Hi everyone! After years of stalking this site, I finally decided to try my hand at writing my own fanfiction!

Warning: I mainly enjoy writing as a hobby and lead a pretty busy life so I don't know how often I will have a chance to update.

Enjoy! :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Anything directly related to the Naruto manga/anime (all characters, backstories, settings, etc.) belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

It Started With a Tomato

Chapter One

Konoko peered up at the raven haired man standing in front her impassively.

"No."

His dark eyes blinked once in bewilderment.

A few seconds passed.

"….what?"

Konoko gave an exhausted sigh to show her impatience at his apparent lack of comprehension skills.

"I said no, Sasuke."

A slight gust of wind rustled both of their clothes.

"…why?"

Konoko frowned in disapproval.

She had been sitting outside on her back porch enjoying the breeze that had brought relief to the harsh summer months in Konoha. Konoko had gotten home from work and decided to have some good old relaxation time. So she had curled up in a slightly worn brown chair, book in hand, with her long dark curly hair tossed over her tan sleeveless left shoulder. She had just gotten a new adventure novel from the library a few days prior and was quickly immersed in the captivating plot when, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Sasuke standing with his hands in his pants pockets, just outside of her white gate.

Glancing up from her novel, she took note of his ruffled appearance and assumed that he had just finished training with his team. His dark hair was messier than usual and his gray high collared shirt and black shinobi pants had some tears and stains here and there.

'It must have been some training session if he's coming here looking like this,' she thought as she looked him over.

Realizing that he was probably waiting for an invitation, Konoko decided not to keep him waiting there all day. After all, he did tend to be impatient at times. Konoko gave him a slight wave of her hand in acknowledgement and went back to looking at her book.

She heard the gate open and shut close. A few seconds later, she could feel his presence in front of her. It didn't take much time to cross her small backyard.

"Konoko."

Hearing his deep voice speak her name in greeting, Konoko shut her novel (not before marking the page with a blue ribbon that had been wrapped around her right wrist) and looked up at the ninja, giving him her undivided attention. Her light brown eyes landed on his onyx ones, and she gave him a pleasant smile.

"Hi, Sasuke. I haven't seen you around in a few days, so I assumed that you had gone on a mission. How did it go?"

Konoko knew that Sasuke wouldn't be able disclose much of his mission to her if it was confidential (and it usually was), but she still liked to ask. It was a comfortable routine that they had settled into ever since they became friends.

Well, friends may have not been right word to describe their relationship—which was a little strange. In all honesty, she doubted that Sasuke even saw her as anything more than an acquaintance. Yes—they had conversations with each other on more than one occasion. And yes—they didn't use honorifics to address each other (but Konoko suspected that Sasuke just couldn't be bothered). However, most of their time spent with each other was when she would watch him train, which was usually spent with him in relative silence and rarely initiating any conversation. She didn't really know a lot about him on a personal basis and neither did he in regards to her.

Well, he probably did know more about her than she thought, being a ninja and all. They were all sneaky bastards in Konoko's eyes.

"Ah," he confirmed with a slight nod of his head. "It was a mission to the Land of Hot Water."

Konoko made a small sound to express her interest. "Did the rest of your team go with you as well?"

Although she didn't know that many personal things about Sasuke, Konoko knew about Team Seven. Everyone in the village—shinobi and civilians alike—knew about the famous team that had helped the Shinobi Alliance win the Fourth Great Ninja War nearly three years ago.

So yes—this meant that she knew all about how Sasuke defected from the Leaf Village to join Orochimaru for power in order to defeat Itachi Uchiha, the murderer of the Uchiha clan, who also happened to be Sasuke's older brother (Konoko grimaced when she heard this news). But this also meant that she knew about how the Village Elders went beyond the Third Hokage's back and ordered Itachi to slaughter his own clan (Konoko felt like throwing up at this point). All of this was made public when Lady Tsunade announced it in front of the entire village not long after the war.

Most of the villagers gave Sasuke a wide berth; they still didn't fully trust him after all of the sins he had committed in the past. Konoko couldn't really blame them. She knew that people often feared what they couldn't understand.

But Konoko saw how hard Sasuke worked in order to gain everyone's trust. He obeyed his house arrest, completed all of his hours of community service, complied with all of the mundane and lower ranked missions that he received, didn't put up a fight about constantly being shadowed, and never violated his parole.

So despite all of the inherent craziness, Konoko preferred to form her own opinions about who she should associate with, thank you very much. And Sasuke didn't seem so bad; he was just a very misguided man who was trying to atone for his past sins.

Now this didn't mean that she wasn't initially wary of the Uchiha—quite the contrary. The first time that she came in contact with Sasuke was last summer, when she had accidentally bumped into him at the crowded market. She had been on a quest to buy some tomatoes for her mother.

