EDIT: WELL THAT FORMATTING FUCKED UP BIG TIME! To anyone who saw the chapter before I fixed it, I am SO sorry, I have NO idea what happened there. Hopefully it'll never happen again.

Just a heads up: Sakura makes a few snap decisions in this chapter that may not make sense to you. Some of them don't even make sense to her. But all of them reflect her real feelings, and cast some light on the many ways that she is changing- both consciously and unconsciously. While she is not actively being bothered by her recent trauma as much, it IS still affecting her. People who suffer from PTSD share many common symptoms, but it can also have a wide range of unpredictable effects, many of which hide below the surface, merely influencing them. Sakura is dealing with it as best she can. She's a smart girl, and she'll get through it eventually.

For now, just remember the realization she had last chapter: With Naruto, she is safe; alone, she is scared.

Enjoy~

(~HJN~)

At three in the afternoon, Karin said goodbye to the two members of Team 7, saying she had to meet up with her sensei and team. As much as this bummed Naruto and Sakura, they understood, and it wasn't as though they didn't have an appointment with their sensei later, as well.

The two wandered casually through the streets for a while to kill time, until Sakura suddenly said, "I feel like I need a hot bath, don't you?"

Naruto looked at her out of the corner of his eye. In her black spats and red vest, he had found it hard not to stare from time to time, but ruthlessly squashed his urges whenever he caught himself. It wouldn't do for Sakura to start classifying him as the same as her tormentors were she to catch him, and he had way too much respect for her to start that behavior. Still, he allowed himself to examine her enough to verify that she was a little bruised, here and there, from her match with Karin, not to mention covered in a layer of dust. He, himself, was relatively fine- a little tired mentally, maybe. Which, now that he thought about it, a hot bath might just fix, and he was sure she was even more tired than he was.

"Yeah, we could kinda use it, huh? That exam was no joke!" She nodded, and he noticed her also watching him from the corner of her eye. 'Are we playing a game or something? There's no way she can't see me doing it, so if we both know we're looking at each other, why are we... aaarg, girls are hard!'

"I don't really have the cash on me for the onsen," she said thoughtfully, her eyes flicking away for a second. He nodded in agreement- he didn't have any on him, either. "And going home just to get it... I mean, we might as well take a bath there, right?"

He laughed, "Yeah, it'd be silly to just walk home, then walk all the way back to the hot springs!"

She smiled and turned her head to face him slightly, a pretty pink dusting her cheeks. "Good, glad you agree!" And with that, she took a sharp left, headed in the direction he knew her house was in.

His brain had to do some gymnastics to keep up, for some reason, but before she got more than ten paces away, he said, with only a small amount of disappointment, "Oh, yeah, sure. So, I'll see you at Training Grounds 7?"

She stopped and turned to face him, her hands clasped behind her cutely. She cocked her head to the side and said, "Why? I have two tubs at home. It'd be better if we went to meet with Kakashi-sensei together, right?"

Naruto's brain froze again, for a slightly longer moment this time. When it finally caught up to what Sakura seemed to be suggesting, he almost couldn't believe it. He wasn't sure what was so advantageous about meeting Kakashi-sensei together, but well... she was the smart one, it's very likely he just didn't see some obvious fact. Still... "A-are you sure? W-what about your parents, won't they kinda..."

Sakura tossed her long hair and rolled her eyes. "If they try to make a fuss, they'll just have to deal with it. You're my teammate, and besides, it's not like we'd be sharing a tub," she added, glancing aside and blushing a little harder.

He did as well, though a smile was starting to split his face. "W-well, so long as it's not imposing on you..."

She smiled, then turned to look at him again. "In that case, send a clone to pick up a new shirt, or something. You may want to forgo the jacket, for now."

Naruto looked down at his tattered jacket, torn and shredded from Kankuro's weapons and his own power. He chuckled sheepishly, "Heh, yeah, I'll figure something out. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," he intoned, crossing his fingers and conjuring a clone. The duplicate gave a short salute before dashing off, taking to the rooftops and heading to his apartment.

Naruto turned and saw Sakura smile at him before walking down the street, expecting him to follow. He, obviously, had no qualms about doing just that.

(~Spectral~)
(~Spectral~)

'What the HELL am I thinking?!' thought Sakura, a calm smile on her face as she and Naruto approached her home. While her mother had, in the past, expressed a dislike of Naruto- outwardly it was because of his pranks, though she now suspected it was due to a certain circumstance of his birth- she had seemed to slide into apathy when they were assigned to the same team. Her father never cared- she didn't think he cared about much besides his 'two best girls'- but she could hardly imagine he would take her current half-baked plan very well. Her mother certainly wouldn't, were she to figure it out.

