Disclaimer: All NARUTO related materials are Copyrighted and belong to Masashi Kishimoto, not me.

Chapter 3

Triangular Theory of Love

"Yawn! This is so boring! Can't you teach something more interesting, Sakura-chan?"

"For the third time, Naruto, no! Iruka-sensei said we have to start from the basics. You're lacking in that area so you should listen as well. But if this is boring you so much then why not go find Sasuke-kun? He said he was going to take a walk but it's been half an hour now. I'm starting to get worried."

"Figures you'd be. Anyway Naruto, you don't have to endure this. She's teaching me, not you, remember?"

"Fine, fine, Miyako-chan... I'm going... *murmur*stupid Sasuke*murmur*"

"What was that?!"

"Ack! N-nothing, Sakura-chan! Haha!"

It was mid-afternoon as Sakura and Miyako were sitting across each other on the living room table in Miyako's apartment. There were scrolls and books scattered on floor next to them and on the table from which Sakura showed pictures and diagrams as she explained and read about chakra, basic ninja training and techniques. About half an hour ago Sasuke had gotten bored and made an excuse to leave for a while. After looking around the apartment a dozen of times and attempting to watch TV and bother them, Naruto tried listening to what Sakura was teaching, but eventually got bored, too. Miyako, on the other hand, was finding Sakura's lesson fascinating. After all, ninja stuff was the only thing she was interested in and one of the few things she could keep her attention on long enough.

"So chakra can be transfered to another person, right?" Miyako asked.

"It is possible but you need to possess a lot of concentration and chakra control in order to mold the form of the transferred chakra to adapt it to another person's specific chakra type. And you shouldn't give the other person too much or he might not be able to handle the rapidly increasing amount," Sakura explained.

"Well, duh! I wouldn't want to overload anyone. They might explode or something." The brunette rolled her eyes.

"Actually, it would damage the recepient's chakra system and there's a high chance that they wouldn't be able to use chakra anymore."

"Yeah, like I said, explode. Hey, that could be an awesome countermeasure against ninja who absorb chakra! I could overload them and–"

"Such ninja usually carry chakra storage devices used exactly for the purpose of preventing that from happening," Sakura interrupted.

"Well then I just need to overload the device too, don't I?"

"It takes enormous amounts of chakra to be able to do that and it's very rare to find people with such large reserves. Otherwise, it's impossible."

That's what you think! I bet Naruto can beat a chakra absorbing ninja any day. He's got huge chakra reserves even without counting the Kyuubi's, Miyako thought.

"If you say so..." Miyako resigned. "Then, if you don't have enough chakra to use against chakra stealers, all that's left is taijutsu, right?"

Sakura opened her mouth to disagree but instead closed it and thought about it.

"That's right. Taijutsu doesn't require any chakra whatsoever, stamina and technique is all that's needed. You're catching up fast! Looks like you may just have the potential to make it! If you work hard enough that is."

"Oh, you think so?" Miyako bashfully scratched the back of her head with a hand, feeling a little bashfull. After all, she was kind of cheating. She already knew most about ninja so for her this was just like a fan discussion about the Naruto world. She was curious about a couple of things, though. "And how do you measure how much chakra someone's got, anyway?"

"You feel it like a sixth sense," Sakura explained. "But you can't accurately measure exactly how much chakra someone has. More experienced ninja, sensory ninja or ninja with sensory training can do that."

That's what I figured... "But if you have too little, can you somehow increase it?"

"As I said at the beginning, chakra is a form of life energy all living individuals naturally produce to some degree. It is the resulting mix of physical energy, present in every cell of the body, and spiritual energy, gained from exercise and experience. Physical energy is collected from the cells in the body and can be increased through training, stimulants, and exercise. Spiritual energy is derived from the mind's consciousness, found within and born from the soul, and can be increased through studying, meditation, and experience. Having these two energies become more powerful will in-turn make the molded chakra more powerful. Therefore, practicing a technique repeatedly will build-up experience, building up one's spiritual energy in turn, and thus allowing more chakra to be created. On the other hand, physical energy can be increased by training and extending your limits, in other words, your strength and stamina. As a result, molding these two newly increased energies will result in expanding your chakra reserves. In time you'll get used to it and do it without conscious thought. But chakra takes time and a great deal of training to gradually build up. So you shouldn't solely concentrate on increasing your chakra levels. Instead, you should focus on sufficiently controlling and conserving it without letting the chakra you already have go to waste with the tiniest of use. Now you should understand the importance of chakra control."

"Yeah, I do," Miyako said after it all sank in her mind. Then realization came over her and she hung her head low. "That means I'll have to work my ass off just to be able to mold chakra. I've never done any real ninja training so I'll be exhausted the whole time. I'm such a major wimp that a log can beat me! And by the time I'm able to mold chakra, there won't be any time left for me to learn to use it! This sucks! I'll never be able to become a ni–"

A hand fisted the collar of Miyako's shirt and lifted her up from the cushion on the floor so that her now surprised expression faced a determined blue eyed one with green goggles and whisker-like marks on the cheeks.

"Hey, don't be so quick to give up! You have to give it your all and your best to reach your goal! I believe in you, and I say you can do it, ya hear! Question is, do you believe in yourself? Tell me!"

Wha–?! Wait, did he just pull a Gurren Lagann speech on me?! Not to mention he's dead serious.

