A/N: Welcome! Ah, how I missed writing Sakura. She's a personal favorite of mine to write. I hope you enjoy this. It takes place during the flash back in Chapter 11 of Healing and ends with the flashback in Chapter 12. I connected some dots. This can be read without reading Healing of course, but the context certainly helps. Enjoy! :)

*Just to reiterate from the summary - there are no lemons in this story.

In comparison to her own room, Ino's room had always been so much more girly. And that was coming from a girl with pink hair. Ino's room was littered with posters and a fuzzy carpet. She owned a vanity for god sakes and throw pillows. Sakura could appreciate the throw pillows and vanity but the posters and fuzzy carpeting overdid it. Her best friend was ridiculous. Sakura's analyzing of her best friend's dreadfully intense room was interrupted by Ino's abrupt statement. "Forehead, if you don't get someone soon, you're going to die alone."

Sakura laughed, as she picked up a handful of popcorn from the bowl in between them. This girl could be ridiculous. Her laughed stopped quickly, however, as Ino held up a hand and her face turned serious. "Let's get drinks tonight. We'll dress you up, you'd have to meet someone that way."

Sakura frowned as she a small spot of her forehead seemed to pulse in response and it wasn't her chakra. She gently rubbed the spot and under Ino's speculative gaze, she disguised it as a temple rub. "I have someone," she snapped.

"Sasuke does not count. He poked you on that giant forehead of yours. Then left without you and when is he coming back?" Sakura opened her mouth to answer but Ino held up a hand, rejecting what was obviously going to be a pathetic answer to a rhetorical question. "Never. Or not any time soon. You could be dead before he comes back, Sakura. Do you want to die a virgin?"

Sakura flopped her body back on the bed, groaning like the child Ino made her feel like. She was the only one left out of her friends that hadn't had sex. Hell, Hinata had sex. Never in her wildest dreams did Sakura think the bashful woman would surpass her in her sexual endeavors. Hell, Sakura had only had a small handful of kisses. Not make-outs, kisses. For god sakes, she was twenty. Trying to think positive, Sakura remembered Sasuke would be back. He would be back and he would make up for all the lost kisses and sexcapades. They would get married, have kids and live a long happy life together. She mentally nodded to herself. "I won't. He'll be back."

Ino stared as Sakura like she had four heads, how could she possibly love a man who was going to be gone for a unknown amount of time? Hell, she couldn't even find herself fully committing to Sai because sometimes his missions were too long. Sakura had always been a little gullible and pathetic, but she thought they were past that stage in life. Ino mentally groaned, thinking back the sad puppy looking girl in the flower field. Baby steps, she reminded herself, baby steps. She opened her mouth, trying to sound as compassionate as possible. "For the love of god, Sakura. At least come out with us. At least find a nice plan b." She mentally shrugged, compassion was never her forte.

Sakura cursed herself mentally. Maybe a little practice wouldn't be so bad. Hell, she didn't want Sasuke to be repulsed by her inadequacy, right? That man hated inadequacy. A second part of her brain wanted to slap herself. Was she really trying to justify cheating on Sasuke? Well it's not cheating if you're not together, the first part hissed. Well aren't we together, she inquired back to herself. In your dreams maybe, the cruel part of her snapped. She groaned outloud and sat up. "Fine. Make it happen, Pig."

By the time Ino had her way with Sakura it had been about two hours and she hadn't even changed yet. Sakura went to massage her now tender scalp, but Ino wacked her hand away insisting Sakura would make it oily and gross with her hands. Sakura had to admit the curls did make her not-that-overly-large forehead look smaller. And damn, she hadn't known was contouring was until forty-five minutes ago, but it seemed to make it look like she was sexy, not cute. Sakura stared warily at the outfit, however. The dress itself wasn't technically too short, almost knee length in fact, but the slit went so high, Sakura was sure something was bound to slip out. Also, once she had wiggled into it, especially with a pushup bra, she could almost make out her belly-button. This dress was tight. Finally, Ino had chucked a pair of strappy black sandals at her. Sakura groaned, but caked in make-up and in a dress, that made it hard to breath, she supposed there was no going back now.

It wasn't that Sakura never went out to the bar, in fact she drank quite frequently. However, the bars she went to had no dress code, which was essential after a sixteen-hour shift in the hospital and were generally frequented by retired, angry shinobi. She certainly had never had to wait in line, outside for a bar. However, TenTen and Ino had assured her this was normal. Sakura's lined eyes looked at her new bejeweled watch. "It's almost eleven, already," she stated. Although the statment was a little more slurred then she would have liked. Their pregame had left her a little tipsy already.

