A/N: So you know last chapter when I said this chapter would be hard to write? I was wrong lol. I whipped this chapter up real fast. I ended up taking a small break from writing this fic to protect myself from burn-out and also to work on a two-shot leesaku fic (where Sakura divorces Sasuke in the Boruto era, and it's from Sarada's perspective as she handles her mom dating Lee) but I got a little stuck and switched back to this one and found this much easier to write. I also got a second wind writing this chapter because I kept on daydreaming about the juicy leesaku scenes I want to get to and the only way I can do that is get through the chapters before that. ;_;
Also AYYY hit the 100K word count with this chapter! (When I'm finally done with this fic I'm never writing anything this long ever again lmao)
Chapter 27
A Night Dance
Sakura woke up with a start, sitting up from her bedroll.
A frantic buzzing sound was growing louder and louder, followed by barking and Kiba shouting.
Her ear caught the sound of a sharp whistling. Before she could think her body moved on its own, flattening to the ground as blades sliced through her tent, turning it into shredded ribbons. In a few hasty movements Sakura slipped on her shoes, but left behind all her other ninja gear - there was no time for anything else. They were under attack.
Sakura burst out of her collapsed tent, eyes darting around wildly to assess the situation. Kiba and Akamaru were clashing with an enemy-nin wielding five levitating chakram, the signature feathered beads of the Talons in his hair. Lee burst out of his tent looking as under-dressed as her - no hand wraps, weapon holster, or headband, and his flak jacket unzipped. Figures circled them in the treeline, too dark to make out. On the border of their camp was a violent storm of insects buzzing, lashing chaotically out at any movement.
"Someone get him off me!" Kiba hollered frantically. "Shino needs help!"
Lee responded immediately. One second he was standing there, and the next he was right up in the enemy-nin's face, sending him flying with a punch.
"Sakura! C'mon!" Kiba called to her.
Sakura chased after Kiba as he and Akamaru barreled into the bug storm. It was so thick she could barely see six feet in front of her, but she knew she could trust Kiba's nose to lead them. Insects were randomly sloughing off in chunks, dead. The angry bugs didn't touch either of them.
In the center of the storm Shino laid collapsed on the ground, still. Kiba knelt beside him and tried to shake him awake. "Shino! Wake up, man!"
Sakura knelt down beside him. Beetles were sluggishly crawling out of his sleeves. His breathing was ragged and his pulse frantic. Shallow cuts covered his body, but they were nothing that should have incapacitated him. His brow was furrowed in pain, and he was sweating. He didn't show signs of a concussion either. He had to have been attacked while on watch. "I can't tell what happened to him."
Akamaru's nose caught something on Shino's skin and he barked at Kiba.
"Poison," Kiba hissed.
Shit.
If this was the same poison that had hospitalized Lee months ago, they were in an even more dangerous situation than before. If Shino didn't have time to warn them before the poison knocked him unconscious, the poison had to be even more potent than last time with Lee.
Sakura didn't have time to remove the poison herself; the only solution was the antidote back in her tent. "Protect Shino! I'm getting the antidote!" she said and she ran back out of the bug storm. Dead beetles crunched under her feet as more and more fell from the sky.
As she ran she could hear not only Shikamaru's voice chiding her, but Tsunade's as well.
The medic-nin is the most important member of the team, Tsunade's voice reminded her. You must protect yourself first above all else, otherwise you won't be able to protect your team later when their lives are truly on the line.
The antidote was meant to be for her, but Shino couldn't afford to wait.
When she burst out of the bug swarm Lee was still locked in combat with the chakram-wielder, twisting and weaving around the flying chakrams. Her eyes shot to the remains of her tent. A visored enemy-nin was rifling through her things.
The scroll.
Sakura sprinted towards the enemy-nin. The enemy-nin caught sight of her and fled, scroll in hand. Sakura chased him, but it was clear he was much faster than her.
"Lee! Don't let him escape!" Sakura called out.
Lee suddenly appeared, blurred past her, and knocked the enemy-nin out cold with a kick to the neck before he could even react.
"The scroll!" Sakura stressed.
Lee snatched the scroll from the ground and looked back at her. His eyes suddenly widened.
Chains suddenly wrapped tight around her throat and wrists, and a man seized ahold of her from behind holding a curved blade at her jugular - a kusarigama. "The scroll, please," the man said with an even voice.
