Anyways, thank you all readers for the support! I am pleased to know that some of you guys are going to be keeping tabs on the story (though a more, uh…, vocal—aka review!—response would be appreciated too!)! I do like to get to associate personalities with pennames.

Oh, really quick AU explanation note: I think the story will pretty much tell you what translates to what from Naru-verse to this alternate universe. The only thing that might not be clear is that ANBU is essentially going to be the "FBI/CIA/secret governmental organization" group that is under, well, clearly the government. Also, I'm pretty sure it's well implied, but the Akatsuki is a "Mafia/crime organization" that operates with any Godfather up on top. If there are any other clarifications that you guys need, feel free to let me know and I'll post up an explanation.

But without further ado:

Chapter Two:

called up to the front

When Sakura woke up, she found that she had fallen asleep to texting again, but this time to TenTen. She really had to stop falling asleep in the middle of these conversations. Sakura checked her phone, and opened TenTen's last message:

it's like u and sasuke

Ugh. Not Sasuke again. She had just been nagged by Ayame about him the night before.

flashback

"Hey, Sakura," he called.

Her heart leapt at her name in his voice and she turned around to join him at the computer screen, looking over his shoulder rather astutely and sniffing the clone off his shirt.

"What's up," she replied, and looked up to where he was pointing to the title on website headlines. "Akatsuki Suspected for Missing Body Murders?"

"Yep," Sasuke nodded.

"Well, I mean, who else but the Mafia do we blame now these days?"

"Point taken," he agreed.

"Why are you so interested in them?"

"It just pisses me off how much crap they're doing."

Sakura paused a moment. "Naturally, of course." She smiled at him, "Isn't that why you were planning to join the ANBU or something? So that you can kick them down?"

Sasuke grinned up at her, his face turning in her direction and ever ever ever so close to her own face.

"That and the fact that just saying I'm part of the ANBU makes me seem kickass," his breath tickled her bangs. "But the latter more."

She stuck out her tongue at him, turning her face to lock eyes with him, the onyx orbs reflecting her face back to her.

"Too bad you won't actually be able to tell anyone that you're in the ANBU if you're actually working for them."

He shrugged, clicking on another link towards the bottom of the page. "C'est la vie."

She gave him a tight smile in agreement.

He was gone the next day.

divider

She couldn't admit it to herself, but she knew that she was probably still hopelessly in love with Sasuke.

She stared down at her phone, slowly pressing the down button until she reached one of her contacts: Uchicha Sasuke.

Sakura hesitated for a few moments before pressing down hard on the call button. She pressed her ear to the phone and listened intently, though she was pretty sure she would just be hearing the dial tone into forever...just like all the other times she had called him before.

She hung up after about five rings…or was it fifteen?

She disconnected and stared down at her phone for a while, long after the phone screen went dull black in idleness.

Ugh, whatever, she told herself to snap out of it and put Sasuke away. Her mind compartmentalized his memories, but she knew the lids were still half open. It was good enough for now, but now she had to run this off, stepping out of her home into the crisp cool morning air.

She had only gotten a few meters down the street when she noticed Sai stepping out of his own house.

Stopping to wave, she called out: "You have work early?"

He looked up to see her dressed in running shorts and a t-shirt. He seemed to pause for a second before answering, "You can think of it like that."

Sakura wasn't sure what to make of the cryptic answer...it couldn't have just been a simple yes or a no?

divider

It was Ino's birthday.

Sakura took a note to go visit the pig before going to Ichiraku.

She waltzed into the Yamanaka florist shop with a small birthday cake that she had just bought from the store nearby in her hands. Chocolate with chocolate icing. Ino's favorite.

"Happy birthday, pig," Sakura declared when placing the cake onto Ino's counter, which was already busy with a few other gift baskets. Temari happened to be there when Sakura came in as well, and she laughed at Ino's rather insulting nickname.

"Billboard brow," Ino muttered, eyeing the delicately bundled sweet in Sakura's hands, "who only just bought me a cake!"

"It's the thought that counts," Sakura retorted. "You know I don't have much time, and that you're not very special to me anyway."

Ino huffed, and Temari decided to catch up with Sakura, having not seen her in a while. "So, how is everything?" Temari asked Sakura, leaning on the counter.

"Everything's going alright," Sakura answered. "I have some juicy gossip though."

And the two girls dropped their ears.

"Remember when you asked me to ask TenTen about Neji?"

"Yep," Ino nodded, even more curious now.

"Wait, they're together?" Temari whispered.

