Midnight struck and the two were face to face alone on the Konoha streets. The kunoichi slightly looked down as she was shy to say her confession to the man before her. Sasuke had just gotten back from his journey and now she was determined to say her true feelings and hopefully get an answer from him.

"S-Sasuke I…I've been wanting to tell you something for awhile now.." she began.

The man only looked at her with his same expressionless face.

"Well I…I wanted to express my true feelings to you once and for all…"

Still nothing.

"I…love you…I always have! I know you know that, but I wanted you to hear it again. I never lost faith in you and I always worried about you…so…with that being said…what are your own feelings? Do you share anything for me?"

Sasuke looked at her with his blank expression with no sign of change.

"You're annoying. I will never return your feelings."

Those words struck her through the heart and the next thing she knew he had driven a sword through her chest. Everything went black, but the screams had only begun.

…

Sakura woke up from her dream with a fright. Her body was slightly sweaty and her breathing was a bit hitched. The gravity of the nightmare caused her to curl into a fetal position and begin to cry until she grew exhausted and fearfully fell asleep once again.

…

The morning of departure was here. The night seemed to be endless for Sakura. The four members of the team Kakashi assigned made sure to be ready by the time the sun was half way up into the sky. Sasuke, Sakura, and Hinata were all at the gate entrance to Konoha.

"I hope Naruto gets here alright…" Hinata spoke in her soft voice.

"I bet he overslept…that idiot," Sakura sighed.

Sasuke looked ahead and saw the yellow haired goof running their way. He pointed at his direction so the two kunoichis can see. Naruto stopped in his tracks as soon as he reached his group, panting with his hands on his knees.

"S-Sorry I'm late! I-I uh…. overslept…" he said once he caught his breath, scratching the back of his head. He gave them all the same goofy 'I'm sorry look' when he knew he did something wrong, but tried to cover it up by looking cute.

"See?" Sakura rubbed her temples, trying to not get overworked this early in the day.

"Well now that we're all here should we be going?" Hinata asked kindly.

"Heh! You bet! Let's get going!" Naruto, of course, ran to the front and lead the group.

Hinata smiled her shy yet sweet smile and caught up to Naruto to keep him company.

Of course I'm in the back with Sasuke. The pink haired kunoichi decided to keep it cool and pay as little attention to the man walking next to her as she could. She knew he wasn't much of a talker, which was something she never thought she'd be grateful for.

And onward they went as the team of four.

Hinata and Naruto spent their time talking up ahead while Sasuke and Sakura were in silence from behind. Every now and then Sasuke would glance at Sakura to see if her expression would change. Her face was just tired looking, not the old overly joyed or the bubbly eyes it was just…tired. He knew he was gone for a bit, but how could she change so drastically in a matter of a few months? She wasn't this way when he left. He decided to brush those thoughts away when he detected movement. The rest of the crew felt it as well and stopped in their tracks.

"Hinata…" Naruto said.

"Right," she replied.

She summoned her byakugan and searched the area for unwelcomed people. When her eyes set on what was causing the movement she giggled. "It's just a little dog," she stated.

The other three relaxed as the said dog jumped out of the bushes.

"Aw he's cute!" Naruto walked over to the little animal and pet him. "He's a friendly guy!" he added.

A poof of smoke instantly covered the area, which threw the team off guard. The once little cute doggy turned into a ferocious giant beast.

"Yeah he's a friendly guy…" Sakura spoke.

The beast stomped his paw down on the area the team stood. They dodged the attack before they could be crushed by the deadly stomp that made the earth shake. Naruto instinctively put himself ahead of the group to protect them as Sasuke joined his side ready to attack. The beast summoned a ball of flames through its mouth and launched it towards the group, causing them to abandon their position once again to dodge the attack.

'He's a fire type…' Sasuke thought to himself.

The blonde summoned a few clones and made a dash towards the enemy. Him and the duplicates leaped into the air with rasengans in their hands and attempted to destroy the head, but something unexpected occurred. The beast had a transparent barrier around it, causing Naruto to clash with it and be sent away by its force.

"It has a barrier protecting it…" Hinata spoke.

"Hinata," Sakura called to her attention.

"Y-Yes?"

"I'll shatter that barrier. Once I do that go ahead and drain its chakra," she spoke.

"But what if it-"

"Don't hesitate!" Sakura then dashed forward.

The kunoichi's fists radiated with the chakra she collected into them.

"Naruto!" She called out to the blonde who didn't have it together at that moment. With the knuckle head being in the way, she jumped and landed on his shoulders to use him to get higher up as she leaped into the air.

"Let's see you handle this!" The woman clashed her fist against the barrier.

The barrier didn't shatter at that moment, it took sometime and energy as her fist only grew stronger from the amount of chakra she was giving it.

"Sakura! L-Look out!" Hinata warned.

The beast was beginning to summon a rather large fireball and intended to hit the kunoichi with it.

"Just a little…more…" She increased her power by the second in attempt to break the wall.

