the narusaku friends to lovers/fluff/bad flirting fic you never asked for but got anyway because yes
The hospital is always extra busy during the holidays because families tend to act extra dumb when gathered in one location.
And Sakura should be used to this by now, but she's currently losing her sanity. Plus, following her recent promotion, she runs the hospital, so she has to arrange schedules, yell at the interns, manage the nurses, explain to new medic ninjas how to do their fucking jobs and still have the time to surgically remove a kunai out of a twenty year old's left buttcheek, because clans were so much dumber than civilian families.
(And she did it brilliantly of course, while the rest of the Inuzuka clan was laughing their guts out in the waiting area. Apparently, this is just regular holiday fun for them—which also explains why Kiba is… that way.)
Now she's headed to the ER, as it's all hands on deck. She gets there in no time and the sight elicits a loud growl from her—and anyone that knows her, or worked here when Tsunade still did, shudders in fear at the sound.
This is a mess. She has to fix it.
"You! Stop fussing over one patient and move on to the next! You! This one's obviously concussed, don't leave her alone!" She yells at two interns. "Ino, tell those idiots in the back that they don't know better than the nurses and tell them to listen to what they say!"
Ino nods as she walks past her quickly. "Got it. We have two Naras that stabbed themselves with their own shadows, I'll take care of them."
It's like they lose all their IQ points when they're drunk.
"Please do," she whines. "You! Can you do your fucking job and give this poor man a chakra-anesthetic before you stab him with your poor suturing skills?"
"There she is."
Sakura frowns in confusion as she looks behind her to where the voice came from.
This can't be…
"Naruto?!"
She freezes at the sight of him. Naruto is supposed to be undercover in Kiri for another three to five years, yet here he is, laying on one of her ER beds, looking almost the same as he did five years ago.
But if he's here, something must be wrong with him.
"Don't give me that look, I'm just here for my post-mission check-up."
"Isn't Shizune supposed to do it in the Hokage's office?"
"I asked to be here." He grins.
They spend the first half of his check-up catching up. Apparently, his cover got blown but he already had the information he needed and thus asked to be extracted for his safety. He asks her about her life, and she tells him that she became a trauma surgeon on the battlefields and only started working at the hospital two years ago.
"What about your love life?" Oh here we go. "We can finally go on that date."
She flicks his forehead. "I only promised you we'd go on a date so you'd come back alive. Mission accomplished. I lied." Sakura deadpans.
"Come on, let's go out!"
"Nope." She pops the 'p'.
"Why not?"
"You're not my type."
"Well, what is your type, Sakura-chan?"
She pretends to ponder, bringing her index to her lips, then smirks at him. "Hot, rich, funny."
"Well I'm not rich so you'll have to settle."
She snorts, forcing condescension on her features. "Oh, so you think you're funny?"
"So you think I'm hot?" He retorts.
That little shit, Sakura thought as she bites down on her lip hard. Okay, you won this round.
Sakura did plan to invite Naruto over, so they could catch up properly over a nice dinner with Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke, but over the past the few days, she found that she didn't need to, because Naruto is here, all the fucking time, at the hospital.
"How do you even sprain your wrist eating ramen?"
"I have my ways," Naruto answers, and literally why does he sound so cocky, that is not something to take pride over?
She knows he's lying, that all of his injuries are either fake or self-inflicted but she also likes to hear him come up with how he got injured because it's so obvious that he never prepares his answers in advance.
"You should be too embarassed to even make eye contact with me," she mumbles as she takes off her gloves.
"I don't know shame, actually." He adjusts his position on the bed when Sakura sits next to him, because they're friends so she really doesn't care about regulations. "You know, I waited a long time."
"I was in surgery," she replies, reaching for his wrist but he pulls away and pretends to clutch his pearls.
"Are you cheating on me with another patient?" He mock-gasps and she chuckles.
"I am," she starts dramatically. "Some dude stuck a sake bottle up his ass."
"Been there."
"I removed it."
"I can't believe you fisted another man."
Sakura tries to stay impassive but her lips end up betraying her.
She takes his hand in hers, and presses around on his wrist to properly feel him with green chakra. She can feel his eyes on her and when she looks up, he's smiling so softly, and the gesture feels so intimate that she ends up being the one too embarassed to make eye contact.
With a blush on her cheeks, she sends him away.
Sakura sighs in exasperation as she finishes checking Naruto's pupils. "You don't have a concussion."
"I do! I swear, I feel really loopy and light-headed."
"You were born this way."
He ignores her jab at his intelligence and winks. Badly. With both eyes. "Or… maybe it's just the effect you have on me."
Silence.
