Naruto felt as though his head were in the clouds. He could scarcely believe Sakura was actually sitting across from him at the dinner table in his apartment, holding his hands, and the fact that that idiot Sasuke wasn't there to bother them was simply the cherry on the cake!
"Ouch!" Naruto hissed.
The green glow around Sakura's palm faded as she stemmed the flow of yang chakra emanating from her hand. Thankfully, she hadn't sensed too much damage to his chakra pathways, so it hadn't taken her long to reach the root of the problem and allow his natural healing factor to take over, just as it was meant to.
"I wish you would take better care of yourself, Naruto," Sakura chided him, as she took out a roll of fresh bandages from her medic pouch and wrapped up his hand. "Your body doesn't belong to you alone any more, remember?"
Question marks seemed to pop out of the top of Naruto's head as he stared at her, a puzzled look on his face. Wasn't that something men usually said to pregnant women, warning them to be less reckless on account of the baby?
Sakura yawned and stretched her arms above her head.
The treatment had taken longer than she'd expected, and the sun had already dipped below the horizon. Overcome by sleepiness, she leaned forwards in her chair and folded her arms in front of her, resting her heavy chest on the table. Her head sank slightly into her pillowy breasts, and she smiled coquettishly at Naruto.
"I meant your furry little problem," she clarified.
Naruto blinked in incomprehension, and a split second later, he finally connected the dots.
"You mean the Nine-Tails?" Naruto said in a huff. "Who cares about that stupid fox? It keeps trying to make me lose control, and every time it comes out, I end up hurting you! All it's done is make my life miserable, you know? You don't know what it's like to have that guy inside you, Sakura-chan!"
Lately, the Demon Fox had even begun to plague his dreams. Nightmares of whirling fangs and claws, pagodas on fire, lots of dead monks like that Chiriku bloke, that sort of thing. The Akatsuki had even shown up in his dream at some point, but Naruto didn't remember what happened next.
"For better or for worse, you're still stuck together for the foreseeable future," said Sakura calmly. "Why not try to make friends with him? According to Lady Tsunade, he's lived in the Hidden Leaf for about as long as you've been alive, so why don't you start by thinking of him as a fellow villager?"
If Naruto could befriend Kurama and master Nine-Tails Chakra Mode in advance, it would be a massive load off Sakura's shoulders, which were already overburdened by the heavy weight hanging off her chest. She wouldn't have to worry about keeping him alive to save the world any more— rather, it would be him protecting her!
Even though she possessed more chakra than she knew what to do with, and had access to all the basic chakra natures and every jutsu she could wish for, she wasn't sure how she could possibly reach the transcendent realm of the Six Paths level before the final boss revealed herself. Sage-level, and even beyond Kage-level, were already within her grasp, but soon, even that would not be enough to survive on the battlefield…
"Did Pervy Sage put you up to this?" Naruto asked suspiciously. "I already told him that if using the Nine-Tails' power means hurting those I care about, then I'd get stronger on my own, you know!"
Deep within the Eightfold Trigram Seal, Kurama stirred. He seldom deigned to address Naruto unless he thought he might provoke him into drawing more emotionally charged chakra from the seal, infusing him with enough rage to send him on a rampage— but even so, he couldn't help noticing that the topic of discussion was himself.
Unique among the Tailed Beasts was Kurama's special ability to perceive negative emotions. An anomaly among the villagers, the pink-haired girl alone did not possess a single shred of malice towards the being referred to as the Demon Fox.
In Sakura, Kurama could sense the following:
A respectable amount of fear, but that went without saying. The Nine-Tailed Fox was an apex being worthy of being called a natural disaster. There was also a bit of self-interest and desire for manipulation, but nowhere near the level of that one hateful Uchiha, or the village's upper brass.
As such, he had always hated Sakura a little less than all the others in Naruto's life, though that hadn't stopped him from prioritising hurting her whenever Naruto lost control, just to make his jailer's life that much more miserable.
"So far," said Sakura, holding up three fingers, "other than you, Naruto, I've met three Jinchūriki such as yourself:
Gaara and the One-Tails, Shukaku.
Nii Yugito and the Two-Tails, Matatabi.
Fū and the Seven-Tails, Chōmei."
Of these three people, Naruto had only briefly met Gaara, and only a handful of times. He knew Gaara was being held in a secret location in the village, but other than that, he knew nothing about his fellow Jinchūriki.
"I can't say much about Yugito, since she was trying to burn me to a crisp at the time, but from what I've seen, Gaara and Fū are a lot like you, though not always in the same ways," Sakura went on. "Lonely, deep inside. Hiding that loneliness behind a mask of aggressivity or hyperactivity. Desperate for others' approval."
Naruto listened quietly.
All this time, he'd been pining after Sakura as if she were some untouchable being far above his reach… but it turned out that while he'd been watching her, she had been watching him too. It warmed his heart, simply knowing others were thinking about him too!
"From what I've seen, Tailed Beasts are just like mirrors," Sakura explained. "They'll reflect whatever you show them, so if you treat them like demons or natural disasters, that's what they'll turn into. If you treat the Nine-Tails as a friend, then I'm sure he'll stop being the Demon Fox everyone hates. Why don't you start by asking his name—"
"Shut up."
A faint voice welled up from deep within Sakura's breast, giving her quite a start.
"Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto, noticing Sakura's surprised look. "What's wrong?"
"You've got a bit of that kitten inside you, eh? Then that makes it easier to talk."
Since they had once been a single being, all nine of the Tailed Beasts possessed the ability to communicate with each other telepathically— and that included the Two-Tails' tiny of sliver of chakra sealed inside Sakura's Breast Seal, even though it was so small it couldn't even form thoughts on its own.
"Sakura-chaaaan," said Naruto, waving his hand in front of her eyes. "You in there?"
"Just so you know, I have no intention of playing house with you humans, so quit it already, because it's annoying! You might think yourself different, but you're all the same, so sooner or later, you'll turn out just like the rest! I'll never trust any one of you! Hmph!"
And just as suddenly as it had appeared, the Fox's voice fell silent.
"Tsundere," Sakura snorted. "Not even going to try to intimidate me a little?"
Naruto was thoroughly confused, but just as he was about to ask why Sakura had suddenly spaced out, a knock came at the door. Though he didn't want to interrupt their lovey-dovey alone time, he pulled himself to his feet and answered it.
Seeing Sasuke and Kakashi standing there, Naruto pulled a face.
"The Jōnin Assembly has been convened," Kakashi said, poking his head through the doorway and glancing at Sakura. "All Jōnin not currently out of the village must attend."
"Well, duty calls," Sakura said brightly, flashing him a double thumbs-up before leaving the apartment. "Remember what I've told you, and try not to use that right hand of yours too much tonight, eh?"
A deep sense of loneliness washed over Naruto as he watched his teammates disappear into the night, which was swiftly replaced by determination. He had to get stronger than Sakura if he wanted to protect her, so he stalked over to his bed and started doing sit-ups.