AN: Here's a bit of an early release. I wanted to write two chapters this week, but I got stuck on how to end this chapter. Well at least, I finished this one. At least, there's still a bit of time to at least get started.

To Shieldtoad: Haha don't expect kind of rocket speed progression between these two. Sorry to say that progression on Senjutsu won't take another big step for a bit.

To Blasted Banana in Black Hole: Thanks for the glowing review. I really appreciate the words.

To nirmtheworm: I'd try to be coy, but you could probably find the answer by looking at my recent favorites. Yeah, fem Sasuke X Naruto.

To Everyone: Thanks for the support!

Exit Sage Left

Bitter Cherry

It had been a couple of days...

Naruto had thrown himself into his physical training. The experience that night had reminded him why he hated the leaf exercise so much. It always brought back bad memories. Naruto Uzumaki was not a pessimist, and he'd sooner die before he'd let anyone call him one.

But it was happening again...

He could feel himself falling behind again. It felt like even in the short time together that both Satsuki and Sakura were improving, while he wasn't making any progress.

"Dammit!"

The young boy stomped his foot into the ground in some futile effort to vent his frustrations. Today was a rest day, and he had promised Kakashi-sensei not to do any physical training. However, with nothing better to do, Naruto had found himself at his personal training ground.

Him and his dumb mouth. He just had to have promised Iruka-sensei and himself that he would stick to the exercise. As he plopped onto the floor by his tree and fire pit, the young boy waywardly hoped that someone would come to distract him.

Come on, Konohamaru! Now's the perfect time!

...

...Any second now...

...

"Shit!" He yelled out, tugging at his hair with both hands.

Huffing, he brought his legs into a criss-cross; realizing that like always, the world wouldn't give him an out.

Naruto felt like he had hidden his awkwardness around his team well enough, but he could never be sure.

"Ugh... I don't even know if it was real!" Naruto spat out.

It could have been a dream for all I know.

It wouldn't be the first time I dreamed up something about who my parents might be.

But it felt so real. That... and he really wanted it to be real.

The idea that he may have really been able to hear his parents' voices for himself was beyond anything Naruto could have wanted. The idea that his parents wanted and loved him was more than beyond anything Naruto could have ever wanted.

The boy felt the child in him slow down and shrink. With his hands on his knees, he forced his head up to look past the leaves and into the sky.

He watched the pack of clouds move across the sea of blue. A pair of birds entering his vision and leaving just as quickly. It all just kept moving.

His thoughts returned to Satsuki and Sakura. He'd seen the charcoal-eyed girl have a breakthrough in her new exercise, and he'd seen the emerald-eyed girl newfound determination.

The girl in red had pushed herself hard and forced herself to try and keep up with him during physical exercises. That had been felt like an insult, or at least, he was insulting himself that she could make such large strides in an area he spent so long working on. The physical stuff was one of the only things he was good at.

Naruto felt his eyes get heavier as he breathed slowly.

She was always like that.

She succeeded where he failed.

That was why he liked her.

She had been bullied...

As well as him.

and was able to make friends...

where he couldn't.

and succeeded at the academy.

while he didn't.

She didn't have the of help others like the clan kids...

He thought she might understand him a bit better, the idea of being put down and then rising against those odds.

She was able to do it.

She had done it again.

And he envied it.

Was it always envy? Did he paint this envy with a coat of admiration? Did he really trick himself into believing his crush was born under admiration? A false admiration at that?

No, that didn't make sense.

It was an admiration that turned into envy when he realized she didn't understand. The words themselves didn't matter. People have said much worse about him—to him. It was the fact that she said them at all that made it hurt.

If that dream was real, then that meant she didn't understand him at all. She should have been able to understand just a little bit. Perhaps, he fooled himself into believing that rising against the odds was something that made a person lonely.

And that brought another concern: would he forget his root? His own loneliness? If he succeeded against his odds?

But that question brought up a contradiction:

Why was she being nice to him now?

