Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

What You See

Part 1

Her First

"I am not going to dress as some sissy girl," Naruto hissed out.

Jiraiya chuckled, amusement flickering in his eyes. "You don't have a choice."

To say that he was angry was an understatement. He was positively livid, frustrated, pissed at the old man for putting him through such a... a... a disgrace!

He was wearing a skirt, damn it.

"You look so cute!" the female assistant said, gushing at the smaller boy.

He glared up at her, promptly shutting her up. She was a middle-aged woman and worked as one of the many employees for his godfather. She fidgeted a bit before excusing herself to inform the old man himself of his godson's transformation. Once the door shut close, Naruto turned to face the full-size mirror in the room. A growl escaped his lips as he tugged on his long, black, smooth, silky, shiny hair.

The wig was practically glued to his scalp; it would be a pain to put on and remove every school day. The color of his wig was pure black and the style was so girly that a look of disgust formed on his face. His fake hair had bangs and was put a high ponytail, the tip reaching all the way to the mid-section of his back. It was so long and wavy that it almost looked natural.

And the uniform had a skirt. Seriously, why did girls have to wear such useless garments? With a strong gust of wind, their undergarments would be easily shown. Naruto could never understand why such a clothing type was even created.

To be honest, he initially didn't mind that girls wore skirts. Which normal boy would complain?

But wearing one himself was a whole different matter.

His fists clenched into the fabric. His skirt ended right at the knees, it was plain and color red. The top of the uniform was only a plain white, long-sleeved blouse with a red ribbon on it's red collar, a bit like the sailor fashion. It irked him, not as much as the skirt of course, that the school required knee-high white socks. They were only like, what? Six, seven years old? What legs could they show?

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he stopped examining his clothes and began to search his face. His eyes were the same; he was too young for contacts. But the marks on his cheeks were invisible with the make-up that assistant put on him. He brought his hand to his cheeks, uncomfortable at the loss of those lines.

He didn't look like him anymore... Well, that was the point, but still.

He looked like some sissy girl that had cooties. Ew.

"I never knew you would make such a cute girl!" a white haired man commented loudly, patting his pretty godson's head with a laugh. Jiraiya had already entered the room, and was examining the boy to see if his disguise was full-proof, which, to his complete surprise, was. He was right, the only difference between boys and girls at Naruto's age was whether they wore a skirt or shorts, as well as how long their hair was.

Naruto swatted his hand away and scowled at him. "I'm going to fail this mission! Just you wait and see!" he proclaimed with barred teeth. "I won't make friends with that girl at all!"

But to his annoyance, and surprise, Jiraiya just laughed again. He had openly rejected and disobeyed him, why was he still laughing like some sort of fool? He continued chuckling as he headed towards the door, but before he closed it, he gave Naruto one last grin. "Good luck with your mission, kid."

Naruto was about to retort before Jiraiya spoke up again.

"And have fun at your first day of school."

The door closed shot and Naruto stared at the wooden panels.

Have... fun?

A grin formed on his face. Maybe that old man wasn't as bad as he thought... But then he faced the mirror again, where a female him was staring right back. On second thought, that old man was still evil for making him wear a skirt.

Naruto sat at the backseat of the car, staring out the window. Jiraiya was already flying back to Suna, but not without bidding his godson a good-bye and another have fun. So, now, it was only him along with a few other workers in the small household. He glanced at the rearview mirror to examine his bodyguard and driver, as well as acting father in case anything should come up where he needed a family.

His hair was brown and placed in a spiked up ponytail. There was a large scar above his nose that reached spread across his cheeks. His skin was tan and his eyes black. He was plain looking guy, with the exception of the scar. When he glanced at the mirror and the two locked eyes, he smiled at the small boy.

Naruto looked back out the window.

He refrained from grimacing. "I believe we haven't properly met, my name is Umino Iruka," he introduced with another smile. "I hope we get along during this mission, Naruto."

The blond-black haired boy-girl turned to face him again. Ever since his stay with Jiraiya, everyone addressed him with -sama. He was glad that this worker wasn't doing the same, but he was curious and suspicious as to why.

