A week after the first round of the vaccine was passed around, everyone in Konoha was back up on their feet. It had only taken three rounds, each more progressive than the last. Sakura really had to hand it to Kabuto – he had done a magnificent job.

Tsunade, too, wanted her fair share of credit. Her liquidized chakra technique had been instrumental in the effectiveness of the cure. Begrudgingly, she gave Kabuto permission to use the technique in the future, knowing that since he already knew it he would use it anyway.

Sakura was more than grateful for the opportunity to catch up on sleep. She was glad to see her friends walking around again. The lights across Konoha lit up again, the streets once again bustled with activity. Konoha had finally come back to life.

There was only one last issue for Sakura to deal with – the thing she had been simultaneously dreading and looking forward to.

She had hardly spoken to Kabuto since their second kiss a week ago. They had each been pulled in separate directions, each working and doing their part to get the village back to its former glory.

But now that the dust had settled, there was nothing left to do but hold up her end of the bargain. After a very maternal, very stern lecture from Tsunade, and a very worried, very upset conversation with Naruto, Sakura found herself walking toward Konoha's gates with her pack shrugged high up on her shoulders.

Kabuto was waiting for her. He leaned against the wrought iron gate, his face turned down so that the glare on his glasses obstructed her view of his eyes. The smirk was absent from his face and Sakura wondered whether her behavior towards him had messed with his head that much.

"You ready?" he asked as she approached the gate.

Sakura nodded and shrugged past him through the open gate. Fooling around with Kabuto had been fun, but she was on her way to see Sasuke now. It was hard to think of anything but that.

She felt Kabuto trot along beside her and they began making their way to Sound in silence.

What Kabuto had said about Sasuke got Sakura thinking. Last time she had seen her missing teammate, he had been adamantly opposed to coming back to Konoha. The only thing he was concerned with was killing Itachi. But what would he want to do after that? Would he come back to Konoha?

Sakura was determined to get an answer from him, to have some positive news to bring back to Naruto. After all, what would Sasuke have left to do if he didn't want to come back to Konoha?

"It's a two day journey if we head straight to the bunker," Kabuto said. "We can set up camp for one night and be there by the next evening. Otherwise, we can make a short detour to the nearest town between, which will add about five or six hours to our ETA, but we can sleep at an inn."

Sakura looked at him like he had grown an extra head.

"The choice is yours," he said.

"The quicker we get there the quicker this is all over with," she said dryly.

Kabuto let out a huff of breath, shaking his head. "I thought you'd be more excited to see Sasuke," he said. "You could show a little more enthusiasm. I didn't complain when I was helping you, did I?"

Sakura glared at him, crossing her arms. She quickened her pace, deciding it would probably be best to ignore him for the rest of the journey. She was excited to see Sasuke, but Kabuto didn't need to know that. He was still a forbidden topic and she didn't like that Kabuto frequently brought him up in spite of her aversion to it.

Kabuto didn't press her. They travelled the next few miles in silence, never once glancing toward the other.

Sakura had a bad feeling about this. She couldn't imagine that Sasuke would just allow her to place the seal. She'd had this doubt from the beginning, but now that she was actually on her way to do it she couldn't help but feel nervous. But if he wouldn't let her place the seal, maybe there was still something she could do to convince him to come back to Konoha with her.

Just after the sun had begun to set, a thick cover of clouds moved over the sky. Rain began falling in fat drops, slowly at first, but eventually the pair had no choice but to stop to find cover from the pouring rain.

Sakura was silent as she following Kabuto through the trees to a point in the forest that was just thick enough to prevent most of the rain from hitting the ground. Without speaking, Sakura set up her tent and unfurled her bedroll inside. She was anything but pleased to be stopping to camp in the rain. It would only prolong their journey even more, but there was nothing that could be done about it.

"We're not staying the night here," Kabuto said. Sakura popped her head through her tent flap, her face annoyed.

"Then why did you let me set up my tent before you said anything?"

