I barged through the doors to Tsunade's office in the hospital. I didn't care if she'd want to skin me alive for barging in at an ungodly hour, it was her own damned fault for sending me that message so early in the morning! "Tsunade!" I barked, glaring daggers at my superior.

She put down the paper that she was looking at. "Yes, Sakura?" She asked calmly, giving me an expectant look. My eye twitched at how calm she was being.

"How can you do this?!" I asked, waving the crumpled scroll around wildly in the air to emphasize my point.

"You need to rest before you collapse from exhaustion or hurt one of your patients so I put you on mandatory vacation so you would have time to rest. I can not allow either of those scenarios to happen." My eye twitched again. I opened my mouth to argue. "And no amount of yelling is going to make me put you back on duty, so just drop it and enjoy your vacation."

"Bu-"

"Sakura, enough. I will not budge on this. Now as for more important matters… I hear Naruto gets back today." She said, smirking. "It's about time you told him how you feel. I'm sure Minato would enjoy having grandchildren, as I'm also sure you'd both enjoy the process of creating them." Well, that shut me up. I could feel fire as it stretched up my neck and onto my cheeks, forming a blush.

"Shishou!" I shushed, causing Tsunade to laugh.

"Relax Sakura, I'm only joking. But I see you're finally trying to get his attention at least." She said seriously. Tsunade-Shishou was probably one of the only people who actually knew about my feelings for Naruto. She'd managed to work it out on her own. How she did it, I will never know. Unless I'm just that easy to read?

"Wha…?" I asked in confusion.

"Your clothes…" She said, looking at me like she was wondering where my brain had gone.

I slapped my forehead, dragging it down my face. "The clothes aren't MY fault, blame Ino!" I said, my eye twitching again. I should really get that checked.

Tsunade arched her eyebrow, presumably in slight shock. "So now Ino knows?"

"Yes, she dragged it out of me! Now the scheming little piggy has somehow gotten it into her head that we're perfect for each other, or something to that effect, and now her goal in life is to get Naruto and I together! I can't talk her out of it, trust me, I've tried and I don't know what to do!" I said in a rush and collapsed into a chair opposite Tsunade.

"Maybe she's right and at least she got you out of your shell a little bit." She said with a smile. "You need to stop hiding yourself Sakura, it's not good for you!"

I buried my face into my hands, and said, voice muffled, "This is never going to work! He has no interest in me, at least not in that way, and he never will! Why would HE want someone like ME?"

"Because, underneath the tough exterior you are an extraordinary person, one that anyone would be lucky to have. You need more confidence in yourself Sakura." She said seriously.

"I still say it will NEVER work, not in a million years…"

"Keep telling yourself that, Sakura…"

"What?" I asked, very confused.

"Have you ever thought that you might just be afraid of what could happen if it does work out?" She implored.

"No! I'd love to be with him…" I said in a small, quiet voice. "I just know that he'll never be interested in me that way. And if he ever finds out how I feel… I don't want to lose him, Shishou…" And then, I broke down into tears.

Later that day, in another part of town…

"I see you and your team have completed your mission successfully, albeit a bit recklessly…" I gulped.

"Ehhehehe, well, you see…" I said, rubbing the back of my neck nervously.

"Save it, Naruto. You're lucky this mission didn't require stealth. You need to stop being so reckless, you endangered your team."

"But Dad…! The mission-"

"But noting, Naruto!" My father said, causing me to sigh.

"But if it wasn't for my quick thinking, Sasuke or Sai would have been seriously injured, and the mission would have failed!" I said in one breath, trying to get it out before Dad could interrupt me again.

He raised his eyebrow. "Is this true?" He directed the question to the two temes behind me.

"What Kit says is true, amazingly enough." I stared down at Kyuubi in shock, since when has he ever jumped to my defense?

"Well then, I will get the details from you later Kyuubi, I have paperwork to fill out now. Now since you all haven't had sufficient vacation time, you four have the next week or so off." He paused and seemed to reconsider, "Unless something urgent comes up, that is."

"But-"

"No buts, Naruto, you've earned it, you are dismissed." He said with a wave of his hand. Sasuke and Sai moved towards the door.

"Teme, you tell him we need to be out there!" I shouted over my shoulder to Sauske.

"Hn." Was the only response I got as he disappeared through the door. Bastard.

"But- ugh, fine! You tell him Sai!" I turned to him for support only to see that he'd already disappeared. "Traitors, both of you!" I turned and looked down at Kyuubi, pleading. He knew I had to be out there on missions!

"Sorry Kit, but I'm with Pops over here. I could use a little R&R."

Frustrated, I turned to my father. "Alright then Dad, just send me out on a few solo missions or something. I could use the experience!"

"No, son."

"But Dad, I-"

"Naruto," he began in a patient tone as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I have to much damn paperwork to listen to your whining right now, so unless you want me to extend that week into a month you will stop complaining and get out of my office so I can get back to my work."

"Yes, sir!" I exclaimed, and ran out of the office as fast as I could, stumbling a little along the way. No WAY was I going without missions for a whole month! I might be able to handle a week (if I was lucky), but there was no way in hell that I could survive a whole month! That would be like a day without ramen!

