The problem with looking the blonde in the eyes was you always lost. If Naruto smiled at you and made eye contact you were done. It was almost as if his will was iron. You found yourself locked within the bars of his happiness. Ran imagined this was why Sasuke could sometimes find him mildly annoying. However, the words came out of his mouth. She couldn't find it in herself to believe anything he said. All she wanted to do was back away from him slowly and hide in her apartment. It had always been this way. Naruto was blind to the ways she cared and that was alright. She accepted it. For him to recognize what she felt for him and reciprocate it…her brain wasn't able to handle that much. Naruto had been a steady force in her life. If he suddenly thought that he should care about her just because she cared about him then their entire friendship could be ruined. Sasuke was destroying various pieces of her life. She was going to owe him big time at the Rally.

"Naruto…you don't ha…" she started but the blonde interrupted her.

"I don't have to you are right. However, I want too." He grinned tilting his head to the side chuckling.

"You…want to…what?" she raised an eyebrow.

"I want take some time to actually you know…" he blushed rubbing the back of his head messing up the spiked locks, "What I'm trying to say is, let's try dating first." Her jaw started to drop marginally.

"That's not how you ask a lady out Naruto." Before anyone could react Sakura smashed her fist into the back of the boy's head.

"OW! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!" Naruto groaned holding his head sinking to the ground pouting.

"You take her to dinner. I said ask her to dinner. What do you do? You just ask her to date you…" the medical woman shook her head pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Uh, hello Sakura." Ran said hesitantly looking back and forth between the two. "Should I ask what is going on?"

"I was afraid to talk to you after dinner yesterday…I went to Sakura-chan for help." He still sat gloomily where she'd knocked him down.

"I told him to ask you out on a date…not ask you to automatically date him." She smiled sweetly at Ran.

"Well I guess to be honest," she stated bluntly, "I'd say yes anyway." She shrugged trying to hide the anxiety building inside her chest. Dating Naruto was a sure way to throw yourself into the village's main eye. She was pretty happy sticking with ambiguity but that wasn't going to happen now.

"Really?" Naruto sat up instantly eyes bright and crystalline clear.

"I er…yeah. We can try it." She took a long deep breath trying to prepare for the weeks that would stretch ahead.

When Kakashi heard the oncoming news of Naruto's new girlfriend he found it hard not to snoop. He wasn't a prying soul by nature but he had to admit he was curious. From what he had been able to ascertain the girl was an ANBU. She was his partner and also part of a possible three man operation stealth squad. In order to be paired with the jinchuriki there had to be a reason that they believed she could stop him if anything got out of control or that she could protect him from hardened enemies. That meant one of two things; she was a sealing type ninja with sensory output or she was a shield type with genjutsu. The probability of a frontlines approach when Naruto was already the predominant headstrong force on a team would make her redundant and useless in a heavy battle. She would have to be the strategist while Naruto attacked on the forefront.

He had also been able to find out that her file was locked. He had tried to access it from Genma or Raidou but neither one would hand over the files on her. This meant that there was something in them which he wasn't allowed to see. Now that bothered him. He had, for a very brief amount of time, been named the Hokage. He was not anymore but it did give him the opportunity to access certain things when he wanted. In this case, her file being sealed, meant there was something dangerous about her past that the ANBU core didn't want out. Kakashi didn't want to disapprove of the girl without getting to know her, by all mean Naruto seemed rather pleased with himself, but Sasuke didn't like her. Although his other student could be moody and outright cruel at times his usual judgment about others wasn't normally lacking. Sasuke was good with judge of character; he wasn't easily dissuaded from seeing the truth. He also wasn't stupid to the fact that Sasuke did not like the girl taking his time away from Naruto. The two boys walked a truce and sometimes tortious line of friendship even with Sasuke's pardon. Tonight he knew the biju holder and the girl were having dinner; he would just have to pull some old tactics and resort to spying…for the hell of it.

Ran fidgeted as they neared the popular pork hut and grill restaurant that Choji loved so much. He had recommended it on more than one occasion when they had returned form missions with the ANBU squads. He had made ANBU a few months back and normally stopped there when he returned home. She felt nervous and her stomach was roiling. She would never tell Naruto but this was the first date she'd ever actually been on. Ran was not the number one choice when it came to men's dreams. She was more or less viewed as a man herself in the unit. She lived by herself and tried to stay under the radar. As Naruto opened the door to step aside and let Ran past him many people turned to stare. It wasn't normal for the hero to be accompanied by anyone other than team 7 or Sai. Shikamaru was the first one to smirk causing heat to rise up the back of Ran's neck. Apparently some of them had been taking bets on how long it would be before Naruto realized Ran had been taking such good care of him. They'd all sort of made it a joke that he didn't see it and some even had felt bad for her. The truth was Ran had been perfectly happy with things as they had been before. They had simply coexisted with one another. Now they had to interact as more than friends…at some point anyway.

"Booth or table?" the blonde asked her.

"Booth." She said without thinking too much. It would be easier to watch the room with her back to a wall. As they sat down and a server took their drink orders Ran eyed Naruto. He seemed relaxed. How she didn't know. It was hard for her to stay so calm now that their partnership had shifted.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked suddenly pulling her from the reprieve.

"I was just wondering how you're staying so calm." She blurted out as her eyes downcast towards the table. Naruto had never seen the girl grow so soft-spoken. Ran was not the kind of woman to be timid but ever since he'd asked her to date him she'd started to turn the volume of her personality down a few notches.

"Because what people think and say has never bothered me." He reached across the table and took her hand in his. "Stop thinking about it so much. It's still just you and me hanging out. The more you think about the situation the more you start to pull away." She laughed in spite of herself and shook her head giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

"I am not pulling away from you. I just would have been happier to spend a night in with you like we normally do." Naruto thought about it a moment.

"Then why don't we get the food to go?" he asked.

"Are you serious?" she countered chuckling. They had come all the way out here and he was so willing to take the food back home to make her more comfortable.

"Yes. Let's do it."

Kakashi watched through the window standing on a rooftop ledge nearby as Ran and Naruto began to eat their food. The girl had taken plates from this kitchen as if it were her own before putting the food on them. While she'd worked on splitting the rice and pork Naruto grabbed silverware from the sink and got them tea to drink. They carried the things into the living room and sat around the small wooden table on plush blue cushions. Naruto was relaxed around the female and the moment they'd hit the door he'd watched her take a few deep breathes as her shoulders had relaxed. After a few moments of the two talking there had been some sort of joke made and the girl had snorted laughing so hard she'd had to double over holding her stomach. Naruto had scooted over patting her back laughing just as hard. Kakashi sighed before slipping closer leaning over the edge of Naruto's apartment roof. He wanted to be closer to hear them interact.

"You are such an idiot!" Ran laughed trying to sit up and suck in some air. Upone inspection Kakashi was able to see a small forkful of rice in her hair and on her face. Naruto must have accidently flung it across the table while he was eating. The boy grabbed a napkin to wipe it off; he looked thankful that she was laughing.

"I know! I know!" he chuckled starting to remove the rice from her face.

"You eat like a kid." She teased helping him by taking the cloth and finished wiping the mess off.

"Oh now come on! I'm not that bad." He protested smirking down at her. She turned ever slightly to look up at him where they sat still laughing a little.

"Naruto…" she started to shift her body back from him but he caught her shoulder.

"Nope." He grinned. "You're not going to run away every time I get closer to you." Before she could start to object he leaned against her smoothing his lips over her own.