Naruto and Roman Holiday don't belong to me. If you decide to sue me; however, I'll warn you that between saving for grad school and bills, I've got maybe $20 on me, a few manga books, and lots of Red Sox and Packers memorabilia. It's not worth the lawyers fees for that measly amount of stuff is it?

Konohagakure Holiday

Naruto plastered his back against a wall and peered around the corner suspiciously, immediately visible to anyone passing. Luckily, the princess didn't seem to possess any sort of ninja prowess at all or she certainly would have been able to detect him by now.

"Good morning, Naruto!"

He jumped back from his position and turned to face the smiling scroll shop keeper. Naruto grinned back with some confusion. The woman had never gone out of her way to be nice to him before, even when he had become a fairly regular customer.

"Are you doing some sort of training with Konohomaru today? I won't tell him that I helped you, but I think he's hiding over that way."

The older woman pointed somewhere beyond the wall to Naruto's left.

"Uh…thanks old lady, but actually I was looking for someone. Have you seen a weird-looking girl around here?"

The woman laughed and shook her head.

"No. No one weird-looking today, Naruto. Or, I'm sorry, should I have called you Mr. Uzumaki?'

Naruto blushed and shook his head.

"No! I mean, I'm still the same old me! Sorry, I gotta go!"

He rapidly bowed before running down the street, back towards the heart of the village. Naruto still couldn't adjust to the new way that people were treating him.

"Ever since Granny Tsunade named me the next Hokage…"

Naruto frowned as he continued to run. Thinking about becoming the next leader of Konohagakure usually made him happy. He quickly slowed down and began to look around the busiest part of the village, shaking the cobwebs from his head violently.

"No use worrying about that now!"

Pumping his fist in the air, Naruto grinned.

"There is no way that I'm going to lose this bet!"

He darted quickly through the crowds, scanning them for any sign of the missing princess.

"I'll just think of this as training. Pervy Sage always says I need work on my tracking skills."

He flattened himself against the nearest wall, trying to blend in with the shadows. Unfortunately, a large tuft of yellow hair jutted up and out of the building's long shadow, glinting in the afternoon sunlight.

"Hey boss," a bright young voice echoed from behind him. "What are you doing hiding behind this wall?"

"Uh…"

Naruto found himself at a rare loss for words as he turned to face Konohomaru.

"I'm looking for someone."

Konohomaru nodded, and then joined Naruto in positioning himself against the wall, his brown hair and less conspicuous appearance blending in perfectly with the shadow of the building. Naruto resisted the urge to ask how he did it so well, not wanted to admit that he was bad at something to his younger charge.

"Have you seen a girl, kind of weird-looking with blue hair?"

"Yeah, right over there, boss."

Konohomaru pointed across the street to a small woman exiting a hair salon. Her hair was now cut boyishly short, and the two long bangs that had previously framed her face were gone.

"Thanks, Konohomaru," Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, resisting the urge to ask how Konohomaru had found her so easily. Now that he knew where she was, he'd be able to track her a lot easier.

"Why are you following that girl?"

Konohomaru looked up at Naruto with unconcealed interest.

"Oh I know! You're going to use her to help perfect the sexy jutsu, right? She's kind of a weird pick, boss. I mean, that jacket hides everything!"

Naruto couldn't put his finger on why, but he suddenly was annoyed at the way his younger comrade was talking about the princess.

"Probably just because I took care of her last night, or something," Naruto mumbled.

It hadn't occurred to him until now, that he'd never really had a girl spend the night at his apartment before. Konohomaru watched as Naruto launched into a small conversation with himself. He was used to Naruto talking to no one, so he merely shrugged it off and continued to watch as the girl stopped at a nearby shaved ice vendor.

"Hey boss, she's headed over that way!"

He elbowed Naruto, interrupting him from his thoughts.

"What? Hey! That's the money I gave her to get home, stupid girl!"

Naruto growled and dashed out from the shadows, forgetting that he was supposed to be tracking her without being noticed.

"I gotta go Konohomaru! Let's play hide and seek some other time, okay," he yelled back to the boy as he took off down the street.

Slowing down to tail her openly, but hopefully far enough behind her that she didn't notice, Naruto watched as she meandered down the street, taking in the sights of the village.

"Doesn't she get to do this stuff all the time? I mean, she's a princess. She should have people to do whatever she wants," he mused aloud.

The princess stopped in front of a small flower stand, bowing politely to the young woman manning the counter. The young woman smiled back, holding up a small sprig of lavender to the princess's face and nodding enthusiastically. Naruto strained his ears to hear their conversation.

"Please forgive me, I…I don't have any money."

The princess gestured to her pockets and shrugged, blushing prettily. The florist simply bowed and handed her the small spray.

"Thank you very much," the princess said, bowing deeply.

Naruto was enthralled. The way the princess had politely declined, but still managed to charm the young florist had been effortless.

"If I was as good as she was, I would never have let her leave my apartment this morning!"

She turned in his direction, twisting the flower in her hand and smiling serenely. Naruto panicked and ducked behind a nearby trash can, watching as she walked past him, throwing her empty paper shaved ice cone into it. He waited to emerge from his hiding spot until she had sat down on a nearby bench. She was lost in looking at the flower with a fascinated expression.

"Fancy meeting you here," Naruto said as he strolled towards her, brushing bits of garbage from his vest.

The princess looked up abruptly from the lavender, swiftly glancing from side to side, frightened. Her expression softened when she saw him.

"Oh, it's you."

"Yeah, I come here often."

Naruto clenched his fists at the half-truth, despising that he had to lie to her. Ichiraku's was just across the street, keeping what he had said from being an out-and-out lie. However, usually he would be training at this time, if he wasn't off on a mission, or sorting through Tsunade's paperwork.

