Chapter Two: Enter: Sakura Haruno!
Chapter summary: We see Sakura's life back at home as she prepares for her travels. Naru/Saku
Authors Note: I planned this about Sakura's background and her leaving for the trip; next chapter will be them at the airport and them seeing each other for the first time on the plane.
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Key:
'Thought'
"Speech"
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It was a bright and sunny day at the Haruno household. School ended yesterday for an eleven-year old girl named Sakura Haruno, and she spends most of her spare afternoon time in her house doing homework or watching the television. She never did pursue any activities, not that she didn't want to, but because she never fit into the hierarchy of her school. All she wanted was to get out of the dreadful school and pursue a life in the medical field, desperately. She prayed to graduate from her high school so she could get out and start over, and to actually make friends and hang-out.
To any normal outsider, they would wonder why she would behave like this, to be a perfect student but to have no life, no parties, dates, or sleepovers. To the school, she wasn't perfect enough for them, so they would make fun of her about something as trivial her appearance. The next day, it would be something different. No matter where she went, someone would taunt her about her. Her normal reaction is to just keep walking and never making eye contact with that dreadful person. No one would talk to her in fear of the student body turning their cold, hateful gaze at them. To them, that person who would confront her was someone who they believe was turning against them; of siding with the misfit instead of the 'cool' people. Nobody wanted to be that person, so they turned a blind eye and left poor Sakura alone.
Sakura wasn't as strong as she seemed like at school; she would always rush to her room after school, throw her tired head down on her pillow and let tears stream down her face as she sobbed. She normally cries for thirty minutes, but to her, it seemed like hours. All she wanted was for them to stop, for her to disappear; to actually live a normal life. Deep inside though, she knows that it would never happen, and her acceptance was what slowly pulled her towards the darkness.
School ended for the summer yesterday, and at the time she is happy she could stay away from all of the tormentors. However, she realized how lonely it was without a friend to laugh with, to play with during the gorgeous days of summer. Not having friends to spend her time with made her depression spiral downward. She spent most of her time, when she wasn't busy, lying in bed, thoroughly depressed. She tried desperately to tell people, and herself, that she was fine, but she didn't fool anyone, let alone her closest people.
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The pink haired girl was sitting by the glowing television when she was thrown out of her daze by her mom, trying to get her attention.
"I have something you might want to hear," her mom said quietly once she knew she had her attention.
She sighed quietly, rolling her eyes, and turned around to face her mom.
"Honey, we decided that since it's the summer and you don't have school, we could go traveling. We're all going with a group of people to Suna," she said.
Her face lit up just a little bit at the news she was hearing. In a way, she was slightly overjoyed at the fact of taking a one week vacation to a completely new place. She had never been out of the country before; she rarely ever comes out of her house during the day except for school. Now as she sat there on the couch, thoughts and ideas ran through her head at all the wonderful things she would be doing other than sitting in front of the glowing television that she had been attracted to during the past several days.
Her mother explained to her that she would have 2 weeks to pack until they would have to head off. Secretly, she wanted a good reason to leave the house, but never had one till now. She realized for a week, she could leave the boredom and loneliness of her house along with the taunting and teasing of everyone around here to travel to a faraway place and to see new things.
After the wonderful thoughts flowing through her mind calmed, she turned back to the television and flipped through the channels trying to find one to satisfy her curiosity. She wanted to just throw her stuff in the bag right now and leave; she was excited to the extreme, but she knew it was still too early to be packing. Since nothing else was on her To-Do-List, she turned the television off and slowly walked up the stairs to her safe heaven called her room to read the book she started yesterday.
One week later, life found an extremely frustrated Sakura due the fact that time for her seemed to have stopped. It was close enough to the departure date, and she couldn't wait any longer to start her packing. By this point, she had run the list of what she would need to have on the trip through her head thousands of times.
"Sakura, come down for dinner before it gets cold."
"Be down in a little bit," Sakura yelled out her bedroom door. She dropped her things and casually walked to the dining room for a wonderful dinner she would never get tired of.
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Late in the night, Sakura was having the worst sleep problem she ever had in a long time. That night, all she could do was let her body toss and turn relentlessly all night. After a nightmare, she bolted upright, calmed herself, and yawned. Crawling out of bed, she walked her tired body to the bathroom for some rest and relaxing.
Splashing the cool water on her face, she leaned forward on the counter, and stared at her tired face. As she stood there, face and hair dripping with the cold water, only one thought went through her head, no matter how much she tried to shake it off.
