A/N: Obligatory smidge of backstory reveal.

--

"HE DID WHAT?" Sakura shrieked.

Tenten winced at the volume, but grinned nonetheless, and the two friends squealed happily.

"I can't believe you hid it from us for so long!" Ino exclaimed. "How long have you been together?"

"Ever since Christmas of eighth grade." She answered proudly.

"We're so happy for you, Tenten." Hinata smiled at her.

"That means you'll finally stop dancing around each other!" Sakura gasped. "Are you going as dates for prom?"

"We're...still talking about that." She laughed sheepishly. "We haven't yet gone public with our relationship. We want it to stay a secret until at least Friday night."

"Eeee, this is so much fun!" Ino cheered. "Ooh, we should doll you up extra pretty for your boyfriend!"

"Yeah, yeah!" Sakura nodded. "Give her the works this time. And I don't wanna hear any complaining from you, Tenten. You are gonna knock him so far off his feet that his head will be in the clouds even after he marries you!"

Tenten blushed red. "See, I knew I shouldn't have told you..." She grumbled.

"Oh, Tenten, it's okay." Hinata patted her shoulder. "At least my cousin's happy now."

"Yeah...if he's happy, I'm happy." A faint smile crossed her lips and a dreamy look was in her eyes.

"She's so lovestruck!" Ino whispered excitedly.

"Well, it is Thursday night. Tomorrow night's prom! And that means after that, you can be as lovey-dovey as you want." Sakura looked proud. "I always knew you'd get a boyfriend first."

"Wha- Oi!" Ino cried. "You doubted poor little old me?"

"Honestly, Ino..." Sakura looked her up and down. "...yes."

"I cannot believe you, Forehead." She exclaimed over-dramatically, putting a hand to her forehead and pretending to swoon. "Here I've put my faith in you for two years, and you repay me for this?"

"Lighten up, little Miss Dramatic." Sakura grinned. "Shikamaru's gonna be there, remember?"

"I know, I know. I'm just giving you a hard time." Ino hit her playfully. "Soooo, got anyone asking you to prom?"

"Who, me? Nah." Sakura shook her head with a scoff. "As if anybody'd ask me. For all they know, I'm at home studying Friday night."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot." Ino sighed. "Well, at least Shikamaru asked me. Though...he seemed pretty serious when he did. He said he had something to tell me tomorrow night."

"Weird..." Tenten frowned. "Couldn't he have told you today or something?"

"No, he said it had to wait for tomorrow night for some reason." Ino's face fell for a moment before brightening. "Maybe he's gonna ask me to go on vacay with him?"

"Girl, please. Now you're being presumptuous."

"I know. But isn't that the point?"

--

Sakura lay on her bed. The others were long gone, and she'd gotten into her pajamas a while ago. She frowned. "Something about this doesn't seem right...why couldn't Shikamaru have told Ino this big bad secret today? Is there a reason why he'd...?"

She gasped, shooting straight up. "Maybe he's cheating on her!"

"Maybe who's cheating on who?" Karin's voice came from her room, where she was working on homework.

"Never mind me, just talking to myself." Sakura waved her off. "Hey, is Dad home yet?"

"He said he'd be home in fifteen minutes, and Mom's coming back tomorrow to help with prom." She answered, and there was a sound of a book shutting.

As she walked into Sakura's room, she noticed the redhead had slight bags under her eyes.

"Kar, are you getting enough sleep at night?" Instantly, Sakura's 'doctor mode' came out, and she stood, putting her hands on her face and getting close.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Karin tried to shake her off, but she wouldn't budge until she'd gotten a good look at her.

"You don't look fine to me." Sakura's eyes narrowed. "Are you alright?"

"I'm..." Karin suddenly trailed off, sighing. "Dammit, I can't keep anything from you."

"It's just how I am, little sister." Sakura let go of her face, patted her head, and sat down, patting the area next to her. "Sit down and tell me what's wrong."

Karin sat down and held her face in her hands, setting her elbows on her knees. "Well..."

"I'm listening. You can tell me anything; you know that." Sakura prodded gently, placing a hand on her back.

"I just..." Karin removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes. "I don't know what to do anymore. I know you're my sister, but..."

"But what?"

"Everyone hates you, seems like, and I wanna know why." She suddenly sat up straight, looking her in the eyes. "Why do all my friends detest you? Did you do something? Did they do something?"

Sakura paused for a moment, thinking of what to say.

It took a few moments, but at last she sighed. "I really wish I could tell you now, Kar. But you wouldn't like what I'd have to say."

"Try me." The redhead was defiant as she held her gaze stubbornly.

"That's my lil' sister." Sakura chuckled mirthlessly. "I can't tell you the whole story, but I can tell you a little bit. Will that tide you over until tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Just as long as I have an idea." She nodded eagerly.

