Chapter title: and then she makes some new friends

Notes: I've decided to try and make Sasuke as cliché as possible, you know, all angsty and smoldery and stuff. (Is that how you spell smoldery? Wait, is smoldery even a word? Yeah, probably not…) Emo=lovee.

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Chapter 2

surround yourself with people who respect and treat you well

-Claudia Black

Two hours after we had met, Ino and I were best friends.

"So, what's your thing?" I asked her. She had just shown me the training grounds, and we were standing in the middle of one of the empty fields.

"What do you mean?" she said, pulling on her arm guards.

"What are you best at, in terms of fighting?"

"Ohh," she replied, "Mind transfer jutsu." She grinned at me, "I'm pretty good at it, if I do say so myself."

"Niceee."

"What's yours?" she asked, "I mean, besides your medical specialties, of course."

"Hmm," I said, thinking, "I guess it would have to be…my punch?"

"Your punch?" Ino looked incredulous, "Is it really strong or something?"

"You could say that."

At that moment, Sasuke and Naruto walked out onto the field, arguing about something or another. I didn't doubt that Sasuke was very powerful, and Naruto goofed off a lot, but…I decided that he was not to be underestimated.

"Hey, you guys!" Ino yelled, "We were just about to practice. Want to join?"

They walked over to where we were. Naruto grinned widely at me, while Sasuke looked at me with that curious look in his eyes, like he still wasn't quite sure how to think of me.

Naruto grinned, "Sure, I really want to see Sakura-chan fight!" He looked at me and grinned ever wider, "You want to spar, Sakura-chan?"

"Su—" I started.

"I'll spar with her."

We all turned to look at Sasuke. Ino raised an eyebrow and Naruto looked indignant. "But Sasuke!" he whined, "I was going to fight with her first!"

"Aren't you just getting over a major injury you got from that last mission you went on?" Sasuke asked him. "Yes, but—!" Naruto couldn't think of anything to say.

"Exactly." Sasuke said, looking bored, "So I'll spar with her. Besides," he looked at me now, and I could see a hint of challenge in his eyes, "I want to see how good my big brother's wife is."

I shrugged. I could see that he resented me a little bit, for some reason. Maybe he was mad that I stole his brother away from him? Somehow, I didn't think that that was the case…, "Alright. A fight's a fight."

We both started to put our gear on. From the sidelines, I could hear Naruto whisper to Ino, "This isn't good. The bastard's serious. Sakura could get hurt."

Ino looked at both of us calculatingly, "I don't know, Naruto. There's something about her…"

I finished putting on my shin guards, and though I had everything I needed on, I felt like I was missing something…hesitating for only a second, I reached into my pocket, pulled out my Konoha headband, and tied it around my head.

"Wow," Ino commented (did they not realize that I could hear everything they said?), "That girl's bold. Stupid, maybe, but bold."

Naruto looked confused, "Why did she put that headband on?"

Ino rolled her eyes, "Can't you see?" When Naruto made it clear that no, he could not see she said, "She's basically saying that she won't fight for Sound and her allegiance lies with Konoha." She smiled, impressed, "She's fighting for Konoha, so if she wins, it's like she's saying Konoha's better than Sound."

"Ohh," Naruto said, nodding, "Well, there's no way she's going to win."

"We'll see about that!" I yelled from the field. Both of them looked sheepish, as they should have. Thinking they could gossip about me when I was right there…

I turned to Sasuke, "You ready?"

He smirked, "Of course."

I sighed. Way too cocky, that was the problem with men. Especially with pretty men. Ino yelled, "Okay, start!"

We started. I'm not going to describe the full battle, but basically, it was intense. And over in roughly five minutes. The end results are really all that matter, though.

I won.

He had been pretty surprised when I punched the ground and a crater appeared. He had been even more surprised when I punched him and he flew back 50 feet into a tree.

I'm not going to get all arrogant and say it was because I had more skill, because I don't. Honestly, he was probably at a higher level than me.

He had just underestimated, and that had cost him.

Boy, was I feeling pretty proud that night.

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It was 3 hours later, and Naruto was still talking about that fight.

"You were like wham! And the ground was like boom! And Sasuke was all ahh, help me, and—"

I rolled my eyes, "He just underestimated me, that's all."

We sat down at a table in the dining hall and started to eat dinner, "Well, you still beat him, which is pretty fucking great."

I took a bite of my meat, "Where is Sasuke, anyways?"

"Probably too embarrassed to come out of his room," Ino said, sitting down, "Sasuke's a baby like that."

"You said it!" said Naruto, taking a big gulp of ramen.

I stared at the bowl of ramen. Where had it even come from? Ramen wasn't even one of the choices…"Where did you get the ramen?"

Naruto finished the bowl and started on a second, "The chef always keeps some ramen packages for me." He patted his pocket with a wide grin, "And if they ever run out, I always have some extra in my pocket."

I raised my eyebrows, "You like ramen that much?"

Naruto looked surprised, "Don't you? It's the best thing in the world!"

I looked at Ino; she shook her head, "Don't worry about it. Naruto has weird obsessions." She looked at his orange outfit distastefully, "Like the color orange. So last season."

"Shut up, Ino!"

