Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it. All rights to Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto and the other proper entities.

Summary: Sakura had been by his side since he lost his family, following him around since they were seven years old, trying to ease his loneliness in whatever way she could. He didn't even know why he allowed it. He just silently allowed her to claim the seat next to him at the beginning of every term.

Rating: M

Genre: Friendship/Romance

Pairings: SasuSaku / eventual light NaruHina

Rays of Spring Sunshine

Chapter Thirteen

Sakura fell asleep by mid-afternoon, despite trying to stay awake until night.

Sasuke carried her on his back as he and Naruto trekked through the dense underbrush, trying to find somewhere to rest. With the pain in his leg and the constant burning on his neck, Sasuke wasn't in any shape to fight, and Sakura was even worse off. The swelling in her face had begun to discolour, nearly closing off her left eye completely. From what she'd told him of the encounter with the Oto-nin prior to his awakening, they were all lucky to be alive.

"What about over there?" Naruto pointed to a cluster of boulders, sheltered from above by a low-hanging thick canopy of branches.

"Check what's inside." Sasuke shifted Sakura's sleeping form on his back. "Make sure there's no animals or anything."

The coast was clear, and Sasuke shook Sakura awake to climb off his back. She'd only been out for an hour or so, but was reluctant to go back to sleep.

"You're in the worst shape of all of us, Sakura-chan." Naruto crouched beside her. "You should rest some more."

"Naruto's right." Sasuke rummaged through his pack, drawing out a canteen and draining the rest of the water in it. "Give me your canteens. I can hear running water; I'm gonna go fill them up."

The forest was quiet as Sasuke slipped through the trees toward the sound of the river. He crouched in the brush as close to the water as possible and reached out to fill their canteens as quickly and quietly as he could. He made note of the fish in the river and decided to send Naruto fishing later. One of the perks of being unconscious all night was that they still had all the food that they'd brought with them into the forest—even if it were only a few protein bars, some apples, and Naruto's single cup of instant ramen, it was better than nothing. All three of them were starving, having kept on the move all day to put some distance between themselves and the other teams. Whatever uneasy truce they'd had against the Oto-nin was no longer in effect.

"There's fish in the river." Sasuke muttered to Naruto as he handed him his water, speaking low so as not to wake up Sakura. "I didn't see anyone around, so it'll probably be safe to go fishing tomorrow."

Naruto nodded, munching on one of his protein bars. He cast a glance at Sakura. "She got hurt really bad, huh?"

Sasuke sat with his back to one of the boulders, eyes facing the direction of the entrance to their little shelter. "She told me some of what happened while we were out." He nodded. He pressed his lips into a line, casting a look at the sleeping girl. "The swelling should go down over the next day or so."

"What happened to your leg?" Naruto asked around a full mouth, pointing to the bandages.

"Stabbed myself." Sasuke said blandly.

"You… stabbed yourself?!" Naruto yelped.

"Shut up!" Sasuke darted forward and slapped a hand over his mouth. "You'll wake her up."

Naruto pulled his hand away. "Sorry, but," his eyes were wide as he lowered his voice, "why'd you stab yourself?"

Sasuke sighed and settled back against the boulder, explaining to Naruto about the fight with Orochimaru, though leaving out the bite and the mark on his neck. Naruto was watching him with a frown on his normally cheerful face. "So we're back to where we started." He surmised.

"Pretty much." Sasuke leaned his head back against the rock, tearing into his own protein bar. "You wanna take first watch, or me?"

Naruto ran his eyes over Sasuke, taking in all the small injuries that Sasuke barely noticed. "I will." He volunteered, surprising him. "You look like shit."

He was so ready to escape the burning on his neck with a few hours of sleep that he didn't even rise to the bait. "Fine. Wake me at midnight. Let Sakura sleep, she was up all last night."

It wasn't Naruto who shook him awake later in the night, but Sakura. "I woke up a few hours ago." She explained. "I told Naruto to go to sleep since I was up anyway."

"What time is it?" He pushed himself up, swiping the grit out of his eyes.

"About three?" Sakura shrugged. "I'm not sure."

"You eat?"

"An apple." She twisted her lips. "We're gonna have to go looking for food tomorrow. We're not gonna last long with what we have."

