Author's Note: Yes, another story. I have been writing this story for a long time and have finally been able to put the first chapter out. I am actually really excited for what is to come in this story. This first chapter, like with all of my stories, is merely to set the scene and introduce the characters and their budding relationships with one another and their own timeline. Anyway, let me know what you think! I am eager to see where this story leads us! Enjoy!

Warnings: Minute childhood bullying and language.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Word Count: 4,109

Sakura was new to Konoha.

She was five years old when she moved in with her dad after having spent a year with her mom after her parents divorce. Her mother got remarried and her new husband wasn't willing to take in a child from another man, so Sakura moved to Konoha without her mother to live with her father. At the time, young Sakura was heart broken being separated from her mother, but being young, she was easily able to adapt.

Except where Sakura lived, in Suna before Konoha, it was normal to have funky hair, but in Konoha, it was different. Sakura became the center of attention for teasing the next fall when she entered school.

While her hair was a strange, bright pink color, it accentuated her overly large forehead, which she didn't used to have an issue with until she began getting teased for it. Sakura became very sensitive about her physical appearance and because of that, she quickly became an introvert. She didn't want to go outside anymore or play with any of the kids and it became unbelievably hard for her to make friends. She was only five years old! She was scared to go to school and when she would finally be dragged there by her father, she would sit in silence throughout the entire time, not looking at anyone or speaking even to the teachers.

The teachers expressed their concern to her father and Kazushi, the man in question, being the kind and loving man that he was, he took her out of school for a few days, even though he couldn't really afford it, just so that Sakura and her dad could spend a few days together having fun. He used that time to boost her self-esteem as much as he could before sending her back to school.

Sakura clammed up again almost immediately.

It wasn't until Sakura was six years old, almost seven, when Sakura made her first friend in Konoha. She was huddled up on the ground, crying as a few girls were picking on her about her big forehead and strange pink hair. Sakura remembered being huddled up as small as she could be, crying softly to herself when all of it finally stopped. The jeering and sneering girls fall silent as a pair of hands settle onto her shoulders.

Sakura jumped, terrified of being touched and threw herself back, away from the person to see a boy staring down at her with wide, dark brown eyes. His dark brown hair was cut into what appeared to be a bowl shape, with tan skin and his hands held out from where they had settled on her shoulders. He turns his palms toward her, for Sakura to see. He had to be three or four years older than her.

"It's okay," the boy says, his voice soft. "I'm not going to hurt you." There was something about his eyes. Something that seemed so gentle and so kind. It was different then the eyes her father would give her, but it did remind her of them. No one other than her father would look at her so gently. Even the teachers were scary to her.

There was a group of five girls surrounding the two of them plus a boy. They all back up a bit. The other boy with pale skin and equally pale white hair stands a few feet away from the brown haired boy with his arms folded across his chest and a frown on his face. Hard, crimson eyes stares down at her, making Sakura shrink a little bit more. He had to of been two or three years older than her.

"Are you okay?" the brown haired boy asked, pulling her attention back to him. His voice was soft and kind. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

Sakura hesitated a moment, worried that she was dreaming. Was this boy really talking to her? And kindly?

She didn't respond so the boy offers a cute smile. "I'm Hashirama Senju, and this is my little brother, Tobirama," the boy says, jerking a thumb over his shoulder toward the other boy. "Are these girls picking on you?"

Sakura nodded slowly. "Yes. They said I look funny..."

Hashirama tilted his head to the side. "How so?"

"My hair a-and my f-f-forehead..." Sakura said softly, blinking tear leaded lashes.

Hashirama smiled kindly. "I don't think you look funny. I think your hair is a pretty color! And don't worry about your forehead, everyone has parts of themselves that they don't like and wish they could change, but it's fine! Don't worry about what other people say! Hey, Tobi and I will walk you home, okay?"

Sakura blinked innocently, looking from Hashirama to the white haired boy right behind him.

