I do not own Naruto, I do own this fic…

For the record, sorry, I didn't realize I wrote "the kyubi"…I'm more used to talking of them as just nine tailed fox demons, not really giving them a name…so! Now it's Kyubi, not -the- kyubi to please everyone and the world can go on peacefully cuz I said so! Lol read on!

Now You Notice Me?

Naruto woke up to dawn's light in Sakura's lap as she sat against a tree, her head to the side a bit as she slept. Her hand was upon his chest as the other was beside her. He vaguely remembered her brushing his hair back in his dreams…or…

"I love you Naruto."

He removed her hand from his chest gently as not to wake her and sat up and looked around.

Ayame and Kakashi were laughing about something. Kakashi looked over and waved a bit, "Naruto, seems you are stronger than we gave you credit for."

Naruto lifted a brow, "Huh?"

Ayame walked up and smiled sweetly, "It's nice to know. Sakura told us everything, you know?"

Naruto's gaze turned to Sakura, "What?"

Ayame knelt a bit and rolled her eyes, "How devoted you were to helping her, how you turned into Kyubi and everything!"

Naruto shook his head and rubbed his eyes, yawning a bit. "Yea ok." he muttered and went to stand up. "Ah!" he fell over in pain as he grabbed his ankle.

His yell woke Sakura up suddenly and as her vision focused more, she saw Naruto holding his ankle, "Naruto, you shouldn't walk on it for now." she said.

"Whatever Sakura, this is nothing…" he looked over, surprised she was now awake. "Uhm…"

Sakura looked at him, sleepily, "What?"

Naruto leaned over a bit and looked at her eyes intensely.

"Hey, what are you doing?" she asked, crossing her arms, a bit agitated.

Sasuke and Ino walked up the path smiling. Ino kissed Sasuke's lips gently and it was clear he returned it.

They all looked at them and the three looked at Sakura who lifted a brow, "What?"

Naruto shook his head in amazement, "Man, you really did give him up."

Sakura gave him a dry look, "Yea. Thanks for believing me last night."

Naruto remembered the rest of the night and his eyes widened. "Oh…"

Sakura looked away as if she read his mind and stood up, "I'm going to go uhm…train." she thought up something and walked off. "Take care of Naruto for me."

Naruto's jaw dropped as Ayame and Kakashi shrugged and Sasuke walked up, "Hey, where's Sakura?"

Naruto growled and stood up, a bit wobbly on his ankle, pushing Sasuke back, "Why do YOU care NOW!"

Ayame and Kakashi went wide-eyed at Naruto's move, no matter how injured he was. They knew Sasuke could easily beat Naruto on a bad ankle but neither of the boys seemed to care.

"Just figured she'd be safer around us." Sasuke muttered and shrugged, turning away.

Naruto's eye twitched, "Not around you." he spat and grabbed a large stick and limped after Sakura, slowly his ankle was healing but not fast enough. At least not for him.

Sasuke glared at him as he followed after Sakura. He looked away then and realized Naruto was right. He never cared about Sakura, he was just irritated that he didn't get her attention now. And he had scared her, beyond repair. Yet, he didn't honestly care. Ino was enough for him and she didn't swoon over every word he said.

And he liked it.

But he did miss Sakura's whiny ass sometimes when he didn't pay her attention. But he also realized that Naruto loved her. And she was destined for that idiot.

--------------

Naruto saw Sakura under a tree, smiling at the small flowers that grew beneath it. He limped up to her slowly, trying not to make a noise. He smirked and multiplied, seeing if he could confuse her.

Sakura looked at all the Narutos and shook her head, looking all around her and saw Naruto, the real one. "You can quit that now."

He zoned back into one and smiled widely at her. She loved his fun-loving gestures. She knew he was just trying to cheer her up.

"Hey Sakura." he limped up and lowered down as slow as he could beside her. When he lost it and went plummeting, she jumped up and caught him quickly under his arms and lowered him gently.

When she let go of him and sat back down, she turned to his shocked face. "You should really learn to ask for help." she laughed and looked out to the forest.

"Yea…" he wasn't thinking of that incident. She helped him, when he came to help her.

"What's the matter?" she looked over at him again.

"Sakura…I didn't even think. I mean…I would have never guessed that…had happened--"

"Don't Naruto." she cut him off and looked down at her hands in her lap. She didn't want to remember. "It's in the past."

"Hey Sakura?"

She looked at him strangely, "yea?"

Naruto smirked and placed an arm around her shoulder, bringing her closer to him in a friendly way, as not to threaten her in any way, "You know…"

"What?" she asked and looked into his blue eyes, waiting for the words she needed to hear. She knew he held them.

"I don't really think they took anything from you."

Sakura looked at him shocked, "What?" she was hurt.

