Author's Note: Two words: Exam Week.

IMPORTANT: Sakura will do something stupid. You will shake your head and tell me it is OOC. I will laugh at you, because if you really think about it, about the situation, and about the evolution, it's not.

Thank you so much for the reviews, and the views. Your love is my inspiration.

Chapter Three

:::Scandalous:::…

Kakashi stared from Sakura, to Naruto, to Sasuke. He frowned.

Sakura was by the fire. The sleeves of her sweater were rolled up as she handled the fish in the fire with her gloved hands, sweat beading down her face despite the coldness of the weather. She hadn't said a word since she had knelt by the fire and began to cook the food. Kakashi felt bad for not being able to break the stereotype, but the other two men were currently out of the question.

Naruto sat between Sakura and Sasuke, one knee drawn to his chest with his hand resting on it. He was frowning, an expression foreign to his tanned face. He, too, hadn't said a word and had seemed to be in deep thought since he sat down, his eyes straying from Sasuke's direction from time to time, to Sakura's direction.

The Uchiha hadn't moved since he was covered in the blankets. Despite the sweat rolling down his face, he was shivering, his teeth quietly chattering together. Kakashi feared his condition to be worsening, especially with the severe lack of nutrition he had encountered in the past few months.

Kakashi pushed himself from the side of the cabin and crossed the porch to where the fire burned. He tapped Sakura softly on the back.

"I want you to give Sasuke a checkup on his condition. I'll take the cooking from here," he said.

Sakura frowned. "I can't understand a single thing you say with that stupid mask on, Kakashi-sensei."

Tired for the night, Kakashi pointed at Sasuke, then pointed at his own eyes, trying to indicate a checkup. He did a few more pointless hand gestures and movements, unsure of what he was really doing. Sakura seemed to understand, though. The distaste on her face said it all. She stood up, handing the sticks of fish to Kakashi, and walked to where Sasuke lay shivering.

Naruto felt the sudden presence of warmth and moved his head in Sakura's general direction, curious.

The rosette pulled the covers of the blanket back from Sasuke's neck, exposing him from the waist up. At the sudden blow of cold, Sasuke's bloodshot eyes shot open and he stared around for the cause. Seeing Sakura, his blue-tinged lips quirked into a silent snarl.

"Now, now, Sasuke," Kakashi said from the other side of the fire. "You're getting worse as it is. We don't have a medic-nin on our team for nothing. Just let her take care of you for a few moments."

"Calm down, you bastard," Naruto spoke up and moved on his knees to grope for Sasuke's arms. "I'll hold you down if I have to."

Sasuke did nothing to show objection. He watched as Sakura's hands moved over his forehead, his nose, his neck, his chest. The faint green glow hurt his eyes and he shut them, feeling a powerful wave of nausea wash over him.

"He'll be feeling tired and sick," Sakura explained to no one in particular. "And his body temperature needs to rise one more degree, but then he'll have a fever for a few hours. Nothing he can't sleep off."

She didn't comment about the lack of nutrients in his body or the unusual way his shirt clung to his torso.

"Can he eat something?" asked Naruto, exaggerating his mouth movements so Sakura would see his words.

"He can, but he might not hold it down."

Sasuke gave her a look that said he would hold down his food or die trying.

"Good. Because dinner's ready. Let's get inside, shall we?"

Naruto had set up the "dinner table" in the cabin while Sakura had been cooking the fish, trying to make himself useful. Without the availability of plates, he had plucked the largest leaves he could find from nearby trees, setting out the chopsticks they had brought with them.

Remembering that Sasuke's muscles were constricted, the blond turned in the direction of the Uchiha slowly removing the blankets completely from his sweating body.

"You'll need to put on something heavier than just a t-shirt," said Kakashi, helping Sasuke stand despite the struggles he received. "We can't have that sweat dry from the cold. Do you think you can walk?"

Naruto could tell Sasuke was absolutely fuming; he imagined the sweat on the pale flesh turning into steam and rising into the cool night air. He tried imagining what it must be like to be babied like that. Kakashi had probably noticed Sasuke's anger, but he would rather have Sasuke not die and face the storm later.

Sakura had already placed the fish on the four leaves at the dinner table and placed a bottle of water in the center.

"This dinner will have to do until we get to the nearest village," Kakashi announced as he helped Sasuke take a seat and placed a blanket around his shoulders. He sat down next to the brooding boy and slid a pre-written index card across the table to Sakura. No one had the energy left to snort. "We'll be waking up early in the morning to continue on. The nearest village should be about five hours from here. We'll have one break in between, but watch out. There may or may not be enemies already beginning to search for us. I don't expect them to come now since we're so far away, but keep on your toes. I –"

"Itadakimasu!"

Naruto favored his growling stomach over Kakashi's instructions. He slapped his hands together, bowed, his head, and then immediately attempted to dig into his fish without another thought. Kakashi smiled slightly.

"More instructions in the morning, I guess," he said before staring at his fish.

All three of his students stared at him from the corner of their eyes, watching him (even Naruto, who knew he would get nowhere). Watching him. He was moving his hands to the chopsticks, one finger at the edge of his mask, ready to pull it down –

"Oh!" he said. "I forgot to wash my hands! How rude of me! Excuse me for a few moments."

And when he left, there was a sudden burst of simultaneous sighs.

