Like other girls

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Chapter 01

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Hinata feels things hard.

When her dad is disappointed, the pain in her chest is so unbearable the way she cries in her room is borderline a panic attack.

And when her little sister comes over and hugs and tells her everything will be okay, she feels so much love sometimes she faints.

Her feelings are so hard to handle they overflow, spilling everywhere. She used to be ashamed of it, like she is ashamed of her shyness and her stutter.

It changed in elementary school while she was, once again, being beaten up by some bullies.

A boy defended her, he was loud and obnoxious and screamed at the bullies to leave her alone. He made a whole speech about right and wrong and how to be kind to people, how he couldn't stand by as they bullied an innocent person. He was just as young and small as her, and the tremble in his voice gave his fear away, still, he planted his feet firmly on the ground - right in front of her, protecting her.

In the end, Hinata and the boy got beaten up together.

His selfless act was not for nothing, though. The way he was so unapologetic loud with his feelings made her accept herself a little bit more.

Naruto Uzumaki taught her not to be ashamed of her heart, while she, stupidly, made hers small and quiet, afraid of the repercussions, Naruto took his and showed it to anyone in range, proud of it even when people laughed or punched him to unconsciousness for defending a dork like her.

After meeting him, Hinata started working on how to stop subduing her voice, she started by telling her father when he offended her, and he was now kinder -even surprised he hurt her in the first place. She also told her sister how proud she is of her, and Hanabi suddenly became even more of a prodigy, her smiler bigger with every new encouraging word.

Hinata came in terms of feeling so intensely. She now accepted that as a human she feels love, pain, sadness and a whole more, even-

Hate.

But Hinata never hated before.

She stands still as Naruto - not small trembling Naruto, adult, bright and big Naruto; passes her, not even giving her a second look.

No, she hates Sakura Haruno.

Hinata watches, filled with bitterness, as Naruto runs like a lost puppy to a girl that treats him like shit, ignoring him after declaring to the whole class she is not dating him. Out of nowhere, and while he is watching, pain all over his sky blue eyes.

Because of his own feelings for the girl, Naruto can´t see anything around him but her, all he wants is Sakura, Sakura, Sakura´s love. His vision is so bright with pink all the other colors fade in the background.

She knows all Naruto craves is love, acceptance, care. Because she has the same desire.

I can give it to you, I´ll give you everything, give me one chance, look at me.

He never does.

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Despite the heavy drinking and the few hours (maybe four?) of sleep, she wakes up early and alert. She showers, checks the university portal to download the lecture for Monday, and place an online order for mascara and some blush.

Her body is filled with adrenaline, similar to how she feels before a test she is not sure she can ace.

It´s the first time in years Sakura has a girlfriend. For the first time, she does not need to wake up and drink coffee alone while pretending to read a book she never got past the third chapter.

Fuck you Jane Austen. She mumbles.

Today, instead of making her lonely way to the cafeteria in search of her daily dose of caffeine, she looks at her phone for an hour deciding if she should text Karin or not. Or, what to text her.

Coffee? She types

"Too impersonal? I don´t want to sound disinterested."

Hey friend, Sakura here! :) Just wondering if that offer for coffee still stands. Kisses, Sakura.

"Now I just sound desperate. How cringe am I? I said my name twice…"

She lays back in bed and hides her face with her hands, did she always sabotage friendships by overthinking like this? Why is it so easy to be friends with guys but with girls is like she is walking on eggshells?

Well,

Who is she kidding? how can she say it is easy to be friends with guys when she only has two? And they aren´t even on good speaking terms right now.

Her phone vibrates and Sakura jumps, heart on her mouth.

Morning bitch, I´m on my way to the cafeteria, meet you there? -K

Karin is way too bold and direct; and Sakura is incredibly jealous. Karin makes it simple. She desperately wants to be like this too.

Some minutes later, when she spots Karin´s impeccable blood-red hair in the middle of the cafeteria, the knot in her stomach comes back. For years, no girl liked her, no one wanted to sit with her and drink coffee and talk about which are the best apps to make notes during class, she´s been walking around alone on campus for so long there must be a reason girls don´t like her, right?

If Karin gets to know her better, will she see what the others do? Oh no, if it happens, she´ll have to go back to waiting and hoping for Naruto and Sasuke to let her in their little bromance. The mere thought of investing in a new friendship just to be let aside again terrifies her.

She is about to turn back and make a run for it, an attempt to avoid all the painful part to come, when Karin raises her sharp red nails, waving at her.

Sakura is not even at the table when the girl starts talking.

