The Naruto series ended months ago. I'm not bothering to read the new manga Kishimoto's making that's based on the ending because the Naruto community's backlash towards the ending…scared me away from it. But I had this lying on my computer for a long time—since April last year. It was originally posted on here as the first chapter of an intended short multi-chapter series…but a harsh review made me take it down—and by review, I mean a flame that said it was stupid to call a boy Sakura called my attempt to make a friendship between boy!Sakura and Naruto yaoi. Why am I writing this? I don't even know. Why am I posting? I really don't know. I guess I saw all the work I did and didn't want it to go to waste…

If you're going to read this, I hope you keep an open mind about boys named "Sakura". (Because, seriously, people in Naruto are named after weirder things than "cherry blossom".)

Disclaimer: Blu Rose does not own the Naruto series or any of its characters.

Summary: A series of short stories about a pink-haired boy named after cherry blossoms and his life as he tries to overcome the frailty associated with his namesake. (Includes boy!Sakura, one-sided SakuIno, and Team 7 brotherliness(?))

X-X-X

1: Name

"Why'd you have to give me a girl's name?" The little pink-haired boy asked his parents one night at the dinner table. He never really cared much for why he had his name until some kids from the neighborhood pointed out how girly it was.

His mother, Mebuki, and father, Kizashi, exchanged glances. Mebuki was the first to ask, "What's wrong with being named 'Sakura'? You were named for your grandfather, you know."

"That's right! Your grandpa Sakuraji was a great ninja and a greater man. We were hoping for you to grow up to be the same," Kizashi explained, sounding proud of his late father.

Sakura could only frown. 'I dunno what's worse: having a girl's name or being named after a dead guy.' "But it's still a girl's name! Do you know how many boys are named after girls?"

"You're not named after a girl! You're named for your grandfather, who was named for what cherry blossoms represent!" Mebuki replied sternly.

Her son arched an eyebrow. "And what's that?"

"Life. People take the time to appreciate cherry blossoms because their time in bloom is short and their beauty is frail and fleeting. Life should be appreciated in the same way."

Her words should have been meaningful. But for little Haruno Sakura, all he heard was how his name meant something weak and short-lived. What cherry blossoms represented was not what he wanted to be.

X-X-X

2: Hanakotoba

Sakura remembered entering the ninja academy with dreams of training to become a great ninja—one who would be strong and survive the dangers of the profession until he was old enough to retire. On the day he met her, he became even more assured that strength was what he wanted. He remembered finding her being picked on by bigger kids—students a year above them who liked to bully their juniors. A smart person would have run off to tell the teacher what was happening. Instead, he approached them with the intention of saving her.

"Hey! Leave her alone!"

They did leave her alone, as he wanted. And he became their target instead. Compared to the teasing and light pushing they'd done to the little blonde girl, his own bullying was more aggressive. Punches and kicks were delivered, and one kid even sat on his back and forced his face into the dirt.

"What's the matter, Pinky? Not so tough now, huh?!"

"Hey, look! He's crying!"

At that point, the older kids had begun laughing at him. Sakura couldn't think of a time he'd wanted to crawl off and hide as badly as he did then. The embarrassment continued until the teacher arrived to break it up. Despite constantly saying that he was okay, he was still hauled off to the nurse's office, where he spent the rest of the day until his father came to take him home for a tongue lashing from his mother.

The next day, he hid himself away from most of the kids at recess, not willing to face any of his fellow students after what had happened that. Or worse, those older bullies. But he was found by that little girl, the one he saved, in a sense.

"There you are! Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you?!" The girl exclaimed with a huff, her hands on her hips and her bright blue eyes sternly looking down at him. Now that she wasn't being bullied, she was quite intimidating. She bent over and began to poke his bandaged cheek. "Geez, they really did a number on you, huh? That was pretty dumb: challenging a bunch of guys who've already had basic taijutsu training when we're still reading about history and junk!"

Sakura gulped and looked down at his knees. "I-I…I just…wanted to help you…"

The blonde girl blinked and smiled. "I know. You were really brave! Dumb, but brave. I'm Yamanaka Ino. What's your name?"

Ino? As in 'pig'? And here he thought his parents had bad taste in names. What people named their daughter after pigs? "I'm…Haruno Sakura."

"Mm? Sakura?" He prepared himself for the teasing and the accusations of 'but isn't that girl's name?' that he'd gotten used to long ago. "It suits you." What? Because they were fragile and weak, just like him? "In Hanakotoba, cherry blossoms refer to kindness and gentleness. It fits a nice guy like you!"

"You…don't think it's weird? Or funny?"

Ino blinked. "No. I mean, my name's pretty weird, too, but it's family tradition to have 'Ino' in your name, so I'm proud of it!" She frowned. "What? Are people picking on you because of your name?"

