Saving The World

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, it belongs to Kishimoto. If I did own Naruto the story wouldn't be nearly as retarded.

AN: Hey guys, not much to say apart from here's chapter and I hope you enjoy it! Please remember to leave a review after you've read it!

A Special Moment

After a couple of tense minutes of running full pelt across rooftops, Sakura finally made it to the Hokage tower. She didn't have much hope of finding Naruto in the tower itself, as about thirty seconds beforehand she had felt Naruto's massive chakra die down to its previous unnoticeable (and untraceable) level and move away from the tower at high speeds. Sakura had decided to still head over to the tower to find out what had happened to make Naruto release so much chakra.

Sakura landed, breathing hard, on the tiled ledge that ran alongside the windows of her mentor's office. She noticed immediately that all the windows were broken, but there was no glass on the floor inside the office. She deduced that whatever occurred had blown the windows out from the inside quite forcibly from the lack of glass in her immediate vicinity.

Sakura raised her eyes to look around the rest of the office and was met with the sight of her mentor, Jiraiya and Kakashi looking down with desolute stares.

Being careful not to snag herself or her clothes on the jagged glass around the edges of the window, Sakura jumped deftly into the room. She noticed that everything that wasn't very heavy in the room was pushed up against the walls on all sides, like something had pushed everything away from the centre of the room.

The three mentors lifted their gaze to acknowledge the teenage ninja, but before they could speak Sakura started firing off rapid questions at them.

"What happened with Naruto? Where is he now? Did he cause this? What did you do—" The incredibly worried Sakura was cut off by Tsunade raising her hand for silence.

"We told him about what the Akatsuki have done to the rest of the Jinchuuriki, including Gaara." Tsunade told Sakura with sadness in her eyes. Tsunade thought of Naruto like a grandson and she felt appalling having to make him this upset. She knew that it had had to be done for his safety but that didn't make her feel any better about it.

"I think that you and the entire village probably know that he didn't take the news well." Tsunade continued, eying the messed up room around her.

Sakura lowered her gaze. Naruto had returned to Kohona only this morning bubbly and happy like he always was and already there was something else upsetting him and making his life harder to cope with.

Sakura bit her lip to hold back a tear that had formed. Thinking about Naruto's life so far had had that effect on her recently.

'All through his life he's had to deal with incredible hardships because of the Kyuubi and this village. His unorthodox meeting with his parents for the first time was ruined by the fact that some of his most trusted people had held back who his parents were from him. Now on his first day back in Konoha in four years has been ruined because of more secrets held back from him. I won't keep anything from him anymore; when I find him and have calmed him down I'll tell him about Sasuke, no matter how many people think I should wait to tell him.' Sakura thought.

Sakura wiped her eyes quickly and looked up at the melancholy bunch of adults with a new look of determination in her eyes.

"OK I don't need to know anymore right now, I need to find Naruto. Where did he go?" she demanded forcefully.

It was Jiraiya that responded. "I don't know where the hell he's gone; I can't sense him at all. He must have sealed enough of his chakra so people wouldn't be able to find him. I do know that he's angry and upset so he will probably be in one of his favourite places where he can calm down." Jiraiya answered.

Sakura nodded and briskly walked over to the office window, already sifting through her memories for all the places Naruto could have gone to.

As Sakura went to jump out the window her mentor's soft hand on her arm stopped her. Sakura turned her head to see Tsunade with a worried look on her face.

"Sakura, Naruto was extremely upset and angry when he left just a few minutes ago. I'm not sure going after him now would be the best thing to do. Maybe you should let him calm down a bit and look for him in the morning?" Tsunade reasoned gently.

Sakura shook her head slowly and removed Tsunade's hand from her arm.

"I promised Naruto today that I would always be there for him when he needs someone. It sounds like he needs someone now more than ever and I'm not going to let him down, no matter what the risk." Sakura replied.

Without another word Sakura leapt out of the window, copying the actions of her blonde teammate from a few minutes ago.

Fifteen minutes later Sakura was becoming quite frustrated; she had been searching for Naruto in all the places she could remember him going since she had left the Hokage tower to no avail.

