"Then you just do a quick, hard flick of the wrist, and—"
Sakura watched in amazement as the smooth rock glided effortlessly across the pond water jumping once, twice, three times before sinking down into the waters murky depths.
She turned in excitement to the boy next to her, "Can I try now Jun?!" she questioned him. He laughed at her eagerness. "Okay, just pick out a rock first."
Sakura started to scan the bank they were perched on looking for said rock. When she found one she held it up to him, wanting to know if he deemed it adequate enough.
"No, that one's a little too bumpy; it has to be smooth and flat." He looked around and found one a little to the left of him. He went over to pick it up. "Try this one out." He said handing it to her. Sakura took the rock and got into position on the edge of the bank. She stood so that her right leg was in front of her left, and her right arm that held the rock was clutched behind her. She swung that arm forward throwing the rock with a hard flick of her wrist, just like Jun had showed her, and watched in disappointment when the rock fell straight into the water with a loud PLOP. Jun broke out into laughter but when he saw the six year old's eyes started to water, he quickly stopped. He bent down on one knee so that he was eye level with her and brought her into his arms. That's when the waterworks really started.
"It's okay baby-girl, you just need some practice is all." He told her while gently stroking her hair. "If you just keep on working on it soon you'll be just as good as me."
"Really?" She hesitantly peeked out at him from underneath her bangs.
"Really!" he said pulling out his handkerchief and giving it to her so she could wipe her tears and nose. Once he deemed her calm enough, he decided they should call it a day and head back to the manor. The twelve year old will admit, when his father had first told him that he had gotten a job as the head chef for Lord Haruno and his family, he was thrilled. His family had been struggling for some time now, so this would really help them out. But when he learned they were going to have to leave their village and move out to practically the middle of nowhere, he was quite upset. He did not want to leave all his friends and life behind, but he also knew he couldn't be selfish. Though a tad bit dull, life here at the manor wasn't so bad. Everything was really calm and relaxed. He's made friends with the other worker's children who are his age. They attended classes together in the mornings at the manor with a tutor Lord Haruno has provided for them and the rest of the help's children. Then in the afternoons, they are pretty much free to do whatever they want around the manor.
Today he was spending his afternoon with his favorite little girl, Lord Haruno's daughter, Sakura. The girl was without a doubt, the most precious thing he's ever seen. Her hair was the prettiest pink and her skin the creamiest white. He has grown rather fond of her in these past three months that he's been here, and she of him. She follows him practically wherever he goes. Always right on his heels, but he's never once thought of her as annoying, she was actually rather refreshing. The guys always poked fun at him and call her his little girlfriend, but he's not really bothered by it. The girl was really rather smart for her age, then again having your own private personal tutor might do that to you. And while she may be a bit of a crybaby, it was actually a trait of hers that he found rather enduring.
They reached the manor and found Sakura's nurse had been waiting for them. It was time for her afternoon nap. As always Sakura, who isn't very fond of her nap, broke out into a run probably to find some sort of hiding place in an effort to avoid the dreaded deed. Jun laughed as the nurse ran after her and so began their daily afternoon game of hide and seek, much to the nurse's dismay
Jun rounded the manor and headed to the back entrance of the kitchen to see what his father had prepared for lunch. Upon entering the kitchen he was greeted with a chaotic sight. Normally it's just his father and about a three other assistants who do the cooking for the entire manor, but this time there were at least twelve servants running around the kitchen cutting vegetables here, stirring things there, he's never seen the place such a mess. He saw his dad over by the sink washing some pans and went over to him carefully avoiding some strange substance that had spilled on the floor.
"Dad?" he questioned once he was close enough.
"Jun!" his dad exclaimed in relief once seeing him. "Here, finish washing these pans for me please, I have to get started on the soup." Before he could protest he was shoved in front of the sink, soapy sponge place in his hand, and his father had already ran off to the other side of the kitchen to get started on the soup. Reluctantly, he began to wash the pots in front of him but not before questioning one of the servants, who knew by the name Katsu, on the opposite side of the counter in front of him who was shredding some cheese.
"What's with all the commotion?"
"Haven't you heard?" replied Katsu. "The king and his family are coming for a visit."
"The king?"
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"Where is it?" Sakura whined as she was carefully and quietly taking out the contents of one of her toy chests, yes one, she had a total of three. She was in the middle of emptying out the red one that usually sits right by her window.
