Author's Note: I can't believe I'm almost to 100 follows, and I'm only on four chapters.. I can't thank you all enough! It means so much that you guys actually read what comes out of my head…hahaa. Anyway, Here's chapter 4!

White light poured into the small room in the hospital, shining into fatigued eyes. Sakura hadn't slept at all that night, not even batting an eye. There was too much that needed to be explained to her, so many details that were missing from the pictures she had been trying to re-sculpt for her own knowledge.

o-o-o-o-o

She had been ready to clear her thoughts and start fresh that night, to fall into a deserved sleep that would hopefully bring on dreams and visions of her past. But, the rhythm of eerily familiar footsteps in the hall had broken all chances of sleep and release, and a certain force had drawn Sakura from her bed and out into the hallway.

He had told her to rest, but Sakura knew that her limbs wouldn't bend and obey his words.

She asked about the bells, and it had triggered an eccentric reaction from Sasuke. He had stopped his movement, and for the first time that day, looked her in the eyes. He had seemed like he was searching for something, something unattainable..

Sakura thought that she would finally receive an answer, a piece to the never ending puzzle. One thought could be confirmed and dismissed for the time being, and she could make room for the incoming memories that she could solve. Sakura was ready to get her life back.

And two words had crushed her confidence.

"Not exactly."

o-o-o-o-o

Sakura narrowed her eyes at the ceiling, crushing the Egyptian cotton sheets in her clenched fists. 'Not Exactly'? That was his answer? That's all that she would get out of that pompous jerk? Just two vague words? That hardly answered anything! She still had no clue about the results of their training session back then, and she had relied on Sasuke to fill her in. But of course that plan backfired, he seemed eager to be away from her ever since she landed in the hospital for reasons still unknown to her, another task to add to her agenda.

Sakura frowned. They were teammates, why wouldn't he want to help her in her time of need? Had their relationship not been a good one in their genin days? From the emotions she recalled from their first training session, she remembered feeling giddy and bright when around him, and he hadn't shown any annoyance directed at her that day. But she should know better than to trust the images played out in her mind, part of her didn't even know if she could fully trust them. However, she did manage to get a reaction out of Sasuke from mentioning the bells, so that had to be true. She decided that she would ask Naruto, he'd definitely tell her anything she wanted to know without being too vague.

But Sasuke…

Is this how it would always been from this point on? Getting the cold shoulder and his laconic speech? Could he even tolerate her once she was discharged from the hospital? Didn't he care about his teammates..? Didn't he care about her?

Unable to contain her frustration, she leaned over and grabbed a pillow, shoving it into her face and screaming into it. The vibrations of her voice disturbed the fluff of the pillow, tickling her palms slightly as her fingernails dug into the pillow.

A small knock abruptly stopped Sakura's muffled screams of frustration. Slightly startled, Sakura shot up, allowing the now flattened pillow to fall to her lap. Her quick rising had started a dizzy spell in her head, the room blurring and spinning before her. Sakura closed her eyes and waited for the dizziness to pass. She would need to be careful, she was still pretty shaken up and in pain, her forehead stinging now and again. Not to mention that any significant amount of head movement would send her senses into a complete frenzy of swirls and blurs. Sakura couldn't wait until she was beyond the side effects of her injury, when this damned vertigo like difficulty of simply sitting up straight was eradicated.

When she felt the room settle down, Sakura sighed and looked up at the door.

"Come-" she began to say, but at the sound of her voice the door flew open.

Sakura and her visitor stared each other down, neither of them moving an inch.

Her visitor was a female who looked about her age, a bundle of beautifully arranged flowers cradled in her arm, and who looked comfortable showing off so much skin. Her purple top was cropped up to her mid rib cage, a matching skirt reaching just below her mid thighs. Her hair was a waterfall of blonde silk falling down her back, with a section of it covering the left side of her face. Her blue eyes sparkled with mischief, and they danced around Sakura's face while trying to avoid the white bandage around her forehead. Finally though, they settled on the bandage, yet her eyes had not lost their luster.

