A:N:/ Just finished writing chapter 1. It's three in the morning. I'm dying. Oh yes. And I forgot to mention that YES, I do know that Kisame's last name isn't Hozuki. I just thought it fitting for the two water babies to be father and son, no? Oh, and guys, review. Please?

Enjoy- Lauryn

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

CHAPTER 2:

The Glass Meadow

The waves rocked The Samehada back and forth and Sakura honestly thought that the ship would break in half from anymore of this turbulent jostling it was currently suffering. She could do nothing but sit there and watch Kisame Hozuki and his younger son navigate the wheel; with difficulty of course. But everything was with difficulty aboard this ship today it seemed.

She would have laughed at the look on Suigetsu's face if it hadn't been for the severity of the situation. The crazed expression mixed with hysteria and panic was permanently etched upon his features for the time being. Rain poured down on the passenger's and sailor's heads in bucket-fulls including the unfortunate Haruno child. How she wished she could chop off all of her hair sometimes.

But in the Haruno family, cutting off your hair was considered a sin. At least to Mebuki. Though her hair only reached her shoulders, she insisted that her only child should grow her hair out until it touched the floor. For the first few months, Sakura enjoyed the longness and the way it swished about her when she walked, but it soon grew tiresome and troublesome to take care of.

The water surrounding the ship bashed against the boards and Sakura nearly fell into the arms of her hyperactive blonde friend, Naruto Uzumaki. He caught her with difficulty and they tumbled to the hard wooden ground, along with many other passengers. Naruto mumbled something under his breath and pulled her back up by her wrists. Though Sakura didn't miss that dark blush painted on his tan face.

She knew that he wished to court her; but he never spoke it aloud. Many hints of his infatuation followed from that night he met her, and Sakura didn't know if she should be happy or sad. She liked him as a friend, of course; who wouldn't? He was happy, cheerful, optimistic, and just an all around good person to be around. Sakura silently urged him to meet other girls, girls that were far better than Sakura herself. It worked to no avail; his sights were set specifically on her.

Over the past few nights, she thought quietly to herself while she tossed and turned in bed. Should she accept his betrothal on the day he proposed? She was soon to be married; as was the custom when a girl turned 13 in a royal family. Her heart was in confusion over this boy. Once he asked her hand in marriage, it was a one time thing. He would move on if she said no, but if she said yes, there was no going back.

In a dark, twisted little corner of Sakura's heart, she hoped that he was the persistent type. She hoped, in that twisted little corner, that he would continue to ask her until she turned 15. Maybe then her mind and heart would be in order and not utter confusion and chaos as it was already in.

Like Sakura's heart, the ship was also in anarchy. Voyagers scrambled everywhere, attempting to find their loved ones or family. While as Sakura stood comfortably in Naruto's arms, Kisame and Suigetsu steered The Samehada, drenched completely from their heads to their toes in sky and ocean water. The rain contined to fall from the heavens without any relent on the passengers.

Sakura didn't know how or why or when or where she got there, but she soon reliazed that she wasn't outside anymore; she was inside, soaked, but not anywhere near the rain. A warm hand, unusually warm in the cold night air that they were surrounded by from the outside, gripped her frigid one. The Uzumaki must have brought her, she deduced, using her other avaliable hand to brush her hair out of her eyes to clearly see her rescuer. She was not dissapointed when she saw the blonde hair and aquamarine eyes.

They were now in Kisame's quarters, enclosed by beige boards and maps. The large room was littered with navigational items such as compasses, diagrams of land and sea areas, and sextants. The deluge continued outside and created a drumming rythm on the ceiling. Sakura gave Naruto a grateful smile and sat down on the nearest chair. Her fingers found their way into her tangled mess of hair and combed out the knots while Naruto watched in complete fascination.

Without thinking properly, Sakura let out a laugh. It would've been fine, except for the fact that that laugh was very unladylike. In her opinion, it was a horrific cross between a snort and a guffaw. Her hand flew up to her mouth, and with eyes wide open, she looked to Naruto and expected to see that usual sense of dissaproval she always saw whenever she did something uncouth.

Sakura was taught to be perfect. Her body needed to be shaped the right way. Corsets would curve her quite nicely, as many had told her. So she tied it to the tightest string it would physically go. Her voice needed to be soft and appealing, so she took singing classes and had a personal instructor. She practiced when no one was listening, and she found singing to be quite fun actually. Moving the 'correct' way was in no way possible for her, though. She was naturally clumsy, but she was taught for years to balance on the tips of her toes whenever she walked.

