A/N: Here's chapter 3! I hope you enjoy!
-Chapter 3-
Great. Just my luck.
Sakura angrily wrote in her journal as she sat up in a patient's bed, the dull white sheets wrinkling under her fisted hand.
Not only was her 'teammate' Sasuke a jerk, but he was a snide jerk!
He'd done nothing but make her first day miserable, and somehow she sensed that this was only the beginning.
- Several hours earlier -
"Okay, my cute genin. As our first meeting as a team, we will be doing icebreakers." Kakashi put the book away in his pocket and gazed at the preteens. "So? Anyone want to volunteer themselves?"
"How about you first, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked.
"Me?" He shrugged, tapping his finger against his chin in thought. "Well, I am Hatake Kakashi. Kakashi-sensei to you. I have no intentions of telling you my likes and dislikes. As for my dream... nope, can't tell you that either. I have few hobbies."
"Whaaaat? Lame!" Naruto cried.
"That's all you get out of me." Kakashi seemed amused as he turned to Sakura. "How about you, Sakura?"
"Well, er..." She suddenly felt a pang of nervousness shoot through her at all three males' attention on her at once. "My name is Haruno Sakura. I'm twelve, and I like gaining knowledge, going to the library, and going shopping with Ino. I dislike pompous jerkwads-" cue a well-timed glare towards Sasuke- "and people who can't take me seriously. My dream is to become Konoha's greatest doctor, and my hobbies are reading, hanging out with friends, and studying."
"Good introduction." Kakashi hummed in thought. "Naruto?"
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, I'm eleven, and I'm gonna become the next mayor of Konoha!" The blond exclaimed with a fist-pump. "I like playing pranks, Sakura-chan, and ramen! I dislike people like Sasuke-teme and people who give up. My hobbies include pranking, eating ramen, and training!"
"Very... spirited of you." A sweatdrop slowly trickled down their teacher's forehead. "And you, Sasuke?"
"Hmph. I'm Uchiha Sasuke, eleven, heir of Uchiha Corp. My likes are none of your business. I dislike annoying people, high expectations, and comparing people. My ultimate goal is to surpass my brother and become the best leader for our business that I can."
"Ooookay..." Kakashi sighed. "Diverse crowd. Can't quite say I love it."
"Uwaaa- I'm older than them?" Sakura screeched in her mind. "How is that even possible?!"
"So what're we gonna do now, sensei?" Naruto asked, a mischievous gleam in his eye.
"First, we break for lunch. Second, we meet back here in this exact spot for a team building exercise." Their teacher pulled out that orange book again and dismissed them.
Sasuke immediately stalked off, leaving his other two teammates together.
"So, liking it here, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.
"I admit, it's not bad for some preteen ninja program," she observed. "Although I could definitely do without a prick for a teammate and about half the female population looking at me like they want to kill me and bury my body at the bottom of the lake."
Naruto laughed boisterously, slapping her on the back. "Aw c'mon, it can't be that bad!"
She stuck out her thumb behind her with a deadpan expression. The blond peeked behind her shoulder to see at least five female campers glaring heatedly at her.
"Eheheheh... well, maybe it's not that bad?" He offered with nervous laughter.
"No, it's as bad as you think." She shook her head.
"Well, the least we can do is go to lunch." He glanced quickly down at her hand and then at the ground, a light blush dusting his cheeks. "Could... could I sit with you?"
"Sure, why not?" She shrugged and gave him a bright smile. "C'mon, I know Ino's gonna chew my head off for being late."
-
"Forehead girl! Where the heck have you been?" Ino's enraged exclamation made her sigh as she sat down.
"I'm sorry, Ino, but I got caught up in an icebreaker lesson with Kakashi-sensei." She rolled her eyes.
"You mean the one who reads porn all the time?" Tenten winced.
"Yeah, and not just any porn. I always see him with Jiraiya-sensei's erotic I-can't-even-call-them-novels." The girls at the table shivered.
"Ehh? What's wrong with Jiraiya-sensei?" Naruto asked cluelessly.
"Baka!" Sakura slapped him upside the head with a frown. "Jiraiya-sensei is the most perverted teacher we know! We should at least be grateful that Namikaze-sama didn't put him in charge of Sex Ed."
"Yeah," Ino trailed off as she saw people entering the dining hall. "Hey, look, it's Sasuke-kun."
"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura snorted, resting her chin in her palm. "Geez, Ino, way to swoon over a man you don't even have to live with."
"Oho, I feel so bad for you!" Tenten giggled, taking another bite of her rice. "He's handsome, sure, but he's got an attitude that's bigger than Neji's ego!"
"Neji? Who's that?"
"Oh, Neji Hyuuga is the older cousin of Hinata." Ino pointed her out with her chopsticks. From where Sakura was, she could only see the back of her head. She was a tiny-looking girl with bobbed black hair that shone navy in the hall lights.
"She looks cute," the pinkette observed. "She's one of the rich kids, isn't she?"
"Yeah, everyone loves Hinata-chan!" Naruto nodded vigorously. "Well, maybe not everyone, per se, but she's still well-liked!"
"You sound familiar with her." Sakura turned to him with a cheesy grin. "Got a crush, perhaps?"
