Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor will I ever
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor will I ever.
Summary: "Haruno Sakura, you have been ordered to guard the prisoner Uzumaki Naruto." After a strict order from the Hokage, Sakura has been forced to conquer her greatest fear—the rumored beast of Konoha. The tragedy is slowly revealed, piece-by-piece.
Pairing: Naruto X Sakura
AN: Kind of an easy-going chapter. Sorry for the lack of updates. I barely finished all my summer homework and summer's already over -- (And there's probably going to be tests when I get back to school.)
Broken Leaf
10. Realizations of two people
--
"There's this, there's that, and there's that!" Sakura seized another glove from the stand, examined it closely with her eyes, placed it down picked up another.
"Too bad they don't look that strong…" she placed the bright pink glove slowly on the table, bringing it back so she could take a better look, and placed it back down. The glove was practically dancing in her hand, telling her to buy it.
"Sakura-chan?" Naruto walked up to the girl, bringing his hand near her shoulder. One more nervous glance from the girl forced him to retreat. He placed his hands behind his back and tried a smile. "The…mission?"
She kept her gaze on the pink glove, "We're at the hot springs aren't we? Go…enjoy yourself or something."
Naruto nodded slowly, turning away. He took one more look at the girl; she was still hovering over the stand. He waved good bye at her though he doubted she could see it.
Sakura switched her gaze to the red glove then back to the pink glove.
"Wait." She spun towards, "Which one is better?"
Naruto's eyes darted toward the ramen restaurant and then back at her, "Better?"
"Yes," Sakura nodded her head, "Which glove?" She pointed towards the two.
"Um…" He stared at both of the gloves and back to her, "I'm not really a glove person…" Naruto held his hands up and shrugged.
"Naruto," she grabbed him back, even closer to the stand now, "It's really simple. Just choose one." She stomped her foot.
He lifted an eyebrow, "If it's so easy, then why don't you choose one? I want ramen."
Her right eye twitched immediately and her fist tightened. "Just choose. If I could chose by myself I wouldn't have asked you."
"Red," he blurted, rubbing his poor stomach. The smell of ramen was floating right above his nose.
"Pink it is," she grabbed it.
Naruto's eyes widened, "What?"
It was Sakura's turn to look at Naruto, "What do you want now, Naruto?"
"You—just—" Naruto stared at her and rested his head on one of his hand, "Never mind."
Sakura was too busy paying the owner. After grabbing the glove she looked back to Naruto, "Where to?"
"Ramen, but I know that's a no…so to the hot springs," Naruto said.
"Hot springs?" Sakura placed her pink gloves on and smiled to herself.
Naruto stared at herself for a longer moment. When it was clear her mind was only on the pair of gloves he sighed, "He'll be there for sure. Trust me."
"Hm? Are you saying that shopping for gloves is a waste of time?" Sakura frowned, "You'd be like this if it was ramen."
"Does that mean we can go in that stand?"
"No."
Naruto crossed his hands behind his head. This was feeling more of a trip than a mission with Sakura here…
He tried to talk some sense in her, but decided against it. From his experiences with Tsunade (and since Sakura's her apprentice), women were not a force to be reckoned with. By the end, Sakura was dragging bags and bags of little trinkets. Besides, it wasn't very often that Sakura got to shop. She always worked long hours at the hospital without complaining even once. Sasuke had told Naruto a bit about it.
"Shouldn't we be finding Jiraiya?" Naruto asked.
"From what Tsunade said, he should be having a hangover right about now," Sakura said, "No point in searching for him if he's not around, right?"
"I guess…" Naruto rubbed his head then his stomach, "I'm starving…"
Sakura turned back to look at him, seemingly testing if he was indeed telling the truth. "Fine," she said after a while, "I bought some fast food a while ago in case you too hungry. It should be in one of these bags…just a moment."
That was weird. He had not remembered her buying food. Naruto shrugged; he was never a fan of shopping. It wasted too much money in his opinion.
He stood at a distance, walking Sakura search through the bags hanging from her arms. She searched through each frantically, like the food was going to disappear if she didn't find it in time.
"Do you need help—"
"No, I can find it," Sakura reassured, still going at a fast pace.
"You sure?" Naruto asked, already walking towards her.
"Yeah," Sakura nodded, "I'm fine."
Naruto sighed. From the looks of it, her stubbornness could match Tsunade, perhaps even beat the old hag. "Okay…"
The girl was so busy searching through her bags she failed to notice a cart running straight towards her. The man waved at her, shouted at her even. "Where is that food…" she said, still oblivious to what was happening. Her ears picked up the sound and she immediately looked up, widening her eyes. It was too late.
