Lately when I look at Naruto I've been able to feel it...his sadness. And when he thinks of Sasuke there's a heat coming from his gut, and I know that's anger.

Even bathed in the warm light of the fading sun, he looked like a washed out part of the shadows that he had just surfaced from. Pallid face, black hair neatly cut and if one stepped close enough, the sharp tang of ink – he was shorter, what had been the sharp planes of his face gentler, and the circle of his eyes wider, giving him a look of youthful curiosity about him that she didn't remember – but when he tentatively raised his gaze to hers, there was no mistaking it.

His lips thinning in the way Sakura knew they did when he wanted to smile but wasn't sure if it was appropriate, Sai raised his hand in an uncertain greeting. When she only managed to stare back at him disbelievingly, he offered, "Long time before seeing," but still Sakura couldn't reply, unable to wrap her head around the sheer nonsensical nature of it all – seeing Sai here, now, younger- looking completely out of place in her pink, frilly bedroom.

At her stupefied silence, his eyes flickered away to the side, brows furrowing. "Is this a bad time?" Sai asked, and when he still received no response, his expression faltered, pursing his lips, his eyes slowly turning from tentative to lost-

And it was a look that was familiar, she thought, one that when she first saw it, had startled her with the extent of its raw, emotional confusion. It was one that had marred his face when Naruto had nearly lost an arm trying to push him out of the way of a kibakufuda, when she had been elbow-deep in Kakashi's blood during a mission while Naruto trembled by her side, and when Sasuke had finally entered the battlefield during the war and Team 7 had simultaneously, collectively froze – that it broke her out of her stupor and Sakura released a deep, ragged breath that she hadn't known she was holding.

Then she remembered his picture book, buried in a mass of intestines-

"Sai," she breathed, the word coming out somewhere between a choke and a whisper, and reaching out, she ghosted her hand over his sleeve – and finding it tangible, suppressed a sob and pulled him close – wrapping her arms around his back and hugging him. She could feel his surprised intake of breath, the rise of his arms as they hovered awkwardly around her before finally settling around her shoulders. "You remember me," Sakura said, her mind half-hazy with total confusion and an impossibly warm, soporific feeling threading through her body. Was it relief? Happiness? She didn't know. Wanting to see his face, she pulled back, holding him by the shoulders and unable to turn her eyes away, as if it might all just be a dream and the next moment, he would fade away. "And you're here. How? I don't- The jutsu- Did you return, too?"

Sakura was sure she sounded half-mad with her incoherent ramblings, but Sai only smiled at her slightly before moving away and slowly grasping the hem of his shirt, dark and faded, and flipping the fabric over his stomach. When she shot him a questioning look, he wordlessly placed a hand above his heart, and sent out a pulse of chakra – one that rippled across his chest and exploded in a web of black.

Sakura gaped.

Above his heart had materialised a single, thrumming twist of dark ink – and from it, branches and branches of sharp, black lines that extended out and snaked across his abdomen – like ridiculously complicated bindings, contrasting starkly with his pale skin and fading away when they reached waistband of his pants. The penmanship was immaculate, unmistakeable, and most of all, a perfect replica of the seal would span across her own chest if she willed for it to appear. "You-" Sakura swallowed, the words getting lost in her throat, "Tsunade-shishō?"

Sai nodded, letting the shirt fall back down, and his lips quirked upwards. "Your loyal assistant, I believe her words were."

"My loyal-"

Are you worried about being alone?

What- I won't be alone, shishō. I'll have Naruto and Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei and everyone by my sides again, won't I? It can't really get any much better than that.

Sakura. You know what I mean.

I-

"Why," Sakura began, then stopped and cleared her throat when her voice came out thick. "Why didn't she tell me? Why didn't you?"

She was fighting to maintain her composure, and she knew Sai could tell – because he placed a hand on her shoulder – supposed to be reassuring, she was sure, but one part of Sakura only really wanted to laugh when she found she didn't so much have to crane her head up anymore to meet his eyes-

"Because," Sai said, and somehow, oddly, Sakura thought his voice sounded just about the same, "if you knew that I was involved, you would not have chosen to perform the jutsu. Am I wrong? You would never have done it, if you knew you would be forcibly sending me back, too."

Her breath caught. "I-I thought, Sai, I saw your picture book-" she said desperately, her mind whirling, and Sai's eyes seemed to soften, a sad sort of adultness about him that clashed terribly with his boyish face, and she wondered, did she look like that, too?

"I'd lost it in battle," Sai said, slipping his hand off of her shoulder. "Not terribly practical to carry around, but I think that might be called sentimentality." Finally, he added. "So no, I was not dead. I was alive, I believe."

"You were alive," Sakura repeated, her gaze falling to her feet and she instinctively winced at the feeling of a heavy weight dropping into her stomach, cutting off her breath. Sai was alive, and I-

"Sakura," Sai said, with a new sense of urgency, and his hand was back on her arm. "I do not blame you. Neither do I think you shouldn't have done it. I don't know what you found that you decided to activate the jutsu – but the situation on my side was not ideal, either. I was with Yamato-senpai and Tenten, and they, too-" His grip tightened. "You made the right choice."

