A/N: Hey guys! So my exams are finally done so expect more frequent updates from here on out. I've been dying to finish up this one. Thanks for all the kind words of support in your reviews! PS – My blog got a little makeover. It's easier to navigate now. Hope you like the chapter (it's the longest one yet)!

Muse: Elysium – Elysia

Disclaimer: This story is a work of fan fiction using characters from the NarutoTM world, which is trademarked by Masashi Kishimoto. The story I tell here is created for entertainment only and is not part of the official NarutoTM storyline. I do not profit financially from this story.

Chapter 10: Love Triangle

"She's back!"

"Have you seen her yet?"

"Do you think she'll stay?"

"Things won't be the same for me after this."

"She's a beacon of hope to our village."

"The Pink Medic!"

Sakura's informal medical practice was gaining a reputation in the Land of Waves. Early the next morning, she returned to the spot where she healed the first child only to discover that an enormous crowd of children were eagerly waiting for her. As word of her practice spread, she was exposed to increasingly grave and complex injuries. By late morning, Sakura was tending to wounded villagers of all ages and all walks of life.

Her healing station became increasingly sophisticated as the hours stretched on. With the help of kind volunteers from the village, before lunchtime, Sakura found herself working under a huge tent sheltering a table, several chairs, and five makeshift beds for her patients. Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi organized a place for the villagers to form a line by pegging ropes to wooden posts. Sakura's patients willingly abided to the arrangement, allowing those with more critical wounds to skip to the front of the line.

"This is quite something, Sakura," said Kakashi from where he sat across from the patients' beds. He was on bodyguard duty and sent the boys off to watch over the bridge builder for the morning. He was still recovering from severe chakra depletion and the injuries Zabuza inflicted. He spent his entire shift in a chair beside his crutches propped up on the wall of the tent. He seemed content with the opportunity to read a certain little orange book but he asked Sakura the occasional question.

"I know," Sakura said hurriedly as she beckoned for a young boy at the front of the line to get onto an empty bed. "But there are just so many of them. And I don't have any medications or even bandages to work with."

"You seem very well-versed though," Kakashi said while closing his book and folding his arms across his chest. "You really have been doing this for a long time, haven't you?"

"Yes," Sakura answered quickly and turning her attention to a woman with a badly broken leg. Kakashi watched her intently for several minutes before returning to his book.

After her lunch break, Sakura noticed that her reserve of chakra had indeed grown since her time travel mission began and that her manipulation of medical chakra was refining. Despite her exhaustion, she knew that if she took periodic breaks, she could heal a significant number of villagers. Maybe Sasuke was right after all. Maybe this practice wasn't a complete waste of time.

But Sakura couldn't help feeling weary. There was no way she could heal everyone alone. And she suspected that her work would anger Gatō, the village tyrant. Would he send a ninja assassin after her? She shuddered at the thought. And who knew what other enemies her goodwill would attract. Her Pink Medic reputation made her rather identifiable too.

Maybe I should dye it or invest in a wig after all…

"Sakura-chan!"

Halting her train of thought, she turned to the source of the voice. Naruto, who was now on guard duty, was leading a woman wearing a tattered, brown cloak to the front of the line. "What's wrong?" Sakura asked the woman, expecting her to present a critical injury.

"She is here to assist you," Naruto said with an enormous grin and a double thumbs-up. "She's a civilian nurse and offered to help you run this thing!"

"I don't have very advanced skills but I know how to treat basic injuries," the woman said and bowing deeply. "It's the very least I can do."

Taken by surprise, Sakura blinked several times then nodded. "Thank you. I… uh, could you look after the first two beds?"

By the time Sasuke's bodyguard shift started, Sakura was overseeing not only three civilian medics but also two ninjas with basic skills in medical ninjutsu, each manning her own bed. She felt right at home in her authoritative role because this was the type of position that she held at Konoha's hospital in her former life. Sakura offered advice and took care of particularly complicated wounds on her own but, overall, the volunteer assistants allowed Sakura to conserve some of her chakra while treating five times as many patients.

Sasuke hardly spoke a word to Sakura for the duration of his shift. He stood at the entrance of the tent, directed patients to medical stations, and helped small children and those with mobility impairments onto the beds. When Sakura stopped for a short break, she noticed that the youngest medical ninja blushed deeply each time Sasuke approached her station. She placed a hand on his arm after he lifted a child onto the bed she was tending to. "Thanks Sasuke-kun," she said sweetly while shooting him a wide smile and tucking a strand of her flaming red hair behind her ear.

