Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Sheesh
Naruto woke up with the smell of strawberries tickling his nose, and the taste of strawberries still in his mouth. The first few rays of light were already penetrating the shut-tight shutters, so Naruto figured it was quite late. He looked over his shoulder to the sleeping figure of Sakura, openly admiring her body, and the way she looked so peaceful while she rested.
Quietly, he slipped out of bed, leaving the sleeping Sakura in the bedroom. And since it wasn't the first time he'd stayed over the night, he visited the spacious walk-in closet that Sakura owned, hoping to find spare clothes for himself. As he searched, he hummed to himself happily. He loved being with Sakura, and ever since the moment they had been together, it was like he couldn't be more than a few moments apart from her.
Flashback
He walked through Konoha, his recently appointed Jounin vest shining brightly in the sun. Naruto grinned as he looked down at the new hit-ai he held in his hands. The blonde marched through out the whole village a couple of times, beaming at anybody who looked at him. His happiness was so intense, that he even earned himself some smiles from villagers as he passed them by.
But Naruto was not marching around the village for his health, he was looking for someone special, someone who he knew would care.
So he searched until he found that special someone.
The pink haired beauty was humming to herself, tending to the yard.
Naruto grinned for the fifth time that day, happy that he found the person he was looking for.
"Sakura-chaaan!" he called out. Said kunoichi turned around at the sound of her name, to find Naruto on the side walk in front of her medimum-sized home in the middle of Konoha.
"Hey Naruto! How's it going?" she called back, just as carefree. She saw the shiny piece of metal in between Naruto's hand, and pointed at it curiously.
"What's that?" she asked.
She cares! She actually cares about what I have! Naruto thought. And that's when his ear-to-ear grin threatened to split his face even further.
"Oh I don't know..." He began casually, his excitement beginning to build, "Just a little something called a-" he then put on a pondering face before continuing.
"Well? It looks like just a stupid piece of Naruto. What's so special about it?" Sakura asked, completely oblivious to the significance of the 'stupid piece of metal'.
"It's one of those new-fangled Jounin Hit-ais!" Naruto finally exclaimed,not being able to contain his excitement any longer. He began to jump up and down with glee.
"I've been promoted Sakura-chan! I'm a jounin!"
And before he could even shout with joy, he found the air crushed out of his lungs by the pink haired cherry blossom.
"Congratulation! Oh my gosh! I can't believe it!" Sakura gushed. "You're going to have so many cool things... Like you'll learn more jutsus, get paid more, get authority. You'll have respect, Naruto! You've always wanted that!"
Naruto nodded vigorously. But as he stared at Sakura, his heart saddened knowing that he still didn't have the thing he wanted above all else:
Her Heart.
And that's the only thing he ever wanted.
Later that night, Naruto found himself walking nervously up Sakura's front steps. Earlier that day, they had agreed to go out to dinner together, celebrating Naruto's newly commissioned promotion. And while it was far from Naruto's first time out with Sakura (Ever since Sasuke was killed in an attempt to bring him back, they regularly went out, to comfort each other's loss) he was nervous in a weird kind of way. It was like ever since he got the promotion he had felt especially heart-sick over Sakura, and every time she smiled at some other guy, or some other guy sweet-talked to her, his brash self threatened to knock the daylights out of the guy.
But tonight was different.
Tonight was going to be the night in which he told Sakura his feelings. Come hell or high water, he would not walk away from her tonight with out telling her how he felt. And he had dressed the piece too. In the style of bachelor, Naruto had dressed for success. Opting to leave his hit-ai at home (Quite hesitantly, but one of his own clones convinced him that it would ruin the civilian atmosphere) he let his hair flop down over his forehead. Dressing in a dark blue blazer that went un-buttoned over a white long-sleeve shirt with vertical brown stripes, with dark fleece dressing pants. Added a few man-bracelets that doubled as nin-gauntlets (He still couldn't shake the habit of always being combat-ready) topped off the look.
He hoped he hadn't over-dressed, because that would've made everything a tad awkward.
Shaking his head to clear away any thoughts of pessimism, he took up courage, walked up to the door, and rung the bell.
And not ten seconds had passed when the door opened.
Naruto almost gasped at the sheer beauty.
She was dressed to kill, with a form-fitting dress that accented all her curves in all the right places that ended just about the knee. The pink in the dress went well with her jade eyes. Sakura's face wore barely any makeup and the natural beauty was there. And just as Naruto were nin-gauntlets, he knew that those inch pumps probably were detachable and could become knives at a moments notice.
"I uh... Came to... Um.. You know..." Naruto started nervously. He was mentally slapping himself for showing such emotion so early into their meeting (He was still afraid to call it a date).
Sakura blushed.
"I hope I haven't overdressed, Naruto. It's just that it's such an important event, I thought I might as well..." she was caught off by Naruto's spontaneous response
"No, no! You look fabulous. I mean, great. Eh... right.." He finished suddenly. The mental slapping continued. Woooow Naruto. Real smooth with the ladies He thought to himself.
But if he had come off on an off-note, Sakura hadn't noticed. She smiled with those cute little dimples of hers.
"I think you look pretty good yourself" she said, cautiously.
And that stopped the mental abuse. She likes how I look! She really does! Just that one simple sentence had brightened up the whole night. All of a sudden, the rest of the date (Yes, he might as well call it that, at least to himself, privately) looked like it would be extremely enjoyable.
