Chapter 4

A Heartfelt Trip

"She's taking too long!"

Naruto groaned in exasperation, while he had positioned himself on one of the walls that was just at the gate that led into the village. Once they had left the Hokage's office, Naruto had suggested that they make haste for the gate and depart immediately for their mission. He felt a sudden rush of excitement and eagerness overcomes his entire body, as he had not been on a mission like this since forever. Well, it was certainly a good change of pace from the lazed out life that he had been living everyday till now, and he was ready to start out as soon as possible.

However, his teammate, Sakura, seemed to have other things on her mind. She had told Naruto to head to the gate first, while she went and dealt with a meager issue before being fully ready to set off for the mission. Naruto, slightly surprised by this, asked her what she intended to do and if he would come along with her to assist her so that she wouldn't take too long, she turned down his offer of assistance. Naruto was about to protest, but Sakura, having expected this, as she knew how stubborn Naruto was sometimes when it came to her, immediately waved him goodbye and departed from his presence.

10 minutes had already passed, and Naruto felt impatience gnawing away at his insides. He certainly did not like being kept waiting in situations like this, and he started tapping his fingers on his elbow. Naruto closed his eyes and began wondering what was taking Sakura so long, and then, the image of a raven haired Uchiha appeared in his mind.

Naruto's eyes suddenly jolted wide open, and then he came to a painful conclusion. Sakura had probably gone to tell Sasuke goodbye, having decided not to tell Naruto since she knew that Naruto could not, for the life of him, tell Sasuke where he was going. Well, the two of them were best friends, that went without saying, but there were some things that were better kept to themselves rather than revealing them to each other. Besides, Naruto would probably want to brag about his mission to Sasuke once he had returned to the village, therefore telling him goodbye would definitely kill the surprise.

Naruto smiled sadly, as it finally hit him. Sakura had definitely gone to see Sasuke off, and with how the Uchiha had managed to redeem himself after Naruto beat some sense into him during their battle at the final valley; there would be a chance that he would probably hug the kunoichi goodbye. Team 7 was Sasuke's family after all; well his only living family, after the last members of his clan died off in the war, in Uchiha Obito and Uchiha Madara. It wouldn't be too far-fetched for him to hug Sakura goodbye after all that had been said and done and done, and for one maddening second, Naruto had an image of the two in each other's arms, saying things like, "Take care," and "See you later."

Well, to say the truth, he had expected this ever since the Uchiha had returned to the village. Sakura still held feelings for the man, evident in the way she confessed in front of Naruto and Kakashi before the final battle between Naruto and Sasuke, and how she shed tears for him, pleading for him to come back. Naruto had known, all along, that his own feelings for Sakura would always cause him to suffer because of her feelings for Sasuke, but yet he had still chosen to love her anyway. He had known that if he had chosen to walk along this path, he would suffer immeasurably, but somehow, he still held hope, and he knew that the pain was definitely worth it for the girl he loved. With this thought in mind, he allowed himself to smile a little over the sadness that had overcome his expression, and decided to wait for Sakura patiently.

"Naruto!"

He did not have to wait very long this time. Her voice broke the train of thoughts that was running through his mind, and he looked up to see her running towards him from the opposite side of the road. He smiled nonchalantly at her, and then waved at her to hurry up and join him so that they could leave.

As Sakura approached him and he was getting a clear and clearer view of her, he noticed that there was something on her back. It was a bag. A medium-sized bag, for that matter, and from the material that was used to make it, he realized that it was a camping bag. Odd, hadn't she been to see Sasuke off? So what was the deal with the bag? He got confused for a moment, but waited for her to reach him so that she could clear his confusion.

"That took you a shorter time than expected."

Sakura suddenly stopped in her forward motion.

"Wait, what?"

Naruto raised his back from the wall he was currently resting on so that he could get a better look at his teammate, who seemed as confused as he did over what he had just said.

"Weren't you seeing Sasuke off?"

Sakura was taken aback by what Naruto had just told her. Honestly, just how much did he think that her whole world revolved around the Uchiha? She balled her hand into a fist, and felt the sudden urge to knock the blonde shinobi over his head. While it was true that she (might) still have held some lingering affections for their teammate, it wasn't as much as she had in the past. In the past, while they were still genin, she may have actually done what Naruto had just suggested she had been doing, but she wasn't the same old girl before. But this time, things were different. Entirely different. Naruto had not realized that yet, and for some reason, Sakura felt a bit hurt by his sentence.

