Ohayo! Welcome to my first fanfic which just so happens to be a NaruSaku story.

This story is set after Naruto tells Sasuke if he tries to destroy Konoha then they will end up fighting and both of them will die. The story sticks mostly to canon, but I'm going to be twisting it here and there to fit the stories' needs.

First thing- ya ya the village should be destroyed still thanks to Pain wtfpwning Konoha. But for the sake of this story, we're just going to say with the help of a Naruto clone army Konoha's completely rebuilt (OMIGOSH!)

So anywho… I'm aiming for this story to be around 8-10 chapters, I won't rule out the possibility of more, but for now I think 8-10 chapters is a reasonable goal. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy (reviews are VERY welcome!)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or else I would be filthy stinking rich and Sakura would've wanted Naruto since the very first Naruto manga =P Oh, and Jiraiya would never have died, or at least been resurrected. Because Jiraiya was awesome.

A black cloak with red clouds flapped in the wind as red eyes with three tomoes looked over Konoha. Sasuke Uchiha, the "last" Uchiha, the avenger, scanned his former home looking for his former number one fan girl and teammate. He smirked,

"This is going to be too easy. Madara was a fool to think I wouldn't be able to capture Naruto."

Catching a glance of pink hair he soundlessly leapt from his perch, masking his chakra presence, silently following Sakura Haruno, apprentice of the last remaining Sannin, the fifth Hokage. He watched as Sakura entered her apartment, and took out a vial with a strange liquid in it.

FLASHBACK

Sasuke stood in the dark laboratory and watched as Orichimaru added the blue petals of the morning glory flower he painstakingly tracked down to his small pot. While annoyed with the flower collecting mission, the snake sannin promised it would be worth his while.

"All finished."

"And what exactly is this, that is so useful it was worth my two day excursion to retrieve a single flower when I could've been training to get stronger so I can kill Itachi?" Sasuke spat.

"Ah Sasuke, so grumpy, you should learn a little more patience," Orichimaru cooed in a sickeningly sweet tone, "just slip this potion into your enemy's food or drink and you will be able to control them completely with your sharingan. The best part of this potion is that even the most powerful and aware shinobi won't realize they're under your control, they will believe that they are doing whatever you make them do of their own free will."

Sasuke smirked, "and what's to stop me from using this on you?"

Orichimaru's sickening laughter filled the room, "Because dear Sasuke, you don't need to. I've already agreed to give you the power you seek."

FLASH IN

I'm glad that snake bastard proved weak enough for me to not have to use this potion on. This is going to make capturing Naruto much easier.

Sasuke smirked as he waited for the right moment to enter Sakura's apartment.

Sakura Haruno was bustling through her apartment after a long day at the hospital. It was days like today when she believed there was an actual conspiracy amongst the Konoha shinobi to make her life hell.

Of course today, when three nurses and one other medinin called off, was the day that seemingly every shinobi in all of Konoha would come into the hospital injured. To make it through the day she had to eat soldier pills like they were M&Ms. She jumped onto her large soft couch and looked around her apartment.

It wasn't the biggest apartment, but it wasn't the smallest and it had plenty of space for her liking. The walls were painted a dark maroon color and the carpet was chocolate brown, with furniture matching the maroon and brown color scheme. She liked the color scheme, but if her plans succeeded, she might have to switch it soon, to something that includes orange.

Naruto…

A dreamy smile fluttered across her face as she became lost in thoughts of Naruto and what their life was going to be like together. She dreamed of kids with shining sapphire eyes running around a laughing Naruto in hokage robes… Sakura was so lost in her thoughts that she completely lost track of time and was shocked when she looked up at the clock and it read 1 a.m.

Crap! I gotta get going!

Sakura sprung up off the couch and ran out of her apartment, almost forgetting to lock the door. After her door was locked she took to the rooftops and leapt towards Naruto's apartment with a small smile on her face.

She would never see the cruel smirk that passed across the lips of "her Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke watched Sakura leave with a cruel smirk on his face. Once she was out of sight he checked for any signs of activity in any of her neighbors' apartments, detecting none he slipped into Sakura's apartment through her bedroom window.

He silently walked past his former fan girl's king-sized bed and into the hallway. Like a shadow he made his way into her kitchen and found her fridge. Opening the fridge he began pondering what Sakura was sure to drink within the next few days. He remembered the girl's love of hot chocolate and grabbed her milk carton.

As he poured Orichimaru's potion into the milk he couldn't help but wonder where the pink-haired medinin would go off to at this hour, he figured he probably shouldn't take longer than he needed in case she just went out for a quick stroll. While Sakura may have always been the weak one of Team 7, she was fairly bright and Sasuke reckoned she wouldn't be stupid enough to drink the milk if she came in and saw him pouring a potion into it.

After emptying the entire potion into the carton, Sasuke closed it back up and shook it effectively mixing the potion and milk together. For the thousandth time that night Sasuke smirked and thought,

Too easy.

