Author's Note: Hey everyone! Thank you so much for your support and reviews. :) I hope I can get a few more chapters out before the break ends - I'm working on trying to get them out as soon as I can. If you like what you're reading, please review! I really like reading your comments.

I'm also still looking for a Beta, so please PM me if you're interested! Thank you again!

The next week of school lasted about three days because we were out for Thanksgiving. It was enough time, however, to update Tenten on what had happened at the now-infamous football banquet.

Tenten smirked when I told her about my confrontation with Karin while we were in a classroom working on the school newspaper before class started (I was still in charge of taking pictures for it occasionally). "I knew she was upset about that," she said, and I believed her. Tenten was good at picking up gossip from her position as editor-in-chief of the school newspaper (the old one had quit). "Also, I heard from Shikamaru," she admitted. Now that he was part of the newspaper, I had been seeing Shikamaru a lot lately.

I rolled my eyes. "I didn't expect her to come find me like that though."

"We all know Karin's insane." Tenten said it like it was common knowledge. I guess it was, after last Friday. It was strange, even though Karin had been more than willing to let me know how much she disliked me before everything happened, she had never actually confronted me about it like that. I guess I was really getting to her.

"Hey guys," Ino sat down in the desk next to me, "are you talking about Karin's little blow-out this weekend?"

"You would be correct," Tenten replied. She didn't have a lot of patience for Ino, because she associated her with all of the other popular girls that were constantly rude, but she usually made an effort to conceal it for me.

"Apparently she's been going mental all weekend," Ino told us. I felt like she had already told a lot of people before us. "I don't know why Sasuke hasn't broken up with her yet, honestly. He usually doesn't have the patience for this sort of thing."

"Yeah," I said, "I would have thought that he would have ended it sooner." Or, you know, not have started dating Karin at all because he was supposed to love me. But whatever, it's not like I was bitter or anything.

Ino gave me a strange look, that turned into a knowing one. "I heard that Sasuke was talking to Naruto about you," she said slyly. I wondered if I was that gossipy before. Probably, but I still liked hearing about it.

"If you heard that from Naruto it's probably made up," I said. Naruto's stories tended to get a little out of control.

Ino shrugged. "Whatever you say."

She left a few minutes before class started, and Tenten sighed. "I kind of miss the time before you were popular," she was teasing, but I knew that what she said was true.

"Oh come on Tenten," I said, "you know you and Hinata and I are still best friends. Even though I'm practically famous now." I winked, but I couldn't help feeling that a little of it was true. Ever since I had officially become friends with Ino, and Naruto had been sitting with us at lunch, more people had been talking to me in the hallways. It was like I had suddenly stopped being invisible or something.

Tenten grumbled something. I could tell that she didn't like change, but she would get over it. I had changed since my days of popularity - it's not like I was going to ditch her now that I was getting my old friends back (even though I was the only one who knew about it). My friend group was only expanding, not becoming more exclusive.

"What do you think about this picture?" I held up the cameras that the school issued out for the yearbook committee. There was a group picture of the football team seniors on the tiny camera screen.

Tenten nodded. "I think it would make a good page for the yearbook. Nice job Sakura!"

"Thanks," I grinned.

My day passed by pretty fast. Most of the teachers didn't give us a lot of work because the week was so short. I did get glared at by Karin a few times during the classes we had together though.

At lunch, Sasuke was sitting at our table again. Naruto said something about Karin being in tutoring, but Hinata gave me a knowing look, and I knew that something else was going on between between Sasuke and Karin. Is it bad that it made me happy?

To my surprise, Ino and Shikamaru moved to our table too. It was almost like I had my old friends back, without all of the bitchy people. "I hope you don't mind," Ino told me, while sitting down in the chair on my right, "I'm in the mood for change."

Tenten, who was seated on my left, grumbled, but it was only loud enough for me to hear.

"Be nice," I whispered to her.

