Ahh! It's been so long. I've had this chapter saved on my pc and I could have sworn I've posted this Chappy up on Monday, but I saw there was no new reviews and rechecked and HA! This chapter wasn't even there. So anyways, here it is, and sorry for the wait.

Sakura fell asleep in a haze of confusion. It was like the past twenty-four hours weren't real. Once she had uttered those words in sleep it was as though they had been her last. When she finally came through, it was Sasuke she saw. Sasuke's face was blank, revealing nothing concerning what he may have been thinking. She had suddenly become a ghost as he calmly sighed and got up from his position on her bed, expecting to confront Naruto before he barged into the room, and being like Naruto, come to a conclusion something was wrong.

She lay still on her bed with the feeling of being weight of a dead person and despite the screaming and spinning in her head she managed to slip into a small unconsciousness within only a few moments- even with Naruto's booming voice in the other room.

Sleeping is giving in,
no matter what the time is.
Sleeping is giving in,
so lift those heavy eyelids.
Leaving Sakura, Sasuke moved as quickly as possible but still knowing not to show it was too urgent. Naruto was in the next room, and Sasuke could only imagine the situation if Naruto was going to enter her room with Sasuke in there on her bed, and to make it more dramatizing, Sakura caught wearing his clothes. Despite Naruto's break in, Sasuke had more important thoughts going through his mind.

As expectantly, Naruto had his hand on the door and was about to enter Sakura's room, until it was already opened for him by none other than the Uchiha. And as expected, Naruto looked like he had the face of a five year old trying to understand the qualities of adulthood. Before Naruto could even question as to why Sasuke's hair was soaked and clothes damped and along with whatever else go's through the golden-haired boy's head, Sasuke thought best as to keep the boy's head swirling of other thoughts, hoping to stall time and maybe- as a miracle, keep him from ever asking such questions.

"So did you get any information about the two?"

Naruto looked at him indifferently as he flopped down onto the couch, partly because of the exhaustion of the day's journey and the other part of him just felt it was necessary. Looking up to the ceiling with finger's tapping the tip of his nose for no apparent reason, Naruto began to ponder if any information he had was hardly any news to the Uchiha.

"Nope, not really. I mean other than Maya-chan isn't related to the Hyuga's. Actually back then, her clan and the Hyuga's were at war at one time. And now that I think of it, I think it was the exact time Neji-san went all psyched out and put the blame on Hinata-chan."

"Ah," was honestly the only answer Sasuke came up with, he could have said a more reasonable response, but do to the fact he had no idea what Naruto was talking about and why the Hyuga siblings had anything to do with the situation they had in hand now.

"And Hirou?" Sasuke asked, more rapturous and more inquisitive to hear about his verification.

It was silent for a moment- to Sasuke's surprise, Naruto took a moment to answer and for a moment there, Sasuke gotten irritated that the dobe had fallen asleep on him during a conversation. Naruto then looked back at Sasuke with a devious gleam in his eye and slide cocky smirk. And Sasuke met this type of smirk only days ago, so considering the amusement on Naruto's face, Sasuke quirked his brow in annoyance and was ready for whatever stupid thought that was going through Naruto's head to come out.

"That he love's Sakura-chan."

Case closed. Naruto has proven his point. He should have expected something so utterly stupid to come out of the boy's mouth. But to no reason, it irritated Sasuke that he had to admit, it was pretty obvious that the older boy was indeed in love with their female teammate. But the thing that completely struck his nerve was the way Naruto had blunted out such a palpable statement. He said it in such a way like he was telling the forecast of the day's weather.

Ignoring the announcement, ignoring the irritation, ignoring the soon to be headache, and ignoring the stupid face the blond was making at him right now, Sasuke tried to change the subject the best way he could.

"Are they already in the other room?"

Yeah that was smooth.

"Yeah, well at least Hirou is in there. Maya-chan pulled Kakashi-sensei to the side and wanted to have a private exchange." Naruto said adding the quotes to his fingers and eyebrow lifted up and down as if implying it was something when he said the last two words.

Again, Naruto talking in idiotic riddles, Sasuke let that conversation be at that before he got more of a headache that could possibly lead onto a migraine if he stayed any longer.

Well it's times like these
I feel so small and wild
Like the ramblin' footsteps of a wanderin' child
And I'm lonesome as a lonesome whippoorwill
Singin' these blues with a warble and a trill
But I'm not too blue to fly
No I'm not too blue to fly cause

The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs...

"So right now he's in this village somewhere, I think. He's not the type that could be easily found. But it's all for good reason." Maya said, as she tightens the black coat around her.

"It's hard to face this, I know, but I just wanted to let you have more information as we'd let on when you read about her documents. Lady Tsunade instructed me to tell you this before we arrive in Sengakure. Don't worry too much, my Lord has his reasons and they are in good intentions. I promise she's strong enough to do this." She said this with a reassuring smile.

Kakashi however, didn't share her optimism. And it came to the point that he was soon to lose his cool.

"So you're saying your okay with this? You're just going to sit back and relax as if it's no big deal to you?" Kakashi said with hands fisted and shaking with anger and complete mind-boggled.

"This is not the way it's got to be handled. You don't think this is going to have any affect-" he said, crunching his empty Styrofoam cup in his hand before he was cut off.

"This is going to affect all of us. You think I want this to happen?" Maya hissed with teeth sealed and eyes glared.

"Sakura-chan already knew the consequences, and she had the choice if she wanted bail on this mission or not. Nobody forced her to make that decision, so don't put the blame on me, don't you dare put this to be my fault why we are in this situation. You don't have a right. And you know you also have your own decision if you want to take you and your team and high-tail your asses back to Konoha, but its Sakura-chan's choice if she wants to continue this mission." She yelled, not caring if she made a scene outside the inn's foyer.

