A/N: Moving on, thanks for reviewing. So SO sorry for taking ages to update!!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto...Itachi needs medical attention...but I still love him...unfortunately...
Something warm covered his entire body. His world seemed to be filled with the smell of soup. Sasuke blinked his eyes. He was in an unfamiliar room. The dark green curtains and the doors were closed. Sasuke sat up and held his head. There was a bandage on it.
"Where am I?" Sasuke whispered.
He looked at his right arm and saw that there was a new bandage on it. The old one was bloody and it had started to smell. Sasuke looked around the room. It was just like every other average room. Sasuke turned his attention to the door. There was a small knock. Sasuke stared at the door.
"Sasuke?"
"Come in." Sasuke called.
She slowly entered with a tray. Once again, she had grown her hair long. Her pink hair fell past her shoulders and lingered down to the middle of her back. Slowly, she turned around and faced him.
"Sakura," Sasuke mumbled.
"Sasuke." Sakura mumbled back.
She made her way toward him and sat on the side of the bed. She placed the tray on his lap.
"It's miso soup." Sakura replied as she gave him a spoon. "Do...do you need help?"
"No." Sasuke scowled. He was tired of being fed by someone else.
Sakura nodded and stood up.
"...call me when you're done." She replied as she headed towards the door.
As she closed the door, Sasuke couldn't help but think of how empty their reunion was. He was kind of surprised that she didn't run to him and hug him. She showed no sigh of happiness. In fact, she seemed, unemotional. Sasuke scowled and looked at the miso soup. Steam rose from the bowl and into his face. It smell delicious. Sasuke picked up the spoon and took a small sip of the soup. It was tasty. Sasuke closed his eyes to really enjoy the taste. It's been so long, so long since he had good food. Sasuke took another spoonful and brought to his mouth. Suddenly, his right arm throbbed in pain. He wasn't expectantly and he jerked. He held onto his right arm and took deeps breaths. At that moment, his cheeks, chest and thighs burned. Sasuke swore out loud. The miso soup had splashed on him. Sasuke looked at his hands that were covered in soup. His wrists were wrapped in bandages as well. He heard footsteps on the other side of the door, but Sasuke continued to stare at his hands.
"It's soup..." he whispered as he continued to stare at his hands. "It just...blood? No soup, it's soup."
As he continued to stare at his hands, the soup seemed to be changing colors. It went from light brown, to dark brown, to a dark red, to crimson red, the same color as blood. Sasuke's eyes widened as the room was filled with the smell of blood. He heard cries. He heard people screaming.
"Stop it!" Sasuke yelled as he held his aching head.
"Sasuke?!"
"NO! Stop it STOP!"
He was no longer in the room. He was in his village. The streets were filled with happy people. The Uchiha clan, they were all going about their daily business. Sasuke looked up, there was one person crouched down on a pole. There was a long sword behind him. He seemed to be waiting. Suddenly, he opened his eyes. Red murderous eyes stared down at the Uchihas'. Sasuke's eyes widened as the person reached into his pouch.
"No...no...DON'T KILL THEM!"
"Sasuke-kun!!"
Sasuke's eyes flew open. He was covered in sweat and he was lying down on the bed. Sasuke took deep breaths and sat back up.
"...what happened." Sasuke asked as he looked at his hands. They were clean.
"I don't know." Sakura whispered. "I heard you swearing, so I came into the room to see if you were ok. You were fine at first, you were just staring at you hands. I noticed you spilled your soup so I went over to you to clean it. Then...you started screaming. You fell on your pillow and..."
Sasuke nodded.
"It's been a long week," Sasuke murmured.
Sasuke looked at his right arm. It was bleeding again. Sakura removed the bandages covering Sasuke's forehead, neck and chest. She walked over to the other side of the bed and stared at the bloody arm. She took a deep breath and began to remove the bandages. Although Sasuke managed to keep a straight face, he was screaming and cursing her out on the inside. Sakura dropped the bandages on the tray filled with cloths and other bandages.
"I'll be right back." Sakura called as she picked up the tray and left the room.
Agonizing pain attacked his arm. Sasuke took silent deep breaths. He didn't want her to know how much pain he was in. He refused to look at his arm. Just looking at it seemed to cause it to throb. A couple minutes later, Sakura returned to the room a couple minutes later. Her arms were filled with rolls of bandages. Sakura sat next to him and put the bandages down. She stared at his scorched and tattered arm.
"Can you heal it?" Sasuke asked.
"...I don't know." Sakura replied as she looked away from him. "It's severely burned. It's possibly the worst burn I've ever seen. I don't know how much muscle has been damaged and I don't know how long it's been like that."
"...I received it...less than two weeks ago."
