A/N: Ok now I try not to have long author notes, but this one is going to be a tab on the wordy side. First of all I'd like to thank ALL of my reviewers! I started this story for me, but im writing it for you. Second, I have some words for my repeat reviewers!

Joldeist: These next few chapters should help with some of your confusion. (Especially the next one) Let me start by saying that the rookie nine had nothing to do with Sakura's…uh, problem. Madra (the "guy who killed his own brother for the eternal") twisted her judgment to believe they did. (See? He is evil, it's just not immediately apparent). However, Sakura was deeply… uh affected/ damaged by what happened to her and it was … uh, some people in Leaf that did it…. that's all im gonna say for now.

Mdtiger: Yes it would totally rock if Sakura kicked Sasuke's ass, however, I'm trying to keep this realistic. Keep that in mind when you read this Chapter, I tried not to disappoint too much. Sakura Is really strong. (in fact, in this story she surpasses Naruto, who is the Hokage). A lot of the reasons she isn't as strong as she could be in this is because she is messed up mentally because of happened to her.

And Last, I would like to take this time to explain why I don't do disclaimers. 1) They are annoying to the read. 2) In case you haven't noticed these stories are posted on FANFICTION. That in itself is a disclaimer, if people came to this site to read stuff written by the original writers then I would do one. But they don't so neither do I. 3) Despite the fact that I'm using the characters and world that were create by someone else, This is my story, I planned it, wrote it and published it. So the whole "I own nothing" thing doesn't fly with me. Because I do own this story.

Well there you go. I'm not too good at writing battle scenes so I cut most of theirs out. I hope the little bit I have is ok. That is my rant for today. I promise this will be the longest author note in this story. Which is ok because I know most people just skip them anyway. (I am guilty as charged) So enjoy this chapter! It is long as fuck though! Just fair warning!

Your bismuth killjoy ,

Lexie

Chapter 7- Who Your Opponent Is

"Iwa keimusho jutsu!" (Rock Prison Technique) Sakura called as she finished a series of hand signs. Sasuke just barley dodged the giant rock slabs, quickly turning around and summoning thousands of shuriken and sent them upon Sakura. The Pinkette responded quickly by flipping through the projectiles. She landed in a crouch breathing hard. Shit, were evenly matched. This isn't going to end anytime soon. She thought as she glanced up at Sasuke to find him staring back. Silence filled the clearing as the two partners held each other's gaze.

The clearing they were in now had once been a part of the surround forest, until the two shinobi had come crashing through, destroying many a tree in the process of trying to destroyed one another. Kunai and shuriken were littered about the area and Sakura's battle ax was lodged in an unfortunate oak tree. Blood splatters decorated the grassy ground. This once magnificent section of wave country's forest was dismissed to a bloodied battle field.

The two Akatsuki glared at each other from across the clearing. It's time to end this. Sakura thought. She began forming the hand signs,

"CHIDORI!" The two shinobi yelled at the same time as the sounds of thousands of chirping birds filled the forest. The techniques clashed and the sound intensified for a few milliseconds.

Before Sakura knew what was happening her chidori stopped and Sasuke had her pinned to the forest floor. Her mouth opened slightly in surprise. ..he… he beat me… she thought in astonishment. Sasuke grinned down at her sadistically, his eternal sharingan as red as the blood that dripped down from his temple.

"Trying to use my own technique against me, Sakura?" He said amusement in his voice. He gave a quick, if not somewhat insane, laugh. Did he just…laugh? Sakura broke out of her paralysis and started squirming. Unfortunately Sasuke had her hands pinned above her head with his own and had his knees on both her hips, effectively making it impossible to escape.

"Technically, it's Kakashi's." She spat at him venomously, fighting even harder to get free from his imprisoning body. She saw fury cross Sasuke's face as he heard what she said and felt a small feeling of accomplishment at the expression.

"He isn't even worth mentioning." Sasuke growled at her, his tomos spinning wildly. "I'm by far the better shinobi." It was Sakura's turn to be angry. She went still as the comment sunk in.

"Fuck you Uchiha!" she Ground out. "He was the best shinobi I ever knew." She whispered turning her head to the side, so she wouldn't have to look at Sasuke. A silence passed between the partners.

"Hn." Sasuke said smirking as he released his eternal sharingan from his eyes. Sakura started to squirm again. She even tried flooding her limbs with chakra to get them free, but Sasuke matched her strength.

"Sakura, it's useless. Stop trying to escape." Sasuke said in a bored voice, a smirk still present on his lips.

Damn him and his sexy smirk. Sakura thought, as she finally stopped wriggling about. what the fuck? He is anything but sexy! She thought aghast at her own mind then paused to think. Ok, well maybe not. But despite his sexy-ness, he is still and ass hole and I'm supposed to be mad at him. So there. She looked up to see Sasuke looking down at her with a raised eyebrow. When she returned the look, he merely shook his head and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "mentally unstable"

"Come on Sasuke, let me up." Sakura said looking into his depthless black eyes, feigning innocence in her eyes (A.k.a. the puppy dog look), hoping that he would let her get up so she could take him down .

Sasuke grunted and rolled his eyes. "Do you take me for an idiot?" he asked incredulously, "I'm not letting you up until you surrender."

Well there goes that plan. Sakura thought sighing. Avoiding looking at Sasuke, she tried to think of a way out without admitting he was better than her. Several minutes passed, the silence broken only by the occasional growl from Sakura.

