam in something like pride every now and then, which is a rare gift he's chased his entire life. The rest of the family has nothing but good things to say about him, how that he has stepped up in his brother's place and like a dutiful son, does what it expected.

He still dislikes socialising with others, but networking is a necessary skill, and he finds if he can see it as required box to check off within a business interaction, it isn't as exhausting.

He is surprised to find an ally (he is still hesitant to use the word friend for anyone) in Hyūga Neji, whose family are one of the company's biggest clients. The young man is about a year older than Sasuke, as impatient with social graces as Sasuke and with an inherent fatalism that has appealed to Sasuke's mood of late.

And every day, he sees the exact trajectory of his life: honour, respect and success. And not a small amount of money.

It's not a bad life.

Sasuke can see that despite what outward appearance might suggest, his father is satisfied with his lot. With the exception of estrangement from Itachi, which remains a sore spot, Father draws fulfillment from doing his job well and being so involved in his family. And, of course, he has Mother, who despite the fact theirs was an arranged marriage, he loves deeply and faithfully.

It makes Sasuke feel a breath of hope for the first time in months, that maybe—just maybe—it's possible to find contentment in a future different from the one he envisioned for himself. Not happiness, of course—he's not naïve enough to think he'll ever be happy, and besides, his brother's cornered the market on that.

For now, anyway, so long as nothing bad happens.

Itachi's restaurant has been open for a while now, and has a modest but growing clientele. He and Shisui are still scrimping and saving to make rent every month, but whenever Sasuke sees them together behind the scenes of their venture, he can sense nothing but joy at their lot in life.

"What would you do if they shut you down?" Sasuke asks his brother one evening, passing by after work and somehow (as usual) getting roped into helping to clean up.

Itachi glances up from the accounts, frowning at his brother in confusion over his glasses. At home, he always used to wear contact lenses—showing any kind of weakness, even something as simple as a stigmatism, was something Fugaku never approved of, and both Itachi and Sasuke wore contact lenses since they were ten.

"What do you mean?" Itachi asks. "Shut us down?"

"The bank. Or the health department. Or...someone," Sasuke gestures vaguely.

"Probably make Shisui sleep on the couch, because his job is to keep them happy."

"That's not what I mean." Sasuke scowls. "What if, tomorrow, there was a disaster. A fire. Or for some reason the restaurant was seized, or your apartment, and you two were thrown out on the street. And the only way to get out of trouble was to...go your separate ways."

"You're unusually imaginative today," Itachi remarks mildly, resting an elbow on the counter and letting his chin fall into his palm. "You're not usually someone taken to flights of fancy."

"It's not fancy, it's risk assessment. That's entirely practical."

"Practical or not, none of those scenarios would lead to us leaving one another. The only way that would happen is if we differed on an issue in a fundamental way—if he were an antivaxxer or a militant vegan or if we had some other irreconcilable philosophical difference that I have yet to discover."

"What if he died?"

Itachi's face goes blank for a moment. "It's not something I think of very often."

"But it could happen."

"It could." The words come out quiet, softer than usual. There's a heavy pause, as if his brother is imagining the very situation and how he would react to it. "I would mourn. Of course I would mourn. It would be hard to go on, but I would."

"Why?"

"Because my existence is not tied to any one individual," his brother tells him gravely. "And while it is certainly made much happier with him in it, my ability to be happy is not solely dependent on him. I have you. I have Mother and Father, even if they are a little out of reach right now. I have any number of smaller things, of other people, that together make life worth living and pursuing, even if Shisui weren't in it." He pauses a moment. "Besides, he's the type that would hang around as a ghost. And if I did something that caused me to give up on life—or to actually give up my life for anything other than a monumental, heroic reason, he would make my eternity miserable."

"Damn right," Shisui declares, entering the room and not even pretending he hasn't been eavesdropping. He reaches over, ruffling Itachi's hair and then presses a kiss to the top of his head in a gesture of overt affection that Sasuke has gotten used to seeing over the years. "Although...I might consider your preference for pineapple on pizza as one of those irreconcilable philosophical differences."

Itachi pretends as if he hasn't heard his partner, but Sasuke doesn't miss the way he leans back against his chest.

"The point is, I would go on."

Sasuke frowns thoughtfully.

His brother does, of course, make several good points.

