AN:/Wo ho, Two updates in a roll baby! Yeah I did an update yesterday and one today. I don't think I'll be ab;e to put one out tomorow though. But...who knows I just might take over the world with my gummy bear army. But yeah Sasuke is in this chapter as well as Gaara! I like how they both came out in this chapter and can't wait till these boys show up again.

Disclaimer:/Vesper chan dose not in any way own Naruto and was unable to tell you this herself due to grief She asks you be really good people and ease her pain with reviews and/or flame if you want. Please enjoy this chapter.

Chapter Four Discoveries

X

Lost in a silent movie
Moths move
No words are spoken
We've both go something to say
Sound's been broken

X

Sakura looked down at her hands as they curled themselves into fists filled with anger. Two seats down from her sat the man that was responsible for so many wounds inflicted upon her friends, for the deaths of maybe hundreds, the sorrow of many. Her former teammate, friend, and childhood crush now enemy and adversary was in the same restaurant as her.

Keeping a cool head she kept her chakra masked and thanked God she had it up when the two walked in. I didn't look like they knew who she was or that she was even a ninja, as long as they didn't know she'd be okay.

"Here are your Odango miss." The same waiter from before stated placing the plate of sweet dumplings down in front of her.

"Thank you." She calmly thanked with a smile. The waiter blushed slightly before quickly dashing into the back. "Weird." she quietly mumbled taking a bite out of her dumplings.

Moment later a rustling sound to her left made her ears perk as she glanced in that direction only to meet with silver.

"Hi there my name is Kabuto, it's a pleasure to meet you." He greeted in a pleasant tone, a little too pleasant for her liking. She heard Sasuke grunt in displeasure at Kabuto giving his name away so freely.

"Hello." She stiffly replied before taking another sip of her water hoping he would get the message and back off.

"And what would your name be? A girl as lovely as yourself must have a lovely name." Kabuto replied smiling.

Sakura narrowed her eyes slightly but kept her hands from ringing his neck. "My name is of very little importance. Please forgive me but I don't feel like giving out that information. I ask you to respect my privacy and not ask that."

"That's perfectly acceptable. I'm sorry for my rather blunt approach but I couldn't help but introduce myself when I saw you sitting there all by yourself. So, why are you by yourself or are you waiting for someone?"

Sakura groaned in her head as Kabuto continued to interrogated her. Sure, he didn't mean to but that just made it worse. "No, I'm not waiting for anyone. I like being by myself that's why I'm alone." she calmly replied as the urge to kill the silver haired oto nin rose higher and higher.

Finishing off her dumplings she dropped her money on the counter nodding towards the waiter, who noticed the money, and stood up to leave.

"Well Kabuto san I hope you and your friend have a good day as for me I must be on my way. Farwell you two I hope our paths cross once again in the future." With that said Sakura exited the restaurant leaving her former teammate and the sound ninja alone.

"Boy, how depressing I didn't even get her name." Kabuto sulked as his food came.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes as his food was set before him as well, after a while his voice broke the silence. "I could tell you her name."

"Hmm, Sasuke sama how do you know her name?"

Sasuke didn't answer his question but simply closed his eyes letting a short silence take over the two. "…Her name is Sakura."

"Sakura? Wasn't that the name of your former teammate back in Konohagakure? Do you really think she's the same girl?"

"Hurry up and finish your food we'll need to catch up to her in case she's with some other leaf ninja." Sasuke coldly replied ignoring Kabuto's questions and turning to his food.

Kabuto nodded suddenly turning serious before turning to his food and scoffing it down.

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Sakura flicked one of her shoulder length locks out of her line of vision and continued down the road at a leisurely pace. Her hood feel down a few inches covering her face completely in shadow though not enough to ruin her sight.

She planned on checking into a hotel for the night and freshen up a bit before heading out again. Not that she needed sleep but a long warm shower and a comfy bed to rest in were at this point too tempting.

