Behind

Premise: Sasori was a puppeteer, a manipulator, that's why he could see right through her the moment he met her, "Sakura, join me and the Akatsuki. We can promise you something your teammates never could…to never be left behind."

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Notice: Thank you so much for the reviews everyone!

Chapter 3: Enough

Sakura froze on the spot as a large orange and black blur tackled her over and slid her across the floor into the wall. It took all of her willpower not to accidently send him flying out of the window and across Konoha on reflex. Sakura took in a huge breath and calmed herself as she felt Naruto rub his face into the crook of her shoulder and neck while his warm arms encased her waist in his signature hug. "Naruto…"

"Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan! I missed you so much! Were you lonely without me?" Naruto asked as he looked up at his old crush. His eyes were still big, blue and most of all they still had their sincere glow. It seemed as though two years had not change the young beast.

Sakura laughed lightly while trying to still take in several breaths as she pushed Naruto off of her. He crawled backwards and stood up as she pushed herself off of the ground. "Of course I missed you Naruto," Sakura managed to smile. She looked up at him and grinned. "I'm looking up at you…"

Naruto laughed gallantly and held a hand above his head as to measure his height compared to hers, "I grew taller Sakura-chan!"

Sakura laughed and twirled around, "Did I change at all?" she asked.

"No Sakura-chan, not at all," Naruto stated with an innocent grin. Sakura scowled, clenched her fist and nearly decked Naruto in the face before she was interrupted by a timely cough.

Looking up Sakura stared mesmerized as she finally noticed Kakashi, Sasuke, Jiraiya and Tsunade were all looking at them with amused eyes. "Sasuke-kun, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura murmured as she flippantly pushed Naruto aside and went to stand in front of them. She resisted the urge to hug the black haired boy. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?" She wrung her hands in nervousness as a soft smile graced her lips.

Sasuke nodded a smile nearly tugging on his lips. Sakura laughed inwardly, 'at least he was trying. Kakashi must have done something absolutely amazing', Sakura thought as she smiled back at her childhood crush.

Sasuke almost seemed shocked that she didn't try to initiate any physical contact with him. "Hello Sakura."

"Welcome home Sasuke-kun."

Kakashi coughed again as he looked down at his pink haired student. She looked up at him and smiled weakly. He responded with his signature eye crease, "Sakura…"

"Kakashi-sensei, you look… masked as always…" Sakura managed to choke out.

Kakashi looked away from her, "I'm sorry, I didn't know that Naruto was planning to leave," his words were quiet, she was sure that she was the only one who heard him.

Sakura tilted her head and smiled sadly, "It's okay, I'm all okay."

Kakashi frowned beneath his mask as he heard his own words repeated and twisted through her lips. He couldn't quite understand the cynicism he heard in her tone, Sakura, as he had known her, had never been a cynic. Tsunade tapped her empty sake dish on the table to draw their attention towards her and Sakura noticed that her Shishou was not giving her any more attention than the rest. Sakura smiled inwardly, the inattention almost hurt. "You're late Sakura."

"I'm sorry, I was a little bit distracted on my journey up here."

Tsunade scoffed, "Distracted enough to appear five minutes later than the copy nin, I'm utterly repulsed." Tsunade paused before slamming her hand on the table and standing up to face the entirety of Team 7. Sakura straightened her back ever to slightly at the violent display. Jiraiya stood behind her absentmindedly with his arms crossed and a serious expression on his face. Tsunade's eyes turned dark as she scanned each of the members standing before her. "I have a mission for all four of you, S-class."

Kakashi seemed like he wanted to say something, but that was only because Sakura was more in tuned to his movements than ever before; she was tuned to all of her teammates movements. Naruto was fidgeting slightly and was slowly inching closer to her, Sasuke's eye twitched ever so slightly but it seemed as though even he didn't even notice the movement, Jiraiya was staring off at the horizon but his eyes were scanning. Sakura turned her senses back to Kakashi but it seemed like he had decided to keep quiet until Tsunade had finished the mission briefing.

The Hokage pulled on the scroll that was sitting neatly on her desk and opened it up. One word blazed above the rest and six pairs of eyes turned dark at the sight, Akatsuki. "It was recently reported by a trustworthy clientele," Sakura took in a slow breath, "that the Akatsuki have been in Suna and are now headed toward Konoha. They are within out territory, this is our chance to strike while we have the home field advantage." Tsunade scanned the group, "the Kazekage…"

"Did something happen to Gaara?" Naruto shouted. Tsunade gave him a pointed glare to shut up and Naruto stuck his tongue out at her.

