Chapter 1 ---- Special Meetings

Uzumaki Naruto was playing soccer with his classmates on the school ground. He was an energetic and playful boy. He had no tolerance for injustice, understandably because of his father, who was the head of the Konoha Police.

"Hey! Hey! Pass!" he shouted. One of his classmates passed the ball to him and he kicked it into the goal. "Yeah!" he jumped in excitement.

Uchiha Sasuke was watching the scene as he walked down the hallway with a book in his right arm. Suddenly, he was tripped by another student.

"You better watch where you're going," the boy said and laughed.

Sasuke fixed his glasses and stood up. He glared at the boy for a second and walked away.

Haruno Sakura was looking over the school ground from the balcony of her classroom. Her pink, silky hair swayed in the air elegantly as the fresh breeze swept across the balcony. She was a kind-hearted and caring girl.

"Sakura-chan, the class is starting soon," one of her classmates said to her.

"Ok. Let's go in," she answered and smiled.

----

The school year had just started and Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were in 4th grade.

"Watch out, Naruto!" someone shouted. Naruto slightly turned his head towards the voice and a soccer ball was flying through the air in his direction. He dodged it with his soccer reflex. Naruto looked back in the direction of the voice and his classmates were running towards him. He noticed that people were all looking at him. Then realized that their eyes were looking beyond him. Behind him. He turned around immediately and there was a girl on the ground. The ball had nailed her in the head.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted and ran to her. The girl got up and started dusting her outfit. "Are you all right? I'm sorry! Do you need to go to the infirmary?" Naruto asked the girl.

"No. I'm fine. Thanks," the girl replied.

Naruto offered her his hand. She took it and stood up.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. What is your name?"
"My name is Haruno Sakura," the girl answered.

This was their meeting.

Sakura walked away and Naruto watched her back.

"Let's get back inside," Naruto said. Naruto and his classmates started heading back to their classroom.

The chime rang. It was time to go back to the classroom. Sasuke hurried to the building.

THUD!

He fell. He looked up and there were three boys snickering at him. "What are you looking at?" One of them said. One of them had put his foot in Sasuke's way.

"Here, give me those glasses," another one took them away.

"Give them back!" Sasuke stood up to retrieve his glasses.

"Watch it, nerd!" the last one kicked him down.

Sasuke stood up again. "I need my glasses. Give them back," he said. The three looked at each other and one of them said, "Here." Sasuke approached him to receive them. One of them tripped him again. Sasuke, furious by now, pushed the boy over but was pushed down by the other two. They laughed at him and went away. Sasuke bit his lip.

At that moment, Sasuke saw a hand in front of his face. He looked up and there was a girl

"Are you OK?" the girl asked.

"Uh…Yeah, I'm fine," Sasuke said and stood up. He started walking away.

"Um, your book," the girl said as she picked up his book from the ground. "UCHIHA SASUKE," she read it as she dusted the book with her hand. "Sasuke-kun! Your book!" she said with louder voice.

Sasuke turned around. The girl was holding his book in front of her. Sasuke came back swiftly and received it from her. She smiled.

"Thanks..," Sasuke said as if whispering. Seeing the girl's eyes looking back at him, he said, "You're kind. Everyone makes fun of me because I'm a---"

"Nerd? That just means that you are a hardworking person, right?"

Sasuke, surprised, did not have a word to say.

"I'm sure you are a special one," the girl said and smiled. "Nice to meet you Mr. Nerd. I'm Haruno Sakura."

Sasuke was overwhelmed with ecstasy, which was not a usual feeling for him. They shook hands and went back to their own classrooms.

Naruto was running up the hallway with his notebook. He had forgotten to turn in the late assignment during the recess.

Bam! Naruto ran into someone. They both fell.

"Sorry, are you ok?" Naruto immediately got up and asked the boy who was down on the floor.

"Yeah."

"I was running because I forgot to turn in my late homework," Naruto said scratching his head.

The boy looked at the notebook, which had fallen open on the floor.

"Um. You've got number 5 and 7 wrong. And…10 and 16," the boy said.

"What!" Naruto exclaimed.

"The area of a circle is pi x radius x radius. And the formula for the circumference is pi x diameter. You've gotten them switched."

"Ahhhh! There's no time to correct them!" Naruto said.

The boy watched Naruto panic and laughed a little. "Here," he offered his pencil to Naruto.

"Ahhhh! What should I---Oh. OH! Thanks, buddy! You're my lifesaver!" Naruto received the pencil and started correcting his problems, which made the page a mess. "Thanks. Thanks a lot," Naruto said as he stood up ready to leave. "Oh. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, by the way. What's your name?"

"Uchiha Sasuke," the boy replied.

"All right, Sasuke. Thanks, again. I might run into you sometime!" Naruto ran off.

Sasuke stood up and hurried to his classroom.

During the afternoon recess, Sakura went outside and sat on a bench near the huge tree at the edge of the school ground.

Naruto came out to rest under the tree. He sat down and leaned against the firm trunk.

Sasuke grabbed his book and headed to his usual reading place. He saw a perfect spot under his favorite tree and sat down. The green leaves on the branches were like one large umbrella. The sunlight entered through the small holes among the leaves.

Sakura sighed.

Naruto sighed.

Sasuke sighed.

Sakura looked up and saw Naruto and Sasuke. "Naruto-kun. And…Sasuke-kun."

The two looked up. Naruto seeing Sakura, looked over to the other side of the tree and saw Sasuke doing the same.

"Do you two know each other?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah," Naruto said.

"I helped him with my homework," Sasuke said.

"Oh that is nice of you. See you're a great help," Sakura smiled. Sasuke smiled slightly.

"How do you two know each other?" Sasuke asked.

"…The soccer ball hit her."

Sasuke laughed.

"How do you two know each other?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke looked up.

"Sasuke-kun dropped his book, so I gave it to him," Sakura said. Sasuke looked at her. "Isn't that right?" she said.

"…Yeah," he answered.

"Well…This is some group. Isn't it?" Naruto said excitedly as he looked at the two. Sakura and Sasuke nodded and laughed.

Author Note: This is the beginning of my new story. It's quite different from my last story and it will be more OOC. I had this story in my mind for a while, so I hope you enjoy reading it  Please let me know how you like it!