Sasuke ate his ramen, and ignored the girl behind the counter who seemed to be flirting with him. Naruto and Sai glared at him. Sakura was looking down.

Hmph. Still same as ever. He had hoped that she might be a little more grown up, he thought he wouldn't have minded a adult-acting Sakura, but... Wouldn't have happened. He'd come back partly to see if she was more mature.

"Say, Sasuke," said Sakura, looking at him suddenly with green eyes he thought looked a little more intelligent than he remembered. Actually, something was different about her. He wasn't quite sure what, but something in her manner of speech or attitude was different. She continued. "I work under Tsunade... Would you like to tell her about Itachi? And Orochimaru? Of course, we'd need to know if you weren't just a spy, I hope you know."

Good for them. "I wouldn't have expected anything less from ninja." In fact, if they hadn't said that, he would have been suspicious. Although he still would have to prove his loyalty.

"Finish your ramen, first," she said. He nodded.

"But how do we know you're not a spy?" asked Sai. "Well, don't kill me, but, you know, you said your next destination was Suna? Orochimaru would be angry at Suna for having allied with Konoha. And it is a bit suspicious... You're a missing-nin, you know, why are you visiting all the hidden villages?"

Sasuke hadn't remembered that detail. In his mind, he cursed.

"I'll explain it later," he said, hoping that would buy him time. Sai seemed temporarily mollified.

"Oh, did you ever see Sakura-chan's super strength?!" asked Naruto, seemingly oblivious to the suspicion around Sasuke, only glad to have him back. "She developed it while you were gone. It's amazing!"

"Hn," said Sasuke, who didn't particularly think a bit of strength was anything to make a fuss about.

"Well, we'll show you after lunch."

Sakura nodded.

Several minutes of Naruto's chattering later, Sasuke was finished. He jerked a pale thumb at Naruto.

"The dobe is paying," he said.

"Fine, Uchiha, just you wait-" Naruto muttered angry things while counting out the money and handing it to Ichiraku.

"Come on, Naruto!!!" yelled Sakura.

Naruto finally came, and Sai led the way to the training grounds.

Sakura jumped and skidded to a place some twenty feet in front of, placed one hand on her hip, and made a fist with the other. She looked confident from here, like she owned whatever technique she was about to use.

"Ready, boys?" she shouted. She jumped up, and then brought her fist down. Fast. At the instant in which her fist stopped going up and angled toward the ground, Sasuke wondered why she was doing that. Wouldn't she break a lot of the bones in her hand? And then, her fist hit the ground, and a crashing noise like thunder accompanied the rolling rocks and the destruction that followed.

It looked like a miniature earthquake had occurred, been isolated in this very area. Sakura neatly hopped up onto the highest rock and yelled, "So what'd ya think, Sasuke?" before grinning, dark green eyes glinting and just barely visible from where Sasuke stood, with both her hands on her hips. That was when Sasuke noticed her new outfit- red and pink like her old dress, but definitely shorter and with a bit more black.

This was not the girl who had shyly watched him and viciously argued over him for years. This was not the little girl who had grown out her long pink hair to impress him. This girl, although similarly short-haired, was not the girl who had cut off said hair to save him and Naruto. This girl, although brave, was not the girl who had mentally overpowered her rival, who had tried to take over her mind (and then ending the match in a draw, both knocked out).

No, this girl was something that was less the shy girl in the first two instances, and much, much more of the girl in the third and fourth instances.

She really had matured after all.

And for the very first time in his life, Sasuke was speechless (most of the time, he just didn't talk). He stood there, gaping at the chaos that surrounded the once fairly peaceful, if a bit beat up, training ground. Had Sakura really, truly caused all this?

"Sakura-chan! You made Sasuke speechless!" yelled Naruto. "I knew you could do it!!!"

"Hm, it would appear that even the great members of the Uchiha clan lose their ability to communicate sometimes. That's what happens if you don't do much with it," Sai informed him.

"Did I really make Sasuke speechless?"

"Yup!"

"That was incredible," said Sasuke, recovering his voice, and, much to his displeasure, finding his voice said more than he intended. "I'm... impressed."

"Well, then," said Sakura. "Shall we go see Tsunade now? I'll lead the-" She was interrupted by a young-looking woman with long blond pigtails and wide, caramel-colored eyes.

"And just what is going on here?!" she screamed at Sakura, who stepped back. "First, I find out my apprentice destroyed the training grounds, and then I find you all chatting happily with the missing nin Uchiha Sasuke?! What IS this?!?! "

Whee! Another chapter up! I'm sorry if I don't update this too often, but it began as a bit of a side-project to Neji's Bad Day. Since I'm done with that, though, I'll try and get the chapters up faster. Please review... They make me a little more inclined to write. I like to try and reply to my reviews, but forgive me if I don't, okay? I like reviews... I also like watching the hit counts rise, too.