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Chapter 4: Unconscious Torment


Sakura's POV

"I won't do anything to you, Haruno."

"I didn't say you will, Uchiha."

"Your face said it all."

After we had dinner, we decided to head back to our room to rest. It had been a long day and we would be having an early morning the next day. In all honesty, I was still hesitant about having to sleep on the same room as Sasuke.

Wait, we weren't just going to share a room. We were going to sleep on the same bed.

I tried to act as calm as I could. It was a mission and I should be more professional. Sasuke was right, we couldn't risk having our covers blown. Moreover, we were in an enemy's territory, it was safer to stick together.

But I just couldn't relax. And why must Sasuke be such a good observant and saw through me so easily?

"Sakura."

I jumped a little when I heard Sasuke calling my name. I turned my head over my shoulder to see him, who was leaning against the wall beside the door.

"If you're really uncomfortable about this, I'll go to another room."

Was he being considerate? I expected him to be pissed off and call me an amateur for getting worked up for something like that.

"You're not going to screw things up, Sakura Haruno."

"It's fine. I am not the type of person to allow such small matters to affect the success of a mission."

Who was I joking? My heart was thumping so loudly at the mere thought of having to sleep with Sasuke. And judging from the odd look he was giving me, he definitely knew I was lying.

But Sasuke didn't say anything afterwards and went to take a shower instead.

I slumped onto the queen sized bed and sighed in frustration. I played with the doll Sasuke bought for me as I scolded myself. I felt mentally weak and I hated it. It was a mission and nothing more. It wasn't like we were actually going to do something. Sasuke was a professional as well; he wouldn't do anything to me.

He might be a pain in the ass sometimes, but he wasn't a bad person. He was just simply an annoying brat. There was absolutely nothing to be worried about.

Anyway, if he did something inappropriate, I would beat the crap out of him.

See, there wasn't anything to be troubled about.

At times like these, why couldn't my emotions be logical for once?

"Sakura."

For the second time that night, Sasuke startled me with his voice. I snapped my head towards him, wanting to yell at him for surprising me again. But my voice was caught in my throat when I saw the state he was in.

A topless Sasuke stood in front of me while drying his hair with a towel.

I, Sakura Haruno, was going to sleep with a man whose body was absolutely perfect. And I wasn't exaggerating at all. One look at his torso and you would know it was a body of a fighter. His well-toned chest and abs clearly showed the result of his long-term training.

"You seem to be enjoying what you are looking at."

I was snapped out of my thoughts upon hearing Sasuke's confident tone. He was smirking and I swore I saw his ego boosting in front of me.

But his arrogant personality made him even more alluring.

I was beyond embarrassed for being caught gawking at him so I decided to hide it by showing anger instead. I grabbed onto a pillow and threw them towards Sasuke. He didn't even bother to dodge and that smug look was still on his face.

I didn't trust my voice to be capable of sounding intimidating so I shut my mouth and glared at him instead. I quickly kept the teddy bear in my bag and got my change of clothes before disappearing into the bathroom.

My flushed face was more exposed than I wanted it to be and I felt so ashamed.

I was definitely in dire need of a cold shower to cool myself down.


Sasuke's POV

When I said I would go to another room, it wasn't just because Sakura looked like she was going to faint from nervousness, but I wasn't so sure if I would be capable of controlling myself.

Even though I had always been serious during missions and wouldn't allow anything to distract me, I was still a human being with natural urges. And Sakura was a woman.

To be more precise, she was a very good looking woman.

But Sasuke Uchiha wasn't going to humiliate himself by showing such weakness during a mission. As if I would succumb to sexual urges and end up hurting a teammate.

The best thing to do was to sleep before Sakura finished showering. That way, I didn't have to look at her and end up allowing my mind to go towards the wrong direction.

I put on a white shirt and grabbed the pillow Sakura threw at me earlier. I placed it on the bed and laid my head onto it. I occupied the right side of the bed and was facing the wall. There were no chances for me to be tempted.

But the sound of the running shower was preventing me to drift off to sleep. My mind was having the most inappropriate thoughts and they just wouldn't go away.

"You're an embarrassment, Sasuke Uchiha. You allowed something as insignificant as the sound of water to distract you."

When I heard that Sakura had closed the shower and the door opened soon afterwards, I decided I would just pretend to have fallen asleep. It was the safest thing to do.

"He's asleep already." I heard Sakura mumbling softly to herself and I tried to be as still as possible. Her soft footsteps were heard as she walked to close the lights. I felt ridiculous for doing what I did. I was acting like a child who didn't want his parents to know that he was still wide awake.

I tried not to react when I felt another weight on the bed. I could sense warmth from Sakura as she pulled the blanket we shared. The bed wasn't very big so the gap between us was rather small.

It was going to be a long night for me. I wouldn't be getting any sleep if countless thoughts continued running around my head.

I was beginning to feel tired pretending to be asleep and I wasn't even sure how long I stayed that way. But when I heard Sakura's soft breathing, I knew she had fallen asleep. The tension from my body escaped and I slowly lost consciousness.


