Sakura walked a few steps away from the group, just behind Kakashi and Yamato, while listening to her blonde teammate engage in lively conversation with Sai. Sai was the hero of the day according to Naruto. First saving him from that beating, courtesy of Karui, then siding with Team 7 over Root. What most likely topped that however, was Sai's intuition about Sakura not returning to Konoha. He left a clone with Kakashi, Naruto and Yamato, while the real him followed her. Sai was a part of the plan she had not counted on at all, luckily she had two idiots with her and managed to convince them that Sai was a traitor, but not before Sai had told Kakashi of her intentions.

After waking up from the poison's effects, Naruto had spent a solid minute chewing out Kiba and Lee, before placing a hand on Sai's shoulder and telling them that Sai was one of them. The two teens looked like small children getting told off by their father, which surprised Sakura. She doubted that the two of them would have stood for it in the past but ever since Pain's attack on Konoha she noticed a shift in the dynamics of Naruto and those around him. Obviously, being the village hero played a factor in it and of course, it was now known to a select few, who Naruto's father was. Still, that wasn't it, Sakura suspected it was something on a much more physical scale.

The facts were clear, Naruto was now one of the strongest shinobi in Konoha. He had taken down all Six Paths of Pain and somehow managed to convince Nagato to revive the village. But of course, it was Naruto's rampage that made them truly aware of his power, the beast that was inside him was certainly a cause for fear. During the rebuilding of Konoha, people looked at him with admiration and possibly a touch of regret for how they had treated their hero in the past. It seems respect came from either admiration or fear, or in Naruto's case, both.

Naruto for his part walked the streets with an air of confidence never before seen, his head held higher and a brighter smile. It certainly turned heads, mostly female but Sakura knew there was another reason why Naruto now got more attention from the fairer species. When Naruto returned after his two and a half years training with Jiraiya, he had slimmed up and grown up, she could still hardly believe he was taller than her. However, with this recent trip to Mount Myoboku, he now showed signs of being bulkier while toned, more muscular... stronger. He had grown a healthy tan in his time away and now appeared to be the alpha male in the prime of his life. Sakura swore she remembered the lion being the king of the jungle, not the fox. With a combination of power and looks, Naruto was now attracting all sorts of flattery.

Sakura scoffed, Naruto may look mature but the illusion was ruined the second he opened his mouth. Extroverted and noisy were an understatement in relation to him. Besides, why should she care anyway? She couldn't help but envy Kiba and Lee getting shouted at, Naruto had barely acknowledged her since his fight with Sasuke. He had muttered his thanks for healing him and proceeded to walk away. As if she wasn't feeling bad enough at the moment?

They were coming up towards the village gates and Naruto showed no signs of letting up on his endless praise for Sai. Sakura scoffed again, one might not even think that Naruto was once completely against the idea of having a new member on the team, let alone one like Sai. She rolled her eyes when he offered to buy Sai all the ramen he could eat. Sai declined, stating that with Danzo's death, Kakashi and he would have to deal with Root. Walking into the village, Kiba and Lee bid an awkward farewell before heading home, Yamato was still bitter about Naruto going against his orders.

Kakashi pointed out that if Naruto hadn't shown up, Sakura would be dead. She wanted to shout at them and let them know that she was right there but she wasn't anyone's favourite person at that moment. Yamato grumbled to himself before taking Sasuke's teammate to Ibiki, Kakashi and Sai waved their goodbyes before going to check on Tsunade's condition. With her still comatose after Pain's attack and Danzo dead, Kakashi was now in charge.

That left Naruto and Sakura standing in the middle of Konoha. Naruto had his back to her, so she couldn't judge his mood.

"Hey Naruto, uh, I could eat. Ichiraku? It's gotta be my turn to buy, right?" She chuckled awkwardly, he turned around and the look he gave her chilled her to the core. She felt the need to apologise about criticising Sai's fake smile. Naruto looked to be in physical pain from the false grin he was giving her.

"No thanks Sakura. I'm pretty tired from that poison, I think I'll go catch a nap before checking if Sai needs help with Root."

Sakura was taken aback. If she remembered correctly this was the first time she had offered to buy Naruto ramen and he said he was tired? Didn't he just offer Sai all the ramen he could eat? Sakura wanted to call him out on his bullshit before realising the true cause of his fatigue.

Sasuke... she herself was feeling mentally exhausted, so she could only imagine what Naruto was going through. No doubt, there was turmoil going back and forth but they should be discussing it together, not bottling it up.

