Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. :D And we all know that, don't we?
WARNING! This fic may beOOC at times, so if you can't stand OOCness, then never mind this fic!But please do read all the same? -puppy eyes-
Inner Tsukiko: Your puppy eyes doesn't work. Look at mine! Mwahahahahah! Genjutsu: Puppy Eyes of Doom no jutsu! -puppy eyes-
Tsukiko no Yuki: ARGH! My virgin eyes! -dies- And by the way... the one who's most OOC in this fic is probably Neji. XD (I've changed his personality, though not entirely, because I've also added that he USED to be unsocial and all that stuff that he really is, but he changed later on.)
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♥ Chapter III: A New Friend ♥
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"You're hopeless", Cecilia sighed as she eyed her bruised niece. "And I thought you had improved since last I saw you."
Sakura didn't answer. She had calmed down a little since she began talking with Naruto, but she was still a bit shocked.
"Dominique will be angry with me if she gets to know, so don't tell your mom, okay? And where's your luggage? Don't say you lost it too." Cecilia raised an eyebrow. "You're just so clumsy, Sakura."
"Don't blame her, she got lost and then a guy stole it from her. She was robbed", Naruto explained. "Sasuke saved her in the last minute, but they had already gotten hold of the baggage."
Cecilia groaned. "And the passport and everything was inside the trunk?"
"No. I've got the passport, but all my clothes and things got stolen", Sakura replied.
"Hopeless. Totally hopeless", Cecilia muttered. "I hope you learn how to take care of yourself when you stay here in Paris. It's a dangerous city, you better watch out."
"I know", Sakura responded quietly. "Sorry, aunt Cecilia."
"Thank god you're going to attend a school full with Japanese people. I wondered what had happened to you if you had attended a normal French school?" Cecilia rolled her eyes. "Well, well. Thank you, Naruto, I'll treat you a bowl of ramen next time. One bowl, by the way", she added as Naruto started to celebrate by dancing around in the hall. "And Sakura, go and take a bath. You'll need it."
Sakura nodded, and proceeded up the stairs. She knew where the bathroom was; even though she had only been here once with her mother, she knew the apartment quite well because of an incident that had happened last time.
She heard Cecilia thank Naruto again and say goodbye to him, before closing the door, whilst her footsteps echoed in the otherwise silent apartment. Sakura stopped right before the bathroom door, hesitant. Just because of that incident last time…
"It's alright, nobody is inside", she heard Cecilia say behind her. "And besides, you haven't taken any clothes yet. Go to my daughter's room, Sakura, I'm sure her clothes will fit you."
Sakura nodded and walked towards the room in the end of the dark hall. The door was made of mahogany, and the doorknob out of pure gold. As she turned the doorknob and carefully opened it, as though it'd break if she didn't, she peeked into the beautiful room.
A large four-poster-bed was in the middle of the room, made of a dark wood, and with sheets and blankets in the color of pastel pink, while the three pillows were white with pink roses on it. The entire room was in pastel-pink, and the furniture was made of the same dark wood as the bed; Sakura had always envied her cousin because of that room, but her cousin had always envied Sakura for Sakura's room. Sakura's room wasn't that pretty, but her cousin commented there were 'memories' beneath the surface, and that it was the important thing. Sakura always wondered what her cousin meant with that, but she had never bothered to ask.
As she approached the wooden drawer, she slowly opened it and got hold of a pretty, red dress in Chinese style. It reminded Sakura of her own dress, and therefore she was slightly attached to it.
"You don't have underwear, do you?" Cecilia asked amusingly as she stood in the threshold.
"No. It was stolen, all of it."
"Then take some of Cindy's. She won't come home anyway, she's…." Cecilia silenced abruptly and did a gesture towards the drawer. "Hurry up, I want to use the bathroom too."
That doesn't make sense, Sakura thought. Aunt Cecilia has got her own bathroom; why does she need that one?
"C'mon", Cecilia urged her impatiently. "Just take some underwear."
Sakura obeyed and pulled out some underwear from Cindy's drawer before going back to the bathroom.
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The following day, Sakura felt much better as she scrambled out of bed and changed to some clothes she had bought with aunt Cecilia the day before – white, sleeveless top, a pair of jeans along with a white belt and pink sandals – before hurrying to the kitchen. She had approximately thirty minutes to get to her new school, and she had learnt from aunt Cecilia it'd take at least twenty to get there with the RER.
"Getting up late, huh?" Aunt Cecilia eyed her. "Try the alarm clock next time."
Sakura didn't answer, just gulping down some milk and some cucumber aunt Cecilia had put on the table, before gasping: "Ja!" and running off.
Now Sakura knew the way back to the metro station, and once there, she hurriedly jumped onto the first train she caught sight of, thankfully the right one, and after some switching of trains finally arriving in Chinatown with ten minutes left.
Sakura grinned. "Great. A whole ten minutes left! Neeeew record!"
