A/N: Don't forget to review!

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Sakura watched Neji running in front of her. The mist country was well behind them now. But her thoughts were stuck back there. She wanted to thank him, but how? What would a guy like Neji want? Biting her lip under her mask, she looked around. They were on the borders of the Nukenin territory. Somewhere inside there, Sazona was hiding from them.

Neji noticed Sakura slow down behind him. He matched her pace until they were both stopped. "Is something wrong?"

Sakura placed a hand on her hip, "I just need to rest. My leg didn't heal all the way…"

Frowning, Neji walked over to Sakura and kneeled in front of her. "Let me see it." He propped up his leg in front of him and stared ahead.

Sakura slowly lifted her injured leg and gently placed her sandaled foot onto his leg.

Lifting her pant-leg with care, he traced his fingers over the wound that was read and was too warm to his liking. "We should rest tonight. We can finish the mission in the morning."

Sakura nodded as she lifted her leg away from Neji, only to find he was still holding onto her leg. "Neji wha-"

"Shh…" Placing his hand on her wound, her sent a bit of his chakra into her leg. He was not as skilled as Sakura in the field of medicine, but he knew how to dull the pain.

A look of pleasure spread across Sakura's face behind her mask. "Neji…"

Rolling her pant-leg down, he gently lifted her leg off of his and stood up. "I just numbed it for a bit so you can rest. I'll keep watch." Walking over to one of the boulders that sat towering over the tall grass, he jumped onto it and sat down.

Sakura hopped on one leg over to the boulder and sat down. She couldn't fight like this if they got ambushed, she'd have to let Neji take care of everything.

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"Sasuke! Why can't you confide in me! Can't you see I'm in love with you!" Raising her shaky hand, she placed it on his tall shoulder, "I'm in love with you…"

A cool wind blew, sending her hair to blow upon her face, covering her blush.

Slapping away her smaller hand, he turned to glare at her with red eyes. "I hate you."

Sitting up, she looked around. Spotting Hyuga meditating on the rock to her side, she slowly lay back down and drifted off to sleep.

"Sasuke! Please! Don't leave me!" Shaking and barely awake on the floor, she looked up at his outline.

Sasuke looked back at her with cold eyes. Her bloody and beaten body's image reflected in his red orbs. "You are too weak." Turning around, he walked away after a shadowy figure, leaving her for dead.

"S-Sasuke! Sasuke! SASUKE!"

"Sakura. Wake up!"

"Sakura!" Neji called out to her, shaking her gently by the shoulders. When she didn't wake, he shook her a bit harder and called out louder. After a minute or so of this, Sakura's green orbs snapped open. The look on her face took him completely by surprise. She was terrified. Neji racked his brain of all the information he had on her that would make her this terrified of something. It had to have been a past event.

Sakura looked up at Neji, shaking, tears streaming down her cheeks. "N-Neji…"

Neji's hand slowly pulled a strand of her pink hair away from her face. "It's okay, you're safe. Don't worry…" Tucking the strand behind her ear, he showed her his rare smile.

Sakura, to Neji's surprise broke down into hysterical sobs. Throwing herself to him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and cried into his chest. "He left me to die there! He didn't care!"

Neji sighed as he let Sakura cry on him. "Do you want to talk about it?" He asked after her tears had stopped.

Sakura hiccupped as she sat up and placed a hand over her mouth, "No."

Nodding, Neji stood up and wiped the grass from the back of his pants. "It's in the past Sakura, so don't worry about it."

"That's something coming from you." Sakura said without thinking. Her eyes widened as she realized she had just said that aloud.

Hyuga Neji was the only ninja that she knew that practically lived in his thoughts when they were Genin. Everyone knew he secretly hated Hinata.

"I didn't mean-I'm sorry, I should have-" Sakura was cut off when she met Neji's gaze. She couldn't what he was thinking, he was just staring at her with a blank look on his face.

"It was Sasuke wasn't it…" He asked her, staring with pearly orbs.

Sakura slowly stood up and swept the grass off the back of her pants, "I don't want to talk about it." Turning around, she started walking towards her pack, limping a bit as she did.

"He left you barely hanging in there. You were in the hospital for almost a month after that fight. It was in all the pape-"

"I said I don't want to talk about it!" Sakura snapped, turning around to glare at him.

Neji frowned as he stared at her face, reading its features. "Obviously this subject puts your defenses up."

"No. You think? I almost died trying to get back the man that I loved. Only to have him leave me there like I was a worthless thing…"

"What about Kiba?"

"A summer fling. You ask him and he'll agree. Why are you questioning me about my past?" Sakura asked, feeling really ticked off.

"Perhaps I should have left you to sleep." Neji frowned more as he walked past her. "We have a mission to complete, is your leg healed yet?"

Sakura placed chakra into her hand as she bent over and placed it onto her leg. Slowly, she healed it, the entire time, watching Hyuga stand there surveying the surroundings. He looked so stuck up, she wanted to smack him.

"Come on. If you want to attack me then just do it." Neji said cooly.

"I'm sorry. I'm afraid that if I did that, I'd kill you. But at least you wouldn't report anything bad about me." Standing up, she clutched her fists.

Neji turned his head and stepped back a little to look at her. A cocky smile spread across his face as he stared down at her, "Who says I'd report anything bad about you? Reporting that you died in action is a honorable report."

Sakura couldn't take it anymore. She was on him in a second, smacking him left and right, only to have him dodge her every attack.

Neji lifted one hand and tapped her left shoulder, blocking the chakra flow to it. "Come on, you can do better then that."

Sakura jumped back, plucking up her mask as she did so. Putting it on, she smirked behind it. "Have you checked you bingo book lately?"

"No." Neji replied, attacking her. Punching her in the stomach, he watched as turned into cherry blossoms and floated away in the wind.

"Then you wouldn't know about me being in it." Her voice rang throughout the plain.

Neji stood in a defensive stance as he looked around for her.

Sakura appeared behind him, her mask right behind his ear. "Then you wouldn't know anything about my status."

Neji jumped away from her, turning as he did. "Why would I want to know anything about your status?"

Sakura struck a pose as she flipped her hair over her shoulder, "You're looking at the legendary spring killer here. Status is right bellow Kakashi, who I have spared with many times and we have tied on a few occasions."

Neji frowned as he stared at her. He knew all about her status in the bingo book, and she was not one to mess with.

Sakura lifted her cat-like mask and smirked at Neji, "So, do you want to give up?"

"Not really."

Sakura shrugged and jumped at him, attacking him with her working hand.