Sakura's eyes fluttered open, she found herself staring at a brown ceiling. She paused for a moment, it took a couple seconds for her to remember that she had spent the night Choji's home. Or rather, the Akimichi compound.
The pinkette attempted to get up, but found herself unable to. She looked down to stray limbs and a mop of brown hair over top of her. Sakura smiled at the sleeping boy that was curled up against the side of her stomach, his arm and leg strewn carelessly across her legs. Choji's swirled cheeks were smushed against the bed and her side, making his face look absolutely hilarious.
Sakura turned to the other appendage that pinned her to the bed, she followed it all the way to the sleeping form of her other bestfriend, Shikamaru. He was turned away from her, so she could only stare at the back of his head.
She then suddenly realized she could not feel her right arm. She tried to move it but the weight on top of it wouldn't budge. She moved her gaze from Shikamaru's head to what it had been resting on. Her right arm.
Sakura sighed, she wouldn't be able to get up until both Choji and Shikamaru wake up. And they are very heavy sleepers, especially after a meal like they had had the previous night.
'Next time, we're sleeping in separate beds,'
"Pork...beef...chicken...,"
She sighed once again, a smile spreading across her face.
"Oh Choji," she giggled quietly.
The part of her that was tempted to wake them up soon vanished.
'They seem so peaceful...'
Maybe she could fall back to sleep and-
"CHOJI WAKE UP ITS BREAKFAST TIME!"
And the spell was broken.
Choji shot right up, his head nearly ramming right into hers and his eyes wide. He scrambled out of quickly bed, faster than she had ever seen him mov before.
And before she knew it, he was already have down the hall.
And Shikamaru, well, he jumped right out of the bed. He tumbled off and landed on the ground with a pained groan.
Sakura, being the only one left in the bed, laughed.
The Nara boy grumbled something about food and so called friends as he attempted to get back on his feet.
=
Breakfast was as expected but at the same time a total surprise.
The table was once again filled with food, but they were all of the morning delicacy variety.
There were mountains of pancakes and waffles that were stacked up so high that it made Sakura question how tall the ceiling really was. There were plates filled with sausages and bacon, slices of ham with yellow stuff on it that she later learned was pemeal bacon. The bottle of brown liquid- maple syrup- sat in the middle of the table and the amber colour practically glistened in the light that poured through the window.
A pitcher of orange juice was presented to them at the table, she assumed that's what the small glass next to her water glass was for.
There were eggs of different variety, scrambled, over easy, over hard, medium, sunny-side up and she spotted a small tray with what she believed was hard boiled eggs.
It was yet again another feast and Sakura couldn't help but wonder, 'Do they Akamichi eat like this everyday?'
She turned to Choji who was devouring a plate of breakfast sausage and Shikamaru who was knee deep in the porky spray that came from the Akimichi's mouth, his nose bunched up and his eyes shut. A piece of sausage trickled down his cheek like a tear. The Nara sighed, like he was too used to this to even be annoyed.
Sakura laughed, catching his attention.
"Oi, you think this is funny?" He called out in his normal drawl as he turned his head toward her.
She tried to hide her smile, "No," she replied.
Another piece of meat flew into his face, more laughter spilled from her mouth.
"I-I'm sorry," she said between her laughs, "It's just-"
Her eyes widened when a small morsel of scrambled egg splattered on her face.
Shikamaru laughed, his face looking guilty as ever.
"You're right, it is funny." He said, his face looking like the cat that swallowed the canary.
She didn't do anything for a moment, because this was Shikamaru they were talking about. Shikamaru was undoubtedly the most laziest person she had ever met. And he was the one throwing food at her?
A smile came to her face, she snagged a waffle from the platter in front of her and chucked it at his face. In retaliation he threw a strip of bacon from his plate at her, it landed right in her hair.
A mini food war soon ensued on their side of the table. After a while, Choji finally seemed to stop eating his helping of pancakes and took notice to it. The look on his face was something crossed between shock and disbelief.
"GUYS STOP!" he shouted.
Freezing in place, Sakura and Shikamaru slowly turned towards him. In Shikamaru's hand, which was paused mid throw, was a hand full of scramble eggs. Maple syrup covered his shirt and toast crumbs were littered all over him. Sakura was reaching for the sausage tray to reload, orange juice was splattered on her left arm and dripped onto the chair.
He leveled them with an unreadable stare.
"You think can start a food fight in the Akimichi household and win? You are SADLY MISTAKEN!"
