Sakura raised a brow and decided to acknowledge his sudden change in attitude. "You're being weird."

Sasuke shrugged. "Can you blame me?"

Sakura blushed lightly and just smiled at him in response while he only frowned, annoyed at himself. But he's made his final decision and he knew exactly what he wanted.

"...I know what I want..." Sasuke muttered. "Is what I told myself..." He then looked at the pink haired shinobi ahead of him and covered his face with his hand, contemplating on his actions. Naruto noticed Sasuke's uneasiness and tapped him on the shoulder.

"What's up with you?"

Sasuke looked at him with defeat. "You always seem to be asking me that question."

Naruto shrugged and looked at Sakura. "Because it always looks like something's bothering you. And it's usually cause of her."

Sasuke remained quiet.

"What's bothering you?"

"I said some stuff to her earlier...but it was all on impulse because of that damn guard."

"You meant it though, didn't you?"

Sasuke watched her back once more and nodded. "Yeah. But am I ready? I know I said that stuff...but still."

Naruto shrugged. "Stop second guessing yourself. As long as you know what you want already. Isn't that enough?"

After Sasuke's dispute with Shinichi, the guard made sure that he kept his distance from Sakura. A few hours after the sun had set, Shikamaru stated that it was time to get ready to spend the night. The group then found an area to rest and Shikamaru's team had a short briefing after setting camp.

"Okay, we need to watch over the daimyo so we'll do rotating shifts, 3 hours each," Shikamaru told them. "At the pace we're going, we should arrive to the safe house late tomorrow evening or maybe even early morning the day after that. It depends. After we drop them off, we'll leave the rest to the ANBU."

"Got it," Naruto answered.

"Who'll take the first shift?" Sakura asked.

Shikamaru raised his hand. "I'll start. You guys rest well. Your strength will be needed at full capacity tomorrow. After me, it'll be Naruto, Sasuke, and then Sakura."

The rest of the team nodded and got up to get their sleeping bags ready. Surprisingly enough, Shinichi approached Sakura and he flinched at the sight of her. Surprised at his reaction, she turned her head to find Sasuke behind her, glaring at the man before her.

Shinichi raised both hands in surrender. "Chill out a moment, man. I just want to talk. Listen, I apologize." He then bowed. "When you asked me to stop. I realize that you said that because you were already seeing someone." He then stood up straight only to find the duo blushing, to his amusement. Sasuke clicked his tongue and looked away, inciting a chuckle from the guard. "I hope you'll forgive me."

"I-its not like that!" Sakura stammered. In all honesty, she just found Shinichi annoying, but she could argue that that was indeed her reason.

After a few moments of thinking to herself, Sasuke knocked her in the head. "Well? Give the man an answer."

Sakura blushed and nodded. "Oh...right." She then looked at Shinichi with a smile. "It's totally fine. Don't worry about it."

Shinichi bowed in thanks and then left, leaving Sasuke and Sakura alone. As usual, there was an awkward silence between them as they walked to their supplies. "You've been awfully close to me today, Sasuke," Sakura teased, getting her sleeping bag.

"Keep that up and I'll leave," he warned, grabbing her sleeping bag from her hands and laying it out for her.

"You don't need to do that..."

Sasuke ignored her and sat on her sleeping bag, patting the spot next to him, indicating for her to sit down. Sakura obliged. Naruto watched them from afar and sighed in relief.

"What happened to you giving yourself time to think? You gave a pretty grand speech about that you know."

Sasuke glared at her and she laughed.

"I mean, I know what I want, Sakura. It's just not easy...I'll just suck it up or else something like what happened this morning might happen again."

"It's not like end up liking someone else or anything."

"You don't know that. Overtime, it'll bother you then you'll start noticing them and paying attention to them. Persistence is dangerous."

"Sasuke."

Sasuke stopped talking and Sakura placed her hands on his. The warmth of her touch was already all too familiar after all the times she's tried convincing him to stop giving up on himself.

"Don't take my feelings lightly. Have a little faith, yeah?"

Sasuke scrunched his nose and nodded. "I know. Still."

"Think about it this way. You were gone for two years after you told me how you felt. Two years is nothing compared to today. Don't worry so much."

Sakura smiled at him and he reversed their hands and gripped hers tightly in silence.

"We're not kids anymore, Sasuke."

Sasuke sighed and lied down. "You're right. I know...anyways, let's go to sleep now. You need rest."

Sakura looked around and noticed that he hadn't gotten his sleeping bag out. "Where's yours?"

"Right here," he assured her, patting her bed.

Sakura blushed and hid her face in her arms that were resting on her knees. "What's this all of a sudden."

"Ever since I came back, I was never able to sleep next to you properly right? I always slept on the couch...that shit was so uncomfortable."

"So?"

"The time to start is now then," Sasuke answered. "Better late than never."

Sakura furrowed her brows and kicked his side. "No. Sleep in your own bed, moron."

Sasuke stood up and rubbed his side angrily. "Why? I'm too lazy now."

"This is too weird. Goodnight" she snapped, taking her position in her bed and hiding under the covers.

Sasuke raised a brow and decided to go along with her request. "Now you're the one pushing me away." But he smirked at the thought of her nervousness around him.

