A/N: I know I said I was going to bring this out over the weekend but that didn't work out. I'm still pretty cick unfortunately grrr. So yeah, it's taking me a little longer to write these out. Thanks for your patience and all the reviews. I really appreciate it :)
Sleep seemed to elude the boy as his untired mind bothered him continuously. Every time he closed his eyes he saw his past dominating, when he opened them his present weighed in him. Rising up, the wrinkled sheets fell around him. Rubbing his eyes, he sighed figuring he wouldn't get any sleep tonight. Somehow, he had grown used to being back within the village. Although he said he had no ties to it any longer, his path was different from theirs, and yet now he was being drawn back, his mind wanting to forget all that haunted him. Throwing himself back with a soft thud, breathing calmly he stared at the ceiling, his arms stretched out on either side. The nights had grown difficult for him, though the darkness and solitude, the thought of all those around him sleeping peacefully, it calmed him. At the same time those same nights his mind drifted, succumbed more so to his emotions, his quarrels with his choices. Before he trained in the day and at night just slept, a dreamless sleep leading him to the next day where he would continue to grow stronger. But ever since he had been back, his nights had changed, morphing from an empty sleep into a filled annoyance and weight. There he lay allowing his thoughts to work themselves out. Why he stayed, was he to go back? Could he forget it all? Would he allow himself to forget it all? Had he chosen incorrectly?
Groaning he rolled over on this side, his gazed fixed on nothing in particular. My goal is what matters. He let that thought echo in his mind. It's all that matters. But was that true now? Many years had passed and he never allowed himself to forget it. Not once did he not think back and with every recollection his anger grew. He kept everything in his life revolved around his goal, his revenge. The loss of his clan by his own brother's hand kept his will to live strong; it's what kept him going, his focus not allowing him the time to enjoy his childhood. What childhood? He never had one; he had been robbed of it. Friends were not important, playing was not important. Training and growing stronger that was it. All for the day he'd find and kill his brother. Then what His next goal. Rebuild my clan It was simple.
Moving his gaze upward, passing the dresser, still moving upwards they stopped staring unblinkingly forward. Getting out of bed, his feet coming in contact with the cold floor as he walked, looking down at the furniture, he just stared at the object that lay face down, the photograph he had placed that way before he had left. It seemed it had gone untouched all this time. Reaching out a pale hand towards it, he touched the cold frame, pausing as his fingers made contact with it while staring intently at it slowly lifting it up as he let his dark eyes rest on it.
There he was with them, team 7. They had completed many missions, all of which ended up becoming more complicated for some reason or other. The corners of his lips curved up slightly, a hint of a smile barely noticeable. Most of it had been Naruto's fault because of his impatience and over booming voice as he begun to recall. His eyes moved from Naruto's image to the bottom center. Bright smile, rosy locks, it was hard to miss her cheerful persona. Staring at her, he unknowingly began to focus on her features. She hadn't changed at all aside from her monstrous growth in strength. No, that wasn't true; he hadn't realized that she had changed so much over time. Her features had softened, and she had grown quite a bit. He wasn't sure why he hadn't noticed earlier, but then again why would he?
His mind drifted back to when they were both in the forest near the edge of the fire country. The fight, the words, Sakura in his arms, he could still remember how warm she had felt in them, her pink tresses fallen upon his arms. Catching himself, he shook his head vigorously to rid himself of the memory. He had enough on his mind already; he didn't need to add more to it by adding why he was in this situation in the first place, though his denial of the account couldn't go unnoticed by him. Its confusion was great for the Uchiha.
Placing the photo back on the dresser he crawled back into bed, a sudden exhaustion coming over him. Perhaps in sleep now he could forget that slight naggingness that was pushed into the depths of his mind. Though in all reality he wanted to think of nothing, just wanted to feel at peace, at ease like how he used to when he was a young boy. The thought seemed for farfetched to him as his eyes slowly closed, feeling heavier than they had moments before.
---
"Why are we here?"
"Don't ask me."
"Then who were you asking?"
"No one." Naruto looked over at Sasuke ready to retort but was interrupted before he was able to say a word. "Don't." Huffing, Naruto turned away, now annoyed, bored and confused. They had been waiting at the bridge, a tradition having yet to be broken, for a while now. Sakura had contacted both of them suddenly yesterday asking them to meet up with her the next day. They hadn't questioned the girl, both figuring it dealt with a mission or some other request. Now as they waited their earlier assumptions seemed incorrect, if it had been for such they would have been called to see the hokage, or told to pack supplies. No, it had to be something else but what? "I wonder what kind of mission it'll be." Naruto asked himself. Sasuke nearly fell over, though he should have known. As dimwitted as ever. Closing his eyes he just allowed Naruto to dream up the supposed mission he'd receive. "Oh, it's Sakura-chan." The raven haired boy opened, seeing the named girl coming towards them carrying a large bundle which she kept behind her as she walked.