"Um—"

"Just lemme known when someone teases you about your name, or your hair, or anything else, and I'll give them my 16-Hit Combo! Okay?"

Sakura blinked, then smiled. "Um… Okay. A-and I'll beat up anyone who picks on you!" He didn't want to just be protected by a girl. After the embarrassment he suffered yesterday, he wanted to become stronger. Not just to prove something to the world and himself, but also to keep Ino safe and sound.

X-X-X

3: Envy

His friendship with Ino was one of the bright sides of Sakura's early academy years. With her pushing, he found the guts to stand up for himself as well as for her and the determination to prove wrong those who saw him as a weakling and a nerd. But then, one day, she changed—and not in the good way. Because she discovered boys. More precisely, she—and just about every other girl in their class—discovered Uchiha Sasuke, because she didn't stare at any boy the way she would at Sasuke. She never looked at him that way. And quite frankly, it annoyed him.

"If you like him so much, why don't you go ask to eat lunch with him?" Sakura said one day while he should've been studying. Instead, he'd been staring at Ino staring at Sasuke while he was eating lunch by miserable self.

Ino's eyes brightened and she started to smile. "Of course! Why didn't I think about doing that before? It's so simple!" Sakura watched as she made herself presentable before she ran off and left him alone. The pink-haired boy regretted saying that, because it only made her walk over to the Uchiha. She quickly came back, though, looking dejected. "He…told me to get lost."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. " Ino started to smile a bit more confidently. "I'll just try again! I'll keep trying until Sasuke-kun warms up to me!" In response to her statement, Sakura could only frown and glare in Sasuke's direction. If she focused so much on Sasuke, would she have any time left over for him?

X-X-X

4. Break Up

Ino's infatuation with Sasuke led to even more changes for her. Ninja training was still important, but not as important as hair and makeup and clothes. She said it was part of being a kunoichi—that she had to look attractive as well as be skilled at ninjutsu, but Sakura knew that there was more to it than that. His father had told him that all girls grew up to be like that, becoming concerned with looks and whatnot, but he didn't like it one bit.

Ino's infatuation with Sasuke also led to changes for Sakura. It spurred him to train and study even harder, to the point where bandages and aches became common for him. It also made him want to be more competitive with the Uchiha, like Inuzuka and Uzumaki tended to be. He was better at classwork, but Sasuke shone in the physical activities. That was the sort of thing that made the girls—Ino included—swoon. Unfortunately, he was always painfully average when it came to those things.

"Geez, will you knock it off? Keep this up and you'll look like a mummy!" Ino teased him as she inspected Sakura's newest assortment of bandages and cuts and bruises.

"We can't all be perfect like your precious Sasuke," Sakura muttered as he glared out of the corner of his eye. He never liked talking about the guy or being reminded of him, but it seemed like if it wasn't Ino, it was some other girl or their teacher making a stink about him.

Ino sucked her teeth audibly. "Is that it? You're trying to be better than Sasuke-kun? You'd never be able to in a million years."

Sakura's eyes widened. Did she really just say…? "You think that little of me? You think I'm that poor of a ninja?!"

"That wasn't what I said! I meant that compared to Sasuke-kun, you aren't—"

"Sasuke-kun this and Sasuke-kun that! You really hold that guy in high regard, considering he's got the personality of a frozen fish!"

Ino huffed. "Oh, I see how it is! You're just jealous of Sasuke-kun's talent!"

The pink-haired boy swore he could feel a vein rise up on his forehead. "Oh, yeah! Well…if you like him so much, why don't you go and be friends with him, you…you pig?!"

"Pig?! Why you…billboard-browed, pink-haired wimp! Why would I wanna be friends with a jerk like you?!"

Sakura said nothing more. He just stomped away, feeling angry at Ino, and Sasuke, and himself.

X-X-X

5. Friends

After Ino stopped being his friend, Sakura never really grew close to anyone else. Sure, he could be amicable with any classmates who spoke to him nicely enough, but he never attempted to be friends with anyone else, nor did anyone try to be friends with him. He focused on training his body while also studying over the years, never really caring about it much. At least, not until he finally graduated from the academy and became a genin and noticed almost every other kid had friends they were happily chatting with.

So it was pretty uncanny when he wound up with teammates who also didn't have friends, though they weren't exactly people he wanted to be around. They were Uchiha Sasuke—the #1 student in their class, and Uzumaki Naruto—the knuckle-headed prankster who somehow managed to graduate despite being dead last in terms of grades. To Sakura, Sasuke was stuck up because of all the attention and recognition he got, and Naruto was an annoyingly loud brat of a prankster.

