alright here it is my new chapter 2 and for those who have already read this story trust me this is WAY WAY different i have basically change the story line okay so please read and review and let me and my beta know what you think mkay love you all

love loversflame

Darkness…

Darkness….it was all she saw. No light, no anything. She was in a place of nothingness. She moved what seemed to be her hand in front of herself in hopes that she could at least see her pale skin. Nothing…she saw nothing. Where was she? What had happened to her, the last thing she remembered was healing Ne…NEJI!

'Neji…' she said to her unconscious self.

"What did she say?" questioned the nurse to Tsunade.

"I think she said Neji," she answered, eyebrow raised.

"The Hyuuga boy we have in the ICU?" she asked.

"That's the one."

Sakura sat in her world of darkness with nothing but thoughts of Neji Hyuuga. She didn't quite understand why she did when there were so many more important things in the world…especially more important than him, and yet she couldn't remove him from her thoughts, and again she mumbled his name to herself.

'Neji,' she said again not knowing that while she thought she was in her own little world she was really just unconscious and Tsunade was watching and listening to her, as well as the nurse.

"Sakura, wake up." Tsunade said, her strict tone and hardness seeping through her words.

'Sakura…' She heard it again. It was another voice, but this time she actually understood what it was saying. 'Sakura…' It said her name again and it seemed to be getting louder. Soon she felt her cold emptiness warm up and begin filling with a blinding white light and a very concerned and also angry Tsunade standing above her.

"Sakura, are you okay? Can you hear me?" she said to her as her eyes began to flutter open.

"Nmmm..." she moaned as the stinging light filled her now opening eyes.

"Sakura?"

"Tsunade, Is that you? Where am I…? What happened?"

"I was hoping you could tell me," she said

"What? How should I know? All I know is I was healing Neji and…" she paused and realized she had almost forgotten about him. "NEJI!" she shouted as she shot up form the hospital bed only to be pushed back down by the Hokage.

"He is fine, Sakura. You did a wonderful job of healing him last night. Now onto the matter of you! Do you know where my other medics found you this morning?"

"Er... no," Sakura responded shyly

"Lying in a pool of your own blood at the side of Hyuuga's bed, and by the look of it you had passed out and hit you head hard on the ground and split your skull open. At first we thought we lost you because of all the blood loss, but you were still hanging on and we managed to restore you quickly, but I am sure if we took any longer to find you, then I am sure you would have died."

She didn't know what to say. She could have easily just said thanks but she knew that simply just saying that wouldn't do it for Tsunade. She just sat there, staring down in thought, knowing that in the mind of Tsunade, silence like hers was worth a mouthful of words.

Tsunade, fully understanding Sakura's silence, allowed herself to begin exiting the room. "Your wound is fully healed. When you feel ready I expect you to resume your medical duties as before. Are we clear?"

"Crystal."

"Good," she said to her as she exited the room.

Sakura slowly moved out of the bed knowing better than to rush her self at the risk of getting lightheaded and collapsing.

After taking a quick shower in the employee area and changing into a set of spare clean clothes she kept in her locker, she resumed her medical duties…beginning with Hyuuga Neji.

'Room 201' read the sign posted on the door that enclosed Neji Hyuuga. She felt her blood pressure rise and her heart skip a beat as she reached for the handle. She didn't understand why she was getting these feelings. She just about never spoke to Neji, the only time they ever did was when they were on missions together or when he needed medical attention and even then it was never on a personal level. The night before was a first for them when it came to having a conversation like that.

As she turned the knob she peeked into the room to see what state he was in. To her relief he was sleeping. She smiled and closed the door behind her as she walked over to him. He looked so peaceful and beautiful. Shocked that she was even thinking of him like that, she smacked herself on the hand several times while stating to herself, "Bad Sakura, bad Sakura!"

While unknowingly to her a certain Hyuuga had awoken to see her making a foolish scene of stupidity. "Problem, Haruno?" he asked with a smirk.

A look of shock swept across her face as she redirected her attention back to the now fully conscious Hyuuga. "No, I was just…uh killing a fly that landed on my hand," she said, hoping she was lucky and that he would buy her quick cover story. Sadly she was not all that lucky.

