Chapter One : So, nothing's wrong with this crush?

There's nothing wrong with constantly being head over heels with boys you just met, Sakura told Naruto. It's normal, Ino said. But never confess, Hinata stressed. Being sixteen and always in love Naruto didn't quite heed her friends advices all the time and that costed her a reputation. She confessed that she liked Sasuke to her best friends and someone else heard.

"How dare she dream of Sasuke-senpai as her boyfriend, she's not that on par with him in the looks department. He's the prince, she a pauper," Megumi told Naruto while they warmed up for a netball match. It's not Megumi's own words but of another junior, someone who heard Naruto's confession. That foul mouthed person and Megumi were Naruto's junior by three years. "I heard she said it over the long table at recess. I almost choked on my nasi lemak, but actually the nasi lemak ended up on her lap and my cup of milk chocolate on her hair, Kushina-sensei made me clean the table after the fight. I can't stand when they belittle you. I told Kushina-sensei but she said I should be the bigger person in such cases, even if the one insulted is her own daughter."

Naruto sighed, now her mother a disciplinary teacher and the Form One Supervisor also knew about her crush. But that was the least of her worries as her mother had always been open minded about such things. She wiped away the sweat trickling down her forehead and then her fingers trailed on her faint scars on her cheek, the result of an unfortunate accident a decade ago. Three horizontal scars on each cheek which earned her the nickname…

"Kyuubi, game's starting. Let's go," Sakura her teammate urged. The fourth formers were having a friendly netball match with the second formers and as Naruto slid a headband over her head to keep further sweats away, she glanced at Megumi who had moved away to her team's side of court, she shouted. "Tell me more later! Right now, head on the game."

Naruto breathed deeply and waited for everyone to take their places on the netball court. She shoved the gossip aside and concentrated on the game. There's nothing she could do to shut the gossips down, nor the negative comments strangers threw around about her. They were taking things too seriously, not that Sasuke would ever think of her as more than a schoolmate. He'd never be more than to her, and they weren't even friends.

It started at thirteen, four years ago when she was in Form One, Sasuke saw Naruto and told her that she had her school skirt tucked in the back of her panties when she took off her coat upon entering the class. At the time Naruto was really thankful that someone actually cared to tell her, usually people would just talk behind her back except for her childhood friends, Sakura and Hinata. She was not close to the rest of her batch until senior year when she was much more courageous in speaking her mind and breaking the ice.

Since then Naruto had placed Sasuke on a pedestal, boys have always been awkwardly awful to her including Sasuke during her early years. But he never talked to her and usually ignored her after that day, and from then on he only spoke to her about school until they transferred classes earlier this year. Sasuke entered the Science stream class while Naruto chose the Art stream class with her posse of close friends. During senior years, of form four and five teenagers mature a little so schoolmates were no longer evil to Naruto but when it came to liking Sasuke but the other students especially in the lower forms were horrendous and vicious in their comments regarding it.

The netball match continued on and Naruto managed to defend the goal as needed, but as soon as the finishing whistle sounded her eyes swooped onto a figure she saw sitting far off on the bleachers. She hadnt't noticed him earlier as she was engrossed in the game. She usually don't regard the spectators as her friends rarely stay back for friendly matches since they all have part time jobs in the evenings. This was only one of the warm up matches before they train for the regional championship later in the year.

Megumi patted Naruto on the back, "You ok, senpai?" She frowned at the gaping mouth of her senior whose eyes were watching something other than their cheering teammates and solemn rival. The usual spectators were their new players who came to train after the match so Naruto staring at them was odd. Maybe Naruto was saddened by the gossip Megumi thought, suddenly she became a little apologetic about relaying the gossips today. She should have waited to tell Naruto during a more relaxed moment, but she hadn't been able to meet Naruto on another time apart from during netball training and matches. She didn't live in the hostels unlike Naruto.

