A/N: Hey, long time no see. Yes, I have brought yet another Naruto fanfiction. Also set in part 1, back when they were all cute little genin. I just really miss those days. If we're going by the anime timeline, it would be right after the episode the kids try to see what's under Kakashi's mask (one of the only fillers worth watching in my opinion).

So this is really a story with no particular purpose. Yes there is some SasuSaku hints, and good old Team 7 fluff. It's very Sakura-centric, concentrating on different parts of her: her bonds, her own strength that she hasn't quite realized yet, her hair, and parts of her character that were never really explored in the series itself. Consider this a normal week of what she has to go through, considering the whackos she has for a team.

I kind of wanted to finish this for SasuSaku month, but there's really no prompt it fits with. Consider it a token of my love.

Disclaimer~ Do I own Naruto? No. Because if I did, this would be canon and not fanfiction.

Sakura sighed, running a hand through her hair while walking through town. It was growing longer again, nearly up to her collarbone.

While she had lamented the loss of her long hair at first, her shorter hair made her feel more confident and reduced the hassle of long hair by a long shot. Therefore, she didn't mind all that much anymore, and had even embraced her new look.

She sighed again, this time wiping the sweat off her brow and mentally cursing her teammates. She loved them, to be honest, but at times like this, she really, really didn't like them.

It had to be the hottest day of the year. Their sensei as usual, was late. But as it had already been four hours and they were basically being cooked, they decided to to send someone to look for him. Cue a fight between Naruto and Sasuke about who was more lame and useless and should do something for once. Before things could get physical, however, Sakura had cut in, saying she'd go look.

She figured she was more useless than either of them anyway.

So here she was, getting all hot and sweaty and exerting much more energy than necessary just to go see if Kakashi was going to show up at all.

She finally reached his building. Feeling too lazy to actually go up the stairs, she channeled chakra to her feet and started walking up the side of the building. It wasn't an uncommon sight in a ninja village such as their own.

When she reached his floor, she walked down the hall and knocked on the second door to the right. When there was no answer, Sakura's brow scrunched up in confusion. Did he have a mission? No, while he was lazy, Kakashi would never neglect to inform them that practice would be cancelled if he had something else to take care of.

Sakura took out one of the spare bobby-pins in her pack and discreetly picked the lock open. Opening the door, she cautiously stepped inside.

For a second, she hesitated to continue. She had no right to be here, and Kakashi would probably find out about her breaching his privacy. But then again, it wasn't as if she was going to look through his stuff or anything. She would just pop her head into all the rooms to see if he was here.

Choosing to believe in the latter, she first checked the kitchen. When she saw no one, she moved on to the living room. The next place was the bedroom and then the laundry room. With no one in sight, she was just about to leave when-

"Sakura?"

Sakura whirled around, about to shout that he was late and they were all waiting, only to be stop and gape. Her mouth fell open, and her cheeks rapidly turned more red than Hinata's ever could.

Her sensei was there alright. There and only in his jounin pants and without his mask with drops of water from his obviously recent shower falling out of his hair and rolling down his abs and oH GOD-

"Sakura?" Kakashi looked at her, chuckling a bit, fully aware of his affect on his student, even if he did feel awkward about it.

Sakura snapped up a bit, staring at his face. Had her sensei always been this gorgeous?

"Sakura?" Kakashi tried again. This time, she managed a response.

"S-sorry, sensei!" she squeaked out, but speaking fast at the same time. "I didn't mean to barge in, I-I just came to see where you were since you didn't show up to practice a-"

"Oh, right," Kakashi said, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. "See, it was so hot today, I thought it might be better to take a shower before going and I guess time just flew."

He was surprised when she didn't immediately retort about how he could possibly take a shower for four hours.

"I-It's okay, sensei," she said, her eyes still a little wide. "I'll tell them to wait a bit l-longer!"

With that, his pink haired and just as pink faced student fled the apartment.

"Look, Sakura-chan's back!" Naruto yelled, jumping up waving at said girl.

