Ch. Sum: Sakura can't seem to put her feelings for Naruto into words. At least Naruto's good at reading people.

CHAPTER 5

Sakura swore she was a magnet to all the world's most awkward situations. There were times where she could be stuck up, clumsy, and far less than graceful, hence the reason she enjoyed the medical field so. When she was serious about her work and couldn't afford to be flawed, she didn't allow herself to be flawed. When she did her job, she did it right. There was simply no other way to do it.

When it came to romance, though, no matter how seriously she took it, she just couldn't seem to kick her flaws to the curb. With Sasuke, she'd pushed herself on him. She pushed and pushed until he finally got away to fulfill his own desires. With that, she was rendered helpless in the field of love. Since Sasuke, she couldn't seem to advert her eyes to anyone new in particular. She considered letting Lee take her out, but knew that if she gave him the wrong impression of her feelings it would only end up hurting him. He was the last person in the world who deserved to be hurt in that way.

There were plenty of other fish in the sea, though. Unfortunately, men weren't getting any cuter, nor were any she could find her type. In the Kunoichi world, it was practically a right of way to experience sex and love by no later than the age of seventeen. After all, unless you were nearly invincible, there seldom lived a ninja past the age of thirty if they lived true to their work, which Sakura would. Even if she chose to become a mother, she couldn't say for sure that she'd throw her career as a Kunoichi away like her mother had. There was something in the fight that she enjoyed, even if it could be a very unforgiving line of work.

If there were a time in her life where she had to let the past go, it was now. She left a crack in the curtains intentionally, so to dare Naruto to look at her. He wouldn't let himself be caught doing so, and if he did Sakura would just have to beat the stuffing out of him like she normally would have. It was called hard-to-get for a reason, after all; a game of wit. He'd be worth her time if he were at least smart enough to outsmart her in something, which, to her credit, was a difficult thing to do. She didn't receive top grades in her studies for nothing.

She hummed merrily as she casually stripped herself of her robe. The sudden chill on her bare skin made goose pimples pop up all along her arms and legs. She opened up her top drawer, pretending to dig for her undergarments when they were right there in front of her. Surely there were a pair of curious blue eyes etching their way across her body at this point, but that was only a guess. So long as it was a guess, Naruto was in the clear. Sakura proceeded to slowly dress herself.

Naruto's heels bounced frantically along the pavement of the balcony, as he turned his gaze to the stars, the moon, the tree tops, the roof, the frame of the sliding-glass door-NO! Naruto shook his head and quivered in fear. Even to this day Naruto hadn't forgotten the story of Ero-sennin's first near-death experience. Naruto had yet to break the world's record of most eaten ramen, had yet to lose his virginity, had yet to drag Sasuke's ass back to Konoha, and most importantly had yet to become the greatest Hokage ever. He couldn't afford to die because he was curious, and maybe a little horny.

OK, make that very horny. When he heard her robe hit the floor over the wind, he broke out into a cold sweat. He had a golden window of opportunity to see her undressed with a crack that sized in the curtain. There was no reason for him to pass this up, because this chance would probably never present itself again. For all that he loved Sakura to death, she also scared him like no one else in the world could. Why did a girl THAT beautiful have to be such a violent prude? You would think she'd learn something from a girl like Ino, but then again Ino was the last kind of girl Naruto would want to be seen with. Sakura was pure, and beautiful, and realistic. Something about her seemed to put balance in Naruto's otherwise erratic life.

She was the best girl ever, and he'd just have to respect her privacy, no matter how painful it was.

Some things in the world were too painful, though. He heard the groan of an opening drawer, and his face glowed bright pink as the sweat drops flowed. He was suddenly reminded of the test Ibiki had given him during the Chuunin exams all those years ago. Torture as that was, it was nothing compared to this. He'd sit through a thousand of Ibiki's interrogations before getting even one serious punch in the face from Sakura. She could bash his head clean off if she wanted to.