Iruka inwardly laughed, easily spotting the confusion in the boy's eyes. Jiraiya had said it would be hard gaining his trust, but he never knew that the boy would turn out to be this cautious. "When the others addressed you as Naruto-sama, you seemed a bit uncomfortable. So, is it alright if I just call you Naruto?"

The child stared at him for a while longer before nodding slowly.

He was met with another smile.

He looked out the window again.

"Okay then, class. Come here and pick a number to determine where your seats will be. After that, we'll start doing the introductions!" their teacher explained with a sweet smile to the girls in the class.

Naruto was among the first to stand up and get a number. The classroom was eerily silent. Sure there were a couple girls that were classmates in kindergarten and knew each other, but almost everyone else was strangers with one another. He was a bit glad that he wasn't the only uncomfortable and awkward one in the classroom, but the silence was beginning to bother him.

They were girls. Didn't girls talk a lot about nonsense things?

"Oh wow."

Before he unfolded the piece of paper in his hands, he looked up to see who said those words. It was a girl with pale, short blonde hair, a clip to hold back her bangs. Her eyes were blue, a bit similar to his own but of a lighter shade. In fact, in his real appearance, she was lighter than him in everything, hair, eyes, and skin.

He frowned at her eyes of amazement though. "What?" he asked, noticing how a few other girls were glancing their way.

"Your hair is so pretty!" she commented, striking up a conversation about nonsense things like girls should be doing. Though he thought they'd be doing it with each other, not with him.

That's because it's a wig, he thought wearily. "Your hair is also pretty," he complimented back.

She nodded in complete agreement, "I know." He sweat dropped at her smug tone. "But yours is so long!" she gushed, clasping her hands together. "My kaa-chan kept making me cut my hair whenever it got too long," she said with a pout.

Naruto was about to say he didn't really care- He inwardly flinched before he could though when he realized exactly what he was about to say. This girl was just trying to make conversation with him. She was being friendly and nice. He got used to being shunned, and ended up shunning others, but this time was different. No one knew who he was, who the real him was. They weren't bad adults trying to get rid of him, or fellow kids who despised his presence. They were normal little girls, and he was disguised as one too.

They didn't hate him.

He smiled. "I'm sure your Kaa-chan has reasons for that!"

She crossed her arms and pursed her lips. But before she could reply, their teacher spoke up, "Now then, has everyone found their seat?"

Naruto immediately looked back down to the paper and the girl quickly went to her seat. Number 25, he read. He glanced at the board to see where it was located. His seat was all the way in the corner at the back, nearest the window. He walked over and sat down, glancing at the three people surrounding him.

The blonde girl he spoke to earlier was diagonal to him. She was grinning at him, he gave a small smile back. The girl in front of him had short pink hair, that was all he could tell since her back was facing him. And the girl to his side had even shorter hair than the two others, but with long strands at the side of her face and full bangs. Naruto's eyes widened when he saw that her eyes were pupil-less, pearl in color.

Is she blind? he pondered at the white-eyed girl.

She seemed to have noticed the eyes on her and turned to face her seatmate. She flushed a bit at his intense stare and looked back to her table.

Guess not, Naruto thought when she turned to look at him. His eyes scanned the entire room, examining his classmates. He didn't have any idea whom the girl he was to befriend looked like, Jiraiya wasn't able to get any picture of her, only that basics and that she was to attend Hokage Academy for Girls. He had made sure that he was put in 1-A, since that was where the girl was too.

He actually hoped that the blonde girl was the target. It would be easier to become-

Naruto's eye twitched. Didn't he say that he would fail the mission and not befriend the target?

"M-My name is Haruno Sakura," a soft voice said.

He froze, eyes wide. Introductions already began and they were doing it in a vertical order, his column being the first. And the pink-haired girl seated in front of him was her. He couldn't believe his luck. His target was right in front of his face, literally.

"I like... flowers and plants. I dislike bugs." A few girls in class muttered in agreement. Naruto frowned at the typical girl like and dislikes and lowered his gaze down to his table. He actually hoped his target would be interesting. "And when I grow up..." She paused. "... I want to be happy."

