This chapter has been a long time in the making. I've been back on the grind of my writing lately, and the past few weeks have been a godsend with my writer's block being broken. For the first time in quite literally years, I've found myself sitting down wanting to write, and boy does this feel good.

Chapter 3 is a change of perspective, a writing tool that I like to use every now and then. Let's see things from Sakura's point of view for a while. I've got a good idea what the next couple chapters will be like, and please, add me to your author alerts. I'm going to be busy with a couple projects that I think you might like. Check out my other stories too, I work quite hard on them. Enjoy.

Chapter 3

Everybody has their own idea of what "the morning after" is to them. For some, based on their own experiences and misadventures, it is a blaring headache as the crust of their eyes crinkles with their first waking blinks, a testament to bad decisions and worse liquor. To others, it is a state of euphoric bliss from a night of sexual exertion and passion.

To me, Haruno Sakura, as I woke from my slumber to see the face of Uzumaki Naruto face-down in the pillow beside my own, his snores faintly shaking the bed frame, I could not have suspected a more curious feeling.

Oh. Oh my, I thought quite clearly. I must still be dreaming, because last night didn't happen. No, nope. No. Nope.

Without moving an inch, I slowly, cautiously, raised a hand to my right cheek, my left still pinned beneath me. Or it is some kind of illusion. My eyes, despite myself, traveled down the body of the man beside me. Faint scars, memories of some of the worst injuries he'd ever sustained in battle that even his vaunted healing couldn't fully cover up, dusted his torso, his back, and his... You know, I always wondered if that healed right, I mused to myself, seeing a small divot on the side of his left buttock where he had taken a fairly hard blast of summoned earth. Oh, whatever benevolent gods that may be above in heaven, please do not let that glorious ass be fake. I will cause major property damage if this is a trick. I shall rend fire and flood to the sick son of a bitch that did this to me. Focusing my chakra at my fingertips, I let out a whispered kai, a short shockwave of power radiating about me.

Uzumaki Naruto still lay beside me, in all his glory and splendor.

I blinked. I blinked again. It was real. Naruto and I had indeed romped about in my room the previous night for... who knows how long. I could feel the shorn sweat on my body, see the stains on the sheets, evidence of our night together... and on my...

My breath caught in my throat. I had never really considered that I and he would ever do this. As teammates, friends, partners, confidants in all things, there was an unspoken code that love could never be something that would get in between us. No, it was not unheard of for shinobi who worked together to fuck, but rarely did professional relations turn into personal romance, and it even more rarely ended with a happy epilogue.

Okay, I thought, turning on the "rational, medical" mode of my brain that could process horrible things without letting emotions be a factor, a skill that every medic worth their salt would master eventually, let's look at this calmly and efficiently. Naruto and I got tipsy last night. We played that ridiculous card game. We fucked like rabbits for hours. He confessed his love. He made me orgasm at least four times before dawn. Not particularly in that order. What do we do from here?

Naruto slowly grumbled in his sleep and dug his head into the pillow, the morning light from my window beginning to wander down the room and brighten it up. With the angle of the sunbeams creeping in, I estimated that it was sometime around nine o'clock. A dreamy, tired smile came to my lips. I had maybe gotten five hours of sleep after we had finished for the night. Wow.

Every second that we had been together had burned into my memories like a hot iron poker.

I rolled over onto my back and let out a long, satisfied morning stretch. You know the kind, where your muscles are all stiff when you wake, and you go into a slow, drawn out unknotting of your body, pulling the tendons and strings that hold you together into one long cord of pleasure and pain. From my toes to my fingertips, I held that sensation as long as I could, basking in the afterglow.

I felt sweaty and sticky in all the right and wrong places, though, and couldn't stay in bed forever. Shower. Shower, now, I thought. I could figure things out afterward. I slipped out of bed without a sound, the sheet that had only been covering me up to my thighs sifting off as I stood, nude as the day I had been born. I felt... satisfied. Fulfilled. I don't know how it is with other people when they wake up the day after the first time in bed with someone, but I have always been picky with those I take into mine. Neither I nor Naruto have ever been under any illusions that there haven't been other romances in our lives, but we've made a point to respect each other's privacy in that regard.

I rummaged through my drawers to get some clothes. I figured Naruto would be out for a while longer; he'd always been such a heavy sleeper, I couldn't tell you how often I'd had to bang on his door to wake him up because he was late for some meeting or another. And trust me, hitting something without breaking it takes a lot more concentration when you've been trained to smash boulders with your bare knuckles. To my surprise, though, just before I went into the bathroom adjacent to my bedroom, I heard him stir from his slumber.

"Hey," he said groggily. "'Mornin'..." I turned as he paused while looking at my bare behind. "Oh." He looked around the bedroom and where he was situated. He blinked, and I knew he was thinking the same thing that I had just moments before. "Sakura?" He sat up slowly, sleep quickly evaporating from his body language. "Er... don't take this the wrong way, but did I... Is this... Am I dreaming?"

I couldn't help but laugh. How ridiculous was this? A few nights ago, I couldn't even dream that this would be something that we were going to go through. I'd always thought that he would end up with the girl that loved him most in the entire world Hyuuga Hinata. That he would be so damn thick that he couldn't comprehend what she felt for him, even after all these years, is baffling beyond belief. I felt a small guilty twinge, but I quickly pushed it aside. I'd wanted him too, okay? If it makes me selfish, so be it. I cared a lot for Hinata, but if she wanted to be with him, she had so many opportunities to speak her mind that she missed out on.

