I DO NOT OWN NARUTO AND/OR THE CHARACTERS

Holes In His Chest

"Its okay, Naruto," Sakura said with a smile. "I say things I don't mean all the time."

"I said I didn't mean to say all of that," he corrected her. "I meant everything I said just not 'fuck you.'"

"Oh."

"It's just that you don't know how hard it was for me after it happened? I mean I cried, I actually cried, I felt like my whole world was destroyed."

Naruto came back to the village after his two and a half year training pilgrimage with Jiraiya, upon his return, he promptly rejoined Team Kakashi and began to take on the enemies of the Leaf. Time passed and, as if fortune smiled upon him, Naruto and Sakura grew closer together, enough for her to ask him for a date.

"Really?" Naruto asked. "A date? You and me?"

"Yeah," she said. "But it's just because you remembered my birthday."

"Okay," he said excitedly. "So, what do you want to do?"

"Uh, I don't know, surprise me."

Naruto thought about it and came up with an idea.

"How about we see Koyuki Kazahana's new movie?" he suggested. "I'm her hugest fan so that's good for me and it's a chick flick so that's good for you."

"Wow, you really thought that out that quickly?" she said. "I'm impressed that you're so considerate."

He just smiled and followed her as she led them to the movies, they sat in the movie theatre and she actually seemed to enjoy their date. At one point during the movie, Princess Gale's boyfriend left her much as Sasuke did her and tears began to fall from her eyes, Naruto wrapped his arms around her shoulders and she leaned her head on his. He knew why she was crying from the scene but did his self imposed duty of consolation and to everyone who saw them, it seemed as if they were two young kids in love.

"Well, well," Kakashi said in the audience as he caught sight of them while watching one of his favorite books being turned into cinema. "It looks like you're finally winning something other than a fight, Naruto."

After the movie, they went to a restaurant she wanted to go to and talked about the movie.

"That was a great movie," she said. "Good call, Naruto."

"Thanks," he said with a grin. "What was your favorite part?"

"When her boyfriend came back to her at the end, what about you?"

"I don't know," he said thinking. "I thought she should've gone with her friend who was there for her when he left but when it comes to Koyuki Kazahana movies, I'm easy."

After they ate, he walked her home and she surprised him with something he'd never expected her to do.

"Thanks for the date, Naruto," she said after giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"I'll never wash this face again."

She laughed as she went into the house, and he walked home as giddy as can be thinking about their date. A couple of years passed and their relationship grew deeper, as their peers watched, they all showed that they were happy for the couple but some of them were masking other emotions. Lee was disappointed as he thought he may have had a shot with Sakura after Sasuke's defection, Kin was frustrated as she never had the chance to really make a move on Naruto since he spent all of his time battling the Akatsuki with Sakura before they got together. Sakura thought that Ino showed her happiness for her the same way she usually did by teasing her about being with Naruto and not Sasuke but on the inside, Ino was extremely jealous that Sakura was always surrounded by guys who wanted to date her, then there was Hinata. Learning from Naruto, she was able to hide her pain very well, even fooling the people who knew of her long time infatuation with Naruto, all except Neji who was very adept at reading people.

"You don't have to hide it from me," he told Hinata when he found a moment alone with her. "I can see that it hurts you."

Knowing how futile it was to keep her façade up, she just let it out.

"I want to be happy for Naruto now that he's gotten what he's always wanted," she said with tears in her eyes. "But I just thought that one day; he'd finally notice me, maybe if I wasn't so cowardly. I mean, he had it worse than I did growing up, it shouldn't have been so difficult to talk to him."

Seeing her tears, Neji showed what he'd learn from Naruto over the years and gave her his shoulder to cry on.

"I can't say that I know what you're going through," he said. "All I can say is that you should keep on moving in life, who knows, you maybe able to find your own happiness one day."

"Thank you, Neji," she said wiping her tears away.

Hinata took Neji's advice and began to date Kiba while the pain of losing Naruto before she even had him still resided within her. Soon, Naruto fell so deeply in love with Sakura that he didn't even notice the change in her demeanor towards him the instant Sasuke returned.

"Sasuke?" she asked as he walked into the hokage's office escorted by some ANBU.

"When'd you get back?" Naruto asked.

"I've avenged my clan," he said. "I'm ready for any pu…"
Before he could finish, Sakura ran up and hugged him as tight as she could without killing him with her strength. Happy that he was now with the girl of his dreams and his best friend had returned, Naruto was the only one that didn't think much of the way she hugged him.

"Does she really think it's appropriate to hug him like that?" Shizune whispered in Tsunade's ear.

