Seducing Sakura

"First thing you're going to do is ask her and Sasuke to come to Ichiraku's with you, as a celebration of getting past the first exam. If Sasuke says no, specify to Sakura that it isn't a date."

"Why wouldn't I ask her on a date?"

"Because she doesn't want to go on a date with you. She's made that blatantly obvious. And that's in part because she only sees you as the immature boy you were at the academy. You've seen a little of loss, enough to give you some depth. She won't see that without a jarring difference in attitude."

"Fine fine, I'll give it a go." Naruto ran over to his teammates. Sakura was hanging off of Sasuke, who was trying his hardest to disentangle himself. "Hey! 'Kura, Sasuke! Why don't we go out to celebrate passing at Ichiraku's?"

Sasuke grunted. "I'll celebrate when I'm wearing the chunin vest, dunce."

Naruto laughed and scratched the back of his head. "I kinda figured you'd say that. How about you, 'kura? Not as a date or anything, just to celebrate."

Sakura turned to glare at him. "Naruto how many times do I have to tell you I'm not- wait did you say not as a date?" Her annoyance turned to confusion.

Naruto nodded emphatically. "Yeah! I haven't given up on getting you to go on a date with me," Kurama growled threateningly in the back of his head, "but I just wanna talk about how the exam went with you guys."

Sakura blinked a couple of times, then turned to Sasuke with puppy dog eyes. "Sasuke, are you sure we shouldn't go?"

Sasuke turned to her. "I literally do not care whether or not you do this Sakura. Frankly, if it means you'll let me go train, I'd prefer you went with him."

"Oh." Sakura looked at her feet for a second. "Okay then, Naruto. Let's go."

Sakura fell in step with Naruto, and they started walking towards Ichiraku. "So uh, how'd the exam go for you?" Naruto asked.

"It was kinda fun, honestly. It's been a while since I had the chance to stretch my brain like that. I kinda fell **** part way through though, I'm a little worried that Ino possessed me for a second."

"I mean, if I were going to cheat off someone, I would've chosen you. You're super smart! We weren't even meant to be able to answer those questions without cheating, and you got through all of them!"

Sakura giggled a little. "Thanks, I guess. How about you? I noticed you stopped writing pretty quickly. Were you just banking on the last question?"

Naruto laughed awkwardly. "Actually, I managed to work out a way to get to the answer key. I made a shadow clone henged into a fly, sent him to find the key, then had him burst himself once he memorized it."

For the first time since the trip to the land of waves, Sakura looked at Naruto with a gleam of respect in her eye. "That's actually a really good idea, Naruto. I didn't know your chakra control was good enough to pull something like that off."

"I've been practicing water walking a lot recently. Took me a month to get it down, even when I supercharged it with shadow clones. Guess it paid off, huh?"

"How would you supercharge a control technique with shadow clones?"

"Memories get sent back to me. I can give it a couple hundred tries at a go, makes having a new idea much faster, y'know?"

Sakura's face became solemn. "Oh. You're going to be overtaking me there too, huh?

"Whaddya mean?"

"It's just." She sighed. "You and Sasuke keep getting better and better. Growing more and more powerful. And then I'm sitting here. All I've got going for me is above average chakra control, and it looks like you're going to be beating me in that before long."

Naruto stopped dead in his tracks. "Sakura. You're the smartest person I know! That test was written to be impossible for genin, and you finished with time to spare. You said it was fun! I don't think I can imagine finding something like that fun."

Sakura huffed. "It was fun! You just didn't understand the questions, of course you didn't enjoy it!"

"Huh?"

"Look," Sakura said, "Let's start with the first question." Sakura started explaining how the question was set up. For once, Naruto was fascinated by the academic side of things. When Sakura wasn't yelling at him for being an idiot, she was really good at explaining herself. She understood each principle being used at a fundamental level, and only moved on to her next point when she was sure Naruto understood the last one. Kurama spoke up once they reached Ichiraku.

"Remember, you're here to talk, not eat. Don't just get it all down as fast as you can, keep the conversation going between bites." Naruto cheerfully greeted Ayame as he and Sakura sat down at a booth, and they each grabbed a bowl of ramen. Naruto's was a heaping pile of meat and noodles, whereas Sakura's was the smallest thing on the menu. The conversation stayed on the exam topics, with Naruto making sure to keep asking questions between bites. Teuchi looked shocked at the relative restraint Naruto was showing, and Ayame shot some mildly jealous looks at Sakura while her back was turned. By the time the two of them got up to leave, Naruto felt like he honestly understood some of the answers he'd written on the test. Sakura looked at him as they stood outside the ramen shop.

