A/N: Just cross posted this on AO3! This is an AU where Sakura's Spiderman. This doesn't follow a specific Spiderman Universe, and the Naruto characters are themselves, they're not fulfilling a role. Sasuke isn't Gwen Stacy or MJ, he's himself.


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I Live in Reality

Chapter 1

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"When did you get those bruises?" Ino asks, appearing from seemingly thin air.

Sakura, who had been so engrossed in opening her locker, jolts and then leans her forehead against the locker when she realizes that she didn't remember what number of the combination she had just been on. "Ugh, Ino you know I don't like it when you do that." She whines.

"Do what?" Ino replies innocently. "Careful you don't also wanna get a bruise on your already distracting forehead."

"Gee, thanks for the concern, pig." Sakura snorts as she manages to successfully open her locker after a second try. "How'd you think you did on that calculus test yesterday?" She doesn't answer the girl's first question and hopes that the change in subject isn't as awkward as she thinks it is.

She hears the blonde girl give a resigned sigh and doesn't push her original question. "Don't remind me. My mom's probably going to freak when she sees the score."

Sakura entertains a brief image of her best friend's mother in a rage and suppresses a shiver at the thought. She's only seen the woman angry once, but that one time alone was enough to cause fear for a lifetime. The pink haired teenager shot the other a look over her shoulder. "That bad, huh?"

"Worse than what you're probably imagining."

"Yikes." She says.

"What about you?"

"Eh." Sakura shrugs, and grabs the necessary items for her class, before shutting the locker with a slam. "I think I did okay."

"Only okay?" Ino teases. "What happened to you, Miss Brainiac?"

They begin to walk down the hall, and Sakura hopes that Ino doesn't see her wince. "I've been busy."

"With what, a secret fight club?"

She hopes her attempts to appear nonchalant come off as natural, because her laughter sounds nothing if not forced. "What are you talking about?"

The blonde stops in the middle of the hall, and she ignores the cursing of the students walking behind her who are now attempting to walk around the duo. The look on her face is no longer humorous and turns solemn.

Sakura tucks a pale strand of hair behind her ear self-consciously, and she wonders if this is when her secret meets its end. Months of careful planning and coverup going down the drain just because she was too stupid to remember to do her laundry and be left with only a pair of shorts.

Her downward thinking spiral finally meets its end when the other girl speaks up. "Is Ami giving you trouble again?"

A sigh of relief threatens to slip out from her, but she keeps her mouth sealed shut at the serious look on Ino's face. As if Ami could cause these bruises, she thought wirily. The girl could barely throw a punch. Instead she laughed it off, though this time much more genuinely. "Nah, trust me it wasn't Ami."

"Was it someone else?"

"No, mom, no one is bullying me."

Ino pouts at the admission.

Sakura quickly thinks up of a reasonable lie to give to her best friend. She knows the other girl only asks out of concern, she'd be doing the same thing too, but she can't exactly let people know what she does in her spare time. "You know how my downstairs neighbor has four year old twins, right? She paid me to babysit them and they got a little rowdy before bedtime." It's not the most believable thing, but neither is it too outlandish. She just hopes Ino agree more with the latter.

"Oh ew." Ino responds, and they walk in silence for a moment before suddenly the girl pauses again right in front of their classroom. She side eyes Sakura, who pretends not to notice. "Then what about that one," she points to a rather large, ugly bruise on her outer right thigh. "Seems pretty big for a toddler."

"Oh, they, uh, kicked me in the same place. Hurt real, real bad. I had to go buy some icy hot from the corner store."

Ino seems to believe the lie, because she grimaces and nods, and the topic is forgotten.

When they both walk into class, the first thing she notices is that none of the students are sitting in their desks. Instead they're all standing around, mostly chatting with one another, backpacks still slung across their shoulders. She glances around for someone, but says nothing when she notices his absence. Ignoring the knowing look on her best friend's face she pays attention to the still standing classmates. She isn't given much time to question why, because her teacher clears his throat from his desk at the front corner of the classroom.

Her teacher was a young, handsome man, even with his gray hair. At least that's what she assumed, given that the lower portion was always covered in a surgical mask. Rumors were always circulating in the halls for a reason why he covered his face, but she never paid much attention to them because he was a good teacher and seemed passionate about both the class and his students.

He insisted that all his students refer to him by his first name, as he explained that they were all going to become adults in a year or two, and wanted to establish a bond with his students out of mutual respect.

The bell rings, signaling the beginning of the class period, and Kakashi finally begins to talk once he has the full attention of the teenagers. "Today, we're going to switch seats."

Half of the class groans, while a selective few let out not-so-subtle hisses of relief. She wants to do the same, but doesn't want to be rude so she just shares a grin with Ino.

Ino elbows her in the rib, and she gasps as her elbows hits a rather sore spot, but quickly covers it up with a cough before the other girl can start interrogating her again. Ino is none the wiser, and says to Sakura amongst the loud chattering that has sprouted up in the room again. "I hope we sit next to each other!"

Sakura smiles in agreement, and doesn't get the chance to respond because Kakashi begins to walk around the classroom, reading names to a designated desk.

"Ino Yamanaka." Kakashi states, and Sakura gives the girl a frown that is reciprocated, when her own name isn't called immediately after.

Now standing alone, she hopes that the people she's going to sit next to are nice and cool enough. Not that the person she used to sit next to was mean, but Kiba consistently showed up to class high and she had just begun to reach her breaking point after hearing him ask her what was happening in the lesson every five minutes. Now he was seated directly in front of Kakashi's desk, probably so that he could keep an eye on him.

She's doesn't contemplate much else, even that she's the only one left standing, because her name is called in the direction of a seat in the very last row and column of the class.

