Forever Friends

Their first meeting isn’t even a meeting, or even an introduction. Sasuke just looks on from afar as Sakura cries in the playground leaving him to wonder what is wrong with her.

Exactly after two days, their second meeting takes place in the same location, with Sakura in the same situation. But this time, Sasuke walks up to her, and actually looks at her.

At first, he thinks she’s ethereal.

/pink hair and pale face with jade optics. Oh, is she a beauty. Not that kind of beauty that makes you want to fall in love, but the beauty described by his mother in fairytales. The enchanting beauty./

But then he remembers she’s crying.

/Ethereal beings don’t cry, do they?/

‘Hey, you!’ he calls out.

Frightened eyes meet his steady ones. Sasuke stares, surprised by the fear in her eyes.

/You won’t hurt me, will you?/

He slides onto the ground beside her as she hiccups, and hastily rubs her tears away.

‘What’s wrong? Why are you here all by yourself?’ he asks, looking at her.

‘I…’

‘Hm..?’

‘They – they bully me because I have a huge forehead’ she mumbles.

Sasuke smiles and puts his palm on her forehead and brushes away her hair. He laughs softly before retracting his arm.

‘You know, my brother, Itachi, says that people with big foreheads are lucky!’

‘Lu – lucky?’

‘Yes, because they can store more information than normal people. They are geniuses!

‘Re – really?’ she sounded unsure.

‘You should believe me. My brother is always right!’

‘I –‘

He looks at her crossly, as she suddenly whimpers and clutches her left arm in pain. Sasuke notices this and takes her injured arm.

‘Does it hurt?’

She really wanted to bawl her eyes out at the pain. He looks at the newly forming tears in her eyes and places a gentle kiss on the wound

/Her heart goes thump thump./

A moment of silence passes.

‘Does it hurt less?’

/Yes, Sasuke kun. It doesn’t hurt at all!/

‘My mother says it makes the pain go away.’

She blushes and retracts her hand as he lets go.

‘Thank you, Sasuke kun.’ is all she says, burying her face in her knees.

‘Hey! You know my name!’ he exclaims, looking happy.

/Of course I do. Who doesn’t?/

But a frown descends on his face.

‘… I don’t know yours’ he says, smiling sheepishly.

‘Ha – Haruno Sakura.’

‘Hm.. Sakura?’ he says uncertainly. ‘But you smell like oranges!’

/I like oranges, Sakura. They’re sweet, and tangy and so heaven like. Don’t you too?/

Sakura turns a shade of red before mumbling something incoherent.

‘You aren’t brave at all!’ he states rather rudely.

She flushes again, but opens her mouth to retaliate.

‘Anyway -’ he continues, effectively cutting off whatever she wanted to say. ‘- the next time they come, you tell them you’re angry, and do this’ he says, which makes her automatically face him.

Sasuke draws his eyebrows nearer, narrows his eyes and emits a small growl from the back of his throat.

‘I can’t do that.’ she says softly.

‘Yes, you can! You just have to learn to hate!’

‘H – Hate?’ she says uncertainly.

‘Yes. If you hate, you get angry. If you get angry, you get brave!’

He is the Uchiha prodigy after all.

‘O – Okay.’

He looks around and suddenly realises the time.

‘I have to go now’ he says, getting up and facing away.

‘W – wait!’ she calls out.

He turns back to see her getting up and dusting her clothes off. Then, she plasters a shy smile on her face.

‘C – Can we be friends?’

/You’ll be my first friend. Please say yes?/

Sasuke blinks slowly and then beams at her, nodding his head excitedly.

‘Yes.’

/First friends? Best friends? Forever friends?/

Sakura smiles radiantly.

‘Thank you, Sasuke kun!’

Sasuke waves to her

‘Bye! See you!’

He walks away leaving Sakura giddy with joy.

[Two days later:]

‘See?’ he states as they both walk away from the Academy ‘my plan worked! You were angry at them, weren’t you?’

She stares at him confused, and then smiles at him.

‘No, Sasuke kun. I wasn’t angry at them. Ino was angry at them.’

