Just came up with this randomly a few minutes ago and started drabbling on my yahoo! notes. This is the finished product (finished in maybe thirty minutes, that is).

Beyond Words

"What do you see in him?"

Sakura glanced up at boisterous blond sitting next to her on the grass.

"I don't know," she said truthfully, returning her gaze to the dark-haired Uchiha as he sparred with their sensei a few meters away. "I guess it's his general mysteriousness..."

Naruto smirked, folding his hands behind this head and lying back on the ground.

"But if he's so mysterious, then how can you know you like him?"

This time Sakura stared at him, brows raised at hearing such a statement coming from Naruto, of all people. A statement that, in fact, she found reluctantly to be true.

Naruto grinned when he saw the reaction he got from her, and noticing the pleasure he had taken from it, Sakura turned away again, pulling her knees up to her chest.

"You don't know why you like someone. You just do," she stated simply, a note of defense in her voice.

Naruto scoffed.

"What?" Sakura demanded, glaring at him over her shoulder.

"Nothing," he said flatly, but his lingering smile aroused her suspicions. She turned to face him, sitting cross-legged at his side.

"You don't believe me?" she asked.

"Believe what?"

"I'm in love with Sasuke," she said.

Naruto raised his eyes skyward, his expression unchanging. "I know you are."

"...Good," Sakura replied after a pause.

Suddenly Naruto sat up, propped up on his elbows, gazing at her mischievously.

"What now?" Sakura asked, growing uncomfortable under his gaze, which she now noticed didn't seem quite so childish and empty, despite its baby-blue color.

"Nothing," Naruto said again insistently.

"Oh, come off it," she said, shoving him playfully in the shoulder - maybe slightly more playfully than originally intended. "What are you thinking?"

He didn't answer for a moment, instead surveyed their surroundings, where many teams were training or just gathering to meet.

"What about him?" Naruto asked, nodding across the way toward another team.

Sakura followed his gaze.

"You mean Shikamaru?"

"Sure."

Sakura turned to Naruto critically, brow raised.

"What about him?"

"What do you see in him?" Naruto said.

Sakura was shocked by this question for some reason.

"I don't see anything in him," she stated, directing her gaze downward, away from both Shikamaru and Naruto.

Naruto wouldn't have her brush off the question so quickly.

"I mean what do you think of him, why do you like him - as a person," he added, receiving her threatening glare.

Sakura sighed, straightening up again.

"Oh, I don't know. I suppose he's clever, and nice, if you give him the chance, and he's smart..."

"Is smart all you're looking for?" he interrupted.

"Of course not." She paused, waiting for him to say something. When he didn't, she supposed he wanted her to continue; so she did.

"I guess there's something charming about him. I mean, there's his loyalty to his teammates, and he can be really sensitive at times..."

"And he's not a cold-hearted jackass, right?" Naruto said mockingly.

The young kunoichi stared at him reproachfully.

"No more taking hits at Sasuke. Please, I'm serious."

"Okay, fine."

"..."

"..."

"...Thank you."

Naruto nodded, looking away again. His eyes wandered purposefully around the park until they stopped again on someone else, glittering roguishly.

"What about...Hyuga."

"Hyuga Neji!" Sakura asked incredulously.

Naruto nodded; she shuddered.

"Ugh, he's so..." She struggled for words. "...forbidding."

Naruto laughed.

"Yeah, I can see that."

Sakura scoffed, smiling, examining the prodigy where he stood against a tree watching Tenten and Lee spar.

"But he can't be all bad, though," Naruto continued lightly. Sakura looked up at him, but he was looking at the Hyuga. She turned back to him as well.

"Yeah, I mean, he's kinda scary at first, but once you've worked with him and earned his respect, he can be a great guy. Not a particularly fun one..."

Naruto scoffed. "Don't know what you're talking about..." he muttered sarcastically.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "But he's still incredibly loyal to his friends and family, and he's really dedicated to his work."

Naruto nodded and looked up at her.

"See? It's not so hard," he said, smirking.

Sakura was lost again.

"What?"

"Putting into words what it is you like about people."

She stared at him mutely.

"So all this has been about comparing Sasuke to the others?" she demanded angrily, hands clenching into fists where they rested on her knees.

"No," Naruto said calmly, despite the livewire sitting next to him. "I was just saying, it's not as hard as you think. I bet you could sum up Sasuke if you wanted to." He returned his eyes to the clouds overhead.

Sakura's anger depleted, and after a moment, she lay down beside him, exhaling slowly as her back hit the ground.

"No, I couldn't," she said.

Naruto glanced at her.

