Ninja life went back to normal. That would not wait for Sasuke-kun. It had been over a week since Sasuke-kun left and I was overdue for a mission. I had a feeling Kakashi-sensei had been putting it off for me on purpose, though I much rather have been keeping busy when I was depressed. This one was a C-rank, and my partner was Naruto. All things that I knew were Kakashi-sensei's doing.

Besides the laughable and what could now be an insult, I recognize the attempt of Kakashi-sensei trying to be kind. He never seemed to know how to do that for me. And I was also anxious to see Naruto again. I hadn't seen him since Sasuke-kun left, and for a throuple who were now a couple I thought that was a little long to have seen each other. Granted we didn't do couple things either so I wasn't even sure if you could call us a couple.

This probably needed to be discussed with more detail than what was said last time I saw Naruto, but at the same time I didn't want to have to talk about it. I wanted things to simply be as they've always been. I was for some reason surprised that it wasn't turning out that easy. If Naruto and I had been assigned on a harder mission, I wouldn't have to think about all this drama. It surely would have made things go back to normal.

Stupid Kakashi.

I wrenched open the Hokage's office door, ready to scold him. "Kaka-" I stopped abruptly when I saw who was sitting at the desk. "Shishō! Wh... What are you doing here?!"

Tsunade-sama, who was less than happy to be there, replied, "Filling in," as she studied over a pile of papers. "Kakashi is busy playing hooky so I'm taking over until he runs out of excuses for being pathetic."

"Oh. Okay. But wait, what?"

"Sorry, was I not clear? Kakashi is pretending to be a pitiful sorry ass excuse of a Shinobi. A fucking failure. What does he think we think he is?!"

"Is he stressed out? He seemed to be so busy doing Hokage things."

Tsunade-sama laughed. "The only thing he has been busy with being Hokage is spoiling his former team. He's been in this office for about five hours in the last six months, even had a vacation, and is already saying that he's not strong enough to protect the Hidden Leaf. What bullshit. He's just being lazy."

"But he said-"

"Kakashi's a liar."

Well, I did know that.

"Look at this!" she exclaimed at the piece of paper. "He's just putting his signature on every single thing placed in front of him. There's no way he's reading this. You don't even sign this form. And this! This is a receipt for Kobe Hibachi Take out! And this... a newspaper. He signed a newspaper..." She rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I'm going to have to think of a new technique to kick the depression out of that man. Oh, Sakura! You are here for your mission. Here."

She handed me the assignment. The mission was to simply help rebuild some buildings of a neighboring village that were damaged by the war. I was picked for my super-human strength to help carry heavy loads, and Naruto was picked for his Kage Bushin no Jutsu to make the work go by faster, though I had a feeling that part of this might have been a publicity stunt on our end. The flow of missions wasn't what it used to be after the war, but Konoha were getting the most of them through its fame, and the village needed the money. I was reading over the notes when the door opened behind me. I looked up expecting to see Naruto, but it was Chōji instead.

"Sorry I'm late, Naruto asked me to cover for him."

"What?!" I exclaimed angrily.

"Yeah, he said he was busy."

"Busy with what?!"

"I don't know. He didn't say."

"Probably playing hooking like Kakashi," Tsunade-sama rasped as she angrily scribbled something out. "Like teacher, like student."

Was Naruto deliberately trying to avoid me? I had taken it to just us simply being busy. I hadn't put much effort into seeking him out, mostly because I was apprehensive about our next conversation. I didn't know how to act. I didn't know how to be. Naruto made things around him happen so naturally. I felt like I wouldn't be comfortable being myself until he was also himself in front of me.

As there was nothing to be done about it, I grudgingly accepted the mission alongside Chōji.

The mission was boring and long. Chōji did his best to do his part, his expansion jutsu being helpful for reaching high places, but he was still only one person, and could only be in one place at one time. Things would have been much faster with Naruto's clones. The work had taken the entire day and I didn't get back to Konoha until after eight o'clock, hungry and in an irritable mood.

I surely had missed dinner with my parents, and I was not in the mood to snoop around the kitchen while they were getting ready for bed. I hadn't become very savvy in the kitchen. It wasn't because of lack of skill, but more due to lack of effort. I could make a mean ninja food pill if I tried but feeding myself always seemed to be a chore.

Cooking and cleaning as a housewife had been my dream as a child, but I wondered if I would have been any good at it. I wasn't sure if Sasuke-kun would have appreciated my attempts. It didn't come natural to me as it did to Hinata. I'd seen her fold a basket of linens for the hospital tents during the war with the accuracy of an ANBU performing an assassination.

I supposed it mattered very little, as the prospect of me getting married at this point seemed to be non-existent.

I headed toward Ichiraku's, accepting my fate of probably always being a bachelor. I was also sort of hoping Naruto would be there even though it was late.

To my luck, he was! He was talking to Lee and Tenten. With him in sight, my trudge quickened its pace.

"Where the hell were you?!" He turned to me, mouth still open from whatever sentence he had been saying to Lee.

"Sakura-chan!"

"You realize how long our mission was without you?! What could you possibly be doing that is more important than getting paid for a mission?!"

"Hey Naruto, I think we're going to go," said Tenten, clearly uncomfortable with my shouting.

"Oh, okay guys." He turned to me. "Sorry, Sakura-chan. I had to help Lee with some training."

My commotion caught Teuchi's attention, and he asked me if I would like my usual order. After agreeing, Naruto apologized again, excusing himself.

