Disclaimer: For fun

The sun began to set on the horizon, the orange light hugging the Hokage tower and radiating the building in its glow. None of this imagery was appreciated by the 5th Hokage as she leaned back in her chair, stretching her exhausted limbs as she let out a large yawn. The day had been long and draining for the older blonde as she rested her head on the desk, occasionally smacking her forehead softly against it.

"Make the paperwork stop…" Tsunade muttered in frustration, letting out an exasperated sigh as she picked her head up off the desk. Her eyes making their way toward the door in mild irritation.

"And curse that Shizune for leaving me alone with all this work…" She complained, her eyebrow twitching before leaning back in her chair. She glanced over at one of the many windows as she blew some hair out of her face, taking in the light of the sunset.

"That said, it is still my job… Can't exactly have her do it for me." She admitted, any irritation in her voice now fading as she took a sip of her now cold coffee. Her eyes lazily made their way down to her desk as she held up one of the many documents, noting that most of them had to do with Sasuke's defection.

'A lot of work to just acknowledge that Uchiha kid as a defector… Wonder if it's due to the council not being able to decide if he's a traitor or not.' She thought to herself, before tossing the paper into the pile of other finished paperwork.

Tsunade then picked herself up and made her way over to the coffee maker, brewing and pouring herself a fresh cup of coffee as she rubbed her now very baggy eyelids, trying in vain to soothe their stress as she fed some healing chakra into them.

"You'd think with how I was able to effectively cure my own aging, I'd be able to effortlessly get rid of eye bags." She admitted to herself as she grabbed her cup of coffee and trudged her way back to her desk. Just as she sat down, though, a knock was heard on her doors.

"You may enter." She told the unprompted visitor, hoping the company would help wake her up. Her eyes glanced up above the slowly dwindling pile of paperwork to see pink hair slowly open the door and enter the office, causing Tsunade to look on in surprise.

"Sakura? To what do I owe this surprise visit?" She asked as she moved the paperwork aside to get a better look at her visitor, finding the young girl standing before her. Sakura looked down at the ground for a moment, before looking at Tsunade with determination.

"Lady Hokage, I know you're incredibly busy…" She started, glancing at the piles of paperwork to emphasize her point. "…But I must ask if I can become your apprentice like Lady Shizune." She finished, making her request as she maintained her determined look.

This request surprised the Hokage as she looked far more awake than she had only moments before. As far as she was aware Kakashi had not told Sakura about Tsunade's request for Sakura to become her pupil, so this was Sakura coming here on her own. Intrigued, Tsunade leaned against the desk, resting her chin on her palm as she stared down Sakura.

"I admire your guts to come here and ask me that. But guts alone won't get a yes out of me." She replied simply, seeing Sakura somewhat shaken by her answer. "I need to know why you want to train under me. What drives Sakura Haruno to be a better ninja? A medical ninja no less?" She asked, giving her terms and eyeing Sakura in curiosity.

She watched Sakura's eyes dart all over the room, clearly the young girl was unprepared to give her motives but was piecing together an explanation as fast as she could. A whispered chuckle escaped Tsunade's lips as no matter what, she'd be at least amused by Sakura's words.

"Because I hate who I currently am." Sakura stated, her face no longer filled with determination. Now, it was filled with uncertainty and a hint of sadness.

Despite knowing there would be more, the initial answer from Sakura caught the older woman off guard. She stared at Sakura, eyes filled with surprise and even a little concern. It had been a long time since she had heard such blunt introspection, the closest being Naruto when he was trying to get her to take the job of Hokage. This was when she decided to really get a good look at Sakura, and seeing her current physical state only caused Tsunade's brow to furrow in concern.

The girl's hair was somewhat matted, clearly from having to quickly dry it off from the rain. Her eyes while filled with determination had clear wrinkles and bags underneath them, it was obvious that she had been crying heavily not too long ago; it also showed in her posture which was unintentionally slouching towards one side.

'I had heard from Kakashi that she has self-confidence issues, but this might be much worse than he realized…' She concluded, watching Sakura take a breath to speak again.

