Chapter One—Uzumaki Naruto

One day, at the beginning of spring, Naruto began to question when his silly crush on Sakura began. It had to be some time in primary school. Or maybe it was earlier? The more he thought about it, the more he began to reminisce his childhood memories.

He'd always been a rambunctious kiddo. Couldn't really sit still for very long. He needed constant engagement and challenges otherwise he'd get distracted and goof off or even pull a few pranks. All for the sake of satisfying this insatiable boredom of his.

He was infamous among his teachers and classmates. Always branded as the class clown and troublemaker. His mother hated it and thought with enough threats he'd see the error of his ways, but he never took her seriously no matter how many times she yelled about slapping him into next week if he came home again with another disciplinary note.

Granted, his dad played a huge part in maintaining his safety so it's not like his mom was sparing him out of sympathy.

"Hah, I was such a little shit back then…" He uttered the offhanded comment with a wry smile as his gaze fell on a far-off row of cherry blossom trees in the distance.

"Was?" Sasuke scoffed from beside him, never looking up from a book he was thumbing through as Naruto spared him a glance. Said glance led to his eyes catching Sakura from the hall, walking with a stack of papers clutched tightly to her chest, gaze forward, posture straight, and lips poised in a slight frown.

"Mm…" It was a nonchalant hum of agreement as he tore his gaze from the pinkette in favor of staring at her namesake.

When did his feelings develop, he wondered, thinking back to the previous topic? It definitely had to be primary school. That was where they first met, after all. Sakura was scrawny as most kids that age are. He remembered her being pretty shy and that girls often picked on her. Or so he heard. He was too busy getting in trouble to really remember seeing something like that. Because if he did, oh boy quel beast.

The teasing didn't last long, though. Not after she became friends with Ino. It's hard to pick on a girl with someone like Ino for a buddy. After that, Sakura began to stand out more to him. In addition to having such an outspoken bestie, Sakura was super smart and always seemed to get the right answers to questions, get perfect marks on test, and teachers loved her.

By contrast, Naruto was pretty annoyed with this goodie two shoes act of hers. Mostly because it made him look bad, not realizing he was the root cause of his reputation suffering as badly as it had.

But whatever, right? Back to crushes!

The more he thought about it, maybe it wasn't primary school but middle school that he started liking her. At this point, he'd mellowed out a bit. Still had a few tricks up his sleeve but didn't get into nearly as much trouble. He started focusing on his studies a bit more though there were still some things that tripped him up. Noticing the effort, his teachers recommended a tutor for him.

Sakura ended up being his tutor.

The first lesson was a complete and utter disaster. He became even more annoyed with her. She had zero patience, was loud, and even threatened to hit him a few times just because he got a little distracted.

Oh god…she was just like his mother…

He chuckled thinking back on how terrifying he found Sakura at first. The way she cracked her knuckles and lowered her tone of voice was so menacingly familiar, he nearly wet himself. The next session went a little better. There was a shift somehow. She wasn't as impatient and seemed to be trying to understand him a little more. He sort of appreciated the effort but wasn't so willing to be candid with her.

Not yet.

By the fifth session, they were making a bit of progress. Naruto's walls were still up. Mostly because he didn't really see how he could trust someone who made the same threats as the woman who gave birth to him with no one to hold her back. Then she made an unprecedented suggestion.

"Say, you want to move our study session to Ichiraku?"

No, this wasn't it. This wasn't when he knew he had feelings for her. But it was definitely how they became friends.

Sakura wasn't a huge fan of ramen, but she wasn't stupid, either. He figured this was her way of bridging the last bit of gap between them so no more obstacles would stand in the way of her teaching him properly. It was an offhanded comment, but he remembered her saying something kind of profound and insulting at the same time.

"You might be the king of morons but I'm not giving up on you. Mark my words, Naruto, you're going to make it into the top 10 this term! Shannaro!"

