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Italics: past

Regular font: present

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Album of Memories

By: Xmarksthespot

It was early in the morning when Haruno Sakura reached out and grabbed onto the book with ribbons and sequins glued all over that rested on her shelf.

The eighteen year old giggled inwardly and turned the cover of the photo album.

With a sigh passing her lips, the rosette quietly glanced at the photos.

i. just us kids

"Alright children," The teacher called out. The junior academy teacher was busy hustling the 'brats' who were terrorizing the room. "Form a straight line from tallest to shortest!"

Class pictures wasn't as exciting to Sakura as it was to the other students. As a five year old, the timid girl hated taking pictures, knowing anybody who were in them would get a copy and laugh at her abnormally large sized forehead.

The emerald eyes trailed everywhere, confused and frightened.

"Uhm.. Sensei!..." She muttered quietly.

Luckily, the teacher looked up, but when a couple of boys got out of line, the woman turned attention to them instead.

Sakura moved her head down.

"Do you know where to go?"

The sudden voice surprised her.

She shook her head and looked up, seeing dark hair that stuck out on all ends and pretty black eyes.

The boy took a step towards her and Sakura felt nervous with the closeness.

Sasuke looked at her and grinned. "You're just shorter than me by a bit so you can stand behind me."

She softly smiled and nodded, doing as he said.

The day wasn't as bad as Sakura though it'd be. The young girl smiled brightly as she stood next to a grinning Sasuke for class pictures.

The woman continuously scanned back to his face. Sasuke did always laugh back then. Sakura then glanced over to the photo underneath.

"Oh no," she laughed at the picture, knowing that her mother had placed that photo in her scrapbook. It was on their first school field trip and her teacher went around taking pictures.

"You know with a forehead like that, you're just going to blind everyone," snickered one of the girls in the group.

Sakura stood by the pond silently as the three bullies made fun of her...again. She didn't do anything but stand there, taking every insult they inflicted on her.

Unfortunately, Ino was assigned to a different group and went on the other side of the field.

Inside her mind, Sakura repetitively told herself to talk back, but the child was scared.

"Awe, is poor little Saku-chan going to cry? Want me to go get Ino so she can come and hold your hand?"

"Shut up." It wasn't a great comeback, but it was all the five year old could think of.

Suddenly, the three girls frowned and step towards the rosette.

"Tch, what did you just say?"

"I said leave me alone!" Sakura spoke up and strangely felt proud of herself.

One of the girls bit her bottom lip and easily showed everyone that she was angry.

Splash!

Sakura fell into the pond and everything from head to toe was muddy and wet. The young girl felt like she was going to cry.

"Why don't you pathetic girls just leave her alone?"

All four girls turned and saw the Uchiha.

"Uh..Sasuke-kun...I..we.." they slightly blushed.

"Stop bullying her and go be a loser someplace else."

Their mouths opened widely and the three hurriedly left.

Sasuke then jumped into the pond so he was also wet. He held his hand out and Sakura grabbed onto it. The Uchiha helped her get back up, but before she let go of his hand, a flash from the teacher's camera startled them.

The sight of both her and Sasuke all muddy and wet made her turn red from embarrassment. Sakura continued to flip through the book and passed by a few random pictures. She didn't feel like looking at them at that moment.

Suddenly, she stopped on the page with her graduation photos. Of course, next to hers was Ino's picture, but on the next page, Sakura grinned widely as no one ever knew what she had on them.

ii. academy days

"Sakura, don't I just look amazing in my pictures?" Ino yelled out loud during lunch break, shoving her photos into her best friend's face.

Sakura giggled. "Yeah, yeah Ino. Now look at mine!" However, at that moment, something caught the corner of Sakura's sea green eyes and she excused herself from her group of friends.

The twelve year old went down the hallway and never left sight of Sasuke Uchiha. She hid behind a wall, wondering what he was doing and noticed he was holding onto a package.

Sasuke muttered a grunt and tossed the white envelope in the trash can.

After he walked off, Sakura sneaked over to the garbage bin and picked up the package.

"Oh. My. God." In her hand was the graduation photos that belonged to Sasuke Uchiha.

