Okay, okay. I know, I should have updated like, forever ago...but for those of you who have bothered to read this author's note and haven't already dismissed any excuse I could offer as something Kakashi would say, things around my house have been a bit rough lately. My parents recently informed me that we are going to be moving in the near future...halfway across the effing country...you can imagine my emotional distress.

ANYWAY. After dealing with my psychotic family over the holidays, I finally wrote a new chapter. There is probably a lot of Occness in this one, and for those of you looking forward to a good battle scene (that is far overdue) you're going to have to wait one more chapter. Why? Because the author is chicken and doesn't write very good battle scenes.

But there is some naruXsaku action! So don't kill me!!

Disclaimer: If I said I owned Naruto, I would be lying...and the illustrations would be particularly crappy.

Sakura let her thoughts drift as she followed Naruto back through the maze of hallways.

Gyro really hadn't been that bad, he actually seemed rather pleasant. She wondered what he'd done to make Naruto have such a bad opinion of him.

"Probably crack missions."

"Oh, come on! Not now!"

"Why not now? You're going to be extremely busy for the next few hours. Besides, you need to talk to him before he goes off to fight. What if something happens to him?" Inner Sakura reasoned.

"Nothing. Is. Going. To. Happen. To. Him." Sakura hissed at her inner self. Even so, she could help but let a wave of unavoidable apprehension wash over her. What if something did happen?

"See, you are worried. So am I. You have to talk to him."

Sakura mentally shook her head. "No, the last thing he needs is us on his mind. He needs to be able to focus, especially with how tired he is; I'm amazed he's even standing! I should wait. I'm the last thing he should be thinking about right now."

Inner Sakura huffed in frustration. "Fine, I see your point, I guess. Damn, I hate it when you're right." With that, she poofed away: leaving Sakura alone in her thoughts.

"Sakura?"

The kunoichi looked up to see Naruto staring at her quizzically. "Hm?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Are you okay? You spaced out again, is something wrong?"

Sakura looked down at her feet. "I'm just worried."

Naruto let out a soft chuckle. "About what?"

Sakura glared up at him. "What do you mean 'about what'? You're about to be in the middle of a freaking battle, you moron! What if something happens to you?"

His face softened. "Nothing's going to happened to me Sakura."

"You don't know that." She sniffed. "Great. Now I'm about to cry, how cliché."

Inner Sakura made a gagging noise. "You got that right."

Naruto sighed. He gently pulled her into a hug, wrapping his arms around her petite waist as she struggled not to cry. "Trust me Sakura, this isn't my first battle. I'm going to be okay."

Sakura wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. "He didn't promise. He's worried too."

His arms tightened around her, his hands running up and down her back soothingly. "Nothing is going to happen to me." He whispered softly.

"I'm still worried, baka."

"I know."

Sakura sighed, enjoying the comfort of his arms.

Inner Sakura grinned. "Hey, cliché turned out all right."

Lina smirked, looking down on the two from the roof of a near by building. "Ha, I totally win Kai. I told you she liked him."

"Fine then, but I win too. I told you he still loved her." Kai smirked appearing next to his sister.

"Well, damn. That's pointless. We need a tie breaker." Lina frowned, crossing her arms.

"Winner takes all?" Kai asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lina snorted. "Of course, what kind of bet would it be if she didn't?"

"You mean he?"

"No I mean she, it's obvious I'm going to win." Lina scoffed, glaring at her brother.

"Yeah right, name your bet." Kai glared back.

"First kiss?" Lina grinned mischievously.

"Deal. I give them two days." Kai declared confidently.

Lina rolled her eyes. "Two days? No way. I give them two weeks."

Kai grinned. "Your loss sis."

Lina grinned back. "You mean yours?"

They shook on it.

Lina flipped her snow-white hair back over her shoulder. "Right, now lets get back to the love birds."

The siblings scanned the street below. Kai scowled. "Oh come on! Where'd they go?"

Lina groaned. "Aw man, we missed the good part. Darn it."

"Why do we always miss the good part?" Kai pouted, looking down the street for a glimpse of the two ninjas.

"Because they end up doing what they're supposed to do. Unlike you two lazy lumps of flesh."