To say that would be an understatement. Naruto had just come back with Sasuke in tow when he heard Miyako complaining. He was now holding her in mid-air by the collar (which was a feat Miyako gave him a bit of credit for in her mind, since he was no taller than her) and had shouted right in her face. She couldn't believe it. Was the actual Uzumaki Naruto actually encouraging her? And did he say he believed in her? No one has believed in her so strongly and openly before. She was usually the one who encouraged and believed in others. She never took the time to think if she believed in herself. The question now really was, as Naruto said, did she believe in herself? She did show to have some guts at times, unfounded courage mostly and moderate pride in some situations but was it the same as believing in herself?

Miyako awkwardly looked around the room. Sakura looked ready to bolt upright from her seat with the way she was leaning with her hands on the table, bearing a worried expression. Miyako figured the pinkette would be yelling at Naruto by now for treating a girl like that, if she hadn't seen his unfaltering determination to smack some sense into a whiner like Miyako. This wasn't some joke this time, he was too earnest. With arms crossed, Sasuke was leaning on the doorframe between the corridor and living area, expressionless as usual. His eyes, however, darted back and forth from Naruto to Miyako, showing his interest in the development of their curious interaction. Since they were still in the academy, Miyako knew, Sasuke still hadn't seen Naruto get so intense. It was natural that he would be a little surprised.

While observing her surroundings, she remembered a couple of times it seemed like she believed in herself. One was when she made a fool out of herself in front of her previous class. She did it for the "Miyako" she had unconsciously drawn in Arts. Then there was earlier today, to cheer up a gloomy Naruto. From those two times, Miyako came to the conclusion that one believes in himself for the sake of a certain goal. Naruto believes in himself for his goal of becoming a Hokage so everyone would acknowledges him and as such to protect Konoha and its villagers, part of which were his soon-to-be close friends who are going to believe in him and his dream. Sasuke believes in himself for his goal of killing his brother and thus avenging his clan, the most obvious of all. Lastly, Sakura believes in herself for her goal of being able to stand up for herself. She got picked on when she was little, which awakened a strong self-defense mechanism, Inner Sakura. But what was Miyako's goal? Does she want to chase a dream, avenge someone or stand up for herself, similarly to any of the other three? Or was there something else? What was the most important thing to her that she would like to achieve? What was she striving for?

Finally, Miyako closed her eyes and smiled to herself, ready with her answer. She thought of Haru, Shun, Tsuki, Taiki, Yasu and Okada-san back at "the other world". She thought of her deceased parents and their hopes of her returning and becoming a ninja, hopes about which she just recently found out. She thought of the Hokage and Iruka-sensei's encouraging words that if she worked hard enough, she would become a ninja in no time, which was a similar thing Sakura had just said a few minutes ago. She and Sasuke proved that they partially believed in her by agreeing to help tutor her, although reluctantly. And now, Naruto, the one and only, was holding her by her shirt three inches above the ground, pulling a Talk no Jutsu straight in her face.

There might be, after all, something more important to her than anything.

"Yeah, I do. I believe in myself. I believe that I can do it. I'm going to become a ninja! For the sake of all who believe in me, for the sake of my parents and my friends, I'm going to believe in myself and become the best kunoichi this world has yet to see!" Miyako yelled with a determination rivaling the orange clad kid in front of her. She mentally added "finding out what the heck Sarutobi is hiding about my father's legacy" to that future "to do" list.

"Good! That's what I wanted to hear." Naruto smirked and finally put her back down with a grin as he put his hands on his hips.

"Now, if you two clowns are done spouting useless hotheaded idiot nonsense, shall we finally get going to the academy training grounds so we can start the fruitless labor I was forced to supervise for two hours?"

A couple of glares were directed towards the owner of the low grumble. Sasuke had ruined their bonding moment. Sakura however, at the sound of the dark boy's voice, immediately went into "fangirl mode" and fussed over the raven haired boy, telling him how she was worried and how happy she was to see him back, which drowned out Naruto and Miyako's protests and insults for the boy. Sasuke ignored them and turned to leave.

I know Sakura's more annoying now than she'll be after a few months but I wonder if Sasuke's a bigger angsty jerk in comparison with his graduated self, Miyako contemplated as she, Sakura and Naruto followed him.

- xxx -

The four found themselves by the Academy's large fenced training ground with an oval run-course flanked by several poles and training dummies. Sasuke led his three classmates to the shade of a tall tree where a grey backpack lay. Miyako recognized it as the one she had seen Sasuke bring on travel missions. He must have brought it there when he went out on his "walk". Sasuke took out a pair of some kind of attached to each other metal plates with writing on them and threw them at Miyako.

"Put these on," he ordered.

The girl reflexively tried to catch the objects flying towards her, which turned out to be a big mistake. The moment the plates fell in her arms, her knees buckled and began to shake. Going through a set of agonized faces, she struggled not to drop them. Sakura smiled sympathetically as Naruto snickered. They were all too familiar with this kind of training. In their first year of the Ninja Academy, Iruka-sensei had made them wear the same things for quite some time.

"Oh crap!"

Miyako tumbled onto her backside on the ground with a loud thump and pushed the heavy things away from her. She then remembered why these were so familiar. These were weights. Ninja ones probably, enhanced by seals, since they looked a lot slimmer than the ones she was made to wear by Okada-san during karate and judo club activities or when she sparred with Shun in her family dojo back in her previous world. They were more like the ones Lee had under his leggings, but these right here were probably a lighter version. If they were the same weight as his, Miyako would probably be half-dead by now.

