At the age of twelve, going on thirteen soon, Haruno Sakura didn't know much about love.
She knew love from and for her family and friends. She knew the bond and platonic love they shared. But she knew nothing about true love or the feeling of falling love. She'd read the novels and stories and someday, she hoped she could feel the same: the feeling of a heart beating fast when said special someone came near.
Sakura sighed, looking at her face in the mirror. Frowned and adjusted her ninja headband on her head again. She patted her pastel hair to make sure her arched bangs weren't going to fall anytime soon. As per usual, she frowned when she saw her overlarge forehead but there was nothing she could do about it. She stared at her reflection in the mirror and instantly picked up the fake pink blush on the skin.
Her mother said she was their pretty little girl.
She was pretty just as her best friend, Ino was pretty. She knew they were both pretty enough for boys to notice them-and they sometimes compete to see who could score more boys. But the attention they got was never enough to match hers.
Uchiha Satsuki.
The most beautiful kunoichi in Konohagakure… according to the votes the girls's club's votes result. Most of the boys vote for her. Ino simply burned with jealousy but the Yamanaka knew she would never be able to beat the Uchiha unless the latter suddenly had some sort of skin disease that would corrode her skin.
Sakura was jealous too but she just never showed it as much. How could anyone not be jealous of her natural beauty?
Satsuki's hair was messily cropped short and it looked like a duck's butt most of the time, she didn't have make-up (Sakura doubted she knew the meaning of such a product) and she didn't fawn or gush over boys.
All her eyes had space for was training and getting stronger.
Training. Getting stronger: these two words reminded Sakura that she was on the same team as Satsuki. Which meant that her weakness would be even more abstract.
The Uchiha hadn't been happy that they'd been grouped together and the only reason she hadn't snapped yet was because they had another teammate coming from outside the village.
Sakura sighed again before she slapped her cheeks to regain more confidence—it always made girls prettier, Ino always says—then she stepped out of her room to face a new day.
Sakura's enthusiasm drained a little when she noticed that she was alone. She wavered, the self conscious her doubted that she had heard right and that she was silly to wait alone here for people who might never show up and what if its a prank—
Sakura relaxed immensely when a familiar figure came into view. Satsuki spared her brief glance before she settled herself underneath the shade the tree provided, closing her eyes and leaning against it. Sakura had to tear her gaze away from the sight, her cheeks flushed she wondered what was wrong with her?
She wondered is this was what people called falling in love. She didn't know her sexual interest lies in but things would've been so much better had Satsuki been a boy. She wondered was Satsuki a boy in some alternate version; oh how she wished she could trade places with her alternate self.
She could practically imagine herself and male Satsuki under the tree and—
Tentative footsteps approached them. Sakura glanced up and all thoughts of male Satsuki drained away to be replace by a cute boy. She studied the boy intensely, noting the odd markings on both his cheeks: thin three whisker marks on each cheek, leaves and petals decorating the line in a way that reminded her of morning glory. Blue eyes the epitome of the bright sky above their heads now, healthy tan skin, and a head full of sunny spikes. An easy and welcoming grin stretched on his face.
Sakura thought he was kinda girlish. Well, duh; what sort of guy has flowery decorations on his face, had his hair tied back with a pink hairband and what was that thorny long stem of a rose curled around his body?
"Uh, hey," he clapped his hands together as if nervous to face the girls before him. "I'm your new teammate. My name's Senju Naruto and someday, I'm going to be a Hokage!"
Senju? Sakura snuck a quick glance at Satsuki's face, noting that she was alert and studying the newcomer with an unreadable emotion on her face. She knew history; heck, everyone knew the long and complicated history between the Senju and Uchiha clan. Sakura swallowed thickly when she realized she'd be stuck between two powerful individuals. Undoubtedly, the Senju was powerful as well despite his down-to-earth (haha) personality.
"So…" His clear blue eyes examined both girls, his future teammates but Sakura didn't miss how his gaze lingered particularly longer on Satsuki—boys, Senju or not, tend to do that. He struggled but words failed him and the three stared at one another.
A long silence ensued.
