I should have seen this coming from a mile away.

How couldn't I expect Sakura to appear in the place where she trains most of the time? It was wishful thinking that I wouldn't stumble upon her. At least it was only her and if what Tayuya said was true, then Sakura was alone.

Yet I was annoyed with her presence and it was very tempting to leave without saying a word just to spite her. But I quickly shot down that idea as it wouldn't help me at all and it would worsen my pretty shattered image, though I had the feeling that she would be the only one who would excuse my actions.

"Should I leave?" Fu asked.

I look at her, then at Sakura before letting out a long sigh, "Do what you want. I will finish this fast."

The jinchuuriki shrugged and sat on the ground, in the exact spot she was standing. Her presence might make things awkward, but I gave her the freedom of choice and Sakura was too focused on me to care about her presence.

"Sasuke-kun…" Sakura stepped closer and her hands tried to reach mine.

However, I quickly stepped back and raised my hand to stop her from getting any closer, "Keep your distance. We are no longer kids, so we can finally say what needs to be said from the very beginning."

I could see her face twist in shock.

"I didn't come back because a misguided feeling of nostalgia. If it wasn't for the mess that occurred, then I wouldn't have come at all to this village." I made my position clear from the beginning so we could avoid any misunderstandings. It was her turn to speak.

She made an audible gulp, "I…I understand."

"I think you don't, so go ahead, speak your mind and be done with it," Her shaky voice ticked something in my mind and became more aggressive.

She only looked at me with wide eyes. That attitude only fueled my annoyance, which I needed to control to not lash out at her and scream for absolutely no rational reason but petty ones.

I was getting more tempted to leave, but once again, my mind had to push those thoughts back since my emotions couldn't dictate my actions.

I took a long deep breath and exhaled, the growing anger and frustration vanishing from me, "Sakura, you are a kunoichi, not a stupid schoolgirl wetting her panties for popular boys. I don't have all day."

Sakura took my words and loudly hit her head which surprised as it was more common the wake up slap but I wouldn't complain or voice my doubts as her face had a drastic turn, "I was being stupid, wasn't I?"

She was more collected than before, looking me in the eye with confidence.

"I have so many questions."

"But I don't have the time to answer all of them." I would not spend hours answering like a prisoner and, unlike Tsunade, Sakura couldn't do anything to stop me from leaving.

Sakura was aware of it and bit her lower lip, her gaze fixed on the ground. She was struggling to decide what to ask me, but I was expecting her to ask one in specific. She lifted her gaze, trying to pierce my soul with her green eyes, "Did you care for me?"

That was a rather sudden question and not one I expected to hear first.

I was about to reply no but I stopped myself as it became more complex the longer I thought about her question and the answer I should give her. Sakura was glued to me, staring with hope in her eyes the more time it took me to give her an answer.

There was a bias on both sides. I didn't believe at first that I considered her a friend just like Naruto, but I was fond of those memories as Team 7, but that soon morphed to irrational hate after the hickey on my neck. Yet that wouldn't change my mind. It was just shocking to understand and discover myself a little more, hence the hesitation to answer quickly.

"Trick question. You were a teammate and despite your shortcomings, you had your strengths and showed to be a strong caring person. And I can tell by a glance that you grew a lot in these years, but I never cared for you in the way you hoped for. You were my teammate, nothing more."

Sakura bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, somehow trying to compensate for the pain of heartbreak, as it was very clear to me I shattered her fantasy once and for all. But at least she didn't break down crying, instead she took deep breaths and healed the minor cut on her lips as she wiped her mouth.

"It…hurt hearing that." She finally spoke.

"I won't apologize for being honest. But this was something you really needed to hear from a long time ago, and you are old enough to understand."

Sakura let out a short laugh, "Is funny in a way. One small part of me still clings to the idea of us."

"There is no 'us', Sakura. Never was," I frowned.

Sakura just threw hands in exasperation, "I know! But my younger self created this whole ideal reality and has been with me for years and it is hard to get rid of it in an instant. Perhaps I really needed to hear your honest rejection to finally break free from these ideas. But it started with hearing that girl's confession, which also helped me to open my eyes and understand that I couldn't hope for things to occur, rather I should act to make my dreams a reality. Naruto had been trying to help and encourage me, but now you are here and that defeats the entire purpose of my driving force. Yet even after losing my objective, I achieved so many things that I can look back on and be proud of. Few in the world can say that one of the great sannin trained them."

She showed off her right arm and flexed her biceps with a grin.

But that soon changed as her face twisted into a frown and pointed a finger at me, "Besides, you were an asshole."

"Shocking news." I shrugged. There was a hunch in me she wouldn't be the only one to call me names in the coming days. Tho Tayuya beat her to get the privilege of being the first.

