After Sasuke and Sakura were finished with their lunch, they helped Naruto out.
"It's still afternoon, so what are the two of you planning to do now?" Sasuke asked curiously.
"Me? I'll rest a bit and then I'm going to go train as usual," Naruto said with a cheerful expression.
Sasuke nodded his head and looked at Sakura, "What about you, Sakura?" he asked.
"Uhm...Today had been a very hectic day, so I'll just take it slow and rest my body since from tomorrow onwards we'll be needing to do missions," she said after a thought, as unlike Naruto, she felt a lot more fatigued.
"Oh, alright then, let's all go together." With that suggestion, they all walked back towards the residential area. It was Naruto who waved at them and left first, as his house was the closest.
With him gone, Sakura's heart started beating faster as various thoughts rang in her head, and her face started heating up.
"Sakura," Suddenly, Sasuke's voice entered her ears and made her almost jump from delight as she responded to him, "Yes, Sasuke, what is it?"
Her eyes shimmered as she looked towards him. However, to her disappointment, Sasuke had his eyes on the road and was not looking at her at all.
"Do you remember how we all performed in today's test?" He asked while walking at a steady pace.
"Uhmm, considering Kakashi sensei is a Jonin, I think we all did a pretty good job," Sakura said after a thought.
"Then let me rephrase my question," Sasuke replied without a pause, "From the three of us, who performed the worst?"
As Sasuke asked this question, he glanced at Sakura's expression from the corner of his eye.
"Huh? Isn't that obvious? It was Nar-" Sakura soon came to realisation that it wasn't Naruto but her who performed the worst today. All this while she had subconsciously believed that it was Naruto who had performed the worst since he always came last in the class as well.
However, Sasuke's words had stoked her memory and made her truly assess the situation that transpired before.
"...it was me," she mumbled with a shocked expression as her steps came to a halt the next moment.
"What did you say? I didn't quite catch it," Sasuke too stopped and asked while feigning a confused expression on his face.
"I-it was me...who performed the worst," Sakura muttered while biting her lips as a bitter feeling rose from within her. She had always gotten in the middle ranks in ninjutsu and was among the topmost students in theoretical subjects in the ninja academy, so the thought of being the worst never actually entered her.
This realisation was too much for her as tears welled up in her eyes the moment she finished her words, and she started crying.
"Hey, hey, why are you crying?!" Taken by surprise because of this unexpected reaction, Sasuke didn't know what he had done.
'Was I too harsh on her?' he thought in confusion. He only wanted to make Sakura face reality so that she would start working on herself.
"Sakura, calm down. While it's true that you are the worst..." Sasuke was about to finish his words, but Sakura's crying became louder the very next second as she heard his words.
'God, she won't listen to my reasoning like this...I must think of a way to calm her down,' Sasuke hurriedly thought of ideas in his head while suppressing the embarrassment welling up inside him from all the eyes of the passersby staring at him.
'Yes! Let's do that!' He immediately leaned towards her ears and said loudly, "I'll treat you to a meal, so stop crying!"
"WAAAAA- huh?" Sakura stopped crying all of a sudden when she heard Sasuke's words. However, her sniffles kept coming out in regular intervals, and it was clear that she was trying her best not to cry.
Seeing this, Sasuke couldn't help but sigh and said, "I'm sorry for saying it like that. I'll explain it to you properly, so let's have some snacks while at it."
When he finished, he extended his hand towards her.
"A-alright," Sakura answered while sniffling and grabbed his hand. Sasuke then entered a beef restaurant nearby and asked for two beef cutlets.
"Coming right in!" The owner exclaimed and busied himself in the kitchen.
"Sasuke, this!" Sakura voiced out. Beef was too expensive for just a snack.
"It's alright, since we only had a bit of rice for lunch, this will make up for it." Sasuke just waved his hands to show her not to worry about it as they sat on suitable seats. In the morning, he was going through his wallet and was surprised to find that he had quite a lot of money with him.
Since he had money, he naturally had no qualms about spending it.
While waiting for the food, Sasuke cleared the earlier misunderstanding with Sakura.
"Sakura, I know that what I said earlier was quite harsh, but the reason I was harsh was because I know that you can become better. However, it's still true that I didn't consider your feelings and overstepped my bounds," Sasuke apologised.
"You've already apologised once...there's no need to apologise...moreover, it's true that I'm the weakest in the team, haha," Saskura tried to laugh it off, but the pained expression that she was trying hard to hide was pretty obvious to Sasuke.
Sasuke was about to say something, but the owner came with the beef cutlets the very next moment, "Here you go, eat them while they're still hot."
He suggested with a hearty smile and left.
"Let's eat then," Sasuke said towards Sakura while grabbing the chopsticks.
"Yes..." Sakura nodded as an inaudible growl escaped from her stomach. She was indeed very hungry at the moment.
After the meal, the mood had lightened, and they soon left the restaurant. While walking towards their home, they chatted about some miscellaneous stuff.
"Sakura, starting tomorrow, I'll start training in the woods after our missions are over. It would help me significantly in getting stronger, and it would do the same for you. Would you like to join me?" Sasuke asked.
"O-Of course!" Sakura replied without a second thought as she felt her whole body turning hot.
'Training alone with Sasuke?! Of course I would love to do that!!' Sakura thought with excitement in her mind as her inner figure kept punching in the air.