"There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship."
-Thomas Aquinas
=
Third Person's POV:
Sakura had just barely made it to class on time, she had run as hard and as fast as she could and luckily, she made it in the nick of time. Her teacher, Iruka-sensei, had spared her a questioning glance when she burst into the room panting and at a loss for breath but he dismissed it anyway.
She could see some resentful looks some of her classmates sent towards her when she finally did stop panting, because after all, the training grounds was a long ways from here, but the thing in particular that caught her attention was Naruto's megawatt smile that was directed at her. He was waving at her from his seat.
She smiled back at him and made her way over to the desk. She didn't notice the leg that suddenly popped out in front of her until she ran right into it.
She wasn't quick enough to put her hands out in time. Her head hit her head on the step above the one she was on then her body fell on top of her arms. Her arms, which were covered in bruises, sent tingles of pain about her body. It made the fall hurt more than it normally would.
Sakura bit her lip to keep herself from crying as her classmates started to laugh and call her names.
She could feel someone pick her up off the floor and tried not to wince when a large hand gripped her bruised arm.
"Are you okay Sakura?" A voice asked.
Sakura looked up to her right and stared at the scar that sat on top of Iruka sensei's nose.
"Is Sakura-chan okay?!" She heard in the background.
She smiled slightly, she knew that was Naruto.
"I'm okay," she told them.
Iruka set her on her feet, she stumbled slightly, she felt a little dizzy.
"You might have a bruise on your head later on but you'll be fine," The brown-haired chunnin told her.
As a child as young as Sakura was, Iruka knew that her skull wasn't fully developed so the fall would effect her more then someone older.
She nodded and wobbled over to a concern looking Naruto who looked on the brink of yelling. She flashed him a smile in greeting. The blonde exploded a second after.
"You bastards! What'd you do that for?!" Naruto shouted, his blue eyes narrowed into a glare as her stared at the two boys who tripped her.
The boys stopped laughing and looked at Naruto with something akin to fear in their eyes.
"NARUTO! WHERE DID YOU LEARN THAT WORD?!" Iruka exclaimed loudly.
"Uh..." The blonde started to sweat nervously.
Sakura, for the first time since yesterday, laughed at the expression on Naruto's face.
Naruto decided whatever punishment Iruka would give him was worth it.
=
At lunch, she and Naruto were sitting under a big oak tree with a swing hanging from it. They talked as they enjoyed the comfort of the shade, the blonde talked amiably about his latest visit to Ichiraku ramen.
Naruto seemed to like ramen a lot.
"My absolute favourite flavour has to be pork! Or is it beef? What bout chicken? And there's miso too.... UGH! They're all just so good! I can't decide!" He shouted, his hands gripping her spky hair.
He liked it a whole lot.
Sakura giggled.
"What about you Sakura-chan? Which one's your favourite?" He asked her, his legs swinging back and forth in the air.
She thought about the last time she had ramen, it was some time last year and it had been pork. Her grandma had made it for her when her and her parents had gone for a visit. She loved it when they went to go visit her, her parents treated her so much better when grandma was around.
"I guess pork, but I've never really tried the others before." Came her answer.
Naruto stopped swinging, "REALLY?! YOU'VE ONLY EVER HAD ONE TYPE OF RAMEN IN YOUR LIFE?!" he shouted.
Sakura scratched the back of her head and smiled sheepishly.
He jumped off the swing,"THIS WILL NOT STAND! YOU'RE GONNA TRY EVERY KIND OF RAMEN THERE IS! IF MY NAMES NOT NARUTO UZUMAKI DATTEBOYO!"
The pinkette laughed. It started out small but then turned into full blown peals of laughter.
"Huh? Sakura-chan? Why are you laughing? HEY! What's so funny? C'mon!"
Sakura felt that only Naruto would go so far for ramen.
"WHAT IS SO FUNNY?!"
=
When they returned back to class, Naruto all but glared at anyone who so much as looked at them. It made her feel special, like one of the princesses in those fairy-tale books Sakura liked to read in her spare time.
They sat the three-man desk in front of a boy with auburn hair that spiked to the left and to the right who seemed rather nervous from Sakura's point of view.
Naruto sat in the aisle seat while she sat in the middle as he turned and started talking about how he was really excited to learn 'really cool ninja moves!' so that everyone would 'bow down to his awesomeness!'
Sakura thought it was cool to have a dream like that, as unique as it was.
The boy in front them was turning his head around, as if looking for something. At some point he turned around fully and their eyes met. Sakura saw the red swirls on his plump cheeks. He quickly looked away.
She looked about the classroom, from the lone girl with the short violet hair who jumped as a paper plane flew past her head to the boy with red triangle on his face who was talking to someone under the table.
It took her a while to notice that someone was missing.
Looking at the desk at the very back of the class, it was completely vacant. But she knew for a fact that someone sat in the window seat of that desk.
'Where was Sasuke?'
It was then that Iruka joined them in class and settled everyone down. He started the class with a lecture on the second hokage.
But he never said anything about Sasuke.
Sakura thought about asking Naruto where he was, but chose against it. Naruto saw Sasuke as a rival, and hated all the attention he seemed to get while others neglected him in favour of Sasuke. She thought that if she- Naruto's best and only friend- were to ask about his rival, to his face, Naruto would definitely not appreciate it.
But she was still worried about Sasuke.
'He's probably just sick, he'll be here tomorrow.'
=
When Sakura's mom grabbed her wrist and said they were going shopping, Sakura didn't quite know exactly how to feel about that. Because for starters, the grip was so tight she wondered how long it would take her hand to go purple from the lack of blood flow.
The other being that her mom was willingly spending time with her.
