As it turned out, neither Kiba nor Shino were able to get hold of Sakura until two weeks after the mission.
Kiba was held up with clan duties. The Inuzuka had lost a catastrophic number of nin-ken in the war, and plenty of others were permanently maimed, and the orphaned puppies needed constant care and attention. There was a steady flow of these duties immediately after the war, but it all came to a head when most of the clan came down with a bad flu in those two weeks, leaving Kiba to do the majority of the work.
As for Shino, he got assigned to a string of D-rank missions to neighboring villages – fetching baskets of grains, escorting merchants, painting houses, and other boring chores.
So it was with a sense of triumph and relief that both of them finally got the weekend off and set off to find Team 7's resident medic ninja.
They finally found her at a dango stand, eating a bowl of anmitsu with Ino.
Shino raised his eyebrows at the pair. "I must say that I am rather surprised to find you here, Sakura."
Sakura chewed and thickly swallowed the cube of jelly in her mouth before answering. "Just because Naruto lives at Ichiraku doesn't mean we all do. Anyway, what brings you here, Team 8?"
"Naruto himself," Shino answered.
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked curiously.
"We had a mission with him a few weeks ago and it seemed like he and Hinata had something going on," said Kiba.
Ino leaned in with interest.
"What do you mean by that?" she asked.
As Team 8 relayed the entire sequence of events, Ino's eyebrows kept rising and rising until they practically disappeared into her blonde hair.
Sakura just shook her head. "That idiot...he's giving Hinata mixed signals by doing stuff like that."
"What do you mean, Forehead? Are they not dating? I mean, look at all the signs. She knows things about him that others don't, he takes criticism from her that he doesn't take from others, he freaking gave her an eyeball massage."
"Naruto is too stupid to understand that Hinata has romantic feelings for him," Sakura shot back. "He's doing all those things because he thinks he's being friendly, but he doesn't understand how she might not see it that way!"
"Come on, Sakura, no one can be that stupid!"
"Naruto's stupidity knows no bounds, Ino!"
"Naruto's stupid but he's not that stupid!"
"Yes, he is, damn it! He's my teammate, Pig! I know what he's like!"
"So what? Are you his psychologist now, Forehead?"
"INO."
"SAKURA."
Sparks of lightning ignited at the spot where Ino's blue eyes met Sakura's green.
Kiba shared a look of exasperation and mild fear with Shino.
"Let's settle this once and for all, Pig. Naruto is the stupidest ninja to ever exist on the planet and I will prove it!"
"Bring it, Forehead!"
Why was Team 7 filled with freaks?
"I believe it was a mistake to ask Sakura about Naruto," Shino said. "Why? Because now we are all being dragged along on a bizarre mission to conduct surveillance on Naruto and Hinata's activities and I feel very uncomfortable about this prospect."
"This was your idea, Shino!" Kiba yelled, getting a pair of angry glares from Sakura and Ino.
"No, Kiba. I believe you were the one who said, 'We'd have to ask Sakura or someone else about that. We don't know him as well as his teammates do.'"
Kiba paused. "Oh. Right. Well, that was stupid of me."
"Indeed it was. I will be most cautious about heeding your ideas in the future."
"Will you two shut up?" Ino and Sakura hissed in unison.
"You want to find out what the hell is going on between those two or not?" Ino snarled as Sakura nodded vociferously.
What the…? They'd gone from a shouting match at a dango stand to being partners in crime. Ino and Sakura would never make sense to Kiba. Shino was right. Him with his stupid big mouth and his stupid ideas...
They were all crouched in a dark alley near Naruto's apartment, waiting for the loudmouthed jinchuuriki to come outside. No such luck. It had been two hours and there was still no sign of him.
"May we take our leave? It is now almost three in the afternoon and we have been waiting for Naruto since one. I do not believe that he will appear."
"Are you guys ninja or not? How did you become a tracking team if you aren't willing to wait for a little while?" Sakura asked.
