~A Dangerous Game~

Chapter IV: Give Me Some Credit

(AN) Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Three chapters in and this story is already on people's favourites list? ! =O That makes me ridiculously giddy. I hope where I'm taking this story continues to interest all of you and that I meet your expectations and hopes!

Thank you for all the kind reviews so far! Reading them puts a huge smile on my face and continues to inspire me to write this story! (and why thank you, I did enjoy my cake. Very much!)

A part of her suspected that he'd selected this particular motel on an impulse that its shady exterior would cause her to forget she had asked him a question he had yet to answer.

That part of her was incredibly pissed off at the moment because it had worked.

Why? Who are you? He kept finding ways to not tell her. That couldn't mean anything good, could it?

Sakura stalked into their shared motel room after Sasuke, her eyes scanning the room. She had to admit, for all the sketchy vibes the motel's exterior emanated, the interior wasn't too bad. Well, the shabby throw rug at the end of the bed looked as if it could've done with being replaced a couple decades ago, but the bed itself looked comfortable enough and the wallpaper wasn't peeling off the walls in the way she had imagined.

The blankets were a generic shade of blue and looked clean, and the pillows were a tad overstuffed, but hey, this was a pay by the hour established. She doubted too many people actually made use of the cushions.

God, wasn't that a thought.

Sakura cast Sasuke a sideways glance as he dumped her duffel bag on the end of the bed. He took a quick walk around the room, opening up the bathroom door and glancing around before stepping back out.

His actions made her feel stuck somewhere between disturbed and relieved. She knew for sure that he wasn't poking around to make sure the bathroom was stocked up on toilet paper. More like checking to make sure there wasn't anyone hiding with the toilet paper.

What kind of life was he leading that he actually felt compelled to check the washroom of a motel room he'd picked at random? She desperately wanted to know, and at the same time she was experiencing a significant amount of anxiety over what she was going to do if she didn't like or couldn't handle his answer.

Snorting inwardly, Sakura walked over to the bed and began to rummage through her bag. At the rate things were going, she wouldn't have to worry about not liking his answer on account of the fact that he was never going to give her one.

She tugged a pair of dark grey sweatpants out of her bag and dropped them on the bed beside her with more force than was necessary.

She needed to know something about what was going on. It had been hours since those men broke into her house and she was still just as clueless as she'd been back then when she'd left with Sasuke.

As Sakura dug her arm down further into her bag and swished her hand around, looking for her medical kit way at the bottom, she had to concede that maybe she had gained a little bit of information. He wasn't a police officer, and he'd said no to being a detective, in the military, or working for the government.

That narrowed it down somewhat, but in a way that wasn't too reassuring. Did these people want information on him because he was involved in something illegal? Black market, perhaps? Maybe that's why he'd been paying attention to her when she started jabbering on about her fictional lucrative side-business.

What did he deal in then? Human trafficking? Sakura gulped as she wrapped her hand around the handle of her canvas medical kit and pulled. If that was the case she certainly hadn't made him work too hard for his latest victim.

She dumped the kit on the bed, closed her bag and scooped up her sweatpants. She was being stupid. He could have just as easily lied about being any of the things she had asked about in order to maintain his cover or... whatever people who are deep in something have in order to protect their real identity. The only thing Sasuke was, to her knowledge, was shady. Or mysterious and secretive, since she'd already dubbed the motel shady and the two were definitely not equivalent when it came to exteriors.

She felt a slight tinge of heat creep up into her cheeks at the thought and speed walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her without checking to see if Sasuke had noticed her blush. Immediately she regretted her hasty retreat. What? Was she sixteen again and ogling?

He was a good looking man. Very good looking, and still in possession of that 'I'm totally unaware of how sexy I really am' demeanour that he'd carried around throughout high school. She was a grown woman; there was nothing wrong with her appreciating his looks. People were allowed to admire art, weren't they? Especially, she argued, when it's so suddenly and unexpectedly thrust upon them after a long time going without.

