Disclamier: I do not own Naruto or its characters the only part that I would like to say that I own is the idea to this little story.

Warning: Some cursing but nothing too bad.

~…-…~

A little girl with pink hair was hiding.

From what you might ask.

It's really not that hard to figure out once you listen to her surroundings.

Things like 'demon' – 'bitch' – 'fucking fox' and so on were being whispered, yelled and hissed by the angry mob of civilians.

What she did?

Nothing but exist and try to survive.

The sounds the angry mob was making slowly drew away, she peeked out when she was sure no one was there.

Her short pink hair fell over her green eyes, hiding the tears and confusion that was apparent in there.

She didn't know what she had done to make everyone angry.

She had to move and she had to be careful.

She didn't want to go to the hospital today.

It was her birthday after all.

"Happy birthday to you Sakura." She mumbled as she moved, being careful to keep in the shadows.

~…-…~

The next day, Sakura carefully snuck inside the hokage tower, she had an appointment with the fourth after all, she didn't really know what he wanted, but he was usually nicer than everyone else.

She stood in front of his door, comparing to her small five year old self, the door looked very big and dangerous.

She always felt scared whenever she was visiting the hokage.

The door was opened suddenly and Sakura stiffened, prepared for anything.

Out stepped a woman with flaming red hair with a boy who looked to be around her age, Sakura looked at them for a moment before she averted her eyes to the floor and made herself as small as possible.

They didn't say anything to her, they just kept walking.

"Ah, come on in Sakura." The fourth hokage said, sounding happy as he always did.

This was one of the reasons as to why Sakura had never really told him what happened when he wasn't looking, she was afraid that she would make him anything but happy.

It would just give the villagers another reason to beat her.

He just looked at her for a long while, no expression in his eyes, she felt scared.

Had she done something wrong?

She could almost feel the tears gathering in her eyes so she pressed them closed and clenched her hands, waiting for the worst.

She had learned to expect the worst.

Always.

Always expect the worst.

The hokage sighed, closed his eyes and folded his hands in front of his mouth.

"It has come to my attention that the orphanage has thrown you out, quite a long time ago too." He said, not opening his eyes, but she could sense his worry and it left her frozen.

Did he care?

Did he truly, honestly, care?

"I… I don't, they, umm…" Sakura couldn't form a proper sentence, she was frozen in place, couldn't comprehend what was happening.

She was just staring at him with wide eyes, mouth open in shock.

She was sure that he would be able to see the confusion and disbelief in her eyes.

He opened his eyes and looked at her; she could see the apology in his eyes.

She just didn't understand why he would look at her like that, she didn't deserve it did she? The villagers didn't believe she did and so, she had come to believe so herself.

Was she wrong?

"I would like to try and make this better Sakura-chan. Would you come live with my son, wife and me?" he asked, looking so very hopeful.

She could feel the tears now.

"But everyone says I'm a monster! I don't deserve it! Why!?" Sakura wailed, tears falling freely, she was gripping at her shirt, right over her heart.

Her so very fragile heart.

The hokage was just staring at her, slight surprise visible in his sky blue eyes, his hands fell.

He didn't know what to say as the girl in front of him broke down and revealed to him what the village had made her believe.

It hurt inside him to think that it had gone so far.

It was his own fault, he knew, he should have kept a closer eye on the girl in front of him.

He rubbed his face with his right hand, he felt so angry with himself.

He stood from his chair and made his way to the still crying girl and intended to envelope her in a hug but she flinched away as though he would hit her.

It made his heart clench.

And with no further ado, he picked the girl up and hugged her gently, stroking her hair and trying to sooth her.

She had stiffened when he had picked her up but when she felt that he wouldn't harm her she relaxed and gripped his clothes tightly, crying.

~…-…~

Later that day, she was standing behind the hokage, holding onto his pant leg tightly.

She was going to meet his family.

He had told her that he had a son her age and had warned her that he could be a bit of a bully. She had looked at with a blank look for a moment before, plainly, stating that he probably couldn't be worse than the villagers.

He had also told her of his wife, said she might be blunt sometimes but that she was a softie at heart and that she really wanted a daughter but that the birth of Naruto had been complicated and had nearly cost the woman her life.

Naruto and Kushina were their names.

And Sakura was scared that she would mess up, that they would hate her.

Just like the villagers did.

The door was opened to reveal a woman with red hair; Sakura realized that it was the same woman that she had seen earlier.

Sakura hid further behind the hokage, hoping that this woman wouldn't be like any of the other that she had encountered.

