A/N: Hey, sorry for the delay. My brother was recently in an accident—no worries though, he'll make a good recovery in no time.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Ain't No Rest For the Wicked by Cage the Elephant is not owned by me.

xXx

Well I was walking down the street,
and out the corner of my eye I saw a pretty little thing approaching me.
She said, "I've never seen a man who looks so all alone, could you use a little company?"

"I think we're getting closer," whispered Hinata as he and Sasuke sped through the forestry with unmatched speed, the steady flow of rain hampering their tract to the wooden branches, and every now and then Hinata—and occasionally Sasuke—would slip, only to catch themselves and resume their track.

Sasuke was quiet, trying to discern whether he could tell just by the scenery if they were close; his eyes proved far too weak to make out anything useful, so he went ahead and asked her. "What makes you so sure?"

"The trail I'm leading us on now, i-it's an old one of Sakura-chan's. It's a-about three days old, although I just caught sight of it now. She must have tried to escape, o-or something, because it's followed by another strong chakra signature."

Itachi, Sasuke thought angrily, picking up speed and following Hinata side-by-side. He didn't care if that limited his visual range since now she was no longer in it, if it meant getting to Itachi faster and getting Sakura for Kakashi out of debt, then he'd do so. Even if the scroll on his back was throbbing and trying to tell him that he was undoubtedly travelling the wrong way, he knew that the Hyuuga wouldn't mislead him if it meant her friend was in jeopardy.

The distinct smell of salt met his nose, and his vision seemed to grow hazier as he stepped into the border of Kirigakure. Now he would really have to depend on Hinata—not like he was going to make it obvious. He allowed himself to fall back a few feet to keep her shoulder in his conical vision, hoping that she wouldn't decide to suddenly veer off to the right and leave him blind.

"How much closer to the docks do you thi—"

"Sakura-chan!"

His senses on full alert, his Sharingan strained against the dense fog to see if he could make out the pink-haired kunoichi, but it was useless. "What? Where is she?"

"She's heading this way, two hundred meters ten o'clock!"

Did she escape… He wasted no time on dwelling on this and picked up speed, giving Hinata a run for her money as she struggled to match his vicious speed. As Sasuke was just getting able to make out the shadowy figure in the distance, he had to admit he was a bit chagrinned when he realized that his missing ex-team mate was merely fifty meters in front of him and he was still barely able to discern anything unrecognizable.

"Sakura! It's me, Hinata!" the Hyuuga girl shouted louder than Sasuke had ever heard.

A chakra signature was vastly approaching, but rather than slowing down to meet her comrade, her speed seemed to increase ten-fold. He felt as the chakra drew nearer and nearer—and outright shot off past them both.

Hinata expertly whirled around on her dancer's feet and torpedoed herself in the opposite direction. Sasuke mimicked her and continued the chase, knowing that Itachi must be on her heels if she were not even slowing down for a second. She must not have been running long; no way would she be able to keep up that type of running for a longer period of time.

He bit his lip as he realized Hinata had been right after all, and that whatever his scroll had been showing him had been wrong.

Hinata had all but left him in the dust so he acted on feel and hearing alone as he dashed past tree after tree, aware of some kind of energy creeping behind him even when he picked up his speed once more. How Sakura was able to evade his brother was a mystery, and the fact that she was still full-out running and not quitting proved that she must have become a stronger shinobi than he first realized. What had happened to the little girl who cried when she was faced with tough situations? Apparently she hauled ass now.

He was finally catching up to Hinata, who was busting her ass off as well to keep within sight of her friend. "She's already got a kilometer on us. If we keep this up she'll wear out and we can catch her!"

As much as Sasuke hated this, as much as his gut was telling him not to, he couldn't help but spit out, "I'll distract Itachi! Make sure she gets back to Konoha!"

He barely was able to make out the brief nod Hinata sent him before she double-timed it after her friend. Stopping on a branch with chakra in his feet to ensure he wouldn't slip on the moldy limb, he drew his sword and closed his eyes, concentrating on the energy approaching him rapidly through the forest, and on the ones heading toward safety.

Maybe he couldn't deliver Sakura himself to Kakashi, but this way she didn't have to know about his involvement, and he preferred it this way.

