Chapter 2: A Time of Change

"Please accept my gift, Naruto-san!" A woman bowed low as she thrust forward a delicately wrapped box.

"Uh… sure, thanks so much!" Naruto said as he flashed her a smile, jumping slightly at the squeal she gave as she ran off. Naruto sighed as he tucked the gift under his arm, a gift of many that he still received. It had already been a couple of months since the war had ended, but the gifts continued to pour. The new kind of attention on the blonde had felt strange at first, but Kakashi had reassured him that it would subside in time. After all, the new Hokage-in-training should be ready to face large crowds. He looked down at all of the gifts in his hands that had come from many grateful civilians, mostly women.

Great, now I gotta get these home too.

Naruto's frown was quickly replaced by a grin when he saw Sakura walking down his path, a file under her arm and a look of exhaustion she held most days.

"Oi! Sakura-chan!" His arm flailed in the air, dropping a couple of gifts that were not secured by anything else other than the arm that had once held them. Sakura's look of confusion was only there momentarily before she smiled at him and suddenly there was a heat that had begun at Naruto's chest. Sakura shook her head as she watched him pick up the fallen boxes.

"What did you do idiot?" She asked as she helped pick up his boxes and held a couple under her arm.

Naruto laughed weakly, "Sorry Sakura-chan, they just won't stop coming ya know?"

"Oh yes, receiving gifts all days of the week must be sooo exhausting for you," Sakura giggled as she walked toward the direction of his home.

"Hey! I'm serious! Sometimes I have to make two trips to Ichiraku's JUST to drop off a bunch of gifts! It's getting really tedious!"

"Oh shut up and enjoy it Naruto, they love you and want to show that they care… hey does that one under your arm say Matsuri?"

"Huh? Yeah I think so."

Sakura put her finger to her bottom lip in thought, "She gives you these gifts every day, doesn't she?" Sakura asked.

Naruto nodded frantically, "She does! She's even leaving them at Ichiraku's,"Naruto said almost somberly.

Sakura only chuckled as she began to walk alongside Naruto, helping him with a couple of gifts under her own arm "Wow, the burdens of Konoha's "Hero of War," Sakura joked but Naruto could only frown at her statement.

"Don't be like that Sakura-chan, it was all of us!" Sakura sighed as she nodded and noticed they were heading in the direction of his home.

"Heading home from Hokage training already?" Sakura asked curiously, it was still far too early for the day to be considered over.

"Nope! Just dropping these off before I get ramen and head back, man it's exhausting though!" Naruto dropped his head to show how tired he was.

"Well you're finally getting what you wanted Naruto, honestly what did you expect? The title of Hokage with no responsibilities attached? Even you can't be that thick."

"C'mon Sakura-chan gimme a break here I'm trying!"

"I never said you weren't! C'mon Naruto, I'm kidding!" Sakura said as she gave a playful shove in his direction only causing him to sway a bit to the side. Naruto chuckled, of all the things that would change around him, he could expect Sakura to remain the same. "So how are you doing anyway?" She asked as she looked his way, now looking up slightly at his cerulean orbs.

"I'm doing alright, Kakashi-sensei said I still have a long way to go but that I'm well on my way!" Naruto grinned the same toothy grin he gave whenever he felt accomplished with himself.

Sakura smiled and nodded in acknowledgment as she turned to look at the path instead, "You are well on your way, you can definitely talk the talk, you just need to learn to keep organized and learn to read out the paperwork and you'll be alright. I'm sure Shikamaru is helping out in that department right?" Sakura asked. Naruto nodded his grin faltering when he realized there was a small crowd of women blocking the entrance to his apartment. "How are you getting out of this one Hokage-sama?" Sakura whispered as she continued to walk as well, only to be greeted with the far away chirps from birds in the distance. Sakura grinded her teeth and inwardly groaned as she noticed Naruto had flashed his way into his apartment, waving to her from his window sheepishly. After a few moments she sighed in defeat as she knew she would have to face the crowd of women alone. She had half a mind to find the nearest stick.

"How could you leave me out there you idiot!" Sakura asked as she threw a lighter gift at his head.

"It's not my fault Sakura-chan, they were going to swarm me if I didn't get in here quick!" Naruto said as he threw the gifts in a corner of his room.

