Fated Encounter

CHAPTER 8

Sasuke crouched down to Sakura's level and her eyes never left his form. To Sasuke it was like looking at a wild animal ready to bounce at any minute. He didn't make any move to get anymore closer to her than the ten feet he was away from her.

The over all look on her face was hostile and her whole body language was tense.

"Sakura," he started but even though the look on her face told him to shut up he continues, "let's get you back to the hideout."

She didn't reply at all and just glared at away. But after being with her occasionally at Anako's he was used to the silent treatment. It wasn't anything new and actually he very much expected it. What more reasons to hate on him than being kidnapped by his mentor. Sasuke might not have been involved in the whole situation, but she might not know it yet.

He was the one in the village most of the time so it probably woke up Kabuto's or Oroshimaru's interest, but for what use did they need her for and how long has she been here. He hasn't been to Anako's in months and neither does the older woman have any means to contact him.

Sasuke made a move to get closer to Sakura.

"Don't touch me!" She shrieked instantly and did her best to back away. Sasuke was startled at the panicky way she talked and started to move away. Her arms were shaking from the effort and her legs were cramping as she literally dragged her body away from Sasuke. She looked utterly horrified at the idea of him touching her.

As she tried dragging herself away, her arms gave away under her and she collapsed on the ground.

No wonder she didn't get further away, but however she still seemed lash out good at Karin.

"You're in no condition to even get anywhere else. Stop being annoying." Sasuke snapped back and this time he walked closer to her and reached out to grab her arm.

As his fingers wrapped around her upper arm the scream Sakura let out was ear piercing. It sounded as if someone was being tortured so Sasuke quickly retreated his arm away and took a step back. Sakura's whole body had started to tremble and she looked as if she was having a seizure of some sort. Her limps were twitching and head shaking. She looked like she was in a lot of pain.

She was heaving and panting as if she was trying to throw up, which is exactly what she did after a few seconds. What came out wasn't anything food like, it was something brownish and yellow mixed obviously with stomach acids.

What the hell did Kabuto and Orochimaru do? That's all Sasuke could think about. As far as he knew no other test subject had reacted this badly before. Yes, many were treated very poorly but no one had such symptoms.

Sakura honestly looked like a drug addict going through her withdrawal.

Deciding it was better to knock her out than drag her back kicking and screaming, Sasuke walked in front of her with his sharingan activated. Her eyes snapped to his the moment he walked into her vision and it was that easy to make her succumb into the genjutsu. Her body went instantly limp so Sasuke scooped her up into his arms.

Karin was already waiting at the hideouts door pacing back and fort, but stopped her moving when he sensed Sasuke coming.

"You couldn't go pick her yourself?" Sasuke asked even more annoyed. It was obvious that Karin could have easily taken care of Sakura herself so it was a real mystery why she didn't do it. Instead he was called from over a day of travel away and get her.

"I prefer not to do anything to her unless she's tied up." Karin leaned her hip against the doorway.

"She's not in any condition to even fight back."

"Well, if she was then I wouldn't be having this problem." She exclaimed back and went back into the hide out.

Sasuke walked after her trying to not focus on the sick looking girl in his arm. Sakura was covered in sweat and grime, and not to forget vomit. Her injuries from months ago had healed completely which seemed like a miracle, but her right arm seemed still unhealed. It looked raw and painful.

"Place her on the table," Sasuke did as was told and Karin continued to wrap Sakura's legs and wrists to the stone table, "and you can let the genjutsu go."

Sakura's body twitch once as she was released from the hallucination. Her eyes flashed open faster than one would have expected and she instantly scanned the room. Her eyes landed on Karin after sweeping a hating glare to Sasuke.

Sasuke leaned against the labs wall and observed Karin as she dug through the drawers. Pulling out a packet that had something wrapped inside Karin headed with it back next to Sakura. The pink haired girl started trashing against the restrains but she didn't had much leverage to move. She was tightly held against the stone slab with no where to go.

