Author's note: Hi everyone, I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's pretty long but for those of you in the U.S. I figured it would give you something to do over the holiday. I would like to personally thank everyone that has reviewed the story so far and told me what they think, it's greatly appreciated. Anyway, please keep reading and enjoying, review and follow!

She let the water run through her hair as she stood lifelessly in the shower. The events of the past couple of days had been a little too much for her. Sakura had passed out more times then she cared to count. She slowly reached up and twisted the chrome shower knobs to off. The water that was once running through her hair was now a mere trickle. She slowly pushed the shower curtain back and reached for her towel. She tightly secured the towel around her body and stepped out of the shower.

Slowly and begrudgingly she made her way to the mirror in the small bathroom. She hesitated to look at her reflection, not because of a zit, or an unsightly blemish. More so, she was frightened because she truly didn't know the person who was in the mirror. However, she reluctantly examined her reflection, and had to admit she looked better in her 30s than she did at 20 years old. Her skin seemed to have a glow to it, and her body seemed more curvy. Even so, Sakura brushed away all the thoughts about her physique.

There was one thing apparent to her, and that was a desperate wish to go home. More specifically, to the home in her timeline. Things should not be this difficult Sakura thought to herself as she started to brush her damp hair. The pink haired ninja silently thanked Ino for bringing her some beauty supplies. It admittedly took her awhile before she realized that she smelled like antiseptic and various other medications. The smell of fresh soap made her feel a little bit more at ease with her predicament. The fact that she could at least keep herself clean was a plus in her favor.

Taking a quick look of her current situation really made her think about how shitty it really was. On her first day she passed out twice, and on her second day she refused to see anybody. Sakura wasn't very proud to say she spent the better part of her second day trying to release the genjutsu she was positive she was under. However, today was the day, Ino was coming to talk. The day before Ino showed up to visit, the blonde tried to strike up a conversation with the pinkett. However, Sakura wasn't in the mood, she politely and calmly asked her friend to come back the next day. A reluctant Ino granted her the request, but stated she would be back bright and early the next morning.

As usual it was Sakura's lucky day, today was her 3rd day in the hospital. That meant that her overbearing blonde friend would be back soon, she knew Ino was not one to make a false promise. Sakura quickly dried off and put on her underwear in anticipation of her friend's arrival. The pinkett cringed inwardly as she absentmindedly recalled the previous day's events. She remembered how she held it together long enough until Ino was out of her ear shot. As soon as she was sure her friend was gone she began to sobb. Sakura cried harder than she ever remembered crying in her life. She spent most of her day like that, nonetheless, today was a new day. She was determined to talk to Ino, the medic needed to find out more about her situation, and she knew setting around feeling sorry for herself wasn't going to fly.

This new determination brought her to the next thing plaguing her mind. Her apparent daughter, or at least the young girl from the other day thought she was her mother. At first Sakura thought it was a dream, yet, she knew her psyche would never be that mean to her. The pink hair girl did look a lot like her, Sakura thought. However, she fell unconscious so fast she found it hard to recall what the girl looked like. Sakura tried to think back to that moment, but a knock at the hospital room door quickly interrupted her internal monologue. The medic quickly grabbed the shirt that Ino had given her to wear and slipped it on, before scurrying to the door. Her hair was still a bit wet, but Sakura knew it would dry fairly quickly.

She opened the door to an upbeat looking Ino, the blonde immediately smiled when she saw sakura. "Forehead, good to see you're up and about it!" Sakura inwardly shook her head, her blonde friend was being entirely too upbeat about her whole situation. Yet, Sakura ignored this fact, giving Ino a small smile as she stepped aside to let her blonde friend into the room.

Ino quickly shook her head, not accepting her pink haired friends invitation into the room. "How about we go eat in a less depressing atmosphere?" Ino said as she raised a basket of food to Sakura's eye level.

Sakura quirked an eyebrow as to where they would eat but reluctantly slipped on shoes and followed her friend. As they walked through the hospital the medic couldn't help but notice the looks she was getting from the staff. Even so, it seemed that they encountered very few people. The pinkett assumed the staff was on direct orders to avoid her as much as possible, and from Sakura's analysis they were doing a pretty good job of it.

They made their way out to the hospital courtyard. Sakura was silently impressed with Ino's change of venue. The sun was high in the sky and there wasn't a cloud in sight. It was a beautiful day with birds chirping in the trees and a subtle breeze added to the ambience as well.