Sasuke, who had been meditating, opened his eyes and nodded in greeting. He planned to close his eyes again and go back to his serene state immediately after, not wanting to waste time with something so frivolous. That is, until he saw Sakura's face. Something was wrong.

Naruto hadn't seemed to notice anything off. Typical, Sasuke thought, before turning towards the female member of their team.

She was bright red, her steps a little uncertain as she stumbled forward. As she spoke with Naruto, her words were jumbled together.

Something was making her nervous.

In a second, Sasuke was in front of her, blocking Naruto from her.

"OI, TEME!"

Sasuke ignored the shouts of protest and the arms clawing at his back.

"Sakura," he said urgently.

To his surprise, the girl didn't squeal or gush over him appearing to her. She just kept staring ahead, her eyes hazy. Something was definitely wrong, he was sure of that now.

"What happened?" he said as softly as he could.

Sakura snapped up at the realization that he noticed she was acting differently. She rapidly shook her head.

"N-nothing's wrong, Sasuke!" her words were fast, falling out all at once.

He narrowed his eyes at her. She hadn't even included the suffix.

"Naruto, leave," he suddenly announced.

"What?!" Naruto shouted, causing Sakura to wince and Sasuke to glare at him.

"Leave, you dobe," Sasuke said. He was getting irritated now. "I need to talk to Sakura. Alone."

"WHAT? YOU BETTER NOT BE TRYING TO WOE HER, SASUKE-TEME!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and leaned towards Naruto with the full intention to knock him out just so he and Sakura could have some privacy. Maybe then she would talk. But then, Sakura spoke quietly.

"Sasuke, don't," she said. Sasuke relaxed slightly and went back to his original position in front of her, his eyes boring into hers. "Really, there's nothing wrong. You shouldn't concern yourself with me."

"Of course I'm concerned," he growled out, closing his eyes and grabbing her shoulders. Why was this so difficult? "You're my teammate. Tell me, what happened? Did the Yamanaka girl say something?"

"TEME! What are you guys talking about?" Naruto attempted to butt in again.

"Tch, stay out of this dobe," Sasuke said, rolling his eyes. This guy claimed to like Sakura? He couldn't even tell when she was acting off.

"Sasuke, please let go of me," Sakura tried, whimpering as she glanced at the hands on her shoulders.

The second he saw the tears starting to pool up in her eyes, he released her.

It took a while, but after a few shaky breaths, Sakura regained her normal color. She managed to compose herself just as Kakashi poofed into existence.

And that was when her composure was completely lost. Again.

She rapidly turned red, faster than should be possible. And then she fainted.

"Oh, dear," Kakashi mumbled.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelped, as Sasuke awkwardly caught her. The blonde strode forward and snatched the poor girl's body from the Uchiha's arms (much to Sasuke's displeasure, though he wouldn't admit it). "Why'd she suddenly pull a Hinata?!"

Sasuke couldn't help but wonder the same thing. After she had gone off to fetch their sensei, Sakura had come back acting weird, that much was obvious. And just as she managed to calm down, she had completely lost it and had fainted...when...Kakashi...

Suddenly, the picture seemed so much clearer.

Sasuke turned on Kakashi, his Sharingan activating against his will.

"What the hell happened when she went to get you?!" the younger one snarled.

Kakashi sheepishly laughed, not helping the enraged Uchiha's mood.

"I asked you a question!"

About an hour later, Sakura was propped up against a tree, tenderly taking sips of water from her bottle. She had quickly regained consciousness after her little...fainting spell...in front of her sensei. She had wanted to continue training as soon as possible to distract herself, but to her teammate's insistence, she was currently sitting on the side while Sasuke kept relentlessly attacking Kakashi, claiming he wanted answers when their masked teacher ignored the Uchiha's questions. While Naruto had attempted to figure out why Sasuke would even attack their sensei, he eventually gave up and was currently using shadow clones to fight...himself.

