"Sakura-chan!" It was an insistent, hushed voice.

I moaned and rolled over. "Naruto... Go away... I'm sleepin'..."

"Sakura-chan, I need to ask you a huge favor. Please help me."

My eyes snapped open to see the wooden walls of my temporary house. We had been home in the village for a few weeks now. I pushed myself up to see Naruto crouched at the ledge of my window. "Naruto!" I said in a loud whisper. "What the hell are you doing here?! My parents are in the other room! Is this a booty call!?"

"Noo...!" Naruto said in a low voice. "No way."

I narrowed my eyes at him and saw that his face was bruised and swollen. "What the hell happened to you?"

"I don't really know, but I need you to heal me up quick before anyone notices. I have an S-ranked mission tomorrow, and if Grandma Tsunade sees me, she might say I'm in no condition to go! Please, Sakura-chan! This is my first official S-ranked!"

I tried to rub the sleep out of my eyes. "Tsunade-sama is sending you on an S-ranked mission? Why would she do that, especially at a time like this!?" I went through the little bit of things I kept in the room, looking for a match to light my candle with.

"I don't know. Maybe she's finally realized my potential since I'm the Hero of the Hidden Leaf! It's an S-ranked mission, Sakura-chan! That means only strong shinobi can pull it off!"

I stared at him unimpressed. "Is all this 'Hero of the Hidden Leaf' thing getting to your head? The Akatsuki are after you specifically and we're on the brink of what could be the Fourth Great Shinobi war. It makes no-"

"Sakura-chan," Naruto interrupted impatiently. "Can you skip the lecture and just help me out here? I'll owe you a big one, I swear. I'll do whatever you want, just..."

I finally lit my candle and the low lighting let me see more of Naruto's face. "Wait, what did you say happened to you?"

"That's not really important. Time is of the essence here! It's already almost four in the morning!"

"You've been fighting," I stated. Naruto's right cheek was swollen to almost three times the size it should have been. There was dried blood under his nose and lips. "With who!? Kiba? I told you, you needed to give more details to everyone on what you were going to do about Sasuke-kun! You're pissing everyone off!"

"No, I wasn't fighting Kiba. I think my arm's broken. Can you just set the bone? I think the rest of me should be fine. I'll just find some ice or something."

"Na-ru-to," I warned, stressing each syllable of his name.

"Please don't freak out on me," he begged. "Your parents are in the other room," he reminded me.

"Tell me what you did! Who were you fighting?"

I didn't lower my voice and I saw Naruto cave. "It might have been... Sasuke," he muttered, almost so I couldn't hear.

"WHAT!? WHERE!? IS HE HERE!?"

"No, it was outside the village-"

"YOU LEFT THE VILLAGE AGAIN!?" Thank goodness that my parents had become hard sleepers after their retirement. "Why?!" I said a little more quietly.

"I just had a feeling. It's hard to sleep with the town the way it is so I took a walk. I didn't suspect Sasuke to just be hanging aro-"

I threw my arms into the air. Of course, Naruto would just have a feeling and then stumble upon Sasuke-kun! After the years of me not being able to find him, Naruto would just naturally have the sixth sense. I remembered Naruto telling me that he had seen Sasuke-kun several times without telling me about it. I wondered how exactly many times he had come across him. "You can't just walk out of the village! Sasuke-kun is a part of the Akatsuki now! They're trying to get the Nine-Tails! Do you realize how much danger you could have been in!? Good thing Tsunade-sama didn't realize you were gone! She had a conniption when you had gone to Mount Myoboku and that was for only an hour."

"I know!" Naruto hissed! "But I'm back and I'm okay!"

"You're not okay! Look at you!"

"Please!? Naruto begged, his eyes becoming like those of a puppy. "My arm really hurts..."

I sighed. "Fine. Let me see it."

Naruto smiled, relieved. "Thanks, Sakura-chan!" He very tentatively started to take off his jacket.

"Oh no, you're not off the hook yet!" I declared. "You need to tell me about every little detail on what happened between you and Sasuke-kun. No more keeping secrets!"

"But the thing is, I really can't. I don't remember much of it. I think Sasuke blocked some of my memory."

"He can do that?"

"I don't even know what he can do anymore!" Naruto said annoyed. After throwing his jacket onto my floor, he gingerly tried to take off his undershirt next. I helped him when it looked too painful. "When I first came across him, he had his eyes wrapped up. I thought for sure he couldn't do any genjutsu. I thought maybe I could talk to him without us fighting, but did that bastard prove me wrong."

I examined Naruto's left arm. "You're lucky. This is a very clean break. If you promise not to be dumb and move it, it might even heal without a cast because of your healing abilities. You aren't going to be stupid, are you?" I stared at Naruto skeptically. "I don't have any plaster on me."

"Yeah. Yeah. I won't move it."

"I'm setting the bone. Don't scream." I snapped the bone back into place and Naruto only grunted. "Okay, don't move. I have some thick gauze in the closet. I'll wrap it up tight." I diligently got to work. Naruto wouldn't look me in the eye, and I noticed that he kept leaning away from me as much as he could. Annoyed, I would grab him by the hair and yank him closer back to me. He wouldn't sit either. He kept in a crouched position, and sometimes would lose his balance and fall onto his knees. Even when that happened, he refused to sit down. I didn't argue with him about how annoying he was being because I wanted to be done with him as soon as possible. I was tired after all too.

