Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

I was walking through the forest somewhere about 10 miles from the Sound Village's border.

I was assigned a vacation because I apparently was working too hard, and I had too many vacation days.

I remember that like it was yesterday...

Oh, yeah it was.

I walked into Tsunade-Shishou's office as she had sent someone to get me.

"Yes, Shishou?" I asked.

"Sakura you have not taken off enough days. You have worked too hard these few months so we are sending you on an extended vacation until further notice." Tsunade told me.

What?

No, she couldn't do this.

She knows that I've worked more so I won't think of "his" death.

She can't do this to me!

"But Tsunade-Shishou-"

"No 'buts', Sakura! I know why you've worked so hard lately, but killing yourself slowly because of it will not help. Everyone else has suffered from Naruto's death as well, but you do not see us mourning every second! Now, I am sorry Sakura, but it's for your own good. You will leave today, and we will give you a 3 month traveler's pass. You may go as you please, and we will supply you with the money so you may pay for necessities. Dismissed." She said looking around to find her sake.

No point in fighting now...

But, what am I gonna do these next few months?

I still can't get over the fact that Naruto died.

And what makes it worse he was protecting ME.

With thought's of Naruto going through my mind, I didn't notice someone near me into I bumped into them.

I fell backwards on my butt, before getting up and mumbling an apology.

Looking up, my eyes rested upon a man whose face I couldn't even see. He had to have around seven feet tall, and as he looked down, I caught a glance of stunning cinnamon eyes which were shaded by locks of amber.

"My apologies, miss."

"Hello, I'm Sakura, and you are?" I said bowing slightly.

"Juugo." He mumbled looking down.

I was starting to get bored with just standing there so I said, "I'll be on my way then. Nice meeting you Juugo-san."

I walked around him to have a hand latched on my arm.

"Please don't go Sakura-san." He said, his eyes pleading.

"Um, okay... And Sakura is just fine." I said walking back to where I was originally standing.

We stood there for about 3 minutes, his hand still on my arm.

"Could you, uh, ya know, let go of me?" I asked nicely.

He finally looked up at me, he had stared at the ground the entire time.

He didn't let go, so I tried to pry his hand off.

After not letting go, I pushed chakra into my hand to get him to let go.

That didn't go so well.

His grip immediately tightened and my eyes went wide.

"Let go!" I yelled.

His grip got tighter until I thought my arm was going to break so I pulled my other arm back and slammed him in the face with a chakra induced punch.

I healed my bruised arm and watched him get up, though he didn't look normal.

He had something similar to Sasuke's curse mark spreading on his face and he was laughing and smiling like he was crazy.

He took a step closer and I took a step back.

What do I do?

As he meandered closer, I began to panic. I took what seemed like three steps back every time he took one forward.

I was terrified.

I went into battle stance, my hand gripping a kunai I pulled out.

He lunged towards me and I sidestepped him, but he just went for me again.

I threw 2 kunai both missing.

He jumped at me and I tried to move, but there was a huge slash down my entire front.

I screamed out in pain.

I got up, and I threw 5 kunai and 3 shuriken.

2 of the kunai hit and the shuriken missed entirely.

I ran at him with a chakra filled punch, and he moved and punched me into a tree.

I slid down a tree, my eyes fluttering closed.

The last thing I saw was Sasuke before I blacked out.

I woke up in a room feeling totally in pain.

I tried to sit up but being pushed back down by someone.

I looked to my side and saw Sasuke.

Wait, a minute.

Sasuke?

I tried to rack my brain of he was here, all I remember was he was there before I passed out.

"S-Sasuke?" I somehow got out before I went into a coughing fit.

"Get some rest." He ordered in a cold tone.

I didn't listen.

I got out of the bed somehow and he growled.

"Get back in the Kami damned bed." He ordered sounding pissed.

"Where am I," I demanded, purposely ignoring his request.

"My hide-out after Juugo decided to attack you. You're lucky I got there in time, he would have killed you. I see your still as weak as ever." He said in a cold voice.

That did it.

Did he just call me WEAK?

My anger flared and I turned towards him.

"I am not weak!" I screamed, throwing a chakra filled punch towards his smug face.

My fist slammed against his porcelain face, throwing him across the room.

I began to feel woozy, and as my body slammed against the floor, my conscientiousness flickered out.

I woke to chakra restraints and a dull ache in my temples.

Groaning, I looked over to see Juugo. I tensed.

He looked at me sadly and said, "I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to... I'm so sorry."

