"I don't care what you say! If you don't let me see my sensei...you'll regret it." A certain pink haired female threatened with a dark glare on her usually calm features.

"I already told you, didn't I? No one is getting into this room, especially you" The Jounin guarding Kakashi Hatake's room scowled down at the genin.

It wasn't every day someone got to protect the famous copycat ninja and this spiky-haired Jounin would do a damn good job of it even if it was from his own stude-

A sudden thud interrupted the atmosphere and not a moment later, Sasuke casually walked up to Sakura who was staring down at the unconscious Jounin with a sweatdrop.

"Some Jounin." Sasuke rolled his eyes as he simply stared down at him with his hands in his pockets.

"Ke!, there was no need for that." Sakura scolded with a frown on her brows but quickly dismissed the boy and stepped over the Jounin to get into her Sensei's room.

Sasuke sighed softly and followed after his impatient teammate.

As the two stepped into the famous Jounin's room, their eyes widened at the number of people already sitting around his bed.

"Well well well, what are you guys doing here? No one is allowed in here apart from us" Asuma stated with a bored tone as he slumped over a chair at the end of the bed.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the man and took notice of Kurenai and Guy standing close to the bed as if they were looking down at it moments before.

"We're here to see our sensei. If there's a problem, I'm sure we can sort something out" Sakura gave a closed-eyed smile just like her sensei would always give.

Sasuke, on the other hand, simply glared dangerously at the three - watching for any sudden movements.

Asuma chuckled and Guy grinned while Kurenai narrowed her eyes at the two "relax, you two." She stated with a sigh "we aren't the enemies" she turned back to the silver-haired male and frowned "but I'm sure you know who the enemy was... Sasuke" Kurenai muttered while shooting the young Uchiha a side glance although no reaction could be seen from the boy.

Sakura simply frowned at the woman but remained silent as her teammate was. Instead, the pinkette moved forward and pushed past the Jounin by Kakashi's bed.

She came up to his face and reached down to touch his forehead. Sasuke slowly walked up a little more and kept his eyes on his sensei, wondering what madness Itachi was putting him through. After a moment, Sakura pulled back and grimaced "There's nothing we can do for him now".

And with that, the pinkette turned and walked out of the room. The three Jounin stared after her, a little perplexed by what just happened. From what they could tell, Sasuke hadn't yet informed her about Naruto being on his way to get the famous medical ninja so her disregard for her Sensei's state was a little unnerving.

Sasuke didn't say anything and simply walked out after the girl, leaving the three with more questions than before.

"Ra" Sasuke called after the pinkette as they jumped across the rooftops.

She stopped on the academy rooftop, their first meeting spot as a team, but didn't face him causing the Uchiha to scowl.

He reached his hand up and gently clutched her shoulder. Unfortunately for the boy, that was all it took for the genin to let out soft, silent, tears of sorrow. Her hair shadowed over her eyes as she dropped her head.

"Wh-What happened?" She breathed, trying to calm herself down.

Sasuke had yet to let go of her shoulder and at the moment, it was the only amount of comfort he could offer after being so emotionally shaken himself.

"Itachi." The Uchiha replied, no emotion in his tone.

He watched as the pinkette stiffened and took a long breath before turning towards him.

"I'm sorry" she said with the saddest tone he's ever heard from her lips.

It almost took him by surprise but mostly, he felt confused.

She must've seen his confusion as she gave him a sad smile "I wasn't there. I bet Naruto was. I bet you two fought together... but I wasn't there" she trailed off, looking toward the Hokage mountain where the sun had hidden behind and a large, calm, shadow rested on Konoha. No doubt, many would be having an afternoon nap right now.

The wind blew gently against their hair, leaves flowing around them. The shadow made the temperature cool, unlike the usual summer heat Konoha always seemed to occupy.

"Ra" She heard the soft whisper of Sasuke's voice.

Turning to him with that same sad smile on her lips, he shook his head. Suddenly, he moved his hand from her shoulder to her head and pulled her head against his own.

Her eyes snapped open as he stared at her with a soft smile.

"Don't worry about it" he stated and slowly let go before backing away and looking at the Hokage mountains as she did before.

Meanwhile, Sakura kept her gaze on him, a soft blush adorned her cheeks.

Shaking herself from those thoughts, she turned and watched the mountain with him.

"Ke..." she muttered, gaining his attention after a few minutes of peaceful silence.

"Hn."

"What will you do?" She asked with a frown as she looked down. The boy in question held no emotion as he waited for her to continue.

Sakura clicked her tongue "what will you do now? Orochimaru has given you power. Itachi has shown himself...what I'm really asking is-"

"Not yet." He interrupted and turned to look at her.

"I don't plan on leaving the village yet."

A large smile grew on Sakura's lips as he said this but it quickly died down as she noticed the serious expression on his features.

"But..." she pushed.

"But...I need answers" he replied sharply.

Sakura gasped softly as she caught the red glint in his eyes as he turned and walked away without another word.

"Sasuke..." she whispered in worry as she watched him go.

___

"So you see, in order to learn this jutsu, you'll need to master your chakra control in three stages ranging from rotation, power, and containment-"

"Why are we getting a new Hokage so soon? It's been like three days..." Naruto interrupted with a scowl on his features as he crossed his arms behind his head and gazed at the ground.

Jiraiya glanced down at the boy, momentarily caught off guard at the interruption but quickly answered the boy with an amused scoff. The blonde genin glowered at him in return for his ability to not take things seriously.

