Awakening Hope

Chapter 2: A First

Sakura is surprised when she wakes that morning to an empty room, where there is no Naruto arguing, in what Naruto calls 'hushed tones', with Sasuke. Instead she's greeted with silence; it's something she's barely had since she woke up in the hospital bed a little more than a week ago. There's always been someone visiting her, someone watching over her so she relishes the silence around her knowing it won't last long.

She was woken up by the light coming through the curtains of the window; the whole room seemed to light up. She knew she wouldn't be able to fall back asleep and so she tried to get herself into a sitting position.

Her wounds still stung from time to time but she was feeling better. As she sat in the bed she tried to stretch her limbs and found that although she had some difficulty it was getting easier than the day before.

She felt stiff from being on a bed for so long. If it were for her she wouldn't be in the hospital, she was supposed to be the doctor not the patient but Tsunade would have none of that and she refused to let her go until she was completely healed.

Sakura didn't push the matter further because she knew she was in no position to do so. She left the village without permission to chase revenge. It was hypocritical of her to chase revenge after so long ago telling Sasuke it didn't bring any happiness.

She gripped the sheets of the bed tightly as she thought of her parents smiling faces and how wherever they were now they wouldn't agree with what she did. She silently prayed they could forgive her not only for what she did, but for not being in the village to protect them from Kabuto.

She slowly stood up from the bed and made her way to the bathroom shaking her head to get rid of the thoughts plaguing her mind. There was no use thinking about something that can't be changed. At least she knew Kabuto wouldn't hurt anyone close to her anymore. He was gone.

She opened the sink and threw water at her face before looking at herself in the mirror. Through the days the bruises had healed and though there were still some yet to be healed they weren't skin deep and those would take a little longer.

She proceeded to brush her teeth and wash herself up as quickly as she could knowing that sooner or later someone would show up. After taking a quick bath she proceeded to put on her clothes some shorts and a black tube shirt.

As she walked out of the bathroom her lips turned up in a smile as she heard a loud voice approaching. "That was a fluke! You just caught me off guard!" Naruto yelled accusingly.

"Whatever you say dobe." Sasuke replied his voice uncaring but Sakura could hear the amusement beneath the uncaring façade.

Naruto opened the door without knocking as usual and stepped inside with Sasuke following close behind him. "You should learn to knock." Sasuke muttered under his breath. Sakura turned to face them; both of them were sweaty and dirty probably from a sparring match not too long ago. She frowned, did they have nothing better to do?

"Should I ask who won?" Sakura asked crossing her arms over her chest, Naruto instantly pouted.

"It was a tie." He lied.

"Liar." Sasuke muttered with a scoff.

"Anyway!" Naruto spoke loudly trying to change the subject from his recent lost to something else. "What are you doing out of bed? You're supposed to be resting!" Naruto protested loudly.

"I'm feeling better already Naruto, and I just wanted to stretch my limbs for a while." She told them with a sigh as she sat once again in the bed knowing Naruto wouldn't leave her alone unless she did.

Naruto proceeded to take a seat at a corner of her bed and Sasuke took his usual seat at the corner of the room. "Why do you seat so far away teme?" Naruto asked Sasuke who raised an eyebrow at him in response but didn't answer.

Sakura, too, wondered why he sat so far away and why he barely ever talked to her. But she partially knew why. Things had been awkward between them since the accident, and although sometimes as she looks at him she can recall the reasons why she quickly shakes the thoughts away pretending that night didn't exist.

"Leave him over there Naruto, you can't force someone to be sociable. At least he's here, that's a lot coming from him." Sakura spoke amiably over to Naruto who didn't look convinced but dropped the subject. "By the way, could you two consider the possibility of breaking me out of here?" She asked a sheepish smile on her face as she looked over at her team mates.

"You'll be out of here tomorrow." Sasuke spoke, in other words letting her know he was not letting her out of the hospital today.

"Exactly, Sakura-chan!" Naruto for once seemed to agree with Sasuke.

"If it was either of you in my position you would have already broken out of the hospital." Sakura pouted crossing her arms over her chest. Naruto grinned while Sasuke smirked.

Sakura's pout turned into a smile as she watched Naruto and Sasuke. She couldn't remember the last time they talked between them so freely as if nothing was wrong, as if they hadn't once tried to kill each other. It had been way before Sasuke had left the village and she would be lying if she said she hadn't missed this kind of interaction between Team 7.

"You almost died Sakura-chan, we can't risk losing you so you'll just have to wait 'til tomorrow to get out of here." Naruto told her his gaze on hers and she could see how worried he'd truly been for her.

"Alright." Sakura spoke, another day wouldn't hurt her and it would make Naruto feel better. She could handle it.