"Get out of there!" Naruto yelled.

"Hah!"

The barrier was shattered; interrupting the attack the beast was forming. The creature then grew furious as it lifted its paw to take a swing at Sakura. Everything happened too fast, there wasn't enough time to react. Naruto and Hinata could only watch in horror even as they tried to get to her in time to save her from the beast. Sakura closed her eyes and made a cross with her arms to shield her face. She prepared herself to feel the swing of that deadly paw, but it never came. A pair of arms was all she felt at that moment. When the girl opened her eyes and slowly lowered her arms, she found herself on the ground being carried by Sasuke.

"Sasuke?"

Their attention was then directed to the sudden screech coming from the beast. Hinata used one of her lion fists to drain the chakra network, thus weakening the enemy greatly and Naruto came in with a rasengan to finish it off. A windy explosion was accompanied by this attack, making Sasuke casually turn away in order to shield the medic he held in his arms. Once the atmosphere had calmed down, he set her on her feet without a word or expression.

"Thank you for…saving me," she spoke.

"Hn," was all he replied with.

Some things never change do they? The other two members of the team came running to them as soon as the ordeal was taken care of.

"Good job teme!" Naruto chuckled.

"Shut it dobe," Sasuke retorted.

"Sakura that was awesome what you did, but please don't scare us like that again alright?" the blonde ninja spoke.

"That barrier was tougher that I thought so it took a little while to break it," she replied.

"Be smart about it next time. We can't always be there to save you," Sasuke spoke, but it wasn't in a harsh tone he just wanted her to be aware of the reality that next time something could happen.

"But we'll be there for each other as much as we can so no need to worry too much," Naruto grinned.

"Hey um…well Kumogakure is not too far from here so why don't we try asking around the village there?" Hinata softy spoke.

"And maybe we could spend the night! Man they have the best hot springs," Naruto spoke as if he was already in the warm water.

"Fine by me," Sakura replied.

Naruto never needed a reply from Sasuke. If it was something the rest of the group was alright with and if he wasn't in a hurry then it was fine with him. As the blonde ninja lead the way with Hinata by his side, Sasuke and Sakura followed in silence.

His suspicions grew…

"Ah! This hits the spot!" The orange spark shook the water from his blonde hair and leaned back against one of the rocks.

The Uchiha simply sat in the bathwater of the men's hot spring in his usual composed behavior. His back was against his own rock across from his best friend. Nothing but endless thoughts flowed through his mind. Echoing words seem to bombard the Uchiha profusely until-

"Hey Teme! What are you thinking about?"

Before he could register it, Naruto was right in front of his face. Sasuke only flinched slightly as his reaction, but it was enough for the blonde to giggle and confirm that the black haired male was indeed in deep thought.

"Go over there," Sasuke spoke in a dismissive tone.

"Not until you tell me what's on your mind."

Oh what an annoying boy he could be, but Sasuke always secretly admired how much he cared for his friends or anyone for that matter. Of course he never spoke what really was on his mind and fed him white lies just to get him off his back. As soon as the Uchiha dressed himself in his navy blue robe, he exited the spring changing room to find a figure in the distance through the window of the small inn the group was staying at.

Sakura

What was she doing out there? And in her robe? The pinkette stood barefoot by a lake beside a tree under the moonlight. Her pale hand brushed up against the bark as her green hues looked over at the reflections in the lake. It was then when she turned her head to make eye contact with the Uchiha. The man's eyes widened at that moment, but once he blinked she was gone. Did he just imagine that?

Her face

His hand met his face, rubbing the sleep away temporarily. It was all his imagination he thought. Once he began to make his way through the corridor of the inn, the same figure appeared around the corner.

"Sakura?" He then called out.

He wanted to know if this was real this time and not his mind playing tricks on him. She responded by acknowledging his call with eye contact.

"You should…be getting some rest," she told him before removing her eyes from his.

After just finishing up in the bath, she did not want to cross him at this time. She had hoped she could make it to her room and just end the night.

Just what is wrong with her?

"Are you well?" he simply asked.

"Of course I am," she simply replied.

Simple. Too simple. Sakura was only to the point when she wanted to get a conversation over with or hide something. His female teammate said her goodbyes to him before leaving him alone in the hallway. As Sakura walked away from him it almost felt as if she was losing energy. Out of all times why did she need to feel this way? Why couldn't her feelings be buried with their genin days?

Sasuke stood there alone in bewilderment. He was actually curious and he truly cared to know…he wanted to know just…just…

Just what exactly…was she feeling?

A/N: So I suck at updates and this was short I am heavily sorry for that, but it is the New Year and I'm happy to present an update. I think you might catch one shots more often due my wild spontaneous ideas haha, but I will do my best to update! Please keep in mind that these few months are very important and I need to put my best efforts so I hope you remain patient like you have been. Thank you for your support and please leave your wonderful reviews!

Keep in mind they are wearing the outfits from Naruto the last.