While I've been on FF for years now, this is my first time trying to write for Naruto. Please, read and reply! It means the world to me!
Oh and just to waylay any misconceptions about this story, it's Shounen-Ai, not NaruSaku. Sorry to disappoint.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, this is a fan-fic with the characters, yadada.
The highway roared past her; a thin paled girl with dark smeared makeup and a churning stomach.
You're annoying.
That hadn't been the worst part – not even close. But it was still wedged in her mind, a cruel mantra that poisoned her with every repeat.
She had been called worse, Sakura realized, kicking at a McDonald's bag that drifted towards her. Years of soccer practice were met in defeat, as she lashed out too quickly and the bag wafted another direction.
Actually, she had been called far worse; slut, whore, bitch, pussy – and even she had spoken with a filthier mouth than that.
But despite how much she was trying to convince her that it wasn't that bad, that she was a big girl and words don't hurt, the mantra and the scene inducing it refused to leave her mind.
He had just been so utterly…vicious.
The image of his expression had been imprinted into the under of Sakura's eyelids. She couldn't remember what she had been talking about. All that she recalled was a knotting stomach of nervous, the warm soda in her hands, and desperately craving Sasuke's attention.
Ever since he first shuffled into her 6th grade class, Sakura fell swiftly in thick, intangible love. However, despite being group partners with him this year, she only managed a few snippets of conversation.
But, it seemed that karma had been feeling sweet that night, hours before she bolted and decided to wander down the side of a highway.
After months of begging, black-mailing, and ass kissing to her big brother, Ino scored and landed Sakura and herself into one of his house parties. He lived in the heart of the city, in his own flat and for the thirteen and fourteen year old girls getting to leave their dusty small town was the ultimate dream.
Sakura glanced down at herself and she felt foolish. She had wanted to stand out, wanted attention to be drawn away from her size 2 best friend with long blonde hair, forget-me-not blue eyes, and belly ring.
So she dyed her hair pink, put on black and pink fishnets and a black ruffled skirt that hovered slightly over her butt, added a tight pink jacket over a black cami and a hot pink push up bra, and on her feet a pair of thick combat boots.
Like usual though, she felt stupid as soon as Ino showed up to Sakura's house wearing a small purple jacket that didn't reach past her (padded) chest, a thin white shirt underneath, and a zebra print bra that was visible through the shirt. Past her thin stomach was a pair of dark denim shorts that wouldn't have been allowed in school and then a pair of ballet flats.
Her pale hair, which was usually pulled back into a high ponytail, was cascading down her back, thick and pin straight.
Sakura could remember with a dry smile, what Ino's expression had been she opened her front door to Sakura's chopped pink 'do. For as long as she knew her, Sakura had light brown hair with thick bangs she copied off Zooey Deschanel to hide an abnormally large forehead. Even Sakura couldn't help but to stare at the girl in mirror.
Before she met Sasuke, before he transferred to her school, Sakura had been a mousey bespectacled girl who was too smart for her own good. She had skipped a grade and felt awkward as all the girls around her started to shift from girls to a whole new amazing alien creation.
Yes, she had Ino so perhaps she would've eventually risen above it, but Sasuke had come early. He was different from the boys her age, all so loud and immature. He wore dark clothes and would read thick books to himself during break and at lunch.
Sakura couldn't help herself, she plummeted for him. When she walked into Ino's brother's apartment to find him sitting on a couch his knees pulled close to him, one of his heavy books resting against his thighs and a pair of thick headphones pressed against his ears, her heart stopped. Then it roared back to life. It was as if her blood had been replaced with pure sunlight.
She wanted to scream, she wanted to laugh, and she wanted to run around the apartment for a few hours. Instead, she focused on Step One of the Plan; Get Sasuke to Smile. She collected herself and moved across the room to the couch.
She wasn't that same nerdy kid as before, she was wearing combat boots. Nerds don't wear combat boots. With her wardrobe change, maybe she could change and maybe she could change that bothered expression etched on Sasuke's face.
Expect she managed just the opposite.
"You're annoying," Sasuke had said with such malice in his voice, it was like venom being pumped straight to her heart. His eyebrows had burrowed together and he clutched his book tight, as if restraining against throwing it at Sakura. But it had been his eyes that had stung the worse for her. His dark eyes were full of hatred and under that the slightest hint of injure.
So now, Sakura was on the side of the highway, her black mascara running down her face. At least she had stopped crying; except for the occasional sniffle, she was totally finished. She scratched her cheek, as the watery mascara mixture was making her face itch.
A car blew its horn as it sped past her and a chill ran down Sakura's spine.
