PIVOT!

Thanks for the overwhelming support everyone! I am so glad you've enjoyed and stamped approval for this crossover - here's to a long tale of friendship!

On another note, I do acknowledge that these preliminary chapters are essentially slightly-edited carbon copies of the original 'Friends' episodes. I haven't fully grasped the characters yet, and I'm still tweaking storylines here and there so that I can match the Naruto characters with their respective counterparts. As a token of great appreciation for your patience, here is another chapter!

the one where tenten gets a roommate

The name Sakura Haruno conjures the image of a young girl, high school age, with pink hair that bounces down her shoulder blades and frames her delicate face like flower petals. The girl herself is elegant, rich, refined, with creamy skin that brings out her bright green eyes and soft lips that let out an angel choir when she laughs. The embodiment - the pinnacle - of perfection is Sakura Haruno.

Smart, sweet, sassy Sakura Haruno.

The last time Tenten had seen her old high school friend, she was jumping up and down in her gilded mansion and blushing and beaming at Sai - her then-boyfriend, the oral surgeon - and accepting a rose-gold watch he'd bought her.

About a week later, Tenten lugged three cardboard boxes carrying all her belongings into a small apartment in Brooklyn, hung the framed piece of paper declaring her business degree onto the cleanest wall, and set to work applying for any and every restaurant in the city that had openings for a chef. The irony was not lost on her. She'd done enough studying to make her parents proud for a lifetime, and then it'd been her turn to make herself happy for once. That meant staying away from the toxic, high-achieving environment she lovingly calls family and learning how to stand up on her own two feet.

Thus, four years' worth of late-night recipe-inventing, combined with her need to perfect and polish, hadn't been conducive to her friendship with Sakura, who by then was rumoured to have been engaged to Sai and on her way to marital bliss in Aruba, so they'd drifted apart.

"Sakura?" Tenten stands up from the couch, bewildered. The Harunos are known for being extravagantly rich, with their yacht parties and fancy specialist medical degrees. It is also known that Sakura does not spend much time (if at all) in plebeian restaurants like Ichiraku's when there are more luxuriant places to go - places with almas caviar topped with golden truffles that are served on quaint golden platters.

Sakura whips around when she hears her name being called, effectively sending several droplets of water into Neji's face, to which he sputters and grumpily excuses himself to go to the bathroom. "Tenten!" She shuffles over to their little corner, her white dress leaving behind a substantial trail of rainwater as she moves.

"Oh Kami," Tenten helps lift the veil off her head and places it on the table before quickly introducing Sakura to the sedentary company. The introductions are mostly friendly and enthused, the exception being Sasuke, who awkwardly hovers between hugging his long-time friend and giving her a(n attempt at a) comforting pat on the shoulder, and Neji, who is still absent. "So," Tenten continues when Sakura is wrapped in a warm towel by Ayame, "Are you going to tell us, or are we waiting for four wet bridesmaids?"

Sakura's face falls into her hands. "I'm awful, Tennie, awful. There I was, at the wedding I've been planning for months - crystal chandeliers, glass swans, almas caviar," Sakura lets out a distressed noise while gesturing wildly with her hands, "And in this gorgeous dress. Then my mother comes into the room, just before Pachelbel's Canon's about to start, and she says - 'Sakura, I'd just like you to know that I'm proud of you for making the practical choice.'" Tenten rubs Sakura's back as she nods along, frowning. "And that's when I realised that maybe I don't want the practical choice. Maybe I want someone who cares about me and doesn't spend every second in an office. You know? Someone I love and who loves me back."

Divine being that he is, Neji chooses this moment to return from his bathroom hiatus. He pauses just before the seating area, taking in the sight before him: a sopping wet bride sprawled over his favourite seat on the couch and bawling her eyes out into a towel, his best friend patting said bride's back rhythmically, Lee and Naruto staring at each other awkwardly, and Sasuke Uchiha looking more attentive than he has in months.

He regards himself as someone with a strong sense of intuition, an insatiable thirst to be in the know-how of every 'how' there is - because how else is he currently working himself up the ranks of Hyuga Enterprises? - and hence senses that something will change in their dynamic forever. That something being the bride.

