Title: Family.
Author: Kendopunk
Rating: K
Summery: In his studies of the female species, sometimes you didn't need to know what was wrong. Sometimes girls just needed a hug.
Author's Note: This is kind of a dedication to a dear friend of mine.
Soundtrack: "Naruto Ondo" by Naruto Uzumaki
Pairings: None, expect for a Naru/Saku friend thing.
Disclaimer: No I don't own it.

It had started as a simple argument with her mother.

The matriarch of the Haruno clan simply didn't like that her daughter was taking on so many missions.

"You are only seventeen Sakura!"

"Yes! I am only a seventeen-year-old JOUNIN Mom! I can handle these things! This is what I was trained for!"

Sakura's mother planted her hands on her hips.

"There are only so many things that you can do Sakura! Do you know how much I worry when you're on these missions!"

Sakura gave a hollow laugh and ran her hands through her rosy hair. "You were the one who told me that I could be what I wanted! You were the one who said that you supported me in whatever I did! And you have no reason to worry! I'm mostly stuck with Kakashi-sensei and he's done a good job at keeping me alive so far! He would rather die than let anything happen to me! And Naruto-"

"Oh yes," Ms. Haruno scoffed. "Naruto. Now there's someone who I want protecting my child."

Sakura's mouth snapped shut. Her emerald orbs widened and she stared in shock at her mother. By now the teenager's face had paled seven shades. That's what the fight really was about wasn't it? It was about Naruto.

"This is about Naruto, isn't it Mom?"

Her Mother sighed and rubbed her temple. "Sakura, you don't know the whole story with him, all right? The boy is dangerous."

The medic pursed her lips. "Because he's holding the kyuubi in him, right?"

At her Mother's shocked expression she gave a tight smile. "Oh yes, Mom. I know about that. I've known about that since I was fifteen. But here's something you don't know. Naruto is not that monster. He is my teammate and my friend. My best friend to be exact. So you might want to watch what you say about him around me."

"Is that a threat young lady?"

"No Mother…it's a promise. I will not tolerate anyone talking badly about him. He has done nothing but protect this village his entire life, and this is how you repay him? You don't even know him!"

With that last sentence, Sakura turned on her heel and stormed out of the room. The only thing to be heard in the house was her feet stomping up the stairs. She ran into her room, and went straight to her bed, pulling out the backpack that she kept for missions under her bed. Sakura slung it over her shoulder and then ran back down the stairs. As soon as her hand touched the doorknob, the curt voice of her mother rang through her ears.

"Haruno Sakura, where do you think that you are going?"

She turned her head halfway, frowning. "To stay with someone who isn't such an ignorant bitch."

Sakura turned the handle, and walked out into the cool fall air.

It was quiet tonight; the only sound for miles was her feet crunching on the road. She adjusted the bag over her shoulder and shook her head in anger. How could her mother even say that? How long had she felt this way? Why hadn't she ever taken the time to get to know Naruto?

The girl's skin burned with anger and sorrow at her friend's sake. Why couldn't people just see him for who he was? They should know the difference between the two.

When she passed Ichiraku she knew that she was close to where she wanted to go. She jogged across the street to the apartment building that was on the corner. Sakura had been here so many times before that she didn't even have to think about how many flights of stairs she had to climb before she reached the top. She tucked her hands under her armpits as she felt tears sting her eyes. This whole night was just coming back to replay in her head. Everything that her mother said, everything that she said, and to her surprise she didn't regret one bit of it.

Sakura pulled open the door that led to the top floor's hallway and went straight to the third door on the left. She knocked three times, and sniffled once.

The door swung open and a tall blonde boy greeted her.

"Sakura-chan."

Green eyes studied him.

Naruto was sweaty. His black shirt had a wet ring trailing down his neck, and it shown on his skin a little as well when the light hit it a certain way. His shoes were off, and his orange pants were missing, navy blue boxers replacing them. His cerulean orbs stared at her worriedly. It wasn't like her to show up at ten-thirty at night.

Just staring at him, at how worried he looked, at how caring he was. It opened up a floodgate inside of her and the tears streamed down her cheeks. She threw herself at him, her arms coming around his middle as she sobbed into his chest.