I looked in his eyes and saw that he was telling the truth.

"I can't trust you still." I said stiffly.

He looked down still looking sad.

I tacked in, "But I guess I can forgive you."

Worse thing to say in my life.

Next thing I knew I was out of chakra restraints in a bone crushing hug.

I screamed out in pain because of my injuries, and he put my down gently.

"Sorry" He mumbled with a small smile on his face.

I nodded and said, "Why am I here? You couldn't have left me in the forest?"

He flinched when I said that.

"Sasuke-sama said we needed a medic since Karin-san isn't very good. He said you were the best, so he choose you. He wanted you to heal your injuries." He said quietly.

I nodded, sat back down and started flowing chakra through my system.

Within seconds I was fully healed.

The don't call me the best for nothing!

Juugo said, "Sasuke-sama also said when your done healing yourself for me to bring you to him. Follow me." He said softly.

He doesn't talk very loud.

I'm still kinda scared of him for that weird curse mark situation, but I didn't show it.

I contemplated that I might not be able to go back to the village.

If an Uchiha wants something they get it.

But of course I'll still put up a fight.

We finally made it to a door that was pure black.

Juugo knocked twice, and a voice said "Come in."

We walked in to see Sasuke at his desk.

"Sit." He commanded.

Juugo sat while I just crossed my arms.

Juugo looked at me and Sasuke sighed.

He started talking, "You will become our medic, or I'll kill you.

"But I won't go down without a fight, Uchiha, so bring it." I replied smirking.

About 2 hours later we were both worn out so we proclaimed it as a tie.

We sat back down in his office, me sitting from exhaustion.

"Sakura, PLEASE become our medic" He asked tiredly.

Oh my Kami it's the end of the world.

An Uchiha said please!

Anyways, I nodded and proceeded to pass out, then and there.

I was outside training with Suigetsu, I liked working with water.

Though Suigetsu flirts more than I like, we get along.

Karin and him don't.

I like learning about water moves, and he likes having someone to spar with, since Karin is always all over Sasuke.

Ahh, I remember those days.

When I look back now I laugh.

Anyway, I remember when I was introduced to the rest of them.

Sasuke and Juugo walked me into the living room where two people were sitting down.

One was a female, and the other a male.

The female had flaming red hair with glasses.

She was glaring at me.

The male was very...

Sharklike.

He smiled with some shark-like teeth, and had very pretty purple eyes.

Sasuke introduced me.

"This is Sakura, our new medic." He said.

The shark guy stood up.

"I'm Suigetsu." And he stuck out his hand.

He brought it to his face and kissed it.

I wasted no time slapping him into the wall.

I darted my eyes from left to right saying loudly with everyone in the room,"If anyone asks, it wasn't me."

Everyone laughed, other than Sasuke who smirked.

Even Karin dropped her glare to laugh.

She stood, dusted herself and glared again, and said with authority in her tone,"I am Karin. And just to make sure, do you like Sasuke?"

"Nope, did once, now I don't, just a friend, probably not even that." I replied.

She smiled for real, and said,"We'll get along then."

I leaned in a whispered in her ear so only she heard, "But that Juugo is one fine piece a meat."

We both giggled, and she said, "Let's go to my room so no boys will hear us."

Suigetsu and I walked back in completely tired.

I liked how I had really good friends here.

Suigetsu is a flirt and loud, but he's nice, and he's always gives you a shoulder to cry on.

Karin talks to me about girly stuff, and I try to help her get Sasuke to like her.

Sasuke has matured since our Genin days, and he's in an Uchiha way nice.

Last, but not least...

Juugo.

He's always so quiet and composed.

He doesn't talk much, and he avoids me as much as possible.

That makes me sad because over the 2 years I've known him...

I think I've fallen in love with him.

No one knows though.

Karin thought it was only a crush, but I told her how I really felt, and she tries to help me.

When we walked in everyone was in the living room except Sasuke.

Suigetsu plopped down on the couch and patted the seat beside him, saying, "Come sit down your obviously worn out."

I shook my head and replied, "That's okay. I'm just gonna do some solo practices."

I gave a light smile, but he frowned.

"You'll pass out from exhaustion" He disagreed.

"I'll be fine" I said waving him off and walking out the door.

After 6 hours of vigorous training, I heard someone come out.

I thought they were all asleep, I mean it was three in the morning!

I looked up at whoever it was, thinking it was Suigetsu, and being surprised when I saw Juugo.

He sat down and I waved.

I when back to working on water techniques.

The one I was working on was dance of the dragon.

