"Alright, we're going to play a little game, everybody, okay? Since it's your first day at pre-school, we're just going to try and get to know each other a little bit."

Four year old Naruto stared up at his teacher with wide, bright eyes. Fifteen other students did the same beside him. They were all sitting on a carpet in the center of the room, with their teacher on a stool beside them.

"What kinda game, Mrs. Taki...Takahi...Ta...?"

"Just call me Mrs. T, remember?" The teacher winked at the girl who had asked the question, and Naruto turned his head to look at the girl. He grinned to himself. She had pink hair and green eyes. "What's your name, sweetie?" Mrs. Takahashi asked her.

"My name is Haruno Sakura!"

Naruto stood up suddenly, walking the short distance to Sakura and holding out his hand. "Hi Sakura! I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" He smiled at her, and she smiled back slightly, staring at his hand for a moment before shaking it.

"Alright, sit back down, Naruto, and don't stand up again unless you get permission," the teacher said a bit too harshly, and Naruto quickly took a seat, this time next to Sakura. "Now for our game. We're all going to form a circle on the carpet..."

Every student started sliding around quickly, until a small circle had formed. Sakura pat the spot next to her on the carpet, and Naruto slid over quickly until he was next to her once again. "You're pretty," he whispered bluntly. Sakura blushed.

"Good. Now we'll go around the circle, and everyone will say their name, and then tell us all what they want most in the world!"

"Most in the world!?" a boy with red streaks on his face cried excitedly.

"Most in the world!" the teacher replied cheerfully. Naruto grinned. He decided he liked this teacher, even if she had gotten a little mad at him. "How about you go first, young man?" She smiled down at the small boy sitting next to her, who had black hair and was wearing a blue shirt. "What's your name?"

"Uchiha Sasuke," the boy said shyly, avoiding everyone's eyes.

"Everyone say hi to Sasuke," the teacher replied happily.

"Hi Sasuke!" the class chorused. Sasuke waved meekly.

"Alright, so what do you want most in the world, Sasuke?"

Sasuke's eyes went bright, and he grinned. "I want to be just like my big brother, Uchiha Itachi!" The class oohed at the mention of Itachi's name.

"Wow, those are some big dreams, Sasuke," Mrs. Takahashi told him. "But remember, every dream can be achieved with enough hard work and determination." She looked to Sasuke's left, where the same boy who had shouted earlier was sitting. "What's your name, little boy?"

"I'm Inuzuka Kiba!"

"Everyone say hi to Kiba," the teacher said with a grin.

It continued around the circle for a while, until Naruto saw the teacher focus on Sakura, who was sitting on his right side. That meant after her, it was his turn.

"Well, we already know who this is, right? Everyone say hi to Haruno Sakura!"

"Hi Sakura!" Naruto joined in with the chorus of students, nudging Sakura lightly and smiling.

"Good job, class. Now Sakura, what do you want most in the whole world?"

"Umm..." Sakura tapped her finger to her chin thoughtfully, looking around at the rest of the class. She seemed nervous, having been put on the spot. Naruto looked from her to the teacher, and watched as Sakura's cheeks slowly turned red with embarrassment. "Uh...I don't kno-"

"I want to be Hokage!" Naruto exclaimed happily. Every head turned towards him, and the teacher shook her head disapprovingly. "Naruto, no speaking out of turn," she told him. "I'm going to have to give you a time-out." She led him to the corner of the room, and had him sit down in a chair facing the wall. "After five minutes, I'll come and get you, okay?"

Naruto sighed, sitting still and facing the wall as he heard the teacher address the next person in the circle, some boy named Shino.

"I want a pair of sunglasses," the boy said. Naruto could almost see Mrs. Takahashi smiling.

"Well, now we all know what to get Shino for Christmas!"

There were only two more kids after Shino, and when everyone was done, the teacher told them all to go sit at whatever table they wanted. Everyone stood up and walked towards the tables, and Naruto felt a tap on the shoulder.

"Your time-out is over, Naruto," Mrs. Takahashi whispered to him. "Go take a seat."

Naruto nodded thankfully and stood up, scanning the room. The boy named Sasuke was sitting with both Kiba and a girl with blond hair whose name Naruto couldn't remember, another table housed Shino, a girl with purplish hair, and a couple other kids. Two more tables were nearby, one holding two boys: a chubby one and one with his dark hair in a ponytail, and the other held three more kids. One last round table sat beside these two, and at it sat Sakura, by herself. Naruto raised an eyebrow, and shoved his hands into his pockets, walking over and sitting down next to her. "Hi."

