Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.

A/N: No action, no fluff, no plot development. Just a bit of angst... And character development. Bear with me. XD

From the very first time Sakura Haruno had laid eyes on him, she knew she was down for a crush. He was everything she would have imagined a perfect boy would be. Of course there wasn't much to that imagination for a nine-year-old, though she had thought holding hands with him would have been nice.

Too bad majority of the academy's female population also seemed to think the same thing. She just ended up lucky to have been on the same team as he.

And she knew she was in love then. No one could have been able to make her heard beat as fast as it did with just a stare. It didn't matter if the stare was cold, so long as he noticed her existence.

That felt like a million years ago.

But as she stood on the edge of the clearing, breathing hard, her heart trying to beat of out her chest as she stared at him with wide, wide eyes, she remembered why she had loved him so much all these years.

He had grown. So very much. So much did he start to look like his older brother, only with softer, almost feminine features. As he stood there, so very still, eyes she knew could hardly see, were pinned on none other than Sai, who had just broken into the clearing with Kakashi and Hinata.

Everything happened so fast, that she did not even have a chance to react. Hinata had suddenly swept past her with a cry, and clashed head-on with an unsuspecting Karin, and both girls disappeared into a nearby bush. Kakashi was suddenly alert, guard up, and was circling Sai, who looked as if he was frozen.

Sakura felt her heart hurt, and she was clutching her chest tightly with one hand. She took a step forward, towards the man who once was a boy. The boy who had stolen her heart away without even trying.

She bravely took two steps more.

Sasuke suddenly pulled his sword out of its scabbard, put it between him and Sakura, his eyes never leading Sai. "Identify yourself."

The deepness of his voice made Sakura gasp as she looked from Sai to Sasuke. She swallowed hard at the sudden realization that Sai was caught in one of Sasuke's genjutsu. She took one more chance at stepping forward. "It's me, Sasuke…"

The surprise was evident in his handsome features, and although his eyes did not turn to her, Sakura suddenly felt self-conscious. It was then did it dawn on her, how two years could make such a difference in just one existence.

Karin was right.

He has changed.

"Sakura?" he asked, the uncertainty couldn't be missed from his voice.

Sakura smiled. "I came. Here I am." She tried to reach out to him.

He raised his sword defensively. He did not look like someone who would trust anyone anytime soon. What else was new?

Sakura spread her arms out. "I'm unarmed. I just want to come closer. If that's all right."

Sakura had thought that a begging woman wouldn't have reached Sasuke, but was surprised when she saw the sword lower slightly.

"I've waited for you…"

"I'm here now."

The Uchiha winced. The change was amazing. Now she knew what Karin meant with getting stronger and weaker. There was a certain strength in him, and a vulnerability.

Inch by inch, step by slow step, she closed the distance between them. And Sakura suddenly felt it so very hard to breathe. She had been chasing after him, after his shadow for so very long now, and though the novelty had worn out after so long, and she didn't feel like screaming at the top of her lungs at the proximity, she felt like finally, she had caught up to him.

She reached out, taking him by the shoulder. In the corner of her eye, she saw Sai jerk awake, driving his tanto into his leg in one swift move. Kakashi was suddenly there, catching him as he fell.

The former ROOT member snapping out of Sasuke's jutsu seemed to have irked the Uchiha. Sakura took this chance. She pulled him to her into an embrace. The Uchiha stiffened at the contact. She pressed her mouth to his ear.

"I guess, I really am a fickle little thing." And slowly, she took his earlobe into her mouth and sucked on it. She felt Sasuke shudder in her embrace, and she felt his arms snake around her waist.

And then she bit down. Hard.

She felt the needle she had strategically placed between her teeth sink into Sasuke's skin, making a silent crunching sound as the object pierced through his ear.

Sakura tasted blood.

Sasuke, surprised, instantly pulled away, a look of shock suddenly taking over his face. And his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He fell forward.

Sakura caught him before he crumpled to the ground. She kneeled and cradled Sasuke's head into her lap, then wiped her mouth of his blood.

"Welcome home, Sasuke."