Basically put, she was beautiful. She had all the assets that a guy would fall for, Sakura wouldn't be surprised if she had millions of boys drooling after her already. Though, despite her good looks, Sakura couldn't help but acknowledge the overwhelming sensation to relate her to some sort of farm animal. A cow? A sheep? A horse? No, none of those seemed right…

She walked over to Sakura's bed and stopped right next to her. She looked as if she wanted to say something, but was holding her words until she found the correct ones to display. Sakura assumed that she was trying to think of a way to introduce herself, though Sakura had the feeling that they had known each other for quite some time. She would probably ask Sakura how she was doing, and if she had remembered who she was at all, though of course her answer would be no.

Sakura opened her mouth to speak, but stopped when the girl in front of her laughed tersely.

"Hmph. You always manage to direct attention to that big forehead of yours."

It was not what Sakura had expected to come out of her mouth, and Sakura closed hers. Sakura remained silent, extremely baffled by her words, yet somehow they managed to make sense.

The bandage around her already wide forehead certainly didn't help with it's appearance, not to mention the soon-to-be scar that Sakura was sure would form.

The girl laughed again, and placed the bouquet of flowers on Sakura's bedside table.

"Got these from our shop, they were just delivered so they're still fresh and sturdy. This room definitely needs some color." she said, looking at the boring cream colored walls.

The flowers were beautiful, arranged so that each bordering flower complemented the next one. A range of violets and blues combined with fresh greens and yellows balanced the arrangement perfectly, and Sakura caught herself staring admiringly into the display of freshly cut flowers.

Sakura looked back at her visitor, and found herself flooded with small hints of nostalgia. She reminded Sakura of her childhood, and the vague vision of picking flowers in a grassy field swam through her mind, though it vanished as quickly as it came.

"Well, aren't you going to say something, forehead?" the girl's voice asked teasingly, flipping her blonde hair behind her back.

Speak? Sakura didn't know what to say, though she managed to get a few words out, even though she sounded like a shy five year old.

"Uhm..thanks for the flowers."

The girl smiled. "Are you kidding? Mom was thrilled when I told her I was going to visit you. She picked out the best flowers. Even more so, she was relieved that you're unharmed."

Sakura frowned and looked down. "I wouldn't say that.."

The girl sat down on Sakura's bed, and placed her hand on Sakura's shoulder. "So, you really don't remember anything?" she asked softly.

Sakura shook her head, tears threatening to fall. "Nothing. I can't remember my genin years, my accomplishments, I don't even remember who most of my friends are.."

There was an awkward silence between the two girls, Sakura barely breathing in an effort to contain her tears.

"Then I am a complete idiot."

Sakura's head rose, and she looked over at the girl with confusion. What had just happened? And what was she talking about? She was smiling at Sakura, as if nothing had just happened. She rose from the bed, and extended her hand towards Sakura.

"I'm Yamanaka Ino." she said brightly, her blue eyes twinkling.

And wham! The visions hit Sakura's mind like a moving train.

She saw her and Ino as children, picking flowers in the field and laughing.

Ino-chan! Look at all the beautiful colors!

Ino giving her a red ribbon to tie on her head after she had been made fun of for her forehead.

Don't hide it, it'll only make it worse. This ribbon will help!

Their obsessive competitions for Sasuke's attention at the academy.

Sasuke-kun likes ME forehead! He likes girls with long hair and charm!

Ino and her team protecting Sakura when she had chopped off her own hair to save Naruto and Sasuke in the Forest of Death.

Your teammates are down, protect them, we'll handle this.

Their first head to head fight in the preliminaries of the chunin exams.

I won't lose to you anymore. This time, I'm going to win!

The visions vanished, though this time Sakura had managed to grab them, to hold on to them and keep them for her own. Her heart had swelled with emotion, nostalgia and complete happiness flooded her entire body. Tears of joy gathered in the corners of her eyes, and she took her friend's hand in her own and did her best not to squeeze it as tight as she had wanted to. The amount of energy that flowed between the two girls was electrifying, the power of their friendship sparked a new fire in Sakura's heart, igniting the blazing hope that everything would be ok.

Sakura looked up at Ino, and for the first time that day, smiled.

"Ino, Arigatō." Sakura said, laughing.

She finally remembered the animal that Ino was.

It was a pig.

Thwack.

