A/N: I'll let the text talk for itself. One-shot.
The usual summer day. The usual bright sun. The usual cloudless sky. The usual faint breeze of wind. The usual company.
Except not.
"Where are you?"
There was no longer "the usual company" for Sakura - not after that idiot of a genius had wandered out on his own merry way. The moron had abandoned both of them, causing Sakura to fall into depression and Naruto to swear that he'd find him and torture him until he apologized. She had often laughed at his foolish goals but this time his vow was far too serious to be taken as a joke. Naruto did not swear for her, he did not swear for himself, but he swore for the both of them - and don't forget their teacher - that no matter how much it would take, no matter how long it'd take, he'd find him.
And bring him back.
"I can't see you."
She had craved for his attention for as long as she could remember. Without receiving anything in return she had blindly given him all of her affections, all of her gifts and shy looks: she had given him all of herself. She had wasted so much time on him that it made her nearly laugh at the irony. Now she told Naruto that trying to find him wasn't worth it. It'd only bring them more sadness, more futilely spent time, and more thoughts of him.
"Just a little bit ahead of you."
They had both done everything for him, hadn't they? All of Naruto's training had been to surpass him and all of her self-improvement had been for him. Nowadays Naruto was one of the best among those his age. He was a Jounin, a specialized member of the ANBU, and the next one in line to become the Hokage. He held much power in him, probably more than was healthy, but his stamina wasn't famous for no reason.
"Watch your step."
And Sakura - well, Sakura was Sakura. She trained the little she wanted but most of her time was spent on studying the history of the village. She would become an advisor for the Hokage, relying not on skill or strength, but on wisdom and knowledge. Of course, those things didn't come without experience, so she too had quite a reputation as a ninja. She couldn't be called a great ninja, but she was good nonetheless.
"Wait for me!"
The two were close friends. They shared nearly every secret with each other, except of course classified information from the Sandaime, which was quite a lot these days. It felt like they were living two different lives, one with other people and one with only themselves. It was taboo for them to talk about their missions, be the information confidential or not. It was their own decision to keep quiet about how many people they had killed yesterday, or how many people they would assassinate tomorrow.
"Just a little bit farther..."
Sakura had stopped giving her attention to others a long time ago. It was time she noticed that she had let herself become a pile of trash that remained passive while others walked past her and built their own lives. After she had dragged herself up from the hole she had dug for herself, she could run freely again, and catch up to those ahead of her.
"Reach just a little bit more..."
Naruto was one of them.
Sakura saw Naruto sitting under a tree on the grass, trying to write something. She walked to him and blocked the sun with her body, distracting Naruto and making him look at her. He gave her a grin and gestured for her to sit beside him. She did so without a word. He didn't need to ask why she was there because he knew that she'd tell him if there was a reason.
"What are you reading?"
"A mission report I have to give to Tsunade. I hate writing these things..." He groaned in exasperation, eying the piece of paper with hatred.
"Oh? If I can hardly decipher your handwriting, you can't give some scribble like that to the Hokage."
Sakura nudged him in the side and glanced at the paper in his hand. If it had been classified Naruto would have hidden it behind his back and pretended that he hadn't been writing anything, yet alone in the bright daylight. It looked messy and sketchy, like most of Naruto's writings. The poor boy had never had a parent to smack him in the head for not writing properly - Iruka had tried, but had been forced to quit after several break-downs from the both of them.
"I knooow that, Sakura-chaa-an... But I really, really hate this!" he whined and lay on the ground on his stomach. He snapped a blade of the grass and absently played with it while still eying the paper with disdain.
She didn't want to be a mother to him, or a sister, but a friend. Giving advice was counted as a motherly gesture but when he looked at her with those big blue eyes she couldn't resist. "You want me to check?" she asked with a playfully irritated sigh.
"Yeah, yeah! Thanks, Sakura-chan!" Naruto nearly jumped at her in an attempt to probably hug her to death, but Sakura held him in place with one hand on his forehead, keeping a good one arm's length between them. She snatched the paper from his fingers and muttered something about its wrinkles, crumpling her nose.
