I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

Still Waters

He liked the placid coolness beneath his bare feet. It was like standing over an icepack, just not quite touching it. It was surreal and calming. A small fish swam by, wandering close to Naruto's foot before the disturbance from his chakra herded it away. He smiled and dipped a toe into the water. The chill slinked up his calf and reminded Naruto of the temperature. It was a hot day. The sun's warmth felt nice on his back, though. He'd made a good decision leaving his shirt behind.

And, well, there was also a second objective. Naruto looked over to the bank of the stream where Sakura was feeding wood to their campfire. He noticed her eyes wandering in his direction every now and then, and he deliberately flexed his arms back as he yawned. The sculpted muscles in his back beckoned. Heh, now she was definitely looking.

She even straightened and turned her head to smile at him. "Are you tired, Naruto?"

"Just a little bit," he grinned. "You want to give me a massage? My shoulders – ack!"

A kunai whizzed past his face, barely sparing his nose, and thudded into the trunk of the tree behind him. The brief surprise was enough to toss his chakra control out the window, and Naruto flailed comically before going down with a splash – music to Sakura's ears.

The stream was not very deep, and Naruto soon surfaced again, spitting a fountain of water from his lips. "Mou, Sakura-chan, that's not nice," he complained indignantly. "Now my pants are all wet."

"Well, you said you were tired. I was just doing your job for you," Sakura replied sweetly. "Oh wait, I'm sorry, I must have mistaken you for a fish. Catching a couple for dinner in waters filled with them must be harder than I thought."

Naruto shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. "You're mean, Sakura-chan," he whined finally.

She tossed a pointed look at him over her shoulder. "Go. You know we have to get to River Country by midday tomorrow." Her tone left no space for argument, and as she sat down to read over the scroll containing their mission details once more, Naruto saw a frown crease her brow.

"You're getting very good at that," he told her.

"Good at what?"

"Frowning."

She threw his shirt at him. It landed half a metre short of the water. "Shut up."

"Hey, watch it! If that gets wet I'll be sleeping without any clothes on." Naruto leaned over and rested his arms on the bank, watching her. He knew the reason for her stress. After painstaking effort and countless difficult decisions, Konoha was going through the process of reconstruction, and they were short on everything; resources, money, construction workers, even civilians.

Naruto winced at the memory of the devastating carnage. To this day, he still wondered if it was his fault. But he had spent too long thinking about it, and Shikamaru had already convinced him that not even he could fix everything just by lamenting over it. That was why he and Sakura were travelling to River Country, hoping to pull in some favours the other land had owed to the prosperous village once known as the Leaf.

And that was why he was standing in the water, drenched, with Sakura lifting her eyes to look into his. "You're thinking, aren't you?"

"A bit." Naruto laid out his arms and floated on his back, gazing up at the thick canopy of leaves above him. "Walking on water reminds me of the old pervert. It's how I met him." He chuckled. "He was peeking at the ladies again." Pause. "It also reminds me of Sasuke."

A twig snapped. Sakura must have been poking at the flames.

"Do you remember how we learned how to climb trees together? That was one of the first times I realised that as much of a bastard as he was, Sasuke was actually good for me. He just kept pushing me to stronger heights… but then I had to learn water-walking by myself." He lifted up a hand. Water trickled down his palm and shivered before falling in drops. "Maybe we had already started to walk our own paths. It's impossible to tell, ne?"

Sakura's face wavered into view. She stared down at him for a while – he couldn't tell if she was smiling or not. Then she extended a hand down to him. "Come on, Naruto," she said. "You know you're not alone."

"I know." He grasped her hand. Their fingers locked together like melded grooves. That was when his lips twisted into a grin. "So I guess you won't mind if I did this!"

Oldest trick in the book. He pulled her into the water.

"You jerk!" she sputtered. He had cushioned her with his own body but she got wet regardless. Just to be on the safe side, Naruto wrapped his arms around her and let them sink to the bottom.

It was nice and cool, and to be honest, having Sakura pressed against him was a welcome bonus. Naruto dully regarded the dithering strokes of light above them. It was a wonderful reprieve from the anxiety and distress that had been crushing him these past months. He wondered how long he would be able to stay here. It seemed like nothing mattered in the water's flowing embrace.

He had lost so much in such a short amount of time. He had left with promise, but all that had awaited him was a gouged crater where his home had once been. It had been so sudden… who knew, the world might end when they surfaced. He might as well make the most of it then.

He pressed his lips against Sakura's.

It was only a fleeting second but even so, Sakura's eyes widened in surprise. She was protesting as soon as there was oxygen in her lungs again. That took a little longer than she had expected.

"You did promise me a date," Naruto reminded her. His smile was bright.

"You – I… you were about to die on me!"

"Was not." He swept the wet bangs from her face. "You promised you would go out with me if I survived. And I did."

"Naruto, we're on a mission and I don't…" Her voice trailed off when she saw Naruto's pout. "We're not going to have dinner anytime soon, are we?" she sighed, though the corner of her mouth was quirking into a small smile.

"Nope," he answered with a grin.

"Thought so."

"Mmhmm." After a while, Naruto's eyes flicked up to meet hers. "By the way…"

His tone immediately made her wary.

His wide smile only fed the suspicion. "Am I supposed to tell you that your shirt is white?"