And last was her personality; civilized and affable. Whenever someone displeased her of made an offensive statement to her or anyone arround her, she would count to five and bite her tounge to control her outbursts. Sakura hated doing this; she saw it as a stab to her real personality. She never told her mother, or anyone for that matter, because she would get disciplined.

She compared herself to clay many times; able to be bended and altered any way to fit the potter's pleasure.

What she didn't expect to see was the boyish grin glued on his juvenile face. Her face turned a dark shade of red when she noticed his cobalt eyes dancing with mirth at her unexpected change in character. She scowled, hoping to fend off that amusement he derived from her mistake, but that only proved to make his grin stretch even further. She turned away and was about to stomp back upstairs, but a grip on her wrist held her tight.

"You should smile more, fits you." He said truthfully, a light pink dusting his cheeks. Sakura couldn't help herself; a smile cracked her facade and she erupted into a fit of light bubbly laughter. This boy was truly something.

"We will see." She said but was interupted by her unstoppable giggles. Naruto smiled, scratched his head shyly, and looked down at the flooring. The pink haired eleven, almost to be twelve year old, padded to where he stood and let her mind take over for her. She hugged him in gratitude. It was a pleasant but odd feeling to say the least.

He was warm, way too warm in this freezing room. Compared to her chilled to the bone body, he was a human sun. Why hadn't she thought of this earlier? The blush spreading to every area of his skin only proved to be even more alluring and Sakura's arms tightened a little.

But a corner of Sakura's mind knew this was wrong. She should not be leading him on like this, just breaking his heart when she pulled away. This was purely phyiscal, she told herself. It was quite cold in this room and she hoped he woukd understand her intentions and not misinterpret them for something more intimate. Naruto's scorching arms snaked their way behind Sakura's back and returned the platonic, or Sakura hoped it was, embrace.

That was until the door opened and a grinning Suigetsu waltzed in.

Sakura let out a mouse like squeak and untangled their limbs quickly. She knew she had already been caught, there was no denying that he had seen them. It was dead give away when his eyebrows rose to the top of his forehead and his shark like teeth protruded from his smirk. Cutting Suigetsu's no doubt unneeded comment about their relationship status off, Sakura's next words came out in a jumble. She was far too embarrassed to form coherent sentences at this moment.

"It was strictly friendship and it was cold in here and he was warm so I hugged him problem solved." Later she would slap her wide forehead for this and mumble about her stupidity, but right now all she was focused on was the door leading to the nearest exit. The young, white haired Hozuki boy chuckled and cleared his throat, intending the awkward conversation to be over.

"We're in port. The rain has cleared up. Feel free to go outside. Especially you, Sakura. It is quite warm outside, seeing as you were so cold a moment ago."

She was already out the door before Suigetsu could finish his sentence.

...

Sakura groaned quietly to herself. Though she would probably never see that cocky boy from three years ago again, she still wished she could get the last word in from that day. Lately she found her mind wandering back to Suigetsu for some unknown reason. Maybe she missed his teasing attitude and brash ways or the way his lilac eyes would light up when he looked out at the ocean or any water in general.

She also missed her oddball friends she had made on The Samehada. Sure, they were an odd group of people, but that was the way that Sakura liked things. She enjoyed the way they went about their daily life; like they had no care in the world. She wished she could say the same thing for herself but unfortunately she could not.

Her life was like a plateua; flat, with no curves or bumps to throw her off. She had the occasional shock, but it wasn't anything life threatening or serious. She found herself restless as of late, like there was something more out there for her than this sheltered life she was forced to live in.

Thus was the life of nobility for Sakura Haruno.

Sometimes, when she was feeling particularly intermittent, she would go outside at night, at about 11:00.

This night was one of those nights.

During these little escapes to reality, she would go outside, via her crystal window that her mother would keep tightly locked, and go to a meadow. A meadow that was surrounded by glittering ponds and rivers, all intersecting until they reached the middle of the grassy field. They crossed like a train and created a curly X. Enveloping the natural wonder would be dozens of topiaries and ancient pine trees, which swayed with the wind on exceptionally windy nights.

Her little rendezvous with the meadow went unnoticed by Byaku, Chihari, and Mebuki, and she silently thanked God for that. If her mother or her maids, especially her mother, was to find out about these little meetings with her pasture, she would not have a second chance. She never tested her luck, and only went out about once every week.

Sakura liked to call it "The Glass Meadow", because when the moon shined on the clinquant flowing water just right, it created a reafraction and would bounce off the rapids much like glass would; a parallel universe that she never seemed to be able to get enough of. Simply put, it was the only way to escape from her seculded reality.

