Long time no see! Hehe, -___-'.

I'm sorry *bows*, I've been neglecting this story. I have a variety of reasons, there was this family thing, and then my school books arrived and I had to go get my uniform fixed... There was a lot going on. Plus, to be honest, I think the main reason was because of who the main character of this chapter is.

Sakura (insert horror music)

*Shudder* I really hate this girl. I don't write crapp about her, because it's not very professional behaviour, but OH! how I hate her. So it was pure torture to write this chapter without bad-mouthing her in the story itself.

I hope you appreciate this! It was all for you. Since I promised to write ALL Naruto characters. So I got Sakura over with. *Shudder*

Disclaimer: Naruto ain't mine


The Ribbon of Friendship

A bell rang and slowly, but surely children piled out of the Ninja Academy building, getting picked up by parents or older siblings.

Soon, the area was pretty abandoned except for a few stragglers, one of them being a seven year old, pink haired girl.

Tugging lightly on the red ribbon in her hair, Haruno Sakura sighed.

'It's so loose, it might fall off any second now…maybe I should retie it? But I probably can't do it like Ino-chan can. I'll just wait till I see her tomorrow-'

Her thoughts were interrupted by a harsh breeze. She blinked her eyes closed as stray strands of pink threatened their sensitive green surface.

'Huh?' Flustered hands worried through loose hair noticing a missing feature.

"Ino-chan's ribbon!" Sakura panicked, spinning around trying to catch a glimpse of red satin.

"There!" she exclaimed, hand already stretched in an attempt to grasp an end, but the ribbon eluded her, still surfing a wave of wind.

She chased the tricky ribbon to a bush where it finally got caught on a branch.

As Sakura carefully worked her ribbon free, she saw a figure in the corner of her eye. Looking up she gasped, seeing the most gorgeous guy she had ever seen in her seven years of life. She remembered him as Uchiha Sasuke, the boy that her new friend, Yamanaka Ino had a crush on, along with most other girls her age.

He was training with shuriken, hitting a tree dead centre and Sakura found that the more she watched the more mesmerized she became.

'He's amazing! Maybe I could talk to him before he leaves...j-just to ask for some training tips, of course. I could even mention Ino-chan…'

Somehow the more she thought about it, the more excited Sakura became. She imagined that he'd be really cool and that after one conversation they'd become best friends. No girls would make fun of her then, because if Sasuke liked her, then she must be cool too, after all, surely Sasuke wouldn't hang out with an ugly, loser. Maybe he'd even...

'N-No, I mustn't think that! Ino-chan likes him. And he'd probably like her better than me. But she hasn't talked to him before…'

Suddenly the prospect of talking to him seemed even more irresistible.

But then he stopped his ('graceful, just so graceful') movements and started to clean up his equipment.

Sakura bit her lip and turned back to her precious ribbon, still dreadfully entangled in the ('evil!') bush. She turned again, seeing Sasuke tucking the last of his shuriken in his pack.

Furrowing her brows, Sakura made a decision. She pulled harshly, wanting to get over to Sasuke quickly.

The ribbon snapped.


Uchiha Sasuke was working his seven-year-old butt off. He kind of had to, if he ever wanted to best his super-cool older brother, who–judging by the position of the sun–would be there any second to pick him up from the Ninja Academy.

(Please, UchihaSasuke definitely didn't need a watch to tell time. He's a genius like that.)

He pouted at the shuriken embedded in the tree trunk. 'I bet Aniki could do better than that…'

Grumpily, he cleaned up all of his equipment and zipped up his pouch. Sighing, he straightened out his back and stretched out all the kinks. He turned around and froze, raising his eyebrows.

He tried not to grimace at the girl in front of him, 'Aniki never shows his emotions. But still, PINK hair? Ugh, what a girly colour. Blue's way cooler. Like Hi-'

His thoughts were interrupted when the girl started to speak.

"A-Ano…Hi, my name's Haruno Sakura…I'm in your class at the Academy…"

He frowned at the way she looked at him; the same kind of eyes that pretty much every other girl on the planet gave him. He was tempted to completely ignore her existence, but…

He glanced at her, indigo blue replacing shocking pink.

It was the way she spoke, so timidly.

"Hn. Uchiha Sasuke," he said without much enthusiasm. 'Might as well practice masking emotions.'

For some reason, his simple answer excited the girl, Saku-something, and she gave him a 100 watt smile that made him wince at the brightness.

"You're really good at throwing shuriken!" she told him chirpily, "Do you think you could help me?"

'Wait, was she spying on me?'Sasuke frowned at her, but she didn't seem to notice, she was talking so much. Sasuke marveled at the complete 180 she had done, going from timid to exuberant in 5 seconds flat. He didn't feel so generous anymore…

He observed her, noting her casual clothes and what looked like a ribbon in her hand. His gaze reached upwards to the ('distasteful') pink hair and ('holy crap!)-

"Your FOREHEAD!" Sasuke pretty much yelled, "It's HUGE!"

