Chapter 8: Another day, another thought

Sasuke had been thinking all night on how he might be able to prove to Hokage-sama that Sakura was alive, but he just hadn't learned to face the truth yet… she was dead… and the dead can't come back to life… Sasuke knew that too… he just didn't want to face it. He didn't want to face it when Itachi had taken the lives of the people of his clan; and he didn't want to face it this time. His whole clan was wiped out and not one of them came back from the dead… so neither would Sakura.

Kakashi walked into Hokage-sama's office. He was confused, as Hokage-sama would not have called Kakashi into his office on a regular day-to-day basis, so this had to be related to the "Sakura" issue. Kakashi noticed that Iruka-sensei was there too.

"Kakashi!" Hokage-sama said. "I've been expecting you for a while now."

"Uhh… sorry I'm late." Kakashi replied. "I was -"

"Save it for your students."

Kakashi sighed. "So what's the reason you called me here?"

"I just wanted to inform you that the Anbu who were out looking for the corpse were never able to find the girl. There are no traces of her leaving the village so we are expanding the search further outside the village."

"The Uchiha wants to go look for her. He just isn't able to face her death." Kakashi added.

"Well… I don't see the harm in sending him with the Anbu, but if he were to come across his older brother, then he would likely die." Iruka-sensei had made a point.

"So that leaves us with two advantages for Itachi – killing Sakura and putting Sasuke's life in danger." Kakashi-sensei said to Iruka-sensei yet making another point true.

"Well we know about the Uchiha, but what do we do about Naruto?" Iruka-sensei asked.

"Well, since the other kid is going, there's no point in Naruto staying here on his own. Plus, if Uchiha gets into any trouble, Naruto has his back." Kakashi mentioned.

Iruka still had to ask Hokage-sama something. "But how will they -"

"Let us leave it off here." Hokage-sama said. "The boys will be ready to leave at dawn three days from now. It's up to you two to get them what they will need for this mission."

In conclusion to that, Kakashi and Iruka walked out of Hokage-sama's office knowing that he was a very busy man. But Iruka still needed to ask him something.

"Hey Kakashi." Iruka said as they walked out of the building. "How are the two boys going to cooperate? We both know well enough that they can't cooperate together and always end up fighting when they try to prove that they are stronger to one-another.

"It's not about them!" Kakashi replied. "It's about Sakura. During the past days of training that they have been getting along ever since Sakura disappeared, they haven't said a word to each other. Naruto's not as annoying and Sasuke's training harder than he ever has. I've seen change in them and this change will help them co-operate… I just hope I'm right."

Iruka had a concerned look on his face that told Kakashi that he hoped that he was right too.

Kakashi hurried over to the boys who were both training that day. Their mission was easy. Kakashi had said to them that they would sit in the silent field and quietly meditate.

"I'm back!" Kakashi said.

"So what did he say?" Naruto asked.

"He said that the Anbu weren't able to find her and that you two are joining the Anbu to find her." Kakashi explained. "Three days from now. You will leave to find her."

"Why do we have to go look for her when my pretty Sakura-chan is dead." Naruto said. Naruto had totally lost hope for Sakura being alive. Naruto believed that Sakura was dead indeed.

"She's not dead." Sasuke answered quietly for Kakashi.

Huh? Naruto was confused at what Sasuke said. He didn't call me dope. I've never seen him like this before. He's never cared about anyone but himself for as far as I've known him. This must really mean something to him. He must be very upset about what happened to Sakura-chan.

I brought tears to your eyes, I brought pain to your heart, Sakura please forgive me. I hurt you when you're down, I make you sad when you smile, Sakura please wait for me. I protect you when you're hurt; I smile at you when you're around. I worry for you when you're sick; I feel warmth when you're there. Sakura please be alive.

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Uchihalovesme: hey guys first of all, i need to apologize for making you guys wait. i'm sorry. i was too caught up in school and now over the summer, summer school. it ends in the first week of august so updates will be delayed. second of all, i'm not completely satisfied with sakura's choice. there are things that i could change to make the story better. there wont be major changes, just grammar, and i'm gonna try to make the chapters longer so that you guys enjoy them more. i need to also add more detail to the chapters so you can better understand them. i know that you guys are tired of waiting for sakura's choice to be updated so you can read the whole thing, but i need you guys to put up with my delays one more time. that's all i ask of you. and i promise that when i'm done making sakura's choice a better story, it'll be back better than before. as for updating it, that'll happen by the end of august for the new saku's choice. since the whole story consists of about 26 chapters, i need to work hard on changing it for the better. i will from time to time update sakura's choice the way it is now and those of you who care to read the better version can wait for it. thanks for understanding. i'll let you all know when i'm gonna put up the better version of saku's choice

thanks to everyone for the reviews and for your patience