A/N: Lightning update. Insomnia is fun!

Disclaimer: Naruto no is mine.

Chapter title taken from Fadeaway by Celldweller.

One Week Later
The Southern Provinces of Fire Country

Sakura stayed at the back of the squadron. Neji Hyuuga led the group, scanning for any people who wished them harm with his Byakugan. Luckily they weren't facing shinobi but the enemy seemed to be everywhere. The rebels numbered in the thousands and were only gaining more and more pledges to their cause by the day.

"Sakura," Neji said just loudly enough for it to reach her ears, "We have a wounded man surrounded by enemies around the corner about 100 paces ahead. Naruto, you and I will engage while Sakura heals him and gets him out of there. Shikamaru and Ino, you guys stay close to Sakura and make sure no one gets in the way of her and the fallen comrade's escape."

They all nodded their understanding.

"GO!" Neji commanded once they reached the corner.

Sakura sprinted and dodged her way to the man down and instantly dropped to begin healing him and Shikamaru and Ino made sure none of the rebels got through to attack her while she did so.

Come on…open your eyes! Sakura thought as she willed her chakra to heal the man and soon his eyes did open.

"He's stable!" she cried out to no one in particular, but Neji seemed to hear her.

"Go, Sakura! Get him out of here!" He ordered while slinking through the sword swings of five rebels. Naruto meanwhile had his hands full with two especially large opponents and Shikamaru and Ino fought off three each.

"Can you walk?" Sakura asked the man to be met with confused blinks, Poor bastard can't even talk…She slung the man over her shoulder, evading a rebel's sword while at the same time kicking the rebel into a building.

"Nice hit, forehead!" Ino joked, trying to mask that she was struggling with her opponent's fast slashes.

"Tired already, pig?" Sakura called as she began weaving through the oncoming rebels to escape.

Ino connected a solid punch with the man's head, knocking him out, "Oh yeah, I can barely stay awake over here."

"See ya, when you get back!" Sakura was free to full out sprint back to their camp.

A Few Hours Later

"How are you feeling?" Sakura asked the man handing him some soup.

The man's eyes still looked tired but showed understanding, "Much better, arigato."

"That's good…well, I'll let you get your rest now." She stood and smiled as the man thanked her again. Once outside of the tent she caught sight of a man by the fire. "Identify yourself!" she called, kunai drawn.

"Sakura-sama!" the man answered with a bow, "Lady Tsunade requests your immediate return to the village."

"Right now?"

The man held back a snide comment such as, 'that is what immediate means after all', out of respect for his superior and nodded.

"But…the rebellion and this squad doesn't have another medic and—"

"A replacement has already been sent and will arrive shortly. We have to go right now, the Hokage says it's urgent."

That was all Sakura needed to hear. If her shisou was sending a messenger to her in the middle of the night it must have been a whole new special kind of urgent, so she packed her bags and left without another question. Until they reached Konoha of course.

~()~

"Tsunade-shisou!" Sakura exclaimed as soon as she arrived in the Hokage's office, "What happened?"

"Sakura, sit down. There's something…delicate I'm going to tell you. Now, I need your help with this and I didn't want this to be something that got sprung on you when you got back."

Her shisou's grim tone was concerning her. This sounds serious…What could this be about? She really needs my help? Even with the rebellion going on? A million other things went through her head all as she took her seat.

The Hokage began, "Uchiha Sasuke…" Shooting a nervous glance at her assistant Shizune sitting quietly in the corner.

Oh my God, he's dead. How should I react? Should this even affect me? What if he's not dead, though? What if he's done something even more awful? Started a cult…Blew up a country…Poisoned the world water supply…Her mind was going a million miles a minute. Thinking of at least sixty different crimes against humanity Sasuke Uchiha could've possibly committed before Tsunade even finished her short, simple sentence.

"…has returned to Konoha."

Her mind reached a screeching halt.

"Sakura?" Tsunade waved her hand in front of the dumbstruck rosette, "Earth to Sakura! Hey! Did you just hear me?"

"He's back?" She snapped back to reality.

"Yeah."

"In Konoha?"

"That would be what is implied by back, yes."

Sakura processed then slowly arrived at her next question, "Where is he?"

