The Things You Have Under Your Nose
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and considering all the little curveballs that they have been throwing into the main story lately, I wouldn't want to.
This well be a post time skip, but pre-invasion. This well also be mainly a friendship fic, so don't expect any romance in this fic.
It has been two weeks since the annual kyubi festival and Sakura is walking towards her team's usual meeting place. She couldn't help but feel a little worried about her blond teammate because he hasn't been his happy self since before the festival when she asked if he was going to it, only to say it would be safer, mainly for his health, if he didn't. While she understood the main reason why was because of what he is carrying inside his belly, she couldn't help but feel like she forgot about something important.
Another change that has occurred was that Naruto is now dating Hinata and they were getting closer every time they meet, closer than when it was just them, while their relationship felt like it was dwindling bit by bit.
When he left, Sakura promised herself that she would always try harder to become the friend that she should have been to him when they became a team, when Sasuke was still with them. After finding out about the Kyubi, she couldn't help but feel both sad about how Naruto's life has been and guilty for adding on to it when they were younger and she was the over obsessive Sasuke fan girl. After everything that they have gone through, especially the incident where he went into his four-tails form, Sakura felt like her feelings for the blonde are conflicting with the feelings she had in the past for Sasuke.
When she arrived at the location, Sakura was frozen in place after watching Naruto and Hinata giving each other a kiss on the lips. When they separated, Hinata walked off, "I'll see you tonight for our date, Naruto." She said.
"Sure thing, and thanks again for the birthday present." Naruto said. The one thing that changes since that date was that Naruto was given a long white coat with orange flames on the bottom. While it was considered by everyone around their age or younger to be pretty cool considering how much he looked like the Fourth, for some reason it had two different sets of results on most of the adults. For the ninja, it felt like they were about to have a heart attack, Kakashi being the closet, the villagers on the other hand felt like they have been insulted and wanted to rip it off of Naruto's body while beating the tar out of him.
"Wait that was your birthday gift?" Sakura asked, when he nodded, "When was it?"
Naruto gave a small sigh, 'Shikamaru would have figured it from day one.' Ran through his head, thinking about the lazy bum of Team Asuma. "Okay, you know about me and the Kyubi right?" He asked, getting a nod as an answer, "And if the Kyubi was sealed in me when I was born, then that would be around the same time as the . . ." He cut off, making sure to see if Sakura catches on.
Sakura had her eyes squinting and her brow scrunched for a bit until her eyes flew open, "Kyubi Festival." She said in realization, "Why didn't you tell me?"
Naruto gave a small sigh, "Because I was hoping for once you can figure it out on your own." He explained, "Plus while most people have a happy birthday, my birthday is a nightmare since that just makes the villagers want to get rid of me even more."
"But why didn't you tell us earlier when we started out as a team?" Sakura asked, only to realize after the question how stupid it was, considering what the answer is.
"You know why, you never cared if I was breathing or not because you were too busy trying to be the perfect little fan girl who would rather try to get the attention of the top dog while making sure to ignore the one who truly needed it." Naruto said, "I even tried a couple of times, hoping that you would at least treat me like an equal, but you only pushed me away, both figuratively and literally, because Sasuke did it as well."
Sakura wanted to deny it, yet she knew it was the truth. Back then the only world she cared about was the one she and the other fan girls dreamed up, while ignoring the real world. "I know and every time I look back, I wish that it was one big nightmare." She said, while both are leaning over the bridge, "Like you I was picked on, but not to the extreme of what you went through. I wanted to fit in so much with everyone else, especially with the other girls, by developing a crush on Sasuke. Unfortunately it got so out of hand . . ." This time it was her turn to cut off, only this time because she was trying to decide the next set of words.
"The rest of the world has moved on without you." Naruto finished, "At least you woke up earlier than most of the villagers since they wouldn't know the truth even if it was right in front of them."
Sakura couldn't help but laugh at that statement. The y both leaned over the edge to watch the fish swimming around in the stream running below the bridge. "So how long have you and Hinata been going out?" Sakura asked.
"When we came back from our fight with Sasuke." Naruto answered. After counting from three in his head, Sakura gave her usual response when it came to unexpected answers, which was a very loud 'What!' He started rubbing the ear closet to Sakura with his pinky, "Can you be any louder. I'm not deaf yet." His hand quickly shot up to block a punch aimed at his head, "And does that have to be your answer for everything that I do?"
This time Sakura had the decency to blush at this, "I'm sorry, it's just that I'm used to attacking you for . . ." She started to say.
"No good reason at all." Naruto said, intercepting any kind of excuse. "Sakura, when it comes to one of our friends that make you mad, you either just let it go or scare them away when you blow your top. When it comes to me, you usually pound me into next week. Care to explain why that is the case?"
Sakura was about to deny the whole thing until she looked back and realized that besides pounding Rock Lee into the air for making advances towards her, she was really that bad, the worst of the fan girls involving Sasuke and her out-of-control crush on him. "I'm not sure." She started answering, "At first it was just a way to fit in with the other kids, mainly the fan girls, because of how badly I was picked on due to my forehead. Later on, when I felt the need to step out of Ino's shadow and pursue my own goal, I ended it up stuck in a fantasy world I kept reading about in my romance novels that I was too busy hoping for the whole Sasuke becoming my white ninja (white knight is overused already) coming to the rescue and the price for that was sacrificing my own training."
"Well congratulations, you finally learn something on your own." Naruto sarcastically said, showing her just how much respect he has left for her, only this time stepping aside to avoid a punch which obliterated a peace of the railing in the process, "Now you need to learn how to control that temper of yours a little better."
"Plus that damage well be coming out of your pay." Both turned to see their ever late sensei on time for a change, with a wave from one hand, as well as an eye smile, with his ever favorite book in the other, "Anyway, Naruto, I was told by the Hokage that she wanted to see you right away about something."
Naruto nodded and started to walk away. When he was near Kakashi, "By the way, why are you on time for a change?" He asked the question that was on both of their minds.
Kakashi paled a little bit at this, "That's something you don't need to know." He answered, after the memory of how he was 'persuaded' to be on time
"Well if granny threatened to make you a permanent soprano, I can understand why." Naruto said in a low whisper, before leaving.
When it was just two of them, they just gave each other in the eye(s) before somebody broke the silence.
Here is my latest story. It was originally going to be just a one-shot, also a way to warm back up into writing, so sorry. Next one will be the last one (hopefully on the author's part). Read and Review, and have a Happy Holidays.