Sakura smiled inwardly as she closed the door behind her, catching up to Naruto who was hanging his jacket on the hanger. She looked through the door and saw that her parents were just sitting down to eat dinner, she walked into the kitchen and called her parents' names.
"Sakura, come sit down. You're just in time for dinner." Her dad, Kizashi called out.
"Thanks Dad.. Is it okay if I brought a guest to dinner?" She asked, looking at her parents who responded with confused looks.
"Who'd you bring, dear?" Sakura's Mother, Mebuki asked.
As if responding to a signal, Naruto stepped out from behind the wall and raised his hand to attempt a wave before his actions were cut off by a hand on his wrist.
"What are you doing in my home, demon?" Kizashi said with venom in his voice.
"I-I" Naruto stumbled on his words.
"Dad, leave him alone!" Sakura called out, running towards her father.
"Stay out of it Sakura." Kizashi said eyeing his daughter, sending her a clear message that he would not ask twice.
Kizashi squeezed the genin's wrist tighter, almost to the point of breaking his joint all together. He stared down at the boy with hatred in his eyes, "You listen and you listen good, stay the hell away from my Daughter. Got it!?" He shouted.
Sakura and Mebuki watched the confrontation between the two males, as Naruto winced in pain and Kizashi smiled and relish at the harm he was able to cause the bastard jinchuriki.
Naruto looked up and nodded at the man, it made sense that they'd hate him after all. The Haruno's were a civilian family, all of the civilians are looking like Naruto as a murderer right now. It didn't help that he was the container for the nine-tails, the beast that killed Kizashi's parents.
Kizashi smirked as he dragged the boy from the kitchen to the front door and threw him outside with force.
"If I see you near my family again murderer, I will not be so kind." Kizashi said, slamming the door and locking it shut.
Naruto looked down at his wrist and winced when he touched it, it had begun to swell up a bit. He looked back at the house once more before sighing and making his way back down the quiet and lonely road to his apartment. He tried not to let any tears fall, he was not sad. He realized why Sakura's dad did what he had done, he was the one that killed the Uchiha prodigy after all. The civilians Naruto was passing scowled at him with such bitter expressions on their face that made him not want to even look at them, so that's what he did. He put his hands in his pockets and looked down at the ground, ignoring the world around him.
Once he arrived he proceeded up the staircase to his apartment before being greeted by his cheerfully smiling landlord.
"Hiya Naruto-kun." The landlord said to the blonde who was passing up the stairs.
"Oh Mika-chan, hi." Naruto said, trying his best to put on a fake smile for the landlord.
She was a slender woman, probably entering her mid-thirties although she looked like she had just started entering her late twenties. She stood around the average height for a woman her age Naruto would presume; her brown hair that was usually let down was tied into a ponytail.
Mika looked down and saw the severe swelling and bruising on Naruto's wrist and gasped she walked briskly over and examined the injury herself, earning a wince from her tenant.
"How did you do this, Naruto-kun?" Mika asked, looking back up at the blonde.
Naruto froze up for a second as he thought to himself, "I can't get Sakura's dad in trouble…".
"Oh, I hurt it training. It's nothing Mika-chan, promise." Naruto lied with a fake smile on his face.
Mika sighed at the blonde's obvious lie but wasn't going to poke any further into something private, she instead led the blonde into her own apartment via his good hand and sat him down on the couch before rushing off to grab her medical supplies.
Naruto looked around her apartment; it was much cleaner than his was. She had photos of her and her husband on the walls and a photo of a younger version of himself playing together with her. He smiled as he remembered those times growing up before he had to get a place of his own, luckily the landlords allowed him to use their second guest room as his own apartment since no other living areas in Konoha would willingly accommodate him.
"Where is Juro-sama anyways Mika-chan?" Naruto asked the woman who had just re-entered the room.
"He's out on a mission, he should be back soon I hope." She said with a gentle smile as she began bandaging Naruto's arm.
"You shouldn't be doing this Mika-chan. I don't deserve it." Naruto said, looking down at his wrist.