It was silent then. Several people stared but still continued on their way while other's tried to ignore the couple arguing whatever dilemma they had. Kakashi's face softens as Maya began to cool down to take a breathing.

"Trust me, if it were truly up to me, I would force her not to go, I wouldn't even think twice to ever let her go through this. She means so much more to me than you'll ever know. She needs me to be there for her. I need to take care of her because that cracked, good for nothing mother of hers frankly doesn't give a damn. Kashirou and I are staying with her; we want her to know that she's not going to be alone on this. Kashirou and I are all she has, but I am hoping that there could be a change to that."

And with that said, she left it at that, leaving a slightly dumbstruck Kakashi behind.

Each word was difficult for her to say, each word was cracked and scratchy that it felt like sandpaper rubbing against her windpipe, but to the silver haired man, though her words were hardly comprehendible, it was clear as day that this woman had a much greater bond with his pink haired student than anyone else that cared for her.

The question that bugged him from the beginning, along with his 'boys', they were all curious to know what this sultry brassy woman, and that arrogant quick mouthed premature are meant to Sakura. They had no idea what relations, what bonds they had with the girl. Whatever it was though, it was strong, and it wasn't something that he or any of the boys wanted to admit. But their bond with Sakura couldn't even be measured to the bonds she had with them.

People try and hide the night
underneath the covers.
People try and hide the light
underneath the covers.

Come on hide your lovers
underneath the covers.

"Sakura, wake up dear…" The woman's voice sang softly.

Nee-chan? Sakura thought.

"I have something for you…"

"Azu-baa-chan…" she whispered. She was a small woman always wearing a kitchen garment after making a morning breakfast, and she remembered her eyes were ice blue when she looked at her. Blue like Kashirou's.

"Do you like it?" she asked.

Sakura felt the weight in her hands and looked down. She held a porcelain doll with black spiraling hair and baby pink ribbons. Her eyes opened when held upright. Sakura watched her eyes close when she cradled the doll in her arms.

"Yes," Sakura said.

"I think that you're old enough to have something as nice as this and I know that you've been looking at them every time we passed by the shop." She stroked Sakura's hair as she spoke and she, in turn, stroked her doll's hair.

"Maya. Her name is Maya." Sakura looked up at the old woman, "Thank you."

"Anything for you dear," she whispered.

"What do you remember?" another voice asked. The doll was gone, her hands were free. She looked up to where the old woman was standing a moment earlier.

Maya-chan.

"I named a doll after you," she replied, "and Azu-baa-chan loved me."

Maya's long fingers reached out for her. They touched her face and gripped softly but enough for Sakura to be forced to look at her. Maya held a smile to her lips and pulled herself to Sakura's forehead against her own.

"What else do you remember?" she asked.

"That you loved me too," she said.

She had been staring at the ceiling for several minutes before realizing she was awake. Her face was moist with tears. There were people out there who loved her once, but one remained. The idea was an incredible one: Unsettling. She couldn't think of the past. The past was the past and it stays there so it didn't matter.

She sat up from bed and took in her surroundings only to see the norm. Then a distant sound registered to her head, the sound of metal scraping against metal. She got up from bed to the noise that was coming from the other room. She pried open the door to a dim lighted hallway. The clashing of the noise was right below her as she looked down to the side of the door only to see Sasuke sharpening his kunai. She was shocked to see him there and though her mouth was forming words, no vocals were coming out.

"Did I wake you?" She heard his voice, a voice she didn't recognize from her dream and looked up to a canvas on the wall that had hues of soft cool colors that swirled into contrast to each other. Something that reminded her shreds of memories and it was being whipped away.

She kept her stare on the painting as she walked forward to close the door behind her and sat in front of it and next to Sasuke.

"No, its okay, I couldn't sleep anyways," she said a little above a whisper not bothering to look at him.

He stopped clashing his weapon to glance at her to the side with a look of concern on his face. It was an emotion he rarely ever had, but it was one unnoticed by the both of them.

"Sasuke-kun…" she whispered. He silently watched her as he rubbed absently at the elbow of his metal protector.

"Naruto's in the other room, he said he wanted to challenge Hirou to some kind of card duel. He told me that we have time; we are actually above schedule…so we'll probably be leaving before sunset tomorrow. I thought if you were up to it we could…"

Sakura threw her arms tightly around her knees as her tears leaked out that she started to cry almost hysterical. This action confused the boy sitting next to her and there was nothing he could really say to her but pity her for something he couldn't understand.

"I'm sorry…I didn't mean to. I'm so sorry…" she muffled into her arms as her cries became stronger. Her body shook and trembled and it only got worse.

She was scared of something; it frightened her and wasn't going to leave her alone. All Sasuke knew was that it was torturing her and this is the one thing he couldn't do to protect her from. He only did one thing that he could do, Sasuke unsurely raised his arms around her shoulders and held her as she rattled and shook with sobs. She was cracking and she needed someone to hold her together.

He couldn't remember the last time he had been through this type of situation, perhaps the last time, it was his mother that held him when he was in some kind of turmoil, he has always been the one to be comforted but this is the first he was the comforter. He filed through his memories and suddenly remembered what he was supposed to do.

"It's okay…" he said, patting her head, "It'll be okay…"

Okay: Can I point this out to you all- please anyone that knows more about this kind of spelling can any of you correct me if 'nii-chan' is right for saying 'sister'? I want to change it if it's wrong.

Thanx with much love.

pma.x.

Lyrics from The Arcade Fire's Rebellion' Lies and The Be Good Tanyas' The Littlest Birds (Sing The Prettiest Songs).