Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I don't even know why I bother putting this damn thing up. I doubt anyone reads it.

.:. Opening Notes .:.

.:. It's time for…the beloved lemon! Gasp! Oh my goodness! -Mischievously Grins at all of you- Well, you've all been "warned" about that, or whatever.

I'm not going to mark the lemon so you're on your own from here. Read at your own risk (but honestly, if you looked for an M-Rated story, you obviously want something good, hm?)

Cha!

Recap:
Villagers hiding in their homes and stores peeked their heads out as the Rukodaime Hokage walked down the streets of Konoha. Naruto had a smile on his face, but couldn't help but be slightly disappointed at the Rain shinobi's sudden retreat. After all, Naruto was always one for a good fight and had been looking forward to kicking some ass. However, his village's well-being mattered more and he felt comfort in knowing that his precious people were out of danger.

When he arrived to the hospital, he found Sakura sitting in the lobby with her chin resting on her hands. When she noticed Naruto she sat upright and he waved at her and grinned.

"What happened?" She asked, her face etched with worry as her eyes scanned his entire body for signs of injury.

"They retreated." Naruto shrugged his shoulders in disappointment at the easily-won battle, still unable to completely brush off the easy victory.

"Retreated?" Sakura asked in confusion. "Why?" Naruto scratched the back of his head and chuckled a bit.

"It's a long story. Can we go home? I drained a lot of my regular chakra for nothing and I'm beat." Sakura looked hesitant but decided to comply, understanding how he felt, but keeping the fact in the back of her mind that he would be recuperated and as energetic as ever in a short amount of time. Either way, she walked with him outside of the hospital and to their apartment.

The sky was brightened with hues of orange and purple, indicating the sun was almost fully set. The air was cool and the breeze felt nice after everything that had happened today.

Despite all of the terror that had been hitting the village lately, children could still be seen running about the streets of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, playing and conversing with one another without a care in the world. The site was humbling to see, how innocent and free the children looked at the end of the day. If only this peace would be a constant thing, but unfortunately, it wasn't.

Finally, after about ten seemingly-long minutes of walking from the hospital, Sakura and Naruto finally reached their small apartment on the opposite end of town.

Naruto put his key into the door and unlocked it, before pushing the door open and ushering Sakura to go inside ahead of him. She did so and looked around the kitchen/living room area.

The room was dim from the lack of sunlight outside and everything seemed to be just as they left it. The two didn't have much—by choice of course, only the necessities. The walls were a pale shade of white and the carpet was a cream color. They had a small maroon sofa and a fully stocked bookcase in the living room area; in the kitchen area, they had the basics – a refrigerator, a table and chairs, and a stove, as well as several small other appliances.

Everything in the apartment was comfortable for the just the two of them. They were rarely at the apartment much anyhow so what was the point in filling the house with things that would rarely (if ever) get tended to? Thank goodness they didn't have house plants.

Sakura's bright jade eyes glanced around the large room and stopped on the Team 7 photo that Naruto had always kept on his kitchen counter.

The site of the picture was very painful to stand to see, but she never was too affected by it for Naruto's sake. She knew he loved that picture and never made a fuss about it being right on the kitchen counter.

However, today, she was feeling more pained from the image than usual. Glancing at it, she couldn't help but feel a familiar pang of grief in her heart at the loss of Team 7 so many years ago. The hurt was still so fresh and she just did not want to see that picture.

So, Sakura did something that puzzled Naruto to no end. She walked towards the picture and turned it face down, causing Naruto to look at her quizzically and she simply shrugged her shoulders at his unspoken question before specifying.

"I just don't want to see it today…at least, not right now. I've had a lot on my mind at the hospital today, Naruto and I just don't want to remember anymore…At least, not for now, Okay?"

Naruto nodded his head hesitantly, still unsure what she meant by that statement, but going along with it anyways just to please her wishes. Obviously, something was bothering her, and he could notice it before they had even reached the apartment. She was too quiet today and obviously something had been troubling her.

Naruto stared at the pink haired woman in front of him silently, his mind contently lost deeply within in his musings, his thoughts of her haunting his mind like a shadow; echoing his feelings into words and reminding him how pained she looked. His gentle blue eyes gazed at her full of affection and love, his heart silently breaking in two at the site of her pain and his obvious inability to take it all away.

