A day off from missions

Naruto was now walking towards Sasuke's house. After the Genin teams were announced they had new teammate and he was surprised she was not just fangirl but a determined kunoichi. They had been doing back-to-back D-rank missions, so they had today off.
Naruto at first thought that she was just a fangirl and would be just all over Sasuke in their missions.
But to his surprise she actively participated in their d-rank missions with seriousness. He also heard from her that she was also training in her clan's jutsu as well.
'guess she is not just a fangirl. She takes her shinobi career seriously.' Thought Naruto to himself.

As he was in thoughts, Sasuke appeared in front of him.

"Yo" said Sasuke in his normal stoic voice.
"Good morning, Sasuke. I am heading to Ichiraku Ramen want to come with me? I am starving for my breakfast." Said Naruto.

"I just had mine. But I will accompany you there." Said Sasuke.

Both of the boys put their hands in their pockets and started to walk towards their destination.

As they walked inside the stands of Ichiraku Ramen, Sasuke's face now had a bothered-look.
It was because they spotted Haruno Sakura.
'Kami! Of all the people in the world why should I bump into her now?" thought Sasuke.

"Woah, looks like team 10 is here…" said Naruto in his cheery voice.

Shikamaru and Choji turned around to greet Naruto.

"Hey there Naruto. How have you been?" asked Choji while slurping his ramen.

"I have been good. How about you guys? I haven't seen you people since the genin team placements." asked Naruto to team 10.

"Well, we have been good. But life as a genin is quite troublesome..." said Shikamaru in his usual 'Lazy' tone.

"So are you here by yourself or is your team in tow?" asked Choji.

"No, its not like we were coming here as a team, I am here along with Sasuke." Said Naruto.

On hearing Sasuke's name Sakura turned her head around to see. She never participated in the conversation in the first place… But now on hearing Sasuke's name she asked a bit more happier than usually "Huh? Hey Naruto where is Sasuke-kun. You said he was with you."

"Eh? What do you mean where is he? He is here right with me see…." As he completed, he turned his right and saw that Sasuke wasn't there.

"What the… he was right here with me. Where did he go all of a sudden?"

'Troublesome' though Shikamaru.

Naruto got out of the stand and saw outside Sasuke who was looking a bit tensed. Naruto didn't understand what made him so worked up.

"hey Sasuke why are you sweating and looking so nervous?" said Naruto. On hearing Naruto he turned towards him and said stutteringly "i-its n-not-thing Naruto. I-I am fi-fine."

"Eh? You are now stammering. Your stammering could rival to Hinata's." Naruto said the last bit sarcastically.

Sasuke took a deep breath and cooled himself a bit.
'Boy why should have that happened in the first place with Sakura yesterday night?' thought Sasuke as he blushed again. It felt too good for him to not forget it.

"Sasuke want to stay there or come inside so that I can have my ramen and we can hang out afterwards?" asked Naruto.

Sasuke just nodded and went inside, along with Naruto.
Naruto noticed something now, usually Sakura would brighten up upon hearing Sasuke's name in any mood. But today she was much happier.

"hey old man Teuchi keep bringing 5 bowls of miso Ramen please, I am starving here."

After a while Naruto's order came up and he slurped up his ramen bowl. But he did notice something. Both Sakura and Sasuke were glancing towards each other when they were not seeing one another.

'Knowing Sakura, I can understand why she is glancing towards Sasuke, but why on earth is he glancing towards her? I need to ask him after we get to my home or elsewhere.' thought Naruto.

As Naruto completed eating his ramen, he and Sasuke started to walk towards Naruto's apartment.

As they reached Naruto's apartment Sasuke said, "Naruto I need to ask you about something it's really disturbing me." He said that sheepishly. Naruto never in a million years thought that Sasuke would be like this. His expression on his face was now priceless. It was like Sasuke is a 3-year-old small kid and he is stuck with something.

"Figured it. Something is going in your head, isn't it? Now let us go inside so we can talk." Said Naruto after a while as he came out of his thoughts.

As they went inside, they sat in Naruto's couch and there was a silence between them.

"care to explain why you were glancing towards Sakura all the time when she was not seeing you?" said Naruto

"What do you mean I was glan…"

"Come on. I saw you glancing her, now spill it out what happened that brought so much change in you?" said Naruto before Sasuke completed his sentence

"Fine. I will tell it." Said Sasuke in his stoic voice.

"You see last night I was on the Hokage monument. I was sitting on top of Yondaime's head. Just then…." Sasuke trailed off into a flashback.

Yesterday night:

It was around 9:00 o clock. Sasuke was just sitting idly and was gazing towards stars. Just then he saw pinkette at the other end.

'wait is that Sakura? what is she doing here around this late?' thought Sasuke.

As he completed his thoughts he was now scared. The pink haired girl was now not slowing down and was still walking rapidly towards the tip of the head.
'why is she walking towards there. Few more steps and she is going to fall down. Dammit." Thought Sasuke.

"HEY SAKURA WATCH WHERE YOU ARE GOING!" yelled Sasuke on top of his lungs as he ran towards her. But she was not listening nor responding to him.

'oh oh' thought Sasuke.

He ran towards her right in time and caught her hand before she fell down and pulled her towards him from the tip. And that's when the miserable thing happened. She fell right onto him and he lost his footing. Both of them fell down and now Sakura's lips were on Sasuke's.

Sakura came into her senses just now and realized what just happened. Everything happened in a fraction of seconds. Sasuke's face was now entirely red. He was as red as a tomato.
Same was with Sakura. They both just kissed each other accidentally.

Sakura immediately got of him and now turned away from him with hands in her laps.

'I KISSED SASUKE-KUN' yelled in Sakura in her thoughts.

