Authors note: Bah! Havent updated in a long time! Im sorry :( I had family drama going on. But I can finally get back to writing. Forgive me and give me reviews? :) Hope you like this chapter!

Sakura awoke that morning, her eyes stung with the tears she had cried so late last night and so early this morning. She awoke, all curled up on Ino's couch. For a second, she had forgotten that she had spent the night at Ino's house. The nice comfy blanket was surrounding her and she was very comfortable and warm.

But then she remembered why she was here.

She remembered how Itachi had kissed her last night. How Sakura had freaked out and left him standing there. She hated that he had kissed her, but why was she feeling this feeling of regret? She suddenly felt bad for leaving Itachi alone, not even giving him a chance to explain what happened. It could have been just an accident...

No. It was meant to happen.

But why? Why would Itachi like her? Out of all the beautiful girls in the village, why would he choose his little brothers girlfriend? It made no sense. Sakura immediately wanted to know why he had kissed her, but then she was afraid. What if he would do it again?

As she was in deep thought, she heard someone trotting down the stairs. She looked over, to see Ino's beautiful mom coming down. She smiled at Sakura as she reached the bottom step.

"Good morning, Sakura," she smiled. "Are you feeling better this morning? Ino told me that you were pretty upset last night. Is everything alright?"

Sakura knew Ino well enough to know that Ino had obviously not told her mother about Itachi. So Sakura just nodded and smiled a fake smile. "Yes, I was having a bit of friend drama last night. It upset me...but im alright now."

"Well good." Ino's mom said nodding. "We love you, here, Sakura. You are welcome in this home whenever you need us. It doesnt matter when, we're always here."

"Thank you." Sakura thanked, feeling loved and honored.

"You are very welcome." she nodded again. "Are you hungry? I was just about to fix some steamed rice and an omelet. Would you like to eat breakfast?"

Sakura couldn't even imagine eating at her state right now. Her stomach was cramped up and she knew she would throw up if she ate just one grain of rice. She shook her head. "No, thank you. I really need to be getting out of here...is Ino sleeping?"

"Ino has already headed out on her 3-day mission. She had to leave early to meet up with the boys, Shikamaru and Choji." her mother explained. "She told me to make sure you were alright before you left. Are you sure you would not like some breakfast?"

"No, thank you." Sakura said again. "My stomach is a little upset. I think im going to head home and get ready to go see Sasuke, I need to visit him today."

"I see. Well, if you ever need us..."

"I'll come here, first thing." Sakura smiled. Ino's mom smiled back and began to walk towards the kitchen. Sakura tossed the small blanket off of her and threw her legs over the couch. She rubbed her head at first, she had a huge headache. She halfway thought about getting some pain medicine from Ino's mom, but she had shook her head to it. She wouldn't bother them anymore than she already had.

After she had stood up and folded the blanket back the way it was before, she had slipped on her shoes at the door and called out to Ino's mom, to tell her she was leaving. Afterwards, she left the house and began to make her way slowly back to her own home.

Surprisingly, her mind was blank on the way there. She had refused to think about the Itachi situation anymore, at least until her headache went away. She was startled to see that Naruto was waiting for her as soon as she reached her house. He sat on the front step, almost in a daze. He looked tired.

"Naruto?" Sakura asked, approaching him. He was tired. He hadn't even noticed her walk up! "Naruto, are you alright?"

"Oh, Sakura.." Naruto said, sleepily. "Its about time I found you..."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, confused.

"We had a two-man mission we are supposed to do around the village. Lady Tsunade sent me to get you, but when I knocked on your door, you never answered. I looked all over the village for you, but I never found you. Where were you?" He asked, his look frustrated.

"I was at Ino's house." Sakura replied.

"Ugh..." Naruto said laying back on the steps. "The only place I WOULDN'T look..."

Sakura sighed. "What time did you come looking for me anyway? Its still early in the morning..."

"I came around about...seven o'clock, I guess. Its now turning nine-thirty." Naruto said.

"What mission is it? Why so early?"

"We were supposed to go help some farmers feed their animals or something. I don't know, I was too tired to pay attention." Naruto dragged. "Anyway, its taken care of now. They just sent Guy's team to do it."

Sakura sighed. "Im sorry, Naruto." she apologized. She sat next to him on the stairs and dropped her chin in her palms. "I was stressed out last night, so I went to Ino's."

Suddenly, Naruto was alert. "Stressed? About what?" he asked concerned.

"Same old, same old." Sakura lied. "Sasuke and all."

"Oh." Naruto said dissopointed. "Hes not doing any better, huh?"

"No..."

"I'm sorry. Its hard...even for me." Naruto said looking down at his feet.

"Yeah...I miss him." Sakura said, almost in a whisper. She forced her tears back, she would not cry anymore. She had done enough of it last night.

"Me too." Naruto said quietly, as if Sasuke were around the corner and would jump out and tease him for saying such a thing. "I miss my rival."

"You guys were always fighting...thats the only thing I don't miss..." she rolled her eyes at the memories.

"Oh, c'mon, Sakura. It was fun to always fight!" Naruto said, his natural hyper personality kicking in.

Sakura shook her head and stood to her feet. "I guess."