A grunt left her lips when Karin touched her cheek to pull the tape off along with the tube inside her nose. Sakura once again looked like she was having a seizure as she convulsed against the stone obviously trying not to vomit. Her fingers were tightly pressing against her palm and drawing blood as she struggle against literally everything.

Karin was the real professional here compared to Sasuke, who had his brows furrowed in both confusion and mild disgust. He really couldn't figure out what they were doing to Sakura for her to be in such condition.

"Why the tube?" He dared to ask Karin, who had ripped the new package open only pull the exact same tube out that she had just pulled from Sakura's nose.

"She won't eat otherwise."

It was a quick process as Karin stepped near Sakura's head and grabbed her chin. She wasn't being gentle at all as she held Sakura's head in place and inserted the tube through Sakura's nostril. Sakura gagged for a second before Karin quickly let her hold go on Sakura's chin but not on the tube. Quickly she taped the tube again to Sakura's cheek and reached to the table next to her and attached the tube into the brown bag's tube that she had prepared before hand.

At this point Sakura wasn't moving at all unless you counted the slight trembling and her loud breathing through her nose.

Sasuke really had no idea how he should take all of this. He was used to seeing both Orochimaru and Kabuto do these kind of things to their test subjects, but this was a person he knew on a personal level. It was a completely different thing, right?

Shaking his head and deciding it was best to just get some rest before planning on returning back.

"Where you going, Sasuke-kun?" Karin's voice echoed in the hallway as Sasuke opened the door to leave.

"To sleep." Was his mere reply when he closed the door after him.

"Stop glaring at me." Karin said and huffed as she fiddled with the drip making sure that Sakura got her nutrients.

"Why did you have to call him?" Sakura asked and coughed a few times. Having a tube in your pharynx wasn't the most comfortable feeling especially when you were lying on your back with no way to turn yourself.

"I told you many times, I'm not the one going after you once you run away."

Sakura huffed, "You scared of me?"

"Maybe." Karin shrugged her shoulders, "Not many have broken the east side of this hideout to bits. And since healing myself is impossible, I'd rather not test my limits with you." She answered truthfully. Sakura's strength was humongous and even though Karin had few tricks up her sleeve she wasn't going to test the apprentice of the Fifth Hogake. And since she spend most of her days cooped inside a lab, training was the last thing on her mind.

"You should try me sometime." Sakura said finally, "You might even win."

"Ororchimaru-sama wouldn't like that."

"How can you even stand him if he uses you for his own good?"

"First of all, I'm not being used like I was in Kusagakure and I can express my own desired more freely." It really wasn't a surprise to Sakura that Karin was used like a tool. She had so many scars from bites around her body that it was impossible for them to have come from free will. But as a medic herself Sakura was impressed by Karin's ability to heal others by them biting her skin.

It was a unique ability, but of course it wasn't efficient to the user herself. Sakura was able to heal her own body if needed but that wasn't something Karin was able to do. That's why she still had the bruising and cuts Sakura caused her.

"Watching people being tortured day in and day out seems nice," Sakura mumbled sarcastically.

"You seem talkative today." Karin hummed and went to fill another bottle.

"Like you don't?" Sakura fired back. "You like Sasuke don't you?" She asked finally and Karin's body language screamed the answer. Her body tensed as if given an electric shock and her head whipped around to look at Sakura.

"What about it?" The clipped tone probably should have surprised Sakura, but in all honesty it didn't. It was like looking into a mirror of a younger version of herself.

"Your eyes," Sakura glanced at Karin, whose eyes widened in shock, and then she continued, "been there done that."

Karin seemed shocked to silence with a syringe and a bottle of medicine of some sort in her hands. After a couple of deep breaths and a thoughtful look on her face Karin asked, "You have a crush on him?"

