A/N: This is my first non-Labyrinth fanfic! I'm pretty proud. I've loved Naruto for years, and Gaara and Sakura are one of my favorite pairings, although they won't really get together until a few more chapters, and yes there will be Lemons! ;) This little fic came to me in the middle of the night. I intend on it being many faceted and multi-chaptered, so stick with it. Updates will be more frequent as spring progresses into summer. As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy.
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Sakura POV
My life was finally beginning to look up. My best friend, Hinata, and I had just finished college and were preparing for our move to Konoha. Konoha was the biggest and most advanced city around. Clubs, bars, and a music scene to kill for. The job opportunities were endless. At around 12 hours from where we currently lived, it was civilization in the midst of the sticks. We were so excited.
I had just graduated my fourth year of college, and at nearly 22, I was ready to live a little. Majoring in public relations, I had been offered a job in Konoha hiring people at a local radio station during the weekday, and DJ-ing every other Friday and Saturday night until midnight. It was my dream job.
Hinata, a health junkie, was a personal trainer. When I presented her with the prospect that I was most likely moving to the big city, she made no qualms about wanting to stay and asked if I'd like company. Saying yes was a no-brainer. We couldn't wait to be big girls out on our own. She immediately began looking for a job and found one pretty soon after.
Fast forward two weeks and everything we both own is packed in my car. We have an apartment ready and waiting and a week to get settled in before we start work. We spent our last night separate, her with her parents and me with my mom.
Mom was reluctant to let me go. She knew I had to get out there, make something of myself, but she hated me being so far away. Part of me hated it too. In a way, I really didn't want to leave her, but I was also so ready to start a new life. My mother was supportive, however, and I really appreciated it. She let me go the next morning with a few tears, a big hug, and a kiss on the cheek. I cried the whole way to Hinata's. Upon seeing her, I could tell she had been crying too. Mom's had a way of doing that, I guess.
It wasn't long into the drive, however, that we were both laughing and giddy, singing cheesy songs on the radio. We'd headed out at 8 am, and around 10 we stopped for breakfast.
"Ihop!" Hinata screamed, eyes lighting up. I smirked and pulled in.
Hinata was a super pretty girl. She had the palest purple eyes and white skin. Her hair was jet black and long down her back. She couldn't gain an ounce if all she ate for the rest of her life was bacon. She could rock a band t-shirt and ripped jeans like no one I had ever seen. She looked so different from me, and yet we were so alike. Our biggest difference was that Hinata tended to be soft spoken around people she didn't know, and I was just a big mouth around everyone.
I was hard to miss with bright pink hair and green eyes, both natural. Like Hinata, I needed to get more sun; I was obnoxiously pale. We both wore dark makeup, and had a generally rock and roll outlook on life. I was no where near as skinny as Hinata, but I was small enough to be confident with my own body. I thought I was pretty, most of the time.
I parked the car. Hinata was bouncing in her seat, black tresses bobbing up and down.
"God, I haven't had pancakes in forever!" She exclaimed.
"Me either. I'm starved for some."
We got out of the car and high tailed it inside. Taking a seat, an adorable waiter introduced himself and gave us our menus. Hinata and I spent all of the time meant to peruse the menu, talking about how cute he was, we were both just ordering pancakes anyways.
When he came back to take our order, we giggled and blushed prettily. He gave us a goofy smile and promised our food would be out shortly. When it came, we all but ate the plate it came on. We had spent too much time ogling Mr. Gorgeous and had lost an hour and a half driving time.
After leaving, we stopped for gas and were finally back on the interstate by noon. Ten more hours of blacktop wasn't going to be easy. Hinata dosed while I drove. When she was awake we would talk about all the celebrities we wanted to meet in Konoha, and jam out to 80's classics.
At a little after 6 o'clock, I had driven more that 8 hours of the trip, stopping occasionally for gas. At our next gas break, while Hinata went to go pee, I planted my butt in the passenger's seat and made her drive the rest of the way into Konoha.
When we passed into the city, we both squealed with glee. We were finally here. This was our future. We drove through the city searching for a cheap motel to crash in so we wouldn't have to find our apartment in the dark. The buildings were taller than most mountains, and there were lights everywhere. The city was breathtaking and better than we could have ever imagined. We couldn't keep the dopy grins off out faces.
Deciding on Super 8 in the heart of the city, we parked the car, grabbed our over night bags, and proceeded to pay for the room. I paid for lunch and half the gas, so Hinata offered to get the hotel. The room we got wasn't much. It smelt like cigarettes and disinfectant, but I couldn't complain too much, there was a bed calling my name. We passed out soon after, only exchanging excited smiles and bright eyes before letting our exhaustion take over.
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We got everything inside the apartment in two trips. We'd had the furniture delivered the week before, and the landlord had seen to it being placed where we wanted. The apartment was ridiculously cute, probably because it was more like a loft.
It overlooked the river that ran through Konoha and was only 20 minutes away from both mine and Hinata's work. There were two bedrooms with adjoining bathes, a living room, an office/storage room, and a kitchen with connecting laundry room. Everything was modernly furnished. We had picked out our furniture together, picking shades of black, red, and silver for everything. Hinata had bought most of the furniture. I had supplied everything for the kitchen and gotten the first month's rent. The only furniture I owned was in my room.
By the end of the day we had everything set up perfectly. It was exactly what we had hoped for. The kitchen was filled with dishes, the furniture was all put in place, lamps and décor were placed strategically. Each of our separate rooms was gloriously decorated. The only thing left was the necessary grocery items and cleaning supplies. We decided, however, that we were done for the night. It was still early spring and getting dark too soon to be traipsing around an unfamiliar city at night. We ordered Chinese and vowed to find the Wal-Mart the next morning.
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The whole next week, we worked on making our loft perfect and exploring the city. We became familiar with the quickest way to get to both of our jobs, along with other neat places we discovered in the city. We managed to get our TV and internet hooked up without too much trouble, and changed cell phone providers without pulling our hair out. To be two not so savvy girls in a brand new big city, I thought we were doing pretty good.
The next step was our first day at our big girl jobs. The nervousness the evening before, had me chewing antacid all night. I didn't sleep a wink. I was going to need a very large Bloody Mary to make it through the next morning.
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A/N: First chapter done! Whoohoo! I think the first chapter is always the hardest and the slowest. I promise it will pick up from here! Sakura meets Gaara in the next chapter and there's also more dialogue. So please just forgive the extraneous description, but it was the easiest way to set the scene. Reviews would be lovely. Thank you so much for reading!