'thoughts'

"talking"

'inner Ryuu talking'

Sakura was woken up the next day by a loud knocking on her door. She opened her tired eyes and looked at the clock. '1 PM' she relaculantly got up from bed. She didn't have to get dressed because she had been so tired when she came home sp she went to bed with clothes and all. When Sakura opened the door she saw Naruto standing there with a big grin on his face.

"Good morning Sakura-chan!" he said in his usual cheerful tone.

Sakura forced a small smile to her tired face.

"Good morning Naruto, come in please." She said and stepped aside to make some room for Naruto to enter.

"Ah, thanks' Sakura-chan."

Sakura closed the door behind him and led him into the living room. Sakura then disappeared into the kitchen to get some tee. After a while she came back again with a teepot with warm green tee in it. She put the teapot down on the table an took out two cups. She then sat down and asked while she poured some tee into the cups.

"What brings you here Naruto?"

"Well I wanted to see how you were so I went to the hospital but they said that you had been realised home so I decided to come and check up on you." Naruto said while rubbing the back of his head.

"That was very cind of you." Sakura said smiling.

"Well…. Hehe…"

"I also wanted to ask you how you were realised so quickly, I mean the wounds you had were pretty serious." Naruto said any trace of the goofy boy vanished.

Sakura remained silent as she took a sip from her tee.

"Tsunade-sama said that she would be coming to see me today so I'll tell you both then." Sakura stated calmly

"Ja-nee Sakura-chan" Naruto started complaining but Sakura stayed strong. They started talking about things that had happened. Sakura learned about that their friends had been sent on some mission and would be back the day after tomorrow.

About half an hour later there was another knock on the door. Sakura opened the door to Tsunade-sama.

"Hello Sakura! How are you feeling?" Tsunade asked a little worrie in her voice.

"Pretty well Tsunade-sama. Please come in." Sakura said.

Sakura led Tsunade to the living room were Naruto waited. They sat down by the table and Sakura took out a cup to Tsunade before she started telling them what they wanted to know. ' I can't tell them the truth, I'm still not myself sure about everything.' Sakura thought as she tried to come up with something that they would belive, well Nartuo wouldn't be hard to convince but Tsunade was a different story.

"You probably wonder how come I healed so fast." Sakura looked up and saw both Tsunade and Naruto nodding.

"Well I have always had a fast healing ability, but I have tested a new jutsu and as you can see it worked quite well." Sakura said. Tsunade nodded and asked.

"When will you be able to show me this new jutsu?"

Sakura thought for a moment.

"Maybe in a week or two." Sakura answered calmly

"Do you think you could show it to me when it's ready?" Tsunade asked

"Of course." Sakura said. Tsunade nodded and they started to talk about other things. After a couple of hours Tsunade and Naruto left and Sakura could relax.

'Phew! That was close.' Sakura thought as she leaned her back against the door.

'Which is the jutsu that you are going to show her in two weeks?' Ryuu asked.

'I don't know. I guess I will just have to come up with one.' Sakura answered as she pushed herself of the door and headed to her room.

'Right now I to get my mind off of things.' She thought as she headed back to the training grounds to start from were she left of yesterday.

When she arrived at the training grounds she saw Genma, Kotetsu and Izumo sparing. They stopped when they noticed that someone had entered the training grounds. Genma was the first one to speak.

"Hi Sakura!"

Sakura nodded her head towards them before she started walking into the forest.

"What has happened to her?" Kotetsu asked.

"Yeah, were did her cheerfulness go?" Izumo asked equally confused.

"Haven't you heard? She and her parents were sent on a mission to retrieve a stolen scroll from some mist-nin everything went well, but the mist-nin had sent for back-up and they were outnumbered. She managed to escape with the scroll but both her parents died." Genma said in a sad voice.

"Oh" both Kotetsu and Izumo said.

"When is their funeral?" Izumo asked

"Tomorrow" Genma said as he watched Sakuras retreating back.

"One should probably go and give ones condolences." Kotetsu said.

Izumo and Genma nodded before they went back to sparing again.

Meanwhile Sakura had found a clearing in the forest.