She looked up just in time to see Sai, who had just stabbed his other leg as if in desperation, fall onto Kakashi's back. Her boyfriend's legs were both wounded, bleeding. In normal circumstances, she would have flown to him to heal him, but she finally – finally – had Sasuke in her clutches. Finally! After so very long…!

She looked down at the man, unconscious on her lap. She instantly regretted to have missed the transition he had from being the handsome boy then, to the handsome man he was now.

She smiled sadly.

Naruto would be so proud of her.

He could hear snatches of conversations around him, but he didn't have the strength to open his eyes. He did not even know who was talking to who.

"Guren – "

" – Tsubaki."

"Sorry… The shelters… the children…"

"I'll do what I can for the children here. It seems to me like you already have a lot on your hands as it is. Is the boy all right?"

"I'm surprised he didn't go mad under that jutsu."

"Hmm…"

"Once Yamato gets here, we can put up a new home in no time."

"Thank you, Kakashi. That would be appreciated."

And he felt like he lost consciousness. When he came to, he forced his eyes to open a millimeter. A set of dirty, scruffy boots he could not recognize filled his sight.

"Is Sai okay?"

"Sasuke was never as talented as Itachi with the Tsukuyomi. When Itachi had me in that jutsu for a few moments, I was in the hospital for two weeks."

"I couldn't have imagined it, Senpai."

"How about you, Tenzou? I heard Sakura gave you the slip."

"She gave me more than just the slip. I was out for seven hours."

"But I'm glad you're here. I need you to make a thirty-room building. And make it quick."

"What?"

And Sai blacked out again.

He came to as a woman's loud boisterous yelling made his head pound.

"You knocked out your superior, ran away with a missing nin, and deliberately disobeyed my orders! What have you got to say for yourself?

"I apologize, Master. But I made sure I completed the mission before I ran off. And I didn't mean any harm on Captain Yamato. And if it weren't for me, Sasuke wouldn't have been detained."

"The ends don't justify the means, Sakura. You disobeyed direct orders."

There was silence. Murmurs.

"What did you just say?"

There was a sniff. "You didn't have to lie to me. You should have told me it was a mission about Sasuke. You should have told me and Naruto."

"If I did that, you would have insisted on being on the team."

"And what's so wrong with that? Is it so wrong to want to retrieve your teammate?"

"Because the mission objectives state that if you cannot capture the target, you will be forced to eliminate it. Could you have done it? Could you have eliminated Sasuke?"

More silence.

"I thought as much, Sakura."

"I could have captured him. And I did. Isn't that enough?"

There was a pause. "Is it enough for you? Now that you've captured him, do you think things will go back the way it was before?"

"No, my Lady."

"Do you think Team Seven will go back the way it was five years ago?"

"No, my Lady."

Another pause. "I know how you feel about Sasuke."

"Though there is nothing to know, my Lady."

"Don't you lie to me. You're like my daughter. I know when you are lying."

"I apologize."

"I know it's been more like an obsession for you, Sakura. But now that you finally have him back, I hope you know that there are more feelings involved that just your own."

And more silence.

Sai went back to sleep, his head spinning in dreams of black and red worlds, black and red eyes, and pink hair.

Sakura sat on a stool inside Room 2E on the foot of the bed that occupied a still unconscious Sai. It had been two days since they've gotten back to the village, and Sai had been out majority of the time, waking up only to blink at anyone who was in the room, then fall back to sleep. Sakura, who hadn't even bathed and slightly stank, made sure Sai didn't see her during the rare times he would come to.

In the past two days, she had been allowed to see Sasuke only once, and that was yesterday when Tsunade had removed him from the hospital to the prison in the dungeon of the Hokage Tower. He hadn't spoken at all, and as unseeing as his eyes were, he showed no signs of blindness; he had moved like a lion, swift and silent and confident, as if he wasn't even in captivity. Ibiki had escorted him, and he was as calm as a rock. There was a moment when his eyes had met Sakura then, although that could have been purely her imagination.

Karin, Juugo and Suigetsu were transferred to the Konoha Correctional Facility in the edge of Old Konoha. As they were missing nin from other Hidden Villages, it was not within the Leaf Village's law to pass judgment. Only Sasuke was to be tried, and Sakura had already prepared herself for the worst. The elders of Konoha were not going to sacrifice peace between the villages just to save the life of one man.

