Chapter 1

"Protect this with your life..."

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"GAH!" Sakura breathed heavily. Sweat dripped slowly from her forehead. 'It was all a dream...'

She looked at the clock. 6:45 in the morning. The briefing for rookie genin begins at nine. It was too early to start getting ready, for she would have been done in ten minutes flat. And it was too late for her to go back to sleep. Getting out of bed, she stretched and jogged in place a little bit. 'Might as well get ready then.'

She walked to the bathroom and turned on the shower. She pulled out her toothbrush and toothpaste and started her daily routine. Stretch, brush, shower, dress, eat, school. She repeated to herself. Jumping into the shower, she jolted at the feeling of the lukewarm water on the back. The slight pain didn't compare though to the pain in her past life.

She lived alone in a far off shinobi village far from her native countryside home. Her father and the rest of her family--humble innocents working as corn farmers--were brutally murdered eight years prior to that day. Sakura and her mother survived that night and ran away to Konohagukare, but the nightmare came back to haunt them. The only person she could trust with her past now was her only friend Ino.

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"Ne, Sakura-chan, what are you crying about?" The loud blonde commented on the little pink haired girl's tears. "Tears are just going to make your face ugly. Even after all I've done to fix your hair!"

"I-Ino-cha-chan..." Sakura mumbled under her breath.

"Sakura-chan! I can't hear you." Ino sat beside the weeping girl.

"I-I c-can't t-tell y-y-you."

"Sakura! Am I your best friend or not?"

"My mother..."

Sakura described that night...those horrible nights. Nights that a nine year-old child shouldn't experience.

Finally, Ino's lips parted.

"I'm so sorry Sakura-chan! I didn't know..."

"It's okay Ino-chan,"

"But you have to dry up your tears before Ami-baka sees you." Ino stood up and extended her arm for the other girl to take.

Sakura took the hand with a smile. "Thank you, Ino-chan."

Ino used her other arm to pull out a hankerchief and handed it to Sakura. "Hai! Now let's get going before Iruka-sensei will get mad."

They ran hand-in-hand towards the screaming group of children with smiles on their faces.

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Sakura got our of the shower and wiped herself dry. She looked at herself in the mirror. She was a pale skinned girl, with emerald eyes and pink hair. Her eyes were accentuated with the black lags under them. She hasn't been getting enough sleep.

Sighing, she put on her usual pink sleveless dress with the Haruno symbol at the back. She picked up her newly earned Konoha shinobi headband and tied it in the place where Ino's pink ribbon used to go.

She checked the clock. 7:45 am. 'I must have taken it slow this morning.' She walked to the kitchen and pulled out some bread and jam. She heated up the toaster and waited, her thoughts drifted to her mother. She wished that her mother was there to help fix her hair since all she could do was the plain headband style and a simple ponytail. She remembered her mother's dainty fingers blaiding her hair and making complicated hairstyles with chopsticks and other ornaments.

'What's that smell? Is that...' Sakura urgently pulled out her now burnt toast out of the toaster witha pair of tongs. 'I must have drifted off...' Sakura placed the burnt wheat bread sliced on a plate and spread jam all over it. 'Umm...crunchy...'

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Sakura walked to the academy, hands swinging and chin up. It was a moment, one of the very few happy ones she's had in the past three years. She walked with pride to her future.

"Ja ne okaa-san!" A familiar shrill, high pitched voice shouted from ahead of her. "Oi, Sakura-chan!"

"Ohayo Ino-chan!" Sakura smiled, running to catch up with her best friend.

"So you graduated." Ino said, poiting out Sakura's gleaming headband. "Surprise surprise." She gave a sarcastic hint at the end, which held some hidden meaning Sakura couldn't decipher understand.

"I'm surprised too." Sakura's head sunk down as she frowned. "But you graduated too! no surprise there!" Sakura plasted a pearly white smile on her face as she praised the young Yamanaka.

