Has to be Chapter 2

Naruto no longer felt the same around Sakura. He spent the next few weeks after that night avoiding her.

He told himself it was the best thing if he didn't want to get hurt again like he did three years ago. He had spent his time training trying to forget about the feelings he had for two of his best friends.

Sasuke wasn't easy to forget about. His best friend and ex-rival was like a brother to him, but when he left the village seeking power from Orochimaru it had hurt not only Naruto, but all of team seven quiet badly, Sakura in particular. I mean she loved him right? She'd even come to Naruto, on the verge of tears asking him to bring Sasuke back for her.

This also caused him some quite severe heart break.

Sakura was, coincidentally, his first crush, maybe even love. Oh who was he trying to kid; he'd loved her, and he'd spent his whole time with Jiraiya trying to forget about it. But now his worst fear had been realized.

He was falling for her again.

"Shizune? Shizune!" Tsunade's voice sounded angry and frustrated. When Shizune ran into the Hokage's office she noticed that Tsunade had big black rings under her eyes, she obviously hadn't slept.

"Yes Tsunade-sama?"

"Bring me my coffee, and make sure it's really strong," Tsunade lent her forehead onto her hand and sighed, throwing the papers she'd been looking at onto her desk carelessly.

"And when you get the chance, will you tell Naruto and Sakura I need to see them in my office as soon as possible?"

"Yes ma'm!" Shizune left the room and waited until she got down the hallway to stop and sigh. She's only paused for about half a second when she heard an angry voice in the direction of Tsunade's office.

"Shizune! Coffee now!" Shizune's eyes widened and she quickly and nervously continued to the end of the hall.

Naruto lay on his bed with his legs up staring at the white ceiling. He exhaled heavily and smiled. It had been about a month since he'd come back to Konoha, and everything seemed to drift into normalness, just as though he'd never left. Well except for the whole Sakura issue. He frowned as images of his long time crush drifted into his head. He shook them out. This really wasn't a good time for that. He lay there for a few minutes trying to think of other things. He got up and went into the kitchen where he made himself a bowl of instant ramen which he sat down to finish on his bed, not bothering to be too hygienic about the matter. After he'd finished he lay back down again and drifted off into thought. He then heard a sharp tap at his bedroom widow and quickly sat up.

Sakura sat at her breakfast table and looked out the window. The morning sun seemed to be smiling at her. She wished she could smile back. She stared at her dry cereal, and let out a heavy sigh.

She took a moment to wonder why Naruto had been so distant since he'd come back. She missed him. She missed the way he'd smile and laugh when they were together. She missed the way that when she was sad or upset he was always her shoulder to cry on.

Ya he acted like an idiot… Most of the time, but he always made her smile.

She looked out her window again and squinted at the light. All that time staring down into her bowl had made her eyes sensitive.

Then she heard a knock at her door.

Naruto?! she thought eagerly and perked up instantly.

Naruto had been in Tsunade's office twice since he'd come back. The first time was the first day when he'd seen Tsunade on the porch. Sakura had punched him into a wall on the door side of the room. If you were to go into the Hokage's office and look very carefully, you'd see a slight imprint where he'd made contact with the wall.

The second time was when he was requested for a mission where he was teamed up with Kiba and Hinata. Shino had been sent on a different mission to retrieve someone from Getsugakure, so Naruto had been sent as a replacement.

There hadn't been very many missions since he'd come back which he found very odd. He hadn't had time to show off his skills! Even on the mission with Hinata and Kiba all he'd had to do was catch a few fish and make some fires on this simple escort, C ranked mission.

Maybe this was it, why Tsunade had called him to her office so abruptly. Maybe she was going to send him as platoon leader on some secret mission. Or may he'd get to…

His thoughts were stopped short when he saw Sakura approach him. He was just walking down the street from where his house was. He gulped.

"Hey Sakura," he said obviously nervous about something because he was twiddling his fingers and looking at the ground. He looked just like Hinata.

Sakura smiled at him as they found themselves turning up the same street.

"Hey Naruto, where are you off to?" she asked still smiling at him, trying to keep the conversation from the deep dark place which was awkward silence. The longer she could keep the conversation going, the easier it would be for her to figure out why he'd been ignoring her.

