"I think she's waking up,"
Two blurry figures floated above her. Sakura blinked a few times in an attempt to clear her vision but it didn't seem to work too well. However, the kunoichi could still identify the faces without difficulty.
Sasuke and Neji were kneeling and leaning over her semi-conscious body. Sakura felt suddenly insecure. Here were the two people she least wanted to see. One the girl had kissed and the other had tried to kiss her -
Ow.
With her regaining consciousness came pain. Sakura tried to lift one hand but found it impossible - the movement caused her to gasp and cringe.
'Don't cry…' She commanded herself. Crying would make it worse.
She cautiously tried her other hand. This one wasn't as stubborn and complied with her request to hover, palm up, over her face.
"Sakura?" Asked one boy. She couldn't tell who it was at the moment.
"Is this what it feels like?" Her green-eyes examined the dried blood and long thin slice across the back of her hand. No voice responded to her question.
'Maybe they didn't understand it…?'
"Is this what it feels like to kill someone?" Sakura asked again. Another uncomfortable silence followed. Her hand dropped back to the ground and she examined their faces. Both were showing a blank concern.
"Now that's she awake we should return to the camp. Shikamaru will have a better idea of what to do."
'Ah, that's Neji,' thought Sakura.
"Sakura, can you sit up?"
The pink-haired girl tried, and found it was much like doing an abs exercise. She realized her legs were placed high upon a rock. That explained it. Quickly she pulled them down to a decent pose.
That was a mistake.
The rush of blood was making her sick. Sakura blanched, the unhurt hand placed over her mouth. She sat hunched over for a second and a comforting hand was placed on her back.
'Neji…'
Once that spell passed, Sakura dared to glance down at her damaged hand. It had been badly wrapped up with gauze that she suspected had been taken from her own medical pack.
Absentmindedly Sakura wondered who'd done it.
Slowly, so as not to disturb the skin and pain receptors, the kunoichi started to unroll the bandages.
"Save that for back at camp. We need to get away from here."
'Sasuke…'
"Uchiha is right," Neji offered out his hand. Sakura gazed at it for a second before accepting and getting to her feet rather wobbly. The boy took her undamaged hand and placed it around his shoulder before wrapping his own around her thin waist.
Sasuke watched this, feeling a tinge of something he didn't understand very well. The raven-haired boy didn't like how low Neji's hand was on her waist, or how comfortable she was with it.
"Neji-kun! You don't have to do this, I can walk," Sakura was feebly trying to push him away.
"Sakura, from what I heard it was a bloody battle. Just accept my help,"
'Where did he hear it from?' The girl wondered. She glanced back at Sasuke who was standing with his face twisted in an odd way.
"Sasuke?"
His head snapped up and the expression returned to normal.
"Let's just go,"
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
The pace was slow enough that Sakura could start thinking. She had to, or else the pain would become overwhelming.
'Neji and Sasuke…Funny how similar they are,' Sakura thought a bit randomly. 'Both have dark hair, blank faces, a desire for power, and similar eye abilities.' The kunoichi vaguely wondered who would win in a fight. 'And their personalities are a bit on the cold side.'
Sakura chanced a glance at the Uchiha heir. A blush ran over her cheeks but disappeared as soon as it came; he had rejected her. Again.
Neji had said some interesting things as well.
'Love is no longer a legitimate reason to marry…' He must have been indicating to her Sasuke obsession. But why would he care?
'Baka, he tried to kiss you,' replied Inner Sakura. 'Obviously he has some sort of feelings for you.'
She ignored the voice. He couldn't…
Sakura stumbled a bit when Neji stopped walking. They had arrived at the camp where Naruto and Lee were bickering and Shikamaru was gazing at the treetops and trying to ignore the noises. At the trio's entrance, the two passionate young men stood and rushed over.
"Sakura-chan!" They yelled unanimously. Neji released his hold on her and promptly stepped out of the way for fear of his life.
"Sakura-san, are you okay?" Lee asked, sincerely concerned.
"I'll kick the ass of whoever's responsible!" Naruto yelled.
"You won't need to do that…" Sakura replied, but it was lost in his ranting.
"What happened to your arm?" They asked together again. This was getting kind of scary. Sakura lifted the limb carefully.
Naruto reached out to grab it for closer inspection, but was met with her opposite fist.
Sasuke smirked from his position a bit further away.
"Dumbass, you don't try to touch someone's injury,"
"Shut up bastard!" Naruto hissed at him.
