A/N: Thanks to everyone who takes the time to review! It always makes me so happy when I see them… even if sometimes it makes me sweat because no pressure right? I SWEAR I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING. Sorta.

But seriously, when I started this, I promised a chapter a week, but you guys are the reason I keep managing it. Every time I think that I'd like to skip a week and sleep all day or something, I think "my readers will be so disappointed, I can't make them sad!" and somehow find the inspiration to write. So really, thank you! I tried to draw Natsu-as-Sakura in appreciation, but all that ended up happening was me getting a reminder of just how bad I am at drawing. That face was the stuff of NIGHTMARES.

Also, turns out this series is gonna be three books instead of two, because I finally finished summarizing what I want to happen in book one, and realized that I'd need a bridge between one and two, so now there will be a separate story fulfilling that function, once we get there! I'm estimating this book will turn out around 70-80k words, so let's see how accurate that becomes! Sorry if this chapter feels like filler though, cause Kiba and Naruto decided to derail my plot.

Thanks for reading everyone!

The blankets Natsu left on the floor that morning are gone, a new set laid out on Sakura's bed, sleepclothes nowhere to be seen. Sakura's outfits are still laid out on top of the dresser, where her father left them, and Natsu pulls out the new clothes to add to the pile.

He stops quickly, unfolding the… qipo?... as something catches his eye. The outfit isn't entirely black and white as he first thought, because when he looks closer, there's a golden trim running around the collar and the hems - not very thick, but easy to see up close, and it feels so oddly like home, looking at those colors, that Natsu has to fight back a very unusual urge to hug it.

The other two outfits are the same, the white patterning merely a different design between all of them. Natsu carefully puts all the clothes up, and shoves the bags into the tiny trash can by Sakura's desk, only to find himself at a loss of how to spend the rest of the day.

Downstairs, he can hear Mebuki moving around pots and dishware, likely to cook lunch, and Natsu finds himself uncomfortable at the idea of eating with her, just the two of them in this house, especially after spending all morning together.

Don't parents usually give their kids some kinda allowance? I think I heard someone say something like that once… I could get my own lunch somewhere.

Hmm…

Natsu stares about the room thoughtfully, trying to figure out where Sakura-chan would keep her money.

"This'd be so much easier if I could just ask… tch!"

Grumbling to himself, the pinkette starts poking through the desk, but finds nothing more than a whole lot of notes and writing utensils, including what looks like a calligraphy brush. Under the bed is a lost cause too, some oddly mishappen orange stuffed animal shoved in the very corner, a crudely written 'happy birthday sakura-chan' note still pinned to its forehead. Natsu sticks it on the pillow, note and all, before turning to the closet.

A whole bunch of odd things are in there, shoes clearly not meant for fighting arrayed on a rack in the corner, two different sleeping bags on a shelf up top, lots of skirts and dresses that look more like frilly bags than anything else, and a bedroll attached to a pack sat right in front.

Natsu digs through the pack, which is apparently a mission bag, with a med kit, spare clothes, and lots of spare weapons that he pushes aside awkwardly as he continues his search.

Jackpot!

At the very bottom of the bag is a purse, and Natsu holds it up triumphantly for a moment after he fishes it out, before sticking it in the pouch on his leg.

Now for food!

Moving to the window, Natsu quickly slips out, closing it behind him, then drops himself to the ground, ignoring the flash of pain from his ankle.

Sakura-chan's not in terrible shape though. Maybe she just doesn't jump off high places much? Or maybe she lands differently. That'd get annoying way too fast! Ugh…

Natsu turns and heads back towards the market district, planning to follow his nose to whatever smells best after he gets there. A few people give him odd looks as he walks, but it isn't until a kid Naruto and Sasukes' age walks up that he realizes why.

"Oi, Sakura! What happened to your shoes?"

Natsu freezes at the voice, turning slowly to see another kid standing there with a dog on his head, staring at the pinkette's feet.

