A/N: Hello everyone! Now things are about to get cooking! I have recently decided to read through the ENTIRE Naruto series again just to see if it would help with some inspiration. Which it has, but I have also renewed my love for this series. It really amazes me.

Anywhosers, Here chapter three! Enjoy and please comment! They feed my brain power *nom nom nom* yummm

Disclaimer: Naruto...hmmm nope! I don't own that.

"It's just so weird to see him walking around town. I'm still not used to it." Ino stated as we walked through the streets of Konoha. Hinata was right beside her, fiddling with her hands as usual, and I had my arms crossed in front of me. It was a somewhat chilly night and all I had to keep me warm was a knitted scarf, but I wasn't that cold in my long sleeve shirt and jeans.

"Y-yes. Having Sasuke back in town has made Naruto very happy." Hinata blushed at the name of her newly budding relationship with Naruto; that we were all thankful was finally happening. Even though it took a mission for Naruto to see that she's cared for him for forever and a half, the girls were all very happy that it was finally happening for her. Now it was just me who needed someone.

Ino patted her slightly swollen belly, her soon new addition to her little family with Sai growing everyday inside of her. "Well maybe he's here to see you-"

"-Don't even start." I hissed and bowed my head down slightly. Yes, Sasuke was back and he has been peacefully staying in the village for about 3 weeks. After our little incident I have tried to stay as far away from him as possible. Also with him being back, Tsunade had permanently returned Sasuke to his position in Team 7. So even though I tried to stay away, missions were hard to get some distance. "He's just toying with me."

"Oh grow up, Sakura." Ino groaned. "He told you he was here to stay; he tried to kiss you, might I remind you. Why are you trying to throw away happiness?" Both Ino's gaze and Hinata found my jade eyes and I could see the painful expression that was on my face reflect in their eyes.

"Because, he hurt me guys."

"How long are you going to use that line?" I frowned and looked away from her.

"It's not an excuse." We came to a stop at the restaurant we were meeting the rest of the gang for the night. "Look I just don't want to put my pennies into something I'm not sure that's going to happen."

"I-Ino don't pressure, S-Sakura." Hinata scolded, which really didn't sound like a scold seeing that she kept her head down the whole time. I smiled and grabbed her hand and then she looked up at me and smiled back. "We just don't want you to regret not taking the leap, if the door suddenly closes." I stared at her slightly in shock, trying to process what she was telling me.

"I'll keep that in mind." I said glumly and then opened the door for them to let them inside. The restaurant was pretty quiet except for this particularly noisy bunch that took up all the back tables. Naruto was howling with laughter over something, and Shikamaru and Choji were fervently trying to silent his cackling. I scanned the faces at the table, where we had most of the Genin 9. Neji and TenTen were in a deep and romantic looking conversation at the head of the table. Sai was sitting next to Naruto, however, he had a seat free for his lovely pregnant wife; as well as Naruto had a seat right next to him for Hinata. Choji was all ready picking off of the meat from the grill with his newly wed wife, Karui who was glaring at him eating all the food and would smack his hand away whenever she got the chance. Shikamaru was sitting stag right next to Kiba and Shino since Temari was on a mission in the Land of Sand. Last but not least, Sasuke was sitting toward the end of the table and the only empty seat that wasn't assigned to a girlfriend or wife was next to him. Really again? Naruto looked behind him and saw us and the biggest smile was plaster on his face.

"Hey guys! Come on, the foods here already. Choji will eat it all." He chuckled and Choji shrugged.

"No one told them to be late." Choji smiled and popped another piece of meat in his mouth.

We walked over and Sai got up and greeted for his unborn child, by kissing Ino's belly, then by giving Ino a sweet little peck on the cheek and proceeded to help her sit. Hinata (with no gentlemanly help from Naruto) sat right next to him, and he slung his arm around her shoulders and buried his face into her neck and she turned tomato red to which everyone shared a laugh. I walked toward Sasuke and he was in his signature sitting position, with his elbows on the table and his hands covering his mouth, but he's eyes were trained on me. When I returned his gaze he smirked. I smiled back politely and took the seat next to him. Karui grabbed my hand and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek as a greeting.

"Alright everyone!" Naruto hollered to which the whole table except for Hinata scolded him for being so loud. "Yeah, yeah. So I know that things have been pretty hectic with everyone being very busy. I just wanted to get together so that, we can announce a few things."

"When did this turn into a meeting? I thought this was just a dinner. This is such a drag…"Shikamaru complained and I smiled.