After I made a sling for him, my attention went to his swollen cheek. "Let me drain some of the excess fluid, and I'll use my chakra, so the bruising isn't noticeable."

"No that's okay Sakura-chan; I can handle the rest of it."

I took out my scalpel anyway. "What are you talking about? Even you can't heal the evidence of this in a few hours. When are you leaving for your mission today?"

"I'll just cover it up with something."

"Don't be a baby." I assumed he didn't want me to drain his face. I had done it a hundred times before, so I didn't know why he was being so difficult now. I dug my fingers into his hair so he couldn't escape.

"Ow! Ow! Okay, okay, but after that, I'm fine."

I made the smallest incision, catching the blood with a cloth. I concentrated on that until Naruto's cheek shrunk back, and healed the tiny cut with my chakra, taking away the rest of the swelling. I dressed it before moving onto the rest of his face. I started to clean the blood out from under Naruto's nose as if I were his mother. I was used to doing this. I didn't feel uncomfortable, but I noticed Naruto's blue eyes were still averted away from me. I moved onto his lips. "It looks like he got you in the mouth too." Naruto's lips were swollen and slightly red. "Not too bad though." I ran my finger over it, the green glow of my healing chakra soothing. "You must have bit your own lip." I said discovering teeth marks just underneath and inside. I shook my head. "Figures you'd hurt yourself doing that." I finished. "Now where else? Are you hurt anywhere else?"

His neck. It was covered in bruises. I lifted his chin up. "Sakura-chan, I can cover the rest up with my clothes!"

"Are you kidding me? I want to make sure he didn't damage any muscle tissues or disrupted your chakra system. You are about to go on a hard mission."

Because I was only going on by the low light of the candle, and what glow came from my chakra, I hadn't really noticed the bruises on Naruto's neck. I had assumed that they were from hard blows delivered by a hand or blunt object in an attempt to damage Naruto's vulnerable points. Some of them looked like fingerprints, like Sasuke-kun had been holding him by the throat. A small shudder went through me, remembering the grip Sasuke-kun had on me several days ago when he tried to kill me.

But that wasn't what all the bruises were. The ones that trailed down Naruto's neck to his collarbone, ranging from sizes and intensities, the ones which could have been what looked like teeth marks within them, those made me stop what I was doing.

"How did you get these?" I whispered.

"I told you, I don't remember!"

"These... These are hickeys, Naruto!"

"No, they're not!" Naruto pulled away from me, covering his neck with his unbroken arm. The movement caused him to fall over, and he twisted dumbly so that he landed on his injury. I would have been annoyed that he was ruining the work I just did, if I wasn't so distressed with my new discovery.

"They are! There's nothing else that could have made those!"

"How do you know!?"

"Unless you were attacked with a sucking weapon rimmed with teeth! Who are these from?! Are these from Sasuke-kun?!"

"How am I supposed to know?!"

"They're on your neck! How can you not remember!? You said you wouldn't keep secrets from me anymore!"

"Listen, Sakura-chan, Sasuke most definitely put me under a genjutsu," Naruto tried to state calmly, unbroken hand raised, though his breath was coming in and out a little too quickly. "I know that. I was careless when I approached him because I thought he was still blind. I don't even remember fighting him, I just know that I must have because of my wounds. Sasuke completely erased my memory of what happened."

I stared at Naruto in horror. The more and more time went on, I was knowing less and less about Sasuke-kun. I didn't know him at all anymore. Maybe I hadn't known anything about him. Everything I had loved about him, was all made up in my head. It was a false image of him that I imagined. "And that he must have molested you."

"Maybe, I guess." Naruto was touching the marks on his neck with his hand and tracing the edge of his lip with his thumb, like he was trying to remember how it felt when those things had happened. I was feeling somewhat sick thinking about it.

"Did he do anything else to you?" I asked seriously.

Naruto looked at me in surprise. "No. I mean, what does it matter? I'm fine, really."

"Naruto... if Sasuke-kun raped you-"

"It doesn't matter!" Naruto shouted, in an angry, loud voice that threatened to wake my parents more than my earlier yelling. "If I can't remember it, then it shouldn't matter-"

"Naruto!" I was trembling. I almost couldn't believe that Sasuke-kun was capable of doing such a thing, but I'd seen Sasuke-kun mad. I'd seen him crazy and try to kill people. He had already killed so many. He wanted us all to die. Who said he wasn't capable of rape?

He raped Naruto.

"It does matter!" I cried. "You have to know. You can't just continue with your life not knowing. Here, let me see! Let me look at you. I can heal any-"

"No!" Naruto gripped the rim of his pants like he was afraid I'd rip them off of him. I had in the past, though for an entirely different reason. "You don't have to. I don't want you to look. I don't want..."

Naruto already knew. Of course, he did. If Sasuke-kun had raped Naruto, even if Naruto didn't remember, his body would most likely still have been traumatized. He would still be in pain. My hands went to my mouth as I let out a sob.

"I'm sorry!" Naruto said quickly.

"Why? Why are you sorry?! This isn't your fault! Sasuke raped you!"

"No, he didn't! I mean, I don't know if he did!"

