A/N: Not much to say about this chapter…except that I got desperate and added implied shonen-ai. I'm sorry non-yaoi fans, I needed more readers! The main couple is still Lee and Sakura though. By the way, Sakura's depression in the second paragraph is not my view of her. It is how I interpret her view of herself. She'd depressed dammit!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the copyrighted characters.

The Price of a Dream

By Nine Tailed Vixen

Last Time:

"Now are you alright with the Lee thing?"

Sakura smiled, "Nope."

Gypsy chuckled, "Sassy brat."

"Hey, at least I understand what happened, though I'm not comfortable with it." Sakura said.

"Hey, men will be men. Nothing you can do about that. Now are you ready to go back tonight?" Gypsy smiled.

"I guess…" Sakura said as she and Gypsy went out the door and headed towards the forest to make tonight's Blood Salve.

Chapter 6-Panic

Sakura made her way down the street with a smile plastered on her face. Tsunade-sama had just taken a look at Lee and she thought that his recovery was nothing short of a miracle. She said that in two weeks he had healed as if it had been two months! And he was healing perfectly as if the bone had been fractured and not splintered entirely. Gai kept going on about how it was Lee's youth that was saving his dream but Sakura knew better. After the 'incident' the first night the next two weeks went almost perfectly.

Sakura stopped as she caught sight of the bridge. Naruto and Sasuke were standing close together talking about something. Sasuke was smiling about something as Naruto looked down and blushed. This was nothing new to Sakura. Her smile faltered. Seeing them together hurt so much. She sighed, even now she was still pining for Sasuke. He'd chosen someone else and not her. She'd been with him for so long, just waiting for him to turn around and take her into his arms. But he didn't. He turned to his side. It made sense if she thought about it. Why love someone below you when you can have an equal? She was below him and she knew it. She was just some animal striving for attention from one who never would give her what she wanted. She sighed sadly. Maybe they really weren't meant to be. She'd just have to take this hit to her pride. Ah well, more fish in the sea she supposed.

Naruto looked over and saw her standing there. He started waving at her like a maniac and Sasuke simply leaned on the railing of the bridge. He nodded but didn't look at her, signaling he noted her arrival, a smile was still on his lips, slightly.

A sudden wave of nausea hit Sakura and she stumbled. Something was wrong. Naruto stopped waving and Sasuke raised his head to look at her.

Sakura felt a warm wetness on her left side. She looked to see her arm and leg bleeding profusely. A surge of panic hit her at the sight of so much of her own blood. This hadn't happened before. Usually right after the thorns pierced her skin they healed up automatically, leaving only dark bruises. That was the only reason that she had stopped wearing her usual attire and had chosen long pants and a nice red blouse, but the crimson blood was clearly visible even on the red of the shirt.

Naruto's eyes widened as he and Sasuke watched as blood dripped from Sakura forming a small puddle, it looked like she had been attacked, and brutally.

Sakura felt sick and unbelievably dizzy. Her eyes rolled as her knees buckled.

Naruto and Sasuke ran towards her but they weren't the one's who caught her as she collapsed.

"What happened?" Kakashi asked as he held the prone form of Sakura in his arms. He quickly looked her over to see if he could judge the cause of the injury.

"I don't know!" Naruto was in a bit of a panic. Sakura had seemed fine seconds ago!

Sasuke put his hand on his teammate's shoulder, a small measure to calm him. "She was fine a few minutes ago. She was even smiling, though I don't know why."

"Blood just came out of nowhere! Nothin' was thrown at her or anything!" Naruto's eyes were still wide. His childhood crush was bleeding to death before his eyes.

"Listen, you two, find Tsunade-sama. I'll take Sakura to the hospital. Go now!" Kakashi barked. When he found whoever did this to his student there would be hell to pay!

Lee smiled brightly as he talked to Gai and his teammates, Neji and Tenten. He was anxious to learn all that was going on outside. Especially about Sakura, even though neither Neji nor Tenten saw her often. Gai had long since made it his personal mission to ask Kakashi about her every time he saw him. Kakashi would always tense slightly as he answered because Gai was beginning to look like a pedophile with his concern for such a young female student.

Lee always looked forward to her visits even though she had only visited him once since she brought him the flower, and that visit was mostly a silent one. For some reason Sakura seemed uncomfortable around Lee, although he had to admit that she was positively gorgeous when she blushed.

"What the hell is going on?!" A loud female voice echoed through the hospital.

"Ino, be quiet!" a young male voice scolded her, "We're in a hospital."

All of a sudden there was a flurry of movement past Lee's door. Gai looked out and his eyes widened. He took a quick glance at Lee before exiting the room. There was a slamming of a door in the next room and then silence. Lee looked at Neji who had already looked into the next room with his eyes. His eyes were completely void as they looked at Lee. Something was wrong.

A young blond girl walked slowly past the door with tears running down her face. Lee recognized her as Ino, a friend of Sakura. Something was defiantly wrong. His stomach clenched. He didn't want to know but at the same time he needed to.

"W-wait." Lee spoke out to the girl with a dry voice. She looked at him with tears in her eyes. "What's going on?"

She took one look at him and threw her arms around his neck, shocking him considerably. "I-I'm s-so s-sorry." She sobbed into his neck. "It's Sakura."

Lee's stomach clenched. "W-what…?"

Shikamaru stood at the door. A small frown on his face. He met Lee's eyes and shook his head. It was bad.

Ino pulled back and looked Lee in the eye. "S-she l-lost so much blood. It was everywhere!"

Lee froze. No…no way…this can be happening. He and Sakura…they were so close…she didn't like Sasuke half as much as she used to…he finally had a chance…

Ino broke down again. Shikamaru spoke up from the door; "The doctors will have to work fast if they're to save her. She's lost almost half of her blood."

Lee felt sick.

To be continued…