Yōso no josei.

Chapter 1: More than meets the eye.

A/N: So I wrote the first two chapters around a year ago and haven't gotten around to revising them because lazybones, so bear with me. also

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and any of its related works.

Nothing ever caught the eye of Sasuke Uchiha, not even the people of the village bowing to him interested him at all. His mind was a one way track, 'Get strong to kill Itachi' was his mantra before he went to bed that being evident that he only focused on killing the man who destroyed his family. His antisocial, bad boy attitude attracted many of his female peers who have formed a fan-club of sorts dedicated to him and him only, and this as well did not catch his attention, it is safe to say that nothing would ever interest him for more than 30 seconds…that is not true. There has been a mystery that has been clouding his mind for the past 3 years and he has yet to crack it, he has racked his brain trying to learn the secrets of this mystery. What is this mystery you ask? Well the village pariah is that mystery, Natsumi Uzumaki.

The girl just basically screamed odd, she unlike the rest of the village did not even pay attention to him. She did not bother him, she always kept to herself and radiated a sense of power and elegance at the same time. At first this did not bother him at all, until she was able to swiftly move him out of her way when they were in a collision course with each other. It happened so fast he barely noticed it, she was already some feet away from him when he realized what happened. Since then he has tried subtly to communicate with her, but he has failed coming off as arrogant and aggressive whenever he spoke to her, resulting in the girl just walking away or entirely ignoring him…of course him being drawn to him, has gained her hatred amongst the majority of the Sasuke fan-club, the only friend that Natsumi had seemed to be Hinata Hyūga, as he has seen the two girls interact with each other several times. He has also seen her interact with Iruka Umino on many occasions, the way he viewed it Natsumi looked up to Iruka like a father of sorts, so if he needed anymore information on her he would need to ask the Chunin.

"Class dismissed, prepare for your exam tomorrow." Iruka said with a smile as the soon to be ninjas ran out excitedly chatting with one another.

Sasuke searched through the stampede of academy students in search of the one who has been swimming through his thoughts, he caught no sight of her she must have left long ago. When he deemed it was safe he approached Iruka who sat by his desk scribbling something. Sasuke cleared his throat grabbing the scarred man's attention.

"Sasuke, you're still here? Well, what may I help you with?" Iruka asked the rookie of the class, who sighed as he looked around.

"I-I'd like to ask about…Natsumi." The last Uchiha said in a hushed tone, at fist Iruka was surprised at the Uchiha's sudden interest in Natsumi, before he chuckled mentally.

'Even the mighty Uchiha has a crush.' He thought with mirth.

"Natsumi? What about Natsumi?" he asked feigning his obliviousness.

"Anything you know about her." Sasuke replied.

"Well she's been an orphan since birth, she doesn't have that much friends besides Hinata…and maybe Ino I'm not sure about that one. She seems to have the gracing of the Hyūga clan, and well that's all I can really say without breaking the academy's jurisdiction." Iruka said and Sasuke seemed to seethe in the inside.

"Thanks anyways sensei." He muttered before walking out the class.

'Argh! Why am I even entertaining the thought about her!? I should be focusing on getting rid of Itachi!' Sasuke screamed in his mind.

"Because you LIKE her."

'Shut it you!' Sasuke hated the fact that he had some sort of miniature manifestation of himself in his mind which always bothered him and would second guess everything he thought.

'You know it's true.' The inner him said and he growled ignoring the nuisance that wandered through his thoughts, during his muse he failed to notice the very same girl occupying his thoughts pass by him.

"A-Ano Natsumi-chan, was that Sasuke-san?" The shy Hyūga asked.

"Don't know, and don't care." The smaller girl replied with her usual stoic tone.

"He l-looked f-flustered." Hinata commented missing her friend's response.

"Lucky him." She replied without a hint of any emotion.

Next day.

Sasuke sneakily glanced at Natsumi who had her eyes closed and was leaning on the Hyūga heiress's shoulder. Hinata had a large blush painting her face red, probably due to the close contact with her friend.

'Could I really like her?' he asked himself.

'Haha, you finally admitted that you like her.' the inner-Sasuke said with a smirk.

'No I didn't you stupid little chibi!'

'Hey you're the one calling yourself a stupid chibi.' The IS(inner-Sasuke) said.

'Why you little-'

Sasuke was pulled out of his muse by the door getting kicked open by his top two fan-girls. He sighed as he resisted the urge to slam his head on the table.