"I thought so too," I replied. "Don't worry, I checked. No genjutsu, it's not a dream." I don't know what came over me, but in a rather uncharacteristic bout of cockiness, I turned and casually leaned against the wall, teasing him by oh-so-slightly popping a hip to the side.

The look on his face was priceless, I wish I had a camera on me. "Oh. Oh! We did-"

"Mmhmm."

"And then we-"

"Yup."

"And then you-"

"Yes, you dolt!" I laughed. "It happened." I cleared my throat. Time to get serious, even if only for a moment. "We happened."

"Oh. Wow."

The wind was let out of my sails, I'm ashamed to admit. "Wow? What?"

For once, he seemed to understand that he'd said something wrong. "No! I mean, it's just... Not 'wow okay', 'WOW THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!'" He stood up and came just within my arm's reach with a grin. "I never thought that you and me would... you know." Damn, he was kind of bashful sometimes, but his usual forthright demeanor shone through. "I'm not really sure what to say or how to say it, okay? But you and me... this..." He waved his arm around at the room. "I've been imagining it for a long time, okay?"

I couldn't help myself. I don't usually play the tease, but I've learned how to push his buttons over the years. I took a slow, smooth step closer to him, until my chest was inches from his torso. "Oh, I know," I purred. "But the timing just was never right, huh?"

His cheeks flushed as he struggled to maintain eye contact with me. "Ah. Um. Well... I just didn't..."

I snorted and put a hand on his chest. "Calm down, Naruto. I'm still me, okay? Nothin changes between us if you don't want it to. If this is it, I understand." I couldn't believe the words out of my mouth. Did I say them? No, no, I wasn't going to ruin this for myself! No! But... maybe he didn't really feel that way about me. Maybe he was trapped in some illusion of lust and childhood love, and that's why he said what he had. Maybe-

He cupped my cheeks with his hands, so softly, and tilted my face up to his. "Shut up," he growled, and kissed me. He kissed me, not like a lover, but... there was something else in there. His lips were so warm, the soft stubble of his lips and chin ground against mine as our tongues lightly danced with each other. My whole body quivered, and I could feel my nipples harden in the air. I nearly went limp as he backed me up the half pace to the wall. I had to wrap my arms around his waist and cling on tightly as he ever more pressed his body against mine.

Oh god oh god oh god oh GOD what is he doing to me? I thought. An extraordinarily vocal part of my subconscious told me to just shut up and enjoy the ride.

So... I did.

After several seconds he came up for air, the both of us gasping and grinning like idiots. "If you think," he growled lowly, "that after all this time, I'm just gonna turn this into a bootycall, you must be crazier than Chouji at a weight loss clinic."

"Romantic," I deadpanned.

He laughed, but broke away. "I'm full of surprises," he said. He sat down on the bed, and not for the first time, I took a moment just to appreciate his body. Hey, men enjoy being ogled too, and if his little buddy was anything to go by, he was likewise taking in the sights. Something flickered in his eyes, a couple rapid blinks, a twitch of his nose. I'd learned to recognize that look. "Oh, shut up," he mumbled, seemingly to himself.

I sighed, and realized that, metaphorically, we weren't alone. "Kurama making noise?" I asked.

"Yes, and he's being a skyscraper sized asshole, you furry bastard!" I'd gotten used to hearing from the fox more often since the fourth war; now that the pair were more like partners and friends than prisoner and cell, Kurama'd been a fairly frequent member of conversations, even if only briefly. The big fox didn't come out of Naruto very often- property damage was something that went against the bottom line on most missions- but after a while, I just got used to it.

"What's he saying?" I asked. Now that the moment was passed, I realized I still needed a shower, I was hungry, and despite how tempting it was to never leave the room, much less put clothes on, I had things to do.

"You don't wanna know. Just say, he's razzing me hard here. If punching my own stomach could shut up this idiot, I'd be doing it."

I rolled my eyes and started the shower. "I'd tell him to get his furry ass out here and let me kick it myself, but the apartment isn't big enough for his ego."

"Don't I know it," Naruto grumbled. "I- no, we're not doing that!" he snapped.

Morbid curiosity won over my better judgment. "Oh, this I have to hear."

He sighed, but relented. "He said, and I quote, 'Who needs showers? Just lick each other clean.' Goddamn pain in my ass."

"Hmm. Maybe next time," I said, and with a glimpse of his dumbstruck face seared in my mind, I shut the bathroom door and enjoyed one of the most satisfying showers of my life.

"So..." Naruto began. We were at a little cafe for breakfast; about an hour after we woke up and he'd gone home to clean up and get some fresh clothes on, we met back at my place. As much as I'd have loved to continue where our last kiss had left off, my nether regions really did need time to recover.

"Hm?" I asked around a mouth full of pancake.

"Well... what are we, exactly?"

I paused, then swallowed. "Good question," I said, waving a fork at him. "What do you think we are?"

"Well, you're my teammate," he said uncharacteristically carefully. "And it's not like this kinda thing doesn't happen. But..."

"But?"

"But people talk. I dunno if you want to be known as 'that girl' or if you want people to think of me as 'that guy', ya know?"

"Hrm." He kind of had a point. Fucking was one thing in our line of work, but relationships with partners was skirting some lines. It wasn't taboo, but if word got out about us, things could get complicate.

