This is my first fanfic, so i hope you enjoy
BTW i don't own Naruto, but i love it x

(Part 1) If I said I loved you, would you love me back?
Through weakness and strength, happiness and sorrow, for better, for worse. I will love you

Chapter 1.1

A gentle sigh escaped from her lips. She was sitting on the branch of a tree, overlooking the training grounds. Sakura came here every afternoon to watch him train; she knew that most people may find her habit, obsessive and kind of creepy. But it was the only way that she could see him without the barriers, it's not like he could or would ever open up to her. Combing her fingers through her soft pink hair, she watched as the figure below walked into the forest, till the boy with the raven-hair was gone from her view.

XXX

She knew she was late; both boys were already there…waiting, without the slightest exchange of words. Slowing her run into a slow walk, Sakura took in her teammates, the three of them started together when they were twelve and four years later they were still together. Little had changed, Naruto was still had the attention span of a five year old, but he had matured not just mentally, he was stronger and more in control of his power at 17 than he had been when he was a pre-teen. She would never say it out loud, but Naruto didn't look so bad now either; he was tall, tan, blonde hair blue eyes, and though he seemed lanky he had a bit of muscle around the arms. And as though on cue…

"SAKUURAAAA CHAAAN!!! ABOUT TIME, GEEZ THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE, EITHER OF BORDEM OR FROM ONE OF SASUKE'S L…"

At the mention of his name Sakura lost her train of thought, she looked around to see sitting under the shade of a tree, the love of her life, Sasuke Uchiha. As though he read her mind, Sasuke looked up, his narrowed onyx eyes, clashing with her big, bright emerald orbs. She felt the heart rising up her neck, Naruto may be good-looking, but Sasuke was on fire. He was just a bit taller than Naruto, milky-pale skin which clung to his muscular, lean body and dark raven hair which fell just over his onyx eyes. She was head of heels in love with him, but she knew that he would never fall for a girl whose hair looked like she had an accident with bubblegum at birth.

The sound of her sensei bought her mind crashing into reality. "Sorry to keep you waiting, I…"

"Aww, just tell us why you called us here, I have a 50% discount coupon for ramen which expires today", Sakura could help the twitch at the ends of her mouth, team 7 were used to Kakashi lack of punctuality, and his greater lack of imagination.

"Well it just so happens that I have a very important mission, that I thought you three might be interested in…" pausing, darting his eyes around the group waiting for a reaction. Nothing. "…okay well it's an A ranked mission, where we will be escorting two princes back to their homeland"

"Sweet, haven't had a good workout in ages", finally getting the reaction that he was after, no doubt coming from Naruto, Kakashi-sensei continued to fill his team in.

"Now because there are two clients we must escort, Tsunade-sama and I figured that it would be wiser if we split them up, which would make it harder for the enemy to track us down. So for that we're going to have to split up, I decided that Naruto and I would pair up, and Sasuke you go with Sakura. That way both teams are roughly even, any obligations to these arrangements? This mission may take about three to four days one way, because we'll have to take elaborate routes and with extra baggage it'll also be a bit slower. So if you have any problems with the pairing, say so now, because we can't change later on. Sasuke? Sakura?"

Looking from the corner of her eye, she could see Sasuke give a shrug, with a slightest shake of a head. Four days…Just her and Sasuke. She felt breathless, and she had to fight an eternal battle to stop the Cheshire cat grin from being plastered onto her face.

"Okay then tomorrow, 6am at the gates" and without another word he was gone in a puff of smoke.

XXX

"Hi, names Ruka, and this here's Seikou", Sakura couldn't help but gape at the two princes; even though they were brothers the two looked nothing alike. The one named Ruka had dark brown eyes that almost seemed black, black hair, but in the sun it almost looked red, which was cropped short and neat, he was older than the rest of them, probably around nineteen. The younger other one, Seikou, who looked around their age, was taller that Sasuke, had honey coloured hair which stuck up at the top, and warm chocolate brown eyes which almost looked golden.

"Uzumaki Naruto, nice to meet you" the two princes exchanged glances and shook Naruto's hand; she noticed that both brothers had a dimple in their left cheek when they smiled.

"Uchiha Sasuke", that's when she felt four pairs of eyes on, snapping out of her daze, looking up she could see everyone looking at her. "Oh…Right…Sakura, Haruno Sakura", she felt a blush creeping onto her cheeks.

"Cute name" Her cheeks flushed, she noted that the comment came from the tall one, called Seikou. He was smiling crookedly at her, his dimple dented in his cheek and his eyes dancing with amusement. But before she could reply, she was saved by Kakashi, who chose to make his presence at that very moment.

"Are we ready to set off?", getting a wave of synchronised nods as a response, he finished giving out directions before they would part, pointing at Ruka, "You come with me and Naruto, so that means blondy you're with Sakura and Sasuke. Sasuke you've got the map, follow the red route, we'll be taking the blue one. We'll be meeting up this time tomorrow at the Tetzuki Temple, before we arrive at our final destination,Reogukre. That's all, you three head off we'll see you tomorrow"

"Hai" as the three of them ran off into the depths of the forest. Kakashi knew that no harm would come to Seikou with those two around; he was more concerned about whether he made the right decision pairing Sakura with Sasuke.

XXX

The silence was unbearable, yet breaking it seemed deadly. Sakura could make out Sasuke's black spikes up ahead; she hoped that she would be able to get to know Sasuke better on this mission. But looking at the current situation she highly doubted. That's when she heard the rustle in the bushes, and when Sasuke stopped walking she knew that he'd heard it too. Catching his eye, she knew what she had to do. Running towards Seikou and standing in front of him, kunai at hand.