But at the same time, Sasuke can't help think that his connection to Sakura is on a vastly different level from that of Itachi and Shisui.

The conversation stays on his mind for a long time afterward, and even when it's not at the forefront, he's aware of it.

Two weeks before the deadline to confirm his attendance, Sasuke decides he will go to Harvard after all. He has spent weeks weighing the pros and cons, and trying to make the decision without factoring Sakura into it, or at least planning for the worst case scenario.

In the end, it's really not much of a decision of all.

His parents are unsurprised when he eventually informs them of his choice.

Even his father looks resigned when he explains that, although he has learned much in the past two months working at the company, he intends to explore other opportunities before settling into a permanent position. He nods, and says, "As expected of my son", and that's the matter closed for him.

Mother's eyes are soft and teary, and when she pulls Sasuke close, she asks, "Are you sure?"

"I am."

"And it's for the right reasons?"

"Yes."

And it is.

Because even if he goes to Harvard and tracks Sakura down and she doesn't want anything to do with him, there are countless opportunities to be had going overseas. Sasuke has always been somewhat of a perfectionist, and if he is going to do the job his father expects him to do, he wants to be the most prepared and the most accredited that he can be.

He doesn't just want to be Fugaku Uchiha's second choice successor.

"Good luck," Itachi tells him the day Sasuke gives him the news. "If you need anything, let us know."

"Yeah—money, advice, someone to listen to you crying," Shisui continues, wincing as Itachi elbows him covertly. "We're there."

"Thank you," Sasuke says politely, "but I'm sure I can handle it myself."

Six months from now, he will wonder if the universe takes this as some sort of challenge.

サクラ

Sakura runs into Naruto again while working her first shift at the bookstore. He's left his basket of thick textbooks haphazardly on the floor, and is eagerly flipping through several comic books.

"You know this isn't a library," she teases, coming up behind him. "If you're not going to buy it, you can't read it here."

"I'll have you know, I am going to buy it," he protests. "I actually have to get this for one of my literature courses." He holds up a graphic novel version of Kafka's The Metamorphosis. "It just...it looks like it's going to suck."

"Well, it's no Killing Joke, but I'm sure there's got to be something interesting about it," Sakura offers.

Naruto's eyes go comically wide.

"You know comics?" he breathes in utter delight. He practically scrambles to his feet and grabs her by the shoulders. "You just became my favourite girl in the world—believe it!"

Sakura laughs. "I don't like them that much, honestly. But back home there's...there's someone who did. It sort of became force of habit to keep up with them."

The thought of Sasuke makes her heart hurt, and something must show on her face, because Naruto quickly asks, "Who's you're favourite character? And keep in mind, if you answer something stupid, I will judge you forever."

She rolls her eyes. "Magneto."

Naruto blinks.

"Okay...that I would not have expected. Unless...we are talking comic version, right? You don't just like movie Magneto because he's good-looking or something?"

"Right, because that isn't a shallow comment," she retorts.

"I'm sorry, but it's just a little unexpected."

"Well, I always thought he's kind of a tragic hero," Sakura replies. "He's trying to build this better world after what happened to his family, but he goes about it in the worst way possible. And every incarnation of him, in whatever medium, has that quality. But there's always some shred of him inside that's still good, so I always have hope that he'll eventually be completely redeemed."

"Even after what his version did in Ultimatum?"

Sakura narrows her eyes. "We do not discuss the Ultimate universe. Ever."

At which point Naruto just laughs.

It turns out that he is the rare breed of guy that takes rejection well, and doesn't even make jokes about being 'friend-zoned' the way some of the guys Ino has gone on dates with are wont to do. In fact, he becomes her closest friend after Ino in the weeks to come, and whether he's consciously trying to or not, his presence helps her keep her mind off Sasuke.

It's not something he always succeeds at, but Sakura thinks that says more about her than him.

She misses Sasuke in a way that's become an ever-present ache that doesn't seem to diminish with time, and spikes at the oddest moments. When she eats tomatoes despite the fact she's always found them too acidic, or early morning jogging when she remembers how much Sasuke hates mornings, or even just looking forward to the start of classes.

She has never met anyone else that understood her love of academia as much as Sasuke.

Ino doesn't have a passion for school—she is becoming a lawyer because it's a high-paying job that will keep her in the style to which she is accustomed, and it will help her bid to take over her family's firm.

