Chapter 3

Gritting her teeth, she rushed forward, taking down the enemy with a swift clothesline to the neck. It instantly crushed his throat and she looked up at her teammates, not surprised in the least to find everyone else had been dealt with already.

"That's the last of them," muttered Naruto and his hands came to his knees, eyes squinting.

She knew he wasn't injured or fatigued. A simple once over with her chakra informed her of that. No, Naruto was simply out of breath. If he had to, he would be more than capable of resuming the battle – he could go another ten rounds of ambushes before feeling exhausted like she and Sai currently were.

"Are you injured?" she asked Sai, glancing over her shoulder at him. As always, he was stood tall, his features relaxed into that empty mask of his. There wasn't a speck of dirt on his clothes. "Sai?"

"Hm?"

He was lost in his thoughts? Sakura turned fully, frowning. "Are you hurt?"

"No."

But he definitely wasn't his usual self, she decided instantly and her green eyes narrowed fractionally. Was it due to what he'd discovered the night before? While Sakura could understand it was a shock, since she and Gaara were hardly a couple anyone would expect (they'd been shocked themselves, discovering they had feelings for one another), it was hardly enough to distract someone like Sai. At least, she wouldn't have thought it was.

She couldn't ask him yet, however. Reminding herself of that, she faced Naruto once more, her hands coming to her hips. "Since you have so much energy left, you can dispose of the evidence."

"What?" he whined. "That's the worst part!"

Merely rolling her eyes at him in response, Sakura scooped low, plucking a kunai from the grass and twirling it on her finger. There was a special design on the handle, she noticed, abruptly stopping the spinning and she tilted her head to the side, wondering if it held any deeper meaning than most likely being a clan's symbol.

She looked up when Sai turned his back on them, hands racing through signs and destroying the evidence before Naruto had finished his predictable rant about why he shouldn't have to do the dirty jobs.

It was unusual for him, Sakura couldn't help but worry. He usually had so much more patience than that, especially when it came to Naruto. Normally, they ignored the blond as he whined through his rant, waiting him out until he eventually sighed and got on with it. What had changed?

"Let's go," he ordered tonelessly, already walking away.

"Wait," demanded Naruto with a scowl. "Shouldn't we wait until the fire dies?"

"No."

Warily, she exchanged a glance with Naruto, the pair of them frowning at each other before focusing on their teammate. By now, he was almost out of the clearing entirely and so they rushed after him, only pausing to quickly look over their shoulders, making sure everything was cleared up. As expected of Sai, however, the job was done meticulously.

His supposedly sour mood didn't diminish in the slightest throughout their seven hour journey back to Konoha and apparently, Naruto's endless questions asking what was wrong (or, as he so eloquently put: what had crawled up his ass and died) weren't helping in the slightest. If anything, it made him retreat further and it had Sakura worriedly watching his back.

Surely the cause of his sudden change in behaviour wasn't because of her relationship? It made little sense to her. Although, Sakura supposed, he had asked whether she was betraying Konoha – which was understandable, now that her initial fear of first being found out had disappeared. Maybe he needed more to ease his mind?

The sight of Konoha's imposing gates emerging from over the dusty road they walked had Sakura sighing with relief and she couldn't help but smile at Naruto's whoop of joy. It appeared Sai was glad to finally be home too, because even he picked up his pace.

She would ambush him after reporting to the Hokage, Sakura decided. Although she doubted it was the cause of his bad mood, she would demand to know whether it was and if it was, then… Then, what? What could she do? She'd already assured him that Konoha wasn't in any danger. She and Gaara weren't plotting against the village. What more could she do to ease his mind?

"Oh, you're back," the chūnin at the gates greeted them, waving. "Welcome home, Team Seven."

Smiling cheerfully at the warm greeting, Sakura asked, "How's things?"

"Dull," he replied, sighing. "We want to go on missions again."

The poor guy was barely scraping thirty, yet he and his friend had been stuck with gate duty for the past two years due to mouthing off, believing Tsunade couldn't hear them. Sakura had asked how much longer the punishment would go on for, but the blonde allegedly couldn't even recall the incident and shrugged, saying they wouldn't be there unless they'd seriously pissed her off. So, for that fact alone, they would remain there.