Sakura remembered when she used to take her brakes in the courtyard. It was one of the few places she could de-stress and relax. The courtyard was fairly expansive with a lot of greenery. In the middle of the courtyard was a Beautiful fountain. She recalled when she worked the night shift and would sit close to the large fountain. The pink haired Ninja got enjoyment out of just hearing the flow of the water. She was happy to see that somethings had remained the same in the village.

Sakura regained her focus and her eyes slowly widened when she saw Ino pull out anko dumplings. Ino grinned seeing the reaction she wanted out of her old rival. Ino wasn't her best friend for nothing, she knew Sakura's favorite food and weakness was the sweet syrup covered treats.

"I figured you would like some of these," Ino said, amused with the look on Sakura's face. Sakura blushed a little before taking the dumplings Ino offered her. The pinkett quickly made short work of the dumplings before grabbing another skewer. Inwardly Sakura's heart sang with enjoyment, not so much because of the food. More so because she finally felt like she had a piece of home.

Ino giggled at her friend, she then pulled out a rice ball and started to eat as well. They ate in a comfortable silence for what seemed like forever before Ino spoke up. "So how are you doing?" Ino asked in a loving yet concerned voice.

"I'm still trying to process all of this, but somehow I'm getting through it all," Sakura replied, she took a deep breath in and then released it, it was almost like some of her stress went away with the breath. Ino gave her a soft smile "I never got to tell you I was sorry about how things ended the day before. I know that was all a lot for you," Ino sighed, giving Sakura a sad smile.

Sakura breathed out really not wanting to talk about the subject quite yet. However, curiosity struck in another form and she decided that she would inquire a bit more about things. After all, Sakura was in the future and she couldn't help but be a bit curious.

"So, what's changed in these last few years? Do you have any children?" Sakura asked, glancing at Ino with a questioning look. Ino smiled back and nodded at her in confirmation. "I have a son named Inojin, he's 13,"

Sakura's eyes widened in bemusement at the information she was just told. She always imagined herself having kids, but to imagine Ino as a mother was a funny site. Yet, she knew the blonde would be a fantastic mother when the time came.

"Well?" Sakura questioned nudging Ino and giving her a curious smile. Ino gave Sakura a funny look before blushing a bit.

"I guess you want to know who the father is," Ino laughed, she couldn't help but find a little amusement in her friend's questioning look. Ino knew she shouldn't tease her friend, and wasn't even positive her sneaky plan would work. However, Ino reasoned she would never come across another chance like this. The blonde was now armed with a mischievous smile as she put her plan into action.

"Well isn't it obvious?" Ino smiled, batting her eyes at the pink haired ninja. This caused Sakura to have an even more puzzled look on her face.

"It's Naruto silly, we've been together for years now," Ino impressively held in her laughter as she observed her best friend's reaction. Sakura's mouth was hanging open and she looked like she was both a mixture of shocked and mad.

"You…..him…. bu-but what about Hinata? They were dating the last time I checked!" Sakura blurted out, pointing her fingers in the opposite directions utterly confused. The fact that Naruto and Ino were together didn't compute for the pink haired ninja. Ino could swear she saw steam coming from her friend's face.

"Well, he was with her for a little while, but he's such a romantic I just couldn't help but fall for him," Ino said winking at Sakura. The blonde knew this was wrong but she just couldn't help herself, she just hoped Sakura didn't pass out again.

"Ro-romantic!? Why that blond haired little playboy! Here he is being all mushy with me in a hospital room when he's with you, and poor Hinata. I bet she was devastated when he broke up with her. I-I didn't even though you two were together in my time!" Sakura blurted out jumping up and pointing an accusatory finger at Ino.

Were those two together in Sakura and didn't even know, Ino didn't tell her? An abundance of negative thoughts began to race through Sakura's head. That was it, Ino couldn't take it anymore and she busted out in laughter. Sakura gave her a questioning look before realizing her friend had fooled her. Sakura's face lit up knowing she had overreacted to the whole thing.

The blonde kunoichi threw her head back as she held her stomach. Ino severely underestimated how funny messing with her friend would be. She never thought it would work out as perfectly as it did. Yet, Ino had struck gold and she was ready to cash in her nuggets.

"Ok, ok you got me," Sakura huffed out in embarrassment as she folded her arms and turned her head. The medic was determined to make sure Ino didn't see the blush that had taken to her face. Sakura thought it was pretty cruel that Ino had set her up like that. Even so, she was impressed at how quickly Ino got her out of character. Sakura allotted this to the newly found age difference between the two.

"Fourteen years has made her a little bit more cunning," sakura thought.

