Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Naruto.

Hahaha I'm sorry but it LITERALLY hurts to type right now T^T because since I'm on saber line on color guard at my school my fingers have gotten all bruised and bloodied… LITERALLY! So it really hurts to type this, but you all, my readers, are totally worth it =))) you guys are the whole purpose of my writing these. I like to know that my literature is appreciated ;D

I hope that you all enjoy this story. Lol, in the last chapter just about EVERYONE made a comment on my lemon in the review. I actually thought I did a sloppy job but if that many people had that many nice things to say about it… well I guess majority rules xDDD

PLEASE R&R! ^(^0^)^ woot!

Ashiteru

(about a month later from where the last chapter was)

Sakura woke up one morning cold. She pulled the bed sheets over her half sleeping figure and curled up in an attempt to be warm.

"Still in bed at the hour?" a voice asked while ripping the covers off the poor pinkette, "tisk tisk! It's so nice out!"

"Ino…" Sakura growled murderously under her breath as she slowly sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"You're going to be late for work silly!" Ino chirped with a smile sticking her tongue out at her friend.

Sakura now alarmed looked over at the clock on the bed stand that read "8:57am". Sakura panicked, because her shift started at 9am. She was scurrying around the room desperate to find her hospital uniform. Tsunade had been working her extremely hard lately at the hospital. Sakura had been getting zero missions and double work time. Part of it was her training, but Sakura was on a level where she could train herself to get stronger, she didn't necessarily need Tsunade for that. The thing that was bugging her most was that Sasuke was almost on missions. He normally came back for one day and was gone for days, in some case, weeks. Sakura was jealous because she wanted to go on missions too. Although she had to admit, it wasn't like she was bored. Maybe that's why Tsunade had signed her up for so many shifts at the hospital, so Sakura wouldn't feel bored. There were always things she could do at the hospital from check ups, to ER situations. When she was about to kick Ino out of her house and eat her breakfast, her pager went off. It was from Naruto, there were three words that she hoped to never see in the same statement.

Sasuke, Hospital, Now!

Sakura panicked once more and fled out the door leaving her friend who had left a few moments earlier in the dust. The Uchiha compound was luckily close the center of the leaf village which was where the hospital was. Sakura fought the urge to cry. Crystals were already forming at the corners of her eyes. The last thing she needed was a dead Uchiha. She was already stressed out from work, tired of being alone all the time, and if he died, she really would be alone.

When Sakura burst through the doors she heard her Shishou say "you're late…"

"I don't care" Sakura hissed while panting with a desperate look in her eyes, "Uchiha…"

Her master just frowned at her impertinence then said "he's actually your first appointment. He's in treatment room 208B"

Sakura didn't bother to say anything else to her teacher and took off down the hall running full force. When she burst into the room the door swung open so hard that the wall behind it cracked.

Sasuke just stared wide eyed at her while Naruto whistled and said "daaaaamn Sakura-chan… you sure know how to make an entrance…"

Sakura looked over at Sasuke to see that he only needed a few stitches and maybe had some broken bones, then turned her attention to Naruto. She malevolently hissed his name while taking small steps towards him with a murderous aura filling the room.

"Sasuke-teme!" Naruto shouted taking a few steps back before hitting a wall, "put a leash on your girl friend!"

Sasuke just muttered a few curses under his breath before grumbling "Sakura… stop it."

Sakura snapped out of her previous state as if she shed it like a snake's skin and turned her attention to Sasuke. She had scolded Naruto for scaring her like that. Even though she wasn't allowed to kill him, she was obligated to give him a piece of her mind. She had concentrated some chakra to her hands and healed Sasuke's cuts. She had to give a few of them stitches then worked on the two ribs he broke. When she had finished she had gotten the reader's digest of his whole fighting episode on his Anbu mission. Sakura just shook her head at him. These missions were getting more and more dangerous. Sasuke was almost untouchable, so for him to wind up in the hospital at all is saying something.

"We'll talk about this later" he said in a stern voice.

Sakura was wondering why he suddenly had a harsh tone, but then looked over to a clueless and eavesdropping Naruto. She just glared at the blond headed hyper active boy and nodded at Sasuke then walked out of the room.

"So what are you going to talk about later?" Naruto asked innocently.

"If we didn't need to talk about it in private I would've told you dobe" Sasuke murmured under his breath as he got up and left the treatment room.

Naruto, being to stubborn fool that he is followed after Sasuke continuing to ask pointless questions that only gave him the infamous "hn" answer. Naruto eventually gave up and left the Uchiha in peace. Sakura however, was being badgered constantly by her boss and teacher lady Tsunade.