Lost deeply in his thoughts, he missed a lot of the current activity taking place right in front of him, such as how Sakura's hands began trembling while she presumed to clench and unclench her fists, her knuckles turning white as she tried her hardest to contain her emotions and keep her pain in check. But something was plaguing her mind and she couldn't seem to be able to contain her sadness much longer at this rate.

Shinobi must never show theiremotions.

Heh…That seemed so distant of a rule now, especially since Sakura had first met Team 7. It seemed that everyone in this team had always thrived on their emotions at some point or another; most of them using their very emotions as a way of life, and a way of battle. It became their life supports and without them, Sakura wasn't quite sure how they would have turned out.

Sasuke was always so hellbent on fulfilling his goal of revenge on Itachi for the murder of his clan. His heart was full of loss and grief, as well as so much sadness and anger.

Naruto, on the other hand, was carefree despite his whole life being spent lonely. He loved everyone and yearned so dearly to be acknowledged that he had to become the best of the best—hokage—just to get the respect that was long overdue. He spent his whole life lonely before later on in the years of Team 7 as he was looked down upon by the entire village for the Kyuubi within him.

Kakashi emphasized teamwork and cared deeply for his teammates. He felt regret for the deaths of his two former teammates, Obito and Rin, and he hated himself for it deep down. He took their memory with him to his death – and Sakura knew all about it.

Sai was emotionless, though he wasn't a part of Team 7, but rather Team Kakashi, which was all that was left in the end. In a way, that served him as an emotion (or rather, his lack thereof) and he had thrived to understand them.

Yamato was always such a compassionate and caring person, who respected and honored his comrades no matter what, despite being an active ANBU member.

And finally, there was Sakura. Sakura spent so many years head over heals in love with Sasuke and felt absolute and total despair at his departure from the village, that it had encouraged her to become the apprentice of the Godaime hokage.

All of them had become the new generation; the sannin-apprentices and the new pack to fulfill the goals set by those who came before them. They would continue things as always because life went on and their own lives were no exception.

Before Naruto knew it, he finally fled his thoughts and noticed Sakura's sadness had intensified ten-fold. Carefully, he walked towards her, hoping to console her pain-filled heart for whatever reason it now ached, and for a moment, he believed her pain involved Sasuke. He wasn't quite sure why, however. He supposed it was because that had always generally seemed to be the reason Sakura ever shed tears. He wouldn't ask about it unless he absolutely thought it necessary. However, when he noticed the tears streaming down her cheeks, he decided to ask her what was bothering her.

"…Sakura-chan? What is it? Why are you crying?" He asked softly as he rested both of his hands on her shoulders.

"I really must be a cold and heartless bitch, Naruto-kun." She mumbled through her sobs, her eyes leering at the ground shamefully as guilt wrenched over her entire face, leaving her features dark and lost looking compared to the beauty that Haruno Sakura generally always was. Naruto stared at the pinkette confused.

Was this girl crazy? He was beginning to think so, because Sakura was none of those things, at least, not to him. To him, she was a warm person, who was kind and had a heart of gold. Sure, she could also pummel most men into the ground deeper than he would like to imagine, but that was besides the point.

"Sakura-chan," he whispered, his tone so low that she had to force her sobs to silence as best she could just to hear him, "why would you say that about yourself? I don't think of you to be any of those things."

Finally, the fought off tears erupted to the surface and streamed down her face, her jade orbs darkening with such pain and sadness, all of which she had held deep inside of her heart so very deep for far too long. Her life was a mess, to say the least, and she wasn't even paying attention to it all until this very moment. Finally, everything she had been supressing was surfacing to her mind at full-throttle. And it hurt. So, she cried.

"Because! Everyone who has ever bothered to show they cared about me, I treated them all like shit! You, Kakashi-sensei, Yamato-senpai, Ino… All because I've been too selfish and thought of my own feelings and my own problems. This whole time, I was being self-centered and I ignored everything that was going on around me; everything important." Naruto was still confused beyond all means, but he remained silent, urging her to continue, which she did.

"Naruto, whenever you went to train with Jiraiya, you never even told me goodbye. I know that you had to do it for you and I'm glad you got stronger, honestly, I am, but why didn't you say goodbye to me?" Naruto stared at her in shock, both of his eyebrows

"I miss Kaka-sensei so much, Naruto," she choked between sobs. Naruto's eyes widened in absolute shock and confusion. Well, that was certainly unexpected, he mused.