Faster than lightning Choji reached across the table and started throwing any and every piece of food on the table at his two friends. Shikamaru and Sakura spluttered at the unexpected attack and tried to cover themselves from the flying pieces of their breakfast. It didn't take them long to return the fire.
Choza and his wife stood in the doorway of the kitchen and smiled at the warzone turned dinning table. Choji's mom snapped a picture with her camera.
=
Returning back to the academy for the first time since Sakura's victory over Ami, Shikamaru was lessed than pleased to see Iruka. He still had yet to make a move to apologize to Sakura even after he had called out his sensei in front of his entire class.
Choji and he made it a point to walk with Sakura between them to shelter her, this hadn't escaped her notice. She wanted to ask them to stop but she didn't, seeing as though nothing she said would make them stop.
"Hey! Hey! Sakura-chan!"
She stopped walking and turned around to face the person who called her name. Shikamaru instantly recognized him.
"What do you want Naruto?" he asked with a tired sigh.
The blond looked at Sakura with a big smile on his face, one that showed his teeth. Sakura never though she had seen anything so bright before. He proceeded to ignore Shikamaru.
"I saw you fight Ami last week! It was super awesome! If I could fight like you did, maybe I could beat Sasuke-teme!" He said.
The pinkette blushed a bright red, embarrassed by the praise.
"O-Oh, t-thanks..." she replied.
"Can you teach me how to fight like that?!" Naruto asked loudly.
Her eyes went wide, "Wha-"
He caught her off, "I wanna be Hokage one day! And to do that, I need to be super strong! Sasuke-teme keeps making me look bad in front of everyone, he's so stuck up!"
Naruto crossed his arms and huffed as he talked on about his one-sided rival.
Shikamaru was starting to get annoyed by this whole thing, Choiji just watched while he munched on a bag of chips.
"Get on with it, Naruto." The Nara urged agitatedly.
"Shut up Shikamaru! I'm getting there! Anyways, so can you teach me? I want to be just as cool as you are!"
She poked her fingers together and looked down, "A-As c-cool as I am-m?" she repeated.
He grinned, "Yeah! You're super cool Sakura-chan!"
Sakura thought about for minute, well, as much a seven year old could anyway.
"O-okay..."
Naruto's eyes brightened, "You will? Yes! Thanks so much Sakura-chan! I'm gonna be so much more powerful than that teme now!"
She smiled lightly at him, "Y-You're welc-"
"ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT! WOHOOO!" the blonde began cheering aloud, unknowingly cutting her off.
He pumped his fists in the air before running in the exact opposite direction of the classroom.
"... He does know the class is that way, right?" Choji asked
Shikamaru shrugged, "Who knows?"
=
Over the past couple of months, many things had changed in Sakura's life. Changes- that she believes was- was for the better.
She used to think that she would always be plagued with bullies, but after her face off against Ami, she was never bothered again. Sakura didn't know how to feel about it, because while she was happy to be free of her tormenters, she was rather indifferent about the fear she had inspired in them. Whenever it came time for sparring, they would try their best to avoid being called into the sparring circle with her.
Regardless of all that, Sakura no longer ran home with tears in her eyes but rather, a happy smile on her face while she told her parents about her day and her little adventures with her two friends.
Iruka, her sensei, would ashamedly meet her eye sometimes, as if to give her a daily apology for his misjudgement of her. She would of course smile in return, trying to reassure him that she forgiven him.
Shikamaru hadn't been overly enthusiastic about how quickly she had let their sensei off the hook but had sighed and said "whatever" regardless.
Her, Choji and the lazy Nara had gotten closer as ever- practically attached at the hip. They were rarely apart and Sakura had no complaints. She was always smiling with them around and was unimaginably content to have two people she was close with. She had gotten to know them a lot better, like how she learned that Shikamaru was ridiculously smart but was too lazy to really apply himself and that he regularly played shogi with his father. Or how Choji enjoyed reading nearly as much as she did and loved ranting to her about the books they've both read.
Sakura had also became friends with Naruto, a person whom she never imagined befriending, as he was loud and wasn't ashamed to say what was on his mind. So in other words, nothing like her at all. Though, she was a lot more open now, no longer stuttering and less shy around others. If anything, she was more reserved than timid now.
Like she had promised, Sakura helped Naruto with his taijustu as best she could. It wasn't like she was expert at it, all her knowledge was based off of her readings which she then mimicked. She walked him through the movements and then she would adjust his stance during the process. She was kind of worried though, she didn't want to accidently be teaching him the wrong things.
