A:N:/ Well, I've finally got enough nerve to post a story. That I've been planning for three months. That blank microsoft page stared at me for literally about 5 hours today. Not joking. It destroyed me today. Tell me if I should continue or burn the story.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

CHAPTER 1:

Stranger in a Strange Land

During 1745, in a self-respecting town named Konoha, nestled deep in Massachusetts, the citizens mirrored their city, being kind, honest, and polite in all acts they commited. Everything was normal and peaceful in this little village, every wife's and husband's dream. Young girls played mirthlessly near the stone paved street while the boys played upon the stone paved street.

All was as it should be. Though the large green forest surrounding Konoha scared Sakura Haruno, just a little bit, she was perfectly happy here. She was always back in bed at a certain time, exactly at 9:00, and even though she thought it was a tad ridiculous, she still obeyed it, like a perfect little girl. Never complaining, sweet to everyone around her, and just plain out adorable described Sakura Haruno.

She was nicknamed "Konoha's Cherry Blossom" for reasons painfully obvious. Her hair color for one was a dead giveaway; a bright shade of pink that could be spotted from mile's away. When asked if it was heriditary, she would always reply cheerfully with a "Yes, is yours?"

From a young age, Sakura had always been taught manners. No elbows on the table. Not speaking out of line. Respecting her elders. She obeyed each and every single one, like a perfect little girl.

Back then in the late 1800s, usually a girl's life evolved around fashion and etiquette. Long hair, dresses with corsets, embellished with lace and ribbon, smoky eye shadow, pink lip gloss, blush, and elbow length gloves were the new 'it'. Sakura found everything but the skin tight corsets to be paticularly endearing, but makeup was sometimes such a pain. When she was in a hurry, she had no time to apply it, earning a nice scolding from her mother afterwards.

Another thing she found annoying was her hair. Her hair was "unique" in many ways, from its bizarre color to the Rapunzel like length, but everytime she would step outside, the knee length, yes, knee length, hair would blow arround her in a cascade of rose sometimes blinding her vision for a few seconds.

There was no way humanely possible for hair to grow this fast in a period of 14 years, so Sakura's mother ordered her some odd-tasting plants and conditoners from Egypt. Every night before bed, the young Haruno would eat some herbs and wash her locks throughly with the soap like conditioner.

Sakura hated that none of this was natural. But, as her blonde best friend said, you suffer for beauty.

Speaking of hair, it was now the time for her bath. She could hear the water being put into the large 8 man tub by her maids as she scribbled out something hastily in her journal so she wouldn't forget it later. From the tender age of seven, the pink haired Rapunzel (as her friends had so kindly nicknamed her) had been fascinated by medicinal affairs. She dreamed of being a doctor when she turned 18 and wasn't going to give that up anytime soon.

A gentle shout came from the other room as Sakura shoved her journal underneath her bed. She responded as loudly and padded to the other room, eager to get the tight fitting piece of clothing hugging her torso off. The maids left with a polite smile and left Sakura to her own affairs. Childishly checking both ways, the way one would do as if checking the road for carriages or horses, and noting that all was clear, she ripped off the lacy garment and threw it carelessly across the room.

She disobeyed in secret. Her mother, Mebuki Haruno, had made it specifically and perfectly clear that she never wanted the corset to come off of her body until she reached the age of 20. But Sakura swore that it was out to get her. Everytime she would sit down it would be painfully tight to breathe, to the point where she would stand up in her classes to get away from the cloth restricting her lungs. Luckily nobody asked her any questions afterwards.

The roseate haired girl sunk further into the depths of the warm water. Before she knew it she was nose deep and immaturely blew a bubble under the liquid.

A wave of exhaustion hit her like a hurricane and she closed her eyes intending to rest for just a few minutes. From personal experience, Sakura Haruno knew she could never just rest for a few minutes. Or when she closed her eyes for a few minutes that meant for a few hours. Not wanting to get scolded for taking the cursed black corset off, her eyes snapped open.

Dabbing a handful of strawberry scented shampoo into her palm, she applied just the right amount to each individual lock which took an estimation of 45 minutes, judging by the way the sun outside of her crystalline windows had just fallen behind the dominating pine trees that enveloped Konoha. Sakura always craved this time of day; whenever the glowing yellow orb in the sky would shine exactly right upon the fuzzy green substances that grew upon the trees and create a mirage of colors.

Before she stepped out of the tub, she coated her skin with lotion, strawberry scented of course. The yellow light mixed with the dark red outside and created a nice reflection off of the water sloshing in the bath. Small feet softly padded to the nearby mirror. The girl in the mirror stared and looked at Sakura with critisizing eyes.