"I gotta get back home. Have a goodnight!" I watched him go, taken aback that he hadn't offered to sit with me while I ate, or even ordered another bowl himself. If he was short on cash, surely, he would have tried to sneak a few extra bites off from me.

A few more weeks went by. I would ask Tsunade-sama to put me on missions in the hopes that I would be paired with Naruto again. With Kakashi-sensei mysteriously missing, I wasn't signed up with Naruto at all. Tsunade-sama, always being a fan of my medical work, kept assigning me to the hospital, while Naruto was assigned to more international missions to help prepare him for being Hokage. I saw him briefly after bringing back a stray Madara follower as a prisoner but didn't approach him as he seemed to be in a bad mood.

Eventually, Naruto received his prosthetic arm, and even with all my curiosity and questions on how it was working, it did not grant me the courage to ask him. Since Naruto wasn't putting any effort to see me anyway, why should I put an effort to see him? Me deciding that I would not seek Naruto, soon morphed into me trying to avoid him all together, and over a month went by without me even seeing his yellow hair out in the distance.

I was thinking, eventually, Naruto would get over himself. He always forgave me. I didn't necessarily think he was mad at me. He told me he wasn't. And I didn't think he was lying either. Naruto was a terrible liar. I would have noticed!

It was a relief when my mother told me I had a friend at the door, because I had wholeheartedly believed it to be Naruto. The only other friend that I had was Ino, and my mother knew Ino's name. She of course knew Naruto's name too, but she would often call Naruto my 'friend' to allude and hope that he might be more. My parents were annoying like that, but my annoyance was masked by my happiness that Naruto must no longer be mad at me.

I opened the front door to not Naruto. It was Hinata.

She was staring at her feet, her bangs hanging over her eyes as she held her one arm uncomfortably.

Hinata and I were not close, and she had never come to visit me at my house before. It was also quite late now. I was trying to think of what could be so important that Hinata would come to my residence at this hour. My heart was pounding a little hard.

"Sakura-san..."

"Did you want to come inside?"

She looked up at me then quickly, before dropping her gaze again. "I'm sorry for coming to your home so late. I just... wanted..." She seemed to sink even deeper into herself.

"Hinata?" I prompted, fearing the worst.

"He's so very sad. Would you go and see him?" she whimpered.

She didn't need to explain who she was referring to. Still, it took me a moment to respond. If Naruto truly wanted to see me, why didn't he just come over and see me himself? Why was Hinata here? What did Hinata have to do with any of this? I had a thought that maybe, all this time Naruto had been spending it with her. Maybe they had a fight. Maybe Hinata had gotten closer to him and found things out.

I heaved a breath. "Why don't... you go to him?"

Hinata stared at me with her large wet, white eyes. "I can't," she whispered. She shook her head. "I can't. He wants... well, he misses... he misses him." What did Hinata know?! What had Naruto told her?! "But Naruto-kun and I are not very close." She put a hand over her chest, as if she ached there. "He doesn't open up to me. Not like I know he does to you. He's so very lonely, losing his friend, and he failed the Chūnin exams again."

"WHAT?!" my voice echoed in the dark night, and Hinata's eyes widened slightly.

"Yes, the written part," she confirmed.

"Who fails the written part of the exam!? Shikamaru would have made sure he passed! He knows how important this is to him."

"Naruto-kun, he... he didn't show up. So, he was disqualified. Please? You're the closest person he still has."

I took a deep breath. "Fine," I said. "I'll go see him. I don't know why he's being such a butt right now."

Hinata looked at me with pure relief. "Oh, thank you Sakura-san!"

"Where is he?" I asked as I bent down to get my boots.

"Oh, well he's at home, I think."

I looked up at Hinata in confusion.

"I didn't-We didn't speak, I just saw him... and..." Hinata turned bright red. She had been spying on him. I had to hold back my judgment. I had thought nothing of it when we were kids. I had a journal somewhere documenting every meal Sasuke-kun brought for lunch for an entire year, but we were older now and I sort of assumed one grew out of that. Though if Sasuke-kun had never left the village who was to say I would have.

I told my mother I had business to take care of and that I was leaving. Hinata did not follow me. She bowed to me gratefully before heading back to the Hyūga house.

I skipped around from roof top to tree top until I got closer to Naruto's apartment, annoyed that I was having to. If I knew for sure that Naruto was upset with me, I would be glad to take these first steps to resolve it. There were plenty of things to be angry at me with. I was a selfish person. But Naruto usually had the grace to informed the other person why he was pissed, quite loudly and plainly.

He was still awake. I could see his bedroom light was on when his apartment came into view. As I got closer, I could see his silhouette in the window, but there was someone else with him, and that made my heart sink.

It was a little strange but not very much so. Naruto had so many friends. I couldn't be jealous because he was hanging out with someone other than me, but I didn't know who this was. The person seemed to be of slighter build, like maybe it was a woman. It couldn't be Hinata. I had just seen her. Was she aware of this other woman? Was that why she had come to me? To warn me?

The woman raised her arms toward Naruto, and I felt an intense anger rip through me that it didn't matter that I was still quite a bit of distance from Naruto's head. I was still going to run my fist through his brain.

I crashed through the glass of his bedroom window, not even aware of the shattering pieces. I sailed over Naruto's bed, landing in the middle of the room on top of some empty Styrofoam ramen cups. The whole room was a mess, as my eyes ran around, trying to focus, trying to find the bitch Naruto had the gall to cheat on me with!

