Taken away...Again

The water had run out.

Sasuke took in a ragged breath before grabbing the bowl and standing up. All night he had sat by Sakura's sleeping form, he didn't sleep.

His eyes threatened to close and his body was begging him to just shut down. But he didn't, he refused to sleep until Sakura's fever went down. As soon as the cloth on her head was dry, he'd soak it up again in the bowl and returned it to her forehead.

Hyuga and the other Jounin (Sasuke never bothered to remember his name) were on look out, Sasuke overheard them saying Sakura's body would over come it on its own since she was a medic, Sasuke scowled at their stupidity. They should at least keep watch on her.

It was morning, sun shone through the tiny windows of the apartment as Sasuke trudged to the bathroom. Upon entering, he headed straight for the sink. His tired mind didn't register the door shutting behind him.

"Uchiha," Hyuga warned, "You have five seconds to leave this place. The only reason you're still alive right now is because Sakura is sick in the next room. Do I make myself clear?"

Sasuke had never liked Hyuga. His strength and eyes had annoyed him, but now that he was ordering him to leave? He despised him.

"I'm not going anywhere, Hyuga." Sasuke turned away in disinterest to pick up Sakura's discarded tooth brush and place it in the holder. Which was next to a stray kunai.

"Byakugan!" Neji shouted as Sasuke threw the kunai behind him without looking.

Hyuga didn't know Sasuke couldn't use any jutsu's or his chakra was somewhat locked, so he took this as an advantage. He showed know emotion as the Jounin moved in on him, attempting to knock him out with a lethal hit to the neck. Sasuke dodged and hooked his foot around Neji's ankle. A Genin counter-attack but Sasuke didn't care, as long as he avoided hits.

"Sasuke-kun?" A soft voice called out, "Sasuke, where are you?"

Sasuke's eyes widened, Sakura had woke up. How much had she heard? Did she know? Sasuke gave a furious glance at the Hyuga before turning on the shower to cold setting.

::XxX::

'Dammit, where'd he go?' Sakura huffed inwardly. She held onto the wall for support, she still felt light-headed but the majority of the poison had been cleaned from her system. Sasuke had been doing that a lot lately, disappearing and then reappearing like he'd been behind her the whole time. She opened the bathroom door.

"Sas-I mean...uh...Sashami? Sashami. Do you know where the Sashami is, Neji?" Sakura gripped the door handle tightly.

Neji glared at her, she bit her lip and laughed weakly. "I guess not then. Have you seen Sas-CAT! Have you seen my cat?"

Neji stared at her for a whole minute before grunting and jutting his chin to the shower stall.

"Oh my god!" Sakura screamed and reached down to gather up the soaking cat in her arms. She rounded on Neji, her nervousness forgotten.

"What did you do to him?" She screeched, her chakra pulsing beneath her skin roaring to be let loose.

He sighed. "I found him here." He gritted out.

Sakura scowled and stomped back to her room with her cat in tow. Had she imagined Sasuke glaring venomously at Neji over her shoulder? Surely, she had. Said cat growled until Neji was out of sight and he was placed on her temporary bed.

Sakura bent down and cupped his two ears, massaging them until she got a purr in return.

"Honestly, you two never get along." She sighed, "Be careful, Sasuke-kun. Neji doesn't exactly have a love for animals."

His eyes popped open and gazed at her, black pools with specks of red. Wait...Red? Sakura frowned and leaned down farther until her nose was touching his pink button nose. Yes, there was red in his eyes. Her eyes widened a fraction and then suddenly Sasuke snatched himself away from her and jumped from the bed.

"Sasuke! Get back here!" She shouted after him.

After an hour of chasing him Sakura gave up and collapsed on her bed. She heard Neji and Lee shuffling around outside her room collecting their things and more supplies. Tsunade had ordered Sakura straight back to Konoha and another team was to be dispatched for the mission, Sakura felt horrible. Even if it was a short and useless mission she didn't like being a burden. Which she currently was.

