Naruto groaned as he stirred awake, the familiar smell of disinfectants and the look of bland white walls instantly severed as a reminder to just exactly where he was, he tried to move his shoulder but his efforts seemed to be for nought, he assumed that Tsunade had his shoulder restrained so that he wouldn't move around and re-injure it.
He looked down the bed and saw Sakura sleeping softly, she was sitting in a chair and her head was resting on the side of his bed. He smiled and moved some loose hairs that fell to her forehead away with his uninjured arm.
"She's so beautiful" He thought to himself as he watched her steady breathing make her body rise and fall.
Naruto looked over and saw the heavy bandages that were placed around his shoulder and thought about the events that took place, the confrontation with Orochimaru on the hill was something he didn't expect to happen, he knew that he was in for a long interrogation session courtesy of Tsunade. He reached over and touched his shoulder with his good arm and immediately recoiled and winced in pain.
"Damn that hurts…" Naruto groaned.
As Naruto was muttering various curses about his shoulder, Sakura stirred awake from her restful sleep, uttering a small yawn as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
Sakura went wide-eyed as she saw the blonde moving around and examining his shoulder, "Naruto-kun!" She shouted happily and she got up and encased the blonde boy in a tight hug, making sure she avoided touching his shoulder.
"Hey Sakura-chan" Naruto said groggily.
"I… I was so worried about you… You were bleeding so much and I.." She said in between sobs.
Naruto rubbed her back with his good arm, "I'm fine now, Sakura-chan." He said, giving her a tired smile.
"You saved me." She said, breaking the hug and locking her gaze with his. "You risked your life to save me." She finished, squeezing his hand gently.
"S'nothing… Sakura-chan" He muttered out tiredly as he drifted back off to sleep.
Sakura smiled gently at the sleeping boy and released her grip of his hand and placed it back into his bed. She leaned over and planted a gentle kiss to the boys forehead, "It's not 'nothing' you big idiot." She said gently through a smile.
"Sakura, please stop kissing my patients." Tsunade said as she walked in the room with a cheeky grin on her face.
"Tsunade-sama! I-I wasn't… I didn't mean…" Sakura waved her hands franticly trying to explain herself.
Tsunade chuckled before putting her finger in front of her lips, signalling the girl to be quiet. "You showed great bravery carrying him back, I'm proud of you Sakura." She said, ruffling the girls hair.
Tsunade looked down at the sad expression on the girls face and sighed, "You don't take praise well, do you?" Tsunade sad.
"Sorry Tsunade-sama, It's not that I don't appreciate the praise.." Sakura paused. "Naruto wouldn't be in this state if I was strong enough to protect myself." She said as she began sobbing.
Tsunade smiled, the girl reminded her of a young version on herself, she wrapped the girl in a gentle hug and let her let out all of her self-frustrations.
"We start training tomorrow." Tsunade said in a casual voice.
"What do you mean?" Sakura replied confused as she wiped the tears away from her face.
"You wanted to get stronger right?" Tsunade asked, Sakura nodded in reply to the blonde Hokage's question.
"Then you're now my apprentice, come by my office in the morning and we'll begin training." She said, letting go of the girl and walking out of the room.
Sakura smiled excitedly as she watching Tsunade exit the room, she turned back to the sleeping Naruto and held his hand gently.
"Just you watch Naruto-kun, I'm going to get just as strong as you! Then I'll be the one to save you/" She said confidently.
A week had passed since Naruto had first awoken, people had been in and out to see him almost every hour of every day. Mika-chan brought him books to read, Juro-sama came and entertained him with stories of his missions, Ayame-chan and Teuchi came by to give him some ramen to eat, and all of his genin friends turned up once or twice to wish him a speedy recovery but the one person that never showed up during the week was Sakura.
Naruto was sitting on his bed waiting for Tsunade to come back and give him his medical clearance to leave the hospital, he had healed much faster than an average patient due to the powers of the nine-tails jinchuriki speeding up his healing process.
"Why hasn't Sakura-chan come to visit me Shizune-chan?" Naruto asked.
"How's your shoulder feeling Naruto-kun?" Shizune said, trying to change the subject.
"You didn't answer me, Shizune-chan." Naruto said with a worried tone in his voice, looking at the Hokage's assistant.
"I don't know for sure, Naruto-kun." She paused before continuing, "I remember she told me that she feels guilty when she was by your side while you were recuperating" Shizune said.
"Guilty?" Naruto asked, confused.
"She feels as if she is a burden to you, you always save her when she needs you too. She believes it to be her fault that you ended up here twice in such a short space of time. She carried you all the way into the village on her own, everyone cheered her and thanked for slaying 'the beast'. All she could do was keep carrying you and listen to everyone thank her for killing you, I can't image how she would have felt." Shizune said as she finished folding Naruto's blankets.
