Angel: Ok, here's chapter two. . hopefully I can do better now that I'm re-writing it. X.x As stated it's a Post-Sasuke retrieval arc fanfic. So everything that happened after that does not happen here.

Legends:

'Flashback'

His Return

It has been a hard night for Sasuke. Orochimaru found out that he had finally escaped. So Orochimaru and his most powerful Nins tried to stop him, including Kabuto. For the whole night he had fought almost every sound Nin in the country. He killed every single Nin including Orochimaru, excluding Kabuto who escaped. When he reached the clearing where they trained when he was still a Konoha ninja, he was badly injured. He panted and laid himself on the ground. He needs rest. He figured he'll be safe here since it was Konoha property, the worst thing that could happen was that a Konoha guard appears and send him straight to jail.

He heard some one coming. He closed his eyes and pretended that he fainted. A soft hand touched his face.

"Sasuke-kun!" He heard the person yell beside him and engulfed him in a hug.

Sasuke opened his eyes and looked at the girl, she was wearing a black skirt and white top. As he continues to stare at he, their eyes met. She has the most beautiful emerald eyes he ever saw. She also has pink hair that reminds him of cherry blossom, Sasuke then smiled, after 5 years he once again saw her…

"Saku-" and then he fell unconscious.

Sasuke woke up inside the Konoha hospital, his head hurts and his vision was spinning. He lifted his ams to cover his eyes. Looking around the room, he saw a pink haired girl was sleeping beside him, 'Sakura?'he tried to reach for her when a certain blonde guy entered the room screaming.

'Naruto?'

"So it's true that you're back..."

Sasuke didn't answer, he just stared at him.

"You bastard, after all these years, you show up just now?" Naruto grinned at him as he saw Sakura. "You just can't stay away from her can you?"

Sasuke smirked and was about to speak when the said girl woke up.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun your finally awake, I should call Tsunade-sama." then she saw Naruto, "Naruto what are you doing here? I thought you're with-"

"Oi, Teme!" Naruto ignored Sakura and went up to Sasuke. "What are you going to do now huh?"

Sasuke was aain about to say something when Sakura punched Naruto who flew towards the wall. "Naruto! Shut up!"

"Sa..Sakura-chan!" The fox boy pouted. "You didn't have to hit me!"

Sasuke just watched as the two yell at each other, just like the old times.

Sakura was about to punch Naruto again when Tsunade entered the room. Sakura quickly sat back down beside Sasuke.

"So Uchiha you're awake." Tsunade nodded to him then raised a brow at Naruto who was sitting on the floor. The latter just shrugged and looked away.

Tsunade took Sasuke's medical records from the table and studied it.

"Hmmm, You're lucky Uchiha, it was a good thing it was Sakura who found you there, if it weren't for her you wont survived with those serious wounds. She managed to do minor surgery on your wounds before bringing you here for major operations. You just need some rest now. But rest assured that you still have to deal with a lot of charges Konoha has against you." Then she turned to Sakura "Sakura I'm assigning you to take care and guard Sasuke for the whole night."

"Tsunade-sama, why can't you just assign one of the head medical Nin here in the hospital?" Sakura frowned, she didn't like the idea of spending alone time with Sasuke.

"Yeah!" Naruto butted in. "You should place a jounin here to look out for Sasuke!"

"Well Naruto, if you don't know today is an official holiday, everyone in town are celebrating Sakura no Hana Festival including all the jounins, and Sakura is the only one available here. Other than being a Jounin her self, she is a medical nin. It is very likely for Uchiha Sasuke to experience pain and discomfort due to his injuries, so Sakura is the best ninja for this job."

"But it's Sakura-chan's birthday, she should cele-"

"Naruto its okay, after all I originally didn't want to celebrate my birthday. Ino should have told you that." Sakura smiled at her friend, despite the anxiety and awkwardness that she was feeling.

"But Sakura…" Naruto pouted.

"Hinata's waiting for you Naruto. Don't make her wait long, or else Neji might get mad at you."

"Fine, I'll just tell the rest that you couldn't come, but the party down town is still on if you get bored you can always come, we will wait for you there, since we already prepared a cake for you and oh… Happy birthday Sakura-chan!" The boy grinned.