Sucking in a deep breath of air – which was unfortunate, given that the bathroom did smell faintly of mold, Sakura peeled off her shorts and stepped into her sweatpants, sighing as the warmth began to work its magic on her frozen shins.

After going about her business, Sakura combed her fingers through her hair and, slipping a hair elastic off her wrist, tied the long pink locks up in a ponytail.

She washed her hands a second time and, using a paper towel, wrapped it around the door handle and opened it. Sakura tossed the towel in the trash as she approached Sasuke. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, having already taken off his jacket and his shirt and was poking at the gash in his upper right arm.

She, Sakura Haruno, was sharing a motel room with Sasuke Uchiha. Her inner sixteen year old would be squealing were it not for the fact that this was one of the least romantic situations, ever. Yeah, he was topless on a bed they had yet to fight over when it came time to sleep, but it was all business. They were in a motel room because they were running from people that wanted to ask her questions, and he was topless because blood was dripping down his arm and –

After removing her sweater, Sakura unzipped her med kit and sifted through it, searching for the proper utensils. Pulling out a packaged syringe, needle, and vial, she placed them somewhere within reach as she pulled rubber gloves out of a tiny box slipped into the mesh on the back of her case.

She didn't have any cotton balls, but she did have a spray canister of general disinfectant that would have to do. It was really just a precaution, anyway, since she'd already tended to the possibility of infection back at the hospital.

Uncapping the canister, she turned to face her patient only to find him staring at her and her oversized, over stocked kit.

"What?" She asked innocently as she took hold of his bicep.

"High end gear for a travel medical kit." He answered, angling his head to watch as she lightly coated his wound with the disinfectant.

Sakura shrugged as she capped the canister and placed it back in her kit.

"Lucrative side-business stealing and selling drugs, remember? I like to keep some spoils for myself." As she tore open the plastic protecting the syringe, she couldn't keep from grinning at his raised eyebrow. Laughing softly, she decided to answer his unspoken question seriously.

"I'm a surgeon, remember? This is a surgeon's medical kit. Or, well... a surgeon's dream kit. I have access to some drugs and equipment that are only hospital issue because my family owns the medical drug company." Smiling as she injected him with the local anesthetic without receiving any fuss from him, she continued, "So I wasn't really lying when I said I had a side-business selling drugs. I have ownership rights over the company, but I don't spend too much time dealing with the corporate end of things."

He nodded, letting her know that her answer had been sufficient. It kind of irritated her. She was giving him answers! The least he could do would be to return the favour.

Stitching tools in hand, she stood back and popped out her hip, waiting until she got his attention. When his mildly curious gaze met hers, she decided to take the plunge.

"Look, you really need to tell me something about what's going on here," She told him in her best indoor voice, her temper very neatly restrained, "because while you may be under the impression that I don't need to know, I think I really do. Because this?" She gestured at him, his wound and the room around them, "is kind of super new to me. And I'm kind of scared, okay? A lot of stuff in my life has changed over the course of a few hours and I'm still having trouble with that; that it's all because I recognized you while I was doing my job."

Taking a deep breath, she did her best to maintain eye contact with him. It wasn't so much the stitching up a wound in a motel room that was new to her as it was the manner with which everything had happened. Many things were terribly out of order and her mind was crashing, falling apart after the hours of stress and trying to piece the events of the day together. She needed to know what kind of cosmic practical joke was being played on her that would thrust Sasuke back into her life so unceremoniously after so many years of nothing.

The look on his face was a familiar mix of irritation and exasperation that she had seen back in her kitchen when she'd been freaking out and demanding answers. She'd figured he wouldn't take one look at her, hear her plead for answers and suddenly fill her in. As such, she had a plan.

The doctor in her was crying out in protest, saying she couldn't withhold treatment from someone in need simply because she wanted answers to her questions, but goddamn, she needed to know something. And she had a particular something in mind that, since midmorning, she had been rolling around in her head, darkly curious about.