"Sakura! Go to room C179!" Tsunade shouted at her pupil, "Run faster!"

Sakura just wiped the sweat from her brow and glanced down at her wrist watch.

"Just a few more minutes… more like 20… *sigh* why does Tsunade work me so hard?" Sakura mentally contemplated as she treated the patient in room C179.

Sakura was astounded when the green chakra she was focusing in her hands was beginning to flicker and dying out on her. She was now sweating to try and heal the little boy. Little did she know, her master was watching her from the doorway. The next thing Sakura knew everything went black, but she didn't hit the floor, her teacher caught her and sighed and mumbled something Sakura couldn't hear before everything faded into nothing.

When Sakura woke up she slowly sat up. She suddenly felt her stomach getting moist. When she looked down she saw that there was a damp cloth residing there currently and that she was a bit woozy from sitting up possibly a tad too fast. Sakura put two and two together and figured that her teacher had put the cloth on her forehead to cool her down. When she checked her forehead she was surprised to find that she had a slight fever.

"If you want to stay conscious, I suggest you lye back down" a husky voice chastised her from the doorway.

"Really?..." she muttered to herself in disbelief that he was actually here in the hospital... again.

The only difference was that this time he was here simply because of her. He hadn't sustained anymore injuries that he needed to get treated. Then Sakura heard her teacher enter the room then say in her normally loud and dominant voice "I checked you out and you are just fatigued and need rest-up, though you do have a slight fever. I suggest that you stay in bed for the rest of the night. I'm also giving you three days off, and absolutely no training. I called Sasuke because you had exhausted your chakra, yet continued to push yourself. The results were you passed out. I had come into the room and caught you in just enough time to keep you from hitting the ground."

"If there was a reason I passed out it was you shishou!" Sakura hissed at her teacher while rubbing the temples of her head.

"I know I was working you hard, but you lack in stamina. That's an important asset to have on a battlefield when your comrades are constantly being injured." Her teacher retorted.

Sakura just sighed knowing that 'teach-knows-best!' and just gave up the fight. Next thing she knew she was being picked up off the table by the Uchiha and he held her bridal style as he carried her out of the room nodding to the Hokage before he left. When they had gotten home Sasuke simply placed her on the bed then headed to the bathroom to take a shower.

His last mission was ruff and the last thing he wanted to hear was that Sakura had passed out working. Sasuke knew that she constantly pushed herself too hard for her own good. It wasn't healthy. He hadn't been too far from the hospital when a medic nin came to him and told him to come pick up Sakura from the hospital because she had passed out.

Sakura pouted as she sat on the side of the bed while playing with her hands in her lap. She decided to make herself useful and whip up some dinner for her and Sasuke. She had been feeling useless lately and knew that by passing out she'd only made herself more of a problem. Sasuke was obviously irritated with doing so many missions and now it's almost as if she's become and assignment too.

She carefully opened a couple of meat packages then heated up a pan on the stove and put some canola oil on it. When it had headed up enough she placed some frozen vegetables in the pan. She placed the lid over the top then took a package of mushrooms out of the fridge and placed a cutting board on the counter. She got a knife from the assortment inside a holder of multiple kinds. She slowly and decisively cut each to be the same size the slid them into a bowl and then put the chicken on the cutting board. She chopped the chicken up into squares then put some seasoning on it and placed it in a separate bowl next to the mushroom and set the cutting board in the sink. When she lifted the lid off the pan she had steam waft into her face and saw that the vegetables were almost defrosted so she added the chicken in to cook with the vegetables. She stirred it around a few times then put the lid back on and went over to the rice maker. She put a few scoops of rice in then set the cooker to be ready when the rest of the dinner had cooked. When she returned to the pan and lifted the lid there wasn't as much steam to greet her but she was able to tell that it needed a stir again. Since the chicken was in the pan it constantly needed to be stirred around so that the chicken would cook evenly on all sides of the cubes it was cut into. While she was mixing it she heard the water stop in the bathroom and the door open into the bed room. While she was adding the mushrooms to the pan she felt the intense eyes of the Uchiha focused solely on her.

"Shit…" she mentally cursed, "He's mad… really mad…"

She continued to stir the mix of chicken and vegetables while she pretended to ignore the Uchiha and his ugly glares while she was cooking. Eventually he broke the silence that was starting to form an uncomfortable tension in the room, almost as uncomfortable as his glaring.