So close . . .!

Sasuke picked at his fish with his chopsticks, unable to bring himself to swallow a bite. The wooden sticks between his fingers clicked together with the unsteadiness of his hand, sliding across the skin of the fish, puncturing random holes here and there. Naruto pretended he didn't hear the obvious frustration; he could imagine Sasuke's wounded pride and did not know how many more hits it could take before it bled to death.

Kakashi did not come back for a long time. Sakura and Naruto had already finished their dinner. It was then that the three realized there was no actual plumbing in the wooden cabin; Yamato could make chairs, tables, stairs, and provide futons, but there was no way he could suddenly install plumbing. When the silver-haired man sauntered through the door, he waved slightly, smiled, and sat back down.

"Ah, done already? Go walk around to digest and then it's off to bed with you two." He looked to the Uchiha who had taken three bites of the white flesh of the fish that had caused the chain reaction that led to his hypothermia. "You've barely eaten. At this rate, you'll have no energy to continue with the mission tomorrow."

Sasuke shook his head with no apparent meaning and continued to pick at his fish, bringing a bite to his lips in hopes of satisfying Kakashi. No such luck. The odd sensei only watched as Sakura went upstairs and Naruto left the cabin before turning to the Uchiha again.

"Your nutrient levels are drastically lowering again," he said seriously. "You've got to eat for energy. And would it kill you to get along?"

It's almost killed me, Sasuke thought, grimacing. He let another piece of fish slip past his lips and chewed slowly.

Kakashi lowered his voice. "I don't know how you were fed during those two weeks of torture, or how Orochimaru treated you, but obviously, something happened with your diet. This is the time to fix it."

Fed? Ha!

All Kakashi heard was silence.

"Fine. But I'm not the one that sleeps in the same room as Naruto. If I can't get to you, that boy will."

Kakashi stood, taking his empty leaf with him. Sasuke vaguely wondered when Kakashi had eaten his fish; perhaps he was superhuman, something beyond comprehension. He stopped thinking when another wave of nausea passed through his body to rattle his bones and he lurched forwards in sickness.

Six bites were enough, it seemed.

He followed Kakashi's suit, disposing of his food in a compost pile by the cabin, and then sluggishly heading upstairs. His hands unconsciously clenched the blanket around his shoulders tighter. His room was empty when he got there and he took advantage of that fact, casting the world aside as he fell onto his futon, the blanket still wrapped tightly around him.

Naruto entered seconds later. Sasuke heard him moving around heavily, feeling the walls with his hands and the floor with his feet. He turned around to find the blond staring in his general direction, a frown on his face. To get his attention, Sasuke tried to snap his fingers with his defrosting muscles. Naruto seemed to understand and walked forwards, feeling around for where he remembered Sasuke's futon to be. He outstretched his hand, palm facing up. Sasuke sat up with difficulty to write.

A-R-E Y-OU N-O-T G-O-I-N-G T-O L-E-C-T-U-R-E M-E?

He saw Naruto grip his shoulders with surprising gentleness, pushing him back down to the mat and groping for the hem of the blanket to pull to Sasuke's chin.

"Sleep, Sasuke," Naruto told him tiredly.

He didn't say anything else for the rest of the night. Sasuke was sure of that. He didn't sleep for the rest of the night.

It was the middle of the night when Kakashi's eyes opened lazily at the sudden noises coming from the hallway. Someone was running – with difficulty, it sounded – down the stairs. Loudly. He waited for a few seconds, trying to decipher who could possibly be waking in the middle of the night and moving around so carelessly. It couldn't possibly be Sasuke. Perhaps it was Sakura since she could not hear the noise she made, or Naruto, who was usually loud.

Suddenly, from outside, Kakashi heard the sound of vomiting.

Hm. He was wrong.

It was definitely Sasuke.

The fish and hypothermia had probably had one hell of a battle in his stomach, and now the hypothermia had won and out went the fish. Kakashi grimaced when he heard Sasuke retch violently again and vaguely wondered if Naruto could hear him. Probably not. Naruto would be out there making a huge fuss if he had.

Sighing, Kakashi thought it was time to play sensei and student again. He slowly made his way downstairs, hands in the pockets of his loose pants, feet padded by socks. The cabin door was open and so Kakashi leaned in its frame, watching Sasuke empty his stomach next to the trunk of a tree.

"I don't think you're doing it right," he remarked casually. "I thought the food was supposed to stay in your stomach."

Sasuke shot him a vehement look that held no real threat behind the rolling obsidian eyes. He collapsed by the tree, panting heavily, utterly exhausted and shivering in his t-shirt sans blanket.

"I know you mind, and I know you'd probably try and hurt me if it was any other day, but I'm going to pick you up." Kakashi moved towards the Uchiha and stood over him for a few seconds. "You'll be in bed a lot faster than if you struggled and kicked and caused a hissy fit. Right? This'll only take a moment."

Sasuke wasn't even registering the words that Kakashi was saying. They came out as one long drone of words, "Uhhruuhbuuffaasskk." He vaguely felt something beneath his back and his knees, and he thought he was being lifted into the air for a second before he was back on his soft futon, the blanket around him once more.

As Kakashi left the room, he pretended he didn't see the tears that glistened on Naruto's cheeks.