She slowly raised her head, and Sai was frowning at her, the line of his mouth flat and a familiar, stern slant about his dark eyes – one that he always got when he knew he said something that hit close to home, but Sakura kept pretending he was wrong anyway – What do you know about emotions, Sai?

Enough, apparently, Sakura thought, huffing out a small laugh and placing her hand over his. She had always hated Sai for his uncanny ability of being able to see through her,but this time it made her want bury her face in his shoulder and cry – because while she had come back in time and rejoiced at being able to see Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi all on the same side, on her side – she had still been secretly disappointed at the way they looked at her, which was, at its core, empty, vaguely curious and unfamiliar, like they didn't know her-

Which was expected, of course, but it still hurt, and seeing Sai again, with even with that annoying, piercing look on his face, felt like an anchor to her feet, grounding her in their shared past and supporting her from the crushing weight of the knowing the future and being responsible for making a better one, telling her that she wasn't as alone in this as much as she had thought she was-

Trying to keep her voice from choking, Sakura grinned at him. "Thanks, Sai," she said, blinking back her tears. "Despite everything, I'm glad you're with me."

"I do hope you are," Sai replied, and he also cracked a smile. "Who do you think carried you to the hospital when you fainted from the jutsu? You were heavy, Sakura."

"Sakura-chan! Can you pick that up for me?"

Sakura looked up exasperatedly as Naruto motioned towards a yet another dropped wooden beam, before abandoning the timber plank she had been sawing, and approaching it with a sigh. Sasuke seemed equally annoyed as he let go of his own saw, pushing his sweaty hair out of his face as he walked over towards her. He grabbed onto the other end of the shaft, and lifting it up, the two of them pushed it back towards Naruto, who was waiting with his hands held out near the top of the half-finished shed.

"Naruto, be careful with them, would you?" She called out at the same time Sasuke rolled his eyes.

Their first official D-rank mission, to build the roof of a farm machinery shed – she had expected it, but clearly Naruto and Sasuke hadn't, and when they had assembled this morning at the bridge for Kakashi to hand them a choice of either capturing a lady's lost cat, or reconstructing an outhouse, Naruto had jumped up indignantly while Sasuke had scowled disapprovingly beside her.

Are you telling me we passed that cruel, cruel test yesterday – just to catch a cat? Naruto had demanded, and Kakashi had only shrugged noncommittally – It's procedure, Naruto. All genin start out with a slew of D-ranks.

Obviously, they had selected the latter – which put them working mercilessly under the hot sun for longer than three hours now, endlessly moving heavy beams and planks while Kakashi lazed under the shade of a tree with his face buried in his novel.

"Can you possibly try not to drop each one?" Sasuke said as Naruto took the wood from them, the blond balancing precariously on the walls and looking like he was about to kick off a whole another row of timber that he had just nailed down.

Naruto made a face at him. "Why, you bastard- I'm doing my best-"

Sakura gave Sasuke a sideways look. "Do you want to swap places with him again? Or maybe I could go up there this time-"

"What- No, Sakura-chan, I can do this-" Naruto gritted out, stumbling under the heavy weight of the pole.

"Naruto, stop trying to lift it upright. Just put it on the top of the others, and then you can push it in place," Sakura instructed, concern furrowing her brows while Sasuke scoffed beside her and said, "Right, because you're obviously doing it so well now."

Following Sakura's advice and slotting the beam in its place, although horribly askew – Naruto turned away from the wood and looked down at Sasuke with a scowl. "Damn it, bastard, or maybe you could help instead of yapping away at me like that-"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow before smoothly leaping up onto the roof himself and pointedly pushing the beam straight with his foot. "Just in case you forgot already, I used to be up here. But you couldn't even lift the beams up to me without constantly dropping them on your feet-"

Turning away from the pair, Sakura sighed for what felt like the nth time, impatiently blowing a stray strand out of her eyes. It was blazing hot, she was dripping with sweat, her hair was sticking everywhere, the shed was nowhere close to finishing, and as Naruto and Sasuke degenerated into another fight, Sakura considered grabbing both of their heads and smashing them together in the hopes of shutting them up.

The bell test had definitely engraved in them the notion of teamwork, Sasuke automatically handing out their roles when they arrived at the scene to a pile of wood and a blueprint, and Naruto accepting them without complaint, although looking slightly unhappy with Sasuke taking the lead, but it was clear that it hadn't improved their personal relationship at all. They bickered at every chance they got, Sasuke never failing to miss an opportunity to make a scathing remark at each display of Naruto's stupidity, and Naruto never failing to respond with anything less than an indignant shout.

While Kakashi had taken the role of stopping the two from fighting in her past, perhaps due to her performance at the bell test, he seemed to have delegated the responsibility to her this time – only turning to her expectantly whenever the two looked close to ripping each other's throat out.

