AN: I'm back, after a severe case of writer's block, but with new motivation comes new perspective. I've had the notes for this story burning a hole in my hard drive since early 2017, so I figured I'd put it down on a page and I'm quite satisfied with it as of now. I needed a break from Orange Flash since it's a serious beast of a story, and I noticed that the quality of my (currently unreleased) chapters was dropping off, so I had to scrap them. With that said, I'm using this story as a palate cleanser to get my ideas flowing again. As a whole, this story will be on the shorter side, and I'll update it as I come up with ideas. Anyway, let's get into it!

Naruto's eyes gradually opened and surveyed his surroundings. Konoha Hospital. He rose from his cot and looked down at his newly attached arm, it felt heavy and gave him little in terms of feedback. He couldn't even fully close his hand, but even so, he was glad the surgery went as planned. Otherwise he'd have woken up still short an arm.

He looked over to his left and saw Sasuke, still completely asleep. The Uchiha looked gaunt, drained from the constant phantom pains of his missing arm. Naruto briefly wondered why his friend would refuse a chance to be whole again, but soon deduced it was due in part to some dour reasoning associated with repentance… or something.

Having healed completely since their final bout at the Valley of the End, as well as being no worse for wear from the surgery, Naruto hopped out of the bed and walked over to a tray of medical tools.

Flexing his oddly-textured arm as much as he could, he moved to grab a large and unwieldy pair of forceps. His arm shook and twitched as the synthetic muscles crackled and popped. It just felt so heavy, like he had a boulder strapped to his wrist.

"It'll take a while for your nerve endings to grow back through the arm, it may even be painful…"

Naruto recognized the voice and let his arm fall to his side. Sakura.

His face went grim for a moment, but his back was to the door so she didn't see his expression. The boy took a breath and centered himself for a moment, after which, he put on his usual fanfare of smiles and sunshine.

"Hey Sakura-chan! Here to check on us?"

She smiled and nodded. "I am… though you seem to be walking around already. You've always been able to bounce back fast though. It's him I'm more worried about…"

Naruto turned and saw Sasuke starting to shiver, the bandages on his left arm had bled through over night and now they were starting to turn a shade of maroon.

Sakura elaborated. "His arm was completely destroyed, unlike your injury, his went up to his shoulder socket. We had to amputate what remained, and now he's at risk for infection. That, and the constant blood loss isn't helping his immune system fight it."

Naruto did the math in his head, it had been just over three weeks since Team 7 returned to Konoha, so perhaps Sasuke's injuries were worse than he initially thought, since his stump hadn't even stopped bleeding yet.

Naruto plopped himself back onto his cot. "He'll be fine if you're taking care of him."

Reaching over to his nightstand, he slid a book into his lap and used his good arm to crack it open. A few minutes passed and Sakura broke the silence once more.

"Ya know, I've never seen you read anything before, Naruto. What kind of book could keep you still for more than a few minutes at a time?"

Naruto answered her without looking up from the pages. "Oh… It's… not a book. It's Ero-Sannin's journal… Obaa-chan gave it to me after she received all of his effects… she was the only other person listed in his will…"

Sakura's posture sunk. "I see… I suppose we never really had a chance to stop and take a... headcount. Are you going to be alright?"

"I'll be fine… I'm just… coming to terms with everything… everyone…"

The pink-haired medic solemnly returned to Sasuke's wounds, and this time around, Naruto was the one watching her. Sakura's hands and eyes checked over the Uchiha's ailments with a love and care that Naruto himself had never received from her. He thought back to the last time they were all in a hospital room like this, the day he finally understood just how much Sakura loved his teammate… and how little her love meant to Sasuke in the face of their rivalry.

Having given up on the "why" long ago, he'd instead opted to just make sure she could be happy. Of course-over time; Naruto's motive for chasing Sasuke had become a different beast altogether, but he still respected the fact that his feelings for Sakura were the catalyst of the storm he'd been sailing through the past five years.

'I've finally fulfilled my promise to you, but now… now I'm faced with a new challenge, letting go of you.'

Naruto was snapped from his inner dialogue by the sound of Sakura's voice.

"Naruto?"

"Hn?"

Sakura remained focused on re-wrapping Sasuke's stump.

