~Chapter Two – Insomnia~

She couldn't sleep. Her recurring nightmares for the past few weeks were starting to take a toll on her. She had bags under her eyes, and, even after a full recovery from the war, she was still finding training to be difficult. It wasn't the physical drain earned from overuse of chakra anymore, it was the lack of sleep and the restlessness her nightmares had caused. If she tried, she could get a few hours of rest, but every single time she did, she would see that scene that tormented her. It played out in different ways every time. One time, she saw the boy being stabbed with a kunai over and over again, the blood that came out of his body dancing around him in the shape of droplets as the kunai moved back and forth. Another time, she witnessed as the Susano'o pierce his chest, right through his heart, lifting him up as if he was a trophy, his blood cascading to the ground with the grace of a beautiful waterfall. The images of the war wouldn't leave her mind, but they were twisted. Contoured in a way to torture her further. He always died, and his blood always covered her body. It was her guilt, she believed, that provoked said images. The war surely wasn't her fault, but similar outcomes to her nightmares could have occurred from his other encounters with Sasuke, those which were because of her and the stupid promise he made her. She was stupid, useless, and weak. And she couldn't sleep. And it tormented her every night. Unless he was with her.

If he was there near him while she slept, she slept soundly, comfortably, knowing he was right there next to her, alive and well. He was wonderful, much too good to her, and had offered to watch over her at night. It all started a little over two weeks ago. Naruto had invited her to some ramen, to which at first she said no to, but in the end decided to comply. After eating wonderfully cooked noodles, their excited and seemingly unending chatter took both of them to her apartment, where he was accompanying her to without intentions of staying. It was a cool evening, and wit Naruto's presence, she fell asleep in a moment of silence, her head resting comfortably on his shoulder. He didn't move a muscle, so as to not wake her. Instead, he admired her beauty, the way her chest rose and fell with each breath, how her lips, parted innocently, invited him in unknowingly. Her face looked so perfect to him. He wanted nothing more than to kiss this girl, on her forehead, on her lips. He wished he could wake up to see her like this every morning.

When she opened her eyes, he was still watching her. He chuckled and scratched the back of his head nervously when his blue orbs met green ones. She noticed the red on his cheeks and smiled, it was so cute.

"Oh, sorry Naruto. I didn't mean to fall asleep on you, she said, her voice heavy with sleepiness, sitting up. "I haven't slept in a while.

"Don't worry about it, Sakura-chan," he grinned, "you look really pretty while you sleep." She didn't say anything to this she just looked away. Failing to notice that she was actually just hiding her blushing face, Naruto prepared himself for the imminent, chakra charged punch to his face. It didn't come. "Um, how come you haven't slept well?"

She looked at him now, blush nearly gone. "It's nothing, just nightmares," she answered simply.

"Would you tell me?" Naruto asked timidly, trying to keep distance to hopefully dodge her burst of anger if he asked or said too much. She sighed.

"I keep dreaming about the war, and your fight with Sasuke, but it's different. You always die."

Naruto didn't say anything to that, he just looked at her in the eyes for a moment, where she could see both shock and sadness. He hugged her then, not caring if she reacted violently anymore. When he felt her arms wrap around him, he began murmuring soothing words in her ear, saying how she needn't worry, how everything is alright, and how he'll never leave her alone. Truly, he didn't understand what was going on with her. He knew she cared about him dearly, at least enough to make her lie to him just so he would stop chasing after Sasuke, but her behavior lately was both unexpected and confusing. He didn't know what to think, or what the best things to say or do were, so he just followed her lead when situations like this arose. Moments like these had happened often for the past couple of weeks she's been recovering. It always ended up with them hugging, very intimately, for what felt like hours. Once he believed they were going to kiss. Sasuke had been off topic, they'd been together the three of them, but when it was just Naruto and Sakura, he wasn't usually discussed. He would leave the village in a few days, and the whole 'bringing him back' thing started feeling like a complete fiasco.

