Author's Note: Please let me know what you think in a review!

Sakura had accompanied Naruto to his apartment only a few times in the past.

He suspected that fact might have to do with all the trash that often shared his accomodations with him. That's why it was a bit of a surprise—but not too much of one—when she continued walking at his side even as he trudged up the stairs toward home. Usually by now she would have parted with a simple wave, sometimes with a playful smack in the shoulder, and always with a "see you later," which he appreciated more than she probably realized. But maybe not. Sakura seemed to notice a lot. He grinned at the thought.

He wondered idly if there had been a lot of trash when he'd gotten up this morning, but it was far too beyond the realm of his concern to have stored it in memory. He fumbled and dropped the key while she stood patiently at his side and slightly behind him, and—as though she had been expecting him to drop it from the beginning—she reached down and grabbed it before he could even consider doing so. With a fluid, graceful motion, she pressed the key into the keyhole that was surrounded by a thousand scuff marks from his own awkward misses.

He wasn't nervous or anything, but when she turned the knob and opened the door, and her arm brushed against his as she leaned forward, he felt his heart leaping at the sensation. If he accidentally turned toward her right now, his elbow would probably just touch her—aaaand she was muscling her way past him now.

"What, are you afraid to see your own mess?" She asked flatly, her eyebrows knitting into what was an attempt at being unamused, except the curl of her lips betrayed her. She looked beautiful, he had to admit, even when framed by an apartment littered with empty instant ramen cups and dirty laundry, and he couldn't even remember eating that banana, but the brown peel had apparently crawled out from its hiding place. "Naruto, this is actually disgusting." She said, wrinkling her nose and turning to face the room again. With a martyr's sigh to rival even Iruka-sensei's, she reached into her pack and pulled black gloves on.

"Ah, Sakura-chan, what are you doing?" Naruto asked, skittering in with wide eyes trained on her battle gloves.

"Cleaning." She sniffed, putting her nose in the air and haughtily wading into the sea of decay. She sighed again, and her chin came up over her shoulder as she looked back at him, wearing her most resigned smile. "You really are hopeless."

It wasn't until she actually stooped and picked up one of the ramen cups—disturbing it sent a cockroach skitting out of a neighboring one, and then her smile was gone and she was screaming at him for the second time that day—that Naruto realized she actually intended to clean his apartment for him. Or with him, rather, because he would never allow her to clean his apartment without at least helping. It was his mess after all, and he really, really had no idea why she would ever clean his apartment.

Three shadow clones later (one for the bathroom, one for the kitchen, and one just for the refrigerator), he decided to ask her why.

"Because." She said. Naruto had paused from pressing yet another ramen cup to fit onto the top of his ever-growing tower.

"Because...?" And she seemed to realize when she looked at him that he was still expecting her to continue.

"Just because," she repeated.

"You're really weird, Sakura-chan," he said, beaming. He had already supposed that it didn't matter, and while he still wanted to know, he was far too happy about it to risk her stomping off.

"I am not weird, Naruto," she said, and she was debating whether to owe him a punch for that later. "Normal people actually clean their homes."

"Well, yeah," he said, balancing his work of garbage art on one finger and watching the tower sway back and forth with amusement, "but I mean, like, cleaning someone else's place. That's kinda weird." She snatched the ramen tower away from him, crumpling the center of it in her fist and sending the ramen cups on either end flying into the walls. They scattered back to the floor. He pulled his hands to his chest as though guarding them from fire and gaped in a terror that only Sakura could elicit from him.

"Are you saying you don't appreciate my help?" She was smiling, but this time it wasn't the kind that betrayed her amusement. This time it was the kind that made her look manic and ready to gleefully punch his face into a jelly.

"N-no Sakura-chan! I mean, well, other than how you kinda just made it wor-" a hand clapped over Naruto's mouth, and he realized that Fridge-clone had courageously leapt into action. Kitchen-clone was next to them, bowing awkwardly.

"No Sakura-chan, we always love your help!" Kitchen-clone said, his hands steepled in appreciation.