"Why would I be- Forget it. If you really must know what I was doing, then I was making sure to get some supplies since I knew that you would be too hyped up for the mission that you would forget the most important thing."

Naruto felt his mind become more and more jumbled up by what Sakura had just said, so he asked again, with a bewildered expression on his visage.

"What did I forget?"

Sakura sighed a little, and then placed her hand over her head. Her other hand, which was still balled up into a fist, suddenly released itself. Well, she had expected this to happen, at any rate, since her blonde haired teammate was an idiot. Well, sometimes he pulled through, but most times he was just that, a dunce that was not able to read the mood or atmosphere. She couldn't be angry with him after that. After a few seconds of silence where Naruto just stared at Sakura curiously, she lowered her hand from her face then said.

"Well, you seem to have been too dense to figure it out, so I'll tell you. We are going on a mission to Nadeshiko, and we don't know how long we'll take on the mission, right? So I thought it would be best if I carried personal effects, like tissue and toothpaste plus a few bottles of water in case we get parched along the way. And a few clothes too, in case the ones I'm in become too filthy and I need to change them. I also carried medical supplies in case one of us gets injured along the way and they need emergency medical treatment. That's it, that's what I was doing all the time while you were waiting for me here."

Naruto nodded his head in understanding, finally getting a grasp of the situation and why Sakura had decided to take her sweet time in getting there. For some reason, he felt immensely relieved that she had not decided to spend her last moments in the village seeing off Sasuke and telling him that she would be back soon, but of course he would not tell her that. It would be too selfish of him. Still, he felt a bit guilty about having such feelings of envy towards their raven haired teammate. He was not supposed to feel this way, but sometimes he could not help it, and at those times he loathed himself for not being more elated that Sakura was happy loving Sasuke.

He grinned at Sakura, and flashed her one of his trademark thumbs-up, as a sign that he had finally gotten his head around the matter, before something else popped up in his head. Actually, it would have been better if he would have not mentioned it at all, but well Naruto was really an idiot sometimes.

"Sakura-chan, do you really need all that stuff? I mean it's not like we'll be out of the village for long, I don't think you should carry all those personal effects."

Sakura felt a vein pop in her forehead, and this time she could not restrain herself from smacking Naruto over the head. Naruto winced in pain, and rubbed the spot over his head where Sakura had just landed her fist, before finally staring into her eyes again. She was furious, and Naruto realized that he may have landed into hot soup already, even before the mission itself had already started. Well, he was already used to this so many times before, but this time Sakura herself seemed extremely angry. Naruto realized that he may have crossed the line a bit too far this time.

"For Kami's sake, Naruto, I'm a girl! I need to take care of my personal hygiene more than you, you know.I swear sometimes you come off as the biggest baka in the world."

Naruto smiled meekly, as he awaited another punch to land from the pink-haired girl. Well, he had not expected the answer to be that simple. True enough, he had not exactly taken such a long time on missions before with his female teammate before, so he really did not pay attention to the amount of luggage that she carried on each and every mission. This time, however, was different. They were heading into an unfamiliar territory, so it was uncertain how long that they would take heading there and even heading back to Konoha. Sakura had certainly taken no chances in getting herself ready for a mission of such magnitude. Well, Naruto felt a bit mortified that he had not thought this far ahead, but well; Sakura was always smarter than him, so he couldn't really help it.

Sakura, on the other hand, felt a bit better after socking Naruto in the head. Well, she knew that the man was a bit dense in matters regarding females, but she felt a bit special, since he tended to act this way around her and not the other kunoichi in Konoha. True enough, there were plenty of other beautiful girls in Konoha, amongst them her best friend Ino, who was stunningly beautiful since she had fair skin and her blonde hair was definitely a plus one in any one's eyes. However, Naruto seemed to treat the rest of them indifferently, as he held no particular opinion of them. He viewed them all as part of the big family that he had of Konoha, and each of them was an important part of his life that he could not afford to lose. However, with Sakura, things were entirely different. He could act as goofy and as free as he wanted, and no matter how many times Sakura reprimanded him, he was not angry at her in any way. He was still the same idiot that he was when they were first placed in the same team, and that hadn't changed a little bit over the years. Even though the death of his master Jiraiya had caused him to start looking at things in a much more level-headed manner, he was still the same old Naruto when he was with his pink-haired teammate. Somehow, this matter made Sakura feel at ease. Out of all the things that had changed in her life as she grew up, Naruto was the one constant factor in her life that never changed. He was her blonde idiot.

