This was the strangest form of one-upping that Sakura had ever experienced.
She and Naruto had gotten into a big fight, a bad one. They had bickered back and fourth before, but nothing like this. And it all started a few days go.
It had been one of the few times that Naruto was able to get away from his Hokage duties and leave the village. It was a minor mission, one that had no chance of endangering the village leader, not that he really needed protecting. Sakura was going to go out to deliver medical supplies to nearby settlements, and the pair had decided it would be a nice way to spend time together and rekindle their Team 7 days. Kakashi was voluntold to cover for Naruto's duties while he was away. Naruto promised his old sensei that he would make it up to him later. Kakashi, knowing the value of an open ended favour from the Hokage, took advantage of Naruto's kind and unsuspecting nature and quickly agreed. He had probably spent the entire time Naruto was gone plotting what to use it for.
Sasuke was supposed to come with them, at least that's what Naruto had wanted. But the village elders weren't convinced that Sasuke could be trusted to do missions outside the village's walls just yet. Naruto didn't like this, and his previous self would have given the elders an earful for it. But becoming Hokage had forced himself to understand a bit more about diplomacy and he settled with letting them know he didn't agree with their decision and left it at that. To be honest, Sakura was a little grateful about the outcome. While she was spending more time with Sasuke again it just felt...awkward. Their previous dynamic had been so fueled by her crush that it felt like she had very little to go on without it. They were making progress as a team again, but it was slow. She tried to tell herself that that was a good thing, that it meant they were developing a solid foundation together.
For the most part the mission had gone fairly well. Sakura had been able to drop off much needed supplies and swap medical tips with those in different areas. Naruto listened to the problems of each small village and promised to help upon his return to Konoha. It was good for diplomatic relations, which was how Naruto had been able to justify going. Sakura found herself really admiring him. While her younger self had doubts about him, he was really pulling through as a village leader. His brashness stilled showed sometimes, as well as a habit of saying precisely what was on his mind. But his drive to help people never faltered, and his inviting personality made even the toughest of foreign leaders come around to him.
Once everything had been delivered the two began to make their return to Konoha. On their way back Sakura had noticed something while on guard duty. She sensed a few rogue ninja in the bushes. To come so close to the leader of Konoha meant that they were either very skilled, very reckless, or just plain didn't know what they were walking into. Naruto, a notoriously heavy sleeper, hadn't noticed them yet. Part of Sakura thought that she should wake him so they could decide what to do together. It was what Naruto probably would have wanted. But the other part of her, the part that had constantly watched her teammates improve at a rate far faster than her and watched them always want to protect her, wanted to deal with it alone. To prove that she could handle the threat with her own strength and abilities. The latter part won.
It turned out that the group was a mix of two of her previous assumptions, they were foolish and didn't know what they were walking into. They hadn't noticed her sneaking close to them, a feat she attributed to her training with Kiba's team. Being expert trackers meant also being experts on getting close to whatever you were tracking. She heard them speculating on what they could pick up from the two person team they were close to. From the sound of their bragging, this was just the latest of raids they had done recently. She was surprised that she hadn't heard of them prior to this, unless Naruto had just not mentioned them. Hearing about their exploits made her almost more excited, it would mean more once she took them down.
She knelt down closer to the grass as she planned her first move, she would only get one surprise attack. Her strength didn't typically lend itself well to stealth attacks, and they would most likely wake up her partner, which she really wanted to avoid. How amazing would it feel if when he woke up she got to declare her hard fought victory? Maybe then she'd feel more like his equal.
With that thought in mind, she crept over to one of the tents. She calculated that there about five of them in the area and their conversation was just starting to come to a close. One of them announced that he had to go take a piss and walked off in her direction. She couldn't have planned it any better. In the span of a few seconds she quickly crept up behind the unsuspecting man and put him in a strangle hold that soon knocked him unconscious. One down, five to go.
Adrenaline filling her body after her small victory, she decided to go a little closer to the main area. This really was her lucky day, another one of them was walking in her direction, unbeknownst to her presence. She waited until he got close, then flipped him on his back with a well placed kick behind his knees and knocked him unconscious as well. But between the two moves, he managed to yelp out for help. As soon as she heard footsteps change direction, she realised her mistake. She had gotten a little too cocky. Naruto wasn't the only one reckless on their team apparently.
