Sakura sat across from Ibiki Morino, the leader of the T&I, without blinking a bit.
"I'm only supposed to answer questions for my therapist..." Sakura commented without any bite.
"Like I care, listen up brat, I want to know exactly how come a scrawny punk like you managed to survive a madman's massacre." Ibiki ordered slamming his hands on the table between the two. "And I want to know now." He growled releasing a little Killer Intent.
"Your guess is as good as mine." Sakura shrugged. "But, maybe my memory might suddenly pop something up if..."
"If?" Ibiki pressed in a more passive tone which he used for prisoners who cooperated.
"If a kind soul was willing to pay for my, er, needs." Sakura had an almost amused air around her as she continued without prompt. "Kunai, shuriken, a custom made double sided scythe and well, maybe those fancy pricey training weights they sell at those shops."
"Done." Ibiki said without hesitation.
"Easy, I guess you could say that madman didn't want to sacrifice me to Jashin."
"Jashin?"
"A god."
Ibiki's eyes narrowed. "I want details." He allowed Sakura to grab his pen and clipboard from him, even letting the annoyed look he sent her slip.
"This," Sakura said drawing a symbol on the paper. "Is Jashinism, a religion about shared suffering and chaos and destruction. Followers serve Jashin. It's simple. The madman sacrificed everyone to Jashin, except me. My guess is he just didn't feel like wasting his time on me or Jashin didn't want him to sacrifice me."
After staring at Sakura for five minutes Ibiki realized that Sakura really was as clueless as them about the massacre.
"And the madman? What do you plan to do about him?"
"Find him." Sakura said before leaving to go to the academy.
"Man, today was really boring." Kiba commented as he stretched out his arms. Akamaru barked in agreement to his best friend, before both turned their attention to an absent-minded Sakura.
It's been almost a week since Sakura Haruno had joined the Academy, her and Kiba becoming quick friends despite their differing personalities. Their friendship was largely thanks to Kiba's mother and Sakura's liking for Akamaru. Though neither Sakura nor Kiba would admit it, they both enjoyed spending time with the other. Just like Shikamaru and Choji, they had instantly clicked.
"Oi, you in there?" Kiba asked knocking on Sakura's forehead.
This seemed to have garnered Sakura's attention enough for her to glance at her. "Yes?" She politely asked causing Kiba to grimace at her politeness.
"We really need to get rid of that," He muttered to himself before shaking his head. "Class is over." He informed, and to add to his statement he motioned around the empty classroom. Every other student had practically ran after class was over and usually he would too, but he couldn't just leave Sakura. He was too worried that the girl would end up camping in the classroom or something.
"Kiba?"
"What?"
"Who is that?" The pinkette asked pointing at a figure through the window.
Kiba followed her curious gaze to see a blonde blue eyed boy sitting on a swing. "Oh, that's Naruto. He's a troublemaking goofball."
"He sounds just like you. Is he perhaps your long lost brother?" Sakura asked, an amused half-smile forming on her face.
Kiba blinked, surprised at the fact that Sakura had even smiled, before her words dawned upon him. "No way! Naruto's just a stupid loser and always tries to get other people's attention." Kiba harshly said, taking Sakura by surprise. "They say he's like that because he doesn't have any parents." He added without thinking.
The amused smile didn't leave Sakura's face for a bit. "I don't have any parents either." She idly noted glancing back at Naruto, not seeing how Kiba practically flinched in guilt. As if sensing her gaze, Naruto looked up, their eyes connecting for a moment that lasted a bit longer than Sakura was comfortable with before she stood up.
'He's orange.' Was the only thing she could think as Kiba and Akamaru followed after her. Every other kid she's seen so far had a beige aura, which she deduced would fade into another color once they've grown up. She's never seen a kid with an already colored aura.
"Sakura?"
Kotetsu and Izumo were yellow, a color that didn't seek any attention. A color that was positive, but not naive. In fact it was their color that made Sakura more agreeable to stay with them.
"Sakura?"
Sakura turned sharply to face Kiba, her head nearly bumping into his. "What?" She almost hissed, but instead kept up her neutral face. She didn't need her therapist to realize that under her calm demeanor lay a fiery temper that only a certain Jashinist knew of.
Kiba averted his eyes. "I.." He fidgeted.
"Am going to treat me to lunch?" Sakura filled in for him. She didn't need any apology considering she wasn't in the slightest hurt by what Kiba had said, she only said what she did so he could learn to think before he opens his yap. Next time he might actually say something to piss her off.
"What? Uh, yeah, sure." Kiba easily agreed.
"There is this place I've been wanting to go to." Sakura mused, inwardly smirking.
Kiba readily nodded. "I'll pay with my allowance!" And those were the words that screwed him over.
"Yakiniku Q!" Sakura announced with a shit eating grin.
"Uh, Sakura? Isn't there anywhere else you'd like to go?" Kiba nervously gulped.
"Sakura-chan!" Inoichi called waving Sakura over.
The girl in question glanced at the man before promptly ignoring him and dragging her Inuzuka companion the other way.
"Sakura-chan~!" Inoichi whined stepping away from their table to get the child. (and her companion, by extension.)
Shikaku restrained himself from mumbling a troublesome under his breath as Inoichi seemed to have said something to convince Konoha's latest resident into joining them, apparently the orphan had garnered Inoichi's interest.
"She's the most fascinating patient I've had in awhile. I'm waiting for the okay to search through her head." The Nara head remembered Inoichi's words.
"Troublesome." His son didn't have the restraint.
Choza and his son chuckled at Shikamaru's expense.
"Not fond of her?" Shikaku gave his son a sardonic smile.
"I don't know her well enough to say." Shikamaru admitted before sighing. "It's Kiba that's troublesome."
