Three days passed with no incident. Kabuto made steady progress on the cure while Sakura continued to heal everyone in the village, taking care to ensure that the polyps didn't worsen and that no one else developed them.

In fact, things were beginning to look up. Kabuto had finally come up with a prototype of a vaccine – one they could begin testing on actual patients that day. It was a massive leap forward, and a happy, happy day for Sakura. Even being near Kabuto wouldn't dampen her spirits today.

She made her way to his lab early that morning, skipping her usual routine of heading straight to Ino's room. Today, she would be able to finally test out the first version of the vaccine on Ino, but she needed to pick it up from Kabuto first.

Kabuto had hardly spoken to her since that day she had found him sleeping. What she had first chalked up to just being embarrassment, she quickly found out was actually him completely shunning her. She didn't know exactly what it was that she had done to upset him so much. She certainly didn't feel like she deserved to be shunned for it – whatever it was.

She was still sympathetic to what must have been an incredibly uncomfortable position for him, so she made it easy on him by mostly avoiding him.

But seeing him was unavoidable today, and Sakura was in too good of a mood to let him bring her down. She opened the door to his lab, knocking twice so he would know it was her. She found him holding several cases of empty syringes stacked on top of one another, obscuring his face. She rushed over to help him, pulling the top two cases from his arms.

"Good morning, Kabuto-san," she said cheerily.

"Yikes," he muttered under his breath. "Someone's in a good mood."

Sakura's face faltered and felt a stab of anger urging her to poke his chest with a prissy finger, but she restrained herself. "With any luck you'll be out of my hair soon," she said with syrupy sweetness. "What's not to be happy about?"

Kabuto laughed, which was surprising, though it really shouldn't have been. Sakura would have been an idiot not to notice the fact that he preferred her snarky banter to genuine niceties.

"Let's just hope this works out," he said. "It's only round one."

Kabuto set down the cases on the floor near his worktable and Sakura followed suit. She grinned widely at him, unable to contain her glee. There was now substantial, concrete evidence that they had been working on a cure, and though it was highly unlikely, it was possible that this first round would actually work.

Kabuto ignored her grin, shaking his head with irritation. "I think you should test out the first vaccine on Tsunade," he suggested, adjusting his glasses as he fixed her with a stern look.

Sakura immediately shook her head. "No way," she said. "First of all, she would never agree to be the guinea pig. Second, if there are any ill effects of the vaccine, Tsunade is the last person I would want to have to deal with that. She's the fucking Hokage."

"Her position is the reason she should be tested first," Kabuto argued. "There's nothing in the vaccine that will hurt her. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But if it does work, then you have your Hokage back."

Sakura pressed her lips together, not entirely in agreement with him. She couldn't exactly find a sufficient argument, but she didn't need to. She could tell from the look that Kabuto was giving her that he understood that she wouldn't budge on the issue.

"Come on," he said, nodding his head toward the door. "Let's go get some breakfast."

Sakura's eyebrows flew up in surprise. She cocked her head and fixed him with a skeptical, curious look.

"I want to talk to you," he said, his voice sure and confident. If Sakura hadn't been able to feel his pulse beating far too rapidly in her wrist, she might have believed him to be arrogant. Her fingers drifted to her wrist, searching for the seal, the source of the erratic pulsing of Kabuto's heart, but she stopped herself, not wanting to draw attention to the fact that she had even noticed it.

"Okay," she said softly.

/

They sat across from one another at a table in the cafeteria of the hospital, between boxes of the shipment of canned and dry goods that Sand had sent. Instead of delving into the prepackaged foods in the crates, Sakura had gone into the kitchen and fixed them both plates of grilled fish and rice while Kabuto had cleared the table of boxes so they could sit.

It was with trepidation that bordered on fear that Sakura watched Kabuto as she ate, praying that whatever he had to say to her wasn't apocalyptically bad. She chewed a bite of her fish in silence, watching as Kabuto pushed his rice around his place with his chopsticks. He seemed nervous and Sakura wished she knew why.