Unless they wanted the bloodline limit to live on.

She looked up when someone knocked on the door, and Ino came in, a grim expression on her usually naughty face. "Naruto's back," were the words that came out of her mouth as she stood beside Sakura and stared at the unmoving Sai. "He's in the Fifth's office, picking a fight with the Lady Tsunade."

Sakura could only nod. She didn't even have the strength to say anything.

She felt Ino's hand on her shoulder.

"Sakura…" her eyes were shifty when Sakura raised her face to look at her. "Are you all right?"

Another overrated question. Are you all right? Do you love him? Goddamn overrated questions.

Sakura returned her gaze at the dark-haired man on the bed. His eyes were closed on his pale face, and his chest would rise and fall silently as if he hadn't just been under torture. She felt her hand shake as she reached out and touched Sai's blanketed foot. It did not twitch, no sign that he felt here there. She instantly withdrew her hand.

"I'm in probation."

"For how long?"

"A month. No out-of-village missions for me for a while." She let out a mirthless laugh. "As if that mattered. Nothing freaking matters anymore."

Ino was staring at her, those blue eyes dark as she examined the pink-haired kunoichi. "I heard Sai and Sasuke's run-in didn't turn out great."

"Sai could have died. Or gone crazy…"

Ino squeezed her shoulder. "Sasuke's done enough damage to you, Sakura. He's not going to hurt you or Naruto ever again."

The remark made Sakura suddenly look up. "Ino?"

The blonde kneeled in front of her. Sakura's face must have looked like she was about to cry because Ino took her hands in hers, lacing their fingers together.

"What is it?"

Sakura had no idea why she all of a sudden felt like asking Ino about this. "When did you stop loving Sasuke?"

The question had obviously surprised her friend. Ino smiled sadly. "When I got old enough to stop fantasizing about a future that could never happen." It was her turn to laugh mirthlessly. "The feeling just faded, I guess."

Sakura bit the side of her cheek. Like her, Ino had claimed she loved Sasuke, so much that even their friendship had taken a back-seat for the Uchiha. As she looked back at it, she might have thought it silly, and childish, and she would have laughed at it if her emotions weren't confusing her too much.

Because truth be told, deep down in her heart, she felt like she, unlike Ino, had not grown up at all.

"What's wrong?" Ino asked when Sakura wouldn't elaborate. She smiled at her encouragingly.

Sakura bravely raised her eyes to Ino, and then closed her eyes painfully. "I think I may still be in love with him."

Ino's smile was suddenly wiped from her face. The grip she had on Sakura's hand slackened. "No…"

Sakura looked away.

Ino took her chin, forced her to look back. "Sakura, what are you talking about? You can't still be in love with the man who practically ripped your heart out five years ago and then stabbed it multiple times three years after that! It's not right." Her blue eyes flashed to the man on the bed. "You have a nice guy here! He's smart, handsome, talented, and he adores you! Sure, he may be weird sometimes and he could say the most uncomfortable things on occasion, but… well… You love Sai, don't you?" she finished in desperation.

Sakura jerked her head away again, her face suddenly heating up.

Ino grabbed her shoulders, shook her a bit. "Don't you?" she demanded.

A lone tear trickled down Sakura's cheek.

The shock was too much for Ino. She shot to her feet, looking down at Sakura in disgust. "Sakura, ever since we were little, I knew you could be better. It took a while to get you to come out of your shell, but when you finally did, you outshone every single kunoichi in the batch. Have you heard the rumors? They said you could be as strong as the Fifth in her prime. Some even say you could be stronger. And if I said anything to contradict it, it would be purely out of jealousy." Her brow furrowed as her grip on Sakura's shoulder tightened. "When you started going out with Sai, I was sincerely happy for you. So happy there wasn't even room for envy! Because I honestly thought it was wonderful. You can't throw that away because of this! Not this, Sakura!"

Sakura brushed Ino's hands away. "Don't you think I know that? Don't you think I've tried to talk myself out of this? He's a rogue! He's hurt me more times than I could remember. And at times in the past two years, I actually thought I was over him. But that was because never in a million years did I think it possible to catch up on him. Until today. And as I took him into my arms in that clearing, I knew, that this was the boy that made me who I am. That this was the source of my desire to be stronger. And now, he's here. He's back and I feel – "

Ino gasped.