Light poured in plentifully from the windows of Sakura's room, forcing the varnished wood to glisten and the air to warm as it danced and flickered through the gaps of the tree leaves outside. It shone over Sakura's peaceful visage in an attempt to wake her up. "Rise and shine," it said quite literally. Sakura obeyed. She opened one eye, and then the other, blinking lightly as she pushed herself up from the ground and rubbed her eyes.

She felt refreshed and briefly wondered how long she'd slept, and if anyone else was awake. Perhaps she could wash up in the river. Yes, that was what she would do. She sat up and stretched, moaning, and finally stood at last to venture out of her room in her bedroom robe.

The door to the boys' room, she noticed, was slightly ajar. She found it odd. Surely Sasuke, who valued privacy as the highest of all virtues, would close his door. Unless Naruto left in the middle of the night to answer the calls of nature. Either way, she had to pass the door on the way to the stairs; staring in wouldn't hurt.

Naruto was splayed out as usual, his bare chest visible from the top as his robe was undone, blankets helter-skelter, and arms and limbs at odd angles. Sasuke was gone.

Sakura narrowed her eyes.

His futon was pushed neatly into the corner, his robe folded above the equally-neat blankets. His bag was missing, too. Suddenly, Sakura's eyes widened.

Sasuke had escaped!

He had left in the middle of the night, using the opportunity to finally be able to leave without someone stopping him! That low, dirty, son of a –

Sakura saw the flicker of a figure from the window in the boys' room. Without a moment's hesitation, she flew down the stairs, wrenching open the door to run outside. The wooden floor of the porch was cold against her bare feet and the grass was even more so, wet with dew that tickled at the soles of her feet as she ran with determination to the back of the cabin where the trail into the forest began.

She could see Sasuke's figure in the near distance, bag slung over his shoulder, something in his hand and out of her vision. Summoning every bit of adrenaline that came to her at that instance, Sakura propelled herself forward in determination to reach his figure.

Rational thinking be damned.

"You!" she called out in a voice she was sure was not a whisper.

She saw Sasuke stop, but not turn around. Only when she was five paces away did her feet demand to stop.

"How dare you think you could run away again?!" she blurted. "After everything the village has been through to bring you back, after everything we've done, how dare you think that you could just get up and try to escape again and –"

Sasuke turned around.

She stopped.

Oh.

In his hands was a basket of assorted food from the forest, including a colorful array of berries and herbs. Sakura could feel her face heating up. How could she let her emotions win over her logic? How could she let herself blurt those words and embarrass herself in front of the one person she did not want to embarrass herself in front of?! She couldn't bring herself to stare at Sasuke's face. It was only then that she realized how thankful she was that he couldn't speak.

But she could see the handle of the wooden basket begin to break with the strength of Sasuke's fisting hand. She allowed herself a moment's glance at his face and once she did, she couldn't look away. He was definitely angry. His slender eyebrows were drawn together, his bloodshot eyes ablaze, and his mouth was forming words she could not hear. But she could faintly make out the angry rant.

Are these the conclusions you jump to? he visibly spat. Is that the reputation I have in your mind? Am I always going to be a traitor? Take a good look at yourself! You're still in your yukata!

When she read these words from his lips, she gasped and turned around, one hand unconsciously going to close the opening of her bedroom yukata. She stared at her feet where she just began to feel the threatening weather.

How could she . . .?!

This was beyond embarrassing. She vaguely wondered why she cared so much; it was just Sasuke. Just Sasuke. Just the boy she had had a crush on since forever. Just the man she claimed was a traitor. Just the person who was staring at her then and there for her lame explanation, for an apology, for anything that would soothe the anger that was surging through his veins.

"I . . . I . . ."

She had no words. What was she supposed to tell him? "Yes, Sasuke, I thought you were betraying us again" or "You son of a bitch, how dare you accuse me of caring?"

His face did not relax and he, instead, began walking in the direction she had come. She could see his faint shivers beneath the cloak he had put on, the darkness beneath his tired eyes, feel the coldness radiating from his body, but she did not miss the words from his lips:

You're annoying.

And just like that, déjà vu.

She didn't move until she was sure he had rounded the side of the cabin and disappeared. Frustration was building quickly in her, but her eyes were dry. Crying? For Sasuke? Because of him? She'd done enough of that and vowed never to do so again.

Slowly, she began the awkward trek back to the cabin.

Sasuke was in the main room when she returned. He was emptying out the contents of his bag onto a large leaf set out on the dining table: wild apples, uprooted herbs, and wild roses. These fell beside the basket of dark red chokecherries, mints, and wintergreens. The Uchiha did not cast a single glance at the entering figure, nor did he give any sign that he noticed her existence at all. He merely carried on putting the food into piles and emptying the dirt from his bag outside.

When Sakura reached the stairs, Sasuke finally raised his head to stare at her retreating figure. His eyebrows furrowed again.

What had their relationship come to? It was like Sasuke had never existed before he left. Everything he had been through as a team with the rosette had never happened. He was now just a stranger. A traitorous stranger.

Kakashi descended the steps as Sasuke had been putting the herbs into a basket.

"Oh? You're up early." He leaned onto the table, rubbing his visible eye from sleepiness. "And it looks like you've been busy. How are you feeling?"

Sasuke did not grace the man with an answer of any kind. He shoved as many of the leafy herbs as he could into the basket.