The blonde raised an eyebrow, but closed the door and wrapped his arms around her. One of his hands rubbed her back soothingly as the other came to cup the back of her head. He began to sway from side to side, letting the girl's shaking body sag onto his. He didn't know what was wrong with her. But he did know three things:

Sakura was crying.

Sakura was hugging him.

Sakura came to him.

That was really all that he needed to know. In his studies of the female species, sometimes you didn't need to know what was wrong. Sometimes girls just needed a hug. That was fine with Naruto, he just so happened to be manly enough to admit that he liked hugs. He had murmured soothing words to his best friend's hair and tried to calm her down enough to get her breathing to regulate. When he felt her take several deep breaths, he stopped swaying.

"You smell gross." Her muffled voice came from his chest.

He huffed out a laugh. "Well, I was training."

She sniffed and pulled away from him, rubbing her eyes. "In your apartment?"

"Chakra control. I guess it takes a lot out of me."

Naruto pushed her hair behind her ear and finally got a good look at her.

Damn Sakura was a mess.

Her face was all red and puffy, and she kept rubbing her eyes, trying to stop crying. She was in pajamas, green and pink striped pants and a green tank top. He rubbed her upper arms and bent down a little to look her in the eye.

"Hey…Sakura-chan?"

"Hmm?"

"What's wrong?"

Sakura sighed and then met his eyes, looking so broken and weak that it nearly made his heart shatter.

"Can I stay at your place tonight on account of having an idiot for a mother?"

Naruto smiled softly and nodded, walking away from her and extending out his arm.

"Welcome to my humble abode…this is the living room. The kitchen is over there, feel free to take whatever…but it's mostly ramune and ramen…there may be some vegetables that Kakashi brought over last week. I don't like to touch those, though. Um… back there is the bathroom. The closet is there. And my bedroom is right over there."

He watched as Sakura smirked at him.

"What?!"

"Naruto…I've been over here before. I think I know where everything is."

"Right…well, damn, forgive me for trying to be a good host."

Sakura laughed and punched his arm lightly. "I'm only kidding."

"Right…well," He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I'll take the couch tonight. You can go ahead and have the bed. It's kinda small, but it's a lot more comfortable."

Sakura held her hands up. "I couldn't do that. I'm imposing. I'll take the couch, you go ahead and have your bed."

Naruto frowned. "No. I'm the guy. I take the couch."

"Ok, that's sexist, and this is your house. I'll take the couch."

"Sakura-chan, this isn't really your choice. I'm sleeping on the couch."

"I don't want to sleep in your bed."

"I don't have cooties."

"I just would feel rude!"

Naruto groaned and threw up his hands in the air. "Well the only other option is for both of us to sleep in the bed. And while I don't care, I don't want you to like…hit me for being perverted or something."

The pink haired girl shrugged. "I don't mind. Just so long as you don't 'accidentally' touch my chest or something."

The future Hokage shrugged. "Sometimes these things happen."

"Naruto."

"Kidding!"

He made his way towards the bedroom and Sakura followed him. When they entered the small room she dumped her bag on the ground by the door and sighed.

"Ok, well, I'm going to go shower and spray some smelly-be-gone, so make yourself comfy. I'll be back."

When he left, Sakura took this chance to look around. There was a desk in the corner with a few books lying on it and a scroll unrolled. All over his floor were scrolls and open books, a few kunai lying in the corner. His leaf headband was next to his bed on the nightstand with his alarm clock. To the other corner of the room was a bookshelf, filled halfway with books and scrolls and the other half with pictures. Sakura chose to look at those first.

The first one that caught her eye was the picture of the original team seven. With Sasuke and Naruto glaring at each other, Kakashi having a hand on each boy's head, and Sakura in the middle, smiling.

The next was one that Sakura took. It was of Kiba, Shikamaru, Naruto, Chouji, and Neji all at the Korean Barbeque place. They all looked pissed off except for Chouji, who was happily munching away on food. He probably stole all of theirs.

After that was of Kakashi, Sai, and her. They were outside of Ichiraku and it was a bright summer day. Sakura remembered it perfectly, because right after the picture was taken Sai had questioned why Naruto would want to remember such an ugly face like hers. That's also the day that she accidentally broke Sai's nose.

