Sakura could not focus for the next couple of hours at the hospital. It had all just been too much for her. And when Tsunade caught her making some mistakes while she was making her rounds in the hospital Sakura was ordered to take the rest of the day off. But she did not have the strength to go home and there was no way that she would return to Sasuke's room. Instead she found herself just sitting in her office at the hospital staring at a clock on the wall. Her head started to pound to the stead rhythm of the ticks.

Tick

'What is going on?' She clutched her head her eyes were red and puffy. There were no more tears left in her only this feeling of absolute nothing. It would be a joke for her to welcome him with open arms as if the last 13 years had never happened.

Tock

'Why did he come back? But more importantly what will that mean to us?' She gripped her hair pulling at it gentle trying to calm herself. Her breath was still erratic.

Tick

'Why am I sad?' She lowered her head to the desk that was in front of her as it was to heavy for her to hold up any more. Her hair pooling around her face.

Tock

'Its because of Naruto…'

Tick

'NO! Its not that I love Naruto now…' Her head shot up at this thought. There was no doubt in her mind that she had replaced Sasuke in her heart with Naruto now. There were so many memories that she had shared with Naruto that she could not erase them. Even if a small part of her still longed to be with Sasuke.

Tock

"WHY!" She screamed her fits landing on the wooden desk in front of her. Some of the papers on her desk scattered and then landed on the ground. It was at that point that Tsunade entered her office.

"I thought I would find you here kid…" Sakura watched her making her way to the front of her desk picking up some of the papers that had landed on the ground.

"Maybe I don't was to be found…" Tsunade sat on the desk and look at her former student placing the papers in a neat pile in front of Sakura. She could not handle seeing her former student like this. She always thought of Sakura as a daughter as cliché as it was. She needed to lighten the mood.

"You're a total mess… Here…" She held out a cloth to Sakura and then started wiping at her face as if she was a toddler covered with dirt. "There… Now you're a little bit more respectable." A sad smile crossed Tsunade's lips.

"How is he?" Sakura's eyes were turned down and the smile that Tsunade had put on was never received.

Tsunade sighed, "Naruto has been in there with him… I think I actually heard laughing coming from there when I last walked pass."

"How could he be laughing at a time like this?" Sakura clenched her hands in her lap.

"You know Naruto Sakura. He will always find the best in every situation that he is faced with. Probably one of the reasons that the thought of him becoming the next Hokage is not that strange after all. You should draw on that strength of his right now. You seem to need it."

"What is going to happen to Sasuke."

"Well… its not going to be easy for him to be re-introduced into the village. There are a lot of people who are not going to accept him back so easily."

"Yeah…" Sakura laughed forcefully. "Like me…"

"Don't think that I myself am not weary of him either…After all this time to have him come back suddenly. It's not something that I can over look so easily as Hokage. I have to worry about him being a threat to the village returning this way." Sakura nodded her head at Tsunade's words. She was right. There was a little bit of suspicion with Sasuke returning so suddenly.

"Do you think this could be Orochimaru work?"

"I don't know Sakura. I am just as confused as you when it comes to Sasuke now. He will not be able to walk around so freely though and before you came in I was letting him know the terms of his statues in Konoha. Reminding him that it will most likely be unthinkable for him to return here without any punishment."

"What type of punishment will he recive?" Her voice sounded worried.

"That's for the village to decided. He was a traitor after all."

"But is he still one?"

"I don't know Sakura. That's why for the time being Saskue is going to be under heavy surveillance."

"Naruto has already offered to let him stay with you guys."

"What?" A look of horror came over Sakura's face. "Did… Did Naruto tell him about us? About our marriage?"

Tsunade shrugged her shoulders, "Would it matter if he did?"

"No!" Her answer was fast and unhesitant. "Never, I love Naruto now and always. Sasuke coming back will not change anything."

"Then why are you hiding in here?" Tsunades hands were on her hips.

The question struck Sakura hard and she jumped up out of the office seat.

"Your right! I must face him. I must show him how things are right now. I must support him too. It's selfish to only think about myself when he is suffering we all are." Sakura gathered her hair into a pony tail. "Let me take over his treatment from now on."

Tsunade was hesitant at first. "Are you sure your ok with that now?"

"Yes I am. Thank you for the talk Tsunade it has made things a bit clearer for me now. I think I will go see him now." Sakura straightened her clothing out and Tsunade nodded her head to Sakura and then watched as her former student made her way out of the office.

"I hope everything will be ok for you three… It's funny how history seems to repeat itself. You were just luckier then I was. Your team came back to you so maybe there is hope."

Sakura reached Sasuke's hospital room for the second time that day. This time she was calm and prepared. Prepared to face him, her past. She pulled back the door to find the room empty of everyone but Sasuke who turned his attention from the window to Sakura when she entered. She slowed down as she approached him. Where was Naruto? She was ready to face him but wanted Naruto there for support.

