Chapter 3

As dawn approached, Sakura walked home by herself. Almost to her house, she suddenly found herself stopping. Since Sakura just couldn't shake the feeling of seeing Sasuke's face before, Despite her telling him she didn't remember him at all.

Quickly breaking her concentration, Sakura felt the sudden sensation of vomit come up; almost out of nowhere.
covering her mouth, Sakura waited for the awful feeling to go away. Once it subsided Sakura wiped her hand as she looked around.

"Ugh… What was that just now?" she asked herself, as she rested her hand back on her chest. Feeling terrible; due to her body feeling weaker. Sakura hurriedly made her way home; only to find her mother up waiting for her.

"Sakura, I was getting worried. I made you something else for dinner; its cold now but I can heat it up for you." She said while she hurried to the kitchen.

Sakura not saying a word, sluggishly went straight upstairs. Once in her room, she quickly took off her jewelry and boots; throwing them on the ground before flopping down on her bed.

"Sakura? Aren't you hungry?" her mother asked, while peaking in the cracked door. "Go away" Sakura shouted, as she tossed around in her bed.

Hearing this Sakura's mother hesitantly shut the door, deciding to let her rest up. Heading back downstairs, her mother grabbed a little notebook she had sitting on the kitchen table. She quickly jotted down some notes before, throwing away the food she had warmed up for Sakura.

The next day with the morning gone, and evening approaching, Sakura's mother became more worried about her daughter; since this time she had slept in for almost half the day.

"Sakura?" she said while lightly knocking on her door. "Sakura, are you sick?" She continued to ask while now opening the door.

"I'm fine...Don't come in so freely!" Sakura said sleepily, as she found the nearest object, and threw it at the door.
Seeing this Sakura's mother shut the door in response to avoid the flying object.

Before she could say anything else, the door bell rang; pulling away her attention. Opening the door, she was greeted by a welcome face."Hokage-sama, hello… Come on in." She said trying to sound cheerful.

Before entering, Tsunade firstly hugged Sakura's mother before taking a seat. "How are you?" she asked

"As fine as can be expected. Would you like something to drink?" her mother responded.

"Yes, that would be nice." Tsunade said with a warm smile.

After having her mother wake her up, Sakura finally got up from her messy bed. So she could go to the bathroom, However Sakura clumsily trips over the boots; she had left on the floor the night before.

"Dammit" she shouted as she lay on the floor, for a second while rubbing her foot. From the corner of her eye, Sakura noticed something under her bed. When she went to retrieve the item, she saw that it was a picture frame.

Based on how it looked the frame, had been there for a while; since it was completely covered in thick dust. Sakura grabs a shirt to clean the frames glass, so she could get a look at the picture in it.

Looking closely she noticed a picture of her younger self, along with three other people in the image. One being an older male while the other two a blonde, and black-haired kid. The duo stood on either side of her; seemingly the same age.

Sakura suddenly recognized that the two guys she had met yesterday were the same ones in the picture.

Perplexed, Sakura slid the picture back under her bed; as she proceeded to get on with what she was doing.

While Sakura's mother brewed up some tea,Tsunade went through the notebook Sakura's mother had written in. "So how long has this been going on?" She asked while going over the last few notes.

"Well a few weeks now, that's the real reason we moved back here. Even though she doesn't like to talk to me… I'm her mother; I can tell something is wrong. Can you please take a look at her this week?" she asked while placing the drinks on the table.

"Yes but I have to..." Before Tsunade could finish her statement, Sakura had already came downstairs while heading for the door.

"Oh Sakura, look the Hokage is here." her mother hastily pointed out.

"So… I'm leaving." Sakura said without stopping. "Sakura please, you weren't feeling well last night, let Tsunade-sama take a quick look at you." she begged. Irritated, Sakura exhaled noisily before walking over to Tsunade.

Tsunade put down her drink, before she stood up and found her hands shaking; while touching Sakura's face. Sakura didn't notice how uneasy Tsunade was, as she just rolled her eyes as the Hokage examined her.

"Hum, yes there is some unusual swelling; this is something I'd like to check out... Can you two actually come in tomorrow, so I can get a better examination on her?" Tsunade asked her mother.

"Yes, will be there," Sakura's mother speedily replied. "Isn't that great Sakura?" She inquired, while turning to her daughter.

"Fine whatever, I'm leaving," Sakura finished as she walked out the door, slamming it loudly behind her. Tsunade watching Sakura's different demeanor, decided to say something about it.

"I'm not trying to pry but…Why do you let her act like that?" She asked; Sakura's mother thought before answering the question. "It's not that I let her, or want her to act this way towards me and others. It's just I can't find myself telling her no… I just want to protect her; she went through so much that I just can't." Sakura's mother stopped, while she started to wipe away tears.

"Lady Tsunade, she's my only child." She finally sputtered out in the mix of her weeping.

Tsunade, silently understood her mothers worry; as she placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, "I realize your concern, but I need her to go to the appointment; at least to make sure there's nothing wrong. So even if she rejects, you are going to have to make her go." she finished, as she headed towards the door.

"OK I'll make sure she goes, that's a promise." Her mother said, while bowing to the Hokage.

Once Sasuke woke up from his long night out, he lay in bed gazing at the ceiling for a while; replaying all the events that happened the night before. Looking over on his side table, he grabbed a turned over picture of team 7. Staring at the image while getting a nostalgic feeling, Sasuke's eyes went straight to Sakura's face; to him she looked so happy and carefree back then. A far cry from how she currently seemed to be now.