The Hokage nodded to Shizune, "Tell Ibiki to bring him in." The aid offered a quick affirmation then speed walked out to the room.

"Wait, bring him in? Right now? At this very moment?"

"Well, it'll take a minute or two for him to be brought up here but—"

"How is this not springing this on me?"

"I broke it to you slowly."

"Slowly? You said he's here then told Shizune to bring him in!"

"Yeah but I let you take seat—you know what? It's not important—What's important is that you understand the task I'm charging you with."

Sakura's interest and worry increased.

Tsunade continued, "I believe Uchiha Sasuke is withholding information that can be used against Kumo if we are to go to war. Morino Ibiki has been torturing him for the past 11 days and he needs medical treatment before he can undergo more if he is to survive."

"That's it?"

"Not exactly…you and he were teammates before. I want you to gain his trust and if possible find a weakness. Something we can use to make him give us the information.

"I understand," Sakura said meakly.

"Sakura, this is war, okay? You need to be ruthless, but at the same time you can't let him know you're part of the torture process. Play on everything you know about him. Everything. Dreams. Fears."

"Hokage-sama, I honestly don't know much more than you. Sasuke was always closed off from me. He just thought I was annoying, he didn't exactly confide in me…"

"Sasuke's not as closed a book as he'd have people believe. You know more than you think. Just try to replay memories from back then, anything small. Glances. Gestures. Twitches of emotion on that stoic fucking face of his. Anything, Sakura! This war could very well be determined by this."

The door opened. Shizune stepped through. A masked ANBU guard stepped through. Then ever so gracefully stepped through the last surviving Uchiha.

"Sasuke," Sakura stopped herself from saying any more.

His eyes stayed enticed by the floor. Blood, cuts, and bruises masked his handsome face. Sakura almost gagged at the sight of his lacerated hands. Fingers faced every direction they were never meant to face. His dirty bare feet had obviously been stepped on and slashed at viciously and the smell that came from them actually did make Sakura gag a little in her mouth. Despite all this Sasuke Uchiha stood tall like the god he thought he was.

"Sakura," Tsunade's voice shook her from her staring, "Attend to the Uchiha…now."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!"

Sakura stood up, pausing slightly when Sasuke's head raised to look at her. She averted her eyes and slinked around him to lead him and his ANBU guards to the hospital. Not a word was spoken by the time they reached the hospital. Sakura held the door open as the ANBUs stepped aside to allow Sasuke inside.

"We gave him a drug that makes it just about impossible for him to access his chakra, we'll be waiting in the front lobby." One ANBU guard said before he shut the door. Sakura had to shake herself from the slight paralysis cause by the ANBU guard's word choice. Just about impossible…just about…almost…not quite…Damn you syllogism.

Sakura looked at the shackles on her former teammate's wrists that coiled up his arms giving the impression his forearms were glued together. How the am I supposed to do this?

"The smaller one left it on the table."

Sakura jumped at the sound of his voice. So familiar, but almost unrecognizable. "Left what?" she shouted her question. Frustrated by her unsubtle fear.

"The key," he answered with his tranquil voice, "It's on the counter by the door."

Sakura looked over to where his eyes shifted, "So it is." Taking the key to the lock restraining him she silently decided, I'm not going to let him get to me. From this point I won't show weakness and I sure as hell won't show fear. The truth of it was, though, she wanted to run out of the room screaming. She was unraveling the binds of a monster. Releasing it. No, wait, he can't use his chakra. There's nothing he can do to me…just about…almost…not quite. She tried desperately to assure herself as she conducted her medical examination of Sasuke in silence. It seemed no matter how beat up he was, Sasuke Uchiha was still as fine as he was the day she first set eyes on him. Probably even more so.

Even with his filthy prison rags it was no difficult task to see the outline of his chest and abs. The several tears in the cloth revealed the pallid, alabaster skin of his that could peek out from the blood and dirt.

He had grown so much, towering over her even more than he did during their early adolescence.

Sakura tried to muster up the courage to speak again, but found her throat had different plans and had conspired with her tongue to betray her with a single sound, "Sss." She relied on a head bob to get the point across that she wanted Sasuke to sit on the edge of the bed so she could begin healing. Once he did so, Sakura decided to start out with his feet. She kneeled down and began to channel her chakra into the wound, healing it just enough for the wound to still be tender. She began to do the same with his hands.

