A/N: Hello all my faithful fans ;) Thank you so much for all the reviews, follows and favorites from chapter 1 of this story. Even if it was just a tip of the iceberg of the entire story, it gave me the psyche to update this story by a day earlier than I normally would have updated it. So here's chapter 2 of "Adventure in Nadeshiko." Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Finally Back to Normal
The blonde haired young man and his pink haired teammate had finally reached the last level of the stairs leading from his apartment. The streets of Konoha were not as full as they normally were, something which puzzled Naruto. He was sure that they would be full of people going up and about their activities, but looking closer he noticed that he could actually count the number of people who were walking on the streets at the looked at his teammate in a way that asked for an answer to this strange situation. Sakura noticed her teammate's stare, so she shook her head and then asked him, "What?" She had a feeling that she knew what Naruto was going to ask, but still it was better not to jump into conclusions too soon.
"Ano, Sakura-chan, why are the streets deserted today? I thought they would be full of people since the war is over and everything is back to normal. Don't tell me everyone is still asleep or something. Wait, that means they are lazier than me! That's a good thing then, right?! Right?!" He implored from his teammate, his eyes beaming in what was pride. Sakura was amused by this antic, since she did not expect Naruto to use this as a chance to praise himself by comparing himself to other people. She smiled a little then said, "You know that doesn't really change anything, Naruto. You're worse than them since you've always been a heavy sleeper, and they just started right now, "she explained a little, then saw Naruto pout a little in disappointment. She chuckled a little, finding further amusement in Naruto's little stunt, but decided to cheer him up a little, "But at least you're dropping that habit, your room looked a lot tidier than it normally does when I dropped by to call you. I hope it stays that way." Naruto's pout slowly turned upwards into a large grin, the grin Sakura had been so used to seeing in their years as a team. She would never tell anyone, of course, but that grin always cheered her up whenever she was having a bad day. It made her look forward to seeing Naruto a lot, and whenever he said anything while having that grin on, it made her believe that anything he wanted to do was possible. Heck, that was the same grin that was on his face when he promised that he would bring Sasuke back to her all those years ago, and even though it took a painfully long amount of time, sweat, blood and tears, he had finally managed to bring Sasuke back to Konoha. Back to his home. Sakura smiled a little, then a small part of her wondered. What if he confessed to her while plastering that grin on her face? Would she accept him, or would she just push him away?
Her thoughts were cut short when she saw a hand in front of her face. "Sakura-chan, are you okay? You look a bit dazed," Naruto asked her, while waving his hand in front of her. A worried look was on his face, and Sakura realized that she had been so caught up in her thoughts that she had momentarily stopped walking. Embarrassed a little, she said, "Oh yeah, sorry I think the heat just got to me a bit." It wasn't entirely false, since the sun was at its peak in the sky, and Sakura knew from her time as a medic that staying in the sun too much could give someone heat stroke. She decided to use it as a leeway, knowing that Naruto had no way of finding out that she had laid. Naruto's worried expression, however, did not leave his face. "Really, Sakura-chan? If you're too hot you can just remove your top-" Naruto stopped momentarily, realizing a moment too late what he had just said. Sakura threw him a death-glare, and Naruto felt a cold sweat break on his body. He remembered that time in the war when he had promised that he would never cross Sakura again after seeing her strength once she had released her Strength of a Hundred Seal. He slowly walked backwards, and immediately Sakura hit the ground where he had previously stood, leaving a small crater in her wake.
"NARUTO!HOW DARE YOU TELL ME TO REMOVE MY TOP?! IF YOU WANT TO SEE ME NAKED I SWEAR TO KAMI THAT IS THE LAST THING YOU WILL EVER SAY AND SEE!" Sakura shouted at him while chasing him. Naruto, who did not desire to be on the end of Sakura's wrath, ran as quickly as he could, while apologizing profusely," I'm sorry Sakura-chan I didn't mean to! I was just trying to make you feel better!" "LIAR! YOU'RE JUST A PERVERT AND I SWEAR TO KAMI IF I CATCH YOU YOU'LL WISH YOU NEVER LEFT THE HOUSE WITH ME!" Sakura added on, but somewhere within her she felt herself laughing. It had been long, too long actually, since she had felt herself being so free with her teammate, and having a good laugh. She had been cooped up too long in the hospital for her own good, realizing that in there the only thing she ever heard were the screams and moans of patients, plus instructions and reports from her workmates. But here, with Naruto, she could be herself, and have a good laugh without having a care in the world of who saw her. Kakashi, Sai and Yamato had all seen how she had acted around Naruto, and although they were taken aback at first, they all remarked that Naruto always managed to bring out her true self. Suddenly, she saw Naruto stopping, and stopped herself too. The anger she had before was replaced by a feeling of surprise.
