𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗧𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 ≡ sakura haruno

18 | pretty dahlias

↪ 𝘐 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘶𝘱, 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯' 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯
𝘉𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯' 𝘴𝘰 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮↩

"Now the first position goes to..." Iruka paused seeing anticipation and curiously on most faces, "a person who scored the most marks."

He chuckled seeing everyone groan, "The person scored full marks that is a total of 500 out of 500!"

Everyone gasped in surprise and Iruka continued, "Sakura Haruno!"

There stood Sakura in her seat, while everyone thought that she was behind them just like the way she was standing behind everyone but she was the true ace, the winner.

While standing behind she topped everyone. She was the one who won the race before it even began while everyone else lost to someone they never considered their competition. 

Now, who's the real forehead, Ino Yamanaka?

She won!

She finally got the first place she had always deserved.

Years of training and years of maturing finally paid her off. First place; the one which was only given to the one who topped in something, she was the one who topped in the class, and her grades were the best. Scoring the best marks in the whole class — no — the whole academy.

Happiness, satisfaction and pride were all she felt. 

But she only smiled politely.

A model student, that's what Iruka thought of her; kind, smart and polite. Too bad Iruka did not know who she really was.

Sakura Haruno, the identity she had created.

"Sakura!"

The pinkette heard a voice call her, she knew without even looking who this voice belonged to. After all, there was once a time she trusted her. But the trust shattered, just like their bonds.

"Ino," Sakura smiled at the blonde who was rushing towards her, "You need something?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow at the panting Ino who got tired while running such a short distance.

"Yes," Ino replied, "How did you score so high in the written exams?"

Sakura silently scoffed at Ino's panicked emotion which she tried so desperately to hide. "What do you mean by that?" She asked back.

"You had a fever right?" Ino continued when she saw the green-eyed girl nod, "Then how did you score so high?"

"I studied." Sakura bluntly replied, her answer was vague but it was the truth. How else could she get the top scores if she hadn't studied?

It took a lot of effort for her to study everything, the exams were hard no doubt but with the amount of time, she spent studying and revising, writing the proper notes, reading hundreds of books, everything.

She did everything in her hands to make sure that she would get the best grades and she succeeded as she always did.

"B-But uh..." Ino trailed off, "Weren't you sick?"

"And?" 

Sakura tapped her foot impatiently however her face showed no emotion except for a friendly expression which always managed to maintain.

"Then how did you manage to study?" Ino gulped silently, wondering if her plan didn't work. But Sakura did say she had a fever and she even looked pale and sickly this morning, heck she still looked very fragile like she could break with one touch.

"Ah," Sakura tucked her pink tresses which blocked her view slightly, "I had been studying for these tests for a long time so I didn't need to worry about my fever." Sakura smiled slightly, "Thank you for caring about me."

"Y-Yeah no problem," Ino grinned slightly, "I'm your friend after all!"

"Yes, you are." Sakura simply stated, not minding the series of lies that were coming out of Ino's mouth, it did not matter, not anymore.

"I'll be going home now," Ino stated knowing that her plan did not fully fail nor did she get caught, or so she thought.

Sakura nodded her head, agreeing with Ino, "Yes, it's getting late." 

"See you tomorrow!" Ino almost rushed to get out of Sakura's sight but she stopped when she heard the pinkette's voice.

"Oh yeah Ino," Sakura called out.

"Wh-What?" Ino muttered turning around to face Sakura.

Sakura simply gave her a smile, one which sealed all her ill-intent inside, her words making Ino freeze in shock and making Sakura smirk a little as she left.

"I really liked the dahlias you gave me." 

― The number of times I'm gonna mention those flowers will really annoy you.