Act like Sakura act like Sakura dammit I don't know how to act like Sakura!

"Uh- ehehe, well that is…" Natsu nearly offers the boy a bright grin, before he remembers Naruto's complaints and tries to settle for Lucy's 'i'm-really-content-right-now' smile instead. "I… snuck out my window?" Natsu eventually offers, edging backwards as he speaks.

The dog kid's eyes narrow. "You're bein' weird. Somethin' up?"

I knew this would never work!

"Weeeeeeeell," the pinkette drawls, stalling for time as he scrambles for an excuse, "I was going to… uh… havelunchwithNaruto?"

The brown-haired boy stares silently, and Natsu feels dread start to coil through him because clearly that was NOT the right thing to say! The kid cracks a grin after another moment though, scooping the dog off his head and laughing a bit.

"Your mum never was comfortable with him, was she? Still, you're a shinobi now! At least sneak out with your shoes!" Natsu nods, smiling uncomfortably, and changes direction toward the building Kakashi had pointed out as belonging to Naruto.

The other kid jogs to catch up, walking alongside Natsu, and the pinkette bites back a groan.

"Huh. I didn't know you knew where he lived. Don't you, like, not get along with him?" The dog is in the front of his coat now, staring up at Natsu far too intelligently to be normal. The pinkette offers the creature a shaky grin before looking back up at the boy.

Do I smell different than Sakura-chan? Or am I just doing that badly that even a dog can tell something's not right...

"Kakashi...sensei made sure to show me. He seems to care a lot about teamwork, so..." Natsu shrugs, taking longer strides and biting back a grimace as he steps badly on a rock.

Where's a distraction when you need one, honestly!

"Huh. Really? Kurenai-sensei didn't do that with us, though I guess it isn't too hard to find Hinata or Shino if I want, since I just gotta go to their clan compound… guess it's true neither you or Naruto have a place like that. That his place up there?" Natsu nods, and then sags in relief as the brunette waves and turns to head a different direction. "Try not to break Naruto's skull when he annoys you!" he calls, and Natsu waves back, before quickly ducking into the building before someone else can speak to him. He waits there for a minute, until the sounds of the other boy's footsteps and his dog's barks fade completely and turns to walk back out the complex door.

Footsteps race down the stairs behind him as he opens the door, and someone crashes into him from behind, sending Natsu sprawling into the road, the other person landing heavily on his back.

"Whaa?" the pinkette groans, pushing himself up and rolling, causing the other person to fall to the side, and Natsu blinks as he recognizes the attacker.

"Na-ruto?"

"Eh? Sakura-cha-" The blond cuts himself off, eyes narrowing. "What're you doing at my place?"

Natsu sighs, standing up and offering the blond a hand. Naruto takes it suspiciously, but lets the pinkette pull him to his feet. "I was going out for lunch, when some kid with a dog approached and started talking to me. I don't have any idea how to act like Sakura-chan, and I'm not supposed to tell anyone… it was so annoying! So I said I was planning to have lunch with you, and then he walked me here, and then you showed up."

"Kiba did? Huh, I didn't realize he knew where I lived. I was actually planning to get ramen, unless Sak- uh, Natsu wanted to go somewhere else?"

Natsu shrugs, commiting the name to memory and doing his best to look like he doesn't want to just fight something until the world starts making sense again. "Ramen sounds good," he offers, when Naruto continues to stare at him. "You'll have to lead, I don't know where to get something like that around here."

"Sure thing!" Naruto quickly bounces ahead, leading the way as he eagerly talks about ramen being the best thing in the world.

"Was becoming a ramen chef your second choice if you didn't make it as a shinobi?" Natsu offers teasingly during a drool-filled pause in the one-sided conversation.

"Wha-? No way! I'm gonna be Hokage no matter what, I don't need a second choice!" the blond crosses his arms, sticking his nose in the air and refusing to look at Natsu, acting as though he spoke blaspheme.

