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Gai once told me:

"To give up is to discard their youthful memories."

...

I strive to keep you two alive in my world,

Rin

Obito

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"Stay with me and Naruto."

Sakura, despite her present feeling of awkwardness, couldn't refuse Minato's offer. It would be a sign of high-disrespect to pass up on the honor of staying over at the Hokage's house after all. As a shinobi, Sakura could not refuse the offer.

So, here she was, neutrally trailing after Minato as he rambled on about everything, and at the same time, nothing.

"Naruto's going to be so excited, this is the first time in a while that I'll be eating diner with him," Minato wistfully said, his smile dimmed down into something akin to sadness.

"Do you regret becoming Hokage?" Sakura asked, breaking her silence.

Minato jolted a little in surprise, clearly not expecting her to speak at all during their walk. He slowed down a little, in order to walk side-by-side with her yet again, almost causing Sakura to groan in frustration. Minato was the Hokage and as a shinobi working under him, Sakura always had to walk a step or two behind him. It was protocol for crying out loud.

Yet, Minato still stubbornly fell into step with her whenever she tried to walk behind him.

"Never," Minato breathed out without a hint of lie. "I only regret the sacrifices I make as a Hokage."

Sakura pursed her lips, recalling the various 'sacrifices' she had to make because of Minato becoming Hokage. Unlike him, she did regret those sacrifices. But there was nothing she could do about it, was there? She had chosen the path she was walking on and she'll see it through.

"Naruto," the name rolled off her tongue in an odd manner, and she wondered if Naruto looked more like Kushina or Minato. And who did Naruto act more like? Or perhaps, Naruto didn't act or look like either. "Is he okay with your position as Hokage?"

"Yes and no."

Of course.

Sakura couldn't blame little Naruto either really.

She'd also be pleased if her parent held such a high position, and she'd also be frustrated if her parent was never around. Though in her case, she was the Minato to her parents Naruto back when her parents were alive. She was always too busy with her duties as a shinobi to spend time with her parents. She couldn't even remember spending a whole day with them after becoming a Chunin.

"He's lonely, isn't he?"

Minato gave a little nod, "It didn't even take you meeting him for you to figure that part out."

Sakura shrugged. "I would have been lonely too if my father never had time for me when I was a kid."

'Ha! Did you see him wince? Nice job, didn't know you had it in ya!'

'Piss off.'

"I am sorry to have offended you, Hokage-sama," Sakura quickly said, formality gripping her tone.

"It's okay," Minato sighed. "You do know you can just call me sensei, right?"

"Pardon the bluntness, but you were the sensei to my gennin team, Hokage-sama. The team has been disbanded for almost half a decade, so it would not make sense to refer to you as sensei anymore, Hokage-sama."

"You don't have to be so formal with me, Sakura," Minato said while giving his student a sheepish look. "Besides, before I became a sensei for the team, I was just your sensei, remember?"

Sakura pursed her lips as a nostalgic smile spread over Minato's face.

"I remember it like it was yesterday, a five year old Academy student sneaking into the Jounin lounge and loudly demanding that she wants Minato Namikaze to take her in and help her become the fastest kunoichi, faster than even the strongest shinobi. Shikaku and Inoichi were so impressed that they almost took you in as their student, but you insisted that you wanted me, even when Sakumo offered to help you with kenjutsu, you said that the only one you'd accept as your sensei was me. Do you remember?"

She remembered that day too, with a vast amount of clarity.

She remembered how she had spent almost a month analyzing the Jounin lounge. How she analyzed their schedules, routines and the entrances they took. She had even blackmailed Genma into entering the lounge just to see what would happen.

She remembered Shikaku calling her troublesome and offering to teach her so she could dedicate her time on useful things instead of sneaking around. Then, how after she had the nerve to ignore Shikaku, how Inoichi stepped up and offered her a position in the Analysis Division.

Heck, she even remembered why she was so fixated on Minato despite how someone like Shikaku would have been arguably a better teacher for her.

She remembered how elated she was when Minato had given her a chance to prove herself worthy of being his student.

Sakura Haruno remembered that day perfectly. It was the catalyst of everything that came after.

"We're here," Sakura drawled out, pointedly ignoring Minato's inquiry.

'Of course Minato-sensei would prefer this simple house instead of the Hokage Residence.'

'Was that an insult or a compliment?' Sakura wondered in mild amusement as she took in the house in front of her. One of the only reasons she knew it was Minato's was because of the Anbu she had sensed.

The house wasn't by any means ugly or shabby. It was fairly beautiful, in a simplistic modern way. The walls were painted a pale green and it seemed to have two floors.

There was a tree near the spacious house that caught her attention, not because it was basically the only tree in the yard, but because there was a tree house there. It reminded her of the one Obito had.

"Sakura?"

Blinking away her thoughts, Sakura dragged her focus towards Minato. He was holding the door open for her.

'What a gentleman.'

'That was fairly insulting, despite how that phrase would normally be used as a compliment.'

'How observant of you.'

'I know,' Sakura cheekily replied as she walked into the house, giving Minato a nod of acknowledgement before taking off her shoes.

She tensed when she felt someone running towards her and had to force herself not to react violently as a head of blond barreled into her. The kid, Naruto she deduced, was hugging her tightly while his eyes were closed with a content grin on his face.

"You're home dad!"

Sakura could literally feel Minato smiling in amusement as she awkwardly held Naruto to make sure he didn't fall and hurt himself.

"This is the first time I have been mistaken as a male," she commented aloud, still feeling dumbfounded as she stared down at the blond. Even a fool could be able to tell that Naruto was definitely Minato Namikaze's child.

Naruto tensed in the embrace they were sharing.

Sakura's face didn't betray any emotions as the blond peered up at her with curious blue eyes.

'...his eyes are bluer than Minato-sensei's...'

"Who are you?"

"Sakura Haruno," Sakura automatically replied. It was odd when people didn't immediately know her name, but she guessed Naruto wouldn't know who she was, considering he was a kid.

"She's my student," Minato spoke up, earning his son's attention.

Sakura frowned.

Why did Minato insist on regarding her in a fond and familiar way when she had made it clear that she wanted their relationship to remain professional?

"Wahh? Really?!" Naruto was looking at her and she was seeing an excited puppy.

"...yeah."

"Cool!"

"...sure."

Sakura sighed in relief when Naruto broke their awkward and accidental embrace.

Was it too late to just go sleep at Gai's place? She'd take his youthful rambles over constant trips down to memory lane any day. Not to mention, Gai made the best breakfast ever. She'd literally kill for the food Gai made.

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Chapter End

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Author's note: short chapter, I know. But I figured, better a short update than no updates at all, huh? Next chapter will be longer and more characters will appear. Including most of Sakura's peers. (Gai, Genma, Hayate, Ibiki, etc.) Also more of Naruto's peers.

Note: please follow this story on Wattpad as well!

Questions:

1. What type of relationship do you think Sakura has with her peers? And how does she feel about it?

2. What type of relationship do you think Naruto has with his peers? And how does he feel about it?