Which is why she was carefully concocting how to tell them that she was moving out. Obviously she couldn't tell them she was planning on moving in with Naruto- hadn't even told him that, honestly, but she already had a much more confident plan for that. She knew her parents- very well, in fact- she felt fairly confident in her ability to predict how the conversation would go. The problem was, in a lot of the mental simulations so far, it had been going less than perfectly. As she opened the front door and announced herself- letting her parents know that she had brought a friend- she prepared to force her way through certain likely roadblocks, and started to resign herself to the idea that she may just have to leave them on rocky terms and patch things up later.

"Sakura!" cried her mother, coming into the entryway from the kitchen as Sakura and Naruto removed their shoes. Haruno Mebuki stopped short upon seeing the blonde, her smile fading slightly, but the moment seemed to pass as she continued walking towards them, her voice no less chipper. "How are you- goodness, what happened to your leg?"

Sakura glanced down at it, blinking. "Wow, I hadn't even felt it since lunch. Ah, I'll tell you later- don't worry, it's barely even a fracture."

Her mom didn't seem less worried, but accepted her dismissal. "So you've had lunch, then? I only just started on dinner, but if you're still hungry.."

Sakura shook her head, laughing a little to herself. "No, no, we aren't staying, we have to meet our sensei in a bit. I just came for a change of clothes- that Second Task was kind of brutal- and we were going to wash up real quick. Speaking of which," she said quickly to distract her mother from the idea of the two of them 'washing up'. "Mom, this is my teammate Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto held out his hand a bit nervously. "Hello ma'am."

Mebuki hesitated- which made Sakura flinch angrily- but eventually gave him a strained smile and shook his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Naruto. My name is Mebuki."

'Stage one: clear!' Sakura's eyebrow twitched in amusement at her inner persona's antics, putting a checkmark next to 'Get mom to let Naruto in the house'. As though there had been any doubt.

Her father's voice carried through the wall from the living room, "Is that my little blossom home?"

The pinkette smiled and called back, "Just for a bit, dad!"

"Hey, did ya pass that test you said you had?"

She rolled her eyes a little, somewhat sad at the reminder that her parents didn't much care for her choice of profession. The question was innocent enough, but his tone suggested a certain level of disdain. "It's not over yet, dad! So far, though, we're doing alright."

"That's my girl!"

She shook her head as her mother chuckled awkwardly. This was going pretty much how she expected. She turned to Naruto and gestured up the stairs, "My room is first on the right, bathroom is second left, I'll be up in a few. I need to talk to my parents real quick, okay?"

He nodded and left, clearly looking relieved to be dismissed from the tense atmosphere. Honestly, she really admired his strength and his will, but he could be weird about the strangest things.

"Honey? What's going on?"

She sighed and turned to face her mother. "Come on, let's go to the other room. Dad should hear this, too."

Entering the living room, her father looked up from the book he was reading. "What's up dumplin'?"

"Mom, sit down. I need to tell you guys some things..."

"What's this about, Sakura-chan...?" she asked as she hesitantly sat next to her husband.

'Stage two, begin!'

The pinkette sighed. "Firstly, I need you both to understand that everything I'm about to tell you is fact. Cold, unfeeling facts. Alright?" She waited until they nodded, though not without a helping of confusion. "You're going to find out about this in the coming weeks anyway, through the grapevine if nothing else, so I figured you should hear it from me, to get the truth of what happened." She took a deep breath, starting her prepared speech. "In the first day of the Chuunin Exams Second Task, which was a five-day team-based survival test, a certain member of a certain team betrayed his teammates. He tried to kill his male teammate, and consigned his female teammate to be raped by enemy shinobi. His attempt to kill his male teammate failed, though he likely does not know that, as is the same with the attempted rape, as the surviving male teammate saved his female teammate during molestation." She took another breath, trying not to let the horrified looks on her parent's faces affect her. "The traitor left the village in the middle of the test with another established traitor and enemy of the village: Orochimaru. Mom, dad... The team that was betrayed was Team 7. My team." Her mother gasped and started shaking her head. In the same flat voice she had been maintaining, Sakura continued, "The traitor was Uchiha Sasuke. He tried to kill Naruto, and told enemy shinobi to do with me as they wished."

"No!" her mother sobbed, her hands coming up to cover her mouth.

Sakura expected this, however, and just moved forward. "Naruto was on the ground with a knife in his back, and I was having my clothes ripped apart when it happened. Naruto... stood up. Despite having his lung ripped open, his only concern was keeping me safe. He killed my tormentors and literally carried me the rest of the way through the test- even going so far as to make sure we passed. Those enemy shinobi had fractured my leg, so I was next to useless the whole time."