'But what if he starts to hate me for that, what if—' she was cut off from her thought as she saw Sasuke waving at her now.

"Hey Sakura are you alright?" waved Sasuke at her nervously. He was still embarrassed on kissing her.

"um I-I am al-alright Sasuke-kun." Said Sakura as she stammered a bit. She was still worried about her negative thoughts.

"I am ex-extreme-ly s-sorry for what happened right now" said Sakura with a saddened expression and with a worried voice.

Sasuke didn't understand why was she apologizing.

"Actually I am the one who should be apologizing Sakura. I shouldn't have pulled you like that. But- but le-lets for-forget what ju-just happened now its… its too awkward for both o-of us to re-remember what just happened."

Sakura now felt relieved. She didn't expect him to brush it off like that. But the tension was still there between them. And she wondered why he was stammering. It wasn't like him at all.

"But why one earth were you walking like that?" asked Sasuke now in his stoic voice.

"Well, you see I was just taking a walk around and there were few things that went inside my head. I was lost in my thoughts and the next thing I know is… you saved me." Said Sakura

"So, are you fine now?" asked Sasuke. But we can find bit of concern in his voice.

"Yea-yeah I-I am f-fine now. Thank you for saving me Sasuke-kun." Said Sakura with happiness in her voice. All she knew about Sasuke back before was a cool and handsome boy. But now she saw a kind and gentle boy before her… who is polite and kind very very… kind.

"I was just doing what anyone else would do. You don't have to thank me Sakura." Sasuke said the last part with a smile on his face.

Sakura sat up and now smiled brightly. Under the moonlight Sasuke found her to be beautiful.

'was she always this beautiful? Her smile looks so bright… bright like a sun." thought Sasuke.

"Once Again Thank you for saving me Sasuke-kun. W-well I-I will take a leave, bye." She said as she waved her hands and left the place.

"By Sakura…" whispered Sasuke to himself.

Flashback end:

Sasuke Narrated the whole story to him what happened last night.
Naruto practically yelled "WHAT YOU KISSED HER" on listening about their kissing part. After that Sasuke just silenced him and said rest of his story.
Naruto now listened the complete story.

He sat down on his floor and was now thinking. He was thinking very seriously.
"So you saved her last night almost from death and top of that you kissed her and after that you found her beautiful…. and you said your goodbyes and left the place. I understand why Sakura was today much happier than usual. But what I don't understand is why you were nervous around her." Asked him.

"Umm you see, when I kissed her, it felt good. Normally it shouldn't be like that right? I kind of felt a spark when our lips met." Said Sasuke a little bet embarrassed about the way he mentioned his feelings.

"Guess your feelings are a big problem now aren't they Sasuke? You don't seem to understand them, I guess? Well, I am same age as you. Even I don't have any kind of answer to your question." Naruto rubbed his head.

Just after few seconds they heard someone knocking Naruto's door.
Naruto went to answer the door and found it was Ino.
"Hey Ino." Said Naruto

"Hi Naruto. Is Sasuke-kun also with you." Asked the blond Yamanaka.

"Umm yeah he is inside the house."

"Oh, it's just that we have a mission tomorrow. Kakashi Sensei told me to give this scroll to you people. Apparently, it's a C- rank mission in the land of waves." Said Ino. Ino never went to Naruto's house. She was just curious how did he keep his house. She now wanted to see how he lived.

"Hey Naruto. Mind if I come in?" asked Ino.

Naruto upon hearing her, he stopped reading the scroll and said, "yeah come in" as he motioned for her to come inside.

"You know Naruto I never came to your place before." Said Ino.
"Yeah. We never were really close in the academy, so I guess that makes sense that you never visited my place. Even though I talked with others like Shikamaru and Choji, except for Sasuke no one came." Said Naruto to The Blonde Yamanaka. It was true that they never interacted much. But over the time she respected him for two reasons. One, he never harmed anyone around him even for calling him weird hurtful names. Two, he was quite sensible, cheerful and took care of his friends around him. He never hurt her even in their training session spars. He would just immobilize her and called it an end to their spar.
Though at the first two years of academy she used to follow blindly others and despised Naruto for no reason, her views completely changed about him as time passed. After he became friends with Sasuke she didn't say anything to him for the sake of Sasuke's interest. But after being placed in their genin teams, she started to learn more about him and respected him.

Ino was now surprised at seeing Naruto's apartment. She thought that it would be a complete mess and he would just load things here and there in the house rather than keeping them organized. But his room is quite the opposite of what she was thinking. It was neat and all the things were organized.

"Wow!" she whispered. "I never thought that you will be keeping your apartment so clean Naruto." Said Ino.

"Well, It's not like it is tidy all the time ya know. I mean I do clean it often, but sometimes it can be a bit mess. I just cleaned the room yesterday. So, you don't have to be surprised at all." Said Naruto.

As he finished Ino noticed Sasuke in the kitchen and said "Hi Sasuke-kun. What are you cooking up there?" asked Ino

"Sasuke is just making some hot water so we can have some cup ramen. Do you want to join us?" said Naruto.

"Yeah sure…" she said.

All the three of them started to chit-chat a little as the water boiled. They had their ramen shortly while they chit-chatted.
After that Sasuke and Ino left to their respective homes to prepare for their mission tomorrow.

AN: Alright that's a rap. I know that it is a short chapter, there was also some sasusaku in the story and please tell if the story's pacing is good. Also I didn't write about those D-rank missions as it is pretty much like what we see in the manga/anime. I know that this chapter is a bit short but overtime the chapters will get a bit more lengthy (like 4k-5k words per chapter). And also writing fights is quite hard for me so at first they may be a bit sloppy but I will improve my writing in them over time Also the wave arc is starting from the next chapter so I will give my best believe it.

Please review this and tell how you feel so far about it.

Farewell.