Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
A/N: Yayies! Another one-shot fic just for you people. Just because I'm feeling just like I'm going to have Naruto feeling! Yay! Well, anyway, on with the fanfic. Ages: Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, etc. are all 16 years old. I'm actually adapting it to my other one-shot...Hee hee...
-- Sakura Kaijuu
*~*
Naruto was feeling particularly uppity today. He knew he was acting way out of character. His movements were never this robotic. And he never talked this way to his teammates. He was being snippy. Maybe that was why Kakashi-sensei had canceled training for the day...
"Arg!" he shook his head back and forth. It had to be today. It had to be. If he didn't do it today, it would just get worse. He knew that if he didn't do something about it, his work would suffer. He sighed and looked up. Kakashi-sensei was standing right in front of him. "Yes?" he didn't really want to deal with him right now.
"Naruto, what's up?" Kakashi looked at his pupil. When Naruto didn't answer, Kakashi sighed and looked up to the sky. After a moment's thought, he looked back at Naruto. "I'll buy you a bowl of ramen if you tell me what's bugging you."
Naruto's attention was caught at the word "ramen." He looked at him suspiciously, "Really?" Previous experiences with Kakashi's promises kept him wary.
"Yes. Come on," Kakashi shoved Naruto in front of him and marched him down to Ichiraku.
*~*
They sat, Naruto eating his hot noodles, Kakashi just watching. "So. What is it?"
Naruto rolled his eyes. He had been half hoping that Kakashi would forget. Not that he was really the type to forget anything. He finished his mouthful of noodles and put his chopsticks down. "It's Sakura..."
"And...?" even though Naruto could see that Kakashi knew what it was, he knew that his teacher just wanted him to say it.
"Well, I've liked her since forever. And, well, yeah. I've liked her since forever. And even though she knows that, I've never actually told her," Naruto felt his face getting red.
"Okay. So why were you acting freakishly weird during training?"
Naruto sighed. "I wanted to tell her today. But as you can see, I wimped out. And here I am, eating a bowl of ramen, trying to pretend like I don't care."
"Oh. Well, if that's all, then you should probably just talk to her," Kakashi looked at him unsympathetically. "Because I don't want this to disrupt our practice again." He stood to leave.
Naruto looked at his unfinished noodles, and suddenly wasn't hungry. He stood up too. "Thanks for the ramen, Kakashi-sensei. I've got stuff to take care of." He left the noodle stand as quickly as he could without running.
Kakashi smiled after him. He had wondered how long it would take before he got up and left to find Sakura.
*~*
Naruto saw Sakura in the distance. He was about to call out to her when he saw Sasuke there too. His eyes widened, and he crept a little closer. He got just into earshot and then stopped. He heard Sakura's voice first.
"Sasuke!" Sakura was panting like she had been running.
"What?" Sasuke didn't sound ridiculing. He actually sounded curious for once. Naruto leaned closer as Sakura stood up straight.
"Um... Sasuke-kun...well..." she paused. He listened even harder, just to make sure she wasn't whispering anything when her heard, "Sasuke-kun, I love you!"
"What?" Sasuke's tone was totally different now. He sounded confused and shocked. It was very unlike him, Naruto noted, before remembering why he was so shocked. He leaned against the building he was standing behind.
Naruto was still close enough to hear Sakura repeat what she had said. "Um...I...I love you." He closed his eyes and sighed again.
Sasuke's simple, but slightly embarrassed, reply carried to Naruto's eavesdropping ears, "I-I'm sorry, Sakura. But I don't feel the same way."
Naruto heard Sakura breathe in deeply and say, "Oh...All right. I'm sorry, Sasuke." Then she turned and ran. Naruto saw the flash of blush pink hair as she ran past his hiding spot. When he was sure that she was gone, he came out from behind the building. He saw that Sasuke was looking uncharacteristically uneasy.
"Hey Sasuke," Naruto stopped in front of him. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Go away," Sasuke turned away from him.
"Do you feel guilty?" Naruto asked the raven-haired boy.
"About what?" Sasuke still looked guilty.
"I don't know. Maybe because Sakura's crying now. Because of you," Naruto retorted, losing his cool a little bit.
"Go away," Sasuke glanced at Naruto, but didn't quite meet his eye. "If you're so worried, go after her yourself."
"Fine," Naruto glared at his teammate and turned. Chasing Sakura was so much hard work.
*~*
It was pretty easy for him to follow her. She wasn't exactly being quiet, and since they were in the village, hiding her footsteps wasn't an issue. After a bit though, he did lose her, and stopped for a minute. He looked around. There was Shikamaru, looking in the direction of the forest, his eyebrows raised slightly.
"Oi! Shikamaru!" Naruto caught the boy's attention. "What're you looking at?"
Shikamaru looked back over his shoulder and then at Naruto, "Well, it's not everyday that you get to see a girl running and sobbing at the same time."
