"Come on," Ino urged from the window. "Don't you want to see them?"

Sakura didn't look up from her laptop. "Why? We'll see them eventually." Her paper was much more important to her at the moment than seeing the new people move into the flat across from theirs. Their old neighbours had left a few weeks ago. They had been a loud bunch that had gotten evicted after one too many complaints about their parties. Sakura had just gotten used to the lovely sound of silence that was now at risk of being disturbed.

"Aren't you curious at all?" Ino asked as she moved the window shades out of the way to get a better view.

"No, not really," Sakura said as she looked up a synonym for harsh. Essays were definitely not her forte but she'd do them if they somehow got her into medical school.

"You have no sense of adventure," Ino whined as she stared out through the glass. "Oh, they're cute!"

Great, now Ino would have another thing to continuously go on about. "Fantastic," Sakura answered.

"See Sakura, this is why you're single," Ino said.

"Hey!" Sakura said, glaring at the blond. "Rude much?" It wasn't her fault she was too busy to take notice of any of the guys on campus.

"Well it's true," Ino said, shrugging off Sakura's glare. "No sense of adventure. Oh, they're coming this way!"

Before Sakura could ask Ino if she knew why the doorbell went off. "Sasuke come on, we need to be neighbourly!" a male voice said from the other side of the door. Did they though? Could they not just let Sakura work on her essay in piece? She hoped their new neighbours weren't hoping to have a long visit.

Ino bounded to the door to open it. "Hi!" She greeted them.

Sakura's annoyance stopped when she saw the people outside the door. She was met with the sight of two very attractive young men, one of which looked happy to be here while the other looked disgruntled. The disgruntled one had dark hair and eyes and was normally the type of man that Sakura would go for. However it was the other that intrigued her. His hair was blond and his eyes a clear blue, which shone brightly and were only matched by his 1000 Watt smile. He was wearing a brown t-shirt and faded dark blue jeans that only made him more attractive to her. "Hey, my name's Naruto," he said with as much enthusiasm as Ino had just used. "This is Sasuke, we're your new neighbours."

The man, Naruto, had this aura she recognized instantly as Ino had a similar one. It was one of friendliness and happiness, one that was very contagious. One that Sakura quite liked in people. "I'm Sakura," she said without thinking, shifting in her spot on the couch so that she was sitting up straight. Ino immediately looked at her with a knowing look on her face, one that Sakura pointedly ignored.

"Nice to meet you," he said, directing his gaze towards her. The look turned her insides into mush. "And yourself?" He turned towards Ino.

"Ino," she said, giving a small wave to Sasuke, who nodded at her.

"We should get back to unpacking," Naruto said. "We just wanted to meet you."

"Do you want help?" Sakura offered, shutting her laptop.

"Uh, sure," Naruto said. "The more the merrier."

Sakura stood up and went to the door. "Not one word," she murmured to Ino, who still had that grin on her face. Ino made the motion of zipping her lips shut, though Sakura knew she'd hear about it later.

Just ask! Ino's voice was in her head and the blond wasn't even here.

"Sakura, you okay?" Naruto asked, looking at her over his bowl of ramen.

"Huh?" Sakura glanced up from her own bowl. "Yeah, I'm fine." Ask, the voice in her head urged. "How were your classes today?" Wrong Question!

"Boring," he said without hesitation.

"You think every class that you're not moving in is boring," she teased.

"It is," he said, putting some noodles into his mouth with his chopsticks.

"How are you going to become mayor if you hate writing reports?" she asked.

"Being a mayor is about helping people," he insisted. "As long as I'm doing that I'll always be doing a good job."

His optimism and will were strong, if not a bit naive. She loved being around it, and didn't want to risk losing that. That's why she was hesitant to ask him. She tried explaining that to Ino, but Ino didn't know the meaning of subtlety. That worked for Ino and her relationship with Shikamaru, but Sakura wasn't sure if it would work for her. She mixed around her noodles as she thought about her conflict.

"Sakura," he said, a little loudly.

She shook her head slightly. "Sorry."

His eyes were now filled with concern. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine," she said quickly.

He wasn't convinced. "You're not normally this distracted. What's wrong?"

"It's just…," she rattled her brain to think of a convincing excuse. "Classes have been stressful lately."

"I thought you just finished midterms," he said, raising an eyebrow.

This was one of the few times she wished he was as dense as some people thought he was. "One of my profs gave me a new assignment," she lied.

"They can do that?" he asked.

"Apparently," she said, taking a sip of water so that she had an excuse to break eye contact. Great, now she was lying to him, this was not how she wanted tonight to go.

"Well, I have some time off from the dojo this week, I could help you," he said.

"But you hate writing assignments," she protested, "We just went over this." Could he please just take the hint and drop it?

"But you're worth it," he said. "Though, maybe you should you be the one to actually write it," he added with a wink. "I'll help with the research part."

"It's a big assignment," she said. "I don't want to take up too much of your time." Let it go, Naruto!

"Psh, don't worry about it," he said, waving a hand. "You've helped me out loads of times, this is just me returning the favour. When is it due?"

"I'd need to double check," she said. "But I think it's due two weeks from now so you don't need to trouble yourself."

"That gives us plenty of time!" Naruto said. "I don't know why you're so worried about it. I know Sasuke is also finished up most of his coursework now, maybe I can get him to help too."

This lie was just getting deeper and deeper. And it was just going to get worse if she continued it. "Umm, she started to say. As worse as it would get, it was still easier than telling the truth. "There's not actually a new assignment."

"What?" Naruto asked, blinking in confusion.

"There's ah, actually something else that I'm thinking about," Ino always said that to talk about something difficult you had to force yourself to talk to the point of no return, where you couldn't backtrack. She clenched her fists, tightening her hold on her chopsticks. "There's something I wanted to ask you."

"No need to be so nervous, Sakura," Naruto said. "I'll help you whatever you need."

Okay, maybe he was as dense as people thought sometimes. It was incredibly tempting to make up another excuse, another little white lie to get her out of this situation. Then she wouldn't have to face whatever his answer was. But that wouldn't stop her inner turmoil. It would stay for as long as she was around him. And she didn't want to stop spending time with him. Though that might happen if he rejected her…

"Sakura!" Naruto said, he reached out and gripped her shoulder. Other people in the restaurant were starting to stare now. "What's wrong?"

"Would you like to go out on a date with me?" She blurted out before she could mentally talk herself out of it again.

Instead of showing excitement or any negative emotion, he just looked confused. Sakura's heart pounded even harder than it had been before as she waited for his response. "But Sakura," he said, tilting his head to the side. "I thought we were already on one."

This popped into my head tonight and I had to write it. It took on a much different turn that I had planned. Naruto and Sakura is still cannon in my head.