Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

WARNING: Fluffy chapter & a little Graphic

Doumo;sorry(shortest way to say it)

The Hush of Mist Above Crimson

Chapter six

-THE AVENGER-

The boat rocked back and forth with the black waves. Trees spiraled up from out of the water, their branches shaking in the hoarse wind as multicolored leaves rustled noisily. They hunched over, painting vague pictures of themselves in the unsettling water.

Sasuke stopped in front of the boat. It was becoming harder and harder to ignore Sakura's face pressing gently into his neck, and with each of her soft exhales he could feel the small hairs on the back of his neck rise and fall in response. Her hands clung lightly to his shoulder and he felt a dim tingle run down his spine.

This frustrated him. The only time he could ever remember himself shiver was in fear.

'With Zabuza.' Sasuke's thoughts trailed back to years and years ago. To his family.

And...

Walking down the deserted streets of the Uchiha residence as a child, he could remember that sense of dread. That knot of fear in the pit of his stomach after seeing the bloodstained walls of where he once called home turn a sick gray under the merciless moon. That night he had shivered in fear, In helplessness.

But now, strangely to him- it was different.

"Sakura..." Sasuke whispered, softly, needing her to wake up so she could help him in getting herself inside the boat.

No response.

"Sakura." He repeated, slightly louder. She stirred. He felt her shift behind him and the hand on his shoulder tighten its grip as she woke. Her lips brushed against his neck and shoulder when she turned her head over, opening her tired eyes. He wanted so badly to get her off of him so he could stop this.

"Yeah?" She whispered from behind him, not bothering to move her cheek from his back.

"We're here and I don't think I can put you in the boat without dropping you."

She looked to the water. He was right, the boat was pretty low. "Oh, right." She slid off of him to feel the sharp pain in her side again that was becoming sickeningly familiar. She kept hes hands on his shoulders for balance.

Sasuke straightened when she finally let go. He silently chastised the part of him that missed the inviting warmth of her body. Turing around, he noticed the blood on her waist was dry and he could see black fabric underneath her severed vest. He was no medic but knew any jolty movements and it would re-open again.

Without a word he put her arm over his shoulder and then slid a hand around her waist to support her into a standing position. She initially felt shock but soon let him guide her over to the boat that he had pulled up onto the shores rocks. He sat her down on one of the wooden benches inside before getting out to push the boat onto the water again.

Sakura watched him do this with such ease it made her lips curve into a small smile. He had always been so good at everything...so successful. His black eyes purposefully avoided her stare when he hopped in a few feet in front of her. Both were silent as they floated out further from land in the light of the fading evening. Sasuke grabbed an oar from behind him and began to steer the boat further out.

Sakura had never felt more useless. She seemed to always be the one getting hurt and having Naruto and Sasuke come save her. If it wasn't for those two, she thought, feeling almost pathetic, I wouldn't be here. The truth of her thoughts almost stung as bad as her wound.

"Doumo Sasuke," she whispered her words sounding meaningless as she bowed her head in shame. "I owe you an apology."

This caught Sasuke way off guard. "For what?" This question pertained to both of her last statements. He kept his eyes on some point above her shoulder.

"For...for coming back. You could have been hurt returning for me and..." she paused feeling a swell of guilt, "I put the the mission, and more importantly, the team in danger when I allowed myself to be captured." Sakura repressed a shudder, recalling the faces of those twins. Nyoko's eyes...that lust for murder.

"It's not your fault," Sasuke said plainly, trying to brush it off. "But do you know what they were trying to accomplish by taking you captive?" He didn't want to stress her more but it was killing him. This time he looked directly at her, feeling his own strange guilt at the way her hair slung over her lowered face, casting shadows over her eyes. He snapped out of it when she brought a hand up to wipe the dried blood from the corner of her mouth.

"Hai...", she answered, "they said I was a witness."

"They?" Sasuke interrupted.

"Yes, there were two of them..." Sakura recalled, "twins actually." she finished shakily. His eyes widened slightly.

"You don't mean..."

"I believe so. It was the two Jounin with the Mizukage. He definitely knew about it but no one was supposed to see Ishimaru killed."

'But why would-' Sasuke inwardly ran over the possibilities. None of them justified what the twins had done to her. He remained silent as his thoughts returned to Sakura. He stopped rowing and let the force of his previous strokes carry them across the water. 'No wonder they could take her...two elite against one chunnin...' He pushed the thought from his mind, not wanting to think about how it would have turned if she was killed. Tsunade would have flipped.

