Annnd here we are! The concluding chapter of this story. Thanks for sticking with it.

Please do enjoy The Bet Chapter 6: Friday - the Girlfriend

The following afternoon found Naruto impatiently knocking on Sasuke's door. After Sakura left, he was so dumbfounded that he managed to take her advice and not obsess over what it was that he wasn't optimistic about.

But armed with a good night's sleep, he was no longer dumbfounded. Last night was amazing, but he understood it now. Sakura was basically throwing him a bone last night. She was thanking him for his efforts to get her together with her dream guy. She rested her head on his shoulder to reward him for always being there when he needed her. She hugged him tightly to acknowledge that he played an important part in that era of her life. And she kissed him on the cheek, while she still could without any raised eyebrows, as a good bye gift.

It was pretty much the perfect ending. And now that a perfect ending had been written, Naruto was eager to start the next era. He just had a bet to win first. There was one final daily goal to check off.

"Hold your horses!" Sasuke's annoyed voice called from the other side of the door.

"What's taking you so long? Are you an elite ninja or a 95-year-old man?" Naruto griped.

The door swung open and Sasuke glowered at Naruto. "Why am I not surprised… Someone is crazily knocking on my door over and over… of course it's you."

"How was the date last night? And the night before that for that matter!"

"They were both a lot of fun actually." Sasuke replied. "Sakura was great."

"Was there ever any doubt?" Naruto grinned. "So when are you going to ask her to be your girlfriend? Today?"

"Whoah now. We've only been on two dates. And I'm not even really sure if she likes me like that. We had a lot of fun, and she seemed to take it seriously, but it kind of felt like we were just hanging out as friends."

"She was obviously playing hard to get! She likes you! You two are destined for each other!"

"I don't know…"

"Would you like Sakura to be your girlfriend?" Naruto pressed.

"She seems like she would be a fun girlfriend. That doesn't mean I'm in love with her and suddenly going to go and marry her right this second."

"But you would be happy if she was your girlfriend?"

"I guess so."

"Then trust me, you need to go ask her to be your girlfriend right now. She's just playing hard to get. She enjoyed your dates as well."

"It just seems really weird to ask a girl to be your girlfriend after only going out on two dates. And we didn't even kiss or anything…"

"You guys are a special case since you've known each other for so long! Trust me, Sakura wants you to make a move."

"I already made a move – I took her out on two dates."

"That's a start, but it's not a real move! She wants to see that you're really serious. Asking her be your girlfriend would show that you're serious."

"I just don't think…"

"Trust me. If you ask her to be your girlfriend, she will say yes. Go ask her out now."

"Why do I get the feeling that you're going to keep pestering me until I go do it?"

"Because that's exactly what I'm going to do." Naruto grinned. "Now go ask her out!"

"I don't even know where she is…"

"Hang on, I've got a squadron of clones out scouring the city. Let me just dispel them all… she's at the park just off the main market square. She seems to have some sort of package in her hand, but my clone couldn't get close enough to figure out what it is."

"Hhn. I'll be off then." Sasuke started to leave but stopped and looked over his shoulder.

"What?" Naruto asked.

"I'm not leaving you alone in my apartment."

"Why not? We're best friends!"

"Because the last time I left you alone in my apartment, you stacked the couches on top of each other, put my TV in my shower and flipped my bed completely over as part of some stupid prank." Sasuke deadpanned.

"Which was HILARIOUS. And I totally won't do this time."

"Out." Sasuke commanded.

"Spoilsport…" Naruto groaned. "I go out of my way to help set you up with your dream girl, and you can't even let me play a small prank…"

"Now."

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Naruto groaned. As soon as he stepped out, Sasuke closed and locked the door behind him. The two started walking towards the park where Sakura was, neither saying a thing. Albeit, both were silent for two drastically different reasons.

Sasuke was quiet, because he wasn't so sure about this. He had been around a lot of women who were interested in him, and he learned to pick up the signs… He didn't notice any of those signs with Sakura during their dates. Not a single one. But Naruto knew Sakura better than he did. Naruto was the one who stuck around Konoha and became remarkably close with her. If he said she still liked him, then maybe she was just playing hard to get.

Still though… he was Sasuke Uchiha. He, unlike his idiotic teammate, was actually good with women. He knew how to talk, how to move. He knew how to read the signals. If Sakura really liked him as much as Naruto claimed, then he must be losing his touch if he couldn't see any signals whatsoever. And that thought hurt his pride a little.

Naruto, on the other hand, was completely quiet because his stomach had sunk too low for him to speak. This was it. This was the moment that he secretly dreaded but desperately needed. Sasuke was about to get together with Sakura.

