Unraveling the Milestones

Genre: Adventure, Romance, and Humor.

Ages: Naruto – 15, Sasuke – 15, Sakura – 15, Kakashi – 29

Couples: For me to know and for you to eventually find out ;)

Summary: 3 years after Sasuke's departure, the remnants of Team 7 pull together for a mission. The trials and tribulations put them to the test and bring unraveled mysteries and unrealized ways of affection to life.

Disclaimer: Ugh, I wish I owned Naruto. If I had it my way there would be some cracked out couples here x3. Also, I am for the most part a Sasu/Saku fan and even the occasional Naru/Saku but when it comes down to it….Kaka-Saku is just irresistible territory that I would like to mold into one hell of a couple :D

Goal of Author: Well I, defiantly, have a passion for not rushing a story with the romance. I am one that loves to play with the characters and not just make them beat around the bush but a forest. In doing so, I have a goal of probably making this one of the longest stories on People just can't fall in love in a span of a month ; Soooooo, each chapter represents a day, and my goal it to make it last 100 days, equivalent to about three and half months. So I hope I get some die hard Kaka-Saku fans out there that will help me keep motivated!

"He speaks"

"He thinks"

"Inner Sakura"

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Day 01 – Back in Konoha: Part One

Konoha, where everything started for many of the Leaf Nin but was this place, this haven, was better known as for giving birth to the "Rookie Nine" generation. They were known through out all the Nin villages especially the three, if not most famous, Team 7; but let's not forget the "Come, Come, Paradise" obsessed fan for, for the most part, if it wasn't for him; well they would have went out of business. The number one rookie of the generation, Sasuke. The number one brightest rookie of the generation, Sakura. Then, how could we forget him? Hard to miss when his mouth is constantly dribbling with ramen, the number one most loudest and inexplicit nin, Naruto. Kohano has recovered over the years of the loss of their dear Hokage but they couldn't have had a better of a person to help pick up the pieces, then the spit fire of defiant aging, Tsunade. Yet underneath the calm drift of the wind that caused the trademark representative of the village fall to the ground was nothing more but a 'silence before the storm'; so to speak. Even with the newly birth season of spring, not even the birds wanted to dare fly from their nest. Or maybe the birds didn't want to fly from their nest because of a certain someone trampling through the trees like it was a whale without wings trying to get through the sunlit canopy….sometimes….old habits just die to hard…poor birds.

Squee! was the initial sound heard from a very sugar induced hyperactive blonde. He would crouch attentively on a moss covered branch and swiftly swung his head back and forth looking around wildly. He lifted a calloused hand to shadow his eyes from the morning sun while his cerulean eyes surveyed the trees; he sat…a serious visage set on his maturing features. The trio of whisker mocking lines decorated his cheeks and his lips were set into a firm line. Was it possible that despite his 'bird with no wings' display of flocking to one to tree to another…that he had matured? "Hrmm…." From behind the golden headed teen was his sensei, Jiraiya, was panting with his hands on his knees while pausing on a solid branch. He felt the eyes of his sensei looking at his back expectantly and Naruto continued to look forward seriously…to bad the rather large sweat drop clutching his cheek was giving him away. "-huff- I know where I am…we are…err…it's not my fault!" He confirmed mentally and nodded to himself and with the typical male ego…he blamed it on someone else! -

"Ano…you sure senility didn't bite you in the ass while you were working on one of your hentai books Jiraiya-sensei?" The young nin said without looking over his shoulder as he scouted more. His sensei sharply looked up while his eye twitched, "That little…. Heh, I'm not like Gai. I don't praise the youth only the beauty." Despite the fatigue that plagued his already exhausted limbs he crouched on a branch behind Naruto and slowly moved his head over his pupil's shoulder with the blue eeriness of discontentment over shadow his face.

"Naruto…ya know what I liked best about our journey back here so far?" He asked with a steel glint in his eyes. Naruto gulped inconspicuously and looked at the old man from the corner of his eye, laughing nervously he removed his make shift visor of a hand and scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Aha…what's that sensei?" He dared to ask. An unsettling feeling did the mambo in his stomach as he tried to inch away from his ever nearing sensei. Naruto felt his hands get clammy from nervousness as the teacher pulled away with an all to satisfied face as if he recalling a very humorous memory…their journey together wasn't that humorous this morning….-gulp-

"Oh…I don't know. You remember the time you fell out of the tree and into the poison ivy below?" He asked happily with a cunning smile on his face as he watched the stupefied expression claim Naruto's face. Naruto thought long and hard….when did that happen?

