He was supposed to save her. She had the whole thing planned out; he would jump in at the last second of the battle and destroy the opponent who was battered but still winning. She would yell at him later about her not needing his help but he would only smile and tell her that she didn't always need to be strong because she had him to share the burden with.

She had become ANBU captain at age seventeen; a feat that none of her friends and comrades thought she would be able to accomplish. After all, they could remember her from when she was a weak little girl at the tender age of twelve after Sasuke first left.

She lost her parents when she was fifteen. Tsunade completely took advantage of the broken remains of Haruno Sakura and became the mother that she always wished that she had been. The Hokage took care of her apprentice, of her daughter. She didn't fail to notice the way that Sakura began to depend on training and healing as if her life were on the line.

Despite all the times sleeping pills 'accidently' were slipped into her food or insomniac medication 'happened' to be dissolved into her drinks, Sakura would sniff it out and continue to survive off of three or four hours of sleep a night. It became a schedule; sleep, food, training, hospital shift, training, Naruto's distractions, shift, sleep. Start all over again.

It wasn't healthy in the slightest bit but Sakura couldn't find the need to care; not when she had a truly valid reason to stay away from home. The kunoichi had long moved out of the two floor house that her parents owned and got her own place. It was boring with no touch of color that one would think the lively girl would add. She pretended for them though; inside she was breaking to pieces.

She had first met him in the Village Hidden in the Clouds. Kai was his name and at first glance, he was truly amazing. He had the charming smile, the chocolate colored locks that hung over his forehead, and a truly dashing set of dimples on his cheeks that seemed to make him all the more innocent and genuine.

They all hated him except for her. Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, Tsunade, Sai; they all thought he was faking it to the best of his abilities. Even from the very moment they all met in his home village, they despised the young man.

Konaha was backing up Cloud in an upcoming war which was why Team Seven was sent there in the first place; they were acting as rule enforcers to whip the shinobi there in shape (Kami knows they needed it). Kai was the best of the bunch, a true genius at heart. He had immediately taken Sakura's heart and put it under lock and key, refusing to release it for a second. His charm was on full blast and maybe, maybe that was why she missed it; how right her real family was.

It took all of him moving in with her and maintaining a permanent residence with her before she noticed the first slipup in his façade. She wishes that she hadn't of ignored it. Now it was just too late.

He was poking her, or maybe poking wasn't the right term to use. Jabbing, yes, he was jabbing her with his long finger while bombarding her with every cuss word he's ever come into contact with. He wanted her to turn the alarm off and he wanted it off right then. Not five seconds later when she could finally reach over and shut the damned thing off. The damage was already done.

"Sakura I swear to the damn heavens that I will murder you if my sleep is interrupted again; do I make myself clear?" His voice was gravelly and rough, hoarse with sleep and alcohol from the night before. It didn't numb his mind enough, it seemed. He was still sober enough to threaten her life.

She ignored him while pulling her sore, bruised body to an upright position. She grimaced as her long, pink hair fell over her shoulder. The throb between her legs was an everlasting reminder of Kai's drunken rage as well as the dark patches littering her arms and legs.

In seconds her skin began to glow a light green as her chakra instinctively healed her without permission. She hated that this was the norm. She absolutely hated it.

Her shower was short lived since it never soothed her; she could still feel his filthy hands on her skin no matter what she did, and her outfit was her usual training shorts and tank top with her pristine white uniform for her shifts that thankfully started soon, not soon enough in her opinion.

She was quick to pack an extra week's worth of clothes so that she could continue staying at the hospital instead of coming home which was the only reason why she had come back the day before; she needed more supplies to hide away with. After all, Kai wouldn't dare anything in public. No, he was only a brute behind closed doors.

While her healing abilities were only second to Tsunade herself, Sakura wasn't able to banish away the paleness of her face nor the black, painful looking bruises under her eyes from lack of sleep. Everything else was long gone, nonexistent to the eyes of those who would surely skin her boyfriend for the act. She didn't quite know why she protected him but at the end of the day it was chalked up to how small he made her feel. She didn't want a living soul to know how weak she had been for too long. It had gone on for way too long.

