The Heroine
SUMMARY: Sometimes Sakura questions the depth of her character. Is it wrong to be characterised around love? AU. SasuSaku.
Foreword: This is set in a Japanese university setting. I haven't written anything in a very long time, so this fiction is extremely experimental. All terminologies and their explanations are at the bottom of the page.
I apologise in advance for any grammatically errors.
Disclaimer: Characters belong to their respective creator Kishimoto Masashi.
Prelude to Sakura
The warm mid-spring sunlight glorified Konoha National University where countless students hustled along the cherry blossom lined path. It was the opening ceremony day and Haruno Sakura tensely stood before the gate, eyes drinking in the dignified construction where petals danced in the wind flicker shades of pink under the light. The scent in the air summoned nostalgia of many previous springs.
I'm finally here.
Sakura gulped down a breath she never knew she was holding and began assessing how she should take her first step into the sacred ground. She had previously entered Konoha to undertake the entrance examination, but entering the compound at that very moment was different, like a different shade of the same flavour. Feeling somewhat ridiculous in dramatizing her entrance, Sakura hesitated and slowly, but steadily, lifted her right feet.
A flash of yellow sped past her, knocking her something, or rather someone – who had caught her before she met concrete. Sakura snapped her eyes open to meet the saviour; instead the blinding sun welcomed her.
His features were shadowed, but when he settled her back to neutral position as the shadows slowly dawned on him, handsome was barely sufficient as a first impression. Sakura stared, very hard.
"Teme! What's taking you- moved fast!" the source of her impact – a blonde boy eyed the boy beside her judgingly, eyes scrutinising his friend's hands, the ones that were retreating from Sakura.
"Watch where you're going dead last." Despite the harsh words, her saviour's tone sounded neutral if not almost endearing. Sakura continued staring, she was at a loss for words because she has never seen a man so visually perfect before.
"Oh~ sorry. " The blonde boy scratched his head and smiled apologetically at Sakura.
"Aa~ it's nothing." Sakura snapped out of the trance, she remembered her manners and turned to her saviour, "T-Thank you." Sakura bowed, not feeling the capability of moving her invasive eyes away from his face.
"Aa." The saviour replied and questioned her stare with his own. Shyness and probably embarrassment diverted her gaze to the ground, cheeks flaming in heat. Yet, it didn't take her curiosity long to sneakily look back and examined the boy. Strong jaw, high nose, and sharp eyes. His messy dark hair and black suit contrasted against the white scene of blossom before them, as if the scene of blossom surrounding them was made for him and only for him. Sakura couldn't help but felt washed out and blended into part of the background. He evoked charisma, something Sakura lacked.
The boy nodded a farewell, eyes holding her gaze for a bit as he continued ahead to catch up to the blonde, casually giving his friend a soft smack on the head.
"You're a public disturbance." Sakura heard the saviour tell his friend.
The blonde rubbed his head and retorted, but by then they had been out of earshot.
So much for taking one step at a time.
Sakura looked down at her own feet to find that she had already entered school grounds.
A whirlwind of flower petals grazed coolly on Sakura's skin as she embraced the scent lingering in the air and continues watching her two encounters' back. They were straight, proud, and with confidence as elite students of Konoha.
"Let's go Sakura, you're not different to them." She whispered to herself and took the next step into four years of Konoha National University.
She is Haruno Sakura, and this is her story where she is the heroine.
Konoha National University has been her educational life long goals.
The university was prestigious and attending Konoha would completely ensure a career success. For Sakura who had lived her entire life in a major city, family and friends had roared in laughter before congratulating her success in entering Konoha. They took turns jesting that the four years of her university life was be the same as a 'training trip in the mountains', with pun intended.
Sakura paid them no heed. The prestige in Konoha's name made it all worth the sacrifice, for a heroine like Sakura, Konoha's tittle was nothing less than 'fitting'. Attending Konoha meant perfection, brain, brawl and beauty. She was a perfect heroine.
Attending Konoha had also meant that Sakura was to live in student accommodation. Her room was a single living-dinning-kitchen room on the third floor of an apartment complex named Yamashikanai. It was decent sized with lots of sunlight, and a small balcony overlooking…a mountain. She couldn't ask for anymore or any less because living alone meant freedom.
Despite being free, Sakura had always been the type to be bounded by rules and teachings of her upbringing. Somehow Sakura began embracing it at some point along the way led Sakura to the state she was in.
In front of room 303, Sakura knocked softly upon her neighbor's door. She had initially started with 301 where an Uchiha-san was residing, according to the nameplate, but no response came after five minutes so she proceeded to room 303 with Uzumaki underneath the nameplate. After a good minute, the door opened and Sakura greeted a familiar face.
