Can't Help Falling In Love With You

Chapter 1

The first time they met she'd been picking flowers when she had wandered a bit too far from her territory and stumbled into unclaimed land. Sakura looked up from the flowers in her hands to see a man a few years older than her asleep on the branch of a tree. She could tell from his clothing that he didn't belong to Konoha. He was an Iwa man.

She curiously walked closer and placed her feet on a thick branch and stepped up onto her tiptoes, placing her hands on the edge of the branch he was on to get a closer look. The flowers she had picked lay forgotten at the trunk of the tree. Her eyes reached just above the branch and she gazed at his face.

The man she had thought was asleep turned out to, well, not be and he opened his eyes, staring right at her. She let out a little squeak and let go of the branch, stumbling on a thick root as she scrambled backward. Sakura fell on her butt to the ground.

He lifted his head up and turned to look down at her. For a moment they simply stared at each other. She was certain he could tell she was from Konoha because of her attire and suddenly felt a bit scared he'd hurt her.

Their relationship wasn't the best.

He jumped down from the branch and crept toward her, kneeling down right in front of her. He lifted a single thin black eyebrow at her and asked, "who are you?"

His face was only inches away from her own as he stared at her and waited for an answer. Stuttering, she answered, "Sakura."

He hummed before saying, "You're quite far away from your city."

She couldn't look away from his eyes and distractedly answered, "Yeah, I know."

Sakura's head moved with him as he lifted himself up and stood up straight. Her eyes widened when he extended an open hand toward her. She looked up at him with a questioning gaze and he simply said, "My name is Itachi."

Finally understanding, she shyly placed her hand in his and he pulled her up onto her feet. Standing at her full height, Itachi realized she was much shorter than him, barely reaching the center of his chest. She was in her early teens, a few years younger than him. Sakura looked up at him with a small blush on her cheeks and he turned around, still holding her hand and heading North, toward the fence that encircled the Konoha city. 

Sakura looked at his back the entire time they walked and admired his long silky black hair. She couldn't even see the gates of her city when he turned, too soon letting go of her hand. She dazedly stared at her palm where his hand had been for a moment before directing her gaze toward his face at the sound of his voice. 

"You can finish finding your way back from here, right?" She nodded and watched him walk past her, turning around to follow his figure with her eyes as he walked away. Sakura knew why he wouldn't walk her to the gates of the city of course. Konoha and the Iwa didn't exactly like each other. The Konoha city was much richer than the Iwa village, their army was also much stronger. 

It was why they weren't at war. The Iwa was scared of the people of Konoha and Konoha didn't wish to bother with such people beneath them.

Sakura walked the rest of the way home in a daze. When she arrived at the gates, the guards stationed there scrambled towards her.

"Where have you been, princess?" One of them demanded as the other hastily opened the entrance.

She was supposed to have stayed nearby. In the land owned by the Konoha. Sakura supposed they had likely gotten quite the scare when they had called out to her and she had not responded.

Judging by the fact that no one had come looking for her, however, they must have noticed only recently that she was gone.

Incompetent, she thought with disdain. How they had gotten this position she would never know. If something had really happened to her they would have never even noticed.

Regardless, she went past the metal gate. It closed with a resounding thud, trapping her within the walls of the Konoha city once again.

That night, Sakura lay in her bed, still thinking about the beautiful man with pretty black eyes.

It seemed she couldn't keep her mind off of him.