Chapter 8: Lose Control

"It's harder to break my bond with you though." Sasuke admitted to an awestruck Sakura, and an openmouthed Karin. He continued walking past Sakura, who was in such a state of shock she forgot she was holding the cup for him to drink. As the cup dropped toward the floor, in that short time that it took for the cup to reach the inevitable, thousands of questions zoomed through her mind, with one in particular.

'Does that mean, what I think that means?' she asked herself. 'Can it mean that… he cares… for me? But… why?'

"Look what you did you klutz!" Karin scolded Sakura, bringing her back to reality, and making her look at the broken pieces of the cup scattered all around her. As she bent down to pick it up, Karin simply walked past her, not even bothering to assist Sakura in picking up the pieces, as if she was nonexistent as the cup that shattered.

"Would you like some help?" Juugo said, standing outside while picking up a shattered piece that reached him. Sakura simply stared, observing him to make sure that he really didn't mean any harm, just wanted to give her company.

"Thanks. I really appreciate it." she explained. "You're not like the others huh?"

"What do you mean?" Juugo asked.

"You don't seem dangerous; you seem calmer than the others."

"You haven't been around us for a long time, so you don't really know how any of us really are. Karin has her moods but she does risk a good deal for her comrades, especially in Sasuke's case. Suigetsu also means well, he just likes pushing everyone's buttons. As for me-" he cut himself off, afraid of saying what he truly was. "You know, you could join us as we continue helping out Sasuke. We could use a medic-nin like you. You are so experienced in that field, and you have insane strength. You are like a fifth Hokage." he said, changing the subject.

"Thanks I'm flattered. But I'm sorry, Juugo, right? I can't. Like I said, as soon as I'm done healing Sasuke, I am leaving. I can't stay here for long. They need me back in my village."

"He won't let you go. You're too valuable, and he's no fool. He knows it too."Juugo told Sakura as she turned toward him, taking the shattered piece from him. She sat down alongside of him.

"I couldn't really care if he finds me as valuable as a forbidden scroll. My loyalty will never be with the likes of a traitor."

"Even if the said traitor admits that he might have feelings for you?" Juugo asked, not meaning any harm.

Sakura lowered her head. "Stop it. Please. I know what you're trying to get at, and that's not gonna work with me. I would never put him in first place when he didn't do the same for me. When he left Konoha, he took my friend's sanity, as well as my own. I have never really felt at peace because he left me; he left all of us that cared for him. All he lives for, all he thrives on is revenge. And I don't see how he can change his ways, not even for me." She admitted more than what she was supposed to. But she couldn't help it; she just felt that she had to admit that secret that she kept so long with her, hiding it deep within herself. Sakura couldn't believe that she was sharing something so private to someone that hadn't even said two sentences to her since she's been here. "I can't do that to my friends from my village, they have to come first."

"But what if he did put you first? And fled for the safety of his comrades? What if he says those harmful things to make sure that you won't get hurt more than he's hurting you?"

Sakura began to take everything that Juugo was implying into account. If Sasuke did stay in the village, an invasion was sure to happen by Akatsuki, but he would have had his friends for support, and he would never be alone. But with the support that he would receive from his friends when the fight with Itachi would come, what satisfaction would come out of it?

"…In a way, I guess you're right." She rose from where she was sitting. "But its different this time, surely you know that."

"For you maybe, but for him I can't help but think differently." He explained as he too rose and went inside after Sakura. He went to sit next to Suigetsu outside the room where Sakura was going to heal Sasuke. "Call us if you need anything okay?"

"Okay" Sakura said. She slipped into the room where Sasuke was in, and to no surprise, Karin was in there with him. Sakura decided that it was best to ignore Karin, that way there would be no problems in trying to heal him. She grabbed a new cup to serve some more of the medicinal tea. She walked toward him and handed it to him. "Drink." she instructed him.