A button nose, large emerald green eyes, and lips that were imperfect made up her face. If Sakura could name one thing about her self that she absoulutely detested, she would say her lips. They were too small for her tastes. Then her nose. It was too small. Then her forehead was, as her dear friend Ino Yamanaka put, the size of Massachusetts. Did she forget to mention her eyes were too big?

The young girl blew out a breath and threw back on a different bodice this time; light pink and white. Her feet carried her to her made bed, courtesy of Byaku and Chihari. Sakura smiled slightly to herself as she smelled the scent of strawberries ghosting over the sheets.

Byaku and Chihari were her favorite maids. But Sakura wouldn't consider them maids; lesser her servants. She considered them the only sane people to talk to around here. The only ones who weren't obsessed over the latest fashion trends or the newest gossip floating around the little Massachusetts village. Sakura secretly abhorred most of her family but could find relief in her two faithful friends.

She also found relief in the heavy, warm blankets of her bed, and soon drifted off into the comfort of the soft matress.

The wind blew her waist length hair back from her sunburned face while it toyed with her eyes. The fascinated girl, far too fascinated for her own good, ignored the stinging lingering in her corneas and continued to stare out into the endless blue. Her little knuckles, now purple from gripping the beginning of the ship's figurehead too tightly, suffered from lack of oxygen as she ignored the numb pain.

"It's pretty amazing isn't it?" A voice spoke from behind her, laced with barely contained excitement. She didn't recognize the tone so she quickly whipped around, her tangled mass of pink whipping behind her. Suigetsu Hozuki stood there, his arms crossed and a smirk adorning his face.

Sakura had seen him before; who hadn't? He was the captain's son, the esteemed son of Kisame Hozuki. Though he was far from esteemed and polite in Sakura's opinion, just the way a captain's son ought to be, she found him tolerable. She hadn't ever talked to him though because it seemed he was always busy with the ship's affairs and the people on board's complaints.

In a way Sakura admired him. From the annoying passengers to navigating the ship alongside his father, he never let his guard down or his concentration shatter. He looked about a year older than the pink haired girl, but towered above her by a good three inches.

And Sakura could also relate to Suigetsu. His purple eyes and straight white hair, tinted with light purple, and teeth as sharp as the knives he always carried around in his pocket, made him an eyecatcher anywhere; in comparison, her pink hair and remarkable green eyes made her easily recognizable to anyone she knew.

She didn't even know she was staring intently at his features until his rough voice broke into her thoughts.

"Like what you see?" His violet eyes danced with amusement as her face turned a dark shade of cherry red.

"As if," she replied daintily, turning back to the glimmering ocean, the blush never fading from her cheeks. The twelve year old, soon to be thirteen years, chuckled lightly and stepped up to Sakura until he was at her side. The red hue now drained from her face, she turned to him, though she didn't stare back at pools of purple.. The young Hozuki now looked back out at the endless sea with an interested expression plastered on his usually arrogant face.

It was refreshing to say the least, to see a change of expression on the boy's juvenille face.

"You hail from Europe, correct?" Suigetsu inquired. At least he was informal in some occasions, Sakura thought to herself.

"No, sir. I hail from its neighbor to the east."

"From Asia. And judging by your accent, I would say Japan. Am I wrong?" The pink haired girl nodded her head once. Suigetsu grinned to himself when he thought Sakura wasn't looking. Letting out a small smile of her own, she turned back to the water and asked him a question of her own.

"And you come from Japan also?"

"Yes. But I doubt you have ever heard of the name. It's a small village, Kirigakure. But maybe you have heard of Village of the Bloody Mist? I am certain your story books have taught you of the infamous Bloody Mist?"

Sakura turned back to Suigetsu and his trademark smirk was back on, and the amusement followed.

"Why, I do believe you are teasing me, sir." Sakura fumed, but secretly inside she was laughing at his jab of her self-esteem. How rude of him.

"Was it that obvious?" He asked lightly, and continued. "Have you heard of it?"

The eleven year old Haruno paused. The back of her brain racked for any Kirigakure knowledge she may have read about in her childhood days, but came up to nothing. Bloody Mist, however, she had read about.

It was a land surrounded by water; an island if you will. It layed on the west coast of Japan, Sakura thought. When she was younger, she always wondered why Kirigakure was called Village of the Bloody Mist. Whenever she asked her maids, servants, parents, anyone she could find, nobody would tell her.

Sakura tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I have heard Village of the Bloody Mist. But I never quite understood why it was called that."

Suigetsu started to speak, until a cabin boy by the name of Konohamaru Sarutobi tugged his coat. "Sir, your father needs you. He requires your prescence in the Captain's Quarters." Konohamaru spoke in a jumble, obviously nervous that Captain Hozuki had called on specifically him for this task. Suigetsu grinned at Sakura, and that sparkle in his lavender eyes promised her that they would talk again later.

