disclaimer-i dont own.

ps. yeah, the first chapter suck. bear with me. i'm trying to get this out as fast as i can. iloveyouguys. (:

"My, my Sakura. You certainly have been improving faster than before." The green-eyed woman looked up at her mentor with a giant smile adorning her face. After removing her white coat and hanging it up on the wall in her office, she sat down next to her mentor with a sigh.

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama. I've been working hard since Naruto and I have been going out on more missions." Her mentor smiled down at her pupil with a soft expression, knowing that deep down, she fully cared for Naruto more than anyone can ever know. Getting up, she decided her time here is done.

"Sakura, I expect a full report of your mission on my desk tomorrow morning and expect you to have mastered what I have taught you today by the end of the week." Said girl looks up at her master with surprised eyes, losing her breath for a milisecond.

"Shishou, that technique is far too-"

"I expect nothing less from my apprentice. Do not disappoint me." Tsunade interrupts, putting on her jacket. Sakura's eyes fall slightly, not ready to argue with her mentor. Turning around, Tsunade catches the small downput lingering in her apprentice's eyes and softens.

"Sakura, you are like my own daughter. I know you can do it. I believe you can." Sakura's head swoops up in time to see her mentor leave and close the door with a quiet click. A small smile forms on her face as she gets ready to go home to the people she loves and adores. Picking up her folders swarming her desk, she inwardly laughs at her sudden habit she picked up from her mentor. After cleaning up a bit, she pulls out her little surprise for her sensei she picked up from her mission with Naruto and Sai. Without a glance, she left her office in a rush to return to her lovable home.

"So…Kakashi-Sensei…what's with the Uchiha being back…?" Naruto asks, picking at his ramen with a sour look on his face. Said Sensei looked up from his orange book, surprised Naruto wasn't drowning himself in his ramen like he usually was. Next to him, Sai quietly sat and waited patiently (he once read that the right thing to do was wait until your whole family was at the table before eating. These people were his family now…) for Sakura to return home.

Before Kakashi could say anything else, the door was suddenly pushed open to reveal a tiresome Sakura. In an instant, Kakashi's book disappeared (seeing as just about a week ago, she lectured him about reading his porno book at the table). Her hair was tied back and messy as though she's been running a marathon and her viridian eyes seemed to dull with each waking minute.

"Hi, guys. Sorry I'm late. Tsunade-Shishou was teaching me a new technique. What'd you guys pick up for dinner? Hopefully, not ramen…" She looked over Kakashi's shoulder as she scrunched up her nose in disgust. Giving a quiet sigh, she picks out something from her pocket and holds it right in front of her old sensei's face. Both Naruto and Sakura grin mischeviously at him as Kakashi looks at said object dangling in front of his face.

"Here, Kakashi-Sensei. A little…gift for you that we picked up from Amegakure. Don't you just love it?!" Sakura chuckles, dropping said silver object right into his hand. Kakashi blinks at the silver bell on a string with a point of curiosity and looks at Naruto, who was grinning like a maniac.

"Well, we thought that since you always only had two bells fit for a three-man cell and one always gets left out, we thought we could finally buy you that third bell you've always wanted." Naruto casually says, spinning his noodles around with his chopsticks. A smile gracefully makes his face through his mask as he also gives out a small chuckle.

"Why, thank you. I'll cherish this bell for the rest of my life." Kakashi stuffs the small bell into his pocket and continues to pick at his food, hand twitching to reach into his pocket and pull out his lovable book. Sakura finally took note of Naruto's untouched food and looked at him with question.

"Naruto, are you okay? You haven't touched your ramen…" Sakura quietly asks, eyes drowning with concern for the boy. He looked up, surprise written all over his face, before giving her a huge smile to stop her worries.

"I'm alright, Sakura-chan! I mean, I'm just concerned about Hinata-chan! She seems a little more pale than usual and she won't tell me what's wrong!" Naruto cried out, giving a small pout and making the young woman laugh.

"Don't worry, Naruto. Tsunade-shishou told me Hinata was sick with the flu a few days ago, but she's all better. Neji-san was taking good care of her. I'm going off to change and take a quick shower and then come down and eat." She started to walk off towards her room, "Sai, you can eat now. I'll be down soon. Naruto, don't even think about grabbing more ramen! Kakashi-sensei, you better put that book away or else!" Naruto froze as he pulled his chopsticks away from the pot full of ramen, Kakashi suddenly shook and started to stuff said book back into his shirt, and Sai gave another one of his infamous fake smiles and dug into his ramen.

She gave a quiet sigh, rubbing the towel through her hair as she wore her usual attire to bed-a pair of black shorts a little too short for her liking and a white tanktop. When she got out of her room and made sure to hang her towel back on its stand, she started down the stairs and towards the kitchen when the doorbell suddenly rang. Sakura noticed that Naruto was nowhere to be found (probably upstairs in his room doing who-knows-what), Sai was in the extra room painting, and Kakashi was sitting on the couch, reading his lovable book. Having no choice, she finally got up and went to answer the door.

"Ohayo-" her smile and wondrous greet to the welcoming stranger was abruptly cut off when she realized who exactly was standing outside their doorway. Her breathing seemed to go uneven as her head started pounding harder and harder. She swore she could hear Kakashi calling her name, but everything else disappeared except for her, the door, and the stranger in front of her.

There, in all his Uchiha glory, was Uchiha Sasuke.

