Children were cruel.

It was a fact one Haruno Mebuki knew all too well, if only from her own past experiences. Her daughter had inherited her spring green eyes and her slightly too wide forehead. Forehead, that had been what the other children had called her back in the Land of Iron. The children of Konoha had branded her daughter with a crueller name. Freak.

"Shh," she whispered, rubbing at her daughter's back. "You don't need to listen to them, Sakura-chan…" Already Mebuki could feel the tears seeping through the simple top she wore, and it was then she hated the village she had decided to settle down in. She should have done more to quell the whispers which had run amok through the village at her precious little daughter's birth. The only piece of him she had left, now that she had been sundered from that place and returned to her homeland. Though it hadn't been the Land of Iron she had reappeared in, injured, exhausted, and heavily pregnant. Instead she had arrived in the forests surrounding Konoha, and there had barely been enough time for her to make it to the hospital before Sakura, her precious daughter of flowers, had come into the world.

Her daughter had been born with her eyes and her forehead, and her own dainty nose, but everything beyond that had been all her father's. Mebuki could remember speaking with her loving husband, back in the world where her chakra hadn't allowed her to age normally. Tears filled her eyes, and she ruffled the golden locks her daughter had inherited. He had hoped their children would have her hair colour. Her own long pink hair surrounded her daughter like a curtain, shielding her from the outside world in that moment, because she was her father's daughter through and through, from her solid little build to the tips of her pointed ears.

Those were what had sparked the rumours. Ones which had undoubtedly reached the ears of the children, and they told them that her daughter wasn't human. That she was part spirit. That she had the blood of forest folk, or other strange beasts from the tales there, running through her veins. Mebuki knew her daughter wasn't actually entirely human. Both she and her husband had known that their child wouldn't be just that. What they hadn't known was whether she would be entirely elven or half, as the other child had been. She didn't worry over that – separated from that world as it was. Rather, she despised the fact that the children refused to accept her daughter simply because she had pointed ears.

Konohagakure was a place with many diverse bloodlines. No one ostracised Uchiha for having red eyes, well, not the children, at least. No one turned on the Hyuga for having pupils the same colour as the irises of their eyes aside from a few civilians too big for their britches. Yet all the children turned on her daughter for having leaf-shaped ears rather than the rounded ones all others seemed to have.

"We don't need to go back to Kagutsuchi Park if you don't wish to…" Mebuki told her, relaxing ever so slightly as the sniffles died away and those spring green eyes peered up at her. "We can play in the garden if you'd like…"

"The garden's boring," Sakura mumbled, her words muffled. "But I don't wanna go back to the park…"

Mebuki tilted her head, musing over taking her daughter to the other park close by. "Do you want to go back to Hashira Park?" she asked, smoothing her daughter's long golden locks. "There'll be less children there… but there won't be as many places to play."

Sakura shook her head vigorously. "Don't wanna."

"Come on," she said, lifting her daughter into her arms as she stood up, venturing out into the garden. "Are you really going to let those children spoil your day? Your time outside?"

"But they're really mean!"

"Don't listen to them, little blossom," she whispered, planting a kiss on her forehead. "You're not a freak. You're just a little different to the rest of them."

Haruno Sakura knew she was an outsider there. It was a feeling, deep in her bones, and it only grew that much stronger the more she grew. Though, admittedly, she grew slower than others; yet another something which marked her out as a freak. The girls who bullied her towered over her by a good couple of inches, ensuring she felt that much smaller compared to them. With her hair braided back, she felt that much more exposed, her pointed ears on display for everybody to see. She could feel the stares on her. On her leaf-shaped ears.

Her mother liked to tell her it was only appropriate that she grew up in Konoha rather than anywhere else. It had used to make her laugh, before the mean girls had come along and ruined everything. Part of her cowered before the girls in front of her, something shrivelling up and dying as she mulled over her mother's words to her. She had to let their words flow off her, like water off a duck's back. A smile curled at her lips then, even as she was surrounded by the taller girls in the depths of Hashira Park. Her mother, she knew, was waiting by the trademark wooden pillars which had given the park its name. If things got too much, she at least had a place to retreat to. She could even call for help, should the altercation get physical, as at least one had before.

"What are you doing here, freak?" the tallest of her newest tormentors spoke, arms folded, chest puffed out in an attempt to intimidate her more than she already was. "Your kind aren't welcomed here."

Sakura sucked in a sharp breath, calming her nerves as she opened her mouth. "I-I-I am ju-just minding my own bus-business," she said, hating the stutter which always appeared whenever she tried to talk back to her bullies.

"I-I-I, ha!" her fellow blonde mocked then, from the ringleader's side. "You can't even talk properly, freak!"

Her lip wobbled, tears shining in her eyes. Was it too much for them to just leave her alone? She hadn't done anything to them. "L-Lea-ve m-m-me al-lone," she mumbled, stepping back from them then, wrapping her arms around herself as she felt the tell-tale trickle of tears down from her eyes. "What d-did I-I e-ever d-do to y-you?"

The tallest one sneered then, opening her mouth to reply, but another voice beat her to the punch.

