Hey guys, just wanted to thank everyone that followed or added the story to their favorites again since it's nice knowing that people are enjoying it so far, it really means a lot.

Without further ado, here's the next chapter!

Chapter 3

Bonds

He had made a plan to simply go back to his house and try to get some real sleep for the first time since well before the war started, of course those plans were thrown out the window after his visit to where Sasuke was being kept.

He was received by Ibiki when he got there so he was quick to try and get answers to his questions from him. Since the two knew and trusted each other he got his information rather quickly, as they spoke he could see the smallest sign of sadness from the normally stoic man.

He quickly found out that based on the news he was getting from him that the emotion wasn't directed at Sasuke, but at him. Ibiki mentioned that Homura himself had come to see Sasuke and dictate the sentence, this had been weird to both him and Ibiki to begin with.

His mind was working overtime as he tried to come up with a plan of action, He also needed to bring this newly acquired information to Tsunade and talk with her directly. In all honesty he wasn't expecting to see what he saw at the prison. He knew the elders and he knew the measures that holding a dangerous criminal entailed but despite the circumstances he thought that the measures used on Sasuke had been somewhat exaggerated.

By what Naruto told him after they left the Hokage's office Sasuke had accepted the escort willingly, he sincerely doubted that he would put any resistance at this point. He talked to him once they were alone in the hospital room and if there was one thing that he had gathered from that conversation was that Sasuke truly regretted his actions and that he was prepared to face the consequences.

He stopped on his tracks then, a breeze ruffling his silver hair as he came to a realization. He knew the truth behind the Uchiha massacre, he also knew that Sasuke knew about it and that at one point in the past he had made it clear that he wanted to get rid of the village elders.

It all made sense now, perhaps Homura didn't know that Sasuke was aware of this fact but by going there himself he was sure that he was expecting some sort of reaction from the Uchiha.

He turned around and started his walk back to try and catch Ibiki before he left for the night, he hadn't said anything about any issues with Sasuke so either he was keeping it from him or he just didn't know. A few minutes went by and he was back at the door to the large building.

Greeting the guard outside he entered to find the man himself with his back facing him as he talked to a small group of rather bulky looking guards, by the feel of the room and the look on their faces they weren't having a pleasant conversation.

The group turned their eyes towards him as he walked closer which in turn made the interrogation head turn around, a questioning look on his face.

"Kakashi?"

"I'm sorry to interrupt agan, Ibiki. I need to ask you something but if you're busy I can come back tomorrow"

"It's fine" he turned to face the group of guards again, an angered look on his face "You five better be here first thing in the morning, I'm not done talking to you just yet"

The men gave a light bow before retreating, clearly fearing what fate had for them the following morning.

The older man pinched the bridge of his nose as he turned around and started heading for the door "Follow me"

Without questioning Kakashi did as instructed, very few people remained at this late hour on the streets. Ibiki took a breath before addressing the Jounin walking next to him "You wanted to ask me something?"

He nodded "I was thinking on my way back about what we talked about when a thought crossed my mind. Do you happen to know if there were any complications with Sasuke's transfer?"

he closed his eyes "If you had asked me this during our earlier talk I would've that I wasn't sure, it's different now though"

"What do you mean?"

"Shortly after you left I was making some final rounds when I happened to hear a group of guards happily boast about winning a fight against your former student" a look of annoyance crossed his features as he looked at the road ahead "Those idiots. They were involved in somewhat of a squabble with Sasuke when he was being transferred"

"So there was trouble then?"

"Yeah, but not in the way you are thinking. Those fools you saw earlier wanted to have a go at the famed Uchiha boy...they were spineless fools for even attempting something like that"

Kakashi was slightly taken back by this, If he was reading things properly then Sasuke had more than likely acted in self defense. He knew that if he really wanted to he could've killed them with a chidori stream the second the fight started even if he was still in the process of recovering. Attacking an injured shinobi that was pulling back punches and then boasting about it, simply shameless.

"Is this why he was put under those restrains and seals?"