"My foot clearly entered first!" the pink haired Sakura exclaimed as she fought with her rival.

"Wrong! I entered first!" the blonde Ino said.

"Simpletons." Natsumi muttered in her nap, luckily only Hinata heard what she said.

Sasuke tuned out the rest of the argument and completely missed the two girls taking seats next to him.

"Alright now, settle down." Iruka's eye twitched as he was completely ignored.

"SHUT IT YOU BRATS!" the students cowered in fear at Iruka's signature inflated head.

"Good, now I wish you luck and prepare that you are ready to become one step closer to becoming shinobi and kunoichi of the village."

That is when a silver haired Chunin walked in, Sasuke did not miss the glare the man sent towards Natsumi who had woken up from her slumber.

"Mizuki will be helping with the exams. I shall not waste anymore of your time, the first portion of the exam is a written test." He announced and there were several groans filling the class.

'Too easy.' Sasuke thought with a smirk as Iruka began with handing out the papers.

The class had moved outside for the second portion of the exam, which he would guess would involve the use of projectiles and Taijutsu. For the 6th time for the day, Sasuke looked for Natsumi who sat under a tree resting her head on a still flustered Hinata's laps.

'I haven't seen her doing anything physical, this would be a first.' Sasuke thought with a hidden smirk. He ignored the callout as they were called out for their turn to throw shuriken/kunai at a target.

"Uchiha Sasuke." Iruka called out, the Uchiha pranced to Iruka as he stood behind a line separating him and the target. He glanced to the side and saw Natsumi watching with nearly no interest at all.

'She'll be different once I get all of them.' Sasuke thought with a smirk as he was handed 6 kunai. He took a deep breath closing his eyes, when they snapped open he threw all the kunai at once and they all hit a bullseye. He smirked as he heard cheering, he looked over his shoulder and yet he saw that Natsumi was bored.

'…Huh, nothing…all right, this should get her attention.' he thought as he was given twelve shuriken.

He jumped back as he threw them with a slight curve, the shuriken seemed to be off course until they all hit each other ricocheting off each other and all hitting a bulls eye, the cheering got louder at the impressive show of skill.

He walked away glancing at Natsumi who gave a cute yawn as she rubbed her eyes, his eye twitched as he scowled.

'Nothing….NOTHING AT ALL!' he yelled in his thoughts.

'Trying to impress our love interest are we.' IS said with a coy smirk.

'Shut up…please…just shut up.' Sasuke begged as he sulked his way to an isolated spot.

"Uzumaki Natsumi." Sasuke did a 180 as the girl's name was called out. He watched as she stood up and walked towards Iruka with a graceful step.

'This should be interesting.' Sasuke thought as he examined the girl who grabbed the handful of kunai and glanced at them with boredom.

"Do I have to?" she asked with a sweet, soft and cold tone.

"Yes Natsumi, you have to." Iruka replied with a sigh, and the girl shook her head before turning away.

"Natsumi, you haven't thrown anything." Iruka stated, only for Natsumi to point at the targets. All of them including the shuriken targets had bulls eye hits on them.

"W-what? But when?" he asked staring at turning to Natsumi.

"When you gave me the kunai." She replied flatly.

"And the shuriken?" Mizuki asked with a narrowed gaze.

"I stole them from sensei's hand." She replied before returning to Hinata who congratulated her friend.

'I-I didn't even see her move to throw them.' Sasuke thought with wide eyes.

"R-right, anyways we'll take a 15 minute break before commencing to the Taijutsu portion.

Sasuke spent the whole break glancing at Natsumi who was interacting with Hinata.

The fights were boring, to say the least. No one put up a fight worth watching, they either dragged on too long or ended to quickly. He awaited for his turn but it seemed he wouldn't be fight for a while, neither would Natsumi. Hinata had already won her fight against Kiba, which came as a shock to the class.

'Heh, the Uchiha should put that demon-bitch in her place.' Mizuki thought with a smirk as he surveyed the clipboard in his hands. It had a list of the battles, on the bottom of the list is Natsumi VS Sasuke. He chuckled as the match approached. He had drawn up the matches the previous night.

"That's odd…but anyways, next match is Natsumi VS Sasuke." Iruka announced and the class went silent at the announcement.

"N-Natsume-chan." Hinata called out staring at her friend in concern.

"This will be quick." Natsumi reassured with a barely visible smile.

Hinata nodded watching her childhood friend rise to her feet and walk to the fight ring. Sasuke at first was unnerved but forced himself to the ring.

