Gaaaah, I love you all so much -makes heart with hands- I WANT TO MARRY YOU ALL! Esepcially you over there... Yeah, you know who I'm talking about ;). You guys are way too good for me! Twenty-seven reviews already? Gosh, I could just die from the happiness! Thank you SO much for reviewing and adding this to your favs/ alerts. You gave me enough initiative to update earlier than I planned (:
Warning: The usual, so much swearing (that's a lie, I'm toning down a little ;D), so much stupidity, but that's why we love Naruto C:
Disclaimer: HELL YEAH I - DON'T - OWN NARUTO!
Enjoy xD!
Chapter Three: Third Promise
+I Promise to give you what you want+
The next day, as was becoming the norm, Naruto opened his locker and found a rose dangling in mid-air. And with the rose, there was the normal note tied to the stem.
"This is starting to get creepy," Kiba said as Naruto gently pluck the rose and opened up the letter.
"No," Gaara leaned up against a locker, "this was creepy from the get go. Now it's just getting annoying."
"Can you guys quit it?" the blonde snapped. His heart was hammering really loudly right now and he would love to read the promise in peace without his two friends being cynical about it. "I'm trying to read Sakura's note here!"
The redhead couldn't resist the urge to roll his eyes. "Naruto, let's be realistic here. If Sakura was the one giving you these promises and roses, and you've seen her complete them every time, don't you think she would have revealed herself by now or even the first time?"
"Hate to admit it, Blondie, but Gaara has a point." Kiba had grabbed the note that read I promise to give you what you want and shook his head. "These things are really straightforward. What would be the point of being anonymous if you'll figure it out so easily?"
"Maybe she's betting on Naruto being as big of an idiot as people say he is," Gaara said with a smirk.
Naruto fumed, stamping his feet on the tiled floor as he tried to get back the note from Kiba. "You guys just always have to find ways to pick on me, don't you?"
Kiba grinned evilly, "It's what best friends do, man. So stop whining and deal with it."
+I Promise+
Once again Art class dragged on as Naruto waited impatiently for Sakura to complete her promise. It was one of the few things Naruto looked forward to. He sighed wistfully, playing how he imagined the scene going down today over and over again in his mind. The scene was the part of the movie you just couldn't help but rewind and watch over and over again—it was just that good.
"Naruto... I-I've wanted to tell you something... for a long time."
In his mind, Naruto was confident and strong. He had better looks (his self esteem was a little low) and knew the right words to say in any situation.
Naruto smiled, "What is it, Sakura-chan?"
"I... I think I'm—"
"Do you have horrible hearing or do you just like to ignore me?"
Naruto was rudely snapped awake from his blissful daydream by a certain raven that was holding a tub of paint with a small scowl on his face. The blonde blinked a few times, slowly coming back into reality, before narrowing his eyes. "It's the second part."
Sasuke glared but scoffed off Naruto's comment. "Short attention span?"
"Bite me, Uchiha!" falling into such a banter was becoming a common thing between the two over the past two days. Naruto still had no idea how they progressed from complete strangers to insulting partners but he couldn't say he was complaining... too much.
"I don't want to get rabies..." without even asking Sasuke pulled up an empty stool and sat beside the blonde.
"No! Get away!" Naruto whisper-shouted (oh, an oxymoron...), trying to push the raven away from him. Sasuke didn't even budge. "You're gonna get me in trouble, asshole!"
"Idiots only get themselves in trouble."
"FUCK YOU, UCHIHA!"
"Naruto!" a paintbrush smacked Naruto right in the face; it left a line of blue paint criss-crossing with his whiskers. "How many times do I have to tell you to work silently in my class? Do you want me to skin your ass?"
"No, Sensei!" Naruto sat up a little straighter. He really didn't want to be on his Art teachers hate list any more than he was... his teacher was fucking scary.
The blonde didn't have to see the smirk on Sasuke's face to know it was there. The air around him screamed he was enjoying being right.
"Don't you dare say it." Naruto hissed, grabbing a blank white sheet of paper and a pack of colored pencils. He needed to draw something. One, because he had the urge, and two he needed a distraction from the lump growing in his stomach and the raven pecking at his shoulder.
"Say what?" Sasuke cocked an eyebrow.
"You know what!"
"No, I don't think I do."
Naruto groaned, he could see in Sasuke's eyes that he knew exactly what Naruto was talking about. 'I told you so' was what he could see dancing on the tip of Sasuke's tongue. He wanted to rip his tongue out and burn it... over a grill. "What do you even want, Uchiha?" Naruto asked exasperatedly.
"I can't just come over to say hi?"
"No, of course not." Naruto deadpanned.
The raven sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "All right, fine. Being amiable is getting me nowhere." he released his nose and sat up a little straighter. "You better not bail from practice, dead last. Today starts your training. After warm-ups, meet me at Field 15. It's behind the field the team normally practices on. It's still tryouts, so we're going to need to get you in shape before we think about letting you play with the others."
"I played with them yesterday."
