Broken Youth
(Life of Konoha Academy Teens)
CH1.1 Remember
'I think it's strange that when we're children we are so eager to grow up, but when we're older we wish we could go back.' Thought Sakura to herself.
Sakura laid flat on her back in the middle of an open meadow. The field was full of withering flowers and the crisp grass which had faded into a brown olive color. Both her hands were set behind her head and her eyes shut. She was enjoying the warm sun, which would peep through the clouds overhead, and made her cheeks a soft pink. A slight breeze blew about her, moving the blades of grass along with her long-luscious-pretty-pink-hair. Above her the clouds seemed to dance in the endless blue sky. Her breath was soft just like the breeze, that was swiftly carrying some cherry blossom petals from a late blooming tree which stood at the far end of the vast meadow, the petals gently fluttered down and landed along side Sakura's tranquil body. As she laid there it gave the impression that she was in a deep slumber, yet she wasn't for her mind was not dreaming but in thought, remembering the faint memory of her childhood. The memories that she was recollecting and that were permanently engraved in her brain were those of the events, that had occurred in that very meadow many years ago.
Sakura thought to herself again. 'As I look back to my childhood, I think of how ignorant I once was. When I was young everything was so simple . The world to me was a beautiful place, I didn't see the hate that people carried, but only the love they showed one another. Back then I thought of everyone as equals, but fate soon taught me that not everybody thought the same.'
Nine and a half years earlier:
It was late spring and the meadow was full of gorgeous flowers. There were hundreds of them and of all different kinds. A beautiful six year old Sakura went around picking flowers and making a nice little bouquet. Sakura wore a dark blue long sleeve shirt with holes running down the sleeves. She was also wearing a red skirt with black leggings. Her hair was short, not quite touching her shoulders, and it was accompanied with some shaggy bangs which covered her entire forehead and part of her eyes. She had a warm smile on her face and her eyes were bright with joy.
When she was finished picking her flowers she knelt down in the middle of the field and began arranging them. The meadow was full of other young girls who were also picking flowers here and there. All of a sudden a group of older girls approached Sakura though she didn't notice them until she heard them giggling. She looked up and in front of her she saw three girls: a blonde, a redhead, and a brunette.
The redhead was in the middle of the other girls and was the first one to talk. She said, "Nice flowers, Pinky."
"Thank you," Sakura said politely with a warm grin.
"What's your name?" asked the redhead.
"Sakura," was her reply.
"Sakura, can I see your flowers?" asked the girl.
"Sure," said Sakura handing her the flowers without query.
"What pretty flowers," said the girl sniffing them. "To bad they're to pretty for you," She said as she began tearing the flowers to shreds and throwing them to the ground.
"Why?..." Was all Sakura manged to say.
"What are you a dog? What are you trying to do with that hair across your forehead?" said the girl, with a snobby look on her face, but before Sakura could even open her mouth to answer the girl continued. "Wait, don't tell me, I know what you're trying to do, you're trying to hide the fact that your forehead is so ginormous behind those things you call bangs," she laughed then said "Pathetic."
"Why are you doing this to me?" Sakura said as her eyes began to water and a bulge in her throat beginning to form. "What did I ever do to you?" tears began running down her pink cheeks.
"Oh, nothing I just can't stop myself from saying somethings ugly when I see it." said the redhead holding her head up high.
Sakura was now curled up with her face in her knees crying, her arms were tightly wrapped around her her calves.
"Aw, look at the little baby," said the blonde girl.
"Waah! Waah! I want my mommy," mocked the brunette, pretending to cry by rubbing her eyes.
"What a crybaby," said the redhead, then all the girls began to laugh together
Then form behind the girls came a voice that said load and angry. "Stop! Leave her alone!"
The girls turned around and saw a young girl with short blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She was wearing a cream colored spaghetti strapped top and purple pants. Parts of her bangs were held to one side with a little red clip. Her hands were at her sides and she had an angry look on her face.
"What?" said all three girls.
"You heard me. Leave her alone!" the girl said taking a step forward and leaning her head towards their faces and giving them a stern look.
"Why, should we?" said the redhead turning her back on the girl, the others followed.
The girl walked around to the other side and stood next to the still sobbing Sakura. The girl chuckled and then said "I know why your doing this."
"No, you don't," said the redhead.
"Yes, I do, you're doing this because you're jealous," said the girl. The redhead's jaw dropped and so did those of her friends. "Yeah, you're jealous of how much prettier she is than you, so to make yourselves feel better you're bullying her."
"Humph, you don't know anything," returned the redhead, while crossing her arms, lifting her head up high, and stomping her toe.
After a brief moment of silence she turned around and left, her friends not far behind her.
"Just as I thought! It's a good thing that they left on their own because I was about to make them leave." _
"Thank you," said Sakura's small voice.
"Huh?" said the girl turning around. "Oh, you're welcome. Sorry that I didn't stop them sooner though."
"W-who are you?" asked Sakura with a sniff.
"I'm Ino Yamanaka," she said with an inviting smile. "And you?"
"Sakura Haruno," she replied.
"Why did you let those girls bully you like that?" asked Ino.
"To tell you the truth I didn't know what to do," responded Sakura shamefully.
"Oh," Ino said as she knelt herself in front of Sakura. "Here let me wipe those tears," she said while rubbing her thumbs underneath Sakura's eyes. "You have such pretty eyes you know..." Ino thought for a second, "...But they're kinda hard to see behind those bangs. I don't wanna seem mean," she continued. "But those girls were right about your bangs they do make your forehead look bigger then it is." Sakura's face started to get disappointed. "But don't worry I'll fix that," Ino said grinning. She put one hand on Sakura's forehead lifting up the bangs, while her other hand released a red ribbon which was in her hair.