The last picture, she had a replica of. It was taken when her and Naruto went to the movies last spring. He saw a photo booth and immediately dragged her into it. Four pictures were taken, one right after the other. The top photo had them making funny faces, the one below had them smiling, after that one showed Naruto hugging Sakura to him, and the last one showed Sakura hitting him over the head because he did a 'boob graze' as Kiba liked to call it.

Sakura sighed, smiling at the memories before she turned and walked to Naruto's bed. She flopped down on it and crawled under the covers, scooting all the way to the corner so he could have the most room.

Within five minutes, Naruto came back into the room in fresh clothes and smelling good. He smiled at Sakura lying there in the corner of his bed, the covers pulled up to her chin and her eyes watching him move around.

"You look cozy." He laughed.

"I'm totally trading my mattress for yours. I almost got knocked out as soon as I flopped on it."

"Yeah, I would trade this in for a bigger bed if I didn't like the mattress so much."

Naruto flicked the lights off and then went to the bed. He pulled the quilt down and slid in next to her, lying on his side so that he could face her, yet leaving a respectable about of distance apart. He adjusted his head on the pillow and then smiled at her.

"So, Sakura-chan. What's up?"

"I just…" She bit her lip. "I got into a fight with my Mom."

"About what?"

"Me being a ninja. And…other things."

"What? You being a ninja bugs her?"

"I know." Sakura sighed and her hand appeared on the pillow in between their heads. "I just…she's worried that I won't come back. Like I'll end up like my Dad did."

"What happened to your Dad?" He questioned.

"When I was four he died on a mission. He was a jounin in the interrogation unit."

Naruto's mouth dropped open. He never knew that. "How come you didn't tell us about him?"

She shrugged. "You and Sasuke-kun had bigger issues than mine. It didn't seem all that important in comparison."

"Of course it's important, Sakura-chan! He was your Dad! You loved him! Just because our problems are a little more than yours doesn't make yours any less real! You could have told us!"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "It's over Naruto, you know now. Besides, that wasn't the only thing the fight was about, it was also about who I…hang out…with."

Naruto's mouth shut. "Oh."

"Yeah…"

He inhaled and then smiled at her. "Well, I guess your Mom's right then. I mean, I don't want to be the cause of a rift with your family. So maybe we just…shouldn't hang out."

"Bull shit!" She hissed. "That's total bull shit! It is my life and I will hang out with whomever I please. She doesn't get a say in it. She doesn't even know you! Naruto…"

Sakura saw that his hand had moved up on the pillow next to hers, and she grabbed it.

"You…are not the fox. You are you. You're Uzumaki Naruto. You are a badass shinobi and the future Hokage of this village. You're…you're…you're my best friend. You…Kaka-sensei, even Sai…you guys are my family. As long as I have you, I don't need anything else. I will protect our family…that's my nindo."

Naruto's eyes searched hers, and she saw that his baby blues were glazed over with unshed tears. She smiled and her thumb brushed his wrist.

"And besides…you get hurt so much I'd be out of a job if I left you, so I have to stay…for money's sake."

He laughed. "Oh, well if it's for your job, I suppose that we can continue to hang out."

They both giggled and squeezed each other's hand.

"Sakura-chan…?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you…for being my friend."

"No, Naruto." She leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his. "Thank you."

Thank you for protecting me.

Thank you for caring about me.

Thank you for being there when I need you most.

Thank you…for teaching me that it's okay to be myself.

"Sakura-chan?"

"Hmm?"

"I just thought I should tell you…I found a coach roach in here the other night, and I haven't been able to find it since."

"WHAT?!"

A/N: I suppose if you wanted to, you could take this as a Naru/Saku. But I was thinking of just the friendship aspect of it at the time. I think that Naruto and Sakura are very dear to each other, and after the crap they've been through together; they've grown very close. Ok, REVIEW TIME!

Baika-chan: yeah, it's really hard to keep Sasuke in character for things like that.

C.A.M.E.O. 1 and only: I totally agree!

Arcaina: It made you cry? Really? LOL! Wow! I didn't think that anything I wrote really made people cry. Thank you!

SasukeandNejicuties: Thank you! I swing either way for SasuSaku and NaruSaku, mostly I go over to SasuSaku, but if the plot is good enough, I'll read NaruSaku. I mostly think that Naruto and Sakura are just really close friends who are always there for each other.

Thanks everyone for your reviews! I read each and every one and take them all to heart! They mean so much to me!