Fated Encounter

CHAPTER 5

"I'm not weak."

Sakura's raspy voice echoed in Sasuke's head. Her eyes were lit by fire as she stood straight looking at him. There was no sagging in her shoulders and no evidence of weakness. She wasn't weak.

"I never said you were," he said and a dark glint appeared in her eyes.

Flashbacks of their genin years came back to him and he immediately knew that she was thinking back to the old days. But he wasn't talking about the old days anymore. He was talking about the time since he found her half dead in the forest. This was a completely different person in front of him than the little girl he had left on that bench. That little girl back in Konoha wouldn't have survived an assault like that.

The condition he had found her in was a slaughter. She was almost slaughtered alive and he had to admit to himself that he doubted that she would live the journey to the village. She was so badly mangled that it should have been impossible, but still she pulled through.

She was weak at the time. She was in a worse condition that Naruto was after their battle at the Valley of End. She was a walking dead. She was weak, but strong at the same time. And in dire need of help. Once again she was showing her strength in front of him, by making her stance. She wasn't backing away, even though he could easily just slice her neck with his kusanagi.

This girl had fire in her eyes, a flame that showed her determination. A fire that gave her a spark to recover. However, none of this mattered if her body wasn't up to par. Her physical body was weak and in dire need of rest. Her skin was still raw from the burns and bright red in many places. Also, she was skinny. Not as in healthy skinny as she used to be, but sick. Her bones were jutting out on her shoulders and arms. Her collarbones shone and her cheeks were hollow.

She definitely needed more of nourishment. Unfortunately, she was still having problems eating. Her throat was still yet to heal properly, so she mainly fed on were light soups that couldn't even be warmed properly. But other than that, she was healing quite nicely. Her chakra was coming back slowly but there still wasn't enough of it for her to survive a battle or even a minor jump on top of a building.

He might not know the things behind her decision to not be found by the Konoha ninjas but he knew that she needed to get better. He had a bad feeling about things involving her and the quicker she recovers the better.

His eyes softened for a bit for her, and then all the strength in her vanished. Her body slumped against his and he had to catch her.

She was going to survive this.

Anako looked horrified as she and Kuro both went after the slack girl. Sasuke wasn't having any trouble holding her upright, but still they put their hands on her. Anako pulled the brown locks away from her face to see Sakura's eyes closed and brows furrowed deep. She was losing too much energy and needed to rest some more.

"Let's get her back on the bed."

The elder and man were ready to help Sasuke to carry Sakura to the bed, but they let their hold go when he scooped lower to swoop the girl into his arms. Sakura's better hand had wrapped itself around Sasuke's shirt as she gasped for breath because of the quick move he made on her. Her body was trembling because of the exhaustion and strain it had to endure.

Even herself wanted to get back to the bed and sleep. Her body was aching everywhere and head was pounding like someone was hammering it. As Sasuke was going to put her back down on the cot Anako's raspy voice stopped him.

"Wait! I think we can transfer her upstairs."

He pulled her back closer to his body and Sakura whimpered. She just wanted to go to sleep, and now they were only making her wait even longer. At this point she couldn't care less where she was sleeping. As long as she had a pillow and a blanket, she would be good. Unfortunately, Sasuke went with Anako's suggestion and walked up the stairs after the woman.

Sakura closed her eyes tightly as she tried to keep the nausea from taking over. The movement of going up wasn't doing anything good for her head and stomach. Her tight on Sasuke's shirt tightened and she just prayed for the movement to stop. Her breathing had become more laborious, but to her relief she was lowered on a bed. It was obviously much softer than the cot she was used to, and it took a moment for her to get comfortable on it.

Sasuke's hands pulled gently away from her and as Anako stepped in to take care of her, Sasuke slipped from the room silently.

Shaking his head, Sasuke left the house. He needed to train some more and clear his head. It was starting to get hard to focus on anything else except Sakura when inside the house. She constantly fills his thoughts and making his mind falter, and those are things he can't afford. The best thing right now is to finish the mission as soon as possible, and then finally leave the town entirely.

Next time Orochimaru sends him here, he will decline the offer. Sakura's presence is a liability. She attracts everybody from Konoha, since they are looking for her. It's been easy few years since no one has been looking for him constantly, but if they get any ideas that he's been here than it takes a safe place away from him. Of course, if Kakashi was to find Sakura, what would stop her from even revealing that he's been here, too.

