It was always nice returning to Konoha after a mission, regardless of the mission's length or difficulty. There was something almost heartwarming about how the gates always seemed to be thrown open wide, like outstretched arms waiting to welcome you back, and there was a certain sense of security that enveloped you as you made your way down the streets where you'd run and played as a child, all the well-known sights and smells caressing your senses with their comforting familiarity.

It was times like that that the entire village felt like home.

Sakura could think of few times that she'd been happier to see those wide-open and welcoming gates. She was tired and hungry, and that quick dip in the stream two nights ago had been less than satisfactory, though at least she'd had a chance to scrub the dye out of her hair. Yes, she thought, her pace quickening slightly at the sight of the lights glimmering just through that tall stone arch, a hot shower followed by a nice, long soak was in order. Food could wait...or could it? As she pondered this, she felt her stomach give a low growl and sighed. No, food definitely came first.

Once all three of them had stepped inside the gates--the official end of the mission--Naruto let out a happy whoop. "See ya around, Sakura-chan!" he shouted to her over his shoulder, waving at her with his whole arm as he sprinted off. She smiled, knowing that he was heading straight for the Hyuuga manor. That reminded her of her other companion, and she turned to look up at Neji, who was still standing silently and motionlessly at her side. "I'm sure you'll be seeing him later, Neji-san. I'm pretty sure he was going to see your cousin."

"Lucky me," Neji snorted lightly, though the slight curve of his lips belied the displeasure in his tone.

Both stood in silence for a while, Sakura feeling increasingly awkward with each passing moment. "Well," she said at last, unable to stand the unusual tension any longer, "I guess I should get going. It was nice to work with you again, Neji-san," she said with a bright smile and a quick bow. Without really waiting for his response, she turned to go—then froze as a gentle hand suddenly caught her shoulder. She paused, then turned to face him again, curiosity reflecting in her jade eyes.

"Haruno…are you hungry?"

She blinked, then nodded, feeling her stomach rumble again and hoping it had been quiet enough to go undetected.

"Would you like to get something to eat?" He gave her that faint, almost shy, smile, and she felt something flutter oddly in her chest.

She smiled back up at him. "I'd love to, Neji-san."

His small smile remained in place as he started off down the street. "Where were you thinking of eating?"

"I don't know," she said, falling into step beside him. "Probably Ichiraku, or maybe somewhere else quick and cheap."

"What would you say to sushi?"

"Don't really have the money for the good stuff," she admitted with a grimace. She'd been helping to support her mother for a while now, and that always took a considerable chunk out of her paychecks, regardless of how much she worked.

He raised an eyebrow. "I'll pay."

"Really?" She looked up at him eagerly; it had been a while since she'd had good sushi. "Deal!"

Neji let out a quiet chuckle. "You're too easy, Haruno."

"Are you kidding me? Who turns down free sushi?"

"Who indeed?" He smiled down at her smugly. "But you're still too easy, Haruno..."

She gave him an arch glance. "Oh? How so?"

"Well, apparently all that one needs to do to ask you out is to make you an offer you can't refuse."

She had to think about that one for a moment, but by the time her brain had isolated the phrase to ask you out, they were already at the restaurant. It was a nice, rather traditional-looking place, with low tables and zabuton cushions walled off in separate, raised booths. The air smelled of smoke, spices, and of course fish, though the latter was mercifully faint.

So...is this...a date? Sakura wondered as she settled herself on the cushion across from Neji. I mean, is it a real date, or was he just teasing me again? As she was sitting directly across from him, there was no way for her to even attempt taking a covert glance at the handsome man in front of her. She'd already learned her lesson about that, in any case: no matter how sneaky she thought she was being, he would notice. He always did. So instead she looked straight at him, meeting his gaze plainly as she asked, "So...what's the point of the, ahem, monetary encouragement this time? Is it somehow for my own good again?"

"Decidedly," he replied, calmly taking a sip of the tea their server had just placed before them.

"Care to elaborate?"

"No, not particularly," the Hyuuga said with the usual slight smirk, though Sakura thought that the expression seemed somehow...softer. And despite the fact that she knew he knew that she was watching him, she found it very difficult to force her eyes away from the intriguing gentleness currently displayed on his face.