"They slit his throat." Sakura murmured. If he wasn't so close to her he probably would have missed it. Her voice sounded so pained and distant Sasuke had to pause for a moment. He wished Sakura hadn't seen something like that. Witnessed such a quick but bloody kill. He had always seen her as so innocent but after the first death she'd seen, Sakura's eyes seemed to always hold a small dimness to them. As if...as if she had grown stronger somehow by paying the price of her innocence. No-ignorance .

Perhaps it was just him who noticed but either way he had to leave her be- she was nine-teen now.

It had been so long since he had done group missions and Sasuke wasn't used to the extra weight on his shoulders. He felt obligated to protect and watch out for both Sakura and Naruto. If only he had gotten there sooner, then may be Sakura wouldn't be...

He focused his attention back on her and was surprised to find her already looking up at him. They stayed like that for a moment, too short to be significant yet long enough to make her think. Sakura tried to read his eyes, supposedly the gateway to the soul, if this was true, his were closed for she saw nothing but his usual coldness.

She looked away, embarrassed. Was the darkness making her mad because she could have sworn she saw a flicker of sympathy in his coal eyes.

Sakura shivered being drawn back to how freezing she felt. Nyoko's kunai had slashed straight through her clothes and gone about an inch and a half through her bare skin. She could almost feel the cool blade cut her again, its cold metal glinting off of the dim firelight. Her wound was leaving her exposed to the same wind that sent waves of deep blue crashing against the side of their boat. She bit her lip and shook quietly again as another chill ran down her spine. Sakura turned when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sasuke move.

He reached behind him and removed the lid from a storage box in the rear of the boat. After shuffling around he pulled out a small blanket and a white first-aid kit. Sasuke handed Sakura the blanket after placing the kit next to him.

"Thanks." She said, gladly accepting it.

He didn't respond when he picked up the wooden oars and started out again.

- - -

The air was dense and the chill and growing outline of clouds in the sky whispered warnings of morning rain. Sakura pulled the soft fabric closer around her, shielding out the wind. She blinked hard...how much longer can I last like this?

"I'll check your wounds when we arrive on land.", he felt the need to clarify his motives, "If it's not cleaned out you run the rick of infection. I'm sure you're well aware of that."

Sakura thought it kind of comical that Sasuke would be the one checking on her. After all, she was the medic but he was definitely right. "Mhm." She finally answered forcing herself to tear her eyes away from his face. What was this feeling again? This sickening dizziness and rush of utter confusion. Sakura clenched the blanket in silent frustration. Almost all hopes of him ever loving her were crushed when he left Konoha seven years ago. 'Nothing has changed.'

'Why does he always push me away...' she would think to herself, wiping her tear stained cheeks after being told off again as a young genin. Even now she still pondered the same taunting question.

Was he afraid because everything he ever loved was so brutally taken away from him? Did he fear that all his chances at a peaceful life were some twisted illusion...

She looked back to Sasuke who was staring down into the rippling water beside him, an unreadable expression on his delicate face.

Or was his hatred and utter rejection for her alone?

--

It troubled him, for an avenger had no time for petty feelings. Or so he told himself, but the more he was with her, the more he felt his goals and life long determination slipping from him, seeming less important next to the devoted girl before him. 'She'd always been there,' he thought, eyes concentrating on the rough white crests of the ocean. He just never noticed how much before now.

'Though after...'

His face showed no signs of his inner conflict,

'There was always...'

That disgusting voice that haunted his every thought of happiness and marked any suggestions he ever had of being with her as foolish. Uchiha's hated what they couldn't understand, Itachi being a prime example. His words had stung Sasuke's mind and crept through his young and vulnerable heart tainting it- guarding it with ice. Since that day Sasuke has only wanted one thing- revenge. And at twenty years old he was failing at that as well.

--

A light rain fell now, dampening the ground with it's mist. Sasuke got out when the boat couldn't move up on land any further and he heard the rocks scraping against the wood beneath the water. After pulling it half way on shore he extended a hand to Sakura when she walked towards the bow. She shook her head and mumbled 'I got it' , not entirely sure why.

Sakura watched awkwardly as he pulled everything from the boat and lay out another blanket beneath a large tree.

"I need you to lie down." She heard him say. She was standing in the rain.

Sakura did what he said, bending back carefully so she didn't stretch the skin on her wound.