She stopping in the middle of the street and looked up at the sky. It wasn't that late in the day but she wanted to rest up now and be prepared by nightfall when she would start traveling again. She wanted to put as much distance between herself and her old village as possible now more than ever.

"First thing first, I'm not going anywhere until I'm ready. I already have a week's worth of distance between me and them so it's not like I need to hurry." She mused out loud as she continued to stroll down the semi crowed streets that were steadily loosing it's citizens.

"Need to hurry from what?" Someone called from behind her making her stop dead in her tracks at the sound of the voice. An icy fist closed around her stilled heart as she bit back a gasp Turning slightly she let her eyes fall on two figures standing behind her. "...It's been a while hasn't it Sakura."

"Yes it has been Uchiha." She greeted coldly turning fully around to face the two, her crystal emerald eyes narrowing dangerously.

In front of her she saw Sasuke standing next to Kabuto, his hand resting in the hilt of his sword in a casual manner. The devious smirk on his face only made her glare increase. How could he have known it was her? She masked her chakra perfectly and hid all her facial feathers from his view. The only thing he had that could possibly link her to the same girl she had been years ago was her voice and even that had changed slightly.

Bringing her attention back to the present moment she set her hard gaze on the ex leaf ninja now traitor.

"No, no, no Sakura chan. Don't look at me like that, it ruins your pretty face." He teased infuriating her. What was with the Sakura chan and the pretty face comment. This was Uchiha Sasuke standing in front of her for Pocky's sake, human ice cube and emo king of all the hidden villages. Why was he acting like this with the teasing manner and confusing words?

"What do you want with me Sasuke?" She coldly asked annoyed that he had seen through her disguise.

"Do I really need an excuse to chat with my previous Konohagakure teammate?" He asked mockingly tiling his head to the side.

"Yes." She spat angrily, her cold emerald eyes flashing with hints of midnight black. She could feel her sharp canines almost grow with the urge to rip his head off. She felt herself grow defensive since she was outnumbered, and considering it was Sasuke, outmatched.

Sasuke sighed flicking a navy blue lock out oh his eyes in a relaxed manner knowing that he was the one in control outnumbering and outmatching the small petal haired girl. "Sakura I'm hurt. Can't we all just get along for once and have a nice quite chat?"

"No." Was her sharp reply once again.

Sasuke frowned seeing that she wasn't in the mood for talking and sighed slightly before his trademark smirk found it's way back to his face. "Fine if you don't want to talk I guess we could do this the hard way." He stated slowly using his thumb to push out the hilt of his sword out a few inches to get the point across. "Though I can not guarantee you the safety of all these innocent people that look too much like walking targets."

Sakura breathed in sharply knowing exactly what he meant. But then again what do you expect from an S class criminal who has already killed many before and most likely wouldn't hesitate to do so again to get what he wanted.

Growling softly she cursed herself for not disguising herself better and attracting his attention. "Fine, I'll talk with you but not here it's too crowded for my liking."

Sasuke nodded, his smirk growing as he released the hilt of his sword and pointed to some hills outside the city gates. "That's fine, we can talk there."

Sakura turned her head slightly letting her eyes dart over to the hills before flashing back to the ex leaf avenger, making certain he hadn't tried anything. "That'll do." She murmured jumping off.

Sasuke smirked as he watched the short haired girl jump off in the direction he had picked out. Even though it had changed over the years he would have recognized her voice anywhere and that had been the main flaw in her disguise. He almost didn't believe it when he first saw her sitting a few seats down conversing with Kabuto but that soothingly, tight tingling feeling he got deep down in his gut whenever he was around her couldn't be mistaken.

It was Sakura, the same small fragile Sakura he had loved to protect over the years. He missed that about his current occupation: vessel in waiting, he wasn't there to protect her like he once had.

He scowled remembering the people he left her with. The people that were doing his job as if it were their own. The people that protected her like he used to, they didn't know how good they had it the lucky dogs.

