Rating: T (for now. might have to change it to M)

Disclaimer: I have absolutely no rights to Naruto.

Time to smile! :)

Mega side note…I just read Naruto Gaiden…and i'm so…on edge. haha but I'm thinking thats what Kishimoto wanted to do. Make people emotional about the idea of…no spoilers! ha lets just say that…he definitely seemed to go back on his ending of Naruto. UGHH SO MAD. haha anyways

Before her very own eyes, Sakura had already finished 3 years of school. At Konoha West, she never did get to see Sasuke but that didn't perturb her in the slightest. Her mind would still occasionally wonder off into dream land, imaging what it would be like to have had both Itachi and Sasuke in her class. But of course that could never happen with Itachi being 6 years older than them. And they were both boys after all. Despite only meeting Itachi that one time a few years ago, he had left a crater sized impact on Sakura. She would often find herself smiling dumbly at herself, getting caught frequently by the teachers who would then scold her for not paying attention to class. Many times Sakura would be forced to stay after to clean by herself, as per her punishment.

On a few occasions Sakura's mom would be called in to speak to her teacher. Always fawning over her brilliance, but scowling about her discipline, her mother was at a loss. She would sit Sakura down every night to help her with her homework but Sakura always had the answers; Most times, without even having to think about it.

Sakura was very dedicated to her studies. At home. But at school, it was a whole other ballpark. Sitting in class, already knowing who was going to get called on, who was going to get the answer right or wrong, was just too boring for her. So were their studies. She had no interest in math nor spelling. She wanted to be with people but sadly no one wanted to spend much time with her. Sure, she had the short blonde haired girl with bright greenish-blue eyes named Ino, but most times they were competing over the most petty of things. Lately it was over who's hair was the softest among the two. All of the girls in the class agreed to it being Ino, some out of fear of Ino turning on them.

3 years had passed since Sakura had last seen the brothers. But not a day would pass without her hearing about Sasuke. All of the girls in her class fawned over the admirable, quiet, distant boy. Sometimes Sakura would hear a story about him smiling at one of the girls and the whole class would instantly become jealous of said girl. Sakura could somewhat understand their attraction but it was hard to pinpoint exactly what it was about them. Too many things to choose from, really.

When she would think about Sasuke, instantly she would remember his dark obsidian eyes and small build, that did have major potential but when she'd pay attention to his eyes, she'd start changing Sasuke's face into Itachi's. Itachi, on the other hand, had broad shoulders, was much taller than either Sakura or Sasuke and he had the most pronounced tear-troughs Sakura had ever seen. His onyx eyes seemed to be deeper, hiding something she couldn't figure out and she was dying to know what it was.

If she tried hard enough to remember what she often felt was her most precious dream, she could still feel his calloused hand surrounding hers that one sunny day during her visit to the market. She would always smile at the memory and would feel a slight tingle at the thought of doing it again. She always giggled at such silly thoughts.

Snapping back to reality, Sakura was released from her daydream. Hovering above her she saw Ino in her usual long sleeved light red dress with a purple cover and knee high matching boots, snickering above her. Realizing she was drooling all over her long, now gnarled, hair that was spread about her desk, she quickly sat up, wiping her face with her sleeve, fixing her hair. With much disdain, she glared at Ino, sticking out her tongue simultaneously with the other.

Ino glared back and turned her head, refusing to look back. "Let Forehead sleep. She doesn't need a break from class anyway," she chastised, quickly leaving the room with a few of their classmates.

"Annoying…Pig…," Sakura huffed under her breath. Rubbing her temples, the pinkette stood, stretching high to the ceiling, her long lime green loose fitting dress rising well above her knees, making her dark blue shoes stand out even more than usual. Staring at her hands above her, she caught sight of her chewed on thumb, with chipped yellow nail polish. Silently scowling at herself in disappointment, she picked up her science book and notebook with her favorite dark green pencil and decided to join the rest of her class outside for break.

