Title: the basis of affection
Characters: little!SasuSaku
Summary: It was very easy for Sakura to like Sasuke, after he played the guide and took her home and smiled at her more than once.

My take on Sakura and Sasuke meeting each other. Granted, this takes some liberties in assuming that they weren't in the same class in the Academy, at least in the beginning.

It was summer in Konoha, around late afternoon. Long shadows darkened the streets, and butterflies fluttered lazily around the blooming flowers.

Somewhere in the city, six-year-old Haruno Sakura was hopelessly lost.

Sakura hadn't meant to get lost; she hadn't even planned on being more than a few feet away from the house. All she had wanted to do was practice the ninja stealth Iruka-sensei talked about the other day in class. A stray cat had wandered into her backyard, and Sakura had wanted to practice on it. But the cat was so quick, and she had run after it, very quietly so Mommy wouldn't hear her, and…

Now she didn't know which way home was. She had never been in this direction before, and one street looked very much like another.

Unable to decide, Sakura plopped down just beneath a signpost, trying her hardest to fight back tears. Two hours, two whole hours, and she still couldn't find home.

Some ninja.

Her mouth wobbled, and the tears threatened to overflow despite her best efforts. Tears of fright, of complete and utter alone-ness…almost like before she had Ino-chan.

Hey, why are you crying?" asked a voice, one that didn't sound much older than her. It was definitely a boy's voice. A strange boy's voice.

Sakura scooted backwards until she was pressing against the signpost, trying to make herself as small and as inconspicuous as possible. All of Ino's cheerful scoldings from the past few weeks, admonishments about "smiling, because you're cute and need to show it" and "don't worry; just say hi"flew right out of her mind, overcome by shyness.

"Are you all right?" The boy sounded confused. "I mean, you're probably not, if you're crying like this. I mean…um, I don't know what to do when girls cry. Um…please stop."

Sakura couldn't help but giggle at his abashed tone. Dashing her tears away, she lifted her eyes to meet the strange boy's gaze.

He wasn't so strange, actually. She had seen him walking around Konoha a lot, usually when she was shopping with her mother, and sometimes in front of the Academy—he probably went there too, actually.

The boy looked relieved that she had stopped crying. "I'm Sasuke. Who are you?"

"Sakura." She mumbled. Now that she had stopped crying, she mostly felt embarrassed that this boy had seen her doing so. She brought up her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, fingers interlocking.

Sasuke was smiling now.

"Well, Sakura-chan, why were you crying?" he asked again, sitting down right across from her, legs crossed, head cocked to one side. It reminded Sakura a little bit of her first meeting with Ino, and her shyness eased somewhat.

"It's silly…" she said, looking down at her shoes. "But I'm lost."

She snuck a peek at Sasuke, wondering if he would laugh at her.

"Oh. How did you get lost?" Sasuke didn't seem inclined to laugh, luckily. If anything, he looked curious.

Sakura blushed. "I was following a cat…"

Sasuke looked confused, eyes blinking.

"I was practicing ninja stealth!" she said defensively. "Iruka-sensei said that the best ninja are so quiet that well…"

She broke off what she was going to say and blushed harder. It must sound so silly to Sasuke; she thought miserably, that she had been stupid enough to take Iruka-sensei's words so literally.

But Sasuke didn't look like he thought she was stupid. "Okay then. Where do you live?" he asked instead, looking around them as though he expected her house to just be around the corner. His intentness made her giggle again.

"Um…" She wrinkled her nose as she thought, pressing her fist under her chin. Her address wouldn't help until they actually got to her street, so Sakura tried to think of the next best thing. She brightened. "Do you know Ino-chan? I live down the street from her family's flower shop."

Sasuke's eyes went wide. "The Yamanaka flower shop?" Sakura nodded in confirmation.

"That's pretty far from here. Wow!" He looked visibly impressed. "You followed that cat really well!"

Sakura smiled, pleased at his praise, staring again at her shoes.

"Yeah, but…" she deflated, her sadness coming back. "I don't know how to get there."

"I do!" Sasuke got to his feet, dusted himself off, and held out both hands to Sakura. "I can take you home. I'm waiting for my aniki to come back from a mission; he won't know that I'm gone."

"Are you sure?" asked Sakura, accepting his offer to help her up. His palms were warm, and their contact made her feel pleasantly dreamy.

Sasuke nodded. "Positive. Follow me!" With that, he dropped her hands and dashed off, leaving Sakura to follow.

At first she thought that he had played a mean trick on her, and was planning to leave her behind. But Sasuke kept looking back and slowing down, just enough so that she could keep up, and Sakura stopped worrying very quickly. It was fun, almost like a race, or tag.

It still took nearly ten minutes before they found the flower shop. By then, Sakura was very tired, and she suspected Sasuke was too, even if he tried to play it off.

From there they walked to the Haruno household and its cheery door and little sign. Sakura had never been happier to see it.

"Thank you for helping me," she told Sasuke shyly, bowing at the waist the way her mother had taught her. "Would you like to come in?"

Sasuke blushed and looked away. "'S no problem," he mumbled, shifting a bit from one foot to the other. "You don't have to bow like that," he added.

"Oh. Okay." Sakura straightened up, looked at him sidelong. "So, will I see you at the Academy?"

Sasuke stopped fidgeting at that, and nodded. "I guess so." He turned and started walking back the way they had come. Sakura watched as he made it down to the dango shop, paused, and turned around.

"See you tomorrow, Sakura-chan!" he called, waving.

Sakura waved back. "Goodbye, Sasuke-kun."

She only hesitated briefly on his name.

It seemed to please Sasuke, who smiled again gave another final wave, before turning back around and running as fast as he could.

Sakura watched him go, feeling oddly warm and smiling, because the fluttery feelings inside of her told her that there was absolutely no reason not to.

She couldn't wait to tell Ino and the others about him.

...the fluff. It buuurnnns.

But in a good way. I missed writing fluffy fics. Reviews?