Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.

It was six in the evening when Sai finally came to, as if waking from a long, long dream. The moment he opened his eyes groggily, his stomach made a sudden lurch, and he groaned, feeling like he had eaten lead. Shifting from one side to another, he was momentarily paralyzed when he saw Sakura sleeping soundly beside him, pink hair fanning out on the one pillow they had to share, the setting sun streaming through the blinds of his window left stripes of light on her peaceful face.

Sakura sighed quietly, and Sai felt his stomach did another lurch, but this time he knew it had nothing to do with Sakura's salt cake. Hesitating a bit, wondering if he was allowed to take liberties on touching her face, he used a very tentative finger to trace her eyebrows, then her nose, then her mouth, where his eyes lingered a little longer that he normally would allow them to. She had kissed him, which was not but four or five hours ago, but felt like an eternity had passed since then. He could not even recall the hundred thousand sensations that had hit his body simultaneously at the unexpected contact, but right now, as he stared at her peaceful form, he could not help but feel… a very, very good feeling.

He brushed his thumb across her cheek, and her lashes flickered a bit. This was not the first time he got to lay down beside her. In fact, how many times was he able to see her sleep? In the hospital, in the underground cave, in the bath house.

But this time, it was different. She was in his room. On his bed. On his pillow. There was nothing 'accidental' or 'coincidental' about it, from the moment Sakura mocked him about the meaning of love, to that moment when she leaned in to kiss him, to the moment he kissed her back. He, admittedly, had not known how to react to the display of affection. He had read about kisses in books so many times in the past, but of all the things he had absorbed from those materials, he found not even one useful thing that could have prepared him for it; he had frozen, completely, in Sakura's shadow as she loomed over him, and it was only when he feared she was going to pull away that his body moved unconsciously, placing his hand at the back of her neck, making sure she was not going to go anywhere.

And that was when his lips slanted against hers and kissed her, for the very first time. If he had kissed anyone in his life before – aside from those women in the night club in the neighboring village when Naruto and the others dragged him to when he'd turned eighteen – he did not think it was just as memorable, because as far as he was concerned, having shared a gentle kiss with the kunoichi lying next to him was probably the one and only unexplainable experience in the twenty years of his sorry existence.

Eyes darting at the clock and back, he leaned over and whispered in her ear. "Sakura…"

The pink-haired girl's emerald-green eyes fluttered open, focused on his raven-black ones, took a moment to ponder on things, then smiled. "Hey there." She closed her eyes again, snuggled against Sai's chest and fell silent for a few moments before she said in a muffled voice, "How are you feeling?"

Sai blinked as he felt his body stiffen again at her proximity. He did not know what to do with his arms, so he gingerly let his hands settle on her lithe form, and allowed himself to relax. "I feel… fine," was the only thing he could utter as he looked down at the top of her bright head. "How do you feel?" He thought it was proper to ask.

She shook her head. "I don't know. Confused, I guess?"

"Why is that?"

She fell silent.

Sai began to worry. What do 'normal people' usually do at awkward situations like this? If Sakura herself was confused, then who was going to help him decipher his feelings? He rested his chin on her head, and decided that if Sakura was confused, he might as well take initiative to solve this problem for the both of them. "Is it a good feeling, or a bad feeling?"

This made Sakura breath sharply, and after a moment said, "A good feeling, Sai. Probably the best feeling I've felt in a while now."

Sai felt his heart skip a beat at this answer. "Really? Then why the confusion?"

It took a while before she could respond. "Because I never thought in a million years that I'd feel like this for another person, aside from Sasuke," she said silently.

And they were silent.

Sai knew that she was merely telling the truth, but he could not believe that the Uchiha's name could trigger so many negative emotions in him. Was he jealous? Angry? "You feel for me the way you feel for him?" he asked, uncertain.

"Uhm… no, not exactly." Sakura buried her face deeper into his chest. "With Sasuke, it was like a never-ending tug-of-war with myself, that you would lose either way. But I've chased after him, wanted him to notice me even just once. But he never did." She poked his chest with her nose. "And with you, well… gah, do I have to explain it? Because I feel like a corny idiot saying it out loud."

"If you don't explain it to me, I don't think I'd be able to understand, but if you insist…"

Sakura let out a sigh, searched for un-corny words for a few seconds, then said. "With you, it's like, a state of mind more than a feeling… Does that make sense?"

"… No…"

She looked up at him, and his eyes met hers. She was blushing. "It's a safe feeling. It's that state of mind when you don't have to be better and you can't get any worse, because you're not demanded to be anything but yourself. That's what I feel… with you… Okay, now I'm going to stop explaining because I feel a bit idiotic now."

