It had become the general consensus among her friends that what happened to Sakura was a pity.

Tsunade and Temari thought it was a pity as Sakura had lost her motivation to work when previously she had taken great pride and joy over helping people get better. It was also a pity that she now tended to sit in silence drinking coffee on her breaks instead of joining in the lively banter that usually filled the practise.

Ino, Hinata and Tenten thought it was a pity that Sakura had lost her chance at happiness but at the same time, as they kept trying to remind her, there would be other people. However, Ino's feelings of sympathy for her friend bordered on violence as she kept ranting about how she warned him about hurting her and that she had a blunt, rusty knife in her kitchen for situations just like this.

Tenten had smiled at her friend trying to reassure her that all was not lost but she still felt a wave of pity for the girl as she imagined how she would have felt if Neji had left her.

Hinata was a lot more compassionate and indulged Sakura's need to have ice-cream, chocolate and alcohol in excess as she sank into a disappointed stupor thinking back over her time spent with Sasuke. She even thought about the times where she and Ino had watched him read, before she had even known his name.

Hinata had left Sakura cry and talk about Sasuke while making the appropriate noises without interrupting her with threats against Sasuke's person that got increasingly violent with time which only served to distress Sakura more. It was maybe because Hinata was generally a more understanding person. They had often teased her because of her sweet nature as she was a lot less prone to criticise someone. But Hinata thought that although Sasuke had left Sakura heartbroken that there was something else behind it all. She had known the Uchiha family a long time and relationships between the family were often strained like they were in her own.

Despite spending many evenings with Sakura, Hinata still managed to find time to see Naruto. Whether it was during lunch breaks or on the odd evening that Sakura had other company to take her mind off things and while Hinata told Naruto about Sakura's troubles he also told her about his concerns towards Sasuke. And it was from this that Hinata concluded that it was not just an ordinary break up.

It was because of this that Hinata made sure that she spent much of her time with Sakura, she knew that Naruto would understand, and she tried to give Sakura as much support as she could but there was always a problem every Wednesday either Ino, Tenten or Hinata would find Sakura missing with no clue as to where she was.

Sakura in fact continued to frequent the coffee shop on her day off without her friends knowing or even guessing as they all seemed to assume that it was a place that she would want to avoid. But she kept going in the hope that she'd see Sasuke even if it was just for a little while but he seemed to have disappeared all together.

She wondered whether he was deliberately avoiding the place or if he was busy with work and whether she was torturing herself by thinking about him too often. The main thing that bothered Sakura was that Sasuke seemed to have suddenly changed his mind. Although he had grown increasingly quiet and thoughtful in the past weeks he had always seemed happy enough in her company so she couldn't understand why at the park he had finished with her giving only a short apology and an unsatisfactory explanation.

Maybe she really did talk too much.

Sakura sighed and started down at her now cold cup of coffee which she had barely touched. She supposed that she should take everyone's advice and forget about him completely but it was much easier said than done. There were just little things that constantly reminded her of him and her heart leaped every time she caught a glimpse of dark hair in the hope that it was him only for her to be disappointed moments later. She saw a lot of Hinata with Naruto and although they did their best to cheer her up she saw their happiness together and that only reminded her even more of what she had lost.

"You're a hard person to find Sakura Haruno." Ino said sternly from behind her. Sakura turned and saw her friend standing behind her with her hands on her hips but as she saw the guilty expression on her friends face her gaze softened and she sighed. "Have you been coming here all along?" She asked gently and Sakura nodded as Ino took the seat next to her.

"You're a hopeless case," Ino said softly and Sakura shrugged.

"Maybe," She said. "But I still can't help feeling that something was a little off."

"Who knows," Ino said. "I didn't know Sasuke as well as you did but Hinata says-" She stopped talking suddenly and flashed Sakura a guilty look.

"I know you've all been talking about us behind my back." Sakura muttered wondering whether to be offended at this or not.

"Well-" Ino said slowly deliberating on what to tell her. "Hinata said that Naruto's been keeping an eye on Sasuke and he's not himself." She shrugged slightly. "Hopefully he's realised that he's made a terrible mistake, that he can't live without you and that any chance he had of having children is void because I'm coming after him for what he's done to you."

"You don't need to go that far," Sakura protested but Ino just grinned at her.

"You know you shouldn't keep doing this to yourself," Ino said softly. "If you want some coffee that badly then there are plenty of other places to go too. Or even stay at home for a cup." But Sakura shook her head at this.