Just then, she bumped into someone.
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Sasuke was on his way to school, wandering calmly when he suddenly felt something to his back. Muttering, he guessed it was one of those freaky fangirls, and turned around in annoyance.
"What?" he asked as he crossed his arms, just to notice that it wasn't a fangirl, just the girl from the day before – what was her name again? Sally?
"Uh… sorry", she apologized with an apologetic smile, before arising. "Um… you OK?"
"Yeah, I'm OK", Sasuke responded irritably and turned his back again to continue walking. But the girl didn't want to leave him alone. Instead, she caught up with him and started to walk beside him.
"Ah, now I remember! You're the guy from yesterday, right? Naruto-kun's friend… Uchiha Sasuke-kun? Thanks for saving me!"
"Hn."
"You remember me? I'm Sakura Haruno! Nice to meet you, by the way!" she beamed. The raven-haired boy gave her a glare that told her 'leave-me-alone-or-else-you're-dead'. Unfortunately for him, Sakura didn't notice it.
"And oh! You attend the same school, right? Sakura Mankai High School!"
"Hn."
"Really? What fun! Maybe we're in the same class too!" she smiled.
I hope not, Sasuke thought in his mind as the girl continued to talk. "Ah, by the way, Sasuke-kun – may I call you that? – you're Japanese too, right?"
"Hn", he repeated for the third time, not in the mood of chattering with this hyperactive girl. Maybe if he just ignored her for long enough, she'd start leaving him alone…
… or maybe not.
"Sasuke-kun, why don't we have school uniforms? We're attending a Japanese school, right? And oh, are your teachers Kakashi-san and Kurenai-san too, like with Naruto-kun? And –"
"Can you shut up?" Sasuke snapped at last. "You're annoying."
Sakura blinked in surprise at him a couple of times before she smiled again. "Oh, sure. Well, see ya later. Ja!" She waved before running off again.
She didn't get mad? What a weird girl… Sasuke thought, raising an eyebrow, before shrugging and increasing his walking speed. (A/N: Yeah, I know this is kinda OOC, but… >>)
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"Listen, class. Today we've a new pupil – say hello to Haruno Sakura-san."
"Hi", the class chorused before the pink-haired girl. Sakura smiled excitedly back.
"Now, Haruno-san, say something about yourself?" Kakashi smiled approvingly at her.
"Um, okay… my name is Sakura Haruno – as you know – and I'm eighteen years old. I like cherries and flowers, and I dislike… mean people", she introduced herself with a nervous grin.
"What an idiot", she heard a guy whisper loudly. "Just look at her. Such a large forehead, and that introduction sucked."
"Aw, man, don't be so hard on her", another replied. "She's cute. I like that pink hair."
"Yeah. Pink!" a third said, and before Kakashi could stop them, the entire class had begun chatting with each other.
"I hate pink. Why can't she get blue hair?"
"Why doesn't she have a school uniform?"
"We aren't in Japan."
"Oooh! She can talk Japanese! I almost thought she was European!"
"You mean that only European people can have pink hair?"
"Where did you get that hair dye? It's so cool, it looks natural!"
"Nice clothes, you bought them at Champs-Elysées, right?"
"That means she's rich! Oooh, rich girl!"
Sakura stood there, still unsure what to do, wearing a nervous smile on her lips. "Uh… Kakashi-sensei, where shall I sit?"
"Go and take that seat at Ino's; she's the girl with the blonde hair in a horsetail."
Sakura's eyes scanned the classroom, until she found an empty chair beside the mentioned Ino, and sat down beside here with a broad grin. "Hi, your name is Ino, right?"
"Uh, yeah." Ino glanced at her. "Sakura, huh? Nice name."
"Thanks. Your name is nice too", Sakura complimented back.
"So Kakashi-sensei said you should sit here? Welcome to our place." She grinned and gestured at the two persons who were also sitting at the same table. "And I thought you were going to join Naruto's and Sasuke-kun's crew."
"Crew?" Sakura repeated dumbly.
"Yup. You see that each table has got three chairs? Each table is a group and must co-work. It doesn't always work fine, but mostly it does. Sasuke's and Naruto's crew misses a person. She moved."
"Moved? Where?"
"Don't know. Just one day Kakashi-sensei said she had left Paris. Gone to the States, I think – everyone does that nowadays. And oh, by the way, this is Shikamaru. And Chouji." She waved her hand towards the black-haired guy on the other side of her, who had his hair in a spiky horsetail. Then she waved her hand towards the brown-haired guy beside him, who crunched on chips and was pretty fat.
"Uh, hi", Sakura greeted them.
"Ohayou. So you're Sakura Haruno… think I've heard ya name somewhere", Shikamaru commented.
"Hey", Shouji greeted between mouthfuls of chips.
"Silence, please!" Kakashi shouted, and banked on the teacher's desk repeatedly before the class finally became quiet. "Now, does anyone know Sakura from before?"
