Chapter 4:

Naruto and Sasuke were on the brink of a fight when Sakura arrived at training ground three the next day. She heard their voices before she saw them, and in turn urged her horse, Reika, to go faster. The lovely white mare sped up at her urging, and soon Sakura came into the clearing. Sai was leaning against a tree, observing Naruto and Sasuke yelling at each other from the middle of the large training ground. Galloping past Sai, Sakura urged Reika to run between the two men. Shocked whenever Sakura and her horse ran past them, the two stopped their squabbling.

"What is wrong with you two?" Sakura hissed as she commanded her horse to turn around and face her teammates. "It's our first training match and you've already started arguing?"

"But Sakura-chan, Sasuke was-" Naruto yelled, but he was instantly cut off by a glare from Sakura.

"I don't care what it was." She told them. "Not only are you two adults, but you're both gentlemen. Do not disgrace yourselves with a meaningless spat. I will not heal you if you purposefully injure each other."

"Hn," Sasuke muttered. He then turned around and stalked off to stand by Sai. Naruto ran after him, and Sakura trotted to put Reika in the nearby stables by Naruto's horse, Gama. Sai's horse, Takumi, was standing nearby. A fourth horse that Sakura did not know was on the other side of Reika. It was jet black and beautiful. She suspected that the horse belonged to Sasuke. Sakura gave an apple to each horse, knowing that their owners had probably forgotten to.

When she returned to the training ground, Sakura took in her companions. They were all in their ninja gear. Sasuke looked particularly handsome in his tight dark blue pants, black shirt, gray vest, and dark black jacket. His hair was down again, and he had a sword attached to his hip, which surprised Sakura.

"Has Kakashi-sensei arrived yet?" Sakura asked them as she approached.

"Of course not," Sai told her cheerfully. The artist was sketching the snowy scene in front of him. His charcoal pencil captured every shadow and line the forest presented him. It was amazing to watch him work.

"He's always so late!" Naruto exclaimed from the tree branch he was lying on lazily.

"You're never usually on time yourself, Naruto," Sakura accused as she moved under Sasuke who was standing on a branch to walk towards Sai.

"You're just as mean as Sasuke, dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed.

As the two continued to bicker, Sasuke soaked in Sakura's appearance. She was, for once, not in a dress. Instead, she was wearing a puffy cream blouse with lace collared sleeves that under a pale rose corset. The high-collar was held together at her throat with a ruby red ribbon. She had on a ruby red coat that reached the bottom of her corset in front before billowing out to mid-calf behind her. On the back of the jacket was an intricate floral design around the circle that symbolized the Haruno family. Her black pants were tight on her legs, emphasizing her curves, and her dark gray boots reached up to her knees. Her vivid pink hair was pulled back into a loose bun with a ribbon that matched her collar tied around it. She looked utterly delectable, and Sasuke was incensed at the thought of another man seeing her looking this beautiful. She was currently bending down, watching Sai draw as she fought with Naruto. It was painfully ironic that she was bickering with Naruto after chastising him for doing the same thing.

"…and just because you used to have a crush on Sasuke doesn't mean that you have to defend him all the time, dattebayo!" Naruto was now standing on ground level with Sakura, who had gone completely still. For a few moments, everything was completely silent, save for the sound of Sai's pencil.

Then, the battle between Sakura and Naruto began. Naruto barely dodged Sakura's fist that went flying towards his face. Retreating back, the jinchuriki summoned close to thirty shadow clones to surround Sakura. In retaliation, she punched the ground below, completely decimating the area around Naruto and his clones.

As the fight continued, Sasuke moved to ground level to get a better view. Sakura was holding her own, and Naruto's strength had increased far beyond what Sasuke expected.

"They have an interesting dynamic, don't they?" Sai mused aloud. "Naruto continually incenses Sakura. She, however, cannot stay too mad at him for long. They rely on each other, but they're continually bickering with each other. It's interesting to watch their comradery."

