A/N: Warnings. This isn't going to follow the original beautiful fairytale of Cinderella. It was partly inspired by the movie "A Cinderella Story", but it's completely different.

I hope you enjoy :-)

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Crash.

The young pink-haired woman sighed. It had happened again. And it would be her fault. Again.

"Haruno!" shrilled a voice. "You are going to clean it up immediately! And I'm charging you for these!"

Sakura nodded without a word and proceeded to clean up the mess of three broken plates and a crystal glass.

Mrs Yamanaka hmphd and walked away. Only then did Uchiha Sasuke leave his hiding place. He smirked arrogantly at Sakura and deliberately stomped upon the broken dishes.

The emerald-eyed woman didn't even blink and continued with her work. Arguing wasn't worth it. She knew she couldn't say anything. Not in that moment, anyway.

Sakura was a twenty-year-old very pretty university student. She wanted to become a medic and studied hard to get the perfect grades she needed in order to pass her exams. Not that that was a problem. She had always been a dedicated student, knowing very well that in order to save lives, she needed to have all the knowledge possible. She had been able, with hard work and her impressive talent, to enter the Uchiha University of Konoha. It was a very prestigious school, and usually only who had the money to afford it could get in. But Sakura had managed just with her skills. Even if she was regarded with suspicion at first, the teachers and most of her schoolmates had recognised her hard-working, kind-hearted spirit and had accepted her. The Uchiha University was a very… compact organisation. It was a private school, and therefore different from others. In fact, it had a high-school atmosphere, only everyone was older. Usually rich people got there, even if only the best managed to get a degree. There were few people with a normal background, like Sakura.

Not that Sakura's life had been normal. Her parents had died when she was a little girl. She had been raised by her godmother, Tsunade, who was an exceptional doctor. Even if she wasn't a perfect woman, she had taken care of Sakura the best way she could, and the pink-haired woman felt that her young years had been very happy ones.

However, when Tsunade's long-term fiancée Dan had died as Sakura was fifteen, the older woman had been devastated. For her surrogate-daughter's sake, she had struggled to go on. Sadly, that was not meant to be. She had been diagnosed with cancer.

It had happened when Sakura was eighteen. Tsunade was serene about it all. She explained to her goddaughter that she had known about her disease for years. Dan had known, and had given her the strength to carry on. Tsunade explained that she should have already died by Sakura's seventeenth birthday, but she had been fighting against death to be there for her. But now she couldn't fight anymore. It was too late. And she asked Sakura if she could understand and forgive her.

Sakura did understand. And she did forgive her godmother. So, when Tsunade died a few months later, Sakura had had time to prepare herself and could receive her blessing without crying. Not in front of her, at least. It had still been difficult to realize that she was totally alone in the world.

Well, that wasn't exactly true. She had a few very good friends she could count on. One of them was Naruto, a loud and outrageously always happy boy of her same age. Ha had lost his parents when he was little, too, but his godfather, Jiraiya, who took care of him, was still alive. He was a bit dense sometimes, but he had a big heart and would do anything – really anything – if it was what Sakura needed. Then there was Sai, an always-serious and almost emotionless artist, who actually called her some weird names, but who never judged her and listened attentively when she spoke, because he said she was an inspiration for his drawings. There was also Kakashi, a silver-haired man who still treated her like a child, but who cared about her because her mother had been a childhood friend of his.

Sakura didn't have female best friends. She sometimes spoke with Hinata in the hall, a very shy but nice girl who had a big crush on Naruto, although he was completely oblivious about it.

She didn't have any other close friends. She was well-liked by almost everybody, except a group of girls in the nurse classes. They were led by this platinum blonde-dyed of her same age, Ino, who was, plainly put, a bitch. She was arrogant, even if she wasn't very good at what she did. Her manners were those of a slut. And she hated Sakura, although the pink-haired woman didn't know why.

However, even if Ino often tried to discredit Sakura – she had even whispered during class, quite noisily, that Sakura had slept with the principal in order to get into that university –, she was nothing compared to Uchiha Sasuke.

