Sakura's love life was sadly not like the romance novels she loves to read. There is no Prince Charming on a white horse ready to sweep her of her feet and take her on an adventure, away from her boring everyday life. There is no passionate love or infatuation that makes her live on cloud nine and not care about a single thing in the world. And above all, her love life would only begin where the romance novels would end; she would eventually find out that there is no such thing as finding "The One" in your teens; no matter how lovely that would have been.

Sakura's first infatuation was in kindergarten when she was 4 years old. He was a teacher named Iruka Umino, and Sakura liked him very much because he was nice to her and was good at drawing unicorns. Not like those kids, Naruto Uzumaki who was loud and was always a troublemaker or Kiba Inuzuka who drew like someone had blindfolded him and afterwards shaken him so much that his brain must have rattled a few centimeters to the left.
It was of course an innocent puppy-like love, or more like a crush she would later say, and she didn't like him for very long because her best friend, Ino Yamanaka told her that boys had cooties. Ino made it sound like a very bad thing so Sakura and the other girls stayed clear from the boys. When the boys heard about girls having different cooties from theirs the reaction was very similar. Sakura didn't like boys from then and she and Ino promised each other that they would never touch a boy again. A few years would pass before she was to learn that there was no such thing as cooties, silly Ino for telling her that.

Ino was, as opposite to Sakura, like the warm and light sunrays on a beautiful afternoon in the summer. She was confident with her looks and being an extremely social butterfly made almost everyone like her or at least know her. Sakura on the other hand, was more like the snowflakes falling quietly on an early winter morning. She wasn't confident with her looks because of her too large forehead, even though Ino would say it wouldn't look that big if she didn't try to hide it with her bangs. She was shy even though she would get introduced to new friends through Ino, and she liked to focus on her school work as a distraction to the big gap between her and her best friend.
Ino would always protect her from the mean girls who bullied her with her large forehead to the immature boys who teased her about being a nerd for always doing her school work on time. Sakura both loved and envied Ino. Loved, because she was a pillar in her life but still managed to push her forward sometimes. Envied, because Sakura simply couldn't be like her. She couldn't be confident in herself or a natural with other people, she could only hope to grow into it.
These were the chapters in Sakura's life where she sprouted.

Growing up with a beautiful best friend like Ino quickly made Sakura aware of the good but also the bad sides of love. "Sweetie, the thing about first loves is that they usually don't work out," that was what Ino had told her the day Ino had broken up with her first boyfriend, Shikamaru when they were 12 and in middle school.
Sakura had a hard time believing that because the romance novels said that your first love was The One and you would live happily ever after. He would be the one to make her heartbeat stop for a second and make the world seem redundant. He would sweep her of her feet and they would get married, get a lot of kids and grow old together.
"You're so naïve, dear Sakura," Ino would tell her while sighing and shaking her head from side to side. "Love is a fleeting feeling, you'll see".

Sakura would later experience through Ino that love indeed was a fleeting thing. "I swear he's the one! I just know it, Sakura" Ino would whisper to her in the break between the morning lessons, followed by a whole list of why her current boyfriend or crush was the best in the whole world. And sometimes in the evening over the phone or at a sleepover she would cry to Sakura about her boyfriend turned ex-boyfriend "I hate him! How could he do this to me?".Sakura would never have an answer but could only comfort a heartbroken Ino with hugs, words of comfort and chocolate chip ice cream, because that was Ino's favorite ice cream.
The day after Ino would then tell her "if he can't appreciate me then he's not worth it, and he wasn't that good of a kisser anyways," which usually was followed by a wink and a sassy hair-flip only Ino would be able to pull off, "I'm too good for him anyways".
Then the cycle would start all over again, which would leave Sakura confused as to why Ino would let her emotions go through such an emotional roller-coaster several times a year. Yes, love was indeed a very fleeting feeling, not at all like what she had been reading about in her novels, late at night after she'd finished her homework.
And as the chapters in her life preceded she was watered by the experience, comfort and support from Ino.

A/N:
Hello everyone!
This is the first fan-fiction I've ever written! If there's any grammatical or spelling errors I would be honored if any of you could help me since English is not my mother-tongue.
For those who wonder, this is a story about a few years of Sakura's life growing up. I think I'll make this 5 or 6 chapters long, whereas the chapters aren't that long so I'll actually get to finish it, and you won't get bored (hopefully).
Ling Ling out!