"Even in your time you've got a feeling or two for him don't you?" These words from Ino caught Sakura off guard. She wasn't nearly as ready for this type of questioning as she would've been if they were back in the past. The last few days of events had Sakura discombobulated, and Ino was taking full advantage of that.

Sakura remembered getting questions about her and Naruto's relationship status from her friend in her time. The questioning only stopped when Sasuke came back to the village and it looked like he and her might have a relationship. Yet, that never stopped Ino from making side comments. Her friend always insisted she should stop being stubborn and fight for what she really wanted. However, Sakura always assured Ino that it was Sasuke who she wanted.

"I...I'm dating Sasuke, and I plan to keep it that way," Sakura said a little bit too childlike.

Ino looked at her friend and chuckled, deciding not to push the envelope too much. "Sure," was all Ino said openly, leaving the subject in the air to be determined later. This also irritated Sakura to the point she was about to say something, however, Ino started talking about herself again.

"I've been married to Sai for about 13 years now," Ino finally answered, giving her friend a wink.

"But how?" Sakura wandered in bewilderment. She had never seen any signs of those two becoming a couple in her time.

"It's hard to say, I guess sometimes things just happen," Ino tailed off in an airy tone as she looked up at the sky.

"If I remember correctly you used to be infuriated by almost everything Sai did," Sakura said, still trying to grasp how her two friends got together.

"Things change, people change," Ino replied shrugging lazily with a smile. This was not enough to suffice Sakura's hunger on the subject but she decided she would bring it up again later. If she was honest with herself, Sakura thought she was becoming more like Ino the more time she spent with the blonde. The scary thing about it was she had only been in the future for two days. Furthermore, gossip was never really her thing but somehow her blonde friend always bought it out of her. Then again she wasn't really sure if her friend's relationship status could be classified as gossip. After all she was in the future and she did have a curiosity and granted, small fear about almost everything.

"So tell me was that girl…..was that girl my daughter?" Sakura bit her lip, she couldn't help but breach the subject from two days ago. The thought of the feisty pink haired child made her vastly curious, but also made her stomach churn. She wasn't scared of the girl far from it, but she was afraid of being a parent to a child she never met. Ino had told her there were irregularities in her neurological system that caused her to pass out. For most of her incidents Sakura could say that was true, but for this particular incident she wasn't sure. The fact that she had a daughter both scared her and thrilled her.

Ino looked at her with a soft smile and nodded. "I wasn't going to bring it up unless you were ready to talk about it," Ino knew some things were better left unsaid until Sakura was ready.

Ino then stood up from the bench and gestured for Sakura to follow her. Once again the two walked through the hospital, and once again Sakura was annoyed that they weren't seeing anyone. Whoever they had assigned to her detail made sure everyone stayed out of her way.

As they walked they continued to talk. "Her name is Hanami," Ino stated as they boarded an elevator Sakura was unfamiliar with.

"Hanami," Sakura repeated to no one in particular.

"She's quite the brilliant young lady, though she can be a little bit headstrong," Ino giggled.

"Yeah, I can see that," sakura's smiled thinking about how the girl almost took down 4 chunin. Sakura couldn't help but be brought back to the moment the young girl's eyes met her own. It was like cerulean blue eyes took all of her breath away.

"So then…..," before Sakura could finish her question the elevator opened revealing a large circular observatory. The observatory took Sakura by surprise. She was shocked by how much the village had changed. There looked to be a city mixed in with the building she was familiar with. There were high-rise towers and Sakura saw what she believed to be a train transportation system.

"Pretty different isn't it?" Ino asked, glancing at Sakura who was slowly walking around the observatory.

"It's very different," Sakura said in astonishment. The pink haired ninja's eyes immediately shifted to the great stone faces of the Hokage. Sakura felt a lump in her throat as she saw all seven faces.

"He wasn't lying, he really is the Hokage," Sakura smiled weakly. She was starting to feel guilty about the exchange in the hospital room two days ago. "I should have believed him," Sakura always knew Deep in her heart that Naruto would be Hokage, but to see it up close and in person was a completely different thing. Sakura couldn't help but think his face on the mountain side went perfectly with the village scenery. It was like he was meant to be up there she thought to herself.

"Naruto is not one who likes to tell a lie," Ino smiled, as she too took in Naruto's face that was carved into the mountain's side.

The moment took Sakura back to the first night when she met Naruto After waking up. The way he had hugged her, and the way he had touched her. It was like nothing else mattered at the moment. She liked it, and the problem was she knew she liked it a little too much. The moment with him scared her, because when Sasuke touched her like that she didn't get the same feeling. Yet, she figured the time travel had jumbled her train of thought.

