Kabuto was woken up by loud whimpers from the other room.
He was laying on his bed, grey hair spread out on the pillow and couldn't do anything but listen.
The walls were thin, and his room was next to hers.
He could make an accurate guess on why was she crying, but it still startled him. He really didn't know ho to react to it. Tears for him were just another tool to use when undercover, he didn't cry much, and for a shinobi, expressions of emotions were not expected.
She was still acting like a child.
It annoyed and angered him...but at the same time it made him worry
He couldn't put his finger on why though.
He'll need to sort it out, but in the meantime, he decided to give her a bone. She was doing really well in the week since he started to teach her. Sakura was a quick learner, and seemed to be able to remember the majority of a scroll after only one read though.
It still baffled him that her village left her to rot away.
Maybe he should show her that? Show her what she is really capable of and show her how her village didn't care for her.
In the next morning, while eating their eggs and rice he said
"Today we go out to get some fish for the tank"
"Fish?" she asked, with big eyes
"Soon you'll need to start learning on them" he replied, fixing his glasses. She just hummed at that, it didn't seem like she was enthusiastic, but he planned to hike up her desire to know more as well.
When they walked out he purposefully led them into the exit next to the training field. He knew who would be there.
When they arrived, he was keeping an eye on her, and saw the widening of the jades and the tears.
"Sasuke-kun" she squalled which led to the black haired boy to lose focus for one second, and that one second was needed to the attack from his Orochimaru to land in, making him fly to the ground.
She almost run to him, but Kabuto's hand stopped her.
Sasuke really didn't look good, he was paler than usual, with a bloodied arm, and from the sound of his landing, probably a bone broke too.
"Orochimaru-sama" he said, bowing to the man
"Show me, now that you came out" he replied with a slimy tone, and he had to grab her wrist to pull away her gaze from Sasuke.
She was focusing so much on him that her fear from the sanin was momentarily forgotten.
"He is not okay!" she said, pulling at his iron fist on her, which he ignored
"I'll heal him" he said to the man standing in front of them, and pointed at the boy still on the ground, making pained noises
When the sanin only nodded with a sly smile, Kabuto started to walk towards Sasuke, pulling Sakura.
He kneeled next to him, ignoring the fact that she was crying and touching the boy's face gently.
"Sakura, put your hands on mine and focus" he ordered then placed glowing palms on the bruised arm. She fastly followed, but hers missed the healing chakra. "Now, remember what I told you, with your chakra control you can go in" he said, seeing her closing eyes.
What she was trying to do was nearly impossible for any medic, even Tsunade, yet because he knew her chakra control, he was keen on trying. A person with almost perfect chakra control could really look in to a person's body, which was illuminated by the healing chakra. With that her possible healing would almost have no competition.
"Are you in?" he asked, while the injury in Sasuke's arm already started to close
She didn't answer, squinting his eyes then falling on her back
"Sakura!" shouted Sasuke from the ground, who was in probably less pain, since he could actually notice her.
Kabuto didn't erase all the pain when he got up to check on her.
She was knocked out, but a quick check told him it was just exhaustion
"Get your hands off of her!" hissed Sasuke, who was holding his right arm, probably still feeling the pain
"Is that how you react to people who don't matter to you anymore?" he whispered back which made Sasuke shut up, but still looked at him angrily
Kabuto slowly started to shake her
"Sakura" he called out
"Sasuke-kun, your training is not finished" said the grinning man behind them, and the boy just looked at her for another second before slowly getting up and walking back.
When Sakura finally woke up, on his back, Kabuto was already done with catching 5 fish, and was heading back to the hideout.
"What happened?" she asked, while started wiggling to put her down, which he reluctantly did "Where's Sasuke-kun?"
"He's probably still training" he replied, looking at the sun's position and calculating the time, it was around 1 pm.
"He was hurt!" she said, bringing her hand to her heart. Kabuto almost rolled his eyes at that.
"Do you really think Orochimaru-sama would permanently hurt his potential next host?" that made her shut and he resumed the walk back. Even if she tried to escape, there was no point to it, he would catch her in no time.
"But then...?" she fast stepped next to him
"That's called training" he replied, maybe a bit more snarkly
"Kakashi-sensei never hurt us like this!" she declared
"And look at him and you, right now you are both weak" he said, and her angry glare was gone from her eyes, replacing it with shock. He just took another step "The village failed you both" he said, and no matter how much she tried to deny it on their way back, he knew that the words sunk in.