"Even if I did buy that, it still would not explain why you were continually smacking yourself when it would only take one hit to kill the fly and you were continually saying to yourself 'Bad Sakura,'" He had her and he knew it.

Once again she thought quickly and came up with the perfect response. "Argh! Alright, you caught me…it shames me to say it but I suppose you have done it. I am an emo. I was about to cut myself and I caught myself before I did, so I had to punish myself for even attempting to do such a terrible thing."

He chuckled a bit at her very sarcastic remark and a smirk spread across his face. "Shame, Haruno. A medic of your skill should know better than to cause self harm."

"Yeah, well…" she began but then the light from the sunrise shone through his window and onto him and reflected off a shimmering pendant that she recognized as hers. "Where did you get that?!" she said to him as she pointed to the pendant that he had tightly grasped in his hand.

"Oh, right, I forgot to give this back to you," he said as if she had given it to him to borrow or something and was supposed to be aware that he had it.

"Excuse me! But where did you get it from?" she said sternly.

He let a smirk caress his face as he began to explain what had happened. "Last night after you passed out, you fell to the ground from chakra depletion. I guess your pendant got snagged on a hook on the side of my bed and ripped of you neck. When I woke in the morning and saw a nurse cleaning your blood off the ground, I noticed that it was stuck on the hook so I unhooked it and held onto it until you came in to visit me. I had all intentions of giving back to you," he said to her as he opened his hand to reveal her pendant to her.

"Oh." She couldn't seem to find the words to say to him. She simply thanked him. "Arigato, Hyuuga-san," she stated formally as she bowed to him and then reached for her pendant. He willingly relinquished it unto her and watched as she struggled to hook it back around her neck.

"Need help, Haruno?" he asked as he sat up.

She didn't want to let him to have to help her hook on her own necklace, but she was having troubles. She never actually put it on her self to begin with. It was her mother's and as her mother died she put it on Sakura and she had never taken it off since. "Yeah, I guess," she said, slightly uneasy, as she turned her back to Neji so he might have an easier time placing the pendant around her neck.

"Haruno," he began.

"Call me Sakura," she said to him before he could finish what he was saying.

"Erm…okay, Sakura…What I was going to say was that your necklace is broken." Terror overcame her as she quickly whipped around to face Neji and took her mother's pendant in her hands as she looked down upon it sorrowfully as a tear fell from her eyes and fell onto the pendant.

"Sakura, it's not really a big deal. You have no need to make such a fuss over that silly thing, after all…" He trailed off as he was once again interrupted by her, but this time it was her shouting.

"It is not a silly thing! It was my mother's...It was my mother's!" she screamed at him as she fell to her knees and sobbed, not even really looking at the pendant long enough to realize what Neji had been trying to tell her. He was going to say that it was not really broken all that bad. It was just the clasp in the back that was broken.

Shocked at her sudden burst of rage and tears he climbed out of the bed and sat beside her on the floor. "My apologies, Haruno-san, it is truly not a silly thing." He then placed a single hand on her shoulder as a way of comforting her.

"Would like to explain to me the significance of you mother's pendant?" he said gently.

She lifted her head up enough to see his eyes and saw sincerity in them and knew she could trust him and talk to him.

"My mother was killed. There was an attack not so long ago here in Konoha and she was simply returning from the market and she was caught in the cross fire of two Chakra-infused attacks. I had been coming home from a mission with Naruto to find Sasuke and witnessed it happen right before my eyes. After the shock of watching it happen subsided a little, I ran to her side and with her last dying words she told me to wear it always and she would be with me. She had me turn away so she could hook it onto me. Once felt her warm touch leave me I turned around again and she was gone…she died. But I remember that as a kid she would always tell me that the pendant held special properties and that it was a symbol of indomitable spirit. A Spirit that cannot be defeated, a Spirit that never gives up no matter what." Her voice sounded almost like a child seeking comfort, but she tried to shrug it off.

