Chapter Three

I groaned, not happy with the amount of light that was streaming into the bedroom. The sun should stay asleep until noon. Yeah.

Reluctantly, I sat up and glanced at the clock. Naruto mumbled something and tried to pull me down by the hand, but was too tired to actually accomplish anything. Naruto buried his head in the pillow and I smiled softly. For half a moment, I felt resentful that we hadn't slept underneath the stars at the beach together, but then I shook my head and remembered all about Sasuke.

Abandoning all hope of getting up, I slumped back into bed.

Naruto smiled, eyes still closed, still half asleep, and wrapped his arms around me. I snuggled up to him and muttered, "We have to get up."

"For what?"

"Mmhmm… I can't remember right now…but I know we have to get up…" I murmured. He let out a soft laugh.

"I agree."

It was silent.

I laughed and laid my head on his toned chest. He shifted slight under me and began, "You know… we were planning to go to the beach this weekend, right?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"Well… we obviously didn't get to it… and I was wondering… well, while we were there I was going to ask you something… and I was thinking… since we're obviously not going …Sakura, will you- "

BOOM.

Naruto and I exchanged glances.

"What do you want to bet he blew up the kitchen?" I murmured, slowly sitting up and swinging my legs out of bed. Naruto hesitated for a moment then did the same.

"Knowing him, he blew up the whole house," he replied, grabbing a shirt and slipping it on. I shivered and he placed one of his old, bright orange jackets on my shoulders. I smiled and gave him a quick kiss, then, expecting the worst, opened the door.

Sasuke was standing right next to the couch, where he had been sleeping, looking just as puzzled as we were.

"What were you two doing in there?" he asked, a look of disgust passing over his face. I giggled.

"Nothing!" said Naruto defensively. "We thought it was you!"

Sasuke shrugged, looking around.

"I'll check outside," said Naruto, heading towards our front door. I quickly followed him, glancing at Sasuke as I passed him.

Outside, plenty of people were poking their heads out of their doors to see what was going on.

"SHIT!"

A laugh resounded as Konohamaru sped by with his two group members he'd been hanging out with since…forever.

He waved, yelled a "Hey Naruto!" and disappeared before Naruto could raise a hand to wave back.

"THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Naruto bellowed after him. He laughed wildly again and Naruto shook his head. "My God, that kid has not changed at all since I met him."

I laughed. "You hypocrite. We were just like that three years ago, remember?"

Naruto sighed. "Yes, I remember that, but I had this vague hope of seeming responsible in front of Sasuke." I laughed again.

"Sorry Naruto," said Sasuke, grinning, clapping him on the back. "You missed that by a long shot."

Naruto grumbled something and shut the door.

I rubbed my eyes with the balls of my fists."Frick I do not want to wake up today…" I moaned, stepping into our bedroom and slamming the door after me.

"Baby, you're going to have to sometime," called Naruto. I groaned in response. There was a faint laugh and I glared at the door.

I honestly think Naruto was enjoying this.

I looked wistfully at bed, then sighed and left the room again.

"…don't know, it just sort of happened," said Naruto.

"What are we talking about?" I asked, yawning and sitting down.

"Nothing," said Sasuke quickly. I raised an eyebrow and Naruto looked at him strangely, then shrugged.

"Yeah. Nothing."

I frowned at them, but sipped the mug of coffee that Naruto had handed me. Sasuke stared out the window, obviously zoned out. I watched to two boys stare in two completely opposite directions, reliving the past. It sort of gave me the chills.

"Well," I said. The boys snapped out of their reverie. "I think we should start to focus on getting you ready to blend into a crowd, Sasuke."

Naruto allowed himself a grin and Sasuke raised his eyebrows.

"Oh yeah, seriously Sasuke," I paused. "I should invite Ino to help too!" I said excitedly. "She's really good at this."

Naruto laughed.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing, go ahead."

"Alright," I surveyed Sasuke carefully, ignoring the amused look on his face. "Once again, we're going to have to fix that hair. And new clothes. Naruto, I suppose you haven't got anything other than your regular stuff?" Naruto shook his head. "But we can probably borrow some. Shikamaru might have some extra…and my dad…and Kiba too, probably.

