For once she was glad that he was blind. Maybe he didn't know she was crying. Right, she thought bitterly.

What did he mean when he said "no one deserves you"? The way he said it seemed as if he was contradicting himself. His tone set to be the exact opposite of his words. Sakura wanted to believe in them. But since when can you trust the words of an s-class criminal, right?

"Sasuke, you've managed to make more work for me. You hands bleeding," Sakura said, opting to lighten the atmosphere. He only grunted in return and so she turned to leave the room to get him bandages. Her supplies were running low and she was glad that she had fixed his immune system those months ago in the forest.

When she came back to the room, she saw Sasuke trying to walk and because he was blind, he tripped over her pile of research books and let out a painful groan.

"You're blind you know, if you forgot. Plus you are in no condition to even leave the bed, never mind walking," Sakura said a-matter-of-factly. At least my composure is better, Sakura thought to herself.

"What is this shit?" Sasuke hissed as he struggled to get back up. Sakura bent forward to help but his face showed that he still held his pride high and therefore she decided against aiding him.

"Research books," Sakura said quickly, not wanting to elaborate any further. Sasuke would probably destroy them all to protect his clan's secrets. It was understandable, but it will not help her or him in anyway. It would end up only helping the elite Uchiha clan's pride.

"Research on the sharingan?" Right on the dot.

Sakura paused, "Yes." There was no point in denying it or hiding it any longer. To her surprise, he did not stand up and begin destroying them.

Sasuke didn't even seem to want to answer or voice his thoughts; instead he turned around and closed his eyes. Glad that she did not have to explain the reasoning behind her research, Sakura walked towards the pile of books and reorganized them so that they were neatly stacked. She was tired, her eyes still ached and her head was drumming. Despite all that, she knew she could not sleep until her plan was complete.

Sakura heard Sasuke shuffling on the bed, obviously not at rest. However, she decided to ignore it and continued with her research, her eyebrows furrowed in forced concentration. She found herself leaning closer and did not realize that it was because it was due to the fading light.

The candle, now almost completely melted, provided little light and Sakura squinted in desperation. Her ceiling light had burnt out several weeks ago but she hadn't had time to change it. Instead, she decided that candlelight would do until she got around to getting it fixed.

Finally, the candle went out right when Sakura reached the most important paragraph on the chakra passages. Frustrated, Sakura made her way around the room, in attempt to find an extra bulb. She needed to finish the research tonight.

Her noisy rumblings must have roused Sasuke from rest for he got up suddenly and growled at her.

"Sakura, what the hell are you doing?"

"I'm trying to find a light bulb," Sakura replied coolly.

Sasuke gave her a confused look but then scowled. Sakura merely replied with a simple hai, as she felt calmer and more composed than a few hours before, and continued her search for a new light bulb. Busying herself with work, no matter what kind of work, always helped her calm down and become more composed. Despite the lack of light, she managed to find the extra bulb and within moments, the ceiling light was on once more.

Sakura turned to tell Sasuke that he could go back to sleep but the moment she turned, she noticed something that made her heart skip a beat.

His eyes. As soon as she had the light back on, she saw that his pupil, shrank in size.

Rushing over, she sat in front of Sasuke and using her fingers, parted his eyelids so that she could examine the iris and pupil more carefully.

"Sakura, what are you doing-"

But Sakura cut him off when she raised her finger up to his mouth and then tilted his head upwards so that the ceiling light could shine directly into his eyes. She pursed her lips as her mind began to race in excitement.

"Sasuke, you see shadows don't you?"

Surprised that she knew, the Uchiha nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I only see shadows sometimes."

"So you thought it wasn't worth mentioning?" Sakura asked quickly.

"Aa…"

"Sasuke!" Sakura cried out in frustration as she jumped off the bed and flipped through her research. If his eyes weren't completely damaged, then she could regenerate all of the cells and then using her new sharingan research, restore not only his sight but also his bloodline limit. She had to get started right away. Sakura looked at the time, it was 4 am. Neji. Neji said he would come back at sunrise.