Was I not clear!? He said we were still together! We didn't break up, did we?! With my heart pounding, the only other soul I could see in the room with me was Naruto, his eyes and mouth wide open as he gaped at me.

"Sakura-chan!" he exclaimed nervously and guiltily. "I didn't know you would be coming! Oh, wow! I'm so sorry. My room is such a mess!" He started to do that laugh he did when he tried to lie. "Let me clean things up a bit." He looked at his bed which was filled with the glass of the window I had broken. "Ahh... Don't move, Sakura-chan. I don't want you to hurt yourself."

He quickly left the bedroom, and I went to follow him, but tripped on some more trash. He was back immediately with a garbage bag.

"Naruto!"

He was still laughing as he picked up some of the larger pieces of glass, but he soon abandoned that as he chose to pick up the trash around him instead.

"Where is she?!"

He began to grab handfuls of dirty tissues and threw them into the bag, unearthing a wastepaper basket that was under the pile. Instead of dumping the basket, he threw the whole thing into it too, before including magazines, books, clothes and anything around him he could find. "What?"

I didn't think the extra person had time to escape before I crashed through the window, but I wasn't sure. I stumbled over to Naruto's closet and wrenched open the door, digging through a disgusting pile of dirty clothes. I gave up and ripped around to him. "I saw someone in here!" I said with clenched teeth.

Naruto stared at me with fearful eyes.

"How could you?" I blinked back angry tears. "Did we break up? I thought-"

"Whoa... Sakura-chan... I wasn't sure... we were together like that. I mean obviously we are important to each other, but I didn't know you wanted to call it that..."

I think my brain stopped working for a few moments, and then it was trying to work too hard. That's not what Naruto had said before, right? Though he had never been serious about labeling me as his girlfriend, or Sasuke-kun his boyfriend. What were we?! What were the rules?! Not to be with one without the other? I had already broken that rule. No one had said anything about it being okay with outside people. I didn't think that was even a subject! But I guess Naruto had always been a man whore. I had seen the way his eyes had wandered. Did I care? If I could have Sasuke-kun, would it matter to me?

Feeling suddenly foolish, I answered. "We're not."

"Oh," Naruto responded back. I almost felt like I could physically see the walls the both of us put up, us standing there, both with our defenses. I decided to be the first attacker.

"Even so, since we share... Sasuke-kun..." That made Sasuke-kun sound like nothing but our sex toy, but I was too confused on what was going on to care, "you can't. In secret. Without letting us know. What if... what if something else happened, and we didn't know about it?"

"What?"

"I mean, there are tons of things that could happen, and it's just rude to not tell us, to not let us be somewhat prepared." I started listing things on my fingers. "STDs, pregnancy, they could maybe want a real relationship, you could want to get married someday...!"

"What are you talking about?"

"You can't see other people without telling us!" I exclaimed, so angry at how stupid Naruto was.

"Sakura-chan," he laughed. "I'm not seeing anyone! I mean things are weird. Between us. I haven't been myself. But that doesn't mean I'm sexing it up with random people! Does it really look like I would be taking anyone up here to fuck?" he asked with a flair of his fake arm over the disaster of his home, still holding the garbage bag. "It's almost gotten to the point where I can't stand it myself. I'm only really here to sleep, but man, even I can tell it reeks."

I didn't let the glimmer of hope catch, that perhaps this was a misunderstanding. I was still angry and upset. I had seen someone. Naruto was lying to me! "But I saw-"

"You must have been mistaken. It's just me here."

I grabbed Naruto by the shirt and threw him onto the bed, truly forgetting about the glass, but I don't think I would have cared if I did. "Don't lie!" I raised my fist with full intention to send Naruto down to the first level of the building, through the bed and floors if I had to, all the way to hell. "DON'T LIE TO ME!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

"DON'T BULLSHIT ME! IF YOU DON'T TELL ME THE TRUTH RIGHT NOW, I'LL SEND YOU STRAIGHT INTO THE AFTERLIFE! HOW COULD YOU EVER-"

Naruto actually made a grab for my fist, the yellow fire of the Kyūbi enforcing his grip. Naruto had never tried to defend himself like this to me, no matter how hard I had beat him up in the past. He had never, ever used the Kyūbi's chakra intentionally toward me, and I was beyond offended as I poured more chakra into my own arm to rip it out of the Jinchūriki's sweaty grip. Naruto made a high-pitched scream when he realized even the help of the Nine-Tails wasn't going to save him.

"IT WAS ME!" Naruto screamed as his life depended on it. "SAKURA BELIEVE ME!" Naruto's shouting made me stall for a second, and he grasped my fist again with both his hands to stop me from making contact with his face. "It was me," he said more calmly. "What you saw was a shadow clone." He closed his eyes. "It was me."

I began to calm down some too. I stood more upright but kept a grip on the front of Naruto's shirt, breathing hard. "WHY?!"

Naruto was gasping for breath too, blushing and he couldn't keep his eyes on my face. They were bouncing all around the room. "I-I-I sometimes do that, you know? Like shadow clones can be very useful sometimes..."

I took a step back, thinking. "Useful for what?"

"CLEANING!" he practically shouted and started to laugh hysterically. "I mean, look at this place!"

I at once did not believe the cleaning claim but I was still caught up on what I had seen. "It wasn't you! It was a woman! I saw her!"

Naruto pushed himself up. "I-I- Well it was a shadow clone... of a woman... but it was still a shadow clone."

"Why would you be making female shadow clones?!"

"Maybe I don't wanna have to stare at myself all the time!"

