Chapter 1
Back Again
It had only been a couple of weeks since Sasuke came back to Konoha with Naruto. It was late summer and Sasuke had just turend 20 which ment it had been 6 years since he had been back. He had already seen half the people that were still willing to call him a freind but he hadnt seen the two most importent people besides Naruto yet, Sakura and Kakashi. Naruto had given Sasuke a birthday party about a week ago and Sakura and Kakashi weren't there eather.
"Naruto where are we going?" Sasuke growled as Naruto tugged him through the city. Naruto had gotton stronger and now was on his way to becoming Hokage and Sasuke was going to become an ANBU.
Naruto had his usual fox grin on his face as he said, "Just wait Sasuke, just wait." Sasuke could help but let out a small smirk as he rolled his eyes. Naruto walked into the Ninja Acadamy still tugging Sasuke along. He stopped right infront of a door and said, "Wait here. Just for a second." Naruto whispered as he opened the door and went into the room.
Sasuke waited for Naruto for about 15 minutes when Naruto came out of the room with a blonde haired woman behind him. The woman put her hands on her hips and demanded, "So what do you want now Naruto."
Naruto was on his knees begging to the woman, "Please. Ino tell us were Sakura is." The blonde haired teacher was Yamanaka Ino. She was a lot taller since the last time Sasuke saw her.
Ino leaned down and made Naruto look into her eyes, "Naruto I told you already. Sakura's out with Kakashi on a mission." She looked at the whimpering Naruto and roled her eyes, "I really dont know where she is. And your asking me so I'm guessing Hinata doesnt know eather?"
Naruto got to his feet and nodded. "Oh Ino. You remember Sasuke right?" Naruto said as he pointed to Sasuke.
Ino nodded and smiled as she said, "I have to get back to my students. Why dont you ask Tsunade-Hokage. She should know." Ino whispered as she returend to her class.
"Stupid me I forgot to ask Tsunade. She seems to know everything. We can go find her." Naruto said pulling Sasuke out of the school again.
Sasuke started to ask, "Why do you want to find Sakura."
"Baka." Naruto whispered. Sasuke just gave him an evil look. "Your so stupid. Dont you think Sakura would want to see that your alive. And I want to talk to her. We just stopped talking after a while."
Sasuke stopped and pulled away and asked, "What do you mean. She's normally talking up a storm."
Naruto stopped and looked at Sasuke with his eyes sad as he answered, "After you left Sakura stopped talking to everyone. The only ones that she would ever talk to were Hinata, Ino, and Kakashi. But everytime Kakashi would leave on a mission Sakura would lock herself in her apartment and soon everyone got worried about her."
Naruto went and sat on a bench and continued, "When she passed the ANBU test everyone thought that she would be the frist one to die but Sakura proved them wrong. She kept up with the older ANBUs and soon she was on Kakashi's ANBU squad and they spent every moment together. Now Sakura never speaks to anyone but Kakashi, Hinata, and Ino. I barely ever get to see her anymore."
Sasuke put his hand around Naruto's shoulder and said, "We'll all be back together soon. Just like the old days."
"We we'll see. Sakura still has a firy temper like always so she's probly be hard to talk to." Naruto moaned.
"NARUTO!" Yelled a voice from behind them both. There was a girl almost their age. She had her dark blond hair in two messy buns and her red and white dress was tattered.
Naruto spun around to see her. The girl was panting and was bloody, "Abby what happened?" he asked as the girl fell into his arms.
The girl was panting as she whispered, "Sakura... and Kakashi... They're in the middle... of a big fight... their going to get hurt."
Naruto helped Abby to her feet and asked, "Why did you come here to me insted of Tsunade?"
"I knew you were one of Sakura's best friend. So I thought you would want to know first. Last time I saw her she was by Aroura Creek." Abby said getting to her feet. Abby started walking towards the Hokage's atendece room. "Naruto come with me please." She pleeded as she walked away.
"Sasuke we have to find Sakura. But we cant leave without Tsunade's permision so we have to see her." Naruto said as he ran to Abby's side. Sasuke trusted Naruto's judgment so he went along with Naruto's plan.