"And your company!" Bathroom-clone piped in. Naruto swatted Fridge-clone's hand off his mouth.

"Yeah, what they said..." His hand found the back of his neck as he awkwardly laughed. "Phew, thanks guys," he added when she turned back around in a huff to continue dusting off his furniture.

It was only another half hour or so before the place looked surprisingly spotless. With the window open and the curtains blowing in a refreshing breeze, it actually felt more like a home than Naruto had remembered, well, ever. Although, that might have also had to do with the fact that Sakura was now seated on the floor at his table, sipping tea. He sat down across from her after pouring his milk and returning the carton to the fridge... for once.

"Ne, Sakura-chan. It looks good, doesn't it?" He laughed with childlike pride and knocked back his milk almost as though it were a shot.

"Yeah," was all she said before taking another sip of tea.

"Well, thanks! I mean, I don't like cleaning much, but usually I just don't really spend much time here so, like, that's usually why I don't clean, you know?" He suddenly felt like he was babbling and that perhaps he should just enjoy the silent comfort of another person—his favorite person—in his apartment with him.

For some time, Naruto got his wish. Although to say that he was happy with getting his wish would be a stretch at best. He squirmed, shifted, glanced around, and got more milk before finally deciding he didn't want silence anymore.

"Ne, Sakura-chan," he started just as she lowered her teacup yet again. "Is this like a date?" He grinned again, excited that she would roll her eyes or sigh in exasperation or do both at once, and that was good because it wasn't Sakura-chan being silent and unreadable.

"Do you want it to be?" Sakura asked very simply, raising her eyes in time to see Naruto's grin falter into an expression of bemusement and surprise. For a few seconds, he stayed like that.

Then he said "huh?" quite dumbly, and Sakura seemed to suppress a smirk.

"Do you want it to be a date?" She asked again, still not taking her eyes from his, nor smiling, nor even looking the slightest bit catty. But of course it was part of some kind of game, Naruto was sure, because he always wanted it to be a date and she never wanted it to be a date, and he was begrudgingly okay with that. He wasn't sure he was okay with her playing tricks with it, but he supposed that he'd earned his fair share of I.O.U. pranks from any citizen of Konoha.

"Y..yes?" He asked with no small amount of trepidation. Even so, his smile was back. "I never thought cleaning would be a good date, but I guess it's alright!" He laughed now, and it was genuine because he was certain he'd figured out the joke. If this is what it takes to clean the apartment, maybe Sakura-chan was willing to make a date out of it. He laughed again, even just thinking that. It was so very her.

When she abruptly stood and stepped around the table, dropping down beside him, he was once again puzzled and apprehensive. She was sitting on her heels, legs tucked under her, but with another sudden movement she raised up on her knees and kissed him on the mouth.

—

Sakura was determined to keep her eyes shut, even though she knew his would be wide open. His lips were warm, like the rest of him always was, and despite her intense nervousness, she smiled into the kiss almost immediately when she realized she could taste ramen.

But very suddenly, it was over. When she opened her eyes, Naruto had already backed away. He looked... it was hard to say what his expression said. Was that horror? Confusion? Disgust? It was definitely not what she expected. She had expected excitement or happiness, maybe a little shock at first, but not... that.

He stood up, still with that look on his face, and Sakura found herself frozen, unable to move.

Naruto had been making imaginary dates of their every outing (sometimes even when they were in a group with others) for nearly as long as she could remember. And when the way he looked at her became more than just sloppy puppy-like grins... when they had actually turned into warm, sunny smiles that she never saw him give to anyone else, she was pretty sure that he had real feelings for her, even if it wasn't meant to be. And when Ino had pointed out that Naruto very clearly was in love with her and shook Shikamaru as she demanded his agreement, and he had actually said I guess instead of avoiding answering, Sakura was certain that she could get away with kissing Naruto and not regretting it.

Because she wasn't really sure how she felt about him... but if she was certain that it would make him happy to be kissed by her, then she thought it couldn't be all that bad. Even if it was just once. And maybe it would help her figure out how she felt about him, too.

