Chapter Three

The wind whipped my hair furiously across my face as I leapt though the trees. 'At last, I am returning home.' 'Now don't get all sappy on me. Cha!' 'I wonder if anything has changed.' 'Are you even listening to me?' 'Are Naruto, Sasuke and the others all the same, or have they changed too?' 'HELLO!?!' 'OW! You just gave me the queen of all headaches!' 'Try listening to me in future then.' 'Fine. What did you want to say?' 'Um, I can't remember. Hehe.' 'If you weren't inside my head…' 'Hey! What's that supposed to mean?' 'Oh, nothing.'

I stopped on a branch with a perfect view of the Konoha gates. A moment of hesitation swept over me. 'What are you waiting for? Go in!' 'I will, it's just that… if I don't go in, I could get stronger, never return. I could become a missing-nin and-' 'DON'T YOU DARE!' 'What, why not?' 'You wouldn't shut up about how much you missed everyone in Konoha for the last four years and I couldn't put up with that for the rest of my life! If you don't go in though those gates right now, I will never speak to you again!' I turned on my heals and was prepared to tree hop all the way to sound, just to shut her up when; 'No! I was just kidding! If you leave then I won't ever shut up! Ever! Shannaro!' I turned back around and leapt from the tree. I was standing right in front of the gates and I could hear the guards talking.

"That's Haruno, Sakura!" One of them said.

"Are you sure?" Asked another.

"Who else has pink hair?" Replied voice number one.

"Oh, right." Voice number two said dumbly and with that, they opened the gates.

Konoha hasn't changed one bit. I smiled to myself as I heard the voice of someone that, only five minuets ago, I was going to leave forever.

"FOREHEAD GIRL!!!!" She screamed and lunged herself at me. We fell to the floor in a heap and I heard a muffled voice saying something that sounded suspiciously like 'Troublesome'. I got up and came face to chin, as he was somewhat taller than me, with the lazy Genius himself. Another sound made it's was to my ear that sounded like munching.

"Hey Ino-pig, Shikamaru-san, Choji-san. I missed you."

"Hey Sakura-san." The aforementioned boys said simultaneously.

"What took you so long forehead? It's been… like… forever!"

"Only four year pig."

"Four years that could have been spent, oh I don't know, shopping?"

"Oh yeah! Speaking of shopping. Look what I got for you Ino-pig!" I said while getting out, and unshrinking, a box wrapped in purple and silver wrapping paper that was tied at the top with a pink bow. Ino grabbed the gift from me and viciously attacked the paper, bow and box before she got down to the shirt.

"I LOVE IT FOREHEAD GIRL!" Ino yelled before hugging the shirt to her chest and grinning like there was no tomorrow.

"I got something for you guys too." I said to the boys standing as far away from Ino, the one-girl-screaming-and-yelling-contest, as possible without her noticing. The boys looked at me to see two more gifts in my hands, which I had returned to their normal size during Ino's outburst.

I handed Choji his gift first and then gave Shikamaru his. They opened them a lot neater than Ino did, even Choji, and scanned their respective presents. Choji grinned like a mad man and started to look though his book before muttering his thanks, as well as some evil plan for making his new found recipes take over the world, and then ran off to cook his new food minions. Ino recovered from her fit about how cute the kitten on the front of her t-shirt was and ran after Choji, yelling about how they had a mission to go on and he couldn't go home until it was complete.

Shikamaru looked at his gift once more and smiled.

"You know what Sakura-san. This gift isn't troublesome at all. Thank you." He said turning to face the direction that Ino and Choji had run, "Well I'd better go and get them. So troublesome. Bye Sakura-san."

"Bye Shikamaru-san." I replied and began to walk towards the bridge. I was passing Ichiruka's Raman stand when a flash of green passed me and stopped in front of me, smiling and standing in his infamous 'Good-guy-Pose'.

"Sakura-san! It is so good to see that the beautiful princess of springtime youth has returned to our own youthful village!" Lee declared, not once stopping his pose.

"Lee! Stop pestering Sakura-chan!" Tenten said once she reached where we were standing, Neji slowly walking behind her.

'Three'…'Two'…'One'

"SAKURA-CHAN!"

"Hi Tenten-chan, Lee-san, Neji-san."

"Good to see you again Sakura-san." Neji said sincerely. 'He said more than one word to me!' 'Shannaro!'

"It's good to see you to Neji-san. I have missed you all so much! Guess what I bought for you!"

"No I hate guessing! Just gimme!" Said Tenten impatiently.

"Fine, Fine. Here." I said throwing them their gifts that were now the normal size.

