Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO! (But I still wish I did on Christmas)

"Speak"

'Think'

Poetry

Flashback

Where

Is my home?

I'm walking the

The streets I used

To know

Do

You know who

I am anymore?

No one else

Seems to

I

Don't think I

Know myself either

Everyone turns their

Head when I'm near. Do I

Belong

Here? As I continue

Walking, I see my

Old life flash before my

Eyes. Can you help me?

Where do I belong?

Chapter 2

A raven-haired boy was sprinting through the forest, gazing at the familiar landscape of his former home. The destination was about five miles away, but he had no time to spare. He carefully guarded the unconscious girl's head on his chest, as he carried her bridle style. But as he was about to land his foot on a tree branch, the water from the rain before made him lose his balance.

Using his reflexes, he pumped chakra to his feet, and landed upside down on a lower branch. The position he was in wasn't a very good one. Although he could keep himself planted on the tree firmly; there was a problem with the girl that lay before his arms. He had to hold onto her fragile body tighter if he wanted to be able to keep her safe. But then he heard a sound that he did NOT want to hear.

Crackle!

That was the ear splitting sound of a tree branch snapping of its trunk. The man jumped off the branch, and landed gracefully on the ground, and dodged the falling branch along with the flying splinters. He continued his fast pace sprint to his home, but as he did, he gazed down at the female ANBU in his arms. Strands of pink hair were flowing in the air blocking some of his vision. Even though her hair was still kept short, the fact that he kept the woman's head so close was the reason why he was having trouble seeing what was going on in front of himself.

He gazed back down at the girl, but seeing her condition was striving him to move even faster. Pumping more chakra into his legs, his pace was quickening, and saw that they were almost there.

The girl's health wasn't doing so well. She was still unconscious from the sneak attack from Kabuto. Her vital signs were weakening. Her breathing was shallow, and her pulse was diminishing. The feeling of pain contorted her face, and the man was worried that her lowered blood pressure was the reason why she was staying stationary. He placed the palm of his hand over her forehead, and checked her temperature. The burning sensation of her head was overwhelming, and showed that she had an unusual high fever. Then he heard that the girl almost stopped breathing completely.

'Sakura'

Sasuke could just see the outline of Konoha's gates, and men tally sighed in relief. He remembered their fight before, and looked at the girl, but as he did, he realized that she was no longer a girl. Instead was a twenty year old woman that had definitely gotten stronger over the last six years. But as he neared the gates, he couldn't help but wonder at what Sakura had said to him earlier before.

"Sakura?" the ANBU stopped her attack. Sasuke went up to the ANBU, and harshly took off her mask. She made no attempt to stop him, and the face behind the mask was indeed Sakura's.

"H-how do you know my name?" Sakura fearfully said. Sasuke's eye's widened.

What did she mean by 'How do you know my name'? Of course he knew her name; they were former teammates after all. Sasuke couldn't understand it. The woman standing right in front of her was Sakura; he knew it had to be her. She still had those brilliant jade orbs, but these were different. They looked more like. . . his.

"What do mean how do I know your name? We were teammates once. Don't you remember?"

Sakura stepped back. "What are you talking about? You were never my teammate. My teammates were Naruto and Sai. They always have been."

What was wrong with her? Six years is a long time, but not that long for anyone to forget who their former teammates were. And this Sai person. Who is he? Never once in his days in Konoha had he even heard of the name Sai. And Sakura claims that he was her teammate since she was young.

It just didn't make any sense!

But Sasuke couldn't ponder over the matter anymore because he arrived at the gates. But before he could enter, two jounin guards stopped his path.

"Stop. What is your business here?" the first guard questioned.

But before Sasuke could answer, the second man stared at him with shock and told the other, "Sir, that's Sasuke Uchiha, the S-class criminal!"

The guard looked over at Sasuke and his eyes widened with surprise. Immediately, he and his comrade took their fighting stance. "Sasuke Uchiha you may not enter this village. And we will fight until we die."

Sasuke had no time for this. Sakura's condition was getting worse by every passing minute. "I have no intention of fighting anyone, or even attacking the village. I've only come here to take Sakura to the hospital."

The second man lowered his guard, "Haruno-san?"

Haruno-san? "Yes, her. She's in critical condition, and she needs to see Tsunade right now."

The second man seemed to believe him, but the first one was still skeptical. "How do we know you're not just trying to fool us?"

Sasuke was losing his patience, "Just get her inside! Unless you want her to die let us in!"

The man's face gave a sign of defeat, and both men opened the gate allowing Sasuke access to the hospital.

The village hadn't change much in Sasuke's point of view, and he could still remember dim flashes of where the hospital was located. He started to walk down the streets, but he saw a blonde man walking towards him. There was a happy-go-lucky smile on his face as he had his hands behind his head while keeping his eyes closed. Naruto.

Naruto looked up to see Sasuke, and stopped in his tracks. He rubbed his eyes to see if he was just seeing things, but Sasuke was really there. "Sasuke?" He said it loud enough for the whole street to hear, and they turned their heads to see what Naruto was talking about.

But when they saw Sasuke, the faint sound of whispers began. Others looked at him in surprise, wondering why he was back, while others cowered in fear at the sight of the missing-nin. Naruto stepped forward to Sasuke and began to speak, "Sasuke, what are you doing here?"

'How come Naruto remembers me?' Sasuke wondered.

But Sasuke didn't need to tell Naruto the reason because Sasuke showed the woman he was carrying, and Naruto knew. Quickly, Naruto guided Sasuke in the direction of Konoha's hospital. But as they went through the streets, more people saw the arrival of Sasuke, and the volume of whispers increased.

