"So, how was your hot date last night," Ino teases with a wink as she places her coffee cup on the table after she took a sip.

Sakura rolls her jade eyes and grips her cup of tea tighter in her grasp.

"I don't know, Ino-Pig," Sakura admits, staring at her tea as if it holds all the answers she needs.

"What do you mean, you 'don't know'" Ino exclaims, throwing her arms up into the air with frustration. "Please don't tell me you set him up?!"

"Oh my god, Ino! Shh, be quiet. Everyone can hear you," Sakura quickly blurts looking around to make sure they aren't putting on a show for anyone.

The small café they are currently occupying was bustling with people, but even so it was still fairly quiet. With her quick scan complete and with the results showing that she didn't draw in any unwanted attention, she turns her attention back to the irritated blonde.

"Don't tell me to 'shh,' Forehead. Did you or did you not set him up?" She taps her index finger against the side of her cup of coffee, clearly running out with patience with her best friend.

"No, I didn't set him up," she calmly confesses with a sigh. She raises her cup of tea to her lips and takes a sip before continuing. "But I kind of left soon after we met up."

"How soon," Ino presses on, narrowing her clear blue eyes.

"Like couple of minutes after we met," she said placing her tea back on the table and staring at her best friend with a look of hopelessness. "Ino, I really do appreciate you trying to help me move on, but I don't think the best way for me to do that is to find a rebound. I left that soon because I didn't want to struggle through the night knowing that I don't hold any feelings for him," she said before staring back into her tea. "When I first meet up with him, it was fine, but then my mind kept flickering back to him," she confesses with a sigh.

She pauses, either for Ino to soak up what she was feeling or for her to understand what she herself was feeling, she wasn't too sure.

She looks up from her tea and shifts her attention to the large window directly behind Ino. The radiant sun is shining and if it wasn't for the building directly in front of the café they were in, the sun would be attacking her fair ivory face.

"Even though he's gone, I still miss him dearly," she mutters turning her attention briefly to Ino before dropping her glance to her tea.

It's been six months since Sasuke left and Ino had tried relentlessly to help Sakura forget about him. After many blind dates and girls night out (and in), Sakura can happily say she is thankful for Ino, even though she can be a pain sometimes. Ino was right beside her, to wipe her tears and be her shoulder to cry on. She was there to watch and guide her as she picked up the pieces of her shattered heart and slowly pieced it back together. Though it may not be completely fixed, she knew that with time it will be, but if only she could somehow shake the thoughts of him from her mind.

"I'm sorry, Sakura."

Sakura shoots her green eyes towards Ino with shock, wondering why she was apologizing. She is met with apologetic eyes which was what Sakura was so used to seeing during the first month he left, as if she was apologizing for what he reduced her to.

"I shouldn't have pushed you so much with all these random guys, but I really want to see you happy," she confesses with a sad smile. "But I now realize that that love that you two share… it was special. It's been half a year, and the fact that you still think about him, it doesn't show that you're weak; oh hell, Sakura, you're far from weak. You're one of the strongest people I know, but the fact you still think about him shows how strong that love is."

"W-what do you mean, Ino? I don't-"

"Stop trying to deny it," she said cutting her off in what was going to be an obvious lie. "I know you still love him and I understand now. I should let you go at your own pace, because the love you two shared isn't something that can just break so easily. You can't rebound off something like that so fast and I was, I guess, naïve if I thought I could help you forget him so fast."

Ino takes her hands off her warm coffee cup and stretches them towards Sakura. She stares at her hands in bewilderment before she understands her familiar gesture and places her hands in hers.

"Sakura, I want you to know that I care about you. You are my best friend, and I know you want to forget about him, I know you're trying so hard to, but as you said your mind keeps flickering back to him. He left a permanent mark on you. But can you honestly tell me that if he shows up right now, asking for you back, admitting to his mistakes, you wouldn't take him back?"

Ino's sudden confess catches Sakura off guard. Her heart is beating rapidly in her chest from hearing what Ino thought of their love. Sakura knows Ino asked for her hands, because she thought she was going to tear up, but she's stronger now and wouldn't be reduced to tears that easily anymore.

They are quiet for a while as they held hands. Sakura stared at their intertwined fingers and smiled a soft sad smile. She raises her glance and focuses on Ino's worried expression.