"Where you going?" Naruto asked, following Sakura with his eyes.

"I'm going inside. Im really tired...are you going to go visit Sasuke today?" Sakura asked, placing her hand on the door knob.

"Im going to try. Are you?"

"Later." she said twisting the knob. "See ya, Naruto..."

"Hey, wait!" Naruto stopped her. "We don't see each other much anymore...do you want to hang out today? Maybe go grab a bite to eat for lunch? I'll pay."

"Your paying?" Sakura asked looking over her shoulder. Naruto nodded. Sakura yawned. "What the heck. Sure." she agreed.

"One o'clock sound good?" Naruto asked. "We can meet at the hospital at twelve, stay for an hour, and head out then."

"Sounds good to me." Sakura said, ready to agree with anything at that moment. "Just let me get some sleep."

"Alright. See you later." Naruto said standing up off of her steps. Sakura nodded in return and made her way into her house.

When she opened the door, the aroma of her own home filled her nose. She was happy to be home, and she quickly slipped off her shoes and made her way to her bed. Once again, she refused to think of Itachi. She just simply pulled the covers up to her chin and fell asleep.

Sakura woke up from her nap around eleven-thirty. Eleven twenty-eight, to be exact. Her eyes still felt tired, but she forced herself to get up. After she was up, she felt well enough to eat something now. She made her way to her kitchen and grabbed a small protein bar, and sat at the table, eating it slowly. The protein bar would hold her over until she went to lunch with Naruto today.

After she was finished eating it, she brushed her tangled pink hair, and got ready to go meet Naruto at the hospital. She felt weird about going, though. Like, she was wanting to see Sasuke, but afraid to at the same time. Almost like he knew about the kiss. She shook it out of her mind. There was no way Sasuke knew, but she couldn't help but feel that way.

After she was completely ready, she slipped on her shoes and made her way out of the house. She locked the door behind her, and stretched in the sunlight. She began to walk calmly on her way to the hospital.

When she got there, she took the elevator to Sasukes room. Of course, Naruto wasn't there yet. Here lately, he had begun to get the reputation of being late for everything...Kakashi must have started to rub off on him.

Sakura sighed as she took a magazine she had to have read at least fifteen times, sat down in the too familiar stool, and began reading it yet again. She almost knew what every page said, just by the page number on the bottom. She told herself from now on, she would bring her own magazines.

Naruto arrived about fifteen minutes later, and he brought a few items. For one, his wallet. And he also brought something else that Sakura had never seen before. It was a wooden statue, about as large as someones palm. It was the Japanese symbol that meant "hope". Naruto put it on Sasukes table, right next to the flowers Sakura had put there not too long ago.

"Whats that?" Sakura asked, examining the small wooden statue.

"It means hope." Naruto said, as if he knew something.

"I know that." Sakura rolled her eyes. "Where'd you get it?"

"I paid Shikamaru a couple bucks to make it for me. Did you know he's good at stuff like that? I didn't. But anyway, he complained the whole time, but he made it. I thought it was a good little antique for Sasuke to have." Naruto said proudly.

"Well thats nice." Sakura smiled. "That was very nice of you to do that, Naruto."

Naruto smiled sheepishly, and then sat next to Sakura. The two of them talked for a good while, just about everything. Sakura had forgotten about how close she and Naruto used to be. They hadn't hung out much since they stopped going on missions, so it was a nice change for all of this to happen.

Pretty soon, it reached one o'clock. Naruto stood up from the chair and took Sakura's hand, bringing her out of the chair, just like a gentleman would do. Sakura smiled.

"Oh, so now you deiced to be a gentleman?" Sakura teased.

"I was always a gentleman, you just never noticed." Naruto raised a brow.

Sakura smiled. "Oops. Well, are you ready to go eat?"

"I sure am! Ramen shop, here we come!" He exclaimed.

"Ramen shop?" Sakura asked, raising a brow of her own and placing her hands on her hips. "I don't want ramen. I want a real meal."

"Hey, who's paying?" Naruto asked, waving his wallet in the air. "I get to decided."

"Naruto, when you invite a girl out, your supposed to go where she wants to go..." Sakura rolled her eyes.

Naruto crossed his arms. "We'll talk about it. Lets go before I change my mind all together." he said. Sakura shaking her head, followed Naruto out of the room. The two walked to the elevator and went down to the first level. As soon as they were on the first level, they began to exit the hospital, when all of a sudden, a bunch of doctors and nurses come flying around the corner, all rushing to the staircase. Sakura and Naruto stopped at the main desk, watching all the action.

"Whats going on?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know." Sakura replied, her eyes glued to the doctors rushing up the stairs.

"We have a patient dying! A patient dying! Room 340! We need medical assistance, now!" a doctor called out over an intercom.

"Room 340?" Naruto asked. "Sakura, isn't that..."

"Who's the patient?" a nurse called out over the mess.

"Sasuke Uchiha! We need medical assistance now, hes not breathing! Gather nurses and come up immediately!" the doctor called back.

"Sasuke..." Naruto spoke, his voice so quiet, Sakura barely even heard it.

"No..." she said, her voice almost not even there.

It turns out the hope statue was too late.