A light tapping sound was emitted as Sakura happily knocked on the door. Hopefully Hinata wouldn't mind her coming in earlier then she usually did. The pinkette had woken up earlier than usual that day and since she didn't have anything better to do, decided to go to Hinata's home early.

It was now almost a week since she had arrived, and in that week, the days were quite repetitive. Wake up late in the morning, go and heal the baby, go train somewhere by herself, go to back to her house and mope around until she went to bed. The only thing that seemed to vary was when she chose to eat.

She would have surely gone mad by now if it wasn't for two main factors. One was a letter she had received from Hayden. It was a reply from the letter she had sent him. He gave her an update of life in Mist, cursed those that were mean to her, and wished that she would hurry up and heal 'the little twit' so she could return home as fast as possible. The letter was quite amusing and caused an unshakable smile to go onto her features for the remainder of the day. Needless to say, she had wrote him another note, saying how much she enjoyed reading his letter and that she eagerly wished to return to Mist.

Her other pleasure was more surprising than the former. It was the visits to heal Hinata's child. Despite only knowing the child for a week, she had grown quite attached to the little munchkin. She often had small conversations with Hinata when she did so. The pinkette was finding that when the quiet Hyuuga came out of her shell, she was actually quite pleasant to talk to.

These two occurrences, however nice they were, were not the cause of her current happiness. Her current glee was due to the fact that her week was almost up. She was so close to going home!

The only problem was that the baby's health wasn't exactly up to par yet. However, Sakura was hoping that with her last two healing sessions, Lorita would improve enough to be able to receive treatment from someone other than herself.

The door opened, and just when she was about to greet Hinata, she was met with a pair of bright blue eyes that widened as soon as they saw her. "S-Sakura."

"Naruto." She replied. That was the first time she had ever heard the blond stutter before.

After the initial shock was over, Naruto quickly regained his bearings and glared at her. "You're early."

"It's nice to see you again too." She replied bitterly, using the same tone that he had just used with her.

"Why did you come earlier then you usually do?"

"Oh, I'm sorry." She told him. "Did I arrive too early for you to be able to avoid me?"

For a split second, she could have sworn that she saw a little bit of guilt grace his features.

But it passed as quickly as it had come. He moved past her and proceeded to walk out the door. "It's not like you don't deserve it."

She frowned at his retreating form. "By the way, you're welcome for me healing your daughter."

He stopped and turned his around to look at her. "If you had healed her right the first time, she wouldn't need to be healed now."

Not wanting to fight with him, she bit back a rebuttal about how he should have healed the baby first himself if he didn't think highly of her abilities. "Sakura?" The pinkette turned to see a sorrowful looking Hinata looking at her. "I'm sorry about that."

Sakura's expression softened. "It's alright." She told her friend. "I should be used to it by now. Besides, it's not like you're the one who did anything."

The Hyuuga sighed and looked down at her hands. "I know. But I still don't like the way he treats you."

The medic stepped forward, feeling an urge to console Hinata. "Don't worry about it." She forced herself to give a small smile, hoping that she could also force her eyes to show fake happiness. "I've still got you right?"

Hinata nodded as a small smile appeared on her face. "That's true."

With that, Sakura stepped into the household to begin healing the baby. "How is she?" Hinata asked nervously when the medic was finished.

Sakura sighed and ran a hand through her pink locks. "Not as good as I was hoping." She should probably see Tsunade about this. Sure she thought that Lorita's improvement before wasn't good, but she didn't think that it would be this bad. "I think I'm going to go now."

The two exchanged goodbyes and Sakura left to go to the Hokage tower. Why was Lorita barely improving? It didn't make sense. Sure the infant's breathing was a little better and she wasn't as pale, but aside from that there was no evidence that the pinkette had healed her.

These thoughts troubled her all the way to the tower. Tsunade did not look surprised to see her former apprentice. She did however, seem to be dreading something. "Tsunade." Sakura started. "I wanted to ask you about something."

"About Lorita I'm presuming." The Hokage replied.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Yes. How did you know?"

Tsunade sighed. "I suppose that I've put this off for too long. Sakura, I'm sorry that I couldn't bring myself to tell you this earlier. Before you came to Konoha again some medics and myself studied Naruto's child intensively. And we discovered that, despite how good your healing abilities are, it will take quite a long time for the baby to be healed."

"H-how long?" The pinkette asked.

"Probably at least a year."

Sakura's eyes went wide as her body froze all traces of her previous happiness vanished. She had to stay, for at least a year? She had to endure being hated and alone for an entire year? She had to wait twelve whole months before she could return home? A tear slipped down her cheek, but she made no move to remove it. "No." The medic whispered. This could not be right. It had to be some sick joke. But Tsunade did not look like she was joking.

She bolted away from the office, tears streaming down her face as she did so. Why? Why was she being tortured like this? What did she do wrong to deserve this?

She continued to run out of the Tower, not planning to stop once until she was back at her house. Things did not go according to plans however, because as she was running, something, or rather, someone caught her eye. Sasuke was walking on the road she was on, but stopped when he saw her running. "Sakura." He looked at her tear streaked cheeks.

"Yes?" She asked hoarsely as he walked towards her. For a moment she thought that he was about to try and comfort her, or at the very least ask what was wrong.

"You have always let your emotions get the best of you." She frowned, reminding herself about just who she was currently talking too. Of course he wouldn't care enough to help her. That would be asking him to actually be capable of showing compassion, something he obviously lacked.

She tried for a moment to think of a bitter comeback, but failed. So instead she replied, "Please stop."

"Stop what?"

"Always making me feel worse than I was before." She left before he could respond. It seemed like the Uchiha still had a heavy influence on her emotions. It was just in the opposite way that it was in their genin days. Was he always like this and she just began to notice it? Or did he change? Either way, she did not want to be around Sasuke anymore. These days, the Sharingan user only brought her pain.


Hey everyone! Wow this was a heavy chapter, had to get myself in the right mood (meaning listening to a lot of angry music :P ). There will be more Naruto and Sakura interactions, and well as Sakura and Sasuke, moments (unfortunatly for the pinkette). Hope everyone enjoyed reading it. Any questions or comments, please let me know in a review. Also I have a poll in my profile, feel free to check it out.

Oh, and since I always forget to put this thing on here: I don't own Naruto.