We were both quiet. Naruto was so red, sweating profusely. He had stopped heaving over himself, but it was only because he was now holding his breath, staring at me pleadingly.

"So, you..." I closed my mouth again, and as I thought about it harder, I tried to remember what I had seen. Another disturbing realization came to me as I remembered the person I saw. He hadn't just made a female version of himself. It was me. He had made a shadow clone to look like me.

"I don't... I don't do it all the time! There's just... no one ever here, and I'm- Well, like you know when people are busy, and there's no one to-I get bored alone, but sometimes you know, it's just still me staring at myself so-"

I cut him off with a wave of my hand. "You make shadow clones... of me-"

"WHAT?! No..."

I glared at him.

"Psh, sometimes you..."

"-to help clean your room?" I asked incredulously.

Naruto stared back at me. "Yes," he lied.

"No. You don't."

Naruto pulled his legs up onto the bed, retreating away from me. "Sakura-chan, please-"

"Like... what the hell?! If you wanted to hang out, you could just have come on over to talk to me! You do other people too? You do Sasuke-kun, probably." I said after a thought, letting out a breath in annoyance.

Naruto gave a vague shrug that I decided to ignore.

"And then what?! You just pretend that we are here?! Like, what the fuck do you do with clones of... other people?!"

Naruto hid his face into his knees and covered his head with his arms.

"That's just really weird. It's... creepy!"

Naruto let out a sob, digging his fingers into his hair. "I'm sorry!"

I didn't want to think about it. I didn't want to know, but I couldn't stop the questions from coming out of my mouth. In the back of my mind, I already knew what he had been doing; The room smelled strongly of teenaged boy, the crusty tissues and socks. "Oh my god..." and he was using me for his sick fantasies.

Naruto tightened his fingers into his hair. "Sakura-chan, please!"

"OH MY FUCKING GOD! ARE YOU-"

"I'M DISGUSTING SAKURA!" he shouted at me, lifting his head so I could see the tears in his eyes. "I'm just so... AHH!" he clenched his fists. "Please. Please don't ask me what I do with the shadow clones."

"Naruto, I-"

"I'll understand," Naruto said, glaring at the ceiling and trembling. "If you don't want to be friends anymore. If you don't want anything to do with me, I understand."

I gaped at him. "Naruto..." I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. "We've been friends forever! Just because... you're doing creepy shit... I mean I could have caught you doing something way creepier, I guess."

"Yeah. If you were five minutes later, you would have..."

I shut my mouth. Naruto glared at me fiercely. "Oh my god!" I cried again, thinking about it more. His face breaking wasn't enough to stop me from spinning around in an attempt to just leave. What did stop me was tripping again. The combination of that and the memory of Naruto's expression made me feel guilty and sorry for him. I kept marching out of the bedroom however as I needed some space.

I went into the kitchen. I found the box of trash bags left open and spilled on the floor. Picking them up, I then began to fill them, separating garbage and old food items from kitchen utensils. I got annoyed after filling up three bags and discovering that Naruto didn't have any more left.

I went back to his bedroom to finish filling up the one he had started earlier. He still hadn't moved from his spot. I made sure to make my movements as loud as possible in my annoyance.

"Sakura-chan..." I heard him murmur. "It's late. Stop."

I angrily turned to him. "You need help!" I declared. Naruto moved his face from where it had been resting on his arms to stare at me with one eye. "This isn't healthy! This is not okay!" I said motioning to the room.

"I know. I'm sorry. I'm fucked up," he agreed.

"Hinata told me you failed the Chūnin exams again! How is that even possible!? We studied so much!"

"Yeah, I guess I'm really stupid."

"Naruto," I sighed. "Get off the bed. You're sitting on the glass." When he wasn't moving fast enough, I yanked him off the bed myself. I gathered the fitted sheet, being careful to keep the glass inside it before tying it up and adding it to my growing pile of garbage bags. "Where do you keep your spare sheets?"

Naruto blinked at me.

"You don't have spare sheets. What do you do when you need to wash these ones? You don't wash them!" I answered myself. I flipped the mattress over to make sure any stray glass wouldn't be a problem. I found a blanket on the ground, but after picking it up and feeling how sticky it was, I immediately changed my mind and dropped it.

I grabbed Naruto and sniffed his shirt. It wasn't as bad as I feared so I decided it could be used as a blanket and bullied him out of the garment. I shucked off my jacket to use as the other half to cover us. Then I yanked Naruto onto the bed with me. He yelped from it before I spooned behind his back, my one arm underneath him. He was still trembling. "Relax," I huffed. "Pretend I'm one of your shadow clones and just go to sleep. I'm sorry I'm not one of them," I said bitterly.

"No. No Sakura-chan. Oh my god. Nothing could compare to the real thing." He was gripping one of my hands, his face pressed against it. It was wet. I wasn't sure if it was drool, snot or tears. Probably all three.

"Then why haven't you been around me?" I asked pitifully.

He moved a little, like he wanted to turn to me but I wouldn't let him. "I... you said you wanted to wait for Sasuke, and I guess... I don't trust myself around you sometimes."

"Well I'm not going to just let you hump me to oblivion, you fucking perv!" I pinched his side.

"Ow! I know. I'm sorry. I fucking... hate myself." I felt Naruto trying to sink into the mattress as if to disappear.

Now that time had gone by, I was less angry about what I had stumbled upon. In fact, after the initial shock, I was almost intrigued. "It's not that bad," I said.

