The sun shone down on the playground as the day came to an end in Konohagakure no Sato. Near the middle of the park, a small girl was curled up, crying, as she heard voices around her.
"Aww, she's crying," one voice rang out.
"Eurgh, the snot running down her face only makes her uglier," a second voice said. The small crying girl buried her face further into her knees and wrapped her small arms around her head; if they couldn't see her, they wouldn't laugh, right? A third voice chose to intercede, then.
"I didn't think it was possible for her to look even worse than usual, but here she is, shattering that one."
"She's trying to hide from us," the first one said, "not like it'll work, her forehead is so big, they could probably see it in Iwa."
"Maybe she should rent it out for her dad, might get more people to shop at his store! Hahaha!" the second one said, before chortling at her oh-so-clever jab. The laughter began to trail off after a few seconds, however, as rapid footsteps approached.
"Hey!" another voice, a boy's this time, called. The small girl's arms started to tremble. The bullies were awful, but she'd seen what boys did to each other in these situations, and it wasn't anything she wanted to be near.
"Back off her! She didn't do nothin' to you!" the boy's voice cried out. The small girl's heart skipped a beat. What? She opened her eyes and brushed her bubblegum-coloured bangs out of her face.
Standing between her and the bullies was a boy barely bigger than her, wearing a white shirt several sizes too big, and shorts a size too small. In addition, he had the brightest red hair she'd ever seen; even her father's hair wasn't that bright!
"What does it matter to you, Grape Tomato?" the first one snickered, "You her friend? Figures, the stupidest hair colours would stick together."
The boy straightened, "I ain't never seen her before. But you're making her sad! And you're insulting her forehead! Why're you insultin' her forehead?!"
"What do you know?!" the first one screamed, clenching her fists at her side and her face blushing in embarrassment, but the boy didn't move a muscle. She crossed her arms.
"Fine! It's not worth it anyway. Come on, Kasumi, Fuki, we've got better things to do than entertain the Forehead Girl and the Grape Tomato."
The girls turned and strutted off in what they thought was a dignified manner, but just made them look dumb. Fuki tripped over the sidewalk on her way out. The boy turned around to look at her. His eyes were a bright cerulean blue, and he had three birthmarks on each cheek, looking like whiskers, almost.
He muttered something under his breath, all she picked up was "tomatoes."
"W-what?" she stuttered. The boy focused on her.
"Said I hate tomatoes!" the boy yelled. She fell back in fright. The boy blinked and frowned.
"Sorry," he muttered, "didn't mean to scare ya." He let out a wide grin, and walked up to her, holding out his hand. She looked at it, confused.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!" he said, quite loudly again, "What's your name?"
The rosette blinked, this little boy had just asked for her name. Wait, Uzumaki, didn't my parents mention that name once or twice? "I… my name?" she stopped and looked down at her feet.
"'Ts okay," the b-Naruto said, "you don't hafta be nervous, I dun bite." She took a deep breath and let her legs extend a bit.
"I'm Haruno Sakura!" she squeaked out, before curling back up into a ball. The boy's smile, however, didn't waver.
"Nice ta meet you, Haruno-san!" the boy cheered. He knelt down and looked at her face. "Hmm, that won't do," he reached forward and lightly grabbed a handful of her bangs, pushing them off to the side, "better! Now I can see your eyes, 'ttebayo!"
Sakura reached up and covered her face. "But Uzumaki-san, my forehead-"
"Ya, you got one. So do I, see?" Naruto pointed to his own forehead, the silly grin never leaving his face, "no need to be scared." The grin dropped from his face, and he looked confused, "I dunno what your feeling is called, it's like you're scared, but you're not scared."
"It's just," she stopped herself, not wanting to draw his attention to it, "nothing."
She giggled to herself, then let herself smile warmly. She nodded to him.
"Thank you, for helping me," she said.
The boy smiled and offered his hand to her again. This time, she took it, and he pulled her to her feet.
"You two okay?!" a voice called out. Sakura turned around and saw one of her classmates, a blonde girl, the Yamanaka, running up to them.
