He could hear the whispers of the people who surrounded him as he walked down the busy streets of Konoha that sunny afternoon. It was that time of day where the streets were at their most bustling time and people would normally bump into eachother, say their excuse mes, and continue doing what they were doing. It was the normal routine until he showed up in the street. The people slowly backed up away from the young boy, no more then five years old, spoke in hushed tones to one another.

"Monster."

"Demon."

"The fourth should've killed the child, we can't have another incident like that again."

"Why doesn't he just kill himself and spare us all the trouble."

The harsh words of the villagers hurt the child in many ways, but after years of hearing the same words, he learned to ignore them. Even if he could feel the tears burn his ocean blue eyes, he held them back despite wanting to let them loose. To show all the people around him how much he was affected by their evil words. But he knew even if he did, the people wouldn't care. They'd probably get pleasure seeing the boy suffer. After all, he deserved it.

The blonde child continued walking slowly down the street and the villagers continued their gossip, at the same time, avoiding the child like the plague. How he wished to just sprint out of the crowd and go to his comfort place on a less busy side of Konoha. Though doing so showed the villagers how weak he was and how different he was. All he wants is to be normal like everyone else around him, to show that he too can walk down a street to get across town without having to run from malicious glares from others. He knows it would never happen but hope will always encourage him to go on, waiting for that day, because he was going to be a hokage, and protect the very ones that shunned him.

They say that little kids have childish and crazy dreams of the future because they see something amazing and say, "I'm going to be the best ninja in the world!" then in a few more years, the dreams change to something more realistic and possible, forgetting to become the best. The dreams of the blonde haired kid may seem like a crazy dream of a child, to become a hero of the village just like the hokages, but he wouldn't give up on it, nor forget it. It was and still is one of the three things why he hadn't disappeared from the village as the majority of citizens wished the child would do. The second thing he would not leave the village for was because of the current hokage and the academy teacher, Iruka. Well, that would be two things, but he considers them the same for their kindness that none of the other villagers showed to him for as long as his five year old mind could remember. None of the villagers except one more person. His third reason for not leaving.

"Naruto-kun?"

A soft voice from an alley at the end of the busy street caught his attention and he looked ahead to find bright emerald eyes looking towards his direction, along with a smile. There standing in the dark was his pink haired savior and angel, the third and most important reason for staying as long as he did. He began to pick up his pace, seeing the crowd behind him started to ignore him now that he was gone from the street and they could do things as normal.

"Sakura-Cha-"

Before Naruto could finish, he felt something hard hit the back of his head and fell face foward into the dirt road.

"Monster!" yelled a voice of another young boy, probably a year or two older, followed by the snickering of other children of a group.

"You got him dead on!" one of the boys said and the mischievous runts laughed and ran off into the crowd, the villagers doing nothing about it, as it was a common scene and bound to happen sooner or later that day, it just happened to be there.

"Naruto-kun!" a gasp coming from the green eyed child, the same age as the blue eyed, cried as she ran toward the fallen lad, who was just rising from the ground.

"Ne Sakura-Chan, it's nothing to worry about. I'm perfectly fine! That rock wasn't even that big and they're lucky that I was too busy thinking about ramen to dodge it," Naruto laughed, giving the girl a large, foxy grin. The girl gave a soft giggle to accompany his laughter, but she knew that he was just putting up a strong face.

"Those boys are such meanies!" Sakura huffed and helped Naruto off the dusty streets and into the alley between buildings off the main street. "I wish they would just leave you alone, it's really not nice.."

"It's no big deal-" Naruto said before a sudden pain was felt and by instinct, Naruto placed his hand to the back of his head, feeling a warm liquid in the back. As he put his hand in front of him, it was lightly covered in blood.

"You're bleeding!" Sakura exclaimed and checked his head and quickly found the source of the blood.

"It really is nothing," the blonde tried to laugh it off, trying to make sure the pink haired girl wouldn't be too worried about it. After all, it was just another common occurance.

"No it's not okay! I should go find those boys right now and-" but she was quickly silenced by a light grab on her arm from Naruto.

"Just trust me, I'll be fine," Naruto said once again. He knew it was small and he seemed to heal abnormally fast for a strange reason he didn't know. He gave another grin, reached behind his head, and just as he thought, the cut was healed and the bleeding stopped. "See? I'm not even bleeding anymore! I've seen butterflies throw harder then those boys."