The Uchiha gave a soft 'hnn' before turning away. The Senju pouted at the negative response he received. "Will it kill you guys to introduce yourself?" he whined.
"We're girls," Sakura spoke up sullenly.
"Fine—may I know your names know princesses?" Naruto amended, rolling his eyes.
"I'm Haruno Sakura," the pastel-haired girl said, smiling tentatively. She chanced a glance at the icy Uchiha and knowing that the Uchiha scion wouldn't be introducing herself anytime soon, said, "And she's Uchiha Satsuki."
Naruto studied his Uchiha counterpart. "Are you mute?" he asked innocently. "Why won't you talk to me?"
"I only talk to people worth my time," Satsuki sneered, turning away, paused and turned back to him. "That doesn't include you."
"But—but you're talking to me now aren't you?" Naruto persisted. "Doesn't that mean I'm worth your time?"
"… Get lost, Senju."
"You know my name!" Naruto cheered sarcastically, clapping his hands with a bright (everything about him was simply bright) grin. "Great job!"
Slowly, almost mechanically, Satsuki turned her head to fix the blonde boy with a deadly glare. He didn't seem intimidated but the grin faltered slightly when he had to raise his hand to deflect the blow.
Sakura blinked before she gave a soft gasp of alarm; Satsuki lunged again and struck the boy with punches and kicks.
Naruto laughed as he dodged. "Bring it on, I'm looking for a challenge anyway!"
Sakura opened her mouth, about to warn the Senju as to just how strong Satsuki was when the need to do so died down. Senju didn't have a problem pacing himself, dodging most blows, deflecting and counter-attacking the girl. All the while, under the heavy and rapid assault and even when Satsuki managed a grazing blow, he grinned as if the fight and Satsuki's annoyance excited him.
It was then that Sakura knew one thing about the Senju: he was nuts.
Naruto launched a roundhouse kick but Satsuki dodged and jumped back, landing on a tree branch. Naruto's eyes glinted mischievously.
"Ya sure ya want to stand there?" he asked, laughing as he clasped his hands together as if in prayer.
Sakura glanced between Satsuki and Naruto. Her head snapped back up to the former when the she stumbled. Satsuki glanced down in alarm and both girls gaped as the tree branch began to fucking move.
Sakura yelped. "It moved! The tree moved!"
"Not completely," Naruto agreed, eyes cool and sparkling with mischievousness. When Satsuki jumped down a few feet before him, he grinned again. "Not bad, ya did there. Not many can dodge it."
Satsuki showed emotion for the first time since… a few years back when Satsuki was still what Sakura could call a friend; she scowled heavily. And for the first time, spoke. "Senju," she acknowledged grudgingly but she didn't seem to have anything else to say. Saying the boy's clan name as if to confirm what she'd really seen. Under her breath she muttered, "Mokuton."
"You got it! Where's your Sharingan, Uchiha?"
Naruto stopped grinning when he noticed how the girl's face darken. "Not yet…?" No one answered but the silence was enough for an answer. "Oh. Well, I'm sure you'll—"
"I don't need your pity or petty reassurances," Satsuki said coldly, crossing her arms and turning away.
Naruto looked guilty, slightly sad. He approached where Sakura had jumped back three feet the moment the tree started moving. "Hey there," he said glumly as if he expected Sakura to dump him a bucket of icy treatment.
Sakura beamed up at him, her cheeks flushing pink but the boy didn't seem to notice. "Hi… um, don't mind Satsuki, she's always like this."
Naruto brightened when she didn't brush him off like their other teammate did. He plucked the rose from the vines surrounding his boy and presented one to her, a smile on his face. "A pretty rose for a pretty lady."
"Hush, you." Sakura's cheeks warmed pleasantly as she accepted the flower. It had been a pale shade of green and white in the Senju's hand but when she took it, it changed to azure blue. "Is it…?" she didn't know what could describe the color-changing flower.
"Huh… you're a water-nature type! That's cool, mine's wind and earth and water-though I kinda sucked at the latter two!" Naruto pointed to the roses and when Sakura looked closer, she noticed that the pale flower had shades of blue and brown as well. He turned abruptly to face Satsuki's curious eyes. He handed her a flower. "Here!"