Nodding to Kabuto the two departed from their current spots and hastily followed the brown blur that seemed to bee riding the wind as it glided across the terrain. He truly did miss her and at this moment he could hardly be happier.

Sakura glided to a stop in the middle of the grassy field and turned to stare at the Uchiha that had landed a few feet away. "Okay we're here now what do you want to know?" Sakura asked in a sour tone.

Sasuke smirked seeing her sour expression before speaking. "Nothing much, I just want to know where the rest of your team is and why you are here?"

Sakura blinked slowly as if processing his words before snickering softly to herself. Sasuke frown slightly wondering why she would laugh at something like this. He though for sure she would shoot some sassy reply back at his face about how she would never tell him in a million years. "I fail to see what so funny Sakura."

Sakura ceased her soft laughter and straightened her leaning posture before replying. "What's so funny is that you think I'm here on a mission with a team."

"So, what's that suppose to mean?"

Sakura sighed and pulled her hood back fully letting her wild untame hair whip freely in the breeze void of any headband. "It mean that I am no longer with Konohagakure, Sasuke. I left a long time ago all by myself. If there were any leaf ninja here I wouldn't be."

Sasuke stared at her for a moment in almost disbelief seeing her without her headband. "So, you're not with Konohagakure?" He asked hesitantly still in disbelief.

Sakura merely shook her head.

Sasuke instantly lightened up. "That's great, you could come with me to Sound and we could both be missing nins together !" He exclaimed resembling a child that just received a toy on Christmas day.

Sakura scoffed at that word and looked away. "No, I would never fully turn my back on the Leaf. I just couldn't stand it there anymore so I left for a while. I'm not a missing nin Sasuke and I'm not coming with you to sound."

Sasuke looked a little hurt as his hopes were soon dashed but hid his emotions quickly and moved on to the next question. "Why did you leave?"

Sakura looked back at him and sighed deciding it wouldn't hurt to answer his question. "I was underestimated and over protected. Everyone doubted me on my abilities and I was held back from things I knew I could do because they still thought I needed protection. The denied me missions they knew I could handle and refused to train me hard enough for fear of hurting me."

She bent her head down once more as her cherry pink locks fell over her eyes covering them in shadow. "They called me weak and a deadweight behind my back when they didn't even know what I could do."

Sasuke could hear the pain in her voice and remembered all the times on missions when he was fighting stronger enemies, they called him weak and useless and it hurt. But they were his enemies and it was trash talk to distract him, still it hurt. He couldn't imagine his closest friends saying that he was weak.

His eyes narrowed remembering the pain in her voice when she told him, the pain caused by them. She was hurting on the inside because of them and their reckless actions, how dare they say anything hurtful about his dear cherry blossom.

Sakura then looked up as pulled her hood back over her face. "I plan on leaving tomorrow and need to rest so if you'll excuse me I must truly leave this time."

"Wait, aren't you going to try and stop us?" Kabuto asked confused as to why she was leaving so quietly.

Sakura turned around to glance at him for a brief moment before resuming her course down towards the village. "No as I said before I am no longer with Konohagakure, therefore I see no need to do anything."

Sasuke smirked once again as his anger for her friends left him. "Maybe we'll meet again one day, Sakura. I hope it will be under circumstances as good as these."

Sakura did not turn to face him but he could hear her chuckle softly. "As much as I would desire that I highly doubt it, still there is always hope. Goodbye Uchiha Sasuke, Kabuto san I was nice speaking with you." And with a wave of her hand she was gone in a funnel of cherry blossoms.

Sasuke sighed resting his arm on the hilt of his sword and looked up at the clouds lazily crawling across the sky. "Yes Sakura chan, there is always hope." With those words the two sound ninja were too gone, only this tie in a puff of smoke most like returning to team hebi.

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Back at Konoha A pair of sandal clad feet moved swiftly approaching the gates. The guards looked up and smiled letting the man pass without a word, he was after all a regular visitor. He hadn't been to the hidden leaf in a while and so he felt like he owed them a visit.