"How the fuck can you even look alive after getting so drunk yesterday?" Karin makes a movement under her dark-rimmed glasses to scratch her eyes, but halts halfway, as if remembering she has make-up on.

"I think everyone taking the same class as me should know alcohol works as a diuretic and hangovers are mostly dehydration" Sakura says, instantly regretting the cocky reply.

"Pff! so you crawled your drunk ass way back to your room and drank your weight in water before passing out?" A red eyebrow lifts at her, mocking. The banter is friendly and harmless and makes Sakura a bit more comfortable.

It´s very relaxing to be around someone as confident as Karin for some reason. She wonders if there´s any need to mince her words at all.

"No, I simply used my brain and drank a glass of water every once in a while, during the party."

"You´re such a traitor, you never considered making me drink some water too? Or does my suffering simply please you?"

"I´ll try to remind you…" Sakura pauses, holding her breath before continuing. "Next time?" It sounds a bit childish and hopeful, but apparently, it flies over the redhead´s head.

"Next time" Karin repeats and gets up from her chair, completely missing the pink-haired girl´s nervous exhale. "You better. But, as a punishment, coffee is on you."

Sakura frowns but her wallet is already out, reaching for her campus card to pay for both their coffees. "How is it my fault you can´t take care of yourself when you´re drunk?"

Karin gasps in mockery, with her right hand she types for two coffees in the machine, and with the left hand she makes and exaggerated stab movement to her chest. "How dare you? It is basic girl code! Scaring off perverted creeps, tracking my phone when I take a uber alone, holding my purse when I´m peeing and all that shit. Women look out for each other." Karin places a steaming paper cup on her hands and smirks. "That includes protecting me from a hangover, if you have the means to."

Karin seems to describe a loyal caretaker. Does that mean she´s going to have to add Karin´s wellbeing in her priority list whenever they are together?

"So basically, I babysit you?"

"Well, yes." Karin nudges her with her hip as they walk together back to the table. "But I´ll babysit you back, I guess."

"Isn´t it easier if we just take care of ourselves?"

Karin rolls her eyes again, she does it so often Sakura wonders if it´s a habit or if it´s just her.

"And how´s that working out for you so far?"

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"So, we had coffee, now what?" Karins asks the pink-haired girl in front of her, not really surprised Sakura doesn't know how to answer the question. The girl is just a mess. "I mean, it´s freaking Saturday, what are the plans? I need to help a classmate shop for a dress later today, why don´t you come with?"

"Ugh… there´s this new chapter Professor Ibik-"

"Yawn!" She interrupts "You´re not going to die if you don´t study for one day."

"That´s not it, I just don´t feel like going, it´s not my…" Sakura searches for the word, green eyes flying everywhere but her. "...Scene?"

"Whatever" Says Karin. She can´t really expect Sakura to finally accept having a vagina is not terrible in only a day. But at some point, the stupid girl will understand doing girly things is not bad at all. Apparently, today is not it. "We can still do something together until then."

"Oh, in that case there this new episode of Rick and Morty I haven´t watch-"

Fucking hell, Karin reposition her glasses, hiding her cringe. Why is she even trying? She had something else in mind, like walking around campus until they find some hot guys, maybe the football field? Full of hotties there.

"Let´s… just… How about…" Karin starts, thinking, they could go around the campus and find some people in the fields alternating between sports and beers. But, now that Sakura mentioned, she didn´t watch the new episode too… "Ah, fuck it! Okay! but let´s watch it in your room! My roommate is a pothead and our room smell like an Amsterdam coffee shop on the weekends."

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On Monday morning, Sakura doesn't drink coffee with Karin like they did the whole weekend, instead, she steps over the girl sleeping on the mattress on the floor and silently dresses to make sure she gets to Professor Ibiki´s lecture in time. Karin is, as she would say, a lucky bitch and has no early classes Monday mornings.

As she shoves her tablet and a water bottle inside her bag, Sakura realizes that they actually only share that one lecture on Thursdays and Fridays, with Professor Shizune.

Is very weird, after a whole weekend together doing nothing, she now needs to go back to her loner routine until they meet again on Thursday. Three days ago, if she found herself in a class with loud mouth, obnoxious and superficial barbie doll Karin, she would bang her head against a wall, but now, she kind of wishes they had lectures together every day.

She finishes packing silently, trying not to disturb the girl sleeping, and carefully closes the door on the way out, leaving her own key inside and texting Karin to lock it when she leaves and give it back to her later.

"Why is Karin in your room?"

Sakura jumps. In front of her door is someone she never expected to actually come to her, at least not for another two weeks or so.