"Weights? You want me to put on exactly these weights?! Are you kidding me?! I can barely stand holding them! Your judgement sucks!" she yelled at the boy. Well, at least he wasn't underestimating her.

"You wanna become a ninja or not?" Sasuke retorted, successfully shutting her up. "And if I'm going to be the one mentoring your training, you'll need to address me as "sensei" or "Sasuke-sensei"."

"Wha–?! S-seriously?! Are you really going to go there?!" She gaped. Was he making fun of her? "You have got to be kidding me!"

"You mean "You have got to be kidding me, sensei"," The Uchiha smirked sadistically, visibly enjoying his new-found position of authority. "C'mon, you need to learn to respect your superiors. We don't have all day."

"UGH! Fine! ...sensei." Miyako glared at him and then stood up. "I'm surprised you don't want me to call you "Uchiha-sama"."

"Hn. That can do as well," Sasuke countered, causing her eyebrow to twitch in irritation.

"Come on, Miyako-chan, you can do it!" Naruto cheered grinning. "Don't let Bastard-sensei get to you." This won him a whack on the head.

"Don't make fun of Sasuke-kun, you idiot!" Sakura yelled at the blond and then continued gushing at Sasuke's confident high and mighty expression with stars in her eyes.

Miyako took a breath and with a determined look picked, or more like pulled up, one batch of the weights. With a lot of sweaty painstaking effort she somehow managed to attach it to her right leg. She then repeated the same arduous process with the other leg, following with her wrists. When she was finished, she couldn't move from her spot. Literally. Turns out, her legs were weaker than her arms. She tried not to spit out a "troublesome".

"Now do ten laps around the course," Sasuke-sensei ordered.

"Excuse me?!" Miyako protested.

"You heard me. A ninja should be able to run faster than what you can probably manage." He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "And I highly doubt you'd be able to execute a singe Leaping Monkey." Miyako had no idea what a Leaping Monkey was supposed to be, but Sasuke's tone of speaking was starting to make her skin crawl.

"Hey, hey, Miyako-chan! I'll run along with you if you want," Naruto said, dashing past her with a velocity that shouldn't have been possible for a kid his age, making her jaw drop slightly. Were they expecting her to become just as fast?

Well, I've gotta start somewhere, so I guess it can't be helped... Miyako sighed in defeat and once again tried her best to move her legs, only to lose her balance and fall flat on her face in the dirt. She could practically hear Sasuke's smug smirk, sneering at her pathetic form on the ground, and she cursed the weights for not being able to lift her arm in an attempt to flip him off.

- xxx -

By the time she had one lap done, Naruto was running his eleventh. The whole time she could hear Sasuke shouting that she was "slow", "weak" and "hopeless". Naruto then made fun of him by calling him a "tor-mentor", "Bastard-sensei" and "Uchiha-chan-dono". That made Miyako cry laughing but it made "Uchiha-chan-dono" throw sharp and pointy objects at Naruto while glaring a storm. It also caused Sakura to reward Naruto with a couple more head whacks, as if he needed the additional brain damage.

At the end of the second lap, the Miyako was starting to get the hang of it. Instead of dragging her feet along with the weights, she tried "kicking" one of her legs forward and then using the momentum of the weights' thrust to "kick" her other leg, effectively actively using her muscles instead of just passive joint movement. That way she was now successfully running. Sort of. She was limping forward at a fast pace. Another indication that she was doing some progress, was that Sasuke no longer yelled discouragements at her. He just stood still and followed her with his stern gaze while mentally counting her laps. Inside, he was a little angry, envious even. When he was doing this kind of training with the same weights, he didn't figure out the right way to make himself run until the fourth lap. And back then he had to resort to cheating by pumping chakra into his muscles, which in retrospect, was a feat on its own at the age he was at back then.

"Hey... She's a real quick learner. I couldn't run the laps the first day," Sakura thought out loud while observing Miyako carefully.

The brown haired girl was now on her seventh lap and was going at the same speed as a slowed down Naruto. You could hear her taunt him "What's wrong, Naru-chan? Can't outrun an academy rookie with her beginner weights on?"

"Hah! I was just taking a leisurely stroll!" Naruto would respond and run faster. Miyako would increase her own speed by controlling her breathing and continue to taunt the orange clad boy. That was her way of creating something of a motivation for herself to run faster.

"Tch. It's just easier for her. She's older than we were when we had to do this kind of training." After a while Sasuke thought of a excuse with which to soothe his ego.

Finally done with the tenth lap, Miyako ran up to the Uchiha, but when she tried to stop, she fell face-first at his feet. She was practically exhausted. Naruto also came up to them, grinning as he had done about twenty laps. He tried to brag about it to Sakura who first ignored him but then got annoyed and smacked him upside the head to shut him up.

"Oww! My legs hurt!" Miyako whined.

"Ninja don't get to complain and are able to stop their momentum without losing their ground. You have a complete lack of balance. We'll work on that next time." Miyako heard Sasuke's monotone over her head. She stood up, dusted herself off and saluted with a hand next to her forehead and a mocking smirk.

"Roger, Uchiha-sensei-sama!" she bellowed like a soldier.

"That's more like it! Now do fifty high jumps. Ninja are able to jump to high grounds," Sasuke mocked in turn. Miyako's smirk faded.

Curse his solid stuck-up attitude! He actually likes bossing people around. I'll have to think of something else to tick him off with so I can get back at him, she complained in her mind while giving those jumps a try, although she was barely able to separate herself from the ground. Meanwhile, Naruto kept cheering for Miyako and Sakura was still "stargazing" Sasuke.