"You wanna be like that weird old guy?"

"Weird old- jiji is awesome, why're you calling him a weird old guy? Even though he is old I guess… but that just means he'll have to give me the hat sooner!" Naruto pumps his fist in the air, seeming to have completely forgotten about the question he'd just asked. Not exactly wanting to talk about how the blond's 'jiji' is an imposing killer, Natsu glances around, eyes landing on a place advertising itself as Ichiraku Ramen.

"That the ramen shop? Seems pretty small." the pinkette offers, and the blond snaps out of his daydreams.

"Yep! That's the place. Hey old man, it's your favorite customer!" Naruto's voice raises at the end, even before he walks up to the counter and takes a seat, Natsu joining him only a second behind. The chef is a rather happy fellow who doesn't say anything despite the two other customers standing up and walking away after they notice Naruto's arrival. It's another piece of oddness that Natsu commits to memory, though the blond doesn't pay any attention to the people who walked out, already rattling off his order to the dutiful chef.

"And what would you like, miss?" the man asks, turning to Natsu once the blond is done, and the pinkette find himself once again uncomfortable.

"The tonkotsu?" he offers after a moment of looking at the menu.

"Of course! Ayame-chan, orders!" The man sweeps into the back, brandishing the list as he goes.

"He called you miss." Naruto says after a moment, in a tone clearly trying to be quiet and failing. Natsu shrugs, pushing aside the discomfort that tries to sprout.

"Can't really help it, since everyone wants to keep this situation quiet. It's not too hard to ignore, anyway! S'not like I pay attention to what people call me or anything."

"Is it really that easy to ignore? When people call you something you aren't…"

The cook is blatantly eavesdropping, only half-hidden by the cloth separating the front from the back, but the melancholy in Naruto's voice inspires Natsu to answer anyway.

"Well, it's not like they know me. So why should I care what they have to say? Sure, I know there're people who don't like me too much, the Council hates my guts and tend to have a new insult every time I meet 'em, but their opinions aren't important. Cause I have friends and family who know who I am, and they're the ones who matter! So if other people say things about you that aren't true, just ignore them. Pay attention to the people who know you, and not the strangers who judge you without even trying to learn! That's what's important!"

Naruto stares, wide-eyed for a moment, before laughing. "Hehehe, I guess that's true! So what is Natsu's opinion then, if we're going to be teammates for a while?"

Natsu leans against the counter, propping his chin in his hands. "I dunno. Inoichi-san and Kakashi-sensei both got pretty worried when you punched Sasuke, and Inoichi-san gave me that weird look when telling me to leave stuff alone, but I don't like the way he talked to you! So I'm gonna figure out whatever secret you guys are keeping, and decide then! For now, you're just another kid I guess."

Naruto shakes his head as the chef sweeps out with the first bowls of ramen. "It's really not important… so you should forget about it! Dattebayo!" he digs into his food immediately after, and Natsu joins him.

The ramen is amazing, and Natsu finds himself staring mournfully at the remainder of his fourth bowl, regretting Sakura's appetite more than ever as he struggles with feeling full enough to puke and still ridiculously hungry.

...can I train Sakura-chan's body to eat more? This is so annoying!

"Eh? Are you gonna finish that, Sakura-cha- Natsu?"

Natsu shakes his head awkwardly from where it lays on the counter, and slowly pushes the bowl over with one finger. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Naruto give him a weird look while picking up the bowl, but Natsu doesn't react.

The blond, who had eighteen bowls, finishes the remainder of Natsu's fourth with gleeful abandon, and the pinkette feels inexplicably sick just watching.

"Not fair." he grumbles as he shoves himself up, fishing out Sakura-chan's wallet from the kunai pouch. Natsu only realizes after he pulls out the money that he has no idea how to count this world's currency, and the pinkette groans, forehead thudding heavily onto the wood.