Naruto looked in the direction that Shikamaru had been. He was more worried now. "Was it Sakura?"
"Unless there's another pink-haired girl in this village that I don't know about, yes," Shikamaru smirked a little, "So...why are you looking for her?"
"None of your business! Why are you here?" Naruto glared at Shikamaru.
"I'm waiting here for Ino. She told me to meet her here, and it's too much trouble to argue," Shikamaru looked slightly annoyed. "But whatever."
"Hmm...Well, I'll see you later, Shikamaru. I really gotta go," Naruto started walking into the forest.
"Mm...Seeya," he replied, no more or less emotion in his voice than usual.
*~*
As he pushed his way through the trees, he couldn't help but hear Sakura's screaming. He wasn't sure what she was yelling about, or for, but he decided that it would be a good idea if he hurried up a little. Just in case.
He got up to the training grounds and stopped. He heard sniffling from behind one of the logs. The one he'd been tied to, actually. He could hear Sakura talking to herself. "Well...my training with Tsunade hasn't been going so well...I haven't got a boyfriend, or anything even remotely close, while my best friend has a boyfriend..." he heard her take another shaking breath before continuing. "I'm still no where near as strong as Naruto or Sasuke, and I'm not sure if I was really cut out to be a ninja in the first place." She paused again. "Yeah...That really helped..."
Naruto stared at the ground. Sakura wasn't any of those things. She was beautiful. She was a lot more talented than he was. He made up his mind to go out there and yell at her to get her act together. As he entered the clearing, Sakura's face came around the log. It was tearstained and blotchy, but she looked like she didn't care. He heard her gasp, and then she stood up.
"Naruto? What are you doing here?"
He looked at her, "Looking for you. I was kind of following you earlier. And I kind of heard what Sasuke said...And I felt bad, but then I went for a walk and heard you yell." Damn. That was the worst lie he had ever made up. He wondered if she had seen through it or not.
Sakura blushed. Apparently not. "Oh. Well, that was really rude of you." She turned away from him and leaned on the log. "So...you got anything to say to me?"
Naruto paused. Yeah. He did have something to say to her, but he wasn't sure if he should or shouldn't. He opened his mouth and said, "No. No, I don't." Inside his mind he punched himself. That was the perfect opportunity wasted.
She smiled a little. "Naruto, you have got to be the worst liar in the entire Konoha village. What is it?"
He sighed and looked all around the clearing, avoiding looking at her. "It's nothing. But I still think you're pretty. And I think you've gotten a lot stronger. And I think you're an awesome ninja. According to Jiraiya- sensei, us three remind him almost creepily of him, Tsunade, and Orochimaru. Well...not that the whole 'Sasuke's-like-Orochimaru' is a good thing. Oh well." He was rambling.
"Thanks for trying, Naruto. But really, I'm not in the mood," Sakura looked down at the ground.
Naruto sighed in exasperation, "Sakura, you're not worthless. So get over it." He was fed up with this. Who cared about that? What about him? He stomped over to her and forced her body towards his. She still wouldn't look at him. He forced her face up. "Sakura. You need to forget what happened before, and work on what will happen in the future. You have a lot of people who love you. A lot," he paused a little painfully. "...And you always have."
Sakura seemed to realize something was wrong, because she apologized right away. "I'm sorry, Naruto. I didn't mean to be rude."
"It's okay. You didn't do anything wrong. Just remember that you're not alone. And remember that I still love you," Naruto blushed and let her go. He hadn't meant to say that. He really hadn't. But he did. And now he was going to look like an idiot.
Sakura started to smile. "Really? I thought you had given up on me a long time ago."
"Uh...No..." Naruto was slowly going red.
He tried to hunch over and hide somehow, but gave up on that and just stood up. When he looked at Sakura, he saw her smiling. "Thanks Naruto. I do feel better now." She reached up and kissed him on the cheek. "But now I have to go. Sometimes you're not quite so annoying as I think you are."
Naruto stood there in shock. He was so red he didn't even know what was going on anymore. Sakura had just kissed him. Sure it was on the cheek, but she had just KISSED him! He hardly even noticed that she had grabbed his arm and was now dragging him back to the village. Who cared when Sakura had just kissed him? Only when Sakura pushed a bowl of noodles in front of him did he notice that they were in Ichiraku, and she had just bought him food. He started eating his ramen, knowing all the time that Sakura was watching him. He smiled a little while he ate. 'It just goes to show,' he thought, 'if you don't try something, you'll never know how it winds up...'
*~*
A/N: All right. So that's done. Good for me! I hope you liked it. Now you should read Solace, since they kinda go together anyway. What am I talking about? Of course they go together. Solace is just from Sakura's point of view. So anyway, keep reading my stuff, and keep reviewing it!!