As if she had the mental capacity for that, Sakura thought to herself, already finding her head aching from their argument. She had enough things on her plate already – with the appearance of Sai had come relief and comfort of having someone to share her mission with whom she trusted, and was close to – but it also brought her a milieu of concerns that she had never even thought about before.

When Sakura had questioned Sai on what he planned to do now, hoping she could have him around for a while to discuss their course of action, he had shaken his head, saying, I have things to do, unfortunately.

Root? She had asked, and he had nodded, looking forlorn.

I am already a full-fledged member, and so I have missions to carry out. It will take me less time, since I have already completed them all before- He had seemed reluctant to say the next words, biting his lip. But I will still be busy. Most likely, it will be hard for me to come visit you often, or stay with you for extended lengths of time-

Although disappointed, she had nodded quickly. Sakura knew what darkness Root entailed of, having heard enough tales of death and assassinations and torture, and having seen Yamato sometimes staring vacantly into the air for hours at a time, or Sai, in the middle of unfinished paintings strewn about his apartment, the papers full of harsh slashes and his eyes wild.

It was one thing to have Sai repeat the experience on her volition. She didn't want to add onto what weight he must already be carrying. It's okay, I understand, she had said, and Sai looked at her apologetically. What will you do now, Sakura?

We leave on a mission to Wave soon. It'll last around a week. And then, the Chūnin Exams. We have to find a way to stop Orochimaru, or at least protect Sasuke from him.

Sai had nodded. I will aid you however I can. If I can. I'm not exactly supposed to be having external human contact, so you won't be able to call on me, but I will come see you when I can.

Then he had hesitated, his eyes flicking down onto the floor before rising up again to her face, his fingers twitching at his sides.

Sai? She had frowned, reaching out. What's wrong?

But Sai had flinched away, leaving her hand hovering in the air and her concern to grow. Sakura, I-I am on your side. My priority is to save Sasuke, as well. You have to know that.

Sai? I do know that. Why-

Taking a ragged breath, Sai hadn't been able to look her in the eyes as he spoke. But you also have to understand. If Sasuke stays in Team 7, then you won't need another member, and I- I won't be able to- You or Naruto won't-

It had hit her like a ton of bricks, and it was a thought that hadn't left her even long after Sai had leapt down from her window with a promise to see her soon and disappeared into the night. If Sasuke stays with us, Sakura thought, then Sai- She wouldn't give Sasuke up for anything, she knew that much, she would gladly give her life for him and more, but Sai had stuck with her through all sorts of thick and thin in her past, and she didn't want him to suffer alone, either-

"Sakura-chan!"

A shout bursting through her reverie, Sakura's head snapped up. On the roof, she saw Naruto, blue eyes full of panic, hand extended towards her desperately, pointing to the pool of shadow growing at her feet-

She briefly caught a glimpse of Sasuke leaping down from the roofs, his own dark eyes wide, mouth shaping her name, before she directly looked above her to see a giant square of timber hurtling towards her, damn it, Naruto, I knew you would kick it off-

She felt Kakashi immediately appear behind her with a small puff of air, stretching out his arms, no doubt preparing to hurl the wood away before it hit her head – but Sakura had already instinctively raised her hand – and she bit her lip as her fist hit the plank before Kakashi could catch it, instantly shattering it into pieces that hovered uncertainly in the air before cascading around them in a shower of debris.

The moment she had punched the wood she had seen Kakashi stiffen, while Sasuke skidded to a stop beside them, batting away at the flying wooden shards, and she wanted to bury her face in her hands with a groan. She knew Kakashi would eventually find out about her superhuman strength sooner or later – but she had wanted to go about it gradually; striking him with surprises so soon after one another wasn't exactly on her to-do list. If he hadn't been suspicious of her at her claim to be able to perform medical ninjutsu, then he surely would be now-

But before Kakashi could say anything, Naruto had jumped down from the wall and was sprinting madly towards her, frantically shouting her name. "Sakura-chan! Holy crap, Sakura-chan, I am so sorry- It was an accident- Are you okay? I mean, you smashed that, but I'm so sorry! I didn't mean-"

He was rudely cut off by Sasuke, who had moved to kick him in the back of his head, sending him sprawling onto the ground. "Ow, bastard!" Naruto yelled, struggling to rise and holding his head in his hands, "What was that f-"

"What was that for?" To her surprise, Sasuke sounded positively murderous. "Are you kidding me?"

It seemed to hit the mark, and Naruto promptly quietened, his face settling into an expression of guilt again. "I'm sorry, Sakura-chan. I really am. I didn't mean to, but the bastard was picking a fight, and I-"

Sakura was about to reassure him when Kakashi stepped in, his voice flinty. "It seems like you two have already forgotten about what happened yesterday," he said, and Naruto immediately recoiled, looking ashamed, while Sasuke turned away irritably, a broken piece of timber crunching underneath his sandal. "There's an extent to which you can indulge in childish fights. You're clearly letting it get in the way of the mission, not to mention you put Sakura in danger."

