Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.

If there was one thing that Sakura Haruno took pride in, it was her Chakra control. That was because it was the only thing she beat Sasuke and Naruto at in the Academy days.

That, and because she was actually very good at it.

Come to think of it, back then, it was the only thing she had been proud of. When she was young, she had pretty much paid attention on books, and her only defining quality was her intelligence.

This, of course, had been her greatest mistake.

As she laid great importance on the theory of fighting, her physical performance suffered because of this, and her team suffered along with it. She had been virtually useless in the battlefield. She had always been the one who stayed behind with no particular value, and the only thing that had prevented her teammates from abandoning her altogether was the hard-learned lesson from Kakashi-sensei about teamwork.

She was seldom praised by Kakashi-sensei then, but whenever he did, it had always been about her great control on Chakra. Of course, it mattered little to her. All the while she had hoped more than anything for Sasuke to compliment her on something.

He never did.

And then he had left.

Perhaps it had been coincidence that Tsunade became Hokage instead of the late Jiraiya, and perhaps it had been coincidence that the Fifth had been appointed at the same time she felt the need to be better.

And so she had trained. Hard. For two and a half years under Tsunade's critical eye. Naruto had been away with Jiraiya then, and Sasuke had gone off in search of power in Orochimaru's tutelage. Not once had she thought that Team Seven would be separated, each going on his or her own way under the guidance of one of the Legendary Sannin. She wondered if this, too, had been a coincidence. She doubted it. All three of them had wanted to become better, each with a certain personal goal. Naruto had always had the dream of being Hokage someday, and Sakura had started to believe that he could actually make it. Sasuke, unlike Naruto, did not have any dreams, claimed that he had a 'goal'. And he had achieved that goal when he finally ended the life of his own brother. It was almost a decade-old desire, his revenge. And he had finally gotten strong enough to fulfill it.

But when you were already at the prime of your power, there was nowhere else to go but down. And Sakura believed that Sasuke had already begun his humbling descent in the Shinobi world. What could have been a promising future for the only Uchiha alive had been thrown into the wind by the avenger himself. And what was worse, he did not seem to mind at all.

Sakura had wanted to become stronger, too, because she had a goal as well. And that goal was to bring Sasuke back. And she had become stronger. Of all the kunoichi in her batch, she was probably the most efficient combat medic-nin with a knowledge on poisons and medical herbs that surpassed even Chiyo of the Sand. And thanks to Tsunade's training, she had grained incredible strength that was almost second nature to her by building up Chakra and releasing it with precise timing.

She had grown stronger.

But then why was Sasuke still not back in Konoha?

Sakura frowned as she stealthily crouched under a bush, barely feeling a branch running up her left leg. This was not the time to think about things that frustrated her.

But she could not help it. She was never really a good tracker, and finding her target always made her frustrated to the point of restlessness.

She heard something rustle close by, and she dropped on her belly with the slightest of sounds. Sweat popped on her brow, and she held her breath a few seconds, wondering if her target had evaded her again. Cursing silently under her breath, she scrambled on her feet and dashed into the clearing, looking left then right. No one was there. The forest was silent except for a few bats that started to cry in the distance. By the slowly diminishing light, Sakura could tell that the sun had finally descended behind the mountains, and she scowled. She struggled at finding a target in broad daylight. It would be close to impossible intercepting it in the dark.

She flew to the nearest tree, pressed her back against its trunk, and looked to her right, swallowing nervously. She was getting nowhere, fast. And to think she wanted to get this over with before dinner…

She was about to set off into the trees once more when she felt something strike at her right shoulder three times. She cried in surprise when red and black ink splattered on her neck and cheek.

She was found!

Hoping to make a run for it, she wiped at her cheek and braced for a run when a dark figure suddenly dropped from the branches above and pressed a long, cold tanto to her stained neck, trapping her against the trunk.

"If my ink pellets were enemy kunai, or worse, poison needles, you'd have lost your right arm by now," Sai said pointedly as he flipped his weapon about and pressed the hilt of it against her throat.