"What's going on with you guys?" Ino asked Naruto and Hinata. "Did you have a nice time this weekend?" Naruto had taken Hinata out to the city for a date. According to Hinata, it was really fancy, and Naruto had been sweet. Naruto must have saved up for that for a while.

"Getting ready for Thanksgiving," Naruto grinned, "I'm spending it with Hinata's family!"

Hinata blushed.

"That's awesome!" Ino beamed. "I've only met Shikamaru's family once." Shikamaru's parents were usually busy with their jobs - they both worked at a hospital, so they had long hours.

"You're not missing out on a lot," Shikamaru said boredly. He hated small talk.

"What are you doing for Thanksgiving, Sasuke?" said Ino brightly.

"Itachi's out of town, so it's just me," Sasuke replied. He didn't seem to be very bummed about it, but I knew that it had bothered him. Back when he remembered me, Sasuke and Naruto usually came over to my house to celebrate (my family was small, and mom always made too much food anyway). It was fun. However, my mom had announced at dinner the other night that her sister was coming over, along with her mother. In all honesty, my aunt and my grandmother weren't easy to get along with, and I wasn't looking forward to the "family time" I would have over the holiday.

When the conversation inevitably turned to me, I told everyone about how a lot of family was coming over.

"Are you excited for that?" Naruto asked.

"Overjoyed." I answered, deadpan. Hinata giggled.

Ino brought a whole new energy to the table that I hadn't realized that I missed until I got it back. We were friends again, I thought, at least I had done something right. "Sakura," she said, "we should hang out over break! We still haven't gotten a chance to go shopping yet!"

"Oh yeah!" I beamed. "We should definitely go. I know a lot of good places that you would love!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Count me out," he said, "please."

"Like you were invited," Ino laughed, "I've learned my lesson about taking you shopping with me."

Art class was nice. Deidara seemed to be less concerned with teaching us, and more interested in what we could come up with on our own. Since my skills were more unrefined than the rest of the class, he would occasionally offer guidance with my techniques.

"Try adding a bit of shadow there," Deidara said, gesturing to a part of my painting. It was of something simple - a pond, before a storm. At least, that's what I said it was. It was more surrealist than anything - not on purpose, of course.

I nodded, and began to do what he said-

"No," Deidara shook his head, "like this." He took the brush out of my hand and demonstrated on my painting. It suddenly looked like it had more depth.

"Wow," I said, impressed.

"Now you," he said impatiently. I tried to imitate what he had done on the painting. "Better," he said. I took it as a compliment.

"That looks good Sakura," Hinata said cheerfully. She was still working on her painting.

"So..." I said, "are you excited to have Naruto over for Thanksgiving?"

Hinata nodded, but looked uncomfortable. "A little nervous, actually," she said, "I've never taken a boy home before. Well, I've never had a boyfriend before so I don't know what my father will do." She was right, Hinata's family was tense already without her bringing someone else in the picture. Still, it they had to break the ice somehow.

"It'll be fine!" I reassured her. "Your cousin Neji's coming right?"

"Yes," said Hinata, "and my uncle and his wife. It's the first time my family's really spent time together since my grandfather died." She looked nervous about that too. Apparently after her father had seen how her and Neji were trying to get to know each other, he had decided to invite the extended family over as a way to make amends for whatever conflict had happened between them.

"So let them work it out and you and Naruto sit by Neji." I said.

She nodded. "I think that's what I'm going to do."

Art passed by quickly, and then I went to calculus again. Where I had sat so many times wishing that Sasuke would talk to me. When I sat down, he was already there this time. Besides nodding at me when I came in the room, we had no other interaction. It made me a little sad, I had thought we had been getting closer lately.

The rest of the week went by in a flash, with Sasuke barely talking to me. I took comfort in the fact that my new/old friends (Ino and Shikamaru) were sitting by me again at lunch. Ino had even started talking to me during English class and AP Psychology when she realized that I had those classes with her. That made Karin livid of course, but I could tell she was out for revenge - the day we got out of break, she made it a point to talk about how happy she was with Sasuke. Then, when I stood up in English to go to the board for something, she tripped me. I fell flat on my face - it was pretty embarrassing.