She knew she loved Sasuke, and she knew she loved Naruto. However, how did she love Naruto? For the longest time she assured herself that it was like a brother. But the way he hugged her, and the way he made her feel was definitely not that of a brother. The way his deep blue eyes showed a yearning for her was elating. They weren't sexual in nature, the only way she could describe it was love, pure judgment free love.

The only other time she could remember receiving a look like that was the other day with her future daughter. The look in her eyes was so raw and emotional to the pinkett. Sakura thought part of the reason she passed out was because of that look. The look of yearning, of strength, of vulnerability, that look alone was enough to take a person's breath away.

It was this line of thinking that led Sakura to her next thought. Both Naruto and that young girl had the same intense eyes. Eyes that Sakura figured could only be inherited through genetics. There was never quite a stare as captivating as Naruto's, that was until she crossed paths with Hanami. At that moment Sakura came to a conclusion, and her findings hit her hard.

"Who is Hanami's father,'' Sakura questioned slowly with a stunned look now plastered on her face.

Ino smiled softly giving Sakura a knowing look. "I think you already know who it is,"

Ino's words caused Sakura to stop breathing for a second. She was smart, how could she overlook this? Naruto had been so intimate with her in the hospital room the other day. He was not a man that would cross a boundary he knew he shouldn't. However, he clearly crossed a boundary, but in this future time was it a boundary? Or was it something completely natural to him, something he had been doing for years? Sakura used deductive reasoning to come to her conclusion. However, she had problems putting her findings into words.

"It's not…it…can't be….Na….Naruto?" Sakura quietly asked with her eyes as wide as dinner plates. Ino nodded confirming Sakura's theory. The thought of Naruto and her together as a couple was something her rational mind couldn't grasp. It just didn't compute and was completely over her head. Sakura was with Sasuke, she never thought there would be anything Naruto could do to change that. "How did this happen?" she thought to herself,"

"How?" Was all Sakura could get out, she was having a very difficult time speaking. She had a thousand things she wanted to say but for some reason she couldn't put them into actual words.

Ino once again smirked and looked at Sakura. "Things change and people change. I always knew you couldn't deny what was in your heart forever, and Naruto is persistent. Ino chuckled as she looked at Sakura.

"So are we married?" Sakura asked, as she felt her face heat up. There were so many things running through the pink haired medics mind. However, the thought of her and Naruto being intimate was something she bottled up and put in the furthest reaches of her consciousness. It was just too much, way off the usual boundaries of their long friendship.

Ino gave her a knowing look and smiled. "Yes you're married," Ino lightly laughed as they now were sitting on the bench in the observatory.

Sakura blushed and looked away from her friend's piercing eyes. This was a lot of information to take in, so they just sat there in comfortable silence for a while. Ino wasn't going to push the pinkett into talking about anything she wasn't ready for. After what seemed like forever Sakura finally spoke up again.

"If….if we are married then why hasn't he been here to see me?" Sakura asked with emotion in her voice. She felt so alone the past 3 days, Ino helped a lot but Naruto was the only thing that had brought her peace and made her feel grounded. It had been short but when he embraced her in the hospital room she felt so at ease.

"Well you've got to understand, the last time you saw Naruto you passed out. So naturally we weren't going to subject you to more of what made you freak out. Keeping you grounded is the main priority right now," Ino stated, informing Sakura of things she deep down already knew. It may have been childish of Sakura however, in her current state she didn't care what was childish and what was not.

"Look, that brings me to my second point I need to bring up. I would like it if we didn't have to scurry everybody away when you approach an area,"

Sakura was relieved with the change of conversation. The pink haired woman wasn't sure of how much more she could take of the emotional roller coaster they had been on. Sakura also knew directly what Ino was talking about.

"The hallways have been pretty empty," Sakura breathed out glancing at Ino.

"Well after the incident with Hanami we couldn't risk anything else happening," Ino sighed recalling the events of 2 days past, Sakura only nodded her head in acknowledgment.

"This is a conditional offer that me and the village higher ups have discussed. We can't have our enemies knowing that you are anything but yourself. This poses a great risk to your family, yourself and the village. So if you want to be around people you'll need to act the part," Ino stated glancing up at her friend to gauge her reaction.

"What do you mean by play the part?" Sakura purked an eyebrow.

Ino took a deep breath before continuing, she wasn't sure how Sakura would react. "In a limited capacity we will need you to act like you are your 33-year-old self. That means playing the part of mother and wife. We don't need anything too extreme, we just need you to act a little bit," Ino smiled giving Sakura a sly wink.