Tsunade sighed in annoyance but continued to leer at the kyuubi daring him to interrupt her again, "…Has had his brother attacked by one of the many members of the organization and we suspect that member to be one of the ones lurking in the Fire Country. However, there have been reports saying that he is not alone and there may be up to three more."

"Is one of them Itachi?" Sasuke asked defiantly, Tsunade turned her cold gaze from Naruto to Sasuke. The Uchiha didn't even flinch.

Tsunade huffed, she couldn't decide if she loved or hated this team. "We don't know." There was a pause before the Hokage continued, "I want you all to read up on the mission details and I expect you out of the village by sunrise tomorrow. That should give you more than enough time to prepare and not enough time for the Akatsuki to move out of the country." She let the information register while she sat and shifted in her chair.

Sakura thought that she was to be the one to ask, "How will we be able to track them down Tsunade-sama?" Sakura had felt as though she had made her question sound convincing enough although she already knew the answer. Acting had never been one of her stronger points, hopefully she was convincing enough, but Kakashi was distracted either way.

Tsunade looked at her and smiled, "By this," she reached into the drawer and Sakura was not shocked to find the torn black and red fabric in her Shishou's hand. "Kakashi, your ninken will be able to follow the scent on this fabric to its owner, I'm sure."

Kakashi nodded, Sakura noticed that he was still holding back a little while longer for what he wished to say. "You will have to be careful," Jiraiya suddenly said from behind the Slug Princess, he put a hand on Tsunade's shoulder and she only shifted ever so slightly from the unwarranted touch, "I'll be else where collecting on different sets of information on the Akatsuki, but Naruto," Jiraiya gave his pupil a grin, "You know how to contact me if you need me."

Naruto nodded as he pumped his fist into the air. "Let's do this!"

"So then it is settled, Team 7 will be…"

"I have an objection Tsunade-sama," Kakashi finally iterated with a slow steady breath. Sakura looked up at him and noticed that he was looking back down at her from the corner of his eye. "I don't think that Sakura should come with us for this mission."

Sound stopped. No one breathed.

Sakura's world cracked, shattered and fell apart while she was desperately trying to hold onto the falling pieces.

Enough

Sakura froze. All movement ceased, her hands stopped fiddling, her breath hitched and her heart skipped a beat. She full on turned her head to observe her old sensei who was now doing everything in his power not to look down at her. Sakura's hand fisted and she wanted to scream. Tsunade sighed and tapped her fingers on her cheek, "And why should she not?"

"Tsunade, if what I have heard recently is correct…"

It's not you fool! Sakura wanted to bellow. Her knuckles turned white from the strain.

"…Sakura is at best is only at a chuunin standard. An S-class mission shouldn't even be considered for a chuunin," Kakashi stated with a wave of his hand and a calm demeanor. Sakura wanted to smack him upside the head with her "chuunin standard" skills.

How can you exclude me so quickly? Sakura raged and resisted the urge to hiss at her sensei.

"All three of your students are technically at a genin rank, should I just pass this mission off to someone else?" Tsunade inquired with a flick of her nail and a glance at the Uchiha. She knew what his reaction would be.

"I refuse to let this mission go to someone else."

Kakashi sighed, "I can vouch, and you know that I can Hokage-sama that Sasuke is very clearly in the jounin standard and I'm sure that Jiraiya can say the same about Naruto." Jiraiya gave a small nod as Tsunade turned to him but his eyes were trained on the pink haired girl who's bangs were hiding her eyes and who's fists were still clenched with her knuckles an unhealthy white. "Meanwhile Tsunade-sama, I have heard that Sakura has been sent on no missions since we have left and considering that I have been gone and Jiraiya preoccupied with Naruto there has been no one available to train her. There has been no method for Sakura to have gotten any stronger in the time that we've been gone. And I would dare to say that I would say the same thing if Naruto had stayed behind with no means for training as well."

Liar, Inner Sakura muttered darkly as she snarled at the silver haired man. Sakura gasped slightly and reeled back from shock nearly falling over in surprise but it was missed due to Naruto's sudden and indignant yell.

"Oi, Kakashi-sensei, that's mean to say."

"You're back," she mumbled under her breath as everything else faded away for just a moment. Tears threatened to gather at her eyes, of all things to fail at… she couldn't even stay herself around her old team. The person that she was supposed to be was back as a hidden personality inside her.

"I'm sorry…" her inner mind whispered.

"Did you say something Sakura?" Tsunade questioned worriedly and looked at her apprentice with sharp eyes. Tsunade saw the pain and the hurt that crossed the girl's face. Biting her lip tenderly Tsunade wondered when the last time she had heard her apprentice talk to herself was, the habit has seemed to disappear long ago. The Hokage had warned her and now it seemed like the Slug Princess was suffering more for her student than the student wished to show.

