Ladies and gentlemen, I am back. Ok, long story short; I got sick, I had exams, felt sad and yeah. But I'm back that's all that matters. I'm going to add my updates into my planner so I get to update once or twice a month.

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Chapter 10: A New Playing Field

"It's a small prick. What are you so scared about?" Haruno Sakura chastised as she pulled on Sasuke to get him into position more convenient for her. Sasuke glared at her and tugged his arm back; the hell was she trying to do?

"I'm not getting a shot. I don't need it." It was stupid, especially since he learned that it was a vaccine given to five year olds. He was not a five year old—damn it. His obsidian orbs found her annoyed face and immediately his stubbornness began to resurface.

And no; he wasn't scared.

He sat on the edge of the long clinic bed. And his legs were bent as awkwardly as he was feeling at the very moment. If he missed the shot when he was a child then, it made no sense getting it now. He hadn't gotten sick; and his living conditions from the past few years were a far cry from sterile. So whatever disease this damn vaccine was for, he would not need it.

"No." Sasuke repeated quietly, reminding Sakura of a spoiled child.

Sakura rolled her eyes and shifted her weight. They've been at this for at least ten minutes now and they were no closer to stopping this trivial yes versus no argument. With a firm hand that was laced with a little chakra, the pink-haired young woman grabbed his arm yet again and pulled with a little more force than a doctor should be using for a patient.

But when your patient was Uchiha Sasuke, the rules were a little different.

It was insane how a man used to getting sliced at with swords and kunai would not allow a small little prick on his forearm. It was just a vaccine. "Don't tense your muscles or it'll hurt." She said monotonously; she had been saying the same thing for years now and was over her 'kind medic' phase whenever she had to deal with stubborn shinobi like Sasuke.

"Uchiha would you rather I cut you with a katana as an alternative way to get this vaccine in you?" She was just about sick of trying to get him to steady his arm. "Or would you rather I knocked you out?" her tone was casual and non-threatening but her credentials said otherwise. She would have, no doubt, knocked him out just to make her job easier.

At her threat of violence to his person, Sasuke straightened and threw her a fierce glare that, to his surprise, did not deter her determination whatsoever. Despite his obvious with her, he couldn't help but let his mind wander to a time where interaction with Sakura like this came regularly and nonstop.

It was a relief to somewhat know that things were starting to fall in place again. It would never be the same, that fact ate him up, but this was something. At least it was a chance at something as close to normal as possible.

He felt a stinging sensation on his arm and he watched disdainfully as the liquid slowly entered his muscles. "Here." Sakura grumbled irritably, chucking a blue lollipop at his face which he caught without blinking. The wrapper crinkled as he clutched the small piece of candy. Sasuke regarded it with a little, but concealed, distaste.

"I don't like sweets." He said quietly still feeling a little guilty over the many times he'd lashed at her for gifting him with candies. Sasuke half-expected for her to look dejectedly away; and maybe stumble with her words.

But of course, he was surprised yet again at her façade. She stood as tall as ever, not flinching at his rejection of her offered treat. He never really knew what she was like—what she'd become— after the war apart from what he'd noticed upon his return.

He kept thinking that maybe there'd be traces of the Sakura he'd left way back then. They were there but this Sakura was a lot better at keeping her in check. Sometimes Sasuke saw a hint of the old Sakura when she was amongst rookie nine. Sakura had changed drastically—everyone else had too. Though of course what made her Sakura was still ingrained in her despite the metamorphosis. It wasn't like she changed into a whole new person entirely. But without her memories of him, Sasuke wondered if she'd be the same Sakura to him as she was to the rest.

Sakura shrugged and grabbed the lollipop from him with nonchalance. "That's cool." She said as she unwrapped the sweet and stuck it into her mouth. The pink-haired ANBU officer sucked on it then pulled it out making a resounding 'pop' sound as she did so.

"We're getting to know each other already. I call this progress." She joked before sliding back the rejected treat into her mouth. The Uchiha smirked at her joke and its double meaning to what he had been musing about inwardly. His eyes travelled up to look at her straight in the eyes.

Sakura met his gaze and raised an eyebrow.

"Your shirt; I'll need you to take it off." She said this as if she'd expected him to have done it already without her stating to do so. The Uchiha stared at her with a hint of apprehension his inky black eyes.

