Goodday, Ladies and Gents:

I do not own Naruto, wish I did, but that's life.

I have officially finished the story line, which means that I hope I can spit out these chapters a bit faster for you. I'm currently working on the next chapter, it's about half done as I type this. I was going to have this chapter up the other day, but the internet for my university is being funny (normal for it) and I wasn't able to pull up the page. Thank you for the correction of the mistypes in here and as always, glad you are enjoy reading what I'm enjoying writing. So, without further ado, enjoy!

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Sakura sat at her nightstand and studied her reflection. She hated the fact that her hair made her stand out. So many people thought it was fake; she had tried to dye it once, it didn't work out what-so-ever. So abandoning that avenue she kept the pink hair. After brushing her hair, she started to get up to go shower when there was a knock on the door. Sighing over the fact that her quiet evening was being inturrupted. Looking out through the peephole she saw Lee standing out there.

"Hi, Lee, what are you doing here?"

"Sakura, I came to see if you would spar with me tomorrow. I know Itachi is trying to build up your stamina and chakura reserves, and we hardly ever see eachother anymore, with all of the missions that we have."

Sakura thought for a minute before giving a postive answer and leaving him with the excuse that she was tired and needed sleep; all but closing the door in his face when she left.

Back inside her apartment and left to her own thoughts, she slowly stripped off her clothes for the long,hot shower she needed. Lee rarely sought her out now, he had long since gotten over her and they enjoyed just being friends. About once a month or so, he would come and ask her to spar, she always accepted. They were friends, they were comfortable with her. His girlfriend really didn't mind. She was from Sand and the two of them would take missions together as a sign of peace between the two countries. They countries were working together more often ever year. Naruto and Gaara often did missions together as well. Tsuande seemed to be preparing him to take over in her place. Trying to prepare the elders as well, she wouldn't like them to give him hell.

She thought back over the years, Sasuke, Naruto and her had all grown up well. Naruto would be hokage; his dream finally recognized. Sasuke had his brother back; that would be good from the looks of it. He had missed his brother. But she . . . she had her independence. Kakashi had stopped looking after the three of them a few years ago. Her two teammates had their own lives, something to live for. But she was still looking. It always felt like she didn't quite belong, she wasn't sure how, but that's how it felt. Getting out of the shower and drying off, Sakura wrapped the towel around her body and walked slowly to her room. She didn't mind being alone. She had been for years. After her jounin exam, she had moved out of her parents house and didn't have much contact with them. They tended to be a little extreme and did not take her moving out very well; all but disowning her. She joined them for holidays, but for the most part, to her they really didn't exist. She had her apartment, her friends, and her work. She loved it all, but sometimes, like tonight, it felt like it wasn't enough, like she wasn't complete. Having no idea what brought on the meloncoly, she walked into her room and grabbed clean bedclothes. Quickly changing and wrapping her hair to dry with another towel, she moved to the living room to watch some TV before bed. Going into the kitchen, she made some popcorn and grabbed a soda for a snack. Once settled on the couch with the food and blanket and remote, she flipped on the TV and started to skip through the channels. Finding a movie on TV that she had wanted to see in theatres but was gone for. About fifteen minutes into the movie she flipped it off; aggrivated. She DID NOT want to watch a love movie too night. She was already all but depressed and that wasn't going to help. She was lonely. Flat out, and for tonight, and tonight only, she could admit that to herself. Getting up and clearing away her snack, she moved to go to bed.

XXXXXX

Itachi stood there for several minutes wondering what was it about this house that drew him like a iron filings to a magnet. He couldn't move, couldn't think.

XXXXXX

Sakura came to the window, drawn to it. Something or someone was outside, but she didn't feel it as a threat. It was almost like something was out there protecting her from all of the 'things that go bump in the night.' She waited at the window for what seemed like forever but at the same time seemed like it was a mere instant of time. She looked at the clock and realized she had been standing at the window for almost two hours. Finally able to break out of whatever it was drawing her there, she backed up into the room, not quite able to look away yet, and sat on the couch, trying to put her mind back together. A few minutes later, she got up and went back to her nightly routines. After she crawled in bed, it took her a only a few minutes to fall asleep. The protected feeling still wrapped around her mind.

XXXXXX

Itachi finally turned and left to head back to his apartment. Upon arriving there, he saw his front door was cracked and the light was on inside. Drawing a kunai out of his pouch on his right leg, Itachi slowly crept foward while keeping his Chakra concealed. Pushing the door open, he saw Sasuke sitting on his couch watching TV. "Um, Itachi, what are you doing with that kunai"

"I saw my door cracked and the light on, what do you think," Itachi replied standing back up to full height.

