A Hatred That Will Never Bloom Into Friendship

Sakura's P.O.V.

Flashback

Everyone was running around having fun in the playground at the back of Konaha Academy.

I was sitting on one of the benches, watching her from afar.

She was hurling kunai knives and shuriken at a tall tree stump with perfect accuracy. Kiba and Lloyd were standing off to the side, watching the weapons hit there mark.

"Alright, Kimina!" Kiba cheers.

She was good at everything she did. She was a real fighter, unlike me. And she was beautiful. She had a perfect figure, and had long, soft, dark hair. I touch my own hair absently. Her smile was gentle and her eyes were kind.

But it wasn't all just because of her looks and strength, I...

"Hey, Sakura! What the heck are you doing over here all by yourself?" Ino asks me. "Come on!"

End Flashback

End Sakura's P.O.V.

'I...I looked up to her. I still look up to her,' Sakura admits to herself.

"What is...Lloyd talking about?" Hinata asks aloud, tears forming in her eyes.

Kiba stammers. "I...I have no idea, Hinata."

Hinata's P.O.V.

Flashback

Naruto makes a funny face, pulling his lips back with his fingers and sticking out his tongue.

Kimina makes the same face, but makes a louder noise.

I giggle at their little charade.

"Oh, what are you laughing at, Hinata?" Kimina asks me, her eyes crossed and a smile on her face.

Naruto falls out of his chair, laughing.

~~*~~

"Would you just shut-up! He doesn't want you!"

"He doesn't want you, you pig!" Sakura shouts back at Ino.

Ino sighs. "Just shut the hell up, Sakura! You don't know what your talking about!"

They both walk down the road, still bickering with each other.

"Can you really believe them?" Kimina asks me. "And they used to be good friends too."

"Yeah...they were," I reply.

Kimina straightens the violet belt around her kimono. "You know,"--she looks at me warmly--"even though you already know this, Hinata. I am glad that I have you as a friend. I don't mean that Sakura and Ino aren't, but they are a bit temperamental." She chuckles, but then gets serious once more. "I'm just really happy that I sat by you that first day of school."

End Flashback

End Hinata's P.O.V.

Hayate looks from the corpse, back up to me. "Look, I know you are her teammate, but there is no need to keep her body here any longer."

"I said wait!" I exclaim. "You don't think she's really dead, do you?" I say to Naria sensei. "She can't be..."

Flashback

I hear quick footsteps coming towards me. I turn the corner and almost miss ramming head-on into Kimina.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Lloyd!" she apologizes. Some of the ramen she held in a bowl spills to the ground. "Oh, no."

"Why are you carrying that around, anyway?" I ask, my eyebrows raised.

"Um...no reason." She smiles. "I'll see you later."

I watch her walk away. I was curious to where she was going, so I followed her. I crouch down behind a fence when I see her slow down.

I was really surprised to find her approaching Naruto, and sitting down next to him on the bench. She hands him the ramen bowl, and they exchange smiles.

'What the heck is she doing here with him?' I think, baffled.

Naruto's face saddens, and she puts her hand on his arm.

I shake my head and stand to my feet. 'Oh, wow.' I walk away without another glance.

~~*~~

We were all sitting around the table in the restaurant, laughing and joking with each other.

I was sitting next to Naria sensei, and Kimina and Rakuyo were sitting across from us.

Naria sensei was telling a funny story about her childhood, and Kimina begins laughing again before the real joke is even said.

End Flashback

I could still hear Kimina's melodious laughter inside my head.

I grip the railing harder in my hands. 'Wake up, Kimina! You can't be dead! I can't let you be dead...'

End Lloyd's P.O.V.

Sasuke eyes Lloyd. "This doesn't make sense."

Sakura sniffs. "Hmm? What doesn't, Sasuke?"

He reluctantly takes his gaze off of Lloyd. "It isn't like he isn't suffering because of his teammate. He seems almost determined that she is going to wake up somehow."

"Well, yeah, Sasuke...wouldn't you be?" Sakura retorts.

"That's not it, Sakura. She's dead." Naruto visibly shudders. Sasuke lowers his voice. "Her cut was gone from her face. We all saw that. And we weren't away from her for more than five minutes. How did it go away so fast?" Sakura shrugs. "Maybe she has some kind of power that you and me don't know about." Sasuke looks back at Lloyd.

Naruto, deep down, wanted to believe that there was this secret power that Kimina had that would bring her back to life, but how was that even possible?

Kimina, the girl who stood up for him when other people ridiculed him and turned their back on him. The first girl, actually the first friend he had ever had. She accepted him, when no one else did. How could she be gone?

He remembers the times they spent at Ichiraku's Ramen Bar together, racing to see who could eat the most ramen bowls in ten minutes.

When they would train together in the clearing, teaching each other what they knew.

Tears brim his eyes.

How she would sneak him into her room and fix him a place to sleep on her floor, when he didn't want to sleep alone at his place.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouts.

Naruto had climbed up onto the railing, standing tall, with his hands held at the sides of his mouth for an echo.

"What is this idiot doing?" Dosu murmurs.

Orochimaru squints his eyes at the boy.

The Hokage looks a bit surprised, as do a lot of the others.

"Kimina! You really need to wake up! You can't be really be dead, so get up, Kimina!" he yells with no humility.

Sasuke smirks beside him, and Sakura clears the tears from her eyes and smiles proudly at her teammate.

"Nicely said, Naruto..." Hinata says.

Zaku rolls his eyes at Naruto's comment.

Temari chuckles. "Is that boy serious?"

"Kimina!" Naruto says her name even louder.

He jumps down from the railing back beside Sasuke and Sakura.

And as he does so, the air then grows with an unnatural power...