Slowly, Naruto turned to her, before smiling and saying to her, "Actually, you know I wouldn't mind dying if you were the one who did it, Sakura-chan." Sakura had a perplexed look on her face, so she relaxed her fist, before looking at the man who was in front of her. "Oh and why is that?" she inquired, expecting to land a punch on the man for any ridiculous answer he would give out. "Because I know Sakura-chan will pump my heart and bring me back to life!" Naruto joyfully exclaimed, grinning widely at Sakura-chan. Sakura was taken aback completely by this answer, and the look she gave Naruto was one of amazement. "What's with that look, Sakura-chan?" This time it was Naruto the one to ask her. Sakura's memories went back to the time of the war, when Naruto had lost Kurama to Uchiha Madara. Sakura remembered the distress she felt when Gaara brought back Naruto's dying body to her and Tsunade. She was so shocked that Naruto had ended up like that, since she had put so much faith in him. She had always thought that Naruto would never end up in a condition like that, and immediately began her attempts to revive him. Her chakra ran out midway through the process, and she resorted to manually pumping his heart, while giving him CPR. Eventually, it was the combined efforts of Minato and Obito which managed to bring back Naruto, and Sakura thanked Obito, even though she knew he was an enemy. She did not expect Naruto to have found out about that and bring it up in a situation like this, so she slowly opened her mouth to say what she thought was best in that situation.
"Y-you….how did you know….?" Sakura stuttered, and she felt her cheeks turning red due to embarrassment. The more she thought about that situation, the more and more it seemed to her from another perspective that she had in a way "kissed" Naruto. Even if technically it was her job as a medic and his teammate, she had not noticed it, but back then she had tasted Naruto's lips. It was an odd thing, since in a way he had taken her first kiss, albeit unknowingly. Naruto looked at her pensively then said, "Oh, that? After the war was over I went to Sunagakure to have a talk with Gaara and exchange a cup of sake with him." Sakura immediately interjected," Sake? Naruto you took sake?! But… you just turned 18!" Her worry, of course, was not exactly misplaced; she just did not want to see Naruto turn into a drunk like her master, Tsunade. "It was just a small request that Gaara had made when I met him after I was revived. He said we should exchange a cup of sake once I became Hokage, but seems like he couldn't wait. The first thing he did when I got there was welcome me with open arms and offer me a cup of sake. Then while we were just talking and catching up on recent stuff, he told me about how you were so determined to save me that you pumped my heart with your bare hands and even gave me CPR," Naruto calmly explained to Sakura. The surprise that was on Sakura's face lessened a little, but Naruto continued, " Ahh, I wish I was conscious back then, then I could have tasted Sakura-chan's lips. She tasted mine but I can't even remember what hers tasted like."
A blush immediately broke out on Sakura's face, and she turned beet red in embarrassment. "Hmph, t-that's a good thing then. Besides all I could taste was ramen, so it isn't really something that new, "she tried to defend herself. Naruto smirked at her. "See! You do remember! Well now I can confidently claim that I've taken Sakura-chan's first kiss. Lucky!" Naruto remarked while his whole face beamed with happiness. Sakura, meanwhile, noticed the red on her cheeks had not faded, and she hoped that Naruto would not notice it while he remained in his blissful state. " Don't be too happy ,you idiot! That was only once! Either way let's get going, we'll be late in getting to Tsunade-sama's office." Sakura said, hoping that this would get Naruto's attention away from the fact that in a way, he had taken Sakura's first kiss.
Naruto replied, "Oh! I almost forgot about that. But first before we do that, we need to take care of Sakura-chan's heatstroke. Sakura chuckled, since he did not expect that he was still hung up on that fact. She was about to object and say that she was quite okay and he didn't need to make a mountain of a molehill out of her "heatstroke", but Naruto immediately stopped her by telling her," Wait just a moment, Sakura-chan. I'll be right back. Make sure not to move from here, okay?" She nodded, and immediately Naruto dashed away like a man possessed. Sakura moved to the fence and leaned her back against it, deciding that it would give her a chance to relax. She had used more energy than she had expected chasing after Naruto earlier. Wondering where Naruto had gone to, Sakura looked at the sky, deciding that it would help her clear her mind about what had happened. What Naruto had revealed to her earlier about knowing that she had put all her best efforts into healing him had struck her like a bombshell. Naruto joyfully exclaiming that he had stolen her first kiss was indeed flattering, and she decided not to take it seriously, but somewhere in her heart, she wanted to believe it had really happened. After all, she did remember tasting his lips and they did indeed taste like ramen, but contrary to what she had thought about ramen before, she noticed that she did not mind the taste at all. I wouldn't mind tasting it again, she thought to herself.