"So you want me to act like I'm actually married to Naruto?" Sakura asked with her eyebrow twitching more than she would like to admit.

Ino giggled at her friend's reaction. "You don't have to put on any public displays of affection. We will try to make it so that you have as little exposure as possible. However, yes we would expect you to put on a good act,"

Sakura stayed quiet and Ino examined her face closely. She didn't know if this was going to work and the village higher ups had a contingency plan for this very problem. Ino began to speak again as Sakura was still deep in thought.

Look at it this way, you will get to get out of the hospital. Plus In this time you have a lot of responsibilities, however, those responsibilities would be limited," The blonde finished shrugging her shoulders.

Sakura continued to mull it over to the point the silence in the room was deafening. "Fine," Sakura sighed, running a hand through her pink hair.

She had spent enough hours in the hospital working. The pink haired medic knew it was safe to say she didn't want to live there on a permanent basis. Even so, Sakura silently couldn't help but think all this was going to lead to a very big headache.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next day Ino came to meet with her again. However, this time they mixed it up a little bit. They ate breakfast in the cafeteria of the hospital, and they weren't shying people away from Sakura anymore which was a plus. Yet, people were staring at her like her hair was on fire. Somehow later in the day Sakura and Ino ended up on the second floor of the hospital painting pictures with the elderly. Ino insisted it would be a good way to unwind and socialize a little bit.

Sakura was trying to recreate the land of snow's beautiful scenery when spring finally started. Sakura looked back on that team seven mission fondly. She inwardly chuckled when she remembered how infatuated Naruto was with the Princess. He was so gullible when it came to action movies.

"Your paintings kind of lackluster don't you think sweetie?" A rather blunt gray-haired elderly woman smiled. Ino who was busy focusing on her own portrait only snickered from behind her canvas. Even though Ino and Sakura couldn't see each other, Sakura still shot her daggers through the portrait.

"The names Aimi, Ota Aimi and yours?" The elderly lady asked, giving Sakura a questioning look.

"Sakura, it's nice to meet you," The pink haired medic smiled, bowing her head a little.

"Ahh yes! Uzumaki Sakura, you're the Hokage's wife. The older lady smiled with delight. Sakura looked completely thrown off guard at the last name. She had never heard the sequence of words before. Hearing somebody call her Uzumaki sakura was startling.

At the elderly lady's words Ino peaked her head from behind her portrait. The Yamanaka realized she wasn't doing a very good job watching Sakura today, but the blonde decided to see how this played out.

The old lady didn't miss Sakura's facial expression. She raised an eyebrow and gave Sakura a suspicious look.

"You are Uzumaki Sakura right?"

"Um….yes-yes I am," Sakura said, quickly looking astonished that she could even admit her last name was Uzumaki.

"Ahh yes the Hokage's lovely wife, You know I just love watching your husband on television. His weekly updates on Village matters are very nice,"

There it was again, except this time the elderly woman called Naruto her husband and the Hokage. Sakura had a thousand things running through her mind all at once. She had to keep reminding herself that all the time, Naruto and herself were married with a child. Sakura knew that the concept would take some time to get used to. It didn't help that she hadn't seen Naruto since the day she passed out. It was starting to bother her that he had not shown himself.

Sakura quickly regained her composure "Ahh yes well thank you Aimi-san. I have to straighten him out every once in a while but for the most part he does a good job," Sakura replied giving the old woman a kind smile. Sakura's smooth reaction caused Ino to poke her head from behind her painting. She perked her eyebrows up at Sakura. Even Ino Was surprised at the quick and smooth response. For a minute Ino almost thought Sakura was her old self again.

Aimi smiled brightly and nodded her head. "I tell you men sometimes, my husband fought in the 3rd great ninja war, now he's in the hospital. Sixty plus years can do a number on ya," Aimi said, shaking her head as she continued talking.

"Honestly that man, I told him not to get up on that roof and he did it anyway," This peeked Sakura's curiosity.

"What was he trying to do?" Sakura asked as she continued to paint.

"He insisted that we needed to have our TV antenna fixed right away. It was just too hard to wait for our son to come do it once he got off work. Long story short, our TV reception has never been better however, his hip has seen better days. Now he's in the hospital for two weeks so I'm taking up painting while he's here," Aimi finished shaking her head.

Sakura didn't know why but the way the lady described the story made her giggle. This definitely reminded her of Naruto, he was always such a go-getter, and he never had the patience to wait. If the situation was flipped she could definitely see him doing something like that in an old age. The sight of it all amused her however, she had to stop her line of thought. she was imagining her and Naruto together at an old age. She could honestly say that was a first, she had never even thought about how things would be that far down the line with Sasuke.