"Sweety, isn't this just more of a reason to-"

"Give up?" Sakura growled, cutting off her father. "What, so that there are less people in the world to prevent that kind of thing? Fuck no." Her mother gasped- that had been the first time she had cursed in front of them, she was sure. "If anything, this is more of a reason for me to keep going! Even still injured, I pushed through and won my preliminary match afterward. I'll be competing in the Chuunin Exam Third Task in one month, and I'll be spending every single day of it training. And to that end," she said, turning and slowly making her way out of the room, talking over her shoulder. "I'm going to have a bath to calm my nerves, pack a bag or two, and effectively move out for the next month, so I can devote myself entirely to my training."

"Sakura-chan, I can't let you-"

"You can, and it doesn't matter either way. I'm doing it. I'm a kunoichi, an adult. It may not make sense to you, but you haven't seen the kind of things I have. I need this, and I'm doing it. You can either support me or not, but I need this."

Her father stood up, brow furrowed in worry. "Sweetheart, let's just talk about this. Where are you even going to go?"

'And he walks right into route 4, as expected' Inner Sakura said smugly.

Sakura kept the smug from her voice, though. "I'll be staying close with my team- what's left of it. I'll need their help and support while training, and it'll... it'll be good for me to bond with Naruto-kun and Kakashi-sensei after what happened." She allowed some measure of vulnerability to leak into her voice, just enough to get her point across.

Her father moved forward, probably to embrace her, but she stepped away, not enjoying the hurt look on his face. Having him touch her now, though, was just going to cause problems she didn't have the time nor the contingencies for. Already she could feel the iron control over her emotions slipping. She needed Naruto.

"I'm sorry. I'm still really wound up and... I need a bath, to start with. I hope you can understand, I'm not asking your permission for anything. I'm just... letting you know. And I'm sorry that it has to be this way, I am. I'll... I'll come say goodbye before I leave. And I'll come visit when I have time, if you'll have me."

Her mother looked like she wanted to protest- tears and all- but her father seemed to shift his posture and give her a sad smile. "We'll always have you, little blossom."

'Even though this reaction had a high probability, it still feels good that he loves us enough to back off, huh...'

She gave him a grateful smile and left, heading for the hall stairs. She took a fresh set of clothes from her room- a pair of her usual compression shorts in red and a black dress, similar to her usual one, but shorter and with a white circle on the chest instead of the lower portion, aside from her underthings- and entered the bathroom door she had indicated to Naruto.

The room beyond was actually just a changing and laundry room with two doors leading to two washrooms, and a washer and dryer between them. Cubicles were on each side, some empty, some with towels. Naruto's clothes were folded sloppily on the left, and sounds of water were coming from that door, so she stripped down and wrapped herself in a towel from the right shelves, storing her clothes and entering the empty washroom. She drew the water, expertly turning the taps for the temperature she liked before removing the towel and sitting on the washing stool, going about her cleansing.

The conversation with her parents had gone less than perfectly, as predicted. That little loss of control in the middle when her father suggested she quit had been... unexpected, to say the least. Still, she felt she came out of it okay. While she bathed, they would have the time they needed to decide whether to support her or not. Which, she could admit, she was worried about, but she hadn't been lying when she said she thought she needed this. The only way she was going to get over this dependance she had with Naruto- even though sometimes she wondered why she even needed to- was to wean it off slowly, maintaining a relative closeness in the meantime. Cold turkey would, if her earlier panic attacks were any indication, only make things worse.

It was after Sakura rinsed shampoo from her hair that she caught sight of the mirror and considered herself. She was a little tall for girls her age, though not like Ino was. Also unlike Ino, she had barely budded in the chest, just the barest hint of jiggle when she tried. Laying down, she knew, they were like tiny little hills, though at least they were fairly soft. Her shoulders had a feminine rounding, though they were slightly broad- perhaps a good thing, considering she wanted to get stronger. Her abdomen was trim and flat, her waist had been developing an attractive curve over the last year. Her legs were, in her opinion, quite long. Looking at her mom, she was sure her torso would catch up eventually and even her out, though. Her hips, while not big by any means, were wider than Ino's, at least. Though no competition for Hinata, obviously. She didn't count, though, she was ahead of both Sakura and Ino in almost every area. Aside from height, the only thing Sakura felt she had on the little Hyuuga was her butt, and Sakura was conflicted on how to feel about that.

Personally, she thought it was too big for her. Maybe she'd grow into it? Maybe boys 'AHEM, NARUTO, AHEM' would like it? She wasn't sure, but there was little for her to do about it. Looking at it, though, she was reminded that her hair was very close to reaching it, would probably be resting on the upper curve of her bottom by the end of the month. She'd have to decide what to do with it by then. At that length, even she knew it would just be a liability, but whether to start tying it up, cut it short, or merely trim it, she couldn't decide.