Sakura had often wondered why she hadn't really taken any special notice of the Hyuuga prodigy until recently--he was undeniably handsome, and from Konoha's oldest and most illustrious family as well, and because of her medic-nin duties, she had known for a long while that his body was just as stunning as his face, all lean, corded muscle, hard angles, and flat planes.

What, then, had kept her from choosing Neji as her new object of affection after Sasuke had left?

She figured that it had something to do with all the similarities she had initially seen between Neji and Sasuke (and though she still found them similar in some ways, she now knew that there were vast differences there as well): after her experience with the Uchiha heir, she had not been particularly eager to latch onto another human ice cube. Once bitten, twice shy, and all that.

So what was going on now?

I'm going to have to talk to Ino about this, Sakura resolved as she forced her eyes away at last, albeit a bit reluctant in her resolution. The blonde girl was quite popular with the male portion of Konoha and knew a lot about love, or relationships at least, but she was also the biggest gossip Sakura knew. She would have to be very careful about what she told Ino, or soon (perhaps ten minutes or so after she and Ino parted ways) all of Konoha would be buzzing with the news that Haruno Sakura secretly had the hots for Hyuuga Neji.

"Sakura."

Neji's voice broke in on her private thoughts, and she stopped staring blankly at her menu to glance across the table at him questioningly.

The Hyuuga inclined his head, his eyes flicking somewhere behind her. "At the door. Isn't that Kakashi-senpai?"

"What?" Sakura said, twisting about in her seat. "Oh, yeah, it is--Kakashi-sensei!" she called, waving at the silver-haired jounin enthusiastically.

He appears to be looking for something, Neji thought as he watched the older man continue to scan the room, finally stopping once his gaze rested on their table. Or perhaps someone.

In a matter of moments, Kakashi was standing beside their table, confirming Neji's suspicions. "Hello, Sakura-chan," he said lightly, sliding into the booth across from his former student and seating himself almost on top of Neji, forcing the visibly displeased Hyuuga to move to the back of the table.

Before the white-eyed ANBU captain could make any sharp comments, their server arrived to take their orders. "Neji's paying," Sakura chirped when Kakashi declined placing an order of his own, but the masked man just gave another shake of his head.

"Actually, I'm surprised to see you out and about, sensei," she went on, glad for the break in the unusual atmosphere that had been developing between Neji and herself (though at the same a little annoyed at the date-crashing). "You're usually so antisocial. Take-out seems more like your style."

Kakashi just chuckled as he pulled a well-worn copy of the first book in the Icha Icha series out of his hip bag. "It is, but I tend to make exceptions for special occasions."

"Eh? Special occasions?" She frowned slightly, trying to remember if there was something special about the day's date--then wondering if the date with Neji was the special occasion. But Kakashi had never interrupted any of her dates before…and there had been more than a few that she would've been glad to see cut short.

"Yes, what 'special occasion' merits us the pleasure of your presence?"

Kakashi looked up from his book long enough to meet Neji's quietly angry gaze with one of his trademark calm, blank stares, gave a slow blink, then returned his attention to the book in his hand, leaving the Hyuuga silently fuming. He was doing this on purpose, that much Neji knew; he had to be. But what was the purpose, what was the cause behind it all?

He turned those questions over in the back of his mind as Sakura restarted the conversation between them, though with Kakashi's presence shattering their privacy and dampening his mood, Neji reverted to his usual coolly detached manner, with Kakashi seemingly ignoring the both of them in favor of his reading material of choice; needless to say, Sakura was left to carry the conversation, which she did admirably, though she certainly didn't miss the faint lines of irritation pinching Neji's brow or the brief half-glances Kakashi gave her every three pages or so.

Thankfully, their food didn't take long to arrive, and despite his earlier refusal, Kakashi helped himself to a good bit of it, carefully keeping his book in front of his face the entire time; once a large portion of the food was gone (most notably the eel, which Neji had ordered and which Kakashi had eaten most of), the silver-haired jounin suddenly snapped his book shut and stood, mask already settled in place once more.

