A/N: Sorry this is a bit rushed and wordy, I'm working through this a bit too fast.

Chapter 2 – Closer

Night had fallen far too quickly. To think that just a few hours ago, Yamato was out having fun and drinking lightly with his friends after coming back from a dangerous mission. Now, to make things worse, he has to worry about Sakura.

Where did the wind go? Does wind just come and go like that? He didn't think so, but then again he was no meteorologist. As far as he knew, though, wind doesn't come in one strong gust and then suddenly leave the night silent. At least, not with any wind he's ever come into contact with.

And anyway, does wind really not blow away the pile of leaves that had piled under the tree in her front yard?

Yamato took a deep breath and made his way onto her roof. He peered into her backyard, trying to find anything unusual. But now there was nothing. No movement whatsoever. He checked for wind, but there was none either. Just the humid night air of a summer in the Leaf Village.

"What the hell?" he asks himself, not quite understanding the situation.

Maybe it was nothing, he convinces himself. All that he really knew was that he was tired and didn't have enough energy to search out something that could potentially be nothing at all. Besides, not only was Sakura a smart and cunning kunoichi, but it wasn't like she had anyone that had it out for her. Nor did she have any stalkers, or at least none that he was aware of. As far as he was concerned, Sakura was perfectly fine.

As Yamato left, Sakura slowly makes her way to her own room. Lying down in her bed, she wraps herself in her blanket and sighs deeply into her pillow. She closes her eyes and falls deeper and deeper into sleep.

The leaves rustle in her back yard once again. Then there was silence as a dark figure appeared in Sakura's little room. His face was revealed by only the slightest rays of moonlight, but his bright red eyes shined through the darkness. He looks down at Sakura lying in bed and his expression softens. Slowly, his eyes revert to a deep black and the stranger kneels down beside Sakura's bed.

The way he looked at her was extremely affectionate and loving. His warm hands stroked her cheeks and pushed the hair away from her face. The smirk on his face became a genuine smile that beamed down on the girl like sunshine. He whispered her name softly, his deep voice sounding like black keys on a piano.

Sakura's eyes open drowsily, half-asleep. She looks up at the man beside her and smiles softly. The motion, the sweetness, was so uncharacteristic of him. She knows who he is though, there's no way she could ever mistake that silhouette for anybody else's. "Sasuke?" she calls out.

The man was taken aback by her awakening. But he smiles back down at her and traces his fingers around her face, from her cheeks to her chin. His touch was soft and gentle and warm. "It's been a while."

"One year," Sakura replies tiredly. "You tried to kill me last time."

His smile fades. "I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you."

"How?"

He pauses for a second... "I don't know. But I will."

Sakura was somewhat disappointed. This wasn't the Sasuke Uchiha she had come to know in her time in the academy and as a part of Team Seven. He was the complete opposite of what he used to be. He was gentle and kind as opposed to scornful and realistic. He touched her with affection rather than angst. It was so unlike Sasuke that she knew she must have been dreaming; there's no way that Sasuke would treat her, or anyone, like that. But not even in her sweetest dreams has he ever seemed so real.

She wanted to believe him, but she knew she would end up crying when she finally woke up from this sweet imagining. "Stay with me," she requests sleepily.

Sasuke looked at her sadly. "I can't."

He waited a while for a response before realizing she had gone back to sleep. He looks down at her remorsefully before pulling a small box from his pocket. Placing it on her bedside table, he kisses her forehead and slowly backs out of her room. He promised to himself that he would be back again.

With a final look at the little black box beside the picture of Team Seven that she's kept for almost six years, he jumps out the window and toward the edge of the village, running away from the place he once called home.

Sakura stirs in her bed for a moment before wrapping herself snugly in her blanket, sleeping with a smile. She didn't quite know why she had that beautiful dream of hers, but she was glad she did.

The next morning, Sakura wakes up with the same feeling of longing she felt the night before. The desperate need for that warmth that she only felt for a few moments on that night from five years ago. There was nothing she wanted more than to pull back that dream she had that night and have it become a reality.

But she knew that was quite impossible. She pushed herself off her bed and sighed. Dragging herself out of her room, Sakura pushed her hair back and yawned. She prepares a cup of tea and leans onto the counter, her shoulders slumped and her eyes inattentive and filled with disappointment.

Was that really what her life resorted to now, dreaming of things when all she wanted to do was forget?