"Not according to TenTen," Sakura explained. "Well okay. I asked her what was up between her and Neji. I had told her that I'd seen her out with him a lot more and stuff and that I'd wanted to know more. She texted me back this morning saying that her relationship with him was, and I quote, 'like you and Sasuke'."

"Hm," Temari said.

"Ooooh," Ino added.

"Yeah," Sakura replied, not knowing what else to say.

"That could either mean that she and him are actually together, but then that would imply that TenTen is assuming you and Sasuke are together because of the way we joke around with you and your supposed boyfriend," Ino reasoned, and before Sakura could shut her up, Ino continued, "Or it could just mean that TenTen and Neji are one-sided unrequited lovers." And here, Ino made an exaggerated frowny face.

Either way, Sakura was being offended. She rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Naruto told me to tell everyone that he's alright," Sakura changed the subject.

"Well aren't you the lucky one?" Ino accused.

"I honestly…don't know what you're talking about," Sakura confessed, after a while of trying to figure out what Ino could have possibly been referring to.

"I mean, Naruto only gets like one call allotted to him every now and then, and he probably gets no time at all to write a letter. And each and every time, guess who the one he contacts is?" Ino explained. "You!" And Ino poked Sakura right in the stomach, which Sakura flicked away in annoyance.

Sakura said nothing, weakly smiling.

"Well um, I got to get to my next shift," the pinkette later said, stepping away. "Ichiraku awaits me!"

"You owe me!" Ino yelled at her as Sakura walked out of the shop.

"Greedy pig!" Sakura shot back before the glass door closed on her.

divider

"Can I take the next order? Oh…Sai..."

That was twice Sakura would see him today.

"Hi," he said, rather disenchantedly.

Was he always dressed in black, or was this just her first time noticing?

She took the order and then suddenly offered, "You know what? How about I make you dinner on Friday?" She wasn't exactly sure at the moment why she volunteered to cook for the stranger that Sai was, but the offer was already out and it would be rude to take it back.

Sai looked up at her straight into her eyes for what seemed to Sakura to be a long second.

"Um…sure," he said and smiled at her. "Thank you."

Sakura stood there, returning the smile awkwardly until Ayame passed her his bowl of soup.

"I'll just send it right over to your house," Sakura said, holding out Sai's ramen, which he took in one swift motion.

"You don't have to do that. Or cook either, actually," he added.

"Oh no no no!" Sakura laughed. "I just feel like perhaps we should get to know each other better anyways!" Then after she said it, she realized what a stupid excuse that was. Almost as stupid as inviting him over for dinner in the first place. God, what was she thinking? Why was she doing all these impromptu things without confirming with her brain?

"Okay then, see you," said he, walking off shortly after.

She looked back down at the counter, placing her hands at the edge and noticing that her fingers were jittering a bit. Was she nervewracked?

Ayame's voice creeped up behind her. "Shame shame shame…what would Sasuke think if he saw you flirting like this!" she cooed. "And you're being so upfront about all this!"

"Leave me alone," Sakura snarled softly. "I told you he's not my boyfriend. And I'm not flirting with Sai."

"Well in your head, Sasuke is practically your boyfriend. I mean, you're so devoted to him—you're even devoted to his memories," Ayame said.

Sakura's defensiveness turned around. She had to admit that that was true.

She had been trying to rid herself of her attachment to Sasuke ever since he left.

inthepast,oneday

"Hey, Naruto," Sakura greeted, when Naruto picked up the phone.

"What? Why are you calling so early? It's like nine in the morning..and on a Sunday!"

"Well I'm up. Do you have idea where Sasuke is?"

"And why has it always been about Sasuke for the past week?"

Sakura stuttered before her words came out. "I-I-I'm just really worried about him."

Naruto was worried about Sasuke too, but not to the extent that Sakura was. Sakura knew that Naruto already figured out that she was in love with Sasuke, so Naruto asking about her concern was more or less redundant on his part.

"I mean," she continued. "We haven't seen him at all in the past four or five days. His boss doesn't know where he is, and I've been texting him and he hasn't been answering, and remember-? We checked his house and it was empty, and his car was gone? And you know, usually, he'd at least text a reply or something within one or two days, he's not the type of person that would leave inbox unread and—"

"Yeah, I know."

Sakura shut her mouth. Naruto did know all this. Only because Sakura had been repeating the same thing over and over again whenever she talked about Sasuke for the past few days, which was often, and only because Sakura had Naruto go with her to try to track down Sasuke.

God, she was probably annoying the hell out of Naruto with this constant chatter and worry. Why did she worry so much? Was she worrying a bit too much?