She paused for a quick breather outside a bustling night bar to think over the options again. She had already checked Naruto's favourite ramen bar Ichiraku's, that had been her first guess. From there she had gone to his apartment, then to the old Team 7 training ground and finally ended up searching fruitlessly through the village night life.

Sakura was getting annoyed with herself. Naruto was supposed to be her teammate and good friend and she didn't even know him well enough to know where he would go when he wanted to be alone or to think.

As she thought this, an idea shot through her as an old memory resurfaced from the time before the third Hokage was killed, before Sasuke and then Naruto left her; before all the trouble started.

It was late afternoon after a day of rigorous training for Team 7 and Kakashi had decided to give Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto the rest of the day off. Sakura, of course, made a beeline for Sasuke begging him to let her take him to eat somewhere.

As per usual Sasuke curtly declined and stalked off without another word, leaving Sakura and Naruto alone in the empty street. Sakura frowned, both in disappointment and anguish of being turned down by her crush yet again and also from the realisation that Naruto was almost certainly going to suggest that she go on a date with him instead of 'the Teme'.

Sakura was shocked when she turned around to see Naruto quiet and still for once, staring at the ground with a sad, serious look on his face.

Slipping into a soft tone that she didn't use very often with her blonde teammate, Sakura approached Naruto.

"Naruto is there something wrong? And what are you going to do with the rest of the day?" she asked Naruto inquisitively.

Naruto jerked slightly as she spoke to him. He had been completely lost in his thoughts; thinking he was finally coming to the realisation that Sakura was indeed in love with Sasuke, and that no matter how much he wished otherwise, he didn't really stand a chance.

There was a pause as Naruto's brain properly processed what Sakura had said to him. He turned to face her, his eyes still showing the sadness that he was trying hard to mask.

"I'm sorry Sakura I think I want to spend some time alone for now. I'll see you tomorrow." Naruto replied in a dull voice that Sakura had not heard him use before.

As Naruto began to walk off slowly Sakura called to him.

"Where are you going?" she asked without really knowing why.

Naruto didn't seem to find anything odd with the question and replied without hesitation; he wasn't one to keep secrets from his crush.

"I'll be up on the Hokage Mountain, on top of the fourth Hokage's head." He replied without turning around. "I feel completely free up there, away from everything and everyone. I go there when I want to think about things."

Neither of them met nor spoke to each other for the rest of the day. By the time Team 7 met up in the morning Naruto was back to his usual loud and obnoxious self and Sakura was too obsessed with trying to get Sasuke to notice her to remember to ask Naruto what was wrong.

Sakura closed her eyes briefly in repentance as she thought back to that day. She couldn't believe she had been so wrapped up in her love for Sasuke that she hadn't even cared enough about her other teammate to want to help him.

'At least I have a good idea as to where he is now.' thought Sakura as she jumped off in the direction of the Hokage monuments.

It took Sakura five minutes of running and jumping as fast as she could to reach the top of the Hokage Mountain. Sakura put her hands on her knees and panted heavily for a few moments, trying to get her breath back.

She stood up after her breathing had gone back to somewhere near its normal non-sporadic rhythm and looked around her. She was currently standing on the second Hokage's head she realised, so she turned in the direction of the Fourth's carved out face and lightly jogged across.

As the Yellow Flashes's face, 'And Naruto's father's face.' Sakura remembered with a jolt, came into view her hope began to fade. She couldn't see any trace of her upset friend anywhere from where she was standing.

Sakura decided to double check before she gave up and leapt across onto Naruto's father's carving. As she started to traverse the dome of the Fourth's head her spirits soared. Sitting on a makeshift ledge on the left side of the Hokage's face was her blonde teammate. Sakura smiled broadly, despite the situation, and ran towards him.

As Sakura neared Naruto she called out to him. "Naruto!"

Naruto turned around to face his approaching teammate. As Sakura reached Naruto and took a proper look at his face she jerked where she stood. She had expected him to be showing anger and him to shout at her, or to be upset or possibly even be crying. What she was faced with though was a completely emotionless shell of what her blonde friend's former self.