"I never even cried after he died because, well…back then, I figured he would have wanted me to be okay and just move on as best as I could. I stayed so strong for him because I never got to show him how strong I had become while he was alive. I was always weak back when we were Team 7. Then, I got stronger but we never worked with him as much as a team once we became Chuunin. But I…I can't hold it in anymore, Naruto! I miss him…I…"

Unable to speak any longer atop her sobs, Sakura bowed her head as tears poured down her cheeks and fell to the floor, the drops splashing into tiny puddles at her feet. Naruto walked towards her and wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. Sakura's legs gave way and Naruto eased her sobbing form to the floor. Finally, she let it all out.

Death is incredible in a sense of what effect it can have on you. Realization dawns on you after someone close to you dies, and regret and suppressed feelings will surface, filling your life, heart, mind, and soul with guilt and pain and grief. It was incredible, because it could change a person. It usually always does, if the person who dies was close enough to those they left behind to grieve.

Kakashi had never been there for Sakura during Team 7's time as Genin. For so many years, she had blamed her weaknesses on his lack of attention paid to her from the Copy Nin, but now that it was all said and done, she realized that he would have trained her, she just never asked for his assistance. She never showed interest in being a ninja as a Genin – only Sasuke was on Sakura's mind. She felt so guilty now for distancing herself from him the last year or so before he had died for reasons that now seemed so selfish and trivial.

Naruto and Sakura sat like that for awhile as Sakura tried her best to regain her composure while at the same time, being unable to do so and just letting out all of her suppressed sadness. It had been several months since Kakashi's death, and lately thoughts of him, as well as her guilt for never properly mourning his death, had been plaguing her mind more often lately than not.

Naruto was at a loss for words at this. He had assumed that she was thinking of Sasuke, as that was where her mind often used to travel during any of her thoughts of Team 7, but this? This was a shocker beyond the necessity of speaking and so, all he could do was hold her and try his best to be there for her now.

Finally, her sobs had ceased and her breathing had evened out as she pulled away from him, looking up into his eyes.

"Arigato." She whispered and he smiled a sad smile at her.

"Huh? What for? Being there?" he asked with a soft smile, as that was usually why she thanked him anymore. She giggled at his response and nodded her head.

"That and, for just being you, Naruto-kun."

Now it was his turn to chuckle aloud.

"I'll always be me, Sakura-chan." He flashed her a toothy grin and she giggled a bit rolling her eyes as she leaned forward to kiss his cheek. Caught off guard, Naruto froze as he felt Sakura's lips gliding along his cheek towards his mouth before she gently pressed her lips up against his.

As Sakura pressed her lips against his a bit, adding some pressure, he finally began returning the kiss as his eyes slowly lidded shut. Naruto glided his tongue along Sakura's bottom lip and she obliged his silent request for entrance. He slid his tongue past her parted lips and she in turn wrapped her arms around his neck deepening the kiss.

Their tongues experimentally battled one another for dominance until their oxygen supply ran low and they had to part for air. Naruto took that opportunity to speak, his breathing coming out shakily and deep.

"I guess we're picking up where we left off before we were so rudely interrupted, ne?" He chuckled again and she smiled at him before kissing him again, this time, more roughly and full of need. Naruto pulled away again to speak again. "Wanna get up off the floor?"

Sakura rolled her eyes playfully and nodded before standing up, Naruto following in suit. The two stood in the middle of the kitchen in front of a counter top for about a second before Naruto stepped towards Sakura and placed his hands on either side of her, leaning against the counter top.

Sakura looked at Naruto, her eyes glazed over with desire. Naruto leaned toward her and planted a passionate, chaste kiss on her lips, to which she eagerly returned.

Moving his hands from the counter top, Naruto placed his palms underneath of Sakura's thighs and hoisted her up to sit on the counter top, his lips never leaving hers.

Finally, realizing how far this was going to go, Naruto pulled away from Sakura and looked into her eyes to get some sort of final confirmation.

"Sakura…Are you sure about this?" He whispered whilst silently fearing her answer would be a 'no'. However, he was yet again taken by surprise by the pinkette who simply smiled at him before speaking softly her reply.

"Absolutely. Naruto. I…I love you and I want this to be with you…Nobody else so don't stop." Sakura's cheeks tinted a pale pink color as she finally admitted aloud the things her heart had been trying to show her for the longest time.

