The afternoon settled over Konoha, painting the sky the same intense orange as the jacket Sakura wanted to light on fire with her gaze.
She was leaning against the bridge pillar, the meeting spot Naruto had designated, with her arms crossed and a nervous tic in her eyebrow. She had been waiting for ten minutes; ten minutes that had felt like ten hours of silent torture.
Every time a villager passed by and looked at her with curiosity, she felt her cheeks burn. It's not a date, she repeated to herself like a mantra. It's paying off a debt. A punishment. My punishment for being stupid enough to make a bet with Naruto.
"SAKURA-CHAN!"
The voice, unmistakably loud and filled with an energy she felt she didn't deserve, made her flinch. Naruto came running across the bridge, waving one arm high, with a smile so big it looked like it would split his face.
"Sorry, sorry, I'm late! I had to help an old lady cross the street and then a cat got stuck in a tree and I had to rescue it, believe it!"
Sakura looked him up and down. He didn't have a single wrinkle or scratch on his clothes.
"The cat didn't scratch you, huh?"
Naruto's smile faltered for a fraction of a second.
"It was a very grateful cat! Anyway, are you ready for the best date of your life?"
"It's not a date," Sakura snapped, her voice sharper than a kunai. "I want to make the rules clear, Naruto."
He blinked, tilting his head.
"Rules?"
"Rule number one: this is not a date, it's the fulfillment of a bet I lost because of you. Rule number two: don't try to hold my hand; if you do, I'll break it. Rule number three: you're paying for everything. And rule number four: at no point does this mean I like you or see you as anything more than an annoying teammate. Understood?"
Naruto placed a hand on his chest theatrically.
"Understood! Loud and clear! As loud and clear as a Wind Style jutsu. A not-a-date to pay off a bet, no hands, I pay for everything, and I'm still an annoying teammate. Perfect! Should we get going to our not-a-date now?"
Sakura sighed, feeling her patience already wearing thin. But a promise was a promise, and her pride wouldn't let her back out.
"Fine. Where are we going? Let's just get this over with."
"To Ichiraku Ramen, of course!" he declared, as if it were the only possible answer in the universe. "The place for celebrations, for sorrows, and now, for not-a-dates!"
He started walking, and Sakura followed at a safe distance, as if she feared his stupidity was contagious.
"Why always Ichiraku?" she asked, more to fill the silence than out of any real interest.
"Because Teuchi-san makes the best ramen in the world. It's a scientific fact! Besides, the old man always gives me an extra fish cake when I tell him about my heroic deeds. Today, I'm gonna tell him how I made an elite jōnin fall for the oldest trick in the academy!"
"Don't tell him," Sakura said in a murmur. "It's embarrassing."
Naruto stopped and turned to look at her. The smile was gone, replaced by a strangely serious expression.
"It's not, Sakura-chan. I proved I was right, and you held up your end of the bet. That's not embarrassing, it's called having honor."
Sakura was speechless. The way he said it, without a hint of mockery, completely threw her off. She looked away, feeling the heat rise up her neck again.
"Whatever. Just… walk."
They arrived at the ramen stand, and the curtain flap opened before they could even touch it.
"Naruto! I knew that racket was you!" Ayame, Teuchi's daughter, greeted them with a cheerful voice. "Oh, and you brought Sakura-chan. Is this a date?"
"NO!" Sakura yelled, too quickly, too loudly.
"YES!" Naruto yelled at the same time.
They stared at each other. Naruto winked, and Sakura felt her own eye twitch.
"It's… complicated," Naruto said finally, scratching the back of his neck. "It's a celebratory not-a-date for passing Kakashi-sensei's test."
Teuchi poked his head out from the kitchen, his face flushed from the steam.
"So Team 7 passed? Congratulations! That calls for a special bowl on the house for both of you!"
"That's right, old man!" Naruto exclaimed, plopping down on a stool and patting the one next to him for Sakura to sit. "Two bowls of ramen, please!"
Sakura sat down as stiff as a board. Naruto leaned toward the counter.
"For me, the miso ramen with extra pork and extra naruto, you know the drill! And for Sakura-chan… a shio ramen, with a light broth, bamboo shoots, an egg, a little nori, and no spice. Nothing spicy at all."
Sakura stared at him. It was exactly how she liked her ramen: simple, salty, uncomplicated. She had never told anyone, least of all him.
"How did you…?"
"Huh?" Naruto turned to her. "Oh, well, you're a girl, right? Girls like light, non-spicy things. It's a genius guess! Believe it!"
