Jolly as could be, Takara swung her bag beside her as she made her way to the hospital. In an even better mood than yesterday, she couldn't wait to go see "Sasu-kun".

As she entered the glass doors of the Konoha Hospital, Haruno Sakura exited them.

In her happy torrent, she waved to the pink-haired kunoichi.

"Hi, Sakura-san. Your hair looks silkier today. Have you done something special with it?"

Cracked from her woeful state, Sakura at first looked stunned. Then she twirled the end of her rosy locks.

"Yeah, I tried the new Herbal Essences rose and lily release." Sakura still didn't meet Taka's eyes. Instead she examined Takara's face for any and all signs of contempt or sarcasm. Takara was obviously plotting something.

"Oh my gosh! I heard about that! You know that Chikafusa Agasa advertises for it? She is so cool, especially in that movie she did with that hottie, Denjiro Eiichi! I hear there's gonna be a whole cosmetics line for it, too. I can't wait to get the lip gloss!!" It took a few moments of excited blabbing for Taka to realize she was ranting. She blushed and apologized for it.

Sakura narrowed her eyes suspiciously and put her hands on her hips.

"Why are you talking so nice to me? You aren't my friend, you're Ino's friend. You don't like me. What are you pulling?"

"Nothing, and you don't know that. You just looked upset so I thought I'd say something. And it's true your hair looks glossier." She smiled. "Ino and you are rivals but that doesn't make us enemies, does it?"

Sakura stood dumbfounded.

"So, how about it? Let's meet up tomorrow at 1:30 and we'll go shopping! It'll be fun, we can hit up that new boutique."

"O-- kay." Sakura didn't look too sure, but Takara beamed.

"Awesome! See you tomorrow, then."

Sakura stood stunned at what she had been sucked into and she pondered what could have been the real nature of the situation, because it was awfully strange for a supposed enemy to suddenly make peace. But could she really be concerned? No, it couldn't have been so.

Taka proceeded to the room she had visited the past few days where her Sasuke waited.

"Hello, Sasu-kun!" She spoke to him as though he were awake. "I have a story special for you today. How about I tell you the Swan Princess? That's always a good one."

Not expecting an answer, she went straight into the story, demonstrating every one of the moves with her own body. She jabbed her arms as though sword fighting and shook her hips and waddled as though a she was a prissy heiress on parade.

"And they all lived happily ever after!" Takara finished grandly. The Swan Princess was one of the shorter stories.

The previously comatose boy smirked and flickered his eyes under his oxygen mask.

"Wha?!-- Sasu-kun!! You're awake!!" She jumped to grab him in a hug but recoiled when she realized that they weren't the happy-go-lucky friends they once were. He just smiled peacefully.

"Never changes. . ." he reminisced.

"I'm so happy, Sasu-kun!" Taka clapped her hands together. "Sasu-kun! Sasu-kun!" she sang, glad that for once in a very long time that she could say his name again.

He made a move to take off his oxygen mask but was failing due to the harness it had on his head.

"Here, let me help you, Sasu-kun!" She sang his faithful nickname and took off his mask. "Oh, you're probably hungry. I'll go get you some good food!"

She mentioned playfully on her way out of the door, "Don't worry, I won't be the one cooking it."

Sasuke, now sitting up in his bed, let his mind wonder on the situation. He had just woken up and wasn't fully conscious yet, but he could only feel happy seeing Takara the way he always used to.

But realization dawned on him hard.

One: He had the Third Exam to train for, especially because he had to fight the Sand boy who beat Lee.

Two: He had already wasted time he could have been training with.

Three: He might still have been unable to use his Sharingan.

Four: He still had that damned curse seal, whatever it was.

And Five: He couldn't be around Takara. What if he became her best friend again? Whoever his best friend could be would be hard beyond hard for him to kill, but to kill Takara? He could barely breath at the thought.

Sasuke often imagined what it would have been like, to have to kill her. . . she was leagues weaker than he, so it could be done easily.

But Sasuke had nightmares occasionally, and even recently, where he was walking to the bed side of the one he had to kill to obtain his Mangekyo Sharingan, with a knife in hand. He flung open the blanket to see Takara, as she was as the child he knew, peacefully sleeping.

And against Sasuke's own will, he dove down his dagger. And the rest was too scarring for him to ever recall in his consciousness.

These nightmares, and many like them, didn't occur often, but when they did, he would push them to back of his brain. He couldn't think about them without tearing further into his heart and soul, breaking apart his solidarity and the very base of his being.

Of course Takara wasn't the only one he had these nightmares about for his mother and father plus Kakashi, Sakura, and Naruto often stood in place of the victim. But it was all the same. He repressed them and told himself that it was absolutely necessary for him to commit to the act of killing his best friend.

And recently, just after the Forest of Death experience, Sasuke was feeling more eager and ready to be the ninja he could be, and complete the Mangakyo process, as well.

He wondered why that was?

Takara came back into the room with a tray of steaming hot entrees: beef ramen, domburi, pot stickers, egg rolls, and Sasuke's favorite, tomato onigiri.

"I brought your favorite!" Taka pointed out, but Sasuke had already noticed. He thought she wouldn't remember such a thing, though.