Suddenly it was three against one and Sakura was forced to go on the defensive. Just as she moved out of the way from one attack, she had to defend herself from another. The three moved completely in sync, attacking in formations that obviously came from years of practice. She could barely gain an inch edgewise, didn't have time to think of a plan as she dodged their blows. Chakra flew to her extremities as she used it to speed up her movements. Until finally, after what had felt like forever she had an opening. One of them slid, misjudging how slippery the mud beneath them was. She quickly took advantage, dealing a chakra enhanced round house kick that sent them flying back against a tree, knocking them out cold.
Only two more to go. Unfortunately her short victory had seemed to motivate them even more to take her down. They attacked her with a new vengeance. One managed to clip her with a rock to the gut with an earth jutsu, and Sakura didn't need her vast medical knowledge to know that it had broken a rib. Maybe it was time to try and double back and get Naruto.
No, she quickly told herself as she lifted her arm to block another taijustu blow. She could do this, she didn't need him to save her. All she needed was a plan. That plan started to form when she saw that one of their tents was coming apart. She just needed to lead them to it. Easier said than done, she thought as they seemed intent on not letting her move. She barely moved her head in time to dodge a well placed blow to her skull. They weren't going to let her move in that direction. Unless...
Bracing herself ahead of time, she summoned chakra to her core to try and help shield herself from the blow that was about to come. Another rock shot at her gut, and this time she pretended to dodge just slowly enough to let it connect with her side. Sending healing chakra to the area preemptively did seem to muffle the impact somewhat, and she made a mental note to keep that technique in mind in the future. But it still really hurt, especially when coupled with the already broken rib she had. The yelp she gave out as she was flown backwards was definitely not fake.
Now close to the tent, she waited until one of them got close. Then she summoned chakra to her hand and yanked a tent pole out, sending it soaring towards the one coming towards her. The unconventional attack caught the person off guard, and the metal slammed into them, causing them to fall to the ground. One down and one left, unfortunately they seemed to be the strongest one. They traded one attack after the other, intent on not letting the other walk away. She smashed the rocks he sent towards her and he used earth to dodge the blows she sent to him. His abilities were a shame really, he would have been an asset to a village. Just as she thought she was getting the upper hand she felt her leg being submerged into the ground. Damn, he must have changed the consistency of the ground beneath her.
With one leg knee deep in the earth, she tried her best to stop his attacks. Sakura was back to being entirely on the defensive. And she was tiring out, her chakra stores becoming close to depleted. She needed to defeat him, and fast. He leapt into the and summoned a gigantic rock that she knew was intended to come down on top of him. She could try and punch it once it got close, but she'd likely be hit by debris and it wouldn't stop him from doing it again. An idea popped into her head and she immediately turned it into action before she could talk herself out of it. Clenching her teeth together, she wrenched her leg out of the ground with so much force that she felt her ankle breaking and her muscles pulling from the impact of her leg moving through the rocks. Summoning all her remaining chakra, she jumped up, leaning back and kicking up with her knee. Her knee made contact with the rock and sent it flying upwards, back at the man. It made contact and he fell to the ground, not getting up again.
She had just enough strength to dodge the boulder as it fell back to the ground again. Her ankle reminded her of its broken state yet again as she fell on it. A cry of pain escaped her lips as she fell to the ground. The last thing she saw was a pair of very concerned and very angry blue eyes coming towards her.
Sakura had woken up in Konoha. The same eyes she saw before she had fallen unconscious were staring at her again, and they were not happy. "What were you thinking?" Were the first words out of his mouth. "You could have been killed." Were the next ones.
In hindsight she really should have just admitted to being reckless, but she had just woken up and she had wanted to feel excited about her hard fought victory, not be lectured over it. So she got on the defensive. "I won the fight," she said. "I defeated all of them, things worked out okay."
"Okay?" He yelled out, obviously not caring about watching his volume in the hospital. "Obviously it did not work out okay, Sakura." He gestured to the bed she was lying on.