He now stood in front of Natsume, he had to hold the impulse to hug the girl. She was too cute to take serious.

She has pale blond hair that cascaded down to her mid-back with hime styled bangs and two long parting strands that reached her jaw, and has another strand sticking out near her scalp. She has milky white skin with three thin lines on each cheek resembling whisker marks. Her eyes were a stark contrast to her pale colors being big and bright blue. She wore a white blue tinted kimono with large sleeves, holding it together is a large orange ornate bow. The kimono did a good job at hiding anything she wore underneath, as it completely hid her form. She stood at 4'5 and has lithe build.

"You know the rules…Hajime!" Iruka announced allowing the two to proceed with their battle.

Natsumi stood still merely staring at Sasuke who felt his eye twitch, it seems to be doing that a lot lately.

'She's not taking me seriously! I'll teach her to do so!' he thought as he rushed in, for the first attack.

Natsumi tilted her head to the side as she watched the Uchiha rush at her.

'So volatile.' Natsumi thought.

Everything happened so fast again for the third time in Sasuke's life, something happened so fast that he could barely acknowledge what took place. Because one minute he found himself running at Natsumi and the next he was lying on his back with the girl straddling his chest, her hand poised like a dagger near his throat an ice cold glare staring into his eyes.

"You…lose." She asserted with a dagger like voice.

The class was so silent you could hear a pin drop from the Hokage tower.

"S-Sasuke-kun…lost?" Sakura was the first to speak as she stared with her jaw on the ground.

The Sasuke fan-club broke out in outrage as they called the match as faux.

"Whoooa! You go Natsumi!" Kiba roared with laughter as he cheered the petite girl on.

'Well done Natsumi-chan.' Hinata thought with a smile.

'What!? The demon-bitch won!?' Mizuki thought in outrage as he nearly crushed the clipboard in his hands.

"Winner Natsumi." Iruka announced as Natsumi got off Sasuke and bowed before leaving the ring.

'She beat me…how? I can't recall seeing her move at all…just who is she exactly?' his interest in her peeked through the roof now, he stood up and left the ring ignoring the rest of the class.

"Alright we'll take a 30 minute break, before moving on to the last portion of the test." The scarred Chunin announced as the class broke up to all sorts of groups.

"Y-You did well N-Natsumi-chan, Tou-san shall be pleased." Hinata said with a smile.

"Don't undermine yourself Hina-chan, when I tell him, he'll be more than pleased of your performance." Natsumi said with a smile causing Hinata to sport a mega blush and nearly faint from the praise, she repeatedly bowed in a comical manner eliciting a soft giggle from Natsumi.

"You're so adorable Hina-chan, come lets eat, Junko-san got us cinnamon buns." Natsumi said and Hinata smiled as the two shared the sweet treats.

Natsumi stood in front of Iruka and Mizuki as she was tasked with performing the three basic jutsu of the academy.

"Do they have to be strictly academy standard?" She asked and Iruka shook his head.

"No, as long as you can perform the standard technique or better." Iruka answered and Natsumi nodded as she performed a Henge mimicking the Hyūga head, Hiashi.

"Very good." Iruka said as he ticked on Natsumi's jutsu sheet.

"Next the Kawarimi." Iruka as he tossed a blunt kunai at Natsumi who substituted herself with a nearby glass.

"Excellent, next perform a bunshin." Iruka said ticking on the sheet.

"Hai." The girl responded as three identical clones of herself appeared next to her.

"Impressive, no hand seals at all expected from you Natsumi." Iruka praised as he handed Natsumi a dark blue hitai-ate.

"Arigatou." Natsumi bowed as she retrieved her headband and left the room.

Mizuki snapped his pencil in half as he watched the girl leave the room.

'Guess I'll have to do things myself.' He thought with a low growl.

Natsumi was greeted by Hinata who smiled at her smaller friend.

"You passed." She said nearly hugging the girl before stopping herself, unsure of how Natsumi would react. The lithe Genin saw this and shook her head before hugging Hinata.

Hinata was shocked at first but relaxed into the embrace hugging the petite girl.

'Hn, of course she would pass.' Sasuke thought as he stalked the two from a corner.

End of chapter 1.

A/N: Anywho with your suggestions, we can determine who Natsume will end up with ship wise it can be Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, Tenten, Ino, the whole shabang. Just throw in those suggestions! Now till next time, and remember to review!