"What do you mean?!" I was starting to hyperventilate again. I tried to calm my breathing, but it didn't seem like it was helping. Naruto looked guilty, and sad, and I hated that he blamed himself for a crime that wasn't his fault.

"I mean," Naruto wiped his face hard with his hand, looking away from me. "I don't know... maybe, what if I ... consented or something."

I stopped breathing all together. "You'd ... want that?" When Naruto admitted to me that it was probable that he could have feelings for Sasuke-kun, I saw it as a completely emotional thing. For some reason, I thought what Naruto was in love with was Sasuke-kun's damaged soul, and had nothing to do with actual physical attraction. Naruto seemed to be such a perv over naked girls sometimes. He appeared to really enjoy having sex with me. I didn't really think Naruto could... with a man, with Sasuke-kun. I wasn't really sure why I thought that. Sasuke-kun was beautiful of course, but Naruto liked girls. He wasn't gay. He told me. He liked girls so much that I never once thought he could ever be bisexual.

Now, I was feeling somewhat betrayed. It wasn't like Sasuke-kun had ever really been mine. And Naruto, we weren't a couple. We had sex twice. So what? That didn't mean that Naruto couldn't be with other people.

Naruto spoke like a man in turmoil. "I mean, I would hope I wouldn't... do that to you! Of course, I know how you feel about him. I wouldn't do it. But I don't know. Because I can't remember. I can't think of any line of thought I could have had that would make me think it was okay, no matter how horny or how much I wanted it. It doesn't make sense to me, but since I can't remember, I can't be sure."

I took a breath, having an idea. "We can go to Kakashi-sensei. He'd be able to unlock your memory!"

"I... I don't want to do that. I don't want to bring Kakashi-sensei into this."

"Naruto! We have to! Who else besides Kakashi-sensei?! It's a sensitive topic, yeah, but Kakashi-sensei is our teacher. He's a better choice than Kurunai-sensei."

"Maybe I don't want to know, okay? Part of me wants to know for sure Sasuke didn't do it, but then I don't want to know if I betrayed you either! Besides, if Kakashi-sensei finds out anything about Sasuke, he'll have to tell Grandma Tsunade about it, and then she'd know that I've seen Sasuke without reporting it, and just might start questioning my true intentions, and suspect that I'll choose Sasuke over the village and put me in prison or something!" he rambled. "And I won't be able to help with the war, and the village will kill Sasuke, and everyone will die-"

"Naruto!" I snapped. "We can trust Kakashi-sensei."

Naruto took a deep breath as he stared at me. "I still don't want to tell him. I hardly had the guts to tell you about it, but you're the only one I really trust about Sasuke. Even though I knew you'd be mad. I know you're mad at me. You're not acting like you're mad at me, but that's just because it hasn't fully sunk in yet."

"Why would I be mad? I'm not." I stared at Naruto in disbelief. "I don't care. I don't care about Sasuke anymore."

"Sakura," Naruto said with warning in his voice, assuming I was lying to him again.

"I don't! I don't care about any of this! It's fine if you like Sasuke-kun. I mean it's not fine! I do care, but it's not because I'm in love with Sasuke, or you!"

"Sakura-chan."

"It's because Sasuke's a dangerous criminal that only wants the Nine-Tails! I want you to be happy, and you should find love, but not Sasuke because Sasuke is trying to kill you!" I gasped in a breath. "Maybe he's trying to seduce you so he can get your tailed beast!"

"Sakura-chan, I don't think Sasuke would think of a plan like that. He would punch me in the face to knock me out, and then drag me away, rather than kiss me and hope that I follow him home. Sasuke just wouldn't do that."

"He wouldn't do that?! And the hickeys are from?"

"Shit," Naruto swore. "I don't know."

"It looked like he enjoyed himself."

"But why didn't he take me? He could have easily captured me if I was under a genjutsu... Something's not adding up."

"That's why we have to go to Kakashi-sensei to find out what really happened!" I exclaimed. "We could learn some very valuable information about the Akatsuki. Sasuke wanted you to forget something and it must have been important."

Naruto pushed himself to his feet, clenching his fist as he turned from me. "Sakura-chan," he moaned. "I can't. I can't."

"Stop being stubborn about this! Just swallow your pride and do it. Kakashi-sensei and I will not judge you, no matter what happened."

Naruto groaned. "Can it wait though? The S-ranked mission, Sakura-chan!"

"Who cares about the S-ranked mission?!"

"S-RANKED!"

There was a knock on my door. Naruto disappeared faster than a blink of an eye. "Sakura dear, are you talking to someone in here?" My father poked his hairy pink head in.

I laughed. "Oh, you know, can't sleep so I'm talking to myself!" My heart jumped when I first heard the knock on the door, but it was easy to fall into the flat way of talking I always did when speaking with my father. He never did know how to hear sarcasm.

My dad blinked at me. "Is that a new ninja training technique?"

"Oh yeah, dad. You're way behind the times!"

"Okay. Just be a little quieter so you don't bother your mother..."

"You got it dad!" He closed the door and I stomped over to my window where Naruto was still clinging to the edge. "I'm telling Kakashi-sensei!" I hissed.

"Don't tell Kakashi-sensei!"

"I'm telling him!" Naruto grabbed my face with his good hand, squeezing my cheeks with his fingers, keeping his balance with chakra enforcing his feet.

