A/N: Okay guys so there is some jumping around between Sasuke and Sakuras' perspectives because I wanted to show both of their reactions to some things. This is my second favorite chapter so far (the sakura dream chapter being #1) and I hope you guys enjoy it as well. There is some major progress in a certain someone's behavior and we will see more in chapters to come.

I also want to say thank you to those of you who followed and favorite! It means a lot!

And very special thanks to those who reviewed! I love reviews! They make me feel special!

CHAPTER 5

Sakura Haruno

Sakura wasn't especially glad that Sasuke would be working for her today but she couldn't really complain because she realy did need the help at the hospital. She hadn't gotten the chance to talk to Sasuke since he returned and was hoping to get a chance to before her Shishou forced this upon her.

Sakura wanted to let Sasuke know that she forgave him for everything he did, not just to her, but to everyone. Especially Naruto. She also had a few not so nice things to say to him as well that he deserved to be told. But, she wasn't about to start this conversation with him at her job so for the time she would just grin and bear it.

When she arrived at the hospital that morning he was already waiting in the main lobby for her.

*Punctual as always* she thought, *maybe he hasn't changed as much as we all thought*.

For a very brief moment the kunoichi was a bit taken aback as she realy noticed him for the first time in a long time. She had always known he was handsome. But her imagination did not do him justice. He had grown taller in his time away. Much more toned. His broad muscles were accentuated by the regular t-shirt he now wore. Navy was a good color on him. Sakura frowned at where her thoughts were heading and quickly composed herself. She put on her best professional mask on and motioned for the brooding man to follow her.

On their way up Sakura couldn't help but notice the way the nurses would go to greet her and then get sidetracked once they notice the tall, dark figure beside her. They would start to stutter out hellos' and goodmornings' to *her*, all the while looking at *him*. She groaned inwardly as she got to her desk realizing that having the Uchiha at a hospital with mainly female nurses was probably not one of her Shishou's brightest ideas.

Sakura reached her office door and opened to then groan again but this time outwardly to where it could be heard.

She had been up late last night at the hospital after her meeting with Tsunade and had been so tired when she got done that she didn't even bother to clean up her desk. It was stacked with a mountain of papers that she was dreading going near. She briefly considered turning around and going home for the day before she remembered she had a personal assistant right behind her. Her emerald eyes narrowed as her mouth twisted into a wicked smirk before she put her mask on again and turned around. She gave Sasuke a smile that Sai would be proud of from how fake it was.

"So, as you can see Sasuke I have alot of work to catch up on so I'm going to really need your full co-operation here." She said to him all cheery eyed.

She watched as he minutely narrowed his eyes then went back to his usually blank expression that seemed to look more like a scowl than anything.

"Hn." he replied.

The enerald-eyed kunoichi walked over to her desk and started explaining how the papers were supposed to be organized and where to put them once they were arranged.

He stood next to her the entire time just watching and listening to her explain. When she finished she sat down behind her desk to sign the papers that still needed her signature before being filed away when a young intern burst through her door panting as if she had just run a marathon.

"Haruno-san! A patient just came in to the emergency room that needs immediate attention!" She exclaimed.

Sakura got up immediately and ran out the door after telling Sasuke to do as much as he could while she was gone.

*Sasuke Uchiha*

Sasuke watch as Sakura disappeared behind her door as she ran out of the office. He let out a sigh of relief as he realized he could now do his work without her there to distract him.

Since he saw her this morning he couldn't stop thinking about those dreams he'd been having since that night by the had noticed how at ease she seemed around him too. She and Naruto were the only ones who seemed to treat him as if he never left. He really appreciated that. It made him feel more at home in the leaf.

He also noticed the respect with which everyone in the hospital treated her. She was always referred to as "Haruno-*san*"or "Sakura-*san*". It made him wonder about how far Sakura had really come during his absence.

Putting those thoughts aside, Sasuke set to work on his task. He was really surprised by how messy her office was. Not just her desk, but everything was just cluttered with garbage and paperwork and things. Sasuke wondered if it was because Sakura was always too busy to clean, or if she was just a slob. The Uchiha decided it was probably the former concidering the fact that she had arrived at the hospital not fifteen minutes ago and they were already calling her in for some emergency.

*Sakura Haruno*

*3 Hours Later*

The med-nin sighed as she trudged back to her office with her shoulders sagging. She was glad she saved another life today but she was exhausted and starving because she had skipped breakfast this morning to make it to work on time.

Once at her office she opened the door and trudged towards the lounge on the left wall of her office. Sakura was completely oblivious to the the other person in her office because she was so tired from the operation she forgot about Sasuke.

She laid down on the lounge and was beginning to settle into the comfortable leather when she got the uneasy feeling she was beeing watched and that something was different. The woman sat up abruptly with her eyes wide open and looked around her office to realize her office was spotless. As she scanned the room viridian eyes came to a halt when they came across onyx ones.

She jumped a little in surprise at the sudden eye contact. She noticed he was sitting behind her desk with his elbows propped up and folded together under his chin. He looked deep in thought as he surveyed her.

Sakura began to feel a little uneasy at his intense gaze and decided to speak in order to break to tension.

"Hi Sasuke. I completely forgot you here. Arigatou. You didn't have to clean the whole office." She said, making sure to go back to having her professional mask on.

"Hn." Was all he replied and she took it, thinking that was all he was going to say.

"I figured you're too busy to do it yourself and since I am going to be assisting you I'd rather not work in a messy environment" He continued.

