Well thanks for reviewing I really love it. Well here you go the next chapter!! Hope you all love it.

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Chapter 10: No Longer Helpless

Sasuke and Sakura had been walking for quite a while. They were a long way from the town. Sasuke was surprised Sakura had the energy to keep up with him. He wondered if she was just acting like she had energy but really didn't.

"Are you okay?" The older one asked without looking behind him.

"Yeah! I'm fine."

As Sasuke was walking forward he saw out of the corner of his eye that Sakura had come to walk beside him instead of behind him. He didn't ask why he just resumed on walking ahead.

After about an hour they saw that the dirt road they were following lead them right into the middle of another forest. But it wasn't like the first forest, you could still see the dirt road very well.

"Not into the forest again. Gosh I am really gonna miss the sunlight." Sakura sighed.

Sasuke just merely looked at her and began walking again. The pink haired girl soon followed.

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In the forest….

The sun was starting to set. You could see the orange glow of sun through the patches of the treetops. The air was getting to be a little chilly. They were a little ways into the forest when Sasuke stopped.

"I think we should stop here. The sun is going down so we should stop while we can still see."

"Okay fine by me."

As Sasuke heard her agreeing, he lead her behind a rather very large tree on the other side of the tree was another larger tree. In between the two trees you couldn't be seen from the road. Once in-between the trees he sat down the stuff and began to make camp by starting a fire.

Sakura sat with her back against a tree as she watched Sasuke finish setting up the camp. Sasuke once finished, turned to look at his pink haired friend.

"I need to check your wound." Sasuke began to walk over to her.

Sakura pulled her shirt down over her left shoulder so Sasuke could see her wound. He slowly unwrapped the bandages acting as if he pulled them off fast it would hurt her. Once the bandages were off, he looked to realize the wound was starting to heal.

"It's healing up fast. It's starting to close up, so you should stop bleeding soon."

"There's a lot of dry blood around my shoulder so I am going to go look for a river or something to wash off. So I'll be back."

"Okay but don't go to far."

"Alright I won't."

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With Sakura…

Sakura walked a little ways through the forest. She didn't bother wrapping her wound back up, she just pulled her sleeve back over it. The young woman stopped and listened.

"There. I hear a river or stream or something ahead. It can't be far." The young princess started off in the direction she heard running water.

Once there she saw it was a small creek. She smiled, the water was nice and clear. It would be a good place to wash the dry blood off of her shoulder.

Just as she was about to start cleaning her wound, she heard something not far off.

"AHH!" A groan came. The groan sounded to be pained.

"What the-?" Sakura started. She was cut off when all of a sudden a familiar blonde female came crashing down out of a tree, she landed on her back.

"Hey it's that 16 year old brat, what's her name…Ino!"

Sakura ran over to her to realize, Ino was covered with a couple of bruises and scratches. It seemed as if she was in a fight.

"Ino?"

Ino opened eyes to look around and began to get up. She glared at Sakura and turned her back to her.

"This is no place for a weakling, forehead girl. I'm in a battle." The blonde said.

"Looks like your loosing."

"Its because she is." A voice came. It sounded to be a girl about their age.

"Up here!" Ino yelled pointing to the enemy.

With that Sakura looked up in a tree to see a young female about 18, with pale white skin and long jet black hair that came down to just about her ankles with a small bow in it at the bottom.

"The name is Kin." The enemy girl stated.

"That little bitch stole me and my groups money." Ino added.

"Well I guess its time to put my strength to the test!" Sakura said leaping into one of the nearby trees.

"What? You can't fight forehead girl!" Ino said.

But before the blonde could say more, Sakura leaped toward Kin. Kin leaped back only to see a cloud of smoke appear around Sakura. While trying to find the pink haired girl, Kin felt a powerful blow come right to the back of her head. This sent Kin flying face fires into the ground.

