Sakura didn't speak to Gaara about the kiss after it happened, too embarrassed and honestly unsure of what to say to him.

He…had feelings for her? How could she only notice until now? But truth be told, now that she looked back on events, nothing he'd done had ever alluded to thinking of her as more than just a friend. But then again, Gaara was always the silent mysterious type. No one ever really knew anything about what he was thinking unless he chose to unveil them.

Maybe…if he had told her sooner.

Gaara had cast a memory erasing jutsu upon all the shinobi's that he'd knocked unconscious during Sakura's first rescue attempt so that they would forget about seeing Sakura and him rescuing her, before stashing their sleeping forms in the forest surrounding Konoha. His jutsu bound them to not awakening until forty-eight hours later.

They stormed the jailhouse just a half hour after he'd saved her (and made a few quick adjustments to her rescue plan); both Sakura and Gaara had agreed that they couldn't wait for the reformatory to reinforce their guards again since they knew someone was trying to rescue Sasuke now.

In order to keep his identity a secret, Gaara didn't use any of his advanced sand jutsu (only those rudimentary ones that even Genin would know how to summon) which made the rescue difficult but they still managed to break into the lowest tier of the pewter building. Gaara kept the guards at bay with air jutsu that formed a blockade between them while Sakura ripped the door's lock straight off before opening the door.

Her heart broke at what she saw. Sasuke had shinobi needles stuck into all of his pressure points and joints while the man lied unconscious and unmoving. His chest didn't even rise up and down; Sakura only breathed out when she sensed a faint but present pulse line after briefly examining him.

Because of the time sensitive nature, she could only extemporize treating him by pulling out all of the needles and casting a simple jutsu net across his body to prevent infections while she moved to carry him on her back.

When Gaara saw that she had Sasuke, he cast a huge explosion jutsu across the wall opposite of them. Sakura leapt out and he followed.

News of their jailbreak had already reached the borders of Konoha because the town's defenses were being implemented, sealing every exit.

However, Tsunade and Kakashi (who had been recruited upon Gaara's suggestion –Sakura originally hadn't wanted to get them in trouble by involving them) had already agreed to create an opening for them near the east wind turbines of Konoha. The need for wind in that one area guaranteed a small opening that was typically blocked by steel bars that Kakashi had deposed of already.

Gaara and Sakura made their way to the wind factory but at the entrance a series of shinobi confronted them. Among them were Kiba, Akamaru and Tenten.

They couldn't recognize Sakura and Gaara.

"Who are you guys?" Tenten asked while feigning attacking, with Kiba standing behind her, him staying still. Both of them knew that they had to be their friends since they were rescuing Sasuke.

However, there were about fifty other shinobi that didn't care and started attacking Sakura and Gaara immediately. The pinkette punched the ground with her free hand and sent a huge shockwave across the pavement, usurping pavement and asphalt that then rained down across her attackers.

A lot were knocked unconscious but most avoided it with their own chakra shield. Sakura and Gaara were still able to make it into the wind factory. The deposed window was on the right side that lead straight out into the peripheral forest of Konoha.

Sakura tried to make a run for it but again and again her way got blocked by the guards. Suddenly, she and Sasuke's unconscious form became encased by a sphere of sand. She felt herself being propelled forward at a high speed through the air.

She tumbled out the window and landed onto the thick canopy of a tree top, Sasuke's body falling next to her as she turned around, expecting to see Gaara's form join her but the opening was now sealed off by a smooth wall of sand. She could hear the sound of people trying to break it down from the other side.

No. NO! She pounded against the wall as well but was unable to break it down. How could Gaara…

Her eyes wandered down back to Sasuke, sleeping stilly at her feet. He did this for her...she couldn't just abandon him! But even as she thought that Sakura knew she had to go. Because she had only this one chance, and she couldn't let Gaara's sacrifice be in vain. At most, she hoped he would just get a suspension from being Kazekage.

Her heart thudded in her chest the entire way she carried Sasuke's body through the underbrush of the forest. She couldn't take the main road so she was stuck travelling a wild unmade path. Bugs nipped at her skin while snakes slithered across her feet but Sakura ignored it.