"Wintergreen?" the whimsical sensei carried on anyway. "Are you feeling sick? These aren't exactly the best-tasting berries to get."

Sasuke shot him a pointed look. No, he thought sarcastically. I was throwing up outside because I'm worried about my figure.

"Why don't we get Naruto to wash those herbs for you? You're still shivering. I brought some herbs along with me and I'll ask Sakura if she has any more."

Sasuke laughed humorlessly in his head. Ask Sakura? For him? What a joke! He shook his head and continued out with the basket, but Kakashi stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. A single gray eye stared at him sternly.

"I insist."

The basket was released with a sigh. Sasuke nodded his head, indicated that he would leave to wake up Naruto, and trekked slowly upstairs. Kakashi watched him go with a knowing look in his eyes before he pulled out his infamous orange-covered book, grabbed the basket of herbs, and left.

Sasuke was surprised to find Naruto already awake and – an even greater surprise – folding his futon into the corner. The blond immediately turned in his direction and smiled.

"Sasuke!" he announced loudly. "It's definitely Sasuke. Kakashi would've said something by now, and I can hear Sakura in the other room. Or you're an enemy ninja, but I'd probably be dead by now. Or hurt. Or being tortured. So you're Sasuke, right?"

He received a flick on the ear.

"Yeah, you're Sasuke."

Naruto felt his hand get taken and allowed Sasuke to lead his fingers to his futon; he didn't comment on the iciness of the fingers that guided him. A question mark was drawn on the palm of his hands and he understood.

"I don't normally do this, huh?" he said with a sheepish smile. "I just don't want to trip on the mat when I go back into the room. It makes things a lot easier." He felt Sasuke's finger tap his temple and he smiled, swatting at the Uchiha's hand. "Let's eat breakfast and leave really quickly! I want to get some action today and try out the new chakra-sensing tip Kakashi-sensei gave me!"

His wrist was being tugged on and he complied, getting up from the floor to follow after Sasuke (or an enemy ninja unusually good at imitating Sasuke?) out, down the stairs, and to a seat at the dining table. He felt Sasuke's presence leave and two more figures come closer.

"What's for breakfast?" he asked, groping the leaves on the table.

"Lots of fruit." That was Sakura's voice, coming from in front of him. Naruto thought it sounded a bit off, like there was another emotion cutting into her voice box. "Wild berries, herbs, and other fruit to give you a bit of energy until we reach the nearest town."

"I didn't know we packed berries."

"Sasuke got them for us." Kakashi. To the left. Cheerful. Naruto immediately knew he had been reading his book of perversions – there was just a certain tone that he hadn't realized until then. "I was out back washing them. Don't look so surprised, Sasuke. I pulled the water from the ground with a water-based jutsu. That's the beauty of knowing multiple elements." A pause, and then, "Why so quiet, kiddies?"

"What's the plan, Kakashi-sensei?" interrupted Sakura.

Naruto still felt unnerved at the permanent darkness placed upon him, but he had begun to pick up on little things that he had never noticed before. Like the tone of voices Kakashi and Sakura had, and the differences in them depending on what happened. Or like the sliding of the card now as he knew Kakashi was giving Sakura another pre-written index card of instructions.

"I'll be working with Sakura as we head to the nearest town. That means Sasuke and Naruto are leading. We'll take a small break, stock up on a few things, have lunch, and then head back out. Our destination village is three towns from here. It'll take an easy week to get there. So let's have some breakfast, pack our things, and vamoose."

Naruto did not like the odd, tensional silence that ensued. His tongue felt heavy in his mouth, unable to come to life to spark up conversation. He knew something had happened between Sasuke and Sakura again. What he didn't know was what had happened, and it was frustrating him. The sole reason they were doing this mission was so they could be a normal team again, but if the two of them kept acting like more of a child than he himself acted, they wouldn't get anywhere!

"Don't eat too many chokeberries," Sakura said randomly in the midst of the silence. Naruto couldn't tell who she was talking to. "They're the smallest berries, Naruto. You're reaching for one right now."

"Why not?"

He put one into his mouth and immediately regretted his decision. The bitter taste that burst over his taste buds was overwhelming. He spat the foul thing out on the ground next to him and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Eat too many and the bitter taste will stay in your mouth for a long time."

"Why the heck did you pick these things, Sasuke?" the blond accused. "Does being mute affect your sense of taste, too?"

"They're a great source of Vitamin C," Kakashi commented casually as he picked up a handful of berries. "Hurry up and eat. We need to leave."

They ate their breakfast and left the cabin soon after that, heading into the trees to resume their journey. Kakashi stayed behind with Sakura as he had instructed. Naruto was forced behind Sasuke in order to locate the chakra from Sasuke's feet, effectively making the Uchiha the lead.

"I'm not going to let you stop until you learn how to read my lips through my mask," Kakashi said, handing her a pre-written index card anyway. "Try to pick up on certain ways my mask moves when I make vowels. I'm not the only person who will wear some kind of obstructing cover-up; you could be up against enemies with masks like ANBU, and then you'd really be in trouble. You'll have to learn to observe body language as well."

He stared at her as she read the words from the index card and nodded.

"Now, to speed up this lovely process, I'm going to hit you." He smiled. "But before I hit you, I'm going to tell you where I'm going to hit you. If you can't read my lips, you can't block the hit. Okay? Let's start, shall we?"