Mika felt a pang of sadness shoot through her as she saw the emotional pain the young blonde was in. She ruffled his hair and smiled.
"You're my special person, Naruto-kun. Of course you deserve it." She said as she continued to bandage his wrist.
"Special person?" Naruto asked, looking up at Mika.
"Of course. A Special person is somebody that you care about, someone that you can count and depend on, somebody that makes you stronger and a better person. Do you have anyone like that Naruto-kun?" Mika asked, looking at the boy.
"Well… you and Juro-sama are really special to me. And Iruka-sensei, Teuchi-jiji and Ayame-chan as well!" He smiled.
Mika smiled as the boy started to perk up as he remembered the people that cared about him, she looked down and continued to bandage the boys arm.
"Mika-chan…" Naruto called out, grabbing her attention.
"There's another special person I have, it's a girl." Naruto said with embarrassment present on his face.
"Ooooh, Naruto-kun has a girlfriend now?" Mika-chan grinned, pinching an annoyed Naruto's cheek playfully.
"Not like that Mika-chan!" Naruto yelled, hiding an embarrassed blush. "She's very important to me though." He said, looking back at his landlord.
"May I ask who?" She questioned, cutting off the bandage as she placed a pin in to hold the bandage in place.
"A girl my age, her name is Sakura Haruno. She's really pretty and funny. She has a crazy temper and gets mad a lot but she cares about a lot of people and trains really hard to keep them safe. She sometimes eats ramen with me when we visit other villages for missions but not often cause she said it will damage her figure and sometimes she makes me these breakfast meals in the mornings and so-" He continued to ramble on.
Mika smiled at the boy, he could be surprisingly cute when he wasn't being a blonde nutcase.
"Then if she's your special person, you should keep her safe." Mika said, poking his nose.
Naruto looked up to his landlord with an ear to ear grin and nodded, "You bet." He said, giving his classic thumbs up.
"Did you want some soup to take home with you Naruto-kun?" Mika asked, "I made extra for Juro-kun but it seems that he's going to miss out on it." She giggled.
"That would be perfect, thank you Mika-chan." Naruto said as he pressed his hand onto his groaning stomach. "Just make sure you don't tell Juro-sama, he will kill me if he finds out I'm stealing his food." Naruto fake pleaded.
"Only if you promise not to be sad anymore." Mika said, handing him a bowl with a gentle look on her face.
Naruto put the bowl down on the table for a moment and hugged the woman, Mika was shocked at first but eased into the hug and smiled, she missed these moments. They were few and far inbetween since he had graduated the academy.
"I'll try. But sometimes it gets very hard not to be. It feels like the whole world is against me." He said, trying hard to contain his tears.
"I know Naruto-kun, I know..." Mika said soothingly as she gently rubbed his back.
"Will it ever get better?" He asked, breaking the hug and looking up at her.
"People don't change easy… But if you try hard enough, even the worst of people can change into the best of people." Mika said, giving him a small kiss on the forehead.
"Thank you Mika-chan, really." Naruto said as he picked up his bowl and headed for the door.
"Naruto!" She called out as he was exiting.
"Hai?" Naruto responded, poking his head back in.
"Come visit more often. We miss seeing your goofy face." Mika said, copying Naruto's trademark thumbs up.
"You bet." He said with a huge grin before closing the door.
Meanwhile, at the Haruno residence tensions were at an all time high as Kizashi sat there looking at his Daughter who was doing nothing but playing with her food.
"Sakura, eat your god damn food already!" Kizashi shouted.
Sakura ignored the visibly angry man and continued to pick at her food, Mebuki looked at her with a look of sympathy while Kizashi looked like he was ready to explode, he stood up and walked over to the girl before taking the fork out of her hands.
"You listen to me Sakura, that boy is nothing but trouble. He—"
"He wanted to have dinner, that's all! He did nothing bad all he did was wave at you!" She shouted at him, finally reaching her boiling point.
"You don't know what we know." He responded.