"You played with a select few," Sasuke stressed. "The rest of the team is brutal. There's a reason why we're called "The Demons from Other Side"."
Sasuke had a point there, Naruto admitted. He sighed and pulled out another colored pencil—bright red. "Fine. I'll meet you there. Anything else I need to know?"
The raven scrunched his eyebrows, a habit, Naruto noticed; he did when he was thinking. How he saw that so quickly… Naruto didn't want to think too deeply on that. "Do you have shin guards and cleats?"
"Uhhh…"
He sighed, "It's fine. You can borrow mine. I always carry spares."
"Oh you're so prepared," Naruto rolled his eyes.
Sasuke scoffed, "I'll remember that for later on today."
Naruto gulped. 'Oh shit…'
+I Promise: Not What You Would Expect+
"So," pass, "what's up with," another pass, "you and Uchiha?" Kiba trapped the ball, popped it up with his foot and captured it with his inner thigh.
Naruto sighed and started to stretch his calves. "For the last time, Kiba, there's nothing going on between me and the bastard!"
"Riiiight," Kiba dropped the ball by his feet and delivered a pass. Naruto trapped it somewhat effortlessly. "That's why you guys had a solid conversation for the entire period."
"It's not like I wanted to talk to him. He wouldn't leave me alone!" Naruto defended. He dribbled the ball in-between his feet—a little technique Kiba had told him about before practice—before passing it over to the brunette.
"Naruto, please, I've seen you bitch at people like there was no tomorrow. Taking care of Uchiha should have been no problem for you."
"Have you actually talked to him before? No! I don't think you have. That dude is annoying."
"Legit?" Kiba passed the ball.
Naruto trapped it and nodded, "Straight up."
"Uzumaki! Get your fucking, skinny ass up on field 15 now! If you're late I'll have you fucking run laps till you puke and die!"
"Crap!" Naruto broke out like all of Hell was chasing him, running up the hill that would lead him to Field 15.
"Good luck, bro!" Kiba called after him.
He was greeted with the bird, mighty and tall.
+I Promise+
"I… can't… freaking… do this!"
"Yes you can."
"No… I… can'….t"
"If I say you can do something, you can. And you will."
Naruto's heart was almost on the verge of exploding, bloods, guts… glitter. Okay, maybe not glitter, but you get the point. His lungs were finding it harder and harder to breathe. And if Sasuke yelled at him one, more, gosh darn time…
"Uzumaki! Hurry it up!"
Naruto whirled around; ready to tear Sasuke a new one, when he lost his footing, stumbled, and tripped. The ground gave was ready to give him a nice little hello when he felt an arm wrap securely around his waist—stopping such a fate from becoming true.
"Dobe!" Sasuke hissed, digging his fingers into the blonde's side. Naruto squeaked. "Pay attention! What if that happened in a game, huh? We'd lose the ball and a player!"
The blonde was trying to think over Sasuke's yelling, and the sound of his heart hammering against his ribcage. "Well maybe if you didn't yell at me like a fucking Nazi then I wouldn't have lost my concentration!"
"I yell because I want you to become better! Excuse me if I want to bring out the best in you."
"The… best in me…?" okay, it was a little hard to stay mad at someone who tells you that. Especially if you were someone like Naruto, who was rarely ever praised or commented on great he could be. It was always how horrible he was.
"Hn," Sasuke grunted. "You're not worthless, so that's why I yell. Because I know you can do more than what you're giving me."
And just when he thought his heart was finally starting to calm down… it had kicked right back up again.
With little effort Sasuke helped Naruto up and threw him a soccer ball. "We've wasted too much time. So we're moving on to kicks. You should be pretty decent, right?"
"U-Uh… yeah," Naruto was a little shaken up by Sasuke's earlier confession but by the time the two had jogged over to the soccer goal, the thought had moved to the back of his mind. It was still there, mind you, but he was going to think about it later…
"Five balls," Sasuke was standing in the middle of the arc while Naruto was plotted on the half-line. "Three will be passed to your dominant foot, the other to your left foot. I'll test you on your accuracy, not your power, for the first few shots. So go easy and concentrate."
"Yeah, yeah," the blonde bounced on the balls of his feet, shook out his limbs, and focused on nothing but net.
The raven smirked, "Alright then," he backed up a few spaces, narrowed his eyes on the target, then shot a pass towards Naruto. "Show me what you've got then, dead last."
+I Promise+
Five balls scattered haphazardly around and one blonde tangled up in the goal net later…
"… You suck," Sasuke said with a wild smirk on his face.
"Shut up and help me down, Teme!"
+I Promise+
Finally, practice was over and Naruto collapsed on the grass with a tired brunette in tow.
"It was like I've just walked through Hell…" Kiba looked up at the rolling cotton clouds in the sky, "I don't know how I survived…"
"You've got luck, man." Naruto wiped his sweaty forehead, swatting his bangs off his forehead that had glued onto his skin.
"And Jesus," Kiba wheezed. "Don't forget Jesus."