"Are you and that girl in a relationship?"

"First of all, her name is Karin, not that girl. Second, I haven't thought about it, but it's complicated."

"For some reason, I feel relieved after taking that off my chest."

"Good…" Taking the opportunity since she was distracted, I flicked her forehead.

She recoiled and furiously rubbed the afflicted spot, "What's that for?!"

"Thanks to you and the Dobe my funds were frozen making things harder for me and also you put a tracker in the little money I got." Jiraiya humiliated us and that was a direct hit to my pride, even if it was reasonable to accept defeat against a stronger opponent that didn't mean I would be happy about it.

Sakura shot me a glare, "To be fair. Getting you was still our priority, and we welcomed any advantage."

"Very shinobi of you." I checked my surroundings, "Where is the dobe?"

Tayuya said that he left on a mission but nothing more and I was sure Sakura wouldn't be left in the dark about it. I didn't want to stumble into him at a random moment like Sakura.

"They sent him to be part of the escort team for a diplomatic mission." She answered.

"To Suna I assume."

She quickly shook her head, "To Kumogakure, actually."

That piqued my interest, "Kumo? Despite what they have been doing?"

If they weren't stopped, then a war would have broken out and if two villages were at war, it would be inevitably end up in all out war with the others as they wouldn't miss the chance to fuck each other or get something in return.

Everyone knew this.

"A diplomatic team, led by Jiraiya-sama, was dispatched for that reason. I don't think anyone wants a war to break out."

I couldn't agree with her words. I was sure Kumo was itching for a war to show off their military might to the shinobi world and Iwa remained resentful against Konoha. But I didn't want any of that to occur with Akatsuki's increased presence.

"Knowing him, I feel like he will get into trouble one way or the other." At least Naruto would be relatively safe from any kidnapping attempt with Jiraiya around. Even Nagato would have a hard time against him.

She narrowed her brow, "Have a little faith in him. He has grown a lot."

I glared at her in silence and crossed my arms, "Don't keep your hopes up for a heartfelt reunion."

She only gave me a smile as her expression softened.

"That's all I needed to hear. Goodbye Sasuke." Her farewell seemed to hold deeper meaning, but I opted to not put much thought into it.

She turned around and walked towards the exit, but that walk turned into a full sprint using the momentum to jump towards the nearest roof and disappeared from my sight with the second jump.

"Was she your ex-girlfriend?" I turned to see Fu stretching her legs and cleaning the dirt from her skirt, which seemed impossible to accomplish since her skirt was white and the mark of dirt remained.

Fact that earned a frown of frustration. But it was amusing to see since she should have put something below before sitting or wear darker clothes.

I looked in the direction where Sakura left and released a long sigh, "No. She was only a girl that developed a crush on me and confused her hormones with love."

"Oh…weird." She scratched her green hair.

"Honestly, I expected her to bawl her eyes out and beg for an opportunity or things like that. I'm impressed by her maturity." I rubbed the back of my neck. Perhaps I judged her too harshly.

She looked in the same direction where Sakure left, "She will bawl her eyes out. Just not here."

I couldn't agree or disagree with her, but as far as I'm concerned, some people didn't like to be seen crying in front of others. However, Sakura cried in front of others when she was younger unless that was another aspect of her that changed.

But I was thinking too much about something that shouldn't concern me, "Let's just move out."

I was the first to reach the entrance, and I was preparing to jump and leave towards my house as soon as possible.

"Before we return, can we go to eat?" Fu's request caught my attention and quickly shifted my plan since there wasn't much to do for the moment and it was a great moment to get a rest from my team.

Besides, I had the feeling that Karin and Suigetsu were bickering and barking at each other over trivial things.

"Fine."

I gave a sharp turn to the left and followed the road which led us to a street. If my memory didn't falter then we would reach a commercial district and a place filled with restaurants and food stands selling the cheap junk food or snacks.

The streets slowly became crowded the closer we got to the district. Civilians and shinobis filled the streets, minding their own business, it reminded me of when I was at Tanzaku gai. The only difference was that there were no large casinos in the distance.

I couldn't tell if it was surprising or concerning that nobody recognized me as I walked through crowds. My only guess was that Uchiha's supposed desertion stopped being relevant or my whole little shit-show was kept a secret from the public. Tho I could be exaggeration my fame and the average citizen didn't even know my face.

We didn't talk. Fu was more occupied checking her surroundings in fascination, just like a foreign tourist. She only lacked a camera and the hat with the phrase I love Konoha sewed on it.

In my case, it was impressive as it remained mostly the same since I was a kid, no big changes besides food stands or massive buildings. It was almost mindless walking for a while until I caught sight of small trees gathered at the center.