Sakura blinked at him. "You're leaving? Now?"

"Yep. Wouldn't want to intrude, after all," he said, turning one of his overly-cheerful one-eyed smiles on the still cold-faced Neji. "Anyway, I just wanted to drop by to pass along some interesting information." There was nothing insincere in his smile this time as he continued, "Sasuke missed you."

"Sasuke missed you. He'd never admit as much, of course…but I just thought you should know, Sakura-chan."

Sakura sat across from Ino at their usual table in their favorite sweet shop, absently stirring her iced sweet tea with her straw, setting the ice cubes spinning and clinking against the glass. The blonde was busily chatting with the server about something or other, allowing Sakura another chance to mull over the events of the previous evening. Neji had escorted her home after they'd finished their meal and shared another pot of tea, but though he'd still been perfectly civil, he'd seemed more distant than he'd been before Kakashi had stopped by their table. Truth be told, she'd probably been somewhat distant herself, startled as she'd been by what Kakashi had said.

Sasuke had missed her. She couldn't help but smile slightly at that, especially since she knew that Kakashi wouldn't have gone to the trouble of telling her if he hadn't been 100% sure that it was the truth.

She chewed thoughtfully on her straw. How had Kakashi known that, though? He was pretty sneaky, even for a ninja, but prying personal information out of Sasuke was like trying to squeeze water from a stone, and generally not half as rewarding. Then again, Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun always did have a special sort of bond…both Sharingan-users, both hailed as prodigies, both growing up alone as the last of their clan…

"Hey, Forehead, what's with that serious face? I thought you said you wanted to talk about a guy."

Jerked back to her present surroundings by Ino's sudden intrusion on her thoughts, Sakura managed half a smile as she nodded. "Yeah, I did."

"You want to talk about a specific guy?" The blonde's excitement was obvious, and she put a sly emphasis on the word specific, making it sound more than a little suggestive. It had been a while since Sakura had come to her with something like this--she'd probably been worried that Ino would try to steal the guy for herself…which she very well might have done at one time, depending on who it was; but those times were long past, especially since the curvaceous Yamanaka girl basically had her pick of Konoha's young men. She didn't need to steal anyone else's prospective boyfriends, and besides, other than Sasuke (and maybe Sai for a short time), her taste in men had proved vastly different from Sakura's.

Sakura fought back a grimace; it had still seemed like a good idea when she'd invited Ino to lunch this morning, but now that it came down to it, she wasn't entirely certain she wanted to tell Ino about what might or might not be developing between herself and Neji. Might as well. It's too late to back out now. "Yeah..."

Ino leaned closer, eyes gleaming eagerly. "Soooo...who is it? Is it Sasuke?"

"No." Like I'd tell her about THAT, especially since I haven't even seen Sasuke-kun yet. Sakura looked down at her hands, a sudden feeling of embarrassment and uncertainty stealing over her. "It's...Neji."

Sakura wasn't really sure what kind of reaction she'd been expecting, but wild, unrestrained laughter certainly wasn't it.

"Neji?" Ino finally managed to gasp out. "Hyuuga Neji?"

"Yes," Sakura said, irritated by her friend's laughter. "Who else?"

"Anyone else! Oh, wow," the blonde said, wiping a tear from her eye.

The pink-haired girl scowled. "I don't see what's so funny."

"Oh, Sakura, how can you not?" Giggles still periodically interrupted Ino's speech, which Sakura found more than a little annoying. "The guy is absolutely frigid. I don't think I've ever seen him look at a woman twice."

Sakura bit her lip and frowned as she thought back to their most recent mission. They had been surrounded by a large number of scantily-clad females, and yet she suddenly realized that she couldn't remember seeing Neji's gaze linger on any of them for more than a brief moment. (His eyes had, in fact, been fixed on Sakura herself most of the time, but she'd missed nearly all of his long, surreptitious looks, or else written them off as acting for their assumed roles.) "Well, I suppose it's true that he's, er...rather reserved..."

