Disclaimer: Naruto, its characters, settings and others belongs to Kishimoto. This story belongs to me, though.

Gap

"You're needed to be on active duty for this mission."

She stared at the village leader, mouth slightly agape with silent disbelief. She blinked a few times and sputtered out, "For real?"

The young Hokage nodded, hiding the tug of a smirk behind the carefully schooled façade of a serious leader. It was not often that he got to be in the presence of her joy that much nowadays, anyway.

Excitement and thrill swelled inside of her, a beaming smile growing in anticipation. She felt like she could just hop up and down like her twelve year old self would right at that moment.

Finally! A field mission! It had been months since she had last been assigned to a field mission. She had been taken out of active roster since during her first expecting months, even the periods after her delivery – something that she had every sneaking suspicion that it was the meddling work of a certain Uchiha, even though he was rarely around in the first place. And the most she could do to serve her village was the occasional meetings and surveys held by the medical board committee in respect for her skills and status as the highest-ranking medic-nin around.

But still, it was kind of strange that she would be assigned to such mission, with her being mostly out of practice for a time, and she couldn't help but wonder at the suddenness of it. "But, why me? I've been off the active duty for a while, and surely there are other medic-nins qualified for this mission?"

He forced down the smile ghosting over his lips with a stern line and cleared his throat, rifling through the paperwork scattered over his table to find the right scroll. He couldn't lose his composure right here; not here and now with other people around watching – and definitely not when she was here, of all people. "I know you've been out of active roster for quite a while, but for now, we're quite short-handed, what's with all the convention the village got to manage this spring, so…" He sent an apologetic look over her direction. "You can still back out, though, if you want –"

"No!" the woman quickly protested a bit too vehemently, earning bemused glances her way. "Uh, I mean, yes, of course I'll take on the mission…" she quickly amended with her head slightly bowed, embarrassed at her outburst, and forced down the lump in her throat at her next word. "…Hokage-sama."

She winced inwardly at the formal address of her former teammate that she had never gotten used over it to, even after all the years since he'd been promoted to such rank. Had it been that long since the last she could remember of their simpler, carefree days?

As hints of sadness and regret started resurfacing within her, she sharply turned away from the hazard of such emotions, and focused on the first concern that sprung up to her mind. "But, Sarada…"

At this, Naruto allowed a tiny smile to grace his lips, softening the hard features of his stern face. "I'm sure Boruto won't mind her presence too much. And, Kami, that boy probably needs it, too. She'll be a good company for him." And a good way to restrain Boruto from causing more trouble and keep his son occupied with someone to spend his time with – and let him have one more less headache relieved from his constantly demanding routine, despite how much he disdained having to commit much off his time for his duties instead of spending it with his son.

The pink-haired woman raised one eyebrow at his statement, but chose to let it slide. She knew for a fact of what Sarada thought of Boruto – weird, loud and annoying were among the long list of her description of the boy. Her Sarada was more of the subdued type; quiet, studious, obedient and critical – the latter a trait she'd suspected her daughter had somehow inherited from her father. With quite a vast difference in their personalities, she could understand Sarada's dislike for her blond classmate well.

After all, I used to think of the same thing of him too…

With a faint, sad smile, she willed away the prickling feeling behind her shuttered eyes and bowed her head. "It's settled then, Hokage-sama."

"Good." Naruto nodded once, discreetly swallowing down the sudden lump formed in his throat at the form of address that was – always had been – sending cold, dull knives up to his heart. It felt so… alien. So unlike the usual warm greetings and playful endearments they had for one another in days that felt lifetimes ago to him. Noticing his straying thoughts, he gave a harsh mental shake for his own lapse and turned to his chief advisor on his left, inclining his head for the man to do his part.

With a sigh, the Nara jounin complied. "As you know it, you are required – along with a handful of our trained medics – to travel over to the Bird Country to give medical assistance to the people there. As a sign of our alliance and trust, Konohagakure will be supporting them in conjunction with the recent devastating earthquake that had occurred in their territory recently by sending help from our part."

"And there's where I'll come to a benefit, then," Sakura remarked.

"Somewhat," he shrugged. "Well, your actual duty is only to supervise those newly-certified medic-nins to evaluate their skills, but I guess it won't hurt for you to help out the victims as well." After a brief second of consideration, he added, "And you do need to see more of the outside world sometimes, Sakura."