"Honestly, Granny Tsunade probably just wanted someone to do all of her dirty work," he exclaimed under his breath.

"Hn?"

"Oh, nothing!"

Naruto ruffled his hair with his fingers, grinning widely at her. Up close, he noticed that her face was no longer obstructed by her long bangs.

"Sorry! I've kinda gotten into the habit of talking to myself."

"Oh… That's understandable."

He frowned. It was the exact vague answer that one could expect from a practiced politician. Naruto cocked his head to the side and studied her. She didn't appear to understand, after all, she barely knew him.

"So why are you still out and about," Naruto asked, opting to change the subject as he sat down on the bench beside her.

"I figured you'd be long gone by now!"

He quickly began mentally kicking himself for mentioning that he had been thinking about her at all. Luckily, she seemed too preoccupied with her own thoughts to notice.

After a somewhat awkward silence, the princess smiled softly, looking down at her hands which were in the process of shredding the sprig of lavender.

"The truth is…the truth is…umm…I ran away last night. From…my school."

Naruto quickly exhaled, not realizing that he had been holding his breath, waiting to see if she was about to admit her identity.

"Oh…," he quickly recovered. "Um…did you hate it there or something?"

She laughed quietly, shaking her head. Naruto couldn't help but smile. Her laugh had become somewhat of a relaxing sound to him.

"No, not really."

"Awww…c'mon! School is so boring! I mean, you waste all that time there sitting around and reading about cool stuff when you could be actually out there doing it. I used to get so mad!"

The princess laughed again, louder this time, and politely covered her mouth with her hand.

"I actually only planned to be away for a few hours, just to see the village," she said, pausing to look around the busy plaza wistfully.

"But I…the sleeping medication was…potent."

"I'll say! You were really out of it!"

She blushed and stared at her hands again. The small spray of lavender was completely torn to pieces and scattered across her lap. A very light fragrance wafted upward from the destroyed flower.

"I'm sorry…I uh…I shouldn't have said it that way. I'm not very good with…well, words, I guess, but it's more than that."

Naruto shook his head and blushed, scratching the back of his head nervously.

"It's okay," she said. "Your honesty is actually rather…r-refreshing."

She looked up at him and Naruto froze. For the briefest of moments, she allowed her icy exterior to shatter, and smiled at him timidly. Her eyes were clear enough to match his, and he was shocked at the loneliness and pain he thought he recognized.

"You're…you're just like…," he uncharacteristically whispered.

"I should be heading back. There are sure to be many people worried about me."

The princess spoke abruptly, drowning out Naruto's words as she brushed the bits of lavender from her jacket and stood up.

"Wait, you can't leave yet!"

She looked up at him blankly. Naruto shook his head and grinned back at her. He knew that probably sounded stupid, and oddly desperate, but this was possibly his last chance to trick her into spending more time with him.

"Uh…you haven't even gotten a chance to look around! You know, see the sights! Isn't that why you ran away in the first place?"

He beamed proudly at her. There was no way she would pass up seeing the town if that's why she had run away. Even if she had been lying about the reason why she left her family, he had nearly caught her in that lie.

"This is brilliant," he said under his breath.

"I-I guess I could…"

Naruto knew he had caught her off guard as she paused, gazing off into the distance and shifting her weight back and forth from foot to foot.

"C'mon! You should jump at the chance," he pleaded, inwardly grimacing at how heavy-handed he sounded.

"There are a few things that I've always wanted to do…"

She looked into his eyes, allowing her mask to slip again as she grinned shyly up at him.

"Like…," Naruto prodded.

"Oh you know."

She looked down at her feet and then back out across the village.

"Many things. Things that, most likely, are very boring to you."

"Like getting your hair cut? Or buying a shaved ice?"

"Well, yes. Those things and…," she trailed off again, smiling to herself.

"I could eat at an actual ramen stand…or just look at different shops…sunbathe…go on a long walk through the woods…"

As she spoke her eyes lit up. It nearly distracted Naruto from realizing that the princess wanted to do one of his favorite things.

"…It probably doesn't sound all that fun to you."

"No!"

Naruto yelled, grabbing immediate attention from the passing crowds of people. She looked around nervously, shocked by his sudden outburst and the looks he was now attracting.

"I mean, yes!"

He corrected himself in a quieter tone of voice, stepping conspicuously in front of her and glaring at the few people who had stopped to see what the commotion was about. They quickly dissipated with curious glances back at the couple. Naruto ran his fingers through his hair and grinned widely at her.

"I meant that, no, it does sound fun," he finally said.

"Please don't take offense," she began slowly. "But don't you have to work?"

Naruto laughed loudly.

"Not today!"

"So you would like to spend your day off…accompanying me to do all of the frivolous things that I have always wanted to do?"

He nodded in reply, his nerves growing at her skeptical expression.

"Umm…why would you want to do that?"

Naruto quickly grabbed her hand, ignoring the slight shudder that ran through her body, and began dragging her towards Ichiraku's.

"Are you kidding?! There's no way that I'm going to pass up a chance to eat ramen! You obviously don't know me at all!"

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in a while! My roommate and I have been mooching wireless internet off of our neighbors and we suddenly couldn't connect to it anymore sometime mid last week. (I guess that's what we get for being too cheap to pay for it.) So the updates will take slightly longer from now on, until my internet starts working again, or until I can get to a computer with internet.

Since this story is obviously AU, I've also played around with the ages a bit, making Konohomaru about the same age as in the anime (pre timeskip), and Naruto older (late teens/early twenties).

There are no direct quotes from the movie in this section; however some of it was paraphrased from the original dialogue.