Author's Note: Well, here it is. My first story in the Naruto fandom. I'm branching out now. Anyway, this idea is actually REALLY old. But one day in between trying to work on my other stories in between so many other life things, I remembered this story, and all the bits and pieces I had. Looking it with more skill and experience, I decided to take another stab at it. And now I finally decided to post it here.

I hope you guys like it. It may be a little deviating from canon and how things work, but that's sort of due to the age of the idea (Naruto was fairly early when I came up with this). But I hope you will forgive me. And since I have chapters one and two pretty much done, I'll be posting them at the same time.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters within it. I'm just a fan.

Chapter 1: Conversations among the Waves

Sakura wandered the house that night. Despite doing nothing more than guarding Tazuna, sleep had eluded her. Her body and mind still felt too restless. As proud as she was to have aced tree climbing two days ago, she almost wished she had done more of it today instead, if only to help her fall asleep. But Kakashi-sensei had been right in having her guard Tazuna. He was still in less than ideal shape, and Naruto and Sasuke had been busy with their own tree climbing.

Wandering inside was better than outside. The night air was too chilly for her liking. As she moved through the hallways, she passed the rooms of her teacher and teammates. She almost went past Naruto's door, when she heard a cry from inside.

She paused, and saw there was still a light under the door, faint as it was. Was Naruto still awake? She could easily believe he'd still be awake, ball of endless, annoying energy that he was. Honestly, where did he get it all?

Then again, Sakura remembered the blonde's immense love of ramen. What it severely lacked in nutrition, it made up for in a lot of calories. That was probably one good explanation, especially if you factored in his voracious appetite.

Sakura thought back to the previous evening. They'd learned of Inari's father, and Naruto had charged back out to keep training, despite already working himself to the limit during the day. He stayed out there the whole night. Thankfully, Kakashi-sensei had managed to convince Naruto to sleep here for tonight. Just barely.

Another small noise came from beyond the door, something like a yelp. Despite being far too tired to deal with his usual annoyance, Sakura chose to investigate. Considering the hazards of this fiasco of a mission, it was best to make sure Naruto wasn't doing something stupid. Well, something else stupid. Again. Really, Naruto practically had a daily quota for random acts of stupidity.

She knocked lightly. "Naruto?" She kept her voice low to avoid waking her other teammates, and anyone else in the house. When he didn't answer right away, she opened the door.

"Naruto, what are you doing?"

She found the boy dressed in his pajamas and hunched over, seeming deep in concentration as he passed a needle through his orange jacket. He looked up at her at the sound of her voice. "Oh, um, hi Sakura. What are you doing up?"

She moved closer before sitting down on the floor next to him. "I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd walk a little, and I thought I heard something in here. Now what are you up to Naruto?"

"The right sleeve of my jacket got torn, so I was just fixing it," He looked down at the jacket in his lap before messing with the needle again.

Sakura followed his gaze. "I didn't know you could sew," she said dumbly.

"Yeah, sure I can," replied the blonde, his cheeks taking on a pink hue. "I learned myself actually. You know, no parents and all to mend clothes..."

"Oh." Sakura felt a tiny stab at her heart, as if done by the little needle in Naruto's hands. Sometimes she forgot he was an orphan. "Do you need help with it?" she offered automatically.

The boy looked at her in surprise before he just gave her that easygoing grin. "Nah, I'm fine. Actually I'm pretty much done. See?"

He held up the sleeve to her, and she could see he was indeed done. But she also noticed that his repair was, well, sloppy. It was a messy, uneven bunch of stitches.

"Alright then. But I thought I heard you yelping. Are you okay?"

"Oh that," said Naruto, grin still fixed to his face. "I just pricked my fingers with the needle. Kinda happens a lot with me."

Sakura looked at his fingers, and saw several of them were red. But none of them looked punctured. He must have just grazed them with it, she decided. Even little needle wounds didn't heal that fast. "Don't you have a thimble?"

The response to her question was two slow blinks. "What's a thimble?"

"A thimble is a small covering you put on your fingers when sowing to prevent the needle from stabbing you, particularly the finger you use to push the needle," Sakura explained.

"Oh... I guess that would be nice," replied the blonde with a sheepish chuckle. "Hey, Sakura?"