"If knowing what you know turns me into a monster like you I'd rather be ignorant for the rest of my life." She said with venom in her voice before storming off towards her room.
Kizashi looked at his Daughter who was walking up the stairs in a fit of rage before turning back to his wife who was also about to walk past him.
"Mebuki-chan?" He called out.
"He's just a boy, Kizashi-kun." Was all she said in reply as she put her hand on his shoulder and then walked past him.
Kizashi picked up the fork he threw out of his daughter hand and placed it back on the table before leaning on the table and heavily sighing.
Meanwhile, Sakura was sobbing openly into her pillow. Cursing her father under her breath.
She quieted down when she heard her door slowly creak open behind her, she looked up to see her mother with a gentle expression on her face.
"Do you want to talk?" She said, sitting down next to her.
"N-not r-really." She quietly said between sobs.
"You care about that boy a lot, don't you?" Mebuki asked, gently rubbing her Daughters back.
She thought about the question for a long time, sure she cared about Naruto a lot. He meant so much to her, but this was the first time she even really thought about how much she really cared about the blonde boy. Just exactly what was Naruto to her? A close friend? A best friend? Or something.. more. She looked up at her Mother, her eyes puffy and red from the crying she had just done.
"Naruto means a lot to me, yes." She said, moving herself so she could rest her head on her mother's lap.
"I was the same way with your father." Mebuki said, stroking Sakura's pink hair gently in an attempt to calm her.
"I couldn't make up my mind whether I loved him or not." Mebuki said, smiling at how Sakura visibly froze.
"I know the answer, just by how you look at him. By how you act around him. But do you?" Mebuki asked.
"I-I don't think I do, not yet anyways." Sakura answered as she felt her mother stand up.
"Boys forget a lot of things don't they?" Mebuki said.
Sakura looked up, confused at the question. She saw her mother holding Naruto's jacket in her left hand.
She continued to stare at her mother as she opened her bedroom window..
"It's not really that hot in here, mother." Sakura replied, still confused at what her mother was doing.
"Hm, it sure would be weird if you weren't here when your father comes to say goodnight. Although I believe he thinks that he should just leave you by yourself for tonight.." She said, trying to give hints to Sakura.
Sakura smiled as she got the hint, she ran up to her mother and hugged her tightly before taking the jacket her mother handing her.
"Be back by midnight." Sakura's mother said as she left the room.
Naruto sat at his dinner table by himself as he ate the soup and looked at the bandages around his wrist, "Mika-chan sure did a good job at this. Must be from all those years treating Juro-sama's injuries." He thought to himself as he finished the last remaining amount of soup in the bowl before leaving to do the dishes and inspect what was his current food situation was.
Naruto almost died of sadness when he opened the door of his fridge, all of his milk had gone bad, his orange juice as well. The power was probably turned off from his apartment while he was in the hospital so the landlords could save money. He really didn't blame them, it made sense. He smiled as he saw that his instant ramen seemed to be in decent condition and was going to put some on for later before he heard a knock at his door, he closed the fridge door and made his way over to the door as the knocking grew more rapid and loud.
"Who the hell is here at this time of night…" He thought grumpily.
Naruto opened the door and was shocked to see Sakura standing outside the door, smiling awkwardly at him.
"Umm… Sakura-chan?" Naruto said, obviously confused.
"H-Hi Naruto" Sakura said nervously twiddling her thumbs together.
"Do you want to come in?" Naruto asked, still unsure of what she was doing here.
"That'd be great, thank you." She smiled, moving inside and sitting on his couch.
His room is kind of what she expected it to be, not super messy but certainly not clean. She noticed Naruto move over and sit with her, Sakura looked at Naruto's bandaged wrist and felt a spike of guilt drive right through her. However, she finally got the nerve to speak up.
"Here, you left this at my house." She said, handing the boy his jacket.
Naruto smiled at the gesture and felt a little stupid for forgetting about his jacket, "Thank you so much Sakura-chan, I'm sorry for being a burden and making you come all this way to give it back to me." Naruto said as he put the jacket back on over his shirt.