"Good morning to you too, Sasuke." She recomposes herself, trying her best not to look surprised, if Sasuke made all the effort of not expecting someone to go to him and came himself, he must have something to say. "Because, apparently, we are now friends." She says as they automatically start walking together.

"Karin?" He asks again, and she watches him do the slightest twitch with his right eye. Sasuke is not a person that says much, and his face doesn´t know how to express anything but anger and things similar. But she knows that twitch, right there, meant she was once again being annoying.

"Something wrong with that?" She asks as they exit the building, he held the door until she was out, then let it go, completely ignoring the girls behind them hitting their faces on the glass.

If there´s any moment deserving of a Karin´s traditional eye rolls, that would be it, so she does it.

Sasuke stops walking.

"You said Karin was a bitch."

"I was wrong."

"You were not." He scoffs. "You, friends with a girl like that? She probably fooled around with half the campus."

A pink eyebrow shoots up.

"Oh, like you did?" She says. Even from behind him she swears she can see the annoyance on his face. "So, when a guy sleeps with a bunch of women, it´s just another week, but if a woman does half the amount in a month, she is a whore?"

He turns around, and just like it happened with Naruto, she melts. She expected anger or some harsh comeback, but instead, he looks at her softly, takes her bag from her arms to carry it himself, and looks away while biting his lip.

She often forgets how beautiful he is, the epitome of masculine energy. Sasuke will never tell her soft words or pat her head when she is sad, he is the kind of straight forward guy that carry her things without her asking and will punch people to show her he cares.

"A key that opens many locks is a good key, a lock that opens for any key is a bad lock." He finally says, and she is just so shocked he is using such an absurd phrase she can´t even think on what to reply before his mouth opens again. "You´re not like her, you´re the kind of girl a guy introduces to his parents."

She moves so fast he can´t even react, her lime green bag is in her hands again and her face is red with anger. Is this the kind of words that made her happy before? Putting herself up while pushing other girls down? Oh, she remembers now, how special she felt when Sasuke and Naruto told her shit like this. It made her feel better, of course she doesn't need to be friends with the other women in university, they are all bitches, beneath her.

She was so wrong, Karin is not a bitch, Karin is the type of girl to introduce to parents. She is not tame and soft like Sakura, Karin is the type of woman that speaks up and teaches people do to the same, she will be an amazing mother raising amazing confident children one day, if she ever wants to.

"Well, you know what?" she stomps her feet down, ready to make a run far, far away from Sasuke and how disappointed she is on herself for ever agreeing with him the past. "I think you are not the kind to bring home to parents. I would never!"

When she is finally in front of Morino Ibiki and his awful lecture, she tries her best not to cry, a voice inside her head is whispering nonstop; so if she wasn´t all pure and prude and a fucking virgin, would Sasuke even respect her?

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She is at the gym again. Not the one Sasuke and Naruto go to. But the modern sterile one with a fingertip scanner at the door she chose for herself.

She doesn't have much anger to unleash at the treadmill today, she just feels defeated, there´s a lot a things that made her feel confident before. Good grades were one of them, but the other one is how she was a proper woman. Not vulgar and exposing her body as girls like Ino and Karin do. She suppressed her sexuality because she believed that it made her value higher. She is not the girl to fool around with strangers or to wear a short skirt to feel good.

She enjoyed, being a keeper.

Now, it just feels like a double standard. There is no expectation for men to keep their dicks inside their pants, why can they be open about sex, but women get labeled if they do? It deeply hurts her that Sasuke measures her "lock" value as introduce-to-parents-material just because she kept her door closed. She didn´t keep it closed because she wanted to, she kept it closed because people told her that´s what good girls do.

She has desires too.

She sneaks a glance at the man running in the treadmill right in front of her. Is it that bad for girls to have the same green light to explore their sexuality freely, like guys do? She doesn't think her value would decrease if she did, not anymore.

The one running is the guy from last week, the muscular tall guy with black curly hair and kind eyes. There a fire inside her belly when she sees him. It is the same fire she felt when she was younger and saw Sasuke take off his shirt for the first time.

Oh, she was so ashamed of it back then. But now? Kami, she is interested.

She is walking at a slow pace, but he´s full-on sprinting and there´s sweat running down his neck. His muscles are so tight his butt is not even jiggling, is just there, hard and defined. Sakura feels a weird instinct telling her to bite it.

She opens her water bottle and drinks it all in one go.

This guy is hot.

If she were anything like Karin, she could walk over to him, bend over his treadmill and bat eyelashes his way until he trips.

Sakura is not Karin, if she goes to him and bends over there will be no cleavage, and the sultry look? No way she can pull that off without feeling like an ugly Chihuahua.