-- Sakura Kaijuu
A/N: Yayies! Another one-shot fic just for you people. Just because I'm feeling just like I'm going to have Naruto feeling! Yay! Well, anyway, on with the fanfic. Ages: Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, etc. are all 16 years old. I'm actually adapting it to my other one-shot...Hee hee...
-- Sakura Kaijuu
*~*
Naruto was feeling particularly uppity today. He knew he was acting way out of character. His movements were never this robotic. And he never talked this way to his teammates. He was being snippy. Maybe that was why Kakashi-sensei had canceled training for the day...
"Arg!" he shook his head back and forth. It had to be today. It had to be. If he didn't do it today, it would just get worse. He knew that if he didn't do something about it, his work would suffer. He sighed and looked up. Kakashi-sensei was standing right in front of him. "Yes?" he didn't really want to deal with him right now.
"Naruto, what's up?" Kakashi looked at his pupil. When Naruto didn't answer, Kakashi sighed and looked up to the sky. After a moment's thought, he looked back at Naruto. "I'll buy you a bowl of ramen if you tell me what's bugging you."
Naruto's attention was caught at the word "ramen." He looked at him suspiciously, "Really?" Previous experiences with Kakashi's promises kept him wary.
"Yes. Come on," Kakashi shoved Naruto in front of him and marched him down to Ichiraku.
*~*
They sat, Naruto eating his hot noodles, Kakashi just watching. "So. What is it?"
Naruto rolled his eyes. He had been half hoping that Kakashi would forget. Not that he was really the type to forget anything. He finished his mouthful of noodles and put his chopsticks down. "It's Sakura..."
"And...?" even though Naruto could see that Kakashi knew what it was, he knew that his teacher just wanted him to say it.
"Well, I've liked her since forever. And, well, yeah. I've liked her since forever. And even though she knows that, I've never actually told her," Naruto felt his face getting red.
"Okay. So why were you acting freakishly weird during training?"
Naruto sighed. "I wanted to tell her today. But as you can see, I wimped out. And here I am, eating a bowl of ramen, trying to pretend like I don't care."
"Oh. Well, if that's all, then you should probably just talk to her," Kakashi looked at him unsympathetically. "Because I don't want this to disrupt our practice again." He stood to leave.
Naruto looked at his unfinished noodles, and suddenly wasn't hungry. He stood up too. "Thanks for the ramen, Kakashi-sensei. I've got stuff to take care of." He left the noodle stand as quickly as he could without running.
Kakashi smiled after him. He had wondered how long it would take before he got up and left to find Sakura.
*~*
Naruto saw Sakura in the distance. He was about to call out to her when he saw Sasuke there too. His eyes widened, and he crept a little closer. He got just into earshot and then stopped. He heard Sakura's voice first.
"Sasuke!" Sakura was panting like she had been running.
"What?" Sasuke didn't sound ridiculing. He actually sounded curious for once. Naruto leaned closer as Sakura stood up straight.
"Um... Sasuke-kun...well..." she paused. He listened even harder, just to make sure she wasn't whispering anything when her heard, "Sasuke-kun, I love you!"
"What?" Sasuke's tone was totally different now. He sounded confused and shocked. It was very unlike him, Naruto noted, before remembering why he was so shocked. He leaned against the building he was standing behind.
Naruto was still close enough to hear Sakura repeat what she had said. "Um...I...I love you." He closed his eyes and sighed again.
Sasuke's simple, but slightly embarrassed, reply carried to Naruto's eavesdropping ears, "I-I'm sorry, Sakura. But I don't feel the same way."
Naruto heard Sakura breathe in deeply and say, "Oh...All right. I'm sorry, Sasuke." Then she turned and ran. Naruto saw the flash of blush pink hair as she ran past his hiding spot. When he was sure that she was gone, he came out from behind the building. He saw that Sasuke was looking uncharacteristically uneasy.
"Hey Sasuke," Naruto stopped in front of him. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Go away," Sasuke turned away from him.
"Do you feel guilty?" Naruto asked the raven-haired boy.
"About what?" Sasuke still looked guilty.
"I don't know. Maybe because Sakura's crying now. Because of you," Naruto retorted, losing his cool a little bit.
"Go away," Sasuke glanced at Naruto, but didn't quite meet his eye. "If you're so worried, go after her yourself."
"Fine," Naruto glared at his teammate and turned. Chasing Sakura was so much hard work.
*~*
It was pretty easy for him to follow her. She wasn't exactly being quiet, and since they were in the village, hiding her footsteps wasn't an issue. After a bit though, he did lose her, and stopped for a minute. He looked around. There was Shikamaru, looking in the direction of the forest, his eyebrows raised slightly.
"Oi! Shikamaru!" Naruto caught the boy's attention. "What're you looking at?"
Shikamaru looked back over his shoulder and then at Naruto, "Well, it's not everyday that you get to see a girl running and sobbing at the same time."