And Sakura felt her heart stop beating altogether.

Because, there on the bed, dark eyes slightly open, that unreadable expression on his beautifully pale face, Sai stared at her. And that expression was another first for Sakura, because for the past two years they had been teammates, and for the past weeks they have been dating, it was the first time he had stared at her coldly.

I feel like a goddamn loser.

So this was what it felt like to be hurt emotionally. He had read about it a million times in books. He had thought that since his major sources were romance novels, they were most probably exaggerated.

But here was what sucked about it.

All of them were true.

You'd feel like an invisible hand had suddenly plunged inside your chest and grabbed your heart, and squeezed and squeezed until you couldn't breathe anymore. And then after that, you'd try to recover, try to rationalize that it wasn't true, but the reality was going to hit you like a bucket of icy water. And then even when you're shivering from the cold, you'd feel your palms sweating, and then you'd like to put your feelings into words, but your mouth just wouldn't work properly.

And all you could do was stare at her lovely face as she looked at anything else but you.

Somewhere beside him came a voice that sounded like Ino, saying that she was going to give them some alone time. He wanted to confirm if it really was Ino, but he couldn't tear his eyes from Sakura's face. He wanted to sit up but couldn't. His body felt like it wasn't his own.

Sakura was staring at a spot a few inches above his head.

He wondered why she wouldn't say anything. He wished she would sit closer to him. Having her at the foot of his bed made her feel so very distant.

He wanted to move his hands, to reach out to her. His fingers ended up twitching, and that made her look at him finally.

"You were awake?" she said feebly.

Sai could only stare. He had heard everything. Now he knew what emotional pain felt. How do normal people usually react to emotional pain?

"I… I…" Sakura started to speak. She never got past that one syllable.

He turned away, watched the IV drip lazily, traced the thin tube connected to his vein. He opened his mouth. "What…"

Sakura started to bite her lip.

Sai returned his gaze at her. "What… was I to you?"

Sakura closed her eyes. One lone tear trickled from her left eye. And then another. And another.

Sai gripped the sheets with shaky fingers. He tried to sit up, but immediately fell back on the bed, defeated.

That got the medic in Sakura up on her feet. Her hands were instantly on his chest, pressing him down.

"Don't try to get up. You're not strong enough yet."

Sai wanted to push her away. Her palms were warm against the thin fabric of his hospital gown. He clasped her wrists weakly. "What was I to you?" he asked again, his voice crackling.

Sakura's face broke into a pained smile. Sai had to look away. That was the first time he actually understood what they meant about forced or faked.

Sakura's fingers clawed at his hospital gown, as if to make sure Sai wasn't going to spring up anytime soon. "You… are special, Sai. Very special."

"Like Sasuke is special?" Sai asked, deadpanned. He wasn't accusing her. Sai didn't believe he was capable of accusing her of anything. Except perhaps accuse her for being undeniably beautiful, wonderful and over-all irresistible that she was able to pull out emotions from Sai's heart that he didn't even know existed in him.

And if ever he would end up accusing her, he would blame her for the heavy ache in his chest that represented the loss of Yue, the loss of the paintings in the shelters, and the portrait of the woman in white, who could have been – could have been – his biological mother.

The remembrance of the events in the border made him weak all over. He pushed Sakura away.

Sakura looked taken aback at first, opened her mouth as if to say something, changed her mind. For a brief moment, she looked like she didn't know what to do with her hands so she intently wrapped her arms around herself. "Sasuke is special. As are you."

Nothing she could have said would have made him feel better. His head was beginning to hurt. He wondered if it was Sakura's doing. "Then what was I to you then? A replacement?"

The word struck a chord in the pink-haired girl. She started to shiver. "That's not true."

"That's it. Now that he's back, you don't need me anymore."

"That's not true!"

"Then tell me the truth!" he shouted.

Sakura evidently took a step back with a gasp, unconsciously raising her hands between her and Sai. It was the first time Sai had ever risen his voice to her, if they didn't count the time when he practically screamed at her during the Mukagawa Ravine mission, when she recklessly came back to save a teddy bear.