The dense forest held some sort of magnetism to it, and it also was void of any sounds of forest critters, hinting to Sasuke that some sort of wraith had made its way through and scared the game all away. He steeled himself, knowing that it would take a force mighty enough to thwart his brother from pursuing his prey. A hush fell over him, and the only thing he was able to hear was his own breathing. Nothing moved; nothing dared to.

"Sasuke,"

Sasuke whipped to his right where the sound came from, but no one was there. Damn his brother and his mind-tricks. His Sharingan blazed as he located his brother's true location, and he looked below him to see a blurry black figure perched on a tree branch.

"What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that!" Sasuke barked, charging his blade with chakra as he readied against any assault his brother might throw at him.

The elder Uchiha flashed from his perch to a nearby branch, his deadly eyes gleaming at his younger brother. "I came here to retrieve something, and you seem to be in my way. I do not wish to play games with you, otouto, step aside."

"In your dreams!"

Lightning licked up Sasuke's blade and lashed out at the point where Itachi once stood. He trusted his brother to move and held his attack back, swinging his blade over his head and sending another blast of lightning in the opposite direction, where he heard his brother grunt.

"You're perception is getting stronger,"

Sasuke felt an arm wrap around his neck tightly.

"But you're slower than before."

Itachi's capture turned to liquid, and he slid his arm back carefully to his side. "Or I seem to be mistaken," he mused aloud, finding his brother behind a tree fifty paces away. "Why are you here fighting with me, Sasuke? How did you find me?"

"None of your business!" Itachi ducked as his ears picked up the sound of whistling air, and dodged Sasuke's head attack. He crouched on all fours and swept his foot from beneath Sasuke's ankle, and his brother landed with a dull thud before dissipating into a thick cloud of smoke.

"I don't have time to fool around, so either fight me seriously or get out of my way."

"You're rather impatient today," commented Sasuke, appearing in an apparition before his brother. Genjutsu, Itachi thought.

"I've something to collect,"

"Something that's not yours?"

Itachi smirked. "What would you care? It's not yours, either."

Sasuke growled and charged his brother, and without delay Itachi dispelled the illusion and backhanded his right shoulder, clipping Sasuke in the jaw. "I said no more tricks," Itachi warned, and caught Sasuke's wrist in his and slammed him on the ground over his shoulder, placing a foot on his exposed neck and pressing particularly hard. "I see that you hadn't protected the Uchiha treasure, since you gave it to a nonsensical girl like her. Why, Sasuke? Did you feel sentimental before walking out on your comrades? Did you do it out of love? Or were you just hoping it would lead her to me so you could find me in the end?"

"Get your fucking foot off of me!" Sasuke snarled in response, grasping a kunai strapped to his thigh and trying to stick it in Itachi's ankle, but suddenly it wasn't there. Sasuke attempted to stand, but he felt a pain on his lower jaw and stars danced across his vision, and something kept him down by his shoulders. When he opened his eyes, Itachi was standing on him.

"Answer me, or I'll kill her when I catch up."

"You're such a liar, Itachi! If you wanted to kill her you would've done so already, because she couldn't outrun you in your sleep, and you know that!"

"On the contrary," Sasuke was aware of something sharp embedding itself into his clavicle, and when he barely turned his head to the right, he saw a kunai's tip piercing his clothes and through the thin layer of skin. "I could have killed her yesterday, after finding out the information I needed. And there is a reason why I couldn't catch her, but I'm not about to tell you. Now come out from behind that tree and fight me, Sasuke, like you always want to."

The clone disappeared beneath his sandaled foot and the younger Uchiha stepped out from behind a large red wood, smirking faintly. "You never want some family bonding time, do you?"

Itachi quirked a brow, "And you do, otouto?"

Sasuke swiftly rolled up his left sleeve and charged his chakra, propelling himself faster than the speed of sound. "I was never a 'family' person. Chidori!"

xXx

"Sakura, you must rest, y-your chakra's very drained."

Yet Sakura strained to put more and more distance from her and Itachi, pushing Hinata way beyond her limits, and soon she would be reaching hers, too. The whole reason why she had escaped was too much for her to think about in the heat of the moment, the idea that it had actually worked fueled her staying power and pushed her onwards. That is, until she came across Hinata unexpected.