"Don't! I'll do anything Sakura-chan! I really mean anything."

"But it's for the good of the-"

"Is it for the good of the village? Or is it just because you really want to know?" Naruto accused.

I pulled my face away from his hand. "Of course not!"

"Do you trust me?"

I huffed. "I do."

"Then let me handle Sasuke, like I've been saying. I promise I'll handle this all." I glared at him. "I'll be your slave for the rest of my life!"

I crossed my arms and turned my head away stubbornly.

"Paint your nails, hold your bags, pay for your shopping, carry you so you never have to walk again!"

"You already do things like that."

"Well, give me more ideas! I'm not very creative!"

"Don't die on me," I said instead. "I'll keep this secret for you for now. Until your mission is over. But you better not die on me."

Naruto grinned at me. "That's all? I've already promised you that, Sakura-chan!"

"Well, yeah, don't forget it!" I gave Naruto a hard look. "Are you sure you're alright? Seriously, if you're hurt anywhere, anywhere, it would be super quick and easy to patch you up."

Naruto laughed nervously. "You know me, Sakura-chan. I heal quick! Don't worry about it! Thanks for everything." He gave me that grin of his and thrusted his thumb up into the air. "Wish me luck on my mission."

"Yeah, whatever. Good luck. Tell me if you find out anything more about Sasuke-kun! Or if you remember anything!"

"I will," Naruto said seriously. He lifted his hand again, touching a lock of my hair. He gave it a quick tug before leaping away. "See ya!"

It was a strange gesture. It seemed too affectionate for someone who was just friends to do with another friend. But Naruto still couldn't have feelings for me. At least not as strong as to whatever he felt for Sasuke-kun. He chose Sasuke-kun over me, didn't he? I didn't know. I didn't know anything anymore.

I sighed, staring at the now chipped nail polish on my fingertips. It had been a while since Naruto had painted them. After Naruto left, Tsunade-sama sent me on my own mission with Ino and Chōji to look for medicinal herbs for the war supply. They weren't Team Seven, but I found Tsunade-sama paired me with the other two quite frequently. Team Seven had always been in shambles, so Tsunade-sama was constantly looking for a place to stick me, and Shikamaru was always so busy with other things, that the rest of Team Ten were left behind. It was even worse now with Asuma-sensei gone.

Man, I couldn't even fathom what I would do if anything happened to Kakashi-sensei. I seemed to barely get by when Tsunade-sama was in a coma for a month. Here I always was, crying over my broken team, when none of the members were actually dead. At least not yet. Ino was always so strong when shit happened to her.

I turned to see her sleeping blonde head beside me. I was glad that I was put with the remnants of Team Ten. Ino and I worked well together, and Chōji, Chōji was very easy to get along with.

Chōji was snoring a few feet away from us, probably to give us girls a little privacy. Though I didn't find his presence intimidating, I was grateful that it made his snoring a little quieter with the distance. I still couldn't sleep though, so I just stared at Ino's long silky hair.

I wished I could have talked to Naruto longer before he went on his mission. The conversation had left me with apprehension and anxiety. Naruto must be hiding something from me. Just like he was hiding his plan on what he was going to do about Sasuke-kun. Every time I had asked Naruto about anything, he wouldn't give me a straight answer. He just said that he didn't know.

When I had asked him about his feelings for Sasuke-kun on our return trip from the Country of Iron, Naruto didn't deny that they could be there. Was I really so surprised?

No. I wasn't. I was just... almost jealous.

Not because Naruto could love Sasuke-kun more than he loved me. I was relieved that Naruto was capable of loving someone other than me. But I still missed the attention. Maybe, sometimes, I wished it would happen again, what Naruto and I did in the Hokage's office. I was certainly not going to ask for it though, and Naruto was too terrified to pull another move. The relationship would not progress further. Naruto had even rejected my love confession. Perhaps he was over me.

But just like when I realized that Hinata might take Naruto away from me, I began to feel uneasy.

No. I didn't have anything to be worrying about. At least not in that regard. Sasuke-kun was still very much far away from anyone. And even if Naruto was in love with him, Sasuke-kun would also have to have feelings for Naruto in order for Naruto to be completely gone from me in that type of way.

Sasuke-kun being in love with anyone... Ha, that would be the day.

Except someone left those marks on Naruto's neck. Naruto wouldn't lie about not remembering how it happened. I decided that I believed him even though I was annoyed about the fact. But since Naruto didn't remember, who was to say it was Sasuke-kun? Maybe he ran into someone else, a girl who was a Naruto fan and took advantage of the state he was in. That was pretty hard to believe as well. Even Hinata, who loved Naruto more than anyone, wouldn't be leaving hickeys on his neck. I knew the girl well enough to know that.

But even though Sasuke-kun was even less likely to be making out with Naruto than Hinata, it being Sasuke-kun did seem to be the most feasible outcome, as Sasuke-kun was the last person Naruto remembered.

I didn't know Sasuke-kun anymore, I had to remind myself. He didn't seem to prefer men when he lived in the village, but he left when he was only thirteen. Maybe he hadn't known yet. But, even if Sasuke-kun preferred men, why Naruto of all people? Naruto was his enemy. Naruto was trying to bring him home to a village he couldn't stand. He couldn't stand Naruto. He never could.