"Watch out!" Naruto grabbed Sakura just in time to prevent her from being hit by the cart. She felt a wave of relief flood through her until she realized what was happening.
Naruto's was really close to her. He was frozen, slightly looking at the cart and back at her. For once, the girl couldn't find the strength to talk back. It was a bit strange.
"You okay?" he asked.
Sakura nodded, not daring to speak. The mood was gone as soon as it arrived.
Sakura picked up the bags and continued walking, staying a few steps ahead of Naruto. For now, even thinking of how close they were caused her cheeks to go red.
"You okay?" Once again, Naruto's face was a few inches away from hers.
"Ah!" She stumbled and fell to the ground. Naruto winced.
"Sorry…didn't mean to surprise you by coming up so close," Naruto said.
Sakura looked up to see him scratching the back of his neck.
He's been doing that a lot.
Then again, why did she care anyways? She got back on her feet, refusing Naruto's help.
Naruto took a few bags, "That should help! Right?"
"I-It's okay," Sakura reassured, but Naruto had already started walking ahead.
"Come on!" he called out, "The Hot Springs are waiting!"
"Coming!" Sakura took the remaining bags and broke into a sprint, "Wait up!"
They first returned to the hotel to dump the bags. The hotel manager looked at them like they were mad, muttering something about how teenagers wasted money. Sakura was about to talk back until Naruto suggested that they just ignored what the manager said. He did a sheepish grin before tailing Sakura up the stairs.
"It's better than what happened one time while I was traveling with the old pervert," he said.
"What happened?" she asked, taking out the key to open the door.
"The old pervert was so drunk one time while going back to the hotel, he called the hotel manager…" he started laughing at this point.
"What?" she frowned, "What happened?"
He stiffened his laughter, "he called the hotel manager…a hot babe!" Naruto leaned closer, "And I'm pretty sure it was this lady too…"
He leaned back to the wall, slightly frowning now, "It was an unpleasant experience. The old hermit tried to make a move on her and got us kicked us out to the streets."
"That's horrible!" Sakura turned the doorknob and entered her room.
"What's more, he left me to have more fun with other 'hot babes'," frowned Naruto, "it was only once of course. Never had the chance to travel with him again."
"Who would?" Sakura asked.
Naruto simply smiled and shrugged, "It was better than staying at Konoha."
Sakura looked down slightly, feeling a bit hurt.
"N-Not that it was bad or anything…" he scratched his neck.
"It's alright," she shook her head, "You can tell me the truth. Anyways, be right back. Let me put my stuff in my room and I'll be right out."
She grabbed her bags from Naruto and entered her room, closing the door behind. Once there, she took a deep breath. For some odd reason, she was getting nervous when she saw him. It wasn't like the nervousness she felt when she first met him. That was when she feared him because of the rumors.
Right now, it was a different kind of anxiety and a different kind of fear.
"Hot springs," she slapped her cheeks, as a method to wake her up, "How often do you get to the hot springs, Haruno Sakura!"
One of her hands would be enough to count the times she went to the hot springs for these past few years.
After calming down herself and placing her bags onto the floor, she walked back out.
"Hey," Naruto waved, "What took so long?"
The time she spent calming down had been wasted. The stupid feeling was back.
"S-Stuff," she said, "Too much stuff!"
Naruto nodded, "Hot springs then?"
Sakura felt her neck about to nod, "Wait! I think I'm going to go shopping first. Go on without me!"
"But…didn't you just—"
"I didn't finish," she lied, biting her lower lip. However, he seemed convinced and nodded.
"Okay…I'll go then…" Naruto said.
Sakura merely nodded and pushed him forward, "Go already!"
Naruto nodded…for now. There was something up with Sakura. He figured it was probably because she didn't want him around for some girl…stuff.
He walked to the hot springs, but decided to go eat ramen. After all, it was what he originally intended to do anyways.
Sakura waited until Naruto's footsteps were far away. She felt immediate relief to the strange stress she was feeling. Naruto was Naruto. That was that. With that in mind, she decided to set out to the hot springs again. She opened the door and walked out, muttering something before locking it.
"Arg…"
She froze at the sound of the groan. Who was in here?
"Naruto?" she asked. There was no reply and she knew Naruto wouldn't dare pull a joke on her like that.