She hadn't had time to ask her how she had found her, or who that other person was she had been with, or barely even a hello; but now, facing the last bits of strength and having them painfully being burned through her system, she required a break.

Hinata located them a fine little cave with enough space for both of them to rest in. Sakura dragged her half dead body to the inside and sat against the cool stony wall, watching without commitment as Hinata gathered pine needles and twigs of birch and cedar. As Hinata began to create a tiny fire, Sakura took out a tiny vial and released the safety catch, jabbing the half inch long needle into her thigh and feeling every single bit of strength leaving her.

"S-Sakura?" Hinata gasped when she turned to see her friend had collapsed onto her side, barely conscious. "Sakura, what happened!"

But all around Sakura, darkness shrouded her, and soon she was being pulled under in what she hoped was simply sleep.

xXx

Not a sound was heard as Itachi's dead body slumped to the ground fifty feet from the sky, or maybe it was because Sasuke's deafness in one ear.

He dropped down after the body and witnessed it crash to the ground. Limping toward it, the shock of black hair was enough to prove to him that he really was dead, and that he had finally fulfilled his goal. But as he approached, the black that he had mistaken as hair was something else, and it was moving—ravens. They scattered about everywhere, leaving the Akatsuki cloak on the ground with no Itachi.

"Son of a bitch,"

He reached for his sword once more, and felt the sheath beneath his fingers, and the cool metal of the handle. What he did not feel was the Uchiha scroll that had been strapped to his back five minutes ago, when he…

"Want this?"

Sasuke swung around to the good ear and saw his brother sitting on the nearest branch with the scroll tucked under his arm. "Give it back!" he barked, about to sprint into his direction, when his foothold on his energy slipped and he came crashing back down.

"I think this is a fair trade, don't you? You can keep the girl now that she's no longer useful to me, and I'll keep this."

"You… bastard… "

Without a word Itachi disappeared in a rush of ravens.

Now Sasuke was furious: he lost the scroll; lost Sakura; and lost his brother again. He knew that hunting Itachi now would be futile, so he had to stick with finding Sakura and Hinata and hoping that they managed to make it out in one piece. He didn't wish to give Kakashi the bad news that he had gotten one of his only three students killed—it would be a waste of an effort on his part.

xXx

"You d-did what!"

Sakura moaned as the volume of Hinata's voice rose each time she relayed a piece of her masterful escape plan, and although this had been a little farfetched, that had truly happened.

"R-repeat it, p-please! I just can't… imagine… "

"Neither can I, but it happened," Sakura grumbled.

So Sakura explained yet again how she had managed to escape the infallible, emotionless, and crude Uchiha Itachi and his band of 'merry' men.

Sakura finding a drug in the location of the ship seemed almost impossible; none of them took antibiotics that could kill you if you overdosed, and none of them had diabetes so penicillin was off the list, too. And since the food never seemed to run out or spoil, food poisoning couldn't be used without suspicion. So what was she to do? Her obvious victim—should a solution present itself—would be Deidara, the rambunctious, blonde shinobi who appeared more gullible than the others, and also the more laid back.

So she had begun to learn his habits the day before they departed, watching as he constantly rummaged through the fridge and had many a bitch fit to the fact that it never seemed to be properly stalked with all the 'important food groups.'

Sakura had been lounging outside of her bedroom, knowing that the majority of the Akatsuki members seemed to be on the restricted second floor, feeding a stale piece of bread to the mice that populated the abandoned ship idly, thinking of a strategy. The white rat that sometimes came around—she named him Raito—and scattered all the mice when he came, nibbling generously on the food she provided for him.

The sound of Deidara's constant banter with this tall, spiky haired, orange-masked man could be heard from down the hall. They were always bickering—Sakura often compared them to Sasuke and Naruto when they had been younger, friendlier rivals, when training meant play-time and missions meant fetching the old lady's cat out of a tree.

Just as Sakura had been stroking the rat's fur, an idea popped into her head when something popped out of the rat. Feces, Sakura thought, even though the idea made her giggle somewhat. Rats often contained parasites and diseases in their stool, or inside of them, and when improperly cooked, could carry on into another live host and roost there, and cause sickness, and sometimes death if fatal enough. The question was; what kind of disease was it carrying now? There were a plethora of things that it could have that wouldn't be able to scratch the surface of an Akatsuki, so if she took the chance, would it incapacitate them quickly enough for her to escape?