Naruto was probably hurt too—she knew that Naruto was in love with her, or at least from what Sasuke told her, Naruto 'thought a lot about her.' She was probably hurting him by being so concerned about Sasuke right in front of Naruto.

"I'm…sorry, Naruto. I'll just leave you to rest today. Sorry about that," she said, after realizing all this.

Naruto's reply came out after a brief pause. "No, I'm worried too."

They remained silent on the phone for a good minute or two.

"…I don't know what to do," Sakura said. "I feel like we should be doing something for him. I mean, we don't even know what happened to him—he could have been driving and got into an accident where no one is right now about to find him, or he could have been robbed or even kidnapped, or held hostage or something like that!"

"Sasuke's smart. He's not going to get himself caught up into deep shit or anything," Naruto said finally. "I'm not going to worry too much. You shouldn't either."

"I don't know, Naruto," Sakura said. "I just…I never feel like I can help you guys, and that I'm not capable of helping you guys out."

Naruto kept his ear on the phone and listened, which Sakura was grateful for.

In the end, it ended up being only those two idiots—the ones that she could tell her deepest thoughts to.

"And since I can't really help you guys out…I feel like the least I can do is worry," she confessed.

backtothepresent

Ayame put her hand on Sakura's shoulder and cracked a small smile.

"He does look like him though…you know?" And Ayame tried to turn her eyes to see Sakura's facial expression. Ayame's grip turned into one of concern, and Sakura read off Ayame's silence that she was worried that Sakura was still occupied with Sasuke on her mind.

Sakura met Ayame's eyes to reassure her that she was fine and shrugged off Ayame's hand.

"Yeah, he does," she agreed, almost reluctantly.

"I just hope that…you know, you're not just flirting with him because he looks like Sasuke and…you know, you're trying to substitute Sasuke with him," Ayame said, and then she made a joke out of it. "I mean, I didn't think you were that shallow."

"Pssht, no I'm not, personality is important to me, and Sai has an interesting personality."

Ayame cocked an eyebrow up. "Are you admitting that you're flirting with him?"

"Stop putting words in my mouth. I said that he had an interesting personality. I don't know what you're extracting from that."

"Well, it's just that you were talking about how personality is important to you when it comes to guys—"

"Shut up," Sakura snarled teasingly back at the ramen girl. "Go boil some noodles."

divider

And there he was again!

Sakura almost tripped over herself seeing Sai outside leaning on his car, ear tilted toward a cell phone that he held privately in his right hand.

He was on a phone so early in the morning?

He caught her curious stare and waved at her.

She mouthed a reminder about dinner that night, and he placed a thumbs up in the air.

She paced away, not letting herself get distracted again, something she hadn't been able to do since he moved in, she realized. A thought lingered in her mind for a second, but she let it go in sacrifice of the focus she had to put into running steadily.

waybackwhen

"Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha!" Iruka-sensei called out, and respective groans and hurrays arose from Naruto and Sakura respectively.

Sasuke sat unfazed by the random selection of his partners for the class groups.

Sakura was ecstatic to be working with Sasuke for the year's project. It promised an entire year of making excuses to see him to "work on the final project." He was the smartest, coolest person, ever! (She was totally going to get married to him when she got older!)

Well then there was Naruto too, the annoying brat, but Sasuke totally overrode that disappointment!

The three of them were in their primary years. None of them ever guessed that the three of them would become tight friends, practically family after that year's school project. It was a rather elementary school project, just to present some research on some simple little scientific phenomena (if Sakura recalled correctly, they eventually decided to prove the effect of adding certain solutes to the freezing points of water or something like that) but it created something Sakura thought, when she reflected back in their later years in high school, was permanent.

The three of them remained close even into their undergraduate years of college, and Sakura would have never guessed that back then, eating lunch and laughing at ridiculous jokes with them, that she would ever be so harshly ripped from their presence all at once.

Sakura had thought their friendship would have been immortal, even after they passed away.

Dreams don't last forever, she had later realized. She had to wake up later at some point.

divider

"Sakura?"

She jolted up straight, and looked up at Tsunade-sensei in the eye, acting as though she had been paying attention the entire time. But all she saw was Tsunade-sensei's furrowed eyebrows.

"Sakura, if you don't pay attention, how do I expect you to be a good doctor?"

Sakura bit her lip and looked down in shame.

"The greatest attribute a doctor can have is to be able to listen," Tsunade-sensei continued. "You listen to what people have to tell you, so that you know how they feel and you can treat them. Observing is good, but it's not enough to put you into the other person's shoes. The real weapon of any medical doctor is the ability to understand. Remember that, Sakura, and take yourself out of your personal world for a moment to hear what your patient has to say."