"Ever since I became a ninja, I've only ever gotten in my comrades' way… Becoming someone to save, rather than someone who can save others. I put people in danger with my weakness…" She explained, her voice getting shakier and shakier with each word. She then took a deep breath to try and compose herself.

"Now that it's just me and Naruto as teammates… I cannot allow myself to be a burden to him any longer. I want to be able to stand at his side, or even be able to march past him. I want to be able to help him, to save him… To stop being helpless…" She added, her bottom lip quivering as her shallow confidence was barely holding back her own sorrow and guilt over her lack of ability.

"I'm… I'm tired of only being able to do small and insignificant things for Naruto… He deserves so much more than that… So much more than the current me…" She finished, her eyes growing hazy as she fought to hold back tears, her voice getting heavy due to being choked up.

Tsunade watched the girl sadly, confirming that her confidence was in fact significantly worse than Kakashi or her once thought.

'Her emotions became more pronounced as time went on; she went from using vague terms like 'comrade' to specifically mentioning Naruto. She went from wanting to improve herself to wanting to be there for Naruto… She cares about him greatly if he's a pillar for her like this.' She concluded mentally, before getting up and walking around her desk and putting her hands on Sakura's shoulders, confusing the young girl. Tsunade took a deep breath before giving her a toothy grin and saying:

"Well said! How could I turn down someone who speaks from the heart like you did? Your intentions are pure, and despite your own emotions your ambition shined through!" She told Sakura, smiling brightly as the pinkette stared at her, tears now passively running down her face.

"S-So you mean…" Sakura trailed off, her mouth quivering as she stared at the Hokage.

"I will train you, Sakura. It'll be tough, I'll be putting you through the wringer, I'll have you know… But you will never be weak or helpless again." Tsunade declared, putting a hand on the young girl's head. Sakura, for her part, gritted her teeth as she began to cry into her hand.

Despite her tears, Sakura was smiling brightly. It felt like a weight was lifted off her shoulders, she felt like she had a direction to go down again. Now, with this opportunity she'd be able to help Naruto like he always helps her.

'See? Always said you could do it…' Inner Sakura told her, a calm yet happy tone echoing in Sakura's mind as all she could do was say 'thank you' over and over to her new teacher.

Day 5

"Okay okay, it's real badass and all that you managed to get Lady Hokage to take you on as an apprentice. But you can tell me later, there's no time!" Ino shouted as she started throwing clothes out of Sakura's closet, slowly burying the pink haired girl in her own clothes.

Sakura rolled her eyes in response as she threw the discarded clothes off herself and onto her bed, before putting her hands on her hips. As usual, Ino took personal life and drama much more seriously than their actual jobs.

"Is this seriously more important than talking about a pivotal moment in my career as a ninja?" Sakura asked, tapping her hips with her fingers in slight impatience. She was giddy about getting an opportunity to move forward with her abilities and to even become a medical ninja! So, it only blew the wind out of her sails when Ino seemed not as enthused.

"At the moment? Absolutely! You have a date tomorrow and you currently have no plans on what you're going to wear! I mean how old are some of these yukata? If you're going to have such outdated festival wear, I need to at least find you an outfit that will make you look like you're WAY out of Naruto's league!" Ino told her, before getting up and looking at Sakura, holding up two pieces of clothing:

"Shorts or skirt?" She asked Sakura, who pointed to the shorts in response. Ino then turned back and started looking through more clothes, muttering 'cute top' constantly as she looked through Sakura's wardrobe.

'Well at least you won't look bad tomorrow, admittedly she's always been the more fashionable one…' Inner Sakura admitted, causing Sakura herself to rub her arm sheepishly.

"...Thank you for helping me with this, Ino." She told the blonde in front of her, causing Ino to stop her search and step up and face Sakura.

"Sakura, that's what friends are for." She replied, smiling widely at the pink haired girl. "I can't let you wear a stupid looking outfit on such a serious date, Forehead!" She added, closing her eyes as she kept her smile.