"What the hell do you think your doing?" he hissed with his arms crossed walking towards her.

"Cooking dinner" she retorted trying to keep her cool.

"Really?" he questioned her, "Because I could've sworn that Tsunade told you to stay in bed, which is exactly where I left you."

Sakura gulped, but continued to cook even as Sasuke was hinting at her to stop.

"It's almost ready" she argued as if reading his mind.

"I don't care, I'll finish it, you shouldn't be moving around, let alone cooking."

Sakura just sighed then looked over at him. He was wrapped in nothing but a towel, but she could tell that was because his first priority was her, then getting dressed came second. Eventually she gave up her stubbornness and took one step back from the pan. Sasuke stepped in front of her stirring the mix and then he looked over his shoulder at her.

He eyed her up and down then said "go take a bath, you smell."

Sakura just glared at him and seethed "well I'm not supposed to lift a friggin finger! Remember?"

"If that's how you want it" he muttered annoyed.

Sasuke rolled his eyes then turned the stove off because the chicken was done and set it to the side to cool for a moment while the rice was still cooking. He went ahead and got two bowls out and set them on the counter then took Sakura by the wrist and drug her into the bathroom.

"Take your cloths off" he slightly annoyed as he turned the bathwater on.

The Uchiha bathtub looked almost like a mini swimming pool. It was already almost full so he just put the water heater on. It was the most recent thing on the market so the water would be warm in a matter of a few minutes. Sasuke watched as Sakura slowly discarded all her cloths then stepped into the water.

"It's already warm?" she asked with a raised brow.

"Hn."

Sakura just scowled because she never considered that an answer. Sasuke was tired of having to wait for her to get in and was tired of the glaring as well, so he just approached the tub and shoved her into the water. When she came up from the 3 foot deep tub of water she glared at him with a new ferocity. Sasuke just discarded is towel he'd wrapped around himself and stepped in then walked towards her. She took a few steps back till she hit the tiled wall and stiffened realizing there was no where for her to go. As a last resort she just continued to glare and felt like her legs were going to give out. She was dripping wet and Sasuke had already shoved her in the bathtub, what else could he possibly do?

Little did Sakura know that he was planning to take his sweet time washing her and make her somewhat pay for all the annoying behavior today. (Not abuse her, just tease her)

"What are you doi-" Sakura was cut off by Sasuke's lips crashing into her own.

She closed her eyes and decided to drown herself in the moment because she couldn't remember the last time he kissed her like this. He'd been gone on so many missions that it felt like a life time, far to long for her liking.

When Sasuke broke the kiss he coolly said "now shut up so I can give you a bath."

Sakura just rolled her eyes at his continuous attitude problems but gave in none-the-less… besides, she'd asked for it after all. Well not literally but the way she was acting earlier implied that this is what she wanted. She would never admit it, but she secretly did want it. She wanted to spend time with her almost non-existent lover. As Sasuke washed her body she wanted to die right there and then. She hadn't felt this close to him in ages. Sasuke somehow sensed that this wasn't much torture. He thought that he'd somehow already tortured her and that this was heaven to her. Sakura just smiled as she snaked her arms around his neck and kissed the side of his head. Sasuke was caught a little off guard and raised a brow at her. That was the last thing he was expecting.

After the dishes from dinner had been washed Sakura plodded into the bedroom and plopped down on the bed. She was already in her pajamas and just decided that she really didn't want to do anything else tonight. If she tried to get close to Sasuke he might just get even more annoyed with her. He would probably be gone by the time she woke up, so she decided to quickly get up and say goodbye before she fell asleep. She crept into the kitchen and saw him filling out a mission report form while sipping a cup of coffee. He made it so he would be able to stay up and get all the things he needed to get done completed before he went off on another mission. They had already informed him that he was supposed to be at a briefing tomorrow morning by 6am.

"You're leaving again, aren't you?" Sakura asked barely above a whisper while rubbing one of her eyes.

Sasuke looked up from his documents and saw her in her oversized t-shirt and tired expression.

"You exhausted, go to bed" he told her.

"Bye" she said as she turned around to return to the bedroom.

Sasuke was confused and asked, "Aren't you supposed to say goodnight?"

"Oh yeah, that too" she muttered as she started walking.

"What?" he asked thoroughly confused.

Sakura sighed then said "you'll be gone by the time I wake up tomorrow on another for mission for kami only knows how long" a tear started to form in her eye before she finished, "so goodbye."

Sasuke noticed the clear substance forming in the corner of Sakura's eyes and got up to go see what was the matter with her.

