Once again I thank you all for the review and continued reading of this story. Oh and to answer your question Animaman, I'm not sure. I've thrown a few ideas around in my head about starting up some of my old stories that can still be salvaged. Perhaps in time when I'm really back into the swing of things.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Naruto wasn't sure what to do here. In front of him stood Sakura and she had just threw some papers in his face. Looking down at them he recognized Tsunade's handwriting.
'Transfer papers huh?' Naruto thought.
He looked back to Sakura, she was dressed for ninja duty. Her red headband taking its usual place as a hairband in her once again long pink tresses. Her bangs framing her face and falling to just below her breasts as the rest of her hair fell down her back and to her waist. The red raised up collar of her zip-up shirt that fell into pure white and extended to just above her breasts before falling into red again. The beige short sleeves of her shirt that showed off her deceptively strong arms. She had a skirt that matched her sleeves and reminded him of the one she wore when they were fifteen only much longer, reaching the back of her knees. She still wore spandex shorts only now they reached to mid thigh, and of course she still wore her ninja style boots.
Naruto looked back down to the papers in his hands. This Chunin has requested a transfer from their previous team to a new team in hopes of furthering their career under your tutelage. The choice is yours, should you feel this shinobi would be a burden or un-needed addition to your team please return the documents to the Hokage with the reason why.
'Attempting to seem professional I see.' Naruto thought.
A few boxes were checked off and some other things written. Excellent medic, chakra augmention to strength making for a poweful Taijutsu user. He smirked at that, powerful? No that strength of theirs was on a whole different scale. There were faint lines of what he assumed was more praise for her Nin or Genjutsu. Tsunade had most likely erased those after realizing that she had no idea what Sakura was capable of in those fields after nine years. Again Naruto looked at her, only this time he took in all the small details.
Her skin was still for the most part unblemished, save for the faded scar on her arm from his four tailed form. Her skin was still pale and years of staying in the Hospital or her house certainly didn't help that. She didn't have a shuriken holster he noticed, he could spot a kunai pouch on her hip though. Some black material was bulging from the pouch most likely the gloves she wore when fighting. Finally, he looked into her eyes, those bright emerald green eyes. They had dulled over the years, not by much but to anyone who had spent as much time as he had in their younger years looking at them it was obvious. They were still beautiful though, he would easily admit that.
'Stop staring at me.' Sakura thought and swallowed the saliva in her mouth.
"Do you have a pen or pencil?" he asked.
She nodded and handed him her pen. He took it and did a motion with her hand to turn around, she did and sensed him step up behind her. Before she could ask she felt him press the the papers to her back and start to write, a thousand thoughts raced through her mind. Was he signing it? Was he going to let her be on his team? Or was he simply writing no and the reason?
"There we go." he said.
She turned back around and took her pen back. He smiled at her and handed the papers back. With a shaky hand she took them and looked down at what he had written.
Uzumaki Naruto, it was written with a flair only he could pull off. Would be glad to accept Haruno Sakura as the third member in my squad.
She looked back up at him to find him still smiling, he pointed back down to the papers. More was written underneath. P.S. Sakura stop reading this, it's for Baa-chan's eyes not yours. She blushed and looked away, she heard Naruto laugh.
"Welcome aboard Sakura." he smiled.
"Thank you, Naruto." she mumbled.
"Our training is done for the day, so you can go ahead and bring that back to Baa-chan." Naruto explained. "Meet us here tomorrow, nine a.m., bring all your gear, got it?"
Sakura smiled and looked back at him. "Yes! Thank you again Naruto!"
She turned around and began a brisk walk back to the Hokage mansion. Naruto turned to his students and helped them up.
"Okay you two." he started. "You don't have to be friends with her, but I expect you to be polite."
"Of course Naruto-sensei." both girls said.
"Good, I know I probably didn't have to say that but I wanted to be sure." he said.
Both girls nodded in understanding and straightened their clothes. Naruto smiled at them and turned towards Konoha with them following.
"So, what do you two want for lunch?" he asked.
"Ichiraku's!" they shouted.
Naruto chuckled, he had made these two into ramen addicts too. They made it to the ramen stand in record time and ordered the usual.
"Um, Naruto-sensei?" Hitomi asked as they waited for their food.
