Yes, my other stories need to be updated, I am aware of that. But every one of my unfinished stories has its next chapter in the works, so relax! Just enjoy this NaruoxSakura Valentine's Day ficlet for now!

Teddy Bear

The weather of Konoha was normally very steady; crisp and cool in the months preceding winter, windy and numbingly cold during the unforgiving months at the end of the year, warm and pollen-filled during the spring, and blazingly hot and arid during the parching summer days.

However, for a spring day, Haruno Sakura found it to be much too chilly. She had woken up to find a sharp draft drifting through her small bedroom, which was enough to make her decide to take a personal day. Yes, the fifteen-year-old would have much rather spent the day under the snugly warm sheets of her bed, smiling in her pillowy bliss.

"It may be cold outside, but I'm perfect as long as I stay like this!" She thought excitedly as she pulled the sheets closer around her neck.

But alas, her mother had some errands to run, and Sakura would be the ones to do them. Sakura pretended to be asleep as her mother called to her, but Haruno-san would have none of that. She went into Sakura's room and explained that Sakura had a few minutes to get her pink-haired self ready.

So unfortunately, the kunoichi left the embracing warmth that was her comforter and headed for the bathroom. When she returned, she decided to see if it really was as cold outside as it felt in her house.

Just one glance at the wind violently shaking the trees was enough to make Sakura reach for the top shelf of her armoire, where her sweaters and scarves eagerly awaited her. She was too short to see, so she used her hands to feel for the perfect outerwear.

She grabbed her favorite shocking pink sweater, and anxiously, after hearing her mother's cries to hurry up, pulled it down. However, in the process, she knocked a small, cotton-filled, brown figure down as well.

"What…?" Sakura, holding her sweater in one hand, leaned down curiously to the fallen softie.

Her eyes widened in memory as she dropped the sweater and kneeled down, not caring about the feeling of the hard floor against her bare legs. She pinked up the teddy bear gently, and couldn't help but feel a small twinge of pain in her heart at its beaten state.

It was dusty and smelled dingy, as it was expected to be for being in the armoire for so many years. But it also had a good deal of its head stitching damaged, causing much of the stuffing in the neck to pop out. It also had various others holes dispersed randomly over its milk chocolate body, including one of the black eyes.

"The bugs must've gotten to you," she thought sadly. The teddy bear was special to her. Her mother had bought it as Sakura's third birthday present, and Sakura had spent many thunderstorm-ridden nights clutching this little hero for dear life. She would carry it everywhere—be it the breakfast table, the backyard, the park, it didn't matter—until, of course, the day she was told that having the bear was simply ridiculous.

Sakura remembered the day clearly as she traced the tan circle that was the bear's stomach with her fingers.

The eight-year-olds Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino were excitedly swinging in the local park, each with a stuffed animal in their laps. While Sakura had her teddy bear, Ino had a stuffed white horse.

"Haruno Sakura," Ino teased as the two's swings passed each other, "You're not going to win."

"Hmmph! Just wait and see," Sakura cried back as she attempted to kick harder just to make the swing go farther.

The two girls had entered a contest to see who could swing the highest without their stuffed friends falling out of their laps. It had lead to hours of leg-kicking action, and neither of them had lost yet. They probably would've gone on for hours had it not been for the appearance of another child.

Ino had quickly brought her swing to a stop and had suddenly started looking down the park's path. Sakura, confused, followed suit.

"Have you given up, Ino?" Sakura asked, though she realized that Ino's horse was still very firmly in her lap.

"Look!" Ino cried, ignoring Sakura's question and keeping her eyes on the path. "Sasuke-kun!"

Sakura immediately glanced down, and, sure enough, Uchiha Sasuke was walking down the path accompanied by an older boy, Uchiha Itachi.