"Ohayo Sakura-chan!" Naruto greeted cheerfully.
"Morning Naruto, Sasuke." She replied smiling, "Sorry I'm late. It took longer to prepare than I imagined." Now both boys were looking at her curiously.
"Prepare?" They both said aloud, two pairs of eyes fixed on the bundle behind her.
"Is it for the mission?" Naruto inquired trying to get a better look at the mysterious bundle. Moving away from him, her face contorted quizzically.
"Mission? What mission?"
"Eh, but..."
"There never was a mission Naruto." Sasuke pointed out dryly. "You should have figured that out by now." Naruto stood up turning to the Uchiha a little shocked.
"What, you knew?"
"It was obvious." Blinking, Naruto turned away grumbling to himself. Still a little puzzled by their conversation Sakura decided to shrug it off. At times like these it was always best to ignore them to avoid any problems, especially when it dealt with these two.
"Well let's get started." Sakura chimed in, regaining their lost attention.
"Ano, ano Sakura-chan, then why are we here?"
"Huh, why? I thought it was obvious." She responded in surprise looked at both of them with her emerald eyes. Naruto stared back at her with an expectant gaze while Sasuke looked away, his arms folded. "Oh, I'm sorry I guess I should have explained it better to you both." She apologized smiling rather embarrassed. "I figured we could have a sort of field day today since it's my last day of vacation and I knew you two had nothing planned for today. I thought it would be nice." Naruto's face crunched up, disliking the idea entirely, as Sasuke remained looking uninterested.
"So what exactly will we be doing?"
"Uh, well we'd play some games, go to the market for a bit to buy some items and have a big picnic and then at the end we'd watch the sun set."
"Pass." Both voices boomed simultaneously, a little too quickly for Sakura's liking.
"You don't want to?" She asked gazing at both of them, disappointment clearly in her voice.
"Hn."
"Not...really." Trying to hold back her disappointment, though she failed at it miserably, she slowly nodded her head.
"Oh, ok then." Forcing herself to display one of her rehearsed smiles. She wasn't going to let this get her down. "Well, then I guess I'll see you guys..."
"Let's go." Sasuke suddenly blurted walking pass Naruto. He knew he'd probably regret going along with this, but the nagging feeling in his gut wouldn't let him walk away from it.
"Really?" Both Naruto and Sakura asked, one with excitement and the other in shock.
"Ah." Naruto not wanting to be outdone by Sasuke immediately agreed as well, much to Sakura's joy.
"Ok then follow me." Eager to begin she grabbed hold of each of their arms, pulling them towards their first activity.
---
"Wait...I don't get it."
"It's simple; there are three targets, each with a different color on the edge and center. You each have shuriken with a color to match. At my word, depending on what color i say you have to either match it or avoid it." Naruto scratched his head as he tried to grasp what she was saying.
"Ok, got it, this should be easy." Grinning he looked over at Sasuke who was looking as uninterested as always.
"We'll see." Sakura replied amused.
"So what to we get?" Sasuke asked looking over at the pink haired girl whose amused smile was still present.
"It's a surprise." Saying nothing more her amused smiled grew as she looked at him. Turning away with a "hn" he remained silent. "Ok then let's get started."
"Right."
"Ok then, here we go. Red match..." Calling out color after color, Sakura kept at a steady pace, watch at neither of them missed. Grinning mischievously to herself she kept count of the scores waiting for the perfect moment to pick up the tempo. Ok. Slowly she began to call the colors out faster and faster making the task a little harder for the two. Beginning to sweat, Naruto strived to keep his aim. He refused to lose to Sasuke. Next to him, Sasuke's face grew more stern, his thoughts the same as his blonde friend. "Green miss!" The last of the two shuriken shot out hitting their targets. Panting slightly both glanced at each other sure that they had beaten the other. Calming walking over to the targets, Sakura began to count up the hits and misses. Waiting behind her, both boys were growing impatient wanting to her the outcome already.
Nodding to herself, Sakura began to pull out the shuriken, placing them all in a medium sized pouch she was carrying. Taking down targets she walked back to her things, putting them all away. "Ok now to the market!"
"What?"
