AN: heres the update hope u like it plz r&r

0o

one day ino and sakura went to school. they were in ballgowns because it was prom. inos ballgown was light blue like the sky which trailed on the grownd. sakuras was pink like cherry blossomes because she was the cheerry blossom girl.

"are you ready for prom" said ino fascinatingly.

"yea what about u" said sakura wonderingly.

"i cant wait!" said ino impatiently.

the pinkette cherry-blossom girl fluttered her eyebrows. "who are you going with"

"its a secret" said ino secretly.

sakuras eyes changed from emeraldine orbs to jaden-green-dark-forest-moss-ebony-shadows because her mood changed. "you have to tell me i'm your best friend."

"well..." said ino.

o0o.0o0o FLASHBACK 0o.o0o0..

"hey u wanna go to prom w/ me" said itachi (he wascool and older than her)

ino was shy because he was cool. "no" said ino "you suck"

"i'll pay you $100000"

"yea ok "

0o0o0. 00o0o END FLASHBACK 0p0p0/p0p0o0

"its going to be a surprise" said ino.

anyway they walked to the school and kakashi was there.

"you're both late" said kakashi. "ur gonna get detention"

"he's so hott" whispered ino to sakura. (A/N: they are both 18 in this story NO FLAMES) "i wish he had asked me to prom."

they went to detention . naruto was there because he was always a troublemaker sometimes he did pranks. He was a punk

"hello" said naruto cheerfully "i did a prank so thats why i'm here."

"cool" said the blondette and the pinkette

0o.o0o0o0o0.o0o0o

anyways it was prom night. sakuras date was gaara who was a hot emo boy from the dessert who wore eyeliner and sakura saved his brothers life and she was beautiful so he feel in love with her. anyway ino was also beautiful so he fell in love with her too

"threesome?" asked gara

"ok"

"can i watch" asked itachi

"yea"

they had sex

o0o0o the end o0o0o0o

VVV

Author's note: MOOR IS TO BLAME FOR APRIL FOOL'S BADFIC AHH

Okay so the real update is below. All of my gratitude to Renaerys for the beta – any remaining errors are mine.

Chapter 29 (for realsies)

So Sasuke got better, slowly. Some days it was like old times again when he lay in his hospital bed in grouchy silence and Sakura sat nearby and peeled an apple, and Naruto kept them entertained with inexhaustible chatter, and Kakashi read his Icha Icha and pretended not to listen.

Like old times, except it wasn't, because Sasuke was a damaged shell and Sakura was scarred up and Naruto nursed a betrayal and Kakashi already had a host of trust issues and loss issues, and all his old Genin team did was aggravate them.

Naruto and Kakashi came to understand, after a while, that things weren't how they were before for Sakura and her matters of the heart. Their suspicion of it began when she hadn't immediately leapt at the chance to nurse Sasuke and instead allowed Shizune to do it. Then those suspicions firmed up into certainties because she didn't gush or fret or worry over Sasuke as she used to. Their exchanges were stilted and superficial at best – he'd tried to kill her, after all, though he didn't really remember it, and casual chitchat with your attempted-murderer is never an easy thing…

She didn't look at him with eyes aglow with girlish adoration as she used to. Because now, as Sakura looked upon that face that had filled so many of her childhood dreams, she realized that it had never, in thirteen years, brightened at the sight of her. She looked at a mouth that had so rarely had a kind thing to say to her. She looked at hands that had, here in the waking world, tried to kill her on at least two occasions and thus, finally, laid those childhood dreams to rest.

In the face of this awkwardness between them, Sakura tried to line up her visits with Sasuke with those of Naruto and Kakashi so that she wouldn't be alone with him. However, one day, through a combination of an unfortunately timed mission on Kakashi's part and Naruto being his flaky self and not showing up, Sakura was forced into an accidental tête-à-tête with Sasuke.

She peeked into Sasuke's room that afternoon and found it empty, save for Sasuke sitting up in his bed and picking at an afternoon snack.

"Hey," said Sakura.

Sasuke made a sound that might have been a greeting as he peeled open a Jell-O cup.

"Naruto isn't here yet…?"

"No."

"Oh. I'll just come back later, then."

Sasuke didn't look up at her as he ate. "Can't you be here by yourself?"

