They stood there for a long while, each staring at the other. Sakura looked to be torn between screaming at him, hugging him or killing him. Sasuke just felt confused.

Sakura's the Hokage's assisstant? but then that would mean...she's a medic ninja? He frowned and swept a hand through his hair before shoving both into his pockets uncomfortably. He hadn't been counting on that.

Sakura took a step forward and tilted her head to the side, asking softly, "What are you doing here?"

There was no point in beating around the bush. "I'm here for Naruto. I'm taking him back to Orochimaru with me. If you leave this room willingly, I won't force you to sleep like last time."

He watched her wince and shift and thought that he had underestimated her bravery, but then saw her glance at the battered Naruto...almost guiltily?

No way. She didn't.

She backed herself up and kicked the door closed, "You're not leaving here with him!" she strode straight past him and he side stepped a nudge she aimed for him. She was standing in front of Naruto's bed, protective of her friend who was injured because of her. She honestly didn't think he was going to be out cold for this long! she didn't know the earthquake attack would be so strong! really, she had only meant to knock him out in the most painful way possible for three days.

"You'll have to go through me first!" Her angry green eyes narrowed and she planted her feet firmly to the ground, in a battle stance. Sasuke was mildly surprised that she was actually standing up to him. He glared at her disobedience. Where did the Sakura who adored him go?

This has got to be upsetting some kind of balance, he thought to himself.

As he stood there, thinking of 'the balance' he came to the conclusion that this was, in some way, somehow, that man's fault.

I will kill that man...I swear it.

Unfortunately for Sakura, she didn't have a hose and tap handy at that moment when Sasuke went into his 'how-shall-I-torture-that-man-mode?'. Instead, she stood there staring stupidly at him, her battle stance loosening up.

I could strip his outer layer of skin while he's tied up, and force him to eat it...Hm..no, better not. I might be sick.

Sakura squinted her eyes at him for a moment, and waved her hand in front of his face to see if he would respond. And guess what! he didn't! As quietly as she could, she pulled each wire from Naruto and turned off the many machines, they were just a prechaution, it wasn't like the blonde actually needed them to survive. She hoisted him up and over her shoulder, so he dangled halfway down her back and she crept out of the hospital room, hoping she could find Kakashi before Sasuke snapped out of it. She didn't want Tsunade to get involved, that would turn out bad for everyone.

Sasuke looked up and was about to say something, when he realised that he was alone. He growled in annoyance, "How dare she? I was plotting, damnit!"

He smoothed his hair back, he seemed to be doing that a lot lately, and calmed himself down. It would be fine, he would just beat Sakura into submission and steal Naruto. Kakashi! he slapped his forehead and ran to the only window in the room and lifted it open. He had forgotten all about Kakashi and that was probably where the pink haired girl was heading. He re-applied his disguise and leapt out of the window, landing on the ground, before shooting into the treetops, trying to detect Sakura's chakra.

Damnit, she's hiding it. He paused on a branch and took a deep, calming breath. It wasn't like him to get annoyed so easily, but he hadn't been expecting Sakura's appearance, and she was probably alerting Kakashi right at that moment.

His head snapped to the left and he caught the tell tale flashes of pink flitting in and out between the trees. His lips curled back in a vicious smile of triumph and he dropped his disguise.

Well, that was lucky...No, wait, actually, I'm just that good. He nodded firmly and hid his chakra before giving chase to the young woman.

oooooooooooooooooo

"Crappity, crap, crap, crap, crap!" Sakura glanced over her shoulder at the figure of dark blue following her and almost dropped Naruto as she stumbled on the branches that were fast passing her feet below. Sasuke seemed to take that as an invitation to pounce on her like a hungry lion. She could have yelped at the creepiness of it all. Instead, she dropped straight downwards, towards the ground and as soon as she hit with her knees bent, ran the other way.

Sasuke landed in front of her and she skidded to a stop. The young man in navy strode towards her and threw a well aimed punch at her head, at which point, she grinned cheekily and vanished in a puff of...leaves?

He twitched.

ooooooooooooooooo

Sakura grinned in victory, though inwardly she couldn't believe that Sasuke had fallen for such a trick. It was a child's trick for god's sake. Whenever someone activated a replacement justu, the oponent would look shocked! even though it happened all the time! they still became shocked. It irritated her, if that shocked them all the time, then they shouldn't be ninjas. She shook her head in disgust.

...And lucky she did, too. Because a kunai had just missed her head and went flying into a tree with a dull thump on contact with the trunk. Apparently the real Sasuke had been tracking her the entire time and she had gotten too cocky. It had almost cost her her life. So Sasuke wasn't going to go easy on her? Good. But she had to reach Kakashi in time, if she lost, then Naruto would be defenceless until he woke up, and it could be too late by then. She needed the copy ninja to take the blonde to safety.

An elbow came flying out of no where, it was attached to Sasuke - so have no fear about random flying elbows, and hammered in the place between her shoulder blades and she jerked forwards, her breath hitching. She gripped onto Naruto's leg as he slid off her shoulder and almost fell. She was sure she must have made for an interesting sight, a small woman holding a larger man by his leg from a tree branch, without even trying.

Sakura grit her teeth together in pain and tried to control her breathing as she set Naruto down and turned to face her attacker, who was on a sturdy branch oposite her.

"Fancy seeing you here, Sasuke!" The lack of 'kun' at the end of his name irritated Sasuke for a reason he couldn't pin point right at that moment.

"Hn. Hand over the idiot."

"Ummm, no. The last statement still stands, you have to go through me first!"

"How troublesome," He now understood Shikamaru's words fully, and found himself with a renewed respect for the man. He was just peeved with Sakura, though. He didn't want to hurt her, despite the whole throwing-a-dagger-aimed-for-her-head thing. He was just trying to scare her. He took a deep breath and looked her up and down, slipping into a battle stance. She hadn't changed much, perhaps a little taller, her hair was still short - to keep out of her way, he assumed - her clothes, if you could call them that as there was very little of them, he assumed were for fighting purposes so they wouldn't get in her way, too. What really stole his attention, though, were the muscles in her legs and arms that seemed bigger and more defined than his small, slimmer ones. Even Sakura looked more manly than him. He sighed, suddenly depressed by his lack of manliness and inwardly blamed that man again. It was so his fault.

Sakura sighed in exasperation and threw her hands up, "Sasuke, uh, the fight? remember?"

He snapped out of it with an "Oh." and stared at her coldly, for interupting his torture planning.

"Fine."

"Er...are you...angry at me?"

"Pfft."

Psycho, Sakura thought to herself and wondered just how much Sasuke had changed. He seemed very...prone to moodswings.

"Did you just call me a psycho in your mind?"

"No."

"Hn."

"Can we just fight?"

"I won't go easy on you, Sakura," He stared across at her and she frowned, thinking, Since when have you ever gone easy on me? have we even fought before!

She decided there was no point thinking about it, Sasuke was really confusing at the moment. She slid her right foot behind her and brought her left fist in front of her oposite, readying herself for the battle to come. The young man across from her was relieved that they were finally going to get the battle over and done with, even though it was partially his fault with the whole thoughts-of-torture thing that they were delayed. But he wouldn't think about that. It was after all, all Sakura's fault. Oh, and that man's. Since you know, when isn't anything his fault.

"For god's sake, stop thinking about Itachi!"

Sasuke gasped almost in a girlish mannor at the mention of his brother's name, "...Shut up!"

It was then that he realised that he was going to have to think up a childish name to call Sakura, like the whole idiot thing with Naruto.