OK so this story is inspired by Give Me Love by Ed Sheeren. Also Merry Go Round by Kacey Musgraves inspired me a bit. Like I said earlier I have creative ideas for this story…it may get a bit dark at times but what can you expect from people that are living the homeless life style?
Again… I do not own Nartuo
In Sakura's mind leaving home seemed much easier…then she got home and realized the reality. Her mom had been up because there were more dirty dishes than before, but she was now lying in the bedroom. Sakura felt a pang of guilt, she knew that she could go days without talking to her mother because she was always drunk, and when she was actually awake Sakura wasn't around. This should be easy than… she just needed to get herself to leave. Sakura was meeting Naruto at 7 am the next morning so that they could get a start before the heat would be too much. Sakura shuffled to the bathroom and jumped in to take a cold shower. When she got out she stared at her reflection in the cracked mirror; her hair a mixture of dirty blonde with a tint of pink from when she would dye it. She had chopped her hair to her shoulders because it was always getting dirty, and there was never warm water, so taking a shower became more of a chore than it should of. Her collar bones stuck out, she didn't have the gift of breasts, and she had abs because of her daily working out. It was hard to be in shape with no nutrition coming into her body, but Sakura had always been a cross country runner, and when she dropped out of high school she still continued to run every day. It would continue to keep her sane. When she walked out of the bathroom, she was shocked to see her mom awake sitting at the kitchen table.
Sakura did her best to smile, "Hey mom…are you doing ok?" Her mom looked up from the glass of water she was drinking and gave a pathetic attempt of a smile.
"I'm hanging in there dear. Hey, how about tomorrow we go to the zoo? It's been a long time since we've actually done something together huh?" The smile got a little bigger, and Sakura did her best to smile back. She then nodded before taking a seat next to her mom. Sakura wasn't worried about her plans to leave, her mom always made plans to hang out… but it just never happened. The two sat in silence before her mom spoke again, "You know I try really hard right? It's just things have been getting tougher, but I'm getting a job after tomorrow, I swear."
Again, all Sakura could do was smile and say, "It's ok mom, you can do it." Before anything else could be said, Sakura got up and went off to her small bedroom. She pulled a large back pack out from under her bed and started to fill it. She packed underwear, two shirts, jeans, sweat pants, shorts and sweat shirts. She didn't know how long Naruto planned on being gone and as long as he was gone, so was she. After adding flip flops to the bag she felt it to make sure it wasn't too heavy. In the morning she would had some hygiene products, find whatever money she could, and leave. She could heard her mom's bedroom door shut and she knew that if she went to sleep now she would be more refreshed in the morning.
Here came the nerves, but she was not going to back down.
Sakura arrived to the front gate before Naruto…typical. She leaned against the gate and looked up to the cloudy sky as her thoughts drifted of what was to come.
"Sakura, I'm coming!" Sakura turned her head to see Naruto running towards her, in a bright orange cut off and mismatching green and white plaid shorts.
"Naruto! Would you shut up!? People are still going to be sleeping ya know…" Sakura said in a harsh whisper. She rolled her eyes and started to walk out of the park.
"Hey how much money did you get?" Naruto asked as he sped up to walk next to her. Sakura sighed before mumbling, "I only had thirty bucks… and I didn't want to steal from my mom…guilty conscience. BUT I knew she'd want me to be able to survive… so I took twenty from her. How about you?"
"I don't have a guilty conscience because my dad's a real prick, so I took eighty from him and I had forty! See, we'll be perfectly fine for a while. We just need to get somewhere, get jobs, and figure out our lives from there!" Sakura smiled at Naruto's optimism, she had to admit that she was glad to have him.
"I have to be honest though, I'm scared Naruto. What if this isn't everything we're expecting it to be?" Sakura kicked some pebbles as she said this, scared to look at her hyperactive best friend.
"Sakura! Stop worrying, we have nothing to lose. We were living with our loser parents surrounded by a bunch of other losers. When we end up in the city with other homeless, we're still going to be losers! See, if we expect failure that makes us even more loser like to… let's just think of success right?" Naruto smiled bright as he waved his arms around as he explained this.
Sakura couldn't help but laugh, "Naruto that seriously had to be the most intelligent thing you've ever said. I guess if all else fails you can become some motivational speaker!" The two continued on their journey, not knowing where to take it from there.
Several hours in the two ended up at a bus station.
"This is perfect! We'll just pick a place and go…because like I said, there's nothing stopping us!" Naruto said as he walked in, Sakura following close behind. She was becoming tired; all they had eaten was some half rotten apples and water. They knew that saving money was the most important thing for them at this moment.
"Excuse me, out of all these places that the bus could take us, which would you say is the biggest city?" Naruto asked the lady behind the next.
"Well… I'd say Konoha is your best bet if you're looking for a big city."
"Perfect, two tickets for the nearest time!" Naruto handed over 20 dollars and the two waited for the bus to come within an hour.
When the bus arrived, Sakura felt the butterflies exploding in her stomach.
