ᴅᴇꜱᴛɪɴʏ ʀᴇʙɪʀᴛʜ|ⁿᵃʳᵘᵗᵒˣⁿᵃʳᵘᵏᵒ

Dilemma p.8

Sakura nearly gawked at the blunt way Naruko worded her question, but she didn't had time to refute when Naruko was already onto her again, "Well, let me be blunt about it seeing as you wouldn't listen to me even if your life depended on it — It's not!" she shouted. "In our line of work people get hurt, and sometimes they die if they're not lucky . . . so don't you dare treat this as a game!" Naruko tightened her grip painfully on Sakura's arm, making said girl whimper in pain as she tried to pull away from the blonde girl without success.

"No... stop it!" Sakura pleaded.

Naruko continued, completely ignoring the other girl's plea, "I'm telling you this to save your life Sakura. If you can't see that by now or you're just blind to the truth so that you could be with Sasuke . . . I suggest you to quit. Now." Naruko said, putting heavy emphasis on the last word.

Sakura was shocked speechless by Naruko's outburst, her childish mind immediately jumping to the conclusion that Naruko wanted to steal Sasuke all for herself, but the more Sakura thought about it, that idea became rather ridiculous as Naruko had showed no interest whatsoever towards the raven haired Uchiha boy. More than anything, the blonde girl showed more interest towards her new big brother rather than Sasuke, which was a bit puzzling to the Haruno girl.

But still, Naruko's words stung, and the rabid emotions that she had buried deep within her years ago was bubbling up once more, and it took all of Sakura's willpower to not break down in front of everyone.

Sakura hung her head down as she said, "What do mean?" she asked, voice soft as her mind tried to come to terms to what Naruko was implying.

"What I meant was that you should get your act together," Naruko explained, her expression had softened and a small smile was on her lips as an idea formed in her head, "Tell you what, if I tell you the secret to gaining Sasuke's heart, would you hear me out?" she asked.

Sakura nodded her head vigorously as she moved closer towards Naruko, green eyes pleading for her to speak. Even if she and Naruko were not close, any advice coming from the most popular girl in their graduating class would help tremendously in her chances to get Sasuke to take notice of her, and for that, Sakura would do anything to make it up to Naruko.

Naruto, who had been silent all the while Naruko had been lecturing the pink-haired girl, was staring at the scene that was unfolding in front of him with surprise. This was one of the things Naruto had planned to do when he came back, but was afraid of the implications to the timeline should he interfere any more than he already did.

But, fate it seems, was working in his favor as Naruko beat him to the punch, and what's to say that Naruko, not Naruto, cannot change the timeline? Kami surely didn't . . . and most definitely not Black Zetsu.

Naruto had to mentally grin at this surprise but welcomed situation, as it provided a loophole in which he could exploit to subtly change the coming events through Naruko without tipping off Black Zetsu, who would only see this as a minor disturbance . . .

Naruko held up a hand, listing off the things she said, "First of all, don't diet," Naruko said, "And that means you eat and not starve yourself to death for the sake of beauty — you look like a walking twig with that body of yours."

Sakura wanted to fume at her words but begrudgingly kept silent as she needed to hear the blonde's next words, no matter how degrading Naruko sounded. "Next, focus on your ninja training rather than gaining Sasuke's attention; trust me, Sasuke will only notice girls who he considers as strong since he's the last of his clan, so he needs strong women to rebuild it."

Sakura nodded slowly as she digested the information, which started to make sense in her mind, "So, what I'm saying is this: be a kunoichi first, annoying fangirl — never."

And with that, Naruko released Sakura from her hold making said girl rub the offending spot tenderly, lost in thought as she took a seat underneath the tree she was standing under, while Naruko made her way towards where her brother slash love interest was at. She stood beside him as she looped her arm around his own, snuggling into him, and it was then she noticed that Naruto was staring at her and she fidgeted with one of her pigtails.

"W-What is it?" she asked tentatively.

Naruto shook his head as he smiled. "That's the first time I've seen you lecture someone like that..." Naruto scratched his cheek a little, a small blush forming on his face, "And I have to say, you look adorable when you're serious." He complimented.

Naruko's cheeks reddened a little as she lightly smacked the arm she was holding, earning a mock look of hurt on Naruto's face, making her laugh.

"Thank you!" she chirped. "You're the best, Onii-chan!"

Naruto chuckled, a small dust of pink on his cheeks, as he turned to look over the training grounds, eyes focusing on nothing in particular, with Naruko just content with holding his arm.

The four Genin waited in comfortable silence for another ten minutes, before a poof of what sounded like smoke was heard, and all four teens turned to look at their silver-haired Jōnin-sensei standing in front of them, an eye smile on his visible eye.

"Yo."