On the other hand, we were both pretty high-ranking, politically speaking, in the village and nation at large. I was a jounin, and even though Naruto hadn't ever technically taken the exams, there wasn't anybody in their right mind who would treat him like a genin anymore. His strength was exponentially higher in all practical terms than almost anybody we knew that didn't have a bijuu in their body somewhere, and he'd become a lot better at leading teams through the tutelage of Kakashi. We only went on missions two, three times a year together, and those were usually escort missions of some sort. Ironically, the high-ranking the shinobi and the more important to the village, the less-dangerous tasks were handed out... well, on the books, anyway.

After all, even for medics, there was always somebody who needed killing.

"Fuck it," I mumbled. "If you want to be quiet about this, I'm fine. Just... Well..." I looked up at him and his big, blue, puppy-dog eyes. "If you want to though, I really don't mind if people know we're dating."

Naruto lit up like a candle. God, he's cute, I thought. "Really?" He leaned forward conspiratorially. "You mean it?"

I smiled shyly. "Yeah. Just don't make a circus of it, okay? And don't go bragging either!" I tried to keep my voice down; shinobi villages had ears everywhere, after all, especially around the Inuzuka. "If people find out, they find out. But this is about us, you know?" I reached across the small booth table and held the top of his hand. "We already know each other pretty well, and not just as friends or teammates. But if we want this to work, we're going to have to figure out what we mean to each other as... this."

He nodded. "So... you're my girlfriend, right?"

I cocked a brow. "I dunno, am I?"

He flashed that million-watt smile at me. "You're my girlfriend."

"That's more like it," I said as I finished my breakfast. "And you're my boyfriend. Deal with it."

He laughed and dug into his own meal. "No sweat! How hard can it be?"

I shook my head. Both of us had dated others before, but neither of us have ever really been in a position to have a solid long-term relationship. I just figured it wasn't meant to be with most of them; for the ladies in Naruto's life, I'd heard that there was something about him that was appealing, but he never really put his all into it.

But not a one complained about the sex life. The things I'd heard he could do with clones... Make a mental note of that, I pondered. "So," I said while digging back into my own meal, "what's on the agenda today? I'm not expected back at the hospital for another couple days. If Tsunade needs me, she'll send a message through Katsuya."

Naruto nodded. He was as used to my summons as I was with his toads; while thy were convenient as hell in combat, it often surprised us both when one or the other randomly appeared without warning. I'd heard once that a girl had ditched a date with him when one of Gamabunta's sons appeared in the middle of a restaurant. Thankfully, insurance covered the damage done. "I've got nothing going on today," he answered. "I had planned on doing some training yesterday, but... you distracted me."

"Oh So I'm a distraction now?" I teased.

He grinned back at me. "Maybe that was a bad choice of words," he backpeddled.

"I will make you pay for that," I promised. He gulped, but we laughed it off. "Actually, working up a sweat at the old training grounds might be fun. Haven't punched that stump where you got tied up by Kakashi in ages."

Three hours later, Naruto and I had finished thrashing each other. I had expected it to be... I dunno, different training with him after last night's events, but to my surprise and satisfaction, nothing at all had changed. He'd always been serious about his training, and even though we pulled our punches enough that we didn't' risk killing each other, that didn't mean that those punches didn't hurt. Trust me, even if you can heal yourself on the fly like us, getting slammed with a Rasengan freaking hurts. Didn't come off too much better than I, though; maybe I had an advantage over others in healing, but Tsunade taught me her megaton punch for a reason. The sun had passed its zenith, but summer heat was bearing down on us both as we made our way through the forest path that lead back to the village proper from the forested outskirts.

Not for the first time, I was leaning on Naruto's shoulder for support to take the strain off of a partially twisted ankle. It would sort itself out in an hour or so, and it didn't really hurt as much as I might have let on. But now that he and I were together, I figured it might be a good pretense to be closer to him. To be... connected. Touching.

When did his shoulders get so wide? I thought. From a professional standpoint, I've examined his physiology plenty of times before. Sexually, I had a whole new appreciation for those muscles.

"I'm starving," Naruto said as we got closer to the residential area.

"You're always hungry," I pointed out.

"Yeah? What's that got to do with anything?" he asked.

I groaned. I knew what was coming. "Don't you say it," I threatened. "Don't you dare-"

"Let's head over to Ichiraku!"

"Ramen will be the death of you one day," I told him.

He stopped in the road and looked into my eyes. "You can say what you want, but ramen noodles are the food of the gods, and Ichiraku-Sama is their chef."

I snorted and lightly batted at his belly with my free hand. "We worship at different altars, Noodle-Brain." But wordlessly we headed on down to the humble stand where Ichiraku made his business. I gave Naruto grief, but even I had to admit that Ichiraku was a fantastic cook. From a gastronomical point of view, his recipes were impeccable. I had asked him once about some of his recipes, and he admitted that back when Naruto was young and before he made a name for himself as a shinobi and went to the noodle shop nearly every day, he realized that if Naruto kept at it like this he would get sick. So, he overhauled the dietary content of his menu without sacrificing quality, all just so that he would at least have some semblance of a healthy diet. I'm not sure if he ever told Naruto this, but it just went to show what kind of a man Ichiraku was underneath the underneath.

As usual during this time of day, thee stand was packed with bodies. Some of them were sitting at the bartop, but about fifteen were in line to place a to-go order. I recognized many of the faces as either regulars of the place or through various experience around the village. Several shinobi on lunch break stood around anxiously waiting what Naruto loved with all his gut. "Aw, there's only one seat left," Naruto pouted. I wanted to sit down with you and eat." He scratched his head and shrugged. "Wait in line for takeout or wait for a couple stools to open up?" he asked me.