"He's not that bad." Choji, ever the gentle one, said.
"Please, he's almost as bad as Naruto." Shikamaru grumbled just as Sakura, Inoichi, Kiba and Akamaru had arrived.
"I'm curious," Sakura spoke up earning their attention. "Why do you speak so negatively about my friend Kiba and my classmate Naruto without even trying to have a decent conversation with them?" She asked sounding a little annoyed, but obviously only about the former. "Hi-kun says it's rude to judge someone you've never spoken to before, only after are you allowed to treat them like heathens if you see fit." She added without prompt.
"Sakura..." Kiba muttered, surprised that Sakura had admitted that they were friends and even went as far as to defend him.
Inoichi on the other hand was twitching to write Sakura's behavior down. He didn't remember her mentioning anything about having a friend and idly wondered how Sakura would react to being surrounded by her female peers. Would she befriend them like she had befriended Kiba? Or was there a special reason for Kiba managing to befriend her?
"You haven't tried talking to Naruto either." Shikamaru pointed out with a childish scowl.
Sakura gave him a sardonic smile, reminiscent to the one Hidan often gave someone before he cussed them out. "Well, you don't see me saying anything negative about him, do you?"
Shikamaru frowned, a gesture which told the ones around him that he didn't have a comeback. Shikaku chuckled, starting to get why Inoichi was so interested in his latest patient aside from the bleeding heart his friend possessed.
"Sakura, was it? Take a seat, we were just about to order." Shikaku said earning her attention.
"Hi-kun said I shouldn't talk to strangers, since they can turn out to be pedophiles." Sakura bluntly said making Choza and Shikamaru laugh at the Nara head's expense.
"Don't feel bad, she said the same thing to me when I met her." Inoichi quickly intervened giving Sakura a pat on her shoulder. "According to Kotetsu she said the same thing to the Hokage." That only served to make Choji and Shikamaru chuckle. "These are my friends Sakura. I assure you they're not questionable people."
"Hm, I still don't see why I should join you for a meal." Sakura said crossing her arms, she almost appeared hostile making Inoichi raise an eyebrow.
'She doesn't usually react this way to strangers.'
"Especially not that dumbass." Sakura added nodding to Shikamaru.
Kiba snickered.
Realization dawned Inoichi. 'I see, it's because Shikamaru insulted Kiba, which means Sakura's protective of her friends.' It almost made Inoichi smile, and he knew that the Hokage would be pleased to hear that there's hope for Sakura yet.
"If I'm a dumbass, then what are you?" Shikamaru asked ignoring his father's reprimanding look for saying 'dumbass'
"Obviously, I'm a smartass." Sakura said in a matter of fact way as she glanced back to Inoichi. "I think I'll leave."
Seeing that Shikamaru, who was currently twitching, wouldn't apologize Inoichi quickly came up with another way. "I'll pay." And though his words didn't seem to affect Sakura in the slightest, they did make Kiba perk up and mutter about not having to pay.
"Sakura," Kiba started giving Sakura his best puppy dog eye look. "C'mon, it doesn't matter if that dumbass is there, free food, Sakura, keep your eye on the price..."
The hostility Sakura showed seemed to have disappeared. "If you say so." She shrugged going back to her near emotionless self.
"Great!" Inoichi said ushering them to sit down.
Sakura sat in the middle of Shikamaru and Kiba. "I'll have one of everything." She said without even looking at the menu.
Inoichi wasn't worried. He already knew he would have to pay a lot for Choza and Choji already, so it didn't really bother him. "I'm curious, why did you defend Naruto earlier if you clearly don't care about him?" Shikaku suddenly asked.
Sakura merely shrugged. "He's...nice and warm." She vaguely said.
Curious, despite his concerns over encouraging Sakura to befriend Naruto, Choza asked: "Then why aren't you friends with him?"
"Because he's annoying, duh." Kiba commented, apparently still not learning his lesson.
Sakura seemed to contemplate whether or not to answer before sighing. "He doesn't have any friends. Which means he'll latch himself onto the first person who shows the least hostility towards him. I don't need someone treating me as an emotional crutch." She bluntly said.
"Don't you pity him?" Shikaku curiously asked.
"I'm indifferent to him. People treat him bad, sure, but how does that affect me? I have no obligation to help him." Sakura shrugged, not caring that Inoichi had written what she said down. "And why are you two ganging up on me when you don't encourage your own children to befriend the sad lonely kid?"
Her words, despite how blunt, did serve to make the adults speechless and Sakura knew she had hit something there. She did always have a silver tongue after all.
"Sad?" Choji asked in confusion. "Naruto's always happy."
Sakura couldn't help herself, as much as she didn't give a damn about Naruto, stupidity greatly annoyed her, she scoffed. "It's a mask. What kind of person would be happy if they didn't have any friends or parents? If they had no one who gave a damn about them?" Sakura harshly asked, with more emotion than she expected before finally realizing one thing.
Naruto was like Hidan, in a morbid way.
However, she pushed aside her realization as she peered at Choji's reaction. The chubby boy had the decency to flinch in guilt, along with Kiba and Shikamaru.
"Sakura...you're trembling." Inoichi quietly noted.
"I'm pissed. Honestly, I haven't known the kid for a week, and these idiots," She motioned to Shikamaru, Choji and Kiba. "Have known the kid longer than I have and yet they're as clueless as a virgin who hasn't been banged before!" Despite how crude her words sounded, they had managed to get across to the three.
"Dad, is what she saying the truth...?" Choji timidly asked his father.
Choza merely patted his son's head, but it was enough of a confirmation for him. "We've been jerks Shika..." He mumbled to a solemn Shikamaru.