She sighed. She guessed she would have to wait for a while to learn about this enigmatic village of his.

A loud thump awoke Sakura from her restless slumber in the forecastle. Her mother to her right, lying upon the bunk, was still sound asleep, and looked to be in a dream judging by the way her eyelids fluttered. Against Sakura's better judgement she escaped the comfort of her bunk and advanced towards the deck of the ship.

This was out of her usually character. Sweet little Sakura Haruno, disobeying Mebuki Haruno's orders to stay in the sleeping quarters all night until the break of dawn just peeked over the water's horizon. Cautiously she stepped over the creaky floorboards, like a tiger nearing its prey. The hatch opened, and she climbed out into the night air.

The water from the North Atlantic Ocean blew in her already wind blown face and her bizarre hair swirled around her in a mass array of pink. She squinted in order to see what the commotion was about.

The wooden planks of The Samehada, the ship's name, which literally meant Shark Skin in Japanese, groaned underneath the unknown passenger's weight's. Her body subconciously edged to the wall, and she heard stranger's voices talking quietly among themselves. Well, one was quiet, while its other was just about quiet as the floorboards that threatened to give away Sakura's position.

"We know you are there. So come out." The quiet one commanded, obviously to the intruder lurking among the shadows. Sakura saw no sense in hiding anymore, and stepped calmly out of the shadows. It was surprising, to say the least, to see the foreigner's faces.

The hoarse sounding voice belonged to a scrawny boy, maybe one or two years older than herself, with unusual burgundy hair upon his head. His pale chartreuse eyes, as pale as his skin, were narrowed in distrust and skepticism, while his partner's sapphire one's were full of altruism and clemency.

An odd pair indeed, and as many would put, they were polar opposites. From the shock of yellow hair and tan skin to the crimson tangles and ghostly skin, they were in so many ways different from eachother. Sakura would bet good money that their personalities contrasted also. She introduced herself.

"Hello. My name is Sakura Haruno. I didn't mean to eavesdrop." Her viridian eyes darted back and forth to the pair, seeking admission for their introduction. The blonde boy spoke first, and as Sakura thought, his voice was laced with cheerfulness, in opposition to the boy who know was narrowing his eyes even further at her. She tried, she really did, to ignore the intense glare the boy directed in her general direction; it wasn't an easy task to say the least.

"Hi Sakura!" His exuberant tone caused her to nearly jump. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. This here is Sabaku no Gaara." His voice trailed out, his eyes dancing to 'Gaara' seeking approval. What an odd name. Was Sabaku his first name, no was the middle, and Gaara was the last? Not knowing exactly what to call him and not wanting to anger him even further for whatever she had done wrong before, all she could do was mutter a "Hello. Nice to meet you."

"Where do you come from?" Naruto questioned, and like Sakura had done before with many others who asked, she answered him with her usual Japan. Surprisingly Naruto mirrored her answer with a cheeky grin. All the time they exchanged laughs and mindless chatter, Sabaku no Gaara gazed at the rivets carved in the floorboards. He found one to be paticularly interesting and his eyes followed it all the way up to the foremast by the figurehead.

Unfortunately for Sakura, the tip of the cursed yellow ball of light peeped over the edge of the expanse of blue sea and it signaled her leaving. Summoning enough courage to ask him a question, Sakura looked to Gaara and in what she thought was a bout of stupidity she asked him where he lived. He calmly answered much to her pleasurable surprise.

"Sunagakure. I am not going to be on the ship for much longer."

The Uzumaki boy nodded. "Though I am staying, I am afraid my dear friend must return." He said and turned to Gaara. "Speaking of which, you and I need to go back to land and pack." He finished off his sentence with a huff, saddened by his friend's departure. Gaara nodded once and started walking away without bidding goodbye unlike his male counterpart.

"Bye Sakura! I'll see you soon!" Naruto waved without turning around. She smiled to herself. She had found a friend on the long journey to Konoha, and maybe a friend who would last until they arrived.

He, Sakura thought to herself, made this trip a little more bearable.

A:N:/ I hate myself. I absoultely abhor every thread of my being. This chapter was AWFUL. I felt like it moved too fast. If anyone agrees, leave a review. Seriously, I live for those things. If you don't I will hunt you down. Like the Bed Intruder.

So hide yo kids

hide yo wife

and hide yo husband.

I'm such a nerd.

OH. And this is an ITASAKU fic. They meet later. I don't want to rush things. Don't worry if it doesn't seem romantical enough for you. I promise it will get hot a heavy in probably like 20.

lul.