Sakura eyed him, a battle raging inside her. Sai could see it in her eyes. "Sasuke was always my constant goal, ever since I was young, Sai. When I entered the academy, it was always his standard that I had to set mine to. Even until we graduated, I tried my best to be the smartest, because I could never be the strongest or the prettiest. And then he became my teammate. It was the best chance that had crossed my way. The best chance. And so I took it. I confessed my feelings to him before he left the village." She took a deep breath.

Sai felt his own lungs deflate. He had known Sakura for over two years already, and he had indirectly known of her feelings for the Uchiha, but this was the first time he found out that she had actually told him that she loved him. Those words – I love you – were things they haven't shared yet. And it made him so inferior to Sasuke all of a sudden. He hated this bad feeling. He had thought that it would all come in time after they got over the superficial dependency and the longing. His heart began to hurt more. The only consolation he had was that Sakura looked just as hurt as he.

"He never really loved me, but I chased after him, nonetheless. And there were times when we came so very close… but he just wouldn't come home to me."

And that was when she began to cry.

Sai wanted to cry with her. He wiped his nose weakly with the back of his hand.

"But now, he finally came back." Sakura, like a little child, wiped her cheeks roughly with her palms. She was not a beautiful crier. Her eyes were puffy and red in no time, and her chin dimpled and creased as she sobbed, but all the more did those signs of weakness make him want her.

"And where does that leave me?"

It took an eternity before Sakura finally replied. "I don't know…"

And that was when the pain in Sai's heart started to fade. It faded and all that remained was a dull numbness that throbbed along with his heart. He blamed Naruto Uzumaki for making him start creating bonds. He blamed Captain Yamato for going out of his way to make the new Team Seven like each other. He blamed Tsunade for making Sakura undergo a mission that made the lost emotions in his heart come out. And he blamed Sakura for having done such a wonderful job with it.

But the mission was over.

They were over.

"I'm sorry," Sakura suddenly blurted out between her sobs.

Sai turned away. "Go."

"Sai? You do understand, right?"

No, he did not. "Just go."

Sakura dissolved into more sobs. Sai hadn't really thought she was capable of being this emotional. He had always seen her to be the emotionally stable of their team, though he had heard over her breaking down when Sasuke had left the village.

Without another word, Sakura hurriedly swept out the room, sliding the door behind her with a soft thud.

And Sai was left alone in the room, feeling even more lost. He blamed Team Seven for all this! Whereas had he been impervious to those emotions, he wouldn't be hurting as much now.

With all the strength he could muster, Sai pushed himself up on the bed. He felt something bubble in the pit of his stomach. He felt it growing and growing, spreading through his body, fueling him with a strength that he knew wouldn't normally be there.

He pushed the blankets off him. They tumbled to the floor. He grabbed the thin tube of his IV, snatched it, pulled his vein free. Blood he hardly even noticed trickled down his arm, down to his elbow. He didn't care. The emotion was too much. The rage was too much, of having been cheated after giving it his all, the way he understood the sense of the word love, and having lost to a man who defied all logic without even trying.

Sai wanted to break something.

Staggering, he grabbed the stool Sakura had occupied earlier. With a primal cry, he heaved it over his head and into the window. Metal and glass collided and he heard screaming from outside. The sound of shattering glass and the sight of the gaping hole in the window was comforting. He attacked the side table next with both hands. This, too, joined the stool outside. More screaming.

Since there wasn't much furnishing in the room, he started to look for more things to abuse. He saw the long collapsible table on the nearest wall. It was the first time he had laid eyes on the thing placed strategically in it; a vase of daisies sat in the middle of the table, a thick stack of get-well-soon cards, a box of chocolates. Angrily, he snatched the vase in one hand, the cards in the other and staggered to the broken window. These things – these items that help people make bonds! – were the reasons for his misery right now! He raised the objects above his head, ready to chuck them out, when someone grabbed his wrists from behind.

"Stop it," came the deep, silent voice.

And all the strength felt as if it had just seeped out of him. He dropped the vase onto the floor, splashing water and petals everywhere. The get-well cards followed suit. They were immediately soaked in the water from the vase.

"Look at me, Sai," the voice commanded.

