Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters seen on this story.
"Pssst…psst."
The strawberry haired medic looked around the hallway, but couldn't trace the sound of the noise.
"Over here. Sakura."
She turned around and saw her best friend with a gleeful smirk on.
"Haven't seen you here for a while. I was going to visit you after my shift. How have you been? Come walk with me." Sakura beamed.
The two walked along as Ino assisted her in handing out lunch to the bed-stricken patients.
"Well I actually went to go speak to the overseer of the hospital, and she said that it was fine to come back and continue working. Can't sit down and smell the roses all day, you know?" She laughed while admiring what she had missed out, spending time with Sakura.
"Knowing you...It sounded like a decision you had to sleep on." She replied with a grin. "So anyways how are you? What's been going on with you? You don't seem upset or down anymore. You finally got over him?"
"Well I'm glad you asked, but let's wait until lunch. I got a whopper to tell."
"This should be fun to hear."
A bloodshot eye slowly rose. It took a peek at the alarm clock and closed itself. Wrapping himself further in bed sheets he let out a grunt.
"Damn. It's this late already?" Asked a bitter Uzumaki,
"You know what they say?"
"Please don't say it. Please don't say it." Naruto thought to himself.
"Single life or….finish it."
"I'm not finishing it."
"Single life orrrrrr No life!" Exclaimed Sauske in a drunken fervor.
"Keep telling yourself that buddy." He stood up and washed his face, continuing to hold the conversation with his raven haired friend.
"C'mon look at us! We're single we don't need women. They - burp- they….hold us down."
"Yeah, no definitely." he said laced with sarcasm. "So let me get this straight, we have dinner with our friend who we haven't seen for a while, he leaves, probably try to make peace and if he's lucky, sleep with Ino! Seeing that, you get all moody and shit that you haven't made a move on the girl that has been on your jock for the past…umm, I DON'T KNOW, FOREVER? You go out and get drunk, calling out Sakura's name! And you wake up saying the single life is great. Yeah, no man, agreed a thousand percent." He laughed
"I didn't call her name. I whispered it."
"In my ear, which was really creepy."
Naruto walked to the kitchen and saw that he was overdue on buying groceries, settling for an open box of some generic chocolate cereal.
"Don't act all high and mighty with me. I've seen the way you look at Hinata. You're so unemotional that I confused you with Sai for a second.
"Did someone say call me?" Said the pale, white man. He appeared from almost thin air.
"Sai? – How did you get into our apartment?" Said Sauske
"You mean MY apartment. I let you stay here, lazy bum. Seriously though, how did you get here?"
"You guys don't remember?"
Both of them replied with a "no."
"Well since you were gone, Kakashi told me to watch over your apartment. And that's what I precisely did. I've been hiding in the closet-"
"Well that's a real shocker." Sauske thought to himself.
"In the closet entertaining myself. I drew a bunch of sketches of your closet, want to see?" He asked with all the innocence in the world."
"How about no. That's pretty weird, you can go now." Said Naruto.
"Ok!" He scurried off and ran through the door.
"He's our friend, but the kid's a fucking freak." Said the Uchiha.
"Yeah he is." He said while finishing the bowl of cereal. "And just for your information, Kiba is interested in Hinata and vice versa.
"Of course she is, and I'm an asshole!"
"But you are."
"I know that, but you get where I'm getting at?"
"Not going to happen, would you just drop it?" Naruto yelled.
"You know what? I'm going to do it. Yeah. I'm going to run straight to the hospital, look Sakura in the eye and ask her out on a real date! What do you think?"
His ambivalent friend was scrolling through the web, not paying attention to what Sauske had to say.
"Alright, you can be mad all you want. I'm just saying you should give yourself a chance. I'm going to go now. Wish me luck." And just like that he was off and running to Yamanaka flowers in search of some flowers.
A wave of sadness had hit Naruto once Sauske left to go pursue Sakura. Knowing his friend was right about asking out the girl who had grown on him since his days at the academy, he sighed. Unfortunately he had begun to ignore her ever since the night at the carnival. Obviously he had seen her around the village every now and then, but he really tried his best to not notice her. He was scrolling through Hinata's page on some social media sight, looking through photos, old posts, her interests, etc. A smile was planted on his face when he came across and old post, dated from two years ago. It was a picture of Hinata and himself smiling in celebration of the end of the war. Clicking and diving further into her page, he saw that Ino had posted it with a caption that read "Konoha couple sightings." His cheeks had a pinkish hue to them and he felt them get hotter.
Continuing to scroll, he looked at how many people saw and commented on the photo. Ping! "You have approved of this photo."
"WAIT WHAT?! NO. NO. HOW DO I UNAPPROVE? OH CRAP. HOW DO I UNAPPROVE?" Naruto said to himself in a frenzy.
He began to slam to the keyboard, hoping that somehow it would unapproved the photo. Ping! "You have commented on this photo. Your comment: jfihsaifhsdofgdvhcoibfd[oibdfwhqoihfo43t943u."
"You've got to be kidding me."
The air was filled with the scent of leftover chicken and rice. Sakura and Ino finally found the free time to catch up over their scheduled lunch.
"I miss this place so much. I'm really glad I'm back." Said the blonde cheerfully as she reached into her bag and pulled out a small tuna roll.
"Same. I'm really happy that the old Ino is back." Replied her best friend, while finishing her yogurt.