He was a very lazy student – he had already repeated a year – of her same age, very arrogant and very full of himself. He was the son of the principal and therefore acted superiorly. He was quite attractive, but he was a cold-hearted monster. He was awful to anyone who dared cross his path. And he used girls like toys whenever he felt like it. The stories on that subject were many and really scary. The latest was about a girl named Karin, who was one year older than Sakura. Karin had had a crush on Sasuke for a long time. He had somehow found out and decided to play with her feelings. He had made her think that he felt something for her too, so she would trust him. Then, when he had invited her over one night, he had planned everything so that she would find him in bed with another girl, who also had a crush on him. Karin wasn't a weak person and, furious, had told him what she thought of him. So, without remorse, he had raped her. Karin hadn't been able to denounce him, because he had threatened her and her family. She had therefore been forced to drop out of school in order to be free of him.

Sakura had been deeply shocked by that story. Sasuke's father, the principal, knew nothing of it. And Sasuke had a few "friends", Suigetsu and Juugo, who threatened verbally and physically anyone who dared interfere in his plans. The worse of it all was that Sasuke had tried to hit on Sakura. She had tried to act oblivious for a while, and it seemed to have worked. But Sasuke hadn't forgiven her subtle rejection and found a way to make her pay for it.

Sakura, when she was left alone in the world, in order to maintain herself, had had to find a job. Tsunade and her parents had actually left her a very big amount of money, but she would receive it only on her twenty-first birthday. So she had to survive on her own for the moment. At eighteen, she had found a job as a waitress in a restaurant next to the Uchiha University. She was paid very well and she didn't have a lot of working hours.

Unfortunately, the restaurant belonged to Ino's parents. Her employers had always been satisfied with her job, but since the day Ino had begun to speak ill of her at school, they regarded her with more hostility. The pink-haired young woman knew that her job was on the line. She badly needed the money she earned, because the university was of excellent level, but a very expensive one. And if she dropped out, by law she couldn't enter there ever again.

Sasuke had only made her position worse. He had found out where she worked and begun to sabotage her job. He made little – or not so little – accidents happen, making sure it looked like Sakura's fault. And she couldn't say a word, because he had blackmailed her. If he had threatened her directly, Sakura would have fought back. Tsunade had taught her self-defence, and the emerald-eyed girl had a very strong punch. But Sasuke had threatened to expel Hinata. Even if she wasn't Sakura's greatest friend, she was a nice girl and she had a difficult situation with her rich father, who expected a lot from her. She was doing fine at university, but if she was expelled, her life would be over.

So Sakura had had to stay quiet, watching Sasuke destroying pieces of her life and enjoying it cruelly.

However, she hadn't been inactive. The restaurant manager, a young and dynamic woman named Shizune, had been acquainted with Tsunade and was very fond of Sakura. She wasn't prejudiced like the Yamanaka couple, and had great influence on everything that concerned the restaurant. Sakura had privately suggested to her that it would be a wise idea to install hidden cameras in the staff-only parts of the restaurant. Just to control what happens, she had explained. Shizune had looked at her with eyes full of questions, since her employers had told her to keep an eye on the pink-haired student, and to be ready to fire her. As if reading her mind, Sakura had added innocently, You could control my actions better this way.

The cameras had been installed for quite a while now. Shizune hadn't said anything to her, but the way she had once met her gaze had told her that she knew. Sasuke's actions had been filmed, together with his words, This will teach you something, Haruno. You're going to pay for rejecting me, and they were safely recorded on tape.

However, Shizune couldn't do anything immediately. The Yamanaka were quite stubborn people, and had insisted they speak with their manager only once a month, during the staff-meeting. In that occasion, she would tell them everything. They had actually made Shizune sign a deal about it when she had begun working there (years prior), so she would lose her job if she didn't obey. That had left Sakura with no choice but to wait for the next meeting, which would be ten days later. She just had to made sure she wasn't fired before then.

Luckily for her, Sasuke had stopped doing anything too outrageous. Compared to the time when he had almost put the building on fire, making it look like her fault, breaking three plates and a crystal glass was nothing. But why had he suddenly calmed down so much?