The only real way was to experiment, and with the limited amount of resources presented to her, it wasn't going to be an easy one. There has to be a medical kit somewhere. Maybe in the kitchen…

Sakura slowly stood from her corner and gently picked up Raito, carefully cradling the squealing rodent in her bosom and carrying him into the kitchen. Thankfully, no one was around for an afternoon snack, and just as she had thought the First Aid kit was nestled in the crook of the fridge and counter, where possibly a needle would be. It was her only hope.

Keeping a careful eye on all of her blind spots she took the kit out from the corner and scurried to her room, shutting the door soundlessly and placing Raito on her mattress. "Stay right there, I'm going to need you."

Deftly snapping the latches, she shuffled through a few standardized band-aids, gauze, a pair of scissors, sewing kit, and burn gel. Nothing. Deflating, she was about to close the kit and return it, but an unopened package strapped to the bottom of the box caught her eye. And there she held it; the weapon of her choice, the sterile packaged needle.

Sakura turned to Raito, who squeaked his approval and danced a lap around the mattress, and said, "Now, I need you to do your business, and quickly! I don't have much time."

After two painstaking hours of locating something to grow the bacteria in, her rewards were a few bottle caps, and to preserve the bacteria for growth she found a tiny tea cup with soft serrated edges in the kitchen cabinets, as well as a turkey baster. She collected the tiny drops of feces and placed them in one of the bottle caps and filled it with the urine she managed to find in the hallway where rats did their business willingly, and sealed it with the tea cup on top, oxygen flowing through frequently to sport some sort of growth.

By the midnight, nine hours later, she had somewhat of a satisfactory bacteria build up in the concoction, and although the severity of the bacteria would cause greater harm if it were allowed to grow over for a few days, she hardly had the time since today was departure day.

So she patiently waited until six o'clock in the am for the stir of movement within the ship, first hearing one descend the metal stairs, and then three, and soon all but she and one other person remained absent for at breakfast. Suspicion would not arise in her direction, since she hardly felt dignified to attend breakfast with a bunch of criminals hell-bent on destroying her best friend, so she placated her time, and advanced to the dragon's den.

Checking her little biology project, the results weren't perfect but she bottled them in the tiny turkey baster nonetheless, careful not to spill the contents and conceal it within her shirt. She hoped that this little vial that was her ticket out of here would contain something to poison them, or even to deter them for an hour so she could put distance between them. She would hit all at once, and this act alone would require such precise skill and focus that one slip would mean she would never get home to Konoha.

Entering the kitchen area, the air grew thick and fetid, like all of them were just discussing how to murder her. Maybe they already suspect! She thought but shoved the irrational idea away. They literally had no clue what she did behind her bedroom doors, and hardly any of them found it strange when she fed her little rodent friends. So, keeping it cool and walking across the room a little stiffly, she passed by an unknown man who had feral green eyes.

The vial had been in her sleeve from the moment she entered, and, with so much precision and accuracy thrown into it, she squirted a little bit of the foul liquid into the man's cereal bowl without catching anyone's attention.

How she managed to do it was unfathomable, but it gave her such a high, she merely squirted a tiny drop into the masked man's bowl as well, hitting Kisame's and a white and black cactus's bowl, too. On her way back to her seat, she had effectively poisoned each and every one of their bowls without rising suspicion, so she thought it appropriate to eat her meal heartily and watch as every single one of them feasted on her poison and sent cursory glances in her direction.

But damn, where's Itachi at?

She bit her bottom lip and shoved a spoonful in her mouth, trying not to look so obviously discomforted. But someone noticed, and Kisame cleared his throat awkwardly, and she could see by a glance his face was a bit contorted.

"So, uh, what did we do to be blessed with your company, sugar?"

Sakura wished she could kick him under the table, but at that same instant, Kisame's eyes bulged and he was gripping his stomach in earnest.

"I-I'll be right back," he shuffled out of the room rocket speed, and soon the masked man followed, and just to play it up, Sakura clutched her stomach and shoved her chair from under her.

"I don't know how old that cereal is, but I—" she expertly covered her mouth with a slap of her hand and peeled out of her room, heading to her bathroom, careening against the concrete floors in her rush to the bathroom—or freedom, that is.