However, Ino was still convinced that she had been trying to hold on to Sasuke. "Look at how stuck up she's being," she told me, after witnessing my little fall in English, "she's resorting to physical violence. You know there's something up." I had never told her, but Ino knew about my feelings for Sasuke, and I knew she was on my side about it. I guess we still had a connection, even though she didn't remember how close we used to be.

I was a little crushed about the Sasuke situation before break. I knew there was no use in dwelling on it - because he certainly wouldn't be. I would just have to try harder, I thought. But how? Sometimes it seemed like Sasuke wouldn't open up to me. There were times when I thought he would - like at the Homecoming Dance - but it was like he would just retreat back into himself. Away from me.

When I made it home at the end of the day, I was in a bad mood. My parents had gone out with some of their friends into the city, so I was alone for the night. I took the opportunity to sit in bed and read one of my favorite Jane Austen books. I found it nice that, after everything had changed, my book preferences hadn't. Reading had made me feel a little better, and I fell asleep holding my book.

I was at Sasuke's house, and we were sitting on the couch again, watching a movie. I had my head on his shoulder again, and he seemed like he was preoccupied with something.

"Is everything okay?" I asked.

Sasuke looked up, as if he was in a daze, and smiled. "Yes," he said, "sorry, I was just thinking."

I looked up at him. It was like he was worrying about something. "What's up?"

"Just thinking about college." I could tell he was lying.

"Fine," I said, "if you want to tell me what it really is, just let me know." I grinned.

He just rolled his eyes. "I'll let you know later," he promised. "Now is a bad time."

I went to put my head back on his shoulder, but I was suddenly in the emergency room. Naruto was sitting nearby, with his head in his hands. Itachi was standing up, looking shocked for a second, and then hiding behind a scowl. There was a doctor with a face that I could barely make out in front of us.

"Sasuke didn't make it," she was saying, "I'm sorry."

"No," I said. Someone was screaming. I didn't realize it was me until my throat had started to hurt and I was running away from everyone. I didn't realize where I was going until I ended up in front of him. It was almost like he was sleeping, but not quite.

"I'm sorry!" I screamed. "I'm sorry, Sasuke. Please come back - please-" I couldn't speak anymore, I was sobbing so hard. Everything seemed to go black, until my crying died down and all I could do was keep repeating the same words over and over. "Don't leave me... don't leave me..."

I woke up, sobbing. The dream had felt so real, like it was the night at the hospital all over again. I remembered how terrified and broken I felt when I realized that Sasuke probably wouldn't make it through the night. Suddenly, I couldn't handle being inside anymore.

It was seven o' clock in the morning, and I dressed in the warmest clothes I could find at the time, and - after leaving my parents a hurried note about how I was going for a walk - burst out of the door and down my driveway. I felt like running away at that point. I felt overwhelmed by everything, especially the dream I just had about Sasuke dying. I was scared and exhausted, but most of all I was relieved. I was glad that Sasuke wasn't dead. I didn't think I could handle him losing his life like that. I didn't want him to leave me behind.

But then, I thought, he was doing that now without realizing it. And that broke my heart.

When I was outside, I ran until I found a park that Sasuke and I used to go to together to do homework. I found the old oak tree that we used to sit under, and took my place there.

I think I knew she was going to show up, because I didn't even flinch when she found me. "Hello, Sakura."

"Konan," I said, "it's been a while." Today she was wearing a long grey dress, with the same white flower in her hair.

"Indeed it has," she replied, leaning against the tree. "I see you've... progressed."

"Barely." I suddenly felt exhausted, "It's like, when I can finally get him to even talk to me it's great. And then he ignores me for the next few weeks. Is that how he treated all of the other girls? Because it's frustrating."