"Something soft is touching my back. And something heavy is on top of my legs and torso. Am I dreaming?"

I suddenly felt warm after a few hours of sleep and I was regaining consciousness. At first, I thought I was just dreaming but the heat against my skin was too real. I slowly opened my heavy eye lids to find out what was going on.

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a hand on my chest. And it was definitely not my own hand. It was much smaller and it appeared to be too soft.

When I began registering what was the softness touching my back, I instantly understood the whole situation.

I could feel Sakura's breathe tickling my neck and her leg was on top of mine. Her chest moved as she breathed and I could feel something sharp poking me.

She wasn't wearing anything under her shirt. Perfect.

It wasn't long before heat began flowing towards places I wished it didn't. It felt like the room had turned into a sauna and sweat was running down my face. And every time Sakura moved in her sleep, I could feel more of her smooth skin against mine.

I was contemplating whether I should wake her up or suffer until it was time to get out of the bed. I could try to remove her from my body but if I accidentally woke her up, she might misunderstand and thought that I was taking advantage of her. I wasn't going to risk having to go through that. I carefully lifted my head to look at the clock on the wall.

It was 4.30 AM.

"Come on. You're Sasuke Uchiha. Surely you could survive another thirty minutes."

And it effortlessly became the longest thirty minutes in my life.


Sakura's POV

"Wake up, Haruno. It's already 5 AM."

I woke up to the feeling of someone continuously hitting my hand. I groaned in annoyance and scolded the person disturbing my beauty sleep.

I didn't really know why but I felt so comfortable. Something warm was in my arms and my head was resting against a sturdy surface.

And whatever I was embracing, it had a really nice smell. Unusually, it almost smelled like a man.

Hang on, a man?

My eyes shot wide open upon realizing where I was. The first thing my eyes saw was the masculine back of a person with raven hair. And when I looked upwards, I was staring into a pair of dark eyes, which was filled with annoyance and a slight hint of exhaustion.

What had I done?

I yelped and quickly jumped off the bed. I was holding onto the blanket, as if I was trying to protect myself from further humiliation.

I stared at Sasuke as he furrowed his eyebrows. He was messaging his temples and was muttering something incoherent under his breath. I also noticed that he was covered in a thin layer of sweat, as if he had just returned from somewhere warm.

Fear began flowing throughout me as I prepared myself for the worst case scenario.

"Please don't tell me I was hugging him for quite some time already."

"Sasuke, I didn't do anything stupid, did I?"

My tone was timid and slightly trembling. The way Sasuke was trying to calm himself down wasn't a good sign at all. I was rather afraid to find out what I had actually done while I was asleep.

Sasuke glared at me with half opened eyes, looking as if he was energy deprived and opening his eyes widely was an impossible task. I gulped in nervousness as I waited for him to speak.

"If you consider moving in your sleep as something stupid, then yes."

Weariness was apparent in his voice and I felt guilty immediately. When I was younger and I would sometimes share a bed with my mother, she told me that I would move in my sleep once in a while. I thought I stopped doing that when I had grown up.

I guessed I was wrong.

"I'm so sorry!" I shouted my apology, slightly louder than I had intended. I continued apologizing until Sasuke held up his hand, which was his way of asking me to stop.

Then he suddenly turned his head away from me and there was silence between us. I just stood still, not knowing what was going on in that mind of his.

He seemed to be in deep thoughts and I knew better than to disturb him. I had caused him more than enough troubles.

"If you're really sorry, do me a favor and give me the blanket."

What?

I blinked several times while trying to understand what Sasuke meant. He looked like he had just come out from the oven so why would he need the blanket for.

"Why do you need the blanket for?"

Then the uncomfortable silence returned, causing the atmosphere in the room to become tense.

But seriously, why would a guy need a blanket if he was sweating from being hugged by a girl in her sleep? And why was Sasuke sitting in such an awkward position? He didn't look comfortable at all.

Then something clicked inside my head when I saw a glimpse of Sasuke's burning face.

He wasn't planning to use the blanket to keep himself warm. He wanted to use it to cover a part of him which was affected by the warmth.

Sakura Haruno had officially become the biggest idiot in history for not noticing that in the first place.

"I'm so sorry!"

And with that, I threw the blanket onto the bed and ran into the bathroom. I was glad my mind still remembered to quickly grab some clothes before I rushed into hiding.


Sasuke's POV

"Can someone just take my life away?"

I had experienced the most embarrassing moment in my entire life in front of the most attractive woman I had laid my eyes on. She would snap a nerve or two of mine once in a while but that didn't make her any less stunning.

It actually made her even more charming.

And I had ashamed myself in her presence.

We didn't speak or make any eye contact as we prepared to leave the inn and meet up with the others. Even though Sakura had showered, her face was still burning red. Unfortunately, the cold shower didn't help me much either.

The skies were still slightly dark when we left the inn. We took our horses from the inn's stable and rode in complete silence. I wasn't the talkative type and I enjoyed living in peace and quiet.