Sai slowly turned in place. Tsunade was looking up at him with an unreadable expression on her youthful face. She had let go of his wrists, and her hands were now on her hips.

"Do you feel like crying?" the Fifth asked gently.

Sai shook his head.

"Are you sad?"

Sai shook his head again.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Confused?"

Sai moved as if to shake his head again, stopped, nodded.

Tsunade eyed him a long time before opening her arms to him. Sai paused, then wordlessly crashed against her shoulder, as if the weight of today had finally caught up on him. In normal days, he would have found the humor in it, but right now, as Tsunade wrapped her arms around him, resting her chin on his shoulder (She had to strain, being a few inches shorted than Sai) he felt unexplainable vulnerability to the emotions Sakura had successfully planted in him.

He felt his eyes slowly close as his arms wound around the Hokage, gripping the two tails of blond hair hanging down her back, with such fervor that he doubted it didn't hurt the woman.

"What doesn't kill you," Tsunade murmured. "will make you stronger."

Sai wondered if Tsunade was trying to make him feel better. Her words sank into him like poison. He needed to be numb. Right now he wanted to jump into a freezing pond to justify the sudden tremors that were beginning to run through his body.

"You will be stronger. You're young. You have everything going for you."

Sai doubted this. His "everything" had just told him to have a nice life without her because she loved someone else. He wondered if he did anything wrong to deserve this. He wiped his nose on Tsunade's shoulder, not caring if she was going to scold him later. He needed to will the stinging sensation away.

Tsunade began to roughly rub his back. "You will be stronger."

And that was when no matter how hard he tried to wipe his nose on her, he began to cry. It was the most uncomfortable feeling in the world, when his face started to drip many kinds of fluids. He didn't care. The tears kept on coming. They just wouldn't stop.

Tsunade heaved a sigh, as if she didn't know what else to say. She continued to rub his back.

That night, after five long days of being away from her home since she went away to Water Country and two days since she got back to the village, Sakura finally decided to come home. She had been too busy with either the hospital or prison to even shower. She realized she stank. Bad.

And she had never felt so detached from her own home.

She noticed it the moment she turned the key to her apartment. It smelled pleasantly of charcoal and parchment. It smelled of Sai. She had almost forgot they were living together…

She felt the tears once again threaten to overcome her. She bit her cheek, willing the sensation to pass. But she felt her eyes moisten when she saw the neatly aligned sandals Sai had left behind.

Removing her own footwear, she proceeded to the living room. On the table sat two of Sai's ink brushes along with a pair of clippers. He must have tried to trim his brushes before he left for his mission. She felt her fingers touch the brushes tentatively, and her memory was filled with Sai's hands, and eyes, and skin, and hair…

She felt her heard lurch a bit, and wondered if she had done the right thing.

Of course you didn't do the right thing! You just told your boyfriend you're still in love with the guy you've been obsessing over since you were a child.

She sat on the couch, feeling cold. How many times had Sai fallen asleep on this couch, waiting for her to come home? Her hands felt as the material wistfully, thinking of the times she had cuddled with him in the morning over coffee and biscuits. She rubbed at her eyes, and thought to herself; she had finally confirmed that she was not, after all, a very nice person.

But could she help that she didn't want to lie to herself? But even so, was it worth hurting her teammate like that?

No. It wasn't fair.

She stood up, pressed her hand on her forehead and headed upstairs, her thoughts filled with Sai and Sasuke and Sai. She was so preoccupied with guilt of having broken Sai's heart and giddiness that Sasuke was finally back that she almost screamed when she found Naruto perched on her window sill, his light blue eyes almost glowing in the darkness of her room.

"You scared me," Sakura accused as she hurriedly wiped at her eyes. She didn't even bother to flick on the light switch, afraid that Naruto would see her tear-streaked swollen face and make him worry more.

Naruto, still unmoving, merely blinked at her.

Sakura crashed on her bed, feeling Naruto's eyes still on her. "What do you want, Naruto?" she asked, her voice muffled in her pillow. Her heard began to do the cha-cha when she caught a whiff of Sai's scent in her sheets.

"I heard from granny Tsunade and Kakashi sensei. You poisoned Captain Yamato and ran off to poke your nose in someone else's mission."

