"Naruto was just about the greatest guy I've ever met. He was always so energetic and optimistic. He was my light back then. He was my best friend."

"And he still is, isn't he?"

Ignoring the interruption, Sakura continued on with her story. "Yes, yes he is. We don't spend that much time anymore since we live so far away from each other but whenever we can hang out again, I love it."

Anko smiled at this small information Sakura could give – even if it was pretty much common knowledge to all of Sakura's friends. "I'm sorry, continue with your story, please."

"Well, we spent almost every minute of school with one another. He was the class troublemaker and I was the class genius that actually did anything – another boy, Nara Shikamaru was five times smarter than I was, but he never applied himself to anything. Anyway, it was pretty obvious that Naruto had more than… friend feelings for me. I didn't really wanna do anything about it though because he was my best friend and I couldn't stand it if I hurt him.

"But then it got to the point where he would always ask me to go with him to his favorite ramen stand, as a date. I couldn't keep rejecting him and see him walk so… dejectedly back home with me. After a couple of these "dates" I realized that I did have feelings for Naruto too, more than friends kind of feeling…" Sakura smiled at this memory before continuing her story.

"Well, we finally kind of… unofficially got together."

"Kind of? What do you mean?" interrupted Anko, again

"Well… we were just together but it wasn't with a proper question or anything, you know. He never actually asked me and I never actually asked him, but we were just together," explained Sakura.

"Oh, I see. That's cute, how you two just knew," Anko commented

"I suppose. Anyway, once we started school again, it just… didn't work out anymore. Even though we lived seconds away from each other and I spent most of my time at his house with our friends, it wasn't the same. I think secretly my mother wanted me to end up with him too. No one can really resist his personality.

"Anyhow, our relationship began getting strained because it wasn't the same anymore. We grew up a bit, I guess and we both realized it wasn't working out. But Naruto promised me once that if we were to ever break up, he wasn't going to be the one to instigate it, so I knew that even though he knew our relationship wasn't working, he wouldn't have the heart to end it. So I had to do it myself.

"It wasn't as dramatic as relationships back then where the girls always spoke trash on their ex-boyfriends and the boys publicly flirted with other girls to get their ex-girlfriends jealous. Naruto fully understood and we still stayed friends after that, the best of friends, in fact."

"So then, what happened next?" Anko asked.

"I met one of Naruto's other friends that transferred to the school the following year: Inuzuka Kiba."