He began before she could even finish reading and send him a wary glance. "I'm going to hit you on your left shoulder," he said seconds before he reached out to tap her powerfully on her left shoulder. She stumbled suddenly, dropping from the branch she had just landed on.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she screeched as she fell to the branch below, managing to land correctly.

Naruto and Sasuke, hearing her screech, turned around in alarm and confusion at the ongoing. Kakashi had landed next to her and hit her on her right shoulder.

"Oi!" Naruto yelled. "What the heck do you think you're doing?"

"Training!" was the cheerful reply. "Sakura, I'm going to send a jolt of electricity into your left knee. Block my right arm."

She couldn't understand and felt her knee jerk uncontrollably suddenly.

"Are you crazy?! Stop that! She can't hear you!"

T-H-A-T-S T-H-E P-O-I-N-T O-F T-H-E T-R-A-I-N-I-N-G, he felt Sasuke write quickly into the palm of his hand. He did not relax and instead searched for a hint of Sakura's chakra. It was motionless on a branch a few meters behind them, and Kakashi's chakra was quickly advancing on her.

S-T-O-P W-O-R-R-Y-I-N-G.

Naruto tried to relax, knowing that Kakashi would never let Sakura get hurt. The thought did not help his instinctive reaction to the gasp of surprise he suddenly heard from his female teammate. With a forced sigh, he turned around to follow the Uchiha whose chakra traces were beginning to fade from the trees.

"Read, Sakura," Kakashi commanded his student as they took off into the trees again. "You have to learn quickly in a battle. Pretend you're analyzing the enemy's jutsu tactics. What seals does he use? How does he use them? Think quickly and analyze my facial movements. I'm speaking to you right now. What am I saying?"

Sakura set her jaw, clenching her teeth in determination. She did not focus on predicting Kakashi's moves, but rather on the movement of his lips, trying to notice the quirks.

"Say 'avocado'," she told him as he hit her on the arm.

Kakashi shook his head. "Don't try to manipulate your enemies," he told her. "They're not going to obey what you say. Figure out a different tactic. Do something –"

She slapped him across the face.

Just before the puff of smoke, before the clank of the replacement log, she took a good look at his facial expression. The surprise at the unexpected slap had sent his eyes wide. He had let out an astonished "Ah!" that opened his mouth and wrinkled his mask at the sides of where she assumed his lips to be.

"Bingo," she said with a devious smile. "One vowel."

She couldn't hear his laughter, but she knew he was drowning in amusement as he appeared in front of her, clapping his hands.

"You sneaky little devil," he said, more confident in his words knowing Sakura could not hear him. "I expected a hit to the gut, but not a girlish smack to the face."

"It's like a cryptogram," she told him when she assumed he had finished speaking. "If I get one letter, I can get them all eventually."

"It's too bad Naruto's missing all this action. If he'd seen you slap me, he would never let me live it down. Oh, and I'm going to hit you on your left arm."

Sakura blocked his hit.

He was not surprised.

"How did you know?" he asked.

As if anticipating the question, she smiled triumphantly. "You used the vowel I'd just gotten out of you. Since you aren't attacking anything out of the ordinary, like certain arteries, and you call the abdomen the 'gut' when you talk, I assumed you were going to attack my arms. And since you've been pretty inclined to the left side of my body, I thought it was safe to say that you'd attack my left arm."

"I'm impressed, Sakura." Kakashi was not lying. The feeling he got whenever someone mastered something he'd taught him or her, whenever they surprised him, whenever he could call himself a sensei was not a feeling he would ever forget. And he was feeling it right now. "You've really grown."

He did not miss the glance she sent at the boys that were merely specks in the distance now.

Naruto was behind Sasuke by a single branch. He turned to him suddenly, a twisted frown on his face. "I know you're really tired." When Sasuke did not reply, he continued. "Are you still feeling sick?"

Sasuke shook his head pointlessly. He knew Naruto knew it was a lie, but the blond dropped it. Sasuke thought the Apocalypse was coming – Naruto had dropped a subject? The blond usually went at it until Sasuke was forced to punch him.

"So how do you think the mission is going so far?" Naruto tried to strike up conversation instead.

Sasuke did nothing.

The blond sighed. "Why'd you have to be the mute one?"

Nonetheless, the silence continued for a while. There was the occasional faint sound of a gasp or a puff of smoke from behind them, but other than that, silence. Not even the birds had bothered to wake up. There was no breeze to ruffle the leaves of the trees, no rushing water of the river, no local squirrel with an acorn. The forest was silent, and it was unnerving Naruto. There was nothing for him to listen to so that he could overcome the terror of the darkness that shot up from time to time. No distractions.

He concentrated on Sasuke's bursts of chakra and nothing else.

It went on like that for three long hours before Naruto finally collapsed onto a branch in exhaustion. Sasuke joined him, trying to mask the exhaustion that shook every bone in his body as he leaned against the trunk of the tree and panted harshly.

"I'm guessing it's time for a break."

Kakashi descended the branches, Sakura not too far behind. Sakura sported a small cut along her temple that she sat to heal.

"I need ramen . . ." Naruto moaned. "I need it to keep my energy up! Right, Sasuke?" He groped for the boy he heard to his right, snagging Sasuke around the hem of his pants on accident and pulling them down so that the edge of his boxers was visible.