She did love Naruto and it took her far too long to realize just how much. He had been the one who was there for her when Sasuke was gone. He held her when she cried and made her laugh whenever she felt her worst. Did she love him for real? Absolutely, and now, having said it aloud, she finally didn't have a doubt in her mind that it was anything but a true kind of love.

Naruto looked into her eyes and saw her genuine gaze that was pooled within her green orbs. And so, he leaned forward again and captured her lips in a urgent kiss more passionate than the last. Sakura wrapped her arms around his neck and he wrapped his own around her lower back.

He pulled her closer towards him and she wrapped her legs around his waist. Taking this gesture as his 'cue', Naruto lifted Sakura off of the counter top with ease and began retreating towards the hallway leading to their bedroom.

Sakura's legs dropped to the floor as she continued walking backwards, Naruto leading her way to their bedroom. Once they reached the door, Naruto turned the handle and practically slammed the door open in his efforts to open the stubborn thing. He continued backing Sakura into the room until the back of her legs reached the mattress of the bed.

Giving her one final nudge, Sakura's tiny body hit the mattress with ease as she began inching backwards further onto the bed, giving herself and Naruto both more room to get comfortable. Having reached the pillows at the top of the bed, Sakura laid her head down upon them, never once breaking her kiss from Naruto other than to get air.

Naruto's hands came up to the zipper of her medic uniform and he pulled it down, revealing a plain, black bra. Sakura, however, wasn't going to let him have all of the fun, and she reached her hand up to his Hokage jacket and unzipped it, sliding the sleeves off of his shoulders. She also noticed his orange and black jacket underneath and began to giggle a bit, erupting a confused look at Naruto.

"You wear your orange jacket under the hokage jacket?" She asked, answering his silent question of confusion. He looked down at her blinking a few times. He hadn't expected that. How random of her, he mused. Silently, he nodded his head in confirmation to her question before crushing his lips down onto Sakura's, erupting a mewl of excitement to erupt from the pink-haired shinobi's lips.

Sakura pulled Naruto's white t-shirt up over his head, not wanting to be the only topless partner here. Naruto's hands expertly glided fingertip-first down Sakura's silky waist, his fingers grasping the band of her medic's skirt. As he roughly traced her bottom lip with his tongue, his hands quickly yanked the skirt down to her knees.

He broke the kiss to sit up, his body kneeling between her legs as he moved out of his own way to fully remove the skirt from her body. Sakura bent her knees to help him remove the skirt easier. Once the annoying clothing article was gone, Naruto resumed his original position with his body pressed closely up against her own, his lips claiming hers in a heated and passionate kiss.

Sakura's own thin fingers made their way to the opening of Naruto's orange pants and she trembled a bit as she tried to unfasten them. Truth be told, she was nervous. She was nervous about so many things.

She was nervous about being seen naked for the first time, and by Naruto nonetheless. She was nervous about things between the two friends changing forever once the deed was done and over with. She was nervous about the war never ending, and the possible comrades whom very well might lose their lives in the near future because of it. But all of that seemed so distant right now because her nerves had just been washed away from the passionate kiss that Naruto placed upon her swollen, rosy lips.

Sakura finally managed to get Naruto's pants unfastened after several moments of struggle due to the damn button being stuck, which she had cursed several times under her breath before finally getting the stubborn thing unclasped.

From there, Naruto did the rest of the work, stepping out of his pants to be left only in his boxers. Sakura's eyes traveled down Naruto's chest and rested on the Kyuubi seal that resided there.

The pale fingertips of one of her hands traced the seal on his abdomen, the other hand running along the whisker marks on his cheeks.

Naruto was a bit self-conscious about the Kyuubi markings on his body, but was soon relieved to see Sakura's astonishment at them, rather than disgust as he had expected. Hell, it disgusted him sometimes, looking like a damn fox-boy or something. But that was all besides the point. Right now, the point was the brilliant jade orbs gazing up at him in wonder and obvious shyness.

Naruto took the pad of his thumb and ran it across Sakura's blush-covered left cheek as he smiled at her and whispered "beautiful".

Sakura pulled Naruto down towards her and gently pressed her lips against his in a deep and passionate kiss, both pairs of eyes closing in the heat of the moment as they both just let their instincts take over.

Sakura was so lost in the kiss that she didn't even notice Naruto's hand reaching down towards the hem of her panties, nor did she notice that he had tugged them down and off of her legs, leaving her entire body exposed beneath his own.

