Hello again everybody!

Enjoy chapter 4!

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It was decided. Sasuke was going to follow Sakura home and see what she was really up to. He was going to see what was really going on at home, and what was causing her to be so run down, causing her to have a black eye, and causing her to lose so much weight recently.

But he couldn't do it on his own. He needed a certain somone's help.

He ran back to the school, knowing that Neji trained in the school grounds after every school day. He needed to go as fast as he could so they could both get to Sakura's house before she went in.

He then saw Neji, throwing shurikens at targets in the grounds, panting slightly.

"Neji! Neji, listen, I need you help!"

Neji looked up at him.

"Uggh, I was in the middle of training. What do you need?"

"You know that girl Sakura?"

"..."

"Sakura Haruno?"

"..."

Sasuke sighed. "You know, the skinny pink haired girl with green eyes?!"

Neji suddenly realized. "Ohh, her, yeah I know her. Jeez, what is up with her lately? You know she had a black eye this morning?"

"Yes" Sasuke said, relief flooding over him. "And I'm worried about her, and she won't tell anyone about what's happening, so I need you to come with me to her house, and with your Byakugan look through the walls and tell me what's happening!"

Neji grunted. "Uh, jeez these days i feel the only reason anyone talks to me is to get me to use my Byakugan for them...What do I get out of it? Why are you so interested in her anyway?" he said suspiciously.

Sasuke thought hard. He needed to do this quickly. A lightbulb suddenly went on in his head.

"I'll set you up with Tenten! I know you've always had a crush on her. Come on, Neji, Please?"

Neji stiffened at the thought of Tenten. This didn't even need thinking through. "I'll do it" he just said. "But remember, I'm only staying to watch with my Byakugan, it's not like I'm going to help her or anything. I don't even know her."

"Alright, great! Thanks Neji, you're the best. But we have to go quickly, follow me!"

Sasuke and Neji then both ran as fast as their legs could carry them over to Sakura's house. It wasn't a long way, so they reached it in only around 5 minutes.

To the unbelievable luck of Sasuke, just as they got there, Sakura was walking up the path to her house. They stopped in some nearby bushes.

Sakura looked miserable. Her eyes were still red and puffy from crying. She kept her head bowed the entire time when she turned the key in the lock, and stepped inside.

"Okay, come on!" Sasuke and Neji both then crawled over to the wall of her house.

"BYAKUGAN!" Neji concentrated through the walls of the house.

Inside, Sakura put her school bags down on the floor of the hallway and walked through the corridor.

"What do you see?" Sasuke said to Neji.

"Mmm, nothing yet. She's just put her school bags down is all."

Sakura stopped short when she saw Esmee and her father standing still, watching her.

"Where have you been?"

Sakura knew what was coming. As she did nearly every day.

Before she could even answer, Esmee stepped forward and slapped her so hard around the face that Sakura was knocked off balance.

"Okay, we've had enough beating around the bush, you little brat! Not only did you run off, this morning, but you broke the window! AND you came home late again, even after all that we said to you yesterday!"

"UGGHHH!"

Sakura's father then punched her round the face causing her to spin round and lose balance.

Outside, Sasuke heard the scream. Neji gasped.

"What! What is it, what happened?" Sasuke said, full of panic and worry.

"Her parents just punched her round the face...I think it's her father and her mother, but her mother has no resemblence to Sakura whatsoever..."

Neji gasped again. "The woman just slapped her again..."

Sasuke's fists clenched. He pressed his ear against the wall to hear anything else that was going on.

Inside, the tears started coming again. Sakura was on the floor. She leaned against the wall, trembling, her nose bleeding.

"I-I had to g-get to s-school! And you weren't awake...There was no other way, that's why I broke the window! I'm sorry..."

"Don't you lie to us!" Esmee screeched. She grabbed Sakura by her hair and pulled her to stand up again. She stopped pulling, and stared at Sakura's neck. There, in plain sight of her father and Esmee, was the love bite that Sasuke had given her earlier at the lake. Sakura froze. Crap she thought, I shouldn't have let Sasuke do that after all...

"WHAT IN THE HELL IS THIS!? A HICKIE?"

"How did you get a hickie? Who would ever want to give you a hickie, you little slut!"