Sasuke quickly slapped Naruto's hand away and pulled his pants back into place as Sakura turned away and Kakashi let out a bout of laughter.

"Okay, let's rest for a few minutes –"

"A few minutes?! Kakashi-sensei, I need an eternity!" Naruto flung himself against the branch of the tree and hugged it tightly. "Ramen . . ."

"Sasuke's not looking so great, either, but the town we need is only two hours from here. It's better to keep moving and rest over there without the danger of enemies."

"But you said that there won't be any enemies now since we're too far away."

"I said that there's a possibility they won't be here."

"Kakashi-sensei . . ."

Sakura was staring into the distance. Kakashi frowned.

"I know."

Sasuke was suddenly staring into the distance as well, his eyes narrowed. Naruto felt the sudden shift of the atmosphere, but he could not draw enough energy to sense the chakra in the distance.

"What's going on?" he asked seriously.

"We've got company."

And just as Kakashi finished the sentence, a kunai embedded itself into the trunk inches away from Naruto's cheek. The blond rose with a start and stared around uselessly, adrenaline beginning to seep into his veins. Kakashi cursed inwardly; he had not been expecting visitors despite what he had told his students.

"There are three of them nearby," he said. "Another one is coming. Be careful."

He did not want them to engage in battle too soon. Sakura had not yet learned to detect her enemies without hearing. Naruto had not learned how to battle at all without sight. And Sasuke was too weak to battle. This would not end well.

"Two of them are of Chunin level," Sakura said, focusing her energy on their traces. "One of them is a Jounin."

A flurry of kunais came through the trees. Naruto barely had enough time to dodge the sounds of whooshing air. He rolled off of the branch to land on the one beneath him, taking out a kunai of his own and staring in the direction he assumed the kunais had come from.

"I'll be right back," Kakashi said with a forced smile on his face before he disappeared in a puff of smoke. He was going to try and find the enemy before the enemy found his students.

Sasuke was trying his best to blink away the double images of the trees in front of him. He felt completely nauseated, his stomach threatening to return his breakfast, his head whirring with images moving too quickly for his liking. His eyes tried to make out the figures that moved quickly in the shadows.

And suddenly, he found himself pinned against the bark of a tree.

A woman stared down at him. Her Grass headband reflected in the poor lighting that came from the canopy of the trees, holding up the bangs of her short red hair. She sneered.

"You're a pretty one," she said, dangerously close to Sasuke's face. "A little hot in the literal sense. You sick, kid? And here I was, hoping you'd put up a good fight –"

Sasuke disappeared, and there was a sudden trickle of blood flowing down her legs. She whipped around to find the Uchiha on his knees, one hand on the kunai he had just embedded into her thigh. In anger, she let out a frustrated yell and sent a kick aimed at Sasuke's side. He caught her leg, but the force knocked him from the branch and he landed with a powerful thud on his back.

Naruto was having troubles of his own. Exhausted, he could not bring himself to detect any chakras, and his knees shook as he strained to stand, kunai out in front of him for protection. A shadow danced around him and there a sudden rumbling from above. He turned to look up just before a rockslide came falling in his direction.

Unsure of what it was exactly that was falling, and where, Naruto quickly jumped to the side to where he assumed a branch stood waiting for him to land on.

There was no branch.

He yelled in surprise as his foot touched nothing and he began to fall through the air. His arms flailed desperately to grab onto anything, anything to stop him from falling. His heart leapt in his chest. Where was he falling? How far off of the ground was he? Was there another branch? Terror ate away at his heart and he began to sweat profusely, hands still scrambling to grab for something.

A surge of pain flared up on his arm and his hand instinctively went to inspect it. Blood flowed freely from his fingers. Someone had cut him with a sharp object – a kunai? a sword? a shuriken? – and he was still falling.

Sakura was doing her best to fight a ninja of her own. He was a young male, covered from head to toe in camouflage. He battled with a short sword that Sakura had no problem dodging and retaliating. She sent a sudden punch he had assumed was aimed at his head, and when she missed, he smirked.

"Nice try, kitten," he said.

Sakura smirked, too.

And then the tree she had hit gave a sickening crack and began its fall to the ninja's body. He dived out of the way with moments to spare, but Sakura was right there to attack back, managing to land a punch in his gut that knocked the wind out of him and sent him hurtling to the floor.

And then, he disappeared.

Sakura yelled in frustration and averted her eyes to the next chakra presence she felt. It was the woman who had assaulted Sasuke. She stood over the fallen Uchiha with her short sword in hand, one foot on his gut as he lay motionless on his back. Sakura could see the violent shivering that wracked his frail body. She could see the swirl of his Sharingan as he tried to counter the attack, tried to do anything to show he wasn't weak, to show he wasn't pushed into a corner.

"Aaaahhh!"

The anguished cry erupted from below her, but Sakura did not hear it. She did not hear the sickening schlup as the blade of a sword pierced Naruto's shoulder and pinned him to a tree branch. She did not hear the mocking voice of the ninja that had wounded him, teasing him, "Oh-hoh, he's blind! A blind ninja! This is priceless!" And she did not hear the strangled yelp of pain that signaled Kakashi's return.