"Sakura…" Sasuke drawled. Sakura looked up, only to find his face inches from hers. He eyes bored into hers. Sakura couldn't stop herself from glancing at his lips, but quickly looked back to his eyes when she felt a rather uncomfortable flip in her stomach.

Sakura swallowed, "Sasuke." Magically her voice sounded strong and confident, which was indirect contradiction to how she felt at the moment.

"Just admit that I won…" Sasuke breathed, a smirk on his face as he watched her squirm. "… and I'll let go go…" kami, I don't think I can handle this…. Sakura thought trying very hard not to inhale for fear she might faint from how good he smelled. Damn him to hell for seven eternities. Then a thought occurred to her. A smile slowly spread across her face. Two can play this game… she smiled as She figured out how to win.

"Hm. Sasuke. " she whispered seductively, Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "I think…" Sakura got closer to him, his eyes widened, but he didn't move,

"…That you…" she got even closer, they were now so close that if she moved anymore they would be kissing. His eyes flipped back and forth from her lips to her eyes,

"….need to consider who you opponent is." And with that she closed the distance and touched her lips to his. An electric shock ran through Sakura, but she ignored it. Sasuke froze and his grip loosened on her hands. Sakura took the opportunity to form several hand signs. Sasuke backed up instantly, breaking their kiss, his hands working to form his own signs. Unfortunately he wasn't fast enough. Before he had finished Sakura 's fingers were glowing and she had touched his neck whispering "Chakura no teishi jutsu" (chakra stopping technique)stopping the chakra flow to his brain.

Sasuke's eyes widened in furry, "Sak..ur..a" he growled before passing out, landing onto of Sakura. Sakura removed her fingers and checked to make sure she hadn't permanently damaged his chakra paths. She was relieved to see she hadn't.

"That went well." Sakura grunted as she hefted Sasuke off of her body and gently setting him next to her. She sat up slowly. Pulling up her cloak to examine a large gash he had managed to land on her. She gave a quick glance over to Sasuke, then regretted it as her lips tingled. Sighing she got up and pulled a scroll from her sleeve. She opened it just as she reached the tree that held her battle ax. Yanking it out of the trunk, she quickly bit her hand and swiped the scroll. As half of the weapons in the battle zone disappeared with a poof, she quickly returned the scroll to its place in her cloak. She pulled out another scroll and lazily summoned her pack and medical supplies. She sat on the ground and rolled up her sleeve to start treating her wounds. She opened the pack and froze.

On the very top of her medical supplies rested the Chakra Pills Madra had packed for her. She remembered finding them as she and Sasuke picked up her things from the hollowed out log. She had been surprised and somewhat pleased.

Now she held them in her hand contemplating taking one. Her chakra was really low, thanks to her fight with the young Uchiha. She rolled her eyes at the thought of him. But last time she took them, there had been some pretty bad side-effects. She went back and forth for a few minutes, before deciding that it may have just been a result of the transportation jutsu that had caused her to pass out and gave her a headache. She opened the bottle and quickly took one of the pills.

She wobbled on her feet as the dizzy spell hit her. She sat down in a huff and waited for it to go away. It passed in a few minutes, thankfully, and Sakura was immediately filled to the brim with chakra and a feeling of happiness. It felt great. She stood up and started treating her wounds. Then she walked over to Sasuke.

She gingerly grabbed his shirt so she could remove it and heal the wounds on his back and chest. It was what a good partner would do. Hell Sasuke had done it for her, and no way was she gonna let that prick surpass her in a competition of kindness. I'm gonna regret doing this she thought as she lifted his shirt off of his body. And she did, regret it that is. She had to admit he had a fucking hot body, but she had seen pliantly of hot bodies so she ignored her fluttery thoughts. She inhaled deeply (regretting that as well when she was hit with his sent) and steeled herself to the job. She went into medic mode and quickly healed his wounds rather effortlessly.

She started to put his shirt back, but thought better of it when she saw how bloodstained it was. Sakura got up and walked over to her pack and started rummaging through it until she found what she was looking for. Somehow she knew Itachi would put it in there. She took the large Akatsuki cloak, Sasuke's cloak, over to where Sasuke lay and draped it over him, laying the ring and hat next to him on the ground. She stared at the scene a while. It's official. He's back in Akatsuki. She thought … and he's my partner… she felt confused about that sentence. For some reason it made her legs feel weaker and made her stomach do flip flops. She decided that it would be good if she made camp here tonight. Judging by the sun it had to be about seven o' clock in the evening. She made a quick rock shelter and fire, using her battle ax to cut wood. She had almost laughed at the thought of using an ax that big just for cutting up some trees. In her opinion it was much more suited for chopping up her enemies. The whole time she kept sneaking glances at Sasuke. It concerned her that she was starting to get attached to his presence. She picked up Sasuke and put him the room of the rock house, deciding to put his cloak and ring on as an afterthought. She slid his ring onto his middle finger on his left hand, just one space from where hers was. She made a mental note to paint his nails when he woke up. She left the house with one glance back at the Uchiha.

"This is stupid, " she muttered to herself "you just haven't seen him in a long time. You'll get over it." Sakura looked away from Sasuke and the camp as she walked off into the forest to look for a stream to get water, food and if possible wash her cloths (and Sasuke's shirt which she held in her hand).

"You have to get over it" she growled with conviction smashing a nearby tree with her fist out of angst. Deciding that it made her feel better she continued to smash trees along her way.