Walking down the empty halls, Sakura was lost in thought. In half an hour she'll be taking her placement tests. She'll be answering questions that would soon determine what class she'd be placed in next year. She, in her mind, will be facing her future. A future with friends? Or foes? With Sasuke or….Sasuke and Ino and her tormentors?

With a slight shiver down her spine, she paused at the closed sliding doors. Peering out of the windows, she saw her competition. All of the girls in the school were vying for a spot in the coed classroom; Sakura wanting it the most.

She looked over at the girls sitting at the picnic tables, every single one of them silently studying their books, scribbling down notes wildly. Easily relating to them, she sighed, knowing they were in the geek category. Ever the enthusiast, Sakura had always dreamed of being friends with the popular clique. Being what some believed to be mortal-enemies with the queen bee squashed her dreams quickly. She was forever to be known as the geeky, big fore-headed loser.

Scratching her head, she averted her eyes. Quickly gaining her attention was the Queen Bee herself, brushing thru her light blond hair with her fingers. Grinning at the group of girls fawning over her, Ino didn't seem the least bit nervous about the test. Sakura assumed it was due to her big head, thinking she was the greatest thing ever to be born, even better than Minato Uzumaki, the Hokage of their whole town. Ino's green eyes shown clear in all aspects of the garden. Not even those flowers could compete with the deep color that was immersed within the deeps of her eyes.

Sakura continued studying Ino. Ino pulled out a rouge barrette, hidden in a small side pocket from her violet skirt. Showing the group of 'oohing' and 'ahhing' girls, she quickly parted her bangs out of her face, making the girls erupt into cheers. Gleefully smiling at everyone, Ino tilted her head and laughed. Life was good for the pretty blonde.

Grabbing her somewhat stringy pale pink hair in-between her fingers, she gloomily compared their hair. Ino's hair was much shorter than hers, better taken care of, and had absolutely no split ends whatsoever. Letting her hair fall back into place, Sakura snorted to herself. Despite losing in the hair department, she cheered herself on. Sakura had always felt smarter than Ino, and today she would definitely prove it to everyone. Teachers, parents, fellow classmates, Ino. Everyone will know who was smarter and in the end, beating Ino in any way that she can is really all that mattered to her at the point in time.

Deciding it was time to join the rest of the class, Sakura slid open the doors, and soundlessly sauntered off onto one of the garden's giant rock formation seats to the far right, away from Ino and her clique. Her elbow now placed on a higher rounded edge of the rock seat, she rested her left hand under her creamy chin. Half heartedly skimming the pages of her science book, she soon realized that she had memorized everything in it. Everything. Every chapter, every image, every caption of said image. Everything.

Starting to drift off into La-La land again, Sakura's left was softly kicked.

"I'm talking to you, you know!" the potential attacker shouted. Crossing her long arms, she huffed, waiting for a response.

Placing her right hand in the air, trying to block out the sun, Sakura's eyes started to focus on the girl in front of her. Ino. Of course it had to be Ino. Surveying her surrounding, Sakura straightened up, closing her book, accidentally dropping her notebook and pencil. Cautiously reaching for her things, Ino swiftly kicked them out of reach. Standing straight, Sakura quickly glared at the blonde.

"Why are you still wearing that dumb ribbon I gave you?" Ino snorted. "It's so 3 years ago."

"Yikes," Sakura feigned embarrassment. Turning her face from innocent to sly, "I'll let you in on a little secret, Ino Pig! The ribbon is from a boy," she grinned, watching Ino's eyes narrow. "And what's with your breath? You really are a pig, breath and looks," she retorted, earning gasps from the audience.

Turning red from the anger brewing from within, Ino picked up Sakura's notebook and launched it across the garden. "Have fun getting yelled at for being late!" she yelled, as she and the rest of the girls ran towards the entrance to the school building, after hearing the bell go off.