"Be still, my beating heart." Sakura deadpans.
"And your vagina?" He asks hopefully.
"Dry. As a desert."
Why did I—that bastard is starting to rub off on me.
Sakura briefly considers giving him an actual concussion for corrupting her innocent soul. She settles for pinching his nose really hard.
"Alright, get out and stop wasting my time."
"I wasn't lying!" He exclaims nasally as he clutches his face.
"Fine, explain to me how you got that concussion."
Naruto sniffs violently. "Ok, so I was at home, holding a bowl of ramen in my right hand, and and my dog in the left. And I wanted to turn on the lights, right? So I tried to do it with my nose and I ended up ramming my head into the wall."
It's dumb and it's really not funny, but tell that to her face who won't listen.
Naruto's here again.
She senses his blood for traces of poison, because he swears the old cat lady from his building broke into his appartment and put rat poison in all of his food—and yeah, that's plausible. It could totally happen and it would be unethical of her to refuse a patient and it has absolutely nothing to do with how connected she feels with him when she lets her chakra flow onto his body.
So. Sakura is annoyed by his wasting hospital ressources and her time but… he's the best part of her day. And she missed him so fucking much for five years so you can't blame her for enabling his stupidity.
She just… has trouble expressing her real emotions.
"Naruto, stop fucking wasting my time with fake injuries."
"I just wanna see you!"
Don't blush, don't blush, don't blush, "fuck off."
"Go out with me then."
"Or what?"
He actually laughs at that. "It's not a threat, Sakura-chan!"
"A date with you? That's considered domestic terrorism."
"You're terrible. Just say yes."
"Why should I?" Don't do this, idiot, don't play hard to get. It doesn't suit you.
Naruto rests back on the bed, sighing contently. And he looks at her so tenderly; she's kind of apprehending what he's going to say. For the first time, she's hoping he'll say something dumb or gross.
She knows this is different.
"Because," he starts, "when I left for Kiri I thought you were the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. I think it's the thought of our date that kept me going when I just felt like giving up. And now, we're five years later, and I've seen the world and you're still the most beautiful girl I've ever seen."
She scoffs, more harshly than she meant to. "That's your reason. I'm asking you; why should I want to go out with you? I'm a catch, you know."
"I know you are," Naruto chuckles. "You," he points at her, "should go out with me because for five years you never let anyone in. And I'm thinking, it's because you were waiting for me."
Bold words, coming from such an insecure voice. Sakura can tell he's putting all of his hopes for them in this moment, because he's squeezing his pants nervously and his eyes faltered slightly at the end of his sentence. God, he's beautiful.
And maybe he's right, maybe she was waiting for him. And maybe she's so reluctant to become anyone's girlfriend because she's worked so hard to prove that a little girl from a weak clan with no bloodline and no political power stuck in a team with an Uchiha and an Uzumaki could become something other than the mother of another clan kid.
And showing any type of weakness could potentially ruin everything she's worked so hard for. Her job, her reputation…
But hasn't she proven herself already? She's respected, in charge of a whole hospital and a considered candidate for Rokudaime Hokage. Isn't she allowed some vulnerability?
She's not sure, but her words escape her mouth anyway.
"Fine. Let's go on a date." She says, and Naruto smiles so big. "I'd better get some."
He's definitely rubbing off on me.
"My ass is yours, Sakura-chan."
She laughs, kind of awkwardly. It's dawning in on her that he called her the most beautiful girl he's ever seen.
"You're so full of shit."
"The only thing I lied about is having a dog."
Sakura is so thankful for the frantic knock on the door to her office, because—fuck. She's always been predisposed to being a paper nin, but those documents are so goddamn boring that she kind of misses the battlefield right now.
The person opens the door without waiting for her to say 'come in' and she refrains from biting their head off when she sees Ino was the one knocking.
"Naruto is here!"
"Already?" She sighs, though her heart secretely swells. "The one time I need him to be late…"
"No, I mean he's hurt, come on!"
She rolls her eyes and follows Ino out the door, almost passively, but the girl grabs her hand in frustration to keep her at running level. That's when she notices which section of the hospital they're heading to.
No…
Not now. Please.
Ino pushes her into the OR and Sakura stumbles into it, ignoring her personal rule to always appear confident and all-knowing wherever she goes. Because Naruto's on the table, and Shizune's working on him and if they called her here because Shizune couldn't cut it, then…
"Sakura-san! Shizune-san is almost out of chakra, we need your help!"
We need your help.
We need you.
Sakura takes a deep breath, closing her eyes while everyone else's are on her. They don't question her decision to waste valuable seconds, because they trust her skills more than their own.