"I know there's a lot on your mind, but you've been awfully quiet lately. It worries me a lot… since you've always worn your emotions on your sleeve… It makes me think that you've been injured in other ways… ways that can't be fixed with bandages."

Naruto shut his eyes and smirked, musing to himself. 'Man, she can read me like a book sometimes… yet other times… she completely misunderstands me.'

"It's not an 'invisible wound', Sakura-chan… It's more like… a realization."

This was enough to cause her to turn from Sasuke fully and look Naruto in the eye.

"… Of what?"

Naruto peered down at the matching wedding rings attached to the lock on Jiraiya's journal, one of them with Tsunade's name etched into it.

He winced, wondering if Jiraiya's last thoughts were of the Hokage. "I'll… tell you when it stops hurting."

Sakura glared at Naruto. "Okay, you can't say something like that and expect me to leave it as is!"

Naruto shrugged. "You're just gonna have to trust me, now's not the time."

The girl sighed and finished her tending to Sasuke. "Fine. Just… make sure to keep moving that arm as much as you can and I'll be back later today… but if you need to see me before then, just… tell one of the ANBU outside... and Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"… Thank you... For everything…"

The blonde smiled and gave her thumbs up as she quietly shut the door. The smile died immediately after she was gone and morphed into a pensive stare, focused on the clouds outside the window.

'There's always a fight somewhere in my life that I can't win… no matter how much I push myself… always one.'

The following weeks saw Sasuke to a full recovery… all things considered. His balance was still off-kilter at times due to the missing arm. He always found himself drifting to the right whenever he moved more than a few feet.

A close call… He'd nearly fallen off the monument, due to his new weight distribution. Sasuke had gone there to meet Naruto, who he summoned earlier that day. The ANBU were close behind, with Tsunade having allowed him outside the compound on the condition that the ANBU were close-by at all times.

A few minutes passed as they waited for Naruto in silence, Sasuke looked out over Konoha's beauty during the night. Lanterns and lights everywhere, hundreds of thousands of people finally able to let loose after the war... to him... it was all just a prison.

Suddenly, Naruto's head peeped upward from below the crown of the 1st Hokage's head.

"What's goin' on Sasuke?"

Sasuke motioned for Naruto to walk with him, so he leapt into the air and landed next to the Uchiha.

"Naruto. I wanted to tell you this when the time was right, but it can't wait any more."

The blonde grimaced. "... Are you coming on to me?"

Sasuke moved to swat at Naruto's head, but nothing happened… for a moment he'd forgotten he didn't have a left arm.

"I'm not attracted to men."

Naruto grinned. "Could've fooled me. If that's the case there's gotta be someone that makes your pants feel tighter."

Sasuke glared at Naruto. "Just let me talk, this is important and I only have a few minutes before those guys drag me back to the compound."

He motioned toward the impatient looking ANBU.

"Alright Sasuke, shoot."

Sasuke turned to look at Konoha once more and paused, causing Naruto's stomach to start churning.

"... I can't stay here."

Naruto sputtered. "Wh-What?! Come on man, we just brought you home!"

He sighed and reached his hand out toward the city lights. "I know that… but I also remember what this village did to my people… my family."

Naruto's heart sank. "B-but… we can… there's gotta be a way to make this right! I know! I can bring you to talk with Obaa-chan and we can-"

Sasuke's fist clenched. "I HATE it here! … and now I'm trapped."

The blonde's voice trailed off, leaving them in silence.

"I came back because I wanted to, but now I know… This place… I just feel wrong. The compound? It feels like I'm sleeping in their blood… and the nightmares? They came back... I seize up whenever I try to set foot in my old house, and in the night, I hear their damned voices taunting me! Like I could've done something to save them that night! ...I ...I can't do this any longer than I have to… When my probation's up, I need to leave… for good."

Sasuke looked to his left and realized that Naruto was on the ground clutching his head… he was trying not to cry... and failing.

"I'm sorry... FUCK! This isn't what I meant to- GOD DAMMIT! This whole time... I was only thinking about myself and not what was best for you. Of course this blows up in my face. What's the point of achieving something if it all goes to shit?!"

The Uchiha walked around Naruto and knelt down, placing his hand on his friend's soldier.

