A/N: I'm sorry that I haven't updated in a long time but please forgive me. I hope you like this chapter.

Chapter 7:

It had been two weeks since Sakura's and Sasuke's fight. And for that period of time Sakura had been giving Sasuke the cold shoulder whenever Sasuke said something to her. She had never been mad at Sasuke before, hurt by him but never mad at him. But enough was enough; she wasn't going to let him accuse her of being a slut and any other accusations that he made. Enough about her and Sasuke's relationship which was quite crappy right about now unlike her friendship with Neji. Even though he was fairly quiet, he still listened to her and even gave advice to her on some of the rare occasions. She was beginning to like having Neji around not that she minded him before.

She was quickly interrupted out of her reverie as Kakashi-sensei called out her name. Currently they were sitting on the dining table eating their breakfast which was made by her, come to think of it all the cooking was done by her. Oh well, its not like the guys could cook anyway except for instant ramen maybe.

"Yeah, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura answered, as she looked up from her plate that was filled with pancake.

"We have a meeting with Tsunde-sama at 10:00, so all of you get ready after eating breakfast." Kakashi informed them. He didn't what Tsunde-sama had planned to tell them but it was obvious that it was something serious when she had called him last night.

After twenty minutes all of them were at the door ready to go. Sakura wasn't wearing her usual outfit instead she chose to wear a red V neck sweater, beige pants, black knee length coat, and her hair tied in a pony at the top of her head. Her other four companions chose to wear darker clothing except for Naruto. Neji was wearing a black turtleneck and pants contrasting with his pale white skin, and a beige jacket. Unlike Neji, Sasuke was adorned in a simple dark blue shirt along with beige pants and a blue jacket. Kakashi was wearing his usual Jounin outfit except today he was wearing a black jacket on top of it. Naruto was wearing an orange shirt, blue pants and a black jacket.

When they got there were surprised to see Lee and Tenten sitting in the Hokage's office, but

the Hokage herself was nowhere to be seen.

"My Sakura-chan, You look lovely as ever." Lee said dramatically as he kissed Sakura's delicate hand, his eyes sparkling with adoration. Neji and Sasuke glared murderously at Lee, who seemed to take no notice of the two boys.

"Thank you, Lee-san but really, you think too highly of me." Sakura spoke politely, hoping that

he would take the hint and let go of her hand but this only seemed to ignite him more.

"Oh My beautiful flower, You are too modest." Before anyone could blink, Lee had hugged Sakura. Her expression was of pure horror. Naruto and Tenten were ready to burst out laughing but only the deadly expressions on Sasuke and Neji's face kept them from doing so.

All Kakashi could do was sweatdrop as he watched the comical scene unfold in front of him.

"Let go of her, Lee." Neji practically growled.

"My eternal rival, do not tell me you have fallen in love with Sakura-chan and you wish to hold her." Lee stared seriously at Neji, who was ready to kill him. Naruto not able to take anymore burst out laughing clutching his stomach.

"Ha, Ha, Ha, thick-brows you are too much sometimes." Naruto managed to say in between laughs. Tenten finally took pity on Sakura who looked ready to suffocate in Lee's tight hug.

"You idiot, let go of her." Tenten kicked Lee hard on the head causing him to fall unconscious.

"Thanks Tenten. I owe you one." Sakura gave tenten a thankful look.

"You better."

"Thank you Tenten for that…sheer display of power." Kakashi cleared his throat." Now everyone take a seat before the Hokage comes."

Couple of minutes later they were seated in the Hokage's office waiting for her arrival. Sakura was sitting in between Neji and Sasuke (whom she ignored completely), Kakashi sitting to Neji's right; Naruto sitting to Sasuke's left, Tenten sitting on Kakashi's right and Lee on her right. No one dared to utter a single word except Naruto as Tsunde-sama entered the room taking her usual seat behind the desk.

"Where were you oba-san?" Naruto spoke loudly breaking the silence. Everyone just sweatdropped wondering how stupid could Naruto get. Tsunade merely glared at him not in the mood to argue with blond boy in seated in front of her.

"Now that everyone is here, I'll explain why I called you here."

"For the past two weeks we've been investigating Sakura's parents murder. It seems our hard work has paid off because we have found the culprit behind this murder." Tusunade stopped to see Sakura expression, which was one of fear and nervousness. Maybe she wasn't ready to face the truth yet but she had to find it sooner or later so now was a good time as ever.

" It's the Sound, precisely Orichimaru."

Tsunade-sama, Do you think Sakura can handle this? Kakashi thought. He was hoping that Tsunade-sama knew what she was doing.

Sasuke felt Sakura's frail body go rigid as Tsunade-sama uttered the name of her parent's murderer.

"Why?" Sakura managed to whisper.

"Uchiha Sasuke, that's why?" Tsunade-sama answered simply as though Sasuke didn't even exist in the room.

"Orichimaru needs a body that he can inhabit. And what better than an Uchiha. Since Uchiha Itachi was too strong for him he decided to target the younger Uchiha, Sasuke. Because Sasuke wasn't willing to come to him he thought maybe killing someone close to him would do the job. That's when he targeted Sakura but when he was about to go and attack her, her parent's protected her and they were murdered. And that's the whole story." She finished of explaining.

Even though Sasuke looked like his usual calm self, inside his mind was swirling with all kind of thoughts. He felt a rush of emotions surge through him, mainly guilt, anger, regret and self-loathing. It's my entire fault. Everything is, I wasn't strong enough to stop Itachi from killing the clan. I wasn't strong enough to defeat Orichimaru. If I were as strong as aniki, Sakura's parents would have never died; Orichimaru's would have never come after Sakura in the first place. This was all Sasuke could think about. It was because of him, Sakura's parents died. No matter how he hid his true self from other people he could never hide it from himself, the person who has nightmares of loosing everyone again, being abandoned, but most

of all being alone and hated. Because when he was alone, every single moment he was reminded of the day when his beloved brother killed the whole clan. The brother he once loved and wanted to be like, was the same brother he wants to kill today and he would. His brother was the cause of all his grief, pain and torture. Itachi would pay dearly for what he did to

his clan, Sasuke would make sure that he did. Nothing was going to get in the way of his revenge.

Sakura was trapped in her own cage of thoughts. It seemed that for the past two weeks Uchiha

Sasuke has been the cause of her grief but this was absolutely absurd. It was like he had taken a permanent job to be the source of her pain. But why him? God, Why did it have to be him? Couldn't it be anyone else, anyone, except him. The pure irony of the situation hit her like a bucket of cold water. Sasuke was the person she loved most, she loved everything about him, yet on the other hand she hated him for making her feel this way. No matter what she did she couldn't stop loving him even when he was the one who made her cry the most. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to blame him for her parent's death because than everything would be perfect. She would able to hate him than and he won't have to deal with her being annoying. After all, she was nothing but a nuisance to him. But she couldn't blame him because deep down she knew that the only one at fault was Orichimaru.

"I'm not finished." Tsunade-sama's voice forced Sakura back to reality. For a second she had forgotten where she was.

"The real reason why I called you here today was to assign you a mission." She explained.

"All six of you will be under the command of Kakashi. Your mission is to hunt down Orichimaru and destroy him." Her brown eyes scanned the seven ninjas; all of their expressions mirrored each other. Surprise and Shock.

Chap End.

Finally I finished this chapter. I hope this chapter satisfied all of you for now. I'll try to update as soon as possible. And please review.