"Sure you could. You just did it for all those other people, you could-"

"It's different. It's...complicated..." she insisted, shaking her head.

The blond shrugged. "Okay..."

They were silent for a moment before Naruto spoke again.

"He's loyal."

"Hm?"

"Sasuke, he's loyal," Naruto repeated, gazing at her expectantly.

"I know," Sakura replied curtly, once again sounding defensive.

"I was just saying; you seemed to be pretty big on loyalty, that's all," Naruto said.

"Oh...Yeah, well, that's not everything, but…it's good."

"Yep."

Why wasn't he saying anything? She couldn't just leave it at that; that would be demeaning Sasuke, saying yes, he was loyal, but that wasn't everything. Not nearly.

"He's also fun," Sakura offered.

"No he's not," Naruto said immediately, frowning at her incredulously, but a smile played on his lips.

"Well, he's..." Sakura's own smile faltered and she turned to face the sky again.

"What?" Naruto asked.

"He's..." Then Sakura had to close her eyes for fear that tears would start streaming down her face and reveal that constant insecurity she held about the Uchiha. And she couldn't have that.

She swallowed.

"Sakura?"

She heard him roll onto his side to face her, and she opened her eyes; beads of saline began sliding down her face inevitably, making a trail from the corners of her eyes to her ears, then landing on the grass like dew drops.

"I can't believe this," she said finally.

"What?" Naruto asked, containing his concern to his eyes only.

Sakura shook her head, no longer caring that he was seeing her cry.

"I can't think of one good thing to say about Sasuke," she said simply. The statement suddenly became more real to her once spoken aloud.

Naruto raised his eyebrows, but didn't speak right away.

"Well...That's alright. He's pretty complicated, it's probably hard to describe-"

"But you can describe him. Right? You can sum him up in one sentence if you had to," Sakura said, looking over at the blond shinobi.

"Well, yeah, but that's from a friend perspective, it's dif-"

"Right, and I could do that if I wanted to - as a friend - but..." Sakura paused. "But nothing I can think of to say about him makes me feel like I'm in love with him..."

Naruto regarded her for a moment, wordlessly. She wiped the tears from her eyes and stared concentratedly ahead at the clouds, following the moving shapes with her large emerald green eyes.

"Then describe what you're looking for in a guy," Naruto said suddenly, still looking at her.

Sakura's incredulous gaze was immediately upon him again.

"I can't believe I'm talking about this with you," she said honestly, but regretted voicing the thought, as it sounded much more insulting when spoken aloud.

He didn't seem affected by it.

"Just try."

Sighing, Sakura wracked her brain for the perfect boyfriend, the perfect husband, the perfectly matched soul mate - the image of Sasuke she had manufactured and put on a pedestal for years.

"Well..." she began unsurely."...He'd have to be reliable, someone I could trust with my life and could talk to about anything without worrying about being judged."

Naruto nodded, and she went on.

"And we'd have to be able to communicate with each other; even if we didn't agree on something, we'd still be able to understand each other's point of view and be able to respect it – respect…" She sighed laughingly. "...He'd definitely have to respect me as a person, and kunoichi..."

Naruto continued nodding, seeming to take in every word she said. "Yeah."

He was prodding her to continue, apparently genuinely interested. She was running out of ideas.

"And...he'd have to be fun, you know, like I'd never be bored when I was around him..."

"Sounds like quite a responsibility," Naruto teased.

She smiled.

"Well, yeah, he'd have to be willing to give up a significant part of his life for me, if he really wanted us to be together..."

"Keep going."

"...Well, he'd have to be able to listen to me - to want to listen to me, want to be there for me...And..."

Was she crazy? Absolutely no one could possibly fit these standards. Not if she interviewed every male citizen of Konoha would she find someone so godly perfect, and dedicated, and loyal, and funny, and loving, and...

Her mouth opened mutely then closed again. She could find no words for what had just occurred to her.

No, that couldn't be true. She wasn't that blind, that oblivious; she wasn't so obsessed with her fantasies of Sasuke that she couldn't see happiness right in front of her eyes...Those big, blue eyes...

She didn't just...describe...

Naruto was lying down on his back again, gazing up into the twilight sky steadily growing darker before them. He didn't seem to feel her gaze upon him, and was thus very surprised to find her figure looming over him and after that, her lips against his.

He cupped her face in his hands and could feel no trace of tears. Her lips and tongue explored his slowly, easily, and when she pulled back, she was smiling again, a blush creeping over her cheeks. Naruto's surprised expression faded as she lay down beside him again, this time pressed up against him with his arm around her, her head on his chest, and neither of them felt they had to say a word.