"If it makes you feel any better, I promise I won't get myself injured during the mission. Besides, I heal really fast these days now that I've gotten Kurama's chakra completely under my control, so I definitely won't be a bother to you!"

Sakura sighed again. Leave it to Naruto to try and patch up a situation after creating a certain sense of awkwardness between two people. Well, at least he was trying to make her feel better after offending her in some sense, so she could at least take on his efforts. They weren't exactly good enough though.

"I guess you're right about that. But I don't think it would hurt to be careful. Besides, you may need more delicate care such as stomach upsets from eating something bad in the forest, and I don't think Kurama knows how to heal an aching stomach." Sakura remarked, but in some part of her she felt a bit sad. She knew that Naruto made a valid point, since after mastering the chakra of the Nine-Tails completely at Turtle Island, his healing speed had sky-rocketed. Normal medical ninjutsu seemed like such a fluke to him at the moment. She felt a bit sad that she wouldn't be able to take care of Naruto as much as she had in the past whenever he had gotten himself injured, no matter the level of the injury. Still, she wanted to be there to take care of him in any way possible, meaning she would not give up so easily.

Naruto pouted at her playfully at her statement, his hands lowered in a show of disappointment. Sakura knew he was joking however, so she let him continue, "Sakura-chan, you know I'm more careful than that! I won't just put anything I see in my mouth!"

"Oh no, I'm not buying that Naruto. When you were helping me, Ino and Chouji collect medicinal herbs for the war, you decided to check out which ones were the correct ones by tasting them! I mean who does that!"

Naruto's memories shifted to the time when they were sailing to Hidden Cloud, and remembered when they had made a stop at an island that was rich in medicinal herbs, and there he had run into Sakura, Chouji and Ino, who were on a mission to collect herbs assigned to them by Tsunade. Naruto had decided to help them out, since his team had to let Gai-sensei recover from his bout of seasickness, but when Ino had SPECIFICALLY told him what exactly to look for, he discarded her information and decided to use his own, unorthodox method to look for herbs. Which involved…yes, tasting each and every plant on the island and finding out which one had the same taste as the plant that Ino had shown him earlier. This later cost him the use of his chakra as they were attacked by a group of Rogue Ninja that had the same objective as them in acquiring medicinal herbs, but for sale.

"Well, that was-" Naruto started, but then Sakura placed a finger to her lips, which was an indication that any further protests were not allowed. She smiled, and then said, "I think that's that. I'll be carrying the medical kit. Besides, what happens if I get injured?

"That won't happen!"

"What makes you so sure?" A curious Sakura asked, although she had a feeling that she might have figured out the answer before it escaped his lips.

"Because I'll definitely protect you, Sakura-chan!" Naruto was beaming at her, his smile as bright as the sun that was currently overhead, while one of his hands was at the back of his head.

Sakura could not bear to look at his extremely vibrant face at the moment, so she shifted her gaze to a lamp post that was next to them, and silently muttered, "Baka."

"Well, shall we go then?"

Naruto removed his hand from the back of his head, and then raised his fist into the air, before shouting, "Yeah!" With that, the two teammates exited the village and began walking towards Nadeshiko village.

As they were still on the path leading out of the village, Naruto raised his head and let out a moan of discomfort. Sakura did not fail to notice this, as she was standing next to him, so she asked him.

"What is it this time? You forgot something?"

Naruto looked at Sakura, then pouted a little and said, "Well, yeah. I didn't want to raise this earlier when we were leaving the village since it could have set us back by some time, but when you said that you carried stuff, I realized that I didn't carry any personal effects for this mission, so it might set us back a little. Sorry about that, Sakura-chan."