He nodded dismissively and then noticed Sakura resting on a chair at the back of the tent. Oblivious to both girls' irritated expressions, he approached her with his hands tucked in his pockets. "Calling it quits?" he asked.

"No. I'm just taking a break," she said a little defensively while stretching out her arms. It was only now that she was finally sitting down that she realized just how much her body was aching.

"All right," he answered and taking the seat beside her. All the beds were currently occupied so his patient traffic control services weren't needed up at the front. They gazed out at the villagers waiting patiently in line and the volunteer medics hard at work. Sakura's healing tent was transforming into a rather efficient system. And despite how the tent was filled with injured and sick individuals, the villagers' spirits were high and Sakura was presented with countless thank yous and homemade gifts.

"I can't believe you did this," Sasuke mumbled after a few minutes. He was leaning back with his arms folded.

"Neither can I," Sakura answered honestly while admiring a hand-crafted piece of jewelry a woman had given her after Sakura extracted poison from her husband's leg. "I guess they don't have a functional or affordable hospital around here. Not that the villagers here can afford much at all." And the more she thought about the dreadful living conditions in the Land of Waves, the more she loathed that slimy, selfish billionaire, Gatō. Worst of all, Gatō was determined to destroy Tazuna's bridge and trap the villagers here.

"I've been thinking, Sakura," Sasuke said slowly while staring out at the ever-shrinking line of wounded villagers. Sakura turned to him and raised her eyebrows. "And I want to know about your revenge."

"My... oh." Sakura's heartrate quickened and she felt perspiration that had nothing to do with her exhaustion dampen her forehead. He didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah. I don't know a thing about your past." Sakura's mouth grew very dry. She didn't have a prepared answer for this. And she wasn't about to wing it and risk exposing too much about her mission. He shot her a glance and she quickly averted her gaze. She couldn't afford for him to see through her like he usually did. Not right now. But Sakura could feel his expectant eyes trained on her as she racked her brain for any excuse to get away…

"Sakura! I need your help!"

Sakura spun in the direction of the new voice, instantly relieved. Thank the gods. The medical ninja with the obvious thing for Sasuke was waving her over. Sakura sprang to her feet and motioned to join the woman. "Not now," she muttered to Sasuke as she made a bee-line for the redhead's station. She didn't care if the medic was just trying to catch his attention or, more likely, redirect Sasuke's attention away from her.

Sakura needed to buy time before he approached her again.

At dinner, Kakashi claimed (to Sakura more than anyone) that Team Seven would be training as a group the following afternoon. "I have a special exercise in mind," he said.

By then, to Sakura's relief, she discovered that her tent was self-sustaining enough to proceed without her presence for a few hours. Donations of medical supplies had been offered to Sakura's team, and they now had a variety of medications, bandages, and reference books to use, allowing them to treat a wider range of conditions. She bid the other medics farewell before she and Naruto, who had been on guard duty, left for the forest to meet Sasuke and Kakashi and start training.

Upon their arrival, Kakashi announced that he would show them how to climb enormous trees in an unusual fashion. Then, with his crutches in hand, he started walking up a tree with his body parallel to the ground. Naruto and Sasuke stared at him in amazement while he explained how just the right amount of chakra had to be exerted from the foot for it to stick to the tree trunk. Sasuke shot Sakura a sideways glance during Kakashi's explanation and Sakura knew that he was thinking of the exercise she taught him where they stuck shuriken to their hands. Sakura nodded back. This tree climbing would involve the exact same kind of chakra control.

When put to the test, Sakura raced up to the top of the tree as she had in her former life. She always excelled in chakra control. Her teammates, on the other hand, struggled. After twenty minutes, Naruto managed to climb about ten feet up and Sasuke, twenty feet. He was excelling faster than he did in Sakura's previous life thanks to his private training with Sakura, but he still had a lot of work to do. Kakashi admitted he was unsurprised by Sakura's excellence at climbing the trees since she was a practicing medical ninja. "Medical ninjutsu users are the chakra control elitists of the ninja world," he explained to the boys. "Sakura is even way out of my league, so I suggest you consult her if you need any help."

