A/N: Hey! I'm baaaaack! Just a warning, but this one probably sucks. A lot. Still, I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I would be rolling in money right now and not posting these stories on this site.

'thinking'
"talking"

Sauske walked down the path, not really sure where he was going. He'd left Sakura and Naruto back in the village: he needed time alone to think.

His mind wandered back to the object of his confusion. Or rather person. He couldn't stop thinking about her. He could barely even sleep, because he knew she'd be there too. It wasn't so bad when Naruto was there, because then he could focus on insulting the annoying ninja. When he was with people, he could push his annoying obsession away and focus on what was needed. But when he was alone…well…things got complicated.

His feet led him unconsciously down the beaten dirt road. What did it matter where he was going? As long as it got him farther away from a certain kunoichi in the village behind him. He hadn't mentioned his dilemma to anyone, though he was sure Kakashi-sensei had noticed and Naruto had been looking at him a little strangely lately…

Oomph! The ground suddenly came up to punch him in the face. He lay there for a moment, stunned, before pushing himself off the ground and onto his knees. A trickle of something warm and wet flowed over his lips and down his chin to drip onto the road. He lifted a hand to his mouth to see what it was and his hand came away bloody.

He stared at it for a moment; his normally quick mind working sluggishly due to a lack of sleep. Then he reached into his back pouch and took out a roll of bandage he'd stuck there that morning in case Naruto somehow managed to hurt himself during training again. He was struck by the irony of it all as he unwrapped a length of it to hold to his nose.

Pushing himself to his feet, the bandage held to his nose he continued walking. After a while, his nose stopped bleeding and, after cleaning himself up, he wrapped the bloodied bandages in the leftover clean ones and shoved them back in his back pouch. There was no need to get blood everywhere and worry Sakura needlessly.

Ugh, there he went again! Thinking about Sakura. He shook his head in irritation.

A pale pink petal fluttered past his ear; driven by the breeze. He turned to see where it was coming from and was greeted with surprise: an orchard of Cherry trees all in full bloom. They were exactly the same color of Sakura's hair…not that he was paying any attention.

A voice beside his ear startled him out of his thoughts, "Thinking of someone precious?"

"No," it was quite a job actually, keeping his voice as calm as it usually was. Even as he lied to the old farmer who had asked the question.

The old man ignored Sauske's rudeness and continued to speak as if he were talking to an old friend, "You know, I planted that orchard for my wife back when we were young. It was our first anniversary when these trees bloomed for the first time. She never saw these flowers again after that spring. But she loved them. Always said they were prettier and more delicate than roses."

Out of curiosity, Sauske found his mouth moving of it's own accord, "What happened to her?"

"Oh, she died during the wars between the villages. She was a jounin and always said it was her duty to fight. Even if she thought the reasons were pointless, she was loyal to the end. When she died, all she left behind was our son who never got to know her," the old man had a look of infinite sadness on his face, but then he smiled, as if he couldn't help it. His eyes were filled with unshed tears as he continued, "But you know one thing? When our son was only two years old, and the trees bloomed that spring, Hayate(that's our son's name)ran outside to where I was trimming the branches on one tree, touched a flower that had fallen to the ground and said, 'Mommy loves flowers.'

"I was amazed. I had never told him that. So I asked him, 'who told you that?' Then he said in that sure way only kids can, 'Mommy.' I had never been more sure that she was watching us."

Sauske stared up at the old man. He had never heard a story told with so much emotion. His mouth seemed to decide to go on a rebellious streak and ask another question, "What was your wife's name?"

The farmer looked at him for a moment, before sighing and saying, "Sakura. Her name was Inoue Sakura."

Sauske's heart seemed to stop for a moment. Sakura? His wife's name was Sakura? But as seemed so common today, his mouth took the initiative again, "I have a friend named Sakura."

"It's a pretty name," the old man said nodding. "She's that person you were thinking about when you saw my orchard. Take my advice: don't fight whatever your heart persists on telling you is right. Embrace it and know the heart never lies."

Sauske stared at the farmer the words on his tongue and out of his mouth before he could stop them, "But how did you know?"

"Every now and again some traveler will come down this road in the spring; running from something they can't fight. And most oftentimes they stop by this orchard. When they do they have this look on their faces that speaks of longing and suppression. I usually go and tell them the story of this orchard and hope it helps them to put their minds and hearts in the right order. Today when I saw you, I saw that same look on your face. Of course, whether you take my advice or not is up to you; I just hope you don't end up regretting what you never do." with that last confusing statement the old man wandered back among the tall blooming branches of the cherry trees.

Sauske stared after him for a minute, before letting his feet turn him around and head back down the path. Before long he reached Konoha. Walking through the village he headed toward Sakura's house hoping to talk to her. Her mom answered the door and told him she was out and that she wasn't sure where Sakura had gone.

After thanking Sakura's mom, Sauske headed straight for the forest. Had anyone asked, he couldn't have explained his reasons for going there. All he knew was that Sakura tended to go to a certain meadow if she ever felt down or discouraged. Lately she'd been a little distracted, so he thought it was a good bet that she'd be there.