Sighing, she rolled onto her stomach and breathed in the scent of the comforter. Lavender. She sensed Sasuke crawl out of where ever he'd been hiding, then sit on the floor and stare at her. Sakura smirked, maybe she should give him a little scare...

Sakura dimmed her chakra, so low that only an experienced chakra sensor would be able to detect. She held her breath and stopped moving all together.

A heart beat passed...then another...then Sakura felt nails scoring down her spine as Sasuke jumped on top of her and pawed her hair. She still didn't move and inwardly congratulated herself for her victory.

But then he leaped off her and high tailed it into the bathroom, Sakura jerked her head up and swung her body into a standing position on the bed. She heard water run.

"Sasuke!" She shouted as she sprinted for the bathroom.

Sakura burst in and grabbed the cat before he fell into the steaming shower.

"Sasuke-kun," She hissed, "What the hell were you doing?"

His big black eyes widened and stared at her. Due to her panicking, Sakura's chakra had returned to normal and filled the whole room as if breathing a sigh of relief at not being contained. Now, Sakura wasn't expecting a giant cat hug off Sasuke, but she at least wanted little purr or a nuzzle. She got neither, he dug his needle-like claws into her arms and trudged off into her temporary wardrobe.

Groaning and trying not to laugh over the fact her cat was in a mood with her, Sakura helped her team mates pack their stuff.

::XxX::

Sakura threw herself at her refrigerator and yanked it open. Pulling out a syrup-coated dumpling, she sighed in content. It was good to be home!

Her cat waltzed through the still open front door and seated himself on the kitchen counter, glaring at her.

"Oh come on, Sasuke-kun. It was just a little joke!" Sakura said, trying to contain pieces of food in her mouth.

The glare became colder and he hunched his shoulders up and dipped his head down, Sakura swallowed her food and laughed nervously. Honestly, Sakura didn't think he'd care about her fake-death-by-lowering-chakra-and-stop-breathing incident. It'd been a whole day and he was still angry with her! Though, Neji had been acting...weird during the trip back to Konoha.

"Stop being so touchy feely, you're acting like I'd threatened to take you to a cat shelter or something."

A couple of seconds of intense staring passed before he hissed at her. She hissed back and collected the rest of her dumpling to watch television.

"SAKURAAAAA-CHAAAAN!"

Sakura dropped the piece of heaven she had inches away from her mouth. Naruto flew into her apartment and collapsed in front of her.

"I heard off-" He took a deep intake of air, "Tsunade-baa-chan that you got poisoned and-" Another deep gulp of air, "the mission had to be cancelled and me and Hina-chan were worried we were gonna meet you at the gates but Kakashi-sensei ordered us away and said we should give you some rest and-"

"NARUTO!" Sakura shouted, "I'm fine, another team has been dispatched to take our place. The poison has been cleaned out of my system but I need to check in with Tsunade for any lasting effects."

Naruto stared at her blankly, "...Oh. I thought you were dying!"

Sakura shook off Naruto who had wrapped himself around her leg like a koala. "I said I'm fine!"

"Did you get any information on...?"

Sakura's shoulders slumped, "No, there were no Akatsuki sightings...or Sasuke's."

Naruto stood up abruptly, wanting to change the dull mood that had take effect. "Wanna go out with me and Hina-chan? She asked if I wanted to go to the restraunt that's all fancy and-"

"Naruto, I think Hinata wanted that to be just for you two, you know, like a date?"

"...But she's already my girlfriend so we don't have to go on dates any more unless we were getting married or something..." Naruto's eyes widened.

Sakura slapped him, "It doesn't matter if she's your girlfriend now, you have to take her out often to show that you still love her! And you are not marrying Hinata right now."

"Why not?" Naruto wailed.

"Because she's too young and innocent to be infected with your idiocy on a daily basis!"

"...I already asked her to move in with me."

"...OH MY GOD I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU!" Sakura hugged Naruto in a death grip.

"Y-you just said she was too young and innocent-" Sakura squeezed harder so his air supply was cut off.

"Well she's probably already infected by now so there's no stopping it." Sakura beamed.

