CRAZY LONG UPDATE. FINALLY ALL ANSWERS ARE REVEALED. (Mostly.) I think this one's my favorite chapter out of all the others.

They tried a countless slew of different medical procedures after that, none of which that worked. The procedures spanned the time of several months and after the seventh failure Sasuke lost all his patience.

Without even a word of gratitude or goodbye, Sasuke made to leave her Aunt's home but Sakura quickly ran to stop him.

"No, Sasuke, you can't give up! We-"

"I'm not giving up on recovering, I'm giving up on you." His words intended to hurt and they did their effect.

"I should have known you wouldn't be of any use." The man's voice was grating. "You've always been a failure. Useless and foolish, chasing after me like an idiot."

"You were deadweight for all of us on Team Seven, even Naruto -as retarded as he was back then- was more use than you."

Sakura stared at him, eyes extended to their maximum height for the longest moment.

Then she slapped him.

Sasuke turned back to face her, his eyes blazing but Sakura cut him off: "I didn't slap you because your words hurt me."

She took a step closer until there was no more distance between them. "I slapped you to WAKE YOU UP."

Sasuke straightened to his full height when she poked her index finger into his shirt. "I slapped you so that you would come to your senses and realize the world doesn't owe you anything."

"You lost your family. Your clan. We get it." Her voice was sharp as razor wire. "GET OVER IT."

Sakura shouted straight into his face. "You think your tragedy entitles you to anything? Just because of your stupid looks and tragic past people have always given things to you. I'm here to tell you that's not the way the world works!"

Sakura tried to slap him again but Sasuke caught her arm this time.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" He gripped her close as he seethed straight into her face: "Who are you to tell me ANYTHING about loss? What could you POSSSIBLY know about loss?!"

Sakura tried to yank herself free but Sasuke held on strong, even without his chakra. "You have your perfect family. Loving parents. A perfect home."

In a second his other hand came to grab her by her hair roots, causing Sakura to scream in agony. "You have NO RIGHT to tell me what I am entitled to."

Sakura screamed again as she tried to unhinge his tourniquet grip across her scalp but Sasuke would not be deterred. "I never asked for your help, PRINCESS. Never asked for you to give me ANYTHING. You did it of your own volition!"

"I felt pity on you!" Sakura screamed even though she knew in her heart this wasn't exactly true. She had felt pity but it was only just a sliver of her real reasons.

Sasuke's expression turned murderous here, deadly. "Pity…FOR ME?"

Sakura's vision spun as she was suddenly thrown towards the ground. The kunoichi might have been able to catch herself but her own surge of emotions was having an influence over her. Her head slammed against the ground and she slid for a second, causing friction to burn away the skin on a small portion of her temple.

Sakura used one moment to recompose herself, before she turned on Sasuke too. Her body flew across the air as she tackled him straight to the ground. Sakura summoned her unnatural strength to pin him and without his chakra Sasuke was unable to throw her off.

"Get the HELL OFF ME!" he screamed while trying to usurp her.

Sakura hated resorting to violence to settle her arguments but it seemed with this man only violence would be able to get through.

"No!" Sakura screeched, her green orbs reflecting anger, hurt and desperation. "I won't let you leave! You're going to get yourself killed! You're a wanted terrorist! They'll arrest you and finish the rest of your sentencing, which was to cripple you completely! You won't be able to walk! Or even feed yourself!" Sakura stated those words while, despite her pride, tears formed inside the rim of her eyes.

"Do you really want that to happen?" Her voice was trembling, heartbroken.

Sasuke glared at her but he remained silent. Despite her pride, Sakura's tears dribbled down her cheeks and she had to bite her lip to get rid of the tremble in her next words.

"They might even use your escape as an excuse to execute you," she stated quietly. "I won't let you leave. I won't stand by and watch you kill yourself because of your own stubborn ego!"

"I'll use my chakra to bind you if I have to!"

Sasuke turned a ferocious gaze on her, his Uchiha-clan-male-dominated-culture pride completely insulted.

He opened his mouth to speak again but Sakura got there first: "Please…please just stay…just give me one more chance, to heal you."

She inhaled, calming herself.

"I'll even make a deal with you, Sasuke…" She said while smiling through her tears. "When you get your chakra back, I'll be the first person you can use it on."

"I'll let you kill me."