"Two weeks!"
"Less!"
"Sasuke...it...we might have to-"
"NO!"
Sakura stared at Sasuke. His left hand was clenched and shook in what she thought was anger. He glared at the door.
"Sakura," Sasuke spoke as he tried to control his anger. "I need you to heal it. I know you can do it."
"Sasuke..." Sakura whispered as she faced his arm. "...how did you get burned like this."
She gently touched his bicep and Sasuke flinched away from her violently. Sasuke shut he eyes and growled as aching pain spread all around his arm and shoulder.
"...I was fighting Itachi." Sasuke answered.
Sakura nodded and placed her hands near his arm.
"Don't touch it!" Sasuke snapped.
"Sasuke, relax, I'm going to try my best and heal it." Sakura replied as green chakra flowed from he hands.
Immediately, all the pain he was feeling in his arm had begun to cease. His arm felt warm, like it was dipped in luke warm water. It felt good, really good. Sasuke closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth on his burned skin. The chakra seemed too flow from his arm to his shoulder, his neck and his chest. Soon the whole upper right side of his body seemed to have a warm and relaxing feeling to it.
"There's no need to be tense," Sakura whispered. "Just relax."
Sasuke nodded and concentrated on the warm feeling that traveled up and down his arm. After a while, the warm feeling suddenly stopped flowing throughout his arm. Pain followed. His arm didn't throb like it did before but it was still sore. Sasuke frowned, the warm feeling, the soothing sensation he got from the green chakra, it was gone.
"Don't stop," Sasuke whispered before he could stop himself.
"Sorry...Sasuke..." Sakura mumbled. "I had... a long day at...the hospital. I had to...heal a lot of people today. Also...I healed you for about...I don't know...maybe two and half hours..."
Sasuke looked at Sakura. She was holding her knees firmly and she was taking deep breaths. Her eyelids looked heavy and her eyes looked almost blank. She looked exhausted. Sasuke nodded and lowered himself down on the bed. Once he rested on the pillow Sakura looked at him.
"You're dinner," she whispered. "Do you want me to fix you another bowl?"
"Iie, I'm fine." Sasuke replied and he closed his eyes. "Go to bed."
"Heh, I would but, I'm concerned about your arm. I was going to reread the sections in one of my medicine books that deal with severe burns. The longer, it remains like that, the harder it will heal."
Sakura got up and stretched.
"Good night, Sasuke." She called.
"Hn,"
It was when she turned off all the lights and shut the door when he realized something. Sakura, she no longer added the prefix at the end of his name. No, he didn't really miss it but he felt distanced from her in a way. Sasuke stared into the darkness, wondering why Sakura had stopped calling him "Sasuke-kun." Sasuke smirked. It's because the way he treated her. Five years ago, when they were only thirteen, Sakura tried to stop him from leaving the village. She told him that she loved him and begged him to stay. He answered her by knocking her out and leaving her on a bench. Two years later, they fought Itachi together. They were defeated and he led Sakura on. He told her he'd come back, he'd would marry her and she would be his wife. He told her that she would help him restore his clan. One year later, they met in Orochimaru's hideout. Again, she tried to get him back, he answered her by attacking her and the rest of her teammates. No, he didn't forget his promise. Instead, he ignored it. Killing Itachi was more important than restoring the clan. If he restored the clan and Itachi was still alive, what would stop him from massacring his family again? Now here he lay, in what looked like her bed. He came back only to get his arm healed. The plan was to get his arm healed then search for Itachi yet again. Sasuke sighed. Exhaustion was starting to take over. Once again, he would break Sakura's heart. However, sacrifices have to be made. Itachi, he had to die. That comes first. Nothing else can come in the way. Sasuke closed his eyes and slowly fell asleep.
He heard something bump into the wall. Voices echoed throughout the room. One was Sakura's and the other belonged to someone he didn't recognize. They continued to make noise and bump into things. Sasuke's eyebrow twitched. Whatever they were doing, they needed to stop.
"I want to take you out."
His voice sounded somewhat familiar.
"I don't know, Sai. I mean, it's really been a long day. How about…tomorrow."
Sakura.
"…I have to go on another mission tomorrow," he replied.
"…but you just came back today!" Sakura cried.
"I'm sorry."
"Sai!"
"Can I take you out tonight?"
"…yeah. Let me just get ready."
"I'll wait outside."
He heard her walked inside the apartment and into her room. Sasuke, lifted his eyebrow as she stared at him.
"How are you feeling?" she whispered.
Sasuke shrugged.
"…I want to go out but…I don't-"
"Go ahead." Sasuke scowled.
"Are you going to be ok?"
"Just go."
