Hey everyone. This idea popped into my head a couple of days ago and would not leave me. It turned out quite a bit longer than I had originally planned.
As the chapter name suggests, this is part 1 of Naruto's and Sakura relationship for this collection, there will be more to come later. Please tell me in a review or pm which Sakura ship you guys would like to see next.
With that said, I hope you guys enjoy this!
"Hey Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed with a grin on his face as he entered the room.
"Hi Naruto," Sakura replied, looking up from her desk.
He did a double take at her before glancing at her clock. "I thought you were supposed to be done work now."
She sighed. "Technically yes, but these records aren't going to update themselves."
He frowned. "You shouldn't overwork yourself." He really didn't like it when she did things like this. However, he didn't like fighting with her. So to avoid an argument, he quickly changed the topic. "Anyways, I wanted to ask if you wanted to go for ramen."
The pinkette raised an eyebrow, eager to both get the topic off of her and onto something that she had been concerned with for a while. "Now that we're on that topic, how much ramen have you had this week?"
Immediately an arm went up to scratch the back of his head. "Well, umm Sakura…you see…"
Her eyes narrowed. She had been wanting to talk to him about this for a while now. "Naruto, you should really eat healthier."
"But Sakura," he began to whine.
"Seriously Naruto. That's not good for you." She sighed once more. "How about this. I'll catch up with you tonight, if we go to a restaurant and you order something with vegetables."
The blond looked so convicted that it was impossible for Sakura not to laugh. He glared half-heartedly at her reaction. "That's not very nice Sakura."
She continued to laugh. "I'm sorry Naruto."
"Somehow it's hard to believe you," he replied dryly.
Once she stopped her giggles, Sakura spoke up again. "My deal still stands."
He pouted. "You're so mean Sakura." But then a smile spread to his lips. "See you in half an hour at that new place across from the flower store?"
Sakura nodded.
Thirty minutes later, Sakura was at the restaurant. However, Naruto was not. She looked around, but there was no loud male blond.
She was about to question the waiter at the front if he had seen Naruto when she heard a very loud voice. "Sorry! Sorry I'm late Sakura!"
Everybody's eyes turned towards them. She closed her eyes and frowned. Great way to get all the people watching them. They might stare for a while. But, when she saw how flustered and worried Naruto looked, it was hard to stay upset. The pinkette exhaled and teased him. "Are you trying to be like the new Kakashi now?"
"Wha-no! Of course not. I actually have a legitimate reason."
"Sure you do," Sakura continued to tease. "Does it include helping old ladies with their groceries or saving lost cats from trees?"
"No, I was trying to help Sasuke with some of his community service stuff," Naruto explained.
When Sasuke had returned with them after the war, it had taken a great deal of negotiating to not get the Uchiha a life in prison. Eventually, it had been agreed that Sasuke would not get a life behind bars. But that agreement had many conditions attached to it. One of which was that the Uchiha would have to help 'benefit Konoha from within the walls'. This could mean anything from helping rebuild the areas that were destroyed from the Akatsuki's invasion, to helping to train academy students.
"Excuse me, would you like a table for two?" the waiter asked them.
Sakura turned her attention to the worker and nodded. "Thank you."
They were lead to a table beside a window. Once they were seated and said what drinks they wanted, the two were left alone again.
"Isn't that a conflict of interest?" Sakura asked, humor evident in her eyes. Naruto, since he was now the Hokage, was one of the people who reviewed Sasuke's reports on his service hours.
"Not if I don't help him with making his report!" Naruto quickly stated, as if he was used to defending this. "And not if he does the majority of the work."
"Fair enough," she laughed.
At that point a waiter returned with their drinks and asked if they were ready to order.
The pair picked up their menus and studied them. The pinkette told the waiter her order and waited for Naruto to do the same. He must have found something good, because his eyes lit up and he opened his mouth to say the name of it. But Sakura, knowing that whatever he wanted probably wasn't healthy, lightly kicked his foot and gave him a pointed stare when he looked at her. He visibly slumped before saying an item that, based on his tone, was much less tasty than his original choice. The waiter nodded and left them alone.