The kunai flew into the wooden post, implanting itself sending small splinters of wood into the grass. The moon was a beacon that sent glowing light around the entire backyard of the Uchiha compound, adding an eerie touch to Sasuke's surrounding. He had been doing the same thing for hours, regardless of the fact that he had been training just hours before with Naruto. But this was the only way he could ever think clearly. He stared at the post, and the previously thrown kunai embedded into the wood. He had thrown them so that no space was left vacant, and he promised himself that he'd stop when there was no more possible space to implant his weapons. Yet there he was, staring at the post covered in kunai, eyeing the last possible vision of clean wood. Sasuke had turned the post into a kunai pin cushion, unrecognizable by now. He raised his arm to throw the final one, but stopped, leaving his arm raised in a hopeless attempt to make contact with the never ending issue he had been contemplating since that afternoon…

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"You're too slow, Teme!" Naruto had playfully shouted, dodging one of Sasuke's punches and landing safely a few feet away. He whipped out a few shuriken and swiftly threw them at him. Sasuke pivoted on his foot, all the while forming rapid handsigns. He felt his chakra swell in his stomach, travel up his throat, then dispel as a heated flame. It engulfed the shuriken completely, melting the metal and sending them into the ground with a dull thud. The rest of the flame flew after Naruto, who dodged once more, but was then engulfed in thick black smoke.

They had been sparring for an hour, and neither of them had the means to give in to the other's strength, not that they ever had in the past.

The smoke cleared rapidly, and Naruto had a spiraling ball of chakra in his hand, ready to attack. Sasuke had now acknowledged that the rasengan was one of Naruto's signature jutsus, next to the shadow clones. It had grown over the years, increasing in the depth and volume of chakra that it was supplied with, and it had evolved into an extremely powerful, reliable technique.

Fine, if he wanted to hurry things up, he would as well.

Sasuke's hands flew from sign to sign, and he felt the familiar tickling sensation of electricity running down his arm and escaping into crackles and light. The sound of birds chirping sounded through the training grounds, and an electric blue light reflected against Sasuke's eyes. Chidori was complete.

He dashed forward, running at a blinding speed towards Naruto, who hadn't stopped his pursuit.

They got closer and closer, every inch sending chills down the others spine at how powerful each other's chakra was. Sasuke could feel Naruto's strength radiating off of his body; adrenaline rushed though Sasuke's body as he extended his arm right at Naruto's heart..

Then it was over.

The two shinobi stopped in their tracks, their arms frozen. Rasengan and chidori shone threateningly next to each of their heads, the electricity making small strands of Naruto's hair stick up and spiraling wind blowing Sasuke's hair out of proportion. They stood unmoving, looking into each other's eyes. Then, their power diminished, slowly fading from their hands as if it hadn't even existed in the first place. The sun set the colors of the training grounds back to normal, and everything was calmed once more.

Naruto grinned. "I almost had you that time."

Sasuke smirked. "You could never beat me, baka."

They lowered their arms, and took up their normal stances. These had been normal circumstances during a training session between the two of them. They would get so heated in the moment that both of them would resort to their ultimate jutsu, but of course both of them would stop at the last second to avoid any serious injury.

Naruto threw his hands behind his head. "Are you kidding? I could have totally beaten you! Almost could have blown you right into the forest. But if I did that, Sakura-chan would-"

An abrupt silence came over Naruto, stopping his speech.

Sasuke had froze, dropping the shuriken back into its original spot on the ground.

Sakura..he hadn't seen her since last night, and as much as he could, he couldn't get her face out of his mind. He remembered her hopeful face when she asked him if they had gotten the bells from Kakashi, and how the color and glimmer of her skin drained when he hadn't fully answered her and left. He had to leave, he didn't have a choice. If he had stayed, there would have been no doubt that he would have lost it right in front of Sakura, and he didn't want to create an impression of himself that she would now first associate him with whenever they saw each other.

If they saw each other.

"Sasuke, you need to visit her."

Sasuke head snapped towards Naruto, who was looking at Sasuke with a knowing look.

"Sasuke, she's confused. More than that, she's frustrated! Imagine waking up in a hospital without your memories and everything about your life had to be explained to you, everything that you should already know. She's probably extremely upset about it, and she needs her friends."

Sasuke said nothing, not even making eye contact with his best friend.