- xxx -

After about half an hour Miyako had somehow managed to do fifty jumps and was now glad that the cursed weights were off her legs.

"Now let's continue with target practice and hand-eye coordination," Sasuke announced and took out a kunai and shuriken from the holsters on his right leg. "This is–"

"A kunai and a shuriken. Iruka-sensei briefed me on ninja equipment this morning," Miyako interrupted him and patted her holster. A second later the same shuriken and kunai swished inches away from her right temple making her freeze as a couple of hairs fell from her head. A chill ran down her spine at the sudden closeness of danger. She didn't even see him throw them.

"Don't interrupt your superiors. I strongly advise you against it. It's not polite." Sasuke smirked, eyes narrowed.

"Ninja are rarely polite, sensei," Miyako joked, narrowing her own eyes at him, only to be ignored.

"Sakura should've already told you that with shurikenjutsu there are different ways of throwing projectiles, tricks and secret techniques even, but on a basic level, it's all in the wrist." Upon hearing him say her name, Sakura let out a giddy gasp. "Try finding a method that suits you. Start with the shuriken," Sasuke said as he drew three circles on one of the poles with a piece of chalk he picked up from his backpack along the way. "This is your target." He tapped the pole with the chalk. "Let's see what you can do."

Miyako picked out a shuriken from her holster and examined it. It wasn't as light as she expected but it wasn't that heavy either. It weighed a little more than a hefty kitchen knife. She looked at the markings on the pole, eyes narrowing. Crouching slightly, she lifted her right arm in front of her body with the shuriken between her index and middle fingers. She then swiped her hand at the pole and released the shuriken at the right moment with a quick wrist-snap. It flew with a barely audible whistle and hit the line of the inner-most circle. Miyako stood up and turned to grin at Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura with hands crossed, content of herself. Those years of pretending to be ninja while throwing junk back and forth with Shun at her father's dojo and the back yard hadn't gone to waste.

"How did you...?" Sakura gaped.

"So cool! That was great, Miyako-chan!" Naruto cheered, jumping up and down.

"Well, I'm good at throwing stuff..." Miyako started bragging, rubbing a finger under her nose.

"Your stance needs work." Sasuke voiced, crossing his arms.

"Wha? Hey! I hit it dead in the center, didn't I? Well, almost, but anyway! Give me a little credit, you bastard! Can't you be the least bit supportive? Some teacher you are..." Miyako finally boiled, shouting in Sasuke's face.

"That was easy. The trick is accurately hitting a target located at a blind spot or intercepting a moving target. You can't expect all your opponents to sit still waiting for you to aim at them. And you don't look like you have the slimmest chance against even the weakest ninja," Sasuke retorted indifferently, uncomfortably inching away from her face.

Ugh, he's right. But that was an insult, a challenge! Heh... It's on, princess! I know just how to push your buttons, Miyako thought. She then backed up and smirked mischievously. Sasuke was relieved she was no longer invading his "bubble" but something about her look bothered him.

"Hey, Sasuke, you have a big brother?" Miyako suddenly asked. Sasuke tensed. Naruto and Sakura listened with attention.

"No," he lied, silently adding a mental "not anymore".

Miyako's smirk grew wider. Her plan was working. She knew that shurikenjutsu painfully reminded him of his brother and a time when they were happy. And the talk about hitting targets at point-blank surely brought back a memory of when his brother was training in the woods.

"You sure?"

"..." Sasuke glared, growing increasingly fed up with her.

"Too bad... I could've sworn you sounded like someone's little brother," she said.

"How so?" as predicted, he asked.

"Little brothers are usually angsty little pricks who envy their older siblings because they think them painfully perfect in any respect," Miyako explained as a vein started throbbing on the side of Sasuke's forehead. "You're an asshole with a superiority complex who doesn't acknowledge other people so I just thought you had a big brother who made you become that way by molesting you or something." The vein got bigger. "But I guess you were just born a prick."

"WHY YOU BRATTY LITTLE–!" Miyako turned to run as soon as she sensed a sliver of Sasuke's poisonous killer intent. "I'M GOING TO END YOU!" He chased her all around the training ground, growling and cussing his mouth off.

Plan success! Miyako thought while running away laughing.

"Ahahaha!" Naruto laughed at how easily Miyako got Sasuke mad. He thought that only he could do that.

"Nagahoshi Miyako, take those words back right now!" Sakura yelled, mad with the person who offended her Sasuke-kun.

Miyako just continued running for her life and turned to stick her tongue out at Sasuke.

Nobody messes with me! she yelled in her head.

- xxx -

It was sundown at the Ichiraku Ramen stand, Naruto's favorite place to eat. This time, however, was different. He wasn't eating alone. He was with friends. Three of them even!

"Meanie! To hurt a defenseless girl with no fighting skills whatsoever. And you call yourself a man!" Miyako sat next to Naruto, rubbing a forming bruise on her left forearm.

"Please, you've barely got a scratch on you. And you were asking for it. Don't push your luck," Sasuke seethed from the farthest right. "So annoying..."

"Oi, she was just joking, ya know. It's not her fault you have no sense of humor," Naruto spoke up. Sasuke sent him a death glare for insinuating that anything concerning any big brothers he might or might not have, could be considered remotely funny. The loudmouth knew nothing.

"Miyako! Naruto! That wasn't funny for Sasuke-kun. I suggest we talk about something else." Sakura sat down between Sasuke and Naruto, successfully breaking them up.

