"Naruto-kun, slow down." Sakura groaned, trying to add the suffix in order to persuade him but it didn't work as Naruto continued briskly walking with a smile on his face.
"I can't Sakura-chan, this is the best day of my life! We're finally going on a date!" Naruto shouted happily before he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head.
Sakura looked at Naruto with an angry expression on her face, "I've told you 10 times already Naruto, this isn't a date. We're just going to lunch!" She said, a blush passing across her features.
Naruto felt a little deflated after Sakura told him this but smiled as he looked back up at her, "You look pretty today, Sakura-chan." Naruto said.
Sakura froze up at his comment and tried to hide her blush, why was she being like this? He told her she was pretty thousands of times before, why was this time any different? She looked down at the blonde boy and smiled at him before helping him to his feet, "Thank you, Naruto-kun." She said, giving him a small smile as they continued to walk.
After a minute of walking they Naruto finally revealed to her the magical spot where they would be having lunch together, he pointed to the Ichiraku Ramen hut and smiled giddily as they approached it. Sakura stopped walking and looked at Naruto with an annoyed expression. Naruto, noticing Sakura was not walking beside him turned around and saw the expression that crossed her face and responded with a confused look.
"What's wrong, Sakura-chan?" He asked.
She walked over to him at a much faster pace than they had previously walked before, the annoyed expression still on her face. She reached him and poked him in the chest with her pointer finger.
"What's the big idea, Naruto!" She questioned angrily.
"Huh?" He responded, still confused.
"Out of all the placed in Konoha you choose to take me to a Ramen hut?" Sakura said.
"S-Saku-" Naruto tried to say before he was interrupted.
"No Naruto, just forget it. I'll see you later." Sakura said, turning around to walk off.
"Wait, Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted.
Sakura turned around to see the blonde boy walking towards her, he approached her and sighed as he held his hands in his pockets.
"I'm sorry if this wasn't what you expected Sakura-chan." Naruto said.
"Naruto it—" Sakura said before Naruto interrupted her.
"Please Sakura-chan, just let me explain ok?" Naruto asked.
Sakura nodded, agreeing to listen to Naruto's explanation.
"Well, I don't really have any money to spare Sakura-chan. I haven't gotten a mission from Tsunade-baa-chan in forever and I've spent whatever I had left buying food since everything was expired in my apartment. So I asked Teuchi-jiji if I could eat here for free and pay him later and he was nice enough to let me." Naruto explained, "Sorry if this wasn't what you were expecting Sakura-chan, I'll tell Teuchi-jiji that we aren't coming." Naruto said as he turned around to walk back to the stand before he felt a hand reach out to grab his own.
"I-I'm sorry, Naruto." Sakura said, a guilty expression panged across her face, "I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. Let's go have lunch." She smiled at him.
Naruto looked at her with a shocked expression but quickly smiled and nodded as they both proceeded towards the Ichiraku ramen hut.
"Um… Sakura-chan, you're still holding my hand." Naruto said awkwardly.
"I know." She said, squeezing his hand gently with a smile on her face as she looked towards the ramen hut.
Naruto gulped and blushed but tried to act calm as they entered under the towels into the ramen hut.
"Naruto!" Teuchi smiled, he then looked to the left as he examined the pinkette next to the blonde ninja, "Is this your girlfriend?" He asked, making the two blush bright red.
Teuchi laughed as they both talked over each other trying to explain the situation before Ayame appeared from the door leading to the back of the hut.
"C'mon Dad, leave them alone." Ayame said, feeling sorry for the two.
"You always ruin my fun Ayame-chan." He grumbled before making his way through the door Ayame appeared from.
"So, what's your name miss?" Ayame asked with a smile.
"Sakura Haruno." Sakura replied, extending her hand out.
Ayame nodded as she shook the girls hand, "Nice to meet you Sakura, what will you be having?" Ayame asked.
"Um, I'm not the biggest fan of ramen." She said sheepily, earning a shocked gasp from Teuchi before Ayame glared at him to be quiet.
"That's okay. We have vegetable ramen if you'd like that. It's my personal favourite." She said, trying to help the girl who obviously had never been here before.
"That would be perfect." Sakura said a happy smile adorning on her face.
"Do I even need to ask what you want?" She said with a smile towards the blonde boy who was hungrily awaiting his meal.
"You know my favourite Ayame-chan!" He said with a smile, "Miso ramen with extra pork!" He shouted happily.
Naruto and Sakura conversed happily about things until their ramen arrived, Sakura was shocked at how quickly Naruto had eaten his first bowl of ramen and was even more shocked at how quickly he ordered and consumed his second bowl. After four bowls Naruto had reached his maximum capacity and finally looked to be tuckered out, Sakura looked down at her half-finished bowl and grinned sheepishly.
"I guess I can't handle as much as you." She said.
"It's no problem Sakura-chan. Take your time." He replied.
Sakura smiled as the sincereness of the boy, he told her several stories about his eating competitions with Iruka-sensei to make her laugh as she finished of the rest of her ramen.
"And this one time, Me and Sasu—" Naruto stopped mid-sentence and looked down as if he made the biggest mistake in the world, catching Sakura off guard.
