Chapter Text
There is only one girl using a suit and bow tie, and this is the first time that Sasuke Uchiha looks at her.
Partially, it is not her fault - not when she has as a companion someone so loud and extravagant as Rock Lee. And Lee, at that moment, is doing Lee’s things: laughing aloud with Naruto while they try to decide who will beat whom in some weird gameplay. She, however, is trying to separate the duo, pulling her friend by his blazer.
“No games, please!” She cries, using all her efforts to pull Rock Lee to the dance floor, a glass stage over some LED lights. “You promised me, Lee!”
“I'll never break a promise!” Lee says, still with his game in his hands. “But I'm almost winning; this is a man's question!”
“A true man's question!” Naruto completes, glancing at the girl with his wide-open blue eyes. “There's nothing more serious than a Pokémon battle!”
Sasuke snorts when Naruto loses to Rock Lee, who yells with the victory. Idiots.
This is their last year studying together, and Sasuke is sure that it's good not to share the same classes with his future old colleagues. He misses some sense of order and seriousness, two things he could not experience in his last high school years. He wanted solitude, a kind of silence, and received unrestricted company. In those years, Sasuke had never had the chance to stay by himself and his own thoughts, even for only five minutes.
Naruto is incapable of understanding that no really means no. Sakura neither, usually following the Uchiha younger boy across the school’s hallways and suffocating Sasuke with her devoted affection. Part of him is thankful, yes, for knowing there are some people in that world who truly appreciate him beyond his name or his majestic future. It's good having certainty about being loved, even being an antisocial type and not the easiest guy to like, but love also can be strange. Most of the time, it's oppressive.
This is the biggest reason why Sasuke Uchiha, at 17 years old, is so relieved to get out of high school. He desires, more than anything, to be an unknown name in an unknown universe. Not a beautiful face for most of the girls to fall in love with, nor a gold transcript to bring some kind of pride to his institute—just “being,” by himself.
Until then, however, Sasuke needs to finish some cycles. The first one, the exam to join the university, he completed a few weeks before. Approved at the first test in a university out from Konoha, he’s sure about his good performance at the second phase. Sasuke dedicated himself to this. No hangouts, no nights playing video games with Itachi or Naruto, no nights just chatting on the internet, no phones, no fun at all. Gosh, he hadn't had any time to think about girls or romantic relationships. He was his goal, his desire to honor his father and his family's legacy—mainly now, since Itachi gave up a glaring lawyer career.
It is a heavy destiny, Itachi said to him once. He will never be satisfied. It would be good advice if Sasuke even gave a shit about it.
The second step is finishing school and saying goodbye, which the boy believes is the easier part. No pain, just a goodbye, a “see you.” He’d been pretty okay with no emotions or dramatic departures; however, his mother insisted that some rituals need to be lived. To avoid regards, she explained.
So, because Mikoto wanted so much to give him that opportunity, which Sasuke hadn’t asked for, the younger Uchiha is in that saloon, dressed in a sleek black suit, while Sakura tries to have his attention and Naruto is playing some old video games with Rock Lee. And he’s hating every single minute there.
“Have you had dinner before coming?” Sakura asks, with a non-alcoholic pink cocktail between her cold fingers and looking at Sasuke with some great expectation. “I think they’ll take some time to prepare the buffet, and you are not eating the fidget food.”
“I’m okay.” It's a lie, obviously. In that moment, Sasuke is in total and complete distress. He can feel the label of his shirt brushing against his neck and the weight of his fancy suit. He feels the drop of sweat running down behind his left ear, the way his shoes hurt his little toes, and how the music beats echo into his eardrums. Sakura is closer than usual, looking for any physical contact, maybe some more intimacy, and Sasuke can feel her too, how her body wishes for his, for his lips.
Being kissed on their last day together as school partners would be Sakura’s perfect ending, the beautiful final dot on their story. For him, however, that’d be his bad ending. Sasuke does not want Sakura’s lips or any kiss from anyone—he wants to leave.
Or, at least, he’d wanted to. Not now, however. Not while he sees that strange girl pulling Rock Lee, dressed in such an unusual way for a fancy graduation party, with those worn-out combat boots, big black suit, and double buns. She has his attention, in fact, more than any other student or teacher there, for no particular reason aside from her strange clothes choice.
