(16 years ago)
Home. What a peculiar word, a tragically foreign concept. The word was alien to her ears and even more so on her tongue. So when Naruto raised a bottle of beer high up in the air and cheered, "To our new home," she could only shudder. She gulped the drink down eagerly to wash the weird-tasting word out of her mouth.
She looked around the drab apartment they were renting on the outskirts of Konoha University. It was a shabby little thing with pale, sick green walls and brown-spotted ceilings and crusty windows that almost blocked the light out. However, Sakura Haruno wasn't particularly picky with the places she lived in, given that she'd moved from one foster home to another and the worst she's been in was one where she had to sleep in the garage with only a futon mattress and nothing else.
She would say this was an okay place, not home. For the next four years and possibly more, this was where she'd be living. With the most unlikely company, too.
Naruto Uzumaki, her adoptive brother, was a raging ball of pure unadulterated optimism and high energy. Upon first meeting him, the first thing she thought was that he was loud. He was loud in everything he did−he half-shouted in normal conversations and wrecked an entire manor when he snored and made the ground shake with his boisterous laughter. It was a mystery that she hadn't gone deaf in the two years she'd spent in the Uzumaki household.
Completing their trio was his best friend, Sasuke Uchiha, who was his complete opposite. Where Naruto was the sun, fiery and raging, Sasuke was the moon, calm and elegant, silent in its judgement. He wasn't much for conversation, opting for short responses and minimalist language more often than not. But occasionally, he would banter and argue and cuss profusely with Naruto−Naruto just had that effect on people.
In and of itself, the nature of their friendship and how it came to be was a conundrum. Surprisingly, Sakura fit into this whole mess of a friendship. They were polar opposites and she was the middle ground; she brought balance. They made her feel something she's never quite felt before. They made her feel like she belonged. As cheesy as it sounded, they were like puzzle pieces that fit together perfectly.
"I'm taking the master's bedroom!" Naruto announced without preamble.
"Why do you get it?"
"You're both single," Naruto shrugged, though neither of his roommates understood the relevance of their relationship status. Both Sakura and Sasuke stared at him blankly, unable to grasp his logic, until he added, "I need the space!"
Sasuke's face twisted in disgust as realization dawned on him. He stepped forward with a heavy foot and made as if to wring his best friend's neck. "Dobe, this apartment is off-limits to Gaara!" He stomped after the blond into the room, throwing a fit.
Sakura only chuckled as she plopped down on the beaten up couch and propped her bare feet on the coffee table. She shook her head as she bit her nails, keeping her eyes trained on the two boys to make sure they didn't kill each other in the middle of the argument. Personally, she adored Gaara with her whole heart. But she did understand where the Uchiha was coming from−Naruto could never keep his hands off his boyfriend. They were so disgustingly in love and the apartment was already too small,she couldn't imagine how it could contain their love and other hormones.
When she saw Sasuke backing out of the master's bedroom with Naruto's hand pushing at his chest, she tried to hide her smile. She'd already known he would lose the argument the moment it started. "If you even think of having sex outside of this room, I'll break your dick." He reached out and slammed Naruto's door shut, just for the sake of having the last 'word.'
"Oh, you wish you can touch my dick!" Naruto laughed mockingly from the other side of the door.
She smirked at him from where she laid on the couch, body twisted at an odd angle. "If I didn't know you better, I'd think you were jealous of Gaara."
He directed an ineffective glare at her. Two years of knowing him and she has become immune to his misdirected poisons. "I'm kidding," she chuckled, throwing a small pillow at him.
He clicked his tongue distastefully, tossing the pillow back at her as he stalked into his own designated room. It hit her in the face and she laughed. Over her laughter she heard him hiss, "How did I get stuck in this rut with you two."
Home was something she's never known. But here, surrounded by these boys−her boys, she felt as though she eventually would come to understand what it meant.