On these escapes she would bring mortars and pestles; she was interested in alchemy. It was one of those few things she enjoyed. Medicines, diseases, and viruses fascinated her, and their cures she tried to decipher. She found she was actually quite good at it; she had found seven cures to nine diseases so far.

She arrived at The Glass Meadow at 10:45 and the stars in the black sky danced in the heavens upon her approach. Her 'secret place' had grown prettier each day, the pine trees growing a little taller and a little larger and the water rising a little higher. She removed her hood.

She found the cloak in the sitting room; dark crimson and long, just reaching the heel of her foot. Sakura planned to ask her mother whose it was and what it was doing draped over the ottoman, but never got around to it. Her twelve year old self, driven by curiosity by this piece of clothing she had never encountered in the Haruno mansion, took it into her personal care and it had been stored under her bed each week.

After the hood followed the blood-red cloak, and she set it by the intersecting rivers. The foliage obscured her vision from any wildlife, though she could clearly hear and make out distinctive chirps and scuttles of robins and squirrels. The large green timberland encased her in a warm embrace, unlike her mother who never had. Sakura felt completely at ease in this wonderland and relaxed into its embrace.

Before she could drift off into a deep sleep which she so frequently did, she crawled on her hands and knees, something she wouldn't be caught dead doing infront of nobility, over to her alchemy supplies, which perched innocently on her cloak, unaware of any danger lurking in the trees. Though she heard a few noises, her keen apple eyes scowered the emerald forest for any threats. She found nothing, and continued to search through her supplies.

A squirrel hopped out out of the plants and scared the fourteen year old Haruno to death. She jumped slightly and almost landed in the pond behind her. The furry animal cautiously bustled up to the teenager until it was three feet from her outstretched hand. She beckoned for it to come closer until its nose was within finger touch.

Then it scampered away.

Shrugging to herself, she rose to her feet and began to pick flowers and herbs she could use later. She put them in a her brown apothecary satchel and lied back down on the bank belonging the pond. Right now, all she wanted was to listen to the nature around her, so she closed her eyes and folded her arms behind her head, contented with the comforting green scenery encasing her.

She drifted off into an abysmal slumber, and would not awake until exactly five hours later, on the forest floor, wondering why in the world a squirrel was perched on top of her forehead the next morning.

And when that time came, she would rush as quick as humanely possible back to the Haruno mansion.

...

If you could say one thing about Sakura, it was that she absoulutely loathed introductions. She hated the awkwardness of meeting someone you had never known before, and they would proceed to continue the conversation like they were the best of friends. She endured it though, because that was what her mother wanted.

The rich men and their sons that Mebuki Haruno would introduce Sakura to never peaked her interest. Most of them were too arid and bland for her, always rambling on about the latest business trade they had done or the bet that their friend had lost to them last week. Sakura feigned interest and smiled politely at each point she was supposed to and laughed whenever he made a joke. And she hated it. She hated it with every fiber of her being.

Everytime she would meet a person, her mind would immediately revert back to a blonde haired blue eyed boy. She would compare his personality to others, and to no avail and no surprise, none of them matched.

Her mother, one day, had thought about her daughter for once, and inquired what kind of boy Sakura was looking for.

Mebuki Haruno and her daughter walked into the flower shop, and the little bell attached to the door chimed and signaled their arrival. Flurries of 'hellos' 'how are you?' and 'nice to see you today, Mrs. Haruno and daughter' bombarded Sakura's ears as she approached a bouqet cheerful yellow daisies. She smiled cordially at the people in the aisles whenever they greeted her.

Mebuki took note of her daughter's action; she was intrigued by the bright, yellow flowers. Not the exotic purple or pink ones, the somber blue or green ones, or the mysterious black and grey flowers. She thoughtfully looked to her only child. Now would be an opportune time to ask her.

"Sakura, dear. May I ask you a question?" Mebuki asked Sakura as she turned around with a daisy in her hand. She nodded. She needed to word this carefully in order to not scare Sakura away.

"What attracts you to those yellow daisies?"

Sakura knew what her mother was going after from the beginning; she knew Naruto and her were close friends. Though she didn't know if she appoved of him or not. After all, the Uzumaki was not born of royal blood, so Sakura did not have high hopes.

The Uchiha clan, however, were.

And this was Sakura Haruno's undoing.

A:N:/ Please bear with me guize. I know it's slow, I know, trust me. I just need to get Sakura's background and personality out of the way. The Uchihas should be mentioned in the next chapter, though I don't know if they're going to meet.

REVIEW.

I live for those things.