"Sorry that I always end up clinging to you like an annoying child." She said softly, interrupting his thoughts. She pulled away from him, he already missed her warmth. She kept one of her hands on his, though.

"Sakura, you know I don't mind – at all," he said with a cheeky smile. "I do mind, though, about you not being able to sleep. You start working at the hospital again tomorrow, you can't be all tired!"

She giggled cutely at that, "Well, I guess it was good you were here, I slept like a baby! I'll definitely be fine tomorrow, now."

"That's it!" He yelled all of a sudden. "You sleep just fine with me here, so I'll just be here with you!"

"Naruto," she giggled, "you can't be not sleeping either."

"Then… I'll just sleep with you!" He stated innocently. Out of nowhere, he felt himself getting thrown off the sofa. "Near you, I mean! You know what I mean!"

That's how their routine started, Sakura would go to work, Naruto would do whatever he needed to do, and then they'd meet up, have some dinner together, and end up either at his or her place, to sleep. Naruto had moved his couch close to his bed and slept on it while she slept on his bed. At her place, Naruto first slept in the couch too, but after noticing how uncomfortable and how much of a sacrifice that was, she allowed him to sleep on her bed with him, since it's a big one. They'd both try their best not to cross the invisible line that divided the bed throughout the night.

Today, it was a normal day at the hospital for her. Kakai-sensei was one of her patients today, he had taken on a mission a couple days ago and had come back with a few nips and cuts from shuriken and kunai. She was healing his last few injuries when she heard a familiar voice from the direction of the door of the room.

"Morning. Can I have a minute, Sakura?" he asked, as serious as ever.

"Of course, just let me finish," she replied, coolly.

"How have you been, Sasuke?" Kakashi asked him, his only visible eye crinkled, signaling a smile.

"Better, I don't feel too uncomfortable." He didn't like giving explanations. "I'll be waiting by the entrance downstairs," he added and left.

"It feels kind of strange, having him around, doesn't it?" Kakashi asked, studying his former student's reaction. When she nodded wordlessly, he asked; "is something wrong between you? I expected to see you as happy as a pup when he came back."

"Not really, we just have a hard time reconnecting, I guess. It takes time." She smiled at her sensei, hoping to relieve some of his worry. "Well, that's that! All done. Try not to get stabbed anymore, will you?"

After Kakashi left, saying his thanks, she took off her coat and headed outside. The Uchiha boy she still had mixed feelings about waited for her by the door. He looked glorious, his hair a perfect array around his perfect face, his hands in his pockets, his posture easy as he leaned against the wall near the door. How he could look so good just standing there, would always be a mystery to her. When he saw her, he went ahead and opened the door for her. She thought of it as strange, but said nothing about it.

"I have a few things to say. I would like to talk over lunch. Join me?" He was trying to be as polite as he could, but even though he asked, he wouldn't accept no for an answer, they were having this talk today. Fortunately, and just as he expected, the pink haired kunoichi didn't hesitate to say yes. Her cheeks reddened and her eyes brightened up, just like he thought would happen.

She hadn't expected this, she couldn't help but smile and stupidly follow him to wherever it was they were going. She didn't even know where they were. Her mind was elsewhere. What did he want? What would he say? Why did he take her out to lunch? Why did she care this much? She realized the effect such a simple action of his had on her. Having lunch together, something she could do daily with Naruto and never freak out about it.

"What do you want to eat?" he asked, pulling her away from her train of thought.

"Just get two of whatever you're getting," she mumbled out nervously.

"I wanted to apologize," he began, looking at her in the eye, no expression evident in his opal gaze. "We haven't been alone since then, Naruto always keeps you all to himself."

"Oh, I see. Sorry, I've been busy with work and recovering. Naruto's company is great help," she explained with a smile playing with the ice on the glass in front of her she hadn't realized was there. "He helps me so much. He's so sweet," she rambled on.

Sasuke didn't fail to notice the sparkle in her eyes as she spoke of their blonde friend. "You two are getting along way better than you used to," he observed, a serious tone on his voice. Sakura took a gulp of water.