"Hmm. Well, we can always jump in line, but if the seats open up while we're waiting, sitting down is good too."

He nodded. "Sounds good!" he said. He took me by the hand and lead me through the crowd. I hadn't expected him to be so abrupt in public like this... I didn't mind at all, but I thought we were going to take it slow on the PDA until later on in our relationship. "Come on!" he said. "Lunch is awaiting!"

I rolled my eyes, but smiled. Boyfriend or not, if you can count on one thing with Uzumaki Naruto, he wouldn't change a bit, no matter what life threw at him.

Maybe that's one of the things that made me fall in love with him. He'd grown taller, and wider, and stronger since we were children, but at his core he was still the number 1, hyperactive, knuckleheaded ninja of Konohagakure.

My eyes wandered over to the other patrons sitting at the bar. There was always a good chance I could find a friend or two among the crowd; who knows how many times he'd dragged the rest of what the village had dubbed "the Konoha 11" for lunch there. If scuttlebutt was to be believed, we were getting as famous as Mizu's worst generation of the Seven Swordsmen. I immediately recognized two close friends, Kiba and Hinata sitting together, the former of the two digging voraciously into his bowl, while Hinata was taking pace more slowly. "You don't have to eat so quickly, you'll get heartburn," I overheard through the crowd.

"Ha! Not a chance!" Kiba said between slurps. "I'll eat so fast my body won't know it should get sick!"

I looked at Naruto, a grin again on his face. "You tell her!" he interjected.

Kiba raised his free hand in greeting without turning around. "Yo, Naruto!" he said. "What's up?"

"Hey Kiba, Hinata! Just here for lunch, bar's too full right to sit down right now so we're getting takeout."

It was moments like these that I was reminded of how often people underestimate the Inuzuka. He turned in his seat to look at us, and I swear I saw his nostrils flair out with a sniff. He glanced at Naruto, then Hinata... then to me.

He locked eyes with me, and for a split second, it was almost like telepathy. He knew.

Don't tell her, I desperately thought. We're not ready yet.

Somebody has to tell her, Kiba's eyes said.

Please, not yet.

If you don't, I will. She deserves at least that much. You're better than that.

Maybe, but this isn't the time. We only just started.

Is it a secret?

… No. But we're still figuring things out.

Kiba quickly glanced to the side in Hinata's direction, even though she was just barely out of his line of sight, back to Naruto, then myself. You're going to break her heart, you know.

I felt my blood pressure spike in panic. I don't want to hurt anybody was my true intention. I can't help it, Kiba. I didn't choose to fall for him either.

The entire exchange occurred in less than a second. Kiba nodded, then turned back to the bar to slurp the remainder of his lunch down. "Well, one of you can take this spot," he said, leaving cash on the counter for his meal. "Mom's expecting me back at the house, we're going over the family budget for the next year. She keeps pushing me to fight for the clan head seat with my cousin, so I gotta learn this shit eventually."

"You didn't come here together?" Naruto asked.

"Nah," Kiba said, "we just met up here randomly." He looked at me with a dangerously thin smile. "It's not like we were on a date or anything."

Naruto, as oblivious as always, everywhere, everywhen that wasn't a mission, just grinned and clapped Kiba on the shoulder as he passed. "Thanks, bud! Tell your mom I said hey for me!"

"Tell her yourself, she's always saying you should come by more often. Some of the younger dogs actually listen to Kurama when he gets scary."

Naruto laughed, and Kiba was on his way, disappearing into the crowd.

And with that small-but-secretly crisis out of the way, there was one more for us to deal with... if I could somehow not let my new boyfriend from ruining somebody's day.

"Yo, Hinata! Long time no see!"

Hinata. Hinata. Oooooh, boy, this was going to be a tough one. Don't get me wrong, I admired that woman a lot. She had always been an excellent shinobi, and above that, she was a wonderful person. Ever since we were genin, we'd grown together, and Tsunade had trusted me to teach her some medical ninjutsu when we were low on talent. Hinata, for her part, had taken to the art nearly as well as I did, and while she hadn't ever shown interest in advancing further than mid-level techniques, she was very good at them. I would never admit it out loud, but she was a better hand-to-hand fighter than I'd ever be, my chakra-enhanced strength notwithstanding.

But more than that, I knew that Naruto was the only boy that she had ever loved, and had had a place in her heart only for him since before we were eight years old. It was the pure kind of childhood infatuation that grew into adoration, idolatry even. It wasn't the kind of shallow love that so many girls mistook for fairy tale romance.

Hinata Hyuuga was in love with my boyfriend, always had been, and always would be. Things were about to get complicated.

Hinata blushed a bit. She'd gotten a lot better about being more outgoing and sociable over the years, but she'd never been able to shake that bad habit of stuttering whenever Naruto was involved. "O-oh, Naruto," she said, shyly looking away from him. "Nice to s-see you!"

We were presented with a bit of a pickle. True, Kiba's departure meant that there were two empty seats at the bar, and nobody else seemed to be overly eager to take them up. The lunch-time rush was nearly over, and the crowds were beginning to thin out around us. Typical Tuesday. However, the vacant seats were on either side of Hinata, and it would be rude to ask her to move over so he and I could sit together without some plausible pretext. If I did, it would make things awkward, which might lead to questions, which could lead to her feeling ostracized, then words being said around ears eager for gossip...

