"What the hell Sakura?!" Ino shouted as I fell to the floor, my breath haggard.

"What the hell just happened?!" I asked, resting my wide forehead on the floor of the flower shop.

"That's what we'd like to know!" Temari said as she walked over and pulled me up by my upper arm. "One minute Ino and I are talkin' romance strategy, and the next thing we know you're flyin' in here like a bat outta hell!" She continued to drag me by my upper arm towards the back room while Ino walked over to the front door and flipped the sign from 'open' to 'be back in five!' and then followed behind us.

As soon as Temari had pulled me (forcefully) down onto the couch (my poor arm!) and Ino had walked in and grabbed a chair, Temari asked calmly, "Okay, mind telling us what's go you so freaked out?"

And so I did.


"What's wrong, Kit?" Kyuubi asked as I fell face first onto my bed.

I groaned before saying, "If falmof kiffed hern!"

"Huh? I can't understand you, you baka! Your voice is muffled by your sheets!" He said exasperatedly, his nine red tails swishing behind him.

I turned my head to the side, looked at him, and groaned out, "I almost kissed her! I almost kissed Sakura-chan..."

Before Kyuubi could muster any sort of response we both heard someone say, "You did what?!"

My head shot towards the door. 'Shit!' I thought, 'I forgot to shut the door, damn it!'

"Mind telling me why you almost kissed the girl I think of as my own daughter, Naruto?" My father asked as he stepped into my bedroom, his expression unreadable.

"I, er, uh…" I stuttered. My father may be a kind and just man, but he could be scary as hell sometimes, especially when it came to protecting his girls. He may not be Sakura's biological father, but he'd always taken on the roll of surrogate father for her, since her father had never been around. I didn't know how my dad would react, and my imagination had pretty much came up with the worst imaginable scenarios.

Okay, imagine you're a teenage guy. Now imagine that your girlfriend's dad has just caught you sleeping with his 'baby girl.' Now times that by twenty and you have what my imagination had managed to conjure. Ino and Sakura were my dad's pride and joys, his baby girls, and I was pretty sure I was about to be murdered by my own father, very slowly, very painfully.

"Well…?" He asked sitting down beside me on my bed. I shot up and scrambled towards my headboard.

"Uh… Please, don't kill me!" I said weakly, afraid for my life, and more importantly my manhood.

He turned towards me and said, exasperated, "Naruto, I'm not going to kill you. Honestly, I've known that you're in love with her for quite some time. The question is, why didn't you kiss her?"

I blinked in surprise. "What the hell, dad!"

"What?" he asked, confused.

"One minute you're all, 'you touched her, I will kill you!' and then the next you're all 'why didn't you kiss her?' What the hell?! Are you secretly bipolar or something? And how the hell did you know, anyway?!" I asked hysterically.

"Please, Naruto, I'm not blind." he said, exasperation still coating his voice. "Besides, if anyone is good enough for Sakura, it's you."

"Eh, you, you approve of me?!" I asked in shock.

"Mm-hmm. Now why did you not kiss her?" he asked, his tone changing to one of genuine curiosity.

I crawled back over to him and sat down. "Isn't it obvious?" I asked.

"No, it's why I'm asking." he said like he thought I was stupid for not realizing that fact.

I sighed. "Sakura would never want me Dad, I'm just a good friend to her, her best friends older brother, nothing more. Ugh! I'm tired of explaining this to people over and over again!" I said falling backwards onto my black and orange comforter.

"Naruto, you're blind." he said simply, shaking his head, before getting up and walking over to the door. Before exiting, however, he said, "Naruto, maybe there is some truth to what people are saying, maybe Sakura does have feelings for you. I know you think we're all wrong, but not everyone can be seeing things. Just think about it." then he turned and left.

"Kyuubi, am I really in denial?" I was met with a loud, obnoxious snore. "Kyuubi!"


"So he really almost kissed you?!" Ino shouted excitedly, jumping up and down excitedly.

I groaned. "Did you not hear what I just said? Yes, he almost kissed me, but then he pulled away! If that doesn't say 'I don't like you,' then I don't know what does!" I shouted, putting my head in my hands.

"No! You've got it backwards, Sakura! This probably means that he does like you, but for some—probably stupid—reason he doesn't want you to know!" Temari said hurriedly, knowing I was staring to jump to conclusions.

"Temari's right, Sakura." My head shot up.

"Mom!" Ino said, shocked.

"Kushina-kaa-chan, what are you doing here? More importantly, what are you talking about?" I asked, both shocked and confused.

She smiled a megga-watt smile. "I'm here because I'd overheard Ino and Temari plotting, I'm here to help get you and my son together!"

"What?!" I shouted the same time as Ino and Temari shouted gleefully.

"Yes! Kushina-sama, you're the best!" Temari shouted.

"Yeah, Kaa-san! We needed a professional, and you're just what the doctor ordered!" Ino smiled evilly. "You know how to seduce men, after all, dad was the most sought after man and you managed to get his attention focused on you and piss off his fangirls! This should be a piece of cake now that you're helping us!"

"Why are you doing this to me, Kushina-kaa-chan?!" I cried.

"Simple, Sakura-chan! Like I said before, I want you and my son together! You've loved each other for so long and I'm tired of seeing you two mope around! I've always seen you as a daughter," she said, pausing for a second before saying, "Most importantly, I want grandbabies!"

I fell over. "Ch-children?! Don't you think it's a bit early to be thinking about that?" I said weakly.