'This will do' she thought as she went to stand in the middle of it and continued from where she left of. After about 5 hours Sakura had gone through about all the jutsus when a question popped up in her mind.

'Ryuu?'

'Hai?'

'Can I summon any creatures?'

'Hai, you can.'

'Which is it? Frogs, snails, snakes, apes or what?'

'You are able to summon the most rare animals. Dragons.'

'Dragons? I didn't know one could summon dragons.'

'It has never before been done, because dragons are proud creatures and therefore won't let just anyone summon them. To be able summon dragons one most show that they are worthy of that. If you are the dragons will always come to your aid when you need them.'

'Will I have to sign some kind of scroll like Naruto did with the frogs?'

'No. the dragons will come to you like that because they see you worthy to become their mistress. And when a dragon has found it's master or mistress it will follow him or her until death.'

'I see'

'Now summon one of the smaller dragons.'

Sakura bit her thumb and did the handseals.

'Kochiyose No jutsu' she said and a small red dragon appeared. It had a golden mane and its long sleak body was about as long as her arm and had four small legs. It climed up her her leg and onto her shoulder, were it nuzzeled her cheek. Sakura giggled and scrathed it lightly behind the small horns. It purred slightly.

'That is one of the smaller versions of the dragons, but don't let their appearance fool you, they are very good spies and can make themselves invisible. They will then telepatichly tell you what they have heard and seen. In perfect detail. They can also make a precise picture of people and the surroundings they have spied on in your mind.'

'I see' she said and let the dragon disappeared into smoke.

'Now summon one of the bigger dragons.'

'Hai' Sakura said as she again bit her thumb and did the handseals.

'Kochiyose No jutsu.' This time a dragon that was about 12 feet big appeared.

It was green with a orange mane and six legs. Sakura walked over to it and stroke it's beautiful mane. The dragon closed it's eyes and leaned into her touch. Sakura smiled at this.

'That dragon is more for combat. It's deadly claws can rip a man in half with one swing and it can make powerballs in it's mouth, the most dangerous of those could destroy a city.'

'Beautiful but dangerous.' Sakura thought

'Indeed'

Sakura let the dragon disappear again.

'The third dragon you will be summoning will be me.'

'Really?'

'Hai. You will summon me from within you.'

'Ok' Sakura said and did the handseals again.

"Kochiyose No jutsu" Sakura said and slammed her hand on the ground. The skies turned dark and thunder could be heard in the distance. Then lightning came down from the sky and stroke right were Sakuras hand had been a couple of seconds ago. Then a big smoke cloud was all you could see. When the smoke had settled Sakura saw Ryuu in all his glory. His long black body was floating in the air, his eight feet with three deadly claws each, his dark blue mane that swayed slightly in the wind and his deep dark blue almost black eyes staring at her. The sight before her could only be described with one word. Beautiful.

"R-ryuu?" Sakura asked carefully.

'Hai, it's me.' Ryuu said (A/N: Ryuu is using telepathy so he is not moving his mouth)

Sakura ran towards him and he lowered his head. She hugged him, well more like the tip of his nose.

"Ryuu, I did it!" Sakura said happily. Ryuu smiled slightly.

'Of course you did, you are very talented.' He said.

"Thank you" Sakura said and let go of Ryuu and noticed he was bigger.

"You are much bigger then the last time I saw you." Sakura pointed out.

'Hai, when you saw me the last time I was in a smaller form.'

"Ah, okay. So what can you do?"

'Well I have both of the abilities in me that the two previous dragons had except mine are more dangerous, for example I can make a powerball so powerful that it could destroy a country in a blink of an eye, my skin is impenetrable and I can do several jutsus.'

"Wow" Was all Sakura could say.

'Shall we train how to fight together?'

"Sure!" Sakura said.

'Get onto my back then' Ryuu said and lowered his head so she could hop on. She did now stood on the back of his head getting used to it. She found that she had no problem staying on his head although he lifted it.

"Ryuu how come I stay on you although you move?"

'Because you are the only one worthy of riding on me and because I am a part of you it comes to you natutally.' Ryuu said.

"Okay" Sakura said.