"I'm really sorry, Sakura-chan," Naruto said again, and she shook her head.

"It's fine, Naruto. I'm okay, so no harm done, right?"

Naruto started to smile at her until he caught sight of Sasuke's withering look, deflating glumly again.

Sakura frowned disapprovingly at Sasuke, but when he turned back towards her, he seemed to ignore her unspoken reprimand, asking her instead. "You broke the plank. How did you do it?"

She had expected the question, but still she hesitated, reluctant to reveal the answer, and Kakashi cut in smoothly beside her. "Actually, I would like to know that as well," he said, looking down at her pointedly. "That was beyond what would be constituted as acceptable raw strength."

Beside Naruto, whose shoulders were slumped, Sasuke was also eyeing her carefully – no doubt remembering the bell test when she had broken him out of the ground – and waiting for an explanation. Once, she had dreamt of receiving this kind of attention from her teammates, the looks of awe and open curiosity on their faces, but standing under her teammates' scrutiny, Sakura found that she wanted nothing less than to escape.

"Well," she said, rubbing at her neck. "It's something that I read about in the books – that if you focus chakra in a specific point of your body, and release it, then it can enhance your strength. Since I'm not that strong, I thought that was a pretty good idea and started training…" She trailed off, shooting Kakashi's a cautious glance, to see if he looked appeased. To her dismay, Kakashi had turned away and she was left staring up at the side of his face that was completed covered by his mask and hitai-ate.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Doesn't that take an immense amount of chakra control?" He asked, while Naruto appeared to be completely lost.

"Yes," Kakashi replied, but he still refused to look at her. "While I wouldn't say it's unprecedented, it's certainly impressive."

Sasuke opened his mouth again, no doubt to ask more questions, but Kakashi thankfully seemed to want to forgo any detailed discussion, ad cut him off with a raise of his hand. "All this admiring of Sakura's strength is great, but we really need to get back to that, don't you think?" He motioned towards the shed, which was again, lacking a roof – Naruto having decimated hours of their efforts. "You won't be able to go home until you finish, so you better stop fighting and hurry up."

Sakura inwardly exhaled in relief, while Sasuke appeared to reluctantly swallow back his words, and settled on glaring furiously at Naruto, who had already escaped towards the shed. "Get down!" Sasuke snarled at him. "I'm taking the roof."

When they finished building the shed, the sun was starting to set, and the three sat on the ground, panting while Kakashi nodded at their efforts and dismissed them, saying, "Same time. Tomorrow."

Naruto and Sasuke had barely spoken to one another during the whole afternoon, Naruto flitting around her guiltily while Sasuke acted like the two of the may not as well as exist when he wasn't giving them directions. Even now, on the ground between her teammates, Naruto on her one side, and Sasuke on the other – Sakura wasn't sure what to think. The two of them had never been on the best of terms in their genin days, bickering left and right all day – but this time, it felt different, the cold looks Sasuke gave Naruto more exasperated than challenging, and Naruto's reactions more genuinely embittered rather than simply annoyed.

As she thought back to when Naruto had inadvertently pushed off the plank of wood from the roof, the horrified expression on his face and Sasuke's frustrated one, gritting his teeth, knowing he wouldn't be able to reach her in time – she couldn't help but be reminded of her own uselessness in her past. How many times had she been the one to place them in danger? How many times had she fumbled with a kunai wrong, hadn't been quick enough to step in Naruto or Sasuke's undefended side, had waited for them to come save her?

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Naruto sneak a glance at her, then hurriedly turn away, and she felt an odd pang go through her heart. She had only wanted to establish a place between them, show them that she could be depended on, but she felt as though in her efforts, she had unintentionally instead pushed Naruto into her previous place of being the inferior one; making him feel as though he was the one who got in the way, the one who ruined everything. Perhaps she was over-analysing things – they hadn't even fought anyone yet, for God's sakes, and a small accident during a mission was practically nothing – but when it came to Naruto, she didn't want to take any risks.

Reaching out a hand, she placed it over Naruto's, and when his gaze snapped to hers uncertainly, she smiled. "Naruto," she said gently. "You haven't looked at me in the eyes once this afternoon. What's wrong?"

His fingers hesitantly curling against hers, he bit his lip. It was a look that pained her – in her memory, Naruto was blinding – first for his exuberance and recklessness, and then his bravery, the sense of camaraderie – never uncertainty or this, this- anxiety. "I put you in danger, Sakura-chan," he said.

"And I'm okay, Naruto." Balling her other hand into a fist, she raised it. "It was an accident, and I'm not made out of glass. Did you even see me break that huge piece of wood? I'll come out fine every time. So stop beating yourself over it." When he still looked unsure, Sakura let go of Naruto's hand and folded both of her hands on his face, pinching his cheeks with her fingers and stretching his whiskers. "We're shinobi, right, Naruto? Sometimes things happen; we get in danger, that's normal. What you should be doing now is going back to smiling and bouncing about, Naruto. Not sad, okay?"

