I do not own Naruto at all, ever, etc

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Lee had followed her and she knew it, tonight was special, time for her to be alone and contemplate what had been lost and gained over the years and he had followed her.

"Lee" was all she said

"Sakura-chan!" he exclaimed jumping from the tree "I have something I want to tell you!"

"Lee…." Sakura's voice took a slight edge and her eye began to twitch

Lee however didn't notice "In my absolute love for you I felt I had to come tell you myself…."

Sakura interrupted him "LEE. GET. OFF. MY. GRANDMOTHERS. GRAVE." The green clad man froze and looked down, there was indeed a grave there…he had mistaken it for a stone table, he looked up just in time to see Sakura cracking her knuckles.

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Sakura woke in the morning to find Naruto banging on her window "Naruto?" she asked sleepily rubbing her eyes

"No its Orichimaru!" he cackled evilly before giving her the Geeze-you're-being-dumb-but-seeing-as-you-just-got-up-i'll-let-you-off look

"Okay okay" She rolled her eyes opening the window "What's so important you had to wake me up?"

"We're going on a mission!"

Sakura grinned at this "Wow I haven't been on a mission since I started my training with Honakage-sama!"

"Well seeing as Lee has left town we can't use him and you're the next best for our team!"

Blood roared in Sakura's ears "He WHAT!"

Birds flew from the village.

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Two Years later

The mission was a simple one, Escort 'the slut' as the daimios niece was nicknamed within their group. Back home.

Simple.

Very simple.

Between the girl constantly flirting with Shikamaru and Naruto, glaring at Sakura and being glared at by Ino (shika and Ino were dating btw) the moment the horrible gold sporting, make-up caked hoar was taken from their care into the Daimios guards the group sagged.

"Should we go get dinner before heading back?" Sakura suggested eyeing a fish stall Naruto shook his head "We can wait till getting back, after all its only a few hours without her to worry about – come on RAMEN ALL THE WAYYY!" he yelled leaping into the trees. The others followed suit.

The attack took them by surprise; trees had been tagged with explosives causing them to fall. The enemy ninjas were unmarked, missing nin. Ino fell first floored by a snaky kick to the ribs, Shikamaru yelled and fought harder, trying to figure a way out of the situation. Naruto created bushin and attacked. One of the Nins stood over Ino. Sakura snarled and grabbed him. Feeling his ribs crack from her excess strength she hoisted him and there the black clothed man into a group of companions. Ino moaned clutching her ribs in agony.

Sakura knelt and quickly patched her up.

Naruto yelled something, unheard over a cracking and groan. Sakura saw the tree begin to fall and threw Ino into Shikamaru, knocking both out of its path. She wasn't fast enough.

"SAKURA!" 100s of voices all sounding like Naruto screamed, then blackness.