Only when it's too late that you realized that having a one sided crush sucks. That's what Sakura had to find out the hard way. She was doing her job in protecting the bridge builder Tazuna. When she had suddenly appeared inside the crystal mirror dome. Naruto was done on one knee breathing hard. He was shocked by my sudden appearance. However his shock only grew when he seen me being impaled by ice senbons.

That's when I realized that Sasuke used Kawarimi to replace his body with mine so I can take the attack instead of him. Sakura was only a sacrificial piece to him. Nothing but a waste of space.

Ever since their team formed. Sakura has noticed how cruel Sasuke really is. Anything she would ask of him he would be blatantly disrespectful towards her. A part of her was grateful that Naruto stood up for her most of the time. During this mission, she had begun to see Naruto in a different light. He wasn't an annoying dobe who always asked her out on dates. Naruto was a kind person who was willing to help anybody. He was always there to cheer Sakura up even when Sakura would say some means things to him.

She had realized her wrong doing, and began to be nicer to Naruto. For an example, she helped him with the tree walking exercise. Or she just talked to him to get to know him better. She was beginning to remember her mother telling her how poorly Naruto was treated. One time she searched through her mother's papers. Sakura had came across some very classified information about Naruto. Information that she knew she had to keep to herself.

Naruto Uzumaki was the jinchuuriki of the nine tailed fox. Being on the civilian council gave her mother special privileges to some information. Sakura went to the library to look up the term jinchuriki. Once she learned what they were, she knew it wasn't right to hate Naruto for something he had no control over. Plus it was clear as day he was far from a demon.

No Sakura may have came across that she hated Naruto. But in truth she just didn't know how to act around him. So she made herself believe that he was annoying as crazy as that sounds.

None of that matters now, seeing as he vision was darkening. Maybe she should've actually given Naruto a chance. She could see it in his eyes that he loved her. He was crying for her right now as far as she could tell. That's when Sakura saw red chakra flow out of the blond. Forming the nine tailed fox in the air. This was the last thing Sakura saw before she passed out. Swearing to herself that if she got a second chance. She would give Naruto a chance. Sakura wanted to be with someone who looked at her with so much love the way Naruto does.

'Wake up Inner.' A voice called out.

Sakura opened her eyes to see that she was standing in front of her inner self. 'Inner what's going on? Aren't I dying?'

Inner shook her head with a smirk. 'Nope I don't know what happened. But something changed inside of you once you finally let go of that crush on Sasuke. Once you swore that you would give Naruto a chance if you got a second chance at life. Your chakra changed somehow. It began healing you in a way it has never before. Long story short outer, you are stronger now. You have access to a lot more chakra now. You will notice it when you wake up. Second you have two chakra natures. I suggest you learn how to use them. You have earth and water affinities. Knowing how you are, I'm sure you'll find a way to combine them to make wood release.' Inner explained.

All of this was too much information for Sakura to take at the moment. 'W-Wait Mokuton?! I can learn Mokuton!' Sakura yelled.

'Yep your body seems to have developed a component for it like a bloodline once you technically died. Like I said outer. Some weird shit happened to your chakra once you died. Looks like it was a blessing that Sasuke did what he did. But just no I refuse and I mean refuse! To have any sort of romantic feelings for him. After what he just pulled. He doesn't deserve you! I like Naruto better! He's super nice and really cute with those whiskers of his.' Inner said.

'Don't worry I'm over Sasuke. As a matter of fact, I'm punching him the next time I see him. How long until I wake up?'

'About now you've been out for a few hours already. Just remember to actually train yourself now. I would train with Naruto so you can have a training partner. Don't waste this opportunity to be a badass kunoichi standing by the future hokage side. Hokage being Naruto that is.' Inner smirked.

Sakura sweat dropped, by all means she had no complaints. It was just funny seeing inner crush over Naruto know instead of Sasuke. But a change was needed. Plus Naruto was cuter than Sasuke anyways. Suddenly her vision went black again.

Well looks like Inner was right Sakura assumed since she didn't feel any pain at all. She opened her eyes and instantly noticed she had more energy than she ever imagined herself having. Also realizing that her reserves did grow exponentially.

However she didn't get much time to think. When she saw Naruto looking down at her with tears of joy in his eyes. It made her heart burst with warmth seeing them. Sakura almost cried herself if she didn't speak up when she did.

"Hey Naruto did you miss me?" She smiled.

The blond brought her into a tight hug. Which Sakura happily returned and reveled in.

"You have no idea how much I was worried about you." Naruto told her in a soft, low tone.

Those words made her blush, had he really been that worried about her. Yeah Sakura was more than happy to be back. She wondered how long did she have to wait to make him her boyfriend already.

They pulled away from their hug. "So how long was I out?" Sakura asked.

