Now before you Sakura fan girls eat me raw for making her an antagonist in my story, I've explained that the reason is not because of misplaced hate. In fact I detest stories that make it so obvious that they hate a character with character bashing. It's utterly childish and stupid and unfortunately mostly directed at Sakura and Hinata. Especially Sakura. Please, that kind of writing is lame and dumb sorry to say.
As I was saying and as I have mentioned in the previous book in the series, Sakura is the way she is because she is the closest thing to an average insecure teenager in my story. She's probably the most realistic character here. I want to build on how people manage their fears in the wrong way with Sakura. She's the best character to do so with.
Also... I kinda wanted to do that thing movies do where they make you hate a character in the beginning and love them in the end. I hope I do a good job with that!
Enough rant. Enjoy the story...
"GUYYYYS! BIG NEWS! BIG NEWS!"
It had been a while since a shocking event had happened in KSA that made everybody rush outside to see, the last being Gaara's forced apology to Daimaru. Naruto was on his way to class from the boy's dormitory when he saw it.
He barely held back a scream and ducked behind a wall to hide himself from sight. When he was sure he remained hidden, he carefully poked his blond head outside to see the atrocity that was going on. Underneath him, a mop of brown hair peeked out and above him, a mop of dark bluish hair peeked.
"The rumours are true!" Kiba's sudden voice made Naruto jump as if he didn't notice him there before, which he didn't, and hit the person above him on the nose.
"Ack! Dobe!" What a shocker, it was Sasuke!
"W-w-what are you two doing here?!" Naruto squawked in surprise.
"The same thing you are, obviously." Kiba sassed and went back to peeking outside the wall. Unfortunately for him, the sight was gone. They needed to move up. "See what you've caused?! They left!"
"How's that my fault?!" Naruto yelled back but Kiba was paying him no mind. He and Sasuke set to follow Kakashi again.
Meanwhile the teachers of KSA except Gai all had stricken looks on their faces as Kakashi passed them by.
"Kakashi-sensei..." Iruka started.
"...is with..." Yamato was baffled.
"...a WOMAN?!" Anko finished the sentence for them. Then she started laughing hysterically. "Who would've thought that that antisocial bastard would be so chummy with a woman?! Hee! Hee! Heeeee!!"
"Anko-sensei shhh! He'd hear you!" Genma hissed at the buoyant woman but it was too late for Gai had already seen Kakashi and the woman and had started running towards them like a mad man.
"CONGRATULATIONS MY HIP AND COOL ETERNAL RIVAL! YOU HAVE SURPASSED ME IN THE ROMANTIC AREA BUT I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST OF THE SPRINGTIME OF LOVE!"
"What rubbish are you saying?" Kakashi deadpanned and the woman beside him giggled. "And do you guys really think you're hidden? I can hear you loud and clear."
"Whoops!" Somebody voiced and all the people that had been trailing after Kakashi in what they thought was stealth mode came of of their hiding places, both teachers and students. Kakashi was miffed. Was it really that much of a sight seeing him with a woman?
What Kakashi didn't know was that everyone was surprised that he was talking with anybody at all. When it wasn't absolutely necessary Kakashi never socialised or spoke to anybody. He chose instead to sit in a quiet corner and stick his nose in Icha Icha Paradise.
So yeah, it was a sight to see Kakashi holding a conversation with anybody, not to mention a woman.
"Everyone, this is the new art teacher, Miss Hanare from the Land of Silence." Kakashi introduced her on Anko's not so subtle prompt.
"Hello everyone, please take care of me." Hanare bowed her head as everyone responded with the customary 'it's nice to meet you.' She was a fair woman with pretty brown eyes and brown hair that made all the boys instantly develop a crush.
"Oooh. So Orochimaru-sensei has left this school." Anko said in realisation. She wasn't even aware that the strange art teacher had been missing for a week now.
"Yes. He's the proprietor of a school, remember?" Genma reminded her and Anko nodded. She remembered now.
"Hanare-san." Hanabi, who was among the crowd that trailed after Kakashi, raised her hand. There was an important detail that everyone seemed to be forgetting about.
"Yes?"
"Are you and Kakashi-sensei dating?"
Kakashi flushed above his mask while Hanare sputtered at loss for words.
