(1) I don't know if it's true. Do French school girls have uniforms?
(2) As you might know, there's no Sakura Mankai High School in Paris. I made it up, of course. P
(3) No mask here :P Imagine Kakashi with no mask. Ahahaha!
(4) Um, I don't live in Paris, so forgive me if the information I give you isn't correct… eh… Place de Clichy is part of Montmartre, right? Since Boulevard de Clichy is…

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. But I own Sasuke-kun! Sugoys! (
Inner Tsukiko: You don't. I do!
Tsukiko: Ah… I can dream, can't I?

---

♥ Chapter I: Welcome to Paris ♥
---

Paris, the city of wonders and romance… and the city of dog-lovers. That might be the perfect description for the place eighteen years old Sakura Haruno was going to live in – at least that's what Sakura thought when her fantastic 'welcome-to-Paris'-greeting was…

… to step right into dog shit in the middle of the street.

"Great. Great, great, great", she mumbled as she dragged her heavy trunk along with her towards… yeah, towards where? Sakura had no idea where she was going to search for her aunt's house. It wasn't like she had been living in Paris for years and knew all the streets and stuff. Heck, she didn't even know whether or not the Louvre was in Paris or London.

And to top it all off, the weather forecast had said it'd rain. Perfect beginning of a perfect stay in France, huh?

And why, exactly why had her stepsister Jessica convinced her that she didn't have to check the metro lines of Paris on Internet, because their aunt owned a car and would certainly pick her up at the airport? As soon as the airplane had descended and the jet-lagging Sakura had gotten herself to the main hall, she had found no aunt Cecilia. Instead, she finds a pervert who tries to lift her skirt who instead gets a major punch in his face.

Thus, Sakura decided to phone home to aunt Cecilia… just to find a message that Cecilia was out walking her dog, and that if it was her sweet niece Sakura calling, she'd better get her lazy ass to the apartment herself instead of depending on others.

"Oy. Cash, girl, have any?"

Sakura twirled around in annoyance at the source of the sound and almost shrieked out of fear when she saw an alcoholic staring her right in the face. He looked really awful; tattered white hair, a face so full of wrinkles and so brown of dirt that Sakura almost thought it was the jet-lag which was playing with her imagination, and he wore some old clothes that would've fitted better in a museum for clothes that had been over-used than on him.

His English was almost as tattered as himself, Sakura noticed as he once again repeated the question. "Eh… sorry, I haven't any", Sakura lied with a half-Japanese accent.

"Gotta cash have. Tourist. Tourist, money. No money, pheasant." He did a gesture towards her trunk. "Luggage, money, tourist."

"I'm not a tourist", Sakura protested. "I'm… just coming home from a vacation."

The alcoholic chuckled. "You, French? Ahaha. Laugh, let me. French girl no school clothes have." He pointed at her school uniform. Dammit, Sakura swore in her mind. Why did he have to notice? (1)

"I don't have any money anyway!" Sakura yelled in frustration. "So just leave me alone!"

With those words, Sakura took off in anger, not knowing where she went, she just walked around the first corner she saw and continued to walk. Sooner or later, she thought, I must find aunt Cecilia's apartment. Paris can't be that big…

… right?

---

After many hours of walking, swearing and encountering of alcoholics, Sakura finally found herself giving up in her search of her aunt's apartment. God, there were so many and she didn't even know how her aunt's looked like. Maybe her aunt was out shopping… but then again, Sakura had found out in her little walk that Paris had loads of grocery stores.

And asking around for a certain Cecilia Haruno didn't work either. So where the hell was she going to look for her aunt!

But wait. Aunt Cecilia's boss has got to have her address, right? So if I just find where aunt Cecilia works, I can find her address! Maybe the workers can even be so kind to me so they give me a ride home to her once they find out that I'm her lost little niece?

Sakura desperately tried to recollect all her memories of her aunt Cecilia. Where had she mentioned her job now again last time?... Must have been when she visited her in Tokyo…

Flashback.
"… Cecilia, dear, have some more tea."

"Ah, thank you so very much, Dominique… you've always been such an angel", Sakura's aunt smiled to Sakura's mother. "Well, how's your job?"