Sakura was now undoing the terrible wrapping job one of the boys had done. It was surprising that they weren't very good, as Neji always had bandages on one side of his body and Sasuke usually had his chidori arm covered.
Lee and Naruto pulled back a bit as blackened skin was revealed. The pink and red flesh underneath was also sickening to the eyes. It covered almost her entire hand up to a quarter of her forearm.
"This is a pretty bad one," Sakura commented, as if it was nothing. Truly, she was hiding tears.
'I can't cry in front of Sasuke-kun anymore…' She thought.
"Can someone hand me a new roll?" The healing-nin asked after throwing the puss and blood covered one aside. Sasuke revealed he was holding her medical pouch, dug through it, and tossed her an unused roll of gauze.
"Thanks," She started to expertly wrap up the offending wound, being careful to place extra layers over the extremely blackened areas. She knew this wouldn't be of much help, but it would be easier on the eyes and stop anymore bleeding that occurred.
Shikamaru looked around the group as she did this.
"Sakura has to go back to the village," He announced rather abruptly. All the men's eyes turned to him. "Someone will have to go with her," the bored Jounin continued.
It was true. They had six shinobi here, and only four were needed, and safe, for a mission. It was the matter of deciding who would go. Shikamaru knew that Naruto and Lee both would jump at the chance but he didn't think that was the best answer. Using his excellent observation skills, he'd seen that Neji and Sasuke were rather tense with one another, avoiding eye contact all together. One of them would go.
Shikamaru considered all the options. If Neji went, he'd be stuck with a brooding Sasuke who would constantly bicker with both Lee and Naruto. Not to mention he wasn't too fond of the ninja.
If Sasuke went, Neji would be angry but he was a smart enough boy, and respected his leadership. Whatever was best for the mission, he would do it.
"Sasuke, you're the best option to take Sakura back,"
"What!" That was strange. He had expected Sakura to squeal with glee, not exclaim and drop her work.
Sasuke was glaring at him as well. But that was to be expected.
"Don't ask troublesome questions," Shikamaru lifted his head to the sky, and that was that. He was not changing his mind; that would also be too troublesome.
Sasuke exhaled slowly. He couldn't explain why it was such a bad idea or he could find himself in some serious trouble. But then, how could he accompany her?
Distance. He'd keep distance.
Sakura had long ago picked up the roll and finished with her binding. She was now creating a sort of sling to keep to arm from moving too much. She didn't know if there was bone damage and it was best to keep it from moving too much because of the pain.
"Sa-Sasuke-kun, should we start off?" Her voice was oddly quiet. Only the mentioned knew why.
"Hn." He leapt gracefully onto a nearby tree branch. Sakura sighed, but it wasn't as if she was expecting help from him. She followed his lead, albeit with a bit less poise than he.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
It had been a couple of hours. Sakura had managed to keep up with his pace for a little, but the blood loss was starting to affect her. If only Kiba was here; he'd have one of those blood regenerating pills. But no, it was just the dark boy in front of her.
Sasuke had noticed her slowing down quite a while ago. The kunoichi was doing a terrible job of hiding it. He found himself gaining more and more distance, until she finally stopped, falling to her knees on a tree branch. The Uchiha heir also halted, and backtracked a few meters. He watched as she swayed on the branch, almost falling forward, but grabbing a branch at the last instant. He realized he'd been ready to spring and catch her.
Some of her cuts were still bleeding, or had reopened.
"I-I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun…I'm always a burden to you," Her breath was short.
"Damn it," The boy cursed under his breath. There was no way they'd make it out of here anytime soon if she was like this. Damn Shikamaru. Her chakra and strength was too low to leave.
'Don't cry…' She was thinking again. The sky was already growing very dark.
'I don't want to spend the night with her,' Sasuke was thinking. 'Then again, will the curse react if I do 'that'?' He folded his arms. 'Strictly business,'
"Sakura, let me carry you. If we stay here too long it's going to cause problems,"
"What? No…Sasuke-kun, it's enough trouble that you have to escort me," She was trying to stand now, as if to prove she was okay. Sakura easily lost her footing, and would have fallen had Sasuke not jumped over and grabbed her wrist to stop the momentum.
"You don't understand the danger of this situation. If we are caught by sound-nin you will be the obvious target. Without the ability to form seals, how will you protect yourself?"
It was rhetorical, and she knew it. 'How could I not have realized I'd not be able to call my chakra?' Not that she had much left anyways.
"You're right…" he was still holding onto her good wrist. "Still…I don't want you to have to be bothered by me,"
'I don't want to be his problem any longer,' Sakura thought to herself.
