The first time he kisses her, it's to comfort her.

He knows that her relationship with Itachi is on the rocks, and that they're fighting more often than not. He doesn't need to be told to know that. The way she's acting is evidence enough. She's snappy and looks tired all the time, constantly trying to distract her hands so she doesn't hit something, cleaning and baking and cleaning some more. At least the apartment is spotless, he laughs to himself.

But if he were to be honest, he's laughing for more reasons than that. Naruto hates the Uchiha prick; maybe not for his personality, or for what he's done or has, but he hates him. The few times they've met he's acted docile and charming, but only because he knows that's what Sakura wants of him and of course he'll do that no matter what. He doesn't think he's ever felt so absolutely negatively for someone as he does Itachi (unless the old lady who lived next to him when he was a kid counts, but she was just mean).

So every time she walks through the front door, scowling and ready to wreck the furniture she spent so long picking and organizing, he offers her a smile and makes a pot of tea, because he knows that helps her to calm down. The tea, not the smile. The smile he can't help. And she rants to him about the stupid things Itachi does, like staying at work ridiculously late until he's too tired to spend time with her, wanting her to spend as much time as possible with his mother (who always talks about marriage and family, apparently), always calling her pet names, putting the milk at his apartment back into the fridge when there's only a sip left...

All things that Naruto knows that she hates, but of course, would never tell the elder Uchiha about. Because that would mean helping their relationship. And though he wasn't sabotaging, per se...

At least he wasn't planning on it.

It's the 'happy' couple's seven month anniversary, and Naruto dozes on the couch while he watches some cop show. It doesn't matter what it's about, because just about all of his senses are dulled by the time the clock reads 11:34 PM. As far as he knows, some guy is dead, some cops are looking for the killer, and the killer of course turns out to be the creepy dude they interviewed first and let go. He was good at calling that kind of stuff. And that's how he had spent his night. Watching TV, with some bits of video gaming between shows. A typical Saturday, yes.

The front door swings open, the handle striking into the wall before rebounding, shutting itself. The opener is already inside, and she doesn't even bother to turn on the light as she storms through the apartment to her room, closing her door with a vicious slam.

Naruto sits up on the couch and wipes sleep away from his wide-open eyes. The fact she let the door swing open like that was evidence enough that she was beyond pissed. She hated it when he did it, because he hadn't fixed the door stopper yet and it made a dent in the wall. He wouldn't be surprised if there was a gaping hole, with how hard she had forced it open.

The blonde stands, and walks over to her door quietly; he really hadn't been expecting her to come home, since she had informed him she would staying the night at Itachi's. He can hear her muttering, angry and rushed, as she paces across the soft carpet she had thrown over the wooden planks of her room's floor.

A smug smirk tugs at his mouth, and he feels a brief bout of triumph. Ha! Whatever Itachi had done this time, he had really fucked up. Maybe it was so bad that—

Something inside her room crashes, the sound of glass shattering painfully audible through the door and walls. Naruto darts forward and yanks open the door to see her picking up another breakable item from her bookshelf—a porcelain cat figurine that he had gotten her for her birthday. Before she can throw it or even really register that he's in the room with her, he's closed the distance between them and grabbed her wrist, the other hand rising to cup around the gift.

Her eyes widen in angry surprise, and her arm jerks in his grasp, but he's stronger and only pulls it down from above her head.

"What the fuck are you doing? Let go!" she practically shrieks at him. But he doesn't, even as she tries to pull away from him.

"What happened?" he asks her softly, a sharp contrast to her loud fury. Her struggles die off a bit, and she looks to the side, hurt and the blazing rage very clear in her eyes.

"He wants me to be something I'm not—something I don't want to be. He wants me to be less like a man and to stop trying so hard to prove myself and to rely on him more and be more dependent and he wants me to give up who I am! He's just like all the others! He... I'm not good enough for him."

His larger hands coax the figurine from hers, and he sets it back onto the bookshelf. Now that her rampage has been stopped, and her emotions allowed to catch up to her, tears are beginning to stream down her face. The sight brings both anger and sadness to his chest, anger at a person he barely knows, and sadness at his Sakura's state.

Naruto wraps his arms around her, and he can feel her hands on his chest, exerting a little pressure—as if to try and push him away. But he makes a soft hushing sound into her hair, and then she relaxes, burying her face into the soft fabric of his t-shirt. Her smaller frame shakes against his, and he can feel the wetness soaking through as she really starts to cry.

If it were up to him, he would go out and castrate the Uchiha this instant—but his Sakura needed him more.

They stay that way for a bit longer, until she's able to sniffle back the sobs and take deep breaths in and out. He pulls away for a second to look her in the eye, the jade red-rimmed. His brow furrows, and after a moment he presses his lips to her forehead, a gesture that she leans into once she realizes what he's doing.

"You're perfect the way you are, Sakura-chan," he whispers, and she smiles.