"Sorry, I tried to run here when I heard something was up, but sensei held me back after class. I failed that last test pretty hard; Choji-kun's parents party way too hard for a weekday!" she complained, "I wanted to come and help, but it looked like Uzumaki-shi took care of the problem. Are you hurt?"
Sakura looked away from the blonde. "No, I'm fine Yamanaka-san."
The blonde sighed and shook her head, before blinking, and turning to the redhead, holding out her hand.
"Yamanaka Ino, nice to meet you officially," the blonde said. Naruto took the hand reluctantly.
"Uzumaki Naruto," he said quietly, akin to a mumble.
"Well, have a nice day Uzumaki-san, Haruno-san," the blonde said, straightening her hair and running off down the road.
"She doesn't like me," Naruto muttered. Sakura raised an eyebrow, wondering how exactly he could tell that, as the blonde never really showed that much emotion except to the Nara and Akimichi boys.
"Ah well, not like it affects me, gotta practice my kunai throws!"
"Sakura!" a voice called loudly. Sakura turned around and saw her mother running up to her. The woman crouched down and hugged her tight.
"You didn't come down to the shop, and I got worried, are you hurt?"
"No," Sakura stuttered, losing control of her tongue for a second, "I was just helped by," she turned and saw that Naruto was gone, and she couldn't see him anywhere, "...he's gone." Her mother ruffled her hair affectionately.
"He's probably just nervous if he ran off when I arrived, I'll see your mysterious saviour eventually. Come on now, let's go home." Nodding lightly, Sakura took her mother's hand and left the schoolyard. Glancing back, she tried to catch a glimpse of the redhead. Unfortunately, she didn't catch any sign of him.
-D&D-
It was nearly a week before she saw Uzumaki Naruto again. She had a kunai-throwing test, along with the rest of her year group. There were rows of dummies set up; each was painted red to mark the five vital points they were aiming for. Sakura's first four kunai hit perfectly, one after the other. Her last throw, though, went wide, instead hitting the dummy in the groin. There was an audible groan from the boys watching.
After receiving her marks, she stepped back to watch how the others did. Following some time observing, a familiar redhead stepped up. He hit only two vital points; the rest embedded in non-vital points. Funnily enough, he also hit the dummy in the groin, much to the annoyance of the teachers.
Upon seeing that, Umino-sensei walked back and shouted, "Okay, since Uzumaki-kun and Haruno-kun have done so already, hitting the groin is not considered a vital area for the purpose of this test! Those two get credit for it, but no one else will if they do so!"
As the other children who had finished walked to the back, Naruto bounced over to Sakura's location, "Hi, Haruno-san!"
Sakura shook her head, "Hi Uzumaki-san, nice throw." The boy beamed at the praise.
"Really?! Thanks! I've been working really hard on it, 'ttebayo!" he cheered, jumping up and down.
Sakura was happy for him, but also a little sad inside. He reacted so happily to just a simple compliment; it was as if he'd never been complimented in his life.
"Hey, Haruno-san, wanna be friends?" the boy asked. Sakura stopped for a second and looked at him. She had only met the boy twice, but he already wanted to be her friend? He picked up on her nervousness it seemed, and frowned.
"It's just, none of the other kids at the orphanage wanna be friends with me," Sakura frowned when she heard the word orphanage, "and the matron ushered the ones away that did wanna talk to me. The ones that still did got adopted soon after."
She felt so bad for the poor kid, but wasn't sure she was ready to commit to being his friend just yet.
"How about we come here after school? They'll hand out shuriken tonight to practice with, we can practice together," she offered.
The boy hastily agreed with yet another 'dattebayo' dropping from his mouth as he ran away happily.
-D&D-
An hour or so after school ended, Sakura walked into the training yard. Naruto was sitting on the bench with his legs swinging, his red hair blowing in the wind behind him. Instantly, his head shifted to her, and he grinned, running over to her.
"Hi, Haruno-san!"