"You trying to say I can't dress myself without a piggy's help?" Sakura asked, as her eye twitched in irritation and her mouth twisted into an angry frown. Of course, Ino couldn't not give her a quick verbal jab, they had always been like this, ever since they were kids. A haughty laugh escaped Ino's lips as she tossed the rest of the outfit she picked onto Sakura.

"That is indeed what I was saying!" Ino replied, spinning Sakura around and shoving her into the bathroom. "Now wear that outfit, I haven't given you an outfit in ages and I want to make sure I haven't gotten rusty with you!" She ordered, sitting on Sakura's desk chair.

Grumbling, Sakura closed the bathroom door and began changing. She looked at herself in the mirror, inspecting herself as she twisted her body to look at herself from different angles. Ino had picked out for her short shorts with a zip up crop top that looked like the design of her combat dress, along with thigh high black socks and brown ankle boots. To top it off she wore a red beret somewhat crooked on her head.

"Dammit… She's too good at this." Sakura admitted to herself, admiring Ino's fashion sense in envy.

'She really is, Naruto won't be able to take his eyes off of you.' Inner pointed out, whistling at the sight as Sakura stepped out of the bathroom, finding Ino sitting in her desk chair.

"Oh, look at you! You look like a million yen! Meanwhile Naruto's going to look like a dork in that jacket or be like every guy and wear a basic ass t-shirt and shorts." Ino commented, applauding her own work. "Yamanaka Ino has done it again~!" She declared, causing a groan to escape Sakura's lips.

'Does she always have to speak in the third person when she's gloating…?' Sakura asked herself, before folding her arms, looking over at the platinum blonde.

"Well, I can't exactly argue with the results… I might repurpose some of this outfit for later." She commented, getting a satisfied hum out of Ino.

"My, that's high praise coming from you! You're welcome, by the way." Ino told her, before swiveling around in Sakura's chair in boredom. "Alright, now tell me more about this dope ass training Lady Hokage's gonna have you do." She added, now that her fashion task was out of the way.

Sakura sat down on her bed across from the blonde, looking at her. "Well, she's going to 'put me through the wringer' as she described it." She started, before looking down at her hands. "The first thing she's going to do is have me build up my physical strength and learn how to channel my chakra into enhancing it further." She added, explaining some of the basics of her training.

"Daang she's gonna make you a brawler? Well, that fits, you can already punch through trees." Ino commented, leaning back in the chair as she swung her legs idly. "Finally putting that brute force to good use!" She added on, providing a little jab to Sakura's pride.

"Gee, thanks. Always wanted to hear that I was brute force." Sakura replied flatly, staring at Ino in mild annoyance.

"I mean that is actually a good thing, Naruto's always been a bit of a chakra powerhouse but that's usually been through numbers, right?" Ino asked before glancing toward the pinkette.

"As far as raw strength goes you were always the highest on the team. Everyone else just relied solely on jutsu but you always had the potential to take someone out just from punching alone, at least that's what I noticed during the academy." Ino pointed out, before looking away from her friend and glancing out the window. What she didn't see was the look of surprise on Sakura's face.

"Wow… You're more observant about this stuff than I thought, Ino." Sakura told her, causing Ino's head to snap back toward her.

"I-I'm just pointing out what I saw, okay?!" Ino snapped back, face somewhat red in embarrassment. She typically didn't show that much care or gave nearly that amount of advice for Sakura. The two kept talking the day away, and soon…

Day 6

"Later, Mom! I'll be back after the festival ends!" Sakura called out, seeing her mother peek her head out from the living room.

"I can't believe my daughter is going on a date… Let alone her second one this week!" She choked out, sniffling as she held a tissue to her eye. "She's a Haruno alright, wooing the boy of her dreams!" She said proudly, not seeing Sakura's face turn a dark red.

"I-I AM NOT WOOING NARUTO!" Sakura cried out in embarrassment, before turning toward the door. Not before hearing a knowing chuckle coming from Mebuki.