His amazingly bright azure eyes were dulled, his face had lost its usual happy glow; now looking a lot paler. As he met her eyes there was no recognition from him; no twitch of his mouth starting the smile she was used to him wearing when she greeted him and no mischievous twinkling in his eyes.

The two were motionless and silent for a few moments as sadness welled up in Sakura as she realised what must have been revealed to him at last.

Naruto finally spoke. 'Hi Sakura.' He said flatly, turning his gaze back to the night sky over the beautiful sight of Konoha lit up in the darkness.

Sakura flinched slightly at the absence of the usual suffix after her name. She didn't know why that hurt her as much as it did; when she was younger she would have been glad to not have Naruto refer to her in such a familiar way. Now she just wanted for him to change back into the young little boy that had been crushing on her back in Team 7.

'What?! Why do I want that?' Sakura thought irritably. She forced those thoughts out of her mind for now and focused on the reason she came to see Naruto in the first place.

"Hey Naruto, do you mind if I sit down with you?" Sakura asked tentatively.

Naruto's body didn't give away any reaction as he replied without turning around.

"Sure."

Sakura didn't hesitate and flopped herself down next Naruto, copying him by dangling her legs over the big drop in front of them. She racked her brain quickly, wondering how to get to the bottom of Naruto's problems without him closing up on her.

Naruto meanwhile was mentally snorting at the irony of the situation. Any other day he would have given a year's mission salary to have Sakura sitting with him alone up in this secluded place. However with what he was dealing with at the moment he would have preferred it if she had just left him alone to deal with everything himself.

Sakura decided to breach the silence between them.

"Naruto from the state of you I'm guessing you were told about the Akatsuki and the Jinchuurikis." She said softly.

Sakura stared at Naruto from the corner of her eye as she waited for him to reply. His cloak was parted now at the waist, flowing out on either side of him. She saw that he now wore some sort of battles sandals that seemed to attach to grey leg warmer looking things that travelled up his shins. On closer inspection she realised that the front part of the chaps were reinforced with something, protecting his shins.

She turned her gaze to the top half of his body. His cloak was now zipped up all the way from his waist to his neck, causing his high collar to hide most of his face from the side. His golden, spiky bangs were flowing gently in the soft wind and Sakura was filled the inexplicable urge to run her hands through them.

Before Sakura could berate herself again Naruto replied.

"You knew about it didn't you? About Gaara and the rest of the Jinchuurikis?" Naruto asked in the same flat voice.

Sakura lowered her head slightly. "Yes I did. Everyone did but we were under orders not to tell you or send you anything about it while you were training."

Naruto was silent for a moment before he replied. "Is that all I am to you?" he asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

Sakura's head shot up, looking at him. "What did you say?" she asked him quickly.

Naruto turned to face her and now she could see the hurt in his eyes.

"Am I just weapon to everyone here? News of my friend dying was kept from me so it didn't distract me from becoming stronger. Strong enough to control and use the Kyuubi to fight for the village."

The words were tumbling out of Naruto's mouth as he blurted out what he had been asking himself since he found out about Gaara. Sakura's eyes widened in horror as she realised what he was insinuating.

Naruto wasn't done yet though. "I-I thought that people were finally starting to recognise me for who I am. I didn't realise everyone still didn't trust me at all."

Sakura was about to interrupt until Naruto continued on in a much softer and quieter voice.

"By the time I left for my training trip I thought that maybe you didn't find me as annoying anymore and that we were actually starting to be proper friends. Do you still not care about me at all or is it that you see me as the Kyuu-"

Naruto was cut off by a hand connecting with his face hard enough to knock his head back. His head ringing and cheek burning, Naruto looked back at Sakura in shock to see her hand still raised after slapping him. She was breathing heavily and her face was contorted with a mixture of anger and sadness, the beginnings of tears visible in her eyes.

"Don't you dare say that." She yelled at him, shocking Naruto yet again. "You think everyone didn't want to tell you about Gaara? Even after we were ordered by Tsunade to not tell you anything about what had happened all of our group decided we were still going to find a way to tell you whatever the repercussions. The only reason we didn't is because Kakashi and Tsuande convinced us that it was only done for your safety and that allowing you to find out about Gaara could get you killed."