She may have run out of patience a lot and seemed to get louder and more threatening as the days went on, but Sakura made good on her word. She stuck with him. And when exam time rolled around, everyone was shocked to see that Naruto had made the top 10. He may've been the 10th, exactly, but no one expected him to make such vast improvements. Not even he thought he was capable of that.

"Naruto! You did it! You did it!" When the results came out, Sakura rushed toward him with arms outstretched, a broad smile, eyes that seemed to twinkle, and a hug so tight, he couldn't breathe. Gods why was she so strong?

"S-Sakura! Ahaha, yeah! Yeah, I did it!" The two shared a moment of happiness that felt so intimate, it was like they were the only two people in the world.

Ah. This. This was the moment he knew.

He had a crush on Sakura.

"What's with that stupid look on your face, idiot?" Finally setting the book down, Sasuke seemed to catch onto Naruto's uncharacteristic silence long enough to address it with a rather common remark. The blonde responded with a absent hum before granting his friend a quiet glance, further confusing the Uchiha.

"Ah…just thinking."

"That's dangerous."

"Shut the hell up!" It never took much to pull Naruto out of his rare moods.

"Ne ne, did you hear? Sakura is crushing hard on this guy! Can you believe it?"

"Ahh! Really? Who do you think it is?"

"Well, I heard it was one of the guys she tutors!"

A few girls commented while entering the classroom. Normally Naruto wouldn't tune into routine gossip, but his ears were trained to pick up the sound of his friend's name.

'Sakura-chan has a crush?' Sitting up in his chair, Naruto stared at the surface of his desk for a few seconds before turning his gaze back to that same row of blossoming trees just outside the school grounds.

A few days passed before Naruto would see Sakura again. After pulling his grades up, she wasn't tutoring him as much anymore. Still, he needed decent marks to make it to university, so he had to keep the momentum up. Thus, the study sessions continued. Just not as often.

"And you'll want to remember this section for the mid-term. Kakashi-sensei is really subtle about the information he deems important enough to include on a test. He thinks I haven't figured him out, but I definitely have." She was smug, seeming pretty confident in her deciphering skills.

"Right right, yeah. Mid-term." But Naruto wasn't really all there. From the moment they started, all he could think about was that stupid rumor. It couldn't be true, right? Sakura wasn't crushing on anyone! She never showed signs before. So why now? In the middle of the year?

"Naruto? Hello? Are you even paying attention?" Her small hand slammed loudly on the table, startling the blonde out of his stupor to which he jumped and gave a short yelp. It soon morphed into a sheepish chuckle as he opted to scratch behind his head.

"Yeah! Sorry, just thinking about stuff."

"That's dangerous."

"Hey!"

"Ahah, I'm just kidding, Naruto! I know better than anyone how smart you are. Honestly…honestly, it's scary how much you've improved. You give a lot of other students hope, you know?"

"Eh? Really?" This is the first he's heard of such a thing. Naturally he's surprised.

"Mm. You know I tutor Konohamaru as well, right? He can't stop going off about how he wants to be like you and make into the top 10. You're an inspiration." It wasn't like her to compliment him like this. He wasn't sure what to say or how to react outside of saying thank you. He felt so awkward and kind of out of place.

"Uh…ahah, you're totally exaggerating, Sakura-chan…" He would've continued chuckling to brush off her comment had he not felt her colder hand lay on top of his. His eyes immediately fell on her paler digits before rising to her face. A round face that bore a smile and kind eyes that tilted ever so slightly and suddenly Naruto felt his mouth go dry and this unraveling sensation.

"No, it's true. I'm really proud of you, Naruto." Her smile widened, reaching her eyes that soon creased as if to display just how genuine her words really were. And as he parted his lips to say the words he could never utter, only one thought came to mind.

'Am I the one…?'

A/N: Yay first chapter! I love writing about Naruto in High School settings. I never really felt like he was dumb, he just needed teachers that could cater to his unique way of learning and challenge him. It's also fun to play around with his and Sakura's relationship and it's development in a setting that's more carefree. So let me know what you think! Sasuke's chapter is next!