Sakura grimaced. She was used to this; every time a guest came around they just said hello to her and then asked her mother a lot of questions, and all the time Sakura had to sit there and listen. If she walked away, it'd prove her rude. Most guests didn't have children, and if they did, the children had to wait until the adults were done talking before they could go out and play.

"It's wonderful, Cecilia… you know I've always loved getting massages…"

"Ah, yes. When we were little you'd always beg mom to give you massages. And then you learnt how to do it yourself and started to give dad some."

"That's right. Now I work at a massage clinic…"

"Oh, really! I've got to visit you there. Can I have a free massage?"

"Certainly. You know, all people that come there… it's so exciting. We have so interesting conversations during the massage; I've made plenty of friends."

"No husband?" Aunt Cecilia looked disappointed. "Dominique… I know that you're missing Henry, but –"

Sakura wanted to shut her ears tight. Her parents had divorced when she was eight; now she was twelve and she still refused to accept the fact. She often lied to new people about how her father was just always journeying, but when he came home from his adventurous journeys, he'd stay at their home and everything would be as usual. Truth was, her father had moved to the States with Sakura's older sister, and if he ever came around to visit her he'd stay at a hotel.

" – you really ought to get yourself a new husband."

"Cecilia, we've talked about this." Sakura's mother hesitated. "But… well… I've kind of realized you're right. In fact, I've started meeting a fellow worker at the massage clinic –"

Sakura had just wanted to jump from the window at this point. "Meeting" wasn't exactly the right word for what her mother was up to. Several times Sakura had caught her bringing a man home late in the night, and they'd giggle and whisper and kiss… and every time her mother excused herself; it was her friend and he wanted to stay there for the night because he had lost his key… it was dark and the streets were dangerous… or something else. Lately, she had even been disappearing over to the man's and leaving Sakura all alone in the apartment for nights.

"Really!" Aunt Cecilia looked overly excited. "That's wonderful, Dominique! Simply wonderful!"

"How's your job yourself?" her mother quickly changed the subject as she noticed Sakura's death glare at both of them.

"Oh, it's going fine as usual", Aunt Cecilia snorted. "Being a part-time author and a librarian has never been easy, you know…"

End Flashback.

"Librarian! That's right!" Sakura's eyes sparkled as she gained some new hope, and walked into the closest store, which happened to be a jewelry store. "Ah, excuse me? Do you know where a library is? The closest library to here, that is."

The lady behind the counter looked up from her book and blinked in astonishment at Sakura. "Excusez-moi?" she repeated, confused.

"Eh? Ah, je… je ne trouve pas une bibliothèque.Près d'ici, où est une bibliothèque?" Sakura asked in lame French.

"Aha. Une touriste. I see." The lady smiled at her. "So you're a tourist, huh?" She eyed Sakura's trunk. Sakura flushed.

"No, I'm not a tourist!" she replied quickly in English. "I… I'm a student. I'm lost."

"New here?" the lady questioned with an amused grin.

"Uh… yeah. Exchange student from Japan."

" Japan! Ah, what a coincidence. I happen to be Japanese too", the lady winked.

"You are?" Sakura's cheeks turned bright red of happiness. "Do you know somebody called Cecilia Haruno?"

"So you're looking for a Haruno, huh? Hmm, I don't know." The lady played with her long, curly, black hair which looked like a lion's mane as she pondered, before continuing: "I don't know any Haruno. At least I don't think so. But maybe Naruto does."

"Naruto?"

"Yes. Naruto Uzumaki. He's kind of infamous among us Japanese people here in Paris, you know… being all funky and stuff. He knows a lot of people – hyper-social and hyperactive." The woman rolled her eyes. "I don't know where he is at the moment, he's a bit everywhere. Maybe Kakashi does."

"Kakashi?"

"Yeah. Teacher. Which high school are you going to attend?"

"Uh… I don't know. I think it's called… ah, that's right. Sakura Mankai High School." (2)

"Sakura Mankai! What a coincidence. Kakashi is Naruto's teacher there. They're kind of friends. I think Kakashi might know where Naruto usually hangs around with his friends. Or maybe Kakashi even knows that Cecilia Haruno you're asking for. Wait a moment."

The woman turned towards the open door behind her and shouted: "Kakashi!"

