"Sakura, wait." She had bolted out of the room quickly and was tearing down the hallway too fast. Sasuke growled impatiently, catching up and grabbing her arm to stop her.

"Why are you avoiding me?"

"I'm not avoiding you."

"Bullshit." She wasn't even looking him in the eye and she had the nerve to try and claim that she wasn't avoiding him? "You suck at lying Sakura."

"Only to you." Her voice was quiet and she still wasn't looking at him. He almost missed what she said.

"What?"

Sakura looked up at him sharply. "I'm not bad at lying. You're the only one who seems to know when I am. Not even Naruto, or Ino-chan, or Kakashi-sensei can tell. You're one of the only ones. Guess you just know me better than my best friends, huh?"

"Of course I know you, we were teammates. and we were friends."

Sakura's glare somehow seemed to intensify to a degree that he almost felt burn him. Reflexively he took a step back.

"Friends? No Sasuke-kun. We weren't friends. Kiba and I are friends. Shikamaru and I are friends. We hang out and get drinks occasionally, or play shogi and catch up. They don't know when I'm lying. Ino-chan and I are best friends. We make a point of seeing each other at least one a week, and are constantly texting each other updates. She doesn't know when I'm lying—sometimes she does but most of the time, not. Naruto are I are practically siblings. He has no clue when I'm lying to him—"

"Naruto's an idiot so of course he wouldn't—"

"My point Sasuke-kun, is if my friends—my best friends—can't tell that I'm lying and you can, then what exactly are you to me?"

Any answer Sasuke had died on his tongue. They were friends, they had always been friends, or so he thought. But in the breakdown she just gave of her relationships, none seemed to match what they had been. He became painfully aware that they were in a public hallway and that this conversation was definitely a private one. "…Maybe we should discuss this somewhere else."

"Now look who's avoiding—"

"I'm not avoiding anything," Sasuke snapped, "but this conversation is a private one, so we should discuss this somewhere pri—"

Somehow both helping and hindering his point, Hinata rounded the corner that minute and spotted them. "Sakura-chan!" She called out. Sakura turned to face Hinata, a warm smile replacing her angry glare. "Hey Hinata-chan! It's been a while!"

"It has! Sakura-chan, come get Ramen with Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, and I later! It's been so long since you've come out with us, you've been so busy at the hospital."

"I know! I'm sorry. But Lady Tsunade actually just put me on a field case here so you'll be seeing a lot more of me!" She spoke like she was happy about it, but Sasuke could hear the barely audible rasp that her voice got whenever something was stressing her out. Sakura had been a gold medal gymnast for the greater part of her teens, and still had the skills now. Good posture came naturally to her and normally her shoulders held very little tension. But he could see how tightly she was holding her arms and shoulders, even from under her hospital scrubs. It was so well hidden, that Hinata Hyuga of missing persons, with the sharp eyes and the skills of a profiler, didn't seem to pick up on it.

"Really? That's amazing! congratulations! Now you really must join us for Ramen!"

Apparently it was only clear to Sasuke how stressed Sakura was with this development. She hadn't been kidding when she said he was one of very few people who could actually tell when she was lying.

"Ah man! I'd really love to Hinata! But it's been a long time since I've been out in the field, so there's a lot of stuff I have to review. Raincheck?"

"Oh! Of course! I'm sorry, I didn't even think about that. Next time then!"

Sakura gave Hinata another smile before turning to Sasuke. "I'll see you tomorrow, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke watched the barely noticeable tension lines in her back as she walked off.

Sasuke stirred his Ramen pensively. Naruto was on his right explaining the details of their new case to Hinata. "Damn bastard I thought you'd be happy! You're off probation, we got a new huge case, you saw Sakura-chan, she's joining our team again. Everything's perfect so what's with the gloomy look? You'd think I peed on your cat or something."

"It amazes me you ever got a girlfriend you revolting loser."

"Naruto-kun…" Hinata sighed, blushing and looking away.

The blonde laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. "Sorry Hinata-chan." But then he turned to Sasuke seriously, "But really, what's wrong?"

"Were Sakura and I friends?"

"Well yeah. What else would you be?"

"Hn…"

"I mean, she did have that crush on you for a while, but she mellowed out with that part…"

"What made you ask, Sasuke-kun? Did Sakura-chan say something when you two were talking earlier?"

No Sasuke-kun. We weren't friends. Her words from earlier rang in his head for the thousandth time since she'd spoken them. What exactly are you to me? Sasuke wasn't the kind to talk about his feelings. But Hinata was female and might have valuable insight to the situation. If anything this was information gathering.

"She was talking about the relationship she has with her other friends." Now that he thought about it, almost everyone Sakura had listed as a friend was male, which was oddly irritating. "None of what she described sounded like the way we were."

"Well how were you two?"

Sasuke looked back at his half finished Ramen and gave it a stir before pushing it over to Naruto to finish. He interlaced his fingers and rested his head on them in thought. When they were a four man squad, Kakashi used to pair them off to tackle cases from different angles. The pairs would always get switched up, but it felt like Kakashi had paired him and Sakura the most frequently. He figured that's when their relationship really began.

"If one of us pulled an all nighter, the other would get them coffee and sometimes breakfast. She had less money than me, so I bought her lunch or dinner. We'd recommend books to each other and talk about them. We used to leave coded sticky note messages to each other. I helped her with her fire arm and hand to hand combat training cause she sucked at it. She'd pick me up from bars if I got wasted and would get me home. I crashed at her place a couple of times when you and I had to work late. I used to always take her home, and if I couldn't, I'd text her to make sure. We'd talk…"

He trailed off when he felt more than saw Naruto and Hinata's strange expressions. Sasuke's mouth felt dry. "What?" He asked, reaching for the water.

"Well bastard, it's just that some of that stuff sounds a bit like what Hinata-chan and I do with each other."

Sasuke nearly choked on his water. The insinuation was obvious, but it was never something he'd thought much about. At the time, it just felt right, and in the four months he had been back, he'd missed that relationship. But he never thought about Sakura romantically—at least he never thought he did. That train of thought was derailed by a more immediate realization. "Why do you sound so surprised, Idiot? You were there."

"Yeah, but I just figured our team was really close. Whenever you guys were partnered I was usually out working with Kakashi-Sensei. So I didn't see most of it. You usually left dinners right after she did, but never together and you never told me about it!"

"…And she never mentioned it?"

"Sakura-chan never mentioned details about working with you. When ever Ino-chan, TenTen-chan, or I asked about it, all she said was that you two were partnered together often and that she thought you two made a good team."

A good team. Yeah, the two of us had made a good team, Sasuke thought. The case they were put on was a big one. And a disturbing one. To solve it with as minimal psychological scaring as possible, they'd need to make a good team again.

Sasuke abruptly stood up and headed for the exit.

"Where are you going?" Naruto called after him.

"You're a detective, you figure it out."