She was just such a burden in moments like these. While her teammates trained to reach their goals, even in small ways, Sakura could only sit by and watch them grow. She had tried catching up to them her own way- multiple sleepless nights spent pouring over scrolls and additional hours of training with other Leaf shinobi who were willing to help her out -but it was never enough.

Sighing, she continued to watch, wishing she couldn't be so confined to the ground.

...But in the mean time, this situation could be manipulated for her own amusement...

It took a while, but eventually Sasuke gave up in his mission to find out what the hell happened while Sakura was gone. For now. Too tired to continue fighting Kakashi, he dragged himself to the tree where Sakura was seated and plopped on the ground beside her.

Wordlessly, the girl passed over her water bottle and he greedily chugged it down.

"Sakura," Sasuke said. If Kakashi wouldn't tell him, he'd find out from the rosette herself. "What happened with Kakashi?"

Sighing, the girl turned to him with a...look in her eyes. It was unidentifiable. He had never seen it before. But her face somehow was still very serious.

"Sasuke," she said, her voice firm. "I just thought you should know that I don't like you anymore. I've moved on."

On the outside, the Uchiha raised a brow at her sudden proclamation, but didn't say anything, waiting for her to continue. Inside, however, he was twitching a lot. If he hadn't been sitting, he was sure he would have fallen over. Her not liking him seemed to make everything so different. It was strange, and he wasn't aware of how much he needed her affection until now. Even if he wasn't sure he would ever respond, he needed this one thing not to be taken away. Yeah, sure, other girls would continue to like him, but Sakura was different. She wasn't just a fangirl, but also his precious friend. And the thought of her moving on, liking someone more than him...he swallowed hard. Hadn't he wanted this? She would only get hurt if she became something more to him.

"Aa," was all managed to choke out, voice cracking and hoarse.

They sat in silence.

Then, "I now like Kakashi-sensei."

A senbon dropped somewhere in the training ground.

Cue awkward silence.

"WHAAAAT?!"

Of course, that hadn't been Sasuke who screamed. He would never do something as undignified as that.

Naruto, who had just decided to take a break (or spy on his two teammates and make sure Sasuke didn't try to make a move on Sakura) was up in the tree above them. Having heard Sakura's sudden declaration of love, he ungracefully fell, plopping down right in between the other two, butt high in the air.

Sasuke's eyes went slightly wide, startled by the sudden appearance of the blonde. He cursed under his breath. Had he been really that shocked by Sakura's statement that he didn't even notice Naruto?

Sakura on the other hand sweatdropped. She had sensed him, and that was exactly why she waited to say her previous statement until she was sure he was listening. But this reaction...was a bit much.

"Narutooooo," she groaned. Suddenly her eyes widened before narrowing again, as she put her finger to her chin, tapping it. "Hmm...do you think sensei likes girls with short hair?"

"Sakura-chan! How can you even like that bastard?" Naruto said, leaping up and not wasting time before shooting off questions.

Sakura inwardly smirked. Perfect, she thought, before contorting her face into an angry scowl.

"Don't call him that, loser!" she punched her friend sending him flying right into the tree, feeling a little guilty but disregarding it for the sake of messing with her teammates. "He's our sensei, give him a little respect!"

"I have to agree with dobe here," Sasuke said coolly from the side. "Why would you suddenly like him? And besides, isn't he a bit...old?"

"Age is but a number," Sakura said. "Besides, what if he is older? That just makes him so much more mature!"

Sasuke stared at her. She surely lost it, to be thinking about their sensei, of all people, like this.

What the hell happened between them earlier?

"Sakura," he finally said. "Are you on any medication we should know about?"

"No, why?" the girl said, still in a dreamy tone.

Naruto stepped closer to her, stretching out his hand to feel her forehead.

"Sakura-chan, we're asking because we're worried about you," his face was scrunched up and his lower lip was jutting out as if he was thinking about this seriously. How seriously, Sasuke wasn't quite sure. "Do you have a headache? Are you feeling too hot or too cold? Or maybe both? Have you had enough ramen lately?"