Finally focusing back on the moment, Sakura felt Naruto's fingertips gliding down her stomach to her waist, the feather-like touches traveling lower until they reached their destination. Sakura gasped into the kiss as she felt one of his digits enter her, only to be followed by a second one.

"Damn Sakura-chan…You're so…tight," he whispered huskily between his heavy gasps of breath. Sakura's cheeks reddened at his blunt statement and wasn't quite sure how to respond to it.

"Umm…Sorry?" She mumbled as she shifted her eyes away from him. However, Naruto wasn't going to have any of that, and catching her off guard, her inserted a third finger into her hot wet folds. Sakura's eyes widened as she took in a sharp breath of air, her eyes locking onto Naruto's as the two began staring at each other intensely.

The only sounds that were heard at that moment were the shifting of their two bodies. Sakura's body was continuously writhing beneath Naruto's, her entire being filled with ecstasy in that very moment. Naruto's only movements were the thrusting of his two fingers, as he had found that three were just too tight of a fit for the time being.

The site of Sakura being sprawled out nude beneath him was enough to entire his arousal to erupt to it's fullest, his erection growing painfully hard as it pressed up against her entrance almost instinctively.

Naruto continued to glance down at Sakura, who was panting heavily and disgruntled because he had stopped his movements. However, this irritation soon faded when she felt the tip of his shaft poking at her entrance. She continued to look at Naruto intensely before nodding her head in approval and ushering him to enter her.

Naruto entered Sakura slowly, his body gently easing himself inside of her until he was in to the hilt. Sakura's only sign of physical pain at that very moment was a sharp hissing intake of breath, which slightly confused Naruto, simply because he had assumed she would be in pain during her first time. But she seemed fine right now and it had him curious.

Obviously, the questions in his mind had been etched all over his face because though he didn't speak a word about it, Sakura answered his unasked question anyways.

"It doesn't hurt because I'm a kunoichi. I have years of shinobi training to thank for that." She stated with the smallest of smirks.

Naruto chuckled a bit at her comment before pulling himself almost completely out of her, only to slam himself back into her. He did the same thing twice more before pulling almost all the way out and leaning down towards her ear to whisper in her ear, "Well, Sakura-chan…it may not hurt yet, but I can guarantee you that it'll hurt after when I'm done with you."

Sakura involuntarily shivered at his words and felt him slam himself deeply into her again, this time more roughly than before. She felt a heat beginning to build into the pits of her stomach, the more deeper he entered her, the more the pleasurable feeling intensified.

After a few more deep thrusts like that, Sakura was arching her back upwards, her bare breasts pressing tightly against Naruto's sweating, muscular chest. She stifled her moans by biting on her bottom lip for awhile but soon found it impossible to restrain her cries of bliss any longer. Her moans were practically enough to send Naruto over the edge, but he refused to stop just yet. No, he wanted to make this last and he fully intended to.

His movements quickened after several long, hard thrusts, his body no longer holding out the patience he had once mustered, and soon, he began slamming himself in and out of her mercilessly and quickly, her screams of ecstasy echoing throughout the room.

When he heard her moan his name aloud, it was nearly enough to send him over the edge right there. But, he restrained just a little bit longer for her sake. Naruto pulled Sakura towards him to kiss her roughly on the lips, and the moment their lips met, he tightly wrapped his arms around her waist, his body pinning her own against the tall, wooden headboard of the bed.

Pinning the headboard to the wall, Naruto continued thrusting into Sakura with full force and soon, he felt her inner walls clenching down on him. Sakura raked her nails across Naruto's back roughly enough to leave a lasting trace in their wake.

Sakura's entire body went rigid as she arched herself towards Naruto, loudly moaning his name as she reached her peak. From there, all of his self-control had simply shattered and she took him right over the edge with her.

Naruto held Sakura's lithe body in place once their simultaneous orgasms had ceased, and they both desperately tried to regain control over their breathing, at least enough so that they could move to actually lay on the bed.

Finally, Naruto felt himself coming off of his high and he lowered Sakura onto the bed beneath them. He pulled himself out of her and wrapped his arms around her slim waist. Before the two had finally succumbed to their much-needed slumber, they each whispered "I love you" before their eyes lulled to rest.

A/N:
You know what's fun? Trying to find an un-cheesy and appropriate word for 'vagina' and 'penis' without being A) derogatory, B) blunt and actually saying 'vagina' and 'penis', and C) that keeps the story moving :P. Oodles of noodles of fun =P

Ja!

R&R lovelys!!!!