Chapter 8 Remorse and Tulips

Sasuke pounded his fist at Naruto's apartment door. "Wake up, loser," he yelled through the door.

"Jeez, I'm going," came Naruto's voice, hoarse from just waking up. He swung the door open. He was bare chested and wore black pajama pants and his funny hat that he has slept in since he was young. "Do you have to make such a damn racket at this hour?"

"I see you are still wearing that hideous thing." Sasuke pointed to the hat.

"Shut up! I wouldn't be talking about fashion sense if I were you. What was up with your Orochimaru outfit, eh?" The blond snickered.

"Well unlike this hat," Sasuke grabbed the hat from Naruto's head and dangled it from the puff ball at the top with two fingers, "mine said adult."

Naruto snatched the hat back from the raven haired Uchiha. "Whatever," he muttered under his breath. "What are you doing here, anyways?" He turned back into the apartment. He threw the hat onto the bed and pulled a shirt over his head.

Sasuke stepped in and leaned against the wall of the entryway. "The Hokage wants to see us asap. Something really important from what Shizune said."

"Dude, why didn't you say so sooner?" Naruto ran into the bathroom grabbing his jounin uniform.

Sasuke and Naruto wove their way through streets of a still awaking Konoha towards the Hokage Building. Naruto was unusually silent and he kept looking at his companion from the corner of his eye.

"What?" the Uchiha finally asked his patient wearing thin.

"Well…um…" Naruto hated these types of conversations. He had never been very good with touchy feely stuff. To make matters worse it concerned his two best friends. "It's just that Sakura ran out of the party alone and I could tell she was upset." He nervously scratched the back of his head. "And you were..well..with her, so what happened?"

"Oh." Sasuke lowered his head, which was something very uncharacteristic for the proud Uchiha. "I let my temper get the better of me and I said some stupid things."

They had arrived at the large double wooden doors of the Hokage Building. They both stood looking up at them, neither of the two entering. The silence stretched on for a few seconds.

"I see," began Naruto not looking at his friend. "I'm not really sure what is going on between you and Sakura but whatever it is I don't want to see Sakura hurt. Sasuke," Naruto turned face Sasuke whom did the same. Blue eyes meeting black ones. "You are best friend and my team-mate. I have always got your back but so is Sakura. And she went through a lot when you left. I vowed that I would never let you hurt her like that again." He turned back to the main entrance, pushing the heavy door open and taking a step inside.

"Understood." Sasuke followed. He didn't want to be the cause of his friends' pain again either. He needed to get his anger and sharp tongue in check if he wanted to win their pinked haired teammate.

The Hokage looked up from scroll labeled S-class Information at the white haired sannin. "You are sure of this?"

"Babe..I mean…Hokage-sama," Jiraiya said with a tilt of the head. "of course. When have I ever lied to you?"

Tsunade raised an eyebrow, a gesture that plainly conveyed "Do you really want me to list the times?"

"I mean when it comes to the Akatsuki." He quickly added with a smirk to the other men in the room.

There was a knock on the door. "Enter." Tsunade said strongly.

Sasuke and Naruto entered the Hokage office to find it filled with quite a few familiar faces.

"Yamato-Taicho, Neji, Shikamaru, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked confused. No one answered him but stared at Sasuke.

"They are here for the same reason you are here." Tsunade replied. "I have a S-ranked mission that needs immediate attention." The Fifth Hokage placed her elbows on the oversized mahogany desk. She laced her fingers together and sighed. "We have received word that two members of the Akatsuki are in the Earth Country. Making this mission especially dangerous. The Akatsuki are formable enemies and the Earth Country is not on very good terms with us."

"We aren't scared of those nail polish wearing freaks or those Rock idiots. We are Leaf shinobis. Whatever the challenge we'll rise to meet it." Naruto proclaimed pounding his fist to his chest.

"Sasuke," Tsunade continued, ignoring the brash young jounin. "I have decided to include you in this team because of you personal relationship with one of these Akatsuki. It is Itachi Uchiha."

The tension the filled the room could have been cut with knife. Naruto audibly gasped, while the others watched the tall dark man as if he were a ticking bomb set to detonate at any moment. He, however, remained calm. Actually, he was rather emotionless, for someone who had just heard that he would be chasing down his murderous brother whom he had sworn to kill.

"I'm in." Sasuke said darkly.

"Now you understand that you are only going on this mission since it is only right that you as the surviving Uchiha be the one to bring Itachi down. You must follow the orders of the team captain and not let your feelings cloud your judgment putting the others in danger" The Hokage warned.

"Hai"

"Naruto," She turned to the next issue. "you are going for two reasons. One," she held up her index finger, "being one of the closest people to Sasuke who is fit to keep an eye on him."

Sasuke opened his mouth to object to the need of having someone keep an eye on him but Tsunade plowed on.

"Two," she held up another finger, "you would never take no for an answer. That is where Yamato comes in."