But more than all of that, I didn't want to hurt my friend. I couldn't say that I didn't know this kind of situation would come up eventually, but for crying out loud... the first day we made it official? Really? What kind of twisted joke is that?

"You too! Always good to see you, Hinata! Mind if we join you?"

"Oh, er, yes! Of course!" Without further preamble, Naruto sat to her left, with the end of the short bartop to the right of her, where I took my seat. This wasn't the first time that he and I had eaten here together by a long shot, nor the first that we'd found her at the place. This was absolutely, perfectly normal in every sense of the word.

Keep telling yourself that, bucko, I thought to myself.

If one thing can be counted on to never change, it's that Naruto will always be a people person. I've often wondered if it was a side-effect of a childhood of neglect, but he always goes out of his way to make people smile, to get them engaged in himself. Without any apparent effort he made conversation with almost everybody at the stand, most of whom he knew by name, and took the time to memorize a young genin who had the most starstruck expression on her face. Sometimes I forget that Naruto is famous across the land, but he's commonly thought to be slated to be the next Hokage when Kakashi retires, or- God forbid- dies. But as our sensei once said, he is aware enough to know how great he can be, but humble enough to not care. To Naruto, everybody is equally amazing in their own right, and so long as you aren't hurting his friends or family, he will greet you with a smile and open arms.

The fact that he considered the entire village to be his family didn't give him the slightest pause.

I felt my worries slip away as the meal went on. Ayame had already begun preparing our regular orders before we even sat down, and we were happily talking before we knew it. Even Hinata seemed to lose her awkwardness in just a few moments, and without realizing it we were joking away like it was nothing at all.

Some people think that Naruto's secret superpower is his ninjutsu, or the titanic fox that he calls "brother" dwelling within his belly. Me? I knew for a fact that making friends was his true talent.

I'll admit that I zoned out for a few minutes somewhere in the middle of Naruto's conversation with Ichiraku. It was too easy to feel relaxed there, especially with such good food in front of me. There I was, enjoying the sunshine, tasty noodles, and waning but oddly-satisfying aches in my body fading into oblivion, but I caught a line that brought me to my senses. "You were gone for two weeks this time?" Ayame asked Naruto. "What kind of mission did Kakashi send you on?"

"Oh, yeah, I didn't tell you guys before we left," Naruto said over his newly-refilled bowl. "Sensei asked us to head over to Suna to check on preparations for the upcoming chunin exams." He gestured over at me with his chopsticks. "Granny sent her with some new medical techniques for their hospice corps, something about... what? What was it?"

"We're working together to use medical jutsu to reverse memory loss and improve mental cognizance in elderly patients," I explained. "With the consent of the patients' families in both of our villages, we are experimenting with several different methods to not only prevent further loss of mental abilities, but even to reverse the effects of old age, at least in the mind. It could take years, maybe longer, but if Tsunade-sama is right, there's a really good chance that with a combination of drug therapy and prevention, we can discover the key to ending all effects of memory loss due to advanced age."

"What?!" Ayame said in surprise. "That's... that's amazing! The villages are really cooperating at that level already?"

"Yeah!" Naruto said with that brilliant smile of his. "Gaara is one of my best friends, you know! And Tsunade, her dream is to open up a medical school that people from all over can study at."

"If we could combine conventional medical knowledge with medical ninjutsu from around the world," I added, "there's no telling how many lives can be saved in the long run. While medicine itself isn't an exclusive practice to any one nation or village, there are plenty of medical components that aren't widely known outside of certain areas, or ninjutsu that are kept secret."

Naruto nodded. "Don't get me wrong," he said, "I get that people want to keep their ninjutsu to themselves, right? I'm not going around teaching everybody how to do the Rasengan. Buuuuut, if medics could share techniques, that's a whole different thing entirely. If Granny can actually open up a school with funds provided from several different sources, without any one sponsor having too much control and making it political, we can make her dream come true!"

Tsunade's dream had been one that I had been fighting for during the whole past year. In some ways, I'd made it my own, too. "That's one of the big reasons that Suna and Konoha are working together in this project," I continued. "Consider it a testing platform, a demonstration of the kind of good that can come in just two of the major powers cooperate. We're going to formally announce the joint task force, and ask for more volunteers in other villages to give us a wider and more diverse sample group. With any luck, in two years, maybe less, we'll be exchanging information that could lead to... I don't know, it could even be the beginning of the end of hostilities between the villages." I shrugged and continued with my noodles. "That's the idea, anyway."

I noticed Hinata looking at me with wide eyes. "Huh? Something wrong, Hinata?"

She shook her head with a small smile. "No, nothing's wrong. You're just so amazing, Sakura."

"Yeah, she is!" Naruto crowed. "That's why I love her so much!"

I really can't say that I have much of an excuse, but for some reason my body reacted on instincts a decade programmed into my body. I was suddenly behind Naruto with my hands on his collar, shaking him back and forth with his head comically flopping around in the air while flailing his chopsticks about. "NARUTO YOU IDIOT, WHAT'D I TELL YOU ABOUT THAT?!"

Ayame and her father, along with many of the other people around who'd been eavesdropping on the conversation in interest, bust out laughing. Naruto's "crush" on me was infamous to certain people, and was the subject of quite a few jokes at the watercooler. Even the normally-reserved Hinata was laughing along with them.