Sakura swatted his hand away.

"I'm fine, seriously!" she huffed, rolling her eyes. "What is it with the both of you!"

"What is it with us? What is it with you liking Kakashi?!" Sasuke said, crossing his arms.

Sakura mimicked his pose. "Geez, I'm sorry, Sasuke. I didn't realize you were the only person I could like. Naruto being upset, I could understand, but you? Unless you're jealous, too. Don't tell me you secretly liked me all along."

Both of the boys' mouths flew open at that. Naruto whipped his head back and forth, looking between his two teammates.

"EHHHHHH?" he shouted. "SASUKE LIK-?!"

He never got a chance to finish that statement, however, because next thing he knew, Sasuke had tackled him, covering his mouth.

"Not so loud, dobe!"

"SO IT'S TRUE?!" Naruto shouted back through Sasuke's hand.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, getting up from on top of his teammate. "Of course not! I just don't want anyone to hear and get the wrong idea."

He looked back, ready to say something or the other to Sakura, anything to make her shut up, only to see she had disappeared.

Two weeks had passed, and it seemed like Sakura still was as devoted as ever to her delusion about being in love with Kakashi. Sasuke, for his part, couldn't help but groan every single time she tried to kiss up their sensei, doing every little thing he asked and following him around. It didn't help that Kakashi obviously realized what was going on, but went along with it sheepishly, ignoring the glares from his two other students.

The Uchiha pushed off the branch with a little bit more force than necessary, causing it to crack and fall behind him. He couldn't bring himself to care, however. All he could see was green. Dark green jealousy, viridian green eyes, and gross green puke (the last one was for the time Kakashi offered to walk Sakura home because it was 'too late for a young lady to be out by herself' and she nearly fainted from happiness).

Ignoring the strange looks he was getting from his teammates and the smug, knowing look from his sensei, he pushed himself forward and ahead of all of them. He forced himself to think of the mission- retrieve some data logs on the trade from one of Konoha's foreign ports. That part was finished. Now it was just a matter of taking the scrolls back to Konoha. It was a simple enough mission, and no interference was predicted. However, with the recent developments with the new Sound Village, they were all a little wary. Especially Sasuke.

The ever-present tingling of the curse mark seemed to increase ten-fold at the last thought, and he instinctively reached up to grasp the back of his neck, stopping in his tracks, still atop a branch high in the trees. The curse mark had been sealed, of course, but Kakashi's words haunted him. He wasn't sure he could do it...stay away from that power….

"Sasuke-kun!"

In an instant, Sakura was next to him, gently moving his hand away from the mark and shifting his collar. Her cool fingers grazed over the throbbing hotness, effectively soothing him. He closed his eyes, enjoying her touch for a second more before pulling away.

He would have to stay away from that power, if only to protect those precious to him.

"I'm fine," Sasuke bit out.

Sakura nodded, before retreating back to Kakashi's side, who had stopped a few feet away. However, this time she wasn't all heart eyes and pink cheeks. She whispered to him urgently, and their sensei nodded back.

"Okay, I think it's high time we take a break," Kakashi cheerfully spoke out.

"Aw, sensei!" Naruto whined, seeming oblivious to what had occurred moments earlier aside from the question marks practically reflected in his eyes. "None of us are tired...except maybe that teme. He probably can't keep up anyway, maybe we should leave him behind!"

"Idiot," Sasuke hissed, before jumping to the ground and slumping against the same tree he had been standing on just seconds before. He pulled out his water bottle and let the contents drip out onto his head, drenching his hair. Droplets of water slid down his neck along with the sweat. It was enough to calm the tingling almost completely.

"Naruto, stay with Sasuke," Kakashi said as the rest of the team descended. "Sakura and I will be right back."

Before Naruto could protest, they disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"WHAT?" Naruto shouted. "YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME WITH THE BASTARD! UGH!"

"Don't worry, the feeling's mutual," Sasuke murmured, rolling his eyes.