But I knew Sakura was different. She wasn't the kind of person to shut her mouth and not breathing out a single word. Since the time we had stepped into the Iburi Kingdom and we were left alone, she was constantly talking even though I wasn't very responsive.

She seemed to dislike silence.

But she was awfully quiet and I was starting to feel uncomfortable.

To think that there would come a day when I would feel uneasy due to silence.

I had never been so relief to caught sight of the loud and clumsy Naruto Uzumaki. He was waving at us when we were approaching the meeting point.

The silence was killing me and I couldn't believe that could even occur to me.

As we got closer to the others, I saw Naruto and Kiba smirking at me suspiciously. It didn't take much of my brain cells to figure out what was on their minds.

When I got off my horse, Naruto was already standing nearby, giving me his usual foolish grin. He looked more than ready to bombard me with questions I didn't wish to answer.

"Sasuke-teme, why do you appear so exhausted?"

"I didn't get enough sleep." Actually I did get enough hours of sleep, but the last thirty minutes in bed had taken away all the energy I had inside me. Self-control required more work than I had expected.

"What were you doing to not have enough sleep?" Kiba placed his arm around my shoulder and was chuckling as he asked.

"Nothing."

I would rather die than telling these two what I had gone through.

Just when Naruto was about to speak again, Shikamaru and the others had arrived.

"Good, everyone is here already. We're far enough from the Iburi Kingdom so let's have a quick discussion on the information we had gathered so far."

I slapped Kiba's arm away and walked towards Shikamaru. Naruto was giving me the 'we-will-continue-the-talk-later' look but I completely ignored him. There was no way I would willingly bring myself into that conversation.

Coincidentally, I ended up standing beside Sakura and I saw her blushing instantly. I tried to appear indifferent, not wanting to make the situation between us even more awkward than it already was.

I concluded that I rather have Sakura yelling at me instead of the way she looked like she could explode from embarrassment.

I pulled myself away from my own thoughts as I listened to the start of our discussion.

"I believed that most of us had found out that the king of the Iburi Kingdom had been mining gems for quite some time. I had sent Kiba to check out what sort of gem it is. What have you found out, Kiba?"

The earlier playful look on Kiba's face had vanished and was replaced by seriousness as he explained what he had found out. The reason why I could stand being around goofy people like Naruto and Kiba was the fact that they took their work seriously. And I respected people who wouldn't joke around when dealing with their mission.

"I managed to sneak into the mining area and caught sight of the gems they are mining. The gems were red in color and emit a rather unusual glow. I tried to eavesdrop on as much conversation as I could at the site and found out that these gems are capable of producing a special kind of energy."

"And Sasuke and I overheard some men saying that they were made to work more lately because Orochimaru needed more of these gems."

I glanced over at Sakura, who was no longer blushing like she was earlier. It was just like Sakura to not allow personal thoughts to distract her from working.

"Hinata and I heard someone saying that these gems are also mined in the Fuma Kingdom." Neji was folding his arms in front of his chest as he spoke. His eyebrows were furrowed and I had an idea as to what he was thinking of.

The Fuma Kingdom was not an ally.

Shikamaru took out the map and appeared thoughtful as he analyzed it. His eyes left the map when he appeared to have decided what our next move would be.

"We still don't know what these gems are used for and perhaps we can find some answers in the Fuma Kingdom. It is not wise to spend too much time in one place because it will definitely raise suspicion. We should always keep moving and not remain in a kingdom for too long."

Few of us nodded in agreement. After all, if any one of us was caught doing something suspicious, the rest of us would get into trouble as well. It was a smarter plan to always be in the move.

Staying for one night was probably the limit.

"This is all we have now. The Fuma Kingdom is approximately two hours away from here. Let's get going."

I walked over to my horse and was about to climb onto it when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned my head over my shoulder and saw that it was Sakura.

She seemed hesitant and there was a shade of pink coloring her cheeks. It was obvious what it was about but I waited patiently for her to speak.

"I'm sorry about what happened, Sasuke. I really am."

Sakura's words were sincere and I could see that she really felt sorry. I scratched the back of my head as I responded.

"It's fine. Don't worry so much about it."

It still felt slightly awkward but it was much better than earlier. If we gave ourselves some time, we would eventually break away the tension between us. I believed it wouldn't take long before Sakura started shouting at my face again.

Sakura nodded and gave me a small smile before climbing onto her horse. I did the same and began riding with the others.

When everyone had gotten onto their horses, Naruto spoke in his usual enthusiastic voice.

"I think the secret identities I gave everyone are perfect. We should just continue using them until the end of the mission!"

When nobody spoke to oppose Naruto's words, I knew it was a silent agreement.

And that meant it wouldn't be the last time I would be tormented by Sakura's 'sleep movements'.

Sasuke Uchiha, could you even survive until the very end?

I guessed only time could tell.


Author's Note: I hope you guys liked this chapter! As usual, please leave a review and share your opinions with me. Follows and favorites are highly appreciated as well! Thank you for reading and see you in the next chapter.