"Yeah, okay." Sakura's first response was to agree. After a few seconds, she looked up at him, "Why?"
"What do you mean, why?" Naruto asked back.
"You're not pitying me, are you?" Sakura asked seriously, "Do I look that pitiful now? It was just a made-up story."
"How does it feel to be fooled?"
"It doesn't matter if you lie to me. I don't mind." Naruto said, grabbing Sakura's hand and pulling her up, "But you can't lie to yourself."
"Whether you're just being mysterious, making up a story, or simply messing with me, it doesn't matter."
"But there's one thing… Tell me now: do you want to go out with me or not?"
Sakura was silent, staring at him for several moments. She then glanced down at the unfinished documents, staring at them for a while as if hesitating.
Naruto noticed that Sakura's responses seemed slower than before, and she took longer to think things through before answering.
"Okay." She finally said.
Sakura got up slowly, took a sip of water, and, before leaving, switched off the office lights with a click. As the door creaked shut behind them, she turned around and spoke hesitantly, "Sometimes, I stay in the Hokage Tower all night, or I just sleep here."
Naruto didn't know about these habits, so he didn't comment. He simply hummed lightly in response. In the hallway, the sound of their footsteps echoed unevenly.
"You usually work overtime when you can't sleep?" Naruto asked.
"How is that possible? I'm not that stupid." Sakura walked beside him with her hands behind her back. "There's no way to finish the work. Even if I finish it today, there will be more tomorrow."
She waved her hand and made an exaggerated circle.
"It's endless. There's no way to truly end it."
Outside the Hokage Tower, the summer stars shone brightly, and the night wind was cool.
The two of them paused at the intersection before Naruto pointed in a direction. In moments like this, taking the lead and guiding Sakura would be more conducive to their conversation.
He wanted to understand what was going on with Sakura and resolve it. He knew this couldn't be dragged on any longer.
"I know a place where there aren't many people, and the rooftop gives a clear view of the stars."
"Where?" Sakura asked, still a bit puzzled but curious enough to follow his gaze, peering through the scattered lights toward the darker night.
It was a secluded spot, located in an inconspicuous area of the village. It looked like an illegal construction, but that was fine, as the whole Konoha was practically a village built atop a maze of haphazard structures.
Under the night sky, they climbed up a building nestled within the trees. Ascending a crooked staircase and crossing a makeshift wooden bridge, they reached what appeared to be an abandoned rooftop.
With a soft thud, Sakura landed steadily, the night breeze lifting her pink hair from her forehead. Looking up, she saw a half-ruined rooftop, the other half having collapsed.
Under the faint light, the rooftop's jagged edge, overgrown with weeds, was visible. The view was wide and unobstructed, as if the horizon had opened up, without any buildings blocking the sight.
The surroundings were eerily quiet and pitch black. In the distance, a few faint lights could be seen, making all of Konoha appear as if it were slumbering. Above them, a vast, clear sky, dotted with stars, bathed the village in a soft glow.
"This is it." Naruto said as he walked to the other side of the roof, "It's my first time here too. I found it while wandering around aimlessly before."
"I've always wanted to come up here and take a look, but I never had the chance."
He didn't bring up Sakura's situation or what had just transpired in the Hokage's Office. It was as if he had forgotten all of it or simply didn't care.
"So, does it look nice?"
"Yes." Sakura couldn't bring herself to say anything flippant this time. She looked serious, standing on the abandoned rooftop and gazing up at the vast, bowl-like sky.
"Don't you have anything you want to ask?" Sakura turned to look at Naruto.
"No." Naruto replied as he sat down. He pulled a drink from his storage seal, popped it open, and handed it to Sakura, "Here."
Sakura took the drink, then looked up and asked again, "There's really nothing you want to know?"
"I do want to know, but I'm not concerned with anything else. I just want to know if you've run into some trouble." Naruto said as he opened another can for himself, his hand casually pulling on the tab.
"You are my only companion, right? If you trust me enough, I hope you'll speak up on your own rather than me having to ask."
"How do I even talk about something like this?" Sakura gazed up at the stars again. "No one in their right mind would believe it. A second personality came out and I couldn't sleep for a whole year."
"You're probably the only one who believes it, and you're the only one I can tell."
"It's because I don't care, so I'm too lazy to question it." Naruto said half-jokingly, then glanced at Sakura again, "In fact, it doesn't make much difference to me. You are also very good."
"If possible, it wouldn't be so bad if things stayed this way."
"Just 'not so bad'?" Sakura's expression suddenly lightened, and she leaned forward slightly. Her tone became drawn out, causing Naruto to feel a shiver down his spine.
'Here it comes again, something all too familiar.'
"It's so quiet here. Usually, people who hang out in this kind of place are couples, right?" Sakura asked with a playful smile.
"Not necessarily. It could just be people like us." Naruto said with a serious expression, pointing at himself and then at Sakura, " Don't say weird things, especially at a time like this, it can easily be misunderstood."
"Eh? But today, I'm wearing…" Before she could finish her words, Naruto quickly covered her mouth, cold sweat dripping from his forehead.
"It doesn't matter what you're wearing, you don't need to share that with me." He said tiredly.
But Sakura stubbornly started to lift a corner of her shirt, only to be interrupted by the sharp-eyed Naruto, who sternly warned her.
"Don't do anything strange."
"Hehe, are you nervous?" Sakura asked with a smile as she moved his hand away, "You didn't care at all before. No matter what I did, you were indifferent."
"So…" Sakura suddenly leaned in closer, "Let's do more together!"
"Things we've never done before."
Her chest was almost pressed against Naruto's, her fair arms hanging loosely at her sides. She had a relaxed and happy smile on her face, with her eyes curved into crescents.
"After all, you kind of like me now, don't you?"
"That's a different matter." Naruto stared at her with a complicated expression, "We're still young. Focus on study, uh, I mean, focus on completing our missions."
Naruto wanted to resolve Sakura's issues, not by taking on everything himself, but by addressing the immediate problems she was facing. It was similar to fixing a small bug in a program. If it runs, there's no need to dig too deep into the root cause.
After all, even if Naruto wanted to take on everything, dealing with something as complex as a second personality was beyond his capability.
In short, he was aiming for surface-level stability. Even if that made him seem like a scumbag, it didn't matter. After all, being too much of a saint would just be self-torture.