"Don't blame yourself. Like I said, I wanted to see for myself if I could return to life as I knew it… It's just… not working like I thought it would."

Naruto took a deep breath before speaking. "But what do we do? It's almost like nothing I've done over the last 5 years even matters…"

Suddenly, Naruto felt a soft thump on the top of his head. "How do you think I felt after I killed Itachi? Stop crying and stand up. You've gotta be tougher than this if you want to be the Hokage."

Naruto shot up and glared at Sasuke, still pouting. "Hey man! You don't know what I went through to get you back here, and now you're telling me you hate it here?! Just gimme a minute!"

"I don't have a minute, Naruto. There was something else I wanted to ask you about."

The blonde sniffled. "What's that?"

"The Cycle of Hatred… and how we stop it."

Naruto was reminded of his vow to the late Akatsuki leader. "I've been thinking about that myself, but my idea of a first step would've involved you being here… with us."

Sasuke put his hand on his hip and looked down at the city lights. "Well, that's off the table now..."

"… I guess so… You don't have to be here if you don't want to, it defeats the point of bringing you home."

Sasuke tried to cross his arm(s), but it felt awkward, so he instead opted to stuff his hand in one of his pockets.

"I don't have much hate left in my body, but I just can't stay here. So in light of that, I'll ask to be formally discharged… being a shinobi... it's lost meaning to me… Honestly, I think the shinobi system itself is the root cause of this world's trend toward violence. I mean, look at the peace we're in now… Even with the Akatsuki gone, we're one misunderstanding away from a 5th war."

Naruto nodded. "You're right… I've been researching the powers granted to the office of Hokage and based on what I've found, I can make some serious headway when I make it there."

"Good. I just want you to understand that I can't do much while I'm here, and that destroying this cycle… It's my new ambition… Hopefully it'll carry me further than my last one…"

Naruto narrowed his eyes at Sasuke. "On the war-path again i see? Right then… What'll you tell Sakura-chan? She's in love with you, and I'm not sure how she'll react to you leaving a second time…"

Sasuke looked down. "I think that it'd be for the best if you were the one who told her… after I'm gone."

Naruto sputtered again. "Wait what?! Tell her yourself!"

"No. She'll try to come with me if I do. Where I'm going… she shouldn't follow..."

"Dammit Sasuke! You need to think of other peop-... Wait, no that's exactly what you're doing, aren't you? Just… don't hurt her any more than you already have..."

Sasuke sighed and made his way toward the ANBU. "I'm… afraid that's off the table as well… I'll finish my probation out of respect for what you went through to achieve all this... but beyond that, I can't promise anything else."

Sasuke turned to leave, uttering one last prod to fire Naruto up. "And don't sit out here moping all night in the cold, you'll get sick!"

Naruto pouted and sniffled as he shook his fist at his teammate. "I'll mope where I damn well please! Damn Uchiha... goin' around dropping bombs like that outta nowhere..."

"Sorry for being... honest?" Sasuke awkwardly fidgeted in place before he disappeared in a swirl of leaves along with the ANBU agents.

There was a short pause and Naruto placed his head in his hands.

'Just can't win...'

Again, more weeks passed, but this time, with Naruto having to carry the burden of keeping a secret from Sakura and Kakashi. To keep himself from imploding, he'd taken to interning with Tsunade to learn about the more political aspects of being Hokage. While Naruto wasn't one for politics, Tsunade made it a point to teach Naruto in a way that would keep him engaged.

The lessons were framed as learning practical skills, one of which involved negotiating. The trick involved learning how to read someone, and in turn, figuring out what they wanted. Once you knew, you could bend them toward fulfilling your own goals by offering them something that would in turn force them to at least meet you half way in the negotiation.

… That was the lesson about a week ago. Today… it was just paperwork, though in this case, Naruto was uniquely suited for the task of assisting the Hokage with the forms, despite the its monotony…

Several shadow clones were sorting completed papers and yet-to-be-signed ones into various piles based on form type, Naruto and Tsunade even seemed to have gotten a system going, one that could potentially shave several hours off of a standard work day.