Ino just sighed. 'She really doesn't see it does she?' She thought. Sakura was a genius, and everybody except her noticed that. Sakura was the daughter of the Haruno clan! It may be a small, far off clan who lived on a corn field, but they were said to once be the most powerful clan in Konoha, surpassing even the Hyuugas, Uchihas and even Ino's own clan.

"Ne, Ino, what are you thinking about?" Sakura asked, seeing Ino's head hanging low and her blond bangs hanging over her face.

"Nothing Sakura." She said as they walked in through the academy doors.

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"KYAAA!!" Ino squealed into Sakura's ear. "Look! It's Sasuke-kun! He looks so cute with his headband and..."

Sakura ignored Ino's fangirly screams. She saw no point in her becoming a fan girl of the Uchiha survivor. She already knew how he felt about it: really really REALLY ANNOYED. Who wouldn't be after your older brother kills your whole clan and leaves you to die? Sakura has been going through the same thing.

She was in a daze. Ino left her to join the group of Uchiha fan girls. 'Typical Ino.'

"Oi! SAKURA-CHYANNN!!" a familiar, loud blond boy waved from a desk four steps down. He was Uzumaki Naruto, the son of the Yondaime Hokage. "I SAVED A SEAT FOR YOU!!"

Suddenly, Sakura was in front of the waving Naruto, head low and hand on his wrist. "Naruto...." She fumed. "DON'T MAKE SUCH A RACKET!!!"

Bam.

Naruto attended the rest of the briefing with a lump jutting out of his head.

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"Okay class. Seeing that all of you have calmed down, I will now announce your genin teams." Iruka said to the class. All of the snapped up at the sound of their names. "Team 7: Uzumaki Naruto."

"Uh..." Naruto woke up from his half-sleep.

"Haruno Sakura..."

"Yeah! I get to be with Sakura-chan!!"

"And Uchiha Sasuke."

'Oh crap.' Sakura sighed, looking at her teammates; a hyper-active, annoying blond who barely passed the graduation exam and a revenge-crazed, I-don't-give-a-shit-about-your-life, souless ass.

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"SAKURA! WHY DO YOU GET TO BE WITH SASUKE-KUN WHILE I HAVE A LAZY ASS AND FATTY-BOY OVER THERE!!" Ino whinned, pointing at her teammates, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji. The genius and the human trashcan.

"Ne, Ino, I wasn't the one who chose the teams..." Sakura said calmly. "If you wanna get mad at someone, blame Iruka-sensei. Besides, I'm stuck with...-sigh- Naruto."

Ino pondered on this for a moment. "Ehehe...sorry Sakura. It's just that, why do you get to be with," She leaned on the railing and propped her head on her palms as she day dreamed about the Uchiha prodigy. "Sasuke-kun..."

"Ino..."

"Alright, alright." Ino snapped out of her daze and knotted her eyebrows. "I'd better go forehead. My teammates and I are gonna eat lunch together." She ran off towards the town. "Ja ne!"

"Ja ne Ino-chan!"

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A/N: Hey peoplez.....I hope you liked this chapter. It wasn't much, and it was really hard to write. I mean, the first chapter is supposed to explain everything...

Anyways, I know I changed some things in this chapter. One: SAKURA'S NOT A SASUKE FAN GIRL!! my ultimate dream. I mean, I'm not a big fan of what he did in anime-verse (leavinng her unconscious on a bench like that), and so WHY DOES HE DESERVE SOMEONE AS AWESOME AS SAKURA!!??

-ahem-

Forgive my ranting. Two: I took out the 'Naruto kisses Sasuke' part. Even though I dislike the Uchiha bastard A LOT, doesn't mean we have to go bashing him about being gay...Sai is another story though ;D (sorry Sai fan girls).

Three: Ino isn't as bitchy as before!!! LOLZ.

Now, REVIEW. CLICK ON THE LITTLE PURPLE BUTTON LIKE YOU CURSOR IS MAGNETIZED TO THE REVIEWS BUTTON....

xoxo,

Bella