Chapter 3

Recap: Just as she was about to burst into tears, Naruto came running up. "Hey Sakura, great morning, isn't it?" he said jumping up and down. Once he saw her face, his attitude changed completely. "…It's Sasuke isn't it?"

"Naruto, don't be angry at him. He left the village, I'm sorry that I couldn't stop him," she said in a quiet whisper.

"Damn it! I knew he would do this," he said under his breathe. "Sakura, I promise that I will bring him back for you," he promised. I know that you love him, and I'm ok with that. You could never love me and that's alright," he thought. "The only right thing to do would be to make you happy. To do that, I have to bring Sasuke back," he said to Sakura.

"Naruto…" Sakura said, shocked at his words. "Thank you."

Naruto left to get ready. He would tell Tsunade that he was going to bring Sasuke back and that was that. She had only two choices now that Naruto had made up his mind, she could give him back-up, or she could protest. Either way, he was going to do it.

After the news had spread through the village, the first one to come and try to comfort her was Kakashi sensei. He must have known that Sakura would be upset.

"Sakura?" he said from the window sill.

Sakura nearly jumped. "Hai?"

"I was just wondering how you were doing. I assume that you know about Sasuke," he said in a somber voice.

"I was the first to know," she said, holding back the tears.

"It's hard to loose a person so close to you, isn't it? I know, my closest friend and rival died during a mission," he said, looking at the floor.

"I'm sorry to hear that sensei," Sakura said regaining some of her composure.

"I know that you had strong feelings for Sasuke. I could see it in your eyes when you looked at him. He's a lucky person to have someone like you care about him so much," Kakashi said in a slightly different voice than normal. It wasn't dry like it usually was. Now, it was deep and thoughtful.

Sakura started to cry again. Kakashi put his hand on her shoulder to try and consol her but she couldn't stop. He felt bad that she hurt so much. No young girl should have to suffer like this.

Meanwhile, Sasuke and the sound four had reached Orochimaru's lair. He had settled into his room but still doubted his plans to kill Itachi. It would take up a lot of his life to defeat his older brother, and if it took too long, he might never be able to return to Konoha and Sakura.

"Sasuke, are you ready to begin training?" Orochimaru asked in his raspy voice.

"Hai," Sasuke said, he was determined to finish this quickly so that he could return to the one person that really mattered; Sakura.

Although Sasuke had his plans to kill Itachi and become stronger, Orochimaru had his own plans. If he could only get Sasuke to realize that he couldn't kill his brother, then he would willingly give him his body. Or at least he thought. Orochimaru had no idea that Sasuke had another ambition; he wanted to be able to protect Sakura. After Naruto had defeated Gaara in his demon form, Sasuke had surprisingly been jealous. How could that loser do something that he couldn't? This was Sasuke's main drive now. Killing Itachi was just his cover.

If anyone has suggestions for the next chapter, I'm kinda stuck on it. So… PLZ read and review!