I bet Lucy could figure this out! Ugh I'm gonna have to get someone to explain it all…

"Eh? You pulled out way too much! W-why do you even have so much, we haven't run missions yet!" Natsu rolls his head to the side, watching as Naruto counts out what he can only assume is enough for four bowls. The blond shoves everything else back in, handing the wallet back to Natsu with an expectant look on his face.

"I dunno. Figured it was allowance, most parents do stuff like that for their kids, right? Isn't that where your money comes from?" Natsu's paying more attention to putting away his wallet than he is to his companion, and almost misses the sadness that crosses the blond's face. Naruto covers it up quickly, but his scent feels upset, and Natsu stares uncomfortably at his companion.

"Ehehe, I don't have any, dattebayo! I get my money from the orphan's fund, but now that I'm a genin, I'll stop getting that so hopefully the missions pay well. I suppose you don't need 'em, huh?" Natsu shrugs, turning to walk in a random direction.

"I'd rather have my own money, but D-ranks are the worst! I don't know what they're like here, but back home they're absolutely miserable! It's stuff like 'please find my lost kitty' or 'give this letter to Sasajima-san, but I don't know where he is so you'll have to find him yourself' or 'please buy this book for me, I'm too old to be travelling' and you don't get to fight at all it's so boring!"

"B-but! What about rescuing princesses, or fighting off evil bandits! Or super-secret courier missions through the heart of Iwa? I can't be Hokage if I'm just catching cats!"

Naruto stares in horror at Natsu, and the pinkette pats his back consolingly. "I have no clue where Iwa is, but I'm pretty sure any jobs that involve the royal family are automatically S-Rank because those guys like to feel important or something. Bandit hunting jobs aren't much of a thing back home, since guild raids are more common, and those are solid B-rank or higher. Sometimes a small group of thieves or something might be a C-rank, though."

"U-unfair…" Naruto groans, entire body slumping in dejection. Natsu nods sadly, then straightens to dramatically shake his fist.

"I can't believe I'm being downgraded like this! Even if I'd failed the S-class exam there's no way the master would have put me onto D-rank jobs, this is just too cruel!"

"Maybe we could convince sensei to change his mind?" Naruto asks hopefully, but Natsu shakes his head.

"He sounded pretty serious about the teamwork requirement. I get the feeling it's gonna be a while…"

"Tch! Just because Sasuke's a jerk, dattebayo!" Naruto throws his hands behind his head, lacing his fingers together as he looks around. "Where're we going anyway?"

Natsu shrugs. "I'm just walking in random directions. Kakashi showed me the big places in the city, but I want to be more familiar with it, since I might… be here a while." he spits the last part out reluctantly, glaring at nothing in particular.

"O-oh." Naruto shifts uncomfortably, clearly as dissatisfied with the idea of Natsu's continued presence as the pinkette himself. "If we keep going this way, we'll end up at the Academy's camping field."

"Is that just what it sounds like?"

Naruto nods. "Yeah, the Academy has a three-night camping trip later on in school, where everyone learns more hands-on about what's edible and what isn't n'stuff like that. I wasn't allowed to go 'cause- of some reason, I never asked, but Sakura-chan was pretty upset after that trip, saying something about bunnies."

"Oh." Natsu stops, staring at the trees he can see in the distance.

Bunnies, huh? And back then, Inoichi-san mentioned conditioning classes… guess they wouldn't have eaten the rabbits after, either, cause killing for food is different than killing to kill.

Shaking off his thoughts, Natsu turns and starts walking a different direction. "What's this way?" he asks idly, stretching his arms above his head as he moves.

"Dunno, but if you walk far enough you'll hit another training field eventually. One of the public-use ones that anyone can visit and aren't reserved for teams to use."

"There's fields like that?"