Suddenly, the office door swung open, revealing Shizune, who was carrying another stack of paperwork that looked to have piled up in the weeks following the war. Tsunade groaned and pointed to the crowd of Narutos signing and sorting paper, Shizune then walked forward to hand the forms to Naruto. This revealed that Sakura was standing just behind her. She sheepishly hovered into the room to ask if they should wait to go over the medical forms from the hospital, but she trailed off when she locked eyes with Naruto.

Sakura immediately tore across the room and weaved between the shadow clones to reach the real one. For some reason, she could always tell the difference, and this occaision was no different. She wrapped Naruto up into a bear hug, to the point of lifting him off the ground.

Sakura released the hug and looked up at her teammate. "Hey, Naruto! I haven't seen you in over two weeks! How's your arm doing?"

Naruto simply smiled and took the medical forms from Sakura using his prosthetic arm. "Just fine. I've… just been busy."

He promptly returned to the couch and began sorting the forms Sakura had given him, prompting her to cross her arms and frown.

"Naruto."

"Yup?"

"Where've you been? We've been meeting at Ichiraku's, but it's not the same without you."

Tsunade saw his posture shrink into the couch and even caught a glint in Naruto's eye… a tear?

The Hokage piped in, trying to take some of the heat off of Naruto. "He's not avoiding you, I've just been running him into the ground lately."

Sakura crossed her arms and observed the shadow clones, still at work. "Not with this system you have. You've probably cut your workday in half, haven't you? … And wouldn't I have noticed that you were interning with Tsunade-sama? I stop by here all the time!"

Naruto sighed and rose from the couch, he walked out of the room with Sakura hot on his heels.

"Where're you going?! Naruto!"

The blonde abruptly swung around, causing Sakura to bop him in the chest with her forehead. She took a few steps back and glared up at her teammate, but her glare softened when she saw his face. Blank, like an empty canvas.

"What's going on with you, Naruto? You've been avoiding Team 7 for weeks even though you fought so hard to reunite us!"

Naruto stared at a spot on the wall off to the side. "Sorry… it's just… there's a lot going on that you can't see right now."

The gears in Sakura's head whirred to life as she picked apart Naruto's words… 'can't see'... 'stops hurting'… in that instant a potential explanation dawned on her.

She shifted nervously. "Sasuke-kun… he talks to you a lot more than Kakashi-sensei and I… doesn't he?"

Naruto, never one for underestimating Sakura's intelligence opted to attempt to steer the subject away from the topic of conversation.

"Yeah he does… I should get back to work."

Naruto attemped to walk around Sakura, but she crossed her arms and moved to block his path.

She glared upward, sure of herself. "There's more to it than that."

Naruto scratched his temple before coming up with an idea. "Hmmm… I can tell Sasuke to open up to you, if that's what you want. Meet him at Ichiraku's tonight, I'll make sure he shows up so you two can hang out."

The blonde was startled when she flicked him on the nose. Hard. "Don't be stupid! I want you to come too! … I mean... I don't want to force you to come see us, but I'm at the end of my rope here!"

Naruto silently nodded, and with that, Sakura nodded in reply before turning to go down the stairs.

'... But you are… Sakura-chan…'

Sakura sat at Ichiraku's tapping her foot at a rapid pace, loudly enough for Teuchi to hear. He smirked, raising an eyebrow at the pink-haired girl before him.

"Excited to see Sasuke again?"

The tapping stopped. "Huh? Well… yes! Of course! … But Naruto's supposed to come too. It's been a while since we've all been here together!"

Teuchi raised an eyebrow. "Hm… Naruto's still been coming here pretty frequently with the Hyuga Princess. Maybe your schedules just don't line up like they used to."

Sakura's eyes narrowed in confusion. "He has? … Oh right, Hinata likes him... Everyone likes him..."

Suddenly there was a loud thumping sounds outside the stand and the two boys slid the curtains open. Naruto had Sasuke in a headlock, and Sasuke was visibly disheveled, looking as if he were dragged away from his favorite toy. Though funnily enough, he showed no attempt to resist Naruto… this was due in part to only having one arm to work with.

The boys sat down on either side of Sakura and simultaneously gave their orders; they both wanted the same thing, though Naruto wanted several bowls for himself. Sakura sputtered and ordered her ramen shortly afterward and Teuchi went in the back to gather ingredients.