'Let's go somewhere else to train.' Ryuu said as he flew off towards some mountains in the north.

They fought for hours and they moved like one, supporting one another. If anyone would watched them they would've only heard the sizziling sound of flying kunai and shuriken. After a while Ryuu spoke.

'Shall we return?'

"Hai" Sakura said panting hard.

She jumped onto Ryuu's back and they flew back to the clearing they hand started from. She jumped down onto the ground.

'I will now return inside you' Ryuu said before he faded away.

'Well time to go home' sakura thought as she headed back to her house. As she was walking she her thoughts flew to her parents.

'Tomorrow is their funeral.' She thought sadly as she entered her house and went to bed. Taking the well needed rest she would need tomorrow.

∞The Next Day∞

Sakura woke up at 8 AM, the funeral started at 10 AM so that gave her plenty of time to get ready. She took a shower and then took out the black dress she was going to wear. She out it on, it fitted perfectly. The upper part was tight and had a v-neck and it had short, loose sleeves. The lower part of the dress was loose and it reached little over her knees. She wore some black high heals to it and her oka-sans neckless. She put her still damp hair in a messy bun with a black tie.

She then went to the temple were the ceremony was going to be held. She was early so no one was there jet. She walked inside the temple were the two coffins with her dear parents were. She walked up to the two coffins. They had been cleaned up and had gotten new clothes, her oka-san a dress and her oto-san a suite.

'They look so peaceful, like they are just sleeping and are going to wake up anytime now.' Sakura put one hand of each of her parents.

'So cold.' She thought as she forced back the tears that threatened to fall. Suddenly she felt a warm hand on one of hers. She spun around and saw Naruto, Kakashi, Tsunade and all her friends.

"Shouldn't you be on a mission?" She asked Shikamaru and the others.

"We finished early so we could be here for you." Ino said with a warm smile.

"Thank you, it means a lot to me." Sakura said as they went to sit down because the guests started to arrive. A couple of minutes later the funeral started. Many people had come. The priest held a small speech about her parents and then they went outside with the two coffins to burrie them. As they were laying Sakuras parents to rest under a cherry blossom three Sakura started thinking of a poem she had once heard.

'They say that a hero is burried beneath each Sakura tree and that is how the blossoms recieve their colour, quite suiting, my parents were real heroes and they died protecting what they loved.'

When the funeral was over Sakura walked to the memorial stone. She stood in front of the stone reading the same two names over and over again.

'Sano Haruno and Keiko Haruno.'

As she stood there she made a promise to herself.

'I promise I will always protect the ones I love and Konoha, that will be my way of the ninja.'

"I know how you feel." A voice said behind her. Sakura turned around and saw Kakashi. She then turned back towards the stone. Kakashi walked up to stand next to Sakura. Kakashi continued.

"But you should now that you are not alone."

"I know it's just that, I will never be able to see them, hear them, touch them or talk to them again, they are gone, forever." Sakura said.

Kakashi looked at Sakura. He recognized those words. ' I thought the same thing when I lost my teammates.' Kakashi put his arms around her and gave her a hug.

"But although you can't see, feel, touch or talk to them doesn't mean that they can't see you or hear you or talk to you, they will always watch over you and whisper encouraging words to you in the wind. Sakura couldn't hold back the tears anymore that had been burning in her eyes, she threw her arms around him and cried against his chest. They now stood in the pouring rain, getting soaked but Kakashi didn't care he just held Sakura and let her cry, then he heard her whisper between sobs.

"T-thank sob you."

Kakashi smiled under his mask.

"Your welcome."

When they broke the hug Sakura had stopped crying and therefore it had also stopped raining.

"Let me take you home" Kakashi said.

Sakura just gave a small smile and nodded and they went home.

A/N: Chapter 3 is ready!! As I promised I made this chappie a little longer. I want to thank you for all the reviews I've gotten and hope that you will continue reviewing! Again I will answer some questions I've gotten:

999Shikaku999: I also like the Gaara/Sakura paring, maby I will somethime make a storie with that paring. I just had to make a Ita/Sak fanfic because I think they are so KAWAI together!

SweetAssassin: Well if everything goes as plan he will enter in my next chappie!