Sakura groaned. "They already scolded me three times because of that, Naruto. You don't have to repeat it to me."

She heard Naruto hop down from the window. "I wanted to hear from you directly, the reason why you suddenly had temporary brain damage."

Sakura's eyes popped open, suddenly feeling shocked that she had to take this from Naruto, of all people. Sitting up, she jumped when she felt Naruto standing over her, arms over his chest. Sakura tried not to be intimidated. It was a hard task, since Naruto had grown several more inches over the years.

"It's not like you to be so reckless, Sakura," Naruto said silently.

Sakura furrowed her brow. Slightly irritated, she crossed her legs on the bed. "You are not in the position to talk to me that way. You, more than I, jump into things head first because of your emotions."

"I'm not going to deny that. But this is a different circumstance altogether."

Sakura roughly scratched her head and looked over at Naruto. Her eyes were beginning to adjust in the darkness and she could see him looking down at her in disappointment. Disappointment!

"The circumstances are the same," she shot at him.

"No they aren't," Naruto shot back. "If it were me, I'd have done the exact same thing you did. I'd have run off to get Sasuke back, but poison my Captain while in a foreign country? Captain Yamato was out for seven hours! In foreign territory! We were lucky he didn't get hurt, attacked, ambushed, killed!"

Sakura's eyes widened. She had not really thought about that when she slipped the sleeping powder in Yamato's drink. All she had thought was Sasuke then. "I'm sorry."

Naruto, having seen repentance, sat on the bed facing her. "Not only that, Sakura. You didn't even put Sai's feelings into consideration. How do you think he'd have felt when you schemed and disobeyed orders just for another guy?"

"You said you'd have done the same thing."

"But I'm not dating Sai."

That shut Sakura up. She looked away. "I just wanted him back so much, Naruto. You of all people would now my feelings for him."

Naruto stared at her in disbelief. "If I didn't hear it with my own ear, I wouldn't have believed it. You're trying to justify your actions with your feelings. You know better than that."

"What would you have wanted me to do, Naruto?" Sakura then demanded. "He needed my help! He wanted me to come!"

"And so you stepped on every single person's heart along the way just to get to him?"

"Yes!" Sakura exclaimed, and feeling utterly horrible about it. "I did step on other people to get him back! And now he's here! Can't we just let it be as it is?"

Naruto shook his head. "Sasuke is my friend, and you know I treasure my friends, Sakura. But if this is what happens to you because of him, then I'd rather we have him brought back by different means. Not like this. This can't possibly be love you're feeling. When you love someone, you don't turn into some evil person you're not. People in love bring out the good in themselves. Not the bad."

Sakura opened her mouth to say something, closed it, discovered she did not have anything to say to defend herself from the truths Naruto had pointed out. She fell back on the bed, throwing one arm over her eyes. "I'm scum, Naruto. Just say it now."

She felt Naruto shift on the bed, and she felt her free hand being enveloped by Naruto's big, calloused ones. She could not remember the last time she had held hands with her teammate. But the warmth was a comfort to her she couldn't push away. She squeezed his fingers.

"You're not scum. You're just human." He squeezed back. "Sakura, you know I've always loved you." He paused, as if embarrassed, cleared his throat. "I don't love love you, that is. I mean…"

Sakura, despite herself, smiled. "I know, Naruto. If it makes you feel any better, I love you too."

Naruto laughed. "You know I'd do anything for you, and that includes putting you in your place when you do something wrong. And you have done something wrong. Sai loves you, Sakura. And I have a feeling that you do, too."

Sakura took a deep breath. This was not her. Naruto was right. Her obsession with Sasuke was turning her into a whole new different person. She had wanted him, longed for him, dreamed of him to come back. And she did everything in her power and more, and now he's back. So why didn't she feel happy? Shouldn't she be crying tears of joy?

Somehow, she already knew why.

And it was because of Sai.

Her eyes popped open. She hoped it wasn't too late…

I wanted to make Sai cry. XD I'm evil that way.

And thank you so much to foreverlovedbyyou. It's not everyday we get to find someone who would take their time to actually review each and every chapter. You are one of those people who can make a fanfic writer so very happy. You are forever loved. XD