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There was a new girl on the playground.
Sakura thought she was cute, with red hair and glasses and a purple shirt that showed off more bandages than Sakura had ever seen on a person who wasn’t in the hospital. She also looked shy, just as shy as Sakura had been before she met Ino-chan and Naruto (the latter of whom she was supposed to be meeting for some kind of surprise—if it was a prank, she vowed to tell Auntie Kushina about the bad words he said at recess the other day). She also looked sad, sitting alone underneath the shade of one of the park’s giant Hashirama trees.
Maybe she needs a friend, like I did.
Mind made up, Sakura marched over to the girl and plopped down beside her.
“Hi! I’m Sakura, what’s your name?” She didn’t let the startled girl respond, though, because, upon noticing the bandages on her hands, a whole new set of questions popped up. “How did you get hurt? Why are your clothes dirty?” And then, solemnly, she asked, “Doesn’t your mommy tell you to take a bath?”
The girl looked down at her lap, seeming a little irritated but unwilling to express her anger, and began plucking at the hem of her shirt.
“Hey, Sakura-chan!” Naruto’s too-loud voice cut across the playground, making her wince.
Boys
. Sasuke was trailing along behind him, looking just as irritated at his best friend’s volume level as she was. There was another boy with them, with pale hair and a mouth full of sharp teeth. “You met Karin-chan already?”
Sakura looked back at the girl beside her, who made eye contact for only a moment before looking back at her lap, blushing.
Cute
.
“So what if I did?” Sakura tipped her chin up defiantly, like she saw her Mama do with difficult shop owners at the market.
“You spoiled the surprise,” Naruto immediately replied, whining. “I was gonna introduce you properly!”
Sasuke and Sakura both snorted in disbelief, rolling their eyes at one another.
“Karin-chan is my cousin!” Then, as though Sakura wouldn’t understand what a cousin was, he added, “Her mom was Mom’s sister.”
“She knows what a cousin is, idiot.” Sasuke’s retort, as usual, set off a tussle between the two boys, which the other boy encouraged with shouts of
Fight, fight, fight!
Sakura observed the scene for a moment, nose wrinkled in disgust, before standing up and brushing off her dress. Then, she extended a hand towards Karin.
“Boys are dumb. Let’s go play somewhere else.”
Karin looked up at her, gaping.
“You want to play with me?”
“Of course, silly! We’re gonna be best friends—well, I already have a best friend, Ino-chan, but there’s no law that says I can’t have two.” She balled both of her hands and set them on her hips, trying to look as tough as she could. “So we’re friends now, okay?”
Then, grinning, she put her hand back out. This time, Karin took it, and Sakura gasped at how easily she tugged the other girl to her feet.
“Karin-chan, you’re so light! Do you need more snacks? Does—” She cut herself off as Naruto’s earlier words finally registered—
her mom
was
Mom’s sister
. Karin didn’t
have
a mommy anymore, then. Quickly, she tried to finish her sentence without her new best friend getting suspicious. “Do you want to share my snacks? Mama packed apple slices that look like bunnies, and some carrot sticks.”
“Oh—okay,” Karin stumbled over her words, her pretty red eyes darting between Sakura’s face and their joined hands. “If your mom won’t get mad.”
“‘Course she won’t! Mama always says it’s nice to share with friends.” Sakura beamed, and promptly began dragging Karin away from the still-fighting boys. They made it to Sakura’s secret spot, a tiny little clearing in the middle of a thick ring of trees. Beside her, she heard Karin gasp once she saw the tiny field of wildflowers
“I found this place when I was running away from bullies,” Sakura admitted.
“
You?
Got bullied?” Karin looked at her strangely. “But you’re so pretty and nice!”
It was Sakura’s turn to blush.
“You don’t think my forehead is too big?”
Karin looked at her in confusion again.
“No? Your forehead is normal.”
Sakura felt her heart flutter, and she beamed at her new friend. Then, she snatched her hand up once more and dragged her to a particularly pretty patch of pink flowers.
