Sakura rarely sees a blond in Oto.

Perhaps because it's not a huge city like Konoha, the city of Sound is small and has always been rather closed off from another places, with its people sticking close to each other and always wary of newcomers.

It probably doesn't help that Oto is a city brimming with crime. Thugs, criminals, drug dealer here, drug dealer there... Some other shady places in town that's probably reserved by mafia bosses...

The thing is, Oto is not really a popular city.

Even Sakura herself comes from a family of outsiders. Her parents having come from the city of Konoha, settling down in Oto in hopes to escape nasty relatives that want to take all of their money away.

Oto's people don't really accept her parents that much.

But Sakura, Sakura is accepted. Perhaps it's because she's born in Oto and grows up in Oto. But the thing is even with her uncanny pink hair, she's accepted by the people of Oto.

She learns about the things happening in the city, about the places she must avoid, about the people she must avoid, knicks and knacks on how to survive in this place.

She loves Oto, truly, though there are times when she thinks of packing and going to her parents' hometown. Because from what little her parents told her about Konoha, the place seems to be lovely, relative problems aside.

That's why she studies hard. Konoha is a place that offers lots of scholarships, especially its universities. Tempted by the figure Senju Tsunade and her offers of scholarships in one of the most prestigious universities in Konoha, she settles herself with a goal and she'll do whatever she can to attain it.

It's still a long way to go, however. One more year in high school, and when she graduates, she'll see if she can somehow reach her goal.

And today, in one of the hottest day during summer in Oto, Sakura stands with a cup of mango float in her hand. Her eyes are staring directly at the blond across the street who is mumbling to a piece of paper.

She rarely sees any blond in Oto.

And judging from the glances thrown at him from the people, he's an outsider.

Outsiders can mean lots of things in Oto. It can be people like her parents. But in worst case scenario, outsiders are either thugs, drug dealers, weapon dealers, or people from the yakuza.

It doesn't even matter that the blond looks normal, with his orange hoodie, blue jeans and sneakers. The fact is that he's an outsider and he can be dangerous.

Appearance can be deceiving after all.

Still, considering how rare it is to see blonds, Sakura can't help but to just stare at his hair.

She wonders if this is how people feel when they meet Sakura for the first time; with her pink hair and all that.

Slurping on her mango float, she crosses the street. The blond however, doesn't move from his spot across the street, seemingly still engrossed in his piece of paper. And he's still mumbling to himself.

Sakura decides to avert her eyes, lest he notices she's staring and pulls a knife on her or something. Though when she passes by, she cannot help but to hear his mutters.

"...don't understand, there's supposed to be a small cafe around here, 'ttebayo. And after that I have to turn left, right? But there's no cafe, and if I turn left from here, the street sign says it's to the graveyard. Agh, there's no graveyard in this map! Stupid map, how can I possibly go there in time? This is all Kakashi-sensei's fault, he must've planned this. He must've given me a fake map! Oh man, oh mannn-"

She pauses in her steps.

Glancing back, she sees that the blond is still muttering curses about a certain teacher, the paper which is apparently a map, and how he's going to be late.

Late to where, she doesn't know, but listening to how he's mumbling to himself (how did the muttering escalate so quickly into a rant about hunger and ramen?), Sakura can't help but to think that he really needs some serious help.

Oto is fairly a small city after all. To get lost in it is just certain levels of awful.

Turning around, she resists the urge to poke the blond on the shoulder. "Hey," she says, and blinks in surprise when the blond looks at her with clear, bright blue eyes.

The boy looks around her age, and he has strange whisker marks on his face that may or may not be scars or make up, and his eyes are just so pretty.

That's probably not something that she should think about strangers, much less a boy, but it's the truth that his eyes are so pretty. It's startling blue, a mix between the sky and the ocean and she thinks that she can drown in it.

"-me, 'ttebayo?" His voice cuts off her thoughts and she blinks.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," she scratches her cheek awkwardly. "So... Are you lost? I can help you to get around, if you'd like."

The teen blinks a few times before he breaks into a grin, his eyes lighting up. "Eh? Really? That's great, 'ttebayo! I've been lost for, I don't know, half an hour?"

"Sure," she nods. "Where do you want to get to?" She hopes it's not the shady places in the town, to be quite honest. The teen seems like a good person, if a bit too good looking for her healthy perverted mind.

"I wanna meet the mayor, 'ttebayo."

She blinks.

"The... Mayor?"

"Yeah! You know the mayor, right?" He furrows his eyebrows, "I mean, you're a citizen here, right, so you gotta know who the mayor is, right? The snakey snakey?"

She almost chokes in surprise. "You mean Orochimaru."

"Yeah," he nods seriously, "snakey snakey."

She clears her throat. "What business do you have with him, if I may ask?"

The teen hums, "Well, I wanna punch him in the face, if you ask me," not noticing or perhaps not caring about her wide eyed look, he waves his hand flippantly, looking a bit put out as he says glumly, "but Kakashi-sensei forbids me from doing so and Baa-chan will probably yell at me if I do, so I'm here just going to deliver a letter."

"...A letter," she deadpans, wondering if where the boy comes from Post Office doesn't exist. "For the Mayor."

"Yeah, the content is a secret-though I know what it is-so I have to deliver it by hand, for security purposes, you know," he suddenly glances sharply at her, making her jump. The teen stares at her, seemingly assessing her before he raises a finger to his mouth, smiling lightly.

Sakura blinks. "Okay," she nods, "I'll keep it a secret." Though she doesn't really care for the content, so it's not like she'll spread it to whoever she meets anyway.

The teen grins, "great!" He chirps, "I know why I like you, 'ttebayo!"

She can't help but blush a little. That's a surprising thing for him to say.

She crosses her arms. "You like me? You don't even know me. I don't even know your name." She starts to walk, the boy following close behind him. "This way."

"Well, I'm Naruto," he says easily, following her with steady steps. "Uzumaki Naruto, 'ttebayo. How about you?"

She hesitates for a bit, "Haruno Sakura. It's nice to meet you, Uzumaki."

"Just Naruto is fine, Sakura-chan!" He says cheerfully, "Uzumaki is my mother, and Naruto is shorter anyway!"

"Wait, I never gave you permission to call me by my first name!"

"Eh? Wait, I can't? But it's such a nice name!" He pouts, "and I allowed you to call me by my first name, too."

"That's that, it's different," she scowls. "I barely know you anyway."

"Then, Sakura-cha-"

"Haruno." She cuts him off.

"-chan," he continues on, "Wanna go out for some ramen after this?"

She pauses. "...Why?"

"Because I'm hungry!" He says, "and I love ramen, and you can count it as thanks for directing me to the Mayor's place. I'll pay for you, no worries! And while we're at it, we can know each other better, right?"

He smiles at her, carefree and bright. "So, what do you think? It's free ramen, ya know."

This is my first time writing narusaku pls have mercy.

While Sakura is internally fangirling about Naruto's eyes, Naruto is definitely fanboying about how pretty Sakura is and her hair and her eyes and just her everything.

Later on, when they eat, Sakura snaps at something Naruto says and he's even more attracted to her than he ever does.

(Nobody ever actually scolds him like Sakura does except for his parents close friends, and perhaps that'll change when Sakura realizes what sort of position he has in his hometown, but this fierce girl who easily smacks his head when he says something stupid is just really, really pretty.)

(It helps that she keeps on blushing whenever he compliments her looks and her voice and her everything, really).

(He totally gushes about her to Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke).