Disclaimer: For fun!

"I hate the rain..."

A gruff sigh escaped Sakura's lips as she trudged through the streets of Konoha, the streets were dim and dark despite it being early morning. As she slowly walked through the streets, she kept her eyes glued to the ground in front of her as she lazily held the umbrella Naruto gave her over her head.

"It makes summers cold..." She added, a sour look twisting on her face as she looked up at the dark clouds above her. It felt like the world was doing everything in its power to make her already rotten mood even worse.

'Everything was going so well... We were getting to really know each other and everything...' Inner commented sadly.

'But I guess… Even if we hadn't fought, the answer would've remained the same…' Inner added, referring to the night before and getting a sad grunt out of the pinkette.

Sakura rubbed her tired eyes as her mind kept wandering back, mostly because of her inner self, to the night before. She kept thinking about her fight with Naruto, how quickly everything fell apart. She kept asking herself where she went wrong, where she messed up that would lead to Naruto pushing her away. As she got lost in thought she slowly started to hug her own arms reflexively, to keep warm from the summer storm but also in a form of self-comfort.

The more she thought about their falling out, the more it made sense. It was obvious in hindsight that, in attempting to create a foundation for a new relationship between the two, Sakura had planted a bomb that was destined to go off underneath it all. The budding friendship and even potential romance between the two were fragile, and in a lot of ways manufactured on Sakura's behalf.

'That half assed promise was more destructive than I ever thought it'd be… I used Naruto's kindness… He was so open and willing to a new start to our relationship, and I took advantage of that… Of his love for me.' Sakura admitted, squeezing her bicep with her free hand as guilt washed over her being.

'But you tried to make it right! You did everything you could to make the promise real!' Inner pointed out, trying in vain to cheer herself up. Only to get a scoff out of Sakura.

'You said it yourself; my answer wasn't going to change. It never was going to change. All I did was delude myself into thinking it would and gave Naruto hope for nothing…' Sakura rebutted, taking a deep breath as she buried her own sorrow. She didn't want to feel sad, to her, she didn't deserve to feel sad. This was her just desserts for lying to him in the first place.

Sakura raised her head as she stared up at the large Hokage office in front of her, taking another deep breath as she started making her way up the stairs. Now wasn't the time to be a heartbroken teenager, now was the time to be a ninja.

Due to the weather, instead of it being a day of training for Sakura it ended up being a day solely being Tsunade's assistant to the mountain of paperwork she had to deal with. As the sun began to set and the paperwork finally began to wane, the two finally had a moments peace to just sit back.

"Thanks, Sakura. Sorry your first day was just helping me out, but you and Shizune both helping made this mountain of paperwork actually feasible!" Tsunade told the young girl, stretching her arms before getting up and walking over to the coffee maker. She poured herself and Sakura some coffee and handed the young girl her mug.

"We'll start your training proper tomorrow, I promise." She told the pinkette, smiling at her new student.

Sakura smiled and nodded in response, before taking a sip of her coffee, letting the warmth of the drink relax her body. Sakura didn't exactly mind helping with the paperwork, if anything it served as a great task to set her mind to so it wouldn't wander off.

"By the way, did you get to see Naruto this morning?" Tsunade asked, knocking Sakura out of her relaxed trance. Sakura for her part looked to the side as she held her mug of coffee.

"N-No, I didn't." She replied, her voice getting somewhat heavy. This earned a confused look from the blonde-haired woman, who then sat back down at her desk.

"That's a surprise. I would've thought you'd want to see him one last time before he left." She commented, before taking a gulp of her coffee.

"H-Huh? What do you mean one last time?" Sakura asked, her face painted in surprise and confusion as she stared at her teacher.

Tsunade looked at Sakura for a moment, before fully understanding the situation and sighing heavily.

"Those boys are absolute idiots…" Tsunade grumbled as she put her coffee down and stood up from her chair.

"Naruto left the village with Jiraiya this morning." Tsunade told the pinkette in front of her, seeing a look of shock form on the young girl's features.

"W-What?... Naruto's… Gone? Why? And…" Sakura trailed off, looking down as she set her coffee down.

"Why didn't he tell me?" She asked, hearing Tsunade sigh in response.

"It was Jiraiya's plan. In his current state, Naruto cannot hope to retrieve Sasuke in the future. He needed to get stronger, and Jiraiya wanted to train the boy himself." Tsunade explained, looking to the side and pondering if she should say more.

"Jiraiya did not give me a timetable on when they'd be back. It could be 6 months; it could be in half a decade. All he said was he'd notify me once they will return." She added, explaining the situation to the pinkette.