Tobirama glared at the girls around them. "Get lost."

The girls all scurried away, calling out that he had a nasty face, but the white haired boy didn't seem to mind. He just huffs and turns away from them, crossing his arms over his chest. His red eyes slipped closed as he sighed.

"Okay..." Sakura said softly, taking Hashirama's offered hand and standing up. In silence, Sakura lead the two boys to her house, her head bowed as she listens to Hashirama babble on and on about one thing or another. Sakura's mind was racing too fast for her to be able to really hear what he was saying. She just couldn't believe that these boys were walking her home, being nice to her. It was crazy!

Once they made it to her house, Sakura slowly turned to them. "Th-Thank you..."

Hashirama beamed down at her. "No problem, uhh...?"

"Sakura..." Sakura said softly. "Sakura Haruno."

Hashirama grinned brightly. He stepped forward and put his hands onto Sakura's shoulders, shocking the younger girl a bit. "No problem, Sakura! Don't worry, from now on, Tobirama and I will look after you, okay? No need to worry anymore!"

Sakura blinked wide, pretty green eyes, staring into Hashirama's kind brown eyes before smiling back at him. "Th-thank you!" Sakura closed the door slowly behind her, pressing her back against the hardwood, looking around her entranceway as if seeing it for the very first time. Her heart was fluttering wildly in her chest. She couldn't believe what just happened.

Those boys really did help her out, but could they have been for real? Were they really being nice to her because they were nice people and not because they planned to be cruel to her later? She didn't know. She just prayed that wouldn't be the case and she actually made some real friends in the brothers; Hashirama and Tobirama.

She learned that she had, the very next day, when they came to walk her home again after school, acting as a physical barrier between her and her bullies.

Sakura jumps right onto Tobirama's back, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. He stumbles a bit but manages to keep standing, putting his hands on hers around his neck. He looks over his shoulder to see Sakura's bright green eyes staring back at him. His tense posture relaxes a bit once he registers her eyes.

"Hi Tobirama," Sakura says, wrapping her arms around his neck tighter in a hug. A lot of people in the high school cafeteria were all looking over at her. She smiles brightly, ignoring the feeling of the eyes around the room on them.

Sakura releases Tobirama and lands right behind him before stepping around him and hugging him more comfortably, smiling when his arms wrap around her too. She pulls back and turns to Hashirama, opening her arms up to a hug from him as well, then to Madara who was next to him.

"Sakura-chan!" Hashirama gushes. "Welcome back! How was the Capital?"

"Fun," Sakura says , one of her arms wrapped around Madara's waist while his was over her shoulders. "My dad doesn't get time off often, so it was nice to be able to go and spend the summer with him. I'm glad to be finally back home, I missed you guys." Sakura smiles around at three of her four childhood friends. Through Tobirama and Hashirama, she met Madara and Izuna and they all became inseparable ever since. The two sets of brothers were all raised together. Their moms were best friends for years before.

Sakura, being one of the youngest of their little group - that also including Ino - is finally a freshmen in High school with the rest of the group. Tobirama and Izuna are Juniors, while Hashirama and Madara are both Seniors. Now they are all together for this, but only for a single year, so they are going to work hard to make it the best. Sakura was so excited. She takes a few steps away from Madara to look around the group for a moment, confused.

"Hey," Sakura says, looking around for a moment. "Where is Izuna? I thought he would be here too-ahh!" Sakura screams, jumping toward Madara who held his hands out to stop her from running into him. She spins around, spotting Izuna right behind her. The younger Uchiha boy holds his hands out for Sakura, who runs into them, squeezing him tightly before pulling back and punching his arm. "Asshole! You scared me!"

Izuna laughs, short dark blue hair falling into his pitch black eyes for a moment, before he brushes the strands away. "Sorry!" He laughs again, sounding anything but, "How are you, dude? How was the Capital?"