"I'll take over. Fill me in." She says eventually.
"He was attacked by the gang he infiltrated in Kiri, in retribution. He got them all eventually, but, they took a hostage at some point and you know Naruto." Ino explains.
Shizune sits against the wall, exhausted. "I fixed some of the internal bleeding, and kept his chakra flowing with my own, but… Sakura… He suffers a lot of damage—and, and his organs…"
"It's okay, you can rest now," Sakura hears Ino say.
"I meant, someone tell me what's wrong with him exactly beyond the mess I can see!" Sakura yells.
Most of the new medic ninjas in the OR jump at the loud tone she used, but the one who didn't—Hyuuga Hanabi—tells Sakura exactly what she needs to know. And it's so much worse than she thought.
But what makes Sakura such a great medic nin, is her ability to find solutions when all seems lost.
So she's not about to fail herself today.
She thinks of Tsunade, and she thinks of Chiyo. And she thinks of every single medical jutsu they taught her but none of them seem to be of any help and—fuck, she can't panic right now.
She asks for more O-, to buy her some time while she's healing his deepest internal wounds, when the solution hits her.
Chiyo did teach her One's Own Life Reincarnation.
It wouldn't be of any help at the rate his condition was worsening, but if she combined it with her Creation Birth technique, she could regenerate his cells fast enough for his injuries to heal completely in a few minutes!
Sakura releases her Byakugou, to the awe of the other medic nins in the OR, and focuses on transfering the chakra to Naruto.
The pinkette straightens her back from her position on the chair when she notices Naruto stirring awake. There are so many things she wants to say to him right now.
Thank you for staying alive.
I'm glad you exist.
I love you.
"You moron," Sakura growls weakly. "You're lucky you're alive or I would have killed you myself."
"There she is," he says softly.
There's a lump in her throat but at least she doesn't cry.
"Shut up. I can't believe you almost died before our date."
"I know, I was so excited."
"Me too," she admits. "I was really looking forward to taking your virginity."
He laughs at that and then clutches at his stomach. "Fuck, don't make me laugh."
She chuckles. "Sorry, but you made me laugh all the time in very inappropriate situations so suck it up, it's payback time."
He doesn't respond, he just—looks at her, and this time, she's not embarassed or shy; she wants him to see her.
She just wants him—as simple as that.
"I love you," Naruto says eventually. "I'm happy I didn't die before I got to tell you."
Be still my beating heart.
"I love you too. I love you more."
"Not true. I wouldn't let just anyone fuck me in the ass, you know." He replies, sounding so sweet even as he says that so she lets him take her hands in his and she lets him rub small circles with his thumbs.
She never thought she'd be comfortable with this level of intimacy with anyone and now she already can't imagine her life without it.
Sakura smirks. "That's not what I heard."
"If you're talking about Kakashi-sensei, he's only used the Thousand Years of Death on me once. And it wasn't consensual."
"What a pervert."
"I know right, and those books?"
"They started a sexual harassment course because of him, you know."
"I stopped listening after you said 'sexual'." Naruto says, before laughing at his own joke, super hard.
He thinks he's so funny, he's gonna end up hurting himself further.
There's only one way to shut him up.
Sakura gets up from the chair and goes to place her hands on each sides of Naruto's face. He stops laughing, but keeps smiling as he brings one hand to her face when she gets closer and closer to him, until their lips meet tenderly. The kiss start out sweet and soft, but they've talked about doing less innocent things to each other before, so Sakura doesn't hesitate before opening her mouth a little wider when she feels Naruto's tongue poking on her lip.
They pull apart eventually, but Sakura keeps her forehead pressed against his.
She pecks him one last time. "Okay, now lay on your stomach."
Naruto laughs loudly again—because he never learns his lesson—and readjusts his position on the bed for her. He opens his arms and Sakura melts into them.
She imagines what it would be like to wake up next to him everyday.
"This is a pretty good first date, right?" Naruto asks.
She nods. "It is. But I don't really have anything to compare it to, so..."
"It's okay. It'll make showing you my penis easier."
A/N: This had way less penis jokes and way more anal sex jokes than planned and I guess this fic implies that Naruto isn't a jinchuuriki? Anyway, thank you for reading! This is my second narusaku OS and as i said in the previous one, i'm still learning how to write romance so feed back is always appreciated. also, i have another one coming soon if anyone's interested.
i kinda wanna write either an epilogue (they'd totally be that gross, obnoxious couple that sits on the same side at a restaurant and insist on feeding the other) or a small prequel drabble (when sakura promised naruto a date before his mission).
i hope you enjoyed the fic!