"I can tell you still don't want to tell me," She said, and Sasuke remained still, his facial expression blank. "So here's the deal," His brow raised slightly at that. "I stitch you up, and in return you answer one, just one, of my questions. Unless of course you feel inclined to tell me more."

Yes, Mr. Uchiha, she was serious. She wanted a trade.

"I think it's fair," She said after a moment of silence. She would not budge. "You know – you knew – me, and you know I won't go back on my word. You start answering my question and I'll have you fixed up."

He seemed to take a moment to weigh the pros and cons of agreeing to her terms. She suspected, after she caught him glance quickly at her medical supplies, that he had even contemplated saying no and stitching himself up. It hadn't really occurred to her that he would even have that particular skill set but, the way things were going, she shouldn't really be all that surprised. Actually, what she would be was pissed off because she'd have lost her chance to make an exchange for information.

Two more minutes passed and Sakura's pulse quickened as the time ticked by before Sasuke finally gave her a curt nod.

"Okay."

"Okay." Sakura repeated, nodding her head and stamping down her anxiety that he would say no and her excitement over a chance to get a single question answered. It was the moment of truth – quite literally – and she couldn't choke on her nervousness. Taking a deep breath, she dove right in.

"Tell me why you were shot."

He looked genuinely startled, and she tried not to feel genuinely offended.

"Oh come on, Sasuke. A knife fell out of a cupboard and cut you like that? Give me some credit! I'm a surgeon. Do you think I haven't seen enough wounds come through my ER that I can't notice the difference between a knife wound and a bullet wound?"

Admittedly, she had doubted herself for awhile. She'd been thrown off by thinking Hideo was Sasuke and hadn't wanted to push it by challenging her patient's story by bringing up her suspicions about the way he'd been injured. But as she'd led him out of the room and watched him head for the check-out desk, she'd considered his story and the likelihood that he was lying.

The look on Sasuke's face confirmed her suspicions and she wanted to do a mini back-flip and fist pump for being right. She did know her injuries. Unfortunately, the most she could muster was an internal somersault for accuracy because, holy shit, what was he involved in that someone actually tried and succeeded in shooting Sasuke Uchiha, Konoha High Heartthrob who liked to keep to himself? What was she now involved in?

She resisted the urge to gulp nervously.

"You knew and didn't say anything." He confirmed, and she felt some sort of pride for her ability to be as tight lipped as he was when it came down to it. See, Sasuke? She could keep secrets. So hurry the hell up and tell her what was going on!

"Well, yeah," She said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She took a moment to back-peddle, finding herself unable to maintain her cocky facade, "Well, I had my doubts. I was a little thrown off by you and didn't want to push it. Plus your injury wasn't as severe as I would expect from a bullet wound, but the gash was indicative of one and I had to wonder –"

"The bullet was spent." Sasuke's voice interrupted her.

"What?"

"It'd already lost most of its momentum before it hit me."

"Oh." A spent bullet. She knew what that was. It bothered her slightly that she hadn't immediately drawn that conclusion about his injury, but she was more caught off guard by the fact that he was starting to answer her question.

"Why were you being shot at, Sasuke?" Sakura gently asked him. How bad is this situation? She was convinced the two things were related.

He took a long moment to look at her, as if he were trying to decide what to tell her. He shifted on the bed, leaning his elbows on his knees and lacing his fingers together. She recognized his position almost immediately – she and Ino, back in high school, had referred to it as Sasuke's Brooding Pose.

She bit the inside of her bottom lip and waited, knowing that eventually he was going to talk.

"I was checking out a warehouse, and whoever was there wasn't expecting me."

Sakura nodded, coming up to stand beside him and gently take hold of his arm.

"The warehouse by the docks?" Sakura tentatively inquired as she started stitching him up.

