Chapter Eleven

"Sakura!" Sasuke yelled. "I didn't mean it." His voice sounded pathetic even to him.

He tried to get up to go after her, but his leg seared with pain and all he ended up doing was falling flat on his face, off the bed. (LOL I had to…. ahhhh! gets pelted with tomatoes from the Sasuke fan club)

Tsunade, who had heard the yells, came running in. "What in the world is going on?" she thundered. Then she noticed Sasuke on the floor, struggling to get up. "What are you trying to do, Uchiha?" she demanded.

"What does it look like?" Sasuke snapped.

"Where's Sakura?" Tsunade asked looking around.

"Gone," Sasuke muttered. Tsunade helped him back onto his bed.

"What'd you do this time?" she asked, biting back a laugh. "And what's that smell?" Sasuke pointed to his shorts. Tsunade began laughing.

"Stop it!" Sasuke yelled. "It's Sakura's fault. Girls are just so annoying and they overreact." Tsunade gained control of herself slightly.

"I'm so sorry for my mistake about your gender, it's just I'd always thought "Sasuke" was a guy's name." With that she left Sasuke to take out his fury on the pillow.

Meanwhile Hinata and Naruto had just decided to start going out, when they saw Sakura run past with tears streaming down her cheeks. "I…I'll be right back," Naruto called to Hinata rushing off. Hinata gave him an uncertain smile before he turned forward again, narrowly missing a tree that was in his path.

Sakura also passed Kakashi, who was leaning against a random wall with his nose buried in his perverted book. He looked up just in time to see Naruto running by yelling,

"Sakura-chan, wait up!" With a sigh, he closed his book and chased after his former students.

He found them in an alleyway (A/N I don't know why, but I really like to put alleyways in my stories) not to far from where he just was. Sakura had her arm on the grimy wall, obviously using it for support. Naruto was standing in front of her attempting to provide words of comfort.

"He's a jerk Sakura," he was saying. "If he makes you cry, he's not worth it."

"You know that's true, but it never really helps much," Kakashi spoke up, startling them both.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura cried, running towards him. Kakashi was slightly taken aback. Sakura or anyone for that matter had called him "Kakashi-sensei" for years. He looked down and saw that Sakura had wrapped her arms around his chest. Even more surprised he hugged her back.

"What did he do?" He asked, gently when Sakura let go, leaving his shirt quite wet. Sakura looked in the other direction.

"This is going to sound so pathetic," She muttered. "He called me weak again. I've missed him so much and I thought now that's he's back maybe he'd have changed just a bit. But he still sees me as the weak little girl he left behind six years ago."

Kakashi glanced at Naruto. They both knew, and had known for a while, that though she was not at the very top, Sakura was far from weak. If anyone called her weak, she usually snapped and proceeded to give them a very painful piece of her mind. Then again, Sasuke was an entirely different story….

"You should have punched him through the wall, Sakura-chan," Naruto informed her. "Shown him some of your freakish strength. That would prove him wrong. Ooo, then you should use some Chakra and-"

"And loose the small job I have at the hospital?" Sakura snapped. Naruto shut his mouth. (Wow, it's a beepin' miracle)

Kakashi kneeled down slightly, so he was at Sakura's height. He forced her to turn and look him in the eye. "Sasuke has lived alone since the age of eight," he began, slowly. "My guess is that he is so used to fending for himself, that it scares him to suddenly have someone there caring for him. He hasn't known love for over a decade. Don't be so hard on him."

Sakura looked at the ground. "I just…" she said to the ground. "Overreacted a bit I guess. It is a bit odd to have him back you know."

Kakashi nodded and stood up. "Well I'm glad we got that all sorted out," he said, grinning behind his mask. "Now we should get back to what we were doing. Naruto, I believe you finally have a da-" Before he could finish teasing Naruto about finally realizing Hinata liked him, something sharp pricked him at the neck. He tumbled forward unsteadily, his vision blurring.

"Kaka-" Naruto was also hit with something in the same area as his former sensei. He swayed a bit, trying to stay conscious.

Sakura watched them, unsure of what to do. You a Medic Nin, you've got to do something! Inner Sakura screamed desperately. (A/N Inner Sakura is also awesome.) Before Sakura could comply to her inner self's request, she felt a sharp sting at her neck. Prior to the world going completely black, she saw a figure stepping out of a corner. Blood red met emerald green, before everything dissolved into nothingness.

A/N- ooooh, a cliffhanger…any guesses on who the mystery person is? I'll update ASAP

-Sandgirl