"Let's go say hi," Ino said, eyes never leaving the boy, as she stood up. Before Sakura knew it, Ino had grabbed her stuffed horse and was off. Sakura instinctively stood up as well and, although she was rather shy, she followed Ino as the blonde ran to Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun!" the eight-year-old cried as she approached the boy. The two Uchihas had obviously not noticed the two girls on the swing, for they both seemed startled by Ino's excited appearance.

Sasuke stopped at Ino's cry and looked at her, and Itachi, regrettably stopped as well.

"Sasuke-kun," Ino repeated, "Sakura and I were just having a contest, would you like to join?"

At this point, Sakura had appeared by Ino's side and was holding her teddy bear nervously as she looked at Sasuke.

"What kind of contest?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, we have these stuffed animals, my white horse and Sakura's teddy bear, and we were seeing who could swing the highest without the animal falling out of our laps!" Ino filled in excitedly.

Sakura, not wanting to be left out, let out a mere, "Yeah,".

Sasuke opened his mouth, "That sounds-"

If Sasuke was indeed interested in playing with the girls, it only showed for a mere moment in his onyx eyes.

Itachi had let out an annoyed grunt, and Sasuke stared at his brother for a second. The young boy recollected his thoughts as he turned back to Ino.

"That sounds like a waste of time," the Uchiha boy replied. "We should be working hard to get strong and protect our village. There's no need to be playing with ridiculous baby toys."

Itachi donned a smirk for a split-second before he turned and started walking down the path again. "Come on, Sasuke."

"Wait, Itachi!" Sasuke cried as he started running to catch up to his brother. When he did catch up to Itachi, Sakura and Ino watched incredulously as the two Uchihas disappeared down the path.

Sakura tried to collect her thoughts. She felt upset, and she felt the strong need to cry and run to her room, but what Ino did had caught Sakura off-guard.

Sakura watched as Ino dropped her horse, kicking its white form into the woodchips.

"Ino!" Sakura cried, never thinking that she could ever do anything of the sort to her bear.

Ino sighed and sniffled at the same time. "You heard what Sasuke-kun said. These are for babies, and we're not babies."

Sakura didn't say anything, though she agreed. That night, she had brought the tallest chair she could find to her room and had thrown the bear against the top shelf of her armoire.

"Stay there!" Sakura cried as she slammed the door shut.

Sakura continued to trace the stitches around the bear's body, remembering that day. She had learned to endure thunderstorms without it and had long-forgotten the feeling of taking the bear everywhere,

…but she had never fully forgotten about this little plushie.

Almost by habit, she stared at the picture of team 7 resting on her nightstand and subconsciously grabbed the bear even tighter.

Perhaps it was time for a change….

Sakura pulled out the trash bag, clutching the bear under her other arm, to the end of her street. As she rested the bag against the curb, she sighed and pulled out her teddy bear.

She took a few seconds to try and inculcate the bear's importance into the permanence of her memory, and then she threw the bear into the bag. There, it could rest with the egg shells from yesterday's breakfast and the newspapers of days gone by.

"Sakura-chan!"

"Hmm?" Sakura looked up at the loud exclamation of her name and saw Naruto running down the street, waving excitedly to her. He didn't seem to have anything other than his orange and black suit on, which made Sakura pull her sweater tighter against her frame.

"Naruto," Sakura said as she put a hand to her temples. "It's too early to be so loud." She thought for a second. "What are you doing here?"

The boy stopped a few feet in front of her. "Sorry, Sakura-chan. I was looking for Sai. That creep made another joke about my—" The blonde decided it would be best to stop there. "I need to see Sai. What are you doing, Sakura-chan?"

"I have to run errands for my mother today," Sakura explained. She turned around and glanced once again at the teddy bear that was sticking its head out of the bag, but then immediately her eyes went wide.

"AHH!! Naruto, what are you doing?" she exclaimed as she saw Naruto take the bear out of the bag. She immediately went over to him and snatched the bear out of his hands.

"What's the matter with you, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked as his eyebrows rose curiously.

"What's the matter with me? What's the matter with you?" she asked defensively as she clutched the bear against her chest. "Why were you looking at my trash?"

