"The Courting of Uzumaki Naruto"
by the Carpet Shampoo
Author's Commentary: I went to Fanime 2004! And I turned 17. Exciting, no? lol, I went to Fanime dressed as Gaara of the Sand. Some of my favorite author's just updated, so I decided no matter how long it took, I would update tonight!
Chapter 11: A Close Encounter of the Sasuke Kind
Naruto blinked and stared at the two shirts in front of him. He frowned slightly for a moment, and looked back and forth between the shirts. Finally, he looked up and stared at the two girls.
"Um…both shirts are the same…" Naruto pointed at the two shirts that each girl held out to him as gifts.
"Mine's better!" the two exclaimed at the same time. Ino and Sakura looked at each other and glared, throwing the shirts at Naruto and storming out. Naruto sighed and picked up each navy blue shirt and studied them. He flipped them over and grinned, noticing that on the back of each shirt, was the red and white Uchiha fan.
Kiba poked his head in next.
"You gotta open my gift quickly. 'Sides, I'm the last to come in here. Neji's somehow lost his gift, and Shikamaru says if you want a gift from him, you have to come get it yourself. But like I said, you gotta open mine quick, because its already chewed through most of the paper." Kiba handed Naruto a wiggling package. The gift wasn't that much of a surprise…you could already see the white and brown puppy chewing the wrapping paper.
Naruto stared at Kiba incredulously. "You wrapped a puppy?" Kiba blinked and looked at the dog.
"Aren't you supposed to wrap gifts?" he asked, scratching at the top of his head.
"Not live ones! Not puppies!"
"Ohh…Oops. Is the puppy ok?"
"Yeah he seems fine…" Kiba seemed relieved.
"Anyway Naruto…I just thought you'd like a dog. I talked to Iruka-sensei and he said that you grew up by yourself. And I thought about how lonely I would be if I didn't have anyone around. And so I tried to think of ways to help you out. But then it hit me! I realized I was never alone, because I always had Akamaru around to be my friend. So, now I got you a friend, so you never have to be alone either…Naruto? Hey, are you ok?"
Naruto had turned around holding the little brown puppy, squirming as it was, up against him. His normally calm eyes were bright with tears over Kiba's thoughtful gesture towards him.
"Thanks Kiba…You should really stop by my apartment sometime, and teach me how to take care of this guy." Naruto blinked away his tears, and turned around with his brightest grin for Kiba.
"Well, I better go see what Shikamaru has got for me! Come on!" Kiba grinned to Naruto and the two of them stepped out to where everyone had been.
…But no one was there anymore.
"Huh? Where is everyone?"
"Surprise!" Suddenly, everyone jumped out from where they'd been hiding, nearly scaring the living daylights out of Naruto.
Shikamaru was standing in the corner, looking bored as anything, but he held in his hand a birthday cake and a store bought birthday card. The cake, naturally, was made by his mother, not him.
"Happy birthday. This is my gift to you." The lazy ninja said, holding out the cake to Naruto.
"I've never had a birthday cake before…" Naruto stated in wonder, looking at the cake in awe. Shikamaru stood there, still holding it, and looking annoyed at each passing second. Finally, he shoved the cake into Naruto's arms, forcing the blond boy to hold it.
"About time…my arms were starting to hurt."
"By the way Naruto…" Kakashi added, "You were too off guard there. You should have sensed us in hiding." Naruto stuck out his tongue at his sensei and took off a bit of icing, and flicked it at him. Kakashi didn't even blink, he simply moved the unconscious Iruka in the way, using the other ninja as a human shield.
At the moment, Naruto's new puppy, still tucked under one arm, leaned forward and took a big bite out of the cake.
Also at this moment, Ino noticed the rather large spider on Naruto and screamed. This was followed by screams from Sakura, Neji, and Gai. Hinata gave a startled gasp and moved back, tripping over Shino and knocking them both over.
Shortly after Hinata fell, Naruto sat down and shared the cake with his new puppy, along with Kiba and Akamaru, who were the only ones still willing to eat it after the puppy licked it. Kiba began talking about how he and Akamaru shared food all the time.
Overall, it was rather chaotic, with Ino and Sakura clinging to each other to avoid the spider. And Kakashi had a dazed Iruka on his lap, trying to convince him that he had not fainted from a spider, but rather from Kakashi's awesome sexiness. Shikamaru had somehow managed to fall asleep.
