Well, where I am right now, it's still Friday 20th, so I kept to my promise! Here is the next chapter! I think some of you will definitely hate me

Also, thank you so much for the reviews I received for the last chapter – love you guise!

Anyway,

Enjoy!

Sakura felt the last remains of sleepiness fade away, but she didn't open her eyes, allowing the memories of the previous day trickle in. A nagging feeling of worry for a certain Hyuuga settled in her stomach, and it was all she needed to make her finally pry her eyes open. She expected to be greeted by the too white walls of the hospital, or her own bedroom, but instead, she found herself in an unfamiliar room, with deep crimson walls, and mahogany furniture. Alarm bells started going off in her head, and she unconsciously spiked her chakra. Before she could panic even more, her teammates appeared beside her, twin grins on their faces.

"Sakura-chan, you're awake!" Akane exclaimed.

Sakura groaned, the redhead's loud voice giving her a headache.

Kaoru smacked the teen on the head, mumbling something about idiots and how they never learn.

"You're at Akane's house, if you're wondering." the brunette supplied. Sakura nodded gratefully, then stretched, yawning. A comfortable silence lapsed around the three while they waited for the pinkette to get ready. Just as Sakura was about to announce that she was going to visit Neji, Akane spoke up, breaking the silence.

"Would you like to go for a walk with us?" the redhead asked.

Sakura did a doubletake. "A walk?" she repeated, a small bit of the incredulity she was feeling seeping into her voice.

"Yeah, why not?" Akane replied excitedly, though Sakura could sense something else beneath that excitement. "Is there something wrong with a good, old-fashioned walk around the Village with your friends?"

Sakura's eyebrows made a permanent residence in her hairline. There was something very wrong with the redhead, and she was starting to get worried.

"OK…" she trailed off. "What are we waiting for, then?" she asked cautiously.

"Whoo!" Akane cheered then bounded out of the room before either of his teammates could react.

Kaoru sighed, clearly exasperated, and sent the rosette the look. The look which he usually got when Akane did something particularly stupid, which just screamed 'Look at what I have to put up with every day. Look! And I'm still sane!'

Sakura snorted. "Guess we have to follow him, don't we?" she asked.

"Yeah." Kaoru muttered, huffing in frustration. "He'll go bat-shit crazy on our asses if we make him wait any longer." The rosette chuckled, then pulled her teammate along, easily finding the redhead's chakra signature and flash-stepping to his side.

"Woah! Sakura-chan, Kao-chan, you almost gave me a heart attack!" the teen exclaimed dramatically, clutching at his chest.

Kaoru snorted. "And you call yourself a ninja? That's pathetic, Akane." He mocked, though he was smiling.

"Hey!" Akane pouted. "Play nice, Kao-chan!" he reprimanded.

Sakura cut in before their lovers spat got any worse. "Not that I have anything against spontaneous walks around the Village, but what do you want Akane?"

The redhead turned to her, visibly surprised. But then, the facade faded away and he sighed dejectedly.

"I suppose there's no hiding anything from you, is there, Sakura-chan?" he asked, though it sounded rhetorical.

"That's right." Sakura replied, her tone calm even as her eyes narrowed into deadly slits. "But why would you want to hide something from me in the first place?"

Akane and Kaoru exchanged looks, and Sakura was once again annoyed that she couldn't understand what these looks meant.

"OK." The redhead replied, and gestured for his teammates to follow. "Let's sit down, because this might take a while."

Sakura followed cautiously, settling down beside the boys, resting her back against the tree trunk behind her. Akane had led them to the woods just by the Main Gate, and they reclined in the shadow provided by the large trees.

The rosette waited, but neither of the teens seemed willing to start. "So…?" she prompted.

Akane sent a panicked glance to Kaoru, and the brunette sighed, shaking his head in exasperation. It seemed that Akane's courage only lasted for so long. "We have something to tell you, Sakura." The taller boy began.

Sakura raised an eyebrow when the Kaoru didn't look like he was going to continue. "And what would that be?" she asked.

It seemed as if the redhead had regained some of his usual spunk, and he took over. Taking a deep breath, he released it in an incomprehensible jumble of words. Sakura blinked. "Come again?"

Akane sighed. "We are leaving, Sakura-chan." He repeated, slower this time.

"OK. When and where to are we leaving?" the rosette replied, not seeing why her teammates made such a big deal out of a simple mission.

