QOTC:

(Phone call)

Naruto: "Well, remember when we're at that party I sort of forgot, and you puked, I took you home--she really didn't want that."

Sakura: "You dressed me up."

Naruto: "I didn't touch your bra or underlings."

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"Naruto. W-wake up!"

Nuh-uh, Naruto's facial expression spoke along with his green froggy sleeping hat.

"Naruto, it's already morning!" the woman whispered. Nothing again, she thought. Naruto was laying in his beg like a cutie little child who, like little children in fact, didn't care about the terrene. Eat and sleep; those were their sports.

Hinata sighed. She wondered if she should perform a Gentle Fist upon the blonde boy or kiss him, that was one of Naruto's scrupulous rules. If you're going to wake me up without kissing me or kissing me, kill me now. Don't even bother with my hat, Hinata-chan! He thought it was fair treatment--he slept for a hundred couple of hours while Hinata was used to the early mornings, inside her peaceful clan, she would wake up by five and practice Taijutsu. Neji was always first to wake, so she would catch him being the first Hyuga to spar when Dawn had just arrived. When they were younger Neji would usually bow his head to her, now Neji would do it pleasingly. Hinata smiled as she kissed him in the cheek good morning, a brother he never had and a cousin who secured her with everything: protection, love, foresight.

Naruto being a casual heavysleeper didn't bother her at all. He was glued onto it, and Hinata liked watching him sleep, anyway. Waking up on the first blush, observing him, finding a way to tumble back on her good nap as she would encircle herself around his arms. He'd kiss her cheek sometimes though, as if by thought, I'm watching you.

So here Hinata was: trying to wake her escort. Hinata had pressed Naruto's cheek harder than she ever did that the blonde jinchuriki scowled out of his bed awake, later on rushing onto the Hyuga Townhouse with his jacket halfway unzipped. He mumbled: You were supposed to kiss me!

"There's something want to tell you." Naruto said, his hands in his pockets. He looked troubled. "About me being a Jinchuriki and all those crap... I don't know, I..."

Hinata was listening attentively, her eyes onto him as they stood in front of the Main Family's house. Quarter to five and she was lucky Naruto was good enough to run, or else the people in the clan would have seen her through the night. Hiashi had his servants and eyes scattered somewhere, around the bushes, hiding just on your behind like bat's pair of yellow scary eyes.

"Well, g-go ahead." Hinata said patiently.

"Granny Tsunade told me it's possible she would send me to Turtle Island. I don't know if it's true but rumors are starting to spread. I just want to let you know so you'd find out, by me." Secrets always keep you from each other, Hinata thought, glad that her boyfriend barely kept anything from her. Those were Hiashi's words, a strict rule of the living. "Some training and all those stuffs."

"Oh," Hinata could only respond. "T-that's great. Can I go?"

"Really?" Said Naruto, his blue eyes surprised in delightfulness. "What about Old Man Hia--"

Before Naruto continued, Hinata covered her hand on Naruto's mouth. "If you want m-me to go with you, N-naruto-kun, you b-better stop calling m-my dad an old man."

☪ Thε ᏆhᎥᏒᎠ Uςhïhα ☪

YOU WERE WARNED

Thoughts of Sasuke have been swirling manically on Sakura's head. She laid there, staring at the ceiling, wearing her strawberry-dotted PJ's she just brought into Kakashi's apartment. It was unequivocally comfortable.

Kakashi had been asleep for some time, in his couch where he'd usually place an unfinished book in his face. She looked at him and all she saw was kindness. Kakashi lost his former lover to war and now he had dedicated himself into helping others. Sakura had cried a huge ocean, but what brought her eyes to little tears was when she'd recently found out--someone compelled him to forget Wakana.

His long lost daughter, Wakana.

She could still picture the little girl's hair, though. The girl with bright eyes and white hair. That's why she called her Wakana--it meant "of the harmony." She had the most beautiful voice, although Hanare took it away as she sealed it until she'd finally met Kakashi. It was one of the most frantic, grand and tragic story Sakura had ever heard. When she finally met her father, someone had to take that away.

Obito, Sakura suspected. He was the only mastermind criminal left capable of doing whatever he'd wanted. It's okay to care, it's okay to want something--but you can't force anyone to love you. She still has a lot of things to learn, lot of person she has been wanting to meet. You can't take that away from her.

Sakura wanted to cry. Up until now, she couldn't understand why she felt her heart broken. "It hurts, doesn't it? Love. It consumes us yet we let ourselves feel the pain for the sake of loving." She said, raiding Kakashi's repositories for food and a meal. She was famished.

"I don't know about you, Sakura, but I've warned you once." Kakashi said, drinking a bottled energy drink.

"You did? When?" Sakura wondered.

"Ever since he came here to get you." He said as he drank again. "You know what Uchihas usually bring in the village: trouble."

"Trouble is good. What's a life without a little adventure?" Kakashi didn't think her mind was heeding his words properly. So he went to his couch, read a book, and quietly fell asleep. Sakura stood from afar, wondering if this was how Kakashi's life usually went. Eat, read, automatically deployed on countries, sleep peacefully like a lucky old man. Some nights in the village would cause you a lot to slumber.