Sakura looked at Naruto for a few minutes, taking in the disappointment that was registered on his expression at the moment, and then let out a chuckle. Truly, if she left him to his own devices she was not sure just how far Naruto would be able to make it. Naruto saw her chuckling, and then thought that she was laughing at his mistake, so he exclaimed at her in dismay.

"Saaaaakura-chaaaan! It's not funny! We may have to spend time in shops shopping for my stuff and then we'll be set back in completing the mission!"

Sakura's chuckles died down, and then she said to the blonde, "No, it's not that, Naruto. I mean you shouldn't really have any problems even if you didn't carry extra clothes, right? You're always in that orange jacket and pants so I don't see any need to change into anything more."

"Hey! I do have other clothes like this, you know! It's just that orange is my favorite color so all of them happening to be the same color as this one. I do change my clothes Sakura-chan!"

Sakura blinked in surprise, taking in the slight bit of information that Naruto had just revealed to her. In all her years of knowing him, she had come to learn a few things about him, but she had never actually known what his favorite color was. She had always thought that he had chosen to clad these orange jumpsuits because he had a terrible sense of fashion, not because it was his favorite color. Not that she minded the clothes though; they seemed to fit him so perfectly with that overly bright personality of his. Orange was the color of the sun as it set, and he was like the sun to her, plus most of the residents in Konoha.

I see. So orange is your favorite color then.

She smiled a little at this, and then turned to Naruto, preparing to tell him something that she had not told him ever since meeting him at the gate. Well, it had to do with why she had also decided to take her time preparing for this mission. She had foreseen this predicament that Naruto would fall into, therefore she had decided to act accordingly. She wasn't his teammate all those years for nothing.

"Well, Naruto, the truth is, I didn't just go back to get my personal effects. As I was heading to my home I decided to pass by your place, and also get some of your clothes and stuff."

"YOU WHAT?"

Naruto was flabbergasted, and his mouth was opened wide in surprise. Sakura held up her hands in defense, because Naruto looked as if he was about to eat her up right now. Unbeknownst to her, the blonde who was beside her was beside himself with joy. Never before had he expected Sakura to actually watch out for him to this extent. She had gone to limitless extents for him before, each time more than the previous time, but this blew all of them out of the water. Naruto beamed at her, and she found herself smiling back at the ear to ear smile that Naruto had just shot at her.

Lowering her hands, she replied to Naruto's rather loud question, "Well, like I said, I passed by your house and picked a few of your items that I thought would come in handy during the mission. Well, actually I found the door was unlocked so I just let myself in. Then I went straight to your room, it was actually still in the same clean state you left it in this morning, and took a few of your personal effects, placed them in my bag and locked the door behind me."

Next thing Sakura knew, she was being enveloped by an extremely sturdy pair of arms, and a patch of blonde hair blocked her view. She shrieked a little because of the sudden gesture, and then she felt her feet leaving the ground. She felt herself spinning in mid-air, and then realized that Naruto had just held her in a tight hug and was currently twirling her around in bliss, while laughing heartily.

"Thank you so much Sakura-chan! You're a life-saver! I don't know what I could do without you!"

Naruto exclaimed in joy, while spinning the pink-haired girl around him. Sakura held onto his arms for life, because she did not want him to suddenly let go of her in a frenzy or slip from his grip and fall to the ground below them. Her nostrils got the waft of Naruto's scent, due to their close proximity, and she found the scent actually pleasing. Naruto's eyes were closed and his mouth was open wide in laughter, and all of a sudden Sakura became aware of how dangerously close their faces were. Well, Naruto had definitely grown taller than her in his training session with Jiraiya, meaning he had dwarfed the pink-haired kunoichi, so the fact that he had raised her like this meant that the two were on the same height. Sakura found herself staring at his face, taking in the blonde eyebrows, and the whiskers that adorned his cheeks. They were surprisingly….cute. Suddenly, she felt her cheeks growing scarlet, and frantically shot her gaze away from him. The sudden jerk of her face made Naruto become aware of what he had just done.

His eyes slowly opened to meet the face of his teammate, and he was met with the sight of her fair cheeks. There was a slight tinge of red on them, and Naruto wondered what had caused that. However, what really startled him was the fact that he realized that he had the girl in his arms, and could feel her body pressing up against his.

