A/N: Enjoy some more angst.


"I still don't trust her," Sasuke commented as he wrapped his arms around his legs, staring at the window. "Not fully. Is that wrong?"

"Not at all!" Naruto shook his head. "Honestly, I'd be a little worried about you if you immediately decided she was a hundred percent trustworthy. That's not your style, I get it."

The prince ducked his head, resting his forehead on his knees. "I do appreciate her, and she is good company, but…" he heaved a sigh. "I just want Sakura back. With us."

Naruto fell silent as he continued to speak. "If I could just bring her back, I just know she would like her. Hayashi-san… she really reminds me of her. Certainly you've already noticed the similarities. If they were to meet, they would be fast friends."

"You're… really hung up on this, huh," Naruto sighed.

"I still love her," he insisted, a troubled look flickering through his face for a moment. "But… but I know it's unhealthy to continue to pine for someone I can't have. I'm not that delusional yet. I'm willing to give her a chance to… be my friend, but…"

"But it's hard to break the ice," the blond finished. When his best friend nodded, he rested a hand on his knee. "C'mon, man, chin up. All you need to do is push down your shyness and talk to her. I can tell she really likes you."

Sasuke closed his eyes. "I… I want to, but…"

After a moment's hesitation, he sighed once more and shook his head. "No, you're right. I suppose I'll speak to her tomorrow morning. She seemed interested enough in my training, perhaps I can tell her about some of the techniques I've been working on."

"That's the spirit!" Naruto beamed at him, thumping him on the back and eliciting a grunt from the black-haired teenager. "I was worried about you, y'know? It's not like you to hesitate like this. Maybe you should just challenge her to a spar to break even?"

For a moment, Sasuke looked affronted. "Why in the seven hells would I fight her?"

"Fighting is what you know best, isn't it?" He coaxed. "Who knows? Maybe she's got some skills to whoop your ass. Isn't that how your parents got together?"

"That's… that's different," he hissed, his cheeks flushing red. "That was during an active civil war, for one, second, they were already betrothed, Father just wanted to properly ask, and third, the Uchiha Courtship Duel is something very, very different entirely! I'm not doing that just yet!"

"A-ha!" Naruto exclaimed. "So you do like her!"

A pillow hit him square in the face, making him fall back with a yelp.

"Just go back to sleep, Dobe," Sasuke muttered as he flopped back onto his bed, red-faced and embarrassed.


Meanwhile, Sakura was urgently penning a letter back to Tsunade.

The kindly silver-haired guard had slipped her the woman's response earlier, and her words were of little comfort; in response to her finding of the tome, she'd revealed that it was most likely a book of forbidden jutsu that had mysteriously vanished during the great war.

The first war, perpetrated by all nations at the time, was around the time it was written. The first humans had had divine knowledge directly from the gods themselves, and it was very likely that the copy Sasuke now possessed was edited by Tobirama Senju himself, given that the feared Edo Tensei technique was created by him alone under strict secrecy, possibly in a bid to resurrect someone very important. She wrote that she vaguely recalled the man having lost an important manuscript one day of her youth, but he never mentioned it around her again.

Still, the ominous warning leapt out at her from the page: if she didn't steal the book back, untold chaos would erupt in the kingdom, possibly rendering it to ashes. Sasuke, while her friend (and forever her first love), was already showing signs of a deep inner darkness, and there was no telling what he would do with such priceless knowledge at his fingertips. As much as it pained her to admit, she agreed.

She had to find a way to take it and pass it off to Rin, whether before or during the invasion. To do so, she needed to get ever closer to him and earn his trust again, this time as Shien - even if it killed her heart to bear.

Sasuke was a dangerous ally, and an even more dangerous foe. If she didn't stop him soon...

Dread filled her heart at the thought. Her nightmare, filled with smoke and fire and death, flashed across her mind's eye for but a moment.

She shook her head, tried her hardest to quell the rising feeling of doom, and continued to write, her hand shaking.


A/N: Please tell me what you thought!