It wasn't he that had given the yelp of pain.

In an instant, Kakashi appeared on the floor beneath Sakura, dropping the Chunin she had just battled with on the ground, along with the unconscious body of the Jounin and a profusely-bleeding Naruto. In another flash of silver hair, the woman standing over Sasuke was gone and was now unconscious on top of the Jounin.

And Kakashi? Kakashi was livid.

Sakura descended to the floor just as Kakashi was laying Naruto flat-out of the grass. She gasped suddenly. The edge of a sword was plunged completely into the blond's shoulder. Naruto was gritting his teeth against the pain, flinching with every touch from Kakashi.

Kakashi caught Sakura's attention, pointed to Naruto, and pretended to pull the sword out as he pointed up to the trees. Sakura nodded in understanding and watched him shoot into the sky.

"Hey, Naruto," she said, her voice wavering slightly. "That was really unexpected, right? They just came out of nowhere."

"What are you talking about, S-S-Sakura?" Naruto managed to grind out. "Where's Kaka –"

His mouth opened in a silent scream.

Sakura had pulled the sword out when he had been distracted.

The sickening sound of the sword as it retreated from muscle and skin went unheard by Sakura as she quickly tossed the rod of metal to the side and began pumping chakra into Naruto's wound. She saw his mouth open again, tears of pain brimming his eyes, as he gave a scream of agony that she couldn't hear.

Kakashi appeared again with Sasuke's arm around his shoulders. He let the Uchiha slide onto the floor and then stood back to inspect Naruto's condition.

"This shouldn't have happened," he said more to himself than to his students. He was angry at himself. "You shouldn't have gotten hurt."

His sent his flaming glance at the stirring bodies set to the side, and at the snarling young man in camouflage.

"Stay away!" he cried. "Stay back if you know what's good for you! Or I'll kill you!"

Kakashi crouched down in front of him, trying to suppress the anger he harbored for himself. "Why don't you tell me why you attacked us," he said calmly. "And then I'll let you go."

The man struggled in his binds and kicked uselessly at Kakashi. "Stay back or else!"

Finding the entire situation futile, Kakashi turned to the body of the stirring Jounin who had attacked Naruto. He picked him up by the back of the shirt and pinned him against the base of the tree, shaking his head slightly to bring him back to reality.

"Hello there," he said casually, but his eyes were filled with the utmost of seriousness. "Nice day for a stroll."

The Jounin stared at him from heavily lidded eyes and said nothing. Kakashi suddenly held his hand firmly against the man's neck, his right hand crackling with ominous chakra. It illuminated the wide-eyed expression of the man in his grasp.

"Why were you attacking us?" he asked calmly. "You are from the Grass Village. We are not enemies."

"Eita! She's a medic-nin! Eita!" The young man to the side suddenly screamed as he tried to gesture wildly at Sakura. "She can help us!"

He stared desperately at where Sakura's blood-covered hands kneaded Naruto's broken flesh. Unhearing, she did not return his gaze.

"Tell us your situation," Kakashi pushed. "If you tell us why you attacked us, our medic-nin will assist you."

The Jounin, with the situation now changed, was quick to reply. "Our teammate was injured by some enemy," he spoke up. "She refuses to get up and if she doesn't get help soon, she'll die. We were afraid the enemy would return to get her before we could get her help."

"So you attacked us because you thought we were the enemy."

"They attacked from the shadows; they could look like anyone."

"Please," the young male said desperately to Sakura. "Please, please help her."

Kakashi released the Jounin and moved to tap Sakura on the shoulder. She looked up from where she attempted to nod and caught his gesture; he wanted her to follow them.

"But Kakashi-sensei, what about Naruto?" And Sasuke, her mind added unconsciously.

"Can you stand, Naruto? If you can't, don't push yourself."

Naruto smirked. "I'm fine, Kakashi-sensei," he said, but the wince he gave as he tried to stand said otherwise. He collapsed heavily against his sensei. ". . . As soon as I get all my blood back."

"Sasuke?" Kakashi called to his other student.

The Uchiha put one hand up lazily, indicating that he was fine. He, too, tried to stand on knees that would not support his weight. Kakashi sighed and slung Naruto's uninjured arm around his shoulders, holding the blond tightly by the waist. He motioned for Sakura to assist Sasuke.

Without a word, she (reluctantly, right?) walked to the Uchiha.

"I'll help you," she whispered.

He jerked his arm from her grasp.

"Don't be so stubborn right now! These people need help, and the sooner we give it to them, the quicker you can get help, too."

Sasuke sent her a glare, but accepted her arm reluctantly. He stiffened when he felt her fingers at his waist.

"Show us the way," Kakashi instructed the Jounin.

The man picked up his unconscious female partner and led them away.

The short journey was rather awkward. Team 7 had been several meters away from where the attacking ninja had set up their camp. The leading Jounin stopped abruptly on a branch meters from the ground, looking down into a clearing. Two figures were crouched beneath the shade of a tree by the blankets strewn over the floor. One of them, the male, had his hands pressing into the side of the girl that was bent over, blood pooling at her knees.

"We brought help," Eita, the Jounin, announced to his friend as he placed the stirring female in his hands on one of the blankets littering the ground. "It's a long story, but this girl is a medic-nin."

