Author's note: The only good thing about this shit week is that I got relatively good news from the vet. Aside from that certain things in real life have decided to really screw me over and I'm so done with everything right now. So here have yet another NOT FOR SAKURA FANS two shot while I hopefully manage to finish another update this weekend still.

Warnings: Sakura's pov; Alternate universe; Modern verse; NOT FOR SAKURA FANS; minor time skips; mentioned character deaths

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto owns it.

I hope you'll like the first part!

Part 1

"Thank fuck!"

Ino's relieved exclamation made Sakura pause in pulling off her shoes. Resting her fingers around the heel part, she looked in the direction of the living room where Ino's voice had come from. "You okay?"

"Sakura? You home already? Yeah, I'm okay," Ino called back.

"Traffic wasn't a bitch for once," Sakura explained, finishing taking off her shoes and replacing them with her slippers.

She caught her jacket before it could fall on the floor and hung it away more properly this time. After snatching up her handbag, she walked into the living room where she saw her best friend seated on the couch, leaning back and stretching out her arms, while a stack of envelopes sat on the table in front of her.

"Oh, you already finished them?" Sakura realised surprised. "I would have helped you write the addresses, you know?"

"Yeah, I know but I figured I might as well write the addresses too when I was finished with the invitations," Ino sighed, rolling her shoulders. "You mind comparing the addresses with those on the list? The letters are starting to dance in front of my eyes."

"Sure, no problem," Sakura agreed and plopped down on the armchair, stretching out her legs with a quiet sigh.

After a day of running back and forth on her heels – no matter they weren't tall – it was a relief to be able to roll her feet over the soft carpet. It was a bitch to vacuum, but god, did that carpet feel delightful against her sore feet!

She grabbed the stack of envelopes and put them on her lap before picking up the list. She whistled when she saw the amount of names on it.

"You really did your best with the list, huh?"

"Took me a bit but I managed to track everybody down," Ino confirmed, rubbing over her eyes. "I mean, it's our reunion; of course I went through the effort."

"Of course," Sakura echoed amused and started flipping over every envelope, checking the name and address with the one on the list.

Checking every envelope went quickly until she reached a particular name; the sight of which instantly soured her mood. She frowned, staring down hard at the name but of course the letters didn't change and rearrange themselves into a different name.

"When you said you tracked everybody down, you really meant everybody, huh?" she commented unimpressed.

"Hm? Well, yeah, it's a reunion after all," Ino replied non-puzzled and sipped from her soda bottle. "Why?"

"I don't know why you even bothered to make an envelope for Uzumaki of all people," Sakura snorted, turning to the next envelope.

"Because he was a classmate," Ino retorted. "Might as well invite everybody for the reunion."

"Classmate or not, you really think he can afford the resort you made reservations for, especially for a weekend?" Sakura snorted in disbelief.

Uzumaki Naruto was a good example of how much influence a good start in life tended to have on the later years of one's life. With parents who had passed away young, Uzumaki had apparently been bounced back and forth between family members for years until ending up living together with his godfather, or so the rumour mill had gone back then at least. With how much he had tended to annoy Sakura with his stupid pranks, she had never bothered getting to know him better. What had been a known fact, however, was that Uzumaki had never had that much money, no matter who he lived with.

There was no way in hell he would be able to cough up the amount of money necessary to stay in that resort.

"Hell if I know, but that's the reason why I managed to push the payment until after our stay," Ino replied and shrugged. "I'm not even sure if everybody will show up, so we'll find out then how many rooms need to be paid for in total."

"I still don't understand how you managed to convince that resort to close off two entire floors for us when we're not even sure how many will show up," Sakura said, shaking her head.

Ino winked at her. "Womanly charms; they come in handy," she smirked.

Sakura chuckled, checking the last envelopes. "You got all the addresses right. Telling you now, though, there's no point in inviting Uzumaki when we both know he doesn't have the money to pay for his share."

"Mah, this way he can't complain he was never invited," Ino said unbothered.

"Don't know why you even bother," Sakura muttered, placing the stack of envelopes back on the table. She stood up again, stretching her back with a quiet groan. "You mind if I make a start on dinner now? Didn't sleep well last night so I'm thinking of going to bed earlier tonight."

"No, it's fine; I'm going to post these quickly and then I'll help you out with dinner," Ino promised, gathering all the envelopes in her handbag. "See you in a bit!"

"Okay!"