"I just got tired, like every ninja does," she insisted. "I only had a couple broken bones, typical in our line of work. You're overreacting."
"Overreacting? Overreacting?" Somehow his voice got even louder. "Sakura, your chakra reserves were basically gone. I had to carry you all the way back, I am not overreacting."
"You're also being overprotective," she said as she sat up, trying to ignore the sting in her rib cage when she moved. The last thing she wanted to do was even partially prove him right.
"I am being the normal amount of protective," he said. "Besides, I need to be that way. Apparently I'm the only one in this room who cares about your well-being."
She snorted. "You've done a lot of risky stuff in your lifetime, you're hardly one to talk."
"I've done risks when I've had to do them. When I was trying to get Sasuke back, or protect the village," he insisted.
"Was I not protecting the village?" She asked with crossed arms. It was easy to make the leap and say that the missing ninja would have turned their eyes to travelers and merchants coming to and from Konoha.
"I was right there!" He said, flinging his hands around. "You should have woken me up." A nurse came into check on Sakura but quickly turned around when they saw the argument heating up in the room.
"I wanted to take them out myself," she said, knowing that Naruto could have probably took them all one at once and win with ease. "I wanted to prove that I could." More to herself than to him, if she was going to be honest. And, despite her injuries, she had. She wanted to feel happy about what had happened, but he wasn't letting her.
"Well point proven," he said sarcastically as he motioned once again to her bandaged foot. "If I hadn't gone with you you'd probably still be unconscious in the forest. So many things could have gone wrong."
Feeling like they were starting to talk in circles, Sakura changed tactics. "You wouldn't be berating Sasuke like this if he did the same thing I did."
"Sasuke is one of the strongest ninja in the world, he also has a bloodline limit," Naruto said. And you don't was unsaid but Sakura heard it loud and clear. "He also knows his limits. What you did was stupid and reckless. I honestly don't see why I should let you ever leave the village again when you're so hellbent on taking things on that are so much more than what you're capable of. You can do a lot of damage, but not for very long and you should know that by now."
Being called weak really shouldn't make her see red anymore. She was an adult now, she shouldn't be so sensitive to something that bothered her when she was 13. But sometimes it was really hard being on the same team as 2 legendary ninja. To hear it come from strangers was hard enough, to hear it come from Naruto was 10 times worse. Feeling rather hurt now, she wanted to make him feel similar. "At least when I do damage, it's typically on purpose, and not against my teammates," she said, referencing when Naruto, taken over by the Kyuubi, had lashed out and hit her.
His face fell and she knew immediately that she had went too far. Naruto's face was filled with hurt and remorse and hers with regret. "Naruto...I..." She started to say before a new nurse came in and shooed Naruto out, which he quickly did.
Both of them had felt horrible afterwards. Naruto felt newfound guilt over his past actions and for implying she wasn't very strong, Sakura felt bad for the whole damn thing. He did have a point, her taking on the whole squad of missing ninja was unnecessary. She could argue that it was originally a solo mission so she may have had to fight them on her own anyway, but the point was she didn't have to. That was the whole point of being on a team. She was so focused on being worthy enough to be part of her team that she forgot what being a team was really about, relying on each other. Then she had to go and dig up the past. Naruto had already apologized profusely after the incident, he still felt bad about it and she really hadn't needed to go there.
So now both of them were sad, and both didn't know how to approach the other. Naruto and Sasuke fought all the time, Sakura still had a verbal sparring session with Ino on occasion. But they weren't used to fighting with each other, so now neither were sure how to make up.
Sakura, thinking it might be easiest to approach him with a gift before talking to him, left some ramen from his favourite food stand on his desk along with a I'm sorry note. Within hours afterwards the office in her desk had a boutique of flowers with a note that said I'm even more sorry. She knew he had probably meant something like I'm sorry too, but the words "even more" stirred something in her. That something told her that she needed to prove she was even more sorry than he was. That was why the next day he walked into a new kunai set in his office. The following day she found a brand new textbook on poisons in her office.
