Disclaimer/ No, I do not own Naruto and I never will. Go ahead and be mean about it. If I owned Naruto, you would know about it.

AN/I think I should just warn you now. All of these Sakura pairings are going to be pretty high up there on the crack scale. I really love crack. Sue me. A good dosage of Sakura crack is good for you. I'm sure of it.

Dedication:...All those who took part in my contest and voted on having another one in December. 70 for, 5 against, 10 undecided. I'm looking forward to that and I'm glad you are, too.

Please review, flames are ...I do not care.

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The Two Gentlemen of Verona

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I have no other but a woman's reason:
I think him so, because I think him so.

Lucetta, scene ii

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Darker than crimson, there were small rivers running down the sides of a woman's mouth. Glassy blue green eyes stared up at the celling, seeing nothing in death. There was small droplets of blood across the bridge of her nose reminding Sakura of the effects a suddenly stopped paintbrush had on an empty canvas. There was so much blood...

"Muh-mom?!" Sakura croaked, shocked and surprised to see life stolen so suddenly right before her eyes.

She took a steep forward before falling to her knee, making the puddles of blood rise up around her knees. The halls were starting to stink from the flesh and the blood of both her parents as well as herself. She was in a narrowed space, but it all seemed to be spinning around her as her body gave up its lunch at what she saw. There was too much blood...

"Dah-dad?" she choked, yellow colored vial dripping from her lips from a malnourished lifestyle. That was his fault, but even with all he had put her through, she had never wished for his death. Never! She was better than that, even if he had come to beat her that night.

She hugged her sides as the room swayed again and her fingertips felt wet with something. It's her blood.

There were noises from behind and in front of her at the same time and she though there were more sounds from the left and right sides as well. It sounded like someone was coming for her on all sides. "S-some-one?" she called out, scared and tired.

She stood up and backed away from the bloody scene only to fall backwards onto her rump. Her body hurt and cried out in protest. She tried to stand again but the room was spinning again and her head felt like it was breaking apart and falling in pieces to the floor. She reached up to hold her head and from her fingers all her blood was there for her to see.

There were footsteps and she though she though she saw someone, so she called out. "He-lp...meee."

Her blood was covering her eyes in the absence of her now cracked glasses, but she could still see that man staring at her with a blurred face and an expression she couldn't determine. She didn't know how, but something in her told her this man wasn't here to help her like she had hoped. It wasn't Juugo sneaking over for a late night chat or one of her long gone girl friends. He was a man tall and dressed darkly, the smell of death clinging to him like a desperate parasite, defining him. Was he here to kill her too, like he had her parents? She didn't want to die. Death was scary and large and not something she could look at unaffected.

He took a steep towards her and she turned away, trying to put more distance between them, memories of previews for horror thrillers flashing through her mind. Oh Christ, oh God, oh please, she silently prayed while her lips trembled in an attempt to form words. He was coming closer and closer to where she limply sat, blood smeared over her face. "Please..."

The room trembled and her head screamed loud and louder, scrambling her already warped vision till she couldn't see.

The Killer stood in the doorway with a blade, triple pointed downwards. He took a steep towards Sakura as she crawled away from him in frantic, jerked movements. Sakura couldn't properly scream, the air all gone from her lungs. She tried to stand, and bolted for the stairs, but her legs gave out on her and then she was falling, tumbling over herself and across the downstairs floor, picking up pieces of jagged blood in her side. Her head hit the side of an empty china cabinet and it rocked before falling down on her.

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She is mine own,
And I as rich in having such a jewel
As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl,
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.

Valentine, scene iv

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Beep...

Beep...

Beep...

When Sakura awoke, the first thing she noticed though her fuzzy tunnel vision of early morning consciousness, was that she was not in her room anymore. Her room was not bleached white, but rather happy and perky shades of yellow and pink. She tried squinting to get a better look at her surroundings, but she wasn't wearing contacts and her glasses were no where to be seen, so everything was a blur to her.

Reaching out into the murky whiteness, she felt along her body for something-anything that could give her a clue as to where she was. There was something wrapped around her finger and stickers attached to strings over her chest and forehead. No, those weren't strings, but rather wires, and that thing clamped over her finger was attached to one as well. She lifted her arm, and found a IV taped in place where she would bend her elbow.

"A hospital?" she coughed, shifting as best as she could.

She grunted when a pain shot down her leg and traveled all the the way to her thigh. Looking up she saw that her leg was raised above the rest of her body in a sling of some sort and wrapped in an extra hard structure. A cast...

"I don't remember breaking my leg, but then again, I don't remember much of anything... What was it that happened to me?"