The man's murderous gaze weakened here; though it still stayed prevalent, it got dominated by something else, some other emotion, as he contemplated her offer.

Sakura knew she had no choice left; she had to return to Konoha. Tsunade's medical library contained countless depictions of treatments for almost every illness in the shinobi world. If there was a method to restore his chakra, it was most likely stuck in those pages.

But she knew the instant she left, Sasuke would probably do something reckless. He would never wait here if she asked him to.

So that night, while he slept, she stuck two acupuncture needles into two of his main pressure points. The first one suspended his blood pressure to the bare minimum, causing his body to burn less calories while still staying alive. The second one kept him in a suspended sleep until it was pulled out. The max either of these could stay in was one week, before cell damage started occurring.

Sakura had one week to get back to Konoha.

It was a good thing she'd been taking care of the horse she'd bought to get here.

With only one person's weight on his back, Sakura travelled much faster than the first time. It also helped that she didn't have to periodically stop and use her chakra to feed an unconscious male.

In the end, she made it to Konoha in three days' time.

Unfortunately, Sakura arrived during the day. She wanted to wait until nightfall, to ease her theft into Tsunade's office but she didn't want to waste time that could possibly delay her from getting back to Sasuke.

No matter, she had to take the risk. Enacting a few hand signs, Sakura transformed herself into the appearance of one of the housewives in Ghorma's village.

She was about forty in age, or more, and wore a simple red dress with a white apron draped in front of her, tied in the back. Sakura now had a plump rotund figure with a great bountiful chest that threatened to burst from her dress. She had always admired anyone with a chest like this but truth be told, she had kind of gotten used to her small endowment. It certainly stressed the back much less.

Sakura didn't know if she was being hunted or not but she knew that it must have seemed suspicious that she'd disappeared around the same time as Sasuke.

Easily, she slipped into Konoha without anyone really sparing her more than a curious glance as she was a new visitor, and soon she found herself at the street that lead to the building of Hokage.

There were the usual guards stationed at the front and back door, making sure only authorized personnel came in.

Sakura, as a former medical nin, took the secret back way, underneath a sewer panel that lead straight into the heart of Tsunade's office. It was used during Pain's attack on transport injured personnel under the threat of shinobi firearms.

Sakura waited a full five minutes, making sure no sound occurred from the other side, before she pushed the panel up. She was indeed alone; Sakura rushed to the library, checking every book's spine.

To her horror there were over fifty books, on one shelf, centered on chakra abnormalities. She would never find it and get back to Sasuke at this rate!

"Who the hell are you?" Sakura recognized Tsunade's voice immediately.

Turning around, Sakura reverted back, causing her mentor to gasp. Tsunade quickly locked the door and ran to pull up all the blinds in the room before turning back to Sakura.

"Tsunade!" she yelled in jubilation, running to her mentor's arms.

She explained about the situation with Sasuke, about how after they broke him out nothing she tried could heal him of his crippled chakra. About how the Raikage must have crippled him even before the sentencing.

Hearing the last part of explanation, Tsunade slammed her fist into her desk, creating yet another large crater across the steel surface. Originally the Hokage's desk had been made of wood but when Tsunade had taken office, due to her frequent temper flares and subsequent violent outbursts, they'd reconstructed her desk from more studier material. Despie that, countless craters and dents already littered the once smooth monochrome surface. Not that Tsunade cared.

As her mentor listened, an idea occurred to Sakura. "Sensei! Please come with me! Surely you can heal him!"

Tsunade sighed. "I can't, Sakura, you know I can't just abruptly abandon my duties to Konoha. Especially with the current turmoil from Kumogakure."

Sakura pressed her eyebrows together. "What do you mean?"

Tsunade exhaled through her nose. "The Raikage A is furious that Sasuke was broken out before his sentencing; he knows someone from within Konoha helped do it. He's been demanding that we stop harboring the fugitives and submit them to the council for trial."

And that was when Sakura remembered, to her own shame.

"What happened to Gaara? He pushed me out the night we took Sasuke. Is he okay?" Her voice was frantic.

"He managed to escape before they saw his identity, though he was significantly injured, he's okay, Sakura," Tsunade smiled reassuringly, causing the pinkette to exhale in relief. "He was taken back to Sunagakure by Kankuro and Temari for recovery."

Sakura's breathing steadied in her relief. Thank god. Her mind got back to the topic at hand.

