Title: When the Fire Burned Out

Description: Sakura is crushed after the second loss of Sasuke, but she won't let anyone see the pain besides her best friend Sai. When her next mission leads her through a crash course of love, then to the pain she's been avoiding, can she depend on her friends to lead her back to sanity?

Rating: M. For sex and some violence.

***

I woke up again, dizzy and confused. I looked around, everyone was still sleeping, except for Gaara who was kneeled next to me.

"Hey, Sakura!" He said urgently. "Sasuke just moved his arm. It's wearing off!" I sat up quickly, grabbing my bag and pulling another syringe out of it. I quickly darted out of the tent and towards Sasuke. The rest happened in slow motion.

I grabbed Sasuke's arm, squeezing it. I raised the needle up to his arm, as I slid it into his skin, his other arm flew up and hit me in the side of the head. I fell backwards, skidding to a stop about foot away. A gasp escaped my lips as the syringe hit the ground several feet from me. The others had come running out, Sai grabbed me and drug me towards the tent, and I could feel blood running down my face. Everything was becoming fuzzy, I realized I was passing out.

"Sakura!" I could hear Sai's voice urgent in my ear. "Sakura, come on." I opened my eyes a little, trying to push away the darkness threatening to consume me.

"Sai." I whispered. My head was throbbing. The way he was looking at me, I must have looked pretty bad. Sasuke had hit me in the temple. Hard. Hard enough to kill me, I realized, clamping my eyes shut. He wanted to kill me. Remorse flooded my mind now, amplifying the pain. I felt Sai press something to the side of my head, the rough material made it worse. "S-S-Sai." I chattered, my body was freezing. "T-they need your h-help." I was shaking uncontrollably. I could hear fighting going on outside. "I-I'll be fine for a few minutes." He eyed me warily before nodding, he darted outside, paintbrush and scroll in hand. I opened my eyes again, trying to sit up. I fell right back down, the darkness enclosing my body.

***

"Gaara! Watch out!" Temari yelped, as Sasuke's Chidori went flying past his head, hitting a tree, which collapsed, barely missing Hinata. Naruto swung another punch at Sasuke's head, which Sasuke caught in one hand, blocking an attack from Tenten with the other. Neji landed a few hits, cutting off the chakra points in Sasuke's left arm. He swung around with a snarl, he quickly made a hand sign with one hand, blowing fire towards Neji and Hinata, who both jumped out of the way. Two of Sai's tigers ran towards Sasuke, tackling him to the ground. Gaara scooped up the syringe with his sand and grabbed it out of the air, stabbing it into Sasuke's jugular vein. Sasuke's cursed seal began to spread quickly, covering his entire body within seconds. He knocked the two tigers off him before grabbing one of Tenten's failed weapons off the ground. He ran around Gaara several times, dodging a wind attack from Temari, and a shadow from Shikamaru. Kankuro was trying to repair his puppets quickly near the tree line. Hinata and Neji both tried to intercept his attack before it happened, but they were too late. Sasuke landed the long kunai between Gaara's shoulder blades. Gaara cringed in pain, falling to the ground. Temari and Kankuro rushed to his side quickly. Everyone else rushed towards the tree line closest to him, where they assumed he would run to, but he darted the other way, towards the tent, towards Sakura's passed out body…

***

I woke up, eyes clenched closed against the pain in my head. I quickly remembered the situation and started to get up, but I couldn't move. I looked around, I wasn't in the tent where I had fallen asleep, I was…In a cave.

"Good morning Sakura-Chan." I shivered at the voice.

"Sasuke." I said coldly. He was leaned up against the wall, several feet from me.

"That poison you gave me…I suppose you didn't count on the stuff you put in my drink, canceling it out, did you?" He asked, his eyes cold. I shook my head.

"Where am I?" I demanded, trying to sit up again. "Why can't I move? What happened back there?"

"You're with me." He said slowly, "Isn't that what you always wanted? To be with me?"

"What I wanted!" I shouted, "WANTED! I don't WANT it!" He shook his head, a smirk on his face.

"You can't move, because of the poison in the syringe. Gaara didn't inject it when he stabbed it into my neck." My eyes widened.

"Gaara. Where is he?" I whispered.

"Dead probably." He looked at the look of horror in my eyes, "Oh, don't tell me you liked him! That jerk, the one who almost killed Naruto!"

"You almost killed Naruto…" I whispered, tears filling my eyes. I blinked, trying to hold them back. "What did you do to him?"

"I stabbed him in the back, just like I did to Kohana!" He laughed darkly, eyeing my face.

"What about the others?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"Fine I suppose." I frowned. At least there was that. Ino could help Gaara. I hoped.

"Why did you take me?"

"I…don't know." He murmured. "That hit was supposed to kill you. But it didn't." He walked over, running his hand across my temple and down my face. It didn't hurt as much as it should have, there must have been a bandage. "So at the club, you were the one who bought me that drink… I should have recognized the hair…Known it was a trap."

"What now?" I asked quietly, his face was just a foot from mine.

"I don't know." He said coldly. "I'm going to have to find Itachi again, since I never got to meet the informant…" An idea blossomed in my mind quickly.

"I can inform you." I said, thinking about Naruto. "I overheard Tsunade saying that two Akatsuki members were heading towards the Leaf Village, looking for Naruto. If you followed them, you could find Itachi." I said quickly. He laughed.