"He's a thick one that's for sure, but I wouldn't trade him for the world. He would do anything for me or for our family. I've known that man since I was just a girl and I can tell you that our bond has only strengthened. However, don't get me wrong he can drive me crazy, but sometimes you must be patient with love," The old woman softly smiled as she looked over to Sakura.

Sakura was taking in what the old woman said before grinning. I guess him falling off the roof was tolerable then Aimi-san?

The old woman chuckled. "Almost worth it, he'll still be sleeping outside with our dog for the next few weeks," before Sakura could reply, the old woman switched the conversation on her again.

"So what brings an important person like yourself to our little painting class?" Aimi asked, gesturing around to the room full of elderly people.

Sakura paused for a minute not really knowing how to answer the question. However, she thought back to the previous day when her and Ino went over this very scenario.

"Well I just got back from a diplomatic mission and I thought it might be nice to unwind," Sakura said lifting up her paintbrush and giving the old woman a smile.

The gray-haired woman looked at her Curiously for a while before nodding and giving Sakura a kind look. "Well shape up honey, I know you can paint better than that," The elderly lady said, glancing at Sakura's painting with disgust plastered on her face.

"I didn't think it was that bad," Sakura muttered, her lip poking out a little bit as she examined the painting.

"It's pretty bad," Ino chimed in as she looked at Sakura's painting. Once again Sakura shot her friend daggers laced with annoyance.

They made small talk with the elderly for a couple of hours more than they expected. At the end of the class Ino had a decent looking painting. The painting of the field of daisies earned her compliments from a lot of the class. Sakura on the other hand only got sympathetic looks when people examined her artworks. Ino contributed her art skills to her husband, she exclaimed he taught her the basics of painting. Even Sakura herself was impressed with her friend's artwork.

The two walked back to Sakura's hospital room in a comfortable silence. As they got back to the room they noticed the door was cracked. Sakura didn't hesitate to walk into the room thinking the nursing staff might be checking up on things. However, she was highly surprised to find her blonde haired teammate sitting in the corner scanning scrolls. He had pulled her nightstand over to the chair he was sitting in and made a makeshift desk. He had papers and half opened scrolls everywhere.

As soon as Sakura entered the room he stopped what he was doing and looked up with a surprised smile. Sakura however, found it hard to breathe all of a sudden. She had to tell herself it was Naruto and no one special. However, she couldn't convince herself of the lie she was saying to herself. In this time he wasn't just Naruto, he was her husband, and they had a child together.

Naruto immediately recognized the nervous expression on Sakura's face. " I knew this was too soon, I'm sorry Sakura-chan," Naruto said quickly standing from the chair. This caused the scrolls draped in Naruto's lap to fall to the floor. Sakura watched in silence as he quickly and sloppily picked up the scrolls and bundled them into his arms.

"I shouldn't have bothered you too, I'll just take all this stuff back to the office and I'll stop by another day," Naruto said, glancing up at Sakura before shifting his gaze to a knowing Ino. Ino gave the blonde haired man a sympathetic look as he headed towards the door.

"Naruto wait," Sakura said quietly as she reached an arm out to stop him. Naruto turned and looked her in the eyes. Some more scrolls fell out of his arms as he examined his wife's eyes searching for something. Her eyes were almost pleading with his and at this point he knew even if he wanted to leave he couldn't.

"Yeah?" The blonde haired Hokage asked with a soft smile.

The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. Sakura had gotten his attention successfully. However, now that she had it she wasn't sure what to do with it. There was so much she wanted to ask him, and so much she wanted to tell him. Yet, she found herself in the same predicament she was in months ago. The moment eerily reminded her of their encounter in the busy market, their eyes locked but neither of them said anything. Even so, Sakura was determined to change things this time.

"Please stay," The pink haired medic said in a quiet voice. It wasn't much but that's all Sakura could manage to get out.

Ino breathed out relieved with the progress her friend was making. The blonde woman was sure that the interaction was going downhill fast. She was relieved that it turned around for the better.

Naruto examined Sakura's face for what felt like an eternity. However, after mulling it over in his head Naruto nodded and slowly went back to his chair. Ino followed behind him picking up the loose scrolls the blonde Hokage dropped. After she had helped him get his paperwork situated she quickly shifted back to the door.

Ino looked at Sakura with knowing eyes. "Will you be ok?"