"You're not actually planning on following me to watch, are you?" Sasuke asked as they reached the market.

"Well if I was in your apartment, I wouldn't need to… But I don't have anything else to do, so…"

"Just wait here. It won't look very good if I have you hanging around."

"Fine." Naruto sighed. "I'll just hang around here for a bit. Have fun, and let me know how it goes!"

"Will do."

Naruto watched as Sasuke walked off. He sat down on a bench to wait. He tried to ignore the pit in his stomach and the feeling of dread and desperately tried to think of something to distract himself. His eyes suddenly lit up. His distraction and salvation would be what was yesterday's problem – just what it was that he wasn't optimistic about.

He quietly continued pondering the issue, when in seemingly no time at all, he saw Sasuke walking back with a surprised, yet small smile on his face.

She must have kissed him or something. Naruto sullenly thought to himself. But he forced a giant grin on his face.

"So what did I tell ya? How does it feel to have a girlfriend?"

"I don't know." Sasuke replied. "She apologized to me."

"Huh?" Naruto sputtered. That was not the response he was expecting. "What do you mean?"

"She apologized to me, because she wasn't interested in me that way. She said she had some ulterior motives for going on our dates, and she hoped she didn't hurt me."

"WHAT?!" Naruto yelled in shock.

"I told her it was ok. I was actually starting to think I was losing my touch with women, so it turned out to be more of a relief than anything."

"And she was ok with that?"

"Of course. She was relieved she didn't hurt me."

This didn't make any sense. Sakura loved Sasuke. There was no way she wouldn't…unless… his eyes widened. She turned Sasuke down on purpose just to win the bet! She was going to win the bet, and then go and get together with Sasuke! The surprise in his body quickly gave way to anger.

He was trying to help her. He was trying to get her together with the man of his dreams, and she was just playing games? Did she really not want to help him get a girlfriend that badly?!

"Damnit, I know what happened." Naruto growled. "Don't give up. I'm going to fix this…"

"She said you might have this reaction." Sasuke chuckled. "Well, go on. She's waiting for you."

"I bet she is…" Naruto growled. He stomped off towards the park leaving Sasuke to himself. He continued stomping all the way into the park where Sakura was sitting on a bench underneath the shade of a tree. Her eyes lit up and a large grin enveloped her face when she saw him.

"Right on time!" Sakura grinned. "Looks like…"

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!" Naruto roared, cutting Sakura off.

"Eh?" Sakura asked, taken slightly aback by his angry roar.

"Winning a stupid bet is so important to you that you would lie to win? You can't just lie to Sasuke like that! That's not how good relationships work, Sakura! You're lucky I was there, because he might have given up. Thankfully, I figured out what happened and told him not to give up. Now go find him and tell him you want to be his girlfriend."

"I honestly don't though, Naruto." Sakura said, smiling at him. "I only went on those dates with him because you wanted me to go."

"Bullshit! You're in love with him!"

"You obviously didn't figure out what it is you're not optimistic about." Sakura said, seemingly switching topics.

"I didn't… but stop deflecting!"

"I told you I would tell you once our bet is over. Well, I turned Sasuke down. Our bet is over. So do you want to know what it is, Naruto?"

"Later! Right now I want you to go tell the truth, Sakura!"

"The thing you're not optimistic about, Naruto…" Sakura said, ignoring his protests. Naruto opened his mouth to protest more, but Sakura uttered one simple world that caused his mouth snap shut. "Us."

"What do you mean… us?"

"You used to be optimistic about us…" Sakura went on. "Back when we were younger. But somewhere down the line, you started to believe it would never truly happen."

"Sakura, what are you talking about?"

"I can't really blame you though… Back then, when we were teenagers chasing after Sasuke… I did love him, and I didn't exactly make that a secret."

"And it's not a secret that you still love him." Naruto quietly countered.

"You really are hopeless." Sakura chuckled. "You would be screwed without me. Naruto, your belief that I'm still in love with Sasuke is exactly what I'm talking about. You are so pessimistic about your chances with me because you are convinced I'm still in love with my childhood crush."

"Not pessimistic… just realistic." Naruto weakly countered.

"I've been trying to think of a way to really convince you for a while now that I'm not interested in Sasuke like that. Then you offered me that ridiculous bet. I wasn't sure what your motive was for it, but I was curious. And it seemed like it could present an opportunity for me to prove that my eyes are set on someone else."

"Someone…else?" Naruto dumbly parroted back.

"Mmhm. I gave Sasuke every chance to quote unquote win my heart, because I knew it didn't matter. He didn't stand a chance."