"Yeah, I got thrown out once for using a shinobi-only field, lots of them are reserved like that, not to specific people but just to 'anyone with a headband'. But there are a few public fields for people who want to be shinobi to practice their taijutsu or kunai and stuff while in the academy, if they don't have a clan field to use instead. They're not as nice though." The blond pouts, crossing his arms over his chest and managing to look quite sulky. Natsu laughs.

"O-oi! I'm serious, the public training fields are awful, I'll prove it to you!" Naruto grabs his arm and breaks into a run, and Natsu nearly trips until he adjusts to the blond's pace.

The pinkette quickly finds himself struggling to breathe evenly, Sakura-chan's body so clearly unused to what is practically an extended sprint, and Natsu snarls breathlessly, stubbornly keeping pace and maybe slightly regretting his lack of shoes now.

Short breath turns slowly to a crawling pain down his sides, like the world's worst stitch, and even if he doesn't want to Natsu begins to think he'll need to slow down or risk damaging his body - Naruto guides him around a corner then, hand still clasped around his arm and Natsu stumbles to a stop, relieved at the sight of the field the blond was clearly leading him toward.

Naruto's right, this place is a dump!

Taking a moment to simply stare at the field as he catches his breath, Natsu finds himself gaping in horror.

"H-how…"

"I know right! No one ever cleans them up, look at this!" Naruto bounces ahead, and Natsu hates him maybe just a little for having such boundless energy despite sprinting the whole way there, but takes a few steps forward anyway to see. The blond bends down, picking some things off the ground, and spins around to show them off. "Broken shuriken pieces! And broken glass, and some civilian's smelly sock! Even though they're the only training fields non-clan kids can use unless they got friends, they're complete crap! Every now and then you find something worth selling in em, but that's so rare! So of course I kept trying to use the reserved ones, they're actually nice! S'not like anyone would let me use theirs after all…"

"I-I wouldn't want to use a field like this either…" Natsu stares in disgust at the sock Naruto is still holding like it doesn't reek of vomit and sake from ten feet away, nevermind how it must smell so close to the blond's nose! Shuddering, the pinkette takes a few steps back. "Why would they take such poor care of the place?"

Naruto shrugs, finally tossing the stuff back onto the ground. "I dunno really, I never thought about it much. Maybe they just have too many training fields, and decide to only clean the bigger ones? Who knows, dattebayo! This one's not as bad as most of them are though, if you wanna practice a bit." The blond looks very hopeful, despite the fact that he didn't seem to like the fact that Natsu took Sakura-chan's place before, and the pinkette has no idea what to make of it.

When Natsu takes too long to respond, that hopeful look fades into unsurprised disappointment that Naruto quickly wipes off.

"W-well, I guess I did sorta invite myself along, overstayed my welcome huh? Maybe next time, S-Natsu-kun!" the blond waves cheerily, but he smells so upset the dichotomy nearly makes Natsu sick -or maybe that's all the running, Sakura-chan REALLY needs to work out more!- and before he can really think about it, the pinkette reaches out and grabs Naruto's wrist.

"It's not that," he says, and scrambles for a polite way to say 'I just don't want to learn how to kill people' before taking another look at the field -away from that confusing expression- "I just don't want to kill myself!"

"Eh? What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto doesn't try to shake his grip at all, and Natsu ends up letting go himself, stepping back further from the training field, pointedly glaring at it.

"I'm pretty sure you can get some sort of poisoning from stepping on broken stuff like that!" he protests, curling his toes in the dirt of the road.

Naruto glances down, and his face freezes comically in surprise.

"You're not wearing shoes?!"

A flock of birds take off, startled, from the treetops, and Natsu watches as they whirl through the air.

I really should have just left through the front door…

"Sakura-chan you can't do that, it's dangerous, what if you cut yourself, I didn't even realize if I'd pulled you into the grass you could have been hurt oh kami-sama why didn't you say something-"

"I'm fine, Naruto-kun." Natsu eventually interrupts, looking down to meet the other's blue eyes. "But I'm not stepping into that training field for anything, so I'm gonna have to say no to that trainin-"

"I can clean it all up!" Naruto blurts suddenly, throwing his hands together into an odd shape. "Kage-bunshin no justu!"