"It's a means to an end," she always says when Sakura asks her what the point is if she doesn't love it. "Chōji and Shikamaru didn't even have to go to college. Their fathers can hand over the reins whenever they want with no problem. But since I've got breasts, you know every shareholder, lawyer and coffee boy is going to be frothing at the mouth to explain why I can't run the firm."

Which is even more true back home than here in the States.

As for Naruto, his childhood was spent fighting a slew of learning challenges and bad teachers, making school one of life's necessary evil's that he has to tough through.

"I wouldn't even be here if I wasn't an amazing athlete," he confesses to her one day, a little self-depreciating and proud at the same time. "But I'll probably be the next Great One, so it's not like it will matter what grades I get, so long as I can scrape by long enough to stay on the team."

The bragging doesn't strike her as mindless bluster, either, but an intense conviction.

Even her dormmates appear to be pursuing education as a means to an end, and not for any love of the actual process. It's disheartening and doesn't help Sakura whittle down the list of things she misses about Sasuke.

Like her, he enjoys learning. He is at his most animated when he is having an academic discussion, mapping out progressions of thought and explaining complex theses that go over the heads of most people. Sometimes the leaps of logic he would make made her head spin, but in the good way that had her thinking for hours afterward about what he'd said. She always liked to think she had a similar effect on him, but these days...

I wonder if he's found anyone else to talk with about that sort of thing, she wonders glumly as she pokes at her yoghurt parfait.

"Uh oh," Naruto says, interrupting her thoughts. "Are you wallowing again?"

Pink tinges her cheeks and Sakura looks up defiantly. "I'm not wallowing."

"You are too," he replies, slurping up a clump of ramen noodles (For breakfast, Naruto? Really?). "That's your wallowing face. The one where you're thinking about that guy from back home."

"...I do not have a wallowing face."

"Who is this jerk, anyway? I feel like I should hop a plane and track him down and like...rip his arm off and beat him with it or something."

"Right, that gives me so much incentive to tell you more about him," Sakura deadpans. "What a waste of a trip to Japan."

"It wouldn't be a waste," Naruto protests. "I'm going back anyway at some point. Or at least I always planned to."

"Oh, that's right—you have family there, right?"

"Not anymore. Maybe distant cousins three times removed or something, but those guys are pricks."

Sakura raises her eyebrow. "So why bother going back at all?"

"To find my soulmate."

Of all the reasons Naruto might give, this is the last one Sakura would have expected.

"Soulmate," she repeats, incredulous. "You believe in soulmates?"

"Not just believe. I've met her."

Sakura snorts. "If you have a soulmate, why do I see you checking girls out all the time? Why did you want to date me after we first met?"

"Why not? I already told you you're awesome."

"Naruto..."

He shrugs, the joking curve of his mouth diminishing somewhat, and he sighs.

"Because what are the odds I'll ever see her again?" he asks, a grim edge to his smile. "I don't want to be stuck alone the rest of my life just because I can't find that one person. It would be a total waste of a life." Sakura looks down, and his eyes widen in realisation. "Not that there's anything wrong with waiting. I mean, it's a different situation. You at least actually know the person you're in love with, so there's a chance. I don't even know her name."

It's a clumsy recovery for an unintended slight, but Sakura takes it. She summons up a smile for him. "Oh, really? So who is this nameless woman that made such an impression on you, Mr. Romantic?"

"Dude, that should be my comic name!"

"It really shouldn't..."

"Why not? There's a Mr. Fantastic, but is he really? Bound to get more play as Mr. Romantic."

"You say that, but I bet you never considered that Mr. Fantastic can change the shape of any part of his anatomy. Take a second."

A disgusted expression appears on Naruto's face. "And now I can never unthink that thought. Thanks."

"All in a day's work," Sakura says brightly. "But seriously—where did you meet this mystery girl?"

"Wow, you're really sticking with this topic, aren't you?"

"If it's too hard for you to talk about—"

"Nah, it's fine." Naruto shakes it off and reaches for the second cup of ramen on his plate. "When I was a kid—five or six, I don't remember—my great-grandmother died and my folks brought me back to Japan for the funeral."

"This is supposed to be a romantic story. Funerals aren't romantic."