Everything in his head was telling him YES and NO at the same time. He was tempted to bash his head against the rim of the balcony until his brain fell out. That would shut the voices up, but Sakura wouldn't exactly be happy with him if she found him dead and bleeding outside of her door. Just a few seconds more. Seriously, how long did it take for someone to get dressed anyway?

Jiraiya was way better at this kind of stuff. Compared to the old geezer, Naruto couldn't even begin to call himself a pervert. He'd seen plenty of naked girls on their journey. He'd learned all kinds of tricks and disguises. He could easily make a shadow clone and transform it into a spider on her window, or he could transform the clone into pane glass. He could do this without breaking a sweat when it came to any other girl. Sakura wasn't just any other girl to him, though. She was THE girl, but she came with violent tendencies, and above average intelligence. Like she couldn't figure out who that spider on her window, or was that weird reflection in the lamp light was.

"If you don't want me to break every bone in your damn body you'll quit staring at me like that"

You see, Naruto put on the front that he was an idiot. It helped him in his natural element of being the number one at surprising people. He may have been dead last Naruto, but he wasn't stupid. He knew where he could afford to risk his hide and where he couldn't. This was a couldn't, most definitely a shouldn't in the guise of a should.

To make up for this loss, he would just have to prove his charm by having not peaked! He didn't peak, and therefore he should win points toward eventually getting Sakura unclothed and in his bed. A real ninja had to look underneath the underneath. Having thought that, he wondered if Sakura left that crack there on purpose just to test his will. It spoke volumes of how well she could read Naruto, how she could interpret his intentions. It was about then that Naruto felt a little more flattered than he did horny. He just hoped this late night chill could do a little something about the latter.

Sakura was proud, and somewhat shocked to find that Naruto hadn't tried peeping on her. Either that, or he hid it extremely well. As long as she didn't know, she would just have to keep her hands to herself, as he had (supposedly) kept his eyes to himself. Naruto was smarter than he let on, fortunately for Sakura. She'd heard tales of many an idiot boyfriend in various places, such as public bath houses, restaurants, and Ino. If only she could tell stories of all the stupid things she had seen Sasuke and Naruto do with someone other than Ino, but she couldn't. With the guys she was a ninja, and with the girls she was a woman. Those two worlds were rarely interchangeable, especially given that two out of three ninjas were male. Being a Kunoichi wasn't considered lady like.

Those musings aside, Sakura decided she had left Naruto out in the cold long enough. She pulled on her shoes as quickly as she could, humming a little tune to herself in the process. It had been awhile since she felt happy enough to hum. She'd run clear out of misery, and decided that, no matter what, she'd make this the best night she possibly could. That could be quite a challenge with Naruto, though, but not if she didn't let it be. Naruto was a sweet boy. All of his intentions would be good, no matter what.

"OK, I'm ready," said Sakura, walking up to the door. She was only dressed in a simple pair of red pants and a white t-shirt. She couldn't prolong her little nude show anymore than she had with the panties, or else Naruto would have figured her game out. Who knows what horrible things would happen if he thought she wanted to be seen naked by him?

"Took you long enough," said Naruto, his cheeks tinted red with something akin to embarrassment. Yeah right, Naruto couldn't even spell embarrassment, let alone be capable of it. Then again, Sakura did have to question how well she knew this boy exactly. For instance, she hadn't expected him to be as upset as he had been over the Kazekage's kidnapping. What's more, she really hadn't counted on him being the Nine-Tailed Fox's vessel. It would explain why he was so hated by the village. She always thought it was just because he was a nuisance.

There had to be something she could do, anything, to undo any of the damage his past had caused him. He was very strong on the outside, but how exactly was he on the inside? These were questions that burned in Sakura's mind time after time, and only grew stronger as her attraction toward him grew.

"Naruto," she said, not really knowing where this was going to go. She had his undivided attention, so she would have to make this quick so not to lose him. Now her face glowed with a rosy tint. "What, I mean, it's a beautiful night tonight, right?"

"Huh?" he glanced up at the stars, then back at Sakura. "Well, sure! It's as good as any other night, isn't it?"