Kabuto shrugged, that fucking infuriating grin on his face again. He leaned against a nearby tree trunk, his pose casual though Sakura knew he was fully alert and aware of their surroundings. They were still deep in Fire Country, which meant ANBU were lurking everywhere. Of course they didn't need to worry about ANBU now – they all knew Sakura and Kabuto were heading toward Sound. Still, old habits die hard and the rain would make it all the more easy for them to be snuck up on.

It was then that Sakura realized Kabuto didn't have a tent. He had nothing, really. Naruto had essentially kidnapped him so it wasn't like he'd had time to prepare for a long journey. The pack on his back was a standard issue shinobi pack, likely filched from somewhere in the hospital, as were the supplies that were probably inside. But a tent would have been much harder to come by. That must have been why he suggested the detour to the inn.

"Well, I'm sleeping here," she insisted. "There's no way I'm going out in that rain again. It's freezing."

Kabuto scowled and kicked himself off the tree. He approached her tent and crouched down in front of her in the most condescending way. Sakura scowled back, but as he neared her face her scowl diminished.

"You know it's not safe for me in Fire Country," he said. "It's raining and I don't have shelter. We can't stay here."

He made a compelling argument. Sakura did have to admit that she felt bad for him. He wasn't enjoying this any more than she was. He probably just wanted to be home again, not dealing with some smart-mouthed teenager in the middle of the pouring rain.

"Just get in the fucking tent," she said bitterly.

"It's a one person tent, Sakura," he retorted. "I'm not getting in there with you. God knows you'll rape me or something."

Sakura grit her teeth together until they hurt and then grabbed Kabuto by the wrist and yanked him inside. He resisted at first, grunting as he tried to pull away from her grasp. She cheated a bit by using the tiniest hint of her chakra to pull him all the way inside.

It was certainly cramped with the two of them in there. Kabuto immediately moved to the farthest corner of the tent, scowling and crossing his arms. Their knees still touched, but they were far enough apart that Sakura could take no comfort in his body heat. Instead, she shivered because she was still damp and it was still cold but it was better than being out in the rain.

"I hate this," Kabuto said, sulking like a child.

"How do you think I feel?" Sakura snapped.

"Oh, I don't know, elated?" he said sarcastically. "You're probably jumping for joy inside, you pervert."

"Let me get this straight," she said. "I'm a pervert because I kissed you?"

"You're a pervert for luring me into close quarters so you can sink your witch claws into me," he said.

"Get over yourself, Kabuto," she said. "I don't want to sink my claws into you. Once all this is over, I want nothing to do with you."

"Right, right," he said. "Sasuke is the one you want to sink your claws into. You just needed some practice first."

Sakura lashed out, aiming a slap for his cheek. If she'd thought it out more carefully, she might have formed a fist instead, but her instincts told her to slap and she did. However, Kabuto caught her wrist before her palm connected with his cheek. He gripped her arm with bruising force and pushed her back to her side of the tent.

"Sasuke is obviously a sore subject for you," he said, "so if I were you I'd dedicate more time to getting over that. He'll never want to be with you. You're wasting all this mental effort, this emotion for someone that can't ever return it. Look what's he's done to you. You're so fucked in the head that you'd kiss an enemy. Hell, you probably only accepted the conditions of this agreement just so you could see him again because you know that he'll never come back to Konoha with you."

Sakura yanked her arm away from him, inching away so that their knees no longer touched. Her leg began to cramp from the way she was awkwardly contorted, but she didn't care. She didn't want to be near him anymore. If she had been in the frame of mind, she would have demanded he leave her tent.

"Oh, and what about you?" she asked. "Following Orochimaru around like a little puppy dog. You say you have a lot to learn from him, but don't lie to yourself. Orochimaru gave you something you'd never had before – an identity. If only he'd given you a better one."

"You don't know what you're talking about," he seethed.