"You're the one who assumed this was going to be romantic," Naruto snorts. "Anyway, the whole thing was a big deal. I met a bunch of cousins I didn't even know, got paraded around to aunts and uncles and grandparents that were still alive. Now that sucked. Especially because most of the people weren't actually there for the funeral because they liked the woman, but because she was apparently important for business or something. People showed up who weren't even related!"

"That sounds awful," Sakura says. She remembers her own grandmother's funeral, and that was awkward enough with only family.

"I hated every minute of it," Naruto agrees. "It didn't help that I was the odd one out of everything. My cousins had no problem making that perfectly clear. I was the stupid gaijin who had no business being there, right? Anyway, there were these boys there and they were teasing this girl my age. And I could barely understand what they were saying, but it didn't sound good, so we had words."

"You defended her."

"Yep. And they beat the stuffing out of me while she ran away," Naruto concludes, almost proud. "They broke my arm."

"I...didn't see that coming."

"It wasn't so bad. See, after they left, the girl came back. And she let me use her scarf as a sling until I got back to my parents. And the whole time, she was looking at me like...like, I dunno. Like I hung the moon or something. No one's ever looked at me like that before," he says, and then looks thoughtful. "No one ever did again, either. Out parents' kind of freaked out when they saw us and hers dragged her off, but there was something that happened there. I don't know what it is."

"And you never saw her again?" Sakura asks quietly.

"Nope. Not unless you count dreams," Naruto shrugs. "I sometimes imagine we got to be friends, or we went to the same school or summer camp. But right when I'm about to go over and talk to her, I wake up. I still have the scarf, though."

"That's kind of romantic," she sighs.

"If romantic is another word for depressing," Naruto snorts. "At least one good thing came out of it. I never had to go to another family gathering again."

"Because of the fight? But it wasn't just you!"

"Er...well, it wasn't just the fight. See, after I got my arm looked at, we still had another day before we headed home. Which meant spending more time with my asshole cousins. They started their bullshit again, so I got my revenge."

"How?" Sakura asks, suspicious.

Naruto looks a little guilty here. "I peed on them."

"Naruto, you did not!"

Her shout is torn between amusement and horror, and he notices.

"Yeah, it was perfect!" Naruto sniggers. "And they couldn't even do anything about it right then, so they just sat there smelling like piss the rest of the day. It was totally worth being grounded the next month..."

"I'm leaving now," Sakura grumbles, pushing her chair backwards and leaving Naruto scrambling to follow after her.

サスケ

Sasuke looks around the dorm room that will be his home for the next term and is utterly horrified.

While the side of the room he expects to be his has been left mostly undisturbed but for a pile of new, unopened textbooks, the other side is an exercise in chaos. Heaps of laundry scatter across the floor, and there are cups of ramen shoved into every visible cranny. A faint scent of burning emanates from the direction of a conspicuous burn mark on the window sill, beneath what appears to be an illegal hotplate.

Of all the nightmare scenarios Sasuke has been planning for since getting on the plane, he admits to himself he didn't consider the possibility of a roommate with the hygiene of a dung beetle.

"The key to learning to tolerate people is to start with finding a good quality to focus on," Sakura told him once some immeasurable time ago.

He thinks she would be hard-pressed to find one here, though he does attempt it.

There are no tell-tale cigarette butts littering the space, and he doesn't detect the skunk musk odour that he associates with marijuana. And the guy's comic collection appears to be in decent order without being too obvious; he's not sure what he would do if he ended up with a roommate prone to painting the Death Star across his walls.

Methodically, Sasuke starts to unpack his meagre belongings; he only brought enough with him for the next week or so. Mother and Father promised to ship the rest of his things once he decides for sure that he intends to stay.

Although, even if things do work out with Sakura, I might not stay anyhow, he muses, nose curling in disgust as he finds more ramen cups stuffed into the dresser on his side of the room, this time with dirty socks. The closet on his side of the room isn't much better, stuffed to the breaking with a bulky bag of sports gear, flattened cardboard and packing peanuts.

"It's like a pig and a dung beetle had a child," he grumbles, toeing the contents of the closet over to the unmade bed. "I thought Harvard had standards."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" an irritated voice snaps from the doorway.

Sasuke turns to stare at the newcomer: a blond, stereotypical cornfed American with a permanent tan and ostensibly more muscle than brain.

