The jounin raised an eyebrow. "Why would you want to go for a walk?"

Naruto's glare at Sasuke explained it all. Then, forcing himself to look away, he muttered, "Well… I, er…"

"Just go ahead and train," Kakashi muttered in a bored tone.

The blonde then immediately donned his bright orange jacket and left.

"You forgot your -" started Kakashi, only to be silenced by the click of a door closing shut. "Ninja pouch."

"Everything's about Sasuke, isn't it, forehead girl?" Ino glared at the pinkette. "Even after I saved your life... how could you do this to me?"

"W-what? No! I want to save you Ino! I want to save all of you!"

"You were always a bad liar."

"It's not the way you think!"

A new voice emerged. "You don't deserve to be alive. You never helped at all. And now that you're back you're just going to do the same thing you did four years ago... nothing." It was Kakashi-sensei. The kunoichi paled.

"Sensei... I-"

"Sakura-chan... he killed me. And yet you still treat him like you've always done. Don't you ever feel anything for me?"

Sakura flinched, turning around. "No... Naruto...Please..."

"NO!" Sakura screamed. Immediately, the ex-ANBU Hatake Kakashi and a groggy Sasuke who had still been in his portable futon jolted.

"Sakura...? Are you all right?" said Kakashi-sensei, his voice laced with worry.

"Sakura..." Sasuke muttered, staring at her. He frowned.

Said girl looked at the pair blankly, feeling slight nausea from standing up so suddenly. Her gaze then fell on the Uchiha.

"You," she seethed. She clenched her fists. Bright blue chakra was visible, causing the hairs on Sasuke's neck to stand up. He stared at her for a few seconds.

Why did she have to remind him so much about his own feelings towards Itachi..?

"I'm going to kill you!"

"Sakura." It was Kakashi, and his face had hardened at Sakura's words. "Stop this right now."

The glint in the rosette's eyes immediately dissapeared, and with that, her knees buckled as well. She gazed, wide-eyed, at either of her teammates.

"Naruto..." she whispered. She got up, awkwardly brushed the dust off her dress, and headed towards the front door. A small pouch met her foot, causing her to halt in her tracks.

Naruto's ninja pouch.

Without a word, the 'genin' picked up the pouch and exited the front door with a slam.

For the next few moments, a heavy silence filled the room. The tension was so thick it was as if Kakashi and Sasuke were submerged in water.

Finally, the elite jounin decided to speak up.

"Sasuke. I need to talk with you."

Once outside, Sakura had calmed down quite a bit. She had expected Inner Sakura to scold her, but thankfully, she had never came.

I'd better find Naruto. He probably needs his pouch. Then... I'll go for a walk. She mused.

The Uchiha stared at his teacher, nodding mutely.

"Have you noticed anything suspicious about Sakura lately?"

"...Yes."

"Oh?"

"She..." he grit his teeth, lowering his head. "Ita...chi."

"...What about your brother?" Kakashi furrowed his eyebrows.

"The way she looks at me... like I'm a cold-blooded murderer. Like.. him." He shivered, clenching his eyes shut. He hated the look she gave him. He was different from Itachi.

Kakashi immediately turned grim. He was certainly not expecting this. And compared to the information he got, it made absolutely no sense.

"Sasuke... I'm about to disclose some extremely important information regarding Sakura that I found out about yesterday."

"..." The curious, hurt look Sasuke gave him was enough of a cue to allow him to continue.

"Do you know why the Sharingan was sometimes used as an interrogation method?"

Sasuke frowned at the sudden change in topic, but chose not to comment on it. "No. Why?"

"It can detect tiny, miniscule eye movements. I'm sure you know why one thing we always do when interrogating an S-class criminal is examining their eye movements while they talk."

"!" Sasuke's eyes widened in realisation.

"Yes. Sakura gave me the perfect opportunity to investigate what exactly was going on in her head yesterday." He paused, staring at the young Uchiha with a dead seriousness in his voice. "It was jumbled. Half of the time her eye movements showed thoughts about how cute you were, how stupid Naruto was, her appearance, childish things twelve-year-olds normally think about. But... the other half of the time, one message was definitely clear.

She wanted to save you."

Sakura arrived at the makeshift training site Kakashi had found only to realize Naruto wasn't there. She thought nothing of it, venturing futher into the woods.

It was only five minutes later, when the familiar glimpse of orange was still not in sight, did Sakura panic.

"Naruto..." she growled. "Where are you?"

"Naruto!"

"N-!" She instantly stopped as she felt two strong chakra signatures.

One of them was definitely Naruto, but...

"Haku..." she gasped. Increasing her pace, she leapt on several branches, nearly missing one. Finally, she reached the clearing... and the pair of signatures. Forcing herself to calm down, she eavesdropped on the two.

"So, what's your wish?" Naruto's pre-pubescent voice rang through the crisp forest air, startling Sakura.

What in the world...?

"Well," it was Haku... but he was wearing a very feminine kimono, and his face looked as innocent as an angel's. "I want to protect the person most precious to me. Protecting someone precious to you makes you strong."

"Heh," chuckled Naruto, "I can agree with that."

Sakura's face darkened. Protecting someone most precious to you...

A few moments later, Haku said, "I should be going now. I'll see you later."

"Aah, okay!" Naruto chirped, scratching his head casually.

"Oh... by the way, I'm a boy."

"WHAT!" Naruto stared, open-mouthed.