There was a long silence, nearly a minute before Naruto stifled a laugh. "Wow, is this how things go when I'm not here? Does no one have anything to say?"

Sakura glared at Naruto, while Sasuke absentmindedly spun some chopsticks between his fingers.

The girl pouted. "Well I don't know where to start! We haven't been together like this since the hospital, and back then I was trying to keep Sasuke-kun from dying of blood loss!"

Naruto's laugh died down. "Oh, right. Well, I guess I'll start then... Sakura-chan already knows what I've been doing lately, but it never came up with you and me, Sasuke… I've been working with Obaa-chan and learning the less… punchy bits of being Hokage."

Sasuke nodded in approval. "Hn. That's… good… useful."

The blonde smirked. "Tip for you Sakura-chan, if Sasuke says something's good, that means it's awesome."

Sakura looked at Naruto, then at Sasuke, visibly intrigued at how easily the two boys were able to understand each other. She opted to push the topic in Sasuke's direction.

"Since we're talking about it, what have you been doing lately, Sasuke-kun? … Besides 'sitting' as you say..."

Sasuke looked at Sakura for a moment before returning his attention to his chopsticks.

"… I have a garden."

Sakura smiled. "That's really nice. What do you grow there?"

"Tomatoes... Just tomatoes."

"Oh… why just tomatoes?"

Sasuke looked at Sakura once more, before turning to the clock. "They remind me of my… family…"

Sakura sputtered. "… O-oh. I'm sorry."

A dark cloud imposed itself over the conversation as Naruto sat there observing them, completely horrified.

'Man, talk about a buzzkill... I thought Sakura-chan would've really taken advantage of her time alone with Sasuke, but if this is what it's like… Man, I thought I was just being cynical but I really might be the only thing holding this team together...'

Naruto tapped Sakura on the shoulder. "Hey, Sakura-chan. Ask Sasuke about his plans for the future."

Her attention shifted back and forth between the two boys for a moment before taking Naruto's advice and running with it.

"Um… Sasuke-kun, what are your plans for the future?"

Sasuke's eyes swiveled toward Sakura for a moment before he closed them and smirked almost chuckling to himself.

"What would you do without him, Sakura? … The Cycle of Hatred… It's something I plan on destroying one day, with Naruto's help of course… It's the reason my life took the turn it did. It's not a physical thing, but more of a philosophy explaining the state of our world. Even the Akatsuki were trying to break it in their own way, though I disapprove of their methods…"

Sakura's eyes sparkled, having accomplished her goal of getting Sasuke to speak more than a single sentence.

She clutched her cup of tea. "G-go on."

Sasuke continued. "When I was with the Akatsuki, they told me that no matter what progress the world made, it always devolved into war and would set us back decades in terms of progress. There's a short peace, and then the cycle of war repeats… They opted to police the world by collecting The 9 Bijuu, but I have my own theory about why this happens... It's our shinobi system that's fundamentally broken… The details of that are a bit of a chore to get into right now, but with Naruto at the helm of the most powerful military in the world, I think we can push things in a more stable direction. That's all I'll say for now."

Naruto piped in as well. "Yeah. There's not much we can do at the moment since we're not in any position to make meaningful and lasting changes… So for now… We wait!"

Sasuke echoed the thought. "We wait."

There was a long pause as Sakura's mind raced, trying to figure out what to say next.

Naruto rolled his eyes as the silence grew. "Oi, Sakura-chan. Ask Sasuke about the kitten that follows him around the Uchiha compound."

She gave Naruto a confused look before turning to Sasuke. "You have a cat?"

Sasuke nodded. "I guess... I named her Mikoto, after my mother... She'd been living in the compound for about a month, and I caught her in my garden one night trying to steal my tomatoes. We weren't too fond of each other but it got really cold one night so I went and found her to bring her inside. Ever since, she's been living with me… For whatever reason she wasn't afraid of me… unlike people… most people. You two and Kakashi are the exception, but I'll admit that I'm not really on speaking terms with him yet..."

Sakura's mind felt like it had been scrambled. The thought of Sasuke taking care of a pet, a tiny kitten nonetheless was quite jarring.

Sasuke's voice suddenly pierced the silence. "You know, I would have just hung out with Naruto if this was going to be the case… Why don't you talk for a bit, Sakura?"