Naruto was still in my arms, holding his breath again.

"I mean, it's just like masturbating, right?" I huffed. "We've seen each other naked before, so what's wrong with it? It's just like jerking off to your memory of me, yeah?"

Naruto laughed nervously.

"Is it more than that?"

Naruto was finally able to push himself up enough to look me in the face. "Sakura-chan, you're either going to have to stop asking about it or just skip to the part where you kill me, 'cause I'm not gonna be able to talk about this."

"Because you're embarrassed?" I stared up at Naruto steadily as Naruto looked down on me.

"You're not mad?" he asked in amazement.

My eyes moved from his face. "No. I... I mean I guess I just don't really understand. You could use your imagination to make anything up. I don't really understand why you would choose me."

"Sakura-chan! You're like the prettiest, hottest, strongest, smartest kunoichi I know. Like, you... fuck." Naruto stopped his ramble and looked me dead in the eye. "That fire, the passion that's in your eyes makes me so weak. Do you not know that about you?" I blushed. I couldn't really believe that. Especially since I could see Naruto saying all these things about Sasuke-kun as well. Or anyone, really. "I mean, sometimes I just do it for the company, because I don't want to be alone. And well, when I'm in the mood to cuddle I guess," he laughed, settling down with one arm around me. "I pick you. I like the way you smell."

We were quiet.

"Sometimes I wonder if that's more sad."

I turned my head to him.

"I should have just asked you. I didn't even know for sure you would say no. I was just afraid you would, and I didn't want to feel it." He turned his face to me. "Would you stay the night with me? I have trouble sleeping alone."

I placed a kiss on his forehead. Naruto always gave me that feeling of falling in love with him for the first time. Whether things were remaining the same, or I was climbing away, the ground would cave, and I would just be falling back into him.

I felt his fake hand grasp my head. I placed a hand over it, looking into his eyes. I skimmed my fingers over the bandages that hid Hashirama's cells. "Can you feel with it?" I asked.

I saw his eyes flick over to my fingers. "No," he said. "It's weird, but," he squeezed my hand, "I feel that." I squeezed back. "I can feel your hand holding mine. I don't know how that works." He yawned, still holding my hand. "Thank you for coming over, Sakura-chan."

"You're welcome."

"Goodnight." His eyes fell closed.

"Goodnight."

Naruto's alarm clock went off at 7:00 am. He pulled his arm free from our tangled mess to slam it off, immediately seeming to fall back to sleep. I had already been awake.

I had been awake for quite some time, thinking about Sasuke-kun never coming back. Sometimes I felt what was the real truth. The truth that I could live without him; I could be happy with Naruto without him, and that was what I was most afraid of.

"We should hang out more," I said. I think Naruto forgot I was in the bed with him as his eyes snapped open and his eyeball rolled over to look at me.

"Totally. Like a date?"

"No, not like a date," I snapped.

"Oh, okay," he turned away. "Like how then? What would you want to do?"

"I don't know. We used to hang out all the time. What did we do then?" We were both silent for a bit, thinking. "Well, we can buy you new sheets," I finally said.

Naruto seemed to let out a breath in relief. "Yeah, that's a good idea."

"I won't be able to do it today. I'm working at the hospital."

"Me too. I have stuff too." Even as he said that I could see him glance at the clock, like he should really be getting ready now. I got up quickly, briefly looking at the window as I put my jacket and shoes back on.

"I'll pay for the window."

Naruto sat up and smiled at me, "Nah, room needed to be aired out anyway. Thanks!"

We listened for a moment to the morning birds outside. "I'll see you later, then."

"Yeah, later." Naruto was sitting at the edge of the mattress, turned slightly away from me. I stared at the back of his neck, his drooped and sad shoulders. Even though it was no longer nighttime, he still didn't like it when people left.

I put my arms around him, placing my lips just beneath his hair on his neck. His hand reached up to one of my arms, and his grip tightened when I began to pull away. "Goodbye, Sakura-chan," he said, finally releasing me.

I realized as the days went on, Naruto was still going to need his fitted sheets to sleep on, so as we both kept missing each other, I finally broke down and just borrowed a pair of sheets that were at my parents' house and went over there on a night that I wasn't busy. As I suspected, he hadn't gone out on his own to buy them and was still sleeping straight on the mattress.

"Sakura-chan, I don't really know what the point is. The mattress is still soft enough."

The point was that you couldn't just throw an entire mattress into a washing machine! We slowly, but surely got rid of all the excess garbage and made some sort of order to his apartment, Naruto complaining the entire time. I didn't go over every night. Sometimes I had missions or overnight shifts at the hospital, and sometimes Naruto wasn't in town either. We kept each other inform so I wasn't going over there if he wasn't going to be home that night, but sometimes I'd get there before him and wait for his return.

Naruto never locked his door. He didn't have anything of value, and I guess his home couldn't be more trashed than it already was. During this time, while waiting for him, I cleared enough space to cook something with what little ingredients he had in his kitchen. This was mostly instant ramen, but after getting tired of that I started bringing my own food.

The first time I had cooked for us, an awkward moment passed over as soon as he entered the threshold. I was embarrassed for a second, letting myself into his home, like I needed to explain myself. I had to be occupied somehow as I was here alone, but I shut my mouth when I noticed his eyes looking moist.

"I'm home," he said.

Sometimes when I came, it was so late that Naruto was already in bed. Some of my shifts at the hospital ended around three in the morning. On those nights we would be too tired to speak, and I would sneak into his bed, his arms opening and ready to receive me, and we would both pass out in seconds. This was our life for a time.