He gasped a little, and then released the pink-haired girl almost immediately. Sakura yelped a little, before her bottom collided harshly with the ground below her. Naruto frantically rose his hands and began waving embarrassedly, as he had just ashamed himself twice in front of the apple of his eye.

"Ow-"

"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan!"

Naruto made a step forward to help her get off the ground, but then his instincts stopped him, telling him that if he took a step closer to Sakura he would be in for another world of pain. She rubbed her bottom, then got up from the ground and dusted her behind which had just gotten dirtied by her sudden collision with the ground beneath her. Once she had steadied herself, she looked at Naruto, who noticed that the tinge of red that had been on her cheeks previously was not there anymore. Naruto then realized just what had transpired between the two of them. For the first time in his life, he had hugged the girl of his dreams, something that he thought would never happen to him.

Sure enough, the two had shared a hug before, but back then, it was Sakura who had hugged Naruto instead.

He had just returned to the village after talking with Nagato of the Akatsuki, and convincing him till he revived all the villagers of Konoha. Sakura, alongside the other Konoha shinobi, had eagerly awaited his return, and once he had appeared, on the back of their master, Hatake Kakashi, she walked towards him silently, while feeling anger and relief well up inside her. She was angry that Naruto had taken such a risk upon him fighting the leader of the Akatsuki, and relieved that he had managed to come out of the whole matter unscathed. So she knocked him over across his head, habits that she had for a long time now around him but she found difficult to drop, and once he had fallen to her arms, she slowly raised him and enveloped him in a warm hug. At that moment, Naruto was visibly shocked, as the expression on his face looked like that of a man possessed, and he looked totally out of place while he was in Sakura's arms. However, his insides were screaming with joy, and he felt as if he was on cloud nine at that moment. He was not sure whether he was supposed to hug her back, so he let his arms fall freely to his sides, while enjoying the embrace of his Sakura-chan.

Now, here back to the present, he had just hugged Sakura. He had also gone as far as spinning her in the air, something he was sure that happened between couples, as his mom had told him about how Minato had hugged her in ecstasy and raised her in the air once she had broken to him the news about her pregnancy. Well, Naruto had just done the same thing to Sakura, while it was for an entirely different (and somewhat silly reason), and she had not protested yet. In fact, she had let him hold her for a few moments, and once he had let go, she had not made any attempt at showing her disconcert with the matter. Did that mean something? Naruto thought to himself, while looking at his teammate.

Sakura, on the other hand, who had been pleasantly flustered by Naruto's actions, cleared her throat, preparing not to show him what his hug had done to her. She looked at Naruto, who seemed to be out of it at the moment, and then told him, in a higher voice than normal.

"Well, make sure that you keep your house safely locked next time. I mean you never know who could make their way in there and make away with some of your stuff."

Naruto, who was brought back to earth by Sakura's statement, shook his hand and then said, "Oh, that's no big deal, Sakura-chan. When I was a kid and the village still hated me, they used to break into my house and destroy some of my stuff. Even when Gramps Third gave me a lock to my room, they still managed to vandalize the lock while I wasn't around and still destroy my house. So I decided to leave the matter like that. I've not really had a lock on my door since then."

Sakura was surprised by this, not expecting to hear something like this from Naruto. She always assumed that he left his house unlocked due to his sheer laziness and carelessness; therefore she had never thought that he had a reason for doing that. This was the second thing that she had learnt about Naruto today, the first being his favorite color, and the second one of the reasons for one of his age-old habits.

Curiosity got the better of her, and she was not sure if she should be asking this, lest she opened up some old wounds, but she still had to know. She felt that if she did not ask, she would miss up the chance to learn about one of the most important parts of Naruto's childhood.

"Well, what made them finally stop?"

Naruto looked at Sakura, and noticed the concerned look that was on her face. This wasn't good. He had made her worry, something that he didn't like doing to her. He always wanted her to live her life happily without concern for his troubles, since seeing her happy made his days loads better. However, it would not do any good to not tell her about this, so he decided to proceed with the story.