The answer was easy enough. A short while before, his older brother had come to study at Uchiha University. Uchiha Itachi was a man who was rumoured to be a genius. He was three years older than Sasuke and had spent one year studying abroad. He had come back for his last year of university. He seemed to be really clever and was an exceptional student. He was taking his degree in engineering and information technology.

And he had a strange power over Sasuke. They were rumoured to have had words, and Sasuke had stopped taking advantage of girls since then. He had also reduced his bullying a lot, even if he hadn't stopped completely. But Sakura had found out the most shocking thing from Hinata. The shy girl had told her that her family, the Hyugas, had many contacts among many countries, and some were also in a very far town where Karin had gone to live. Well, it appeared that Uchiha Itachi had gone there with his brother and forced him to apologize to the girl. Then he had promised Karin and her family that they would receive anything they would need. Hinata had told Sakura that Itachi had personally made sure of that, and he had done that not with the Uchiha money, but with Sasuke's personal funds, one that every Uchiha received at birth.

Once, in the female bathroom, Sakura had also overheard Ino chatting with her girlfriends. They had found out that a few days before, in the Uchiha backyard, Sasuke had had an argument with his older brother; or better, Sasuke had yelled at him, while Itachi had told him calmly and bluntly that now he – Sasuke – was on his own and that no Uchiha would ever be there for him again.

Sakura had thought about all that for a long time. Uchiha Itachi was now greatly admired in the whole university. He had been admired upon arrival as well, because he was very good-looking. He was tall, dark-eyed and with long dark hair which should have been girlish, but were actually very manly. He had a deep, rich voice, and was always well-mannered and a perfect gentleman; and in every hallway, during breaks, Sakura was sure to find a group of girls who were gushing about him. To sum it up: he was the most popular guy in Uchiha University. And maybe even outside it.

The emerald-eyed young girl herself had to admit that he was very attractive. She had actually bumped into him once, when she was getting out of class. She had been holding a pile of books and had been thinking about which points of the femoral artery were closer to the skin surface when she had crushed into someone. She had lost her balance and her books had scattered all over the floor. She had been about to fall on them as well, and had already closed her eyes in defeat, waiting for the impact, but it never happened. A strong pair of arms had grabbed her around the waist and steadied her. Surprised, she had opened her eyes, only to stare into the very close, pitch-black ones of Uchiha Itachi.

She had managed not to blush. He had blinked once, and then, like a gentleman, had picked up all her books and handed them to her. She had thanked him, grateful, for both his actions, and he had seemed surprised by her sincere gratitude. He had smiled a little, acknowledged her with a short nod of his head and walked away. And Sakura had had a hard time in trying to get his handsome face out of her mind. His eyes were black, but with the reflection of the light they got a light shadow of dark blue. He had deep stress lines, that emphasized his dedication as a student, and that made him look older than he was. Sakura had tried – tried – to firmly ban him from her mind from then onwards. To no avail, of course.

She herself didn't think much of her own appearance. She had green eyes and pink hair, but her pink hair was always tied in a bun and covered with a headband, because she didn't want people to inquiry about its unusual colour, and she didn't want to dye it either. She tried not to stand out in the university, because people were quick to judge and even quicker to condemn.

The pretty medic-to-be sighed quietly. Get a grip and stop daydreaming, she told herself firmly. She finished cleaning up the mess of dishes Sasuke had provoked, and then went back to the front of the restaurant. It was quite the fancy place, even if – thankfully for her – it didn't stay open too late into the night, closing at midnight. Sakura greeted a few people at the bar, giving them what they asked for and smiling pleasantly when required. Some of the regular customers smiled fondly at her and she nodded back. It was almost six in the evening, so Sakura's shift was almost finished. When she didn't have the evening shift, she usually helped at the bar.

When her shift was over, she made sure everything was in its right place and went to the staff-only rooms. She changed from her uniform into her normal clothes and took her school bag. She walked out from the back door and went towards a quiet part of the city of Konoha. There, she stopped in front of a very large house, which radiated warmth and affection, but had also and underlying feeling of sadness and loneliness.

She walked in.

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