Naruto immediately claimed Sakura as his personal coach. Before she even looked at him she knew that Naruto's main issue was his lack of concentration. She stared up at the markings Naruto had made in the tree to track his progress. He had hardly improved in the hour they had been training as indicated by how all of the marks in his tree were clumped around the bottom. Naruto was glaring at Sasuke's tree, which bore markings that reached twice as high as his. "This sucks," he mumbled. "He's doing so much better than me."

"You can beat him," Sakura encouraged.

"Not at this rate," he said with a frustrated sigh.

Sakura frowned. She needed to fix his uncharacteristic gloominess or he wouldn't improve at all. "Tell you what," she said. "Whoever gets to the top of the tree first gets to take me on a date."

As anticipated, Naruto eyes instantly lit up. Nothing fired the guy up more than a competition. "A date, hm?" he repeated thoughtfully while turning to Sasuke and squaring his shoulders to size him up. "Yeah. Yeah, I like the sound of that. Prepare to get your butt kicked, bastard!" And then Naruto was gunning it up the tree with a new rush of adrenaline. Sasuke rolled his eyes at his teammates and continued training in silence.

Neither of the boys made it up the tree before supper. After they ate, the two of them left for the forest and practiced late into the night until they were both almost entirely out of chakra. Meanwhile, Sakura stayed with Tazuna's family and slept soundly to replenish enough of her chakra to help out at the medical tent the following day

The next night, after Sakura spent the day alternating between working at her tent and guarding Tazuna at the bridge, Sasuke and Naruto finally made it to the top of the trees. They emerged into Tazuna's house while everyone else was sitting around the dinner table. Sasuke hoisted Naruto in, who was struggling to walk. "W-we did it!" Naruto exclaimed breathlessly. "We both made it to the top!"

"Excellent," Kakashi said with a nod of approval. "And I am nearly healed. We are just about ready to provide our bodyguard services as a team."

"Yeah! Believe it!" Naruto said and reaching up to punch the air but forgetting his arm was hooked around Sasuke's shoulders. As a result, he hit Sasuke square in the jaw and sent them both toppling to the floor.

After a long, nasty exchange (and Tazuna going on a spiel about how having Kakashi's team around "was keeping him youthful"), the boys finally reached the table and wolfed down their food like the tired, starving teenagers they were. Naruto only paused to speak to Sakura. "Oh, and I'm terribly sorry Sakura-chan, but Sasuke made it to the top of the tree about ten seconds before I did. So I guess we won't go on a date after all."

Sasuke swallowed his mouthful with a huge gulp and slammed down his chopsticks. "More like ten hours, dumbass," he snapped. "I spent most of the day stopping you from falling out of your tree."

"Well you were just showing off," Naruto snarled through a mouthful of food. "I pretended to fall so I could test you!" The arguing continued, but Sakura's mind started to wander. Had Sasuke really learned to climb the tree that much earlier than Naruto? Of what she remembered, the two of them had been on par in her previous life. If so, he was gaining new skills at a miraculously fast pace. Did this mean he would learn all the skills he could from Konoha earlier than his former self did? Would he grow bored faster and seek out other sources of power? Would he leave the village earlier?

Was she just speeding up the downward spiral that his former self was caught in?

"Sakura-chan? Are you okay?"

She blinked and noticed all heads at the table turn in her direction. "You look pale," said Kakashi, who had been talking to the bridge builder and his family. "I think you – all of you – should get some rest tonight. I forbid training after hours."

"Right," Sakura said while shaking her head and blinking rapidly to pull herself back to the present.

After supper, Sakura offered to clean the dishes so she could think without any distractions. She needed to reassess her mission and everything she was doing with her new life. If she was going to save Sasuke herself, she needed to get strong enough to stop him from leaving. But if he was growing at the same rate she was, it didn't matter how strong she got. He would always overpower her.

Before her mind got any further in its mulling, Sasuke appeared beside Sakura and reached for a dirty plate. "What are you doing?" she asked. Her body tensed up at the sight of him.

"Helping," he answered simply while avoiding eye-contact and passing her the freshly-scrubbed plate to rinse.

Sakura pursed her lips. She very well knew that washing dishes wasn't why Sasuke was here.

He's going to ask about my revenge again.

And Sakura hadn't gotten around to formulating an answer yet. She opened her mouth to say she had to leave, but he beat her to it. "I made it to the top of the tree first," he said without sparing her a glance.