"How can the Raikage demand anything? He has no jurisdiction over Konoha!" Sakura argued adamantly and Tsunade nodded.

"That's exactly why we're still just arguing, you and Sasuke have been gone for nearly a year now and the Raikage is none less furious than when he first disappeared. To make matters worse, he's managed to recruit Ohnoki into his petition to force martial law upon Konoha, if we continue to disregard his request to deliver Sasuke."

"B-but he has no right! He can't even prove that anyone in Konoha helped Sasuke…can he?" Sakura was afraid for the answer but Tsunade shook her head.

"He can't which is why he hasn't implemented martial law yet, only threatened to do so. But he's no idiot, he knows one of Sasuke's friends must have been involved. I think he's been sending spies into Konoha, targeting and following Sasuke's old acquaintances to see if anyone of them have been behaving strangely since his disappearance."

Sakura swallowed a lump in her throat.

"I trust that you suspected this as well, considering your earlier disguise."

So she had been right to be precautious.

"Then he must know that I disappeared the same time as Sasuke." Sakura stated the fact, just to reaffirm her suspicions with Tsunade. The blond woman nodded.

"Which is why you must get out of here, Sakura. If he catches you, he'll arrest you under suspicion of abetting a fugitive. I won't be able to protect you, lest I give him an official reason to attack Konoha."

Sakura's heart was thundering in her chest. She couldn't do that to her village, to her mentor.

"I'll go as soon as you teach me how to restore Sasuke's chakra, Tsunade, I promise, that's the only reason I came back."

Of course she had missed her parents and friends, but she'd put off visiting them for another time. Given the circumstances she now knew about, the next time might be a longtime coming.

One problem at a time, Sakura told herself, refusing to despair over things she couldn't deal with right now. She would think of a way to fix everything, once Sasuke was healed.

"Tell me about his present condition."

Sakura explained about how she'd placed him into suspended sleep, to keep him from doing something reckless while she was away, and how none of the chakra restoring methods she'd been taught during her training had worked on the man.

"Are his hyloid lymph nodes enlarged?" Tsunade questioned with a her thumb on her chin, thinking.

Sakura shook her head. What did lymph nodes have to do with chakra?

Tsunade's expression turned grim. "That means his body has grown accustomed to the newly suppressed state, even if you restored his chakra, his maximum capacity would not be the same as it once was."

Sakura felt her heart sink. All his training. All his hard work. Gone to waste.

"There must be something we can do!"

Tsunade kept her expression neutral, thinking quietly. It was a long time before Tsunade spoke again. "There is…one method. The channels in his vascular system, connected to chakra core, are in fact reservoirs that supply the rest of his body with chakra as well as blood."

"While his muscles and physical presence have grown accustomed to a lower chakra capacity, the reservoirs remain at the max capacity he has ever achieved. When shinobi train they are in fact training to stretch out each reservoir's capacity for chakra, that way more can be stored and be ready for use when needed, instead of the body running straight from the chakra core."

Sakura understood this, that way the danger of extinguishing one's chakra due to some combat injury was minimized, instead at most it would just be the reservoirs that were damaged. It was an evolutionary adaptation.

"Sasuke's problem lies in two parts right now; the outlets on his body that release chakra are blocked from the seals the Raikage placed on him." Sakura gasped. There were seals? She hadn't sensed anything like that when she'd been treating Sasuke.

Tsunade saw her confusion and explained: "The seals are bound by the Raikage's chakra himself and cannot be seen by the naked eye. It is tantamount to the man continually suppressing the doors that allow Sasuke's chakra to come out."

Sakura nodded, understanding and urging her sensei to continue.

"While the seals remain, Sasuke can never use his chakra, and with negligence his body has regressed as a result, which is the second problem. His physical presence has lost touch with his chakra reservoirs."

Sakura's tone was probing, desperate: "What do I need to do?"

Tsunade exhaled through her nose again. "Sakura…" Her tone was conflicted, unsure.

"Please tell me!"

"You can use your own chakra to break open the Raikage's seals, but such a feat would be draining and dangerous to your own core, considering the man's jutsu level. You may not be able to use chakra for the next year, or more."

Sakura didn't care. She'd gone this far she wasn't going to give up now. "That solves the first problem, what about the second?"

Tsunade pressed her lips together, uncomfortable. It was obvious the Hokage didn't want to say anymore for fear of her pupil's wellbeing.

