AN: I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, it's mostly fluff but I really enjoyed writing Naruto and Sakura's developing relationship! Also, if you're wondering why I didn't make Sakura interrogate Naruto and ask him why he's helping...well I mean I really just aimed for fluff and some fun so that will be coming in future chapters! I hope you all like it!

Sakura's POV

I always thought that going on an adventure to change the fate of the world would go a little more along the lines of a thrill, or action packed. The wind blowing through your tangled hair as you run frantically away from enemies who are out to get you.

The adrenaline pumping through your body, the only thing projecting you forward as a beastly dragon fights you to the death and a wonderful hero, saving the heroine and stealing her away to be wed and live a happily ever after.

I'm supposed to be making epic memories….

"Argh, Sakura help!"

But, instead I'm babysitting a Prince.

What did I do wrong to deserve this?

Whipping around, I shoot a pointed glare at the blonde who's tugging his foot out of a vine that has wrapped tightly around his ankle.

"How many times have I told you to watch where you're going!?" I scold, huffing as I fold my arms over my chest.

Kyu snickers and whispers something in my ear.

"Maybe we should just leave him Sakura, who knows if we can really trust him." He advises, staring with narrowed eyes at the struggling prince.

I sigh for the millionth time that hour, and shrug Kyu off.

For the past hour of our little escape, Kyu has been telling me to abandon the one man who can bring me to this pirate, and Naruto's been caught in every vine we cross.

So we've stopped about every five seconds.

There is animal spit in my ear and I'm just about ready to turn around and head home.

If I weren't some kind of hero I'd probably commit suicide right now.

"Just help me!" He yelps out, grabbing his foot and helplessly pulling at it.

Pulling out my knife, I approach the prince and bend down so that I'm at eye level wit him.

"If you get caught in another vine I will not only cut the vine, but I will also take the pleasure in cutting off your foot." I snarl, staring with fiery eyes at his priceless expression.

He gulps and nods his head furiously, fear pooling in his eyes.

With one swift move, his ankle is free from the hold of the vine.

"Thanks Sakura-chan!" He beams happily giving me a toothy grin, before standing up and running off towards the direction of the harbor. Well, I hope it's the direction of the harbor.

Sakura…chan? No one's ever called me that.

Feeling my cheeks go warm and this weird bubbly feeling settling in my chest, a smile creeps on my features.

It's actions like this that make me disregard Kyu's comments on him.

He's not that ba-

"SAKURA!"

I turn my attention to the blonde trapped in yet another vine.

Forget it.

He's horrible.

~X~

"We're approaching the town," Naruto says, pulling away a branch revealing a harbor town with lights illuminating the streets and the small dock. The town looks so small and faraway from where we are currently standing, on top of a grassy hill.

My eyes gaze up onto the open sky, which is littered with shining stars. It's a perfect view from up here.

"Beautiful…" I whisper under my breath, staring breathlessly at the beauty of the night sky.

Charming clears his throat and grabs my attention. I groan a little, annoyed that he ruined my stargazing, but give him my attention nonetheless.

"I want you to stay near me, this isn't really the safest town I know and I wouldn't want you getting…hurt." He finishes, rubbing his neck before turning around and walking down the large hill leading into the town, leaving me without a word on the subject.

Quirking an eyebrow his way and then looking over at Kyu, who's nestled on my shoulder and gives me a you're digging your own grave look, I shrug and follow him.

"So, uh, where is this pirate?" I ask the blonde who is walking ahead of me, as we step onto one of the dirt roads leading into town.

At such a late hour, this town is just beginning to wake up.

I notice a few kids running with empty beer bottles and clashing them against wooden barrels. They laugh loudly as one of the bottles shatters against the barrel.

So this is what fun is like nowadays.

Nice.

"Probably at his favorite bar getting laid." He answers chuckling softly to himself.

I roll my eyes at his remark. Great a pervert pirate, just what we need.

Staring at Naruto's back as we make our way through the town, I get lost in my thoughts.

Just who will this pirate be…and from what the seer, erm Lady Tsunade, had said it seems that this pirate is my only hope. He's supposedly encountered the dark one on bad terms and survived. And now it's his turn to help me.

If I don't find him my journey is over and all is lost.

And just what does this dark one want with me?

