A/N: A NaruSaku story!  This chapter is mainly for explaining some things and bringing up new questions! I don’t want this story to get confusing or too complicated so please don’t overanalyze everything and come up with elaborate conclusions. Although there will be some Village drama, this is mainly a romance story so certain chapter will be dedicated mostly to the romance aka lemons! And also if you don’t know about the fight with Jiraiya and Pein then I suggest you don’t read cause I mention that in here. But the rest of the stuff thats happening write now in the manga isn’t in my story, even though the story takes place a bit after the Uchiha madness. So I’ll try to keep the plot simple yet interesting and not so predictable. How could it be predictable? I’m making it up as I go along!! Haha But seriously please keep predictions to yourself cause I still don’t know what’s going to happen next so don’t influence my decisions on what to write!! lol sorry if the chapter is boring or if the tone is too serious, but I need this chapter to set up for future events, so stay with me here! Please comment! It’s always so disheartening when someone fav’s or watches me  but doesn’t comment my heart seriously plummets every time that happens. lol but seriously!

Naruto woke up to find that Sakura had already left. He sleepily looked around and found a small note on top of her side of the bed. “Naruto, I went to see Kakashi early to heal his injuries, we have practice after so I’ll see you later. Love Sakura.” Sighing Naruto crumpled up the note and made to get out of bed.  It was going to be a long day, and made even longer by the fact that he would probably have to wait until dinner to see Sakura again.

Naruto quickly got dressed and made his way to meet up with Shikamaru.

Over at Kakashi’s apartment Sakura was having a hard time convincing the copy nin to get out of bed.

“Kakashi! Come on I don’t have all day!”

“Really? It’s not like you have to work so why the big rush?”

“I just don’t want to waste the day so come on!”

Finally relenting Kakashi untangled himself from his shuriken patterned comforter, and slowly got up from his laying position to sit on the edge of the bed. He was still sore and hurt from his sparring match with Naruto from the previous day.

“Oh right, Sakura do you think you could heal me?”

“Of course, why do you think I’m here so early?”

“O did you run into Yamato yesterday then?”

“ No.”

“Ah Sai then?”

Sakura didn’t like where this conversation was going at all. Normally one would think that Kakashi was just being curious maybe even a little nosy. But Sakura knew better. Kakashi wasn’t the type of man who would ask pointless questions out of curiosity, no he wasn’t being nosy he was being inquisitive; there was big a difference.

“Uh no I didn’t see him either.”

“O so Naruto then?”

“Yeah I saw him, and he told me about your little sparring session.”

Sakura was trying to play it cool. As if it was no big deal; like she just happened to run into Naruto on the street.

“I thought you had a late shift at the hospital last night? And I know Naruto was too tired to go out anywhere.”

Now she was disturbed. Naruto told her that Kakashi had questioned him about his feelings for her but they’d decided that Kakashi was just being a curious friend. Now she wasn’t so sure, Kakashi wasn’t called a genius for nothing. And right now it seemed like he was interrogating her, it definitely sounded like he at the very least, suspected something was going on. Sakura knew Kakashi best out of anyone, and she decided that the best way to deal with his sudden curiosity was to tell the truth, well sort of. Since Kakashi knew how to read her well, lying would only make it more suspicious.

“Yeah I did, but on my way home I stopped by Naruto’s for a bit.”

“....You did?”

Sakura inwardly smiled. Kakashi obviously hadn’t expected her to admit to that, and if she had anything to hide why would she tell him she went to see Naruto, right? At least that’s what she was hoping Kakashi would think.

“Yeah, I heard from Chouji that you guys were back so I went to check with Naruto to see how the mission went. I healed his injuries and he told me you had some too, but that they weren’t serious and I was already so tired from healing people all day, that I said I’d wait until today to heal you.”

“Ah I see, well it’s just a few scratches anyways.”

“Sakura raised an eyebrow at this.

“Hmm yeah Naruto said he only had a few scratches too, and if he had waited any longer to get treatment he would’ve developed a serious infection! So please show me these ‘scratches’ of yours.”

Kakashi sighed. But thought better than to argue with her. Instead he quietly lifted up his shirt, exposing a severely bruised torso.

Sakura gave him a dirty look before placing her hands on him and began inserting chakra in his body to reverse the damage Naruto caused.

“These are all stupid, preventable injuries. Be careful next time.”

“okay okay I will.”