"Oh, is the date with Naruto? I was just guessing it was a date." Her mother pointed out, watching Sakura tense up and steam rising from her head. She then waved the girl off. "Make sure you cool off on your way over, okay?" She told her. Hearing an annoyed grunt coming from her daughter as she opened and slammed the door behind her.

Sakura held her hat down over her face a bit as she walked the streets of Konoha, hoping to calm her blushing face as she slowly made her way over to the festival. She always hated how easily her mother could rile her up, but it was just proof of their strong relationship as Mother and Daughter. They both were able to get on each other's nerves, thankfully, so Sakura could easily get her revenge later.

'I can't believe she got me to say that…' Sakura thought to herself, embarrassment radiating from her being as she heard her inner self scoff in response.

'You're getting embarrassed NOW? You're on your way to your SECOND DATE with Naruto! Just have fun and go with the flow, and remember, he asked YOU out this time.' Inner told her, causing Sakura's lips to curl reflexively into a bright smile.

"He did do that…" She replied, before moving her hat back up and continuing her walk.

A loud yawn could be heard near the entrance to the festival, the source coming from the whisker adorned blonde as he leaned against a tree. Wearing a black tee and orange shorts, he certainly stood out from the crowd as he lazily looked around the place.

"Hopefully she's here soon, I got here a little too early so waiting so long without moving is exhausting…" He told himself, clearly getting bored and antsy to move.

Slowly tapping his foot, doubt began to creep its way into his mind as he looked down.

'Maybe this was a mistake…' He thought to himself, grimacing somewhat as he stared toward the festival entrance.

"I uh… I hope I didn't make you wait too long." A voice called out, causing Naruto to look at the source of the voice, his face lighting up at the sight.

Sakura was fiddling with her hat as she walked up to him, a slight blush radiating across her cheeks as she kept glancing away from him. She was not fully prepared to see him again after the other day.

"N-No I got here too early, so I more made myself wait." He stumbled through his reply as he stared at her in surprise.

An embarrassed look was painted on Sakura's face as she put a hand on her hip.

"W-Well I'm glad you like the outfit if you're staring THAT hard at it." She pointed out, knocking Naruto out of his trance and looking at her.

"R-Right, sorry… You look great." He complimented her, before looking over to the festival gates. "Ready to go in?" He asked her, not seeing the bright smile on Sakura's face.

"Of course."

The two made their way through the crowd, playing all sorts of games that were available at the festival.

"You got this, baka!" Sakura shouted as Naruto tried to win her a prize at a pop gun game.

The first two shots never managed to reach their targets as he sighed heavily.

"These pop guns are so weak…" He muttered, before glancing at one of the prizes, a fox themed key chain relatively close to him. He felt drawn to it as he aimed his gun toward it, adjusting his aim based on how piss poor the pressure was in the gun.

"Winner!" The shopkeeper declared as he handed Naruto the keychain. The blonde for his part, grabbed it and walked over to Sakura, huffing all the while.

"These games are so rigged!" He whined, folding his arms as he pouted like a kid, earning a laugh out of the pinkette.

"Well, I can't exactly disagree. You did win something, though, what was it?" She asked, looking at him quizzically. In response, the blonde held his hand up and revealed the fox keychain as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"This was all I could manage to hit… It was close, but I thought I looked nice. I-If you don't want it, I understand…" He told her, not looking directly at her as a slight blush formed on his face.

Sakura looked at Naruto and smiled calmly as she took his hand, and then the keychain out of it. She examined it, before looking at him.

"I didn't realize you were a fan of foxes." She replied, getting a nervous laugh out of the blonde. Ignoring it, she happily took out her phone and attached the keychain to it. "Well, it is cute enough, so I'll happily accept it." She told him.

Naruto let out a dramatic sigh in relief, getting a laugh out of Sakura as they continued their way through the festival, grabbing food and finding a quiet place to sit to take a break from all the excitement.

As Naruto ate, he occasionally stole glances toward Sakura, who was quietly eating some Takoyaki. This whole situation was mind boggling to him, not only was this the second date he had been on with Sakura that week, but she also even went out of her way to wear a nice outfit for it! Never in his wildest dreams did he ever expect any of this to happen. With how Sakura's been acting around him, that second chance confession proved to be possible!