"Oh yeah?" she questioned, feeling a mixture of relief and unease at his unexpected choice of conversation. "That's good." She started rinsing the plate. Sakura tucked a loose strand of her shoulder-length hair behind her ear and peered through the window above the sink at the sun setting on the horizon. She took a moment to relish in the beauty of the pink and orange lights dancing across the water's surface and spotted the silhouettes of sailboats in the distance. It really was a beautiful village. There was a lot to cherish about this place despite the rampart poverty and political corruption…

"We're not going on a date."

Sakura dropped the dish she was holding onto the counter.

"W-what?" she stammered while quickly retrieving the plate to inspect it for cracks. Thankfully there weren't any but now she was thoroughly embarrassed.

A date? That was the last thing she expected Sasuke to bring up. Feeling flustered, she hastily said, "I wasn't expecting one" and turned back to the task at hand with increased focus.

"Right," he answered before he also returned to the dishes. Now all Sakura could hear was the clanging and scrubbing of dishes and her heartbeat pounding in her ears. She couldn't stop her mind from racing. Why on earth was he talking to her about such trivial things right now? Did he really think Sakura was expecting a date or was this just his awkward way of initiating small talk? Definitely the latter, she told herself firmly and willing her heart to slow down its beating. She determinedly kept her eyes trained on the mug she was aggressively scrubbing.

She was so determined, in fact, that she didn't notice Sasuke flash-step directly beside her until his lips were hovering beside her ear. His whisper was so soft that it was barely audible. "Let's train tonight," he said, and goosebumps raised where Sasuke's breath tickled the side of her neck.

Sakura promptly dropped the mug onto the counter with a crash. It shattered.

"What are you-," she started but was cut short when Sasuke shoved a hand over her mouth.

"Shut up," he hissed. "Kakashi said no sneaking out so I don't want him hearing." Sakura opened her mouth to speak but couldn't with her teammate's palm in the way so she wrenched his hand off and finally stole a proper look at his face.

And regretted it immediately.

The light of the sunset was dancing across Sasuke's dark eyes which were so close that she could make out the rims around his pupils. Her own dilated pupils flitted across his face and just took everything in. The unkempt bangs, the arch of his eyebrows, his straight nose, the curve of his jaw…

It really wasn't fair how smitten she was. And to make it all worse, Sasuke's lips curled into a smirk and Sakura hoped that it was because he interpreted her silence as compliance to train with him and not because he realized the utterly stupefying effect he had on her. "Uh…," she said and hoping to somehow regain her composure but completely failing.

That was when Naruto burst into the kitchen.

"Guys! It's bedtime now! It's – hey! What's going on in here?!"

Sakura's head snapped around and she acknowledged that this interaction probably appeared as strange as it was. Sasuke and Sakura were facing each other in a pile of broken mug pieces with Sakura gripping onto Sasuke's hand – the hand she had just forced away from her mouth.

She released it immediately and turned on her heel. "Perfect!" she snapped. "I'm going to bed."

"So am I," she heard Sasuke say as she stalked off. "But Sakura made a mess and left so I've got to clean this first."

Although she technically hadn't agreed to train with Sasuke, Sakura settled into her sleeping bag fully clad in her backup training attire. And, surely enough, after lying down for thirty minutes, and just when she started to doze off, Sasuke roused her awake. He grabbed her hand before Sakura could instinctively reach for her knife and whispered, "Let's go."

The two of them snuck out, treading lightly on the squeaky floorboards of Tazuna's house and back porch, and into the forest. Instead of her signature training clothes, Sakura was wearing a pair of grey cropped pants with her weapon holster strapped over the right thigh and a red, sleeveless top. Sasuke hadn't bothered putting on training gear at all, and she was pretty sure the black shirt and grey sweats he was wearing were what he normally slept in. Neither of them bothered to grab their forehead protectors on the way out either.

At a slow jog, Sasuke led her through the trees in silence. The air was cool but the starry sky was clear of clouds which brightened their surroundings considerably.

Soon they arrived at the clearing lined with tall trees where Team Seven previously trained together. "I'm not very good at tree climbing yet," Sasuke admitted, breaking the silence, and stopping in his tracks. "I only made it to the top a few times."

"Well, show me what you can do," Sakura said while nodding in his direction and folding her arms across her chest.