"Why are you doing this? Why are you being so nice to me?" asked Sakura while Ino was parting her bangs.
"I don't know, you seem like a nice girl and I want to help you as much as I can..." Ino said. "You know when I saw those girls were bullying you I couldn't stop but think if it were me instead of you that they were bullying, I too would want someone to come and save me."
"I can't thank you enough for what you did. What you did was very brave." Sakura said.
"Brave?" Ino laughed, "I wasn't brave, anybody could have done what I did all they need is a little confidence."
"Really?" said Sakura.
"Yeah, even you could have done it." Ino said. Sakura smiled and there was a moment of silence.
As Ino was tightening the ribbon on Sakura's head she said, "Done," she then lifted Sakura's drooping head by her chin and turned it from one side to the other "Perfect. Just I thought, removing the bangs from your forehead would make it seem less big."
"It does!" said Sakura excited.
"Would I lie to you?" asked Ino
"I guess not... but are you sure I can wear your ribbon?" responded Sakura.
"Wear it? You can keep. It looks a lot better on you then it does on me anyway."
Sakura jumped off her knees and gave Ino a big hug. "Thank you." Sakura said again.
"It was nothing, and could you please stop thanking me." Ino replied as she returned Sakura's hug.
The two girls had quickly been converted into friends. They sat there in the meadow talking and laughing. They were having so much fun that they did not notice when everyone else began to leave. The girls eventually looked around and saw that everybody else had vanished, Ino and Sakura both stood up and said "Where did everybody go?"
"Oh, well this only means more flowers for us."said Ino with a shrug and closing one eye. Ino then saw Sakura's torn flowers on the ground. "Hey, Sakura how about we pick you some new flowers and make a prettier bouquet than the one that the girls tore? "
"Sure, that sounds lovely! Let's start right now!" said Sakura with much enthusiasm.
"Okay, let's go." said Ino. "You know meeting you is going to good practice for me,to reach my dream of becoming the owner of my parents flowers shop and a world famous fashion designer."
"He-he,So Miss future shopkeeper-fashion-designer, where should we start picking?" asked Sakura with a smile.
"How about I get some pretty flowers from the lower part of the meadow while you get some from the upper part near the trees?" suggested Ino.
"Okay,"agreed Sakura, then both the girls skipped merrily to there designated area.
As Sakura was picking her flowers she noticed something scurry behind one of the trees. Sakura left her picked flowers on the ground and went to check it out. Sakura was surprised, when what she found was another girl. The girl was holding on to one of the trunks of trees, she had half of her face hidden by the trunk and the other half was peeking at Sakura. The girl had short dark hair,pale skin, pink cheeks and big eyes that were almost the color of the light purple dress she was wearing. Sakura moved closer to the girl and began talking to her.
"What are you doing behind that tree? Are you hiding there because you are afraid of me?" asked Sakura.
"O-oh nothing. I'm not afraid of you," said the girl in a little voice.
"Then come out from behind there, I won't bite, promise," said Sakura with a welcoming smile.
"O-okay," said the girl trying to smiling back as she stepped on to the flower field.
"See, I'm not that scary, by the way my name is Sakura Haruno and yours?" said Sakura.
"Hi-hinata Hyuuga." she replied.
"What a lovely name. Well, it's a pleasure meet you Hinata," said Sakura.
"The same to you Sakura," returned Hinata.
_
Sakura then went to pick up her flowers. As she was bent over picking up her flowers she heard Ino's voice shouting, "Sakura! Sakura!" Sakura looked up and she saw Ino running towards her. When Ino finally reached her she was out of breath. Ino bent over leaning on her knees trying to catch breath.
"What's taking...you... so long," Ino said staggering her breath.
"Well, when I was picking flowers I found something interesting," Sakura said pointing to Hinata. Hinata stood behind Sakura and glimpsed over Sakura's right shoulder.
"Oh," said Ino standing up tall to look at Hinata.
"This is Hinata," introduced Sakura as she moved aside and gently pushed Hinata forward.
"Hi, Hinata. I'm Ino Yamanaka," said Ino waving at her.
"Hello, Ino," said Hinata bowing her head.
"Hey, why don't you help us pick flowers?" said Ino kindly.
"Yes, please do," said Sakura as she grabbed Hinata by her shoulders and looked at her with a big grin.
"Okay," said Hinata grinning back.
"Great!" said both Ino and Sakura cheerfully as they both grabbed a hold of one of Hinata's arms and held their flowers in the other.
"Now that we're done picking flowers why don't we go to park? It's not far from here, it's just at the end of this meadow," suggested Sakura as the girls finished making the bouquets.
"Sound like fun!" said Ino.
"Sure," said Hinata.
"Okay, then let's go," said Sakura leading the way.
On there way to the park Sakura got curious and asked "Hinata can I ask you a question?"
"Go ahead Sakura-Chan," said Hinata.
"Why did you come here? I'm pretty sure you it wasn't to hide behind a tree," said Sakura.
Hinata giggled, she had already lost her timidness around the girls. "Well, that's true... I only came here because my father wants me to be less shy around people. It is hard for me because I'm afraid of talking with new people. That's why I don't have any friends and why my father wants me to get out more."
"Oh, I understand," said Sakura.
"Yeah, but you lost your shyness with us very quickly and all we did was be nice at this rate you'll lose your shyness in no time," said Ino with optimism.
"Ino has a point and Hinata you do have friends,us!" said Sakura. Hinata's face grew a smile and that smile was accompanied two others. And they remained for a while the only sound being the cheerful chirps of the birds and there footsteps.
Little did the girls know that there acts of kindness on that spring day would lead them to a life lasting friendship.
End of part 1.1
