Author's Note: I didn't explain what's going on between them, and I don't really plan to. I want this to be one of those fill-in-the-blanks type of thing. You tell me what's going on.

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She was usually quite gentle with her patients, regardless of the severity of their injuries. In situations where Tsunade or Shizune would be tugging on sutures to save the life as fast as they could, Sakura always found a way to treat and heal with a soft touch. But not with him, and not today.

Kakashi's wounds were minor. For him, at least. They would take a long time to heal, but compared to the other shit he tended to get himself into, it really wasn't much. Two months ago, she would have been talking with him through the process. Not just to take his mind off whatever pain he may or may not have been feeling, but she really just enjoyed conversation with him. But neither of them said a word. They made no eye contact.

She harshly pressed gauze to his bleeding arm and yanked on each stitch she made to close him up. By the twitching of his fingers and the slight crease in the shape of a frown on his mask, she knew he was in pain. Reading these subtle hints in his body language was second nature to her after having known him for so long. But she wasn't going to calm herself down. Let him be in pain.

Eventually, he muttered, "Sakura, that hurts."

"Yeah, I hope it hurts," she responded through clenched teeth, clipping the excess surgical suture and tossing it into a garbage bin. For the first time since his arrival, their eyes met, but the gaze was anything but calm. In fact, her eyes were quite angry. "Why should you be fine?"