"It's nothing, she's just happy to see him," Tsunade assured. "Look, Naruto's not even concerned about it."

Even though she tried to assuage Shizune's concerns, Tsunade couldn't help but take notice of the scene in front of her.

"At least, I hope it's nothing," she thought.

Getting down to business, Tsunade sentenced Sasuke to six months in the Leaf Village prison, a lenient sentence since he returned of his own accord and the only thing he did was defeat two of the villages enemies. Sakura visited him daily and everyone around could see that she was turning her attentions more and more to Sasuke, everyone except Naruto who was too far gone. He had started to voice his intentions to his closest friends outside of Sasuke, Shikamaru and Lee, while coming back from a mission.

"You're going to ask her to marry you?" Lee asked without his usual youthful exuberance knowing the situation. "Are you sure that's wise?"

"Yeah, why not?" Naruto asked.

"It's just…" Shikamaru stopped as he and Lee actually saw that Naruto really couldn't see.

They just left it alone not having the heart to tell him, later that day, Hinata was walking through the Leaf Village when she happened upon Naruto proposing to Sakura.

"Oh, no," she thought to herself.

Despite dating Kiba, she still held out hope that one day, if fortune was really on her side, she could be with Naruto. What happened next stunned her almost as much as it did Naruto.

"Get real," Sakura said. "Marry you? You're joking, right?"

"No," Naruto said. "These past few years with you have been the happiest of my life."

"Don't you know anything?" Sakura asked.

"I know that I don't have to worry about a group of international terrorists trying to kidnap me anymore, I hope," he said. "All I have to worry about is the rest of my life and the person I want to spend it with and that person is you, Sakura."

"Naruto, you must be joking, how could you even seriously think I'd marry you?"

"I don't understand," Naruto said.

"Naruto, you can be so dense sometimes it's annoying," she said coldly. "I'll say it so you can, Sasuke's the one and only man for me and you aren't. He's the only one who makes my heart beat like a hummingbird and you aren't. He's the only one who makes me feel like I'm on top of the world and you aren't. In short, Naruto, you and I will never happen, do you understand now?"

Naruto stood there frozen as she realized what time it was.

"See, look, you've made me late for visitation."

He still stood there frozen as she left without so much as a good-bye, Hinata went over to speak to him to see if he was okay.

"A, a, are you okay, Naruto?"

It was no use, he was too despondent, he ignored her completely and walked back to his apartment. Though his face was frozen, she could see the pain and anguish in his eyes, he made it back to his apartment and as soon as he closed the doors, he dropped to his knees holding his chest as if he was trying to keep the broken pieces of his heart in place. He felt the same hopelessness and despair he used to in his younger days and tears began to run down his face, he didn't come out of his apartment for the next week even ignoring assignments from the hokage until she was forced to visit herself.

"I know you're in there, Naruto," she said. "Open up."

She soon grew worried and ripped the door off of it's hinges to find him laying on his back in his bed with the lights off. She looked around and it looked as if that's all he did as she could see no sign of activity in his house, if it hadn't been for the fact that he was laying right there in front of her, she would've thought that no one had been there for a while.

"I heard what happened, Naruto," she said. "I know what it's like to lose the one you love in such a harsh manner, of course my loved ones were taken and didn't leave me so maybe I don't know exactly what you're going through."

"It feels as if there's nothing inside me or around me," he said speaking up. "Like I'm just skin separating nothing from nothing."

"That sounds about right," she said remembering how she used to feel. "But you know what brought me around?"

"What?" he asked sitting up.

"Don't you remember?" she asked. "You were there."

"Right now, I'm having a hard time remembering how I got back home."

"It was you," she said with a smile. "You helped me get over my fears and anxieties against Orochimaru. Now, since I've been hokage, I've watched you lift everyone around you's spirits as if you made it your life's work to never let anyone feel bad, are you going to lie there and take it now that it's your turn? What happened to the Naruto Uzumaki who challenged me and got tangled up in a battle between the Sannin without blinking? The very same person who was going to be hokage one day, I was thinking of maybe naming you my successor in a few years but if you can't get over a broken heart then I don't know."

As usual, mentioning him becoming hokage snapped him out of it, even if just a little.

"Fine," he said turning to sit on the edge of the bed. "You got any missions or anything?"

"Well, at least you're moving around," she said. "You can choose th…"

"The longer it will take the better," he said.

"I'll do something about the door and don't worry about Sakura," she said. "I've had her on bedpan detail at the hospital."