Sai tilted his head slightly, then nodded, kind of – kind of – understanding.

But then what? His thoughts must have shown on his face because Sakura wrinkled her nose at him. "What are you thinking?"

Sai squeezed her arm gently. "I'm thinking of what to say next."

That made her laugh. "I see."

Sai raised an eyebrow at her. "So this situation… where does this lead us?"

Sakura rapidly blinked several times, then she hid her face again, probably to hide the deepening blush Sai had barely caught. "That makes us… a couple… I suppose."

With this, Sai felt his eyes widen, a warm feeling spreading from his chest. "Really? Like Naruto and Hinata?"

She gave an embarrassed whimper.

Sai nudged her head with his chin. "That makes you…. My girlfriend, yes?"

She whimpered some more.

He watched her look adorable that way, curled up against him, then let his eyes close pleasantly, deciding not to make her suffer with his curious questions. He placed a hand on her forearm. "Are you hungry? Would you like something to eat?" He also thought this appropriate to ask, given the time.

The mention of food made Sakura look up. "Is your stomach all right?"

"Yes," he lied. His stomach was doing uncomfortable summersaults at the moment.

It looked as if Sakura knew he wasn't telling the truth. "I'm making tea," she declared, and pushed herself up and off the bed, then made her way to his very, very bare kitchen.

The moment she left his side, he felt a sudden pang of emptiness in his chest. Sitting up and rubbing the aching spot, he watched silently as Sakura stood on tiptoe, opening and closing the high cabinets over the sink, as if searching for something. The expression on her face when she returned sitting on the bed was of disbelief.

"Sai?"

"Yes?"

"You don't have anything. Not even sugar, or salt, or those free ketchup packets you get from the convenience store…"

Sai blinked. "Is that… a bad thing?"

""Well… It most certainly isn't a good thing… but, yeah…"

He lowered his eyes, shameful. "I'm sorry."

Sakura smiled at him ruefully. "It's fine. One day, maybe we could go shopping." She flicked his nose the way she had earlier. "Together."

Sai rubbed his nose, annoyed. "I don't like it when you do that."

She flicked his nose for the second time.

"Stop it!"

She made a go at him again, but he caught her hand, pulled her to him and planted a kiss on her nose. It was a weird involuntary reaction that he never knew his body was capable of doing, and Sakura, probably just as surprised as he was, pulled back and blushed.

And as he watched her finger her hair self-consciously, he could not believe that a mere kiss shared out of nowhere could make a person feel strong and weak at the same time. This was just so confusing! He wondered how normal human beings could deal with such confusing emotions every single waking hour of the day.

But as he caught Sakura's hand again when she attempted to bully his nose once final time, and when she did not wait for him to pull her to him again for a kiss, he decided that emotions – as confusing as they are – were all worth it, if it meant having to experience this warm fuzzy feeling spreading inside him everyday.

He was in love. And he loved it.

The week started pretty busy for Sai and Sakura that they hardly got the chance to see each other at all.

When they had collected their work load for the week from Tsunade, Sakura found out that she was back to her normal hospital shift, except for that day – Monday – where her services were required at the next town to heal a merchant's daughter.

After being dismissed by the Hokage, she got her provisions ready, and was surprised to see Sai in the village gates, in his ANBU uniform, a heavy-looking backpack slung over his left shoulder, his tanto on his right. Feeling pleasantly happy that she got to exchange a few words with him before she headed out, her heart had immediately sunk when he showed her his workload for the next five days. Sai's load composed of an escort mission today, and recon mission tomorrow night, and one mission on a Wednesday with Team Gai.

Sakura shrugged her shoulders. "We'll figure things out. We still need to shop, remember?" And with this, she flicked his nose lovingly, and set off east, and Sai west. She had looked over her shoulder twice only to find Sai doing the same. They did this for about three or more times until they could not see each other in the clearing.

Her mission in itself took but two hours to get done. It was the traveling that was a pain. And by the time she got back to the village, the sun was practically hidden behind the mountains. There was no sign of Sai being home.

Reporting to the Hokage was troublesome, too, because she kept on asking about Sai's 'progress'. She would tell the truth that he was going along extremely well, but thought that she did not have to tell her to the extent that Sai was actually doing so well that he got himself a girlfriend who came by the name of Sakura Haruno. Tsunade merely watched her under her lashes, nodded, and stamped her mission COMPLETE, then sent her home, saying, "You should relax more; your face is all red. Are you sure you're not coming down with something? Go home and sleep."