"Ah!" Uzumaki and her yelled simultaneously upon recognition the other from the entrance ceremony incident.
"My name is Haruno Sakura, I've just moved into 302. I'll be in your care." Sakura bowed politely, feeling strange the words that was playing at the back of her mind since arrival has finally left her mouth. An unknown sense of pressure had lifted itself from her shoulders.
"Same here," Uzumaki replied, "Just call me Naruto."
"Nice to meet you Naruto. This is nothing much, but please accept it." Sakura offered a wrapped jar of homemade jam her mother had previously prepared. She had insisted in more conventional gifts such as traditional snacks, but her mother had insisted upon the family's various flavours of jams, even the ever so unique tomato jam.
Naruto's eyes intensely brightened and accepted the gift.
"Wah! Sakura-chan! You're not only cute but really kind!"
"I'm glad you like it." She replied, flattered at his comment.
"TEME! Come out and say hi to our new neighbour!" Naruto yelled into the depth of his apartment. Sakura watched curiously where moments later, another family face met her equally surprised one.
"This is Sakura-chan from 302. And this bastard is Uchiha Sasuke, he's from 301!"
Sakura frowned upon the pet name Naruto gave his friend but decided not to pry.
"Ah! I'll be in your care from now on." She carefully bowed.
"Aa." Sasuke replied with a nod. Sakura had expected more of a response, yet upon sensing the lack of it, she opted to rummage through her basket for another jar of jam and gestured it towards Sasuke's direction. It was the infamous tomato jam. Heat naturally spanned across Sakura's face and she felt stupid, stupid because the back of her mind feared that he might not take the present because it was so lame and he did not look the type to have sweet things. She was immensely surprised when he took the jar.
"Don't mind this guy, it may seem like he's got a two metre poll stuck up his ass, but he's actually a real softi—OW" Sasuke knocked Naruto's head hard before the boy could finish his sentence. "TEME, WANNA DIE!"
Sakura chuckled. "You two are close." Her laugh fell into awkwardness when she noticed Sasuke's silent gaze on her, he looked down at the gift once more, gave her a curt nod and walked back into Naruto's apartment. Her eyes follow his disappearing back, almost unable to tear off.
"Trying to look cool in are we?" Naruto muttered, almost inaudibly, under his breath. He quickly diverted his attention back to Sakura, face grinning ridiculously bright, just like the morning sun. "Did you just move in today?"
Sakura noded in reply. "Un."
"Say Sakura-chan, are you doing anything tonight?" he asked, grinning pearly white teeth widely.
"No, I guess nothing in particular."
"Hehehehe" Naruto snickered, "wanna join the rest of us on for a drink up in my room?"
When Sakura was younger and was still daddy's girl, her father had taught her many things. Among those, the one thing that played in the back of her mind like a broken cassette was to stay away from boys. What father had failed to teach her was to stay away from alcohol whilst underage, and Sakura jumped at her first chance of freedom when invited to a drink up.
That night, Sakura found herself squeezing in Naruto's small room with twelve others who were already intoxicated when she entered. The old nerdy Sakura would have never fathom the chances having her first party second night into university life and introduced herself dumbly, "Hi I'm Sakura, Naruto's neighbour."
Naruto's friends whose names Sakura has managed to remember were a friendly bunch. Ino, Kiba, Shikamaru, Ino, Hinata, Chouji, and Shino. Many of them either went to high school with Naruto or had met him through karate competitions and were invited to the drink up. Sai joined them when he was seventeen. Whilst the group of senpai in the room, Neji, Tenten, and Lee all grew up together with the group.
Socialising has never been Sakura's forte, but it didn't take long for Sakura to find herself chatting animatedly with the group whilst getting coaxed into joining their karate circle.
"EH! Sakura you haven't decided on any clubs or circles yet?" Tenten reacted rather loudly, causing several heads in the room to turn.
"I've been so busy moving that I haven't gotten the chance."
"What about high school?" Lee, the only male in their girls talk chirped in, suddenly interested in whatever Sakura has to say.
"I was in the karate club up until second year of junior high." She exclaimed through careful selection of words with the hope that they were not going to view her as some kind of study bug.
"That's great Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled from across the room where conversation was almost inaudible. "Join us~~"
"You will join our karate circle wont you?" Hinata asked, eyes hopefully looking at Sakura.
"We do a lot of other activities too, like drink ups!" Kiba added hand lifting another can of beer from Naruto's fridge.
