Author's Note: Yet again, thank you for the reviews! They do mean a lot to me (and I see I have some new reviewers. I guess cliffhangers do bring out more fans, I'll have to start using them more often) and get me going. Especially since I hated the last chapter, the words you sent me were very appreciated—doubled with my beta kicking me in the ass for saying my chapter sucked, you guys helped me. I had this chapter planned within an hour. So, enjoy!

Sacrifice: Wilted Blossom of Spring

Chapter 5- Self Abhorrence

It had not taken long for Kiba's words to sink into everyone's mind. There was a battle going on not very far ahead of them. Sasuke raced onward behind Naruto and in front of Neji, his heart pounding painfully in his chest. Everyone there knew the two kunoichi were at a disadvantage for several reasons which could ultimately spell out their demise. Having been stuck in the forest for three days, they were likely tired and battered from staying up and fending for themselves—not to mention the food and supplies they had would have ran out the day before.

Clearly, in this situation, there was not much of a chance for their survival. Akamaru continued whimpering as they closed in on the battle, his ears pinned back in distaste for the scents that assaulted his nostrils. Shaking his head, Sasuke attempted to clear his thoughts and calm the racing in his heart. It was pointless to get so worried—Sakura was a medic nin and extremely bright, she would definitely keep herself and Hinata alive.

'As long as that strange behavior she's been having doesn't take full affect during battle,' came the cynical voice in his head.

Growling to himself, Sasuke continued rushing along with the rest of the team, waiting patiently for the moment they would come upon the two girls and the battle.

"It's clearly a six on two battle, and the scent of blood is starting to die down. Akamaru doesn't sense anything dead, but all the hostile chakra is still scaring the hell out of him." Kiba stated out of no where. "We're pretty close now."

"Sasuke, Neji, you come in on the left. Kiba take the center, and Naruto you come with me to the right." Shikamaru instructed.

The group dispersed instantaneously, heading toward their objectives. Sasuke kept his pace fast and tolerable—should they actually need to fight, his stamina would be a key factor and he couldn't afford to use much of it while closing in on battle. It was hard to fight instinct, and his instincts wanted him to go as fast as he could force his muscles to take him.

Sakura bounded backwards, flipping over her hands and landing ungracefully upon her feet, kneeling toward the right. She'd sprained her ankle in the confusion of the ambush, and Hinata suffered a bad blow to her chest area. Shinobi from Earth Country surrounded them, already knowing the places to attack from the days and nights of observation they'd done. Every weak point they had created in the two kunoichi were being mercilessly taken advantage of.

Blood surfaced through Hinata's lips from the excessive blows to her already cracked ribs. Sakura kept an eye on her while parrying an attack toward herself with a replacement technique. She went above and then to the right, trying to focus her chakra into her fist. The shinobi she was aiming for began forming hand seals.

Doing the only thing she could think of, Sakura reached into her kunai holster and threw three towards the ninja below her, two precisely hitting key muscles in his arms that would halt the movement in his hands and the third being a decoy. She landed on a tree branch and turned her attention to Hinata, watching as the girl placed herself into a stance she was unfamiliar with.

Everyone knew Hinata had trained with Neji's help to increase her chakra control and learn some stronger attacks, but with the injuries she already had it had been doubtful she'd be able to execute the attacks well, if at all.

"Hakke Rokujuu Yonshou!"

Sakura wanted to scream at Hinata for being so foolish—there was no way she'd be able to fight after using the Divination Field Sixty-Four Strikes attack. Her body was far too battered for something that would put that much strain on her. She could almost hear the muscles tearing under Hinata's skin with each strike she made on her opponent.

Hinata spun and then kicked her opponent away, not stopping in her attack and then landing her strikes upon a second confused enemy. Taking the chance of everyone's attention being on Hinata, Sakura jumped from her position in the tree with her fist drawn out before her. Molding her chakra into her palm she slammed down into the ground, causing it to uproot and erupt around the earth ninjas.

The large piece of soil shot up toward her, pelting her in a rock hard shower. Sakura cursed herself—they were ninja from the Hidden Village of Rock, of course they'd be able to counter an attack like that. Placing her arms in front of her, she blocked the attacks as best she could until they finally died down. The bruises, bumps and lacerations made it difficult to move her out of her position, but she managed to bring her arms down.

A large burst of chakra from her left and harsh winds indicated Hinata had flown into the Hyuuga clan's ultimate defense—the Heavenly Spin. Sakura blocked the wind with her arms once more, knowing Hinata hadn't intended to hurt her while protecting herself from an onslaught of earth-created shuriken. When her winds died down, Hinata began to stumble backwards until she regained her balance.