"So even though like, I haven't been gone from your life, it feels like I have, so how has things been with you in the boy department?" she asked playfully.
"Well between working, visiting you when you were down, and errands you can say I just haven't had the time."
"Not even Sauske? I mean I thought you guys had a thing. He was there with you when you guys found me, remember? I really doubt 'just friends' hang out with each other that late at night." She tried to get her to shed some light on the subject.
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Well we weren't 'just friends', I admit that. But umm…..nothing ever happened after that. We just stopped talking to each other." She said with a hint of disappointment.
"Sorry to hear that." Her smile disappeared.
"Nah, it's ok. Anyways, what's the story you were going to tell me?"
"Ahhh anxious aren't we? So where should I begin?"
"I don't know, the beginning?" She couldn't resist the chance to condescend her friend.
"Do you want to hear the story or not?"
"Don't get your panties in a wad. Relax."
"Sooo…Shikamaru came back last night." Ino tried her best to be composed as possible, hiding her excitement.
"Really?! Holy smoke! How is he? Did you see him? Why did he come back?"
"Well Kakashi informed me that he was coming back temporarily because he was going to get deployed to the Land of Iron."
"Oh…"
"I wasn't going to pursue him or try to find him. So I'm in the apartment when I hear a knock on my door. I peeked through it and saw it was him."
"And you let him in?"
"After a few seconds of mulling it over, I let him in and make him some tea."
"Then what happened!?"
"We…uhhh…we had sex." She said while trying to gauge Sakura's feelings.
She had remained silent.
"It's ok. Everything is fine now." She tried to reassure her friend.
Looking into her eyes, she spoke."Are you sure? How can you say that? Shikamaru is always going to be one of us, but you have to remember what he did."
"I know, but I love him. Just like you do with Sauske."
Sakura's stomach cringed at the reality that was presented to her.
"I know you're worried and all, but you don't need to be."
"This isn't something that just disappears."
"I get that but it's different."
"How so? Remember way back when you told me that if Sauske were to ever hurt me, that you would make a team to strangle him? It's just tough…you know? Forgiving him and all."
Ino moved her tongue around her mouth and thought. She said very faintly "He said goodbye."
"E-excuse me?"
"He said goodbye!" She tried to hold back from going ballistic. "Is that what it takes?!" Trying to hold back tears, she blew on her bang to push it to the side. "I haven't even told my mom yet, how do you think I feel right now?" She buried her head underneath her arms. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to snap at you. I just feel like everyone is going to treat me like I'm some idiot, when they found out."
"Don't worry about it. I shouldn't have kept poking at you. So he said goodbye this time?"
"Yeah. He came over this morning, told me that he always loved me, and also said he'll come back."
"He did eventually. So I doubt he won't." She put an arm over her shoulders.
A doctor had walked into the room. Seeing the situation, she tried her best to avoid the comforting friends, until she realized one of them might have been Sakura.
"Excuse me, Sakura?"
Her head shot in the opposite direction "Yes?"
"You have a visitor waiting to see you."
"A visitor? Are you positive?"
"Yes. He has been requesting to see you."
"Ok…thanks."
The kunoichi both looked at each other and wondered momentarily who could it have been, until they both ended up with the same conclusion.
"No, why would he- -I mean at work?" Her eyes grew.
"Well who it else would it be? It could be Naruto but he wouldn't come in person to tell you something unless it's really important."
"I guess." She tried to play off her sudden exhilarating pace. "Does my hair look ok?"
"Yes of course! Go!"
Walking into a room knowing that your crush is there isn't the easiest thing to do, just ask Sakura how many times she tripped in the academy, or made a bad joke, or garbled her words, in front of the Uchiha.
She walked in acting very innocently, when it happened, again. Knocking over a little container of pens, everyone in the room looked at her, even garnering some glares from the medical assistants, who are very anal about organization.
"Sorry. I'm really sorry." She said in embarrassment.
Looking around, she couldn't find anybody that wanted to see her. Turning around she turned back towards the assistants, whom pointed out that the man had just left after waiting for nearly twenty minutes.
Carefully peeping out through the doors, she stuck her head out and saw him.
"Sauske?"
He turned around and saw her, an 'Oh" escaped his mouth.
"Hey. How have you been?"
"I've been fine. What about you stranger? Haven't seen you in a while."
"I realize that." He laughed. "I was just walking by and thought 'Hey. I haven't seen Pinkie in a while. So I just dropped by. But uhh..you're busy, I can tell. So I'm leaving right now."
"Oh. Well I just got the message now, sorry. I've been meaning to catch up with you too. I haven't because work and all."
Sauske nodded awkwardly and tried to avoid eye contact.
"How about we catch up once my shift is over? I'll meet you at your apartment?"
"It's technically Naruto's, but sure. You're welcomed to come over." He said cheekily.
"Ok. I'll see you soon!" She said while casually walking back inside. She thought to herself "Sometimes you got to make your own chances."
A/N: Hey guys! Glad to see all the reviews and positive vibes about the sequel. I realized that towards the second half of my first story, that I pretty much ignored the blossoming relationship of Sakura and Sauske, and I'm going to resolve that. Hope you liked the humor and stay tuned for the next chapter! As always feel free to leave a review! Big thanks to sumtyms, Scepidilionz, and maxridelover.