Sakura smiled up at the Hokage her eyes glistening only a little more than usual, "Kakashi-sensei has a point Tsunade-sama." The grin plastered on her face was fake.

"Fake!" Inner Sakura growled, slamming her fist into the wall of Sakura's inner mind and shook her head in indignation.

Tsunade turned back to Kakashi and glared at him harshly despite herself, "I guess this is the time that you should start acting like a sensei to your whole team you stuck up brat instead of singling one of the three out. You will be bringing her along for this mission whether you like it or not Hatake Kakashi, and I expect you, since you are so worried for her well-being, to protect her with your life."

Kakashi's eye flashed darkly and narrowed at the Hokage, "I never leave a teammate behind but it seems like you have left your sense there."

Tsunade snarled at the younger man and stood up, her chair flying back into the wall behind her. Jiraiya side stepped the flying wood and didn't dare hold the blond Hokage back although silently agreeing with the copy nin. "You insolent… I'm the Hokage, your whole team is just brimming with little brats!"

Sakura couldn't suppress the laugh that burst from her throat, but it had managed to stop Tsunade from breaking her sensei's neck, "Sorry, sorry," she grinned madly with a wave of her hand, at least she wasn't crying. Tsunade looked at her again and stared at the males of Team 7 with contempt.

"You should rip out their entrails," Inner Sakura snarked.

"You're being too violent," Sakura laughed talking to two women at the same time.

"You are all dismissed," Tsunade hollered and chucked the mission scroll at Naruto who caught it with a whimper and backpedaled at the force. He seemed like he was mulling over what Kakashi had said and was glancing furiously between Sakura, Tsunade and Kakashi. Somehow Jiraiya had taught him when to keep quiet, although at times the Sannin didn't know when to do that himself.

"Tsunade, calm down." Tsunade turned on her team member and glared at him. He shivered and backed off.

All four members of Team 7 turned around to leave the room before Tsunade spoke once more, "Sakura I want you to stay for another moment please. And you," Tsunade turned her chair around to face the Frog Sannin, "out with the rest."

Kakashi walked outside of the office and watched as the other three men followed, Shizune looked up at him surprised by the frustration crinkling at the corner of his eyes before slipping into the Hokage's office and shutting the door behind her. Kakashi tried to listen into what the three women were discussing inside but it seemed like the office had been sound proofed… 'Better sound proofed', he noted, 'since I've been gone'. Kakashi's eyes narrowed dangerously, 'that's strange there had never been any need to sound proof the Hokage's office so well in the past'. Something had changed while he was gone, he just didn't know what.

Enough

Sakura stirred her ramen around in her bowl taking a bite every minute or so before stirring the ramen around once again. She tried her hardest to ignore the boys sitting beside her, but the effort was futile. Naruto was still all too loud and Kakashi seemed as though he wasn't even trying to be discreet. "The bastard…" Inner Sakura hissed.

'Shush now…'

Naruto zipped through his third bowl of the meal he had missed so much in his two years of training but still managed to snatch a glance at Sakura in his devouring process. "Mou, Kakashi, why did you have to go and say that while Sakura-chan was there?"

Kakashi shrugged, "But don't you agree with me Naruto, you wouldn't want her to get hurt just because we…" the pause was infinite as all three men looked down at their food and paused in their stuffing. The conversation was kept low so that others wouldn't be able to hear outside the stand, but Sakura could hear everything just as she suspected Kakashi wanted. She resisted the urge to snap her chopsticks in half.

"You're right," Sasuke managed to grind out, "but saying that with Sakura there did not help with getting Tsunade to agree to not allow her to go. Tsunade has her pride as a kunoichi and she wishes to pass that on to others."

Kakashi nodded, "We were going to leave at sunrise tomorrow, there was no other time to have it said. I just thought that Tsunade would have been more practical in her decision making."

Naruto and Sasuke nodded and Kakashi smiled at the blond, "You have grown Naruto, no longer defending Sakura like an idiot."

"I am defending Sakura-chan, sensei. I don't want her to get hurt…"

A slam was heard as the three men looked up at the furious kunoichi as she turned her eyes toward them. "I…" she managed to splutter, "Do you think that I can't hear you?" Silence ensued, "I'm out of here. I'll see you tomorrow morning Naruto, Sasuke-kun, Kakashi-sensei." She turned around and stormed off down the street. Kakashi and Sasuke noted that she didn't travel her usual way home.

"Mou, mou! Sakura-chan," Naruto wailed, "I could have eaten that! You didn't need to sacrifice a poor bowl of good ramen!"

