Hey Guys!

I just had this Beta-d by my friend, Yami no Saku-chan

hope you like this new version, well just changed some words XD

Chap 1: Avoiding?

It was a fine afternoon in Konoha and people were cleaning the village after the destruction by the akatsuki leader called Pein. Among those who were helping out our favorite knucklehead Naruto were the rest of the rookie nine and Team Guy. Well, except for their former sensei's of course. Because firstly, Kurenai was pregnant and rested at home, Guy has been sent in a one month mission and Kakashi was at the Hokage tower waiting to receive his mission. Now Uchiha Sasuke has been back in Konoha for a few months. The Hokage had put him on 6 months probation and made him do community service by helping rebuild the village when he returned.

"Oi, teme, where is Sakura-chan? I thought she said she will be helping today," Naruto asked, while carrying a pile of wood.

"How should I know, dobe?" Sasuke said getting a bit annoyed by Naruto's loudness. He like Naruto was also holding a pile of wood in his arms.

"Well duh, you live at her house!" Naruto stated, boring his eyes onto Sasuke.

That was indeed right, Sasuke lived with Sakura, not cause he liked living in the same place as her. It was by the Hokage's orders that he had to live in her house for now.

Sakura had to tend to his wounds and let him stay at her house until he was able to find somewhere else to live since the Uchiha compound was destroyed along with the rest of the other homes.

The reason why Sasuke didn't like being in her house, was because since he moved in with her, she had been avoiding him. The only time he could take a glance of her features was when she would do her examinations on him to see if he was in good health. When they exchanged words with each other it would be only her asking about his condition. Whenever he was staying in her house, she would be out doing missions and come back in over a week.

"Well, she must be on another mission… or something," Sasuke said pondering a bit.

"Oye! You two, stop fooling around and bring the wood over here!" the Carpenter said.

"We're sorry! We'll be right there!" Naruto yelled hastily.

Sasuke was definitely right. She was on a mission, well practically begging her master to give her one.

"Please shishou! Just one week mission!" the pink Kunoichi pleaded to her master and teacher.

"Sakura, this is the fifteenth time you've asked me for a mission. It's not good to overwork your body!" Tsunade said, her voice nauseous with worry for her favorite student.

She was right about Sakura asking for so many missions to do. It all started since she announced that Sakura would be the one to take care of the uchiha. Let him move in with her until he finds a suitable home.

She couldn't help but wonder why. Why would her apprentice ignore him? And now she had to be stuck with her student's annoying pleads for missions the entire time. As soon Sakura arrived back in konoha, she would always go to her and demand for a new mission. Well sometimes she kindly asked at first, but when she would say "no, this is you limit", she would demand a mission and wouldn't leave until she got one.

"Please! Um maybe I can go with Kakashi-sensei, he's going on a mission right? Please let me go!" Instead of demanding this time, she begged her instead.

"Ok, ok you can go," Tsunade said firmly. Who wouldn't be annoyed if someone has been begging you something for half an hour already and that's how Sakura got her way, with nagging Tsunade on how much she wants to go on a new mission.

"arigatou Tsunade-shishou!" Sakura thanked her master before leaving in a poof of smoke. She had to hurry, who knows when Kakashi would leave without her.

She reappeared near the konoha gates and saw him slowly walking out of Konoha.

"Hey! Kakashi-sensei! Wait up!" Sakura called to the copy-nin and rushed to him.

"Sakura, what are you doing here?" Kakashi questioned confusion showing in his one visible eye.

"Well.. I um... asked Tsunade-shishou to come with you on your mission, if that's ok with you?" Sakura smiled sheepishly like Naruto would, getting a bit nervous.

"Ok then. We're just going to deliver something to Suna and then probably go home in a week or two," he explained the assignment to her.

"So teme, why is Sakura-chan avoiding you?" the extremely loud blond asked.

"That's what I don't know dobe and why are you asking me about this?" Sasuke replied with an annoyed grunt.

"Well because I've noticed it for sometime now and you seem so frustrated about it…" Naruto trailed off.

"Tch! Like I care about that," Sasuke said angrily. "I'm going home, we don't have to talk about this anymore."

'Sasuke-teme, you are really in denial!' Naruto thought, looking at his long lost friend walking to her house not his!

When Sasuke got home. Sakura was already on another new mission. He found a note stuck to the fridge, once he read it, he ripped it into several small pieces and threw it in the trash. 'Why is she avoiding me? What's wrong with her? And I thought she'll be the first one to greet me when I returned here in Konoha' that was all that entered his mind throughout the afternoon.

Kakashi can't help but ask his former student about what he heard from a certain loud-mouthed ex-student of his. "So Sakura, I heard from Naruto that you've been avoiding Sasuke lately, is there a problem between you two?" asked the copy-nin.

"Nothing's wrong sensei, well, to tell you the truth I don't know what to do around him anymore and maybe he's still mad at me…" Sakura said sadly. "And I'm afraid I will only hurt myself for getting my hopes up again of believing I'll have a chance with him now"

"Don't think about that Sakura, I've seen how he looks at you, with sincerity and concern. Once I saw how he was glaring at some guy you were talking to a few weeks ago and he was really mad at the poor guy" Kakashi said with a smile on his face.

"Do you really think so, sensei?" Sakura said.

"I know so, Sakura" Kakashi said reassuringly. "now we better get going before the sun sets"

And so the two Jounins headed towards Suna.

"Um… Kakashi-sensei, what are we supposed to bring to Suna anyway?" Sakura asked.

"Well since you are part of this mission I'll tell you" Kakashi said. "For sometime now, the Hidden Village of the sand is suffering from an illness they really don't know so they sent someone to Konoha and give some samples to the Hokage, knowing she is a medical expert, to find out what it is and ask the Hokage to formulate a medicine to cure it. Now I was assigned to bring the medicine and help the people luckily, the Kazekage and his siblings are not infected and only a part of the village is suffering I'm glad Hokage-sama made you join me because they'll be needing your medical skills to cure the people faster"

"Um okay, I'm glad to join you too" Sakura said happily.

Back in Konoha.

"HINATA-CHAN!" people covered their ears at the call of a certain loud-mouthed shinobi.

Hinata and Ino sweat-dropped. "Pipe down Naruto, the whole village can hear you and possibly other neighboring villages..." Ino said.

"Whatever Ino…" Naruto said. "Hey Hinata-chan, Let's go to Ichiraku's and have ramen!"

"U-um, s-sure N-Naruto-kun!" Hinata stuttered.

"Great! Let's go!" said the hyperactive blonde.

"Count me out on this, I'm going home" Ino said finally.

"Ok Ino, but you'll miss all the fun!" Naruto said tauntingly.

"Nah, I'll only be a wall around you lovebirds and be completely ignored besides, I have to look after the flower shop I'll see you tomorrow!" said the other blonde.

"O-okay Ino-chan, h-have a nice e-evening!" Hinata said.

"Let's hurry Hinata-chan before it closes!" Naruto said dragging Hinata along.

Sasuke was at home making something to eat and still thinking of reasons why Sakura is avoiding him. 'Maybe she is suffering in some kind of sickness and is out of her mind. No, maybe she is being controlled by someone or maybe the Hokage is just giving her too much work and she is forced to do it…'

'Why don't you just admit that you miss her?' his inner piped in.

'shut it, why would I care about her?' he asked his inner.

'Well because you're, I don't know, wondering WHY she is avoiding you?' his inner said sarcastically.

'well talk about this some other time' Sasuke said to his inner then locking him in some box in his mind. 'I'll find out soon why Sakura is doing that but for now, I'll wait till she comes back…'

END OF CHAPTER