The rain was still coming down in waves like an ocean, their feet splashing in the growing puddles. Naruto clung to the edge of the umbrella with a grin plastered across his face, his whiskered cheeks glowing red from the cold and wet, while Sakura kept her lips pressed tight in annoyance, her other hand gripping the handle so hard her knuckles were white.
"See, Sakura-chan? We made it! Not late at all!" Naruto puffed his chest out with pride, rain dripping from the ends of his blond spikes, which refused to stay down even under the storm.
Sakura glared at him. This idiot, who supposedly knew a shortcut, though it would be better to call it a longcut.
And they were, in fact, late. Iruka-sensei was standing at the door of the classroom with arms folded, expression sharp enough to make even the laziest student sit up straight.
"Naruto! You're late again!"
The sound of chairs scraping and low giggles filled the room as every head turned toward them. Ino, who had been leaning casually against her desk, immediately perked up with a wide, mischievous grin when she saw them. Having watched them come in through the window, she knew they had arrived together, practically hand in hand. Just thinking about it made her eyes sparkle with mischief.
"Ooooh, forehead," she sang, her voice loud enough for the entire class to hear. "Walking in together? Under one umbrella? How romantic."
A few more voices joined the teasing chorus. Kiba laughed so hard Akamaru barked, and Choji snorted into his chips, crumbs spilling onto his desk. Even Shikamaru, usually too lazy to care, cracked one eye open and muttered, "What a drag."
Sakura's cheeks burned. She stomped her foot and snapped, "It wasn't like that! Don't say such stupid things!" She turned her glare on Naruto, who was still grinning like a fool, completely unbothered by the laughter. "And you, stop looking so happy about it!"
Naruto blinked, confused, tilting his head. "But walking with you was fun, Sakura-chan."
The room erupted into a wave of laughter and whispers. Iruka pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Naruto, detention after class. Again. Sakura, take your seat."
Naruto's face fell as he dragged his feet to the back row. He slumped into his chair, muttering under his breath. "So unfair… we were together the whole time and I'm the only one punished."
Sakura shot back at him without mercy. "Isn't that because you were the one talking about terrible shortcuts? Hmph! If you listened to me, we would have arrived ten minutes earlier!"
She sat in her usual spot, frowning. She had told herself it didn't matter, that she didn't care about the loud idiot behind her. Yet when she glanced out the window and saw the rain still pouring down, she couldn't help but think that if she hadn't offered him space under her umbrella, he would still be sitting alone in that storm, waiting it out in silence.
Days passed. Weeks rolled into months.
Naruto never stopped chasing after her since that day, annoying her endlessly.
At lunch, he would bound toward her with his usual blinding grin, waving his chopsticks. "Sakura-chan, eat with me!"
"No." She would reply coldly and almost instinctively, giving him a side glance.
After class, he would spring out of nowhere. "Sakura-chan, let me walk you home!"
"Absolutely not."
When she sat with Ino, trying to focus on homework, Naruto would barge in waving his arms. "Sakura-chan, look, look, I learned a new jutsu, the Clone Technique—ah, why didn't it work?!"
"Idiot, don't drag me into your nonsense!"
She rejected him every time, voice cold and sharp. Her words cut deep, yet Naruto never stopped smiling at her, as though he never felt the sting. And though she would never admit it out loud, there were times she could not bring herself to ignore him completely.
One of those times came after another failed test. Naruto sat slumped over his desk long after the bell rang, pencil dangling from his hand. His paper was a mess of wrong answers, scribbles, and a giant red X at the top. He groaned loudly, slamming his forehead onto the wood. "This is impossible!"
Sakura stood in the doorway, arms crossed, watching him. She should have just walked away. He was hopeless, everyone knew it. But instead she marched inside, slapped her palm onto his notebook, and glared down at him.
"How can you be so stupid? This test is so simple," she said flatly. "Sit up."
Naruto lifted his head, blinking at her in surprise. "Eh?"
"Sit. Up."
He obeyed, fumbling with his pencil. She sat beside him, pulling the paper closer. Her ponytail brushed his arm as she bent forward, pointing out every mistake with clipped words. "This is addition, not subtraction. You're carrying the wrong number here. And this formula? You copied it wrong. Pay attention."
Her voice was cold, but steady, patient in a way he had never experienced before. She didn't mock him, didn't call him a monster or fox like the others did. She stayed until he could solve the problems himself.
Later that night, Naruto would fall asleep over his notebook with a grin on his face, muttering into the pages. "Heh… Sakura-chan's the only one who helps me."
Winter arrived, and with it the biting cold. One morning Naruto didn't show up to class at all. Iruka sighed, already assuming the worst. "Probably slacking off again." The others didn't care. But Sakura frowned, her pencil tapping against the desk. The image of him sitting under the storm weeks ago came to mind.
That afternoon she found herself knocking at his apartment door. No answer. She pushed it open and wrinkled her nose immediately. The smell was damp and sour, wrappers scattered across the floor, scrolls tossed haphazardly against the walls, while on the table, packages of expired instant ramen lay open, the contents long gone, but the waste clearly ignored. And there, under a thin blanket, Naruto lay curled up, his face pale except for the feverish flush burning his cheeks.