After getting found by her nurse, she had hidden in one of the closets on the second floor, she was dragged back to her room and tucked into bed for her nap. As per usual she waited until her nurse left the room and then proceeded to quietly play in her room until her designated naptime was over. She looked over to her clock; she had just recently learned how to tell time. The short hand was on the two and the long hand was on the 8 so that meant it was two forty, but she didn't know if that meant her naptime was over or not. She went back to emptying out her toy chest only to not find the doll bed she was looking for. Not bothering to put any of the toys back in, she went over to her green toy chest and proceeded to take out its contents.
After emptying it out and not finding her doll's bed in that toy chest, she moved on to her last one, the yellow one that sits in the corner of her room, and finally found it at he very bottom of that one. As she carried the bed over back to her dollhouse she heard voices from outside her window. She jumped onto her window seat and looking out she saw a group of older kids heading into the woods with some balls and bats, probably to the clearing where they always play baseball. She recognized the group as the guys Jun usually hangs out with. They were okay guys she guessed, but of course none of them were as nice as Jun. Though they did have a funny nickname for her, they always call her Jun's little girlfriend. And they called Jun her boyfriend. She didn't really know what it meant at first, but Jun told her it was nothing bad. It basically meant that her and Jun were really good friends and meant a lot to each other. She also found out that a person should only have one girlfriend/boyfriend at a time. After Jun told her this she was ecstatic to be his girlfriend. She hopes she can be his girlfriend for the rest of her life.
Right when she was about to dismiss them she saw someone running after them and follow them into the woods. She immediately recognized the familiar mop of red hair.
"Jun!" She exclaimed. Quickly she jumped off the window seat and started to look for her shoes. She found one beside her bed and the other one slightly underneath it. She pulled them on and ran out her door, not even caring if her naptime was over or not. She ran down the corridor, down the stairs and exited the manor through one of the back doors. She followed the familiar trail down to the clearing hoping to catch the group before they began their game. She arrived right when they were picking their teams; Jun of course was caption of his.
"Jun!" She ran up to him. He turned just in time to catch her.
"Hey there baby-girl." He grinned at her.
"Are you here to join my team?" He then added.
"Can I?" she eagerly replied. She's never played baseball before, but she's Jun and his friends play it a few times before and it looks like fun.
"But of course you can." He said setting her down. "Here, you can take my glove and I'll show you what to do."
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While there are many things Sasuke openly dislikes, like broccoli and having to dress up in his formal wear, were are only a few things that he actually hates. The extra long carriage ride to Sakura's house being one of them. He stuck his head out the carriage window to see his father traveling on his steed towards the front of their caravan. He looked around to see if he could spot Itachi but of course he was nowhere in sight. Ever since joining Anbu, he's seen less and less of his only brother.
He sat back down in the carriage and looked over to his mother who was working on her needlepoint and started, "Mother," he half whined, though he'd never admit it. "Why can't I—"
"Sasuke, enough." She cut him off.
"I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. That I don't feel comfortable with you traveling outside the carriage until you graduate from the academy." She scolded him.
Sasuke, knowing better than to talk back to his mother, just let out a sigh and got up to stick his head out the window once more.
Mikoto instantly feeling bad added on, "you know, your sensei says that you're on track to graduate this spring, so this might just be the last trip that you have to be stuck inside the carriage with me."
While he didn't say anything in return, judging by his body language she knew that he had perked up upon hearing this.
Sasuke sat back down in his seat, opposite of his mother. He picked back up the homework he had been working on. Though his teacher's already told him that if everything goes well with his upcoming tests, he'll be graduating in the spring, he still cant help but get excited every time he thinks about it. He may not be graduating as early as Itachi did, but his father seemed pleased with the news regardless.
He had finished most of the work sheets he was assigned; now he just had to finish reading the chapters from the textbook that had been assigned as well. They normally don't get this amount of homework, but since they had a long weekend his sensei didn't want the class to fall behind. While homework normally bothers Sasuke, he'll do all the homework he has to as long as it means he gets to see Sakura. He's been bugging his mother for a while that he wanted to come see her. His mother, not one to let him miss school so easily, had made him wait till they had a break so that he wouldn't fall behind, like that could honestly even happen.
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"And then from third base I ran all the way to home plate!" Sakura exclaimed. To which Jun just chuckled. "I remember baby-girl, I was there."
He had taught Sakura the basics of the game, like 3 strikes and you're out, how to swing a bat, how to catch a ball. She caught on pretty quickly. He let her throw a few pitches in which she struck out the batter. He also let her hit a home run. All of this of course was staged. He had told the guys before hand to let themselves be purposely stuck out. He also set up her home run so that it was basically fools proof. While the guys poked fun at him for trying to please his "little girlfriend," it didn't take much to get them to along with his effort cause while they would never admit it out loud; they too were fond of the pink-headed girl.