He went on the mission the next day and didn't come back for three weeks, without thinking twice about it, he went on another not wanting to stay around longer than he had to. Tsunade wanted to stop him from exhausting himself but they figured that he could at least have the job he loved if he couldn't have the woman he loved. Whenever he was home, he just spent his time sitting on the swing he sat on in front of the academy when he heard he failed the exams not bothering to go to his apartment at all. Some of his friends would come by to talk to him but they always found the conversations a little one-sided, Sakura even tried to talk to him when she passed by once but couldn't bring herself to face him after realizing what she did. One day, he was called to the hokage's office for a mission.

"I believe you know the Princess of the Land of Snow," Tsunade asked. "Don't you?"

"Yeah," he answered.

"Well, she remembered you from a mission a few years ago and requested you for a mission."

"Why me?"

"She remembered how big of a fan you were of her work and how much you helped her and wanted to pay you back by making you her personal bodyguard during shooting of the new Princess Fuun, she said that there's even a small part in the movie for you."

"Hm," he said. "I've never acted before but okay."

A few days later, Sasuke was released, Sakura wanted to be the first one he met but she was still being put through her paces by Lady Tsunade at the hospital. He was walking around when he passed Shikamaru, Lee, Kiba, Choji, Sai, and Neji who were a little put off by him and what happened to Naruto.

"He'd just better not say anything to piss me off," Lee said surprising everyone.

As Sasuke passed, he could feel the anger coming from them and decided to ask them about it.

"What are you looking at?"

"That's it!" Lee shouted. "You son of a bitch!"

He tried to attack Sasuke but he being held back by Choji and Neji.

"What's his problem?" Sasuke asked.

"Don't say nothin' to us," Kiba said.

"How are you gonna act so clueless?" Shikamaru asked. "I ought to punch you in the fucking neck for what you did to Naruto. First, you almost kill him when you left then you came back and stole his girl."

"Stole his girl?" Sasuke asked confused. "I didn't steal his girl?"

"He means Sakura," Sai said. "They were dating before you arrived.

"They were? I didn't know that."

"Don't lie," Neji said. "You're just making Lee angrier."

"Fuckin' let me at him," Lee said trying to force his way through but Choji had him in his Partially Expanded grip. "I'll open up the Gate of Ass Whuppin' on him."

"You'd better get out of here," Choji said. "He's starting to break free."

"I've been gone for a few years and I've been in prison since I've been back," Sasuke explained. "I don't know anything."

"So, Sakura never mentioned anything about her and Naruto?" Shikamaru asked.

"She hardly ever spoke about him, only when I'd mention him or if he was relevant to the conversation."

They explained the situation to him and he was quite surprised to hear what he was involved in.

"Wow," he said in disbelief. "I had no idea."

"Yeah," Kiba said. "You see why Lee was so pissed at you now?"

"Where's Naruto now?"

"On a mission," Shikamaru said.

"I've gotta let him know I had nothing to do with any of this," Sasuke said. "In the mean time, Sakura's going to get an earful."

Naruto arrived in the Land of Snow and met Koyuki Kazahana at her palace.

"Naruto," she said approaching him.

She went to hug him but he backed away and shook her hand throwing her off a little.

"How have you been?" she asked.

"Alright," he said. "I thought there weren't going to be any more Princess Fuun movies, didn't you die in the last one?"

"You didn't stay for the end of the credits, did you?"

"No."

"Well, I'm alive."

"So, who am I protecting you from?" he asked getting down to business.

"No one in particular, just make sure nothing goes wrong. Did the Hokage mention your involvement in the picture? Because it's really the main reason I asked you here."

"Yeah," Naruto answered. "What is it?"

"Just a fight scene and some stunt work, if that's okay with you."

"Sounds good."

"Good," she said. "Because your scene is up first."

Naruto's role was in a massive battle in which Princess Fuun and her allies had to fight about a thousand soldiers. Naruto was reading the script with her to get his lines down and he found out why he was so important to this scene, his ability to create over a thousand clones and his transformation jutsu.

"The director's been under a lot of pressure from the studio to keep the budget down so I thought about you when this scene came up," she explained. "Instead of spending all of that money to find and pay extras, I suggested that we just pay you as a mission and you could use your clones."

"Well, that makes sense," he said. "So, let's go over my lines again."

"Okay," she said getting into character. "We won't let you pass, we'll protect this country with our lives if we have to."

"It's not a matter of if you'll give your lives, Princess Fuun," Naruto said reading his lines. "But how much pain you will endure when you give it. How was it?"

"Needs more feeling," she coached. "Like those speeches you gave when you protected me from my uncle."

He continued to try and she continued to coach him until he got it.

"Good, Naruto," she said putting her hand on his shoulder causing him to flinch a little.

She took notice but didn't say anything.

"This can't be the same Naruto from before," she thought.

