Author's Note: So I had quite a few requests for a sequel to A Test of Control, and this is the result. As you will note, this is not a one shot. I do have more chapters coming. You do not have to read A Test of Control to understand the story, but I do give a few references. As always, this is rated M for a reason. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not, nor have I ever, owned Naruto. I just play in their world.

Reviews! Reviews! I love ALL my reviews, good and bad.

The Edge of Rage

"We're almost there," Sasuke's voice rasped out, harsh with worry, "don't you dare quite on me now!"

"S-should...have l-left me...," Sakura's voice was no more than a bare whisper, her breath warm on his neck.

Sasuke locked his arms more tightly around her legs, shifting her body closer on his back, her arms nearly dangling uselessly around his neck.

"Never."

S-stubborn male, Sakura thought but there was no heat behind it. After everything that had happened, how could she be mad at him?

"Don't go to sleep, do you hear me Sakura? Stay awake!"

"S-snarly male," Sakura muttered softly, "don't y-you...ever tire of g-giving orders?"

"When it comes to you," he retorted, "no."

He got a breathy chuckle for his quip, which quickly turned into a raspy cough that made his heart pound and redouble his efforts to get them to a safe zone.

Neither one of us will make it if we run into any more shinobi from Cloud.

"Save your breath," he told her softly, "I want you alive and well so I can chew you out when we get back to Konoha."

"S-so...that's my inc-incentive to live...h-hearing you lecturing me..." she would have said more but another racking cough stopped her words, and a blood dribbled from her mouth.

At l-least two b-broken ribs, possible punctured l-lung, Sakura mentally assessed her injuries, a-and lets not forget th-the poison as w-well.

Sakura knew that if treatment wasn't done, she wouldn't have to worry about Sasuke chewing her out. She would be dead.

"After I've chewed your ass out," he continued as though she had not interrupted, "I'm going to keep you in my bed and make damn sure you won't be walking for a least a week."

Sakura sucked in a sharp breath and not all of it was due to the pain of her injuries.

"Not...a-a...chance..."

"I wasn't asking."

If I...su-survive this, Sakura thought with amusement and not to mention a bit of apprehension, I'm g-going to have to su-survive him!

"H...how much fur..." but once more she was wracked with spasms and could only gasp and cough as Sasuke carried her limp from on his back, headless of his own injuries.

"Another mile and we should be pass their border." He told her, instantly knowing what she had been asking.

"D..do you think...they got...away?"

"Yes."

Tears threatened to leak from her eyes but she refused to let them fall. Her mask had been pushed off to the side, as to make her breathing easier. But it no longer gave her the protection of hiding her face.

"G...good. At least...w-we got to t-hem in..."

Sasuke waited for her to finish he sentence but when she did not, he became worried. "Sakura? Talk to me." He shook her very gently, mindful of the blood he could still feel seeping into his back, despite the protective armor he wore.

Alarm kicked through his blood stream like a punch of adrenaline when she did not respond.

"Wake up! Damn it I told you not to go to sleep!" He didn't care if he was snarling at an injured female, he was not going to let her die on him.

Not after tonight. Not after what happened.

"...y-you...are...loud"

Relief nearly dropped him to knee's as her shaky voice whispered her words to his ear. She's not dead.

"I'm going to get a lot louder," her growled at her, "if you go to sleep again."

"wasn't...s...sleeping..."

I'm losing her, he thought as ice flowed through him at the thought of her dying. He knew that two of her ribs were definitely broken. Those could be dealt with, it was the poison that had him anxious. He knew when he picked her up that she had over a dozen cuts on her body.

Each one made by a poisoned kunai or shuriken.

Each one his fault.

"Then you were just naturally quiet? I find that hard to believe. You have a comment for everything."

Sasuke counted the seconds between her responses.

"...do...n-not..."

Five seconds, she must be going in and out of consciousness.

Sasuke deliberately made a sound of annoyance, just to rile her up. To keep her awake until they passed the border and get them to a safe shelter.

"...I d-don't!..."

Ten seconds.

"I'm going to pick up speed, can you handle it?"

"...yes...d-don't worry about...me."

He didn't bother with a retort but once more shifted his arms under her legs to make sure he had a good hold on her before he sprang in the air and began moving at speeds that no one outside of a ninja clan could follow.

Sakura never made a sound, not even a gasp as to not give away their position should an enemy be near enough to detect them.

Good girl, he thought even as the silence began to erode away at his control, but right now I want you to live.

W...warm, Sakura thought sleepy, knowing that if she gave in to the need to sleep there was a strong possibility she would slip into a coma and not wake up.

But Sasuke was warm and despite the blood coating both of them, he still smelled of lightning-struck rain. Of the wind among the leaves.

Sakura inhaled his scent as much as her broken ribs would allowed. She secretly loved the smell of him. After that day in the woods, the day she made ANBU, she had not been able to get his scent out of her mind.

No matter that it had been four months since that day and she had kept her promise and hadn't slept with him.

Not that i-it mattered, She thought even as she allowed her head to fall on his shoulder, I b-barely see h-him. T-this was our f-first mission t-together...m-might just b-be m-my last...

She was going to have to disobey Sasuke. She couldn't stay awake any longer. She had long since lost any feeling in her legs and her body was trembling so hard she knew that the poison had spiked her body temperature into dangerous levels and was starting to shut down.

He's talking to me...her mind was hazing over and though she could hear his voice, the smoke-in-shadows timbre that haunted her dreams, she could not hear the words.

Instead she closed her eyes and let the memories of the past twenty-four hours play over her mind.

It's...n-not a bad way to die...being h-held by h-him...