"Mommy…"
Sakura suddenly woke up; sweat all over her body as she tried to breathe heavily in hopes to calm herself up. It was always like this since that day. She tried hard not to replay the scenes all over again from the day she witnessed her family's murder right in front of her.
She looked at her nightstand and cursed. 5:30AM. She still had plenty of time to clear her thoughts, but decided to do it while she began to prepare for school.
OOOOOOOOOO
"Good morning, Sakura. Have you slept well?" Sakura's guardian, Mitarashi Anko asked. Although not a relative, Anko had Sakura under her wing ever since the accident. She and Sakura's parents were close, thus explaining the situation. Moreover, she loved her like her own child and couldn't bear to see her alone and unhappy.
"A little…" Sakura answered and reached for a pancake.
Anko raised her brow. "Nightmare again?" she said and gave Sakura syrup.
Sakura nodded. "Yeah. I can't understand why it's always the same thing." she said frustratingly, with her clenched fists on the table.
Anko, taking note of her terrible feeling, laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I can't tell you to ignore those, but it doesn't mean you have to resent yourself for it."
"But I was there! If only I was stronger back then, maybe…"
"You were thirteen back then, Sakura. If you were stronger back then, maybe you could've saved them. But you could've been hurt, or worse died, and your parents would have to suffer the loss they have just because they couldn't protect their own daughter. Now would you want them to feel that way?"
"Of course not!"
"Then don't feel sorry. Hurry now, you don't wanna be late on your first day of school." Anko smiled and ruffled her hair.
"Technically we both have school, so hurry now." she mimicked her words and stuck her tongue out.
"Oh that would mean walking to school for you, dear." Anko sweetly said and grinned evilly.
Sakura pouted.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Sakura gaped at the building in front of her. It was huge! No wonder her guardian told her to hurry. She wouldn't want to be the center of attention. She shuddered. 'There's no turning back now.' She then entered Konohagakure High School for the first time.
She glanced around her surroundings and took note of everything. Tall plants, tight security, boys running around or flirting, girls whispering about her 'weird pink hair' and 'she's got no fashion' or 'what a freak she is'. She scoffed. Freak? She wasn't the one wearing their uniform too tightly. She looked down on her own body which is covered with an oversized jacket down to her waist. She shrugged and turned to her locker. 'Idiots.'. She inwardly glowered.
"Let's kick their slutty asses!" Inner Sakura growled.
"Tch. They're not worth my time. Besides, Tsunade-shishou won't be happy about it either."
She was lost on her thoughts when she didn't notice a man standing behind her.
"Oy. You're in my way." He said to her, irritated.
Sakura felt a vein popped in her head and turned to the speaker and punched whoever the hell he is when suddenly she met his eye. Her inner's jaw dropped, with her speechless at the sight before her. He's gorgeous! Tall, raven-haired boy- no, man, with pale skin and kissable kissable (Inner Sakura licks hers) lips. Not to mention his obsidian colored eyes felt like piercing into her soul had made her shiver at the thought.
She now realized that she's staring at him (it's not only her, though, and he technically has a fan club behind him) and slowly regained her composure ignoring the fact that she and her inner turned into mush.
"W-what?" she asked dumbly.
"Tch. You're annoying."
Her world came crashing down like lightning and the thoughts of mush turned to mush as her inner vanished and her eyes practically burned with rage as she gripped the man's throat. Hard. Apparently he never saw that coming. 'Never mind his hotness. He's a jerk!' She thought angrily.
"How dare you call me annoying! You're the one who's annoying, you jerk!" she screeched, gripping his neck tighter, ignoring those 'HOW DARE YOU TOUCH MY SASUKE-KUN!' or 'HE'S MINE FREAK!' and 'DON'T HURT HIM FOREHEAD FREAK!' Oops. That's it.
She released her grip from the man and almost lunged at the person who called her forehead freak when someone held her back.
"LEMME HAVE HER! LEMME HAVE HER!" She screamed, ignoring the man's grip on her until she was forced to face those midnight black orbs, or those screams of jealousy behind her.
"Tch. Calm down, pinky."
Oh no. She felt more veins popping and was about to lunge at him again when a loud "SAKURA-CHAAAAAN!" was heard and suddenly she was tackled on the ground. She blinked, her rage forgotten as she process what happened, a blond blur in front of her.
"Sakura-chaaaaaan! I miss you!" the blur screamed in her ear. She cringed at the loudness when she recognized that damn orange jumpsuit everywhere.
"Naruto?" she asked disbelievingly.
A dramatic gasp was heard. "YOU REMEMBER ME!" The said Naruto beamed and trapped her into a bone-crushing hug.
"N-narutoooo-oo… C-can't—B-br-eaaa-the-ee.."