She is still watching him when he stops and jumps out of the treadmill, he dries his sweat off with a towel and downs his water bottle, his Adam apple is pronounced, moving up and down.

Then, he turns around, looks her in the eye, smirks, and makes his way to the weightlifting machines.

She freezes. Hairs on her arms lifting and blood rushing to her face for being caught.

She is not completely clueless. It´s not like guys never approached her. It actually happened quite often. But every time she couldn't help but compare them to her boys.

Somehow, they became her standard. They are gorgeous men, with good families and set goals for the future. After going for them once -even if rejected, she felt like when or if she finally found a man to settle down, he needed to be at least 70% of what her best friends are.

Also, it doesn´t help that the way guys normally approach her is terribly confusing. Like with Lee, this sweet caring guy that went running with her sometimes last year, she honestly believed they were becoming friends, texting her to meet sometimes, and talking about life. But was is really friendship if he had feelings for her since the beginning, and when she rejected him, he disappeared? The way Kabuto, her lab partner, looks at her sometimes makes her feel the same way. Guys come to her all nice and friendly and the moment they realize she doesn't like them that way they are goners.

Maybe, one: She needs to stop using incredibly handsome guys that rejected her as the standard. And two: She needs to start getting out there and actually approach the ones she wants, instead of complaining about the ones that come to her. Then she might finally stop being a virgin.

Okay, it sounds easy enough on her mind. But as she steals another look from the extremely attractive guy lifting weights some meters from her, she knows she is definitely not starting this self-improvement trip today. If Naruto and Sasuke are out of her league, there´s no way this guy could ever go for her. Also, he looks older than her, how in the world a silly inexperienced girl like her could ever be confident enough to approach him?

Sakura showers in cold water and goes back to her dorm immediately, but her body still feels hot.

She really needs to stop having epiphanies at the gym.

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When Sakura is back home, she halts in front of her door with the realization of having no keys. Shit, wasn't Karin supposed to give it back to her at some point today?

Where are you? I´m locked outside my room

She texts. One minute later, her door opens, and Karin is there.

"I won´t say sorry," Karin says. "But I hanged out here the whole day and spilled nail polish on your rug. It was ugly anyway."

Sakura doesn't really care. She knows they might be developing some boundaries problems after three days glued to each other, but it´s better to have someone around regularly then to chase them like she used to do with the boys.

She walks past the redhaired and throws herself on her bed, face buried on her pillow.

"I want to have sex." She tells Karin.

"Oh, sweety, don´t we all?"

Sakura grunts.

"You don´t get it."

"Oh, trust me bitch, I get it, you know when was the last time fire here got some botty? Kami, maybe a month?" Karin rambles. "That´s why I downloaded Tinder. Soooo lame though, men are too easy, I need a challenge."

Sakura knows at this point the conversation will switch to looking at Karin´s matches, and as much as she wants to see the kind of guys available on the app, she needs to talk to someone about her issue.

"No, you don´t get it, I never… Aaarh!" She screams again into the pillow, hoping Karin can´t feel the heat emanating from her face. "I never… You know…"

"You never…?" She hears Karin, voice all laced with mockery. Sakura sits up on the bed and hits the pillow to the redheaded girl, knocking her glasses from her face.

"Don´t you make fun of me! this is really embarrassing!" Sakura screams. Her most recent friend just rolls her eyes like she always does and picks up her glasses from the floor before positioning them back on her face, sitting back on Sakura´s stained rug.

"Don´t you be embarrassed about that! Being a virgin was embarrassing, what, 30 years ago? Nowadays you´re a rare mythical creature, a unicorn." Karin flips her smartphone out, and starts swiping. "Besides, I kind of figured you were the waiting-for-marriage kind of girl, there´s nothing wrong with that."

Sakura signs, then makes her way to sit on the floor next to Karin, watching as see swipes left most of the time, but goes right when there´s a dog or tattoos in the picture.

"I don´t think I want to wait for marriage… I thought having sex outside a serious committed relationship was… demeaning?" Sakura says and drops her head in Karin´s shoulder. She thinks some guys look good, but Karin swipes left, and sometimes there´s some weird guys, and surprisingly, her friend swipes right. "But guys do it all the time, even without girlfriends. You too. It just doesn't feel like people have less value because of it anymore."

"People have different values, pinky." Karin tells her. "If a guy sees a problem with me liking sex, he´s not the kind of guy I want to date, ya´know?"

"So it´s okay to value a bit of unilateral celibacy too?"

"Doesn't matter, what´s important is consenting adults being on the same page."