"Yeah?"

"Why can't you sleep?"

"Well," it felt strange talking to Naruto like this. Usually conversations didn't go more than thirty seconds at maximum before he drove her nuts. "I just felt restless. Guess I still have too much energy to fall asleep yet."

Naruto nodded as he set aside the needle and his jacket. "Yeah, I feel that way too sometimes. But look at it this way, you're all ready when we face Zabuza again! And soon me and Sasuke will have this tree climbing down. This time all of us will take him down for good, believe it!"

"Keep your voice down Naruto, people are trying to sleep" she reprimanded.

The blonde's cheeks turned a deeper pink. "Sorry Sakura," replied Naruto as he scratched the back of his head.

Sakura let out a yawn. "I think I'm starting to wear out now. I'm going back to bed." She got to her feet and walked over to the door before looking back at her teammate. "You're not going to try anything stupid like sneak out and train, are you? Kakashi-sensei wanted you to stay in tonight."

"Nope," replied Naruto cheerily. Maybe a bit too cheerily.

"Naruto, promise me you won't do that. It's freezing out tonight. If you sleep out there in those sort of temperatures you might catch your death of cold. And it's not like you have a fur coat to protect you like some of the wild animals out there."

The boy scowled for a second, realizing she'd caught on to whatever ideas he'd had in mind. Then his expression went back to that easygoing smile. "I promise Sakura, I'll stay in here tonight."

"Good." She let out another yawn. "Goodnight Naruto."

"Goodnight."

As Sakura entered her room and lay down in the bed, she wondered what the next few days would bring. Zabuza was a dangerous opponent, not to mention the boy that had helped him escape. Naruto seemed so confident they'd win. And somehow, his confidence made her feel better about the future.

She didn't even notice when she went under.

Once again, Sakura found herself wandering the house. But unlike three days ago, her insomnia wasn't from too much energy born from lack of activity. Tonight it was the opposite. Today had been a whirlwind of activity and emotion. Today, they'd fought against Zabuza and won. Today, they'd buried him and his partner Haku. Today, she thought Sasuke had died.

And despite it all, her body refused to sleep, still wired and ready, as if another disaster was going to strike, as if the battle wasn't over. She'd tried breathing exercises, and yet she still found herself unable to sleep. So she decided to walk again. The house was dark and quiet, as it was the other time she'd done this. She stopped by her sensei's door. She knew he was asleep, exhausted from his injuries and using his Sharingan eye.

Maybe I should check on them? They were all hurt during the fight. It seemed like a good way to ease the restlessness she felt. She could hear very faint breathing on the other side of her sensei's door, but didn't bother opening it. She knew he locked it at night.

So she moved on to Sasuke's room. She opened the door and peeked in, moving the knob and door very slowly to minimize noise. Sasuke was there, passed out on the bed. His chest was covered in bandages, ones applied after the arduous task of removing all the senbon. Kakashi had given him something mild for the aching. Sakura watched the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest, glad for it. She remembered how cold and still he'd been, lying there on the bridge, when she thought he was dead.

A part of her wanted to keep looking at his handsome features, but she knew she had to stop. Her mind and body were still too out of sorts for her to feel her usual attraction to him. So she shut the door as carefully and quietly as she opened it.

She moved on to Naruto's room at the end of the hall. She reached for the knob when she saw the light under the door. He was still up? Again? That was twice now. If this happened any more times while they were here, she'd start thinking he did this on purpose.

Still, should she knock? It was one thing to check on her team when they were asleep, just for her own peace of mind. But if Naruto was awake, it would just be awkward. And, knowing him, he might take it as a sign that he should keep asking her to date him.

After weighing the pros and cons, she chose to leave him alone and continue her walk. She still didn't feel relaxed, so she would make a circuit of the house, and figure out where to go from there if she still wasn't tired enough.

"Sakura?"

The pink-haired kunoichi had only taken a few steps from the door before she turned around, hair whipping through the air as she did so. There, clad in his pyjamas, was Naruto, leaning against the doorframe. "Can't sleep again?"

"Um," she started, unsure of what to say. This was the sort of thing she'd wanted to avoid. "Yeah. I thought I'd try walking again."

Naruto just nodded. "Me either. So, uh, why were you stopped outside my door?"