"Look, you have training. I have training. Can we just hurry up with this routine check-up?" Sakura pleaded. It wasn't like she was having the time of her life here. Heck, she wasn't supposed to be here unless someone had an axe embedded into some part of their body—or something to that effect. In fact the axe scenario was a lot more common than people thought. So it has placed itself under the list of minor incidents. Not that she'd ever deny anyone to be treated by her, it was just that other medics were skilled enough to handle most cases therefore leaving her to focus on more threatening injuries and research; As well as her ANBU duties.

Long story short; they usually called her in for bigger stuff. And a physical for Uchiha Sasuke was neither life-threatening nor of utter importance—but he scared the living shit out of everyone he looked at so I guess this was a special case.

"Your shirt, Uchiha." She tugged at the hem impatiently to drive her point further. "Take it off."

"Getting physical already, I see…." A lazy voice wafted over to the two glaring young ninjas. Sakura let out an exasperated sigh, turning to cast a glowering gaze at her uninvited visitor. "Oi, Kaka-sensei, unless you are dying of internal bleeding," Sakura waved her hand from his head to his feet as she dragged out her sentence with a scowl "Since I don't see any wrong with you externally, I would like you to leave."

Kakashi feigned a hurt look, though it was hard to do considering a huge chunk of his face was covered by his headband and mask. "I just wanted to see how he was doing."

"They actually let you just walk in on a session?"

The silver-haired ninja shrugged. "Uh…yeah." He was Hatake Kakashi—that was all the authority he needed.

Sasuke, who was ignored ever since his sensei walked in, began to get up and make his way to the still open door. He was about to walk past Sakura when she raised a strong arm to stop him from leaving. "Shirt off."

She was not going to reschedule this appointment.

"Dominatrix—who knew?" Kakashi stated, looking at Sasuke, as he scratched his head casually, ignoring the hostile glare Sakura gave him as she blushed at his perverted comment.

Sasuke smirked decided to have a little fun. "You should she what she can do with a needle."

"On hindsight maybe we did go a little too far." Kakashi muttered, more to himself than to anyone else. He was sporting a bruise on his left arm—a nasty one at that. Sasuke on the other hand, got off without a scratch. The Uchiha had seen his lady friend punch his sensei when he was at mid-laugh and was able to brace himself for an attack on him as well.

Kakashi glared at the bruise that the young medic was tending to. "She didn't even heal it." He grumbled unperturbed by the medic's giggles that slipped out of her mouth ever so often as she listened in on the topic the two stoic men were discussing.

"Your whole physical, she ignored me."

"You called her a dominatrix."

Kakashi shrugged. "She bruised me didn't she?"

Naruto grumbled a slur of profanities as he awoke from his little nap under the tree. "Hey, I was here on time, you don't get to kick me." He sat up quickly, rubbing his left arm. The blonde angled his head up to see who his assailant was. The glare that peaked out from the foliage blinded him for a few seconds before he grew accustomed to the brightness.

His eyes refocused and soon he found himself staring right at Sakura's irritated face. "Someone's in a violent mood today." His blue eyes were filled with laughter as they took in Sakura's face; shadowed slightly by the leaves and her current bad mood.

Sakura scoffed and crosses her arms. "If someone called you a dominatrix you'd be too." Naruto grinned foxily and rubbed his shoulder some more. "You kicking me on the shoulder isn't really helping your case." It was funny how Sakura grew so red at such a short amount of time. It was a blush Hinata would indeed be proud of.

"Shut up, Naruto." She said in a small voice, still embarrassed over the whole dominatrix bonanza that's been going around of late. However, the snarky remarks and light-hearted jabs were something she had been craving for. These past few months had been tense for some unknown reason. Her mind jogged a memory of Naruto; totally serious faced, telling her to leave without so much as a small explanation over what was going on.

And then after that, she'd seen nobody besides elite ANBU officers and Tsunade. It had her disgruntled for the rest of the months that came forth. However, as she looked down at one of her best friends, she was finally starting to feel like things were normalizing again.

Whatever happened the first six months must've been some sort of issue between her old team and the newly returned missing-nin. She had no part of it, she figured, that was why she had not been as included in their affairs for the past few months. He was after all a close comrade to them—though it kind of struck a chord to know that they had chosen to blatantly not include her in anything.

But well, she had her own share of things to worry about anyway; like her weird dreams and headaches. Not to mention her weird interest for the very person that had seemed to ostracize her from her very close net of friendship.

