"Sasuke…"

The fact that she left out the '-kun' shocked him a little more than he wanted to admit.

"Do you ever see yourself loving me back?" Her jade eyes, now a dull emerald shined against the moonlight.

He had come back two months ago from seeing the world in a new light. He knew he had some type of feelings for the kunoichi, but not in a romantic way. He considered her the only female friend where he felt he could be comfortable around with. He never thought about this type of situation. Of course, ever since they were genin, she would openly admit that she was in love with him. He would always brush her off like dust on his shoulder, always too busy to even let himself think about a relationship, especially at a young age.

Then even after he'd gone his separate ways to fulfill his revengers path, he never noticed her love and affection, even if she did wave it in front of his face after he came back.

"Sasuke? I need to know-" before she could say anymore, tears started to flow. Her throat dried up. He could tell something was bothering her and he couldn't point it out. Usually he read her like an open book, but tonight he couldn't. Something about the atmosphere wasn't sitting right with him. Yet he said nothing. How could he? He doesn't know how he feels, he's not the type to just open up about anything. He was hoping she'd be patient enough to know that fact and just keep her overwhelming emotions to herself. This situation was just getting on his nerves already.

So he just mumbled what he knew would get him away from it all.

"Hn." He felt bad for leaving her like that, but this was the best solution he could come up with. Besides maybe he would speak to her when the moon is not shining and creating this sick atmosphere, and possibly messing with Sakura's hormones.

Behind him, Konoha's cherry blossom fell on the ground, not able to contain the different range of emotions inside her.

'Sakura, get up! SHANNARO!' Inner Sakura appeared.

'Sak! I… I've got to-o f-find out if-' wow, even in her mind she couldn't control the sobbing. Looking up Sasuke's figure disappeared in the shadows not looking back.

'CUT IT OUT! Sakura! You're 22 now and you have GOT to snap out of it! Not everything in life is going to go as planned, especially with the man of your dreams! Come back to reality!' Inner Sak fumed.

For a moment, Sakura managed to control her sobbing. 'You know… you're r-really mean Sak…'

'Tough love. And you know you're probably crying for nothing… maybe you should take this time to woman up and get over your lovely Uchi-'

'Stop. Please… I know.' Sakura now stopped crying and wiped away her remaining tears. She stood up and turned her back and walked away.


In Tsunade's office there stood four of the strongest young kunoichis; Ino, Ten-ten, Hinata, and Sakura.

"Ok girls, I hate to do this…" Tsunade's eyes fell on the four girls lined up. She looked down at the scroll in her hands. "to one of you, but it must be done. I explained everything to you all very thoroughly earlier today. Just five minutes ago I received the prince's chosen one."

The four girls tensed up. Looking around to the other girl's faces, Sakura could tell she wasn't the only one who did some crying tonight. Ino's piercing blue eyes were distraught with emotions, Ten-ten's neat buns were roughed out, never had Sakura seen her in such a way. Then Hinata's pale eyes were rimmed with red. Sakura felt super bad for her, especially because of Naruto. Naruto has fought so hard to finally be happy, and Hinata was one of those reasons for his bright smiles, even if he didn't really realize this yet.

Tsunade looked into each of the girls eyes. "Whoever's name is in this scroll, I wish you the best to carry out this business mission. You girls are Konoha's finest, and I trust you will stay loyal to Konoha and see this mission to the end without a fail."

The silence was thick, never had Sakura been in a room with the tension this thick. Yet she looked on to Tsunade subconsciously grabbing on to Hinata's hand for support.

"Well… let's find out." With those final words, Tsunade opened the scroll.

"Congratulations, you're getting married…."

The girls gasped waiting for the name to come out of their Hokage's mouth.

"Sakura."

From that moment Sakura's world crashed down.


Check out my page for info on my return. Also I do not own Naruto, or any other characters. questions or comments feel free to inbox me or review. -OOXX