Chapter 4: This Love Business

                                    

                                          
Chapter 4: This Love Business
Naruto watched her go but he didn't race after her. She might have lost her blushes and her fainting spells, but she still could run, fast, away from him, he thought with a grin. She really was weird.
How do you feel about me?
He sighed. He suddenly had a headache. He looked at Neji's grave one last time and started walking back to his apartment.
Hinata was right. He needed to give her confession and his feelings a chance to settle. When she'd admonished him gently on his silence, he'd felt guilty for not saying anything back, but he felt he was being honest when he'd told her he didn't really know how he felt.
Truthfully, Naruto hadn't really given her admission any thought. He'd heard it at the time, but he'd been consumed with rage during his fight with Pain that there hadn't been any room for her love to enter his mind.
Then after that, he'd been too caught up with the death of Jiraiya, his conversation with Nagato, Sasuke killing his brother, and then dealing with Kurama when the alliance had tried to hide him at Kumo, meeting his mother through her chakra, and finally the war.
He'd been on an emotional rollercoaster for the past year and a half, he thought to himself, a little piqued. But she'd understood and hadn't pushed him at all.
He reached his apartment and entered. He plopped down on his bed.
But she was right, though. He should think about it. There was no more excuse to avoid it. There was peace so he wasn't going to be able to claim he was busy. He sighed and put his hands behind his head, looking up at the ceiling of his room.
Sakura. Did he love her? Definitely as a teammate, a friend. And as a sister, maybe, if he'd ever had a sister. The way they bickered so much, he felt like there was no way lovers would act that way.
He'd never really bought her declaration of love. He'd found the timing suspicious. Her confession had been right after his battle with Pain, when everyone had suddenly changed their feelings for him after he'd saved the village from Nagato's attack. He'd been a mess with his emotions, the way everyone in Konoha had turned from hating him for being the Kyuubi vessel to sudden admiration and hero-worship. He couldn't believe that people were so fickle in their feelings for him. And to have Sakura, who'd been so obvious in her affection for Sasuke suddenly say she loved him had added to his overall confusion.
And afterward, Sai had pretty much confirmed to him that it had only been a ruse, a lie. Sai told him about egging Sakura on in both of their efforts to try to stop him from rushing to save Sasuke.
Naruto had always known that Sakura's feelings for Sasuke had been real. He knew deep down that she had never really loved him when she'd made that confession. There was no way she could have changed her feelings that quickly. He knew her personality well enough.
Meanwhile, his feelings for her had long ago flamed out. He'd known it when he'd just brought Grandma Tsunade back to Konoha with Jiraiya. At the hospital, after Tsunade had healed Sasuke, Sakura had hugged him first and ignored Naruto's presence, had said no word of thanks to him. He'd been hurt, but his feelings of relief that Sasuke was okay had outweighed any of that.
When she'd asked him to make that promise to save Sasuke and bring him back from Orochimaru, he'd known even then. Sakura loved Sasuke. She was never going to love him the way he'd loved her with all his young, childish heart.
His love for Sakura had been a shy blossoming of youthful first love, when he'd first figured out what liking a girl meant. It wasn't the same thing you feel when you're older, though. Now that he was seventeen, had even heard his mother talk about love, it seemed like his love for Sakura was just a childish crush. More mature love was different...