She had to admit. Sakura felt herself an outsider when it came to matters that pertained to the Uchiha. It was like he had been part of everyone's lives but hers. And yet, all she could do was wonder if in some point he was something in her life but if not, which was probably true since she had absolutely no memory of him whatsoever, she wanted him to be something—involved in her life.

The blonde broke her out of her thoughts. "Don't look now but I think the first sources of your misery are fast approaching." Naruto used his chin to point out Sasuke and Kakashi. "Mention the word dominatrix again and I swear you will have no children in the near future."

Naruto put a hand on his chest and let out a sigh. "That was cold, Sak." His tone was playful and a little strained from getting up after such a long time on lying on the ground in an awkward position. The blonde stretched out his legs, making a satisfied groan when a few of his joints popped.

The other two shinobi had reached them just as Naruto turned back to look at Sakura. "Took your time, didn't you?" Sakura grumbled in annoyance, still sore over what transpired earlier that morning. Her gaze moved from Sasuke's stoic face to Kakashi's pleasant one.

"I had to have my arm healed. Y'know internal bleeding that you refused to heal." Kakashi patted Sakura's head fondly before grinning. "But you are forgiven." The rosette rolled her eyes at her old sensei. Yeah, she like she was going to apologize in the first place.

But she let go of the incident. It wasn't as if she completely new to Kakashi's way of showing endearment. "Glad you guys finally invited me to one of these things." She indicated to the gathering with a swipe of her hand. "What're we doing?" she asked, ready for the exciting training exercise that only the silver-haired nin could come up with.

Naruto looked at Sasuke, a glint of determination in both the young men's eyes. "You ready for hell, teme?" the blonde taunted; an air of competition arose quickly from the two shinobi. Sakura glanced at them curiously and regarded Kakashi with an interested look.

"Are they always like this?" she asked.

Sasuke heard her innocent question and immediately a strange weight rested itself on his stomach. He glanced at the rosette who'd began conversing with his sensei animatedly about how friendly competition was vital among team mates.

Her question was simple—playful—even. Yet it had struck him as if she had insulted him gravely. To think he never really cared much of what people said.

The Uchiha threw a quick look to Naruto, already the blonde had made his way into the conversation and was already getting bonked on the head by the only female. A little feeling of isolation encircled him as he watched them argue about something that was probably irrelevant.

Would he ever be able to act normally around her as he used to even though deep within his conscious something in him will always want what he once had back? He'd build new relations with her but will his undiscerning want for how it used to be ever go away?

He raked a hand through his raven locks in frustration—now he knows why he was assigned psychiatric counselling from Yamanka Ino.

"Teme, stop being a weirdo-loner and get over here! Kaka-sensei is setting up the rules." Naruto waved him over quickly, not waiting for him to respond before turning back to the conversation. Sakura gave him a quick smile to apologize for her comrade's choice of words

For some reason, Naruto's statement and Sakura's supplement to it were a relief to him. What he's just said early was very similar to what he might have said back when they were twelve. And the rosette's apologetic smile also felt like something familiar; plus the fact that it seemed so natural to her was another up to his mood.

The young Uchiha wanted to punch himself right in the face for being such a sentimental mess. He refused to believe that he the bonds the he thought he'd severed meant more to him than he let known. Oh, the laughs and 'I-told-you-so's' he'd get from the blonde.

But he returned for a reason right?

"Wait! I'm just watching?!" Sakura yelled. Kakashi nodded, putting a hand on Sasuke's shoulder when he joined the circle. "Sorry, Sak. But you only get to watch for now—don't worry it'll be fun." He said reassuringly with an evil glint in his eye that made even Sasuke feel a little insecure.

"Now." Kakashi clapped, getting the attention of the three powerful young ninjas. "Same rules as the first three attempts." He brought out the worn bells. "But with some inspiration." He gestured to Sakura with a jerk of his head to the left.

"Didn't we already take the bells?" Sakura asked Naruto who nodded. "Yeah, but teme hasn't. And the rules are different. No weapons, limited amount of chakra and no special techniques while Kakashi has full usage of them"

Sakura gaped. "So you're going in with almost nothing?" They had vast amounts of chakra and were used to using it to the full. Cutting down their chakra tanks to the level Naruto mentioned, which was one-fourth, would mean them using the amount of chakra they had roughly when they were genin. Which meant that they wouldn't be able to do much even if they wanted to; their newer jutsus required way more chakra.