"Of course I can," said Sakura with a fake little smile. "It's just, you know Naruto. He likes to be a part of everything…"

This was a weak excuse; Sasuke knew it as well as she did. It embarrassed her, how weak it was, and so she relented and shrugged off her lab coat. "I'll stay for a bit."

"You're not going to sit?" said Sasuke when Sakura approached the foot of the bed and stood there stiffly with her arms wrapped around her balled-up lab coat.

"No, I'm good. I don't have much time to spare today, so…"

Her words trailed off and silence fell. Sasuke's black eyes observed her where she stood. Once it would have filled her with butterflies and glee to be the subject of his study like this while he licked at his spoon; once she would have blushed and wanted to swoon at this gaze flitting to her face, her hair, her legs. But not anymore. Now she stared back, unblushing, with an indifferent heart.

Sasuke perceived some of these things, no doubt – he did have the best eyes in the business.

"You've changed a lot," he said at length.

Sakura wasn't sure what he meant by the comment – whether he meant physically or emotionally or otherwise – but she didn't care to delve into that at the moment, so her answer was noncommittal and guarded. "Yeah. It's been a while."

"I guess," said Sasuke, equally guarded. "I barely recognize you. All…grown up."

Sakura looked down at herself and nodded in that awkward way you nod when someone makes a self-evident statement and there isn't much else to say about it. "Yep…ten years will do that."

"I still remember you as a kid," said Sasuke. He paused then, and again she was the object of his study. "Although, I'm told we've met more recently than that."

"Yeah," said Sakura. Her arms tightened around her coat; the memory of that meeting was still vivid and painful. "We did."

"I don't really remember," said Sasuke.

"That's probably for the best."

Again, an uncomfortable silence fell between them. Sasuke turned his attention to rearranging the items on his food tray so that they lined up just so.

"They say I tried to kill you," said Sasuke, when everything on his tray was perfectly parallel and could offer no further hope of distraction.

He looked up at her then, searching her eyes, maybe hoping that she'd tell him no, they were exaggerating, it wasn't that bad…

"You did," said Sakura.

The look of contrition that flashed across Sasuke's face surprised her. He looked at his hands.

"I wouldn't do that. You know that."

"You were under some...strong influences at the time," said Sakura. "Influences that were pushing you well beyond anything you'd normally do…"

"I wasn't me."

"I know," said Sakura. "No hard feelings. Honestly."

(No feelings at all, really.)

Sasuke nodded. Then he cast about the room as though looking for something else to talk about after this exchange – this acknowledgement and this pseudo-apology of his and this kind-of-forgiveness of hers. (The latter part seemed to have relieved him of some worry or other; a tightness left his shoulders.)

Sasuke cleared his throat. Sakura looked at her shoes.

"So, Naruto says you're running this place now," said Sasuke.

"I mostly run it, yeah. I got promoted to Chief of Patient Care last year," said Sakura.

"Ah."

He was terrible at small talk, terrible, and this conversation was so awkward, couldn't it be over already?

"Yep," said Sakura. "Lots of admin stuff at this level, and training up the next generation of medics, but I do like to keep some clinical duties too… Keeps my skills sharp."

"I see," said Sasuke. "You must be busy."

"Yes. Quite busy."

"I guess I didn't…fit into your schedule."

Sakura blinked at him. "What do you mean?"

"I thought you'd be," began Sasuke, and then he stopped. "I thought you were the team medic."

It took Sakura a moment to understand that he was referring to being placed in Shizune's care, rather than hers – and that it bothered him.

"I'm, um, much more than just a team medic now," said Sakura with a shake of her head. "I manage this place, and part of managing is knowing when to delegate. Shizune knows her cursed seals, so we asked her to take care of you."

"Ah."

That awkward silence fell again. Sasuke looked away and seemed to regret having posed any question at all on the matter. Sakura made a show of folding her coat back over her arm and glanced at the door.

He caught the look and made another attempt at conversation, as though to stave off her departure.

"Naruto said it's thanks to you that they found me. Your idea."

"Yeah, it was," said Sakura with a nod. "Well, my idea, but definitely not my execution…"

"…You mean the Kaguya."

"Yeah. We couldn't have done it without him."

"So I heard," said Sasuke, and it seemed to Sakura that he was being even more guarded than before. "It's pretty...pretty weird that he's here."