"Sakura, he's practically untouchable!" The blonde leaned even closer, her voice taking on the distinct tone that Sakura recognized as Ino's 'gossip voice'. "In fact, I talked about it with Tenten the other day, and...I don't think he's ever really seriously dated anyone."

Sakura felt her conviction on the matter wavering. "Really?" she asked uncertainly. It was true that she'd never seen him around with any girl other than Tenten, Hinata, or Hanabi (she conveniently left herself out of her considerations), but she certainly hadn't thought that he never went out with anyone ever. "Are you sure?"

"Well, have you ever seen him with a girl?"

"No, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been out with one!"

Ino gave her a clearly patronizing smile. "Trust me, Forehead...if he had ever been out with anyone more than once and it looked at all serious, I would have heard about it."

Sakura snorted. "The gossip network of Yamanaka Ino is still alive and well, I see."

"You betcha," the blonde said with a mischievous wink.

The medic-nin gave a quiet chuckle. "So then, what's the inside scoop on Hyuuga Neji?"

Ino gave an offhanded shrug. "Near as I can tell, he isn't interested in women."

Sakura's eyes widened. "Surely you're not saying that you think he's—"

"Well, no, not exactly," Ino cut in quickly, "but you have to admit it's kind of suspicious. Tenten said he turned her down when she asked him out a few years back, and he did it again a few months ago when she asked him a second time. And," she said solemnly, as if this fact in particular sealed the deal, "he didn't even take a good look at me when I tried to seduce him during our first chuunin exam."

"He was thirteen years old! A lot of boys don't even like girls at that age!" Sakura protested, rolling her eyes and taking a long sip of her iced tea; then the second half of Ino's sentence actually sunk in, and her eyes snapped back up. "Wait, you did what now?"

Ino, who had the good sense to look somewhat abashed, glanced away quickly, waving it off. "Oh, it was nothing...and like I said, it didn't work anyway."

"You tried to seduce him?" Sakura's voice rose shrilly.

"No! ...Okay, well, maybe sorta."

The medic-nin gaped at her openly. "Ino, you were twelve!"

The blonde gave her a wicked grin. "Yeah, so?"

A tired sigh was Sakura's only reply.

"Why the sudden interest?" Ino asked after a moment.

"Oh, no reason," the medic-nin replied casually, only to be met with a look from her childhood friend that clearly stated that the blonde wasn't buying it. "…What?"

"You're not getting away that easily, Billboard Brow. You have to have some reason for asking…" Slowly one pale eyebrow arched upwards, the toothy grin reappearing as well. "Haruno Sakura, are you in love with Hyuuga Neji?" she demanded rather too loudly for Sakura's liking, slamming her hands down on the table and earning a few curious glances from the people sitting nearby.

"Ino! Shh!" the pink-haired girl gasped in dismay, unable to quell the sudden, embarrassed flush spreading across her cheeks.

Ino took this as all the proof she needed. "You are!" she crowed, jabbing an accusing finger and sprawling backwards in her chair in a second fit of uncontrollable laughter.

Sakura scowled and took a quick swat at her friend's arm. "Ino, no! Well, that is, I…I'm not sure." Her scowl changed to a faint frown of uncertainty as she pressed her hands to her still-flushed cheeks.

"Hey, I don't really blame you," Ino shrugged after her second burst of laughter had faded away. "He is some hot stuff. So," she leaned forward with a sly grin, "how do you plan on ensnaring him?"

This conversation was not going at all the way that Sakura had hoped it would.

"Look, you've got it all wrong," Sakura said, shaking her head and inwardly bracing herself to endure a third eruption of Ino's obnoxiously loud laughter. "I wanted to talk to you about Neji because…well, because I think that he might like me."

This statement was greeted with stunned silence and a wide-eyed stare from Ino—once again definitely not the reaction that Sakura had expected.

"Say something," she snapped at last. "Is it really that unbelievable? That someone besides Naruto or Lee might possibly like me?"

"Well, no," Ino said at last, still looking rather taken aback, "of course it's not unbelievable that someone might like you, but…"

"But what?" Sakura demanded.

"But…Neji?" The blonde shook her head slowly. "Sorry, I just…don't see that ever happening."

