Hello everyone! Sorry it took me so long to update; I really couldn't find the time to. But the great thing is I'm now on spring break, meaning i'll get to update more, meaning you'll get to read more very soon. :) enjoy

Thank you to all my fans that reviewed; you reviewing really keeps my inspired to write; thank you.

Beginning Part 2

Chapter 19: Two years Later

disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

I love you now, and forever.

Kakashi

He stood outside the Snow Lord's castle; his pack resting causally on his shoulder. Glancing back to the steps, a silver haired young girl stood at the doors; she was crying.

"Pwease don't go, Kakashi-sensei!" The young girl cried out with tears; the girl was about six years old.

"I need to go, Lilly," Kakashi said as the little girl ran to him; he gave her a tight squeeze. "I told you, my Sakura is waiting."

"But I wov your stories about her," Lilly said while clutching him tightly to her.

"I promise I'll be back to visit," Kakashi said softly as his hand ran through her light hair. "I'll bring Sakura; I know you'd like that."

The six year old viscously nodded her head.

Kakashi smiled as he let the youngster go. "Good," Kakashi said with a wave. "I'll see you later then, Lilly. Be a good girl."

Lilly waved as Kakashi sprinted away from the castle; he wanted to get back to Konoha as soon as possible. Kakashi knew he had a lot of time to make up for; he just hoped he wasn't too late.

---

She stood outside of the village in her own personal training ground; Tsunade had given it to her on her fifteenth birthday. Tsunade had said that it was the one that she herself had trained in when she was Sakura's age.

Walking into the middle of the grounds, Sakura's fist was blazing with deep blue chakra; it was darker than it had been two years ago, when she had first started her training again with Tsunade.

Punching the ground, Sakura closed her eyes as she felt the deep crater form beneath her fist; it was breath taking how refreshing it was to be able to break things.

Sakura wiped the sweat off her forehead, and decided to leave the training ground; she had promised Tsunade she'd be at the tower an hour ago… time had passed by too quickly within these past two years…

Sakura ran to the tower at a brick pace, leaping over roof tops to get to her destination. It had been a long while since Sakura had thought about him… the one who caused her all this pain. She knew he was supposed to return soon… and so was Naruto.

After Kakashi and Naruto left, she didn't know what to do. After crying for several days straight Tsunade had broken down her door, and after a good ass kicking, offered to train Sakura again. Since that day forward, all she did was train. It had helped for a little while, but soon she realized she was lonely again, and it was all their faults.

When they came back, she didn't want to talk to them; she didn't want to be placed on a team with them again. She was afraid to deal with them because she was still so lonely; she didn't want to give in when she saw them.

Arriving at Tsunade's office, Sakura opened the door without knocking; Tsunade would know she was there. Walking in the room, Sakura bowed before looking her aunt in her eyes.

"Suna needs us right now," Tsunade stated with a bit of a rush. "Your previous teammates will meet you there; Sakura this is an S-ranked mission. The Kazekage of Suna has been attacked and kidnapped. Make it to Suna in under a day."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Sakura stated while bowing again. Without another word, Sakura had already fled the office.

Thinking back to what Tsunade had said about the mission, Sakura knew that it was Gaara who had been taken. She had met Gaara again on a mission to Suna earlier in the year to help improve Suna's medics. Gaara had apologized to her, and the two of them were at least on talking terms now.

Sprinting passed her apartment, Sakura knew she had to hurry. She had heard about the Akatsuki, and how they were trying to catch the tailed beasts… it was one of the organizations Sakura had heard about when researching Orochimaru.

Speaking of Orochimaru, her curse mark had changed over the passed couple months… she didn't quite understand why. The once small flower had changed into an intricate half necklace. The mark was halfway across her neck, and wasn't so small anymore… in fact it was starting to look more and more like the mark in her dream every day…

Sakura ignored the slight stinging sensation as she left the village; her curse mark always seemed to do that whenever she left. Placing a small amount of healing chakra into her hand, she brought that hand to her neck.