Naruto, with a sly grin on his face, piped in again. "psssst, Sakura-chan. Ask him about that time a researcher in Otogakure caught his eye and they-"

"He made that one up."

Sakura's mind felt like it had jammed up. "I mean… it's nowhere near as interesting as what you two have been up to. I just help Shizune run the Konoha Hospital."

Naruto gave her a nudge in the right direction. "There's gotta be some kind of story where you went into 'Big-Brain Sakura Mode' and saved someone the doctors thought was a goner!"

"Big Brain Saku-? … Oh! There was this one time I managed to create my own surgery for someone who'd been stabbed in the heart! See, if the patient is in a stable condition, I could remove the foreign material and repair the heart enough to keep them from dying immediately afterward!"

The blonde smiled, spinning Sakura 180 degrees on her barstool while simultaneously gesturing to Sasuke.

"Tell him about it."

Sakura turned to her other teammate and enthusiastically recounted her experience while Teuchi returned with their food. Naruto suddenly wasn't very hungry though. He instead watched Sakura fully pour herself into her effort to keep the story interesting to Sasuke. The light blush on her face combined with the sparkle of her sea foam green eyes gave her a radiant quality… the kind of you see from someone talking about something that they love... to someone that they love. Naruto smiled taking in her beauty amid the red lanterns of Teuchi's restaurant, but that smile... it was a bitter one... a smile that signaled surrender.

Perhaps Neji was right about fate, just as he died protecting a main branch member, just as Sasuke and himself fit neatly between the lines of an age old prophecy... perhaps Sakura's heart would always be tied to Sasuke, regardless of time and space.

Naruto's thoughts flowed freely, so freely in fact that it could have been mistaken for outside forces if not for the content of said thoughts.

'You've always had my back when it mattered most, and being witness to your growth as a kunoichi has pushed me to heights I'd never thought I could achieve... I love you immensely, and always will, but I've been able to see for a while now that I'll never truly have a place in your heart… All I want now, is for you to be happy... I guess this is the end of the line... for us...'

Naruto exhaled, quietly internalizing these notions, but not before taking one last gander at Sakura and slipping out of the ramen stand. However, he barely got 20 feet away from the stand before he heard her call out to him.

"W-wait, Naruto! Where're you going? You didn't even eat your food!"

He gave her a warm smile. "I've got an early day at the tower tomorrow, so I need to go get some rest."

Sakura looked down at her watch and crinkled her nose. "It's only 6:45! We haven't been together in weeks! Just a little longer? For me?"

Sasuke also came out into the street, visibly worried. "Sakura, If he wants to go, let him."

Her shoulders dipped and her posture hunched forward, relenting to the situation. "Well… Will you be able to hang out with us again soon, Naruto?"

Naruto smiled a bit. "Yeah… Just try and enjoy your date, okay?"

"D-date? Naruto! That's not wha-… Huh?"

Sakura trailed off. Naruto had disappeared almost instantly; in the time it took her to blink. One moment he was there, another moment, gone. She turned to Sasuke, who had a concerned frown as he stared in the direction Naruto was originally in.

"Hey Sakura. Let's shelve this for now... I gotta talk to him."

She pouted. "Wha-? Um… okay… I'll see you later I… guess?"

Sasuke had also disappeared mid sentence. She looked around for a spell and eventually saw him off in the distance hopping from roof to roof, his ANBU detail shadowing him.

Sakura sniffled, trying to hold back her tears, but she was never all that good at stopping herself from crying. They flowed freely, much like Naruto's own thoughts just moments ago.

"You two... you never tell me anything..."

After about 20 minutes of searching, Sasuke had managed to find Naruto in their old training ground. He was sitting in a tree feeding a squirrel some acorns. The moment Sasuke approached the tree, the small animal hissed at him and skittered off, prompting Naruto to look down at the last remaining Uchiha.

"Why aren't you with Sakura-chan? She's probably crying now because you ditched her!"

Sasuke glared up at the blonde. "She'll understand... besides, she wants something that I can't provide for her."

Naruto glared down at his teammate. "Bullshit! Just hold her hand and walk with her or something! It's not that hard!"

Sasuke countered. "I can't… Not in good faith."