"Well, I didn't have any valuables in my place, so there weren't any missing stuff or something like that. Most of my stuff was left in tatters though. There was a time that I found the whole fridge had been thrown onto the floor, and its contents emptied, so I had to clean up the whole kitchen. It took me the whole night just cleaning up, and the next morning I had a fever since I was using cold water the whole night. I think they got bored of it or something, since once I turned into a genin the attacks stopped all of a sudden. Or maybe they thought now I could be able to defend myself since I had finally become a ninja!"

At this, Naruto pointed to the hitai-ate that was on his head, and smiled widely at Sakura. She felt all the concern that was in her dissipates at this, and felt her facial features relax. Leave it to Naruto to make a grave situation like that look like a walk in the park. Ever since he was a kid, he never really let negative things get to him, always choosing to look at the bright side of anything that seemed to be dark or gloomy. Maybe that was one of the reasons that Sakura had come to like his company so much. Even at times when she felt discouraged and felt like giving up altogether, he was always the one who encouraged her to get back on her feet and gave her the will to live.

They had reached a section of the road where there was a forest of trees in front of them, and Sakura became aware of how far they had travelled. Well, Nadeshiko Village was just near the Land of Water, meaning they had to walk a shorter distance than they had when they were escorting Tazuna to his home in their very first mission as Genin. Sakura took out her map, and Naruto came closer to get a better look as to where they were currently. He did not understand anything of what was written on the map though, so he scratched his head in confusion. Sakura noticed this, and realized that she had to explain the whole matter to him.

"Naruto you know if you really are aiming to become Hokage you really should learn how to read maps better. You're going to be having to deal with diplomatic relations with other countries and that will require travelling to countries of the Five Great Nations."

During the time that she had spent training with Tsunade, Sakura remembered that Naruto's dream was to become the Hokage, so out of curiosity, she decided to pay close attention to the work that Tsunade was engaged in daily before she created time to train Sakura. She realized just how much work a Hokage had to deal with daily, from handling paperwork to approving of requests from the Feudal Lord, and suddenly felt pity for Naruto since she knew that he wasn't smart enough to handle all that work. However, this did not stop her from supporting his dream, but she made it a point to inform him of any key points he would need to know in his quest to become the Hokage of the village.

Naruto smiled at her meekly then said, " He he, I'll cross that bridge when I get there?"

"You're already on that bridge, idiot."

"How long do we have till we get to Shizuka's village?" Naruto suddenly interjected, changing the subject to what was important at the moment. Somehow, Sakura did not like the way he referred to it as "Shizuka's village", but she decided to carry on with the explanation, "Well, according to this map, Nadeshiko village," Sakura made sure to put special emphasis on the name for a reason which Naruto did not know, before continuing," lies just beyond this forest of trees. Actually, it may be in this forest of trees. The village itself is positioned upon the lightly forested top of three massive and steep hills standing in a line, with two bridges spanning the gorges between them. The hills are situated within a lush forested valley in a mountainous region. So at some point in this forest we should come across a valley and that's where the village lies."

Sakura finished her explanation, and looking upwards at Naruto, whose eyes were shut and he was nodding, took it as a sign that he had understood everything that she had just explained to him. Well, at least he was not a total idiot. Sakura rolled the map and returned it to her pouch that rested at her hip. The two of them then ascended into the lush of trees that was just ahead of them, their pace increasing from what they were using before. The sun was already in the western part of the sky, meaning evening was already setting in. If Sakura's calculations were correct, they would be able to make it just as the sun was setting and darkness was falling across the entire land.

As they were jumping from tree to tree, Naruto realized that he had missed the odd sensation that came with leaping through forested areas as they were doing missions as Team 7. He smiled a little, and savored each step he took from branch to branch as he propelled himself forward, and next to him, Sakura was keeping up with him perfectly. He looked at her, and saw that she had her eyes fixated in front of them, so he decided to say something to lighten the mood that was currently in the air above the two of them.

"Wow, it's been a long time since the two of us were on a mission like this together, right, Sakura-chan?"

That may have been one of the cheesiest ways to start up a conversation in order to create a sense of relaxedness.

Sakura looked at Naruto, who had his focus constantly shifting between her and his front, meaning she didn't have to worry about him bumping into any trees by accident.

"Well, yeah it has been, but you do realize that you aren't the only person I can go on missions with, right?"