She's relieved to see that she sits behind a quiet boy named Shino, and then realizes that the seat directly to her right is empty. Scanning the room, her suspicions are confirmed when she sees Ino has turned her head from a couple rows ahead to give Sakura an amused smirk.

Sakura would deny it later, but she's so surprised at her realization that she chokes on her spit. Hacking, she hits her own chest lightly for a few seconds, until her dry coughs become more miniscule.

Looking up, she notices that the entire class is looking at her, and her cheeks burn in embarrassment. Weakly, she supplies, "I swallowed a mosquito."

Ino chortles quietly, but the rest of the class awkwardly shifts their gaze back up to the teacher.

Kakashi claps his hands together. "Well, now that we're settled in our new seats, let's get started."

She takes out her materials from her backpack and tunes out his lesson, and just as her embarrassment is beginning to subside, the door of the classroom opens.

In walks Sasuke Uchiha, and the red that had begun to leave her face, blooms tenfold. She can smell his cologne, and discreetly inhales deeply through her nose.

No one besides Ino notices her reaction, because everyone else is paying attention to Sasuke even though she's directly in front of him. Kakashi stops his lesson on the board. "Hello Sasuke, how nice of you to join us."

"Yeah, sorry." Sasuke replies monotonously. He starts to walk towards his usual seat, when he realizes that the class is scrambled around.

"As you can see we've changed seats." Kakashi's eyes crinkled, and she wonders if that was his way of smiling.

"I noticed."

"You sit right next to Sakura, the empty seat right next to where you came in." Sasuke doesn't say anything, and she's a little giddy that he knows her name enough to know where to sit, even though it's actually probably because it was the only seat left vacant.

He doesn't spare her a glance, and immediately throws his arms on his desk and buries his head into them once seated.

She in turn, studies the dark, inky spikes of his hair, and the way his leather jacket strains against his broad shoulders for a few moments before she quickly shifts her gaze down onto her hands in her lap, before anyone can catch her staring at him.


"Wow, aren't you lucky you didn't get put next to me?" Ino says as soon as class is over and they're headed towards the cafeteria. Her eyebrows wiggle, she walks backwards to face Sakura.

"Keep your voice down!" Sakura hisses, but there's a hint of a smile playing on her lips.

"Oh please," the blonde flips her long hair over her shoulder, "you're acting like half of our grade isn't crushing on him, too."

"I'm not 'crushing.'" Sakura emphasizes. "I just think he's…. cool."

"Yeah, okay. Next you're gonna tell me Hinata isn't crushing on Naruto either." She remarks, as they find their usual table once they walk through the entry way.

"I resent that," said girl replies softly sliding to sit next to where Sakura stood, opposite of Ino.

"Sorry," Ino says, even though she doesn't sound sorry at all. "I'm just trying to prove a point."

"Huh? About what?"

"She's denying her crush on Sasuke."

She can't handle looking the look of pity Hinata gives her so she sighs and looks at the lunch line. "Whatever, you two aren't going to believe me no matter what I say, so I'm just gonna go get myself something to eat."

"Oh wait! Can you get me two sugar cookies? I'll give you the quarters when you get back." Ino asks, previous topic forgotten.

Sakura waves her off. "Nah it's cool. I'll be right back."

She's only in line for about a minute because she receives an notification from her phone inside the pocket of her hoodie. Assuming it's a text from her mom, she groans when she sees that it's a notification from a police scanner that she downloaded, alerting her of a bank robbery only a few blocks away from the school.

"Shit." Sakura mutters under her breath. She slips a smile at the person behind her in line, before making a beeline towards the door outside of the cafeteria.

She's walking through the empty halls and almost out the front doors of the school when someone steps in front of the entrance, effectively separating her from an easy escape.

He's one of the P.E. teachers, and he's easily recognizable with his shiny black hair, styled into a bowlcut, and green tracksuit, even if she's personally never had him as a teacher. He wastes no time in questioning her. "Where are you going, young lady?"

Sakura thinks for a moment of what to say, when the thought occurs to her. She doubles over suddenly, and grips her stomach tightly. She didn't like lying, especially when it was becoming a daily occurrence, but the longer she stood there the more likely the robbers were to get away. "I have cramps, so I was going to go home." She lets out a small moan, for good measure.

"Cramps? Surely you can walk them o-"

"Did I mention they were period cramps? Awful, bloody, gushing-"

His demeanor changes immediately. "Have a nice day, I hope you feel better." He ushers her out the door.

She limps out the door, making sure to keep the self satisfied smirk off her face, and is still holding her stomach until she's sure she's out of view from the glass doors.

The teenager finally breaks out into a run after a few feet, and finds an empty alleyway to change in. Behind a dumpster, hidden from street view, she sets her backpack on the ground and unzips it swiftly.

Bright crimson and deep blue greet her when she pulls out the suit from deep within the reaches of the bag. She glances around again making sure she's alone, before sliding off her shorts and pulling off her hoodie and shirt from on top her head.

She pulls the suit on in a matter of seconds, a feat only achieved after months of practice, and slides the red mask over her face only after pulling her short pink hair into a low ponytail. She stuffs her clothes and sneakers into the backpack, and makes quick work of hiding it behind the dumpster.

She doesn't spare another glance, before shooting a line of web at the nearest building in the direction of the robbery.

Sure, she'll probably get yelled at by her mom and Ino when she gets back home, but she doesn't have to time to worry about that when there are potential lives at risk. She was someone the public depended on, not some clumsy teenager who had two friends.

She is Spiderwoman.


I know he's barely in this chapter, but I'm trying to introduce the universe. He'll definitely be a big player in this story.

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