I am sorry about this amount of time. Since September I have been kicked out of my home, my external drive with all my drafts and stories has crashed, and I have been in quite a serious motor-accident in which I have a skull fracture and my left leg has a metal pin.

I hate doing nothing, but apparently, that was my only option.

My story has gotten quite out of line with the events in the manga and anime, so yeah, I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 14: Fighting to back off

By the time Sakura arrived at the training ground, Naruto and Sasuke were laying on the ground, heavily panting. As always, Sasuke's speed and Naruto's sheer force made it hard to keep up with the two, even if they were matched against each other.

Naruto noticed Sasuke shot up as soon as he felt Sakura's chakra signature. He draped his arm over his eyes: better tuned to Sakura's chakra, he had felt her coming way before but he had hoped he could delay this confrontation a little but more.

Sasuke was still pissed even after blowing steam during their own spar. It was when Sasuke stood up and stalked towards Sakura after a little staring match that he too stood. Glancing at his two friends, he made his way to a wooden log an decided to watch it all unfold.

"A spar," was all Sasuke said when he stood before the pink-hared woman who had left his bed only this morning. He didn't particularly care how that sounded. He only knew he was angry.

He was that selfish to ask of her to wait for him while he was figuring out his feelings. He did know they were there but that did not mean he was accepting them yet. But now Sakura, the woman all these conflicting emotions revolved around, was leaving?

He was not having that.

Sakura stared at him: "What?" she asked. She had honestly expected to find her two teammates fighting, not to be challenged by one of them. A look shot at Naruto told her he fully expected to see that fight take place.

"A duel. You and me," Sasuke said. His tone said he wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Who do you think you are, ordering me around?" Sakura bit at him.

Sasuke frowned at grabbed her forearm, tight to the point of bruising. "Listen up, Sakura. I don't feel like a shouting match. Either you fight me, or we have a big problem," he growled.

Sakura mumbled "Grouchy," under her breath, but went to pull off her pack. "Just remember I still have a shift at the hospital later today," she called over to Sasuke, but said one only shot her a dark look. Sakura cracked her back, "Well then," she said. "Come at me," and Sasuke didn't need to be told twice and attacked.

Sakura blocked the punch aimed at her stomach and retailed with a punch to the side of Sasuke's head. Sasuke ducked and swept his leg towards Sakura's. She however gripped It with her legs and bridged with Sasuke's leg still tight.

Sasuke knew that if she pushed off, he'd be pulled over her, so instead he grasped one of Sakura's arms. In shock she released his leg. She then used her free hand to pull him over and sat on top of him.

-()-

"What are you looking at?" Naruto heard the familiar drawls of Ino's voice. He didn't look up at her: instead he kept watching the fight between his friends. An impressive roll from the male freed himself from Sakura's sitting and he pinned her himself.

"Watching them spar," Naruto replied, not wanting to miss anything of this intense moment.

"Sasuke and Sakura?" Ino asked eventually.

Naruto just nodded. Sakura had them both up with a kick upwards. They were now trying to deliver punched close ranged.

"You can call it what you want," Ino said, taking a seat next to the male blond, her tone admiring, "but I tell you, this is hot!"

Shocked, Naruto looked at Ino with a snap of his head. Sure he made crude jokes himself, but Ino looked completely serious. She glanced back, "What? It is," she said.

Naruto looked back at his closest friends. They had stopped delivering lighting fast punched and were instead in each other's stronghold, but Naruto could easily see what Ino meant: if you didn't know them or the situation, this whole fight had something of a lover's embrace.

"Are you sure, they aren't keeping a secret relation or something?" Ino continued to asked.

Naruto smirked at that, Sakura had just aimed a kick which, had it hit while Sasuke had luckily dodged, would have brought any male to his knees. Immediately the scene of this morning flashed before his eyes and his smirk diminished a little. "I am…about sure of that," he replied.

Ino made a disapproving sound, "About?" she asked.

Naruto was torn between respecting the two's privacy and getting the situation of his mind. Being the boisterous blond he was, he chose the last. "This morning, I walked in on them having the most…curious situation," he tried.

Ino smirked, "Did you find them making out or sleeping together?" she asked.

Naruto scrounged up his nose at the idea of finding them that way. "No, nothing off the like. It's just…this morning, Tsunade asked me to find Sakura and I did. At Sasuke's house. Apparently she had slept over and even though she said she slept in the guest room, she was wearing Sasuke's shirt. I found Sasuke making breakfast without," he admitted.