"I better not show anybody this," she murmured and looked both ways in the hall, making sure no one noticed before sneaking Sasuke's grad photos in her bag.

Sakura rolled her eyes to remembering how stupid her crush on Sasuke was– and obsessive. Although, she did have to admit that he was very handsome in the grad photos.

Next, Sakura saw a picture of the final group project that they did in Iruka-sensei's class.

It consisted of three people who were chosen randomly; Sakura's group: Her, Ino and Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun!" Ino wailed. "So how do you think we should do this?" The blond moved closer to the Uchiha.

"Ino, don't let Sasuke-kun do all the work. So uh...Sasuke-kun, since our group has the outdoor activity, want to move somewhere that's more comfortable and relaxing?" Sakura also moved closer to him.

Sasuke ignored both girls, trying to squeeze out of the limited space they gave him.

"Forehead girl! You're complaining to me about letting Sasuke-kun do all the work–which I'm not– and you're not even focused."

"Well how can I when it's this hot outside and we're not under any decent shade?"

"You know, if it were just me and Sasuke-kun doing this project, there would be no problems."

"Really Ino-pig? I bet that if it were just me and Sasuke-kun, we'd be done this already and have free time. You, you spend 20 minutes asking what Sasuke wants for lunch so you can make it when he always eats tomatoes!" On the left side of the large oak tree behind the school, Sakura added inwardly.

"Oh wow, that was a long day," Sakura muttered to herself. She looked at the photograph with her and Ino on the side, arguing over Sasuke and behind them was Sasuke himself, finishing the project alone.

She turned the page to her favorite section of the album. Sakura loved looking over that part through there were many times when looking t them made her want to cry. She delicately ran her fingers over them, eyes starting to tear. She pressed her lips together and studied her all time preferred picture.

iii. team 7

"Ohayo, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura chirped optimistically. She waved in the air but growled when the only reply she got was Naruto's bright grin and greeting.

"Ohayo, Naruto.." she said dully.

It was just in time for sunrise and the newly formed team 7 were standing on the red bridge, waiting for Kakashi.

"He's late again?" Sakura complained.

"Something tells me he's going to be late a lot more times after this," Naruto muttered.

Finally, after Kakashi arrived, he lead his students to an area where a man stood next to a camera.

"We're going to be taking a team photo today!" Kakashi told them

Sakura panicked as she wondered if her appearance was nice. Naruto was complaining as to why they couldn't train and Sasuke, again, said nothing.

"Remember to smile!" Kakashi instructed.

Everybody got into position and Sakura lifted her hands towards her mouth, giggling. This was going to be her first picture taken with Sasuke (aside from the preschool picture of course).

"Yeah, teme, smile!" Naruto joked and Kakashi patted him on the head, signaling for him to stop talking.

"Dobe," Sasuke called him, causing the blond to turn and growl at him and Kakashi placed his hand on Sasuke's head as well, telling the Uchiha to stop with the name calling.

Flash!

"Kakashi-sensei..." Even after all those years, Sakura continued calling him her sensei. She scanned the picture again. "Naruto...Sasuke-kun."

How time had caused everything to change. Sakura was happy now with her current team, but there were many times when she wished life went back to just the four of them in team 7.

The next picture Sakura saw was an interesting one. The rosette personally believed that next to the team photo, this was one of her favorites. No one ever really knew what it meant, but to her, she really treasured it.

It was a small card with her name written in beautiful handwriting. That was it. Nothing...special.

By the time she got to Konoha's front gates, she met up with an emotionless Uchiha who, as always, was early.

Eventually, Naruto came. He arrived with a large grin and held out a medium sized box towards her. "Happy Birthday Sakura-chan!"

Sasuke turned towards the pair.

"Thanks Naruto!"

"Wah? Sasuke, didn't you get Sakura-chan a present?"

As much as it was a disappointment to the genin, Sakura softly smiled and said, "He didn't know it was my Birthday and no one has to bring me a present."

At that moment, Kakashi appeared. In hand, was not another book, but a card. "Happy Birthday, Sakura!" Her sensei told her. "The present was a big big to carry so I gave it to your parents at home. You can open it after the mission."

Sakura smiled positively, feeling more special than ever.