The long-haired boy giggled very un-manly, and continued, "Bye, Naruto... and his teammate." He left.

"Eh...?" the jinchuuriki raised an eyebrow. "What teammate?"

"She meant me."

"AH!" Naruto yelled, startled out of his spot. "S-S-Sakura-chan! What're you doing here?"

"I was going to bring this to you, idiot, but you weren't there," muttered Sakura, tossing the ninja pouch to its rightful owner.

"Eh, thanks, Sakura-chan! I-"

"YOU BAKA!" The rosette yelled, frowning at the blonde. "What would've happened if you had died! All of a sudden you were gone!"

Naruto grinned. "You were worried about me?"

Sakura scoffed, crossing her arms. "I wasn't. Let's go."

"I'll see you later, Naruto," muttered Sakura, running her fingers through her candy-pink hair. "I've got an old man to guard."

"Alright! See ya later, Sakura-chan!" And just like that, Naruto was back to training. He ran up the tree with all his might, quickly scraping the bark with his kunai as he felt himself sliding downwards.

Sakura began walking towards the main road that would lead her to the incomplete bridge (and Tazuna's house), her pale face facing skyward in thought.

"Sakura." It was Sasuke. Sakura looked in front of her, startled.

"Oh." She muttered, blushing in embarassment at her earlier actions. Sasuke, who had not bothered to notice this, continued, "What're you..." He shook his head, as if trying to clear his thoughts. "Where are you going?"

"The bridge. I'm going to continue guarding Tazuna-san," said Sakura, glad the Uchiha had not chosen to bring up the earlier events.

"Aa." And he left, his real question unspoken.

What're you trying to save me from?

The silver-haired jounin frowned, unable to concentrate on his beloved orange book, Icha-Icha tactics.

Naturally, he had not told Sasuke the entire 'message' he had received from Sakura's intruiging eye movements, as the rest did not concern him. If anything, Kakashi had been more confused than before - there were even more unanswered questions that needed to be answered.

Sakura's "serious" messages, as Kakashi had dubbed it, had consisted of this: Tsunade, counter clockwise, save Sasuke, and mission. Kakashi had finally figured out who Sakura's techniques had reminded him so much of, but the question remained: How on earth did Sakura manage to learn from the great female Sannin? Not to mention, the clear indication of moving backwards and an intricate mission puzzled the jounin to no end.

He needed to talk to the Lord Hokage, and fast.

Quiet sniffing noises interrupted the tranquil silence, alerting Kakashi. He left the cozy room, sliding open the thin wooden door to meet Inari sulking in a corner.

"..Inari?" The child stared at the jounin, rubbing his eyes vigorously, and looked away in pain.

"He called me a coward," muttered the stout little boy. Hatake Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

"Who?"

"Naruto."

The jounin paused. He had never been good with kids, which was the main reason he did not have any. For a few moments he regarded the child with something akin to pity. Then, he said, "Naruto grew up not knowing his mother and father."

Inari stared at the jounin. "W-what?"

"I've never seen him cry before." Sighing, Kakashi mused, moreso to himself than Inari (although the child nonetheless heard him), "Perhaps it was because he got tired of crying."

With that, Kakashi excused himself, no longer interested in his thick book for the time being.

That night, neither Sakura, Sasuke, nor Kakashi spoke a word to each other as they prepared for bed. The only one oblivious to it all was Naruto, who chattered away happily about his training as he took out his favourite sleeping cap.

"And then I saw a squirrel and it was chomping so hard on its little acorn that it didn't even notice me coming! And when I did it squeaked so hard that -"

"Naruto," sighed Sasuke. "Shut up."

The loudmouth blonde pouted before snuggling into his small futon. Loud snores filled the room not five minutes after.

...What a fast sleeper, mused Sakura, her eyebrows twitching at Naruto's childish manner.

Then, she too retired to bed. She wanted to forget about her dream, Sasuke, everything.

The raven-haired Uchiha woke in the middle of the night, startled by soft sniffling and stifled sobs. Slowly, quietly, he shuffled around in his futon to meet the back of the pink-haired kunoichi several feet away from him. Her back shook, and she was shivering.

As much as he hated to admit it, he knew how the girl felt. It had been the same way for him the days following the Uchiha massacre. At nights he could not sleep - the vivid images of his clan's deaths were imprinted in his mind, refusing to dissappear.

But, he reminded himself, it was different from Sakura. She had friends. She had family. So why was she crying?

What's going on?

Sakura awoke to a rather annoying itch on her nose. She gasped.

Tsunade-sama!

Acknowledging Kakashi-sensei, who was the only one awake with a nod, she proceeded to head into the small, compact washroom located in the run-down house and barricaded herself in. Hands trembling in excitement, she unfurled the scroll.

Sakura,

This is extremely urgent, so please read it as soon as possible when no one is around.

I looked into Kakashi's files the other day, and I only JUST realized (I'm not in charge of the interrogation unit, after all) that his sharingan is capable of detecting any ninja's eye movements, a key factor in interrogation. Be careful not to make eye contact with him. As much as I trust Kakashi from the past, he might accidentally be a hazard to you on this mission.

Talk to you soon,

Tsunade.

Sakura's pale face instantly drained of the little color it had left.

"I really underestimated him, didn't I..." she whispered, clenching her forehead in exasperation. Everything made sense now - the way Kakashi would let things slide as soon as he saw her reaction, still using his Sharingan eye the other day even when he was injured...

How could she have missed it?