Sakura, setting her mouth in a grim line, had her own kunai out of its holster and into her hand in a blink of an eye and had forced Sai to back away. She took the opportunity to gather Chakra into one clenched fist and smashed it into the ground with a roar.

The soil underneath her feet started to shake and crumble and in the commotion she saw Sai once again retreat into the trees.

"Damn," she hissed to herself when the earth beneath her stabilized. In front of her remained a three-meter radius crater with roots of upturned trees poking here and there.

Sai, as Neji had once termed before, was a 'fast bastard'. It was not everyday she got to train with an Ex-ROOT member, and although she loved a challenge, this was starting to become ridiculous. They had been on this for five straight hours.

Breathing hard, she dashed after him with a vengeance. She wanted to get this over with and go home, but it seemed like Sai, when not wanting to be caught, could go on forever with this silly game.

Leaping on a branch, she squinted into the deepening darkness and tried to listen, even when she knew it was futile. Sai could be as silent as a mouse if he chose to… and maybe even when he did not choose to. Hadn't he surprised her several times already while she was doing the dishes, coming from behind without making her floorboards squeak?

She frowned. "Where are you?" she asked herself under her breath.

"Right here," said a husky voice, and Sakura felt arms wrap around her middle, and a warm cheek press against her ear. She shuddered as his warm breath brushed against her neck.

Sakura giggled and was about to turn around when she felt something soft and sticky on her neck. And in one swift move, Sai swiped his paint brush across her throat, leaving wet, red ink streaking down her front. He was so fast she didn't even get to react. When she finally got her senses back, she slashed a kunai in the air and let out a victorious yell as she caught Sai on the chest.

Her face fell when Sai melted into a puddle of black ink, staining her toes.

"If my brush had been a katana, your lungs would be drowning in your own blood right now."

Sakura turned around and saw Sai sitting on one branch, a scroll in one hand, a brush poised in another. He was watching her with a curious look, as if wondering what she was going to do next.

Sakura wiped her kunai on her shorts and slipped it back into her holster, then sighed. "It's just hide and seek, you know. Did you really have to go that far?"

Sai smiled, and Sakura thought it was the first time in a long time that he had flashed her with that fake smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. This made her frown. He had been acting funny ever since he got back from his mission briefing, and wouldn't even tell her what his mission was, saying it was 'confidential'.

And she totally respected that.

If only he didn't act so cold about it…

Sai closed his eyes at her pleasantly. "You told me not to take you lightly."

"And I told you to help me with my tracking skills."

"I did."

"No, you attacked me twice and tried to seduce me once."

Sai's eyes opened slightly. "Did you expect that when you try to track a ninja, they'd let you? Most of the time, people who hide from you do so with the intent of remaining unfound. They'd do anything to shake you off their trail, even if it means killing you to do so."

This made Sakura feel sulky. "Fine. But I still say you overdid it."

"If there was someone who overdid it, I'd say it was you." Sai scribbled something on his scroll, and then slipped it in his pouch, out of sight. "When you get angry, or frustrated, it interferes with your thinking and judgment. When you decided to punch a hole into the ground, not only did you destroy the perimeter which could lead to hints of where your opponent had taken off to, but you also wasted time and Chakra. Not to mention you could have demolished your target with a single blow, and if it were a capture mission, you'd have failed it with one punch in the gut."

Sakura flushed, then wiped at her neck where Sai's red ink was already drying. "Fine, fine. I'm sorry."

Sai tilted his head to the side. "Are you mad at me for pointing out your flaws?"

This made Sakura quite ashamed. She, after all, was the one who asked for his help. Why was she being this sulky then? "No, Sai. I'm not mad. Go on."

Sai was silent for a moment, then stood up, brushing his bottom. "It's undeniable that no one can compare to your strength aside from the Fifth, and you would most likely win in close combat. But here are the facts; not all enemies are dumb enough to approach you when they know you can end their lives in a heartbeat." His eyes twinkled. "If you can lay your hands on them, that is."