"I had a crush on him, back when I was naive and stupid. But honestly who wouldn't have, he is literally the ideal looking guy for everyone. Tall, dark and handsome." Sakura had a melancholic look on her face as she recalled the moments back in Konoha when Team 7 was still intact. Those were easy and good times.

"Why do you sound so spiteful when you speak of him?" Karin asked again. It wasn't often they had a conversations like this because most of the time Sakura was completely out of this world full of drugs and medicine.

"There's quite a big chance he is the reason why-" Sakura's words were caught sort as another coughing fit strike her. She felt once again like gagging and throwing up all of the nutritious liquids given to her through the naso-gastric tube.

Karin waited patiently until Sakura was ready to speak again.

"He might be the reason why I'm here."

"You think he told Orochimaru about your ability to control chakra?" Karin finished what Sakura meant to say. "I think you're making him sound more bad than he actually is. Sasuke is a very distant person but he's not the devil."

"I know he is, but people change."

Shaking her head Karin turned back to the table and continued maxing the concoction. She knew that Sakura was Sasuke's teammate back in Konoha because that is what Kabuto has been telling her, but to actually hear that Sakura had feelings for Sasuke was a shock. She seemed such a distant person and strong that it felt unbelievable to hear and understand something like that.

She would have never thought of that either. But she guessed Sakura's words were right. Sasuke really was the ideal package if you were looking for the dark and mysterious type of a guy. Sasuke fit that picture perfectly. The only down side was that Karin had no idea how to get him to understand her feelings and maybe even reciprocate them.

Sparing a glance at Sakura's weakened form on the stone slab she noticed that the girl had lost her consciousness once again.

"This is all your fault."

"You should have just left me there to die."

"All of this is your fault."

"Don't touch me!"

Sasuke's eyes flashed open and his chest heaved from strong intakes of breath. Sakura's beaten and bruised body from months ago flashed in his mind making him grit his teeth. The way she had swayed from side to side and the blood that was covering her almost completely. Still even in his mind it was a gruesome sight to see.

And now yesterday, it was almost the same situation. Sakura physically weak and throwing up on ground covered in sweat and looking feverish. Her body had trembled and she had detested the idea of him touching her at all. And it looked like his touched had caused her some form of pain. What was Orochimaru doing to her?

All the moments of when Sakura took care of him came to his mind next. In the Forest of Death during the chūnin exam, then when Gaara attacked Konoha she protected him and then in the Land of Snow.

Shaking his head in annoyance, Sasuke sprang up from the bed and left the room leaving his shirt behind. He needed to find more details, right now. It had started to bother him so much to know why they needed Sakura. He was aware that she was highly intelligent and was a medic trained by Tsunade, but what other abilities could she have that were necessary for Orochimaru to not let her escape.

Sasuke made his way back to the lab and was not surprised at all to find Sakura on the bed. Karin had plugged her in a heart monitor that showed her too high pulse and EKG. It looked like even in her sleep she was doing something exhausting. The tube was still in her nose dripping that brown liquid slowly in and she also had an IV on her arm that was dropping a clear looking liquid into her veins.

To Sasuke's wonder Sakura's body was mostly covered by a blanket. Karin seems to have at least some sort of human heart in her.

Deciding not to get too close to the wires Sasuke stepped around and went for the cabinets. Digging through them and searching for something that might have some clues for him. At the last row under a computer was a full row of cabinets with files in them. The files were in alphabetical order and Sasuke looked for both Haruno and Sakura. Finally from the S-part he found her file and dug it out.

The first page was filled with casual information about Sakura, with her height and weight along with blood types and everything. It was like looking at any medical file of a person. On the next page the was Kabuto's hand writing and on top of the page read 'IPE-4'. As he scanned the page quickly, words such as immunity and poisons popped out. But as the text went on from page to page the word 'poison' changed to acids.

"What the-," he mumbled to himself.