And…Naruto thought to himself…maybe this whole thing isn't so weird after all.
That evening, Naruto was taking his new puppy, now lovingly referred to as 'stupid mutt', out on a walk as Kiba suggested. The puppy walked close to Naruto, occasionally trotting off a little ways, but still staying close to Naruto. Naruto imagined Kiba must have given the puppy some sort of training…or more likely with Kiba and his family, he just told the dog what to do and the dog understood.
Sniff…Naruto heard the noise distinctly, a soft sniffle that he recognized to be someone trying to hide the fact they were crying. Naruto turned around and saw, half-hidden behind a tree, a few locks of bubblegum pink hair.
Sakura-chan? But why?
"Sakura-chan?" Naruto called out softly…taking a few steps towards her. There was no response. Naruto took a few steps forward and saw that the figure sitting there was indeed Sakura.
"N-Naruto! I didn't see you…" Sakura quickly wiped away at her eyes, but Naruto could still see where they had been red from crying.
"Sakura-chan, what's wrong?" Naruto quickly sat down next to the pink haired girl, his blue eyes wide with concern.
"Nothing Naruto its just…" her pale green gaze moved out across the field and Naruto saw, in the distance, two small figures involved in some sort of mock fight. Naruto realized by the bright green that one figure was obviously Lee. It took him a moment to figure out the other one was Sasuke.
"Is it Sasuke?" Sakura shook her head, but Naruto saw the tears in her eyes forming again.
"Oh Naruto, its not just Sasuke, its everything!"
"…You still like Sasuke?" Naruto asked.
"I do…But then one day Ino came up to me and she told me that she liked you. Well…I didn't think it was true. I think it was just a plot to make Sasuke jealous or something…"
Naruto thought this over and decided it made sense. He sat quietly and let Sakura continue.
"Well…I didn't think it was right. You're my teammate Naruto and I had to look out for you. Ino is…well look at her! She's so pretty and she can act so charming at times. I figured you'd have no trouble falling for her. And I didn't want to see you get hurt Naruto. So I um…said I liked you too. So you wouldn't fall for Ino."
"Sakura-chan…" Naruto reached out and gently put one arm around the girl. She quickly fell into his arms, crying on his shoulder.
"But I still like Sasuke-kun! And I know he's a jerk to me…He's never nice to me, or talks to me, he's usually outright cruel to me. But I can't help liking him so much…" Naruto patted Sakura's hair.
"Sakura-chan…you need to find someone else. Once you've got someone else to like, your feelings for Sasuke will fade, and you won't let yourself get treated the way Sasuke treats you. And as for Ino…She's pretty, I won't deny that. But Sakura-chan, you're still the prettiest girl in the whole village, in my opinion. And Sasuke's just dumb for not realizing how great you are. But you know…" Naruto's eyes moved so that he was looking out at where Sasuke and Lee were, "some people in this village have realized that…"
Sakura moved her head up from Naruto's shoulder and followed his gaze. "Lee? But he's so…"
"Weird-looking? Yeah I know. But I don't think there's anyone else in the village who would treat you nicer."
"Hm…well…maybe if by the time I get over Sasuke, Lee has grown a little and looked more normal, I could develop some feelings for Lee." Sakura smiled up at Naruto, "Or maybe I could develop some feelings for you Naruto. You're a nice guy too." Naruto grinned at Sakura, his own special childish grin that she had always found obnoxious and wiped away the girl's tears.
"Maybe Sakura! But no matter what, you can always come to me and talk, ok?" Sakura nodded and looked up at Naruto. Naruto bent foreword and gave her a quick kiss on her forehead and then stood up.
"Well…I gotta go finish taking Stupid Mutt for his walk. I'll see you later Sakura-chan!"
"Yeah…see you Naruto…"
Author's Commentary: That took me forever! I had such a hard time writing Sakura like that! I wanted to make her more real, and not the 2-D character I feel she is portrayed all too often as. And as for Kiba…ain't he adorable? I love Kiba so much! Um…yeah. Lol, I actually wanted to do a fic revolving around that idea of Kiba giving Naruto a puppy. Wouldn't it just be adorable?