How could he see her? What would he say to her after their encounter? 'Hey, I left you alone and confused in the hallway last night because I can't stand the fact that you don't remember anything' ? No, nothing he could say would soothe his raging nerves.

"Not to mention," Naruto continued, "That when you were unconscious in the hospital back when your brother used his sharingan on you, she visited you everyday."

Sasuke frowned. Yes, he remembered his first failed attempt at killing his brother when he had tried to take Naruto from them. He woke up in the hospital, and the first thing he saw was Sakura's pink hair. She had stayed by his side, constantly peeling apples for him to snack on..

Suddenly, he heard a whizzing sound slice though the air, and he swiftly caught a kunai that was aimed at his head. He turned to the Naruto, who had been holding his ground, staring at Sasuke in as much seriousness as he could muster. He walked over to Sasuke calmly, then spoke again, this time his words really hit Sasuke hard.

"When you left the village…she hadn't given up hope that her and I could bring you back. She never gave up on you, so don't give up on her."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sasuke gripped the kunai tightly, still standing outside in the dark. He stared at the muscles inside of his hand, bulging behind his skin, as a jumble of voices swam in his head.

"She never gave up on you, so don't give up on her."

"The bells, did we get them?"

With a final force of his arm, he threw the kunai, but vanished from his backyard before the final vacant space of wood on the post was pierced.

It had been one of the greatest afternoons in the hospital.

Sakura and Ino had talked for hours, laughing and re-catching up with each other as if nothing had changed. Sakura had naturally taken a liking to Ino, which of course wasn't surprising in the least bit. They reminisced in their childhood, laughing at how ridiculous they were prying for Sasuke's attention, though Sakura hadn't fully gotten into the conversation because she didn't fully remember how her crush on Sasuke felt to her back then. But regardless, Sakura was happy.

Besides Naruto, Ino was the only person who had full conversations with her, not just singular syllable phrases. When visiting hours were over, Ino had promised that she would visit her the next day, and this time she'd bring some other people with her, which kind of made Sakura nervous, but excited.

Now she was laying on her back, unable to fall asleep, though it was still pretty early so she wasn't in any hurry. She closed her eyes and allowed her newly attained memories to dance behind her eyelids, enchanted by each and every one.

"Don't wait for them to be handed to you, you're a fighter and you're strong, so take back what's rightfully yours." Ino had told her hours before.

So Sakura did, scanning each part of her memories that she had received this afternoon to see if anything would trigger something more. Though nothing had turned up, she had been receiving memories as a rapid pace, so she wasn't as discouraged as she had been the previous night before she remembered the bells.

Though she had more reasons to celebrate than just receiving more memories. After Ino left, Lady Tsunade had paid her a visit, bringing great news with her. She had reported that Sakura's wound was healing at a surprisingly rapid rate, the risk of any infection had passed. If her wound continued to heal at this rate, she could be discharged from the hospital sooner than expected.

And that meant that Sakura could finally start to get her life back.

Sakura sighed and turned her head towards the window. The lights in the village were shining, and she could make out the small silhouettes of many villagers out and about, taking advantage of the warm evening. Sakura would give anything to go outside, even for just a moment. She had been permitted to walk through the halls of the hospital, but that was about it, much to her dismay. Deciding that just opening her window would satisfy her summer fever, she sat up and swung her legs over to the side of her bed and let her feet clang against the floor.

She began to stand when she suddenly heard a loud crack, and looked down at her feet to notice a small crack had spidered out in the white tile next to her bed. She frowned, were these floors that weak? She kneeled down to examine the crack, tracing it with her finger.

Then it happened again, she received the same eerie feeling that she was on to something, something important. She traced the crack once more, slowly. Then to her surprise, she fell into the same symptoms that had invaded her when she was about to regain a part of herself, and opened her eyes to a new picture from her past.

She had been working her body the entire day, sweat pouring down her temples and her breathing rapid, but steady. A cool breeze was blowing but it did little to cool off her high temperature.

"It's about control, that's the main factor in this technique." Lady Tsunade had told her.

She nodded, focusing her chakra once more to her fist as she had been doing for hours. She had been told all her life that her chakra control was excellent, superb. And now she could finally show off her talent with this training, and with it, she could finally hold her own weight on missions. Naruto had been gone for six months, and he wouldn't be back for quite a while. That was just enough time to train herself, to make herself stronger.