Before Gaara joined her, she had already planned where she was going to take Sasuke. Her Aunt on her father's side, had a large house on the mountaintops of Ghorma; after her passing, Sakura's Aunt had left it to her parents. The place was large and had a natural hot springs that she knew would help her treat Sasuke's wounds.

It still baffled her that Sasuke had been injured before his sentencing. Upon close examination, she realized that while all his joints could still be used, his chakra points had all been crippled and sealed, which was what they were supposed to do one day after she had broken him out.

Who had done it early?

And then her mind went back to the Raikage A's words against Sasuke: "He attacked my brother."

And instantly, Sakura knew he was the culprit. The man had a sworn vendetta against the Uchiha ever since he attacked the Kage council and tried to kidnap B.

The man must have exacted the chakra punishment on Sasuke even before his sentencing, which explained why only half of it had taken place: the Raikage planned to cripple Sasuke's joints during the actually punishment.

What a sick bastard! Sakura hoped one day the Raikage would get his comeuppance.

Right now, she had to focus her attention on getting the two of them to Mount Ghorma. It was the second day since she'd broken Sasuke out and the man was still unconscious. Something inside her hoped he would stay unconscious until she could get him into the hot springs and properly treat him.

She'd spent these last two days camped out in the forest, travelling during the night and sleeping under any covering she could find during the day. This method was working so far in concealing her from the public.

Unfortunately, Mount Ghorma was about two weeks travel on foot. She knew Sasuke's body would start to cannibalize itself before she got there. She managed to feed him using her chakra but it was only tree roots and berries, not nutritious at all and since Sasuke was wounded he needed nutrients now more than ever.

Sakura knew she had to think of a faster way to get there.

So, on the fourth day of her travel, with Sasuke still unconscious (much to her worry), Sakura hid him underneath a pile of large green lotus leaves, near a river's reed bed, while she went into town Saitama, a place she'd once been sent to during a mission of war.

As a result, it wasn't long before she found her destination: the pawnshop. She'd specifically scrubbed and bathed herself clean before stepping here, not wanting the owner to think that she was desperate for money (even though she was). She knew haggling all had to do with leverage and confidence.

"Hey!" she shouted brusquely while slapping the wooden countertop, awakening the sleeping owner. "I need to pawn stuff."

It took everything valuable on her person, including a family heirloom hair stick that had real emeralds beaded into a floral pattern before dangling down in a string fashion. It was a traditional hair stick that her mother, Mebuki Haruno, had passed down to her after Pain's first attack on Konoha.

Her mother had told her that she was supposed to give this to her daughter when she got married, and have her wear it as a bridal piece, but since Mebuki didn't know when that would be and that their lives as shinobi seemed unpredictably dangerous now, she wanted to gift it while she could.

When Sakura had been packing, the stuff she'd taken had included all of her savings (which wasn't much) because she honestly didn't make that much as a shinobi and with the war taking place she hadn't had the time to get a better paying job. She'd refused to steal money from her parents so Sakura had been forced to take everything of value that she owned, knowing she would have to pawn in order to make it to Ghorma.

She'd had to give up everything but Sakura didn't care, it was all just stuff anyway. How could it compare to a human life? Her parents would understand, since she was helping someone and who knows maybe someday she would even be able to come back and buy it back.

Truth be told, Sakura was most sad about leaving her parents behind than anything else. But she pushed away her depression by reassuring herself that she would eventually see them again.

With the money she'd pawned, plus her savings, Sakura had enough money to buy a horse and a large bag of dry flatbread, the universal travelling food. She also bought a retractable fishing rod and string, and a couple new kunais and smoke bombs, in case she needed them.

She even bought a bag of tomatoes just because she knew they were Sasuke's favorite, which always baffled her because personally she could never stand the taste of the bland fruit. She always had to dip the tomato slices in sour plum powder in order to eat it, which she bought too since the jar wasn't that expensive.

That night, after feeding a few slices of tomato and some morselfs of fresh cooked fish to Sasuke, Sakura continued travelling. She had only woken up during the day this time to visit the pawn shop; she had to get back to the cycle of travelling at night.

With a horse, they moved much faster but Sakura knew it also made them more conspicuous, which was why she always tied the horse up in the shadows of some tree before falling asleep.