And being the good girl that she was, she went straight home, took a warm shower, made dinner, and sat on her kitchen table to kill time. The clock continued to tick, and by midnight, she gave up waiting. It looked like Sai was not coming home today. She retired for that night with weird dreams of being inside an empty ink bottle with an enormous Lady Tsunade peering down at her coyly.

Tuesday, the second day of the second week for Sakura's mission to restore Sai's emotions, found her on her toes with patients in the hospital, one of them being Rock Lee. As usual, he overdid it with his training, tried to do a thousand laps around the village when Neji thought it funny to trip him on his nine-hundredth round. He twisted his ankle in the process. It would have taken but a few minutes to patch him up, had Lee not denied first aid, and demanded that he did not need crutches to walk back to his house. Sakura had to tackle him when he tried to escape the hospital, which sprained his other ankle, so he ended up having to stay in the hospital, nursing both feet with ice packs and was forbidden to leave until the swelling stopped.

This was probably the day's most exciting event, because after Lee, all her patients were well-behaved and did as they were told. Nevertheless, when the hospital closed at five in the afternoon, the paperwork that followed almost made her eyes bleed. Not that she was not used to this; she had been doing this for the past three years as the head medic. Perhaps having used three days of leave had made her soft. Or perhaps she didn't have a boyfriend for the last three years she had been doing this, and now that she did, time seemed to move too slow in the hospital's office.

It was already eight in the evening when she finally got out, and was pleasantly surprised to find Sai squatting on the grass under a tree in the hospital garden. He was, again, in his ANBU uniform, just as she'd seen him yesterday morning when they parted ways for their missions. On his back was not his usual backpack, but a heavy-looking scroll he only brought with him on reconnaissance missions.

When he saw her come out of the building, he picked himself up, dusted his pants and waved at her approaching form. Sakura couldn't believe how by just the sight of him, she suddenly felt refreshed.

"Hey there, stranger," Sakura greeted, stopping a few feet in front of him, her hands behind her. "What time did you check back in the village last night?"

Sai grinned crookedly. "Two in the morning today. The client had too many pit stops that I ran a bit late on schedule." He gestured at her. "I dropped by your house but the lights were out. I didn't want to bother your sleep."

Sakura laughed. "You should have dropped by today to say hi, at least. I was in the hospital all day. We could have had lunch together."

Sai looked quite uncomfortable. "I did. Drop by, I mean. But you looked busy with Lee that I didn't want to butt in… "

The remark made Sakura open and close her mouth dumbly. She blinked. Could Sai be… jealous? She flicked his nose, and he jumped back with a small protest. "He sprained his ankle. Well, both ankles. That's my fault, though."

"Naruto said to me a few months ago that Lee likes you…"

Sakura raised her eyebrows. "He was a patient in my ward. I had no choice."

This made Sai struggle a bit. After a few moments of expressionless battle, he smiled uncertainly. "I'm sorry. That's none of my business."

Sakura observed his body language. Sai, as far as she could tell, had never really had a girlfriend, and was probably still getting the hang of things. It was not the first time he had been protective of her over other men. There was the instance when someone had tried to hit on her in Onsen Village in the Izakaya, and hadn't Sai handled that quite well?

But then again, you weren't his girlfriend then, and he was merely protecting a female friend.

She found it kind of adorable that Sai was still in stitches as he tried to analyze his feelings. She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. "Would you like to have some ramen with me?"

Sai frowned at that. "I can't. I just dropped by to see if I could talk to you before I leave the village again."

"At this hour?"

"Recon mission. The neighboring farm needs a spy on his sheep herd. Someone seems to be stealing his livestock at night."

And with that, they said their goodbyes, leaving Sakura quite heavy-hearted and pining. She did her normal routine before going to bed, only to find out she could not sleep.

Wednesday made her wish she did sleep. The morning had stretched longer than necessary because it was uneventful in any way possible. Lee was released in the morning just in time for his mission. Sakura remembered that Sai was to accompany Team Gai for a C rank escort mission for the traders coming from the Sand.

Except for a few kids who dropped by to have their CPR training, there was nothing much to do, so Sakura had decided to catch up on refilling the patients' data in the archive. She let time fly, her head buried in mounds and mounds of papers in the office, and raised her head at around six in the afternoon when someone hastily knocked on her door.

Miya, a young nurse who was in charge in the reception area, did not even wait for Sakura to call her in. She pulled at the sliding door with so much force that it slammed against the wall with a loud bang.

Sakura was on her feet. "What's going on?"