"Ino, you of all people should know that this place is special. It's where we always used to go to meet up with each other I have some amazing memories in this place."

"It's also the place where we used to watch Sasuke and didn't you two start talking here?" Ino asked and Sakura nodded looking down at her hands on the table.

Ino sighed again and looked around at the small coffee shop like Sakura she had lots of memories of this place. As she had passed much of her time talking and laughing with her friends, mainly Sakura it seemed to become their 'thing' to come here for coffee. As they passed the hours away before life became too complicated.

She could understand why Sakura wanted to be here the good memories must outweigh the bad and besides Sasuke didn't break up with her here, he had considerately done it outside and in the cold. Ino scowled slightly as she once again contemplated the use of violence against Sakura's ex-boyfriend.

The bell in the coffee shop rang as the door swung open and Sakura turned to look at the person who had walked in and Ino watched as sudden hope blossomed on her face only to instantly die when the person who walked through the door was not Sasuke, although there was an uncanny resemblance to him.

Both girls watched the dark haired figure make their way over to the counter to be served. They were both noting the similarities between Sasuke and this stranger, they both had dark hair and eyes although this man's hair was considerably shorter than Sasuke's own messy hair and he seemed to be slightly taller than Sasuke.

Ino watched Sakura carefully out of the corner of her eyes to see her reaction to the stranger. Her friend watch his every movement closely and when the man turned round he appeared slightly disconcerted by the strength of their stares. He gave then a strange smile as if he was uncertain as to how to react to such a situation before awkwardly and still under Sakura's careful scrutiny he made his way to an empty table and pulled a book out of his bag.

Sakura sighed and Ino gave her a sympathetic look she opened her mouth briefly before closing it again unsure of what to say.

"Its fine Ino," Sakura said after the silence became too awkward for both of them. "It doesn't bother me."

"You always were a terrible liar." Ino said as she watched Sakura's expression as she continued to observe the dark haired man, "but it's okay if you're not, fine I mean, there is an amazing similarity between the two." Sakura nodded and then looked down at her drink suddenly, Ino looked over and saw the man looking in their direction now and she smiled sweetly at him. He had realised that they had been staring had he?

The man stood up and slowly approached their table as Sakura continued to stare at her coffee.

"Is there a problem?" He asked awkwardly and she looked up in surprised and flushed slightly in embarrassment.

"Everything's fine," Ino said coolly and he gave her a strange look.

"But surely there's something wrong when you keep staring in my direction." He mused. "Or have I got that wrong?"

"We can look wherever we like thank you very much." Ino said and Sakura recognised the glint of cold, hard anger in her eyes.

She had been irritable since she had found out that Sasuke had broken up with Sakura and that she was forbidden to hunt him down and carry out her previous threats, if this new guy, who looked enough like Sasuke for Ino to get her violent fantasies out of her head, tried to contradict her one more time it was likely that she'd unleash the full force of her anger.

Usually Sakura would try and stop this but today she just wasn't in the mood to try and pacify Ino' temper.

"But I thought that by excessively looking at someone it showed that you were attracted to the person." The man claimed, innocently enough Sakura thought.

"Well you though wrong," Ino snarled.

"Oh," The man looked slightly put out, "are they allowed to publish lies then?" There was a pause as both Ino and Sakura exchanged puzzled glances.

"Publish?" Sakura asked eventually.

"Yes, it's written in this book you see." He said proudly and showed them the volume he had been looking at earlier and with that Ino's anger disappeared as she gave him a small smile.

"There are all sorts of different ways of looking at people you know." She said but this only seemed to make him more confused.

"And you probably shouldn't read those they don't really help." Sakura added as they both felt a sense of pity towards the guy who had clearly misunderstood them.

"But I was told to improve my people skills for work how else will I do that?" He asked.

"You could always just talk to people you know." Sakura suggested and Ino looked at the dark haired man and saw his as a welcome distraction for Sakura.

"In fact," Ino said. "Why don't you sit down, we can introduce ourselves and talk and you can work on your people skills." He looked at them with a strange expression on his face, probably wondering how Ino's open hostility had turned into a pleasant smile Sakura thought unless he couldn't tell the difference in her attitude.

"Okay," He took the seat opposite them. "I'm Sai."

"Ino," She said extending her hand which he shook across the table. "And this is Sakura, don't mind her she's not in the best of moods." There was a pause.

"Am I allowed to ask why?" He said eventually and Ino shrugged and beckoned him closer. As he leaned across the table she whispered in his ear loudly enough for Sakura to hear.

