Author's note: I finally got around to write my first story of one of my favorite series of all time.

Reviews are appreciated of course. It is always cool to know what your thoughts are.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. All characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

Happy Reading!

~The flame and the flower~

Sakura smiled sweetly as she sat on a bench under cherry blossom tree in the leaf hospital's garden eating her lunch in peace while at the same time observing her surrounding with her forest green eyes. The flower that had been tight bud only a few days ago had begun to open, already had a deeper blush of pink. The winter should still be in force but already spring had pushed it back to moderate temperatures and the kind of gentle breeze you don't notice unless you stop and be present in the moment. She inhaled the cool air followed with a comfortable sigh appreciating the view.

She hardly has had any time for anything. Working at the hospital was taking a whole lot of her time. All she did was work, home, sleep and back to work. Days would repeat like that. Sakura didn't complain however since she was passionate about her work as a medical ninja. Even when Shizune offered her a few days off, Sakura would assign herself into more shifts. Now as she sat there lost inside her own thoughts, she wondered why she was too afraid to take any day off. It also had been a couple of months since Hinata's and Naruto's wedding, a lot of thing had been bothering her since then. She had been avoiding the main issue by burying herself with work, so that way she wouldn't have to think about it or more precisely think about him.

Sasuke, I wonder where you are right now, and do you miss us…me, at all?

Seeing all her friends getting together with the person they love, getting married and settling down, just reminded her of how she would not be experiencing their kind of excitement any time soon. She had promised herself to wait for him, but the agony of longing to be with him grew stronger every day that it started to hurt just thinking about it. No medicine could heal her aching lonely heart. Sighing in disappointment, Sakura closed her lunch box and headed back inside the hospital since her lunch break just ended.

Hours had passed and the shift was over. The air was cooler at night. Tucking her jacket together Sakura hurried home. Something suddenly crossed her mind making her briefly paused in her steps. That's right I almost forgot. No rush thought Sakura, there was still time until Ino's and Sai's wedding. The wedding wasn't until another two weeks. Maybe this weekend she could ask Hinata to go shopping for wedding gifts with her.

Sakura was exhausted and just wanted to go home and rest. As she passed by Ichiraku ramen shop, someone familiar suddenly caught the corner of her eyes, even though she could only see his legs, she knew right away who it was. Ramen ramen…it doesn't matter how grown he is, some things will never change. Sakura chuckled to herself. She decided to approach closer when noticing he was alone and plus she consider ordering ramen to go. Her stomach was growling for food after a long day with work.

"Sakura!" Naruto turned to her in a slight pleasant surprise.

"Hi, Naruto." Her voice was flat.

"Uh, what's wrong? You seem down."

"I'm just tired and hungry…"

"Well then, come eat ramen with me, I'll buy." A wide smile was on his face. Sakura laughed softly making Naruto frown as what was so funny he wondered. "Why are you laughing?"

"I'm sorry Naruto, every time you say that it reminds me of the old days where you always wanted to buy me ramen but never had enough money for two."

Naruto giggled awkwardly. "Good old days huh? Have whatever you want, even two bowls of ramen if you want."

"Alright, if you insist but only one is enough for me." Sakura sat down while Naruto went ahead and ordered two bowls of ramen, one for him, even though he had already finished one bowl and one for Sakura.

Soon two bowls of ramen were placed in front of them. Loosen up the chopsticks Sakura and Naruto began shoveling ramen into their mouth. Sakura tilted over and shook her head.

"I never understand how you can eat so much ramen, I could barely finish one bowl, let alone two."

"Besides Hinata, ramen is my life! I just love it what can you do." Grinning happily while he shoveled more ramen inside his mouth.

Sakura couldn't help but smiled, then the smile turned into a frown. "Speaking which, where is Hinata?"

"At home. She asked me to get some food since neither of us had time to cook today."

"What an idiot, so she is at home waiting for food and here you are eating?"

"What? She said to take my time. After the last mission Kakashi sensei assigned me, I haven't had ramen for weeks. I couldn't resist…"

"You really are an idiot, Naruto."

"You and Sasuke always calls me an idiot for no reason. I know that you guys say it out of love but still…I never quite get it…" He briefly paused from continuing to sip the ramen soup from the edge of the bowl. Then his eyes locked at Sakura from the side noticing her silence. She seemed to be staring at her ramen without blinking.

"Sakura?"

"Sa-kura…?"

She turned to him. "Yeah?"

"You spaced out just now, are you okay?"

"Of course." She smiled with a twist of sadness in her eyes. Naruto stared at her making Sakura wonder why he was staring. "What?"

"I miss him too you know…" He said.

Her gaze shifted from him and back to the ramen while sighing deeply. "It's not fair…I mean, we just got him back home and then he had to leave again."

Naruto sighed with her. "At least we know Sasuke is fine and we should support him. Knowing Sasuke, you know he wouldn't have stayed even if we had begged him."

"I know I know…I just hope he comes home soon, it's been a year. It feels like forever…"

Naruto placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder, "He will be home before you know it." He said with a warm smile across his face. She smiled back at his comforting words. Then they sat silently thinking for a time until Naruto broke the silence.

"Anyway, you're still coming this weekend, right?"

"What's this weekend?" Sakura looked a little confused.

"I guess you haven't checked your mail yet… Hinata and I have invited all of our closest friends to dinner at our place."

"That sounds nice, any special reason?"

"It's a secret." He smirked.

"Hmm…I'll be there."

"By the way, Kakashi sensei is Hokage now, so I supposed we should start addressing him differently from now on." Sakura added.

"True, but to me he will always be Kakashi sensei." Another wide smile appeared on Naruto's lips.