Gaara ran a hand through his messy crimson locks as he continued to pace down the village's streets. He was now Kazekage and was very proud of the title. And one of the responsibilities of that title was serving X amount of mission in an allied village. Naturally he excepted all his missions from Konohagakure having friends there. He hand a short weekend to spend since the council was covering for him for the next few days and decided to come and visit Naruto and Sakura.

His eyes narrowed remembering the real reason he was there. That horrible gut feeling in the pit of his stomach that wouldn't go away was driving him crazy and he had to make sure everything was okay with his friends before he could truly relax.

Out of habit he let his feet carry him wherever they wanted him to go and found himself outside Sakura's apartment complex. Traveling down the hallway he reached the basement floor where her room was located. His eyes darted to her door and widened when he saw that it was forced open. Breaking into a run, he burst into her apartment and froze in place.

He saw the overturned couch the broken chairs and the shattered lamps and knew something had happened here. His head snapped towards the crater in the floor with old dried blood, now black with age lining the inside.

He bent down to examine it and frowned. It was her blood, her blood was shed and on the ground where it shouldn't be.

He growled standing up and was turning around when he stopped dead in his tracks. Fear covered his eyes as he stared at the large 'DEAD WEIGHT' sign written in black dried blood. Her blood.

He didn't know if it was anger at everyone for letting this happen to her or fear for what happened to her but one of the two filled his body forcing him out the door down the street towards the Hokage tower where he could Feel Naruto's chakra. He trusted him with her and look what happened. The force that drove him urged him on faster not bothering to use his sand to transport him there.

Naruto, Kakashi and Sai were all standing in front of the Hokage's desk as they waited for her to hand over their mission when a loud rumbling sound echoed following the sound of a door being slammed open. The sound of pounding feet soon followed as the door to the room practically exploded. The group of Leaf villagers turned to see an angry Kazekage panting in the doorway as his sand shifted around him angrily. His normally calm sea foam eyes were now wild and frantic as he gazed over the room.

"Where…is…she?" He growled in between breaths.

Tsunade stood up and bowed slightly. "Kazekage san I'm sorry for what your feeling now but-"

"Where is she?" He growled again this time cutting her off. Tsunade gulped taking a step back feeling slightly intimidated. No, slightly was way behind her she was feeling very intimidated right now.

Thankfully Naruto spoke up saving Tsunade from certain death at the hands of one of Sakura's many over protective friends. "She left."

Gaara turned to him, his anger melting into fear as an anguished expression took hold of his feathers. "What? What are you saying?"

"He's saying she left Kazekage sama." Kakashi interrupted in a calm tone. "I'm judging by your expression that you saw her room. She left that for us to show how angry she was most likely before leaving.

"Angry? Why would she be angry enough to leave her village?" He asked glaring at them knowing they had something to do with her departure.

"She left us a note if you want to read it. It might explain some things for you." Sai added reaching over Tsunade's dusk and grabbing the white piece of paper before handing it to the angry sand ruler.

Gaara quickly grabbed the piece of parchment and let his eyes scan over the letter. A grow escaped his throat a few times sending shivers down their spines from fear. After finishing the note he looked up at the two and glared sharply. "What did you do?" He snarled as his rage returned once more.

"What do you mean what did we do?" Sai calmly asked, his face never changing.

"Being unwanted and unneeded, where did that come from?"

"Kazekage san in all honesty we're not entirely sure about anything concerning this matter. But what we believe was that she overheard something that was said and took it the wrong way, feeling unwanted and unneeded she ran away." Tsunade explained slowly and carefully, hoping not to anger the young sand ruler any further.

"What did she overhear?" He asked calming down a bit, though still retaining his trademark death glare.