Naruto slumped back on the ground, this time on his back. He lifted his leg to rest on Sakura's shoulder, as if testing her temper by being as irritating as possible. Sakura broke from her reading and threw him a glance that promised bloody murder if he wouldn't take his leg off of her. Naruto grinned sheepishly and wriggled to yet another position - his head in Sakura's lap. Her crossed legs gave him the best possible pillow but she didn't seem to think the same way.
"Naruto... Two warnings and I quit."
"Do you really have to? You're so comfortable."
"One warning left."
"Do you really have to? You're so--"
"Naruto! I got that part already! If you keep distracting me like that I'll never get this done!"
Naruto sighed contently. It was rare for him to win a quarrel between them so he was going to make the best of it. He snuggled closer to her even under threat of getting smacked, closing his eyes. Before, this kind of intimate relationship between them would have been impossible due to both of their crushes. Sakura had always hated his attention and been interested in him instead, and Naruto, well, he had been stuck on Sakura for so long that he still didn't know if his feelings for her had changed.
She had represented the ideal girl for him for a long time - caring and witty, yet full of potential. Nowadays he saw her as a very reliable friend who he could share nearly everything with. Despite their small affairs with other boys and girls in the village their relationship remained the same. Well, almost the same.
Life affected them. Being ninjas affected them. Every mission affected them. Every goal affected them. It was impossible to stay just the same, despite their efforts to keep everything as it was.
Sakura, for example, saw Naruto as a man whose attention she wanted. She got it, but she wanted more - so much more. But how could she possible ask it of him when he had done nothing more than lavish her with his radiating being for so many years? Now that he had stopped, she understood that she missed it. Her day wasn't perfect if she didn't get a bright "Good morning, Sakura-chan!" from him, or if he didn't beg her to come eat ramen with him. How foolish had she been to not understand her happiness before it was gone? After he had told her he had feelings for the most unlikely person, she had lost her hope of ever experiencing requited love.
"Hey, Sakura-chan... Can I tell you something?"
"Sure. This has to be something really important because usually you just blurt out everything before even asking."
"Well, it's... more uneasy than important."
"Oh?"
"...From today on, I won't ask you to come to a date with me!"
"Is that so?"
"Not that you ever went with me, anyway, but I just have to tell you that I think that, I think that I love someone else!"
"Oh poor girl. Who's your victim this time?"
"Ino."
"...You've got something stuck up far in your ass if you're in love with that pig."
And then he had fallen in love with Hinata. Both of the affairs had been short due to the girls realizing their love for someone else. Shikamaru had snatched (well, not snatched, since he was way too lazy to do that) Ino from Naruto only after two months of their dating, and Hinata had suffered the love of two boys for nearly a year. Kiba had finally proved to be the one more suitable for her despite their vast differences. Naruto also thought that they looked and were perfect together. He bore no grudge against them, and albeit things were a bit uncomfortable, but they got along well now.
Sakura didn't know what she felt anymore. Somewhere between the terrors of her missions plaguing her mind, Naruto's bright smile, and her teacher's occasional lazy grin - she still called him 'teacher' instead of Kakashi - there was a bay for her. That bay would have never been with Lee and that's why she had broken up with him for some time ago. She had realized her certain feelings for the certain someone currently napping in her lap.
She glanced from the indecipherable piece of paper to his sleeping face and noticed how beautiful he truly was. It was only normal for her to like him, right? How many girls her age wouldn't have been caught off guard staring at him? She was no different from the others. She just wanted to be like this, like no one, with just him for an eternity. She didn't want him to leave on a mission that left her fearing for his death. She didn't want to be the one who waited for him to come back, to return safely. It was unfair that it was always her that had to be worrying about something, and even though she had been told not to it was impossible.
How many times had she asked him to take her with him? How many times had he refused? How many times had he told her that it was too dangerous for her? How many times had she been left on the doorsteps waving goodbye? How many times had she nearly burst into tears when he had come home bandaged from head to toe, with several broken limbs?
She was so tired of it.