You dance and it moves the water along with your body.

After 20 minutes, I started practicing my Fireball Jutsu.

An hour later, I collapsed on the ground.

I rolled over and propped myself up so I could see the sunrise.

After an hour, I got back up and trained more.

I hadn't slept in about 2 weeks.

I have no idea why, and I'm super tired, and Karin and Suigetsu have been worrying about me.

I just wave them off.

As I'm training I happen to look over to see Juugo was still there.

I jogged over to him and said, "Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"Shouldn't you?" He replied quietly.

I laughed.

"Nope. I have way too much training to do." I said smiling about to turn around his hand gripped my arm.

"Huh?"

"Sakura, you haven't slept in 2 days, you've been training non-stop, and you've stopped eating all together. Why?" He asked looking in my eyes.

He noticed?

"Why does it matter?" I asked.

"Because if an enemy were to attack us now, one of us would have to protect you. And I don't want one of us getting hurt." He said.

Ah, so that's why.

He doesn't want any of them to get hurt.

I never knew he cared that little.

I replied in my normal voice, "Oh, I see. You don't want one you guys to get hurt. Okay. That's nice."

I smiled and jerked my arm away from him.

Right now I felt like shriveling up in a corner and dying.

I went back to training and I tripped and ended up breaking my arm.

"Ah, shit." I hissed.

I healed it and within minutes I was training again.

"Sakura" Juugo's clear voice echoed in the training grounds.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"Stop training. Now" He said harshly.

I narrowed my eyes.

"No. If I want to train I have ever single right." I shot back.

He got up and walked over to me.

We didn't notice three pairs of eyes watching us from the windows.

"You will stop training now. It doesn't matter how hard you train you are useless," He growled.

The word useless echoed through my mind.

Tears welled up in my eyes.

As soon as the first one fell I was running.

I didn't care where, I wanted to get as far away as possible.

I heard Karin and Suigetsu calling out and I knew they were following me, but I didn't care.

It hurts when the one you love calls you useless.

This is what you get I told myself.

This is what you get for falling in love.

I finally came to a stream and I just held my self underwater.

I could hear their voices.

They were getting closer.

I felt a hand grab my hair and yank me up.

I breathed in air, looking up at their faces.

"Sakura, why did you run away? What did he say to you?" Karin said helping me out of the water.

I surprised everyone by saying in a cold voice, "Why does it matter? I'm not that important anyway. I'm useless."

Everyone except for Juugo gasped.

I always talk in a warm voice, so that shocked them, but not as much as what I said.

"W-why? Who told you that? You're not worthless" Karin murmured compassionately.

"Tell that to him." I said pointing at Juugo.

Karin immediately got mad.

She said, "Sasuke-kun, Suigetsu-baka, could you leave me, Juugo, and Sakura alone here for a while. We need to have a little talk."

When Sasuke and Suigetsu left, Karin exploded.

"How could you! You bastard, you jerk! She trains so hard, and there you go calling her useless. You are the stupidest piece of man I have every seen! I bet you don't even know why Sakura trains. Do you wanna know? Do you? Sakura, tell him." She screamed her face mad with rage.

I looked down and sighed.

Might as well tell him.

"I train because I thought you'd notice me more. I stop eating because I thought I was fat and you wouldn't like me." I whispered.

Juugo's eyes widened.

"W-what?" He stuttered.

I looked him in the eyes and said, "When I met you i had a crush on you. But recently I couldn't sleep and it took me about a week to figure out I was in love with you. But I can see now you do not feel the same way."

He furrowed his eyebrows and said, "Karin could you leave us alone for a while?"

Karin stormed off.

"I'm sor-" I was cut off by a passionate kiss to the lips.

I kissed back and then he pulled away smiling.

"But I thought you hated me" I mumbled.

"I don't hate you. You're too hard to hate. I fell in love with you, and when you stopped eating I became worried. when you didn't sleep anymore, and started to train non-stop, I was worried you'd harm yourself. I-I got mad because I thought if you trained to much you'd hurt yourself, and then you wouldn't spend any more time with me." He said smiling.

"But you avoided me" I reminded him.

Oh, yes, the week of avoiding.

Who could forget that?

"I thought you were mad at me still for smashing your headboard on your bed." He mumbled.

I giggled.

He looked at me smiled.

"Do you forgive me for everything that I've done to you?" He asked.

"Yes" I said.

He wasted no time in pressing his lips to mine in a passionate embrace.

We both missed the chorused "Awww." from 3 people behind the tree.