"Hn," was all Sasuke replied. Sakura and Naruto had always worked strangely together. They would fight even worse than Sasuke and Naruto did sometimes, but they always worked it out and relied on each other. Sakura even smiled at Naruto once in a way that made his own blood boil with hatred at the ripe age of twelve. What had evolved between those two while Sasuke was away? Thinking back to Tsunade's words a few days ago, he remembered that Naruto had apparently been gone for a while.

"What was Naruto gone for?" Sasuke found himself quietly asking Sai. Instead of being astounded at Sasuke's attempt to communicate, Sai just simply continued to draw.

"Naruto left to train with Master Jiraiya shortly after you left. He returned for a year when he was fifteen, and I was placed on the team during that time." Sai paused, thoughtful. "Naruto and Sakura were able to show me a different path from the one I had been on. They changed me. Naruto then left again to train more with Jiraiya and returned a year ago."

"Hn." Sasuke thought for a moment. It seemed all of the original Team 7 had been trained by a different Sannin. Naruto, no doubt, would have learned some incredible tricks from the old pervert, Jiraiya. "So Sakura is a jonin?"

"Yes. It seems as though Tsunade's training has allowed her to change drastically from who she was as a genin. I wouldn't know. She's always been frightfully strong and menacing to me." Sai smiled his peculiar smile.

"What is wrong with this guy?" Sasuke thought bitterly.

"She just became a jonin a few months ago. Seeing as you and Naruto are technically genin, and I can't become a jonin because of my involvement in root, she outranks all of us."

Sasuke turned to look at the woman who was decimating the battle ground. He watched as she effortlessly dodged some kind of wind attack from Naruto, landing on her feet with a kick to the ground that sent Naruto flying into the air. Both of his former teammates seemed ridiculously strong.

"In addition to her strength, Sakura has become a renowned medical ninja. She often spends her days at the hospital with the Hokage, healing and delivering medicines to those who need it. It's painfully ironic that she has brute strength that can destroy a battlefield of ninja and the capacity to heal those same people."

"How vast is her power exactly?" Sasuke wondered. "What has she done the past seven years?"

"Naruto, meanwhile, has been doing some interesting things with senjutsu and ninjutsu. I believe he has also learned to work with Kurama." Sai continued as he put the finishing touches on his drawing. He pouted, obviously unhappy with it. "The picture is missing something. Maybe some color?" The odd man shook his head before standing up, stretching. He flashed a smile at Sasuke. "As for my own power, I suppose you'll see that today."

At that moment, Kakashi appeared on the tree branch Sasuke had been standing on.

"Sorry I'm late!" Kakashi smiled. "It seems as though Naruto and Sakura started without us."

"She's very angry with him for making comments about her love life." Sai was putting away his art supplies, preparing for training.

"Ah, I see." Kakashi chuckled. At that moment, a resounding crack came from the Earth on the far side of the training ground. Catching Naruto off guard, Sakura had landed a punch while both of them were in midair. Naruto collided with the Earth, causing a chasm to form underneath him. Sakura, breathing heavily, walked to the hole, pulled out his body, and layed Naruto on the soft snow. They began speaking in voices low enough so that not even Kakashi could hear them.

"Ah, I'm sorry, Sakura-chan.." the dizzy blonde breathed in pain. Sakura removed her gloves and tucked them in her back pocket.

"Naruto, I know that you're adjusting easily to Sasuke being back. You two were like brothers, so I'm sure that it's simple to fall back into your normal ways," Sakura began healing Naruto as she spoke, her hands glowing green over his chest. "It's different for us. I don't know how to describe our relationship, or if we're even friends. You know what my feelings are. Please, please don't use that against me in an argument, especially not in front of Sasuke."

Naruto looked at her. Tears were forming at the sides of her eyes. It had been a long time since he'd seen Sakura cry over Sasuke, and Naruto felt bad that he was the one to bring on the tears.

"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan. I didn't realize that it would be hard for you to be around him." He smiled at her. "Forgive me?"

"Of course, baka. Shannaroo." Sakura giggled at him. No matter how angry Naruto made her, she just couldn't stay angry at the sun. Naruto and Sakura were like the Sun and Spring. They worked together like siblings to form a connection that was unlike any other. After he was healed completely, Naruto jumped up to look around. He saw Kakashi, Sai, and Sasuke moving towards them.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled. "You're late again, Dattebayo!"