"It was good," Sakura says. "How was your guys' summer here? Get into any trouble?"

"Nah," Hashirama says, waving his hand around dismissively, before laughing.

"Ino and I are going out," Izuna says, shrugging his shoulders.

Sakura shakes her head. "I know, Ino called me the night of your date to tell me all about her anxiety. It was so cute. She then called me like four hours later completely star struck. She was so happy. I hear you are so romantic, Izuna," Sakura jokes, giving Izuna's a wink.

Izuna blushes. "Well, that's a given. I mean, come on! I'm me!"

"Charming, gorgeous," Sakura says teasingly.

"Vein, pompous," Tobirama cuts in. Sakura laughs. Izuna rolls his eyes.

"I'm so excited to be in school with you guys now," Sakura says, stepping back so that they are all in a circle. "I heard that you guys are something of a popular group here."

Tobirama looks annoyed by that while Madara rolls his eyes. "It's all about family, Sakura," Madara says flatly. "Hashirama is the heir to the village while I'm heir to the police force. We are 'blue bloods'," he says, putting air quotes around blue bloods. "People are welcome to think what they want but I wouldn't say that we are in any sense of the word: popular."

"We are so popular, it's awesome," Hashirama says, as if Madara hadn't spoken at all. The black haired boy glares at him.

Hashirama pulls up half of his long dark brown hair into a pony tail on the back of his head with a big of his jaw length fringe framing his face. He's thankfully let his short bowl cut grow out into long, elegant, mid back length hair that definitely suites him better than his shorter style. Whereas Hashirama had long, pin-straight brown hair, Madara had pitch black, fluffy hair that went all the way to his waist. He usually pulled it into a low ponytail with his fringe covering his right eye.

They were best friends but two of the most contrasting people Sakura has ever met. Hashirama was bright and goofy and wild and loud whereas Madara was calm and quiet and stern and monotone.

Sakura takes a moment to appreciate the large, wide open cafeteria bustling with people meeting up with friends, talking about their summers and their new class schedules. Sakura has been so excited to be here with her friends. This is the one and final year that they were all going to be in school together, and they were going to make it awesome.

"Forehead!"

Sakura spins around to see Ino, beautiful long white blond hair, baby blue eyed Ino, with her short skirt and tight top, standing a few feet away with the biggest smile on her face. She spreads her arms open wide and runs into Sakura's opening and awaiting arms. Unlike with her childhood friends, who were all boys, Ino was her only girl friend. They have been friends since sixth grade when they had every class together. It was inevitable.

Unlike Hashirama, Madara, Tobirama and Izuna, Ino was soft. She had a very strong perfume that was heavenly and nice smelling hair. Her childhood friends always took good care of their hygiene but there is just something different about hugging a girl and hugging a boy. Plus, since it's always been hard for Sakura to make friends outside of her tiny friend group it was nice to have finally made a girl friend. Ino was the best. She's the only reason Sakura has any degree of femininity and isn't just a girl who thinks she's a boy.

It was a painful year and a half trying to build this friendship with Ino, while having to fight her at every turn about her boyish attitude and appearance. She didn't used to give much thought to her clothes or her hair other than washing it and running brush through it a few times before leaving the house in jeans and simple t-shirt.

At least now she's wearing white shorts and a nice top. She knew, while simple, was cute, when Ino gave her the once over and nodded in approval.

"Hey, Ino!" Sakura says once they pull back. "Wow, I missed you!"

"Same," Ino says, blue eyes popping with them being surrounded by lovely dark make-up. "I have so much I have to tell you about my summer! Never leave for three months ever again, okay?"

Sakura accepts the hug that she's pulled into again, gracefully. "It was more like two months, but sure. I promise to be..." Sakura waves her hand around, trying to think of the right way to say this. "I'll keep more in touch, okay? I was so excited to be able to spend that time with my dad, I was kind of hard to reach, wasn't I?" She offers an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry."

