In The Leaves | A 'Naruto' fan story | SasuNaru

Everyone needs a little love

Next day, which marked three days after seeing Sasuke, Naruto wanted to get his mind out of the gutters after finishing his D-rank mission with Sakura and Sai. 

He waited for Sakura in front of Ichiraku, and once Sakura arrived, he rambled on about his argument with the demon fox, and Sakura kept teasing him about the odd closeness he had with the fox. 

"He's a tsundere, he does not want to be close to me." Naruto mumbled, he could hear the fox cursing his name in his stomach but ignored him to be petty. 

They walked to the part of Konoha where some of the teams train, and saw Ino standing with Choji and Neji. 

"Shikamaru said he has something to do with his dad." Choji said, stuffing a potato chip into his mouth with a loud crunch. 

Ino groaned. "Of course he does." she looks at Neji. "You look happy." 

"Do I? Well Lady Hinata, perfected her jutsu yesterday so I'm just feeling proud of her accomplishment." Neji says, averting his gaze to Naruto and Sakura. "Hello you two." 

Naruto eyed Ino then looked back at Neji. "Hi Neji, how's Hinata doing?" 

"She's doing well." Neji said. 

"That's nice to hear." Naruto said and skipped over to Ino. "Ino-chan!" 

Ino flinched from the sudden sound of Naruto's voice and relaxed when she saw who it was. "Oh...hi Naruto-kun, how are you?" 

"Good!" Naruto looks at Sakura and back at Ino. "But I have a small favor. You see...I lost my...um...headband, and I was wondering if you and Sakura could get it for me. I have to help Neji with something." 

Neji opened his mouth to object, but Naruto covered his mouth to prevent him. 

Ino looked at Sakura, who was distracted by Choji and sighed. "If she agrees, whatever." 

Naruto beamed and turned around to face Sakura, his hand still covering Neji's mouth. "Sakura-chan! Can you and Ino go find my headband while I help Neji?" 

Sakura raised an eyebrow at Naruto covering Neji's mouth but shrugged. "I guess...where is it?" 

Naruto thought for a moment and said. "I lost it somewhere close by the entrance." 

"Okay." Sakura side-eyes Ino and turns around to walk away. "Come on, Ino." 

Ino rolls her eyes. "Uh-huh." 

The two girls walks away and when they were out of hearing range, Naruto took his hand off Neji's mouth. 

"What is the meaning of this, Naruto?" Neji asks, crossing his arms over his chest. 

Naruto wore his mischievous smile on his lips and chuckles. "I'm trying to get Sakura and Ino to fall in love." 

"That won't work, you know that, right?" 

"It will, they both didn't say 'no' directly." 

"Naruto-" Naruto interrupted Neji. 

"It will work, but until then, we need to find something to do before they return." 

"If they do, you probably didn't even lose your headband." 

"Actually, I did on purpose to prevent Sakura punching me." 

Neji mentally slapped himself on the face and sighed. "So dumb, yet everyone puts their hope on you." 

"Hey!" Naruto frowned. 

"Everyone is busy either rebuilding the area or on missions, so we can just train over there." Neji points behind him with his thumb. "But for using your dirty hand to cover my mouth, you'll be my test subject for my Gentle Fist." 

Naruto swallowed in nervousness. "Hehe...oh...o-okay..." 

~

When Sakura and Ino returned, Naruto was slumped on the ground absentminded, he was completely out of it. 

Neji looked completely untouched, and was standing a few feet away from Naruto fixing his hair. 

"What happened to Naruto?" Sakura asked, checking Naruto's condition. 

Neji huffed. "He helped me, and couldn't take the aftermath of it." 

Naruto looked up at Sakura. "Hehe, there's two of you, no wait, I see three Sakura-chans." 

Sakura sighed. "He's fine, just out of it." she tied his headband on his head and stood up. 

Neji walked over and eyed the tension between her and Ino. "What happened? You two look...off." 

Sakura and Ino both turn a light shade of pink. Neji understood the situation and said; "You know...I shouldn't be prying into anyone's personal life, but if I were in your shoes then I would do private missions together to help figure out my feelings." 

Sakura looks at Neji. "You're talking like you know how it feels personally." 

"Actually I do, I requested to do D-rank missions with this 'someone' and now I understand my own feelings and emotions." 

"D-Do they know?" Ino asked. 

"They do but we're not rushing into anything yet. We want to wait, until we know this is what we want for the rest of our lives." 

Choji walks over to them. "Is it Tenten?" 

Neji's blood rushed up to his face and he glares at Choji. "Do you have to say her name when I was trying to dodge it for the meantime?" 

Choji squinted. "I didn't know you two were secret, sorry." 

"W-We're not secret, j-just not ready to declare it to the world." 

Ino giggles. "I can see that." 

As everyone started to shift the conversation towards Neji and Tenten's mysterious 'relationship', Naruto blacked out and appeared in front of the demon fox, who was laying down. 

"They're noisy." the fox said in a cold tone. 

Naruto stood up and walked towards the cage. "Cover your ears then." 

The fox huffed and opened one eye to look at Naruto. "That Uchiha, he's not returning by ten day you know. You mind as well just go to him." 

Naruto held onto the bars of the cage and glared at the fox. "No, I want to give him time to mentally recover from his fight from Itachi. I don't want to push my emotions onto him after he saw his brother die in front of him. That's cruel and selfish." 

"Hmph, love is unnecessary." the fox closed his eye. 

"Everyone needs a little love, even you." 

"Don't speak of something impossible. A human and a Tailed Beast does not love one another, nor does a Tailed Beast love another Tailed Beast."

"You need a friend in your life." 

"The day I ask for a friend is the day I decide to be a weakling." 

"Why do you have so much hate bottled up inside you?" 

"You ask me too many questions. You're just like Minato, always curious but never going to get his answers by me." 

Naruto stared at the fox for a moment and smiled. "I might not be the first Jinchuriki to be a vessel for you, but I'll be the first to lift that hate inside of you." 

The fox huffs. "Try but you won't even succeed." 

"Watch me." Naruto walks away from the cage. 

"I have no choice but to watch you, kid." the fox mumbles.

"Exactly."