Ino and TenTen were bantering on about some boy they saw a few people behind them in line and which one of them was going to snag him. Sakura was just concerned with how much her feet already hurt and they weren't even inside yet. She had been beaten beyond belief more times in her life than she cared to admit, but she'd take ever the worst of those beatings right now in exchange for wearing these damned torture devices on her feet. They were finally almost up to the bouncer at least. Ino grabbed her arm excitedly. "Forehead, twelve people back, on the left. Your type."

Sakura's gaze immediately flew back the amount of people and saw a man with black hair and brown eyes talking with his friends. Her heart fluttered at the way his hair was spiky and how his face was so pointed and angular. But, his eyes, they were all wrong. She mentally slapped herself. Obviously, he wasn't Sasuke, hell, the man couldn't even be an Uchiha. He seemed to have similar enough genes, however. She shrugged toward Ino, but her drunken giggle betrayed her indifference. "Maybeeeeee," she tried to sigh, but it came out giggly. Stupid sake, she sighed.

Finally in the bar, Sakura leaned against the table Ino had procured from some young unsuspecting chunin. She really needed another drink, but Ino and Tenten had wandered off and left their purses at the table for Sakura to guard. So much for her being the one to get out for once, she scoffed. Almost as some extraterrestrial being heard her thoughts a person leaned against the wall near her. "Hey there," a gruff voice greeted with crossed arms and a small smirk.

The smirk caught her off-guard almost as much as the spiky black hair did. However, a quick glance at his eyes calmed her. It wasn't Sasuke. It was, well she didn't know. "Sakura," she blurted out and in a horrified moment she flipped hair over her shoulder channeling her inner, deep inner, flirt. "You are?"

The man's smirked seemed to widen as he raised a small brow. "Sosuke. Nice to meet you." Sakura deadpanned. Sosuke? Seriously? What on earth had she done to have a man who resembled Sasuke named Sosuke in front of her, making her acquaintance? Seeming to know he wasn't eliciting a response he turned his attention to the table. "What're you drinking?"

"Vodka sour, with lime," Sakura threw out quickly. He nodded slowly and Sakura leaned against the table, holding her head, motified. Clearly flirting was something she sucked at. Or maybe it was just his resemblance to Sasuke that was throwing her off? Hm, yeah, that was it, she soothed. The vile part of her inner mind rolled its eyes at her stupidity.

When he returned, he brushed up next to her and placed the drink in front of her. "That's a lot of sour for someone so who looks so sweet," he teased, his mouth weirdly close to her ear at this point. She shrugged him off and sipped the drink for a moment, attempting to find any response to that awful pick-up line. But was it really that awful? Part of her questioned.

"Despite the fact I may look like cotton candy to you," Sakura said in her most intimidating voice possible. "I'm not as sweet as I'm cracked up to be." She had turned slightly to face him at this point as was trying to channel the seductive look she had studied from magazines. Judging by the way the man in front of her licked his lips and his eyes trailed down her, it seemed to be working. Quickly, Sakura leaed over and finished the drink, cracking a smile from the confidence his looks gave her.

She snatched his hand and began to pull him away. "Let's dance." And that was how she came to be entangled with a man who looked far too much like her true lover, backed up against a wall just off the dance floor and dangerously close to the bathroom. His kisses trailed from her ear to her neck and she couldn't help but sigh softly. Who knew this would feel so good? At one point, she looked up at him and smirked. "Shots?"

Sosuke smirked at her bold demeanor, leaned forward for one final kiss and drew back slowly, admiring the look of bliss on her face. "Shots," he agreed as she walked her through the dance floor to the bar. While at the bar, Sakura caught sight of Ino and Tenten. Both were separately enticing two men on different ends of the bar. Three shots later, Sakura could only remember bits and pieces of the night.

Stumbling out of the bar she was holding onto Sosuke for balance. Threading her fingers into his hair she pulled him up against the outside wall of the bar. He was holding her butt to balance her he had reassured and Sakura distinctly recalled thinking he was a dirty liar, but she did have a toned butt so alas she couldn't be too offended. "My place," Sakura had sighed out much to her own surprise as his hand had begun to trail up her thigh against the outer wall of the bar.

The next thing she remembered was being in her own bed, far more naked than she ever had been before with another man and he was on top of her. And damn, whatever he was doing felt great. Sakura cursed herself for not being able to remember most of the details except for the soft, and occasionally not so soft, moaning between them and way his warm skin felt damn good against her consistently cold fingers. And she remembered the room spinning by the end of it and damn, Sakura was pretty sure it wasn't spinning because she was drunk.