Sakura added the trait of generosity to the reason why she liked Naruto. She couldn't wait to introduce him to Ino, she would be so jealous!
Satsuki hesitated, clearly uncomfortable but she accepted the flower anyway. It turned the shade of a normal rose then at the bud, bloomed a yellow shade. She tilted her head to the side inquiringly and Naruto answered dutifully. "Fire and Lightning," he delivered in a sing-song voice.
Satsuki glanced at her flower then she dropped it.
"Hey!" Naruto cried, outraged that someone would treat his rose like that. "Why did you do that for?" he picked the flower up, dusting it off gently before placing pinning it on his chest; the rose returned to the pale mixture of colors it was before.
"Well," the Uchiha looked completely befuddled. "What else am I supposed to do with it?"
"Keep it, put it in a vase," the Senju ranted. "Or, even better—here!" Quick as lightning, he placed the rose Satsuki formerly held into her hair.
Before she could bat it away or punch the Senju or do both, a masculine voice chuckled from above the three. Sakura looked up; a lone grey eye glanced down at them. The shinobi, the Jōnin who was supposed to be their sensei was pale-skinned and rather tall from this vantage view. Hair more gravity defying than Naruto's stood out even more vividly with the shade of white—it made Sakura imagine an old and withered face underneath the mask.
He waved a hand at them. "Yo!"
"You're late!" Sakura said, pointing her finger at him rudely. Inner Sakura snarled, cheering her on. Yosh!
Hatake Kakashi ignored her; what an infuriating man. Instead, he held out his hand towards the subdued Senju. "May I have one of those curious flowers you have there?"
Satsuki pulled the rose out of her hair and threw it up at the white-haired man, agitated.
Naruto scowled when he saw how Satsuki handled his precious gift without any care. But his words of protest died when he saw the rose turned a multitude of colors. Five of them to be exact. "You have an affinity for all chakra nature?! Sweet!" Naruto was totally taken by their teacher it seemed.
Sakura and Satsuki didn't seem to share the same sentiment.
Kakashi chuckled, swiftly placing the rose back in his black-haired student's hair again. Satsuki bristled, snatching the rose and throwing it without a thought on the ground.
Naruto yelled. "Hey!"
"Can we get rid of him, Sensei?" Satsuki asked coolly, ignoring the blonde, irked and agitated.
"That does it, Uchiha," Naruto spat, reaching down to pick up the fallen flower. Sakura watched in a mixture of horror and awe when the rose disintegrated in Naruto's hand. "I was willing to play nice with you but—"
Kakashi clucked his tongue disapprovingly.
"We're not here to argue," he said, cutting in before the Senju-Uchiha rivalry could get in between all the training and test they should be doing. "We're here to see whether or not we can be a team." The answer is most likely no, he thought to himself cheerfully. Yay, that means he won't be stuck with some brats.
The Senju and Uchiha tossed another poisonous glares before they turned to their teacher.
Sakura shook her head in exasperation, not knowing that it was the start of something they all did not want to be part of.
Naruto was not having the time of his life.
His teammates were a bunch of cute girls (one deadly and one kindly)—but that wasn't necessarily the terrible part. And his sensei was Hatake Kakashi! His dad's student and sole survivor of the last Team Seven; Naruto had half a mind to bug his new sensei about his dad but that would only arouse suspicions and Ero-sennin told him to lay low until he or his mother came to clear things up.
"All right, kids," Naruto glanced up to where Kakashi was leaning against the railing, glancing down at the streets of Konoha from where the four of them were perched on the rooftop of the Academy. "Well… why don't we start getting to know one another better? Introduce yourselves, like, dislikes, dreams and hobbies, oh the sort."
The three genins exchanged uncertain glances (well, Sakura and Naruto did, but Satsuki just grunted). "Why don't you start first, sensei? To give us an idea."
Kakashi cocked an eyebrow but he didn't protest. "Hm, sure. As you all know, my name is Hatake Kakashi. My likes and dislikes are not important. You all are too young to know more about my hobby and my dreams? Hm, never thought about it."
