Chapter 3

Not Anymore

The dark haired man slowly approached his pink haired teammate, having extricated himself from the tree he had been hiding behind earlier. He had watched everything that had transpired between his blonde teammate and the Medic, a pang of guilt ringing in his heart after all had been said and done between the two. Ever since Naruto had stormed off earlier and left him to his own devices in a foul mood, Sai had followed closely behind the blonde man, unsure whether he would be able to talk to Sakura clearly with the current state he was in. He couldn't have been more right. As he watched the exchange of words between the two teammates, unable to do anything since he knew that it was none of his place to intervene, Sai realized just how much the argument held for the two best friends. It was his first time seeing them argue ever since he had joined Team Seven, the time in the Land of Iron not counting since back then both of them seemed to be hiding something from each other, but this time, everything had been laid bare. It certainly wasn't pretty, Sai reminisced, his footsteps coming to a halt behind the pink haired girl.

Sakura herself was certainly none the better, her tears coming out in rivulets and she making no attempts to stop them as they escaped her eyes. She was already at the end of her grief, the words from her teammate still ringing in her ears and stinging her anew each time she remembered them. She had tried her hardest to remain strong from the moment he had turned his back to her and vacated the premises, but it was too much for her to remain herself. Giving in to her agony, Sakura cried…and cried.

The sound of halting footsteps behind her brought her to the realization that there was someone behind her, and she was caught off guard. Her first thought, of course, was that it was her dark haired superior, appearing to check up on her after she had taken an awfully long time outside with Naruto. She did not relish the thought of being seen in her current grief-stricken state, so hastily, she wiped her eyes with her hands as she spoke up to the person standing behind her," I'll be back inside in a minute, Shizune-san."

"Sakura…" the person behind her spoke softly.

The Medic was startled by the voice, recognizing it as not belonging to Shizune but to her other male teammate. She had not expected him to show up just then, wondering what business he had come seeking her for.

Turning her back to face him, she regarded him with her emerald eyes, her eyes still showing dark outlines under them which would no doubt betray that she had been crying earlier, but she decided that she would best hide that fact as much as possible from the dark haired man. "Sai," she started," what are you doing here?" Her voice came out husky as the words escaped her palate.

As she regarded him with her emerald gaze, Sakura could not help but notice that there was a solemn expression on his visage. Putting two and two together, she realized that it was a look of concern, which had probably stemmed from having seen her and Naruto argue earlier. It was not exactly confirmed fully, so she proceeded to ask in a tentative voice.

"You saw?" Something in her told her that she already knew the answer before it escaped his lips. His brusque nod just then all but confirmed it for her, but she felt a certain sense of relief with the knowledge that he saw for himself. It spared her the sadness she would relive by explaining it to him, as she did not want to recount such an event when the grief stayed afresh in her heart.

The pink haired girl realized that she did not wish to talk to anyone at the moment in her current state, so she made to excuse herself from the dark haired man's presence and head back into the tent. Whilst she was sure that with time she would heal her broken heart, she wanted to avoid thinking about her blonde teammate for a while. Hopefully, the work she was about to endorse herself in would distract her enough to those ends, she reminisced, as she headed back to the front of the tent where her Master still lay on her bed.

As she took a few steps away, however, her dark haired teammate spoke up to her once more, "Um….you can talk to me if you want. I'll lend an ear."

Sakura was taken aback by the show of concern she had just received from the dark haired man, having never seen that side of him before. Still, she was glad that he was expressing worry for her, so she looked back at him, a fond smile on her face that she had mustered with as much sincerity as possible as she reassured him," It's okay, Sai. I'll be able to handle things with Naruto."

Sai was not satisfied with that, feeling a growing sense of discomfort inside him. He closed his eyes a little as if trying to abate the negative feeling, turning his head to the side a little as he tried recomposing his thoughts. A fraction of a second later, he opened his eyes once more then rested his dark gaze on the pink haired girl, finally speaking up," Things weren't supposed to go like this. I'm sorry."

Confusion was evident on the girl's face as her teammate's words sunk into her. She tilted her head to the side, her arms resting across her chest as she regarded the Root member. At that moment a chord struck in her, as she came to the realization that Sai had been acting a bit off for someone who had only witnessed two of his teammates fighting. Fighting amongst teammates of course, was not something that was unheard of, meaning that it need not be made a big issue as Sai was making it look like at the moment. Besides, it was uncommon for him to display such a high level of worry over something unless it was something really important.

"What's going on Sai?" She was prompted to ask him, her confusion not waning in the slightest.

The dark haired man wasted no time in responding this time, saying in a curt manner," I told Naruto the truth of why you went to the Land of Iron in the first place."