"So," she said, clearing her throat to break the tense silence. "What did you want to talk about?"

He set his chopsticks down beside his plate and looked up at her with wide, expectant eyes. There was something endearing about his expression, something vulnerable that she was elated to see because she knew he was specifically allowing her to see it. He bit his lower lip almost nervously, his brow creasing ever so slightly. For the second time, Sakura felt a forbidden thought flitter through her mind.

It wasn't so much an urge this time, but a curiosity. How would he react if she leaned across the table and kissed him? Why did she even want to?

"Sakura, you have great potential."

"Oof," she said, pushed herself farther away from the table. She knew where this was going.

"Just hear me out," he implored. "You've shown incredible resiliency during this whole ordeal. Your stamina is insane and your compassion for other people makes you such a dedicated public servant here in Konoha."

"Okay…"

"Think of how great you could be under better tutelage," he said, leaning forward on his elbows. "That's what you want, isn't it? You want to catch up to your teammates, but you know what? Both of them had to leave Konoha for the power they have now. I can help you achieve your goals. I can—"

"What are you suggesting?" she asked, cutting him off. "That I train under Orochimaru with you? Never going to happen."

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I'm suggesting that you train under me."

"While you're with Orochimaru?" she asked dryly. "Not a chance."

"So you're saying that if I wasn't working with Orochimaru-sama that you'd consider it?" he asked.

Sakura froze and she could feel Kabuto's heartbeat still throbbing in her wrist. Her own pulse had sped up a bit as well.

"You don't need to give me a yes or a no—"

"It's going to be a no."

"Just think it over," he said, giving her a disapproving look.

"What's to think over?" she demanded. "You aren't going to quit working for Orochimaru, so I have nothing to consider."

"You never know," he said with a shrug. "Orochimaru-sama has a lot to teach me, but at some point I will surpass him."

Sakura blinked, watching the expression on his face shift from something cautiously optimistic to something darker, more predatory. Sakura shivered, unnerved by his heated look.

"Fine," she said curtly, standing up and brushing dust from her skirt. "I will consider it." She moved to leave, to get as far away from him as possible until she could process his unsettling words, but his hand on her wrist stopped her.

She glanced down at him with what was almost fear in her eyes. His fingers were pressed into the seal on her wrist where she knew he could feel both of their heartbeats nearly in sync with how out of control they both were. The skin contact felt electric, but slightly repulsive, too. Sakura wanted to pull her arm away from him, but she couldn't. She stood there frozen, waiting for him to speak again.

"Finish your breakfast," he said softly, though it was clear that it was a command and not a suggestion.

She felt sass bubbling up in her throat, but before she could erupt like a sarcastic volcano, Kabuto stood up, using her arm to guide her back to her seat. "I'll go," he said, pushing her down until she was sitting again.

This time it was an urge, not a fleeting thought. Perhaps it was the gentle but firm way his fingers had curled around her arm, or the subtle compliments he had showered her with (hell, even just the fact that he wanted to train her was flattering). Maybe it was because she could see how nervous he had been to even bring it up, fearing either her rejection or her reaction. He couldn't have truly thought she would say yes to such a thing, yet he asked anyway.

At a certain point, Sakura had realized that Kabuto was a hard man to get a reaction out of. He was always cold and blank, repressing whatever he felt. But with their shared seal, Sakura could tell that things did get to him. He wasn't as emotionless as he wanted to appear. She wanted to demand that he show her emotions so that she could see he wasn't as heartless as he wanted her to think. She wasn't soft; he was just hard.

And it took all of three seconds for her to determine why she had felt the urge to kiss him.

She rose from her seat and roughly grabbed Kabuto by his cheeks and kissed him hard. Her heart was pounding so loud that she couldn't hear anything but the rush in her ears. While she couldn't say she found Kabuto particularly attractive, there was something inherently nice about being pressed against the firm body of a well-trained shinobi. He was warm and fit and all the things a healthy man should be. She could even feel his fingers trembling as they found their way to her shoulders and shoved her away hard enough to send her crashing into the stack of crates behind her.