"Well, you were looking at that bear so sadly," Naruto explained. Sakura's eyes widened for a few seconds.

"I was?" she asked. Perhaps she hadn't realized how much the bear—

"Yeah," Naruto said as he recalled. "You had this really pathetic look in your eyes, really depressing."

A vein in Sakura's head twitched.

"OWWWHHHH!" Naruto flew backwards as Sakura's hand released its fist.

"Baka," she said. "This bear was important to me."

Naruto got on his feet again and started to massage his sore cheek. "Then why are you throwing it out?"

Sakura opened her mouth for a second, but for some reason immediately shut it.

"It's time for me to throw it out. It's for little kids, anyway…" She finally said, once again walking to the trash bag.

"I need to get to those errands now," Sakura explained as she threw the bear into the bag. Naruto noticed that she wasn't looking at the bear or the bag as she said this. Rather, her eyes were diverted to the ground.

"Bye, Naruto," she said as she started to walk down the street.

"Bye, Sakura-chan," Naruto replied.

He watched her disappear down the streets of Konoha, a small smile gracing his face as he thought of her.

But…Why couldn't he shake the feeling that Sakura wasn't being perfectly honest? Better yet, why wasn't she being perfectly honest?

Naruto sighed as his attention diverted back to the trash bag. He had forgotten his vendetta to beat up Sai, and had decided to take a new task for the day.

"This bear was important to me."

Sakura returned home a couple of hours later with grocery bags tightly in her hands. She pretended like the trash bag had not been on her mind while she was gone as she walked by it; she has resisted the urge to look inside it as she passed.

But still…there was this itching inside of her…

…yet, Sasuke-kun…he had said it was for…

Sakura's face donned a scowl as she reached her front door. What was she to do? She glanced at the bag yet again, sitting innocently at the corner of the street, a few other trash bags keeping ti company.

The wind picked up again. Leaves blew in a maddening whirlpool around Sakura, but rather than go into the comfort of her warm home, she dropped her grocery bags.

She ran, almost desperately, to the trash bag. She opened it furiously, ripping a hole in its side rather than untying the knot. Despite how disgusting it may have been, she started to dig through the contents and found…nothing.

That was ok, though. She probably had the wrong bag. So the tore open the next one. Nothing!

Sakura was getting almost frantic.

She opened the next one…nothing. She put her hands in her pink hair and let out a small cry. Where did he go?

She was now sitting on her knees upon the sidewalk. There seemed to be a mess of trash and plastic all around her, but she couldn't care less. How could this happen? It was just there, a couple of hours ago.

She felt the presence of tears start to line her leaf-colored eyes. A bear she hadn't thought about in ages had enough impact on her to reduce her to tears.

"Sakura-chan!"

Sakura looked up, literally. The voice was coming from somewhere above her. She turned to see Naruto standing atop one of her neighbor's roofs.

"Eh? Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked as he got a good look at her face. He jumped down and then walked over to her, kneeling down so that they could be face-to-face.

"Why are you upset, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura's head fell down. She sniffled as she felt the first of her tears cause a small streak down her cheek.

"My bear, Naruto…someone took it…"

"The one you threw out?" Naruto asked as his eyebrows rose yet again in confusion.

"I don't know why I care so much. The bear is for little kids, but I miss it," she sighed and shook her heads. "It's almost a little embarrassing."

"Sakura-chan, you shouldn't be embarrassed about caring for something," Naruto explained.

Sakura looked at Naruto and let out a weak smile. "Even though it was for babies?"

"It was…uhh…sentimental to you, right Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, internally wondering if he had used that word correctly. He smiled at her anyway, trying to lighten her mood.

Surprisingly, it had worked. Sakura felt oddly relieved as he put an explanation to her attachment.

Her eyes watched Naruto. Who knew that he could actually make her feel better? Her smile widened, she started to feel warm, despite the brisk weather around her. Although she couldn't see it, a new tinge of color appeared in her cheeks.

"It was, Naruto."