Sakura slowly found sleep the spin of her ceiling fan lulling her. The sun, however, came far too soon and she cursed herself for having stayed out so late. She reached up to stretch and felt a creature next to her. Instinctively, she wound up to punch him until the muddled events from the night before came whirring back to her. Instead of a punch, she opted for a rather impolite shove. He grunted softly and opened his eyes, smirking. "Well… good morning, Candy."

Her eyes nearly bulged out of her head as she ran her fingers through her hair at the sight of this Sasuke-impersonating creature in her bed. "Get out," she blabbered out, but covered her mouth in horror. "Ah, I mean. I'm sorry. I just forgot you were here and I'm really not use to waking up next to someone- and now I'm rambling, it's really-" His mouth was on hers and was suddenly all too aware of the fact they both had yet to brush their teeth and stale alcohol breath was awful. She broke apart from him, but his hand still lingered on the back of her neck.

"You could have fooled me. You seemed quite experienced." His voice was velvet, but right now it felt unwelcome against her and she pulled herself out of bed, wrapping herself in a blanket self consciously.

"I – uh- really need to get to the hospital. I'm already quite late. So uh – if you would…" Sakura gestured gracefully toward her door. The man nodded, and got ready at the most leisurely pace, despite the fact she was tapping her foot in impatience at this point. Eventually he left and she collapsed into her bed, blowing her greasy hair out of her face and staring at the ceiling. This was certainly not how she imagined losing her virginity. As if the world knew she was mentally drained, the phone rang. "Sakura speaking," she answered dutifully.

"FOREHEAD!" The voice screeched and Sakura held the phone further from her ear, not able to handle the screeching with her pounding headache. "Who did you go home with last night?"

"Really Ino…I'm not in the mood to-"

"No! You do not get to leave out details on this. I'll be over in ten." Sakura groaned and pulled the sheet overhead, suddenly wishing she actually did have work today. Her door lock would be useless, the man certainly hadn't locked it.

Apparently, will-power was something Sakura had to work on because for the second time in a week, Ino had convinced her to go out and she had to work tomorrow. Dressed up once again in an outfit which showed far more skin than she was used to and heals which made her look like she actually might be tall, she was cursing her entire existence. Last time, the line had been bearable because of the pre-game she had joined, but this time there was no pregame and she was stone cold sober. "Sakura! The boys are here!" Ino cheered as she waved back to Naruto, Kiba and Shikamaru as they stood several people behind them in line.

Sakura's eyes turned into saucers as did Naruto's when he saw her. "I didn't realize you when out, Sakura. You look uh-"

"Don't say anything to get you in trouble with Hinata," Sakura hissed out, holding the ear of her teammate. He waved his hands defensively before apologizing profusely. Kiba eyed her hungrily and Sakura nearly clobbered him. "Kiba, go be a dog somewhere else for god sakes."

Inside the bar, despite swearing up and down to only have one drink, Sakura was five shots in thanks to a challenge from Naruto. When he had insisted he could his liquor better than her, she really hadn't factored in his high metabolism thanks to the kyuubi. She waggled a finger in his face. "You, Uzumaki Naruto, have gotten me drunk. How rude!" She teased, as she sipped on a vodka sour.

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Ah, Sakura. Well, I have to be getting home before Hinata gets worried. Be safe!" He nearly ran out of the bar and Sakura realized she hadn't danced yet this evening and that was obviously a travesty. Tenten was easy to spot, dancing eloquently and Sakura joined her, slightly less elegantly.

Dancing alone didn't last long, however. Familiar hands grabbed hold of her hips and Sakura looked up to see red marks and fangs. "Kiba, you dance," Sakura teased tapping his nose.

Shaking his head in response to her poke, he smirked. "If it's with a woman like you, I do a lot of things." His last sentence finished much closer to her neck than she had ever picture him being, causing a small shiver. In a panic that of all people, Inuzuka Kiba is hitting on her, Sakura eyed Ino across the dance floor, who had Sai in her clutches and earned a thumbs up. Sakura turned to Kiba and smirked before chugging the rest of her drink. Fuck it, she thought, he's wild on streets, so in the bed… she blushed at the thought.

Not a man of patience, Sakura was soon in an alleyway with Kiba's hand up her dress and her's nearly ripping out his hair. She glanced at Kiba and bit her lip, she might be too sober for this. "House, bed," she muttered in-between his hasty kisses.