Eyes squinting from pain, or from appreciation of her words, she didn't know – but Naruto nodded. "You're right, Sakura-chan. Sorry, I'll perk up," he grinned, jumping up. "On that note, want to go to Ichiraku's together? I'm starving."

Behind her, she heard Sasuke scoff derisively, and by the stiffening of Naruto's face, she was sure that he had, too – but to his credit, he didn't lash out at Sasuke, and only looked at her expectantly.

"Sorry, Naruto," she smiled apologetically. "I need to talk to Sasuke about something. Let's go tomorrow?"

By the falling of his expression, Naruto seemed to be disappointed, even slightly betrayed that Sakura had chosen Sasuke's company, but he nonetheless turned away with a bright wave. "Okay, then. See you tomorrow, Sakura-chan!"

When Naruto had disappeared out of view, Sakura released a breath, and feeling Sasuke's curiosity pulse behind her, she turned, fixing him with a cross look.

Stalking through the streets, Naruto frowned at himself.

He had been disappointed enough when he had come to the bridge this morning to find that he had been assigned to some stupid, uncool construction mission, thinking vehemently, I'm above this, where are the heroic missions? – but what did he know, he had managed to screw that up, too.

He remembered the moment vividly, when he had felt his foot press against the row of wood, felt it shift uneasily – he hadn't nailed it down right, and Sasuke's voice, annoyingly know-it-all came back to him – Nail it down properly, Dobe, alright? – but in his anger towards Sasuke, who had been looking at him like Naruto was lower than his shoe – he hadn't been able to catch himself as he lunged at him, pushing off from the plank of wood and sending it careening off the roof. He had instantly frozen, horrified, then scrambled to the edge, to see the enormity of it falling onto Sakura's head, while her eyes widened-

Sasuke had immediately leapt off the roof, darting towards her, and Kakashi-sensei had moved behind her before Naruto could even blink, and most of all, Sakura had blasted the wood apart with her bare fingers – all the while he stood paralysed on the shed, looking down helplessly.

Feeling his hands curl into fists, Naruto gritted his teeth.

Sakura had been nice to him, more than nice – smiled at him, had been the first to reach out to her, ask to be his friend, let's try our best, yeah? – but he hadn't managed to help her back once, stuffed up in the bell test, stuffed up trying to nail one goddamn piece of wood, and as if that wasn't enough he kept needing her to reassure him-

And Sasuke – he was a bastard, there was no doubt about it. He always looked at Naruto like he was somehow inferior, responding with insults and sarcasm even when Naruto tried to reach out to him. If Sasuke hadn't kept acting like such a bastard, hadn't kept picking a fight with him – then he wouldn't have lashed back out, either – he had started it, in the bell test, and this time, too, damn it-

Naruto sighed, stopping and running a hand over his face. What the hell, he didn't want to think about this – Kakashi-sensei had told them to all work together, hadn't he? And Sakura had tried to stop them from fighting so many times. They were a team, weren't they? Who was he really mad at?

A bowel of ramen or three would definitely help, Naruto thought, swerved left into Ichiraku's street – when his shoulder suddenly crashed against another guy's, and Naruto felt himself losing his balance, putting out his hand to soften his fall – when the boy grabbed his jumpsuit, leaving him suspended mid-air. Naruto was about to breathe out a word of thanks when he felt the boy lean in, and mutter close to his ear, "Be careful, dickless."

Immediately scowling at the insult, Naruto was about to rise up, and turn on the boy indignantly, when suddenly he felt the world distinctly tilt on its axis, the air rushing out of him – and Naruto heard himself – no, not himself, a deeper voice – You'll never replace Sasuke, you hear me? You will never fit in Team 7. Then, another, a low, flat voice, a brief image of pasty skin and blank eyes – Why are you still so attached to a traitor?

Then, a white-hot emotion of pure displeasure, one that sparked up his spine and spread to the tips of his fingers, and reeling in total disorientation, Naruto instinctively pushed against the boy, feeling his hand slam hard against his chest. Naruto felt the boy's grip on his clothes loosen as he let out a surprised, pained breath, and Naruto consequently went crashing against the ground.

The pain broke him out of the daze, somewhat, and as Naruto struggled up, his chest and palms where he hit the ground aching, the feeling of anger only a warm fog at the back of his mind – he turned, about to apologise, or more like, ask what the hell that was-

But there was no one behind him, and when Naruto scrambled up and found himself scanning the crowds for a thin boy with pale, pale skin and black hair, he couldn't explain why.

Sasuke only raised a questioning eyebrow at her look, which was obviously radiating disapproval. "What?"

"Nothing," Sakura snapped, then softened marginally. Sasuke didn't deserve her frustration, she knew that – however she might feel that their team dynamics had changed, Sakura knew she was the one and only one responsible for it. If she was completely honest, she still had faith in Naruto and Sasuke's potential to be friends, God knew they had been enough of that in the past – it was just difficult to imagine the two not developing at least some kind of comradeship. But it was still one of her aims to further strengthen Team 7's bonds – this time, enough for Sasuke to think that he could truly find a home in them – and such an obvious friction in the team did make her more than anxious.