And then it happened. We ran out of things to do.

Naruto's apartment was finally clean, no visible garbage, rugs beaten, shelves dusted, laundry completed. The kitchen was spotless after dinner had been eaten. Naruto had new sheets and blankets. And it was only 7:00 pm.

"We could watch a movie," he suggested. I saw him eye the couch behind me as we sat at the dining table.

I glanced at it. It would be more comfortable. I turned back to Naruto. Maybe too comfortable. "I don't know," I said.

I saw Naruto frown. He had been a complete gentleman every night that I was here, almost walking on eggshells around me, afraid anything he did might remind me of what I caught him doing that one time. Even when we were in bed together and he was clutching me tightly, I never once found him humping my leg in my sleep.

I was comfortable with this and didn't want to be more so.

"We could play a game!"

"Aren't we a little old to be playing games?"

"We could play cards. Adults play cards. Do you know how to play cards?"

I exhaled a breath. "Of course, I know how to play cards. Do you know how to play cards?"

Naruto got up. "Sure do! Pervy-Sage taught me!" He left to go find a deck. "Who taught you?" he asked over his shoulder.

I let out a small laugh. "Tsunade-sama," I murmured.

Naruto burst out a laugh as well, returning. "Oh man, Sakura-chan. Did she teach you her bad luck too?" He sat down, already shuffling the deck.

"I don't think bad luck is something that can be taught."

"We'll find out!" he grinned, the cards making a smacking noise as they slapped together. "Let's play poker," he said, almost like it was a dirty word.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "With money?"

"With whatever we got."

I raised an eyebrow. "Strip poker?"

"Whoa, Sakura-chan! I didn't say that. If you're not comfortable with that, no way you half to. But if you are..." He started dealing the cards.

I laughed. "First off, there's no way you have anything decent to a good poker face."

"Wha?! What about you?! You're the disciple of the 'Legendary Sucker'! It evens out!"

"That doesn't mean I suck at poker!"

"Then you shouldn't be so chicken..."

"I'm not. And there's only two of us. It'll be too easy." I was really just trying to think of another excuse not to.

Naruto gave me a hard stare, before putting his fingers together and a puff of smoke burst into one of the chairs in between us.

"Like that makes any difference! Your clone is just as stupid!" Another puff of smoke, and it was my face staring back at me. "Oh no... That changes nothing!"

"Come on, Sakura-chan!"

"Come onnn, Sakura-chan..." the clone said in a breathy low abomination of my voice.

"I do not sound like that!" I glared at the clone, almost thinking it as 'the other woman'. She gave me the same look back.

"Well, if you don't wanna play, I'll just play by myself." Naruto started to deal a hand between himself and the clone.

"I'm playing!" I shouted, stealing the clone's hand so that Naruto had to deal out more cards. The clone gave me a sideways glance, nose turned up in the air as she nibbled on her fingernail.

"Why are you making her like that?"

"What?"

"Stop it!"

"Hey, Sakura-chan, don't tell me. I don't control them." I glared at him. "They just have the same mind as I do."

I turned my gaze on the clone, and the smile she gave me back was just a little too Naruto to not be creepy.

Naruto laid down the communal cards on the table. "Alright, let's do this."

I looked at my cards before casting my gaze over to Naruto's grinning face. I tried to ignore the clone. She hadn't stopped staring at me like I was a tasty snack since the start of her creation. I noticed we didn't have poker chips.

"So, what should we bet?"

I sighed. I hadn't any money on me, not thinking I would be needing it tonight. Instead, I untied the Hitai-ate from my head, placing it on the table, shaking my hand through my hair to get used to the feeling of it being gone.

Naruto stared at me with wide eyes before he scrambled out of his orange zip down sweatshirt. "Since your bet has more value, we can say you're the big blind. So that means Clone-Sakura-Chan can go next."

The clone put a finger to her lips in exaggerated thoughtfulness. I rolled my eyes. Of course, she began to remove our matching sweater, but not before she locked eyes with me. She made sure to curve her back as she removed the garment over her chest. I was slightly surprised that Naruto also matched the white camisole I had underneath but was less so when it did not hide the black pushup bra that I did not own. Naruto must have seen that somewhere in some catalog.

She extended her neck until it seemed impossibly long, the sweater finally over her face as she gave a toss of her head to flip her hair back. She dropped the sweater delicately on the table with the other articles of clothing. "I call," she said. Then she winked at me.

I decided I needed to stop staring at her, so I turned my gaze over at Naruto who had also been watching the clone the whole time. "So, this is what you do with your clones?"

"What? Play cards? Sometimes, but I always lose."

"No, that's not what I meant."

"Okay, here it is," Naruto said ignoring me as he turned up the community cards: Six of spades, three of hearts, and queen of clubs. "Ah, well fuck," he said as he looked over his cards. Of course. This was going to be too easy.

As the game proceeded, my prediction was right as both Naruto and his clone were not doing very well at all, though I was kind of suspecting the clone was doing bad on purpose. She was sitting in her bra and pants like she was in her element. On the off chance she did win, she didn't put anything back on. I lost a couple of rounds and did forgo my sweater, but after winning Naruto's sweatshirt, I was wearing that to keep myself covered.

I won another round. "Man, I don't get it!" Naruto said as he threw his cards down. "I'm usually a very lucky person!"

I pushed my lips together and raised my eyebrows. Naruto did usually seem to be uncannily lucky most of the time. "Well, poker is a game of skill rather than luck, you know?"