"Seikou-kun, stand behind me", Seikou's face was masked with fear, his chocolate eyes had gone cold all the warmth sucked out, "Don't worry just stay close, we won't let anything happen", she turned to smile at the boy, some of the colour returned to his face but he was still anxious about the whole scenario. Sakura couldn't blame him, this was her first time on such a high ranked mission without Kakashi-sensei and Naruto, so she was feeling a bit nervous, but she knew that she had to hold her own and trust Sasuke to protect them.

Two masked men jumped out of the bushes. Sakura took her stance ready for the attack, when Sasuke appeared, his eyes bleeding crimson. "Sakura stay back", his voice its usual calmness, she nodded in reply, knowing that although his back was turned he got her message. It was an advantage of being so close after almost five years; as though the four of them could pick our each other's thoughts.

"KATON GOUKAKYUU NO JUTSU", the bright ball of flame hurled towards both men, who at the exact moment pounced into the air and threw kunai in their direction. It took him one swift movement to deflect the attack, before he charged towards them, his hand glowing from the concentration of chakara, "CHIDORIIII!!"

The clearing was filled with dust, she could hear Sasuke's silent gasps, hoping he hadn't pushed himself too far, she ran into the gigantic cloud of dust; Seikou right on her heel. The clearing was in a mess, but it was nothing new to her. She knew first had the devastation that Sasuke's chidori could cause. As the dust began to clear away, Sakura could see him, leaning against a fallen tree, he seemed fine, but as she was approaching him she could see him face tight with pain and the deep gash in his shoulder.

"Sasuke-kun..."

"They got away…shit…", clutching his blood soaked shoulder, he looked around trying to figure out away to get up.

"Here…", Sakura watched as Sasuke eyed Seikou, who had offered his hand. Biting her lip, she watched as both boys continued to stare, she knew how Sasuke hated to show weakness, and Seikou's gesture rubbed salt into the wound. Much to her surprise, Sasuke grasped his hand and levered himself onto his feet, nodding his head as a token of thanks. "Well there's no point in going after them. I think it'd be best if we set camp here. We'll have to cover more ground tomorrow, but looking at Sasuke-kun's condition I don't think I'd be wise to go an further today", not waiting for any note of consent from the two, she began to pitch the tent.

With Seikou's help, setting up camp didn't take long; she had secluded Sasuke in the corner much to his dismay. She had found out a lot about the young prince; his older brother was next in line for the throne, and after his father became ill, they had to return home. But there was another noble family, who also carried the royal bloodline, and if Ruka or Seikou could not step up and be king then the son of that family would.

"So the ninjas that attacked us today were probably hired by them"
"hmm…", it was obvious that his mind was troubled. Holding his gaze, she smiled gently and told him to go rest. "We have a lot to catch up tomorrow"

"Yeah, night Sakura-san and…" she turned to where his eyes averted to; Sasuke sitting by the fire, his shirt drenched in blood. She didn't have time to do anything about his wound other than give him a few weak painkillers, he looked a mess.

"Don't worry about him, you go to sleep, she watched the mess of honey blonde hair disappear inside the tent. Letting out a deep sigh she made her way toward her battered teammate,"Sasuke-kun…"

"hn"

"I think that I should look at that wound", seating herself beside him, she cautiously watched as he fixed his gaze to her. She couldn't help herself from thinking how such a cold stare could melt her heart. "It's fine, I'll just bandage it", his stubborn attitude really pissed her off sometimes, usually it was Naruto or Kakashi who dealt with it which she stood in the background, but not anymore. Sakura knew that she had to stop relying on other people to do things for her, and that went for Sasuke too.

"Sasuke-kun", her voice firm and controlled than imagined. "If you don't get that wound cleaned, then it could get infected and who knows what might happen then. So please, sit down and let me take a look"

"…", he had no words to express, Sasuke was so used to getting his way with Sakura, one word and he had her wrapped around his finger. All he could do was lie back and let her do what she did best.

XXX

Sasuke had never really seen Sakura using any of her medical jutsus, but whatever she was doing with him, he had to admit was amazing; her expert control of chakara was beyond what he and Naruto were capable of, though he hated to admit it.

"Okay, you're all good", he watched out of the corner of his eye, as she shook her hair out of the small ponytail and leaned back on her arms and looked up at the sky. She was quite pretty in a weird way; her short pink hair which just reached her shoulders, a curvy figure, not that he looked enough to notice. But what got him was her eyes; big bright emerald jewels, which always seemed to be glowing, it was priceless.

"You were really lucky Sasuke kun", tilting her head she smiled at him. "That kunai was covered in poison, if the cut was any deeper, it would've killed you". This wasn't news to him, that why he had to change his target back at the clearing otherwise the kunai would've gone straight through his chest. "You know it might be better if I help you, you know my fighting isn't that bad"

"You don't have to worry about that sort of stuff, that's what we're here for"

"Yeah, well I'm part of this team too. I know you probably don't think I'm good enough, but I train really hard and I've become heaps stronger", Sasuke was shocked by her words; he hadn't expected her to reacted so badly to it. She had he arms crossed across her chest and she was avoiding eye contact with him, glaring straight ahead. "That's not what I meant", he was struggling to get his point across, without offending her or giving her the wrong impression. "It's just that you're a lot more fragile than the three of us, I guess leaving you on the sidelines is our way of protecting you"

He could see the blush slowing creeping to her cheeks, she hugged her knees to her chest as she turned and beamed at him. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

XX END XX

Yay first chapter up!! please review =]