"What the fuck?" he demanded, panting as he stared down at her on the floor. His cheeks were red and his eyes were wild with panic. Sakura felt a glimmer of satisfaction knowing that she provoked that reaction from him, that she could get under that guard of his and force him to acknowledge her.

But on a more instinctual level, she felt embarrassed. What the hell had she been thinking? She could feel her own cheeks hot, too, and pressed her cool fingers into her skin. The linoleum tile beneath her was cold against her bare legs, but she was trembling far too much to trust herself to stand up just yet.

She sat there frozen, feeling Kabuto's gaze on her, unyielding. She cast her eyes away from him, praying he would just leave so she could be alone to figure why the hell she had just decided to kiss fucking Kabuto.

But then a hand appeared in her vision, an open palm given as an invitation to stand up again. Without looking up at him, she placed her hand in his and let him help her stand up.

"Why did you—"

Sakura cut him off with a violent shake of her head. "I have to go," she said brusquely, and ran from the cafeteria like her life depended on it.

/

Sakura sat on the roof of the Hokage tower, watching the greyness of early morning fade into warmth. It was a simple pleasure, watching the clouds roll across the sky. She had nearly forgotten what it felt like to be doing nothing, to be wasting time. There wasn't a lot of time to be wasted, but at present Sakura couldn't bring herself to move.

There was a chilly wind in the air and Sakura shivered, but she didn't have a jacket and the only other logical thing to do would have been to go inside and get to work – which meant seeing Kabuto and she didn't know how she could possibly do that without melting into a pool of shame at his feet.

What the hell had possessed her to do such a thing? Realistically she knew it was nothing but morbid curiosity, the draw of the taboo. What could be worse than kissing Kabuto? Kissing Orochimaru, maybe. She shuddered at the thought. At least Kabuto was normal looking.

And he wasn't really that bad, she thought. He had been polite to her for this whole ordeal. They had worked in close proximity with one another, so it wasn't unnatural for her to develop…

Not feelings. No, she didn't have feelings for Kabuto because that was disgusting. She had only wanted to kiss him to get a rise out of him, to see in what ways he would react to her. There was satisfaction, of course, in the fact that she had gotten a reaction out of him at all, but at the same time she found herself minutely disappointed. He had seemed pretty perturbed by her kiss. Was there something wrong with her? Why had he been so bothered by it?

Sakura sighed and rubbed her face with the palms of her hands. Of course she would be upset if an enemy of hers just grabbed her face and kissed her. How would she feel if someone in Akatsuki had done that to her? Not good, she knew that for sure.

With a groan, she used the metal railing to pull herself up to her feet. Any warmth the sun cast on her was whipped away by the harsh breeze and she shivered again.

She shouldn't be wasting more time up here. Today was round one of the vaccine and she needed to get to work as soon as possible. She should also probably apologize to Kabuto since she had basically sexually assaulted the poor man. If she'd had any pride left to swallow, she would have, but since all that was left was shame, Sakura hung her head as she climbed down the Hokage tower and made her way back to the hospital.

/

Kabuto didn't say a word to her as she slinked through the door to his lab and shut it quietly behind her. His gaze was horrifyingly intense, his jaw clenched with so much tension that Sakura could see the strain in his neck.

Feeling her face heat up all over again, Sakura cleared her throat and began to busy herself with filling the syringes with Kabuto's batch of the vaccine. Kabuto stood and watched her, silent.

After a moment, she heard him sigh and she turned her head to glance at him through the corner of her eye.

"I still think you should give Tsunade the first dose," he said.

"Okay," she said, nodding in agreement. She didn't think it was a good idea, but she didn't have the fortitude to fight him on it, and she realized that he was right. It wouldn't harm her if it didn't work.