"What do you mean? I wasn't standing outside your door," she answered hurriedly, struggling to keep her voice down.

"You were," replied the blonde plainly. "I heard your footsteps outside. You were moving, and then you stopped. I'm not mad Sakura. I was just wondering, did you want to ask me something?"

"Um..." She didn't know whether to just flat out tell him she wanted to check on him or not. Inner Sakura screamed to just deny it and clock him upside the head. But Sakura knew that Naruto would probably make too much noise if she did that. Finally, she just caved in. "I was just wondering if you, Kakashi-sensei, and Sasuke were still okay, I mean with the injuries and all."

"Really?" Naruto looked at her in surprise, before he moved from the doorway and sat on his bed. "Sure Sakura! I'm fine. Okay, a little sore in some places, but that will probably be gone by morning. But I heal fast, so don't worry about it."

Sakura moved closer, tilting her body against the doorframe. She wasn't sure what else to do. Naruto healed fast? She supposed that made sense. His hand wound did seem to be in better shape than she would have thought. And even when they were patching up his senbon injuries, they seemed to be in fairly good shape compared to Sasuke.

"Are Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei okay, though?"

Sakura was shaken from her thoughts. "Oh. Yeah, they seem fine. Kakashi-sensei's door is locked, but I heard him breathing through the door. It sounded normal. And Sasuke seemed normal when I looked in and-" she froze, realizing she admitted she'd peaked into Sasuke's room. Her face turned red. "Please don't tell anyone I said that!"

To her surprise, Naruto didn't tease her. He just laughed lightly. "I won't Sakura, I promise. I think I might have done the same thing, check on my teammates I mean."

"Really?"

Now it was Naruto's turn to blush, shades of pink appearing under those strange whisker-like marks on his cheeks. "So, Sakura, do you think you'll be able to sleep now? I mean, now that you know we're fine" he said quickly, clearly trying to change the subject.

Sakura wanted to just say yes, but she stopped herself. "I'm...not sure" she finally admitted. "I still don't feel relaxed enough to fall asleep."

"You think maybe it was the fight? That's kinda why I can't sleep. I mean, the thing with Haku and Zabuza was sad, really sad. But we just saved a nation!" Naruto bounced once on the bed, but remembered to control his volume.

"Yeah, I guess I'm still wound up from everything that happened." She went into the room and sat down in one of the vacant chairs. "For a short while, I thought Sasuke was dead..."

"Me too," said Naruto. Suddenly, his face split into a grin. "But the important thing is that he's not dead Sakura. We should be happy."

"Yeah..." She looked at the boy again, remembering the numerous bandages that were under his pyjamas, ones covering all the open senbon holes. She flashed back to Sasuke, equally covered in bandages, and the haggard look Kakashi had at the end of the fight. They'd barely had the energy for much more after burying Zabuza and Haku.

"I..." she whispered, realization dawned on her. "I was so pathetic, wasn't I?"

And she was. She realized now, the feeling that was still racing through her mind. It was a sense of shame and guilt.

"What? Sakura, you weren't pathetic."

"Yes I was," she muttered. "You and Sasuke fought Haku, and Kakashi-sensei took on Zabuza. All I did was stand by Tazuna. I didn't do anything. All three of you got all beat up and injured while I don't have a mark on me, and that's only because I didn't try. I haven't done anything. I'm a pathetic ninja." She could feel tears sting her green eyes.

"Hey," replied Naruto softly. "Listen Sakura, you're not pathetic. Somebody had to guard Old Man Tazuna in case something happened. That was really important. So what if nothing happened? It could have. And if anybody ever tells you you're a pathetic ninja, don't you ever listen to them."

She looked up at him, not even caring that she was on the verge of tears and confessing to Naruto of all people. Maybe it was something about the darkness of the night, or the solitary nature of the room, lit as it was by the single candle on a nearby table. "Really?"

"Believe it," said Naruto with one of the biggest grin's she'd seen from him, and one of the kindest. "Don't forget, you've got awesome chakra control. Me and Sasuke had to struggle to get all the way to the top of those trees. It took us days. But you? You did it on the first try. It took you like a couple minutes. I think that's incredible. And you're so smart Sakura. I think that you are and will be a really great ninja."