Now that was informative, Naruto thought sardonically. "Er, right. I'll go first then! My name's Senju Naruto. I like ramen, my mom, sister and even that pervert of a mentor, and training! I dislike when people act like complete assholes and actively hurt their environment"—cue dirty looks at Satsuki who flat-out ignored him—"and the three minutes ramen takes to cook and my tenant, er, scratch that last part. My dream is to be Hokage so that I can protect my precious people though there aren't that many at the moment…" he trailed off at the last part, looking rather uncertain.
Kakashi cleared his throat, motioning towards Sakura. "What about, Pinkie here?"
Sakura scowled, but then she remembered that she had to get along and put on a good first impression in front of these people, and smiled, dutifully saying, "My name is Haruno Sakura. My likes consist of hanging out with my best friend, Ino, and just recently…" she glanced meaningfully at Naruto who remained oblivious, too occupied with waving at a tree. "Er, my dislikes are snobbish teammates," an uncertain glance at Satsuki who continued glaring at a tree. "and my dreams are to someday marry the boy I like," she giggled maniacally when her eyes landed on Naruto again.
Kakashi sweatdropped, glancing at Satsuki. "Lastly, Miss. Broody."
Said girl threw him a filthy glare but through gritted teeth, she managed to make out words.
"My name is Uchiha Satsuki. I like nothing in particular, my dislikes consist of annoying fangirls and some stupid idiot who couldn't keep his mouth shut," she shot her teammates (not by her own will) deadly glares to which they returned. "What I have is not a dream. It is my life goal to kill someone and to revive my clan."
Silence reigned though Kakashi was internally sighing, he knew this was coming when the Hokage assigned him this team which he sincerely doubted would click together.
Sakura glanced uncertainly at her teammate, she didn't the taller girl was this crazy. They'd been classmates for years and this was the first time the pinkette knew of the raven's true intentions. She was sorely tempted to comment but kept her words to herself.
Naruto, on the other hand, wasn't so thoughtful. He looked mildly impressed. "Just curious, but are you always an asshole to everyone you see?"
"Only those who are idiots." Her meaningful look at the blonde left the words like you hanging in thin air.
"If I could get away with it," Naruto ground out through gritted teeth, feeling like wiping the self-satisfied smirk on Satsuki's face off with his fist. "I would've kicked your ass so hard you won't be able to walk straight for a week!"
Kakashi choked, recalling that particular line from one of the Icha Icha series book, though the kick was nicely replaced by fuck but ah, not like the kids needed to know. But before any of the kids could catch onto the innuendo, from Sakura's tinted face, she seemed to be imagining the same things he was thinking, he hurriedly spoke up, dismissing them. "Look, kids, go home and be at training ground fifteen, five o'clock sharp, got it? Oh, and don't eat anything or you'll be tasting it twice."
With great difficulty, Naruto turned away and started stalking down the stairs after his sensei's absence.
"Running away, scaredy-cat?"
"No, just saving you from broken bones and bruised ego, bastard." That insult just slipped out of his tongue but he found 'bastard' was mild enough and if his mother who had manners pounded into his head since he was a baby, knew he was badmouthing his teammate like that, she'd sent him flying even though she might've known how his teammate was always acting.
"Oh, I see," remarked the Uchiha, sounding casual but the Senju knew she was taunting him. "So you're that sort: all bark and no bite." That was a low blow and Naruto had to quicken his pace down so that he was out of earshot lest he really did kill her; that girl managed to rile him up like no other, made him want to scream and yell and shout and break things especially.
Especially that pretty face of hers—he wasn't blind, of course he could see how pretty cute she was, with the pale skin that suited her delicate bone structure and raven hair, heck, she could even be considered beautiful but her manner sorta ruined it all. What sort of parents raised kids like her?
"Naruto-kun?" Said boy blinked distractedly, still descending down the stairs, and he turned his his head to face his female teammate.
"Yeah?"
"Um, you're new to the village right?" Sakura was fiddling with the hem of her dress nervously, cheeks a little pink though Naruto didn't know why; maybe she was down with a cold or something? But anyways, she was saying, "Do you want me to show you around?" she sounded hopeful but Naruto thought she was pretty nice.
"Sure!" he agreed instantly. "But you know any cool places like a ramen stand?"