"A…Idea, which leads me back to the Leaf! Did you really think I would believe that?" He demanded closer to my face now.

"You know, it'd be worth a shot, if that's what I meant by it." I said, my voice filling with rage. "I wouldn't tell anybody either. If you let me go back."

"That reminds me…" He interrupted, "What am I going to do with you?"

"Let me go." I said quickly. "Knock me out, take me back. I have no idea where we are."

"No."

"Why'd you take me in the first place?" I asked, curious now.

"I don't know. Before I left, you said, you wanted to go with me. Help me find Itachi…" He trailed off. I frowned.

"That offer doesn't still stand." I said venomously. "I need to go back. I need to help Gaara." I murmured, trying to reason with him. "You really don't need a criminal record on top of being an missing-nin." I whispered. "You don't want to be responsible for killing a Kazekage."

"KAZEKAGE?" He exclaimed, "They let that demon, be in control of a village?"

"Gaara's not a demon." I grimaced. "At least, not anymore." Sasuke shook his head. "You know…you're no better than him!" His eyes widened red with sharingan. His foot was on my throat, before I noticed he had moved.

"I am nothing, NOTHING like Itachi!" He screamed, putting pressure on it. I realized I couldn't breath. I felt darkness overtake me, and I realized I was dying.

***

"Sakura-Chan, oh Sakura-Chan." I heard Sasuke's voice whisper in my ear. "I'm so sorry, I almost killed you didn't I?" I opened my eyes, realizing he was holding me in his arms. "I have a bit of a temper." My body was limp against his. I'm getting what I always wanted, I thought darkly. I'm in Sasuke's arms. But, I didn't want to be. I tried to pull away from him, with no success. A mocking hurt look crossed his face. "Didn't you want me to hold you like this?" He demanded, "When we were younger?" I looked back at him, a blank look on my face. "Didn't you want me, to hold you close? To do this?" He brought his lips close to mine, I quickly turned my head. "LOOK AT ME!" He yelled, I reluctantly turned back to face him. One of his hands grabbed my face roughly, he smashed his lips into mine. "Isn't that what you wanted?" I nodded, tears filling my eyes.

"It's what I WANTED!" I repeated again, "Not what I WANT!" He dropped me onto the hard cave floor, my body rolled twice, my face pressed against the rocky surface. He kicked my body over, I saw his red eyes staring at me. Sasuke bent down, his face inches from mine once again. He held himself over me with one arm the other one he ran from my neck down to my stomach. "

"You wanted me to touch you…" He murmured. My mind was racing, my head thrashed. I struggled, trying to move my body, with no prevail.

"Uchiha!" I heard Naruto's voice scream. "If you hurt a hair on her head, I'm going to kill you!" Sasuke turned to look at him, then back to me. He ripped the small tank top off with one hand. My face turned red, I hadn't been wearing a bra.

"Who said I'm hurting her?" Sasuke demanded, grabbing my breast roughly with one hand. "You don't see her struggling!"

"Get away from her Sasuke." I heard Sai's voice from the other side of the cave, I turned to look at him, he was followed by a few snakes, a gorilla, and more tigers. "We don't want you, we just want Sakura." Sasuke looked down at me again, then reached towards his back.

"You can have her…" He said slowly, "But, not alive!" He brought out a kunai and stabbed it through my chest. I cried out in pain, blood filling my mouth.

"No!" Sai and Naruto both shouted, rushing to my side as Sasuke flew out the cave. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a chakra net swoop him up, and Shikamaru holding him with his shadow jutsu.

"Sakura, stay awake." Sai murmured, petting my hair.

"Sakura…What should I do?" Naruto whispered, staring at the knife.

"Remove it." Was my choked reply. "Slowly." I warned. I cringed as he slowly pulled the knife out of my chest.

"What now?" Naruto looked like he was about to start crying.

"P-pressure." I moaned in pain. Naruto grabbed the ripped tank top and pressed it against the wound. "Y-you need to get me back to Kohana." I whispered. "But…I can't be carried. I won't make it." Naruto nodded at Sai, who drew a large ink drawn bird on a scroll. He climbed a top of it, and Naruto set me in his arms.

"Careful." Naruto warned. The bird gently took off, out of the mouth of the cave. Sai was holding the tank top over the wound. He set it down for a moment, before removing his own shirt and putting it on me. He gently cut out the area where the wound was, and replaced the tank top.

"How bad does it look?" I asked, spitting out the blood.

"Bad." Sai admitted, I could see the emotions on his face when I looked up at him.

"Can you put my hand over the cut?" I asked, softly. He nodded and replaced the top with my hand. Despite the limited amount of chakra I had left, my hand glowed green. He held it there for a few minutes before setting it back down.

"Save your energy." He said softly, holding the hand he had laid down.

"I probably just saved my life." I replied, before passing out in his arms.

***

SNAP!
HAHA.
Thanks for all the reviews.
I love them so much. :]
Here's the newest chapter.

And, I have another question for y'all.

How many of you guys have read any of my other stories?
I just have one other on here.
It's not very good. XD
But, I had a rather good story called "Happy 16th Birthday".
That I deleted on accident.
Just wondering if anybody reading this had read it.
I was thinking about rewriting it.
:]]

XOXO

Chelsey