He shot her a look that said she was correct again, "Yeah." His eyes narrowed ever so slightly, "how did you know?"

She looked up from her stitching to stare back into his eyes for a moment. Shaking her head, she replied, "I didn't have anything to go off of this time. Just a lucky guess. The warehouse down there is the shadiest one I can think of in Konoha. There are always rumours about smugglers from Kiri using those warehouses for various illegal things, but they're just that, rumours."

'And I happened to think it would be just my luck if you were involved in that sort of thing', she added silently to herself. Honestly, she'd tried to pick the best warehouse she could come up with in Konoha where shots fired would likely go unreported. What had he been doing there?

"Hn."

Sakura gave a weak smile, trying to diffuse the anxiety beginning to coil in her abdomen at the thought of him actually having anything to do with the rumoured smugglers. There were lots of things that happened at warehouses! Lots of reasons for why he was at that particular one that didn't involve extremely dangerous people!

...Right?

"Another rumour I heard from a ten year old visiting his grandma at the hospital was that the warehouse is haunted, so..." So there. He could've been... ghostbusting.

"Shady." He nodded, looking up at her as she finished with stitching his arm. She stepped back, examining her stitches, and noticed the hint of a smirk on his lips. Was he actually trying to help her relieve the tension?

She dumped her utensils into a zip-lock bag, preparing to stow them away until she could find a good place to sterilize them.

"Yeah..." She agreed, "Shady in the kind of way where people have guns and shoot you for sneaking up on them."

And the award goes to Sakura Haruno, for putting the tension right back where it had previously been. It was thick enough it could probably have been its own entity. But still, she was too curious just to turn the whole situation into a ghost story and move on.

Zipping up her medical kit, Sakura pried further after his lack of response to her statement, "What were you doing there, Sasuke?"

He rolled his shoulder and tentatively flexed his arm, focusing on his stitches. She'd used more stitches than she had previously, figuring he probably was going to continue to ignore her orders in the do-not-jostle department. And honestly, Sakura thought, when it came down to it, he could jostle all he wanted if it meant he stopped trigger happy people from kidnapping her.

"I was looking for something," He answered as he stood, picking his bloodied shirt up off the back of the single chair beside the bed, "and the guy who shot me – shot at me, the bullet that hit was a ricochet – didn't want me to find it."

"Did you?" Sakura asked, "Find it, I mean?"

He was standing a foot away from her but his presence was huge – she felt it pressing against her like a wall. She took a few steps back and turned, unable to meet his dark gaze. When had it become like this?

In high school, when she'd hung out with Naruto and Sasuke had been around, she'd never had a hard time looking him in the eye. He'd just been Sasuke Uchiha, boy she sort of maybe had a crush on. Now making eye contact just made her feel...small, like there was ten years of life experience he had in his eyes that she didn't.

"No," he answered after a minute, "I didn't."

"Oh..." Sakura replied quietly, looking up as she felt him brush past her. He was heading for the bathroom, and quickly she scurried into the tight space before him and scooped her pair of shorts up off the floor where they lay, forgotten.

She turned on her heels to leave the tiled room and walked into his bare chest. Stumbling back a step, Sakura dug her free hand into her hair and laughed nervously. Or awkwardly. She preferred to think it was nerves. He was more than a head taller than her, now that she'd bothered to notice. He was also quite a bit bigger.

He quirked a brow at her and gestured towards the small sink with his dress shirt. "Do you mind...?"

Rubbing the back of her head, Sakura plastered her back to the doorway and started to sidle her way out of the room. "No, um, go ahead. I'm just gonna..."

She trailed off as she pulled the door closed behind her and wandered over to the double bed. She dumped her shorts into her duffel along with her closed up med kit.

With a groan, Sakura flopped face first onto the mattress and simply lay there for a moment, not desiring to move. What had happened to her over the last twenty minutes?

The sound of the tap running in the bathroom leaked out into the bedroom – the only other room – and Sakura rolled over on the bed, grabbing a bunch of blanket in her fist.

