Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 6

So here is the next chapter. For those of you who wanted sasusaku they have moments in this chapter, but more sasusaku moments will be coming in the next few chapters...especially during chuunin. 'Wink, wink Nudge nudge'

Sakura was tired

Not just tired but tired. She felt like she just ran a marathon from Suna to Konoha while wearing weights. Groaning she tried to find a more comfortable position on her fluffy bed, trying to ignore those damn loud birds and that annoying sun.

That simple escort mission had completely drained her, both physically and emotionally...well more so emotionally than physically. Hell, the first time completing this mission wasn't even as exhausting as this time. Squinting her eyes even tighter, she buried her face into her pillow while silently cursing the Uchiha. Just when she thought her and his relationship got closer maybe to friends he go and says something stupid.

"You don't regret leaving"

"No"

Smothering another frustrated scream, she threw her pillow against her wall, feeling slightly better when the said object pathetically plopped on her wooden floor.

"Sakura don't you have training, today?" Her mother who had just appeared at her doorway, stared curiously at the innocent pillow that sat on the opposite side of the room.

"No." That was an obvious lie, but right now...Sakura could care less. It's not like Kakashi's ever on time anyways.

Pulling her green covers to her chin, she glared at the ceiling. That return trip from Mist to Konoha had drained every fibre of her body. Sure, she had Naruto to chat with, but it seemed as if every time she saw Sasuke, she was reminded of their conversation at Tazuna's house, and that just added to her aching heart.

Why did she have to care so much for him? Why couldn't she just let him go? The man left her on a bench, tried to kill her and Naruto repeated and yet she still couldn't get her stupid heart to forget about him. She could have perfectly taken this 'second chance' thing and reshaped her life, she could have taken this golden opportunity to find a guy who actually cared for her, but nooooo, her stupid, idiotic heart just had to have her open her big, fat mouth and offer help to Sasuke to help him search for his brother, to help him find happiness.

But, what about her happiness? It seems like all her actions are always to help Sasuke find happiness or complete one of his oh so many goals. While her own happiness and desires stewed in the back burner.

'Stupid Sasuke-kun'

"Where is she?" Naruto repeated that same question for what seemed like the hundredth time that morning. Sasuke's brow twitched faster, as he tried to keep himself from mindless pounding the blond into the ground.

"God, you just don't care do you? I mean she could be hurt or…" Naruto's face blanched as his mind went into more detailed scenarios of what might have happened to his poor, sweet Sakura-chan. "TEME WE HAVE TO SAVE HER!" Naruto was now shaking the furious Uchiha.

Slap

"Shut up, she'll come when she comes." Sasuke growled. Naruto glared at the Uchiha while rubbing the back of his head

It seems like in her anger, she some how drifted back off to sleep, so when she woke up for the second time that morning her face paled. Grabbing her alarm clock from her nightstand she stared in horror at the huge red block numbers.

11:00

God she was going to be even later than Kakashi, in a haste she fell off her bed and scrambled to her closet. A look of disgust crossed her face when she saw that red Chinese styled dress. It was gorgeous to wear, but not very conventional for movement. Digging through her mess of a closet she searched for anything that was more suitable for a ninja. God how she missed her jounin uniform at this moment.

Casting another dress to the corner of her closet, more curses ran through her head. 'Do I have anything other than freaking skirts?'

After what seemed like an eternity of searching, she settled for a white Chinese styled shirt, which was essentially just the top half of a qi pao, and a pair of red ninja pants. Looking herself once over in the mirror, she grabbed her ninja pouch and headband, and ran out of her room. Ignoring the strange stares she received from both her parents, she pulled on her sandals and burst out the front door.

'Shit, shit, shit'

Pushing aside civilians and other shinobis, she finally saw the team 7 bridge come into view. 'Good, at least Kakashi isn't here yet.'

"NARUTO, SASUKE-KUN!" she hollered as she picked up her pace.

Slightly panting and sweating she approached her two teammates.

"Sakura-chan why are you so late?"

"Got lost on the path of life…"

Naruto fell silent, as he gave the girl a weird look.

Shrugging, Sakura took her position leaning against the railing of the bridge staring at the small stream that flowed underneath it.

.

.

.

It was about an hour later when Kakashi decided to show up.