She shook her head, leaving it for later. She removed the splint and wrappings from her leg, carefully examining it. The bruising remained, though it was no longer swollen. That medic ninja must have been a pessimist- or her injury wasn't as severe as he thought- as it was clearly almost healed. Smiling, she eased herself into the bath and turned off the taps, it being full shortly after she finished washing. Sighing, she relaxed into the warm water, letting it leech the tension from her muscles.

On impulse, she knocked on the tile wall behind her, the one separating the two washrooms. "Hey Naruto-kun, can you hear me?"

A pause, then a muffled and echo-y, "Yeah, I can."

She smiled and asked, "Did you find everything okay? Figure out the taps?"

"Yeah, I'm good. It's just like the one I've got, just a little bigger."

"Oh, that's good!"

"Yeah, except mine's got the toilet in the bathroom, since it's an apartment."

"Ohh, right. So, what's your place like? Is it nice?" 'Not like it would really change my mind if it wasn't, but this is as good a segway as any.'

He sounded somewhat confused- although it was hard to tell through the thin tile wall- "Ah, it's okay. Small, I guess, but I don't need much. Main room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom. Stove and everything works, plenty of hot water, no bugs." A splash, which conjured an image of him shrugging in her mind. "Can't complain, I guess. Got a TV and a VCR, but I never use it, heh."

She laughed softly to herself. Already she could feel the twisting in her chest fading, just hearing his voice like this. A beat, where she took a breath to steady herself. This conversation, while not as hard or complicated as the one she just had with her parents, was going to be slightly more embarrassing. "So, Naruto-kun... Dropping the sugar-coating, you've noticed I'm not totally... alright anymore, right?"

A long pause, then a quiet, "Y-yeah... Are.. we talking about it now?"

Her chest warmed; apparently he had been trying to be considerate of her by not bringing it up. "A little. So... I just, need to explain this," she rushed through her words, finding it more difficult, somehow, than she was expecting. "I thought it was all over for me- they were going to-" she suppressed a shudder, wrapping her arms around herself. "And then, just, kill me, I guess. You saved me, kept me safe and as comfortable as you could since then, and just generally let me... rely on you." Her voice grew soft and a small smile came to her face without permission. "I feel like a fool now, pushing you away so much when you're really just such a great guy, a good friend."

She leant her head back, bumping it against the wall separating them lightly. "I keep having panic attacks." She knew he was at least mildly aware of this, but needed to say it anyway. "It's... a little better lately. I can sort of hold it in, delay it. But still, I... When you're not around, it starts to bubble up in my chest, takes my breath away. My fingers tingle, and I can't sit still. When I don't know where you are, or I know I can't go see you whenever I want, I can't... I can't hold it in at all, and I just kind of break down.

"And when you come back, when I see you, or when I hear your voice, it just... I'm suddenly safe." Her chest warmed again, and she shut her eyes. "That's how it was the first time, too. Those two had me, I was done for, and- I didn't really notice it at the time with everything going on, but looking back I can see it clearly. When you stood up, I was mostly confused, still scared. I didn't understand- almost thought I was dreaming. But when you spoke, called me your... 'precious person', I just... Wasn't scared anymore. You made it go away. I was in pain, embarrassed as heck, mortified about everything those two- three bastards did, but I wasn't scared anymore. I was safe, because Naruto was there with me." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I think when I'm distracted, or focused, I last longer. But when I'm free to notice that I'm alone, that you aren't nearby, I just..." She trailed off, then decided it didn't matter. Her point was made.

"So," she said, steeling herself and getting back on track. That was marginally more than she had intended to say, felt like she maybe rambled a little, whoops. "Given... all of that somewhat irrational stuff, you can probably see why I don't want to stay here, anymore. Like, with my parents."

A sound she couldn't identify carried through the wall- maybe a cough- before he replied, "Are you... S-Sakura-chan, what exactly are you saying?"

She smirked a little. Seemed he was starting to understand, but couldn't quite believe it. "I'm saying I want to move in with you. I panic when I think about sleeping without you. I know it's not rational, but that knowledge doesn't stop the fear that someone could come and... I don't know, kidnap me or something if you aren't around." To try and downplay her dependence, she hurried to add, "I know I shouldn't let this control me, and I'm trying to get a handle on it! I was able to talk to my parents that whole time without really freaking out." Not quite true, but close enough. "But I could feel that it wouldn't last much longer. I'm hoping that I'll be able to... function normally by the Third Task, but until then... how about it?"

Naruto was silent for a long moment, long enough Sakura was worried she had maybe overstepped their growing friendship. When he spoke, it somehow sounded more clear than before, as though he had turned around and was talking right at the wall. "Sakura-chan... Anything you need, ever... If I can do it, if I can give it to you, I will. If I can do anything to make you more comfortable, feel more safe, or be happier... please just tell me, dattebayo. I give you my word."