To engulfed in my thoughts I don't even realize the empty bottle rolling around on the dirt road, and before I know it my foot rolls on top of the bottle and I'm falling forward and fast. Without a second thought, Naruto swoops in and catches me, wrapping his arm firmly around my waist and the other hand cupping the back of my head gently.

"Are you okay?" He asks, his eyes bouncing around as he scans my face.

He has such nice blue eyes...eh?

Blinking furiously and feeling my cheeks heat up as I realize just how close our faces are and my stupid thought, I jump away as if I've been shocked and rub my sweaty palms on my legs.

"I-I'm fine." I stutter out, completely flustered at how I even ended up in his arms in the first place. The minute the stutter comes out I bite my tongue in frustration and narrow my eyes, mentally scolding myself.

Curse my frazzled voice; Sakura Haruno does not get shocked so easily!

He gives me a worried glance, probably noticing my internal conversation, before relaxing his posture and shoving his hands in the pockets of his pants.

"Come on, let's get going." Naruto says, giving me one of his trademark grins, which are kind of (emphasis on kind of) charming.

"Lead the way Charming." I tease, skipping happily to his side and laugh as he groans and rolls his eyes.

"For the millionth time, it's Naruto!" He protests raising his arms up in a playful frustration.

I laugh softly watching as he shakes his head in an annoyance I know is not real.

A soft silence settles in as we continue our walk through the town, and I take the time to look around and observe our surroundings.

The buildings, well the majority of them, are built with wood that's turned pretty nasty. The signs on stores are hanging loosely, like if the wind blows strong enough I'm pretty sure they'll fall off and hit someone in the head.

Of course, we pass the town drunk that can't seem to keep his mouth shut, blabbing about naked women and some slurred gibberish I don't even think trolls would understand.

I follow the blonde through town, and soon enough my feet begin to feel sore and I notice the same wobbly bar sign dangling and being moved from side to side by the light breeze.

Wait, haven't I seen this sign around ten times already…it looks really familiar.

Turning the corner, well the same corner for the tenth time, I realize exactly what is going on.

I stop just before we go through the exact same alley way and just make another loop.

"Charming," I say with a bittersweet tone, and he stops in his tracks, turning around and raising his eyebrow.

"We're lost aren't we?" I ask, an annoyed brow jolting up and down as I try to maintain my temper.

His lips curl into a nervous smile and he rubs the back of his neck with his hand in a sheepish manner.

"I thought you wouldn't notice." He chuckles awkwardly before sighing loudly and leaning against the brick wall.

I sigh and slug my shoulders.

I thought Princes were supposed to be all sophisticated and manly, taking full control in situations and knowing what they're doing.

But, but this guy! He doesn't even know his own directions.

"If you don't know where you're going then why don't we ask somebody?" I ask, looking around to see if we can ask someone who looks reliable because so far the only reliable face is that drunk.

"No, I know where it is." He argues stubbornly, and I feel a vein pop in my forehead.

"No you don't! We've been looping this specific area for the tenth time tonight." I point out, and his confident stare falters slightly.

"I know where I'm going." He says yet again, folding his arms over his chest and pushing himself off of the wall.

"Then why aren't we there yet?" I counter, my eye twitching in annoyance.

"It takes a while to get there." He replies simply shrugging his shoulders and kicking a pebble.

I snort at his lame excuse.

"I don't have time for this, are you going to bring me to this pirate or am I going to have to go find him myself?"

I notice body freeze for a second at the mention of me venturing off on my own, and before I know it he sighs heavily and stares down at the dirt path.

And then very slowly he lifts his eyes, which I notice are dripping with shame, and he lets out a very awkward laugh.

"I actually don't know where he is…he's usually at this bar," He says, pointing to the swaying and destroyed sign, "But it seems to be completely empty and abandoned." He finishes, kicking more pebbles and staring back down at the road in embarrassment.

I gape at him.

A single tumbleweed passes and the cricket's annoying song is the only thing echoing in the dark alleyway for a good five minutes.

And then I snap.

"So you just magically thought that walking through this alleyway was going to make the bar seem more alive?! How the heck are you a Prince of a kingdom?! I can't believe you!" I scream out, my eyes melting in a burning fire and he only averts his eyes pretending to find the brick wall very interesting.

Kyu silently agrees with me when I hear him snicker a laugh under my hood.

He promises me that he'll lead me to this pirate that's supposed to be this huge piece in my messed up journey, and then all of a sudden I find out he's actually as clueless as me, maybe even a tad more dense!