"Don't," Sakura gasped out to Lee as the chains dug painfully into her throat.
Lee looked helplessly between her and the man, frozen.
The chakram-wielder arrived a second after. The chakrams spun, suspended in the air, threateningly close to Lee, as he waited to see what Lee would do with the scroll.
"So what's it gonna be?" the kusarigama-wielder said. "The girl or the scroll?"
Sakura gritted her teeth. How humiliating it was to be used as a hostage, as the damsel-in-distress. They didn't have any time to waste with a stand-off - Shino's life was on the line. She refused to accept this. Her hands were twisted together behind her back but her left hand was in just the right angle...
Sakura shot an extended chakra scalpel out of her finger, stabbing through the palm of her right hand, into the man's stomach. The man yelled in shock and the chain loosened around her neck enough that she was able to free herself and twist away. His blade nicked the side of her jugular and hot blood streamed down her neck. She activated her forehead seal then, black stripes spreading down her face and across her body, filling her with copious energy and healing her wounds instantaneously. The kusarigama-wielder reeled back and the chakram-wielder shouted in alarm. Lee immediately reacted, closing the distance between him and the chakram-wielder, keeping him distracted. Sakura charged the kusarigama-wielder.
Her opponent whipped back the long chain, the sickle soaring back towards its owner. Sakura dodged as it passed her, handle landing into the man's hand. The man side-stepped her chakra-filled punches, biding his time. He spun the end of the chain - tipped with a spiked weight - and whipped it at her the next time she charged. She dodged it, but when he pulled the chain back again it wrapped around her ankle, and with a yank, tripped her. The man leapt towards her with the sickle. She twisted on the ground, barely dodging the sickle as it sunk into the ground next to her head. She grabbed his weapon-arm so he couldn't escape, and kicked him in the gut right where she had stabbed him with her chakra scalpel. He spat out blood and released his sickle, stunned with pain. She used her legs to grapple him, spun him with a twist so she was on top of him instead, and took his sickle and buried it in his chest.
Sakura stood up. Lee was frantically dodging around the flying chakram of his opponent, unable to find an opening and go on the offensive.
"Lee!" Sakura shouted.
She tossed him the kusarigama. Lee's hand shot out and he grabbed ahold of the sickle's handle, and whipped the chain into his other hand. It was no kunai, but it would have to do, and it would provide him with some ability to block and counter the chakrams. The kusarigama was a tricky weapon, and Sakura could only hope that Tenten had trained Lee in it.
"Shino is poisoned! Don't get poisoned too!" Sakura shouted.
"Got it!" Lee confirmed as he launched the spiked counterweight out at a chakram, knocking it away from him.
Sakura sprinted back to her tent - she couldn't afford to help Lee out in his battle. Shino needed her.
Sakura found her backpack, dug out the antidote, grabbed her kunai hostler, and then sprinted towards the pitiful remaining swarm of bugs, smoke and fire now wafting above the treetops. Above the buzzing she could hear Kiba and Akamaru shouting and barking. When she got close enough she could see the two of them defending Shino from a female Talon member using a segmented whip sword. When the end struck fire sparked off of it followed by a small explosion. The fire was quickly spreading, hungrily eating up the trees and bushes around them.
"'Bout time you showed up!" Kiba hollered, dodging another lash of the whip sword.
"Kiba!" Sakura called, tossing him a kunai.
Kiba grabbed it and just in time used it to deflect another lash of the whip sword. The woman's eyes shot to Sakura, and she lashed her weapon towards her next.
"No you don't!" Kiba shouted as he slashed the whip's length as it passed him, veering it off course into a tree. The tree burst into flames from the resulting explosion.
When Sakura reached Shino she noticed his breathing was even fainter. She propped him up on her lap, uncorked the antidote, and poured it down his throat slowly, making sure he swallowed it by massaging his throat. Shino coughed, hands reaching towards his throat for a moment before his hands fell to his side.
Now all they had to do is wait for the antidote to work its way through his system. But first of all, she had to move Shino away from Kiba's battle and the growing fire. With some effort she tossed Shino over her shoulder, made difficult by the fact that he was just so damn tall. She fled back towards the tents, leaving Kiba alone to his battle. The insects followed after them, sensing that their vulnerable master was moving.