"Hi." They both looked over at their teacher, who had her back to them and was gathering a big pile of stuff into her hands. "...Thanks."

"You're welcome," Naruto replied politely. "I'm glad I helped you."

"Me too. I couldn't think of what to say..." Sakura trailed off shyly.

"Yeah."

"Sorry you got in trouble."

Naruto shrugged. "It's okay. Time-out isn't so bad."

"Okay, class, here's what we're going to do next!" the teacher exclaimed, turning around to face them. She was holding a few boxes of crayons and a stack of paper. "We are going to make cards! Everyone is going to pick someone's name out of a hat and make them a card with a picture of what they want most on it. Then, after everyone is done, we're all going to give the card to the person we made it for! That way everyone will be happy!" She began passing out the boxes of cards to every table, and giving everyone a sheet of paper. "Here are the rules: you have to make a card for the name you draw, and most importantly: no stealing anyone else's crayons from them. You have to wait your turn. In fact..." the teacher pointed at the ceiling above her, where a large, black thing Naruto didn't recognize sat. "This is a camera. It's watching everything you do and recording it onto a CD, so we will know if anyone is being mean. Alright?"

"Yes, Mrs. T," the class chorused.

"Alright, then I'm going to call you up one by one to draw out of this hat." Mrs. Takahashi showed them the hat sitting next to her, then picked up a piece of paper reading names off the list. "Aburame Shino." The boy who had wanted sunglasses stood up and headed over to the teacher, then stuck his hand in and drew out a piece of paper. "No telling anyone whose name you get," the teacher instructed. "And let me know if you need help remembering who is whom."

One by one, kids came up to collect a name out of the hat. "Haruno Sakura." Naruto stared as Sakura got up out of her seat and walked to the front of the room to draw a name.

"Maybe she'll get my name..." he thought hopefully. Sakura returned just as quickly as she had left, sitting down next to Naruto and avoiding his eyes.

"Hyuuga Hinata."

Naruto tapped on the surface of his desk nervously as more names were called, watching Sakura begin her card out of the corner of his eye.

"Uchiha Sasuke." Naruto frowned as the black-haired boy stood up and walked to the front of the room. He decided that he didn't like Sasuke, but he wasn't sure why.

"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto shot up out of his seat and hurried to stick his hand into the hat, drawing out a small slip of paper and opening it as he went back to his seat. It read: Haruno Sakura.

Naruto's heart skipped a beat, and he looked at Sakura sideways as he sat down and started on a card for her. "Wait...Sakura never said what she wanted most..." He frowned, then shrugged, deciding to improvise instead and do whatever came to mind. First, he wrote: "To Sakura." Then he wrote his own name below that, and paused as he tried to decide what to put in front of his name. At last, he grinned, and wrote the word "love". Next, he opened the card, and began to draw a stick figure, adding pink hair to the top of its head and grinning to himself. "This is gonna be the best card ever."

Twenty minutes later, the teacher called out, "Alright, everybody, time to exchange cards!" Naruto grinned, turning to face Sakura, but before he could do anything, she hopped out of her seat, racing over to Sasuke, who had just handed a card over to Kiba.

"I drew your name!" Naruto heard Sakura exclaim as she handed Sasuke her card.

Sasuke examined the front, then opened the card, studying it for a moment. After a second, he looked away from the card, grinning up at Sakura. "Thanks!"

"You're welcome!"

Naruto's heart fell, and he studied the rest of the students, all of whom were running around the room, shoving cards into each other's faces. Naruto frowned.

"U-um...N-Naruto, I m-made you a c-card..."

Naruto turned around to see the girl with purplish hair standing behind him, offering him his card. He smiled gratefully. "Thanks. What was your name again?"

"H-Hyuuga Hinata..."

Naruto opened the card slowly to see a picture of himself standing on top of a large planet that looked like Earth, wearing Hokage's robes and holding a life-size kunai in his hand. He grinned. "I like it."

"T-that's good."

Naruto nodded, extending his hand for a handshake. "I can tell we're going to be really good friends, Hinata."

"S-sure...if you s-say so..."

He smiled to himself as Hinata waved goodbye and ran off. Everyone was beginning to settle down, and Sakura was heading back over to him, a small frown on her face. He looked from her to the card he had made her, then back again, then, after a moment, stuffed the card into his pocket, remembering Sakura's grin as she had given her card to Sasuke.

"What's wrong?" he asked as Sakura plopped down next to him, her frown deepening.

"I didn't get a card..." she mumbled sadly.

