Chronic Love(On Hold)

6

Previously-

"She told you to ask me?" I could see he was doing his best to hold back his smirk. "Yeah, we're going somewhere that would be a good place to get started on your project or whatever. She told me it would be a good idea to ask you even after I told her you would probably say no." I stared at him in amazement. Why would she want me to go? I don't have any classes today. "You both don't have any classes today?" He shook his head no. "I changed my mind, I want to go."

Naruto's Pov

Shikamaru didn't let me hear the end of it until we pulled up right beside Sakura's car. He didn't even try to hide his smirks the whole way here. "Where are we?" I hadn't noticed our surroundings until now. "Where are we?" I asked again. He took his time climbing out of the car. "Shhh, you'll ruin the magical moment with your loud mouth." I saw a hint of pink coming from what appeared to be a doorway of leaves. "Haruno!" Shikamaru called out while jogging up to Sakura. Oh okay just leave me behind I guess. I pouted while taking the path Shikamaru did. My breath caught in my throat at what I was looking at. Behind the door of leaves was a beautiful lake surrounded by the eternal beauty of Mother Nature. "It's pretty right?" I didn't notice Sakura was beside me until her voice caught my attention.

"That would be an understatement." I saw her smirk before turning to Shikamaru once again. "Did you bring it?" I heard Shikamaru ask. I found my eyes wandering to them. "Sure did!" I squinted my eyes trying to see what was in Sakura's hands. They caught me staring and moved to a different place. Shortly Sakura returned. "It's a drone he wanted, don't get jealous." I huffed. Why would I be jealous? "Well anyways, we have something to do." Before I could ask her small fragile little hand wrapped around my wrist and pulled me with her. She plopped down near the lake with a tree making shade. "What are we doing?" I finally got to ask. She showed a mischievous smile and then quickly pulled out a bag. "Our project!" The smile she was wearing seamed warm? It was a nice and scary feeling. "This place always gives me inspiration so I thought that by bringing you here you would also get some." It was the first time I actually paid attention to her appearance since we got here. The White beanie she was wearing made her pink hair seem to shine. "Your hair looks nice today." She paused. Then a tint of red popped up on her cheeks. "Thank you?" She dismissed it and went back to unpacking her bag. "So here's a camera if you wanna walk around and take reference photos. An Ipad if you're into digital art. Extra sketchbook. Some canvases and paint brushes. Oh can't forget a big assortment of colored pencils. Think you'll be good?" I looked at the pink haired woman in front of me in fear. "How the hell did all of that fit in THAT?" She just chuckled. "Okay I'll give you an hour to do whatever and then I'll come back to harass you." I nodded and she took off with a sketchbook and a few colored pencils in her hands. The tiny hands that looked like they could be snapped in two with barely any force.

An hour went by and I was surprised at how many things kept coming to my mind. I did take some photos but only because I wanted to keep them for later. "Wow, that's a lot of stuff in an hour." I was just as surprised as her. She sat down next to me. "For the project I think we could do something happy and sad. Do you know what I mean?" I nodded my head. "Why sad? Why not just happy? Or why not just sad?" The question looked like it was the last thing someone would ever ask her. Suddenly her voice had an 'out of it' tone. "Don't you think that there could be some people who are extremely happy but there's also sadness?" I studied her face and I could read her like a book in that instant. Why is her face projecting a smile with so much pain behind it? She snapped out of it. "I just think it's a cool idea." I could tell she knew I read her emotions then but didn't want me to press on. "You know since we're partners I'm always here if you need to talk although I'm an ass most of the time." Her eyes bulged for a split second. Then she laughed. "Why do you mean by 'most of the time'? You're always an ass to me." I just scoffed and started laughing with her. To me it felt like all she needed was a good laugh. "Okay we can do that."

When we got home I decided to take a fat nap. A banging at my bedroom door caused me to fall out of my bed. "What the hell?" I grumbled as I tried to get up only to trip on my covers. "Just come in!" I heard a chuckle resonating from the other side of the door. "Sakura?" I was surprised to see her considering I had seen her a few hours ago. "Hurry up we're having game night." I guess the look on my face gave it away. "Oh, I see. Shikamaru didn't tell you. Well come on I brought pizza." Then she turned to slam the door. Don't get me wrong I still dislike her since she didn't seem to remember a certain thing. However, I like the sound of free food. When I got out of the room I could smell the fresh pizza. My stomach grumbled. I noticed two unfamiliar faces. "Oh Naruto, these are my friends. Ino, Sasuke, meet Naruto. Naruto, meet Ino and Sasuke." I gave them an awkward smile and started sending death glares towards Shikamaru. He avoided my eye contact and kept a steady conversation with Sakura.

Word Count: 1,039