The pillow was warm against his face, the blankets drawn up to his chin, one foot having escaped from his well-crafted sanctuary. He groaned and rolled over, exposing his bare chest to the stream of cold air flowing through the half-open window. "Sakura, will you close the window?" he whispered, his voice hoarse. There was no answer from her side of the bed. She had been very specific about her bed boundaries. When she was sleeping, there was to be three inches on either side of the line she'd drawn in permanent marker, for a total of six inches. She hated being woken from her slumber because of him. Groaning again, he sat up, rubbing sleep out of his eyes with a oversized fist. "Sakura?"

Her side of the bed was made carefully, and smoothed out all the way to aforementioned permanent-marker line. On the pillow, she had arranged a note, perfectly centered and folded so the edges lined up. When Naruto did things, they were always clumsy and misshapen. She thought it was cute. When Sakura did things, they were always lined up perfectly in neat little rows. Even her handwriting. He thought it was cute.

Pushing this out of his mind, he unfolded the letter tentatively.

Dear Naruto,

I won't be home all day today. I left around seven and I didn't want to wake you up. I'll be shopping with Ino in the new center that open downtown. I'll be with her until around dinner. I'll meet you at Ichiraku; I got reservations in the back, where they have all the velvet seats.

Love you and miss you,

Sakura

Naruto bit his lip as he got all the way out of bed, bumping his shin on the coffee table while he attempted to read and make his way into the kitchen at the same time. He tried to think of how she got the money for reservations. Reservations at Ichiraku. The place was always packed; they only took those willing to pay a little extra.

Worry chewed at the back of his mind, but he ignored it, as he's become so good at doing, and ate his breakfast with extra enthusiasm.

Idea. Naruto had an idea. It was a good idea. A really, really good idea. So good that he was actually going to do it. He knocked viciously on Kiba's door, practically jumping out of his skin trying to hold his idea in. Akamaru was barking at the door, scrabbling on the wood. Kiba shouted something incoherent from the other side of the door and opened it a minute later, flicking his hair out of his face.

"What's up, man?" he asked, eyeing Naruto, who hadn't brushed his hair or remembered to put shoes on as he ran down the hall and up a flight of stairs to reach Kiba's flat, which was a floor above his own in the building. "Where're your shoes?"

"Shoes? What? Oh, that doesn't matter," Naruto said hurriedly. "Doesn't matter. I had an idea! I want to start a restaurant! You know, with food! And then I could help Sakura make more money for the club and then she would be home more. I already know what kind of restaurant. Do you remember that trip we took with Shikamaru a couple years ago to that place in Asia and I can't really remember what it's called but they had these awesome noodles!"

Kiba shook his head and opened the door wider for Naruto's broad shoulders. "You're whacked, man," he said slowly. He was almost touched by the glimmer of hope in Naruto's eyes, though. "No way can you just up and start a place like that. You need a place and a menu and people to work for you."

The taller boy seemed to contemplate this. He wasn't thick--not in the slightest. He just liked to think of everything plainly. He had to have it all laid out for him in black and white, because when it got more complicated than "let's just do it", his determination to make it simple became annoying. Kiba rolled his eyes and grabbed a hat from the stand next to the door. "I think Sakura's got all the help she needs," he added.

At this, Naruto gave up his painfully slow process and cocked his head. "What d'you mean?" he asked.

Kiba's lip twitched. "You think she's making all that money selling tickets at the theater?" he snorted. "My theory is she's dealing drugs. Or--well, never mind." Naruto grabbed his shoulder.

"What was the other thing. The thing you didn't say."

"Look, Naruto, I have to get to work. All that money she's making sure as hell isn't going into my paycheck," he said, patting Akamaru, ushering Naruto out, and locking the door behind him. "Just, look at it this way. Do you remember a few years back, before you were dating, she disappeared for a couple months?" Naruto nodded hesitantly. "And we found out later on she was dating some older guy and she'd planned to marry him for his money?"

"Yeah, but that was in the past. The guy died before she could marry him and he was heartbroken."

"I'm not so sure about heartbroken, man. Just watch out for her.

Naruto reached out and grabbed Sakura's arm. "You're hurting me," she said levelly, her eyes portraying no such emotion. In fact, they weren't showing any emotion, just a strange emptiness he had once related to his mother and father's eyes when he found them dead on the bedroom floor in his early childhood. He didn't let go of her arm, just like he didn't let go of that memory. Maybe she was doing it on purpose, just to mess with him. He was sure it wasn't the first time.

He'd sat at home for hours after Kiba warned him, going over and over the words in his head and it just didn't add up. Sakura wouldn't hurt him, and he wouldn't hurt her. They were engaged. Engaged to be married. Married, for Christ's sakes.

"Where were you yesterday?" he asked slowly. Her eyes never left his, their bright green dimmed by his own unnaturally bright blue ones.

"Shopping with Ino. We got back around nine."

"You didn't pick up the phone when I called her house."

"We were being loud. We must not have heard the phone go off."

"I called six times. I was worried about you."

"You don't need to worry about me, you know that, Naruto. Anyways, Ino's boyfriend was there. I'm sure no one would have tried anything with him around." Naruto wasn't particularly interesting in this boyfriend, although he filed the information away for later.

"We were supposed to go to dinner at that place."

"I forgot." She choked on this particular lie: she had never once forgotten one of their dinners before. Especially one at a particularly fancy restaurant, for which she had paid a large sum of her newly obtained money. In cash, even. Naruto tightened his grip on her arm until she gasped, and then let go slowly, his wide brow creasing.

"We're in this together now," he said, picking up her left hand with his, the metal bands around their fingers making soft ticking noises against each other. "So I'll just wait. Tell me when you're ready."

Her heart almost stopped. Just for one moment, she was almost guilty. Almost guilty because of the looks Sasuke shot her way--that lust, that smoldering look in his eyes. Something about being wanted by him again, for the last time, maybe, was making her stomach flip. Naruto was old news now.

For another moment she thought of telling him the truth. The whole truth, she wondered. No. That was too much for him now, so instead she kissed his cheek and smiled like their dysfunction was purposeful.

Note: I apologize for this one. I didn't even break nine hundred words. But, man, I had to get something up here. I promised every Sunday and every Wednesday, but I think I'm going to go just Wednesdays. High school is catching up with me.

On the other hand, I'm going to start writing a KH fic on the side. It'll be a series of five short stories. More explained in the fic itself. I'll post it after this one is done. Don't worry; climax is coming.

EDIT 10-1-09: Expanded on the end. Should have hit 1, 200 word.