Sakura decided not to push the issue furthur and responded, "Okay then Naruto-kun, I'll believe you. I just don't like seeing you hurt.." And that statement of someone caring made Naruto give her a soft smile that Sakura took as a gesture of him understanding and they started off again.

They continued to walk down the alley that lead into a less busier side of town that people only came out if they needed to work or go shopping at the other end. It was a rare site to see the boy walking anywhere in the company of another person, unless it was Iruka or the third hokage. But being in the empty streets of the village made them less likely to be seen, which Naruto took as a blessing. Who knows what kinds of riots would ensue if they found the demon boy with a normal villager. They would try and take his angel away from him. Luck was on his side for this, seeing they have yet to be caught.

"Sooo Sakura-chan, why aren't you with your parents today? It's dangerous for you to be walking out here on your own you know," Naruto asked to break the silence of them walking down the streets.

The pink haired girl turned to him without stopping and replied, "They aren't home today, and I have something to show you!" she giggled at the end.

Sakura grabbed onto the boy's hand and went from walking to running, dragging Naruto behind her. They ran down the dirt roads and turned into another alley, and at the end, was a wooden fence painted with the Konoha symbol on it.

Both out of breath by the time they stopped in front of the fence, Naruto looked up at it and Sakura had a big smile on her face.

"I don't get it, Sakura-chan. It's just a fence you find at all the ends of Konoha," Naruto said with a puzzled look on his face.

Emerald eyes looked at the confused blonde, the smile never leaving her face as she took one more breath before responding, "This fence is special!"

Once again, Sakura took Naruto's hand and led him closer to the fence, and moved to the far right of the fence. She placed her hand on one of the boards and it became loose! It slid a bit, just enough to leave an opening to allow a child of their age to pass by to the other side, outside of Konoha's walls. It must have been very unnoticable if no one bothered to fix it, especially considering it could be a potential entrance for enemy shinobi, but to the five year old minds of the two children, it was like finding a treasure chest in their own backyards.

"Come and follow me!" Sakura cheerfully said as she slipped to the other side of the fence and Naruto followed in no time. It was the first time he has ever been outside the walls of the village and it was quite a site! Who would have thought that there was such a beautiful forest right outside the fences of the village. And not to mention the exit being not to far from from a main street.

"And that's not it," Sakura said and continued to lead the awed blonde a bit deep into the forest and came across a small pond.

"This is so..." the blonde was lost for words. It was nothing like he has ever seen within the walls of the village. The crystal blue waters of the lake, the vivid green grass, and the trees that surrounded it. It was truely and amazing site to the child.

"How did you find this place?" Naruto asked.

"I was walking around the village and trying to stay hidden so my parents wouldn't find me, and I just so happen to come across this place! Isn't it pretty? And it's not too far from the village and it doesn't look like anyone else was here. I just had to show it to you, Naruto-kun!" Sakura said with glee and ran around the area.

"This will be our secret place, for nobody else but us. Everyone else is so mean, but over here, it'll be just you and me," the pink haired girl said.

Naruto could've just cried of joy. Just him and his best friend in the entire world in such a pretty place, away from the taunting villagers who try their best to cause him pain. He thought why would someone be so kind to him, even if others weren't? Was this some kind of higher force trying to say sorry to him for all the years? Whatever it was, it filled the young boy with so much happiness he never had, even if he had only been on the earth for 5 years.

"...so you'll agree right?" the green eyed girl asked him. He had been in too much awe and loss of words and thoughts that he hadn't heard what Sakura has said.

"Agree to what?" Naruto said, startled he hadn't heard what his friend had said.

Sakura, even though being of only five years, knew that Naruto was so suprised he probably didn't hear her and simply aked cheerfully again, "That this will be our little secret. We could be in a lot of trouble if we get caught, so keep your mouth shut." Sakura giggled.

Naruto gave her the biggest grin ever in his life.

"Believe it!"

How Naruto wished that things could remain happy just like that one summer afternoon. But things never seem to work out his way...

ooooo Lol this is my first Naruto fanfic for my favorite pairing ever, NaruSaku. This is just the prologue, stay tune for future chapters to see what the hell is this all leading to! R&R please ;3

Disclaimer - Naruto doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.