Finish Line

End.

When Sakura kissed him for the first time to say he was shocked would have been the understatement of the century.

But he wasn't only drowning in the ocean of surprise that she'd pushed him into; there was a stream that flowed into this ocean, and it was bubbling with a string of emotions and feelings that he couldn't even begin or hope to describe.

They were both only sixteen then, and at the time bringing Sasuke back to Konoha was still at the top of his to-do list.

When Sakura kissed him though, it messed up whatever order Naruto had in his life. Because Sakura was supposed to love Sasuke, and Naruto was supposed to be bringing Sasuke back to Sakura, but Sakura was kissing him. Nothing made sense anymore, but he still felt that subtle closure deep down through the bursting of his heart.

It was then, that Naruto decided that neither him nor Sakura needed to swoop in madly just to bring Sasuke back. With patience they could await an opportunity. They would bring Sasuke back to the village together when the time was right.

He stuck with that decision. Naruto became an opportunist. Snagging and taking what was offered or waved in his face and making off with it, he no longer chased or sought. He didn't have to.

He has Sakura, their vows serve as enough proof of that. Though he will admit, he misses her smiles, those bright, unforgettable smiles. And her spunk, the way her beautiful green eyes used to blaze with fury when he pushed a little too far, those tiny fists that could level a mountain, her cutting words...all of it.

When he looks into his wife's eyes, that devotion that used to reflect in them...that shimmering hope, it's dulled and he can't find it anywhere. This Sakura is no longer the woman he married. She isn't happy and radiant. Beautiful but so...jaded. Almost, almost as if she were old, but that's absurd, twenty two isn't old.

He always was stupid, he decides. It was foolish to think that just because she kissed him it made her his, and even more foolish to believe that just because she married him it made it absolute. A ninja must see through deception, Kakashi-sensei would say.

Sakura loves him, he knows this, just not in the way hes always tried to make her. She's never going to. He knows this too...it's just that...how? How can he just give her up? He loves her too much to do that.

Her smiles though...the lack of luster when she smiles at anyone is disheartening. Her cloudy eyes...all she has left is her confidence, even that assertiveness she carried with her for so long has diminished to where he can no longer find it, and hes already dug so deep.

It's hard, really it is. Sasuke was always the pessimist on the team. Kakashi was the one who stuck to reality, a happily ever after or a tragedy, he thought either was possible, depending of the situation and the options. Naruto and Sakura though, they were both always so optimistic. Because he had wanted to make her smile, and because he was always there to reassure her. She believed in him, and look how hes failed her. And really, what kind of person does that make him? A coward. He decides it means that he is a coward.

In the long run, Naruto has gotten nothing that he wanted. The woman waiting for him at home is not Sakura, just a sad, lonely being masquerading in her skin. This isn't the beautiful, quirky, energetic, intelligent girl that he fell in love with and crushed on during his days back in the academy.

And not only is he missing the love of his life, his best friend is gone, too. Sasuke never returned to Konoha on his own, and Naruto and Sakura never brought him back because the opportunity never arose. He'd been better off staying his same, impulsive self, instead of maturing and doing the smart thing by waiting for a chance that was never going to come.

He was lying to both himself and the world anyway, because it was never about being patient. It was about being a selfish coward, who didn't want to lose the woman he loved to the man she loved. And really, shouldn't he have kept his promise to make the woman he loved happy, wouldn't that have been for the best?

Though its taken awhile, Naruto's finally able to say hes had a change of heart. Hes realized that being selfish isn't really like him at all, it never was. And he wants to bring Sasuke home. Because he's Naruto's best friend, and the one Sakura loves more than anything in this world. The one that without, she's incomplete and lacking. Naruto wants to fulfill the promise he made to Sakura because he really does love her, and he wants her to be happy. He likes to think that if he could see her smile her smile again, the unforgettable one, that maybe, just maybe he could sleep at night, even if she isn't beside him.

She'll always love him, and she'll never leave him, not really. And besides, Sakura has never really been his wife, only in name, and he knows this is because her heart is far outside the village walls with Uchiha Sasuke.

And wasn't his life-long goal to become Hokage anyway? How can he do that, be put in charge of protecting the village, when he can't save his friends? The people dear to him, his family. The family that hes alienated himself from these last few years because of his petty, possessiveness of Sakura.

For the first time in a long time, he behaves like Uzumaki Naruto would, because that's who he is. He demands the retrieval mission just like he would have years ago, because not only was Naruto never selfish, not really, he was also never patient or a coward. He's granted his request with very little effort, and for this, he's thankful.

He's going to see to it, that a mutual promise made years ago will be fulfilled. He will not back down now, and he won't let Sakura either, she's coming with him, and their going to find Sasuke and he'll come home and then they can all start their slow stroll down the road of recovery, together.

He goes to the hospital to tell her she needs to go home and pack her gear so they can leave right away, and the way she's looking at him is so relieved and so forgiving and so thankful. And she smiles, small and sweet and honest, but for him. And then she starts to cry, apologetic and happy. The buzzing florescent lights above their heads mingle with the tears pooling in her eyes and it makes them shimmer. Brilliant and pretty, just like he remembers, and knows, in that moment, that things will only get better, so much better.

On your mark, get start, go.

AN: Oh, I was feeling it today. I was inspired man! Reviews are loved. Edited: July 30, 2008