The room began to spin around Sakura as she took in the information Tsunade provided her. Naruto left to get stronger, because he couldn't get stronger here. Naruto left her behind, because she was weak.

He left, just like Sasuke.

'I think I'm gonna be sick…' Sakura thought, as the color left her cheeks.

"So, Naruto left… Because he couldn't get stronger here… Because he couldn't get stronger with me." Sakura finally replied, her body trembling as she continued to look down at the ground.

"Sakura, I don't believe that's why… Jiraiya doesn't like staying in one place, plus them traveling while training allows Jiraiya to gather intel on Orochimaru, who Sasuke is with." Tsunade explained to the girl, who shook her head in response.

"I wasn't talking about Jiraiya-sama's reasons!... Naruto didn't tell me any of this… He hid this from me… That idiot is honest to a fault, so if he was hiding this from me it was to protect my feelings… He didn't want to admit that I was weak!" Sakura pointed out, before getting up and wiping her eyes. Her face turning to a scowl as she stared her teacher down.

"And I am DONE feeling weak…"

A yawn escaped Sakura's lips as she laid back in her bed, staring up at the ceiling. The last couple days had completely sucked the energy out of the young girl, forcing her to lay in bed the moment she returned home. She rolled over in bed and looked over at the picture of herself with the rest of team 7, staring at the picture sadly.

"Where did we go so wrong, that the team is completely fractured…?" Sakura asked herself, before sitting up and letting her legs hang off the bed.

"I guess the both of us weren't being honest with each other…" She pointed out, staring down at her bedroom floor.

'Makes me wonder how much of that fight yesterday was based on him knowing he was leaving the day of the promise…' Inner brought up, a tired frustration lacing her voice.

"Wouldn't surprise me if it was… He said himself he had considered that I had been lying about the premise of the promise before, convenient he'd hit the nail on the head the night before we were supposed to try it again…" Sakura spoke, tapping her fingers against her bed in mild irritation.

"Must've been thinking as hard as he could to find a way out of it, that or he was lying and knew from the beginning and was just waiting for the right time to bring it up…" Sakura muttered, going through all the possibilities of why he started up the conflict in the first place.

'Dick move, but I guess we're not much better.' Inner admitted, getting a tired chuckle out of Sakura.

Sakura started to bounce her foot against the floor, impatience filling her being as she stared quietly at the rest of her room. Unlike this morning, or even this afternoon, she wasn't sad. Unlike the rest of this week, she wasn't sad.

Anger and frustration started boiling over within the pink-haired girl. Anger that Naruto had willingly hid this truth from her, that he thought so little of how she felt that he'd leave without her knowing. Her frustration was focused on herself; she was frustrated with her own weakness, her lack of ability as a ninja. What frustrated her more, though, was her conduct this last week.

Now that she was able to reflect further on how she had been this last week, if she could go back and punch herself in the face, she would. It astounded her that she even let things get to the point where she and Naruto would have a falling out. While some of their interactions were completely genuine, there were more than a few moments that felt fake in retrospect, allowing her heart to flutter more than it normally would have in the heat of the moment.

'The fact that he didn't confront me sooner when I was acting like a blushing, flirtatious fool out of nowhere and so often… Oh who am I kidding, he definitely only figured it out last night.' Sakura concluded, remembering how intelligent Naruto truly is.

'Oh please, are we seriously going to pretend there are no feelings for him at all now? That'd be a bigger lie than the one you told him.' Inner remarked, scoffing all the while.

"No, I won't deny there's something there. But come on, it's not enough to act like a lovesick puppy like how I used to act with Sasuke-kun…" Sakura replied, pointing out the ridiculousness of the situation.

'That's… Fair. You were caught up in the moment, I suppose.' Inner admitted.

Sakura stood up, stretching her limbs as she looked out at the darkening sky from her porch doors. She then looked down at her hand, balling it into a fist as a smirk spread across her features. The time for reflection was over, now was the time to make a change.

"Well then… If Naruto thinks I'm weak, let's fix that. The time apart will help reset things as well, but that jerk will be getting some harsh payback when he returns…" She planned out, determination filling her being as goals started to be laid out in front of her.

'Get stronger, and punch Naruto as payback for hiding this from me…' She summarized, putting the plan together in her head.

'And start properly liking him!' Inner chimed in cheerily, getting a groan out of Sakura.

*ACHOO*

The blonde rubbed his nose after the sneeze as he walked down the dirt path with Jiraiya. The old man looked back at the blonde, laughing a bit.

