this is post canon ending, but i've modified sakura and naruto's last scenes with sasuke to fit the story better. also i mention the land of iron once in this, bc i think that's where sakura confessed to naruto, but maybe i'm remembering wrong.
Naruto straightens the neck of his shirt before knocking excitedly on the door that comes between him and a nice home-cooked meal.
Sakura takes her time, but she eventually answers the door and Naruto immediatly reads the mild panic in her widened eyes. It goes well with the smoke coming from behind her and the smell of burnt rice.
Right. He forgot she was a shit cook.
Still, with her hair pulled up in a messy ponytail, strands of hair framing her face, which is adorning a few smudged grease marks and some sweat, Naruto thinks she's as beautiful as ever. Gross, but beautiful, and for some reason, she's insisted on preparing them dinner and she's obviously putting a lot of effort into making sure he enjoys it.
(Probably because Sasuke left again and she wants to cheer him up. Because she's awesome like that, and she takes care of him when he's too busy taking care of everyone else, even at the cost of her own feelings.
They both love Sasuke. So he hopes Sakura doesn't forget to take care of her heart too.)
"Smells delicious. Can I come in?"
"Fuck off, I burned the rice," she answers gracefully, but still opens the door a little wider to let him in.
"You need any help?" Naruto asks as they both walk into what he assumes is the kitchen but could also be literally anything else (like, a battlefield).
He's pretty sure cooking rice doesn't require blowing up a pan, but he'll keep his comments to himself. He's never cooked either, mostly living on instant ramen.
"You'd only make it worse. Also, you lack the two hands required."
He pouts but nods in resignation anyway.
Soon enough, Sakura seems to regain control of her kitchen. She throws away the bad rice and overcooked fish and restarts from the beginning. Naruto watches her work in quiet admiration, because he might have grown up a lot these past three years, Sakura's a special specimen he'll never outgrow.
His feelings for her were ingrained in him, in his DNA. He can't even imagine what it would be like, not to love her, she's everything. Sasuke was always under his skin but Sakura's in his veins.
Half an hour later, she's seating across the small table from him, waiting impatiently for him to give her a review of her cooking. Looking so innocent, like she wouldn't beat the crap out of him if he told her the truth, which is that this is fucking uneatable, but he eats the food anyway, and gives her a big, hopefully not pained-looking smile.
"Wow. Delicious. That's some gastronomic gourmet shit right here!"
She giggles. "Thanks for lying."
"No, I'm not lying! I swea—ok, yeah. Sorry."
"No, I'm sorry. I just wanted to do something nice for us. After Sasuke left." She admits.
"I'm happy just to hang out with you." Naruto says sincerely, and he hopes he's not projecting his own feelings onto her when he catches the small blush on the top of her ears.
"Me too. I thought… I don't know, that we wouldn't get to, anymore."
His eyebrows furrow slightly on their own. "Why do say that?"
"I thought, maybe, you'd go with him. And leave me."
Again. She doesn't say it, but Naruto hears it.
"Honestly, I thought you would too," he admits. "I remember you telling me you begged Sasuke to let you come with him when he left the village the first time, so I thought… maybe you'd ask him again and this time he'd say yes."
Sakura looks down and swallows heavily, making Naruto worry that he said the wrong thing. Maybe he did, but that's how he feels and Sakura and him have always been honest with each other. Well, not always, but after the debacle in the Land of Iron, they never lied to each other again.
"I didn't ask him to take me with him. I just… told him I was sorry, for never putting myself in his shoes, and prioritizing my feelings over his," she says, then her face takes on a more timid look. "Um, do you wanna go back to your place, eat some ramen? I could, uh, sleep over too? If you'd like." She bit her lip. "We could keep each other company."
He ignores the jolt to his heart her words and expression gave him and nods silently, prompting them both to get up from their chairs and walk out of her appartment without clearing the table.
As Sakura closes the door behind them, Naruto finds himself thinking back to yesterday, when he saw Sasuke off, when he closed the door on the most painful, yet most meaningful chapter of his life.
"We're gonna miss you, bastard," Naruto smiles. "Come back, alright? I know I gave you shit, but your sins weren't that… unjustified. Sometimes we do the wrong things for the right reasons."
Sasuke snorts quietly through his nose, a small smile playing on his lips.
"Not you, though. You understand my pain, but you've never went down the wrong path."
"I did consider it, though, don't—" he sighs, "just—come back, alright? Come back to us."
Sasuke doesn't answer, he just keeps looking at Naruto as if he's trying to find the right way to answer him without appearing too emotional. Eventually, he extends his hand, his two fingers almost in front of Naruto's face, then drops them quickly with a shake of his head.
Sasuke looks away from his confused gaze for a second, before he sighs, almost resignedly, and catches Naruto's eyes once again.