"It seems you just couldn't wait for me, and have decimated the training ground in the process." Kakashi replied as he stopped in front of them, flashing the two a look. Sakura and Naruto had the grace to look a little ashamed at their childish antics.

"It's my fault, sensei," Sakura admitted, giving a nervous laugh. "I lost my temper at Naruto."

"Ah, well, it happens." Kakashi stated simply. Naruto looked like he was about to protest, but a look from Sakura silenced him. Sasuke watched all of this, a very small smirk on his usually passive face. They had only been a team for a day and already he was the best behaved. "For today's training, I was planning on having us pair off. Naruto and Sakura, however, have already started without us. So, that leaves Sasuke and Sai. After their match, we'll be doing taijutsu training."

With a nod, Sasuke turned his attention to the strange artist, who was smiling angelically at him. Preparing their stances, the two dark-haired men began their match, each with a purpose of proving themselves as the driving force.

The outcome of Sai and Sasuke's match was a little hazy. Whereas Sasuke was paralyzed by Sai's ink snakes, the artist was caught in a genjutsu cast after looking into Sasuke's mangekyo sharingan that rendered him completely useless. Sasuke was able to break free from Sai's snakes after some struggle, but before he could make a move, Kakashi stopped the match.

"It's time for taijutsu training," he had said cheerfully, though Sakura knew that he really wanted to stop before Sai got seriously hurt. Not knowing how far Sasuke would take the match, it was safer to stop it. Sasuke released his genjutsu, and Sakura ran to heal Sai. Sasuke felt a surge of anger go through him. Sakura hadn't run to him. Instead, she chose to attend another man first. Even if Sai was worse for wear than Sasuke, the Uchiha remembered a time where Sakura would have put his health above all others.

When Sakura approached him and offered to heal him, he refused her services. Snarling at him, she told him not to be "a stubborn idiot", and proceeded to do it anyways. The feeling of her cool, pleasant chakra entering his body was an incredible sensation. Her delicate, careful hands roamed his back, feeling for any spots of soreness before moving up to his hair to heal a nasty bump. He imagined her hands running through his hair, pulling and tugging while she lay beneath him. He shivered.

"You're all better now, Sasuke-kun," she told him with a sad smile. Her hands lingered in his hair a little longer, and when she removed them, he was grateful. Her touch had been overwhelming.

During taijutsu practice, Sasuke realized that their team was incredibly compatible. Sasuke was the fastest. Sakura was the strongest. Sai was the most dexterous, Naruto the boldest, and Kakashi the most calculated. Together, their taijutsu skills alone could have taken down an incredibly large group of ninja with relative ease. Sasuke's analytical mind had already begun combination technique ideas that he would speak to Kakashi about later.

Once they were done fighting and training ground three was completely destroyed, the group barely even feel the cold air outside. They were all sweating and breathing heavily.

"Well, that was informative." Kakashi declared from the branch he was sitting on. "Tomorrow we'll meet at the same time in training ground five. Prepare to utilize ninjutsu."

They all nodded. At that moment, three messenger hawks appeared, one stopping in front of everyone except for Sasuke and Kakashi. The other three opened theirs and read the messages within.

"It's from Ino-pig," Sakura chirped. "She's having a small dinner party tonight!" Her eyes were wide with excitement. Sakura hadn't had a chance to talk to Ino about anything that had happened the past few days.

"You'll get to see everyone again, Sasuke! Dattebayo." Naruto put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder with a sunny smile.

"I wasn't invited, dobe," Sasuke frowned.

"Don't be stupid! That's only because they don't know you're here." Naruto smiled wider. "I'll write to Ino and tell her I'm bringing a guest. No one will see it coming!" The jinchuriki threw his head back and laughed.

"Naruto…" Sasuke growled, about to tell him there was no way in hell that he'd be subjected to a night filled with Ino Yamanaka.

