• ZEROING IN ON THE STEP SISTER •

It was lunch break and Sasuke, Naruto and Sai were looking for a table to sit at. They were the center of attraction, those three, but being so used to the spotlight, they didn't even realise how hard they were being stared at.

"Sasuke-kun, hi!"

Sakura called and waved at the dark haired beau but she ended up being ignored. Naruto did a double take at the pinkette and looked back at Sasuke disbelievingly.

"Dude, you're ignoring a chic that hot?! You're weird and I'm taking you over there. Come."

Every introvert has that one extrovert best friend that takes it upon themselves to ruffle their feathers. Naruto was that best friend for Sasuke. The blond dragged him over to Sakura whose eyes lit up happily despite his protests. Sai followed behind them and Sasuke's frantic efforts to get away was busted.

"Dobe! Don't take me near her, she'd stick to me for ages! Are you even listening to me?! Usuratonkachi!"

Unfortunately for him, Naruto had stopped in front of Sakura's table and had immediately started flirting.

"Hey beautiful, I'm Sasuke's best friend, Naruto. Nice to meet ya." He gave a dazzling grin and a suggestive wink at which Sakura's smile turned nervous.

"Hi...I'm Sakura and I'm not interested, sorry, thank you."

"Pfft!"

Whoever made that choked laugh noise between Sasuke and Sai, nobody knew. Naruto's shocked face was priceless!

"Aaaah, that hit me right here!" Naruto gripped the cloth above chest dramatically to emphasise his heartbreak. Sakura sweatdropped while the Uchiha cousins rolled their eyes at his theatrics.

While Naruto was still writhing around in mock pain, Sai pushed his arm out to introduce himself. "Hi, I'm Sasuke's cousin Sai. I like ugly people like you." But Sai would forever remain Sai and say something offensive at the get go. He had this weird habit of getting on people's nerves on their first meeting.

Sakura's smile grew wider but her brows furrowed deeper. "N-nice to meet you. I'm Sakura." Her brow twitched with every word she said. Patience, patience, we just met, she repeated internally to herself to make her thunderstorm disappear.

She might've smiled externally but her inner Sakura was already punching Sai's pale face to smithereens.

"Pay him no attention, he's a troll." Naruto's raspy voice brought her out of her murderous thoughts. He had clearly recovered from his apparent heartbreak. "Mind if we sit with you?" He was already taking his seat even though Sakura had not consented yet. It was fine because she was going to allow it anyway. Only because Sasuke was there.

Sasuke on the other hand was not pleased with the sudden seating arrangement. Right now Sakura was being tolerable but that was because her blond second wasn't there yet. Things only turned catastrophic upon the blond's arrival and Sasuke really wanted to avoid that.

"SASUKE-KUN!" A shrill voice screamed in his ear the exact moment the thought left him and at the same time an additional weight was thrown upon him. So much for avoidance.

Ino was worse than Sakura in her fangirl mode. She was loud, giggly, clingy and she easily influenced Sakura to do same. Sasuke hated it.

"Don't touch me." The raven grumbled and threw Ino's arm roughly away from his shoulder. She was too smothering.

The blond wasn't deterred though. She just pushed Naruto off his seat (it was beside Sasuke's) and occupied it instead. Naruto squawked indignantly but was left ignored while Sakura face palmed internally at her friend's impulsiveness.

Ino didn't think before she did something and her princess mentality messed with her manners some times...most times...so she often came off as rude to people who didn't understand her.

At this point though, all she was doing was embarrassing Sakura by being a fangirl. Never mind that she was one herself.

Ino successfully turned all the attention on herself with her glamorous presence that intimidated Sakura sometimes. The platinum blond didn't even know it but any time they were together she always attracted the most attention, leaving Sakura to be the second option or the sidekick.

Still Sakura continued with Ino's friendship because she was the only friend she had.

When her father died and her mother married her step dad just some months later, she was pegged as a gold digger's daughter. It was probably true because she didn't think her mother actually loved Hiashi Hyuga.

Mebuki changed the moment Hiashi died. She hoarded all of the noble's money and sent his second daughter away, leaving the first to be her maid of the sorts. Sakura didn't like that sort of thing and obviously, Mebuki was displeased by it.

"This is your right!" Her mother would yell at her after hitting her for being 'stupid'. "I worked hard to get you to this point and you refuse to grasp the opportunity?! Stupid girl!"

It was so easy for her mother to yell at her. She wasn't the one being bullied and jested for being a gold digger and a murderer. Anytime she got something new, her classmates would sneer at her.

"Look at that, another brand name dress. Her mother probably killed her stepdad for this."

"My mother says that people like Sakura's mother are called gold diggers."

"She's just living off a dead man's money."

The words she heard tormented her everyday and she began to sink into herself until she changed schools and met Ino. Ino was, in a way, her saviour and she subconsciously began to want to live up to her standards.

Sakura embraced her wealth and apparent power as a noble more and before she knew it, she became something she was not. All in an effort to fit into the group of people Ino classified as friends.

The blond in question wasn't even aware of the power she had, just obliviously making people bend to her will, but Sakura was in too deep. Now it wasn't just Ino's standards she wanted to live up to. She wanted to live up to Sasuke's too.

It's why she's acting gentle and delicate when she's anything but. She fierce and has a weird verbal tic that she tries so hard to keep under control when Sasuke is around. She prefers her hair short but Sasuke likes long hair so she grew it out. She wants to be everything Sasuke sees in a girl.

She's a pretender, yes she can live with being called that, but she would be the one laughing in the end because Sasuke would acknowledge her and choose her.

Oh poor Sakura, if only you knew you've failed in the girlfriend material context from the very beginning.

Ino babbled about an expensive vacation she went on while not allowing Naruto, who was used to being the only one talking, to get a word in. The other blond was rapidly getting angered for not being able to expose Sasuke's embarrassing secrets to the table and Sai watched everything that unfolded in amusement.

Sasuke simply ate his food in resignation. He scowled at every piece of onion he saw in his food and had an almost smiley expression at every tomato piece in his food. Sakura noticed this and thought his pickiness was cute. She didn't say anything about it though. She just kept the newfound information at the back of her palm.

Every bit of information she found about him would be useful later on when she became his girlfriend. Green eyes looked at Ino who was happily chatting away with grumpy Sasuke.

If she became is girlfriend.

Still Sakura smiled to herself and continued eating.

***

There's one friend of a friend whom everybody hated at a point in time. She's rude and speaks like every other person is her servant but when we realized that she just can't talk any other way, we relented. Understanding her was the first step to figuring out her funny and cheerful nature. She's just a bit of a princess, like Ino.

Not me crossing my fingers for your votes and reviews.