They were trying to get her skin immune to acids and poisons. Poisons was very much understandable since Sasuke was immune to them as well because of few Orochimaru's tests, but to be immune to acids is a completely different thing. But it seemed that they needed chakra control to be able to execute the immunity, and that is when things clicked in Sasuke's head.

Sakura had an extra ordinary chakra control. Back when they were gennin she was the first to climb up the tree even before Naruto and himself had done it. She always excelled in anything that needed precise chakra control so to use her for a something like this was very much understandable. Never in his years has Sasuke even met anyone else which such ability to control chakra.

It infuriated both him and Naruto back then because she wasn't in any clan. She was a mediocre kunoichi with not much of talent for fighting.

And of course her ability to control chakra made her an excellent medical kunoichi and an apprentice for Tsunade, who was renown for her monstrous powers that needed the same kind of control Sakura has. Everything made so much sense now, but as he read through the files it seemed that the tests were going according to plans. Sakura's body was slowly and carefully adapting to the drug given to her.

To be able to be immune to acids and poisons she had to use chakra. To brings chakra on top of her skin as if to protect it. At the last page on bold letter was written that Sakura was un-cooperative, which was starting to slow the process. They couldn't get her to use her chakra to try the immunity. That would explain the abnormal bruising on her arm.

The sound of the door opening alerted Sasuke and he turned to look over his shoulder.

Karin peeked inside her hair a mess from sleeping and she was rubbing her eyes.

"Sasuke-kun? What are you doing here?" Her eyes zeroed in on the paper and her eyes widened.

"Y-you're reading through her files!" She pointed her finger at him in panic, "You can't do that!"

Sasuke turned back to the papers and activated his sharingan. Scanning though all of the pages in second he closed the files and dropped it back into the drawer.

"Kabuto is so going to kill me, now." Karin moaned in the background. She pulled on her hair and almost caused her glasses to drop from her eyes.

"Go back to sleep, Karin." Sasuke finally said something and dug through more of the cabinets. His eyes caught a sight of bottles that had IPE-4 written on the side of them and he placed them on the table. Karin was instantly next to him and grabbed his arm.

"What are you doing?!" She was horrified and Sasuke felt more than bothered. He pulled his arm away from Karin's grabbed her chin only to lock her in one of his genjutsus. Her eyes glassed over she swayed on her place.

Grabbing the bottles, he walked to the sink and dropped them in. All of them broke from the hit on the metal leaving glass shards all over the sink.

He had no idea what forced him to do this, but his instinct told him it was the right things to do. Returning to the file cabinet he grabbed Sakura's file and looked through all the others for more information on Sakura's experiment but found none. Throwing the file into the sink Sasuke took a breath in, "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" The small fireball erupted from his lips and the fire ate away on the files and the drug.

Opening the tab, he let the water turn off the fire.

Next he went to Sakura's side and began trying the shackles open. Deciding not to use fire in case he burned Sakura, he walked to one of the drawers where he remembered he saw a few keys. He took the loop and walked back to the shackles. After a few tries he got all of them open. and he began pulling the EKG attachments off her chest and ribs, then her IV was gone and he took a band-aid on it.

Sasuke wasn't sure whether or not he should get rid of the tube inside her nose and after a moment of pondering he decided to leave it on just in case. He couldn't know how she ate or was she even able to eat at all. Removing the bag from the tube, Sasuke plugged the thing and carefully slipped his arm under Sakura's knees and back.

She didn't stir at all as he picked her up and left the lab.

The sound of Karin falling on to the floor was the only sound after that when Sasuke released his genjutsu on her.

I have this weekly news thing on my profile if you're interested to see how I'm progressing with my writing. Go check that out if you want to know what I'm going to post next.

Thanks for reviewers:

ILoveSxS

Lady Rini

Waterlilly333

Uchiha Misaki

sasusaku dream

and one guest.

Leave a review! I'm still very unsure how people like this story since not so many have left a review.

BTW, this will eventually get into the rhythm of the Naruto Shippuden, but of course with few changes along the way.

- Jakura