"Sensei…please…" Sakura moved to stand right up close to the older woman. "I have to do this."

She couldn't live seeing Sasuke like this.

Tsunade turned to stare at Sakura again, seeing the girl's unwavering resolve.

"It is the same method, again, only applied to a different area." Tsunade replied. "You can realign Sasuke's chakra reservoirs with his vascular system, forcing his muscles to remember his old chakra capacity by using you own chakra as guidance, sending it into his system through the then opened channels."

"But Sakura, this…these two actions...you cannot possibly do alone."

The younger kunoichi furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

Tsunade continued: "Like I said, unblocking the Raikage's seals will leave your chakra debilitated. You will need at least one year's time to recover before you can cast jutsus again."

Sakura blinked confusedly. "Well, then I'll just wait one year and then realign his reservoirs."

"But the seals are active, they are living fragments of the Raikage's chakra core himself. They will come back unless they are perpetually burned away, like bacteria. You can destroy the majority of it, allowing the way for Sasuke's chakra to flow back out in the short run, which is why these two actions must be done consecutively and without any delay in between."

Now Sakura understood.

"Once Sasuke's reservoirs are realigned, and his maximum chakra can flow back out, the seals will gradually burn away, from the energy of his inner core."

An alternative occurred to Sakura. "Why can't I break the Raikage's seals, and just let Sasuke's diminished chakra burn the seals away during the year I recover, and then I'll just re-"

Sakura stopped herself. She already knew the answer. Her next words answered her own question: "His vascular channels would imprint onto the chakra reservoirs, causing them to take on the newer regressed capacity, and Sasuke would lose his old chakra completely."

Tsunade nodded.

Sakura became crestfallen. She was so close…

"Can't I ask Naruto?" she asked, the idea suddenly popping into her mind. "Together we-"

"No one knows where the man is, Sakura," Tsunade interrupted. Her eyes becoming downcast. "He was…angry at me, for letting things happen the way they did. Gaara injured; you and Sasuke on the run. He decided to go to Suna to see the extent of Gaara's injuries but after a week or so, he took off. No one has seen him since."

Sakura felt her heart sink.

Her mind searched for an answer. Any answer. Anything. Any…

But she couldn't find one. Sasuke had literally two people in the world that would consider him a friend, and only those two people that would ever be willing to make a sacrifice this big for him. Without Naruto, she was on her own.

Tears burned her eyes from frustration but Sakura pushed them back. No! She couldn't give up. She couldn't…

And that was when Sakura gasped. Her mind remembering about a certain apothecary recipe she'd read up on during her medical training. Stepping away from Tsunade, she went back to the shelf, this time searching through the lower archives.

After a few minutes, she stood up again, in her hands an aged green fabric bound book. The cover read: 'Archaic Restoration: Tonics and Medicines.'

With her great memory, Sakura easily found the page she was looking for: a page on chakra amplification methods, including which was a tonic that if drank, the user's max chakra would double. If she was frugal about it, she would have enough to save Sasuke by herself. The ingredients weren't even that hard to find!

Tsunade grabbed the book out of Sakura's hand, reviewing the page the pnikette had been studying so intently.

After a few moments, Tsunade looked back up her gaze furious. "Sakura, this concoction is for use during war! Under emergency conditions only! The potential side effects include paralysis, muscular dystrophy and even permanent loss of chakra."

Sakura grabbed the book back, careful not to tear the pages.

"You won't dissuade me, sensai." Sakura intoned. "I'm doing this, no matter what."

"Why?"

"Because I love him," the kunoichi answered simply. "And he needs me."

Sakura made it back to Sasuke on dawn of the seventh day deadline. She stumbled sprinting up the slope and scraped her knee in the process but continued nonetheless, not even stopping after the fall.

Stumbling to his still sleeping form, Sakura pulled both needles out of neck pressure points. Immediately, Sasuke's eyelids started moving.

In a few seconds, his eyes opened.

Sakura swallowed, fearing what he would say to her. His muscles would certainly be stiff from disuse, his vision might be blurred, his mouth was probably dry, he-

He turned to look at Sakura's out of breath form.

Before he could say anything to her, she intercepted: "Sasuke, I know how to heal you."

Her smile was joyous, sincere and jubilant, like a child that had just gotten the candy she wanted.

