#fighterbound: naruto.

[fightaers]

❛⠀— how do you know you're in love, small dick ? ❜

@fighterbound ♡'d starter call !

[fightaers]

" you wanna come to the festival happenin' this weekend?" naruto tosses out the invitation all of sudden. it just came to the forefront of his mind and he doesn't wanna forget. he bends down to pick up another kunai from their training session.

"i heard others from our class are gunna be there, figured it be cool to show up as group," he adds sending sakura a quick smile. he brings back all the weapons he collected and puts them in a pile. "if ya gotta work, call out." his blue eyes glitter with his tease. "it'll be fun! play some games and stuff ourselves full of good food." is he trying to entice her? totally.

the festival, right.

she'd nearly forgotten that it's this weekend had naruto not say anything. then again, sooner or later perhaps she could've expected ino to show up and remind her of it. it's a chance to let loose, the yamanaka heiress will predictably say, before sakura teases her on whether or not she's simply badgering sakura at all is because the blonde would be trying to distract herself from the fact that sai hasn't asked her out to the festival when he'd been dropping 'hints' – in whatever ways sai could drop any social hint – all month that he would.

speaking of ... maybe sakura could've had a hand in that. maybe. sai certainly seems fairly oblivious on things that comes quite naturally to others, but she still doesn't think he'd do anything to willingly lead ino on, and they'd be having a big problem the two of them if he were. but anyways— the one who came to her about the festival is definitely not ino. it's naruto. and while she doesn't think there ought to be anything particularly odd, or rather special, in his request, sakura still feels something in her lightens at the thought that he'd care to invite her at all.

she brushes threads of pink hair behind an ear, amused by the prospect of the festival he's offering to her. games and food, of course. not that sakura has any objection. it's perhaps the few things she truly has in common with the boys in team seven : she's competitive and food is heaven-sent, even if sakura can be quite forgetful of it during her shifts at the hospital. deciding to tease him, she cocks her hips, and raises an eyebrow; her tone half-mischievous, but mostly ( in an effort to sell the act ) suspicious.

❛ are you asking me out on a date, naruto-kun ? ❜ but the act cracks a little towards the end when sakura could barely hold her laughter, though she tries holding in the expression nevertheless, waiting for his reaction before a large smile overtakes her face, and she waves him off, grabbing the two water bottle for both of them respectively. ❛ i'm kidding ! i did have a few appointment set up that day but ... i think i can spare a few hours, sure. are you gonna come with a yukata then ? ❜

jana sending in soft things ♡

[fightaers]

“and what about me? do you really love me?” ( naruto & sakura )

sakura bristles, instantly hating herself for the wave of emotions rolling down her chest.

how is it that it'll be months, or years, and the men in her team could still find a way to strike her on her softest parts ? and the worst thing is, they wouldn't have an idea that they had. for them, it could just be words. they're remarks, at best. given in a voice of authority to shut her down or dismiss her presence. and they wouldn't have meant to, is the thing. sakura knows, stupidly, deep down they must care for her — just never enough to have her on equal footing. only ever as an afterthought. only ever when the damage is done.

❛⠀yes, you idiot ! ❜ sakura says now, and despite apart of her pleading for her body to hold herself back, sakura has flung her slipper, chakra-induced, right towards his face. she wouldn't have even cared if he could dodge it – she would expect that he would – because it only matters that her anger could be expelled somehow, that there's a target for it even, though apart of sakura feels all the more defeated that it must be towards him. she knows he doesn't deserve this; knows that none of them have ever deserved to be at the end of her rage.

god, she hates herself so much. the girl so easily driven to tears and her awful fists, when will she ever grow up ?

❛⠀and don't give me that face— i was the one who confessed to you during the war ! and you know what you told me ? you said i was lying to myself. ❜ sakura heaves, glad that sai, just like he'd been back then, had not intervene while this tension breaks. this mission they're on ought to be a simple one really, given only to naruto due to the fact that kakashi-sensei had wanted him to be more engaged politically. sakura was volunteered along because she'd been in the village before from her efforts of stabilising the medical care there. sai is a fill-in, at best, though sakura knows he doesn't mind being that, given his willing nature to be more involved in quite literally anything. though he is silent now, probably biding his time to see when it's best to step in.