During the twelfth day since she'd broken him out, Sasuke was still unconscious but they'd reached the edge of Ghorma. In front of her was the dirt road people trekked across occasionally when they needed to travel across Ghorma. It was worn down and clearly not used that often but there was no wild life, which Sakura was thankful for.

Heaving a deep breath, Sakure started scaling, pulling the horse by his reigns while Sasuke was draped over the mount's body. She'd tied rope around his waist to the horse's saddle so he wouldn't fall off.

It was morning but Sakura didn't rest. She was so close and she knew Sasuke's condition really needed treatment.

By nightfall, she made it to the center plane of the mountain, there was still halfway to go but Sakura couldn't summon the strength to take another step.

Sighing, she set up camp and untied Sasuke from the horse. She collapsed.

When she woke up, Sasuke was still asleep and it was high noon.

She easily made the rest of the journey up the summit and to her Aunt's cabin.

Her Aunt was richer than the rest of her family and the house she'd set up reflected as such. It was a three tiered home made of dark hawthorn wood and fine cobblestone slates that formed the main bathing area in the back.

The home was built strategically next to the hot spring pool so that the waterfall that spilled through a crack in the mountain into the house's open pool/bath. There were no walls or ceiling to the pool that was a square in dimensions, rimmed by fixed obsidian stones. The pool was only about five feet deep and was used mainly for relaxation or therapy.

Truth be told, Sakura hadn't been back here for almost twelve years now, due to a falling out between her father and her Aunt. The last time she'd been here, she was still in the academy.

Nonetheless, her memories of the place were still intact. She led Sasuke through the opulent antechamber, strapping the horse to the house's stone column and then lifting Sasuke's body up –supporting him with her shoulders.

She wanted to lift him but the endless travel of the last few nights had taken its toll on her strength.

Hell it tough to just support him like this.

As she made to help him step over the open doorway, leading to the main foyer, Sakura's foot accidentally caught against the door's ledge. Her entire body collapsed forward as Sasuke slipped from her grip.

Sakura managed to stop herself from colliding against the floor's hard surface but her fear lied mainly in Sasuke, as when the impact occurred, she'd heard a frightening 'crack!' sound into the air and she was sure it hadn't come from her.

To her horror, after quickly examining Sasuke's form, she found a large open gash against his forehead, near his left temple.

Oh god. She thought as she moved fast to stop the bleeding with her chakra.

As soon, as her hand connected with his temple, a strong shock erupted from between his wound and her palm, sending Sakura's mind plummeting. Her body slumped down next to his.

She wasn't sure how long she slept but the next time she woke up Sasuke was no longer next to her.

Sakura burst standing up, spinning around on her feet in all directions to examine her aunt's mansion. He wasn't here.

She ran outside.

Her first view outside was the trail she'd used to get here by; to the right of the trail, leading to the house's backside was the hot springs. Sakura decided to check the latter first.

To her relief, standing next to the steaming square bath, was Sasuke's slender form, standing tall and awake. His forehead had stopped bleeding now as he stared down at the swirling hot water he stood at the edge of, as if about to jump in.

She smiled gratefully, running to him. "Sasuke! Thank god you're awake. Why-"

She was interrupted as he suddenly whirled on her, his eyes blazing in fury. "What happened to me?!"

Sakura blinked confusedly. "Sasuke, what-"

He raised his palm to right in front of her face. "Why can't I use my chakra?!"

Sakura gulped. "The Raikage, A, he…crippled you. He was going to disable your joints too but I-me and Gaara saved you. We broke you out. I took you away from Konoha because I knew we would be hunted. We're in the house my Aunt left me."

It took a long time for Sasuke to respond. Mostly, he just stayed silent, absorbing the new information. Sakura knew he was fuming on the inside, raging at the injustice done to him.

It was scarier with him staying silent.

After a long time with nothing but the steam from the hot bath moving between them, Sakura moved closer and placed her hand on his wrist. "Sasuke I know you're angry. Come inside first-"

She was cut off as Sasuke suddenly threw her off him. Even without his chakra the man's strength was formidable and his sheer force alone sent her tumbling. Sakura had to steady herself against the back wall of the house.

