Sakura has a plan. She will finally catch Naruto off guard and see what's all the fuss about. And a curious person who plays a bear and has impeccable grammar and punctuation will draw her attention.

Notes:

[Whisper] is supposed to be coloured pink.
[Wildbearlily] is supposed to be coloured orange.

Chapter 2: Curious

With a heavy heart and still feeling guilty, Sakura dropped four of her classes. Naruto accompanied her for courage and mostly to prevent her from chickening out. She was frowning at him all the time, but inwardly she was very grateful for his support. And for all his words, that made her feel a little less like she was doing something utterly wrong.

Her next week was much more bearable. And the next one, too. Then, the need for vacation had almost disappeared, so she decided it was time to get her hands on a hobby. For distraction.

Over the last two weeks and a half, Sakura became very aware that Naruto was self-conscious about sharing his hobby with her. He didn't give her a proper reason. Actually, after that time in the cafe with the Sasuke guy, Naruto had always kicked the conversation in another direction. In terms of honesty, he had never hidden anything from her. And sometimes he was so frankly honest that Sakura wished he didn't share everything.

The itching curiosity, combined with genuine worry, made her come up with a plan. It was simple enough: to stop by his room uninvited. She knew he was playing an online game on the computer, and she knew he had some kind of arrangement to do it with other people. One of his regular meetings was today. He had told her himself as an excuse for turning down her dinner offer — she had promised him pasta, and he still refused. And he loved pasta… So the fact that he was trying to keep it a secret had forced her into trying to extract the maximum amount of information about it.

She climbed the stairs in his building and walked down the hallway to a door with a sign: "I'm not here unless you're bringing beer." It was what Sakura got him for his birthday, and he was very excited about it.

However, now she leaned in and listened — Naruto was laughing and talking loudly. That meant he had his headphones on, and, eventually, she might have to let herself in if he didn't hear her knock. And he didn't, not that she tried too hard to be heard… But at least she had an excuse. At least that was what she repeated to herself like a mantra while pressing down the handle, carefully cracking the door open.

Naruto was alone, laptop on his desk, and headset firmly pressed on his ears. Sakura let out the breath she didn't realise she had been holding and plastered a wide smile on her face. Sneaking behind her friend's back, she held up a big bag of chips in front of herself as a shield. Before she found herself standing right behind him, still unnoticed, Sakura reconsidered her approach in favour of the wise idea of announcing her presence somehow. Maybe with some noise? She squeezed the chips' bag, but it seemed to not be enough. Next, she tried to clear her throat.

Naruto caught on to the sound and jolted as he tried to turn at the same time. His face was pale when he met Sakura's eyes. At first. Then it turned red while Naruto pulled his headset down with a single snappy movement.

"What the hell are you doing here!?" he snapped at her, making her jump. He was frowning and obviously still startled, but the anger was definitely taking over.

Sakura didn't expect such a sharp reaction. Her answer came out stuttering. "I-I-I came to visit," she defended quickly, lifting the bag of chips again.

Naruto's eyes drifted to the item in her hands and then back to her flushed face. "You could've called," he nagged, arms crossing in front of his chest.

"You would've picked it up? Your phone?" Sakura nodded towards the device lying forgotten on the bed; the gesture brought a scowl over Naruto's forehead. "That's what I thought as well. So I came here to surprise you." Sensing that he was backing down, she pushed it, placing hands on her hip and allowing a scolding tone to take over. "I haven't seen you in a week."

Naruto huffed, rolling his eyes.

"I started to get worried." Sakura took out one of her strongest weapons — pouting lips.

His expression softened right away. He sighed in resignation. "Ok, ok…" His arms relaxed. "But you know I can't pay you attention right now. I can't let four more people that I had an arrangement with just hang there." Naruto's voice shifted to whining because he knew Sakura hated it; she cringed. Chuckling, he headed back to his chair. "I should be done in about three hours, if you'd like to come later?"

Sakura stepped towards the other chair. "I thought I could stay with you, keep you company... And watch."