"Catching a cold? After all that training I put you through, I thought you'd be more hardened than that!" The old man pointed out, getting an annoyed grunt out of Naruto.

"Can you blame me, Ero-Sennin? We spent most of our trip sleeping in damp tents!" He retorted, rubbing his now red nose. He then looked to the side as he stuffed his hands in his pockets, lazily looking at the trees as they passed by.

"Besides, you know the fox won't actually let me get sick. Mild food poisoning, on the other hand…" He added, thinking back to his first days as a ninja in mild irritation. A loud laugh escaped Jiraiya's mouth as he smacked Naruto on the back.

"Well, I was mostly kidding anyways. I can tell how much tougher you've gotten in these last 4 years." He replied, showing off a toothy smirk.

"Why, someday you might even become as strong as me! Unlikely as it is." He added, dodging the casual swipe from Naruto as he continued laughing.

The two continued to walk as they approached the gates to Konoha, the gates slowly beginning to tower over them as they closed the distance. Once they reached the gates, they were stopped by two Chunin ninja.

"Halt! State your names and places of origin!" One of the Chunin ordered.

"Jeez, security around here has tightened a bit since we left." Jiraiya pointed out, rubbing the back of his head.

Said Chunin was smacked in the back of the head by an older ninja who had approached him from behind. "Leave it! They can pass!" He ordered, before looking at Jiraiya and Naruto. "My apologies, you two. My subordinate clearly doesn't recognize you two." He apologized.

"No problem at all, Izumo. Tell Kotetsu we said hello." Jiraiya replied, giving him a wave before walking into the village with Naruto.

Naruto stretched his arms, clearly beginning to feel restless as he and Jiraiya walked through the streets of Konoha.

"Familiar grounds… I can't take it!" Naruto shouted, rushing forward ahead of Jiraiya and jumping up to the rooftops.

"I've finally returned home!" He shouted from the top of a tall building, he then leaned forward and looked at the Hokage mountain. "Dang! It really has been 4 years… They slapped Baa-chan's face up there!" He pointed out, before his nose caught a familiar scent.

'That training really helped my sense of smell…' He thought, as he looked around. He knew that scent, and it certainly wasn't the scent of ramen.

"Naruto? Is that you?!" A voice shouted from below, causing Naruto to look down at the streets below. What he found was a young woman staring up at him, her pink hair flowing in the wind. It was Sakura.

"Sakura-chan!" He shouted, jumping down from the building and landing in front of her. A wide, toothy grin showed on his face as he put his hands on his hips. "It's so good to see you!" He told her, relief filling his voice.

"It's great to see you too, Naruto. I just wasn't expecting it to take so long for you to get back…" She pointed out, making it clear that she missed him as she folded her arms.

"Yeah, the trip got kinda complicated… We were supposed to be back a year ago." He explained to her, rubbing the back of his head. Sakura sighed a bit, before smiling at him.

"Well, regardless… I'm glad to see you again, truly." She told him, before looking at him quizzically. "Say… Did you get taller? I don't remember you being taller than me." She pointed out, causing Naruto to look down at himself and then compare his height to hers.

"Huh. Ero-Sennin said I had gotten taller, I just didn't realize by how much." He replied, before looking down at her, watching her sheepishly play with a strand of her hair. Her eyes kept shifting away from him as a slightly red hue showed on her face.

"W-Well… It's been a while since you last saw me. How do I look?" She asked shyly, refusing to properly look at him.

A pondering look appeared on Naruto's face as he looked at her, rubbing his chin as he thought about her question deeply, and not noticing the slight irritation showing on Sakura's features.

'You don't have to think about it THAT hard, idiot…' Sakura thought, trying to keep calm.

"Well, you definitely look cute… But Sakura-chan has always been cute!" He pointed out, getting a surprised blush from the young woman in front of him. "I'd say you're cuter… But I don't want to insult past Sakura-chan, either! This is tough…" He added, scratching his head in confusion.

"O-Okay, I get it! Thanks…" She told him, rubbing her arm as she looked to the side as her face fell to a subtle grimace.

"…They're just pretty words, and nothing else…"

"Hmm? Did you say something, Sakura-chan?" He asked, leaning close toward Sakura and catching her off guard; her blush getting more prominent.

"N-Nothing! Anyways we need to get you debriefed with Lady Tsunade." She told him, grabbing his arm and dragging him toward Hokage Tower.