"Don't touch me!" he seethed, turning on her once more with those enraged eyes, that unfortunately stayed black instead of his clan's iconic red. "I don't fucking need your help!"

Sakura blinked a few times, holding in her patience as she knew he was just letting his anger get the best of him.

"I don't need an ounce of your help!"

Sakura tried once more: "Sasuke, please, I just want to-"

"Help me?" Sasuke emitted a bitter scornful laugh, starting to advance on her. His fury made him dangerous and Sakura knew this. She backed herself up until she was flat against the wall.

He seethed straight into her face: "I know what you're planning, Sa-ku-ra."

Planning?

In a second, he'd gripped her by the hair roots, causing her to scream in agony.

"Sasuke! What-" she was interrupted again as he slammed her head against the wall of her home.

"You want me to owe you, be in debt to you, right?" he questioned rhetorically, laughing in condescending scorn. Sakura screamed again as he tugged at her hair roots. "This way I'll have to stay by your side when you've healed me. So I'll eventually fall for you, just like you always wanted."

"You're despicable."

That last phrase did it. The last of Sakura's patience wore out as she summoned her chakra now to throw the man off of her. Sasuke landed straight into the hot springs bath, the water breaking his fall and in a second, he came bobbing back up. Sasuke swept his drenched hair back with one hand to stop it from obscuring his vision as he came to glare daggers at Sakura, who now had green chakra infused into her fists.

"How dare you? How DARE you! I broke you out of prison, spent everything I owned just to get you here to treat your wounds, and- and- you accuse me-"

Sasuke guffawed. "Are you saying that's not your end goal, Sakura?"

"Of course not!" She answered immediately but the man just turned and made to get out of the pool. Sakura didn't stop him, still quite angry at him.

But when he turned to leave, completely drenched as he was, Sakura pushed past her anger, knowing she had to be the bigger person here.

"Sasuke! You can't leave!" She screamed adamantly. "You're literally the most wanted man in the Shinobi world now with Tobi and Madara gone."

The man didn't reply to this and Sakura used this silence to run up and grab onto his elbow, through his soaked clothes.

"Please, let me examine you. I'm a medical-nin, I might be able to restore your chakra."

She waited a moment as he stayed silent. The sound of water dripping from his person the only noise occurring between the two of them.

Eventually, the man turned and met her eyes, steely black irises met trembling honest green ones. Sakura was worried, hurt, annoyed and angry but mostly she was just worried. She wouldn't back down.

To her relief, Sasuke finally looked away and nodded his consent.

In order to examine him properly, Sakura knew she had to look at his body without most of his clothes, which she dreaded having to tell him about considering the allegations she'd just denied.

To her relief, Sasuke responded to her instruction of stripping not with a sharp quip but with just an incredulous look. She quickly shouted: "Hey! Don't get your mind to-to the wrong area, I'm a medical-nin. I've seen hundreds of half-naked men before you so don't think you're anything special."

Sasuke stayed silent at her ridiculous statement, much to Sakura's relief because even she was astonished at the lie she'd extemporized. Hundreds of half-naked men? Really? If anything it was about a dozen, and most of them had at least one or two limbs missing while she sutured their wounds. The last thing on her mind was that they were the opposite sex.

This was because, when Sakura was working, she always lost herself. It was like she was made to heal people because her hands worked methodically and without error whenever she was taking someone. All of her usual clumsiness and nervousness dissipated when she a medic.

Today was no exception as she worked on examining Sasuke. The man lied on the simple tatami mat flooring of her Aunt's room in nothing but white underwear.

Slowly, Sakura's hands felt the lymph nodes underneath his neck and then from his shoulder blades to his palms, before working on his chest and then downwards. She admittedly could not bring herself to examine anything below his pelvis (she doubted the problem to his chakra was originating there anyway) and moved onto his feet then last to his knees.

"There are small puncture wounds in every pressure point coinciding to a chakra outlet channel. I believe that is what is obstructing your body from unleashing its chakra," Sakura stated.. "I can apply reverse needle therapy using my own chakra to hopefully unblock-"

"Hopefully? You have no confidence?"

Well duh, did he really know that little about her? Not that she would admit this to him.