"HEY!" The word was screeched out, the sounds of feet pounding against the dirt reaching her sharp ears then, and Sakura stiffened. "You leave her alone, you stupid, big bullies!" She paused in her sniffles then, eyes widening as she caught sight of a blonde boy hurrying over to her then. He had three whisker marks on each cheek, tan skin, bronzed from playing outside in the sunshine. His hair was cut unevenly, rearing up on his head in messy spikes. She didn't care about how dirty and bedraggled he looked though – because he was defending her. Her, of all people. That hadn't happened before. Ever. She was a freak, and everyone treated her as such.

"Oh." The tallest of her tormentors stepped back then. "It's the monster…" she muttered, a sneer besmirching her lips then. "I suppose it's fitting – freak and monster. You make a nice couple!"

"Mother says I'm not supposed to talk to him," the blonde one said, tugging on her friend's sleeves. "We need to go!"

"C'mon them," the ringleader hissed. "Leave 'em to their freak fest."

They left then, and Sakura blinked, dumbfounded. She turned then, emerald green eyes fixing on the form of the boy who had made her bullies run away. "Uh," she mumbled, shifting on her feet awkwardly. "Hi?"

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" the exuberant blonde exclaimed, and Sakura could only blink. "I'm gonna be Hokage someday, you'll see! So if I see meanies pickin' on a girl, I'll rescue her and save the day 'coz Imma be a really awesome shinobi."

Sakura blinked then. "A shinobi?"

"Shinobi. You know…" Naruto explained, scratching at his chin as he stumbled over the words needed to explain what a shinobi was to her. "They're the ones who protect Konoha, and only the best of them get to become the Hokage!"

She tilted her head. "Do people… like shinobi?" she asked then, curious as to these so-called protectors. They sounded like the tales about her father. The ones her mother whispered to her in another language when bedtime came around to call.

"Un!" Naruto nodded then, very vigorously. "Yeah. Of course people do! They're… shinobi, y'know, and they use super cool jutsu."

Sakura pressed the tips of her fingers together nervously. "Do… Do you think people would like me if I was a shinobi too?" she asked, heart pounding almost audibly in her chest as she voiced the question so hesitantly. Because she was a child at heart, no matter her strange, unfamiliar looks, she craved acceptance. Acceptance which wasn't given, just because her ears were pointed like strange, evil creatures from myths and legends which oftentimes preyed on men, women, and other children.

The other boy blinked then, before nodding with a smile. "Imma be the best Hokage ever, and then everyone will hafta ack-nowlee-edge me!" He nodded once more, and Sakura felt her eyes strain as she followed the vigorous movements. "So they'll hafta… ack-you know, you too!"

"Really?" she asked, her voice small, looking up at the boy with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. "You really think so?"

Naruto nodded yet again, not a hint of deception on his face or hidden in his body language, and a smile spread across Sakura's face then at his honesty. "Sure you can!"

Sakura shifted on her feet, heart pounding in her chest even as the boy smiled and waved at her once more – before turning on his heel. Her hands curled into fists, words overcoming her hesitance and general shyness around others. "Wait!" she called, screwing her eyes shut, praying that her voice had reached him.

"Uh, what 's it?" Naruto stood before her, a couple of steps away, and Sakura scrounged the scraps of her courage together.

"Will you, uh, b-be my friend?" she asked, eyes still screwed up, and she willed herself not to cry at the eerie silence which fell between the pair of them then. Really, she had thrown herself out on a limb, part of praying that this nice boy who'd helped and rescued her would become her first friend. Like a chivalrous knight. Just how her father had been described to her. She could feel the itch in her bones to become more like him, though Sakura was under no delusions she was the furthest thing from her father both in manner and strength. But she burned with the desire to become stronger and cast away her fears. This, no matter how strange of a move it was, was a step in the right direction.

Haruno Mebuki waited alone in the park, worry and concern for her daughter rising as she did not return. Part of her hoped she had found a friend – someone who looked beyond her ears and how strange they seemed in those lands. The other half of her knew how likely such a scenario was. Still, she hoped her daughter was busy enjoying the park. Elves often liked nature more so, especially compared to edain. Though Mebuki wasn't entirely sure she classed as edain, as one of the Secondborn, given how she was an entity from outside Arda in every sense of the word. And now her daughter was an outsider in her own world, thanks to her blood.

A sigh escaped her then, and she closed her eyes, only to open them when she heard the sound of footsteps. Her eyes cracked open, a smile forming – only to freeze as she caught sight of her precious little daughter pulling a blonde-haired boy towards her. Her heart leapt, hairs on the back of her neck pricking as she felt gazes set upon them.

"Sakura," she murmured, meeting those green eyes – carbon copies of her own – which glimmered with happiness. Something her dear daughter had been lacking for far too long. "And who might this be?" she asked, noting how the little blonde boy flinched at her stare.

"—monster and freak, how fitting—"

"This is Naruto-kun – he's my friend, my first ever friend!" Sakura declared, a big grin on her lips. "Can he come over for dinner tonight?"

Haruno Mebuki only smiled, shielding both children as best as she could from the glares of civilians both young and old. "Of course," she said, expression aglow with delight at the thought that her daughter had made her first friend. Who, like her, seemed to be terribly ostracised by those around them.

Her daughter had her first friend, something she had been longing for, and it was then that Mebuki vowed to herself that she would see neither of them come to any harm. Consequences be damned.