"I'm just going to clean it and bandage it okay? It will have to do until we can get you to a hospital." he said, stopping for a moment to look closely at her. Sakura knew that already but he must have sensed her uneasiness.

"Kay.", she whispered to him as he bent over her. Satisfied, Sasuke's face left her view again and he opened the kit beside him. He took out gauze and disinfectant.

Now, this was all quite strange for Sasuke since he rarely had to bandage other people. He was used to helping himself and was professional in hurting others, not aiding in healing them.

"Could you take off your vest." He said as calmly as he could. She nodded looking away to avoid the odd embarrassment. What was the big deal?

After putting it to the side he rolled up her shirt so her waits was in clear view. Sakura winced as the fabric was torn away, not wanting to look at it. She felt the pull on her skin as the material was unglued from her by the dry blood and she could tell it wasn't okay by the way Sasuke looked at it.

A deep red gash contrasted with her pale skin. It ran from a few inches away from her belly button slightly diagonal to some of her hip. Her skin curved inwards at the sides of the wound and different layers of tissue were visible through the centimeter wide space.

This ran dangerously deep.

Sasuke had seen countless bodies in his lifetime; some just lay there helpless and fatally wounded while others he'd been assigned to finish off himself. After seeing his family slaughtered, nothing could be more horrifying to him and he appeared to never be phased, even by the most serious of injuries. Though...seeing it on her...it made his stomach churn.

He pulled out a clean cloth from his bag along with an unopened water bottle. Behind him, so not to splash Sakura, he wet the cloth and wrung it out.

Sasuke thought it best to begin with something simple like her face first. He wiped the cloth as gently as he could against her cheeks and forehead, getting red of the dirt and blood that rested there.

"Do you have any pain killers?" He asked quietly after removing the cloth from her damp face.

"Yeah. In the front pocket of my bag." she said a bit worried. The disinfectant was the worst part.

Damnit..., she cursed silently. Without her chakra there was no way to heal herself and draw the bacteria out.

Before she knew it Sasuke had her head lifted up with one hand and dropped the pills into her mouth. Sakura watched his distant eyes curiously. Bringing the water bottle to her lips he lifted her head up further and slightly tilted the bottle. "Swallow," he told her in a low voice. When he put her head back down he placed his cloak underneath it so her head wasn't on such a flat surface. Trying to make her as comfortable as possible he took the other blanket and draped it over half of her, leaving her wound exposed. He then used the second blanket to put over that one, keeping her warm for the quickening rain and wind were against them.

Sakura was already feeling better than she was before. Her trembling had died down and the cold seemed less provoking. It's almost like he's done this before...

Stray drops of rain snuck past the dense branches of the tree above them as she felt the pain slowly dull away from the medication and the muscles in her arms and legs relax a bit. Her coughing had seized but her chakra still remained abnormally low and out of whack.

Sakura repressed her anxiety about the disinfectant. She recalled the horrid sting of it on a minor scrape or cut but this gash was so dangerously large she could almost imagine the feeling of teeth clenching discomfort. She held her breath while Sasuke screwed the cap off and carelessly tossed the white lid to the soil but...he put the bottle down, looking to the side as if he was contemplating something. He glanced at her nervous eyes before reaching behind him and pulling a hand towel from Naruto's bag.

"Bite down on this if it hurts," he said bending over her to put some of the towel in between her teeth. She nodded, eyebrows furrowed in worry. She wasn't sure if she was feeling faint from loss of blood or paranoia.

"it might sting." he added calmly even though he was positive it would. Sakura watched his hand move painfully slow towards her waist and then stop above it. He hated to do it but eventually it would have to be done and it was a cruel taunt keeping it poised above her like this. Thinking that the cloth maybe wasn't enough for her to squeeze, he slid his hand over her right one and curved his fingers in to gently grip hers.

Right when she tore her surprised eyes from the bottle he poured the clear liquid over the wound with his other hand. She gasped and shut her eyes tightly as she felt the fluid flow over her side and soak into the blanket beneath her. Sakura bit down hard on the cloth with her teeth, ripping through the material wile she felt as if thousands of stinging needles were piercing through her waist and moving deep towards her trembling core. She pushed her head back into his cloak, turning it restlessly while clenching Sasuke's hand so tight her fingertips grew as white as her knuckles.

The sting was unbearable.

After a moment the pain died down and she slowly loosened her grip on Sasuke. Her breaths were shaky and uneven as she opened her eyes to meet familiar black ones. She couldn't help but be pissed at Tabenomaru right now.