True to his word, Naruto showed up again almost five minutes later, which Sakura thanked the heavens for since she would not have time to dwell on what she had just thought to herself mere moments before he had showed up. In his hand, she noticed that he was carrying a small white paper, and she wondered what was inside the bag, before he reached out inside the bag and pulled out a white stick that had been wrapped up at the end with a soft paper. The paper was slightly moist, and Sakura immediately realized that it was ice cream. Her heart was filled with warmth, since she honestly had not expected Naruto to get her ice cream simply because she had lied to him about having heatstroke earlier. "Sorry it took a while. But I got you this. I hope it makes you feel better, Sakura-chan," Naruto said, handing her the ice cream. Sakura sighed a little. There it was that genuine and honest care for her well-being. Sakura used to dismiss it as Naruto being a generally good-natured person, but ever since Sai revealed to her the extents to which Naruto goes to make her happy, she could simply not ignore it anymore. The man had genuinely fallen in love with her. Sakura felt her heart being weighed down by sadness, a sadness that stemmed from the fact that she had never noticed, yet Sai was only a member for a few months, and he had picked up on Naruto's feelings for Sakura. She extended her arm and reached out for the ice cream, while saying, "Thank you, Naruto." Then it happened.
She felt the tips of her fingers brush against Naruto's fingers, and suddenly something jolted throughout her entire body. Naruto felt something similar jolt throughout his body, and immediately he got embarrassed and withdrew his hand. Of course he had held Sakura's hand before, but this time things felt a bit different. It was in such a casual setting, and he realized that it had been a long time since him and Sakura had actually managed to spend time together like this without anything or anyone interfering. They were the only two people in the world at the moment. Sakura quickly drew the ice cream stick away from Naruto, and before she removed its wrapping it she heard him saying, "Make sure you finish that soon, Sakura-chan. Or else the sun will make it melt and it will stain your top. And then now you'll really be forced to remove your top since I doubt you'll want to walk in Konoha while there is a stain on your clothes." Sakura smiled a little, realizing that the anger she felt at his former statement regarding her removing her top due to the overbearing heat had all but disappeared. "I know, thanks again," she remarked, and the two set out for the Hokage Tower once again.
As they were walking Sakura realized that she had been taken completely off-topic, so she decided to resume her earlier explanation to Naruto. "As I was saying earlier, Naruto, "she made sure to put extra emphasis on his name so that he would not think of interrupting her this time, and after hearing the gulp that came from him, she sighed satisfactorily before continuing, "the reason why the streets are deserted is because most people are spending time with their families after the war. You realize most of the shinobi who were in the war had left their families back here in the village, so since most of them came back bruised and battered, their families were so happy that they had returned, so they are making sure that they spend as much time as possible with their families." She explained while taking a bite out of her ice-cream. It was really cold, but Sakura realized that she needed the cool down after spending most of her time in the hospital and away from the outside world for quite some time now. Naruto nodded, and then he realized that he had not asked Sakura something important, something that he had not asked her in a while now. "By the way Sakura-chan, how are things in the hospital going? I realized that I haven't been seeing much of you so I guess it must be really tough huh?" Naruto inquired, while looking at Sakura as she ate away at her ice cream. He realized just how beautiful she looked as she gracefully took in each and every bite. The ice cream left wet trails on her lips, and as she licked them away slowly, Naruto noticed his growing curiosity to find out what her lips tasted like. Maybe they tasted like that strawberry flavored ice cream she was currently helping herself too. Naruto shook his head to clear his mind of the thoughts he was currently having, realizing that it wasn't a good idea to think that at such a time.
"It was a bit taxing at first, due to the large influx of patients that were being admitted due to the war's aftermath, but at least it's getting better and better of late. More and more patients are being discharged, and luckily enough less than five have actually passed away in the midst of surgery," Sakura began explaining, but soon her faced changed into a rather gloomy expression. Naruto did not need to be told what it meant. He realized that for a doctor, failure was a terrible thing to experience whilst at work, and this involved the loss of a patient. More so, losing a patient after putting all of one's efforts into saving the said patient's life, and it still wouldn't be enough. He moved his hand and slowly patted the small of Sakura's back, in an effort to cheer her up. Sakura looked up into his sky blue eyes, and weakly smiled back at him, before resuming her earlier explanation," Sorry about that, Naruto, I got a bit carried away. The number of patients has decreased, and now I think there are less than 20 who are still admitted in the hospital. Hopefully by the end of the week, all of them will have been discharged, and then finally I can get a good rest after working non-stop all those hours," Sakura concluded. Naruto withdrew his hand from her back, and then gave her thumbs up before saying, "Go go Sakura-chan! Make sure that you finish soon so that I can go on a date with you!"