Naruto tried to look up, but he was scared that if he looked straight at her then the past few weeks would have been for nothing, so instead he looked straight ahead.

"Er… the Hokage's… She wanted to um… speak to me about something." he was desperately trying to divert his gaze from her, but he couldn't keep this up forever.

"So am I!" she smiled, trying to sound upbeat. It didn't work for long however because when Naruto didn't reply her smiling expression fell.

"Look," she said in a serious voice "I know you've been trying to avoid me. What's up? Did I do something wrong?"

"It's not you Sakura," Naruto said after a short pause that, to Sakura, seemed to last ages.

Before Naruto had anytime to continue they had reached the Hokage's.

Naruto held the door for Sakura still staring at the floor. As she passed by him a wind blew the scent of her sweet, strawberry shampoo into his face.

He slipped a little bit further.

"Tsunade-sama?" Sakura knocked then pushed open the door to a sleeping Tsunade with papers scattered all around her desk.

"Tsunade-sama!" she yelled a little bit louder but with no luck, Tsunade continued to sleep without a sound.

"Tsunade-baachan!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs which caused Tsunade to finally sit bolt up right, looking very confused.

Naruto smiled a triumphant smile as he spoke.

"You wanted to see us?"

"Oh, oh yea please," she beaconed them to come further into the room until they were half way between the door and her desk.

"Well…" she started to speak but then had to search her mind to remember what she had to talk to them about.

The memories of a sleepless night returned.

"Right! I have some very important news concerning the two of you," Tsunade spoke sternly, telling Sakura and Naruto that this was a very serious matter indeed.

"We have recently had some reports of various incidences in Otogakure."

Naruto clenched his teeth at the sound of Orochimaru's "personal village".

"And?" Sakura asked, very intrigued now. Was it news of Sasuke? Had he finally come to his senses and broken free of Orochimaru?

"Well we've had some people coming to us about some strange occurrences while passing through the village. People disappearing into thin air, people suddenly falling deathly ill," Tsunade sighed. "I just need you two to check it out. Go and come back that's all."

"So you're sending just the two of us? Does this have something to do with Sasuke?" when Tsunade nodded Naruto's eyes widened.

"I believe so, yes…" Naruto continued to stare at her, a sort of dumbfounded expression on his face. Since when did she send Naruto and Sakura alone on a mission to Otogakure? It didn't make any sense but what was he going to do, complain that he'd just been trusted with such a mission? That he might finally get to show off his skills and proved that he was capable of maybe even leading missions like these? Of course not!

"You go and come back," Tsunade restated in a more serious tone of voice when she saw the look on Naruto's face "we're sending you two because everyone else is already on other missions. We just need someone to confirm that the Akatsuki are not tied up in this somehow."

Right the Akatsuki. Naruto had only run into them once before, but they obviously weren't to be taken lightly. Itachi he could already see was really strong, and then there was that shark faced man. Naruto didn't doubt for a second that he was very strong after what Kakashi-sensei had told them, and he didn't doubt that those two weren't the only insanely powerful ones in the bunch.

But how are they connected? Orochimaru and Sasuke was obvious, but now he had something to do with the Akatsuki as well?! God this guy just kept getting more and more annoying.

"Yes ma'm!" Sakura replied.

Tsunade gave them the go ahead and they returned to their houses to get their things. They'd agreed to meet at the north entrance to the village in half an hour.

A chill ran down Sakura's spine when she finally reached her front door. She'd been so anxious to get to the Hokage's that she didn't bother to bring a sweater, and now it was beginning to turn dark and a cold November breeze just swept through the small village.

Sakura put her key into the lock and turned it while trying to warm herself up using her free hand. When the door was open she couldn't get inside fast enough. She ran up to her room and quickly pulled on a sweater before starting to pack her things into the closest bag she could find. She'd been on so many missions before she had the packing thing down flat. This time though her hands shook. Was she nervous that this mission might lead them closer to Sasuke? Or was it just the cold?