"Oh, well do you want me to double check your cheek? I think I healed most of the poison but you can never be too careful."

"Nah, I'm good." He said simply, already walking away.

"We'll catch up later, 'kay?" She called to him. He threw up a hand to show he had heard her but didn't say anything on the subject.

Sakura sighed, she did not like to see Naruto this way at all. Hopefully, he would sleep it off and return to the grinning idiot that made her so happy and angry at the same time.

This was becoming unbearable. It had been a week since they returned from the Land of Iron, Tsunade had woken up and Naruto was still barely talking to her. He managed to convince their friends to leave Sasuke to him, they had asked what happened when he confronted Sasuke but he refused to say anything on the matter. She supposed Sasuke still weighed heavily on his mind but they always talked about it and him deciding to shoulder the responsibility himself left her worried about him.

Add to the fact, that when she confronted him about everything, again offering to buy him ramen, he had turned her down. That sent alarm bells going off in her head immediately, Naruto refusing to get ramen with her was about as odd as Kakashi not reading pornography in front of everyone, or Sai showing genuine emotion, or Yamato being, uh, not woody... the point was, it was strange to say the least.

She spotted Naruto walking out of Team 7's training grounds, where it seemed he was talking to Captain Yamato. She was determined to get to the heart of whatever was wrong with him and get things back to the way they were.

"Naruto, got a minute?" She asked, rushing over to him. He was walking at a brisk pace and his long strides were making it hard for her to keep up with him. Curse his growth spurt...

"Sorry Sakura, can it wait? I'm kind of in the middle of something." He said, eyes still focused dead ahead.

"No, it really can't. Will you just- Naruto stop!" She had finally lost her patience and pulled him around to face her.

Sighing, he looked at her expectantly. "Alright, make it quick."

"We never had the chance to talk about everything that happened, with Sasuke and all that."

Realising what she wanted to talk to him about, Naruto turned around and started walking again. "Sakura, I really don't have time to talk about this now. We'll talk later."

Sakura grabbed his arm and he turned around so suddenly, that she thought he was going to strike her.

"Let... go." His voice was cold, almost threatening.

"Not until you tell me what's going on with you." She cried. "Ever since we got back from the Land of Iron, it's like you've been a different person Naruto. What happened to supporting each other? I'm tired of you avoiding and walking away from me. Please, talk to me." She pleaded.

"I don't have time to do this now." His voice had lost it's edge, though it was still irritable.

"I don't care. I gave you your space, now it's time you told what your problem is."

"You don't know?" He asked incredulously.

"Is it Sasuke? If it's too much to handle alone Naruto, we can do it together. Share the responsibility, you shouldn't have to do it all on your own." Disbelief was now written all across his face. "What?"

"You... you really don't have any idea, do you?" He let a low melancholic chuckle escape his lips before taking a moment to compose himself.

"Naruto?" Sakura looked into his sad and weary eyes. They were normally so full of life with a hint of mischief, it almost looked like he had aged several years.

"Sakura, do you remember what you said to me, before we saw Sasuke?" Oh no.

"Naruto-" She began before he held a hand up to stop her.

"If you knew how long I dreamed of you saying those words to me," he let out another feeble laugh, "I know, you wanted to go after Sasuke, but of all the things you could have said... why that? Why the one thing that I always believed, coming from you, would make me the happiest person ever."

"Naruto, I never meant-"

"You never meant them, oh believe me Sakura I know. It was fairly fuckin' apparent when you couldn't even look me in the eyes while saying it." The feelings he had kept buried for the past week had exploded to the surface and now white hot fury had replaced indifference. Sakura almost preferred it this way, at least he was talking to her again.

"Let's get this straight. You lied to me, so you could go after Sasuke. Except you didn't go to bring him back, you went to-" He could hardly say it. Sakura really was cursing their height difference now, Naruto towered over her and she could feel the anger radiating off of him.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

"You wouldn't have done it, I knew you wouldn't because of your promise. Sasuke was out of control, he needed to be stopped." She whispered.

"Needed to be stopped, why don't you just say what you mean Sakura? Put down, like a rabid dog. What happened to doing it together Sakura? I suppose it doesn't even matter because you couldn't even do it."

"He's killing people Naruto, I won't apologise for my actions. I'd do it again if I had the chance."

"Sakura, do you realise how close you came to dying? I don't think you do, if I hadn't disobeyed orders your neck would have a kunai sticking out of it."