"Please, Sasuke-kun…" Sakura's voice stopped him in his tracks. "Please come with us." He turned to look at her. Her wide green eyes were staring at him, imploring him to accompany them. For some reason, he didn't have the heart to tell her no. In fact, if she kept looking at him like that, he was sure that he would give her whatever her heart desired. Purposefully looking away from her, he just nodded.

A smile broke out on both Sakura and Naruto's faces. Throwing his arm around Sasuke, Naruto began walking forward, describing to Sasuke how everyone was still exactly the same as before, with the exception of Hinata Hyuga. Sakura followed on the other side of Naruto, walking a little behind and observing the two with a small smile on her face.

"It seems that Sakura has some influence over Sasuke," Sai observed to Kakashi, who had moved to stand by him. "Was that always the case?"

Kakashi pondered for a moment. "Sakura has always held a special place for Sasuke. Besides his mother, she's the only girl who's ever been close to him. She's always had some influence, though I don't think Sasuke even realizes it." Kakashi paused again. "What his feelings for her are, I'm not entirely sure. Sasuke isn't exactly a romantic, and I think he'd be too afraid of hurting Sakura to ever try and engage in anything beyond friendship. We'll have to wait and see if that changes or not."

Sai nodded, watching the group. Romantic relationships were an enigma to him. He did not understand how to form one. Ino, the girl he found himself becoming more infatuated with as the days went by, never hid her emotions. She was easy to read as an open book, full of honesty and truth. Even then, Sai still did not know what was going to set her off or make her happy. He was learning carefully by reading romance novels before deciding if he actually wanted to embark in a relationship. Sai couldn't even imagine what it would be like for Sasuke and Sakura, who both often hid their emotions and worked in ways the artist hadn't learned to comprehend.

Shaking his head slowly, Sai agreed with Kakashi as they began to walk. "I suppose we will just have to watch how things evolve between them."

Ino Yamanaka was humming to herself, styling her long hair in a sultry half up-do. The top half of her hair was braided and intricately spun around her head into a large bun. She unwrapped her the remainder of her tightly coiled hair, revealing long curly princess tresses. She placed a few amethyst pins around the bun, making her blonde hair look even more delicate.

Satisfied with her hair, Ino moved to polishing up her face. She really didn't enjoy wearing makeup like some women in the upper-class did. While it was true that Ino was always dressed in the most fashionable of ways, she was still a ninja. She didn't need a ton of makeup unless it was for a mission. Her skin was impeccably clear, her large blue eyes were framed with lashes so thick she didn't need anything extra, and her lips were naturally plump and rosy. All she ever wore was a little powder and a small bit of lipstick, and she only ever did it when there was a chance of seeing one certain man.

Ino began to wonder what Sakura was going to wear, and whether her spirits had improved since the night at the theatre.

"You've got to find your own happiness, forehead," Ino thought. She knew that Sakura wouldn't be happy until she saw Sasuke again. With a sigh, Ino rose from her chair to move towards her closet. At that moment, a messenger hawk tapped on her window. Ino recognized Naruto's messy scroll easily, and wondering what he wanted, quickly read through.

Hello Ino-Chan! If it's not too much trouble, Team Seven has a surprise guest we'd like to bring to dinner. I know you wouldn't mind, seeing as how you love to have company over. Thanks Ino!

Ino laughed as she read Naruto's signature. It was true that she loved having company, and to her, the more the merrier. After scrawling a quick note giving her approval and sending it off with the hawk, she dressed with more vigor than normal.

"What surprise guest could possibly be coming?" Ino thought. "I know everyone in Konoha."

After putting on her violet and gray layered dress with a rich diamond pattern imprinted into the bodice, she ran downstairs to tell her maid to set another place at the table in between Sakura and Naruto. She then double checked that her pianoforte was in tune and that the appropriate songbooks were out. If there was a stranger coming to dinner, then there would be a need to impress him or her. Secretly, Ino hoped that this stranger was a man who could make Sakura happy. If that were the case, Ino was going to make sure that he would be entertained at all times by the young ladies and gentleman of Konoha.

If there were two things Ino Yamanaka was sure she was good at, it was throwing parties and meddling in the lives of others.