Sasuke's expression wasn't angry; he just stared at her with a neutral, slightly curious expression.

Sakura told him to rest up while she collected the herbs she needed, telling him that they were a part of the cure. She didn't tell Sasuke about the sacrifices she would be making to undergo the ceremony because she didn't want him to think she was doing this so he would be in debt to her again.

Most of the wildlife she needed she found on the mountain range, near the forest half but some she had to go to the very bottom of the slope to find. As she trekked, Sakura recalled her sensei's last words of instruction:

"Remember, your own chakra core does not like to be overstressed. It will fight you once you get to a certain point of exertion. If you let it, it will retract and rebound into itself –for self-preservation, wherein then you will be locked out. You will not have access to it until after its regained homeostasis," Tsunade had explained to her carefully. "To prevent this, you must start the alignment process within five minutes after flushing open Sasuke's seals."

The woman had clutched onto Sakura's hand at that point, intoning: "Sakura…this will leave you completely drained, defenseless chakra-wise, are you sure?"

Truth be told, Sakura wasn't. She wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do. It probably wasn't. But she knew she had to do it. Because she couldn't stand seeing Sauke broken like this.

She knew being a shinobi was everything to Sasuke.

Fighting and combat wasn't nearly as important to her as it was to Sasuke. Sure she wouldn't be able to heal anyone for a year or more with her chakra, but she could still do medical procedures, surgeries and whatnot. Then a year would be over and she could move on. It really wouldn't be that big of a deal to her.

Sakura finished her collections in about an hour and a half, retreating back to the house to mash them up in the kitchen. Emulsifying them, Sakura strained the juice and nutrients out using a cheese cloth, collecting it into a pot. Doing a few hand signs, Sakura sent a fire jutsu, as instructed by the book –because the tonic could not be produced by conventional fire- across the green liquid's surface. She evaporated the concoction until exactly a four gil's of volume remained.

Any less than that amount consumed would cause her to fall into a coma; anymore and she risked a heart arrhythmia. Because she'd spent many years brewing and measuring out liquids during her training as a medical nin, Sakura could easily eye out when four gil's was left.

The phenomenon of the tonic was that when it was done, the liquid would not be hot at all; if done correctly, it would be ice cold. To her delight, Sakura found it was, as she poured the drink into a glass cup.

Sakura downed the drink in one gulp and stepped back into the living room where Sasuke was waiting, dressed once more in just his underwear because the procedure could potentially cause his body to overheat. The added ventilation across his skin would help prevent it.

To start, Sakura told him to sit cross legged in the center of the carpeted room.

"Remember, you must keep your eyes shut during the whole procedure. Because of the nature of your clan's chakra being centered around your eyes, when I am sending my own chakra into your body, I could end up burning through your irises."

Sasuke nodded his understanding, shutting his eyelids. She then moved to sit behind him, placing her palms flat against his bare back.

"Your hands are really cold," Sasuke stated not really complaining, but just as a statement. Sakura didn't answer him as she envisioned her own chakra core: a ball of green of shimmering fire, roaring abnormally fierce from the tonic. It glowed and flared like the bright spring sun.

In a second, she called to arms five tendrils from her core, and sent them jettisoning at furious speeds towards the locked channels on Sasuke's body.

Boom. They slammed against what felt like stone barricades, iron and resolute. Sakura redoubled her efforts and slammed in again.

Sweat came to pour on her forehead as she continued pushing until her grip slipped, the cords disintegrating from overuse and then she went to rest, just for one second, before calling upon her core again for a fresh new pair of green fire strings.

Then she slammed into him again.

Something pierced her chest, like a stake had suddenly decided to press against her heart but Sakura ignored it as she continued pushing until this set of cords disintegrated too.\

The next time she did it, Sasuke's physical body lurched forward violently in real life but his eyes remained close. He forced himself to stay in position as Sakura's palms flattened themselves once more against his skin.

Sakura who now felt as if someone's boot was being pressed right up against the juncture between her chest and her esophagus, found it difficult to breathe and had to resort to just short inhales and exhales, like she was sprinting in a marathon.

This was a marathon. One that she couldn't afford to give up on.

Taking in a large bout of air, Sakura held it inside her before she called on her core again, this time summoning three thick cords from the now slightly smaller in diameter ball of green fire. These tendrils were the hardest ones to manage yet but they packed a wallop even against Sakura herself as she directed them

They were like a group of wild snakes that didn't want to go into their new cage, writhing and fighting her the entire time she gripped them, desperate to go back to their original form, a part of her green core.