Naruto froze in place with a hand on the backrest of the chair. He looked at her with a grin forming on his lips. "So you've come here with a plan, haven't you?"

She smiled and pulled the small piece of furniture beside Naruto. "Well, you're always so secretive about it... I just had to see for myself."

He flopped down, huffing. "I'm just trying to keep you away, because gaming can be very, very dangerous. It's really addictive. And you're the type to put a lot of effort into... everything. Your hobbies included. So I don't wanna introduce you to something that may stand in your way of becoming a doctor," he said, completely honest. "It might turn into your doom."

"Ok…" Sakura's piercing look landed on his eyes, making him barely push down the urge to shiver. "Then, in case I like it and want to try, I'll stop the moment you catch me overstepping the healthy boundary."

"If you try, there will be a moment when all your thoughts and time will be consumed by the game. And you'll probably try to hide it from me," he said carefully, emphasising every word.

"You are talking as if it's some kind of drug." She frowned.

"It is," Naruto nodded. "It brings you a lot of endorphins, boosts your adrenaline, makes you feel useful and successful, and, in general, has an addictive effect." He leaned towards her. "It is a drug. You may learn to control the dosage, but you may as well fall down a slippery slope."

"You seriously think I will?" She blinked rapidly.

"I know you will," he said, poking her leg.

"Ok… Let's say I do," she agreed, pressing her lips firmly in a line for a brief moment. "But you know me well enough and will slap me back on track, right?"

"Isn't it better to just get yourself a boyfriend or go wall climbing or something?" Naruto asked, trying to feign sloppy disregard.

"And leave you all the fun to you alone?" Sakura laughed. "Not messing only when you find a girl that I approve of. Otherwise, not a chance."

Naruto snorted, though his lips tugged at a hint of a content smile. Sakura was a good friend, and he was sure that she had meant what she just said.

"Fine…" He unplugged the headphones and changed the sound to come from the laptop speakers. His finger pressed a key, and while holding it, he said, "Hey, dudes. My friend Sakura'll be watchin' us play tonight. Be nice, alright?"

"Get her out of there!" almost yelled Sasuke's irate voice.

"Hello," joined a really calm and very pleasant one.

Although Sakura would describe it more as disinterested, it still sounded nice.

"That's Shikamaru," Naruto explained after releasing the key that he had been holding, then added, "The voice chat has a setting called 'push-to-talk'. So while I don't keep the key pressed, they can't hear us."

Sakura nodded — it made sense. If all of them were hearing everything around each other all the time, it would be annoying at the very least.

"Ah, look, the tank says hi." Naruto pointed at the bottom-left of the screen, where a new message had just popped up. "Look here. That's the name of the bear."

Sakura leaned forward, squinting her eyes. She huffed and reached for her glasses case.

"Blind as a bat." Naruto laughed. "You don't see a thing, do you?" he teased.

"Shut up," she mumbled while adjusting the delicate frames on her nose and behind her ears. "Let me see now."

Naruto dragged the cursor over the greeting. "The tank never talks. He can hear us, but answers in the chat."

"Why?"

"Well, he is either shy, doesn't have a decent microphone, or it is very noisy around him." He quickly counted the most common possible reasons on his fingers.

"What the heck are you doing over there?!" Sasuke's annoyed voice made Sakura jolt in the chair. "Stop rolling around. Leave the sex for when we finish the dungeon!"

"What!" Sakura gasped, her jaw loose.

Naruto pressed the push-to-talk key. "FYI, I'm not doing sex, just explaining some stuff. Go get a coffee, will ya? Stop being such a d—" He cut himself off with a deep breath through his nose. "Just gimmie a few more minutes."

"Fine!" Sasuke hissed.

Naruto exhaled. "He's easy to piss off." His tone sounded apologetic.

Sakura waved a hand, disregarding the eventual concern. "Who's the tank again?" she asked, staring at the screen.

His pointer finger hovered in front of an animation of a greyish bear sitting in a funny way on what should be yellow grass. "This bear, over here."