"Yeah? What's up Hitomi?" he asked.
"Why did you sign those papers so quick?" she asked.
"I used to be on the same squad as Sakura." he began. "Back when she was in her prime, and I mean on top of her training not her age, she was strong. If she had kept up with it for these last nine years I don't know what she would be capable of."
"How come she stopped training?" Keiko asked.
"She got a boyfriend." he smirked.
Hitomi and Keiko were confused, that was no reason to stop training. They were about to ask more questions but their food arrived and both knew there was no talking anymore. All three broke their chopsticks in perfect synch and dug in.
Sakura was almost to the Hokage's mansion and she was ecstatic! Naruto had signed the papers without any hesitation! She looked back down at his signature, it had been a while since she had seen it. The last time had to have been on her twenty-second birthday.
Sakura sat down at her desk in the Hospital after treating her last patient for the day. She saw something on her desk, a rectangle wrapped in bright red wrapping paper. She picked it up and noticed the card stuck to it.
Happy Birthday Sakura,
Sorry I couldn't drop it off in person. Too busy right now, hope you like it.
It was signed by Naruto in the usual flair that he signed everything. She smiled and began to un wrap the gift, her smile dropped when the wrapping paper fell off. It was a book, not any book, no no. That would have been too nice, it was the latest issue in the Icha Icha series. Sakura went beet red and quickly shoved the book into one of the drawers in her desk.
She chuckled at the memory, Naruto was right though. She did like it, hell she loved it! A guilty pleasure of her's, she had every issue of the series to date hidden in her office. Looking back up she found herself already outside of the Hokage's office. She knocked twice and entered, just like before. This time however Tsunade sat there ready for her with a cocky smirk on her face.
"You knew..." Sakura growled.
"Of course I did." Tsunade smirked.
Sakura turned her nose up and handed the signed documents back to Tsunade. She heard a few "thump!"s most likely Tsunade stamping the papers, she heard the rustling of papers and looked at her former teacher. Tsunade had a serious look on her face now.
"Sakura, while you were gone Sasuke came in." she started.
Sakura gulped she was pretty sure about where this was going.
"He had a woman with him." she continued. "Sasuke was asking me to marry them."
"And?" Sakura asked.
"I did. It's not my place to say who can and who cannot be married." she said. "... Am I to assume, that was why you and Sasuke are no longer together?"
Sakura nodded her head and cast her eyes down.
"I'm sorry Sakura." Tsunade said.
"... It's fine, forget about it." Sakura said.
Tsunade nodded and shut her mouth. Sakura bowed to the Hokage and exited the office. Tsunade shook her head at the closed door, Naruto had warned the woman. This wasn't any of her business, still, she felt sorry for the pink haired woman. She sighed and continued her paperwork.
Sakura hurried away from the Hokage's mansion as fast as she could and found herself in the old training grounds. She looked around for anyone before sitting down and pulling her knees up to her chest. The knowledge that Sasuke and Kaede were married, it hurt, like someone had stabbed a kunai into her heart. She started crying, softly at first then it progressed to body racking sobs.
"No!" she grunted.
She extended one leg out and furiously wiped the tears from her eyes. "I will not sit here and cry like a ten year old girl!"
She stood up in a huff and walked over to the three posts in the ground. More tears streamed down her face.
"Fuck!" she growled and swiped at the tears on her cheeks.
She cocked her fist back, loaded it with chakra, then brought it forward. It shattered the training post upon impact, Sakura stood there breathing heavily. She turned to the right and kicked the post causing it to shatter too.
"Working out our frustrations are we?" a man asked.
Sakura turned, she knew that voice, as she expected there stood Kakashi. Surprisingly he wasn't reading his book, instead he had his eyes, eye, focused on her.
"Kakashi-sensei." she breathed out. "What are you doing here?"
"A little birdy told me you're back in the ninja game." he said.
"Would that "little birdy" happen to have huge breasts?" she asked.
"Yep." was his simple reply. "It also told me, that you and Sasuke are no longer together."
"I don't want to talk about it." she quickly looked away.
"You know the issue will come up eventually." he said.
"I'll deal with that when it comes." Sakura rubbed her sore knuckles from punching the post without gloves.
