Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor do I claim to.
Setting: After Kakashi gives Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto the paper to enter the chuunin exams. A hypothetical scene that was inspired by another story read long ago.
This is a rewrite of the original story written three years ago in an attempt to approve it with my hopefully better writing skills. Still needs improvement I know, so criticism is welcome and appreciated.
"You're annoying."
Moisture slowly began to gather in her eyes as the words echoed in her ears. Long, slim fingers tightly grasped papers in the light, chilly breeze as though it were flying away. Emerald eyes gazed at the blurry sight of a retreating figure in a dark blue shirt adorned with a white and red fan. Her gaze lowered to the application held in her hands. The familiar tears began to fall down in earnest as she felt herself succumbing to the weakness.
'Why am I even on this team?' She questioned herself, a pale hand dashing across her face to brush away the droplets falling down from her eyes. Walking slowly towards home, she suddenly stopped on a secluded street near the park. A hand was placed on a nearby tree with her forehead leaning against the trunk as the other fragile hand clenched the application close to her body. 'I'm not that good in fighting. I don't have a clan to support me and make me unique like Ino. The only thing that makes me special is my stupid pink hair.'
She sank down to her knees, putting her back to the tree, silent tears turning into muffled sobbing into her hands, the papers left forgotten on the ground. An approaching figure was unnoticed by the trembling girl. The figure somberly came near her, tentatively taking a seat next to her on the brown earth.
"Sakura…" Her head snapped up to regard the blond looking at her with soft blue eyes. At the expression on his face, her glassy eyes became steely. An indiscreet hand quickly scrubbed her face in an attempt to savage her pride.
'Why does she even care about that bastard?' The Kyuubi vessel bitterly thought as her hard eyes reddened with the tears met his view. He yearned to pull her into a hug and whisper reassurances into her ears, to stop the sadness she was feeling, to stop the pain that he knew so well.
"What do you want?" Sakura spat out through gritted teeth at Naruto the tears temporarily stopped by her sudden rage.
'I might be a crybaby, but I won't let him see me like this.' She thought unwillingly to let the village outcast to see her at her worst.
The tender look in his eyes faded away at the tone of her voice, his eyes changing to a darker hue. Silence pervaded as they both regarded each other. She tore away from the contest first, staring the discarded application next to her. The papers reminder her of her inadequacies causing a few lone tears few down her cheeks again. Naruto's eyes regained a hint of tenderness at the sight of the evidence of her anguish.
"I don't like to see you cry." He finally replied running a frustrated hand through his yellow hair. A reply got stuck in her throat as words turned to a strangled laugh. Tears cascaded down her cheeks afresh as her resolve to keep her last shred of pride collapsed.
"Why do you care so much? I never help you." She choked out in between laughing sobs. The sobs bordered on the edge of hysteria as the irony of the situation reached her. 'The guy I don't like is the one that cares about me. The one I love is the one who made me feel like this in the first place.'
Naruto's felt a squeeze on his heart as he refrained from doing anything. His hands were itching with the urge to punch their dark-haired teammate and banish him to hell. Hesitantly he offered her his true feelings. "It's because I…I love you.
Now she wept her grief out with all traces of humor gone.
"Why?"
Her hands clutched her head drawing in her knees to her quivering body.
"Why? I don't understand. There's nothing special about me. I'm weak. I'm useless. I don—"
"You are wrong."
He cut her off. Ignoring her attempts to speak. Naruto looked off to the desolate slide in the park putting her figure in his peripheral view.
"You are strong." His voice rose high in pitch and his words ran faster as he spoke.
"When I first met you, I saw a little girl who was picked on by others and only cried her unhappiness away. But you managed to get past the teasing and become someone strong. Her own person, who expressed herself and didn't hide away like before. I saw how you got past the teasing and didn't let it rule your life. Sakura when you started to move forward and lived life as you wanted to, it took strength. I think….I—it was the reason I fell in love with you. It gave me courage to see how tough you were. It gave me hope that I would be able to get past what people think of me and be happy; be my own self with no regard others criticisms."
"You shouldn't let him get to you Sakura. Sasuke is like all the other bullies in the world, he doesn't care about how you feel. Don't let what he says get to you. Be strong, like I know you are."
"Naruto…" Sakura murmured as she looked at him with gentle eyes. The tears gone during his speech, only still moistened tracks showing their existence.
'Thank you.' She picked up the application left on the ground holding it gingerly. A small smile crept up on her lips as she regarded the papers.
"Don't worry about it Sakura-chan." Naruto remarked with a foxy grin at the smile she had. "I'm glad you stopped crying."
They both sat quietly next to each other lost in their own respectively thoughts. The sun gave the world a glow right before it was to set.
"We should go. The exams are tomorrow and we need the rest." He remarked rising off from the ground, hands dusting off the dirt. "You are coming right?"
An arm was extended in an offer to help her up. Still sitting against the tree, she complemented his outreached hand. She slowly stood up without his help, using the tree as a support. Disappointment appeared in his eyes as his arm was retracted to his chest. Sakura took a deep breath to brace herself for the world. Her usual proud posture was restored, back straight, hands at her side relaxed, one holding the forms loosely.
"Of course I'm coming idiot. What would the team do without me?" She said in an arrogant tone as she set off on the way towards home. There was a fleeting touch on his shoulder as she walked pass. Naruto turned around to gaze after her figure with somber cerulean eyes walking the opposite direction as the absent member of their three person team.