Just as Sakura had predicted, she wasn't able to fight anymore. She began forming hand seals—she would use the technique Shizune had taught her not a too long ago, to secrete poisonous gases from her mouth. If she was lucky, the enemy would do as she predicted and she could buy enough time to heal some of Hinata's wounds.

"Doku Gasu!"

Leaning back, Sakura opened her mouth and released the poison. Much to her relief, the enemy crowded around one another and created an earth dome around their bodies, obviously planning to wait out the toxins before coming back out to continue the fight. She raced over to Hinata, placing her hands over the girl and performing the emergency healing that was required. The only thing Sakura was worried about with Hinata was the blood leaking from her mouth—she wasn't sure just how badly injured the girl was, but Sakura was willing to guess whatever she did now would increase Hinata's chances of survival.

The trees around them rustled before more earth shinobi appeared and the dome around those already near the two retreated back into the ground. Sakura turned, her eyes flitting over the men that surrounded her. She counted thirteen.

Sakura was battered, bruised, tired, and low on chakra. There were thirteen men around her, six of which she had not previously been fighting with. She could do nothing from this point on that would be of much use other than to protect Hinata from the men before her and hope Shikamaru the rest got there before it was over.

"Look at them, two little bunnies with nowhere to run." A particularly large ninja leered, his dark hair concealing part of his face. "I wonder how much fun we can with them."

His hands slid down her side. "Hmm… this will be fun. I wonder how much fun I can have before that poison releases its hold on you." Nishi grinned, bringing his mouth close to Sakura's. "Are you scared? Don't worry… just have fun."

Sakura's eyes went wide and her body began to heave in small, almost unnoticeable convulsions. Overloads of adrenaline pumped through her blood, as she looked around for an escape.

"Katon Housenka no Jutsu!"

A rain of fireballs fell from the tree line, landing directly in front of Sakura and Hinata and forcing the oncoming shinobi back. Sakura used the distraction to regain her composure as she drew some kunai and shuriken from her pouch and aimed them toward the bodies she could spot through the hailing fire. A few of them connected with the enemy, some hitting replications and replacements.

Sakura knew by the attack name and nature that it had been Sasuke who instigated adding himself to fight—that meant the others were there or near. She looked around cautiously, desperately looking for her allies. They remained hidden.

"Over there." Hinata pointed out. "Neji and Sasuke are over there, hiding in the trees."

She nodded curtly and then turned her attention back to the earth shinobi in front of her. They weren't moving. At closer inspection she could see their shadows reaching back into the forest—Shikamaru's Kage Mane no Jutsu. Akamaru wailed slightly from their right, meaning Kiba was ready to pounce should their plan fall to pieces. Hinata smiled in the direction of Shikamaru's location, which told Sakura that Naruto was most likely there.

There was a rustle in the tree above them. Sakura and Hinata looked up to see the large man from before falling toward them, poised for attack with three rocks shaped into various weapons—a sword, a dagger, and a needle. He was closing in fast, aiming behind Sakura toward Hinata.

Kiba flew out of the right, Naruto came from the front.

They wouldn't be fast enough.

Sakura launched her body overtop of Hinata, all three stone-made weapons piercing into her back. She cried out in pain but held on tight to the tree Hinata was backed up against to keep herself upright. She heard the grunts from the man on top of her as he strained to force his weapons deeper into her body.

The battle that raged on above her never registered in Sakura's mind. She felt dizzy before she finally collapsed, completely unconscious.

Sasuke watched as Sakura moved slightly next to the fire. How could she have been so stupid? She could have grabbed Hinata and rolled out of the way, but instead she almost lost her life trying to take the blow instead. He had taken it upon himself to stay up and watch over her while the rest of the team slept, covering up for it by saying he'd take watch that night.

He had to admit though, relief had washed over him with Hinata said the injuries she sustained weren't life threatening. Apparently, stone weapons were much to dull to pierce her body enough to destroy internal organs; and it took a lot of force to get them past the skin. All in all, Sakura had been extraordinarily lucky.

The thing that bothered Sasuke the most was her hesitance. Sakura had been fighting very well—spectacularly, if he had to actually give it a name—before she finally allowed herself to be overcome with fear. Neji and Sasuke had decided not to attack unless they were needed for as long as they could get away with it—Sakura had prompted an immediate, protective attack from him. Neji hadn't been too happy that Sasuke gave away their position, but it was a good thing he had. Sakura regained her bearing and was fighting again.

A small voice in the back of his head kept alerting him to Sakura's recent behavior fluctuations. Hinata told them of how jumpy and temperamental she had been during their time alone in the forest. It was hard to admit that he was actually worried about her; Sasuke preferred the word 'curious' as to her new insecurities and habits. They had occurred out of the blue— sudden changes that had no apparent reason for surfacing.

