By: roterritter
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Rating: T to be safe.
Spoilers: Takes place at the beginning of Part 2 of the manga, but before the Akatsuki arc.
Summary: After the time skip Naruto starts to wonder where did Sakura get a forehead protector with a red headband. Lee? Gaara! Ino! Naruto's jealous and overactive imagination is dying to know. One-Shot. NaruSaku.
A/N: This is a one-shot playing with the origin of Sakura's new forehead protector. On the cover of the manga volume 28 and the cover of the Jump that chapter 262 was in, we have color images of Sakura with a red headband for her forehead protector.
This is my first attempt at a slightly humorous pairing story. So, be kind.
In all of Naruto's travels in two and a half years, he hadn't found a ramen stand as good as Ichiraku Ramen. Yet, even after all that time, all he could do was pick at the noodles with his chopsticks.
"Hey, Naruto, don't worry," tried Sakura with a worried expression. "It's okay if you're still a Genin, you've been studying under Jiraiya-sama for the last few years so I'm sure stronger than they are now. You beat them once before right, so I'm sure your amazing!"
That was true, but it was still wasn't fair. Sakura is a Chuunin now and he was okay with that, but Neji is a Jounin, and Gaara was the freaking Kazekage! What was next? The last major battle he had after Gaara was Sasuke and he didn't want even think about that.
"Your right Sakura!" he said as he brought up the old mask of fake smiles and cheerfulness.
It apparently worked as Sakura went back to eating her ramen. Naruto started to eat his own before it got too cold, but kept her in the corner of his vision.
"Sakura, I've been thinking, there's something different about you now."
"Really!" she asked as she leaned closer and even blushed a little. "I thought you didn't notice!"
"Y-Yeah," he said. "The headband to your forehead protector is red. Didn't it use to be blue?"
She blinked at him in puzzlement and then gritted her teeth and glare. "Not again! What does it take for you to notice! NA-RU-TO!" The wooden chopsticks she held in her hand broke under her grip.
Having been the subject her glare many times when they were young, always when she was mad at him and usually followed by pain, and being witness to her new strength, he realized he was trouble.
"I-It looks pretty next to your hair," he managed to say while leaning away from her growing fury. Just as sudden as her anger rose it quickly subsided. In fact, she looked happy and was now blushing more than before.
The standard color of the headband for forehead protectors in Konoha was blue, although there were exceptions. He reminded himself that even he had to replace his own blue headband while he was away from Konoha, because the Perverted Hermit's training had worn all his clothes into shreds. He had replaced the original blue from the forehead protector given to him by Iruka-sensei with a long black bandana that left two trailing ends even when tied.
"So where did you get the red one?" he asked.
Sakura looked a little uncomfortable, but then laughed softly, "It was given to me during the last Chuunin Exam I took."
Naruto had more questions, like who and why, he knew his own black one had a story, but before he could ask.
"Naruto? Is that you?"
Naruto turned and saw the man moved past the banners that draped down over the ramen stand's entrance. "Iruka-sensei?"
"Iruka-sensei!" said Sakura in an overly cheerful tone, hinting that perhaps she was happy for the interruption. "I bet you and Naruto have some catching up to, I'll see you later Naruto, okay?"
"Sure," he managed as she walked away with a wave of her hand. Naruto could only watch as she walked away, wondering what he was missing, as Iruka sat down and made an order with the waitress.
"Naruto, how have you been?"
The first night back in Konoha, Naruto laid in his old bed with his hands folded behind his head while he watched the moonlight filter through the window and fill his old apartment.
The apartment was in remarkable shape, considering he hadn't been home in two and half years. Given how much people hated him because of Kyuubi, he expected to come back to find it completely trashed, yet Iruka-sensei had explained that after the first time it was vandalized old lady Tsunade had punished those responsible so severely that no one dared to do so again.
It also helped that Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei took turns over the years to repair and clean up any minor damage, to make it perfect for his return. However, he could say much for the bed he had outgrown, the heels of his bare feet dangled off the end and in the air.
Despite that, it was good to be home.
Yet one lingering question remained, who gave Sakura the red forehead protector?