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto started, but he knew that the girl next to him had just told him the truth, and he could not deny what she had just said. Still, there was a nostalgic familiarity that he felt going on missions with her, and to be honest he did not like the idea of her going out on missions with other people. Other people in this case meaning Uchiha Sasuke. Naruto realized that he was starting to act up on his feelings again, so he decided to push the matter to the back of his head, and refocus on what Sakura was telling him. At any rate, she wasn't his girlfriend (well, officially anyway, since he had told his dad that she was his girl in the war), meaning he didn't have a right to dictate whoever she went on missions with.

"Wait, does that mean you've been on missions with Sasuke?"

There it was again. Sakura noticed that Naruto had kept on bringing her relationship with Sasuke to light every time he heard that she was doing something by herself, and was ready to smack the living daylights out of him. Well, she realized that he still thought that she still held a torch for Sasuke after all that had been said and done with him and their old team, owing to how she fawned over him in the past, so Naruto could not help it. Still, she was not sure how she would reveal to Naruto that her feelings for Sasuke had waded down a lot since he returned to the village. Was he even supposed to know?

"Excuse me Naruto, but no. Come on you know better than anybody by now just how much I've gotten stronger. I think I can handle a mission on my own without you or Sasuke there to watch over me. Even Kakashi-sensei, "Sakura explained, matter-of-factly to her blonde teammate. Naruto's eyes widened in surprise, and somehow he could not help feeling a surge of pride well up in him from the pink haired girl's statement. Well, she had a point, Naruto had seen just how stronger she had gotten for himself in the war first-hand. She was no longer the same frail 12- year old genin that Naruto and Sasuke had to watch out for each moment they encountered a new enemy. She had bloomed so beautifully, and Naruto had been there to see it all, first-hand.

You've gotten so much stronger, you know.

Naruto thought to himself, while smiling, but then something that Sakura had said earlier resurfaced and captured his attention.

"Wait, but I thought you said I'm not the only one you can go on missions with."

"Yes, I did."

"So you've been doing solo missions all this time."

"While you were lazing around doing Kami-knows-what, and as per Tsunade-sama's orders, yes, I was."

"But I thought you meant that you were teaming up with others and-"

"No, I said that so that you wouldn't get too cocky and think you're the only one who can team up with me."

Naruto laughed a little. "Well, I do make the best partner for you after all. Sai would spend the whole mission making fun of your looks, Kakashi-sensei would spend an entire mission with you reading his perverted book, and Sasuke would….be Sasuke." He concluded with a sweat drop, as he could not imagine Sasuke managing to hold a proper conversation while with anyone in the middle of a mission.

Sakura could not hold back a laugh at the last person that Naruto had mentioned and also found herself laughing heartily. Well, Naruto was right after all. It seemed like he was the best partner for her, after all.

Partner.

The word rung again inside her head, then she remembered something Tsunade had said while in the office.

"Marriage proposal."

This translated to "bride", which translated to "life-long partner."

Sakura then realized that she had forgotten to ask about the specifics regarding the kunoichi called "Shizuka" and mentally slapped her for it. Leave it to Naruto to catch her in his pace and make her forget to ask the most important detail that had been lingering in her mind ever since the two left Tsunade's office. It was the best chance to ask now, since once they set foot into the village, there probably wouldn't be any other chance to ask Naruto regarding Shizuka.

"Naruto?"

"Hm?"

"I've been wondering for a while now, who is Shizuka?"

Naruto gulped a little, and almost lost his footing on the branch that he had currently hopped on. Well, lucky enough he did not fall, but still, he did not expect Sakura to land such a bombshell on him at this point. He had actually forgotten to explain the entire situation to her as he had been told by Tsunade whilst they were heading to Nadeshiko, so he berated himself for it. It was not nice keeping Sakura-chan in the dark regarding certain issues. However, this certain issue was one that was kind of really embarrassing to remember, since he had divulged to the said kunoichi something really important. Important in the sense that it involved his feelings for Sakura, something which he had made known to a few people, except the pink-head herself.

Naruto's memories swam back to a time when he had poised himself on the ground, talking to Shizuka in front of him, after he had defeated her but had refused to take her hand in marriage.