Karin told her that she’d never made a flower crown before, and while that thought horrified Sakura (where had she lived before, that she didn’t have any time to learn about flower crowns?!), she didn’t let it show. Instead, she picked a handful of pink buds, stems attached, and began weaving them together. She went slowly, so Karin could see each step, and explained little tips and tricks Ino had told her, about how to weave the stems more tightly together or make sure none of the green showed.
Finally, the crown was done, and she held it gingerly as she stood, motioning for Karing to do the same.
“Come here,” Sakura ordered, gesturing for the other girl to bend down just a bit. Then, she placed the crown atop her head. When Karin straightened back up, Sakura grinned.
“Pink and red go together so well! You look beautiful!”
“Really?” Karin whispered.
“Of course!” Sakura gestured to her own hair, which was tied back with the red ribbon Ino had given her months before. “And now we match, like real best friends.”
The boys were gone when they emerged from the hiding spot, It figured. Their absence didn’t deter her, though. Instead, she had a great idea.
“Come to Mama’s shop with me! We can have our snacks and then I’ll walk you back to Auntie Kushina and Uncle Minato’s house.” Then, leaning over, she whispered in Karin’s ear. “Mama is a tailor, so she has lots of pretty dresses we can try on.”
Just as Sakura thought, Haruno Akane thrilled to see her daughter making yet another friend. She was also excited to see Karin’s red hair, an identical shade to her own.
“Oh, aren’t you just precious! Kushina told me she’d adopted a cutie—it’s so nice to meet you! Karin-chan, right?”
Karin hid her face in Sakura’s shoulder, only peeking out far enough to look at Akane with one wide, red eye.
“Yeah, Karin-chan and I are best friends, just like me and Ino-chan!” Sakura puffed her chest out in pride. She
wasn’t
a friendless loser like Ami and the other bullies always told her!
“Oh? Well, Karin-chan, that means you get the new best friend discount on a dress today. What do you say, shall we pick out something pretty for you?” Slowly, Karin shuffled all the way out from behind Sakura, but kept clutching Sakura’s sleeve with one hand.
Then, hesitantly, she nodded.
After that, there was a blur of snacking and changing and giggling. It was so much fun, and Sakura hated to hear her mother say it was time to take Karin home. Dinnertime was approaching, and Auntie Kushina would probably start to get worried if Naruto came home without his cousin.
Naruto’s big brother opened the door, and Sakura could tell he was smiling even under the mask. Beside her, Karin relaxed a little bit as the two of them stepped into the entryway.
“Hello, Sakura-chan. I see you found Karin-chan.”
“Karin-chan is my friend now,” she announced, still just as proud about it as she had been earlier. “Naruto left without us.” Then, glancing over her shoulder to make sure no one was listening, she leaned forward to whisper. “Kakashi-sensei, boys are
dumb
.”
It was okay to tell him that, because Kakashi wasn’t a boy, but he wasn’t an adult yet, either. So he wouldn’t get offended or get her in trouble for saying a bad word.
“I agree, Sakura-chan,” he ruffled her hair, giving her one of those smiles that made his eyes crinkle shut.
Then, just before either girl could take their sandals off, Naruto and the new boy came bursting into the hall.
“Look, boys, doesn’t she look like a princess?” Sakura stepped a little farther away from Karin to gesture at the girl’s pink flower crown and new purple dress.
“She looks more like a witch!” The strange boy replied meanly, and Naruto started to laugh.
Sakura saw
red
.
Quick as a flash, she lashed out, knocking both boys on the head so hard they sprawled into a heap on the ground, groaning in pain.
Karin, on the other hand, was clinging to her like a starfish, nuzzling her head into Sakura’s shoulder.
“Sensei, she’s stuck to me and won’t let go!”
“Sakura-chan, thanks for taking care of this for me.” Kakashi-sensei grinned, giving her a little two-fingered wave before stepping over the boys and vanishing down the hallway.
“Sakura-chan.” Karin finally stopped her nuzzling long enough to look up at her. “When I get older, I’m going to marry you.”