She finished healing him and he motioned for her to wait outside for him to get ready.

10 minutes later Sakura and Kakashi finally left his apartment and made their way over to the training grounds.

Sakura was eager to get on with her ninjutsu training, not just because she wanted to be stronger but also because she really wanted to get training over with so she could have an excuse to spend time with Naruto. The last time Naruto sat in on her training with Kakashi, it ended with Kakashi telling Naruto off and calling him a pervert and eventually kicking him out of the training grounds. Apparently unbeknownst to her Naruto had been openly gawking at her while she sparred with Kakashi. Unfortunately for him Kakashi noticed and being the over protective ex sensei and current friend that he was, he acted in what he called Sakura’s best interests, by threatening Naruto to never stare at her like that again. Sakura thought the situation was humorous, especially since she felt that Naruto had every right to look at her like that, but naturally they couldn’t let Kakashi know. Ever since then Naruto hadn’t come to see her train.

Finally they arrived at the training grounds and immediately began with a warm up spar.

It was the first time in 3 weeks that they’d trained together just the two of them, and Kakashi immediately noticed that Sakura didn’t seem as focused as usual.

“Sakura is something on your mind?”

“Huh? O uh no, sorry I guess I spaced out for a bit there.”

Kakashi wasn’t at all convinced he knew something was troubling her and he had every intention to find out what it was.

Ever since they started training together Kakashi and Sakura had grown quite close, and he confided in her many of his secrets and fears, something that he was only comfortable doing with her. But it wasn’t just him; he knew that the rest of the guys (their team) all confided a part of themselves to Sakura that they weren’t comfortable sharing with anyone else. They had become a very close team and Sakura being the only female was, inadvertently placed in a mothering role. She was all of theirs personal medic , she nagged them, cooked for them and hit them when they were out of line. Come to think of it, she also fit the role as the team wife quite nicely, except that sounded weird so they referred to her as their mother instead; even though she hates being called that.

Normally Kakashi wasn’t so intrusive about his teammates lives, even Sakura’s, but this time he got the feeling that something more serious was going on, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow Naruto was involved as well.

“Sakura’s let take a break.”

“What? But we only just started!”

“I know but you seem distracted and your not going to learn anything if your head is elsewhere.”

Sakura knew he was right. She kept thinking about her situation with Naruto, hoping things will change yet knowing they won’t. It’s not like they were new to the secrecy, they’d been dating for four months now and so far no one knew they were more than friends. She hated it though, the lies, sneaking around hiding from everyone. Naruto promised and promised that it would get better soon, but this was one battle she knew he wouldn’t win, at least not without help. She often wondered why people like Kakashi and Tsunade-sama let these restrictions be put on Naruto in the first place.  It must be because they didn’t think it was going to affect his life too much.  But that was before he was dating me, things are different now.  Sakura was sure that if Tsunade-sama or Kakashi found out about their relationship that they’d try to help anyway they could, but Naruto had been adamant that they not, under any circumstances tell anyone.

Kakashi saw that Sakura was deep in thought and had apparently forgotten he was even there. She almost looked like she was debating something. Hmm maybe she’s going to tell me what has her so preoccupied lately. He thought rather hopefully.

“Sakura.” Kakashi said, finally breaking the long stretching silence.

“Hmm?”

“Uh, you okay?”

“Oh yeah I’m fine sorry, damn I’m really out of it today.”

“Maybe we should cancel training for now.”

“ What? No! Kakashi I’m fine really, and besides we haven’t trained together in ages. I need to practice!”

“Don’t you practice every day anyway?”

“Yeah but...”

“Sorry Sakura but there’s no point in me being here if you’re not going to pay attention. We’ll continue another time. For now why don’t you go find Naruto, its been a while since you guys have hung out together.”

To say sakura was surprised was an understatement; Kakashi did have a bad habit of imposing himself in her business, especially when he felt she was overworked. But he had never blatantly ordered her around; even though Kakashi sounded like he was making a suggestion, to her it felt more like an order.   

A little angry, Sakura nodded curtly at Kakashi before using her newly learned teleportation Jutsu to leave.


On his way to the ramen stand Naruto couldn’t help but be preoccupied with thoughts of his earlier conversation with Tsunade.

On his way over to Shikamaru’s he was stopped by an Anbu member and escorted to the Hokage tower.

Flashback start:

“Uzumaki Naruto?” Asked the unknown Anbu member

“Yes.”

