Note: This story has been discontinued. Please don't read this...this cringe-fest.

She approached him cautiously, his last words repeating themselves in her mind. Sakura... Thank you. Shaking those thoughts away, she instead replaced them forcibly. She thought of Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, Ino, Tsunade, and everyone else. She had to get back to them, in one piece preferably.

The last thing she would remember about her first encounter with him in years was tapping on his back with the sentence, "Mind helping an old teammate out?" But those words weren't spoken. She had blacked out too soon.

.

Black. Great.

"Take care of her." A deep voice she recognized as Sasuke's ordered. Bossy, as expected. Still, she couldn't complain as she assumed he was pertaining to her. She felt herself being handed to someone who had big, warm hands, compared to Sasuke's chilly hands anyway. She decided to feign unconscious, lest they let her walk by herself.

Unbeknownst to her, she was already putting her trust on him. A stupid mistake, she would later say. Because it led to too much trust.

.

The next time she woke up, she was greeted by the sound of someone scribbling on paper. She was absentmindedly reminded of waking up in Sai's room. He would always draw her while she slept and to Sai's surprise, she would always reward him with a kiss on the cheek if the drawing pleased her. To them, it was nothing but a friendly gesture but Naruto presumed they were dating, what with them sleeping in each other's houses.

"Baka." Sakura giggled and opened her eyes.

She was greeted by the sight of Sasuke raising his brows, seeming to be offended. "Excuse me?" Not answering right away, she observed his physique. The years were certainly good to him, of course. But his hair was a little longer than usual, she noticed. He was sitting on a wooden chair, composing what looked like a letter.

"I was talking about someone else." She explained casually, as if waking up to the sight of Sasuke was something that happened everyday.

"Hn." Came his noncommittal reply. Some things never change, she thought. Before she could speak, he continued. "You should leave soon. You are my enemy, after all."

With a sigh, Sakura replied, "Yeah, an enemy you saved from death! Are you seriously gonna think that I'll believe your little charade that you've broken your precious bonds?"

Sasuke scowled, "You should be grateful. You wouldn't have lasted long had I not helped." And he was right. As she was checking her injuries, she found that not even she could heal them without draining her already drained chakra.

"Thank you, then." She bit out, rolling her eyes at the smirk that made its way to his face. "But I'm not leaving yet." He frowned. "I won't last long if I go. I have to regain my chakra first."

"You will not be staying here." He dictated, walking to the door.

But he was stopped when a bargain came from her. "I... I'll give you information on Danzo." Upon hearing the newly-appointed Hokage's name, he stiffened.

"You would never betray Konoha."

"I care little for him. He's not worthy of being Hokage. I'll help you and in return, you let me stay with you until I've regained my strength." He was the reason she became a missing nin anyway. He prohibited the ninja of the Leaf from fighting with the Allied Forces and most of the ninjas deserted their roots in order to join them. But being missing ninjas forced them to never stay in one place. Danzo's men hunted them like they were animals. As such, they were to receive missions away from camp and when she found Sasuke, she had just finished her latest mission but she didn't escape unscathed.

Sasuke nodded and she heaved a sigh of relief. As he was leaving, a few choice words decided to escape Sakura's mouth without her consent.

"Sasuke... Thank you."

After Sasuke slammed the door, they both had very similar thoughts in their minds.

What the hell did they just get into?