The Medic simply raised her eyebrows in mild surprise, finally piecing the events together. "Oh," she muttered weakly, being the only response to come out of her mouth, finding herself at a loss of what to say.

Sai was astonished at what he deemed a lackluster response from her. After seeing how she had lashed out at Naruto earlier, he was certain that he would get the same treatment, since he was technically the one that had brought on all this in the first place. His tone took on an uncertain nature as he spoke up," You aren't going to get angry at me? I thought you were going to react the same way you did at Naruto earlier." As he spoke to the pink haired girl, he could not help but notice that her anger at Naruto earlier had been different from the way she was angry at him in the Land of Iron. He wondered if there lay any special meaning behind it.

Sighing a little due to exhaustion, Sakura's face took on a resigned look as she looked at the ground beneath her. Placing one hand on her arm, she says in a tone mirroring the expression on her face," There's no need to do that. All you did was told him the truth. There's no way I would resent you for that."

A small sense of relief washed over Sai at this response, but he did not allow it to linger long. Looking at Sakura, he could not help but notice that she was in a bit of a depressed mood. She seemed as if she still had more she wanted to get off her chest, and it would be uncouth for him to leave without at least trying to comfort his teammate. Deciding against his earlier decision, the dark haired man decided to stay with her a little longer until she was out of her somber mood. It was the least he could do to make amends, he reflected, proceeding to stand beside her.

A few moments of silence ensued, putting Sai in a bit of an uncomfortable mood, so he decided to try and break the ice," Sakura…"

This time, however, he was not allowed to complete his sentence, as Sakura interrupted almost immediately, talking to herself more than anything," It's just, I don't understand. Why would he get angry over something like that?" Silence took the air around the two once more, and Sai took it as a cue that she was waiting for some sort of response, although he was not sure from whom exactly. He complied nonetheless.

"I think a part of me understands. Well, he's wanted to tell you for a long time now, and I kind of ruined all that."

The Medic spoke up again, "Is it really something that simple? He was acting as if he wanted me to forget all of it."

"And with perfectly good reason too. Sakura, he knows how you've always felt about Sasuke all these years. He didn't want you to feel guilty for not returning his feelings. No matter how much it would hurt him. You know he's that kind of a person."

The pink haired girl gasped at this response, astonished as to how she had not seen such a fact before. Of course, she thought, it would be so Naruto-like to think in that manner. She responded," Why does he always bring up Sasuke-kun whenever his feelings pop up?" She had paid it no heed before, but with the recurrent nature it had taken of late, she realized she could not pay it a mind anymore.

Sai's tone took on a serious nature this time," Sakura, you saw how you acted when Sasuke was branded an international criminal. And he did too. What do you think he was supposed to make of that?"

Sakura was rendered speechless for what seemed the umpteenth time that day. "I-"she started, but stopped as the words she wished to say got stuck in her throat.

Sai was not quite done yet," Sakura, there's something I didn't tell you. Once you left with the others to go deal with Sasuke, I talked to Naruto and told him the truth. You wanted to kill Sasuke because you couldn't bear to watch him turn evil and were committed to him, right?"

A tinge of irritation was slowly growing in the pink haired girl, which she guiltily realized was due to the truth of the matter as it was back then. Still, she realized, things had changed drastically from what they were back then. She wasted no time in voicing her protests," Yeah, you're right…But not anymore!" Her voice had grown a tad higher with the last part of the statement, all traces of her earlier negativity seemingly having ebbed away.

As soon as she had completed her retort just then, Sakura realized with a shock that Naruto was aware of all of this, all that she had been discussing with Sai. Her heart sunk inside her as she surmised that unknowingly, she and Sai had crushed any hopes Naruto had of winning her over. Placing a hand over her mouth in shock, she said underneath her breath," I think I did something horrible." Her eyes trailed back to the ground beneath her, and tears threatened to spill out of them again. She was not sure whether she would be able to restrain herself this time as well.

To her surprise, however, she felt a strong pair of arms on her shoulders, the force bringing her out of her stupor, and the next thing she knew her dark haired teammate was ahead of her and looking at her fiercely with his dark eyes. He said in a stern manner," No, Sakura, you haven't. Listen to me; you need to go see him one more time, properly. Talk to him and make sure he listens. Because at this rate I don't think things are going to ever be the same between you two."

The pinkette merely looked at her teammate silently with her green orbs, and then, withdrawing both her hands from her mouth, she managed a brusque nod before taking off.

A/N: Well, here is the second last chapter, since next chapter will be the full resolution of things between Naruto and Sakura. Again, I hope this chapter turned out okay; it's still my first time writing on the angst genre, so well I pray that things are going okay so far. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows so far! Stay tuned for next chapter!