Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of his characters

(A/N thank you all so very much for the reviews and the very constructive criticism , the story is starting here so I hope you all enjoy and like this chapter and please feel free to let me know if you like it, I kind of had a little bit of trouble but it should be good besides it is only the beginning )

MENDING THE PIECES

CHAPTER 1. Confusion

In the Hokage's tower there were 3 annoyed and anxious men that where waiting for a certain copy-ninja and a pink hair kunoichi to get on with the mission, Sasuke, Sai and Naruto were running thin on the patience department

"What's keeping them? (Stomach growl) dammed I'm starving and we don't even know what this mission is about…Teme…Teme…are you listening to me?!(Sasuke ignores Naruto) Whatever …if they don't get here within the next 5 minutes I'll just wait for you guys at Ichiraku's (more growls) I'm so hungry "

Sasuke as always was ignoring Naruto's bickering about his hunger issues, instead he was looking out the window with his arms folded against his chest watching the clouds in deep... deep thought -is this what Shikamaru feels like when he tries to ignore loud blond best friends?-. Said Uchiha could not believe that being ignored was so damn annoying. But then again said pink hair girl was annoying to him, so why was he feeling so bad about it? (Thinks ) –Sakura.

"Dickless"

And that's all it took to get the Uchiha more annoyed , what can possible be more annoying than to hear two grown man discussion about male man parts ,Sai was just weird like that and it seemed like the Dobe was just trying to protect his manhood pride.

"I'm just saying we cannot leave , we have to wait for ugly, in a book it said that friends…-"

Sasuke snaps,"Shut up already …this is ridiculous…you two act like kids…Naruto you are so annoying it sickens me and you Sai… you are just plain weird"

Naruto looks at Sasuke like if he was leverage on him …which he probably does because he was witness on a sulking Uchiha that is so annoyed at being ignored by his once upon a time number one fan.

"Teme you are just mad because you have been getting ignored ever since Sakura was rescued, ..(smiles widely) and what annoys you more is the fact that it affects you …right Teme?"

"Hmph!" was all he said and got back to his window.

They were waiting outside the Hokage's office, no one knew what the mission was about. For them all Kakashi had told them was that it was something involving Sakura in Suna and training some medic-nins but they did not know why they needed the hole team if Sakura was more than capable of traveling by herself for a mission like that.

But that did not matter because in fact Sasuke Uchiha was glad to be in this mission, he needed to get things straight but most than anything he needed to confirm he was being ignored and more importantly why.(whispers to himself)" I got to talk to her" (shuts his eyes and thinks )…-Sakura why are you avoiding me?

Sasuke was a proud man , he would never admit the fact that not seeing Sakura was starting to annoy him to death, back in their Gening days , he was the one doing the hiding and the avoiding, not the other way around dammit!.

-Why am I worrying so much about this

Naruto may be a not so smart kind of a guy, he was more the type of person that will do things without thinking, Hell most of the time all he was thinking about was ramen, but even he could tell the acts of frustration his friend was having, like the tightening of his clench jaw, or the way he would space out into the clouds (Shikamaru style) while tightening his folded arms, and who would not be able to see the big , huge pulsing vein popping out of the left side of his forehead.

Yup.. Naruto also knew what was all that about, but he was not going to press the matter any further, in a way he kind of enjoyed it.

Many , many nights he saw his other best friend suffering for this guy, the same or even more pain in the eyes the girl always hold, and it pained him to no end because there was nothing he could do when she was in pain, Even after he promised her he would bring him back, and that did not went well because truth was Sasuke came back on his own after he killed his brother.

But he could not help but enjoy it…it did not meant he was evil, but heck he saw how this girl cried herself to sleep every single night for almost 3 years ever since Sasuke left to seek power for his revenge -Serves you right (he tough to himself)

It was no secret that Naruto was on love with Sakura for most of his young life, but he also knew that she would never return his feelings, the moment she told him she loved him and to stop looking for Sasuke because she was sure it was a lost cause, he understood that she loved him to no end, and it killed him even more. But Naruto understood that she did love him even though it would only be as a brother, and he promised himself that he would never let her have her heart played with.

It also frustrated him to know that now that she seemed sad but more at ease this Teme wanted to have her attention, just because he was being ignored.

Naruto did not know Sasuke's real intentions or feelings towards his Sakura-Chan. To him it did not seemed fair.

When they rescued Sakura he was expecting her to run to Sasuke , but instead he noticed that something was different about her. The moment she ran and collapsed against Itachi's almost dead body she cried so much, and he could have sworn he heard Itachi telling her he loved her, but he was not sure.

He also saw how her eyes held anger and maybe some hate when her head turned to face Sasuke, they looked the same way Sasuke's eyes looked when he spoke about his brother.

But then again how can he think about such things if he was such a Dobe like Sasuke always stated …right?.

Than after a few seconds Sakura and Kakashi were on sight. At that moment Sakura greeted everyone, even Sasuke but Naruto could see her smile was kind of sad, even Sai gave her a weird look as if saying that smile is fake and you been crying, But Naruto was not going to say a thing because he knew Sakura and he also knew if she wanted him to know she'll tell him herself.