Naruto looked back up at the girl.

The teacher frowned. "What I meant by that, Sakura-chan, is what your goal in life is, like becoming a teacher or doctor or any other job."

Sakura scratched her head in confusion. Her mother had always said that the goal in life was to be happy... but teachers were always right. "A-Ah... uh... When I-I grow up, I want to be a doctor," she said.

The older woman smiled at the answer and gestured for her to take a seat, she did as instructed. "Now then, who's next?"

Naruto stood up and saw everyone's eyes on him, even hers.

He noted how she had green eyes.

"The name's Namikaze Naruko. I like ramen. I don't like the three minutes it takes to cook ramen. I don't have a dream yet," he said in a flat tone before sitting back down. He was well aware that his introduction was odd, but he honestly didn't care. The very first thing that came out of his mouth was a lie, it only made sense that the rest of his introduction wasn't as enthusiastic as he wanted it to be.

The teacher laughed nervously, unsure on how to react. "That's very interesting, Naruko-chan! Now then, the next one please!"

He tuned out the other introductions as he examined the girl in front of him. She was turned to the side, listening to their classmate's speeches. He frowned when he saw how long her fringe was, it already reached the tip of her eyes. Doesn't she have a hard time seeing things? he thought. Her skin was pale, like porcelain... like a doll.

She looked innocent.

Of course, all of them looked innocent, they were children after all.

... They were all children, each and every little girl in the classroom was innocent and naive. They were targeting a child, a pure and ignorant little girl.

He would fail this mission. He'd make sure of it.

The day went by fast, he learned the blonde's name was Yamanaka Ino and that his seatmate was Hyuuga Hinata. The latter rarely talked while the former kept bugging him. It felt like he was talking to himself whenever he talked with Hinata, while it felt like Ino was giving a monologue whenever speaking. But he quite enjoyed their company, they were tolerable...

He didn't bother to strike up conversation with the girl seated in front of him.

No one spoke to her either. He felt a bit guilty, since he was constantly hogging her blonde seatmate, who, without a doubt, would've made fast friends with Sakura if she wasn't so distracted with him.

"I'll most definitely talk to her tomorrow!" Ino assured him when they were leaving the classroom. They walked to the entrance of the school, Ino bid him a good-bye and Hinata gave him a small wave when their parents or drivers came to pick them up.

Naruto looked down to the watch on his wrist. Iruka was running late-

He heard a laugh and a faint chant.

... Did they practice some dark arts ritual in this school?

He went towards the sound, to the side of the school where he saw a group of girls.

"Forehead girl! Forehead girl! Forehead girl!" they chanted in mockery.

Girls are scary, he thought with a grimace as he peeked through the corner of the wall. Looking at them further, it turned out that they were his classmates. These bullies were only first graders. During class and lunch, he stayed at his seat in the back of the room and didn't bother to make friends with others, and if these girls were those others, then he was glad he never took the time to speak with them.

This time though, he heard a faint sob amongst the teasing. He peered his head and tried to catch a glimpse of whom they were teasing.

Sakura was on the floor, hugging herself and tears were quickly flowing down her eyes.

His eyes widened and he turned away, back flat against the wall. He had no idea what to do. Saving her was his first option... but had he not declared that he wouldn't make friends with her?

Another faint sob was heard.

He hated people who cried.

He always cried before, and always berated himself afterwards for doing so. No one helped him before, so she should be fine on her own-

More sobs came out, she was hiccupping now. The girls shifted their teasing to calling her a crybaby.

She could handle it by herself. He didn't need saving when he was in trouble-

The image of Jiraiya flickered in his mind. The old man had saved him from the orphanage, from the glares of everyone. He hated to admit it, but even if he didn't trust the novelist completely, the fact still remained; he had saved him...

I shouldn't even be thinking about what to do! he scolded himself while walking towards the group. When you see a damsel in distress, you save her. It was the right thing to do. He wondered why he even thought otherwise. Target or not, she was crying.