"We're going to have to come up with a fake identity for you too. I was thinking we could pass you off as my cousin or something, but now I don't think so. I mean, your eyes and hair are too dark for one. What do you think, Naruto?"

He frowned. "I don't think so either. We'll have to make up a totally new identity."

"Do I get a voice in this at all?" asked Sasuke.

"No," said Naruto and I simultaneously. "We're already aware you've made bad choices," I continued. "And I'm not ready to give you more chances to make a fool of yourself."

"Don't look at her like that, I feel the same way," said Naruto, observing him amusedly. Sasuke gave a half-hearted grunt and shrugged.

"Anyways, I think we should cover everything before we introduce you to Lady Tsunade. And I want to tell you a little about her so you don't go and say something stupid," I said matter-of-factly.

"Thanks," said Sasuke dryly.

"No, really, it's almost too easy to say something stupid in front of her," said Naruto, shaking his head. "I remember this one time…" he shook his head. "Seriously, though, Sakura can help you. She's good at that stuff."

Sasuke nodded thoughtfully.

"What is it?" I asked. He looked at me, startled.

"What do you mean?"

"You look like there's something on your mind, something that's troubling you. What is it?" I asked patiently.

Sasuke looked from me to Naruto with a look of distinct 'what the hell?!?' look on his face. Naruto shrugged. "I don't know how she does it either."

I laughed. "Are you kidding? I learned this from you, Naruto." I looked back to Sasuke. "Seriously, though, what is it?"

Sasuke looked at me heavily then sighed. "It's just…I don't even know why, but I want to know what's happened to everyone. I mean, where they all are, what they're doing, how they are…" He shrugged. "It's hard to explain."

Naruto nodded. "I think I understand. You just want to know what's going on…that's not strange, Sasuke."

"But a little stalker-ish, maybe," I said, grinning. Naruto shot a glance at me and Sasuke turned slightly red.

Acting as if he hadn't heard what I had said, Naruto continued, "Ask away, Sasuke, we'll try and answer as best as we can."

"Alright," said Sasuke slowly. "First of all, Ino. I saw her yesterday, and she was looking…"

"Pregnant?" I offered. Looking slightly awkward, Sasuke nodded. "Yeah, it's Shikamaru's. She's due in two weeks."

"So they're – they're mar-"

"No, Shikamaru and Ino are not married," I said matter-of-factly. "They've decided they'll stay together for the baby, but they agreed to see other people, too. By that, I mean that Ino has decided to be the village whore while Shikamaru has not been on one date since she got pregnant." I paused, thinking of the two of them. "He loves her so much," I said softly. "It breaks his heart every time he sees her with someone else."

"Okay – then," said Sasuke. "What about Kiba? You said he was married?"

"Yeah," began Naruto. "I can't believe it's been six years now. It was a relatively small ceremony, seeing as most of Hinata's family wouldn't attend. She was part of the main branch of the Hyuuga clan, you know," he said. "She was expected to marry another Hyuuga. Anyways, she's still a shinobi, and very successful at that. They have two girls, Murasaki and Sei. They've have us sit the girls once or twice, and let me say, Sei's a handful. She's two years old and keeps at it… Murasaki's five, and she's got a much gentler personality…She said she'd rather be Rapunzel than a shinobi…and you know, I believe that. Anyways, Kiba's actually taking commissions as an artist right now, he's really talented. You know that painting in the front hall? That was a present from him."

Sasuke looked impressed. "And what about everyone else?"

"If you want to know about everyone else, Sasuke, this'll take more than a day." I laughed. "But I'll try. Let's see… you remember Chouji, right? Right. He's a squad leader now – I know, you expected that to be Shikamaru, right? – and he's pretty decent at it too. He's single right now, and I think he's a little too dedicated to his job, but you know," I smiled. "Whatever. Oh yeah, I almost forgot Kakashi."

"Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sasuke.

I nodded. "He's still a squad leader, but not as young as he used to be. I personally think he should retire about now. And then Shino-"

"Shino," said Naruto softly. "He's a weirdo, a creep and a complete jerk…but he's awesome." I laughed and nodded.

"That's pretty much it, Sasuke. Anyone else you want to know about?" I asked. Sasuke thought for a moment, then nodded.