AT TSUNADE'S OFFICE
Tsunade treated Abby's wounds. She suddenly truned to Naruto and Sasuke, "Can I trust you two to make sure that Sakrua and Kakashi come back alive?" she asked seriously.
Naruto and Sasuke just nodded. "Good luck Naruto." Abby said sweetly as she laied on the ground. Naruto nodded at Abby's kind jester.
Sasuke and Naruto went and grabbed their ANBU outfits and then ran to the gates of Konoha. They had about more then 4 hours of daylight left to find them. "We better hurry." Sasuke said as he ran through the woods with Naruto following him.
"If Sakura's hurt I swear I'll beat someone's ass into the ground." Naruto yelled as he grined his teeth. He couldnt even start to think about Sakura being hurt or even killed by some stupid person.
Suddenly in a flash of light something suddenly something crossed infront of Sasuke and grabbed Naruto. "Naruto why are you out here?" Asked a once fermilar voice.
"Terra!" Naruto screamed as he hugged the girl infront of him.
Terra only nodded. "Sasuke I see your back to normal." Terra smiled as she looked around. "You ANBU shouldnt be out here. Come on lets go." Terra said leading them through the brush. Terra was called 'Terra of the trees' for a good reason. She had been through Konoha forest so many times that she knew ever palce that no one would ever find you.
"Why are you both out here?" Terra asked sweetly.
Naruto looked around and said, "We're looking for Sakura and Kakashi. Have you seen them?"
"I saw Sakura in the medow getting some herbs earlyer today but I havent seen Kakashi in about two days." Terra said grabbing some apples from the tree above her. She tossed the apples to her old friends.
"Well thanks we gotta go." Sasuke said trying to get away from the surounding trees.
Terra grabbed his hand and pointed out of the bushes. There were 3 ANBU stading watching the area. "They're sound ninja's. They're looking for Kakashi and Sakura. You have to wait here." Terra made sure that Sasuke and Naruto waited intell the Sound ANBU were gone. By that time the sun was setting.
"Bye Terra. Keep safe." Naruto waved as he hugged his old freind and left with Sasuke to find Sakura and Kakashi.
They walked to the medow and watched the sunset. Suddenly Sasuke saw some thing moving in the corner of his eye. He quickly and quietly went over to see what it was. It was a girl his age with hot pink hair, Its Sakura. Thats got to be Sakura she's the only one with that kind of hair. Sasuke thought as he hid behind a large sakura (cherry) tree. The girl had her pink hair up in a pony tail with her bangs hanging by her face.
She was wearing a weird looking skirt that was warn by only the most expeiranced medical ninja's in Konoha. Sasuke could hear that Sakura was singing in a soft voice as she picked floweres and herbs. Sakura suddenly looked up towards the sunset to see a silowet of a man.
Sasuke watched as a smile formed on Sakura's face as she ran to the man. The man hugged her close and kissed her on the forehead and then they both walked away. I wonder who that was? Who ever that was. She loves him very much. The last time I saw Sakura smile like that was when I called her Sakura-chan the day I left. He heard bells in the distance as he knew where the two had gone. Sasuke quickly ran back to Naruto and asked, "Naruto can I meet you back at Terra's hinding spot at midnight?"
"Sure you can. But If you're not there by morning I'm coming after you." Naruto smiled as Sasuke ran off.
Sasuke ran as fast as he could to where he thought that Sakura had went to. There were so many trees that now he was wishing that Terra was there to tell him where to go. Suddenly he saw the faint glow of a campfire. He hid high in the trees and watched what was happening below from the cover of the summer leaves.
"Sakura comb your hair." demanded a silver haired ninja with a mask over his face.
"Kakashi. Why do you do this to me." Sakura moaned as she took her hair out of the pony. She dug in her bag and found a comb. Quicky she ran the comb through a small strand of hairs. "Happy now?" she snapped.
Kakashi just roled his eyes and jestered that she come closer. Sakura sat right next to him and gave him the brush. "Let me do it." he said starting to comb through her long hair.
"Any more stories?" Sakura asked as she staired up at the star filled sky.