"I assume so. The council did request for him to be put under maximum security which would entail some form of restraint but that being said I did find it suspicious when I got there that he was under such heavy load"

"Is there a way we can do something about it?"

"I would need to look into it but if there is it won't be for a little while at least" he snatched a glance at the other man, he was good at hiding expressions but he knew this was troubling him "Look, Kakashi...I know how you feel about the boy but you more than anyone knows the extent of his power and what he can do"

"I do, but I have also spoken to him a few times since then and reached the conclusion that chances of him opposing a danger to the village are slim"

"So you're saying there's a chance still?"

Kakashi was quiet, He knew Sasuke had changed and that he regretted a lot of his past actions...but could he really say that he was no longer a danger to them or the village?

He had to look at it objectively, set aside his personal feelings like this was a mission and think with a cool head. It pained him, but at this point in time he still couldn't be one hundred percent sure that he wouldn't turn again.

"I don't really know. What I do know is that at the very least at this point in time he told me that he was willing to accept punishment for his actions. With this I mean to say that I don't think that he would cause any trouble in prison"

"And can you vouch for that one?"

He didn't have to think much for this one "Yes, of this I am sure"

Ibiki let out a deep sigh then "Look, I'm going to look into things and see if I can do anything to help. The only reason I am doing this is because the reason there was even a fight was because of some fools working the shift, inherently the fault falls on the side of the prison" he stopped walking, turning to face Kakashi "Personally I have no reasons to trust that boy, at least not yet. If I'm doing this it's only because I trust your judgement"

With a small bow Kakashi thanked him before they went their separate ways. That being over with he set course for his next destination. The Hokage.

Sakura paced back and forth at the reception of the Hokage building, it had been a week since she had asked Lady Tsunade about granting her request of being the person in charge of tending to Sasuke while he was in prison. She had received a summon that morning and rushed to get there in record time, all she was waiting for now was to be allowed to go up to the office.

When the receptionist finally called her to go up her heart shot up her chest in anticipation. Opening the large door she came face to face with her Master as she scribbled on some documents. "Come in Sakura, close the door behind you"

Crossing the threshold of the door she stepped into the room and did as instructed, the sound of her heart beating in her ears almost deafening. "You summoned me, Lady Tsunade?"

"Yes, it's about your request from last week" She folded the paper she had been writing on before stuffing it inside a small envelope "After having a talk with the elders and the rest of the council I managed to make it so that you would be the only one able to take over his medical needs"

A knot formed in the pit of her stomach as she released a breath she didn't know she had been holding "Thank you so much, I promise that-"

"However...as of right now you will only be allowed to go once every three weeks, this time gap will more than likely grow as he finishes healing. He is under a strict no visitors policy so you will more than likely be the only person he'll be able to see other than the guards"

"When will the first checkup be scheduled?"

Tsunade stood up from her chair, extending the envelope she had been holding to the kunoichi "Today, take this and give it to the guard at the reception and you should be good"

"Thank you very much, I will be going to prepare everything that I might need" Sakura turned to walk back towards the door, stopping as she was about to close it behind her by the Sanin's voice "Take it easy, Sakura…"

There was a sense of relief knowing that she had been allowed to keep an eye on him, all personal feelings aside she didn't trust the medical team at that facility to take care of an injury like Sasuke's. On the other hand dread was settling at the pit of her stomach at what Tsunade had said just before she left the room, was there something she needed to be worried about? had something already happened to Sasuke in just one week?

After leaving the office she made a beeline to the hospital where she gathered all of her equipment and put on her white medical coat. She was so lost in her worries that she almost slammed into Kakashi as she exited the hospital. "Kakashi sensei! I'm sorry I wasn't looking at where I was going"

"It's alright, don't worry about it" he took notice of her coat and the medical bag on her hand "You're going to see him now?"

"Yes, I just got the permit from Lady Tsunade"

"Good to hear that" he averted his eyes, entertaining himself with the rustling leaves of a nearby tree "Sakura, I must warn you. I know how you feel about Sasuke so I'd rather tell you this now than letting you figure it out when you get there..."

Worry started to wrap around her heart "Did something happen to him?"