He hated people who made others cry even more.

He stood in front of the girl on the floor, arms spread wide in a defense for the bullied, glaring defiantly at the group of girls that went silent. "Leave her alone!" he exclaimed loudly.

The girl in the middle crossed her arms and glared at Naruto. She had short, dark purple hair and bangs, strands of hair on her right side were significantly longer, and black eyes. Though what he observed with distaste most was that she was inches taller than him, so he had to glare up at her. "You're that girl who talked about ramen," she stated with a fake smile. "If I were you, I wouldn't help out someone so ugly that has a huge forehead!" A few other girls snickered at the last comment.

Naruto heard a sharp intake of breath from behind him.

His lips curled into a snarl. "You're the only girl I see that's ugly here!" he retorted.

The fake smile disappeared in a flash to be replaced with a similar scowl. "Look here... you ramen freak!" She couldn't comment on Naruto's look, since nothing was wrong with his appearance. She didn't like to admit it, but the little girl in front of her was pretty... so she settled for her current insult, albeit how poor it was. "Leave now or we'll hurt you!" she threatened.

"Hurt me?" he laughed out. "You gonna call me ramen freak and tease me? Words won't work-"

She pulled his hair.

Naruto did not expect that. He always thought that it was boys who did all the fights and that it was girls who always settled things with words. But it turns out that mean people actions weren't restricted by genders.

When he fell to the floor at the force of the pull, he snarled at the pain... but was also impressed at how the wig hadn't come off yet. He grimaced when he realized that would mean removing the wig later would be more painful than that pull.

He looked back up and glared again. While pushing himself back up, Sakura dashed in front of him, arms spread out wide like what he did only moments before. This time, she was the one protecting him... and honestly, he was glad. If she hadn't, he'd probably have stood up and hit the mean girl. He didn't like hitting girls, but since he was a girl right now...

"S-Stop it!" she said in a shaky voice. "I-It's me that you don't like! D-Don't hurt Namikaze-san!" Sakura bit her lip afterwards, trying to hold back her previous sobs. She was teased back in kindergarten for her large forehead by the boys in class. She had hoped an elementary school filled with girls would be different. She even grew her fringe to cover her abnormal feature, but they could still see and ridicule it. But she'd like to say she got used to it. Yes, she had cried, but she always did.

But not once did she expect someone to come and help her.

The purple-haired girl was about to retort when one of her friends spoke up first. "A-Ami!" she said, getting her attention. "Your driver is here already."

She frowned and walked over to where she was to catch a glimpse of the car parked in front of the school entrance. Seeing that it was indeed hers, she turned back to face the two girls. She grinned, one that sent shivers down their spine, and said, "I'll see you two tomorrow." Then with a wave she walked away from them, her friends following closely behind her.

Once they were out of sight, Sakura quickly turned around to face her classmate. She held her hand out for him to take, and he accepted it gratefully. "Thank you," she whispered as she helped him stand up.

Naruto grinned and wiped his finger under his nose, a boy-ish act that he didn't know annoyed his girl classmates. He was obviously pleased with himself. "It's no problem!"

Needing help was something he went through, a pain he never liked to experienced. But helping others was more rewarding than he had thought. Her smile and gratitude made that harsh pulling of his hair all worth it-

Wait, it was only her gratitude he received. Where was the smile?

He frowned when he saw that tears were still streaking down her face. Her sobs had stopped, but her tears had not. She was still crying... but with the oppressor gone, he had no idea how to help her. "Wh-What's wrong?" he asked in a panicked voice, "Did she hit you before I came? Does it still hurt? Are you okay?... S-Stop crying!"

She wiped the tears with her hands, but new ones only resurfaced. "I-I'm sorry," she said in a cracked voice. She didn't know why she was still crying. Had he not helped her? Saved her? Protected her? Why was she still bawling like nothing had happened? Because, she thought grimly, nothing did. Not cutting her bangs had done nothing; covering her forehead had done nothing; hiding and not talking to anybody had done nothing. By the time tomorrow came, she would still get bullied like what just happened was absolutely nothing.