"Naruto, you're cleared to leave." Tsunade said as she walked in with his chart, "Take it easy and we'll be able to put you back on active mission duty when Juro and Kakashi return in a few weeks." She said, placing the sheet on the table.
"Is everything alright Naruto?" Tsunade asked, looking at the troubled expression on Naruto's face.
"Yeah baa-chan, Have you seen Sakura-chan at all today?" Naruto asked.
"I think she's been training over at the grounds." Tsunade responded with a small grin, knowing that the girl was training hard.
Naruto nodded and smiled to the Hokage in thanks before slipping his shirt and jacket on.
"Oh, and Naruto…" Tsunade called out to him.
"The pervert's coming back to the village, he wants to speak to you." Tsunade said before leaving.
"Pervy sage is coming back?" Naruto said with a confused expression on his face before he left to find Sakura.
There she was, at the training ground just like he had been told. Naruto almost peed his pants when he saw the huge craters that lied around the training grounds, how had Sakura gotten this strong in such a short period of time, he saw Sakura in the distance splitting logs in half with her bare hands and decided to approach cautiously.
"Sakura-chan?" He called out, making her turn her gaze to him.
"Naruto-kun, you're out of hospital!" She said.
"D-Did you do all of this?" He asked nervously, pointing to the craters behind him.
"Um… yeah, I guess." She replied sheepishly with a smile.
"That's amazing Sakura-chan!" He said amazed. "You're so cool!" He exclaimed.
Sakura blushed at the boys comment but smiled and thanked him. "Do you want to sit down, Naruto-kun?" She asked as she moved to sit down on the lakeside.
"Sure." Naruto replied, sitting down next to her.
"You're not a burden, Sakura-chan" He said, catching Sakura off guard.
"How did you…—"
"Shizune-chan told me." Naruto responded.
"You're wrong Naruto, I am a burden on you." She said, looking down at the water. "You ended up in the hospital the first time because of some stupid promise you made to me to bring Sasuke back home, then you ended up their a second time cause you saved me because I was too weak to save myself." She said, bringing her knees to her chest.
"You're wrong, y'know." Naruto said, breaking the silence. "I did that myself because I'm a big idiot." He laughed. "If anything I'm a burden on you, just look at how strong you're getting while I'm sitting hospital." He said.
Sakura smiled at how nice the boy was being, "I never thanked you for saving me back on the hill." She said.
"Don't worry Sakura-chan it's noth—"
"Don't say it's nothing." Sakura interriupted. "You risked your life to save me Naruto-kun, why?" She asked, staring at the blonde boy.
There was a long silence between the two genin, neither of them spoke as Sakura awaited an answer from Naruto.
"Didn't you hear what I said before I passed out?" Naruto asked.
"Love… you… Sa…kura-chan"
Sakura froze up as she remembered what he said to her that day, she looked at the blue eyed boy who was smiling gently at her and replied, "You didn't mean it, you were dying." She tried to reason.
"Of course I meant it, I meant every word." He said with a smile on his face
"But after all I've put you through.." Sakura said, looking into the boys eyes.
"None of that matters." He gently said to the girl in front of him.
"Of course it matters, I treated you like dirt Naruto-kun. I almost got you killed by making you go after Sasuke." She said, openly sobbing into her hands.
Naruto moved over and hugged her tightly as she finally let the dam of emotion that had been building for weeks overflow onto his good shoulder. They sat like that for a long time, basking in the feeling of warmth and security that they both brought each other.
"I already told you, none of that is your fault. I did all of that because I wanted to. I wanted to bring Sasuke back so you could be happy again Sakura-chan. I hate seeing you sad, you're my special person." He said, running his fingers through my hair.
Sakura thought about Naruto's words for a long time as he sat their comforting her, she didn't care about being strong and putting a wall behind her emotions right now, she sat there in his arms as he tried everything he could to make her happy.
"Naruto…" She thought as she pressed herself into the orange fabric of his jacket "He would sacrifice his own life and happiness for me… after everything that I've done to him over the years…" She thought as she felt him rub her back gently to soothe her.
"I was the same way with your father, I couldn't make up my mind whether I loved him or not" Sakura thought about her mother's words to her.
"A special person is somebody you care about, somebody that you can rely and depend on, somebody that makes you happy!" Sakura smiled remembering Naruto's explanation.
"Love… you… Sa…kura-chan"
Sakura looked up at Naruto as her green orbs met Naruto's soothing blue ones, without warning Sakura moved her head forward and collided her lips passionately with his, knocking him onto his back while still pressing her lips to his. Naruto didn't mind the pain in his shoulder, right now he didn't care about anything but her. The kiss lasted only for a small moment but to the two young genin it felt like an eternity of bliss.
"Naruto-kun." Sakura said gently as she ran her hand over his whiskered cheek.
"Y-Yes Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.
"I love you." She said smiling as she pressed her lips to his once more.