For the next week they proceeded to give each other bigger and better gifts. It almost became fun trying to figure out what to give the other person. She had had to really stretch her knowledge of him to think about what to give him next, from bargaining with his office staff to do more of his paperwork for him to even more ramen (he was a man of simple pleasures). And her apartment had never been more full of gifts. But after a while Sakura knew it was enough, it was time to end this. They just needed to talk to each other, and her wallet was taking a hit. As awkward as it was probably going to be, she just needed to talk to him.
It was that thought that brought her to the Hokage's office the next day. Every time she took a step closer to his room her mind came up with a new excuse to leave. Maybe he was in a meeting, maybe he was just really busy today, maybe... But she tried to force them out of her mind as best she could, she had had a week of avoiding him and enough was enough. So she strode into his office before she could talk herself out of it. Thankfully, he didn't have visitors at the moment. "Hey Naruto," she said.
He was staring at a scroll as if it would catch on fire if he looked at it intensely enough. Sakura had to stifle a laugh, knowing how much her teammate disliked paper work. Then he turned towards her. He typically looked happy when he he saw her, but this time his eyes looked hesitant. "Look, I messed up," she said, walking towards him quickly. "You were right."
His mouth opened as if to counter her words but she quickly covered it with her hand. In her quickness to explain herself, she didn't notice how red his face got. "I shouldn't have taken them on by myself. And I shouldn't have brought up the Kyuubi thing, it was wrong of me. I just...it's hard to feel like I'm the dead weight of team 7. But still, I was wrong. I'm sorry."
She took her hand off his mouth, and for a second he didn't say anything. Fear gripped her heart for a moment, did she say something wrong? Was she going to have to apologise for her apology? Then he quickly stood up, looking at her directly. "Sakura," he said. "That's insane." He grabbed her shoulders. "You're not dead weight, you're anything but that. You're really strong, like scary strong. You'd do anything to help other people, and you can heal bones I don't even know the names of. And I'm an idiot for making you think otherwise."
His words were really nice, but his actions were causing quite an unintended effect on her body. She was starting to notice things about him, the cerulean of his determined eyes, his tousled hair that he never bothered trying to tame, his warm and firm hands...Had Naruto always been this attractive? How was she just noticing this?
Naruto hadn't brought up his attraction to her in a long time. But his feelings were still there, at least she thought they were. She knew he wasn't seeing anyone else. What were her feelings for him? What was stirring in her stomach was definitely not platonic. Heat was starting to pour into her own cheeks. Without really thinking about what she doing, she sucked in a breath and then straightened up towards him. His cheeks turned a tad redder as well. "Naruto-"
"Hokage-sama," a chunin said as they walked into the room. Sakura and Naruto both froze. "Um, am I interrupting something?"
"Nothing!" Sakura zoomed away to the other side of his desk. "Did you need something?"
"Er, here's our mission report," the chunin walked in hesitantly and sat it on Naruto's desk.
"Great," Naruto said in a chipper tone that masked anything else he might have been feeling. "Thanks."
"You...you don't want to hear about it?" The chunin asked uncertainly.
"Nope, I'm sure you did great," Naruto flashed him a large smile.
"Okay, thanks Hokage-sama," they said as they left. As soon as they departed Naruto put the scroll on a shelf behind him, with likely no intention to read it later.
"I should probably get going to," Sakura said, shifting towards the door. "Thank you, Naruto. Really."
Before she made it out of the room he spoke up. "Oi, Sakura!" She turned to look at him. He had a smile that had just a tad of mischief in it. "I have a perfect solution for you if you'd like to get stronger."
Something in his tone made Sakura feel rather nervous all of the sudden. "And that is?"
"Join Sasuke and I on our sparring sessions!" He said with his arms up for emphasis. "We even rope Kakashi into it sometimes." She thought of how destructive those sessions often turned out, how they ran around the village multiples times with Lee even before they started sparing, and paled a little. Just when she was going to use the hospital as an excuse, he said, "I can even talk to Tsunade and to get it put in your schedule, being Hokage has some benefits to it."
"Great," she said weakly, thinking of herself getting pulverized on a regular basis. Just what the hell had she gotten herself into?