sofa 02
iv.
When Naruto asks her why she isn't leaving her house, she answers that she can't leave the house in his hands without having an eye on him. When Naruto looks at her dubiously and remarks that he always keeps his own apartment clean, she lets out a clipped, sparkly laugh and says, of course, and then you come to my place and mess it up for the both of us.
Naruto smiles his crooked smile that doesn't yet reach his eyes and says nothing more.
v.
One evening, two days after he knocked on Sakura's door and lost consciousness, Naruto is making dinner. Sakura hasn't said anything about where she is but he can just as easily guess that she is either shopping with Ino or on a short mission (both equally challenging in his mind, but hey, girls are girls). She will be back by nightfall and he wants to do something for her, or maybe just keep the ghosts in the corners for a while.
The sound of keys rattles from outside and Naruto slips the flavoring in his hand into the soup, accidentally making it thrice spicier than is necessary.
Sakura emerges from the door and looks tired, weary and old – and Naruto feels like a wife greeting her husband after a day's work.
"I'm home," she sighs to no one in particular and drops her jacket on the couch. There is blood on her clothes but of course she's no longer wounded because she's a medical ninja. She mutters something about going to take a bath and doesn't even see the food he has prepared (but that's okay, he can keep it warm for another hour or so).
As the distant sound of water falling fills Naruto's ears in the empty room, his thoughts linger perhaps slightly too long on the person upstairs.
As Sakura walks down the stairs that creak gently under her feet, she yawns and towels her hair viciously. She finally notices that he's made dinner and a grey light dances in her eyes as she draws in a lungful of the scent – pleased, if not entirely happy.
They sit down at the nothing-very-fancy table Naruto's set and she feels pampered, treated like a princess in the midst of a war. She takes a spoonful of the soup and for a second Naruto almost thinks she's going to die – that red her face turns. She manages to swallow the soup (with some chakra trick, Naruto suspects) and even smile a little waveringly.
"That's some spicy soup you have there."
Naruto smiles and takes some to himself. Used to his own crappy cooking skills, he eats it without troubles.
"Yeah, I know," he says, and smiles to something between his plate and Sakura's face.