"All right," he said. Sasuke closed his eyes and brought his hands together in a basic hand seal as he concentrated chakra to the soles of his feet. He proceeded to climb halfway up a tree before exerting too much chakra, which blasted a small hole into the trunk, and reeling backwards off of the tree. "Damn it," he growled as he hopped from tree trunk to tree trunk to control his descent. "I've done this before. Maybe I'm not concentrating enough." He gazed up at the branches and ran a hand through his messy, black hair.

Sakura considered his comment. "Maybe... maybe you're concentrating too much," she mused. Sasuke raised his eyebrows, prompting her to elaborate. "You do have skills in chakra control. I've seen them. But I think you're pumping too much chakra to your feet because you're too focused on the task."

He shrugged. "But if I don't focus enough I'll have the opposite problem, right?"

Sasuke had a point. What he needed was something to preoccupy him. Something that would shift his attention without completely distracting him from tree climbing…

Sakura glanced around the clearing. They didn't have many supplies to work with so she would have to get creative. "How about...," she said and noticing a large pinecone on the ground beside a tree, "we play catch?" She smiled and tossed the pinecone to him.

"Catch?" he repeated and shooting her a skeptical look. "I don't have time for games."

"Hold up, I have an idea," she said and raising a finger to pause him. "Throw that pinecone as high as you can."

After one more disbelieving glance, Sasuke obliged and sent the pinecone hurling up into the darkness. As quick as a flash, Sakura raced up the tree beside them with her eyes trained on the little brown spec, which was beginning its descent back towards the ground. Anticipating the point of interception, she sprang from the tree to catch it and landed on a tree on the opposite side of the clearing. She clung to the trunk with her feet and free hand.

Then Sakura glanced down to where Sasuke stood about thirty feet below her. He was watching her with a raised eyebrow. "Fine. Maybe this isn't such a bad idea," he said.

"Your turn!" she called playfully and tossing the pinecone high into the clearing. Sasuke copied Sakura's former actions and managed to catch it. He landed on the tree beside her, clinging to it with only his feet. It took Sasuke a moment to steady himself, but once he caught his breath and gained his bearings, Sakura glimpsed his ghost of a smile before he threw the pinecone into the air again.

She was right, it seemed. His chakra control was flawless when it wasn't the only thing on his mind.

A long game of catch ensued. The two teammates bounded through the branches, flew through the clearing, and clung to the tree trunks with various parts of their bodies. They made it up very high in the trees, and Sasuke didn't even seem to notice until Sakura pointed it out.

This was by far the most enjoyable training exercise they'd done yet. In fact, this was the most fun Sakura had had in as long as she could remember. She hardly noticed the cool air against her bare arms now that her muscles were engaged and her heart was racing. She felt like a kid again. Like her former young teenage self who didn't have the weight of her time travel mission to bear.

The game of catch came to an end when Sasuke accidentally hit her with the pinecone. He froze and eyed the red mark on her leg. "I didn't mean-," he started while leaping over to her tree, but she interrupted by throwing the pinecone right back at him. He managed to catch it just before it hit him square in the chest. Sakura laughed at his surprised reaction and jumped out of sight in preparation for the return fire.

And that was how the game of catch became a pinecone fight.

They spent the next thirty minutes firing the small wooden ball at each other while climbing higher and higher through the trees. Sakura absently wondered if Sasuke was enjoying himself. She had a feeling he was, especially when she caught him smirking at some of her more ridiculous acrobatic attempts to dodge the pinecone (several of which nearly sent her plummeting to the ground), and how his attacks became progressively more ruthless as the game went on. Sasuke didn't come off as the kind of person to enjoy silly, mindless games, but perhaps he just never really had an opportunity to.

That was when Sakura spotted her teammate slip behind a trunk near the very top of a tree and she decided to launch a surprise attack. She crept up the tree beside it and then sprang down onto the branch and fired the pinecone in the direction of his chakra signature.

But he wasn't there.

The pinecone struck the trunk, bounced onto the branch, and started its seventy-foot descent to the ground. She made no motion to catch it. Sakura was baffled. She had been certain Sasuke was here.

She whirled around but now even his chakra was undetectable. "Sasuke?" she called out quietly but she received no answer.