Well. Her heart nearly fucking stopped, there, good grief. Intellectually, she sort of knew that already- or at least suspected it to some degree. But to have him say it, to know it in her heart that he would do that for her was just... She didn't...

She brought her hand up and tried to wipe her eyes, but since her hand was in the water it only made her face more wet. The thing was, she knew him well enough by now to know that he meant every word of that. A broad smile split her face as she gained control over the sudden flow of emotion. "Arigato, Naruto-kun!"

Naruto had wanted to know what her parents thought of her decision, though he made it seem like he was more concerned with how she felt about their reaction than their actual opinion. She told him that she hadn't been specific about where she was going, but that they seemed to at least accept that she felt she needed this month away from home, which was really all she had hoped for. She went on to say that she honestly didn't even know if she would return home after the Third Task- maybe she'd just move in with Naruto permanently! She'd said it as a joke, but it was something her Inner Self had been suggesting.

Shortly thereafter, Naruto left the bath first, Sakura telling him to wait in her room while she finished up. Once she had dried her hair as much as she could, she dressed in her mid-thigh short-sleeved black dress and equally long dark red spandex shorts, hesitating a moment before also donning her tool pouches. While she didn't think Kakashi-sensei would be having her training tonight, instead probably wanting to start tomorrow after some sleep, it was better safe than sorry.

Joining Naruto in her room, she wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but somehow it still wasn't Naruto awkwardly standing in the middle of the room wearing his orange pants and a black masculine tank top (she had no idea if they had another name), consciously trying not to look at anything. She appreciated it, of course- she hadn't lost all of her modesty, just gotten more comfortable with him- but it was still amusing. "Naruto-kun, there's a couple bags and a big box of books under my bed, pull them out for me? You can dump the books- most of them are from when I was a kid, I don't read them anymore." She didn't think to mention that they were all academic books about various subjects; History, Mathematics, Chemistry, anything she could get her hands on, really. There were even several Ninja Handbooks in there, some from their time in the Academy. She had already memorized each one.

While Naruto was digging those out and removing the textbooks- occasionally flipping through one in curiosity- Sakura started making a mental map of what she needed versus what she could fit in the luggage available to her. One of the bags was a full-size suitcase, but the other was a backpack she had bought for missions, and the box was square: 60 cm wide and about 45 cm deep. She figured she could stuff almost two weeks' worth of clothing in the suitcase, which left her hygienics and toiletries for the box- probably with some room to spare. She knew she could fit most of her ninja tools in the backpack, she could probably stuff what few personal items she really cared about in there, too: a couple of pictures, a necklace Ino had given her one birthday, and a silver-and-emerald decorative hair comb her mother had given her one October Festival, to name most of them. So after taking care of that, she set to work filling the suitcase with clothes, directing Naruto to the drawers she kept her ninja tools in so he could start filling the backpack, which he did happily.

True, she hadn't technically asked him to help her pack, or even move, but he didn't seem to be surprised- was actually genuinely happy to help, looked like. Like her, he must have assumed he'd be doing this anyway.

Sakura left the room briefly with the cardboard box to get her toiletries from the washroom and toilet. It was in there that she discovered she was running low on bloodstoppers. Since she normally wore these thick spandex shorts, she mostly used pads since she could get away with it, so she only had a box of inserts left. Shrugging, she knew it'd be enough to get her through the month, and she'd have to buy more anyway, so packed the box away with the rest of her hygienics.

Upon re-entering her room, she found Naruto using a clone to sit on her suitcase while he zipped it, causing her to chuckle. "Sorry, guess I overestimated that bag," she said, grabbing her small makeup case and putting it in the box before folding it closed. Any kunoichi who said they didn't bother with makeup was a liar- foundation and cover-up counted as makeup, after all. Even she didn't use much more than that- mostly because she never really felt pretty enough to begin with that she could pull it off- though she rarely went out without a little liner and gloss.

Naruto shook his head as he finally got the thing closed, the clone hopping off and dispelling, Naruto slinging the backpack over his shoulders.

"Nah," he said, "it wasn't a problem. Anything else?" His eyes wandered to her twin bed and he muttered thoughtfully, "You'll probably want your pillow, at least..."

Sakura examined his face for a moment, taken aback by his nonchalant tone. "Naruto-kun? Are you alright?"

His eyes met hers, face a confused frown. "Huh? Yeah, I'm fine, 'ttebayo. Why?"

She worried her lip before catching herself and forcibly letting go- it's really a bad habit, she wished she could just stop already- and saying, "It's just, you seem to be taking all this... really well." She chuckled a little and added, "Don't take this the wrong way, but I sort of expected you to be a lot more obnoxiously excited!"

