HEY EVERYONE. Well, I didn't feel too satisfied with this chapter so I thought it would be better for me to improve it a little. Someone called Maras gave me some very interesting constructive criticism (THANK YOU!) and so I've tried to take it into consideration.

I was never really good at describing clothing, so use your imagination to come up with some appropriate clothing for them!

Well I'm sorry if this story isn't as satisfying as my other one, but please do read it anyway and let me know your thoughts.

Enjoy!

The prologue~

It all started on that day, the day that would symbolize the beginning of two people's burdens and another's amusement.

The sun had yet to fully emerge from the horizon as they were all situated at the bridge, the new Team 7 that is. And of course, their mentor (although they definitely weren't in need for one) Kakashi Hatake was the main reason for their delay in training as usual. You know what they say, old habits die hard. Especially for a certain someone.

By a certain someone, we are talking about a certain pink haired kunoichi in particular. Whilst the ever so lively and hyperactive Naruto was verbally harassing the emotionless artist and the once missing nin, Sakura couldn't help but let her thoughts drift off to the person who she deemed unreachable.

Sasuke Uchiha.

When he had left the village a couple of years ago, Sakura's thoughts wandered to him more times than Naruto has eaten ramen. And every time his face appeared in her mind, it caused her more pain than she deemed necessary. Thus, in an attempt to minimise her suffering from his absence, she trained herself to focus her thoughts elsewhere. Why think of someone who isn't thinking of you, right?

For a while, she managed to successfully block out any thoughts of him by focusing on other things: training and her duties as a medic. Her life was starting to look up, you could say. But there were always those times, when she was left all alone to her thoughts, that nothing could distract her from the misery he put her through. She was only trying to forget the inevitable truth:

He broke her the day he left.

But now, 5 years after the day that Sakura had wished she could erase from her memories, he's returned to them at the still young age of 17. After completing all his primary goals, and having to be a victim to Naruto's endless determination and strength, he was finally persuaded to return to his true home - Konoha. He knew that his team would receive him with smiles and open arms. He knew that Tsunade could never really punish him for betraying the village, he DID help kill two very dangerous men after all. But what he didn't know was that even with his return, Sakura was still broken. He didn't know that the pieces of her heart that he had shattered years ago could never be fitted together again. Her heart would never be whole.

Thanks to him.

However, there were times – like now – where she would imagine what it would feel like to have him embrace her warmly; kiss her senseless; tell her everything word she'd ever wanted to hear coming from his lips in his husky tone. To feel his lips moulding softly on hers; his muscular yet lean body pressed tightly on her slender figure; her soft fingertips gently trailing his well toned chest right down to the sharp lines that defined his abs; his skin on hers, leaving a burning trail wherever their bodies met; maybe even his breath fanning across her neck; hands exploring her body ravenously-

She stopped her thoughts before they became too inappropriate for her to imagine given that she was in a public area, let alone around the person who was the main character in her fantasies since she was 12.

Fortunately for her, her loudmouth blonde teammate and the impassive painter were not aware of the tiny slip up her wandering mind had caused and did not even cast a glance at her, still deeply involved in their one-sided argument which consisted of Naruto yelling furiously about a trivial matter whilst Sai read a book on "How to politely excuse yourself from a boring conversation."

Unfortunately for her, the teenager who clouded her thoughts was still as observant as ever, and had noticed the way her cheeks were tinged with a slight rosy hue, the colour on them darkening as she continued to dwell deeper in her own thoughts. He also didn't fail to observe how her eyes seemed to glaze over, her lids drooping slightly over her darkened irises. In particular, he scrutinized her slightly parted lips, how she suddenly adopted the unnatural habit of licking her lips frequently although they didn't appear too dry to begin with anyway.

He found this odd behaviour rather peculiar, he noticed that since his return a few weeks ago, his female teammate was something of a mystery to him. He didn't need his sharingan to notice that her smiles were not as gleeful as back in their genin days. Her emotions were more guarded nowadays, she no longer clung to him and confessed her undying love for him like the obsessed fan girl and disturbance she once was. It was odd for him to see her as anything more than a nuisance up until now, but he realised that as he continued training with team 7, there was more to this cherry-blossom than he assumed. She had grown from her once weak ways and adopted the mask of a shinobi, even at times when they weren't training her mask never slipped from her heart-shaped face.

So what was this peculiar expression she was wearing right now? His curiosity got the better of him and he couldn't help but wonder what on earth was going through Sakura's mind at that exact moment to make her adopt such an unfamiliar behaviour. After all, if something was on her mind it would affect their sparring sessions today and he did not want to waste his training sessions simply because Sakura couldn't focus. Although this was the first time he noticed such a strange expression on her face, if this continued the others would notice and this would only serve as a hindrance to the team. It would be best for her to solve this internal issue she had with herself as soon as possible before it affected the others. But since she didn't seem to be trying to solve this problem, he would have to step in.

Only sparing his two male teammates another glance, the Uchiha secretly activated his Sharingan to search into her mind. However, what he found in her imagination came to him as a shock.

And he wished he wasn't so curious in the first place.

I'm ending it there for now.

Please review! You all have no idea how happy I was when I checked my mail to see a whole load of reviews pouring in.

Yours Truly ~