Naruto and I spent a good bit more time there at the ramen shop. We'd been gone from the village for a while, and this was a popular hub to meet friends, learn the juicy scuttlebutt, and relax and enjoy life. Naruto never had enough cash to pay his tab, but Ichiraku always let him pay it off whenever he remembered to go to the bank. I'd jokingly suggested that Naruto give the authorities in charge of his mission stipend a flat percentage of his salary, but then he pointed out that if that happened he would most likely take that as an excuse to blow it all in a few days.

Eventually, though, I noticed the sun passing overhead, and the shadows grew longer with each moment, and I think Hinata did as well. "This has been fun, but I really must be going," Hinata said. She left enough on the counter to cover her tab and stood up with a stretch. Her back arched to the side with her arm pushing to the side, and I had to keep my expression neutral for a second as covertly admired her body. What? She hides it under baggy clothes and bandages, but the girl has a killer body. If she knew what to do with it, she would have snatched up Naruto years ago.

...Was it just me, or did Naruto seem to appreciate her physique too? No, no. He had eyes only for me. Right?

I had to think for a bit on this.

"Aw, how come?" Naruto asked. He'd long finished his lunch, but was nursing a cup of cola.

"Father asked me to tutor one of my cousins in the academy," she explained. "She's been having difficulty with her kata, and he thinks that a mentor with a different approach might help."

"Well, he couldn't have picked a better teacher," Naruto said. "You're really awesome, Hinata! I'm sure you're going to be a great tutor! Let me know if you need help, or if you want to train with me again sometime. We don't spend enough time together."

All the casual relaxation that Hinata had built up for the past couple hours, all of it, went right out the window. Her blushes were the stuff of legend in Konoha; I heard Shino once say that he had lost several of his beetles because they were too close to her when she went scarlet, and the heat she produced was higher than they were bred to handle. Supposedly, he developed a unique strain of insect that he only cultivated in earnest when he, Naruto, and Hinata were scheduled to work together, but that was only speculation, and if it did happen to be true, he wasn't talking.

"Naruto, you idiot," I grumbled, but I don't think he heard me muttering under my breath. "Hey, Hinata, I'll walk you home. My place is on the way, and I need to do some shopping anyway. Only thing I have in my fridge right now is wine, frozen meals, and milk that should have been tossed before I left."

"And cheese," Naruto said.

I saw Hinata blink at that. She might be sweet and shy, but stupid, she was not. I could picture her putting some pieces together there, and if I didn't do some damage control, things might get out of hand. Kiba's silent warning to me just a short time ago came back to me... he wasn't somebody that I wanted to have as an enemy.

"That sounds lovely," Hinata said, smiling. "I'm in no hurry."

"Well, let's go," I said. "Naruto, would you mind getting my tab here? I'll pay next time."

"No problem," he said.

"Famous last words," Ayame said.

"Cha-ching!" old man Ichiraku.

I rubbed at my temples in annoyance. "I'm going to regret this, aren't I?" I asked nobody in particular.

Four hours later, I showed up at Naruto's apartment door. I didn't tell him in advance that I was coming over, so he hadn't bothered to clean up his place like he usually did when he was expecting company, but that wasn't something that irked me. It was his place, and it wasn't like it was a pigsty. It was... mildly chaotic, but at least it wasn't unhygienic. Just cluttered. Nothing ten minutes and a couple clones couldn't fix, at any rate. "Sakura!" he said when he opened up. "I, uh, didn't know we had plans." He scrunched his face up in thought. "Did we make plans?"

I smiled, despite what was undoubtedly the preamble to a complicated night ahead. "No, not really," I said. "Can I come in?" I gestured with my hand holding a plastic bag. "Figured we could talk and eat. Brought snack food if that's all right."

Surprised, but happy, he let me slip past him into the living room. His home was smaller than mine, but that didn't mean it was empty. Photos lined the wall documenting many of the most important times in our lives. That day we became genin under Kakashi... The four of us, Sasuke included, we looked so young and happy. The three of us haven't seen Sasuke in over a year now. Word was he was doing some shady work for Kakashi on the side, but he'd never formally returned to be reinstated to the village.

There was Jiraiya, with a Naruto a couple years older by his side. Naruto was dressed in his usual orange and blues, but a scaled up version, in darker shades. The clothing was tattered, and both were dirty. Naruto had once told me that this was taken the day that he'd learned to successfully use larger versions of his Rasengan technique. On a shelf affixed to the wall beneath the photo was a collection of every book that his second master had published, and a few that never made it to the market. I had to admit, for an old pervert, Jiraiya was actually a pretty good author. Reading his Icha-Icha series was a guilty pleasure of mine... not that I ever told Naruto that.

Although I could always go back over them for pointers... Mental note.

Conjuring a few imitations of himself to set about getting the place organized, the main man helped me unpack the chips, dips, and drinks. "What's up, babe?" he casually asked while munching on some slivers of fried potato chip.

This was going to be tricky as hell. I didn't know how Naruto would react, but I hoped we could figure things out together. He came off as a simple guy, and even though I was almost, almost 100% sure that it wasn't an act, that he was just this kind, decent man who loved the whole world and just wanted everybody to get along, every now and then I caught flashes of his insight. He was so good at surprising people that I think he gradually learned to keep some things hidden to himself. He might be a doofus, but... part of being a Sage, the most important part, as he says, is being attuned to all life around him, at a conscious and unconscious level. I've witnessed his intuition working through him in feats that border on telepathy, maybe even premonition. I knew that it was useless to prolong this further, else he might misinterpret it as trying to pull something over on him. "Can we sit down? We need to talk about something."

