Disclaimer: The characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto and I don't own them.

Also, I understand that some people might not want this for Sasuke and Sakura, with like Sakura being cruel to him, but this is how I would want her to act. I wouldn't want her drooling all over him if he comes. So, JUST PUTTING THAT OUT THERE. :) OKAY, I'll shut up now and let you read.


Chapter 2:

Still crying, Sakura shakily stood up and dashed out the door. Locking her front door as quickly as possible, she started to run, tears blinding her vision.

Rain started to fall, as if it was feeling sympathy for the girl who was running through the diagonal sheets of water that were pouring down from the sky.

Running to a familiar door, Sakura banged on it. Seconds later, a tired Kakashi opened the door, his one eye that was visible widening when he saw Sakura. He thought that it would be an ANBU member informing him of a mission, but he didn't expect to find his crying, soaked, pink-haired "daughter" on his doorstep in the middle of the night.

"S-Sakura?" he said. He pulled her inside his home and shut the door. "Stay here, I'll go get some dry clothes."

Sakura nodded weakly and Kakashi momentarily left the girl to get clothes for her.

Coming back seconds later with a pair of black plaid pajama pants that he was sure would be way too big on the girl and a dark blue, long-sleeved shirt, Kakashi gave them to the girl in front of him who muttered a soft, "Thank you" and went to the bathroom to go and change.

Sakura came out a while later, wet clothes in hand. Kakashi took them from her and put them in the dryer, saying that he would put the dryer on tomorrow morning.

Sakura nodded.

Sakura felt comfortable in Kakashi's clothes, they smelled like him and they were warm. It was more than enough.

"Go and take the bed. I'll sleep here for the night," Kakashi said, patting the couch that was next to him.

Sakura shook her head. "No," she paused, hoping it wouldn't come out weird. "Can you sleep next to me?" (A/N: NOT IN THAT WAY, PERVERTS! THIS IS A SASUSAKU FANFICTION, I HATE THE PAIRING OF KAKASHI AND SAKURA, IT IS REVOLTING!)

Kakashi smiled slightly. "Of course."

They both went into Kakashi's room and laid down. Sakura started to cry again and Kakashi held her close to him while she clung to his shirt.

Soon enough, they both fell asleep.


"Sakura-chan!" Naruto pounded on the door. "SAKURA-CHAN! OPEN THE DOOR!"

Sakura groaned, pulled off the sheets she was comfortably wrapped in on the couch and went to open the door. She had recently come home from Kakashi's and was sitting on the couch, thinking about the previous day's events. Opening the door, she was met with Naruto's worried expression. "What do you want, Naruto?"

"What happened last night?!" he said, ignoring her question.

"Nothing happened," Sakura walked back to her living room couch, with Naruto following close behind her after he closed the door.

"Don't say that, I know Sasuke was here."

"And how would you know that?" Sakura said, sitting down on the couch.

He sat down beside her. "Teme told me."

"Why?" Sakura inquired. "What did he tell you?" She didn't want Naruto to find out she had cried, he cared for her deeply and hated to see her hurt.

"He said that he went to talk to you and you screamed at him to leave," Naruto paused. "He also told me that you were crying."

Damn that Uchiha. "So what?"

"What do you mean 'so what'? WHAT DID THAT TEME SAY TO YOU?!"

"Nothing."

"Then why were you crying?" he asked.

"I wasn't!"

"WHY ARE YOU LYING?" Naruto said.

Sakura just wanted Naruto to leave. Today was her one day she decided to take off work, and he had to ruin the peace. "WHY DO YOU CARE?!"

"Because I care for you," Naruto said, calming down a bit.

"Well, don't! I don't need you to care for me! Care for that jerk instead!"

"Sasuke?" Naruto asked.

Sakura didn't say anything and looked away. She brought her knees up to her face and rested her chin atop them. Naruto's gaze softened at her and he wrapped a reassuring arm around Sakura. Sakura slightly leaned into his familiar body. "I'm sorry for yelling at you, Naruto. You were only trying to help."

Naruto just nodded and said, "If you want to talk about something, tell me."

Sakura just nodded slightly and closed her eyes. After a while, when Naruto left, Sakura went to take a shower. Afterwards, she decided to read some of her medical books that Tsunade-sama had recommended. As she was finishing a chapter about important herbs, someone rang the doorbell. Thinking about who it could be, she went to the front door and opened it. She saw the last person she wanted to see: Sasuke. He had a bag with him and his face was as plain as ever.

She was about to close the door when Sasuke's palm stopped the door from closing. He walked in without being invited and shut the door behind him. "What do you want now? Haven't you done enough damage?"