"So what were you two up to today then?" she asked him, partially because she was curious and partially to distract him from the horrors of eating something that was not going to clog his arteries.
"We were fixing up an orphanage. Sasuke is actually better with kids than I thought. But I guess it makes sense if he wants to restart his clan," Naruto laughed before calming down. "It would have been nice if it was all three of us though."
She looked down. Things hadn't been picture perfect after Sasuke came back. Her feelings for Sasuke had altered when he had left. And once he returned, she had quickly realised how shallow her love for him had been. Even when they were genin, she had never truly understood him. And she had been in love while an ideal that the real Sasuke could not reach. There was also the fact that he would never be able to fully return her feelings. Once her feelings had eroded, she had realised how lacking their relationship as friends and teammates was.
At least Naruto and Sasuke had their rivalry and brotherly relationship to fall back on. Aside from both being from Team 7, the two didn't have that much of a bond. Sure she worked hard to get him back and keep him from being in prison, but when it came to just sitting down and having a conversation, she didn't have much to go on.
Sasuke didn't seem to be that keen on reaching out to her either. He was never overtly hostile or anything. But he never really went out of his way talk to her lately. It would have likely been the same with Naruto, except that Naruto would never let that happen. The blond was determined to not let Sasuke sink back into being alone.
"Give it time," was the only thing she could think to say.
He opened his mouth to argue, but was interrupted when they received their food. She proceeded to stuff her face so that she had an excuse not to talk for a few moments. Thankfully, her food was actually quite good. She'd have to come back here for this some time.
"Sakura, you really should try reaching out to him," he prodded.
"Did you tell the same to him?" she asked, trying to take the initiative off of her.
He took a bite of his food before replying. "Not yet. I figured that I should try with the one who might actually listen to me first."
That was probably a smart move. But she had to admit, she kind of didn't want to. It felt a little childish, but part of the reason why she didn't want to try was because she was the one who usually initiated their interactions back in their genin days. She knew that Sasuke really wasn't the type to ask people is they wanted to hang out, whether it be romantically or otherwise, but it would be nice to not feel like she was the only one making an effort. However, she didn't exactly want to admit this to Naruto since she thought it sounded a little petty when voiced out loud. Another reason was that she figured that Sasuke would probably shoot her suggestion down without giving any thought to it. But again, she couldn't really tell Naruto this as he would likely say something like 'you don't know that for sure' or 'teme isn't that bad'.
So she didn't really have a good excuse. But maybe she could find some sort of compromise instead of just asking Sasuke if he wanted to spend time together. "…Perhaps I can join you guys next time you tag along for Sasuke's community service."
He immediately brightened at this. "Thanks Sakura!"
Naruto looked rather cute like that, Sakura thought. Wait, what? "You're welcome, Naruto."
Sakura stopped in front of Naruto's door as she retrieved the key from her pocket.
Naruto had asked her if she could drop a couple of things off in his apartment since he was away at a meeting. She had a day off today, so she had agreed.
As always, his apartment was relatively clean and tidy. This surprised most people, as they usually expected the blond to be something of a slob. Sakura suspected that this was the main reason why Naruto tried to be such a neat freak. Despite not being a little boy anymore, he still wanted to defy people's expectations of him.
She had been to his humble abode several times in the past, so she knew the layout of the place quite well. The girl walked straight over to his living room table and dropped the scrolls in her arm on it.
With that done, she was about to head out the door. But then a thought occurred to her. She had bugged Naruto often enough about eating healthier, she might as well see if he listened to her advice.
Keeping that in mind, she walked over to his kitchen. The first thing she opened was his pantry…and there was a lot of ramen and not much else. She peered in other cupboards and found similar results, with some other salty snacks. Okay, so far not so good. Her eyes moved to the fridge and freezer, the last opportunity to see positive results. She opened the fridge and freezer door. There were a few pieces of fruit. But other than that there was either ramen that did not in the full pantry, dessert or other unhealthy things.