"Alright." Sakura's mind was going full throttle, a mile a minute. "You know how I'm sixteen and I'm a freshman, right?"

"Yeah. The only sixteen-year-olds I know are either sophomores or juniors. Why?"

"Well, an incident relating to the story behind why I think Sasuke is a piece of pig shit got me expelled. I had to repeat a year because of those stupid hoes."

Sakura's eyes darkened in anger, and as she leaned forward so that her hair covered her face, so did her voice go lower.

"It started when I was a first grader." She closed her eyes, as if the memory were too painful to remember. "I'd seen this boy in another class, Sasuke. I thought he was the cutest boy I'd ever met. We began to hang out when we could, and by the time I was in second grade I fell in love with him."

Karin was taken aback by this information. "You were in love with him? Hard to believe."

"I know. But it wasn't so hard to believe then." Sakura opened her eyes and stared at her, green boring into red. "When I was in second grade, some girls thought it'd be beneficial to their friendship to Sasuke to bully me. They bullied me the whole year. At the end of March, I got expelled for the incident and they only got suspended for a month. Those damn dogs made me repeat a year because I was in love with a freakin' boy."

"And those are the sophomores that ridicule you on a regular basis, saying that you're too wimpy to do anything even if you did get bullied again?" Karin asked softly, her eyes softening in sympathy.

"Those hoes are still bullying me. Only now, the whole school's in on it." The pinkette gave her a wry smile. "This new form of bullying called 'social bullying' is what's in, son. The whole school's doin' it like it's some sort of drug."

"I...I never knew..." Karin looked down at her knees, clenching her pants tightly in her fists.

"Look, you can never tell anyone what I just told you, okay?" Sakura grabbed one of her hands, gazing at her with a dead serious expression. "I'll tell people when I'm damn ready to. If information like this got out, then I'd just get bullied more. Once I've got the strength to beat them, then I'll step forward."

"But...I...!" Karin clenched her teeth. "There could be more people getting bullied...! Your story would..."

"-just convince them that standing up for yourself never works. Trust me, I tried." Sakura finished, muttering the last part to herself.

"How do you know people wouldn't get inspired by hearing you?" Karin's voice was soft. "I mean, look at you! You're loud, confident in yourself. You overcame the shame of getting expelled, right? What makes them think they can't do it?"

"I still carry the shame of the day I was told I was getting expelled on my back every day one of those bitches even spits in my direction." Sakura revealed, frowning to herself. "I want to throttle them so badly...beat them so badly they wouldn't be able to get recognized in a missing persons' report. But every time I get the thought, the principal's voice stops me."

"Sakura, I'm afraid I have to expel you for the incident that occurred in school last week." She mimicked his deep voice, almost mockingly, then sighed. "Poor bastard never even gave me a chance to explain myself fully."

"I..." Karin only watched her helplessly as she turned with a serious expression.

"Now you have to tell me something." She spoke. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been thinking you're throwing little monkey wrenches in, and getting me to presume that other people are getting bullied by these girls?"

Karin felt a bead of sweat go down her face. "I...n-"

"You do realize I can get pretty persuasive when I want to, right?" Sakura's look darkened more, and she nodded.

"Yeah, it's true." Karin sighed. "They're bullying other people for pretty much the same reasons as you, I guess."

"Why, though?" Sakura asked herself, frowning.

"I don't know. I've always been in the background when they do it. I doubt they even know I'm there half the time. They always shove them around, calling them 'whore' or 'piece of shit'. Once they beat a girl so badly she had to be taken to the hospital for broken bones."

"So that's what that ambulance was for the other month..." Sakura mused.

"I know all the teachers said it was because a girl had fallen off the roof accidentally, but I don't buy it. Not when I know the truth...!"

"So they beat up girls when they have crushes on Sasuke?" Sakura looked in her direction.

"Mhm. At least, that's what I think." Karin narrowed her eyes in thought. "Um...Sayaka, Mari, and Kensuko were some of the victims."

"Damn. That Sayaka has a huge crush on Sasuke." Sakura whistled a low note.

"Yeah. You can't...tell anyone about this, okay?" Karin looked back and forth nervously. "If...if those girls found out I know, they'd..."

"Don't worry. A secret for a secret, right?" Sakura smiled at her and held out her pinky finger. "I'll keep your secret and you'll keep mine."

"Yeah. Deal." Karin looked more relieved as she hooked her pinky with Sakura's, holding it tight for a few moments before they both heard the front door open.

"Girls, I'm home!" Their father called out, and Sakura grinned goofily.

"Dad brought back snacks, I just know it!" She giggled and let go, racing out of the room.

Karin was left in her room, watching the door with an unreadable expression on her face.

Finally, she smiled. "Sakura...I promise."