It occurred to him that Sakura had moved on in two and a half years. They followed different paths, especially as they both continued to grow up.
"Sakura's a Chuunin now," he spoke to himself. His soft tone was the only sound in the empty apartment. "She had to take it without me or Sasuke, but who was there to encourage her? Who was there to watch her back? I guess she took it with someone else, another Team."
He guessed that if one person was promoted and the others didn't, the remaining team needed an extra member to take the next exam. He remembered that Shikamaru had been promoted during their first Chuunin exam, which left Chouji and Ino of Team 10 still together. He wondered if Sakura joined their team.
"Poor Chouji, being stuck with two girls in constant mood swings," he chuckled at his own joke, but frowned at the thought.
Was Sakura really a member of Team 10 then? Although he was in a team again with Sakura and Kakashi, was there really a Team 7 anymore? Even if they were back in a team again with Kakashi-sensei, he had been gone longer than Team 7 was together.
"What if Sakura moved on and met someone else!" he asked himself as he gave the ceiling a worried expression.
Somehow, he didn't feel like Tsunade was the type to let Sakura pine away for Sasuke forever, just like how Jiraiya told him to forget his friend. She could have dated, she could be dating someone now. She seemed eager to leave after he brought up the red headband.
Rock Lee wore a red headband.
"Fuzzy Eyebrows?"
Naruto remembered that Sakura got close to slightly older Genin from Gai-sensei's team during the first Chuunin Exam, although he couldn't remember why. He started hitting on her after he first saw her and she treated his advances, much like she did with Naruto's attempts. Yet, something changed, she even brought flowers for Lee's hospital room. She never did that for him, although Naruto thought perhaps because he was never as hurt as Lee.
"What did Lee have that I don't?"
Lee chased after her relentlessly. Check. Naruto had been doing so since they were much younger, ever since he realized she was like himself, not just because she's pretty.
Lee protected her from bad guys. Check. Naruto defeated Gaara to save her. Gaara in Shukaku mode could have eaten the three Sound Genin for breakfast.
Lee could do the nice guy pose. Check. Naruto did so with a promise of a lifetime to bring back Sasuke, the boy she loved.
Lee got hurt. Checkmate. The same boy she loved nearly killed him if it wasn't for Kyuubi.
In the end, perhaps Lee was there when Naruto wasn't. She needed him to cheer her on during the exam. Perhaps he gave her his forehead protector to give her strength.
He couldn't imagine the possibility. His Sakura-chan and Lee together? What would they have, kids with fuzzy pink eyebrows?
"AH!" he yelled as the horrible imagine entered his head. "I'll never get to sleep now!"
"Yeah, I'm back!" he yelled into the crowd, more scornful than just happy like yesterday. Word had spread and the villagers had gotten out their angry faces to give him glares and tell him how disappointed they were that he didn't stay away.
He was gone two and a half years and they still acted that way.
Naruto thought back to news that Gaara was now Kazekage. He couldn't imagine it. Gaara was hated and feared, yet for most of his life he only felt that his existence was recognized was when he killed, yet now as a Kage his job was to protect those same people. Naruto wondered if the Suna people still hated Gaara. He hoped not, because he couldn't imagine being Hokage when people still looked at him like they did today.
"Wait a minute, doesn't Gaara have a red headband?" he asked himself, but he smiled at the thought. "But that's just silly. Gaara tried to crush her. There's no way Sakura-chan would have accepted it."
Yet, Shikamaru certainly seemed familiar and comfortable with Temari the day before. Naruto had heard the Sand siblings had helped the others when they fought the Sound Four and even saved their lives, even if he hadn't been around for those particular battles.
Even Gaara had saved Rock Lee.
It wouldn't have been that unusual for the Konoha teams to meat the Suna teams during a Chuunin Exam. With their part in the invasion forgiven and their role in helping against the Sound Four, the teams might have been close compared to the many strangers they would have met in another village.
"But, if Sakura-chan going to date someone with a monster inside them then why not me! Shukaku only has one tail and nine tails have to be better than just one!"
Naruto suddenly realized that trying to give Kyuubi positive attributes in the middle of a street filled with hateful glares was not the best thing to do.