Although, genin-level chakra tanks were still doable—to a well-trained shinobi, it was all just a matter of how to use it. But the huge catch was that they could not use any jutsus. Talk about challenging.

"You're going genin style, eh?" fitting since they both, technically, were of genin status. Wise old man Kakashi has struck again.

"Something like that." Sasuke answered. He'd expected Sakura to give them both a sympathetic smile but instead he got a slap on the back followed by a grin. "Well, he was right. This will be fun."

"Only because you don't have to do it." The Uchiha retorted, crossing his arms as he glared at Kakashi.

"Children, shut up. The challenge starts in 3, 2, 1—poof! Kakashi disappeared in a cloud of smoke. "Here we go." Naruto groaned as he and Sasuke sprung to action. Sakura, feeling it time to find a quiet place to watch jumped up a tree and sat on one of its high branches, her legs dangling as she settled herself into a comfortable position.

"How many?" Sasuke asked, his eyes roaming the forest with careful footing. The grounds Kakashi chose was treacherous in its landscape alone. "Five….. Eight—shit! Ten!" Naruto glanced around them. "And they're everywhere."

If the old man's tactic was to tire them out, he had it all figured out; from what the blonde gathered, Kakashi had spread out over the huge expanse of forest. It would take forever to track one clone down and if they get it wrong, which was highly possible, it would give the silver-haired pervert to regroup and switch positions.

"How many clones can you make—fuck." Sasuke had just about rendered a plan in his head but stopped short on further developments when he remembered that they couldn't use jutsus of any sort. He half turned to Naruto.

"I say we go for the one of the nearest ones. He's bound to keep a close eye on us." Naruto suggested, still staring into the trees on his right where he felt the closest signal. "But he might be toying with us and is sitting on his ass somewhere farther." Sasuke's point was valid. It is a high possibility.

But with two good points, where would they decide to go?

Sakura, from her tree, giggled and whistled to catch the boy's attention. "You guys need to be a little more creative." She was playful in countenance when she spoke; meaning no insult to the two young men beneath her. "We didn't get steal the bells from him the traditional way." The statement was directed to both boys; A reminder to Naruto and helpful advice to Sasuke.

The Uchiha flicked his eyes to the blonde and asked him how exactly they'd gotten the bells the first time. "We stole his book and threatened to spoil the ending. Sakura's idea," Naruto replied with a grin. "Plus she evened out the playing field." He said, using his hands to make quotation marks in the air.

Sasuke's eyes travelled up to Sakura who supplemented Naruto's statement with a gesture: she punched her palm— shedding light to what Naruto meant by "evened out" the playing field.

Just then, a figure blurred past them and attempted to attack Sasuke with a kunai. The Uchiha side-stepped quickly, grabbing the man as he did so, and kneed him in the stomach earning a weird squishy sound when his knee came in contact with his opponents middle.

"Someone got a little bored." Sasuke drawled out when the clone disappeared in a cloud of smoke. It was Kakashi trying to aggravate them the dark-haired shinobi thought; A tactic that would test their patience.

"If he's doing this to piss us off, it's working." Naruto bellowed from a few yards away. He too was engaged in battle. Two Kakashi shadow clones, both armed, sped towards him with remarkable speed.

Once slashed at his right while the other, at his left—giving him no room to dodge except for either up or down. And whichever of the two he picked, he'd end up in a position where both clones had the upper hand.

So he chose the lesser of two evils. The blonde leapt up to avoid the sharp knives but was careful to jump only high enough to evade getting slashed, any higher and he'd be opening himself up to series of kicks and punches in the air—similar to Sasuke's Lion's Barrage.

And that would hurt.

However, as soon as he leapt up, the clones came to a halt and shifted their weight to rebound to the other direction as they did, both clones launched their kunais at the kyuubi-host. This all happened in a split second and if Naruto had not reacted quickly, two kunais would be lodged into both his shoulders.

He'd dropped to the ground, missing the kunais by only a millisecond—it whizzed through the air so quickly and closely to him that he could feel a grazing sensation on his skin from the wind. As his back hit the ground, he rolled over far to his right avoiding yet another attack from the two Kaka-clones—the two were about to tackle him but he'd escaped in time.

Huffing and puffing, Naruto jerked up fast and began pumping chakra to his feet. He ran towards the clones and flung out his arm to hit one clone's jaw. Twirling around hastily but with grace, Naruto brought up his elbow and slammed it hard against the other's chest.