But it was overwhelmingly, earth-shatteringly obvious how she felt about him as he stood before her, an expression decidedly negative on his face after being kissed by her.

She was in love with him.

And he wasn't in love with her.

She was never listening to Ino again.

Sakura stood as well, head down and eyes squeezed shut to avoid crying because damnit, she didn't want him to feel guilty just because she had miscalculated. She was almost at the door when he finally stopped her, and although she thought she had been dreading the idea, her body was more than ready to stop.

"Wait!" He called, and she heard his bare feet pad over to her, although they stopped before getting too close. "Sakura-chan, don't be upset. I just... why?" Why indeed, she wondered briefly. She wasn't sure she had the words to answer his question, and she wasn't sure she had the voice to answer it either, but apparently she had both.

"Because I wanted to," she said after a thick swallow. Her voice was a little too high pitched, but at least it wasn't quavering. "Is that so bad?" She tried to laugh, but it came out sounding warped to her own ears, forced and bizarre. He didn't say anything for some time, and she stole a glance over her shoulder through her bangs. His head was down as well, but she could still see his eyes, trained to the floor. He looked sad.

"Are you making fun of me?" He asked finally, voice quiet and serious and so full of hurt that Sakura was completely taken by surprise. She spun around, her eyes wide and her tears finally spilling down her cheeks.

"What?" She asked, incredulous. His look of hurt was gone in an instant, replaced with shock and guilt.

"Are you—don't cry, Sakura-chan! I'm sorry! I really messed up!" He took another step forward, flailing his arms helplessly.

"Why would I make fun of you?" Her tears were streaming down her cheeks now, and she didn't want his sympathy, she didn't. She had wanted it badly just a moment ago—when she thought her heart couldn't possibly hurt more. Now, though, it twisted and clutched in her chest, and she needed him to understand just how much she wouldn't make fun of him. Not like this.

"I didn't mean it that way, promise! I just didn't expect... I mean you never..." He trailed off, shoulders slumping. "I'm sorry, Sakura-chan."

"No, I mean.. augh! Why do you always have to be such a pain, Naruto!" She stomped to him, shoving her face right up close to his, her determined frown at odds with the line of fresh tears on her cheeks. "Do you like me or not?"

—

Once again, Naruto was completely taken aback. First Sakura-chan had kissed him, then she stomped away, then she started crying, then she stomped back, and now she was asking him if he liked her? Girls were so complicated. But at least that last part was easier than the others.

"Of course," he said very matter-of-factly. "I love you." She looked pretty shocked by this—which honestly kind of shocked him right back—and then he wondered, for the third time now, whether he should reach up and wipe the tears from her cheeks. Sakura-chan didn't seem to mind being touched, but this was very different from their usual interactions and really quite serious. He definitely wasn't going to take his chances on this one.

"Then why..." She looked so hurt suddenly, and it broke his heart every time he saw that look in her eyes. When she looked like that, he was willing to do anything to get her smile back. "Why did you look... I don't know. You looked so..." She rubbed her arm. "Grossed out," she finished quietly, eyes averted.

"G—No! Sakura-chan, I'd never be grossed out by you! You're totally not gross!" He wrung his hands. This was one of those moments where there was no right answer, wasn't it? One of those moments that a guy like Neji or Shikamaru could probably handle, but Naruto wasn't really cut out for some couth response like they were. All he could do was hope he wasn't digging himself an early grave.

"Why didn't you kiss me back?" She asked finally, voice strained and husky. That one was so hard to answer. Because he was an idiot? Okay, it was actually pretty easy to answer. But he had a feeling that wasn't what she was looking for.

"I thought..." he chewed on the words for a second longer, deciding it was a bad idea to—yet again—accuse her of pranking him. "I just didn't think, you know, like... why would a girl wanna kiss me?" He laughed then, trying to make a joke of it. She donned her concerned look, which was also one he didn't much like, but it was still better than the look of hurt.

"But I did," she responded, almost argumentatively. Her eyebrows were furrowing, and she looked like her good old determined self yet again. Phew.

"Yeah..." he agreed, then, "why?" Her eyebrows knitted even more, just above her nose.