She sighed as she shut the fridge. Naruto, Naruto, Naruto. The pinkette had really thought that she had gotten through to him before. Well, knowing him, she may have, but then he decided that ramen tasted so good that he'd stick with it "for now" and then make changes later. That blockhead! Seriously, why did she even bother? He just didn't listen.
Should she just treat him as a lost health cause then? Just decide that he would never change? That would be easier….
But she just couldn't do that. Maybe she just stayed around the buffoon too much, but she just couldn't give up that easily. No, she was going to make him eat better, whether he liked it or not.
How should she go about doing this? Berating him and nagging certainly didn't seem to help. Nor did dropping helpful tips.
Hmm…an idea popped into her head. He would definitely not like this, and may not like her for a little while. But it just might have a chance at working.
With that thought in mind, she turned and left the apartment, knowing that she'd need more than a few containers to make this work. Thank goodness he was at a meeting with Gaara in Suna and would be gone until tomorrow night.
Sakura waited on baited breath as she heard Naruto about to enter his apartment.
She was currently in Tenten's home, which was just across the hall from Naruto's. The walls were actually quite soundproof, but they were no match for a hyperactive Naruto. According to Tenten, usually it was pretty quiet, however when Naruto was with someone you could usually tell when he was entering or leaving his apartment.
The pinkette had just finished up her plan about an hour ago. The girl fought a grin that desperately wanted to insert itself on her face. As a child, she had always found it annoying when Naruto pulled pranks. Although what she was doing wasn't technically a prank, it felt a little like one and she found herself beginning to understand their appeal. The anticipation was almost killing her.
Meanwhile Tenten was staring at the girl like she had two heads. Sakura supposed that she did look a little odd, as she was situated very close to Tenten's front door with her ear pressed up against it. Sakura looked towards Tenten and put a finger on lips to get Tenten to be quiet before mouthing the words, "I will tell you later."
Tenten nodded, and Sakura took her attention back to Naruto. By the sound of it, he was talking to Lee about training. She looked out Tenten's peephole in her door and the blond was just opening his door and walking inside with Lee. Almost there….
She mentally calculated how long it would take Naruto to go to the kitchen and open the cabinets. Then she began to count down. But wait, what if he wasn't going to eat right now? She may have to wait a lot longer than. Darn it. But then again, when did Naruto ever go to his apartment and not eat something? His stomach was like a bottomless pit after all.
Just after the thought crossed her mind she heard an extremely loud yell from the blond, "WWHHHAATTT!" Sakura couldn't hold in her laughter anymore and sat down as the chuckles escaped from her.
Finally, when she calmed down, she explained the situation to Tenten.
"So, let me get this straight," Tenten said when she was finished, "You wanted to get Naruto to be healthier and he wasn't listening. So you took out all the ramen in his home and left a note threatening to throw it all away unless he started to buy and eat fruits and veggies. And then you went to every grocery store and food stand that sold ramen and told them not give him any until you said the word."
"Yep, that's pretty much it," Sakura explained. The hardest part had been convincing vendors to not sell to him. While a few did comply somewhat quickly when she explained that it was for his health and would quite honestly not last for very long. But many did not want to do anything that seemed like going against the Hokage, although she assured them they really weren't. She had to give many "favours" from referring people in the hospital to their store or promising to look at their relative's apparent illness (she would have a lot of extra appointments to go to in the next week). Surprisingly, one of the easiest groups to convince was those at Ichiraku. She had thought the man and his daughter who owned the store would be totally against the idea. But thankfully, the man's care for Naruto meant that he did want the blond to be healthy and would support that.
"That," Tenten began to say, "Is hilarious."
Sakura was a little confused.
She had never really tried to hide the fact that it she was the one who took away Naruto's ramen. She had never told the store owners to hide the fact that she told them to not give them ramen. True she didn't sign the note that she had left him, however she didn't think she would need to do so. She figured by now that Naruto had recognised her handwriting. Apparently he did not.