"I have a girl I love named Sakura-chan. Well actually, it's one-sided on my part. Sakura-chan is totally in love with a guy named Sasuke. She tries her hardest, doing her best to win him over. When she's at it, her smile is the cutest thing. There's no explaining it. Before I knew it, I was in love with her. I would never force Sakura-chan to love me. I'd be no different from that guy right now if I did. So I made up my mind. In the same way that Sakura-chan tries to win Sasuke over, I'll try my best to win Sakura-chan over!

The words replayed themselves in Naruto's mind, and it was his turn to get flustered over what he had said back then. Well, the truth was, he had told Shizuka about his feelings for Sakura in an attempt to make her see why her decision had been wrong, but never again had he expected to be sent back to the place where the one person who knew full well the depth of the love he felt for Sakura was. It was kind of embarrassing, the more he thought about it.

Sakura noticed the blush that had appeared on Naruto's cheeks, and immediately, she thought that it had been caused by her utterance of the name "Shizuka." Somewhere in her heart, she felt a bit sad. Sad that she had no idea who this person was, yet she had spent nearly all her free time in Konoha with Naruto. She felt as if Naruto had not told her about something really important that he had gone through, but then again, she wasn't exactly Naruto's significant other or anything. Still, she had a right to know, right? Pushing back these thoughts that held weights of sadness, she looked at Naruto, who looked as if he was finally ready to answer her.

"Well, uum, Sakura-chan, she's a girl who I was supposed to marry, since Ero-sennin had defeated her master. Well, not actually defeat, the match between the two of them had ended as a draw, so they decided to pass it on to their disciples. And the two disciples were me and Shizuka. The two of us did have our fight, and I defeated her. However, the marriage did not go through, since I managed to make her see reason."

Sakura became confused.

"Wait, what? How come you didn't end up marrying her? I mean you did defeat her, after all. Weren't you supposed to marry her if you were able to defeat her? That would make you the head of the Nadeshiko Village, right?"

Somehow, Sakura's voice did not sound like it normally did. It sounded as if it was heavy, and bore a weight that Naruto did not fail to notice. However, he decided to press on, since he had already started anyway. He was going to reveal the entire truth to Sakura.

"Well, you're right about me being the head of the Village if I did marry her, but I don't have an interest in becoming the head of a Village I hardly know anything about. The only Village I've ever been interested in ruling over is Konoha, and I want to protect each and everyone in there. So I wasn't really drawn in by the idea. Besides, I couldn't marry her even if I wanted to. There's someone else."

Sakura felt her eyebrows rise a little at this.

"Someone else who what?"

"Someone else who I love. And I still haven't won them over completely. So I couldn't marry Shizuka while knowing that my heart lay with someone else. It would be too cruel to her and me too."

Sakura felt her heartbeat quicken a little at this. She felt…relieved? Well, she was now up to date with what exactly Shizuka and Nadeshiko had to do with her teammate, but a part of her felt relieved that he had admitted to not holding any romantic interest in Shizuka. Why? She could not understand it herself, but maybe, just maybe, some part of her hoped that she was the girl that Naruto still loved. Even after all this time. She was aware of what he felt for her, but maybe he felt differently right now. She could not be sure, and that, more than anything, compelled her to ask him the next question. She was not sure whether she was being selfish asking him, but she wanted to know. She felt that she could not be at peace if she did not ask him this right now.

"Who is it?"

Naruto blinked at her in confusion.

"Who's what?"

"Who is the girl you are trying to win over?"

It sounded more like a plea to Naruto more than anything, and he was not sure whether he was doing the right thing by deciding to tell Sakura the truth. Just as his mouth opened, however, a voice suddenly broke the tranquility that the two teammates were currently enjoying.

"Don't move!"

A/N: Allow me to apologize for not updating this sooner. Having my life riddled with exams, assignments and group work certainly tends to do a number on my progress with my stories. Still, I managed to get some time in between my busy schedule to update this fanfic, since I'm not really sure when the next update will be. End of semester exams are starting in two weeks, so I may/may not be short of time once they start. Just a heads-up, though. I felt a bit under confident while writing the first part of this story, but I hope you guys will manage to enjoy it immensely. Do make sure to read and leave a review. Good night! And thanks for all the follows, reviews and favorites so far! NARUSAKU 4EVA!