"Sorry, I just thought you would be home by now and was curious as to why you weren't"

"I decided took a walk"

"That must have been a really great walk"

"Why do you say that"

"Practice has been over for about four hours"

Looking at the clock near the TV, Itachi realized that Sasuke was right. Still in disbelief that he could have been gone that long, Itachi said "Hey, Sasuke, if it's not that important, do you think we could talk tomorrow? I need to think for a while"

"Yeah, sure, Mom and Dad just wanted you to come to dinner this Saturday night, they're going to keep it to just the five of us"

"The five of us? Who's the fifth"

"They had a daughter about a year ago, I didn't want to tell you right when you got back, or at a time where it might upset you, but I figured you might find out at dinner"

"Wow, a little sister. What's her name"

"Kaori, she's beautiful. And mom finally got the daughter she wanted"

"I imagine, Uchiha Kaori, it's a beautiful name"

"I'm going to leave you to your thinking. I'll see you tomorrow at 9"

"OK, goodnight"

Closing the door behind himself, Sasuke left his older brother to his thoughts. He had forgotten that Itachi hadn't met Kaori yet. She was the light of all of their lives, she had learned to crawl and was creating havoc. She had them all wrapped around her little finger, and she knew it.

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Itachi walked to his kitchen to get something to munch on. After grabbing an apple, he continued to walk to the back of his small apartment. The bedroom was on the left and the bathroom was on the right off of the short hallway. Turning left into his bedroom, he found the clothes he would wear tomorrow for practice and then afterward dinner at his parents house. He had a little sister, Kaori. He had never met her, but there she was. He never imagined that, though. His parents were nearing 50 now, they weren't young, but there was a 25 year gap between him and his sister.

Walking to the bathroom as he finished the last few bites of his apple, he decided to go ahead and take a shower before he slept. Turning on the water, he waited for it to get warm while he stripped down. Systematically going through the process of getting clean, he thought about tonight. The odd sensation of being pulled toward that house for some unknown reason. He was not one to just do things on a whim, he thought them out. He had to, his survival and livelyhood depended on it. He was the best of the best, and it didn't come cheaply. Being that he had to leave his home for seven years, stay out in the wild, and depend only on himself. He was going to go for ANBU, he could make it, but what was wrong with him.

Finishing his shower, he stepped out of the tub and dried off with the towel hanging on the back of the bathroom door. After drying off, he decided to completely shut down his mind for the rest of the night, and went to bed.

XXXXXX

Itachi got up the next morning and got dressed for training. He need to practice some jutsus and supervise the continuing training for the next while. They were learning at a fairly quick speed, and each of the three of them had their own strengths and weaknesses. Sakura's stamina and strength were increasing at an almost exponential rate. Sasuke's and Naruto's chakra control was getting better, but were not moving as quickly as Sakura's. Being dressed and ready for todays adventures, Itachi left his apartment and headed for the bridge near the clearing.

Sakura carefully prepared for her day of running, pushups and sit-ups to be done on the water. She was getting stronger, she could feel it, everyday she lasted longer and was less sore. Her body didn't complain as much and she didn't have to sleep as much as she did when she first started these exercises. Itachi knew what he was talking about and knew how to push the body without pushing it past the breaking point. She left her house and headed for the bridge to meet her two teammates and Itachi.

The month passed much the same as the first few days of Itachi being back. He went to the dinner with his family and then started to spend almost every evening with them, getting reaquained. Kaori as adorable, she was shy towards him a first, hiding behind his mother's dress, but warmed up to him after dinner when he got down on the floor to play with him. He soon became her favorite person, she would reject everyone else in favor of him.

Itachi prepared for his ANBU tests knowing that they might not be the hardest thing he ever faced, but they weren't going to be the easiest either. Walking into the ANBU headquarters the morning of his first test, the Shikumaru was there to greet him. Being led into the back, Itachi saw a table sitting in the middle of the room he entered. He was waved over to the table and told to sit and wait.

After about an hour of waiting, an ANBU that he didn't know (who was also wearing a mask) came into the room. "Morning. I'm here to test your mental skills for ANBU. There will be today and tomorrow of testing here, and then we'll let you know if you are to continue with the testing." Handing Itachi a stack of what looked like a couple hundred pages of multiple choice and fill in the blank questions, Itachi took a pencil from the stack sitting on the table and began his test. At about five o'clock, he finally finished the stack of papers and handed them to the ANBU member. The papers were then put into a bag and taken to Shikumaru for him to start filing through. One badly answered question and you were guaranteed not to make ANBU. There were many things that ANBU had to do, being an entity that worked almost always in the shadows, so being every suspiciously unstable would mean that you would not be accepted.

The second day of testing continued much as the first and Itachi finished in about the same amount of time. Being mentally exhausted and knowing that if one thing was off this would be his last day of testing, since they don't allow for retesting for 3 years and he would have had to have a mental evaluation on top of it all. Leaving the ANBU headquarters, he went down to the market to get some fresh vegitables and meat for dinner.

"Itachi?"

Whipping around to see who would be calling his name here of all places, he saw Sakura and startled at the sight of her. She looked tired, like she had been running around in the underbrush of the woods or something. "Sakura, what happened to you?"