Naruto barged through the hospital doors, and ran to the front desk, "Hurry! Call Tsunade right now! Sakura is in danger!" The receptionist saw Sakura's body, and immediately called Tsunade from the Hokage tower. And in a few minutes, Tsunade and Shizune bustled into the building.

"What is the meaning of this? I was doing important paperwork, and I'm called her for what?" She claimed she was doing paperwork, but the blush on her face indicated that she was drinking sake. Then her eyes came across Sasuke, and she was about to question why he was back, but then she saw the frail girl's body lying in his arms.

Tsunade stopped her rant, and took Sakura off of Sasuke's arms and took her into an empty room. "Naruto what happened to her?"

"Don't ask me. Ask him." Naruto pointed a finger at Sasuke.

Tsunade opened her mouth, but her face showed an expression that said she remembered something. She set Sakura on the hospital bed, and charged chakra into her hands, and began to heal her. The process was taking an enormously long time, and Naruto and Shizune watched tensely. Sasuke, however, kept his cold stature, and watched the whole process.

After an agonizing half an hour, Tsunade stopped the chakra in her palms, and wiped the beads of sweat that was forming on her face. "She's going to be fine, but she needs a lot of rest." Sasuke saw that Sakura's breathing turned back to normal, and her fever was breaking. "Sasuke," he turned and looked at Tsunade, "I want to talk to you in private." And with that said Shizune and Naruto walked out of the room.

Tsunade pulled up two chairs from the wall, and motioned for Sasuke to sit down. "Sasuke, why are you back? And more importantly what did you do to her? When she was brought here, her organs were slowly breaking down, and her vital signs were deadly low. She also had a dangerous fever at 107.6 degrees which also led Sakura to develop hyperpyrexia. Luckily, you called me in time. If you came any later, she could have died." (A/N Hyperpyrexia is actually real!)

Sasuke looked at the bed at the recovering Sakura and began to speak, "Well, I was running away from the ANBU brigade you sent to capture me, and in the end, Sakura was the only one left. However, because she was wearing her mask, I didn't know that it was her and instead thought it was a man. We started fighting, but I saw a pink strand of hair. I had to make sure it was her, so I pulled off her mask, and revealed it was her. That caught her off-guard, and Kabuto went from behind her and used his Shōsen Jutsu. (Mystic Palm Technique) Sakura became unconscious, and Kabuto told me that it was time for me to be Orochimaru's container, but I refuesed, and attacked him. Since I was once Sakura's teammate, I thouhgt that it was my duty to at least take her here."

Tsunade contemplated the information given to her, but suddenly jerked her head up, "Wait, so you didn't attack her?"

Sasuke was hopoing he didn't have to discuss that. Not only did he almost get beaten, but it was almost by Sakura. His weakling teammate! That would definitely sear his Uchiha pride. "No, it was Kabuto. But….I didn't really attack her……It was…..her who was attacking……me" Sasuke choked out.

Tsunade looked at him in amusement, "So you're saying that if Kabuto didn't show up, you would've been beaten by Sakura?" Sasuke grinded his teeth, and nodded. "Facinating, just facinating" Tsunade said smiling. "Well, I think I've found out enough." She rose from her chair and was about to leave the room, but Sasuke interupted her.

"Wait." She turned and looked at the Uchiha prodigy still sitting on the chair. He looked as if he was in deep thought and she sat back down.

She waited a couple moments before speaking, "What is it Sasuke?"

Sasuke didn't answer her, but instead he was trying to think of what to ask her. 'What should I say? I didn't tell her the whole story of the battle between me and Sakura. What should I tell her? That Sakua has no idea who I am?'

Sakura looked at him questioningly, "Of course I do." Sasuke felt a little sign of relief, she was probably joking. "You are Sasuke Uchiha of the Uchiha clan, and one of the last alive. Your goal is to kill your brother Itachi, and you betrayed Konoha when you were twelve. And that's it."

Tsunade was becoming impaitent, "Sasuke what do you have to ask me?"

He finall looked up at her, and said, "Well,….when I ripped the mask off of Sakura's face something happened. She couldn't re -" But before Sasuke could finish the door swung open.

Inside came another man that looked almost identical to Sasuke. He was also an ANBU, but he was not wearing his mask. His hair was shorter, and his face was a bit rounder, but Saskue could see that he looked almost like him. He even had the same eyes. Cold and distant. But this mystery man wasn't looking at Sasuke nor Tsunade, but Sakura laying on the bed.

He walked past the other two sitting on the chairs and walked up to the bed, and looked down at Sakura. He took his had and gently carressed her face, and gave a small genuine smile. This action made Sasuke blood boil, b ut only a little bit.

'Who is this guy?'

Sasuke and Tsunade watched the man and his loving antics silently. He stopped after a moment and looked nack at Tsunade. "Tsunade-sama, what happened?"

Sasuke looked back at Tsunade to see her reaction, but she gave a small smile back, "Don't worry Sai, she'll be alright."

Sai looked at her in relief, but he turned to Sasuke, "Is this?"

"Yes, this is Sasuke Uchiha, and he has returned to Konoha." Sai went up to Sasuke, and put out his hand. Sasuke stood up, and grasped back Sai's hand, and shook it.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha" He said.

"Nice to finally meet you, I'm Sai." Sai didn't say it in a rude way, but it wasn't friendly either. It was more of a suspicious, skeptical way of greeting Sasuke.

Sai.

That's when it hit Sasuke, and he remebered.

Sakura stepped back. "What are you talking about? You were never my teammate. My teammates were Naruto and Sai. They always have been."

'So this is Sai'

End of Chapter 2.

So what do you think? Left you at a cliffy! I got time to write this because today was a snow day. Yay!

Was it good? Tell me what you think so READ AND REVIEW!

GhostofYou