She propped Shino against a tree in the clearing a decent distance away from Kiba and Lee's fights but within sight. She didn't want to try and hide away from Kiba and Lee's sight lines; she knew there were more Talons hiding in the shadows waiting to strike. She also wanted to be where she could see the enemy approach, where they would have little places to hide.
Shino stirred, fingers and brow twitching, before he slowly lifted his head. "What happened?" he rasped.
"You were poisoned on watch. I gave you the antidote. How are you feeling?" Sakura asked, kneeling beside him.
"I'll live," Shino answered. He tried to stand, but he wobbled and fell back down.
"You need to sit still. Let the antidote do its work," Sakura told him.
Shino sucked in a ragged breath. "I see." He glanced down at a few dead bugs that had fallen out of his sleeve, clearly perturbed. Shino raised his hand and all of the pitiful remaining bugs hovering around them gathered to him and went up his sleeve.
Sakura heard a snap of a twig behind them. She twisted around and stood her ground in her fighting stance, kunai in hand. Another female Talons member stepped forth from the shadows. She was beautiful, with long bushy hair, and face painted white with intricate red and black stripes. She looked half a ghost, half a demon as the smoke and fire rose behind her. She tilted her head at Sakura, expressionless.
"You," Shino uttered.
Sakura stood her ground near Shino, gritting her teeth, kunai at the ready.
Fans slid out of the woman's wide sleeves into her ready hands. When she fanned them out, blades glinted at the ends and were covered in a slight purplish sheen.
Poison, Sakura guessed grimly. The antidote was gone. She couldn't afford to get hit now, especially since Shino's life was now in her hands.
When the woman charged towards her Sakura charged too. The two met in a flurry of blows, kunai sparking off the bladed fans as Sakura parried each blow. The woman was a whirlwind of blades, merciless and deadly with her bizarre taijutsu form. She tried underhanded tricks, trying to just slice at an ankle, or shoulder - anything to inflict Sakura with poison. Sakura struggled to avoid all of them. When Sakura flipped over her, the woman shot senbon needles from a secret compartment in her fan. Sakura deflected one of them and rolled to dodge the others. Sakura darted back in, slashing at her with the kunai. The woman blocked with the fan, closed it around the kunai, and wrenched it out of Sakura's grip, sending it flying into the forest. Sakura went on the defensive, weaving and dodging the woman's attacks, having lost the option to parry or block. She tried to watch for an opening, a vulnerability, but struggled to find a single one. The woman leapt back from Sakura suddenly and smirked. She collapsed one fan and with a click, a single long blade extended out the end - a wakizashi. She threw it at Shino, who could do nothing but hold up his arms to block.
No!
Sakura leapt in front of it. It impaled her, slicing right through the middle of her stomach out her back, stuck into her up to the hilt. She spat up blood. She then grimaced, grabbed the handle, and in one swift motion pulled it out of her through the blinding pain. The wound sealed up immediately.
"You made a mistake," Sakura declared, wielding the bloody wakizashi. "You just gave me a weapon. Poisoned too."
Sakura could feel a deep burning pain in the pit of her stomach, and it was quickly spreading too. While her seal could heal any wound, it could not rid her body of a foreign entity. All she could do now was keep up the seal and heal over the poison's continuous damage. She could feel it trying to seize up her muscles and constrict her chakra pathways - she could do nothing but delay those particular nasty effects.
Lady Tsunade will kill me, Sakura thought. If she survived, that is. She had to make this fast.
A second bladed fan fell through the woman's sleeve into her ready hands. The woman clicked them and both fans turned into wakizashis.
Sakura suddenly wished she had the foresight to have asked Tenten to train her in longer blades.
The woman charged in, slashing aggressively with her wakizashis. Sakura parried and dodged around each blow. She slashed and kicked at the woman, but she dodged every blow. Even though her seal was healing the damage done to her muscles and internal organs, the pain was growing more and more unbearable as her chakra pathways shrunk, slowly reducing the effectiveness of her healing ability. Her arm seized up suddenly when she moved to block another slash. The woman slashed Sakura's arm. Sakura reeled back, feeling the burning spreading in from her arm despite it healing over instantly. Sakura sweated, and she was starting to see double. The burning pain was making it hard to focus.
When the woman charged in again, Sakura ducked and punched the ground at their feet. The erupting rubble caused the woman to fumble, and Sakura was able to nick her cheek with her wakizashi.