"Uh sensei, I don't remember that ha- AHHHH!" Naruto started but Jiraiya had already acted. A rough shove to the shoulder was all he needed for the blonde leaf nin to fall off the branch. Naruto eyes teared as he clutched the tree in a bear hug, his nails scrapping roughly against the bark and his sandaled feet pressing against the sides making the bark flake off leaving two lone bark bare lines. He watched as he finally stopped merely inches above the ivy that had taken root at the base of the trunk. His chest heaved as the anime tears fell. Finally his head snapped up and glared at his sensei with vengeance,

"Bastard! What were you thinking! Pushing me off like that, I could have gotten hurt." Naruto hollered, yep still expressed his feelings in a volume that made the man wince. His sensei frowned as he looked at the blonde fox nin who clutched the tree upside down like a possum.

"I'm sorry…" He started and Naruto stared dumbfounded? Well then, that just meant that he understood that he was inferior for harassing the future Hokage like that. Good boy. Naruto nodded to himself but a cold chill was sent down his spine as she slowly let his blue orbs slide to the side eerily and look back up to see his sensei leaping off the branch, "Sorry… sorry that I didn't make you fall completely! Kya!" Jiraiya grinned evilly as he landed firmly, heavily, and roughly on Naruto's rump that was sticking out in the air from his awkward tree hugging position.

Naruto winced and made a tearful face. Almost as bad as the time Kakashi-sensei sent him flying into the river with that god awful "Violate the butt" seal of his hands. Yep. Self dubbed. His Sensei frowned at seeing as how Naruto clutched the tree still. Well, he would just have to fix that! He cackled and Naruto gave a desperate look to the heavens. Naruto then felt a burn on his skin under his still bright orange attire. The pinching continued and he slowly looked back at the tree to see lines of red on the tree. Was the tree bleeding? Then he saw a red dot on his nose. "Eh?" Crossing his eyes, he focused in and saw an insect…

He screamed and his sensei looked down at him oddly, "What are you whining about boy? I haven't even started jumping yet!" He demanded and as he jumped once in the air but as he was coming down, Naruto had released his death grip on the tree and landed mercilessly into the ivy below and doing fire rolls all over in it. The old man screamed and swiftly landed in a dog pile on his student then, like student like teacher, he shared the pain.

"FIRE ANTS!" They both screamed and continued to romp around in the ivy till they felt any type of relief. None had come. They paused in their rampage as both men looked down between them…an ant hill. With high pitched fan girl like screams they bolted through the woods screaming and scraping at themselves like they had fleas.

"Naruto! When I get my hands on you, you are going to wish you had never been born!" Jiraiya cried out with anger and Naruto could only whine and continue scratching himself all over his body.

"Well, when I, ow, become, ow, a Hogake-owwiiiieeeee! You, ow, are going to, ow, wish, ow, YOU had never, ow, been born! OWIIEIEE!" Naruto hollered back over his shoulder.

The two continued to run out of sight of the horrid anthill but their screams echoed through the trees. Two eyes watched silently from the shadows of another tree and smirked. The figure stood slowly and looked back at the tree with the red ants marching all over it. The shadowed one watched as one ant wandered from the line to investigate the bare marked lines in the tree and the spectator smirked. "Anyone who strays from my new found line of order…will be killed." Then the figure flinted off only leaving one sign that he was ever there in the first place. A kunai was sticking out from the tree…the curious red ant was its victim.

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The birds continued to sing outside the silent apartment, almost requesting for the figure bunched up in the blankets to arise. She rolled over stubbornly and sleepily her hand swatted around the comforter to bring a blanket over her shivering frame. Warm sunlight leaked through her sun bleached blossom colored curtains and continued to dance across the dark blue carpet. Her standard student apartment was nothing different from any other 'ninja in training's apartment except this one was like it contained the atmosphere of Antarctica. A frown covered her lips as she still couldn't find the edge of the blanket. Thank you. Those words were echoing in her head again. "Yea, thanks for giving us a cold from leaving us out there all night…-grumble grumble- he hurts us he hurts us precious." inner Sakura fumed in the haziness of her waking consciousness.

