"You'd think that we wouldn't have to do these stupid D-ranks anymore," Naruto grumbled. He army-crawled forward in the undergrowth.

Sakura held a hand to the side of her head, pressing the button on the device at her ear so she could speak. "Well, got to pay the bills somehow. Target in sight, on my command, Sasuke."

She watched the cat as it crept closer and closer to the spot they'd rigged. "Now!"

Instead of being caught up in the trap (a simple net) they'd set up, Tora leapt right over it and up into a branch of the tree. Sakura dove down to grab the cat. It had to be a summon of some sort because the way it evaded her grasp just wasn't natural.

Sasuke hooked his legs over the branch above her and swung down to grab the cat. He was successful in his retrieval, but the cat wasn't going down without a fight. He clutched Tora to his chest in a hug and dug in his heels so he wouldn't fall off the branch.

"YEAH, take that furball!"

Sakura looked up at Sasuke, who was hanging above her. The collar of his shirt flapped and she could see the seal mark on his shoulder. She'd never reminded Jiraiya to look at it.

She frowned and got her to her feet, moving closer to Sasuke and Tora. After slipping a needle filled with sedative under the skin of the beast, it stopped yowling.

Naruto trotted over, happy the mission was successful.

"Sasuke, your seal…"

He glared at her, immediately defensive. Not the best sign.

"How has it been?"

"Why?"

Sakura sighed and looked heavenward. "Am I not allowed to care about how you're doing?"

He grunted, clearly uncomfortable, and then looked away for a moment before releasing the death grip his legs had on the branch so that he could flip over onto his feet.

"Let's go cash this in," he said, holding the immobilized cat up with one hand. Sasuke walked off stiffly and quickly, not waiting for her to catch up with him.

Naruto glanced back and forth between the two of them, grimacing with discomfort. He was at a loss for words. "Uh… I'll go ahead Sakura, if you need a second."

He didn't wait for her either. Sakura sighed and squatted down to cup a rock in her hand. She rehashed the interaction in her mind, trying to internalize the situation and make it her fault but she couldn't. Irritated by the lack of accountability, she funneled her chakra into the rock and flung it at a tree. It left a solid mark on the tree, but otherwise nothing happened.

Somewhere inside of her, that little voice that had showed up in her fight with Ino whispered to her that she didn't deserve to be treated like that. She angrily shoved the voice away from her, deeper down under the drone of tasks she had to complete.

It didn't take long for her to catch up to the others. Sasuke was silent and Naruto looked a bit miffed, like he'd been rebuffed also. Sakura chuckled wryly, but refused to look at either of them.

"He's worse than normal, Jiraiya-sensei."

Jiraiya sighed and wiped his hand over his face as though what the girl had said to him had sapped the very life out of him. He carefully rearranged the pages of his latest work that had been spread out on the table so that they wouldn't be damaged. "Listen, pinky, I get it. But hasn't he always been moody?"

"Not like this. It's different."

"How?"

"I can't explain it. It's just different. I feel it," Sakura murmured, toying with the cup of tea in her hands. Jiraiya had immediately made tea when she arrived, because the anxiety had been rippling off of her in almost tangible waves. "Did Kakashi mention the seal? Did he even ask you to look at it? I remember in the history books, you worked closely with the people of Uzushio. Doesn't that make you at least somewhat competent in fuinjutsu?"

Jiraiya snorted. "Competent? I'm the resident seal-master for Konoha. Kakashi mentioned it to me but told me he'd done everything that could be done."

Sakura pursed her lips, drumming her index fingers on the rim of her cup. "What if that is just everything he could do?"

She smiled a little when Jiraiya pulled his white hair over his face in frustration. "Ah, you sneaky girl! Spend too much time with Tsunade and that sneaky trait will wither away."

"Why's that?"

"You'll just start punching your way through obstacles."

"Well, I'm not strong enough to punch you into doing what I really want. And what I really want is to make sure that Sasuke is okay. That doesn't feel wrong to me. Can you at least look at the seal and see what it's causing? He's just been so angry since the Forest of Death…"

Jiraiya stared at her, only ending his scrutinous gaze so that he could pick up his soju and swirl it around in its saucer. "What else have you noticed?"

"In the Forest of Death, this weird black… I don't know what it was but it moved across his skin. His chakra felt sick… It felt evil, Jiraiya-sensei! And he was… He really hurt whoever attacked us and he didn't even feel bad about it."

Jiraya downed the saucer of soju and poured himself another.

"Sasuke may seem like a jerk, but he's actually really… I've never seen him hurt someone just for the heck of it— not even Naruto and they fight like cats and dogs! And he's just… he's angry a lot. Every once in a while it seems like the Sasuke I know resurfaces, but then he gets mad and disappears again for a while."

"I will take a look at it, kid." Jiraiya took a sip of his drink. "Now get out of my sight, before I change my mind. It's offensive how easily you appealed to my ego."

Sakura smiled and downed the rest of her tea, not minding a bit that it was still too hot. She ignored the tears in the corner of her eyes and smiled at him. "I'll make up for it, I promise."