She took a deep breath.

"You gonna be alright?", he whispered, a little breathless himself after seeing her like that.

"Mmn.", she nodded her head trying to smile, his hands still clung lightly to hers. He gave it a small squeeze of reassurance before taking it away. He took the cloth from her mouth and patted the wound dry. There were many small bubbles around the cut. Good, that meant it was clean.

He sighed quietly to himself after everything was finished. Sakura sat beside him, leaned up against the tree watching the small drops of the last bit of rain roll of the edges of the auburn leaves. They wrapped themselves in the two blankets left, Sakura's arm resting over her bandaged stomach protectively.

All there was left to do was wait for Naruto to return.

---

Sakura sat in their comfortable silence with so much on her mind. She was beginning to feel overwhelmed by all the things she'd gone through in the past day. The fear she felt when Nikko and Nyoko had approached her...when Tabenomaru had entered the room as Akina with orders to kill her...when she started to finally think that maybe, maybe, no one was coming for her, that they would leave her there.

She hugged her knees trying to block out the wind along with her hurricane of feelings. Sakura felt stupid when she sensed the prickling behind her eyes. Why should she cry? She was okay now. But...she wasn't like Sasuke. Keeping her feelings in for too long and it would suffocate her. She blinked a few times and willed herself to get it together. It was time she proved even to herself she had indeed grown stronger.

The medic let her head fall to brush her chin against her knees, moving her hands to the sides of her she raked the ground with her fingers, frustrated by her weakness. Why couldn't she be like Sasuke or Naruto? They both were so strong and had the courage for anything. With clenched fists she quietly cursed the two that did this to her. Next time she would make them pay.

- - -

Sasuke sat with one knee up and the other straight on the ground next to Sakura. He was brought from his dark thoughts when he saw her head fall to her knees out of the corner of his eye. She was so confusing, he couldn't understand what would upset her now.

The Uchiha kept his gaze straight ahead, watching the sky grow lighter though he had little interest in the scenery right now.

'It...' , he heard Sakura sigh in frustration from beside him 'It must have been hard for her.'

They watched the sun poke up in the far east and knew Naruto would be returning shortly. How long had they been waiting there for? Twenty minutes? Two hours? More?

He was restless. It was killing him to sit still while something terrible was going on not far from where they were right then.

'Could it really have been the Mizukage...betraying his own country?' Sasuke drummed his fingers against his knee impatiently. Perhaps he would encounter the ones who kidnapped his comrade- his friend.

- - -

Sasuke had been temporarily disappointed by Naruto's 'reinforcements' or 'reinforcement.'

"Wow..." Kakashi said, looking Sakura and Sasuke up and down, "you two look like you've really been through the wringer." Maybe I shouldn't have let them go alone...

This really wasn't what he was searching for when he asked for back-up but...Kakashi would do.

"Yeah..." answered Sakura, embarrassed.

Naruto looked really excited to see her. And then his eyes fell to her bandage. "Sakura... What happened? Who did that to you?"

She looked away.

"She's hurt. We need to get her to a hospital so they can properly tend to the wound. Tsunade should take a look at it." Sasuke said quietly, briefly glancing at Sakura.

"Hn." Naruto shook his head. This was his fault wasn't it.

"Thank-you Sasuke." Kakashi said, he turned, "Sakura, do you think you can make it to the next village?"

"Of course.", she said sincerely. No way was she holding anyone back. "I know I can make it back to Konoha."

Naruto and Sasuke looked at her quizzically but Sasuke understood. Like usual, Naruto didn't, "What? You sure?"

"Yes." She answered, smiling best she could.

Naruto looked to her bandages again and then he thought, 'Wait...did Sasuke...bandage her?' He took a quick glance at the Uchiha who was staring coldly at some unknown point between himself and Kakashi. 'Nah...' Naruto brushed the ridiculous thought off. He doubted Sasuke even knew how to dress a wound.

"Well then quickly. You can debrief me as we move." Kakashi looked at the two Jounin and medic before him with a new found determination. "We leave now."

-End chapter six-

Sorry about the wait I've been kinda buy ( and unmotivated, lazy...ect...)

Anyways, reviewers, you know what to DO! Give me some feedback! I know, nothing really happend in this chapter but what of the ones before it? Whudda you think will happen?

NEXT CHAPTER: The meeting of the Kage

-autumn fortress