Sakura cleared her throat. "What I mean is, there are several different causes that could stop someone from exerting their chakra, and depending on the specific cause, there are different ways to treat it. This is just one method.

Sasuke nodded his acknowledgement.

"We should eat, it's getting late-"

"I thought you were going to do the therapy?" he interrupted her again but Sakura ignored it. She could understand that he was impatient, being a shinobi was the only thing he knew how to do.

"I need a day to sanitize the needles and collect the necessary herbs," Sakura answered simply and then she realized he was still in his underwear. Because she was out of her medical-nin mindset, Sakura found herself pluming red. Hurriedly, she turned around and stated: "You can get dressed now."

She heard the man tsk. "So much for a hundred half naked men."

Sakura refused to respond, and didn't know how to respond. All she could do was use cooking as an excuse as she ran into the kitchen with burning red ears.

She wanted to catch a fish and steam it but Sakura wasn't sure she could catch anything before late nightfall so she resorted to just a vegetarian dinner. She whipped up two simple stir fried dishes, one of chestnuts with green onions and the other of shitake mushrooms with bamboo shoots.

Sasuke was sitting cross legged at the low end square table already when she came out with the dishes. Sakura considered herself a pretty good cook but she knew the man before her would find something wrong with it.

She wanted to be independent and uncaring about whether or not he liked her food. After all, he should just be grateful that she's feeding him free of charge! But the truth was she still deeply cared about his opinion of her.

And she could barely hide it, she was biting on her chopsticks with just a mouthful of unchewed white rice while she watched him from the corner of her eye. He ate silently and without a word to her about the taste, which Sakura supposed was better than insults.

When he was done, Sakura moved to pick up the plates but Sasuke stopped her. "No, I'll do it."

Sakura backed down and nodded, too afraid to object him. She was just happy he was letting her treat him. She knew that Sasuke felt guilty and useless for having her take care of him without any payment, which is why he was doing the dishes right now.

Well, Sakura didn't object to getting help.

Sighing, she pulled her hair out of her hair tie and shouted: "I'm going to go collect those herbs, you can take a bath while I'm out. There are male clothes in the second room from the kitchen."

Sakura was so glad that this house was huge and used to house her entire family during holidays. Her father had left some of his clothes here so that he wouldn't always have to bring a large duffel.

Not really expecting him to respond, Sakura slipped on her sandals and stepped out of the front door. She heaved a deep sigh when she was out in the cold fresh air. Her mind went to the various romantic plays showed during Konoha's festival of lights, every November 7th. There were so many romantic comedy scenes of someone walking in on another person who had just come out of the shower and was scantily dressed.

Sakura did not want that to happen to her, so she decided to take as long as she could.

There was a small forest on the mountain where a wide range of wild herbs grew. Among the ones she needed was a rare mushroom that only grew amongst bone memorials, cemeteries and the like. This was troublesome considering there were no cemeteries on the entire mountain.

Sakura knew there was however a village at the base of Ghorma that had a small burial place. She briefly considered going back and telling Sasuke that she probably wouldn't be able to make it back until morning but decided not to. He probably wouldn't even notice or care anyway.

Sakura collected everything except the mushroom before trekking down. It was easier declining on the slope than going up it, so Sakura made it to village in about an hour, near eleven o'clock at night.

Most of the people were asleep by now which Sakura was thankful for considering she didn't want to be seen like a creep looting around graves.

The village wasn't that big and she was able to find the cemetery easily. What was difficult was seeing the identifying white stripes across the mushroom in the dark. Sakura had no choice but to summon a fistful of green chakra to illuminate her way as she searched.

"Mommy?" a little boy's voice suddenly came into her ears and Sakura quickly ducked behind a large grave marker, extinguishing her fist.

She saw the source of the voice: a little boy about four years old. plump and chubby. He had a smear of chocolate cake around his mouth as he wandered outside near the cemetery. In the matter of seconds, the boy's mother came running out and carried him back in, scolding him for wandering in the dark.

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief, though she was still unsure if the boy had seen her. Even if he did, she hoped that no one would believe the ramblings of a little child.

Sakura continued searching and in the matter of minutes, she found it. Small oval caps that had white streaks across the entire surface.