When he walked into the bedroom he saw her curled up and crying.

"What's the matter" he asked, not bothering to show compassion in his voice.

Sakura sniffled then said "just leave on your mission already… I'm used to sleeping in this bed alone…"

Sasuke felt a small pang of guilt in his chest when he realized just how little he saw her anymore. And with women being such sensitive beings, she must've been so lonely without him. He wanted to be nicer, but how on earth is he supposed to control the mission flow? How was he supposed to be accountable for his talent? He couldn't help that they constantly picked him for high up, time consuming missions due to his success rating.

"Sakura…" he whispered as he reached for her shoulder.

He was cut off by and icy voice that said "save it. I don't need you to make excuses."

Sasuke had had it with her and decided to go to a last resort. He crawled up onto the bed and forced her into his lap. He was sitting square in the middle of the bed Indian style and Sakura was pounding on his chest yelling at him. Her fists did nothing, but her words are what stung him the most.

"You're never home! I hardly see you! I'm always alone! I'm constantly worried about you! When you do come home you hardly speak to me! I feel like nothing but a burden!" She continued to yell the truth into his ears making his heart chip with every syllable.

Finally Sasuke just kissed her senseless as she continued to cry. No more words came out, but she was still whimpering and crying from all the frustration she had endured. Sasuke made up his mind that tomorrow he was going to speak with Tsunade and get things straightened out. He wasn't going to keep leaving the only person left in this world that he truly loved. He was convinced that he truly did love her.

Sasuke woke up early the next morning at 5:30am. He got dressed and glanced at the sleeping pinkette still tucked snugly under the covers. There was still swelling that was evidence to the emotional break down she had the night before. When Sasuke was done staring at her he quickly headed out the door. He wasn't dressed in Anbu gear, but his normal every day attire. When he arrived at the Hokage's office at 5:45am she was thoroughly surprised.

"Uchiha" she greeted him, "You're rather early, and why aren't you dressed in your proper mission gear?"

"I'm not going" he said strongly and firmly leaving almost no room for argument.

"And why is that?" Tsunade asked with her eyes narrowed.

Sasuke frowned with his eyes closed and his arms crossed before saying "I'm tired of never being home, I might not have a family, but I have somebody that needs me to take care of them. I need to be where my home is, I officially resign from the Anbu ranks and wish to become a Jonin."

Tsunade closed her eyes and frowned in thought. How was she supposed to deal with this? She could easily find a last second replacement, but what on earth was she supposed to do with Uchiha? Finally she had an idea and smirked at him.

"I'll let you stay in Konoha on one condition."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes before grunting "name it."

"You have to take on a 3 man cell of genins. Be their sensei, train them, and you can stay."

"Hn." was the Uchiha's only response as he walked out of the Hokage's office.

To Be Coninued…

OMG! I made that 3,500 words! Woot! I'm so happy! Anyways! Please R&R!

Sorry there were no real lemons in this chapter. I promise I'll make up for it next chapter.

I've responded to reviews on the previous chapter below!

(almost all your reviews made me laugh xD at the very least the made me smile =D)

C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only: haha Ino's naturally pushy anywayz! And thanks! It is sweet! ^^

kaysshi: thank you! I hope you did get enough sleep to function the next day though! xD

Ikuto'slover1112: haha I'm glad you liked it! Apparently I'm getting better at that sort of stuff! Haha anyways, be sure to tell me what you thin of this chapter!

Loving Hidan: thank you! I will keep it up ;D so long as you keep reviewing!

Cheetay: my stories are ALWAYS amazing =)

innocent blusher: hahaha "*wiggles eyebrows*" lolz well you'll just have to save that for next chapter. I will tell you that even though I didn't put a smut scene/lemon in this chapter. I will put one in the next chapter xD

annee loves sasusaku: haha I love the "awesome sauce" thing xD I ought to steal it xDDD

mellowkid9090: haha don't worry about me! I'm back up on my feet. I didn't fall on my butt nearly as bad. Even though this relationship was longer than my first one… I think the first one was by far the most emotionally traumatizing because he literally verbally abused me and slowly alienated me. This break up I just didn't like him that way anymore. No drama, no abuse, just a calm and quiet agreement. Kinda nice really compared to the stereo typical break ups nowadays :3…

widomtulip: haha thank ya! Ik it was smexy ;D

Brooklyn-King00: haha sry to burst your bubble. I don't think I clairified this in the story anywhere but all their parents are dead. Sasuke's are dead (it's true to the TV show in that sense) and Sakura's are dead as well.