Sakura pressed herself to the tree trunk and listened intently for any sign of rustling branches or footsteps. Her ears were only met with sounds of the night. Folding her arms across her chest, Sakura whirled around and shouted, "No fair! Stop hiding your chakra like that!" But only the soft chirping of crickets and the distant hoot of an owl answered her. Frowning, Sakura scanned her surroundings for any trace of her teammate's head poking out from the branches, but to no avail.

How did he totally disappear like that? Did something happen?

Anxiety began to well up inside of her as thoughts of a certain ninja hunter who lurked around this village crept into her mind. And then a thought spiral began as the image of another villain, this one snakelike and after Sasuke, found its way into her mind's eye…

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried and failing to hide the desperation in her voice.

A pinecone hit the back of her head.

She spun around to find Sasuke standing on a nearby branch with his arms folded and a smug look plastered on his face. "You underestimate my ability to conceal chakra," he said while shaking his head. "Calm down."

Sakura turned away defiantly and was thankful that it was too dark for him to see her flushed face. "You cheated," she said. "It's just a game. You didn't have to hide your chakra like that."

Sasuke hopped over to her branch. "You're just saying that because you're losing," he gloated with a shrug. And before Sakura could really comprehend his comment or open her mouth to retort, a loud SNAP resounded below them and her stomach summersaulted because she was falling.

Evidently, the branch couldn't support both of their weights.

Sakura's body froze in shock as it plummeted towards the ground, scraping against branches and snapping small twigs. She didn't pay attention to the pain though because she needed to get a hold of herself and grip onto something.

That was when Sakura was thrust backwards against the tree truck with a force that nearly knocked the breath out of her.

It took a few seconds for Sakura to process that Sasuke had stopped her fall by sandwiching her against the tree. His chakra-loaded hands and feet were pressed to the trunk as anchors and were even secure enough for Sakura to stand on his feet. "Thanks!" she gasped into his ear between heavy breaths. "Good thing you can stick to trees now," she added with a breathless chuckle. And before she could stop it, the chuckle became giggle. And the giggle escalated into a full-blown laughing fit.

This really was an unusual predicament to be in. Last month, Sasuke Uchiha was a wanted rogue ninja plotting the mass destruction of the Hidden Leaf Village. Before this month, in fact, the only times Sakura had seen her beloved ex-teammate in the past three years, he had been aiming a Chidori-riddled sword at her heart or had a hand around her throat.

And now here they were, united again, pressed together against a tree trunk seventy feet in the air in the heat of a vicious pinecone fight.

Water pooled in Sakura's tear ducts.

Sasuke drew his head back to get a proper view of her face. "What?" he asked. His tone was serious, but the way his lips were pursed told her that he was probably biting back a smile or maybe even a laugh of his own.

But Sakura was so long gone that she couldn't even choke out a response. She lifted a hand to wipe her eyes and Sasuke patiently watched her from his position a few inches away until she finally managed to compose herself.

"Done yet?" he asked and cocking an eyebrow.

Sakura exhaled deeply from her nose. "I-I think so," she said and peering up at him through teary eyes. But that was when it dawned on her just how close he was.

Instinctively, Sakura turned her face away and pressed her head harder into the tree trunk, her breath catching and her heart thumping. Sasuke seemed to take this as his cue to help his teammate down onto the nearest branch.

"Well, this one seems… stronger," he noted as he sat himself down onto the branch. He beckoned for Sakura to join him. They sat there in silence for a moment, shoulder-and-shoulder, and gazed out at the forest, the village in the distance, and the starry night sky. Crickets softly chirped and leaves rustled in the soft breeze. It was both relaxing and exhilarating to be so high up in the air and have such a stunning view of the Land of Waves.

It took a while for Sakura to notice that her palms were aching from cuts caused by the tree trunks in their game and scrapes from the branches during their fall. And if her hands were sore, so were Sasuke's. Without a moment's hesitation, Sakura reached for his hand, which was resting on his thigh nearest to her, and directed a steady stream of medical chakra into it. Sasuke seemed startled by her touch, but he didn't resist her kind gesture. He flipped his hand over to give her access to his palm, which had sustained the most damage from the rough tree bark.

Sasuke watched patiently while she finished up with his first hand before offering her the other. Only then did he speak. "Sakura," he said quietly and staring down at the green glow encompassing their hands. "Will you tell me about your revenge now?"

Sakura's stomach flipped like she'd fallen clean off the branch.

