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Warning: The following may contain material that some viewers may not find suitable.

Act I...
The Beginning And...

It was dark, and eerily silent. Even if the fire had gone out, of which it had been Naruto's responsibility to maintain, she would have at least heard his fatigued snoring. Sakura sat up and looked around. To her surprise, the fire was indeed alight, though low. So where was Naruto? She looked around the campsite, finding herself alone. As though to rebuke her for suspecting irresponsibility on his behalf, she also observed small pieces of fresh firewood, as though they had only just been put in. Even now, the warmth was growing with the rising of the flames.

She felt very foolish now for having been quick to judge Naruto. It stemmed, perhaps, from her older memories of him. It had, after all, been over two years since she had last seen him. Old habits didn't necessarily stay as such, though. Now that left the question of where he was. If there was fresh firewood burning at the base, he had to have just left as she awoke. Thinking about it now, maybe it had been his leaving that had roused her in the first place.

"Naruto?" she called softly, in the hopes that the boy might merely be off doing certain business. In the silence, a gentle breeze played across her face, bringing with it the sound of running water. Sakura swallowed, her throat now very dry. She stood up and began to walk towards the river, which was not very far off. She remained alert, waiting for the slightest sign of an enemy ambush.

It wasn't out of the ordinary for Naruto to wander very far. Yet, judging from the amount of wood he had pushed, and the fact that he had arranged for it to burn slowly, he must have had somewhere to be at the time, all the way out here in the middle of a great forest. Maybe he had seen some interesting rock, she thought derisively, stifling the urge to laugh.

But no. She sighed, straightening her face. He wasn't like that any more. Naruto was more reliable now. He had grown up, even if he was a just a little bit... childish. But she liked that about him. Even when things were tough, when he, of all people, ought to have been the saddest, he always had a smile on, as though ready to solve the unsolvable riddle, or overcome the impossible barrier.

It was hard to admit, but if it hadn't been for Naruto, maybe she and her other comrades would have failed to get past some of their greater obstacles. Without his uplifting personality, solutions to seemingly impossible tasks became very abundant. And he was, after all, a rising shinobi in his own right.

Still, it was always increasingly difficult to live with him. That personality, that way he had of carrying himself, only served well during times of hardship. At more social appearances, they were simply annoying. Her brow knitted together as she tried to recall every embarrassing situation he had gotten them into over the years. It was laughable now, but she always had to hope that he wouldn't do anything of the sort at his present age.

And then there was the matter of his actual maturity. When it came to things like love and romance, Naruto was just too inexperienced, not to mention perverted, though she did spare some spite towards Jiraiya-sensei. What did Hinata see in Naruto that she did not?

Thinking of Hinata now suddenly made her feel very cold. Sakura's fist tightened and relaxed involuntarily, and dark thoughts clouded her emotions. If she could describe the raw sensation, it was an oracle that told her that she didn't want Naruto and Hinata together. She knew that much, and little more beyond that.

"N-Naruto...?"

His silhouette had caught her by surprise. He turned around for a moment to verify who it was, and then continued staring at the water's edge. "Did the fire go out?" he asked gently. She blinked and looked back at the little light flickering through the vegetation and shook her head.

"No, I just thought I'd get a drink, and maybe see where you'd gone off to..."

He shrugged and stood up. "Well, now you know where I am," he murmured as he rummaged through his pouch. Forth from it he produced a tiny gourd and offered it to her. "Here, I boiled this. It's clean." She took it from him and stared dubiously. Something about his behavior wasn't right. He was being too nice.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked, hoping to get an explanatory response. His short reply was,

"...thinking."

She tilted her head slightly, biting her tongue anxiously. "About...?"

He glanced at her irately before looking away. "Things..." Something sharp within his voice emphasized a certain sense of finality, as though he wished not to discuss it further. Yet Sakura refused to allow the subject to drop like this. She, at least, didn't deserve anything resembling impatience from him.

Sakura, trying not to lose her temper, replied, "Things like what?" She too, inserted a commanding undertone, though not nearly as imposing as Naruto's had been. She immediately regretted having pressed the issue, for Naruto swung around suddenly and glared her down.

