The slam of his apartment door echoed in the silence, a sound as violent and lonely as the fury boiling inside him. Naruto leaned against the wood, his heart hammering against his ribs, not from the effort of running, but from pure, absolute frustration.
He took a deep breath, trying to calm the storm in his head. The smell of instant ramen and dust filled his lungs, a ground wire in his chaotic reality.
"Idiots," he whispered into the stale air. "All of them, complete idiots."
He slid down the door until he was sitting on the floor, his head in his hands. The images from the Hokage's office replayed in his mind like a recurring nightmare: the old man's disappointed gaze, Iruka's condescending concern, Sakura's embarrassment, and worst of all, the glacial contempt in Sasuke's eyes.
Coward, he repeated Sasuke's word, savoring the poison. He thinks I'm scared. He thinks I'm chickening out.
A bitter laugh escaped his lips.
"I'm not afraid of dying," he said aloud, as if to convince himself. "I'm afraid of them dying. Why can't they see that?"
He jumped to his feet and began pacing in circles in the tiny space of his living room, each step a discharge of nervous energy. He stopped in front of the bathroom mirror, staring at himself. The reflection that looked back was that of a twelve-year-old boy, but the blue eyes watching him burned with the desperation of a veteran who has already seen the end of a war.
"I don't have time," he told himself, his voice tense. "I have one hour. One hour to stop us from walking straight into a massacre. But how? How do I convince a couple of stubborn idiots who think I'm a lunatic?"
Words didn't work. He'd already tried that. The truth, without proof, sounded like madness. He needed something more. He needed an act of faith.
His mind went over the pieces on the board. Sasuke was a lost cause for now; his pride was an impenetrable fortress. Kakashi-sensei was too smart for his own good, always looking for the logical explanation and dismissing the impossible.
Only one option remained. The most unlikely one. The most complicated one.
"Sakura-chan…"
The memory of their conversation in the park came back to him. The way she had listened, the way his words had seemed, for an instant, to break through her defenses. There was a crack in her armor, a small fissure of doubt.
He hadn't treated her like a dumb fangirl. He had treated her like a smart kunoichi. And she had responded to that.
"She's the key," he said, stopping in his tracks. The realization hit him with the force of a Rasengan. "She's the most logical. The most pragmatic. If I can make her see… make her understand the risk…"
The plan was insane. A desperate gamble against time. But it was the only one he had. He didn't bother to grab his travel pack or check his kunai. Not yet.
He threw the door open and ran, with no detailed plan, only a burning resolution. He had to find her. He had to make her listen.
It didn't take him long to track her down. Sakura hadn't gone home. She was sitting alone on a bench near Training Ground 7, the site of their first test, the stage of her first great humiliation. She was hugging her knees, her head bowed.
Naruto approached, this time without his usual ruckus. He stopped a few feet from her.
"Sakura-chan."
She jerked her head up. Her eyes were red and swollen. She had been crying. Upon seeing him, her expression shifted from sadness to defensive fury.
"What do you want, Naruto? Did you come to try and sell me more of your lies?"
"No."
The simplicity of his answer disarmed her. She just stared at him, defensively.
"That's not why I'm here," he said, taking another step closer. "I came to ask you to listen to me. Five minutes. That's all I ask."
"I already listened to you in the Hokage's office," she retorted, her voice trembling. "I listened to you spout nonsense and make us all look like a joke. Sasuke-kun thinks you're a coward. And I… I don't know what to think anymore."
"Then think about this," Naruto said, his voice intense, charged with a seriousness that forced her to pay attention. "Forget what I said about Gato and the assassins for a second. Just think about me. The Naruto you know."
He crouched to her level, looking her directly in the eyes.
"Do you think that I, Naruto Uzumaki, the one who shouted from the rooftops that he'd be Hokage, the one who faced Mizuki-sensei for a scroll, the one who charged head-first at Kakashi-sensei without a second thought… do you think I would suddenly get cold feet over a C-rank mission? Right after we finally got a real one?"
Sakura frowned. The logic of his words was strange, twisted, but undeniable. The inconsistency of his behavior was what had confused her the most.
"No… it doesn't make sense," she admitted in a whisper.