"Well…I don't know…what's happened to you two since I left?" he asked slowly. I raised an eyebrow and looked to Naruto, who was staring thoughtfully at his shoes.

"I couldn't possibly cover everything right now," said Naruto carefully. Sasuke shot a glance at me. "But maybe with your help, Sakura, I could try."

I nodded. "Okay. What first?"

Sasuke paused, then asked, "After I left – like, right after – what happened?"

I took a deep breath.

"Sasuke, you destroyed half the village. We were at our weakest time in history, and the Sand and Sound villages, who were planning to attack us anyway, decided to take advantage of that. We were plunged into a war."

"A war?" asked Sasuke. "And who – who won?"

"No one, as usual," said Naruto bitterly. "Nobody won, and everybody lost. Isn't that the point of wars?"

I glanced at him and continued speaking. "Even with our diminished numbers, we put up quite a fight. We probably would have done better if it wasn't for their – secret weapon."

"And what was that?"

"It was a boy, about our age then," said Naruto. "He had a demon inside of him – literally. His village used him," he said bitterly.

"The Sand and Sound retreated after six pressing years of war. The village was reduced to one quarter of what it once was. There were so many – deaths …"

My throat closed up. My mother had died in that war. But how was I supposed to tell Sasuke that?

"It was hard on all of us," Naruto said quickly. I nodded, silently thanking him. Sasuke looked slightly puzzled. "Lady Tsunade, one of the Legendary Sannin, took the place as our Hokage. Our village is no longer considered as powerful as the Sand, the Cloud or the Mist." Sasuke frowned.

"Anyways," I continued, regaining my composure. "Naruto and I passed as chuunin a few years later. A few years after that, we applied to be teachers at the academy. We teach now."

Sasuke looked impressed. "Well, wow."

"I know, right?" I asked happily. "But I have to say, from about the time we were seventeen until we turned twenty-three, we went insane, remember that, Naruto?"

Naruto nodded fondly. "Oh yes, I remember that. I remember having this need for craziness… It was actually pretty fun," he said, smiling. "But I wouldn't want to live it twice."

I laughed and shook my head. "Yeah, me neither."

"Okay," said Sasuke. "Okay. That makes sense. Now…it's been fifteen years. Do you think anyone's going to honestly remember me?"

"What you look like?" I asked. Sasuke nodded. "Nope. I mean, Kakashi might, but I know that Ino didn't, and, to be honest, no one really liked you that much, Sasuke."

He sighed softly. "Thanks, Sakura."

"You're welcome," I said brightly.

"Anyways, Sasuke," said Naruto. "Even though it's early, the Hokage is busy enough as it is. We'll leave a meeting with her for a couple days, alright?"

Sasuke nodded and I yawned again.

"Alright, well, I have a feeling we should all get dressed," I murmured. "Sasuke," I paused, sizing him up. "You're a little smaller than Naruto, don't you think so?" I asked.

In truth, he wasn't that much smaller than Naruto, but it was worth saying it to just see the look on his face.

"You'll fit into some of his older clothes," at the look on his face, I added, "Don't worry, it's not an orange jumpsuit…he threw almost all of them out when I moved in."

Naruto nodded fondly. "I loved those jumpsuits…"

I laughed.

"Seriously, though, Sasuke…let me just go and grab some. Just a sec, you g-"

There was a loud laugh and a knock at the door, cutting off the rest of my sentence. Naruto sighed and got up to answer it. I continued into the bedroom, where I grabbed some of Naruto's older clothes from the back of the closet and, my arms full of clothes.

Back in the kitchen, Naruto was conversing in an undertone to Sasuke, surveying a note he had in his hands.

"What's that?" I asked, laying down the clothes on the sofa.

"It's a message from the Hokage…" he said, frowning at it. "About a mission. I think it's weird, though…there's plenty of people in the village who could take this."

He handed the paper to me. I read it over quickly. I wouldn't quite call it minor, but it wasn't urgent…he had to report to the Hokage's office first thing Monday morning.

Hmm. This was strange. Naruto and I were usually left without missions because we had to train the kids at the academy. Since Sasuke left, the academy's been much more…hardcore, for lack of a better word.