Sasuke exited Sakura's apartment the same way he came with his cocky Uchiha smirk firmly plastered onto his face.

Now to wait. Soon dobe I'm going to take you to the Akatsuki, and without you here, there will be no one left to stop me from completely eradicating Konoha and all of its people from the face of the Earth just like they did to my clan…

"What… did… you say just now… Sakura-chan?" asked a bewildered Naruto. "I… dunno if I heard you wrong… Can you say it again…?" Naruto was trying to get his mind to process a thought, any thought. Never in a million years would he have expected this, and judging by the stunned looks on the faces of his friends they hadn't either.

"What I said Naruto… is that I love you!" Sakura repeated with an odd smile and her eyes tilted away from his. "I'm saying that there's nothing between me and Sasuke anymore! I don't know what I was thinking liking a person like that. I'm confessing my feelings here so listen up!"

Naruto just sat there still absolutely stunned, slowly his mind started functioning again. This didn't make any sense, Sakura loves Sasuke, she has always loved Sasuke that's just how the world works. There has to be something going on here…

"…but how? Why?" Naruto sputtered. "If you tell a joke like that in a situation like this, it aint funny… Sakura-chan." Naruto was confused by the sad look that overtook Sakura's face. None of this made any sense…

The cherry blossom forced a smile on her beautiful face before trying to explain herself to her "love."

"Nothing, really I just suddenly realized there's no sense to continually like someone who's a fugitive and a criminal. I can't stay a kid forever…I want to face reality." The kunoichi forced her smile into a grin, "So Naruto no need to keep that promise… Won't you stop chasing Sasuke?"

Naruto was shocked, he wanted to believe this was true. He wanted to so bad... This was Sakura, HIS Sakura-chan, the woman he had loved all his life and dedicated his life to making her happy. But something still seemed off, this still didn't make sense. Naruto couldn't bring himself to believe his pink-haired teammate.

"Did something happen… Sakura-chan?" he slowly uttered trying to think of any and every reason why Sakura would suddenly decide she "loved" him. He knew that he could never beat Sasuke no matter how hard he tried when it came to Sakura's heart, so there just had to be some sort of reason. Maybe something was spooking her…

"Why me of all people all of a sudden…"

A soft, yet sad smile graced his crush's face.

"If you want to know why I started liking you I'll say it clearly!" Sakura lunged forward catching Naruto in a strong, yet desperate embrace. "Sasuke-kun just keeps getting further from me… But you Naruto, you've always stayed by my side… you've encouraged me."

Sakura's sad, soft smile was replaced with a soft and genuine smile as she continued.

"I… finally realized who you really are Naruto. The hero who protected the village…beloved by everyone in the village… I'm just one of them. That mischievous little dummy that I knew… little by little is becoming this great and important man. And I've been watching from right next to him."

As Naruto heard the love of his life, "spill her soul" to him, he wanted so badly to believe her. He tried telling his mind that this was real, to believe his Sakura-chan's words… But his mind was having none of it, and no matter how hard he tried to ignore them, memories of Sakura's love for Sasuke flooded through his mind.

"But all Sasuke's done is commit crimes and break my heart…" his pink-haired crush went on, "More and more he's becoming a different person than he was, so distant. But you Naruto… you're right here where I can touch you like this… you make me feel safe."

As Sakura continued memories of Sakura's love for Sasuke continued to flash through the jinchurki's mind. As each memory passed, he tried reasoning that Sakura was just a child then, she couldn't really know what real love was then. Then that memory came. The day that his heart was crushed into thousands of tiny pieces and lit aflame. The day that Naruto Uzumaki made a promise that would change the course of his life. The day that Naruto gave Sakura his promise of a lifetime.

As he watched this memory he was reminded that Sakura truly loved Sasuke, in the war for Sakura's heart, he could never beat Sasuke… To Sakura, Naruto is a tool that to be used for the retrieval of Sasuke, and comfort until Sasuke comes back. She was just using him again, trying to use his feelings for her to get him to do what SHE wanted.

"Right now, from the bottom of my heart I…"

"GIMME A BREAK SAKURA-CHAN!" Naruto yelled. "I told you that joke's not funny."

It killed him to see sadness fill her beautiful emerald eyes and a frown replace the soft smile she had just a moment ago. But he had to do this, he couldn't allow himself to be used, not now. There was too much on the line. He needed to be strong. Sakura Haruno loves Sasuke Uchiha, the end.

"Have you flipped?" responded Sakura with a strained smile now on her face. "I just switched from Sasuke to you… they say a woman's heart is changeable as an Autumn sky don't they?" that strained smile was replaced with a look of shock as Naruto looked into her eyes,

"I hate people who lie to themselves!"

Sakura's face went blank, then a cruel smirk worked its way onto her features.