The green-haired jinchuuriki left my side and ran to the center of the small plaza where she stood and opened her arms as she looked at her surroundings with excitement, "So many choices! What should I try first?!"

With a quick glance, I saw the reason for her excitement. There were many restaurants at full capacity serving their specialities and one could even smell the high quality food.

I shrugged. None of the restaurants looked familiar since most of the time I cooked my own meals or ate ramen with Team 7, "Don't ask me. I don't know any of them."

Fu gave me a pout but quickly decided and pointed in a specific direction, "Then let's go there."

I looked and saw the big sign showing off the grilled meat. It looked full but there was no queue line, so it was a good sign that it was a good place and it had an empty table waiting for us.

The moment we passed the entrance, the temperature had a sudden shift. The place was hot but not unbearable, but enough to desire a cold drink as soon as possible. And the server walking around with trays carrying drinks didn't help in the matter. My thirst for refreshment was growing.

"It's kinda hot in here." Fu commented.

I rolled my eyes, "Is an open grill. Of course it would be hot. If the windows weren't wide and open, then this place would feel like a sauna."

She didn't seem to pay attention to my reply as her gaze was busy looking for an empty table and when she found it; she left my side.

It was next to a window, giving us an ample view of the busy street, and the passing wind was refreshing thanks to the open upper windows. The wooden table itself was nice looking but humble in design, along with the wooden chairs. And right at the center was the grill with hot charcoal, increasing the temperature.

One might think that it was dangerous to have a flaming grill near burnable material, but the grill was in a cylinder with a thick ring. I didn't know how it was called, but I knew it was enough to avoid any fire. And the table didn't have legs, instead it was a base of stone but still with more than enough space to move our legs.

Soon after we took our respective seats, I grabbed the menu, which was a single page, and so did Fu. There wasn't a large and diverse selection of dishes, but it wasn't like there should be one, as it was a barbeque. There was no way I would come to order a pizza.

Thanks to the small selection, making a choice was fast and easy. Which matched with the staff since a waitress was rapidly approaching with her notepad and pen at hand.

"May I take your order?" She was a slender girl with short black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a single piece gray kimono with an apron tied around her waist and a white ribbon on top of her head.

"Yeah. I want one plate of pork and a really cold lemonade."

"And you…sir?" Her attention shifted to me and she froze in place the second her eyes landed on me and her face heated up, a pinkish color adorned her cheeks.

I let out a long drawn-out sigh, "Same as her."

The waitress left our table, using her notepad to cover her red face.

"You are quite popular, aren't you?" Fu leaned closer with a smug smile.

"I was getting accustomed to being ignored. I should have put on a mask or something," I didn't want to deal with horny teenage girls fawning over me again. My time in the land of waves was enough experience of such stupidity, and I had no desire to relieve them in Konoha.

Fu smirked, "Perhaps. But I think a mask or henge would draw more attention to you."

"You may have a point. Everything has pros and cons. By the way, why did you pick this place and not the popular one?" I pointed at the other restaurant across the street, which had a crowd waiting outside.

The jinchuuriki licked her lips, "I had a craving for meat."

I looked at her with mild surprise at her honesty and I looked at the other more popular place and it looked to cater to a more balanced diet, "Fair enough."

Fu looked around and leaned closer, "What place should I go next?"

My head tilted to the right with a raised questingly eyebrow.

"You said that I'm not restricted to moving around and inside Konoha, so I want to use it to explore more of the village. And I don't know what places are the best ones to start with."

"Besides the Hokage Monument, I know nothing about the tourist spots in Konoha. Unless you have a death wish, then the forest of death would be a great place."

"But you lived here for most of your life?"

"Yeah, life that was spent training to avenge my family." I remarked.

She flinched at my comment and looked down, "Ah…ummm…"

I quickly shook my head, "Don't get so worked up, it is no longer a sore spot."

"Here are your orders." The voice of the waitress caught both our attention as we turned to see her carrying our plates and placed them in front of us.

Fu frowned when she looked at the red and bloody texture of her meat, "It is raw…"

I rolled my eyes in amusement and grabbed my chopsticks, "That's why you have the flaming grill."

With the chopsticks, I grabbed a portion and placed it on the grill, immediately cooking and releasing a very tempting smell of the sauce.

Fun immediately followed by example but she dumped her entire plate on the grill, the blood falling on the burning coal causing it to release a lot of smoke and choke us, making us cough and gasp for fresh air. I was ready to stand up, but the jinchuuriki was fast to fix her mistake and dissipated the smoke that caught the attention of everyone, including the staff who were ready to take action.

