It was a typical day in town. Naruto Uzumaki bought ramen, Chouji Akimichi beat someone at an eating contest, Shikamaru Nara lied around like the lazy ass he was, and Sakura Haruno sat on her balcony, looking up at the sky, hoping that something exciting would happen to her.
It was a small village, in a large clearing in a small forest on the edge of a desert. They never got many visitors, not even from their sister town that was in the middle of the desert. Therefore, I can understand why Sakura Haruno wouldn't want to wait around and live her life every single day like the day before. All the girls there wanted a change; the guys just didn't care.
So Sakura walked down to the Yamanaka flower shop that day at about noon to have lunch with her friends, Ino Yamanaka (the manager of the shop), Hinata Hyuuga, Luna Hughesu, and Tenten.
"Sakura!" shouted Ino as Sakura walked into the shop, "You're late again!"
"I know, I know…" she said at a sigh, "I was just thinking again…"
"Thinking?" asked Luna, "You said that yesterday, but now I'm wondering; what exactly are you thinking about, Sakura?"
Sakura blushed. "It's nothing, don't worry about me."
"I know what she's thinking about." Said Tenten, "She's thinking about getting a different life, isn't that what we all want to happen?"
"Of course!" said Ino, "who likes this dull and boring town, anyway?"
"Nobody." said Hinata with an unusual felling of confidence in her voice, as she was always shy.
Sakura rolled her eyes as she sat down; they had this same conversation every day.
"You know what you should do, Sakura?" said Luna, passing her a plate of rice cakes, "You should go to the town in the desert and see if life's exciting there."
"Yeah!" said Ino, "Not only will you find a more exciting life, you may find that special man you've been looking for!"
"Ino's right, Sakura." said Tenten, who was sipping her tea. "We've all got boyfriends and you don't. Even Shikamaru's got a girlfriend; she lives in the desert town, though."
Sakura glared at Ino, and said, "Gee, that sure makes me feel better." She said with sarcasm in her voice, also muffled out by the rice cake she was chewing on.
"You should go, Sakura…" said Hinata, "You deserve a better life than we do…"
Sakura gave her a puzzling look, "and why is that?"
Luna laughed slightly and said, "Because you have the worst life out of all of us."
Sakura looked at her, "and this is coming from someone whose parents are dead?"
"Just think about it for a second, Sakura." Luna told her, offering another rice cake, "You don't have a boyfriend, you don't know what you're going to do with your life, and you really have no relevant purpose so far, which is sad for a pretty 16-year-old girl like you!"
Sakura pouted, "And what are you guys going to do with your lives?"
"I'm probably going to be stuck in this flower shop my entire life." said Ino.
"I'd like to be a nurse…" whispered Hinata.
"I don't really know, all I want to do is study Science." said Luna with a rice cake in her mouth.
"Same for me." said Tenten, gesturing to Luna.
Sakura had a slight look of shock on her face, "Wow, you guys really have your lives set for you, don't you?"
They glanced at each other and then looked back at Sakura before saying, "Pretty much." All at once.
Sakura was sitting in her room now. She had two packed bags with her; one with her clothes and bathroom essentials and another with her material possessions. She looked out the window of her bedroom for one last time before she left on the train for the desert.
"Sakura!" her mother shouted, "You're going to miss your train if you don't leave soon!"
She jumped off of her bed, grabbed her bags, and walked out to the train station.
Now she was on her way to a different life; a life that would change not only her, but the ones around her. As she rode the train into the depths of the hot and dry desert, she wondered, am I going to an oasis or a ghost town?