"Yeah, no need to make more fun of poor little Sasuke-kun," Miyako chided, imitating Sakura's tone of voice at the last part, winning herself two glares.

She looked around the bar to avoid their looks and spotted a calendar on the far right wall with a small red plastic rectangle on a certain date that seemed really familiar to the brown headed girl. Idiot! She mentally slapped herself. She forgot today was her birthday. She admitted to herself that she wasn't really paying attention to the date anyway.

"You know, it's not nice to hit the birthday girl..."

"Birthday girl?" Sakura repeated and stopped glaring. Naruto and Sasuke also drew their attention to her. "Today's your birthday? Seriously?"

"Yeah, I just remembered..." Miyako slightly blushed and pointed to the calendar behind Sakura.

"Oh! Oh! Happy birthday then!" Naruto bolted from his chair and shouted excitedly.

"Yeah, happy birthday," Sakura also said, smiling politely.

Miyako waited for Sasuke to say something but he just kept quiet, avoiding her.

Figures... I bet he's gonna be mad at me for a long while for mentioning Itachi. She sighed.

"Thanks, guys! Let's order!"

"One large bowl of miso ramen~!" Naruto sang.

"Tomato," Sasuke monotoned.

"I'll have salt ramen, please," Sakura read from the menu.

"And you? Hey, I haven't seen you before. Who's your friend, Naruto?" Teuchi, the owner of the place asked upon noticing the girl with long dark hair, a pale blue-green t-shirt and dark brown shorts.

"Old man, this is Miyako-chan! She's the new girl in our class and it's her birthday today!" Naruto explained. Miyako felt embarassed again. He was more excited for her birthday than she was.

"Nice to meet you! Naruto's been talking about this place all day so we figured we'd stop by," Miyako said smiling.

"Well, it's nice to hear someone's advertising," Teuchi laughed and Naruto grinned with a small blush while scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "I'm Teuchi and this is my daughter Ayame-chan." He motioned towards the fifteen year old girl in a white uniform and matching bandana, stirring ramen broth behind him.

When she heard her name mentioned, Ayame turned and waved with a "hey, nice to meet you, too," and continued her work.

"So, Miyako-chan, what would you like?"

"Oh? Um... miso, I guess?" Miyako chose randomly. She had no idea what real cooked ramen tasted like. She had never even eaten cooked ramen before, because Okada-san said it was bad for the health and never made any. She'd only tried the instant ones whenever she managed to sneak them in. But she decided to try what Naruto was having. The instant miso ramen tasted better than the instant versions of what Sasuke and Sakura had ordered and Miyako was used to miso broth, just not with calorie-full ramen noodles with toppings. Besides, Naruto compares cup ramen all the time, if he chose miso as the best, it wouldn't be that bad... would it?

The next several minutes were quiet. Naruto was tapping his finger on the counter, bored with waiting. Sakura was looking back and forth from Sasuke to the spot on the counter in front of her, blushing each time she did that. Said boy was simply enjoying the silence he was waiting for all afternoon, leaning on the palm of his hand with his eyes closed. Miyako was looking with great interest over the counter to watch Teuchi and Ayame cook the ramen. She had started doing that when she first noticed a pleasant aroma floating about.

"Here you go!"

"Let's dig in!"

As Ayame the waitress put down the four bowls of ramen, Naruto immediately jumped onto his large serving. Sasuke's ramen was strangely red from all the tomato paste. Miyako remembered reading that tomatoes were his favorite food and that he hated sweets so that kind of ramen was probably perfect for him but it seemed a little silly to eat everything with tomatoes. He was practically eating runny noodle pasta broth. Sakura's ramen had a rich pale yellow soup and didn't look half bad. It was probably the plainest ramen since she always watched her weight. Naruto's and Miyako's miso ramen had a thick broth and a wide variety of toppings like boiled vegetables, bamboo shoots, dried seaweed, meat, eggs and fishcakes over the noodles.

Miyako peered at the dried seaweed in her ramen with unease for a short while and then looked at how Naruto was wolfing down his bowl in enjoyment. She gulped, breathed in, took a pair of chopsticks and separated them. Then, with all her courage, she took some noodles and put them in her mouth. It had a rich salty yet deep flavor that was quite to her liking. After another two chopstick bites, she was already eating at the same pace as Naruto. She even asked for a refill the same time he did, both of them with their mouths full, when she finished the same time he did.

- xxx -

"Good night, guys! I had a really great time, even if Sasuke-bastard with his ramen carbonara, red as his hellish heart, tried to ruin the fun," Naruto used the expression Miyako had told him, snickering at the raven haired boy.

"Everyone's heart is red, stupid. It pumps blood," Sasuke retorted.

It had gotten dark and they were leaving Naruto at his apartment. After they paid for the ramen, the four started arguing who would accompany whom to their house. Not that it mattered but it was mainly because Sakura wanted to see where Sasuke lived but Naruto said he wanted to accompany her home like a little gentleman, which intervened with the girl's plans. Miyako then whined that they were counting her out. Finally she came up with an idea everyone liked. They would go leave Naruto at his place since it was nearest, next Sakura and Miyako would join Sasuke until they reached his street corner, last Miyako would accompany Sakura and go home by herself since she didn't mind walking alone.

Sasuke didn't mind walking alone himself, but as far as Sakura was concerned, that was out of the question.

"See ya, Naruto!" Miyako chimed in, wishing for a bit that he wasn't leaving her alone with those two killjoys.