"You know, I kept picturing that… him coming back, back to me, and every time I would run into his arms with no hesitation, because his arms are home. He is home and I'm his. I was his, I guess," she looks at their hands for courage and back into Ino's eyes to continue before she starts giggling.

Ino releases her hold on Sakura's hands and crosses them on the table leaning on them as she looks on at Sakura with pure confusion. After the question she asked, the last thing she thought Sakura would do was laugh.

"He's not going to come back to me, Ino-Pig," she explains placing her head on the table to laugh some more. When her laughs finally died down, she slowly raises her head and keeps her glance on Ino's crossed arms. "Plus this is a 'what-if' question and let me tell you this, Sasuke Uchiha is not the type of man to do something like that. He's the one who walked away from me, so why exactly would he come back?"

Ino leans back in her seat and brings her coffee to her lips finishing it off before placing the empty cup on the table.

"Let me tell you this, Forehead. You guys are young, and after everything you've told me, after everything you've been through, you've got to stop thinking of that love so lowly. He needs to finish his redemption journey after everything he's been through and done," she said with a stern expression. "But I think he's going to come back to what he needs, and that's you, Sakura," she stands up from her seat and places her purse on her shoulder, her expression softening. "Like what you said, he's home and you're his."


She walks home alone after parting ways with Ino after their coffee date with Ino's words radiating throughout her.

"Would I take him back?" she ponders which causes her to envision multiple scenarios in her head, all from her running into his arms with tears of happiness streaming down her face to her turning her back to him, walking away.

With the heat from the day slowly retreating and she decides to take a detour before heading home. She decides to go the bridge, the bridge where she had her first kiss with Sasuke, the bridge where she finally felt the meaning of his words. She smiles a nostalgia smile as she places her arms against the bridge railing and leans against it.

She starts to recall his kisses and smile and how when he left she was reduced to a mere ghost of herself. She remembers watching him leave and falling to her knees to grieve for the love he threw away. It was only in her wildest dreams where he would come back to her, fixing everything he's broke. But she knows better. He can't fix her, only she can do that.

"Sakura."

She gasps. She feels her blood running cold even though her heart is beating rapidly in her chest.

"No, no, no, I'm only hearing things," she chants in her head, but she knows the footsteps she hears approaching her isn't fake. She doesn't dare turn around to face the familiar voice.

He repeats her name and her body betrays her as she slowly turns around to face him and she can feel her heart shatter yet again when he smiles the smile she loves so much. All her time wasted, easily undone by a simple smile. She curses herself for being weak, but Ino's words echoes throughout her mind about their strong love and the permanent mark he left.

When you're young you just run, but you come back to what you need.

"No," she whispers, breathlessly. "No, you can't do this."

He's taken aback by her sudden words, but he still takes a step towards her and she takes one back.

"Stop, don't come closer," she manages to say. Her eyes are widen with fear and shock either from how Ino somehow predicted this moment or from him.

"Sakura, I'm-"

"I said stop!" she screams. She stares intimidatingly at him, but he's unmoved by this.

He takes another persistent step forward raising a hand to caress her cheek, but she slaps it away and quickly places distance between them.

"You can't do this to me, Sasuke," she can feel her tears threatening to fall, but she wouldn't allow them to. She's spilled enough tears over him. "Just-just leave me alone." It takes everything in her to turn around and walk away from him.

"Sakura, please jut hear me out" he pleads, stepping towards her and grabbing her arm, but she quickly pulls it back and turns around to face him, fury reflecting off her emerald eyes.

"Do you honestly think I'll let you do this to me again?! She hisses avoid eye contact. "You saw what you were doing to me and you allowed it. You kept feeding me these empty promises, making me believe you, making me fall harder and harder for you every day. God damn it, Sasuke, it's been six month. Six. And I've never heard anything from you. There's nothing you can say or do that can fix this. Nothing."

With that she turns around and walks away trying desperately to keep her head held high and not to turn around to run into his arms to recreate her wildest dreams.

This time it's him that watches her leave.

These hands had to let it go free, and this love came back to me.

A/N: This is last song post for this series, but you if you have a certain song you'll like me to write please tell me LOL who likes my plot twist ;) bet no one was expecting that. Please review!