"Wildbearlily?" She read aloud. "That's her name?"

"His name. Yes."

Sakura laughed. "I just don't see how a man would call his character this way, honestly."

Blond hair shook around his head as he let out a low hum. "You'd be surprised."

[Whisper from] [Wildbearlily]: Is your friend going to play with us, Naruto?

[Whisper to] [Wildbearlily]: she may

He cast a glance at Sakura, narrowing his eyes briefly, before he started to write again.

[Whisper to] [Wildbearlily]: probably yes

[Whisper from] [Wildbearlily]: Nice!

[Whisper from] [Wildbearlily]: I have a low-level character, so I can help her out with the levelling.

"Why are you not talking?" Sakura asked. "You said that she" — Sakura rolled her eyes and corrected herself — "He can hear you."

Naruto nodded. "He can. But you see, he whispers to me — that's the pink text, and here it says 'whisper' — which means that he doesn't want the rest to hear. It's kinda private."

"Ohhh, 'whisper', I got it." She leaned in near his ear and said in a loud whisper, "It's a secret!"

Naruto jolted, almost dropping to the floor from his chair. His hands sprung up, and he pushed her away. "Don't do that! You scared the hell out of me!"

"Did you pee yourself?" she sneered.

"Bastard!" he yelled as she burst into a laughing fit. Naruto huffed, returning to writing.

[Whisper to] [Wildbearlily]: no worries

[Whisper to] [Wildbearlily]: will make char to help her

[Whisper from] [Wildbearlily]: I really don't mind. Do you think she would mind giving me her nickname when she creates a character?

Naruto looked expectantly at Sakura. "Do you mind?"

"What?"

"If I give your character's name to Wildbearlily?"

"Why would I mind? He says that he wants to help me, right?"

"Yeah… I'm just a bit… I don't want him to hit on you," he said with a grimace..

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Why would he?"

"Well, most people playing are hormonal males that want to fuck everything that moves." He shrugged while she unsuccessfully tried to strife a laugh. "The majority of the guys are weird, that's all."

"And you, personally, are from the normal minority?" She teased.

"Of course I am," he said with a grin.

She snorted. "If he does hit on me, I'm gonna put him in his place. Don't you worry."

"You just tell me. I'm gonna sort it out, right?" Naruto shifted into a protector's mode, entering his self-imposed role as Sakura's big brother.

She felt warmth spreading in her chest. The thought of him caring — that he was ready to step up for her sake — was really making her melt from the inside. Had she had a chance to choose a brother, Naruto would have been her first and only choice. Sakura smiled. "Sure."

[Whisper to] [Wildbearlily]: ye ok

[Whisper from] [Wildbearlily]: I've created a troll shaman some time ago, named Himawari. She's level 5 and is just about to exit the starting area. I won't be playing with it until your friend has a character level 5.

[Whisper to] [Wildbearlily]: has no game yet

[Whisper to] [Wildbearlily]: gotta buy it 1st

[Whisper from] [Wildbearlily]: Oh, OKAY.

"Are you done?" Sasuke's irate tone boomed through the speakers.

"Yeah, I'm done."

"Let's go," Shikamaru's voice interjected, a slightly gruff note ringing. "I've got classes in the morning. If you want me to stay, we better start."

"Ok, ok…" Naruto placed one hand on the mouse and the other on the keyboard, and… the pictures on the screen moved.

Sakura remained mainly quiet, listened to the conversations, and noted down a few terms she knew she would have to check later. She even managed to shoot some basic questions here and there, although Naruto was too focused on what he was doing to answer her properly. That was before her phone started ringing. It turned out that one of her closest friends and co-students, Ino, was asking her for the last physiology lecture. Ino was in a somewhat frantic state, so Sakura didn't dare to refuse her. She gathered her stuff, pecked Naruto's cheek, and quickly left.

What held her thoughts, anyway, was that the bear, Wildbearlily, used impeccable grammar and punctuation. Something that was very uncommon in any chat these days. It was puzzling, and Sakura felt like she wanted to know a bit more about this person.