Naruto was wide-eyed watching Sakura go off at him. She had yelled and hit him a lot of times before but this was different. He could tell she was incredibly upset and hurt by what he had said in his moodiness and he instantly felt terrible that he had done that to her.

Sakura breathed in deeply to calm herself, bunching her fist on her knees now that she was kneeling in front of Naruto. She looked up at him again, her eyes now losing their anger and being replaced by more sadness.

"And don't you dare say I don't care about you." She continued, now in a softer but still hurt voice. "I thought I made it clear you're an important friend to me earlier today."

Naruto flinched as he remembered how she had cared for him when he had his embarrassing mini-breakdown. How could he have accused her of not caring at all, that couldn't have been an act could it?

"You have no idea how much I missed you while you were gone, especially this last year." Sakura continued. "Even more so after what happened with Sasuk-" Sakura stopped as she realised what she had just been about to say.

Naruto's eyes narrowed slightly at her words. "Something else everyone hasn't been telling me" he asked in a colder voice.

Sakura shook her head vehemently.

"No, what I'm about to tell you only happened only two months ago and I told everyone that I wanted to be the one to tell you. I wanted to tell you as soon as possible and this has been the first appropriate time to do so."

Naruto's anger was completely erased by her explanation, now replaced by concern as he saw his teammate looked upset about whatever happened to do with Sasuke.

"It's OK I understand." replied Naruto, turning to sit cross legged facing Sakura. "What happened with Sasuke?" he asked worriedly.

Sakura took a deep breath before retelling the events to Naruto. She knew that he wasn't going to take it well at all.

"Well about three months ago we received the news that Sasuke had killed Orochimaru."

Naruto's eye's widened again at this. "So what's he doing still-"

Sakura held up her hand to silence him. "Let me finish, wait until I'm done to comment." She replied.

Naruto nodded and settled back down to listen.

"So after we got word of Orochimaru's death Jiraiya used his spy network to try and find Sasuke location. About three weeks later Jiraiya was told that Sasuke was in an area quite near the fire country border. A retrieval team was immediately put together, which included Kakashi-sensei, two ANBU members, me, Lee and Neji."

"After a few days of travelling and following Sasuke's scent with Pakkun, Kakashi's summon, we found Sasuke and confronted him." Sakura broke off looking down.

Naruto reached across without really thinking what he was doing and put his hand on Sakura's knee. She looked up at him in surprise. Even by just gently touching her leg she could feel his heat starting to flow through her. Instead of becoming embarrassed by the slight contact she drew confidence from it and continued.

"Just by looking at him I knew that he had changed for the worse. His eyes were dark and haunting and I didn't feel any warmth from him at all. He looked into my eyes and I saw unbelievable hatred in them. We asked him about Orochimaru and told him to come back to Konoha with us. He laughed at us and told us he had no wish to come back to our 'weak and pathetic' village."

Sakura paused to look at Naruto's reaction. His hand that had been on her knee was now bunched into a fist on the ground and his eyes had filled with sadness yet again. Naruto had hoped that after killing Orochimaru that Sasuke would have changed and see the mistakes he had made. This was obviously not the case.

Sakura readied herself; this was the part of the story that would be the hardest for her to tell and probably the worst for Naruto to hear. Never the less, she continued.

"After he shot down Kakashi's proposals about coming back with us, I approached him by myself." Sakura said softly. "I told him how much I had missed him and wanted him back. I said that I would make everything OK for him and that...that I loved him."

Naruto tried to hide it, but Sakura noticed that he jerked slightly and a hurt look flashed across his face as she relayed what she had said to Sasuke. It was the second time she had seen him make that face today; the first being when he had promised her he would bring back Sasuke for her happiness. She would have asked him about it but she had to finish the story before she lost her nerve.

"When I confessed to him he laughed, saying that he didn't care about me or you or anyone for Konoha anymore. That he had cut his bonds with everyone. With that he disappeared and reappeared in front of me, thrusting his new sword into my chest. It was only Kakashi-sensei's reactions that saved me."

