In a matter of hours, two figures stood at Konoha's gate, barely visible in the predawn light. Sakura double checked her weapons as Naruto kept an eye out for anyone who might try to stop them. They shouldn't be doing this, but that didn't mean they wouldn't. They shouldn't, but they had to. There was a world of a difference between what was right and what was necessary. And somehow, in this trip being necessary, it had become right.

"You left Tsunade a message?" Sakura asked, tightening a bandage.

"Sticky note on her favorite sake bottle," Naruto tried his best to smother the devious chuckle. "'Cause she's sure as hell going to need it when she realizes we're gone."

"And I've got some money in case this takes—no he—takes longer than we thought," Sakura smiled. When the decision had been made, she'd gained a measure of peace. She wouldn't cry again, not until he was in their arms. "Shall we...?" Sakura looked out into the dark of the forest.

"Lead the way," Naruto announced, and Sakura knew it was his way of saying that they were doing this together and she was not here just as his backup, as his medic. She sprung off the ground and into the woods without a look back at Konoha. It just wasn't home without him, without all three of them together.

--

And that was how they got here, standing in this lonely clearing, facing the one person they couldn't stand to be without: Uchiha Sasuke.

"Hey, bastard," Naruto threw out casually, hands stuffed in his pockets. She knew he'd expected to get a taste of the grunts before he actually showed. This was better than they could have hoped, and at the same time, terribly, awfully painful.

"Idiot," the avenger acknowledged. "And here I was hoping you'd finally given up."

Sakura took that chance to speak up: "We would never."

"How...annoying..." the way he tasted the words before he said them made Sakura's skin prickle. That had been all she ever was to him: annoying.

"So, no chance you're coming without a fight?" Naruto always got right down to the very heart of things.

"No."

"Bastard," Naruto murmured softly, and to Sakura's ears, it was almost an endearment. She wondered if Sasuke noticed. Sakura slipped her fingers into the pouch, curling tightly around a kunai. The remaining pieces of Team Seven nodded and lunged into battle.

Sakura used the distraction her intentionally loud teammate gave her. She slipped past his guard, a miracle in and of itself, and landed a nice punch. Right in his gut. He flew backwards, barely catching himself before he made contact with the tree.

When the moment of shock spilled across his face—anyone but her or Naruto would have missed it—a small smile of satisfaction crossed her own. He hadn't seen this new strength of hers. She wasn't the whiney, lovesick girl of six years ago.

Blinding sun off the katana, a whirling mass of dopplegangers, the craggy spikes of chakra-broken earth, the brilliant blue flash of the chidori, the growl of the jinchuuriki, the red irises of his kekkei genkai. In her medical training, she had managed to tune her use of chakra to something not unlike the Hyuuga gentle fist technique. It was more subtle, more kuniochi-like in its nature. From tree to branch to spike, she leapt, utilizing the speed she'd wrangled out of Neiji in return for her presence on many of Team Gai's missions. Sasuke hadn't been prepared for her speed, and she got a single tap to his left shoulder in. It jumbled all his nerve impulses, and suddenly, that arm was unusable.

"What did you do?" he hissed.

"It doesn't have a name yet," she spat, diving towards his right leg. If she could help Naruto by immobilizing him, maybe they'd have a chance. She missed and he sent her hurtling into a tree. She didn't have any breath left in her to scream when she heard her ribs crack. Damn. Holding a hand to her side, she poured some of her chakra in. A quick fix would have to do. She couldn't waste any chakra. Ignoring the burning in her lungs and the stabbing in her freshly set ribs, she scrambled to her feet, watching as Naruto and Sasuke traded blows. Naruto had a nasty stab wound too close to his heart for Sakura's comfort. He was favoring his left side, but he had a doppelganger army covering,waiting for her. Joining him, she pressed her hands to the back of his left shoulder, mending the serious veins and arteries. She got the muscle to close too before Sasuke made it through his doppelgangers.

Sasuke attacked her instead of Naruto and she saw the blood she spat up as his fist made contact with her abdomen. She rubbed it off her lips, pushing shakily to her feet. Add internal damage to the list.

"Dammit, Sasuke," Naruto screamed, throwing his ex-teammate into a tree. "What is there that's keeping you here?"

"Power."

"You're damn strong anyway," Naruto argued, and Sakura winced, joining him. Sasuke emerged from the splinters of at least two trees. His right hand was sparking with the beginnings of a chidori.

"Not enough to kill Itachi," he smoothly disagreed. She grimaced and then Naruto held his hand out to her, eyes never leaving Sasuke. She set her on top of his and grinned at him. It had taken them a long time to work this out, but it felt right. This was as much a symbol of their new bond as the fact that she stood beside him, not behind. The hum of their pooled chakra, more his than hers made her nerves vibrate under her skin.

"Nobody said we wouldn't help you kill him," Sakura threw back, venom in her voice. She'd drive her hand through Uchiha Itachi's heart while Naruto held him down if that was what it took to get Sasuke back.

And Sasuke, upon hearing her words, froze in shock. It was just a second, but something shook loose, and his ex-teammates saw the opportunity.

In perfect unison, they lunged through the air toward him, the chakra hissing and spitting, held in a large tan one and contained by a more delicate pale one.

"RASENGAN!!" they screamed, driving the sphere through his hastily formed chidori. He hadn't been ready for them. His body was flung back through a cluster of trees to land sickeningly on the ground and a single cry of pain ripped from his throat.

Sakura ran to his side, Naruto uncertainly covering her. He obviously wasn't certain Sasuke was down for the count. Ten yards from him and Sakura was. She skidded to his side, hit her knees, and began healing the gaping wound in the avenger's stomach. Naruto's warm hands, covered in his own blood and maybe some of Sasuke's gripped her hands to hold them steady. He knew she couldn't heal with shaky hands. She breathed a thank you that she didn't think he heard.

She sat there for kami only knows how long, reconstructing pieces of organs and intestines, mending the worst of his broken bones. Her vision began to get blurry at least a quarter of an hour before Naruto pulled her away into his chest.

"He's breathing, Sakura," he murmured into her ear. "He'll be fine." Three little words were all the permission Sakura needed: she passed out.

--

i'm begging for reviews here. i had over a hundred people read "psychosis..." but only one reviewed—thank you, SkyMaiden. i am so bad at writing fight scenes, but i tried and if there's anything you can think of to improve this, anything at all, i'd really like to hear it. thanks for reading.