Tsunade's voice sounded inside Sakura's head: "It will fight you once you get to a certain point of exertion. If you let it, it will retract and rebound into itself –for self-preservation, wherein then you will be locked out."

The pain inside her chest was now ten times worse than it was moments ago. It felt like her entire chest was being ripped open through the ribcage.

You've always been a failure.

Sakura's palm started coiling inwards from their resting spot across Sasuke's skin.

Useless and foolish…

Now it was Sakura's body that was lurching back and forth as the tendrils fought with all their strength to break free but she forced herself to remain in position.

A voice in the back of her head urged her: "Give up…you don't have to do this. You don't owe Sasuke anything….You have nothing to prove."

Nothing…to prove…

The voice was right. Nothing to prove to Sasuke, but to herself…

Sakura realized the truth then. The truth as to why she was so adamant in helping him.

To prove that she could be useful. Her entire life people always thought she needed to be protected. Though some respected her for her intellect, most of them just saw her as a damsel in distress. They never let her go into combat missions by herself, always sending either Sai or Yamato, or Naruto in beside her.

Always to protect her.

Always because they didn't believe in her.

And the cold reality was, she never believed in herself either.

Because she'd defined herself by the way people looked at her, they saw her as being weak and she'd believed them.

Sasuke.

He'd looked down upon her more than anyone else.

You were deadweight for all of us on Team Seven.

He'd always looked down on her, ever since the first day they'd met. Ever since the first time Team Seven was created.

And she'd let him.

Not even because she wanted to stay on his good side but because part of her had always thought he was right. That his condescension was justified.

That he was better than her.

And then this opportunity came to prove to him, to herself, to everyone that they were wrong about her.

She had to help him, for herself.

Sakura sent the fire cords soaring, slamming into Sasuke's seals with all their might.

Sasuke arched his back as his head swung back, a plume of blood spurting forth from his lips, landing on the carpet in front of him.

His entire body was collected in sweat and his black hair stuck uncomfortably to his skin as a result but the Uchiha didn't move. Sakura at first thought she'd done something wrong but when she placed her palms back against his sweaty back and sent her chakra inside to sense the state of his seals-

She found them completely open!

Him vomiting up the blood was actually his body ridding itself of the literal physical blockages that had formed inside his vascular channels.

Sakura would have jumped in joy if she had the time but Sakura knew she didn't. Inhaling, Sakura withdrew back into her own body, returning to where her core rested.

She saw that the once raging fire had diminished in more than half its width and height. The glow that had once burned like a green sun, now looked like dying embers.

Sakura ignored the sounding fear inside her mind as she summoned the cords once more. The instant she grasped them, a wave of pain erupted from her abdomen and forced itself upwards through her throat. Sakura had to turn her head to side as she spewed forth a slew of blood too, pouring down onto the ground.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke asked and for a second, Sakura thought she heard concern in his voice but she knew it was just her own imagination. The man still had his eyes closed but his head had turned to the side now, as if he was trying to see her through his peripheral vision if his eyes were open.

Sakura wiped her mouth on the fabric of her shoulder, so that her voice wouldn't sounded coated. "Nothing. Don't open your eyes. Remember what I said."

It took all of Sakura's energy to keep the pain out of her voice but she suspected Sasuke still noticed it, though the man said nothing. Yeah. Of course, he wasn't concerned about her.

Not that she cared, she had already decided she was doing this for herself.

Also, she'd gone this far, she wasn't going to give up now.

Sakura knew that unlike when Sasuke had vomited blood, the act being a physical manifestation of his body freeing itself from the Raikage's seals, her vomiting was due to the sheer stress of overextending her chakra.

She'd read about symptoms like this before in medical texts. The books had recommended that the patient immediately be prevented from using further chakra lest they risk permanently damaging their core.

But Sakura knew she couldn't follow this advice.

The kunoichi mentally gripped the green cords of fire and sent them surging through Sasuke's now unleashed channels. More and more her chakra coursed through his body, like blood through vessels, searching for a chakra reservoir and moving it to align with the composite muscle of his vascular system.