Sakura reached up and pulled her shirt down slightly from her shoulder, revealing a three centimetre scar just below her collarbone.

"Kakashi-sensei just managed to jump in knock the blade away from piercing my heart a moment before it would have. In the shock of me being stabbed through by Sasuke, Sasuke managed to get away from our group. That was the last we saw of him since we came back to Konoha because of my injury." Sakura finished looking down at the ground, shaking slightly as she remembered the moment that Sasuke proved he had broken the bond that they had had permanently.

Sakura looked up quickly as she felt Naruto's chakra begin to fluctuate. The air around Naruto started to glow orange and both his hands were bunched into fists, tightened so much that his hands were beginning to go white.

'I almost lost her.' Naruto thought in shock and anger. 'And it was Sasuke that almost killed her. I never thought he would go this far. I can't believe this.'

Sakura saw that Naruto was letting his emotions get the better of him just like what had happened in the Hokage tower. She quickly did the only thing she could think of doing; shuffling forward and cupping his face with one hand, raising his face to look her in the eyes.

As Naruto looked into Sakura's jade eyes he immediately calmed down, his chakra levels settling down into being held back by his seal. As he calmed down he began to blush as he noticed his proximity to the beautiful girl in front of him. Sakura didn't seem to notice as she spoke to him.

"Don't get upset Naruto, I'm fine now and I've gotten over it a bit I think." Sakura said, trying to console him.

Naruto studied her face and saw that she was trying to put on a brave face for him. He growled slightly and surprised Sakura by drawing her into a tight hug. As she was wrapped up by Naruto's arms, Sakura immediately felt calmer and inexplicably safe.

"No it's not OK." Naruto said, resting his chin on top of Sakura's head. "I know what it's like to be on the end of a killing blow by someone who is close to you. It's not something you just get over quickly. It happened to me four years ago and I'm still not totally over it."

Naruto tightened his grip on Sakura slightly.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through something like that. I promise I won't let anything like that happen to you again." Naruto said softly.

Whether it was all the emotions from the Sasuke incident she had kept bottled up, or the reaction from what Naruto had just said to her, Sakura's resolve to stay strong and keep herself in check broke. She melted into Naruto, clasping his cloak with both her hands and pulled herself into him. She smothered her sobs in his chest and managed to soak his chest within moments.

Naruto, meanwhile, was emotionally confused. He was still incredibly angry and upset about Sakura nearly being killed by Sasuke, but he was also happier than he could ever remember being at having the girl he loved nestling into him like she was now. Even though he could barely believe he wasn't dreaming, comforting the girl in his arms came first. He moved one hand to rub her back and used the other to run though her pink hair, whispering calming words to her like she had done for him.

Though she was still crying, Sakura was fully aware of Naruto's actions. Although she never, EVER would have even considered letting Naruto think he could be like this with her before, she completely welcomed it now. His warmth had enveloped her entire body and she could already feel herself calming down because of it.

She stopped crying but didn't take her face away from his chest, not really wanting him to stop. His hands on her back and in her hair felt amazing and she tightened her grip on him.

Not really considering what he was doing, only thinking about comforting his friend, Naruto tilted his head down and lightly kissed Sakura on the top of her head. He immediately pulled back blushing heavily at what he had just done, wondering if he could think of a way to get to away before Sakura punched him into the middle of next week.

Sakura was enjoying herself immensely until she felt Naruto's soft breath and then his lips on her head. Although Naruto couldn't see it, Sakura's face became redder than Gaara's hair as her brain computed what Naruto had just done. Instead of the indignation she expected to feel, a warm feeling came over her body and she moaned slightly in pleasure at the contact. She began to feel something that could only be described as lust and she knew it.

However before she could become shocked about that, she felt Naruto stiffen and loosen his grip on her. She deduced this was because he had realised what he had just done and was panicking.

'Stupid Naruto, always doing things without thinking.' she thought with a grin.

She felt him start to pull away from her by moving backwards, but she wasn't about to let that happen. She moved off her knees and wrapped her arms around Naruto's stomach, curling up in between his spread legs. She rested her head sideways against his torso and closed her eyes.

