Little Haruno Sakura stares blankly at the offered hand of the new older boy. He introduces himself as Uchiha Shisui but Sakura has seen Uchihas, and Uchihas does not act like him. He's weird—He makes jokes, ruffles her hair fondly, and even offers a hand to shake hers. He's genuinely friendly and it's a scary thought because Sakura has seen how a typical Uchiha acts—snobbish and prideful—, she has heard the ongoing rumours around the market about Uchihas and their demonic eyes—but Shisui doesn't act like that and she already knows she will enjoy his company—even though she already dislikes his lectures.

Sakura grabs for his hand and shakes it. Her frown from before drops to a smile— her mother has taught her manners after all and when someone introduces themself, she should do the same. "My name is Haruno Sakura, I am 5-years-old." She bows prettily and he chuckles and ruffles her pink hair.  She pouts— the girls at the playground already tease her hair colour (said it was an ugly colour) but if they ever saw how messy her hair is now, there's no doubt that Sakura would be a victim to even more teasing.

"Gosh, you're cute," Shisui says and with these words, little Sakura blushes, and her anger towards him for ruffling her hair is short-lived. It doesn't matter anyway because this boy thinks she's cute! An Uchiha thinks she's cute! 

Beside her, Sakura could hear her imaginary friend scoffed. She ignores him. She knows if it is important he will eventually tell her. And if he doesn't, Sakura knows she can always ask him about it — he always answers all her questions honestly.

"Sakura-chan," Shisui calls, and Sakura snapped her gaze back to the boy who calls her cute. Yes, she is not going to live that down.  "5 years old girls shouldn't practice tree walking all alone. You could have hurt yourself. Where did you learn how to do that anyway?"

Sakura once again sneaks a peek at Tobirama— there was an unreadable look in his eyes before he blinks once more and they're gone— he shakes his head and Sakura understands. It will remain a secret between them

"I love reading and recently I've been interested in shinobi arts! Did you know Konoha's library holds approximately twelve thou-sand seven hun-dred and sixty-four books regarding shinobi arts? And that actually the library was built by Shodaime-sama with his mokuton and—"

"Sakura-chan, while I'm enlightened to learn more about the library," Sakura scowls at his interruption and Shisui puts his hands up in defence, " I really am," He assures her, "But you're telling me that you learn this from a book?" 

"Yes," Sakura nods her head and Shisui gawks.

"You are from a civilian clan?"

Sakura nods her head again and Shisui lets out a prolonged whistle of astonishment. His eyes then narrowed and he starts pacing back and forth mumbling something underneath his breath. Sakura sends Tobi a look. She wonders if she has wrongly judge Shisui's character and if she should actually avoid him. He seems weird enough. Tobi shakes his head. 

Fine, Sakura will stay with the weird boy who calls her cute.

The boy finally stops pacing, and his eyes meet hers. "Are you planning to enter the academy?"

Sakura shrugs her shoulder. She is interested to pursue shinobi arts eventually, but she has not discussed it with Tobi or her parents yet. "Maybe," She offers him and he nods. She does not miss Tobi's calculative gaze.

"Tell you what kid, if you decide to enter the academy, find me and I'll show you a trick or two." Shisui grins and ruffles her hair. She snorts but nods her head. She doubts she would need him when she has Tobi with her. But this time, it seems her judgement was wrong because in a flash, he was gone and there was no sign of him anywhere. He was as quick at leaving as he was when he arrived.

Her green eyes glint in admiration. " Tobi, Tobi, can you teach me that?"

"Not that, but better." He promises her and Sakura beams.

::

"Tobi, Tobi, don't I look pretty?" Little Sakura twirls excitedly to show off her new dress mama has bought for her. After pestering her mama about it, she's finally given permission to go to the nearby park to play, but as long as she returns before dinner.

Tobi's eyes soften and the corner of his lips quirk upwards, "You do."

Sakura giggles. "Mama say I must look pre-sen-ta-ble when meeting new people to give a good im-pre-ssion." 

"She is correct. Your hygiene is important." 

Sakura nods in agreement but suddenly pauses in her steps. "Tobi, what if they don't like me? What if they think I have a big forehead? Or if I look weird?" 

