Author's Note:
Tsunade had a phobia of blood after Dan died and before the fight between the Three Sanin in the Search for Tsunade's arc. But let's pretend she doesn't have this phobia, shall we? If that's fine with you, please carry on reading and I hope you enjoy this short chapter once again! Reviews would be greatly appreciated too! :)

Lost Year

Understanding!

Crying isn't something to be ashamed of.
It's a proof that you cared for someone when you never knew you did before.

It was just an hour of fast running and they were soon near the entrance of the infamous gambling town in the Fire country, but both of Sakura's companion wanted to confirm with some things there before they stepped foot into the small town. Without any objection, Sakura agreed to the plan since she knew whatever both of them were doing should have a logical reason behind it.

Trusted to be fine by herself, Sakura was left sitting alone under a tall tree in a small clearing she had managed to find not far from the meeting spot Sasori decided on. Fiddling with a small flower that was by her side, she remembered a few occasions when Ino boasted about her beautiful flower garden at the back of Yamanaka's court.

All of a sudden, a loud snap was heard just a few meters away from where Sakura was. Her head shot up as she quickly scurried to her feet, getting ready into her battle position. She could sense a few odd, dark and definitely unfamiliar chakra signatures approaching her slowly but steadily.

"Who are you people?" Sakura yelled, receiving no answers at all. She then slowly stepped into the brighter clearing when she felt more of them were approaching from the bushes behind her back.

A figure stepped out first, and it was the man she dreaded to see ever again. And soon, the others ninja who were hidden for quite some time stepped out, circling Sakura and observing her every move.

"Orochimaru…" The pinkette stepped forward steadily, to only turn around to find the dozen of the Akatsuki's subordinate coming towards her when they thought she was going to attack their master. The recognizable curse mark were starting to spread all over their body in a speed of lightning.

"What do you want?" Sakura snarled, stopping her movement and forcing every muscle inside her to stay calm and remained in her place. The pinkette didn't have Sasori to back her up like last time so she had to act on her own. She had to think rationally without being all crazy punching air and wasting her chakra. To add to her disadvantages, Orochimaru even brought his own underlings with him.

"I was just wondering where is your other companion." Orochimaru licked his lips, approaching closer and closer to her. "Our discussion wasn't finished before but he had run away. Such a rude child."

"There's no need for any discussion." Sakura sneered, her fist slowly engulfed by her blue chakra.

As she attempted to take another step towards Orochimaru, his subordinates rushed over to Sakura, which was actually what the pinkette was hoping for. Whirling around swiftly, she gave a huge punch onto the ground, sending several shocked opponents flying into the air.

When more dashed towards her direction, she was able to defend and defeated them fairly easy enough just by using her powerful strength and moves although they were in their second stage. Without stopping, she continued sending chakra punches to each and every one of them before they were finally knocked out unconscious.

It seemed that they only could reach the second stage of their curse mark since they never attempted to transform even when they were near fainting, which was a great relief to Sakura since it would be troublesome if they could transform into the third stage.

"Interesting..." Orochimaru spoke, ignoring the bodies lying across the field. Sakura grabbed onto the only male ninja left who should be about the same age as her and threw him into Orochimaru's direction, but the snake summoner easily avoided the attack as he stared, uninterested at his subordinates on the ground before looking up at Sakura pleasantly.

"You're by far, one of the few who managed to defeat my subordinates so easily, even though they were not trained to their third stage" He licked his lips, his two eyes suddenly widened so much that it was freaking Sakura out.

"It would be a waste to kill someone like you..." Orochimaru tilted her head sideways, his brows raised quite an unnecessary amount.

"Leave!" Sakura howled.

"I must have underestimated your skills during our previous encounter due to your sudden flaring up incident. But since this does prove that you're indeed a hassle…"

"Shit-" Sakura widened her eyes to her maximum when she started sensing more similar dark and foul chakra approaching nearer and nearer, so fast that Sakura couldn't guess how many were there.

"Damn it!" Sakura turned and ran back into the dense forest, brushing the branches and small trees away as she dodged them as fast as possible. She could easily detect the strong chakra signature that belonged to Orochimaru catching up her quicker than she would like to. If both of them were to keep up with their own pace, he would definitely catch her in no time.

Summoning her remaining chakra to her feet, she sprinted down as fast as she could before getting caught by the snake summoner and the rest of his approaching underlings.