"Don't move, you're too comfortable." she murmured at him, her voice slightly muffled by his cloak.

Naruto smiled and blushed at the same time. He had no problem whatsoever not moving now that he knew Sakura didn't have a problem with it. He relaxed, bringing his outstretched legs in a bit to encircle Sakura's form and pulled Sakura closer to him with his arms.

His heart pounded as he felt her respond by snuggling up into him. He tried to calm himself before he got too excited.

'It's not like she feels like I do.' Naruto convinced himself mentally. 'She's just upset and needs someone to comfort her, that's all.'

The two teammates remained in this position for about fifteen minutes, by which point Sakura had drifted off to sleep and Naruto was becoming quite uncomfortable on the rocky ground, despite his happiness of how the situation turned out.

Naruto slowly disentangled himself from Sakura while still keeping her upright with his hand. He knelt next to her, gently prodding her shoulder to see if she was really asleep or not. When she didn't stir he sighed.

"As much as I've enjoyed this, it's getting kind of late and we can't just fall asleep without anyone knowing where we are." He said softly to the gently snoring girl.

Naruto gently slid his arms under her sleeping form, picking her up bridal style. As he stood up and looked at her, he smiled sadly.

'I'll probably never be able to hold her like this again, I wish it could've lasted longer.' He thought before gripping Sakura securely and by using chakra concentrated in his feet, jumped explosively off the Fourth's head and into space.

If Sakura had of woken up at this point she probably would have screamed bloody murder and then had a heart attack, as they were both plummeting down towards to village below them. Luckily Naruto knew what he was doing and his brow furrowed as he concentrated on another skill he had learnt on his training trip.

He unsealed a small portion of chakra from his seal, concentrating on putting as much chakra as he could into his feet. When he was about fifty metres away from the roof of a high building he pushed the chakra outwards from his feet, pushing against the air below him. The outcome of this was Naruto's plunge downwards slowing considerably as the chakra was trying to push him back up into the air.

Naruto landed softly on the rooftop, hardly causing a noticeable bump for him or his passenger. Unfortunately Sakura was a light sleeper and the bump, as small as it was, was enough to wake her from her nap.

She groggily opened her eyes to slits, gazing up to see Naruto's handsome face looking forward, not yet noticing she had woken. Sakura decided to keep it that way as she felt herself whooshing through the air in Naruto's arms. She blushed slightly as she realised she must have fallen asleep up on the mountain and Naruto was carrying her home.

Sakura kept her eyes open as unnoticeable slits and gazed at the young man carrying her. Her brain was still half asleep as she was still immensely comfortable, even flying through the air. Maybe it was because of her drowsy state that as she continued to gaze at her carrier her body began to have a reaction.

'He's actually unbelievably hot.' She thought, trying not to let her blush show. 'Even Sasuke wasn't this good looking when I saw him a few months ago, and I thought he was amazing!'

Her mind rocked at the revelation that she had just admitted that someone was hotter than Sasuke. And on top of that, that person was Naruto!

Sakura mentally shook her head. 'I've gotta think this through in the morning, I'm just going to enjoy the moment.' She thought, closing her eyes and relaxing as Naruto glided through the air with her.

To Sakura's disappointment they arrived at her house a few minutes later. Naruto thought for a moment at her doorstep and decided it would be nicer to not have to wake Sakura up. So he jumped deftly up onto Sakura's wide windowsill on the second floor and used a simple skill of manipulating chakra to unlock her window. Checking quickly that no one was around to think he was breaking into a house with an unconscious girl in his arms, Naruto pushed through the curtains and stepped into Sakura's room.

He paused and took a quick look around her room; he had never had the luxury of ever being in it before. What he could see in the gloomy light was a surprisingly messy room. The shelfs and desk covered with opened scrolls and notes, while the floor was littered with random medicinal books.

Sakura cursed to herself that she had decided not to clean up her room this morning.

Naruto decided that it was a bit rude to look around someone's room without permission, so he carefully manoeuvred his way around the mess on the floor to her bed. The bed was nothing really special, apart from the quilt and pillows being a bright pink. Naruto smirked as he pulled back the covers; as much as Sakura acted violent and loud with everyone she was still a girly girl.