A small vein popped on her forehead. That was such a guy kind of thing to say! No romance in that, though Naruto was supposed to be the romantic one. The things he chose to say were real hits and misses. She supposed that was all right. Too much romance would get real old, real fast. Still, she had no clue where what she was trying to say was going, and a little help would have been nice. Too bad she had to do all of the work around here. Sakura's inner was having a fit, too, wishing Sakura'd push her damn pride aside and rip Naruto's pants off already. What a pain!

"Let's go out and enjoy it... somehow," said Sakura, furious at how lame that sounded. She did her part, and it was up to Naruto to contribute to it. After all, if they started officially dating, he'd have to carry some of the weight in the relationship.

"I'm kinda not in the mood for ramen right now," said Naruto, to Sakura's surprise. She thought Ichiraku's was going to be the first thing he suggested, as it always was! Then again, he didn't sound entirely sincere. She didn't say anything, willing for him to explain himself and good. "It's what we always do on dates, you know?"

"You say that like we've been on many dates, Naruto," said Sakura, arms crossed over her chest and a stern look on her face.

"Well, yeah! This is the third night in a row we've been together."

"The first one doesn't count! I was told to be there, remember," said Sakura, failing to mention what Tsunade said the day following that. What he didn't know wouldn't kill him. She needed to keep some remnants of her pride and all. He did have a point about the ramen, though, and was glad. She wondered how he could live off of so much of that stuff. Didn't he ever have any vegetables, or fruit, or anything healthy for the matter?

"I don't know about you, but I think I'm in the mood for dango," he said, which made her even more weary. That was even less healthy than ramen! She hated how he could put so much garbage into his stomach and not gain a pound. The Kyuubi's chakra must have given him an iron metabolism, or something. She felt fat just thinking about dango.

Dango it was, though. Sakura had a single stick of them where Naruto had several. They walked through town munching on their sweets and talking about nothing in particular. There was nothing exciting to do really, until they happened upon an exhausted Rock Lee. He had lost a bet with TenTen on Neji's sexual orientation (which Sakura wasn't surprised to hear, yet Naruto was shocked.) In any case, Rock Lee had climbed the monument of the Hokages three-hundred times, and claimed he could do it three-hundred times more if he hadn't broken his leg a couple of weeks ago. Sakura was the one who'd mended that nasty wound, and would have been disappointed in him if she hadn't expected him to act just this way.

"You did give me an idea, though. Thanks Lee-san!" said Sakura. She had taken Naruto's hand in hers and ran toward the monument. Just before they disappeared from sight, Sakura made a point to tell Lee to go home and rest his leg. That boy really worried her sometimes.

Naruto had asked Sakura several times what her idea was on the run up the monument; however, she just kept going. Sakura had a library of romantic dreams in her heart, and she had no clue where to start with them all. This was as good a night as any to get started. Moving on sure felt great.

As soon as she thought that, though, her heart began to pound against her chest. The run up such a short mountain wouldn't have even caused her to break a sweat normally, but the swarm of emotions that overloaded her senses? They almost distracted the chakra hold she had on the mountain.

She'd managed to reach the top, and her confident mood had left her behind. In fact, it probably stayed with Lee. There was nothing like his exuberance to get Sakura in the mood to do something crazy. Naruto was waiting for her to speak, and the two still hadn't parted hands. It was now or never, and she had absolutely nothing to be afraid of, right?

"When I was a girl, well I am a girl, but... " she said, hating how lame she was being. It was just Naruto! The fact that it was Naruto should have been the solution, not the problem. Admittedly, she was pretty lame around Sasuke as well, but that was different. It was easy to make a fool out of herself in front of Sasuke because she didn't stand a chance. He just wasn't interested in romance. Naruto, on the other hand, seemed very interested. She was afraid of how quickly this was all happening.