"Maa maa, we just met this morning. Isn't too soon to jump into conclusions?" Kakashi chuckled nervously. To be honest he had never actually dated anybody. Not that his students or colleagues needed to know that.
"But you will later, right?" Anko voiced in, making Kakashi give a sound of frustration. The purple haired woman would never leave him alone!
"If this continues we would be late for class. Ja ne." The silver haired man evaded the question and somewhat magically disappeared from among the crowd. Anko's aggravated yell of 'YOU SHOULDN'T BE THE ONE SAYING THAT!' followed after his back as he did.
The first class with Hanare-sensei was fun. She was lively and interesting to listen to. Ino peeked from her donkey chair to her neighbour to see their work on life drawing. It so happened to be Sai and his drawing of Yugito-senpai (their model) was nothing short of a masterpiece.
"Sugoi! You're so good at this!" She gasped. "Mine looks like a fish." It truly did. She made Yugito's eyes too big and her mouth too small. The model would be offended if she ever saw it. Thank goodness she wasn't.
Sai, instead of replying Ino, just stared long and hard at her as if he had something to say but had forgotten what.
"W-what?" Ino asked uneasily but Sai didn't answer or shift his gaze. After a while though, his mouth opened and he spoke.
"You've been behaving less like a bimbo lately."
Ino's first instinct was to get angry and punch him in the face. She did. Sai fell back due to how fast and sudden the blow came and in the process a small handbook fell out of his pocket. The sight paused Ino's thoughts and almost made her regret acting out. Almost.
They both got into trouble for disrupting the class and landed themselves in detention. Ino was in bigger trouble for punching Sai but she hardly felt the implications of what she did. Her main concern and interest was in Sai's handbook which he was reading next to her.
"Ne, do you really read that thing to know how to talk to people?" She questioned after trying and failing to get her mind off it. Sai raised the book in askance and she nodded. Its front cover read 'Socialisation for dummies'.
"Is it bad?" Sai asked in return.
"It is very bad." Ino replied, placing her elbow on her table and resting her cheek on her palm. "The best it does for you is make you a social asshole,which you are right now. Following handbooks for talking to people is the worst idea you'd ever get. There are different kinds of people you know? What's in the book might be offensive to some." She lectured.
Sai shut the book. "I see. But I don't know how else to interact with others." He admitted and Ino scoffed.
"Were you locked up your whole life or what?" She meant it as a sarcastic question but at Sai's sincere nod, her head dropped from her arms. "Wait, you're serious!" She gasped in disbelief.
"I am. My first step outside was coming to this school. Before then I was homeschooled and prohibited from being outdoors. That's why all these social interactions are strange to me. I try to observe people from up close but I just can't get it right."
"Whoa..."
Ino was both amazed and curious about why Sai had never stepped foot outdoors until now. His close observation made him a really good reader of persons even if he didn't know it. His only problem was his brutal honesty and bluntness. He had no discretion whatsoever and would say anything and everything, even at places he wasn't supposed to say them.
"At least I know now that you aren't being jerk on purpose." Ino muttered to herself. She made a decision to help the poor guy in his social ineptitude. "Instead of a handbook, let me help you learn social cues. They don't call me the Social Butterfly Queen for nothing."
"Nobody calls you that at all." It was an honest observation on Sai's part but it took the platinum blond a while to remember that. She was about to yell at him again but she calmed down upon seeing his blank, innocent face.
"You're supposed to keep those kind of observations in your head." She seethed. Sai cocked his head sideways.
"But why?" He asked and Ino groaned. Why did she take on this job again?
That was two weeks ago. Sai had gotten relatively better and reducing the sharpness of his words and it helped that more people were beginning to understand him. They got closer too, Ino and Sai, because of Ino's self assigned mission and because of the preparations for the fall festival.
A new student committee was in place with Temari as the school president and Darui as her vice. Kankuro was the new committee in charge of school discipline. Ino managed to land herself the job of organizing the fall festival along with the committee for school activities, Utakata. She was primarily decorating the school.
The main reason she was given the job was because her family owned a long line event decoration companies and flower shops. She knew how best to turn a drab room into one fit for a princess to sleep in.