Hurriedly, Sakura searched and found her notebook, placing it firmly under her arm, on top of her science book. Leaping up onto the balcony, she rushed into the now crowded hallway of boys and girls, bumping into people, apologizing profusely.

One boy wasn't having a good day when she stepped on his foot.

"Watch it, will ya!?" the shaggy brown haired boy snarled in her face, his eyes turning into black slits.

Sakura, being stunned, just stood, watching. Noticing the boy getting angrier, Sakura braced herself for the inevitable. The brunet, still shouting nonsense, decided force would be the only way to get the slow girl out of his sight. He grabbed Sakura's arms and forcibly pushed the girl as far as he could. Sakura closed her eyes as she went flying across the hallway, desperately trying to keep her books in her arms and her dress from revealing to the world her plain cotton underwear. With a loud smash, a groan from both female and male, Sakura soon realized she wasn't laying face first on the floor, nor was she thrown into a locker. In fact, she wasn't even standing on the ground.

Opening her eyes, she glanced at the people in front of her, noticing all of the glares she was receiving from the females and the shocked faces of the males. Looking down, she saw two strong hands holding her small frame at the lack-there-of hips, turning her long green dress into a slight mini skirt.

Starting to panic, the pinkette started to turn red, and quickly struggled from under the person's hold on her body. Accidentally kicking the person in the gut, she was dropped onto her knees, groaning slightly. Afraid of finding out who caught her, she became uncoordinated, stumbling over her own hands, trying to grab her belongings. She quickly noticed that the boy must've dropped his own belongings in the process of trying to catch her. Another groan and a sore elbow later, she soon realized she had just elbowed the poor soul in the gut. Again.

The person quickly fell to their knees, grabbing their stomach. Finally looking over, Sakura saw a boy with black shorts and a matching black shirt.

Scratching his head, and moving his raven locks out of his face, his black eyes locked within her green ones. Keeping his gaze on her, he stood up and grabbed hold of both of her hands. Pulling gently, he helped the girl up onto her feet with ease.

Immediate warmth enveloped Sakura's hands, shocking the now frozen pinkette. Remembering what it had felt like so many years ago to be holding his hands, this time was different. His hands were much bigger, albeit not as large as Itachi's and they seemed harder. Before, they were small, extremely gaunt and very soft.

With a slight smile to herself, she quit examining their hands and bashfully looked him up and down. Sasuke had longer now toned legs, like a runners, more definition less muscle. His black shorts just reached barely below his knees and looked rather baggy and used on him. Might have been Itachi's hand-me-down pair, which is bizarre to think, what with their family being more on the wealthier side. His short sleeved dark black shirt hung well below his abdomen, and upon further inspection, she had thought she had seen his family crest printed on the back of the shirt. His creamy arms were bare of adornments and Sakura had become overwhelmingly tempted to grab his arms to see if they were muscular or just looked that way.

Shaking her head and lightly blushing at the thought of grabbing him in any which way, Sakura's eyes looked up at the young boys. He had dark shadows around his eyes, possibly from studying late into the night? Sakura's brow furrowed at the thought of it and studied him some more.

Sasuke's eyebrow arched at her action but he didn't comment, just continued to watch what it was the young girl was doing, not noticing the people surrounding them gawking at the pair.

Coming to here senses, she broke free from his grip on her. Sakura brushed out the wrinkles in her dress with the back of her hand and looked back at her friend from long ago. Timidly smiling, she began to play with her hair. "Thank you.." she murmured, keeping her eyes casted down at his feet. 'He must be an athlete,' she amused herself, noticing the dirt all over his shoes and the bruises all over his legs.

"Are you okay?" the boy asked in a worried tone. He reached out for her hand that was becoming entangled within her pink hair. Examining the situation, he quickly released her hand from its entrapment. Not realizing he didn't let go of said hand, he stared back at the pinkette. With a confused look, he hurriedly asked, "Can you even hear me? Do you need to see a nurse?" Never taking her eyes off of their entwined hands yet again, a fire started to burn from within Sakura's core. It had started earlier when she first bumped into him but was extinguished the moment they took their hands away.

