Twelfth returning Jump Girl for Month of Pink; Sakura Haruno from Naruto.
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Green eyes narrowed as they watched the young married couple a few feet away enjoying the nice spring day. She scowled as the blond man placed his hand on his wife's large pregnant belly while the small the small blond boy in his arms babbled on about his new sister.
"Sakura!"
The pink-haired woman jumped at the sudden voice and turned back to her current companion, who was frowning.
"I-Ino! Don't yell like that!" snapped Sakura, glaring at her friend.
But Ino just rolled her eyes as she set down her tea. "Well if you were paying attention instead of being jealous of Naruto and Hinata, I wouldn't have to yell."
The medic narrowed her eyes on the blonde now. "What are you talking about? Jealous? What do I have to be jealous of Naruto and Hinata for?"
"Don't play games with me, Sakura. You know damn well what I'm talking about," hissed out Ino with her own narrowed look. "And don't try to talk your way out of this. I'm a Yamanaka, even if we weren't friends I'd be able to read you like a book!"
But Sakura only let out a huff. "You're mistaken, Ino-pig! I'm not jealous of anything!"
Ino's eye twitched at the old nickname. So Sakura wanted to play this game, huh? "Hate to break it to you, Forehead, but it's obvious that you're jealous of the fact that Naruto and Hinata are happily married with a family and you're not."
"Now I know you have no idea what you're talking about. I have Sasuke-kun and Sarada, remember?" replied Sakura, smug that she thought she outwitted her rival.
Too bad for her that Ino wouldn't let up. "Ah, yes, Sasuke. The man who is never around and the man you're not actually married to."
"We are too married!" snapped Sakura, glaring at the Yamanaka.
"Sakura, I know you better than anyone. If you and Sasuke got married, I would have been one of the first people you'd invite to the wedding. Not only that, but I've been in your house multiple times and there's not a single wedding photo on display, something I know you'd want people to see," explained Ino. "Hell, the only photo of Sasuke you have is from when he was a teenager…with Team Taka."
The medic scowled once more. "Shut up, Ino."
"No, because I think it's unfair that you're mad at Naruto and Hinata just because they're happy. You could have been happy too, if you had given up on Sasuke like I did."
"Why would I do that? It's Sasuke-kun!"
"Sasuke can't even keep in contact with you! I know he keeps in contact with Naruto because of his "mission", yet he can't even have Naruto pass on any messages to you? Then again, you don't really ask Naruto to pass messages onto Sasuke either," replied Ino. She then grimaced. "Does Sasuke even know about Sarada?"
"Of course he does! He was there when she was born!"
"Oh right. That was when you thought it was a good idea to try and follow Sasuke when you were pregnant. If it weren't for Naruto's cousin, who by the way Naruto only found out about from that Suigetsu guy because Sasuke never planned on telling Naruto about her being an Uzumaki, Sarada would have died in childbirth," stated Ino with a shake of the head. "I'm starting to think the only reason Sarada even exists was because of Sasuke's need to restore his clan and you were the only girl still willing to give him a chance after everything he did."
Sakura clutched the fabric of her dress in frustration. How dare Ino bad mouth Sasuke-kun like that! Sasuke-kun was a thousand times better than that socially inept man Ino was married to. Even Naruto couldn't hold a candle to Sasuke-kun, despite what Hinata might think.
Then why did it hurt knowing that Sasuke-kun was never around and that Sarada would grow up not knowing her father?
"Sakura, I say this because I'm your friend and I don't want to see you hurt, but I think you need to move on and find someone else who can make you happy. As of right now, Sasuke's only hurting you with what he's doing and you don't deserve that."
With that said, Ino stood up and placed a few bills on the table to cover her half of the check before turning to leave for home, leaving behind a quietly sobbing Sakura who had to deal with the truth of her relationship.
FIN
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It's funny how we STILL don't know the reason why Sakura loves Sasuke. With Hinata, we at least know why she loves Naruto, but Sakura's love for Sasuke just comes off as shallow. That being said, Sasuke and Sakura are still two of the worst characters in the series.