“Follow me, Tsunade-sama has requested an emergency meeting with you.”

“Uh, sure.”

They made their way to the Hokage building and the Anbu member silently guided Naruto inside the Hokage’s office.

There he was only slightly surprised to see not only Tsunade but also the village advisors as well.

After the Anbu member left there was a deafening silence broken finally by Naruto’s impatient mumble of “what the hell did I do this time?”

“Naruto” Tsunade finally spoke. “Sorry to send for you with such short notice, but there’s something important we need to discuss.

“Uh sure, no problem.”

“You are aware of the restrictions imposed on you by the village council correct?”

“How could I forget?”

“Right well, we received intelligence late last night that you were spotted out of your apartment after 12 midnight, alone. Is that true?”

“What!? No. I was in my apartment.”

“Naruto don’t lie. You know that according to these rules you’re not allowed out past midnight without a suitable guardian, which means either myself, Kakashi or Yamato.”

“I know about the rules, thanks! And I’m telling you I was at home.”

Tsunade exchanged looks with the 2 advisors and finally gave them a small sad nod.

“Naruto, we have decided that since the information we received was not 100% conclusive you won’t be severely punished.” Said Homura the first advisor.

“However, since you cannot prove that you didn’t infringe on the rules we will be suspending your food tickets, until further notice. Possibly forever.” Said the second advisor Koharu.

“My food tickets? But what am I gonna eat?”

“Naruto, you make plenty of money from your missions. Those food tickets were only given to you because you don’t have living relatives. But now you should presumably be able to care for yourself without outside help.” Answered Tsunade.

This was true, Naruto no longer needed the food tickets but he ate a lot, and having the food tickets meant he had extra money to spend on other things. Like buying Sakura that new skirt she wanted.

“I understand, but I’m telling you it wasn’t me I never left home at all last night.”

Tsunade looked at Naruto sadly, she knew him well and she knew that he was no liar. And as much as she would’ve liked to tell the advisors and the Anbu member, who claimed to have seen Naruto out that late to go to hell, she knew it was out of her power to interfere.

“Alright Naruto as long as your clear on the rules, and I’ll be talking to Kakashi about this later. But there is one other thing we need to discuss.”

“....................”

“It has to do with some of Jiraiya’s personal belongings.”

“ I thought you already gave me everything he owned? I checked the room he use to stay in and there’s nothing left.”

“Yes well he left some of his things with me, before he left the village that time. Yesterday was the first time I had the heart to go through his things, and I realized that most of the stuff was insignificant to me; I think you’ll find more value in his things then I ever could. So I’m giving them to you.”

As she finished talking she motioned to a reasonably sized box in the corner of the room. Wordlessly Naruto walked over and picked it up, it was  surprisingly heavy.

“Is that all? Can I go now?”

“Yes.”

With that Naruto left the Hokage tower and went home to put away the newly acquired box.

End Flashback

He never did get to meet Shikamaru that morning. By the time he got to his house Temari said, he’d left on a recon mission with his team.

Naruto smiled brightly when he saw that the Ichiraku ramen stand was just ahead.  Best thing that’s happened to my all day.   He thought.

“Naruto!”

Before he reached Ichiraku Naruto turned to find Sakura calling his name from behind him.  Ok that’s the best thing that’s happened to me all day.

“Hey Sakura-chan! It’s still early, I thought you had training with Kakashi all day.”

“Yeah well that was the plan, but he cut our training short because apparently he felt I was too distracted.”

“ ...... and, where your distracted?”

“A bit I guess, but it was no big deal.”

Naruto looked at her rather sceptically. He knew that keeping their relationship a secret was starting to take a toll on her, he knew that she was also worried about his status in the village. And although he wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her and assure her that things would all work out as planned, but he wasn’t so sure that they would and he couldn’t lie to her.

“Alright well do you want to have breakfast/lunch with me?”

“Sure but I thought you were going to eat at Shikamaru’s?”

“ Yeah I never actually got around to hanging out with him.”

“ Oh why not?”

“He was called away on a mission.”   At least that’s not a lie. He thought.

“ Really?”

Sakura could tell by the way Naruto was avoiding her gaze that he was holding something back.

“ Yeah so I made my way to Ichiraku’s instead!”  Naruto exclaimed with perhaps a little too much enthusiasm.

“ Naruto, what aren’t you telling me?”