It was back again and with a vengeance. It started in her abdomen and quickly erupted throughout her whole being; from the tips of her toes to her fingertips, to her head and back to her stomach. The lightheaded, swaying feeling Sakura was perceiving was quickly becoming overwhelming. Her knees becoming mush threatened to overpower her and she tightened her grip on his hands.

Turning bright red, from what Sakura could only describe as a fever, she removed her glazed over eyes from their hands and up into the boy's concerned-filled eyes. "Sasuke…" she whispered.

"Hn," the boy responded. Finally noticing he was still holding onto the girls tiny hand, he swiftly let go, placing both of his hands deep within his short pockets. Picking up the girl's science book and notebook, he silently offered them to her.

Hurriedly, Sakura scooped up the boy's workbooks and their pencils; forced his books and the green pencil into his hands, face still beet red.

Thrown off balance, Sasuke awkwardly moved the books around and managed to hand over hers with a slight struggle. Exasperated by the situation, he tilted his head towards her. Silently blinking a few times, he finally said, "Well….Good luck." Sasuke smiled to some extent and nodded his head. Getting a firmer grip on his belongings, he moved away from the lockers and Sakura and walked towards the group of guys he was at one point in time walking with.

"Hey man, sorry. Do you know her?" the now calm furry haired kid asked, approaching Sasuke with a nervous grin, scratching his head.

"No idea…," Sasuke faintly replied, giving a quick glance at Sakura.

Sakura stood in shock, completely on edge about the situation. First, she ran into Sasuke finally! She had been missing him for so long and his brother and mother. She wanted to catch him, talk about how he was doing, what he was up to; What Itachi was doing, if Itachi was feeling any better; If his mom would like to see her mom again, etc. She had so many things to say to the boy and yet she found herself dazed and severely mute. She couldn't find her voice, find her courage to utter anything more than his name and a simple thank you. How pathetic!

Second, what was with that feeling of burning desire?! The flame that had erupted through her very soul, bringing her up to what felt like an ultimate high only to come crashing down moments later, after Sasuke had let go of her hand. 'It was just a hand. Just a hand. Nothing more. No reason to become overwhelmed with all of these feelings, emotions,' Sakura told her inner self.

The usual observant pinkette had foolishly forgotten where she was standing. Smack dab up against the lockers, surrounded by what was to be assumed as the entirety of the younger female population in the school, Sakura straightened out her back, her flushed face now pale. Scanning the group of girls, Sakura's eyes stopped at the blazing green eyes, staring daggers into every inch of her body.

"How dare you, Billboard Brow!" Ino spat, moving to the front of the group, facing Sakura one-on-one. She crossed her arms but never let her eyes drop.

Tension rising, Sakura lifted her head, as if to say she was above the blonde. She snorted lightly at the very idea of Ino trying to belittle her. Starting to grin, "Why Ino Pig…what ever do you possibly mean?" the ever slick pinkette innocently replied, giving her innocent puppy dog eyes and all.

"Don't you mess with me- mess with us," the enraged blonde threatened, motioning to the group of females still remaining in the halls.

Most of the girls had already left for class, either from not wanting to be late. Whereas some were just too afraid to see what was going to happen between the two girls. The girls remaining were cheering for a fight. "How dare she touch our Sasuke!" some of the girls were chanting.

Ino lowered her arms to her side, but kept her hands balled up into fists. Still glaring, she slowly approached Sakura, who's eyes had just widen with the realization that she was in for it. Big time.

After what felt like forever, Ino finally reached Sakura. Putting her face directly in front of the other, their breath mixing into one, Ino quietly warned the pinkette, "You get in my way of true love-" she slammed her fist into the locker next to Sakura, "and i'll end you," she finished her threat. Standing fully up, Ino gave her a mocking grin, and walked towards class, bringing the rest of the girls with her.

