So here is a sort of kinda Prequel to Rumor. It takes place way before the actual story and Sakura's parents' murder. You do not need to read Rumor to read this; it is really just how she and Itachi first met. (And where she got the answers to some of her riddles ;D) I hope you enjoy it!
"Itachi!" a young boy called out. A girl no older than six was the only one who heard his cries. She went over to the little boy, like she thought a good girl would do. The boy looked frantic and afraid. She knew that feeling well; she was scared when she couldn't find her amazing Aniki either.
"What's wrong?" She asked him. Her aspen green eyes looked him up and down.
"Go away!" the small girl frowned at his rude response. She was only trying to be nice. But, she figured he was just too upset to realize she was trying to be helpful. So she changed her approach.
"My name is Sakura," she told him.
"That's a girl's name," the little boy said. Sakura frowned.
"Well I am a girl," she said. Sakura said. Sakura thought it was obvious she was a girl.
"You look like a boy with that hat," he sniffed. Sakura wanted to hit the meanie for calling her a boy, but she realized he wasn't crying anymore. So maybe she will let it slide this time.
"Well its windy today. I don't want my hair all knotty!" Sakura lied.
Sakura was abnormal compared to everyone else in the town, but only a select few knew that little secret of hers. What made her so different was her bright rosy hair color. She was ashamed of it though. Every other kid in her class had pretty brown or blonde hair. They were normal. Why couldn't she be like that?
"Oh," the little boy seemed to by her lie. Good, Sakura didn't want anyone else to say mean comments about her hair. It wasn't her fault she had pink hair…was it? She didn't eat too much bubble gum or anything else that would cause it to turn pink.
"What's your name?" Sakura asked him.
"Naruto," the blonde boy sniffled.
Sakura smiled, happy that she had gotten a response that didn't involve tears or something about her appearance to be a boy. But she was still curious as to what had made him cry. "So why were you calling out 'Itachi!'?"
"I can't find him!" Sakura eye's practically bulged when the blonde child looked like he was about to cry again.
"No! Don't cry! I am sorry! I didn't mean to make you sad again!" Sakura frantically tried to prevent the tears. She hated seeing people cry. "How about I help you find him?"
Her offer seemed to stop the flow of tears. "Would you really?" Naruto asked. His voice was lace with suspicion. But the little girl didn't hear it.
"Yes!" she chirped. "I will look over there," she said pointing to the grove of trees. "And you can look over there! If neither of us finds him we will meet back here. If worse comes to worst I will just ask my Aniki to help us locate him, okay? My Aniki is great at find things, it's like he has magic or something!"
"Okay!" And before Sakura could even say something else, Naruto ran off in the direction he was supposed to search. The rosette let out a small sigh and shook her head. She found it weird that only a moment before he was crying his eyes out at the loss of 'Itachi' and now he was all happy. Maybe she wasn't the only abnormal one in town.
Sakura began to walk towards the grove of Cherry Blossom trees. She really wanted to find this 'Itachi' fast. It would be getting dark soon and her daddy would be really mad if she didn't get back to the shop before the moon began to rise.
Sakura continued to walk around the field of Cherry Blossom trees. She was getting bored of his. But she really wanted to help that young boy too. But this was taking forever! How hard could it be to find him? It seemed like she had been searching for him an eternity! "Itachi-kun!" She called out again. Her aspen colored eyes continued to scan the area before her. She continued to call the name for three more minutes.
"Ita-!" Sakura's scream was cut off when she tripped over a tree root, or rather a person's hit the ground hard because she didn't use her hands to break her fall. Why? Well she tripped over something and her hands went to her head first. She didn't want people to see her weirdness. The hat needed to stay on her head.
"Stop screaming," an obviously male voice said. Looking up from her position sprawled on the floor, her viridian eyes clashed with charcoal ones. The boy in front of her wasn't an adult, but he was definitely older than her.
Sakura let out a huff, standing up as she did. "You're a meanie, mister!" She said, sticking her tongue out at him.