"It means you're a slob," Sasuke enunciates clearly in English.

"I'm in the middle of unpacking," the newcomer says defensively, striding into the room and folding his arms at Sasuke in defiance. "No one's organized when they're unpacking."

"I am," Sasuke replies, casting his eyes about the room once more. "And judging from the leftover ramen stains, you've been here a few weeks. It's disgusting."

"Pretty judgy for someone who just showed up here without even introducing himself. The way I see it, you're the one that was probably raised in a barn." There's no actual heat behind the insult, however, a beat later the guy grins. "So, being the awesome guy that I am, I'll give you that freebie and introduce myself first. Show you how it's done, you know?"

Sasuke's jaw clenches and his new roommate vaults himself backward onto his bed, looking inexcusably comfortable doing so.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki—"

Japanese? That's unexpected...

"—I like instant ramen in a cup, but I hate the three minutes you have to wait after you pour the water in the cup. My hobby's eating different kind of ramen and comparing them—"

Simple-minded. Not so unexpected.

"—and my future dream is to be the President of the United States!"

Sasuke snorts. "Given the current state of politics, I'm not sure that's the noblest of ambitions."

"Are you kidding? That's exactly why I have to become President!"

Sasuke thinks he maintains remarkable restraint by not commenting on that.

A heavy, expectant silence fills the air between them, before Naruto prompts, "Well?"

"Well what?"

"This is the point in the conversation where you introduce yourself. Geez, and you were the one worried about Harvard's standards?"

Sasuke glares, not sure if he's more annoyed at the reminder of social protocol, or the fact that his roommate understood him earlier. "I am Uchiha Sasuke."

He doesn't pretend it's nice to meet the other guy.

Naruto sniggers. "Heh. Sauce-gay. Your parents must have hated you."

"Says the guy named after a fish," Sasuke shoots back, inexplicably unable to keep his temper. Something about this usaratonkachi just rubs him the wrong way.

"Yeah, but most people don't know that," the bastard retorts smugly.

Sasuke grits his teeth and returns his attention to unpacking, trying to regain his usually unruffled composure.

No comic book collection is worth this guy.

"So, you're from Japan, right? Tokyo by the sound of it. It's funny, there are a lot of Asian kids starting this year." He makes a sudden exclamation. "Dude! I should introduce you to my other friends and we can form, like, a club! Or, you know, join one, since I bet they already have one here."

"No thanks," Sasuke replies. "I didn't come here to socialize."

Naruto laughs. "Then you're in the wrong college, man, it's all about the socialising."

"No, it's about networking."

"There's a difference?"

"Yes. Making connections to serve you later in life is very different from doing keg stands in a pool."

"And what movie were you watching when you made that giant leap?" Naruto snorts. "Geeze, you're the unfunnest dude ever."

"If that's an example of your vocabulary, how are you even here?" Sasuke sneers.

"Hockey scholarship."

"Of course."

Naruto starts going on about all the activities and parties he intends to attend, and Sasuke tunes him out, carefully arranging several binders, his booklist and schedule of classes on the cleanest part of his desk. At the back of his mind, he evaluates the probability of a room switch at this juncture in the year.

It's probably a useless endeavour this close to the start of the term.

As if he senses the direction of his thoughts, Naruto comments, "Aren't you cutting it kind of close showing up the day before classes? Everyone else I know has been here for ages."

"It wasn't decided that I would be coming here until recently."

"Huh. What are you studying?"

"Economics."

"Ugh. Boring. Got any interesting electives?" And before Sasuke can reply, the guy has snatched up his class schedule and glances over it. "Oh, hey! Introduction to the Modern Novel. I've got that one too!" Now Sasuke really wants to switch. Dorms or classes, he's not particularly fussed about which. "Well, if it's really boring, we can sit and watch girls. Chicks are always taking those Lit. courses."

Sasuke cracks his knuckles, wanting to hit the other man if he doesn't drop his property this instant.

By some miracle, Naruto does just that, and then heads for his closet. "Anyway, I just came back to change shirts. It's hot as hell out there! I think I may have sweat off like three pounds today." He pulls off his short and grabs an equally rumpled one from the floor. "I'm going to meet some of my friends for a bite, want to tag along? I can introduce you to everyone."

"No. I have to unpack."