"No, not that I have any knowledge of anyway. but I will have to warn you about the condition he's in'' he turned to look back at the pink haired young woman, taking her silence as a sign to continue "He's being kept on constant surveillance under heavy restraints. when you get there take things slow and focus on your work, if not for him then do it for yourself"

She took slow steps when the compound she was headed for came into view, Kakashi's words ringing in her ears. She reached the door and entered the gloomy building, stating her business and handing the letter from Lady Tsunade at the reception before being allowed to proceed.

A guard led her down through a corridor that had cells on both sides before going around a corner to another hallway that only had a couple cells on one side, two guards posted outside the last one.

She held onto her bag until her knuckles turned white, breath stuck in her chest as she stood outside his cell. He was sitting at the edge of the cot that was on the side of the small room, head low but slightly turned towards the bars hearing the door being opened.

It took all of her resolve not to throw herself at him the second the door was opened, she forced down the lump on her throat before nodding to the guard and stepping inside.

Sasuke slightly perked up at the sound of approaching footsteps, he tilted his head to aim in the direction of the sound to try and pick up anything of importance but to no avail. The distinctive sound of the keys being inserted in the lock of his cell filled his ears, no voices that he could hear and no indication that this was just the routine check. A visitor? he wasn't allowed that privilege, so what was going on then?

He stiffened at the thought that one of the idiot guards that liked to pester him had come to share a piece of his mind again. He didn't move a muscle as he tried to hear for the faintest signal of an incoming kick or punch that never came, instead he jerked his head up at the voice that filled his ears.

"Hello, Sasuke-kun"

"Sakura? what are you-"

"I'm the assigned medic to keep an eye on your wounds and make sure you're healing properly. Don't worry, it's going to be fine now"

He wanted to believe her last words but a part in the back of his head knew that was a farfetched illusion. He heard shuffling and he guessed that she was searching through the things she had brought to check up on him. She asked one of the men keeping watch at the door to remove his straightjacket to which he refused until Sakura brought up a more serious tone and the argument that she needed to check on his arm.

He had to stifle a smirk that wanted to make its way to his lips at the dangerous tone the pinkette had used to make this order, as professional as she was he knew that tone had been fueled by her own emotions.

Sakura finished pulling out some of the things she needed while the guard did what she told him to, stepping out of the cell once he was done. The kunoichi had to take a deep breath to contain her anger. If she had to take a guess from what she saw then it would be that some of the guards were having a little too much freedom for her liking.

There were a few bruises on his abdomen and back that she knew hadn't been there before and the bandages around his arm were colored with dried blood.

Kneeling down in front of him she placed her hands glowing with green chakra to one of the bruises, this had unconsciously made the Uchiha flinch at the unexpected touch and Sakura had to hold back her emotions from the impotence that filled her body. She had to do something, she would move heaven and earth if need be and the gods knew she had the strength to do it.

The moment he felt the soft hands against his bare skin he visibly relaxed, relief was all that he felt in the area where she was working on. After being in some sort of pain one way or another well before the war even started he guessed he had forgotten what true relief felt like.

She was working fast and was kind enough to warn him before she moved to work on another area of his body; she had more than likely picked up on the fact that he couldn't sense her moves or presence for that matter.

At one point he turned around and allowed her to work on the injuries and bruises on his back. He hadn't noticed this at final valley but now that he was rather acutely aware of his own senses due to the lack of external input he noticed just how precise and refined her chakra control was to be able to heal him, he was practically able to feel every minuscule chakra tendril smoothly snake around until it got to the source of an injury and began working there. He thought back to their genin days and their first mission at the Land of Waves where they all first started practicing chakra control.

Thinking back it really seemed like it had been such a long time ago. Back then she had been the first of the three to be able to climb the tree which in and of itself was proof that she was better than him or Naruto with her control. Right now he wondered how much training she must've gone through to get to this level of precision. He was honestly impressed.

"Sasuke-kun?" the Uchiha turned his head in the direction of her voice "What is this mark on the back of your shoulder? I don't remember seeing it at the hospital"

"It's some type of seal, not sure what exactly or how strong it is"

"Why do you have it?" a part of her managed to connect some of the dots but she wanted to be sure of a couple things before taking any actions.