Sakura again smiled at Naruto muttering a thanks.

As Naruto left the room, Tsunade walked up to her.

"Sakura I have to go too. As the Hokage, everyone expects me to be there." She smiled and kissed the young girl on her forehead. "Happy eighteenth Birthday." Tsunade then turned to Sasuke. "Rest well Uchiha, I'll see you tomorrow." And with that, she left leaving Sakura and Sasuke alone.

"Sakura.." Sasuke finally spoke. He stared at her with blank eyes.

"hmm?" Sakura turned to look at Sasuke.

"I'm home." A small smile crept on his face which made the girl blush before turning her back at him. Then she heard him say "Thank you."

Sasuke couldnt sleep at all, his mind was wondering if everything was worth it. Watching the girl that he adores sleeping on the chair next to him made him think if what he did was right. But he couldn't change anything now. All he can do was make up for the lost time.

He can still remember it as if it only happened yesterday, the day 5 years ago when he made a decision he will never forget.

Lying on his bed sleepless, Sasuke kept on thinking what happened just a few hours ago, he always thought that he was stronger but Naruto had once again proved to himthat he's wrong and that he is much more powerful than he is.

Itachi raided Konoha and tried to kill Sakura, he was using her as bait so Naruto would give up the Kyubi inside him. He was useless at that time, he couldn't even protect Sakura, while that stupid Naruto was strong enough to save her, he was too weak… just like the time when Gaara went on a rampage.

He was never strong enough. He could never save her. They were right, he is the weakest among their clan, he turned and saw a picture of him and Sakura taken only a month ago. He was forced by the girl to have a picture taken with her. Despite being annoyed, he just couldn't refuse her.

"Sakura" Sasuke stood up and took the picture. He traced Sakura's face. For years he had been avoiding to love someone, but life had been cruel to him, no matter how hard he tries he still fell for in love with her. Sakura had been always there for him, she had loved him for years since childhood, but he always rejects her. He thought it was better that way. But when he saw Sakura almost dying in front of him, he then realized how much he does love her.

Making up his mind, he placed the picture down. He will join Orochimaru. It was the only way that he could see. He was now willing to do anything not just for revenge but to be strong enough to protect Sakura. He needs to kill Itachi to be strong enough for his clan and for her.

He packed his things and went straight to the gates of Konoha. To his surprise Sakura was there… 'Is she waiting for me?' he thought

Sakura turned saw him.

"Sasuke-kun where are you-"She stopped as she saw his bag. "You're going to Orochimaru are you?"

He nodded.

"Why?"

He didn't answer; he was not yet ready to tell her the truth. He walked passed her and was about to run when Sakura shouted.

"Sasuke-kun! Please don't leave! Please stay! Even if you don't want to stay at least take me with you!" He heard her sob. He was making her cry, damn it.

"Sakura this is going to be dangerous" He forced himself to not look at her. It will be more painful to leave if he saw her tears.

"I know, but if your going to leave me-"

"Sakura, you're being annoying. You'll just die if you-"

"No!" Sakura grabbed his arm. He felt her hands gasp tightly on him.

"Sakura you will just be a burden to me..."

"I'll do any thing-"

"Thank you," He muttered before quickly appearing behind her and hit her hard. A lone tear fell down on my cheek.

"Sasu-" Sakura fell unconscious.

It was really hard for him to leave her, but he was doing this for her. To be a better man for her. He placed Sakura on a near by bench, he wiped away the tears on her eyes and left.

"Sakura, I promise you, I'll be back." He looked back at Konoha before disappearing in the dark where five of Orochimaru's underlings waiting for him.

"Sakura…" he whispered softly as he brushed off the pink hair on her face "I love you…" He smirked, feeling better that he had finally said those words after all these years. "You've grown really beautiful. I'm glad I'm back." He then strokes her smooth hair that got untied as she sleep. 'Sakura you just don't know how hard it was for me to leave you, but now I'm back, I'm stronger than before and I promise I won't ever leave you anymore.'he took and held Sakura's hand before he fell as sleep.

End Chapter

Angel: Done re-writing, not much change, though I did change how Naruto responded to Sasuke's return. It just felt not Naruto-ish, after all they are pretty much best friends.

Edited on: May 18, 2012