"Bye." Sakura waved and they took off to Sasuke's.

As they were walking, no one spoke. Sasuke was minded his business with hands in his pockets, gone in his own world as he tried to ignore the two girls. Sakura was sneeking looks from next to him like she did all day, while carefully memorizing the path they were taking. She had been given the opportunity to find out the general direction of where her crush lived. It wasn't something she'd miss to remember. Miyako was beyond bored on Sakura's other side, wondering how she didn't see this coming.

"What's up with the silence? Did someone curl up and die?" Miyako voiced her thoughts.

"Huh?" Sakura returned to normal, remembering Miyako was here.

The brunette just sighed and shook her head. The pink headed girl then continued stargazing at her crush.

Ugh, it's too damn boring, Miyako began moping in her head. Dark and broody over there is stuck in his angsty mind, ignoring us and Sakura's fantasizing about him, ignoring me. Where does that leave me? I should either join her and leave my dignity behind just to keep myself entertained or I should go home and leave the poor boy alone with a fangirl. Hmm... maybe I should do just that... Nah, I'm not that evil. Sakura's still too damn annoying and Sasuke's still too big of an asshole. If I leave them alone together, Sakura might take that chance to try to seduce him or confess to him or whatever she considers a brilliant idea. He'll mercilessly brush her off and crush all her delusions. Then she might break down or something. Usually, I don't think about this stuff but Sakura's probably the best choice for Sasuke. They're different, which makes them two halves of a whole. Yeah. Maybe I should change their way of thinking so Sasuke starts to appreciate Sakura and Sakura starts to understand Sasuke better. Yosh! Matchmaker Miyako is born!

"Hey, guys... why do you want to become ninja?" Miyako said, breaking the silence.

"What? Why? Where did that come from?" Sakura turned to her with a questioning expression on her face.

"Well..." Miyako looked about, putting her hands behind her back. "You see... I was thinking about earlier today and I'm not quite sure if my reasons are good enough. That's why I began wondering what were yours." Miyako thought of an excuse. Actually... half of it was true. She really couldn't think of an appropriate reason to want to become a ninja, other than that it looked cool and she wanted to be like her parents, which she recently found out wished for her to have the opportunity to be able to become one.

"Oh? Really? As I think about it, at first I didn't really have particular a reason, either. I was little when I entered the ninja program. I just thought it was awesome and all the cool kids my age were entering. But now I want to be a ninja to stand up for myself, to be stronger. Also ...there's another reason..." Sakura threw a look at Sasuke with a blush. "You don't have to worry about it. You'll figure it out for yourself sooner or later." She smiled at Miyako.

Bingo! She said it! Now that jerk might soften up a bit now that he knows they have the same goal to get stronger. ...well, kind of, Miyako thought. Though she blew it with that obvious hint about wanting to be near him... Miyako looked over to the quiet boy. "And you?"

Sasuke gave a long sigh before he spoke tiredly, "I come from a long line of powerful ninja in one of the strongest ninja clans. What do you think? It's none of your business, anyway."

Miyako sweatdropped as Sakura hung her head. The pink haired girl really hoped he'd tell them more than that. He spoke nothing about his aspirations.

"Hey, I know I'm new but you don't have to be that cold. Are you still mad about earlier? I was just kidding, you know," Miyako tried to reason but the boy just kept looking ahead, disregarding her existence.

"Sasuke-kun..." Sakura whispered to herself.

"Hey, are you always brooding like that?" Miyako called over, crossing her arms, even though she knew the answer and the reason why.

"Sasuke-kun, are we bothering you?" Sakura joined. She looked worried with hands together in front of her chest.

The dark boy sighed with a hand on his forehead.

Heh, he's probably thinking "Why won't they get off my case and leave me alone?" Poor dude... Better lessen the tension, Miyako said to herself.

"You know, if you don't want to talk about it, we understand. Right, Sakura-nee-chan?" Miyako chirped the last part, unfolding her hands.

"Um, yeah!" Sakura agreed, smiling at Sasuke with a small blush. Then, after realizing what Miyako had said, she looked back at her with a displeased face. "Sakura-nee-chan?"

"Yeah, you're born on March 28th, right? You're older than me with about a month or so. We're the same sign!" Miyako beamed as Sakura became more bewildered.

"How do you know my birth date?" she asked, backing up a little.

"Uh, Iruka-sensei mentioned it when he was telling me about you being my tutor?" Miyako thought of an excuse.

"Oh." Sakura returned to her normal self. "And when's your birthday, Sasuke-kun?"

Wow... She's getting really good at this. That's an Aries for you! Good job, Sakura! Miyako thought with a mental thumbs up. Maan, now I sound like Lee and Guy-sensei...

"Why should I tell you?" Sasuke snapped back, shattering Sakura's enthusiasm.

"July 23rd, am I wrong?" Miyako answered for him with a mischievous smirk.

"No one asked you." The boy threw her a spiteful look.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry I blew your cover, mystery boy," Miyako mocked, making Sasuke madder. "Fine, fine, I'll shut up, just don't cut me up in your head like that!" With which the silence returned.

Miyako was thinking how Sasuke was kind of scary in person while Sakura was wondering if she was missing something here. Sasuke, on the other hand, was glad that the two girls had stopped bothering him. He didn't like people questioning him about personal things. He didn't like people in general. Especially annoying girls like the loud and nosy know-it-all Sakura and this new girl Miyako. In his opinion, she was even louder than Sakura, a bit less nosy but she asked just the questions that annoyed him. On top of that, she sometimes appeared more knowledgeable than Sakura for things she normally shouldn't be. Like what was that about his brother?! It was too much of a coincidence.