"I mean, think about it…" he looked to the forest again, "Physically, yea, I mean, you should have been able to give it to anyone, right? But even though it killed you inside…you're still basically the same Sakura. Only difference is you aren't chasing Sasuke."

Sakura looked at him in awe. She knew he knew the words to help her heal.

"You don't look any different." he looked at her and smirked, "And I don't see you as any better or worse than you were before. You're Sakura and that's just fine. You don't need to be stronger because of what happened. You aren't weaker because it happened. You're just you and that's all I'd ever want you to be."

She smiled and looked down, blushing a bit. "Thank you, Naruto."

"Man, if you keep seeing that…"

"I know, you'll get a big head." she laughed and looked at his serious face, instantly her smile faded.

"Nah." he smirked a bit and brushed his hand over her cheekbone and into her short hair, "I'll start to believe you have a reason to thank me."

"But I do…"

"No you don't." he interrupted. "If you did, I would have to do something more than what a normal person who cares about you would do. I would go to the ends of the earth, Sakura, you know that. But that's still nothing to thank me for. Maybe if I got you some flowers or candy one day, maybe then." he jested and she gave a small laugh, "But not for caring." he admitted.

Sakura closed her eyes and nodded, opening them slowly, "Ok. I'll try to remember that, Naruto."

"Thanks." He laughed.

Sakura sighed, "I can't ever win with you!"

"Ha! You better believe it!" Naruto beamed.

----------

Sasuke was the first to be tested because he was still around the two Shinobi. Kakashi stood to the side, leaning against a tree and watching as Ayame gave his student his final test.

Ayame smirked and disappeared. Sasuke looked around, trying to find her chi. All of a sudden, he found her. He thought. He shot out a blast towards her chi. And as his hand let out the striking energy, she hit him from the back of the neck.

He fell forward and looked back up at her from the ground, rubbing his neck. "This is a test to see that you are always on guard, that you are ready for everything. If you can strike me just once, you pass. That means…you may not blast me with a surrounding attack, you may not hit me twice in the same attempt. One blast must hit me. If any other does, you are not concentrating."

Sasuke looked at her confused.

"I will show you what I mean. Give me any of your attacks and I will hit you with one strike, not more." she promised.

He smirked and disappeared, erasing his energy level like she had before. She looked around and as he didn't expect, she pointed her finger straight above him, closing her eyes and a shot of energy hit him. She moved to the side as he fell to the ground. "Very risky, taking me from above however had I not found you, you could have seriously injured me."

"How did you feel my chi?" Sasuke stood up, and steadied himself as he looked at her strangely.

Ayame smiled and shrugged, "That's what you have to figure out."

Sasuke looked to Kakashi as he shrugged, "You know, don't you?"

Kakashi only shrugged again. Man was he a vague man!

---------------------

Sakura had run down to the river and soaked part of her shirt in cold water and ran back up to Naruto, wrapping his ankle in the cloth, "You should really stay off of it."

Naruto smirked and winced a bit as she pulled tightly. "Sorry. Did I hurt you?" she looked up at him.

"Nah, you can't harm me!" Naruto grinned.

"Yea, not physically!" she jested and poked his ankle as he jilted some.

"ow! Hey! It was a joke!" he growled out and she laughed at his childish behavior. "That's nice."

She looked at him strangely, "Wait, it's nice I made you hurt?"

Naruto shook his head, "No, it's nice when you laugh, smile, or just don't have a frown really."

Sakura blushed and pushed a lock of hair behind her head, "Oh…"

Naruto shook his head and leaned against the tree behind him as he closed his eyes. "Naruto?"

He opened an eye to her, "Yea?"

She smiled a bit and sat beside him. He opened both eyes and looked at her strangely, "I'm really glad you don't push me away."

Naruto shrugged and closed his eyes again, "I have no reason to. I like you Sakura." he admitted and then his eyes shot wide, "Oh, hey, I didn't mean that in a…"

"I know." she smiled. "You didn't mean that in any way that could threaten me or anything."

"Yea…" Naruto said slowly.

Sakura looked over, her green eyes glistening a bit from the tears threatening to fall, "I'm really glad I can talk to you, too."

Naruto smirked and leaned back a bit more, relaxing. As his eyes closed, he sighed and breathed easily. A few moments later, Sakura laid her head on his lap and closed her eyes.

His eyes opened slowly as if he was just dreaming. He looked down at her strangely, "What's wrong, Sakura? You ok?"

Sakura nodded a bit, "yea…just didn't get much sleep last night. I kept waking up."

"Why?"

"because sometimes you'd move and I'd wake up."

Naruto smirked, she really did take care of him all night. His hand found her head as he stroked her hair back as she did the night before. "Yea, thanks. Sorry for being such a pest for ya."

Sakura relaxed a bit, "Not at all."

--------------

Reviews please

kage1586