He was just starting to stir when she quickly closed and locked the front door behind her, breathing out in silent relief that she would be safe for at least the next few days. She chanted it as she listened to his heavy, violent footfalls on the hardwood floors and his jerky movements while cursing her to the deepest pits of hell for leaving without his permission. She quickly left before she would hear what he planned her punishment out to be.

The sun was another hour from rising by the time she sat down in her office, actually happy to see stacks upon stacks of paperwork on her desk. It meant work, it meant time, it meant an escape that she would gladly take. It didn't matter that she barely slept and that she could feel her body protest with everything she did; she was happy to be away from home.

Sakura sat herself down in her chair and heaved a sigh before beginning to sort through what would surely take her hours to complete. While she was physically slumped and exhausted, the exhilaration of safety was almost overwhelming. It reminded her of when she lived with her parents and everything had been so fantastic. Now everything was falling apart in front of her and no amount of strength or skill could stop it. She felt useless.

Somewhere in the review of two customer complaints about one particularly moody nurse that she had come to detest over the years, a coffee landed on her desk with a dull thud. The pinkette shifted her glazed eyes to the black-headed figure in front of her.

"What can I do for you, Shizune?"

The woman frowned at the sound of her comrade's scratchy voice and the concern burned in her eyes. "I saw your light on from down the hall and figured that if you're here at this untimely hour then you would need coffee. Honestly Sakura, did you sleep at all last night? Or the past month for that matter?"

The younger kunoichi gave a small smile while sipping the pure warmth that she hoped would keep her awake. "Aw, I don't look that bad, do I?"

"Has Tsunade seen you like this?" Shizune suddenly spoke with confidence. "I believe with all of my heart that she would not be happy to catch sight of your condition."

Sakura stiffened at the sound of her Shishou's name but then tried to relax. "I'm fine, I just have so much work to do."

"That's your excuse every morning." Shizune shuffled her feet and glanced at the ground uncomfortably. "Is… is everything okay with Kai? I mean, I haven't seen him around much…"

"I think it's time that you go tend to the patients. I have work to do before I'm able to do my own rounds so maybe you should take the first shift." Sakura was blunt as if the response had been a long awaited excuse to the expected question.

Shizune looked to the floor with her arm crossed over her torso and opened her mouth as if to say something but closed it moments later with a deep frown. "I'll see you later. Try and relax a little though, okay."

The pinkette didn't answer, only looking back down at her previous task like a visitor had never appeared.

He knew many things. He knew exactly how many steps it took to get from his apartment to the memorial, he knew exactly how many missions he had been on in his life, and he knew exactly how many pages were in every edition of Icha Icha ever sold. He knew so many things that it baffled him even more when he couldn't answer the simple question that had appeared in his own head that morning.

It had been one of those nights where sleep would not find him no matter what he did so he had decided to spend yet another insufferable amount of hours memorizing the words of his beloved orange books. After so many years of gliding his eyes over the small print, he barely had to glance at a page to know the contents of it.

Well before the sun even thought of touching the night sky, something completely different had caught his attention; quite abruptly even.

He would recognize that shade of pink anywhere, no matter the situation or time of day. It was unique and light and so perfectly abnormal that he never could manage to look away when he caught the girl in moments such as then.

Sakura was walking down the empty, dark street while continuously glancing over her shoulder as if waiting for a nightmare to suddenly appear and hunt her down. She passed under a dull street light and he could see the sporadic rise and fall of her chest. She was scared, he was sure of it, but he couldn't sense a danger near them.

He briefly wondered if she ever even knew that she passed by his place whenever going to and from work (which he hated that she didn't do enough so he knew that she stayed at the hospital far too often). He only saw her take the travel between her home and job about once a week and when she does go back to the hospital, it's always like this; scared, paranoid, frantic.

One thing he could never figure out, though, no matter how many times he quietly trailed her on her journey to assure her safety, was what really made such a strong, powerful kunoichi cower in the likes of the night.