It annoyed him how much something that should have an obvious answer was eluding him and nesting in his mind all hours of the day. Sasuke was tired of being so curious and suspicious of Sakura's new actions and finding himself impulsively doing things he didn't want to do.

Sasuke looked down from his perch in the tree as his pink haired teammate began to stir and sit up, despite her pain. Blood was seeping through her jacket again, meaning her wounds had reopened. An eyebrow on his face rose when he saw her slip the jacket off, awkwardly placing her palm over the bleeding wound, trying to heal them with her limited amount of green chakra. He shook his head; there was no way she could heal that wound, no matter how hard she tried. It was in an awkward place and her chakra was close to being depleted.

He also knew she hadn't trained long enough with Tsunade to learn the Ninpo Sozo Saise (Genesis of Rebirth) technique. Sakura had mentioned the Godaime was hesitant in teaching it to her. That meant for the moment, Sakura was stuck to simply ointment and bandages, which was something she would have trouble administering to herself. Considering everyone else was asleep, that left him to helping her.

'Great…'

Sasuke kept his eyes on her as she slipped her top off and pulled the bandages off her wounds. She winced when they stuck to her wounds and pulled at the slowly forming scabs.

"Sakura..." he stated when he appeared behind her.

She scrambled to pull her top back over her skin, grabbing at the cloth as roughly and aggravating her injuries. Sasuke knelt behind her and put a hand on her shoulder, causing her to freeze instantly. Sakura's breathing became labored, her hands slipping off her shirt and falling limply at her sides as her muscles tensed and her heart raced.

He frowned at her reaction. "Hand me the ointment. It's pointless for you to do this yourself, you're only going to put more strain on the wounds and we can't have you slowing us down."

When the ointment didn't come to his hands, Sasuke huffed and reached around her to grab the container. He unscrewed the lid and took some of the cool crème into his hand before lightly applying it to the wound that had opened on her back. Sakura flinched, slowly edging herself away from his touch.

"Relax your muscles, Sakura."

"I can do this on my own." She stated, her voice shaking and barely above a whisper.

Sasuke shook his head. "How are you supposed to see wounds on your back, let alone maneuver well enough to reach them?"

Her breathing remained hard as Sasuke continued to move his hands over her exposed flesh. Images flashed through Sakura's mind, phantom pains and sensations of Nishi's hands over her thighs and up her back forcing her to bend forward slightly and clamp her hands onto her shoulders.

Nishi yanked the frustrating shirt off Sakura's body, hungrily taking her breasts into his hands as he straddled her. It was very convenient that she was paralyzed—that meant she couldn't fight him. Pulling her into a sitting position, he let his hands ghost over her back and then down to her skirt, plunging inside of it as she whimpered.

"Stop it…"

"You're the one who agreed to it, to help your comrades." He stated, pulling his face back so he could face her. "And I'm going to enjoy myself."

"Stop it!" Sakura cried, pulling away from Sasuke and using her arms to keep her shirt up. "Give me the ointment and the bandages! I can do this on my own!"

Sasuke was too shocked to object as she tore the medicinal crème from his hands and stomped off. The fear and sadness he'd seen in her eyes haunted him. What was she so upset about? He was trying to help her—Sasuke had assumed she would be thankful for that. Sakura was proving more and more that something was indeed very wrong with her.

Why had she looked at him as if he'd somehow betrayed her?

Sakura stumbled toward the spring Hinata had taken her to earlier to clean their wounds. Sasuke and Naruto had dropped the two girls off and left them there to bathe—Sakura remember she had woken up on Sasuke's back. It had been hard to resist the urge to claw at him so she could get away.

Tears ran down her cheeks as she stripped and plopped herself back into the warm water, concealing her body under the murky water. The memories were too vivid—Sasuke had touched her in the same manner as Nishi, the same haunting gentle motions. Her heart was still beating roughly against her ribcage.

She couldn't face him—what if he did the same thing to her?

'Sasuke-kun… would you rape me, too? Would any of the men supposedly protecting me now try to do the same thing? I can't trust anyone…'

Crying, she found a few leaves and used them to scrub at her skin, their texture rough and somewhat comforting. If she could remove the layer of skin that Nishi had touched, maybe she could cleanse herself of the dirtiness she felt.

Author's Notes: This chapter was supposed to have much more substance to it but, me being me, decided to shove the rest of this chapter's original point into the next one. nods I hope you all don't mind! Remember to review!

Love and hugs-

Crystal Renee