B r o t h e r

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'Friends' is what her brother would call them, but to Sakura they were just acquaintances. When she was younger, she could call all of them her friends, but now that she's older, she realized that in reality, she never had friends to begin with. You'd be able to tell your friends why you suddenly had a few bruises on your arms without feeling like you were looking for attention, right? You'd be invited to go out with your friends, right? Well Sakura couldn't and she wasn't, so she stopped calling them friends. Ino, Sasuke, Shikamaru and the rest were all just acquaintances to her now, and she was fine with that.

This new personality of hers surfaced at the end of 9th grade, when Ami and her friends got a little too rough and ended up hurting Sakura more than they intended to. When Ino saw the bruises on Sakura's arms, she was quick to question her about them, however her attention was quickly caught by Sasuke as he walked by them. Instead of staying with Sakura to hear about her encounter in the the girl's washroom, Ino went chasing after Sasuke as he headed over to Naruto and the rest. Sakura simply shrugged it off, already aware of Ino's feelings for the Uchiha, she was sure that the blonde girl would ask her about it again sooner or later, Ino was her 'best friend' after all. However, Ino never glanced at Sakura again for the rest of the day, and no one else seemed even the least bit worried for their pink haired friend. The only person who was genuinely concerned was, of course, Naruto. He had questioned her to no end until she finally gave in and explained the situation to him. Naruto was furious, and made her tell their principle immediately. As expected, Ami was suspended for two weeks, and was told that if this happened again she could be expelled.

That night, Sakura had a deep conversation with herself and her thoughts. She decided that she wouldn't bother being friends with people who could care less about her. Ever since then, Sakura hasn't spoken a word to them, nor has Ami tried to bother the Haruno girl. Now, they were entering twelfth grade, their final year of high school before they move on to, hopefully, bigger and better things.

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Naruto always found it strange that Sakura just stopped hanging out with his friends, he found it even stranger that none of them seemed to notice. After a while he just shrugged it off, hoping that Sakura had just found her own group of friends, but it had always bugged him from the back of his mind. His girlfriend, Hinata, waved her hand in front of his face, trying to wake him up from his trance.

"Naruto! You've been zoned out for at least ten minutes now, are you okay?" She asked, genuine concern laced her voice.

Naruto smiled at her, looping an arm around her shoulders. "I'm fine Hina, just a little tired. What're we doing after school today?" He asked.

"Well, Ino wanted to go to the mall." She explained, and although she spoke nonchalantly, he could still see that glimmer of hope in her eyes telling him that she really wanted to go.

Naruto laughed and nodded his head in agreement, "let's go then, tell the others." He agreed.

He watched Hinata run off to their group of friends while he walked behind her, unaware of the stares he was getting from several girls who were also in the auditorium. Naruto had only gotten more popular over the past few years, and better looking as well. Now, he was co-captain of the varsity soccer team, his best friend Sasuke was the captain. Speaking of Sasuke, Naruto was surprised at how close he and the Uchiha had gotten. He remembered when they first met up at the park after being taken out of the orphanage, the look on his face was hilarious. He and Naruto immediately began their rivalry again, however over the years that rivalry became a deep friendship.

Naruto was actually worried about his best friend's love life, which he thought would be fine considering how popular he was. Sasuke had developed some feelings for a certain blonde haired girl, who you may know as Ino. However, Ino had long since lost her feelings for the Uchiha, and had moved on to be in a relationship with, surprisingly, Shikamaru. Sasuke being Sasuke, acted unaffected and continued to keep his feelings to himself, but Naruto knew better. He couldn't do anything about it though, making Sasuke confess could split up a happy couple, and possibly their whole group of friends. All Naruto could do was wait and hope for the best for his brooding best friend.

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Sakura had found her way up to the school roof and made herself comfortable, eating her lunch slowly. She'd been doing this since she 'cut off' Naruto's friends, and in all honesty, she liked this more than running around the auditorium and not being able to eat. She felt at peace, and could finally rest. Not only that, but she always had the comfort that she wasn't alone. If there was anything she needed to talk about or let out, Naruto was always willing to listen. Most of all, she knew that he would never tell anyone, no matter who they were. She had to smile at that thought, she really thought she didn't deserve him.

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As you can probably tell, this is gonna be a short(ish) story :,) I hope you're all enjoying it so far! Any feed back or requests for the next chapter? Also, sorry for any mistakes, I'll probably go back later and fix them.