Enough

Sakura lay on her bed, curled in her sheets and sobbed softly. "It's okay," she muttered to herself as she grasped the sheets and ran them through her fingers, "it's okay. You aren't weak, you aren't weak, they just don't know, they just don't know…"

"Breathe Sakura…" Sakura sobbed harder at the voice of her inner mind, despite its intention, just its presence was detrimental to her confidence.

She curled into a smaller ball as tears ran down her cheeks. Two years was what she had had. Two years of utter and complete happiness. Two years of feeling like she was never going to be left behind again, of never having to feel like the one that was left behind. And in a matter of moments all of that was gone. And to think, all those two years she had thought that having them there would've made her existence complete.

She had missed her team. There were nights when she had dreamed of them and their childish antics when they had been younger, more innocent, but now she knew, knew that all of those dreams were just that, they were lies.

Her eyes flashed open as she heard a rustle from her window and she span up to hold a kunai up to the neck of the one who was leaning over her bed. Her arm relaxed when she identified who it was that had come to her this night.

"I heard what happened, Sakura," Genma muttered as he sat cross-legged beside her bed and pushed her shoulders back down onto the sheets.

Sakura coughed and spluttered before more tears began to run down her face. Her hands clutched onto his sleeves tightly as she rubbed at her glossy emerald orbs and she rolled over to face one of the only two men to know of her power. "Genma… I didn't think it could feel any worse… I didn't think that they could make it worse."

"Shh, shh, go to sleep Sakura. Tomorrow morning is going to be a trying day for you. Go to sleep, I'll chase away your bad dreams. I'll remind you that what they say isn't always what they mean; I'll tell the monsters in your dreams that you can tear apart a mountain with your fist. They'll run scared then, they won't fight you then… they won't leave you behind then."

"All the good men in this world are taken," Inner Sakura sighed.

Sakura smiled and closed her eyes. Genma had somehow seen her monsters, "Thank you…"

"Just go to sleep Sakura."

Enough

The next morning when Sakura had woken up she found that Genma had stayed the night and had fallen asleep on the carpet. She smiled as she saw that he wasn't the only one who was there. Shizune had joined him as well, it seemed like she had come in the night just as he had.

Sakura took her blanket and laid it over the couple gently as not to wake them as she grabbed her clothes and jumped into the shower. She had one hour before sunrise and probably three before Kakashi dared to show up. Sakura sighed; although tempted to arrive late she would arrive on time anyways. It had irked her too much to show up late when she had tried that tactic several times back in the day.

After her shower she hustled around her apartment as quickly as possible grabbing all her needed gear. She paused at the dining room table where two used glasses sat and a package with them. Scrawled neatly in handwriting was her name in Shizune's print and the words "from Tsunade".

Sakura grabbed the package and stuffed it into a safe compartment in her bag. She peaked back into her bedroom and grinned as she saw that Genma was now holding Shizune in her sleep. His deep brown eyes looked up at her and they whispered what his words couldn't 'good luck, don't give in.'

Stepping outside of her apartment she saw that the sky was turning pink but the sun had yet to rise. She closed the door behind her and hopped down the three stories and landed swiftly on the ground. She swung her bag on her shoulder and began walking toward the east gate. The pink hues reflected off of her hair and her skin, coloring her entirety with pink. The warmth of the rising sun heated her cold cheeks and she smiled, "Don't give in…"

Sakura approached the gate and saw that no one else had arrived. But it didn't take more than a minute before Sasuke had appeared with a nod and Naruto ran in with a blubbering sigh, his nightcap still situated on his head. Only five minutes later Kakashi showed up and Sakura realized just how much Kakashi didn't want her on this mission.

Next Time on Behind

"If by back, you mean here, and by here, you mean you and by you're, you mean me which in turn really means you, then yes, I guess you could say I'm back."

"Monsters teme, what monsters are she talking about? If the Akatsuki are haunting her dreams, I'll tear them apart bit by bit."

"No Sakura, I'm not disappointed in you, never disappointed in you. I'm disappointed in myself."

"While the boys wake up I'm going to go fill these at the river."

"That's strange, I could have sworn that mine was full."

Secret's Corner

Third chapter. This was one of the harder chapters to write because I can't get the feelings one hundred percent right. Hopefully they were communicated okay though because yah, writing Sakura like this is hard. Writing Kakashi like that was harder O-o I'm such a Kakashi fan but it was needed and hopefully Kakashi isn't seen ahahahaha too badly.

Inner Sakura makes a huge showcase in this chapter but in my first draft she barely even appeared. Hopefully what she represents is constantly defined.

There are a lot of chapter splices...I hope that doesn't bother anyone...As a warning, the chapters only get longer from here on out.