She kept her head down.

Sometimes all she felt she did was listen.

divider

The day was tiring, and Sakura was glad that after cooking, all that was left to do was just to hand it over to Sai and perhaps hang around to have a small conversation.

She stood outside a full minute before she asked herself why she was hesitating to even knock, and thus did so shortly after.

He opened the door subsequently and invited her in.

She slowly stepped into the house, which still smelled like wallpaper and whatever other smells a new house smelled like. Noticing a table out in front of the kitchen counter, she made her way toward it, her ceramic container holding the freshly cooked linguini.

Sai stepped ahead of her to clear the table, shutting his laptop and scooping up the papers to move them away, even after Sakura said, "Oh, I don't mind if those are there."

"I'd rather not have them there," he had replied before going into another room to put the laptop and papers completely out of sight.

And now suddenly, sitting there waiting by the table, Sakura suddenly wondered what Sai did for an occupation. He woke up early and seemed to not be rotting around on the couch watching the television all day, so what could he possibly be doing?

When he returned and reached to get some plates and utensils, she asked him this.

"I paint," he answered.

And suddenly, all the artwork that was up on the walls around the house stood out.

"You painted all this?"

"The majority. Some are from other artists."

"You're very good," she complimented.

Setting the plate and forks down on the table, he gave her a modest smile and thanked her. He then sat down and uncovered the serving platter of the pasta, catching a whiff of the aroma and giving her an approving smile.

"Seems you're not bad either," he said, and she in the same manner, thanked his compliment.

They served each other and sat quietly for a while, eating, before Sakura found the silence awkward.

"So…I guess you're keeping yourself busy with other stuff, right?" she asked, referring to how she had seen his computer and a lot of papers out when she first came into his house.

He stopped eating for a moment, and pondered, before answering, "You can think of it like that."

She internally groaned at the same cryptic answer as she had heard earlier before.

"And you? Just working at Ichiraku?"

"Ah. No," she said. "I'm a resident doctor too, but that doesn't give too exciting of a salary."

He leaned back into the chair, which was straight across from hers. She noticed that the chair didn't match the one she was sitting in, and was probably dragged in from another room, which meant that he lived singly, and as one person, only needed one chair at the table.

But why was she observing this intensely?

"I thought you looked more intelligent than the average Ichiraku employee," he said, almost wryly.

Sakura caught herself before she flushed and muttered a 'thank you' before stuffing her mouth with another forkful of noodle.

Then suddenly, another question caught her off guard.

"You seem down," he stated, but she suspected it was supposed to be a question.

"Uh…bad day at work," she answered, though that was probably just half of it.

She had to let go. Even a complete stranger could notice that she was not her full self. She just had to forget about—

"Here, how about as a thank you, I give you a painting to take home," he offered.

She almost choked. Swallowing hard, she said, "What…I mean, why would you do that? No, you don't have to! It was just dinner!"

He shrugged, and slowly rose to put away the dishes. She stood abruptly.

"I...I'll take care of these," she declared. "It's the least I can do for your hospitality."

He later presented her with a rolled up painting, practically as tall as she was, save a few inches. Sakura hesitated before taking the painting, looking up at Sai to ensure that this was hers to keep. After his affirmation, she gently took it under her arm and thanked him about three times before stepping out the door and saying good night and another thank you.

"No, thank you for dinner," he said, before closing the door.

She later unfurled the painting to its full glory, a cherry tree in full blossom swaying against the gentle breeze of an upcoming storm, strong and resilient.

Breathtaking.

divider

Sakura noted that for the past week she had been running, she always saw Sai outside, leaning on his car, right hand holding a phone to his head.

Always on the phone. Always in the morning whenever she made her daily exercise run by.

She was curious enough to ask why, and stepped over to him one morning a few days later.

He instantly dropped his call when she stepped to his side.

"Hey," she chirped, though she was already feeling the awkwardness settle.

"Morning," he replied.

"Just wondering. I meant, you're always up so early? And I've noticed you're always on the phone at this time," she stated, but it ended up more like a question. Oh god, she hadn't talked to him since the dinner at his house, she should have probably talked about that first.

"I'm an early riser," Sai said, not answering the second question.

She tried again. "Are you always up this early on time for a call?"

"Are you always running on time?" he asked back, with a smile.

Intimidated and figuring that she shouldn't prod, she replied, "Yes…I'm sorry. I was just a bit curious. Sorry if—"

"Oh no, it's completely fine."