"She's suffering from a broken heart," Sakura rolled her eyes as Sai looked at her curiously.

"You don't have to tell him that," Sakura said sharply but Ino just shrugged.

"You're not denying it, Sasuke broke your heart didn't he?" Sakura looked uncomfortable as Ino decided to bring up the conversation that she had been decidedly avoiding over the past weeks and she was doing it in front of a stranger as well. She could feel Sai's curious gaze on her as he seemed to be interested in this conversation but was unsure how to react to this sudden change from the previous light hearted banter.

"That doesn't matter Ino." Sakura said firmly and Ino looked at her stiff expression and gave Sai and awkward smile.

There was an uncomfortable silence as Sakura ran her finger repeatedly around the rim of her mug of coffee and Ino stared fixedly at the patterns in the wood grain of the table.

Sai glanced between the two young women he currently shared the table with feeling distinctly confused but even with poor people skills he could tell the a strange mood had descended between the two of them. Ino frowned as the seemed to come to some sort of conclusion to something and she looked straight up at Sakura who refused to look at her.E

"Sakura why do you even stay here?" Ino demanded and Sakura frowned slightly her head still turned away, "you're just torturing yourself." Ino continued but her voice was softer this time and Sakura sighed.

"I want him to be able to find me if he needs to," she said still not even looking at Ino or Sai and Ino gave her a sad smile before frowning slightly.

"He already knows where you work isn't that enough?" she asked but Sakura shook her head.

"This place is special," She said softly and Ino looked helplessly at her friend. Sakura had never really dated lots of people she had only had a few serious relationships previously that had all left her completely devastated when they had ended.

"May I ask how it's special?" Sai asked hesitantly. "It looks just like any other coffee shop to me." Sakura smiled at him slightly and his gaze flicked down to the book he was reading as if he wanted to open it to try and find a way to navigate through this tricky conversation.

"Just from all the memories really," Sakura said softly. "Spending time with Ino and everyone else, I heard about Tenten's engagement here and of course this is where I started talking to Sasuke." Sai looked thoughtful.

"Who is your ex-boyfriend correct?" Sakura nodded. "So it's a mix of good and bad memories then?"

"But the good outweigh the bad," Sakura said firmly and Sai looked thoughtful.

"So as long as you focus on the good memories it's alright then," He said and Sakura smiled.

"You are better than this than you give yourself credit for," She said and Ino nodded in agreement.

"That's probably something we should all do," Ino said and Sakura shot her a confused look. "Concentrate on good things rather than the bad, like I spend so much time complaining about Shikamaru and all his negative qualities but really he has more good qualities than I give him credit for. He's thoughtful, can be quite sweet when he want to be and has a good enough memory to remember my birthday, Valentine's day and our anniversary even if he does thing it's too bothersome to celebrate them half the time." She smiled at her memories and Sakura grinned at Sai as they watched a dreamy expression form on Ino's face.

"So what good memories do you have of this place?" Sai asked and Sakura paused.

"I'm not sure, like I said I've shared so many good memories with people here that I can't really pick one, but I suppose the one most personal to me would be..." She paused as she realised that she was going to name the time all those months ago when Sasuke had suddenly asked her if she wanted to go out to lunch with him.

Out of the corner of her eye Sakura saw Ino frown as she probably realised that Sakura's fondest memory was something related to Sasuke. She looked up and saw Sai patiently waiting for an answer and smiled at him.

"It's of someone who was once very special to me."

"Once?" Sai asked and Sakura nodded. She could see Ino's expression reflecting the anger she always displayed when Sakura began to talk about Sasuke too kindly because as far as Ino was concerned Sasuke was a bastard for dumping Sakura it was as simple as that. She was an extremely loyal friend in her own way.

"But surely if this person if part of your best memory here they must still be of some importance in your life?" Sai asked and the curiosity was evident in his voice.

"I guess they must be," Sakura said softly and Sai looked thoughtful as if he was trying to understand this whole concept.

"But they shouldn't be," Ino said and Sai frowned in confusion.

"Please Ino you know it's not that easily to get over someone you loved."

"You loved him?" Ino practically shouted. "Since when?" Sakura flushed as she realised what she said.

"I don't know I didn't mean to say that," She protested as Ino narrowed her eyes at her.

"Ah." Sai said and looked taken aback at the sudden glare from Ino in his direction as he continued uncomfortable. "I believe that is what this book refers to as a Freudian slip," they both blinked at him.

