It's 4:30 AM right now, so i didn't bother to reread this and check for any errors. if you find any, please let me know.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter Five: Deathly Games

Everything was dark… she couldn't see anything, but she could hear water dripping. Blip…blip…blip… she listened for what seemed like hours, but could possibly be only minutes; unable to move. The sound was slowly driving her insane. She knew she was wounded, but she couldn't feel it. And then there were voices and shadows… dancing around her; taunting her. She wanted to get up and run away but every part of her body was frozen. Suddenly, she could feel everything… she felt herself being slashed, whipped, and cut at every square of her skin. The pain was unbearable, and she tried to scream, but no sound came out.

Something broke beneath her… glass, she figured from the sound, and she was falling, falling, falling into some nothingness below her. She could move again and she desperately reached out with her arms to grab something; anything. She could feel something – a surface, a hand, she didn't know – just beyond her finger nails but never close enough. She hit water and she suddenly found herself in a glass box at the bottom of the ocean. She flailed about, inhaling water – drowning quickly. She screamed.

"Sakura…" a voice called out to her, inviting her back into safety.

"Sakura… Sakura wake up; you're dreaming,"

Sakura opened her eyes, panting heavily; finger nails buried into her palms – no…. his palms. "Kaka-sensei?" She released her vice grip from his hands.

"Hai, I'm here." Kakashi looked worriedly into the green eyes of his former student. Five minutes ago, he was comfortably having drinks with a barmaid down the street, when he suddenly felt weary about leaving Sakura alone in a strange place in the middle of the night. He knew how she got in the dark. Not reluctantly, he hurried back to their room in the inn, and found her shaking in bed, whimpering and clawing into her own palms until they bled. He couldn't keep her hands from clenching that way, so he had to slip his hands into hers, so she wouldn't hurt herself anymore. It was better him, than her he figured. "You're safe; I'm here."

She didn't say anything or thank him… just threw herself into his arms and sobbed.

The next morning, Kakashi awoke with one eye focusing on the absence of a figure beside him. He sat up frantically, head jerking from side to side as he searched for his companion. Hearing the door click open, his hand immediately went to the kunai under his pillow. When he felt the familiar presence of a certain kunoichi, he relaxed with a sigh.

"Good morning, Kaka-sensei."

He chuckled. "Why do you still call me that?"

"I guess it's a hard habit to get rid of…I got coffee." Sakura handed him a mug, which he accepted graciously. She noticed they had identical scars in their hands.

Kakashi looked up at Sakura's new hair color, unable to get over how different she looked now. He almost couldn't recognize her now. It would take some getting used to. "There's a really beautiful cherry blossom grove not far from here. I thought we could have lunch there later and maybe spar a little. I haven't seen you in action since… well since before what happened." It was a touchy subject, and even he found it hard to speak about.

"Sure, that sound's good. I've been itching to blow off some steam anyway. There's a small fair in town this morning; let's swing by there first."

"Alright, sound's like a plan to me." The silver haired Jounin slumped back into bed. "Give me another half an hour first."

"Knock the bottles down with these needles and win some lovely prizes! Everyone's a winner! You! You there, Miss! Why don't you give it a try?"

Sakura turned her head to look at the man hollering at her from inside his stand. Along the wall were three four-level pyramids made of wooden bottles. "Sure."

Kakashi's visible eye crinkled slightly as he followed his companion to the game. Sakura handed the man a few coins and took four long senbon needles from him. She threw them all at once, each needle hitting the exact weak points of each level of the pyramid, and laughed proudly as all ten bottles toppled down.

The man behind the counter sweat-dropped and laughed half-heartedly. "Say, are you a shinobi?"

"How did you guess?" Sakura chuckled. She pointed up at a large stuffed puppy with very big ears, and the man brought her prize down to her.

As they walked passed more concession stands and hollering men and women inviting them to play this game and that, Sakura's mood began to pick up quickly. Kakashi looked down at her, noticing the slight hop in her step and smiled from beneath his mask. She stopped walking and Kakashi followed her gaze to see what she was staring at. At a table were two large men with arms interlocked, and a small crowd yelling and cheering around them as they arm-wrestled. Both men were around the same size and build; the one on the left was bald and had a mustache, and the second man had long shaggy hair. As the bald one succeeded in slamming the other man's hand into the table, he jumped up in victory, and received his cash-prize from the loser. "Isn't there anyone in this stinking crowd who is strong enough to defeat me?" the giant challenged.

Sakura looked up at Kakashi with a grin, and he sweat-dropped in return; chuckling nervously and rubbing the back of his head. Her eyebrows came up and down suggestively and he laughed. "Alright, alright." He raised his hand. "Ah, Hai, I'll play you, sir."

"Hmm? Who said that? Who dares challenge the great Iron Fist?" the oaf retorted.

"Me." Kakashi stepped forward.

"Well what do you wager?" the man questioned angrily.

"Wager? Well, uh… I don't really have any -- "

"A date with me!" Sakura called.

"Sakura, no… I wont let you do that." Kakashi warned quietly.

"Well then, you better win." She flashed him another grin, and he shook his head in dismay.

"Well, well, are you sure you want to do that, little lady?"

"Don't worry about me, sir." Sakura responded.

"Well you know you'll have to do anything I want on our date."

"I assure you, sir, you won't win this bet."

Kakashi sat down at the opposite side of the table with a sigh and both men joined hands. Another man came to hold their hands up equally. "Ready? Go!"

As he let go of them, both contestants pushed against each other forcefully; neither of them seeming to budge for a long while. Finally, it started to seem like the bigger man was getting the upper hand, and everyone but Sakura cheered around them. She just smirked. Just as it seemed like the other man was going to win, Kakashi swung his hand the other way; smashing his opponent's hand into the table and creating a large thundering crack in the wood. "I win."

Kakashi and Sakura began to walk away from the crowd as a hand reached out to grab the kunoichi's shoulder. "Where do you think you're going? We have a date!"

Sakura stopped abruptly. "Excuse me? You lost."

"We have a date!" The large man repeated.

"Take your hand off me." Sakura warned.

"Or what, you'll have your little lapdog here fend me off?"

"Or I'll kill you."

Kakashi's eyebrows arced in surprise to Sakura's response. He'd never heard that tone from her before, and it almost scared him to think she was capable of it. There was no hesitation in her voice – only simple and hard fact – deathly serious in a literal sense. He figured it was safe to say that Sakura did not like to be touched by strange men, and for obvious reasons.

Neither of them turned to look at the man idiotically laughing behind them, but Kakashi reached out to grab his wrist. "Walk away. She really will kill you." A very small part of him sympathized for the imbecile.

Placing his hand on Sakura's back, he slowly led her away from the scene, and was thankful that the man didn't try anything further.