"What? No, it's not!" he said as he wiggled out of his boxers to hand over, his last remainder of clothing I presumed. "Then why is Grandma-Tsunade so bad?"

"She's usually wasted and any skill she might have had goes out the window at that point."

"Maybe we should have started drinking before we started. The alcohol would have least kept me warm. You want anything?"

"No," I said quickly, mostly because I didn't think I was prepared to see Naruto stand up fully naked.

Naruto stopped his ascent. I could feel the clone's hot stare. She was also rather naked and in the process of taking something else off, but I hadn't cared to look at her. "Wow, calm down Sakura-chan. No need to get so red. I won't force you to drink. I know how you get."

"I don't get like anything!"

"I don't know Sakura-chan, sometimes I wonder if you only ever fuck me when you're drunk."

"That is not true!"

Naruto gave me an even stare.

I sighed, "It's been about fifty-fifty," I admitted.

Naruto laughed good naturedly. "I can't tell if that means you trust me or not."

"Of course, I trust you." I just didn't trust myself. We sat staring at our cards for a moment before I said, "Hey, Naruto, you don't have anything more to bet with, so I think you lost."

Naruto put a hand to his chest, as if checking. For a moment I wondered if he was looking for the necklace he used to wear. "I guess you're right, Sakura-Chan."

"So, the game is over."

"Uh-uh! Clone-Sakura-Chan's still in the game. She's still got clothes."

It was at this time that I finally turned to her and realized that she was completely topless, sitting with her arms behind the back of her chair for a full display.

"Oh my god!" I looked over at Naruto. "Stop staring at my chest!"

"Your chest, or Clone-Sakura-Chan's chest?"

I zipped up the orange sweatshirt a bit more. "Both!" Naruto held up his hand as if to block the clone from his view.

"Not looking."

"Though I suppose it's some perverted exaggeration and not my actual breasts, just like her personality."

"Oh, don't say that Sakura-chan!" The clone spoke in Naruto's voice. I was still trying not to look in her direction. "I try really hard to get them as realistic as possible." From the corner of my eye, I could see the clone feeling up her own breasts. "The first versions of my Sexy Jutsu had these big D-cup sized fuckers, but I couldn't get them to feel real, you know? They felt too fake. And if you're trying to seduce another ninja on a mission, you don't want them to be suspicious. When a super-hot sexual girl approaches you-" I narrowed my eyes at the clone. "-you're gonna be suspicious. But if a sweet innocent girl shows she might like you, what makes you think she's got any ill intentions on her mind? I learned that from Pervy-Sage. Man, he was so cool."

"You better not be using my face on seduction missions!"

"I don't use you," the real Naruto clarified. "Just parts of you."

"You've used my boobs?!"

"I don't have a choice! You're the only boobs I've ever known personally!"

"Oh my god!" I said turning red, trying to imagine what possible shenanigans Naruto may have gotten into using my body. "They're so small! Why would you use mine?!"

"Some people really like the small ones. I mean, at least you have them. I don't have them at all."

"Really like them? Maybe like some creepy pedophile."

"What? No, shut up Sakura-chan."

I had been turned slightly away from the clone, but she grabbed my arm, turning me to her before placing my hand over one of her breasts. "Don't insult yourself like that. There's no way this belongs to a prepubescent child. See how your hand just sinks into it?"

"I-" I was caught completely off guard with my hand being pressed into the other's breast, or what I supposed was my breast. I didn't think to do anything until I caught the flushed face of the clone. I could feel her heart beating against my hand. Forgetting I had the strength to do so, I yanked my arm back.

"It feels real, right?" Naruto asked.

"No way," I denied. "That clone isn't like me at all."

"What?!" and that was the clone shouting at me, using my voice. "I'm not like you at all? You don't think I'm good enough?! You don't think I'm 'sexy' enough?! How dare you! Hell no!" I had to glance back over to her as she was being rather loud. She threw her cards into the air before she stood up. Stomping her feet and flailing her arms, she was making her chest jiggle in a way I didn't think it was able to. "So what? I have a smaller chest. I'm skinny? Maybe my forehead is big? But I'm hotter than any other kunoichi around. I'm in a league of my god damn fucking own! If I really wanted to, I could get any man begging for me to let them have me. I bet I could even get the women wanting my attention. I could keep them coming back for more until they wouldn't be able to think of anyone else other than me. Don't ever underestimate me. God damn it."

She suddenly grabbed the front of the sweatshirt I wore, bringing me close to her face, our noses nearly touching. "And if anyone doesn't think the same, I will crush them until they are absolutely nothing, before putting them back together again," she whispered.

I stared into her green eyes, somewhat entranced by this foreign yet well-known version of me. Her gaze dropped to my lips, a slight upturn to one corner of her mouth. With a small tug I was falling into her kiss.

Her mouth was warm and soft, and my head was spinning in confusion that I lost the sense of where I was.

Naruto's quite murmured "Fuck," helped me find solid ground as I pulled myself away to glare at him.

"Are you jerking off!?"

"Trying not to," he replied, but both his arms were under the table so I couldn't tell.

"Well, I'm not one of your clones for you to play whatever messed up fantasy this is supposed to be!"

"But my acting has gotten better, right? You gotta admit that. I think I know you pretty well."

"Don't change the subject!"

"Do you like kissing girls, Sakura-chan?" he asked instead.

"N-No!" I sputtered out, flustered.