His friend was no doubt on the dinner run, Sakura thought when she noticed he was nowhere to be seen. She offered another smile and leaned down, scribbling her signature in the designated box, complete with a quick doodle of a cherry blossom.

"I'm surprised Hokage-sama hasn't complained about that."

Sakura looked up, humming. "Tsunade-sama isn't the one who reads through these. It's Shizune-senpai."

"What?" he demanded in a whine. "Man, we've been scrupulous with these things in the hopes she'd see how sorry we are."

She shrugged in a 'what can you do' sort of way before passing the pen to Sai, briefly meeting his eye and refraining from frowning at the coldness she found there.

"Keep up with the good work," she told them once they'd all signed in, walking away backwards to continue the conversation. "Shizune-senpai's probably the only one who can convince Tsunade-sama to change her mind."

It wasn't entirely true, but she had to give the poor guy some hope.

"Bye, Sakura-chan!"

She waved, eyes closing with her smile until she turned around, jogging to catch up with her team.

"She's forgotten all about them, hasn't she?" Naruto asked suspiciously and at her nod, he snickered. "What the hell did they say to piss her off that badly?"

Humming, she tapped her chin, trying to recall the memory for herself but since she hadn't been there, it was impossible and she sure as hell wasn't about to remind her shishou of it (even if she claimed she couldn't remember, it would dampen her mood massively and that wasn't a risk she was willing to take). All she could really remember about the whole thing was Tsunade's rage for the rest of the day. She'd snapped at everyone for the smallest of things, already hitting the bottle by noon. Whatever they'd said, Sakura decided in that moment, certainly warranted the punishment. She hadn't seen Tsunade so wound up in a long time.

"I don't know," she replied, shrugging again. "I just hope I never make the same mistake."

"Yeah, no shit," he said with a laugh. "You'd get it worse than anyone."

Without a doubt. There were higher expectations for her when it came to Tsunade and if she made a mistake that anyone could have made, the punishment would be more severe because as Tsunade's apprentice, she shouldn't be making such careless mistakes. In her shishou's eyes, anyway. At times she would let little things slide, but the blonde had the tendency to make an example out of her from time to time, scaring others from making similar mistakes (she did it with all her favourites, thinking about the many times Kakashi was punished – not just her).

They continued to guess at what could have provoked such a harsh sentence as they walked to the Hokage's Tower, continuously allowing their curious gazes to drift over to Sai's rigid muscles. They silently wondered what was wrong with their friend, each coming up with their own suspicions.

"Maybe he has a lover," Naruto whispered, leaning closer to her ear. "And they've had a huge fight that he's got to face now."

Sai? A lover? She held her laughter back behind her hand.

The only thing stopping her from continuing their conversation was entering the tower, mainly due to Sai now walking alongside them rather than a few metres ahead (that in itself was odd, Sakura couldn't help but notice, because he valued the exchanges between her and Naruto, wishing to understand them more by experiencing them for himself).

"You're back early," Shizune said as she happened across their stroll to the office. "Did it go well?"

"Of course," boasted Naruto and he held out a victory sign with his fingers, grinning from ear to ear. "You don't doubt our abilities, do you?"

She chuckled at that. "I'm no fool, Naruto-kun."

That could be taken either way, but as expected of her blond teammate, he took it as a compliment, his grin somehow managing to widen.

"C'mon," Sakura said with a roll of her eyes – a move that made her sibling disciple chuckle again. "Tsunade-sama will be waiting for us."

"She's free right now," Shizune called out to them helpfully and Sakura rejoiced at the information, as the last thing anybody wanted after a mission was to sit around waiting to report. "See you around!"

Once more, Sai was walking ahead, forcing them to rush after him. She knocked Naruto upside the head when he snarled at him to slow the hell down, narrowing her eyes in warning at him. They'd never really seen Sai in a bad mood and while she trusted her teammate with her life, she didn't want to find out how bad that mood could get for them.

Tsunade's doors were already open when they reached her office, though before Sakura could announce their presence, Sai shocked her by walking in after a single knock. For several seconds, she froze, hand tangling in Naruto's shirt (not that it was necessary once he'd figured out what Sai had done) to still him too, the pair of them fearing for Sai's life as they awaited the typical explosion of rage for his rude entry.