Within moments, all her materials were laid out on the night table and Sakura instructed Sasuke to lie down. Then suddenly remembering that she was indeed missing something, Sakura bolted upright and disappeared into thin air.

A few minutes later, Sakura appeared once more with a jar and several glass slides. Carefully removing the top glass layer, she placed a single finger at the center and spread her chakra onto the microscopic stem cells. Once she was done, she repeated the process to every other slide with as much precision as she could.

Her heart still pounding with excitement, she drew chakra to her hands once more and hovered it on top of Sasuke's opened eyes.

"Don't close your eyes until I tell you to, " Sakura instructed.

Sakura almost flinched with surprise when she suddenly felt Sasuke's right hand reach for her and touched her lap. He's afraid, she realized. Touched at his sudden vulnerability, she stopped for a moment and held his hand in her own.

"It'll be long and painful, but even if it doesn't succeed, your sight will still be restored during the process. To tell you the truth, this would be the first time I've tried such an operation…" Sakura trailed off.

"I trust you," Sasuke said with a calm voice. "Arigatou, Sakura."

A few hours later, Sakura felt her chakra was depleting and her vision was blurring from lack of rest. She knew she could not continue like this or it will risk injuring Sasuke. A medic-nin cannot perform when he or she is not healthy.

Her fingers were numb and she had noticed that they had started to shake a few moments ago. Sensing her sudden hesitation, Sasuke spoke.

"Sakura, rest. I can tell your body is at its limit."

"Its not at its limit!" Sakura snapped. Though she knew she was lying to him and herself, she could not stand that it was yet him again that reminded her of how weak her body was.

"Sakura, I don't want you to strain your body."

"I'm doing fine. Just let me continue, I just need to…" Sakura started but then felt a huge migraine hit her and her words faltered almost immediately. Filled with fatigue, she allowed herself to lie down next to Sasuke and closed her eyes. Just as her head hit the pillow, she felt her body suddenly become heavy and the pleasure of resting was overwhelming.

"Maybe I just need a few minutes…" Sakura said softly, her breathing calming down.

"Sakura, give me your hand," Sasuke suddenly said, his eyes now closed.

Wordlessly, with her eyes still closed, Sakura stretched her hand out in his direction. Taking her hand gently, Sasuke felt his way to the tip of her fingers and then to her utmost surprise, she felt his warm chakra flow into her fingertips. It was so familiar, his chakra, and there was something so intimate about the situation that Sakura found herself holding her breath. She did not want it to stop, as the feeling was luxurious not only to her throbbing fingers but also to her heart. It was now racing with a sudden… hope that he might be giving her his affection.

"Its so warm…" Sakura whispered. She opened her eyes and turned to look at Sasuke who seemed oddly concentrated on transferring his chakra to her worn out hand.

"Give me your other hand."

"Sasuke, when did you learn how to-" Sakura began but was interrupted.

"Kabuto taught me some basic. In case of an emergency, I should be able to heal myself," Sasuke explained as she gave him her left hand.

Again, the warm tingling feeling calmed her and soothed her body. Sakura felt her mind begin to drift when suddenly he withdrew his hands from her and her eyes opened in protest. Instead of telling her to continue the procedure like she thought he would, he encircled his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him in a tight embrace.

"Its ok, Sakura. I know I can't be healed. Why are you trying to hard?" His words brushed against her hair and she shivered at the intimacy. She did not question it. She didn't want to figure out what he was thinking anymore. Sakura was tired of guessing. Now exhausted, she wanted to accept everything and just let things come as they are. No more questioning. Just accept…

"But I can heal you…" Sakura murmured as she felt his hand run through her pink tresses again, much like he did before.

"What is it that you want from me, Sasuke?"

Taken back at her question, for a moment he did not respond but instead held her even closer.

"Sakura, those words you've said that night," and here Sakura knew exactly when he was referring to, "meant a lot to me."

"Sure, our first meeting was one happy reunion," Sakura couldn't help but comment sarcastically as she remembered how Sasuke mistook her for a cheap prostitute. Despite her words, she pressed her hand against his bandaged chest to check if his injuries were healed. They were.

Sasuke did not reply to her comment but kissed her forehead instead.

