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*The Next Day*

Sasuke Uchiha

Sasuke stood in front of the small flower shop and silently wondered if the blonde kunoichi was as annoying as she was in when they were still in the academy. He figured she couldn't have gotten any *more* annoying and with one last curse mumbled under his breath stepped inside.

*Ding*

Ino looked up behind her place at the desk and observed the tall, dark-haired male that just entered her shop. She already knew about the Hokage's orders to have him help her at the shop for the next two weeks. She was not happy about it, but she would not complain either. The shop could use a delivery boy anyway. It was a busy time at the shop right now since it was mid-Spring and she appreciated the extra hands.

"Hello, Sasuke." Ino greeted giving him a blank stare. She had long since got over her crush on him and was now only being polite because her best friend, Sakura, had asked her to.

"Hn." Was all he replied. The Uchiha was a bit taken aback by the calm and indifferent greeting from the girl in front of him. He remembered how much she used to fawn over him when they were younger and he could honestly say it was a pleasant surprise. He never really liked her to begin with and her obsession with him had just made him dislike her more.

"So," Ino spoke up, realizing that was probably as much of a greeting as she was going to get. "I am going to have you doing deliveries. There is not uch to do here in the shop but I do have a lot of orders to fill and would be able to get them done quicker if I didn't have to fill them and deliver them."

Dark eyes stared back at her blankly. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and grunted in response.

"Uuumm. Okay, I have your first five orders to deliver here." He walked up to the desk to grab the paper that was in her outstretched hands.

Sasuke glanced at the paper then looked back up at her expectantly after stuffing the paper in his pocket.

"Follow me, I need your help loading them onto the wagon and then you can go."

She turned towards a curtain on the wall behind her and walked through it. Sasuke followed behind her thinking about how much she had changed and wondered if it was the same with the other people he knew when he was younger. Maybe this would be as bad as he thought. If she just kept doing deliveries all day then he wouldn't have to be around her very much.

Sasuke walked into a large green house behind the shop that was probably twice as big as the shop. He looked around noticing how all the plants and flowers were organized by type and color.

He came to a stop by some white flowers with wide pointed petals and long thick stems. Ino handed him a pot with one of those flowers then kept moving. Once the five orders were loaded up outside the shop on the wagon Sasuke headed towards his first drop off location.

The day went by uneventfully as Sasuke dropped off orders and picked up more from the blonde kunoichi. He noticed that she rarely spoke to him unless necessary. She seemed too focused on her job in the shop to pay much attention to him. After delivering his last order for the day Sasuke ooked up at the sky as he walked back to the shop. He noticed the orange-reddish glow that the sky was taking and thanked Kami the day was almost over.

When he walked back into the shop the blonde girl was closing up the register for the day and didn't look up when she heard him come in; too focused on making sure she didn't lose count of the money.

He waited patiently as she finished what she was doing before handing her the checklist of delivered items.

Sasuke turned to leave after recieving his thanks before the girl's voice stopped him.

"Sasuke" she started. Sasuke stopped talking but dudn't turn around.

"We're all glad to have you back" she stated, taking his stop as a sign that he was listening.

"Hn." Was all he said before walking out of the store and heading home.

Sasuke smirked as he walked back to his apartment in the Shinobi Commons that the Hokage had assigned him. Today wasn't as bad as he had expected it to be and he hoped things would get even better as time went by.

As Sasuke reached his apartment he thought about his *actual* home. The Uchiha compound. He heard what happened to it during the Pain Invasion and couldn't say he was upset. going back there after everything would have been too painful. Although, Tsunade had informed him that since he had returned, the land was still his should he decide to start rebuilding it. Sasuke thought about that and realized that if he planned to rebuild his clan he would eventually have to rebuild it anyway. But, he decided it was a matter that wasn't important at the moment since he wanted to focus on his status as a shinobi before deciding to settle down with someone.

Once inside his apartment he showered, had dinner, then went to bed.

Sakura Haruno

Sakura let out a long, heavy sigh as she walked out the hospital that night. She had just finished a 12 hour shift and could swear she could feel gravity pulling her should closer to the ground. She was exhausted and hungry.

She looked at the sky and realized it was just after sundown. She figured Ino would just be closing up shop and decided to see if she would like to go have dinner with her. When Sakura had first started training with Tsunade she dedicated alot of her time to just training and studying. Her friends saw her maybe once a month. When she took over the position as head doctor at the hospital it got worse. She remembered Naruto barging into her office one day and she looked at him and realized hadn't seen him in two and a half months.

He promptly walked up to her desk and slammed his hand down on it saying she was going to have dinner with him at Ichiraku whether she liked it or not. Sakura had laughed at Naruto and agreed because she felt bad that she was neglecting her best guy friend so much.

