The italics at the beginning are just a recap from the previous chapter. I'll be doing that from now on. Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I was busy with school work. ; ^ ;

Sorry this chapters really short, but to make it up I'll be posting back to back chapters next time~

And thanks for all of the reviews, you guys are great! :D

I had ignored Sasuke this whole time, not even daring to look at him. My head was still spinning. I even had my doubts if this was reality. Maybe this was another one of my dreams, where I met Sasuke again, convinced him to come back, and everything goes back to normal.

"Sasuke-kun…" I still couldn't get over the fact that we were inches away, sitting. Casually. "Why do you need me?" I quoted him, and studied him with careful eyes. I tried to hate him.

I will. I'll try to hate him. At least then, the feeling will be mutual.

When I had spoken up, the whole room fell silent. The red head, Karin, stopped nagging at the white haired boy, and the orange haired man looked over. Sasuke on the other hand, remained indifferent.

I sat on my knees, staring down at my hands. I noticed they were shaking slightly and frowned, quickly clenching them into tight fists.

As scared as I was, after a while of my question not being answered by anyone, I grew annoyed, my normal self resurfacing. I suddenly became very angry, for a couple of reasons. Getting caught, being so passive about it, everyone acting so nonchalant… my eyebrows furrowed slightly, and I looked up at Sasuke.

He was staring right at me.

As long as it has been, the me from three years ago still lived inside me, and I quickly looked away. I was satisfied that I didn't blush.

I dared to look at him again, peering over through the corner of my eye, and this time he was staring at my hands. I peeked at them too. They were still balled up into tight fists on my lap to make the trembling stop, but despite the efforts, you could still tell. Especially if you had sharingan.

After what seemed like years, Sasuke finally started to become animated. First, a twitch of his eyebrows. It almost pissed me off. Was he ashamed that he needed me for something? I frowned,
suddenly determined to show him how much Shishou had taught me.

Sasuke opened his mouth to say something, but stopped, looking over at his teammates.

A huff escaped Suigetsu's mouth, and he interlaced his fingers, resting them behind his head.
"Yeah, yeah~" He said, as if he knew the drill, and started dragging his feet to leave the room. Juugo followed silently behind him, exchanging a look with me before he did so. The last one, the female, was hesitant to leave.

"Sasukee… I—!" She started, in a begging tone.

Sasuke's remained seated, his eyes darting up to hers. "Karin."

Her lower lip pulled out into a pout, but in the next moment she was fierce, glaring at me. Was she bipolar?

"But sasukkeee…! We don't know if she's hostile yet! Since I'm a sensory type, I'll be able to tell if she's about to try something funny by her chakra!" She pleaded, and her true intentions were clear. She did not want me and Sasuke alone in the room together.

I wasn't looking at Sasuke, but by the way Karin's shoulder slumped and she dragged herself out of the room, I was guessing Sasuke probably gave her the, "Get Out" look.

The sliding door stayed open for a bit as Karin lingered there, but finally closed with a hesitant click.

And then there were two.

Even after they all left and we had our privacy, Sasuke still didn't speak up. The only noise in the room was the ticking of the clock.

I looked at my lap, and growing extremely bored, I decided to count the ticks. I counted exactly two minutes before someone finally decided to speak up.

"Sakura…" He mumbled lazily, shuffling a bit where he sat.

My heart made a painful thud against my chest as soon as my name left his mouth, and I looked up at him. He was looking at me as well, but this time I didn't look away. I frowned in determination. I wasn't the same girl he knew.

I didn't respond to him saying my name, but us making eye contact was enough for him to continue on.

He stood up, and began to unbutton the Akatsuki robe he was wearing. I was trying to imagine what the me from three years ago would be doing right now. Squealing annoyingly, presuming he was stripping for me, maybe. But now I studied him carefully, watching his hands to make sure he didn't pull out any weapons.

No. He wouldn't bring me this far just to kill me. At least I hoped not. I didn't stand a chance against him, that much was clear.

His Akatsuki cloak fell on the floor with a soft thud, and he kicked it off to the side, beginning to take off another layer of clothing. He lifted his shirt off his head, and dropped it beside the robe.

