Thank you so much to the first two readers who reviewed! I'm pretty much still new to this so, you, leaving a review, made me so happy. Well, actually, a little too happy. Cheers to you! Here's the next chapter!

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I laughed in glee as I finally let go of him. How could I have not notice the unmistakable mass of silver hair?

"Kakashi-niisan! When did you come back? How come you never told me anything about it?" I said in delight.

"I just reached this morning. And how's my little sister doing?" he smiled as he rapped me lightly on the nose.

"Fine. Thanks," I giggled.

"Someone seems to be forgetting about me…"

I turned to look at the guy with spiky brown hair in the gray shirt. My mouth dropped open as recognition dawned on me.

"Yamato-niisan!" I ran around the table to give him a hug. "What brings you here?"

"Took you a while to recognize me, eh?" he exhaled a sigh and looked heavenwards. "Forgotten all about little old me huh? I'm hurt. Hurt that you didn't think of me all this time, whereas I kept thinking of you."

I knocked his forehead lightly. "Did you forget to take your medication again? You're talking gibberish."

As I proceeded to sit down, I finally realized that there was another person, with spiky yellow hair and three whisker-like marks on both cheeks, who has kept silent all this while. He looked like my age and was grinning widely while fixing his eyes on me, which I noticed were the brightest shade of blue. I gave him a small smile and gazed questioningly, first at my brother, then at Yamato-niisan.

"Oh, this is my cousin, Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto, meet Sakura. I'm sure you'll get along well since she's also quite hyper, has a man crushing hug, and a very bad temper…" faltered Yamato-niisan as I gave him the evil eye.

I grinned at Naruto and extended my hand towards him. "Hi Naruto. Nice to mee―!" I wasn't able to finish what I was about to say, as Naruto suddenly was pulled me into a hug.

"Sakura-chan! I've heard so much about you and I've wanted to meet you personally! I've always imagined you to be a cute girl, not that you're not cute because you are! It's just that I imagined you to be a girl, girl, not a girl, GIRL. Anyways, now that we've met, I hope that we can become good friends, Sakura-chan. Wait. I can call you Sakura-chan, right?" Naruto said without pausing in between and letting me go.

I was shocked but I couldn't stop myself from smiling. This person is weird, but he's got this welcoming aura that makes it hard not to like him. Strangely, the hug felt comfortable.

"Oi! Stop harassing my sister!" I heard Kakashi-niisan say.

Naruto must have heard him because he released me from his hug but kept his grip on both my shoulders. "Right?" he asked, still wearing a huge grin.

"Of course." I answered as I matched his huge grin.

"I knew you'd get along!" Yamato-niisan butted in.

"Don't ever listen to a word he says. He talks rubbish most of the time." I said, eyeing Yamato-niisan.

Naruto joined me in eyeing him. "So that's it! I always knew there was something wrong with him."

We both burst into laughter.

"There's a reason why he's here you know," continued Yamato-niisan, clearing his throat. "He'll be studying here with you, while we settle down here."

"You're moving here? For real?" I was beside myself with joy.

"Yes. We're moving here. For real."

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My brother and Yamato-niisan had left us after we were introduced so that we could get to know each other better.

"So," began Naruto. "Where are your friends?"

I winced. I knew this was coming.

"There's something that I need to tell you but first, you have to promise me that you would not breathe a single word to anybody else, especially not to my brother."

He gave me a quizzical look. "All right. I promise."

I took a deep breath. "You see, I don't really have any friends here." I could see his expression become one of surprise. "I'm not sure why either, maybe it's because I have a rotten attitude or something. I honestly have no idea. It's just that people always shunned me ever since I first came here. I guess they didn't like the idea of a new face amongst all of them. But I'm all right with the whole thing. I don't really mind actually. And you can always go around making friends. You don't have to worry about me at all." I gave him a small smile.

He looked at me for a few moments. "Why don't you want your brother to know about it? If you're not happy, you can always change schools."

I fidgeted with the hem of my skirt. "I don't want him to worry about me more than he does now. He's probably got a lot of things to do, what with managing a whole company at the young age of 24. He does not need the additional stress. Besides, it's been hard enough these past three years without our parents. We've managed to come so far already on our own, and I don't want it all to fall apart. I can manage it on my own. Don't worry so much."

I had kept everything bottled inside me for so long, and suddenly, I felt as though a burden had been lifted from my shoulders. Without meaning to, tears began forming in my eyes, and I blinked rapidly to get rid of them. I bowed my head trying to recollect my thoughts.

For a moment, both of us were silent.

Then he smiled.

"Didn't I say that I'll be your friend?"

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"Sakura-chan!"

I raised my head and looked around me to locate who had yelled my name out so loud. Naruto ran up to me, panting. "Hey! Morning. Why'd you leave first? Wanna walk to school together?"

I looked at him dumbfounded as he gave me an adorable grin. "You want to walk to school with me? Do you know what other people might think of you? They'll probably treat you in a rotten way by not talking to you, constantly making fun of you, calling you all sorts of stupid names and…", I bit my lip and trailed off at his expression.

"Okaaaay. I get the drift, but so what? We're friends, right? And friends stick by each other no matter what. Don't worry, I'll protect you!"

With that statement, he relieved me of my schoolbag, placed it over his head, across his chest and onto his shoulder. Then he turned towards me and said, "Coming?"

For the very first time, ever since my parents died, I felt truly happy. As we walked together, side by side, I relieved him of some of his books, which he carried by hand. It was only fair after all. He helps me carry my bag and I help him carry his books.

As we talked and laughed on the way, a silver sports car, with its windows rolled down and the stereo on at full blast, passed by us. It stopped a few feet away from us, then reversed so that they were positioned right next to us.

Karin stuck her head out the window and stared straight at me, "Walking to school I see. Are you just practicing a healthy lifestyle or are you just so poor that you can't even afford to take the bus to school? If you needed to borrow some money, I'd always be glad to help. Just think of it as charity."

Sasuke, who sat at the driver's seat, just glanced over at us and smirked. Then he revved up the engine and zoomed off in a cloud of dust.

"Who the hell was that? And how come you didn't say anything back to her?" I could tell Naruto was surprised.

I gazed downwards. "They're not exactly people you want to mess with, Naruto," I said in a small voice.

"Why not?"

"It's bad enough that they're mean but they're also popular. Everyone looks up to them. They're the IT couple. And if you offend any one of them, everyone turns against you and things could get pretty ugly if that happens. Not that it'd make any difference to me, huh?" I said.

He pushed my forehead gently and gave me his signature grin. "Stop thinking stupid things. Things will look up. Trust me."

I gave him a small smile.

tbc