10 10 - The second year of Academy!(3)

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<Sasuke POV>

It's been a few minutes since I left the class, and even though I looked everywhere, I still couldn't find Sakura, where did she go?

While looking for her, I decided to go to the training ground, as this was the only place I had not yet visited. As I walked over there, I heard a girl's soft cry, following the sound, I found her sitting by a fountain.

I didn't know there was anything like that inside the Academy grounds, anyway, I went there and sat down next to her.

"Sakura, are you hurt or something?" I said that just to start the conversation, after all, I knew very well why she was like this, but I didn't want to get to the point.

"Ah! Sa-Sasuke-Kun, don't look at me, I don't want you to throw up." She said as she turned in the opposite direction trying to wipe the tears from her face.

'Huh? What the- just where did that come from? Why would I throw up because she is crying!? Could this be some kind of expression here in this world? It's a pity that there is no urban dictionary here...'

"Sakura, tell me what happened."

"I-I wanted to ... But, she did that and..." Sakura tried to speak, but couldn't complete her sentence because she was desperately trying to stop crying.

Sighing, I approached and hugged her, while stroking her head, "Come on, no more crying, I'm sure she only did it because she was jealous and afraid".

Seeing that I was hugging her, she started to cry on my shoulders, while holding her hands tightly around my waist.

A few minutes later, she calmed down and, realizing what she was doing, stepped back while blushing, looking at my shoulder, she noticed the tear stains and apologized.

"I'm sorry Sasuke-Kun, I didn't mean to ..."

Before she could continue, I stopped her and said.

"Please don't be sorry, it's not your fault, so you don't have to blame yourself. Now tell me what happened."

Nodding, she started to say what had happened.

After hearing all the explanation I nodded and couldn't help but feel sad for her. Sakura told me about her past, where bullies would keep saying bad things about her forehead, she also spoke about her relationship with Ino and the fact that she helped her become more confident and pay less attention to what others said about her.

The thing about Sakura was that she didn't grow well as a kid, all in all, she only had Ino as a friend and even that changed after she started to like me. Because of her past, she developed some kind of egocentric personality, and what happened at the class was a serious blow that brought back some pent up feelings.

Even though her past could not be considered much when compared to mine and Naruto's. There is no denying the fact that bad things happen to everyone and each person is affected differently, while what she went through may seem little, it may have had an equal or even worse effect on her.

I already lost count of how many friends I had lost to depression before reincarnating, in general, you don't think much about how little things affect people until it happens to someone close to you, I think that's what made me start helping and taking care of my friends much more than usual, I don't want to see people close to me falling into this abyss of hopelessness and lack of motivation anymore.

"Sakura can I ask you something?"

"Hmm? Yes..."

"Do you like me?"

Hearing my words her face become red like a tomato and she struggled to try to find the best words to use at this moment, but she couldn't, in the end, she remained silent.

"Sakura, there is a rumor going on that I like girls with long hair, however, let me tell you now that this is bullshit!" I looked at her trying my best to express how serious I am at the moment.

"In fact, do you know why I don't like any of the girls from the Academy? Because they don't deserve my feelings, I'm someone who will become one of the greatest shinobi this world has ever seen, I cannot just accept someone because of looks or whatever, I carry the burden of an entire clan in my back, I'm the hope of the Uchiha and as such, the only woman who could stay with me is the one that could help me carry this burden."

"You and the others are just kids, the woman that I Uchiha Sasuke will take as a bride is a woman with power comparable to mine and the desire to become stronger! Not only that, but this woman should also be someone who can see the greater picture and make difficult decisions! And you aren't that woman yet."

"If in the future this feeling you have for me still exists, them, remember the words I told you today. If you want to start changing what is wrong about you, I suggest you think about what I and Naruto had to go through all those years, if necessary, ask your parents about the Nine-tailed beast attack and the Uchiha massacre."

Sighing I stood up and went back to the class without looking back, I know that my words could cause a different effect than what I want, but still, I only said the truth, if she wants to follow me, she needs to change her personality as soon as possible. Otherwise... this isn't an anime anymore, she might end up dead.