One
‘—to Sakura? Hello?’ Naruto’s hand snapped the rosette out of her trance as he frantically waved in front of her face. ‘Good morning, Sa-chan!’ He grinned at her, and the girl rolled his eyes in a fond manner.
‘I wasn’t asleep, Na-chan,’ Sakura mumbled. Naruto frowned, albeit briefly, at her volume. It seemed Sakura only got quieter with every passing day.
‘You were making that face,’ Naruto huffed.
‘What face?’ Sakura raised an eyebrow at the blonde
‘That face that— that you make when you’re… Y’know!’ Naruto knit his eyebrows together in mild frustration. ‘Dreaming but you’re like… awake.’
‘Daydreaming?’ Sakura suggested quietly, and the corners of her mouth tugged up into a brief smile before it morphed into a petulant pout as she huffed, ‘I wasn’t daydreaming.’
‘You were, dattebayo!’ Naruto insisted. ‘You had that face!’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ Sakura huffed once more. ‘Sensei’s gonna tell us our teams today.’
Naruto didn’t comment on the change of topic, (though it was highly plausible that he didn’t realise it) he instead into a spout of enthusiasm as he began to ramble. Sakura listened to her best friend with a fond smile, and suddenly, she felt so thankful.
Thankful for the sunshine boy that kept her company, thankful for the blonde child who’d give her a grin to rival the sun’s whenever she felt the world got too dark for her. She couldn’t help the adoration that swelled up in her chest, Sakura loved him — she loved Naruto, although not romantically, she loved him and adored him like a sunflower. Sunflowers adored the sun, the way Sakura adored Naruto. He made her shoulders feel lighter, and her smiles more genuine. She no longer cared about the bruises underneath her qipao, or the whispers that trailed after her — when he was with her, Sakura didn’t even bother to notice the looks sent their way, too preoccupied with being happy.
‘Sa-chan, you’re not paying attention,’ Naruto suddenly whined. ‘You’re duh-d-aye-dreaming again, dattebayo!’
‘Sorry, Na-chan,’ she gave him an apologetic grin.
‘What were you even thinking about?’
‘You,’ she answered honestly, a whisper that was loud and clear to her best friend’s ears. ‘Thanks for being my friend, Na-chan.’
A shade of cherry dust settled on Naruto’s cheeks and his eyes glistened like crystals before his lips blossomed into the most beautiful, bright grin she’d ever seen.
‘I should be thanking you, y’know?’ He spoke. ‘You’re the best-est friend ever, dattebayo!’ He paused, then mused, ‘I wouldn’t know what to do without you.’
Sakura's mind reeled back to a long-ago memory.
‘Oh, look, it’s pinky.’ Ami giggled. ‘Aw, you’re all alone today, aren’t you? Where’s that blonde freak you hang out with?’
Sakura levelled her classmate with a glare at the implication that Naruto was a freak. She said as much.
‘Oh! So, she can speak, huh?’ Someone in the group, a no-name civilian girl who Sakura doubted would make it in the Academy (let alone the society of shinobi), piped up.
‘Guess so,’ Ami’s malicious grin grew sharp as she tugged Sakura’s hair. Sakura’s eyes, though shielded by her bangs, shone with resigned resentment as the petty girl began to push her around.
The rest of the day hadn’t gone much better. Without Naruto, Sakura felt incredibly lonely, and she (quite impossibly) grew more silent with each second that passed. The rosette missed her best friend, she missed his boisterous laughter and his sunny grin. She missed him.
It hadn’t helped that the two had broken into an argument the last time they had met. Sakura had to go on a trip to Kirigakure with her mother (something about culture and “going back to one’s roots"), and she was to leave Naruto behind (briefly). Their argument hadn’t been about that — it was about something stupid that Sakura couldn’t even remember. She only remembered that she had stormed off, and realised all too late she had left without much of a warning.
Guilt ate away at her, and two minutes before break would end and classes would resume — Sakura managed to sneak out. She ran down alleyways and weaved in between the crowds in the marketplace, before she made it to the red-light district and then eventually, to the rickety apartment building that her best friend lived in.
(Naruto wept in her arms when he saw her.)
(‘I-I t-thought y-you were… you were t-tired of me,’ he wailed. ‘I t-thought yo-you were gone, I thought you hated me!’)
(‘I could never hate you, Na-chan,’ Sakura’s own bottom-lip wobbled as she said those words. ‘I’m sorry, Ma wanted to take me to Kiri and you couldn’t come,’ she explained. ‘I got mad after we fought, a-and I couldn’t tell you because I was mad, y’know? I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Don’t cry. I’m sorry.’)
(‘Was Kiri nice?’ Naruto asked after they had calmed down.)
(‘I guess,’ she shrugged. ‘All I thought about was how you weren’t there. I brought you souvenirs but you weren’t in school.’)
(‘...I’m sick,’ he admitted. ‘Or I was. I’m okay now, dattebayo! I just didn’t want to be in school without you.’)
(‘Me neither,’ Sakura smiled.)
‘Me neither,’ she repeated those words, her voice as gentle as her smile.
(Something in Sakura’s heart twisted in a good way when Naruto gave her a sunny smile, and something else in her head began to ramble — my boy, my boy, mine to protect.)
‘Team Seven,’ Iruka announced. Sakura sharply observed the subtle wince of her teacher as he glanced at the papers in his hands. ‘Uzumaki Naruto,’ the blonde that sat next to her waited with bated breath, quiet to an abnormal degree. ‘Haruno Sakura–’
‘HELL YEAH!’ Naruto burst out in glee, and Sakura’s grin was impossibly wide. (It was the happiest she’d ever been, and that was evident to her peers.)
Iruka paused for a second, and slowly spoke the next name as if it almost pained him.
‘ —Uchiha Sasuke.’ The moment that the edge-lord's name left Iruka’s mouth, the classroom burst into chaos. The mentioned boy’s fanclub (whose leader was admittedly very pretty) began to loudly protest, and Naruto joined in. Sakura’s smile fell off of her place as she tried to process this information. Iruka, however, spoke over the chaos. ‘Your jounin-sensei is Hatake Kakashi. Good luck – now, Team 8.’
Sakura tuned him out, after that.
This is a recipe for disaster.