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With Sasuke…

The male ninja remained still as he sat at the camp, guarding the stuff. He couldn't help but worry about Sakura. He was afraid something would happen to her. Especially with her shoulder hurt.

Sasuke couldn't help but to keep hearing certain crashes from off in the distance. His imagination got the better of him and he began to think that Sakura was being attacked.

"I better go find her."

With that Sasuke got up and raced toward all of the noise. He soon came closer and closer. He then heard a large crash. He looked through some bushes to see a girl with long black hair laying on the ground. She started to move. She began to get up but as soon as she got to her feet. A pink flash came. It was Sakura. Sakura quickly kneed her in the stomach making her fall back to the ground. But Kin got back up faster this time, she jumped back into a nearby tree.

Sakura followed. But as Sakura was still in the air, Kin jumped from the tree she was in. She tried to punch Sakura. But Sakura leaned back to dodge it and then kicked her in the stomach. With that Kin was sent to the ground again. Sakura then followed, she landed with her feet coming down on Kin's back.

Sakura jumped off of her and stood to see if she was getting up again. Kin began to move. She got up to show she had bruises and scratches on her. Her lip was busted. She looked back at Sakura and began to speak.

"Here take the damn money! Just let me go."

Kin grabbed at a bag of money in her pouch. She then threw it toward Sakura. As Sakura kneeled down to pick it up, Kin got up and fled from the scene.

With the battle over, Sasuke came out of the bushes to lock eyes with Sakura. He smirked. Those smirks made her almost melt.

"You did better than I thought you would." Sasuke said.

"Thanks."

"SASUKE!!" A girl voice shrieked.

And not a second later, Ino had her arms wrapped around Sasuke.

"I knew I would see you soon! I missed you so much!"

Sakura just glared at Ino. She hated it when Ino touched him. Sakura hated the thought of another girl even looking at him let alone touching him. As Sasuke was being attacked by Ino, he looked toward Sakura to see her glaring as if she was jealous. As Sakura stopped glaring toward Ino, she looked at Sasuke to only see him smirking at her.

Oh no, I think he saw he glaring at Ino. So much for him not finding out. I mean its true I do really really really like him but I don't think he likes me and what if he leaves me. Because I remember what he said about Ino the first time I met her.

Flashback

"Ok. And I am so glad you didn't let Ino travel with us. For some reason she hates me. She was so mean to me when you were gone. How come you never let her travel with you?" Sakura asked.

"I kinda thought that would be the case. As you can tell she has a crush on me and she gets jealous very easily. And she has asked to travel with me lots of times but I figured since she has a thing for me it would be awkward if she made a move on me. Because I only see her as a friend."

"Oh I see…"

End of Flasback

Maybe if he found out I had a thing for him, and didn't like me he would leave me…I hope he doesn't find out or it would be better if he liked me back…..

Sakura pushed those thoughts away and cleared her throat to get Ino's attention. Once Ino looked at her, Sakura walked toward her and handed her back her money bag.

"Oh thanks. Since when can you fight anyway?"

"I told you Sasuke was going to train me. I have been training for about six to seven months now."

"Well I just wasn't trying to really beat her up. I was saving my energy." Ino lied.

"Why would you waste your time, use your energy and get rid of her quick. Duh! That's what a real fighter does." The pink haired girl stated.

"Whose says that kind of crap?" The blonde protested.

"Actually I do." Sasuke piped in.

Upon hearing Sasuke, Ino's face changed from a pissed off mood to a lovely dovey one.

"Oh of course Sasuke. That totally makes sense." Ino said grabbing onto his arm. "By the way I need to talk to you…in private."

Sakura knew without thinking that last part was meant directly toward her. She really didn't like Ino. All Ino did was try to take Sasuke away from her.

"Okay." Sasuke said.

As Ino began to lead Sasuke away by holding on to his arm, she turned her head back toward Sakura and smiled back at her with an attitude that said 'I win!' and stuck her tongue out.

