Chapter Four: Bucket

They were both six when they met him, Sasuke Uchiha.

He was playing alone in the sandbox, his mother sitting on a bench nearby, reading a book while keeping an eye on her surroundings. He was in the process of making a sand castle when Naruto had the unforunate luck to fall on it.

It wasn't his fault, though! He had been running, playing tag with Sakura, when he chanced a glance behind him and tripped over his own feet. Straight into the sandbox. Completely destroying Sasuke's castle.

He could hear Sakura laughing in the background, and he just knew, just knew she was clutching her stomach and pointing at him with tears running down her face. Haji would later say that a lady doesn't laugh so boisterously like that, and Sakura would shrug it off and say she wasn't a lady, she was a dragon, and dragons don't care for the rules of polite society. Haji would try to hide his smile, would ultimately fail at that, and then make Sakura run a lap around the village for her retort.

But that was neither here nor there, as Naruto slowly sat up, sputtering and trying to get the sand out of his mouth. Sasuke would just sit there, shell shocked. He would watch as Naruto would shake his head viciously to try and get the sand out, before giving up and looking at him.

"I'm...I'm sorry for fallin' on your castle!" Naruto bowed his head in apology, knowing Haji would be upset if he didn't. "I tripped while runnin' and didn't mean to, I swear!" He added as an after thought, hoping the boy opposite him wouldn't be that angry.

But no, that wasn't the case.

You see, Sasuke had spent all morning building that castle, wanting to impress his mother with his amazing architecture.

And that was all ruined by that blond jerk! Sasuke frowned harshly, mimicing his father to the best of his abilities. After all, that was the face he would make whenever Sasuke didn't get something right the first try. Before he could say anything though, and he had had the perfect nasty remark on the tip of his tongue, Naruto held his hand out for him to shake.

"I'm Naruto Haruno!" He declared, smiling brightly while Sakura came running up to them. She plopped down right next to Naruto and grinned; she was careful on hiding her teeth, but a canine did manage to show up. Sasuke continued to frown, but not as deeply. Instead his face had taken on a thoughtful expression. He didn't notice his mother look up from her reading to regard the three of them with a curious look. She knew who those two children were, knew who they were destined to be, and she couldn't help but be wary. She hoped Sasuke wouldn't do anything to insult the Empress' children.

"Haruno? Like the Dragon Empress?" Sasuke finally asked. Naruto nodded and gestured to Sakura, who switched from a grin to a sweet smile. Sasuke thought it was a cute smile; he blushed, he wasn't supposed to think girls were cute! They had cooties!

"This is my sis, Sakura! She's gonna be the next Empress and I'm gonna be her protector!" Naruto declared, standing up and pointing his thumb at his chest, before he moved to point to his mark. Sasuke stared and thought that the pink dragon with the green eye was weird. Whoever heard of a pink dragon? "I'm her first mark, which means I get to be with her forever!"

Sasuke's lips thinned into an annoyed look. Naruto was really loud, and that was a stupid thing to want to be. Who cared if she was gonna be the Empress, he was the second heir to the Uchiha clan, the strongest clan in the world! He sniffed in a dismissive way, throwing his head to the side and voicing his first thought. Naruto looked shocked, then glared at Sasuke.

"Oh yeah? Well I think you're stupid!" Naruto shot back, shocking Sasuke. He didn't even know his name, or, or, who he was! And here he was, standing over him and insulting him like he was some regular civilian kid!

"Take that back!" Sasuke yelled, standing up and shoving Naruto. Sakura felt a spike of annoyance at him for putting his hands on Naruto, but she let it slide. After all, they were just boys and Haji said boys fought over stupid things all the time. Besides, she couldn't get mad all the time over every little thing, that would make her a horrible dragon and she would never be treated like an adult.

"No! And your hair looks like a duck's butt!" Naruto grinned in triumph, seeing how Sasuke twitched at having his hair insulted. He thought he had won their little fight and he and Sakura could go back to playing and leave this loser behind. What he hadn't been expecting, was for Sasuke to throw a handful of sand at his face. Naruto sputtered in indignation, before letting out a roar cry and tackling Sasuke, who let out his own little warrior screech as they fell into the sand and began to roll around, pulling at each other's hair and shirts. Sakura jumped up and out of the box, staring open mouthed at the two boys. She wasn't sure if she should get involved, or let them wear each other out. She looked around to see that the other kids had stopped what they were doing to look before turning back to their games.

"Stupid!"

"Duck butt!"

"Take that back!"

"You first!"

Sakura mutely watched as they continued to tumble around, oddly transfixed at how they were evenly matched for such small children. At one point, Naruto got the upper hand and shoved Sasuke's head into the sand, making him eat a mouthful. Sasuke squawked and sputtered while Naruto laughed in jubilation. Then he was bucked off of the black haired boy and had a bucket shoved onto his head by the very angry Uchiha. Before they could continue, Mikoto decided to step in.

"Boys!" She shouted, scaring Sakura since she hadn't noticed her appear next to her. Both boys stopped what they were doing to look, well, Naruto tried, but he still had a bucket on his head. Mikoto tried to hide her amusement, but it was hard when she saw how disheveled they were, both covered in sand and looking like angry kittens. She hid her chuckle by clearing her throat and fixing them with an angry glare. "Sasuke, that's not how you treat others-"

"He started it!"

"No I didn't!"

"I don't care who started it, both of you need to apologize right now!" She scolded, hands on her hips as she looked down at them. Sasuke pouted but wisely kept quiet, while Naruto struggled to get the bucket off his head. Mikoto took some pity on him and went to move so she could help him, but Sakura beat her to it. She grabbed the sides of the bucket and yanked on it. It came off with a loud 'pop' and suddenly Naruto could see again. He squinted at the brightness, but otherwise looked fine. Other than the fact that his hair was now standing straight up and looked like it was full of static. Sasuke let out a snort and Naruto snapped his head at him, ready to rumble again. But stopped when Mikoto grabbed both their ears and tugged. "Apologize, now." Her voice left no room for arguing.

"Sorry."

"I'm...sorry."

"Good, now that's over with, would you like to introduce me to your friends, Sasuke-kun?" Mikoto laughed lightly at the indignant look her youngest sent her, before shouting out that they weren't his friends, especially not Naruto who called him 'duck butt', and not Sakura who hadn't done anything to stop the fight. As she laughed, she felt eyes on her, appraising her and watching her every movement. She knew who it was, and she knew she was treading on thin ice. But at the moment, watching her son get flustered and trying to make it clear that no, they weren't his friends, and nor would they ever, she decided that she quite liked the spunky Haruno children.

After all, she had caught Sasuke blushing at Sakura.

She decided that if they were to be her son's friends and companions, she was quite alright with that.


AN: So, super short and super sweet. I felt like making the boys fight while Sakura watched, instead of stepping in, because that's what every other story seems to do. And I like the idea of Naruto getting a bucket shoved on his head, and Sasuke squawking because he was forced to eat sand. Ya know, normal playground shennanigans!

Any way, please review and let me know what you think!