Chapter 1

Sakura Kazama stood in her front lawn with her bamboo sword held tightly in both hands above her head. She took a step and brought it straight down with all her might and smiled when she heard the 'whoosh' sound. She stepped back and brought the sword back above her head and did it again. Her grandfather had been teaching her Kendo, and had told her to do this "Until your arms fall off," which was code for "about a hundred times," and she was determined not to let him down. She continued practicing until a black haired kid ran into her yard and hid behind a tree. Sakura and her family had only moved into the neighborhood a few weeks ago so few people knew someone lived in the 'old abandoned house on Sycamore', but still, she couldn't stand trespassers.

"Hey! What are you doing?" she yelled at the boy who hadn't noticed her and was looking up the street the way he came.

The boy jumped and turned his head around so fast she thought he would hurt his neck. He had black hair and broken glasses, and was also sporting a black eye. "Please, be quiet. I'm hiding from my cousin."

Sakura knew where the boy was coming from, when she went to visit her aunt and uncle she would have to hide from her cousins, too. They liked to blame her for all their wrongdoings, plus, the black eye worried her. "Well that tree won't hide you very well. Come over here." She led him over to the wheelbarrow her father had been using to haul the pruning from the bushes. She turned it over and let the boy crawl under it before lowering it over him and going back to her place in front of the house and started training again. It wasn't long before a gang of kids being lead by a fat blond boy ran in front of her house.

"Where did he go?" the blond boy yelled, looking around. He spotted Sakura and ran over, followed by his gang of friends. "Hey girl, have you seen a black haired kid run by here?"

Sakura put the bamboo sword behind her neck and rested her arms over it and looked at the boy. "What's it to you?" she asked, leaning forward to stretch her legs. She really didn't like being referred to as 'girl' and usually tired to make things as hard as possible for those who called her that.

"Don't mess with me, girl, your silly little stick can't help you." Sakura stood up, tucked a lock of black hair behind her ear and looked at the boy with annoyance. Her shinai had never been called a 'silly little stick.'

"I haven't seen anyone all day." She said which was partly true because she hadn't seen anyone until ten minutes ago when the black haired kid in question ran into her yard and hid behind her tree.

"Well if you see him, tell him I'm looking for him." The kid said with a shake of his fist, and turned and walked away. Sakura watched him walk up the road and turn onto the next street, and when the last of his gang disappeared around the corner she shook her head. The idiot didn't even tell her who he was. She walked over to the wheel barrow and flipped it over. The black haired kid got up and brushed the grass off his baggy pants. Sakura watched him straighten his broken glasses on his nose, he looked about her age, but was small and skinny, and his clothes were too big for him, even his shoes. "Thanks." He said when he noticed her watching.

"I'm Sakura Kazama." She said, putting her hand out.

"Harry Potter." The boy said, shaking it. Thanks for hiding me."

"You're welcome. I know what it's like, wanting to hide from your cousins. He was the fat blond one, right?" Harry nodded. "Oh, I was supposed to give you a message: A fat blond kid is looking for you." The boy chuckled and started Sakura laughing as well. "Want to come in for a soda?" She asked when they calmed down. She didn't know why, but she liked this boy. Said boy looked as if he had never been offered a soda before. Sakura figured it was just because he didn't know her.

"Err. Sure why not?" Harry smiled and Sakura lead the boy into the house.

"Take your shoes off, please." She said while slipping out of her sneakers without untying them and putting them neatly by the wall and Harry did the same. She put her shinai in the umbrella stand.

"Why?" he asked quietly.

"Ojiichan says it's to 'Show respect to the house.' I think it's just because it makes cleaning easier." Sakura looked back at Harry, who looked confused. "Ojiichan means 'Grandpa' in Japanese." She explained as she pushed open the kitchen door. Her mother sat at the kitchen table doing a crossword puzzle from the morning's paper. "Mamma, this is Harry Potter." Her mother looked up, startled and peered closely at the kid through her reading glasses. For a second Sakura thought her eyes lingered on his forehead, but she shrugged it off.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Potter, I'm Ayana Kazama"

"It's nice to meet you, too, Mrs. Kazama." Harry said shyly.

"Mamma can Harry and I have a soda?" Sakura asked, putting on her sweetest expression.

"It's: 'May Harry and I have a soda?' dear." Mrs. Kazama corrected, turning back to her crossword.

"May Harry and I have a soda?"

"Did you finish the training your grandfather set you to? He will know if you didn't." she said, going back to her crossword.

"Yes, I did. Please?" She clasped her hands together in front of her heart and pulled a pouty lip. She knew her mother would let her have a soda, but her mother always smiled when she begged, and she loved making her mother smile. And her mother did smile and nod. "Thank you, Mamma." She skipped to the refrigerator and pulled out two cans of soda. "We will be up in my room, okay?" Sakura said and handed a soda to Harry and grabbed his wrist and pulled him up the stairs. Once in her room she popped the top on her soda and took a sip and Harry did the same. The bubbly sweetness took him by surprise and he choked. "Are you okay? You look like you've never had a soda before."