"Yo"

"YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto shouted as he pointed an accusing finger at their silver haired sensei, who simply ignored the blond's outburst and pulled out his little green book.

"I was talking to Hokage-sama this morning, and I think you three are suitable to take the chuunin exam."

At the words 'chuunin' and 'exam' Naruto's earlier frustrations about the tardiness of the silver haired man became completely forgotten. His blue eyes lit up, and a splitting grin appeared on his face. "WHAT? WHEN? WHERE? WATCH THE AMAZING NARUTO UZUMAKI KICK THIS EXAMS ASS!"

"Yes, yes I'm sure you will." Said Kakashi, as he placed a hand on the blond's head to prevent him from continuing to jump up and down. "Just be sure to get to the Academy building tomorrow by noon. It's room 202."

Naruto was practically beaming. Reaching up he grabbed Kakashi's wrist and started tugging him to the training ground. "TRAIN ME!"

"I...um…" Kakashi thought tentatively, not particularly wanting to train the blond boy. In fact he was in such a good part of his book. Mikasa was so close to finding out that horrible thing Eren has been doing with Rivaille and damn did he want to read about her reaction.

"Kaka-senseiiii" The silver haired male stared down at the now pleading blond who was staring back up at him with those large puppy dog eyes, and sighed.

"Fine." Mentally sobbing, he placed his favorite little book back into his ninja pouch.

"So...should we go with them?" Sakura asked, as she stared after the disappearing pair.

"No, I'm going to the Uchiha compound." Sasuke pushed himself of the tree he was currently leaning on and started to walk in the compounds direction.

Sakura stared after the boy, and muffled a yawn. She already had the skills of a jounin, so there seriously was no reason for her to train for this exam, besides she could really go for a nap...or maybe food. Yeah, food sounded great right about now.

"You coming?"

Sakura snapped out of her thoughts and stared at the slightly annoyed looking Uchiha. A delicate pink brow raised. "You want me to go with you to the Uchiha compound?" she repeated trying to make sure she heard the Uchiha properly.

"You said you wanted to help me, so are you coming or not?" His tone was getting more and more agitated.

Placing two hands in front of her defensively, she ran up to the boy. "Alright, alright no need to get all pissy."

His glare darkened, as he glowered at the girl. He had expected her to immediately apologize for angering him like what she use to do before he had left, but was surprised when she merely shrugged off his scowl like it was nothing. 'Annoying.'

.

.

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"So...Sasuke-kun?"

The said boy slide his eyes over to his companion, his brow slightly quirked when he saw her fidget.

"Hn."

"Um…" Sakura nervously tugged at the end of her pink tresses. Her green eyes scanned the bustling street, looking everywhere but at the Uchiha. "Chuunin exam…"

Sasuke had a vague idea of where this was going.

"Orochimaru…"

He knew exactly where this conversation was going.

"Curse mark…"

Sakura was sure Sasuke could hear her heart palpitating. Her palms were sweating profusely as she awaited for his answer.

"I'm not going to have him give me the curse mark." He watched in slightly amusement as her nervous expressed changed to one of shock.

"What? Why?"

"Why...do you want me to get bitten?" His tone was amused

Her green, bright eyes widened, as she replied in outrage. "WHAT-" Stares from the near by villagers, caused her to lower her voice. "-of course not. I just thought the curse mark gave you immeasurable power."

Sasuke shrugged. "It gave me power, but it wasn't immeasurable."

"So why?"

Sasuke stopped walked and turned to the girl with a smirk. "Because one of mine annoying fangirl's told me to use Konoha to get stronger, instead of belittling it."

The confusion left her face immediately upon hearing his words, and instead a large smile presented itself. "Thank you."

"Aa"

Sakura ran up to Sasuke, and fell into a pace beside him

"Oh, and Sasuke-kun. Ex-fangirl." She pointed a finger to herself.

Sasuke simply rolled his eyes.

As a child people had always called her a bookworm, and she didn't mind. After all they were simply calling her by what they saw. She always loved books, and she always had her nose in one. So when she had become the Hokage's apprentice and got access to the Konoha archives, she was absolutely thrilled. However, right now thrilled would not even begin to describe how she was feeling.