Koyuki continued to observe him as the week went on and noticed his adverse reactions whenever a woman got too close to him, curiosity got the best of her the last night before he left and she had to know what was going on in his head. She went to his hotel room that was right next to hers and asked him is he'd join her for some tea, that's when she decided to ask him.

"Naruto?"

"Yes?" he answered.

"Why do you act so distant towards women?"

"What do you mean?" he asked actually not noticing his new habit.

"Whenever a woman gets close to you, you back away like they have a disease."

"I do?"

"Yes, what are you married or something?"

Upon hearing the word "married," he clinched his cup so hard that he broke it in his hand scalding himself.

"Naruto, your hand," she said.

She tried to help him but the fox was already taking care of his wound, that's when he began muttering something.

"What was that, Naruto?"

"Married," he muttered staring at the floor. "You have to propose to someone to be married and to propose to someone, you have to be good enough for them."

She could see the pain in his face and her curiosity grew.

"Did something happen to you, Naruto?" she asked.

Maybe it was the fact that she was from another land and he didn't have to see her a whole lot, but for the first time since it happened, he spoke to someone about it in detail. Upon hearing his story, her heart broke for him.

"I can't believe Sakura would do something like that," she said.

She saw from his story that his self-esteem was shot and was thinking of a way she could help, that's when it hit her and she started to move towards him without another word.

"What are you doing, princess?" he asked backing away.

She just ignored him and continued her approach, he continued to retreat until he was cornered and found himself face to face with her.

"You are good enough," she said giving him a kiss.

He was tense at first but the kiss's desired affects soon took hold and he began returning it, she took him by the hand and brought him towards her bed. She continued to kiss him as she undressed him.

"Oh, god, Naruto," she said reaching down his pants and feeling his manhood.

After he has completely nude, she pushed him on to the bed as she slid off her kimono.

"You know, I'm a," he tried to say nervously. "I mean, I don't have a whole lot of ex…"

"Hush, Naruto," she said. "This isn't for me, it's for you. I want you to feel what it's like to be loved even it's only for one night."

She climbed into the bed with him and hovered above his member as she placed him at her entrance, she slid down and let out a sigh of pleasure as she felt him inside her.

"I love you," she said to him looking into his eyes.

She began to make the kind of love to him that was reserved only for the person you cherished the most.

"I love you," she said again before coming in for a kiss.

Despite planning on this being for him, he quickly turned into a pleasurable experience for both of them as she began to enjoy it as much as he did.

"I love you," she said again as they both climaxed together.

As he lied there, she did nothing but give him soft kisses all over his face and neck.

"Let me know when you're ready again," she said between kisses. "I love you."

He was still perplexed by how she pretended to be someone who loved him just to make him happy but it was a good learning experience for what was in store for him in his future. After a night of lovemaking with the Land of Snow's princess and his favorite actress, he was all set to leave when she approached him one last time with one last loving kiss on the lips.

"Remember, you are good enough," she said.

"I'll keep that in mind," he said with a smile. "And I'll make sure not to let anyone know about last night, wouldn't want the Paparazzi around the village, good-bye."

He came back to the Leaf Village a new man and everyone noticed a new pep in his step.

"Hey, Shikamaru," he said slapping him five. "Let me know when you're playing Shogi again."

"You got it."

"What's up, my dog?" he said slapping Kiba five. "You still killin' 'em?"

"Oh, yeah!"

"You losin' weight?" he asked Choji.

"Yeah, a little bit."

"Hey, Lee," Naruto said. "You're good lookin' man."

"Thank you, Naruto, that is what I have been trying to tell everyone."

He took his new attitude to the hokage's office to give her his mission report.

"Good to see you're feeling better," Tsuande said. "What happened?"

"Uh, just a successful mission," he said. "That's all."

"Well, good, maybe now you'll move into your new house."

"My new house?" he asked.

"Yeah, I was going to have someone fix your door but then I decided that you were getting a little too old and big for that small apartment so I had Yamato create you a new house but you didn't give me a chance to tell you."

"Sorry," he said grinning.

"Here are your keys, your stuff's already there."

Naruto and Sakura were still in his apartment as he continued to get things off of his chest.

"Well, I see why you and Sasuke are so good together," he said. "You have a lot in common, you both put holes in my chest."

When she heard him mention her and Sasuke's relationship, she broke down and cried.

"Hey, I'm the one who got hurt and she's crying?" he thought.

He tried to keep his cool but the Naruto side of him wouldn't let him and he had to console her.

"Hey, come on, now," he said. "Don't do that."

Meanwhile, Hinata was meeting with Kiba and she had a lot to tell him.