"You know, he will find out." he said again.
"I'll deal with it!" she shouted.
"I'm just trying to help." he tried.
Sakura growled and wheeled on him. "You want to help?!" he was nervous when she said that. "Then have a match with me!"
She pulled her gloves out of her kunai pouch and slipped them on. They extended all the way up her forearms, she gave each glove a tug before holding her fists up to fight. Kakashi stayed where he was as they stared eachother down.
"I don't think this-
He never got a chance to finish his sentence as Sakura rushed him. Her fist crashed into the ground causing chunks of earth and dust to shoot up. Kakashi jumped to the cover of the trees just before her fist connected, he sighed, it seemed there was no way around this. He vanished from the trees and used the summoning jutsu to bring forth two of his large dogs.
"Go restrain her, no puncture wounds, but if it has to come to that then..." he trailed off letting them know the obvious.
The two hounds nodded and took off towards Sakura. She saw them coming and attempted a kick at them, the large bulldog jumped out of the way while one with sunglasses lightly grabbed her shin. Using the momentum of his jump the dog pulled Sakura to her side as the bulldog came down on her chest effectively trapping her.
"Dammit!" she growled. "Get the fuck off of me!"
"Not until you calm down." Kakashi ordered.
Sakura struggled under the weight of the large dog, eventually she gave up with an annoyed sigh. Kakashi allowed the two ninken to dispel as he stood over Sakura. She sniffled before tears started streaming down her face again.
"It's not fucking fair Kakashi-sensei!" she sobbed.
Kakashi sat down next to her and listened. Sakura crossed her arms over her eyes in an attempt to stop the tears.
"I... I gave him, counting my initial crush at seven, eighteen years of my life!" she continued. "And he just throws it away because I haven't gotten pregnant! We could have used a surrogate! We could have seen about using some type of medical jutsu! But no! He just decides to seek out someother woman who doesn't need all those extra things!"
Her sobs had evolved into full wails with spotty hiccups in between. Feeling bad for his former student, Kakashi put, what he hoped to be, a comforting hand on her shoulder. She peeked out from under her arms, Kakashi had his usual eye smile on for her.
"I know... that there is nothing I could say to lessen the sting of this." Kakashi said.
Sakura lowered her arms down to cover her eyes again. Kakashi gave her shoulder a squeeze and she, reluctantly, looked back up at the man.
"Naruto is still here for you." he said.
She sat up at that and wiped the tears from her eyes. "What Kakashi?" the dropping of the respectable suffix let him know she was angry again. "Should I go running back to Naruto?! Like some stupid little girl? Is that what you're saying?!"
He held up his hands in defense. "No no! That's not-
"Make him feel like second best?! That it took Sasuke ripping my heart out for me to crawl to him?!" now she was yelling. "He deserves better than that!"
Hearing the way Sakura put it, he acknowledged, that indeed that's what it sounded like.
"Okay. That didn't come out right." he said to the angry woman. "What I mean is, well... damn how can I say this without upsetting you more?"
"I'm waiting." she huffed.
"To hell with it." Kakashi said and stood up. "Where Sasuke has betrayed you twice now, Naruto has always stuck by your side. You're the one who ousted Naruto from your life, he could- no he should be angry! But he's not, he's still your friend, the friend willing to listen to all your whiny bullshit."
Sakura looked down at the ground. "You didn't have to be so rude about it." she mumbled.
"Deal with it." he said.
She fiddled with a piece of grass between her legs trying her best to ignore Kakashi.
"I had hoped to have a decent conversation with you." he said and turned around. "Before I go, remember Sakura. This will come up eventually and you better be ready for it."
Sakura nodded and heard Kakashi jump away. Great, now she was sad and guilty.
She had spent the rest of the day at the training field, sorting out her thoughts and feelings. She was still upset about Sasuke and Kaede getting married but she knew that in time it would pass. She had also decided to make an honest effort to reconnect with Naruto, reconnect with her once best friend. She entered her apartment and without bothering to shower, changed her clothes and fell into bed for some rest.
To answer another question. No, Naruto is not with Anko, but to stop any more confusion on who Naruto is with or was with, I will explore that in either chapter 8 or 9
Stay tuned
-Raidori