After the bell test, Sakura seemingly out of nowhere had a change of heart. While the playful jabs and ear tugging remained, she was far more willing to hear him out and even hung out with him during lunches.

You don't just forget that kind of loneliness. You shouldn't need a reminder! ...Right?

That brought Naruto out of his thoughts. Bringing his hands to his eyes and rubbing them slowly, he'd ran through this mental conversation several times now and hadn't gotten anywhere.

And the training had always left him more infuriated afterward. Because all this thinking might not matter at all. He didn't know if that conversation ever happened.

"Ugh..." Naruto let out.

The frustrated boy wasn't able to keep going—at least, not right now. As he stood up, he wondered how he was going to spend the rest of the day if he wasn't going to train.

Hopefully, Konohamaru will be around...

Satsuki was feeling quite satisfied with herself.

At the moment, the young lady was browsing different fruits and vegetables in the market. Unfortunately, tomatoes were not in season as it was Autumn, at least no tomatoes that had the softness that the local spring tomatoes had.

With the day off, the Uchiha could be found in casual dress. She had rarely worked herself to such exhaustion, knowing that no one would care for her in an emergency—not that she would accept it. She wore a loose long-sleeved shirt and a long A-line skirt that went past her knees with a pair of slip-ons.

The break from training and missions had given the woman enough peace of mind to celebrate. The reason for the young lady's mood was her recent breakthroughs in training.

Kakashi had demonstrated to be an effective teacher for her. He had shown and explained that he was experienced in teaching and combating the Uchiha styles. His reason as he explained was that he simply had several sparring partners from her clan.

Several implications came with that. The most important being that Kakashi was likely a family friend in some way. She could not help but feel that he could be trusted, if only a little because of it.

Regardless, her jonin sensei had also demonstrated that he was also experienced with fire jutsu and could help her expand her arsenal. The exercise he had her learning emphasized control. She would have to condense her flame to increase the force and heat of the attack.

She had had some issues. Primarily, that she had for some years now worked under the presumption that bigger was better. In doing so, achieving the control necessary had been more difficult than she would ever admit.

Her success came from changing her approach. Rather than blowing harder, she changed the shape of her mouth. The gesture was more akin to whistling than actually blowing, but she had accomplished a more concentrated and powerful flame.

The smaller a person made their mouth, the higher pitch the whistle. The technique was similar enough. However, that action also put the tongue and lips at far greater risk to the flame.

The next step was to increase the length of the flame, both in the length of time and range of attack. But that would all come with time.

Letting the stress roll off her shoulders, her mind returned to the aisle in front of her. The young woman picked out some onions and set them beside the carrots and sweet potatoes. Some curry tonight would be nice. She could work with the combination of spices to obtain a flavor reminiscent of tomato sauce.

The ravenette had a brief exchange with the sellers and was now making way through the market. It was then that she locked eyes with a pair of azure eyes.

"Nitwit."

It was at his hummed response and lack of eye contact that told her that he wanted something. It was during this time that she took in his appearance. The same stupid orange jacket and ridiculous orange pants stood out as ever. However, his jacket was now unzipped, and his forehead protector around the neck.

The juxtaposition of his normal getup and current state set in. When the blonde's jacket was zipped up, he looked much more jollier. She could swear that he stored at least half the hot air he spouted under his jacket; however, when unzipped, the lack of hot air forced the boy's head down from the clouds—returning him to earth.

"Well," her patience running thin, "you can stand around all you like. I have things to do."

"Wait!"

"I've waited enough," she said making her way past him.

…

Was this nitwit gonna follow her all the way home?

It amazed the girl that despite having such a down-to-earth appearance, the imbecile could still spend so much time in his head. Only an idiot could make an oxymoron out of himself—emphasis on the moron.

The loner had half the mind to just run away, but she was sore from the week of training. A small part of her mind said that Naruto was a little too fast for her to completely lose, but she ignored it.