It was like his entire body had been dislocated of his joints and Sakura had to mend every last one by pushing them back into place. Each time she finished one reservoir Sasuke felt a percentage of his old strength return to him.

And with each successive reservoir, Sakura felt her core grow dimmer and dimmer. The pain however never increased in severity, in fact it diminished the farther she continued. It was like her chakra had gotten too weak to even fight herself.

Eventually, when the last of his chakra was aligned, Sakura could no longer even sense the Uchiha's inner core, her mental vision blind and unseeing.

Sasuke stood up, revitalized and strengthened, even before he'd tested anything. He could feel his powers were back.

He turned to look at Sakura but saw only her back as she stepped, hunched and making to slowly leave the living room.

"What's wrong?" he asked her but Sakura just shook her head.

"I…just need to rest. That ceremony was more taxing than I thought…it would be."

He let her leave but once she was gone, his eyes landed on the carpet and the two pools of blood that had soaked into the fibers. There was his, the one in front of where he'd sat and…

Sakura wasn't able to get much sleep because as soon as she laid her head down onto the soft cotton texture of her futon, a loud explosion occurred into the air, followed by a cloud of debris flowing into the hallway and dissipating into her room.

She coughed and sputtered for breath, raising a soiled shirt she'd worn yesterday to her mouth as a makeshift gas mask. Someone had unleashed a smoke bomb into her house.

Though her body fought against her, Sakura managed to pull herself back on her feet and step out to see what the source was.

At first she could only see a thick cloud of brown smoke, but as it started to thin out, the kunoichi made out the silhouettes of two tall figures: One was recognizably Sasuke, tall and lithely lean, his posture showed he was locked in combat with the second figure: a much taller, buffer and burlier looking man just by the indications of his shadow.

Raikage A.

She came to that realization right as the smoke revealed the blond dark skinned man's face.

Sakura was forced to lean against the nearby wall for support as her exhausted eyes took in the Raikage's form currently confronting Sasuke's. The Uchiha held strong, his body summoning an aura of purple fire to encapsulate his entire body as the Raikage summoned his own light blue infused one.

"I was waiting for this, waiting for when you got your chakra back…just so I could see the look in your eyes when I took it away from you this time!"

Sakura gasped. The Raikage…when she'd left Konoha…one of his spies must have followed her back here! They must have sent word back to Raikage while they'd been travelling.

Sasuke emitted a furious growl from his throat, deep and murderous. "You took the low and underhanded path last time, crippling me while I was unconscious."

His eyes turned into the Mangekyo Sharingan. "Did you find the guts to face me in real life now?"

He finished this statement right as a purple aura extended from around Sasuke, propelling the darker toned man out of the house.

Sasuke turned to look at Sakura then, for one moment, taking in her visibly weakened state and knowing that the kunoichi had lied to him.

He didn't have time to react to her deception because right then the Raikage came slamming back towards him, his fist raised and infused with his iconic attack. The man screamed right as he collided with Sasuke's form. "Ligre bomb!"

Sasuke strained his eyes, causing red veins to occur in his eyes, a second before impact.

Bright light erupted from around them, as the Raikage's lightning style jutsu got deflected by Sasuke's partial Susanoo defense: a sphere of purple flames that surrounded him completely, leaving him unharmed on the inside. The power of the ligre bomb went in all directions and shattered the integrity of the house. The walls began to buckle and creak violently.

Seeing this, the Raikage jumped out through a nearby window. Sasuke turned to leave to but his eyes shifted to where Sakura had been standing a few moments ago. She had crumpled to the ground.

Without thinking, he grabbed her form and burst out of the dissolving building right before it imploded; a heap of brick, mortar and dust.

As they soared upwards through the air, Sasuke turned his attention back down to the girl he was holding. Her head lolled to the side in one direction unnaturally, like she was-

Sasuke gasped.

In a second, he'd landed onto land, splaying out Sakura's body flat across the matted grass next to her family's hot spring. He checked her pulse.

Nothing.

He did it again with the line at her throat, nothing. His mind thought back to the Raikage's last attack, the ligre bomb. With his shield, Sasuke had deflected the force of the lightning based attack back…in all directions.

It had struck Sakura.

His mouth hung agape in shock as he stared at her lifeless form. But why? Her own chakra core should have protected her! At most she would have just suffered a few minor hemorrhages. Not death!