Naruto sighed before taking a seat next to the Uchiha who shifted slightly so the blonde could lean back.

"Sasuke," Naruto suddenly said after a few moments of silence.

He jolted suddenly. Naruto almost never called him by his actual name unless it was important. He swallowed.

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked. "I'm not stupid, and I know Kakashi and Sakura seem determined to hide whatever it is...but Orochimaru is after you, right? I...ran into him a while ago while I was with Pervy Sage…."

Sasuke didn't respond.

"Well, don't worry!" Naruto gave him the classic 'good guy' pose- thumb up and out, sparkling smile. "You're safe as long as you're with me."

Sasuke couldn't help but smile, albeit it was small. He chuckled softly.

"That's what worries me."

"TEMEEEEEE!"

"Sensei, it's really starting to worry me," Sakura furrowed her brows. "I know you said you took care of it...but is it still completely okay?"

"It should be," Kakashi ran his hand through his hair. "In the end, it all depends on Sasuke."

"I'm not sure that's very comforting," Sakura pouted slightly. It was a childish move, but it was natural. Her sensei snorted.

"I never thought I'd see the day that Sakura Haruno would doubt Sasuke Uchiha," he teased "Speaking of your little crush, what's been going on with the past couple of weeks? Why are you suddenly clinging to me? I know for a fact that no matter how much you pretend, you don't actually like me."

"Oh, I don't know," Sakura said, equally joshing. "I guess I've just been having a little fun, giving an aneurysm to my lovely teammates every now and then."

"Well, don't go overboard," Kakashi chuckled. "You know Sasuke's temper."

"All too well, captain," she playfully saluted her sensei. "We should head back. Preferably before Sasuke-kun and Naruto kill each other."

"You mean they haven't already?" he replied, starting to lead the way.

WHIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

"They should have been back by now! Where are they?! Can you see them?" Naruto kept prodding Sasuke's cheeks, shoulders, and sides, trying to get his attention.

Sasuke, for his part, had his eyes closed as he tried to meditate. "Dobe, how am I supposed to see them if you can't?"

"I don't know, you have your fancy eyes for a reason, don't you?" Naruto immediately retorted.

"My Sharingan isn't used to look ahead or through objects, only through jutsu," Sasuke hissed. "If that's what you wanted, you should have brought along the Hyuuga!"

Naruto jumped up from his seat next to him, his face turning comically red. "Hey, don't bring Hinata into this!"

"I meant Neji," Sasuke smirked. "Relax, dobe, they'll be back soon. Probably went to gather materials for camp."

However, inside, he was worried, too. Kakashi and Sakura had been gone for far too long? What if they'd been attacked? What if they had gotten hurt? What if they'd been killed?

What if Kakashi tried to make a move on Sakura?

Wait, what?!

Sasuke twitched, and tried to think of the ridiculousness of the statement instead of the possibility of it happening. Kakashi, of all people, would not make a move on Sakura. Not only was he an old geezer (much too old for Sakura, mind you), he had absolutely no charm at all.

But then again...he was always reading those books...what if he had gotten ideas from that?

No, stop, Sasuke begged his mind. He started to uncomfortably fidget. Do not think of that. She's 13 and he's...okay, I don't know his age, but he's old. Focus. Your teammate and sensei are missing and you're worried they hooked up?! That is not happening any time soon.

The forest was eerily silent, and the only sounds he could hear were the blood rushing through his ears and his breaths. There was something seriously wrong with that picture.

He was with Naruto. It shouldn't be this quiet.

He spared a glance to the boy, only to see him curled up in a ball, asleep and drooling. But even Naruto wouldn't doze off on a mission, would he?

He activated his Sharingan.

Genjutsu.

In an instant, he was on his feet, kunai out.

"You idiot! I thought you placed a genjutsu on them both! How is he awake?" a voice whispered in the shadows.

"Sorry, boss," another whimpered. "He was out of range."