Sighing wistfully when the tingling drifted away, Sakura brought her hand back to her side and raced forward. She had to hurry… Suna was still a few hours sprint from Konoha. Closing her eyes, she was able to pump more chakra into her legs.

As she flew through the forest, Sakura refused to think about her teammates… she refused to think about the fact she was going to be meeting up with them soon. Racing forward, Sakura sucked in a deep breath as an image of Kakashi flashed through her mind; didn't she just tell herself she refused to think about them?

Trying to ignore the way the silver haired man's face crinkled as he seemed to smile at her, she pumped more chakra into her legs. It would be hard enough seeing him soon… Damn it! She was doing it again… her emotions were eating up her insides, and were completely confusing her to no end.

Biting the inside of her mouth, Sakura felt her curse mark flare before her emotions seemed to dwindle away. Sakura felt a slight lift in her power, and she seemed to focus back on what was really important. There was a task at hand; a mission to accomplish, she would worry about silly emotions later.

---

Kakashi smiled; he was almost home. Taking a deep breath, he pushed more chakra into his legs. His mind began to wander to the girl that had continuously plagued his mind during his mission; Sakura Haruno.

Had she grown into that beautiful forehead of hers? Did she still emit an innocent aura? Kakashi had to smile when he knew the answers to both of those questions; yes, she had, he knew she had to.

Jumping from one tree branch to another, Kakashi paused momentarily as he spied a hawk in the sky; a messenger hawk from Konoha. Taking a breath, Kakashi leaned on one knee and waited for the hawk to descend.

The hawk swooped down and rested on Kakashi's shoulder, there was a scroll attached to the bird's neck. Kakashi took the scroll off the hawk, and watched the chocolate brown hawk fly quickly away.

Opening the scroll, Kakashi sighed deeply. Tsunade would put him on another mission just before he could return home… she didn't even let him enter the village. He couldn't blame the Hokage though… this mission did look important.

Placing the scroll in a side pouch, Kakashi turned his body around and started to head east toward Suna.

You know, Kakashi really couldn't blame Tsunade for sending him on the mission to Snow, either. Things had gotten too heated too fast between he and Sakura… she was only thirteen at the time.

Kakashi shook his head as his mind began to wonder to the pink haired girl again. She was now fifteen, soon to be sixteen in a few short months… sixteen was the legal age in Konoha for drinking, smoking, and of course… other things.

Smirking to himself lightly, Kakashi decided to sprint a little faster. He was worried though… what if she had found herself another man? Kakashi would be nothing but happy for her, but he would also be crushed.

He had been longing for the girl for over two years… he hadn't even properly said goodbye to her; he'd just left a stupid note she could have possibly not seen.

Sighing deeply, Kakashi raced forward. He would enter the Wind country within the hour; he was curious though. Tsunade said that he would meet up with his teammates there; would that mean he got to see Sakura sooner? He sure hoped so…

---

Sakura entered the village as the sun began to set; she had made incredible time in her trek from the Fire country to the Wind. The Sand shinobi on guard didn't even have time to stop her, as Sakura raced through the gate. Maybe this was how Gaara had been taken… a lack of defense from the guards could be a downfall.

Sakura slowed her run to a slight jog as she watched very few people walk around the village. She stopped when she saw Temari racing toward her; was she crying?

"Sakura, please, I need your help!" Temari yelled to the pink haired girl. "Kankuro was poisoned and none of our medics can deal with it."

Sakura nodded her head as she followed the sandy blonde haired woman to the hospital. Sakura had been there before, like she said earlier, several months ago she had been on a mission to help out the Suna hospital. She allowed Temari to lead her, because she didn't know where Kankuro's room was.

"He's on the first floor," Temari slightly panted as she tried to catch her breath. Sakura could tell the woman had gotten very few hours of sleep… both of her brothers were taken from her… It was Sakura's job to get both of them back. "Room 113."