Ducking under a low branch, he wondered why he was so worried about her all of a sudden. Thinking about it, he decided that, since it was spring, the nights were still cool and Sakura would be useless if she caught a cold. Well, that was what he told himself.

His footsteps slowed as he recognised the virtually impenetrable barrier of trees that surrounded the clearing. The only way to get past them was to go to the treetops. He could also burn the trees down, but Sakura would never forgive him if he did that.

Soundlessly, he jumped up into the branches of a nearby oak. From there he jumped from tree to tree till the trees ended. Looking down into the meadow from his perch, he saw that he was right and Sakura was right where he thought she'd be. The thing he wasn't expecting was that she was fast asleep in the middle of the meadow among the flowers that always bloomed there.

Hopping down, he walked over to the sleeping kunoichi and plopped down beside her. The old man's words came to him again: "Of course, whether you take my advice or not is up to you; I just hope you don't end up regretting what you never do."

'why did he say that? What did he mean-regretting things I might never do?' Sauske reached out and unconsciously smoothed Sakura's hair back away from her face. She stirred and he quickly drew his hand away, but all she did was move closer to his warm body. Then it came to him, 'Did he mean that I love Sakura? That I'm not letting myself…that I'm holding myself back from her? How do I feel about her? Well, I don't like seeing her hurt. And I know she really likes me; even though I keep pushing her away…'

The answer was so simple he drew in a breath. He did like her. No, more than that…he loved her. He tested the new words on his lips, "I love you." And he did. He loved her so much it hurt.

A small sound startled him and he looked down at the kunoichi who had been asleep only a few seconds earlier.

"Sauske? What are you doing here? Where am I?" the girl sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes before looking around the clearing. Realization dawned in her eyes and she turned back to Sauske an apology on her lips.

He cut her off, "Don't." She dropped her gaze a blush creeping up to her face. He sighed, " you know, I was just sitting here for a minute; waiting for you to wake up…"

Her blush deepened, "…when I realized something…"

She didn't move, "…something I had never really thought of before…"

Sakura looked up opening her mouth; Sauske waved her off signalling he wasn't done and her mouth snapped closed, "You see, what I realized was this: I…" he blushed this time, "…I love you, Sakura."

She blinked, "What?" it was barely a whisper.

"I love you," his heart was beating really hard.

"But… I thought you…"

"Didn't?" he gave a short laugh, "I thought I didn't. But then for a long time now I haven't been able to get you out of my mind…and well, one thing lead to another," he smirked, "Sorry if I've been a little rude to you lately."

Sakura didn't say anything for a while, then she asked, "So that's why you haven't talked to me all week?" he nodded and she punched him on the shoulder hard enough to leave a bruise.

He winced, then yelped in surprise when she grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him down to her level. Their lips met and his eyes widened in surprise, before he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her back for all he was worth. Her arms found their way around his shoulders as her hands tangled in his hair.

When they finally parted gasping for air, She said, "I never stopped loving you. Ever," Then she dragged him down for another kiss, not that he was complaining.

He placed a kiss to her neck when they parted again. Then whispered, "I love you," into her ear kissing the spot just under her ear, then her temple, then each of her eyelids, and her nose before reaching her lips again.

Sometime later, after a while of laying among the flowers and talking about trivial things while watching the stars flicker to light in the sky above them. Sauske told her about the old farmer and his orchard.

Sakura stared up at the stars for a moment, then said, "That's a sad story. Is that what made you realize you loved me?"

"Yeah," Sauske grinned. His grin turned to concern when she shivered in the cooling night air. "Come on," he stood up, "lets head back to the village. It's getting cold," he offered a hand to Sakura who accepted it and lifted herself to her feet.

"Could we do this some other night? I mean just lay here and talk. You know, when it's warmer and we have a blanket," Sauske turned at Sakura's query before answering:

"Sure, why not?"

And so they jumped through the trees to Konoha. But little did they know that a certain "hyperactive nutball ninja" and his shy girlfriend were sitting in a tree at the edge of the clearing.

"Wow," Naruto grinned, "That was weird."

Hinata nodded, "It looked like they really liked each other."

"C'mon, Hinata, we have to get back too or else they might guess that we were here. Man, I am so going to tease them about this…" and they headed back to the village.

The next day, when Kakashi's team headed to the bridge to meet up with Kakashi everyone in Konoha seemed to know that Uchiha Sauske and Haruno Sakura were a couple. It wasn't that hard to figure out who was the culprit considering Naruto's expression.

Sakura and Sauske quickly retaliated by bringing out into the open Naruto and Hinata's relationship, not that anyone was surprised. It was well known over Konoha, especially among last year's Academy graduates, that Hinata had been…watching…Naruto.

And as for the old farmer…well, he came into village one day with his son and saw Sauske and Sakura together. He went home happy that day, even though someone had tried to cheat him for the cherries he was selling.

So "alls well that ends well" right? Except for Ino and Shikamaru. But that's a story for another time.

A/N: Soooo, whatdidyouthink? R&R! Cause if you don't, I might ask Shikamaru to bore you to tears with his laziness. MIGHT. There's no garantee that he'll accually DO it.*sigh*

Just so you know. The button tickles when you press it so if you want to tickle me press it!^^