Sasuke didn't say anything as he sat down on the couch and made himself comfortable. Sakura raised her eyebrows at his actions and said, "What do you think you're doing?"

Sasuke looked at her. "It's not like it's my choice."

"What do you mean?"

He sighed. "Tsunade's orders."

Her eyes widened, hoping it wouldn't be what she thought it would. Damn it! She hurriedly put on her shoes and started to open the door. Then she realized that Sasuke was still in her home and she wasn't about to just leave him alone. "Come on, then!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and got up.

Sakura closed the door behind them once he was out and poofed into smoke.

Sasuke was slightly impressed that she could already do that. He did the same and soon found himself in the Hokage Tower. Sakura was already there.

She's faster than me? He glared at her.

Not noticing Sasuke's glare, Sakura opened the door to Tsunade's office after she was told to come in.

"Ah, Sakura. What brings you here?" Tsunade said.

Sakura stared at her. "What? What brings me here? That," she pointed at the Uchiha who was standing to the side with his hands in his pockets indifferently. "That brought me here!" she knew she was being disrespectful to her master, but at the moment she didn't care.

"What about him?" she calmly asked.

"Why was he at my house?!"

Tsunade frowned. "You mean, you don't know?"

"Know what?" Sakura was starting to get frustrated.

"That lazy Shikamaru. He didn't tell you, I suppose?" He probably fell asleep on the way there.

"Shikamaru?" Sakura inquired. "No, he didn't tell me anything."

"Uchiha has to stay with you until his probation is lifted," Tsunade spoke carefully, knowing her words would anger the girl in front of her.

"WHAT?! WHY?!" Sakura screamed. "Why can't Naruto or Kakashi do it?"

"Kakashi is leaving for a mission today. And, I can't trust Naruto and Sasuke alone. They might blow up the whole village."

Sakura sighed, knowing her master was right. "Fine. But for how long?"

Tsunade laced her fingers together. "8 months."

"What?!"

"Sakura, I know. But, please. We can't let him be by himself. He will be escorted by 2 ANBU members everywhere he goes, but he just needs to stay at your house. You don't have to see him at all during the day if you don't want to."

Sakura sighed again. "Fine."

"Thank you, Sakura."

And with that, Sakura left, grumbling all the way to her house. Sasuke had kept silent throughout the whole thing as he had already known. He was somewhat happy that she wasn't ogling over the idea and accepting it right away. At least now he knew that he would be left alone most of the time.

He had a bit trouble in following her as she was walking insanely fast. When Sakura was about to turn on the road she had to go on to get to her house, she stopped. I need more food. I'm sure Tsunade-sama would not be happy if I let him die of starvation.

Hastily turning the opposite away, almost bumping into Sasuke, she went to the grocery store. There she bought some food items with Sasuke standing there, not helping.

She paid for them and started on the way home again.

When she got home, she put the items in their respective place in her kitchen.

Sasuke was sitting on the couch again, looking around.

"Are you going to do anything, or just sit there?" she asked.

He didn't answer.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Do whatever you want, but don't bother me, or you're going to be sorry you were ever born." With that, she went back to her room, slamming the door shut. Sasuke looked around the room, not seeing much, he decided to go bother Sakura anyway.

"Hey!" Sakura yelled when he entered her room without knocking. "You can't just do that! What if I was doing something private?"

Sasuke just laid down on her bed. "So?"

"What do you mean 'so'? You can't just come in here and barge in whenever you like!"

Sasuke didn't say anything, so she started reading again. She could feel Sasuke's eyes on her as she read, and it made her feel uncomfortable. After a while, Sakura said, "What? Why do you keep staring at me?"

"I'm trying to figure something out."

"What?" Sakura said, agitated by the man in her room.

"Why you're acting so strange," Sasuke said.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you mean, I've always been like this."

Sasuke shook his head. "Not when we were kids."

"What?"

"You're acting different than when you were when you were a child."

"Well, it's called growing up. Maybe you should learn about it sometime," Sakura retorted back.

"You were never like this before," Sasuke bluntly said.

"I don't care about your opinion of me."

Sasuke shrugged. "I'm just saying that you're much weirder than before."

Sakura's eyebrow twitched. "Did you just call me weird, Uchiha?"

Sasuke smirked. "So what if I did?"

"Ugh, you are so difficult!" Sakura screamed in frustration.

He didn't answer, smirking instead of saying anything.

"Don't you have anything better to do than irritate me?"