Naruto looked in the direction that Shikamaru had been. He was more worried now. "Was it Sakura?"
"Unless there's another pink-haired girl in this village that I don't know about, yes," Shikamaru smirked a little, "So...why are you looking for her?"
"None of your business! Why are you here?" Naruto glared at Shikamaru.
"I'm waiting here for Ino. She told me to meet her here, and it's too much trouble to argue," Shikamaru looked slightly annoyed. "But whatever."
"Hmm...Well, I'll see you later, Shikamaru. I really gotta go," Naruto started walking into the forest.
"Mm...Seeya," he replied, no more or less emotion in his voice than usual.
*~*
As he pushed his way through the trees, he couldn't help but hear Sakura's screaming. He wasn't sure what she was yelling about, or for, but he decided that it would be a good idea if he hurried up a little. Just in case.
He got up to the training grounds and stopped. He heard sniffling from behind one of the logs. The one he'd been tied to, actually. He could hear Sakura talking to herself. "Well...my training with Tsunade hasn't been going so well...I haven't got a boyfriend, or anything even remotely close, while my best friend has a boyfriend..." he heard her take another shaking breath before continuing. "I'm still no where near as strong as Naruto or Sasuke, and I'm not sure if I was really cut out to be a ninja in the first place." She paused again. "Yeah...That really helped..."
Naruto stared at the ground. Sakura wasn't any of those things. She was beautiful. She was a lot more talented than he was. He made up his mind to go out there and yell at her to get her act together. As he entered the clearing, Sakura's face came around the log. It was tearstained and blotchy, but she looked like she didn't care. He heard her gasp, and then she stood up.
"Naruto? What are you doing here?"
He looked at her, "Looking for you. I was kind of following you earlier. And I kind of heard what Sasuke said...And I felt bad, but then I went for a walk and heard you yell." Damn. That was the worst lie he had ever made up. He wondered if she had seen through it or not.
Sakura blushed. Apparently not. "Oh. Well, that was really rude of you." She turned away from him and leaned on the log. "So...you got anything to say to me?"
Naruto paused. Yeah. He did have something to say to her, but he wasn't sure if he should or shouldn't. He opened his mouth and said, "No. No, I don't." Inside his mind he punched himself. That was the perfect opportunity wasted.
She smiled a little. "Naruto, you have got to be the worst liar in the entire Konoha village. What is it?"
He sighed and looked all around the clearing, avoiding looking at her. "It's nothing. But I still think you're pretty. And I think you've gotten a lot stronger. And I think you're an awesome ninja. According to Jiraiya- sensei, us three remind him almost creepily of him, Tsunade, and Orochimaru. Well...not that the whole 'Sasuke's-like-Orochimaru' is a good thing. Oh well." He was rambling.
"Thanks for trying, Naruto. But really, I'm not in the mood," Sakura looked down at the ground.
Naruto sighed in exasperation, "Sakura, you're not worthless. So get over it." He was fed up with this. Who cared about that? What about him? He stomped over to her and forced her body towards his. She still wouldn't look at him. He forced her face up. "Sakura. You need to forget what happened before, and work on what will happen in the future. You have a lot of people who love you. A lot," he paused a little painfully. "...And you always have."
Sakura seemed to realize something was wrong, because she apologized right away. "I'm sorry, Naruto. I didn't mean to be rude."
"It's okay. You didn't do anything wrong. Just remember that you're not alone. And remember that I still love you," Naruto blushed and let her go. He hadn't meant to say that. He really hadn't. But he did. And now he was going to look like an idiot.
Sakura started to smile. "Really? I thought you had given up on me a long time ago."
"Uh...No..." Naruto was slowly going red.
He tried to hunch over and hide somehow, but gave up on that and just stood up. When he looked at Sakura, he saw her smiling. "Thanks Naruto. I do feel better now." She reached up and kissed him on the cheek. "But now I have to go. Sometimes you're not quite so annoying as I think you are."
Naruto stood there in shock. He was so red he didn't even know what was going on anymore. Sakura had just kissed him. Sure it was on the cheek, but she had just KISSED him! He hardly even noticed that she had grabbed his arm and was now dragging him back to the village. Who cared when Sakura had just kissed him? Only when Sakura pushed a bowl of noodles in front of him did he notice that they were in Ichiraku, and she had just bought him food. He started eating his ramen, knowing all the time that Sakura was watching him. He smiled a little while he ate. 'It just goes to show,' he thought, 'if you don't try something, you'll never know how it winds up...'
*~*
A/N: All right. So that's done. Good for me! I hope you liked it. Now you should read Solace, since they kinda go together anyway. What am I talking about? Of course they go together. Solace is just from Sakura's point of view. So anyway, keep reading my stuff, and keep reviewing it!!
-- Sakura Kaijuu