After Konoko was in the process of exchanging her money with the vendor (a kind old man who liked to talk a bit too much at times), she turned around to leave the stand, only to collide with the person who had been standing behind her.

Konoko had an 'I'm sorry for bumping into you' right on her lips, but her words died out when she stared up into the face of the man who had supposedly killed Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sanin, at the age of sixteen.

Needless to say, she freaked out a little and fled the scene, muttering a quick 'sorry' while leaving her bag of recently purchased tomatoes in the arms of her confused victim.

She was on her way to her parent's house after that incident, when she realized that she had foolishly left the bag of tomatoes in Sasuke's arms.

Realizing that she couldn't show up empty handed when her mother really wanted those tomatoes for a special dish that she was making, she decided to muster the courage to face the Uchiha again in a more composed manner.

When she jogged back towards the market, black curls bound in a ponytail bouncing on her back with each step, she saw Sasuke standing at the entrance with her bag of tomatoes in his arms as he leaned up against a wall of a dumpling shop. As Konoko got closer to him, she was greeted with a quirked brow and a slightly amused expression on his face that read 'I was wondering how long it would take you to notice.'

Konoko slowed her jog and walked over to him sheepishly. When she finally stood in front of the rather imposing man, she peered up at his face (he was a good foot taller than her) and laughed in embarrassment.

"Sorry about that back there. It was a bit rude wasn't it…?" She trailed off awkwardly.

Sasuke just stared at her, smirk still in place.

'Jeez…this guy…'

Wanting desperately to end the situation that she was in at the moment, Konoko impulsively did the first thing that came to her mind.

She reached out and took the bag of tomatoes out of the Uchiha's arms (who gave no resistance). Once the bag was in her arms, Konoko searched inside of it for the biggest and juiciest tomato that she could find.

"Let's see….too small….too small…Oh! Here's one!"

Taking her prize out of the bag, Konoko thrust her right arm out in front of her with a big juicy tomato in hand, smiling at the man in front of her encouragingly. When Sasuke showed no signs of taking her offering, she set her bag down and reached forward, taking his right hand in hers. She turned the pale appendage so that his palm was facing upwards, and proceeded to put the tomato in his hand.

No—it wasn't the smartest thing that Konoko could have done if she was truly intimidated by the Uchiha and worried about her own safety. But as she picked up her bag and walked away from Sasuke, the image of him staring down at the tomato in his hand in curiosity brought a smile to her face.

He wasn't so scary after all.

As it turned out, Sasuke was quite fond of tomatoes.

Konoko saw him at the market again later that week at the same tomato stand. This time, Konoko (who was wearing a floral short sleeved blouse and brown shorts) decided to approach the Uchiha and actually have a conversation with him. She noticed that many of the civilians preferred to exchange as little words as possible with the former avenger and thought that he might feel more accepted into the village if he expanded his social circle.

Sasuke was wearing a black shirt with standard black shinobi pants. When Konoko finally reached him, she saw that he was examining a tomato in one hand while the old man who ran the cart chattered good-naturedly about the superb quality of his tomatoes.

Deciding that Sasuke could use some saving (his facial expression looked a bit pained), Konoko interrupted the one-sided conversation when she greeted the old man with a polite smile.

"Hi, Ojii-san."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sasuke stop his perusal of the tomato to glance at her.

"Oho! Konoko-chan is it? You're just in luck! I've got some high quality tomatoes that I'm selling here today." He motioned at the tomatoes in front of him and Konoko had to admit that they looked pretty great. "How many do want?"

Konoko decided to humor the old man and gave the question a little more thought than necessary. She then took out the money necessary to buy three tomatoes and handed it over to him. "They do look great. I think I'll take three today, Ojii-san."

He nodded in understanding and accepted the money. His straw hat slipped slightly off of his head. He centered it once more. "Coming right up." He bagged four of the biggest and juiciest tomatoes in his stock and proceeded to hand them over to Konoko.

When Konoko saw that he had given her one more than she had purchased, she began to protest. The old man wouldn't have it.

"It's a gift to thank you for being such a pleasant customer!"

She accepted the gift graciously. "Thank you. Well, have a nice day. You'll probably see me again soon."

"I'll be here waiting."

Finished with her business at the tomato stand, Konoko turned towards the real reason why she came to the market that day….

Only to find out that Sasuke was walking away.

"H-Hey!" Konoko exclaimed in exasperation. She held onto her little bag of tomatoes tighter and sped up, her brown strapped sandals hitting the pavement as she tried to catch up with him.