Ino liked to represent what she envisioned on paper before bringing it to life on a place but her main problem was that she could not draw, hence the hiring of Sai's services. They were alone in the theatre after classes one day. The fair boy brought out a sketchpad from his bag and flipped through the pages to a particular one.
Ino gasped, collected the painting with gentleness as if it would break if she held it any harder, and looked at it closely with happy teal eyes. "It's just as I imagined!" She squealed and twirled on one foot. "You didn't paint the hall purple though."
Sai chuckled. "I am not painting the hall purple for fall just because it is your favourite colour, Beautiful."
However Ino's brain had short circuited and the sound of his laugh. It was just a breathy chuckle but it was a laugh nevertheless. This was his first! "You laughed!" Ino yelled once her brain resumed work. Sai tilted his head in the cute way he always did when he was confused about something.
"Is it a bad thing?" He asked.
"No! No it isn't! Laugh again." Ino demanded.
"How?"
"I don't know, think of something funny! I want to hear it again."
"I find nothing funny, Beautiful."
Ino threw her hands up in the air with a loud, drawn groan. Sai's emotionlessness was difficult to deal with at times. Her head snapped up with idea. Sai watch the grin on her face grow as she approached him with claw hands. His head tilted questioningly.
"You might find nothing funny but you have to laugh to this— tickles!" To her utter disappointment though, Sai just continued to stare at her as she tried in vain to tickle his sides and neck. "Who on earth has NO tickle spot?!" She threw in the towel with an aggravated yell.
"What were you doing?" Sai asked and reached for her sides to do the same thing she did. Ino jumped back with a laugh.
"Stop it. I am so ticklish so stop it!" Sai didn't stop though. He ran after her with the intent of making her laugh till tears dropped from her eyes. "Sai stop it! I'm serious!"
"Why should I? You were doing the same thing to me."
"Yours is different, you aren't ticklish! Stop!"
Watching Ino and Sai run around disdainfully were a pair of green eyes. They had never found a sight more disgusting than this. They left when they couldn't take the sight in any longer.
Ino closed up the theatre after a long day of planning with Sai. She met Sakura on her way to the dormitory and raised an excited hand to wave her best friend over. She wanted her to see Sai's amazing representation of her imagination. "Sakura!"
Sakura just continued walking as if she didn't hear Ino, which was strange because there wasn't that much of a distance between them in the first place.
"Sakura!" Ino yelled again but this time she ran to catch the rosette by the arm. The aggressive way Sakura snatched her arm away shocked Ino a lot. She wasn't even looking at her. The sudden change in her best friend's attitude was confusing. "W-what? Sakura what is with you?!"
Sakura looked at her then but the look she gave Ino was scalding and condescending. It threw the blond back literally for she took two steps back. "Oh sorry." Her tone was anything but. "I can't hear sluts when they speak."
Ino was nothing short of scandalised. Sakura, the girl she thought was her best friend, just called her a slut. Instead of being offended though, Ino just got angry. "Excuse you?!"
Sakura gave a loud humourless laugh. "I didn't know you had it in you, Yamanaka. First you stick to Shikamaru Nara like glue then you befriend Choji Akimichi. You had the guts to steal MY Sasuke away from me and now your getting all chummy with Sai. So tell me Yamanaka, how are you not a slut?"
It was Ino's turn to laugh. She couldn't believe it. All this while Sakura harboured such thoughts towards her? "I can't believe you Haruno." She mimicked the reversion to last names Sakura did. "All this time this what what you were thinking about me?"
Sakura sneered at that. "Don't be mistaken Yamanaka. We are not friends. Starting from now I am cutting every ties I have with you so we are not friends."
Ino's eyes stilled over and she crossed her arms. If this was how Sakura wanted to play then fine. She wasn't going to be friends with a snitch like her. "I don't know what the hell got into you but let me tell you this. Sasuke would never ever come to like you, not with that bitchiness you've clearly been hiding all along. I can't believe I thought we were friends. I was very wrong."
Ino walked out on Sakura, making sure that her shoulder bumped the other hard as she did so. When she was afar off Ino laughed sourly to herself. Sakura? Her best friend? She should've known better.
