"I hurt. Therefore, I am."
Official Black Cat
Chapter Two
It's raining today. Like it does almost every day. But today the raindrops are fat and warm so Sakura leaves her hood down. The day seems yellow and wet and it makes Sakura want to find her way on top of a building and look out at a city below. But Sakura now lives in a small town and she loves it so dearly because she's still so close to Kurenai's and the town seems quiet but lively. And others seem so kind.
She has her hair up and she's wearing her favorite cream-colored coat she received from her aunt Tsunade. School starts in a week for her, and she doesn't deal well with change. This is a new school. So right now she walks around town and avoids home at any costs. Knowing that when she goes to home, she's most likely to pay the price of having to receive dirty looks from her mother. That is if she cares Sakura is gone at all.
Sakura goes to the market near home and buys a bag of grapes, sits on a bench and pulls out a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird. She wants to be ahead in her Junior year of High School. She spends about an hour reading before dog-earring the corner of her page and closing it, tossing a grape up in the air in a feeble attempt to catch it in her mouth. She misses it and it hits her on the nose.
"Yah missed!" She jumps at the sound of stranger's voice she didn't know was so close. She finds herself looking into a pair of bright, smiling blue eyes. He chuckles. "Sorry, didn't know I was that scary. I'm Naruto!" Says the blonde boy generously holding out his hand. He wears a black jacket with an orange T-Shirt with a familiar leaf print underneath. He also wears whisker-like scars on his cheeks. Sakura is still a little surprised at his outgoingness.
Surely he had better things to do than to talk to her. She holds her hand out and hesitates before taking his and shaking it. "I'm Sakura." She says with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Sakura-chan!" He chirps a bit loudly. She takes note of him adding the chan. The boy was kind.
"So, Sakura-chan, what're you doing sitting by yourself? No one should sit alone." He says and makes himself comfortable beside her. She would have been uncomfortable sitting next to this stranger. But she doesn't and she doesn't know why. She avoids his question. "I see you go to Konoha High." She says, popping a grape in her mouth. He looks down at his shirt, "Yeah! Home of the shittiest mascot ever." He says suddenly. And for some reason she laughs a little at that and he joins her. She hasn't laughed in so long it was sort of foreign to her. "Do you go to Konoha? Home of the Fighting Leaves?" He says with mock enthusiasm. She smiles, "I will be." He grins so brightly it could've blinded her. He was attractive, she knows. So that brings back the question as to why he was still talking to her?
"Man, that is a nice watch! Are your parents loaded or somethin'?" He asks and chews on a toothpick she didn't know he had. She gives him a shy smile. "Very opposite actually. This was a gift, a hand-me-down more or less." And instead of looking away from her which is what she was sort of expecting, he gives he another grin.
"Well, that's good. A great majority of the rich freaks are pricks. Though, I can't say much. I'm friends with one of them." He gives a side glance as if thinking of that particular individual. Sakura gives a breathy laugh and before she knows it, they begin to walk down the main street of her little town.
An hour passes before Naruto stops suddenly and causes her to walk a few feet ahead before stopping too. She has her hands in her pockets and an empty grape bag in her pack. The day has turned from yellow to grey. Both Naruto and Sakura's hair is damp from the rain. "Naruto?" She calls to him.
"Sakura-chaaan, I can't help but think we've already met before." He whines slightly.
Sakura narrows her eyes in thoughtfulness.
"I can't really say we have." She mumbles. Naruto plops back on a bench and focuses his eyes on a rock beside his foot. He steps on it, shoving it between a crease of his boot. Then his eyes snap open.
"Sakura-chaan! From third and fourth grade!" And it clicks in her head almost too suddenly, blonde haired, blue eyed boy Naruto Uzumaki, the boy who would rather die than go unacknowledged. The only one who understood her even though she hadn't told him everything. He stands with a jump and wraps his arms around her, lifting her from the ground.
