daisies // sasunaru

borage

"07-24-11," Naruto recited his locker combination under his breath, slowly spinning the dial to register the numbers.

Sakura, with her locker already opened, peered closely into her small pink mirror that's magnetically stuck onto the inside of her locker door. She had her eyelids pulled down and a mascara stick held up against the top row of eyelashes. Naruto finally managed to open his locker after two tries and rolled his eyes at Sakura's shameless makeup application.

"I thought you were in a hurry," he remarked, unzipping his jacket.

"I am! Don't you see how quickly I'm going right now?!" she claimed with a pout, pulling back the mascara stick and shoving it back in its tube. Sakura blinked her eyes a couple of times in her reflection to see if her application was to her liking. A sly smirk on her face revealed her satisfaction.

She turned to Naruto with her hands on her hips, raising a plucked eyebrow at his sudden pause. "Um, hello? Take off your jacket."

Naruto removed his gloves and perched them on the top shelf of his locker. He hesitated with his jacket, his hands resting on the open sides of it. There was a reason for this unease. With all the rush of trying to get to school on time, Naruto had completely forgotten about the events of yesterday. Case in point, his freshly cut hair.

Naruto had no trouble cutting all of those dreadful blond locks off in the bathroom, but when it came to exposing that decision in school, all of a sudden it didn't feel like a good idea to him. It felt like a stain. A stain he just spilt all over himself that'll take years to wash out. Taking off this jacket would mean revealing that stain— revealing the fact that Naruto was taking more steps into his transition.

He didn't know if he was ready for that commitment yet.

Oddly enough, his willingness didn't matter. Sakura, blind to how troubled Naruto was, stripped him of the puffy red jacket with ease. Off came the hood that was shielding his self-inflicted stain, just like that. Naruto couldn't have been more startled if Sakura had cut the hair herself.

Immediately, a gasp came out of Sakura at the sight of her best friend's new look. It was like he was standing in front of her naked. Where did all his hair go? Those gorgeous spiky strands that fell to his abdomen like some sort of real-life Rapunzel were now strangely absent. Instead, his neck was exposed to her, along with his perfectly shaped jawline. He had a heart-shaped head, of course.

Despite being such a drastic change, one that he'll inevitably receive backlash for, Sakura still felt a pang of jealousy shoot through her chest. For a brief moment, she felt envious of Naruto's sheer nerve to hack off all his hair like that. Sakura would never possess the guts to make such a drastic change to herself, especially one that will get a lot of heads turning. No. How was it that Naruto was still so far ahead of her? Where did he draw all that endless confidence from?

"Sakura!" Naruto blurted, snapping the girl out of her daze. He pushed her hands away from his jacket and took it off himself, hanging it on his locker. Naruto was upset that she exposed him so carelessly, but slightly relieved, at that. It's not like he could hide the stain forever. She ripped the bandaid off for him.

"What have you done to your hair?!" Sakura screeched, prompting many people to turn their heads in the pair's direction. Naruto shrank with all those judging looks pinning him to his locker. He swallowed deeply and a blush scattered on his whiskered cheeks.

"What does it look like? I-I just cut it." Naruto tried to deliver that reply casually, but his voice shook with nervousness. All those looks were torching his resolution by the second.

"But why?!" Sakura demanded.

"B-Because I felt like it!" Naruto stuttered back, slamming his locker shut. The loud noise of the metal clanging against itself only added to the stares he was given. Naruto could feel cold sweat rolling down his neck and soaking his school uniform. He nibbled on his bottom lip and swept past his best friend, his eyes glued to the ground.