Aggravated by Ino's seemingly uncaring attitude towards their fall out, Sakura decided that she needed new friends that weren't pushy spoilt princesses. Not Karin because the redhead was just as bratty as Ino was and not Hinata. Definitely not Hinata.
Hinata was a personal love rival Sakura needed to defeat. Already she had both spoken to and made Sasuke laugh, a feat that even Ino in all her social buoyancy had not achieved. Sakura just didn't have the heart to actually challenge the raven as she did Ino. It was more of a silent battle going on.
It was lunch break and Ino was nowhere to be seen in the cafeteria. Sakura scoffed to herself. She must've run off with one of the boys again. Shaking her head, Sakura decided that Ino was not worth her time and headed over to a table.
The table was already occupied by Karui, Tamaki, Matsuri, Yukata, Fuu and Tenten but there was still space enough to fit her in too. And besides, they were the perfect new friends she was looking for.
"Hi girls." She greeted cheerily when she got close enough. Their responses varied from Yukata and Fuu's happy responses to Tenten's cold one. She was unbothered by it. "Can I sit here with you?"
"Sure!"
"Why not?"
"Of course."
They all agreed in their own ways and shifted for her. All except Tenten whose face looked like she was analysing something; Sakura's reason for choosing to sit with them perhaps. None of the girls noticed as they all began to chat about something.
When Tenten decided she was getting nowhere with her silent observation she spoke up. "Okay, why are you here?"
"I'm sorry?" Sakura asked, taken aback by the sudden outburst from the older girl.
"You hardly talk to us from the recuperating class outside compulsory conversations and now you suddenly want to sit with us for lunch. What's up with that? Where's your classy friend?"
Sakura's face took on a dismal expression at Tenten's hard questioning. The brunette remained unmoving. The others at the table except maybe Karui looked nervously from one girl to the other, all at loss for what to do. Thinking of it, what Tenten said was true but Sakura's sad expression made things harder to judge.
"I didn't realise that was how I came off to you girls and I'm sorry. I was just...shy I guess?" The rosette tucked a strand of her long pale hair behind her ear timidly. She peeked up from behind her fringes to gauge the others' expression. They were all baffled yet intrigued.
"You? Shy?" Matsuri asked in disbelief. Sakura flushed.
"Ino had been sort of my only friend since we were kids so I kinda found it difficult to talk to other people without her. I really wanted to talk to you girls but I was just so nervous...and Ino didn't think you were worth her time so yeah, I guess. She stopped being my friend yesterday though." Sakura frowned hard in an effort to keep her tears but they still dropped. She quickly wiped them but the others had seen. "Anyway I worked up courage to talk to you girls and here I am!" She finished with weak enthusiasm.
The long explanation instantly caused a reaction in the girls just as Sakura hoped.
"Wow. I knew Ino was sort of not nice but I didn't think she was this bad." Karui started and everyone except Tenten agreed. Not because disagreed with Karui but because she had finally gotten the reason why Sakura chose them to hang out with.
"Why did she stop being your friend?" Fuu asked curiously. She was new and couldn't judge anybody but she wanted to know why Ino and Sakura fell out. The other girls decided that they wanted to know too and asked her about it.
Sakura sighed. "I..." She trailed and looked down shyly. What she was about to admit to a lot of people took as much out of her. "I like Sasuke-kun..." Karui interrupted her with a laugh.
"Like we all don't know that." The dark girl scoffed. Sakura was scandalised.
"E-eh?!"
"Yeah." Tamaki giggled. "You're as obvious as daybreak, no need to be shy about it."
"Even I know it-su." Fuu added.
Sakura flailed, flustered that her secret was not as hidden as she thought it was. Her eyes soon returned to being sad though. This caused a general silence at the table as they waited patiently for Sakura to continue her tale. They insisted on not pushing but Sakura wanted to tell them, so they allowed and waited until she finally began.
"Ino also likes Sasuke-kun. In fact we're in a sort of love rivalry for his heart." Sakura chuckled softly at that. "But yesterday she walked up to me and said she didn't want to be my friend anymore. She's dance partners with Sasuke-kun now and there's no need for our, as she put it, unnecessary friendship. I'm really sad that she did that but there's nothing I can do."