Naruto Uzumaki, practically her brother. "N-Naruto? Jiraiya's god-son Naruto?" She asks with a huff as every bit of air was being squished out of her. And she then smiles, wraps her arms around him back. He was like the child she remembered he was. And she mentally slaps herself for not remembering sooner. He sits her down, still maintaining his beautiful grin. Her cheeks feel like they might explode and she might cry from happiness. "Foxy-Face Uzumaki." Sakura almost cries repeating his nickname. Her chest was warm as well as her cheeks, because no one in school had ever treated her well but that Uzumaki kid.
"Sakura-chan! It's great to see you, Sakura-chan. You're only a little the same. Eyes so big," He pauses and his face changes but he keeps his smile. "A little sad, a little lost. But big and bright nonetheless." He smiles again. And she wants to agree but can't find it in her to say anything to that. "Sakura-chan! You have to hang out with me at my place one day! Jiraiya's gonna be so happy to see you!" He practically sings and suddenly the grey sky doesn't seem so grey anymore.
She quietly walks in her door, putting Naruto's scribbled down number in her pocket to put in her small flip phone for later. She plans to hang out at his house tomorrow, see Jiraiya again. Catch up on old times. He was her best friend so long ago. And she missed how it feels having a friend. A good one. A real one.
She takes off her cream-colored coat and wraps it around the back of a dusty stool. Only one light was lit through the house; the kitchen light. Sakura's house interior was dull, the living room contained the usual furnishing, a couch, two end tables and an entertainment center, with no TV for it to hold. And a fireplace that never seems to be lit. The kitchen that was separated with an arch in the wall had a bar and those two stools. No table for family dining. And the house wasn't filled with plants or picture frames or neat trinkets to decorate a house with, give it liveliness. And it was so quiet all the time.
So quiet.
Sakura promised herself that when she got her own home, she would have color on the walls, wooden floors, plants a fish tank, maybe a dog. Tons of pictures to keep the memory alive. Even though Sakura hated pictures, she was trying to get over that. She turns on the faucet from the sink and pours her a cup. Taking a sip of pure tap water. She promised she'd get the refrigerator that processed water too. She smiles a little at the thought.
"Sakura." She hears a stern croak. She hesitates. "I'm here." She replies. She looks up to meet her mother's hazy, tired eyes.
"Where were you?" She asks, sounding more like as if you were trying to find a way to tell your best friend their dog died, and end up just coming straight out with it.
Sakura talked just as plainly. "I was catching up with an old friend." Sakura said and turned to put her cup in the sink. Not really feeling too fond of speaking at all now.
"A friend?" Her mother said behind her in disbelief. Sakura wanted to turn and be angry, yell, trash things in her mother's presence. It wasn't too hard to believe Sakura had a friend, Sakura hoped. She wanted to turn and yell at her mother so hard, she couldn't speak anymore. But she turns and walks past her instead, then broke into a sprint to her room knowing her mother wouldn't bother to follow her at all. Her mother crosses her arms, as if she has something to hold there. And her lip trembles as she softly and quietly walks back to bed.
A/N: Yeah, I forgot to apologize for the 1st chapter. I came up with that chapter three months ago. I know, because I wrote it down. I apologize if Naruto seems a little close to Sakura for your taste. I personally see them as the closest of friends in the series, like siblings. And you all are probably wondering where the hell Sasuke is. I promise you that he is to be introduced in the next chapter, that should not take as long to come out as this one did. I waited to put up this one so that we could spend time with our families for the holidays and whatnot. I got a PM last night asking what song this story would seem good for. And I think the overall song for this story to be listened to is
Mad World covered by Jasmine Thompson. You can look it up and listen to it; it's the main song for this whole story. And I love Jasmine's voice, she's great. So sometimes throughout the story I'll give you a different song to listen to. A soundtrack for a fanfic you can call it :D
I do not own the quote mentioned above the story and I do not own Naruto. Like. Do I even have to tell you guys that? You're not dumb.