Sakura let Sasuke slip from her grasp, his faint body heat fading as he collapsed onto the floor at her side, shivering subtly. She walked to the girl bent over to inspect her.

"Oh gosh," she whispered as her immediate diagnosis came to mind.

The girl, looking no older than thirteen years old, was shivering more violently than Sasuke had when he first came down with hypothermia. Blood poured sickeningly from a large wound in her side and a gash that was cut the diagonal of her chest. She was crying, Sakura saw. Crying violently and dry-retching from what Sakura suspected was the post affects of a series of vomiting.

"Lay her straight," Sakura immediately instructed. She removed the gloves she had been wearing covered in Naruto's blood and slid her hands into her pouch for a temporary pair. "What happened?"

"We were attacked by the enemy," the young man crouched by her replied. It took all of Sakura's effort to try and decipher his words from his foreign lips. "Kari just finished the academy and we were on our way to the town by here to celebrate, but we were caught by enemies of our village. They tried to take her down first."

Kari sobbed uncontrollably as she lay on her back. Her brown eyes did not close, tears welling at the pain as she moaned and sobbed in searing pain.

"M-make it s-s-stop," she choked out.

Sakura soothed back the long strands of brown hair from her face, trying to calm her. "Don't worry, okay?" she said with an assuring smile. "I'll be done in no time." She reached out with one blood-covered hand to grab the arm of the young man that had been at her side; she connected his hand to the hand of the girl. "Keep holding his hand. Don't let go. It'll be over soon."

Naruto watched with a sad smile on his face.

He stared into darkness, imagining Sakura concentrating on pumping chakra into the broken flesh of the frightened girl, imagining the sweat trickle down her forehead and dampening her unusually colored bangs, imagining the way her bare arms flexed with lean muscles. She was good with people, he thought. She could bring anyone together. And in turn, she cared for every living being that walked the Earth.

He frowned.

So what was wrong with her and Sasuke?

He averted his gaze to a random direction, unsure where Sasuke sat with his back braced against a tree, indifferent to the ongoing. The Uchiha didn't seem to even realize where he was; he simply sat with his eyes closed and his jaw slack, one arm over a bent knee.

Naruto turned back to stare in Sakura's direction again. He wondered if he was in some sort of shock. Here he was, a few minutes after having just been stabbed with a sword, watching blindly as the blood from a young girl probably poured over Sakura's chakra-glowing fingers. Something inside of him deflated and he suddenly felt depressed. Perhaps he had been a ninja for too long. He had seen too many things, killed too many people for this to affect him.

But why wasn't he worried about the girl?

He would usually be jumping from foot to foot in anticipation, yet he stared with a sort of disjointed presence at the situation. And then he smiled, despite everything going on. He knew why he wasn't worried.

Because Sakura was there.

Because she was the one healing the little girl. She was the one with her arms covered in blood, screaming things at the ninja around her, demanding bandages from her pouch, water for the girl, all the while smiling at Kari and telling her that everything was all right.

"Are you feeling well?"

He felt a hand on his uninjured shoulder and looked up, knowing the voice. He smiled reassuringly. "Yeah," he whispered. "Why?"

"She didn't get to finish healing your wound." He felt Kakashi crouch next to him and felt the ghost of a touch as the silver-haired man's fingers hovered over the frayed pieces of cloth around his shoulder. "And by the time she's done with this healing, she'll be too exhausted and chakra-deprived to continue."

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" the blond said, pointing to himself. "I'm blind and the thing you're worrying about is a little shoulder wound?" He silenced for a while, hearing the strangled sob of Kari. "How does it look?"

"The wounds are pretty deep. Sakura closed the wound on her chest and is working on the one on her side, but the girl has a fever which can get pretty dangerous with blood loss. She'll need to be admitted into a hospital."

Naruto frowned and perked his ears for the ragged breathing of the Uchiha. "What about Sasuke?"

He felt what he assumed was Kakashi turning around for a quick glance. "He looks more tired than he'll admit and like he's about to throw up any second, but other than that, he's our usual Uchiha Sasuke."

Not usual. Very different, the two of them unknowingly thought in unison.

"Can we sleep over in the next town?" asked Naruto suddenly, still staring in Sakura's direction. "We'll all be too exhausted to continue. Sakura's going to need her chakra, and Sasuke won't be completely healed if he doesn't stop and rest."

"The mission is top priority, Naruto."

Naruto sighed.

Sasuke was trying to block out the sobs of the girl. Every time she cried out in pain, every time she choked on her tears, every time she moaned in agony, Sasuke's shivers turned violent and he felt bile rise in his throat. He was not supposed to feel this sick. He was Uchiha Sasuke – Immune System Extraordinaire.

Or maybe Not-So-Extraordinaire.

Just as his head was threatening to split in two, he heard Sakura exclaim a weary, "I'm done!" He turned his head to see her smile tiredly, wipe the sweat from her brow with a bloodied arm, and begin to stand.

And suddenly, she was falling.

She had closed her eyes and was falling to the floor in a faint. And suddenly, Naruto was there. Sasuke didn't know how the blond saw her, didn't know how he knew where to throw his arms out and catch the girl, or even how he had managed to stand and meet her so quickly. All he saw was the split-second look in his eyes as he held the pink-haired girl in his arms – a look Sasuke had seen far too often. The Uchiha frowned.

That poor idiot.