REWRITE: *HEYYYYYYYALLLLL's In Outkast.*

I'm trying to get all of the current chapters that I have already written re-done quickly because I want to get to the newer ideas I have in store for this absolute TANK of a story. At last count, this story was sitting at just OVER 90,000... NINETY THOUSAND READS! WOW! I never realized how big this story got until I went to switch out the 2nd chapter and checked the stats out! Anywho, look for a note at the bottom, and don't forget to leave a review and let me know what you think about the rewriting process.

Last time on "Bright Side to Life:

"I can see that something is still bothering you, You need to figure out if you want to jump into something serious with me."

Chapter 4: I'm Sorry

It had been a month since that night, every week that the two blondes were in the village, they would go on at least one date. These dates typically ended the same way as the first, but after each date Ino's father had become angrier at the couple. Each time Ino left, there were more hateful words towards Naruto when she returned. She let it be known that she wanted to be with Naruto and never backed down from her father.

The news of Naruto and Ino's relationship had gotten out thanks to Kiba and Hinata, and their class's opinions were generally positive. Some of the clan heirs were a bit concerned that they would now have 2 blondes causing chaos throughout the village, others were hoping that Ino would be able to contain that kind of behavior that Naruto was capable of. Inoichi was Furious that other clan heads supported this relationship.

The only concerned one was Sakura. With Sasuke gone, what was her purpose now? It seemed like everyone else had someone to look after or to be with and she seemed to be the odd one out. Kiba had Hinata, Naruto had been hanging out with Ino, Shikamaru and Choji have been inseparable best friends since birth and they might as well be brothers. TenTen has been trying and kind of failing to get Neji's attention, Lee… Well, is just Lee. Shino has practically locked himself away with his bugs. 'Ew' She thought to herself as she cringed.

She spent her whole academy and genin life so far just trying to grab Sasuke's attention. She wanted to be able to heal him whenever he got hurt on missions, to be able to keep him safe. Now all she has is Naruto, and she broke his heart the last time she saw him. She sighs as she thinks back to the visit she got from Ino after she blew up at Naruto.

*Flashback, 3 weeks ago, Haruno residence*

Sakura was in the kitchen doing the dishes, mind wandering to her blonde teammate when she heard a knock on her front door. Looking out the window she saw her best friend. She quickly dried her hands off and went to open the door.

"Ino, what's up?" She said, letting her friend in and closing the door behind her.

"Not much forehead, just checking on you. You've been kinda distant for the last few days, some of us have been worried. Is everything okay?" Ino asked, putting her hand on the girl's shoulder.

Sakura let out a sigh, "I'm fine. I've just been working longer hours at the hospital and keeping the house straightened up since my parents left for a beach vacation." Sakura lies.

Ino gives her a stern look. "You are a terrible liar Sakura, you know that?." Ino says. "What is wrong? I want the truth."

Sakura stayed silent for a few moments before speaking up. "He's mad at me. I know it. He did the one thing that I asked of him and I pushed him away."

"Pushed who away? You mean Naru-Kun?"

Sakura nods, hanging her head before she realizes the suffix added onto Naruto's name. "Wait NARU-KUN?!" She yelled.

"Yeeaahh… That's a story for later." Ino said scratching the back of her head while blushing nervously.

"Anyways," she continued "All you need to do is apologize to him, then again if you do, he'll probably ask why, but that's not the issue. Both of you have been through so much since we graduated and even though you've thought he was a menace most of that time, he's always looked after you and even Sasuke before he defected."

A tear started to form in Sakura's eyes. As she hung her head in shame.

"Look. Sasuke's death is not your fault. It's not Naruto's fault either. Sasuke knew what he was getting into when he left the village with Orochimaru. The second he stepped out of those gates he was an enemy of the leaf.

"Sakura, why are you so against going to apologize to him?"

"I'm afraid he won't forgive me okay." Sakura started sobbing. "I don't think I need to explain why."

Ino let out a short laugh. "You do realize we are talking about the one person that is possibly the most forgiving person in the world, right? We're talking about NARUTO of all people!"