"I didn't say this would be easy," Konan said, but she sounded tired too this time.

"Where have you been, by the way?" I asked. "Are there others that you're... monitoring?"

Konan had a brooding look on her face, but that turned into a mysterious smile. "There may be others," she said, "but it is no concern of you."

"Whatever," I flung myself back on the tree, "it's not like I'll be around much longer. Come on, tell me."

She only sighed. "You're making progress," she told me. "It's small, but it's there. Remember that."

"Are you trying to help me?" I said, incredulous. But then she was gone and I was alone with my thoughts again.

What did she mean by that? Was it more that I thought? It made me wonder if I still had a chance - it certainly didn't feel like I did. I sighed, was she only saying that to mess with me? I wasn't even sure who (or what) Konan was. Could I trust her?

After considering it, I thought I should trust the witch-lady. Because what else did I have to lose anyway?

I was getting ready to leave after sitting under the tree for awhile - I had been thinking about the times I had been there with Sasuke, but this time I didn't feel as sad, when I heard a rustling of leaves.

"Er, hello," I heard a familiar voice, and saw Sasuke looking down at me.

"Sasuke?" I was suddenly thankful that he hadn't found me crying. "What are you doing here?"

"I should ask you that," he smirked.

"I come here sometimes to be alone," I said. That was true at least - I used to come here by myself sometimes. After everything happened though, I hadn't come back here because I didn't want to make myself sad.

"I do too," he seemed surprised, "but I've never seen you here before."

I shrugged. "I used to come here more often but... I used to come with a friend and it's never been the same since." I had stuck my foot in my mouth again. What was I going to tell him now?

To my surprise though, he just sat down beside me. "I used to come here with a friend too," he admitted. "But it's... strange."

"How so?" I said, a little too quickly.

"It's like they're there, but I can't quite focus on them." Sasuke shook his head. "That probably sounds crazy."

"No," I said, "it really doesn't." Did that mean he could kind of remember me? Were the memories still there somehow - only hidden from him? That gave me some hope. Was there a way that I could remind him without seeming crazy?

He only shrugged, but seemed bothered. "You remind me of them," he admitted, "only I don't understand."

I wasn't sure what to say to that.

"I'm sorry," he said, "that probably sounds strange."

"I've heard stranger," I smiled. I'd experienced stranger, more like it. "Are you having a good break?"

Sasuke only shrugged. "My brother Itachi said he would be here, but he just called me this morning to say that he has to travel out of the country where Thanksgiving doesn't exist to do something. So it really is just me." He smirked. Something told me that he was alone though.

"I'm sorry," I said earnestly. I wasn't sure why he was opening up like this to me. Was it because I still remembered him of his friend (me)? I wished that I could invite him over, or ask him to hang out, but I didn't want to push him away. Besides, Karin would probably invite him over anyway.

"It's fine," he replied, "I'm used to it."

"Thanksgiving's overrated anyway," I told him, "I'm just hoping that my family won't kill each other."

He snorted at my tone of voice, and for a second it was like old times again.

"No, really!" I insisted. "My mom almost murdered my aunt the last time everyone was over! They're crazy!"

We talked for a little while under the tree. Not about anything much, mostly about schoolwork and our friends. It still felt a little forced, but I could feel him opening up more to me. Was it sitting in one of our old spots that made him act like this?

"I should probably go," I said after a while, "my parents are probably wondering where I am." How long had it been anyway? I looked at the screen on my phone - it had been about an hour and a half.

"I'll walk with you," Sasuke said, surprising me even more. What had gotten into him?

On the way there, we talked. "How do you think Naruto's going to do with Hinata's family?" I asked jokingly.

He smirked. "I think that it could go either way - the Hyuuga's will either want to throw him out or they'll love him."

"Everything that has to do with Naruto is kind of extreme," I said.

He agreed. "He can be... aggressive."