Naruto gave her a deadpan look. "There's a right way to take that?" She flushed in embarrassment- that might have come out wrong- but he shook his head and gave her a genuine smile. "Of course I'm excited, but this isn't about me. This is about your health, and us coming together as a team, right?" She nodded slowly; that was technically true. "Well, there ya go, then. Yeah, I won't deny I'm happy about this, but mostly I'm just trying to do it right, dattebayo!"

Heat bloomed in her chest again, and Sakura completely failed to suppress the beatific smile on her face. Geez, Naruto was making it really hard not to fall for him, she was starting to see what Hinata saw in him, now. "Arigato, Naruto-kun," she said again, putting her hand on his arm and giving it a squeeze.

He flushed, but nodded happily. At his suggestion, Sakura shoved a few more pairs of clothes into her pillowcase before they left, Sakura carrying the pillowcase and box while Naruto hefted the suitcase over his shoulder.

(~Spectral~)
(~Spectral~)

As Sakura set the box and pillow down to remove her sandals, Naruto said as he headed into the bedroom, "I'll clear out some drawer and closet space for you. You can put your bathroom stuff away if you want, it's the door on the left from the entrance."

"Thanks!" she called back, dropping the stuffed pillowcase next to the bedroom doorway, glancing for a moment at Naruto moving some clothes from a dresser to folded piles on his closet floor. Sakura took her box into the bathroom, looking around and easily recognising most everything. The only thing she wasn't used to was the toilet being in the same room as the bathtub, right between the door and the sink, but she'd get used to it. Her tampons went into the cabinet under the sink, where she also found a half-empty pack of manual toothbrushes, what looked like a small first-aid kit- 'Completely unopened, I bet'- and a few rolls of toilet paper. She stowed her make-up kit down there as well before opening the mirror cabinet. She started putting her razor and lotion away when she noticed a razor in there already. "Naruto, you shave?" she asked, raising her voice.

His response was somewhat muffled, but she thought he said, "Yeah, I've been getting random hairs on my jaw, and Kakashi-sensei said not to try and pull them out. I only use it, like, once a week."

"Huh," she said to herself. It hadn't really occurred to her that Naruto would be going through some pubescent symptoms, as well. At least not outside of purely abstract, 'yeah, we're of similar ages, we're both growing' kind of thoughts.

Making her toothpaste join her razor and lotion, she closed the cabinet, taking a quick half-assed note of the other items in there. Her toothbrush joined Naruto's in the glass cup on the sink, and she moved to place her bathing soaps next to his on a shelf by the tub.

"Your dad seemed pretty cool," Naruto said from the bedroom, slightly startling her. "That was awesome the way he defended you like that, 'ttebayo!"

She sighed, remembering how her parents had stopped them at the bottom of the stairs for one more conversation. And how her mother had nearly tried to prevent her from leaving, something her father would hear none of, apparently. He had talked Mebuki down and comforted her while giving them both his patented loving-but-slightly-absent-minded smile. He only made Naruto promise to watch after Sakura- something he gave immediately- before letting them leave, once again reminding Sakura that she would always be welcome with them, no matter what. "Yeah, sorry about the way my mom acted. She's been... operating under false pretences for a long time, and she never really approved of me becoming a kunoichi in the first place."

"She thought I was the Kyuubi, didn't she?" Sakura flinched at the flat, uncaring tone in Naruto's voice, but her hesitation and silence was apparently answer enough. "It's okay, I don't really blame her. Rumors can be hard to ignore, and the perfect scapegoat for the destruction the Kyuubi did was practically delivered to the village on a woollen blanket. I get it. I don't like it, and I intend to prove them all wrong like the idiots they are, but I get it."

Sakura laughed a little in spite of the topic. "That's a good attitude, Naruto-kun. I'm sure you can do it, and I'll help you however I can!"

"Hehe, thanks Sakura-chan. We should head out, soon, it's 5:30; sensei said to meet him at the usual grounds by six, right?"

She stood up and dusted off her knees. "Yeah, he did. C'mon, we can finish unpacking when we get back." She met him in the hallway on the way out and he was grinning to himself, somewhat distracted. "What's up?"

Naruto focused in on her and blushed, scratched the back of his head and looked away. "Ah, it's just... The girl I like is moving in with me... It's almost like we're dating, hehe.."

He seemed to realize what he said and flinched, closing his eyes. Sakura noticed that he was expecting her to hit him and deny it, and she'd be lying if she said part of her didn't still want to. But even that part's motivations had changed, and was overruled regardless. Instead she turned and continued to the front door to put her shoes on. Once she had, she opened the door and turned back to look at him, internally enjoying his confused but hopeful face. "Almost," she said with a smirk, causing his mouth to drop open. She laughed and exited the apartment, saying, "Pick up your jaw and hurry up, if we're late while sensei is on-time, we'll never hear the end of it!"

(~Spectral~)
(~Spectral~)

"Good, you're here. Sakura, Naruto, this is Jiraiya-sama, the Legendary Toad Sage. Naruto, he's going to be training you for the next month in preparation for the Third Task," Kakashi said upon entering the training grounds.