Sakura wiped her eyes and stared off into the distance. Ino was right. She could trust that Naruto would forgive her.

"I'm giving you until the end of the month. . If you haven't apologized by then, I'm going to drag you to Naruto's house so that he gets said apology." Ino said in a brash tone.

"Okay Ino, I will. Thank you."

"That's why I'm here." Ino says with a smile.

"So about you and Naruto…" Sakura says with a sly smirk.

*Present day*

Three weeks. It had been three weeks since Ino had talked to her. And it was also almost payday, which meant the end of the month. Ino said that if she was going to say anything she had to do it soon before he went on his next mission. Which was tomorrow. Sakura had never been much of a procrastinator, but this was different. This was something she didn't know if she could do.

"I hope he's in a good mood today." Sakura said to herself as she headed out to find him.

***With Naruto and Ino***

The blonde couple was headed to Ichiraku's ramen stand. This was the last day together before they would be separated for an extensive amount of time. A month to be exact. Naruto protested against it, considering that The two blondes were almost inseparable since the night they got together. Well, almost.

An Anbu ninja with a Jaguar shaped mask dropped in front of the couple.

"Naruto Uzumaki, Lady Tsunade needs to see you immediately."

"Thank you Jaguar. We'll be there shortly."

Ino made to follow her boyfriend, but was stopped.

"I'm sorry miss Yamanaka, The Hokage wants to see him alone." The agent said.

Ino sighed. "Fine." She turns to Naruto. "Come back soon. I'll be at the ramen stand waiting for you." She smiled

"I will. See you in a little bit" Naruto says as he kisses her cheek and then jumped away across some roof tops.

Ino turned and walked off. She was going to see what details she could get out of the old man and his younger daughter about Naruto

*Time skip 15 minutes *

Tsunade hears a knock on the door. "It's about time he's here" she says to herself.

"Come in!" She orders.

"You wanted to see me?" Naruto asks as he steps through the door

"Yes, get in here and sit down." Tsunade says as she points to the chair in front of her desk.

Naruto does as he's told and sits in the chair across from her.

"What is it Baa-chan?"

"Stop calling me that! Anyways, the details of your mission are in this scroll. You will be heading towards an island north of the border for a scouting mission. Rumor has it there is a newer clan in the northern land of fire. I want you to investigate it and bring back any intel you can gather.. It's going to be an S ranked mission so keep quiet about it and only relay this information to your teammates once you've left the village. You are welcome to read the scroll by yourself, but only in your home alone. Got it?"

Naruto nods, "There was something else?"

Yes, That's one thing I called you here for. The second reason Is that you will have a new teammate to replace Sasuke."

Naruto groans. "Oh god. Wait let me guess, we're getting a chunin from the class before mine? This better be good."

"Oh stop, and no. no one from the previous class is joining your team. I think you'll actually like your new teammate. Your new teammate will be one that you are already quite close to. Ino."

"WHAT?" His jaw dropped.

"You heard me. Your girlfriend is part of your squad."

"B-but what about the Ino-Shika-Cho?! How are you going to-" Naruto spouted off.

"I've already dealt with that. Ino's cousin Inomi will take her place."

Naruto couldn't keep his jaw from hitting the floor. After a few moments, the blonde finally managed to regain his composure.

"So does she know about the team changes?" He raises a brow.

"Not yet. You will be the one to tell her." Tsunade says objectively.

"Alright, I'll let her know." Naruto says with a nod, turning to walk out of the door

"Oh, wait! And Naruto?" She catches him before he opens the door.

Tsunade throws a black vest at him.

"You have been promoted to Chunin rank for your completion of the Sasuke retrieval mission." Tsunade says with a smile.

"Thank you Baa-Chan. I won't let you down." He smiles down at the jacket.

"Good, because you're up for another promotion soon. We'll talk more about it when you return from this mission.

"Understood granny." Naruto says as he walks out the door.

***With Ino***

Ino had managed to make it back home from the shop and was about to open the door to her house when she heard a voice call out her name.