Sasuke-kun hated Naruto, didn't he? But Sasuke-kun still always had more respect for Naruto than I ever did. Why? Did he know Naruto's true self? Did he have... feelings?

The more I thought about it, the less and less likely I felt that Sasuke-kun could have raped Naruto. No matter what Sasuke-kun felt for the idiot, hate or love, he respected Naruto and he wouldn't have done something like that. Sasuke-kun's values were higher. He saw things as the big picture and wouldn't do anything that wouldn't help him in his greater goal. Maybe he would try to seduce Naruto in order to get the Nine-Tails, but he hadn't taken the Nine-Tails. Whatever happened, happened for a certain reason that I couldn't think of.

I wished Naruto would have let me examine his body more. Because I had to know. I had to know how far they went, and what exactly they did. I had some right to know, didn't I? Because I cared. The whole village could be endangered by the encounter.

Or maybe I wanted to know if Naruto and Sasuke-kun were in love with each other. I hadn't really thought much about it. My mind didn't know how to feel. I just knew they were unwanted feelings, jealousy, embarrassment, loneliness; the more I thought about their possible relationship, the more I felt myself wanting to get involved. I wanted to hear more about it. I wanted to put my input in just for the sake of being a part of it, lecturing on how a union was wrong, unsightly, and had no future. You know, anything to snip this all in the bud before it dragged onto some sort of tragic love story. Because I couldn't stand it existing at all.

But I was too late for that, wasn't I? It was already a tragic love story.

In reality, it wasn't any of my business. It never was any of my business. My eyes became wet when I realized that I was always going to be outside those two. From the very beginning, back when we were seven, I was not meant to have either one of them. I really should back off from Naruto. Naruto loved Sasuke-kun, not me. He was over me, finally. I pushed him away and now I was alone.

One of my breaths came out in a sniffle. My hand flew to my face when I realized how loud it was.

"Sakura... is something wrong?" Ino muttered.

"No. Everything's fine," I said in a steady voice. "I just woke up from a dream." She was starting to push herself up, but with my reassuring voice she stopped moving.

"Kay... good."

I took a breath to calm myself, staring at Ino's back. Ino didn't cry at random moments just because she was over thinking things. Ino lost someone she loved too.

She had cried when she found out that Sasuke-kun was supposed to be eliminated. Hell, she cried longer than I had. Maybe I was over Sasuke-kun now. Maybe I could move on. I thought I could move on with Naruto, but it was clear that Naruto was stuck in the past. I should just stay single with Ino. Ino had cried long for Sasuke-kun, but after she had it out of her system, she moved on too, and acted like a ninja. We were ninja. We were about to go to war. This wasn't the time to be worrying about relationships anyway.

I found my arm raising itself, and then falling to rest on Ino's waist. She twitched a little underneath it but did not move. I was always trying to steal Ino's strength. Ino could always handle things better than me.

I remembered what Ino had said about becoming lesbians if Naruto turned out to be gay for Sasuke-kun. I almost laughed out loud at the thought. Ino and I had pretended to be lesbians in the past, in order to get unwanted guys to leave us alone. The game was fun, and we were good at it. We didn't make out with each other, but we didn't have to in order to come off as convincing. Just an arm around the other possessively and a firm glare to make whoever it was go away.

Ino smelled nice, like the flowers of her family's shop.

I never thought about kissing Ino, but it didn't seem all that bad. I had never thought of a girl in a sexual way before at all. It just never occurred to me.

Ino's body was soft, and my arm sunk into the concave of her waist. Ino was very beautiful. I had always been envious of her hips, her bust, and her long silky hair. I tried to remind myself that I didn't have the patience to have such long hair. And she often complained about her breasts and hips being too heavy around her time of the month. She was my first friend. She was important to me. I should stop being jealous over every little thing.

Naruto seemed to be attracted to both girls and boys. I didn't know how sexually attracted I could be with Ino but touching someone was nice. If Ino and I were really destined to be alone, I wouldn't mind being alone with her. At least she was someone.

My hand grazed her ribs and then she did move, rolling onto her back. "What's wrong Sakura? Was it a nightmare?"

"Yeah, I guess." I retreated my arm, but Ino grabbed my hand as she rolled onto her stomach, her face facing me.

"Come on Forehead, you're the leader of this squad. Can't be acting like a pansy on the first night."

"I was just checking to make sure you're alright. Us being out here on a strange island, anything could happen," I answered back coyly.

"You're right. I'm so scared of all the plants and medicinal herbs that might attack us..." Ino yawned. Her pale blue eyes started to study my face, her hand still gripping mine. I thought about telling her of Naruto's feelings for Sasuke-kun, but I didn't. I told him I'd keep his secrets.

And besides, if I mentioned it, it might imply something in the way I had just touched her now.

"I get scared thinking about the war too," she told me, thinking that was where my insecurities were coming from. "We have to try our best though, you know. I'm going to work really hard so don't think you're going to outshine me."

"You better put your all into it then, Ino. Your healing technique is getting a little rusty."

"No way! What the hell you smoking, Billboard Brow? We haven't even harvested anything from the island yet!"

I laughed at her, and she giggled back at me. I fell asleep with her soft hand in mine.

Naruto's S-ranked mission had been nothing but a distraction. A distraction to keep him out of the war. A distraction to keep him safe.