Ino shakes her head. "Don't worry about it. I'm glad that you and your dad were able to get away for the summer! But I can't lie and say I'm not totally excited that you are back! This year is going to be the best!" She bounces up and down excitedly. All the necklaces around her neck and metal bracelets around her wrists clack and chime against one another.

Her blue eyes flicker past Sakura's head to see Izuna grinning at her amused. She immediately stopped bouncing and blushed before lifting her chin and offering a sultry smile. "Hi, handsome!"

"Babe," Izuna says, grinning. She steps past Sakura and into Izuna's arms, kissing his lips slowly. Sakura turns away to look at Tobirama, waggling her eyebrows before stepping into his side and looking at the lovely couple.

"They are going to make some cute ass babies," Sakura says, grinning up at him.

Tobirama blinks a few times before shrugging his shoulders and saying, "Dumb as all hell, I'm afraid, but yeah, cute." Madara actually snorts in laughter while Sakura and Hashirama bust out laughing. Sakura doubles over, putting her hands down on her knees, trying to control her laughter.

"Wow, okay," Ino says, glaring at Sakura. "It's super rude of you to laugh at that horribly mean joke. First off, yes, if we had kids they would be cuter than anything your plain Jane mind could ever come up with," Ino says, smoothly, putting her hands on her hips. "And second off, Tobirama, I'll have you know that I have a 4.0 GPA, and have since we were given grades! So go fuck yourself."

Izuna laughs, throwing his head back to let out a bark of a laugh at the blond's quick wit. "You tell him, Ino!"

Ino spins around to smile cutely at Izuna. "Thanks, babe."

"Okay, I'm sorry for laughing," Sakura says, looking up at Tobirama, to see him with absolutely no interest in apologizing, so she elbowed him hard in the gut.

Tobirama jerks forward a bit, letting out a pained grunt before nodding slowly. "Um, yeah."

"As eloquently spoken as I've come to expect from you, my dear baby brother," Hashirama says, bringing his hands up to cup his cheeks dramatically. "I just love the way you can express so much with so little!"

Madara rolls his eyes. "Shut up, Hashirama."

"Yes, Hashirama," Tobirama grunts, "shut up."

Hashirama laughs.

"So," Izuna says. "I'm going to move this conversation along, because, while this is a very riveting conversation topic, we all know he won't shut up and it's usually to just keep asking for the impossible." He grins playfully at a pouting Hashirama. "But, what the hell is everyone's classes?"

"You disgust me," Hashirama says. Sakura rolls her eyes.

"I like math. I'm good with numbers," she defends herself.

"So is Tobi," Hashirama says, "and that's why you two freaks are in the smart math classes and I am going to gym to make sure Madara does his pull ups correctly."

Madara glares at him. "I don't need you to oversee me, Hashirama. And besides if you stand me while I'm doing pull ups, I'm going to kick you in the head, do you understand me. Stay the hell away from me."

Hashirama pouts. "So defensive."

"What are you doing first period, Ino?" Sakura asks.

Ino purses her lips. "I have honors biology."

Sakura makes a face at that. "Ew." Ino shrugs her shoulders. She pulls some of her beautiful long white blond hair over her shoulder and runs her fingers through it slowly, working out whatever knots that may have made their way into be shiny locks.

"Oh," Madara says, looking around the table. "I almost forgot, my parents want to invite everyone over tonight."

"Correction," Izuna says, holding up his right pointer finger. "Our mother wants to invite everyone over tonight. For dinner, that is. For father? Well, it'll be a lovely, pleasant surprise when he comes home to a house full of people he can't stand."

"Yeah," Madara says, "rather than just Izuna and I."

Izuna grins at his older brother, which Madara returns. It has always been a running joke between the two of them that their father hates everyone. It was a strange thing for them to joke about, but they did. Sakura can honestly say that she liked Tajima. He was a stern faced man, she couldn't deny that, but he actually has a very kind smile and even though Madara and Izuna joked around and said their father hated everyone, including them, Sakura knew that wasn't true. Tajima really loved Madara and Izuna and was very proud of them.

