Disclaimer: I dont own Naruto, Kishimoto-sama owns it.

Chapter 4: Realization

A small stream of sunlight passed through the small opening of the window's curtain and landed on a sleeping face, to be more specific, it was Haruno Sakura's face. She still seemed fast asleep despite the bright sunlight on her face. That's probably because she had a rough night at the hospital last night. Probably? Darn, it really was hell last night! 8 ANBU squad members barely crawled back to Konoha alive; 3 of them having fatal injuries and the other 5 received several wounds. The medic nins were all unavailable due to the fact that they were all on mission. The doctors in the hospital had a day-off that day. That leaves 70 nurses, 244 stable patients, 8 injured ANBU members and a very furious Sakura in the hospital. To make things worse, Shizune went with Tsunade-sama to the nearest casino earlier this evening. 50 nurses had to take care of the other patients in the hospital. That leaves 20 nurses to help Sakura with their unstable patients. She worked hard all evening and everything went smoothly for her patients. As of the moment, all the 8 ANBU members are now safely sleeping on the hospital bed. Speaking of sleeping a certain kunoichi needs to wake-up now if she doesn't want to be late in meeting up with her teammates.

Sakura groaned as she forced her heavy eyelids open. She urged her body to sit up-UGH! Her body ached all over. Who wouldn't if you only slept for 3 hours after a total chakra drain? She could even barely remember how she got home.

She forced her body to cooperate with her mind and took a fast shower, changed into her normal clothes and went downstairs to prepare herself some breakfast. (lightningedge: her family? Don't ask. I'm still thinking about doing a chapter about it, though I'm not sure if I will be making one…) After tripping 5 times on the stairs, she managed to reach the kitchen alive. Not trusting her foggy mind to cook, she decided to have a slice of bread and a cold glass of milk instead.

At the meeting place…

"Ohayou, Sasuke-teme, Saku-eh?" Naruto scanned his eyes around the bridge, looking for a certain pink-haired kunoichi. "Where's Sakura-chan?"

"How should I know?" shrugged Sasuke, he leant back on the railings of the bridge.

"Ah, there she is!" Naruto pinpointed a pink-haired girl from afar.

"OHAYOU! SAKURA-CHAN!"

As Sakura walked closer, both of her teammates noted that she was walking sloppily and her eyelids were only half-open. Other than that, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her. As she walked to her usual place, which was between Sasuke and Naruto, she greeted her teammates in a rather tired tone. "Ohayou, Sasuke-kun, Naruto too." Naruto and Sasuke glanced at each other. Something's obviously wrong with her.

"Daijobu-ka? Sakura-chan."

"Nande mo nai, Naruto." Sakura said in a monotone. "Just a little tired."

"Ah." Sasuke replied, acknowledging her answer.

Silence…

Silence…

Silence…

After three quiet hours…

It was only Sakura who was able to stand the silence, probably because she was awfully tired today. You know how Naruto is, always being his noisy self, he just couldn't stand the silence. As for Sasuke, he grew quite used to his noisy surroundings that he found the unusual silence very awkward.

Poof!

"Yo!"

"YOUR LATE AGAIN!" yelled Naruto. He was so frustrated with the silence earlier that he putted all his frustration in his sensei.

"You see-"

"Don't even bother." Sasuke said shortly.

Kakashi glanced at his students. "They seem more inpatient than usual today, aren't they?" But he noticed that Sakura wasn't talking at all. He looked at Sakura. She seemed normal except for her tired looking eyes. "Hey, Sakura. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Sakura sighed.

"You guys all look so down today." Kakashi commented. "But I now what will cheer you guys up."

"Try me." Said Sakura with a disbelieving tone.

"Our mission today is to escort-" before Kakashi could finish Naruto interrupted.

"Guard a feudal lord? How about a daimyo?"

"An escort mission?" Sakura thought. "This should be interesting"

Sasuke seemed interested too.

"No, actually-"

"Who are we gonna guard then?"