"Ah, who do you have their Minato?" she asked, trying to look at the young girl behind the hokage, he realized that Sakura was hiding and gently pulled her free so his lovely wife could see her.

Kushina froze for just a second, at who she saw, then she noticed the state that the little girl was in and her anger swelled at the villagers.

Fools the lot of them was.

"Hi there, I'm Kushina, who are you?" Kushina asked, holding her hand out hoping that the little girl would take it.

Sakura stared at the hand presented to her, confusion was clear on her face but she didn't want to be rude and she didn't want to be punished.

"I-I'm Sakura." She said; her voice nothing but a whisper.

Kushina could barely hold in her tears and angry shouts at the sound of the so very broken child.

Oh she could definitely feel that she had become a mother now.

Sakura waited a little before placing her hand in the redheads hand, a silent gesture of trust and a please-don't-hurt-me.

It was so clear to Kushina that she almost broke down right there.

"Come on in then Sakura and we'll make you pretty again." Kushina said with a bright smile as she stood, keeping a firm grip on the girls hand as she did so.

Oh she feared how Naruto, her so-very-spoiled brat would take having Sakura around.

~…-…~

Kushina was still fussing over Sakura when Naruto came home.

It took him only seconds to notice the girl standing with his mother and the possessiveness rose immediately.

"Oi, what're you doing with my mom!" Naruto yelled, moving forward to remove the little girl from his mother but was surprised when the little girl flinched and shrunk away, as though he wanted to hit her.

Oh he felt bad now.

He wasn't a bad guy, oh he knew he acted spoiled sometimes but never had anyone moved away from him like that.

For some reason it made his eyes water.

"Naruto, this is Sakura. She's going to be staying here for a while." Kushina explained, looking her son in the eyes.

"Why?" Naruto asked, he was confused; didn't the girl have parents like him?

"Because her parents is in heaven and the orphanage doesn't want her and she most certainly can't live on the street." Kushina explained calmly.

Sakura just looked at them, knowing that she could live on the streets but that the hokage wouldn't let her.

"But, I don't get it, why doesn't the orphanage want her!?" Naruto yelled, angry at the orphanage, they had always been nice to him and as such, it was a little hard for him to understand.

Kushina looked at her son, trying to decide if she should let her son in on the secret and, at the very same time, let Sakura know why people seemed to hate her.

"Ah Naruto, that would be because of something that happened a long time ago, on the night she was born in fact." Minato began, looking his son and Sakura over, making sure that they understood that what he was about to tell them was serious and that it was nothing to laugh about.

"The day you two were born was the day the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, the Kyuubi is a demon, the strongest one, has nine tales and is a fox. He left a lot of the village in ruins and killed a lot of people that day. The only way to get rid of him was to seal him inside someone, as he is too strong to kill. The one the demon was to be sealed inside had to be a child, a grownup would have been fried and as such a child was chosen. That child was you Sakura." Minato explained, trying to choose words that they would understand.

Sakura was looking at the ground with wide eyes.

She had a demon sealed inside her; everyone thought she was the demon.

Why couldn't they see that she wasn't the demon?

She had never hurt anyone.

"Then everyone is stupid! Sakura isn't a demon! She's too cute to be a demon!" Naruto yelled angrily, he was going to show everyone how stupid they were.

Kushina and Minato looked at Naruto with surprise visible in their eyes.

Their son just stood there, big grin on his face and looked very proud of himself.

Then Sakura lunged at Naruto and hugged him for all she was worth.

Oh she was so happy and she could finally see that something good would come to her.

And as such, Sakura began living with Minato, Kushina and Naruto.

Sakura and Naruto wouldn't go anywhere without the other and Naruto would defend her if anyone tried to harm her.

Eventually Sakura talked with the Kyuubi, it left her scared at first but after some time she gathered her courage and put the demon in his place.

He was at least somewhat pleasant after that.

And such was the life of Sakura Namikaze.

~…-…~

And that's done.

I hope you liked it.

Constructive criticism is welcome (I know I'm not a pro at writing) but flames are not.

So please leave a review if you have the time (and have something nice to say or have some pointers for me).

And please remember that this is a oneshot and that I don't plan on lengthening this or anything else (alas, no reason to put it on a watch list)

~Sparkzey

[11/30/2012] EDIT!: I plan on posting a follow up to this one, so keep an eye out for it (though I can't say precisely when it'll be done) - yes this change of oppinion happens to be because of you lovely revievers :) And thank you very much for the support!

~Sparkzey