Two
Jealousy
When Sasuke-kun left, I thought my world had ended. Sasuke-kun was, after all, my world. Naruto, poor Naruto, he was so angry when he learned about Sasuke-kun’s desertion - he had looked forward to, one day, beating the Uchiha who was so much stronger than him. I smiled, I laughed, I trained, but I never let anyone see my tears or hear my pain. I told myself I was over him, and, as time passed, I felt the pain lessening, I thought of him less and less. Everyone in Konoha, of course, was convinced Sasuke-kun wasn’t coming back and resigned themselves to the Uchiha prodigy’s death. After all, he was barely chunin. How could someone like him defeat someone like Itachi when even Kakashi Sensei proved powerless against him? Now, for the first time in years, the Uchiha mansion stood empty, as it had been meant to all those years ago. The Uchihas were finally gone, all except for the one responsible for its extermination, the one responsible for Sasuke-kun’s death. Accepting it had been easier than I thought, much easier than those idiotic Sasuke followers who pined for months. Slowly, life adjusted without Sasuke-kun, and soon even I forgot him.
Even I forgot Sasuke Uchiha.
“Hey, Sakura-chan.” Once again the euphoric blonde ninja interrupted his teammate’s thoughts and she sent him a glare full of daggers. As befitting his status, he ignored it magnificently and grinned at her, plain old Naruto who complained the whole month that had stretched since Sasuke-kun’s disappearance about the boy who’d deserted him, running away from their fight, he was certain.
Sakura forced her mind away to concentrate on the orange ninja fairly dancing with happiness before her and her aqua eyes, bored, wandered about. “What is it, Naruto?” Her voice sounded as bored as she felt. Naruto grinned again.
“Hinata has asked me out,” he said, pronouncing the words as though he’d been elected Hokage. Her aqua eyes took on a decidely interested note, although the ecstatic blonde before her didn’t notice it. Hell, Naruto wouldn’t notice something if it smacked him in the nose.
“Hinata Hyuuga?” Sakura repeated in disbelief, imagining the shy, black-haired girl with large smoky eyes. “She actually asked you out?”
“Well-” here the boy stopped to thoughtfully scratch his head, an action rare for someone who acted first and thought later; “I told her I’d give it a try, ‘cuz I wasn’t sure I wanted to date her, but I told her one date was fine, then I’d think about really dating her. Y’know, being her boyfriend.” The ninja grinned as though he’d been given a Nobel prize.
Again Sakura contemplated the blonde before him. He really is growing up, she thought. He’d recently turned fourteen - Sasuke-kun’s birthday was coming up, too, but she wasn’t going to think about that - and the teen years were beginning to take its toll on the boy. His voice had finally stopped cracking, adopting a permanently deeper, huskier, gravelly voice that almost - if she allowed herself to think that - seemed a little sexy. For Naruto, anyway. “Hinata’s lucky,” she said finally. Naruto gave her a curious stare, his mouth turning down in a cute expression of, ‘Huh?’.
“Why is she lucky?” he asked blankly, obviously oblivious to the fact that he was becoming almost - just almost - as popular as Sasuke-kun had once been. The slowly growing crowd of mindless cohorts were growing and the simple boy just never noticed them.
Sakura shrugged. “No reason.” Why give him a big head? Well, bigger than the Ramen made his head, anyway. He wasn’t as annoying as he used to be. In fact, sometimes, when he wasn’t thinking about Ramen, he was actually a pretty interesting companion. Of course she wasn’t going to tell him that, but she thought it. “So, just one date? When?”
Naruto paused. “Day after tomorrow. I think.” Another pause, a scratch of his head. “Did I say day after tomorrow? Or did I say the day after the day after tomorrow? I can’t remember. I should go ask her.”
Sakura quelled the urge to call him an idiot. “You probably did say day after tomorrow. The day after the day after tomorrow’s a bit of a mouthful, isn’t it? Why didn’t you just say Tuesday?”
Aqua eyes blinked. Naruto was gone, speeding away to ask the shy Hyuuga about their date. Sakura sighed, leaning backwards. “Naruto,” she said aloud, “You really are an idiot.” But a cute one, she reasoned.
The day after tomorrow - as she had thought Naruto had said - she saw Naruto with Hinata, walking together, and waved as they passed. Naruto didn’t notice, but Hinata did, and offered a small, raised hand in exchange before returning to the seemingly animated conversation the two were having. She watched their backs, stading in the street. Wow, she thought. They actually seem to be having a good time. Maybe she loves Ramen as much as Naruto? I doubt it. Finding another human being, much less a girl in Konoha, that loves Ramen as much as Naruto is like finding a star in your backyard. But still... something in her heart made her scowl. What? I did not just think that. I did not just think I was a little jealous of Hinata Hyuuga!