0o0

"This is stupid." Sasori finally halted on his track after running for about three minutes, as they were getting closer to the entrance.

Kakuzu stopped too, settling on a thick long branch further ahead from Sasori.

"Although I'm grateful that you had helped us escaped from the prison, I would like to say that our travelling business should end here since you gotten the money just like you wanted."

"Hm?" Kakuzu turned and observed the redhead who was standing firmly on his spot.

"I don't see your point in helping us at all. Sakura and I are fine travelling originally as a duo." Sasori muttered

"Ah." Kakuzu loosened his grip onto his precious briefcase. "Are you pissed because I am a third wheel?"

Sasori blinked, totally caught off guard.

"Indeed, I don't see the point why I was so insistent in wanting you to follow me other than the sake for that damn organization. But now you had mentioned it, I couldn't help but agree. I don't have any plans to join you pests any further. That's one of reason for me to choose Tanzaku Town instead of other village that were even near to Konohagakure." Kakuzu blurted out before continuing.

"It's quite entertaining seeing both of you struggling like idiots some times throughout the journey. But I supposed that now it's the best time to let you experience what true fear is, don't you think?"

The redhead narrowed his eyes.

"Sasori of the Red Sand." Kakuzu spoke, fully turning around to face the redhead. "You and that pink girl are simply too naïve if you think you two could survive out there just the two of you alone." The Akatsuki member shook his head, slowly turning back to head towards to the town's direction, knowing that he would be going alone.

"If you two were just from some fishing village, enjoying life and all that you two need to worry were just bearing kids, I would have nothing to say." Kakuzu stopped in his track once again, glancing back at his shoulder.

"A girl from the future? You being a S-ranked criminal that leader had his eyes set on you? Watch your back cause the road ahead would be tough."

"You do know you've talked a lot, don't you?" Sasori sneered.

"It's just a couple of kind warnings, in gratitude for cooperating with me for the past few weeks." Kakuzu smirked, looking far ahead. "But it's always a wonder why I'm wasting my time on you idiots." He finally decided to continue his path as his back view became tinier and tinier till it was gone.

0o0

After Orochimaru had left the scene alone, Sakura glanced wearily across the muddy and bloodied field, with a couple of her dead opponents having their eyes wide opened and still staring hopefully at Orochimaru's direction, hoping that he would at least take them out here alive.

Sakura slowly looked away, biting her lips in pain when more blood started oozing out from her mouth uncontrollably. Her forehead was drenched with cold sweats and her eyes were turning foggy.

"Heal…" Sakura cried out hoarsely, forcing her chakra to her chest to heal on its own, but it was totally impossible due to her dangerously low amount of chakra left within her.

"I don't care who I have to fight… If he rips my arms off, I'll kick him to death. If he rips my legs off, I'll bite him to death. If he rips my head off, I'll stare him to death. And if he gouges my eyes, I'll curse him to death… Even if I'm torn to shreds… I will find a way to take Sasuke back!"

Naruto…

"Damn it…" Sakura bawled weakly, her eyes kept shut tightly together. I can't die here while Naruto and the others are waiting me back in the future. We're supposed to bring Sasuke back together. I can't die!

Sakura started trying to force herself to move. But it seemed the poison Orochimaru had on the sword when it sliced her back during the battle was taking effect. She could sense her organs slowly shutting themselves down on their own even when Sakura tried to force them to work.

"I can't die!" Sakura squeaked softly, her eyes still remained tightly shut while bearing the pain she felt all over her body.

"No, you won't die. You will not die."

The pinkette slowly peeled open her eyes when she recognized the voice before her. But before Sakura manage to observe her surrounding clearer, she found two warm arms sliding under her legs and back and she was lifted her up from the ground.

"Hey… finally you came back…" Sakura muttered weakly. "…I thought you hated… making people wait…"

After making sure Sakura's head was nicely resting on his chest instead of dangling uncomfortably from his arm, Sasori summoned as much chakra as he could to his feet and dashed into the dense trees, being seen just a flash of red when he ran through the forest.

"Brat." He yelled hoarsely, continuing running towards the direction of Tanzaku Town to get help as fast as he could.

"Don't sleep. Don't close your eyes. Stay awake."

"I can't…" She coughed, her hand clutching even tighter to Sasori's already bloodied clothes. "I can't hold on anymore…" Sakura could only manage a whisper before her eyelids started drooping again.