"Aw, come on, you can do that any time! Before you know it, school's gonna be started up and all the studying starts and people stop being fun."

"I still have to get my books," Sasuke replies, confused as to why he's justifying himself to this person. "And then I'm going to sleep."

"Oh, yeah—jet lag! I had that for a while after I flew out from Cali. Totally got you there, man," Naruto nods. "Well, then I'll try to be quiet when I come in. Can't promise I won't be in late, though—kind of hard being popular, am I right?"

He doesn't wait for an answer, instead snapping off a salute and exiting the room just as suddenly as he appeared.

Sasuke pauses for several seconds, taking in the sudden silence left in his roommate's wake, and then allows himself to sit on his bed. Exhaustion washes over him from the short, intense social interaction—how is it that a person can suck all the air out of the room?—and nearly twenty-four hours of being awake.

サクラ

A fit of melancholy hits Sakura the day before classes start. Scrolling through the photos on her phone, she accidentally swipes too far backward and lands on a photo of herself and Sasuke. It's a selfie taken at a bad angle, with him looking like his typically hard-done-by self and Sakura sticking out her tongue and flashing a peace-sign.

Sakura bites her lip, flicking through her contacts to the number she knows by heart, and wonders if maybe now—

"Just call him already," Ino grumbles from across the room where she's putting on a second coat of scarlet nail polish.

"He won't want to talk to me."

"You don't know that."

"It's been months. Trust me, he won't."

"That's why you should have texted him your new number when you got here," Ino retorts. "I told you to, didn't I?"

"And not talking to him for weeks isn't any better than months," Sakura shoots back. "It would have been weird and awkward and horrible."

"And the longer you put it off, the more time goes past, and the more 'weird and awkward and horrible' it's going to be. Just get it over with."

"It's not that easy..."

"Oh, would you grow a pair, Forehead?" Ino complains, sitting up straight and glaring at her. "I mean, I admit that the start of this may be a bit my fault, but you're the one who's been drawing it out like a coward."

"I am not drawing it out on purpose, and-wait." Sakura's spirited retort cuts off and she narrows her eyes at Ino. "What do you mean, it was you fault at the start?"

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Ino growls, taking Sakura by surprise because she can't remember the last time Ino did something so plebeian as swear. The blond strides over and plants herself in front of Sakura, hand on her hip very at odds with the aggrieved expression on her face. "I have something to tell you."

"Ino..."

Her friend holds up her hand, stopping her from continuing. "Before school ended, Sasuke came to me and he wanted to know what was going on with you—I didn't tell him, so don't look at me like that. It was your business if you wanted to tell him or not, but I could see what it was doing to you, seeing him trying to get you alone, and you were finally starting to open up and be you again, so I told him to give you a little space."

"Ino!"

"I didn't tell him to leave you alone forever," Ino snaps. "I just said that when you were ready, you would come to him. Because I honestly thought you would. I mean, you were already sort of answering his texts and emails and stuff again, so I figured it was a matter of time before you had the big, soppy reunion. But then..." She shrugs, not meeting Sakura's gaze. "It never happened. And I thought maybe you were actually trying to move on from him, not just...learn to keep who you are and be with him."

Sakura is unable to speak, her fists clenched so tightly her fingernails bite into the flesh of her palm.

"And that's a good thing," Ino goes on, "because the way you two were before wasn't good. You were moulding yourself to be what he needed, and he couldn't walk out the door unless you were three feet away from him. I'm surprised he wasn't glued to your side every time we went out in a group. Don't you see, Sakura? You guys were going to strangle each other like weeds if something drastic didn't happen."

There's nothing here Sakura can argue with, even though she desperately wants to. As it is, it takes monumental effort to unclench her jaw to speak; she doesn't maintain the same control over her tone, though.

"Ino, this wasn't your business!"

"The hell it—"

"This was something Sasuke and I should have figured out for ourselves!"

"When?" Ino shoots back in challenge. "After you slid into some relationship of convenience, without even talking about anything, and just stayed together because it's something you always did? And not even together-together?"

"That's not what we—"

"I don't want that for you—for either of you! Don't forget, Forehead, I've known him just as long as you have, so he's important to me, too." Ino draws in a deep breath, waiting for Sakura to offer a rejoinder, but when she can't, she goes on cautiously. "I want you both to be happy. And you had to face what was wrong if you ever wanted a chance at that."