"Well that could cost us the entire mission!" the first voice growled. "Why didn't you just get closer?!"

"Then he'd notice me! And I can't fight him! Please don't hit me!" the other spoke quickly, trying to get it over with. There was a thumping noise as he threw himself on the ground.

"Oh, get up, you moron," the first gritted their teeth. "Let's just leave him running around in circles while we attend to the girl and the man."

"Whatever you say, boss!"

"Shut up."

"Wake up, you dobe!"

Nothing. Sasuke sighed. While he had managed to break the genjutsu surrounding Naruto, the idiot seemed content with taking a nap.

The presence he had felt earlier had disappeared, but that couldn't mean anything good. Why try to attack one of them and leave? And not even finish the job? No, their adversary was probably confronting Sakura and Kakashi now. But time was running out. The others could have already been killed for all they knew.

"Tch." Desperate times call for desperate measures. "Oiroke no Jutsu!"

He looked down at himself...no...herself. Pulling on the thin string of the bikini, he (she?) groaned.

"I better be more pretty than that idiot," she (he?) grumbled, before assuming a more...provocative pose. "Ohhhh, Narutooooooo!"

"Oh, pretttttttty lady…." The blonde shifted in his sleep, mumbling. "What're you doin' here?"

Sasuke wasn't sure how to continue.

"I guess you're...here for me…" Naruto continued mumbling. He reached out his hand.

And landed on Sasuke's breast.

A high pitched scream went through the air.

"What was that?!" Sakura frantically called to her sensei.

"I don't know," Kakashi replied.

"Do you think whoever captured us attacked Naruto and Sasuke?" She panicked. If the boys got hurt, it was up to her to save them all. And in her current situation, she wasn't sure she could even move.

"If they did, I wouldn't be too worried for them," her sensei comforted her. "In fact, I'd be more worried for our enemy. That scream was too high pitched to be either of the boys."

Sakura didn't reply. She silently contemplated what he said, and was relieved to agree.

"Well, this is slightly humiliating," Kakashi's sardonic voice drifted down to her after a few more moments of silence.

She tried wiggling a bit, but there's only so much a thirteen year old girl could do with a grown man on top of them. It was awkward to say the least, and so basic and cliche in the most annoying way possible. They were trapped in a simple net suspended above the ground on a tree. And of course, she was stuck underneath her sensei, her face smushed in between his shoulder blades and his elbow jabbing her stomach. She couldn't even reach her tools on her thigh, thanks to Kakashi's oddly bent leg. She was cringing internally.

"I'm just trying to make conversation," Kakashi tried again. "That hurts, Sakura-chan. You were all over me last week, and now you won't even acknowledge me."

"You know, that's kind of hard when you're on TOP OF ME," Sakura shouted before she could bite her tongue. She sighed, trying to collect herself, before she resumed her squirming. This entire situation was getting on her nerves.

"And it's my fault that you triggered the trip-wire?" Kakashi said. She could almost imagine his face in that second. And now that she knew what he looked like without his mask, she could really imagine his smug expression.

"I didn't do anything!" She was shouting again, regardless of the fact that she told herself she wouldn't. "You on the other hand, oh, let's not get started on what you did! Despite being an anbu-level jounin, you did not notice some nut job setting up a very obvious net literally ten paces from you, you did not hear the crunching of leaves as said nut job very obviously covered it, and you trigger an even more obvious tripwire. Oh, and you got yourself paralyzed, you decided me to pull me into it as well, and now I can't even access my weapons!"

"I thought we weren't getting started on what I did," Kakashi mocked back, pouting from above her.

This time, she didn't even try to restrain herself. "Just shut up!"

"No, please don't," a voice spoke up from across the clearing. It was deep and husky. Sakura would have shuddered if she could move. "This is most...amusing."

If she could turn around right now, Sakura would definitely be staring down their captor with the nastiest glare she could muster. Lord knows she was already angry enough by now to kill him with a single glare thanks to the combined power of her and her inner.