Turning a sharp corner with her hand still covering her mouth, a black figure to her right caught her eye. Itachi. She continued on, hoping he would ignore her, but there had never been an instant when he thought something wasn't up.

"Where are you going in such a rush?"

Sakura paled. "Everyone's sick, I'm just returning to my room. I don't want to catch what they have."

She tried not to show a nervous expression when he undoubtedly questioned the expiry date on the food items, but he must have been nervous when she told him everyone else wasn't feeling, well, either.

"Sick, are they?" he mused, grabbing her forearm and hauling her behind him. "How about we take a look,"

Sputtering, Sakura halted and for her Itachi stopped. His eyes quizzed her, and she gulped.

"W-wait, um, why the rush? I was actually coming by to see you for something… "Oh god, what am I doing, what am I doing, WHAT am I DOING?

Itachi released her arm. "What is it?"

Sakura had no time to think; she just acted. Her lips mashed together with his and her tongue rolled around his lips, and though he wasn't responding, he hadn't pushed her away.

Hating herself, she played into the little scheme even more, tickling the hair at the nape of his neck and toying with his earlobe with her tongue.

Please, let me live after this! I don't want to die with everyone knowing it was because I seduced him!

Abruptly, she felt herself being pushed away. She pouted, and though the response came involuntarily, she played up her big doe eyes for him and fluttered her lashes.

"What's wrong? I thought you would want this, since you're always coming on to me… "

"Do you think I'm a fool?"

His words slapped her, but she maintained her poise. "But this is what you want, right? I want this. I've been wanting it for a long while… "

Doing what she never thought was possible for her; she pushed herself into his torso and wrapped her arms around him, crushing her lips to his once more. This time she was rewarded with a reply. His lips moved between hers in a way that stabbed a hot and cold sensation in her stomach, one she didn't wish to explore.

He led her to his bedroom, and in her head she was telling herself that this wasn't betrayal, it was survival. This was how the kunoichi back before the war behaved, like starved whores who got their information by seduction and sometimes killing their hits.

His hand came to feel her breast, gentle at first, but he groped it firmly. She bit his lip, but it was more like a nip, which seemed to urge him on further rather than stop him. As her head was settled upon his pillow, she thought, what am I doing, what am I doing…

"You don't seem so sure about this anymore," Itachi murmured against her navel, and unwillingly chills raced up through her limbs.

"No, I want this!"

His blood-red eyes stared at her impassively, and his nimble fingers worked with her shirt and removed it, unclasping her bra, drinking her in with a need she never thought he had. As her body was being utilized by this monster, this creature, she plotted many ways to knock him out for a short duration without the use of chakra.

His ministrations continue, until being quiescent is no longer an option. Muffled noises escape her lips unbidden, and she finds herself squirming beneath his heated touch. His mouth moves to the curve of her neck, tracing a gentle trail with his slick and hot tongue. Sakura felt lost, a blurred line between right and wrong, when ecstasy awaited her.

Pulling herself together, she concentrated on pretending to be enjoying the experience (even though, regretfully, it wasn't all that hard), and bucked her hips against his, earning a groan that echoed through the room.

Finding her courage, she took charge, straddling his narrow but lethal torso and concentrating her energy on his lower regions. The bulge in his pants caught her attention, and she gently stroked it, watching with curiosity as his eyes flickered and closed sensuously.

Could this really be that easy? She thought, trying not to balk when she completely engulfed him in her hand, stroking and averting her gaze. Without a plan, which seemed to work better at taking people off guard, she gripped him particularly hard. She brought her mouth down, ignoring the way he rolled his hips against her chin, and bit, hard.

Before he could reach out and incapacitate her, she withdrew her mouth and struck out to his carotid artery, knocking him out faster than you could say, gotcha!

Careful to make sure he was indeed out cold, she crept out from the room while juggling to put her clothes back on and took a peek around, noting that everyone was absent. She made her way into her bedroom and began prepping for escape, knowing she had only precious moments before he found her.

Sakura said goodbye to Raito, thanked him for his services which she received a squeak, and folded her hand into the tiger symbol.

Sakura always had been appraised for her expert chakra control throughout her childhood and adult life. She'd heard rumors that she surpassed her mentor, Tsunade, in chakra control, so if anything could be fixed through chakra, it was her.