The explanation was so dumb, so typically Naruto, that she almost believed him. Almost. But the seed of strangeness had already been planted.
While they waited, Naruto began telling Teuchi the story of the test, gesturing wildly, mimicking the falling eraser, Kakashi's face, and his own shouts of victory. Sakura tried to shrink in her seat, but to her surprise, Teuchi and Ayame were laughing their heads off.
"Only you, Naruto! Only you would dare pull that on a jōnin on the first day!" Ayame said, wiping away a tear of laughter.
"I told them my instincts were good!" Naruto said proudly. "Even though he kicked my butt later with some super pervy technique…"
The memory of the genjutsu assaulted Sakura's mind without warning. The image of Sasuke, bloody and dying, flashed before her eyes. Her forced smile vanished, and the laughter in the stand faded into a distant buzz. She looked down at her hands, which were suddenly trembling.
"Here you go. Two bowls of happiness."
The steaming bowls of ramen appeared in front of them. The aroma was divine, but Sakura's stomach had tied itself in knots.
Naruto split his chopsticks with a loud "Itadakimasu!" and began slurping his noodles with a noise that could wake the dead.
Sakura picked up her chopsticks but only stirred the noodles in her broth.
Naruto stopped mid-slurp.
"What's wrong, Sakura-chan? You're not hungry? It's delicious! Try it!"
"It's nothing," she lied. "I'm just… thinking."
"You're thinking about Sasuke, aren't you?" Naruto said. It wasn't a question. It was a statement, and it hit the nail on the head.
"That's none of your business," she retorted defensively.
"Of course it is. We're a team. What affects you, affects me. And Sasuke. Kakashi-sensei said so, remember?"
He ate a piece of pork, chewing thoughtfully.
"You're worried about him. And you feel bad about what happened to you."
Sakura set her chopsticks down on the counter with a sharp clack.
"What do you know about what happened to me? You were just fooling around, like always."
"I saw you pass out," he said, his voice lower now, losing its usual shrillness. "Kakashi-sensei left you leaning against a tree. You looked… scared."
Sakura's heart leaped into her throat. He had seen her. He had seen her moment of greatest weakness. The humiliation was a wave threatening to drown her.
"I wasn't scared. I was… tired."
"Liar," Naruto said with a gentleness that disarmed her. "You had the same look on your face I did when I tied myself to a tree trying to practice the substitution jutsu and realized I couldn't reach the kunai to cut the rope. Pure panic."
Despite the situation, a small smile pulled at Sakura's lips. The image of Naruto tied to a tree by his own clumsiness was just too vivid.
"You're an idiot."
"Maybe," he admitted. "But even an idiot knows when a friend is not okay. And you're not okay."
He finished his ramen in one last, loud slurp and placed the empty bowl on the counter. Sakura hadn't even touched hers.
"You don't have to eat it if you don't want to," he said. "But we're not done."
"What? Where else are we going?" she asked, alarmed.
"Somewhere. Rule number three: I pay."
Naruto left a few bills on the counter, enough to cover both bowls and a generous tip.
"Thanks for the food, old man! It was amazing, as always!"
"Come back soon!" Teuchi said with a smile.
Naruto stood up and waited for Sakura to do the same. She followed him out of the stand, confusion warring with her bad mood.
They didn't walk toward the village center. Instead, Naruto led her through quieter streets toward one of Konoha's oldest parks. It was a serene place, with large cherry trees that, now in the middle of summer, offered a dense, cool shade.
They stopped in front of a wooden bench facing a small pond.
"Sit," he said.
Sakura obeyed, her curiosity overcoming her reluctance. Naruto didn't sit next to her but instead leaned against the back of the bench, standing behind her.
"I know what you're thinking," he began. "You're thinking you failed, that you were weak. That if you had been stronger, or smarter, you wouldn't have fallen for Kakashi-sensei's genjutsu."
Every word was a direct hit. She tensed up.
"So what if I am?"
"You're wrong."
"Oh, yeah? And what am I wrong about, according to the great expert Naruto?"
"Kakashi-sensei didn't attack you, Sakura-chan. He attacked your greatest strength."
She turned on the bench to look at him, incredulous.
"My greatest strength? What nonsense are you talking about?"
"Your ability to care for others," he said, and his gaze was so direct that Sakura had to look away. "You care about Sasuke. A lot. Enough that your first instinct is always to protect him, to help him, to be with him. Kakashi-sensei saw that. And he used it. He didn't beat you because you were weak; he beat you because you care about someone."