The prone figure finally sighed angrily having lost to the mission of 'Find blanket and sleep in for a few more hours'. She opened her jade eyes slowly showing the dullness of sleep still attacking them. She slowly raised her hand to her face and shoved the stubborn bubble gum hair out of her face. Wispy locks clung to her cheeks after finally lasting though another night of restless sleep. The three years granted her six more inches of the cherry blossom hued hair which pooled around her which was going to be one of the first things going once she was out and about. She frowned and stared at the ceiling…why did it seem so far away?

"Ne? How the…did I shrink?" She wondered idly and looked over her shoulder suspiciously. Well…there were the blankets…floating on the wall? "Okies….I'm not that far gone! What the hell….omgee…I wasn't decapitated in my sleep was I!" The sudden thought made her go still as she rushed through a quick limb role call by twitching each of her limbs. She caught a small movement above her and scowled skeptically. She continued her role call and it did it again… it was moving back and forth awkwardly. Sakura almost went green in the cheeks thinking that there were bugs under the blanket that was…well… floating on the wall. Maybe she was doing an Alice and wonderland. She smirked to herself as she counted, "One…two…three!" Finally she sprung up to tackle the weird moving things and it all seem to happen in slow motion.

She watched as a whole new horizon was offered to her as she rocked off of her back and into the air. She had fallen off the bed in the night…those were her toes wiggling under her blanket….she clutched her toes and remained deadly still on the corner of her bed. She laughed nervously with a sweat drop as she realized she was sitting on the corner of the bed and well, there just wasn't enough room from the bed to the floor to allow her to flip and land safely. "Okay. Take it slow and lean forward…" She guided herself aloud and suddenly.

DING DONG!

"AYIIEEEEE!" Sakura screamed as she jumped from the loud chime.

Outside of Sakura's apartment stood none other than Rock Lee. The years seem to pay little heed to our walking ball of green. He sprouted a few inches from his early years but…god forbid…that dark bowl cut, furry brows, and lower lashes still claimed his sixteen year old features. Probably the only thing that changed for the 'almost over his obsession with Sakura' features were the yellow ankle weights that were changed to heavier ones.

"Oh Sakura dear! Are you alright?" He asked as he flinched when he heard a loud thud from within the apartment. Hearing her scream he acted. Hey, it was his Sakura right? Got to take care of his woman! He leapt through the open window and landed within the living room and he suddenly shivered. Wow it was cold in here! "Sakura lovely could catch a cold like this!" He thought and turned to shut the window. Then he walked over to the half cracked bedroom door and saw Sakura with a large vein pulsating from her forehead. She laid on the floor with her feet in the air and her hands still clutching her toes. "Sakura!" He called out shocked and suddenly it was like a pistol was shot from her eyes as she looked up at him with a deadly glare that stopped him in his tracks. She growled like she was the Kyuubi.

"Lee-chan…what are YOU…doing in MY room?" She asked innocently as she started to pull herself up and the way her hair hung over her face was like the ring girl come to life. Lee laughed nervously with a gulp "Eheh, she never calls me chan…just maybe?" He coughed and looked at her trying to seem dashing,

"Well Sakura-chan! I've come to your rescue!" He said boldly and returning the suffix lovingly. She clinched her fists as she looked up at him dangerously. He laughed nervously and actually took a step back when she took one forward.

"GET OUT BAKA!" She fumed and threatened to chuck the tied bunch of Makibishi, which she had adopted to use rarely when she was training, that were laying on her night stand. He was out before she finished the sentence. She stood in her room and took a deep breath. Damn that Lee!

Sakura continued to fume like the little engine that could while she grabbed her clothes from her dresser. Lee had always visited Sakura on the days when he wasn't training or on a mission. Lee, for the most part at least, had gotten over his infatuation with Sakura and now a days it was mostly for teasing purposes even though Sakura had made him swear on pain of death not to embarrass her in public again if she passed the Chuunin exam, which they both did a two and a half years ago. Yes, Lee had finally matured a bit. Lee started this habit after Naruto opted to leave with Jiraiya to train after the Chuunin exam. As time passed, even he was not blind to the numb emotions of Sakura after his departure and offered to train her in Taijutsu and in turn she would help him with in deciphering different Genjutsu techniques. Safe to say they kept one another busy.