He, of course, was oblivious to her feelings, much like he was to all of those girls who nearly fainted every time he walked past them. But she had the advantage. She could claim that she alone knew him. Well, leave out that perverted hermit who spent most of his time with Naruto and Sakura trying to peek under her dress, earning smack from the both of them, and leave out the other perverted teacher, too. And the dolphin man.
But compared to other girls she was vastly ahead of them - and it was a nice feeling, being ahead of somebody, even if it was something as idiotic as a crush on someone.
Whenever he had problems it was her whom he came to first. If he couldn't find his favorite ramen in the shop he'd come running to her place to whine about it (for hours sometimes). If he had been assigned on a boring mission it was her whom he asked to replace him (and she'd, of course, refuse). If the toad master had given him an impossibly difficult training program it was her whom he asked to train with him.
She kind of liked it, although it never showed.
Sakura quietly sighed and refused the desire to poke him in the eye for being so damn blind, and returned to the text. She had to nearly laugh at him for being so utterly uneducated - the boy could hardly write properly at the age of seventeen! If he ever became Hokage she'd personally have to make sure that he'd get a proper secretary who would write everything down for him.
After some time she got the text rewritten in proper handwriting and proceeded to wake him up - it was usually surprisingly difficult. Poking him in the forehead she called, "Hey, Naruto! Wake up!"
Naruto didn't open his eyes but scrunched them tighter together and snuggled even closer to her, if possible. "Nnngh, Sakura-chan, can't you be a little bit gentler? I was sleeping here, you know..."
He would have undoubtedly fallen asleep again had she not continued to poke his forehead painfully. Her plan backfired though, when he grabbed her waist and slung them both on the ground, his arm around her torso. Sakura let out a yelp of protest before deciding that it was the right time to headlock him. Her plan backfired her again when she found that his arm was so heavily around her upper body that she could barely breathe, let alone lift him off of her.
She decided to think for a moment (to enjoy Naruto's closeness) and got more comfortable. She had space enough to place her arms behind her head without waking Naruto up. The boy looked amazingly oblivious and innocent when he was asleep - unfortunately, that image was shattered when he woke up and opened his mouth.
"Naruto, you'll never realize..." she said her thoughts out loud without even fully realizing it and was actually scared by how angsty she sounded. It wasn't like her to mope over something as stupid and unimportant as loving (no, liking. Yeah, liking's much better) somebody. Well, to think about it... it kinda was her sort of thing to do. All her crushes had been desperate and nearly destined to fail. He had left her, Kakashi would have never liked her back more than as a student - but Naruto had at least been a possibility before. Now even he was an unreachable dream.
"What won't I realize?"
Sakura jumped and nearly shrieked at him for scaring her. But she needed an excuse -- quickly at that -- what would he never realize? "That someday there won't be ramen anymore."
...Yeah, she had always sucked at these things.
Lame.
"...Eh? What're you talking 'bout?"
"Well, nothing in particular." She rolled her eyes, trying to get rid of the subject. "Just sleep, you idiot."
"Okay," he replied meekly, clearly confused, but drew her nevertheless closer to him, nestling his head in the crook of her neck.
Sakura sighed again (she seemed to be doing that a lot today) and laid her hands on his head, running subtle fingers through his hair. The grass made her back itch and Naruto's arm made breathing difficult, plus half of his body was on her anyway, and his shoulder was really uncomfortable. She twitched and turned and eventually found a not-so-uncomfortable position and was content with it.
"Hey, you can always say if I'm too heavy, ya know?" Naruto murmured drowsily, his warm breath making Sakura's skin tickle.
"Yeah, I know."
His hair was very soft and it even smelled nice - the mixture of his shampoo, clothes, and sweat. She hoped Naruto didn't mind the extremely intimate position they were currently in because she sure as hell was going to enjoy it to the fullest. It did make her a bit sad, knowing that he probably cared for her as only a friend and not in the way she would have liked him to.
Here she was again, moping like a teenage chick. Well, she was one.
Minutes passed by and Naruto's breathing became gradually heavier and more regular until it was making Sakura feel like she was on the open sea, facing the wind, with her hair being swept behind her. She did have a shower at home, too, you know, Naruto oughtn't to spit at her like that.