"Huh? I, uh, did I do something wrong?" he asked.

"No! No, you're good! We just need to sort something out. It's important."

One of the clones in his room shouted out at us. "You better not fuck this up for us!" came Naruto's muffled voice.

Not for the first time, Naruto groaned at his clone's autonomy. One of the big advantages of Kage Bushin was that they could think for themselves, at the same level of sapience as the original. The disadvantages? They could think for themselves. "Shut up before I pound you to smoke!" I called back at it, "or no nookie for you!"

"Are you threatening me by proxy?" Naruto asked with a bemused smirk.

"No, I'm threatening you with a fist."

"Oh, that's a good threat," one of the other clones muttered from the kitchen. "That's a really good threat."

Naruto and I nestled into the couch. It was one of the kind that felt lived-in, and I relished sinking into the cushions every time I had visited in the past. Leaning into his warm body, hard, but yielding, it was like a dream. The bag of sour cream chips in his lap, we snacked until the clones had finished their sprucing up, and once they had been dismissed, I knew that I had to get things off my chest. I really wasn't sure where to start, but I had to start somewhere. "Naruto," I eventually began. "We need to talk."

I felt him stiffen against me with those words, and not in the way that I found personally appealing. "What's wrong?" he asked me.

I took a deep breath. This wasn't going to be easy. "I... Listen. You know how I feel about you. And I know how you feel about me."

Naruto nodded slowly. I could almost see the wheels in his head turning. Maybe he wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed sometimes, but that didn't mean he was dull. "I love you," he said.

It was the simple, unabashed way he said those words that made my heart flutter. It wasn't like when we were in bed, proclaiming our love in the heat of passion. This wasn't a confession of love, or a heated declaration. He was simply stating a fact.

"And I love you too," I replied. How were my words as casual, as easy as his? He'd loved me for so much longer than I him. It wasn't fair. When did I fall so deep into the well of Uzumaki Naruto that I forgot when I began falling, never to hit the depths of his affection? "But, maybe more than that, I care for you. You, you make me feel things, Naruto. I find myself thinking about you when you're not around, and you've become such an important part of my life. Last night, I didn't know I was going to ask you to play that game. I didn't know that you and I would go at it like that. This is all moving so fast, but- no, let me finish- but I love it." I looked up at him, his confused puppy-dog eyes as blue as the summer sky. "You're a good man, Naruto, and I'm so lucky, so happy to be here with you. I don't know-"

A sudden knock on the door interrupted me mid-sentence. Broken from my train of thought, I frowned. "You expecting anybody?"

Naruto shrugged. "I wasn't expecting you, much less anybody else," he pointed out. "Might be somebody from dispatch?"

"Maybe," I agreed. I let Naruto stand to answer his door.

"Who is it?" he asked rhetorically as it swung open.

I just barely had the chance to see Hinata there, eyes wide, skin pale with nerves, before she disappeared into the night. "Woah!" Naruto shouted. "Hey! Hinata-chan! What's going on?" Naruto's posture indicated that he was about to chase after her into the mid-evening air.

"Naruto, wait!" I said. He froze in place, like a cat interrupted mid-pounce. "I- let her go. I'll go after her, just stay here." I stood and went to the door, gently pulling him away. "She and I need some girl-talk anyway."

Naruto didn't seem like he was going to budge, but he backed up a bit. "Hold on," he said. "What's going on here?"

"Naruto-"

"Is this about us?" he asked, and I felt an arrow pierce my heart.

"Not... not exactly. It's complicated."

"I hate when people use that word," he said. "It usually means 'I don't think you'll get it if I tried explaining it' and I'm tired of people thinking I'm an idiot."

"Nobody thinks you're an idiot, Naruto."

"Kiba does."

"Well... Kiba's Kiba. I sometimes think he needs a map to get out of bed."

"Well just tell me then! I hate when people talk around me like I'm a subject instead of a person. Whatever's going on, I get the feeling that I deserve to know."

On the one hand, I really didn't want to have this conversation right now. I'd hoped to push it off for another day. But now that the opportunity presented itself... might as well rip the bandage off. "She's in love with you, you idiot!" I shouted, pointing out the door. "Always has been! For the better part of fifteen years, you've been her hero! She told me once that you saved her from bullies when you were kids, and more than anything else in the world, you're like her dream! You're the only one she's ever thought of in her heart! She's obsessed with you, but not in a weird way, but... Shit, I don't know! She's devoted to you! Everybody knows it!" I threw up my hands and walked back into the living room. "The whole village knows! Kakashi knows! Her dad knows! Hell, I'm pretty sure Gaara knows! There's a goddamned pool worth three year's worth of chunin salary bet on whether she'd ever tell you or if you'd figure it out first!" I should have stopped there. I didn't. "Her father hasn't set up a marriage for her because he knows it'd break her heart to marry somebody other than you. She's never had a boyfriend because she can't picture herself with anybody else. She holds you to such high standards that a suitor would have to be a physical god to measure up, but hey, guess what? You are ACTUALLY A PHYSICAL GODDAMN GOD IN HUMAN FORM. To her, you're everything that she could want. The only thing holding her back from telling you this herself was herself. She's better than she used to be, but still, she's so timid when it comes to you that she can't think straight! And you, you doofus! You're so thick when it comes to women! Literal princesses have hit on you without you realizing it! And you- AARGH!"