An enthusiastic knock on Sakura's door kicked her out of the soft and warm depths of sleep, making her jolt and almost fall to the floor. Groaning with displeasure, she snatched her phone to see what time it was — 07:45 a.m.

"What the..." she whispered to herself at the same moment as another knock shook the door.

"Are you in there?" Naruto's voice sounded too awake to forebode anything good.

Still, his pounding threatened to wake her neighbours. And honestly, facing Ino's sour face wasn't something she strived to encounter.

"Yes, I'm here," she said, tossing the sheets aside. "Stop that noise!"

The knocking stopped right sighed and reached for her pink, fluffy gown, which she just couldn't leave home. Wrapping it tightly around herself, she went to the door and yanked it open.

Naruto jumped back at the sight revealed before his eyes.

"Mother of—" he mumbled, but cut himself out in time under the very irate look Sakura gave him. "Mornin'!" he exclaimed, plastering a smile on his face.

"What do you want?" She sighed. Tired green eyes peered at him through dishevelled pink locks. "At fifteen to eight?" She stepped forward while crossing her arms and leaned in, half-hissing, "On Sunday?"

"Jogging?" He attempted to smile nonchalantly.

Sakura would have set him on fire with just a glance if she could. "Excuse me?"

He swallowed, forcing a grin. "I thought you'd like to join me for a run. It's refreshing," he tried to assure her.

"Are you serious?" Her face expressed well enough the pure shock, quickly switching to annoyance.

"Yes?" He didn't sound as sure as he would like to.

"Naruto," she started with a pissed-off tone, "if you want me to join you for a run on Sunday morning..." She paused to pinch her nose bridge.

It was a long enough pause so he could chime in. "Sorry, sorry, I just thought it was a really good idea—"

"So I could tell you to fuck off and leave me sleep!" Sakura interrupted him, hissing so close to his face that she succeeded in spitting some saliva over it.

Naruto stepped back, wide-eyed, and wiped himself with his sleeve.

Realising what she had done, she jerked back. "Sorry," she uttered.

His hands shot up in the air between them. "Ok, ok, got it." He sighed, relaxing them back down. "How about I go for a jog and then come pick you up for breakfast and coffee?"

She recognised the apology in his tone and couldn't help but forgive him right on the spot. No one in the whole world cared enough to pound on her door on Sunday morning just because they wanted to spend time with her.

"Sounds good," she admitted.

Even though it was so early and she had stayed up late reading last night, she compelled her brain to stretch and yawn before it fully woke up and moved swiftly. It was the perfect moment that she could have picked to pry for information. A sly smile tugged at her lips.

"Oh, no…" Naruto said with a chuckle. "I know this smile. What did ya come up with?"

"I will come... in one condition."

"Yeah?" he asked with caution.

"I'll have you tell me more about that game you played last evening," she requested.

Naruto's smile fell. He should have known better — he had recognised that bright flame forthcoming with every new passion Sakura had. She was going to fall for this game so hard… He didn't even want to imagine the blow she was going to take — and he too, as collateral damage. But he already knew that he was going to be the anchor that would bind her firmly to reality. Inwardly, he cringed.

"I don't have a way out, do I?" He laughed nervously, putting his hands deep in his pockets.

"Nope," she confirmed, childishly making a face at him and sticking her tongue out. Even if her face had remained stern, the fluffy pink gown that almost swallowed her kind of destroyed the effect.

"Very well…" He started jogging backwards towards the stairs. "I'll see you in forty minutes."

She flashed him a bit too-toothy smile. "Okay."

Naruto stopped on the most upper step and placed his hands around his mouth like a funnel, whispering loudly, "And comb your hair. Ya'll scare someone to death."

Sakura took off her slipper and threw it, aiming for his head. Technically, she would have hit him had he stayed in the same spot instead of ducking low. But he didn't... And she had to half-run and half-limo to the stairs to collect her lost slipper before starting to prepare for going out.

Thank you, girls!