At first, they didn't get along with each other. Naruto and Sakura didn't like Sasuke because of his cold personality. Sasuke didn't like Naruto and Sakura because he considered them weak. Sakura didn't like Naruto because he thought the blonde didn't deserve to be a ninja with how abysmal he was in school. Naruto didn't like Sakura because…

Actually, Naruto never really expressed any true hatred towards Sakura, he imagines. In fact, there were times when he asked the pink-haired boy if he wanted to hang out at Ichiraku's his favorite ramen stand, but Sakura always turned him down. At some point, when the animosity he had towards the blonde gradually vanished, he actually…started to like him. Because when he wasn't pulling pranks and acting like a dumbass, Naruto was good company.

The same could go for Sasuke, sort of. Even if he didn't express it with friendly gestures, the Uchiha gradually warmed up to Sakura and Naruto to the point where he could regard them as teammates. And while Sakura still felt compelled to excel and surpass Sasuke, he also felt a growing respect for the Uchiha and his skills as a shinobi.

Sakura wondered if maybe the way Naruto and Sasuke saw him changed over the course of their time as teammates. He wondered if they regarded him as a friend, because the pink-haired genin was honestly starting to think that way about them.

6. Potential

Sakura's teachers always told him he had talent and potential. First in the academy, and now as a genin, it made him feel accomplished. It made him feel as if his training had gotten him further than he would've if he went at it with ordinary fervor. Like becoming an excellent ninja was well within his grasp.

But compared to Sasuke, he feels talentless. This was the skill of someone whose talent practically oozed from their bloodline for generations. When he sees the raven-haired boy's skills in battle, he feels as if he will never catch up. At least he has potential, right?

But compared to Naruto, he feels as if he has no potential at all as a ninja. How did the blonde boy who received the lowest score in the class and failed the graduation exam of making some simple clones become so strong? It was as if the blonde had zoomed past Sakura on the scale of power and was on the way to joining Sasuke at new heights the pink-haired boy couldn't even fathom.

If Sakura had talent and potential, why did it feel as if he couldn't catch up to either of his teammates no matter what he tried?

7. Brothers

Naruto and Sasuke were like the brothers Sakura never asked for, nor wanted. Naruto was like the annoying brother who would pull pranks on you just for a laugh, or try to get you involved in some form of mischief-making. Sakura remembers the time when he tried to get him to help prank Kakashi-sensei for being late on the first day of their team meeting, or that day when he managed to get Sakura and Sasuke to help try and unmask their teacher. Sasuke, on the other hand, was the brother who was annoyed by you, and constantly shoving you off when you tried to be all familial. Whenever Naruto and Sakura asked if he wanted to hang out, the Uchiha's response was that he had to train and how the two of them should be doing the same.

But, like real brothers—good ones, anyway, they would be there when you really needed them. Sakura knew that if he was in trouble, he could count on that knucklehead and that jerk to help him out. Okay, maybe Naruto would be around more for emotional support than Sasuke, but at least the Uchiha cared enough to save him from getting killed out in the field.

Sakura never wanted brothers, but if it was anything like being friends with Naruto and Sasuke, he could at least tolerate having them, he thinks.

X-X-X

8. Useless

How could he consider himself their teammate when he was nowhere near their level? How could he consider himself their friend when he didn't even know their pasts? How could he have ever thought he could be an asset to his team—to his friends when he was so weak, so useless?

It all became apparent at the Chunin Exams. Naruto and Sasuke seemed to carry Sakura through the second half. He hadn't noticed until they were both knocked unconscious after a frightening encounter and the pink-haired boy was left to defend them himself. That was when they came—those three Oto ninja. They didn't even care about getting the scroll. It was all about getting to Sasuke.

He really tried to protect them himself, really. The pink-haired boy used all his skills to keep them back. He bled internally and externally, and became bruised in various places. He endured the pain, the insult towards his weakness, the teasing about his hair. All so he could protect his friends…

And Sakura couldn't even do that. Ino and her team appeared to help him. Sasuke woke up and, with a smirk, dislocated one of the Oto-nins arms from their sockets. Naruto woke up and, with concern, asked what the hell happened to the pink-haired boy's face. On the outside, he was proud about his accomplishment—short-lived as it was. On the inside, he couldn't help but think that he had done nothing yet again.

X-X-X

9. Broken

One night, Sasuke had left Konoha. There was no letter, no signs of a kidnapping, so the only assumption had been that he ran off. That would make him a nukenin—a missing ninja, one who would have to be chased down and killed in order to keep Konoha's secrets. Naruto didn't want that to happen. Neither did Sakura. While his thoughts about the Uchiha were not the nicest in the beginning, during their time spent as a team, he came to…love? No, respect the Uchiha. It'd take a while and a change of heart before Sasuke would become someone Sakura could love. It'd also take him being there…

Luckily, the Godaime Hokage Tsunade was kind enough to send a five-man team after Sasuke and the people who were said to be traveling with him. Unfortunately for Sakura, he wasn't deemed worthy of being chosen. He didn't have any special skills to make himself useful for this particular mission. Useless once again…when his teammate needed him…?

