Alright, well heres chapter 2. Didn't expect it to be up this soon. I was gonna wait for a few more reviews to see if you guys liked the start enough for me to continue, but all the reviews were pretty positive (THANKS!!!) so I shall press on. As always feel free review and voice your opinion. Im writing this for myself but im sharing it for you!

Sakura didn't know what to say, she was falling apart ever since he told her. She knew the kanji on his back was from her, the time period had confirmed it. What was weird was it was the only scar he had. His skin seemed to be flawless and healthy save for the numerous bruises he probably acquired during his last fight. Every nin she ever examined had scars covering a good part of their body, especially the arms. Naruto just had the one; she guessed the kyuubi had something to do with that.

She was waiting patiently across from Ino for Naruto to finish his meal before she was going to try to examine him. Ino however, didn't waste any time to probe him with so many questions. It wouldn't have bothered Sakura so much if Ino didn't come off as such a fan girl with them all.

"Did you really kill another Akatsuki?"

"Yeah"

"Which one?"

Naruto seemed irratated as he pulled off a ring from his finger and tossed it across the table to Ino. She looked at it closely and scrunched her face as she thought out loud "What's this?"

"It's a ring, they all wear one. That one was Kisame's"

Even Sakura gasped as she finally recognized the rings on his hands as Akatsuki's. He had 4 of them on, including the one he tossed to Ino. He really was taking them down. They had hunted him for years and he was finally hunting them back, on his own terms. Admiration began to swell up in her as she looked at him. He had become so strong, so determined, so…. suicidal. It wasn't like he was taking on some everyday nin, these people were the pride of their villages, the strongest of their kind before they defected for more power.

She wasn't the one who made him join ANBU but she couldn't help but feel like she was somewhat responsible for the sudden change in character. She needed to make her peace. "Ino, give Naruto and I a minute so I can give him a proper check up." Naruto for the first time since they walked into his apartment looked Sakura in the eye.

"Maybe I can help." She said with a smirk

"Now."

Ino sighed as she got up from the table and walked to the living room to sit on his heavily worn out couch. Sakura stood and grabbed Naruto by the wrist as she led him down the hallway to his room. Once they were both inside she closed the door and told him to lie on the bed. "Sorry, not in the mood." Naruto responded coldly.

Taken back by the attitude and the rudeness of his remark she reached back and smacked him across the face before she knew what she was doing. He didn't budge as her hand came across his cheek. She gathered chakra in her hands and pushed him back so he sat down on the bed. He took on a pissed off face as he laid back and stared at the ceiling. She walked up to his side and let her hands hover above his stomach as a green glow started emitting out of her palms. Searching through muscle fibers and tissues for internal injuries she let her hands wander his body. She shook thoughts from her head as she traced some of his well toned muscles in his chest and arms; this wasn't a good time for those. Repairing some small rips in his tendons that were probably causing him a great deal of pain, even though he didn't show it, she finally stopped.

Feeling she was done he sat up and swung his legs to the side of his bed only to be met face to face with Sakura. She didn't move as he looked up at her. Not sure of how he was going to react she slowly raised one hand and let her finger trace his jaw line, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He closed his eyes for a moment and evidence of a smile came to his lips before his right hand grabbed hers and pulled it away. "Don't… I can't do this again." Was all he said before his shoulder bumped hers on his way to the door.

"Naruto wait, I need to explain. I… I just wasn't ready that night and…" before she could finish he broke in.

"Sakura you don't need to explain. I know your heart belongs to Sasuke. I wasn't ready to admit it yet, but after that night I was forced to face reality. I don't blame you; I was the one who screwed up that night." He didn't give her a chance to respond as he opened the door and walked down the hall with his head down.

"Naruto…"

She didn't walk out of his room right away. It took until she heard Ino's voice in the living room asking him how it went for her to gather the courage. She was saying something about how they needed to go celebrate his success when Sakura came around the corner. "Alright, well if you two are all done we should get this silly psyche evaluation under way." She sat up and smiled at Sakura as she passed her on her way to his bedroom.

"You're going to do his psyche evaluation in his bed?" Sakura asked with a tinge of annoyance in her voice

"Why not? You did your check up in there."

Sakura fumed as Ino doubled back and grabbed Naruto by his hand. "C'mon Naruto-kun lets get it on." giggling like a school girl at her "clever" sexual innuendo. Naruto kept his stoic face as he was dragged, yet again, into his bedroom.

At the sound of the door closing Sakura thought she was going to lose her mind. There was no way she was jealous of Ino's feeble attempts of flirting with Naruto. I mean he wasn't hers per say but she had deep seeded feeling for him that ran under Ino's shallow perverted ones. Surely he wouldn't do anything with that blonde bimbo, would he?

"So Naruto, I usually don't do these things with the other person in nothing but a towel but ill gladly make an exception." She said with a smirk. "Just tell me what's on your mind?" as she spoke she leaned closer to him, giving a clear view down her tight fitting purple dress at her rather impressive cleavage.

"Nothing, I just want to get back to training." His eyes never left hers, much to her dismay.

"C'mon Naruto. Don't make this hard on me, we go way back. Just open up and tell me how you're feeling about all these high profile s-class mission you're doing."

He didn't say anything for a moment and the tension seemed to get worse before he finally broke the silence. "I need to kill them before they kill me."

"Well there's a start. Are you afraid for your life?"

"No. I don't have anything to lose, they do. They're the ones who need to be afraid."

"You don't have anything to lose? What about all your loved ones?"

"I need to do this for me."

"Seems like you're putting a lot of pressure on yourself. Maybe I can't help you relax." her hand moved to the side of his arm as she traced small circles into him with her finger. She slowly eased into him, pressing her face towards his. She wanted to see how he tasted, just to settle the primal urges she had ever since he came back. At the last moment though he turned his cheek to her, closing his eyes as her pink lips pressed into his cheek bone.

"I can't…"

She drew back and frowned. "Naruto why do you feel the need to carry so many burdens alone? You're acting like some kind of whipping boy. If I didn't know better I'd say you were just hoping that you don't come back from one of your missions." She wondered to herself what he was hiding.

Ino sat upright, now trying to take this more seriously. Naruto was shutting down emotionally. She had seen it in a couple of the high ranked ANBU she evaluated. She could already tell he wasn't going to give her what she needed without drastic measures. "Naruto, right now I have you diagnosed as severely depressed and suicidal as you don't have any real value on your life. I'm going to enter your mind. It's the only way I'm going to clear you for more missions. Are you ok with that?"

"Hnn…" was all he said. Usually the guys put up more of a fight against her probing around in their head. Probably because once inside they were an open book and anything that she wanted to know was hers. People have secrets, everyone has secrets. She just needed to find out which ones changed him so much.