Needless to say he had forgotten his whole 'too-cool-for-emotions' act.

The girl stopped talking quite abruptly and he saw her green eyes well up with tears.

Blinking, he saw a flash of lavender-white before the return of glassy green and he felt an uncomfortable pang in his gut.

'Is this feeling because I failed again, where Aniki would definitely have succeeded? Or is it because…'

He looked at the crying girl again and winced at the pain.

She looked so insecure and small and familiar that it was like déjà vu, except the last time he was in this position; he couldn't do anything.

He thought of a different girl that he wished he could have comforted and sighed.

'I couldn't do anything for her, but for this girl, I'll try to make up for my last failure.'

He coughed awkwardly, "Hey listen. I-I think it's kinda cute, you know. Your forehead makes you…different from other girls…?"

'Geeze, I have no idea what I'm doing…'

But it seemed to work and the girl gave him a small smile through her tears and his uncomfortable pang went away. He forced a smile back at her, feeling decidedly uncomfortable and wanting to get away, but not wanting to make her cry again.

He tried to look around for an escape without alerting the girl to the fact that he wanted to escape.

'Aniki! Where are you!'

Suddenly he heard a call from heaven-

"Otouto!"

-or maybe it was just 3:15 and his brother was punctual as always.

"I have to go…" he paused, 'What was her name again?'"I'll see you later Saku…" he trailed off unsurely, but the girl positively beamed, so he must have got it right.

He didn't stick around to find out though.

He hightailed it out of there.


Sakura swooned, a hand over her fast-beating heart.

'He called me Saku! A nickname already!'

She wanted to talk to him again already. Today, tomorrow, the day after that and forever, she wanted to be with him.

'Is this what they call…love? B-But I can't! Ino-chan-'

'Sure you can!'

'Eh? Who are you?'

'Just call me, Inner Sakura. Those girls that have beaten you down for so many years, the emotions that you pushed back because you were so afraid of them. Your anger, your jealousy, your need for revenge, I'm your darkest desire.'

'That doesn't sound so good…'

'Of course it does! Aren't you tired of always lying down, acting like a coward, a weakling. You're so pathetic, even Ino is only nice to you because she feels sorry for you. Without me, you're nothing. And Sasuke will never notice you.'

'But Ino! And Sasuke…I'm not pathetic!'

'Who are you trying to convince? Because you're not convincing me and you sure as hell aren't convincing yourself.'

'I-I, I'm not going to listen to you!'

'You keep telling yourself that, but we both know that you'll never win against me. You're too pathetic. So you can either keep fighting me –a worthless fight –or you can listen to me and we can get Sasuke-kun.'

'Get Sasuke…kun?'

'Get Sasuke-kun all to ourselves. All you have to do is listen to me.'

'Just listen?'

'Just listen. First thing: you have to decide. Ino or Sasuke-kun?'

'B-But, I can't. Ino-chan or Sasuke-kun, I can't pick! Ino-chan is my first friend…'

'But think of Sasuke-kun! He's so cute-'

'Beautiful..'

'And he thinks you're cute-'

'He called me Saku…'

'And he's so smart and good at everything-'

'He's perfect!'

'So can you do it? Let go of Ino for Sasuke-kun? Because he'll never take you seriously if you continue to hide in her shadow? Why would he want the quiet girl in the back when he can have the confident girl at the front? Can you break your friendship? For Sasuke-kun?'

'Break my friendship? For Sasuke-kun?'

'For Sasuke-kun.'

'For Sasuke-kun…'

'Can you do it?'

'I…'

Slowly, her fingers loosened and she held out her empty palm, face up.

Two halves of a once-beautiful ribbon were swept away by the wind, disappearing over the horizon.

When Sakura looked up, her green irises bloodshot from the tears she had cried, not five minutes ago, she could see a figure. It was like a mirror of herself; but black and white. It looked exactly like her, but braver and stronger. So why was she frightened of her own image?

The figure in front of her, copied her, lifting up an arm.

A black and white palm met her own peachy white.

'Good choice…'


What the HELL!? How did this light-hearted story turn so creepy (in a très cheesy way) at the end?

I need feedback people!

Did I write Sakura okay? Or was I too hard on her and allow my hatred to seep in?

Was Pre-Masacre Sasuke-chan okay? Did my shameless SasuHina shipping ruin the story?

Was my portrayal of the birth and nature of Sakura too melodramatic? I mean, it is a split personality...but then again, it's not particularly EVIL in the series...

As you can see, I definitely need another opinion here!

And do forgive me for not posting in a while. This chapter was supposed to be split into two parts (Sasuke and Sakura) but it was short and I thought you deserved a longer chapter as an apology, so I put them together and added the strange ending to tie it all together. I promise the next chapter will be longer still, as further apology!

So leave me a review!

Midnight's Violet Haze

HS