He hoped Jiraiya took this seriously. By the way the sage was only half-listening when he tried to explain the situation, he suspected that Jiraiya didn't expect much from Naruto at the moment. He shrugged internally; if that was the case, Naruto would correct that way of thinking pretty quickly just by being Naruto, so Kakashi left it alone.

Sakura spent a few moments being shocked- and then having to explain to Naruto why he should be shocked, as well- before Jiraiya could get much of a word in. "I'm told you both have learned the truth about the events regarding the Kyuubi years ago?" They nodded, Naruto looking suddenly guarded. Jiraiya gave Kakashi a glance before continuing, "Well, I'm a Master in the art of fuuinjutsu- the sealing techniques! I'm also pretty familiar with your seal in particular, so if things go bad during your training, I'm uniquely able to deal with the situation."

Naruto frowned and looked down at the ground. "Is that... a possibility? The Kyuubi's never been a problem during training before..."

Jiraiya shook his head and stepped forward, raising a finger into the air. "You've never trained like this, I assure you. I'm gonna work you to the bone, but first I need to know where to start. How about we head upstream, walk and talk? You can tell me what kind of opponents you think you'll be up against."

Kakashi watched Naruto smile broadly, then hesitate. He looked to Sakura at his side, something like concern on his face. Sakura just gave him a small smile in return and said, "I'll see you after, Naruto-kun."

Naruto paused for another curious moment before nodding and turning away. "Okay! Jiraiya-sensei, right? Well, my first opponent is my friend Chouji- he can be pretty strong when he's motivated, but as long as I don't make him mad, I should be okay. The real problem comes next. See, I could be fighting this guy named Lee, or this dick named Kiba and his ninken Akamaru. Now, Kiba and Akamaru aren't so bad on their own, but when they work togeth..."

Naruto's exuberant voice trailed off as he and Jiraiya left the clearing, and Kakashi focused down on his pink-haired student. She looked distinctly less comfortable now, but she was holding it together pretty well. He'd read the report, not to mention the conversation he had with the Hokage about her dependence. All things considered, she'd already shown progress towards getting over it. He had a feeling that once she felt like she could defend herself, instead of needing Naruto to save her, she'd recover fully. Beating Neji would go a long way toward that, so getting her to that point was priority number one. She'd handle her mental hangups on her own- she adapted when Sasuke betrayed them, she'd adapt now.

"Alright Sakura. Since it's nearing the end of the day, and I'm sure you're worn out from your match, I just want to take this time to have a talk and check something. Come with me," he said, leading her to the edge of the river. Without stopping at all, he continued right onto the water, going out to the middle of the river before turning around. Sakura was at the bank, watching him inquisitively. She didn't seem overly surprised, that was good. He had a feeling Jiraiya was going to have to explain the concept to Naruto. "Well? I said come here, Sakura."

Sakura's brow furrowed, but she said nothing. Looking down at the water, she put one foot in and took it back out a few times. Kakashi was tempted to ask what was going through her head, but the concentrated look on her face was distractingly fascinating. Sakura was the type of student who only needed a base to work off of. If she didn't understand something at all, and couldn't puzzle it out for herself, she'd usually ask the bare minimum question she needed to get started and figure it out from there. He had wondered if she would draw the parallel between this and the tree-climbing exercise- which was really the wall-sticking technique- and use that as her springboard. Judging from the way she had kept silent, it seemed that was the case.

Sakura stopped washing her foot for all intents and purposes and brought her hands into the Ram seal, clearly fine-tuning her chakra. Most shinobi do this the first dozen or so times when learning the wall-sticking technique or the water-walking technique, before they get a good grasp on the exact amount needed. Kakashi remembered all three of his students doing so in Wave, in fact. However, he distinctly remembered Sakura using the seal exactly once.

Kakashi sighed and hung his head. "You couldn't have the decency to have even a little trouble with that, could you?" he asked, shaking his head as she stepped out onto the water, staying on the surface on her first real try.

She was off-balance for all of three seconds before smiling to herself and walking further from the bank, reaching him confidently. "Sorry Kakashi-sensei! Maybe if you had had me do this before tree-climbing, I might have fallen in once or twice."

"Tch. I'll just choose to take that as a compliment to my skills as a sensei and move on." Ignoring her giggling, he pulled out two slips of paper from his pouch. "Well, I had hoped that we'd spend two or three days on water-walking, but part of me knew that I'm never that lucky, so I brought these today, just in case."

"What are they? And why were you hoping I'd take longer to figure this out?" she asked, tapping her heel on the surface of the water, making little ripples.

