Chapter Four

Tsunade was outside Uchiha Sasuke's hospital room waiting for silence. She heard the shower turn on and knew she had to be quick.

She opened the door to find a smiling Sakura swinging her feet off the end of Sasuke's bed, and Naruto sitting in a backwards chair with his arms and head resting on the back of it. Sakura stood up worry all over her face.

"Tsunade-sama-"

She started

" We'll talk about that later."

Tsunade cut across her, reading her mind.

"Hey so, what's up with the mission? What now?"

Naruto butted in.

"I said we'd talk about that later…"

Tsunade looked at the clock on the wall opposite of her.

Its already 3:00 pm.

"5:00 pm, tonight at my office."

She glanced at the bathroom door, the shower just turned off. With that, she disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Sakura slammed open the door to Tsunade's office and it hit the wall behind it. Naruto followed glancing around then at the clock.

5:00, where is she?

He closed the door and jumped when Tsunade turned her chair around and placed her elbows on her desk. Sakura did the same, for so she was leaning on Tsunade's desk.

He stifled a laugh; Tsunade was doing the classic 'Sasuke pose'. His face quickly stiffened into seriousness,

"Where's Sasuke-"

He started, but Sakura didn't care,

"An hour after you left, Anbu came and took him away! What did you do with him?!?"

She finished.

"Don't worry, Sakura. They're just testing him."

Tsunade said ever so calmly. Sakura's shoulders relaxed, she plopped down in the chair behind her and gave a sigh of relief.

Wait…

Naruto slowly walked over to the chair next to Sakura's,

"Wait, what are they looking for?"

Sakura stiffened again.

"Stuff to help you with your mission."

Tsunade said putting her hands flat on her desk.

Sakura started to panic.

"What, no, Sasuke came back! He defeated an Akatsuki member, he protected Naruto!"

She pointed at Naruto, and she was now standing again.

"We don't know if those were his intentions."

Tsunade said calmly.

" But, ee, er, …"

She sat back down with a sigh.

Damn it! Not again! Sakura, be strong!

She was, just not emotionally. She tried with all her might, but it just couldn't be helped. She put her face in her hands to hide the tears streaming down her face.

You know it's for the best...

She thought.

Sakura-

Inner Sakura tried to say.

No. It is. It's better that I let it all out right now, then have it rip me apart later. If-

Sakura!

Inner Sakura didn't want to hear it. She didn't want everything to fall apart again. She remembered after the night he had left, and how long it took to even come out of her room.

You've worked so hard to get up to this point! You've worked so hard to gain the respect of them all. Don't let it all fall apart now!!!

Inner Sakura started her prep…

But…

Inner Sakura said in a more gentle voice, one she had rarely used before.

If you really need to... later, at home, you can let go.

Sakura sniffed.

Your right, thanks.

She didn't wait for a reply; she whipped the tears away, and looked up. Naruto was sitting in the blue chair, staring at the floor, his hands folded tight and supporting his chin. He looked lost, and so sad.

This scared her because she had never seen the sky eyed, sunny boy, ever sad. At times it seemed like his only emotions where: Determination, frustration, anger, bliss and…

What was the other one? I know there are five…

Inner Sakura held up a picture,

Affection.

The picture was, not a real one, but a mental one. She had seen Naruto with Hinata; he was so carefree and blissful around her. He was also a little over protective, he always had his arm around her, if not her shoulders, then surely it was her waist.

Be strong.

She then looked at Tsunade; this also gave her a shock. Tsunade was also looking detached, but surly it wasn't sadness...? She was looking out her window, her hands just like Naruto's, only on her temple because she was looking sideways.

Be strong.

She straightened her self, and cleared her throat.

Be strong, Sakura!

"So now what?"

She asked firmly.

Cha! Nice job covering up!

The two looked back at her startled, but it was gone as soon as it came. She smiled, half because she was proud of her self, but more so because she wanted to brighten the mood.

"Well…"

Tsunade said happy of the change of mood.

"Now we wait."

So they did. They waited a good three hours, it was 6:00 when they left Tsunade's office, so it was about 9:00 pm as they all sat back in her office.

Sakura and Tsunade had been training and she had almost actually hit her, but Tsunade was after all the Hokage. She smiled at her teacher, and she smiled back at her apprentice. Naruto had been doing…

God knows what he was doing.

She rolled her eyes at Inner Sakura's remark. There was a noise on the other side of the office door and someone came in.

"Hokage-sama..."

An Ambu was walking through the door, but stopped because three pairs of eyes were staring at… Sakura was pretty sure it was a guy. He shifted uncomfortably,

"All clear. Hokage-sama."

He finally finished.

Tsunade waved his dismissal and he left as quickly as he came. Before anyone could question what just happened, she quickly said,

"You better go home and get some rest."

And a little slower, standing as she said it,

"You've got some training to do tomorrow."

Sakura's heart skipped a beat.

"With... Sasuke?"

She asked eagerly. She was also standing now. Tsunade smiled and nodded.

Her heart almost flew away; she wanted to hug the Hokage. She skipped towards the door happy with the answer, and with Naruto right behind her.

"Sakura, before you go I need to talk with you... Naruto."

Naruto had also stopped, listening intently to what she had to say. He started, opened the door and then left closing the door behind him. They waited to make sure that he was really gone.

"Well, now that Naruto has gone we can get down to the serious part of the discussion."

Tsunade said sitting back down and offering the chair across from her again.

And the plot line is actually going somewhere now!

Sorry it took so long to get it up! I lost some of the papers... He he...

Well I'm typeing up chapter 5 right now so it should be up soon, I already finished it... just need to type it.

Oh just another thing, sadly I can only work on the weekends seeing as I have school on the weekdays. twitch (school is so evil! ) I'll try and write every time I have free time.

So untill next chapter, See ya!

CRITICISM TAKEN, FLAMING NOT

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This chapy has been edited.