Sakura pouted at him. She knew that she wasn't that agile, nor as accurate, but no one has really criticized her fighting style before. And because she took pride in her strength, she sort of felt a bit bruised with what Sai was saying to her. "I know my weaknesses…" she admitted.

"Knowing them is not enough, Sakura. The real problem is: what are you going to do about them?"

She scowled at him. "You sure act like you know everything. Why don't you come over her and I'll show you what I really got." She put up her fists, daring him to approach.

Sai raised his eyebrows, amused, then squatted on the balls of his feet. "If I were the enemy, do you think I'll say: 'Okay! Sure!' and waltz my way over there? I don't think so. I wouldn't come a hundred feet near you in a battle if I could help it."

"You're no fun," Sakura grumbled as she too, mimicked him and squatted. "But you know I can beat you if I catch you."

"The operative word being 'if'." Sai smiled. "I was a ROOT assassin. I may not have your brute strength, but I was built for stealth, agility and dexterity."

"Aren't we humble."

"I'm just telling you the truth." He pointed at his bare abs. "I don't wear this uniform just to expose my stomach to the enemy. This uniform was made for assassins – for speed. But I don't think I need to tell you that it provides little to no defense." He curled a finger at her, motioning for her to come closer. "That's why I make sure I never get caught."

Sakura looked at his hand suspiciously, but approached him anyway. She was not expecting him to explain his strengths and weaknesses to her, but nonetheless it made her smile playfully at him when he stood up and opened his arms to her.

"Come over here," he invited.

Sakura stepped into his embrace.

And instantly regretted it a second later when Sai grabbed her arm, twisted her around and roughly pressed his tanto against her throat again. "You never learn," he said, amused to no end.

Sakura groaned. "Are we still at this?"

"You never told me that our training is over," he pointed out.

"Fine. Let's end it, then."

"As you wish." Sai's grip relaxed on her arm and he lowered his weapon.

Sakura smirked. Her hand shot out, gripped Sai's wrist that was armed with his weapon, twisted around and threw him over her shoulder with a grunt.

Sai exploded in a mess of black ink, and Sakura felt her lose her footing as another Sai suddenly appeared out of nowhere and swung a leg behind her knees.

She fell into his lap with a thud.

Sai grinned at her. "Now. Let's end the training." And he gave her a passionate kiss on the lips, nearly taking her breath away.

Sakura tried to say something but all that came out were muffled sounds. Unwillingly surrendering, she wrapped her arms around his neck and got lost in the kiss. Sakura decided that the best kisses were those stolen on top of tree branches after a good five to six hour workout.

"Ahem…!"

Sakura's eyes popped open at the same time Sai's did, and they parted to see someone looking up at them from the clearing.

"Oh, damn. I nearly forgot about him…" Sakura whispered.

There, looking very, very displeased was none other than Konohamaru, his long green scarf trailing behind him and his arms crossed over his chest.

It had started earlier in the morning when they had decided to use today's off day to train Sakura's tracking skill in the forest. Of all unfortunate things, Konohamaru had demanded that they take him with them because Naruto was away and he was lonely. Sakura did not know if it was pity or annoyance that made her say yes.

And aside from the blackmail that Konohamaru used on her, threatening to make a bunshin of Sakura herself and make that clone walk around the village stark naked.

Sakura clumsily stood up from Sai's lap and hopped down from the branch. "Wow, sorry about that…"

"I was waiting for five and a half hours, but the 'it' won't come and find me," he complained then pointed at Sakura accusingly. "And then I find you making out with him – "his finger pointed at Sai who joined them on the clearing " – and I bet you guys forgot all about me."

Sakura felt her face heating up at getting caught. Sai, on the other hand, did not even have the decency to look abashed.

"She had a hard time finding you, Konohamaru," Sai explained to the boy. "She couldn't find you and started to have a tantrum and I had to make her feel better."

