CHAPTER TWO

She was ok in the end but it had really shaken up Naruto. And it had made her angry that they were fighting like that in the first place. Anyone could have shown up and Naruto, as she said (ignoring the fact that Sasuke had a part in it), shouldn't be attacking a target he can't fully see. She had gotten healed up that same day but the fact that Naruto was the first to visit and apologize didn't help. He stopped being anywhere near as loud on missions and even Kakashi asked if he had a fever. Most of them figured it was a stage.

A week later Sasuke, sick of Sakura bugging him, agreed to go someplace with her. Ino was furious, of course. But even though it wasn't much Sakura overrated the whole thing. In fact when describing it to Ino, to make her angry, she even used comparisons against Naruto. Unaware that he was walking home with more ramen, being his favorite and very cheap. Again things changed. No one noticed it this time though. It happened behind the scenes away from their lives. Sakura continued going places with Sasuke, who only went because she would interrupt him from training it he didn't, and no one saw it. Naruto was acting like the same old knucklehead again. But he had stopped looking people in the eyes… or eye in Kakashi's case, seeing how his Sharingan eye was covered up.

Two weeks later everyone but Kakashi, because of his book, noticed that Naruto seemed to lack sleep. He said that everything was ok and was still "hyper" so they ignored it. Sakura was grateful that he wasn't always staring at her anymore but had noticed an odd change in his pronunciations. He usually added the suffix "-chan" to her name but didn't anymore. Either way she was glad he had given up. Not noticing anything other than that… except the fact that he had bags under his eyes.

Naruto sat at the table. It was now two weeks later and Sasuke had "admitted" to being Sakura's boyfriend. Well it was more like she dragged him over to Ino and told her and he had said
"Hn…." Like he always said. Ino, of course, attacked and both had to be sent to the Hokage's office. Naruto stared at the pictured trying to remember happier moments. She was happy right? Why wasn't he? He admitted to being selfish but couldn't help but think that something was wrong with him. He sat on his bed and looked at the clock. The non-digital readout showed that it was four-thirty. He sighed. Not able to sleep since the accident. He kept on wondering what would have happened it Sasuke hadn't been able to deflect it enough to stop any permanent harm.

Later that morning Naruto was heating up breakfast. Of course it was ramen, as always, but he wasn't really interested. In fact it was only half done when he began to eat it. Afterwards he sighed and walked down to the training field where Kakashi was supposed to supervise more training. They hadn't had any missions in ages. Naruto guessed that he was lucky that he got used to nights without sleep. He wondered if this was how Gaara felt. Gaara was always awake. When he got to the field he saw Sakura snuggling Sasuke, who looked annoyed at the whole deal. Naruto sat down without saying anything and looked at the sky.

"Who are you? Shikamaru?" Asked Sakura. She was a bit annoyed at the lack of a greeting. Naruto nodded.

"I guess so." And he put on his best fake Shikamaru voice.

"The clouds look white today…I mean nice today." Sakura couldn't help but laugh and turned away. Naruto sighed but was careful not to let his smile falter around them.

"Yo!" A certain Jounin (high class ninja) said after two hours. Sasuke's eyes clearly read 'THANK YOU GOD!' and Sakura was clearly disappointed at Kakashi's lateness. Both she and Naruto yelled at him as was customary and he gave them a lame excuse, as always. Naruto bugged him about missions and he surprised them.

"So do we have any missions?" Naruto asked nearly jumping up and down.
"Yes." Kakashi answered. "A C-rank mission just for us!" Sakura looked happy and Sasuke looked … well like Sasuke. "All of you are to pack for a several night journey." Naruto began asking where but Kakashi had disappeared. Sakura was squealing in delight.

"Several nights away with Sasuke-kun!" She shouted happily. Naruto ran off for home ignoring them and when he got there he actually found himself reluctant to pack. At home he could express any emotion but on a mission it just wasn't right. He didn't want to be around Sakura and Sasuke for twenty-four hours! He felt bad enough about their relationship anyways. And what if someone notices that he doesn't sleep? He sighed and slowly began packing. He had all day since they left tomorrow. He had packed everything except for his weapons. He threw in a few small shuriken and two kunai. He grabbed the third but just looked at it odd. Why am I so selfish? He thought to himself. Why can't I just be happy for Sakura? He sat down on his bed looking at the kunai. He sat there for a few minutes thinking about it. Suddenly he got angry! He let out a scream of confusion and looked up at the picture. I'm not going to be selfish anymore. As he thought he slipped his jacket onto the floor and looked at the ceiling. He felt the cool metal against his arm…

Author's Note: The story takes place after episode 101 of Naruto. He can control the Kyuubi's chakra and Tsunade is the Hokage.