"They gave it to me before I got moved here. It's some sort of sealing jutsu restricting my chakra, that much I can tell"

She placed a hand over the seal and noticed that the area around it was abnormally hotter than the rest of his body. She took a notepad and did a rough sketch of it while making some notes to save for later.

Putting away her notes in her bag she took out a roll of bandages and walked over to Sasuke's side. "I'm going to check on your arm now, if that's ok with you"

He simply nodded and allowed the kunoichi to start her work. Once again he felt the wave of relief when she began healing where he knew that the wound had opened up again, he would always be grateful to her for all that she did, even it had been under orders he was sure that she must've had to pull some strings to be allowed to be the one to do this job.

Fresh set of bandages on his arm and chest as well as feeling slightly less lethargic than before he takes a deep breath as he hears Sakura putting away her things. Something tugged at the bottom of his heart at the thought of her leaving, he wanted to ask her to stay a little longer but he knew very well that with the guards nearby anything more than doing her work could seem suspicious. He didn't want to cause any more trouble for her or for him if they did think that he was up to something.

Hearing the ruffling of clothes as the pinkette stood up he stayed motionless sitting on the cot, taking advantage that his arm was free he put some pressure down on the cot to get the blood flowing in a more normal manner. He heard her footsteps stop and he turned towards the door of the cell, waiting.

"We'll get you through this...I promise"

There it was again, that weird feeling in his heart that he still didn't know what to make out of made itself know. He wasn't sure if he had just imagined it but he could've swore that he had heard her voice crack ever so slightly. He bit his lip to hold back his own emotions Damnit what is this? Why did her voice hurt like that?

Sakura stepped out of the cell and began walking off following the person that had taken her there in the first place. Taking a glance back at the silent corridor to see one of the guards that had been posted outside the cell step inside, probably to make sure nothing had been left behind and to secure Sasuke once more. She found her resolve and pushed back the tears that threatened to form in her eyes. First she would head to the hospital to drop her things off and do some research on the seal she had seen on Sasuke's shoulder, she didn't know if Lady Tsunade knew about the state of things in the prison but she would be sure to tell her everything about what she had seen there right after.

Stopping at the large wooden door he knocked, stepping in only after the voice inside granted him permission to enter. "Lady Tsunade"

"Kakashi. How are the preparations going?"

"Rather slow, and the influx of people from other villages wanting to see Naruto is only making things harder. For the time being I've ordered the gatekeepers to set a perimeter and keep the people from barging in until we can figure a more organized way to get this done"

"Seems he's become quite the celebrity. No surprise there" She noticed the serious aura that surrounded the normally calm Jounin "But I'm guessing this isn't why you came here, is it?"

"It's about the information I brought to your attention the other day, about Sasuke"

The Sanin took a deep breath "Figured as much. I'm still working on trying to find a middleground regarding his conditions, decided to stop pressing the matter of appealing for a shorter sentence for the time being considering how adamant the elders are."

"What about the information I gave you from Ibiki?"

"We cannot call too much attention by acting outright so for now the group responsible has been sent to do work on another location, However this is no guarantee that others won't try and do the same. With no proof of who might be doing it there's regrettably nothing we can do"

Another knock on the door and both were received by the pink haired kunoichi, still dressed with her white hospital coat, clipboard in hand and looking like she hadn't slept in at least a couple days "Kakashi sensei?, what are you doing here?"

"I was discussing some issues with Lady Tsunade. Is everything alright? you look like you were in a hurry"

"Oh, yes! it's good that you're here too actually" She closed the door behind her and went straight for the desk, addressing the Hokage "There are a few things I would like to discuss regarding Sasuke after my visit two days ago"

This piqued the interest of Tsunade, seeing as they were just talking about that very topic "Did something happen?"

"A few things called my attention. First of all when I was checking over him I noticed several fresh bruises, maybe not much more than a day or two old"

"Are you certain that they couldn't be any older than that?"

"Completely, why?"