When she went into the bathroom to get her tooth brush she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She leaned in close and brushed a stray hair behind her ear, and tried to make herself look at least half decent to her standards. When she stood up she felt a little bit like Ino who cared way too much about perfection when it came to how show looked. She shook her head and went back to packing.

She stood above her bed, her small bag on top of it, putting in all the things she might need. She crossed the room to get something out of one of her drawers and paused. The old picture of team seven carried a small layer of dust which she wiped off with her hand. She held the picture up to her face. Sakura stood there a moment remembering when this picture was taken. This was when they had passed Kakashi's test with the bells, and they were told they would have to take a team photo. Naruto and Sasuke weren't too thrilled with the idea and spent the whole time glaring at each other. Sakura smiled at the memory and she didn't notice the small tear running down her cheek.

It never took Naruto more then about two seconds to shove whatever stuff he hand lying around into an old, slightly torn up backpack, so he spent the rest of his time doing what he did best.

He made a quick bowl of his favourite instant ramen using his old microwave. He nearly burned himself when he took the Styrofoam cup out of the microwave and pulled back the lid. He quickly tore his hand away and knocked the ramen all over his counter and down to the floor. He tried to gather his composure, feeling very frustrated with himself as he bent down to clean up the mess.

It wasn't only his clumsiness that made him pound his fist on the floor angrily, it was his selfishness. How cold he be doing this to Sakura? Even though she'd made it clear to him that she wanted Sasuke back that didn't mean that he had to leave her on her own like that. His self-centredness made him almost resent himself. Just because he didn't want to feel that pain himself didn't mean he had to take it out on Sakura. She hadn't done anything wrong. Now especially she needed him. He decided to quickly run 'round to her house and apologize. He couldn't wait until they were suppose to meet so he grabbed his bag quickly and jumped down off his porch.

Damn it's cold he thought. I should have brought a sweater.


"Jiraiya I told you, I don't have time for this," Tsunade turned her back to her ex-team mate and waved her hand up as if to say just leave me alone.

"Just hear me out," Jiraiya tried to get her attention by walking towards her. His attempts succeed and Tsunade sat down at her desk, leaning her arm on the armrest of her chair and placing her second and middle fingers against her forehead.

"You have 30 seconds…" Jiraiya smiled.

"I just feel that you've been working yourself too hard,"

Tsunade sighed and diverted her eyes; her expression was one of annoyance.

"I just wanted to take you out for drinks or something, you need to loosen up," his smile still plastered on his face and as he leant onto the desk, eyes level with Tsunade's, it never faltered.

Tsunade sighed again, she had been stressed lately, and her overwhelming need to exhale so strongly was proof enough of that.

"Alright," she said looking Jiraiya straight in the eyes "but just a few, I need to get back to work."

Who was she kidding, when Tsunade got started on the sake, it was very hard to get her to stop.

When Naruto reached Sakura's house he could see her bedroom light was on. The light shone through the windows very noticeably in the darkness that had come upon the village. Naruto jumped up to the ledge of the open window and looked inside.

"Sakura?" she turned to look at him, tears glittering in her eyes. She wiped them on the back of her hand, put the picture face down on her chest of drawers and walked towards the open window.

Naruto's face fell, she'd been crying was all that ran through his head and he felt so guilty that he hadn't been there to comfort her.

As Sakura got closer to the window her pace sped up and tears begin to flow freely from her eyes and she began to run towards his arms.

Naruto held her to his chest as she began sobbing into him.

Naruto stood there very surprised. He held her there in the frame of the window not knowing what to do.

"It's okay… It's okay…" was all he could say as he tried to soothe her.

"We'll get him back I promise."

Author's Notes

Yes I decided to do a second chapter. Apologies for all the POV switching!! I was trying to get all the thoughts of many different characters, and everything that was happening to them. And I was trying so hard not to bore you with loads of description and what not. Also hopefully this chapter make up for the last one which was too short for what it was.

Anyways: I'm going away for two weeks but I'm going to try really hard to get some more done. XD I think this might become a regular thing. But I do however start up school again in september and I'm just starting my big exams years. Ohh great!

Please review and what not and I hope to see you for another chapter!