Fated Encounter

CHAPTER 6

"Go back to Konoha."

After a very sleepless night and annoyance that filled him to the brim, Sasuke felt like dragging Sakura's ass back to the Fire Country. It was ridiculous that she was here and trying to heal without any proper care. Yes, Anako was good with injuries and taking care of them, but if he has heard correct than Sakura should be the apprentice of the Fifth Hokage. Not to forget that the Fifth Hokage is known for her incredible healing abilities.

If Sakura were in Kohona right now, she would be in top shape no doubt. But no. She's here and it seems that the universe is against her healing. Her voice was still very much croaky and she had much more bruising on her body than yesterday because of the men attacking the village. She also seemed much more exhausted than few days ago, but that might be because of what happened.

Unfortunately, none of the pain and suffering eased her stubbornness. She was still very much against the idea of going to Konoha, no matter how much Sasuke insisted. Early morning, he had gone training for a few hours before returning for breakfast. Sakura was still in her room not being able to participate but Anako dutifully took care of her and took her some food upstairs.

Sasuke couldn't help but notice that her portions sizes were getting slightly bigger which was a good sign.

"No." She almost shook her head in denial but stopped the motion even before it began. Her shoulders were slightly hurt and moving the muscles wasn't easy since they were not only sore but also very tense. From being so immobile for so long had its tool on her muscles, not to mention being rag-dolled around like she weighted nothing and wasn't even a human being.

"Stop being stubborn." Sasuke's frustration was growing slowly. All morning since breakfast which was few hours ago Sasuke had tried to pester the teenage girl to change her mind, but so far his efforts has been fruitless.

Sakura's icy glance turned to him as she glared at him, "This is none of your problem."

It was odd to see her so hostile towards him. After growing up with her in the Academy and then being assigned into a same team, Sasuke was much more used to the in-love-with-him type of Sakura, who did anything to please him. But this Sakura had obviously grown. This Sakura wasn't a little girl with a huge crush on the coolest guy in their class, but she was almost a grown woman, who wanted to mind her own business.

But, in this case, she was being stupid, right now. She just couldn't see why it would be better for her to go back to Konoha. However, Sakura wasn't the type of girl to do anything without a motivation. And that is what puzzled him the most. He just couldn't figure out why she didn't want to go back. She loved the village and even tried to pursue him to stay.

He had some up with few ideas why she wasn't going back. Either she still had a crush on him and thought she could watch after him while staying here, but he wasn't staying here permanently and she was very much hostile towards him. It couldn't be that because there was no way she could drag him back to Konoha. Another idea was that she was completely stupid. But that neither could that be the case. There had to be ulterior motive that he just didn't know and she was the only person to know it.

Anako then walked into the room with a small tray with a soup on top. She was bringing Sakura her lunch so that she could eat and hopefully her healing would become faster. It was a real miracle that she was able to feed on her own, but still Anako or Kuro watched very intently as she ate. Sasuke felt annoyed by these facts because they were treating her like a child.

Sakura obviously was bothered by the fact too but did her best to ignore it just like she did her best to ignore the pestering Uchiha currently standing in her room.

"Thank you," she said with a croaky voice as she took a hold of the warm soup.

The entire duration of her eating Sasuke pondered whether he should glare at her to change her mind or to just swing her over his shoulder and take her back himself. This was ridiculous. Why was he even so bothered by her staying here? It was her life and if she wanted to live the life of not being in her home town then that shouldn't concern him. With that thought in mind he glared at Sakura one last time before walking out of the room.

He also had to return to Orochimaru and bring the scroll with him. Orochimaru was probably waiting for him already and dwelling in this town did nothing to help him on his quest to find Itachi and kill him. He had better things to do than babysit Sakura and make sure that she got the best treatment, which she obviously was not getting.

Walking into his own room Sasuke backed all his items and put them into the bag he had been using. Grabbing the cloak from the chair in the room he put it on and took the bag with him. Kuro was cleaning the foyer as he descended the steps and the young man noticed his presence immediately.

"A-are you leaving already?" Kuro's face was marred with bruises and cuts that were healing nicely from last night.

"Yes."

"Do-does grandmother know? She didn't mention you leaving today."

Sasuke shrugged and went out the door. As he was closing the door he saw Kuro already taking steps up the stairs probably to find his grandmother to tell that he already left. Sasuke wasn't the type of person to say goodbyes and this wasn't the time to start. With a hop, he was already outside the village walls and heading back to the base to take the scroll back to his teacher.

The traveling back was quick and took no effort from Sasuke at all. He had gotten so used to the terrain that it was easy to slip around the trees and make his way away from the village. But as he jumped from tree branch to tree branch he couldn't help but feel the tiny bang inside his chest. Shaking it off wasn't easy and he did his best to ignore it for the remaining if his travels.

It has already been few months since Sakura was brought to the small village where Anako and her grandson lived just the two of them. And for those few months the two had taken care of the severely injured kunoichi brought to their door steps by an old friend. That night was a night of horror and not sleeping. Trying to stable Sakura's vitals was something that had been everything but easy.

Sasuke hadn't come back since he had left and Sakura felt relieved. She didn't want to hear him tell her to go to that place he didn't even want to go back to.