"You idiot," Sakura muttered, stepping inside. "Living and eating like this… no wonder you're sick!"
She set down the bento she had brought and pulled the blanket back, forcing him upright despite his weak protests. He blinked at her groggily, eyes watery and unfocused. "S-Sakura-chan? What are you…?"
"Shut up and eat." She scooped food into his mouth spoonful by spoonful, scolding him for every bite he resisted, anger flashing across her pretty face. "If you think I'm going to let you collapse and die because you're too stupid to eat properly, you're wrong."
When he whispered a weak "thank you," she snapped immediately. "Don't misunderstand, idiot. This doesn't mean anything. I just don't want to see you hobbling around like a fool. Otherwise, I'll hear you died and won't even know how it happened."
But when she left that night, Naruto lay back in bed, staring at the ceiling. His chest felt warmer than his fever. Besides Jiji, no one else ever came when he was sick. Only Sakura-chan.
From then on she started giving him a bento every day after arriving in class. A neat box, carefully packed, vegetables included.
"You eat like a stray dog. Do you even touch vegetables at home?"
Naruto laughed a little, embarrassed, his eyes turning toward the food in wonder and confusion.
"Eh, you made this for me?"
"It's not for you specifically, it's just that I can't stand your eating habits. Besides, I always cook a little too much."
She said it every time, but every day another bento found its way into his lap. Naruto savored each bite, grinning to himself when she wasn't looking. She said it was nothing, but she was the only one who cared.
Her patience finally snapped when she visited again and saw the same mess in his room as before. She stormed in, hands on her hips. "Naruto, you still haven't cleaned this place up? Haven't you learned a thing from when you got sick? You live like a homeless person!"
Naruto froze, sock dangling from his hand. "W-what? Hey, I live fine, y'know!"
"You call this fine?" She pointed at the dirty dishes stacked in the sink, the clothes scattered on the floor, the dust covering the shelves. "No wonder Iruka-sensei says you smell like chalk and sweat. Move."
She marched him around his own home for two straight hours, barking orders like a drill instructor. He scrubbed, swept, and complained until his arms ached. She scolded him for every corner left dirty, every dish washed poorly. By the end the room was brighter, cleaner, almost normal.
Naruto collapsed against the wall, panting and glaring. "You're scary, y'know that?"
"Scary?" She crossed her arms. "I'm saving you from turning into a wild animal. At least now you look like a human being again."
He grumbled, but as he lay on the floor catching his breath, he smiled. Even when she was angry, she still helped him.
It was not the last time she would.
At the market one day, when they were buying groceries together, Naruto tried to step into a shop only to be shoved back by the owner. "Get lost, brat. We don't serve your kind here."
Sakura's voice cracked across the square like a whip. "What do you mean by your kind?"
The man stammered. "He's trouble. He always causes problems."
"He is a student of the academy. A future shinobi of Konoha. If you insult him, you insult all of us." Her green eyes blazed, and the man shrank under her glare, muttering an apology as he retreated.
She turned to Naruto, who stood frozen, eyes wide. "Don't just stand there like an idiot. Pick what you need, pay, and let's go!"
Naruto bit his lip, unable to speak. His chest ached, his throat tight. She was the only one who ever stood up for him.
Even in class during sparring practice, when no one wanted to partner with him because of his reckless charges and sloppy stance, Sakura stepped forward. "Fine. I'll do it." The other girls giggled behind their hands. "Forehead, don't blame us if he makes you look bad."
She ignored them, circling Naruto with focused eyes. "Balance your stance. Stop flailing. Watch me."
And to everyone's surprise, he listened. When Iruka praised their teamwork, Naruto beamed with pride. Sakura only shook her head. "Don't get used to it. I just didn't want to see you standing alone like an idiot again."
Yet deep down, though she would never say it aloud, something in her softened.
Time moved forward. Snow fell and melted. Cicadas returned. They grew taller, sharper, faster. By the time they turned ten, the academy had already changed. Friendships grew, rivalries deepened. The girls still gathered around Sasuke, giggling in clouds of perfume and ribbons. Naruto was still the loudest voice in the room, the one everyone mocked. But beneath the noise, Naruto held onto a single truth.
Besides the old man Hokage, Sakura was the only person who had never shown him malice. Even when she rejected him a hundred times. Even when she scolded him like a mother scolding a child. Especially then.
That spring, Iruka gathered the class at the training grounds for a new survival exercise. Teams of two, flags hidden deep within the forest.
Naruto's hand shot up before Iruka even finished explaining. "I wanna be with Sakura-chan!"
The classroom exploded with laughter. Sakura slammed her desk. "No way!"
But when the slips were drawn, fate paired them together anyway.
At the edge of the forest, Sakura groaned, brushing her ponytail back over her shoulder. "Of all the people I could have been stuck with."
Naruto grinned from ear to ear, practically bouncing in place. "Don't worry, Sakura-chan. This time I'll make you proud, believe it."
She sighed, exasperated. Yet as she glanced at him, full of energy despite everything, she felt something she could not quite name.
And together, they stepped into the shadows of the forest.