Sakura knew all too well how close she came to being stuck like a pig by Sasuke. However, what scared her more than being stabbed by Sasuke, was the hatred burning in his eyes. Right before he was about to plunge the kunai into her throat, she saw the burning hatred of a madman.

Naruto's shoulders sagged and she turned away from him. "I could have stopped him, you know? That time, I could have beaten him easily." He said lowly.

Sakura turned around slowly, hardly believing her ears. It was her turn to be outraged. "What?"

"He was exhausted from his fight with the Kages and Danzo. I could have sent a clone to save you while I entered Sage mode, the new strength and speed I have in that form could have easily counteracted the Sharingan. Especially, as he had no experience fighting me in this form." Sakura slowly marched over to him. "Plus, I have the Rasenshuriken up my sleeve. No way he'd dodge that without seeing it beforehand, after he's beaten down, I dunno. Break his legs, carry him back to the village maybe."

A hard punch implanted itself into Naruto's gut, he fell to his knees coughing up blood. He looked up and saw tears rolling down Sakura's cheeks.

"Are you telling me, that you didn't bring back Sasuke, to punish me for saying that I love you?" She demanded through tears, she didn't believe that Naruto would ever be this spiteful, even after having his heart ripped out. He laughed, spat out some more blood and groaned.

"Grow up Sakura, the world doesn't revolve around you. What do you think would have happened if I brought Sasuke back to Konoha? The second he woke up, he would have immediately tried to escape. How many innocent people would have died while I attempted to either calm him down and bring him back to us... or kill him? Too many Sakura, I have more responsibilities to the people of Konoha now."

"You don't owe these people anything Naruto." She said softly.

"Don't I? What happened when Pain came to Konoha, it was a massacre. He rolled over this village and it's people like it was nothing, until I arrived." Sakura remembered, she remembered shedding tears and screaming for Naruto to return.

"I realise now, that I am the first and last defence against the Akatsuki, Sasuke, Madara and whoever else tries to attack here Sakura. That's what I have to do and I will, every time, I will die for this village and it's people if I have to. It's funny if this was ten years ago, I would have been happy to let this village and it's people burn to the ground, hell I might have joined in. But now, I want to be the hero, a leader these people can look up to but being the hero isn't always what it's cracked up to be."

Sakura listened to his words, almost mesmerised by the sincerity and dejection they were spoken with.

"No matter what happens, I have to be the smiling idiot that everyone can look up to because if they see that there's something wrong with me, they panic. So no matter how tired I get, I can never show it. And I do get tired Sakura... so tired. I'm tired of having a statue's head for a father, I'm tired of having a demon inside of me constantly saying how much he hates me and if he ever gets free, he'll kill everyone I care about. I'm tired of having a psychopathic asshole for a best friend who, at this point, I don't even know if I can save anymore. I'm tired of some these two-faced villagers who now call me a hero but when I was younger, spat in my face and hoped I died, how can any morally decent person say that to a child? I'm tired of people I care about getting hurt or dying, the Third, Asuma... Jiraiya."

His voice broke and Sakura felt fresh tears form in her eyes.

"Most of all Sakura, I'm tired of having the feeling that the future of this world depends on me. Nagato asked me to find a solution to peace... how the hell do I even begin to approach that? Gaara, is relying on me to become Hokage so we can prevent future conflicts. I'm the last Jinchuuriki the Akatsuki need and if they capture me... well that's game over isn't it. But I could handle that Sakura, everything I mentioned there, I could handle it because I had you. Whenever I needed support, or to get something off my chest I could always count on you to be there and patch me up, literally and figuratively. When you said those words to me, it almost felt like you were mocking me, like you-"

Naruto was cut off by being pulled into Sakura's arms.

"I'm sorry." She whispered into his ear.

Nostalgia came flooding back to him. He remembered walking back from his talk with Nagato, both emotionally and physically exhausted. His head was spinning and he almost felt sick. The past few hours were like a distant dream to him. His brain was on autopilot as people crowded around him and both congratualted, and thanked him. It took a punch from Sakura to bring him back to his senses. Then, a hug that came at the time when he needed it most. She practically held him up as his body almost gave out on him, he remembered never wanting to leave her warm embrace.

Their current position was almost identical, with the exception of her asking for forgiveness. They stayed like that for a while and when they pulled apart, Sakura could have sworn she was looking at a different person. A goofy smile was plastered on his face, eyes back to their vibrant colour. He cracked his neck and threw his shoulders back, their hero had returned.