My eyes travelled along his toned chest, and stopped when I reached his lower abdomen area. There was an angry red gash, three, actually. Just by looking you could tell they were a couple of weeks old, but they weren't properly treated. Infected, maybe. The pale skin around the gashes was aggravated and red. I frowned.

I stared, inspecting the wounds from afar. And also inspecting a few other things. It clicked. Of course. He wanted me as a medical ninja. Besides Tsunade-sama, I was probably the best medic-nin in the world, being trained by one of the Legendary Sennin in the flesh.

The whole time I had been in Sasuke's presence, I'd been shaking. For fear of death, obviously. When me and Naruto saw him again for the first time in three years, the first thing Sasuke had tried to do was kill Naruto, and without hesitation. So I knew he wouldn't hesitate in killing me.

However, with all that said, after seeing the wounds, the medic-nin in me kicked in.

My shaky hands turned steady and careful. I stood up, and started walking over to him. Even with my newfound determination, there was still that small voice in the back of my head screaming to run, and fearing that he would pull out his knife and just end it here.

I bit down on my lip and continued with sure, steady strides. Once we were a few centimeters apart, I bent down to get a closer examination of the wound. I frowned at the sloppy medical treatment.

Stitches were sewn randomly here and there in an attempt to close the wounds. There was also a shiny gloss over the red flesh, and I realized it was a spray on band-aid. I grimaced, and reached for the kunai in my pouch. I found it empty, and looked around the room.

It didn't take me long to find one, and I returned to Sasuke, kneeling down in front of him. It kind of annoyed me how he wasn't the least bit on guard when I was this close with a kunai. It just showed you how confident he was in being able to defeat me. Dismissing the thought, I started on the wounds.

I cut the sloppy strings of the stitches, and pulled them out as gently as I could. I was being so gentle due to being an excellent medic nin, of course, but also because It was Sasuke, as much as I didn't want to admit it.

The wound was most likely infected, due to the aggravation I was seeing. I ran my finger across one of the gashes, and frowned. Just as I thought. The spray on band-aid was hard, after being left on for so long. I would have to just reopen the wound because of that, and the infection.

Readying the kunai, I sliced it into his wound with precision, only now starting to hear noises of discomfort leave the Uchiha. Once I had reopened all of the wounds, I dropped the Kunai and positioned my hands so they were just hovering over the cuts.

The familiar green chakra started to flow out of me and into the wounds, showing immediate effects and repairing the flesh and dismissing the aggravation right before my eyes.

I reached into my back pouch and pulled out some bandages, reaching over and wrapping them around his lower abdomen to cover all of the wounds. When I was satisfied with my work, I brushed my hands off, and backed away. "Done," I announced, wiping my hands on my apron.

Sasuke twisted his body a little as if to test it, and then walked over to go retrieve his clothing. He slipped on his shirt, and then buttoned the Akatsuki robe back up.

I sat on the floor, and he stood there for a bit. I wanted to say something, but I didn't know what. In my head, I was rehearsing what to say, what I could say, what TO say overall.

Sasuke started heading over to the door, maybe to call his teammates back in. I still wanted to be alone with him, so I panicked.

"If that's all," I said a bit too loud, and stood up as If I actually just planned to leave.

It got his attention, at least.

He stopped in front of the door, and stood there for a few seconds. He turned around slightly, and looked me directly in the eye.

"You're part of team Taka now."

I stared. What was that? Team… I thought of the three that were outside, and my mouth opened slightly. Did they call themselves team Taka? If so, that meant…

"You want me as a permanent fixture on your team?" I said doubtfully, not believing my own words.

He didn't say anything, so I took his silence as a yes.

"Granted, I'm a skilled medical ninja, but what I just dealt with now…Any medical ninja could deal with that." Hell, even Ino could deal with that.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Three minutes this time.

His hand slithered on the handle of the door as he slid it open. Turning around, he looked me straight in the eyes, his pitch black meeting my emerald green.

"You're part of team Taka now."

He closed the door behind him.