Tenten screamed her thanks at me before sprinting to the training ground to test her new weapons. Lee thanked me in a way that used to word 'Youth' seventeen times! He too ran, but he ran home to read his new book, and not to the training grounds like his female team mate had only moments ago. Neji apparently liked his gift because, as soon as he took a proper look at it, he attached it to his belt and followed Tenten to the training grounds with a small, quiet, thank you.

I had almost made it to the bridge when I was tackled by a puppy. I fell to the ground, face up, with Akamaru sitting on my stomach, barking and wagging his tail.

"Akamaru! What have I told you about…Sakura! You're back!" 'Wow, great detective skills Kiba' I thought to myself sarcastically.

"S-Sakura-chan? I-is that really y-you?" Asked the shy Hyuuga heiress from behind the quiet bug-nin of team 8, who was equally curious.

"Yep, it's me. Good to see you all again!" I said, standing up and brushing off my black outfit. It was pointless to do so, as not three seconds after saying that was I one again, face up on the floor. This time, however, it was not the dog that tackled me. No, it was detective dog boy, grinning like a madman and hugging me around the shoulders before getting up and dusting off his own clothes. He offered me his hand, which I took, and helped me up while muttering and apology.

"That's okay Kiba. I got presents for all of you by the way." I said handing each of them a still shrunk gift before cancelling to jutsu and returning them to normal size. Kiba was grinning again as soon as he opened the gift.

"Thanks Sakura! Come on Akamaru, let's go to the park! Bye guys!" He said running in the direction of the park.

"Bye Kiba!" I yelled at him. Shino just smirked and changed his usual black circle shades for the oval bluish/black ones I got for him before I could even get a small peak at his eyes.

"Thank you Sakura-san."

"You're welcome Shino-san." With that he walked off, leaving Hinata and I in the middle of the street.

"O-oh, w-wow Sakura-chan! I lo-love it!" She said, opening her parasol and swinging it over her shoulder. "I have to got meet my f-father for training. G-good bye Sakura-chan and th-thank you for the l-lovely gift."

"Bye Hinata-chan. See you later!" She waved a little and walked in the direction of her estate. 'Do they not know I'm an assassin or do they just not care?' 'Don't ask me. Cha!'

I walked over to the bridge and leant on one of the railings, enjoying the peace and quiet. My eyes were closed but I felt a familiar chakra closing in fast. When I opened my eyes I was greeted by the tell-tale orange of my best friend's jacket.

"Saaaakuuuuraaaaa-chaaaaaaan!" Naruto yelled holding my hostage in a huge bone-crushing hug.

"H-hello Naruto. C-can you l-let go? I n-need to b-breath!" I manage to choke out and he let me go, smiling sheepishly and rubbing the back of his head.

"Sorry Sakura-chan."

"No problem Naruto."

"I got you a gift!" We said at the same time, each holding a box, wrapped beautifully in their hand. We smiled at each other and exchanged boxes.

I opened my present and stared in awe at the beautiful bracelet in the box. It was a silver chain with rose quartz gems hanging off of it in the shape of cherry Blossoms. I put it on my wrist and smiled at Naruto, muttering a thank you.

He seemed to like his gift as well because, as soon as he opened the box, the necklace was around his neck before I could blink. He hugged me again, but this time not quite as strong, and mumbled a thank you in my ear.

We waited, talking about random stuff we saw on our travels, and I danced around the topic of the newest and most powerful assassin quite well whenever Naruto brought it up. He said that he thought she was cool and strong and I felt internally flattered.

After about twenty minuets of chit-chat, Sasuke showed up. He hadn't changed at all. He had gotten stronger, but his appearance remained the same, just like Naruto's had. Unlike them, I hade turned in my bright red dress for black clothing, so I could do my job properly.

I gave Sasuke my gift to him, as did Naruto, and he said his thanks. He does like them both. I know he does. Naruto got him a book called 'The Teme's Guide to Being Nice' which we all found rather funny. He got Naruto a kunai, with a pattern on the handle that strangely resembled ramen and my gift from him was a silver ring, which a dazzling blue sapphire on it in the shape of a small rose and 'Sakura' engraved on the back.

A few moments later our Sensei 'Poofed' in, five minuets early!

"Wow Sensei! You early!" Naruto said with amazement obvious in his voice.

"Yeah! I guess miracles do happen." I added playfully.

"Haha. Very funny." Said Kakashi in a bored tone. "Come with me. The Hokage wishes to see how you have progressed."

As they walked to the Hokage's office they had no clue of the dark figure lurking in the shadow. "Soon, the strongest of team 7 will belong to us. Not long now." It said and slid away into the darkness.