Suigetsu and another soccer player, Deidara—he was a midfielder—leaned over the dying blonde and brunette.
"You guys are fucking wimps!" Deidara had his long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail with a blonde bang covering his right eye—like a motherfucking pirate, yo! "You only had to run for twelve minutes! What's the big deal?"
"Are… you guys… freaking insane?" Naruto panted out. He couldn't believe the incredulous situation he had put himself into… again.
"They're monsters, man! Aliens!" Kiba was getting a little delirious from the heat, lack of water, and tiredness aching his limbs.
Suigetsu rolled his eyes and lightly kicked Kiba in the side. "Don't spew out shit that ain't true. Just 'cuz you guys can't run to save your lives doesn't mean we're superhuman."
"Welll," Deidara drawled, "I'm a little iffy on Fishface—that's Kisame just so yah know. No human being should have blue skin, man!"
"Or shark like whiskers," Suigetsu nodded.
"Or shark teeth for fuck's sake!"
"Water…" Naruto and Kiba groaned in unison. On any other day they would have been rolling on the floor dying from the comedy that seemed to pour out of these two at unlimited amounts. But water would have been really great right then.
"Coming through," Pein said quietly. He pushed passed the two older players and poured the remaining contents of the cooler on the younger players.
"Oh my God… it's raining!" the brunette stretched his limbs up high, accepting the blessing.
"I think… he's high," Naruto said, sitting up and shaking the water droplets out of his hair.
Deidara chuckled before spotting a spot of pink out of the corner of his eye. "Oh crap…don't look now." He shielded a part of his face, "Pinkie's coming… and she's smiling."
"The devil's spawn?" Suigetsu gasped. "No way! I thought she was on leave for Hell."
"Apparently her love for Sasuke was enough to bring her back… But wait. Why is she coming over here?"
Dropping his glare to colder degrees once he noticed Sakura really was coming towards them, Naruto's minds switched into overtime—completely forgetting the heinous comments Deidara and Suigetsu were throwing just a few seconds ago.
"Hey Naruto!" Sakura smiled, waving her hands as she came up to the blonde.
"Hey… Sakura." 'Why am I so shy? Man up, Uzumaki!'
"How was your first day of tryouts?"
"Eh… they weren't too bad," Naruto shrugged it off like it was no big thing. "I've practiced a lot and my kicks are pretty powerful."
"Now if only you could aim them for the net…" Kiba muttered.
Naruto kicked him in the shin.
The field hockey player giggled, "I remember the first time I played soccer. My kicks barely got anywhere! Ugh, it was so embarrassing."
"You play soccer?" Naruto was genuinely surprised. He had never seen Sakura featured in the team picture for girl's soccer.
Sakura nodded, "Not for the school, though. For club."
"Ohhh…" the water droplets plopped on his shirt as he nodded.
The pink-haired girl frowned slightly and patted the blonde's wet mop. She had no idea that just one, simple touch from her made the blonde's heart explode into a love-struck mess and caused a wild blush to take over his face.
"Oh sweet Jesus," he heard Kiba groan. "Help the boy now."
"I don't think I've ever seen someone's face get that red." Suigetsu said in awe.
"Shit! Where's my camera phone when I need it?" Deidara wailed.
Ignoring everyone's comments, Sakura opened up her duffle bag to search for something. When she had finally found the item she was looking for—a light pink towel with flowers embedded on the corners—she gently placed the towel around the blonde's shoulders.
"I don't know what happened but here, you can use my towel." She smiled softly, "Don't let those guys get to you!" Ino was calling for her, so she had to keep her visit short, "You can give that back to me when you're ready! See yah around, Naruto!"
Sapphire eyes followed the pink-haired girl until they could no longer see her form. If they had such the vision, they would have seen Sakura talking a certain raven, purposefully bumping into him so conversation could ensue. But Life seemed to be kind today and let Naruto's bubble of happiness expand to the size it was now.
'She gave me her towel…' though he'd have to return it eventually. 'I have her towel…' his heart was pretty much threatening to just keel over soon due to all this excitement. He buried his face in the towel and breathed in the scent he could only smell and swoon over from a mile away. 'It smells just like her…'
"Love makes people blind," Kiba said prophetically, an almighty tone sprinkled on his words.
"Do yah think we should warn him?" Suigetsu asked, a little worried.
"Don't you see his eyes?" Deidara pointed at the hearts literally streaming down Naruto's face and shook his head. "The boy's damned. All we can do is save up the beer for when his heart's broken."
"Too bad he's not gay."
"What a shame."
Naruto didn't care what they said. Their words simply flew through one ear and out the next, falling onto the ground and mixing in with the grass. Sakura's scent made him feel so high…
+I Promise+
That night, no matter how creepy it may have been, Naruto tucked the towel close to his head and inhaled its scent deeply one more time.
"Smells just like her…" he thought dreamily as the tendrils of sleep slowly curled around his mind.
I'll give you something you want.
Ohhh Naruto... you little cutie x3. Reviews are always welcomed c:!