Naruto raised his hand, rewarding Sakura a grin from where he sat in the front row. "I do! I do!"
Sakura glanced at Sasuke, but he only stared straight forward, not bothering to even raise his hand a little bit. At this she rolled her eyes and instead turned her attention towards Naruto. "I know Sakura from before! We met yesterday! And…" Naruto grinned evilly towards Sasuke. "Sasuke-teme knows her too!"
At this Sasuke glared at Naruto, but he didn't even care to glare back. Kakashi smiled amusedly. "I see. So both of you knows her. That means…" His look wandered around the classroom before it stopped on Sakura. "… that Sakura must leave the crew she's sitting with at the moment and sit down beside Naruto. Come, Sakura."
"Uh… okay…" Sakura arose from her chair and moved to the front row, where she sat down in a chair beside Naruto.
"Now, let's begin class. As you all know, Shakespeare was a…"
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Sakura leaned towards the fence of the roof as she gazed out on the roofs of the houses below. This school reminds me of my own in Tokyo, she thought. There, we've a roof too we can be on that has a fence around which is the same as the fence around a football pitch.
As she thought this, she suddenly remembered she had promised to write letters while in France. She slopped down on the floor and eagerly picked up a notebook from her schoolbag and began to write.
Kaa-san,
I miss you, Jessica and everyone. Sakura paused and wondered if she'd write her stepfather's name, but decided not to, as she continued: How's it in
Japan? I've only been here one day and everything's going great… I got a bit lost so my luggage is all gone. I'm sorry, I know I've promised to be careful, but maybe I just wasn't careful enough. But at least I was rescued from the bad guys by two of my classmates; Uchiha Sasuke-kun and Uzumaki Naruto-kun. They're both so kind!
I'm having lots of fun. I miss you all very much…
Your Sakura-chan
"Writing to your mother?" she heard a girl's voice ask, and looked up. A cute girl stood before her; she had nicely suntanned skin and brown eyes, with perfect brown hair that looked so good she could've been a hair model; and she was dressed in fashionable, seemingly expensive clothes consisting of a black top with the letters 'CK' on and a Gucci denim skirt, Puma shoes that Sakura knew cost 100 euro and a Louis Vuitton wristwatch on.
"Yeah", Sakura smiled weakly. "And you are…?"
"Ah, I didn't introduce myself! Gomen nasai, Haruno-san. My name is Hikari Hikari, but call me Kari", she beamed. "I'm your fellow classmate. I'm seated with Jayne Donaldson and Terry McDonald – both of them are American, two of the few students here that are actually not Japanese."
"I… see", Sakura paused, sweatdropping at her name. Hikari Hikari?
"I didn't disturb you, right?" Kari asked curiously as she sat down beside Sakura. "I hope I didn't. If I did, then gomen."
"Ah… no…! It's OK, I was already done", Sakura quickly answered. "Um, Hikari-san…"
"Don't call me that. Call me Kari."
"Eh… ah, Kari-san –"
"Not that either. Kari."
"Kari-chan?"
"Hmph. Okay, that'll be fine."
"Eh, Kari-chan… do you know where locker 237 is? I got a bit… lost, when I tried to look for it."
"Locker 237?" Kari gasped. "Oh my god! Your locker is next to Sasuke-kun's!"
"Sasuke-kun's locker? Next to mine?" Sakura looked puzzled. "What's with that?"
"Don't you get it? You'll be able to see Sasuke-kun every single day!"
"Uh… we do that anyway", Sakura sweatdropped.
"That's not what I mean! I mean that you can see him anywhere else than in the classroom!"
"But don't we see him in the corridors as well?" Sakura sweatdropped again.
"Yes, we do, but… AAAH! You don't get it, do you?" Kari exclaimed, fire in her eyes.
"Um… no. Gomen, Kari-chan."
"That's fine." Kari sighed. "Seems like you don't know Sasuke-kun yet. You better don't, because if you do, I'll kill you."
"Eh… nante?" (A/N: Nante means 'why', right? x.x I suck at Japanese, sorry.)
"Because all girls that get to know him develop a crush on him. If you have a crush on him, it means we're rivals. If we're rivals, then we can't be friends." Kari winked. "And I'm more than willing than become friends with you, Sakura-chan."
Tsukiko no Yuki: I hope you like the chapter :)
Inner Tsukiko: ... There's still no SasuSaku.
Tsukiko: There will be soon! I promise!
Inner Tsukiko: And why would we believe you? -.- But yeah, yeah...
Sneak Preview of Next Chapter: Aishiteru! Confessions
"And who's here? The new girl? What a pleasure to meet you, Sakura-chan", he commented, taking her hand and kissing it, making Sakura's cheeks go pink. "You're very beautiful. Aishiteru."
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Thanks for all reviews:D Keep reviewing, pleeeease? -tries puppy eyes again-