They had just arrived at the Uchiha archive room, and it was humongous. Scrolls upon scrolls stacked neatly on top of each other lines the four walls, and the musty scent of old books filled her nostril.

"Let's go through these." Sasuke broke her out of her admiration, and reached for one of the dusty scrolls.

"You really don't mind if I…?" Sakura was slightly hesitant as she glanced around her. These scrolls contained all the secrets of the Uchiha clan and for an outsider like herself to view them…

"I'm not going to be able to get through them myself, so go ahead." He replied, as he casually tossed her one of the many scrolls.

Catching it with her hands she stared at the small uchiha emblem seared onto the paper, her lips twitched upward into a small smile. He trusted her enough to have her read through his clan's secrets. Carefully opening the small scroll, she took a seat near the corner of the wall struggling to find a comfortable position. Gently blowing the dust off the page, she began to read.

A comfortable silence fell upon the pair, as the only sound that fill the large room was the sound of rustling paper.

The dull flickering of the flames lit the dark passageway, as a tall man scurried down the hall. He felt nothing but uneasiness crawl within him. His master was not going to be happy.

Stopping into the large door, he took a deep breath. Placing his hand on the metallic knob, he twisted it open and quickly slipped in.

The dark figure looked up from his bed.

"Kabuto." He hissed, his yellow eyes shone in the darkness. "I suppose everything is in order?"

Kabuto gulped, and he pushed up his glasses in a sign of nervousness. "About that...the Uchiha boy doesn't seem to seek power...so him as your vessel may be difficult." He watched as the snake-man's grip on the tea cup tighten.

"What?" Yellow eyes narrowed dangerously, as the porcelain cup shattered.

"But, there is another thing we can do-" Kabuto quickly added. "-use the Haruno girl."

"Why would I want to use a pathetic little girl?"

"She's smart, has an exceptional control of chakra, highly gifted in genjutsu, and she's close to the Uchiha boy." Orochimaru's interest was peaked, seeing this Kabuto continued with more confidence. "She's a love struck girl. If we offer her the chance to get Sasuke to fall in love her, she'll gladly follow us."

"So, I'll have a vessel?"

Kabuto took a step forward, his hand pushed up his glasses. "That's not all. If we take her and train her up, it'll be very easy for her to get his sharingan. After all the Uchiha boy trusts her."

The furious look left Orochimaru's eyes as a delighted one took it's place. "Well, then Kabuto ot seems like we have change plans."

Sakura's head was pounding as she set aside another scroll. After hours of reading, she finally found the scrolls containing the details about the Uchiha coup, and the ever straining relationship between the Senju and Uchiha clan. If it wasn't for her splitting headache, she would probably be jumping up with glee.

Pushing the mountains of parchments off her lap, she staggered up. Wincing as she felt pins and needles shot up her legs.

"Found them."

Sasuke turned towards the pink haired girl. Rubbing his tired eyes, he stood up dusting off the tiny pieces of dust residue from the scrolls.

Tossing both scrolls towards the Uchiha, she watched as his eyes quickly scanned over the information.

"Okay." Re-scrolling up the scrolls, he shoved them into his ninja pouch. "Lets go then."

Stretching her arms over her hand, she followed the Uchiha out of the large archives room.

"What next?" Sakura asked, as she curiously peered at the Uchiha.

Sasuke turned around, his lips twitched into a smirk. "Hokage archives."

Sakura gave him a mocking glare. "Are you doubting me, Uchiha?" She poked him lightly in the ribs, or at least light to her, but it probably left a bruise.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

A boy around the age of thirteen sat on the roof top of the ninja academy. His emotionless eyes stared off into the night sky, enjoying the gently night breeze.

An open scroll laid upon the boy's lap, a picture was etched onto it.

A strong willed girl with her fist outstretched. Her pink hair blew in the wind, as her eyes displayed nothing but pure hatred, but her lips were curved upwards into a false smile.

The boy stared down at the picture, a smile present on his face, and one word crossed his mind.

'Hag'

Done another chapter!

AN: this story is Sakura centric I would say. HOWEVER. This story is WILL NOT have Sakura being super, super strong. So just keep that in mind. if sakura is strong than Sasuke and Naruto will be stronger.

Anyways As always leave a review!