"We'll, we've been through a lot together since you left, it's only natural that we'd grow closer." She continued playing with the ice.

"I know."

The waitress brought their food, some kind of dumpling and some kind of soup. It looked and tasted delicious. They ate in silence, both feeling awkward, as if they were sitting on a table with a stranger.

"I'm sorry for back then." Sasuke pleaded, barely audibly. He kept talking while staring at his empty plates. "I wasn't myself. I hope you understand." He was a man of few words, but with those short sentences he conveyed a lot to her. She knew he was a different person now and it meant a lot to her to hear it directly from him.

"It was so hard to get over that, but I understood, always." She informed him reassuringly. "But hey, I wanted to kill you too, at one point, so I guess we're even."

"Why was that?" he'd wanted to know the exact reason for this for a long time. He hadn't expected Sakura to ever even think about the idea, what with her feelings for him and all.

"Because of him, Naruto." She paused for a moment. "It was heartbreaking. Watching him work so hard and fail. Working his ass off, endangering himself, even begging people to get you pardoned. All because of a stupid promise he made me. I wanted to put an end to it before he got himself killed for running after someone who…" she stopped abruptly, noticing she was losing her temper, anger suddenly flooding her senses. "I didn't want him to end up being the dead one. Not him. He's too good." She breathed in deeply and set her now broken chopsticks on her plate. Sasuke stayed silent for a minute, thinking about her words.

"Someone who what? Tell me, I want to hear it." Sakura noticed some emotion in his eyes for the first time since they were little.

"Someone who didn't care. Someone who didn't deserve to be cared for so much," she finished. A few tears danced in her eyes, but never fell.

"Thank you. Do you feel better?" Sasuke asked after a coupe minutes. His voice was different, he sounded concerned, or hurt, she couldn't really tell.

"Lots better, actually. Thank you for letting me get that out of my system."

"Should we get going then?"

"Yes, please."

On their way to the hospital, Sasuke had something else to ask; "There's one more thing, you made me curious. What was that promise?"

Sakura debated for a minute if she should say or not. It seemed like a lot of people knew already anyway, so she told him. "When you left, I begged Naruto to bring you back to me, while crying my eyes out." She felt very embarrassed about this moment of her life, for it was the start of a lot of hardships for Naruto.

"Hn. I'm here now, like you wanted. What did you want me so badly for?"

She wanted the earth to swallow her at that point. What was with these questions? Thankfully, for her, like a superhero, Naruto appeared to save the day.

"Sakura-chan! Sasuke!" She heard the familiar, always cheerful voice yell their way. She let out the air she didn't know she was holding in relief.

"Yo." Greeted Sasuke.

"Naruto-kun!" Sakura quickly moved to his side and instinctively linked her arm with his. Sasuke watched how they interacted with great interest. As soon as Naruto caught up to them, Sakura went straight to his side. His immediate response was a big smile, directed at her, and a slight redness to his face. Sakura started conversation with Naruto instantly, their chat seeming almost rhythmic, practiced, familiar. They asked each other about how they were, how their day was, and what they had done, before even directing a word towards him. It was fascinating, he wanted something like that for himself, he thought as we watched. Maybe with time she'd be that way with him, too.

"So, what were you guys up to?" Naruto finally questioned.

"We had lunch together. I kind of yelled at Sasuke."

"You kind of yell at everyone, Sakura-chan."

"I'm going to knock your brains out if you say that again."

"We were walking back to the hospital, Sakura has work." Sasuke interrupted, irritated.

"True, I better hurry back."

"I'll accompany you two!" Naruto and Sakura began to walk, leaving him behind with an incredibly annoyed expression on his face. She was his, he noted.

"So guess who I had lunch with? Hinata! She actually invited me!"

"Wait what? For real?!"

Their voices slowly became inaudible as they walked away from him. He couldn't stop himself from comparing their walking away from him to him walking away from them all those years ago. His friends had changed, too.

Thank you so much for reading! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. In the next one, the story starts to pick up the pace (NaruSaku wise).