Sakura was dressed and was now setting down the brush on her vanity table. While being under Tsunade's medic nin training, she was inspired to try a knew style, not to mention Tsunade would nag at her to express herself more so not to allow herself to fade in with the typical nins. So she did. Sandals changed into mid calf brown combat boots where she had carefully woven small pockets inside to store a selection of Makibishi and Senbon Needles and the other boot would lay three wire connected kunais. She wore a mid thigh length black skirt with black spandex shorts beneath. She still had the wrap around her right leg with her kunai/ shuriken pouch. A dark green tank top (as advised by Ino-pig from her 'sense of style' advice) that actually hid very well the underlying waist wrap that held close and safely a few choice of exploding tags. She finished off her attire with short end vest where she put her own selection of mini scrolls which some were snagged from the one and only Kakashi-sensei…though they weren't free…Sakura had to promise to give him money to by his dirty novels in exchange.

Sakura shook her head at the memory of how Kakashi had a field day badgering to supply him money for his Icha Icha Paradise books. Her leaf nin forehead protector was still used as a head band and was only pulled down in training due to a very painful punch in the forehead from Lee. She looked at her long hair distastefully seeing its long locks. Sighing she walked out and saw Lee looking out the shut window, obviously he was eyeing her crystal kunai wind chime. She grinned devilishly as started to sneak up behind him but her Inner Sakura occupied her mind with the memory of the glass chime.

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Sakura walked through the streets frowning as she thought back to the burials of Haku and Zabuza. The three twelve year old shoulders hung slightly as they thought about the solid reality of what being a ninja was.

"Don't turn away. Look. This is what being a ninja is." Kakashi-sensei said to Naruto and Sakura slowly opened her eyes as she looked up to see also.

They continued walking though village that resided in the country of the wave when she saw a glitter catch her eye. She stopped in front of the booth and looked at the carved glass chime that was shaped into kunai's. She looked at the price and saw it was fairly cheap and wondered why on earth it would sell that low, especially in a country that was suffering economical depression at the moment.

"It's made of glass. That's why." Sasuke spoke from a few steps ahead.

"Eh?" She asked as she was surprised out of her stupor. It never ceased to amaze her how observant the stubborn nin was. The fact that he spoke to her about the chime without forcing a response out of him was the only reason why she "bought" the chime in the first place. Then the merchant stepped forward and nodded,

"The boy is right young lady. Since we are surrounded by the ocean, there are always storms here. When lightning strikes the beaches on the edge of the island, the lightning turns the sand into glass. So I go out there and collect it now and then and carve it into things like this. See if you look real close, you can still see specks of sand." He explained as he took the chime off the hook and lowered it so she could see.

She carefully picked up one of the glass kunais hanging off of the chime and looked through it. Indeed there was some sand. Her jade eyes, after a moment, focused past the glass and onto the dark figure of her shinobi. She was lost in thought when Kakashi-sensei tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped and turned around angrily raising her fist thinking it was Naruto. Her fist was caught by Kakashi who had his typical anime arch of his eye giving away to his smile that was hidden under his mask. She huffed and looked at her sensei annoyed.

"If I didn't know better, which I do, so I'm simply going to say; stop eying your 'snooki wooki' so we can head back to Kohano." He said and Sakura flushed bright red.

"Baka-sensei! I don't know what you were talking about! I was just getting ready to say I was going to buy this!" She huffed and looked away and saw Sasuke already walking ahead with the bouncy blonde behind him. The merchant smiled and then Kakashi decided to have the honor of pointing out the obvious.

"With what money Sakura?" He said lazily as he looked off to the side with a smirk under his mask. Sakura grimaced and looked back to her sensei with nervous laughter.

"You see. That's a real funny story sensei! Umm, well…" She paused and looked to her sensei and then to the merchant. She leaned forward and whispered something in the merchant's ear and the merchant smiled excitedly and gave a small wave. Kakashi watched her suspiciously as she smirked at him and bound off with a skip. He arched a brow as he looked to the broadly smiling merchant.

"Err…so I'll be going now." He said and started to walk off when the merchant grabbed his shirt.