Nothing would change the fact that she was still ugly and had an abnormally large forehead.

But her musings came to a halt when she felt a hand on that physical defect. Naruto was no longer panicking at her tears, but instead grinning like before. He pushed her bangs up to get a better view of her forehead. She closed her eyes so she wouldn't see the look of complete disgust on his face. He would see her forehead in all it's considerable, large size. He would laugh at her too. He would tease her like-

"It is kinda big," he remarked, "but you don't look ugly at all."

Her eyes went wide open and she stared at him, dumbstruck.

He grinned at her reaction. "In fact, you look really pretty with your bangs out of the way!"

"R-Really?" she asked, her voice still heavy from the crying. But fortunately for the both of them, the tears had stopped.

Naruto's grin widened as he moved his hand away to let the bangs fall back to her face. "Yup! Want me to bring you something tomorrow to hold them back?" he offered. He didn't know why he was further broadening his help towards her, but seeing her look of complete disbelief at being complimented reminded him of himself. He realized that to hear someone say something nice to you was something they both rarely received.

Sakura wiped away the stray tears and smiled at him.

When seeing that upturn of lips, Naruto decided he liked her smile and he would make sure she did it more often.

Sakura froze at the doorway.

Everyone was staring at her.

Everyone was glaring at her.

What did I do? she thought with panic.

She held her head down and walked to her seat, but when she was close enough so her gaze could see her chair, someone was already seated in it. Hinata was in her seat. She didn't glance up to tell her why she was sitting there, but the look on her face made Sakura conclude that she didn't want to sit there. So why was she?

Reading the confusion on her face, Ino spoke up. "You sit here now," she said, pointing to the chair behind her, where Hinata used to sit. "I already went to the faculty room earlier to tell Kurenai-sensei about you and Hinata changing seats."

Sakura placed her bag on the seat and faced Ino with a frown. "Wh-Why?" she forced out. She knew that the reason was a bad one, but she wanted to know.

Ino crossed her arms and glared at her. "I don't want to be seatmates with someone like you," she spat out.

The pink-haired girl stiffened at the words. She thought that the event after school yesterday was a good omen. She knew that Naruto was friends with Ino, and perhaps Hinata, so she had hoped she would become friends with them too. But now...

She sat down when Ino turned away to face front. She unknowingly placed a hand to her forehead. Maybe they finally noticed how big her forehead was, how ugly a girl she was compared to them. She bit her lip to keep a tear from falling.

Maybe Naruto had lied.

The door of the classroom slid open, revealing the black-haired boy. She noted how he too tensed up at the glares he received. When he caught sight of her in Hinata's seat, he frowned and sauntered over to her, ignoring the eyes of his classmates. "Why you sitting there, Sakura-chan?" he asked.

With the addition of that honorific, her belief of him lying to her vanished.

"H-Hyuuga-san and I switched places," she informed him.

Naruto frowned. "Why?"

Remembering the blonde girl's answer, Sakura looked back down to her table.

He scratched the back of his neck in confusion. What is going on? he thought. Not only was everyone glaring at him - at them - but there was even a switch of seating arrangements. He turned to face Hinata, "Why'd you switch places?"

Hinata looked up briefly to glance at him, before she too looked down at her table. "S-Sorry," he heard her whisper.

"Because," Ino spoke up, getting the attention of the entire class, "you two monsters should sit next to each other!"

Naruto glared at her. He thought they were friends, and now she was insulting him? "What are you talking about? Why is everyone giving us mean looks? What the heck is happening?!" he exclaimed a little loudly. And that was a big mistake, the entire class began speaking up now, enraged at his own frustration.

"You hit Ami-san!"

"How could you just go and pull her hair?"

"She didn't even do anything to you!"

"You two are so mean! You bullies!"

Ino frowned at him. "I thought you were a nice person."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at her. "I didn't even do anything! What are they talking about?!"

"Don't act like you don't know!" another girl from the class shouted. "Yesterday you bullied Ami-san!"