Shaking her head to get rid of the thoughts of Sasuke, Sakura stood up from her bed and picked up the light jacket on the edge of the bed. Kuro was downstairs and Sakura joined him in the kitchen to accompany him as he prepared their lunch. It was almost twelve o'clock and Sakura felt hungry. Her body was becoming more and more used to eating bigger meals and she felt hungry more often.

She even gained a few pounds back and was well on her way to recovery. Especially now that her chakra was starting to return to normal. She could heal her own wounds to some extent but the malnutrition and muscle deprivation won't be fixed with nothing else except food and exercise. They were taking small walks with Anako every now and then to make her move more, but it was still difficult to go too long distances.

Fortunately, none of the villagers had recognized her from the photo's Sakura's friends had shown around. Her hair was still colored brown to cover her most distinct features and she enjoyed the anonymity. She had no string and no responsibility as she recovered. Some of the villagers greeted her often and offered to help her. Anako had even helped her to create an identity.

She was called Sayuri by everyone. It was a simple name and Anako told that she was found by Sasuke laying in the snow badly injured just like he did, but she also added that she had no recollection of her past. The cut and bruising on her forehead could easily cover that lie.

It was a calm life, but Sakura also itched to use her chakra. As they took their small trolls around the village Sakura could see the injured people around. Many had to give up their last bandages and ointments to keep Sakura alive and that is why she felt remorseful. She wanted to give back to them what they had given to her.

Sakura was startled out of her thoughts when the front door banged open and Anako's voice yelled, "Kuro!"

The said man sprang into action and ran for the foyer. Sakura sat in the kitchen and watched as Anako brought an older woman inside. The woman was breathing hard and obviously was having a hard time breathing. Another older woman walked right after the others into the living room. It had to be her sister since they looked so much alike. At this point, Sakura had stood up and went to see that the woman was being lowered on to the cot in the corner.

Kuro stacked a bunch of pillows at the end to put the woman into a half-seated position. She was at this point coughing her lungs out. Her breathing was raspy and to Sakura's trained medic's eyes it seemed that she was having trouble with her lungs.

"Just breath calmly." Anako instructed the woman who only nodded.

As Sakura watched everyone trying to make the woman feel more comfortable as her sister was nervously walking around the room making the air even more tense. Sakura walked to the woman and placed her arm on her shoulder, "Maybe you should take a seat." she said with the most calming tone she could muster.

The wrinkled woman nodded and Sakura helped her onto the couch.

As she finally looked up she saw Anako sitting next to the other woman and holding her hand. But what Sakura noticed was the blue tint in the woman's lips. Sakura stood up straight and went to stand next to sitting Anako. In all honesty, Sakura didn't even think as she reached her hand to the woman's chest and started healing. The light green glow that came from her hands made the woman's eyes widen and she looked baffled.

Anako didn't question anything but the sister did. She had stood up and barreled her way to the three women. She almost grabbed Sakura's arm if it wasn't for Anako, who stopped her.

"What is she doing!?" the woman squealed and tried to pull herself away from Anako's hold.

"She's helping Choya. Calm down." Anako's words were stern and she told the woman to watch as her sister's breathing leveled and her lips finally had pink hue to them.

"Chiya," Choya said with a gentle look on her face, "calm down. I think she's actually helping me."

As Sakura finally stepped away from the cot, Chiya barreled next to her sister and held her hand, "Are you okay?"

"Yes, yes. I'm feeling much better. I can actually breathe easier."

It was sad that the village was a bit hostile towards the shinobi but what can you do. These people rather died than took help from any of the Hidden Villages. That was something Sakura couldn't change because she had to come up with a plan to what she was going to do next. She wasn't sure if she should go and find Naruto, he was very likely still training with Jiraya since he hadn't come looking for her.

She doubted that he wouldn't scout this village if he knew that she was missing. Losing Sasuke was already hard on the them both, but Naruto still had her. Now he had none of his teammates. All Sakura could hope of is that everyone else in the village took care of him. She couldn't return there. Not yet if she wanted to stay alive.

Sakura's heart was racing inside her chest as she woke up with a start. Something was wrong.

Something was very wrong.

She tried using her senses to detect anything but she couldn't. She hid her chakra and laid there motionless. It was in the middle of a night and the only light coming in was through the window that came from the moon. But since it was the end of winter the sky was cloudy and not much light came to the earth.

The adrenaline spike she had toned down and she just listened. There was nothing abnormal she could hear or anything that might indicate that things were wrong other than the feeling inside her gut.

She could hear Kuro's loud snoring through the walls and nothing more.

Her back was towards the closed slightly a jar door and there was no way a person could move in the hallway without making any sounds. The floors were too creaky even for Sasuke to try and hide his presence. Every time he came down stairs and Sakura was still laying on the cot, she could hear his silent footsteps that always caused the smallest of creeks on the floor.

But she couldn't hear anything.

But why was her body so on the edge.

Unfortunately, she couldn't thing anything else because she felt a pain on her leg that instantly paralyzed her. Her panic rose instantly as she tried to look around the room only to be unable to move anywhere. There was no one else in the room!

But as her heart rate accelerated more and more she felt dizzy. Her mind became cloudy than even the sky at the time and thinking became impossible. As she finally started to sink into darkness, she felt something moving under her covers.

What do you think? Leave a review.

Thanks for reviewers:

ILoveSxS

kawaii

Uchiha Misaki

-Chan

and two guests.

- Jakura