"What? No." Naruto frowned. "There's only one person I like here, but..."
"Hm." Tenten interrupted their discussion and groaned. "Speaking of Hyuugas..."
The table looked toward the doors, where a somewhat-taller boy with long brown hair held in a ponytail strode in. His face was set in a serious expression, his narrowed pearl-white eyes scanning the dining hall.
Sakura continued to eat her food, blissfully unaware of Ino's and Tenten's hushed discussion.
A couple of minutes later, when she'd drank the last of her - surprisingly amazing - tea, she stood from the table. "I'm gonna go take a shower," she announced to her friends.
Naruto gave her a grin. "See you later, Sakura-chan!"
Ino smiled and stood. "I think I'll go with you."
Tenten glanced between them warily.
Sakura rose an eyebrow, but accompanied the pretty blonde to the tray station.
One second, she was happily chatting with her about training, when suddenly she felt her foot snag against something and she was sent tumbling forward, her tray flying out of her hands.
Ino's eyes widened and she sat her tray down, catching Sakura in mid-air with her leg while grabbing the tray.
Sakura gasped, the wind knocked out of her as Ino's leg came into vision. Then everything went black.
-
The pinkette felt someone shaking her shoulders and slowly her eyes opened, before painfully shutting again as she tried to breathe.
"Ino," she rasped once she opened her eyes again, "what happened?"
"You blacked out for ten minutes after you tripped," she replied with a concerned frown. "Are you alright?"
"I feel like my lungs are collapsing, but other than that, I'm fine." She struggled to sit up before Ino pushed her back down.
"Stop, Saku. You need to rest." The blonde's determined blue eyes bore into her green ones. "Kakashi-sensei was notified, and he gave permission for you to take the rest of the afternoon off."
"But- but I can't!" She protested weakly. "This is the first day of camp! I can't just lay in bed while everyone else is out doing things!"
"Sakura."
Ino's voice shut her up and she instead sighed, looking out the window next to her bed.
"Fine, I guess you're right," she resigned herself to staring up at the ceiling.
"Good." Ino smiled again, patting her shoulder.
"By the way, how did I trip?" She questioned.
"Some Sasuke admirers tripped you," Ino replied with a disgusted look. "Tenten and I saw them talking about it, so we tried to help you. Naruto was the one who brought you to the nurse's station."
"Naruto did that?" She was surprised for a moment, before she realized. "Oh."
"Boy with a crush? Totally." The blonde planted a hand on her hip, blowing her bangs away from her face. "You are screwed."
"Whaddya mean?" She rose an eyebrow. "It's just Naruto, right?"
"Well..." She looked left and right before leaning in to Sakura's face, whispering, "Apparently, word's getting out that Hinata-chan has a crush on him. A persistent one."
"Oh dammit," Sakura's eyes screwed shut in annoyance. "Why me? Why today?"
"Worse yet, about the trip, Sasuke-kun wasn't even looking when it happened." Ino sighed. "He happened to look over just as you fell, and so he was commenting on how clumsy you were with his friends."
"Oh, that rich boy can go to hell," she spat. "No offense, Ino."
"None taken... kind of." She rubbed the back of her neck. "I don't know what to do."
"Don't worry about me, just get back to your team," the pinkette began wheezing and held a hand up when Ino grew alert. "Asuma-sensei's probably wondering about what's taking you."
"I know, but-" Ino bit her lip.
"Just go!" She narrowed her eyes. "Not that I hate your company, but you shouldn't worry. I'll be fine. In fact, I'll probably be at dinner."
The blonde frowned, looking between her and the window, where she could see other campers seemingly playing a game of tag.
"Saku-chan, I..." She sighed heavily, grabbing her best friend's hand. "Please don't think I'm abandoning you."
"I don't." She grinned weakly, giving her a thumbs-up with her other hand. "Just go. Have fun. And if you see Naruto, tell him I'm fine."
"I will." Ino's smile came back to her face and she gently hugged her, mindful of her chest. "If you're not at dinner, I'll come back and visit."
"Sounds good to me."
- Present Time-
So not only had he not watched his own admirers trip her and cause her to get injured, but he also thought she was a clumsy oaf that couldn't walk two steps without tripping over her own two feet? The nerve!
She sighed again, careful not to aggravate her lungs as she put her journal away. It was way after dinner now, and when Ino had visited she brought a couple of the books the pinkette had brought, claiming that she was bound to be 'bored to literal death'. As much as she exaggerated, Sakura loved her friend.
Naruto had visited about twenty minutes ago, claiming that he would gladly beat some sense into Sasuke. Of course, although she disliked him with a burning passion, Sakura felt that the boy didn't need someone bashing his head in for what some girls did.
Of course, when she voiced this opinion, Naruto didn't fully get it. Nevertheless, he promised to leave him alone - "Except if he starts spewing stuff about me. Then kick him in the family business" - and visit her the next morning.
Lights out had been only moments ago, and so she turned off the desk light and snuggled into the surprisingly comfy spare bed.
Placing the journal under her pillow, she closed her eyes. "Why me?"
-End Chapter 3-
A/N: Hey, guys! Thanks for reading! Please tell me how I did, and I'll see you later!