"Okay," I said slowly. "Well...I don't think we should have the appointment about Sasuke with the Hokage while you're on your mission, Naruto, so…I'll have him ready by the time you get back, okay?"

Sasuke let out a forced laugh. "You make it sound as if I'm some sort of toy."

My eyes passed over him. "Well you are, aren't you?"

There was a moment's silence when something almost like hostility settled over us all, then Naruto cleared his throat and said, "Alright then, what about today?"

I paused. "I don't have anything specific I was planning for today. I mean, we were planning to go to the beach," I said. Sasuke frowned, but Naruto smiled softly and nodded.

"That reminds me of something…" he shook his head. "Nevermind." I raised an eyebrow, but nodded all the same.

"Alright. Personally, I feel the need to look over squads again." Naruto groaned. "But if you don't want to, you don't have to."

"Look over squads?" asked Sasuke.

"The kids in the Academy are just about ready to graduate," I explained. "We had to split them up."

Sasuke nodded thoughtfully.

"Naruto," I went on. "Where did you put those files?"

"What?"

"The ones with the kids separated into the squads?"

He stared at me. "…I thought you had them."

I stared at him for a moment, then I burst out laughing.

"I'm – ha! – sorry, it's just – oh my, haha – your face, sorry," I gasped, clutching my stomach. Sasuke raised his eyebrows and Naruto grinned.

"Wait, what? We just lost the files, Sakura – stop laughing!" he said, falling into chuckles himself.

Sasuke however, continued to stare at us, looking faintly disgusted.

"What?" I asked, still smiling.

He shook his head, that same grimace still etched on his face. "Are you two always like this?" he asked.

"Like what?" asked Naruto.

Sasuke shrugged. "Well… You're so…I don't know, so happy, it's almost revolting." I raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh come on, you know what I'm talking about…the both of you can get angry at me, but it seems like you two never get angry at each other."

I sneaked a glanced at Naruto, who was staring at Sasuke skeptically.

Sasuke sighed impatiently. "You're just so perfect, the both of you. How do you do it? And why? It's sort of creepy."

I raised the other eyebrow at him.

"We're not – perfect, Sasuke. Not even close. We've had our fights, and -"

"You've got to be kidding me. Right now, you two should be screaming at each other. How can you just shrug it off?"

Naruto sighed. "I don't want to fight with you Sasuke, even if you think me a fool for it. Back off – please."

Sasuke continued to shake his head, but was silent.

"Anyways, Naruto," I said, pulling my gaze from Sasuke. "Seriously. Do you know where the files are?"

He shook his head. "No, but they have to be around here somewhere. I mean, they can't possibly have gotten up and walked away."

I nodded.

Eventually, we found them under a pile of magazines. It was silent for a while. A hint of awkwardness hovered between the three of us. I tried to shake it off, to ignore it, but there was something strange about the way Sasuke was frowning slightly, as if trying to figure something out.

I pretended to be interested in our brief overview, and changed what needed to be changed (there were two girls who were definitely in the wrong group).

Sasuke pretended to be interested when we told him about the new squad system. "When we were in a squad," I explained. "The standard form was two boys and a girl. The Academy was never mandatory. But now every child has to, at least, attend the Academy. They don't have to become shinobi if they, or their parents, don't want them to, but they have to go through the training. Squads are varied now. A lot more girls want to become kuniochi, while there are a lot of boys who are taken out by their parents."

"Why?"

Naruto replied, "Because of you, Sasuke. Mothers and fathers were concerned by the basic emotional differences between boys and girls. Being a teacher, it doesn't take much to figure out that girls are much more open to talking about their feelings than boys."

"With some exceptions," I added.

"Yes, with some exceptions," he replied, flashing me a smile. "Anyways, even now, even with the people who can barely remember you, they learned their lesson. Most parents believe that if their son doesn't often share his feelings and such, they'll end up like you, freaking out and destroying half the village." Sasuke nodded, trying not to let the reference faze him. "So if their boys don't open up, or if they aren't desperate to be a ninja, most parents take their sons out after they finish the Academy. Girls, on the other hand, actively discuss their feelings, which makes parents more comfortable with the thought of their daughters feeling what you felt, whatever it was." He paused, as if waiting for Sasuke to speak. He didn't. "Anyways, that means we switched over to either all girls squad – which, admittedly, isn't a very good idea in my opinion – or two girls and one boy. We have the occasional oddity, but that's basically how it is now."