The next morning, Sakura was happy to find that, like a gentleman, Kiba had left. Aparently he had the idea that she did not want to wake up for work next to him. Or maybe he just wanted to get home to Akamaru, she mentally added. As she trduged to the office, she was exhausted and the pounding in her head and feet would not go away. She cursed Ino as she sat at her desk, this was all her damn fault.

Her door abruptly opening as she was filling out paperwork was not a welcome noise. "Would it hurt you to knock?" She growled as the blonde man in front of her looked ready to burst.

"I leave you alone in the bar and you fuck Kiba?!" He was practically screeching.

"NARUTO! Quiet! That's private! How do you-" Sakura's eyes widened, and she held her aching head in her hands. "He told you…" she muttered. That dog, she growled.

Naruto leaned onto her desk and he shook his head. "What do you think guys do? Don't you call Ino first thing?"

Sakura rubbed her temples as she remembered her phone call earlier this week about Sosuke. Her best friend might know more about him than she did at that point. "It's different. He's saying it like I'm a prize."

Naruto arched a brow and smiled. "Aren't you?" His head was suddenly in as much pain as her thanks to her fist. "Sakura….it was compliment. Why are you always so mean?" A tick appeared on her forehead as she shooed him out of her office.

Four weeks later, Sakura sat in her bed on the phone with Ino. "No, Pig. I'm not picking a new guy tonight. I want one I know. No, not Kiba, fuck him because I do not have a birth mark there. Sosuke was weird. No, his face is too fat to look like Sasuke. The last guy, yeah. He was wet, like I had dried spit on me the next day. No thank you. Hm, the brown haired one you mean? Oh crap, yeah Kaii? He was cute. And he was funny. Good call. You're getting together with Sai, right? Hm, alright. Have fun!"

Sakura hung up the phone and dialed another number, Kaii's number. He answered after three rings and sounded as cheery as the night in the bar. "Goodevening! Kaii, speaking!"

"Hey! It's Sakura, uh did you want go out tonight?" Sakura was pretty shameless about asking guys out at this point, a trait picked up from Ino. She wasn't going to sit around wait anymore. She had waited enough of her life already. Sakura smiled into the phone in response. "Sounds great, see you then!"

Sakura bounced up and got ready to grocery shop, so she actually had food tomorrow morning. Walking through the store she was bumped into and the man smiled and apologized before stopping. "Sakura?"

Sakura blinked, not having actually looked up from the peppers she was admiring. "Oh, hey Naruto!"

Scratching the back of his head he smiled. "I almost didn't recognize you there."

"I have pink hair, Naruto. I'm pretty sure I'm the only girl in Konoha with pink hair," She deadpanned.

"Well-uh, you just have been glowing lately. You're so confident. It's weird." Sakura narrowed her eyes at him and he was quick to continue talking. "It's a good thing! Is it because you've become a," he leaned in closer. "woman now?" He received a swift wack to the head.

Sakura rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Naruto…I became a woman a long time ago. That phrase means when a girl gets her period, not when she has sex, idiot." Naruto grimaced at the idea of women and periods, but quickly composed himself.

"Welp, keep getting laid Sakura! It makes you glow!" He waved and continued walking through the grocery store and Sakura could feel herself wanting to melt into the produce section with all the stares she was getting.

Her date with Kaii had been outstanding. It a romantic, and honestly not what she expected. He had taken her out on a night picnic on the river, something she always loved to do. Hell, the man brought her flowers and had made the picnic himself. And now, as he walked her home she held his hand as he talked about how a certain species of bird was migrating into Konoha next week and he simply couldn't wait to see them at their gathering spot.

"Take me with you when you go," Sakura beamed, almost surprising herself. She frankly didn't care about birds, but something about this man made her want to care. As they reached her door he stopped and ran his fingers along her knuckles and once again, she surprised herself by saying something she definitely hadn't planned on. "Come in, have some tea!" Inviting a sober man into her home was something she hadn't quite done before and she definitely wished she invited him in for sake, not tea.

The next few months flew by and for some reason, Sakura lost interest in other guys. They weren't as nice, or respectful as Kaii. They certainly weren't as funny. Also, Kaii had a kitten and what was better than watching a cute guy play with a cute kitten? Sakura often packed two lunches now, so Kaii could join her on their lunch break. Things were going well and they were exclusive.

"I don't understand what you mean. Are you guys dating then?" Naruto had asked.

Sakura laughed and brushed him off. "No, we're just exclusive. So, we only go out with each other."