Honestly, I was glad when Naruto figured it out, that we were lying to him. We, the village, lied to Naruto a lot. I'm not entirely sure why. I can't blame it solely on Tsunade-sama, as the tradition of trying to keep things from Naruto started before she was Hokage. We could all agree that Naruto's emotions made it difficult to control him. Nobody seemed to notice that lying to Naruto always appeared to backfire. He wasn't as stupid as people thought. Even I forgot that. And though the act of manipulating Naruto had always been fun to me, I could not escape the twinge of guilt that it brought me, and most likely everyone else as well.

When Naruto found out you were keeping things from him, he would explode into impulsive action and anger and it came so hard and fast that any fury he had towards us, burned out quickly. Then it was gone and there was nothing to feel guilt over. Naruto didn't hold grudges. He only fixed problems that everyone thought he was too dumb to handle. And he never said, 'I told you so.'

So, I didn't feel any fear when I heard that Naruto had entered the war that we were trying to protect him from. Even though it was dangerous. Even though it made a chance that Naruto could fail, could die, and Madara could win, enslaving the entire world. It didn't matter because Naruto knew that he should be fighting, and after he won the war for us, he was not going to say, 'See? Told ya so.'

Guilt is a heavy thing. It affects all your actions and daily seconds. When you are emotionally stressed, you become mentally stressed, and when the brain makes mistakes, the body suffers. With my guilt lifted, I felt like I had regained all the chakra I had dispensed since my time healing in the war. The camp was dispersing. All medical nin that had any fighting capabilities were heading to the front lines to assist Naruto. I probably should have been terrified.

I wasn't cut out to be fighting in war. I didn't have the emotional control. I was overconfident. Once I saw hundreds of people being killed in front of me, I would break. I wouldn't be able to handle it. No matter how much I had tried to prepare myself for it. Sure, there had been some threats at the camp. White Zetsu had nearly assassinated me. We were attacked by a few reanimations. It wasn't like fighting didn't happen, but it was much safer than the front lines. I had been relatively safe as a medical ninja.

But I didn't think like that. I could feel Naruto's chakra. I was fighting for Naruto, and for the first time in the longest time, I had a purpose that was of actual value.

Because Naruto was indeed everything, at that moment.

We weren't the first to arrive at the battle scene, as the medical company had been a farther distance to keep it out of harm's way as much as possible. When I found Naruto, Hinata was with him. At first that had reassured me, ironically, since I normally found a spark of jealousy in my heart whenever I laid eyes on Hinata, whether she was with Naruto or not.

But I knew Hinata would protect Naruto with her life, as she had always done. If Hinata was still standing, Naruto must be fine as well, but something wasn't quite right. Naruto wasn't seriously hurt, no, but something had happened, and it was so obvious when I realized it.

Naruto didn't handle death as well as a shinobi should. Someone had died, but there wasn't time for me to figure out just who. I couldn't save the dead, and if it was someone Naruto knew, most likely it was a friend of mine as well. I didn't need the distraction.

I saved the people I could, the entire time trying to keep one eye on Naruto in case he needed me more. The chakra cloak that he gave everyone was reassuring. He had to be alright if he was keeping that up! If Naruto was alright, then I could focus on the injured. The extra chakra helped me heal people even faster than usual.

I was surprised at myself, how I fared in war. We weren't doing very well at all, despite what Naruto went through to protect everyone. I cannot even begin to describe what the Ten-Tails was like, the creature that Madara had revived. It kept changing its form and would create one natural disaster after the next. We almost drowned. We were almost all crushed, yet Naruto would think of something to save us in the nick of time. The relentless attacks from the creature drained Naruto's chakra in a matter of minutes, but it didn't feel like that. It felt like hours of us struggling to survive.

I finally got to Naruto when he was spent, grabbing onto his exhausted shoulders as the rest of us surrounded him in a human shield. I felt his muscles shift with the familiar weight of my hands, of him relaxing just a bit, but I wasn't entirely sure if that was because of my presence or Hinata's. His eyes were glued onto her like she was his personal savior, though the entire army was fighting for him. Naruto was surprisingly calm even though he could do nothing more with the little energy he had, and in 90 seconds, there was a sure sign that we were about to be obliterated by the tailed beast's chakra bomb. I saw everyone around us waver.

This was the end.

We were going to die.

But it was an honor to die with Naruto. Despite all the things I hated about the idiot. I didn't care that he was an idiot, that he had made me cry. I didn't care that he had stolen Sasuke-kun from me, and then rejected me and now was falling for Hinata. I didn't care that he failed his promise to return Sasuke-kun to the village, or that he made me heal him and worry all the time. Naruto was still a great ninja, and I would follow him to death. Naruto deserved that. I was suddenly angry at everyone around us panicking. They had this honor of dying with a great man! We were shinobi! This was what we were born to do, die in battle with great people. It was in our blood.

Maybe I was just being emotional in a desperate time, but I spoke up about it, as I pumped my chakra into Naruto's back.

"Naruto is putting everything into doing what has to be done. Naruto's words, just now, made it clear!" I shouted to everyone.

"Yeah, he's been going out of his way to protect shinobi like us," responded a man I did not know, who also clearly did not know Naruto.