"Oh, sorry. I guess I kind of assumed, with the whole Ino thing that one time."

"You know what that was supposed to be!"

"The hottest thing I've ever seen in real life?"

"No, it was supposed to be for Sasuke-kun!"

"I'm sorry Sakura-chan. I should have considered your preferences."

There was a release of smoke, and though I had hoped it was Naruto dismissing his clone I knew better by the heavy presence that replaced her. I didn't have to look, but my head turned like it was being slowly pulled by a magnet.

Sasuke-kun sat in the chair, elbow on the table, face pressed against his knuckle, looking entirely too comfortable to be the real him. It wasn't the real him, but I had missed him too much to not look away. He had been sitting in the back of my mind as I patiently tried to ignore him, going through my day to day, thinking about Naruto, caring about Naruto, putting Naruto first. All that was distracting me from the sharp absence of his presence.

His exquisite shaped eyes were watching me, the slight distortion of his cheek being pushed into his hand did nothing to stop the beauty of the angles of his face. The loose fitting clothing Naruto put him in looked soft and warm, and I had an urge to climb into his lap.

"Do it."

I turned back to Naruto at the rather hard demand, wondering if Naruto had somehow read my mind. Naruto was watching me with dark eyes.

"What?" I whispered.

"Do it," he whispered back.

My eyes darted quickly over to the clone. Naruto hadn't been specific on exactly what he wanted me to do. I was afraid to have him clarify. I was suddenly entirely too warm in the orange sweatshirt. I kept my gaze on Naruto, but the way he was looking at me wasn't cooling my head one bit. I watched his chest expand as he took a deep breath.

"Do what?" I asked anyway. I felt the clone reach his hand up to gently tuck a hair behind my ear. His touch was light but still as hot as fire. I swallowed. "Maybe... we should ask Sasuke-kun first, before doing these types of things."

"Ask me what?" The clone spoke in Sasuke-kun's deep voice, and the sound made me shiver. His hand turned me to face him. He was looking at me the exact same way Naruto was looking at me, but his breath somehow still smelled like Sasuke-kun's breath.

The kiss was rougher than how it had been with the Sakura clone, but once it was clear that I wasn't going to fight it, it was surprisingly sweet. After a few seconds, the clone broke it off, but the sound of his breath exhaling made me forget myself and I had my hands in his hair to kiss him again. The messy way his teeth brushed against my mouth reminded me that I was actually kissing Naruto and I pulled away. "We need to stop," I said.

Naruto watching made a whine in answer.

"I don't want this game to go too far."

"Right," Naruto breathed, releasing the clone. He kept biting and licking his own lips, as if trying to find my taste on them. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. I've just been really horny lately. I'll stop."

"Your clone threw her cards, so the game is done for real now."

"I guess."

"Let's just get ready for bed."

"You're staying?"

I looked at Naruto. Of course. I had always stayed. "You don't want me to stay?"

"No, of course I want you to stay. But I mean, you've been over here a lot. Don't you want, I don't know, some alone time or something?"

"What?!" I shouted, offended that Naruto was trying to get rid of me. "I thought you wanted the company! You were being all depressed because you were alone all the time!"

"I appreciate that," he said seriously. "But you don't have to worry about me. I'm not really alone. Kurama is always there. Though he doesn't usually have anything nice to say." Naruto paused, his irises moving to the corner of his eye. After a moment he said, "Oh shut up, Kurama!" to the voice in his head. "Don't listen to him, Sakura-chan," he continued as if I could hear the Nine-Tails too. "But the thing is, you're here all the time so I don't ever get a chance to..." His eyes motioned down to his crotch. "You know..."

"Ew!"

"And I'm assuming you don't want me to do it in front of you."

"That would be correct! Just do it when I'm not around you!"

"But then I'm on missions with other people."

"Do it in the shower!"

"You always barge into the bathroom when I'm in the shower to brush your teeth or use the toilet or something."

"You said it was okay for me to come in!"

"Well, I'm not gonna say no if you have to pee! Though, sometimes I try to do it anyway, but at that point it feels so wrong when you don't know what I'm do-"

"Fine!" I said, getting up. "I'll leave!"

"I don't want you to leave. Please stay."

"No," I said huffing. "This makes me feel bad. I didn't realize-we should spend some time apart. It's healthy to have alone time."

"I don't want you to go," Naruto pouted. A part of me wondered if I could just forget the past few hours and continue our arrangement as it was. Even if Naruto didn't try anything, I wasn't sure if I wouldn't pull something in his sleep tonight. I was remembering everything Naruto could do to me if I let him. It was too much of a temptation.

"If I stay in the bed with you, I won't be able to sleep."

"We don't have to sleep. We could do anything you wanted to do," he told me suggestively.

"But Sasuke-kun."

"Right." Naruto gave up and started gathering the cards.

"It's fine. I'll see you later. You take this time... to do you, and we will hang out another night." I gathered my sweater and took off Naruto's sweatshirt. "I'll see you later," I said again, tossing the garment into his lap.

"Wait," Naruto got up, holding the sweatshirt to cover himself. "Let me say goodbye before you go." He gave me an awkward one arm hug. My chin fell upon his sturdy shoulder, and I could feel his rather heavy heartbeat as he gave me a quick squeeze.

I tried to give him a kiss on the cheek, but he moved too quickly, and I almost got him on the mouth. I stopped myself in time, before attempting again, but it was really just us quickly pressing our cheeks together and making a kissing noise. "Okay, bye!" I said in a hurry to get out of there.