“......... uh....”

“ Naruto!”

Sighing Naruto pulled Sakura away from the center of the walkway.

“ Maybe we should go to your place.”

“I thought you said it was too risky to go see each other too much during the day? What if someone sees you coming to my apartment?!”

“Well I think since we haven’t been seen in public together for a while, people will just think we’re two friends catching up with each other. Besides something interesting happened today.”

It wasn’t everyday that Naruto felt like taking these kinds of risks so she figured it must be something important.

Without further argument, Sakura quickly lead Naruto over to her apartment, which wasn’t that far away.

Pulling of his jacket and shoes Naruto watched as Sakura made her way over to her couch, sat down and looked at him expectantly. He followed her lead and took a seat as well.

Knowing that she was expecting him to tell her exactly what happened that morning, Naruto got straight into the story about his meeting with Tsunade and the advisors.

By the time he was done explaining what had happened Sakura had a very troubled expression on her face.

“I don’t understand, why would they take away your food passes?! You weren’t out that late!”

“Sakura-chan it’s no big deal, I’m too old to be given free meals like that, I have to be able to pay for my own food and shelter, which I can so it’s not like I’m gonna starve or anything like that.”

“Of course you can take care of yourself! But that’s not the point. If the advisors really had any reason to believe you were out past your curfew like that, then they would’ve put the Anbu to guard you or thrown you in jail even. It looks like they were just looking for an excuse to make your life a little more miserable; to make you feel more alienated from the village.”

Naruto was silent for a moment. He knew that what Sakura said was more than likely true, but he wasn’t sure how to respond.

“ I know it sucks, and I don’t think it’s fair the way they’re treating me but rules are rules, and unless I want to leave Konoha and labelled a missing-nin then I have to  go along with them for now. So just add the food pass thing to the list of freedoms/luxuries that are restricted for me.”

“ What are they going to come up with next? They’ve already limited so many your basic rights!”

“ We’re shinobi sakura we have no rights. We work to serve our village and that’s that, and I’m, more of a slave to my duties than anyone.”

“ I know, just because they’re afraid of the Kyuubi right?”

“ Yes and no.”

“.....................”

“ Of course the council don’t want either the Kyuubi to either get in the hands of Akatsuki or to lose control on it’s own, but after Jiraiya died they examined me using outside medic-nins, and determined that although the seal had weakened considerably it was still strong enough to seal the Kyuubi for about another 10 years without needing resealing. They tested me over and over again, I’m pretty sure they believe and understand the results the medics came up with.”

“Then why are they doing this to you?”

“Well the no leaving the village except for missions rule is there to prevent Akatsuki from capturing me, so that’s understandable.”

‘What about everything else?”

Naruto knew that by ‘everything else’ she meant the rule that forbade them to be together. Well the rule wasn’t specific to them but generalized that, Naruto wasn’t allowed to engage in any romantic interactions with anyone in or outside the village.

“To be honest Sakura-chan, I’m not sure why the council decided to interfere in my personal life so much. I tried asking Tsunade-baa-chan about it, but she said they never gave her a proper reason for that rule.”

“ Hmmm well now that we’re together did you ever think about just asking for the rule to be changed or removed?”

“Of course I thought about it, but that won’t work. At another meeting the gave me a list of consequences if I violated any of the rules. The consequence for being intimate with someone is prison. For them to give me such a harsh punishment for something I think is harmless to them, means they consider it an important rule and have their reasons for making it.”

“Isn’t it strange though? I mean are they afraid that you’ll go off and father a bunch of children and they’ll all be mini Kyuubi’s or something?”

“Haha, maybe that’s exactly what they’re afraid off.”

“ That’s so stupid, they should know by now that the Kyuubi is sealed in you, and has a chakra completely different form your own, your children would not be affected!”

“ I know and they know it too, I doubt they think like that. Like I said I’m not sure why, I can guess but I bet I’m wrong. And to me it seems like Tsunade knows more than she’s telling.”

“ You mean she hiding things from you? She tried to stop the council from making these decisions, I doubt she would condone them now.”

“ I don’t think she supports the council, but I do think she knows more about the reasons for some of these rules. I mean I know the council overrules her in these situations but they still have an obligation to explain their reasons and actions to the Hokage.”

Both Sakura and Naruto knew that they could probably talk about this all day and still not get any closer to discovering the council’s intentions. Sakura’s poorly concealed worried look didn’t go unnoticed by Naruto and he figured it was about time to do something to relieve her stress.