If he was surprised by her sudden acquiescence, he made no indication of it. "I'll go with you," he said. "We can analyze the immediate results and go from there."

Sakura nodded again, pocketing a syringe to bring to Tsunade's room. She still couldn't help but feel incredibly embarrassed and unsettled, and even though she knew that addressing it could only make it worse, she just had to.

"Kabuto, I'm really sorr—"

"Save it," he said, cutting her off. "I don't need an apology. Let's just forget it."

"But I assaulted you!"

"I said forget it," he reiterated, though he didn't sound annoyed or angry. "As far as I'm concerned, it never happened."

Sakura reeled back. She would feel so much better if he would just let her apologize, but if he didn't want that she would just have to suck it up. She didn't have to like it, though. Why wouldn't he just let her apologize? She clenched her fists at her sides, suddenly feeling very angry at his dismissal.

He didn't give her an opportunity to argue with him, though. He jerked his head in the direction of the door and Sakura obediently followed.

/

Tsunade's chipper spirit made Sakura's teeth hurt. Her brain felt fuzzy from the anger, the shame, the resentment slowly building up inside her. If only she had a proper sparring partner so she could release some of the awful tension. Instead, she kept her head low as she prepped Tsunade's arm for injection.

"I must say, Sakura," Tsunade said as she watched her student rub a cotton ball soaked in alcohol over her arm, "I'm rather impressed that you chose to give me this vaccine first. I expected you to test it out on someone less necessary in case something goes wrong, but I admire this confidence you're showing. My expectations for round one are rather low, but still. I'm glad you and Kabuto have enough certainty to do this. I can see you're both working very hard."

Sakura fought the urge to roll her eyes and she avoided Kabuto's gaze with every ounce of her self control. She could hear the amused breath he released and felt infuriated by the smirk she just knew was on his face now. Compounding with all that day's previous shame, Sakura wanted to curl into a ball and die.

"I suppose you'll want to stay to monitor my condition for a while, so perhaps it's time the three of us had a little chat," Tsunade continued.

Nervously, Sakura glanced back at Kabuto and found him watching her with narrowed eyes. But then the look on his face faded into something less annoyed and he gave her a curt nod.

"We need to talk about this bargain you two have made."

Sakura winced, but Kabuto seemed unbothered. "What about it?" he asked.

"You know I can't let you leave Konoha with that list," Tsunade replied. To Sakura's surprise, she did not sound angry – just matter-of-fact.

"Fine."

Both Sakura and Tsunade blinked in surprise. "Fine?" Tsunade asked. "You seemed pretty adamant about it before."

"I have something else I'd like to request instead," he said, earning another incredulous look from Sakura. "I would like Sakura's assistance with a medical issue. She will need to come to Sound with me. It should take a couple of days at most. Of course she will remain unharmed and will be treated as a guest."

Tsunade quirked a brow and glanced over at her stunned student. "What is the medical issue?" she asked.

"I need her poisons expertise with a particular toxin released by the body of a man found dead at the entrance to my bunker," he explained.

Sakura's face contorted with confusion. He hadn't mentioned this to her before, and it didn't seem like something he would spring on her out of the blue without asking first.

"Why was a dead man found at the entrance to your bunker?" Tsunade demanded.

"As a message, I presume," he said nonchalantly. "It appeared to have been an attempt to poison me as well, but that's as specific as I'd like to be."

Tsunade frowned while she mulled this over. Her eyes flicked over to her student, who was still too confused to form any coherent sentence. "Well, Sakura?" Tsunade asked. "Is this an acceptable alternative to you?"

Sakura looked back to Kabuto who gave her an encouraging nod. "Umm, yes," she answered. "I can do that."

"Great," Tsunade said. "Glad we got that settled. But I swear to the gods above, Kabuto, that if my student is not returned to me in perfect condition, I will hunt you down and destroy you."

"Big on death threats, you Konoha nins are," he said cheekily. "You have my word that no harm will be done to her.