This was so... surreal. Nine years of nothing from this man, no emails, no calls, hardly any mention of his name in her social circle – Ino had moved on after graduation – and finally, Sakura moved on too. Yeah, she'd dated a collection of people throughout college and the years that followed, but somewhere in the back of her mind she'd always wondered what Sasuke was up to.

When she'd started working full time at the hospital, he'd almost entirely disappeared from her thoughts. And then all of a sudden he was calling himself Hideo and breaking into her house to save her from dangerous men and kidnapping her and staying in a motel room with her while she stitched up his bullet wound and oh, God.

It was like whiplash. She couldn't really wrap her mind around everything that was going on. He seemed so... perfectly okay with the entire situation, and she was out in the cosmos, flailing. Wasn't he experiencing any kind of significant emotion, at all, over being reunited so suddenly with an old friend under such strenuous circumstances?

The water stopped running in the bathroom. Did he even consider her an old friend? If it hadn't been for him saying her name back in her house when he was trying to get her to calm down, she'd have wagered that he didn't even remember her. But did she really remember him? So many of his mannerisms were the same, but there was also so much about him she didn't know or recognize.

If her high school had done one of those cheesy grad surveys, she would never have voted Sasuke Uchiha for 'Most Likely to Get Shot At.' She would have voted Neji for being a pompous jerk or... or Naruto, for constantly picking fights with the wrong people.

Sasuke stepped out of the bathroom, seemingly having hung his shirt over the shower rack to dry over night. As he approached the bed, Sakura really wondered if she had ever known him at all.

"This is stupid..." She mumbled, reaching up behind her to grab hold of one of the overstuffed pillows and pulling it into her arms.

"Hn?"

Sighing, Sakura pushed herself up on the bed and leaned back against the cheap headboard. She hugged the pillow to her stomach and leaned her chin on the end as she stared just to the right of his head.

"I hardly know you," she complained quietly, "I haven't spoken to you or heard about you in nine years. A couple hours ago I was convinced you were crazy."

She darted her eyes to him then, wondering if he remembered her roaring and flinging shoes at him. He was subtly rubbing his forearm where a faint bruise was forming from her battering him with her gaudy platforms. Yeah, she figured he remembered.

"And now I'm here with you, thoroughly confused," she glared at him, letting him know that that was entirely his fault considering he had the solution to the problem and wasn't sharing, "and running from bad people that want to ask me questions. But why?"

Sighing once more, she tilted her head up to begin analyzing the motel room ceiling. It was plaster and art-deco-y, the kind of design that was really hard to clean, all rough and bumpy, and tore up your sponge when you tried to wash it.

"I don't know anything about you. I'm willing to bet I don't have any of the answers to their questions. It wouldn't have hurt me or you if I'd stuck around to tell them as much."

What kind of answers was she supposed to give them about a man she hadn't seen in nine years?

He stared at her a moment before releasing a quiet puff of air and grabbing hold of the wooden chair next to the bed. Dragging it in front of him, he spun it around and straddled it, crossing his arms over the top of the back and looking at her intently.

"You're right."

Shocked, Sakura jerked her gaze downward and stared at him. "I am?"

"You likely don't have the answers they're looking for," he told her coolly, "but they wouldn't believe that at first, not when they heard you say my name."

Sakura frowned, "I'd tell them the truth. That I knew you in high school but we stopped communicating after graduation. That's a common enough occurrence."

"Too common," Sasuke nodded his head once, "and a good cover if you're trying to lie. You don't want to know what they'd do to you before they'd decide you're telling the truth."

Sakura swallowed nervously, digging her fingernails into the soft cushion.

His dark gaze never left hers, "and after they decide you don't have the information they want, you become useless."

Sakura blinked. After a second she laughed nervously, trying to dispel the cool chill that was curling around her spine. "That's when they let me go and we both go our separate ways, right?"