"Wow Naruto, we are really getting out of here! It feels like a dream," she looked at him and he was already asleep with his against the window. Sakura smiled and laid down, resting her head on his lap. Maybe she has a chance to be somebody; she was just going to have to do it on her own.
The bus stopped a few hours later and the two stretched as they were awoken by the driver announcing the stop in Konoha.
"What time is it?" Sakura asked the driver as they were getting off the bus.
"6 pm, careful, this is when all the hobos come out and start begging people for money," the driver said before shutting the door, waiting for the next travelers. Sakura and Naruto looked at each other and smiled more homeless people? Perfect.
Sure, Sakura didn't want to be homeless. She wanted a warm place to sleep and dishes to eat off of. But she didn't have a home in that trailer, and she knew her and Naruto wouldn't be able to just buy any apartment they wanted. It was going to take work, and they had already made it this far. As they ventured out into the city, they immediately saw what the driver meant. Boxes littered the streets, and there was a clear distinction between who the rich were and who the poor were. There was an even bigger distinction of who the poor were and who the homeless were.
"So, how do we start this? I'm not exactly used to the whole homeless thing…" Sakura said nervously as people bumped into her and Naruto. The city was so busy and full of chaos, but yet, Sakura was feeling a good vibe from it.
"I don't know Sakura, I'm not used to being homeless either…maybe we should find people close to our age and talk to them!"
Sakura followed Naruto down the street, and as he peered down an alley, he turned towards Sakura and waved her over. She hesitantly came to him and gave him a questionable look.
"Naruto, this alley is completely empty, I don't know what you mean by meeting people when there is no one to meet…"
"Well maybe we should stay here ya know! We probably won't make the best of friends in the middle of the day when they're busy begging!" Sakura knew Naruto had a point but here she was in an alley, about to spend her first night homeless. She was used to be the typical 'trailer trash' but this was something new. Within an hour, Naruto and Sakura wandered the streets for food and found a dumpy restaurant. They both got dollar greasy burgers and left. They came back to the empty alley, and used their back packs as pillows. The air was cooler and Sakura could feel the snot dripping from her nose.
This was expected, her hygiene would soon be gone and she'd have to get used to it. She looked over to Naruto who was already fast asleep, although Sakura decided this was no time to sleep. She got up and walked into the street looking at a street clock, 9 pm. She went back to Naruto and kicked him lightly in the side.
"Ugh…Sakura, it's still dark out! I am not getting up at 4 in the morning…"
"Dork, it's 9 pm! You wanted to meet people didn't you? This is probably the perfect time…"
"Oi, fine. I'm getting up," Naruto slowly came up from the ground and the pair traveled throughout the street. They got deeper into the city and could hear yelling not far from them. They followed it and it led them into another alley.
"KICK HIS ASS!" "Common that's all you got!" "Ya'll are weak…oh I'm sorry Neji… I mean the other guy is weak…" The commotion was coming from a group of ragged looking teens, circled around two boys. One on the ground, the other standing with his hands in his pocket.
"Eh…pathetic," the one standing muttered as he nudged the one on the ground with his foot.
"That was great Neji! NOW PAY UP YOU LOSERS!" an obnoxious girl with long brown hair said, sticking her hand out towards the group of teens. They all grumbled, pulling money out of their pockets. After handing the money over to the girl they carried their friend walked out the other end of the alley. The boy also had long brown hair, shocking light colored blue eyes, and he was tall and toned. The girl was slightly shorter than the boy, her long hair was tied back, and she was also skinny. Slightly frail but the muscle in her arms was defined.
"Hey! Who are you two?" Of course Naruto couldn't keep his mouth shut. This guy has just beaten the shit out of another guy for money!? This was stuff that the boys did at the trailer park… now Sakura felt like there was no escaping.
"Excuse me? We don't owe you any explanations cause you obviously new here!" The girl said looking at the couple up and down. Sakura realized how much they looked out of place, although Sakura and Naruto didn't look that great, they were much cleaner than everyone else.
"My name is Sakura, and this is Naruto. Yeah, we're new around here and just trying to learn how to get by…" Sakura said stepping forward. The girl then smiled, "See? I can appreciate that. I'm Tenten, and this is Neji. We'd probably starve if it wasn't for him fighting and winning all the time. That's just one way to survive," Tenten winked at them as she shook their hands.
Everyone looked at Neji but he stayed silent. After a sigh he started walking and went past everyone, turning left outside of the alley.
"He does that a lot…but you'll learn to like him. Listen, I don't invite people around often but you two don't look so bad. Just don't annoy Neji…more importantly don't annoy me. And keep up; we don't need people slowing us down. Life's hard enough here," Tenten spoke quickly and took off towards Neji. Sakura and Naruto looked at each other for a moment before shrugging and running after their new companions.
OK so I'm trying to make longer chapter…they'll get longer as I go on. I wanted to keep going on with this but this chapter kind of drags on because I wanted to add detail and explain everything! But now I can get the story rolling more (;