Still, she couldn't shake off what seemed to be reality. That dream seemed realer than it should have, despite Sakura being so deep into her own state of sleep that she couldn't have possibly actually woken up. And besides, her dream was unrealistic anyway. Would the angsty rogue ninja Sasuke Uchiha ever caress her face so gently? So maybe he would kiss her on the forehead, she concludes as she recalled that time back when they first started out as ninjas and he said words she only ever dreamed of him saying. And of course he would leave while Sakura was defenseless, like that time five years ago when she was left unconscious near the outskirts of the village. But that didn't mean he would ever talk to her the way he did in her dream, or touch her the way he had. It was too uncharacteristic of him.

But as uncharacteristic as it was, she couldn't help but admit to herself that she still liked it. She wanted nothing more than to be conscious in that dream and not just lying asleep in bed. Alas, that wouldn't be possible even if she wished on a million shooting stars.

Her thoughts were interrupted and the momentary happiness she had felt as she recalled her dream faded away as a loud knock sounds on her door. Sakura groans as the knocking continues.

"It's time to stop moping around, forehead girl!" yells a familiar voice from the other side. "I'm going to knock down this door if you don't get off your ass and open it yourself in the next minute!"

"You have a key to my house, Ino!" she yells back. "Don't you dare break down my door!"

Ino pushes the door with ease, slightly laughing. "I left my key at home. It doesn't matter though, you didn't lock the door."

Sakura rolls her eyes as she sips on her tea. Was that really something to laugh at, somebody leaving their house unlocked and pretty much open to any intruders who may want to sneak in? Whatever, she thought. Ino was a bit of a sadistic mystery at times.

"We're gonna go shopping today, so get dressed!"

Sakura refused to move from her position. Grabbing her by the wrist, Ino gently pulls her away from her spot and leads her into her bedroom. A bit of a motivation, she was hoping. After all, it pained her to see her best friend in such a wreck when everybody else was having fun. And she did feel a bit bad since she was one of those people having fun anyway. Ino sits down on Sakura's bed, looking down at her bedside table. "God, Sakura, it's like you're still thirteen. You're not even in the same house anymore, change your room up will you?"

She runs her fingers over the familiar things on Sakura's table: the old Leaf Village headband metal plate that had so many scratches from all those difficult missions Sakura endured, the scented candles she liked to light whenever they had sleepovers, the old picture of Team Kakashi from before Sasuke left... There was only one thing that Ino hadn't been able to recognize, something she definitely didn't see when her and Sakura left for their last mission. A small box stood in front of the picture, and Ino's natural curiosity pushes her hands to reach for it. "Did someone visit last night?"

Sorting through the clothes in her closet to find something to wear, Sakura nods her head. "Yamato-taichou came by to talk to me about something."

"Mhm," replies Ino. "What about?" Her hands slowly open the box and she peers inside, noticing a glint of light shining through.

"Uh, if you don't mind, Ino, I'd rather not say specifically what it was we talked about. He just cheered me up, is all."

"Interesting..." She nosily opens up the box more and jumps back in shock. Immediately, she closes the box and puts it back on Sakura's bedside table. But she couldn't get the image out of her head... the pretty image of the box's contents sat still in her mind.

Sakura notices the shift in atmosphere and turns around, only to find her best friend smiling like an idiot. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Ino replies calmly. But despite that calm response, she couldn't help but look back at the nightstand for a brief moment.

Sakura catches her glance and makes her way toward her bedside table, noticing something that wasn't there before. She picks up the box and admires it, noticing how it looked elegantly hand-crafted (although Ino would disagree). "What's this?" she asks to nobody in particular as she opens the lid of the box. In it, she finds a beautiful silver ring that was like nothing she'd ever seen before. The band looked like a branch wrapping around and the setting was what looked like silver cherry blossoms holding small diamond-like jewels. It was the most darling thing she had ever encountered, unlike anything else she had seen.

More than anything, the contents of the box reminded her of her first days as a ninja with her friends and team. The good days, where she would daydream and fantasize about the future and being married to the perfect guy for her. The days where she would talk about everything, right down to what kind of jewelry she would love to own by the time she turned eighteen. And there it was, right in front of her. The most perfect thing that possibly only somebody in her team (plus Ino, who knew most of Sakura's dreams and secrets anyway) could remember about.

She shuts the box closed and quickly makes her way to her closet to throw on a change of clothes. "Let's go, Ino, I have to run a quick errand first."