"Oh suck it up Shika. This is a dinner but I know some big things-" He stated and then looked toward Neji and TenTen who immediately stopped talking. I looked at Ino and Hinata and they just shrugged. "-going on with everyone. Just wanna get caught up." He grinned and then turned to look at and Sasuke. He grabbed his cup and everyone followed and lifted their cup up and pointed toward Sasuke. I looked at him and grabbed my cup to which he just looked at me. "First, I want to welcome back my brother. He was a pain in the ass but I'm thankful that you are finally back with family." Naruto and Sasuke shared a knowing glance to which they both smiled at each other.

"Here, here!" Ino seconded and everyone said 'Cheers' and clinked their cups together. When Sasuke looked back at me, I smiled at him and patted his shoulder. This is probably the first form of physical contact we have had since he stayed at my house. However, after what Hinata said outside, she really got me thinking. I may not want to dive into a relationship with Sasuke, but I didn't have to be an ice queen toward him.

"Secondly," Neji spoke up and stood, pulling TenTen up with him. "TenTen said yes." He said lovingly as he looked in her eyes. She held out her hand and you saw the gorgeous engagement ring that wrapped around her finger. All the girls including me stood of from our chairs and squealed as we ran over to her and congratulated her. As we pulled away TenTen from Neji, he was being congratulated by the boys. It definitely showed two different types of people with this group. The guys all patted Neji's back and said I'm happy for you man, and all the girls were asking for their turn to ooh and ahh over the ring. I smiled at her and gave her a big hug and Sasuke came into view and when he noticed he caught my eye he smiled at me, and his eyes were soft and adoring. I quickly let go of TenTen and turned away from his gaze to let the blush burn through my system. Why does he look at me like that? After the excitement died we all returned to our seats and Sasuke lazily slung his arm to rest on the back of my chair. It was such a simple gesture that most men did anyways but it set my body ablaze.

"So Naruto when did you find out Neji was going to ask TenTen?" I mused since he gave them a not so subtle look when the dinner began. Naruto grinned from ear to ear as he scratched the back of his head.

"Well I was visiting Hinata, and he was practicing how to propose with Hinata. Definitely not fun to walk into at first. I did jump to conclusion a little bit, but after he explained and told me I had to keep quiet." He admitted and everyone laughed.

"Y-yes. Naruto was very mad." Hinata giggled at the memory and I smiled at the both of them because it was Naruto's turn to turn as red as a tomato.

"Naruto can be quiet literal. Similar with his ninja tactics, he just runs head long into battle." Sai noted with the same plain smile on his face, but his other hand was caressing Ino's belly.

"Look guys, this isn't about me this his about Neji and TenTen." Naruto grumbled and returned to eating.

After those few announcements the conversation started to die down since now everyone focused on eating. Me and Karui were in deep conversation about her recent honeymoon with Choji.

"It was so nice. I mean you know the ocean isn't too far away but it's so lovely to be able to get away every once in a while. To not have his friends bothering us." She said and eyed Shikamaru to which he shrugged.

"It sounds like it was a lot of fun. Who knew that Choji had a romantic bone in his body." Choji turned and frowned at me and Karui laughed.

"Yes, he shocks many." She said and put another scoop of food in her mouth. I turned to Sasuke and he was picking some meat off the grill and then turned to look at me.

"Are you having fun?" I asked and he looked around the table and then back at me.

"I forgot how noisy everyone was, when we are all together." He noted and I smiled like a goof.

"Well, yeah but we are one big noisy family." To which he nodded and took a sip of his sake. He pulled another sake cup from the table and poured a bit in and handed me the cup.

"Want some?"

"Are you trying to get me drunk, Mr. Uchiha?" I joked and cocked on of my eyebrows up in a questioning look.

"Hn." He smiled and giggled.

"Don't mind if I do." I grabbed the cup from his hand and electricity passed through us when my fingertips touched his hand. I tried not to show it affected me so in that same second I chugged down the sake.

"Whoa there, Haruno." Ino called from the other end of the table. "I'm not carrying you home if you become stark drunk." She warned and I rolled my eyes at her.

"If anything Sasuke will take her home." Neji stated and I looked toward Neji, glaring at him to which he just smiled at me sweetly and Tenten just giggle by his side.

"Hn." Sasuke agreed and poured more sake into my cup. I stared at him in amazement and instead of chugging the sake took a sip.

"So how was your mission?" I asked him and he took a nice slow sip from his sake cup. I know him and Naruto were on a really easy mission not too long ago. It was just a recon mission to get some information so Tsunade took me off the mission since it was so easy they didn't need a medic there.

"Simple."

"I'm sure." I said and took another sip.

"I had to control Naruto with out you being there." He grumbled.

"Oh come on. It was a recon mission how bad could he have been?" I joked because I know even on a simple mission like a recon, Naruto still needed to be rained in.

Sasuke gave me a dumbfounded look and reached over and poked my forehead. I laughed and pushed him on his shoulder.

"You can't expect more out of Naruto." He stated and I nodded.

