Prologue

Sakura Haruno had been loved her entire life. Her parents, her friends, she had always been surrounded by love. So much so that people were jealous. They tried to destroy her because of their jealously….and they succeeded. First, the love of her life – Sasuke Uchiha – was stolen from her by the main aggressor – Karin Uzumaki. Next, her parents were killed in a freak house fire where the source of the blaze could not be found. Slowly, the rest of her friends drifted away as well, and Sakura was drowning in a pool of depression.

It was her strong nature that saved her. It’s what caused her to lash out, to ignore the pain of loneliness, and to seek a way out of her isolation. Her grades never wavered, never gave any sign of decreasing. Her attitude was perfectly maintained, giving no insight on the dark thoughts that lurked beneath the surface.

At school she was the same Sakura Haruno, only without the group of friends surrounding her. She was never seen at lunch, choosing to hide away in the library or in a vacated hallway or stairwell. She had investigated every nook and cranny of her school, and found out the most perfect of places to hide away in. Counselors and school teachers were concerned; they tried numerous times to get her to open up. To delve into the problems they knew existed. They never succeeded, however, and Sakura was eventually left alone. Every two weeks, however, the counselor called her into the office to try again and again, yet failed every time. It would be an all-day session, and even if Sakura decided to skip a day, they would just call her in the next time she showed up.

After discovering this, Sakura would just mutely sit through each session. She would daydream as the counselor spoke, and never offer even a motion to answer a question. This just caused the worry to grow.

But, Sakura Haruno was determined not to allow anything to escape. She was independent now, she was forced to be. She refused to lean on anyone any longer, and she would stick by that mindset. That was, until Gaara Subaku was enrolled in her school and caused everything to go haywire.