Understanding her reign on her chakra over the past days haven't been good, there was still a little wiggle room, for to have your chakra completely taken from you would mean certain death, so of course she was granted with some, albeit not enough to bash through a wall.

Focusing, she drew all of her energy to her heart chakra, the most powerful, and collected until there was no more to be taken from the subjugation spell. Concentrating harder, beads of sweat broke out all over her flesh as she tried to budge the seal, carefully prodding it at first, but then holding it, twisting it, shaking it beneath her fingers until it became almost a physical item and she was wrestling with it.

Manipulating her skill, she found that there as another reserve of chakra dwelling within her, something foreign yet familiar at the same time. This unknown energy wanted to help her get free, and it leant it strength to her, shrouding the seal with its energy and snapping it easily. A weight lifted from her chest—but now was the time to act.

Feeling renewed and rejuvenated, she took out through the forbidden secret staircase where the exit lay. With her senses heightened once more, a rapidly approaching entity that could only be Itachi sped towards her so fast, she propelled herself from the ship's side into the shock of cold water, swimming easily through the large waves, cutting through them like paper, reaching the shore and sprinting for all of her life's worth.

Though the threat hadn't passed, she effectively took him off guard long enough that she had at least a few clicks between them both. If she didn't stop now, she could keep going, and if he pursued her even farther, she would find someway to loop around him and rest for the night.

As her reserves were being pushed on, and her energy was draining from many days of inactivity, that same energy lit up and told her it was here. She tuned in on it, allowing it to encompass her, and soon her legs were driving her into oblivion, so fast that she didn't even feel two energies approaching her. She had been so zoned out, she didn't recognize Hinata at first, let alone the person accompanying her, and instinct told her to keep running.

As soon as she stopped, forced by some outside help, the energy that had been lent to her was snatched viciously away and she passed out, only to recover to see HInata's worrisome eyes.

"Yes, Hinata, I really did that."

Hinata found it difficult to breathe. What her friend had did to escape was remarkable, but at the same time, it must have really traumatized her. She placed a pale hand on Sakura's, smiling softly. "You did good, though! You got out."

Sakura nodded, sleepy and tired. "Yeah, I guess. Hey, so who was with you? I didn't really get a chance to see."

Immediately Hinata's face was beet read. She worried her lip and looked around elsewhere.

"Hinata, who was it?"

Hinata scratched the back of her head. "Uchiha Sasuke," she mumbled quietly.

Sakura's heart stopped. Why? Was all she could think, and from the expression on her friend's face, she wasn't lying. Why would she be travelling with him? Scratch that, why would he be travelling with her?

"Tell me everything."

And when Hinata was finished relaying all of the events leading up to finding Sakura, the medic-nin almost couldn't believe it was true. "He wanted to help me? What's in it for him? You didn't exchange anything, did you?"

"No no, nothing like that. It, apparently, was orders from Kakashi-san. He said that Kakashi-san couldn't leave the village to look for you without bringing Naruto, and h-he's got his Hokage lessons to go to. So I helped Kakashi-san, and I convinced Naruto to go back home, and I followed Sasuke. It had been his idea for me to tag along, and all it took was a promise for him no to hurt Naruto-kun anymore."

"And you believed him? Oh, Hinata, I love you for coming to get me but don't ever trust what he says!"

"Why, I came to get your sorry ass didn't I?"

The sound of another voice startled her. She had to be tired, because she never felt him approaching at all. "What do you want, Sasuke?" she spat, crawling closer into the cave and away from the man who looked just as bad as she felt.

Sasuke moved ungracefully into the shelter and sat in between the two women. He rubbed out his stiff shoulder and hissed when it tugged particularly hard, and he suspected a pinched nerve or a mighty bruise.

"I assume Hinata's told you why I'm here already."

"Yes, but it makes no sense—why would you help Kakashi of all people to save me?"

"Because he gave me something that I couldn't get," he replied curtly, beginning to massage his shoulder. "But now that it's gone, I don't really wanna stick around any longer, but I can't see getting it back, either. So I guess I'm stuck returning your butt back to Konoha."

"What did you trade Kakashi for?" Sakura asked, hating being close to him, smelling him, breathing the same air as him.