"You've heard all my stories." Kakashi laughed as he ran the comb again through Sakura's pink hair. He looked down at Sakura who was giving him a babyish look. "Fine. Do you remember the first time that Sasuke and Naruto fought over you?" Kakashi asked.
Sakura turned to look at him, "No. Tell me the story." Sakura said, her eyes filled with happyness.
"Well... It all started out just a while before Sasuke left." Kakashi said starting the story.
FLASH BACK
"SAKURA-CHAN!" Naruto screamed being as anoyying as ever. He ran over to Sakura who was sitting under her favorite sakura (cherry) tree. She was reading a beautiful blue book.
"Oh... hey Naruto." Sakura answered looking up to her teammate. Sakura but the beautiful blue book down still holding the page.
"Sakura whats your book about?" Naruto asked as he sat beside his pink haired teammate.
Sakura blushed as she told Naruto about the book, "Its about this ugly girl that becomes beautiful and then her two best friends have a fight over who was to marrie her."
Naruto was intrested, "So who won over the girl's heart?" Naruto asked leaning in to see Sakura's book.
"Neather. While fighting they badly hurt the girl they were fighting over. She was sent to the hospital. Her friends werent alowwed to see her in the hospital since her parents didnt want them to hurt her even more." Sakura answered as she put a crease in her page and shut the book.
Naruto was just stairing at the bright blue sky as he whispered, "That must stink. No matter what happened she would be breaking one of her best friend's hearts."
Sakura smiled at him and mummbled, "I know but you'll always be my knight in shining armor." Sakura leaned her head agenst Naruto making him feel a whole lot better.
BACK IN REALITY
"Kakashi..." Sakura whined. "You know that Sasuke and Naruto wouldn't fight over me."
Kakashi gave her a weak smile and said, "You caught me." He started to comb through Sakura's hair again. "So have you talked to Naruto at all?"
"NO!" Sakura said sharply not even looking at her silver haired freind. "He's so much stronger. He wouldnt want to talk to a weak ANBU like me." Sakura crossed her arms and stud stairing at the dark woods.
"Sakura besides the fact that you graduated as an ANBU before he did must mean something to you. I'm going to take you to talk to him as soon as we get back to the village. Let me see that hand of yours." Kakashi said as he grabbed Sakura's arm. It had been badly cut and healed over and over again, "You've become a great medical nin. Havent you?"
Sakura faked a smile and said, "Baka." She was quiet as she dug around in her bag. "I saw Terra earlyer. She said that Kaiya, Kiyoshi, and Aya are doing well."
"Oh." Kakashi said and the name of his wife and his kids.
"Aya has already started reading your damned books." Sakura hissed glaring at the silver haired man. Kakashi just laughed at her. "Kakashi I dont want to hurt you out here." she said coldly.
Kakashi stopped and looked at her. "Why do you act so different out here rather then with the other villagers?" he asked.
She sat at his side and said, "I'm not good enough for them. I shouldnt even be here." Sakura stopped and hugged her knees to her chest. When she was in Konoha she hid her every emoshion from everyone but when she was with Kakashi she could let everything out. "I wasnt strong enough to stop Sasuke from leaving... Neji even agrees that I'm weak."
"Dont kid yourself." Kakashi snapped. "Your strong. You had to be... your out here with me arent you?" he mummbled to the pink haired girl. He put a couple strands of hair behind her ear and said, "You aren't my student anymore. You are my equal. You are strong. Naruto and I are even scared of you."
Sakura started to giggle. "Thanks Kakashi. You always help me." she whispered leaning agenst his shoulders. "Its almost midnight. The moons brighter then ever." she whispered looking up at the huge full moon.
She's changed a lot I cant even sence her emoshions this time. I wonder if she's forgotton what she said to me before I left? Sasuke wondered as he looked at the moon. His moment made some leaves move.
That caught Sakura's atenshion, she had quickly grabbed her kunai. "Sakura calm down. It was only an animal I saw it." Kakashi whispered making Sakura calm down. "I'll be right back. I'm going to go talk to Terra." Kakashi suddenly disapeared.
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TBC...