"Ugly bitch!"

Sakura was punched in the stomach by her father, so hard it knocked all the wind out of her, causing her to double over and fall to the ground.

Outside, Neji shuddered.

"Damn, this is more than overprotective parents, this is child abuse..."

"What's happening?" Sasuke said slowly, not sure he wanted to hear.

"They're beating her up like crazy...pulling her hair, slapping, punching...How could Sakura hide this from anyone for so long?!"

Anger welled up inside Sasuke. He couldn't take it anymore. He stood up and started walking toward the door. He was going to give her parents a taste of their own medicine.

Neji's hand on his arm stopped him.

"Sasuke no, just think about what would happen. It would only make things worse for Sakura...Wait until they're asleep or something if you want to get her out of there."

It took every ounce of perserverance in Sasuke's body to sit down again and not beat the crap out of those two.

Sakura lay doubled up on her side on the floor. could hardly breathe. She had never been winded this badly before.

A final kick in the back from Esmee caused her to whimper slightly.

"Now, as soon as you pick yourself up again and stop being such a damn baby, you can start making us dinner. We both want Chinese tonight, so make it good, slut."

Sakura had no choice but to pick herself up. She had no choice but to get to the kitchen and start making dinner for them both. She had no choice but to just let herself be thrown back into her room locked up again after dinner was finished.

Meanwhile, Neji and Sasuke had been outside watching the entire time. Neji deactivated his Byakugan.

"She's been locked up in her bedroom now. It's the room behind the house with the broken window. They also made her make dinner for them, but she didn't have any dinner herself."

Sasuke stared at the ground. He couldn't believe Sakura was putting up with this every day, and hiding it from everyone.

"I have to go now. It's getting late" said Neji.

"Thanks Neji. I owe you..."

"Oh, and Sasuke?"

"hn?'

"...Take care of her, even though I don't know her I'm still worried. Noone should be subjected to this."

Neji took off away from the house. Sasuke was left alone.

Sasuke was going to get her out of there. Whether something bad happened to him or not, he didn't care.

He went round the back to Sakura's window, which was on the first floor. Slowly he climbed up through the window, just dodging the broken glass and landed artfully on Sakura's floor, making hardly any sound.

Inside, Sakura was kneeling on the floor crying, her face in her hands. She looked up.

"S-Sasuke..." She whispered.

Another flow of tears streamed down Sakura's face. She didn't even need to explain. Her cut lip and bruised face was enough.

Sasuke kneeled on the floor next to her and embraced her in a huge warming hug. Sakura held on to him as if her life depended on it, sobbing into his shirt.

"H-How...??" Sakura whimpered.

"Ssshhhh... It's okay, it's alright now..." Sasuke murmured.

They stayed in that position for about another minute longer. Then Sasuke pulled away gently.

"Oh, Sakura, why on earth didn't you tell me?"

"I-I couldn't...If anyone found out, I don't know what I'd do...And they said they would punish me harder than ever before if I told anyone..."

She gave a small sob, and held onto Sasuke.

"It's okay, Sakura I..., I love you..." Sasuke said.

Sakura looked up at him with gleaming tearful eys. "Oh Sasuke, I love you too..."

She leaned in and kissed Sasuke, one hand around the back of his head, another on the side of his face. She then embraced Sasuke in another hug.

"Sasuke..If only we could run away together...forget this cruel world and everything in it..."

Sasuke stiffened slightly. "Then let's do it"

Sakura sat up, wiping a few tears from her eyes."W-What?"

Sasuke took her hands in his. "Come on Sakura, let's do it. Let's really run away together."

Sakura looked back at him with gleaming eyes.

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Sorry to leave on a bit of a cliffhanger there! I will try and update as soon as I can, and you'll just have to read the next chapter to find out what happens next!

So, thankyou all soooooo much for reading! I love you all! But I noticed that some people are adding me to their story alerts without reveiwing! Please reveiw! If you have enough time to add me to story alerts, then surely you can take just 10 seconds to reveiw, pretty please?! huge bug eyes

Although, thankyou! I love you all who added me to story alerts/favorites/author alerts, and everyone who reveiwed. Also, if you have an idea for the next chapter, don't be afraid to tell me and I may put it in!

Thanks again for reading and reveiwing!