She blew out a breath. "I thought you would want to talk to me," Sakura said. When Sasuke's eyebrow rose a little higher, she added, "but I do have something to say, now that you mention it." She sent him a pleading, exasperated look. "Can't you at least try to get along with Naruto?"

Sasuke scoffed, turning his gaze to his side, and if Sasuke had been anyone else but Sasuke, Sakura thought that he might have looked a little frustrated, if not disappointed. "No," he said, and at Sakura's answering scowl, continued, "You do know that you're babying him, don't you?"

Sakura's first instinct was, to say, Well, he is only a child – he's what, six, seven years younger than me, now? – but clearing the thought away, she said, "I'm just being a good friend."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Well, he's going to get complacent. Then he'll get even more useless than he is now."

"He's our teammate, Sasuke."

He stayed silent at that, no doubt remembering Kakashi's bell test, and his dark eyes rose to match her gaze evenly before he said, "Spar with me."

Sakura looked at him incredulously, taken off guard at the sudden change of topic. "What?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Your strength. I've never seen anything like it before. Not with bare hands, anyway."

"So you want to fight me?"

The line of his mouth was sharp as he replied, "That's what we do, isn't it?"

Sakura broke out in a laugh, feeling more astonished than she had ever been since she came back in time. In the past, Sasuke had never deigned to even reply to her, and now, a little show of strength, and Sasuke had not only suddenly grown talkative, but wanted to spar with her? A small wave of childish bitterness arose within her before she stamped it down with cold logic, but you were only chasing him back then, she thought. Obsessing over him, not caring about training nor teamwork. This is different. You decided to face him properly this time, right?

"Sure," she said, and Sasuke looked surprised at her easy agreement. "But I have a condition. I want us to train together, from now on."

It was Sasuke's turn to scowl, suspicion seeping into his posture as he sat up a little straighter before her.

"I don't have any ulterior motives, Sasuke," she said, rolling her eyes at him. "I just thought it would be a good idea. You were the best student in our class in the Academy, you're strong and smart, and most importantly you're my teammate now- and I want to improve. Is it so wrong for me to want to train with you? It doesn't have to be every day – just once in a few days or something."

The furrow between his brows didn't ease up, hell, Sakura knew years of fangirling wouldn't simply go evaporate in the air – and she had almost readied herself for a rejection, when Sasuke nodded. "If I find the spar worthwhile," he said, "I'll consider it."

Sakura felt a corner of her lips rise up into a challenging grin. "You're on, Sasuke."

The sky had begun to colour orange, but it would be a while until it become fully dark, and noting the time, Sasuke made a move to stand. "Let's get to it, then." He soon lost his balance, however, and nearly fell when Sakura quickly reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling him down onto the ground again. "What-" he started in annoyance, and Sakura cut him off.

"Not now, we're not." Then she pointed at his left leg, where training bandages were wound up to his calves, and if one looked closer, a dark, matted streak of blood marred the white fabric right over his ankle, which had been hidden out of view while he had been sitting. "Did you really think I wouldn't notice?"

He looked disconcerted at the fact she had been so attentive, but he soon frowned. "It's not-"

"Oh, yes, it is," she said, and swiping her hand swiftly at his leg, she effortlessly pulled him by the ankle towards her, adding a little chakra to her fingers when Sasuke resisted, clamping down on the urge to laugh when Sasuke made an expression that was beyond indignant, furious, even-

Young Sasuke sure had been awfully cute, Sakura thought, hadn't he?

"What the-" Sasuke growled, swatting futilely at her hand. "Sakura, stop it! What-"

When his foot was comfortably on her lap and Sasuke looked halfway between burying his face in his hands and running Sakura through with a kunai, she unravelled the layers and layers of bandages around his ankle, the movements of her fingers quick and efficient. Once she had peeled off all of the fabric, she scowled at the damage, tutting her tongue. The puncture wound wasn't large, but quite deep, and the skin around it was torn into roughly, the edges of the injury jagged – and Sakura vaguely remembered the serrated wooden chips that she had smashed the block of timber into hurtling towards Sasuke, who had only stopped a short distance from her in incredulity at her feat of strength.

Sitting up, Sasuke was glaring fiercely at her, but Sakura still had his ankle in a firm grasp, and she looked at him with a deep frown. "This is from this afternoon, isn't it? Why didn't you say anything?"

Sasuke scoffed, turning his face away. "And what? It's not a big deal, and we had to complete the mission."

"It may not be a big deal now," she said, lightly poking the wound, noting with approval that Sasuke had clearly wound his bandages firmly around his ankle to stop the bleeding, and Sasuke winced slightly. "but it is deep, and it could get infected if you leave it untreated for long. What were you going to do then?"