Naruto lay the pretending to sleep Sakura as carefully as he could on her bed, propping her head up slowly on her pillow. He then proceeded to draw the quilt up her neck, tucking her into bed.

Sakura was somewhere between feeling like she was in heaven and feeling incredibly embarrassed. She hadn't had anyone do this for her in a long time; she had stopped her parents doing it long ago since she said it 'wasn't befitting of someone trying to become a ninja'. However it did feel amazing having someone be so gentle and caring with her. She had never expected Naruto to be able to show so much care, but her surprises weren't over for tonight just yet.

As Naruto stood up and went to leave through the window he stopped, staring at the peaceful face of the girl he had been in love with for years. His heart ached as he thought about all the things he wanted to tell her but couldn't, because he knew their friendship would be as good as over if he did. He couldn't stand it though, not saying anything. He decided that if he couldn't say it to her when she was awake that he would say it to her while she was asleep; he wouldn't get many chances like this again.

Sakura could feel Naruto standing next to her still and hear his soft breathing.

'What's he doing?' thought Sakura, fighting the urge to open her eyes. 'Is he looking at me?'

Sakura nearly jumped as Naruto spoke softly and quietly next to her.

"I'm sorry I can't say this to you while you're awake, but the risk is too great." Naruto whispered. He took a deep breath, wondering why it took this much courage to say this to someone who was asleep and couldn't hear him.

"I'm not sure if anyone's told you this before, but you are incredibly, amazingly beautiful. Not just on the outside, but on the inside too. You only thought of making me feel better when it should have been the other way around. Thank you."

And with that, he lowered his head and kissed Sakura gently on the forehead, just as Sakura had done to him when their positioned had been reversed.

Naruto blushed heavily and quickly moved away to the window. He jumped outside, closing the curtains and then window behind him. He breathed out, feeling better after confessing a bit of how he felt to Sakura, albeit with her being asleep.

Naruto grinned slightly. 'God I'm such a pussy.' He thought ruefully. With one last backwards glance at the window behind him, he jumped away in the direction of his apartment.

Back in her room, Sakura had her eyes opened wide and was blushing like a maniac. It had taken all of her self-control to not react as Naruto said those wonderful things to her and then kissed her on the forehead. Her heart had gone into overdrive and was still beating ferociously now.

'Where the hell did that come from?!' she thought, trying to calm down. 'I know that he had a sort of crush on me back when we were a full Team 7, but does he really think what he said? And what does he mean 'the risk is too great'?'

Despite her confusion, Sakura was practically radiating happiness. She had never thought of herself as exceptionally pretty before. The fact that someone had called her 'amazingly beautiful' made her feel indeed amazing.

Needless to say, with all the emotions and confusion running around in Sakura's mind, it took a long time for her to fall asleep.

In a small dark cave somewhere in the fire country, an incredibly thin, read headed man who was strapped into a large machine coughed slightly. Behind him six similar figures all with bright orange hair were laying on the ground next to each other, apparently asleep.

A slim, purple haired young woman approached the thin man.

"Nagato, are you okay?" she asked tentatively.

The man slowly waved a hand in dismissal.

"I'm fine Konan; don't worry about me so much. Focus instead on the preparations."

The man's purple, ripple-patterned eyes glowed slightly.

"Tomorrow we will invade Konoha."

AN: Again sorry about the later than expected update. Like I said before, the end of school is incredibly hectic! Hopefully this slightly longer chapter makes up for it though. I hope the NaruSaku moment was OK for everyone, remember it's my first try at anything like this! Sorry about the lack of action in this chapter, but as you can see there will be some epic action very soon;) As always, any questions you have about the story please feel free to ask me and PLEASE REVIEW!

P.S - IMPORTANT: I'm aware that in one of my Author's Notes I said something about Kakazu and Hidan being dead. I'm sorry about making that mistake so I'm going to clear it up: No one from Akatsuki has died. Also in my story's timeline Sasuke took a lot longer to kill Orochimaru and is only now forming his team. He has not confronted Itachi yet. Any other questions about anything pelase fire away.

Thanks again

Have a good one.