I laughed. "Like the time he tackled me in the hallway!"

"I apologized for that," he said. For a second I thought he was about to smile.

"I guess," I said, "he still hasn't made it up to me though." I tossed my hair precociously.

Sasuke just shook his head. This was the closest we'd ever gotten to talking like we used to, and I was ecstatic. "We're here," he said.

I had been so absorbed with talking to him that I hadn't noticed we'd gotten to my house. He must have remembered from the time Naruto dropped me off after the football banquet. I was oddly touched.

"Well, thanks," I said. "Have a good Thanksgiving!"

"Thanks," he said, "you too."

I walked inside in a hurry - I felt excited and strangely nervous. It was a nice change from how I had felt after I woke up. Everything felt lighter now that I had seen Sasuke. I wondered if that was a normal feeling if you loved someone.

"So," my mom was standing beside the door in a pink bathrobe, holding a cup of coffee, "who's that?"

"No one," I said quickly. "Just someone I go to school with, we ran into each other when I was walking."

She eyed me for a second, and then took a sip of coffee. "He's cute," she said.

"He's taken," I sighed, but she shrugged.

"Family's coming today, and I need you to clean your room," she told me. "Grandma's sleeping in your room."

"What!?" I said.

"Please just do this for me," she begged. "I'm giving your aunt the guest bedroom and I can't leave them together. You know how my family gets." Of course I did - Grandma always bothered my aunt (divorced, with no kids) when she was going to get married again and give her grandchildren. Apparently I didn't count.

"Fine," I said, "but please let me get out sometime during Thanksgiving. If I don't have a room I don't know what I'm going to do to be alone."

"Deal," she said, and smiled. "Thank you sweetie."

"Don't mention it," I grumbled, and went upstairs. To be honest, I was glad that I had more time to myself, because I could think more about what I was going to do about Sasuke. After having the dream (and having a reality check) and then getting to see him, I realized that he did remember me, even if it was vague.

That gave me hope.

My family arrived that night, and I could already feel the tension. It was nice to see them, though. It kind of hit me hard when I realized that this Thanksgiving could be my last. Despite the chance that they were going to fight the whole time, I was happy that my mom invited the family over. At least I would get to see them again.

I tried to keep that mindset through the whole break, but by Thanksgiving, I wanted some time away from them. My grandma complained the whole time she was there, and always got offended if things didn't go according to her schedule. I got along better with my aunt, who was a more cynical version of my mom.

"So, do you have a boyfriend?" She asked.

"Almost," my mom chimed in, "he walked by the house yesterday!" She had already had her share of wine today - apparently drinking was how my mom got through spending time with her family.

"Oh really," my aunt said slyly, "was he cute?"

"Very," Mom giggled.

I looked at my dad, who was sitting uncomfortably in the corner. We had already eaten dinner (it was now later in the afternoon), and I felt like it was time for me to go now. Especially if they were asking about Sasuke, which was something I did not want to have to explain to them (especially since my parents used to know Sasuke's family, and insist on inviting him over after they died).

"I'm going to take a walk," I looked at my mom.

She smiled. "Be careful!"

Once I was out of the house, I sighed. I hadn't planned on going anywhere, I just wanted some fresh air after spending so much time with family. But when I was outside the gate, I saw Sasuke again.

"Hey," I said, "are you walking again?"

"What else would I be doing?" He said. He seemed upset about something.

"Is everything okay?" I asked him. He probably wouldn't answer, but I couldn't help but ask.

"It's nothing," he sighed, and I decided not to press it. He would tell me if he was ready. "Where are you going?"

"I don't know," I said, "I'm really just trying to get away from everyone for a while." I wondered why he was walking by my house - his was close, but it was at least a neighborhood away. We didn't live in the rich part of town like Sasuke did.

"Walk with me?" Sasuke said, and his voice almost sounded like it did when we were friends. Not quite, but close.

I nodded. "That sounds great."