Under her covers, Sakura tried to wrap everything that had happened today in her head. She couldn't think straight and sighed, not knowing how else to explain it.

The night felt short for all of Shikamaru's team who took turns being on surveillance. Luckily for them, the night was peaceful.

Morning came and Shikamaru was the first to wake up and he saw Sakura awake on watch, walking around the camp and looking around.

""Time to go?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, it's early so we're lucky. Go ahead and wake up the rest of the group."

Sakura nodded and went ahead. After everyone had woken up and gotten their things cleaned up, Shikamaru went up to his team, who were awaiting his orders.

"Looks like we're up early so we're for sure getting to the safe house later on tonight. It shouldn't be too bad."

After that, the whole group went on their way once again. Sakura was exhausted. She wasn't able to get enough sleep last night since she was overthinking too much. Naruto noticed her sluggishness and walked over to her.

"You look like death, Sakura-chan."

Sakura glared at him and her already tired-like appearance made her look even scarier.

"I didn't sleep well last night and say something like that again and I'll make you look like death foreal."

"Now, now. Don't do that. I have to get back home alive. Will you be okay? We have a whole day ahead of us."

"I'll manage..."

The rest of day felt long and tiring. The group made occasional stops here and there, but all in all, they managed to keep up the pace. Sasuke and Sakura stayed focused on the mission and avoided any sort of personal contact with each other while the rest also stuck to their duties. Luckily for the group, they were able to avoid any sort of disturbances up to this point despite the darkness of the night.

"There it is," Shikamaru said. "Seems like we're the last ones to arrive."

Looking ahead, there was a building with personal guards from all the other countries surrounding it already.

"Seems like we got here right on time then," Sasuke added.

The group dropped off the daimyo and bid farewell to his servants and the guards. All of a sudden, there was a big bang and a flare signal was sent high into the sky. Everyone was astonished.

One of the guards shouted at the top of his lungs. "Who shot that flare?!"

Sasuke noticed the culprit running right away and ran towards him. He grabbed hold of him and turned him around.

"Shinichi?!" Sakura gasped.

Shinichi gulped and shivered under Sasuke's grasp as Sasuke smirked, throwing him to the ground. "This gives me reason to actually beat the hell out of you now."

"Sasuke don't! We need him alive!"

Shinichi laughed with a crazy expression. "It's too late! With this, our clan will be recognized! Ever since this stupid alliance, the smaller villages have been ignored!"

Sasuke grabbed the front of Shinichi's collar and and shook him angrily. "You want recognition?! Don't be stupid. It's not just something you pull out of your ass."

"Easy for you to say! You have it all, don't you! An established village, comrades, a woman! After half of my clan perished because of the war, we were forgotten!"

Sasuke glared at him. "Everything?" His right eye changed into the sharingan in rage. Shinichi's eyes widened in shock as he realized immediately who Sasuke was. The lone survivor of the Uchiha clan. "I have everything? You have no idea what I've been through!" With that, Sasuke started punching the helpless guard. "I lost my family, my entire clan, then I made stupid decisions just like this! Then I lost my village, my brother, my best friend, my comrades, Sakura."

Shinichi's face was badly beaten and Naruto and Shikamaru ran to Sasuke, grabbing hold of his arms. "Sasuke, stop!" Sasuke pushed them off and hit Shinichi once more.

"All of these things didn't just fall onto my lap!"

Naruto, annoyed, made a few clones and they all pulled Sasuke back. Shinichi struggled to breathe and Sakura ran to the injured guard, surprising him with her protection. "Sasuke, enough!"

"You have two legs! Use them properly." Sasuke snapped, shrugging off Naruto's clones and walking away.

Sakura watched Sasuke leave and frowned. She then proceeded to heal the wounds on the guard's face. "What you did was futile. A genjutsu was already placed around the vicinity once all the daimyos were accounted for. I'm sorry."

Shinichi watched Sakura and weakly spoke to her. "Why...are you helping me?"

"I'm a medical ninja. I don't discriminate based on where you stand."

Shinichi didn't respond and Sakura finished healing him after a few had minutes passed.

"That's all I can do. There's going to be scarring but it's better than it was. Also...Sasuke's right. Get back up on your own two feet. This is not the way to do it. Sasuke can relate to you. He doesn't want you to make the same mistakes he did."

Shinichi thought about his actions, grateful for Sakura's help. "10 kilometers ahead. There's 5 of us. My comrades were supposed to be waiting for the signal."

The ANBU suddenly appeared, carrying 4 other men who were knocked out. Shinichi saw them and scoffed. "This was pointless from the beginning, huh..."

Sakura stood up. "Don't underestimate the power of the five great shinobi nations. Instead of shunning us, rely on us more."

Shikamaru went up to Sakura. "Let the ANBU handle the rest. We can leave."

"Right."

Sakura looked at Sasuke, who was leaning against the side of the building, angry and frustrated. She walked up to him and he looked away from her. Sakura rolled her eyes at him and put a hand on her waist. "Quit sulking."

"...I'm not sulking. I...didn't mean for you to see that side of me again."

She sighed and placed a hand on his arm, reassuring him that it was alright. "You did what you had to do. Let's go home. We'll worry about that later. Besides, we have a lot to talk about now, don't we?"