Ch. 11

Naruto and Sasuke stopped a few feet from the team, then Naruto looked at the team. "As I'm sure you guys just heard, Sasuke is going to be a member of this team until we figure out what's going on between the Sound and the Rain. Until then, I expect Sasuke to be treated like any other member of this team. We don't have any intel we can actually act on, so for now we don't have any missions. However, there will be a training session tomorrow at 6AM. Understood?"

Everyone gave a silent nod of understanding, everyone except Sakura. Naruto noticed she looked slightly detached from the situation, then he remembered how he had excluded her from the previous training session and felt a slight pang of guilt. He avoided looking at Sakura but stated clearly, "I expect everyone to be present tomorrow. We need to start working on our coordination as a team." As soon as he said that, Sakura turned and glanced his way as a slight blush crept onto her face, Naruto was very purposefully not looking her way.

Was Naruto making her feel included? If he was, was it professional or personal? Sakura decided she didn't care and that she would just enjoy this small victory.

Naruto was watching her reaction out of the corner of his eye and felt a little better due to her positive reaction. Naruto looked at the team, "We're done here." Neji, Kiba and Shino gave a curt nod and left. Sakura stayed behind as if she had more questions. Naruto looked in her direction, "Were you going to say something?"

The blunt question caught Sakura off guard. She looked up to see Naruto and Sasuke, both staring at her and waiting for a response. She had so many questions but now she couldn't think of any. Her mind went completely blank and she just froze. After a few seconds, Sasuke turned to Naruto. Naruto looked like he was drawing a blank as well. He wasn't used to Naruto being left speechless and he had to admit it was interesting to see. He noticed the lagging silence surrounding the three and finally spoke up. "You know, I'm pretty sure I could sneak away right now and you wouldn't notice." That seemed to knock Naruto out of his trance.

Naruto realized he was staring at the ground and quickly looked up. Sasuke was standing there slightly shaking his head. Naruto scrunched his eyes at him and cleared his throat, "Well, I was thinking about going to Ichiraku's." He turned to Sakura. After a short pause, he looked at Sakura and managed to mutter out, "If you want, you can come." He looked over at Sasuke, "You don't have a choice, Teme." Sasuke rolled his eyes as he said "Some things never change."

Naruto slightly grinned as he and Sasuke started walking away. Naruto looked behind them and noticed that Sakura wasn't moving. "You coming?" Sakura was in a slight daze but managed to stutter out a "Yes."


Kakashi and Tsunade had been watching the interaction from the other side of the lake. They didn't know what was said, but they did see all three members of Team 7 walking towards the village. Tsunade turned to Kakashi, "Is it just me, or do Naruto and Sasuke almost look like they used to when they were kids?" Kakashi was covering his Sharingan as he turned to answer, "No. There's definitely a familiarity between the two." Kakashi started pensively looking out over the lake. Shikamaru noticed that Kakashi was thinking way harder than he usually did. "What are you thinking?"

Kakashi turned to Shikamaru and Tsunade, "When I first saw Sasuke standing with Naruto at the office door, I thought he was going to cause nothing but trouble for the village."

Shikamaru looked at Kakashi, "He might still cause nothing but trouble for the village…"

"Maybe, but I think he could possibly have an overall positive impact while he's here."

Tsunade put a hand on her chin, "You're talking about Naruto."

"Yes. Sasuke has only been here a little over an hour and Naruto is acting somewhat rashly…like he used to." He turned to Tsunade "You assigning Sakura to Naruto's team was a brilliant move, but now that Sasuke's on the team there's no telling what may happen."

Shikamaru paused for a few seconds before replying to Kakashi, "Kakashi, as much as I want Sasuke to help Naruto and Sakura, we have to remember not to be too optimistic. If Sasuke's intentions are good, he may end up helping Naruto and Sakura. But what if he has bad intentions? Or no intentions like he usually does? At best, he could bring Naruto and Sakura back together; at worst, he could tear them even further apart than they are now."

After a long pause, Kakashi looked out over the water again and said in a faint whisper, "Only time will tell."


Author's Note

Sorry this is a pretty short chapter. I promise they aren't all like this lol.

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