"Sakura, though you might not know it, I appreciate all of what you've done for me. I'll remember them always."

"You're welcome," Sakura said softly as she felt her eyes grow warm with upcoming tears.

"As for the incident in the forest, I apologize. I shouldn't have been the one to rob you of your virginity." His choice of words there shocked her and she pulled away from his embrace.

"Lets continue the procedure," Sakura suddenly said. It was all so surreal to her and the things Sasuke were saying did not make any sense. Sasuke too, must have realized the way he was sounding and nodded without complaint.

Feeling better than before, thanks to Sasuke's transferred chakra, Sakura began working once more. Earlier on, she had managed to restore his lens to full capacity as well as healing his once deteriorating retina by using the stem cells from the glass slides. Stem cells were cells that were considered neutral and have no developed into specific yet. Using them as a basis, she altered them so that they formed into nerve cells, muscles cells and the like as a way to regenerate Sasuke's lens and retina.

His chakra passages near the optic nerve were completely destroyed and those were the hardest to heal. Closing her eyes, she allowed her own chakra to trace their way to his nearest chakra passages. It took awhile but once she found it, she was lit with joy.

"Sasuke, can you feel where my chakra is?"

"Aa."

"You realize that our chakras are mixing right now?" Sakura asked. The Uchiha genius indicated a yes with a simple nod. " I need you to try and push your chakra in the direction of mine. While you do that, I will form chakra cells around yours to form a new vessel since your originals have been completely destroyed. Do you understand?"

Again, he nodded and immediately Sakura felt his chakra leak into hers. It was slow at first but soon, his chakra was pushing hard and she quickly began to retreat her own chakra, guiding them back to his eyes where they once were. Once his chakra came close to the back of his eyes, they split in two so that each end connected with an eye. Her heart beating as fast as ever, she spoke almost a bit too loudly to give him further instructions.

"Great, now we'll repeat the process until we have enough chakra vessels that lead to your eyes as before."

He obeyed her in silence, and to her amazement, the next few times came in rapidly until three more were established. Sakura knew from her medic training that a normal person had five chakra passages connecting from each eye to the rest of the chakra system. From what she read earlier in the Uchiha research, an Uchiha had ten, double that of the norm. They had managed four. They needed only one more vessel so that his sight can be restored, and then five more to allow him to use his Sharingan.

When they've reached the seventh vessel, Sakura felt the sun rays come in through the window and she idly enjoyed the warmth on her back. Suddenly, her mind began to race as she realized that the sun had begun to rise which reminded her of Neji's words.

At sunrise, he is to leave Konoha.

"Just three more," Sakura said with a strained voice.

Her chakra was almost rendered to nothing but thankfully Sasuke had a lot left, probably from his rest earlier on when she was doing research. Not only that, but he was now familiar with the direction he had to follow and therefore she did not need to use her chakra to guide his to his eyes anymore. A genius was a genius, even if he was blind.

Just after that thought came a sudden realization of joy that would have not felt realistic had it been months before. If Sasuke opened his eyes now, he would be able to see perfectly. They could not afford that however for they had to finish before Neji came.

The eighth came into place. It was now harder to concentrate, as she knew that their time was coming to an end and yet she could not rush the work or else it would result in an unsuccessful operation. Sasuke must have sensed it too as he worked faster.

In came the ninth.

There was a loud knocking.

Sakura ignored it as she transferred the last of her chakra into Sasuke's eyes. She had run out of the soldier pills Chouji had given her and at that very instant, she wished she had asked for more. But now, there wasn't even time for regrets.

She heard the door crash down and the rapid footsteps grow near. Her chakra now completely depleted, she could only hold onto Sasuke's hands in encouragement as his brows furrowed with concentration. It was up to him now.

The footsteps came nearer.

Sakura stood up weakly as her hands left Sasuke's own warm ones. She felt light headed and her knees already begin to give way.

Sakura looked at her bedroom door with a feeling of dread as the door slowly swung open and she came face to face with Hyuuga Neji.

Chapter mildly revised/ rewritten. Reviews are appreciated. -Pp