"Exactly! It doesn't make sense!" he exclaimed, though he kept his voice low. "Sakura-chan, you're the smartest one on the team. You always have been. You get the best grades, you understand the theory that gives me a headache. So, use that intelligence now. Why would I do something so stupid? Why would I risk Sasuke hating me even more, Kakashi-sensei thinking I'm useless, the Hokage seeing me as a scared kid? Why would I ruin my reputation on our first day of real missions?"
The questions hung in the air between them. Sakura had no answer. The only explanation was that he was crazy, or…
"This is all a trap," she said, repeating her own doubts. "You're lying. Maybe you want us to abandon the mission so you can have Tazuna to yourself and be the hero."
Naruto looked at her, and in his eyes, there was no offense, only a deep sadness.
"Do you really think that of me?"
The question hit her harder than any punch. Did she? No. As much of an idiot as Naruto was, he'd never been malicious. Clumsy, loud, irritating… but never cruel or manipulative.
"I… I don't know," she murmured, looking away.
"What I said in that office is the truth," Naruto stated, his voice as firm as a rock. "Every word. And if we go on this mission as we are, someone is going to die. Or worse. We could all die."
"Don't say that!" she yelled, fear seizing her again. "Kakashi-sensei is with us! He's an elite jōnin!"
"And you think Zabuza Momochi isn't?" he shot back.
Sakura froze. The name. Another specific, terrifying detail.
"Who…?"
"The Demon of the Hidden Mist. One of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. An expert in the silent killing technique who can take you out before you even know he's there. That's the level of threat waiting for us."
Panic flashed in Sakura's eyes.
"How… how do you know all this, Naruto?"
Naruto hesitated. He could see the distrust warring with fear on her face. He needed proof. Something tangible. Something that would shatter her defenses completely.
He reached a decision: the time for half-truths was over.
He held out his hand.
"Trust me, Sakura-chan."
She stared at his outstretched hand, dirty and scarred, as if it were a snake.
"I can't. Not without an explanation."
"I can't give you the full explanation. Not yet. But I can give you proof," he said. "Proof that I have a power you don't understand. A power that can help us survive."
His gaze was so intense, so desperate, that Sakura felt a shiver run down her spine.
"What kind of power?"
Naruto didn't answer. He just kept his hand extended, a silent offering. The choice was hers. She could go on believing he was a crazy coward, or she could take a leap of faith and find out the truth.
Slowly, with a hesitation that weighed down every muscle, Sakura raised her own hand and placed it on his. The contact was a spark. His skin was rough and warm.
Naruto said nothing. He simply squeezed her hand gently, a gesture that wasn't romantic, but a pact.
"Come with me," he said, getting to his feet and gently pulling her up. "We have to find Hinata."
Sakura's confusion deepened.
"Hinata? What does she have to do with any of this?"
"She's the proof."
They ran. Naruto led her through the streets of Konoha with a confidence that bewildered her. They weren't heading for the Hyuga compound, but to one of Team 8's training grounds.
And there she was. Hinata was practicing alone, throwing kunai at a target with a precision that left Sakura speechless. Every throw was perfect, sinking the metal right into the center.
"Hinata!" Naruto yelled.
Hinata turned, surprised. A shy smile appeared on her face when she saw Naruto, but when she saw Sakura next to him, holding his hand, the smile vanished and a blush covered her cheeks. Naruto instantly let go of Sakura's hand, scratching the back of his neck nervously.
"Hey! Sorry to interrupt!" Naruto said. "We need your help! The mission to the Land of Waves is way more dangerous than it looks. It's an emergency."
Hinata approached, her gaze shifting between the urgency on Naruto's face and the confusion on Sakura's.
"I-is something wrong, Naruto-kun?"
"Yeah. Sakura-chan doesn't believe me," Naruto said, getting straight to the point. "And I don't blame her. But I need you to tell her the truth. About what happened between us."
Sakura frowned. What happened between them? What was he talking about?
Hinata went pale, then red, then pale again.
"T-the whole truth?" she whispered, looking at Naruto in a panic.
"Not the super embarrassing part," he clarified quickly. "Just the important part. The part about the power."
Hinata took a deep breath, a gesture Naruto now recognized as her way of gathering courage. She turned to Sakura.