And than they all entered the Hokage's office for the debrief mission to star, of course Sasuke was very uncomfortable about Sakura being so damn formal.

"Ok now that finally everyone is here we can star, … this mission is very important and as you can see it requires the best ," said Tsunade looking at everyone .

"You mean everyone else is out on different mission's right baa-Chan?" Naruto interrupted with his loudness

(Twitch twitch)"That is not of importance, ..Sakura, you are to go to Suna and assist the Kazekage to train his new medical recruits, he will tell you other functions once you are there, as of you three the Kasekage informed me that he will need you three as well and he also requested team 8 for this important mission… seems it has to do with Orochimaru,(looks at her desk) The details of this mission are not allowed to be discuss here, so once you get to Suna Gaara will explain everything… (hands each one of them their scrolls) these scrolls are transportation scrolls that will transport you automatically to out hospital unit in case of an emergency and this one (gives scroll to Kakashi) is for you to report to me every single detail of the mission."

" You will leave at once after we are done here, team 8 will meet you in Suna in a week from today, the mission is classified as an S-rank and the time is not specified , by the way Gaara explained it,it might take a year alone for the training alone of the medics in Suna Sakura, he specifically asked for you since you are my apprentice, … but I believe it's because the Sabbaku siblings knows you and feel more comfortable with you… they trust you.."smiles at her.

Everyone was already tense enough when they heard the name of Orochimaru, all they knew about him is that Kabuto some way brought him back using Anko's curse mark and he helped on the war at some point, more specifically he helped only Tsunade… after that he disappeared and no one had heard about him till now …but this did not bother Sakura at all.. At least not as much, what she was worried about was her pregnancy and if she was to be a year in Suna more than likely she could give birth there..She was nervous , no one knew or suspects anything..heck she did not even knew if she wanted to tell anyone …she was scared, nervous, and happy, not to mention damn well that she was confused… she noticed Sasuke and she knew she could not keep ignoring him.

But now that she looked at him…-Are those dark circles around his eyes?. seems like he was having it worse than her, maybe he missed his brother, maybe he felt guilty?...She could not help but wonder his response once he found out she was having Itachi's baby.

-"Oh..God… Orochimaru is going to know another Uchiha is on the way if Sasuke finds out!!-

At that moment Sakura made the decision of not telling Sasuke he will be an uncle.

"Ok..Is everything clear?" Tsunade interrupted her train of thoughts

Everyone "Hai"

"Ok than Dismissed."

And off to Suna they when.

XxX

The trip to Suna went by fast, Sakura was acting as normal as she could. Arguing with Sai and Naruto most of the time, talking to Kakashi about why he got lost on the path of life while taking a pee and making them an hour late, but the only difference was every time Sasuke was near she kept finding the most beautiful clouds and spacing off..

"Finally…Suna, Oh I soo need a shower and maybe some Ramen, and some miso soup, and some dango ...O Gosh I would kill for dango."

"You will be ugly and fat in no time" said Sai.

Glares " Well It does not matter … I am the Hokage's apprentice of course I know how to get rid of the extra weight -Oh gosh am I already getting fat?! ,or is it because I ate all of Naruto's ramen bowls at night and blame it on him?

On the way to the Kazekage's tower from the gate Sasuke made many attempt to speak to Sakura, attempts that Sakura herself could no longer keep avoiding.

"Sakura, I need to have a word with you" Sakura turned to look at Sasuke and when their eyes meet she nodded.

"Yeah, I think we do need to talk Sasuke, but not now ok let's wait till night "

Sasuke agreed to that, but now he felt confused because for the first time since his arrival Sakura had never even once spoken to him, and now that she did her tone was kind of off, indifferent and deep down it down right scared him, maybe he did not want to talk to her after all. But I need to know if there is something wrong, why is she so upset, I mean yeah I did tried to kill her once … ok maybe twice but I apologized…why can't she look at me the same way as before?

"Ok, I'll come to your room tonight" and Sakura hoped he will somehow forget and not show off, she was not sure what they would talk about but one think they would not talk about was her baby.

XxX

Inside the Kazekage's office Gaara greeted team Kakashi with Kankuro and Temari, each of them were standing on either side of him with faces that resembled nothing more than worry, and concern.

Naruto being the knucklehead ninja that he was did not noticed the worried looks on the Sabbacu siblings and ignoring Gaara's position as the Kazekage went straight to hug his friend.

"Gaara! It 's been a while, you know you should come visit us more often, I've been dying to train with you… anyways what is the matter, your face looks paler than usual"

At this point Kakashi interfered placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder and gave him a shut-your-mouth-this-is-important type of look that would even make Sasuke flinch.

That's when Gaara greeted everyone and gave them all the bad news.

(A/N Ok here is another chapter please let me know what you think sorry I took so long on updating hope you enjoy and please read and review, your comments mean a lot to me)