A/N: Still haven't quite decided which ending to put up as the official one. Could go either way. Will ponder this some more on my next airplane. Sorry updates so jerky lately – internet access been spotty at best. Not every country in the world wires in the same way (China, for example, uses a whole format for power outlets that even the most demented U.S. manufacturer has never dreamed). Will be back in the States soon, though, and maybe schedule will even out a little more. Until then, thanks for all the support, reprimands, and suggestions.

"Please make me your apprentice. I want to be stronger. I need to be stronger."

Haruno Sakura

Chapter 12

And We All Fall Down

She was falling very fast, but somehow very slow, because she hadn't hit the ground yet and she should have.

No, not falling. Some vague part of her mind recognized the movement for what it really was: jumping. Rather, being carried by someone who was jumping. She dared to open her eyes.

Green. Glowing with the pale flame of a huge chakra. Running.

"Lee," she croaked – or tried to, anyway - and the blurring speed slowed a little, the strange red face surrounded by dark hair looked down at her.

"Sakura," he said, and his voice was very far away. She tried to reach it, tried to drag her arm up through the thick heavy mud that bogged her down and grab onto the warmth, the safety that his voice promised. She hadn't felt safe in so long…

"No, Sakura, you must not struggle," he soothed her, tightening his grip around her shoulders and legs. "It's alright now. I'll get you to a medic. I'll protect you."

Protect me, she thought dreamily. You always protect me. Always safe.

Someone was screaming at her. It wasn't a very nice sound. Stop that, she thought irritably. I want to sleep. And I can't hear Lee over you. I want to hear Lee…

Gaara! The voice was screaming. Gaara! Inner Sakura's mental shriek blew away some of the fog that surrounded her, snapped her back fully into a body that jerked with the intense pain in her guts, with cold creeping down her arms and legs and hot blood gushing from her side and sloshing over her chest.

"Lee!" she choked. "Hands – seal. Help me!" The last words burst out of her, and she knew if he didn't understand she was dead because her ability to speak more was highly questionable.

But he came to an immediate halt, and shifted his arms around her until she was propped against his chest. He closed his hands over her wrists, bringing them up and forcing her lifeless fingers into a focusing seal. Cold – she was freezing. He pushed her rigid finger joints into the seal, and Sakura stared at her hands with rapidly narrowing vision, feeling bewildered and detached. Slowly, painfully, she forced herself to ignore the disorienting sensation that those hands were not attached to her body.

The seal wasn't the one she'd planned to use, but it would do just as well. After all, it wasn't the hand seals that really mattered. She tried to focus her mind again. The coldness crept further inwards towards her heart, and darkness pressed in on her, threatening to crash down and plunge her into the icy water…

Do it, she told her voice. Do it now. But no sound could work its way past the rising blood and bile, no sound could force through the sticky dark that came to claim its prize.

"Gene…sis of …Rebirth," Sakura murmured thickly, and felt the blood surge into her mouth.

The pain vanished, and something warm poured itself through her, filling her with light and energy and peace. She reveled in it, delighted in the feel of sweet, vibrant life.

"Sakura?"

She opened her eyes. "You came for me."

Lee supported her as she tried to stand. Once, he might have taken this opportunity to give her the dramatic speech, to flash the nice-guy pose and sparkle a little in the bargain. But their friendship had long ago moved beyond that. "Of course," was all he said. "Always."

She let go of his hand experimentally, but her legs were too weak. He caught her before she could fall hard on her knees. "I thought that Rejuvenating Technique was supposed to fully heal you," he said worriedly, watching her shaky breathing and drawn, pale face.

"It does, when someone like Tsunade-sensei does it," Sakura agreed, smiling self deprecatingly. "If I'd had the amount of chakra she normally has stored, I could have done it too. But it takes months to build up the kind of chakra needed for a full repair job that big, and I only figured out the trick about three weeks ago."

"Then how did you ever build up enough chakra for that technique?"

"I didn't, exactly." The pain in Sakura's smile was mostly physical, but there was a hint of sadness, too. "The jutsu takes time off of your natural life span when you use it. I just took a little more than it normally would."

Lee's hand tightened on her arm, horrified. "It's alright," she reassured him. "It's not like I'm going to die next week now, or something. Maybe just a year or two before I was going to as an old woman." Or three or four, more likely, Sakura muttered darkly to herself, but she couldn't think about that right now. She glanced around, trying to get her bearings. Lee had brought her back up the rocky ravine, away from the battle, towards the village. Around her, several shapes were likewise running past them in the dark, some dragging others.

"The Sand ninja who can still move are going back to Suna," Lee told her. "It's too dangerous out there for any human, now."

A faint unearthly shriek rent the air, and the ground trembled. Green eyes widened. "Take me back."

"Sakura, that's not an option. You can see that the Sand shinobi are retreating. The insurgent forces have been put down or scattered, but….Gaara has gotten completely out of hand. In your condition, you'll only be hurt again."