He stopped abruptly, making her almost run into his back, and turned around to face her. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at her.

"You're that girl who had the tomatoes last time. Konoko, was it? Why are you following me?" He said this bluntly and with an air of impassivity that made Konoko lose some of the confidence that she had possessed earlier.

Konoko found it hard to look directly into his onyx eyes as she racked her brain for what she should say to him.

"I just wanted to talk to you," she offered nervously.

"…..you just wanted to talk to me?" He looked at her blankly.

"Do you not want me to talk to you?"

He opened his mouth and almost gave a sarcastic reply, but Konoko quickly interrupted him before he could say anything.

"It's for research."

A quirked brow. "What research?"

'Yeah, Konoko. What research?'

Konoko's mind drifted off and then suddenly, she blinked.

Sasuke could practically see the light bulb that went off in her head.

"It's for a story that I'm thinking of writing. It's going to be an adventure piece and what would be better than to write it about ninja? I just need someone that I can observe for a little while in order to get some ideas. I also want to write realistically, so it would be nice to see some ninja in action."

It wasn't a complete lie. Konoko had been thinking about writing a novel for a while. She could thank her love of books for that idea.

Sasuke didn't look convinced.

"…right. But why would you need me?"

Konoko cocked her head in confusion. "What do you mean 'why'? Aren't you a ninja? You'd be perfect!"

If Konoko wasn't paying attention, she would have missed the slightly sad and regretful look that crossed the Uchiha's face.

"How can I help you? Those types of stories usually need a hero of some sort. Why don't you find someone else?"

Konoko's light brown eyes softened in understanding. "Like I said, you'd be perfect."

From that day on, Sasuke reluctantly allowed Konoko to watch him train. Konoko didn't quite understand why he agreed to it because it was obvious that he didn't quite believe her whole 'novel research' explanation, but it might have had something to do with the fact that she didn't condemn him like so many others did. Sasuke clearly looked dismayed when he explained that he couldn't be the protagonist of the story, but Konoko let him know that she thought differently. It was a small step, but Konoko believed that she had gained a little bit of his trust that day. So after she was done at her shift at work, she headed to the training grounds, which was a good fifteen minute walk away.

Civilians weren't technical supposed to go there, but it wasn't like anyone would try and stop her. 'Enter at your own risk' was simply left unsaid. Ninja wouldn't actually try to hurt civilians on purpose. It was just that there were many dangers—kunai, destructive justu (the works)—that civilians just weren't trained on how to evade. Accidents happen.

He never invited her to observe him train with the other members of Team Seven; it was always just him. Konoko didn't know if it was because he didn't trust her enough to be around them, or if he just didn't want them to bombard him with unnecessary questions, but it didn't really bother her. Her little social experiment was on Sasuke Uchiha alone, and if that was all she got, that was good enough.

Konoko liked watching Sasuke train. While she sat at the base of a tree with a pen and a notepad in hand, she looked on in awe. His moves were smooth, fast, and deadly. She definitely wouldn't want to face him on the battlefield.

For the first few months, Sasuke and Konoko barely spoke at all. He simply gave her a nod of acknowledgement when she arrived at the training ground and another one when she left. However, one day this changed.

Konoko had the day off from work and had been sitting under the same tree that she always did when she watched Sasuke train. She was wearing a pair of baggy gray sweatpants and a blue t-shirt that may have been a bit too small because it exposed a bit of her stomach. Her dark curly hair hung freely over her shoulders and back as she casually observed the actions of the man before her. He had been practicing his Grand Fireball Jutsu and had just finished creating the impressive inferno.

Konoko noticed that the Grand Fireball Jutsu was one of the jutsu that Sasuke liked to practice the most and wanted to inquire about it further. She knew that other than the Sharigan, the Uchiha were great fire users; everyone knew that. What she wanted to know, however, were the things that weren't common knowledge. She wanted to get him to open up.

With her goal in mind, Konoko hoisted herself up from her seated position on the ground and dusted herself off. Making sure that the remnants of the jutsu were gone and that it was safe for her to approach, Konoko walked across the field to the Uchiha, who was getting ready to go through his katas.

Sasuke stopped his movements and trained his eyes on her in interest. She had never approached him while he was training before.

While she walked over to Sasuke, Konoko thought through the various ways that she could breach the subject without offending him. The last thing she wanted was for him to shut her out completely.

Reaching the Uchiha with a plan firm in her mind while simultaneously trying to ignore the way that sweat traveled down his bare torso, she tried to act casually. "That fire ball jutsu is really impressive," she said nonchalantly. Needing something to do with her hands in order to keep them from fidgeting, she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I noticed that you practice that jutsu a lot. Is it one of your favorites or something?"