"I know enough," she snapped. "Poor orphan Kabuto. No one loves him so he soothes the pain by pretending Orochimaru does. He doesn't care about you, you know. When he's gotten all he can from you, he'll abandon you like he does with all those other people."

This time it was Kabuto's turn to lash out. He, more thoughtfully than Sakura had, formed a fist and aimed it toward her face. Sakura had nowhere to go, no way to dodge the blow, so instead she caught his fist in her hand, using chakra to buffer the impact. As soon as his fist connected with her hand, she sent out four chakra scalpels from each of her knuckles, puncturing straight through his hand.

He grimaced and reeled back, but didn't let go of her. They sat there for a tense moment, each with teeth gritted as they stared at one another. Blood dripped from Kabuto's hand onto her bedroll between them, but neither of them made a move to stop it.

"You don't know anything about me, Sakura," Kabuto finally said, his voice low and dangerous. "You don't know anything about Sasuke either. I hope you enjoy whatever it is you're getting out of this game you're playing with me, because you aren't you going to get it out of Sasuke."

"What exactly do you think it is I'm trying to get out this game you think I'm playing?" she demanded. "Do you really think I'd be foolish enough to treat Sasuke the way I've treated you?"

"Sasuke could be masochistic enough to enjoy it for all I know," he replied. He was slinked back into the corner of the tent, eyeing her as if she were a snake about to strike. He nursed his hand. Sakura watched his healing chakra begin to erase the puncture marks from her scalpels.

"Well, I wasn't trying to antagonize you," she hissed. "You act like it's crazy for a teenager girl to have sexual urges. So I fucking want to kiss boys. Big deal."

Kabuto let out a sardonic laugh and Sakura looked over at him to catch his gaze. He wouldn't look at her and maybe she was just being extra emotional, but it upset her.

"You're right," she said, hating how choked up she sounded. "If I can't even get you to like me, there's no way Sasuke ever will."

"How flattering," he said dryly.

Sakura swallowed the lump in her throat and curled herself into a ball. She buried her face in his knees, feeling hotness prickle behind her eyes. She felt ridiculously stupid for ever having come on to Kabuto, for thinking that Sasuke would ever want to be with her. She had done everything all wrong. She had devoted too much of her life to pining after Sasuke and now she'd never have a chance with anyone else. No one would be able to look past her crush on Sasuke, to believe she'd moved on from him. She didn't believe she could do that herself.

"Ugh, you're not crying, are you?"

"No, it's just the rain," she said, her voice muffled by her knees. She heard him laugh weakly, but she couldn't look up at him because she was afraid she would burst into tears at the sight of him.

"Why are you so hung up on Sasuke anyway?" he asked. "Aren't there thousands of others guys you could be with?"

"Like who?" she demanded, finally looking up at him and hoping that her eyes weren't red-rimmed or wet.

"Naruto, for one."

Sakura made a noise of disgust, which made Kabuto laugh again. She didn't know why the sound made butterflies kick up on her stomach. Moments ago they had been throwing punches at one another, but now she'd give anything to take all that back and just lie down next to him until she fell asleep.

She supposed it wasn't too late to still do that. Hesitantly, she uncurled herself and began to unzip her bedroll. Kabuto, who was sitting on the corner of it, didn't move to allow her to open it up all the way, though more because he had nowhere else to move rather than a desire to be in her way.

"I don't have an extra bedroll," she explained, "but we can both sleep under this one if you're okay with sleeping on top of the tent tarp."

Kabuto stared at her with a mixture of shock and disgust.

"I promise I won't do anything perverted," she said wearily, already pulling herself underneath the heavy cloth to lie down. Kabuto still sat in the corner, preventing her from extending her legs all the way. She could feel the warm of his thigh against her foot where they came so close to touching.

She closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the pouring rain outside. It was certainly annoying to travel in, but it lulled her to sleep so easily that she could already feel her eyelids sinking. She didn't care that Kabuto didn't seem to want to move from his corner. She wasn't going to waste her breath trying to convince him to join her under the bedroll. Instead, she rolled over onto her side and closed her eyes.