Ah, so that's the actual reason they're assigning me for a field mission…

She pursed her lips into a thin line, narrowing her green eyes at the seemingly nonchalant – and very much unwanted – remark from the irking man. However, disgruntled as she was, she made no effort to deny his statement. But that did not mean she would openly agree to him.

Instead, she ignored his comment with her chin tilted up slightly and pointedly asked, "When do I start?"

At this, Naruto took the scroll with the official stamp on its seams and handed it over to Sakura, very much aware with the movements of their fingers so close from each other and very deliberately taking great care not to let their skin touched – by accident or not.

"You're appointed as the team leader for this mission," he started. "The mission should last for about seven to eight days. The support team will be informed of this, and you will meet your team at the entrance gates by dawn."

"Understood, Hokage-sama."

Again with the little painful jolt at the mention of his formal address coming out from her. As the silence between them stretched on, he was beginning to feel uncomfortable under her regard and blurted out the first thing that came to his mind, then.

"And… Sakura?" At her questioning look, he started to freak out. Scrambling through his mind for anything relevant to say to her face, he averted his eyes to the side and –for the first time in many months – he loosened the vice grip he had over his own emotions just slightly, he fumbled over his words. No going back now.

"I… uh… you see… um…" Goddamn it, why was he hesitating like this around her? Maybe the constant distance between them and his depraved communication with his dear, former teammate had rendered him practically inept around her. Taking a breath and letting it out with a sigh, he tried again. "What I mean to say is…" he looked her in the eyes, and drank in the familiar sight of her brilliant jade orbs meeting his own earnest ones, "Be careful out there, Sakura-chan."

Shell-shocked with the sudden warmth in his voice, she could do nothing but to stare dumbly at his concerned face at that moment. Pulling herself together, she narrowed her eyes as she felt her anger simmering up when she contemplated over his words.

The first thing that registered in her mind was the way he'd called her. What the hell was with the sudden comeback of that suffix, too? For years and years he'd gone from distancing himself from her to outright avoiding her like a plague, even way back before his promotion to the Hokage rank. Unless it was for an official matters such as this one, he'd never really make the effort to see her in his free time. And after days and months and years of such treatment, she could barely remember the last time he had ever called her that anymore.

And 'be careful'? Why did he care? Why now? After all the years they've been together as a team, he'd always believed in her skills, in herself, and acknowledged her strength even when she felt so far left behind. And now he's telling her to be careful?

Gripping the scroll so tightly that her knuckles turned white, she reigned in her anger as much as she could manage, and bit out as she spoke, her clipped words dripping with barely contained venom, completely tuning out Shikamaru's exasperated sigh in their exchange.

"Thank you for your concern, Hokage-sama, but I'm perfectly capable of handling my own."

Shit, Naruto mentally berated himself repeatedly with every choice obscene word he wouldn't ever consider speaking out loud in front of her – both out of respect for her and his fear for her monstrous strength. It seemed that every time he tried to fix things – or make it at least a fraction better – between them, he ended up making the situation at hand to take a turn for the worse.

Damn it, he knew he shouldn't have opened his big mouth and spewed out crap that she obviously did not appreciate coming from him. Indeed, he was definitely taken aback by the sudden icy coolness of her voice, but he kept it well hidden behind a well-practiced wall of unaffected façade. All too soon, a deceptive coolness filled his blue eyes, and a concealing mask of impassivity shrouded his features, his calm demeanor a blatant lie to the tenseness of his body and the pained glint in his eyes as he directed the chastened thoughts of the one particular pink-haired woman out to the back of his mind, and promptly returned to his usual self that most had been more than accustomed to seeing him in such state nowadays – the leading Hokage.

Without another word, he dismissed her with a curt nod.

Sakura walked out of the heavy double doors with brisk steps without looking back, and Naruto let out the pent breath he didn't notice he was holding in as he stared blankly at a piece of a document; both caught up and lost in their own thoughts, much too preoccupied to really pay much attention to their surroundings. Unbidden, within the safe confines of their own thoughts, the same question came forth up to the forefront of their minds and left them riddled with bleak answers and broken possibilities.

Where did it all go wrong?

Author's Note

So how was it? It's an old piece that I discovered, and so I decided to share it with you guys. And no, I don't intend on making a continuation for this one, at least not in a while. I want to focus more on my main story 'Crimson Threads' instead, and this story might help me in cases of the dreaded writer's block.

Thanks for reading, as always!

Audy Ruki