章節 54: Chapter 54

She walks around him to the door as he continues to plead his case with pitiful claims. "I already know a B-Rank jutsu and I'm learning an A-rank right now! It won't be long before I make it an S-rank jutsu. It won't take long, I promise it won't... Please, Nai-chan."

Opening the door, she debates reassuring him, threatening him, explaining why it has nothing to do with rank, clarifying what has to happen and why, but instead she leaves, closing the door on him behind her.

NARUTO

'How can dawn start and end so differently?'

Naruto sat on the grass Indian-position, well away from his teammates, with a leaf in his left palm, and his right hand covering it. The entire time he waited for his Jōnin-sensei, he pondered about another. The night before had been the most amazing thing he's ever felt; possibly second to his afternoon with Ino-chan. Without allowing himself to recall the events for fear of popping a tent in front a distant Sakura-chan, he wonders how waking up could be that marvelous but less than an hour later, he drove another person away. He was starting to wonder if he was cursed somehow. Sakura-chan doesn't want anything to do with him, Ino-chan is just as distant, and now Kurenai-chan literally closed the door in his face.

Naruto had never been so quiet around his team, but they don't seem to mind. Though he can't help how miserable he feels, he's happy to see Sakura-chan again, healthy and best of all, standing far away from the teme. Sakura-chan might not want to stand by Naruto, or look at him apparently, but at least she's not by Sasuke-teme. He made sure she knew he was glad she was feeling better but again, she refused to look at him and only mumbled something he couldn't understand.

Like himself, she's also working on her talents. He can tell she's looking over a scroll on Iryō-ninjutsu, but he can't tell what specifically it is. Kakashi-sensei had been really surprised when she asked for more reading material on medical ninjutsu, or as surprised as a man with only one visible facial feature can be. It stung Naruto when she didn't give him the credit for her new direction, but their sensei had been supportive and supplied her with several scrolls for her to go over. Naruto would've surely loved it if she gave him the credit for the idea, but at least she's learning. So, instead of pestering and interrupting her, he tries to enhance his focus on his own training. He's still trying to cut the leaf using his chakra while he has three pairs of clones working on the final stage of the Rasengan a decent distance in the forest.

This would've been the first morning in a long time he would've preferred to stay home and wallow, but, he couldn't last more than ten minutes before dark thoughts started to materialize in his brain. Like many times before, he told himself all would be different once he became Hokage, and just like before, he started training. Though his thoughts constantly strayed to Kurenai-chan, he continues to push past the things he couldn't control for a better tomorrow. It's not the only drive sustaining him, but it's the best one he has.

When Kakashi-sensei shows up three and a half hours after the scheduled meeting time, he allows the uncut leaf to fall to the floor and begins dispelling his clones one at a time.

SAKURA

It's more difficult to look at the blond idiot than she had anticipated. Part of her wanted nothing more than to beat the boy's teeth into his brain then rip his dick off with her bare hand and stuff it in his mouth, but sheer will held her at bay.

Team 7 was quieter than normal. All throughout team drill training and the two D-Rank missions they had done, there was little more conversation than what was absolutely necessary. It unnerved her already ragged nerves. Sakura was simply too accustomed to hearing him yell, laugh, loudly slurp his disgusting noodles, ask her out on a date, bother Kakashi-sensei about training, challenge Sasuke-kun, or shout about becoming Hokage. It was actually strange to go without hearing the Baka say anything.

A fearful side of her wondered if he knows, and he's simply being quiet about it. The reckless side of her reasoning wonders if he's just scared that she'll tell someone, so he's staying distant. Maybe both Ino-pig and Naruto-baka were in on it to get between her and Sasuke-kun. Ino-pig would get to be with Sasuke-kun and Sakura would be blackmailed to be with Naruto-baka. 'It had merit,' her mind told her, but it's not like he was avoiding her. Even if she ignored him, he had told her he was glad she was better, and he didn't really seem nervous or scared, just introspective or focused on that stupid leaf... again.

The rational side of her mind reasoned that his uncommon behavior had nothing to do with her because it just wasn't in Naruto-baka's nature to avoid things. He's too simple to not talk to her about it. He didn't bring up what they had done—what she was forced to do—because he truly didn't know and that, at the very least, told her that Ino-Pig was telling the truth about him being unaware—which only disgusted her more. Sakura still can't understand how Ino-pig could be so jealous of her that she would go so far as to take that idiot's cock in her mouth... it was gag-inducing.