"That brat… He may have gotten better at smooth talking, but he still understands little about a woman's heart." Jiraiya commented, shaking his head as he followed the two.

"You're late." Tsunade commented, giving both Naruto and Jiraiya a hard stare. "Without a call no less." She added, getting a nervous laugh out of Jiraiya.

"Tsunade, you know just as well as I do that given the circumstances, it meant the possibility of us having to remain out of contact until we returned!" He explained, rubbing the back of his head as Tsunade turned her sharp glare towards him. Just as quickly, she sighed heavily as her expression calmed.

"Very well… Do you have anything to report on Sasuke's whereabouts?" She asked the two, as Jiraiya and Naruto looked at each other. The old hermit sighed a bit as he folded his arms.

"The most I could do was narrow it down to 5 different hideouts on completely different sides of the continent… The trail goes cold after that." He reported, looking down and patting Naruto's shoulder. "All we can do at this point is wait for Orochimaru to make a move, and then we can pinpoint Sasuke's location. The only consistent thing I could garner is that he's always with the old snake." He finished, watching Tsunade rub the bridge of her nose in frustration.

"Unfortunate, but you're the best intel gatherer this village has… If you couldn't get anything more than that, it'll have to do." She concluded, before looking over at the window.

"As for the other reason you were sent away, Naruto, I believe your old teacher wants to test you." Tsunade told him, causing Naruto to look over at the window. A gray-haired jounin then appeared, opening the window as he gave a simple wave to the group.

"Well, I'll be. You're all grown up, Naruto." Kakashi pointed out, as Naruto rushed to the window, a look of joy showing on his face.

"Kakashi-Sensei! It's been so long!" Naruto exclaimed, grinning at his old teacher. This had been one big reunion for the young man, and he was loving every second of it.

"Well, you're about to get reacquainted with not only me, but Sakura over there." He pointed out, causing Sakura to walk over as well.

"What makes you say that, Sensei?" She asked him, while putting a hand on her hip.

"Come with me, and you two will find out." He told them, before jumping off the branch he was standing on, prompting the two members of Team 7 to follow him.

Very quickly they found themselves at their old training grounds, as Kakashi turned to face the two of them; a very familiar chime filled the air as he turned.

"I'm sure you two remember the test I had you take when you first joined my squad." He told them, patting his hip and revealing two bells.

Naruto laughed a bit as he folded his arms behind his head. His whole being was filled with nostalgia as he saw the bells on Kakashi's hip.

'The bell test, huh?' He thought to himself, as Sakura looked over at him.

"I guess Sensei wants to get us back up to speed with our first test." She pointed out, before looking at Kakashi. "I'm assuming it won't be exactly like last time, though." She added, receiving a nod of confirmation from Kakashi.

"That's right. Unlike last time, the goal is to actually get the bells from me. The old test was just to teach you about teamwork, now it's the time to properly apply it and try to beat me." He told them, watching the two beginning to stretch.

"Well, I hope you won't feel the need to read a book to keep yourself occupied this time, Sensei." Naruto remarked, before slamming his fist into his palm. His remark was given an immediate reply by Kakashi raising his protector, revealing his sharingan.

"Indeed. I can tell just from looking at you two that you're extremely capable in combat. So, I won't be holding back." He replied, as the three of them took a combat ready stance.

The wind flowed past the three as they read the situation; Sakura and Naruto exchanging glances all the while. As a small branch snapped, the two darted in opposite directions, immediately trying to corner Kakashi.

'I see some time apart has dropped some of their baggage. They're able to communicate without talking again, they haven't been able to since Sasuke.' Kakashi concluded mentally, dodging a punch from Naruto and a kick from Sakura.

"Don't give him time to use hand signs!" Sakura called out to Naruto, as she went for a sweep kick, causing Kakashi to jump over her legs. He then grabbed Naruto's arm as he went to grab at a bell and vaulted off him, going through his hand signs faster than they had ever seen him do.

"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!" Kakashi called out, as a water dragon exploded out of the river and rushed down toward the two.

"So much for stopping his hand signs, didn't know he could do them that quickly!" Naruto shouted out as he prepared to block the attack from the water dragon.

Sakura rushed forward, jumping in front of Naruto. She then dug her hands into the ground and ripped out a large chunk of rock, throwing it into the water dragon and in the direction of Kakashi.

"Eh?"

It was all Kakashi could utter before the water dragon dispersed, forcing him to dodge the rock barreling down toward him.

"T-Thanks." Naruto stuttered out at the pink haired woman who wiped the dirt off her hands and looked back at him; a cheeky smirk adorned on her face.