Ino scratched her chin, "But didn't it rain yesterday? Sasuke could have lent her some clothes," she said, secretly hoping that wasn't true. She wished Sakura all the happiness in the world which ever seemed to circle around the last Uchiha.

Naruto nodded thoughtfully. "True. That's what they told me too. But I could've sworn I saw Sakura entering Sasuke's bedroom, not the guestroom. There is something, they haven't told me. And I am thinking that even more after seeing Sasuke's reaction to the deal Sakura made with the young lord," he confessed.

Ino shook her head, "So you've heard about that," she said, but then shot Naruto a sharp look, who looked away guiltily.

"By accident," he mumbled but then he stared at Ino. "How did you know? As far as we heard, she wasn't planning on telling anyone," he said.

Ino smiled sadly, "With you two gone, who did you think she went to for support. Not Kakashi, that's for sure," she said. Then she looked at the thoroughly spitted battlefield where Sasuke and Sakura had each other in the hold and apparently where whispering furiously. "What I wouldn't give to know what they are saying," Ino said as the sound didn't reach them.

Naruto silently agreed.

-()-

Sakura hissed as Sasuke wrapped his arm around her neck and used his other arm to grab her hands. A little bit too quick for him, Sakura hooked her own arm around his arm, and the other hand was in no time fastened in his shirt, tensed for punching.

"I don't want you to go," Sasuke growled, staring down at Sakura. He twisted and hooked her arms behind her.

"What do you mean?" Sakura hissed back, struggling to break free.

"Don't marry that lord!" Sasuke growled.

This pissed Sakura off. She broke her hands free and in the same mothing kicked Sasuke's legs away from him and pressed him down, sitting on his stomach. They had been in this position before, but neither thought about that at the moment.

"What did you say?" Sakura snarled down at Sasuke.

Sasuke glared up furiously, "I don't want you to marry that lord!" he bit at her.

For a moment, Sakura seemed stunned, then she slammed Sasuke back in the dirt once again. "How do you know of that! You have been sneaking around my conversations then! You shouldn't know that!" she hissed furiously.

Sasuke stared up at her, "That doesn't change a damned thing. You were going off and sacrifice your life for this fucked up vi…"

"End that sentence, Sasuke. I dare you!" Sakura growled. "What I do is none of your goddamn business. Not who I date, not what my missions are, and also not my future. It's none of your damned business. This is my life, not yours. I choose to protect my village by leaving, unlike you." She slammed him again for extra effect.

Sasuke pressed his eyes together and when he opened his eyes, they bled red. "I paid for my crimes. Will you let it…"

But he never finished for Sakura slapped him across the face. "Don't you ever do that again, Uchiha. Don't use that goddamn Sharingan on me, and don't tell me what to do. Not for whatever reason you have." And with that words she pressed herself up and jumped away from the impressingly destroyed battlefield.

Sasuke laid there for a moment before covering his eyes with his arm, stunned to silence.

"What did you say, to chase her away like that?" Naruto asked, leaning over his friend, accompanied by Ino.

"I tried to tell her not to go," Sasuke murmured.

Naruto sighed, "And let me guess, you told her that you didn't want her to?" Sasuke responded in silence and to his surprise, Ino snorted.

"You are an idiot really. Instead of going all dominating on her, Kami knows Sakura doesn't deal well with that, I think you should think about why you want her to stay," she said.

Sasuke would've gaped at her if it were not for…well, being himself. "She's part of the team."

"Not good enough."

"She's a friend."

"So is Naruto."

"She's an important healer."

"She can always do emergency work."

"She needs to continue healing my eyes."

"That's just selfish."

"Because damnit!" Sasuke exploded, "Because I don't want her to leave on these uncertain terms." He burst after the intense vocal spar.

Ino smirked, now they were getting somewhere. "How can you expect her to know when you don't."

After this, Sasuke jumped up and stalked off angrily towards his compound. Ino sniggered, "Good to know he still has that bad temper," she said.

Naruto stared at her incredulously. "You were riling him up? That's a dangerous game, Nara," he said.

Ino shrugged, "Men like him will be forced to think at such moments," she replied.

Naruto stared at her silently. "You are a frightfully scary woman, Ino. Thank god you are my interrogation," he told her.