Sakura gave him a shrug. "You aren't the only one who decided to ditch Orochimaru."

Again, Sasuke was being cautious and treading carefully. "Yeah. But Kimimaro. That just doesn't sound like him."

Sakura was caught off-guard by the surge of defensiveness that swelled in her chest. "He's changed a lot since you first met him."

"Apparently," said Sasuke, infusing just enough aspersion in the word to provoke her.

"Not apparently," said Sakura. "Evidently. Orochimaru pulled Kimimaro's seal. His obsession – worship, whatever you want to call it – faded after that. He's no longer a conduit for Orochimaru's moods and desires and whatever else. His will is his own, his mind is his own, his…"

His heart is his own, was what Sakura had been about to say. She let the sentence trail off and shrugged. "Anyway, he's changed."

"So how'd he end up in Konoha, helping the Leaf?"

"That's a long story," said Sakura, with the accompanying, though unspoken, implication that she did not wish to speak of it further just now.

"In a nutshell," prompted Sasuke.

A nutshell? Sakura bit back a rueful smile. There was no fitting into a nutshell that half-year of slow-blooming companionship that grew into so much more and compelled the Sound's best and most loyal shinobi to leave everything he knew behind…

So Sakura gave Sasuke the clean version, the one minus the complications. "He tracked me here, using one of the bones that he'd given me. That gave me the idea that he might be able to do the same with you because you guys had fought so much that there was bound to be a shard of some kind still in you."

"But why did Kimimaro come to you?"asked Sasuke. His previous guardedness gave way to impatience. This was the crux, the question that was driving his curiosity…

"I guess he didn't really have anyone else," said Sakura.

"Why would he even need anyone else? The guy's more than capable of taking care of himself. I don't remember much, but I remember that. Those damn sword dances…"

"Not everyone wants to be alone," said Sakura.

Sasuke looked at her askance. "So he wants to be with…you?"

Sakura shrugged. "I guess so."

"But why?" pressed Sasuke. His eyes hardened into obsidian, sharp and black.

"Like I said, who else did he have?" said Sakura. "I'm the one who healed him…and probably the closest thing he has to a friend in the whole world."

Sasuke did not appear satisfied with this answer. He mulled things over for a moment, his fingers interlocked and tucked under his chin. Again Sakura glanced at the door, wondering if she'd stayed long enough that it would be polite to leave now.

"So what's he still doing in Konoha?" asked Sasuke. "When do we kick him out?"

"Um, there will be no kicking him out. He's officially defected from the Sound."

"So the Hidden Leaf is harbouring a missing-nin?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes, we are," said Sakura. "I made a deal with the Council to put Kimimaro in my custody if he managed to find you, so he wouldn't be imprisoned indefinitely."

Sasuke shook his head and radiated disapproval verging on scorn. "Another deal. You sure cut a lot of them."

Again, Sakura found herself quelling a defensive surge. "I cut deals to save people I – people I care about. What's your point?"

The revelation was probably unwise; Sakura realized it as soon as it left her lips.

This was confirmed when Sasuke regarded her with disbelief. "You care about him?"

"…Yes," said Sakura.

"Why?"

"What does it matter?"

"He's—" Sasuke gestured widely, as though the enormity of why it mattered was too obvious and vast for words. "He's from an enemy village."

"Not anymore," said Sakura.

"He was from an enemy village, whatever…"

"So were you, until a few weeks ago," said Sakura.

"Yeah, but... He was Orochimaru's next body. Willingly."

"So were you."

"But – but he's done all kinds of shit. He's killed all kinds of people…"

"So have you."

Sasuke stared at Sakura with an open mouth, apparently computing his remaining objections and realizing that he was equally guilty of each.

He pressed his lips into an unhappy line, stared out the window, and stewed.

"I should go," said Sakura.

"…What the hell did he do to make you care about him?" asked Sasuke.

Sakura was saved from formulating a response by a crackle on the PA announcing a code thirty-three in Obstetrics. The interruption was received with gratitude on her part, and annoyance on his.

"That's for me," said Sakura, pulling her lab coat back on. "See you."

"Wait. This isn't what I…"

"What you…?" asked Sakura with a quizzical look.

"Nothing," said Sasuke, turning away. "Forget it."

Sakura left with a backwards glance and remained confused and uncertain as to the import of the conversation for a long while afterwards.

VVV