Almost panicking, she glanced at the two’s backs and again wished she was there instead, talking to Naruto, laughing, dating. Dating?! What the hell was wrong with her? Had the grief over Sasuke-kun gone to her head?! She had to get out of there, away from the couple. She bolted down the street, nearly crashing into a silver-haired, masked man, who glanced down at her around his book and said: “Oh. Hello, Sakura.”
“Hi, Kakashi Sensei!” she said breathlessly and continued running. The Sensei’s exposed eye blinked at her, then his shoulders shrugged and he continued reading his book. I am not jealous of Hinata! she told herself firmly as she launched shurikan after kunai into a tree trunk, trying like anything to get it out of her head with little success. I don’t want to date Naruto! I don’t even like him!
She didn’t know how long she spent there, but she knew it had been a while when Naruto appeared, alone, and said happily: “Hello, Sakura-chan!” The pink-haired kunoichi gave no answer but he appeared not to have noticed his teammate’s silence. “I went out with Hinata!” he continued. “I like her.”
“So?” Sakura muttered, working a shurikan from where she had thrown it into the tree.
“So I think I might continue to date her,” he said. “What do you think, Sakura?”
This made her pause. Him? Asking her advice? She almost licked her lips. “I don’t think you should.” She knew she was hurting the fragile Hyuuga girl. She didn’t care. She slipped the shurikan into her holster and, turning, smiled slowly at the rather innocent-looking Naruto. “I think you should start to date someone else, Naruto.”
“Who?” the boy asked, obviously confused. He really has no idea, she thought, but decided to wing her idea anyway. She shrugged.
“Me,” she answered. “You like me, don’t you?”
At first, he stared at her as though she’d asked him to jump off a cliff. “Sure I like you!” he exclaimed, finally. “I just never... expected you to want to be my girlfriend!”
“Well, I do.” She glanced at him. “What about Hinata?”
“I told her I’d only give her one date, remember?” he reminded her. “Will you go out with me, Sakura-chan?”
She allowed herself a tiny, triumphant smile before nodding. Sorry, Hinata. “Sure.”
To her surprise, Naruto didn’t talk about Ramen or training or anything else she thought he would’ve. Instead she found his company enjoyable, and for once didn’t want to call him an idiot once. He didn’t even take her out for Ramen. This boy really is a wonder, she thought, thinking of her earlier decision that he was so predictable. I guess none of us are completely predictable. They talked about little things, mostly - one thing they didn’t mention, though, was Sasuke-kun. Naruto shied away from that subject like the plague and she certainly didn’t mind. Throughout the evening she realized she was enjoying herself immensely. Wow. Who would’ve ever thought a date with Naruto would be so... romantic?
They walked slowly, hand-in-hand, down a deserted street in Konoha in silence. They left the populated area, up a hill overlooking the darkening eastern sky and Sakura realized with a jolt that this was the hill, with the falling cherry blossoms that made it look like it was snowing, that Sasuke had turned her down, had broken her heart and crushed her world. She bit her lip and hesitated for a moment, but Naruto didn’t seem to notice. She pressed forward, trying to ignore the feelings that rose inside of her, determinately telling herself that Sasuke-kun was a thing of the past.
Naruto had stopped, still holding her hand, absently staring out at the cloudless sky. Quizzically she glanced at the unusually silent ninja who stood beside her. His eyes were soft, his expression almost sad, as he stared out into nothing.
“Naruto?” She gave a small tug at his hand and he glanced at her, blue eyes a mixture of emotions. She felt her heart begin to race as she stared deep into his baby blue eyes, unusually soft and full of emotion. He saw her rather worried look and smiled slightly, only a tug at the corners of his mouth.
“Yes, Sakura?” With a jolt she realized how much he seemed to have matured in the few hours they’d been out together. His voice, too, was soft and gentle, lacking the usual beligerent tone and even the honorific he used to address her with. Unconsciously she wet her lips.
“I just...” she stopped, confused, because anything she had been thinking of saying she’d forgotten. Her eyelashes fluttered as she tried to remember, but her mind was completely blank. “I just...” Lamely she shook her head. “Uh, nothing.” She became aware of Naruto pulling her closer, that their bodies were unnaturally close, and she caught her breath. When did Naruto get taller than me? she thought almost dizzily, feeling his warm breath on her cheek. “Naruto,” she murmured, leaning slightly against him, and his arms encircled her. He was warm. He could smell the shampoo in her hair, feel her heart beating against his. He didn’t let himself pause to think about what he was going to do and change his mind, so there was no hesitation in his movements as he gently lifted her chin, and her aqua eyes stared into his. Softly their lips touched and he felt a shudder, a pleasant one, run through her.
How strange, she thought as she kissed Naruto. I have never thought my first kiss would be with annoying, immature, Ramen-freak Naruto. But she was enjoying it. Way more than she would have ever allowed herself to think. Her hands clasped a part of his shirt and she shut her eyes. Who would’ve ever thought....
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