She started ascending the summit immediately but by the time she reached back to the summit, it was already well past one in the morning.

Some part of her hoped that Sasuke would be waiting, or sitting agitatedly at her for returning so late, but he was just in bed already, sleeping inside one of the duo futons of her parent's room.

Sakura sighed when she saw him but was also happy that he was resting.

Who was she kidding? As if he would ever get upset over her absence.

Sakura could only sleep about an hour because she spent most of the night preparing the needles. The reason for this was because they needed to be sanitized first in boiling water than open flame dried (which required her to handle each of the twenty needles individually) and then soaked in the herb poultice for three hours and then immediately applied to the patient's skin.

She didn't dare sleep after the needles began marinating, in case she overslept.

When the needles were about ten minutes from being ready to be used, Sakura went to wake Sasuke up but to her surprise he wasn't in her parent's room. When had he woken up? She hoped he wasn't taking a walk because they might miss the time and she'd have to start over.

She rushed outside, ready to shout his name when she heard the sound of water sloshing. She turned and came to see that he was dipped inside the hot springs, his arms propped on either side of him against the edge of the pool. Sakura wasn't sure if he was naked and was too shy to find out so she merely just shouted without looking at him: "Sasuke, we need to apply the needles in five minutes, please get dressed."

And she ran back inside before she got her response from fear of him possibly stepping out immediately.

But then she realized that her statement might get misunderstood so Sakura ran back outside, this time with her hand covering her eyes so that she could say: "Well, not necessarily dressed completely, but you know, dressed enough for acupuncture. Like yesterday. That's what I meant. Sorry."

And she ran back inside.

"Why are you wearing that?" Sasuke asked as he lied once more on the tatami floor in just his underwear as Sakura prepared to start the procedure.

Sakura blinked confusedly. She raised her hands and gesticulated towards her gloves? "These? It's for sanitation."

And Sasuke rolled his eyes. "The mask."

And Sakura realized her stupidity because she was in fact wearing a mask that covered her entire face beneath her eyes. Really it was more like a cloth she'd severed from one of her childhood white dresses.

"Oh, yeah, this is for sanitation too," Sakura answered simply and while it did have some truth (mouth bacteria could get aerosolized and infect open wounds) but the truth was, the chances of infection during acupuncture were far too miniscule that no one ever bothered to wear a face covering.

Sakura knew this but she wore it anyway so as to hide her pluming red face from this morning's encounter. God why she such a stuttering fool around this guy?

She was grateful when she told Sasuke to close his eyes because she had to apply two needles to his eyelids. Once again losing herself in her work, Sakura slowly applied all two hundred and thirty seven needles onto Sasuke's skin.

When she was done, Sakura weaved the hand signs: horse, boar, tiger, lamb and gazelle. It was rare that the gazelle sign was ever invoked since it was mainly ever used in medical jutsus.

The signs invoked a light blue flame to resonate from within both of her palms. Sakura hovered the flame above one of the needles, after five seconds, it disintegrated.

Two hundred and thirty six left to go.

When Sakura was completely done a thick pool of sweat had accumulated across her forehead and she'd lost all feeling in her fingertips but she just wiped her brow on her sleeve before telling Sasuke to go rest (that he would see results in two days, if it worked) and that she was going to go take a bath.

The next two days were a torture for them both, because Sasuke didn't speak even a syllable to Sakura, his mind too focused on getting back his chakra. For Sakura she was desperately hoping that it would work; she hated seeing him like this, so miserable and angry. Like when he'd been intent on revenge against his brother.

Rightfully she knew he had every right to be mad; he risked everything to protect Konoha and they'd betrayed him so cruelly in response.

Finally, when the second day came around, Sakura told Sasuke to try and summon his chidori lightning.

The man tried but nothing happened.

He tried again and again but still everything was still.

He was silent for one moment, one awful terrifying moment.

And then Sasuke screamed.

"AHHHHHHH!" the man's bellow could probably be heard from even the base of the summit. He fell to his knees and pounded his fists in fury across the loose Earth, summoning a cloud of dirt in his exasperation.

Sakura wanted to console him but she honestly didn't know what to say. After a moment, she realized there were tear trails on his face.

And soon she found herself crying too.