THUNK!
"Ow! What the hell was that for Teme?! I was just hugging her!" he wailed.
The said teme scoffed. "Hugging? I believe you're killing her, dobe." He deadpanned.
"HOW DARE YOU! TEMEEEEE!"
"Dobe."
Sakura was now looking at the two bickering idiots in front of her. Since she had enough, she snapped. "SHUT THE HELL UP!"
The two stopped their argument and faced her. Sakura, suddenly aware of all the eyes around her (including those murderous glares the fangirls gave her) blushed. Naruto didn't catch the atmosphere and instead gave a wide grin to Sakura.
"Neh neh neh Sakura-chan, are you gonna stay here for good?" the blonde asked.
Sakura nodded. "Yeah. Anko decided it would be better."
Sasuke was about to ask why she knew Anko, but Naruto had other ideas.
"Cool! Can I see your schedule?" he bounced up and down in excitement.
Sakura nodded. "I've read my schedule when I registered here. I'm in Hatake Kakashi's class. I was about to get my schedule from my locker. I've put it in my notebook though, but someone" she directed a glare to Sasuke, who raised his brows "wasn't very aware of what I was about to do."
"You were standing in front of my locker." Sasuke countered. Sakura blinked, and looked at the locker behind her. 142. She looked at her own keys. 143. 'Damn. We get the locker next to his.'
"Oh yeah!" Inner Sakura cheered.
"Oops." She smiled sheepishly. "I must have misread my locker number. I'm sorry." She extended her hand to Sasuke. "Perhaps I must introduce myself. I am Haruno Sakura from Sunagakure."
Sasuke stared at her hand. "Hn."
Sakura felt a vein in her head pop once more and grabbed his hand forcefully to hers and shook it. "I believe it's your turn to speak now." ignoring the increasing vendetta of his fangirls in the background, she said in her sickly sweet voice, but Sasuke heard the underlying venom in it, and the unspoken threat hanging. 'Answer, or you'll never see your hand whole again.'
"Hn. Uchiha Sasuke."
Naruto watched the two with interest and couldn't contain himself from laughing out. So he did.
"HAHAHAHAHA! TEME'S GOT WHIPPED BY SAKURA-CHAN!"
The said teme turned to the blonde with a murderous glare, in which Naruto didn't noticed. "Whipped?"
"You heard me! But say, Sakura-chan you're amazing!"
Sakura dropped her hand and faced at Naruto. "What? What did I do?" She asked in confusion.
Naruto grabbed Sasuke and trapped him in a headlock. "You see our teme here has every girls worshipping at his feet. You're the first girl to ever ignore his 'hotness' or 'handsomeness', let alone kill his hand."
"Let me go, you idiot!"
Sakura grinned nervously.
"Let's get your schedule and head to class!" Naruto hollered, letting go of Sasuke and punched his fist up in the air.
"Is he always like this?" Sakura asked Sasuke.
Sasuke shrugged. "Let's just go to class."
The three of them started to walk to class, completely unaware of an evil glint a certain redhead has.
Uchiha Sasuke isn't a man of words. Although a member of the prestigious Uchiha clan, the second son of Uchiha Fugaku, the clan head, and Uchiha Mikoto, he never learned to acquaint himself to parties and meetings. Too annoying, he says. In reality, everything for him is annoying. So when he noticed that Sakura was no longer with them, annoying would be an understatement.
"Where is she?"
"Huh? Where is Sakura?" the blonde stopped his blabbering and that's when he took note of Sakura's disappearance.
Sasuke gritted his teeth. One moment she was staring at him, and another got his hand almost killed, and now she is missing? That girl is too damn annoying. "Does it look like I know?"
Naruto gasped then turned to him and grinned. "Teme likes Sakura-chan!"
Sasuke gaped at Naruto. "What?" he hissed. "I don't like her."
"Uh-huh. And you didn't almost plummet the man earlier trying to grope her ass." Naruto deadpanned.
"It's so great to have you back, Sakura-chan! You can now meet my friends! Then we'll all hang-out at Ichiraku's together!" Naruto went on blabbering about how much he misses her, with Sakura chuckling good-naturedly, and Sasuke looking bored.
That is, until someone groped Sakura's ass.
"My, my, you don't seem familiar. You new here? My name's Kojo." The man purred into her ear.
Naruto looked flabbergasted, and Sasuke was ready to kill the man, when suddenly they just saw him literally flying down the halls.
"Y-You PERVERT!"
"Tch. I was just trying to help her."
"Sure, sure." Naruto waved his hand off. "We're here."
Both of them stopped Room 103. The room that supposedly holds their homeroom class. Naruto punched his fist in the air. "High school here we come!"