Her cheeks felt warm from his praise. She took a hand and wiped one of the tears forming in her eyes. "Thank you Naruto."

"No problem."

Sakura stretched her arms, and pushed a long lock of her pink hair behind her ear, before looking out the window at the dark evening sky. "It will be good to be back in Konoha," she said idly. "I miss the warmer weather, and..." she eyed the streams of fog close to the ground and chuckled, "I think I can safely say that all of us have probably had our fill of mist for a while."

Naruto laughed. "Definitely Sakura, believe it."

She laughed with him, before her eyelids felt heavy. She got up from the chair and stretched again. "I'm going to sleep now. You should too Naruto."

"Right," said the blonde as he scooted toward the headboard to pull back the blankets. "See you in the morning Sakura. Pleasant dreams."

"You too Naruto, you too."

Sakura walked down the forested road with her team, still happy for the return of sunny weather, free of the Land of Waves and the sudden rain clouds that formed when they had left. It was March 15th. Tomorrow, they would arrive back home.

We left on the 12th, we should have gotten home today! raged Inner Sakura.

That was true. They'd been delayed not far out from the Land of Waves by Naruto misplacing a ramen coupon. By the time he and Sasuke had returned, she and Kakashi-sensei had set up camp. But the trip wasn't a total waste. While Naruto still lost his coupon, the two did manage to help round up lingering members of Gato's thugs. Naruto had regaled her and Kakashi with the entire adventure, with Sasuke interrupting at intervals to correct the blonde's exaggerations. This had led to more arguing, which Kakashi was quick to stop.

"I wish you were there Sakura!" Naruto had exclaimed. "It was so awesome, taking down those thugs. And Inari was awesome too, believe it!"

Part of her did wish she'd come along. It would certainly have been more exciting than waiting for hours. Still, with the good that came out of the delay, Sakura couldn't really stay mad at Naruto's antics. Neither could Kakashi for that matter. He congratulated both boys on their efforts when they finished telling the story.

She longed to sleep in her own bed again. The ones in the Land of Waves had been nice, but it just wasn't the same. And other things would be waiting for her at home, in time at least. She had plans to make. A bird started chirping in a nearby tree, and, lost in her thoughts, Sakura's face split into a beaming smile.

Just then, Naruto moved back so he was even with her. "What are you so happy about Sakura?"

She glanced at her loud teammate. "Just happy that we're almost home."

Naruto considered that for a moment, and then gave her a wry grin of his own. "I think it's more than that."

"Well, if you must know," she moved closer to whisper. "My birthday is this month."

"Really?!"

"Shh," said Sakura, seeing Kakashi and Sasuke turn back to glance at them for a second. "Yes, really. It's the 28th."

"But why don't you want the others to know Sakura?" Naruto whispered with disappointment.

"I just don't want to shout it out loud, that's all. I don't want them to think I'm just hunting for gifts or something." And she didn't. It was sort of weird to just scream your 13th birthday was fast approaching. Kakashi probably knew her birthday. He'd have been given their academy files after all. Though now that Sakura thought about it, that didn't necessarily mean he remembered. And she planned to inform Sasuke in a more gentle way when she got to talk to him next.

"Oh, I get it," whispered Naruto. "Do you mind if I get you a gift?"

Sakura almost stopped in mid-step before she corrected herself. "What?"

"Do you mind if I get you a birthday present?" Naruto repeated.

"I..." Truthfully, the idea hadn't crossed her mind. She expected gifts from her parents of course, and maybe Ino (she didn't discount the possibility of an exception being made for their usual feud). She thought it possible Kakashi might do something nice, or nicer anyway. And she'd hoped Sasuke might do something. But Naruto?

That's not a good idea! screamed Inner Sakura. It would encourage him to keep asking you out! He'll do something stupid.

But then again, Naruto had been comforting to her on those nights in Wave. He looked at her now with such a hopeful, earnest expression. Really, what could happen?

"I guess not."

"Alright! Just you wait Sakura, I'll find something nice for you, believe it!" Suddenly, his stomach gave a loud growl. He put his hand over it. "Man I'm hungry. I can't wait to get back to Ichiraku Ramen." Naruto's face fell. "Too bad I lost the coupon."