She is still a Konoha shinobi and, obviously, the will of fire burns deep within her. It doesn't matter that for now, she doesn't want to be found by them because at some point they will. Just like him, too. They will find him and try to drag him back to Konoha. Naruto will not give up, no matter what. That idiot might have not been among the group looking for Sakura, but one day he will.

Sighing deeply, he makes his way to the training grounds. Luckily he was able to avoid the children this time, and he is able to fully concentrate on his technique.

He needs to cut down all his bonds. Even to Sakura.

The sudden commotion coming from the village alerted Sasuke from his training. It was late night and the sun was long gone from the sky. Angry and panicked voice's echoed all around to Sasuke's direction as he sheathed his kusanagi with ease. His arm muscles were slightly tender after such a long training and pushing himself further just like his legs were.

Grabbing the cloak, he had picked up earlier from Anako's house, he wrapped it around himself and headed back to the village. He had visited the village only once to grab something to eat and take the cloak just in case it got too cold. But it soon came apparent that the cloak was more of a nuisance than anything else, so he placed it aside while training. When he had visited Anako's house, it was only a quick visit for he didn't want to talk with anyone. Anako was preparing dinner in the kitchen as he silently made his way into his room and back down stairs.

Kuro, at the time, was not in the house and Sakura was asleep in her new room. The door to her room had been open as he passed by it. He didn't stop to look more closely and instead just made his way out of the house. After that he had made his way to the shop and grabbed a couple of tomatoes which he had eaten while going back to his training spot.

Nothing had seemed out of place when he had walked in the village and out of it. It was only natural for his curiosity to be triggered. As he made his way back to the village, he took his time and just listened to the yells. Panicked woman's voice echoed in the forest as she yelled for someone to stop.

Something was terribly wrong.

As Sasuke stepped through the village gates he could see many of the villagers gathered around the market area. They looked hesitant and even few backed away from the crowd to ran into their homes.

"Sasuke!" a familiar girl's voice yelled and soon someone bumped into his side. It was Nea. The girl was wrapped in a huge jacket and a scarf.

"Anako's in trouble!" she said and pulled at his arm. "They are scouting through the homes! You need to do something!"

What was going on? he thought to himself.

Immediately he pushed through the crowd and made his way to Anako's house. Even from the distance he could see the door was thrown open and loud yelling came from inside the house. As his legs picked up more speed, he was stopped dead in his tracks when Kuro was thrown out of the house like a ragdoll. A chorus of laughter filled the market place and finally Sasuke noticed the group of men on horses laughing at Kuro, who was scrambling to his feet.

But what caught Sasuke's eye was the man in the middle. He was wearing very expensive looking clothes and a bag close to his body. Next thing his eyes spotted was the carriage behind the men, filled with something angular and huge cover by a brown blanket. This had to be the man he was waiting for. But why was he raiding the village? There was nothing here. It was a miracle that they could even survive this winter.

"Leave us alone!" came Anako's shriek followed by a cracking sound.

Just as Sasuke's feet went back to action, a huge man emerged from the house holding Sakura. She was thrown over his shoulder and she was completely limp.

"Hey, boss! Look what I found!" He shouted over the panicked cries and yells of the villagers. Sakura was in no condition to be outside in this weather wearing so little clothes. She was only clad in a t-shirt and shorts. Her bandages were in complete sight and some of the villagers gasped at the sight of her. No one had yet to see her, even though many has been murmuring and whispering about the injured girl in Anako's home.

Another shriek filled the village as two men came back to the market holding two other young girls. He instantly glanced behind him to see where Nea was. She was standing close to her mother with few men standing in front of her. That's when everything fully clicked in his head. This man wasn't an ordinary merchant. He was selling people.

But he needed his information from that man. It was his first priority.

"You," Sasuke's voice gained their attention.

A lanky looking man leaned closer to Sasuke with a sneer on his face, "What do you want?"

Sasuke didn't answer. Instead he moved so fast that the lanky man recoiled in surprise throwing his head from side to side to see where he had gone.

"Here," he made himself known and every man on the horses gasped in terror including Sasuke's target. Sasuke was reciding on top of the back of the merchant's horse grouched low with his kusanagi pressed against the man's jugular. He gulbed in fear pressing the cool blade into the skin and drawing a cut.

"W-what do you w-w-want?" He stuttered. "I-I can give you money!"

"I don't need your money. You have something I need." Sasuke said and tensed a little as two of the merchant's men drew out their own blades.

"Wh-what is that?"

Sasuke drew closer to him, "What is the most valuable object you have?"