Instead of answering she looked over at the silver-haired man standing next to Sakura

"I went to see Sasuke the night of the day he had been processed, talked to Ibiki about a few things and happened to find out that some of the guards were being something more than just a little bit strict on him. Of course I brought this information to Lady Tsunade and Ibiki himself was going to be taking some measures as well"

"Wait but...that would mean that was over a week ago, the bruises I saw were not that old"

Tsunade closed her eyes as she gave this new information several laps around her head "Which means that we need to take better measures against this issue other than just rotating guards"

"If I may, Lady Tsunade, I believe I might have a solution for this"

"What do you have in mind?"

"I was once in the Anbu for more than a few years. There are people that I know and trust there enough to assign them to keep watch at the prison instead of having regular guards. This might be the more surefire way to make sure this doesn't keep happening"

She pondered this for a litte, that would be a good solution, she wasn't looking forward to all the paperwork that was going to be on her to-do list by the end of the day "I agree, it might take some time to get everything done but I don't think the council will oppose much resistance to this change" she looked back at her student "What else did you see?"

Placing her clipboard on top of the desk both Tsunade and Kakashi leaned closer to see what had been scribbled there. "I noticed that this mark was on his shoulder, when I asked Sasuke about it he said that he could tell it was some kind of seal that they had placed on him the day he was transferred to that cell"

Kakashi furrowed his brow at the sight, obsidian eyes scanning it carefully and taking notice of some of the notes around the paper "You did some research on it?"

"Yes, I couldn't trace the origin of the seal but I found out a few things about it. The purpose is to seal and restrain a person's chakra; if it were something like the Heavenly prison used at Hozuki castle then it wouldn't be much of an issue but...this was something different"

She brought up another paper where she had written down most of her research "This seal is constantly draining the person's chakra, keeping it at a considerably low level even for a normal shinobi's standards. However, all that chakra that's being syphoned out has to go somewhere and in the case of this seal it finds a way to release it out of the body through the mark of the seal itself.

"It was rather hard to find more specific information but last night I finally got something. This release of chakra seems to vary from person to person depending on their chakra nature, for example; a person with a water chakra nature may sweat more than normal, for a wind nature the area around the seal could be at a colder temperature than the rest of the body, and so on. As an Uchiha Sasuke's chakra has a strong affinity towards fire which made it so the chakra extracted through the seal is being released in the form of heat.

"Once I read this I knew that it had to be right since when I placed my hand over the seal it felt considerably hotter than the rest of his body. I am worried about possible effects that this could have in the long run."

Tsunade sat back in her chair, this was indeed something more troublesome. With low chakra healing would take longer for him and who knows if it could have any adverse effects later down the line. On the other hand having heat being constantly released from a specific area of the body was also a worry. She noticed Kakashi reading Sakura's notes in detail as he too thought about these risks.

She stood up from her chair, earning the attention from the two other people in the room "There are a lot of pressing matters right now. Between fixing the village, maintaining a stable relationship with the other villages, cleaning up after the war and Sasuke…" She turned specifically to look at Sakura "I want you to know that I am trying to get everything done. With this new information I might be able to push for the removal of the seal or at the very least to remove it and use a different one that has no risks. I don't like to repeat this so often in this matter but it will take time to get through, because this has medical evidence behind it I might be able to push through it quicker than the other matters regarding him; this is not entirely certain, however"

"Yes, I understand. Thank you for listening to what I had to say on such short notice Lady Tsunade" Sakura turned around and began walking towards the door, a small weight lifted off of her at the news that maybe she could make a change. Yeah things had been hectic ever since the end of the war and everyone had returned to the village but maybe, if things went smoothly enough they could push the issues with Sasuke to where they could at least remove that seal within the next week or two...right?

Oh how naive and stupid had I been

Four months went by since that last meeting she had with Kakashi and Tsunade and still there seemed to be no real progress in the matters, she didn't want to ask Tsunade about it since she knew how as of lately she barely even left the office.

She had talked to Naruto about the whole thing a few days ago and she was lucky to manage to calm him down before he stormed off towards the Hokage building.