Everywhere one looked, everywhere one walked, one was greeted and surrounded by nothing but fanciness. The water in the pool was crystal clear, reflecting the sunrays prettily and the benches surrounding the pool looked both elegant and comfortable. The entrance hall exuded elegance with its large chandelier, decorated with small diamonds, and the floor was a sparkling white, not a single filthy spot to be seen. The staff was friendly, dressed in beautiful dark blue suits and some waiters were walking around, offering glasses of champagne as they waited for everybody to show up.

"Still outdoing everybody when it comes to organising parties, hm?" Kiba grinned, removing his sunglasses.

Next to him Hinata smiled shyly, blushing when Sakura looked meaningfully at her hand holding Kiba's. "H-Hello, Ino-Ino-chan, Sakura-chan," she greeted them. "It's – it's nice to see you again."

"It's great to see you again," Ino smiled; her eyes glittering when she also took notice of the handholding. "So you finally gathered your balls and asked her out, hm?"

"We've been together for almost two years now," Kiba answered proudly; his face softening when he glanced at Hinata.

"You managed to survive Neji-kun's wrath for two years? Colour me impressed," Sakura teased him.

Neji's overprotectiveness over his cousin Hinata had practically been legendary during their school years. Many guys had hoped for a chance to date the busty girl; none of them had succeeded. Both because Hinata had never shown any interest in them and because Neji had always made it very clear that nobody was to bother his cousin or suffer his wrath.

Kiba held up his thumb and index finger, keeping a small distance between them. "I'm this close to actually earning his approval finally," he said exasperatedly, rolling his eyes. "I'm still alive and in possession of a working dick, let's keep it at that."

Hinata's face turned even redder at the brief use of crass language. "Neji-kun isn't – isn't that bad," she protested weakly in defence of her cousin.

"No, he definitely is," Ino snorted, stroking a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear. "Everybody back then knew not to mess around with you because otherwise they would meet his fists."

"Perhaps if they had been more worthy to begin with, I wouldn't have needed to run interference," a cold, male voice piped up.

Sakura turned around, not at all surprised to see Neji standing there. The guy always had had a knack for showing up whenever people had been talking behind his back. He was dressed in a simple white shirt and brown slacks, but even in that sober outfit he still managed to look like a model with his long, dark brown hair and his piercing lavender coloured eyes. For all that he had been a raging douchebag at times – perhaps still was, come to think of it – he had always been one of the most handsome guys in their school. The Hyuuga genes were truly something else.

"Still as pretty as ever," Ino smirked when she turned around as well.

Neji narrowed his eyes slightly. "Still a knack for annoying people," he shot back silkily.

She gasped in mock affront, resting her hand against her chest. "I'm so sorry for giving you a compliment," she scoffed. "This is the thanks I get after going through all the trouble of organising this reunion?"

"Nobody forced you to, I'm sure," he said dryly. "We could have done without one even."

"Yet you're here," Sakura remarked.

"Not out of my own free will, I can assure you," he sniffed, crossing his arms.

"Ba-chan th-thought it'd be g-good for Neji-kun to – to have a weekend off t-to relax," Hinata offered as explanation.

Ah yes, that would do it. The only person who had any real sway with Neji and could convince him to do things he absolutely did not want to do was his own mother.

"She really shouldn't worry that much," Kiba muttered.

"Already a fulltime workaholic, hm?" Ino commented teasingly.

He glared at her. "I enjoy my work, what's wrong with that?"

"Well, there's enjoying your work and there's being a workaholic," Ino said lightly; as always not backing down from an argument with Neji.

Ino had always been one of the very few not intimidated by Neji. Even Sakura had at times felt intimidated by the man, but she had never felt ashamed about that considering Neji had had that effect on the majority of the students back then. Ino and Hinata had been one of the very few immune to that and Hinata didn't even count in that regard, considering she was his cousin.

"Who's a workaholic?" another male voice piped up, tinged with tiredness this time.

"You definitely aren't," Ino snorted, crossing her arms underneath her breasts.

"Shikamaru, my man, you actually showed up," Kiba grinned.

Shikamaru rubbed the back of his head; his dark hair as always pulled back in a ponytail. "My girlfriend practically kicked me out of the house and forced me to attend this," he admitted without an ounce of shame.

"You have a girlfriend?" Sakura questioned surprised.

Not that Shikamaru was ugly by any means, but just as Neji's temper had been legendary, Shikamaru's laziness had been well-known as well. The guy had spent the majority of his classes more asleep than awake, yet somehow he had always been the first in their year, acing every exam and project. A natural born genius, he had often been called though he himself had always waved away that claim.

With how lazy and uninterested in basically everything he had been during their school years, Sakura had never thought she would see the day when he would actually have a girlfriend. How on earth had he managed to do that?

"I told you, you wouldn't get away with hiding that invitation," Neji informed him ruthlessly. "You should have known she would make you attend this."

