Konoha High

Sakura's POV

I quietly ran my fingers through my hair as I trudged through the halls of the school to get to the front office. Class has long since been over but I was still here, taking in paperwork for the student council, which I wasn't even a member of, all because of my best friend Yamanaka Ino.

I scoffed at the thought.

Could I even call her that anymore?

I thought back to what exactly it was that brought me here, two years ago.

"Come on Sakura! I have a date later on and I still have to get ready and finish my homework, can you please do my work from student council and take it to the front office when you're done with it?" The blond girl pleaded but she didn't look as sincere as what she was letting on.

"I don't know Ino, I also have homework to do, actually I have twice as much as you do because I'm in advanced classes." I explained to her as I looked down at the thick stack of papers in Ino's hand and compared it to the much smaller one in mine... But that's to be expected because mine is homework, not paperwork for student council.

"There you go again Sakura, always making it about you. And of course you just had to bring up you're advanced classes, how could you do this to me?" Ino set both of her hands to her hips and leaned over, as if really looking how I could do such a thing.

And of course, I caved.

"Alright, I'll do it."

But that was just the first time she asked me during our first year of high school together. The time after that it was because of her after school job that she couldn't do it. Then is was a cheer meeting, then a football game she had to cheer at, then the talent show... But eventually she had just stopped asking me and started giving me her things.

Every time I tried to do or say something about it to her, she always came at me with the same thing.

"How could you do this to me?"

Like it was some big shocker that I expected her to do her own work for a change.

I let out a sigh as I turned down another hallway to get to where I needed, trying to distract myself from thinking about all the times Ino made me give up something. But as soon as my mind was clear of all that, I saw him. Who? Uchiha Sasuke.

Back in our middle school days he and I were pretty close. We grew up together with our other friend Naruto. But when Ino saw just how close we were to each other, she got mad.

"Sakura! How could you do this to me!? You know that I like Sasuke-kun! As a matter of fact, I liked him before you did!"

Lies, Sasuke and I were neighbors and hung out long before Ino and I did.

But when middle school came around Ino threatened to break off our friendship if I didn't back down.

So I did, and I watched as my childhood crush slowly began distancing himself from me because I started to ignore him, pretended to overly fangirl over him, which I knew he hated, and even sat through my own heartbreak and tears as Sasuke asked out Ino in our third year of middle school.

They dated up until second year of high school before Ino had cheated on him with a new guy named Sai.

Sasuke never looked at another girl that way again. He still never talked to me, and became nothing short of a jerk to any girl that tried to approach him. Even now that we're in our third year of high school.

I sighed forlornly as I watched as he and a few of his teammates walked into one of the gyms our school had, decked out in their volleyball uniform, ready to welcome the new first years to the team.

For a brief second I thought he had turned around to look at me but before I could even double check, the doors of the gym had already closed.

I ran my hands through my hair and sighed again.

Our final year of high school and things are still this way between he and I. Great.

~•~

3rd POV

Back in the gymnasium Sasuke stared at the door he had just closed where just on the other side, was his ex best friend, and his ex's best friend. God how he wished things were back to the way they used to be, before it was all, complicated.

"Hey Sasuke! Come check out our first years! Some gutsy little brats I'll tell ya that much!"

Small cries of disagreement ran throughout the gym as Sasuke smirked, all previous thoughts erased.

"First years yelling at their senpai on their very first day? Gutsy indeed."

~•~

Back in the front office Haruno Sakura handed in all of the paperwork the student council needed to sign for the beginning of the school year to their principal. Who in turn, frowned upon seeing her instead of the person whose actual job it is.

"Sakura, from what I understand, Ino is supposed to be doing this work isn't she? It's been her job since the beginning of her first year yet I haven't seen her come in here once in all three years she's been here."

"Technically it's only two years because the third year just started..."

At the principals harsh glare Sakura bit her lip and tried to suppress her laughter.

The principal, Senju Tsunade, had been nothing short of a second mother to her, so Sakura often found herself pushing the woman's buttons and testing her patience on various levels.

Tsunade would never understand why Sakura would give up so much only to receive nothing but dirt to her face.

She still remembers the same exact day her mother had left them, left everyone. That angel was buried in the ground now.

She remembers the devastated tears and cries as she was called to the her very own office during her first year of high school as the police officer who had received the call came to deliver the news that it was a fatal car crash had caused her mothers untimely death.

That officer had been Ino's father himself, and with a few strings pulled here and there, the identity of the poor victim to the tragic car accident was never revealed because the family wanted to keep their privacy. It was because of Ino's father that Sakura was able to come to school like nothing had happened and with out the pitiful looks she would have gotten from other students.

But, it also meant that she didn't have much time to grieve over her mothers death. Her father had left her and her mother years ago that when they tried to contact him, no one answered, that contact information had long since been disconnected.

So Tsunade took it upon herself to help the girl. Not only that but because the orphanage knew about Sakura's dilemma they also offered to help her pay for the apartment she lived in, so with her living arrangements taken care of, Tsunade helped with the providing of the food, the only left was her own school work which Sakura made sure to stay at the top of her class.

Tsunade also made her start taking self defense classes because now that she was on her own, she had to be able to take care of herself should she need to.

She had grown up so fast at such a young age that she hardly had anything left to do for herself anymore. Especially because of that Ino girl pushing off all of her work on to her, which was why Tsunade was about to do what she should have done two years ago.

"Sakura." Tsunade called, causing the pink haired girl to stop rambling about how she was fine doing this for her friend. "I understand that you're okay with it, but I'm not, tell Ino that if she doesn't start doing her own work and start turning it in herself, that she looses her job." Sakura stared wide eyed at her blonde principal.

"What?" Sakura can just imagine what Ino would say... 'How could you do this to me?'

But for the very first time, as Sakura though about all the things that her supposed "best friend" put her through she thought: 'How could she do this to me?'