Konohamaru was no idiot. And as Sakura looked down at the younger boy, she could have sworn she saw a second Naruto in the making.

"You make her feel better by sticking your tongue in her throat?" the boy accused.

Sakura gasped. She could not remember Naruto being this sharp-witted and flippant when he was young. "Konohamaru!"

Sai suddenly leaned down on Konohamaru, took the boy's startled face into his hands and brought his own face inches away from the boy's. "Would you like me to make you feel better, too?" he asked in his sexiest voice that Sakura had to look away.

That did the trick.

Konohamaru was silent for a few seconds, as if gathering momentum, and then spontaneously combusted. He had his arms flailing at Sai in a very weird-looking tribal dance and had leaped away from the former ROOT member in a frenzy.

"Y-y-you stay away from me!" Konohamaru screamed. "I… I don't swing that way!"

Sakura's hand flew to her mouth coyly. Definitely a Naruto in the making!

Konohamaru shook a fist at Sai angrily. "When big brother Naruto comes home, I'm gonna tell on you!"

Sai blew him a kiss.

Konohamaru shrieked loudly then ran for it, tripping once, then disappearing into the darkness.

Sakura whistled. "Smooth move."

"I've learned a lot from Naruto." Sai suddenly had her in his arms again. "Now where were we?" He had his face buried in her hair in a second.

Sakura giggled like a schoolgirl.

Sai blew at his miso soup leisurely, then stared at it as if to look for any signs of strange things floating on its surface. It was a once-in-a-blue-moon day, he deducted, when Sakura would gain some womanly confidence and decide to cook for him.

Usually, breakfast and lunch were eaten individually, and if Sai did not have a mission outside the village, they would eat dinner together. These meals, as expected, were either take out, or instant. Except for those rare times when Sakura would visit her folks and bring home her mother's heavenly cooking, Sai was never able to eat anything homemade.

Today seemed to be an exception. After their hide-and-seek-slash-training-session-slash-make-out-session in the sparring grounds, Sai had told Sakura he would like to see Kiba and Hinata for a while to talk about their mission. He had been gone barely a couple of hours, but Sakura who had been ink-abused and dirty, had already taken a shower and was humming to herself as she gently placed two plates of some yellow lumpy things on the table, followed by two bowls of miso soup and two pairs of chopsticks.

"Dinner's ready!" she had proclaimed happily, and Sai could not remember how she had wrestled him into a chair.

Sai had seen Sakura's eagerness to cook for anyone only once before, and that was when Naruto was training really hard to master a new jutsu. She had brewed together a big batch of disgusting food pills that Naruto ate only out of desperation.

The time Sakura baked him a cake, he had not even seen her crack a smile. If anything, she had been crushed completely that time when things didn't work out according to her plan. After that, he had doubted she would take a risk in the kitchens anytime soon. But here they were, sitting with lumpy things on plates situated in front of them, and an expectant Sakura was looking at him with wide eyes.

Sai smiled at her over his bowl, took a deep breath and took the plunge into the possibility of food poisoning for the second time that month.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered.

"What?"

"I said thank you for the food." And he closed his eyes and sipped.

His eyes popped back open after a second.

Sakura was alert, a glass of water already in her hand, ready to hand it to Sai if he ever choked.

"How is it?" she asked uncertainly when Sai wouldn't speak.

Sai blinked, looked down at the bowl, and took another mouthful. "I cannot believe it myself, but this tastes… good…!" And he was not lying when he said this.

He had read in romance novels about wives and mothers making great miso soup, and although he had never really tasted soup that was made especially for him, he imagined it would taste just like this; not too salty and not too bland, with seaweed and bits of tofu in it, which he picked up with his chopsticks after draining the bowl.

Sakura was watching him with the curiosity of a child, her mouth half-open, her cheek pressed against her knuckle.

Sai pointed at the yellow thing on his plate. "What is this?"

Sakura flushed a bit. "A rice omelet. When my mom makes one, it usually looks better – more appetizing…."