Neji could hear the pain still in her voice. He really and truly sympathized for her. He saw her just about everyday and she was always wearing a smile and her eyes shone brightly. No one would ever know she held in such pain. "I'm so sorry for your loss Sakura, I truly am," he said kindly. "What about your father? Where was he during all this?"

Another tear rolled down her face as she remembered her father. "My father left us on the day of my 8th birthday. He was cheating on my mother. He brought the slut to my birthday and introduced her as a friend from work. My mother caught them making out in the basement and blew the cover on his two-timing ass. I saw it all happen—my father beat my mother senseless and packed his things. I screamed at him to come back and to say sorry to mommy, but he just told me that he was not my daddy anymore and that mommy was evil so he was leaving her forever, and me to, and that was the last time I ever saw him. Three years ago I found out that he had moved to Sand and was executed for the rape of ten different women." This time, her voice grew from pain to anger.

She truly lived a very sad life. He knew he had a bad childhood, but Sakura had it even worse and yet everyday she was a bright and as joyful as the next. "I—I'm sorry, Sakura."

"It's okay. I've almost forgotten about him," she said as she wiped her tears, giving him a small smile. There she was again; shrugging off the pain like it meant nothing.

"But at least the pendant is not completely unusable," he said, bringing up the subject of the broken clasp again.

"Oh, you're right; it's not all that bad. But still... the clasp that is on it now is that clasp that was my mother's, so it still kind of hurts knowing that its broken." She sniffled.

He gave her a quick smile and gestured for her to hand the pendant to him. A slightly confused look was in her eye, but she dropped it into his waiting palm. He held the tiny clasp tightly between his fingers, channeling a small amount of chakra and melting the broken ends together. Now it was permanently fixed, holding the two ends together. She would never be able to take it off, but she could never bring herself to do it, anyway. "There, good as new," he said, handing it back to her. Her emerald eyes shone with happiness. She struggled to fit it over her head, but thankfully, her wide forehead didn't stop it from going around her neck.

"Thank you, Neji-san," she said as she turned back to him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

He was shocked at her boldness of doing that. Most girls never even dared think to do such a thing to him at the risk of being smacked. However, under the circumstances he figured he could just let it go. That and he kind of liked this girl. There was something different about her.

"Hey, Neji..." she said to him as she fingered the pendant that once again graced her neck.

He mumbled in response, his only acknowledgement of having heard her.

"Why did you try and let yourself die last night?" she asked.

It was a fair question. After all she did answer his. So he felt somewhat obligated to answer her question in the same respectful manner as she answered him.

"On the mission I was unable to do my duty as team leader. It was my job to make sure everyone made it out alive on my squad. I failed and I figured that I deserved the same fate."

"Who...?" He answered her before she could ever finish asking who it was who died.

"A little girl." He said sadly as he looked out to the window. "Although we were sent to retrieve Sasuke, she ended up as part of our job. We found him near a small village in the forest. As we fought him at a point had the upper hand and were on the verge of beating him, I was aiming a very powerful strike at his heart when he spotted the girl. He grabbed her before I even noticed her and he trusted her into the line of my strike and even though I pulled back. Sasuke had made sure that she was close enough to me that no matter what I did she would be hit. My strike didn't kill her but Sasuke out of spite of some sort decided to use his sword and slice her head clean off. Her mother's screams were enough to rip your heart out as it were. At that point our battle took its turn for the worse and we lost. I had just figured that it was my fault and I deserved death."

Tears were brought to her eyes as she listened to his tragic story. "So…so what made you change your mind and let me heal you?" she asked as she wiped away her tears again.

"You," he stated bluntly. "You were so determined to save me. I was determined to save that little girl but failed and it ripped my heart out, so I spared you the pain of watching someone die in you hands. I knew you would run out of chakra though and at first I was thinking about letting you so that I would die but when you told me your tale of never giving up it made me think that maybe you were right and that if I ever want to save those who are dear to me then I can't give up now, so I gave you the chakra boost."

A smile came on her face as she heard his words. "So I guess I am like your hero now huh?" she said jokingly.

"Whatever."

awwww poor sakura. well what did you think hu hu hu hu hu tell me tell me! please just take a few seconds out of your day and review okay thank you thank you.

love lovesflame