It had been similar to the first time she told him about Sasuke, naturally he wasn't allowed to visit but the second she told him about how he was being treated it took a considerable amount of her strength to hold him back from giving those men a piece of his own mind. I mean she wanted to do the same but the difference was that she had some semblance of self control.

The only win that she could scratch on her book was that Kakashi's Anbu had taken over guard duty and so she hadn't seen any more fresh bruises the last few times she had seen him, her last visit had been almost two months ago. His arm was the only remaining worrisome injury and so her time between visits had been extended.

Making sure that she had all of her things packed she put on her white medical coat and headed out. as per usual the guard greeted her at the reception and took her down to Sasuke's cell where the two masked black ops stood in silence.

Upon reaching the cell she allowed one of the anbu to go in first and remove the straightjacket before stepping out and allowing Sakura to go in.

He heard her footsteps the moment she had walked around the corner of the corridor, during his time plunged in darkness nearly 24/7 he had dedicated his time not only to think, but to train his hearing.

Even though it had only been roughly four months by what Sakura told him on her visits he had managed to fine tune his hearing to where he was able to distinguish certain footsteps as well as have a more keen awareness of a person's movement based on the sound of their clothes; something he hadn't been able to do when he first arrived.

He rolled his shoulders once he was free to release the pent up tension from being unable to move much for extended periods of time. It had only been four months but he already felt sluggish and lethargic from the constant state of low chakra and the occasional fever dreams brought on by the seal on his shoulder. The first few weeks he didn't give it much thought but after the two month mark he began to feel the heat that irradiated from the seal throw him into a feever-ish state from time to time, this seemed to be one of those times.

Sakura felt her heart sink at the sight before her, the person sitting in front of her looked vastly different from the one she tended to at the hospital almost five months ago. He seemed thinner and had lost some of the muscle mass that had grown from years of relentless training, his skin was slightly paler and his ribs and collarbone were a bit more pronounced.

She cursed under her breath, biting her lip to force down her emotions and focus on doing what she could right now to help him. She greeted him before mentioning that she was going to get to work on his arm first to which he only slightly nodded.

No sooner did she sit down next to him to get to work she noticed something was off. He was sweating and now that she was closer to him she noticed the uneven shallow breaths, had her eyes not been trained to detect the smallest details when it came to medical issues she would've missed the occasional light shivers.

Worry crept up the back of her head at the sight "Is something wrong Sasuke-kun?" she placed a hand on his shoulder and immediately noticed how hot it felt, alarms shooting up in her head "You're burning up and sweating a lot. You should've told the guards you were sick so that they could call me or-" standing back up she intended to search for something in her bag when a hand grabbing her arm stopped her completely.

"It's fine Sakura. it'll pass"

she was taken aback by this, turning to look at him "Pass? have you...have you been through this before?"

"It happens once in a while. just...give it time and it'll stop"

"For how long has this been happening?"

"Not sure, about a month...probably"

She tried to think about what could be causing this when she remembered the information she had gotten about the seal on his shoulder, it made perfect sense that all of these effects were being caused by it. At first she attributed it as side effects from the rise in temperature brought on by the fire release in chakra; this wasn't entirely the reason for it though.

Sasuke possessed all chakra natures now, even if some were weaker than others in regards to what he could do or use them for they were still there. These effects were not caused by the fire chakra being released alone, the sweating and shivering were effects she had read from water and lightning release chakra.

Snapping from her thoughts the pinkette relaxed under the grip holding her arm, this time she couldn't help the tear that rolled down her cheek at the sight of seeing Sasuke in such a weakened state. flashbacks from the forest of death resurfaced as she remembered taking care of him after receiving Orochimaru's curse mark.

Taking a deep breath she sat down next to him again and settled to work on his arm, focusing her mind on controlling her chakra to do what it needed to do. She had so many emotions running through herself; Anger, despair, sadness, impotence, worry...was there really nothing more she could do to help Sasuke?

She took deep breaths to get her emotions under control as she worked, her serious all-business expression being betrayed by the tears that rolled from her eyes. She could feel the hot skin shiver under her hands as she worked and that didn't help her weakened emotional state in the least.

