What Luck Brings : A New Beginning

Two in the afternoon on a Wednesday and Sakura is quickly approaching her best friend's front door. She needed his help and she needed it ASAP. There was no one else she could turn to. Or anyone else that she really wanted to. The less people to know about her predicament the better.

Sakura knocked forcefully on the door in front of her. She wasn't even sure if the moron was up yet. A few minutes of banging ensued before low groans and mumbles could be heard from within the apartment.

The door slowly opened to reveal a yawning Naruto. He was clad in fluffy shuriken patterned pajamas and sleeping cap, even though it was still reaching 80 degrees at night. "Sakura-chan? What are you doing here so early?" His voice cracked trying to break the sleep away.

"It's 2 in the afternoon, on a weekday. How is this early?" Sakura shakes her head as Naruto opens the door further, inviting her into his living room. "Anyway, I'm not here to give you a mom lecture. I need your help." He must have heard the desperation in her voice since he lowered his hand from rubbing sleepily at his eyes and looks at her.

"What's wrong?"

Without any hesitation and a dead serious expression she said, "I need you to turn me into a man."

"Wait…What? Why!?... I am awake right?"

Sakura sighed. "Yes you're awake and it's a long story. You know how we both got scholarships from our school?"

"Yeah, but why does that make you want to grow a dick?" Naruto questioned as he scratched his head, dumb founded.

Her hand smacked him upside the head before the thought entered her mind. "I don't want to grow anything baka, just listen. There must have been a mistake in the paperwork because the scholarship I earned was only meant for male students."

"That must have been one hell of a mistake. How does that happen, you're not even close to being a dude."

She threw her hands up in frustration. "I don't know how it happened. I only know that it did and I need this money or I can't afford to go. This school is my dream and I'm gonna take whatever chance comes my way to make it a reality." Sakura seemed to deflate a little before saying, "I also know that I won't be able to pull this stunt off without your help."

Naruto crossed his arms and put a hand to his chin as though in deep thought. Blue eyes fixed on pink hair then moved further down to look at her chest.

"Firstly," he said holding his index finger out towards her "you gotta get a wig or do something about your hair for sure. Secondly," he added another finger, "you won't have to try that hard to hide your boobs. So at least that's good news."

Naruto's smile was too bright and proud as he gave her an energetic thumbs up. This time she punched him.

"Ow! Why'd you hit me? I'm just trying to help!" He whined while rubbing the top of his head.

"That's not what I meant!" She said glaring at the idiotic blonde. "What I really needed right now was someone to help me pick out a new "male" wardrobe. The scholarship covers all my expenses so at least I can write the bill off as school clothes."

He seemed to perk up at that last sentence. "Hey that sounds like it could be fun! And since the university is paying why not go a little crazy?"

"We don't have to go that crazy. I just need some normal guy clothes. You know to blend in." Naruto's eyes had a glint of mischief in them that worried Sakura. "Any way, get changed. We should go as soon as possible since we don't have much time left before this nightmare of a semester starts."

"Gotcha, gotcha! Then let's hurry and make a brand new Sakura-kun." He was fleeing into the safety of his room before she snatched a pillow from the couch as if she were unsheathing a sword.

Instead of throwing her new weapon at his now closed door, she pulled it to her chest and flopped backwards onto the couch. Sakura let out a huge sigh and covered her eyes with an arm.

'I wonder what other adventures my luck will bring this year.'

What Luck Brings: New Dude in Town

'You can do this, breath, just breath' Sakura chanted to herself. If she lost her cool now she would never be able to convince herself to go through with it again. Ultimately, she knew it was for the best. A wig could cause big problems if something went wrong. Plus she didn't have any of her own money to buy a decent one and there was no way she could pass it off as school supplies. That is without looking suspicious… or just weird.

"Are you sure you want to do this? I know you said you'd do anything but don't you think this is overboard?" Ino cautioned as she held the scissors poised in the air ready to proceed with the first cut of Sakura's shoulder length hair.

"It's only hair. It will grow back." Sakura's determination was clear in her voice. She would not be shaken.

"If you say so. Then let's make you sexy for once in your life forehead." She snickered.

"Just cut my damn hair, pig!" was Sakura's callused reply.

A few hours later, Sakura was sitting across from a stunned Naruto in their usual spot at Ichiraku. His mouth was gaping open and didn't look as though it would be closing any time soon. She crossed her arms and 'Hmped'. "I didn't think it looked that bad. I told Ino to pick the style. Never should have trusted that pig."

Out of nowhere Naruto shouts, "You look like one of those boy love manga characters!" The room instantly turned their attention towards the table. "No I really mean it, you're really cute!"

"Shut up moron, not so loud!" Sakura hissed as she ducked her head, too mortified to even hit him. The color of her face must have matched the color of her hair by now.

In a much quieter voice he continued, "Seriously though if I were a girl I'd definitely be hitting on you. And I thought you were gonna get a wig?"

His's words didn't stop the blush from creeping further as she attempted to regain her composure. "I thought this would be a safer way to go." She said while nervously tugging at her pink locks. The feeling of her ears being exposed in such a way was so foreign to her. "And don't make fun of me! It's hard enough trying to get used to all of this" she said while gesturing to her man clothes in a general manner.

Their shopping spree went better than she was expecting and they came away with a number of decent clothes. So she was trying 'dude mode' for the first time today in celebration for the new haircut and as a first step towards her imminent manhood.

Naruto just smiled at her in his "everything-is-gonna-be-okay" way. "This must really mean a lot to you, huh?"