Sasuke didn't reply, looking sullen, and breathing out a sigh, Sakura lightly placed her palm over the injury, and pushed out healing chakra, inwardly sighing when it came seamlessly to her. Sasuke noticeably jumped when its green tendrils washed over his ankle – though healing chakra was meant to be soothing, she knew that the feeling of another person's chakra probing into one's body wasn't exactly an easy experience to get used to, especially if unwarned. "What are you doing?" Sasuke asked, his body tense.

"Healing you," she said succinctly, frowning. The wound was definitely much, much less than what she had healed in the past, but still she could feel her chakra draining out of her as she stitched the skin together. In her past she had been talented enough to almost overlook it, but healing another person's body took much more effort and concentration than healing her own, and though she had tested her limits the night before the bell tests, and had been reasonably satisfied – it seemed like she would need much more practice in medical ninjutsu before she could heal her teammates without the fear of using up too much chakra.

"Healing me?" Sasuke repeated incredulously, and leaned closer, trying to get a better look at her hands. "Medical-ninjutsu?" He frowned. "But we didn't learn anything like that at the Academy-"

Looking back up from the wound, she gave him a quick smile. "I learned from my aunt," she said, and feeling the wound close up fully underneath her hand, slapped his leg lightly before letting go. "There you go."

Sasuke looked at the smooth, flawless skin with no little amount of disbelief, his eyebrows high on his face, and Sakura cracked a smile to herself. No matter what age she was, it seemed, impressing Sasuke was most certainly one of the best feelings in the world.

"You said you used your chakra to enhance your strength. And now this…" He trailed off, eyes narrowing. "Where did you learn how to control your chakra? You never showed your abilities in the Academy."

The rest of his words, And you were never an impressive ninja, even in class, went unspoken, and Sakura looked at Sasuke with a strange feeling brewing in her chest. In her past, Sasuke had never even commented on her abilities, which had undoubtedly, enormously improved, but still paled terribly in comparison to himself or Naruto – and this felt like an acknowledgement that she had never received from the person she had wanted to receive from the most.

She smiled, and retracted it immediately when even she could tell that it only came out as a sad curve of her lips. "That's true," she said. "It's just…I guess I wanted to catch up to someone, so I've been training really hard recently." At her words, Sasuke furrowed his brows, but didn't say anything, and she took it as a silent invitation to continue. "There are some people that have been walking in front of me for a very, very long time now – and I've always wanted to catch up to them. But no matter hard I tried, I couldn't, and I'd decided to give up." She took a breath. "I suppose I've decided to re-kindle my efforts, now."

Sasuke remained motionless, his face reorganising itself into something that Sakura couldn't quite read – perhaps a flicker of surprise, familiarity – sadness? But it all quickly disappeared as he seemed to literally wash the emotions off of his being. "That still doesn't explain how quickly you improved," he pressed.

"Natural aptitude?" She joked, and laughed at the scowl that twisted his mouth. "It comes with a lot of training," she reassured him. "I've been slaving away behind the scenes!"

In Sakura's memories, her interactions with Sasuke had mostly consisted of her talking at him rather than with him, but still she had been more than appeased because she understood that what Sasuke didn't say in words he said through his actions. He hadn't graced her with friendly greetings or smiles, but he had reflexively jumped in front of her when an enemy appeared, and he had carried her away to safety, and he had asked her who hurt her during the Chūnin Exams. She had fallen in love with that very Sasuke who had been usually hidden behind his rough exterior which was marred with grief and coldness, who occasionally came out when Naruto said something exceptionally stupid and he had to crack a smile, or when he finally managed to scale a tree and he looked down at himself in satisfaction, or when he would scowl and complain when Naruto and Sakura dragged him to Ichiraku's, but he would still follow them grudgingly.

He had given her so many things, she mused. But she hadn't given anything in return except for her love. At one point in time, when she believed in a world where two people could lock eyes in a crowded room and instantly fall in love, she had honestly and truly thought that that would be enough. That Sasuke would one day wake up to see her love, see that she was there, and somehow reciprocate.

But now she realised that perhaps, what Sasuke had needed wasn't love, not exactly. She had never truly understood Sasuke's need for revenge, the vast hatred that simmered inside him, because she had a family, she had friends, and she had never, not yet, experienced any real loss – in a way, her love had been too small a pillar for him to rest on amidst the rising waves of his sadness.

This time, however, she wanted to rise up to be a wall both high and thick enough to meet and support the weight of his anger, and his sadness.

Standing up, she held out a hand towards Sasuke. "I'd say we have around an hour or so until it becomes completely dark. Do you want to try sparring now?"

Sasuke raised a lean, dark eyebrow. "Now? Didn't healing take a lot of chakra?"

Sakura scoffed, then grinned playfully. "I still have enough to take you on, Uchiha."

While Sakura smirked down at him with her hand outstretched, Sasuke vaguely wondered why it was that whenever he blinked, he would see an image of a longer-haired, dress-wearing Sakura frantically reaching out towards him with tear tracks running down her face, flickering and superimposed on the Sakura that was looking expectantly at him, like a cruel, on-and-off comparison.

Trying to shake it away, Sasuke stood up without taking her hand. "If you say so," he said. "Sakura."