"About a few hours, after you passed out. I was able to finish off Haku. Kakashi-sensei was about to take care of Zabuza. Then Gato showed up, saying he never intended to pay Zabuza. Had 500 of his men ty to kill us all. That didn't work out since we took care of them. Zabuza slaughtered a good portion of them along with Gato. Then after that done, Zabuza went to go check on Haku while me and Kakashi-sensei went to go see what was Sasuke thinking. I was so pissed at him that I punched him out of anger. Kakashi-sensei really let him have it. I've never seen Kakashi-sensei give such an angry lecture before. Oh and Zabuza and Haku aren't dead. Haku says she wants to live a life not being on the run. So they are coming back to Konoha with us. We are gonna head back in about in 3 days." Naruto explained.

"Wow looks like I really missed out on a lot." Sakura figured.

"Eh none of that is really important now. I'm just happy that you're ok Sakura-chan." Naruto beamed at her.

Sakura felt her heart skip a beat. That bright smile of his really is contagious. She felt herself blushing at him.

"S-Sakura-chan are you ok? You're turning red." Naruto asked worryingly.

Sakura just smiled at him. Her smile made Naruto blush himself. He always thought Sakura was the prettiest girl he's ever come across. It's one of the reasons he's never given up on her.

'Wait if we are at wave country, then if the books I read were correct. Uzushiogakure was nearby here. This is a perfect way to start making it up to Naruto on how much of a bitch I was towards him. Sakura thought.

"Hey Naruto I just got an idea." Sakura said.

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure if you know this. But you are apart of a prestigious clan. The Uzumaki's were related to the Senjus. They were said to be one of the founding clans to join Konoha. During the second great ninja war. The Uzumaki's homeland Uzushio was invaded by three great villages. I read in a book that the village was near the land of waves. How about me and you go there and explore. I really don't want to be around Sasuke after I hit him. Would you mind tagging along with me?" Sakura asked.

Naruto gasped hearing what he just heard. He was from an actual clan? His clan had a hidden village? Of course he wants to go see it. "Yeah I really wanna go visit there. When do you want to leave?"

"Hmm let me get myself ready first. Then we'll tell Kakashi-sensei." Sakura answered.

"No need to I've already heard." Kakashi spoke up.

Naruto and Sakura turned to see Kakashi standing in the door way. Reading his orange book. "How are you feeling Sakura?" Kakashi asked but then his eye slightly widen. He could feel the amount of chakra she had. It was way more than she had just several hours ago. She had more chakra than him!

"I'm feel great sensei! Never better." Sakura smiled.

"Are you sure? Because your chakra is..?" Kakashi trailed off.

"I know sensei, my reserves have increased tremendously. I'll tell you more on how it happened another time. Just know that I'm going to become a strong shinobi from now on." Sakura told him.

Kakashi nodded. It was best to let it go for now since it wasn't causing any harm to her it seemed. "Alright so you two are planning a little road trip I hear?"

"Please let us go Kakashi-sensei! I really wanna go see if I can learn anything about my clan!" Naruto begged.

"Don't worry Naruto, I wasn't going to stop you. I was going to tell you how to get there. It's about a few hours ahead from here. If you want you can camp out there for the night. Just make sure you are here when we leave." Kakashi shrugged.

Naruto zoomed towards him and hugged him. "You're the best sensei!"

"Hey get off of me!" Kakashi tried to push the blond away.

Sakura just laughed at the sight in front of her. Kakashi was able to push Naruto off of him. 'I need to come clean with him.' Sakura thought.

Eventually they all made their way downstairs. Sakura and Naruto both had their bags with them. They spoke to Zabuza and Haku for a bit. Haku was very apologetic to Sakura. But she just waved the other female off. Saying that she wasn't dead so everything is fine.

Before the left, Sasuke decided to open his mouth.

"Well looks like you're finally up." Sasuke smirked.

"No thanks to you." Sakura frowned.

"You should be proud of your actions Sakura. I'm an Uchiha elite, the village would've been in an uproar if anything happened to me. You are a clanless shinobi. So being a sacrificial piece in order to keep me alive in an honor for you." Sasuke kept smirking.

Unfortunately for him, he was met with a sting fist to his face. A loud crunching sound was heard throughout the room. Everyone turned to see Sasuke on the ground holding his nose. It was bleeding bad and broken.

"There's you sacrificial piece you bastard! I've tried too hard to please you and help. But no more I'm done with you! I'm over you! You can go straight to for all that I care. Hell everyone thinks you are gay anyways. So many girls at your flock just to ignore all of them. Looks real suspect to me Sasuke." Sasuke spat his name like it was a disease. She grabbed Naruto's hand and led them out of door.

No one was mad at her for doing what she did. In fact, they thought he deserved much worse. Well Kakashi was going to report this incident once they get back to Konoha anyways.

As they were walking, Naruto thought about what just happened. Sakura told him she was going to hit Sasuke. He just didn't think she would really do it. Maybe just maybe he will finally get a chance to be with Sakura. He didn't really care that much for Sasuke anymore. The guy was a selfish dick who only cared about himself. Naruto tried to befriend him plenty of times. But Sasuke was just...Sasuke at the end of the day.

Little did any of the two realize. Sakura was still holding onto Naruto's hand while they were walking.