'Wait…' Naruto thought for a moment as time slowed down for him. This was the first time in days he had thought about that conversation the two had nearly a week ago. The promised do over of his confession, that Sakura had pushed for.

In retrospect he had never put that much thought into why she would've tried to push such a promise onto him. Given how different she had been acting lately, one would think that the promise was a result of her rethinking things now that a potential romance between the two was on the table.

'But that doesn't explain why she would do it immediately after rejecting me… Was it out of pity? Was it to protect my feelings? Or hers…' That last thought sent a jolt of shock through his being.

It made a lot of sense. She had just learned that Sasuke wasn't the kind of guy she thought he was. She must've been heartbroken. Was this all just her way of coping with that heartbreak? Did she even remotely have any feelings for him—

"Hey, Naruto? Are you okay?" Sakura asked, looking at him in concern and knocking the blonde out of his thoughts. "You kinda zoned out and dropped your food…" She told him.

Naruto blinked a bit, looking at the remains of his dinner on the ground before taking a deep breath and laughing with his usual cheeky grin.

"Sorry! I guess we're still too close to all the noise, it was starting to get to me." He told her, trying to write off him zoning out as just getting distracted.

Sakura looked uncertain about that explanation, before shrugging and standing up. "Well, I know a scenic place we can go to." She told him, extending her hand toward him.

"It's quiet, and a great view for some fireworks." She added, smiling down at the blonde. Finally earning a genuine smile out of the blonde, he grabbed her hand and stood up, walking with her toward that scenic location.

As Naruto followed the pinkette, his head tilted down a bit as he started to get lost in his thoughts again. It felt like he had pieced together a giant puzzle where the solution had been in front of him the entire time, he just hadn't been looking at it.

'Does she feel anything for me?... Or was this all just to protect both of our feelings in ignorance?' He asked himself. His face soured into a grimace as he felt his body grow heavy, sadness overcoming his being as his hand slipped out of Sakura's.

"Naruto you gotta hold onto my hand, it's easy to get lost on the way to…" She trailed off as she looked back at Naruto, seeing the almost depressed state he was in. Confused by his sudden state, she walked back over to him.

"H-Hey we'll be far away from the crowds once we get there if being around all those people was uncomfortable for you." She told him, remembering that the adults of the village didn't exactly like Naruto.

"Sakura-chan…" He spoke out suddenly in a heavy voice, surprising the pinkette.

"W-We can call it a day if you're not feeling good, Naruto—"

"Why did you lie about the promise?" He asked her.

A look of shock slowly built on Sakura's face, as all the color escaped her cheeks.

'W-What did he?...' She asked herself, before shaking her head trying to recompose herself.

"N-Naruto, what are you talking about?" She asked him.

Naruto let out a sigh as he looked down, his grimace leaving and being replaced with tired exasperation.

"The thought crossed my mind a couple of times throughout this week…" He started, rubbing the back of his head. "It only now started to make sense." He finished, before looking at her.

"You've been acting almost like an entirely different person. The thing the other day was a different matter, I realize, but everything else… Beyond you making more of an effort to be friendlier and learn more about me, you've been trying to act more flirtatiously and even going on two dates with me. Dates which would've been laughed at otherwise, but you instigated the first one!" He explained, seeing the dumbfounded look on her face. He rubbed the back of his head in irritation as he looked down at the ground.

"Naruto… W-Where is all of this coming from?" Sakura asked, her voice shaky due to being caught completely off guard by Naruto's words.

"Feelings don't change as quickly as a week… Especially involving something like a confession of love. Your reasons for pushing this promise onto me… Feel like a lie." He told her, staring into her eyes.

Sakura was at a loss for words as her mind began racing from what Naruto said to her.

"Ah… Looks like he caught on." Inner chimed in, letting out a disappointed sigh.

Sakura's shock quickly started to get replaced with anger as her eyebrows began to furrow.