"There's fish in the river." He took a drink of water. "You going back to sleep?"

She shook her head. Short pink strands brushed against her face. It reminded him of when they were little, back before she started growing her hair out. "I'm not tired. You can go back to sleep if you want, but Naruto made me promise to wake you."

"I'm good." His body ached from lying on the hard ground. His neck was starting to hurt again. He hissed and pressed his head against his shoulder; it did nothing to alleviate it.

"Is it—?"

"It's bearable." He said tersely, cutting her off. He cast a pointed look to Naruto, and Sakura sighed.

"When we get out of here…" she bit her lip, avoiding looking at him, "you really should see a medic, Sasuke-kun."

"I will. But there's no point in worrying about it now."

She sighed. "Okay."

Their third day in the forest was spent in much the same manner, recuperating from their injuries. On the fourth day, they encountered another Konoha-nin by the name of Kabuto, and with his help, they were safely within the walls of the central tower by the fifth afternoon.

After Iruka dismissed them and allowed them to enter the tower proper, Sakura grabbed his arm. "Sasuke-kun. A medic." She reminded him.

"After the assembly." He reminded her. "C'mon."

"Hurry up, you guys!" Naruto waved them down the corridor, sprinting ahead. "Old man Hokage's gonna give a speech!"

They lined up with the other genin squads that had passed to listen to the explanation behind the reason for the chūnin exams. Sasuke thought it made sense, even if all the other rookies didn't; as someone who understood the need to be powerful, a shameless display of it to intimidate potential enemies made complete sense.

And then Hayate appeared and dropped the bomb about the preliminaries.

"If any of you don't feel up to participating in the preliminary exam, please step forward now. As you have all passed the team portion of this test, individuals may drop out without affecting their teammates."

"I'll drop out." Kabuto raised his hand.

Naruto kicked up a fuss, as expected, but he wasn't able to dissuade Kabuto from withdrawing. Sasuke's neck spasmed with pain; he reached up a hand to press against the hurt, screwing his face up in an attempt to ride out the wave.

"Sasuke-kun." Sakura whispered behind him, leaning forward. He half-turned to her. "You should withdraw." She said quietly, so as not to be overheard, eyes on his neck.

He scowled at her. She didn't get it, did she? "No." He said, turning away to dismiss her.

She huffed in frustration. "You've been acting weird since that Orochimaru guy put that mark on you." She hissed. "I can tell it's hurting you, Sasuke-kun!"

"That doesn't matter." He turned back to her, hissing through his teeth.

"If you don't drop out, I swear I'll tell them about it." Sakura threatened, matching his glare with one of her own. "You should be in a hospital, not fighting!"

He said nothing, simply scowling at her in disbelief. She, who had known him for five years, who knew his one and only goal in life was to get strong enough to kill that person… she started to raise her hand. His own snatched out to hold it down.

"Don't you dare." He growled. "Sakura, if you try to get me kicked out of these exams, I'll never speak to you again." She flinched. "I don't care about ranks or promotions; they're not important to me. I just want to test my strength against the best, and that's what this exam is. You know what my goal is."

"To kill someone." She sniffled, eyes on his hand. "But I don't understand—"

"I'm going to hunt down the man who killed my clan." He said, hand tensing around her wrist. She gaped at him. "I will kill him and avenge them. I don't care what I have to do to do it, Sakura, and I swear, I'll never forgive anyone who gets in the way of that. Not even you."

She clutched her other hand to the front of her qipao, eyes searching his face. "But it's hurting you." She protested.

"I'm fine." He insisted, frustrated.

"No more withdrawals?" Hayate called from up front.

"Will you see a medic after your match?" She whispered imploringly.

He nodded.

"Okay." She took a shuddering breath. "But I swear, Sasuke-kun, if you don't, I will make you."

"Alright then, let's begin the preliminaries."

"We should make him withdraw. He shouldn't even be alive, let alone participating in the exam."

"I don't think he'd like that." Kakashi said mildly in an undertone. Anko gaped at him. "He has the Uchiha pride, after all."

"Kakashi, you can't be serious!"