"Naruto had to go to head quarters…" Sasuke said to Sakura as he notice her stop when she did not see anyone else in the room with him. "Can't believe that dope actually made anbu. And you, your quite accomplished yourself I hear. Top medic? I knew that you had it in you."

"Well you can accomplish things if you just stay…" She trailed off a bit when she noticed the hurt in Sasuke's eyes. She did not mean to sound as cold as it had when the words started to flow from her mouth. She had come to talk to him not put him down and remind him that he was a traitor to many people. There was silence for a while as Sakura watched Sasuke fiddle the blanket of his bed. His eyes we cast down.

"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to…" She stopped again when she noticed that Sasuke's nervous fiddling had caused some of his bandages to unravel. It made her scared these human emotions that he was allowing her to see. He used to be so cold and removed before.

"Stupid bandages…" He muttered. He was getting frustrated and irritated and it caused Sakura to chuckle. Sasuke stop when he heard the wonderful sound of her laugher. Something that he had been longing to hear again for a while now. All the women that he had had while he was away never could comfort him with one laugh. They would try but after Sasuke had used them he would regret it and curse his manly urges. A lot of the times he would call out Sakura's name while the other women were with him. Most of them did not care. Instead the would reply in surly voices.

"Yes…. I am your little cherry blossom." He would be brought back to his sense and usually through the girl off his body, toss her some money and her wrinkled kimono.

"Let me help you with those… After all I am the expert here." Sakura smiled and then turned around. It snapped him out of his memory of the others he had been with. That part of his life was behind him. And what was ahead of him was standing right in front of him now. Her now long again hair tossed from sided to side as she was rummaging through a tray of medical tools for some new bandages. It almost rivaled his in length now. Sasuke knew one thing though as he looked at the length of her hair, as soon as he was out of this hospital and back into the Uchiha mansion he would be getting rid of these long locks. They reminded Sasuke of him. The reason that he was now on bad terms with Sakura. But even if she was as nervous and quite around him as he was she he could not help but want to reach out and touch her. He wanted to hold her in his arms, have her know that he never forgot about her. And that's what made him make his move while she had his back to him.

It had shocked her at first that she dropped her bandages. Sasuke had caught her off guard when he came up behind her wrapping his arms around her. He should not even be out of bed but wounds had never stopped the Uchiha before. The closeness of their bodies made Sakura's heart flutter. This feeling of being in his arms was something that her childhood fantasies had dreamed. And now it was happening. But there was a problem that was attached to these feelings of excitement in Sasuke's arms. It weighed her down on her ring finger and made Sakura snap out of her trance.

'Naruto' Sakura thought to herself. And her posture frozen in an instance. Sasuke, however, was to immersed within her body and being that he did not even notice Sakura's frigid stance.

"This is what I have missed the most about Konoha." His faced was pressed into the back of her pink locks. He inhaled the sent of her cherry blossom shampoo. How like Sakura to be a walking cliché and use this fragrance on her hair.

"Cherry Blossoms… I always felt the most at piece in their presence." His words were soft and too alluring for Sakura to handle. She felt as if the band on her ring finger was growing tighter and heavier. The guilt of their current position was pulling her down.

'Naruto…' Sakura thought again. How long had she wished for a moment like this from Sasuke. Its was alien to her, the thought of him expressing his emotions to her. The thought that he was holding her and begging her for something. Little did he know it was something that he could now never have of her. She loved him too much. She loved his goofy smile, the way he always snuggled into her side wanting to be the one held after one of their love making sessions. She loved Naruto and Sasuke was just to late in her mind and heart. But he did not know or at least Sakura guessed that when Sasuke said his next whispered sentence into the shell of her ear.

"I told Naruto before that I came back here to finish the restoration of my clan. And I know now Sakura… You're the one that I want to help me."

'NO!' Sakura thought to herself. She could feel his grip tightening around her even more. It started to become unbearably for her.

"Sakura… I need to tell you something…"

'Sakura stop him!' She screamed at herself. She needed to stop him before he said something that they would all regret.

"Sakura," Sasuke started again. "I…" He paused long enough for Sakura to gasp and scream.

"NO!" Tears started to steam down her face now. It shocked Sasuke but he did not let go. Instead his knees underneath gave way and Sakura came down with him. Both were kneeling on the floor Sasuke released her when he felt the cool tiled floor beneath him.

"I'm sorry Sakura…" He choked. He was crying too now. He had to. It was the only way he could express anything right now. There they were both a mess on the ground. Sasuke now gripping at Sakura sides. His head was buried into her stomach and was resting slightly on her lap as he leaded forward. "I'm sorry Sakura… I just cant help it." He paused and then gasped. "I just can't help loving you."

She was not ready for this. She did not know what to do. He was so broken in front of her. It scared her. He reminded her of herself. During the time that she had begged Naruto to take her back. All she had wanted then was a comforting set of arms and that is what she was going to be giving him. But Sakura did not notice one thing amidst all this anguish.

He had come in after hearing her scream. After hearing his wife scream. And there he witnessed it. His best friend and his wife.