The man tensed even more and Sasuke could easily recognize the horror in his eyes. Sasuke didn't flinch when the merchant gave a hand sign to the man still holding Sakura on his shoulder to drop the girl. Sakura fell to the ground without any muscle reaction and some part of Sasuke hoped it was because she had lost consciousness. Her ribs must have been killing her from being in that sort of position, and since she was already exhausted after this morning.

The huge man went to the carriage and suffled thwough a bag hidden in it. He brought out a scroll, but didn't move closer to his boss to give it to him.

"What are you doing!" the merchant yelled. "Give it to him!"

With a sneer on his face he walked closer to Sasuke and offered the scroll. Sasuke easily grabbed it and hid it under his shirt. Apparently, the man wasn't going to let things go that easy. He launched himself at Sasuke pulling a knife out of his pocket to slash Sasuke with it. With his fast reflexes Sasuke jumped in the air, but not before knocking the merchant in the head causing him to fall off the horse.

He didn't need to kill them. His main goal was to get the scroll and then deliver it safely back to Orochimaru. For all he cares these men can ran along and leave the village alone.

"You son of a bitch!" One yelled and charged at him on his horse. Sasuke dodged the attack and hit the horse on its rear causing it to flip out. Villagers had to move quickly aside because of the horse and soon the man riding it flew off it.

Sasuke turned to the merchant who was trying to get up from the snowy ground.

"Leave the village."

"You little-" he started but Sasuke was once again right in front of him lifting him in the air by his jacket. The merchant struggled against him and at the sime time tried to grab a better hold on him as to not suffocate on his jacket. He was fairly slim with not much muscle to him so it was an easy task to lift him in the air. All the men had taken their respective horses, even the one that got thrown off his, and were obviously ready to leave the village. None of them came too close to Sasuke and their leader which was a good choice.

Sasuke was starting to lose his temper and he was ready to beat the shit out of them, if they didn't leave.

"Leave." He used a darker tone and allowed the man to drop.

"Boss, come on!" One of them urged, but didn't do anything else to help their leader to get back on the horse. The merchant scrambled on his horse and without a work snapped the reins to get his horse on the move. Even his men galloped out of the village silently.

"Dear lord!" Anako's voice gasped and Sasuke turned to see the woman running towards Sakura. Her clothes were in disarray and hair was a mess. Even her face was slightly swollen maybe because the men had hit her.

Sakura was still completely still on the ground when Anako came to turn her on her back as a flock of people gathered around them. Her hair was matted and clothes were wet from lying in the snow. Not even sparing another second to think Sasuke leaned down and picked her up. She was going to get pneumonia if she wasn't dried as soon as possible.

Anako stumbled after Sasuke and closed the door, but not before yelling at everyone outside to go home.

Kuro was sitting the couch with a pack of ice on his forehead. He had his eyes closed as he leaned on the back cushion. As they trio passed by the doorway he didn't even spare a glance in their way.

They made their way to Sakura's room where the duvet was thrown off the bed alongside with few decorations broken on the floor. A smirk almost made its way on Sasuke's face as he imagined Sakura putting up a fight to get the man off her. Even in her condition, adrenaline can work its magic.

"I'll get her some dry clothes." Anako said as Sasuke laid her on the bed.

He didn't waste a second on starting to strip Sakura, and neither did he realize that she was almost completely naked right in front of him aside from her underwear. Her lips were tinted blue so he instantly went to grab the duvet to cover her bare body. Soon Anako limped inside and Sasuke helped her to redress Sakura. Taking her clothes off was easy since it was like a mechanical response to take care of her, but putting the clothes on was something else.

Sasuke did his best to keep his eyes away from Sakura's body. She was still obviously underweight and she lacked body fat in many of her body parts, but Sasuke was a growing teenage boy. Seeing a girl's body, even if it was Sakura caused a reaction in him. His body felt heated as he helped to raise Sakura from the bed so that Anako could slip the new shirt over her head.

The bruises in her body were fading to a bright yellow and for a moment Sasuke let his gaze to linger on Sakura's body as he looked over her injuries. She was healing, but it would still take a little bit of time. Finally turning his eyes away from her, he helped to put the loose shorts on her before pulling the duvet over her.

"I can manage now," Anako grumbled and grabbed a towel to dry Sakura's hair.

Sasuke gave the older woman a look and he almost asked about her own injuries, but was silenced by the stern look. Shaking his head, he left the room.

Thanks for reviewers:

vero1092

annoying reader

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and four guests.

- Jakura