She jumped into her bed. She didn't care if she was pregnant. She'd promised herself, if she'd become a mother someday, she'd be the sexiest topmost badass in the village. She drank Kakashi's energy drink (which was top of her don't drink list), laid down in his bed like a princess. She hugged a pillow tenderly as if imagining the world had no scrapes, no dilemmas at all.

Badass mom, huh? She stared at the wall and started to overthink. She felt as if something, or someone had been watching--an animal, a person. She glanced at her window to think that somewhere, out of the corner of her eye, she might have seen a raven. When Sakura flicked her green eyes to Kakashi's giant window, there was no one except for the girl with pink hair who stared back, looking paler than usual.

She wanted to sigh, but refused. Her days being pregnant was antithetic compared to her lively days she would play chase with Wakana or just stay in bed with Sasuke cuddling, due to the enormous cold weather.

Now she would face this all alone. In the end, I'm the only one who's capable of fixing this. She reached for her fabulous pink-cased phone Ino gave to her as a gift. Her nails were polished in fuscia pink--like she said, her life couldn't dramatically end due to some baby bump.

She started calling Ino. She wondered, what could she possibly respond if she'd known? Sakura knew her best friend since they were little and Ino had always been good at this--excellent yes, for keeping secrets and trying to cheer her up despite her frailties. Ino would freak out if she'd found out she was parous.

"Please answer. Please, do." Sakura crossed her fingers behind her back and waited. No one was answering. She was left with a painful sound of her ringtone playing in aggro. "This is Ino Yamanaka. Leave a message."

Sakura pressed the red button on her phone. She was completely bothered. What could Ino be possibly doing when she hated sleeping?

She looked at the clock. It was 11:32 in the evening.

She thought of Neji as she scrolled in her contact list for his name. Neji, Neji, Neji. Then again, she would end up being scolded and scorned for someone like him, so Sakura changed her mind. Kiba was usually out doing busy tasks for his mother, but his phone was unreachable. Hinata was surely asleep by the ticking midnight hour. Sakura wanted to slam her phone to the hard floor.

How is it that when you were sure you've had many, many friends, yet you weren't certain who the real ones are?

And then the last name popped into her head. It was like a soothsaying; she couldn't even believe she was able to see his name, assuming he was the first person she'd wanted to run away from.

Sakura hadn't heard from Naruto for the last week--she did last see him, on that botique shop on preparation for their clothes, gowns and everything sophisticated. She thought she was never going to see him again. She thought Sasuke would keep his word and try not to bother Konoha again once they all leave--Ino, Sai, Kiba, Neij, TenTen, and there was her. The first kunoichi to believe that the escape from her village and her fate was logical.

Here she was, pregnant with Sasuke's child. Sasuke's child.

She held her phone in her right hand, filled with sweat. She wondered if Naruto would answer. She wondered if Naruto would still remeember the best friend he's had, back in the good old days nothing ever came into their way. The benefit of having a brother was that he could never turn away from you. Fall in love? That was a bit difficult for her now, even if the Doppelganger had been pushing them to the point they might have seperated from each other.

* P L A Y S O N G * (it's effing good and romantic, trust me)

"Hello?" Said a wide-awake voice. Sakura bit her lip. "Hello? Nani, who is this?"

She couldn't talk. Once again she was flabberghasted, it was like seeing Naruto split a waterfall. "Naruto? It's me, Sakura." She said happily. Suddenly she could hear their voices springing from the past, all the tough times they've pushed through--they've had each other and it was simply everything Sakura could ever hoped forin a normal life.

"Oh." Naruto sounded surprised. "Hey, Sakura-chan. Listen, do you need something? It's the middle of the night. You better get some sleep too, ya know." He said. His voice didn't differ at all--piercing and had an appeal in it. Sakura thought he was busy doing something--cleaning the garbage in her room, perhaps, maybe even picking clothes. "Not you, too!" Sakura exclaimed, knowingly even if she were to call someone funny and waggish she would have her hair cut for the sake of hearing the blonde's voice. "Uzumaki Naruto, I challenge you into a no-sleeping game. Challenge accepted?"

Naruto slapped his head. He didn't seem sleepy at all, no sign of yawning. "Sakura..." It was normal for the two of them to accept priceless challenges from one another... One time she'd given him a challenge to sit next to a bald Shinobi and told him that his hair was outrageous.

"What? Aww, you can't accept that? Loser."

"What's up with you being hyper tonight? You sound like me, though. I knew you've had a crush on me.."

"Oh shut up. I haven't talked to my best friend in a week. I could kiss you right now!" She giggled, as she laid down Kakashi's bed happily and so filled in joviality. "Sakura! Keep your voice down, I have a girlfriend. Sorry if I'm taken." He said. "Please, both of us know I'm your first love. If I'd known better it took you a whole lot year to get over with me. I'm awesome."

"Very funny, Sakura."