"Sakura-san…" she began, her voice barely a murmur, but firm. "Naruto-kun has… an ability. A kind of jutsu."
"What ability?" Sakura asked, skeptical.
Hinata hesitated, looking to Naruto for permission. He nodded.
"He… he can write on people's backs," Hinata said, and the phrase sounded so ridiculous that Sakura almost laughed.
"Write on people's backs? That's your big proof, Naruto? Are you a secret masseuse?"
"It's not a massage," Hinata said, her voice gaining a strength that surprised Sakura. "It's… more complicated. He did it to me. In his apartment."
Sakura was floored. The mental image that conjured was so strange and so inappropriate that she didn't know how to react.
"You… you let Naruto take you to his apartment and… write on your back?"
Hinata nodded, her face burning, but she didn't look away.
"Yes. And after he did… I got stronger. Much stronger."
Sakura looked her up and down. She remembered seeing her at the training ground. She remembered her precision with the kunai, a skill Hinata had never demonstrated at the academy.
"Stronger how?"
"I don't know how to explain it," Hinata admitted. "I can feel my chakra more clearly. My body moves faster. My strikes are harder. I don't know how it works. I just know it's real. Naruto-kun told me it unlocks the potential a person already has. And I… I believe him."
She looked at Naruto and then back at Sakura, and in her lavender eyes was an absolute, unshakable faith.
"I know it sounds strange, Sakura-san. But if Naruto-kun is telling you a mission is dangerous, even if it sounds crazy, I think… I think you should trust him. He would never risk saying these things for nothing."
The testimony from Hinata, the shyest and most honest girl in their entire generation, was a bombshell. There was no way she would lie about something so… bizarre. And her new skill was undeniable. There was something different about her. A new confidence, a new strength that radiated from her.
Sakura turned to Naruto. Her mind was a whirlwind of questions and a growing fear.
"What is this technique, Naruto? What is it you do, exactly?"
Naruto looked at her, his expression dead serious.
"It's a way to accelerate growth. To make someone reach their true potential in a fraction of the time. It's our only chance to survive what's coming."
He walked toward her until he was just a step away.
"We don't have time to train for months, Sakura-chan. We have less than an hour. If we're going on this mission, I need you to be stronger. Not just for you. For me. And for Sasuke. I need you at your best."
The intensity of his plea was overwhelming. This was no longer the class clown asking for a date. This was a leader asking his most valuable soldier to prepare for war.
"You want… you want to do that technique on me?" Sakura asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"Yes."
"Now?"
"Right now."
"Here?"
"Right here."
The idea was unthinkable. Letting Naruto perform his… strange technique on her back. In the middle of a training ground. It was insane. It was humiliating.
But then she remembered the image of Sasuke, bleeding out on the forest floor, covered in kunai. She remembered her own useless scream, the terror that had knocked her unconscious. She remembered her absolute helplessness.
She remembered Naruto's words in the park: Start thinking of yourself as Sakura Haruno, the kunoichi with perfect chakra control and a first-rate mind.
He believed in her. He believed in a strength she was only just beginning to suspect she had. And now, he was offering her the key to unlock it.
It was a gamble. A gamble based on the words of an idiot and the testimony of a shy girl. But the alternative was going on a mission that chilled her to the bone, feeling weak and scared, with a team broken by mistrust.
Sakura looked up and met Naruto's blue eyes. In them, there was no deception, only a desperate urgency and a blind faith in her.
"Okay, Naruto," she said, and her own voice sounded strange, filled with a determination she didn't know she possessed. "Do it."
The relief on Naruto's face was so immense, so pure, it almost made her cry.
"Turn around," he said, his voice professional, as if he were suddenly a surgeon about to operate.
Sakura obeyed. She turned her back to him, feeling her heart pound against her ribs. She heard Hinata gasp softly behind her.
"Lift up your shirt. Just your back. I promise, I'll be quick."
She closed her eyes, her face burning with shame. For the mission. For the sake of getting stronger. For this strange, desperate trust Naruto has placed in me.
With trembling hands, she grabbed the hem of her red qipao and lifted it, exposing the skin of her back to the cool morning air, and waited.