"I'll come back. I promise."
A hard pinch on his arm brings Naruto out of his thoughts. He yelps.
"You totally spaced out while I was talking to you!" Sakura growls.
"Sorry! What were you saying?"
"That I'm sorry for making you eat garbage and then forcing you to feed me at your house," she repeats, pouting.
"It's okay, Sakura-chan! Maybe we should take some cooking lessons. Apprently, it's 'bad for your health' to only eat ramen," he scoffs.
"I'm the one who told you that."
"R-right," he winces and she shakes her head in exasperation. "Anyway, I need to learn to make at least one meal."
"Hm. I don't think you and I would be accepted in any cooking class. We only have three arms and about of thirty-two ryo between the two of us," she says, and Naruto laughs loudly. "Hey, what were thinking about, earlier?"
"Ugh. Just Sasuke." He admits.
She smiles at him sympathetically. "I'm gonna miss him too."
He nods at her and they keep walking in silence, until Naruto breaks it.
"It's just—I spent so long, trying to bring him back and I can't believe I just let him go yesterday."
"But it's different. This time, he left for the right reasons. He'll come back to us."
"I know. He promised. It just kinda sucks, 'cause we just got him back; I wished he'd stayed a little longer, y'know?"
She nods silently.
"Like, what are we gonna do without him?" Naruto whines dramatically.
Sakura snorts loudly. "We've managed before. It's not like the amount of arms, or ryo would increase by that much if he'd stayed with us."
Naruto chuckles at that, and tries his best to ignore the pang of guilt he felt at the mention of Sasuke's arm, and the thought of Sakura finding them in the Valley of the End.
"Plus," she continues, "you were always the cement of this team anyway, not him. I always felt like, as long as you're here, that everything would be okay, eventually."
Her ability to make his heart beat out of his chest never failed to surprise him. This reminds him of when his mother told him 'I love you,' he couldn't talk or think straight for a whole minute—thanks to the butterflies in his stomach—until he told her he loved her back.
He wants to tell Sakura he loves her, but he's not so sure it would go well. So he just gives her his biggest, warmest smile, the one only she got to see.
He's thankfully saved from the embarassment of accidently spilling all of his feelings out when they reach the stairs that lead to his appartment. They climb them up in silence until Naruto opens the door for Sakura.
"Ladies first," he smiles goofily.
Once inside, Naruto begins heating up some water on the stove (because Sakura's here and he's not going to feed her microwaved ramen). The kettle starts to make a sound after three minutes and he turns off the stove and pours the water into the two boxes he pulled out.
Sakura watches him silently, and it's starting to make him nervous, so he gives her her meal, not waiting for the five minutes to pass, and sits across from her.
She keeps silent again.
"You're welcom—"
"I love you."
Huh?
"Huh?" He replies eloquently.
She grips her box nervously and sighs. "Remember two years ago when I told you I loved you? I hurt you so much that day, because you saw my intentions through my words so clearly but Naruto… there was some truth to what I said. I just didn't know it yet."
Her words were fast and straight and she seems to suddenly realize what she's saying and blushes profusely.
"I'm sorry it's taken me this long to realize it, let alone say it," she continues and takes a huge, nervous sip of her shrimp flavored noodles. It's almost funny but Naruto's too hung on her words to laugh. "I feel like everyone knew before I did. You know it only took Yamato a few days? And that was three years ago. I'm sorry I made you wait that long."
"I—it's okay."
She gets up from her chair and rounds the table to stand in front of him. He wants to stand up too, but his brain won't order his legs to move and all he can do is turn a little to face her better. Then all at once, Sakura smiles—so big—hugs him and laughs in his ear.
"So you still love me too? I was afraid I'd missed my chance," she says softly.
He finally breaks himself out of his stupor and stands up, bringing his arms around her as well. They stay like this for a few minutes until Naruto leans back a little, bringing his hand to Sakura's face. He looks at her, really looks at her and all the details of her face because she's rarely let him be that close to her before and he wants to remember everything about this moment.
He squishes her cheeks between his thumb and his other four fingers a little and she giggles, then he brings his lips to her forehead.
She sighs through her nose, a small smile playing on her lips. "Cute, but…"
She puts her hand on Naruto's and brings it down as she leans back to look at him. Sakura briefly looks glad for the short height difference between them as she reduces the gap between their faces. Naruto reflexively closes his eyes, then feels Sakura's lips capturing his own. He smiles against her lips when he notices that she tastes a little bit like ramen.
And it's everything he's ever thought it would be and more.
A/N: thank you for reading! I've never written a purely romantic fic before, so sorry if this sucked. This was kinda like practice and i want to get better at it. Narusaku is my favorite anime couple so i hoped i at least did their characters some justice.