"Good. Now hurry up and stick me with that needle."

/

"What the hell was that?" Sakura demanded, whirling on Kabuto the second they had left Tsunade's room. Her condition had remained stable, with no indication so far that the vaccine had worked. After an hour of closely monitoring her, Kabuto had decided it was best to move on to the next patient.

Sakura, however, had different plans.

"I'm not sure what you're referring to," he replied dryly.

"Dead man at your bunker?"

Kabuto nodded in understanding. "A lie," he answered. "Well, sort of. There was a man found dead at my bunker, but I've already handled that. I just needed an excuse to have Tsunade send you back to Sound with me so you can place the seal on Sasuke."

"Oh."

Kabuto walked two steps ahead of her as they made their way toward Kakashi's room. He was next on the list because of his exacerbated condition. Sakura hoped that the first round of testing would at least help him if it didn't heal him.

"It was underhanded of me to try to add more to the bargain after what you had already offered, anyway," he said offhandedly. "At least this way I won't feel guilty."

"Guilty?" she asked with a raised brow. Kabuto turned to look over his shoulder at him and she couldn't help but smirk at him, surprised that he readily offered such information to her.

"Usually I wouldn't care," he said, narrowing his eyes at her. "But you're practically in love with me, so…"

Sakura let out a bark of a laugh, too stunned to counter that with her words. Kabuto stopped short, causing Sakura to bump into his back. He whirled around and grabbed her arm, forcing her to take a step back. His eyes were fierce and angry, and his fingers were curled so tightly around her upper arm that she could feel the tips of her fingers starting to go numb. For the first time since he had arrived in Konoha, Sakura felt a very real fear of him.

"I'm having trouble coming up with a reason for why you would kiss me that doesn't make me really mad," he said through clenched teeth. "The best I could come up with is that you're in love with me. Would you like to give me the real reason or just let me think what I want in an effort to preserve peace?"

With eyes wide with fear, Sakura tried to yank her arm out of his grasp, but he held firm. "I wasn't trying to make you angry," she sputtered. "Why would you be mad?"

"Do you get your kicks from messing around with people like that?" he demanded. "Did you think you were doing me a favor?"

Sakura scoffed and used a bit of chakra to shove him roughly away from her. "If you had just let me apologize to you earlier I would have told you," she explained. "I'm sorry I kissed you out of the blue like that. I shouldn't have done it. It was super impulsive of me and I'm sorry. I'm not going to lie – I would have been pissed if you had done that to me, so I get it."

Kabuto frowned, a flicker of confusion passing through his eyes. His eyes were still narrowed and his fists were still curled tightly.

"I don't know what you mean about doing you a favor," she continued, hoping that if she kept talking that his anger would subside. "I just… I don't know. I wanted to kiss you so I just did. Part of me enjoyed getting a rise out of you, but part of me also enjoyed kissing you. I'd never kissed anyone before and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about."

Kabuto's mouth fell open in surprise, but then he immediately closed it, narrowing his eyes any further. "I don't believe that for a second," he said.

"I can see why you'd think I didn't enjoy it—"

"Not that part, you little bitch," he snapped. Sakura felt to shocked to be angry. "I don't believe you've never kissed anyone before and I certainly don't believe you'd kiss me just to see what the fuss was about. I'm on to you, Sakura. I don't know what you're up to, but I'm highly suspicious, so you'd better be careful."

He turned away from her and began walking toward Kakashi's room.

"Kabuto, wait, I'm not planning anything," she said, running to catch up with him. "I'm really sorry – truly I am. I was just being stupid and impulsive and hormonal, and fuck, you're like, a guy and you're not half bad looking. It's been goddamn lonely in Konoha since everyone got sick and it just got to me, alright? I didn't mean anything by it, I just—"

"Please shut the fuck up," he said, taking larger steps to put distance between them.

Sakura wanted to growl, to be angry, or to snap at him. But all she felt was deep, deep shame instead.

Why the hell had she kissed him?