Once everyone was out of sight, Sakura let go off her breath that she had inadvertently held during the whole scene with Ino. Slumping up against the lockers, she stared at the ceiling. Wallowing in self pity isn't something Sakura is used to doing anymore, but thankfully, before fully succumbing to full despair, a small pair of hands were pushing down lightly down on the pinkette's shoulders.

Looking up, Sakura was greeted by her occasional friend, Hinata.

"I-It's okay. They're gone," she stumbled out, smiling.

"Let me help you," she said, pulling at the pinkette's arms.

"Thanks Hinata," Sakura timidly said, unsure of the girl's intentions. Hinata was always nice but sometimes too nice. Maybe she secretly wanted Sasuke as well. Maybe she wanted to take Sakura out and go tell Ino gleefully that she had done her dirty deed. Or Hinata was just an extremely nice, gentle person. Only time will tell, Sakura supposed.

Giving Hinata a wearily look, Sakura quickly grabbed her things and began to walk to class, Hinata close on her heel.

"Sakura. Are you and Sasuke friends?" Hinata asked after a pregnant pause.

Sakura looked over her shoulder, peering through the window in the sliding door. After finding Sasuke staring down at his book, Sakura sighed, closing her eyes for a second. Looking straight ahead, "From a long time ago. I'm not sure about anymore though," she mumbled.

"Oh. I'm s-sorry to hear that," Hinata said. "I-I guess I'll see you later. Good luck on the test Sakura," Hinata said as they approached their classroom door. Hinata sat in the very front row, right next to the she-devil.

Slightly smiling at her, Sakura hurriedly rushed to her seat before her teacher would notice she was the last one to enter. Searching the room for any sight of the said teacher, Sakura cheered herself on upon realizing she made it on time.

"Not today Haruno," the teacher said from behind the desk. She was hunched over, picking up scratch paper for their test. "Pass these out," she commanded, holding the stack of paper unenthusiastically. "Consider this your punishment," she sighed.

Sakura walked down the steps towards the desk, almost falling in the process over someone's big brown boots.

Scowling at herself for tripping, Sakura passed out all of the paper in due time and took her seat.

"You know the rules. No cheating, no talking, no….I really don't care. Just pass the damn test so I can be rid of you," the teacher grouched. After this class, she'd be retired, no more bratty kids. She was oh so ecstatic. Clearly.

Grabbing her pencil, Sakura opened the booklet that was already on her desk and quickly began to answer questions.

A little biology here, some mythology there, Sakura flew through more than half of the test with ease. Glancing up at the clock, she realized she had only used up 20 minutes out of the whole 60. She looked down at her test and decided to slow it down, but of course it didn't work. She had to be the first one done, to prove to the pig in the first row that she's smarter.

All that she had left was the math and writing portion at that point. Cracking her fingers, she began to answer problem after problem with a fury, not once using her scratch paper. 5 minutes later and she had finished answering the 75th and last math problem.

Being smug was definitely something Sakura could get used to. She snickered to herself, trying to psych out the so-called 'competition' and it worked. She could see Ino starting to stiffen and if she wasn't mistaken she could tell Ino was starting to stress, what with the stench of her erase burning her nostrils.

Silently laughing, Sakura returned her attention to her work. She had exactly 33 minutes and 27 seconds left to finish the writing portion, on time. She cracked her neck in triumph, knowing she would only need 3.

The question that she was to answer was what was her ultimate fantasy and how would it be possible to obtain. What was it? Beating Ino? Marrying It-someone? Being the greatest doctor the world has ever seen? Just what was it that Sakura had truly desired?