"Okay Naruto, now I'm beginning to see stars."
But the damned annoyance had the guts to not wake up. "Hey dammit, you're a ninja! You can't be a heavy sleeper!"
And he didn't even budge. That did it.
She took a deep breath (well, at least as deep as she could), and pushed him on his side, slipping out from under him while setting him back on his stomach. She rolled her eyes and deeply suspected his possibilities of becoming the Rokudaime at this rate. Although, the Fifth had pretty bad sleeping habits, too…
Then the idiot suddenly had the guts to wake up. Sakura's eyebrows twitched as she restrained herself from punching him and instead reminded herself that she had to be kind and nice. Yeah, those were good - if only she knew how to be nice to him!
Now that she thought about it, Naruto hadn't been super nice to her lately, either. He hadn't even asked her on a date after that affair with Ino.
Sakura kind of missed it.
But if he wasn't going to do it, then she'd get the head start. Yeah, that's what she'd do --
"Hey, Naruto! Wake up!"
"I'm 'wake already... Don' yell 'bout it."
Sakura snorted. As if.
"Face me when you talk to me, you idiot." She punched his side.
"Oww! You don't hafta hurt a wounded man!"
Now that scared her. Had she hurt him? "Huh? What've you done?"
He lifted the hem of his shirt, showing her a nasty bruise - but it definitely wasn't Sakura's making. She could nearly see the footprint that had made the wound on his tanned skin. "Ouch. What happened?"
"Just some training... You know, that Jounin stuff."
"Oh."
Why didn't he tell her more? How could he ever learn to trust her if he didn't tell her a damn thing about his training?
Because letting you know classified information would bound him to you forever.
...Yeah. I knew that. I still hate it.
It's not like you tell him anything, either.
"Hey, turn on your back," Sakura suddenly ordered.
"Huh? Why?"
"'Cause I say so. Just turn on your back."
He did so without further complaining.
"Now something will come from around the corner."
He had a brief second to look surprised before she sat herself on his stomach and kissed him on the lips fully, powerfully. Just a quick kiss, but long enough to make even him realize what she meant. Still, he asked anyways.
"Why'd you do that?"
"Do I really have to explain?"
"...No, not really. But you can do it again."
And without words she lowered her head to him and kissed him again, this time adding to it all of her emotions, all of her will, all of her wishes to make this last, all of herself. Maybe they wouldn't face tomorrow together, maybe they wouldn't last long, but Sakura wanted to believe they would, that they could and she knew that they should.
The usual summer day. The usual bright sun. The usual cloudless sky. The usual faint breeze of wind. The usual company.
Except not.
There was only Naruto.
"Hey, dammit, wait up!"
She didn't miss him anymore. She knew that he'd never come back and felt a little betrayed because of it but at the same time she knew that he must've found his life or maybe his death elsewhere. It was no longer her business. And frankly, she didn't care. As long as he'd stay out of her life and give her the possibility to live on her own.
"Okay, okay. You should've said that earlier."
Naruto still said that he'd bring him back. She still told him that it was a waste of time. Their teacher still told them both that it had been his decision. Sakura was sadly the only half of the two who understood and tried to the best of her skill to convince Naruto to let it be. But Naruto's head had always been as thick as a mountain and as always, it was impossible to make him change his mind and she guessed that it was one of the things she loved (no, liked, yeah liking's still much better) in him. As long as he stayed the way he was.
"I did, you idiot."
She didn't need his attention anymore - she hadn't needed it for a long time, actually. She had eyes for more than a mirror, and for more than Naruto, because she had eyes for the whole world. As long as the idiot kept whining for ramen and as long as his hand was sometimes on her waist and as long as he wanted to become the Hokage she knew that everything in the world was in its own place.
"Yeah, riiiight."
The classified information still remained classified between them, but frankly, Sakura didn't care about that, either. As long as they were free they'd stay together.
"Gimme your hand."
As long as Naruto remained one of those people that kept making her run forward.
end