Sai poked the rice omelet with his chopsticks and was surprised at the fluffiness of the eggs. He quickly scooped some up and stuffed it in his mouth. His eyes closed pleasurably. "This tastes wonderful…"

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "Really?"

Sai grabbed the plate and started to shovel chunks of egg into his mouth. "I would not mind eating this everyday, if you would make it for me."

Sakura, who did not seem to be used to getting praises for her cooking, was still dubious. "You're just saying that to me because you're trying to make me feel better."

Sai looked at her, chopsticks poised between his face and the plate, forcefully swallowed the rice and eggs in his mouth. "Why would I want to make you feel better? Are you not feeling well right now?"

Sakura sighed at him in frustration, as if he should have noticed something so obvious, and reached out to pluck something from his cheek, which he found out to be a grain of rice. "Because I totally stank when we were training." She licked her finger of the offending grain and buried her face in her hands. "I sucked big time."

Sai looked down at her pink head of hair as he replaced the plate on the table. He never really took Sakura for self-pity. In the years they had been teammates, she had always shown confidence in whatever she did. The certain faults she had in her fighting style were not new to Sai, but he had never taken the liberty to point it out to her, simply because he hadn't sincerely cared about it until they started going out. "You did not suck. You had me on my toes the whole time." This was a lie. Running away from Sakura had been a piece of cake, because she always left a few second intervals between her attacks and Chakra charges that they had started to become quite predictable.

But of course, Sai was a bad liar. Sakura peered between her fingers angrily. "How many times do I have to tell you that I never liked being patronized?"

Sai shrugged uncomfortably. "I wasn't patronizing you. I just want to say that…"

"That what, Sai? I barely had you sweating then."

Sai took a deep breath. He was starting to lose his patience, too. And this had never happened before. He guessed this came natural because he was getting quite familiar with a lot of emotions lately. But still, he did not have to like this emotion. It felt like a noisy fly was buzzing somewhere close to his ear, and no matter how he brushed it aside, it would always come back. He placed his chopsticks on the plate as gentle as he possibly could. It made a sharp snapping sound on the cheap porcelain.

"Did I offend you in some way when I pointed out some of the flaws with the way you fight?" He had asked her this earlier, and she had said no. But he had a feeling that she was not very pleased with the outcome of their little spar.

Sakura dropped her hands on the table. "I wasn't offended," she said crisply. "I just wasn't expecting I was this weak…"

Sai groaned inwardly. "You are not weak. You are the strongest girl I know. All I'm saying is that there is always more room for improvement, and training for it can enhance your skill greatly." He gestured a hand towards her, pushing what was left of his rice omelet aside. "You've trained for Tsunade for two and a half years, and you've gotten strong with that, but after that, have you really been training at all? You've become a medic ninja and resigned yourself to the hospital. And that in itself is good, but then you can't complain about being weak when you haven't done anything to level up after that."

Sakura looked away but didn't say anything.

Sai tried to catch her eye. "When Naruto left the village for three years with Master Jiraiya, you didn't waste your time and trained with Tsunade. When Naruto developed his new jutsu, you were sitting around and watching. Now, he is training to be a Sage. What are you doing?" He leaned back on his chair. "Are you content with how things are with your level as a ninja? Do you think that you can't get any stronger than this?"

Sakura rubbed her cheek self-consciously. "It never really crossed my mind…"

Sai snapped his mouth closed. He had pushed her to the edge where he knew that the conversation was going to lead to that uncharted territory that was Sasuke. "You gave up trying to be strong when you found out Sasuke wasn't coming home even after his revenge. Am I right?"

Sakura snapped her head to face him. "No!"

"And Naruto, who still hasn't given up, is training his ass off because he still believes that he can drag Sasuke back to the village, even if in pieces."

Sakura suddenly stood up with such force that her chair toppled backwards. "I never said anything about Sasuke. This has nothing to do with him!" She clumsily turned around, picked up her chair and sat down with a huff.

Sai leaned forward. "Then why have you stopped training?"

