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Chapter 6: Even

Sasuke's eyes fluttered open to meet the blinding white light of Kabuto's laboratory. It felt like déjà vu."Why am I here?" He thought groggily, struggling to sit up but the sudden strike of pain in his stomach shot him back down to the lying position. He lifted his head up slightly and looked at his bandaged he remembered why he was there: he had tried to stop the brunette from risking her life and escaping. The only reason he had stopped her, of course, was to keep her from dying but even so, she tried to kill him. His mind drifted farther back, when he had been here last time after he had tried to kill her.

"Ah, you're awake good," he couldn't see but he knew that Kabuto was smirking joyfully at the position he was currently in and he grimaced. "Now open your mouth, you need to take this medicine in order for you to recover fully."

Sasuke felt a cold metal cup at his lips before he could protestor refuse and immediately remembered the cold dagger that had laid so dangerously at his throat. As the cold liquid slid down his throat, he wondered what had happened to the girl. Had she gotten away?

"What happened to her?" Sasuke asked, clearing his throat of the medicine.

"She got captured," Kabuto replied not batting an eyelash as he began preparing some mixture of herbs. "She spent the last four weeks in the torture room." There was a cruel smile on his lips now as he loomed over the injured boy.

"How long have I been out?" Sasuke asked as he stared into the evil eyes of his doctor.

"About a month, now drink this," Kabuto answered as he brought another cup to the boy's lips. "You should be pain free in two days and out of my hair and lab in five. So I suggest you take it easy, because we both don't want you here longer then necessary. Babysitting is not me forte."

Sasuke nodded as he would rather be anywhere else then the experimenting lab of the white haired man. But there was one more thing that he had to know before he could hold his peace and wait out his time of being imprisoned in this 'hospital'. "Which one?"
"Excuse me?" Kabuto raised an eyebrow as he turned away from his medicines to smirk amusedly at the raven haired Uchiha..

"Which torture room is she in?" Sasuke asked again because of the strong urge to know. Yet he didn't know why, but he just needed to know.

"The Lightening Whip, which has always been my favorite," Kabuto replied thoroughly amused before turning back and pouring a red liquid on a pile of green herbs.

"Only because you've never felt it burn into your skin before," The raven haired boy felt himself glaring at the bright lights that hovered above him when what he really wanted was to glare at the cruel man who was helping heal his injuries.

Five days pass slowly when all you're doing is lying around in bed thinking about your attacker was what Sasuke determined on the last day that he was forced to stay in the bleak white laboratory. On one hand, he hated the brown haired girl for putting him back into this depressed room (he didn't blame her for the first time since that had been his own fault) but on the other hand, he felt pity for her as he remembered her eyes: desperate to escape, yet so tired, yet so determined all at the same time.

She may not seem like it, but she truly was one of the best kunoichi out there. For someone to have that much determination and courage was what it meant to be a shinobi. That's what Sasuke thought for a long time now and was living by those standards: he wasn't going to give up until he got to his brother and got revenge for his dead family.

Because of this, he began to grow a deep respect for the brown haired female ninja.

"Orochimaru-sama says you can leave now," Kabuto informed him as he walked into the room, holding a thick folder full of papers."Now run along, I have a lot of important experiments and planning to do."

He didn't need to tell Sasuke twice because once the first sentence had left his mouth, the raven haired boy was already out the door.

After a while of just roaming the dark corridors and getting used to being back on his legs again, Sasuke realized that he really didn't have anywhere to go. If he had wanted, he could have gone training but then again, he wasn't fully recovered yet as he still had a rather large gash on his abdomen that gave him pain occasionally.

Unconsciously, he let his feet take control and the next thing he knew, he was standing outside the door to the dark, cramped dungeon. She won't be here, he told himself. She's probably unconscious from the torture. But as he wondered why he even cared so much, his feet once again moved on their own accord and he found himself now outside her prison cell.

Much to his surprise, she was lying limply on the floor, panting. All the skin that was visible and not covered by her dirty rags of clothing had red marks on them. Her hair was out of her buns but her long hair which was spilled around her and on the dirty stone floor was singed and burned at the bottom.

Running his hands through his hair, he sighed deeply as he stared at the lifeless form of the once determined, energetic female. "I told you not to try," he murmured out loud.

"But if I hadn't," her weak voice surprised him. "I wouldn't have known it was impossible to escape this hellhole."

"I can't believe you can still talk," Sasuke felt a little relief that she wasn't completely dead. He leaned against the wall and let himself slide down. He began to think back to his state after he had come out of that same torture. Although he had only been in there for a week compared to her four weeks, he had barely managed to breath, let alone talk afterwards.