The room went quiet for a minute while they both thought of what to say to each other, Naruto finally took a gulp and began to speak up.
"Listen Sakura-chan, if you don't want to hang around me anymore I understand. You shouldn't go against what your father says." Naruto sadly uttered.
"I don't care what my father says." Sakura replied, shocking Naruto quite a bit.
"He doesn't know you like I do. I know you're not a murderer. You're an idiot." She said giggling to herself, she looked over at Naruto and saw his face looked a bit downtrodden. Maybe it was a bit too soon to start treating him like that, "Why am I even treating him like that to begin with?" she asked herself.
"You're a kind, gentle, caring idiot. You always put others before yourself and never ask for anything in return. I'm lucky to have you as a friend." She said, smiling as she saw Naruto's attitude do a complete 180.
"Sakura-chan." Naruto said, breaking the silence yet again.
"Naruto?" She answered back.
"Did you love Sasuke?" He said quietly, just loud enough for Sakura to hear him.
"I-I thought I did." She responded, looking down at her feet.
"What do you mean?" Naruto questioned.
"I thought it was love, I mean… I felt like I cared deeply about him… but.." She said, closing her eyes as tears started to fall.
Naruto mentally hit himself for making her answer such a question, it must be incredibly hard on her. Naruto moved over to her and hugged her tight, Sakura relished the warmth that his body seemed to always have.
"Was Sasuke your special person?" Naruto asked.
"Special person? What do you mean?" Sakura asked while she wiped away the remaining tears she had left adorning her face.
"Well, Mika-chan said that a special person is somebody that you care about, you know. Somebody that you can rely and depends on, somebody that makes you happy!" He said with a smile.
Sakura thought about it for a minute, she looked up at the boy hugging her and easing her pain. "Sasuke never did anything like this…" She thought to herself as Naruto finally broke their hug.
"It's ok, you don't have to answer if you don't want to." Naruto said.
"I don't think he was my special person either." Sakura said. "Because I think you're my special person, Naruto." She said, looking at him with a small red tinge of blush evident on her face.
Naruto's eyes went wide at Sakura's remark. He gulped before trying to speak, "But I—He – I don't…" He tried to utter out something that would resemble a sentence but he was at loss for words, his attempts made Sakura giggle and helper her feel much less awkward.
"Don't get the wrong idea though, Naruto!" She warned, poking her finger at him as some kind of warning.
"Y-Yes ma'm." He responded, scared of inciting the wrath of Sakura Haruno upon him.
"Now, since you weren't able to stay for dinner thanks to my.. dad.." She said, pausing a minute to think of what transpired at dinner once more. "I'll make it up to you by taking you out for lunch tomorrow, okay?" Sakura said with a smile on her face.
"You don't have to take me out for anything Sakura-chan, just being around you is the best gift ever!" Naruto replied with an ear to ear grin.
Sakura blushed at his unintentional compliment, she smiled at how sweet he could be sometimes when he wasn't even thinking.
"Idiot…" She muttered, "Just for that you're paying for lunch." Sakura finished, making Naruto regret his actions instantly as he looked at his near-empty wallet.
She giggled at the worried expression on his face before breaking the silence once more, "I should probably be getting back now, Dad doesn't know I'm gone and Mom said to be back before midnight." Sakura said.
"No problem, Sakura-chan." Naruto said, helping Sakura to her feet as he followed her to the door.
Sakura turned around and looked at the boy before her and smiled, "Oh! I almost forgot to give you something!" She said, feigning her nervousness.
"What is it?" Naruto asked.
Suddenly Sakura leaned forward and planted a small kiss on the blonde genin's cheek, almost making him pass out right then and there. Naruto felt like things couldn't get any better for him right now.
"Thank you for everything Naruto, not just tonight but every other night and every other day." She said, trying to hide the blush forming on her cheeks.
"No- No problem Sakura-chan" He said, still looking at her in wonder.
"See you tomorrow for lunch, Naruto-kun." She said, giggling at the added suffix as she walked off.
Naruto was wrong, things did get better.