"No need, just get outta here." He downed the rest of his soju, sighing heavily.

She skipped out of his little bungalow with joy, threading her hair through her fingers in an inherently childish way. It was the most relief she'd felt in a while.

Naruto and Sakura danced around one another artfully, their arms raised like barricades in front of them. It was a weapons-free battle meant to force them to work on their grappling. She'd had to make Naruto promise not to use a clone so that they'd be at a somewhat even advantage.

While he was an incredible force in battle because of his clones, his grappling needed work. He thrived on ingenuity, but was often pretty sloppy in the actual forms and had a lot of wasted movement. As such, he was a perfect match for Sakura who was technically perfect but in reality often under-prepared for the thuggish nature of a brawler.

Naruto moved slowly at first so she could get more used to the feeling of being in a fight that relied on fists and feet. In the past she was more likely to run away than to engage in something like this.

She charged at Naruto, ducking under the fist he brought down like a hammer over her head. Her left hand caught his forearm and she thrust her right hand up into his armpit, pivoting her hip to throw him over her shoulder.

Instead of a thump from him hitting the ground, she heard a softer sound. So he landed on his feet. She whirled around with her fist cocked back to punch him in the chest and swore when his knuckles connected with her face.

"Hah, Sakura-chan you didn't think I'd move that fast, did ya?" Naruto laughed boisterously, hopping back and forth from one foot to the other.

"Get back here you rat!" She screeched. She was smiling, but he knew that look. She was going to kick his ass— if she could catch him!

He laughed and spun around her fists, giggling when she grew madder. "You gotta chill out or you're gonna lose against a stranger, Sakura!"

She angrily kept trying to catch him. She was getting sloppier as she moved. He figured he'd just let her work herself tired and then he'd swoop in for an easy win. He worked in a little closer, dodging all of her attacks. He guessed his spars with Sasuke had paid off. Then again, it was only Sakura and he'd never hurt her.

Every now and again he'd tap her on the shoulder, but not a hard hit. He was having so much fun he didn't realize that she wasn't smiling anymore.

Eventually, she got a hit in on him and it sent him flying into the trees. He smacked into a tree and then some branches on the way down. When he got to his feet, Sakura was staring at him with fear all over her face. He just smiled.

"Now we're talking, Sakura," he laughed. He cracked his knuckles. "Do it again!"

Sakura smiled, relieved that he was okay and wasn't mad. "Bring it on!"

They were in the middle of a team exercise when Jiraiya told them that Kakashi sensei would be back in the next ten days to recover them for a period of time.

"Why not permanently?" Sasuke asked suspiciously.

"Probably the same reason he left in the first place," Sakura muttered, flicking her kunai at the tree. In the past the improved accuracy would have made her feel proud, but now she was just expecting the way it landed almost in a perfect bullseye. Instead of pleasure, she felt annoyed that it wasn't perfect. She'd been working on it for a month now.

Jiraiya sighed and nodded. "Yes. When he returns, I'll be heading back out for a trip for a short period of time. I have some business I need to attend to, but I'll return in some time."

Sasuke huffed, anger evident on his face. "What about my training?"

Jiraiya tilted his head to the side. "I have time for some one-on-one before I leave. Then we can continue when I get back. I actually wanted to give you all some intentional, personalized plans and point out some people in the village for you to go to for tutoring outside of what Kakashi has planned. Now get your panties out of a twist and go run off that attitude."

Sakura could have sworn Sasuke was smiling to himself, despite the punishment he was receiving.

"When will he get here?" She asked. Naruto was practically vibrating next to her with excitement.

"As long as he doesn't die, like I said. Next ten days." Jiraiya was doing Cossack squats and stretching out his hamstrings with the motion. He breathed out steadily as he moved and it was clear he'd been doing this simple routine for more years than they'd been on the planet.

Sakura pouted and folded her arms. "Whatever, Jiraiya-sensei, I just wanted details."

"You always want details, you sneaky girl," Jiraiya quipped. "Now collapse your chakra presence and run laps. If you lose control of the technique, stop for two minutes, and then do it again."

Sakura rolled her eyes and started running. It wasn't hard to pull her chakra into a tight ball in her belly, just behind and below her belly button.

"Oi, what about me, Ero-Sennin?!" she heard Naruto squawk. "OW!"

"I believe you still haven't finished that technique I told you to work on before we picked up Tsunade!"

She heard Naruto swear and then rounded a bend in the woods and he fell out of ear shot. Running without chakra dulled her senses and made her feel quite a bit weaker than normal. She ran anyway.

A/N: Hey y'all. :) A bit closer to the normal pace on this one, but I feel like I actually have a PLAN for this story. Still super open to a beta if any of you want sneak peaks and to help with grammar. Still also in Zanzibar, haha. Love this place.

Who thinks Sasuke is staying? Who thinks he's leaving? We're coming up on some important plot points. You will have to see what happens because I've literally been flipping coins hahaha!