Reverse Psychology
Because life is all about give and take, and sometimes you're the one that has to let go.
Disclaimer: Put it this way, if I owned Naruto, there'd just be a bunch of stick figures fighting each other; that's why I stick with fanfiction, because I'm a fan, and therefore don't own it, or have to draw the characters for it. Also, the last sentence of this story (or something like it) comes from the epilogue of Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr.
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There used to be three of them.
NarutoSasukeSakura. SasukeSakuraNaruto. SakuraNarutoSasuke.
And of course, Sasuke just had to get jealous and leave, leave before learning the whole story.
Then, it was just the two of them.
Naruto and Sakura. Sakura and Naruto.
And, grudgingly, Naruto had to admit, in some ways, Sasuke's betrayal did help him grow closer to Sakura, but he refused, refused to let Sasuke take credit for that.
But finally, after four all-too-long years, they had finally brought him back. They had brought him back. Theyhadbroughthimback.
Really, it wasn't the type of battle Naruto had expected. After all, Orochimaru was dead, and so was Itachi. Sasuke had his own Mangekyou Sharingan, not that he really needed it anymore, and almost came back willingly.
Of course, after they had brought him back he was put on probation and always had an ANBU tailing him, but they expected that. What they couldn't quite get their mind around was the fact that he was starting to warm up to them and act like the Sasuke they knew before Orochimaru came and screwed everything up. Actually, he started to act more like a normal person, than the Sasuke they knew, but that was alright too.
Things weren't exactly the same but they were close enough for Naruto.
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Naruto knew deep down somewhere that he was probably in denial about the whole Sasuke-leaving-Konoha-for-his-own-gains thing, but he refused to admit it. Really, there were some times when it seemed that everything was a hopeless cause; those were the times when everything he had gone through just came crashing down on him.
But it was Sakura and his promise to her that kept him going. Whenever things seemed bleak and hopeless, he'd always remind himself of the promise he made to her and promised to himself that he wouldn't fail a second time.
Sakura... he remembered the first time he saw her. She was being teased and bullied by the older kids because of her overly large forehead. Personally, Naruto thought it made her look cute, in an innocent sort of way...or innocent in a cute sort of way, not that what he thought ever mattered.
Still, it didn't seem right that people picked on her because of something she had no control over. He might have been biased from his own experiences, but it just didn't seem...right.
He wished he could help her somehow, by beating up the bullies or something, but he knew it would do no good. Once Sakura told her parents about him, she would just hate him like all the other kids, and that was something that he wasn't ready to face yet.
So he was understandably glad when Ino befriended Sakura and gave her a hair bow to help hide the size of her forehead.
That was, until they started fighting about whom Sasuke liked more. He didn't understand. Couldn't they tell that Sasuke wasn't interested in either of them? It was just one of those things about girls that annoyed Naruto to no end.