The blonde grabbed the bridge of his nose. "She's the only woman in the entire world that's not scared shitless of you! If you're not gay, then what's stopping you?"

"I can't love her that way. Also, I've got more important things to worry about. If I'm going to break the Cycle of Hatred, I need you here. At the top… Not moping around over your girlfriend."

Naruto groaned. "If anything, she's your girlfriend. She loves YOU! I mean, what's not to like? She's smart, beautiful, and she's got a big butt-"

Sasuke facepalmed and cut the blonde off mid sentence.

"You're completely missing the point of this conversation! I need you unburdened, and given the fact that you never let anything go... I fear this will weigh on you for the rest of your life. Sort out your feelings for Sakura, and either convince her to love you back, or lay these feelings to rest. This next part of our journey is going to cost us a piece of ourselves, so I need you as whole as possible when it begins."

Naruto sputtered. "You and your one-track mind… Fine. I'll figure out what I need to do."

"You'd best be ready. When my probationary period ends, I'm going to get to work… With… or Without you."

The finality of Sasuke's "Without" made Naruto's stomach churn. In that moment, Naruto just knew that Sasuke would lose himself to his own ambition once more if he wasn't there to be a guiding light for his friend.

"I'll be ready Sasuke. No matter what…"

"Good. I need someone around that can kill me if I lose myself again. I'll hold you to that."

Naruto looked down at Sasuke, now he was the one that was visibly worried. Sasuke stared back for a moment before nodding and darting off into the sky with his ANBU detail.

"Sakura-chan... I hope you can forgive us one day."

Naruto's day at the tower was marred with silence. He sat with Tsunade as they went through paperwork, and in spite of the various elephants in the room, they pressed on, burying themselves in their work. Unable to bear the silence any longer, Naruto dispelled his shadow clones and got the Hokage's attention.

"Hey… Obaa-chan?"

"… Yes Naruto?"

"Why… didn't you give Ero-Sannin a chance? You read his journal before you gave it to me… so you must know how he felt about y-... Sorry, forget I asked, that's a bad question to-"

Tsunade cut him off. "I was afraid… Of losing him too that is…"

Naruto frowned. "I'm afraid of a lot of things, but if I came across an opportunity to be happy… even for just a little while… I'd take it without question."

The Hokage sighed. "That's why I think you'll do great things for this village. You're brave, Naruto… braver than I ever was… In hindsight? … Yes, I wish I'd have let myself be happy with him for what little time we had left together, but I suppose our duties took precedence over our happiness... What brought this on, Naruto? … Is this about Sakura?"

Naruto grimaced and created some more shadow clones. "L-lets just get back to work, yeah?"

"I'm here to talk whenever you're ready…"

He nodded and rose to his feet, placing himself on the windowsill to sort completed forms into piles. "I know… I'm just not in the right state of mind right now."

"I understand... just don't let it fester too long."

"I don't have a choice to..."

Ten minutes of silence (save for the scratching of pens and pencils) passed when suddenly; there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Tsunade droned absentmindedly.

The door creaked open, revealing Sakura and Shizune. Sakura had some files while Shizune had a pot of tea and a few cups. Sakura clutched the files, hiding the lower half of her face when she saw Naruto sitting on the windowsill; his expression was dark and foreboding. The Hokage's eyes swiveled back and forth between Naruto and Sakura for a moment, but Naruto seemed to be trapped inside his own head.

"Naruto. You have a visitor."

Sakura began to protest the nature of her visit, but was cut off by the serious look on Tsunade's face. Naruto remained focused on the clouds outside the window, giving Sakura a tiny wave.

"... Sakura-chan."

The pinkette slammed her files on the ground and stomped over to the window, lifting Naruto off of it by the front of his shirt.

"THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY?! YOU BAILED ON US, THE ONE TIME WE WERE ABLE TO HANG OUT AS A TEAM! WHAT'S GOING ON NARUTO?!"

Naruto's blank expression belied a torrent of anguish. "You really can't feel it, Sakura-chan? Team 7 is on borrowed time… it always was..."

Sakura growled. "Because YOU keep hiding from us! There's no Team 7 without you!"

The blonde sighed, the coldness in his voice pulling the wind from her sails. "You're the one who's hiding… hiding from the truth."