Sakura stared at him wide-eyed. She was certain that was the longest sentence she had ever heard coming out of the Uchiha's mouth and was kind of wishing she had recorded it.

She watched him her smirk at her surprise. Then, as if that wasn't already enough of a shock to her, he asked her a question.

"Have you eaten?" He questioned.

Sakura was still in shock from his first outburst so she was rendered completely speechless when he asked her a question. Especially considering the fact that it was about her. So, she just shook her head as she continued to stare at him. Her green eyes just watched as he narrowed his eyes at her. At that point she realized how silly she looked and composed herself. Putting on her professional mask again she waved her hand in the air in a nonchalant kind of way.

"I didn't have time for breakfast this morning and I was in a surgery for 3 hours straight this morning." She stated matter-of-factly.

He got up and walked around the desk towards the door. When he reached the door and noticed she was just staring at him unmovingly he turned his head and asked,

"Are you coming?"

"Going where?" She asked confused. Sasuke would never in a million years invite her to have lunch so that couldn't be what he was referring to.

"Ugh. Baka. To eat, where else." He replied rather rudely.

Sakura visibly bristled as her shock turned to aggravation. She appreciated his concern for her but hell would freeze over before she *ever* allowed the Uchiha (or anyone else for that matter) talk down to her.

"If you're going to ask me to lunch then the *least* you could do is ask nicely! I am not a mind reader Sasuke. And your past actions haven't really lead me to assume or even consider that you actually care about my health." She said as she put her hands on her hips and tried to hold back from punching him through her office door as she would have anyone else under these circumstances.

She watched his facial expression go from stern and indifferent to shock then hurt at her last sentence to then go back to his indifferent mask. It was subtle but Sakura was alot smarter than she was as a genin and picked up on it immediately. She was surprised though, Sakura didn't think Sasuke could be hurt by anything she said. It had always stuck in her mind that he didn't regret his decision in leaving the leaf. And that he didn't really care much about her. But if that were true, why would he be hurt by what she said?

*Sasuke Uchiha*

Sasuke watched with curious eyes as the small womenb in from of him bristled at his comment.

He hadn't expected her to say anything to him and was taken aback by her outburst. He watched with fascination as she put her hands on her hips and noticed how incredibly sexy the woman looked when she was angry. Her eyes seemed to shine brighter than before with a spark of determination and pride.

Then she brought up his past and Sasuke remembered how much he had hurt Sakura and felt a pang in his chest.

He realized at that moment that he hadn't even apologized to them for what he did and for some unknown reason felt the need to make it right.

"Gomen." He heard himself say as he lowered his gaze to the floor.

The usually unemotional Uchiha suddenly felt a surge of guilt flow through him. He knew he had wronged his friends and only now realized how undeserving he was of them.

After a long awkward silence to see Sakura dump-struck as she gaped at him. All the anger and fire she had just shown had completely dissipated into shock.

*Sakura Haruno*

NEVER in her entire existence did Sakura think she would hear an apology coming from *THE UCHIHA SASUKE*! And yet, here he was, saying it as if it was not the wierdest thing in the world. He even had the decency to look contrite as he apologized! As if he knew he was in the wrong!

*Well,* Sakura thought, *I guess some things do change*.

After her initial shock Sakura still couldn't get over what she had heard but was letting it go as it would surely anger the stoic man if she just kept acting suprised about everything he said.

"So, do you want to go get some lunch? Scratch that, you haven't had a thing to eat all day, just come on." He said with a smirk.

This time, Sakura just smiled and said "okay".

*Later That Night*

Sakura lay in her bed that night recalling the events of the day. Lunch with Sasuke had gone surprisingly pleasant. He wasn't very talkitive. Although, she didn't find that surprising. Just because he had said more than "Hn" to her in her office and apologized to her didn't mean he was all of a sudden conversationalist of the year.

However, it was pleasant in that he also wasn't brooding or sulking like he used to when they were younger. He even seemed content with himself.

*Sasuke Uchiha*

Sasuke was restless that night. He had shown Saskura more emotion than he thought he was capable of. The Uchiha felt he had done the right thing. He *knew* he had done the right thing. But he just couldn't shake off the feeling of being weak for showing those emotions. Sasuke had it so thoroughly engrained in him that emotions were a sign of weakness that, even now that the world was at peace and there was no need to always have his guard up, he was left in a state of mental turmoil after the little episode in Sakura's office. The raven-haired man berated himself for making such a big deal of this.

Why should he hide his feelings?

It's not like he was striving to get revenge anymore. He didn't have the need to be all powerful. But a part of his mind would always feel like he did. All those years of being surrounded by darkness hadn't left him unscathed.

Sasuke was determined to change that however. He had already decided to move on and live his life. There was so much he missed out on because of his crazy antics.

It was time the Uchiha learn to be human. To socialize and interact. And maybe, *just maybe*, if she should deem him worthy, he would try to find a woman to love and to love him in return. At that thought a picture of a pair of viridian eyes appeared in his mind.

*no*. Sasuke thought, his onyx eyes narrowing at the thought.

He would not go after her. He had hurt her far too much to be anything but a plague to her. Sasuke figured the only reason she was even decent with him was because she cared in the way she cares abobut everyone. The way she cares for her Shishou, or for Naruto and Kakashi. But to say that she still loved him the way she had once claimed would be a lie.

A/N: Review! :D

Slight NaruHina and InoShika next chapter :)