He didn't know if it was a blessing or a curse that Sakura's scheduled visit happened to be during one of the times when the seal decided to act up. He knew this was the cause thanks to Sakura giving him information about it the second time she came for his checkups but it hadn't been until about a month after that happened that he began feeling these side effects.

On top of the physical discomfort brought on by the fever, sweating and annoying shivering he hated how these episodes made him feel worse than he normally would just by the chakra depletion but by now he had learned to go get through them by controlling his breathing.

Sometimes this proved to be easier said than done, on rare times the fever got the better of him he ended up losing his ability to think clearly or control his movements accurately.

He tried focusing on the relief brought on by Sakura's chakra healing his arm to keep his mind from slipping. He was surprised when even through his internal struggle he noticed the shaky breaths coming from her, he didn't know if the drops he was hearing hitting the cot were from his own sweat or from the pink haired woman next to him.

He tried reaching out to her but his hand refused to listen to his brain and instead he felt himself lose his balance and lean forwards from his sitting position. Next thing he knew he was half sitting on the floor, soft hands keeping him from completely falling down.

He no longer felt the heat from the seal, it was almost like a switch had been flipped and instead he was cold. His mind was trying to calm down and make sense of everything to help get through this episode but the moment he lost control of his breathing things got way more difficult.

Sakura reacted on pure instinct when she saw Sasuke's from falling forwards, jumping from where she sat she managed to catch him before hitting the floor. Turning to the two Anbu that had now turned their attention to the commotion inside the cell she simply called out to them while cradling the upper half of the Uchiha's body "Go get Lady Tsunade, quickly!"

The masked ninja exchanged a glance, seemingly worried about leaving their post. It wasn't until Sakura looked at them again with fire in her eyes that they both ran off into the hallway. Turning her attention back to Sasuke she placed a hand over the seal on his shoulder and began molding cooling chakra to try and fight the heat from the fire release but as she started cooling the area down she noticed that the shivering got worse.

She was at a loss, she wasn't sure what to do and she couldn't remove the seal herself, that's why she had called for Tsunade specifically. Tears continued to make their way down her face in frustration as she tried to do something to help with no results. a touch on her hand made her snap back to reality where Sasuke was pulling her hand away from his shoulder "S-Sasuke-kun?"

"I'm sorry Sakura...for everything"

"Stop talking, just breath. please"

"I'm really sorry…"

She took his hand in hers and for a second all she saw was the same scared boy from the forest of death. Throwing her orders out the window she placed a hand over the cloth sealing his eyes. "Release!"

The red seal vanished and she immediately removed the thing completely, brushing the onyx locks out of his face, her breath caught on her throat when her eyes met with obsidian and lavender.

She knew that Sasuke had never been one to talk, words very rarely came naturally to him. For him all of the talking was done through his eyes, and when she looked into his mismatched ones for the first time in months as she cradled his upper body the only thing she saw was pain and regret like no other.

She had told him to stop apologizing, not only now but even before all of this, yet he found himself only able to say those words to her. He feared that at some point that could cause his words to lose their meaning but for the time being that was all his brain could come up with.

He felt her hand on his forehead followed by a relief in the back of his head he didn't remember was normal, the cloth around his head was removed and he half opened his eyes to see the world.

He saw Sakura's face above his, tears streaming from her emerald eyes. Somehow even if it wasn't intentional he always seemed to make her cry, he would've wanted nothing more than to thank her again then and there for what she did and for worrying about him but his body didn't seem to want to respond to what he told it to do.

He closed his eyes again and felt as she pulled him closer to her. He didn't bother putting resistance or pulling away, mainly because deep down he didn't really want to. Something turned in his chest at the feeling of her sobs so close to him, her soft hands and warm body bringing some relief through the pain; her breathing unconsciously helping him regain control of his own.

He doesn't know how much time they remained like that, all that he knew was that after not being able to sleep more than a few hours the past days he was feeling really tired all of a sudden. He allowed himself to let his body be lulled by the sudden peace that surrounded him. Just this once...I think it'll be fine.