"What was that about?" Sasuke asked as I caught up with him.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "Dad threatened to extend our vacation if I didn't stop complaining…" I grumbled, sulking.

"Hn." I glared at him.

"You bastard, I could knock your damned block off-"

"Naruto!" I heard just as something slammed into me.

I grunted in surprise and looked down, only to see a head of blonde hair. "Hey, Ino." I said hugging her back. "How have you been?" I asked, prepared for her to launch into one of her long rambles.

"Oh, fine." She waved a hand in dismissal.

I raised my eyebrow, knowing something was up. I love my sister dearly, but she can get extremely carried away sometimes, and her not rambling about a weeks worth of gossip scares me and/or puts me on edge. Now all I have to do is figure out what she's up to. "That's good." I said smiling.

"So, how'd it go?" she asked me.

"Great! Those idiots didn't know what hit them! I totally kicked their sorry-" I noticed Ino's attention suddenly shift and an evil grin spread across her face. Huh?

"Oi, Sakura! Over here!"

"Oi, Sakura! Over here!" As soon as I had heard that, I knew I'd been spotted. Why me? Honestly, I'm a good person! Err, most of the time… I'd been minding my own business, when who do I see outside of the Hokage's office? Why, my wonderful best friend: Ino! And who is she talking to? You guessed it! Her older brother, the love of my life, Namikaze Naruto with his summon, Kyuubi! Does the universe hate me or something? Well, as soon as my mind registered what, or rather who I was seeing, I instantly turned on my heel and tried to bolt. But, unfortunately for me (and because I am now just about fully convinced that the universe does in fact have it out for me), my plan blew up in my face when Ino spotted me. Well, this was bound to happen sooner or later, although I would have preferred for it to have been later. Well, I might as well get this over with. So I begrudgingly turned back around and placed a smile on my face. I sent a wave to Ino and proceeded to walk over to her, Kyuubi, and… Naruto. Can I just ask why someone up there can't just do me a favor and strike me with lightning or something? Please?

"Hi Ino!" I said cheerfully, I hope she knows that she is so, so dead later! "Hi Kyuubi! Naruto!" I looked up at him (he stood a head taller than me) and all he did was stare. "Err, Naruto, are you alright?" I asked.

He shook his head, as if to clear it. "Um, yea, I just- Did you do something with, uh... your...?" He asked, looking at me.

"Ino took me shopping." I said, curling a lock of long, pink hair around my finger. I then realized I'd forgotten to pull it back. He nodded in understanding and pitty.

"Ahh, Ino, why'd you have to go and torture poor Sakura-chan?! You know she hates it when you drag her shopping with you!" He exclaimed, turning to Ino. Or where Ino was just standing. Yep, she's dead. "Hey where'd Ino go?!" He asked, scrunching his eyebrows together in confusion. He looks so cute when he gets that confused look! Although, he's done it less often as he's gotten older… (insert mental pout here)

"I don't know Naruto, she was just here a minute ago." I replied, knowing exactly why she'd disappeared.

"Oh, well!" He sighed in exasperation (sometimes it's hard to believe he's twenty-three, but then again, sometimes our age difference is painfully obvious). "So, what have you been up to?" He asked, now focusing intently on me. I tried to quell the growing knots that always appear in my stomach when that endless sea of blue is directed towards me. It should be illegal to have eyes that blue, or to have that kind of an effect on someone for that matter.

"Besides being tortured by one of Ino's insane shopping sprees?" I asked. "Well, Tsunade-shishou has me on mandatory vacation until further notice…" I said, pouting.

"I know what you mean, Dad gave me a weeks vacation as a 'reward' for my success on the mission." he seemed to wilt at the thought. I smiled.

"Well, at least your vacation is only a week, I don't know how long mine is going to be!"

He grinned at me. "Sorry about that Sakura-chan, I forgot about that!" He paused for a second, and then said, "Wait a minute! I just remembered, I've gotta get going, or Mom's going to kill me! She had something important that she wanted to talk to me about after I got back!" He exclaimed. I grinned, that's the scatterbrain I know!

"Okay, see you Naruto! Bye Kyuubi!" I said, and I reached down and patted Kyuubi's head. When I stood up I was shocked when I felt arms wrap around me. I melted into a pile of goo as soon as it dawned on me what was going on. He was hugging me! He held me to him for a few seconds (of heaven), before he let go.

"Bye, Sakura-chan! You look great!" He said as he turned around and waved to me as he ran, in a hurry to go see Kushina.

I stood there blushing like a nincompoop for who knows how long, only two things running through my head: he hugged me… It's not like he hasn't hugged me before, it's just that this time I wasn't really… expecting it. And he said I looked great! Then one though crossed my mind that knocked me out of my stupor, how would I react if he kissed me… Or if he did something more then just kissing me…? I shook my head, now's not the time for that Sakura, or for being a perv! Stupid Inner Sakura, why'd I have to absorb that personality into my own? Do you know how perverted I've become because of that?! I walked off to find Ino, now it was time to kill her! …Or maybe she's expecting that, and now she's hiding… Eh, I'll kill her later!

Chapter four has just been reedited, so now I'm on to chapter five. I may just take a nap first, though! :P

~Kassy