"Sakura! Come quick!" was all Miya could utter, her face pale with pure horror. Gesturing for her to follow, she dashed down the corridor, Sakura a few feet behind her.

A lot of terrible possibilities flashed in her mind's eye. Could Kakashi-Sensei be wounded? She had heard he was away on a top secret mission Lady Tsunade had sent him to. Or maybe it was Naruto? He had just left for training. Did he really overdo it this time?

Or it could be –

"Sai!" Sakura could not stop her mouth from blurting out his name when she found her teammate sitting on one of the lobby benches, sporting a bloody head and apparently a broken left arm.

She all but ran to his side, worriedly sending chakra flowing through her palms, probing his wounds. "Are you all right? What happened?" Her heart was in her throat.

Sai did not say anything, but his face had an uncharacteristic sour expression, making him look… angry. This was a first. Sai never got angry. In the week she had spent with him, he had opened up to a lot of emotions. But she had never seen him this mad before.

When she finally calmed down a bit after discovering that aside from his arm, there was no fatal damage to his body, she noticed Neji and Tenten standing by the hospital entrance. Tenten was holding in her hands a long kusari-gama, which ended with the chain around a very sober Rock Lee.

Sakura motioned for the nurses standing by to tend to Sai, then turned to Neji. "Did something wrong happen in the mission? And why is Lee tied up?"

Neji, his pearly-white eyes stared at Sakura as if peering into a microscope. He crossed his arms over his chest. "The mission was a success. And this guy – " He gestured at his subdued teammate. " – needed to be detained because he picked a fight with Sai."

Sakura could only gasp. Although she had not really spent too much time with the Taijutsu-user, Lee never really struck her as being violent.

Tenten jerked the chain in frustration. "It wasn't ill-meant, Sakura. We finished the mission with two hours to spare, so we thought of celebrating when we got back to the village. And, well, it was a long day, and shochuu was just required to top it off, and well… " she kicked Lee, who only shuddered slightly, as if embarrassed at what he'd done. "Lee doesn't respond to alcohol too well…"

Sakura had heard of that strange fact. Apparently, Lee's Drunken Fist was deadly. "Then why the heck did he drink… No, let me rephrase that. Why did you guys let him drink if you knew he'd go berserk?"

Neji had the decency to blush, at the same time trying to maintain his cool composure. "Because it's interesting. We do it all the time. Since I've gotten the hang of his technique, he can't really do much damage with me around. But today – " his eyes lingered at the former ROOT member who was now being dragged into a room by three nurses. " – today was different. Something Lee said, made Sai snap…"

Sakura could not believe this. How was she going to explain to the Hokage that Sai got into trouble again because of his emotions? "God… I'm so sorry, Neji. I know Sai could be weird and – "

Tenten shook her head. "Sai didn't do anything wrong, Sakura. Lee said something he shouldn't have said about you when he was drunk, and Sai… well… he just got mad!" the kunoichi said this as if she, too, could not believe it. "Sai got mad, Sakura! I never thought it possible."

With this, Sakura narrowed her eyes at Lee, who shrank in her gaze. "What exactly did you say?"

Lee swallowed hard. "Idontremembersorry!" he blurted out.

Neji took a deep breath then exhaled slowly. "He made a comment about your… ah, Tenten?"

Tenten scratched her head. "He made a comment about your uhm…" she looked at Neji, as if feeling quite embarrassed to have to say it in front of him. "Lee said you have nice breasts and hips and wondered how it would feel like to have to run his hands all over you. There! I said it! Kill him now!" She extended the kusari-kama towards Sakura, face very red.

"I'm sorry! It was a male thing! I was drunk! Honestly, it was just a thought!"

Neji shook his head, massaging his nose bridge. "Sai didn't seem to like it, and I understand his feelings." His eyes, for a split-second, darted towards Tenten. "But Lee meant no harm. If anything, it's my fault for not being able to take control of the situation. But Sai's a fast bastard, and before I knew it three lion paintings were attacking Lee."

Sakura pointed to where Sai had disappeared, incredulous. "Sai's the one who looked like he got beat up bad by Lee. Lee doesn't even have a scratch on him!"

Neji coughed. "Sai didn't attack to kill. He just wanted to restrain Lee. But Lee didn't look like he wanted to be restrained and so, well… he lashed at Sai, rammed his head on the wall and broke his arm in the process… the Izakaya's got a huge hole on its western wall that I have to pay for from my own paycheck."

This was not turning out to be a good day. It was her turn to sigh and massage her nose bridge.

Tenten peered at her cautiously. "Sakura? We're sorry. I hope this doesn't affect our teams. We promise to keep Lee in check from now on. No hard feelings, okay?"

