Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto-san

Rekindling the Relationship

Chapter 3
Reminiscence

There were three things going through Haruno Sakura's mind once she had woken up.

1 – Her head was pounding
2 – She was never going to drink again before a mission
3 – It was 8:35.

"GODAMNIT!" she cursed kicking the bed covers off. Scrambling over to her wardrobe she yanked the doors open and seized her uniform from its hanger.

Hopping on one leg whilst trying to get the other in her other Jounin pant leg, she snatched up her weapons pouch and scrolls.

She briskly turned on her heel to scan the room for her shoes which were in the far corner. Still trying to get the rest of her bottom half into her pants she made her way over to them, however as she was doing so she accidentally stepped on the loose pant leg, therefore tripping herself up, she began to topple forward.

With her hands already occupied she could do nothing but try to turn her body so that she would land on her back.

Pivoting her shoulders and hips she began to rotate, the ground however, came upon her too quick and she landed hard and painfully on her side. Hissing in pain, she dropped the pouch and scrolls and clutched her hip.

'Jesus, could this morning get any worse?!' she inwardly cried, glancing at her clock which now read 8:40. Groaning she pulled herself up and rested on her good hip. Pulling her trousers up (and wincing when they grazed her injured hip) she began to walk again, pain shooting down her leg when she tried to walk on her right side. Groaning in frustration she quickly brought a glowering hand to her hip and searched for any serious damage.

After finding nothing severe, she poured a fair amount of chakra into the affected area, leading to the pain somewhat subsiding. Glancing at the clock yet again she read 8:44. After testing her newly healed leg to see if there was any difficulty in walking and finding she only had a minor limp, she quickly filled a smallish bag with necessities (and a few more personal things thanks to henge no jutsu) that she would need during the mission. Doing a mental check on everything she needed she hastily left her apartment and set off in the direction of the main gates.

Landing in front of the gates she caught sight of Sasuke who was currently resting against a wall and observing her, she walked over to him. Sasuke looked at her as if expecting an explanation.

"Ah. Err, sorry I'm late... I-I got up late and-" She began to babble when he cut in.

"What happened to your hip?" Sakura glanced down at her hip and realised he must have seen her limp. Not really wanting to explain her reason and further embarrassing herself in front of him, she quickly came up with an excuse.

"I, err, slept on it funny." She replied looking at the floor in an almost guilty manner.

"Why didn't you heal it?" He questioned further, she looked back up at him.

"Its only minor, it'll heal itself. It's not getting in the way or anything" She certified. With that, he murmured indistinctively and pulled out the mission scroll.

"We'll wait for Satoru before going over a few details." He stated. Sakura who was relieved he had not pressed it any further merely nodded and leaned against the wall awaiting their associate.

Satoru showed up at the designated time as Sasuke began reviewing the plan for the mission.

"The suspect we're after is Tetsurio Nori, a missing wave Nin. As we have Satoru travelling with us it will take a day and a half to get to the bridge connecting to the Wave country, during which time, Satoru, you will provide us with any information that you consider is valuable to the mission. After that, Satoru will part ways and we will start investigating on the location of the Missing-Nin" He announced earning nods from both members of the group. With that, the group set off from Konoha gates and continued heading west.

"Nori was last spotted a week ago in a small village called Miyamagarasu that resides in the eastern part of the island." Satoru informed. "It takes half a days travel to get there for a normal person, but for Shinobi it should take about 2-3 hours. Here I'll mark it on the map"

"Ok, thanks" Sakura said, taking the map that he presented her with. They continued to walk along the dirt path in which Sasuke was leading them. Before long Satoru began conversing again.

"So you guys seem close…" He began waiting for her answer

"Yeah, back when we were genin, me, Sasuke and Naruto were put together to form team 7 with Kakashi-Sempai, we were inseparable." She replied smiling as she reminisced

"You mean Uzumaki Naruto? The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki?" He piped in, earning a nod.

"Whoa… You must have had quite a handful, with the Kyuubi container AND the last Uchiha on your tail" He laughed.

"Not really, they centred on each other more than me. They were always fighting and arguing." Sakura pointed out with a small smile on her face.

"Ah, so are you all still 'inseparable' " he continued.

"I wouldn't say inseparable, being Jounin makes the chances of being together on missions etc a little more difficult. But we always find time to catch up and stuff" She responded

"Oh, that's good then…" He affirmed. They continued to walk, the conversation between the two dying down and becoming more like small talk.