Her annoyance reaching a boiling point, she twirled around to face him. They were standing above the bank on the Naka River with the sun still high in the sky.

"Out with it," eyes forcing contact, "I'm not taking you to my home."

"... I wanted to ask," he started as she began to tap her finger on her arm, "did you say anything to Sakura on the day of team assignments?"

Letting her eyes narrow, "what did she tell you?"

"She didn't say anything," he answered, "or do anything really."

The boy shifted to his side, "I just think I saw you two talking, am I right?"

"We spoke, yes," there was a brief pause where the blonde's eyes fell to the floor.

"Why do you think she said that."

"I didn't take you for an eavesdropper," catching the boy was unsurprisingly easy.

"It's not like that!" She might have believed him before that day. After all, who would let Naruto sneak up on them, but he had done so to her, so it was the only conclusion she could come to.

"Then how is it?" She said tilting her head.

"..."

"I thought so," eyes leaving him, to let the silence sit between them.

Having spent the time to pick her words, Satsuki spoke, "I would not waste my time." Her eyes settling on the flowing Naka River.

"What do you mean?"

"She will never understand," there was a tone of finality she didn't recognize in her own voice, "and it is pointless to try and get her to change."

Feeling her feet shift underneath her, she spoke, "she will never experience what you have, and I am sure you would never wish the experience onto her."

At his nod, she reaffirmed, "Like I said, don't waste your time."

With that, she turned and left the boy alone.

Kakashi had been wandering around.

It was rare for a jonin to have free time, but since the man was granted a genin team, there was a lift in his workload. Granted, that free time could disappear at a moment's notice, but he would take the time he had and run with it for long as he could.

Making a pass around a corner the man caught sight of two genin—his genin. Leaning back around the corner to conceal himself, he thought about what he could do.

Naruto and Satsuki, hm?

Certainly, an odd pair to see together. From his perspective, the two had been getting along better during missions. Right now, they were being rather quiet. If things progressed, the two would be out by Naka River without uttering a word to each other.

The jonin-sensei idly wondered if he should make his presence known but decided against it. He wanted to know how well they got along outside of missions. And he had noticed that Naruto had been a bit quieter around Sakura.

Making up his mind the silver-haired man tailed the duo.

Ah, they stopped...

...

Listening in on their conversation had been insightful—as vague as it was. It more or less confirmed his suspicion that Naruto hadn't necessarily been getting along with Satsuki. Rather, he had been distancing himself from his teammates.

His mind then jumped to the girl's proposed solution for Naruto.

It's good to know that they can put personal issues on the back-burner for missions, but...

He offhandedly thanked his luck that he ran into them. Really, he almost wished his luck was this good a decade and a half ago.

If Kakashi let this slide... well, he could feel it biting him in the ass.

And that forced Kakashi to think about how he was going to tackle the issue. He could talk to Naruto himself, but he didn't have much experience with drama.

Yet a part of him didn't want to shovel off the issue to Iruka. This was his team, and he wanted Naruto to be able to come to him for advice.

Would having both him and Iruka be overwhelming?

It might, It might not. It would make things a lot easier. It would establish him as someone to come to, which was something he'd need from all of his genin.

'Hm... guess I'll just bring it up to Iruka. See what he thinks. I mean, this could just as easily resolve itself,' the jonin thought to himself, uncharacteristically optimistic.

Ichiraku was having a relatively busy day today.

And thankfully, the evening had brought the small stand to a slow crawl. It was there one Ayame Ichiraku could be found resting her head on her hand after a long day's work. Her other hand drawing figure eights on the cedar counter.

Her father had left her with the reigns of the storefront for the evening. He was in the back prepping fresh dough to be made into noodles for tomorrow.

It was during this breath in work that Ayame couldn't help but wonder where the young blonde had been. Sure, she knew that he had recently graduated and was part of a genin team now, and come by only once this week to tell her dad and her about his team. But she hadn't seen him since.

The sound of the flap fwooshing forced her to perk up.