Harry blushed and shook his head. "My aunt says I'm not allowed to have soda. She says it's a treat for the family." He sounded a little bitter about this statement and Sakura didn't push it. Instead she grabbed a deck of cards off the desk and turned to Harry. "Ever play Speed?" she asked. Harry shook his head and Sakura taught him how to play the fast paced card game.

Several hours later found the cards abandoned and Sakura was explaining what an 'Onigiri' is and why it's delicious. Harry couldn't believe anything made from rice and seaweed could be any good.

"It is! I'm telling you, you don't know what you are missing! Come on. I think we have one or two left from lunch." Sakura ran down the stairs followed by Harry, who stopped dead when he saw a tall, thin woman with an unusually long neck, and large, horse-like teeth was talking to Sakura's mother. She looked up when Sakura came running down the stairs and their eyes met. Sakura had never seen eyes that looked as cold and angry as this woman's eyes. The staring match only lasted a second, because her eyes traveled up to Harry a few steps above her.

"There you are, Harry dear! I was so worried." Her voice dripped with honey, but there was a bite to it. "Come now, we must get home or dinner will get cold." She said, Harry slowly descended the rest of the stairs and Sakura saw the side of his face as he past. He looked scared. "Say good bye to your little friend." And she grabbed Harry's arm when he was in range and dragged Harry out of the house, he just managed to grab his shoes and wave good bye before he was pulled outside.

Sakura turned to her mother, who was staring at the door as if she had never seen anything like what had just happened and said "I really don't like that woman, Mamma."

Sakura didn't see Harry the next day, or the day after that. On the third day she got so worried that she followed his cousin, the fat blond kid, around hoping that he would lead her to Harry. She soon learned that the kid's name was Dudley; that he was seven, the same age as Sakura; that Harry lived with him, his mom and his dad; that Dudley didn't like Harry at all; and was the one who had broken his glasses and given him the black eye. The more she learned about Dudley and his gang, the less she liked them, but around four that afternoon they lead her straight where she wanted to go: to Harry's house. She looked at the white fenced in house with the perfectly manicured lawn, precisely pruned hedges, and immaculately kept flowerbeds. Not a single flower out of line, not a single branch on a hedge stood up more than the rest, every blade of grass was cut to a precise length. In her opinion it was hideous. Her grandfather always told her 'There is no use fighting nature, we can cut the grass to keep it short, we can plant the flowers in perfect rows, but they are going to grow according to their own destiny, all we can do is guide them.' He always grew the most beautiful flowers.

Sakura shook herself out of her thoughts and turned her bike towards home. Tomorrow she was going to go to number 4 Privet Drive and force Harry Potter to play with her.

Harry Potter curled up on his side in the too-small cupboard under the stairs and held his empty stomach. Now he wished he had taken Sakura up on the offer for the rice ball thing earlier. Three days with only what he could safely sneak from the kitchen at night without it being noticed. A slice of bread the first night, a couple of grapes the second, but a slice of bread and a couple of grapes doesn't go very far. The reason he was being punished was 'talking to the neighbors and intruding in their home, where freaks aren't wanted.' as Uncle Vernon had put it and 'forcing her to go door to door looking for him.' as Aunt Petunia had said. (What would the neighbors think?)

He heard the front door open and shut and Dudley and his gang came in, banging on his cupboard door as they do whenever they know he is in there. Harry rolled over and put his back to the door, closed his eyes and ran through the best afternoon of his life.

He had talked to another kid, played games, and even had a soda. For the first time in his life he had felt like a regular kid and not Boy, or the Potter brat. He'd felt like Harry. He knew; despite what his uncle had said; that he had been welcome in that strange home, where you weren't allowed to wear shoes, where seven year old girls played with sticks and hid strange kids under wheelbarrows, where the bed was set directly on the floor, and where everything smelt clean, despite the thin layer of dust everywhere. Harry knew that if he ever had a home, he wanted it to be like that one. A small smile graced the face of Harry Potter and he drifted off into dreams of clean smelling homes and dancing onigiri.

Hello, Readers!

I'm glad you chose to read this story. It's been a while since I've written anything for others to read, so I may be a bit out of practice. This is different from what I usually write, in that I know very little about it. Japanese culture is ancient and vast and I don't understand most of it. Really what I know is based on what I've learned from other people, the internet, and anime, so please forgive me if I mess anything up. I'm trying my best to get it right.

Constructive criticism will be taken into consideration; flames will be used in my wood stove, complements will be used to preen myself. Please review!

~DragonRider22