She was beginning to grasp her stupidity of bolting out of the apartment and heading back down the highway. As soon as she got the next exit, she would find the first gas station and ask for a phone to get Daddy to pick her up. Yes, he would be furious, and yes, she would get grounded, and yes, Ino would chew her ass out, but Sakura was tired and weary. Her feet were blistering within her boots and she was completely mentally exhausted.
If only I could've made Sasuke happy, Sakura thought moments before hearing a shriek of burning rubber.
She turned her head to the highway just in time to see a red car flip onto its back. The cry of metal against pavement scorched her eardrums and she stared mindlessly as the car continued to move sliding across the road, an elephant in an ice ring. Headed straight at her.
Glass shattered.
A flicker of intense, wet pain in her stomach.
And then, a chilled sensation, not unpleasant, as if she was slipping into a bathtub of thick jello. All I want is for Sasuke to love, was her last thought.
Then she fell asleep.
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Naruto did not expect to find a girl sleeping in his bathtub when he drew the curtain back, first thing in the morning. He anticipated even less that the girl sleeping would just so happen to be Sakura Haruno. And he had a good reason for assuming such.
She had been dead for three years.
Oh shit, not again, Naruto thought, before stumping out of the bathroom.
A few moments earlier he had been a banana slug, still hung over from not enough good sleep, but the sight of little Sakura, curled up in his bathtub dressed like the picture they had plastered all over the news left him shaky and covered in icy sweat.
It was bad enough, when he walked past the graveyard, but seeing his old classmate and not to account long time crush was just crossing the line. He hated ghost.
But, there was something strange about her, he realized despite his racing heart. She didn't look like they normally did, all bloody and gross, no she was perfect, her hair dyed pink like they said in the news papers. Actually if he didn't know better, Naruto would've thought that Sakura was just as alive as he was.
With slow careful movements, Naruto bent down to her level. Despite the mantra in the back of his mind warning nonstop against it, he leaned forwards and gently reached down for Sakura's arm, because normally, ghost don't sleep and Sakura's funeral had been closed casket.
The tips of Naruto's fingers brushed Sakura's arm and a strange sensation ran down his arm as if he was getting shocked from the toaster again. For a blink second Sakura seemed to glow and her bright green eyes popped open.
Naruto drew away half out of reflex and half to shed his eyes. Halfway through drawing back, Sakura's eyes landed on him and the confusion swimming in them evaporated and instead fear flooded through. "OH MY GOD RAPIST!" She shrieked scrambling back in the tub and the curtain – moving on its own accord – whipped shut.
He couldn't help it, Naruto screamed. He sprang up and tripped over the toilet, ending up in a tangled mess.
"Hey Naruto, you gotta be quiet," a female's voice called out wearily on the opposite side of the wall. The shower turned on full blast and the curtain snapped open again. Fear still shinning in her eyes, Sakura scrambled to the edge of the shower her eyes still sharp on Naruto.
"I don't know who you think you are, but my dad's gonna call the police and you're going to prison forever if you touch me," she ranted and Naruto, who was in a very un-intimidating pile on the floor among dirty clothes, filthy towels, and puffs of dog fur, stared at her in amazement.
She doesn't realize that she's dead, he thought just as the bathroom door burst open. Nikki wearing her tattered pink robe and puffy red eyes was giving Naruto a foul look, oblivious to Sakura in the corner of the shower.
"All I ask of you babe is that you don't make noise, otherwise I'm not gonna get enough beauty sleep and won't be able to pay rent," she explained and Naruto gave her a nod, awkward in his current position. "Oh and get off the floor, God knows what icky things are crawling 'round here," she said and Naruto gave her a thumbs up.
"Working on it," he promised and too tired to care any longer, Nikki shuffled out of the room, forgetting to shut the door.
"Wait, Sakura," Naruto said but the ghost girl had flung herself out of the bathroom, moving so fast she was only a pink blur. For a moment Naruto sat there, his arm reached out, half expecting Sakura to walk back through the door, laughing that he fell for her prank.
But a few seconds later, a tickling sensation ran across his leg and he scrambled up, remembering Nikki's warning. Curiously, Naruto checked the rest of the trailer, but Sakura had vanished. For an indecisive moment, Naruto thought about ditching school to look around town for her, but a post-it note on the fridge reminded him that Iruka was going to give him a ride to school.
Best not to bite that gift horse, if that's how the saying went.
So Naruto managed to take a quick shower and find a clean shirt despite Sakura cutting five minutes out of his morning schedule. However, the whole time, he couldn't forget the smell of Vanilla Sakura Flowers, the perfume that Sakura always wore. The smell that seemed to be coating the bathroom.