"But now there's no chance because I'm here and he's back home!" Sakura protests. "And his parents have probably picked him out some business tycoon's daughter to start dating, and—"

"And if he goes along with something like that, then he doesn't deserve you anyway. Don't you see? It's a win-win situation."

"There is no winning here! You don't understand what it's been like for me the past few months!"

"Don't I? It's been like watching a wilted daffodil trying to come back to life. But Sakura, you're strong, and I know you can do it."

"I know I can do it too!" Sakura snaps. "But don't you see, Ino? I shouldn't have had to in the first place."

"Oh my god, have you not been listening to a word I just—"

"No, I have. And you're right. What Sasuke and I were doing...it wasn't the right way. But we should have had a chance to figure it out together, instead of...why did you let me come here, when you—?"

"Hey! No way you get to blame all of this on me," Ino shoots back. "You made a bad judgement call. A few of them. But so did Sasuke. And while I own that I should have said something sooner, you've got to admit that the whole reason this happened is because neither of you knows how to communicate with the other one. I know you've both got this weird...awareness of each other where you just magically intuit what the other needs or feels, but you've both been relying on that for so long that you forget that normal human beings actually have to talk every now and then. Especially when it comes to relationships. And then on top of that, neither you nor Sasuke can do things half-way, you're such damn over-achievers...You're either completely glommed together or completely apart, and it's like there's no fucking in-between." The blond looks speculative for a moment, and then points out, "Literally no fucking from what I—"

"Ino, now is not the time!" Sakura feels like tearing her hair out, staring at her best friend in horror and anger and shame because there's nothing completely wrong with anything Ino has said. "You're talking about this whole thing like you understand what it's like to be in it, and you just...you don't!"

Sakura has never felt so disconnected from her before, and at the sudden flash of hurt in Ino's eyes, she realises that the other girl not only feels this, but also recognises the truth in that statement.

"You're right," Ino sighs, eyes downcast and hair falling over her face, either to hide her hurt or in penitence. Maybe both. "I don't get it—the whole true love thing. All my boyfriends have been just that: boyfriends. I've never had this whole..." She trails off, gesturing artlessly as she searches for the word, "—phantom limb situation going on that you do. And honestly, speaking as an observer? I hope it never happens to me."

And Sakura doesn't even know what to say to that, because agreeing saying she hopes Ino never goes through it feels more meanspirited than kind.

Her anger and pain drain out of her so quickly then that she's overcome with a sweeping sense of exhaustion. She falls back on her bed, numb; slowly, she pulls up her knees to her chest, folding her arms on top of them and buries her face in the gape there. Tears of frustration leak down her cheeks and trail down her thighs.

How did all of this get so...messed up?

"Do you want me to go?" Ino asks hesitantly. "Give you some space?"

"...."

"Do you want me to sit here with you?"

"..."

There's a moment of silence where no one in the room moves, and then Sakura feels her bed shift as Ino carefully sits down beside her.

They stay like that for a while, until Sakura sniffs and mutters into her knees, "You're a meddling bitch, you know that."

"I know," Ino says, in a tone that is apologetic but also resigned; they both know that's not something that's going to change any time soon. But she takes it as an invitation to scoot closer; Sakura lets herself go boneless, leaning into Ino's shoulder while the other girl wraps her arm around her shoulder and keeps her in place. "Forgive me?"

"Not today."

"Maybe tomorrow?"

"No."

"Maybe three and a half days from now?"

"...Possibly."

"Okay."

"And just so you know, I'm only allowing this because my mom's not here and I don't know any of the other girls well enough to complain about you to them yet."

Ino squeezes her around the shoulder and sighs. "Yeah, I know, Forehead."

"...Pig."

I was going to have the big reunion happen here, but then I decided we needed to have a sense of time and distance between them. Also, a few issues had to be addressed, as well as some questions from readers that I've gotten in the past months. Also, in-keeping with the theme of "lean on me", this chapter is really about Sakura and Sasuke being able to lean on the people in their lives...even if they only just met them hehheh.

I don't know when I'll get back to this one, but hopefully it's sooner than before! For more information regarding updates, original stories or just to get in contact with me, check out my Twitter (Typewriter Ninjutsu at KuriQuinn)

All my love in the new year!

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