What was worse was that everyone seemed to know, and expect this of Sakura. She didn't take Sai's, or Yamato's words lightly inside. She did love Naruto. He was like her brother, maybe her best friend, and he was the person she trusted the most. This wasn't easy, because this was a great, big step. Possibly a step in the wrong direction. Romance was infamous for making, or breaking perfect relationships. She had no clue which would happen if she chose to push this.

"I dreamed of... Someone," Sasuke, who had evolved into a mere someone in this case. "And this place. It's stupid."

"Dreams aren't stupid," said Naruto, giving Sakura's hand a squeeze. She turned to meet his eyes, and he looked... patient, maybe? He must have figured out where this was going, and when she thought that she couldn't help but be a little embarrassed. Just how good was he at reading and understanding the feelings of others? What's more, just how good was he about making light of heavy situations?

He didn't think her dreams were stupid. That was a good sign, because she rather liked her romantic fantasies. She leaned forward close enough to feel the heat rising from his chest, and thought to place her free hand on his shoulder, but couldn't bring herself to. He'd been seeking this much longer than she had, and she wanted him to make the moves. After all, he'd have to learn the difference between OK and not OK when it came to her.

"I wanted to spend the night here with Someone, watching the stars all night until sunrise," she said with a sigh. It wasn't a very dreamy sigh, but it wasn't a very sad one either. It was what it was. Naruto probably thought she read too many romance novels, or something. That was true, actually. Sakura did a lot of reading in her spare time, and in little cracks of the day. Kind of like Kakashi, but she wasn't into perverted things. Just nice things, and intelligent things. Mostly nice things.

"Sakura, you... ?" said Naruto, eyes wide with surprise. He shouldn't have been all that surprised, right? Sakura's confidence was waning again, and she was about ready to let go of his hand and run home in silence when he pulled her into the warmest hug she had ever had. This time she had no choice but to rest her hand and head on his shoulder, feeling the thrum of their beating hearts against her chest. It was... she didn't know how to describe it. Was it fear? Anguish? Nervousness? She didn't feel sad at all, but she felt tears in her eyes anyway.

It was like nothing she had ever felt in her life, and it scared her. More so, it intrigued her. Naruto was so warm, kind, and considerate, and he loved her. This was no secret to Sakura, especially now where she knew he was conveying so much, and holding back so much more. How much could he hold in before exploding?

"Naruto, I don't know what I'm doing," said Sakura in a tight whisper. Her voice shook, and her tears surfaced. This wasn't the time to cry, was it? She had no reason to, but Naruto pulled back and let her hand go when he felt the tears soak through his shirt. "This is embarrassing." She scrubbed the tears from her eyes, only for a few more to fall. "I'm not even sad."

"Maybe you're happy?" said Naruto, his voice more hopeful than suggestive. She must have been, because her smile came easy. With the tears out of the way, her chest felt as light as a feather, like she didn't have to hide anything from him.

The two of them sat in silence for awhile, watching a few gray clouds drift over the stars. It was much more awkward than Sakura had ever dreamed, but if life were like all her dreams, then her life would be way too cheesy. It spoke volumes for Naruto to sit and endure one of her fantasies. She had the sinking suspicion that he was bored out of his mind, and truth be told, it was getting pretty boring. It was a wonder how Shikamaru could do this for fun.

"Naruto, are you awake?" said Sakura, nudging his side. He gave a light snore and jolted awake, murmuring something about a vicious ramen thief. Sakura giggled at his antics and slid herself directly beside him so their sides were touching. That woke him up!

"Sakura-chan?"

"Naruto, I think you might have earned something," said Sakura, her eyes on the horizon. They weren't anywhere near sunrise; she wouldn't be surprised to peer down at her watch only to find that it was only eleven-thirty, or something. Still, this fantasy was getting pretty stale, and she wanted to go home and get some rest. First things first, though

Naruto's eyes fell back into slits, until he felt her lips touch his cheek.

to be continued...

A/N: Happy Valentines Day! I know it's a day early, but I am excited for it. I just thought I would make this ch. extra cute to celebrate. Hugs and kisses to all readers of this story, especially my faithful reviewers. Thank you for all of your support.