Title: Bloodstained Hands, Bloodstained Nightmares

Summary: Sakura suffers from a repeating nightmare, and it's up to Sasuke to save her.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but HEY, I might as well because look who's NOT being an asshat.

Prompt: Phobia from day three of the SasuSakuMonth Prompts.

Rating: T

Words: 3,151

Warning(s): Language.

Author's Note: Still working on these prompts. Gotta love me some embarrassed/protective Sasuke!

Sakura jolted from her bed frantically, gasping for breath like a fish out of water and shivering uncontrollably. Her room was dark, illuminated only by the faint glow of the moon and streetlight from her window as well as the blaring red numbers on her alarm clock.

Two thirty.

Sighing, Sakura sank back on her pillows and rubbed a hand over the clammy skin of her forehead. It had only been a nightmare. After her heart rate and breathing had settled, Sakura brought her hands in front of face for inspection.

They were small hands, she supposed, dainty—especially for someone in her line of work. Callouses lined the pads of all of her fingers—a testament to long hours throwing kunai and demolishing boulders. Harlequin green nail polish, which was only applied this morning, chipped at the tips revealing jagged, torn, and abused nails.

But no blood.

Hands clenched into fists and collided, nearly-gentle, with her head as Sakura scrunched her eyes closed. Teeth ground against each other, and the muscles in her jaw were taut with tension.

There's no blood. They're alive. It was only a nightmare. Everyone's alive, she chanted breathing exaggeratedly deep breaths, There's no blood—she flopped onto her stomach, trying to find a more comfortable position—We all survived. Only a nightmare. That's all.

Returning to sleep ending up being a fruitless effort. Despite her serene expression, Sakura's insides were churning with what felt like acid, and she'd had her fair experience with the substance, thank you. No matter how long she tried to convince herself that her hands were clean, they still felt sticky, warm, with blood.

Their blood.

"That's enough of that," Sakura growled to the empty space, swinging her legs angrily over the side of the bed. She blinked blearily at the red numbers on her alarm clock that seemed to roll their eyes at her. It's only three-thirty, you sill woman, they scolded, go to bed.

"I know very well what time it is," she snapped, slipping entirely out of bed, "But I'm up now."

Up and talking to appliances. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Sakura paused before snatching her mug off the nightstand and stalking out of the room with as much dignity as she could muster. After, it was always best to study in the early morning, right?

She could feel her alarm laughing at her from behind her back.

_x_

"Woah, Sakura-chan, you look"—a glare from the pinkette prompted a quick change in what he was going to say—"great! You look totally awesome. Definitely great."

The woman in question opted not to say anything and strode past Naruto without saying a word. Her steps were angry, defiant, and an unconscious release of chakra had caused them to sink into the ground. Silently, Sasuke arched one eyebrow at Naruto who only shrugged in response. Sai kept his permanently-creepy smile on his face but the slight wrinkle between his eyebrows showed he was confused too.

Ignorant to the wary stares she was receiving, Sakura worked her body through her favorite yoga poses, relishing the refreshing strain on her muscles. She channeled her breathing purposely and blocked out all outside noises, focused only on the movements of her body. Three mugs of tea and hours of pouring over medical texts had done nothing to relieve her mind.

When her alarm had finally gone off at six forty five, the damn thing was laughing at her, Sakura was never more relieved for early morning practice. Maybe she just need a couple hours of pounding her teammates into the ground to take her mind off things.

Slowly rising from Downward Dog, Sakura opened her eyes as she rolled her shoulders. Sai, Naruto, and Sasuke were finishing their stretches up a couple paces away from her, and even Kakashi had arrived.

The sound of Sakura cracking her knuckles alerted her teammates that she was done stretching, and she smiled devilishly, "So! What are we doing today, Kakashi-sensei?"

Although Kakashi had not been on the scene for her Entrance, her cocked hip and upraised fist told him all he needed to know. Sakura was in the mood to cause some pain, and he was determined to not let it be his pain.

"I-I was thinking we could spar. It's been a while since you fought Sai, hasn't it?" Kakashi answered, veiling the slight tremor in his voice, "And Naruto and Sasuke always have something to work out."