Natsu blinks, stupefied, as what must be over forty Narutos pop into existence. The original points his hand forward like a commanding general. "Let's clean up this field!"

A resounding 'hai!' echoes back from the small army of Narutos, and Natsu finds his eyes glued to the scene, unable to look away as they carefully scavenge the field, even digging it up to search out every last shard of metal or glass or even unusually pointed twig, until the entire place is spotless and a large pile of junk holds sway over the furthest corner, far enough away to pose no threat to anyone.

"We did it boss!" one of the odd duplicates cries, pumping its (his?) fist in the air, and the others let out a ragged cheer before disappearing one by one.

Natsu vaguely wonders if he passed out from trying to run too far and this is just a very weird dream, but Naruto grabs his arm and pulls him with a firm grip onto the torn-up grass, and it feels too real to be a dream.

What sort of weird magic do they practice here?!

"See? Don't worry, we checked it over super good, so nothing should hurt you! I'll even take off my shoes, that way it'll be even!" Naruto babbles, hopping on one foot to remove his shoes one-handed, the other still grabbing Natsu's arm.

Tossing them over his shoulder, Naruto lets go of Natsu's arm in order to turn and face him, grinning brightly. "We can spar, right? I've never had a sparring partner, 'cept during the academy lessons and those don't really count, if you stepped even a little out of the circle you lost it was annoying! We can do something else too if you don't want to spar, anything's fine with me dattebayo, ahahaha!"

Oh.

He's lonely.

Natsu feels a bit like an idiot for taking so long to realize, it's not that Naruto suddenly forgave him for possessing Sakura-chan, it's that Naruto wanted to spend time with someone, and didn't care if that person had to be Natsu- the pinkette still feels annoyingly exhausted from the run to the training field, but Sakura-chan's body isn't going to get better by itself, so he offers the blond a smile.

"A spar's fine with me." he says, taking a few steps back and shifting into a ready position, taking every moment he can to recover under the guise of waiting on the blond to make the first move.

He can't quite help the expectant grin that crosses his face though, because Natsu has wanted to punch something for two days now and nothing is going to take this chance from him, even if he does have to keep it 'sparring friendly'.

Naruto leaps forward with an eager cry, impatient to the core, and Natsu moves.

He can feel the weakness of Sakura-chan's body in the sluggish response, in the pain of his knuckles when he lands a solid punch against the blond's sternum, in the way his torso did not appreciate that twist, but Naruto recovers quickly, launching a counterattack, and his body's weakness ceases to matter in the thrill of a fight against an opponent who just will. Not. Stay. Down. no matter how many times Natsu hits him, because the blond has stamina for days, but no form whatsoever. Natsu can't help wasting precious breath to laugh, because he loves fighting, but he loves fighting most when it's fun, when no one is in danger of dying or being seriously hurt, and it's been far too long.

He moves nearly on instinct, his body's protests a distant thing as he dances through blows and lashes out with solid punches and kicks of his own losing himself to the adrenaline and that unusual place where only action and reaction matter, and everything else is a distant, ephemeral worry.

The punch that makes it through his guard after so long -something in his leg is burning shitshitshit must have pushed too hard- comes as a complete surprise, colliding sharply with his chin and Natsu's teeth just barely miss his tongue as his jaw snaps shut from the impact.

Suddenly he can't breathe, or maybe can't get any air despite breathing? Natsu feels himself panting, the sky swirling around him as someone -Naruto, Naruto's the one who's here- screams "Sakura-chan!", but Natsu definitely pushed the girl's body too hard, dizziness overwhelming his senses as he spins down, down, down.

And then all he can smell is sakura petals.