"Urusai, Naruto" Sakura said as Inner Sakura took over her. "Stop interrupting if you want to know the details." Her tiredness was forgotten and excitement took over her.

"Oh, sorry."

"As I was saying, we are going to escort a person named Kaji Suzuki. He is just a common person, I guess. We are going to escort him to the other village and protect him from any thieves or gangs that we may encounter on our way there. It'll just take a 5 hour walk for us to get to his home village, but I think it would be best if we come back here tomorrow morning." Kakashi looked at students, "Anyone against it?"

"…"

"I'll take that as a no." assumed Kakashi. "We will be meeting our client at the gates of Konoha. He is probably waiting for us right now."

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Naruto yelled cheerfully.

After a short walk they arrived at the gates. There was a young man standing, waiting for Team 7.

"Yo!" Kakashi said in his usual casual tone. "You must be Kaji Suzuki, I presume."

"Yes." Said the man. "And you must be Team 7." The man was around 16-19 years old. He was quite handsome. He has slightly long violet hair that blew with the wind, his eyes, deep blue in color. He face was slightly thin and very handsome. He wore a large backpack on his back, which they assumed contain his clothes.

"Meet my team," Kakashi introduced everyone. "I'm Hatake Kakashi. This is Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura."

"Pleasure meeting all of you guys."

While they were walking…

"Kaji-san." Sakura looked at their handsome client. "Would you like me to carry your bag instead? It looks really heavy."

"Thanks, but no thanks. It's quite light, I can assure you." Replied the Suzuki as he brushed his hair with his hand. "By the way, don't call me Kaji-san. It's way too formal. Call me Suzuki instead, ne, Sakura-chan?"

"Ah…" smiled Sakura. "Suzuki-san then."

"I haven't really introduced myself, have I?" Suzuki looked at Sakura. "I'm Kaji Suzuki, 17 years old, single and looking." He did his most precious killer smile to Sakura.

"A playboy," Inner Sakura rolled her eyes.

"The nerve of this guy, he's trying to hit on Sakura!" Naruto thought. There were already plenty of other guys in Konoha that likes Sakura. Why does he have to add on the list?

"He is so annoying." Sasuke thought.

Both Naruto and Sasuke were listening to Sakura and Suzuki's conversation with disgust while at their back is their sensei, observing their reactions. And by the looks of the two of them, they seemed very annoyed with their client. All Kakashi could do was sigh.

Suzuki continued. "Did I mention that you are my type of girl?"

A slight tint of red was visible on Sakura's face as she smiled brightly. "Hehe, really now. That's very flattering. But I'm afraid my heart is already taken."

"Oh, you already have a boyfriend?"

Sakura went even redder, not because she was flattered, but because she was slightly embarrassed. "Erm… not exactly a boyfriend…"

"What do you mean?"

"I…. you see, it's really complicated… How should I put this?" Sakura didn't know how to answer Suzuki. She can't just tell him she loves Sasuke out loud; Sasuke might find her more annoying. "I-uh…." She couldn't think of anything else as of the moment so she did what first came into her mind. She pointed up the sky and said. "Look at the sky, it's so beautiful, isn't it?"

She was obviously trying to change the topic. And even though she was an outstanding Chuunin, she was a very bad actress. Somehow, Naruto felt relieved to see that Sakura is not attracted to Suzuki even though he was handsome.

"Yes, it is." Suzuki answered her. "But you still haven't answered my question. Do you-?"

"Hey"

A gangster appeared in front of them. They were all 10. One of them said "Hand over your cash if you don't want to die."

For once, Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto thought of the same thing. "Baka."

"Tch. You sound too confident." Sasuke said calmly

"Do you really think you could kill us?" Kakashi said coolly.

"Remember this face," Naruto yelled proudly. "I am Uzumaki Naruto and I'm going to be the next Hokage."

"Here we go again." Inner Sakura whined inside Sakura's head.