Sakura nodded and left. He heard Sakura giggle and they left. He didn't feel anything. Not even a twinge of jealousy. Sasuke yawned and stared at the ceiling. It was nothing to be surprised about. Of course Sakura wouldn't wait for him. She would be wasting her time. He didn't even want to come back. In a way, he was glad she was dating someone else. It made things less awkward. Beside, he couldn't keep his promise. He promised he would come back and take her as his wife but…that was all in the past. Now, he didn't want a wife. He just wanted to kill Itachi. That's all he wanted.
Sasuke clenched his eyes as he arm throbbed in pain. Maybe he should stay. Maybe he should start a family. No, it was too much trouble. Itachi was still out there. He had kill him first.
Sasuke felt his eyes grow heavy. He didn't want to fall asleep yet. Why was he so weak? It drove him crazy. His vision blurred. He took deep breaths and slowly fell into unconscious.
Sasuke woke up to Sakura to cries.
"Sakura? Did I…hurt you?"
"No…it's not you…how long are you going to be-"
"uh…about a month. Will you stay with me tonight?"
"I'm sorry Sai…I can't."
"…I see. Will you at least see me out."
"Of course."
"…so uh, I see you tomorrow at dawn then…"
"…ok…"
Silence. Sasuke rubbed his eyes and listened to Sakura walk in the apartment. She was upset about something. Again, Sasuke's eyebrow twitched. She could have been a little quieter. Sakura stood outside her room for a couple seconds before she entered. All signs of her sadness vanished. She looked completely fine. Sakura walked up to Sasuke and pulled the covers down to his torso to reveal his arm. Sasuke turned his head to look at her and Sakura slightly jumped.
"I didn't know you were awake." Sakura sighed. "How's your arm."
"It feels the same," Sasuke muttered.
He was feeling irritated.
"...is there anything you need?" Sakura asked.
"…no." Sasuke snapped.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I didn't think you would come back…I…we tried Sasuke….we tried but you would try to…"
"Go to sleep Sakura."
"I'm not tired…does anyone know you're here?"
"No, and we're going to keep it like that."
"…you're leaving again?"
Sasuke didn't look at her. Sakura inhaled sharply and held her head. A couple tears rolled out her eyes. Sasuke regarded her coldly. He was get aggravated.
"Then why did you come back?" Sakura asked. More tears rolled down her cheeks.
"I needed you to heal my arm." Sasuke answered. Sakura's eyes widened.
"That's it? That's the only reason?"
"Hn."
"Why did you come here then? Why didn't you get someone else to do it?! You could have gotten your teammates or-"
"I'm on my own."
"Well, that's not my problem!"
"Will you just heal-"
"NO! Do you have any idea on what you're doing to me? I can't do this! It's…Sasuke, why don't you see it!"
"All I see is you crying like a little girl."
Sakura glared at him.
"I see nothing has changed at all." Sasuke snorted.
He shouldn't have said that. He was in no position to insult her like that. It was just…he was feeling so irritated and annoyed. She was the closet target! She shouldn't have gotten him upset.
"…I'm going to sleep over at Sai's house." Sakura muttered. "I probably won't be back here until the evening. I'll cook you something and leave it in the refrigerator. Just…don't move your arm a lot."
Sakura stood up and wiped away her crystal tears. She glared at Sasuke with sharp emerald eyes. she walked toward the door then paused.
"…or maybe I should turn you in." Sakura whispered.
"You wouldn't." Sasuke simply replied.
"Why? Why should I deal with your arrogance and keep you here?"
"You wouldn't turn me in."
"…you shouldn't be so sure of yourself."
"If you turn me in, I'll never forgive you."
"Why should I care? Sasuke…I've given up. I told you, I can't do this."
"Good night Sakura."
Sakura glared at him and slammed the door shut. He heard her exit the apartment. Sasuke stared at the ceiling and sighed. No, she wasn't going to turn him in, she couldn't. She loved him too much to do that. He knew Sakura too well. She would do anything for him. That's another reason why he came back. She was the easiest person to manipulate.
Sasuke smirked and rolled on his side. Looks like he hasn't changed either. He was still the cold-hearted stoic Uchiha. Fine, he'll loosen up a bit. As a reward, he'll give Sakura a nice kiss. Then he could leave Konoha peacefully.
A/N: SO SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG TO UPDATE!! Please forgive me. Also, I hope the characters aren't occ. Hopefully, I kept them in character. Also, NO, I don't like Sakura and Sai as a couple, I chose them because I wasn't sure who to choose and Sai reminds me a little bit of Sasuke except for the fact he loves to show off his stomach…O.O, lol. Ok, bye!! Hope you enjoyed it.
Ps: good news!! Chapter 3 is halfway done!!