"Hey, Naruto," said a friendly voice. Naruto turned and saw Shikamaru walking toward him in a casual pace.
"Shikamaru!" Naruto was happy, at least it was a familiar face.
"You given any thought about the next Chuunin Exams?"
"Na, I'm on a team with Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan again. We'll be getting a mission soon. Besides, even if you had all those genin come at me at once it could still beat all!"
"Geez, you certainly haven't changed," Shikamaru smiled. Yet, for Shikamaru, in his world of changing troublesome things, if Naruto was still Naruto it wasn't a completely troublesome thing.
"Hey, Shikamaru, do you know who Sakura took the exam with after I left?"
"Eh, Chouji and Ino," he said with a puzzled look. "Since I was promoted they needed another person. Geez, those girls were so troublesome, they gave Chouji and Asuma-sensei a lot of headaches every time they were together."
"Then do you know who gave Sakura-chan the forehead protector with a red headband?"
"Nope, maybe Ino gave it to her," said Shikamaru as he began to walk away. "Look I have to go, I have to take care of the Exam preparations. See you later."
"Ino?"
Naruto walked deep in thought.
"Hey, Naruto, how does it feel to be back home?"
He looked up and Jiraiya was sitting on the roof of one of the buildings. Naruto looked around and didn't see half-dressed women anywhere.
"What are you doing up there, Perverted Hermit? Are you doing something perverted when you're suppose to be looking for information on the Akatsuki?" he asked flatly. Naruto never really got how men's clubs, bars, and brothels were good sources for information.
"What? You always expect the worse of me."
"Usually because you do the worse."
It was the same argument that they've had for years.
"What did I do to get an ungrateful apprentice like you?" asked Jiraiya as he rubbed his chin. Then he smiled, "At least Tsunade has a very pretty apprentice."
"Hey!" Naruto screamed louder than usual. "Keep Sakura-chan outside of your perverted fantasies!"
Jiraiya noticed his strange behavior, after all, Naruto had been his constant student for two and a half years. He noticed the subtle shifts in the boy's behavior. "What's wrong with you? Did you forget to complement her again?"
"What?"
Jiraiya sighed as he looked up the sky. "After all this time it appears I failed to teach you about women. I even let you read my books. Your just hopeless."
"Your books are more likely to corrupt my mind than teach me about women," Naruto smirked.
"Says you, but what's your real problem?"
"Ah." Naruto scratched his cheek nervously, "Sakura-chan has a new headband to her forehead protector. She avoided me when I asked about it, I thought maybe she has new boyfriend or someone else that was important to her. It's red so I thought about Genin I knew with red headbands and then Shikamaru thought Ino gave it to her."
"Ino?"
"The girl on Shikamaru's original team."
"Ah," Jiraiya said with a big smile.
"Hey!" Naruto pointed his finger angrily at him, "This isn't one of your stupid books."
"But it could be," Jiraiya smirked as he patted a scroll. "Two young women with a beautiful friendship that becomes something more."
"PERVERTED HERMIT!"
"What is with you?"
"Huh? Sakura-chan?" Naruto stopped staring into empty space while he was thinking and turned to find Sakura standing beside him giving him a concerned look.
He looked around, they were standing in the hallway of the Hokage Tower, and Kakashi was late as usual. Soon they would receive their first mission as a team again, the first that he would have since two and a half years of training, yet he wasn't acting excited at all.
For one thing, he remembered he was taller than her now and could easily see the red headband that had taunted his thoughts all night and morning.
"I was thinking," he said softly. He leaned back against the hallway wall and Sakura leaned back as well, watching him carefully. "Sakura, how was your last Chuunin Exam? I remember the one we were in was really dangerous!"
"Hmm, it was okay. It wasn't the same of course, I was placed with Ino and Chouji, I wasn't so sure about that at first and then Asuma-sensei taught me a little bit, said I was almost as smart as Shikamaru," she smiled proudly. "He taught me to use fast thinking and intelligence instead of just physical movement to avoid attacks. Tsunade-sama taught me to evade attacks, but Asuma-sensei taught me to analyze my opponent's movement or the trajectory of his weapons in order to avoid them."