She tried to recall the happenings of the day before she fell asleep, but all she met with was murky thoughts that skipped around her in a teasing manners. It was on the tip of her tongue, but she still couldn't grasp it. All the same, it seemed that those memories were avoiding her with good reason. Whatever it was that happened, the weight of it all was holding her head down and making her thoughts choppy and unsorted.

There was rustling in the bed beside her, but Sakura couldn't see who it was since there was a curtain dividing their two beds. That person grabbed a fistful of the curtain and pulled it back, exposing himself and his side of the room to her sight. "So you're awake now are you?"

Sakura's eyes bulged and she almost choked on the spit in her mouth. "Ka-Kakashi sensei?!"

He waved, seemingly unaffected by the position they were both in. "Yo."

Sakura felt her lips part and pull back together as she gaped at him like a dying fish, her cheeks and ears reddening in embarrassment. "W-What are you doing here?"

He smiled from behind his flu mask. "Funny story, now that you ask. I was mining my own business and walking down the street on my way to class when a black cat crossed my path. I stopped to avoid it and guy on a bike didn't see me, so he sort of ran me over and didn't even apologize."

She gasped, lifting her hands to cover her lips, not caring that on wrist was in a much smaller brace. "That's terrible! How did you get tot he hospital?"

Kakashi sweat dropped, snickering a bit to himself at how Sakura always seemed to so easily believe his lame excuses when they were so obviously false. She had always been like that, as far as he can remember-even going so far as to stick up for him when he whole class shouted out and called him a liar. Now that he thought about it, she was probably the only respectful girl in his whole class. No wonder he faked an injury to get out of work.

"Me get here? Huh, well I don't really know. Maybe a really kind person saw me on the street and decided to pick me up or call a doctor up on my account. I don't know."

Sakura smiled softly at her teacher, even though she couldn't really see his face well. "I'll be praying for your quick recovery then, sensei. Have you been ill very long?"

"Nope, just a few days."

"Oh?" her head tilted slightly to one side as her eyes narrowed and then widened in an effort to see more clearly. "But I thought I saw you yesterday in class. You were teaching, weren't you? How could you have been here in the hospital if I just saw you yesterday?"

Kakashi blinked in surprise, seemingly stunned by her words. His expression wasn't as care free or as loose as it once was. If anything, it showed his concern for her. "Yesterday? Sakura, how long...No. What day do you think today is?"

"Today? It's Wednesday, isn't it? There is a test in English, isn't there?"

Kakashi didn't say anything at first, he just held her gaze, even though she couldn't see him clearly. Finally he spoke, his voice a tone lower and more focused than she was used to. "Sakura.... today is Friday..."

Two days off wasn't anything too be all that worried about, but something in Sakura's gut made her shiver and tremble. What Kakashi said and the way he said it had her feeling frightened. "So... you-you're saying that I've been in this hospital asleep for two whole days?"

He smiled, but it was a smile of pity, and Sakura was grateful she couldn't see him clearly all of a sudden, least she learn the truth in his expression. "I'm sorry, Sakura, but you're wrong. You've been in the hospital for three weeks, not two days, all the while in a coma."

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That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man,
If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.

Valentine, scene i

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Later that day, after a nurse had come into check on Sakura's improvements, a few of Kakshi's friends came in to check in on him and his 'cute little student' that he seemed to show a particularly uncommon favor for. Kakashi was known for hating kids, so to go as far as giving himself food poison (twice) just so he could be in the same room as her had really surprised a few of his friends.

They had called ahead to warn their friend, but Kakashi though that eighteen seconds wasn't a fair amount of time to allow such a warning to set in.

"Did you miss us, Kakashi sensei?" Gemma taunted, skipping into the room with a bulk pressed under his arm. Once inside he opened his jacket to pull out a bottle of high quality rum. He didn't notice Sakura twitch at the sound of glass hitting the counter surface.

"Aren't visiting hours over soon?" Kakashi grumbled, trying to keep his face blank as three more men filed in.

Guy, Asuma, and Shisui each paid their friend a personalized greeting before pulling up some sort of chair to sit on around his bed. Asuma took the end of the bed, Guy and Gemma had the normal plastic chairs, leaving Shisui to stand between the two beds.

"We got an hour or two before the nurses kick us out," Asuma chuckled, waving an unlit cigaret.

"My eternal rival seems dishearten by our presence. Could this be intimidation, Kakashi?"

"Hardly."

Genma perked up and chuckled cunningly when he spotted Sakura in the bed behind the half drawn curtain, looking over at the group. "Well, well, well, what do we have here, is this the infamous Sakura chan we keep hearing so much about."Kakshi cut him a glare. "Oh excuse me, is this the Haruno Sakura we keep hearing so much about?"

"She just woke up, I would appreciate it if you didn't harass her in her bed before she's fully healed, Genma," Kakashi replied, his tone warning.