The brown haired Anbu stepped forward. "I will be the captain on this mission and to control the Kyuubi if the need arises."

"I'm sorry." Jiraiya spoke shaking his head. "I have to reiterate my misgivings about sending Naruto." He turned to face the female sannin and slammed his hands on the desk. "You realized you are sending the lamb into the lion's den."

"Thank You, Jiraya, for your input. But as I am Hokage, the decision is mine and I have made it. Naruto is a jounin now and I'm sending Shikamaru and Neji as well. The best we have. I would send Kakashi too but he hasn't fully recovered." Tsunade stood up to her full height and stared down the much taller man.

Assured that the message of topic closed had sunk in, she turned to the rest. "Be prepared to set out tomorrow at 600 hours. Dismissed."

Ten minutes later Sasuke was entering the Yamanaka Flower Shop. Flowers of all shapes and colors where everywhere. There were glass door coolers with arrangements already in vases and on the floor there were buckets full with fresh flowers. As he walked around he realized he was a foreigner in this flowery world. Flowers, their meaning and usage were only taught to kunoichi in the Academy.

"Hi, Sasuke." Ino greeted him from behind the counter.

If the gorgeous blonde had drawled any another man's name with sex dripping from every syllable his thoughts would have gone to the dark dirty corner in every man's mind and all control of his body would have been lost. However, Sasuke isn't any guy.

"Hi." He replied automatic still making his way around the shop. "Ino," he said after a moment paused, "I need your help."

"Really!" Ino practically bounced over to him with excitement. "Whatever it is I'm here for you."

"I need to say sorry to someone," he said without even looking at the drooling girl standing next to him, "what is the best flower do that with?"

"Oh." She said disappointment written all over her face. Obviously, picking out flowers wasn't what she had hoped the help would require.

She went over to a bucket filled with tall stemmed, bulb shaped, white flowers. She pulled one out and said, "White Tulips mean forgiveness. They should inspire the person to accept your apology." She walked over to another bucket and pulled out a red rose. "You know, Sasuke, red rose represent love." She giggled and tickled his nose with the flower.

"Ah…yes…I'll just take the tulips. Thanks." He said as he pushed the rose away and scratched his nose.

Kakashi woke to the smell of vanilla. His arms were wrapped around the Sakura's slender body. He looked down at the still sleeping kunoichi. Her pink hair was fanned out on his chest and her hands had somehow found their way under his shirt looking for the warmth of his body. He stroked her hair and couldn't suppress the wide grin spreading across his exposed lips.

The copy ninja's mind kept telling him this was wrong and shouldn't be happening. He was setting himself up for heartbreak of which he has had enough for two lifetimes. His heart and every other ounce of his being were screaming how wonderful laying here with Sakura felt and how could anything that felt this good be bad. His mind in response began listing all the reason why. She is fourteen years your junior, former student, she is taken.

He reluctantly got up from the futon and gently laid Sakura on a pillow. Moving a loose strand of hair away from her serene face, he bent over and kissed her cheek.

She brought her knees up and hugged the pillow. "mmmm…Kakashi," she murmured in her sleep smiling.

Kakashi soundlessly closed the door to apartment four and walked down the hall to his door. As he placed the key into the lock he heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

Sasuke stepped onto the landing holding a large bouquet of white tulips.

"Hello, sensei." He said while placing the flowers on Sakura's welcome mat.

"Hello, Sasuke. Nice flowers." The older jounin noted the choice of flowers. White tulip, forgiveness. So Sasuke was the cause of Sakura's crying the night before.

The younger man nodded, pulling out an envelope from one of the many pockets of his jounin vest and tucked it among the flowers.

The last rays of the sun streamed into Sakura's window. She screwed up her face, trying to block the light. "Grrr, why is the sun so strong so early in morning." She yawned opening her eyes slowly. At the sight of the pillow in arms instead of the warm body that was there when she had fallen asleep made her frown. She was hoping Kakashi would still be there.

She stumbled out of the futon still wearing her dress. Coffee was her immediate goal. Groggily turning on the coffee maker, she did a double take at the clock on the machine. That time couldn't be right. According the red digits it was 7 in the evening. Had she really slept all day? It really shouldn't have surprised her with the emotional rollercoaster she had been on last night.

Drinking the hot coffee, she began to feel more human and less zombie. There was no point wasting the night. She would be up most of it given that she had slept the day away. It was a good thing shinobi were given a week off after long or dangerous missions.

A lovely bouquet of tulips waited for Sakura at her front door . She picked them up and placed them in a vase. There was a letter stuck in the white blossoms. She pulled out a small card from the envelope, recognizing the neat handwriting at once.

Dear Sakura,

I'm so sorry about what I said to you last night. It was anger and jealousy talking not me. I'll I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive those stupid words. The last thing I would ever want is to hurt you. I will be leaving on a mission to track down two members of the Akatsuki. I don't know when I'll be back. Just know that you will always be in my thoughts.

Love,

Sasuke