"For my sake!" He yelled. "Don't sleep, alright? Do it for me for my sake!"

"Sa-Sasori…" She whispered, her hazy and dull eyes peering to the man holding her so tightly.

"I'm sorry." He continued running, facing straight ahead and refusing to meet Sakura in the eye. "I wasn't there when you needed me. I couldn't protect you."

"…"

"But I also wouldn't forgive you too." He spoke sternly, finally finding the courage to turn to Sakura.

"Sasori…"

"If you die before me, I will never forgive you."

Sakura wanted to raise her hand to touch Sasori's cheek, to see if what she was witnessing now wasn't actually hallucination. But she was too weak to even move her arms at all. All she could do was to part her lips as she softly spoke in an audible whisper.

"Sasori…" Sakura mumbled. "Are you… crying?"

But before she could hear her answer from him, her entire surrounding turned all foggy and dim and she soon fell unconscious in his arms.

0o0

Something isn't right.

A couple stack of money were once again shoved in front of Tsunade as she accepted her winning money cautiously.

"Tsunade-sama! Having this kind of luck for just another week, we can leave this town already!" Shizune cheered happily. The young teenager was actually prohibited from entering the gambling den due to her age, but since Tsunade was a regular customer and often lose all her money in the den, the boss was more than welcome to have both of them inside every time.

"I've never won so much before." Tsunade spoke out the truth.

"That's great then!" Her fiancé's niece exclaimed happily, for the first time being so enthusiastic with her teacher gambling habit. "Come on Tsunade-sama, place your bet already!"

That necklace…

The masked man who was observing Tsunade for quite some time narrowed his eyes, a newfound hatred reflecting from his eyes when his attention was drawn to the shiny necklace hung around Tsunade's neck.

Even if Kakuzu were to continue living for another few decades due to his special techniques and abilities, he would still remember how his first tough opponent looked like. The necklace that the First Hokage wore during Kakuzu's attempted assassination was rumored to be able to buy three mountains with the profit earned by selling the diamond necklace.

It was seen right before his eyes, hanging around Tsunade's neck and shining victoriously back at Kakuzu as if it was still mocking his defeat.

Kakuzu was now very sure the woman who was sitting a few meters away from him was none other than the First Hokage's granddaughter, Tsunade. It was quite easy to recognize her, being the well-known medic-nin although it was certainly rare for such a time, and to have her name known for the remarkable beauty even with her old age made Kakuzu even easier to recognize her.

Tsunade finally looked up for the second time at the man who was glancing at her now and then. It wasn't like no one had stared at her ever since she came to this town because of her bosom, but that man just looked too suspicious to ignore. Tsunade inwardly snorted, pushing her stack on money forward as she loudly shouted the bet she was placing.

"Hands off the table, hands off the table!" The owner of the den commanded before revealing the two dices underneath his black opaque cup.

"We've won again!" Shizune squealed happily, shaking Tsunade while jumping on the spot.

After collecting her money calmly, her head slightly turned, having her two light brown eyes gazing impassively at Kakuzu again. She had enough of his staring issue and something inside her mind told her to be cautious with him even when she was really lazy to even be bothered about him.

Could it be the luck she was gaining related to him?

No. She only won in bets when something bad was going to happen. So was it him that might be the cause of the mishap she was going to face?

Tsunade remained glaring at Kakuzu who still defiantly hadn't turned away. It was like everything around them faded along with sounds of chattering and shouting and all that focused was only the two of them, the glares they both exchange could easily freeze over hell.

"Tsunade-sama?" Shizune shook her teacher's arm after she had not responded for the second time. "Are you too shock from winning all these money, Tsunade-sama?" She jokingly added when she still hadn't got a reply.

"Oh my!"

"All those blood…"

"What happened to that girl?"

A couple of troubled shouts were heard outside of the den they were in. A few curious civilians walked away from their table and approached outside to see what was the commotion about, leaving only a few dedicated gamblers behind the den.

"Anyone here knows how to heal her?" There was a short pause before the same panicky voice shouted again. "Someone? Just anyone!"

"Heal?" Shizune head shot up and glanced back at the exit of the gambling den before turning to observe the impassive Slug Princess who was still staring at Kakuzu, but all Shizune thought was that her teacher was just staring into space.

