Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters, enjoy!
"Remember the night I told you I loved you?" Naruto asked Sakura as they were strewn across their couch, Sakura with her face buried in her medical text, legs spread over Naruto's lap as he was sharpening his kunai.
Sakura let out a hearty chuckle at the memory, "Naruto, we were sixteen, stupid, and had just tried sake for our first time."
"Hehe, but you still said it back," Naruto flashed a playful grin.
Sakura rolled her eyes at the memory. They had just gotten back to the leaf village after unsuccessfully hunting down their old teammate, Uchiha Sasuke, and both of their moods had been hindered, so they decided to test out their skills to sneak into the Hokage's office to steal her sake. As it turns out, their skill increased tremendously since they were genin. They spent the night in Naruto's apartment, where many oaths were sworn to each other, and before Sakura knew it, Naruto had confessed his feelings. She felt love towards Naruto, but not the same type of feeling Naruto felt. She knew it was selfish, but since Sasuke had left her without his love, she took advantage of Naruto's love, she wanted to be wanted, to be seen as an outstanding girl who was not the same useless ninja she once was. He had kissed her, and she kissed back, but then he started laughing uncontrollably, and she threw up. Safe to say it was a good memory, but the memory helped Sakura realize that the people closest to her would always love her, but perhaps Uchiha Sasuke would never be one of them.
Naruto continued on his quest to bring Sasuke home, but his plans always seemed to fail, and after that night, Sakura had given up trying to bring him back, she told Naruto that the promise he made to her many years ago was worthless, and she didn't want Sasuke to come back. She knew her statement had displeased him, but he continued to try, until he realized it was worthless too.
The remaining members of Team Seven continued to live their lives, Sakura was becoming a great medical-nin, while Naruto continued to strive to be Hokage, and Kakashi was lazy as ever, or so he wanted people to think, but she and Naruto knew it was a façade, Kakashi was the least lazy person they knew. He trained with them whenever they all had free time, most of the time him and Naruto were on missions while she stayed in the village to work with Tsunade. She had noticed Kakashi's guilt for a while, knowing Kakashi focused more on Sasuke because of the sharingan, so this was the time to create a stronger bond between Naruto and him.
She remembered visiting Kakashi at his apartment, Pakkun curled up in her lap…
"He's going to catch on you know." Sakura pointed out, eyes on Pakkun while stroking his fur.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Kakashi replied skeptically.
"Of course you do, Kakashi-sensei. When we were genin you spent more time with Sasuke, teaching him the chidori, we both know you and Sasuke had a special bond, and now you're trying to create a bond with Naruto." Sakura explained. "But its okay sensei, we both don't blame you for anything that has happened."
"You really are the smartest, Sakura." Kakashi sighed.
"I still do love you, Naruto." Sakura admitted. Although neither of them needed a verbal reminder, over the years they became family, never separated unless duty called.
"I love you too, Sakura-chan." Naruto smiled.
They lived together in a two-bedroom apartment now that they were 18 and both jonin, they could afford their own place. Sakura wanted to be independent from her family and since Naruto was always alone in his apartment, something that had been bothering Sakura for years, so she ended up staying there for company most of the time, they moved not too far from Naruto's old apartment. Ino was angry with her that she chose him over her, but their bond was too strong to break.
"C'mon, its Thursday, we got to meet Kakashi-sensei and Sai for dinner." She stated as she got up, stretching her back in the midst.
He didn't want to go back, he'd been a rogue ninja for years now, and every time Naruto tried to bring him back, deep down there had been a pang of guilt. Now that Orochimaru was dead by his hands, and had found Itachi, and left him for dead, he felt empty. There was nothing more to his life, and once he stared at Itachi's unconscious body, he couldn't help but to think what now?
Naruto's words have been on his mind lately, the dobe actually managed to get inside his head so much that it was quite bothersome. But even as annoying as his teammates were all those years ago, they were the closest thing to family he's had ever since the incident. Sasuke thought long and hard about returning to the leaf, and since he never actually caused harm to the village, and with Naruto's determination and friendship with everyone, Sasuke was sure he would be allowed back in the village, not necessarily welcomed, but Sasuke didn't mind.
So here he was, late in the night, searching for Naruto's place. Sasuke felt like a complete idiot searching for the dobe, but he knew his old place probably wasn't his anymore and he just didn't have anywhere to go. He knocked on the door of Naruto's apartment, but when the otherside of the door opened, there was no blond haired annoying boy. On the other side of the door was a woman who looked quite taken by his presence.
"Uzumaki Naruto, where is he?" Sasuke demanded.
"Naruto actually moved a few months back," an elder man told him from next door. "Now he lives a few blocks over, apartment 4."
"Hn." Sasuke mused and walked towards the location the elderly man told him.
From what Sasuke remembered, Naruto had always lived in that crummy apartment and Sasuke couldn't figure out why he would move, Naruto had all his essentials at the apartment he just left. Whatever.
Sasuke walked a few more blocks, until he reached the battered 4 on the door. He knocked. No answer, typical of the dobe, he was probably in the midst of a ramen coma, unable to answer. Sasuke waited a few more minutes until the door swung open, revealing a bed headed blond, rubbing his eyes and yawning.
"What can I do-" Once Naruto realized who was on the other end of the door, he became mute.
"S-Sasuke?" He questioned as if he were in a genjustu.
"Yeah, it's really me you dobe." Sasuke replied, monotone.
"Um, um why don't you come in?" Naruto offered after staring for too long.
Sasuke walked past him into a bigger apartment, but something was off. There were more feminine details to the interior than a man should allow, which raised quite a few questions from Sasuke.
"Can I offer you some tea, water, sake?" Naruto tried not to stumble over his words.
"Teas fine."
Once the kettle started screaming, he heard a door open.
"Naruto, it's the middle of the night, what the hell are you-" The feminine voice stopped once she realized who the guest was.
Sasuke glanced over his shoulder at the voice, to see his old teammate Haruno Sakura in the middle of the hallway, wearing a way to big shirt for her, obviously it belonged to Naruto. He felt a pang of jealously, but why should he care? He did try and kill her once.
After she stared openly at Sasuke for a few minutes, she jolted back to the room.