Sakura's world tilted. No one, ever, had said anything like that to her. To everyone else, her devotion to Sasuke was a simple schoolgirl crush. To Naruto, suddenly, it was a strength.
"But… I still fell for it. I passed out. A real ninja doesn't pass out."
"A real ninja feels fear," he corrected her. "And feels pain. And worries about their comrades. What happened to you wasn't a failure, Sakura-chan. It was a lesson."
He moved and sat down next to her on the bench, keeping a respectful distance.
"The lesson is that your heart is like a very powerful jutsu. If you let it run wild, it can destroy you. But if you learn to control it, to focus it… it can be the strongest weapon you have."
She stared at him, her lips parted, not knowing what to say. The logic of his words was strange, twisted, but… it made sense.
"And how… how am I supposed to do that?"
"By training!" he said, his usual energy returning in a rush. "But not just by throwing kunai or practicing taijutsu. You have to train your mind. And you have something that neither I nor Sasuke have."
"Me? Have something you guys don't?" she laughed, but there was no joy in it.
"Yeah. You have almost perfect chakra control."
Sakura's jaw nearly dropped.
"How do you know that?"
Naruto slapped his forehead.
"Oh! Well, Iruka-sensei mentioned it once! Yeah, that was it. He said, 'That Sakura Haruno has perfect chakra control, not like that idiot Naruto.' It hurt, believe it!"
Again, an excuse so dumb it was almost believable.
"With that control, you could become the best medical-nin of our generation. You could save people. Or you could become a master of genjutsu. You could turn the same illusions they used on you back on them, but to protect your comrades. You're smart, Sakura-chan. Way smarter than you think. You always got the best scores on the written exams."
He stood up and stood in front of her, blocking the afternoon sun.
"Stop thinking of yourself as the girl chasing Sasuke. And start thinking of yourself as Sakura Haruno, the kunoichi with perfect chakra control and a first-rate brain who can become incredibly strong on her own. So that the next time someone tries to use Sasuke to hurt you, you can look them in the eye and say, 'Nice try. Now taste my own genjutsu.'"
He fell silent, looking at her intently. His blue eyes didn't have the prankster's spark, but the intensity of someone who blindly believed every word he was saying.
And for the first time in a long, long time, Sakura didn't see the class clown. She didn't see the loud loser. She saw a comrade. She saw someone who, in some incomprehensible way, saw her. Not Sasuke's fan, not the girl with pink hair. He saw her.
A single tear slid down her cheek. She wiped it away quickly, furious with herself.
"You're so weird, Naruto."
He smiled, a genuine, warm smile this time.
"I get that a lot. Now, about the final part of our not-a-date."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out something wrapped in a napkin. He offered it to her.
"What is this?"
"Dango. From the shop near the academy. I remembered you like the kind with red bean paste."
Sakura took the sweet, stunned. It was her favorite. How could he know? Was it another "genius guess"?
"Thanks…" she murmured, and the word felt strange in her mouth.
They ate the dango in a comfortable silence. It was no longer the tension from the beginning, but a quiet calm. The sun was setting, and the shadows of the trees stretched across the pond.
"Well," Sakura said finally, standing up. "I guess the debt is paid."
"Yup."
"And the rules were followed. You didn't try to hold my hand."
"You would have broken my bones!" he said, laughing. "I'm an idiot, not suicidal."
They walked back toward the center of the village as the first streetlights began to flicker on.
"Naruto…" she began, not looking at him.
"Yeah?"
"Today… wasn't… as horrible as I expected."
Naruto smiled to himself. It was the closest thing to a "thank you, I had fun" that he was going to get from her. And it was more than enough.
"Of course not! A not-a-date with me is the best not-a-date you can have!"
He walked her to the street that led to her house, and they stopped at the corner.
"Well, this is where we part ways," she said.
"Yeah. Hey, Sakura-chan."
"What?"
"Tomorrow, at training, teach me how to control my chakra better. You're the expert."
The request took her by surprise. Him, asking her for help. Not for a bet, not as a joke. Seriously. He was giving her a role. A responsibility. He was treating her like an equal.
"Okay," she said, and a small smile, a real one, appeared on her face. "But don't complain if I hit you when you mess up."
"It's a deal! See you tomorrow, Sakura-chan!"
"See you tomorrow, Naruto."
She turned and left. Naruto watched her until she rounded the corner, and the smile on his face softened, becoming more thoughtful. Man, now I owe Iruka-sensei a big one, he thought. It was worth it, though.