Prologue
It was after all of the pain.
After the village was rebuilt, after happiness was restored, and peace embraced Konoha.
After Sakura had called the Uzumaki's name, after Naruto returned and saved the day.
After everything.
"Hey Naruto! Don't eat the whole stand!"
It was a normal day in heir peaceful village. Naruto Uzumaki looked up from his ramen bowl, noodles still trailing down his mouth. He turned around to see his female teammate walking towards him with a smile.
"Fafuwa-cham!" The young man cried, mouth full of noodles.
It was at Konoha's favorite ramen stand, Ichiraku. Sakura Haruno entered the shop and sat down next to Naruto and his seven empty bowls.
"Naruto didn't I tell you to swallow before talking?"
The blonde obliged and replied, "But wouldn't you rather I want to say your name more than I want to eat?"
She giggled and kissed him on the cheek.
"Not when your noodles come out too."
He grinned and then returned to finishing his meal.
At that moment two jounin entered and sat down.
While deciding what to order, one of them, a brunette with spiky hair, noticed Sakura.
"Oi. Isn't that the girl who was in love with the Uchiha?"
His friend looked up as well and whispered, "Yeah. The one with pink hair right? It's kinda sad, 'cause he left and all."
"Yeah…but did you hear about her problem with-"
"Here's your order!"
They ended their conversation to take their meals and start eating.
Unfortunatelay, the subject of their talk had listened in.
"Naruto?" she asked, putting her hand on his shoulder.
"Hm?" he replied, slurping up the noodles of his eighth bowl.
"Who is Uchiha?"
He was stunned that she would ask such a question. "Oh…Sakura-chan…" This was the first time since they had started going out that she had even mentioned that name.3 Years Ago
"Naruto!" the Godaime called.
"What do you want Obaa-chan?! I'm about to head to Ichiraku!"
For the first time, as he entered the Hokage's office, he had not been hit or smacked for disrespecting Tsunade.
She only sat there, elbows on her desk, with that stone face.
That was when Naruto realized, something was wrong.
"Naruto," she began, "Please sit."
He did. But the worry in her eyes made him disconcerted.
"Naruto," her voice was hoarse, and barely above a whisper, "I'm only going to say this once."
He leaned forward, anticipation overcoming him.
"Sakura asked me to extract the memory of Sasuke from her mind."
His eyes grew wide. "No"
"And so…I did. But—"
"Naruto?" he was snapped out of the memory by the pink haired girl.
"Aren't you going to answer my question." She asked.
"He's," Naruto remembered what the teme had done to them, how much they had suffered just for him.
"He's no one important."