Sakura crossed her arms over her chest, looked away, blotches of pink on her cheek, probably from embarrassment or indignation. "Because I just stopped caring…"

"About who?" Sai asked gently, and he reached out his hand to her.

She looked at his outstretched hand reproachfully, before sighing and unraveling her arms from her body and touching his fingers. "I'm sorry, Sai. You hit the nail on the head. When Sasuke left, I had wanted to become stronger, to be able to bring him back to the village was the only thing that mattered. We had a time limit of three years before Orochimaru could take over his body, and I didn't have much time. After three years, news came to the Leaf that Sasuke had killed Orochimaru, and Naruto and I had waited for him, hoping against hope that he would be coming back. But he never did.

"A few months later, news about him killing Itachi reached us as well, and that made us expect even more, but he never came back… That was when I knew that he would never come back to us. And I kind of lost all hope there. What was the point of becoming strong?"

Sai, with all the strength he had acquired from ROOT to shield his emotions, tried his very best to fight that ripping pain that seared across his chest. It was like hot jealousy and blind anger raged within him as Sakura talked about Sasuke that way, how she had loved him, how she had waited so long, how she had been driven to do almost anything to get him back. All he wanted to do right now was break something with his hands, but he fought the urge, deciding that Sakura's pain was more important than his.

He squeezed her hands softly. "Sasuke does not define who you are. You always thought that he did, but he can never define someone as special as you."

Sakura bit her lip, and Sai knew that she was trying to fight back some tears that were threatening to fall. Sai did not completely understand what tears were for yet, as he had never really cried before, but he knew that they were to express some sort of strong emotion, either happiness or sadness. It confused him when Sakura smiled and started to cry at the same time.

"You must think of me as sick, talking about a childhood crush like this to my boyfriend," she laughed while she sobbed, and Sai, not knowing what to do, smiled at her uncertainly. She laughed even more.

"There's a bad feeling inside my chest every time you mention his name, and jealousy doesn't seem to match the emotion. There is no point to be jealous of him because I don't doubt you care for me. I guess this is how you'd call, insecurity?"

Sakura blinked back a few tears, then wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry. I should know better than to talk about him in front of you when I know how you feel about him."

Sai shook his head. "I'm not going to keep you from speaking about him, because he will always be a part of your past. And I want to appreciate everything about you." He frowned. "Even if he's a dickless traitor who doesn't know what he's missing in bed."

At that, Sakura produced a weird sound from the back of her throat, and she burst out laughing.

Sai could only stare at her. "It wasn't a joke. I meant what I said."

She laughed even more. "I know, Sai. I know." She tried to calm down, then pushed the plate of his left-over rice omelet back to him when she finally caught her breath. "No one's praised my cooking before. I'm kind of glad you liked it."

Sai, distracted by the omelet, lunged for his chopsticks and continued to devour the food at high speed.

Sakura watched him as she continued to dry her face with the back of her hand. "So," she said silently. "You're leaving tomorrow night for your mission, right?"

Sai nodded wordlessly.

Sakura grinned. "Captain Yamato and I are leaving tomorrow at noon for the Water Country, to Hokuseki. We'll be gone for a week and four days." She scratched her forehead consciously. "You'd be back by the time I come home, right?"

At this, Sai suddenly stopped eating. Tsunade had not given them a certain deadline for the mission, it being S-class. Though he wished Sasuke would just give up and come peacefully, there were strange feelings inside him that made him wish the Uchiha would give him an excuse to terminate him.

Sai smiled at Sakura warmly, trying to disguise the grotesque images of the creative ways he could kill Sasuke Uchiha. "I'll try my best."

And he resumed eating his omelet.

I wish I could write better fight scenes, but I just suck at them. XD

The following chapters would probably lack fluff you readers would love, but we can't always have them happy all the time. Lol! Tying to nuzzle my way to the climax, and I sure hope I get it done all right.

Thank you for those who reviewed! You guys make my day, really! Hugs to you all!