"Someone has to keep an eye out for you." She replied, before rushing forward, throwing a barrage of punches towards Kakashi, forcing him to narrowly dodge all of them.

'With how fast she threw that rock, I'll be in serious trouble if even one of those punches land!' Kakashi thought, his sharingan darting to the side as he spotted Naruto rushing in to grab one of the bells. In response he grabbed Sakura's forearm and used the momentum of her punch to throw her into Naruto.

"Not this time, Sensei!" Sakura called out, digging her foot into the ground and using her superior strength, grabbed Kakashi with her free hand and slammed him into the ground, catching Naruto off guard.

"Wow." Naruto replied, before seeing Kakashi turn into a log. "Substitution Jutsu… Your strength must've spooked him." He pointed out, before smelling something above them.

"Dodge!" Naruto shouted to Sakura, shoving her out of the way before jumping away as a giant fireball crashed into the ground. He looked up to see Kakashi in the air, before letting a smirk show on his face.

"He isn't our sensei for nothing…"

Night had fallen as their battle raged on, always within reach of a bell but never quite grabbing one. Despite seeming like he was on the back foot the entire time, Kakashi always proved to the both that he secretly was the one in control.

"Man, he's so hard to pin down with that sharingan of his." Naruto pointed out, leaning against a tree as he looked at Sakura, the two of them deciding to take a moment to regroup and strategize.

"True… He was caught off guard by my strength, though." Sakura stated, rubbing her chin as she started putting together a plan. "I think I know how we can beat him" She said, causing Naruto to lean closer to her.

"I'm all ears, just keep it quiet in case he's listening…" He told her, as she whispered the plan into his ear. He then chuckled as he rubbed his palms. "That sounds like a more 'me' approach. I like it." He replied.

Kakashi sighed a bit as he sat down on a rock, trying to get a bit of a breather. He knew the two of them would put up a more difficult fight compared to when they were kids, but they were far stronger than he anticipated.

"Sakura's brutal strength, Naruto's relentless stamina and chakra pool… They've become a formidable duo. If they just expand their ninjutsu they'd be unstoppabl—" He cut short as he jumped off the now shattered rock he was sitting on. The battle resumed.

Sakura rushed forward at Kakashi, what looked to be alone as she continued her close quarters combat with her teacher.

"You tried this before, Sakura. It won't work twice!" He told her, before watching her throw her arms back.

"Who said I was?!" She shouted before slamming her fists down into the ground directly in front of Kakashi, shattering the ground around him and messing with his footing.

"Oh shi—" Was all could escape his lips before receiving a kick to the stomach by Sakura, sending him flying back. Just as he found himself recovering, he soon found himself surrounded by hundreds of Naruto's clones. "Oh boy…" He muttered, before all the clones rushed him at once.

Try as he might to defend against all of them, eventually he felt something get swiped from his hip and all the clones disappeared before his eyes. He turned around and found Sakura and Naruto standing before him holding a bell in their hands.

"Got ya, Sensei." Sakura pointed out, sticking out her tongue. Kakashi looked at the two, slightly stunned before laughing a bit and lowering his protector back over his sharingan eye.

"Went for a Naruto style tactic to overwhelm my sharingan, huh?" He summarized, putting his hands on his hips. "Sakura distracted me with her strength and then sent me right into the trap of overwhelming me with sheer numbers… Impressive, you two. You've come a long way in the last 4 years." He deduced, putting a hand on each of their shoulders as he expressed his compliments to them.

"Finally, it's over! I knew you always held back on us, Sensei, but you were tough to pin down, let alone hit!" Naruto pointed out, letting out a large sigh in relief as he allowed his stance to relax.

"So I've been told." Kakashi replied, chuckling in response to Naruto's words. He then looked at the both of them. "This test was all I wanted you two to do for me today, so I believe you're both dismiss—"

"—Hold on, Sensei. You're forgetting something important." Sakura interrupted, her smile never wavering as she looked over at Naruto.

"You tested us on teamwork, but you never properly got to see either of us show our combat capabilities as we weren't so much fighting you as we were trying to catch you." She explained, seeing Kakashi nod in response to her words.

"Well, you're not wrong, Sakura. What do you suggest, then?" He asked her, as Sakura's smile widened as she fully turned toward the blonde.

"Naruto and I should fight each other." She told them, getting a look of surprise from the two. She raised her arm and tugged on her glove; her smile turned into a look of unwavering determination.

"If you're worried about it taking too long, don't worry… I'll make it quick."