"Wow," said Naruto, but his expression remained thoughtful and serious. "Were there any scary Genin there this time?" he asked, remembering how all the older Genin seemed vicious in their own way.
"Well we were in a foreign country in a rival village so there was some pretty strange ones and some hostility, but Gai-sensei and Kurenai-sensei's teams went with us and we met up with the Suna siblings. She we all watched out for another," she explained. "Surely you faced a few dangerous people while you were gone too?"
Naruto scratched his head and gave her an awkward smile. "Yeah, but that was usually because I stuck my nose in someone else's troubles and got involved just because I wanted to help, but I remember how dangerous the Chuunin exam we took together was."
Sakura smiled, somehow imagining Naruto getting into every situation that he shouldn't have. "No one crashed the other one, like Orochimaru did. What's with the questions?"
"Well," he said as he scratched his cheek nervously with his eyes closed, making look particularly fox-like with the lines on his face. "I was wondering who encouraged you and watched your back?"
Sakura looked at him, knowing he wasn't saying everything that was one his mind, but she decided to answer one question at a time. She stepped out into the hallway, away from so that he only saw her back, and thought about her answer and what it might mean to him or reveal about her.
She turned her head and he could see a warm smile and confident look in her eyes. "I promised myself I would be able to protect my important people. It gave me strength to keep fighting even if they weren't there. I also had a friend who stood by my side."
Naruto stared at her in amazement, but his thoughts were jumbled and going in different directions. He was well aware that important people made a person strong, although being away from Konoha for so long he had to keep them in his mind too, even if they weren't there. He guessed one of her important people was Sasuke, but she said people. Who were the others and who was this friend? He thought his fears were true.
"Was this friend the one who gave you the red headband?" he asked carefully.
"Ino did," she said.
"Eh!" It was the worse outcome. At least with Lee or Gaara perhaps he had fighting chance of winning her back!
Sakura pointed at the red headband and smiled, "This is the same ribbon that Ino gave me when we were kids." Naruto blinked in surprise. "It became a symbol of our friendship, but I," she stopped, looking a little guilty, "I gave it back to Ino after we became Genin and declared we were rivals."
"But you guys were friends again after the first Chuunin exam," he said, he remembered that part.
"Right, but I never asked for the ribbon back," she told him. "But during the other Chuunin exam before the tournament she gave it back to me as a gift, with a forehead protector on it, so I could wear it as again as a symbol of our friendship and as a ninja."
"That's so cool," he told her happily, all his fears were gone. "That's so much better than everything I was thinking of."
The last slipped before he realized it. It would have been better if he hadn't said anything at all.
"Like what?" she smirked. Clearly, Naruto had been uncomfortable with the subject, so she was curious as to why.
"Well I thought," he laughed uncomfortably, "that maybe someone special, like…a boyfriend…gave you the…headband."
Sakura laughed hard at that, amused that Naruto had somehow come to that conclusion. "I don't have a boyfriend…Tsunade-sama doesn't give me the time for such things. I've been training constantly too you know."
Naruto's face brightened with that information, of course she wasn't going to tell him she still had feelings for Sasuke or that she felt a crush for Naruto himself when he first returned, although that didn't last long or so she told herself.
"So," she said after wiping the tears from her eyes from such hard laughter, "I told you about mine, so what about your black one?"
"Ah, this?" Naruto's face twitched nervously as he pointed to his black bandana. He knew the story behind it wouldn't make her happy, in fact it might get him hurt. He started to inch away from her slowly as her eyes narrowed on him and the smile left her face. "I think I hear my name, I have to go!"
Naruto started running with a fuming Sakura behind him.
"NA-RU-TO!"
Author's Note: Although nothing was ever said in the manga, I figured it was logical for Sakura to be not only a part of Team 10 on the next Chuunin exam, but also learn something from Asuma. I thought teaching her to use her brain to evade would be something he would teach and also go along with what Tsunade has taught her.
I also left Sakura's important people. Letting Naruto not realize he's one of them so it wouldn't conflict with future manga events.
Version 1.0
1.0: Original