Her eyes widened when Akane shook his head, and Kaoru looked down sadly. "You misunderstood." The brunette started softly. So softly, in fact, that Sakura had to strain her hearing to catch what he was saying. "By 'we' Akane meant him… and myself." He trailed off, seemingly incapable of elaborating.

"Oh." Sakura's mind was struggling to process the new information. "But… why? Tsunade-sama always sends us on missions together; it's like an unspoken pact. Why the sudden change?" the rosette questioned, puzzled.

Akane took another deep breath. "We may or may not have requested something like that." He mumbled.

At that, Sakura's blood ran cold. "But… why?" she asked again, a small tendril of panic wrapping around her stomach and squeezing painfully.

Her question seemed to bring some life back to Akane. "We're bored, Sakura-chan! Sure, it's fun going on missions together, but they're all the same – travel some, find some bad guys, kill said bad guys, come back, get paid, do the same thing the next day – there's no fun in that! Also, we'd like to see something other than the same familiar faces, and the same familiar buildings before our time's up! A shinobi's life is short by default – we do not want to spend it rotting away in one place, wasting our youth by constantly endangering it with missions, or the deathly boring all-work-and-no-play lifestyle." He paused, and calmed down a little. "I guess what I want to say is, we need to get away for a little while. Travel. See things. Explore. Enjoy our teenage years. Taste something new." He glanced at her, his eyes pleading with her to understand.

She didn't.

Her own eyes narrowed, and her anger temporarily took over her confusion. "That's a nice story, Akane." She hissed. "Though I'm a little disappointed. I had thought that after all the years we'd been together, you'd have known better than to lie to me."

Sakura had not missed the redhead's hesitance while he spoke. She knew that the excited tone and hand gestures were meant to take her attention off listening too intently to what the teen was saying, but it couldn't do anything to take her gaze from his eyes. Thus, she did not miss how throughout his explanation, his eyes would unconsciously flicker to the left, then quickly return to looking straight ahead.

Your words might be believable, but your body betrays you. She thought bitterly.

The redhead still seemed to be processing her previous accusation. "Sakura-chan, I never-!"

"Be quiet, Akane."

The third voice startled both, Akane and Sakura alike. They had completely forgotten that Kaoru was there with them. After he'd explained what Akane had meant by 'we', he had leaned back against the trunk closest to him and closed his eyes, not contributing at all during their argument, which was probably the reason why they forgot about him.

But now, the lazy hazel eyes snapped open, and they were not so lazy anymore. They were angry and focused, and his chakra rolled off of him in violent, uncontrollable waves. "You are both behaving like children." He scolded them, none of the usual softness in his eyes. He turned to the rosette. "So, Sakura. What he meant was that we are-" but he was interrupted by Akane, who, apparently did not appreciate being ignored.

"Hey, hey, Kaoru-chan! Why so serious?" the redheaded teen teased.

Kaoru's eye twitched. "Welcome to an adult conversation, Akane." He snapped. "Serious is how it's done." But Sakura's familiarity with the teens allowed her to, once again, see beneath the exterior, and she realised that the brunette was forcing himself to be so harsh and formal as he, much like Sakura, was nervous and wanted to get this talk over and done with.

Sakura sighed, willing herself to be calm and banished the warm feeling behind her eyes that was growing more and more potent as she listened to her friends argue, with each other, and with her as well. She hated it.

"Stop it, both of you." She commanded softly. To be honest, she was not expecting for her request to have much effect, but, to her surprise, both teens stopped in their tracks and turned to face her, listening. "Stop with the lies. Just… tell me the truth. I know that it will probably hurt more than the lies, but I want to know. I want to know the reason why you're leaving me. So, please. Please, tell me."

The rosette knew that she was begging, but, at that point, she didn't care. Like she had said – she just wanted to know.

To her surprise, I was Akane who spoke. "We love you, Sakura." The unusually solemn tone, and the lack of the honorific made her tense. "We love you more than we probably ever should, and definitely more than is deemed 'right' by the society. But what can we do about it?" he chuckled bitterly, startling Sakura. "You've wormed your way into our lives, and into our hearts. It's impossible to forget that now. And I think that, even if it wasn't, we'd still choose not to. But we can't keep going as we are. Soon enough, the secret would get out, and we'd be outcasts, hated, ostracized, alienated. It wouldn't be a pleasant existence. Or, our infatuation with you could get in the way of our rational thinking, putting not only ourselves in danger, but you as well. And I would never be able to live it down if my mistake had been a factor, no matter how great or insignificant, of your injury, or death. I would hate myself." He paused, clearing his throat. "So, this isn't just for us, Sakura. We're leaving also to get stronger, so we can protect you. Not from the outside world," he explained hastily, seeing the rosette's disdain. "but from ourselves. Please understand. We love you, Sakura-chan. And I know it sounds sick, perverse even, but it's the truth."