The blond woman sighed pinching the bridge of her nose before continuing. "Sakura's team was sent on an S rank infiltration mission to a small detached training compound a little over a week ago. I had originally assigned her a spot on the team naturally but…" Here she paused knowing she was condemning the kunoichi-less team to Gaara's wrath. "But her team… didn't want her going with them and voted her off the squad for this mission and replaced her with Shizune, my other apprentice. She must have heard what they said about her inadequate abilities and decided to leave."

Gaara slowly turned his head towards team 7 and intensified his glare until the smallest hint of hazel could be detected in his cold stare. Kakashi and Sai were probably the most scared knowing he was close friends with Naruto and wouldn't kill him but for them there was no guarantee. "What did you say?" He asked slowly his voice dripping with venom and the possible threat of death.

Naruto sighed and stepped forward a bit shielding his teammates. "Gaara, I know you and Sakura were really good friends and you're mad that she left but she was our friend too and we only said what we did because we didn't want her getting hurt on the mission. It was best for everyone if she just stayed back and stuck to the missions where she wouldn't get hurt."

Gaara closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. Naruto… do you really have so little faith in your friends?" He asked opening his eyes again.

"Gaara this is Sakura chan we're talking about! What if she were to get hurt bad or injured, what if we couldn't help her what if…" Naruto left the rest of his sentence unfinished unable to even think about her being killed on a mission with them there. "...What if I can't protect her."

"You underestimate her if you think she can't handle herself like that. Do you really think she's so weak that she can't hold her own in a fight without you there to protect her. Don't you remember back in Suna when she fought Sasori? True, Chiyo chan was with her but being as old as she was she couldn't do all that much physically leaving most of the work to Sakura. She came out alive and well then and she has only grown stronger since then. She can easily handle a S rank infiltration mission."

Naruto lowered his head and looked away feeling as though someone just slapped him across the face. It was true what Gaara said, Sakura could do more than just hold her own in a battle and they all knew that.

The truth was that he was just acting selfishly wanting to shelter and protect the emerald eyed kunoichi from harm as if she were a fragile china doll. She looked like one with her pale porcelain colored skin and perfectly almond shaped green eyes, her delicate smile and petal pink hair. She was beautiful just like a doll and so the blue eyed ninja felt the urge to care for her as if she were one. If something were to ever happen to her…he didn't know what he'd do with himself. He simply would not be able to live with himself anymore. She was his reason for life.

"Whatever the reason is, she left and we can't change that at the current moment by bickering like children over a broken toy." Tsunade interrupted seeing the dejected look on Naruto's face. She sighed as she settled herself back down into her chair resting the back of her hands under her chin.

"What do you suggest we do then Tsunade san?" Kakashi asked steeping out from behind Naruto.

The hazel eyed leaf ruler sighed deeply and closed her eyes before replying. "If you're referring to Sakura's departure then…nothing."

"What do you mean nothing?" Sai almost snapped in an angry manner.

"I meant what I said and I said 'nothing'. I trust Sakura fully and as she has stated in her letter she has not abandoned Konoha but has simply taken an extensive vacation of a sorts to train. She said she's coming back and I fully believe her on this, so until then there will be no ANBU squads going out to search for her. Am I understood?"

"...Hai." The group of males excluding Gaara stated in a semi grumpy tone. The Hokage sent Gaara a threatening glare and he grudgingly added his voice to the other's with a glare of his own. Tsunade simply smiled at his response, despite the reluctant tone and death glare at the end.

"Good, now as for our dear fellow kunoichi, from now on Sakura chan is on an A ranked training mission until further notice."

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Sakura sneezed entering her room and frowned.

"I must be coming down with something." She thought.

Ta da! (Smoke and confettie blow in to the air)

I made it long so you wouldn't come after me wanting to kill me with pitchforks and torches due to the slow updateing. I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible but I will be away for another three to four days and will be unable to get to a computer with internet in that time. So I'm very sorry about that. Still I hope you liked this chapter and don't hate me too much.

Please remember to review! Reviewing makes me update faster. Yeah I know this was fast for me. Flame me if you want. I don't mind.

ja ne