So now he was going around trying to find out who was the one who 'stole his precious delicious food'. Apparently she wasn't the only one who had access to his apartment, and he was currently in the process of narrowing down who the culprit was.
She knew this because Naruto had been trying to get Shikamaru to help him and Ino had been in the vicinity. Afterwards Ino had come to Sakura since she had found the situation quite funny.
Sakura informed her that she in fact "the culprit".
"You are?" Ino asked in disbelief, raising her eyebrows as she did so.
Sakura nodded as she sat back on her couch. They were currently in her apartment. "I kept telling him to stop eating so much ramen before, and while he seemed to listen for a little while and follow my advice for about a day, it never really stuck. I'm hoping that this will make him make changes that are a bit more long term."
"I should have known," Ino said in between laughs. "But, while I think seeing Naruto like this is quite hilarious, I don't really know how this supposed to make a difference that lasts longer than a couple of days."
"Well, I figured that in a day or two of starting, he'd have bought some healthy food. Then I'd wait about a week or so for him to get used to eating it, longer if needed. I'm hoping that once he realises that it won't be the end of his taste buds, he'll start to eat healthier more often. I know it's not a perfect plan, but at least it's better than what I've tried before."
"Hmm, well maybe it could work," Ino said. "So, are you planning on telling Naruto that you're the one behind this?"
"To be honest, I didn't think I'd have to," Sakura explained. "I thought he'd be able to figure out my handwriting and know that it was me. Also I never told any of the shopkeepers to hide that it was me. Maybe one of them didn't for some reason and then Naruto went to another one, saying that the first one hadn't said anything, and then that shopkeeper thought that that meant they were supposed to keep silent about it."
"Weird," Ino commented as she took a sip from the tea that she was holding. "But that doesn't answer my question. Now that he doesn't know it's you, are you planning on telling him?"
"Hmm," Sakura looked down in thought. "While I had planned on him knowing it was me, it might be interesting to see how he goes about not knowing who it is. At the very least, it could be quite funny."
Ino nodded at that. "I heard that the first suspect on his list is Sasuke. That outa be amusing to watch."
So Sakura had decided to be anonymous for now. It had seemed like a good idea at the time.
On her way to work the next day, she had seen Naruto in a finger-pointing rage at Sasuke who looked torn between beating Naruto up for being annoying and just walking away. She hadn't had time to see the outcome but later on as she had walked home she had heard Naruto asking Shikamaru for help with finding other suspects so Sasuke had likely gotten through to him.
She had also asked one of the shopkeepers and her suspicions had proved to be true. One shopkeeper had gotten the impression that she had wanted it to be hidden that she was behind it. So then as Naruto went to different stores the message had traveled to not let him know about Sakura's involvement.
By the day after that, it had become clear to Sakura that Naruto was more focused on finding out "who did it" than he was about eating healthy. He had asked (ie, interrogated) a couple more people, and to Sakura's knowledge there was no more vegetables in his fridge then than when she had had started this ordeal.
It was clear what she had to do. So after work the following day (after a not so fun shift with 2 hours of overtime), she went over to Naruto's apartment…only to find out that he was not there.
She then tried the Hokage tower, still no Naruto. As she was leaving the building, she crossed paths with Sasuke who, judging by the papers in his hand, was here to drop off his latest service hour report. Maybe he would know where the blond was.
"Sasuke," she began.
He stopped and looked at her. "Yes?"
She had wanted to ask about Naruto's whereabouts. But before she did, she couldn't stop herself from asking, "How have you been?"
"Alright," was Sasuke's reply.
She had almost forgotten how much of a great conversationalist he was. "Good. Do you know by chance where Naruto is?"
"The training grounds," Sasuke informed her.
"Thank you. Goodbye, Sasuke," she said as she moved to leave the tower.
"Sakura," Sasuke called out, causing Sakura to pause in her retreat.
"Yes?" She asked, turning her head to see him.