"It really does." Sakura said in a calm, strong voice. "That's why I'm not taking any chances. So I decided it would also be safer for me not to stay in the dorms."

"Hey you can't do that! We were gonna be dorm buddies!" he whined.

"Baka, you know we wouldn't have been roommates. The room assignments are done by random selection and there's roughly 27,000 students on campus. Even you must know we never had a chance."

"Fine, but we still have to hang out and I challenged you to a rematch so don't try to use this as an excuse. I'm gonna win for sure this time, I just know it! Believe it!" Naruto was standing with his fist pumped into the air by the time he finished yelling. Again.

"Yeah, yeah I know someday a miracle will happen and you will beat the ultimate twister master." she said with a sarcastically dark tone and placating hand gesture. "Just sit down and stop being so loud!"

"Yes mooom. Hey where are you gonna stay if you're not at the dorms?"

Her response was cut off as five bowls of steaming ramen were placed in front of them. Sakura knew she wasn't going to get any response from Naruto until he got well into his second bowl out of the four he ordered. So she continued as if nothing happened.

"I'm going to be renting a room from one of the houses that are near the campus. Apparently there is a lot of people looking for tenants in that area. So far I haven't found a room and landlord I like yet. Tomorrow I'm going to look at the last one on my list."

Sakura sighed and started into her ramen while contemplating what she would do. If this last one didn't work out she'd have to go Ad hunting again. 'Yuck!'

Sakura absentmindedly wiped the occasional droplet of broth that splashed on her arm from the blonde's constant slurping. Naruto looked like a blissful chipmunk with giggly, bulging cheeks as he chewed. She couldn't help but gain a sense of happiness just from being around him. The feeling was infectious in a great way.

She was lost in her thoughts when he tried to talk around his mouthful of food. To anyone else it would have been incomprehensible but, Sakura understood him perfectly.

"Hopefully it's the one, but I'm not too sure." She said in response to a question about her possible new place and landlord. "I haven't met him in person yet. We only talked over the phone for a few minutes. He seemed kind of…standoff-ish? Or something like that."

Sakura shrugged and said, "He gave me an address and told me to show up on Saturday at 4pm. The guy didn't even ask me for my name. What if he's a total perv or some kind of weirdo?"

Naruto was leaning back in his seat now, stretching his hands over his head. "Ah, that was a great snack." he said more to himself than anyone. "Don't worry about him being a pervy weirdo or whatever, cause I'll be there to straighten him out right from the gecko." his fist was waving menacingly in the air at nothing in particular.

"You're coming with me then?" she laughed as see put money on the counter for their food. "Also I think you mean 'straight from the get go'."

"Same thing and of course I'm coming! I'm your dude coach remember? I'm gonna make up a lesson plan and everything. You'll see! I'll be the best teacher you ever-"

"Um….excuse me?" a quiet voice interrupted Naruto before he could finish.

A pair of girls around their age had come up to where they were seated. The girl who just spoke must have been the one blushing furiously with her eyes glued to her hands in front of her. The friend couldn't have been more of an opposite. With her confident pose and challenging eyes Sakura could tell it must have been the second ones idea to approach them.

"Hello there" the confident one said. "My names Lucy and this is my friend Yuki." She said gesturing to her friend who managed an awkward greeting while taking a shy peek at the pink haired boy from under her bangs.

"Anyway, I was just telling Yuki here how much of a sucker I am for hot guys with pink hair." Lucy said with a suggestive wink. "You wanna hangout sometime?" The napkin she was holding out towards them was no doubt her phone number.

Sakura didn't know how to respond. She just froze "uh…I..."

"Thanks for the offer" Naruto said, jumping in before the small silence grew larger. He stood as he continued "But we were just leaving. Nice to meet you both!" Sakura followed his lead as they stood and walked out of the restaurant.

"So do you believe me now miss 'hot guy'? It was like I wasn't even there." Naruto said as he tucked his hands behind his head while they walked back towards their cars.

Sakura gave a nervous laugh trying to shake off some of the shock. "I guess you were right. How the hell am I going to pull this whole thing off if I can't even handle something like that?"

He stopped walking and put his hand on her head smiling broadly at his best friend. "Of course you can do this. You're my Sakura-chan and she can do anything she puts her mind to. Plus I will always be here for you." He emphasized his point by ruffling her hair.

"Hey stop that" she laughed and swatted at his hand "You'll ruin my hair!"

Naruto puffed his chest up and held a finger in her direction as if he were a strict teacher. "Dude rule #1: thou shalt not complain about ones hair or other such girly thingys."

Sakura punched him playfully in the arm. Looking at him dead in the eye she said "Thank you, Naruto. I couldn't make it without you." Her smile was so bright and genuine it made his heart skip a beat and his face turned a deep scarlet. He quickly turned away trying to conceal his embarrassment. By tucking his hands in his pockets and using his toe to poke at a piece of grass growing up through a crack in the pavement he only made it painfully obvious.

In a smaller voice then before he said "Dude rule #2: Don't ever smile at other guys like that."

"Yeah, yeah and you call me the girl." Her tone was teasing and light.

"Shut up!" Naruto's voice still held a bit of embarrassment but he had recovered for the most part. "I'll be seeing you on Saturday then?" She said as he turned to go to his car.

"You beat. Later dude!" He called over his shoulder with a wave.

Sakura was smiling again and didn't feel so worried about what was to come. "See you bro!" She called to his receding figure. In fact you could say she was beginning to look forward to this new adventure.