Ino only laughed.

-()-

It kept Sasuke cooped up for the continuing days. First thing he did was changing the sheets of his bed. He didn't want to smell Sakura at all at the moment. It reminded him too much of the morning with her.

And damn, if anything he could admit as much that he had liked it. It had been a mind-shattering realization. He had actually liked waking up to her. She was comfort. Old Sakura had been clingy and annoying. Now, Sakura wasn't clingy and annoying for a whole different reason.

She wouldn't leave his head. Even if he wanted her to. His house had been a haven, but he was seeing her everywhere. In the kitchen making that tomato stew. In the living room looking at the pictures. In the bedroom, there was still the memory of her in his bed sleeping, but when he himself was in it, Sasuke found the bed was too big.

He could not function any more and it was making him angrier every passing moment. He was not even able to pinpoint when his focused mind had became something of a scrambled mess, admitting her in his arms had only been the tip of the iceberg.

"What the hell is wrong with me!" he burst out when he realized he was zoning out with his clothes in his hand, Uchiha fan faced up.

"Aren't you lovesick?" Naruto remarked amused. It had told him a whole deal when he had been able to be perched on a windowsill without being noticed. That, and Naruto wasn't sure Sasuke knew the t-shirt he was holding had been work by Sakura.

Sasuke slowly turned to his old-time friend, masking his surprise at being sneaked upon, not sure to cut off his head or question further.

"Lovesick?" he asked. "What the hell are you going on about, dobe?"

Naruto jumped into the living room. "Sakura left for the daimyo's estate two days ago," he remarked.

Sasuke turned back around yet Naruto didn't miss the tightening of his lips. Or the fact Sasuke choked out: "What's got that to do with me?"

Naruto made himself comfortable on the couch. "She didn't lie in the end. Told us all why she was leaving so we could say goodbye," he continues as if Sasuke hadn't said anything. "Everyone was there to do so, except you." To be honest, Naruto was convinced that this had gone on long enough, not that Sasuke wasn't in deep altogether.

Inwardly, Naruto sniggered: he found it all too amusing that the avenger rather had the violent Sakura over a gushing one. So he did have a rather masogistic side. "Why weren't you there?" he asked.

Sasuke snorted uncharacteristically. "As I said, as she said, it doesn't have anything to do with me," he said.

Naruto snorted as well: "Who are you telling that? Me or yourself. Because I know it has got everything to do with you."

Sasuke put down the shirt he was holding and turned back to Naruto: "Lovesick, you say," he said, surprising the blond. "What is that?"

Naruto smirked, "Sometimes I forget you're an emotionally stunted guy." Sasuke grunted in reply, and Naruto just sighed. "I'd say the state you are in now would describe lovesick, but that isn't enough for you I'd figure." Sasuke stared at him and Naruto stretched. "Lovesick, how to explain? She obviously is in the foreground of your every thought, you don't want to be with her yet you want to because your stomach does funny things. Then of course," he waved at the cloth, "You can't function correctly."

Sasuke rolled his eyes but his stomach clenched nervously, "So let's assume I am…"

"You are admitting?" Naruto interjected.

Sasuke shot him a glare. "I am not admitting anything, dobe. I said assume," he said and sighed. "So let's assume I am lovesick. How do I get rid of it?"

Naruto gaped at him. "Get rid of it? You really think it is that easy?" he asked incredulously.

Sasuke shrugged, "I do not need or want it. It only bothers me," he said.

Naruto actually growled, "I take back about the woman next for you being ok. You sorry excuse for a bastard. Don't you think you have gone a little too far by now?" he spat, sitting up straight, making use of the fact Sasuke was temporarily stunned to silence. "So you love her? And no, I won't believe you don't," he said when Sasuke seemed to want to voice his disagreement.

"So what if you love her. Would it be that bad? Sakura grew strong because of the love she had for you. You might have thrown it back at her, but don't make the mistake of thinking it made her weak." Naruto shook his head. "Your heart might be in the right place but it got disconnected with your brain somewhere. I was wrong in thinking you could be brought to reason."

He stood up and went for the door. "To be honest. Hearing you speak of getting rid of love, I am glad that daimyo is interested in Sakura. At least I know that man will treat her properly," he spoke lowly.

Next chapter will be a little longer again. I feel horrible I haven't been updating despite intending so.