Naruto relaxed and hugged her back, "I love her, Sakura-chan."

Sakura sighed, "She loves you, Naruto-kun. And I can't wait to become an auntie!"

Naruto froze in her arms, "I-is is n-not a bit too s-soon!"

"I'm kidding you idiot," Sakura laughed.

An hour later, Naruto left. Leaving empty ramen cups in his wake. They'd watched a film because Naruto insisted on celebrating her safe return, like they'd always done when a mission was over. Unfortunately, Sai had to finish a report that would take some time so Naruto and Sakura planned to surprise him tomorrow with fatty foods.

Sakura tidied up the rubbish and danced to a tune. She wasn't the best singer so there'd be no point in disrupting the neighbours with it...again.

Suddenly, Sakura sensed eyes boring into her back. She turned from her kneeling position on the floor to come face to face with her cat. He'd sat himself on her couch, watching her as she cleaned. Sakura leaned forward so she was inches from his little face, "Your constant moods are distracting me." She said.

He gruffed in response. Sakura giggled and pulled him into her lap.

"I'm sorry for pretending I was dead, Sasuke-kun." She stroked his ears.

Expecting a purr, Sakura jumped when Sasuke coughed...and fire spit out.

Sasuke...had coughed a fireball.

Sakura screamed and ran to get water from the kitchen, knocking Sasuke off her lap. Once the flames were out, her gaze swung to the frozen cat.

"Y-you...fireball!"

He backed away slowly at first, then sprinted down the hall and into her bedroom.

Sakura's hands shook. This wasn't normal, was it? She had a fire breathing cat in her home! It couldn't be normal. Sakura did the only thing she could think of, she called Tsunade.

There was a lengthy silence after Sakura informed the Hokage of the recent events.

"He blew...a fireball." Was the response she got.

"Yes shishou! A fireball, I know I've never cared for a cat before but I'm pretty sure they don't spit balls of fire when they cough...do they?"

"No Sakura, they most certainly don't. I want you to stay where you are, is he in your apartment?"

"He ran into my bedroom right after it."

"I'll be over in a moment." The click signalled the end of the call.

Sakura took a deep breath, held it for a couple of seconds, and breathed out. By the time she had repeated this three times, Tsunade was barrelling through her front door.

"Tsun-!"

"Where is he?"

"Still in the room...I think. But shishou-"

"Sakura, I'm sorry. But this cat of yours has got to go."

Sakura panicked. "It was a little fireball, he doesn't have to be quarantined! I just need someone to check if he's okay-"

"No, I've let him reside in your home for too long. He has got to go, I'll kick him out of the village if I have to."

"He's a cat!" Sakura argued, her hands squeezed into fists. "You're talking about him like he's some sort of criminal!"

"...I knew I shouldn't have let this carry on for as long as it has." Tsunade trudged to Sakura's bedroom and ripped the door from its hinges.

Sakura was convinced she was having a panic attack, her mentor was kicking her cat out of the village. It was just too crazy to not have a panic attack.

Before she could blink Tsunade was walking out of her apartment, a hissing Sasuke grasped in her left hand.

"Wait! Shishou please!" Sakura begged.

Tsunade carried on without a pause, Sasuke held her gaze until the door was slammed shut.

::XxX::

Sakura stared at the hot chocolate in front of her. It had always managed to make her feel better when things took a turn for the worse, but now she was just severely pissed off. Tsunade was keeping something from her...something that involved her cat. But she didn't know what, and it was killing her not knowing.

Ino had phoned her asking what had happened, Sakura relayed all the details to her. He cat coughed a fireball, Tsunade took a fit, she now had no cat.

It had been a couple of hours since the incident, it was now dark outside. Sakura hadn't dared go after Tsunade, it was once thing challenging Anko, it was quite another challenging the Hokage. She didn't know what they were doing to Sasuke, Shizune had gave her no information concerning him and that made Sakura worry.

She just couldn't wrap her mind around it, Sasuke was a cat! He was no criminal or murderer, the only crime he'd committed was ripping her curtains. Even if he was a ninja disguised as a cat, Sakura had sensed no chakra from him. There'd been no signs that he was after something or someone, he was just an ordinary cat.