'Will I be taunted for my looks like I do here or will I actually be acknowledged? To be accepted in the society of everyone around me with open arms.'
She let out a long outburst of air as she climbed back to bed, trying to fall into that peaceful sleep she had wanted so badly these past few days. During her adventure to the bathroom, she never realized the presence of her mom on the other side of the wall. She had a small smile on her face and thought,
'Hopefully this trip will help her, but only time will tell.' She got up, slowly and quietly, and tip-toed to her room, being careful not to disturb her daughter in the process.
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Tomorrow was the day Sakura swore she would die if it never came. Both her mom and dad were also looking forward to this trip. Sakura carefully walked to the kitchen for a basic breakfast consisting of cold cereal. As she was walking, her whole body felt like it was going to fall apart right there on the spot. This was, sadly, normal during the week, as she got no sleep due to her worries.
"Morning, Mom," she said sleepily as she hobbled into the kitchen, taking her usually seat.
'I know it will be the usual, but it might help if I ask.'
"How do you feel this morning?" she asked as she poured her breakfast and sat down across from her.
"Slept like I've been sleeping the whole week," Sakura replied. "It sucks that I can't get a decent good night's rest."
"Give it time and it will get better," was all her reply.
"Thanks Mom," she said, embracing her in a tight hug. She pulled away and sat down at the table while her mom went to finish cooking breakfast for herself.
Washing her bowl and spoon out in the sink, Sakura put them both on the counter and walked to her room to finish her packing; most of her packing was already done except for a few small things. Those she quickly threw into her bag. She then double checked everything, and was satisfied that nothing was missing; she had to make sure she was ready for such a big event, after all.
She was grateful that she did her laundry when she did; now she was able to pack the clothes early, saving the hassle of doing so later.
Sakura knew that during the trip, she would be walking and traveling around Suna to see all the sights. All electrical equipment would be useless, since Suna is surrounded by their beloved desert.
Having the evening to herself, she decided it was best to relax and enjoy some television until she was too tired to keep her eyes open. That is, if she could go to sleep that easy.
Once she felt like she was going to crash right there on that couch, she ambled over to the bathroom to brush her teeth. When she was satisfied with her teeth, she filled a glass with water and brought it to her room in case she woke up and needed a drink in the middle of the night like always.
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Waking up from a night more terrible than yesterday, she noticed that her water glass had fallen onto her bed. Grumbling about how it had to be this morning of all mornings for it had to happen, Sakura walked to the kitchen to grab some paper towels to clean up the mess. Happy at the result of her cleaning, she slowly made her way back downstairs to help load the car.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she saw her mom move around quickly, trying to get everything ready.
"Sakura, I put all of your stuff in the car already. We're leaving in a couple minutes," Sakura's mom yelled out as she hurried past her to grab a bag.
"Thank you Mom," said Sakura rather tiredly. She slowly made her way to the car and hopped in as her dad was loading the last of the bags into the trunk.
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Approaching the drive-thru at the restaurant, Sakura sat there, reading a book she just got.
"What do you want Sakura?" her mother asked as they pulled up to the speaker.
"I'll just have an egg and cheese biscuit," she answered, eyes never leaving the book.
Turning to her husband, Sakura's mom told him to order three egg and cheese biscuits, an orange juice, and two coffees. They were handed the food at the window, ate it all, and then drove off to the airport.
Forty five minutes into the ride, Sakura just sat there, eyes glued to her book and sipping on her orange juice every so often.
"You all right Sakura?" her mom asked, her attention focused on the landscape outside the windshield.
"You should know by now what's wrong mom," she stated, still reading the intense story.
After the brief moment of silence, she replied, "All I'm asking is for you to relax and have fun. We won't be around school and you'll meet new people. Give it a shot, and I'm sure you will have fun."
She took a sip of her coffee at the end of her statement and put on a big, dramatic show of thanks to the person that invented the heavenly and addicting drink.
Sakura grinned a little bit as she bookmarked her page and closed her book. Her mom could always lighten the mood, even if just a little bit.
"Don't worry Mom, I will," she said as she threw the book into her bag.
She took the last bit of her biscuit with her as they pulled into the parking lot of the airport.
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Finally, chapter 2
Next chapter may take longer as I'm going to be charting new territory for myself. Wish me luck and hopefully, it'll turn out great (I pray)
Thank you mandy-san for your time in helping me.
Please R&R