Izuna is a goofball, no joke about that. And while Tajima is the type of man who cares about the image of their family, Sakura knew that so long as there was just friends around that he didn't have to worry about slandering the family name, he would enjoy a joke or two from Izuna or his playful behavior.

And Madara was Tajima's boy. Madara was everything Sakura can assume a father would want. He's successful, charismatic, very intelligent, well respected and extremely well mannered. He's been well groomed since childhood to take Tajima's place as the head of the Uchiha family. And from a political stand point, they are golden. Hashirama is going to be the Hokage of Konoha one day and he had some strange love for Madara that no one understood.

No, actually, in some strange way, Sakura understood. Hashirama is an extremely likeably personality. He's brimming with life and this power in his gaze and his actions makes those around him feel empowered - right somehow, if he's on their side. He's such a pinnicle of good that he makes those he spends his time with somehow feel like they are good. At least, Sakura does. No matter what it is or how she really feels about it, if Hashirama is passionately behind it, she knows that it is somehow right.

Madara, even though people don't usually suspect it, is actually very sensitive to the emotions of people around him. And in the life choice that he as made in his career choice, while it's going to be fulfilling, definitely, there is going to be heartache and fear. Being a police officer is a very dangerous profession to be in right now and he knows that he is going to have to be careful. And he's going to have to say goodbye to friends. In a bleak, and even terrifying future ahead, Hashirama is like a beacon of light, it's no surprise that Madara would feel better being around him.

Hashirama just has that affect on people.

Sakura blinks a few times in surprise when she sees Hashirama staring at her from across the round lunchroom table. For a moment, Sakura wondered if the long brown haired man could read her mind or not. If he knew that she was thinking about him.

"What?" She asks, realizing how silly that sounded. Hashirama couldn't read minds.

Hashirama smiles faintly. "I was thinking about when we first met, to be honest."

Sakura raises her eyebrows "Really?" She smiles a bit. "I was too, actually."

"I felt bad for you," Hashirama says honestly, leaning forward so that he didn't interrupt Tobirama, Ino and Izuna's conversation. Madara, who was on the other side of Hashirama, between him and Sakura, looks between them. "You were so small and so sad. I felt bad that you were being picked on by those girls so I just wanted to stop them and make sure that you were okay." His smile turns reminiscent, as he recalls their shared past. "I never thought that you would become one of my best friends."

Sakura smiles. "Ditto. You and Tobi really saved me that day. My life was hell since I moved here. Children are a bunch of little assholes." Sakura shakes her head slowly, pulling out one of her low, small pigtails out of it's elastic constraint before redoing it. Her hair was just long enough to brush against her collar bone. Once that's done, she continues, "I really hated it here until the two of you showed up."

Hashirama looks sad by that. "I know, and I'm sorry. Konoha is truly a wonderful place, I just wish people would be a little more open minded, and teach their children to do such." He shakes his head. He reaches up and runs his fingers through his loose fringe, looking down at the table for a moment. "I just wish that it wasn't like that."

"You live in a flowery world of wonder and goodness, Hashirama," Madara says, speaking up for the first time in a while. Hashirama lifts his eyes to his best friend. "If you could have it your way, we'd all be frolicking gayly through the forests at all times, proclaiming our love and friendship to all, but that simply isn't the way the world works. I know that you don't like it, but that's just it."

Hashirama looks unhappy by that. Madara was Hashirama's best friend and had him pegged easily. If Hashirama could have his way, the world would be filled with happiness and flowery goodness. But it wasn't like that. What Sakura dealt with as child; teasing, bullying, name calling and even being ostracized by her classmates... that is all nothing in comparison for what is to come.

It all started, not long after school began, and the nightmares began to bleed into reality.