She looked at the sad expression on his face, it made her feel so bad seeing his usual happy demeanour fade. She put her hand on his shoulder, making him look up at her. When their eyes met she flashed him a smile, hoping to atleast make him feel happy somewhat.
"Sakura-chan?" Naurto called out.
"Hm?" She responded, looking at the blonde.
"Can we go see him?" He asked, his blue eyes locked with her green orbs.
Sakura's mind instantly clicked on what Naruto had meant, she nodded.
"We'll be going now Ayame-chan." Naruto said, the sadness still etched on his face.
"Okay.. Naruto-kun.." Ayame replied, a worried expression on her face.
Before Sakura exited Ayame grabbed her on the shoulder, making her turn around.
"He really cares about you Sakura, I don't know how you feel about him but you should spend some time with him. After all that's happened he really needs a friend to be around right now." Ayame said, smiling gently at the girl.
"Thank you Ayame." She said returning with a smile of her own before running of to catch up to Naruto.
The two proceeded promptly to the cemetery, Sakura kept Naruto's hand in hers as a way to cheer him up but it didn't seem to be working he seemed to still be saddened as he was caught in deep thought.
"We're here." She said as they stopped in front of the headstone that read 'Sasuke Uchiha', he was buried amongst his fellow clansmen that died in the massacre.
Naruto looked at the grave as memories of their fight came flooding back to him, he looked upon the grave as tears threatened to fall, he knelt down and placed his hand on the gravestone.
Naruto opened his mouth as if to speak but couldn't put the words together, he looked back at Sakura and then back to the gravestone of his best friend. He expected more flowers and well-wished at the gravestone of the Uchiha prodigy, all the flowers left there had died and whittled "We both miss you. I'm sorry, teme. Next time I come back I'll bring you some flowers so we can decorate this place up some more or something, okay?" He said, rubbing his hand across the gravestone. "Sakura-chan." He said, looking towards the girl.
"Thank you for coming with me." He said, walking over to Sakura.
"It's fine Naruto-kun, really." She said, smiling gently at the blonde.
The two decided it was best to start heading back, feeling exhausted from their big meal and the walk back and fourth through the Konoha woods they decided to rest on a hill and watch the sun set over the Village Hidden in the Leaves, Sakura looked over at Naruto and saw that the deeply saddened look on his face was still present, she examined him with worry.
"Naruto-kun, are you okay?" She asked out of the blue.
"Fine Sakura-chan, why?" He responded, looking at the pink-haired ninja.
"You're not fine, you've been out of it since lunch." She said with worry in her voice.
"It's just…" He stopped as he looked away from her, that same look present in his features. Naruto felt a hand press itself to his shoulder, he turned out to see Sakura smiling at him gently.
"If you don't want to tell me it's okay, but you can trust me Naruto-kun. I promise." She said soothingly.
Naruto looked at the girl in front of him and nodded as he turned full around and looked deep into her green orbs that adorned her face."I-I keep having these nightmares, I keep thinking about my battle with Sasuke. Right before he.. y'know… We both charged at each other with our best attacks and I was unable to control the power of the rasengan in the state I was in and it hit him…. It hit him and killed him… Instead when I looked up it's not him that I've killed it's you… It's you. I have your blood on my hands and all I can do is sit there and watch you die… Then I wake up." He said, his body shaking in fear as tears fell from his blue eyes.
Sakura immediately pulled the blonde boy into an embrace and let him cry openly, exposing a side to her that she never felt would ever be seen from the happy go-lucky idiot that used to play pranks on academy teachers.
"Naruto-kun…" She whispered almost inaudibly.
"They're just dreams, okay?" She said, trying to calm the blonde boy down.
"How touching." A voice called out from the forest, making the two ninja jump up.
The two looked almost in shock at the man standing before them was none other than Orochimaru, his snake-like eyes fixated on the two young genin before him.
"What are you doing here, Orochimaru!" Naruto called out, quickly wiping the tears from his face
"Just enjoying the sunset, like you two." He smiled darkly.
"You have no business here!" Sakura yelled at the snake sanin.
"You're right, I should be going now." He said as he stared a hole through the pink haired girl in front of him.
"Oh wait, I almost forgot. A little parting gift." He said as he stopped moving.
Almost as fast as lightning, Orochimaru turned around and shot a snake out of his mouth at breakneck speed.
Naruto eyes opened wide as he realized that he was not the target of Orochimaru's attack, He quickly dashed in-front of Sakura and grunted as he felt something pass through his shoulder.
Sakura's eyes closed as she felt death was inevitable until she heard a grunt from the young blonde boy, her eyes opened in horror as she saw the snake was completely shot through Naruto's shoulder but just avoided her due to Naruto grabbing hold of it.
"Well, Ta-ta." Orochimaru cackled as both he and the snake in Naruto's shoulder vanished out of existence.
"Naruto!" She shouted as the caught the boy who fell over in pain.
"Love… you... Sa…kura-chan…" Naruto said as he passed out from the pain.
"HELP…. HELP…. SOMEBODY HELP ME!" She screamed out in horror as she clutched the bleeding blonde boy in her arms.
AN: Cliffhangers suck, right? Expect 1-2 chapter(s) a week from here on out.