Of course, he also isn't one to so ostentatiously predict the intricate dealings of Fate either, so he responds to his hypothesis by grabbing a chair, sitting down on it, and making his presence known. "Neji Hyuga." Sakura takes his outstretched hand and shakes it delicately.

"Sakura Haruno."

"Neji was my brother's senior and roommate in college - we met a few years back at Sasuke's graduation," Tenten fills in the blanks that Neji refuses to elaborate on. "So, what are you going to do now?"

Sakura blinks owlishly up at Tenten. Her green eyes take on a glint of guilt, mixed in with pleading. "Well, I was hoping I could stay with you for now? I know we've drifted apart but you're the only person I know who won't judge me for running away."

Touched as she is, Tenten also spends a significant deal of time around Neji, so her immediate response is cutting. "Who also wasn't invited to the wedding."

Sakura winces. "I was hoping that wouldn't be a problem."

"It's not," Tenten amends quickly, "I've been looking for a roommate anyway."

"Great!" The pinkette perks up and grabs Tenten's hands with her own, cold ones. "I'll help you out in any way I can until I get back on my feet - that's a promise."

Comfortingly, Tenten finds herself going back to her old ways with Sakura, the ones where idly chatting about inane topics for hours on end are simultaneously therapeutic and entertaining. She misses being around the girl she'd grown up with, even if they'd been a year apart and Sasuke had seen more of Sakura. What's more, she misses having a close, female friend.

Granted, these boys are all her best friends, but it's tiring to not have a girl to talk to when she's feeling particularly cranky a few days per month, or to gossip with while drinking red wine. And look, she drinks wine with Neji on a regular basis, because he's posh and only shares his specially-imported Sauvignon with her, but Neji's body is also 90% corporate jargon and 10% sarcasm whenever he's drunk and venting about his feelings - Tenten can only take so much saltiness!

Besides, if there's anyone who's happier to see Sakura come back into their lives than her, it's Sasuke, who's been harbouring a gargantuan crush on Sakura since junior year of Konoha High. When Sakura walks to the counter to order a bowl of ramen for 'comfort eating', she notices Sasuke's obvious increase in mood and smirks.

Her brother catches the pointed the look she sends his way and returns to his customary scowl. Tenten rolls her eyes, because please, he is that obvious to anyone whose name doesn't start with Sakura and end with Haruno.

She just hopes he'll gather up the guts to ask her out before he realises that girls like Sakura Haruno never wait around forever. When left to their own devices, they'll grow out of the trust-fund glamour coat that's been painted over them by their parents and learn to stand up for themselves. Girls like Sakura don't settle for less.

Tenten doubts that Sasuke will be able to spend the better portion of another decade pining over the same girl without acting on it again. She knows he's hurting from the sting of a rejection that's out of his control, but he's also annoyingly passive when the situation doesn't call for it. Her brother is the absolute worst at dating, even though he's blessed with the good looks of an Uchiha - it's not arrogance, it's confidence! - and genius-level intellect.

Hell, Lee is very much gay and he's still making more progress with Sakura just by walking up to her at the counter and offering his condolences for her cancelled marriage.

What Tenten still isn't in the stages of figuring out, however, is how she is going to cope with Sakura as a roommate. Girl-bonding there will be, she's pretty sure that Sakura has no idea how to do mundane things like laundry and cleaning. Or working, for that matter. Can she even help pay rent if she's not working?

Tenten isn't poor, by any means - she has a rich family who've been hinting at helping her with rent since she moved out, and she works a stable, well-paying job, and even though she's still somewhat underwater with paying off her student debt, her life is comfortable. Her life is sustainable, as long as Neji keeps sharing his wine with her and keeps Naruto away from her fridge when she's away.

She is an efficient, one-woman unit as is, and therein lies her problem (and also the reason why she never keeps a roommate for more than half a year).

Sakura returns with a bowl of ramen and Lee in tow, settling down in her former seat before gracelessly inhaling the entire bowl within five minutes. "What?" she catches the looks of amazement coming from the entire group. Naruto crashes to the ground and kneels prostrate before her.

"Teach me."

-misspandalily