"Don't worry Temari-san," Sakura said as she touched Temari on the head. Sakura allowed a little bit of relaxing chakra to be sent from her body to Temari's. "I'll do the best I can."

Temari nodded slowly, and smiled softly. She sat down on a chair in the waiting room with a large, tired yawn. Running passed Temari, Sakura noticed two elderly people glaring lightly at her. Sakura shrugged, and entered room 113. She blinked slowly as she saw the poor male before her.

Kankuro withered with pain as she walked up to his bed. Sakura placed a light green chakra infused hand over Kankuro's head. She soothed his high fever as she placed her other glowing hand on Kankuro's stomach.

"Nurse," Sakura called to the nurse in the room; Sakura didn't even look up to notice the girl was there. "I need several bowls, hot water, and a particular ointment; the jasmine one mixed with green tea leaves."

"Hai, Sakura-sama," the nurse nodded as she left the room. Sakura sucked in a deep breath as she placed both hands on Kankuro's stomach.

It was worse than she thought. Even though Temari hadn't mentioned anything about the poison, Sakura had figured it wouldn't have been this severe. This had to be the work of one of the Akatsuki, meaning Kankuro had tried to go after them after they had kidnapped Gaara.

"Stupid," Sakura muttered under her breath as the nurse entered the room with the items she had requested. Sakura kept one hand on Kankuro, as she lead the other to the hot water. Mixing the water and ointment, Sakura was able to mold them together with her chakra. Sakura allowed the mixture to take the form of a giant bubble, she smiled slightly before turning to the nurse again.

"Hold him down," Sakura stated with authority. The nurse nodded and grabbed Kankuro's arms. The guard that stood outside the room walked in, and helped hold down Kankuro's legs.

"I'm sorry," Sakura said softly as she pressed the mixture bubble against Kankuro's stomach. Kankuro instantly started to thrash at the invasion inside his body; Sakura's other hand held down his chest as she kept her other arm precisely where it needed to be.

After a few seconds, Sakura recoiled her arm, and the mixture withdrew from his body. Observing it under the light, Sakura noticed a dark purpley-black substance in the midst of it. Placing it in the other bowl, Sakura grabbed some more mixture of hot water and ointment.

"Only a few more times, Kankuro," Sakura said softly as she placed the mixture inside his body again. "I promise."

---

He had made it. Kakashi Hatake had made it to Suna in under 2 hours; it had to be some kind of a record. He slowed his sprint into a walk as he walked passed the Suna gate; was it just him, or was security a little lacking? He couldn't see a guard anywhere...

Shrugging his shoulders, Kakashi decided he'd go to the hospital first. Tsunade had stated in her letter there had been casualties and severely injured people… If Sakura arrived first, he knew that would be the place to find her, and even if she didn't arrive first; that was the first place she was going to be.

Changing his slow walk into a light jog, Kakashi raced through the streets of Suna. Sensing for any kind of chakra, he turned west, and then proceeded to head straight. If there were ninjas to the west, that meant that was where the hospital was… no wonder the guarding had appeared to be weakened; they were all guarding the hospital.

It was obvious something horrible happened here; Kakashi could feel the chakra signatures in the hospital; there were several that were barely clinging on to life. Shacking his head, Kakashi picked up his pace a little bit; the sooner he arrived at the hospital, the sooner he'd get to see Sakura.

Racing forward with a new start, Kakashi stopped once he reached a large white building; it was obviously a hospital, even without the red cross on the outside of the building.

He entered the establishment quickly, and was soon greeted with the smiling face of Temari.

"She did it!" Temari practically sang when she saw him. "Sakura was able to cure my brother of the poison!"

"Sakura?" Kakashi asked with a happy tone. She was here, she was safe. His heart started to flutter.

"Hatake-sensei." A cold feminine voice acknowledge from the hallway.

Wait, that couldn't be his Sakura, could it?