"But…"

"See Naruto, I've already given my heart away, so there was no way for Sasuke to win it. Truthfully, I gave it away without realizing it. It was a bit of a shock for me when I realized it was someone else's."

"Wait… so you purposefully pointed out that I was pessimistic about us, and you're saying that your heart belonged to someone other than Sasuke…" Naruto said, slowly putting the pieces together in disbelief.

"Now you're getting it." Sakura said with a soft smile. She reached out and grabbed Naruto's hands.

"So I went through with your bet, but I wanted to make sure you got to see me dressed up. You see, I dressed up because of my date with Sasuke, but I dressed up for you. That's why I checked with you after the first night to see if I was overdoing it. I didn't want to go too far into the date and risk accidentally upsetting you."

"But last night… you said an era was coming to an end…"

"I did."

"Well… what era is coming to an end then?"

"The era of Naruto Uzumaki on his own and Sakura Haruno on her own. The era of Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno together starts today." Naruto's eyes were wide as saucers as Sakura leaned in and stopped when her lips were centimeters from his own.

"Well… are you going to kiss me?" She murmured. Naruto still couldn't fully believe this was happening, but he closed the last few centimeters and pressed his lips into Sakura's. An electric surge of energy seemed to jolt through his entire body. He held the kiss until she pulled back and offered him another soft smile. And for the third day in a row, Sakura Haruno left Naruto Uzumaki dumbfounded.

Then, as fast as the soft loving look appeared it was gone. In its place was an excited, teasing look.

"I got you a gift to commemorate our bet by the way. Open it!" She placed the package his clone had spotted in his hands and watched eagerly as he opened it.

"Umm… what?" Naruto asked, sweat rolling down the back of his head. He held up a v-neck t-shirt in the exact same shade of red as Sakura's tank top. The Haruno symbol was proudly emblazoned on the back of the shirt, just as it was on Sakura's tank top. However, a smaller version of the Haruno symbol was sewn over the top-right breast area.

"You're going to wear that." Sakura grinned.

"Umm… no."

"You can't say no. I won the bet, and with our raised stakes, that means you have to do whatever I say for the next two months."

"But… you knew you didn't love Sasuke when you took that bet! It was unfair!"

"Not my problem. You agreed to the bet." Sakura said with a victorious glint in her eye. "You didn't realize it, but I was simply trapping you."

"You tricked me into raising the stakes! At the very least, I should only have to do what you say for a month, per our original bet."

"Not a chance, sucker." Sakura chuckled. "Now put that shirt on. I'm tired of seeing a bunch of women check you out. It's about time they know you're mine."

"But… Sakura, all the guys will give me so much crap if I wear this…" Naruto whined.

"You made the bet. Put. It. On."

"What if you wear something with my clan's symbol on it instead? We could get matching…"

"Now." Sakura commanded.

"You are a horrible girlfriend." Naruto groaned, sighing dramatically. He took off his orange jacket and black undershirt before slipping the v-neck on.

"Good, now the pants."

"Please not the pants…" Naruto whined.

"This bet was your idea." Sakura reminded.

Naruto sighed, but picked up the pants that had been included in Sakura's "gift." They were simple, black ninja pants, which wouldn't be so bad… if it weren't for the two stripes running down the sides that were the exact shade of pink as Sakura's skirt.

"You know… we're in public, I shouldn't…"

"Are you going to fight me on every command these next two months? Because we might have a problem if that's the case…" Sakura casually cracked her knuckles to accentuate her point.

"No problem!" Naruto yelped. He took off his pants and quickly put the pants Sakura got him on.

"Stand up; let me see."

Naruto stood up and Sakura looked at him approvingly.

"Turn around."

Naruto did as commanded and yelped as Sakura grabbed his butt.

"Good. You and I are going to have a fun two months." Sakura grinned. "Come on, let's go walk through town. I want everyone to see your new outfit."

Naruto grumbled a small protest, but deep down, he wasn't upset at all. He was definitely never going to hear the end of this from all of his guy friends when they saw what he was wearing. But that didn't matter. Sakura lured him into a trap, but it was totally worth it. Because falling headfirst into her trap brought him together with her.

He reached out and grabbed her hand, offering her a true, happy smile that matched the one she was wearing. He no longer had to be pessimistic about his chances with her. He had her. Sakura was his girlfriend, and he had a good feeling they would go the distance. He squeezed her hand and allowed her to drag him out of the park and into the market. People instantly stared at them and started snickering when they saw the outfit he was wearing.

It was certainly going to be an interesting start to their new era.

Fin - hope you enjoyed the story! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and please do review!

-ND