"I agree with Kakashi." The Hokage muttered in an undertone. "Orochimaru is likely watching us even now, through a spy if not personally. Disqualifying Sasuke at this point will only make him act in retaliation. Until we know what his scheme is, it would be unwise to provoke him."

"But Hokage-sama!"

"Sasuke will compete in the preliminaries." The Hokage overruled her. "However, if the curse mark starts acting up, I will expect the two of you to intervene and stop the match."

"I… yes, Hokage-sama."

Kakashi only nodded, watching Sasuke and Sakura squabble quietly behind Naruto.

So, Sakura knows about the curse… though likely not what it means for Sasuke.

Secretly, he hoped that Sakura would talk Sasuke out of participating, though he rather doubted it. He might not know everything about his young students, but he figured he knew Sasuke well enough to figure out what was going through his head. Unlike the children, Kakashi knew exactly who Sasuke wanted to kill, and while he didn't blame the boy for wanting to end his brother personally, Kakashi was growing more and more concerned with the boy's obsession. That he had a friend like Sakura, who cared, helped, Kakashi thought, but maybe it wasn't enough. Now that Orochimaru had sunk his fangs into the boy, things were only going to get worse.

As predicted, the two bickered until Hayate stopped taking withdrawals. A glimpse at their faces told Kakashi all that he needed to know; Sasuke was determined to fight through what had to be incredible pain, and Sakura was a hair's breadth away from telling on him for his own good. Her mouth was twisted into a grimace as her eyes locked on to the mark on Sasuke's neck.

Sasuke's match was the first to be announced. Kakashi meandered over to his students, waving lazily at Naruto's enthusiastic greeting.

He paused behind Sasuke, making a show of ushering the other two up the stairs as he murmured, "Sasuke." The boy turned to him. "Don't use the sharingan." His eye lingered on Sasuke's neck.

"So you know." Sasuke muttered, looking away.

"If you use any amount of chakra, the curse will act up and consume you." Kakashi explained. "It could kill you."

"I understand."

"If it begins to cause trouble, we'll jump in and stop the match." Kakashi looked up to Sakura's pensive face, smiling for her. He saw Sasuke stiffen out of the corner of his eye. "I won't let you die." He promised, walking toward the stairs.

The match started out badly for Sasuke. His opponent had him on his back within thirty seconds, using some kind of ability to drain his chakra. Kakashi could see Anko itching to jump down and put a stop to the match the instant the curse activated.

Of course, it was Naruto who came to Sasuke's rescue. "Is that all you can do?!" He shouted down at his friend, goading him on. Kakashi wanted to tell Naruto to calm down; the boy clearly didn't know about Sasuke's handicap. But it seemed to ignite something in Sasuke, who shocked everyone by executing a move that was straight out of Might Guy's playbook. He kicked the other nin so hard that he went flying upward.

As Kakashi watched, the dark flecks of the curse mark began to spread over Sasuke's shoulder and face, causing him to tense mid-jump under his opponent. He saw Sakura lean forward and heard her gasp; she had already seen this, then.

But then, as soon as it started, the marks receded, and he continued his offence. Executing a series of kicks and punches, Sasuke drove the older man down into the ground and fell to his knees, panting.

Hayate checked the unconscious man. "I'm calling this match." He announced. "The winner is Uchiha Sasuke."

Kakashi didn't bother to take the stairs. He shushined to Sasuke's side.

"Good job." He murmured, ignoring the shouting above from Naruto and the girl on Asuma's team. "And not just the match."

"Uchiha," one of the medics approached. "Come with us. We'll see to your injuries."

"Not necessary." Kakashi put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "I'll look after him personally."

"As you wish, Kakashi-san."

Kakashi pulled Sasuke to his feet. "Come with me. We're going to seal that curse mark."

"Can't it wait?" Sasuke argued. "I want to see the other matches."

"No." Kakashi said sternly. "You shouldn't have even been fighting. I'm not letting you be selfish anymore today." He nodded to the walkways above. "Sakura is beside herself with worry for you."

Sasuke looked up to see Sakura wiping tears away. Kakashi wondered what he was thinking. "Fine."

We're skipping the rest of the prelims. Suffice to say that it all went the same way as canon.