Even though Naruto was a Ramen maniac, he did eat other things too. He took them to a quaint little restaurant in the center of Konoha, not to far from Sakura's house (Couldn't be too far away, because as civilians, they were restricted to walking and not a nin-dash). After being seated, and the waiter took their orders, small talk reined the night. At the end of their meal, and after paying the bill (In which Naruto had to fight against a massive eye-brow raise when he saw the number of digits) they were back outside walking in the lamp-lit streets of Konoha's entertainment district. Strangely enough, however, there were few people yet Naruto still felt like there was lack of privacy in the well lit streets.
On a brash note, Naruto slowly and carefully took Sakura's hand, testing to see her reaction. A slight blush, but she didn't pull away. Silently and solemnly, he led her to the park, were it was dark and peaceful. As the wet grass met his pants, he channeled a little chakra in his eyes to enhance his vision in the darkness, simultaneously feeling Sakura doing the same.
They sat on a park overlooking the dark lake in the middle of the park.
Naruto sighed. This would be the hard part.
As he racked his mind for a way to start off what he wanted to say, Sakura made it easier by taking the initiative.
"Anything you wanted to say?" She probed. Naruto turned down to look at her, the moonlight cascading on her already beautiful face. The moon was reflected in her eyes, as was a questioning expression, as if she had a burning desire to know the real reason to know why they were in the park. Never had he meant to say so many things, yet could not say a thing at all. So as with other things in life, he acted by the seat of his pants.
"Sakura," he began "I've had a really great night with you" he paused, thinking what to say next that could lead into a confession of his feelings.
"In fact, it's been one of the best nights I've ever had, especially since it was with you"
Good. That left the nagging feeling of his enjoyment coming directly from her.
"And honestly, this hasn't been the first time I've felt good about being with you" again, he paused, Sakura silent the whole time. It was like she was prodding him to go on.
"You know, I remember the first time I found out that we were going to be on the same time, I almost died of happiness. But then I found out that Sasuke was with us as well, and I almost beat his face in right then and there in the classroom. I was so pissed that he would rob any chance at," he hesitated that, preferring not to spring the revelation just yet by saying "At you" and instead continued by saying "a good friendship with you."
He was silent another few moments.
"But then he left, and we got closer," he cheered up when he noticed that Sakura smiled at that before continuing "And ever since then, I've always liked being with you" And that's when he began to... to... He wondered to himself were this was even going.
"But I guess I liked being with you because I always wanted us to become more than friends"
He waited with baited breath as Sakura comprehended that simple phrase. It was just eighteen words, yet for Naruto they carried the meaning of a life-time. And in the span of about five seconds, Sakura shared that meaning with Naruto.
She leaned forward. And they kissed.
End Flashback.
Naruto smiled at the thought. It warmed his heart every time he remembered how he and Sakura had gotten together. But nothing made his face smile more than the memory of how he had proposed to Sakura. and she said Yes.
Flashback
Just as it had been 2 years ago when Naruto had received his promotion, the sky was shining, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Just like 2 years ago, Naruto had big news to tell.
Just like 2 years ago, he was looking for a special someone.
Sakura Haruno had worn her last name for over 20 years. At 21 and unmarried, and a ninja, her prospects at marriage were extremely dim. No one wanted to care much about someone who might die at any moment, and she doubted Naruto would ask her hand in matrimony any time soon. Not that she expected that he did.
Naruto Uzumaki strolled in through the pink-haired kunoichi's familiar front gate that he himself had installed. In his pocket was the box.
THE Box.
And in his other hand was a bouquet of flowers that had Sakura's favorite combination of flowers. He had decided already. She may not expect it, and when he thought of it himself, he hadn't expected it from himself. He was just as surprised at his decision as she was going to be.
He was going to ask for her hand in marriage.
Nothing exaggeratedly done (As ninjas they both hated things over-done, and except for the intense bouts of love that they both enjoyed on their dates, they generally kept the relationship at practical non-overdone way) but a nice 'traditional' proposal with flowers. Just the way he had imagined it: Simple but romantic.
He opened the front door and found Sakura inside, doing some general cleaning. He didn't miss a beat. Unfazed, but still nervous, he strode as confidently as he could into the living room, and collected Sakura's mouth in a kiss. Surprised, yet in a pleasant way, Sakura pulled away after a few moments, and asked
"To what is this surprise?"
Naruto continued before he lost his bravado, and dropped to one knee.
The box was already in his hand.
By the time Sakura woke up, she heard and smelled the sizzling breakfast that Naruto had been busy making. She threw the covers off her body, and gracefully stood on the floor.
After breakfast, today was the day Naruto became something greater than just a Jounin.
Today was the day Naruto became something more than a mere ninja.
Today, Naruto became the Toad Sannin.
Sakura smiled
A/N: sigh My huuuuuuuuge bad for not updating earlier. No wireless internet is messed up when your only ethernet cable is permanently attached to a vonage phone, so sorry for taking so long. And also, this chapter wasn't as long as I originally expected but I know that things will pick up as soon as the action arcs begin.
Sorry for making such lengthy flashback moment there, but I felt I needed to expand a little more on the NaruSaku aspect of the story, because there won't be very many of these moments for a few chapters. I think that if every chapter has a fluffy aspect to it, I might deviate from the original plan and plot. Plus, it slows down the overall speed and flow of the story. So from now own, the NaruSaku moments won't be as much as the previous 3 chapters (As in, a whole chapter dedicated to the pairing) but don't fret. I'll still make sure it has its whole-chapter fluff every ONCE IN A WHILE.
Peace, reviewers... Tell me what you think.