The rosette was lost for words. The tears that she had fought so hard to banish came back full force, and this time, she let them flow. There were no words to describe how she felt at the moment. Her gaze turned to Kaoru, desperate and pleading, but he just shook his head.

"Every word Akane said is true, Sakura. For both of us."

Sakura shook slightly as sobs racked her body. "I-I still d-don't understand." She stammered. "Y-You love me, and yet y-you're leaving?" she asked. "Isn't that a bit hypocritical?"

When neither answered, she kept going, the words spilling from her mouth, unbidden, and out of her control. "I-I mean, y-you say you don't w-want to see m-me hurt," she hiccupped, "but you're h-happy to l-leave because you think that leaving w-will hurt me less? H-How dare you decide what will and will not hurt me?!" the pinkette was suddenly furious. "You're not me!" she glared at her teammates. "T-This is not love. If you loved me, you would have given me a choice, not an ultimatum! It was never about me, was it? Just a nice story to cover your asses." She spat.

Akane flushed his cheeks brighter than his hair, eyes shining with anger. "How dare you." He hissed, managing to sound more menacing than Sakura had just seconds ago. "We lay our hearts out in front of you, and you accuse us of lying?! Were you not listening to a word that left my mouth?!"

Once again, Kaoru stepped between the two. "Calm down, Akane. Both of you, hear me out, please." He started again only when he was sure he had their full attention. "You both talk of love, but truly, we hardly know what it is. It's definition might be different for all of us, but we are united in our inexperience. All I know, is that this is the strongest I've ever felt about anybody. And it scares me. But it's also what drives me forward. In an ideal world, I would devote my life and soul to you both. But, alas, it is not an ideal world. As such, we have to do what we have to do to get by. And for me, that means leaving this Village, right here, right now." His eyes turned to Sakura, and a small smile graced his face. Slowly, he leaned down, giving her enough time to pull away, but she stayed rooted in place. Smile widening ever so slightly, he brushed his lips lightly against Sakura's. Just for a second and barely enough to call a kiss, but its effect was nonetheless astonishing.

Sakura's eyes widened as he pulled away, and she grabbed onto his shirt, tears glistening in her eyes; "But you will come back, right?" she whispered.

Kaoru's smile finally reached his eyes. "I will always come back, Sakura-chan." And he gently pried her fingers from his shirt, and turned away, heading towards the Gates.

Akane turned to her, a small smile on his face. He too, leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. But he lingered, and whispered in her ear, "Sayonara, Sakura-hime. Watashi wa anata no koto o itsu made mo aisudeshou."

And with that, he left, flash-stepping to Kaoru's side, and walking away with him, out of the Gates, and disappearing over the horizon.

Sakura stood there, alone, bathed in the orange glow of the setting sun, her tears never stopping. Time ceased to exist. Nothing had any meaning anymore, or purpose. There was only the sharp, unforgiving gnaw of pain in her chest, and she empty feeling in her heart. Even the urge to chase after them faded away.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she forced her feet to move. One step. Another step. Then one more, until she fell into a rhythm. Without a destination in mind, she allowed her feet to lead her, eyes blank and unseeing, still clouded by the persistent tears. How long she walked for, she had no idea. Reality only came flooding back when she settled down on a riverbank, the sound of flowing water the only sound in the empty, abandoned Uchiha District. The rumoured to be 'haunted' river, when a boy not much older that herself had perished. His existence erased. Nobody came to the Naka River anymore. Which was why it was perfect for the rosette. Secluded from the world, in a place where nobody would think to look for her, she was at peace.

Then, and only then, did she allow herself to grieve.

Ah, drama, drama, how we love thee...

You all probably hate me right now :'( *hides in corner* Don't kill me!

This was necessary, as cruel as that sounds. I know that quite a few of you like Akane and Kaoru, but they will have to disappear for a little to help progress the plot along. And yes, I added a love triangle (requests, requests) but don't worry – it won't be all to serious, and there will be a guaranteed gap between any further interaction between the three, an even bigger one if you're thinking of the 'romantic' type.

Anyway, there will be a minor time-skip next chapter, so just a forewarning.

The show has only just began~!

Love,

Invincible Shadow