"Well anyway, I have to go. I told Hinata-chan I'd meet her at Ichiraku's." Naruto chuckled as he quickly stood up from his seat after waving goodbye at Sakura and telling Sasuke in a 'discretly' manner to take care of her he left, closing the door behind him and once again the room was left in silence.

"I hope Tsunade-sama lets us go on a mission together soon, it's been too long." Sakura said, trying to make conversation with the raven haired Uchiha but to no avail.

Sasuke would just look at her, as if studying her and she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable under the pressure of his gaze. "Hn." Was his only response and she couldn't help but sigh in frustrations.

Some things hadn't changed and she doubted they ever would. Sasuke was as silent as ever and she was almost sure his social skills could even be worse than Sai's. "Haven't you wondered how it is that Naruto's with Hinata now? I mean, how he ended up with her?" Sakura asked the Uchiha and she saw as his eyes turned to hers in interest.

"Hinata had just decided not to try anymore and had even considered the idea of going out with Kiba, thinking that Naruto would never stop to look at her." Sakura stopped to chuckle before continuing. "That same day Naruto got up with only one goal in mind, that goal was named Hinata Hyuga. That day as he woke up he suddenly realized that she was there, it was a feeling that had started to grow even before the war."

"Was about time." Sasuke muttered under his breath, but Sakura heard him and smiled in response.

"When he found out Kiba was planning on stealing her from him he challenged him to a fight, Kiba was in the hospital for a week and Hinata wasn't happy with Naruto. It took Naruto a whole full month to win her over, and after that I've never seen him happier." There was a small smile on her lips as she recalled the story. She was glad Naruto found someone like Hinata.

"Why are you telling me this?" Sasuke asked Sakura raising an eyebrow at her.

"There are a lot of things you don't know, a lot of things you missed out on while you were away." Sakura told him.

Sasuke stared at her, but didn't say anything because she was right she could see that in his eyes. He missed out on a lot of things and although most of it where things he didn't particularly care about she knew there were times in which he felt left out; because while he was away time went on and they went on without him while he was paused in a standstill.

The door to her room burst open and Sakura saw Sasuke flinch in response to the loud voice. "Sakura!" She screamed.

"Hello Ino, could you keep your voice down?" Sakura asked as a smile spread on her face at seeing her best friend.

"I can't! You won't believe what happened!" She exclaimed practically jumping up and down with joy. Sakura was a little afraid to ask, but she knew Ino would tell her sooner or later whether she wanted to hear it or not.

"Umm, Choji decided to go on a diet?" Sakura asked.

"As if! Just yesterday he was munching down on chips as if there was no tomorrow." Ino snorted. "You know, I actually think he's getting even fatter. But if I so much as mention it he'll go on a rampage so yeah."

"Shikamaru's gonna finally marry Temari?" She gave it another try.

"Nah, last I heard from Shika they had a big fight of where the wedding would be held. It's the third time they've postponed their wedding!" Ino informed her and Sakura sighed. "I love Shika and I'm very happy for him, but there are times I think they'll end up getting married when their ninety."

"Then what! Tell me already." Sakura groaned.

"I spent my first night with Sai; I'm not a virgin anymore!" Ino screamed and Sakura's gaze turned to Sasuke who was slightly glaring at Ino's back.

"Umm, Ino? Sasuke's here." Sakura informed her best friend who had just yelled out her secret to the whole hospital.

"Who cares, he's practically a lamp post." Ino said dismissing Sasuke as if he wasn't there. "So aren't you gonna ask me how it went?" Ino pouted.

"Eww, no thanks he was my team mate!" Sakura exclaimed slightly weirded out by the conversation.

"Don't tell me you did it with him too?" Ino asked accusingly her hands on her hips as she pretended to glare at her friend.

"Of course not, Ino!" Sakura shook her head.

"Then tell me, oh tell me! Who was your first?" Ino asked and Sakura's eyes widened in response. "Was it Naruto? Or maybe Lee? Nah, I know it was Kakashi!" She wriggled her eyebrows at Sakura and the pinkette only wished to disappear in that instant.

"I haven't had a first Ino." Sakura spoke trying to avoid Ino's gaze, she could feel Sasuke's eyes on her and she tried desperately to ignore it because there was no way she was ready to acknowledge the fact that she had a first, much less that said first was Uchiha Sasuke.

A/N:

Thanks to the 28 people who reviewed on the first chapter, this is all for you! :) You're all allowed to hate me for taking so long to update, I'm sorry...this time I don't even have a proper excuse, this chapter was done a few days ago.

I'm surprised so many people reviewed already and I really hope you liked this chapter. Next chapter is being worked on but I don't know when I'll be able to get it done since I owe another chapter for another story.

This semester I might take a little bit longer than usual to update 'cause I really want good grades at my classes, and to not fail in French 3. But I will update!

Any ideas, suggestions or any comments write in the box below. Reviews make my day and actually make me want to keep on writing.

You review, I update.
Deal? ;)