But there was nothing.

Warily, she released Naruto and silently approached the door, taking a calming breath to steel her nerves for the bloodbath she would no doubt walk in on.

And then she squealed pitifully when Sai poked his head back out, eyes blank as he watched her stumble backwards and into Naruto, who also jumped due to her fright.

"Are you coming or not?"

"Y-Yeah," Sakura said and tried her best to smile at him.

It was difficult getting a ready on her shishou when they entered the office together, for it seemed the older woman was keeping a lid on anything she was experiencing in that moment. Worriedly, she glanced Sai's way, considering just how safe her secret affair was with him, before looking forward again, deciding she would feign ignorance unless someone brought it up.

"You're all back earlier than expected," Tsunade began, not waiting as Naruto shut the door behind himself. "I trust all went well?"

"Yes," responded Sai. He was the captain when they were sent out without Kakashi due to his being ANBU. It'd irked Naruto for the longest time and Sakura had suspicions that it still did on occasion, though he rarely mentioned it nowadays. "The enemy was successfully located and defeated."

"The evidence of our involvement?"

"Destroyed, as instructed."

"Good." Was her shishou distracted? Why did she look as though she wanted to be anywhere but there? That was… extremely unusual for her, as no matter how badly she longed to be anywhere else than the office, she remained professional and kept it hidden. "Then I expect written reports from everyone by tomorrow afternoon."

Afternoon? But then that meant–

"Ero-sennin is back?" exclaimed Naruto excitedly, his grin spreading wider when Tsunade nodded once. "It's about damn time!"

Well, that certainly explained Tsunade's eagerness to leave. She and Jiraiya had made a bet a few months back (one she wouldn't fill Sakura in on, much to her annoyance) and since winning the bet, she'd been restlessly waiting for her teammate to return. Why? The loser had to pay for the entire night's binge drinking.

Okay, her shishou was… classier than binge drinking, but to the average person, that was what it was.

"Is there anything else?" questioned Tsunade, hands folding on the table.

Unknowingly, Sakura held her breath, glancing to Sai from the corner of her eyes when his mouth opened like he was about to say something. It felt like she was sweating buckets, her nerves causing her to clench her fists behind her back, struggling to resume normal breathing.

Please, don't. Please. Please. Please. Please don't tell her!

His mouth shut and he shook his head.

"Very well," she accepted. "You're dismissed."

Relieved, Sakura was the first to leave the office, waiting outside on the street for her teammates, eyes immediately seeking Sai's and she smiled gratefully. He merely looked away and she bit the inside of her cheek in response.

Had she asked too much of him?

Had she ruined their friendship?

It was worriedly that she looked to him, frowning at his unapproachable aura. "Sai?"

"Hm?"

She bit her lip and stepped closer to him, ignoring Naruto's demands to know what was happening. "Would you like to escort me home?"

"What?" demanded Naruto.

He didn't even look at her. "Not really."

"What?" came his shriek.

A hand grabbed her shoulder, tugging her back and behind what she guessed was supposed to be the safety of Naruto's body, her eyes narrowing when he instantly tore into Sai, his verbal onslaught finally evoking a response from him. It seemed too lacking to call it annoyance (which it couldn't be, because annoyance was an emotion and Sai apparently couldn't experience or understand them), but Sakura wasn't sure what else to call it.

Glancing around them, she smiled sheepishly, cheeks raging at the incredulous and annoyed stares being sent their way. In response to the shame and embarrassment, she grabbed Naruto's jacket and yanked him back, giving a swift slap upside the head to silence him momentarily.

Only momentarily, sadly. "You sure know how to pick them, Sakura-chan," he muttered sulkily.

The statement caught Sai's attention, interrupting him as he'd been about to turn and leave. "Excuse me?"

Naruto rubbed his sore head and frowned. "Boyfriends, idiot."

"You know-"

Her heart skipped a beat when Sai started talking and she lunged for him, arm snaking around his neck and yanking him down to her height, hand slapping over his mouth.

She smiled cheerfully, nervously. "Ignore him, Naruto. He's got a concussion."

The frown on the blond's face deepened, looking around himself as he finally realised how much attention they'd attracted. "But he didn't hurt his-"

She used the distracting crowd to disappear, dragging Sai with her.