The young teen blinked in surprise. For someone calling out his name, despite how young she might be, calling him a meanie did not seem right. Being the gentleman his mother raised him to be, or out of sheer curiosity as to what her response might be, he apologized to her. She happily accepted it, but her attention didn't stay on him for too long. Her eyes began to stray to the surrounding areas. She called 'Itachi-kun' once more.
"Why are you yelling 'Itachi' repeatedly?" he questioned her.
The young girl's eyes seemed to light up. "Well you see," then she began to ramble on about how she was doing this to help out a person she saw crying. Her Aniki would be really mad if he found out she let someone cry without at least offering to help them. She was helping someone out like a good girl.
She looked at the boy for a moment. He seemed comfortable leaning against one of the pretty trees. She didn't want to disturb him, but she figured it wouldn't hurt to ask him. So she did. "Do you want to help me find him?" she asked.
The young teen did not expect her to say that. But her question did assure him that she was definitely not a little sibling of one of his fan girls. He would hate to be to be horrid to a little girl without absolute cause. She looked to be about his brothers' age, and that played into his big brother role.
"I am a stranger to you," he told her. Itachi felt his brotherly instincts take control. If Sasuke or Naruto had asked an unknown person for help he would have scolded them.
"My name is Sakura!" She told him, obviously not deterred by his response. "So now will you help me find him?"
"I am a stranger to you," he repeated once more. Did she not understand this?
"I. am. Sakura." She told him slowly.
Itachi sighed and decided to just help her out anyway. The girl was bound to get into trouble if he didn't help her. "Well, what exactly are you looking for?" he asked her.
She gave him a funny look with her emerald eyes, "Itachi," she said.
"What is Itachi?" he asked her. It was his name, and she obviously didn't know that since she didn't know him.
"I assumed it was his pet weasel and he couldn't think of a better name." She answered. Itachi stared at her. Then he blinked once, twice.
"A weasel?" He asked. A frown was forming on his face. He was not proud that some sly, rodent creature was his namesake but for some reason the little girl thinking he was some rodent was offensive.
"What does this person you are helping look like?" Itachi asked.
"Well," a small frown formed on her lips as she thought of how to describe the small boy. "He has blonde hair that goes like this," her hands stared on top of her head and then immediately pushed away from it; signaling to Itachi that she meant the child must of hand spiky hair. "And he has eyes the color of water, and um…" she frowned once more as she thought of an explanation. "He is shorter than me, but not by much. He has lines on his cheeks that I think he used marker to draw them with."
"Aa," Itachi grunted before he stood up. He knew that description, it was Naruto.
At his full height he towered over the little girl. She was barely a meter tall. And from her lack of 'Stranger Danger' lessons, it was obvious she was not well looked after. Before he began to walk, the little girl grabbed hold of his hand and started to drag him along to help her search.
"Where are your parents?" He asked her.
"My daddy is talking to a client, he told me to wait for him at the park unless it starts to get dark. Then I need to walk home…I will probably need to walk home though." Sakura told him. Though the young girl seemed to not mind this little fact, Itachi was disturbed by it. What parent would make their child, who was no older than six, walk home alone?
"Why don't we go the other way?" He asked her, deciding to change the topic.
"But we are looking for Itachi," she told him.
"Itachi can find his way back," Itachi told her. It felt weird to talk about himself in third person.
Sakura let out a huff but relented. "Okay," she said before dragging him in the other direction. It took them about eight minutes to walk to where Sakura had first met Itachi's little brother.
When the two were in view Naruto screamed, "Sakura, I couldn't find Ita—Oh there you are Niisan!"
Sakura blinked in confusion. "This isn't Itachi." She told him. Naruto looked at her like she had grown two heads.
"Yes it is," he told her.
"No it is not. Itachi is a weasel." She said.
"No, Itachi is him!" Naruto pointed to his older brother.
"Mister what is your name?" Sakura asked. Itachi found it amusing that she had just now asked him his name, despite the fact that he had told her he was a stranger to her.
"Itachi." He told her. A smirk formed on his lips when he saw her eyes widen.
"Oh," she said. For a moment she was silent, but that was quickly broken.
"So you're a weasel?"
So tell me what you think of this little one shot. Did you like it, hate it, what? Should I do more of these or no? Also what two answers to her riddle was in this one shot?