"Oh...well, maybe someone was out today or something..." he suggested, knowing full well that even if that was the case, Sakura still would've gotten a card.

"Yeah...I guess..." Sakura replied, although she didn't sound convinced.

"Now for the next activity," the teacher began. All the students focused their attention on her, and Naruto took the opportunity to take out his card and look at it again. He opened it slowly in his lap, trying not to attract attention, and stared at the picture inside. The stick figure of Sakura was clad in a ninja outfit and holding a shuriken in one hand. Next to her stood a stick figure with blonde hair, wearing Hokage robes and also holding a shuriken. The two figures were holding hands and standing in front of the Hokage's office building.

Naruto looked up from his card, refolding it and putting it back into his pocket. He turned towards Sakura and saw her staring across the room at Sasuke, who was paying close attention to whatever the teacher was saying. The blond girl next to Sasuke was mimicking Sakura's action, and as Naruto scanned the room and looked at the rest of the girls, all of them were staring at Sasuke, other than Hinata, who was staring at Naruto. As soon as Naruto looked at her, Hinata looked away nervously, and Naruto raised his eyebrows.

He shrugged it off after a moment, then looked down at his table, where Sakura's hand lay palm up on it. Slowly and nervously, he reached for her hand, then placed his palm on top of hers, curling his fingers so that they were holding hands. Sakura looked away from Sasuke quickly, giving Naruto a questioning look, and then looking down at their hands. After a moment, she returned to staring at Sasuke, but she didn't make an effort to pull away from Naruto. Naruto grinned to himself anyway.

Naruto cleared his throat and straightened his Hokage robes, smiling softly. "Some things never change." He hit the pause button on his remote suddenly as he heard footsteps approach the door to his office. "Come in," he called before the person outside even had a chance to knock on the door.

The door opened slightly, and Naruto saw a familiar green eye slide into view past the opening, along with half of a face.

"Hey," Naruto said with a grin.

"Hey," Sakura replied, opening the door fully and entering Naruto's office, shutting the door behind her. She walked over to him and sat down on his lap, kissing his cheek lightly and eyeing the television in front of them. "What are you watching?"

"The Hokage gets access to every video known to Konoha," Naruto bragged happily. "This one's from over twenty-five years ago."

"It sure does look old," Sakura commented. "What exactly is it?"

"Our first day of pre-school. There's only one angle though, so it isn't very entertaining. Still, I can fill in the gaps with my memory."

"You remember the first day of pre-school?" Sakura asked in amazement. "I don't remember a thing from nearly all of that year, other than staring at Sasuke a lot."

"Oh yeah? Well maybe you'll remember this..." Naruto hit the rewind button and waited a few seconds, before pressing play. "The audio quality is pretty bad, but I can kind of still tell what it says. Plus the video quality is really good so that makes up for it."

"Akimichi Chouji," the teacher called out. Sakura watched with raised eyebrows as Chouji stood up and walked to the front of the room. She eyed the rest of the students curiously.

"Oh yeah, I remember now...I hated that dumb assignment."

"The card assignment? I would've thought you'd have liked it, since you picked Sasuke."

"Yeah, but I'm married to YOU now, so that gives me no satisfaction," Sakura pointed out, giving Naruto a quick peck on the lips. "Plus I didn't even get a card."

Naruto laughed. "Uh...that was my fault, actually. I drew your name but I didn't have the guts to give you the card."

Sakura scoffed loudly, staring at him in disbelief. "Are you serious? Why not? I think I wondered about that for like a month afterwards."

"Heh...sorry...I was too nervous. Well, I could always tell you what was on it...hey, wait, you have to see this part." He gestured towards the TV, and Sakura turned to look at it. "See that? You're staring at Sasuke, along with like every other girl in the room, and then...bam!" Naruto paused the video with a proud grin, and pointed at the table where he and Sakura were sitting. "See that?"

Sakura squinted and leaned closer to the TV. "Are we...holding hands?"

"Yup."

Sakura turned back towards him, grinning. "Aw, I can't believe I didn't remember that." She kissed him again, longer this time, and when they broke apart, Naruto grinned.

"It's okay. All that matters is that we're married now...and I'm Hokage." He smiled at Sakura as she rolled her eyes. "I love you, Sakura."

Sakura laughed. "I love you too, Naruto." She leaned in again, and Naruto's smile only got bigger. "Then again, some things do change. A LOT."

A/N: Well, I was working on Surviving Sasuke and this idea popped into my head, and it wouldn't get out until I wrote it down...so here we are. I hope at least someone enjoyed reading it. :)