Sasuke didn't respond right away. He was silent for several seconds as his dark eyes searched her face.

He was looking for something. He was sizing her up and looking for any hidden motives. Konoko kept a look of interest on her face and tried to convey her honesty with her eyes. She shifted slightly. His silence and obvious examination of her was unnerving.

Sasuke must have found what he was looking for because the intensity of his gaze lessoned and he gave a small nod in confirmation. "It's a jutsu that I have had in my arsenal for a long time."

Pleased that Sasuke had finally answered (his staring was making her uncomfortable), Konoko asked the next question on her mind. "Who taught it to you?"

There. Konoko saw a look cross Sasuke's impassive face that let her know that the subject was hitting closer to home.

"My father showed me how to do the grand fireball when I was eight." His eyes left her face and he focused on a point somewhere over her shoulder. He appeared to be lost in his memories. "It's like a coming of age ritual for the Uchiha. I couldn't do it the first time I tried it and naturally father was disappointed," he said and the corner of his lip lifted slightly. "I practiced for hours on end because I hated disappointing him," he said. He shifted his weight and a breeze ruffled his spiky black hair. "When I finally got the jutsu and showed father, he said he was proud."

Konoko's eyes never left Sasuke's face; she was engrossed in his story.

"It's probably one of the few fond memories that I have of my father. That time, father wasn't comparing me to Itachi like he usually did. He told me to find my own path. It was the first time I felt like he saw me for me." He set his eyes back on her face; the sun reflecting off of his onyx eyes.

"So yes, I would say that it's one of my favorite jutsu to practice."

After that little encounter, it was needless to say that Konoko and Sasuke felt a lot more at ease around each other. The silence that usually engulfed Sasuke's training slowly increased to the point where Sasuke would actually speak to her while he worked. He didn't speak a whole lot; he was still Sasuke and that was probably asking too much of him. But when she brought up different subjects in conversation—her annoying deadlines for work (she worked for the Konoha newspaper), something interesting that she read, a question about ninja—he would interject his own opinions here and there to let her know that he was listening.

Konoko knew that she was making progress with the Uchiha, but the first time that she had found Sasuke waiting for her after her shift at work, Konoko was surprised to say the least.

It was dark outside when Konoko walked out of the Konoha Times Company building wearing a black A-line dress and red flats. She had to stay behind in order to finish up an article that was due the next morning. She had spent all week running around and collecting interviews for her story. She was doing a piece on the current state of the orphanage system and Konoha's efforts to improve it. She had heard many heartbreaking stories and she barely got enough sleep at night.

Her stomach growled. She had missed dinner. Again.

As she exited the building, rubbing her stomach with a frown, she spotted the Uchiha leaning up against the wall of the building with his eyes closed. He was illuminated by a nearby streetlight. A peaceful expression adorned his face.

Konoko walked towards the man in question. "Sasuke? What are you doing here?" Konoko asked quizzically.

Konoko hadn't seen him all week. She had told the Uchiha late last week that she would be swamped with work and wouldn't be able to observe his training. So why was he here?

Sasuke opened his eyes and observed her for a few seconds. He then proceeded to walk away, leaving a confused Konoko to stare at his retreating back.

Noticing that she hadn't moved from her spot, Sasuke stopped and looked behind him slightly. "Are you coming?"

Snapping out of her confusion, Konoko quickened her pace in order to catch up with him. When she reached his side, Sasuke continued walking. He didn't answer her question. Konoko voiced this.

"You know, you didn't answer my question," she said, as she glanced at him expectedly.

"You're being stupid."

Konoko was a bit offended at his blunt reply. "What?"

Sasuke peered down at her accusingly. "You're a civilian girl who's walking home at night. Alone. That's just asking for someone to come and take advantage of you, especially when you're wearing that."

Konoko tugged at her dress self-consciously. "I can take care of myself, you know."

"Really," he said sarcastically.

"Yes, really," she shot back.

Suddenly, before she knew what was happening, Sasuke had both of her wrists in a tight grip behind her back. She didn't even see him move.

Konoko opened her mouth to protest, but shut it. She deflated slightly.

With his point made, Sasuke released her wrists.

The rest of their walk continued in a comfortable silence.

Konoko may have been one of the rare few girls who was able to get past the Uchiha's defenses, but that didn't mean that she would agree to what he had asked of her just now.

"Sasuke, do you even realize what you're asking of me?" she asked calmly.

Sasuke scowled. "I know what I'm asking, Konoko."

Light brown eyes narrowed slightly. "Then you should know why I can't say yes."

Internally, Konoko was screaming in frustration. When she had decided to try to befriend the Uchiha, she didn't know that it would come to this.

"I can't marry you."