Of course, Naruto tried to cheer him up. The blonde swore to retrieve Sasuke and bring him back home so they could both beat some sense into him. But Sakura couldn't control himself. He refused to sit on the sidelines. There had to have been something he could do to help… So the pink-haired boy found himself sneaking out of the village, hoping to catch up with the rescue team and Sasuke.

Instead, what he found was heart-wrenching. The sight of Naruto, bleeding from a wound in his shoulder that was large enough to shove your hand into. A wound that could've been made by Sasuke's Chidori. It made Sakura think about that day on the roof of the hospital when things first started to fall apart between their Team.

When Kakashi found his two students, he found Sakura attempting pitifully to stop the bleeding while Sasuke's abandoned headband rested next to him, splattered with droplets of Naruto's blood. He didn't need to hear any words. The mere picture before him showed how broken Team 7 had become.

X-X-X

10. Blossom

"Mom…do you think I'm weak?"

Mebuki stared at her son. This had to have been the first time he'd spoken since everything that happened due to that Uchiha boy's defection from the village. She'd like to say she doesn't understand why, but she does. It takes a lot of trying to not grow to like the teammates you're paired up with, and for all the complaining Sakura had done, his reaction showed his mother just how much he regretted…everything, really. "Of course I don't think you're weak! You're a talented young man just brimming with potential!"

"Everyone says that, but…I couldn't do anything. Even if they'd taken me with them…I couldn't have done anything… Maybe…I'm not cut out to be a ninja." Maybe he was like his namesake: a frail and weak thing whose life was short and fleeting. Someone like that becoming a ninja was a joke. Mebuki's reaction was to slap Sakura hard in the face. "OW! What the hell, you crazy woman?! I'm looking for your sympathy and you hit me?!"

"I don't have any sympathy for quitters! When the going gets tough, pull up your pants and get tougher!"

"That's not gonna do any good! I thought I got tougher, but instead I realized that I'm still weak! I wasn't strong enough to help either of my friends!" The pink-haired boy snapped.

Mebuki was about to open her mouth to say more when there came a knock at the door. "You just wait a second," she grumbled before she went to answer it. "Hello? Oh, it's…you."

"Um, hello, Haruno-san. Can I talk to Sakura? Like, now?" That voice was Naruto. Mebuki looked over her shoulder at Sakura, who was sitting at the table. The pink-haired boy got up and went over to the door. Once there, he saw that the blonde boy was fully dressed in his ninja gear and carrying a bag on his back. "Hey, Sakura! I came over to say goodbye."

"Good…bye? What are you talking about? Are you going on a mission?"

"Nah, I'm gonna go away with Ero Sennin so he can train me!" Ero Sennin? Wasn't that what he always called Jiraiya-sama? "I don't really know how long I'll be gone, but… I promise that when I get back, I'll definitely be stronger! Strong enough to bring Sasuke back!"

Sakura stared in awe. "You…still wanna bring him back? Even after what he's done?"

"Of course! Don't you want him back, too? I mean…he is our friend… This revenge stuff is what's making him act like a jerk! But I'll beat some sense back into him for the both of us! As soon as possible!"

"…Don't."

The blonde boy flinched. "What? Don't tell me…that you've given up on him?"

"No, I meant don't go hogging Sasuke all to yourself!" Sakura snapped, glaring at Naruto. "I wanna beat him up for everything he's done, too! Defecting from the village, endangering the lives of our friends, nearly killing you…! He'll be lucky if I don't leave him within an inch of his life! So…don't think I'll be letting you do all the work! When you get back, I'll be strong enough to stand right by your side when we drag him back home!"

Naruto stared in surprise for a few seconds before he began to smile. "Heh-heh. That sounds good!" The two shook hands. "It's a promise then: we'll bring Sasuke back together."

"Yeah!" Sakura stood in the doorway and waved goodbye to Naruto. When he could no longer see his bright orange clothing, the pink-haired boy stared down at the ground in thought. "…Mom. I'm going out. I don't know when I'll be back."

"You're not gonna run away again, are you?" Mebuki asked, looking suspicious.

"No, I'm…going to see if I can find a teacher who'll help me get stronger." He looked back at his mother, smirking. "I refuse to be a fragile cherry blossom. I'm gonna become stronger!"

His mother smirked right back. "Good! I didn't raise you to be a quitter…"

Minutes later, Sakura found himself approaching the Godaime Hokage herself, begging to be taught by her. If Sasuke and Naruto were going to learn under Sannin, he'd have to as well in order to become a powerful ninja. Oddly enough, she accepted him as her student, promising harsh training that would scar him for life, and Sakura welcomed that.

He would blossom into a person the total opposite of a cherry blossom. He'd make sure of that…