Sakura drew herself up, suddenly and surprisingly angry at her oldest friend's skepticism. "No? Well then, why is he constantly around me for no real reason--so much so that even Naruto has noticed it?"

"You're both in ANBU, and you're friends—" the blonde began, but Sakura cut her off.

"And how do you explain all the teasing he's been doing lately?"

Ino shook her head firmly. "He's just flirting, Forehead, and you're old enough to know not to take that kind of thing seriously—"

"And," Sakura said triumphantly, "what would you call what happened last night—when he invited me out for sushi and paid for it, saying that apparently all one needs to do to ask me out is to make me an offer I can't refuse?"

Ino blinked in surprise. "He said that?"

"Yup," the medic-nin nodded, more than a hint of smugness in her smile. "Sounds kinda like a date, doesn't it?"

"Well, did he ever call it that?" the blonde said with a dubious frown.

All the confidence in Sakura's expression promptly crumpled. "No…and that's why I'm confused. That's why I wanted to ask you about all this. So…" she raised pensive green eyes to her friend's thoughtful face. "What do you think?" She hoped she didn't sound too hopeful.

"Did he walk you home after you ate together? And did he seem to want you to invite him in?"

"Yes, of course he walked me home…and…I don't know. He's hard to read sometimes--almost as bad as Sasuke." And sometimes even worse, when he wants to be.

Ino gave a quiet hum of contemplation. "Most guys make it pretty obvious when they want something more, but considering how formal his family is about everything, it might be against some weird clan rules for him to be too forward." She gave a sudden snort of laughter. "So I guess the only way you'll know is if his uncle issues a formal edict giving you permission to marry his nephew or something."

"Ino…"

"Alright, I know you're serious about this, but you have to admit that would be funny. Still, I wouldn't read too much into it, Sakura…he's probably just trying to be nice."

Sakura dropped her eyes to her glass again, watching one of the drops of condensation beading the outside trickle slowly downwards. "I know…" She couldn't help feeling a little disappointed, but Ino's comments had echoed her own substantial doubts. What had she been thinking, reading into things like that? After all, what could someone like him possibly see in her, anyway? As shinobi, they were easily equals, of course, but as far as bloodlines were concerned, they were a total mismatch; the Haruno clan was one of the most inconsequential clans in the Village--they didn't even have any special family jutsu to pass down, much less a kekkei genkai.

"--But hey, that doesn't mean you can't go still go for him if you want him," Ino went on with another predatory grin, then she seemed to shift tracks completely. "That reminds me, I saw this kimono the other day that would be just perfect for you--you never did get those mitarashi sauce stains out of your other formal kimono, did you?"

Sakura shook her head negatively, which seemed to decide things for Ino, who plunked down enough money to cover both their bills before dragging Sakura out of the shop and down the streets toward wherever it was that she'd seen that 'just perfect' kimono. Sakura let herself be dragged along--she had been meaning to get a new kimono for a while now, and Ino's fashion sense was generally right on the mark, and she was thankful that Ino had provided her own diversion; she didn't know what she would've said if the blonde had pressed her for details about how things were going with Sasuke. She wasn't ready to tell Ino about what Kakashi had said, especially after the last few rumors about her and Sasuke that had been spread around Konoha.

I guess I'll have to go see Sasuke and figure it out for myself. Something in her balked at that idea though, the part of her that feared and hated the constant rejection she'd received almost continuously ever since she'd decided at the age of seven that Uchiha Sasuke was the love of her life, the part that hid away little bits of all the pain and sorrow it had caused her over the years. Don't risk it again, it whispered. Friendship is enough, and it's more than you expected, so don't get greedy. You'll ruin it all and just end up hurt again. It's not worth it.

…Friendship is enough… As much as she wanted that to be true, Sakura wasn't sure that it was; it never had been before, after all…and regardless of the risk, she knew that knowing for certain was worth it, and even the possibility of yet another rejection couldn't change her mind about that. She had to know…but this time, she wouldn't go looking for Sasuke.

This time, she'd try letting Sasuke come to her first.