Sakura was on her own, up on the rocky cliffs above Konoha. She twirled around gracefully but powerfully, like a lioness in motion. With every movement, every flick of a joint, she shattered the boulder before her a little more. She was still seeing red from her…encounter with Naruto, but now a pocket of dread was staring to manifest itself in the space behind her eyes, an uncomfortable pressure that made her dizzy. And the thing is…she knew exactly what the pressure was caused by, and why she was hiding out among the stones.

Lee.

She had no idea how he'd react. He would definitely find out about Naruto's hospital stay, and it would only complicate things if she tried to lie. But she couldn't imagine what he'd say or do about it. She remembered that he was the mildly jealous type when the two of them were younger and stupider, but what about now? Now that their six month anniversary was coming up? Now that Lee was so sure of Sakura's affection? Would Naruto ruin everything that Sakura had been working on for two and a half years?

She didn't know.

And the moment that she was dreading so terribly was coming much too soon.

"Sakura-chan? Funny meeting you way up here."

She stopped her destructive dance to turn around and face him. She tried to smile, but it just came out looking like a guilty grimace. "Oh, I was just trying to be…erm, alone."

Lee winked at her. "Then I'm probably in your way, then, aren't I?"

Sakura wrinkled her nose. "When are you ever in my way, stupid? Come over here and help me smash this to smithereens." She did her best to keep her tone light, but even Lee could notice the slight gargling noise in the back of her throat.

"Roger," he said cheerfully, bounding to her side. Neither of them hit very hard anymore—they unconsciously slowed down to make their time together last.

After a few minutes of silence, Lee cleared his throat and smiled over at his girlfriend. "So…have you seen Naruto-kun anywhere around? He was supposed to come home today, and Shikamaru-kun said that he saw Jiraiya-sama going towards the Hokage Tower, but no Naruto-kun."

Sakura could tell from his voice that he didn't know anything that could get Sakura in trouble prematurely. That being said, the idea of what she had to tell him made her growl audibly, and she punched the rock so hard that it created a crater a foot deep and seven inches in diameter.

Lee gaped at her, for the first time noticing that the boulder was riddled with similar holes.

"Sakura? Is something wrong with Naruto-kun?"

"He's in the hospital," she replied, hitting the rock again, thanking God that she had invested in the gloves that protected her knuckles from too much harm. Lee noticed that she didn't look concerned at all.

Lee, however, couldn't help but be concerned. "What? Why? What happened to him?!"

Sakura smirked humorlessly. "Well, maybe because I, er…kinda shattered his pelvis with my knee and several of his ribs with my, um, fist?" She said it like a question.

Now that he knew Naruto was in no immediate danger, Lee started to have fun with the boulder again, jumping and twisting before kicking the stone. "Really?" he asked, chuckling. "What did he do this time?"

Sakura watched as he spun around to kick the stone again. She took a shallow breath. "He kissed me," she whispered very quickly, hoping he wouldn't quite catch that.

And then there was a loud crash, and there was no more boulder. All that was left was a cloud of sand and Lee's cracked calf. Sakura ducked down to fix his leg so that she wouldn't have to look into his eyes for this section of the conversation.

"He did what?!" Lee squeaked as she rolled down his legwarmer. At that moment, his body registered the pain and instability caused by his broken leg and he collapsed to the rocky floor.

"He kissed me, Lee-kun. I'm so sorry." She set his legwarmer to the side and started working on the fracture. It wasn't too deep—Lee's body had a high tolerance for pain and damage.

"Where?!"

Sakura forced out a laugh. She could tell that Lee's eccentric side was starting to build up and take hold of him. And she honestly didn't want Lee going all Five Gates on Naruto's sorry ass. "On the lips, Lee-kun. On the lips." Once the bone clicked into place, she looked up to see him furrowing his brow and looking decidedly away from her.

"Lee-kun? What are you thinking about? You're not mad at me, are you?"

Lee coughed and jerked his gaze to hers. "No. Honestly, Sakura-chan, I'm trying to mentally calculate exactly how much trouble I would get in if I were to give Naruto-kun a swift kick in the jaw."

"With your strength, that would probably kill him."

"And with your strength, Naruto-kun's probably sterile by now."

Sakura hadn't considered that problem when she'd shoved her knee into his groin. She'd just wanted him to get the hell off of her. "Oops."

"Indeed."

"So, I've got to go to the hospital now…to set things straight with Naruto. Wanna come? Get your two cents in?"

Lee chuckled. "You know that boulder that…isn't with us anymore?"

"Yeah?"

He frowned and lowered his eyes. "That was my, er, two cents."

"Ah. I see. I'll let him know."