Both clones disappeared simultaneously in puffs of smoke leaving Naruto with some breathing room. "Dobe!" Sasuke yelled nearing him. The Uchiha dove forward and snatched a kunai that was lodged onto the ground.

His hands found that handle rather quickly and once he had a firm grip he pulled it out; throwing it in another direction seconds only before it exploded. The obsidian-eyed young man glared up at the slightly shocked blonde. "You didn't notice the exploding tag?" he asked sarcastically as he got up.

Naruto looked abashedly at his teammate. "Heh. Guess not…"

"Risky move though, Uchiha..." Sakura commented again. Exploding tags were rigged to explode within seconds. Sasuke's stunt could've have cost him his arm—and his pretty face. "Wouldn't it have made more sense to tackle him out of the way?"

Sasuke smirked at her. "I'm fast enough."

The rosette made a snort and chastised the Uchiha's actions. He was fast—yes. But to take on a huge risk despite having seen a better alternative was crazy. "You're lucky you have the power and abilities to back up your arrogance." Sakura said. "Otherwise, you would've died years ago…."

Her sentiment was answered with a shrug from the two boys. "I have an idea." Sasuke pointed to where Kakashi had laid a pouch of some sort at the bottom of the tree where they found Naruto and Sakura.

"He left something there." Naruto was a little confused over his statement. "Yeah, so?" he asked, still not understanding where his teammate was going. It was normal to let go of some weapons during training, he'd done so many a time especially if he felt the need for less weight on his person.

Sasuke strode over to the tree with quick light steps, approaching the tree with purpose. "How did you beat him last time?"

Naruto sighed. "I told you—we stole his boo-" with a startled gasp, the blonde bent over to pick up the pouch. "You mean inside this is his pervy book?!" he waved the pouch around before he flipped the flap open.

The Uchiha, happy to find a solid piece of hope to cling on to, grabbed the book from Naruto. He stared at the obscene piece of literature he now held in his hand with distaste. Their sensei had disguised in his weapons' pouch to drive attention away from it—probably thought that they wouldn't be able to use it against him unlike last time.

Naruto glanced at the book over Sasuke's shoulder. He pressed a finger on the lower right side of the book. Written there, in big bold letters, was: LIMITED EDITION

They hit the jackpot.

Sasuke turned to Naruto, "Here's the plan."

Naruto positioned himself at the center of the grounds, Kakashi's book held right in front of him; page turned to the last one—the ending. Just like what they did the first time.

His eyes picked up movement from the left side—Sasuke was coming; and with a few clones—three at most—at his tail judging from the chakra signatures he felt. They were a little too far still…. He needed them closer.

The goal was to get the clones to see that they had the book—there was no faster and better way to get the message to Kakashi.

Clink

Swoosh

They were now close enough for the plan to work.

"Okay! Kaka-sensei! Here goes nothing!" He bellowed, amplifying the volume of his voice to the fullest. "Put your big mouth to good use and lure him in." Sasuke's voice echoed in his head. The blonde shifted his weight to the right, taking in a deep breath before shouting again.

Suddenly a flurry of clones, from all sides, flew out of the woods. Naruto shut the book and prepared to defend himself from the onslaught of shadow clones. He ducked to his left, merely missing an exploding kunai then sidestepped three poisoned senbon that were aimed at his shoulder.

"Get rid of the clones, old man!" Naruto yelled. He kicked one clone that attempted to tackle him from behind. "I have your book!"

One Kakashi clone help up a hand. It took a few seconds for Naruto to realize that it was the real Hatake Kakashi. The silver haired ninja clapped his hands slowly, in a mocking-toned applause. "Yes, yes, you have my book… But you see,"

Sasuke, who sat concealed behind a thick bush, listened in carefully.

"I've already read that book—so you won't be able to spoil the ending for me." He'd taken with him the actual book that he was reading and left one of his old ones behind figuring that a tactic similar to what they had done in the past might come into play.

It was Naruto's turn to mock his sensei. "What make you think we're going to read it?" he asked rhetorically as he grabbed a single page and made a ripping gesture. "No, kaka-sensei, we're going to destroy this limited edition book."

Sakura, who'd been lounging in her tree lazily straightened up so abruptly she almost fell off. Why was it that it always boiled down to his book? At least she only threatened to read the ending, Sasuke plan promised its demise.

"Evil—pure evil."