"Will we be working on speed again?" While the question was addressed to Kakashi, her eyes were on her opponent, calculating. Naruto and Sasuke blew her out of the water with speed, but she had a slight advantage over Sai.

Kakashi had barely nodded when she pounced, slamming her knee towards Sai's unprotected side. The artist blocked her attack with his sheathed sword, and nimbly flipped to a respectable distance away from his opponent.

"Then what are you going to be doing, you lazy asshole?" Naruto demanded from beside Sasuke.

For once, they hadn't launched themselves at each other as soon as they heard the word "Go." Naruto glared at his sensei accusingly, but Sasuke directed his bland gaze towards his female teammate, following her every kick and punch.

"Oh, you know," Kakashi responded, whipping out his orange book and settling comfortably on the grass, "supervising."

Sasuke snorted at this, for all that his gaze was still directed at Sakura's fight, "Let's go, Dobe. Maybe today you can keep up with me."

"Fuck off, Sasuke! You can't touch me when I'm in sage mode."

_x_

"Good fight, Sai," Sakura finally announced, offering her fallen teammate a hand. She was covered in gashes and cuts from Sai's ink tigers and sword attacks, but she had never felt better.

Sai took her hand, and with her help he lurched to his feet, grabbing awkwardly at his side. Sakura punches had been fast and twice as furious this morning, and he had been unlucky enough to suffer some fractured bones.

"Here, let's get you over to that tree so I can heal you."

Sai allowed her to lead him over to the tree and sat down when she pressed on his shoulder. On the way to the ground, Sai winced, and Sakura's attention was drawn to his ribs. She felt mildly guilty for using him as a punching bag, but only mildly. More often than not it was her that walked from the training ground feeling like mincemeat.

Instead, Sakura's hands lit green as they worked on his damaged skeleton. Generally, patients felt a little pain when stitching fractures together, but Sakura had trained hard to develop an anesthetic byproduct in her chakra. Sai's posture relaxed under her touch, her chakra soothing the stinging in his chest, and he turned his oddly blank eyes towards her.

"So, Ugly, did sparring relieve your PMS?"

She twitched, itching to smack him, but eventually decided she had caused the boy enough damage today. Besides, he probably was just trying to start up a conversation.

"I'm not PMS-ing, Sai," she informed him tersely, moving to heal his fractured tibia, "I just didn't get enough sleep last night."

"Ah," Sai nodded sagely, coal eyes understanding, "That would explain your bloodshot eyes. I assumed you were just recovering from a hangover like your sensei."

"Look, Sai," she began to scold him finishing healing his leg. Yelling from behind her interrupted her lesson. Unlike Sasuke and Naruto's usual bickering, this was frantic. Confused, she turned to look behind to see what was wrong.

Sakura's face turned white.

Naruto was hobbling toward her with Sasuke flung across his shoulder, blood dripping down his face. She froze, locked temporarily back in her nightmares.

"…I didn't mean to, Sakura-chan! Teme just couldn't block my awesome fast move, and it knocked him unconscious!" Naruto was only a couple steps away from her, and suddenly her body snapped back into action.

"Quick, lay him down in the grass right there, Naruto," she commanded and Naruto scrambled to obey her. Sasuke's head lolled to one side as Naruto settled his body on the ground. Blood trickled dangerously from the gash in his head, obscuring most of his pale skin with the viscous crimson liquid. He looked so dead, so lifeless, that Sakura had to remind herself to breath.

She dropped to her knees beside him, barely feeling the wet grass against her skin. Hands encased in green hovered over his head, shaking, before closing the final inches between them. Her thumb smoothed the wound on his head first, and Sakura was relieved to find that it was actually quite small. Head wounds always did tend to bleed a lot. Soon after his skin stitched closed, Sasuke's eyes started to flicker open, and Sakura sighed a breath of relief. The chakra she poured into to his head only confirmed what she already knew.

"It's only a minor concussion," she breathed, withdrawing her glowing hands when Sasuke's obsidian eyes opened completely.

Sasuke blinked once then frowned, bringing a hand to his temple as he sat up slowly. Sakura sat back to allow him space, but flitted in closer and rested one green hand on his forehead. Sure, ninjas could recover from this point with some mild pain, but there were a couple perks to having a legendary medic as a teammate. Sasuke sighed as her hand pulsed on his temple and almost leaned into her palm for a millisecond before he straightened completely.

