Reading
It was a hot day in Konoha, and as no one in their team was on a mission, except for Yamato, members of team 7 were gathered for training. Because of the heat, they finished their training earlier than usual, but, instead of going to their separate ways, each member was resting under the shadows of trees. It was silent, but everybody seemed to be comfortable with it.
Except Naruto.
He was bored as hell. He wanted to talk to Sakura-chan and the others, but everybody was too busy with reading a damn book!
In his right, Kakashi-sensei was sitting with his nose buried in one of ero-sennin's books, which is normal for Kakashi-sensei. Naruto looked at Sai who was reading a romance novel that was given him by Kakashi-sensei. Kakashi-sensei had told Sai that he would understand the females better if he reads that book. Naruto guessed that it wasn't so perverted as ero-sennin's books.
Then Naruto's eyes landed on the person he wanted to talk to most and listen to her beautiful voice. She was holding a thick book in her hands. It was a medical book. Her green eyes were following the lines. It was obvious that she didn't want to be disturbed, but still Naruto tried his chance.
"Sakura-chan?"
"What is it Naruto?" she asked without even looking at him.
"Ano- I was wondering that if you wanted to go to Ichiraku's with me?"
She released an annoyed sound. "I don't want to eat anything hot right now." Before Naruto could reply she added "And I want to read this book."
Then with little hope he turned to his other teammates. "Oy Kakashi-sensei, Sai what about you?"
They shook their heads no, while reading. Even though he hated reading, now Naruto thought that he really should start it.
"Okay. Now, we should find out what kind of books you would like to read." Sakura was smiling at him while sitting on her bed. She was glad that Naruto decided to start reading books. He had come to her house and asked for her help.
"I know that I don't enjoy ero-sennin's books."
"Good. Because even if you liked them, I wouldn't let you read that kind of stuff."
"Maybe I should read books to understand people, just like Sai does." Why not? It might be useful for him to understand people like Hinata. He always found her a little bit weird.
"I hate to admit, but you are really good at connecting with people and socializing even if you don't understand them," said Sakura. "But I won't even suggest you to read a scientific book," she glanced at her bookcase, which was full of thick medical books.
"Ha ha, that's very convenient because I wouldn't want to read those either." Naruto was scratching the back of his head nervously.
"Baka!"
"Not everyone is as smart as you, Sakura-chan." Sakura blushed cutely at his remark but continued to frown at him.
"I think you should start with reading classics. There are a lot of novels that might interest you and make you want to read even more."
"I would love that." No. Naruto wouldn't want that. Classics sounded so boring to him, but he didn't want to make Sakura-chan angry.
"Great!" A big smile appeared on Sakura's face. She was happy to help her friend. "I am not that knowledgeable in classics, but I can make you a list if you want."
"Aaa… Thanks, but no thanks." He would love to spend some more time with her, but he could imagine how many pages the books Sakura-chan might suggest her, and he felt overwhelmed just thinking about it. "I think I'll just visit the bookstore, and see what I like."
"Well, if you say so."
After the training, members of team Kakashi was laying on the grass and reading their respective books. Sakura saw that Naruto was pulling a book from his backpack. She was really happy that he really brought a book with him. She returned to her own book not to disturb anyone.
Once comfortable with his position, Naruto opened his book and began reading.
Kakashi and Sai kept on reading their own without paying any attention to Naruto, but Sakura couldn't keep still.
"Hey Naruto, what are you reading?"
Naruto turned his head and raised his book to show it to her.
The first thing that made the smile on Sakura's face disappear was the size of the book. It was thin. Really thin. And then how colourful it was.
She read the name of the book. My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza.
"Narutooooo! That's a children's book!"
"Well, the other things seemed too advanced for me, so I decided to start from the bottom."
And the bottom was where he ended as Sakura's punch sent him 6 feet under the ground.
When Yamato returned from his mission, he learned that Naruto was injured and resting at home. He felt sad for him as being alone in the house with nothing to do might be boring for Naruto, so before visiting Naruto he stopped at the bookstore to buy a book for him to keep him busy.