"I am doing this for my own safety."
That stung more than her burns.
"How…How are you planning to carry me?" The kunoichi had given in. "I can't exactly hold onto your shoulders very well if it's piggyback…and it's hard to move too fast when you're only supporting me…" She trailed off, blushing at the thought of the only option left.
Sasuke closed his eyes for a second. 'Strictly business,' He assured himself, then kicked out Sakura's knees from underneath and caught her, now jumping from branch to branch faster than before and carrying her bridal-style. His seal started to prickle, but not as badly as before.
Sakura had closed her eyes, trying to pretend it wasn't him. Though she was secretly happy about this, she knew it meant nothing to Sasuke. Maybe…maybe it was time to give up on the Uchiha…
'No!' cried Inner Sakura. 'Hell no!'
'Ino was completely wrong about boys…' Her mind was wandering again. 'Sasuke doesn't give a damn about how I look. I could be standing stark-naked in front of him and he'd just walk off without a word. I need to prove to him that I am strong. I want to make him open his eyes, finally notice me…'
Exhaustion was taking over. Before Sakura knew it, she had fallen asleep in Sasuke's arms.
The boy sighed when he felt her start to go limp. This was just great. He wondered how the Hokage would react when he arrived in her office, carrying a sleeping, bleeding, burned Sakura bridal-style.
The thought almost brought a smile to his face.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
The next day Sakura woke up staring at a white ceiling.
'Oh…I must have fallen asleep,' she thought, clearing her confusion. This made her blush once again. 'I feel asleep in Sasuke-kun's arms…' a smile crossed her face. She was also feeling much better. Tsunade-sama must have done some healing work on the burn last night. It didn't hurt to lift the arm as much now, and upon inspection, the burned area looked normal again. All that was left were some ugly scars. It must have taken some serious manipulation to make the skin grow back. The kunoichi made a decision to always wear something on that arm.
She sighed and flopped back down onto the rather uncomfortable hospital pillow. The sun streaming in her window told the girl it was near midday.
Sakura's head turned when she heard her door click.
"Sasuke?" He was looking awfully serious.
"You're awake." She sat up and nodded.
"Umm, thanks for carrying me home," Her bangs covered the inevitably red face. "But there's something I wanted you to answer for me…" The pink-haired girl trailed off, waiting for consent to ask the question.
In actuality, she had two. She wanted to know what had made him come visit her in the first place. But the other was a more pressing matter. After a minute of silence, she continued.
"Is…is this how I'm supposed to feel after killing someone?" Guilt was eating her away inside, but it was guilt for betraying her trade as a healing-nin. Naruto had always done the final blows when they did missions together. In fact, she turned her head away when he did it too. Now that she'd killed someone so readily, it felt like…nothing. She was officially a tool.
Sasuke had sat down in a chair next to her bed, surprising Sakura. His face was unreadable as always, but his eyes looked troubled.
"I…I killed him…" he whispered, eyes looking down at his hands.
'Why do I always do this…' he asked himself. More than once Sasuke'd found himself confessing something to her, or telling her something about his past. It was during survival training when he'd wasted time telling her he was an avenger out to kill someone.
Sakura understood what he meant, but not the emotion behind it or the reasoning for saying it to her. Somehow the girl's hand had found its way onto his back making what was supposed to be small comforting circles. Maybe it was because that's what her mother always did when she felt sad as a child.
Sasuke reacted instantly. He swatted her hand away and stood up, anger now evident in his features.
"Don't treat me like a child," he hissed. Sakura was taken aback that he'd be so angry about a simple thing. The next words she said didn't even register with her brain before they escaped her lips.
"But that's what you are…a scared, lost child,"
Sasuke's eyes widened before narrowing again. He stormed out of the room, obviously troubled.
What she had said was true, and both of them knew it.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
A few days later…
Sakura hid quietly behind the corner of a building. At the moment she did not want to be alone with Sasuke, although she had reason to believe he knew the girl was somewhere close. He kept looking over his shoulder as if expecting something.
"SAKura…-ch…an?" Finally Naruto had shown up. Apparently he had been expecting to see Sakura standing around; he must've felt her chakra too. The kunoichi had been waiting so she could use Naruto as a buffer between Sasuke and herself.
Quietly she slipped from her hiding spot, acting as if she'd just been walking down the road. Naruto turned at her footsteps, that big smile on his face in greeting. Sasuke narrowed his eyes. So she had been hiding.
"Oohayo Naruto, Sasuke." A fake cheery hello that was typical of the girl. "Ano, what do you think Kakashi wants with us today?"
