I'm horribly sorry for spamming your inboxes with yet another unremarkable(?) ficlet. This came to me as I was chatting with my friends at 11 pm, and as I heard rain hit the roof above me (which I LOVE the sounds of, truly), I needed to run outside and merely take it all in – the first rain of the self-declared spring season in my city, since our winter had been comparatively mild and tame. It was nice and refreshing, though thoroughly cold. XD So as I was standing outside on my patio, I was reminded of a fanart I had saved (this one, in fact: .com/art/LeT-me-WarM-yOu-113585107 ) and was inspired... so next thing I knew, with the help of the ever-falling rain to encourage me, had a short fic on my hands. Hopefully, it is decent. :) (I certainly don't want to skew the beautiful fanart that I was inspired by, so... )

Thank you for your loyalty, and I hope to reward this soon with, as stated in the last ficlet posted shortly ago, a LEGIT, multi-chaptered fanfiction. (Which will actually be my first in a while, since my last SasuSaku one, before my joyful defection to the clear, and EPIC, pairing of NaruSaku. :)

Anywho, enough of my useless rambling. Without further ado: Rain.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Naruto" or any of the characters, etc.

Rain

Fatigue echoed through every inch of Naruto's body, sparing no part of him, as he walked Sakura home in the dark night, lit only by the random street lights in the deserted streets of Konoha. She walked beside him, setting a slow, tired pace, her eyes focused ahead of them, drooping slightly. He took her hand within his, confidently, as she looked over to him with a smile. Their relationship had definitely advanced enough within the week that he could hold her hand, he figured. And she hadn't raised her fist at him but rather had smiled shyly at him, so he hadn't overstepped the boundaries just yet.

It had certainly been one of the hardest A-ranked missions he had been on in quite a while, so it made him feel a little out of shape. Granted, much of his time, recently, had been spent in the library, reading the books Sakura had recommended for him, as she sat beside him, reading others, admonishing him slightly, whenever his eyes wandered from the page. He had always been chided by Iruka about his severe lack of knowledge when it came to basically everything in the ninja world– after all, he had always been an 'act first – ask questions later' type of guy. If he knew how to do something, what did it matter how it worked? had always been his way of seeing it. So, it had been time to remedy that, finally, if he was really that determined to be hokage. Nothing could be overlooked if he were someday, to be the leader of his beloved village. Everything had to be perfect, flawless so that his lack of knowledge or foolish misstep didn't cost Konoha in any way. He would have to be a strong, worthy hokage, and he planned to far surpass all those he succeeded, even his father.

Suddenly, a drop of moisture hit his face. Looking up curiously, startled, his eyes stinging from the bright light of the nearby lamppost, rain began to patter lazily but steadily to the ground.

Damn. That made everything better. He smiled, sarcastically, up at the sky.

Beside him, Sakura shivered, her hand withdrawing itself from the warmth of his, to wrap itself around her bare arms. The rain soon ran down her hair and face, bubblegum pink tendrils sticking to her face, endearingly. Her eyebrows knitted together as small tremors began to run through her lithe body. They still had another ten minutes to walk to her house, and though they certainly could've ran, he hoped that she, too, wanted to extend their time together for as long as possible. So he did what anyone in his position would do. Unzipping his trademark orange jacket, he removed it from his toasty body and draped it over her shoulders. She nodded appreciatively at him, and hugged it closer to her as he helped pull it around her body. Instead of moving, he was entranced by her unbroken gaze, his hands frozen on the collar of the jacket. The cold rain had suddenly wakened him, snapping him alert, and vanishing the encroaching weariness from his mind. She too, looked back at him with awakened eyes, all traces of drowsiness gone for the moment, mysteriously.

Her mesmerizing emerald eyes peered deep into his, nothing breaking their sudden enrapture. Unblinking, rain continued to fall all around them, growing in speed, but nothing else could've made him break their moment. Though he didn't quite understand what was happening between them, suddenly, their bodies were falling closer together, her pulling him closer as he did the same to her. Their gaze still, was unfaltering and her face still told of contentedness and not disdain, so he didn't stop himself when his body began, of its own accord, it seemed, to lean down to her lips.

When their lips finally met, both of their eyes closed, her warm lips upon his feeling unlike anything he had ever imagined it would. He could now define heaven as this. Somehow, he knew, simply from this kiss and the time they had spent as a couple over the last week, that as long as he could be with her, nothing else could make him happier. In that moment, he had that revelation. He would do anything for her, protect her at any cost. If love really existed, he knew that this is what he was feeling. With Sakura, he felt complete.

Hopefully, she wasn't feeling too far from what he was feeling was what a small voice in the back of his mind brought up, interrupting the feelings of triumph and joy. As they slowly broke their rather chaste, but alluring, first kiss, her eyes were shut tightly as her mouth was drawn in hard line. Unsure as to what this meant, he began to back away, fully prepared to utter a sincere apology and suffer whatever she thought would be a due punishment for kissing her against her will, gladly. But instead of stepping back, she grabbed his black shirt tightly, and pulled him closer, his shocked body falling into her arms.

"Naruto..." She whispered, her voice quiet with... wonder? "I..." She paused with uncertainty, her fingers clenching onto his soaked shirt which clung to the contours of his body, now.

"Me too, Sakura. You mean so much to me." I replied, filling the sudden -but not awkward- void. It had only been a week – certainly he couldn't expect a total confession from her quite yet, though he knew it was only a matter of time.

He held her body close to his, so that there was no space between them, her head settling contentedly onto his shoulder, his nose buried in her sweet smelling hair.

Here, with Sakura, in the rain,was where he was always meant to be. The word 'happiness' could not even begin to cover what he felt at that moment.

Taaa-daaaah~!

I swear that the next thing I will post will be my next, hopefully EPIC fanfic. (... I think ^^; Though I did have an idea for another oneshot... so I may end up posting that first. Idk.)

Leave some love (in the form of a review), please? :)

& Thank you for reading yet another, humble oneshot of mine.

Ily, my dearest reader. Truly.

(My love for you rivals that of Naruto's love for Sakura... Can I get away with saying that? ;) ...R&R?)