He placed his hands gently on her shoulders, a stark contrast to the last time he had carried out such an action. Naruto had squeezed her shoulders painfully, while declaring that he hated people who lied to themselves. Now though, they were there as a comforting gesture.

"It's okay Sakura, I forgive you."

"Really?" She questioned him nervously.

"Course, besides carrying a grudge is a lot of work and I think we both know I'm much too lazy to do something like that." She rolled her eyes, Naruto was back to himself alright.

"Naruto, I honestly never meant to hurt your feelings-"

"Sakura, I'm willing to forgive you and put all of this behind us, so long as we never bring it up again."

Sakura merely nodded, it would probably go down as one of the moments she would always be ashamed of. If she couldn't even fool Naruto with her confession, then she must have been REALLY unconvincing.

"So are we back to sharing the responsibility for Sasuke then?" She asked. Naruto's face turned serious again.

"No, I meant what I said. Leave Sasuke to me."

"Naruto, if this about your promise-"

He cocked his head. "Sakura, I think we both know that promise, or at least what it meant to us, died a lifetime ago. I said that as a way to get you to... Actually, died is the wrong word. That promise has evolved Sakura, I will bring Sasuke back for mine, your, his and Team 7's sake. He's our friend and teammate, no man left behind and... I'm losing track of this speech."

Sakura shook her head and sighed, she was missing the angry Naruto already. "Why you though? Why just you?"

"Sasuke has to kill me to cut his strongest tie to Konoha, no offence. I can use that as bait to draw him out, as you saw, I got him to agree to kill me before going after Konoha. I don't want you there for that Sakura."

"But why?" She asked, he kept dancing around the main issue.

Naruto sighed. "Because what I have to do to bring him back to us is going to be ugly. Words won't reach him anymore Sakura, if I get him back, we're both going to be walking, or limping, away with a few scars. It's like... I have to beat the hatred out of him, draw it out like poison from a wound. Remember our fight on top of the hospital? I don't want you to go through that again."

One of the worst moments of her life. Her two favourite boys attacking at full force and her stuck in the middle. Except, they weren't boys anymore and anyone caught in the middle of that fight wouldn't be walking away at all, she understood now.

"I understand Naruto." It didn't make her feel any better though.

Naruto noticed her disappointment at her inability to help. "Hey, chin up Sakura. We're gonna need someone to heal us and reattach our bits."

"Knowing you two, there won't be anything left to reattach." Naruto laughed and she found herself joining in. "Now, do you want to get some ramen?"

"I'd love to, except I wasn't lying to you when I said I was busy. I have a mission and I'm leaving tommorow, so I gotta go pack. It's an S-Rank with Captain Yamato and Aoba, apparently I have to be an animal surveyor and meet up with the Raikage's brother. Can't imagine how big the animals are if I need all of this backup."

Sakura nodded slowly to acknowlege him. How could she have forgotten Tsunade's idea to keep Naruto out of the war? For someone who was speaking so smartly to her a few minutes ago, poor Naruto was quite dense. But if he was leaving tommorow then she won't see him until after the war, if she survives- She pushed the negative thoughts out of her head, she would survive. If only to make things up to Naruto.

"Well then, good luck on your mission." Her voice came out high-pitched and she cursed herself.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Riiight, thanks Sakura." He gave a huge smile and a thumbs up, then started to walk home again.

Sakura watched his back fade before biting her lip and cursing herself again. "Naruto!" She shouted.

Naruto turned around, only to nearly fall over from the force of Sakura's hug.

"Have a safe trip, a good mission and please remember that I do care about you."

"I will, Sakura... please let go, I can't breathe." She didn't realise that she was crushing him.

"Oh sorry." Releasing him from her vicegrip, he took a deep breath and bid her farewell again.

She felt tired herself, relieved but exhausted. She had her friend back again and they were back to supporting each other. She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face before reflecting on their relationship. She did love him, not in the way he wanted, but in a certain way she knew she loved him. Perhaps one day, she could finally say the words he dreamt of her saying and they could laugh at her feeble attempt of a fake confession.

Sakura almost got lost in her thoughts before she realised that there was a war coming, and that she had to put her feelings on certain idiot ninja aside. She hoped that he returned to a better world because for once, this was not a battle he had to fight on his own. That bit of knowledge made Sakura happy as she walked home to prepare for her own meeting with Shizune about the Medical Corps tommorow.