Persistence
"Hey, Sakura-chan!" Naruto burst into the Hokage's office, interrupting the conversation between his teammate and her mentor.
Sakura turned around to see Naruto with a stupidly wide grin on his face.
"Want to go on a date with me?" He beamed.
"No," she replied blankly.
"OK!" He smiled before turning around and leaving the room again.
Sakura stared at the door for a moment, confused, before turning around to frown at the blatantly amused smirk on the Sannin's face.
"Is he on drugs?" Tsunade grinned.
"I think so. That's the third time he's asked me this week."
"So why don't you say yes?" Tsunade raised an eyebrow.
"You know..." Sakura smiled.
"Oh yes I know," the Sannin smirked. "It would embarrass you to say yes."
"No." Sakura frowned.
"But you like him."
"He's my friend." Sakura crossed her arms.
"Mmhmm," Tsunade smiled. "I do like this new strategy of his though, turning him down every once in a while isn't so much work for you."
"It's not funny, Shishou."
"It's hilarious," the Hokage grinned. "The funny part is you like him back, you're just playing hard to get."
"I am not!"
"And I'm waiting for you to crack," Tsunade continued. "And then me and half the Konoha population can say 'I told you so'."
The pink haired medic snorted.
"Oh and then I win a bet, so go ask him out."
"Nope." Sakura smiled.
Tsunade frowned. "Maybe if you go on one date with him he'll realise you're a scary, obsessive workaholic and then he won't want to date you again."
"I've known him for several years," Sakura pointed out. "He knows what I'm like."
"Then you're lucky he's still chasing you."
Sakura opened her mouth to reply but then closed it again. Her mentor's comment had been a bit more serious than their previous bantering.
"So give him one chance... he deserves it."
Sakura thought about it. Naruto did deserve a chance... OK. The next time he asked her on a date she was going to accept.
"And I said, old man! You just can't sell your ramen to Choji because if he starts coming here regularly they'll be none left for me." Naruto grinned enthusiastically as he told her his story.
Sakura laughed, the blond still seemed ridiculously happy. They had just eaten their ramen with the team and he offered to walk her home.
No, it wasn't a date. She was surprised he hadn't asked her out again since last time.
When they got to her house he said his goodbyes and turned to leave. She frowned, he really wasn't going to ask her on another date.
"Naruto?"
Pausing he turned back to look at her, his smile fading when he saw her facial expression. "Sakura-chan?"
"Given up on asking me out?" She smiled.
"Not at all," his eyes widened. "I just didn't want to annoy you."
"I see."
Naruto looked at her, waiting for her to add something.
"Well... I... Uhh." Sakura shuffled, blushing slightly.
She had decided to accept him if he asked her on a date, but she didn't really know how to ask him out, since he didn't appear like he was going to. He did deserve a chance... but she didn't think it would be so hard to say it.
"I get it." Naruto pouted.
Sakura's eyes widened.
"You don't want me to ask you out anymore." His pout increased and he gave her the saddest puppy dog look she had ever seen him produce.
"What? No!" She burst out.
Her heart always melted at that look. It made her feel everything from sadness to guilt.
Naruto eyes widened before his smile slowly returned, even bigger than before - if that was possible. Her blush spread to her whole face, she could feel her cheeks burning.
"Forget it." She turned around quickly and went to open her front door. "Goodnight."
"Sakura-chan."
Her grip on the door handle tightened and she tensed up.
"Sakura-chan," Naruto repeated.
Slowly turning to look at him, she waited for him to speak.
"Will you go on a date with me?" He smiled.
"OK," Sakura smiled back, "Yes."
"Whoooooooooohoooooooooo!" Naruto shouted loudly.
Sakura slapped her hand to her face in embarrassment. "Oh you idiot."
He just grinned at her.
"Want to come in?" Sakura asked.
"Sure!" He laughed. "I can't believe it, I never stopped trying and it worked!"
"Yeah yeah," Sakura opened the door and let him in. "This is a one off."
Naruto grinned and skipped into the house. "And then I'll ask you every day until you agree to the second."
Sakura shot him an unamused look, but as she turned to shut her house door she couldn't stop the smile that formed on her face.
"She said yes?" Tsunade grinned. "You owe me such much alcohol."
Jiraiya sighed, he couldn't believe Naruto had actually gotten his teammate to go on a date with him. Whilst he was proud, he was slightly jealous, he'd now lost a bet and had to buy his teammate several drinks.
All it took was persistence huh?
"How about I buy you that alcohol at dinner tonight?" He smiled.
"No." Tsunade smirked.
"We could go on a double date with our students," he suggested.
"Are you kidding?" The Hokage laughed.
"No." Jiraiya pouted.
Tsunade continued laughing.
Author Notes:
This just came out of me being in a really weird happy mood. I wanted to write something happy. I might regret it later but I'm posting it right after I've written it! Even though it's a bit of a pain, I had to copy and paste it over another story document on my iPod because my email isn't working, blah blah blah. Oh well. It's just past 1 AM. Hopefully this is written well enough to be readable.
*Later Note* All of my NaruSaku Romantic Short Stories now go under the story name "Awkward Friendship and The NaruSaku Collection" on my page - though they're all longer than this one so far.
Thank you for reading! :)