Naruto blinked at her, terribly confused. "So, you two only date each other? No one else?"

"Yes, Naruto," Sakura sighed, rolling her eyes and munching on a piece of lettuce.

"So, almost like he's your boyfriend?" Naruto squinted at her, still not grasping it.

"Basically, but without the label. It makes things easier," Sakura explained, as if it made the most sense in the world.

"Uh-huh," Naruto nodded, still furrowing his brow in confusion.

Sakura sighed and waved him off. "You wouldn't understand. Things with Hinata were different."

Naruto shrugged and shook his head. "I'm just happy that you're happy, Sakura. He's better than Kiba-" Naruto was cut off by having to nurse a new bruise on his head. "What was that for!"

"I said not to talk about that again!" Sakura growled.

Sakura pet the kitten in her arms as she looked at the ceiling, groaning. What was she going to do? Sasuke was coming home. He'd been seen coming toward the village and had told Naruto he'd be home within a week. Of course, he didn't tell you, Inner Sakura spat, as vicious as always.

She held up the brown kitten to face her, their green eyes matched. "What am I gonna tell your Dad, Pocky? What would you do?" The kitten meowed in her face, seemingly annoyed. Sakura placed him back on her lap. "Yeah, I know. I'm annoyed too." She blew her bangs out of her face and sighed, she knew what was coming. She had to break up with Kaii. He was a nice guy, but he wasn't Sasuke. And they weren't really together anyway, so what did it matter?

Sakura wrung her fingers outside of Kaii's home. It was finally time to do it. She had to do it now. She had to let him know that they couldn't see each other anymore. At least not the way they were seeing each other now. She had dropped Pocky off two days ago, but hadn't been able to find the words then. Sakura cursed herself. Despite practicing for more than forty minutes before coming, the words still escaped her. She finally willed her fingers to press the doorbell.

Apparently god had forsaken her, because she heard footsteps approach the door. Of course he was home, he always was at this time. Sakura groaned inwardly that she knew his schedule so well. The footsteps drew nearer and she felt her chest tightening. She heard the knob and lock twist and the look on his face nearly broke her head. He looked at her like she was the sun in his day. Or the way a bird looks at a worm, he had had phrased it so eloquently a week or so prior. Sakura barely noticed the way his arms went to reach out and hug her, but being a shinobi himself, he was perceptive man. The expression on her face was not well hid. "W-we need to speak," she finally sputtered out. Sakura paled, she was going to vomit.

His face of realization didn't make it any easier. He knew. Sakura cold feel herself becoming clammy and pale. You've killed people with less trouble, the rational part of her spat and she immediately swatted it away. Yeah, she had killed people, and this was damn close second in crappy feelings. "Yes?" Was all he said and it was a whisper. His arms had dropped from where it had hovered on her arm. He suddenly seemed extremely fascinated with her red painted toes.

Sakura swallowed, her throat dry and took a shallow breath. "I can't do this anymore. Something has come up and we need to stop whatever we're doing." Her tone certainly wasn't kind. It was the kind of tone she tried to use when delivering bad news to family members, curt and focused. And right now, she was disgusted with the use of the tone. He didn't deserve this. Kaii deserved better and she knew it.

"He's back," he whispered and Sakura tried not to flinch. It was like a slap in the face. Kaii wasn't a stupid man, and certainly wasn't impervious to the village gossip. He knew about Sakura and Sasuke.

"No, no. That's not it. I just-" Sakura was stopped dead by him touching her arm and giving the warmest of looks she had ever felt. He was comforting her. This wasn't right, and her heart sank even deeper than she thought it could.

His hand was on her arm now, and he gave it a gentle squeeze. "I understand. Just be careful and happy, Sakura. Best." With one more pat to her arm, he slipped inside and closed the door before Sakura could even begin to find the words to react.

Sakura closed her eyes and shook her head. She had played with his heart. She knew she'd go back to Sasuke eventually and she had bothered to talk about a future with Kaii. She wrapped her arms around herself on her walk to back to her apartment. Feeling the wind in her hair she sighed. All that was left to do now was to learn from her mistakes. She'd been a crappy person and played a good man who had actually cared about her. Sakura swore she would never make anyone feel like that again.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed! I know I haven't published anything SasuSaku for a while and I swear I'm working on this Healing sequel, but writer's block is vicious disease. I hope this satiated ya'll for a little while (And if you haven't read Healing and liked this, go check it out! :D

Reviews are always thoroughly appreciated! Thanks for reading!