"Let us out, and I'll give you something to laugh at!" she snarled.

"Nice," she heard Kakashi whisper in approval.

"I'll tell you what," the voice said again. "I'll let you go if I can slit your pretty little neck. Just you, of course. The rest of your team, on the other hand, can go. Is that a deal-breaker, or what?"

"Are you crazy?" Sakura tried to yell, but her voice cracked, suddenly self-conscious about being the main target. "Why would you want me?"

The man scoffed. "Your hair. It's pink."

"Yes, it's pink," Kakashi said. "And the sky is blue. The grass is green. Or is it just a personal vendetta against the color pink you have?"

"Hair isn't...naturally that bright. It must have some power. Something about it." He was pacing back and forth, that much she could make out from just her hearing. "Hair is more than just a vanity. Especially when it's as unusual as yours. In a world like ours, something that stands out like that has to mean something. It has to do something. And I want to find out what, I have to have it."

Sakura was silent. She had been prepared for an attack, but she had assumed the target would be Sasuke. The were close to Orochimaru's territory, after all. But this was unexpected. She never considered anything special about her. But this guy seemed to think otherwise.

Regardless, he still wanted to kill her and shave her head. "And what makes you think you can get your grimy little hands on me!?"

"Well, you are in my net," he said with a bit of a 'duh' hidden in his words. "I can walk over right now and…"

Her heart started to speed up as footsteps grew closer. She struggled to move away, but her efforts were futile. Kakashi started growling and thrashing as well.

It didn't stop the footsteps from getting closer still.

"OW!"

The footsteps stopped with a loud thoud.

"Sasuke," Kakashi said, sighing in relief.

"And Naruto!" A voice yelled from above, as a bunch of the boy's clones jumped down.

Once again, Sakura tried turning her head. Dammit, she really needed to see what was happening! But it didn't seem to matter that much anymore. They had a greater chance now. Sasuke was here, and that meant Naruto was with him. They'd be free soon, and she'd be able to see something other than the back of Kakashi's jounin vest.

One of the clones threw a kunai, cutting the line tying the net to the tree and it dropped down to the ground. Sakura groaned, having taken the brunt of the fall.

"Watch where you're throwing those things!" It was another voice, more high pitched. It was still deep enough, however, to sound like a prepubescent male's.

Sakura shoved her still-paralyzed sensei off of her and jumped to her feet. Quickly, she surveyed the scene. Sasuke was in the distance, throwing kunai at a man wearing a plain black cloak with the hood pulled up. The lower half of his face that could be seen seemed...seriously mangled. Despite the distance, she could see her teammate had activated his Sharingan. Nearby, Naruto and his clones had knocked out and restrained the other culprit, a shorter boy with dark blue hair and a rather basic brown tunic and pants.

She turned back to Sasuke. He wasn't struggling at all against his opponent, but she needed to get in on the fight. This time, it just seemed more personal. She needed to get the final blow.

"MOVE!" Sakura screamed, charging towards Sasuke. His eyes widened and he threw himself to the side. Sakura ran right through where he had been to the dark hooded man, punching him and throwing him into a nearby tree. The tree snapped in half. He never saw it coming.

"Nice teamwork," Kakashi weakly called from the other side of the clearing. Her teammates wordlessly gaped at her.

So much for being useless, her inner cheered.

Sakura nodded along as Naruto explained his genjutsu and setting up a plan to rescue her and their sensei. She was getting caught up on their side of the events, hoping for any hints to the affiliation of their attackers. So far, nothing telling had come up.

"So wait, how'd you wake up from the genjutsu?" Sakura asked. That part was quite vaguely explained. "I thought you sucked at breaking out of those."

Sasuke immediately looked away, turning red at the memory. He, for one, refused to say anything.

Naruto however, seemed to have no qualms about the matter. He grinned, his face stretching into something that resembled a frog. "Oh, I violated Sasuke in my sleep and he screamed loud enough for me to wake up."

"...What."

"Why, you little...!"