"There," she announced, clapping her hands together before she pushed on her knees to stand up, "Just go home and lie down for a couple hours. You're not in any danger, but you might be a little disoriented for a while."

"Aa," Sasuke grunted in response, his eyes narrowing as he caught sight of a certain yellow-haired ninja. Naruto had barely backed up a step before he was seized by the throat and lifted into the air.

"It's not my fault, you're too slow, teme!"

"Hn, chidori."

Sakura rolled her eyes and turned away from her squabbling teammates. Nothing new, but at the same time her heart felt lighter. For so long it had seemed that Team 7 would never be whole again, but here they were, bickering like normal.

A sticky sensation on her finger drew her attention, and she inspected her hand to find it coated in blood. Swallowing thickly, Sakura wiped the substance on her skirt. Yes, there was blood on her hands, but it was okay. They were okay.

"See ya later, Sai," she tossed over her shoulder, still not-so-casually wiping Sasuke's blood onto her clothes, "Tell the boys I had to shower before my hospital shift."

"I will, Ugly," Sai smiled, "Take a long one, it might help those unbecoming circles under your eyes."

Sakura's eye twitched, but she kept moving forward. He had probably been trying to be polite. Probably.

_x_

"No! Sasuke-kun, no!" Sakura screamed, surging up from her pillows. Her breaths came in shuttering sobs, and Sakura quietly allowed them to overcome her.

The nightmares had come again. Earlier that night she had been so convinced that she would get a solid night's sleep, worn out from a long day at the hospital. Her mind thought otherwise, apparently, and here she was, desperately hugging her knees.

It was only worse that the dreams had—nearly—no logical basis. Sakura had always been able to heal Sasuke and Naruto. There had only been one moment, one, where she thought she would lose them, but she hadn't. Her skills hadn't failed her. Her boys hadn't died. And that had been months, almost a year, ago!

So why was she tortured with this dream every night?

Stifling her last sob, Sakura desperately wiped her already clean hands on her sheets before swiping them over her tear-stained cheeks. The air was stifling, and despite the fact that Sakura had thrown all her blood stained garments in the wash before she fell asleep, the air was coated in the iron tang of blood.

Fresh air, she needed some fresh air.

That decided, Sakura threw on her light coat over her pajamas and strapped on some sandals. She was still buckling the last strap when she flung her door open and bolted into the night. Although she hadn't planned on running, her body was moving, moving quickly, frantically, and Sakura allowed her mind to be consumed with the motions.

Right foot. Left foot. Forward, jump. Turn, right foot. Left foot.

Eventually, Sakura's erratic heart settled into a steady, if elevated, pace, and the fog in her mind cleared. Footsteps slowed into an easy jog, and Sakura turned back towards her house. Maybe she could fall asleep now—

"Oof!" Sakura rebounded off something hard, and she landed on her butt with her hands splayed behind her. There was only a slight pause before she flipped back into a defensive stance, ready for whatever had attacked her.

"You should be asleep," a familiar voice scolded.

Obsidian eyes filled her vision, and Sakura lowered her guard. Sasuke stood before her, hair slightly mussed as if he had just woken up and hands in his pockets.

"So should you," she snapped back, sleep-deprivation making her angry. When Sasuke raised his eyebrows at her response, she sighed and swept her hand through her hair, "Sorry, Sasuke-kun, that sounded ruder that I intended. Are you okay? Sorry for running into you."

"I'm fine."

It was true. Sasuke didn't seem to have been displaced an inch by her barreling into him, and he didn't seem very shocked or surprised, either. Then again, Sakura wasn't sure "shocked" was in Sasuke's repertoire of emotions. Mildly surprised, maybe, but…

"You look like crap, Sakura," Sasuke interrupted her inner musings.

Scowling, Sakura self-consciously tucked a couple strands of pink hair behind her ear. His gaze was unblinking, and she felt horribly exposed under his eyes. She knew her eyes must be bloodshot after a couple of days on mere hours of sleep, and she was suddenly very aware of the hearts on her loose pajama shorts.

