A/N: This is my first foray into the fandom of Naruto. I'm nervous, and freaking out. I've been wanting to contribute to this fandom for a long time, and though I'll never be satisfied with my writing as it is now, so this is it.
Disclaimer: Do not own NARUTO. Will never own. Plot is mine.
Prologue
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Little Haruno Sakura, the orphan, the friendless, the one no-one wanted to be associated with. That was who I was. That is who I am.
The shove connected with force, and the girl's center of gravity wobbled alarmingly as she made no effort to balance. She lets herself fall to her bottom in a tangle of thin, dirt-smudged limbs. Sakura flung her arms over her face. A last, mute protest.
"Stupid forehead girl! Who even has a forehead that big?" Ami giggled mockingly, flanked by two other small girls all looking down at the target of her scorn. "A monster! No boy would ever like you, with a forehead like that!"
The girl in question is smaller than her young assailants, with a delicate, almost bony frame covered by a stained dress whose colour was indistinguishable under the dirt.
Her only significant features are a pair of grass-green eyes. They are hidden beneath dull pink bangs that only half succeed in covering her broad forehead. (The girl's forehead was, admittedly, on the large side.)
She is dirty, frail, and sobbing rather loudly.
Her name is Haruno Sakura.
She lifts her head up.
A flash of silvery colour catches the corner of her eye. Sakura turns to see a blond-haired girl with laughing blue eyes race past, yelling out to the cloud of children behind her. "Come on! I heard that Kiba-kun challenged Sasuke-kun to a fight! Hurry, or we'll miss it!"
For a splinter of time, green and blue connect.
A little scrap of hope stirs feebly in Sakura's chest, only to be bluntly extinguished as Ami calls back "Wait! I wanna see Sasuke-kun in action too!" and gives the fallen girl a last, half-hearted kick before running off after the other children.
The children are shrieking with glee, intent on the impending spectacle as they trail behind the blond girl like the tail of a comet. Sakura sighed.
Because if there ever was a girl who could be a comet, Yamanaka Ino would be her. Ino was pretty, charming and smart.
She was everything Sakura had ever wanted to be.
Everybody liked Ino, the other girls, the adults, even the boys! Even Sakura had, a little bit. Nobody liked Sakura. No-one paid her any notice, except for Ami and the others. But that kind of attention Sakura didn't want.
But the best part, the most important thing of all. Ino was a jinchuuriki. The container of the Kyuubi, the nine-tailed demon fox.
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A/N: Chapter 1 is short because of the ending. I would really appreciate any feedback you could give me. Thanks.