"How are you feeling, Sasu-kun? Even though you're awake I think you should relax some more. Rest up, you know?" Takara lifted chopsticks swirled ramen up to his mouth as though she was going to feed him. She held it in front of him for a moment, waiting for him to open his mouth,

"Come on, Sasu-kun. You've got to be hungry. You've been out for a long while and those injected nutrients can't have been enough."

Sasuke looked up at her, angry at all that burdened him, and flared his Sharingan. He slapped away the chopsticks in front of him.

"What do you think, I'm some IDIOT?! I--" He hunched over in pain, clutching his red curse mark and crying out in pain.

Taken back, Takara reached out for him and sat out of her chair, knocking the tray and all of its food and china to the ground. The glass broke and the tea spilled, but neither cared.

"Sa--Sasuke!" Taka reached over him and looked for what it was that was hurting him. To her utter shock and dismay, she found that it was his curse mark.

Taka put her hand to his shoulder and tried to contain it with her medical ninjutsu, but it didn't help.

Sasuke sat for a moment in utter agony until his deactivated his Sharingan. On the back of his neck, though, he felt dots of wet warmth.

He looked up in curiosity to see Taka above him with tears pouring from her eyes.

"Sasuke. . ." she choked out. "Please be okay. . ."

Takara held him tightly, hugging him against her. Sasuke was surprised but allowed it.

He pushed her away gently with his hands on her shoulders.

"I'm sorry I'm such a--" She hiccuped a stifled sob. "Crybaby."

He only averted her gaze.

The mess of glass and food on the ground was shortly picked up by Takara, while she was trying not to cry.

"I'll go--" She hiccuped again. "Get some more food."

Sasuke remained in an awake, yet comatose state, until Taka returned with a new tray of food.

As he ate in silence, she watched him intently with a forlorn expression on her face that tortured him every time he dared to look at her.

He had had enough after a few quiet minutes and dropped his chopsticks hard on the plate.

They shared another moment of noiselessness.

"Please-- Sasuke." He gave to her his attention. Whenever she didn't use an honorific or nickname it meant serious business. "Don't scare me like that again."

Another moment of silence.

"Kakashi-san told me about how that man--" She hiccuped yet again. "Gave you a curse. I'll pray for you, Sasuke-kun. I just want you to be safe and be okay. All--" For a final time, she hiccuped. "Right?"

Takara smothered her tears into her face a final time. Still, he refused to meet her reddened eyes.

"Why are you here?" He finally managed. It would have been so easy for him to look at her after everything he had gone though now, because he wanted so badly to be a carefree child with an equally carefree friend again, but he couldn't. So he didn't look at her.

"Because Kakashi-san asked me to take care of you."

"I don't need you to. Leave me alone." He injected all the poison he could into those words, knowing that weak hearted Takara would be hurt and leave.

"N-no. I ha-have to take ka-care of you." Taka was stumbling over her words to keep together when she felt attacked. I p-promised Ka-a--shi--ka-shi-- hey, wait! That would make a good nickname!!"

'Typical Takara. So easily distracted. What kind of ninja does she make?' Sasuke reminisced again, feeling sorry for her teammates, but secretly enjoying getting to witness as classic Taka moment.

"I'll call him Kashi-kun now," she decided. "And Sasu-kun is getting kinda old."

Sasuke gave her a perplexed look for he was honestly confused.

"I'll call you Suke-kun!!"

Against all wills of his own, Sasuke let out a laugh that he failed to repress.

"Suke-kun! Suke-kun!" Taka sang out the nickname a few times and giddily clapped her hands together.

"Here, Suke-kun, now that you're awake, I can read to you while you're up and you can hear!! We'll read-- Beauty And The Beast!!"

So consumed by surging happiness, Taka jumped to get the fairy tale stories book out of her bag but she tripped over her ankle and fell to the ground.

That time Sasuke didn't suppress his laugh.

Two hours of blithe laughter later Kakashi came on the two.

He was surprised to see his stoic pupil so carefree in comparison to how he behaved all the rest of the time.

As soon as Sasuke saw his sensei enter the room he ceased all expressions of happiness and went blank faced.

"Hey, Kashi-kun?"

Kakashi humored her. "'Kashi-kun'?"

"Yeah, Suke-kun helped me come up with a new nickname for you!!" The "Suke-kun" blushed in absolute embarrassment. Kakashi's eyes crinkled in absolute amusement.

Then Taka caught sight of the clock and narrowly gasped.

"Oh, it's good you're here, Kashi-kun. I need to go and meet Sakura-san. We're going shopping!" Taka scooped up her belongings except for her Fairy Tales book which she, for some strange reason, held up grandly in front of Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun," she addressed with all the serious she could muster, though neither male in the room took it seriously. "Because you're in need of healing and cheering up, I'm going to let you borrow my precious book. You know how much I love this book so please take good care of it!"

Taka stumbled over a few more words, nodded, and left the two alone.

It wasn't until late that night, when Sasuke was scanning through the book with nothing better to do, did he find a core shaking nightingale feather tucked in between two pages.

Cheers and jeers

Smiles and frowns

Our stoic boy

In memories drowns

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Problems with this chapter: Taka being Mary Sue-ish, Sasuke being out of character, and it being very late. Among other things. cries and goes emo

Ah, oh well.