"Exscuse me sir. The young maiden said you would gladly trade me your novel, Come Come Paradise with me on pain of death to get the wind chime for her. Ninjas do keep their word right?" He said in a tone that dared the older ninja to say otherwise. Kakashi frowned as his eye twitched…Sakura giggled from up ahead as she continued walking.

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Lee watched as Sakura approached him closer and closer from watching her reflection in the window. He smirked and spun around and held a spatula in her face. She stood…dumbfound. "What the…a spatula?" Lee smiled and took her hands into his but then raised the spatula into the air like flag and the freaky sparkle in his eye gave way to the fact of him going to start on one of his…

"Oh my lovely Sakura! Let us both join in the creativity of making a lunch for each other to where we can lay under the sunlight and feed each other…" before he could finish, Sakura had snatched another spatula and held it in front of her defensively.

"If I hit you three times I get to wax those eye brows and lashes." Sakura smirked devilishly and Lee looked at this like his golden opportunity.

"You're on my lady. If I win, we spend lunch together feeding one another in the park." He stated and Sakura faltered a bit. She gulped and thought it over real quick while inner Sakura was screaming in horror.

"Aha! Me feed you! Yeah right, I would poke you in the eye with a fork!" inner Sakura ranted proudly and Sakura nodded.

"Fine!" She nodded and took advantage of his happy reverie to slap him on the shoulder with the spatula. "ONE!" She called out as she sprinted across her small apartment. Lee then appeared before her on the bar in the kitchen as Sakura growled angrily, "I just cleaned that last night!" She then swatted at him viciously. Lee chuckled and landed gracefully behind her. She turned around to only have her cheek meet plastic.

"One!" Lee stated happily before running off through the apartment with a joyous skip and she huffed. He got her counter dirty. This meant war. As he continued to gallivant around her living room she snatched a wired kunai from her boot and leapt upon one of the barstools but with her speed it started falling over. She smirked, at the moment the stool fell to the floor, her kunai was sticking out of one of the walls in the living room. Lee turned and smiled,

"You missed Sakura-chan!" He replied gleefully and she smirked in response. With a swift tug on the wire it pulled straight and the frolicking Lee tripped over the wire and fell ungracefully to the floor. She leapt over her sofa and landed with one foot pinning down his spatula armed hand and smacked him in the back of the head with her weapon. She smirked victoriously "Two.", "WOOOO! TAKE THAT FUZZY MAN!" Inner Sakura screamed in victory as she yanked on the wire to release her kunai from the wall and leapt off and across the living room. Lee lay on the floor with anime tears mumbling incoherent words of pain.

Lee jumped up and looked to Sakura and smiled cockily. She arched a pink brow at him. "Fight fire with fire my dear." He said and she looked around trying to find what he was talking about. Then she saw an odd looking ribbon hanging off her boot. An exploding tag! She screamed and started waving her boot around frantically and with the spatula she scrapped the tag off and flung it at Lee and it exploded mid air releasing a small explosion. Sakura watched in horror as her brand new sofa became heavily charred.

"My couch…" she said softly…"MY BRAND NEW COUCH! Oh that's it! Fuzzy brow man is gunna pay!" Inner Sakura fumed with a fire storming behind her. She looked around waiting for the smoke to clear when she felt the spatula at the back of her neck.

"Two." Lee said proudly and leapt away. She screamed in rage and took after fuzzy man while practically impersonating a devil on his heels. Lee sweat dropped as he looked behind him to see her with a fire in her eyes. "Maybe I went too far with that one?" He thought as he looked ahead and rebounded off of one of her walls. She followed in pursuit and perched herself upon her charred couch. She looked around cautiously… "Got you!" He cried out happily as he flung himself from his hiding spot and hugged Sakura and effectively pressed the spatula against her shoulder. "Wow...she is soft." He thought as he closed his eyes to relish in his victory. Sakura only chuckled and Lee took a deep breath. She smelled so…burnt? He opened his eyes to see he was clutching nothing other but a couch cushion. He cursed as he felt a spatula against the back of his neck.

"Three." She smirked. He went cold….and he heard a rustle as Sakura then walked in front of him holding a small container of bee wax.

He screamed.

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Okies, usually I do ten pages a chapter but this is just 8 and a half. I wanted to see if you guys liked it enough for me to write more:D So please please review!

-Simli