"Then why do you care what someone else thinks?" Naruto asked. "If you like it, then you should keep it."

Sakura thought. His logic was so simple, yet it clicked instantly in her mind. Simple yet effective…almost like him now that she thought about it.

…No, she thought again. He wasn't simple. If someone as loud and obnoxious as him could actually make her feel just a bit better, then maybe there was more emotional knowledge than Sakura had originally thought.

This thought set a strange feeling of settlement running through her, though this feeling was replaced by sadness when she remembered.

"But it doesn't matter if I liked the teddy bear, Naruto…It's gone now." Her head fell once again.

"Awwm Sakura-chan, don't think like that. Maybe if you really want it to, it will come back."

"Naruto," Sakura replied, feeling a little annoyed, "you know that won't happen." She turned her head away once again as she let out another sniffle.

"I'm an idiot. I can't believe I just threw him away…he was my best friend when I was little. He would tell me that the monsters in my closet were weak, and that he could battle them for me. I would have tea and cookies with him whenever the weather was too bad to go outside. I used to never, ever go to the park unless he came with me," she explained, lost in childhood memories.

She didn't see how Naruto's eyes seemed to reflect a new light as Sakura lost herself in the happiness that a childhood friend could bring.

"…and now, someone else has him," Sakura cried. "Why did I throw him away?"

"So you really want him back, huh, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked as he tilted his head.

"Of course, Naruto, haven't you been listening?" Sakura turned her head to give Naruto an angered look, but before she could do so, something warm and soft had been dropped into her lap.

It was brown and plushy.

Sakura picked it up and stared at it. Her heart couldn't help but feel a tinge of at its fixed state.

The dust had been wiped off. The stitching around his neck had been restored. All the little patches had been sewed back together. Though the sewing could have probably been better, Sakura had to admit. It was obviously done by an amateur. (The fact that the "mended" eye looked more like an eye patch was a dead giveaway to that.)

Her fingers gently stroked the bear's stomach, and after a few seconds of simply smiling, she looked up at Naruto.

"Why did you…?" She couldn't even finish her question. She was just so happy.

"Because you said it was important to you, so I knew that you could never let it go," Naruto explained as he returned her smile.

"I didn't even think that I'd want it back," Sakura admitted. Her eyes shook with new a new kind of tear. Without warning, she reached forward and grabbed the blonde boy.

"Thank you, Naruto," she said as her hands wrapped around his neck. "For the bear, and for making me feel better."

Naruto's eyes widened. Sakura-chan…hugging me…He suddenly donned a goofy smile as his face filled with bright color.

Much too soon for Naruto, Sakura released herself from the hug and placed the bear to her face.

As her nose buried itself in the bear's head, she spoke. "Naruto, sometimes I-"

"Hm? Sometimes you what, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura's eyes had gone wide, but this time for a completely different reason. She immediately pulled the bear away from her face and stood up quickly. She pointed an accusing finger at the genin.

"Naruto! Did you even wash the bear before you gave it back to me?"

"Eh?" Naruto scratched the back of his head, staring up at the pink-haired girl. "Well, I wiped the dust off with a towel, so I thought that would be good."

"Eww, Naruto! This thing smells like the stir fry my mother made last week!"

"Uhh…isn't that a good thing, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked sheepishly as he stood up.

"No, baka, that's disgusting!"

"Hehe…Sakura-chan, isn't it the thought that counts?"

And as bad as a lecture/threat to never do something like that again Sakura had given him that day, that night, (after a good washing, of course) Sakura slept snugly with that little bear resting right beside her.

The End

Well, this was written for the NaruSaku Valentine's Day Contest…One of the keywords was teddy bear, so I decided to make the coupling revolve around a memory of Sakura's.

This was written totally spur of the moment. I never thought I'd write for Naruto, and I'm not sure if I'll ever write again, but here you go! I know, they didn't get together int he end, but I thought that would be pushing the plot.

Please review!

-Celestial Night