Sakura stood up and knocked her chair over in the process. That was it, she'd had enough. If Sasuke was some sort of threat, she had a right to know.

Doning her ninja apparel, Sakura sped to the Hokage's building. She past the guards with ease by simply walking past them, they had gotten used to her entering the building and even greeted her on some occasions.

Sakura concealed her chakra knowing Tsunade would send someone to stop her. Reaching Tsunade's office, Sakura peeked through the key hole.

"Kakashi, I need you to get him out of here. This is your mission, tell no one of it, understand?" Tsunade's deep voice rumbled.

"Good. He's in my office, don't let hot water get near him. If there's any trouble, you return here immediately."

Sakura shivered, exactly what was her cat?

Tsunade hung up the phone and looked to her left. In front of the book case was a cage surrounded by chakra, and inside was her cat.

Sakura stifled her gasp of outrage, that was animal cruelty!

Sakura sensed another chakra, one hurrying to get to Tsunade's office. Sakura swivelled around and headed back the way she came to hide behind a corner as Shizune burst into the office. Rushed words were passed before both women bustled out and in the opposite direction of Sakura.

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief and quickly entered the big room she had not-so-fond memories of.

"I have come to make a request."

The Hokage kept on writing on her scroll, "What is it?"

"Please make me your student!"

A sick feeling erupted in Sakura's stomach after what her shishou had just revealed.

"Sasuke had defeated Orochimaru, but he is not returning to Konoha"

"Team 7 are qualified enough, but I'm not sure you are emotionally. I have told other teams this, and they have all agreed to under take it. If you happen to come across Uchiha Sasuke, he must be retrained and put in Konoha's prison, or killed on sight."

Locking those memories away, Sakura went over to Sasuke's cage.

"Sasuke-kun." She whispered, but the cat wouldn't look at her. Instead, he moved back a space as if distancing himself from her.

Sakura knew she'd get punished for this, but...she had to know.

Sakura narrowed her eyes and grabbed the top and bottom of the small cage, prying the two pieces of metal apart with her brute strength. The bars in between fell to the ground and the chakra surrounding it disappeared, no doubt this would be a signal to Tsunade.

Sakura gathered Sasuke in her arms and leapt out of the window back to her apartment.

::XxX::

Sakura went into her bathroom and shut the door. Sasuke sat next to her laundry basket on the floor as she ran a shower.

"C'mere Sasuke-kun." Sakura said softly, opening her arms as if for a hug.

The cat looked sceptical but stepped into her embrace with slow movements. Once he was close enough, Sakura carefully wrapped her arms around his little body and buried her face in the soft fur of his neck. He began to purr and that's when Sakura stood up smoothly, still managing to keep him purring.

One step back, another...and another. Sakura edged closer to the shower stall, the steam enveloped her in a cloud but Sasuke had figured it out. She kept a tight hold on him as he flailed desperately to get out of her grasp but she wasn't letting go until she knew what, or who her cat was.

Hot sprays of water scorched her back even with her top on, she clutched the cat to her chest, almost unwilling to let him suffer the boiling water. Almost. Soon, Sakura was drenched and so was her cat. Nothing had happened, she didn't see him turning into a dragon or some mass murderer. He was...a cat.

Then, the fur began to recede back into it's skin. Her cat grew larger, it's features elongating to that of a humans. Her hands still clutched something, it was arms. Two arms that flexed under her soft palms. A chest was all she could see, a wide chest with well defined muscles. She craned her neck back, and the human looked down.

Those eyes...

Immediately her skin went cold. Not even the hot water pouring above them could heat her.

Anger.

"...You fucking asshole!" Sakura punched Uchiha Sasuke in the face.

::XxX::

Can we all take a moment here to realised, I FREAKING UPDATED IN LESS THAN 2 MONTHS! HELL YEAH! See? I DO love you all 3

Review or I'll ninja attack you in your current day dreaming -_-