Chapter Four

Naruto grunted as he and Shikamaru were playing shoji, he rubbed his head staring at Shikamaru who was staring at the board. Naruto began bouncing his leg up and down before folding his arms. He then sighed deeply putting his head down. Shikamaru moved his hand to make a move before pulling it back to rub his chin.

"MAKE A MOVE WILL YA?! THIS SLOWNESS IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!" Naruto yelled out. Shikamaru ignored him and made his move.

"Check."

"What?" His face faltered.

"Check." He pointed at the game. Naruto grunted and looked away as Shikamaru smirked.

"You guys are still playing that game, I thought Naruto would definitely give up by now." Temari walked towards them.

"I normally don't give up but in this case I do." He moaned. "He's too smart." Temari pinched Shikamaru's cheek.

"And lazy." He rubbed his cheek mumbling about annoying friends and women. "Anyway, I hate to break up the fun but Shikamaru has to go now."

"Why?" Naruto tilted his head a bit.

"Because Shikamaru has chores he didn't do around the house. Either he didn't do them because he didn't feel like it or he didn't do them because he wanted to see how mad I would get, right honey?" She smiled at him, Naruto's eyes widened.

"Alright, alright, see ya Naruto." He stood up and pulled out a cigarette.

"See ya." He waved as Temari began yelling at his friend about his smoking habits. "I wondered if Sakura and I dated if that's how we would be, I could see her yelling at me for eating too much ramen." He laughed to himself before a frown slowly crept upon his face. "But I guess I'll never know, I know she still loves Sasuke there's nothing I could do about that."

Hinata tucked her hair behind her ear and slowly walked over to Naruto. He smiled when he saw her.

"Hey Hinata, what are you doing?"

"Oh, I was going to the field to pick some flowers…" She cleared her throat as her cheeks became red. "Would you like…to come?"

"Sure, I have nothing to do right now." He stood up and looked down at her. "Hey, I just wanna thank you for coming to visit me every day while I was in the hospital, it meant a lot to me." He smiled making her cheeks become redder. She quickly looked away and nodded.

"A-A-Anytime." She began walking as he followed behind her. He was going to have to stop by the hospital later to see how Sasuke was doing, it had been two months since his surgery and he wanted to make sure that fool wasn't getting discouraged.

"I have to say sorry ahead of time Hinata, I have no idea how to pick flowers." She giggled and shook her head.

"That's alright, you don't have to pick any the company is nice." He nodded his head as they handed to the field. He sat on the grass as she picked the daffodils. "Naruto-Kun there's something I would like to tell you." She stared at the flower in her hands. Her heart was speeding was she really going to tell him? She felt like it was now or never.

"What's up?" He looked at her. She stared at his blonde locks that was now touching his shoulders before looking at his blue eyes. She cleared her throat and looked down as her cheeks became hot.

"Um…Naruto-Kun…." He furrowed his eyebrows. "Um….D-D-Daisuki." She whispered his eyes widened. She looked away from him and cleared her throat. "You don't have to answer right now, I know I've told you once before but I just wanted to confess again one more time. You can give me your answer when you're ready." She then looked at him. "I'll wait for you, my dream is to be by your side so I'll be here waiting for you." She gave him a gentle smile as he just stared at her.

Sasuke gripped his crutch tightly as he walked around the hospital garden. He winced in pain he still wasn't used to walking and it taking than expected for him to get back to normal.

"Sasuke." Karin ran to him and placed her hands on her knees panting heavily. She caught her breath before looking at him. "Should you be out here alone?" She asked feeling concerned. Sasuke chuckled.

"Well, how else am I gonna get my legs back to normal if I don't use them? Sakura told me to walk for at least thirty minutes a day to strengthen my leg muscles."

"What if you fall?" She stared at him.

"Then I'll just have to get back up and try again." He smiled. She felt her face getting hot and she looked away from him before looking at him.

"You shouldn't do rash things Sasuke, you need to take better care of yourself." She placed her hands on her hips.

"Well that's what I have you here for right?" He smiled. She looked up at his tall frame. He then rubbed the back of his head laughing. "When I'm irrational you're not afraid to tell me I'm being stupid. Even though you followed me when I was at my darkest. I'm sorry for all I've put you through." She shook her head.

"I knew one day you would see the light but I can't completely hate your dark phase after all it bring us together."

"You're right about that, walk with me…thirty minutes seem to go faster when you're walking and talking with someone right?"

"Yes." They both began walking.

Sakura smiled watching the two from her office window. She sat down at her desk and sighed. She couldn't believe how successful the operation went. Sasuke was supposed to be bed written for at least four months and he was up in two months. She knew he was going to heal completely fine. After Sakura successful complete his operation, Tsunade appointed her head of the Medical Ninja force. She never thought she would succeed this much after turning eighteen.

Sakura smiled softly while staring at her papers, she didn't notice her door creeping open a certain blonde trickster crawled inside of the room. She moved hair from her face as she continued filling out patient reports.

"Sakura-Chan." Naruto whispered standing behind her. She yelled out and punched him as hard as she could sending him flying to the other side of the building.

"Shit!" She covered her mouth. She ran to where he was and to help him up. "Naruto, are you ok? You can't do that to me, you may really die one day."

"I can handle it." He slowly got up and stretched. She sighed deeply and began healing his cuts and bruises.

"Anyway, did you come to my office for something? Or did you wanna piss me off?" She asked glaring at him, he laughed sheepishly.

"No, I was going to ask you when your lunch break was because I want us to eat lunch together." She looked at him in shock. It had been a while since they really spoke ever since she saw he started dating Hinata she just kept her distance but she really did miss his company.

"My lunch break is at noon."

"Ok." He nodded. "Maybe I should ask Shikamaru and Temari if they wanna come, or maybe Kiba and Ino would like to go." He looked up trying to think. She sighed deeply.

"Why so many people?" She suddenly asked, he looked at her as she looked at him.

"You want just the two of us to go?" He asked suddenly they both began blushing and looked away from each other.

"I-I-I didn't say that baka." She snapped. Naruto snapped his fingers.

"Oh yeah where is Sasuke? He wasn't in his room when I checked."

"He's outside walking in the courtyard to strengthen his leg muscles."

"I'm truly surprised at his progress, he's truly amazing huh?

"Well we started off as Kakashi-Sensei's students and look at our former sensei who is now the Hokage, we've only learned from truly the best." A soft smile came across his face as he nodded. "I feel by the time we reach nineteen he'll be completely back to normal."

"Lee and I agreed to train him so he become even stronger. If anyone can get Sasuke back to into shape it's me and Lee, believe it!" He puffed his chest making her laugh.

"Well it'll have to be once he starts walking on his own." They walked back to her office. She looked at him. "Are you gonna cut your hair?" He rubbed his head before looking at her.

"You think I should?" She tilted her head to the side a bit.

"I like the long hair on you, just don't do past your shoulders." He nodded his head and laughed.

"You got it. I'll be back here at noon to pick you up, later Sakura-Chan." With that he leaped out the window. Sakura ran to the window and watched as his figure became smaller and smaller. She placed her hands on her hips.

"He's never going to change." She chuckled.

"Sakura-Sensei, Megumi-San is going in labor, she's dilated ten centimeters."

"Alright, let's go." She put her hair up in ponytail.