"What do you expect kid?" Jiraiya's gave an arrogant smirk but that slowly fell from his face as he continued "the world isn't going to stop just because someone dies. In fact, the world tends to speed up around you when someone especially close dies..." Jiraiya trailed off, staring ahead of him as if in a daze.

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at the man. He knew the Sannin's relationship with their former Hokage and it seemed the death of his sensei affected the white-maned male more than could be seen.

Naruto suddenly felt regret from bringing the topic to light so casually in front of someone that has had no time to grieve.

"So where will we find the old hag?" Naruto changed the subject with empathy showing in his bright blue eyes.

Though Jiraiya appreciated the change in topic, the fact that he'd addressed someone as legendary as his old teammate caused a spark of annoyance for the boy to rocket up into a mild headache.

"We'll have to travel to a few destinations in order to locate her. It may take some time as she's hard to track down these days but we'll start with Kintoni village" Jiraiya explained while playing with a piece of his white spiky hair.

Naruto said nothing as he continued walking. Jiraiya had expected the boy to start complaining as Kintoni is a fair distance away but he just kept walking while trying to mold chakra in his hand.

"That's not going to work" Jiraiya stated and withdrew a balloon from his pack "here, let me show you what to do".

Naruto pouted at the tall man but focused on what he was doing with the balloon.

Meanwhile, Sakura once again found herself in a predicament.

The pinkette panted from the training she was doing, it felt a little strange to be training by herself but that wasn't going to stop her. Sasuke would join soon anyway, no doubt.

The genin suddenly senses a chakra in the area that immediately started irking her as she needed to focus on training but her friends from the academy just couldn't focus on theirs, it seemed.

"I'm busy" She stated as soon as they were in hearing distance but still hidden within the foliage.

"Hn" Shikamaru grunted as he dropped down with the rest of them.

"I think it's time we talked, don't you?" Kiba grinned as Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Nothing to talk about" Sakura narrowed her eyes at the lot. They seemed too relaxed for ninja's in her opinion but then again, her opinion has changed drastically over the course of a few months.

"Do you even know how much you've changed, Sakura?" Ino stepped forward. She hadn't said a word to Sakura since their battle and was, understandably, still a little peeved about it.

"I do." Sakura simply shrugged.

"Listen. We just want to help...If we can" Shikamaru said with a sigh "We want to understand you guys better now that you're..." He trailed off.

"Different?" Sakura chuckled "I get it and appreciate it, you guys but..." This time Sakura trailed off but not because she didn't have anything to say.

Silently and without anyone but Sakura sensing him, Sasuke landed next to the pinkette and straightened up.

"Sasuke-Kun!" Ino yelped in surprise while Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at the Uchiha. The others seemed just as surprised to see him as Ino did.

"You should leave" He stated.

Shikamaru and Kiba were about to protest when Sakura stepped forward and everyone's attention went to her.

"Don't be rude. They're only concerned about us" The pinkette muttered to him as she lightly slapped him over the head, reminding him of how Kakashi would warn him if he was going too far.

The group held their breath as they waited for Sasuke to explode from being slapped like a child but once he simply sighed and looked away, they were speechless.

"Ne, why don't we all train together? like the academy days" Sakura smiled at the stunned group.

Shikamaru was the first to snap out of it as he chuckled and stepped forward, getting in a defensive position "Don't underestimate us just because you're famous now" 

Sasuke smirked at this before taking on a defensive position as well "Hn. Let's go"

Sasuke and Sakura led an easy training session as their friends weren't too used to their methods - yet. The group could feel the adrenaline and energy through the air and enjoyed each others company until it started getting late.

"That...was...so fun!" Ino huffed, hands on her knees, as she grinned up at the group. Kiba had his hands on his hips, leaning back to open his airways, while grinning as well. Shikamaru had simply crossed his arms, more composed than his friends but still covered in sweat. He smirked and shook his head at the duo who only had a light layer of sweat on their foreheads which was probably from the humidity alone.

"You guys did so well! It was fun training with you all" Sakura smiled widely as her eyes sparkled with happiness.

Sasuke glanced at his teammate in worry. She wasn't usually this happy, especially if her training had to be postponed.

Her comment seemed to please the group as they grinned back at her before saying their goodbyes and making plans to meet up again sometime soon to catch up.

As soon as the group left the duo's sight, Sasuke turned to Sakura and glared.

She acted as though she hadn't noticed for a while before growing mildly annoyed at the burning sensation on her temple.

"What is it?" She sighed before turning and walking down the dirt road toward their home.

"What was that?" Sasuke grunted as he fell in step with her.

"What was what?" She feigned innocence.

"Hn."

Sakura sighed again and looked at him from the corner of her eyes to see him looking back at her with curiosity and frustration in his eyes.

"You've seen how much they're trying. If we keep pushing them away, they won't be there when the time comes for backup" The pinkette explained.

"We don't need-"

"Yes, we do. No matter how strong we become Sasuke. We will always need friends to rely on" Sakura fiercely stated before teleporting away.

Sasuke clicked his tongue in frustration and glared at the ground 'I don't need these people to slow me down.' He thought to himself. It'd been a hard battle for him to accept team 7 as they were but he felt Sakura was asking too much of him in such a short period of time. 

It'd been almost a year now and he still felt resistance against his teammates, there wasn't any room to grow more relationships with their academy friends.

He wondered whether to leave the village soon but he also needed answers that he knew the village held.