"Sorry?" Sakura said with the terrible feeling that this would somehow make Ino's anger increase tenfold.

"A slip of the tongue that reveals what was it? 'Subconscious desires'," He flicked through a few pages of the book. "Particularly sexual ones." He added which made Ino sharply turn to face Sakura.

"So," She said with a smile fixed manically on her face.

"Ino it was nothing," Sakura said hastily. "Maybe it was a slip of the tongue but there were no underlying meanings to it."

"Really," Ino said and her eyes had narrow practically into slits. "And if I said Sasuke had just walked into the door." Unfortunately as Ino said this the bell above the door chimes and Sakura turned to see someone older and female walk in the coffee shop. She flinched as she realised her mistake and wondered what Ino would make one it.

"Sakura you need to stop fooling yourself," Ino said and even she could tell that her tone of voice was unusually harsh. "You need to forget any memory you shared with Sasuke put it all to the back of your mind at the moment until you can distance yourself from it. Don't think about the happier times in fact don't think of him at all or are you just waiting to see if he'll some back for you?" Sakura gaped at her friend for her sudden change in attitude although she could see the concern for her in Ino's eyes it didn't make the sting of her worse and less painful.

"That's not what I want," Sakura said sharply and Ino glared at her.

"Then what is it you do want Sakura?" She demanded.

"I just want you all to stop looking at me as if you pity me. Yes I'm upset, and yes Sasuke did break my heart but we've all been through stuff like this before and I'll get over it in time." Sakura said loudly and some of the other customers looked warily over at their table as Sakura stood up. "Just give me some time and I'll be fine." She said stiffly before turning on her heel and walking off angrily.

Ino sighed and looked over at the confused looking man across the table from her.

"Sorry," She said, "I guess I pushed her a bit too far but I promise that not all conversations are like that."

She glanced out the window and saw Sakura heading down the street briskly and looked down at the table feeling guilty. Unfortunately she didn't see Sakura being approached by someone who had been watching them in the coffee shop just waiting for the right moment to talk to the girl who had just left.

"Well hello again. Sakura was it?" A voice said in her ear and Sakura fumed inwardly whoever it was had ruined her all important storming off down the street and away from her traitorous friend moment. She turned rounds and balked slightly at the sight of Itachi Uchiha standing in front of her.

Itachi noticed the shocked expression on her face and gave her his most charming smile.

"So nice to see you again," He continued smoothly. "I don't see why Sasuke doesn't have you round the office more often you certainly had a way of brightening up the place when you were there." Sakura frowned wondering whether it was just her imagination or did his eyes linger on her hair for a lot longer than just a cursorily glance. Despite this she plastered her most pleasant smile on her face as she spoke.

"Unfortunately, Sasuke saw fit for us to no longer see each other so you'll have to find someone else to brighten up your office." She said as she moved to leave and get away from Sasuke's brother but her reached out to stop her before she could make a swift exit.

"Such a shame." He murmured fingering a lock of her hair which made the slight discomfort Sakura had felt since Itachi had first started this conversation start to move towards full blown hysteria. "I wonder why he'd want to discard such a beautiful flower such as you."

Out of a long standing habit of being unable to receive compliments well Sakura found herself beginning to blush. But between the pretty words Sakura detected something else behind them, maybe it was all the stories she'd heard from Sasuke and Naruto but she could sense something sinister behind his words and taunting smile that made Sakura suspicious it was all to coincidental that she would somehow catch the eye of both Uchiha brothers especially when everything about them was so dissimilar.

Sakura jerked away from Itachi and registered the look of mild surprise in his eyes and she wondered whether it was one of the few times he didn't get what he wanted. His grip on her hair was stronger than she thought or maybe he had deliberately tightened his hold as she moved away as she felt a slight tug near her scalp and saw a few long strands of hair in his hand as she stepped back away from him.

"I have to go I can't deal with this right now." She said firmly as Itachi examined the hair that was left between his fingers.

"Of course," He said softly, "I'll see you later then."

Sakura didn't reply as she turned and walked as fast as she could away from Itachi. She didn't know what he was trying to do but she didn't want to have anything to do with it as small, more paranoid part of her mind was waving flags and jumping up and down for attention.

She wondered if it was some way to get back at Sasuke and shivered pulling her thin jacket around her tightly despite the heat.

She was worried for her ex-boyfriend, heartbroken that he had left her and worst of all she knew that all the good times with him outweighed the bad and that it would take a long time for her to get over him.