Haruno Mebuki sat at the dining table, idly tapping a finger against the wooden surface as she watched the sky slowly begin to darken. Soon enough, in around an hour or so it would be time for dinner, and she wondered with a sigh if she would be spending it alone again today.

It had only been a couple of days since Sakura had become genin, making Mebuki immensely proud, but since then her daughter barely seemed to even show her face around at home anymore – waking up at outrageous times to leave for 'training' and coming back home just as late. Mebuki knew that being a shinobi was hard business – the level of risk that came with the job enough to blow the roof off of a house, and one needing to train almost every minute of their life to make sure that they would come back alive from the next mission.

Mebuki loved her village without doubt, loved the people, loved her Kage – but while she wanted to do all she could do for it, she had also always wanted to have a family, to have a husband and children and to settle down and live to see, perhaps, grandchildren of her own. It had been a great part of her reasons for deciding to opt out from becoming higher-level ninja even as her peers progressed in their ranks. She enjoyed her current life, carrying out not too terribly dangerous nor important missions, but helping around her village and making sure its dealings ran smoothly, and she had even been lucky enough to meet a man who shared her outlook.

Which was why Mebuki hadn't been terribly keen when Sakura had told her she wanted to be a kunoichi – and although in the beginnings of her education Sakura had appeared to put more value in this Sasuke-kun than her ninja abilities, it seemed now, she was taking being a shinobi much more seriously. Mebuki didn't want to stop her daughter from chasing her dreams – no matter how much it may clash with her own ideals, but with her husband on an escorting mission to Tea, Mebuki had been spending more time alone at her house than ever, and frankly, it made her a little lonely.

Not to mention Sakura had grown terribly reserved upon her graduation. Before, she would chatter around the house endlessly, but now she went upstairs to her room almost immediately upon returning home after a quick smile and brief conversation.

It wouldn't have hurt for her to tell her how her first day had been, Mebuki thought glumly. Or about her teammates, or how she felt about her missions as a genin. But Sakura had looked so tired lately, a lost, faraway look flitting through her eyes as if her mind was someplace else even if her body was here – and she hadn't exactly wanted to overwhelm her.

Pursing her lips, Mebuki sighed as she stood up, moving towards the kitchen to prepare dinner – even if Sakura didn't come home, she would not skip out on her duties as a mother – when a sharp knock echoed through the house, loud and measured on her front door.

"Coming!" She called out, and began making her way to the doorway – it wasn't Sakura or Kizashi, as they wouldn't knock – perhaps it was one of her friends?

But when she swung the door open, she came face-to-face with a tall, silver-haired man, donning a mask and wearing his hitai-ate in the way that only his eye was revealed, the flak vest and the perpetually tense way he held himself immediately identifying him to her as a jōnin. She spent a moment staring at him blankly, slightly put off by his unorthodox appearance and trying to garner a purpose for a high-ranking ninja like him to visit.

Before she could say anything, however, the man smiled. "Hello," he said, "My name is Hatake Kakashi."

A/N: I refuse to think of this chapter as a filler, even though it sure felt like one while I wrote it. Still, the plot is gradually, progressively thickening, and I want to spend plenty of time exploring the Team 7 dynamics now that Sakura's role has changed. Hopefully everything will become much more clearer and more exciting as the story progresses. On that note, it will be off to Waves in the next chapter!

Again, thank you very much for your support. Every review made me ecstatic and left me grinning ear-to-ear as I read them.

[Also, because your reviews have been so encouraging and a pleasure to read (as they always are), I thought it might be a good idea to respond to some particularly insightful ones/questions. An uninterested reader can skip right to the end and maybe leave your own comment.

Forest.N: That is true, isn't it? Sakura's role is quite minimal in canon, and while I wouldn't say that her role is purposeless – I do think that if some things had progressed differently, Sakura might have had a larger role. Still, canon story largely focuses on Naruto and Sasuke's relationship, so I suppose that's just how it turned out. I'm glad that you liked my interpreted version of Sakura. I think an important thing to consider is that in this setting, Sakura is mentally years older than the rest of her peers, so her insight should be much deeper, as well.

+ Thank you to Kae for a similar comment C:

TheSunSailor: There will definitely be Sakura and Sasuke pairing in this story, however, it will progress step by step, so I'm afraid they won't be jumping each other any time soon, or anything haha.

Limlora: It seems like you use English fantastically, so I honestly don't think you have to worry about misunderstanding anything. Last chapter was supposed to leave it ambiguous as to why Kakashi saw and older Sakura. But judging from this chapter, it doesn't seem to be only Kakashi, does it?

Alexxya: Haha, you totally caught me in that one. I'd taken care to make sure that Naruto says "Sakura-chan" when talking to her, but even I didn't realise that in one conversation Naruto had with Sasuke, he only called her "Sakura"!

Also, thank you to those who said they enjoyed the variation of the bell tests – Elguardiuz, and many others who also reviewed C:]

Please leave your thoughts below!