Balling my hands into fists and practically screaming out of frustration, I'm about to spin around on my heel and leave this good for nothing prince in the dust when the absolute strangest thing happens.

The sound of glass shattering pierces my eardrums, and before I know it a beer bottle is sent flying out of a window on the second story of the supposed abandoned bar. It crashes in the space of the huge gap between the blonde and me; it's liquid contents flying into the air.

And then as if when all hope has been lost the contents of the bottle turns into a purple smoke that envelops the whole alleyway.

Coughing and shutting my eyes, I brace myself to pass out from whatever fumes I'm inhaling.

This is it, the guards from the palace have found us and now I'm going to be executed.

I'm screwed, I'm screwed, I'm screwed!

But my worries wash away when the sound of cheery music and bubbling laughter fills my ears and not the sound of guards barking out commands.

Music? Did Naruto just become a one man band or am I hallucinating?

Curious to know where the noise is coming from I decide to peep my eyes open.

And much to my surprise, the once dark alleyway is now illuminated with bright lights hanging from the street poles, and turning to my left I see that the once dangling bar sign is now completely fixed and the torn up bar is filled completely fixed, as if brand new, with bright lights pouring from the half shut windows.

"Am I hallucinating?" I ask myself and don't even bother turning my attention to Naruto, who has made his way to my side.

"Told you it was here!" He happily chirps, ignoring my question, and folding his arms over his chest before giving himself a nod that seems to reassure him that he totally knew where he was going.

Almost as if he's saying: Yeah, I totally knew the bar was here, we just didn't see it while we looped this place ten times!

How could we miss a place so lively like this anyways, more importantly it was right in front of us this whole time?

Is Naruto some kind of wizard or something?

I stare with wide eyes and open my mouth to say something when a legit body practically flies out of the second story window of the bar and loosely hangs out of it. Upon the window being opened, the music becomes much louder and the sounds of hollering men and women echo loudly throughout the alleyway. The man just hangs there, his body half out half in, and stares at us his view of us upside down.

The man's face has a huge drunken smile plastered on his handsome features, and his shirt is unbuttoned exposing a very muscled body.

"Aye matie's!" A slurred and raspy voice comes out of the man hanging out of the window.

Unsure of what to do, I avert my eyes from the shirtless man and onto the blonde.

I expect Naruto to be just as shocked as I am, but when I look over at him I find that he's…laughing?

"ha…hahahahahhaha!" He bursts out, doubling over and grabbing his sides. His laughter comes out in short hiccups and he wipes his watery eyes.

Much to my annoyance, I actually find his laughter very sweet and contagious.

And so I find myself smiling, and then giggling, and soon enough I'm laughing just as loud but possibly louder than the idiot prince.

I don't even find these kinds of things funny, but for some reason his light laughter makes me forget whatever messed up situation I'm in.

And soon enough a rough and manly laugh erupts from inside the drunken man hanging from the window.

And that's when I know I've officially lost it.

Peeking my watery eyes open, I look at Naruto who's still laughing. His sparkling blue eyes squeezed shut, his smile glowing, and his laughter like music.

And I feel my heart dance a little inside of my chest as he calms himself down and looks in my direction, smiling a full toothy smile at me.

Feeling irritated by my heart's increased pumping; I avert my eyes but can't seem to get the smile off of my face.

Why do I feel like clobbering him one minute and the next my heart is betraying me all because he smiled at me all special?

Get it together Sakura!

"Erhm," Naruto clears his throat, his cheeks slightly red from the excessive laughter, "Sakura I'd like you to meet the pirate."

I give him a bit of a confused smile and tilt my head.

"Where?" I ask, looking around the alleyway.

"There." He says, pointing with his finger…up?

I follow his finger, and then I feel my heart sink.

"Nice to meetcha." The dangling pirate greets.

I only gape at him, totally caught off guard.

And then some random girl, who's dress is half buttoned at the top and her cleavage is almost fully exposed, drags him out from the window, gives us a wink, and shuts it tightly.

Blinking a few times and still staring at the now shut window, I am at a loss for words.

"Time to meet your pirate, Sakura-cha-"

"Don't chan me mister. You have some explaining to do." I glare at the blonde and then return my gaze to the bars closed doors.

And with that, I tug my hood tighter around my pink hair and march into the bar.

Time to get this party started.