/

When Sakura woke up she could still hear the rain pounding down outside. The wind whistled outside, rattling the tiny tent with more fervor than the rain had yesterday. Beside her, she could feel warmth – Kabuto, who had at some point decided to slip underneath the bedroll with her. He wasn't touching her, but when she opened her eyes her vision with filled with nothing but the skin of Kabuto's arm, which was so close to her face that if she stuck out her tongue she could lick him.

Of course Sakura wasn't a pervert so she wasn't going to lick him, but she was cold enough to want to leech his warmth. She listened carefully for a moment, trying to hear Kabuto's steady even breaths. She could see his chest rising and falling in slow, deep breaths. The seal on her wrist beat a sleeping pulse, so Sakura inched herself forward until the front of her body was pressed flush against the side of his. Hopefully, when he woke up he would assume they had moved closer together in their sleep. It wasn't too outlandish, given that they could hardly fit together in the tent in the first place.

And god was he warm. Sakura sighed against him, feeling comfortable enough to have fallen back asleep right then. She wanted to, but because there was now a storm brewing outside instead of a gentle rain, she couldn't quite be lulled to sleep again. Instead, she just relaxed, feeling such a brief moment of tranquility knowing that Kabuto was asleep and she was warm and safe.

It didn't last long, of course.

"Ew, get the fuck off me." Kabuto groaned and shifted himself away from her. "You said you wouldn't do anything perverted."

"I didn't!" she said. "It's cold and stormy. Just fucking let me cuddle with you."

"Seriously?" he demanded, grabbing his pack from the corner of the tent and unzipping the flap. "What the hell is the matter with you?" Sakura grunted when the tent flap flew open and a gust of cold wind swirled around her face. Kabuto ignored it as he stepped back out into the forest.

Sakura watched him shrug the pack onto his shoulders and glance around outside. The sun was nowhere to be found, hidden somewhere behind the thick cloud cover. In the distance they could hear the rain pattering against leaves. They were still relatively covered by the trees, but if the storm worsened at all, they would definitely get soaked.

"We've got to get moving," Kabuto said, glancing back behind him at Sakura, who had moved into the spot where Kabuto had just been lying.

"But it's raining," she pouted.

"Exactly, you moron. We can't get trapped here by the storm. We've got to get ahead of it," he snapped.

Annoyed, Sakura rolled her eyes and reached for her pack. In silence she began to take down her tent, shoving and pushing things with more force than necessary to show her displeasure. Kabuto watched her with a frown of disapproval. He didn't help her, Sakura noticed with irritation. It was the least he could do after she had the decency to let him share her tent.

When she had finished, she turned to Kabuto, shrugging her pack higher up onto her shoulders. He had been watching her the whole time, waiting for her to finish, but when she faced him expectantly, he did nothing but stare. She watched his jaw clench and unclench. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but then closed it again.

"What?" she hissed.

Hearing her voice jolted him from whatever thoughts he'd been lost in. He shook his head and began walking through the woods, leaving Sakura's question unanswered. Still annoyed, Sakura ran to catch up with him, keeping pace at his side.

"I feel like I should warn Sasuke I'm bringing you," he said after they had been walking for a few seconds of tense silence. "This might be the first time I've ever felt any sympathy for him."

A loud peal of thunder echoed in the distance. Sakura turned her head toward the sound, grateful for the tiny distraction. Sasuke was off limits for a reason – Sakura couldn't take hearing about him and Kabuto was obviously well aware of that. He was just trying to get a rise out of her.

She didn't like to think that he could, but she could feel the lump in her throat that threatened to say otherwise. She was sure she would cry if she were to open her mouth to speak. Something must be really, really wrong with her, she thought. It was clear that Sasuke had no romantic interest in her. He thought she was annoying, and now Kabuto thought that, too. Perhaps she was annoying, she realized. How could anyone ever want her if she was really that annoying?