Sakura shook her head at how disorganized the pile of gifts were and set hers down to remove her shoes. "You really should start opening these, there may be food in there that'll go bad in here and you don't need to add another smell in here besides ramen and sweat," Sakura said in distaste as she began to pile his gifts into more organized stacks, rattling a few here and there to attempt to determine whether or not they were treats and setting aside those that seemed as though they passed her inspection.

Naruto watched from a distance, noticing how the sun that shines through the window had her hair appear a faint orange rather than her usual pink, the glow on her skin from the same shine appearing almost ethereal to him, a knot suddenly appearing in his stomach which he could not quite explain.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto called.

"Hm?" She hummed as she continued to stack away the pile of gifts.

"…Are you ok?" He asked her.

Sakura finished stacking the last box and deposited the small pile of what she assumed was food by his table.

"Why are you asking me that?" She said as she piled the boxes onto his table one by one.

Naruto's palms were suddenly clammy, "Oh! Well… I just wanted to- I mean we never…" Naruto sighed loudly in annoyance at himself.

Sakura raised a brow at his actions, "Go on" she said as she placed her hands on her hips and made her way to his side.

It seemed as though it had taken forever for him to finally speak, "Back when you told me… and I said…" Naruto seemed to trail off whenever he neared the subject of the conversation, but it didn't take much for Sakura to piece it together, her arms going slack at her sides as the sudden feeling of her all too familiar self-hatred seemed to bubble in her stomach, her head lowering slightly in shame.

"Wait Sakura-chan! Never mind, we don't have to bring that up, that was stupid of me, forget it!" Naruto said as he held up his hands frantically, the look of embarrassment on his face.

Sakura shook her head as she looked up at him with a new determination. "No Naruto, we should really talk about it, it's not good to keep these things inside for long." Naruto's arms lowered at his sides, his heart steeled and prepared to hear what she had to say. "Naruto... when I said what I said back there, I felt like it was the only way to stop you from going after Sasuke-kun. You were already doing so much and…" Sakura tried to blink away any tears from her eyes, she didn't want to cry, she didn't want to give him a reason to feel guilty. "And you looked so tired but you kept going. I felt like that promise you made me all that time ago was your burden to keep going, and it was selfish of me to ask something so great of you when you were only a boy. You had so much to heal from already and you didn't need another thing on your list, especially not from a dumb little girl who thought too much with her heart. I wanted to be the one to protect you that time because I didn't want to lose you too. I told myself that I could live without Sasuke, but I absolutely knew that I couldn't do it without you, and if I had to choose between him or both, I chose to let him go." Sakura said, her eyes unwavering from Naruto's cerulean ones, his lips parted in surprise.

Naruto quickly shook his head as though coming out of a stupor and rubbed the back of his neck in his usual sheepish manner. "Sakura-chan you really shouldn't say things like that ya know? Teme might get the wrong idea when he gets back." Sakura rolled her eyes, knowing her reputation would precede her as that devoted young girl she once had been.

"Sasuke-kun's got bigger things to worry about than how I express myself." She said as she began to pull him by his ear out the door. "And you're going to be late to Kaka-sensei's training if we don't hurry up!"

"Ow ow, Sakura-chan, not the ear! You said we would go to Ichiraku's!"

"Fine, but we're taking it to go!" Sakura left him to rub his ear and slip on his shoes murmuring about "how mean Sakura-chan can be" when she was uncomfortable. Sakura could only give a small smile as she tugged her shoes on, carefully masking it with the annoyed face she usually reserved for Naruto. "Hurry up or else I'll be running late too!" She said as she walked to the door. Their walk to Ichiraku's was one full of playful banter and laughter as the sun continued to shine through the late afternoon. Throughout their walk, Naruto couldn't help but notice the way her hair danced with the wind.

There would be other days to talk about feelings, he supposed.

TBC

A/N: Hello all! Here are the first two chapters of an idea I have. Please note that this is going to be a slow burn and it will be a NaruSaku story but it's going to be a little while before we get there. There are going to be NaruHina moments as well, NO character bashing either please do not expect! Everything begins to take place about a couple of months after the war, PLEASE NOTE that "The Last" and "Sakura's Story" will be altered and included, I'm trying to make it so that the characters aren't too OOC so hopefully I can deliver but no promises as I am trying to integrate Sakura's personality from "Sakura's Story" and combine it with Shippuden. I have the first several chapters outlined as well so hopefully everything goes according to plan. Reviews are welcome, flames are not!