Soon, they headed off towards the Ice Village.

Team 7 stayed at a small hotel, each member with a separate room–though very small.

It was late at night and Sakura reached out, opening Naruto's gift.

The wrapping was a bit messy, but it was the thought that counted.

"Oh my, it's so cute!" There were several hair clips and ribbons. Sakura reminded herself to later, thank him again.

Just then, there was a knock on the door followed by a, "Its me."

She recognize the voice as being Sasuke and quickly ran to open it.

When she did, she was met with an awkward looking Uchiha.

"Good evening, Sasuke-kun."

"Here," he muttered and handed her a small box.

"What? Sasuke, I told you, I don't need you going out to buy a gift for me just because the others did."

"Whatever." With that, he hurriedly walked off.

Sakura held the box as if it were fragile (you never know what could be inside it) and sat down on the bed.

It had a small card attached to it with her name written in handwriting, making her wonder whether it was Sasuke who wrote it or not.

Gleefully, the girl opened the box and her apple-green eyes literally sparkled.

It was the most beautiful bracelet she had ever saw. It was a gold chain with multiple white diamonds with small emeralds (the color matched her own eyes) attached to them.

She gazed at the jewel all night until she saw the box.

"Wait a minute.." she told herself. "This label on the box comes from the store...that is only located in Konoha! He did remember it was my birthday! It wasn't because of guilt, he knew, he knew, he knew!" She squealed so loud, people next door started complaining.

Even today, Sakura still hung onto the bracelet. She had it placed carefully in the box and usually wore it. Sakura turned the page and frowned. She was probably around fourteen at the time.

She wasn't even going to try to think back to what happened that day. Nothing happened. It was just that practically everybody was there: Tsunade, Jiraiya, Naruto, Kakashi and everybody else that she knew...excluding Sasuke who rather be with a stupid snake man than with her and their team.

Both she and Naruto weren't smiling, but weren't frowning either.

The date they took that photo was the second year anniversary mark of Sasuke's departure from the village– probably never coming back.

She didn't bother thinking too hard on that memory and went onto the next one which was a painting glued next to a photo. It was the photo of the newly formed team 7 when they were fifteen.

iv. adolescent years

Yamato quickly setted the camera and Sai stood there silently with Sakura. Kakashi read his book and Naruto impatiently sat on the bench, shivering.

It was a Christmas photo.

In fact, they were all wearing something festive.

Kakashi's mask was a dark green with red trimmings, Sakura wore a holiday sweater, Yamato had a carrot nose strapped to his face and Naruto and Sai wore Santa hats.

After the photos were taken, they gave each other their gifts.

Sai slowly walked to Sakura with his usual sly smile.

He handed her a thin piece of paper.

"You should add it to that photo album you have."

Sakura looked at it as she finally realized he gave her what the Christmas photo was missing.

"Sai...thank you!"

She reached in for a hug, startling the artist while holding onto a painting of Sasuke.

v. present time

Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Shoot," Sakura muttered, shutting her alarm clock off. "I'm late!" She quickly shoved the photo album aside and got ready. The eighteen year old ran to the usual large red bridge.

"Sakura! You're late!" Naruto yelled. He stood next to Sai and across from Yamato.

"I'm not that late," she replied. "Besides, I'm not even the last one here."

On cue, Kakashi appeared and Yamato started to turn on the camera.

"Another updated photo of team 7, huh? I swear, we have too many of these," Kakashi calmly said.

Everybody got into position as the cameraman started to countdown the seconds.

Sakura, for the first time in a long while, smiled as bright as their genin photo.

There were two rows:

With Kakashi on the back right with book in hand, Sai–also in the top row– in the middle with his signature grin and Yamato on the left with a plain smile.

The hyperactive Naruto was cheerful as well. He stood in the front row.

Sakura knew that she always wanted to go back in time when they were genin and happy...but she knew that the current time is the most happiest moment of her life.

Naruto was on her left.

She was in the middle.

And, her Sasuke-kun on her right.

"Say cheese!"

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AN Edit: Hey guys, thanks for the reviews! Quick note though, for those of you who believe that Sasuke never came back: reread the second last sentence again. ;)