An: For Hououza; not quite happy-go-lucky, but close enough. Thank you for your constant support.
Victory
He can see it so clearly, in slow motion, like a cat stretching itself after a long, long nap.
It's a quiet and a simple revelation, how Sakura doesn't know where she stands anymore - she seems a bit stuck in that one moment in time where she's been given two choices that would determine the rest of her life and yet she's not quite sure which one to take.
She's drifting in a rift of time, somewhere between that real first childish crush on Sasuke that she harbors so sickly and brokenly, and between his own gentle, encouraging smiles and ever watchful eyes. Every now and then he can catch her looking at him from the corner of her eyes, or how she tends to sometimes hide her eyes from him - now that she has to look up and up and up - because he's so much taller than her now, and he knows it frightens her.
But when she does look at him, directly in the eyes, it's rather easy for him to read confusion, surprise and a bit of panic in those green orb's of light and pureness he loves so. There's adoration too, but sometimes he thinks he has only imagined it.
Day by day, she starts looking at him more and more and he's pretty sure that she has finally decided which choice to take. The Kyuubi in him grins from ear to ear, all teeth and great satisfaction because he knows he has won.
So much about dead-last, Naruto thinks with love, and a little bit of victory threads his arms around Sakura.