February – Week 2 (Part II)

Naruto spent the rest of the week on a mission.

He had to figure out who that girl that Sasuke was talking to was, and he didn't have very much to go off of. In fact, he had absolutely nothing to go off of. But he was nevertheless determined to accomplish his goal.

Why?

Well, it was simple: Naruto was going to get himself a girlfriend soon.

And that would be ten times more fun if Sasuke had one, too.

During morning practices, while the young men were practicing bounce-passing drills, Naruto drilled Sasuke for more information about the mysterious caller.

"Who was that you were talking to last night, teme?"

Bounce-pass.

Catch.

"What are you talking about?"

Pass. Dribble.

Lay-up.

"You know. The girl. At like 8:00 after we dropped off–"

A flash of orange zoomed dangerously close to Naruto's face, missing by only a whisker. The shock of nearly having his lights knocked out by a misdirected (his ass) pass effectively hushed him mid-sentence. If the ball had been any faster, he would have lost a freckle.

Sasuke scoffed, "Whoops," a smirk lifting the corner of his mouth.

Naruto frowned.

Suffice to say: information was hard to come by. Especially from Sasuke.

The blond was on the verge of giving up on Thursday when he saw her again.

Her – the new girl that lived in their complex. She was the most beautiful being Naruto had ever laid eyes upon. He was sure of it, even when they'd first met, only for a brief moment as he'd helped her roommate with the twin buns move-in before the Spring semester began. She was making sure the artwork in their living room was hung straight when he came in and not-so-gently dumped the boxes he'd carried up to their unit on their kitchen island. The thump had made her all of her paintings tilt, but that's not what Naruto noticed at first. He didn't even notice her (totally adorable) yelp, either, though that did draw his attention to her.

When their eyes locked, it was like something out a movie.

And now here she was again, struggling to gather all of her groceries from her car trunk in one go. Naruto spotted her in the parking lot from his view on his balcony and conducted the quickest physics equation known to man to calculate. There would be no way for him to make it down the stairs to her in time before she undoubtedly dropped her eggs.

A woman could never drop her eggs.

"Oi!" Naruto called, jutting his body over the balcony and waving his hand. "Oi! You in the purple with the eyes! I can–"

The girl shrieked and threw all her groceries in the air, falling backward.

Naruto wilted, stuck on what to do a few moments.

Then:

"I...I'll be right there to help," he shouted. He double-checked that his door was closed before taking the stairs down two at a time. His mind was racing for more than one reason as he thought of what he would say.

"My eggs…" Hinata whined, absentmindedly.

She immediately berated herself for these being the first words she said to Naruto Uzumaki, who was kind enough to introduce himself and take her by the hands to help her up from the asphalt that she'd fainted onto. She glanced down at their still conjoined hands and felt her face flare. Her eyes widened and flew to the ground as he whipped her hands behind her back and groaned softly, squeamish.

Oh, Kami.

Naruto's nervous laughter brought her eyes up, which had drowned themselves in the ocean blue of his just as deep as they had all those weeks ago. It was hard to hear Naruto over the thumping of her heart, but it had sounded like he had just asked her if she wanted to go grocery shopping with him.

"My treat!" he smiled. "Since...you know. Hehe. I'll even drive ya if you promise we'll be back by 6:00."

Before her brain could register it, Hinata nodded timidly, agreeing.

Sakura heaved her body up the final set of stairs to her unit, dramatically flinging herself against the wall and even going so far as to crawl as she reached the last step. She could taste all the calories she would be losing simply by living on the top floor of this godforsaken place.

Someone, anyone, remind her why, oh why she and her friends decided it would be a good idea to move out of Student Housing in the middle fo the year?

Student housing...had elevators.

Her backpack weighing as much as a five-year-old with a ravenous appetite was no help. Sakura lurched the sack higher onto her shoulders as she braced herself to stand. She dug her keys out of her coat pocket and was fishing for the correct one when she saw an unfamiliar figure foraging through her refrigerator from the window. And, while she could pick a fight with her roommates for refusing to draw the blinds before leaving out, she was incredibly grateful for the heads up.

Sakura unlocked the door, though she did not open it. First, she laced her pointiest keys in between her fingers and made a fist.

She may not be in the best shape anymore, but one's hands never stop being registered weapons.

The rosette kicked the door open with a battle cry, fully prepared to charge through the open-concept living room and into the kitchen when the man turned to face her and she immediately recognized him.

Naruto?

Sakura skidded to a stop and fiddled her keys out of her hand, dropping them altogether on the kitchen floor.

"Hey, I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet ya!"

A smile twitched onto Sakura's face. Did this guy not know that any person that had the privilege of breathing KU's air knew, very well, who he was? She chuckled and extended her hand.

"Hi. Sakura."

Naruto laughed, "Makes sense, y'know? Cuz your hair."

"Oh, yeah." Sakura laughed weakly. "Never heard that one before."

Her houseguest smiled wider at her before returning to what he was doing before. It became obvious to Sakura that he was putting away recently purchased groceries. She wondered briefly which of her roommates he had gone shopping with, but decided that detail didn't so much matter as much as the cold air gusting into the important form the door she had kicked (and left) open. "I would say make yourself at home, but," Sakura joked as she shuffled toward the front and closed the door, locking it. She stepped out of her shoes at the shoe rack before snuggling into the couch. She watched Naruto cheerfully put away and organize their groceries with mild curiosity for several moments until he clapped his hands.

Then, he closed the fridge, seemingly done. "Oh yeah. Sorry. Hina-chan had to run and she kind of ran out of time to put everything away, so I said I would help and she said that was fine."

Sakura's eyebrows shot to the ceiling.

"I swear I haven't been here long."

"No, no, you're fine. I'm just...don't you have somewhere to be?"

Naruto stopped eating a bag of chips he'd snagged from the cabinet. "Wuddayahmeen?" he asked through a full mouth. Sakura pointed at a wall clock, then did her best impression of a jump shot from her cuddled position on the couch.

Naruto gulped loudly.

"Oh, shit!" he exclaimed. He scrambled for his winter gear and bags, and then into his shoes as he headed for the door. "So nice meeting you," he said, looking back with one hand on the door.

Sakura hummed, "Same," her mind already focused on what she would be binging before her nap. She vaguely registered the door clicking closed behind Naruto, but nearly yelped when he stuck his head back in.

"Oh, my God! Naruto! What is it?"

Naruto chuckled, "Sorry. You really should lock this behind folks."

Sakura's eyes narrowed.

"Anyways. I wanted to let you know me and my buddy Sasuke live right underneath you guys if you all ever want to hang out. I'll see you around, Sakura-chan!"

Sakura sunk deeper into her couch, querying with a paranoid mind why on Earth Naruto found it imperative to barge into her home to tell her that. She gnawed nails and tried to tell herself that he was just being neighborly as she rose to lock the door.

It's still weird, she decided to herself. She settled back into the couch and wrapped herself in her blanket. Then, she turned the TV onto the basketball game's pre-show. Just her luck, the camera was trained on one Uchiha Sasuke, zooming closer and closer to him from afar as he warmed up.