A/N: yea, so I think this is going to turn into a 3/4-shot, depending on how the next chapter goes, but I do plan to be done with this short-story by Sunday night while it's still fresh in my mind and so I can also start on another short-story.

Thanks to all who reviewed:

Hinata's Inner Universe

SasukeShadowLake0017

MYinnerNINJA

Chariste

I so appreciate hearing your comments and I am proud to say I also got a lot of fav-story stuff and story-alert stuff, so this short-story is turning out pretty good! ^^ Hope you like this chapter!

Out of Reach

As soon as she walked through the door Naruto's blabber became nothing but background sound and he finally understood what Naruto was saying to him earlier. "When she walks into the room, everyone stops and stares." But it was so much more than that. When she walks into a room, she's all people want to see, and he bet she was an even better sight when she wasn't wearing that stupid fake smile that no one ever seemed to see through.

"Sakura-chan." His head unconsciously snapped to where the Kazekage sat when he heard the suffix. Chan? Since when was she so buddy-buddy with the man who almost killed her?

Surprisingly enough her smile changed, it was more realistic and instantly he was jealous. "Gaara-kun, It's nice to see you, finally." She said, her voice had changed since the last time they spoke, she sounded so much more grown-up now. "I've been meaning to stop by Suna to check on the medical-advances, but, someone as to do the paperwork around here." They laughed, and he found himself wanting to hear more of that precious sound.

Naruto growled beside him. "I do paper-work!" He rolled his eyes. Dobe…

Sakura laughed again and ruffled his hair, motherly-like, and nodded. "And how often is that again?" He opened his mouth to say something but then shut it closed. Sakura laughed again.

The rest of the conversation, he didn't really care about, he found himself searching for the little changes that most people would over-look. For one, her outfit changed. She wore a white lab-coat over a sleeveless red top with her clan insignia on her stomach. She had the same black knee-high boots and black-shorts with a different skirt, a black belt tying around her hips.

He saw her reluctance to look at him and how her lips moved with slight irritation, or was that her just being careful? He didn't know, but when her eyes finally turned to him he saw everything she struggled to hide from him, an open book, like always.

"Sasuke." She said, forcing a smile onto her lips.

"Sakura." He replied, equally as blunt, his voice void of any emotion.

Suddenly, her smile became less strained and something about her eyes relaxed. "You look well…" Her voice was sweet and sincere, something he hadn't been expecting.

"You do too, Sakura." He answered, wanting to say more but not knowing how much he should say. Would it be too weird for him to act like nothing had happened? All the same, Naruto had accepted him back, why couldn't she? Even as he thought it, Sasuke knew the answer. Because she wasn't anything like Naruto, she had stopped fighting for him a long time ago, in her mind she will always see it as him leaving her and only her, because, in actuality, he did. She proclaimed her love for him and he didn't even blink, she was the last to see him and the first to meet him again, she felt betrayed and heartbroken.

Could he ever be able to fix that? Make her see that he's really changed? No, that's what Naruto said. He told him that she had given up and when he suddenly just turned the other leaf, she threw herself into her work, barley coming out of the hospital, Naruto described it as having to almost drag her out. She was even more a mess than when he left.

"Well, we should get started then." He heard the urgency in her voice, as if the room would collapse on top of her if she didn't get out as soon as possible.

"There's a lot to do until next month," Only because you were being dense and tried to avoid this meeting for as long as you could, Sasuke thought. "We might be here a while." She had probably gagged at the mere thought of spending another minute in the same room as Sasuke.

But, could he really blame her? After everything he's caused, he's surprised she didn't get someone else to do this for her.

Maybe it's better this way…Sasuke thought, mentally slapping himself for even thinking it. This was not better, having Sakura hate him and not wanting to even look at him was not better. Sasuke found himself wanting her to accept him back like everyone else was slowly doing. Even Ino pulled him aside to see how he was doing. Ino! And his own teammate (Sorry, ex teammate) can't even do that?

You left her on a bench in the middle of the night, a small part of his mind said. You don't deserve her acceptance. Maybe he didn't. But, he was damned well not going to settle for it.

After the meeting Sakura had hurriedly gathered the papers and more than less fled the room, hardly glancing at him as she did so. Yea, that's going to stop.

After Gaara had left to do something or another Naruto had sadly proclaimed he had a lot of paperwork to do and sulked out of the room, promising Sasuke that they would spare so Naruto could kick his ass.

Sasuke sat for a few minutes, listening to his surroundings, making sure the halls were empty before departing the room as well and stealthily sweeping down the hall. Not even a moment later Sasuke saw Shizune and remembered something about her being one of Sakura's mentors.

"Shizune-san." He greeted.

"Oh, S-Sasuke-sama," she stammered, obviously uncomfortable. "What can I do for you?"

"Where is Sakura?"

"S-Sakura?" He nodded. "Oh, well, I think I might have saw her heading towards the training fields but-" Sasuke walked on past her without a word of thanks and disappeared around the corner.

He ignored the villagers that stared at him as he passed and the half-hearted greetings of the people he actually knew. If he remembered correctly then the training grounds were just outside of Konoha, to the south. Then again, the Leaf had been completely reconstructed from the ground up since the Akatsuki attack. He could be wondering for hours...

"Hey, Sasuke!" He turned and saw Team Gai, Tenten waving her arm in the air. "I just had to say hi before you left, how've you been?"

"Okay." He replied, Tenten smiled.

"That's great, Sasuke, we're all glad that you're…Uh…That you're…"

"In good health, Uchiha-san." Neji finished. "We also wanted to thank you for making sure Naruto and Sakura got out of there alive, Konoha would be nothing without those two." Sasuke nodded, they were referring to the defeat of Madara.

"Yes, thank you, Sasuke-san, Sakura-chan and Naruto-kun mean a lot to this village and others as well, we will also have to have a rematch sometime soon." Lee said, flashing his beaming smile.

Sasuke smirked. "Sure, Lee."

"Yosh! I shall go ahead and train extra-hard today so I shall not disappoint Gai-sama or Sakura-chan!"

"Yea, you go right ahead Lee." Tenten said, shaking her head as he jogged past. "We'll be right there."

"YOSH!"

"So, where ya headed, Sasuke?" Tenten asked, smiling.

"I was looking for the training grounds."

"Oh, right, we're still trying to get used to Konoha's new arrangement too. Jut head East, you'll find it, but you better steer clear of Grounds 7, Shikamaru told me Sakura's busy tearing it up." She chuckled. "I feel bad for the poor sap who got Haruno Sakura pissed off." Neji smirked.

Sasuke inwardly groaned, He was that sap. Naruto also said something about Sakura's even worse temper and how she can make grown ANBU cry.

"Yes, Sakura-san can be somewhat of a short fuse, you wouldn't know anything about that, would you Sasuke?" Damn Huuga, Sasuke thought, glaring.

"No, I don't." Sasuke seethed, Neji just shook his head.

"See you around Sasuke! Good seeing you!" Tenten called as she and Neji walked away. Sasuke nodded to her and headed east like she had instructed and, sure enough, not even two minutes later he heard crashing and the loud groans of trees before shatters and deep rumbled rocking the ground. He also noticed how very few people ventured further than the last building on the street, some even cringing at each shudder they heard.

This should be fun.

A/N: Yea, sorry if it's kind of boring. Anywho, if you haven't noticed I'm doing one chappie with Sasuke's perspective and one with Sakura's, so that's why I don't know if this will turn into a 4-chapter thing or a 3-chapter thing.

REVIEW! YOSH!

(PS, I love writing as Lee xp)