"I wanted my scroll that was in the compound, and he bargained it for me finding you. But now that I've lost the scroll, I guess the contract would be nullified. But I'll hang around anyway,"

Sakura scoffed, curling in a ball around herself, "Someone's talkative today."

Hinata made herself a cozy nest in her pine needles, and if Sakura didn't know any better, passed out from exhaustion. Sakura felt her eyelids grow droopy, too, and her will to carry on the discussion with Sasuke seemed like too much work. So she said nothing, and cuddled up to the cold rock wall, and slept more soundly than she had in days.

xXx

It wasn't Sakura's fault, exactly, when she and Hinata both passed out to leave him in charge of watch duty. And by the sound of their snoring, an hour wouldn't be enough time to rouse them, either. His muscles still ached, and asking Sakura to help him out would be suicide, so he wallowed silently in the darkness and listened as the sounds of nightlife came alive all around.

He judged it to be about three hours since the sun had set, and it was more than enough time to get Hinata up for first watch. He moved silently toward the sleeping woman, about to quietly stir her, when he heard Sakura wake instead.

"S-ssauke… Whadd're you doing?" she grumbled, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"I was waking Hinata for watch,"

"Don't, no. I'll do it,"

"Okay then,"

They switched spots without a word. Sasuke tried not to notice the warmth that had seeped into the earth where she had been laying, and the faint scent of shampoo entered his nostrils.

Awkward silence hung suspended in the air. Sakura dared not to breathe, fearing she was being too loud and that Itachi would somehow hear her from wherever she was.

"Sasuke," she murmured, hoping he was asleep.

"Yeah?"

She hoped she sounded indifferent, "Why did you ever give me that necklace? If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be in this mess."

Sasuke wasn't sure how to respond. Admitting to her that he had hoped she would be in that situation so he could hunt his brother down and kill him, all with his powerful sword, necklace, and scroll, probably would get him punched into oblivion. So he settled for, "It seemed like a good thing at the time."

Furious, Sakura refused to continue conversation with him, feeling a hollowness that was now more prominent than before. The images in her head was stuck on replay with Itachi's lips all over her body, his hands, his scent, washing over and drowning her until she almost forgot her motives. It was all in the act, she convinced herself. She couldn't truly have those feelings towards a criminal.

The chills that ran through her body said otherwise.

"Why did you come after me?" she asked, stealing a glance at his back.

Again, Sasuke couldn't tell her, and he found himself in a bit of a predicament. "I owed Kakashi," he lied.

"What?"

He scoffed. "None of your business,"

"Of course. The reason why you're saving my life is none of my business."

The Uchiha shut his mouth, wondering when Sakura had become so astute, so… not annoying. Maybe his leaving had done something to change her, but he knew it was for the better—for her to evade his brother had been a feat on itself, and not an easy one. The complexity that was her was begging to be solved, but he wanted to respect his boundaries, knowing meddling with her life would not bring happiness to it, but tarnish it.

After all, he already had caused her such pain. And look what had happened to her. Surely another event couldn't damage her completely, but he felt that maybe it wasn't the way she was meant to become stronger after this.

"Well, I'd tell you, but I'd have to kill you," he joked, not liking how it was… easy to connect with himself around her. The last time they had seen each other, he held a sword to Naruto's throat, and had it in him to kill her, too. But with interference, both escaped unharmed. Causing harm to them specifically was never in the regime; they happened to always be in his way. And this girl… she was always pushing him into situations he'd rather not be in.

Sakura laughed dully and fought off fatigue, determined not to be weak in front of him. She left that part of herself back on the bench in the park, when the stoic, driven boy had said thank you to her and bestowed her not a gift, but a curse. He must have had an ulterior motive for giving her this, and before they reached Konoha, she was determined to find it out.

Sasuke fell into a sort of meditative state, vaguely aware of the sound of Sakura's shuffling in the night, the sound of her voice as she hummed to herself. He shut it all out, delving deep into a dream of when he left her broken hearted on the bench, the Ryuukaton hanging poignantly around her neck. He dreamed he'd kissed her goodbye.

When Sasuke woke, he avoided her as much as possible, and the possibility that maybe all of his emotions for this girl hadn't been severed after all.

xXx

A/N: Hope you liked this! Sorry, it was a long time coming, I know, but it's here now. Review on your way out, please!