"True."

"What are you guys talking about over there?" Naruto yelled getting out attention. I suddenly found myself leaning away from Sasuke and him from me. Were we leaning into each other? I looked away from Naruto to see Ino's little smirk on her face as she eyed us.

"We are talking about you." Sasuke stated and popped a piece of meat in his mouth.

"And how even on a recon mission, you can't behave." I smiled at Naruto and he frowned.

"It was so boring! Just sitting there and collecting information is dumb. We could have totally taken them, right Sasuke?" He countered and smiled at Sasuke with support to which Sasuke shook his head.

"That's not the point, Dobe."

"Whatever. Point: mission was a success." Naruto finished with that and started talking to Sai.

"Oh Naruto. We will forever be taking care of you. Till the end of time." I stated more to myself but Sasuke chuckled. I looked up at him because I couldn't believe he laughed but to my very much surprise he did.

"Well, when he becomes Hinata's problem we won't have much to worry about." I nodded and started to return to my food.

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"Sooo much fun!" Sakura slurred. Ino was right, she's kind useless when she's drunk. Sasuke grunted as he held most of her weight so she didn't fall down again.

"Thank you for being the brave soul to take her home tonight, Sasuke." Ino said and rested her hand on her belly. "I can't carry that girl anymore now that I'm pregnant."

"Hn." he looked down at giggling Sakura as she was playing with her scarf. God, he has never seen her like this.

"Get home safely." Ino said her parting words and took Sai's hand and started to walk off. He wrapped his arm more securely around Sakura's waist to which she burst out laughing and slipped out of his hands.

"What was that?" he questioned her and he tired to pick her up off the floor but she swatted his hands away, still laughing like a lunatic.

"I'm ticklish, dummy! Don't ticool me!" She said in a child like voice, but then hiccuped at the end of her sentence which sent her into a new round of giggles. Noted: Don't get Sakura drunk unless you want to take care of a child.

"Unbelievable." Sasuke grunted bent down and scooped her up into his arms and cradled her against his chest. Her hand rested right above his heart and Sasuke looked down at her. She was blushing and looked up at him with wide, unbelieving eyes. He must have caught her off guard, but carrying her was much faster than trying to lug her through the streets of Konoha at this hour. "Hold on." He instructed to which is wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his chest. Sasuke felt his cheeks heat up slightly at Sakura's tight embrace. Now that she was closer, he could really smell the wonderful perfume that had been tickling his nose all night. Cherry blossoms…

Sasuke launched himself from the street to the roof tops and hopped along toward her house. It took me all of 3 minutes to get there. When they got to her front door, Sakura let go of his neck and looked around.

"Boy, you're fast. Like lightening. Hey!" She shouted and slapped her hand down on Sasuke's chest using more force than needed. He coughed to cover the slight pain that stung his chest. She really needs to be careful with those things. "You know a jitsu that has lightening! You're like.. lightening guy." She stated and then started laughing at her own joke.

"Sakura where are you keys?" He asked and pulled her purse up, but he couldn't find them there.

"Its in my boobs." She slurred and yanked down her top. Her bra became completely visible and you could see right between her breasts were her keys. Sasuke looked at her in the eyes and she was staring at me waiting. "Grab 'em."

"Sakura just take you keys out so I can op-"

"My hands won't work, grab them!" She insisted and pulled down her top even more. He looked into her jade eyes and then he looked down to her keys hugged between her breasts. He held her tightly with one hand so she wouldn't fall and with his leg; he arched it up and had his knee rest against the door but it held her back up. As he used his now free hand, he quickly grabbed the key from between her breasts. They were warm. Just as another thought popped into Sasuke's head, Sakura's hand released her top and it came right back up to cover her. He blinked several times; trying to gather his thoughts before he set her down on the ground. Alcohol sure makes Sakura bold as well. She didn't seem to care at all that she practically flashed him. He reached around her and opened the door and then dropped the keys back in her purse.

Sakura stumbled into the house but she would be okay, since she was home. Just as Sasuke placed her purse on the table by the door, and was about to turn and leave he felt something pull on his shirt. He turned to meet those beautiful jade eyes, and they looked hurt. Slight alarm rose up Sasuke's neck as he peered into her eyes. Was she not feeling good? Had something upset her?

"Where are you going?" Her speech sounded more coherent now. She must be sobering up. Sasuke reached for her hand on his shirt and unhooked it. He cupped her hand between his, and marveled at how small it was between his hands. She may be really strong now but she still was tiny.

"Home." He stated and released her hand, to which she frowned and grabbed his hand again. Sasuke's eyes looked at her in question.

"I don't want you to go." Sakura said, her voice thick with emotion. At her sudden outburst his eyes soften and without another word he closed the door slowly behind him.