"I... I'm sorry," Sakura stammered; "I don't know why I got so angry." All they had been doing was have a nice friendly talk about the mission and her teammates; Neji; Rock Lee; Naruto, when suddenly a burning anger started boiling up in her she couldn't explain.

"It's alright, I understand. You just got a little jealous."

"Jealous? Of what?" Sakura shook her head. There was nothing to get jealous about. All they'd really talked about was Neji and his Byakugan, Fuzzy Brow's weird reaction to alcohol and Shion finding Naruto intriguing. No, that wasn't what she said. Interesting, that was it; she was interested in Naruto. Why would she get jealous about that?

"Well, you like him yourself, don't you?" Shion replied. "Naruto, that is."

"Yes, of course I do. He's my teammate after all, but what does that have to do with anything?"

Shion just chuckled softly. It seemed the pink-haired girl was completely oblivious to her own feelings.

"That's not quite what I meant. I know you love him, I can tell. And what's not to love? He's sweet and funny, he's spirited and passionate, and he's completely devoted to you. To all his friends, I think, but especially to you. On top of that, he has those beautiful sky-blue eyes, a smile that can make you forget all about your troubles and, uhm, well," Shion added, a blush creeping on her face; "thanks to all that ninja training, he really has a pretty amazing body as well." Leaning in a bit closer, she dropped her voice to a whisper, her face turning even redder. "Not to mention that cute little butt of his."

Sakura's mind kept drifting back to that conversation as she followed Naruto down the streets of Konoha, heading to their respective homes after handing over the reports on their latest mission to Tsunade-sama. She'd vehemently denied being in love with him of course. He was loud and obnoxious and a total knuckle-head. Not her type at all. Yeah, the idea was totally ridiculous. He was a teammate and a friend. A good friend, but nothing more. And yet... Yet that conversation kept lingering in her mind and a small voice kept screaming at her to listen.

Could it be that Shion was right? Could it be that the high priestess had seen something she wasn't even aware of herself? She liked to think that she knew herself better than that. That she knew what she felt and she'd definitely know it if she was in love. But than, why had she become so upset about Shion showing an interest in Naruto? Why was she feeling her emotions flare up even now, just thinking back about it? If Naruto was no more than a good friend to her, why would she even care about anyone else liking him? A pang of jealousy shot through her as she pictured Naruto and Shion together. Why was she feeling this way, if not because...

No, no, it was impossible. She wasn't jealous of Shion because she liked Naruto, she was just jealous because she didn't have anybody like that. There was Sasuke of course, but he had changed and so had her feelings for him. She still cared for him deeply of course, and desperately wanted to bring him back home, but she was well past the schoolgirl crush she'd had on him back when they were in team 7 together. That was all there was to it. It wasn't because she was in love with Naruto. He was way too annoying anyway.

It failed to occur to her that this whole time she'd been coming up with arguments as to why she wasn't in love with Naruto, she'd been thinking about Naruto. More specifically, she'd been thinking about what Shion had said about him. Without even realizing it, her eyes slowly drifted over Naruto's body; across his broad, masculine shoulders; along his muscular back; right down to his tight, firm...

"Uhm, Sakura-chan? Why are you staring at my butt?"

Her eyes immediately shot upwards as her face flushed a deep crimson.

"I was not, you idiot!" she yelled, turning her embarrasment at being caught into anger; "Like I'd ever do such a thing!"

Naruto instantly jumped back a few feet at Sakura's angry reaction, being all too familiar with her temper. "Ok, ok, I just thought for a moment... Uhm, never mind, it must have been my imagination. I'll uh, I'll see you tomorrow." He quickly ran off waving his teammate goodbye, not about to stick around long enough for her to decide he needed to be smacked on the head, again, for even thinking such a thing.

All Sakura could think as she watched him run off was; Shion was right, he really did have a very nice butt...