'Exactly,' Naru-nii confirms before an idea forms in his time-distant head. 'Now that I think about it, there might actually be a way to kind of explain this, or at least make it impossible to prove otherwise.'
SAKURA
Naruto had left her thirty minutes ago after Sakura begged for a two hour break. They'd been training since she found him in Training Ground 28 at nine in the morning. Even with her perfect chakra control fueling her attacks in the most efficient way possible, her endurance is so pitiful, she can never outlast him. She spent the last thirty minutes on the grass, sore, sweaty, panting, and hungry.
Despite how difficult training with Naruto is, Sakura can't say she hates it. She's noticed the differences from day to day, and she can proudly say she's getting better. Every day she can do just a little bit more, and after a week of constant training with the idiot, she's not dreading it as she had in the beginning. She still hates Naruto, but the training, at the very least, is a clear benefit.
Still, she needs to get up, head home, take a shower, and finish the first report for Ino on 'Obsessive Love.' Staying away from Sasuke-kun was an ever-present gnawing pain eating away at her intestines. While training with Naruto was a constant feeling of failure—not simply as a woman, but as a kunoichi—the most difficult rule for Sakura to follow is composing the report Ino expects. With a comprehensive analytical mind, Sakura can't help but pick up on patterns and cues, assign memory markers, and compare discrepancies between her personal experiences and the text she's reading. For some odd reason, they were claiming the expression of her love for Sasuke-kun was unhealthy.
It was ridiculous to her. Clearly, they didn't understand, which made writing the report all the more difficult. As the Kunoichi of the Year, Sakura has written many reports, all of which received perfect grades. It was easy with her memory and now that perfect recall has been tarnished with this poisonous psycho-babble. However, despite her denial, the research Ino is making her write stayed in her mind, taunting the purity of her emotions. There's actually a disorder called Obsessive Love Disorder and Sakura remembers it all:
'Obsessive Love has addictive qualities, such as speaking extensively about the object of their love, making repeated advancement toward the object of their love, alienating friends and family for the sake of the object of their love, self-destructive/self-sacrifice for the object of their love, a tendency to feel extremely good or extremely bad depending on the attitude of the object of their love, an inability to focus on one's social, educational, or familial responsibilities outside the object of their love.'
Sakura was forced to read, memorize, and even use her own life as examples for each warning sign, effortlessly forcing her sharp mind to recall exact examples. Sakura remembers talking to everyone about Sasuke-kun. Her parents, in particular, would never hear the end of everything she'd seen Sasuke-kun do in the academy that day. She'd always ask Sasuke-kun if he wanted to go shopping, for a walk, to breakfast, to lunch, to dinner, training, anything she could think he might say yes to. Likewise, anyone who also loved Sasuke-kun was naturally her enemy. In addition, anyone who didn't support her love for Sasuke-kun became impediments she couldn't allow; this included practically every personal relationship she had—not that she had many. Sakura recalls ignoring her father when he cautioned her to concentrate less on a boy and more on her studies.
'Ino became your rival overnight,' a voice adds.
Naturally, Sakura would sacrifice her life for Sasuke-kun, but can that really be called obsessive? The Hokage loves the village and everyone knows he would gladly lay down his life for theirs. How is Sakura any different? If Sasuke-kun hated something, she hated it too. Sakura heard he liked long hair and she let hers grow out. Naruto, in particular, felt her fists more times than she can count for his every slight against Sasuke-kun.
Sakura felt miserable—her insides dead and decaying. Day in and day out, she hurt at the direction her life is being forced to take all because of Ino. Sakura had devised a few plans to steal the blackmail material, but of course, she couldn't be sure if she got them all or if Ino made copies, which meant the risk Sasuke-kun would learn of her shame. She thought of personally speaking with the Hokage, pleading that he discreetly demand the embarrassing photos from the Yamanaka. But of course, Ino can lie and say she doesn't know what they're talking about, which would become a she-said-she-said, or Ino could spread the photos before they're retaken. There were just too many variables that would end with each plan breaking her heart.
And that would destroy her ultimate goal; Making sure her love for Sasuke-kun survived. If Sakura has to spend some time with the blond ball of energy and not ask Sasuke-kun out, then she'll do it. As long as there's a slim chance she can beat this blackmail, her love remains viable in the long run. For now, Sakura puts all her anxiety and frustrations into training. It's the best and only method for coping with this waking nightmare.
As much as she hates to admit it, she is getting something out of this indentured servitude. And for some reason, she's actually learning from Naruto. If it wasn't for him, she wouldn't have learned her elemental affinity was Earth with a minor in Water. Having explained his leaf training, she was actually fascinated. How the Dead Last of their class is training in nature manipulation years—possibly decades—before it's feasible is beyond her. Sakura was sure she wasn't ready for that kind of training and even pondered if Sasuke-kun is. She simply didn't have the reserves or endurance for that kind of intense conditioning, which actually warmed Sakura to the possibility that Naruto isn't quite the hopeless idiot she always assumed he was.
Though she felt like asking him questions, Sakura just couldn't allow herself to engage with the blond to that extent. There's no telling how he'll take it and the last thing she wants is for him to constantly hit on her again.
'Like how you had with Sasuke-kun,' a stupid voice in her head patiently asks. Squeezing her eyes shut, Sakura grips her un-conditioned and dirty hair and screeches to the open skies above. 'I'm dying,' she thinks, hating her thoughts, hating her memories, and hating Ino most of all. 'This is death!'
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