The conversation feels like it is done, and they stay swiping and sitting together for a while. After some minutes of watching Karin´s Tinder, Sakura can´t help putting her opinions out there.

"The muscles! Why not?!"

Karin clicks her tongue.

"I want to have hamburgers at five am after a party, and then a cigarette after sex. This loser probably goes to the gym every day and only eats eggs and sweet potatoes. Kami, the farts, must be terrible."

"What about this one? He´s wearing a suit."

"Are you not listening? These healthy, nice job guys: not-my-type. I need some cursing idiot to break chaos with me." Karins says.

"It kind of sounds like you´re looking for a boyfriend, isn't Tinder the wrong place for it?"

Karin scrunches her eyebrows together and removes her glasses, pressing fingers to the bridge of her nose.

"Ugh, this is so unfair, I like casual hookups, giving fake names and sneaking out of bed in the morning, why am I suddenly feeling like holding hands in the cinema and shit?"

Sakura smiles.

"Well, I wanted a vanilla husband taking me to Christmas at his parents." The pink-haired girl looks away and blushes. "Now, I suddenly want to press this hot guy at gym against the wall, and I don´t even know his name."

They look at each other and laugh.

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Group Chat

Team 7

Last message 17 days ago.

Sakura: Hey guys, do any of you have time? I want to propose a substitute gym :)

2 New messages, today

Naruto: Hey Sak! FIT-leaf told us you didn´t come over to finish your registration. Why don't we all go tomorrow and get some work out done?

Sakura: Hi guys :) Sorry I didn't mention, but I enrolled in another gym, and I quite like it there! Maybe we can work out together when the campus-gym re-opens?

Naruto looks up from his phone mid-lecture and pouts. He is tired of not having Sakura around, he misses her coming over to their apartment, playing video games together, bringing food, and laying on his shoulder. He misses Sakura so much it is all he thinks about lately.

He knows they had this terribly awkward moment where she realized they were not inviting her as often to things and that´s their fault. But it hurts, it really hurts, he looks at her and he sees everything he wishes he could have in a woman. Ever since they met, she is the only girl he could ever give his heart to. She is all he wants.

Then he looks to Sasuke, sitting with his back straight in the first row of Professor Sarutobi´s lecture about basics of business success.

"Understand the stages of the project cycle!" Says Mr. Sarutobi. Sasuke types all the words in his tablet and Naruto plays around with his pen, not writing a word. "Monitor project activities and assess progress! Communicate proficiently to report project status! Develop and strengthen high-performance teams!"

He tunes out the class, looking out the window and imagining how amazing life would be only if Sasuke wasn't in love with Sakura too.

They are brothers, they shared cribs for fuck´s sake, they had each other´s back since forever. Then, out of nowhere in elementary school this small pixie girl with pink hair came and scooped him off his feet, Naruto loves her since then.

He also loves Sasuke, for rejecting her when she declared her love for him. Sasuke knew of Naruto´s feelings, and because of it Sasuke did something he never did before: he befriended someone new, tried to keep her around so Naruto could get close to her.

And fell for her in the process.

Naruto noticed it.

They had this unspoken rule ever since Naruto refused Sakura´s feelings too when she, in the middle of their high school lives, finally fell in love with him: They would all be friends no matter what. One day, the feelings would die out and they would be proud of putting friendship above all, tighter than ever.

"But most importantly! Set goals and make it happen!" He hears Sarutobi´s voice. "Prioritize! Imagine your life in five years, then make it true!"

He did, he imagined himself on one knee, Sakura in a big warm coat just like the day he broke both hers and his heart at the same time. He imagined holding her hand, kissing her. He didn´t see Sasuke there, but for the first time ever, he didn´t mind.

He knows he is close to making a decision -on declaring war on Sasuke and stop holding back.

His phone vibrates on his table, in the front row, he sees Sasuke shoving his smartphone in his pocket.

To Naruto´s ignorance, when Sarutobi tells them to imagine their lives in five years, he is not the only one doing it. Black eyes locked on his tablet, Sasuke sees all his life planned out, fast graduation, interning at the family company, growing his way up while working on a masters, buying a big house in Hana street back in the residential section of the city -same distance from his parent´s place and Sakura´s mom and dad. He sees Sakura in a doctor coat, kissing him at the door.

The message says,

May the best man win.

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Author Note: I was really surprised by the amazing feedback and decided to give another chapter a try. I enjoy the female friendship protagonism going on here and would love to explore it a bit more.

It would be nice to know if this is what you guys expected for the storyline. I´m not sure about pairings yet or even if I should keep writing, so suggestions are welcome.