"Sakura, stay beside Suzuki," Kakashi ordered.

"Yeah."

Within 16 seconds flat, Kakashi took down 5 of them, while Naruto and Sasuke each took down 2. The last one went straight to Sakura. Of course, Sakura was ready for him. Sakura stood beside Suzuki calmly as he approached them; she did a fighting stance and was about to charge him when suddenly, Naruto and Sasuke appeared right in front of her and did the fighting for her.

"Heeeeey," Sakura pouted. "I wanted to do some fighting too, you know?"

"But I was just protecting you, Sakura-chan. I don't want you to get hurt." Said Naruto with a cheesy smile.

Sakura smiled at him, but deep inside she was feeling a lot of negative emotions while they walk slowly. "Do they still think I'm weak? Even Sasuke-kun thinks so too! I have to…get stronger. You are really frustrating me to death! I-"

"So, I was asking if you have a boyfriend earlier." Suzuki broke her out of her thoughts. "Do you have one?"

"No."

"What were you saying earlier then?"

"Let's not talk about it." Sakura said shortly.

"Okay then," Suzuki, who knows a lot about girls, need not to be told just to notice that Sakura was pissed off for some reason. He did not press on the topic.

There was a long silence as they walk. Sakura walked in front, Suzuki behind her with Naruto and Sasuke beside him, and Kakashi was behind Suzuki.

"Ne, how far are we from the village?" Naruto asked.

"About 30.64 km," Sakura answered shortly. She glanced back; she was about to open her mouth when Suzuki winked at her. She glanced back in front, hiding her blushed face from her teammates. Why on earth does Suzuki have to be so darn good-looking? If he wasn't such a playboy then he would be able to replace Sasuke in Sakura's heart.

When they reached the village…"At last," Sakura thought as she sighed with relief. Suzuki was starting to get to her nerves, he kept on asking Sakura lots of things about her love life, luckily, she was able to dodge all of them.

"What a pity." Suzuki's face was filled with disappointment. "How time surely flies. I'm sorry to say that we have to part ways now, my dear Sakura."

"Ah."

"Bye then, don't worry, I'll visit you in Konoha it I have the time." Suzuki walked away from them.

"Bye!" yelled Sakura. "I hope that you will always be busy so that you won't be able to visit me." she added softly so that only Sasuke, Kakashi and Naruto could hear her.

"I'm tired."

"We should check-in to an inn soon before it the sun sets."

"Sure."

Later that night…

Sakura lied down inside her room. She closed her eyes and talked to her inner-self.

"He still doesn't acknowledge me." She sighed.

"Yeah, but he'll come to his senses soon, I hope."
"I have to accept facts. I can't fantasize about him forever."

"But you're a manga artist, aren't you? You have to broaden your- "

"That's different."

"But-"

"There's no use trying to change my mind. I have finally come to a realization. And you know what that is?"

"No. What did you realize?"

"I have realize that I have fallen deeply in love with him. I have fallen so deep that all I want is for him to be happy."

"So?"

"Starting tomorrow, I'm giving him up."

"What! That doesn't make any sense."

"I don't care, all I want is for Sasuke to be happy." She closed her eyes and fell asleep.

END OF THE CHAPTER

Did you understood this chapter? And did you understand what Sakura meant when she wanted to give-up Sasuke? Please tell me if you dont understand. I was really in a major dilema when I wrote this so please excuse it for being a little angsty. I promise that the next chappie would be a lot better than this one.

And also I would like to thank the ff for reviewing:

v-sakura

Angelbornnhell

Haou'sAnjul

Shinobi Darkbreak

Sorry if there were some gramatical errors, I've noticed it too. But please try to bear with it. BTW, dont forget to review. And I need your honest opinions. If you dont like it, please tell me so that I can changemy mistakessomehow. What do you think of my style of writing and the story as well? Another BTW, I might not be able to update soon 'coz our PT is coming up soon. Tch, chemistry totally sucks! Hope you enjoyed reading!