She slowly lowered Naruto to the ground, questioning if she'd missed something, wondering if her frustration was misplaced. She tried to say something but the words wouldn't come. She turned, completely stunned by the drastic shift in Naruto's demeanor, but also the fact that it felt as if Naruto was right.

She sauntered out of the room, leaving Shizune and Tsunade staring on in horror.

"Naruto... Why did you say that?" The Hokage inquired.

"I can't lie to her anymore, Obaa-chan."

"Then don't. Go, now."

Naruto peered out the window and saw her storming through the streets, the crowd parting like the Red Sea, lest they face the wrath of the Hokage's apprentice. He leapt from the window and to the nearest rooftop, opting to avoid causing a scene in the middle of the street; Naruto instead tailed Sakura to her house so they could talk there. The trip shed light on the depths of Sakura's pain concerning the current state of their Team. She'd only been angry for the first 30 seconds of her trek back toward her house.

As the crowds thinned, her pace slowed and her posture dipped. It progressed from the occasional wipe of the eye at a steady walking pace, to full on stopping to cry for minutes at a time. The trip took a total of 10 minutes longer than it should have, with Sakura struggling to put her key into her door, likely struggling to see through her tears. At this point, Naruto had had enough and he jumped down and landed next to her, he steadied her hand and placed the key into the doorknob before turning it. She wiped her eyes and made eye-contact with Naruto, her downtrodden expression turned to one of anger before she swiftly lifted him over her head and tossed him across the street and over a bakery.

Naruto sighed mid-air and flipped, landing on his feet in the middle the street parallel to the one Sakura lived on. Less than 15 seconds later, Naruto landed on Sakura's porch and knocked. There was a pause, Sakura was likely looking at him through the peephole, so he decided to entice her to open the door.

"Sakura-chan. I wanna apologize about what I said... but it was my honest assessment. Lemme explain."

Her muffled voice came through the door. "Why? I heard you the 1st time. If you think Team 7 is dead, then just leave us alone…"

"I didn't say that!"

He heard her footsteps move away from the door, so he turned around and sat on the porch, thinking of what he was going to say. On the other side of the door, Sakura was doing the same, only in her case she was sitting on her couch. Thinking back over the few times they'd all been together since they were released from the hospital… perhaps Naruto had a point.

Her brow furrowed as she began to see a pattern forming in Team 7's meetings. When Naruto didshow up, things went as they usually did, much like in their childhood. However, there was a distinct difference between the experiences associated with the two time periods. Nowadays, Naruto made it a point to try and get Sasuke to open up to Sakura, but all progress ground to a halt the moment the blonde left to pursue his other endeavors. After which, Sasuke and Sakura would sit in silence… and on the few occasions they did talk at length, it almost always pertained to Naruto and what he was doing.

From what Sakura could gather, Sasuke was trying to make up for lost time by piecing together a narrative of what his team was doing while he was gone. This in turn led to them talking mostly about Naruto, since Sakura's most interesting experiences happened to occur when she was tagging along with her blonde teammate.

She was shaken from her thoughts when another knock on her door echoed through her tiny little house.

"Sakura-chan. You know I'll stand out here until I starve, right?"

She wiped her eyes once more before finally deciding to open the door for Naruto. There was a moment of silence as they stared at each other, both of them attempting to read the intentions of the other.

"Say your piece Naruto... and make it quick."

The boy shifted back and forth, unsure of himself for the first time in ages. "I can't."

Sakura crossed her arms. "Why not? You were pretty curt with me back at the tower."

"Because… I… have a confession to make."

AN: Leave a review and tell me what you think! Should I make this canon-friendly or actually go in another direction? The second chapter of this story will be the very next thing that you get from me. I always thought that Naruto and Sakura's relationship never really got any closure in both the anime and the manga, so I (and many other people on the site, this particular story is pretty common on FF) wanted to give my own take on what I think would happen.

As for Orange Flash, I'm considering releasing chapters in spurts instead of as I finish them. That story has pacing issues and I need to make sure I stay on schedule or it'll drag on forever. However, I am getting an outline together, since my original plan for the story was adding up to a ridiculous 120 chapters. I wanna keep it below 100 so people can actually finish it. Anyway, until next time!