"I- I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would, Naruto. It's nice to talk to you while you aren't desperately trying to get me on a date." She said with a sheepish smile.

"I had fun too, Sakura. You're really good at explaining stuff. I might not even need to look at the answer key next time."

"Next time?"

"Uhhh..."

"Jounin exams! Tell her you mean the written test for the jounin exams!"

"On the jounin exams! When we have to do the test again!"

Sakura shook her head and laughed. "I don't think they'll try pulling the same test for the jounin exams, dummy. But it's nice to see you learning a bit more." She turned to leave. "See you tomorrow, Naruto."

As she walked away, Naruto felt something in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to spend more time with Sakura. He opened his mouth to ask something. "I swear on the sage Naruto, if you ask her out on a date I will **** a reset right here and now."

"Do you wanna learn how to water walk?" Naruto blurted out.

"That... is not what I thought you were about to say."

Sakura turned back around. "What?"

"You just taught me a bunch, and I want to return the favor, and you'll probably pick it up really quick because you're really really good, and it might really come in handy in the forest of ****, and I'm having fun and kinda just want to spend more time around you like this. So uh. Do you want to learn water walking?"

Sakura blinked a couple of times. "Uh, sure. You're right, it could be really useful. How do we start?"

In the interests of using as many shadow clones as possible, Naruto had scouted out a lot of different lakes and ponds. One such pond was near the top of the Hokage monument. The small grotto was surrounded by thick brush, too thick for anyone but a ninja to get through really, but with a single exposed side. That side perfectly aligned with the path the moon took through the night sky, and by now the place was awash with the silvery glow of the moon and the twinkling ribbons of stars that surrounded it. Sakura gasped as she saw it. "Naruto, this place is beautiful!"

Naruto grinned. "It was always my favorite place to practice. It's really calming." He gestured over at the pond. "Now then, the first thing you've got to work out is the amount of power you push through your feet. Too little and you fall right through the surface, too much and you get catapulted into the air. Once you get that, the real challenge starts. If you don't keep the output perfectly level, you'll fall right over."

Sakura nodded, and walked over to the pond. Instead of trying to walk right in, she placed the tip of her foot against the surface of the water. It immediately sank through the surface. Frowning, she tried again, and after a couple of attempts her toes bounced up as soon as they touched it. She kept trying, and once she felt confident with her toe, moved her whole foot to touch the surface. The moment she put her weight on it, however, it swept out from under her, dumping her unceremoniously in the shallows. Naruto laughed despite himself, earning a dirty look from Sakura. Stifling his giggles, he apologized. "Sorry, 'kura. If it's any consolation, you're doing much better than I was at your stage." He reached down to help her up, only to find himself pulled into the shallows with her. "Oi! What was that for?"

Sakura stuck her tongue out at him. "Shouldn't have laughed, should you? Turnabout's fair play."

Naruto laughed again. "Fair enough." He got up and reached down to help Sakura again. "Why don't I hold you steady while you work out the balancing thing?"

Sakura considered his hand. "It'd probably stop us getting wet again, wouldn't it? Alright then, sounds like a plan." She grabbed it, and heaved herself up. Naruto stepped up onto the water's surface, and grabbed her other hand. Sakura too, stepped up onto the water and began balancing herself with Naruto's help. She was going steady for a little, until an extra strong change in power caused her to fall forward, hitting Naruto and tipping them both back into the water, landing in a wet heap on top of each other. This time both of them laughed. "I'm not very good at this, am I?" she asked.

"Are you kidding, Sakura? It took me weeks to be as steady as you are. Seriously, your chakra control is incredible. Much better than the bastard's stupid eyes."

"Hey! Don't talk about Sasuke's power like that! It's a powerful bloodline limit, one of the strongest to ever exist." Sakura's cheeks were red with anger.

"I know! That's why your control is better. He was born with them. But you don't have anything like that. You're a civilian, but by being smart and working hard you ended up with better grades and chakra control than anyone else our age. You're amazing, Sakura."

"Um, oh." The blush on Sakura's face was one of mild embarrassment now. "Thanks, I guess. Should we give it another go?"

"Let's." It took Sakura barely ten minutes to become stable, and maybe an hour to be able to confidently walk around. She wouldn't be able to fight effectively on the water, but she'd be able to run away at least. Naruto was ecstatic as he walked home that night. It was the longest time he'd ever spent with Sakura alone, and she'd even hugged him at the end when saying thanks.

Sakura went home confused. She'd never seen that side of Naruto before. The one that had put a month of concerted effort into trying to correct his worst skill. The once that had honestly listened as she geeked out about the test. The one with decent table manners. For the first time, she felt like she had a real friend on team 7.