Her heart warmed at the thought that maybe she had been right all this time.
'She does love me!'
Her mother held her hand like the other mom's did with their children as they walked about the market place and suddenly Sakura felt like skipping. The smile on her face could have rivaled the sun.
They stopped by a vendor selling tomatoes and her mother turned to her and said probably the nicest thing ever.
"Sakura sweetie, can you help me pick some tomatoes?"
She called her by her name. She called her Sakura, the pinkette thought about how foreign it was to hear it coming it out of her mother's mouth. And not only did she call her by her name, her mom called her sweetie too!
On top of all that, she was allowed to help her pick tomatoes!
This might have been the greatest day in her life.
Sakura brighter and nodded her head enthusiastically, she didn't think she could muster the ability to speak. She was just way too happy.
The pinkette slipped her hand out of her mother's and all but ran around the cart. The sound of her mother laughing along with the vendor nearly made her trip.
Sakura came back with four tomatoes and presented them to her mother with pride, because these were the best ones she could find and therefore they had to be the best ones in the entire cart.
The blue eyes of her mother looked over them as she tapped her chin in thought.
"I think these are perfect! Good job honey!" Her mother told her with a smile, happy and proud smile.
Sakura beamed at the praise, beamed at the smile her mother gave her.
Her mother paid for the tomatoes and carried the bag in her left hand as she grabbed Sakura's again. As her mom bid the vendor a farewell Sakura waved good bye with an energy that would have made Naruto look glum.
"Scram kid! You're not welcome here!"
Sakura snapped her head over to the commotion and nearly gawked at it.
A man selling coloured masks was yelling at a boy who laying on the ground, liked he'd been pushed.
It only took her a second to recognize the blond hair and whisker marks and who they belonged to. The vendor threw a white and red mask right into his face, yelling harsh things at him.
'Why was that man hurting Naruto?'
Sakura tried to stir herself over to the chaos but a grip on her wrist stopped her. She looked up and her mom was glaring down at her with her blue eyes that looked as cold as ice. Sakura felt herself shrink into herself.
"Don't think just because I'm being nice to you changes anything brat, now come on!" Her mother whispered harshly at her, yanking her arm roughly in the opposite direction.
"Now sweetie, I told you that boy was nothing but trouble!" Her mother spoke loudly for those nearby to hear.
The pinkette was too confused to say or do anything- or maybe she was too afraid. Sakura knew those eyes, she them well. She saw them every night when she got home and saw them in every dream.
She didn't know how, but Sakura looked back behind her as her mother pulled her way. And as people began to surround him, she could his blue eyes and felt something deep inside her. His eyes...
She didn't think she ever saw something so...sad.
She watched the boy with swirls on his cheeks and the boy who always slept during lessons looked on Naruto ran away with the mask in his hands.
=
Walking into the classroom the next, Sakura looked over to her regular seat and was disappointed that Naruto wasn't sitting there waiting for her already.
She fingered the straps of the plastic grocery bad she held in her hands, she spent a most of night and a good portion of her morning working on it.
She started to walk up to the steps towards her desk when all of a sudden someone grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her back.
"Hey guys look! It's the freak!" Someone yelled behind her.
Sakura stumbled a bit, someone still held her hair. She looked down at the bag in her hands, she didn't want to do this right now. There was another pull and Sakura felt a wetness build up in her eyes.
"Please..." She asked, she just wanted to go to her desk. But the group of kids that came to swarm her didn't seem to care.
"Look she's crying!"
"Crybaby!"
"What 'cha got there crybaby?" The boy with brown hair called out as he pointed to the bag in her hands.
Sakura pulled the bag close to her chest in an attempt to keep away from them, she gripped the white plastic tightly in her hands.
"Didn't your parents ever tell you that keeping things to yourself is rude?" Said a girl snarkily, her hands on her hips.
Someone shoved her from behind and Sakura was sent tumbling to the floor, the bag slipped through her fingers. She watched it fall along with her, a feeling of disappointment and frustration filled. Sakura hit the floor first, her eyes closing as she made contact with the wooden floor.
There was a smashing sound and something hot and wet sprayed all over her.
She looked up from the ground and stared at the deflated white grocery bag and the pool of broth that it rested in.
Sakura didn't hear her as classmates they walked away talking about something- maybe her, maybe something else.
She picked herself up and crawled over to it. Sakura grabbed the bag and moved it aside, she stared at the spilt noodles and pieces of pork that was littered around the broken pieces of porcelain.
"Sakura-chan?"
She turned around and there Naruto was, she felt the sudden so disappointed because she couldn't give him her gift.
"Hey Sakura-chan why are on the ground?" He asked as he crouched down beside her.
Sakura didn't say anything she just looked back at the mess of broth and broken shards. He followed her gaze and became confused until she began to speak.
"I... My mom and I were at the market and I saw you at the store selling masks. Mother said to stay away and I... felt bad so I tried to make you ramen because I though it would cheer you up. But..."
She sniffled, her green eyes sparling like the sun hitting the water. Naruto seemed to be too lost in his thoughts to take notice.
"You... You made me ramen?" He asked, suddenly his voice sounding far out.
She nodded her head, And then he tackled her into a hug.
"Thank you Sakura-chan, I... I've never had a friend like you!" He said, his voice sounding raspy.
And as Iruka walked into class and called everyone to order, Sakura though to herself that this was what having a friend was like.
'A friend...'
She never thought she would ever have one of those.
__________________________
Here you go guys! An update as requested! Now be thankful guys, this took a lot out of me to do. I had basically no ideas but after time, it just started getting even more filled out. But I'm glad I
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Number of words: 2369