"Wait, you know his girlfriend?" Ino asked fascinated.

"We're colleagues and he always has lunch with her on Friday; of course I know her," Neji scoffed.

"How did you two meet?" Sakura asked, becoming curious about the woman who had convinced Shikamaru of all men to actually start dating somebody. She had to be a force to be reckoned with, no doubt.

"I never thought I would see everybody back." Tenten popped up out of nowhere.

She had barely changed since Sakura had last seen her during their graduation. She still wore her dark brown hair in two buns, still didn't wear any kind of makeup but she had exchanged the cargo trousers for slim fitting jeans at one point.

"Took me a lot of puzzling but I did manage to track everybody down," Ino said smugly.

Sakura looked around, spotting Rock Lee – still wearing a green jumpsuit, oh god – animatedly talking with Chouji, who clearly hadn't lost any weight though he appeared more muscled now than simply fat. Shino was listening to something Sai was telling him and Tayuya was snickering, nudging Kimimaro's arm. Karin puffed up her cheeks before punching Suigetsu in his shoulder, but that wasn't anything new by now, while Jugo appeared to be acting as some kind of mediator between them. Same old, same old.

"Looks like everybody is here," she announced after another quick check of the entrance hall. It was becoming quite packed here; the sooner everybody was shown to their respective room, the better. The suitcases and bags were taking up quite a bit of space.

"A-are you sure?" Hinata asked uncertainly, looking around as well while her hand tightened around Kiba's. "I – I don't think I – I see N-Naruto-kun any-anywhere."

Sakura snorted, ignoring Shikamaru's raised eyebrow. "I know you come from good money, Hinata-chan, and that might have muddled your memory a bit, but Uzumaki doesn't exactly have - "

"Sorry, I'm late! Traffic was damn horrendous, holy shit!"

Out of seemingly nowhere, Uzumaki showed up, giving them all a bright grin. Sakura blinked, feeling incredibly thrown off guard because the Uzumaki standing in front of them? He wasn't exactly the boy she remembered from their school years. His blond hair was still as unruly as ever, but it was a stylish kind of messy now, as if a hairdresser had got their hands on him and deemed him their personal project. Gone were his worn out and rather ratty looking clothes. Instead he was dressed in a light blue shirt and slim light coloured jeans which were slightly torn around the knees, coupled with brand new sneakers – all of which Sakura instantly recognised as belonging to two of the most expensive brands available in Japan. Even his travelling bag was of an expensive brand, what the fuck?

What the hell was going on here? There was no way Uzumaki – Poor Uzumaki, Uzumaki forever dressed in hand me downs – had actually shown up here in a fancy resort, wearing clothes he shouldn't be able to afford even if he worked a lifetime.

"Should have kept a closer eye on the public transport, dude," Kiba snickered, though he was eyeing Uzumaki's clothes with a bit of confusion as well.

"What public transport?" Uzumaki asked puzzled. "I got here on my bike, idiot."

"A bicycle?" Ino asked bemused.

He blinked, staring at her as if she had asked an incomprehensible question. "No, my motorcycle, of course. Using a bicycle would have taken too long from where I live," he replied.

He had a motorbike of his own?

"You got your own bike?" Tenten asked interested. "Bought or rented one?"

"It's a bought one, can you even rent motorcycles to start with?" Uzumaki inquired confused.

Expensive clothes, expensive bag, a motorcycle of his own – who the hell was this person and what had they done with the real Uzumaki?

"There's no way he actually owns those clothes," Sakura muttered in disbelief as Uzumaki bounded around, greeting everybody enthusiastically as if they had been close friends from the start.

"He couldn't have rented them; that would be expensive," Ino pointed out.

Which yes, was true, but "Do you seriously believe he actually bought them himself?" Sakura shook her head incredulously. "With what money? If he suddenly had climbed up to the top of any company, surely we would have heard about it?"

"Well, what other explanation is there?" Ino asked before she chuckled, appearing very amused all of a sudden.

"What?" Sakura demanded, wanting to be in on the fun.

"Imagine if he got himself a sugar daddy!" Ino giggled quietly.

As baffled as she had been by Uzumaki's new looks, Ino's joke had Sakura barely muffling her laughter on time.

Yeah, right! As if anyone would want to be Uzumaki's sugar daddy!

AN2: So any interest in a second part? Let me know. Now I'm off to bed, contemplating my life choices once more. (Do I learn from that? Never)

Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.

I hope to see you all back in the next chapter! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!

Cuddles

Melissa

P.S. For more information about my upcoming and posted stories, please visit my profile.