We finished with the squads quickly. We stopped to explain things to Sasuke a few times, although he honestly seemed very bored.

My phone rang and I excused myself to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hey Sakura!" It was Ino. "I just wanted to tell you that the girls and I are going out for drinks-"

"Drinks?"

"Non-alcoholic, friggen meanypants."

I laughed. "I'm a meanypants because I'm keeping your kid from potential birth defects?" I asked skeptically.

"Yes."

"Wow, Ino, just wow."

"I know, right? Well, anyways, I was going to invite you, but if you insist on using big words-"

"What, like birth defects?"

"No, like potential."

"…wow, Ino."

"I know, just wow. We'll pick you up around six, okay? Whether you like it or not."

I laughed. "Okay, see you then."

"Bye."

Later that evening, after I had informed the boys on my plans, I changed into something special for the night. It was a little back dress and a shortish red jacket that was pinned around my belly button.

"Well? What do you think?" I asked Naruto, twirling around for him.

Not even bothering to look up from his book, he said, "I think that every man that sees you will offer to buy you a drink."

I smiled. "Thanks. I'll save one for you." I turned to Sasuke. "What do you think?"

"What?" he asked, looking startled.

"What do you think?" I repeated. At his blank look, I added "Of what I'm wearing?"

"Oh," he said, looking over me. "You look…" it seemed as if he was about to say something, but stopped himself. "…um, (mumble mumble mumble mumble)."

I laughed. "Whatever Sasuke." The doorbell rang. "See you, Naruto," I said quickly, giving him a kiss. "You too, Sasuke," I added, rushing out.

"Sakura! Sakura open the friggen door, you friggen weirdo-freak-hybrid," said Ino in a muffled voice from outside the door. I opened it and saw Ino, looking sour at the thought of no alcohol, Tenten grinning broadly at me, and Hinata, with a soft smile as usual.

"Hey you guys," I said, stepping out and closing the door behind me. There was a chorus of three 'hi's back. "So where were you thinking of going?" I asked as we walked away.

"There was this really good vegan juice bar on the north side of the village," offered Hinata.

"There was this really good bar that served scorched animal corpses on the south side," said Tenten sarcastically.

Hinata shot a glare her way. "You know, a diet high in vegetables can-"

"Reduce your risk of cancer, yeah, we've heard it a million times," said Ino boredly. "We all get how in love with greenery you are."

I laughed and even Hinata cracked a smile.

"But seriously, there is a good juice bar-"

"You don't even have to fake convincing us, Hinata, we all know not to argue with you," Ino said.

Eventually, we did go to the juice bar, which, thankfully, wasn't quite as vegan as Hinata made it out to be. Once we were all sitting down, I sipped my drink and said, "So Tenten, Ino tells me she gets the feeling something happened on your mission."

Tenten sighed. "Yeah, something did happen."

"Details?" asked Ino.

"Well," began Tenten. "It was a pretty simple mission, things were going fine, you know. And then… well it was like, ten o'clock, and so I thought Lee was asleep, or something, and Neji and I just sort of… I don't know, hit it off. But after maybe half an hour, Lee comes out, sees us, and gets pissed. We started yelling, and I don't think he had a right to say anything, I mean, we are officially over."

"Yeah, but he obviously still wants you," said Ino.

"But he's the one who broke it off!" said Tenten.

"Oh honey," said Hinata sympathetically. "You have so much to learn." Ino and I laughed as Tenten flushed.

"What do you mean?"

"Tenten, Neji is Lee's best friend," I explained. "Lee knew that Neji liked you. He didn't want that kind of awkwardness, so he ended it, and I don't think you're respecting that much if you start dating Neji."

Tenten blinked. "How come I can never figure this out?"

"I have no idea," said Ino. "I would have thought it was obvious."

Tenten threw a cashew at her.

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OH MAN OH MAN

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Don't worry. Things get MUCH more exciting. :D

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