Now the fun part: resetting the fingers.

"You know what I have to do with these right?" she asked with a little more hesitation in her voice than was to her liking.

Sasuke nodded his understanding.

Sakura counted and cracked his index finger back into place. To her surprise Sasuke didn't even jump at the pain. He just kept his eyes on her.

"Okay…that was good…uh, next one…two…three!"

Once again no reaction.

She prepared the next finger, rattled by his tranquility, "One…two…thr-"

"Don't look so terrified, Sakura."

Startled, Sakura accidentally snapped his ring finger the wrong direction. "Fuck!" The bone was poking out a bump in his skin, "Oh God!" She snapped it back and looked up to meet his tranquil dark gaze, "Doesn't it hurt?"

"Yeah," he replied solemnly. His muscles were still tensed and his jaw was tight.

"Then…why aren't you screaming?"

"If I screamed would it stop the pain?" She knew it was a rhetorical question and decided to just continue resetting the fingers. After she healed both his hands, Sasuke spoke again, "You can tell your Hokage she won't get anything out of me like this."

"And why not?"

"You can't hurt me into squealing what I know and begging for mercy."

Sakura scoffed, "You know, Sasuke, you're not as tough as you think you are."

"That's probably true," he admitted with a disappointed sigh, "But at least I'm a lot stronger than you all think I am…and the situation doesn't exactly help."

Sakura didn't like the excited tone in his voice one bit. And Sasuke knew that immediately.

He grinned, "Come on, Sakura. You know the only person in this pathetic place that stands a chance against me is Naruto, and where is he again?"

Shit, was the only thing she could think as her eyes were caught in his. She didn't think it was possible, but his eyes had grown even blacker than she had seen them last. Colder. Emptier.

"Tell your Hokage to just let me go. I'm offering this village the ultimate victory over Kumo if she would just let me restore my clan and die here in peace."

Sakura was about to tell him to go fuck himself before he grabbed her wrists. Tight.

"You wanna help?" he whispered cruelly. His eyes wide with primal stimulation.

"Help?" she asked. He only gripped tighter. "Sasuke, let go of me." She stayed calm on the outside, but in her head she was screaming. The longer she looked into the abysses of his eyes, the clearer it became to her that this was simply not her teammate. Something was coming over him. He stood up and pulled her closer to his chest. Reasserting how much bigger he was than her.

"Just calm down, I won't hurt you," his voice was even lower now. He lowered his neck to bury his nose in her neck, taking in her scent. "As long as you don't resist."

"Sasuke, stop." Sakura tried to manage some form of finality in her voice.

"Shut up." The finality in his voice was no question there.

Sakura tried to pull away but her defenses crumbled for her greater strength had been lost in his black eyes. Panicking, she used what was left in her to jerk her head away and quickly come back to head-butt him. She ran to the door and screamed for help before Sasuke took a handful of her hair, craning her neck back.

She made an effort to spit in his face, "Go to hell!"

He couldn't seem to hear her and soon Sakura lost her own thoughts in his wild laughter. She almost didn't hear the ANBUs opening the door. Their orders for her to release her were distant and fading still…She shut her eyes, ready for whatever would happen.

Sasuke's arms disappeared from her neck. "What did you just say?"

Sakura started gasping for air.

"What the fuck did you just say?" He yelled.

She looked up to see he was addressing her and not the ANBUs. "What are you talking about?"

Sasuke's eyes were wide. His hands trembling. Wait…Sasuke's hands didn't tremble. What the madness was this?

The ANBU guards took the opportunity to jump Sasuke and slap another pair of chakra handcuffs on him. He didn't fight them. Instead his head hung and his eyes strained to stay shut.

Sakura was still catching her breath by the time ANBU had taken him away.

What the fuck did I just say?

A/N: A tid bitsy longer you may have noticed. I hope ya'll enjoyed this third installment, I won't really now unless you review will I? Helpful suggestions extremely welcome.

P.S. Any 30STM fans out there that caught my oh so subtle reference ^_^?