"Yeah, there are still some things I need to get." Lifting up the large bundle she began to walk away leaving them behind in total confusion.
"Wait, Sakura-chan!" Hearing her name, she turned around looking over her shoulder.
"What?"
"You forgot to say who won." Tilting her head to the side she looked at them blankly.
"Oh yeah, I forgot." Both boys looked at her in disbelief. There was a long pause as a pair of green eyes met with cerulean and onyx.
"Well?" Sasuke asked irritated.
"Who won?" Jumping slightly Naruto stared at her expectantly.
"You both," Their eyes bore into her as they held their breaths, waiting for her to finish, "lost." Two lips dropped open, eyes grown to the size of saucers as they realized what she had said.
"What!" Naruto screeched refusing to accept the results. Sasuke too wanted to know, but he held back his questioning.
"You both lost."
"How?"
"Simple, you didn't meet the requirements."
"The requirements?" Sasuke repeated, when he remembered. Closing his eyes he mentally slapped himself for forgetting. Although he had hit all the targets corrected he was so concerned with the colors he forgot to listen for the second part.
"Wait, Sakura-chan we hit the targets."
"Yeah."
"So how did we lose?" Naruto still unsure of what they had done wrong wanted a clear explanation.
"Simple, you hit the colors I said but you forgot to miss when I said to miss." His face fallen from the simplicity of it all couldn't believe he lost because of that. She had called the colors so quickly & they were so preoccupied with matching color for color they completely disregarded anything else she said. Giggling, Sakura was fully enjoying their reactions.
"So then what were the scores?" Sasuke asked hoping to have at least beat Naruto in that.
"I forgot."
"What!"
"Just kidding, calm down you two. Let's see, Sasuke nineteen out of twenty." Sasuke smirked looking over at Naruto smugly. "And Naruto nineteen out of twenty." Naruto grinned while Sasuke's smug expression died. They had tied yet again.
"No Naruto."
"But..."
"Drop it!" Grumbling to himself, Naruto sulked as Sakura picked out what she needed. She didn't want to make a big complex meal but she wanted to make sure she made things they both liked to a certain extent of course. "Hmmm what else." Spotting Sasuke near the tomatoes she snapped her fingers. "Oh that's right. Sasuke can you pick five tomatoes for me."
"Say Sakura-chan how about we buy some..."
"Naruto if it's related to what I think it's related to then no."
"But..."
"No."
"But Sasuke..."
"No!"
"But..." Spinning around rapidly she glared at him, her anger clearly reflected in her viridian pupils. Backing up, he gulped. "Right tomatoes." Running over to Sasuke he decided to stick by him for safety.
"Ok then I think that's it." Looking over everything, she stopped when she noticed a few items that weren't originally there. Gritting her teeth, she clenched her fist. "Naruto!" Wincing Naruto looked over his shoulder. As soon as his gaze met hers, Sakura's fist made contact with his cheek, sending him flying back a ways, the brightly attired boy crashing loudly onto the ground, his body twitching. Huffing, she unclenched her fist, still angry at the persistent ninja. "Let's go Sasuke."
A little unnerved by her sudden temper change, Sasuke quickly followed after her not wanting to anger her any more than she already was. Baka.
"Ah that was god." Naruto breathed rubbing his extremely full belly. Sitting with his legs fully stretched out before him, Sakura sitting cheerfully next to him, Sasuke beside her. Behind them was their picnic setting, what once held various food dishes had nothing more than empty containers. The sky had begun to grow darker, as streams of pink, orange and red colored everything overpowering the light blue.
"This is really nice." Sakura commented quietly completely transfixed by the sky.
"Mmm." Sasuke replied, feeling a calm within him. Out of the corner of his eye he peered at Sakura watching her happy expression, as she gazed at the sun setting. Unable to pull his gaze away, he just kept watching her, finding her smiling rather peace inducing.
"Today was fun." Naruto said out of the blue, throwing himself back to look up at the sky more comfortably. Following suit, Sakura fell back also, landing softly upon the grass. Holding back the urge to lay back as well Sasuke remained sitting, gazing at the setting sun. For now this was good enough for him.
Out of habit, he sensed around him, searching for the familiar feeling of being watched, trying to pinpoint the location of the Anbu in charge of watching him. Scanning the entire area, he found none. A slight curve at the corners of his lips, he laid back hands behind his head, the sky a fiercer shade of red as the remaining rays of the sun slowly diminished.
"Ano Sakura-chan."
"Yeah."
"What was the prize?"
"Let it go Naruto."