He tilted his head slightly to the side and continued looking at her. She could picture a chibi Naruto hopping around on his shoulder, jabbing his finger at Sasuke's face and looking back at Sakura in indignation complaining, "You see that face? That's his 'yeah right, dumbass' face. Don't give her that face!"

She couldn't bring herself to smile at her mental antics.

"That's when they kill you," he replied, straight faced, "because you know too much."

"W-what?" Sakura choked out, holding the cushion tighter to her body, "that makes no sense! I know too much about nothing so they kill me?"

He sighed exasperatedly and a muscle in the side of his jaw jumped slightly, "You'll know the lengths they went through to get something out of you. That won't go away and you won't recover."

Sakura's jade eyes were wide with alarm. What kind of people wanted information on him? What kind of people were after her? Goosebumps were rising on her bare arms.

"W-who are these people, Sasuke?" She whispered, trying unsuccessfully to hide all the fear in her voice. What kind of things would they do to her to make sure she wasn't keeping secrets? The way Sasuke looked when he told her... she got the feeling the experience would be a horrific one.

He shook his head, clearly not wanting to go as far as to indulge her curiosity by answering that one. But then he looked at her and gave her an answer.

"They're grunts. They work for someone bigger." He looked at her, hard, "And more dangerous."

Sakura had herself almost entirely wrapped around the pillow, much the same way she squeezed a stuffed animal when she was younger and at summer camp, listening to her bunkmates tell scary stories. She felt like a fool under Sasuke's hard stare, but she couldn't let go of the cushion. If she let go, she wouldn't be able to control her shaking.

"Why are they interested in you?" She asked, keeping her voice from wavering with sheer willpower alone.

"Because I'm interested in them."

Sakura's brows furrowed. What? What was this? Why was he interested in such dangerous people? Wasn't it prudent to stay away from these types of things when one doesn't work for the police, military or government?

"Why?" She asked him, and he started to get up from his seat on the chair. She leaned forward, raising her voice and asking quickly, "Were they the ones that shot you?"

Sasuke was already standing, putting the chair back beside the bed. He said nothing, but she already felt that his standing up had effectively ended their Q&A session for the night.

"That's enough questions," he confirmed as he sat down on the chair next to the bed and adjacent to the door and shrugged on his jacket. "Go to sleep. We're leaving early."

"Leaving for where?" She questioned him, but he'd already closed his eyes and crossed his arms in front of him, effectively shutting her out.

Yeah, like she was going to be able to fall asleep with visions of torture dancing in her head.

-o0o-

Sakura yawned as she leaned her head against the passenger side door, staring out the window and reading the road signs as Sasuke drove past them.

As she'd correctly assumed, she hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night. Her mind had been too preoccupied with trying to conjure up all the horrific ways terrible people could try to force her to provide answers to questions she didn't understand. A part of her was okay with the insomnia though, figuring it was a fair trade.

Sasuke had answered more questions than he had agreed to earlier. She knew more now than she did before, and she was definitely, definitely more scared. While she still didn't feel as if she really knew Sasuke as much as she used to, or even at all anymore, she felt even more that she had made the right decision in deciding to trust him and leave her home with him.

They'd been on the road for several hours already, and he was incredibly boring travel company. She was trying her best not to bother him, considering that, once again, he had answered more questions last night than he had agreed to, but every now and then she snapped and would talk, non-stop, until his glaring became too powerful to be ignored. The jerk.

She read a familiar name on a large green sign that blew past and she sat up straighter in her seat, futilely glancing back to double check the name.

"Where are we going?" She asked him for the second time that hour. He said nothing, having reverted back to his silent driving from the night before wherein he focused solely on the road.

Sighing, Sakura unhooked her seatbelt and turned around in her seat, grabbing hold of her duffel bag in the back and pulling it closer to her. Slipping her hand into the pockets, she felt around until her fingers touched the cool gloss of the postcard.