"Things like Sasuke! Things like Orochimaru! Things like how I'm going to bring him back! All things you've been thinking about from the moment we left! Why ask me what things I'm thinking?! You know perfectly well what sort of things I'm thinking about!"

Sakura Haruno had not been expecting a sudden outburst like this. She bit her lip indignantly and yelled, "Well then why are you taking it out on me?! Shouldn't be Orochimaru you get angry at?! He's the one who took Sasuke away!" But Naruto folded his arms and gave a grunt that clearly indicated he knew something which she did not.

"You're assuming I'm concerned about his well being. And I am, but your reaction just proves everything..."

The former of his statement had, in fact been correct. Her ego quickly deflating, she shot daggers from her eyes. "Proves what?! That I don't care about Sasuke as much as you do?!"

At this point, Naruto flew into an angry rage. Clenching his fist together and meeting her gaze head-on he yelled, "It proves that you care about Sasuke more than you care about me!" She blinked, the coldness in her chest intensifying until it seared her insides, cracking like ice. She had clearly not been expecting this at all. Naruto stared at her for a long time, during the course of which she felt just how dry her throat actually was. She would have liked nothing more than to get her drink of water and return to the campsite as though none of this had occurred. But she was afraid to break his gaze.

Slowly, gradually, his hardened, piercing gaze melted. What replaced it was no better, worse actually, as it struck pangs of pain in her heart. Finally, it seemed he could look at her no more, and he turned back to the river and began watching the water's edge vacantly.

So he was thinking about her... She digested this slowly, almost relishing in the feeling. He was thinking about her, and about what she wanted, and about what sort of things she felt. The ice melted away while an inner fire lit up. It spread, wetting the dry, frozen caverns and turning them into a gushing, boiling pot.

Naruto was in love with her. She had known this for a very long time. But it had seemed so unlikely that this infatuation, or obsession, or attraction, whatever it was, would last beyond a year, let alone two. She had never considered for a moment his own feelings about this. It went beyond memories, for she knew that she was somehow indebted to him. Not one thought had been devoted to this unwritten fact, and now here he was, cold and alone.

Now the pot simmered and steamed, its lid clanging up and down as jets of scalding water burst out. Her heart was racing. She felt suddenly calm, even though adrenaline and noradrenalin poured into her system like glory, glory, glory.

Slowly, Sakura touched his shoulder, a gentle, soothing smile spreading over her face. He jerked abruptly, but remained still, allowing her to wrap her arms around him. "I... had no idea," she confessed feebly. He shrugged,

"Guess you should have payed a little more attention," was his icy reply. Sakura began holding him in various places, hugging him, embracing him, trying to melt away the loneliness in his heart. Whatever was there, she wanted it now. Nothing seemed more clear than this.

Maybe she had been hiding it from herself all this time. Something before had stopped her from realizing how much she cared about Naruto. And she certainly did. He was a close friend, a loyal ally, and a trustworthy acquaintance. There was no doubt about any of these things. But as a man, her a woman, she had never thought of it, or at least, had pretended not to. Maybe there was a chance, she thought. They had time to work it out.

"Stop it..." he said, pushing her away as she brushed her lips against his cheek. Sakura stared, confused. She was already panting, but he was trying hard not to look at her. She tried to kiss him again, but he shook her away violently. "I said stop!" Sakura fell to the ground in the midst of her hormonal awakening, looking up at him vulnerably. Her eyes began to water.

"Naruto?" she called again, her voice a whimper of urgent desire.

Naruto stepped back, turning around again. They remained still for the span of several minutes. Finally he took one last look at her and said wistfully, "It's a little bit late for that... Sakura..."

Hearing him say her name with such tenderness melted her insides. But knowing how much pain lay behind those words spurned her. She stared in shock and disbelief, her mind maintaining the afterimage of his fake smile, hours after he had darted back into the forest in search of solitude. She, having delved herself in this strange sensation, now felt empty echoes of some monstrous cry. Her eyes, red from crying, hurt. Her chest, sore from sobbing, ached. Eventually, in the light of the early sunrise, she fell into a restless sleep.