J A D E

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Where is he?" I ask as soon as I run inside the tent. People look at me worriedly, they heads bowed down. Behind them, I see him. Lying on the bed, motionless, blooded. I run towards him, tears streaming down my face, hands trembling. "Don't you dare die on me." I whisper through gritted teeth.

"Sa-Ku-Ra." He whispers my name in syllables. I shake my head and put my hand over his wound.

"Just stay quiet." I whisper once again, fear creeping up in my body. "I will not let you die."

"Thank you, Ugly."

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto-baka runs in my bedroom, jumping straight on me, while waking me up. I crack my eyes open, ready to punch him in the face, when he starts waving his hands in surrender in front of me. "We are going to be late, believe it!" He shouts quivering and hops out of my bed. "Old man told me to wake you up." He adds, nodding his head off.

I sigh, my eyes wandering towards the clock. With loud and audible grunt, I push the blanket away from me, I rub my eyes to sober myself up a bit more and turn towards Naruto. who is looking through my books.

"Naruto." I call out, tiredly. I have gone to sleep late at night, reading everything about different jutsus and attacks. I have decided to postpone my medic studies, until I meet Tsunade-sama. I don't want to raise any more suspicious around me.

"Hm?" He turns towards me, tilting his head. He has learnt that from Anko-san. She has been rubbing off on both of us.

"I need to change." I sigh and he nods, leaving my books and study table alone. He turns around and slowly stomps towards the door, turning just before he was to close the door.

"Don't take too long, Sakura-chan." He grins at me and shuts the door behind. With loud sigh, I take my clothes and head towards the shower.

***

"He is late." Naruto states irritated as we approach the training grounds. Only Sasuke is there and he is fuming from anger. Usually, I am the first one to arrive anywhere, but knowing that Kakashi sensei is always late, I let myself oversleep.

"Dobe." Sasuke mumbles and looks back at the horizon. I sigh as my eyes linger on him. The only difference between this Sasuke and previous one is that now, he is not driven my revenge. And aside from it, he is pretty much the same. He still usually labels me as annoying, but now we are friends. I think he wanted to befriend Naruto, but I just came along.

"Teme." Naruto barfs back and sits next to me on the grass. I smile at the duo and lay back. I look up at the sky with serene smile resting on my face. Clouds lazily float above us. I raise my hands up, as if trying to grab the cloud above.

"What do you miss the most, Shika-chan?" I turn to the lazy genius and look back up at the sky.

"Clouds."

I tear up at the memory, but blink them away. Instead, I sit up and take a book out of my backpack, I always carry around. Well, usually Naruto carries it everywhere as he decided that he needed ramen anywhere he went. And only one of my books is in the bag and rest of the space is taken by his food, he gets to carry it.

"What are you reading, Sakura-chan?" Naruto scoops closer to me, trying to have a glimpse of what is written in the book.

"Naruto." I sigh and let him look inside. "You can't perform it, yet. And nevertheless, Earth is not your chakra element." I add a bit annoyed. Naruto puffs.

"Why is not old man training me as well?" He asks irritated.

"Because you can barely make clones and throw kunai." I add agitated. "And he is training you, only in different level." I add pointing out the obvious and going back to my book.