Naruto reassured her. saying that her help was "super amazingly awesome!" and Iruka-sensei was very impressed with him.
Everyday, Naruto greeted at the academy boisterously. Waving at her joyfully with that megawatt smile of his, the gesture never failed to make her giggle. Shikamaru simply to grumbled to himself and Choji would grin and greet Naruto too.
The blonde boy might not have been as close to group as the three of them were, but he was still their friend. Many times were the four of them found together, embarking on little adventures and getting into different kinds of trouble.
Sakura had even been kicked out of class for the first time, as the four of them had all fallen asleep in class and were sent out into the hall as punishment. Though, it had kind of backfired on Iruka's part, as they had then shortly thereafter fell asleep standing up.
While she didn't like getting into trouble, Sakura didn't regret a single second of it.
Her time with the three of them, though unknowingly to her, had really shaped the person she was slowly becoming. A person who was far different than the girl Shikamaru had found crying under that cherry blossom tree.
=
"Alright everyone settle down now! I'm going to be passing around these worksheets, complete them before class ends. And yes, you can work with the people beside you- but no leaving your seat!"
Shikamaru sighed as the piece of paper was placed in front of them, he briefly read over the first question.
'What a waste of time,' he thought as he proceeded to plant his head against the desk and close his eyes.
Sakura adjusted the page so she could read it better and then started off with the first question. It didn't take her long until she was more than three quarters of the way done. The questions weren't overly difficult for her but she could tell that they slowly got harder and harder the further you went. Not that it mattered, she could still answered them relatively easily.
She looked over to Shikamaru and frowned when she realized he wasn't doing anything. Couldn't he try? Even just the first question? Or any of them?
'At least write down your name on the page!' she exclaimed in her mind, as if he could hear her thoughts and would miraculously start doing his work. Not that he could, anyway.
Before she could open her mouth, she felt someone poke at her shoulder. Turning away from the Nara, she came face to face with her plump auburn-haired friend.
"Hey Sakura-chan, can you help me with this question? I'm having a little trouble..." Choji asked in rather quiet voice, almost as if he were embarrassed to ask for her help.
How could he not though? Of the three of them, Choji knew he was the least intelligent. He was bestfriends with two geniuses, and sometimes it was so painfully apparent that it made him feel inferior to them in a way. They never bragged about their intellect or anything like that but sometimes it could be hard for him.
Sakura smiled and nodded her head, "Sure!"
She began explaining to him the question and what it was asking him to find. She knew Choji was smart enough to figure it out, all she was going to do was lead him in the right direction.
Choji suddenly straightened up, "OOOhh, I get it now! Thanks Sakura-chan!"
The pinkette giggled, "All I did was say the question, you're the one who figured it out silly!"
Choji grinned, "I did, didn't I?"
He seemed very happy about it and it made Sakura happy to see him like that.
The young Akamichi turned back to his paper and set upon completing the other questions, determined to finish all by himself. Sakura focused back on her own paper, picking up her pencil and finishing up that rest of the worksheet.
When she was finished, her looked back to Shikamaru out of habit. She knew that he would still be asleep but she couldn't help but look. Lo and behold, the lazy boy laid there with his head on the desk and his eyes closed.
Sakura knew better than to try and get him to actually do his work, so she sighed and turned her head back to her own. As she did so however, his worksheet caught her eye. It wasn't blank like she expected it would be, all the questions were completely filled out.
Her green eyes widened, 'When did he do that?'
She looked to her friend once more, the boy seemingly still sleeping. A moment passed and then she smiled before finishing up her worksheet.
__________________________
Heyyy guys! That's right, I have come back from the grave.
I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated, I've just been so busy and swamped with stress and deadlines and some many other things. Who knew transitioning into adulthood could be so hard?
Anyway, I hope you guys like this. It took me a long time to actually finish this but I'm happy now that it is so I can finally share it with you.
This chapter kind of concludes their time at the academy, and the next chapter will then be a time skip to graduation and the team sorting. I might add some flashbacks here and there in the chapters to come of things I didn't include, but we'll see!
Hopefully I don't end up taking forever to update the next chapter and I'm praying I can find the time to update my other stories.
Love you all so much, thank you for all the support!
Also, I don't know about some of you guys but it's cold! It's like an iceberg whenever I step outside 🥶🥶
Hope you all are staying warm and toasty this winter.
Any who, please comment and vote!
Thanks for reading!
~May🌺
Number of words: 2629