"I don't even know Am-" but then his eyes met with cold, black ones. The purple-haired girl from yesterday was smirking at him. She was Ami.

Sakura and Naruto froze at the realization. It was crystal clear as to what was happening. Ami had lied to the entire class. She altered yesterday's events and spread the news of her being the poor girl on the floor crying, and it was those two that mocked and bullied her. She had a large group of friends to back her up, not to mention that she probably came extra early to tell the fake story.

Now, the entire class hated them.

"You called her mean names and even pulled her hair! She even cried a lot and you two still didn't stop being bad!" the girl exclaimed. "No one would like mean monsters like you!"

"But I-we didn't!" he defended. "Ami's lying! She was the one that bullied Sakura-chan and it was my hair that was pulled-"

"Don't lie!" a brunette girl exclaimed from the front row. "I was there when it happened!" She was part of Ami's group, perfect. "It was you two that were the bullies!"

"No-"

"No one will believe anything you bullies say!"

The one who said that was right. Everyone in the class hated them now. No one would listen to their story. They were all on Ami's side.

Naruto inwardly groaned. It was only the second day of school and he was already labeled an outcast.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so, so sorry," he heard Sakura whisper from behind him. Her voice was so soft that only he had heard her apology. But what was she saying sorry for? He turned around and looked down at her. She was still gazing down at the table, not meeting his eyes.

He saw a teardrop land on the wooden surface.

"It's all my fault," she said in a whisper again, "if you hadn't helped me, then no one would hate you." She wiped her cheeks and eyes, trying her best to get rid of her tears. The first person that had helped her was being insulted and getting hurt because of aiding her. What did that mean? That she was destined to be alone? That anyone who helped her would end up getting hurt? "I'm so sorry, Namikaze-san," she repeated.

"Just call me Naruko."

Her back stiffened and her eyes widened. She looked up at him with watery eyes, the tears already wiped away.

Naruto grinned at her. It was during moments like these back at the orphanage where all he needed was someone to smile at him and say a positive thing. He never got that kind of consolation back at his old home, but to this girl that reminded him so much of himself, he was genuinely happy to be the one giving it.

He walked over to his seat and sat down, ignoring the rest of their classmates. Most had stopped staring at them, but there were a few that continuously glanced at the monster duo. He opened up his school bag and pulled out a pair of goggles. He handed it to her with another grin, "This was something I found at my house. You can use it to hold your bangs back!"

Sakura accepted it gratefully. She looked down and thoroughly examined the object. The two eye-pieces were placed on a blue cloth that was slightly worn, and there were a few scratches here and there on the lenses. It clashed horribly with her hair and uniform. It would look completely awkward on her. It was a bit big and might appear to even be an eye-sore if she wore it.

But it was from him, so none of those minute details mattered.

She put it on like she would a headband, showing her forehead and emerald eyes to the world. She grinned at Naruto. "Thank you!"

Naruto stared at her for a while... and burst out laughing.

Sakura flushed in embarrassment. She knew that it would look horrible on her, but not as horrible as to have the giver out right laugh at her! She placed her hands to the offending object and was about to remove it before she felt hands on hers.

He didn't laugh as loudly, but he was still chuckling. "Don't, Sakura-chan! It looks kinda weird, but I like seeing your eyes clearly!"

She frowned and put her hands down, obeying his wishes. But then she heard a few snickers from the class and she knew that they were laughing at her.

Naruto heard them too and scowled. "You can remove them if you want," he said this time. "They might keep laughing at you like the ugly hyenas they are," he muttered so that only she could hear.

But she only shook her head and let the goggles remain. "It's fine, Naruko-chan," she said with a smile. This single friend of hers was far more important that the entire class combined. He was the only that had helped her, and even after being ostracized along with her, he was still there for her. Keeping something as simple and meager as his goggles was something she would treasure.

A/N: Since my descriptions for clothing is on par with that of a five-year-old, imagine Lucky Star uniforms. The color is only a slightly more darker shade of red.

So, yeah, this is the first chapter. I know the whole plot is kind of... weird and cliche in a stupid way, but I quite like it. And I hope you will too.