Sasuke obediently began to place the cup to his mouth, the taste being slightly unbearable for anyone and continued swallowing it until it was all gone. "Seconds please." He joked.

"Wait for it to take effect, you won't be asking for seconds by then" she casually remarked, preparing her hand signals for the jutsu she was about to do.

All of a sudden, Sasuke began to shiver, trying his hardest to show that nothing was going wrong, but Sakura could still hear his labored breathing. Then Sasuke was starting to groan, as he felt as though his skin was on fire, and still no yells were heard. By now Sakura was all prepared and approached him, her hand glowing red with all the chakra that was focused there.

"What's going on?" Karin asked Sakura as Sasuke kept groaning. "What's wrong with my Sasuke?"

Apparently ignoring her was not going to work. "Nothing's wrong with him Karin," Sakura said, trying to ignore the possessive voice she had. "His body is simply taking in the drink. It's a strong tea that causes constant freezing and heating of the body, throwing body temperatures out of control and thus diffusing chakra and then bringing it back. It's like a seesaw, but with that happening I can manipulate his chakra and cause a bit of reanimation. It's just like cheating death I guess one could say." Sakura explained to Karin as she bent down to hold him steady, her hand at the ready to begin the jutsu.

"Fake reanimation?" Karin questioned.

Sakura nodded. As she held Sasuke down with one hand she began to puncture his wound with the other, causing slight discomfort on his end. He began to groan even louder as the surge of cold went through his body again, followed by the burning that he knew was coming after. He couldn't take it as he began to thrash his body around; this pain was unbelievable, as his screams began echoing in the room.

"Crap! Suigetsu! Juugo! I need your help in constraining him!!" Sakura yelled for the two guys. They busted through the door and each took a leg but his upper body wouldn't stop shaking, or his arms. "Karin, get his arms!" She continued yelling as Karin ran up to him, but he still wouldn't stop moving. 'This is too dangerous. He has to stay perfectly still in order for me to input the chakra!' And that's when Sakura, in a spur of the moment, got on top of his stomach, holding him down with all her might. She continued drilling her hand at the right moments, finally seeing progress as some new cells were covering up the wound. She kept going at it until all that remained was a small puncture hole, which was as it should be, according to her research. She slowly began to get off him, but her knees were shaking uncontrollably. She was at her limit. Sasuke couldn't take the pain anymore that was pitted in his stomach and threw everyone off as he turned around and began puking up the tea. Juugo and Suigetsu hit hard against the wall, Karin did a back flip, hitting her head in the process, knocking herself unconscious. Sakura took the worse of the blows, as she was flung from the room, thanks to Sasuke who unintentionally pushed her off him, going headfirst into the forest. She was too tired to stop herself, let alone to save herself from the pain that she was going to experience. Or so she thought. She shut her eyes just as she was about to hit the tree, when she felt two arms cradling her as they both hit the tree, but she was cushioned from the blow, and landed on the cold dirt.

"Sasuke-kun…?" Sakura whispered, as she was losing focus of her savior. Sasuke turned toward her as he brushed off leaves and other types of debris from her face. She always looked pretty when she looked messy, in his opinion. He was still in pain, but he couldn't let her get hurt as she would have if it wasn't for him. The worst was over too, since he coughed up the tea.

"Are you okay? Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked. Sasuke merely chuckled at her worried face, when it was him that should have been asking her if she was okay.

"Never better." He assured her. Sakura smiled as she tried to sit straight but she was way too exhausted to even do that. Sasuke complied with helping her out, and sat her up straight, making sure that her head didn't hit the bark as he placed his hand there. He kept brushing dirt off the pink haired kunoichi, but froze as he noticed her head was tilted toward his shoulder. He didn't know what to do, so he simply looked at her, only to realize that she lost consciousness and fell asleep, breathing easily. Then he too placed his head on top of hers, and very slowly as he was shutting his eyes did he feel at peace, all because she was there to give him that peace.