Sasuke shook his head. "I'm on probation and Tsunade restricted me from going to the training grounds. She even put this on me." He pointed to his ankle to show Sakura a black band that had a red, blinking light on it.

"A tracker?" Now I know what that key Tsunade-sama gave me is for. Sakura smirked. "She probably thinks you are going to run off again."

"I didn't run away," he said, irritated. "I simply traveled to another place to complete a goal of mine."

"Psh, yeah right. We both know that you ran away to seek power. That turned out well," she said sarcastically.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her. "Little girls who don't know what they're talking about should keep their mouths shut."

Sakura glared at him. "Little girls? I'm not a little girl!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You act like it."

"Whatever. Could you leave and annoy Naruto instead?"

"That dobe? No, he's probably going to make me go eat ramen with him. Again.

Besides, I'm on probation, baka." Sasuke said.

A vein popped on Sakura's forehead. "Then go somewhere else! Just leave me alone!"

Sasuke smirked. "Why? It's not like you've got anything better to do."

"I do have a life, you know, unlike you."

"Yeah, okay," Sasuke replied sarcastically.

"Besides, today is my day off and I want to enjoy it!"

He smirked.

"Stop smirking, you are so annoying!"

"Hn, that's my line."

Sakura scowled, remembering when they were kids and he used to call her "annoying." It broke her heart when she was younger, but now she felt like he needed to be punched. "Want me to injure you more than you already are, Uchiha?"

"Hn, I'd like to see you try."

"OH, I WILL!"

This made Sasuke smirk more. Sakura, fed up with his stupid smirking, stood up and went to the kitchen, to make something to eat. When she came back from having a quick lunch, Sasuke was reading something. She recognized it as her old diary. "Give that back, you jerk!" She snatched the item away from him and clutched onto it. "You don't just go through people's things!"

"Hn, you wrote weird things."

"First, you barge into my home, invade my privacy and now you are criticizing me? You're such an asshole!" She pointed at the door, "Now get out of my room, otherwise I'm going to force you out!"

"No, I'm fine, I'll stay."

"It was not a request, but a demand, Uchiha!" Sakura said.

Sasuke paid no attention to her and she rolled her eyes, deciding that she was going to push him off her bed, since she wanted to lay down and read. She walked over to her bed, went to the other side and pushed him off, with which he landed ungracefully on the floor. He groaned and once he got up, he glared at Sakura, who was now happily sitting on her bed, pulling out her book. He growled and went to the other side of the bed, settling down on it again.

"What do you think you're doing, get down from my bed."

"I'm okay."

Sakura scooted all the way to the edge of the bed, trying to put as much distance as she could between them, which made Sasuke raise his eyebrows at her actions. Sakura paid no attention to him and started reading. Sasuke, curious of what she was reading, leaned over to look at her book.

Sakura could feel his breath on her neck and it made shivers go down her spine. She cleared her throat, and slightly turned to him, "What are you doing?"

"I'm bored and so I wanted to see what you were reading."

"Well, don't."

"Why?" He asked.

"Just because," the real reason was that she didn't want him to be too close to her, it made her feel uncomfortable.

Sasuke squinted his eyes, trying to figure out what her problem was.

Sakura fully turned to him, their faces only centimeters apart. Sakura blushed. Sasuke saw this and smirked, leaning closer, which made Sakura lean back. She almost fell off the bed, since she was so close to the edge to begin with. Sasuke grabbed her just in time and she muttered out a "thanks," and left the room.

Sakura walked to her bathroom, splashing her burning, red face with water to calm herself down. When she went back to her room, she saw Sasuke going through one of her drawers. She raised her eyebrows expectantly, wanting an explanation. Sasuke said nothing and plopped back down on her bed.

"What were you doing?"

"Nothing."

"You were looking for something, right?" Sakura said, she had a pretty good idea what it was.

"Maybe."

"I'm not giving you the key." Tsunade had given her a key yesterday. It was for the Uchiha's tracker.

"Why?" he asked frustrated.

"Because, you need that thing on you. We never know when you are going to run off again."

"I wouldn't have come back just to 'run off' again," he retorted.

"Well, maybe. You were in critical condition and technically you didn't come back by yourself. An ANBU member found you and brought you back, so you could be healed. No one knows what your true intentions are."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, not wanting to be told off by a girl.

"So why haven't you left yet?"

Sasuke said, "What?"

"I know you don't want to be here, in Konoha, so why are you still here?"

"Who said that?"

"Oh come on, you don't return for 3 years, then when you are brought back, you don't make any move to leave? Yeah, that's just not right," Sakura said. "What are your real intentions?"

Sasuke sighed, this was way too much talking for one day. "To gain Konoha's trust again."