"Well, maybe it would be better if you just asked Naruto instead of spying on him!" Kiba snapped.
"I've asked," Sakura said darkly. "He said, and I quote, 'Do I have feelings for Hinata? Of course, you know! I have feelings for all of my friends! Life without Hinata is like ramen without broth! Oh, and so is life without Sakura-chan, and Sasuke, and Kakashi-sensei, and everyone else!' I had to leave before I could actually explode."
"I still refuse to believe that he said something like that until I actually hear it with my own ears, Forehead."
"Well, today you'll get your proof."
"Shhh," said Ino excitedly. "He's coming. Finally."
Four heads whipped around in succession as Naruto made his way down the street, carrying a handful of sunflowers and a cloth-wrapped bento box, his posture even and balanced.
That was a massive improvement, actually. Sakura had been monitoring his medical progress during the six months since the end of the war, and in his first few weeks of being an amputee, Naruto's gait had been incredibly awkward, as his center of gravity had shifted and balancing had been very difficult.
And then there were the phantom pains. Sakura remembered with guilt the piercing, tearing, burning, invisible pains that she could do nothing to treat, because medical ninjutsu could not heal an arm that no longer existed. The mission he'd gone on with Team 8 two weeks ago was the first he'd been on since the war, for those very reasons.
He was improving drastically, for some reason.
The four impromptu "spies" jumped up onto the rooftops, following Naruto every time he took a turn or curve in the road.
He wasn't heading towards the crowded market area where Ichiraku was, nor to any of their friends' houses. He was heading towards the outskirts of Konoha, towards the...graveyard. Shino and Kiba peered ahead and saw that Hinata was there too.
There was no way that any of them could go in without grabbing Hinata or Naruto's attention, so they had to be content with watching from afar, waiting for them to come out. Unfortunately, that also meant they would have no idea what either of them might be saying.
Hinata had spotted Naruto and waved at him in greeting. For some reason, she was sitting on a picnic blanket, situated next to a gravestone. Naruto waved back, also taking a seat on the picnic blanket.
Why were they having a picnic in a graveyard?
Kiba's nose caught the scent of herring soba emanating from Naruto's bento.
...Naruto...was eating something other than ramen? What was more, he and Hinata were sharing the bento?!
Sakura's eyes widened to the size of gold coins when Kiba informed her of this astonishing fact.
"What the...what are you talking about, Kiba? Naruto never eats foods other than ramen. And as far as I know, he doesn't particularly like herr – "
She broke off on detecting movement at the corner of her eye. She glanced over. Naruto was wafting incense smoke towards the bento. Then he placed the box at the foot of the grave, bowing.
After a moment of silence, Hinata also bowed, and then both of them began digging in.
The four ninja stared at the strange scene, then back at each other in bewilderment.
Kiba shrugged. "I got nothing."
"Nor do I," said Shino.
Both of them left the graveyard some time later, allowing Team 8, Ino and Sakura to enter the graveyard at last.
They quickly found the grave Hinata and Naruto had visited.
A vase of sunflowers and incense sticks stood at the foot of Neji's grave.
Ino's eyes widened in immediate understanding.
"Oh," she whispered. She and Sakura exchanged a look.
Kiba still didn't get it.
"What do you mean, 'Oh?' What's going on?"
"Is it still so difficult to understand, Kiba? Naruto and Hinata are assisting each other in coping with Neji's death," Shino explained. "That is the cause of their mutual understanding."
Kiba blinked.
"Y'know, Forehead, let's call our contest off for a while and leave 'em alone."
Sakura nodded. "Yeah."
"Dinner at Yakiniku tonight?"
"Okay." Sakura turned towards the two boys. "You guys can come too."
Shino smiled underneath the collar of his overcoat.
A/N: I was writing Sakura, and then I just had to add Ino, and they got carried away. And of course they didn't find out if Naruto and Hinata were a couple. ;)
I'm writing more about their "picnic" in the next chapter! Stay tuned. And as usual, thank you to everyone who reviewed.