WARNINGS: Un-betad, off the cuff. Spoilers. Sort of technically for Chapter 236 but not in any plot driven way. So read at your own discretion. Personally, I have no love for Haruno Sakura, but reading this chapter reminded me that I don't actually like any of Team 7 entirely as individuals. It's when they're together, the way the three genin's exist and relate with one another, that makes them that much more remarkable. There is the way they know one another so well but hardly at all, the faith and beliefs they've unconsciously built within their circle that they spend the rest of their rivalries trying to tear down. To what purpose? Just to build it up again.

AUTHOR NOTES: I'm insane. I wrote drabble. Naruto drabble nonetheless, at four am. I never do these things. I'd thought it was just really weird dream, so I posted it when word recovered it this morning. just 'cuz I never do that either.
Dedicated to LadyLisse just cuz'

DISCLAIMER: Kishimoto-sensei, Shonen Magazine and all sorts of people at VIZ own Naruto and the premises therein. My love for them all is what stems this creation, with entirely no other monetary gain.

Sakura thinks Sasuke is handsome.

Well, Sakura is certain Sasuke is handsome because... well, for one; everyone says he is. He's dark and brooding. Not at all annoyingly bright and obnoxiously loud like Naruto.

Sakura thinks Sasuke is perfect... well for many reasons, firstly being; he stands at a perfect height.

They stand mere inches apart, Sasuke and she. He's the ideal height to lean into or up against, to bend toward for a kiss. Or vice versa, she could very well be the ideal height to support when or if he should ever need it. Which, although it isn't common or even likely, did happened once when no one was around, except for Naruto... but there is no accepting Naruto, who stands annoyingly two inches short than she.

Naruto, who ruined her perfect chance at intimacy by whining over why she hadn't offered to help him walk; after all he got eaten by a 'HUGE!' snake. Sakura had to bite down on the comment that, knowing Naruto, it won't be the last time and maybe, hopefully, next time the snake will keep him down, that is if they're not accounting for it to have any taste buds. The moment ruined, Sasuke stood on his own two feet, and Naruto bickered annoyingly with Sasuke about what to do next.

Sakura also thinks Sasuke has an amazing show of patience and restraint considering how infantile their team-mate is. Sasuke verbal come back's are comparable to his Taijutsu, swift, exact and deadly, except Naruto is the sort who never stays dead, no, no, no, that'd just be logical. Instead, Naruto always has to say something back, anything, a glower or growl even! How unrefined. If only Sakura's inner voice had been given a chance to speak out, well then,... well, it's a good thing Sasuke is there, that's all she'd like to say. So she says so, a lot.

Sakura think Sasuke is determined and it makes him strong, not like that idiot Naruto whose stubbornness just keeps getting him closer and closer to being another name on a plaque of dead heroes.

Sakura feels that Sasuke himself is somehow really symbolic,... like the honourable clan symbol perfectly placed between his shoulder blades. The Uchiha-Fan; it's a subtle mark so visible that every passing villager acknowledges it in a mournful awe. Exactly the opposite of Naruto who's gotten looks and whispers his entire life, except somehow it's all different... and there is no accepting Naruto, who seethes and rages under the unsolicited attention, only to effectively draw more negative attention down on him.

Naruto is... always disappointing, a loser, obnoxious, stubborn, never admits when he's wrong, annoying and certainly not ideal.

Sakura holds the curtains wide, feeling the sunlight pour through her and flood Naruto's hospital room. His A-Rank mission a mission failure; Tsunade's near and so is Shikamaru but not Sasuke, and feeling this alone... no, feeling this abandoned, no one should feel this --this helpless!

"Always...Like I said..." Naruto calls out. Even now, he continues to say such idiotic things. Face bandaged like a mummy, crushed by Sasuke to within an inch of his clumsy unexceptional life. "I won't go back on my word! Because that is my ninja way..."

Sakura thinks in Naruto... she sees someone so familiar.

---

Naruto thinks Sakura is pretty but stubborn, randomly loud but cool too, she's the perfect size, actually Naruto thinks 'Sakura-chan' is just the perfect person and soo clever too... nothing at all like that bastard know-it-all Sasuke.

Naruto thinks Sakura is smart... but how could someone so smart say something so as stupid as to--

one; apologize for making him wait for her when she should know he's no good at waiting anyway and--

two; agreeing to go together with him in another mission to retrieve Sasuke from the enemy, and right after he'd just failed so spectacularly--

Naruto thinks Sakura can be so strange sometimes-- but then, even if this isn't her smartest move, since "it's a life-long promise" they'll both stick to it because that is the way of the ninja. Well, to him anyways and Naruto knows his team-mate understands that at least, if nothing else.