It was a long journey to make it to this point. The Fourth Shinobi War had ended about two years ago, but now everyone had just about recovered from that disaster. Since then, Naruto Uzumaki became a lot more popular as a shinobi and a hero of the war. He had all his unique and even broken abilities and the Nine-Tails under his command, or rather it would be more accurate to say that he was friends with the fox. He had gained the respect of almost every person in the shinobi world, including the Five Kages, past kages and he had hundreds of people who wanted to be his friend. He became quite popular amongst the ladies as well so life was good for the Leaf's Orange Future Hokage.
And what was one of the most important to him, Team 7 was finally back together. Sasuke wasn't a criminal anymore, Kakashi became the Hokage, but he was still close by whenever needed, and Sakura... remained the same. Or... that was what Naruto thought.
It was the general afternoon, the sun placed nicely in the sky as well. Naruto walked down the leaf village with a smile and his hands in the pockets of his newly bought jacket. Sakura walked up to him from the opposite side. "Oh, hey Sakura." Naruto says waving to her.
"Naruto, I..." Sakura begins to say. She takes a deep breath. "I have something important to say to you." But before that. "WHAM!" She punches Naruto nice and hard on the head like she would do as a child, as a teenager and further. She still did it, but this would probably be the last time she would do this.
"Sakura... What was that for?" Naruto asked with a groan as a bruise appeared on his head where Sakura had struck him. He wasn't sure how much more of that super strength he could take to his skull, despite how thick it was, as he was told by others.
"I have something to say to you!" Sakura begins to say to him with an anger point on her head. She was going to let it all out on him now. "You're the stupidest, most moronic man I've ever seen!" She says to him, and gives Naruto an extra punch to the head just to make sure he knew it.
Naruto groaned once again as he was punched again. He wasn't going to last longer.
"But..." Sakura began to say. She was not done with her words.
"Go easy..." Naruto says softly, not wanting more bruises on his head after the first few punches.
"I respect you." Sakura said to him, her face suddenly smiling at Naruto. Naruto looked up at Sakura to see her smiling. "You might be the most unbearable idiot in the entire Leaf Village, but despite that. You're brave, strong and so kind." She says to him. Finally telling him what she knew were good qualities of him.
"You have your bad parts, I get that, everyone does. You've worked up from the bottom and surpassed even the Hokages. Even Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke must be surprised and would have never expected you to come this far." She says. "And... I'm sorry for beating you up every time I did."
Naruto's eyes widened. He never thought Sakura would actually say that. He was full of delight! "You really mean that Sakura?" He asked, not believing that Sakura was saying this.
"It kind of hurts me to say it, but it's how I feel. Maybe I don't love you... But I respect you. I hate you, but I respect you. You're a one-of-a-kind shinobi, and I truly feel that you can become Hokage. And do it, no matter what." She said.
Naruto raised a brow to look at her. "And?" He waited for some specific words.
Sakura had a feeling she knew what Naruto say thinking. "And... I won't punch you unnecessarily anymore." She said.
"Thanks." Naruto said with a smile. He forgave Sakura for each time she punched him, but it was nice to be reassured that he wouldn't be punched anymore by her.
"Just... One more punch for old time's sake? Just this one for every time you'll do something stupid in the future?" Sakura asked, she just needed a little relief before she could let this habit go forever.
"Only if I get to punch you back..." Naruto says with a smirk.
Sakura brings her fist back, Naruto did the same. "CHA!" Sakura and Naruto say in unison, Naruto copying Sakura's word before they nail each other in the cheek and both fall backwards onto the ground kicking up a little dust. Then they look at each other and smile, having a little laugh for their memories as the day continued on.
I cannot express enough how much I want a scene like this, but to my knowledge, never got one. It's not very long, but I doubt it would have been very long, and if it was, it would require flashbacks, which I avoided...