"Quite a bold claim to push onto me… You really think I'm so cruel that I would push that onto you knowing it would do nothing?!" She shouted, folding her arms in anger.

Naruto shook his head as he put a hand on his hip, his eyebrows furrowing as well.

"Not for no reason… I think you did it reflexively. To cope with your broken heart." He told her.

"T-The hell are you trying to say?" She asked, her eyebrow twitching as she tapped her arm in irritation.

"Sasuke didn't just betray me… He betrayed you, and the expectations you had for him. That left you heart broken, and I coincidentally made a crap confession right after that." He started, irritation filling his features.

"You didn't want to just leave things on shooting me down, and wanted to leave the door open for you to MAYBE feel SOMETHING for me, even if it was just a one percent chance… So, you pushed the promise of a second confession and have been forcing yourself into interactions with me that could lead to a potential change of heart." He finished, giving her a hard stare.

Sakura's face had twisted to all sorts of emotions. Shock, red with embarrassment and anger, and sadness. Naruto had just read her like an open book, and she was despising every second of it.

"Holy shit he's WAY better at reading people than we thought!" Inner shouted in shock.

A sigh escaped his lips as he kicked the dirt beneath his feet as he looked down in sadness.

"Given that look on your face and the silence… I was right?" He asked, looking up at her, seeing her visibly shake.

"…I didn't want to hurt you." She finally spoke, biting her lower lip as tears built up in her eyes. "It was so sudden, and my emotions were so wrecked that I didn't want to leave you hurt… Is that so wrong?" She admitted, digging her fingers into her arms. Hearing nothing in return from Naruto, she shook her head before baring her teeth at him.

"Like you were any better, asshole! I had gone to your apartment to apologize for how I used to treat you, to try and restart our relationship and you decided to take out all your frustrations on me!" She yelled at him, tears running down her face.

"And worse yet, as soon as I talked you down from that stupid shit you had the nerve to confess to me IMMEDIATELY AFTER!" She roared at him, her voice getting hoarse as her anger bubbled over.

Naruto's face scrunched up in anger and bitterness as he looked to the side, he couldn't exactly deny what she was saying. Sakura threw her hat on the ground as she shook her head violently.

"How the fuck did you expect me to react to that?! To just go 'Oh how sweet of you, my brave orange hero! I'll absolutely date you~'?! OF COURSE NOT, YOU IDIOT!" She screamed at him, panting heavily as tears rushed down her face.

Naruto gritted his teeth as he stuffed his hands in his pockets in anger, taking a moment to compose himself, he could only think of one thing to ask:

"So, if it was a lie, what was the point of all this?... Just to protect both of our feelings? Do you even remotely like me?" He asked her, catching the pinkette off guard.

Sakura's posture calmed down as she looked to the side, gnawing at her lower lip. It was clear she hadn't been thinking about that recently. She rubbed one of her arms as she looked down at the ground sadly.

"…I don't know." She replied, as her face twisted into a heavy frown. "I think there's something there?... But I can't say anything conclusively…" She added, guilt lacing her voice.

And that was that in Naruto's eyes. Everything had been her leading him on with a false promise that MAYBE something could happen. It was nothing all over again. She may have had good intentions, but it was all for nothing. Again. Naruto swiveled on his feet and started to walk away.

"N-Naruto?... Where are you going...?" Sakura asked, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"I'm going home." He spoke out sadly, looking back at her with a sad smile.

"Sorry that I confused your heart, Sakura-chan… Won't happen again." He told her, seeing a look of shock on her face before turning back and continuing his pace, gritting his teeth.

"W-Wait… Naruto! Come back!" She shouted at him, and as she started to run after him, she saw him disappear in the trees.

"Naruto!... I'm so sorry! Please, come back!" She shouted while crying, her pleading for him to come back being drowned out by fireworks.

"I wish love was simpler…" Inner Sakura commented sadly, as Sakura fell to her knees and wept.

Well hey I said it wouldn't take 3 years for the next chapter. Only took 2.