❛⠀maybe i was being deceitful, sure, but whatever lies i told, it didn't sprout from nothing, naruto. ❜ sakura finally spits, the heat of everything burns through her chest, though she wills herself not to cry. not this time. he won't have her tears, she decides. not outrightly like this. she can manage that, right ? sakura shifts her focus to finding her slipper right back. the forest is thick, and for a moment she curses her actions for giving in to her temper quickly. passing by the blonde, sakura mutters, ❛⠀i was the one who did the waiting — for sasuke-kun, for kakashi-sensei, for you. and i would've waited until my last breath. don't talk carelessly to me about love when none of you have ever sat in my place. ❜

best friends who don't realise they're in love.

[fightaers]

[ hug ]  –  for the sender’s muse to drag the receiver’s muse into a tight hug by the back of the neck, and play with their hair at the base of their neck in order to comfort them. ( sakura & naruto

❛⠀you – ❜ a punch, ❛⠀– absolute – ❜ another punch, ❛⠀– idiot ! ❜

the punches have no strength in them, let alone any chakra. sakura isn't even sure why she throws them out, when she logically understands that it serves no purpose except to physically express her frustration. and it isn't as if it's a good way to express them anyhow, considering naruto have came to her half-alive with the threat of blood loss and internal injuries which has been furiously treated with two rounds of surgery she'd been the head of operations of, and one emergency a trusted colleague had taken over when naruto's heart rate drops that one night. a threat, by all means, the round of nurses and physicians are still watching over even till today.

so yes. sakura knows that she shouldn't be doing this, and yet —

naruto catches her punches so easily despite his supposedly weakened state. he pulls her in, strong arms immediately surrounding her, and for a moment sakura couldn't help but remember the time when he had been the one to save her from sasuke's literal clutch. he had grown so much, she had thought then, just as she thinks it now, stilling in this new form of physical closeness she knows team seven would only indulge in if one of them were in mortal danger. when was it that he stopped becoming that snotty kid that would whine for her attention ?

ah, she knows, she thinks distantly. it happened when he was away from her. so of course it would be jarring, wouldn't it, to blink and realise next that naruto has grown so much beyond simply saving her. he is the one to comfort her now, a strong solid presence as she attempts to fight, though futilely, when any need to protest quickly dissipates as soon as it emerges. in his regaining warmth, sakura clutches right back — desperately, needfully. with her eyes shut tight, she wills her incoming tears away. prays, really, that she'd held on to her rage instead. that's far more useful, and she's so, so tired of being the useless one who does nothing but cries.

like a dam though, once the tension cracks, it flows.

into his shoulder, sakura sobs. and the pink-haired kunoichi isn't sure for how long that goes on, though by the time her state has been reduced to her hiccuping, sakura could feel naruto's fingers at the ends of her hair, toying with it. she smiles, and indulges in this proximity she knows she wouldn't find any other time, her cheek splayed against his bare shoulder. i should move away, sakura thinks, but she stubbornly doesn't. she presses her nose into his skin instead, opting – selfishly, she thinks – to stay quiet instead.

the intimacy of hands.

[fightaers]

"Do you think I'd give up?" - from Naruto to Sakura or Sai

❛⠀of course not, ❜ she bristles. maybe they've had too much to drink. they should stop this now. it's one of sakura's hidden talent, or maybe she's much better at regulating her alcohol even when she's consumed them back-to-back — a horrible trait she may or may have not picked up from tsunade-sama, it's hard to tell it sometimes — but whatever it is, they're heading towards a difficult direction, a difficult conversation, when this wasn't what sakura had intended when she agreed for a night to drink the week away with naruto.

they don't always talk about sasuke when they're together, even if sasuke has long returned and the villages have soundly — though reluctantly — forgiven him for his crimes, and whatever mistakes he'd put them through should be left in the past. she almost regrets having not invited sai along, but she'd known personally from ino that the blond kunoichi had employed sai and chōji to help along the shop for the upcoming summer festival. so it's no use, though sakura, for a moment, fantasises anyway what'll happen is sai were here.

would the conversation even veers towards this path ? would he have said something ridiculous by now to distract them both ? maybe. they take such advantage of him sometimes, sai; sakura feels the sake she's been chugging till now threatens to spill from guilt, though she stubbornly holds it back. this is no time for a pity-party. she needs to diffuse naruto's concern. their team is already so fragile; sakura can't give him anymore reason to leave her again.

❛⠀naruto, i — of course not. you think my faith in you is that little ? ❜ she manages, finally going for the glass of water than the bottle she's been pouring for the both of them. ❛⠀you brought him back. you did that. you kept your promise. me, on the other hand ... ❜ she had nearly killed sasuke, and he, her. fuck. she really should change the topic now. ❛⠀it's fine. it's over, right ? you're both back. that's what matters. here, drink more water. i think we've had too much to drink. ❜

unreal, unearth prompts — accepting.