Of course, she realized. That's what this entire night was really about. She kept her eyes trained on their hands and bit her lip. I need to buy time. "Is this… is this information your reward for winning the bet?" she asked with a small, forced smile.

Sasuke responded with a look that told her he had no idea what she was talking about.

"You know, the one over the eraser. On the day we met Kakashi-sensei."

His eyes widened in understanding but he shook his head. "No," he said slowly. "I'm not trying to pressure you."

Sakura nodded as her smile faltered. "I… have no idea where to begin," she said and staring off into the distance so he couldn't see the panic written all over her face. Now what? He had her trapped up here in this damn tree, and she really didn't have time to formulate a believable cover-up.

This is what our game boiled down to, huh? Sasuke didn't care to help her with the dishes or play catch with pinecones. All along he was trying to soften her up so she'd give him the information he wanted.

A bitter taste rose in her mouth. That sneaky, manipulative Uchiha…

"Well, how about I ask you some questions?" he said, and his question came out as a statement. Sakura nodded slowly and pulled her hands away from her teammate's healed ones. She figured that if she was selective with her answers, maybe this wouldn't be so bad. And it wasn't like Sasuke had any friends or secret correspondences who he confided in anyways. "All right then," he said. "You mentioned training under a mentor. Who is it?"

Sakura stared determinedly at her hands, racking her brain for a convincing lie. She couldn't think of one.

Oh, to hell with it all.

"One of the three Legendary Sanin," she answered quietly.

"I've heard about them," was Sasuke's reply, his voice filled with surprise. "Which one?"

Sakura gulped. This was risky but it was too late to go back now. "Tsunade Senju. One of the most powerful medical ninjas in the world. I am – or was – her apprentice." Sakura started channeling medical chakra to her own cuts to busy herself.

"That explains a lot," Sasuke mumbled.

"But she doesn't know who I am anymore," she added hurriedly. "A… um, an incident happened and her memories of me were erased." Sakura's hands began to tremble because technically she wasn't lying. Sasuke seemed to notice her discomfort and didn't ask for details on the incident. He waited patiently for her to continue. "And just before the incident, she assigned me a mission."

"A mission?" he repeated. "Is that what your revenge is about? Completing a mission?"

"Yeah," she said. Her palms were fully healed now but she continued staring down at them intently. "I was appointed the mission because apparently my mentor thought I would get strong enough to complete it, and… well, because I have a personal investment in the cause." Her voice was shaking now. "I… I don't really want to talk about it."

Sakura could hardly believe what she was voicing. It was easy – far too easy – to see Sasuke as a confidant figure. And as nice as having someone to talk to was, she was getting far too close to exposing more about herself than she probably should.

After a moment, Sasuke said, "I'm sorry." Sakura daringly allowed her eyes to flicker to his face but when she saw how intensely he was watching her, she averted them again. "Just one more question for now," he said, and Sakura mentally released a huge sigh of relief. Sasuke clearly sensed her discomfort and was winding this conversation down. "You said that someone important to you was taken away," he continued and Sakura's heart immediately began to pound. "Were you talking about your mentor?"

He just had to ask about that… Sakura thought with a grimace. He's perceptive, isn't he? Sasuke had clearly paid attention to her introductory speech a month ago. "No," she answered and shaking her head. "But it's someone who I… who I love more than anything." She had an unnerving hunch that her face was flaming red now. She didn't anticipate the conversation taking a turn in this direction.

This is so awkward.

"Family?" he asked quietly.

"No, not family," she said and staring down at the ground below while fighting against the influx of painful memories.

Sakura sensed her teammate shift and hesitantly spared him a glance only to find that he was blinking at her with an expression of utter confusion. "Really? I didn't know you…," he started before abruptly turning his head in the opposite direction and letting out a slow breath. He was absently drumming his fingers against his kneecap.

Sakura puzzled over his unusual change in demeanor.

And then it dawned on her. She jerked her head upright.

Sasuke was now on his feet. "All right, that was the last question," he said curtly. "Let's head back. It's late."

"Sasuke, I-," she started, but he began his descent from the tree without sparing her a glance, leaving Sakura alone on the branch.

She couldn't believe the improbability of this situation. Something Sakura said had quite obviously shocked, perhaps even unsettled, her teammate. And she had an absurd, sneaking suspicion that she knew what it was.

He thinks I'm in love with someone else.