Kai paled and his sister turned around to glare at the wolf behind them. "Where have you been, Niagra?"

The queen of the wolves scoffed. "What do you mean where have I been? Where have you been? You two are Gyro's kids, and your father's city is about to be attacked. You have work to do, now get to it."

They scowled at the canine before reluctantly leaping away towards the city's third wall.

Once they were out of earshot, Kai glared at his sister. "A million different wolves to choose from, a million different wolves, and you choose to summon the grumpiest of them all."

"Yeah, yeah, shut up eagle boy."

The medic nins had turned one of the larger buildings near Fang's third wall into a makeshift hospital. Rooms were being cleaned and sterilized in record time as the nurses and doctors prepared for the onslaught of injuries.

"It makes sense, the closer an injured shinobi is to medical care, the better chance he has for survival." Sakura admitted quietly to herself as Naruto sent one of the nurses off to find Lina.

He sighed as he turned her way. "Are you sure you want to do this? Things could get ugly in here."

Sakura scoffed. "Of course I'm ready. Or, have you forgotten who my sensei is?"

Naruto laughed. "No, I haven't forgotten that you're the best medic there is. I'm just saying this building is right in the line of fire. It won't take long for Satarima to figure out we've stationed a hospital here."

"I'm a shinobi too, remember?"

"Yeah, I know, it's just…" He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"You're just worried?" She smiled softly and hugged him tightly. "Nothing's going to happen to me, don't worry."

He sighed as he returned the embrace. "Sorry, I can't help it."

"And why is that?" Sakura pulled back gently, staring at the blonde, hoping for the answer she wanted.

Naruto looked nervously at her before opening his mouth to speak.

"Ahem." Kai stood about four feet away, tapping his foot impatiently.

Naruto glared at him, as did Inner Sakura. "Darn it, now we really do have to wait until this is all over."

"Sorry to interrupt you two love birds, but Lina sent me up here to get Sakura. She's about to go over station assignments with all the medic nins." Kai sounded absolutely thrilled to be his sister's errand boy for the afternoon. Note the sarcasm, and the fact that he was ticked he'd interrupted what could have been a financially crippling moment for his sister.

Naruto groaned, but pulled away from Sakura none-the-less. She scowled at the loss of warmth.

Kai looked at her sympathetically. "Ready?"

Sakura nodded. With one last glance at the blonde shinobi, she followed Kai through the double set of doors to their right.

She took two steps before she stopped and glanced back over her shoulder. For once, Sakura and Inner Sakura's thoughts were in agreement. "Ah, hell with it. I don't want to wait anymore."

Kai watched as she turned around and ran back through the double doors. He smirked victoriously. "Finally. I win sis."

Naruto was still standing in the main entrance as Sakura came running up to him.

"Naruto!"

He turned around, quirking an eyebrow at her presence. "Sakura? What's wrong?"

She smiled as she came to a stop in front of him, losing herself in his bottomless blue eyes. "Nothing's wrong, I just forgot something."

He opened his mouth to ask her what but was cut off by a pair of lips crashing into his own. He stiffened before giving into the kiss, pulling her closer.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, running her fingers across his face and through his hair. It was sweet, filled with everything she'd wanted to say for years, but hadn't been able to.

Far, far too soon for Sakura's tastes, he pulled back. He leaned his forehead against hers softly, staring into her green eyes. "You have no idea how long I've waited for you to do that."

She grinned. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that."

And he kissed her again.

Inner Sakura was having a field day. Fireworks, cheerleaders, heck, even a freaking band were all going off inside Sakura's head. All drowned out by Inner Sakura's shriek for joy. "Finally!!! She does something right!!!" A short pause. "Man, why does she get to be on the outside? Not fair."

AN: See? I told you it had some naruXsaku action, I didn't say it would be good.

sigh Anyway, feel free to tell me how much it sucked and what not...my magic formula for reviews and time between updates is back in place now that I'm emotionally stable again (okay, I might be exaggerating a little but I was still upset). And I apologize if the author's notes sound particuarly snarky, I'm kind of in a bad mood.

Later

Colonel Z