Her chakra came to its fruition, and she raised her fist into the air, relishing in the adrenaline rushing through her entire body. Her fist came down on the ground, and instantly the earth shattered, a giant fissure spreading out all around her. But this one had been different. Her previous attempts had resulted in deep surface cracks on the ground, mild ones. However this time, she had been graced with an earthquake, an overwhelmingly intense disaster of its own small proportion. The cracks spread as far as her eyes would allow her to see, giant pieces of earth flying out of the ground and shattering into dust. A whole flock of birds abandoned a nearby tree to fly at safer heights, to avoid the trauma of the breaking wood.

The section of the forest had become nothing but rubble, crumpled earth that would need to be reshaped and resculpted.

Her eyes scanned the area, and a sense of shock over came her.

I did this?

She stopped staring when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked over to see Lady Tsunade examining her work.

"Shishou, I-" she began, but Lady Tsunade raised her hand to silence her, then placed it on top of pink hair.

"I have never seen such power, such remarkable power from anyone your age. I didn't expect you to progress this far, but over and over again you've proved me wrong."

Tsunade smiled approvingly at her, and she felt a warmth spread throughout her body.

"I'm glad to have you as my student."

A sense of joy and accomplishment flooded throughout her body as she scanned the forest ground once more. She never imagined that she could have ever attained this power, to shatter the hard earth she stood upon. To have the strength of a thousand shinobi..

She'd be ready when Naruto came back.

She'd be ready.

The dark hospital room flooded back into Sakura's vision, and everything returned to normal. Sakura hadn't moved, she kept her fingers on the crack in the tile and went over in her head what she had just witnessed. The power in her fist, the earth shattering beneath her hands as if it were made of butter; it played out deliciously in her mind.

Sakura picked up her hand form the crack, and enclosed it in a fist, looking intently at it. Such a delicate hand, and yet, it had crushed the unimaginable.

This new knowledge had opened a window in Sakura's mind, a new motivation to get her life back and keep it for herself. She closed her eyes, and instantly Ino's words floated into her mind.

"Take back what's rightfully yours."

Sakura's eyes flew open, a passionate fire burning in the green of her eyes.

She was tired of waiting.

The hospital had been dormant for quite sometime, always settling down around the same time each night. It was still pretty early, but regardless of the time most of the windows were black, proving to be the conclusion that the patients were asleep.

Sasuke had gone over in his head what he would say to Sakura, or rather, what he would say after she made the first move to speak. It had always been that way, even before the 'incident', as Sasuke had called it.

He told his body to move, tried to force his legs to leap from the sturdy branch he was perched on, yet his limbs would not obey him. A strange force was holding him to the branch, not willing to let him go see her.

Don't be ridiculous, just move already! He told himself stubbornly, but no response. He would just have to suck it up and do it, he was an Uchiha, and Uchiha didn't back out of anything. However, his mind kept making up stupid excuses.

She'll ask me too many questions.

Just do it.

She's probably asleep.

Just do it.

She'll make me go insane-

Just do it!

"Damn it!" he cursed under his breath, slamming his fist into the tree. The tree shook, and a few leaves fell to the ground, spinning and dancing in the wind.

Sasuke sighed. It was now or never. It had been past closing hours, so he'd have to knock on her window, but he was sure she'd open up for him once she realized who it was.

He was about to leap off of the tree when something he saw stopped him completely.

One of the windows up ahead began to open quietly and slowly, and a figure hopped out smoothly. Sasuke immediately activated his sharingan, which had allowed him to clearly analyze the figure's movements in the dark.

The figure with pink hair.

Sakura?

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly as he realized that it was Sakura who had opened her window and was now standing tall on the ledge outside the window of her room. He watched her turn around and gently close her window halfway. She looked behind her, as if to check of anyone was watching. Then without warning, she leaped off of the roof, and into the trees nearby, vanishing from Sasuke's sight.

He narrowed his eyes, suspicion growing inside of him like wildfire.

Where was she going?

His body finally listened to him, allowing him to take off from the branch and follow his teammate.

Hmm.. where's Sakura going? Any guesses? You'll find out next chapter! xx

P.S. changed my pen name, so don't worry when you see a different name under my stories :)