Sakura sighed a little before saying, " Naruto, you do realize that you might probably be away on your mission by the time that I'm finished at the hospital, so how exactly will you manage to ask me out on a date?" Naruto gasped in shock, and said, "Oh no, you're right! Well then I guess that I better hurry up with my mission so that when I get back I can give you all the time in the world!" He stopped talking momentarily, and realized the magnitude of the words he had said. Sure he would give Sakura-chan all the time in the world if he had the chance, but there was still one issue that he was not sure was still standing in his way. Him. Naruto's thoughts immediately switched to a dark-haired Uchiha, and he realized that Sakura might prefer to spend time with Uchiha Sasuke rather than with him. He was a bit disheartened by this fact, but decided that he could give himself hope by the fact that Sakura did not seem interested in Sasuke at the moment. This could be due to the fact that she had been caught up in her work, but still, she was spending time with him, right here and right now. That had to mean something, right? Following this train of thoughts, Naruto asked Sakura, "Sakura-chan, where's Sasuke right now?" The question itself wasn't wrong, since Naruto had genuinely not seen much of his best friend once he had come back to Konoha. He had only caught glimpses of him once or twice in the streets of Konoha, and even though Naruto had tried calling out to him, he did not respond. This wasn't exactly foreign since Sasuke did not exactly tend to be all chummy with his friends, but the look that Naruto had seen on his face both times had indicated that he had been very busy. Naruto assumed that he was probably heading out on missions or something akin to that, but something in his gut told him that it was something more.
"Oh, you didn't hear? Well that serves you right since you spend all your time cooped up in your house sleeping and eating ramen," Sakura reprimanded him, "Tsunade-sama put Sasuke-kun in charge of the ANBU." Naruto's eyes almost popped out of their sockets at this revelation. "SHE WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTT?" It was his turn to now shout at Sakura, and she had to hold her hands in front of her to calm him down. After he had stopped shouting, Sakura noticed that he still looked visibly shocked, so she decided to explain, "Well, you know that the Uchiha were in charge of the police force before their demise, right?" Naruto nodded, since Tobi had explained this to him when he had told him, Kakashi and Yamato at the land of iron, while he told them the truth about Uchiha Itachi. "Tsunade-sama decided that punishing Sasuke-kun for his crimes would not be nearly enough, so she decided to place him in the ANBU, and made him a unit leader. She said that even if Sasuke was an international criminal, he was still an outstanding prodigy so it would be better if his skills were put in service of the village. Makes sense now?" Naruto took in every word that Sakura said slowly, and realized that it all made perfect sense now. The police force were no longer, and it would be a bit difficult reviving them with only one Uchiha remaining, so it fits better to put him in an ANBU unit, since they were akin to a police force of the village. In his head an image of Sasuke wearing an ANBU outfit popped up and he laughed a little of how ridiculous it looked.
It was then that Naruto had realized just how cut off from the world he had been in all the weeks after the war, and he was so grateful that Sakura was here with him now. He desired to learn more and more about his team and friends, so he quickly added on, "What about Sai and Kakashi-sensei? How are they doing these days?" "Oh, Kakashi-sensei is sort of like Sasuke's mentor in the ANBU. Well, even though he doesn't exactly go out on missions with them, he gives Sasuke pointers once in a while, and the two of them spend their free time honing each other's skills in the training grounds." Naruto nodded, and realized that due to his sensei's lazy nature, such a job actually fit him perfectly. Sakura continued, " Sai became Root's leader, and now they've been recognized as an official body of Konoha by Tsunade-sama. They don't exactly work hand-in-hand with the ANBU, but still they get their fair share of espionage missions and assassination missions, so I think that Sai is doing pretty well. He was Danzo's top agent, so there wasn't really much fracas when he was appointed leader. Everyone accepted him without question. Unlike with Sasuke-kun, where there are still some people in his unit who don't want to accept him as a leader. So he has to work hard for their acknowledgement," Sakura concluded. Naruto nodded, realizing that he was actually happy that Sai had finally found his place in Root. He wasn't too happy with how some of the treatment that Sasuke was getting, but he realized that it was understandable, so he decided to let it slide. Sakura finished the last portion of her ice cream, and looked at Naruto appreciatively, before letting her arm that was catching the ice cream previously fall to her side. Naruto, who was looking at her intently, did not miss that.
Immediately, he felt a desire to hold her hand in his. It looked so soft, and he realized just how it would fit perfectly into his. He was certainly no stranger to holding a girl's hand before, having held Hinata's hand in the war to transfer Kurama's chakra into her. But still, something held him back. Was it because this was the girl who he had adored, and yearned for nearly all his life? Making such a bold move here would be the first step to him finally confessing his undying love for her, but was it really worth it? How would Sakura herself perceive this action? Would she let him hold her hand, and let him walk hand-in-hand with him? Or would she simply brush his hand away and continue walking nonchalantly to the Hokage Tower. Naruto decided that such a question was better answered if he actually made a step forward, so slowly, he raised his arm…..
A/N: To be continued. Make sure to read and review guys ;)