Back on the grounds, Kakashi and Naruto were both staring down each other. "Uzumaki, give me the book and no one gets fatally hurt."

"One on one battle with no clones or your book gets fatally damaged." Naruto retorted, swinging the book casually.

"Fine but you've made me mad." He held up a hand sign. One by one, the clones started disappearing into puffs of smoke. Naruto looked please with himself until he looked at Kakashi; he was starting to remove his headband which meant only one thing.

"Holy shit, he's going to use the Sharingan." Sakura whispered.

And that was Sasuke's cue.

The dark-haired shinobi, in a dizzying blur of motion, lightning stepped to Kakashi and hit his chakra points; stunning the silver-haired shinobi and blocking the flow from his chakra tank which did more than just limit his chakra—it temporarily disabled his Sharingan.

"Consider the playing field even." Sasuke muttered as he grabbed the bells from the stunned man's belt and held it up to his face.

Naruto tossed the book to the ground and ran to his teammate. It was their third or fourth attempt at this exercise and to finally have come out victorious—the blonde felt so free.

"Dobe, don't touch me." Sasuke shoved Naruto away from him. He was not going to hug the idiot.

"We need to! We've accomplished something together." Sasuke cringed at the way it sounded as did Naruto when he realized what he just said and the double meaning behind it.

Sakura jumped down from her tree and began to unblock Kakashi's chakra flow. "Good job, guys." She said with a smile directed to both of them. She helped Kakash who, as soon as he got his movement back, grabbed the book from the ground and pressed it to his chest.

"Brats." He said as he stroked his poor book.

"How did your training go?" Ino asked professionally, pen at the ready to take down necessary notes. Her baby blue eyes were serious but friendly as she gazed at Sasuke expectantly. The Uchiha took a breath to buy himself time to figure out an answer.

"Natural." He said, not knowing how else to describe what he felt about it. He could've have said something that ventured more about their triumph but he knew what Ino was looking for and figured that it would be good for him to follow her flow.

He thought training would be awkward with Sakura there. Yet, it was the complete opposite. She would butt in, make comments and even joke around.

"You know, Sasuke… You haven't completely lost her." Ino offered quietly, giving him a soft smile. Sasuke looked affronted. "Who said anything about me losing her?" He wasn't afraid of losing her—he probably already did— the moment her memories of him were taken.

But Ino said otherwise.

"You mean to say that the fear I sense whenever I enter your mind comes from a different source?" She leaned back and crossed her legs. "Then what do you fear, Uchiha Sasuke?"

His first reaction was to glare and say that he feared nothing. Because, well—he didn't. But then as the question replayed in his mind, the more he thought that there was indeed something he feared.

It was silent in the room. Ino had left him to think things over and had begun writing her notes while Sasuke stayed deathly still on his chair; his mouth taut with tension that engulfed his whole body.

That question bugged him more than he thought it would. Sasuke blinked and thought hard, her question reverberating throughout his skull—he could literally see the question written in bold letters moving around his head begging to be answered.

He was brought back to his musings earlier today when he was having his physical. His fear was more about would he be able to let go of what he once had? Will his new start with Sakura be clouded by memories of the past—the one she would never remember?

"I don't want to live a lie." He was not going to fake things, Sakura remembered things differently and meeting her views would be too stressful.

"Did you feel bothered in general when you were interacting?" she inquired. Sasuke shook his head. No, sometimes memories would play in his mind but his overall feeling when he and Sakura interacted was pleasantly natural and easy.

"It felt…" he hesitated with his sentence but took to Ino's prodding. "It wasn't hard." It was fun, even. Not what he was expecting at all.

Ino smiled and closed her notebook. "Then that, Uchiha Sasuke, is progress. Sometimes, things like these can't be over-thought. You sometimes just have to just flow." Ino knew that at the back of his mind Sasuke was nervous about what if the new wouldn't hit the spot of the old. It was in all of their minds when Sakura's memories were altered. But they turned out fine—and he will too.

Everyone thought they'd have a different Sakura but that wasn't the case. She was just as they remembered and it's not like the brought Sasuke up anyway. However, this was where their cases varied from Sasuke. He was the one who was never to be referenced so trying to forge a new relationship with the rosette was more a strain on him than anyone else.

But nevertheless, he'd pull through.

She caught his gaze.

"You and Sakura have a new playing field—and you may miss the old one but you'll learn to play this one just fine. She's still the same Sakura."

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