She pulled the card out and leaned back in her seat, readjusting her seatbelt as she flipped the card over in her hand to analyze the return address.

In her peripheral vision she noted that her fidgeting had caught Sasuke's attention. Realizing that the name on the road sign had in fact been familiar, she turned in her seat to better face Sasuke as he drove.

"If you won't tell me where we're going, might I suggest a place?"

He quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Hn?"

"We're really close to Aido," Sakura started, turning the postcard around in her hand, "and I have a really good friend who lives there. You remember Naruto Uzumaki, right?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he looked at her with a curious expression she couldn't quite read.

"Hn." She assumed that meant he remembered their old mutual friend.

"Okay," She chose to ignore his expression and move on, "Well, he purchased an Ichiraku Ramen franchise just out of high school and he's ridiculously wealthy now. I know, right? Who would have thought owning a ramen stand would make you that successful."

Sakura shook her head, laughing. She'd had a good laugh with Naruto over it, years ago, even though he took his ramen extremely seriously.

"Anyway, he lives in Aido now. I've been to his house once or twice – I don't get to visit much what with my job at the hospital in Konoha – but it's really secure and not in an obnoxious way. You could take me there and I could lay low with him for a couple weeks. I've been meaning to visit for...well...years, actually."

Naruto would be really happy to see her. He always was whenever they got the chance to meet up. He'd be... really surprised about her extended vacation, but gleeful. When Sasuke didn't say anything, Sakura continued to push as urban scenery began to appear outside her window.

"I won't tell him anything about what's going on. It's not like I can, anyway, since I don't know much." Sakura shook her head, realizing how much she really didn't know. "I can stay with him until you... fix this."

She figured Sasuke wouldn't be able to go about his business while carting her around and, to her credit, she felt like this was a good idea. She would stay safe and hidden with Naruto until Sasuke's – past? Business? – stopped haunting her. She could also use a big dose of Naruto happiness, considering how bleak things had been becoming.

Sasuke looked up into the rear view mirror and she jumped a little in her seat as he signalled right and began to turn into Aido. Yes! At least she got Naruto out of all of this disaster. She had taken everything from her house that anything to do with him, and the men trying to find her certainly wouldn't look to Naruto for her.

"Thanks," She smiled brightly at Sasuke. He was actually going to take her where she wanted to go. Maybe he wasn't a jerk after all. Plus, since he was actually conceding to this, it comforted her in knowing that Naruto's house would be Sasuke approved for her safety. Either that or he was looking forward to silent car rides in the near future. She preferred to think it was a little bit of both. "I appreciate this."

Sasuke merely nodded as he navigated the streets of downtown Aido. Sakura read Naruto's address off the postcard for Sasuke, realizing that the raven haired man probably didn't know where Naruto lived.

They drove a few more minutes in silence before Sakura spoke again.

"So how long will it be before I can go back home and to work? One week? Two?"

Sasuke shook his head as he turned onto a suburban street.

"Indefinite."

Sakura gawked at him. "What? I'm indefinitely hiding from a group of people that want to capture and torture non-existent information about you out of me?" Did she just squeak? God, she hoped she hadn't.

"Yes, you are." He confirmed as he pulled into the driveway of Naruto's unassuming two-story house. He turned in his seat to face her as he removed his seatbelt. "So accept it, and hide until it's over. Do you understand?"

Sakura frowned at him, incredibly displeased. Displeased and disturbed. How long would she have to be scared of these people finding her?

"Fine," Sakura grumbled after Sasuke refused to budge, continuing to stare at her until she answered. "But I don't like it."

"You don't have to like it." He retorted as he opened his door and exited the car.

Harrumphing, Sakura took her bag from the backseat and closed the door behind her. She made her way up the patio to Naruto's front door, Sasuke several feet behind her.

She shouldered her bag and looked back at him before ringing the doorbell.

"This is odd," she mumbled to him, gesturing at his person after he gave her a questioning look, "With you here. It's just... odd."