The woman recoiled back, face twisted in anger. She brushed the scratch with a thumb and looked at the blood Sakura drew. Sakura wearily smirked at her. The woman leapt back, creating distance between them. She rummaged in her pocket and pulled out a vial.
An antidote!
Sakura sprinted in and chased the woman. The woman dodged and weaved around Sakura's frantic blows. Sakura could tell the woman was starting to slow; the poison was making her sloppy and she didn't have the advantage of Sakura's healing abilities. When Sakura attacked with a heavy-handed blow, the woman blocked it but then fumbled, dropping the vial to the ground. The woman dived for it, and Sakura shouldered her backwards. The vial was kicked and rolled away. When the woman stumbled backwards her boot crunched it.
Both Sakura and the woman paused for a moment, staring in shock at their last hope destroyed under a foot just as easily as that.
The woman then snarled like an animal, and attacked Sakura with abandon. The two were sluggish and clumsy with their attacks and blocks, stumbling and almost tripping over each other, each gasping for breath. Both of them knew they were going down - it just depended on who went down first.
"Lee! Kiba!" Sakura shouted weakly, a call for help. She hoped one of them heard her. Even if she lost, she couldn't leave Shino vulnerable and alone.
Sakura could feel the edge of her vision start to go black. She stubbornly held on. Her chakra pathways were tightly constricting, and she wasn't sure how much longer she could hold her seal up for. The pain was excruciating - every muscle in her body felt like it was on fire. The poison was winning, and she felt like she was going to pass out at any second.
Sakura's sloppy parry caused one of the woman's wakizashis to fly out of her hand. The woman put her all in one final overhead blow with her remaining blade. Sakura was about to raise her blade to block, but then the world suddenly spun, and she felt herself began to fall as the woman's blade rushed down at her.
Lee caught Sakura with one arm and with the other caught the woman's wrist before the blade could land. The woman stared dumbly at him for a moment, before her eyes rolled back and she collapsed in front of him.
Sakura's feet gave out from under her then, and Lee swiftly used his other hand to grab ahold of her and then gently guided her down to the ground. He knelt beside her, propping her up in his arms. The black stripes of her seal retreated back to the diamond on her forehead. She was sweating and breathing hard, face twisted in pain.
"Sakura!" he said, alarmed, hoping for a response of some kind. He scanned her for injuries, but he didn't see any open wounds despite being covered in so much blood. He hoped more than anything then she hadn't been poisoned too.
She looked up at him then, relieved, and the corner of her mouth twitched into a brief smile. "Antidote gone. I was poisoned," she said weakly, wasting no words while she remained conscious. Lee's stomach dropped. "Protect Shino."
Lee looked up and spotted Shino against a tree, struggling to stand up. "I will protect both of you with my life," he promised her.
"I can always depend on you, Lee," she sighed, closing her eyes to rest.
Lee picked up Sakura in his arms, carried her over to Shino, and set her on the ground next to him with the utmost care.
"Where's Kiba?" Shino asked him.
On cue, Kiba and Akamaru burst through the flaming trees, teeth bared. When they saw that there were no opponents they relaxed and ran up to the others. "What happened to her?" he asked.
"Poisoned," Shino answered. "We don't have another antidote."
"We need to run back to Konoha as fast as we can!" Lee insisted. "I do not know how long Sakura can last like this!"
Before they could converse further, a middle-aged man with graying hair stepped into the clearing, flanked by three other Talons, all of them bulky and muscular.
"Look alive, Lee! Time to protect our jonin!" Kiba snarled, crouching on all fours.
Lee whipped around, putting himself between the enemy and Shino and Sakura.
The man raised a hand in a seal. The ground beneath them glowed faintly for a split second. Before they could even react, Kiba and Lee dropped to the ground as though it was a magnet.
"Nice of you all to gather in one spot for me after I worked so hard setting down my tags," the older man laughed light-heartedly, still holding his hand in the seal.
"Why you...!" Kiba growled as he and Akamaru struggled to lift themselves off the ground to no avail.
Lee craned his head to glance at Shino and Sakura. The weight of Shino's body left him slumped on the ground, unable to move. Sakura laid still on the ground, pain still clear on her face.
He couldn't protect them like this.
Lee struggled, but he was able to slowly pull himself to feet. His body felt many times heavier than it was supposed to be - it reminded him of the first time he had ever put on his training weights.
"Oh? You're a strong one, ain't ya?" the old man commented.
