"What's wrong with you, huh?"
The blonde was snapped out of his thoughts, both by the question and the squeeze of his hand. He looked to the roseate by his side, and he offered a feeble smile.
"Nothin'. Nothin' at all," he replied, inflecting a note of chipperness into his tone. A chipperness he definitely was not feeling. No, he was feeling like his insides were in turmoil, tossing and turning and doing all sorts of weird things within him. Nerves did that to him.
"Liar." The accusation came with a light smack to his arm, to which he pouted.
"Am not. I'm fine, Sakura-chan," he insisted, swinging their held hands exuberantly. The look she was giving him was still very disbelieving, and it was obvious that she wasn't just about to let it drop. However, she continued on in almost silence, leading the way to her parents' house, seeing as he had no idea where it was.
Considering this would be his first time meeting them.
He had told her that he was nervous prior to that day anyway, but she had just brushed him off and told him that he had no reason to be. That they'd love him of course, and that her mother already loved everything she had heard about him, and was dying to see him.
Oh yes, all was well and good when it was words. But when it came to the actual event?
Did all people have to go through this? This gut-wrenching nervousness that threatened to make him vomit up his cereal from that morning? It was going against all of his most recent experiences, anyway. He knew he held a natural sort of charm, now that he had grown away from his more annoying childhood tendencies. People took a liking to him, even when he wasn't doing his best to impress. Which he would be, tonight.
Suddenly, she brought them to a stop in between two baseball fields, and looking across the way, he could already see the green house he knew was her family's. Its shade made it stand out a bit more than the others.
"So, why're you so tense?" she asked him, crossing her arms over her chest to more firmly plant herself. Naruto pouted, but by the unamused eyebrow raise she gave, he knew he couldn't whine his way out of this. Scuffing his heel against the grass, he looked at the ground.
"I'm just scared, okay?" he grumbled.
The roseate frowned. "Scared of what? I didn't think the almighty Naruto was afraid of anything."
He scowled at her. "This is different. I just want to make an impression and I'll probably screw up and it'll be awful and just—"
"Sunshine, shhhhhh," she soothed, and stepped forward to hug him. He buried his nose into her hair, inhaling deeply. "If I love you, they'll love you. I know it."
Although on the inside he really felt like contesting the point, he just squeezed to him tightly. She wasn't going to let him get out of this anyway, so there was no point in struggling further. After a moment she pulled away, grabbed his hand again, and dragged him up to the doorstep. Finally, he took a deep breath, and stepped inside.
"See? I told you," she told him smugly later that night, after they had returned to her apartment and were getting ready for bed. He rolled his eyes and tugged on a sleep shirt.
"It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be, no," he conceded, but turned his back on her to fiddle with the alarm. The blonde felt arms wrap around his waist, and a cheek press to his back. He couldn't help but smile a bit.
"They liked you," she told him, her voice sounding content.
He turned in her grasp, and kissed her forehead. "Probably only because I love you."