….did this have to do with helping him? She did seem visibly weaker after healing him than before they'd started…

A foreign emotion beget in his chest then. It was only a smidgeon of the emotion but he recognized it: guilt.

He didn't love her. He barely liked her as a friend but he did owe her. And now there was no way for him to pay her back! He hated owing people. His Uchiha dominated pride couldn't stomach the idea that he owed his chakra, and probably his life, to Sakura.

And she was just gone.

She couldn't…she couldn't just leave! Not like this!

Not. Like. This.

Sasuke roared a bellow, deep and furious, from his chest as he turned once more towards the Raikage.

That night, Sasuke Uchiha murdered the Fourth Raikage and after the deed was done, he'd left the man's body, abandoned and defeated across the Ghorma summit, next to a demolished home. About ten feet away, Sakura Haruno's body lied still and dead as well.

He'd refused to take her with him.

Because Sasuke knew that this was all a part of her scheme; to make him love her in guilt. To make him in debt to her and therefore bound to her, forever. Dying had just sealed the deal between them.

He would never be able to pay her back.

Fucking bitch.

Which is why he'd refused to bury her body, refused to even erect a memorial in her wake. Someone else would find her, someone else would take care of it. He didn't owe her anything; she'd done everything of her own free will.

Nothing.

He owed her nothing.

But the more he tried to convince himself of this, the more he thought of her. And the more he doubted his own assertions.

Maybe…she wasn't the evil manipulative witch he'd thought she'd been. Every woman on Earth, it seemed, pined for his attention and always behaved in the most disgusting beguiling ways to ingratiate themselves. Like Karin. He'd just lumped Sakura into their lot when she'd come offering her medical aid, right when he needed it. His suspicions had been justified…hadn't they?

Maybe, she'd just genuinely wanted to see him recover. She did always seem too compassionate, about everyone. It was a part of why he'd always found her so annoying. Trying to butt in to everyone's business, especially his. Thinking she could help when she understood nothing. When she could offer him nothing, except obsequious phrases and sycophantic looks.

Oh that look of hers. He could still see it in his mind's eye! It'd been…countless weeks now and he was still seeing those green eyes, those irises that could change from an instant of fury to one of pleading desperation. He could still see her form, pinning him to the ground as she'd begged to let her continue treating him. That she couldn't stand by and watch him kill himself because of his own stubborn pride.

His…pride.

Was this…what it all was?

The fact that he considered himself too good to be in debt to a woman, especially one he'd always thought of as being weak and…insignificant.

But she hadn't been insignificant. At this point in his life, she was arguably the most significant woman he'd ever met.

And suddenly he found himself thinking about her not because of guilt or the wanting need of gratitude…but just because, he started thinking about her, just randomly during the day. When he was stopping at a street kiosk, his mind flashed in her smile, plain and innocent like its owner. When he was training his endurance underneath a waterfall, he suddenly saw her, standing next to him, getting drenched by the water's strong current.

She would smile at him, goofily and childishly, giggling at the rocks' slippery surface. He would just stand there, staring at her as she laughed.

Sakura would eventually fall, like her usual pathetic self, but he would reach out and catch her in time.

He would save her.

He would pull her to him.

Then, for the first time in his life, he had thoughts of intimacy.

He'd always been too busy or concentrated on his vengeance to care about trivial matters like this. Naruto had tried on so many occasions to disprove his lack of interest in sex with some stupid prank of his, but each time the blond had been defeated.

Even when he was asleep, Sasuke still found himself haunted by her soft presence.

She would ask him why he had those deep bags underneath his eyes, he would stay silent, refusing to answer. Obstinate and prideful as he always was.

Then she would just smile compassionately, as she always did, and tell him gently that he couldn't continue like this, avoiding sleep whenever he could, just so he wouldn't see her.

At this he would pull her to him, forcing her into his lap, the look in his eyes furious and condemning, screaming into her face that she had done this to him. Poisoned him with thoughts of her as some twisted way to get back at him for neglecting her feelings in the past.

Then he would kiss her. Force his tongue into her mouth in punishing hate and desperate need, seeking to devour everything that she was. His hands would grab her body and force her to the ground.

And then she was gone.

He would wake up in a pool of sweat with nothing but his katana next to him, and the cold solitude of regret.

Because this is a really special chapter and probably the most important one, can I ask that the people who usually don't review to just write down what they thought of this? Please, just one little review is all I ask.

Thanks.