Chapter 148: Chapter 148
"Well, maybe it\'ll be good for us to switch it up a bit," Sakura responds. At his weak smile, she tries to cheer him up by pointing out, "come on, we\'ll still be teammates, Naruto. Team 7 is finally reuniting. That\'s a good thing."
"Yeah," Naruto states with a larger smile. "You\'re right. Was that all you wanted to talk about? We didn\'t have to come all the way out here for that even though I do kinda miss this place," he adds looking around happily.
Growing nervous, anxious, and combative at the same time, Sakura clears her throat before saying, "no actually. There\'s something really important I want to say."
"What\'s up?"
" I know you love me," Sakura starts shocking the rapidly blushing Naruto.
"Wha- Lo-love? Sakura-chan, I-"
"Save it," Sakura calls. "It\'s pretty obvious. I already know, so, you don\'t have to pretend, but it\'s like I said, Team 7 is finally reuniting, and we\'re here because I don\'t want you to have those feelings for me anymore."
Naruto shifts from one foot to the other, before he nervously asks, "uh, do you really know?"
Shocked, Sakura asks, "did you actually think you were hiding it?"
He slumps before slowly asking, "I uh, don\'t get it I stopped asking you out and everything, so it\'s fine."
"It\'s not fine, Naruto," Sakura asserts. She takes a deep breath before communicating, "I actually like training with you, but I don\'t want to if you\'re going to continue harboring romantic feelings for me. I just want to be friends and teammates and nothing more."
She can see him swallow and step away. His fingers flex as he claims, "but- but we can totally be friends and teammates and I don\'t have to-"
"But you want more," she challenges him and he balks. "I know you\'re in love with me, and since we\'re teammates spending every day together, it\'ll be hard to outright reject you so I- I thought of a solution." His confused eyes make her gulp nervously. "Come morning, you have to stop loving me.
It\'ll be hard, but you have to start and really try getting over me."
"No," he retorts on reflex.
"You will," she insists before adding, "and I\'ll give you my virginity." That completely takes him by surprise, so much so it\'s nearly comical how much his eyes bulge. "Don\'t think of it as a trade," she tries, defending the idea from his outright rejection.
"Even though I know that\'s how it sounds like, it really isn\'t. I don\'t know what I\'d do if someone asked me to stop loving Sasuke-kun, but that\'s what I\'m asking you to do, so, because you do matter to me, I want to give you two things."
"Sakura-chan you don\'t-"
"One," Sakura continues, cutting him off. "Is something precious to me that I only want to share with someone I care about, and two, the emotional freedom for you to move on. In this way, after tonight, I think we can move forward."
"I can\'t," Naruto plainly states, slowly shaking his head and stepping away.
"You can," Sakura asserts, grabbing his hand to keep him from leaving. When he tries to say, "you don\'t have to-" she cuts him off, staring into his night eyes. "I\'m doing this for myself as much as for you. I\'ll feel content giving you something I\'ll never be able to give anyone else.
Let me give you this one night, then we can move on and our team will be better for it. Sex isn\'t love, so, I won\'t feel bad when Sasuke-kun and I eventually get together, and you\'ll be free to fall in love with a girl who\'ll actually love you back."
"This isn\'t you!" Naruto yells. "Who are you and where\'s the real Sakura-chan?"
"It\'s me Naruto-baka," Sakura states, rolling her eyes.
"Prove it!"
"You only told me, Haku-san, and Kurenai-sensei where the real Kubikiribch is."
He pulls up, before defending, "th- that doesn\'t prove-"
Sakura interrupts, "I know you used a special technique and chakra we\'re not supposed to talk about during our Escort Mission to Wave." Close as they are she saw in his eyes that did it.
Sakura takes the bold step of ending this by moving toward the bedroom, but he stops her just before entering the door.
" I don\'t get it," Naruto pleads, though he doesn\'t outright yank his hand free from hers. "Why?" He asks, "why do this?"
"I\'ve already explained why," Sakura asserts. "This is the only way."
"That doesn\'t tell me anything!" Naruto calls. He takes a step closer as he hollers with conviction, "those sound like excuses to me!"
Hoping to put him on the defense despite how accurate she feels he is, Sakura asserts in her fiery way, "well excuse me if how I feel isn\'t genuine enough for you!"
"Sakura-chan," he calls with desperate attention. "I can\'t stop loving you I won\'t. Not until you make me understand this."
"How many times have I said I won\'t go out with you," Sakura accuses. "How many times have I hit you? And you still don\'t get it?" She doesn\'t let him respond as his wide eyes try to realize where he might\'ve erred. "Naruto, this is what I want to happen and like always, you\'re not using your head."
"That\'s because my heart isn\'t in my head," He casually responds before his face crunches in pain. "What you\'re asking me to do hurts"
Gulping in horror of the hurt on his face, Sakura fights the prickling heat in her eyes that lead before the tears and states, "fine, but understand this if you don\'t do this I will hate you."
"WHAT?"
"I\'ll hate you," Sakura repeats.
"But-But that makes even less sense!" Naruto calls. "How can you hate me for not making love with you."
"I\'ll h-hate you," a weakening Sakura just repeats.
"Pl-please, don\'t," Naruto begs. "You can\'t! We\'re teammates!"
"I\'ll hate you," Sakura repeats, ignoring the way her voice croaks as she mentally curses Ino to the seven levels of hell.
"I don\'t understand! I want you to be with the one you love!"
Sakura yells back, "I want that too!"
"We don\'t have to do this," Naruto assures her. "I can wait- I\'ll wait! Even if it\'s for the rest of my life! I\'ll wait!"
"It won\'t happen, not now, not ever"
Instead of allowing himself to be led into the bedroom, Naruto pulls her to him for a fierce hug. Feeling broken, he just hugs her and cries. \'He really loves me,\' she weakly cries herself, "Naruto" \'Oh Kami, if you cry, I\'m going to cry too.\'
When she thinks of how Ino is hurting them both, a tear streams down her cheek. When she thinks about the month-long cost of her love, more tears stream down her face. Naruto can be annoying, but she never wanted to hurt him, and yet here she is, forced to break his heart so her love can live.
"I\'m sorry, Naruto." Sakura wonders why this has to happen as she mechanically continues, "I\'m sorry I couldn\'t love you the way you love me." Her hollow voice adds, "I wish I did, but sharing this with you is important. It\'s the end, and it\'s what we both need."
After many moments of painful silence and sniffing, his voice is so detached when he asks "will you give me some time?" It actually startles Sakura how lifeless he sounded. She feels like she gutted him and there\'s nothing left. "An hour," she tells him before moving into the bedroom.
"I\'ll wait for you here."
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