She shook her head, not dropping her smile, "Hi Uzumaki-san."
Naruto supplied her with some shuriken as the two walked over to the throwing lanes. Where he got them, she didn't really want to know. The day went on, with more of their shuriken steadily hitting the target. By the time her mother called out for her, she had gotten all the shuriken from the set she was throwing into the target.
"Wanna come back again tomorrow?" Naruto asked her as she scurried away. She turned back and nodded in the affirmative. Even as she ran the other way, she could hear his excited cheering.
-D&D-
Day after day, she returned to see Naruto. Each time, their shurikenjutsu got better and better. After two weeks, every shuriken could hit a bullseye, with little effort from either of them. However, soon, a very special day approached.
"Wait, it's your birthday tomorrow, Haruno-san?" Naruto asked her. She nodded with a smile.
"Yep! I'm gonna turn 9!" she cheered. The boy frowned.
"Are you gonna have a birthday party or anything like that?"
"Um, no. I never have them or invite people in general, I usually just go out with my mom and dad, he always makes sure to be home," she trailed off and looked back at him, "Sorry, I forgot that you don't-."
"It's fine," he said, his smile coming back a bit, "Come on! Let's finish getting these stupid things into the target! We ain't done until they all hit a vital point, 'ttebayo!"
Sakura shook her head and walked back to the field with the shuriken.
-D&D-
Her birthday dinner was actually quite pleasant, her father gave her several trinkets from his travels. In addition, her mother gave her several new pieces of clothing, as well as a set of kunai and shuriken to practice with in her spare time; and they were real ones! That last one was easily Sakura's favourite, as she no longer had to borrow the ones that Naruto brought, they could spend less time grabbing weapons and more time throwing them!
The next day, when she went into school, it was quiet. Even those who had done nothing but bother her all day throughout the previous one didn't so much as spare her a glance, which bothered her, especially after the previous day of everyone trying to hand her presents to show how 'nice' they were.
When school got out, she waited like usual for the redhead to show up. It took much longer this time, but he eventually stumbled out of the building holding a small box.
"Sorry I couldn't give it to you yesterday, I couldn't find you!" he said, holding it out to her, "so, um, happy late birthday, Haruno-san!"
Sakura took it gingerly, smiling at the boy all the while. She hadn't expected a present from him. She opened the small box and stared. Laid across the bottom of the box was a bright orange ribbon.
"I bought it for you, to hold your bangs up! You always hafta shake your head to get it out of your eyes, this'll make it easier for you!"
"U-Uzumaki-san, I..." she almost cried. Taking the ribbon lightly, she pressed her bangs back, and tied it into a neat little bow on top of her head. Naruto pumped his hand up and cheered.
"Alright! You look awesome, Haruno-san, 'ttebayo!" Sakura shook her head lightly. The two would practice their shurikenjutsu, like usual, but when it came to an end, she stopped Naruto from leaving.
"Uzumaki-san," she said, nervous, "could you... try using my personal name when you talk to me, and when we're not near other people?" The redhead blinked, before smiling the brightest smile she'd seen yet.
"Of course, if that's what you want, I will, Ha- I mean, Sakura-chan! As long as you'll call me by mine, too!"
Sakura blushed lightly at him using '-chan' for her name instead of '-san.'
"Of course I will, Uzu- Naruto-kun," she said. The boy kept smiling, before he turned to run off to the orphanage, while Sakura went the other way, towards her meeting place with her mom. While the previous day had been awesome, this had been her best birthday present ever- a beautiful ribbon and a real friend.
A/N: Yes, yes I did. I'm a madman for trying to get involved in this fandom, but I think I'll enjoy it. I'll also try not to use random Japanese throughout the fic, except for jutsu and the like. Speaking of Japanese:
-shi - extremely formal honorific for someone you are familiar (through reading or some such) with but do not know.
I hope you enjoyed this short prologue chapter. Thanks to my beta-reader, GarnetMonstrosity, for editing this chapter! Please Review, Follow, and Favourite, and I'll hopefully see you next chapter.