Author's Note: Be kind, this is my first fan fic in a very very long time. It will be sasusaku eventually, just bear with me. I hope this story is original and that it is as intriguing for the reader as it seems to be in my head.
Also, I do not now nor have I ever owned Naruto or any of its characters.
The NPC
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Sakura Haruno glared at the clock. 12:08am… Maybe if she was really quiet, he'd go away.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
SAAAAKKURRAAAA!
Sakura grumbled to herself as she hauled her ass out of bed. She was going to strangle the blonde banging on her door and then her roommate for letting the idiot in.
She opened the door to her bedroom and glared at one Naruto Uzumaki. Her roommate, Tenten, seemed to have wisely barricaded herself in her own room of their shared apartment. "Whatttt?" Sakura hissed at the grinning manchild as he bounced with his hands behind his back.
"HAPPPYYYYYYY BIRTHDDDAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!" Naruto yelled. The pink haired girl, blearily looked at the calendar. Sure enough. Her hellacious Friday of labs followed by a 9 hour shift at the hospital had indeed been March 22nd. She wasn't sure how she'd missed that. Sakura unclenched the fist she been unconsciously forming as shed opened the door and let out a slow breath.
"Naruto…. We go through this every year… When the birthday girl is asleep…." Sakura began, her eyes still half closed.
"We let the goddess sleep." Naruto dutifully finished. "But this year is special!" He increased his volume once more and Sakura contemplated shutting her door in his face. However, she knew from experience that shutting him out before he was finished would only increase his noise.
"Okay, I'll bite… whyyyyy is this year special?"
"You're 20! The big Two Oh!" Naruto's grin spread even wider. Sakura rolled her eyes. Her friend meant well. But really, all she wanted to do was sleep. Was that really too much to ask for? Seriously, some quiet would be the best birthday present ever.
"Again," Sakura sighed, "why does that make waking the goddess up okay?"
Naruto had the grace to at least look a little repentant. "Well it's tradition." He shuffled from foot to foot. "Would it help if I have a present?" Sakura perked up a little.
"Maybe, it depends on the present."
"Oh, well, I don't have one with me…" Naruto laughed and scratched the back of his head. "But we can go get it! It's really super awesome! Believe it!" He reached for Sakura's wrist ready to drag his friend and birthday girl on a spectacular birthday adventure. Unfortunately for him, Sakura was less than amused. The blood vessel she'd been managing to control throughout this entire conversation finally burst.
"What the hell?! If you don't have a present with you, WHY would you say so?!" She ground out, her goodwill completely used up for the day.
The blond shrugged, "C'mon, Sakura! I'm just trying to bring birthday cheer."
"Well, bring me some cheer in about 10 hours." Sakura in turn grabbed his wrist and began hauling Naruto to their apartment's door.
"But Sakura-chan-" Naruto whined using her childhood nickname.
"No!" Sakura shoved him through the door. "No buts! You have awoken the goddess and failed to bring her proper tribute! You will feel my wrath!" And with that she slammed the door and quickly locked it.
Sakura heard muffled laughter from behind her roommate's bedroom door. "Wrath! Wrath to you too, Tenten!" she yelled before heading back to her room for what had better be nine hours of blissful and uninterrupted sleep.
~9.45 Hours Later~
Sakura woke up to quiet. Glorious, quiet. Best yet, it was Saturday and she could wallow in it. Sure she had homework, but there were no rounds today and she could always finish whatever work she put off today on Sunday. She was going to relax for her birthday goddamnit.
She went through her morning routine drawing out her shower and relishing the feel of the hot water on her sore back and legs. Wearing those heels to impress the cute new resident Dr. Nobutoshi had been a stupid plan in hindsight.
Sakura was almost through getting dressed when Tenten knocked on the bathroom door to let her know that it was 10:08 and Naruto was here. She had to hand it to him. Sakura honestly hadn't expected Naruto to be able to last the full 10 hours to wait to give her her super awesome present whatever it was.
She left her pink hair hanging wet around her shoulders and headed towards the kitchen where Naruto, fearing her promised wrath was wisely waiting. She smiled to herself. Naruto hated when girls took a long time to get ready. This was going to be fun. "Hey, Naruto! Almost done!" Sakura waved and kept going before he could say anything. She was going to enjoy this.
Sakura, slowly, very slowly, think slug pace, brushed out her hair. She did a few turns in front of the mirror and grinned. Yep, she needed to find a new outfit. In other words, she needed to try everything in her closet on. And she needed to do it at least twice.
Halfway through the first set of drawers, Naruto knocked on her door. "Sakura, are you ready yet?"
"No, not yet. Just a few more minutes." Sakura replied.
Just as she was finishing the drawers, Naruto knocked again, a little louder this time. Sakura smiled. She was getting to him. "Sakura-channnn come on! I'm hungry!"
"Almost do-one." Sakura sing-songed in reply
A few pairs of pants into the closet, BANG, BANG, BANG! Sakura choked on a laugh as Naruto yelled. "I'm gonna leave without you!"
"No you're not!" She yelled back. "I'm the birthday goddess remember!"
"Damn it."
She was almost through with her closet when a softer knock came to her door. "Hey, Sak" It was Tenten. "Did you know, Naruto is melting on our floor?"
"Yep." Sakura opened the door feeling very good about her outfit and it was only 10:56. She probably could have made him suffer longer but decided since he had a present they were even.
Sakura smiled at Tenten, and said, "Don't worry, I won't forget about you." Then she turned and headed towards the puddle of blond in the kitchen. Tenten shuddered and followed after her friend slightly regretting the previous night.
