AN: So, I did't exactly get the amount of reviews or hits I was hoping for on the first chapter. 15 hits, only 15 hits! Did I just post at a bad time of day? I thought I might post the next one and see what happens. I will not be posting this often in the future. I realize that the first chapter is very vague and, most likely, confusing. I wrote it that way. Here is where the real story begins. I'm sorry this isn't much longer than my first chapter. I promise I'm working on making the other ones longer. I would like to thank my only reviewer, Astrocam. Now, on with the story!
I apologize for the repeated postings of chapter 2, my computer and the site were not getting along. I'm also going to clarify something, the two chapters are time gaped. The second chapter occurs before the first. This story will jump frequently but only forward from now on and not by huge leaps.
The sun shone brightly down on the village, it was a beautiful day in Konoha. Naruto, not surprisingly was making his way toward his favorite ramen shop. He could see his friend and teammate Sakura walking toward him from the opposite direction. Her eyes were closed at the moment, her face turned up toward the sun. Apparently, she was enjoying the sunshine.
Naruto couldn't help but smile at his teammates antics, noting that the sun was making her pink hair even brighter than usual. It is understandable then, that the girl was named for the cherry blossoms so familiar to Konoha in the spring. When they had been younger, Naruto had had a crush on the pretty girl, but, as the two had grown up, he had settled into a comfortable friendship with her.
Sakura's lips broke into a grin as she saw her favorite blonde, knuckleheaded, friend. "Good morning Sakura-chan." He called out, as they got closer.
"Good Morning Naruto-kun." She called back brightly.
Together they walked into the shop and took seats next to each other on the stools. "You seem to be in a particularly good mood this morning Sakura." Naruto commented after they ordered.
"Oh, I guess that's because Tsunade-sama has given me the next few days off. We've been working rather hard lately." Sakura said with a smile.
"You deserve a break Saukura-chan." Naruto said as the roman arrived. Naruto made a show of breathing in the steam that rose from bowl of hot noodles. Saukura laughed at this. She truly had missed her blond teammate in the years he had been gone for training. Naruto began inhaling his lunch as Sakura picked at hers in a more girlish fashion.
The pink haired Konochi thought about the two other, currently missing, men in her life. One, of course was only temporary. Their sensei was simply out on a mission. The other was a little more permanent. No one had really been able to get a grip on where the missing Uchiha was or what he had been up to since he had chosen to walk away from the village. However, they had a good idea of what his goal in all of this was. Sakura still held hope that their missing teammate would return, or more likely, be returned to her.
Shaking her head to clear that line of thought she turned back to Naruto, who had already finished his fill. "One of these days you are going to burst your stomach eating like that." She said with a giggle.
Naruto could only look at her with a slightly sheepish face. A light giggle from the other end of the shops bar made the two of them turn to see a woman with long, straight, brown hair. She was leaning forward, eating her roman quickly, as though she did not want them to know it had been her who giggled. The place was empty though, who else could it have been?
Turning back to their conversation the two quickly forgot the incident all together. Soon, it was time for them to head off in their own directions, ready to complete the tasks they had planned for the day.
Later, Naruto made his way around the grocery store, grabbing what he needed to restock the shelves in his apartment. Can you even call it grocery shopping when a majority of the items are instant roman?
He was currently in the produce section, debating what fruits he wanted to pick up. Upon encouragement from his friends Naruto had actually been better about keeping at least some apples and such around his apartment. Today he decided that peaches and bananas looked good
As he was placing a bunch of bananas in his basket, he saw the woman from the roman shop again. She was looking at the melons, apparently trying to find one that was ripe. This time, he could see her face, as her hair was not pushed forward. There was nothing truly special about her; she had a pretty face, but nothing extraordinary. Shrugging it off as coincidence, he moved on to the next isle and did not give the woman another thought.
As the sun began to set, Naruto finally arrived back at his apartment, tired after a long day. As he walked down the hall toward his door he did a double take. Was that that woman again? Sure enough, long brown hair could be seen facing him as she placed a key in a door a few down from his own. Don't tell me she just moved in here. How strange is this?
All day Naruto had run into her. On his way to train, out around town with friends, on his way to the missions center….everywhere. The whole thing was starting to freak him out and now this. Sighing he opened the door to his own apartment and prepared for a relaxing evening, free of reappearing women.
"I'm telling you Sakura, it was so weird. It's like she was following me or something." Naruto recounted the previous day's events as the two of them walked to meet up with their other friends. Apparently, there was a new batch of missions and they were all going to check in together at the center.
Sakura laughed, "I'm sure there's nothing to it. If she's moved in near you, then you're probably going to see her more often than not.", she said trying to reassure her friend.
When they reached the missions center, their friends were already waiting. Shikamaru, Ino, Choji. Kiba, shino and Hinata were there. Approaching from the other direction were Tenten, Neji and Lee. Sai was probably hanging out in the shadows.
The center was busy, the new missions being distributed to the village ninja. Making their way to the tables each team inquired into any assignments they may have been given. While he was waiting his turn Naruto looked around at the familiar faces, his eyes landing on one that had become much to familiar over the last few days. "What are you doing here?" he asked the woman, not even thinking.
Sakura heard Naruto speak and turned to see what he was up to. Standing there was the woman they had seen at the roman shop. "Naruto." She said smacking him on the head. "Don't be so rude!"
The woman just laughed before saying "It's ok, I'm tempted to ask you the same question. Seems we've been running into each other, huh?" she asked, her voice was soft and sweet.
"You could say that." Naruto said, remembering to be a little more polite now.
"My name is Suki Sano, by the way." The woman said extending her hand. "It's been a while since I've been here in the village."
Naruto shook her hand as he said, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki and this here is my friend and teammate Sakura Haruno." At this, he gestured toward her.
"I see, it's very nice to meet you." Suki said with a smile, "You're both Chunin then?" she asked looking them up and down for a moment.
"Yes, we work with Kakashi Hatake, our sensei when we were younger." Sakura answered.
"Ah, the famous copy Ninja." Suki said with a smile. "You two are very lucky."
Just then, Iruka appeared out of the crowd. "There you are Suki. I thought I'd lost you." He said before noticing who she was talking to. "Naruto, Saukura, it's nice to see you." He said with a smile.
"Hey, Iruka sensei!" Naruto greeted enthusiastically making the older man laugh.
"I see you've met Suki here. She's going to be assisting me at the academy." He said smiling at the woman next to him. Seeing the time, he said, "Speaking of which, we need to be going now."
"It was nice to meet the two of you." Suki said. Looking at the thinning line in front of the two younger Ninja she added "I hope you get something good."
Waving goodbye the older Ninjas made their way out of the room.
AN2: Better? Worse? Please let me know, I really want this project to work out but I need to know what my readers think. I promise I read all my reviews and take the advice seriously. Press the pretty button, you know you want to!