The Flower and Her Sun (Naruto x Sakura)

~ Chapter Three - Encounter ~

It annoyed him. Sure, he had ignored this girl's affections whenever she gave them in the past. He complained over and over about how annoying she was every time she squeaked his name in delight. He had abandoned her when he left the village in search for vengeance. He had tried to kill her, too. But he didn't expect her seemingly undying devotion to die like that. He abandoned Naruto and tried to kill him as well, and he didn't push him aside like she did. It didn't seem like she did it on purpose. She spoke to him normally, for the most part, and she liked spending time with him, he could tell. Not alone, though. In instances when they were left alone, she would act as if she was nervous. He thought she might be afraid of him. Those moments were rare though, Naruto was always there with her. It was almost as if he was his bodyguard, as if for some reason he had to protect her from him. They moved in unison, too. If he moved, she moved. She was always by his side. It annoyed him that thoughts of fear could be what made her so distant from him, he wasn't going to harm her. She said she understood when they spoke before. He felt utterly confused.

"Can we go get some ramen? I'm hungry, and with the diet you've got me on lately, ramen is all I can think about," she suggested cheerfully. She looked beautiful today, he thought, extraordinarily casual in an oversized shirt and shorts. She looked her best this way, to him.

"I'm hungry too," chuckled Naruto. "You two wait here, I'll bring three big bowls! You want some too right, Sasuke?"

"Sure," he shrugged. He looked at his female friend, she looked very uncomfortable as Naruto took his leave. "Sakura, would you tell me why you get so weird when we're alone?" He asked directly, no point in delaying his curiosity further.

"I – I just don't know what to say," she said. The way she played with a little piece of paper she found on the floor showed him she felt very awkward. There was junk everywhere in this apartment, Naruto sure was messy, he observed.

"Are you scared of me?" He noticed she blushed at this question. She took a minute to think, he assumed, before answering.

"No. It's just difficult to interact with you, I guess. Like I don't know you. I get like this around new people, too. It's like you're one of them. It's easy when Naruto's here to do the talking, but otherwise I don't even know where to start." She folded and unfolded the piece of paper over and over in different ways.

"Hn." It was uncomfortable. He recalled their time as Team 7, this girl was always all over him, expressing her love and admiration, sharing any silly and boring thing that came to her mind with him. That same girl who wouldn't shut up with him now didn't know what to say. Normally he liked silence, but silence from her wasn't something he was used to. "Well," he broke the silence, "I don't want to be in this uncomfortable silence for 20 minutes." He figured, because of what she said, that maybe they should start to know each other again. "What's your favorite color?" he sighed.

Sakura stared at him with a bewildered expression. She then burst out laughing, hard, for a long time. She was hugging her stomach and drying tears form the corners of her eyes when she calmed down. "Really?!"

"So annoying."

She laughed more. "Red," she answered finally, still going at it.

"Tsk."

********

When Naruto returned with the ramen, he was pleasantly surprised to find Sasuke and Sakura talking a little and laughing. That was a first, he thought, maybe now they could really become friends again. He smiled his huge toothy grin, he'd missed this sight. After filling their bellies with delicious food, and chatting way into the hours of the night, Sakura had fallen asleep and the two boys were discussing a more serious topic.