This curious cunning trait and the shuriken throwing skill the girl showed him earlier today seemed kind of suspicious, despite the claims of her being home-trained. But when he looked back at how she goofed off all day with Naruto, it made it harder to believe she'd be someone suspicious. That's why he figured that if she was hiding something, it probably wasn't life threatening to either to him or anyone else. He was kind of curious what her secret was and brainstormed for a while whether he should try to find out more or let her be. In the end, his curiosity got the better of him so he chose the former and came up with a plan. He'd come after lessons with her and Sakura more often so he keep a look on her and snoop around her apartment for anything suspicious. Sasuke smirked with an "hn", content of his plan.

What's he smirking about that's making him so happy? the oblivious Miyako thought, looking at Sasuke with a stupid face and a raised eyebrow. Meh, he's probably playing "maim Itachi in my head" or something. She chuckled with a hand over her mouth when she imagined a very angry chibi Sasuke bashing a half-dead chibi Itachi with a toy chainsaw.

Sakura still couldn't get what she was missing.

- xxx -

A block away (for privacy and safety reasons) from Sasuke's apartment the girls said their goodbyes with the boy. Sakura sang it with a blush as Miyako just waved once with a casual "See ya!" as they left to Sakura's.

"Ne... Sakura-nee..." Miyako said when Sasuke's Uchiha-crested back was out of sight.

"Don't call me that, it's weird." Sakura sent her a warning.

"Sorry." Miyako paused. "Look Sakura, I can tell you like Sasuke. It's kinda hard to miss."

"What?! Wait! How did you–? Why are you–? Ugh. Well... Fine... yeah... a lot..." Sakura admitted, slightly blushing as her Inner Sakura proudly stated her unyielding love for him.

"You know, he's still just a twelve year old kid who broods a lot. Right now he definitely doesn't have any feelings and probably thinks you're annoying exactly because you like him," Miyako pointed out shamelessly. Sakura looked right about to yell at and bash her head in a building but gave up halfway in favor of looking down at her feet, knowing how right this new girl was. "So... Sakura-nee... don't let him go!" Miyako turned with a warm smile to a wide-eyed Sakura.

The pink haired girl looked back up and also smiled. "Thanks, Miyako... I guess?" She still wasn't sure where all this came from but she still appreciated Miyako's support, even if she sometimes felt her infatuation was fruitless.

"Heh, anytime," Miyako replied. "But if you're gonna prove to him how much you like him, you should change your tactic. You're too obsessive like half the girls in the Academy, which is seriously bothering everyone." She crossed her arms.

A second later Sakura was clutching the back of Miyako's neck in a vice death grip, pushing the girl to bend down.

"That was too much out of you!" the leaking Inner Sakura yelled.

OW! It hurts! So this is what Naruto has to deal with... Gotta remind myself that Sakura doesn't take criticism lightly, Miyako made an important mental note after she managed to squeeze out of Sakura's claw snatch.

"So, since you seem to pretend to be so knowledgeable on the matter, what would you suggest?" Sakura said after she calmed down a bit.

"One word – intimacy," Miyako said lifting a finger.

"...what?" Sakura looked dully at her.

"The triangular theory of love," Miyako simply stated waving the finger.

As this still didn't seem to make sense to Sakura, Miyako explained further, "I read that Psychology depicts love as a cognitive and social phenomenon. Love has three different components – intimacy, commitment, and passion."

Now she was pointing three fingers up. She elaborated while touching each finger with her other hand.

"Intimacy is a form in which two people confide in each other various secrets and details of their personal lives, and is usually shown in friendships and romantic love affairs. Commitment, on the other hand, is the expectation that the relationship is permanent. The last and most common form of love is sexual attraction and passion. Passionate love is shown in infatuation as well as romantic love. All forms of love are viewed as varying combinations of these three components," she cited as if she was reading it from a book.

When she was writing her essay on "The 14 Maneuvers of Love" back in "real world" school, beside a ton of shoujo manga, she skimmed a couple of books on psychology in the library just to get a general idea of what love was, since she had no experience whatsoever. Although it probably would've helped her a bit to just get herself a boyfriend, considering a perfect candidate, Yamamori Haru, the ultimate boy next door, had been by her side for most of her childhood, but whatever. She quickly dismissed the thought of her supposed boyfriend whom she practically abandoned by choosing to stay in another world in order to become a ninja and learn about her parents.

"Hm..." Sakura processed the information. "And how does this help me?"

"Sakura, Sakura..." Miyako jokingly shook her head. "You're smart, so you should know that sometimes the answer to a problem lies within the description. In this case, the definition of love tells you how to achieve it."

Sakura's eyes lit up and adopted a distant look. "So I should make Sasuke-kun feel passion towards me!" she sang and began caressing her long pink tresses with her fingers.

Idiot! Miyako thought facepalming. "Wrong!" Sakura's joy faded."You're twelve! How do you expect him to think you're hot?!"

Sakura crossed her arms and pouted, knowing there was no way. Then something clicked inside her head and she turned to Miyako while opening her mouth to say something, but the dark haired girl cut her off.

"Think about who we're dealing with and the way he thinks. There's absolutely no way he'd get over himself to think a girl is cute."

This made Sakura all gloomy again.