As they approached the edge of the forest and entered the open wilds, the raindrops began to penetrate the scattered trees. Kabuto picked up into a run and Sakura begrudgingly followed, trying not to stare at the back of his head. His hair was still askew from sleep and his clothes were rumpled from having slept in them. He was damp from the rain and his legs were caked in mud all the way up to his calves. He was a mess, Sakura thought, but she was also in a comparable state.

Why would a man like Kabuto not want her? Why would Sasuke not want her? Just what was it about her that was so annoying?

At least in Kabuto's case she had somewhat of an idea. She had been bolder, more open to being herself around him because she had convinced herself that he was an enemy, a nuisance. His opinion of her didn't matter, so she could take what she wanted, do what she wanted to him and so what if he didn't like it?

Now she realized how wrong she had been. She did still care enough about his opinion that she felt hurt by it. She also realized that her brazen behavior had been wrong. Not wrong enough to apologize to him. She couldn't imagine anything more humiliating than accepting defeat in their weird, sexual game. But she did feel a new determination to make him see her differently. She could be less annoying. She would show both Sasuke and Kabuto that.

"Come on," Kabuto said to her, breaking the tense silence. "You're going to have to be a little faster if you want to get out of the rain."

He eyed her with disdain, mocking her slowness with his scrutinizing gaze. Sakura said nothing to him, too afraid she would either snap at him or cry. Instead, she used a burst of chakra to speed up, running a few paces ahead of him.

Silence stretched heavily between them, but Sakura didn't dare say another word to him as they ran.

/

Sakura hadn't seen the sun all day. She hadn't spoken a single word to Kabuto since that morning, even when they had stopped to eat. Kabuto made no effort to speak to her, but she noticed the way his eyes lingered on her with curiosity. If he recognized that she was in a bad mood, he had the good sense not to ask her about it.

So by the time the rain had cleared up, the sun had already been long gone and Sakura felt her mood worsen even more. They slowed as they approached the bunker and Sakura began to feel nervousness claw at the back of her throat again. Sasuke was somewhere in that bunker.

"Your chakra is low," Kabuto said, speaking to her for the first time in almost twelve hours. He didn't look at her, instead keeping his gaze on the bunker's entrance. "I will show you to a place where you can rest. In the morning you can remove my seal and give one to me and Sasuke."

"I'm not staying the night here," she said.

He glanced over at her, his face annoyed at first, but then the expression disappeared completely and he was left unreadable again. "So you'll be using your yin seal, then?" he asked.

"I don't need to," she said with a scowl. "I have plenty of chakra for the seal."

"And what about your journey home?"

"Don't tell me you're worried, Kabuto-san."

"I don't think Tsunade will be too pleased with me if her apprentice turns up missing because she collapsed from chakra exhaustion on her way home," he snapped. "You've been running in the rain all day. I know you at least want to take a shower."

"I'd rather finish this quickly and be back on the road," she said coolly, refusing to meet his eye. He was probably right, but something about being in the bunker made her uneasy. She didn't want to spend any more time there than necessary.

"Hmm," he said accusingly. "I'd have assumed you'd want to spend as much time with Sasuke as possible. Here I was all worried that it would be hard to get rid of you."

"How many times do I have to tell you that Sasuke is a forbidden topic?" she seethed.

"That's a moot point now," he said with a shrug. "Would you like me to take you to him right now?"

Sakura suddenly felt his skin get clammy her pulse skyrocketed. She glanced to Kabuto's wrist where she could see the glowing beats of her heart. She glanced to his face and saw him smirking. It was about time she remove their shared seal, she thought. She couldn't bear to share it with him anymore.

"Yes, fine," she said. "Take me to Sasuke."

Kabuto nodded solemnly and began to walk her toward the bunker's entrance.

"Actually, could I take that shower first?"

She ignored his laughter.

/

AN: Now I know what you guys are thinking. That whole disease thing wrapped up quite perfectly and with no glaring plot holes or unanswered questions. OR DID IT?