"Why can't you be Hokage already? You're smart, you're gorgeous, you're strong and kind. You're like the ideal man every girl would want in the village." She said. It was true when she said "ideal man". Naruto, aside from Kiba, had transformed from a stupid bugging knucklehead to a jokey handsome prince. His hair was spiky and messy most of the times, and the girls' support for him was endless. She wasn't sure if Naruto was aware of his fame, though. He'd put the important things first and he was a master of humbleness.

It was quiet first. "Except you." Naruto joked, which made her heart skip a little beat. His voice was low, making her realize this was the first time she'd ever heard him speak seriously. "I'm kidding. You know, don't get fooled with what I do. I do very bad things I regret sometimes. And I just did one earlier.. With Hinata.. Shhh."

Sakura parted her mouth open. Shit. She wanted to scream, as if all the secrets have been pouring out of Naruto and she was beyond thrown on a curve to hear of the news. "Oh my God... Naruto--did you two--"

"Nothing happened!" He laughed. "We just kissed and made out. The end."

"You can't say nothing ever happened."

"Fine. We were just little on our way to get our clothes off. Believe me, Sakura-chan, it was perfect. I haven't felt so good in my entire life, you know?"

Sakura managed to smile sweetly beyond the phone. I know exactly what it feels like. She stared at the picture of Team Seven, touched it with her hands. She brought it to her chest. It was dusted yet for something old, it was good to see it alive and still.

She wanted to cry, at the same time she wanted to fall asleep. Naruto's voice talked sweetly in her ear that sounded like lullabies, their conversations put together that resembled a melancholic elegy. As if she were to die tomorrow, Sakura thought, she still got to talk with the best man in the world.

"Hinata gets jealous sometimes." Naruto spoke quietly. "Of us..."

Sakura raised her pink brows. Hyuga Hinata? Jealous? "Why would she be jealous?" She asked. 

"Because we're best friends?"

Sakura wanted to roll her eyes. "Everybody knows that. It's decided."

"Well, remember when we're at that party I sort of forgot, and you puked, I took you home--she really didn't want that."

Sakura cocked her head inwardly. There was a time she was too tired and abstinent to move or get in her feet. It was a good thing Naruto was there or else the men in there would have taken advantage of her. Carry her somewhere else, especially that mission had been on the outside outskirts where she was supposed to bring a legendary scroll hidden on one of the club's racks.

"You dressed me up." She just said.

"I didn't touch your bra or underlings." He said seriously. "You were barfing the whole time. Next time you drink, try not making a mess out of yourself. I always get blamed for what you did."

Sakura smiled as if Naruto had carried away her distress. "You're my best friend. And I love you for that."

"Yeah yeah. Best friends, huh? I like that." Now Sakura was focusing her eyes on the bright star, where Naruto could be possibly staring. "So, why'd you call?" Sakura breathed heavily, staring again at the picture of Team 7. "Nothing... I just wanted to talk to someone."

Sakura wanted to hold onto something; a jewelry, an ornamen, though Sakura always wanted Tsunade's necklace, she never got the chance to ask it from Naruto that he already gave it to Hinata really quick. Her world had been very mystifying and complicated lately. She was surrounded by the shuddersome realm of the Akatsuki, being told what to do, being told to defend herself.

Whenever she would want to talk to somebody, she didn't even think of calling Kakashi, or Naruto atleast. Ino was the first person who ever knew all her secrets and yet she would spend her quality time in the Akatsuki hideout--where she would have Suigetsu, Sasuke, Obito and the bitchy Karin.

"I'm always here for ya, ya know." Sakura smiled happily upon the blonde's tear-jerking words. "But do you know why--the reason I gave up on you a long time ago?"

"What?"

"I used to think watching after you was a gift Sasuke left me." Sasuke??? Sakura wanted to demand. She kept her voice down and let him talk. "You kept chasing after him, I was chasing after you. But we knew it wasn't going to work, was it?" Sakura was teary-eyed. She buried herself underneathe Kakashi's sheets, the feeling of having Naruto's voice wrapping her like a shell, the memories playing again horrifyingly. "So I've decided one thing: relationships get complicated. Loving you wasn't that hard, but believe me, it was the best privilege as a ninja. If I continued being like that, wanting you, I wouldn't be different from that boy who was so annoying. And I didn't want you to get hurt, didn't want you to cry over and over again just because I left you. I've done really bad things and none of it was meant for you to cry."

Sakura was crying, tears falling angelically from her eyes. Naruto loved her more than he should have had.

"I've changed much, haven't I?" Naruto said quietly. "I mean, hey, I used to say believe it on my every freakin' sentence. When can you go out? I'll treat you to Ichiraku's. Granny Tsunade's really giving me a lot of money these days..."

Sakura smiled, letting out tears of joy from her eyes. She wiped them, knowingly someday her mourning and agony would be worth it. "Sounds great." She said. "And no. To me, you haven't changed at all."

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Edited 3.28.15

VOMMENT.

Naruto & Sakura's friendship :( hahahahhaa

I READ THIS FOR MY SAKE OHMYGOD IT WAS ROMANTIC???