“Oh, I didn’t notice Lee was here. And Tenten,” Sakura smiles, looking at the same point of Sasuke’s attention. “I’d thought they wouldn’t come.”
“Why?” It wasn’t Sasuke’s intention to seem so interested in that topic, but he can’t avoid it. A curious part of him is keen to know more about Lee’s friend.
“He told me they didn't have the money to pay for the party. Unless…”
“What?”
The music changes, and the new beats give way to older ones. Sasuke sees the face of Lee’s friend turning brighter, the way she seems excited with the new song. It’s our music, she yells in pure and genuine joy, and everybody can listen to her.
“... I think they are Neji’s guests.”
Sasuke knows that song because his mother used to listen to it on her cleaning days. Mikoto has some special playlists for it, most of them recorded on old CDs and K-7s from her youth. For Sasuke, this is the kind of music that reminds him of childhood, the lazy mornings before cleanup, and Come On Eileen has this strange taste of innocence.
Now, Sasuke thinks not of his childish version but only about the girl in the suit, and he stares at the way she moves with Lee to the rhythm of the song. They are… Eccentric. And the word choice is friendly enough to that scene—two weirdos doing weird and disjointed movements, which unbelievably can sync to the music.
“Neji, you said?” Sasuke has never been indifferent to Neji Hyuuga. Across those years, he and Neji competed for who received more medals from the best grades, a respectful and silent battle. Definitely, they aren't friends, but neither are they enemies—and on some level, Sasuke appreciates Neji’s personality, his calm and focus. A true cool guy.
“Haven't you ever noticed they are always together?” Sakura seems pretty surprised, as this information was basic about the Hyuuga boy. Sasuke shrugs. No, he didn't know about that friendship—and almost nothing, actually, about most of his school colleagues. He barely can't remember names or faces, with a mind focused only on theorems, grammar rules, historical facts, and chemical elements.
This has never bothered him before. Sasuke has two friends and a good relationship with all his teachers, which he considers enough to satisfy his need for social interaction—more than this, he couldn't hold on. However, while the boy is watching the strange dance of Lee and that girl, an unfamiliar feeling hits him, and Sasuke is surprised by a curious desire to come back to the past and change some details. Talking more, maybe. Being a little more friendly, not so much, or more attentive to the people around. He’d wish to remember that girl's name. Or any other details about her.
“Sasuke… Do you want to dance?”
The Uchiha boy only realizes how intense his gaze is when the question surprises him. It happens at the same time his eyes find that girl's, but it is Sakura who distracts him from that very first contact, putting an ending where he doesn't want to. It's a bitter taste over his tongue, that one he feels while he notices the pink cheeks of Sakura, the way she looks at her own feet, so suddenly embarrassed. Sasuke needs two or more minutes to understand what Sakura said, time enough he could dedicate to the girl on the floor.
He almost can hate Sakura for that.
“I do not dance.”
It sounded more rough than Sasuke’d wanted, but frustration is also a strange feeling for him. So strange, like the kind of happiness he felt when Lee's friend answered his eye contact—brief, indeed, still strong enough to make him not recognize himself.
“I do! I do!” Naruto appears as an undesired ghost, holding both Sasuke and Sakura by their shoulders. He's more excited than usual, more happy, and Sasuke realizes the reason is in Naruto's breath, the sweet scent of alcohol.
“Naruto, you're a minor!” Sakura complains with a grimace, hitting her friend on the stomach. As a response, Naruto laughs more, and the girl feels more affected by the boy's behavior.
For Sasuke, however, Naruto comes as the perfect reason to get some space. He discreetly walks away from both Sakura and Naruto, and glances at Lee and the girl for a last time. Neji is with them now, trying to dance in a ridiculous way. It's funny seeing a serious Neji doing something so silly, but Sasuke doesn't laugh.
This is, definitely, a night for the very first times. It's not easy to notice this, that envy feeling that comes to Sasuke so suddenly and strongly. What’s more, it’s upsetting to realize that, on this podium, Neji Hyuuga received all the medals that Sasuke really wanted.