"Psh, you are the one who says that trust and bonds make someone weak," she paused. "Why don't you leave?"

"Why would I?"

"I don't know!" she screamed in frustration. "Because you are so unpredictable and all you do is hurt others without realizing it!"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her.

Sakura looked away, realizing what she had just said. She didn't mean to say it out loud, but it was true. He was a jerk for leaving her like that without even thinking twice about it. "You don't know how much you hurt me when you left," she said in a small voice.

"Hn. It wasn't intentional."

"See?! That's what I mean. You didn't even know it!" she looked at him. "You hated me and now I know why. I was a stupid, annoying, useless girl who always got hurt and needed to be protected." That's why I changed...for you.

"Who said I hated you?"

Sakura was confused. "W-Well, you never talked freely with me, you always called me 'annoying' and I know, at least now, that I was irritating."

"That didn't mean I hated you. I just didn't like you because you were so hung up on me. I was trying to do you a favor, so you could give up on me and become a better shinobi," he said like it didn't mean anything, which made Sakura question whether it was true or not.

"Well, I-I just thought you did. It was pretty hard not to," she looked away. "Sorry," she mumbled quietly.

There was a silence.

"Why...Why did you decide not to leave Konoha? Building trust again, I get it, but that's probably not the only reason why." Sakura asked.

"I already completed my goal of killing Itachi. Now, I need to rebuild my clan."

"Oh…" she bit her lip from laughing at the thought of Sasuke actually being with someone. That was impossible though. Sakura laid on her bed, sighing.

Sasuke made himself comfortable on the other side.

"Are you going to leave anytime soon or what?" Sakura asked.

He didn't answer. Sakura decided to let him be, she knew he wasn't going to listen to her anyway.

She read her book and the day passed by slowly.

When it was around 5:00, she decided to start making dinner.

Looking over at Sasuke, she noticed he had fallen asleep.

Leaving him in her room, she went to the kitchen to make dinner. Sasuke came into the kitchen tiredly when she was finishing up.

"Good morning," she joked. "Want to eat something?"

He nodded and sat down in one of the chairs next to the small table. Sakura sat down as well after she had filled both of their plates up and they ate in silence.

At the end, Sakura said, "You have to help with the dishes."

He glared at her.

"Hey, I'm letting you live here, so you have to help me around the house."

"Hn," he grunted.

Sakura washed the dishes while Sasuke dried them and put them away.

Afterwards, Sakura went into her bedroom and took out a futon from her closet. Looking at Sasuke who had followed her, she said, "I only have one bedroom, so you have to sleep either on the floor or the couch in the living room." Sakura's house only had a small kitchen, living room, bathroom and one bedroom. It was more than enough for one person to live in, but kind of tight for 2.

"Why can't we both sleep on your bed, it's big enough." Sasuke retorted. It was true, Sakura liked big spaces when she slept and her bed was more than enough for 2 people.

"No," she said. "You are not sleeping in the same bed as me."

"Well, shouldn't you be a nice host and give me the bed instead?"

"Well, shouldn't you be grateful that I am letting you even stay here?"

"It wasn't really your choice."

"It wasn't your's either!" Sakura was getting mad. "You are involuntarily staying here and since this is my house, I MAKE THE DAMN RULES! Got it, Uchiha?"

"Tch," Sasuke said, looking away.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "So, floor or couch?"

Sasuke didn't say anything, but just plopped his bag on the floor of her bedroom.

"How did I know you would choose that?" she chucked the futon at him, which he skillfully caught.

Sakura retreated into the bathroom, changing into the pair of black shorts and white t-shirt she had grabbed before as her pajamas.

After Sakura had brushed and changed, she plopped on her bed and read a book. Sasuke was laying in his futon, staring at the wall. Sakura kept glancing back at him nervously. "Aren't you bored? You are just sitting there, staring at the ceiling," she finally asked.

Sasuke shook his head slightly and said, "No."

Sakura shrugged and kept reading. After about an hour, she decided that she wanted to go to bed, since it was getting late and she was tired from all the events of today. "I'm turning off the light, okay?"

"Hn," he responded.

Sakura shut off the light and slid under her comfy bedsheets and tried to fall asleep. It was kind of hard considering the man she hated, loved and was kind of scared of was in her room, not even 5 feet from her.


Author's Note:

That was awkward, right? Well, whatever. I'm so sorry that it took me almost a month to update, but with the other two stories, another story I am working on and summer assignments, I have been pretty busy. SO DON'T KILL ME! Please review to tell me what you think and give me some ideas. Thanks!