Sakura's eyes slowly opened and the first thing she registered was the arm slung around her from behind. She sat up and spun around quickly, already on alert, grabbing the arm and twisting behind the sleeping boy's back. Naruto jerked awake and looked at her with wide eyes.

"Ow! Sakura, let me go!"

Sakura looked from the arm to Naruto, and back. "Oh." She let him go and he stood up, looking down at her with an uncertain smile.

"You okay?" he asked. Sakura blinked.

"Oh. Yeah, I'm fine!" she told him, standing up and recollecting the events from the night before just as Naruto grinned and leaned in to kiss her. She gave him a faint smile and turned her head slowly to the side, and his lips met her cheek. Naruto pulled back with a frown, but didn't say anything. At that moment Kakashi sat up and stretched.

"Hey Sakura, Naruto. I see you woke yourselves up this morning. Ready to go?" he asked. Naruto and Sakura exchanged glances, both aware of the fact that he was staying away from the subject of the night before. Kakashi shook Pakkun awake, and within minutes ("No breakfast!" Naruto grumbled. "Eat the leaves!" Kakashi shouted over his shoulder.) they were off through the forest again, trailing Sasuke. Apparently Sasuke had figured out that just sticking tags to trees wasn't enough to stop them, and the traps were getting more elaborate, from kunais flying at them from the middle of nowhere to branches snapping off when they stepped on them, which slowed them down since they couldn't land on them as roughly.

As Sakura dodged another kunai, she said, "The traps are getting less and less difficult. That was only one kunai. We must be catching up to him!"

"Look! There!" Naruto pointed as a shadow flashed behind a tree. They headed towards it, and the shadow dashed out again, running ahead of them through the trees. Sakura recognized the black hair.

"It's Sasuke!" she cried.

Naruto growled loudly. "He's faster than us! We have to stop him while he's not going full speed!" He put his hands together, and after a few signs, a shadow clone appeared. The clone grabbed the real Naruto and flung him forward through the trees. Sasuke turned around just in time to see Naruto an inch away from him. They collided, and Sasuke was knocked off the branch with Naruto on top of him. They punched each other in midair, rolling over until Naruto ended up on the bottom when they hit the ground. Sasuke jumped up off of him, dusting himself off, while Naruto laid there for a second, before standing up to face him. They stared at each other for a moment, before Naruto summoned a clone and then charged at him with his Rasengan.

Before he could reach Sasuke, Kakashi leaped in between them and knocked Naruto roughly to the side. "Naruto, let me deal with this."

Sakura dropped down next to Naruto, who had skidded across the ground and into a rock. She looked down at him with worry, but Naruto looked up at her with a smile, wiping blood away from his lip. "Hey Sakura-chan?"

Sakura swallowed. "Yeah?"

"I know this is a bad time...but will you be my girlfriend?"

Sakura looked away. "Naruto, we're in the middle of a fight." Even she knew she was avoiding the question. "But why am I?" she thought. "I was fine with it last night...but I don't know...this morning, and now seeing Sasuke..." Sakura looked over at Sasuke, who was locked in a Sharingan battle with Kakashi. Naruto picked up on this immediately, and when Sakura turned back to face Naruto, he had an angry frown on his face.

"I see. Well, before you go making out with me, maybe you should make sure you're not going to lie about your feelings for Sasuke," he growled. "I would never have kissed you back if I had known..."

"Naruto...I..."

"I've had it with him. He deserts our village for Orochimaru, he's horrible to you, and here I am, thinking maybe that my dreams were coming true after two and a half years of practically worshipping you. Silly me. Of course you still like Sasuke. You'll always pick him over stupid, annoying, pathetic Naruto!"

"Naruto...that's not true!" Sakura started half-heartedly. Naruto shoved her aside, his eyes already red and a tail sprouting behind him. The force of it knocked Sakura back even farther than Kakashi had knocked Naruto, and when she finally skidded across the ground and hit a tree, Sakura saw stars. Sasuke, meanwhile, had activated his Chidori, and so had Kakashi. They ran towards each other, finally colliding and flying backwards in two different directions. They both landed roughly, but while Sasuke stood up with a loud grunt, Kakashi stayed down.

Sakura recovered and looked from Sasuke to Kakashi. "Kakashi-sensei!" she cried, getting up and running over to him. Sasuke smirked at the two of them, but was suddenly blindsided by a charging Naruto, who scratched at Sasuke's face until his blood was covering both of them. Still, Sasuke managed to throw Naruto off of him, rubbing blood off himself as three more tails sprouted behind Naruto.

Meanwhile, Sakura sat busy healing Kakashi. "Are you okay Kakashi-sensei?" she asked.

"Yeah. I just hit my head a little hard on the ground. Everything's spinning though, I don't think I'll be able to fight. It's up to you and Naruto."

Sakura looked at him nervously, and then up at Naruto and Sasuke, who were fighting twenty yards away. "Kakashi-sensei...I don't know if I can hurt Sasuke..."

Kakashi looked up at her. "It pains me to mention this...trust me, it really does...but what about what happened between you and Naruto last night?"

Sakura sighed. "I don't know. I'm not sure if I'm over Sasuke..."

"Well, in all my romance novels, the main character follows what their heart says. That's what makes them have happy endings. I know it's cliche, Sakura...but follow your heart."

"But what's that supposed to mean? I like both of them!"

Kakashi's eyes closed before he could respond. Sakura quickly checked his pulse. "Phew...he's just passed out." She got to work healing the rest of his wounds.

Nearby, Sasuke had just pinned Naruto down and activated his Sharingan, trying to look into Naruto's eyes. Naruto shut them tight and kicked Sasuke in the stomach, knocking him off. When he stood up, he noticed Sasuke's eyes were back to normal. "That special Sharingan must take a lot of chakra..." Naruto thought. He was surprised he could even form one complete word in his head with the four tails, let alone a thought. "I must be getting stronger in battle..." Still, it felt like his skin was burning off, and it was extremely hard to ignore the pain. Naruto hissed painfully and dropped down to one knee, gasping. Sasuke smirked.

"Can't quite handle four tails, yet, eh Naruto?" He glanced in Sakura and Kakashi's direction. "And it looks like Sakura wouldn't help you even if she could."

Naruto growled and stood back up. "You don't know anything about her!"

"I know she's probably still too 'enamored' with me to try and hurt me, especially to help the likes of you," Sasuke said, sneering at him.

Naruto's eyes went an even deeper shade of red, and he summoned a shadow clone to start up his Rasengan. Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "That Rasengan's red..."

He started up his own jutsu, and for a second it was like they were both twelve again, charging at each other over the water.

"Chidori!"

"Rasengan!"

They ran at each other with their hands stuck out in front of them. Sakura watched with wide eyes as they collided, getting up and running towards them as they both flew backwards in a huge explosion of light and color.

When the light finally faded, Naruto lay flat on his back to Sakura's left, while Sasuke lay to her right in a similar position. Both pairs of eyes were closed. Sakura looked down at her own hands. They were shaking. "After Kakashi-sensei...I only have enough chakra to heal one of them."