Sakura just wanted the conversation to end. "No hard feelings," she repeated, making herself smile stiffly. When team Gai left with Neji whispering in Tenten's ear, both of them looking over their shoulders to a still fuming Sakura and dragging a still very forlorn Lee, Sakura calmed herself down and made her feet walk to the reception desk, where she collected Sai's clipboard. She flipped on it briskly, returned the clipboard back and proceeded to his room.

She found him sitting on the bed, just in time to see the nurse clip the bandage on his crude cast. The angry, twisted expression he had on his face earlier was gone, replaced by a very blank, very unreadable look. He raised his head when he saw her walk in. The nurse bowed to her and left the room.

She stood in front of him, giving him a disapproving look. "You got into a fight. With your own team member. Why?"

Sai blinked up at her, thought for a while, then said, "I was defending your honor." He said the words as if he read it out of a book, which he probably did.

Sakura could only shake her head. "Didn't it occur to you that it was just a… I don't know… a perverted joke you men usually make when you're under the influence of alcohol. Or drugs…" she wrinkled her nose.

Sai stared into her eyes seriously. "If it was a joke, it wasn't funny. I don't want him running his hands all over you. I don't want him even thinking of running his hands all over you. The thought just…" he thought for a moment. "The thought just brought about a very, very bad feeling."

Sakura watched him talk. Faster than expected, Sai was branching his emotions into different categories that she was worried she won't be able to catch up. Right now, Sakura thought he must be so confused, bombarded by so many new emotions at once; jealousy, anger, covetousness.

She sat down on the bed beside him, patted him gently on the shoulder. He stared at her all the while. "Sai, this is the exact reason why the Lady Hokage asked me to help you. These emotions, these human emotions, when not controlled properly, could destroy the most perfect of men. It can destroy friendship, relationships, trust." She smiled at him. "Do you understand?"

He did not look like he did. He frowned. "Then he shouldn't say those things about you. At least not in front of me."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Oh, like you shouldn't say bad things about Sasuke in front of me and Naruto?"

"That's different!" Sai spat out, his angry expression back.

"It's practically the same," Sakura pointed out to him.

This time, Sai did not look like he had anything else to say. He turned away from her, fuming.

Sakura touched his good hand. "Are you mad?"

"Yes," he retorted.

"Are you mad at me?"

Sai shook his head. "I guess I'm just… stressed…"

Sakura nodded. "Feeling things make us emotionally pressured sometimes. You'll get the hang of it in due time."

Sai turned to her sharply. "I hardly get to see you, and when I do, we talk for barely ten seconds. I don't like the feeling of distance… Is that… not normal?" he asked uncertainly.

Sakura, eyes huge, finally got the gist out of the dark-haired boy. "Is this what it's all about, Sai? You're missing me?"

Sai was taken aback at Sakura's rationalization. "Is that it? I was missing you, that's why I got mad, and jealous? I don't want to feel like this all the time. It's a bad feeling." he said the last sentence as if the words were poison.

Sakura watched him struggle for about a minute before she touched his cheek, then his head where he had white bandages wrapped around his forehead. Who would have thought that this emotionally challenged boy could grow on her this fast?

"Would you… like to move in with me, then? For your peace of mind, I mean." She was such a liar. She knew deep down she was doing it for him as much as for herself. She may not admit it out loud, but she had missed him as much as he missed her. Probably more.

Sai, who was not really sure what to say, asked the question he always liked to ask when he could not think of anything wise to say. "Is moving in together a good thing?"

Sakura gave him a lopsided smile. "If your partner doesn't snore, it's definitely a good thing."

Sai had to think it over in his head, then said to Sakura. "I don't snore. Or at least I don't think so..."

Sakura had to laugh. She flicked his nose, and he cried out in protest.

So Wednesday ended with Sai and Sakura having the agreement to live together starting that night, which relieved Sai even more than anyone could possibly know. They planned to go shopping together the following day.

Thursday came, and with it came Ino Yamanaka, coming home to the Leaf by herself, bearing news that Sakura never thought she would ever hear in this lifetime.

Ahhh, I had wanted to stretch the romance part a bit longer, but the plot has to move on. I actually wanted to incorporate a fight between Sakura and Sai, but then for drama's sake, I decided to save it for the later chapters of the story.

Thank you for those who reviewed and added this story to their alert and favorites list. XD You guys make me really, really happy. So long as you are not an anonymous reviewer, I try to reply as much as I can. After all, you guys rock! You all deserve the best plushies in the world!