After Neji and Tenten left, Naruto went towards Sakura.

"Sorry about that." He mumbled.

"Um, never mind. I had fun." Sakura said earnestly.

Then she noticed how close Naruto was to her and started blushing.

"Don't move." Naruto said suddenly.

…Huh? Sakura thought. "What?"

"I said, don't move." Naruto said.

"What are you going to—'

Before Sakura could finish her sentence, however, Naruto took out a tissue and wiped the honey on her cheek.

"…!" Sakura touched her cheek in surprise.

Naruto got up. "Righto, it's clean now. Your face, anyway… But you've got to wash your hair. Umm?"

Naruto noticed Sakura staring at him with a bewildered look.

Then Naruto understood. He grinned.

"Say, Sakura-chan, what were you expecting?" He said cheekily, bending down and looking at her.

"What? I wasn't expecting anything." Sakura said, her face turning a bright red.

"Admit it. What kind of dirty thoughts were you thinking when I went near you? Hmm?"

"I wasn't thinking anything!" Sakura said loudly.

Naruto's grin became wider, and he reached out a finger and tapped Sakura's forehead where he'd kissed her before.

"Don't forget." He said, and went off, leaving Sakura stunned.

-----------------------------

"…Say, Neji." Lee said through a mouthful of pancakes.

"What?" Neji asked, revolted.

"Gai-sensei said that to meet at the tree outside the house for our next training, but he didn't say when or anything."

"… You're right. And there're so many trees outside the house, too."

"Well, we'll just have to go and search after breakfast." Tenten said.

Hinata took a bite of her pancake and stammered, "S-Should we wait for N-Naruto- k-un and the o-others?"

"Sasuke's sleeping… So we'll just let him be." Tenten said.

"No way. He chose to watch after Sakura himself, and he knows that there's training tomorrow. No excuse. We'll call him up." Neji said sternly.

Tenten glared at Neji. "Have a heart, won't you?"

"I have a heart. Right here." Neji pointed at his chest.

"I don't mean that. You know perfectly well what I'm driving at-'

"Okay, guys, break it up…" Lee started.

"You shut your mouth!" Tenten and Neji snarled at the same time.

Lee shut up.

"Look, Sasuke spent the whole night looking after Sakura yesterday, he's tired, what if the training is dangerous or something, he could get killed—'

"Why do you care so much about him anyway?" Neji snapped.

"Because he spent last night looking after Sakura…" Tenten's eyes sparkled. In the name of love, he chose to sacrifice his sleep… How noble…

"…" Neji's eyes narrowed as he looked at Tenten. Is she falling for Sasuke or something?

"Hi, guys." Naruto said as he entered the room. Then he noticed rays of jealousy emitting from Neji, and gulped.

"…Uh… Well… What's going on?" He asked.

"They're arguing over Sasuke." Lee said, rolling his eyes.

"Sasuke?" Naruto said, surprised.

When Lee was about to tell him everything, Sasuke came into the room.

"…Where's Sakura?" He asked groggily. "When does training start?"

"How many hours of sleep did you have?" Naruto asked.

"T-Three." Sasuke yawned. "I'll go look for Sakura…"

"Wait! Sakura's cleaning up!" Naruto stopped him.

"Cleaning up?"

"Yeah…"

----------------------------

Oh Crap.

Sakura scrubbed herself harder in the shower.

"Why did my heart beat so fast?"

She scrubbed herself harder.

"Damn that Naruto!"

She scrubbed even harder.

"OW!"

She looked at her skin. It was pretty red.

…Sasuke... My heart only beats like that when Sasuke… Not Naruto…And my thoughts about Sasuke's almost-kiss yesterday… Why? Why? WHY?

"WHY?"

She splashed the water on her face. Hard.

"Damn honey." She muttered, trying to rinse the honey out of her hair.

I… I just don't want to think about it now.

She dried herself and put on her clothes.

---------------------------

"Hi everyone…" Sakura came into the kitchen.

Sasuke was dozing in his chair.

Sasuke…Sakura suddenly felt herchest tightening. He stayed up all night to look after me… Just for me...

She then felt a rush of emotion for the tired Uchiha and went over, patting his head tenderly.

"Okay, GUYS." Neji spoke loudly, waking up Sasuke.

Sakura and Tenten glared at Neji, who glared back (At Tenten only, however.)

"We'll go outside the house to search for the tree Gai told us to meet at."

No one responded.

"Let's go." Neji said despite that,and everyone went off.

Author: The next chapter will be a pretty exciting one! Continue reading...