"That is not what I meant! He told us that he considers all of us his comrades from the bottom of his heart." Only then did I see resolve set into the other's eyes. "I'll fully heal Naruto. We have to do what we have to do. If we're going to die anyway, we might as well all go down fighting to the best of our abilities." I've never really been a public speaker, and I had no merit to be someone to listen to, but for some reason, the people took my words to heart, and we developed a plan.

It wasn't a good enough plan. We were all too close to the Ten-Tails to hide, but yet not strong enough to damage it. A tailed beast bomb destroyed HQ from hundreds of miles away, killing Ino's father and many other Leaf shinobi. We would not survive, but I didn't like the idea of standing around crying about it.

I gripped Naruto's shoulders harder, knowing it would be the last thing I would ever feel. Naruto's shoulders had always carried so many burdens, yet I was going to use them one more time.

But as suddenly as the Ten-Tails shot the bomb, the massive ball of energy disappeared, and all we experienced was a minor earthquake. The reason for such a turn of events was from a reanimated man.

It was very confusing, as the reanimated soldiers the enemy had sent, had all disappeared a long time ago. No one knew at the time why. Someone, an unknown person, had stopped the jutsu. We were too relieved to ask questions. Viewing this man, who was obviously dead as could be seen by his eyes, made me first think that the jutsu had started back up again, though that didn't entirely make sense either, as this man had just saved all of our lives rather than attacked us.

I was so confused that I took no notice when Naruto had called the dead man 'dad'. What I did notice was that Naruto wasn't surprised at his appearance, which annoyed me because I was always annoyed when Naruto knew what was going on and I didn't. I also was too shocked to recognize the face that had been carved into the mountainside overlooking our village since before I was born. Or that his cloak read 'Fourth Hokage' on it.

But I quickly recovered when the Fourth asked me if I was Naruto's girlfriend, as Naruto answered after some thought that, "Yes, you could say that. She's my girlfriend."

That Naruto had some nerve.

He couldn't figure out who he wanted, obviously. He had already rejected me, granted, I had lied to him while confessing my feelings, but I was sincere about the offer. He already... did something with Sasuke-kun, whatever that was. Though, whatever their relationship was at the moment, it certainly could not be on good terms. And then seconds ago, I had caught him ogling at Hinata! It was clear that Naruto didn't know who he wanted to be with. I wondered if Naruto was just simply trying to get into everyone's pants! I smacked him with my own head, as my hands were busy with healing him. Because of my chakra control, it didn't hurt me at all, though it was hard enough to give Naruto a contusion that I healed while replenishing the rest of his chakra. How could Naruto even be thinking about those types of things at a time like this?

But maybe, I was a little proud that Naruto would call me his girlfriend, even if it wasn't true.

Soon the other Hokage came as well, apparently revived by Orochimaru, who was also supposed to be dead, and a bad guy, but you know, nothing makes sense in war, I suppose. And it didn't matter. I was happy, healing Naruto and fighting with so many legends. Naruto told me that even more help was coming too. I started to think maybe we really could do this, as I watched Naruto's face turn to awe, witnessing his father perform the same chakra as his own.

I remember thinking that maybe, this was my happily ever after. If it were to end, then I could accept that type of ending. I was ready to die, or win, with Naruto. Together we watched the awesome power of the first Hokage, and all the other Hokage, trap the Ten-Tails in a seal. It was a truly amazing sight, something so big caught in such solid chakra. It was like watching fireworks, or a shooting star, a giant wave, a forest fire in the distance, happenings that made you feel so small and powerless and reminded you that there were things that were much greater than you'd ever be. In a way it was beautiful. There was nothing more beautiful.

Maybe he felt me think that. Maybe he realized that I was thinking thoughts not revolving around him, so he decided to suddenly arrive. No way, in a thousand years, would Sasuke-kun ever let me think something could be more beautiful than him.

His arrival didn't make sense, but neither did the four Hokage. The fact that I was seeing the Uchiha symbol on his back wasn't right. Sasuke-kun would never show the enemy his back. We were supposed to be his enemy.

But he landed gracefully in front of us, face away, his arms outstretched to keep balance. They looked like they were in the act of protecting something important to him. Something that certainly, would never be us.

I stared at him for such a long time, replaying in my head of his arrival and then staring some more, trying to figure out if I was awake. It was a good possibility I was not. It would explain the Hokage, and Naruto announcing me as his girlfriend, and me giving an important speech. Yes. This was a dream.

"You sure took your time getting here, Sasuke." Naruto's words feigned annoyance, but I felt the tension leave his body in so much relief that he almost felt like jelly underneath my fingers. I had felt him relax when looking at Hinata. I had felt him brace with confidence when looking at his father, but him looking at Sasuke-kun, was like Naruto had been holding his breath since Sasuke-kun left three years ago and he was only now able to gulp in air. It was clear that Naruto knew Sasuke-kun had been coming, just as he had sensed everyone else's arrivals, but I knew, it wasn't until Naruto saw Sasuke-kun in front of him did he believe it.

Because Sasuke-kun was so transparent, so ghost-like, that you couldn't really believe he was there, because most times it was only a trick of the light, or your imagination running away from you.

The first breath I took to speak failed, so I had to take another one. "Sasu...ke-kun?"

"Is that you, Sakura?"