"Because I love you too, idiot." Dumbfounded. Naruto suddenly felt very, very warm. He took a step back.

"R-really?" he stammered, finding his voice squeaky.

"Urrgh, yes," Sakura snapped, hands on her hips now.

"Like, you're not joking?"

"Naruto!" He winced at the tone, and was just about to stammer some explanation or reassurance, or something, but she took all of his words and stopped them right where they probably belonged by kissing him again.

This time, he didn't do the idiot thing and pull back. This time, he kissed her right back and felt the refreshing cool of her skin against his. When their lips parted, she ran a thumb along his whisker marks, and he never, ever thought he'd like something as much as Sakura-chan running her thumb along his whisker marks. Then, with an almost catty smile, she stepped away.

As soon as she had turned her back on him, Naruto took a brief moment to absorb some natural energy, feeling it flow into him languidly. He stifled a hooray when he was pretty sure this wasn't genjutsu.

—

Sakura gave an almighty sigh as she slid back down onto the cushion to enjoy the rest of her now-lukewarm tea. She let herself grin childishly while her back was turned to Naruto, but then collected herself. "That was way more complicated than it had to be. Like everything seems to be with you," she finished flatly. Naruto chuckled from somewhere above her and then dropped down onto his cushion across from her. He was still as red as a tomato.

In all honesty, Sakura had known it would be awkward, messy, and only retrospectively funny going into this. She knew Naruto well enough to know that something like this would never be easy. Not with him.

But then, that's exactly what made him so easy to be with. She had realized only very recently—only right now, if she were totally honest with herself—that Naruto was stunningly perfect in all his imperfections. He didn't judge, didn't seek retribution, didn't get affronted... but he was Naruto.

She thought about Sasuke, suddenly.

Right now she felt a rare gratitude toward him. It had been Sasuke slapping reality into her at 12, making her realize that a life of loneliness—of growing up without parents—was something she could not relate to nor understand in the least. She still felt grief over that moment sometimes, but as she grew she had learned to be a little more gentle with herself, particularly with her youthful, idiotic mistakes.

And she had also learned to be a little more gentle with others.

As she peered across the table at the awkward, blushing Naruto, she realized with some dismay that she had chosen probably the most socially inexperienced person in Konoha to fall in love with.

But that was okay.

"Ne, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, meeting her eyes. He looked away again almost immediately, rubbing the back of his neck and getting just a little more red again. She was already treasuring this endearing and unexpected shyness. It was fairly clear that few others were graced by it much, if at all.

"Hm?" She hummed, unable to wipe the contented smile from her face.

"Does this mean we're, you know, like, gonna get married?" Sakura stood in one fluid motion and, leaning over the table quite gracefully, slammed a fist square down onto the top of Naruto's head.

"Idiot!" She roared as she stomped out the door. She didn't even wait for a response.

When she was out of sight of his apartment, she finally released her breath in a heavy sigh. What had she gotten herself into?

In case you're curious, I was inspired to write this after re-reading manga chapter 406 and thinking about the Shippuden movie 2 (Bonds). Particularly in Bonds, Naruto seems beyond clueless about the relationships between people, even when incredibly obvious. I mean, he genuinely thought that Amaru was in love with a man who was very clearly her father-figure, or even grandfather-figure. He just didn't know any better! (I also like to use this as a piece of my headcanon apologetics for NaruSaku. If Naruto equated the father-like doting and child-like adoration of Shinno and Amaru to romantic love, then perhaps it reflects his feelings toward Sakura's mother-like treatment of him. Wink!)

Ahem, anyway, I realized that his lack of social grace runs far deeper than being a dense loud mouth and is probably indicative of what I might call a gaping black hole where his understanding of relationships should be.

He made his first friend at 12, and the closest father-figure he had was Jiraiya, who dominated Naruto's interactions with the world during his late formative years. Jiraiya, who thrives on one-sided admiration of women and the subsequent (violent) rejections... Yikes. To be honest, I'm surprised Naruto has relationships with (anyone, but especially) women as healthy as he does.

Anyway, thanks for reading!