Swiftly he picked her up and placed her on his lap, so she was sitting sideways and wrapped his arms securely around her. She looked at him questionably for a moment, but he silent whatever witty remark she was about to make with a kiss.

It was only a short kiss but it still left them both breathless and wanting more.

“ Sakura-chan, I have a really great idea!”

“Hmm what might that be?”

“Okay just hear me out before you say anything.”

“ Sure.”

“Tomorrow’s Saturday, And there’s this new hot spring resort that we saw on the way back from the mission. We would’ve stopped there ourselves but we were already so close to the village and the mission was over, so we figured it wasn’t worth the money. But we could go, just the two of us. It looks like a really good place, even better then the one’s Yamato brings us to sometimes. So you wanna go?”

“ Naruto of course I’d want to go but, you can’t leave the village except for missions, and if we leave together just the two of us for a hot spring overnight resort, that will raise some eyebrows.”

“ I know but I have a plan. Tomorrow early morning you’ll report in to Tsunade-baa-chan, and mention that I’m going to be locked in my apartment all day going through the box Jiraiya left. Then you say you’re going outside of the village to do that meditation training Kakashi recommended you do, to control your temper during battle. Then go to your apartment, get your things and leave the village, I’ll be waiting for you outside the village. Then we go to the resort stay a night and come back, its easy!”

“Naruto! There are so many things that can and will go wrong with that plan! How are you going to get out of the village without being detected?”

“ Ah you see even though the council rules forbid me from leaving, I’m still a ninja and I have my ways of leaving undetected, I just chose not to because what’s the point? But now I have a reason to sneak away so it won’t be hard. I’ll leave a shadow clone at my apartment, and since he won’t be doing anything but sleeping, chances are he won’t be destroyed.”

“ Okay well what happens when we get to the hot spring place?! Won’t they recognize you?”

“I already told you, that place is new plus it’s pretty pricey so as long as you have the money to pay they don’t ask questions, and just let you have your privacy.”

As terrified as Sakura was about doing this with the risk of  Naruto possibly getting caught, she couldn’t deny that a nice private hot spring resort trip alone with Naruto was exactly, what she needed to rid herself of her recent anxiety.  

“Okay one more thing. How are you going to pay for it? The advisors just took away your meal tickets, and you eat a lot so....”

“ Sakura-chan, I have money and I besides I really want to take this trip with you so if it costs me a little extra I know you’ll make it up to me.. in other ways.” He said grinning mischievously at Sakura.

Sakura blushed at his suggestive comment but didn’t say anything. Instead she bent forward and pressed her lips to his. This time Naruto’s tongue expertly found its way inside her mouth and gently played around with her own. He wanted more than anything to take things further, but he knew he’d already been inside her apartment for too long and it was still daytime.  Reluctantly he broke away from the kiss and gave her one last sweet peck on the lips, before motioning that he should leave.

“Can’t we go get something to eat?”

“Sakura, we already spent a lot of time together and....”

She abruptly cut him off.

“How about if we go find Sai? I don’t think he’s doing anything today so we could have lunch with him too! And that way we could still be together, but not alone so it would seem suspicious or anything. Please.”

Naruto could sense the excitement and hopefulness in her voice, and he could only refuse her so many times before she became impossible to resist, so naturally he did what any man in his situation would do; he gave in and started automatically thinking on the fastest route to Sai’s house from here.

“ Okay fine! But you owe me some extra special attention tomorrow at the hot springs, all these risks I’m taking for you today are really going to take a toll on me later.”

“ Of course, who do you think I am? I always repay favours.”

The lustful glint in her eyes when she said that, made Naruto immediately wish he could somehow speed up time. He couldn’t wait for their little excursion tomorrow.

TBC....

A/N: Wow that was a long chapter! I didn’t edit it, so if there are mistakes please don’t kill me for them! This chapter for the most part had a serious tone, but there will be a lemon in chapter 3! Yay for hot spring resorts! There's just so much I can do with that setting! lol In this chapter I just had to get a lot of the minor details out of the way, I know I created more questions like: what’s in the box Jiraiya left? Why did the council really make such stupid rules? When I find out the answer to those questions I’ll let you know. lol jk I have a kinda idea where things are going, nothing is written in stone though so I might change my mind later. Comment please.