Tobi frown, "If they don't like you for who you are, then they are not qualified to be your friend. We mustn't judge someone based on their appearance, Sakura." He tells her. 

Needless to say, the rest of the journey, Sakura walks with confidence to the park.

When she reached the park, there was already a few kids playing around the slides and the swing. Some was running around, some was chatting happily. Fueled with the confidence from earlier, Sakura marches her way to the nearest boy where he swings by himself. Tobi follows her stride but pauses. 

"Hi, I'm Haruno Sakura. Do you want to be my friend?" She bows politely and waits for his greet or agreement. But, both didn't come. Sakura freeze. Did the boy think she was weird? Did the boy think her forehead is big? 

Sakura peeks beneath her eyelash to look at the boy and saw him gawks in astonishment. She scowls. Is it such a big problem to have a big forehead? This time, she won't bend to teasing. She will stand her ground. She stands straight, crosses her arm and raises an eyebrow daring for him to say anything about her looks.

"You...want to be my friend?" 

Eh? Sakura uncrosses her arm in shock. The boy was shocked that she wants to be his friend?

"Well, yeah. Do you not want to be? I can leave now if you don't want." She turns but the boy panics and grasps her hand.

"No! I- I would love to! I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" The boy announces as he grins. He reminds her of the sun, bright and warm. Unbeknown to her, Tobi frowns in confusion.

"Well, Naruto, it's nice to meet you! But, can you let my hand go now?" She giggles when he turns a pretty shade of red.

Their little introduction, however, was quickly cut to short, when familiar figures approach the duo. Ami and her two minions stop in front of her clearly there to mock them.

"Well if it isn't big forehead and-" Ami pauses and her eyes widen in horror as it lands on Naruto. Her two minions did the same and the three look like they have seen a ghost.

"Sakura, what are you doing with that monster?" Ami hissed 

Sakura tilts her head, confuse. "What monster?"

"The one beside you! Mama tells me not to go near him because he eats people. You shouldn't go near him, Sakura." Ami warns and her minions nod in agreement.

"You can play with us instead. As long as you stay away from him," One of her minions adds on

Sakura realises they are referring to Naruto judging from their hateful looks towards him and how Naruto's smile has dropped and he's hugging himself. She knows what they are offering. A pretend temporary friendship to leave this boy alone. But Sakura remembers what Tobi told her. 

"If they don't like you for who you are, then they are not qualified to be your friend. We mustn't judge someone based on their appearance, Sakura"

Ami hasn't been friendly towards her from the beginning. She always teases Sakura for her big forehead, weird pink hair and ugly clothes. Sakura knows how hurtful those words can be. Sakura doesn't want to be like Ami.

"No, Ami. Naruto is my friend now! Nothing you say will change this fact. Nothing anyone says will change this fact." Sakura announces and grabs Naruto's hand and pulls him to follow her, away from those bullies. She ignores their cry in shock.

She pulls the blond to a nearby bench. "Naruto, are you okay?"

She is met with a teary-eyed boy. "Sakura-chan, you-" He cries and Sakura is confused. Sakura sends a panic look to Tobi who stands beside her with a knowing smile. She can feel he's proud of something. 

"Naruto, I'm sorry I make you cry." Sakura apologises but the boy only shook his head in disagreement. 

"No one has defended me before like that." He explains, "Sakura-chan, you... really want to be my friend? Even if they call me demon boy or monster?" His big blue eyes stare at her, offering a way to escape if she wanted to. Too bad, she has made her mind and nothing can change that.

"Of course silly! Someone very important to me told me we mustn't judge someone based on their appearance. If they don't like you for who you are, they are not worthy to be your friend." She recites and Naruto grins- the one that makes her feel warm all over. 

Naruto calms down and wipes his snot away. "Wow, whoever tells you that must be really, really amazing, huh?"

It's Sakura's turn to send a knowing look to Tobi. "He is."

-To be continued-

Tobi and Sakura supporting one another is just too cute. Little Naruto enters and now we have one more ball of sunshine to protect at all cost.
Do tell me what are your thoughts on the chapter~
Thanks for supporting and stay safe wherever you are!