Lee aggressively pushed Hinata and Kiba out of the way to inch closer to Sakura and took hold of both her hands. "Sakura-san I believe it is fate for you to have met the karate club first." His eyes brightened with stars. It was a little disturbing for Sakura's taste, but she tolerated by keeping her mouth shut.
It wasn't until until Neji sent a friendly punch that sent Lee smashing against the window, saving Sakura in the process. "Haven't we established that there is no such thing as fate?"
Sakura established that violence was a norm in the karate circle.
"But you'll join our circle right?" Sai's question had sounded more like a statement.
They all watched her with expectant eyes and Sakura looked at them all, feeling the nerves running through her like a hundred miles. At the back of the room near the balcony Sasuke caught her eyes. He too was watching, but more out of curiosity rather than expectations. Sakura soon succumbed to the pressure.
"Eh- I guess I'll join."
"Welcome to the karate circle." Ino slapped Sakura, and she just knew that she was at the point of no return. Everyone assumed their previous activities and when Sakura searched the room for Sasuke, he was gone, disappeared just like the wind blowing from the balcony. Her attention was brought back to the room where Lee had put an arm around her shoulder.
"Yosh! In celebration of Sakura-san's admission to our circle, as vice leader of the karate circle I command you all to drink!"
"OOH!"
A few hours into the session, feelings of suffocation began pooling and Sakura carried her can of beer out to the balcony for fresh air. There she found that none other than Uchiha Sasuke was occupying the space alone, staring far ahead into the mountain scene.
The moon's graceful presence illuminated his features in ways Sakura never imagined simple moonlight could on a person. He carried himself with an air of indifference that if she could reach out and touch, she would be immersed into an illusion. If it weren't for the faint scent of his cologne that was capable in short-circuiting any girl, Sakura would have thought that she was indeed hallucinating.
"Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke turned to the sound of his voice calling out for his name. He was blank of expression yet his eyes stared at her intensely and made her shy away.
"Ah~ the wind is nice out here isn't it?" Sakura babbled, fixing her attention on the dancing petals. It was a completely beautiful distraction.
…
He did not respond and Sakura continued to babble anyways because when Sakura short-circuit making her babbled as if tomorrow would never come.
"It must be nice to be here with so many friends. I'm from a faraway town so I don't know anyone at all."
…
His silence made it even more suffocating.
…
"You don't talk much do you?" Sakura said words that had meant to be inner thoughts. Upon realising that it could be rude to voice her opinion, she looked at him alarmly, hoping to catch a sign, any kind of sign that would tell her that he wasn't offended. "Ah sorry I didn't mean-
"You're noisy." He said, and before Sakura could comprehend how she could have possibly annoy him so much, Uchiha Sasuke's lips were pressed against hers, short-circuiting her brain then and there.
H-He is kissing me? An arm slid down her waist and reeled her body in, pressing her closer to him. Not wasting a second to let her dawdle on confused thoughts and urgently licked her lower lips, effortlessly gaining entrance while an unknown sound escaped her lips.
Sakura's brain gave up and focused on the gutted knots in her stomach instead. Knots, fireworks, worms, butterflies. Whatever that was going on down inside her was unhealthy.
Haruno Sakura was kissing a complete stranger. Yet, what was stranger than that was whilst it felt so foreign it also felt so damn good.
To be continued…
A/N: Drop me a word if you like it or hate it. ^_^ stick around for more.
You don't have to read the references & definition section below to understand the story. But it will explain a lot of language/cultural factors in future chapters if you don't know them already.
Cultural references & definitions
- "Yosh!" or "Yosha!"= Loosely translated to "Alright, let's do this!"
- Yamashikanai – in Japanese this means "nothing but mountains" or "only mountains", a direct description of the town they're residing in. Honestly, I just couldn't think of anything better.
- The reason why Sakura goes out to give her neighbours a gift is because in Japanese tradition, it is polite to do so to your neighbours when you first move in. It gives one a chance to introduce themselves to neighbours, and also give a peace offering.
- Chuu-hi – an alcoholic drink that is mixed in flavour, similar to cocktails, it's VERY sugary and you could barely taste the alcoholic taste.
- Club and circles – in Japanese universities, clubs are stricter and require attendance because members often join competitions, compete against other universities and such. Whereas circles are more relax and more hobby and focused on socialising between people of the same interest, so members can come and go.
- Teme – a rude from of saying "you". It doesn't mean bastard, but has that connotation. Naruto only ever uses teme when speaking to whomever that annoys him. I used it on a friend as a joke and he got really angry.
-kun - used for young boys. There is hardly a sense of endearment attached. Just for little boys, or students (who are younger). I often use this on younger boys, especially my underclassmen. Though, girls who use "-kun" tend to occur to me (personally) as a bit more feminine.