To her surprise, Sakura felt her own mouth forming into a frown at Naruto's expression. "Didn't you say the owner gave that to you?"

"Yeah. He and his daughter run the place. They're both nice. I go there all the time."

"Well," Sakura said thoughtfully, "If he was the one that gave it to you, then maybe you could just tell him you lost it and he'll believe you. I mean, they might, if they know you that well and all. And besides, if he gave it to you that means he still expected you to use it."

In an instant, Naruto's face brightened with the energy of a star. "You really think so?"

Sakura just shrugged her shoulders. "It's possible. You've got nothing to lose by asking."

Naruto let out a loud, triumphant cheer, and Sakura actually had to suppress laughter. You know, maybe he's not as much of a pain as I thought...

"Alright! Let's rush back so I can get my free bowl from Ichiraku Ramen! Come on Sakura, let's go!" He quickly grabbed her arm and started to run.

"Hey, Naruto, slow down. You don't need to pull me. Watch where you're-" Sakura couldn't protest any further. Being pulled along as quickly as she was by the boy, she ended up tripping on rock, and landed face first into the ground, right in one of the number of mud puddles she'd been avoiding.

Kakashi and Sasuke had stopped to look back at the two of them. Naruto had let go of her arm now. He stood there, frozen in place. "S-Sakura? I'm so sorry Sakura! I didn't mean to do that."

Slowly, she pushed herself up, and leveled her gaze with Naruto. The boy stiffened before taking a large step back.

"Uh, Sakura..."

She got to her feet, and spit out the piece of mud that had been in her mouth. Her red dress was covered in mud, as were her pink locks. She gave the orange-clad boy a glare of such intensity it would have melted kunai in midair.

Naruto..." she growled, stretching every syllable.

"Uh," Naruto's face was dripping in sweat now. "I think I'll go ahead..."

"YOU CLUMSY IDIOT! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, I'LL..."

"I'm sorry Sakura!" cried the boy as he bolted far ahead of his team. Sakura stayed right on his tail, her face a visage of pure rage.

"NARUTO, GET BACK HERE!"

If she'd been within earshot, she might have heard Kakashi mutter something about his team's sanity.

Sakura was humming a favorite song as she walked along toward the training ground. She didn't even care all that much that she had training that day. It was her birthday. She was thirteen now. Her parents had already wished her happy birthday, but had held off on giving her gifts until later today. But she was fine with that. She had to get up for training anyway, so she didn't have a lot of time to burn.

She did however decide to sleep a little later today. She knew her teacher would be late, so she could afford to be a little later herself.

By the time she got there, Sasuke was already waiting under the shade of a tree, leaning against a trunk, eyes closed. When she arrived, he opened one eye. "You're late."

She was in such a good mood, his flat tone didn't even bother her. "Am I really? Kakashi-sensei is always late, and he's not even here yet."

Sasuke seemed to ponder that for a second before giving his usual "Hn".

Sakura's shoulders slumped a little. But she refused to let her good mood be ruined. "So, Sasuke," she opened tentatively, "Is there something else you wanted to say to me today?"

He opened one of his eyes again to stare at her in annoyance, before shutting it again. "No." Then he moved further across the training ground.

This time Sakura's shoulders slumped completely. So much for that...

Sakura sat down under another one of the trees for a half hour. All the while, she tried to keep her thoughts positive, focusing on the contents of favorite books from the Konoha Library.

Finally, there was a burst of smoke, and when it cleared, Kakashi was sitting on a stump. "Yo."

"Kakashi-sensei, you're-" Sakura was about to say reflexively, when another voice cut her off.

"Hi Sakura!" came a yell.

Sakura looked over to see Naruto running towards them. He had one of the biggest grins of his face she'd ever seen.

"Ah, there you are Naruto," said Kakashi casually.

"You're late you moron," said Sasuke, walking over toward their sensei.

"Well Kakashi-sensei got here at the same time," he retorted. Naruto practically bounded next to Sakura. "Happy birthday Sakura!"

She beamed back at the boy, not even bothered by his lack of volume control this time. "Thank you Naruto."

Kakashi looked at her with mild interest. "Oh, today's your birthday Sakura? Well, happy birthday."

