Naruto is not mine.
Pretty When in Love
Sakura might join up the Team 7 along with her beloved Sasuke-kun on the same time that Naruto did, but since that first time they got together, the divine fate had already decided what their future would become, and so, her history and Naruto's regarding one Uchiha Sasuke was written differently.
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At the tender age of eleven Haruno Sakura fell in love with Uchiha Sasuke, hard and fast. At first it might be only physical, because Sasuke was such a handsome boy with brilliant mind and Uchiha name that promised lots of awesome skills, especially the one that came with the blood limit, and no sane girl could resist the perfection that was Uchiha Sasuke. Her competitive nature with Ino also ignited the rapid growth of her feeling towards Sasuke.
Then as her ninja life went by, she realized that behind his godlike appearances, Sasuke was actually a human being like her, only more gifted and less cheerful than her normal friends. And Sakura also realized, and quickly denied the sharp, bitter truth, that what made Sasuke human was his interactions with annoying, loudmouth, dead-last Naruto.
Sakura's love slowly changed from blind adoration into the beginning of a true love as she wondered about how Sasuke could, and should, have easily avoided his accidental kiss with Naruto, what with the great skill he'd already possessed as the best student in Academy, or about Sasuke's willingness to sacrifice his life and his dreams in order to save Naruto, and if Sasuke would do the same when it's her instead of Naruto in that position.
By the time Sasuke was hurling himself onto the path of revenge, Sakura's love for Sasuke was strong and true enough that she was ready and willing to leave her families, her friends, and her village to accompany Sasuke in his condemned journey. And Sakura actually wasn't surprised when Sasuke turned down her offer, because this time she couldn't deny the unyielding fact that she was Haruno Sakura, not Uzumaki Naruto, and so, she would never be more than a team-mate to Sasuke.
If the first step of a true love was bittersweet and made her crave for more, the second step of a true love was so very, very painful that Sakura wished she could just die instead of suffering the horrible illness that was an unrequited love. But contrary to what people said, the earth did not fall off its axis, the wheel of time did not stop, nor did her heart cease to beat as she endured and nursed her broken heart.
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At her coming of age, Haruno Sakura passed the hard, merciless initiation to adulthood, and like her namesake, started to bloom more splendidly than before. In the next few years, she continued to go through every hardship life threw at her, gruelling lessons from the Godaime, choking loneliness of being left behind by her team-mates -- one was the man she loved, and the other one was her precious friend --, deadly fights with the enemies, and throbbing, agonizing ache when she faced her Sasuke-kun. In the end, she emerged victoriously, a beautiful butterfly flying freely from her cocoon.
And now, seven years later, Sakura was still in love with Sasuke, could never stop loving him. Because whenever Sasuke was with Naruto, he lost his cold and sorrowful aura, he smiled warmly and looked so happy and terribly beautiful that Sakura fell in love all over again with this most beautiful man.
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A young woman at the age of eighteen, Haruno Sakura was single and content with her life. She had reached the final stage of a true love, where she could be happy watching her beloved Sasuke-kun having his own happiness with his chosen partner, and she intended to enjoy this love for as long as possible.
FIN
Hehehehehehehe…… surprised that I wrote a Sakura fic? I'm actually surprised, too. I was reading one of my favourite yaoi mangas, Let's Fall in Love by Mio Tennohji, when I got inspired to write the SasuNaru version of the story. From the beginning, I'd intended to use Sakura's PoV and later, Naruto's to tell the story, but then I got stuck writing the dialogues (as per usual). And so, I deleted it. I thought about this story once again and decided to write it entirely in Sakura's PoV and thus avoiding those damned dialogues!
I want to write Sakura as close as the real author does, which means that Sakura matured and didn't get stuck as annoying, useless Sasuke's fangirl. I also don't want to repeat the cliché that after she grew out of her crush/love of Sasuke, she realized Lee's advance and accepted it. And behold, this is what you get