Sakura sighed as her teammates started bickering. She awkwardly shifted her sensei up on her back. He was too big for her to carry without it being a little uncoordinated. He wasn't too heavy for her or anything, just too tall.

Naruto's clones were dragging their attackers behind them. She spared them a glance. It seemed like the blue haired boy was the hooded ninja's lackey. And they had wanted her. It was strange. Out of all of Team 7, she never expected to be a target. Naruto was a jinchuuriki, Sasuke was the only remaining member of his clan other than his brother with a powerful kekkei genkai, and Kakashi was a famed ninja with a Sharingan eye. She was...Sakura Haruno. She came from a civilian clan and had no special skills.

But apparently, she had interesting hair.

"Should I dye my hair this weekend?" She cautiously asked, breaking up the boys' argument.

"Why not focus on your training instead of your looks?" Sasuke asked. Now that the mission was over, he was back to being his irritable self. And he seemed even more irritable once she had volunteered to carry Kakashi back.

"Don't be so mean to Sakura-chan!" Naruto admonished the Uchiha.

"Actually," Sakura cut in before another fight could break out between the two. "I just think it attracts too much attention for a ninja. Could blow our cover in a forest or something."

No one said anything for a while.

"How about brown?" she tried again after a while.

"NO!" Kakashi immediately shouted, and right into her ear, too. His sudden aversion to brown hair was weird, but then again, everything about him was.

"Jeez, sensei, not so loud," she snapped. "That was my eardrum you destroyed. And besides, no one asked you."

Sasuke smirked.

"You'll be fine," he said. "Our team couldn't attract more attention if we tried. We have this loudmouth who declares his arrival wherever he goes and wears orange."

"You don't really seem to have a crush on Kakashi anymore," Sasuke casually said the next morning. They were waiting for their sensei and Naruto to show up on the bridge for morning training, and the two had yet to make an appearance. Since they were alone, he chose the time to confront her.

Sakura froze. In the aftermath of their small battle, she had forgotten all about her little joke. Once they came back, their team had dropped their two attackers off at the interrogation center and reported to Tsunade at the hospital, who promptly fixed Kakashi's paralysis problem. By the end of the day, she had been too irritated with having to lug around her sensei on her back to fake infatuation.

"Being crushed by the man in a net after he gets you trapped takes all the magic out of it," she dryly replied. Maybe her boys would figure it out one day.

"Does this mean you'll go back to annoying me?" Sasuke asked after a beat.

Sakura's eyes widened. Did he...miss her? That would explain why he had been so grumpy the past few days. It was actually kind of funny, to think he'd acted like a pouty little kid over this. Over her.

She laughed and leaped next to him, wrapping herself around his arm. "Well, if you insist…!"

Her grin grew even more when he didn't immediately shake her off, instead accepting her presence with a soft sigh.

"Only until Naruto or Kakashi get here," he said, turning his face away to hide the color creeping up his neck to his cheeks. It did nothing to hide the tips of his ears though, and Sakura giggled as she saw how red they were.

At the end of the day at least, Sakura thought, I can still count on Sasuke-kun to hold on to my heart. And maybe, if I'm lucky...I might have a chance.

A/N: Cute, huh? It was a fun write. Hopefully I got everyone's characters right.

Some things to note:
1) I know that random villain had the weirdest reason ever to go after Sakura, but honestly, I wanted it to be that. It's just making fun of the fact that usually in anime the one with bright colored hair has something going on. And Sakura does have the most unusual hair from the Konoha 12 and other important characters.
2) Kakashi didn't want Sakura to dye her hair brown. I have this headcanon that she reminds him of Rin. Even though they're not very similar, he can't help but see the team parallels. He probably had a mini heart attack after he saw her short hair. If Sakura dyed it brown, he'd slip into a coma.
3) I feel like some of it is unresolved, like curse mark stuff, but I like it that way. This is all part of a bigger story. It doesn't end here. They'll all continue to grow.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Please favorite, follow, and REVIEW!