Rubbing the red pencil's eraser on her chin, Sakura had a breakthrough. Sakura decided she would write about her school life. How she desired to actually be pushed through the ringer, challenged in some way. Sakura might not have been the most popular, but she was definitely one of the few girls who'd rather use her brains for smarts and not for looks, although she did try to look good. She knew if she wrote that, there would be no way that the person grading her paper would let her go to the lower classrooms.

Sakura was determined to make it into Iruka's. She had to, it was the very best of the best class in the whole building. Iruka would actually thoroughly prepare you for whatever it is you'd absolutely need to know in order to succeed; in life or in high school at the very least. He may be young, but his youth just makes it easier for him to understand what life is like now, rather than how it used to be many years ago, compared to the older teachers.

Combing her hair with her finger tips, Sakura started to space out, thinking about the earlier events that had transpired. Sasuke had looked so much more grown up. His bangs were all over his face and his hair was spikier than before. Maybe he had more time to style it now. Maybe that means Itachi is better and that he doesn't need to help out as much, he's free to do his own thing. Grinning to herself, she continued to write, absentmindedly.

"5 minutes left," the teacher bellowed out, interrupting Sakura's flow of happiness.

'What!?' Sakura screamed in her head. Frantically looking up at the clock she realized that she had indeed wasted all of her time. Looking around the classroom, there was only 4 others still working, her being the 4th. Ino must've been long gone and so was Hinata. Scratching her head, Sakura stared down at her paper. It looked complete but she had written so much that she wouldn't have the time to edit it.

Internally yelling at herself, Sakura stood up, clutching her pencil and answer sheets. She sauntered down to the teacher and placed everything on her desk.

"You forgot this," the teacher told Sakura, holding a red pencil.

"That's not mine…" Sakura said, confused.

"Look at my desk. Look at me. Do you really think red is my color?" the teacher said. Looking around, Sakura saw nothing but the color purple everywhere.

"Oh. I guess I did leave it…" Sakura awkwardly said, grabbing the red pencil. Staring at it while somehow managing to walk up the steps back to her desk, Sakura hadn't the faintest clue as to why the teacher demanded she grab a chewed on pencil.

Keeping hold of the pencil, Sakura gathered her things and walked out of the classroom. Accidentally bumping into someone, Sakura immediately flinched, in fear of it being that boy from earlier.

"You even stole my poor Sasuke's pencil?!" a voice bellowed out in Sakura's face. Roughly, the person's hands reached out and snatched the pencil from the pinkette. "See these?" the voice pointed at the small bite marks, "They're exactly 1 inch in diameter and there's only 3 bites. It's so obviously Sasuke's! I'm giving this to it's rightful owner. Ino."

Sakura chocked on air. "In what way does it belong to her?" she blurted out in disbelief.

"Why would you think it belongs to you?" the girl retorted, quickly running off with the pencil.

'Okay,,,That was just too weird,' Sakura thought to herself. Reclaiming her senses, Sakura walked over to her locker and took out all of the items from within. Most she would toss, some she would give to someone else. The only item she wanted to keep was the ribbon she had hidden away in the back, behind all of her old junk homework. That was the only item she ever held dear to her. The ribbon in her hair is what she liked to call an impostor. Her dad had gotten it after he thought he lost her other one, not knowing she had it in hiding.

Sakura thought back to the day that Itachi bought her the ribbon. She wanted to repay him in any way that she could, but because she hadn't seen him since then, she was never given the opportunity, not that she had even the slightest idea in what she would do. She grabbed the ribbon and gently placed it inside her notebook.

Closing her locker, she noticed a blond boy staring at her. He had extremely bright blue eyes. It was like looking at the ocean on a sunny day with no cloud in the sky. Or maybe his eyes were the sky and not the ocean after all. Or both mixing together at the same time.

"Hey," the boy said, breaking Sakura from her thoughts. He was wearing a black shirt with an odd red swirl on the front, with a blue streak running down his white shorts. His bright yellow-blond hair definitely matched his sunny disposition.