With the smokescreen gone, I saw a pair of long dragonfly wings on Fu, but I wasn't given enough time to get a better view of them since they just vanished to the thin air. I saw her use her wings to fly from a slip up, but it was interesting that she had more uses for her wings.

Surprisingly, everyone in the restaurant resumed their activities as if nothing happened.

"Sorry about that… So you talked about your team. How was it? Being part of a team, doing missions and training together?" She asked as she used her chopsticks to organize the mountain of pork.

My body leaned back on my seat and looked up to the roof in thought, "I cannot describe it in a single word as it is a recollection of multiple good and bad moments, but there were times I genuinely had fun with them."

"What do you mean?"

I shrugged, "Not every mission or waking moment was spent in a fight to the death or sparring matches. I remember when Naruto took us to a Ramen stand and we ended up tricking Iruka to pay for everyone's meal."

"You just ran away?" She asked with a smile forming on her lips.

"If it was only that, we would have been caught, but we switched places with his shadow clones under a henge. I don't know why I agreed to his plan, but it worked and we heard his scream when it was time to pay the bill."

She smirked, "So Sasuke Uchiha wasn't always angry and stoic."

"Perhaps, I just remember more vividly all the missions which we needed to capture Tora.a And Naruto was too stubborn to learn from his past mistakes, which always ended up with him getting a face full of scratches."

"Sounds fun." She giggled as she checked if her food was cooked by poking it.

"Not for him." In my case, I used my own chopsticks and helped her to check by flipping the pork and seeing the white color along with the burnt lines. It smelled fantastic, and it tempted me to snatch one to eat but the other half was still raw and I had a feeling that the jinchuuriki would take kindly to my actions.

Unless I asked for permission.

"True."

She surprised me as she impaled all the meat from her plate on the chopsticks, making an improvised skewer which she didn't hesitate to take it all in a single bite. The meat wasn't given enough time to cool down, and she ate it with no issue. Even more surprising was that she was enjoying it with closed eyes rather than screaming from a burnt mouth and tongue.

However, I didn't comment on it. Naruto also shared the same trait of eating recently cooked food without complaining and being totally unharmed.

"I'm curious about something. Back in Suna, you went to a lot of parties. Why?"

She opened her eyes and stared at me for a moment before gulping her food and sighing of satisfaction, "I told you before. I couldn't do anything back at Taki besides looking at the walls of my house, it was a great opportunity to experience parties or hangouts…you know…stuff I couldn't do before."

She proceeded to eat the second skewer exactly like the last one.

It was more impressive than disgusting.

"I mean no offense, but how you didn't go insane in isolation? I'm no Yamanaka, but I know the dangers and the damage it can do."

"Because of him." She tapped her head a few times, "He has a lot of stories to share."

"I'm curious to hear them now."

"That's my secret, he he." She playfully stuck out her tongue.

"Fine by me." It wasn't the end of the world if I was given the chance to learn more about the world or the tailed beasts, and my food was ready.

Since she had devoured her food so fast, she was attentively watching me eat. Even while she was drinking her juice, I didn't miss the hungry look. So, out of the minimal kindness from my blackened heart, I gave her permission to take from my plate as well.

Which she happily did and made another skewer, which was promptly eaten while I took my time to enjoy my food.

It was juicy and tender. I would definitely come back for more at a later date.

Fu looked at our empty plates and then checked our surroundings. A mischievous grin quickly formed on her lips as she looked at me, "Do you want to repeat your childhood stunt?"

Her suggestion made me raise a brow, "We aren't brats anymore."

"Killjoy." She gave me a pout as she crossed both arms, "You should live up a little."

"With Akatsuki after our heads, I don't think boredom would be a concern for the foreseeable future." I replied with a smirk.

It surprised Fu at first, but soon her lips twisted into a knowing smile and raised her hand to call for the waitress and the bill.

Even if she had the idea to eat, she left me to pay, but the price was trivial to me and I knew the responsibility would fall on me. Everyone with a brain knew that having a happy jinchuuriki would be helpful in the long run.

However, as we exited the establishment, it came to my attention that people were looking at us, specifically, they were looking at me and whispering to each other. It was a shame that my anonymity didn't last long, but I wished it could have lasted longer than a couple of days.

"Next time I want to go somewhere fancier." Fu said to grab my attention and ignore the whispering crowd.

"Next time, huh?" I instinctively teased, not like I would mind hanging out with her at a later date.

She only widened her smile in response and took the lead, leaving me to catch up with her.

Sadly, I wasn't given the chance as smoke engulfed me.

AN: I needed to get this out. It was staying half finished for way too long so I sat down and started to write and write, slowly but surely filling the blank spaces.

And I kind of got a new job. I'm both nervous and excited about the prospects.