Lee charged at him. He had to break the man's seal, but Lee was moving slower than usual.
The man activated the seal again. Lee immediately dropped to one knee, feeling gravity pull him down even harder. Lee opened the First and Second Gates, surging him with a burst of strength. He barreled at the man with singular focus. The man activated the seal again. This time Lee dropped, barely holding himself up on his hands, arms trembling as he held himself with all his might, feeling many times heavier than before. He struggled for breath over the crushing weight of his own body. The man strode a few paces forward and kicked Lee back onto the ground. Lee could do nothing about it.
"There we go," the man said. He looked to one of his followers. "Please take Tsume back to base and any other injured you find." He motioned his head towards the collapsed woman with the painted face. The follower left with a nod, picking up Tsume and running off. He then turned his attention back to Lee and the others as they continued their fruitless struggle on the ground. "Now, I believe you have something of ours. Whoever tells me where the scroll is first will get to live."
"Go to hell, ugly old bastard!" Kiba snarled.
The man chuckled. "So feisty, even while at my mercy! I like you, kid." He nodded to the two remaining Talons behind him. "Search them. Don't damage it."
As the two Talons approached them Lee glanced back at his allies again, eyes lingering for a moment longer on Sakura.
At that moment Lee made a decision. He had to protect his allies at all costs. He had to get Sakura back to the hospital in Konoha as soon as possible - he had made a promise to protect her. What he had to do would be worth the cost to his body.
Lee opened the Third Gate. He felt his muscles bulge as his skin flushed a deep red and new overwhelming power surged through him. He raised to his feet, feeling his muscles cry out in protest.
"What the-!" the man exclaimed as Lee charged at him with renewed speed, punching his jaw hard and sending him flying to the ground. Still, the man held up the seal as he clutched his injured jaw with the other hand.
"I see, so I just need to break your hand," Lee said.
Before Lee could lurch forward and stop him, the man activated the seal again as he scrambled to his feet.
Lee held his ground, bracing himself, muscles screaming at him as the increased weight spread across his body. Lee cursed himself for not being faster and stronger - he wasn't used to being this slow and weak with his Gates open. He expected to send the man flying much farther, and at least break his jaw with a punch like that.
The first and the second Talon moved in front of the old man. Lee needed more power. He could hear Guy's voice warning him not to be reckless as Lee opened the Fourth Gate, filling him with another surge of power. After his fight with Gaara, Guy had tried teaching Lee self-restraint, fearing that Lee would destroy his body before he could reach his dream. Lee still struggled adhering to that lesson.
Now is the time to be reckless, Lee thought.
The two Talons charged in. Lee dodged their blows with ease. Lee felt his muscles in his arm start to tear as he punched the the first man out cold, sending him crashing into the distant bushes. The muscles in his legs tore as he performed a Leaf Whirlwind on the second man, sending him soaring as well.
"You demon!" the old man screamed in frustration, veins bulging on his forehead. He activated the seal again, causing Lee to almost lurch forward onto the ground. Lee could tell maintaining the seal was wearing down on the man with each increase of gravity.
Lee opened the Fifth Gate, feeling his bones creak as he threw himself at the man. The man was no match for his speed, even if it was severely reduced. Lee grabbed his hand and squeezed, breaking the bones and his seal. The man howled. Feeling the full extent of the Gates' power suddenly fill him unrestrained, Lee kneed him in the stomach, causing him to vomit blood, and then took his other hand and crunched it too. With one final elbow to the chest, the man collapsed, dead.
A sudden shuriken whistled towards him from the treelines. Lee dodged it easily, and with his incredible speed he was suddenly there next to his opponent, the visored man he had knocked out cold earlier. The visored man raised his arm to block as Lee punched him, sending him tumbling down to the ground. Lee followed after him, landing in front of him and lifting him up by the collar of his shirt. Lee pulled his fist back for a fatal punch. The man's cracked visor fell off his face and Lee was met with pale Hyuga eyes.
Lee froze in shock.
"W-Why?" Lee asked desperately.
"For Neji," the Hyuga answered, eyes fierce, waiting for the killing blow.
Stunned and speechless, Lee dropped him. He closed his Gates as the Hyuga stumbled off into the darkness. He should have killed him, especially for being a missing-nin, but he just couldn't.
He had invoked Neji's name.
"Why'd you let him go?!" Kiba shouted, helping Shino stand. "Ah, forget it. Get over here! We need to get our jonin home!"