Sakura didn't say anything but silently nodded at her friend. Ino quickly nodded and slowly slipped out of the room closing the door quietly behind her. From the looks of it Naruto had opened the shades on the windows revealing the brightly lit village. The light from the village along with the light in the room made for a makeshift workplace. Sakura couldn't help but think to herself it was crazy to see Naruto actually reading.

She knew back in her time he had diligently taken to being a leader. However, during that time she hadn't seen much of those new qualities. She had spent most of her time avoiding him throughout the village. She couldn't help but think to herself this was probably the most time they had spent together in a very long while. This fact made her sad, she thought she was being a good friend by just staying out of his way. He had a girlfriend, and he had everything going for him, Sakura was not going to mess that up.

Naruto began to shift and fidget in his seat. He wasn't used to Sakura staring at him so intently. Well, not unless it meant they were going to fool around. However, given the circumstances, he couldn't see that happening in the foreseeable future. His cheeks darkened as he thought about how fast his train of thought had sunk to the gutter.

Naruto took a deep breath and dragged a hand through his hair. "Are you sure you're OK?" The blonde asked, still worried.

"Your hair is longer," Sakura said softly examining his appearance. He wasn't dressed in his get up from the day before. Instead he had no headband, no jonin vest, and his cloak from yesterday was missing as well. He only sported his orange and black jacket. She couldn't help but think this looked a lot more like the Naruto she knew from her time.

"That's the best you can do, your hair is longer?" The pink haired medic silently screamed at herself.

Naruto gave her a puzzled look before looking up at his bangs and smiling. "Yeah, I grew my hair back out a few years ago," The blonde haired ninja chuckled softly now rubbing the back of his head.

"I like it, it really makes you look like your father," Sakura said quickly, giving him a small smile.

She slowly walked over to the edge of the hospital bed and took a seat facing Naruto. However, she made sure she didn't get too close to her friend.

"Well thank you," Naruto smiled, rubbing the back of his head.

The room once again turned awkwardly silent. It was funny how two people could be so close to each other yet so far apart. Neither of the two could think of anything to say, and they both looked everywhere but at each other.

"I see you have a lot of work there," Sakura said glancing at the scrolls placed all over the blonde's lap. She couldn't help but chuckle a little bit at his unorganized state.

"Oh this, if you think this is bad you should see my office," Naruto said chuckling, however in the back of his head he knew if she did see his office he would probably get a lecture. Or at least he would have from the Sakura in his time.

The room once again teetered into silence as they both searched for something to say. Naruto didn't want to step on her toes and cause her to pass out again. Sakura on the other hand was just shocked she was talking to any version of Naruto, their friendship hadn't been the smoothest the last time she checked.

"Um I'm sorry about yesterday, I told her not to bother you until you were better. The little squirt doesn't always do a good job at listening. Naruto said with a sheepish smile on his face.

"You mean Hanami?" Sakura said looking up at him. The lights from the room combined with the lights radiating from the village made Sakura's eyes shine. Little did she know this tormented Naruto. Her eyes said at all, she looked so lost, and it was killing him that he couldn't do anything to make it better.

"Yeah, Ino told me she filled you in on everything. Hanami doesn't know about everything that's going on. she's just worried about her mom ya know. I really didn't want you to meet her like that. I knew you'd meet her eventually, but I'm sorry she startled you," Naruto spoke looking at Sakura with a soft expression.

"It's ok, granted it was startling at the time, I managed to get over it," Sakura smiled softly at Naruto recalling in her head the pink hair girl's fiery tenacity.

Sakura began to chuckle "She's quite the fire cracker wouldn't you say?"

"Oh trust me you don't know the half of it, and I think she gets her feisty attitude from her mother," Naruto laughed rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh please, I never would have disregarded an order from the Hokage, and then just to top it off, almost take out four chunin level guards. If anything that has her father written all over it," Sakura chuckled louder as Naruto began to laugh as well.

"Well you see after that incident we had to up security. I'm just glad you like her, I was afraid you might have some crazy time travel sickness that made you scared of the little squirt," Naruto breathed out a sigh of relief.

"I could never be scared of her, she's beautiful Naruto," Sakura sadly smiled. She didn't care who the child was with, Sakura could never deny a child of her own.

"She definitely got that from you," Naruto said so softly she almost didn't hear it. Sakura couldn't help but be drawn to his gaze, And somehow his words sped up her heart. At his words she felt her face begin to reden.

The blonde Hokage realized his mistake quickly and backtracked.

