Disclaimer: Naruto and the Tool are the property of their respective owners. I am is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of the material. I don't own anything. I didn't write this story only put Naruto characters in place of the original characters. I didn't write this story only replaced various things. The original is by Sabrina Paige

Sakura POV

The knock on the door in the morning startles me. When I answer, my hair plastered to the side of my face, no one's there. I barely slept last night, gutted over what happened. I wonder if Karin is on her way back to Konoha already, the bearer of such fantastic fucking news that my father will probably have a coronary.

I need to call my father. I don't know how to explain any of it. I really can't face him.

And I can't face Sasuke, either.

How can things go from being so high to crashing down so low in a matter of minutes? Last night with Sasuke, I was happy. I was deliriously, irrepressibly, recklessly happy. A part of me knew it wouldn't last, just like part of me this morning longs to go to Sasuke, to tell him that it doesn't matter, that we shouldn't give a shit what anyone else thinks.

Except it's Sasuke, the guy who doesn't spend time with women outside the bedroom. The guy who doesn't date. Perpetual manwhore, always risk-taking, never-going-to-grow-up Sasuke. And the most important part – my step-brother. What the hell would I say to him?

I think I might love you.

The realization nearly takes my breath away.

Then I know what I have to do.

Sasuke POV

I listen to the clerk at the front desk relay the message, and I can hear the words, but I don't want to believe them. Sakura couldn't have just left Tokyo without saying anything. She wouldn't.

I'm angry at her for running away. I'm angry at her for being so fucking juvenile that she's taken an earlier flight just hours before our scheduled one so she doesn't have to be on the same flight as me.

I hope that she's on her way back to Konoha to talk to Kizashi, and not going straight to her mother's house in Suna. Not that I expect she'll stick around in Konoha, after how embarrassed she was at being discovered.

Goddamn it, how am I the one who's behaving rationally? How am I the one acting like an adult here? Yes, the deal with Utakata is off, but that's not the worst thing in the world. And the step-sibling relationship…I want to grab Sakura by the arms and shake her, to tell her that it's really not that big of a deal. We're not actually related. Our parents met when we were basically adults.

During the long flight, I think about what I want to say to Sakura. I also think about what I already said to her father in the email. I meant every word.

I'm just hoping that she'll be there so I can say the same thing in person.

I'm also hoping her father doesn't point a shotgun at me when I show up.