"Lee," she looked up at him, eyes glittering with something that looked suspiciously like tears. Lee hated it when people he cared about cried. It made him feel so helpless. "Please," she said softly, and Rock Lee, the legendary strong man of Konoha, cursed himself for being so weak.

He sighed.

"This way," he turned, and carefully pulled her onto his back. "Naruto and Kiba are trying to wake him up before he knocks the mountains down, or at least hedge him in until he comes back to himself. Shikamaru and Temari are dealing with the wounded, taking them away down the ravine to a cave Shikamaru marked as a backup hiding spot when we were following you."

"It was you," she mumbled, trying to get a good hold on his shoulders even with her exhausted arm muscles. "I knew someone was following me, but I never thought it was you."

"Your genjutsu was wonderful," he complimented her, gathering his legs and taking a flying leap back the way they had come. "It took a whole half hour for Shikamaru to figure a way out of it. He was not pleased."

Shikamaru was there. Kiba. Naruto. "You snuck in," she muttered against his shoulder, but the wind of their passing blew the soft words away from his ears. The chunin team that they caught at the border, she mused silently, not bothering to waste energy to speak louder. It was a diversion so that the real rescue team could sneak in somewhere else. How long had they been hunting for her throughout the country; how long before they had found out that she'd been chased from the Sand Village? She must have always been just a few steps ahead of them, near impossible to track in the shifting desert sand.

Another ground-shaking rumble dislodged a boulder near them. "Hurry," Sakura whispered, and as if he had heard her, Lee kicked into high gear, legs flying at a speed no normal human could achieve. His face - what she could see of it - was intent, and tinged with red. He was using one of the gates now, and his skin glowed with a vaguely demonic light.

Demons, she thought tiredly, and with a strange sense of affection. I've surrounded myself with demons. My own little harem of monsters.

They burst back into the battlefield. Sakura's face, pressed against Lee's shoulder, was tilted downwards, so the first thing her eyes scanned was the rocky ground dotted with dark human shapes. As her friend flashed through the carnage, she caught sight of one particular form lying on it's back in the middle of the field. As Lee leapt to jump over the body, she looked down and stared into a wide, brown eye that stared blankly back. The other eye was gone, ripped away along with the other half of the corpse's head. And then the apparition was gone, swept away behind her as Lee sped on into the night. Sakura swallowed, closed her eyes briefly, and with that, Kenji's body – and betrayal – were forced out of her mind.

An instant later, she had plenty other things to think about.

Above them, red fire danced with white flame as darkness surged in between. Lee yelled something, pointing upwards, but the noise of the battle drowned him out. The demon tanuki was screaming in pure murderous delight, blasting balls of foul air at both the huge, white, two-headed dog and the enormous toad that struggled to surround it. The Kiba/Akamaru beast darted in, trying to latch teeth and claws into violently twisting demon flesh, but the creature swung a ponderous tail around to catch one of the snarling heads between the eyes. The frog took advantage of the distraction in an attempt to slice the tanuki with an enormous sword – but Shukaku merely flung the white dog into the path of the blade, and Kiba came inches away from losing one of his noses. Screams, howls, and deep-throated roars assaulted her ears, the stench of death and decay made her want to vomit, and the blaze of frighteningly inhuman chakras slamming against each other stung her eyes.

It looked like a scene from a nightmare, but she was awake, and it was real.

"Get me to Gaara," she cried desperately into Lee's ear, jabbing her hand at the flash of crimson against the tan and black demon head.

(Someday he's going to lose himself,) Sakura gritted her teeth as Lee leaped straight up, aiming for the stinking flesh of the sand demon. (Someday he's going to lose himself, and when you try to reach him) The leap carried them to the tanuki's head, and she threw herself from Lee's back, scrambling up the shifting, sandy coat. A familiar voice – Naruto - was bellowing her name and something else in panic or anger or both, but she couldn't hear the words, and couldn't stop anyway. A piece of the hard skin broke, stabbing into her calf, but she pushed past it towards the half-submerged body only a few feet away. (and when you try to reach him) something came flying at her, but a blur of green knocked away the grasping black claw before she could even turn her full attention to it (he'll rip you apart)

"Gaara!" she screamed. "Wake up!"

Shukaku reared up, throwing her forward. She used the momentum and jumped -

and landed hard against his chest, wrapping her arms around the slumped shoulders fiercely. Hit him! Inner Sakura danced with impatience and fear. Slap him! Damnit, do something!

He looks so sad when he sleeps, she thought, and pressed her lips to his mouth.

His body jerked, bloodshot eyes snapping open and hands flying up to catch her arms.

"You!" He screamed into her face. She dug her hands into the back of his shirt and refused to let go. Let him try to fling her away, let him break her arms. It would hurt more to let go.

He stared at her. "You," he choked.

And then they were falling.