"Well, thank you so much, Sasuke-sama," she snarled, her voice much more aggressive than it ever was towards Sasuke. Her nose flared, and she moved to step past him, "If you'll excuse me, I'm going ba—"

His hand shot out and caught her bicep as she moved to pass him, warmth emitting from the grasp. Her body was spun back to face him, and Sasuke silently searched her face, eyes darting all over before settling on her own, "What's wrong, Sakura?"

The question put Sakura on the offensive, and Sakura's body tensed as if readying for a fight. Her mouth opened, ready to deliver a Sakura-style tongue lashing when his expression caught her.

Sasuke wasn't mocking her, or even teasing. His mouth was set in a tense line and his gaze was searching. He's serious, she realized with awe, and worried. Worried about me!

That's all it took for all of the fight to slip from her body. She sagged in his grasp, and her eyes found the ground.

"I've been having nightmares," she admitted, shuffling her foot on the sidewalk.

"About?" Sasuke prompted, and Sakura flinched, drawing her arms in towards her body. Sasuke reluctantly let her leave his grasp, and pulled back to observe her.

"You and Naruto dying," she whispered, holding herself even tighter, "I can't save you."

Sasuke sucked in a breath, "It's not up to you to save us, Sakura."

"Yes it is!" she yelled, jerking her chin up to glare at him, "I'm a medic, I'm your medic! How would you feel if Naruto died right in front of you, if I did?"

Sasuke blinked, slightly taken aback that she held herself so accountable for his well-being. He knew very well how he would feel if he wasn't able to save this fiery girl, and the though was enough to drive him outside on several occasions like tonight.

Sakura continued to glare at him, her emerald eyes sparking with anger. Sasuke met her gaze evenly, unsure of how to respond. Generally when that happened, he just didn't, but something about this situation seemed to demand a response. Behind the anger, Sakura was afraid.

And he didn't like that.

"Then don't fail," he finally said.

Sakura sputtered, gaze incredulous, "Great advice! Hadn't thought of that one! Just don't let you die, is that it? But what if I do fail, what if I can't save you?"

"You won't."

Her mouth closed abruptly, aware of the blush rising on his cheeks, made obvious only by the streetlights. He meant it. He believed in her. For the second time that night, any anger she felt flushed from her system, "Thanks, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke nodded stiffly in response, looking at her then glancing away. He cleared his throat before he looked back towards her again, "You should go to bed, now."

Her skin crawled at the thought of crawling back into bed at the moment, and Sakura smiled before shaking her head, "I don't think I can yet, Sasuke-kun. A couple more laps should do it, though."

Sasuke frowned. There was no way she would get enough sleep at the rate she was going. He had to make her go to bed. His cheeks flushed when he finally got an idea, and swallowed thickly. He wasn't being perverted; it was for her own good.

"Come with me."

"Where?" her question was innocent, and Sasuke raged internally. Did he have to spell it out for her?

"My house"— her gaze widened—"Just to sleep."

"Oh, no, Sasuke-kun. you don't have to do that. Really. I'll be fine. Promise," she held up her pinkie as if to pinkie-promise.

"Sakura," he growled, warning.

"I can take care of myself, Sasuke-kun."

"Obviously not."

"Says the hypocrite on a night walk."

"I have nightmares, too, Sakura!"

Both fell silent at the admission, and Sasuke raised his hand to pinch his nose with a sigh. Obviously, he hadn't meant to say that. He just got so worked up when Sakura argued with him.

"Just let me help you, Sakura," he finally broke the silence, only just dropping his hand from his face.

"Okay," she agreed after a pause, not moving.

Sasuke nodded jerkily and turned around, still not looking at her, and Sakura fell into place beside him. When Sasuke thrust his hand towards her, she didn't know what to do with it. Questioningly, she looked to him to find his blush had even moved to the tips of his ears, and realized he meant for her to hold it.

Nervously, Sakura accepted his hand, and allowed him to pull her towards Uchiha manor.

No, they weren't perfect. Yes, they were broken. Definitely, they had their share of skeletons in the closet. Yet, as Sasuke's hand wrapped tightly around hers, Sakura couldn't help but feel that whatever fears plagued them, they could face them together.

There we go! Day three up and ready. Comments are welcomed!