"You're not as big of a baka as I thought! You're right Naruto, I was lying to you. The truth is, I'm going away with the man I love, MY Sasuke-kun. I'm leaving Konoha behind and I don't want you to follow. I was trying to do this the nice way. I was going to make you think you had my love, then "sacrifice" myself to stop Sasuke-kun. But since you caught onto that trick I'm just going to have to do be brutally honest with you. You brought this upon yourself dobe."

Sakura smirked exactly like Sasuke and her eyes turned into mangekyo sharingans.

"I will never love you. I will never accept you. I only put up with you because you are a demon, and having a pet demon could be very useful in retrieving MY Sasuke-kun. You are the Kyubi, stop trying to find happiness. You don't deserve it demon scum." Sakura spat out, a look of disgust on her face.

Naruto dropped to the ground, shocked at what just came out of Sakura's mouth. Both his mind and his heart shattered at the same time. He dropped to his knees and let out an ear piercing scream as he allowed the Kyuubi to take over.

Suddenly he was in Konoha, in front of him stood Sasuke and Sakura, wrapped in each other's arms, cruelly smirking at him. Sakura pointed at the people of Konoha and said two chilling words,

"Kill boy."

The Kyubi'fied Naruto leapt at the people of Konoha mercilessly tearing apart each and every citizen.

"STOP THIS! PLEASE STOP THIS!" screamed Naruto in his mind.

Sakura was in Naruto's room staring down at him with a frown on her face. She was late, Naruto always fell asleep at midnight on the dot, and if she didn't get to him before 12:30 nightmares would plague him.

She was late tonight and as a result tears were streaking down the face of the hero she loved as he thrashed about his bed murmuring, "Stop this, please stop this!" She hated seeing him like this. Without wasting any more time Sakura formed some hand signs.

"Yume-no Sakura Jutsu." she whispered placing her hand on her teammates head. She smiled as she ran her hand through his hair while his thrashing died down and his tears stopped. She leaned down and kissed his forehead, then whispered in his ear,

"Soon, soon I'll be able to tell you the truth Naruto. Soon you won't have to suffer anymore."

She gave him one last smile before leaping out his window.

It had been a month since Sakura had started coming to Naruto's room every night and placing her special genjutsu she created for him to alter his dreams.

Konoha's only pink-haired kunoichi wanted to tell Naruto so badly that while she told Naruto she loved him in Iron Country for all the wrong reasons, she did in fact mean them. But she knew her Naruto. He was stubborn, and he never accepted just how special he was. Especially when it came to them, Naruto didn't believe he had a shot at winning Sakura's heart. That mixed with his stubbornness would only cause him to call bullshit on her if she tried telling him that she truly loved him.

So Sakura created a genjutsu just for him, the "Yume-no sakura jutsu" that would make Naruto dream of her loving the knucklehead. Eventually with the dreams, he would be more likely to accept her declaration of love, she just needed to be patient. And patient she could be. Naruto Uzumaki, Kyubi jinchuriki, student of the great Toad Sannin Jiraiya, sage, hero of Konoha, future Hokage, was worth waiting for.

Kyubi Naruto tore the arms off a terrified villager and began to stalk toward the Gondaime Hokage when the sweet scent of cherry blossoms filled the air. Suddenly cherry blossoms filled his vision, calming him down. As his eyes returned to their normal sapphire blue, a pair of slender arms wrapped themselves around him.

"Baka Naruto, calm down. I love you" came the voice of his Sakura-chan. He turned around and was gasped when he saw Sakura's beautiful emerald eyes filled with nothing but love for him. Sakura leaned in so their foreheads were touching, that sweet smile still set on her angelic face.

"Thanks for waiting for me Naruto. I'm sorry I was stupid enough to think I loved Sasuke. You are the only man I love, the only man I will ever love. I can't wait to spend my life with you."

As his cherry blossom angel spoke these words his shattered heart began to put itself back together.

"Soon, soon I'll be able to tell you the truth Naruto. Soon you won't have to suffer anymore."

Naruto Uzumaki, Kyubi jinchuriki, legacy of the Yondaime, student of the great Toad Sannin Jiraiya, sage, hero of Konoha, future Hokage, had a huge grin plastered on his face in his sleep.

Sakura could barely move her body by the time she made it back to her apartment, the yume-no sakura jutsu really took a lot out of her when combined with her exhausting day at the hospital.

Opening her fridge, she grabbed her carton of milk, pouring some milk into a kettle which she put on a stove. Once the milk was hot enough, she mixed in some cocoa powder and gulped down her favorite warm beverage. With her cocoa finished, the exhausted kunoichi finally went to bed.

Watching through her window, Sasuke Uchiha fought to suppress an evil cackle and opted for one of his trademark Uchiha smirks.

Woohoo! First chapter complete! Admittingly this chapter is about half the length of my target range for a chapter, but this just felt like the perfect place to stop. Stay tuned for updates and please do review!