"Ah.. yes, definitely" Naruto said. She quickly took of her soaked headband and tucked it into her shorts' pocket.

"Here's some water! INCOMING!" Sakura shouted from afar as Naruto caught the bottle of water in her hand and turning towards Megumi. She grinned, downed a quick gulp of water and screwed the bottle cap close back. "I am not affected by them nor the comments, anyway great game. I need to meet someone now, excuse me." She patted Megumi's shoulder and moved away towards her teammates.

Naruto quickly shook hands and hugged her teammates and juniors before moving on to the spectators, she high fived some teammates and nodded to her seniors who had taken time off study to support them, all while wading her way through an air of awkwardness towards the unexpected spectator. Not that anyone needed to have an invitation to be here in the evening, way past school hours which ended 3 hours ago.

"Hey, thanks for coming." Naruto said as Sasuke still sat on his seat quite far away from the crowd sitting near the court.

"Great game, the soccer coach said I should start supporting the school's other team like they do ours," Sasuke said as if he had always been on casual speaking term with Naruto.

Naruto raised her brows and leaned against the chairs a few seats away. "Alone?" The most popular sport with the highest spectators were the soccer games so Naruto could understand Sasuke's reason. But he was alone and she never saw him anywhere alone. There were always his teammates who were all his classmates flanking him around anywhere on school so him being alone was strange.

"Kiba and Chouji got part time jobs, but I just quit mine. My mother wanted me to concentrate on studies, first and foremost, but I told her sports helped in the long run. So here I am doing sports."

"I'm sorry about the gossips," Naruto said. She thought them being alone far away from the school would be an ideal time to straighten things between them. "I am sure girls liking you feels normal, not like I am that into you," she continued.

Sasuke stood abruptly and his hands quickly tucked into his pockets. "Gossips are cheap, you should try asking the source. I don't mind anyone liking me, especially if it's you."

"Eh?" Naruto was taken aback by Sasuke's revelation, she didn't see this coming.

"So nothing awkward here?" Naruto dumbly asked, she needed confirmation.

"No…. YES! I mean, no." Sasuke spun around and heaved before he turned around again with one hand flailing in the air. "I'm sorry about the gossips, I should have done this a year ago."

"Do what?"

"Have dinner with me this weekend," Sasuke blurted these words so fast that Naruto thought that he might mean to say something else.

"Uh? Dinner?" Playing dumb was her immediate reaction whenever Naruto was taken by surprise.

"I liked you for years now, but we're students now so I thought maybe later. But when the gossips turned vicious, when it touches on physical features you can't help have… And they are wrong about me, I am not a prince, I'm just me."

Naruto's hand unconsciously stroked one of her scars while Sasuke's eyes followed her hand's movement.

"I want to set the record straight. So, are you free?"

Naruto blinked at Sasuke, she was going away this weekend to her Godfather's house about half an hour from here. Her mother had given permission, sSo she might as well accept the invitation to have lunch with Sasuke on the way there, or bring him along if he wants. Naruto did not think it was that awkward as it was only her Godfather and it is vastly different than bringing him to meet her parents though he did meet her often enough on a teacher - student capacity around the school.

But Naruto still felt confused so she asked, "Is this just about sympathy?" She had seen plenty of people sympathizing her for her scars, could Sasuke be one of them?

"No, I like you, I really like you for you. We should send some gossips to the guillotine. This can be discussed later."

It took sometime for Naruto to reflect on the meaning of guillotine before she grinned and blushed.

"Sure," Naruto blinked as Sasuke smiled and relaxed. Both his hands out of his pocket and a hand reached out for a handshake.

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke and I would like to bring you to lunch, or dinner, whichever you prefer?"

Author's Note

I'm using my country's school system. Form one to Form Five is ages 13 to 17, so Form One is 13, Form Two is 14, Form 3 is 15, Form 4 is 16 and Form 5 is 17. We do have fasttrackers who enters Form One at at 12 and Form 5 younger than 17.