"It's hard to petend you love someone when you don't, but...it's even harder to petend you don't love someone when you do."

It was just a normal day for the number-one-knuckle-head of Konoha, tried from lack of sleep and abuse he wanted nothing more than to pass out, but he wore his perfect mask like always and left his small apartment; heading off to see his team. Running to the bridge where his team met for training and missions his bright blonde hair became even messier than normal while he kept his grin on even though he wanted to cry out in pain from his new and old wounds. Upon seeing his female teammate glaring at his late body running up Naruto slipped into his regular routine of lying...

"Gomen, gomen, Saukra-chan! I slept in late, but hey, hey at least I'm here before Kakashi-sensei!!," he said louder than he really had to as he pouted.

Sakura slumped her shoulders, sighing, "It doesn't matter if you've here before Kakashi-sensei, you're still late and if you ever want to become a better ninja, no scratch that, a better person then start doing things right, Naruto!!" she said raising her voice with each word.

Naruto held onto his grin even though his eyes showed a flicker of hurt, yet only for a second before he looked down acting ashamed; scratching the back of his head, "Ahh, gomen, Sakura-chan, you're right."

"Hmpf, you should be nicer to your teammates, pig," a somewhat cold voice echoed out from farther down the bridge.

Sakura as well as Naruto snapped their heads towards said voice. It was their other teammate leaning against the side of the bridge a bit farther away. His slender arms crossed over his chest, his usual black eyes shut in a thinking manner, and his short dark hair blowing ever so slightly from a swift of wind thus making his unusual pale skin seem even paler contrasting with his hair.

"Tch, what do you know, Sai," Sakura growled out placing a hand on her hip, "I can do what I want and plus, don't you think it's Naruto's own fault for being yelled at?"

Naruto looked up at Sakura before glancing over to Sai, 'I wonder...would he agree? He's never really talked to me, let alone defend me before...'

Sai slowly opened his eyes and pushed himself off of the bridge before gracefully walking in front of Sakura, "Personally, I think the only one at fault here is you, Sakura-chan, Naruto-kun here has done nothing wrong, but be a tad late. Have you never be late in your life before?" he asked rather calmly considering it was meant to be intimiding.

Sakura looked taken back as she just turned away from both Sai and Naruto, not having a comeback. There was an awkward silence for awhile until a puff of smoke made all three of them look towards their, as always, late sensei.

Kakashi smirked behind his mask as he gave his usual peace-sign, "Yo~"

"Neeeeeh!! Your late again, sensei, what's your excuse this time!?" the blonde-headed one shouted with a slight pout.

Scratching the back of his head like Naruto did earlier Kakashi chuckled slightly nervously, "Well, you see....there was this cat in a tree and I couldn't just not help it..."

Sakura rolled her eyes, "Oh whatever, Kakashi, can you just tell us what we're doing today?" she asked quite annoyed.

Kakashi quickly grew serious and looked directly at Naruto, "...I have recieved some information about our lost comrade," he began rather slowly, "...Sasuke has been reported being seen in the Cloud Village, near the outskirts of the Lightning Country. Now I know this info makes it seem like Sasuke is close, but you all need to remember that he is now a missing-nin and no-one is allowed to seek him out alone."

Naruto tensed up immediately trying not to give anything away with his body or eyes.

Sakura's eyes had widened as she glanced at her idiot teammate then back at her sensei, "...When was this information received and are you sure we can trust who told it to us?"

Nodding, Kakashi looked at her, "It was from a very trust-worthy person who I have complete faith in and it was received this morning, the person saw Sasuke running along the Lightning Country's boarder on the outskirts of the Cloud Village around 2am last night."

"So...when are we heading out then, Kakashi?" Sai asked, pushing his bangs back some apparently expecting to go after Sasuke.

"No...we are not going after him, Sai," Kakashi said, "Myself along with a few other AMBU are going out to track him, to see what he's up to, just to see why he's getting closer to our village. All I have to tell you today is that I won't be here for a few days to a week depending on how our search goes, so kept up your training, no missions until I get back, and no-one is to leave this village until I come back."

Sakura sighed, but nodded in understanding while Sai just shrugged, not really caring either way. Yet to all three of their amazment Naruto just stood there, no yelling ot arguing, just...standing there, staring off into space.

Raising a brow Sakura poked at Naruto's shoulder, "Hey...what's wrong with you?"

Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin as he backed away from her, "N-Nothing, Sakura-chan!!" he studdered before grinning weakly and running off.

Kakashi and Sakura exchanged glanced and without asking she replied, "Yeah, I'll make sure he stays here, Kakashi-sensei."

Nodding a thanks, Kakashi gave another peace-sign and poofed off with his Make-Out Paradise book in hand.

Sai and Sakura quickly went their separated ways once their sensei left, Sakura going off to the flower shop to see Ino while Sai went off to go find out where his new friend had ran off to.