"Welcome to Ichiraku's!" A forced smile taking place.

"Hey, Ayame!" a familiar voice called out.

"Oh, Naruto!" the young woman's eyes opened to see the boy, letting her smile fall into a more natural one, she continued, "Where have you been? You had dad and me worried, you know?"

"Heheh, sorry Ayame," hand already behind his head, "Ninja stuff y'know!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" she said waving away," well, what can I get ya? The usual?"

At his nod, she began assembling his bowl of miso ramen with extra pork.

"So..." Ayame let her lips pucker, "what's this ninja stuff you've been doing?"

"Well, you know lots of training and missions and stuff," she could see Naruto's smile from the corner of her eye.

While placing a fishcake in the center of the ramen bowl, she spoke, "and your team?"

"Um... they're alright I guess," Naruto not believing the words himself.

"Just alright," she cocked a brow while placing the bowl in front of him, "they don't sound just 'alright'."

"Er... I guess I might be having some trouble," Naruto said reaching for a pair of fresh chopsticks.

"Well..." Ayame began.

"Well...?" Naruto tilted his head as he split the chopsticks in two.

"Well, lay it on me," she brought hands to her hips, "maybe I can help. You mentioned they were both girls, right?"

"Er... well—"

"Er, well, what?" the brown-eyed woman questioned, "Since when did I have to work to get you to talk?"

"It's complicated," Naruto tried to excuse.

"It's only as complicated as you let it," she dismissed.

Keeping her glare on him as he took a rare conservative bite from his ramen. he finally relented, "I found out Sakura said something bad about me not too long ago."

"And?"

"Well, it kinda changed who I thought she was, y'know."

Ayame leaned back on her heels and thought, 'Naruto never really said exactly what he liked about that girl.'

"Is she still saying stuff like that to you?"

At the boy's shrug, Ayame knew what to say, "You know... Iruka mentioned something similar."

When the boy looked up to meet her eyes, she spoke, "He told me earlier that he was scared that you wouldn't forgive him."

Naruto's eyes squinted, but she continued, "He felt like he wasn't there for you, and that you might not forgive him because of it."

"But that doesn't make sense!" Naruto denied, "He always tried to help I just didn't listen."

"And he didn't feel like he pushed hard enough."

The boy stopped and sunk to his seat confused, "But he let go of those feelings," she pushed forward.

"He figured that you wouldn't get hung up on all that. That you would just be happy. 'Forget and forgive the past,' as he said."

The older girl let out a sigh, "The point is Naruto is that you have to have faith. If you want to have close relationships—bonds. You have to make a million leaps of faith."

"Is... that what you have to do to make friends," the young boy said not wanting to make the conversation about... well, that.

She nodded, "Unfortunately, yeah. It can be a bit of a bother sometimes."

As the silence settled between them, she noticed a pair of feet leave from behind the cloth doorway. As the shock left her, she let it go and looked back at the blonde.

"Now eat," she said smiling, "I expect you to eat an extra-large heaping after all that."

"Ah, of course!" Naruto yelled, "I'm starving!"

Iruka put his hands into his pockets.

The smile on his face gentle. He was happy with what he heard. Honestly, if he were to talk to Naruto, he would have said the exact same thing. Although, he might've had more difficulty broaching the topic with Naruto.

Kinda glad I unloaded to Ayame and Teuchi now.

The chunin had been a bit embarrassed finding out what he said to the family. Ayame had loosened his lips with some sake to try and get some gossip out of him, and he ended up blabbing about his insecurities.

Really as a chunin, I should be able to hold my booze better.

But it all worked out in the end. He'd mention what he learned to Kakashi and let them figure it all out. If he didn't need to be part of the drama, then that would make the whole affair a lot less complicated.

He'd just keep doing what he's been doing—having faith.

AN: Fun fact, I only described Satsuki's outfit to show that she's frumpy in and out of missions.

Also, this isn't the resolution to this arc. The next chapter will be Sakura's POV:

Sweet Blossoms...