Nightfall had fallen upon them before they finally stopped. From a day of travelling, Sakura was ordered to build the fire and set up camp as Sasuke checked the perimeter and scouted for food. After the meal, which consisted of cooked fish from the nearby river and an apple, the team had called it a night and made makeshift beds on the ground whilst Satoru was offered the small 1 man tent (seeing as the other two were adapted to sleeping on the ground due to many missions in the past)

It had been an hour since they had all went to sleep, yet Sakura was still wide awake, tossing and turning. Although it wasn't hurting, her hip was proving to be uncomfortable to lay on, whichever positive she was in. Inwardly sighing, she sat up and moved over to her bag, pulling out a shuriken that had a purple band around it. Quickly releasing the henge no jutsu she opened the small box of painkillers that had just transformed from the shuriken and took 2 capsules from the packaging. Healing something that wasn't serious was against her way, in her mind, to use her chakra on something that could be cured or nullified by some antibiotics or a painkiller was simply a waste. Popping the two capsules into her mouth and swallowing them down with a drink from her flask she then transformed the box back into its original form of a shuriken before putting it back into her bag and laying back down. Within 20 minutes she was asleep.

Morning had come much sooner than Sakura wanted it to. The glare of the sunrise had slipped its way through the trees directly into her eyes, consequently waking her up. Stretching whilst looking round, she saw that Sasuke was already awake and getting rid of the evidence of the fire whilst Satoru, like her, was sitting outside the tent; groggily rubbing his eyes.

Putting away the tent and picking up their belongings, the set off yet again. Being an hour and a half earlier into their trip meant that they were able to get into Wave Country sooner than expected, which meant more time to investigate and hopefully find the location of the missing Nin sooner.

It was almost 11 o'clock before they had finally reached the bridge connecting the Wave Country to the Fire. As Satoru rushed ahead to hand over the papers that allowed them to set foot in the country, Sakura leant against the fence alongside Sasuke and glanced around.

"The Great Naruto bridge huh." She muttered to herself. Sasuke, who had heard her, looked up at the title which was situated at the entrance to the bridge.

"Its hard to think it was named after such an idiot." He remarked earning a glare from Sakura, looking back up she smiled slightly.

"That was our first A-Class mission" she began "do you remember it?" Sasuke remained silent, recollecting the first mission in which they had to engage in a fight for, but slowly nodded to tell her that he was still listening. Glancing at her from the side, he saw her eyes visibly darken before she began to speak again.

"That was the mission we almost lost you…" She trailed off sadness apparent in her voice as she looked towards the ground. He frowned at her, his brows furrowed as he contemplated how to go on this. As the mood didn't change he inwardly sighed before lightly flicking the side of her head. She turned towards him, in confusion, rubbing her head delicately.

"What the hell was that for?" She demanded with a slight angry tone, he shrugged

"Stop being so morbid Sakura, it's not like you." He mentioned. Sakura raised her eyebrows at that statement, before looking down at the floor yet again.

"I'm sorry" she paused. "I know I shouldn't hold on to the past but still-"

She tried to think of how to put it into words of how much she cared for him, but simply stating the obvious would make her look stupid and maybe give him the idea that she was interested in him. Truthfully, she was. But telling him that would make him reject her again like he had all those years ago. A rejection her heart couldn't take twice.

"It's ok." Sasuke cut in; stroking the area he had flicked softly. "I'm sorry I hurt your head." He then added. Sakura's eyes widened at the touch of his hand to her head. Uchiha Sasuke? Coming into physical contact with another human on his own accord? Just what the hell was going on here? Before she could verbalise her thoughts Satoru reappeared.

"Hey guys, everything's sorted. You ready?" he announced. Sakura looked back to Sasuke, who had returned her confused expression with his, almost caring, own before turning to Satoru.

"Yeah, lets go" he said, beginning to walk off. Satoru's eyes followed the raven-haired Nin before turning back to Sakura with his own confused expression.

"Is everything ok?" He asked, worry apparent in his voice. Sakura, who had watched Sasuke walk off, turned back to Satoru with a small smile.

"Yeah, everything's ok" she reassured, more to herself than to him, before they both swiftly caught up to their team mate and continued on their trek.

Things you'll need to know!

Ok, this ending, like the last, has ended up crap. But if I kept on with the story it would have taken me ages, and since it's nearing Christmas I didn't think I'd get it finished in time to give you a chapter beforehand (As I probably wont be doing another until after the christmas hols unless I get bored of my presents ;D )

Anyway, Now that I've done it… I feel a whole lot better ;D. Not much has happened between them but still, I wanted you guys to know where Sakura thinks she stands in their 'relationship'

Ill try and update as soon as I can tho ;D

Thanks to:
Tiger Priestess
and
alanacrystal

For reading and reviewing on more than one occasion ;D 3

Merry Christmas!!!

REVIEW! Plez. ;3

Mishe-chan~