A voice responded from the darkness beyond the wooden door. "Coming, Kurenai! Wait just another sec."

The woman named Kurenai sighed deeply. "He's hopeless. Kakashi and I are both teachers", she explained to the very confused Sakura, "But my parents own this store and at the moment they're away on vacation, so I've got to take care of it. Kakashi offered to help since he was done reading the latest volume of his favorite book, Come Come Paradise, so…"

A white-haired man walked in from the door. He looked weird, Sakura thought; his eyes were obsidian and he looked kind of lazy, yet serious. His hair was a bit ruffled and it was silvery – and even though he had silver-white hair he didn't look old. "Kurenai, you called for me?" (3)

"Yeah. This girl is lost. Japanese." Kurenai did a gesture towards Sakura. Sakura smiled back sheepishly, unsure what to do.

"Aha. New?" Kakashi smiled kindly.

"Uh, yeah. So… eh… d'you know any Cecilia Haruno, Kakashi-san?" Sakura asked politely.

"Cecilia Haruno…? Oh, yes! You mean Cecilia Stewart, right?"

Sakura looked at him, puzzled. Stewart? What the hell?

"She used to be called Haruno, but then she got married and was then divorced again. She didn't want her old surname again so she kept her ex-husband's", Kakashi explained as he saw her I-don't-understand-can-you-explain-it-again-face. "She lives at Montmartre. See, right now we're close to Chinatown – Place d'Italie – so if you ride the RER train number 7 to Stalingrad, and then change to number 2, you'll be at Place de Clichy, and she lives just a few blocks away from there. I think she's probably out walking her dog at the moment, so if you're lost again, phone her cell phone number from a telephone booth at the metro station, okay?" (4)

Sakura nodded dumbly, before smiling: "Arigatou, Kakashi-san, Kurenai-san. I'm very grateful. I hope we'll meet at school… ja ne!"

---

Sakura met some more problems at the metro station, but after some confusion and help from the workers, she got herself on board of a train and did as Kakashi had told her to. Once successfully arrived in Montmartre, she found herself a telephone booth and dialed the number to her aunt's home.

Beep… beep… beep…

And finally, someone answered after about seven signals and Sakura was about to give up. "Moshi moshi?"

Sakura thought it weird to talk Japanese when her aunt lived in France, but at least she had dialed the right number. "Aunt!" she exclaimed, too relieved to say anything else.

"Aunt? Ah, so it's you, Sakura."

"That's right! Aunt Cecilia, why didn't you pick me up?"

"I thought you were more independent than that. After all, you're supposed to be Dominique's daughter; so where're you now?"

"At the metro of Montmartre. Aunt Cecilia, where in Montmartre do you live?"

"So you're pretty clever, huh, finding out that I live in Montmartre without any help? Well, I live a couple of blocks away from the metro. Gotta explore some more by yourself, I won't help you, girl."

Sakura was about to explode, but decided to keep her temper. If she released some of her legendary wrath on her aunt, she'd probably get lost again without any help this time. "Uh… aunt, may I ask you of a favor?"

"Hmph. Depends on what."

"Well, if you don't want to go all the way to the metro station to pick me up, can you at least stand by your house's main entrance so I can see you, so I know I've gone right?"

"I might. Goodbye." Click.

Sakura sighed. Once again, she was… lost…

Tsukiko: This was my first chapter ever... I hope you like it:) And also, I rated this T just in case... I mean, it is a bit violent, after all... :P And this is my first fic ever, so please go easy on me!
Inner Tsukiko: Where's Sasuke-kun?
Tsukiko: Um... I promise he'll appear soon!
Sakura: Hey, why am I lost again? It's all your fault, Tsuki-chan!
Inner Tsukiko: Give. Me. Sasuke-kun. Now.
Tsukiko: -sweatdrop- Anyhow... the next chapter will be released the 14th of July! Please review... ja ne:)

Sneak Preview of Next Chapter - Savior

"Hey… you alright?" the blonde asked again, his sapphire eyes looking with concern at her.

"H-h-hai. A… Arigatou", she whispered weakly, not even thinking of speaking French instead of Japanese.

"Japanese too, huh?" the blonde grinned. "Hi. My name is Uzumaki Naruto – what's yours?"