~At Ichiraku~
It hadn't taken very long to scrape Naruto off the floor, especially after Sakura had mentioned the word ramen.
The majority of the gang from Kohona University had made it out for Sakura's birthday lunch. Ino and Hinata had managed to drag along Shikamaru, Neji, and Kiba (who had another stray puppy stuffed in is jacket). Choji and Lee had been easy to convince. Choji for the food and friends, and Lee for Sakura.
After stuffing their faces the gang settled in to watch Sakura open presents. She really hadn't wanted anything but that never stopped them from getting them for her anyways. Besides, she always got a kick out of what they picked for her.
She reached for the bright orange box first, "NOOOO! Save mine for last! It's the best!" Naruto insisted. Sakura rolled her eyes and reached for a pink box instead. She opened the card, it was from Lee. Sakura mentally prepared herself for what was possibly in the box, last year Lee had made her a sweater that said "Kohona's Cherry Blossom Blooms Forever." It was a sweet gesture but she never wore it in public.
Sakura pasted a smile on her face and opened the box. Quickly the pasted on smile turned into a real one. Lee had done well this year. He'd gotten her a lab coat with her name, just her name, embroidered on it. "Thank you, Lee!"
"You are most welcome, beautiful Sakura! May your youth never fade and the smile on your face always shine as radiantly as the sun, may you always-"
"Lee, she gets it." Tenten interrupted handing Sakura her present next. Tenten had gotten her a new laptop case that she'd been needing. Sakura hugged her friend and opened the joint gift from Hinata and Ino. It was a stethoscope. A bright green stethoscope. Oddly enough, Sakura loved it!
"You guys are awesome!" Sakura gushed.
"Well, actually." Hinata spoke up. "It was Neji's idea."
"The stethoscope, not the green." Neji clarified.
"The fun pop of color was my idea!" Ino rolled her eyes, "You guys couldn't come up with anything fun so I had to jazz it up some how!"
Choji, Kiba, and Shikamaru offered to pay for everyone's meal and all that was left was Naruto's bright orange box.
"You guys are going to be blown away." He gloated crossing his arms and nodding in satisfaction. Sakura raised an eyebrow amused at Naruto's conviction.
"Go on! Open it! Open it!."
Sakura opened the present. It was a… video game.
"Legends of the Leaf?" Sakura asked aloud. "What's this?"
"You haven't heard of the Legends of the Leaf?" Naruto's eyes widened in disbelief. "It's only one of the most awesome ninja RPG's out there!"
"RPWhat?" Ino asked, eyeing the box in Sakura's hands uncertainly.
"RPG- it stands for Role Playing Game." Shikamaru answered. Sakura swore she could have heard him say "Troublesome." Under his breath.
"Soooo…." Ino prompted.
"So you get to be a ninja and kick ass that's what!" Naruto said emphatically. "Only, I'm going to be the number one ninja on the server! I've got a copy too! So we can play together. Wadda ya say Sakura-chan?"
Sakura looked over the box once more. There was this weird swirly logo with a point on one end and a stick tail thingy. Was it supposed to be a leaf? She wasn't big into video games.
Naruto saw her hesitation and immediately started his campaign to convince her to play with him. "The symbol on the front is a Leaf and when you log in you go through basic training at the Academy, which is really like any other videogame's tutorial mode. You can play in single player or two player mode. It's a lot of fun! We should play together! Kaledescope did a really good job of setting up different levels of ninja skills to unlock, there's Genin, Chunin, Jonin, Anbu…."
Naruto kept going on and on and Sakura decided it would probably be wise to just play with him for an afternoon. She wasn't planning on studying or doing anything productive today anyway.
"Naruto." Sakura interrupted his soliloquy. "If I agree to play with you this afternoon, will you stop talking about it now?"
"Sure Sakura! It's you're birthday afterall!" The blond grinned, having achieved exactly what he was after.
Sakura laughed and stood to thank everyone for coming. She was glad that her friends didn't expect her to go out and party hard for her birthday. She knew that Dr. Senju would be disappointed in her. Tsunade, her mentor at the hospital, was notorious for her wild nights out and had slipped Sakura a bottle of plum wine before she'd left work yesterday. But really, with all the chaos that was her daily life. A chill night in was just what she wanted.
Ino, Hinata, and Tenten had insisted on a movie night to celebrate Sakura's birthday and headed over to Ino's dorm to plot while Sakura and Naruto tried out the videogame.
"Sweet Sakura, I cannot join you and Naruto on your road to discovering your inner ninja. I promised Coach Gai that I'd help clean the stadium before the track meet." Lee said with a slight bow before heading his own way. The other guys, pretended not to know him and waved as they went their separate ways.
Back in her apartment. Sakura put away her other presents and left Naruto to break into her game for her. She left her laptop with him so he could install it and went into her room to change back into her comfy clothes.
She walked back in and reveled in the dismay on Naruto's face.
"WHYYY! Why'd you make me wait so long just to change back in to your jammies an hour laterrrrr?!" Naruto cried.
"Behold my wrath!" Sakura grinned. "Now, shall we begin?"
"YES!" Naruto clicked to the opening screen.
I hurry as if I'm being chased,
My dried chest drives me to do so
Doing it for no one else, and it belongs to no one
Our now is…
Untie the pain, untie the heart, and untie the shadow
Hold your breath and cut through the darkness
Fighting and loving another…
… Will never end On the way
I want ROCKS, ROCKS to the chest.
(ROCKS- from the first Naruto Opening… no, I don't own it)
"Bahahahahahaha, ROCKS to the chest?! What the heck?"
"Sakuraaaa, just playyyy."