"Anyway you won't have to worry about her for a while, I sent her and her team off on a mission. It should keep them busy for a couple of weeks," Naruto disclosed, leaning back in his chair. He let his head drop back as he sighed. Talking to this version of Sakura was much harder than he expected. Silence enveloped the room again as Sakura and Naruto both didn't know what to say. This Version of his wife was an extremely confusing concept for the blonde Hokage to grasp. She looked the same as when he last saw her. However, it made his heart sink knowing that things just weren't the same.

"She's not mad at me as she?" Sakura Hesitantly asked. A part of her felt like she had emotionally scarred her daughter for life.

"No, I wouldn't say that, she just wants to make sure her mother is ok. She also feels that with her older brother out of the village she has to take up the mantle of protecting the family," Naruto chuckled, thinking of how protective his daughter was over her parents.

"Brother, you mean there are two of them?" Sakura asked as her stomach dropped.

Naruto realized the change in her demeanor. He thought Ino had brought Sakura up-to-date on the family issue. However, looking back on it now he figured she didn't want to usurp him, some things were better left to a person's spouse.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to spring it on you like that," Naruto said once again shifting awkwardly in his seat.

Sakura collected herself as best she could before responding. "Ok, so we have 2 children?" The pink haired woman asked exceedingly slowly.

"No, we have 3 children," Naruto said with a calm demeanor. The young Hokage braced himself for the worse. He wasn't sure how Sakura would take the news.

It seems just as they were opening up a rapport they were back to complete silence. Sakura wasn't sure how to feel about it. She tried to tell herself to be rational but she couldn't think properly. One child was enough, but three of them was a little much.

It took everything in her to calm down, she slowly took a deep breath and then opened her eyes to look at Naruto. "Well, that's news to me," was all she could get out in response to her friend.

"Look, I'm sorry about all this, I know this is far from an ideal situation, but given the timeline of your stay this is the best we can do. It seems wrong to have you here for an extended period of time and keep you in the dark about things. You may not be our Sakura however, you are a Sakura, that means you're our comrade and friend,"

Sakura shook her head, not wanting Naruto to somehow think this was his fault. "I understand, just don't beat yourself up," Sakura said, staring at the laminated floor beneath her.

"Look, why don't we leave it here for tonight and I'll stop by tomorrow when you get released from the hospital," The blonde said as he stood up from The chair and began to pack his scrolls into a very large satchel with the leaf insignia imprinted on it.

"Naruto wait," Sakura said standing up, her voice halted the blonde in his tracks.

"Ino informed me that I'm going to be here for a while, I mean a while in this time," Sakura had to quickly correct herself before continuing.

"I think it would really be nice to meet the kids," Sakura softly smiled as she slowly looked up at Naruto, meeting his gaze. The blonde Hokage studied her for a while before answering.

"I know they will like that, we'll talk more tomorrow when you get released. Until then I suggest you get some rest," Naruto replied, giving her a soft smile. He slowly made his way to the door when her voice halted him again.

"Naruto, I understand in this time we're married. If that's so then why are you now just visiting me?" She bit her lip as she looked away from him. She truly didn't mean to ask that question but it just came out. The thought had been plaguing her mind since she had the talk with Ino the other day. She really could have used him earlier than this, maybe she was being selfish but she just couldn't help it.

Naruto looked at her with emotion he hadn't shown earlier. It reminded Sakura of when she met Hanami. The girl had shown her the same look, it was almost enough to knock you off your feet.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have," Sakura quickly said, preparing to give her friend an apology. However, Naruto cut her off before she could get everything she wanted to say out.

He shoved his hands in his pockets and gave her a smile she had never seen before. The look he was giving her ran a chill down her spine. "When did he become so calm and collected?" She thought to herself.

"I learned very early on before I became Hokage that if something is precious to you, cherish it. Being a leader means having patience, sometimes we are required to do difficult things others can't," Naruto flashed her his trademark grin before he walked to the door.

When he was in the entryway he turned around and looked back at Sakura. "If I'm honest though, it took everything in my power not to be with you every waking moment," He smiled sheepishly before bidding her a good night.

Sakura didn't realize it at first but her face was warm from a blush. Somehow the blonde man had put her in a little bit of a trance. She was speechless by what he said and how he acted. This definitely was an older Naruto, she thought to herself as she let herself fall back onto the bed.

To be continued!

Author's note: Thanks everyone, I hope you liked this chapter, this one took a little bit longer to complete. I wasn't really sure where to leave off with it but I think I picked a pretty good spot. Let me know how you think the story is going so far. I really love reading all of your comments. They really add a lot of positivity to my day, and it makes writing a little bit easier. Anyway, i'll see you guys next time, peace and love!