"Sakura? Who is-Oh. Hello, Sasuke. What brings you to our home?" Kakashi says, a smile crinkling behind his mask. All Sakura could do was stare. She noticed the small things in him-the sudden growth spurt he grew into (he was now a head taller than she was), his dark, black hair was longer and covering his eyes a bit more than usual, his body more lean and built, and all his teenage facial moved on to the man he turned out to be. He was still as Godly as ever, but nothing stirred her away from his cold, empty, dark-filled eyes that seemed to scare her more than usual.

"Hn. Kakashi, you gave us only a three-room." Sasuke said, pulling out the papers for him to see. Kakashi took it and went into the living room, leaving Sakura still standing there and Sasuke patiently waiting for his return.

"Sakura, why don't you let Sasuke in? And your food is getting cold. You should probably eat it before Naruto does." Kakashi called out, finally snapping Sakura out of her trance. She sidestepped and let him in, eyes on the floor as he casually walked in and towards where Kakashi was. Before heading off and away from Sakura, he said a few words to her.

"Hn. You've grown, Sakura." She whisked her head away, making sure he won't see the sudden pain and hurt clouding her eyes. Closing the door, she walked past the living room and up towards the stairs and into the one place she could block out anyone and everyone for the time being: her room.

There was knocking at her door, but she didn't care. She was perfectly fine with being under her covers where she could be the tiny, timid girl she once was that found protection in her bed. She remembered hiding in there, willowing away and dreaming of fairytales and happy endings when the world was hard on her. Her life was at its greatest-team 7 being the best thing she's ever had and coming so close to having her Sasuke-kun even if he rejected every single invitation she threw at him. When he left, even her own bedroom couldn't give her comfort. Everything around her screamed his name and no matter how many times she hoped and prayed, she knew he wasn't coming back.

Even if he did, it still wouldn't be the same. With that being said, she wallows in her bed and let the warmth of fantasies and dreams take her back to where things were perfect.

"Sakura-chan? Are…are you okay in there? You haven't even touched your food. Are you sick…? You want some medicine?" Naruto's faint voice calls out to her, ushered with worry and concern that it sickens her. She was stronger than that. She was a proud kunoichi that is the apprentice one of the most infamous Sanin. She was Haruno Sakura.

"I'm fine, Naruto. I'm just tired. Please…just go." She could hear it herself. The sound of her voice cracking as she said those words. It didn't fit her at all. She was almost sickened of herself, seeing how pathetic and worthless she was. Was he just testing her? Seeing if she would break and fall to her feet, praising his return? Was she letting herself get caught in this even after growing up? She doesn't even know anymore. She feels herself being lost in a world she couldn't understand anymore. She just doesn't know.

"Sakura-chan…is this about…Sasuke being back…?" Naruto's voice was faint, but she could hear the way he said his name. There was so much emotion in just one name that it was confusing the both of them. Still, it made her question herself if that was the cause of all this melodramatic-ness she was creating for herself.

Of course it's about him. It's always been about him, hasn't it?

She couldn't help but agree to that. As much as she wanted to say she grew up and out of the bond (if there was any in the first place) with Sasuke, she was still tied to his every word like a little puppy on a leash. And no matter how hard she pulled and pryed away from him, she would still come running back to him with the snap of his finger. As easy as it seems, it's the same way if he wanted to break her. Just one, small snap away. And no matter how much she begged and pleaded, he won't ever look upon her as an equal or something worth looking back on. She would lose something she didn't really have, anyway.

After all, you can't lose something you never had.

"Damnit, Kakashi-sensei. I want him out of here and out of our lives!" Naruto hissed, slamming his fists on the table. This earned a crack on the innocent piece of wood that was practically cowering in his very presence. Kakashi, however, was unfazed by this little tantrum coming from the blond boy with an addicting smile.

"Naruto, you know that I can't do that. Yes, he was a nunekin and an S-Class criminal, but he killed Orochimaru, the Akatsuki, and saved our village from being attacked by our very own Amegakure. The council decided to let him in because he accepted the fact that we are going to use him to start the Uchiha heir so we have a strong military-"

"Fuck the council!" Naruto sneered, slamming his fists once more on the simple object that it broke right in half. Sighing at the fact they had to-once again-get a new table, he tried to calm Naruto down.

"Naruto, listen. I know it's hard to accept Sasuke is back because of everything that's gone on, but we can't do anything about it. He's here and he's back, so try to make the best of it and rekindle old bonds. He has nowhere else to go." Kakashi whispered, ruffling his own hair as a headache started approaching.

"Rekindle old bonds? Are you kidding me…? Me? Rekindle old bonds with that…that…monster?!"

"Hn." The two turned around, the blond quite surprised and angry while the white-haired man nodded, to find Sasuke leaning against the wall with his eyes closed.

"What bond is there to rekindle when we never actually had something going on?" Sasuke said, nonchalantly as he stepped over to grab a tomato sitting in the corner. Fury burned inside Naruto as he grabbed a piece of the table and threw it against the wall, shattering it into pieces.

"You…asshole. We risked our lives to save you a long time ago, and you almost killed us. We brought you into our lives and I thought of you as my brother. You broke Sakura-chan and broke our family. You almost destroyed our village and let a war take place, and then you decide to come back here to be a part of our village once again?! You're not the fucking king, you asshole. You can play your pretty games with those bastards that call them the council, but you will never play games with us. We will never…accept you back into our lives again." Sasuke, unfazed by the whole monologue Naruto gave, bit into his tomato and side-stepped him as if he was just another object in the room. Turning his back to them, he started out when he decided to leave Naruto a few words of his own.

"Just to let you know, Uzumaki, I never asked for you to find me. I never asked to be a part of your lives. And I never asked for your opinion on why I am back or not. So, you just stay on your side and I'll stay on mine." And with that, he left without another word.

jjayanddjjae