‘Ino?’

‘Yes! She’s my bestest friend, Sasuke kun!’

/His eyes widen and his heart beats erratically./

‘Bestest?’

/Then what am I, Sakura?/

‘Yes, Sasuke kun. Bestest!’

Sasuke’s features darken as he scowls and walks away faster.

‘Wait! Sasuke kun! What’s wrong?!’

/What’s wrong? You are the genius with the wide forehead. Go figure./

And she does. It takes her exactly 6 seconds to understand and laugh at him.

/You thought I wouldn’t consider you my friend anymore, didn’t you?/

Hearing her laugh, he quickens his pace.

‘Hey, wait!’ Sakura says, running to catch up to him.

‘What is it?’ he asks, stopping for her, still brooding.

Sakura, now facing him, smiles her trademark, radiant smile and hugs him tightly.

/His heart goes thump thump/

‘But we are forever friends, Sasuke kun!’ she whispers in his ear.

/Forever and forever and forever and forever!/

Sasuke smirks into her hair and whispers back

‘Of course, I know that’

She moves back and looks him in the eye, pouting slightly.

‘But I’m the one with the wide forehead! I’m the genius!’

He shrugs ‘I’m genius-er’

‘Ha! But I’m the genius-est! I even helped you in today’s test!’ she exclaims, pounding her fist in the air, eyes blazing with childish happiness that she just outdid Sasuke.

And Sasuke stares at her in silent admiration, more than happy to be in her company.

Then comes the ill – fated day; the day when Sasuke returns late from his shuriken practice, the day he finds his aunt and uncle with whom he had talked 12 hours prior, lie dead on the ground; the day his whole clan is slaughtered just to check the strength and capabilities of Sasuke’s pride, Uchiha Itachi.

The day Sasuke is broken; the day he started his second life – an avenger’s life.

His brain dies. All he remembers is a lot of blood, his own miserable cries, his brother’s mockery, loneliness, hatred and his ambition to strive for revenge.

/It’s always so dark, isn’t it?/

A week after his discharge from the hospital, Sakura finds him in the practice ground.

‘Sasuke kun?’

He busies himself throwing his arsenal at the already mutilated straw doll.

/I brought you tomatoes./

‘Sasuke kun?’ she calls a little louder this time.

‘What do you want?’ he asks, not facing her.

Sakura winces.

/Cold./

‘I – I brought you lunch’

‘I don’t need it. Go away.’

/Cold./

/Won’t you even look at me?/

‘But - ’

‘Who are you anyway?’ he asks, finally facing her, irritated.

A part of Sakura’s heart dies that day.

‘I’m –

/(Ha – Haruno Sakura)

(You smell of oranges)

(Does it hurt?)

[A soft kiss]

(Friends?)

(Thank you, Sasuke kun!)

(Forever friends!)/

‘See -’ he glares at her ‘you aren’t associated with me. Don’t make me start hating someone I don’t even know.’

Tears start flowing from the jade optics he once thought made her look beautiful.

/(Next time, tell them you’re angry)

(You have to learn to hate)

(Forever friends)

(You are not brave at all!)

[A glare]

(This is what you do)

(Forever friends!)

(I know that)

(I’m the genius!)

(Forever and forever and forever and forever!)/

/ Where is the forever, Sasuke kun? /

‘Get out of my way.’

/(We’re friends forever, Sasuke kun!)

(Why are you here all by yourself?)

[Soft touch.]

(…Wide foreheads are lucky)

(Genius-er!)

He walks away, and this time Sakura doesn’t ask him if he wants to be friends with her, or laugh at his back and run up to him to hug him.

She crumbles to the ground, fisting her young hand in the soft mud, while her lips tremble.

/ Where is it, Sasuke kun? The forever you said you knew about? /

‘I’ll learn, Sasuke kun! I’ll learn to hate. I’ll do it for you, Sasuke kun.’

/ Then maybe you’ll remember me.

Say I smell of oranges

And remember that we are supposed to be forever friends. /

---------------------------------

Naruto. SasuSaku. 13.09.10