I noticed that Sasuke-kun didn't even bother addressing Naruto at all this time around. And Naruto also noticed this as all the tension in his shoulders returned to him. I did not take this as Sasuke-kun missing me more than Naruto. No, Sasuke-kun did not miss anyone. He knew that was clear to me. He only acknowledged me so he could make it a point to ignore Naruto, who was waiting for a sign to show that he was missed, as he always was. With the tightening in Naruto's shoulders, I knew he suddenly remembered that he and Sasuke-kun were still not on good terms. He remembered whatever happened between the two of them all those months ago. Though I was wondering how Naruto could forget, whether Sasuke-kun had wiped his memories or not.

"Sasuke-kun, why!?" This was not happening. Giant demons filled with immense chakra, dead people coming back to life, the world about to end, that was all more believable than this. This simply could not be happening. Not Sasuke-kun. Not the Sasuke-kun that ruined my childhood dreams, broke my heart and tried to kill me. Sasuke-kun, who wanted to destroy the village and kill everyone else in it. Sasuke-kun, who may have raped Naruto. Sasuke-kun who may be in love with Naruto. Why would Sasuke-kun ever be here?

Of course, Sasuke-kun didn't answer. Everyone around us who knew the traitor started shouting all at once. I thought Ino was going to explode. Sasuke-kun watched them all calmly, bored, like seeing something disgraceful that he was about to dismiss and walk away from. "You're all still as noisy as ever," he stated.

His attitude annoyed everyone, and Kiba, the most hot-headed one, shouted back and asked why he was even here.

I furrowed my eyebrows because Kiba's question deserved an answer. I asked again more calmly, knowing that Sasuke-kun would not stoop so low to answer the Inuzuka. "Why are you here, Sasuke-kun?"

I wasn't really expecting Sasuke-kun to answer me either, but he tilted his head ever so slightly to address me, back still firmly pointed at me. One might think it was rude of him to not turn to fully face me, but it meant so much that Sasuke-kun was displaying his back to me that I took no notice of that. "A lot of things have happened. I've decided to protect the Hidden Leaf Village." Hearing that come out of his mouth almost didn't let me process his next line, even though he spoke it slowly, like he knew what would happen when he said it. "And then, I'll... become Hokage."

The entire war stopped for about eight seconds. All of us just stood there, staring at him. The enemy didn't even attack.

When the statement fully sank in, most of us exclaimed in shock and anger. The more aggressive of us decided to put their two cents of what they really thought of Uchiha Sasuke becoming Hokage.

Surprisingly, the quietest of us was Naruto, who should have been the most offended. Becoming Hokage was Naruto's dream. It had been the only thing that was all his own. He didn't steal it. It had been his original identity. Naruto only grinned. Maybe he understood the irony of it. Sasuke-kun, who had always seemed to have everything to Naruto, wanted something that was Naruto's. Naruto always seemed to get a high when that happened.

"I'm gonna become Hokage!" It was nostalgic hearing Naruto say that. I wondered if Sasuke-kun felt that too. Naruto got up, though I wasn't completely done healing him, I guessed it was good enough, so I let him go. He walked over to Sasuke-kun, the two of them not glancing at each other, just staring ahead at the invisible future.

The First Hokage gave the next orders for our attack.

Naruto turned his head toward me. "Thanks for healing me, Sakura-chan! Now it's your turn to get some rest. Let's go Sasuke!" On Naruto's order, the both of them leapt into the air at once, like two sides of one being. They had reconnected again in a manner of moments. I watched their backs as they left. I was always watching their backs, for I was the one that was always being left behind, left out of whatever secret connection they had.

Fuck no.

I knew what was going to happen. They were going to leave me out of this fight so that they could die together without my interruption. They were going to have their last moment with each other, silently pouring their proud, stubborn hearts to the other. They had had enough gay boy love without me, I decided.

I quickly leapt after them, landing beside Naruto. I would have rather been closer to Sasuke-kun, but I still felt sort of wary of his presence. I could not just simply forget that he had tried to kill me last time we met. Yes, Naruto was safer. It would also be easier to convince Naruto to let me join the fight. I just had to use fear.

"Sakura-chan?"

"Do you see me as some sort of weak woman who can't keep up with you two?" I hissed. Sasuke-kun was looking at me like the obvious answer was yes. Naruto was just a little shocked. I stood up from my landing. "Do you think Tsunade-sama would be the only one of the Legendary Sannin to inadequately train her student?" I turned my glare to focus on Naruto's face. "I'm almost there..." I told him. "I'll be at full capacity in a little bit. Then I can output my true power." I had been storing chakra for over three years. It wasn't as great as Tsunade-sama's but that was only because she had more years to store hers. "Just like you, I'm a member of Team Seven and I'm a student of one of the Legendary Sannin!"

Naruto continued to stare at me while Sasuke-kun became bored with my declaration. I knew what was holding Naruto back from answering me was fear that I would get hurt. He cared about me a great deal. But he cared about Sasuke-kun as well and wasn't worried about him. I kept my gaze steady on him, willing him to realize that. I was no weak woman. There was no reason to fear for my safety more than Sasuke-kun's.

And then the smile snaked its way across Naruto's beaming face. "Okay then!" He punched his fist into his palm in excitement. "Team Seven is finally back!"

AN: My other story, 'In Hate with You', is in the same universe of this story. If you are interested. It takes place before this chapter.