It was pretty late in the day, so they decided to head back to the manor. Not that they were tired or anything, they were just at that early stage of their puberty were they would eat and eat and eat and still be hungry. Considering the last time they ate was two-ish, they were well overdue for some food.
When they had arrived at the manor, they were greeted with quite a sight, well at least Jun was. The guys didn't seem fazed by all the horses, carriages and ninja lingering in front of the manor.
"What all this?" he questioned
"Don't you remember?" answered his friend Haru. "The king's here for a visit."
"And he really needed to bring all this?!"
They decided to use the back entrance since it seemed almost impossible to navigate through that mess. Through it all, he was able to catch a glance of Lord and Lady Haruno, he stopped and turned towards Sakura while his friends continued towards the back entrance.
"Baby, why don't you go let your parents know your back? They might be worried."
"But where are you going?" she questioned.
"We're just going to grab something to eat." He could tell by her pout that she wasn't too fond of him leaving her so soon. "How about tomorrow you come with us again when we go play baseball?"
Sakura perked up immediately upon hearing this.
"Okay! Then I'll see you tomorrow!" With that she ran off into the chaotic mess of horses, carriages and ninja. "Wait! Sakura!" He was going to walk her to them, it was much too dangerous for her to go through that mess all alone. She's so small, what if someone misses her and accidently runs her over. She stopped and turned back towards him with a puzzled face, missing the carriage that was backing up in her direction.
"Sakura!" Right as he broke out into a run in her direction, a blur of blue and black appeared beside Sakura and in the blink of an eye, they were both gone right as the carriage backed up into the spot they would have been in. He looked around confused as to what just happened.
"Sasuke-kun!" Jun heard Sakura's distinct voice call from behind him. He turned around and saw Sakura with and unfamiliar boy. He headed over to them as the boy was setting Sakura down.
"When did you get here?!" Sakura eagerly asked the boy, completely oblivious to the fact that she was almost run over.
"Saku-" Jun began as he reached them.
"What the hell were you doing!?" the boy beside Sakura barked, and it took him a moment to realize that the question was directed towards him. He glanced over at the boy. He looked about ten, maybe nine years old and was glaring fiercely at him. "Why on earth would you let her run into that by herself?! What's wrong with you?!" The boy scowled, Jun was sure that if looks could kill he'd be dead by now. But still, who did this kid think he was yelling at him like that.
"Now listen here you little brat!" he snapped, stepping up closer to the pair. The boy quickly pushed Sakura behind him, blocking Jun from her. "Did you not see me try to stop her?!"
"Well that was the lousiest effort I've ever seen!" And with that the kid grabbed Sakura's hand and led her into the direction of the Manor.
"Pftt. Brat." Jun grunted as he went to catch up with his friends.
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"Hey Sakura." Sasuke spoke trying to grab her attention. It was after dinner and they were both freshly bathed and in Sakura's bedroom. To the dismay of Sasuke, his mother had not let them bathe together. He did not see the problem. He distinctively remembers them bathing together all the time when they were younger, so what's the problem now? Sakura was on the floor playing with her Dollhouse while Sasuke just sat on her bed quietly observing her. That boy from this afternoon was still bothering him.
"Who was that boy you were with earlier?" he question.
Sakura turned to him puzzled for a moment before it clicked. "You mean Jun?"
"Jun?" he thought. "Does she have to be so informal with him?"
"Yeah him, how do you know him?" he asked trying his best to sound indifferent.
Sakura went back to playing with her dolls before answering. "His dad's our chef."
"Oh," Sasuke inwardly scoffed "so he's just the helps son." And to think that for a moment he was actually kind of worried. He got off the bed and went over to Sakura. "Maybe it's best if you stop playing with Jun from now on Sakura," he commented as he sat down beside her.
"Oh I can't do that," was her reply.
"And why not?!" Sasuke bitterly questioned.
"Because I'm Jun's girlfriend."
A/N: Oh my gosh! Did this story really reach over 100 followers?! I didn't even think I'd get 10! Shout out to acechi-anghel who was my 100th follower! You guys are so awesome and I want you guys to know that I love you guys so so very much! As always please let me know about any really bad grammatical errors. I hope you guys have a very blessed and wonderful weekend even though its like Saturday night right now. Also please remember to favorite/follow/review! Thanks!