"Nope!" Kushina said happily. I, on the other hand, was feeling faint.

"Now, on to strategy! Kushina-sama, Ino, what should our next move be?" Temari asked.

"Wait, don't I get a say in this?!" I shouted, straitening up in my seat.

A chorus of "No!" was my answer. I sighed and slouched in my seat, this was going to be a long day.

"Well, before we do anything else, we need Sakura to actually want to cooperate!" Kushina-kaa-chan said.

"How exactly do we do that?" Ino asked her curiously.

"Come on, people! It's not as if I can't hear you!" I said, grumpily.

They went on as if I were nonexistent. "We need to convince her that he's at least interested in her! Then we-"

"Pfft! Like that'll ever happen!" Ino scoffed, interrupting Kushina.

"I'm sorry, Kushina-sama, but what do you think we've been trying to do? She's so stubborn, she won't listen to a thing we say. She's in total, complete denial!" Temari butted in.

"But you don't have what I have." Kushina-kaa-chan said. My ears perked up, now I was curious, despite the fact that I knew nothing they ever did could convince me that he held romantic interest in me. I wouldn't fall for it, I wouldn't set myself up for heartbreak. If I knew I'd have a shot, then sure, I'd take the risk if the odds were good enough, but I knew I didn't have a chance with him. I was a friend to him, seen as a little sister, nothing more.

"What do you have?!" Ino and Temari both exclaimed simultaneously.

"Proof!" She said proudly. I scoffed. "You doubt me, Sakura?" She said, glaring at me.

"Yes." I said simply.

She raised her eyebrow at me. "Oh, well, I wonder if you'll be doubting me after I show you this…" she said and pulled a video tape out of her bag.

"What's that?" I asked curiously, eying the tape.

"My proof." She said, sliding the tape into the VHS player (this was the break room) and turning on the TV.


The screen showed a wooden door, then suddenly a disembodied voice said, "Okay, I'm preparing the proof for Sakura, because I'm tired of her denial." Then a hand, apparently belonging to Kushina, grabbed the doorknob and opened the door. Suddenly Naruto's room was in view and on his bed was a giant lump shrouded in moonlight. The lump got closer as Kushina walked toward the bed. It soon became apparent that the lump was a sleeping Naruto. "In case you didn't know," she said semi-quietly, "Naruto occasionally talks in his sleep. Hopefully this will be one of those times." she said as she reached the bed. She angled the camera towards Naruto's face. "Now Naruto, what are you dreaming about?"

Naruto grumbled before mumbling, "Sak'ra-chan. Ern, raaaaaaaaaaaaaaamen."

Kushina giggled. "You like ramen, don'tcha Naruto?"

"Uh-huh…" he said, before yawning.

"You like Sakura-chan, too, right?" she asked, zooming the camera in on his face a little.

"Uh-huh. Lots. Ergh." he said, rubbing his face with his hand.

"How much do you like Sakura-chan, Naruto?" she asked, giggling even more now.

"Loves her. Uhn, marry her." he mumbled.

"Why don't you tell her you love her then?"

"Can't. Doesn't feel the same." he said before turning over a bit.

"How do you know?"

"Just do." he said, before letting out a soft snore.

"What do you think of her new look?" Kushina's giggling had started getting kind of loud.

"Sexy. Kill if try to touch."

"Kill who?"

"No touchy my Sak'ra-chan…" he mumbled.

Kushina's laughter was so loud that the camera was shaking. "Nah, wha?" Naruto mumbled, his eyes opening. As soon as his mind registered what was in his face he shot up, his blanket falling down to reveal him clad only in green boxers with orange swirls. "Mom, what in hell are you doing?!"

"Showing Saku-chan how adorable you are when you're asleep!" Kushina said, laughing.

"Mom! Don't!" Naruto said, getting up.

Kushina turned around and ran, shouting, "but you're adorable!" you could hear Naruto's feat pounding in the background. Kushina turned in to a bathroom and quickly shut and locked the door.

Naruto pounded on the door, causing it to shake. "There better not be any evidenced of my feelings on that tape, mom!" he shouted, his voice a bit muffled through the door.

Suddenly a door could be heard opening and a voice saying, "Naruto! What in hell's going on?!"

Naruto stopped pounding on the door. "Dad, mo-

"You know what, Naruto, I don't want to know. Now stop pounding on the door and go back to sleep. If you have to use the bathroom that badly, we do have more than one you know."

Naruto grumbled in response and Kushina laughed. Then the screen went black.


I stared at the screen in shock.

"So, now do you believe us, Sakura-chan?" Kushina asked. My only response was to keep staring.

"Give her a minute, Mom, I think she's in shock." Ino said happily.

Temari came over and waved her hand in front of my face. "Sakura! Hello, are you in there?!" She turned to Kushina and said, "I think she just died a little on the inside."

"H-he… he loves me? Naruto loves me?" I asked, dazed.

"Of course he does! Why the hell do you think we've been telling you that? It's about time you came to your senses!" Temari said and then proceeded to smack me on the back. I fell forward off the seat.

"Mom, you're a genius!" Ino said happily, hugging her mother.

"So, Sakura-chan, are you going to cooperate now?" Kushina asked me as I tried to pick myself up from off of the floor. I brushed the hair from out of my eyes, socked Temari in the shoulder as payback, making sure to put the teeniest amount of chakra into it, before I made my reply.

"Hell yeah! Shannaro!"


Not too many changes too this chapter... Probably the one I've least changed.

Hope you enjoyed it,

~Kassy