"Arg…"
There it was again, echoing in the hallway. She trailed her steps carefully, placing a hand over her weapon pocket. She braced herself at a corner, turned, and—
"Jiraiya-sama!"
He was lying on the ground, half-drunk, and mumbling something that seemed to be a string of insults?
She walked to him, "Jiraiya-sama, Tsunade-sama has been looking for you." There was no response. Clearly, he was too drunk for his own good. Sighing, Sakura activated her chakra and cured Jiraiya of his miseries. He was awake soon enough.
"What?"
Clearly he was still half-asleep, but at least able to understand human language.
"Jiraiya-sama, Tsunade-sama has been looking for you," said Sakura, with a bit of annoyance in her tone.
The hermit rubbed his eyes, "You're that scrawny pupil of hers right?"
"Yes," Sakura gritted her teeth, "I'm Tsunade-sama's pupil and she requests that you come back to Konoha."
"Why?" asked Jiraiya, yawning. Sakura had to cover her nose. He reeked of alcohol all over.
"I do not know," Sakura stated, "Tsunade-sama has just requested that you come back quickly." She could never understand how someone like Jiraiya could be on the same level as Tsunade. Granted, they both seem to like alcohol as much, but Tsunade was much more responsible!
"Well," the toad hermit seemed to be in deep thought, "Tell her…another day! Bye!" With that he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"Wait till I find him…"
Sakura groaned. She should have remembered Tsunade's warning.
By the time it was sunset, Sakura had searched all the hotel, shops, restaurants, and bars, but the hermit was nowhere to be found. It seemed like he had simply disappeared from the face of the earth. Where was the world coming to?
"Have you seen an old man with long white hair? He looks like a pervert, he is one!" she said to a person walking by. They merely shook their head, like the most of them. The ones that had seen him were mostly pretty girls. From what they said, they had seen him a week ago, pestering them.
When she felt hope was lost, she walked to the hot springs. Naruto might be still in there, waiting for her. However, he wasn't there when she got in. The workers there even told her that they had never seen a blond teenager walk in. Sakura panicked and ran.
He hadn't gotten upset that she refused to go with him…right?
She slapped her forehead. This was just great. Now she had to look for both Jiraiya and Naruto, as if Jiraiya wasn't a hard enough person to find.
Her legs picked up a high speed as she skid across the town's path. No matter where she looked, Naruto was nowhere to be found. She had to give Naruto credit. Even though he was wearing that outrageous orange, it was still hard to search for him in a crowd of people.
"Naruto!" she called out. A dozen of people looked at her like she was crazy, but she merely shoved her way out of the crowd and continued elsewhere.
The sun had nearly disappeared and there was still no sign of orange anymore. The idea irked Sakura a bit, the idea that Naruto was made at her. She didn't have enough brainpower to continue thinking so she merely concentrated on finding the blonde.
"Uzumaki, you brat, show yourself or if my fists find you first!" she yelled, scaring several of the inhabitants of the town. She merely regarded them with an indifferent face. So what if she was yelling? They would have to deal with it.
"Sakura!" Her head whipped back in a second and caught sight of the blond hauling something rather…huge, "Found him!"
She rushed over and nearly whacked him on the head. The only thing stopping her was the sight of what he had been dragging on the floor.
"Jiraiya-sama?" she asked, raising her eyebrows, "How did you catch him?"
Naruto flashed a light grin, "Hot springs!"
The journey back home was shorter than Sakura would have like it. Pretty soon, they were back in Konoha, with Jiraiya still half-drunk and mumbling strange words. After his last escape, Sakura figured that the sooner she brought the hermit to Tsunade, the better.
"Where were you?" asked Sakura, "Do you know how long I was trying to find you?" She hated her tone of voice; it made her sound worried, something she was not proud of showing.
"Sorry," Naruto said quickly, irritating her further as it showed that he sensed that she was worried. "I was hungry so I went to eat ramen first. It might have been why you might have not been able to find me."
"I searched the ramen shop…"
"Well, I moved around since I figured I should start looking for the old pervert," said Naruto, "He doesn't stay in one town for long and it would have been bad if he escaped or something like that…" He laughed as if to lighten the mood.
"Well, be more organized!" said Sakura, "You have a team member now so it'd be nice to keep her informed about what you're doing. We're a team, right?"
Sakura noticed that Naruto's face looked surprised for one second before it changed into a merry one.
"Yeah!" he nodded."A team!"
Somehow, it brought a smile to her face as well. Perhaps it was because she finally had a team again.
--
Up next: See how Sasuke organizes Sakura's apartment ;)