I stopped myself before I could lose it. I sat down and snatched the chips off of the table and angrily chomped. "I didn't expect her to show up here, especially not tonight," I said. "After we left Ichiraku, we talked, but I wasn't sure if she figured things out already. She's smart. Smarter than I am, maybe. But I wasn't sure. But... Ugh!" I set the bag aside. Stress eating wasn't healthy. I had to go after her. "How you could be the only one who didn't know is beyond me!"

I walked toward the door. "Listen, I'm gonna go find her and make sure she doesn't do something stupid. You stay here. I'll be-"

"You're wrong, you know," he said. I turned to see a strange expression on his face. Naruto had never been the type to be too introspective, but I'm sure he was processing things as well as he could.

"Huh?"

He looked at me. Everybody has those kinds of memories that they remember forever. Key points, the really important ones. I'm sure if you sift through your own past, you can find the diamonds that shine in the rough of your childhood that stand out just as much as yesterday's meal. I can safely say that this one ranks high among them all. It was a turning point for all of us, and for good or ill, it would affect many people for many years to come. "I know. I've known for a long time. Since Pain invaded, ever since that fight. Nobody was around, and I thought... I'm not sure. To be honest, a lot of that fight's still hazy to me. There's a blur here and there, and miniature blasts of chakra from my mouth... and a lot of screaming. Lots of pain." A soft smile tugged at his lips. "But clear as day, I remember her defending me when Nagato had me pinned to the ground. She was so strong, so brave. I remember seeing here there, lions of brilliant chakra around her fists, fighting a battle that she knew she couldn't win, all for my sake. Do you remember when I lost control, when I transformed that time?"

"How could I forget?" I asked.

"Pain killed Hinata. I didn't handle it that well." He took a deep breath to steady himself. "I don't remember much after that, not until after the fight was done with. But I could never forget what she said."

I went to him. I held his hands in mine, cautiously, but warm in mine they were. "If you knew, why...?"

I think he understood all the questions I wanted to ask. "It wasn't a good time for anybody to be romantic," he pointed out. That much was true. With the village flattened, even though Nagato had used his power to return everybody who had died that day to life, we still struggled to rebuild for months afterward. "The longer things took, the more awkward it got... I was waiting, though. Maybe I didn't realize it, but I waited for a little over a year. But eventually, another girl asked me out before she did. I hesitated at first, but she was persistent. It didn't last long, and I didn't really tell anybody, but... I needed somebody, too. Hinata wasn't ready, and honestly, neither was I."

"So, what? You've been stringing her along all this time?"

"Do you think that's the kind of man I am?"

I snorted. "No, but maybe that's how she sees it." I frowned up at him. "I didn't want to hurt her, you know," I whispered.

"I know," he said. "But you came to me first. I love you Sakura. I love you with everything I am." He pulled me into a hug. By whatever god there may be, he smelled good. "I don't want to lose you as much as I love you."

I sank into his embrace and nuzzled his chest. "Somebody's gotta talk to her," I said. "It'll come out better if she hears it from me."

After a moment, I pulled away with a sigh. "Well, it's funny, kinda, you know?" I said as I ate some more chips. Anything to distract myself, I guess.

Naruto tilted his head a bit in confusion. "What do you mean?" he asked.

I shrugged. "That you of all people, Jiraiya's student, didn't look at her all the time and imagine what she was like with the clothes off. I mean, I'm not super into girls myself, but damn."

"Huh?"

"Oh, please, Mister Harem Jutsu."

"The Harem Jutsu is a legitimate distraction technique, and it is art." I saw him crack a smile; I knew how to break him, all right. "And besides, it's not like she's much curvier than you are, right?"

I raised a brow at him. "Really? You don't see her in all those baggy clothes all the time and wonder why?"

"Huh?" he repeated.

I had an idea. One that would destroy him, give me some measure of satisfaction...

Oh. Yes. Hold on. This could work. This might work. A way for everybody to get what they want. A way to save face. A path where Hinata wouldn't feel so alone or betrayed.

I set the bag back down, vowing to leave it there this time. Wordlessly I clashed my hands together in quick and dirty ninjutsu, mimicking my love's most infamous technique.

I'd been in bathhouses with Hinata before often enough to know her form fairly well, and hey, I'm a medical professional. There are just some things I'm better at than the average pleb.

A half dozen carbon copies of Hyuuga Hinata appeared around Naruto, extraordinarily naked, lovingly created into existence. Naruto's eyes went bugeyed for a few seconds, blood poured through his nose... and he passed out on the floor of his apartment.

I'd been working on this one for a while now. Jiraiya would have taken me as his student if he knew I was willing to use this technique.

"Stay here, Naruto," I told him. "I'll be back eventually." Things were about to get weird. "Oh, when I do? Have a deck of cards ready. We're going to play a game."

A/N: Ooooooh, boy. Things are gonna get WEIRD.

Here's a long-overdue addition to this little slice of heaven called fanfiction. I got inspiration to continue, and I think that even though it's going to go in a different direction than it would have a few years ago when I started writing it, I don't think that it's a bad direction. I hope to continue this soon, so if I don't keep up, somebody poke me with a stick.

It is nearly 4 in the morning. If I don't post this soon, I never will. Forgive any grammatical errors, I'm extraordinarily exhausted right now. I'm going to bed, but I hope, whoever you are, wherever you are, no matter what day or month or year it is... I hope you have a great day.

And as some great men once said, "Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes."

~Dead Witch