He shrugged, sticking his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. "I haven't seen him in awhile."

Sighing, Sakura waited as the sound of footfalls grew louder as Naruto approached the door. He picked up his pace when he saw her through the small glass window beside the entrance.

"Sakura!" Flinging the door open, Naruto enveloped her in a bear hug.

Laughing, Sakura hugged him back, taking in his familiar smell and loving his happiness. She really needed it, what with the day she'd had yesterday.

"Hey, Naruto." Sakura smiled at him as he released her from his embrace and ushered her in.

"I haven't seen you in forever!" He said excitedly, "Did you finally take vacation time? Aww, and you came to see me! I'm flattered." He flashed her a toothy grin, happiness radiating off of him. His glee lost several watts of energy when his cerulean blue eyes landed on her travel mate.

"Hey." Sasuke offered, stepping into the hallway after her.

"Heeeey," Naruto responded warily before stepping past her and taking her duffel bag from her shoulder, placing it on the hall floor. "When did you two meet up?"

Sakura didn't get to respond as her world went black.

-o0o-

"Holy fuck! You bastard! What the hell did you do that for!" Naruto shouted as he dropped to catch Sakura's limp and falling form before she hit the floor.

Sasuke lowered his hand that he had used to knock her out.

"I need her out of the picture for a moment," He answered coolly.

"What the fuck, man?" Naruto growled, holding Sakura securely in his arms, "you didn't have to fucking do that!"

"You weren't stuck with her for the past two days." Sasuke countered.

"She's not that bad..." Naruto mumbled, looking down at her unconscious face. Abruptly, he looked back up at Sasuke. "How the hell did you two –"

"We need to talk." Sasuke interrupted the blond, giving him a pointed look. Naruto's eyes widened for a moment, his anger still palpable but slowly dissipating.

"Okay." He nodded, and Sasuke knelt down to take Sakura out of Naruto's arms.

"Where's your guest room?"

Naruto watched him warily as he stood with Sakura, one arm bracing her back and the other hooked underneath her knees.

"Up the stairs, down the hall. Second door on the left."

Sasuke nodded and started to make his way to the stairwell, but stopped as he heard Naruto call out his name behind him.

"What?" Sasuke called over his shoulder.

"She's going to be so fucking pissed when she wakes up."

Yeah, idiot. He already knew that. It was not an experience he was looking forward to.

(AN) =O The bastard! And here I thought they'd finally come to an understanding of each other T_T This chapter was supposed to be two, but the first two chapters were supposed to be one so... And I had an additional ending scene planned out for this chapter, but since this one is already 2000 words longer than I had intended, I'm making it the beginning of the next chapter. And reading this over, the last half feels odd... but I don't think I can improve it so hopefully it doesn't feel off to you! Hakuna Matata, you know?

While my last chapter with Sasuke POV didn't really do much to advance the plot, I really wanted to do it to show my impression of Sasuke during his ponderous silences. I think that he spends a lot of time in his head and that's why he's so quiet, and I wanted to bestow that impression on you all so that hopefully when you read my writing of Sasuke and he's quiet and/or providing monosyllabic responses, you wonder what he's actually thinking. =)

Lots of stuff happened in this chapter! We got to know a little more about the people that are hunting Sasuke, and Sakura and Sasuke got to talk more. And yay! Naruto! I love him. Too bad Sasuke had to go and ruin the moment. (Psst, don't worry. I'm not making Sasuke into a cold hearted bastard for the entirety of this story. He gets a moment at the beginning of the next chapter wherein his jackass meter gets to decrease quite a bit and he redeems himself...somewhat). Naruto intrigue, though! Let's focus on that and not Sasuke's dick move knocking her out.

Oh, and there's no significance to the city Naruto living in being called Aido. The name just sort of... popped into my head while I was writing and I rolled with it.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Please leave me a review and let me know! ^_^

~dancer-me