Lee shoved his racing thoughts away, not allowing himself to dwell on them in this moment. There were more pressing concerns to worry about right now.
Lee rushed over, bones and muscles screaming at him to stop and rest. He ignored the pain and the overwhelming desire to just collapse right there and not move for a full day or two.
Sakura was unconscious, sweating, brow twitching in pain. She looked worse - skin pale. Lee gently picked her up, cradling her in his arms. How much time did she have?
Shino spoke up, looking at Lee. "Go. She needs an antidote. You're the fastest one here. You'll make it back before daybreak."
"You are certain?" Lee said. "But what if-"
"You'll take the scroll with you too," Shino interrupted. "That's what they wanted from us. I suspect Kiba and I will be fine. Right, Kiba?"
"Yeah!" Kiba said. "Akamaru will give Shino a ride back - we won't be far behind. Just go. We'll be sure to grab your things too."
Shino gave Lee a confident smile and a shaky thumbs up.
"Be safe," Lee bowed his head in gratitude and then took off into the night with Sakura in his arms, holding her close to his chest.
As the trees blurred past him, Lee's legs begged him to stop and rest if for only just a moment. He refused them. The faster he made it to Konoha, the faster he could stop Sakura's excruciating pain, and the more likely Sakura would survive. He remembered all too well how painful the poison had been when he was inflicted with it. And this dose seemed to be even stronger.
Her eyes fluttered open for a moment. "Lee...?" she mumbled, delirious.
"Do not worry, Sakura. You are safe. We will be back to Konoha soon. You can rest," he gently assured her.
She closed her eyes and curled her head into his chest, whimpering, clutching the fabric of his jumpsuit tightly with one hand.
Relief filled Lee when he saw the front gates of Konoha on the dark horizon. He felt like he was about to collapse at any moment from the toll the Gates took on his body. He had to get Sakura to the hospital before then.
When he burst into the emergency wing of the Konoha hospital Lee started a commotion as he wildly announced their presence - making sure to emphasize that Sakura was poisoned, and by which particular poison. He placed Sakura on an available stretcher and watched as the nurses rushed her away.
With his duty done, Lee collapsed against a wall, weak legs wobbling as the overwhelming pain and soreness he had been deliberately ignoring for so long rushed back to him with vengeance. He gritted his teeth, trying to stay on his feet. He failed. He slid gracelessly down to the floor, eliciting a surprised gasp from one of the nearby nurses.
"Back again so soon?" a familiar voice said.
Lee raised his weary head. Tsunade hovered over him, studying him with a hand on her hip.
"Yes, but Sak-"
"She'll be fine. We synthesized more antidotes. Let's worry about you for right now," Tsunade interrupted. "Let me guess: Eight Gates?"
Lee nodded weakly.
Tsunade sighed.
A/N: So I'm struggling to tell what dub Sakura calls Tsunade. I understand in the sub its Tsunade-sama or Tsunade-shishou, but does dub Sakura just call her Lady Tsunade, or is it Tsunade-sensei (since the dub uses the sensei suffix), or Master Tsunade or something? I've switched off using Lady and -sensei in this fic (sorry for the inconsistency), but I'm struggling to find out what the dub actually does. I'm a sub watcher at heart, but I HATE dealing with honorifics (and remembering how everyone refers to each other), especially with the idea of them changing with the growth of a relationship. So I prefer writing my fics without them, and thus I tend to look towards the dub for guidance on these things.
Also, sorry if you were waiting for drama between Sakura and Sasuke lmao. I promise the action isn't mindless. I had to hospitalize Sakura somehow (and also make that antidote they've been carrying around relevant), along with set up a few other things which will be made clear later. We'll finally get to some nice juicy drama next chapter, I promise!
As a warning: I updated this fic to an M rating. Not because of this chapter, but because I can think of a planned instance of wanting it for violence and also because I want to eventually explore some adult sexual themes without feeling constrained by the (former) T-rating. So far I've gotten into emotional feelings, but at some point I want to adventure into some level of sexuality too to really explore the full extent of romantic feelings and romantic relationships. I think the M-rating fits better anyway since this fic deals with themes of marital troubles, unhealthy relationships and mentalities, emotional infidelity, etc., so really it's a fic I think adults would be more interested in anyway.
Anyway, as always, thank you for your support!