A/N: Even though I find Ino slightly annoying, I think she is a great friend to Sakura. So I had her be a great friend in this. Sorry if you think she's OOC, but characters grow up, especially after the seven year time-skip in this story.

Song lyrics at the end are from "Our Time Now" by the Plain White T's.

Please enjoy this last chapter!

Sasuke watched as Sakura made them both dinner. Ever since she had gotten back from her unsuccessful attempt of finding out what had happened between him and Naruto, she had not let him leave her sight unless one of them was in the bathroom. Instead of finding it annoying, he became used to it rather quickly. Although he wouldn't really miss it when she stopped.

"Sasuke-kun, what would you like to eat?" she called.

He looked at the small opening into the kitchen and didn't answer.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura said slowly. "If you don't tell me what you want to eat, I'll force feed you wa-gashi."

Sasuke frowned and walked into the tiny kitchen.

"Onigiri," he stated.

She smiled. "I thought so."

Then why did you ask? he thought angrily as he went back to sitting on the couch.

Sakura called him again. "The food is ready! You'll have to eat in here."

"Are you going to tell me what happened with Naruto?" she asked when they both sat at her small table.

"Hn."

"Fine."

They ate in silence and both were glad when it was over.

Later, around eight, that night, they were both startled when someone banged loudly on the door.

"Sakura, open up! I know you're in there!" a woman shouted. Sasuke looked at the door, then at Sakura, contemplating whether he should hide or not. Sakura pointed quietly to the bathroom. He walked slowly to it and as he turned around to shut the door, he stared at Sakura with a raised eyebrow until the door closed. She knew he would be listening through the door.

Sakura shook her head, trying to get Sasuke out of her mind. She shouted, "I'm coming!" to the woman.

"Hello, Ino-pig," she greeted her friend. "What are you doing here?

"Guess," the tall blonde-haired woman said, her hands on her hips.

Sakura tilted her head and tried to think of something.

"Does it have to do with anything concerning Shikamaru?" she asked, naming Ino's boyfriend of three years.

"I guess you could say that."

Sakura frowned. "Ino, tell me why you're here."

Ino looked over Sakura's shoulder towards the kitchen and sitting area before her gaze landed on the closed door of the bathroom. Sakura mentally cursed at her self. She forgot to tell Sasuke to conceal his chakra.

"Is there someone here?" she said, taking a step in that direction. Sasuke's chakra disappeared and Sakura sighed. She knew that by blocking the way would give everything away, so she moved out of Ino's way.

"No," she said lightly. Ino just looked back at her and sighed.

"Sakura, we need to talk. I have some bad news."

Sakura watched as her friend struggled to tell her the news. Something was obviously very wrong if Ino, the blabbermouth of all ninjas, was unable to speak. So Sakura guided Ino over to the futon she had been sitting on with Sasuke earlier and waited for her friend to say what she wanted to say.

Ino decided to just blurt it out.

"Sasukeisback," she rushed.

"What?"

Ino slowed down. "Sasuke is back."

Sakura frowned. "And what does that have to do with Shikamaru?"

"You know?" Ino exclaimed. "Hinata told me no one else knew!"

"Of course I know! Hinata must have meant no one else but me, her, Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, Tsunade-sama, and Shizune-san, then," Sakura said, counting the persons mentioned with her fingers. Ino sighed and there was a slight pause.

"Well, then, where the hell is that bastard?" Ino said, clenching her fist. "I'm going to have to kick his ass after what he did."

Sakura sighed.

"Ino, he's not going to get his ass kicked by you."

The bathroom door opened and Sasuke stepped out. Ino stood up and walked over toward him. He watched her warily with his hands in his pockets, waiting for her to start yelling or something so he could get the first meeting of old acquaintances over with.

Ino, however, just watched him. Then she turned to Sakura and said, "You think you can handle him?"

"Ino," Sakura warned.

"Alright, alright." She looked back at Sasuke and whispered a warning. "If you so much as scratch her, I will make your life a living hell."

Sasuke frowned at her. "Hn."

Ino then smiled at him, then Sakura, and bounced over to the door.

"Bye, Forehead," she called. "I'll see you tomorrow!"

Sakura sweat-dropped. "Okay, Ino."

Sasuke ran his hand through his hair and muttered a curse. "She's loud," he stated simply to Sakura. She nodded in agreement. Her friends were so obnoxious sometimes. She hoped Hinata kept quiet about this.

Sasuke, instead of saying something along the lines of "hn" or "tch" made a mental note to ask Ino for help on Sakura.

He was sure the annoying blonde would help him with his question.

"Ino, are you sure about this?" Sakura asked as she opened the door to her apartment. "Can you handle being alone with him?"

"Sakura," Ino sighed. "Just go. If I need help, I'll find it."

Sakura looked worriedly behind her friend at Sasuke, who was still sitting in the same position he had the entire morning. The poor man looked bored out of his mind.

"Alright, I'll go," she said.

Sasuke-kun will be fine. We do have training tomorrow, so he's going to have to deal with it, she told herself.