He stared at her for a moment before answering, "You want to know the truth? Because your perfect chakra control scares me, Sakura." Her eyes widened, but he carried on. "And when I say 'perfect', I'm not exaggerating. In absolutely everything I've ever seen you do; from the Bunshin no Jutsu, to the walk-sticking technique, to that genjutsu you used to shield yourself from Zabuza's killer intent on the bridge- yes, I know about that- you have only ever used.. Exactly. As much chakra as you needed. Your illusory clones appear without smoke or sound, and you stick to walls better than some Jonin I know. I mean," he gestured exasperatedly at her feet, floating on the water immaculately, "it's your first time, and only one of your feet are even wet! And you stuck that one in the water on purpose before you even came out here, presumably as some sort of measuring method for the chakra you'd need- a process I'm still trying to make sense of." He let out a breath and regained his composure. "My point is, Sakura, that you have a gift. It would appear that- whether by conscious effort or simple instinct- you are capable of never wasting chakra.

"Which," he said, offering her one of the slips of paper, "is not something your first opponent Neji will be able to claim. If he misses even one of his Jyuuken strikes, he's already wasted chakra, guaranteed, and that's assuming he doesn't waste any on his strikes anyway. Aside from being able to maximize your potential stamina, your perfect chakra control- along with your smarts- should make you able to pick up Shape and Nature Manipulation much faster than normal. Channel some chakra into that paper for me, Sakura. Less than the amount you use to stick to walls should suffice."

Sakura had, during his little tirade, gone through several visible stages of surprise. Near the end, however, she had settled for a light blush and a smile, probably embarrassed but enjoying the praise. Upon his request, she held the paper upright between her thumb and forefinger. A half-second later, and the paper...

Kakashi chuckled. "Well, doesn't that just figure..."

Sakura looked from him to the altered paper and back again. "What? What does that mean, sensei?"

"These days, people refer to them as Litmus Papers, but the original name for these things was Chakra Induction Paper. They are made from a special tree that is grown and fed with chakra, and will react differently to different chakra Natures. Tell me Sakura: what are the five main chakra Natures?"

Sakura looked surprised at being asked, but answered with perfect timing, as though reading it straight from a textbook, "The five primary chakra Natures are Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth, and Water."

"You might have known this already, but everyone has an affinity for a certain Nature. Their chakra lends itself better to this Nature than others, and will often struggle to form Natures that 'beat' their affinity. Such as Water for Fire affinities, or Wind for Lightning. An affinity to a certain Nature is so intrinsic, in fact, that unfiltered chakra actually carries trace amounts of our affinity at all times.

"So say, for example, that someone with a Fire affinity were to use one of these Litmus Papers. The paper would catch fire and turn to ash. Someone with a Wind affinity would make their paper split in two. Now, Sakura, can you imagine," he said, channeling chakra into his own paper, smirking a little at Sakura's gasp, "what our results could mean?"

"I... I have the same affinity as sensei?" she asked, looking between the two wrinkled pieces of paper in shock.

Kakashi nodded. "Sakura, for the rest of the month, we are going to mostly be working on four things: your stamina, your physical fitness, close combat counters for the Jyuuken, and..." he gestured to her paper with his, "Lightning manipulation."

(~HJN~)

And that's a chapter. Now that I'm finally passed this AWKWARD AS FUCK dialogue-riddled part, the next few chapters should flow more smoothly. Ugh, I just could not get passed certain scenes, to the point where I actually re-wrote the double-bathtub scene twice just to get in a state where I felt I could move on. And then I went back and edited it later on, anyway.

So, yeah, Sakura's got sparks. Bet nobody saw that coming, right? If you're unfamiliar with Japanese washrooms and bathrooms, there was a large time period in the near past where it was uncommon for the toilet to share space with any other hygiene station: tubs, showers, even often sinks. Most 'modern' homes in my version of this world would have a separate space for the toilet, with a small hand-washing station. The washroom is a large tiled room with drains in the floor and a usually big tub. The 'shower' is a broad showerhead on a long hose attached to the wall, and most sane people would keep a bucket/pan and one or two stools in there, as well. Naruto basically has the 'economy' version, where the toilet is located in the same room as the rest of it and the tub and room are smaller overall, but everything else is basically the same. Naruto also doesn't have a changing/laundry room between the hall and the bathroom like the Haruno family (and most of Konoha).

Anyway, either a new story or a new chapter of Boundless will be coming next, though you may not want to get your hopes up. Destiny 2 comes out next week, so I'll be playing that when I'm not working for the next, oh, probably two months. Which is six weeks longer than I've gone without writing anything in over a year, believe it or not. I'll try not to let that happen and actually make time to write, though. Send me thoughtful reviews to speed up the process! Seriously, it's so often that a particularly heartfelt or inspiring review is what gives me the push to complete a chapter, you have no idea.

Hope you enjoyed!

Ja ne~