The girls ate her story up like it was a strawberry ice cream with gummy bears on it. It was what Sakura was hoping for and what Tenten had seen coming a mile ago. The cinnamon haired girl didn't say anything because she didn't know what actually happened between Ino and Sakura but she wasn't pleased with how the rosette was painting her classmate in a bad light.
The class rep chose to observe silently where Sakura was going with her farces and charades. They all talked and laughed together throughout lunch and Sakura just knew that she had successfully wiggled her way to the group of friends. She was happy that things were going well.
It was unfortunately dance period after lunch and Kakashi was only going to teach for a while before leaving them off to practice for their project. Sakura was not looking forward to seeing Sai at all. She disliked the pale cheap imitation of Sasuke. In fact she abhorred him.
"Going for the lowlifes, queen Blossom?" As usual when they were alone Sai was quick to strike with a witty remark. It pissed Sakura off to no limits.
"I am not in the mood to hear your voice today so shut it." Sakura growled, tying up her ballet slippers rather aggressively. They were going with ballet primarily because Sakura insisted on it and Sai didn't argue. He was just going to be a barre while she danced anyway.
If Sai saw her bad mood from her angry voice, he dismissed it and came to stand behind her. His presence loomed over Sakura uncomfortably and the girl had to turn around to see the no good he was up to behind her back. Sai wasn't doing anything except smiling that plastic irritating smile of his.
"I didn't think you had it in you to ditch Ino. Finally realise that she steals your shine?" The pale one asked sarcastically and Sakura snapped. With a growl, she stood up and grabbed Sai by his collar and pushed him till his back collided harshly with the wall of the room they occupied.
Green eyes darted to and fro with barely contained rage. "You annoy me." She seethed. "Keep going and I'll end you!"
Sai's smile only grew wider even with his airway cut off and his back pressing into the wall painfully. For a girl, Sakura sure had insane strength but while he would have admired it on a normal day, it just gave Sai a leverage over her right now.
"How scary." The pale one mocked. "So this is what you're hiding under that soft and lovely persona. I mean I would too, after all Sasuke-kun wouldn't want an aggressive yandere that would just beat him up at any offense."
He saw the punch coming before it landed. 'Triggered.' The thought as his head snapped back into the wall and bounced off it. By the way what was with him and getting railed by girls recently anyway? He really needed to stop mouthing off.
He really needed to, but he couldn't. Sakura was just too fun to leave alone. Sai wanted to push her to her limits and see what she would do then. This was an amusing game to him and he wanted to see how it would end.
Sai didn't necessarily know the reason he implanted this deeply on Sakura, after all he had a weird habit of getting on people's nerves to see what they were really made of. Perhaps it was because Sakura kept evolving. She was like a Pandora's box; new things kept coming up from her. Maybe he just wanted to see how much disaster this box would bring. Maybe that was why he kept getting on her nerves.
"Sakura, Sakura, Sakura," Sai tutted as he stood and wiped his busted lip. "Keep this up and you would lose everything. You've already lost your best friend."
"And I have gained more friends! You're just saying that to rile me up! I won't lose anything!" Sakura yelled angrily. Her knuckles were white from how hard she was clenching her fists. Her body was trembling with pure rage. Damn Sai! Damn him!
Sai dusted himself off nonchalantly. "Watch." Just then the bell that marked the end of the period rang and he headed out. Just when he was at the door he paused and turned his face to her with a smile. "Don't worry, you won't lose me." The smile disappeared. "I'll continue to torture you with my presence till the end of the year."
Sakura watched the closed door with gritted teeth. The tears she was trying so hard to keep back while Sai was still around fell in two fat drops before she quickly wiped it off. She wasn't weak. She wouldn't lose anything. Sai was just a jerk. She wasn't weak.
No matter how she repeated the words to herself the things that Sai said still resounded in her head. The things she had kept buried had resurfaced. The weak girl she was before was breaking through.
"Shannaro."
There you have it; the first time Sakura uses her catchphrase in the series! How many of you noticed its absence?
We've had an insight on Sakura and we now know that she's more than just an insecure teenager. She also has a hard time dealing with her insecurities and handles her emotions in the wrong way. Sai's definitely not helping matters.
You know the drill! Leave a heart and review and I will see you again in the next chapter.
-Star.