Naruto folded his arms as if in deep thought. This made Sakura chuckle, seeing the seriousness on his face. Sasuke had secretly been wondering the same thing, but chose not to express this.
"Maybe we have a mission?" That was a reasonable explanation. "Yatta!" The fox-boy was overjoyed. He hadn't been spending much time with Sakura lately, only his group of somewhat neglected genins. As for that bastard Sasuke…He still could never forgive him.
"Maybe we should make bets on how late Kakashi-sensei will be today," Sakura suggested. Now that they made enough money it would be just fun gambling. Tsunade had taught her many more things than just techniques, though most people told her not to take the Hokage's betting advice. Naruto pulled out his frog wallet, and saw he had a few bills.
"Sure Sakura-chan, but maybe we should make this more than just a bet on money…" he was grinning mischievously.
"Baka!" Sakura used her fist to bop the blonde on the head. "Never mind it then."
A few hours later…
Sakura was sitting on the bridge planks, mindlessly flipping her bangs around. This was ridiculous. Sasuke stood the same way he always did, holding himself high with hands in his pockets. Naruto was pacing, muttering curses to himself.
"Damn it, I'm just gonna leave from now on if Kaka-"
"Yo!" The familiar pop of a person appearing was followed by this simple statement. "I heard a strange noise in the bushes and I had to go see what it was and-"
There was no loud proclamation about what a liar he was this time. Sakura rolled her eyes, and Naruto gripped his hands in fists. He had been expecting to do some training on a new move Jiraiya had taught him. Sasuke merely grunted.
Kakashi'd been hoping for the same reactions of long ago, but it seemed that age and experience changed them. He sighed.
"Ah, sorry guys. Well, you're probably going to hate me, but Tsunade won't give me a mission for you."
"Why?" It was Sasuke who asked this time.
"She doesn't trust you," he looked at the scowling Uchiha, "and she's afraid Sakura might still be suffering from the burn," It was Sakura's turn to glare slightly. Her hand was just fine! It must be a cover up for when she...Sakura paled. It still made her a little sick to think about it.
"I guess that's all," Kakashi shrugged. There was really nothing else. Sasuke made a sort of 'tch' sound before walking back across the bridge towards home.
"Ma-matte, Sasuke-kun,"
Sakura had thought about what she was going to say for a long time. It was something she had to do, the one goal she'd been training for. Sasuke turned, his eyes narrowed. She could already see the words forming on his mouth, the refusal he was planning.
"Fight me," Sakura blurt out before the boy could say anything.
Now this was a surprise. In fact, Sasuke stood there with his mouth open for a few seconds before registering what she'd just said. He snapped his jaw back in embarrassment, now fighting the strange urge to laugh. Fight her?
"Sakura-chan, what?" Naruto also was stopped in his tracks. His brows were furrowed in confusion and a bit of fear.
Sakura sucked in another deep breath. "Fight me," the girl repeated, her voice growing stronger. Kakashi cocked his head to the side. This was interesting.
"Is this a joke Sakura?" A small sinister smile was upon Sasuke's face.
"No." Such confidence. The smile faltered.
"Wait, Sakura-chan," Naruto tried to speak up again.
"Naruto, you know I have to do this," She didn't break her gaze with those onyx eyes.
"I can't fight you,"
Without warning, something very hard hit Sasuke in the cheek. Nothing was really damaged except his pride. The punch was powerful, he would admit, but she hadn't used chakra. He could possibly he fifty feet away from where he was standing if she did. The Uchiha heir lifted his hand to his cheek, now glaring at the kunoichi. But Sakura was too busy looking at her shaking hand to notice.
'I just…I just punched Sasuke-kun…'
Naruto's jaw nearly hit the floor.
"Let's get this over with," Sasuke hissed, and he jumped off into the surrounding trees, heading towards their normal training grounds. With a small gulp, Sakura followed. What had she gotten herself into?
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
A/N: Yay! New chapter! And I already have a good idea for the next. Hope this one didn't go too fast for you…I feel like I was babbling actually...heh
I HEART ALL MY REVIEWERS! IDO read every single one, and save them ALL in my inbox!
Anyways, just so you don't think Neji is 'suddenly in love with Sakura,' remember that they've been training together and stuff for quite a while, and Sakura tends to…grow on people. Yeah.
Ummm...Yup! Sasuke and Sakura are going to fight! It's going to be hell to choreograph though
I think I'll answer some more questions in the next chapter. Also you might find the ending of the fight a little bit surprisng...
Ja!
Hisui
