Alone Together...

Probation and Training

Normal POV

The sun was blinding as it filtered through the window's thin curtain. Sakura had been placed closest to the window so the beam of light shone done directly at her. Groaning, she turned her body away from the light and towards the others.

Naruto was sprawled all across his bed, limbs in all directions. His snoring was loud, the only noise besides the villagers walking outside.

Sasuke slept with his back facing them and his pillow pulled over his head. Chuckling quietly to herself, Sakura figured he had attempted to block out the noise. She stopped her laughter and stared at Sasuke. Her eyes traveled over to his slightly exposed neck. Narrowing her eyes she silently scrutinized the spot where he had gotten the curse mark. Closing her eyes she turned herself stomach down and buried her face with her pillow.

'It won't be long now...' She thought tiredly as she sat up from bed. Stretching out her limbs, she stood and made her way out the door and towards the bathroom.

~*oOo*~

"Alright, everyone ready to go? We have a long way to go before we get home." Kakashi stated from his position up front. When he heard no objections from the group, he smiled and turned around, his icha icha book in hand. Sakura was more than ready to leave so she didn't bother to respond. She instead focused on braiding her hair to the side in a simple braid.

The others soon followed right behind but sakura stayed back. She stopped braiding her hair for a moment and concentrated on searching for any suspicious chakra near by.

"Sakura? Is everything okay?" Kakashi asked from up front. Snapping out of her search, she shook her head up to him and tied her hair with a red ribbon.

"Just sleepy." Sakura replied and ran up to them, slowing down as she stood beside them. This would be a long journey, but at least everyone was okay. That's what truly matter to Sakura.

~*oOo*~

Sakura's POV

The first week was spent of boat. Just like the last time, there wasn't much to do besides talk. They couldn't really train or else they would get in trouble by the crew members for demolishing something.

Naruto took it upon himself to tell all the crew members that we were already familiar with his heroic story. He exaggerated about a lot of things but said no names, courtesy of my warning.

I got to know Zabuza and Haku in a friendlier way. They didn't blab about their life story, more like about their "adventures" as Naruto calls them. Inner was squealing at practically anything Sasuke or Haku said. All the stress and fighting must have deprived her of her joy, thinking about boys.

It was hard enough to calm her down when they were with us daily, but she always brought up others. Itachi in particular. She had some sort of deep infatuation with the Uchiha's that I could not understand.

Besides talking we helped around as much as we could. Well, I did, along with Haku and Naruto. Sasuke had refused at first, until I...persuaded him to help.

Before the week was even half way done, our odd group was a bit more comfortable around each other. Sasuke and Kakashi a bit more distant but not overly so.