Things changed after the War, however. After witnessing so many of her fellow comrads die in front of her, she realized how much she had been taking her friends for granted. Neji's death hit her particularly hard. They had never been close but he had changed so much since they were younger that Sakura couldn't help but be sad. She realized she never really got to spend time with the new Neji and now she never will. She didn't want that to happen with Naruto or Ino so she made a promise to herself that she wouldn't let work keep her from spending time with her friends.

"Hey Pig!" She greeted the blonde as she walked into the shop.

"Hey Forehead!" Ino replied as she came from behind the desk to give her pink-haired best friend a hug.

"How was the hospital?" She asked as she pulled back from the embrace.

"Ugh. Long and tiring. I had 3 open-heart surgeries, 4 broken femurs to fix, and 15 physicals to perform." Sakura drawled out to her friend.

"But I came to see if you wanted to have dinner with me so we can catch up. I haven't seen you since Sasuke's trial and we didn't even get to talk then." Sakura continued.

"Well let me just close up the shop and we can get going." Ino replied with bright eyes. She was happy that she didn't have to go drag her out of her office at the hospital.

"So, " Sakura started once they were at the small tea shop that Sakura liked to go to for their dumplings.

"How is the shop coming along?" At this Ino looked at her with a mischevious smirk on her face and Sakura knew she had some juicy gossip to tell.

"Welllll, I had a volunteer help me with my deliveries today at the shop." Ino replied. Sakura noticed the extra emphasis the blonde had put on the word "volunteer" and thought about it for a moment before gasping loudly.

"Shisou started him off at your shop!" Sakura uttered. She hadn't seen Sasuke since the day of the trial since she couldn't go to the dinner because she had a shift at the hospital. She wasn't sure how she would react when they actually had a chance to talk. To be honest she wasn't sure if she wanted to talk to him. She was happy that he was back but that didn't mean she wasn't mad at him for leaving in the first place.

"SO?! Spill it Yamanaka! How did it go?!" Sakura wondered if he had changed much since he left and figured that, aside from being colder and more distant, Sasuke probably hadn't changed much at all.

"Wellll, to be honest there isn't very much to tell. He is still as quiet and withdrawn as ever. Still reponds with 'Hn' and 'Ah' to everything you say to him." Ino replied to her cherry-blossom friend. She could see the emotion behind her bright green eyes. She could see the hurt and the pain she still had but she also saw the strength and confidence that she had beat into herself through training and hard work.

"Hmm" Sakura mused.

"Is that all?" She asked after a moment of silence.

"Pretty much. He wasn't rude though. That was a surprise. That aire of superiority is still there but not as much as before. It's like he's been humbled a bit. And I really only mean a little bit." Ino continued.

"Well, that's good... I guess." Sakura replied almost hesitantly. She wasn't sure if she believed that *The Great Sasuke Uchiha" had any sense of what the word humble even meant. Then again, it had been almost 3 years since they were together as teammates.

Sakura thought of everything Sasuke had been through and realized that maybe after all that pain and suffering he really had changed, if only a little.

The rest of the dinner was uneventful as Ino went on and on about not knowing how to go about talking to Shikamaru about the feelings she had developed for him. Sakura gave her a few tips and some good advice and when they finished their dinner and paid went on their way.

Sakura walked through the streets of Konoha. She looked at the village in wonder and amazement as she realized just how much work had been done in the time since it had been destroyed. The villege was almost completely rebuilt aside from the Uchiha Compound and a few other larger buildings that took longer to rebuild.

She came to a small park that she recognized from when she was younger. She felt a pang in her heart as she remembered how Naruto used to sit here alone as a child. Funny how things happen. At that time she hated Naruto just like everyone else in the village had and yet she didn't even know why. Now, she couldn't imagine her life without him. Thinking about Naruto brought her thoughts to her other teammate.. or ex-teammate.. She honestly didn't even know anymore.

As if the thought of him made it reality, Sakura looked to her side where there was a large river. At the end of a dock on that river she could make out the silhouette of a man with hair like the back of a chicken's butt. She smirked at her thoughts and was going to continue her walk when he suddenly looked back at her, onyx eyes immediately met with her seafoam green eyes.

A/N: They finally meet! Will Sasuke talk to Sakura or will he just ignore her presence and go back to looking out at the water?

Will Sakura try to speak to Sasuke or will she just look away and continue on her walk home?

Find out next chapter!

Ok so I know Ino was a bit OOC around Sasuke but I like to think that she grew up a bit. She is still her blabbermouth, talkative self as you will see in later chapters but for now I like how things went.

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