"Hey, consider this from a different standpoint. Don't you think there might be an order in which the three components of love should be achieved like milestones?"

Now Sakura seriously thought about it. After a minute she wondered out loud to see if Miyako agreed with her, "So if all forms of love are viewed as varying combinations of the three components, then there could also be combinations of two rather than all three components."

"Mhm..." Miyako encouraged her to continue.

"But obviously if I want true love, then I need all three of them.."

"Uhuh..."

"So I want intimacy, commitment and passion," A pink hue appeared on Sakura's cheeks as she thought what "passion" represented.

"And how do you plan to achieve those three?" Miyako snickered.

"Um... uh..." Sakura took on a "shy Hinata look". "Maybe I should get to know him first..." She blushed again when she realized how much time she'd wasted going in the wrong direction.

"Bingo! Took you long enough to figure that out!" Miyako grinned and decided to give Sakura a break by spelling the rest out to her, "To get to know him you should become his friend, rather than his humble admirer. When you idolize him, he takes your support for granted and doesn't care to try to get to know you like he would if you became his friend, catching his attention with the right words of understanding and earning his gratitude as he gradually begins to respect you. The result in the first case would be one-sided love."

Sakura looked at her feet, a bit ashamed of herself.

"But friendship is also a form of love that lacks passion. When there's intimacy and commitment already present between two people, there's a higher chance for passion to arise and true love to manifest. Try not to act out on your own belief of being servile and accommodating. Instead, understand what he feels and how he thinks in certain moments to figure out what he actually might like." Miyako said, lighting up Sakura's hope once again.

Sasuke-kun and I will become friends so I can make him fall in love with me! Shannaro! Inner Sakura yelled in Sakura's head, eyes blazing with determination.

"Alright!" Outer Sakura smiled widely.

"But you know that if you want to be friends with a brooding jerk, you should sometimes disagree with him and voice your own opinions, right? No more Sasuke-kun this and Sasuke-kun that..." Miyako imitated in a fangirlish voice.

Miyako felt a sharp pain on the back of her neck again as Sakura attacked her with her claw-like grip.

"Yeah, yeah, got it already!" Sakura hissed from between clenched teeth.

- xxx -

Finally home, Miyako did what she usually did after a long and tiring day back in "real world". She undressed herself down to her fishnet shirt, the black tanktop underneath and the boy shorts she had for underwear. She had left her equipment, t-shirt and shorts on the floor in individual heaps leading to the TV as she dragged her feet lazily across the living room, picking up the remote from the top of the small outdated TV along the way, and hurled herself face down over one of the cushions with a loud "thump". Lastly, she lifted the hand with the remote and turned the TV on. Miyako was glad the day was finally over. Finding out she was in a supposedly imaginary 2D ninja world, meeting all these characters she had so far only dreamed of and experiencing the torture of Sasuke's impossible training was all straining on both her mind and body.

That was one hell of a birthday present... She grinned goofishly to herself while relaxing over the soft cushion.

Even with all the excitement of being here, Miyako felt something was wrong. Something missing...

Haru...! How could I be so selfish...? All day I've been thinking about how awesome it is to be here, while the whole time I've been missing back home. He's probably gone emo or got himself killed without me helping him after one of his clumsy stunts...

She smiled sadly, picturing how he tripped over his blazer's sleeve and fell down the stairs.

I'm such an impossible idiot! Here I am, trying to fix Sakura's love life while my own is a complete screw up. I'm the worst girlfriend ever, abandoning him right when our feelings finally connected.

But even if I go back right now... what am I going to tell him? That I was kidnapped by Kakashi through a secret magical cross-dimensional tunnel my dad and his twin sister found to lead to a ninja world where my mom had lived and where I happen to be born?! Even in my mind it sounds ridiculous!

Ugh... this has become such a mess... Now I no longer belong to Haru's world... I have to stay here at least until I find out everything about this portal thingy and how it works... I doubt I'll be able to face him again but... I hope Sarutobi lets me go see Haru, even if it's just from afar...

Miyako sighed as she laid back down on the cushion in gloom, this time paying attention to the TV screen.

- xxx -

It was 9 PM and Miyako sat crossed-legged on the beige carpet, as close as possible to the TV. She had a big bowl of convenience store popcorn in her lap and was stuffing her face while untently staring at the TV screen.

"Akio-san, please! Don't! Hikaru-san is in the next room! He might hear us!"

An obviously attractive blond-haired young woman with expressive and impressive body curves and a half-undressed nondescript ninja uniform showing the top of her full chest and her underwear was pinned against the wall by a charming black haired topless muscular young man who was passionately ravaging the woman's neck with kisses while she moaned in pleasure.

Miyako bent over the table to get closer to the screen, stuffed a handful of popcorn in her mouth and muffled something like "Akio, you dawg! You two are soo gonna get caught!"

"Naomi! How could you!" As if on cue, an equally as charming brown-haired young man in a ninja uniform knocked down the door, looking at the sinful couple with rage in his eyes.

"Hikaru-san! I– It's not what you think–!" Naomi cried with her juicy lips.

"Akio, you bastard, you're gonna pay for this!" Hikaru yelled, pulling out a kunai and jumped forward, striking Akio in the back.

Naomi screamed and broke down on the floor crying.

Too bad... Akio was kinda hot, his hair looked so smooth! Miyako ate another handful of popcorn from the bowl. Ninja dramas are soo much better than normal ones, she thought while watching Naomi kill Hikaru and then commit seppuku.

- To be continued -

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