Sasuke came in then, sitting down at the seat across from me, next to Ino. He didn't look at any of us, and started to eat in silence.

Naruto looked at him in disgust, "Seriously, teme? Are you really sulking just because a girl beat you?" Naruto snickered, "Though, I mean, it is pretty mortifying…"

"I'm impressed, Naruto. I would have thought a word like 'mortifying' to be out of your vocabulary." Sasuke smirked, "You're just learning new things every day, aren't you?"

Naruto stood up, slamming his fist against the table, "Shut up, Sasuke! At least I didn't get beat by a girl!"

"At least I wasn't too weak to fight a girl. Oh sorry, that's right, you're injured."

Naruto had a murderous look in his eye and looked about ready to lunge at Sasuke, when a hand appeared on his arm.

"Naruto-kun."

A girl, about my age, had appeared next to Naruto. She had long, dark hair, pale lavender eyes, and lavender clothes on. Naruto smiled at her, "Oh hey, Hinata." She blushed slightly and sat down.

I looked back and forth between the two of them, wondering if something was going on. Maybe they were dating? Naruto's anger had dissipated as soon as Hinata arrived, which obviously meant something. Naruto pointed to me, "By the way, Hinata, this is Sakura." He grinned, "She's Sasuke's onii-chan's wife." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

Hinata looked at me and gave a small, respectful bow, "How do you do, Uchiha-san?"

Horrified, I said, "Please call me Sakura." I smiled, "So are you two dating?" I gestured to Hinata and Naruto.

Hinata's face turned a shade of red I didn't think was possible, while Naruto just laughed, "Me and Hinata? No way! We're just friends!"

I looked at Hinata quickly, wondering if she would be hurt by the "No way!" comment. Because judging by her blush, she didn't want to be 'just friends'. But she just started eating her food and didn't say anything.

Ino waved her fork at me to get my attention, "So, Sakura, what's your flaw?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Ino said, chewing her salad, "You just seem too perfect. You have a good personality, unlike most of the broads around here," she glared at a girl at another table, "You fight well, and you aren't cocky about it, unlike some other people around here," she looked at Sasuke meaningfully. He glared at her, "And on top of that, you're fucking gorgeous!" She shrugged, "I just don't understand how someone so perfect can exist."

I laughed out loud. All of them looked at me strangely. I said, still laughing, "What? You really think I'm perfect?"

With the exception of Sasuke, who just went back to eating, they all nodded. Naruto said, "I mean, Sakura-chan, that's the way it seems to us. Too cocky or not, you still beat Sasuke, who's one of the best we've got." He puffed out his chest arrogantly, "Of course, I'm THE best, but still. Sasuke's strong."

Hinata smiled shyly, saying, "I've only heard rumors, but that's the way it seems to me."

I looked at all of their faces, realizing that they were serious. I sighed, knowing I was going to have to tell them. I hadn't been going to say anything to anyone, but I supposed I had to do it. "Okay, guys, the truth is…I have this one horrible, fatal flaw."

"I…" I took a deep breath. They were all looking at me expectantly. Even Sasuke looked a little bit curious, "I…"

I gulped, "I'm completely tone-deaf."

Ino gasped. The rest of them looked at her weirdly. She blushed, "I'm sorry, I was just expecting something way more dramatic, so I prepared myself, and…" She turned to me, gesturing wildly, "That's it? That's your big secret? You're tone-deaf?"

"Well…yeah." I looked at all of them, confused, "Isn't that a really bad thing? I mean, this is Sound, right?"

There was silence. Then, Ino and Naruto burst out laughing, Hinata giggled, and Sasuke smirked. I blushed and said defensively, "What?! I mean, it's a perfectly normal thing to think! In a country called Sound, it would make sense to think that it was a big thing for everyone to sing or be musical!"

Ino wiped tears of laughter from her eyes, "Oh god, hon, wow. Think about it. You're from Leaf, but that doesn't mean all of the people there are leaves, right?"

I frowned at Naruto, who was still laughing so hard he was banging his fist on the table, "C'mon, it's not that funny." I put my head in my hands embarrassedly, "Ugh, I guess I never thought about it that way." I looked up, "Well, then why are you called Sound then?"

Hinata smiled, "Most of the people here use fighting techniques that deal with sound, that's all." Naruto—he had finally stopped laughing—smirked, "Yeah, did you think we had weekly get-togethers where everyone in Sound sat in a circle and sang Kumbaya?" He shook his head, "You've been seriously misinformed."

I sighed, "I wasn't really informed about anything, actually. It was sort of just a 'You're marrying this guy, his name is Itachi, now go walk down the aisle' kind of thing. I didn't really know anything about it at all."

It was silent for a moment, and then Ino reached across the table covered my hand with her own, "Well, now you know us, so everything's okay." She smiled, "We're your friends; we'll take care of you!"

Naruto grinned and nodded encouragingly and Hinata smiled. I risked a quick glance at Sasuke; he was looking at me with…was that a hint of a smile on his face? I decided to believe so.

Maybe Sound wasn't going to be so bad after all.

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It's true what the saying says, "Thou who reviews shallt see the story updated sooner."…Okay, so I lied, that's not a real saying (bet you were fooled, right?) but it really is true. So review. =)