"It is…good, to see you again," a corner of his mouth was turned up a little.
She smiled, "It's good to see you too."
Naruto was where Sasuke said he would be. The blond was currently practicing a couple techniques.
Sakura had been fully set on telling him she was the one behind the missing ramen, but as she walked forward, her steps faltered a bit. It felt almost like she had done something wrong. Sure she had done it for his own good, but now she felt kind of…guilty.
Unfortunately she did not have an opportunity to go back as Naruto noticed her. "Sakura!" he stopped his training to walk over to her.
Might as well get it over with, she told herself. She walked to meet him halfway. When they were close, before she could allow herself to rethink this, she blurted out, "It was me."
He stopped in confusion. "What?"
"I was the one who took your ramen away and told the merchants to not give you anyway."
His face turned to one of shock. "Sakura, why?"
Her eyebrow twitched. "I had never meant for it to be a secret. I thought that you'd be able to recognize my handwriting. And those merchants decided by themselves that I didn't want my identity to be told. If I'm going to be honest, it was a little funny for me to see you go around and try to find out 'who did it'. But then I saw that you weren't thinking at all about the point of the ordeal, so I decided to just tell you about it."
She had never seen Naruto's face flash through so many emotions. It was almost comical. "But…," when he finally spoke up again. "Why?"
Her eyebrow twitched again as she remembered her reasoning. "Because you don't listen! I have told you so many times that you can't just have ramen all the time. Once in a while is fine, but not for every meal. Substituting with snacks that have just as much salt and fat is not good either. You need to eat healthier! I don't even know how many times I have told you that but you never change for more than a day. I thought that if I took it to extreme measures, you might actually do something long lasting this time."
"So…you did this, to help me?" She nodded. "Well, errr, thanks I guess. But Sakura, I don't really know if you needed to do all that." A blush spread to his face, and his arm went up to scratch the back of his head. "If we're both going to be honest, there's another why I don't always do what you tell me."
Her eyebrow rose. "Yes?"
The blush grew and a grin appeared on his face. "Well, you see, part of me kind of likes it when you nag me. I know it kind of sounds stupid, but whenever you tell me to eat more vegetables or anything like that, it shows that you care about me."
This time it was Sakura's turn to blush and to stare and gawk at him. One of the reasons he didn't listen was because…he liked hearing her concern for him? Part of her melted right then and there and desperately wanted to say something like "aww". Another part of realised that this may be another admission of his feelings for her. Feelings that she wasn't sure what to do with yet…A third part of her wanted to throttle him for sacrificing his health to hear something that he already knew about.
She settled for sighing and looking away. "Okay. Just…please listen to me."
"Alright Sakura," he replied. She looked back at him and noticed a sly look appear on his face. "So…does this mean that I can have my ramen back now?"
"No."
He wilted immediately.
It had been a week since her confrontation with the blond. Since then, he had actually began to make improvements. He had begun to cook some healthy meals, and actually enjoyed some of them. And he had sworn to her that he would try to keep it up. So yesterday she had returned his ramen and told the shopkeepers that they could sell ramen to him again.
Her plan had gone relatively well, if she did say so herself.
She stopped in front of her office door to take out her key. Once in her hand, she pulled it out to unlock her door…except that it did not unlock. With a small frown, she wiggled the key around but it still would not work.
What was wrong? She knew that this was the right key. As she glared down at the object, she noticed something on the floor. It was a note. Sakura picked it up and read it:
Hey Sakura.
After you helped me, I figured it was time for me to help you. I've noticed how much you overwork yourself. You really need to relax Sakura! So, I got the medical staff to help me out. As you've probably noticed by now, I've had the lock to your office changed. The door is also protected by a jutsu so that you can't break it down. Hah!
Here's how it's going to work: Until you stop working so much overtime, you are not going to be able to go into your office. I already checked with the staff, there is nothing super vital you need to do so don't come to me saying that there's something that needs to be done this minute.
Have fun Sakura!
Oh, and unlike you, I decided to write my name down.
Naruto