"INO!" Ino turns around, trying to figure out who called her name. She looked through the crowd to find Sakura running up to her.

"Sakura? Hey what's up?" Ino asked, putting her key down.

"I wanted (Pant) to see (pant) if you knew where Naruto was." Sakura says, slightly out of breath.

"So of all the days you could have picked, you picked the last one before I came to drag you to him. Honestly Sakura, I would've never pegged you as the procrastinator type!" Ino mused.

"Yeah, yeah, enough with the smartass remarks, what are we, seven years old now? Nevermind that, where is he?" Sakura groaned.

"He's in Lady Tsunade's office right now. But he should be done soon. You might be able to meet up with him if you hurry."

When Sakura heard this she wasted no time getting there. She hopped across roofs, and at some point, interrupted Kakashi's reading session while he was sitting outside of a comic store. He just looked at her and shook his head after she tripped over his foot, did a little roll and kept going until she reached the Hokage's tower. She waited by the main door outside for a few minutes, watching other ninja exit the building until finally it opened, revealing Naruto packing away his mission scroll in a seal on his arm, and then zipping on his new vest. Sakura then called out to catch his attention..

"Naruto!"

"Huh? Oh Sakura! Hey what's up?" he says, scratching the back of his head.

There was an unsettling silence between the two and Naruto was first to break it.

"Sakura?"

"Naruto... C-Can we talk?"

"Yeah sure. You're my teammate after all. What is it?"

"I'm sorry."

"What?"

"Naruto I said I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Naruto, the day you came back. I'm sure you remember it right?" Sakura asked.

Naruto thinks back and then nods. "I understand why you reacted the way you did. Not gonna tell you that it didn't hurt though.."

"Look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I acted the way that I did. I'm sorry for Everything I've put you through. I'm sorry I didn't come to you sooner. Sakura was tearing up "I shouldn't have snapped on you about Sasuke and I was out of line and-"

Within seconds Naruto's arms were around her as she cried out. She felt truly terrible for what she made Naruto go through, And he recognized that.

"I was never mad at you Sakura. Never. If anything I was worried that you'd still be mad at me. Ino-Chan said otherwise, but I still had my doubts. Looks like I was wrong Sakura."

After a couple more moments, The two friends broke the embrace. Sakura had some questions and she'll be damned if he doesn't answer them.

"So Naruto, you finally made Chunin. I'm proud of you… I- I also noticed you dropped the -Chan off my name and gave it to Ino. Care to explain how you managed to get ahold of Ino pigs heart? Hm?" Sakura says with a shit eating grin. Naruto swears Sakura is hiding her Killer Intent behind this.

"We'll have plenty of time to discuss that on our next mission in the morning. The whole team is going. We leave in the morning, so meet me at the northern gate. I'll explain everything then." Naruto says as he makes a Hand sign and poofs away.

Sakura sighs. Her job was finished. She did what she didn't have to. But she felt it was needed if she was going to get out of her funk that she was in. "Mission accomplished I guess." Sakura says to herself as she heads home to prepare for her mission.

AND CUT!

REWRITE NOTES: This one was a bit of a pain to rewrite because I kept having to change time skips to where things might make sense. Nevertheless, this chapter is finished unless I choose to rewrite the whole thing again. I did change Inoichi's original reaction to NaruIno because I've grown to like more drama in my stories as I've gotten older. There will be more later, but i'll get to that soon. ANYWAYS thanks for reading and please be sure to R&R! It helps tremendously with my motivation! Until the next chapter, PEACE!

Naruto: IT'S TOO LATE TO APOLOGIIIIZE ITS TOO LAAAAAAATE

Sakura: SHUT UP NARUTO

Me:*Sigh* can't you two just get along?

Sakura: Maybe if he stops being stupid!

Ino: HEY HANDS OFF MY MAN FOREHEAD!

Me:Oh Kami why?

So, I thought that was a good place to stop things. I know some people are going to whine that the chapter(s) are too short, but you take what you get.