With one last glance at Ino and Sasuke, she left.

Ino clapped her hands together and whipped around to face Sasuke.

"Now, then, what did you want to talk about?"

Sasuke hesitated.

"…I want to ask Sakura something."

Ino's eyes widened.

"Nani?!"

Sakura went straight to Naruto's. Even though she had no idea why he and Sasuke were fighting again, she wanted to patch things up.

"Oh, Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed happily. "Come in!"

"Naruto, this is unsanitary," Sakura said, grimacing at the trash and dirty clothes covering his floor.

"I know, I know. What did you come over for?"

"Sasuke-kun."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What about him?"

"Please don't fight with him," Sakura said. "I know you can't help it, but please try."

"He started it, Sakura," Naruto stated angrily. He crossed him arms and leaned against a counter.

She sighed. "Well, can you at least ignore him until training? Then you can beat him up."

Naruto smiled slightly. "Okay, for you."

Inner Sakura cheered.

"Oh, and Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"How're you and Hinata?"

"H-Hinata?" Naruto blushed and she beamed at him.

"Don't screw it up, Naruto-kun."

"Sakura," Sasuke said from his seat on her couch later that day.

"Yes, Sasuke-kun?"

"Come with me," he demanded.

"Sasuke-kun, you shouldn't be walking in your condition," she told him, slicing an apple.

"I feel fine," he stated without any emotion in his voice.

"Yes, but you need more rest for training tomorrow. Your chakra level is still low. And Kakashi-sensei wants to determine our capability to work with each other again."

Sasuke frowned.

"Please…" he whispered, looking down at his feet.

Sakura's eyes widened as she stared at him. The need in his voice worried her. He had never begged for anything from her. He had never even begged her to leave him alone when they were younger. When he looked back up at her, the look in his eyes was heartbreaking. He looked so lonely, so confused, and so…empty.

There was a point when her eyes had looked that way, too.

"Okay, Sasuke-kun."

When he stopped walking, she looked around. They were standing at the gates of his family's compound.

"I can't tell you what to say to her. It'll come to you."

He frowned.

"And if you hurt her in any way, you'll regret it."

"Hn."

"Sakura, tell my why you did it," he commanded softly, looking at the emblem painted on the entrance.

Sakura tried to play dumb. "Did what?"

He looked back at her and she resisted the voice in her head telling her to look away. His eyes seem to look into her mind.

"You know," he whispered.

She looked down at the ground, wringing her hands.

"I thought that cleaning this place up would make me happy."

He raised an eyebrow. "Make you happy?"

"H—Hai. It was like I was with you again." She blushed furiously. "I wanted to feel connected to you, so, after training, I came here everyday. It wasn't until a few times after I started coming here that I started cleaning. First, I cleaned the streets and then I cleaned the exterior and interior of the buildings. I had to replace a few windows. After that, I painted…"

She knew she was rambling, so she stopped and said the one thing she wanted him to really hear.

"I…I missed you Sasuke-kun—"

He kissed her. It wasn't long, and it wasn't full of fireworks, but she felt something like electricity shoot through her from the top of her head to the tips of her toes.

When he pulled away, her eyes were still open and her lips had parted slightly. She was sure he could hear her heart pounding.

"Sasuke-kun…" she breathed. "Why…?"

His cheeks turned slightly pink. "Because you were the only one who ever really loved me."

She smiled.

"I still do."

He stepped forward and put his hand on her waist, rather shyly.

"May I?"

"Of course."

And they kissed again.

The next day, they met Naruto at the bridge where they had met countless times in their youth. Sakura was there first, then Sasuke, and then Naruto.

Naruto noticed that something was going on the instant he walked up. Instead of standing far apart from each other like before, the new couple (unbeknownst to Naruto at the time) was sitting on the railing, their legs almost touching. And even when they noticed Naruto, they didn't move away.

"So I guess you're together now," Naruto said, smirking.

Sakura blushed. "It's…it's not like that…"

Sasuke glared at Naruto. "Dobe, don't embarrass her."

Naruto nodded, still smirking, and sat down next to Sasuke, who frowned and moved an inch away from him. This caused his leg to brush Sakura's. Her face turned slightly red again and she smiled. For a few minutes, they sat in a comfortable silence, waiting for their leader to arrive.

"This is the way things were supposed to be," Naruto suddenly said.

Sakura looked at him. "What?"

"You two together, me and Hinata, and Team Seven back."

Sasuke nodded. "You've really changed, Naruto."

Naruto glanced up, startled. "You didn't call me any names."

"Baka, I did call you a name."

Naruto glared and folded his arms across his chest.

"Yeah, but it wasn't an insult, teme!"

Sasuke looked at him, and truly smiled. He'd be doing a lot of that soon, he knew. He leaned back and little and turned to Sakura. Seeing his grin, she smiled, too.

"Let's just hope this lasts as long as possible," she whispered, looking into his eyes.

"Aa."

…this is a dance for all the lovers…
…taking a chance for one another…
…finally it's our time now…