Naruto POV

I did it. I did it, I did it, I did it. I kissed her. I, Uzumaki Naruto, kissed Sakura-chan. My first kiss. Her first kiss. I did it.

I'd known that she would probably be pretty angry at me for stealing her first kiss, but I didn't think she'd go as far as putting me in the hospital. But hey, she'd obviously gotten stronger while I was gone. I was so proud of her as I listened to the monotonous beeping of my own heartbeat that I didn't even mind the fact that I was so hurt.

When I opened my eyes for the first time after blacking out, Sakura was standing at the foot of my bed, her arms crossed and her mouth curved downward in a steady scowl. Okay…she was still angry. Quick Naruto! Time to turn on that foxy charm of yours!

"Heeeeeey, Sakura-chaaaaan."

"Hey, Naruto," she grumbled.

I grinned, and she exhaled sharply through her nostrils. I pictured steam coming out, like with a bull.

"Naruto," she said, letting her expression soften, "I'm sorry I hurt you. It's just that I—"

"Sakura-chan," I said, closing my eyes and pursing my lips just a bit. "It's okay. I understand."

"How could you possibly understand? You just got home."

"I know, I know. But I still really think that things can work out…four us."

"Naruto, what are you going on about? What's gonna work out?"

"You and me, Sakura-chan…you and me."

"Wait, you don't mean us together, do you?!" Her voice was suddenly full of disdain and disgust, and I opened my eyes to see that the scowl was back. I shivered at the honestly murderous look on my Sakura's face.

"Of course I do, Sakura-chan! I've been thinking about this a lot, and I want you to be my girlfriend! Seriously!" My voice was full of conviction; I really needed her to get this through her pink head.

Her eyes softened again, but even I could recognize the defiant set of her lips. "Naruto, you and I are never going to be together. Not. Like. That."

I knew she was going to say something like that. I just knew it. Damn it.

"Still stuck on Sasuke, huh. Figures" I lowered my eyes, trying to get over this blow as quickly as possible. It wasn't really a surprise. I'd just never really put myself out there like this before.

"Sasuke?" her voice sounded shocked, like it was amazing that I had come to that conclusion. Was I really that big of an idiot to her?

"Naruto, Sasuke isn't the one for me." Her voice was soft, as if she was being very careful not to say anything that could hurt me. Almost…unsure of how to put something.

"Then what's wrong with me?" My voice was too loud for a hospital, and I saw her wince at the angry demand. When she spoke again, all the tender caution was gone; she spoke without notice of my reaction.

"This is not about you. I already have a boyfriend, Naruto."

Silence.

I stared at her, horror plainly written on my face, and she stared out the window, smiling contently. Probably thinking about that freaking boyfriend—I hated to think the word, it felt like a terrible swear word—of hers. Smiling about him. I wanted to barf, I wanted to scream, I wanted to wake up from this terrible nightmare. The only thing I managed to do, though, was let out one long growl from the back of my throat, and she didn't even notice.

I think we stayed there quietly for around ten minutes—more or less, maybe, I don't know—before I finally managed to cut off the growling that was less-than-human and plain and simply asked, "Who?"

She looked back at me and grinned like a little kid with wonderful news, like she was only too happy to be able to be the one to tell me. "Lee," she said, making the word sound like she was talking about God.

My reaction…was maybe a little…mean.

"YOU'RE FREAKING DATING BUSHY-BROWS?!"

Her face crumpled into a disapproving mask. "Would it kill you to use his real name?"

"Why the hell are you going out with BUSHY-BROWS?! I thought—but you—dodging the hearts—caterpillar eyebrows—creepy haircut—but—but—but!" I scrambled for some way to make sense of this, and after a few seconds came up with the only possible answer. "Pity dates, right? Pity dates."

"Naruto!" She said my name like it was a burden to have to pronounce. "Pity dates?! Are you serious? If you must know, I am in love with Lee-kun!"

Her words didn't break my heart like they should've. No, I think they just broke my brain.

Lee-kun. She said Lee-kun. She's stopped saying Sasuke-kun. And she'll never say Naruto-kun. She really is like Granny Tsunade. And I'm like Pervy-Sage. I missed my chance with her. She found a Dan. Lee-kun. She called him Lee-kun. Damn it.

(A/N)

Lawl. Sakura broke Naruto's brain. Oops. And Lee blew up a boulder with his leg. Cuz he's awesome like that.

And the big question...Is Naruto sterile now? The answer: Nope. Tsunade-sama was able to put his man-parts back together, but she had to wash her eyes out with soap and water afterwards. Lawl.

Much Ai to all of you.
Miyazaki A2