She changed the subject. "I thought the painting was beautiful. Thank you so much for it. I really can't put into words how much that meant to me."

"Oh no," he said. "It wasn't any problem to me at all. I'm glad you're pleased."

She struggled to find something else to say. "Is it titled? The painting?"

"Titled?" he asked, looking as though that was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. "No," he said but his tone rose a bit to imply a question, as if he was asking if it should be titled.

"Oh," taken aback, she said. "I was just asking."

Before the awkward moment settled, Sakura made a quick goodbye and ran off, while wondering why she was thinking much about Sai at all.

divider

She had to take this call.

Sakura apologized quickly to her colleagues and stepped out into the hallway, hurriedly placing her ear to the phone before she lost the call.

"Hello?" she asked urgently.

"Sakura!"

"Naruto," said she, cheerful to hear his voice, but not quite so enthusiastic about his whereabouts or his safety.

"How are you? How has everything been?" he chirped.

"Very good, but I really should be asking that to you first."

"Ah well, all is the same. Military bullshit, as usual."

She nodded, to no one in particular since Naruto wasn't exactly right there in front of her either. "Hm…Ino's birthday passed a few days ago."

"Did you tell her I said 'hi'?"

"I told everyone I saw that you said 'hi', Naruto."

"Great, I don't want to be thrown completely out of the loop. Sometimes I go out of the country for a vacation and come back a week later and I've already missed like ten parties and a wedding. Anything else happening?"

"We're suspecting TenTen and Neji are getting it on," Sakura said, but she doubted Naruto would be interested in something like that.

"Oh, I think we've been suspecting that for quite awhile now. How's work? I think I'm calling you in the middle of it right? But it's around one right now, I tried to call you when you were at lunch."

"Actually, I was in the middle of rounds—"

"Sorry, sorry, sorry! I'll talk to you later or—"

"No, no, it's okay. I'm not the leading attendant anyway," Sakura blurted. "It's nice to hear your voice now and then."

"That's funny. You only seem to be able to listen to me only when I'm more than ten miles away from you," Naruto replied wryly. "But nah, I'll hang up, I feel bad for dragging you out…and you eat a late lunch…"

"Yeah…I mean it's okay...sometimes I just never really get around to lunch..."

"Geez, Sakura, if you can't be responsible to do something as simple as eating..."

"Shut up," Sakura laughed into the phone. They both held silence for a while and then Sakura recalled something. "Oh, remember that house that was on sale in my neighborhood? You used to always pass it when coming over or something…"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I have a new neighbor now, apparently. Someone's moved in and bought the house, I think."

"Cool."

"Yep," Sakura agreed, but then realized that she shouldn't quite talk more about Sai, because she'd eventually get to have to tell Naruto about what Sai looked like—and she wanted to keep Sasuke out of the conversation as much as she possibly could. "I guess you guys are taking a break then? You know, to be able to call me at such a time."

"Well actually, I was going to get to that."

Sakura's breath stopped.

Wait, no, Naruto didn't imply anything bad was happening.

Why was she getting all tensed up?

"W-well?" she asked, stuttering.

"I just wanted to let you know that my squad's going to be heading out for our first mission! Our first real life battle mission! Going out to the fronts, you know?"

He seemed so excited.

"That's great, Naruto," Sakura forced herself to say. "Well…be careful. Don't get too reckless out there."

"Of course, Sakura."

"Where are you going—" but she stopped herself. Naruto probably couldn't say; it was a military operative, she wouldn't get to really know anything until it was all over…or until he was dead.

She shook morbid thoughts out of her head. Just trust Naruto, she told herself. He's going to be alright.

"What?" he asked, and the connection faltered a bit.

"Nothing, nothing," she said. "I was just wishing you luck!"

"Don't worry about me, Sakura; that's an order! I'm going to come back, safe and sound. Then we'll have a huge ramen party and celebrate! Believe it!"

Despite his command, a ball of concern wound up in her throat.

"Yeah, I will," she croaked. "Good luck, Naruto! Be careful!"

"Aiiieee, you said that already," he scoffed, and she found herself smiling a bit. "I'll see you later, Sakura!"

"Bye," she said before the line dropped.

But it took her a moment to walk back into the room ready again for work.

It ate at her gut, a dark spine-chilling feeling of apprehension, a bad feeling for what was coming up, a premonition that she didn't want to see happen.

She told her mind to let it pass, because she always worried so much.

But this, even her whole body couldn't let go, and Sakura had the deepest feeling that nothing was going to be the same from that moment on again.

Please do review! I'd very much like to know what you guys think!