Asuma who was also a teacher, smiled and waved from on the other bed. "Hello Sakura."

"H-hello Asuma sensei," she replied, stuttering a bit as her cheeks and ears heated up. She couldn't see any of them very well except for Shisui, who stood right next to her bed, so she lowered her gaze a bit.

"Geez, what are you in for, a broken leg and fractured wrist it looks like," the young Uchiha joked in his good nature, trying to put the young girl at ease. He settled down to sit beside her on her bed causing her to look up. "I would hate to see the other girl that tangled with you."

Sakura giggled a bit at his joke.

Kakashi didn't like the way Shisui was watching Sakura, studying her like a long lost relative or forgotten love to a family member. His expression had a certain 'So this is her' type of look to it. Kakashi knew the Uchiha had a sort of odd relationship with Sakura's birth mother, but judging by this guy's reaction to Sakura, Kakashi could only suspect that this supposed relationship between the descendants went deeper than he or Sakura knew about.

"Hey Kakashi, you had better watch out, it looks like Shisui is beating you in your cradle robbing, though he's so much younger than you so I don't think it really counts as-"

Kakashi cut him off with a good whack to the face with his favorite book, his own physiognomy pointed in Sakura's direction, seemingly blank of all expression. But if you knew Kakashi, you could tell his expression wasn't really blank. Guy was the first one to pick up on this, but he kept quiet for his friend's sake, knowing that the teacher's ties with the Haruno girl ran deeper than he was willing to admit.

Shisui, happy with Sakura's positive reaction to his comments, went on to strike up more of a conversation of the girl. Asking her about school, special activities and food. "So, when do you think they'll let you out of this place, Sakura?"

"I-I don't know...m-maybe in a week. My leg is mostly healed since it was a clean break, and I can get by with my wrist in a brace so there's no real reason to stay here." Sakura looked down at her hands and tried bending all of her pale fingers, finding that in its self an easy enough task.

"When you get out, make sure to let me know and I'll take you out to celebrate." Shisui didn't see Kakashi's expression slightly darken.

Sakura reddened once more and she held up her hands, or at least tried to hold up both hands but only succeeded with the one, and waved it in front of her face. "O-oh, n-no, thank you, but that's not nessiary. I'll be really behind in school work and need all the time I can get to catch up with it."

"Eh, even one day? Kakashi and Asuma are some of your teachers aren't they? They'll give you a break for some R&R, won't they?" he asked, looking over at the two.

Kakshi smiled, happy to have some power at last. "Sorry, but six weeks is a lot of time and schoolwork is something Sakura can do while resting. Taking her out will just exhaust her, so it would be better if you eave her alone to her work."

The Uchiha smirked, rolling his eyes in a cocky manner that made Kakashi's smile fall like lead. "Tch, I should have known not to ask a teacher. Never mind them, Sakura. When they're not looking I'll fine some way to sneak you out."

"Suishi," Kakashi warned, his voice low and dark.

"Hey Sakura, have you ever been to a drive in theater? I have to take you some time. Good thing about that is you don't need to get out of your car, at all. You can sit back and rest that leg of yours." He leaned in so the his face was closer to her ear, sending her cheeks a flame with a red blush. "We just need to sneak out when Kakashi's not looking."

"I think it's time you all leave, visiting hours are over," Kakashi all but growled, his expressionless mask breaking.

Shisui looked up from being so close to Sakura and sighed. "Fine, fine, I guess we're being a bother to an old man in his well advanced years. We had better leave, but before then..." reaching into a bag he had carried in with him, he brought out leather bound book and handed it to Sakura. The title was printed in gold and clearly read The Two Gentlemen of Verona, even for Sakura's poor eyes. "I heard you liked Shakespeare. Here is something you can use to pass the time with."

"For me? Thank you very much!" she exclaimed.

"I'm glad you like it. I'll see you around then, you too Kakashi. Get better soon," he called from the door, following Asuma and Gemma out. Guy was saying his goodbyes when the Uchiha was turning the hallway corner. He stopped to look back and saw a a nicely dress man with a bouquet of multicolored flowers in his hands. The man was looking towards Sakura's door, his body language expressing hesitance. Shisui caught the man's eyes and before he could ask anything, he had dropped the flowers by Sakura's door and was gone, down the hallway.

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O heaven! were man
But constant, he were perfect.

Proteus, scene iv

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There you go. An update.

So who do you think it was that came into her house and killed her parents? Yes, it's a real character. I wanna see if any of you can guess. Give me your best shot, here's a hint, he hasn't shown up in this story yet, (at least I don't think he has) but he is in the manga. Not a very good hint, huh? Still, if you go back a re-read his description, you might get a better hint. You guys are smart, so I have faith in you.

PLEASE REVIEW

Vesper chan