"Hey, Sasuke, aren't you going to wish Sakura a happy birthday too?" asked Naruto, looking at the Uchiha boy.

Sasuke just glared and turned his head away. "Hn."

Her shoulders slumped again. Naruto seemed to notice this, and turned back to Sasuke with narrowed eyes. "Hey, you jerk! She's our teammate! You could at least wish her a happy birthday for crying out loud. I did that, and Kakashi-sensei did that. If it was your birthday today and I just found out, I'd still say that to you even though you're a giant jerk. Actually, no, you're not a jerk, you're a rude jerk. I know you can talk. How hard can it be to just be nice and say three little words?!"

"Naruto..." she whispered, touched at how he came to her defense.

Sasuke, meanwhile, stared at Naruto for a few seconds before muttering "Happy birthday Sakura."

It wasn't the nicest sounding, in fact it sounded very forced, but Sakura took what she could get. "Thank you Sasuke."

"Oh, Sakura, I have a present for you," cried Naruto. "I had a shadow clone bring it. Let me go get it." The boy then took off to a patch of trees at the edge of the field.

"Really?" He'd really gotten a gift for her?

"Shouldn't we start training?" grumbled Sasuke in annoyance.

"Oh, I think it's okay to wait a little bit," replied Kakashi, his eye crinkling.

When Naruto returned, he was carrying a sizable rectangular box covered in rather cheap and dull looking pink wrapping paper, and tied with a very sloppy looking bow. "Here you go Sakura."

Sakura didn't waste any time opening it. What she found was... a potted plant. A sort of large potted shrub about a few feet tall with bunches of three leaves and buds that would no doubt turn into flowers. It was a weird sort of gift, but it wasn't bad, and it certainly wasn't ugly. Naruto was looking at her with expectant eyes. She smiled at him again. "It's very nice Naruto. Thank you very much."

Naruto blushed, unused to being thanked. "Y-You're welcome Sakura. I water plants all the time and I thought maybe you'd like one. I mean it's a lot bigger than mine but it's not too big."

Sakura laughed. "Right." As she fingered the leaves, some little, logical part of her brain nagged at her that there was something familiar about this plant. But for the life of her, she couldn't think of what. Maybe she'd seen this sort around the village somewhere?

Oddly, Sasuke was looking at it with interest. Was he actually jealous? Well, if something like this managed to finally draw his attention towards her, then it would be one of the best presents she'd ever gotten.

"Sakura..." Sasuke started.

"Yes Sasuke?" she said with a blush. She felt her heart beat faster. What was he going to say? Was this the opening to his affection she'd been hoping for?

"Is..." he continued, tilting his head.

"Yes?" Her heart was beating even faster now. It would burst from her chest at this rate.

"Isn't that..."

"Isn't that poison ivy?" interjected Kakashi.

"Huh?" Sakura's brain froze while she looked at the plant again. Memories of academy classes on survival flashed through her brain. Poison ivy: can be a vine or a shrub, identified by leaves in bunches of three. Contains the oil urushiol which it uses to retain water. The oil causes an allergic reaction on human skin. Her gaze moved and dully noted that her hands were still in contact with the surface of the plant.

Like lighting, the dots connected in her head. Urushiol. She had urushiol on her hands right now! She screamed, dropping the pot to the ground like it were a hot coal, only for Naruto to catch it, and then she ran off. She needed to find a source of cold water, fast!

As Sakura ran off, Sasuke turned to glare at the blonde. "You idiot, why did you give her poison ivy?!"

"Well I-" Naruto stammered,

"You know what? Never mind. I don't want to know."

Kakashi looked down at the boy with disappointment. "Naruto, if this was one of your pranks, you should know better than to prank someone like that on their birthday. And besides that, a poison ivy rash isn't funny."

"But-"

The copy ninja let out a heavy sigh. "I'd better go see if Sakura needs help cleaning her hands."

"So is training cancelled for today?" asked Sasuke.

"Quite possibly. I'll let you know." With that, Kakashi was gone in a whirl of leaves.

"You're such a loser," said the Uchiha as he stalked back over to the other side of the training ground.

Naruto just looked between Sasuke and where Sakura had gone off to, and then back to the shrub. "But I wasn't playing a joke..." he muttered.