"I'm not dead yet," Tenten managed a small smile as she weakly sat up and looked at the boy. "Sorry." Her chocolate eyes looked like a mixture of sadness and sincerity.

"What?" The raven haired boy was confused at the word that came out of her pale lips, believing that he had heard wrong. "What did you just say?"

"Sorry for trying to kill you." Tenten repeated softly. "Even after the pact we made--"

"It's fine," Sasuke replied quickly, not being able to see her with such a look of regret. Again his own actions surprised himself. "After all, we're even now, right? I tried to kill you, you tried to kill me. Now we should make our treaty before it becomes unbalanced again."

Managing a small nod, Tenten showed her agreement, "Then the Sasuten Treaty is reborn."

"Sasuten?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Being in tortured forces one to try to keep their minds busy. You would be amazed about what I came up with during that month," Tenten attempted a simple shrug but pain took over once more and she began shaking. "Say, Sasu-chan, could you do something for me?"
"Don't call me that," Sasuke cringed at the nickname.

"Fine, Sasuke," Tenten rolled her eyes. "Come in to the cell. Don't worry I won't hurt you. The keys are right next to the door."

Without hesitation, Sasuke stood up and grabbed the cell keys from off the stone wall and unlocked the barred door. Slipping in he closed it behind him but was careful not to lock it. "What do you want me to do?"

"Could you cut of my hair?" This question suddenly hit Sasuke out of the blue.

"What?!"

"Not all of it. Just the burnt parts."

"No. I don't cut hair."

"Come on!" Tenten whined. "We have a treaty!"

"This has nothing to do with that," Sasuke crossed his arms.

"Just do it or I'll kick you," Tenten threatened.

"Oh really? How are you going to do that?" He raised an eyebrow as he smirked, amused at her empty threat.

"I managed to escape, didn't I? How do you think that happened?" Tenten matched his smirk with one of her own. Her eyes met his and they held each other's gaze until pain shocked the brunette once more and she was forced to look away. "Come one, please." Minutes ago, Sasuke had noticed that her voice was slowly getting stronger but now her voice was weak and broken again.

Wordlessly, Sasuke took out his kunai from his pocket and gingerly picked up some of her hair. It was mid shoulder length but six inches needed to be cut off because of the burns. Using the kunai, he began to hack of the burnt brown hair, being careful not to pull her hair and giver her anymore pain then she already had.

But a thought overtook his mind, "How did you get your haired burnt, if you were being tortured by lightning?" Sasuke mused, confused.

"I don't know," Tenten mumbled. "I was getting really pissed from that whip and then the next thing I know the candle that that man was holding erupted into a great flame that began to surround me. Next thing I knew, I was awake and in a different room with burns all over my arms and another week in torture."

"What did you do?" Sasuke asked, eyes widening slightly.

"Nothing! At least nothing that I know of. But then again, ever since I came here, I don't know anything anymore," Tenten mumbled quietly as she stared down at the cold marble floor. She sighed miserably before continuing, "I just want to know what's going to happen to me. Do you know? Could you tell me?" She turned her head abruptly and looked at him with pleading honey eyes.

Sasuke bit his lip to keep from spilling the truth out in one breath. Those eyes looked like they were piercing through all those shields he had built up and were reaching his heart. "No," He lied, "I don't know. I don't know anything."

"Oh," Her eyes lowered and she turned her head away.

"Hey, don't move so much," Sasuke warned as he continued to cut her hair, hating himself as he watched each lock of dead hair fall to the ground. he wanted to tell her everything even if he didn't know why. But he couldn't tell her, it would just hurt her more to know that she was in a position with no way out. "Okay, I'm done."

"I wish I could see it," Tenten sighed again, but this time of contentment, as she ran her fingers through her now shoulder length hair.

"Here," the raven haired boy offered her the reflective metal kunai to use as a mirror.

She stared back at him with wide eyes, "What are you doing?"

"What, you said you wanted to see your hair. Use this," Sasuke explained bluntly, extending his hand further for her to take the metal weapon.

The brunette stared at the weapon. Silver, smooth, airline, perfect for throwing and hitting your target. Not long ago, she was a master at using such weapons along with all other sorts and types of weapons. But now she hesitated to take the silver weapon from the raven haired boy. "Why? Aren't you afraid I'll attack you again?" A tear swelled up in her eye but she made no attempt to wipe it away. "I almost killed a comrade...I feel so stupid!"

"No," her head rose as she looked at Sasuke with glossy eyes. "I trust you." His mouth was lifeless showing no visible emotion, it was his eyes that gave him away. His onyx eyes were almost smiling at her, filling her with a sort of warmth that made even the pains from the whip she had earlier disappear momentarily.

"Thank you, thank you for being my ally," she smiled genuinely at him as she wiped away the tears from her eyes.

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