Bright smile of the loved

A/N: Hey guys, I'm sorry for the EXTEREMELY long wait. IRULETHEWORLD, I hope you can forgive me, but my life has been so hecktic that i could continue to write, but now summer is here and I'm gonna be updating a lot more to all my stories! Thank you for being faithful! I love you all, now enjoy!

As real as my friends turned out to be, the nagging feeling in the back of my head constantly reminded me that something something was no right. So out of place in my new world. Still, I shove the thought to the back of my mind and embrace each one of my friends in turn.

"I love you guys," I admit softly. Konan wraps an arm around me.

"We love you too, girly." she says stiffly, holding back tears.

Deidara digs around in his backpack and pulls out a wrinkled paper. It was a beautifully drawn Cherry Blossom, red speckles of blood decorate the front. It must be my blood. The left corner and most of the bottom rim were stained red as well. It must have fallen from my pocket when I dove head first into my supposed demise.

I take the picture, thoughtfully. My hip aches lightly. I ignore it and look to my blond haired friend. "You kept it?"

He clears his throat. "Well, of course! Why would I not?"

I didn't have an answer to that question. Every time I opened my mouth, nothing that made sense would come to me. So I didn't say anymore about it. I gently put the picture into my binder.

As the day progressed, everyone was joyus to see me. All welcomeing me back and proclaiming me to be the bravest person they ever met. My teachers talked to me as well, letting me know that if I needed to talk that they would be here for me if I needed them. Personally, I am grateful that they want to help but I really just want to move on with my life and forget it ever happened.

I don't want to think about that day. I don't want to think about Sai. I don't want to think about death. I don't want anything to do with that time or place. What I want is for everyone to just let this entire thing go!

Mom texts me while I'm on the bus.

Got a doctors apointment tomorrow kay?

Appointment? for u or me?

U

gotcha, i'll see u when u get home tonight, want me to make dinner?

would u? i'd much like that. oh, darling, duty calls, love u, see u tonight.

got it, c u tonight.

Temari nudges my shoulder. "Your mom?" she asks, eyebrows knitted together in worry.

I nod. "I've got a doctors apointment tomorrow, to make sure I'm ok, I guess."

Temari smiles, the worry dissapating but only a little bit. "That's good. Soon you'll have your life back and everything will be ok, right? I mean, what worse could happen?"

I groan. "Please don't say that, Temari. If I get jinxed, I sware, you will be sorry." Temari laughs with only a touch of humar.

"Can I tell you something?" she asks, suddenly calm and somber. I nod. "I'm going to ask Shikamaru out. Is that ok?"

I blink. "Temari," I start, then smile, hugging my blond friend. "Of course it's ok with me, he's a friend. Why would it not be fine with me?" Temari shrugs.

"I donno... I just figured you need me with you and not concentrating on boys..."

"Tem, I'll be ok. Everyone needs to stop worrying about me. You were right earlier, I'm going to get my life back on track and I'm going to forget that this all ever happened. I just want to be normal and live life as life should be lived. With my family, friends, and loved ones."

"So... we aint your loved ones?" Temari says humaresly. I giggle.

"Che, of course not."

"Sakura!"

I close my eyes, my belly full of mac 'n cheese. I open again to stare at my dark ceiling. The moon is hidden behind clouds tonight, only to give proof to the world how dark my room can really be.

I turn to my side and look at the picture on my side table. It is of Temari, Gaara, Kankuro and me. Our arms locked around one another. Things were a lot less difficult back then. Temari and I used to sleep over all the time and I always felt like that was the life. At the time, I had a loving boyfriend and awesome friends. Then everything changed.

Fear stabs at my heart. I shake the thoughts away before I can scare myself. I place my hand to the pulsing vein on my neck. My heart pounding slow and rythmically, not faltering.

I turn to my other side, giving out light coughs. I swing a few gulps of water from my bedside night table where my water bottle occupied. Returning the bottle to the table I close my eyes again and will myself to sleep. It doesn't come right away.

Instead I'm left thinking a while longer.

My whole time here was as fast as a flash. I was only here- what?- 2?-3?- days before 'dying' or better yet being hurddled into the rushing river by my crazed ex boyfriend. How in the world...? Something doesn't make sense. Sai was in jail, how in the world did he find me? In fact, how in the world did he even know that I left town? You can't just upright assume that, right? If he escaped, then he would have had to of gone to my house to see that I was no longer there, but that still does not explain how he was able to find me so quickly.

Then a thought came to me. What if someone was watching me and my mom?

I shoot upright, my eyes feverishly scan the room. I do a a double check on all dark spaces in the room before settling back down facing the ceiling once more.

My heart pounding loudly in my ears like a bongo drum. That is when I know that I will not be getting any sleep tonight.

As it turns out, I did fall asleep, only to wake when my mom entered the room and shook my shoulder. "Sakura, wake up. Time for school. You have a doctors apontment today at 12:45 so I'll come pick you up, alright?"

I sit up groggily, my neck hurting from sleeping tensly all night long. "Yes mom," I mumble but it sounded more like "mes mm."

Quickly I slip into the shower and clean my hair and body, not even letting the water warm up. I snake out and throw on a thin shape fitting gray long sleeves then a purple sleeveless silk coat that trails off behind me and is long. Then I throw on jeans with holes and my favorite black sneakers.

I gaze at my soaked hair, reaching past my waist. I frown and grab scissors then chopped the hair off to the bottom of my shoulder blades. I measure it out to equal it out, then make sure my bangs are shorter by at least 2 inches and then brush all the knots out. My now short hair drying at a significant speed compatred the how long it usually takes.

New life, new Sakura. I smile, applying lip gloss. I quickly stuff my phone into my front pocket as to not forget about it. My hip aches lightly but I brush it off, quickly I rebandage my hit and head out the door of my room, down the stairs and out the door only stopping to grab my backpack and yelling goodbye to my mom.

Then I walk to the bus stop with my backpack on one shoulder, feeling the need to be as natrual going as possible. I need to forget the thing that happened to me... falling off the bridge to save Itachi-No! Forget about it!

Planting a fake smile, I step up the curb and wait for the Uchiha brothers and the bus.

A/N: I hope you liked! Please rate, review and have a nice day! Also, if you've got any questions, let me know. PM me if you want to hear about Cloud. Anyway, love you all!