The princess only glared at her. She walked over to the creek and sat down. She soon began to talk to herself.

"Who the hell sticks their tongue out? Two years olds do that!! But then again she is only a little 16 year old. Sasuke is too old for her. He is 19."

With that said, Sakura just sat at the river and started to wash off her shoulder, during the battle a little dirt had got on her too. She made it look like she was patiently waiting for Sasuke to come back, when on the inside she was dying to have him back with her and away from Ino.

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With Sasuke and Ino…

As they got out of hearing area of Sakura, the blonde turned to face Sasuke. She smiled and acted as if she was the cutest thing in the world.

"So Sasuke do you like Sakura?"

"What?"

"Because I don't think you should waste your time with her. I love you more that she EVER will. And plus I am way better looking. I mean yeah she may be like stronger than me, but if that's what you really want in a girl then I could train a lot more and be stronger."

"Ino, I don't see you like that."

"Why is it because you like Sakura?"

"Don't worry about it."

Sasuke turned to walk away from her but Ino stopped him by grabbing at his arm. He turned to look at her as if asking why she was stopping him.

"I guess I'll see you around. I should be getting back to Shikamaru and Chouji. But Sasuke if you ever need me I am here for you. I really do care for you…."

Sasuke simply nodded and with that the blonde haired girl left, saddened that Sasuke didn't have the same feelings for her. The male ninja then started on his way back to his pink haired companion. He soon found her at the side of creek washing off the dry blood from her wound.

As he came to sit beside her, he couldn't help but smirk to see that she had missed a spot. It was kinda of near the top of her shoulder and over toward her neck, when she tilted her head to look at her shoulder she probably couldn't see it.

As Sakura looked at him she saw him smirking. This caused her to get a rather puzzled look on her face.

Without any words, Sasuke grabbed the rag Sakura was using out of her hand, and began to scrub at the part she missed.

"You missed a spot."

He came closer to her to get a better reach of it. He then used his free hand to rest on the other side of her neck so he could hold her neck still. This made Sakura almost melt.

Wow. I can't believe how much Sasuke really gets to me. He is just so handsome…

Sakura just sat and looked at the flawless face of the raven haired boy. As he finished, he noticed that the sun had gone down and it was dark but not pitch black, you could kind of see.

It was chilly and Sakura began to shake having the cold water still fresh on her shoulder. But she had nothing to really cover it because her shirt had very short sleeves.

Sasuke noticed this and took of his shirt, showing his rather tan and lean abs. It looked like he had a 12 pack. He used his shirt to wipe away all the water on her shoulder and then flipped it around to the other side and wrapped it around her to keep her warm.

"Thanks."

"Come on."

Sasuke then led her back to the camp.

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At the camp…

Sakura sat next to the fire and had her back leaned against a tree. Sasuke sat across from her also leaning against a tree.

"You impressed me Sakura." Sasuke started.

"Really? With my fighting?"

"Yeah. You took that girl out with no sweat while it took everything Ino had in her."

"Yeah. She was really slow."

"Are we friends?"

"Yeah…."

"Then why are you all the way over there? I don't have a disease or anything. Come sit next to me."

Sasuke didn't argue. He quietly came and sat next to her. Sakura smiled and used the some of the blanket she had to cover Sasuke too. She moved as close as she could to him so the blanket would cover him completely. She then rested her head against his shoulder, she smiled when she felt his head lean on hers.

"Night Sasuke."

"Night."

Sasuke began to think as he began to doze off to sleep.

i still can't believe Sakura, took that girl down just like that. I kinda miss her beening that helpless little princess. She doesn't need to be protected that much anymore. I guess she is no longer helpless.

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Well thanks for reading so PLZ REVIEW!! Reviewing means a lot to me so plz tell me how you feel bout my story..i work so hard for you people…but anyway I try to have the next chapter out soon!!

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kikyothepriestess05!!