"It's my fault if only I..." he thought to himself before, he was quickly interrupted when he heard a pebble; being thrown at his window. Once he got up to open the window, he saw Naruto waving to him from down below.

He sighed over him never seeming to leave him alone. Sasuke only dressed in black pants, grabbed a shirt as he headed downstairs.

"Sasuke, I was just seeing how you were doing?" Naruto asked after Sasuke had let him inside.

"Fine Naruto," he said while putting on his shirt, and shoes. "Umm…Do you want to come with me into town today?" he asked as his overall happy tone, was unusually strained.

Sasuke could tell Naruto had something on his mind. Lately when he had a concern or needed to talk, he always tried to invite Sasuke out somewhere and of course this time was no different.

Sasuke knew things were tough on him, but he had forgotten that it must be just as hard on Naruto too. He nodded his head, in response to Naruto's request, as the two shortly took off to go into town.

Elsewhere, Sakura waited around as she enjoyed a cherry sucker and messed with her phone; only stopping when she felt vomit come up once again unprovoked, Sakura quickly grabbing the sucker out of her mouth waited for the sensation to go away.

"Eh? Not again." She said to herself, before she noticed the bartender that gave her a piece of paper the night before waved to her.

"Hey sorry to keep you waiting," he said after he ran up to her. Sakura purposely rolled her eyes as she turned around. "Yea I was only waiting on you, to tell you since you're late you missed your chance." she said while walking off.

"Hey wait, look I got you something." he hurriedly spoke; while pulling out a gold necklace. Sakura turned to look at the shining jewelry, before looking back at the guy. "Remember I can buy you anything you want." he reinstated with a smirk, as he knew it would get her attention.

"Toshi, right?" Sakura said while twirling the sucker in her mouth.

"Yea, you ready for our date?" He asked while putting the necklace around her neck and an arm around her.

Once they got into town, Naruto and Sasuke decided to grab some ramen from Naruto's favorite spot. The pair were both quite for a moment, before finally opening up to talk too each other; concerning the night before.

"Sasuke, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Sakura being that way." Naruto finally said feeling guilty over not informing him fully. "When I met up with her, she had just gotten off of work." He paused as he gritted his teeth. "She ignored us and went upstairs, before we left I talked with her mother a bit."

[NARUTO FLASHBACK]

Everyone gathered their things to leave Sakura's house. Naruto being the last to walk out the door turned towards Sakura's mother. "Sakura, has she remembered anything about us?" He asked.

Sakura's mother drew silent, before addressing his question."Naruto, I'm afraid this is a different Sakura. You'll soon find that out for yourselves... Sorry." she said while shutting the door softly on him.

[END FLASHBACK]

"It's alright Naruto," Sasuke said as he looked into his glass of water. "I just wanted to touch her again, if even for a moment." he admitted honestly. Naruto looked at his friend before drinking, his drink.

"Well the reason I invited you out is, we need to come up with a plan or strategy..." he paused as Sasuke gave him a confused look. "I haven't given up; I think we should still try to get her memories back. Maybe if we spend everyday with her doing things she used to do; it will trigger them." Naruto said with a smile.

Sasuke was hushed about the idea since; he had several reservations on this.

"You both are a gloomy sight…Here you are, Naruto just like you like it and here is yours Sasuke," Teuchi spoke while handing them two big bowls of food. Once he looked up, he quickly noticed a familiar pink hair. "Hey is that Sakura over there." he commented while placing a hand over his eyebrows, as he tried to get a better look.

Both men stopped to look in the direction, when they once again caught her. This time she wasn't dressed provocatively, but she still shocked them by hanging out with a guy, whom had his arms around her waist.

"…Sakura" quietly slipped out of Sasuke's mouth, seeing her with this random guy. Naruto watching Sasuke's reaction quickly ran after Sakura and the strange guy.

"Hey Sakura," Naruto shouted as he ran up and got in-between the two, forcefully breaking them apart.

"Hey kid beat it," Toshi said loudly, as he stopped to take Naruto's arm from him. Sakura huffed as she quickly crossed her arms, at the situation.

"Not you again." she said under her breath.

"Oi Sakura you know this twerp?" Toshi heatedly asked while looking Naruto over. "Not really," She said while turning to see Sasuke, standing behind them.

Sakura paused looking at his face, she couldn't explain it but his expression was one of disbelief. "They were some people I guess I grew up with or something." She finished turning back to Toshi.

"Look I'm not trying to fight with you but, she is going with me now, so butt out." Toshi said getting angrier now, due to Naruto butting into his business.

Despite Naruto being younger, he wasn't backing down from Toshi who wasn't either. "Well look since your frankly a little to old for her, and we don't know you. I think it's better if you leave her alone." Naruto said while his voice got angrier in return.

"Naruto" Sasuke called out; as he could see Naruto and the man easily, get into an escalation. As Toshi and Naruto argued, Sakura still not feeling well reached up to grab her head, as she felt a strange aurora around it.

Before she knew it, Sakura hastily fell down to the ground completely blacking out. "Sakura" Sasuke's voice cried out, as he was the first to pick her up off of the ground.

"What did you do to her?" Naruto yelled at Toshi before, heading to her side.

"Huh? Nothing," Toshi shouted as he saw onlookers staring at him and whispering. Toshi seeing the people start to crowed took off.

"Sakura, hang on." Sasuke said while he and Naruto rushed to get her some help.