"Hi," Sakura finally replied, after thoroughly examining him. She couldn't recall ever seeing him, but then again, she had never seen Sasuke up until that point, nor that one animal.

"Need someone to walk you home? I noticed that one guy was still pretty angry and those girls didn't seem to be in any better of a mood than him," he said, smiling. He cocked his head.

'He seems very friendly. Very open,' Sakura thought. "I-I guess, if you want," Sakura told him.

5 Minutes away from her house, Sakura finally spoke up, breaking their calming silence. "I'm Sakura Haruno, by the way. Thank you for this. I wasn't sure what to expect today," she said.

"What a day," the boy said, gazing up at the sky. "This morning the weather was perfect. Light breeze, no cloud in the sky. Now look. Extremely cloudy, rainy looking."

"Yeah…" Sakura replied, unsure of what to say next. They hadn't talked the whole 15 minutes it had taken to reach the point they were at now, and it certainly seemed like they wouldn't talk for the remaining 5.

"You can leave now. I can do the rest of the walk myself," Sakura cheerfully said, trying to avoid conflict. She smiled at the blond and she saw the blond's face quickly turn red.

"O-Oh, if you're sure. I don't mind walking you all the way," the boy mumbled, looking away.

"No, I'm fine. It's just another turn right and there it is. I'll be fine. Thank you again. I hope to see you in my class next year…." Sakura trailed off, wanting to get the boys name.

"Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto smiled his absolute best smile. "I'll see ya then!" he yelled, running in the opposite direction.

'Naruto huh? Interesting name,' inner Sakura stated. "Yeah…Would've been nice to have talked more, but oh well," Sakura replied aloud. Shaking her head at her silly moment, she ran the rest of the way home.

Upon entering her house, Sakura shouted, "Mom! Dad! I'm home!"

Peering around the corner, her mom's head popped out. "How was the test? Do you think you scored a perfect 100?" she asked.

"Of course," Sakura puffed up her chest in response.

"Atta girl!" her dad shouted from his work room.

"Oh, honey, guess what!" her mom asked, entering the living room to better see her daughter.

"Let me guess. We're going to celebrate?" Sakura asked with a half laugh, smiling.

"That, and we're not doing it alone!" the mom exclaimed, happiness oozing out of her pores.

"What do you mean? Gran and Gramps are coming for a visit?" Sakura asked, puzzled.

"Nope, Mikoto and her boys are coming over!" the mother shouted, opening her arms expecting a giant hug from her daughter. She knew Sakura had been wanting to see them badly, despite not outrightly showing it. What had happened instead though, was definitely not something she was expecting.

Hearing someone knocking at the door, Kizashi walked past his two lovely ladies and answered the door. Ushering the three of them down the hall, he made small talk, mostly jokes, with the boys, earning laughs from mainly the elder one.

Meanwhile, Sakura's green eyes doubled in size and her face had turned completely red. Without a word, Sakura reached out her hand for support, trying to grab onto the couch, but missed and instead went crashing down onto the floor, just as Sasuke and Itachi had entered the room.

'What is wrong with me?!' she inwardly chided herself, groaning outwardly, refusing to look at the boys.

Hi! How are you my dear reader? Lemme start out by saying that…I really enjoy reading and dreaming…and all of those good things. Now…I write for entertainment. For mine and for yours. While reviews aren't something that I need to continue writing, it does help me in many ways. It lets me see what works, what doesnt, what I need to improve on, who I need to focus on more, if I need to slow down or go faster, etc. but it's hard for me to judge without someone giving me their opinions. Any insight would be great, even if it was a simple 'this story is great' or 'this story is the worst thing ive ever read. i need to wash my eyes out' anything would help.

so with that in mind, i hope i can hear from every single one of you on what you think about my story :)

and if not…hey, i tried! haha idk if people even read these anymore. anyways, i hope you all have a great long weekend! until next thursday, i bid you adieu!