Without getting any consent, the young teenager rushed out of the exit to witness a large crowd circling around something. She managed to catch a glimpse of a near adult teen clutching tightly to a bloodied girl in his arm. He was on his knees and panting hard and fast.

"Move aside!" Shizune screamed, pushing everyone out of the way as she rushed over to Sasori.

"Hn." Kakuzu finally decided to stop his boring staring contest as he returned his attention back to his gambling table instead. After a while, the masked man finally stood up from his seat, shoving all the money he earned into his brief case after counting them thoroughly. Locking the money securely in the case, Kakuzu walked out of the den after passing by Tsunade who was still gazing at the spot he was previously sitting on.

When the masked man paused in his track outside the gambling haunt to see the frantic situation in the middle of the busy street, his eyes widened a fraction in surprise when he realized it was actually his ex-companions. But soon, Kakuzu emotionlessly glanced away without a change in expression. When he had heard the begging shouts from a familiar voice a while ago, he thought he was just imagining things.

"Orochimaru did overboard this time." Kakuzu muttered in a bored tone, trudging away from the crowd and not looking back for once. His little fun adventure with the two pests was over so this was none of his concern anymore.

Now it's time for him to find another quiet and nice gambling place to earn some fast cash before he's assigned with some immortal partner in the future.

As Kakuzu disappeared away down the street, Shizune finally regained her composure and cried out for her teacher.

"Tsunade-shishou!"

"Tsunade?" Sasori eyes widened, gaping at Shizune who had cried out her master's name.

Within a second, the crowd was all pushed away as a young-looking lady approached to the middle, staring slightly horrified at the scene. She immediately bent down and grabbed Sakura's wrist to check for her pulse.

"She's still alive, but she's extremely weak." Tsunade stated calmly, looking up at Sasori before turning to Shizune. "We need to get her somewhere to treat her. Now Shizune, listen carefully to the things I want you to get."

0o0

"Grab her down, I'm going to use the illness extraction technique to draw the poison out!"

"Yes!"

A loud scream could be heard behind the doors as Sasori stiffened, his blood just ran cold from shock. His head slowly hung low as he could hear a few mutters from some tenants in the same inn as they were in, everyone curious on what was going on in the room Sasori was guarding outside

"Damn it." Sasori sat on the cold floor tiredly, his back lying right beside the door.

True fear. Is this just like what Kakuzu mentioned?

"Why am I being like this?" Sasori muttered, having both his arm draping over his head as he stared tiredly on the ground, his usually calm and unexpressive eyes were now filled with terror and worried for the injured girl in the room.

This feeling… this unnamable feeling was suffocating him that he could hardly breathe

Blood… How much blood had she lost…

Sasori couldn't stand that pain in his chest whenever he remembered the scene where he stood there, clueless and terrified when the body of the girl he had been travelling for quite some time was bloodied all over, almost in verge of death.

Stay calm. She's not going to die… She's strong. Sakura is strong. I believe in her.

Even after the housekeeper had persuaded Sasori to get a change of clothes instead of standing outside for the past one hour, the scent of blood still lingered. He didn't know if he was smelt with Sakura's blood or was he just imagining the scent after being with it for a long time.

Another loud scream echoed, a few curious tourists jumped in shock along the passageway.

The fear, the fear of losing something came back to him again. The recognizable pain, the feeling, those emotions firing in his chest. He finally understood what was actually making him felt this way for Sakura.

It had been something he wished he could abandon successfully before even meeting the pinkette in the desert.

This wasn't supposed to happen…

Sasori slammed his face into the palms of his hands.

He should have killed her. He should have killed her even before they had left the desert so he didn't have to feel this way again. But Sasori knew that deep down, he was glad that he didn't.

Another loud scream sounded and at the corner or Sasori's eyes, quite a number of busybodies finally decided that they shouldn't stay around to hear the horrible scream as they returned back to their room. After the painful shout quieted down, Sasori could hear some anxious commands made by Tsunade to her apprentice.

Sasori's main goal for abandoning his village was to fully getting rid of his emotions and feelings he loathed… But he didn't mind having them back again if he could also experience something like happiness, joy and perhaps love from none other than Sakura herself.

0o0

The door slowly opened, and a foot stepped out as Sasori's attention was immediately drawn to the figure coming out from the room. He stood up slowly to observe Tsunade having several blotches of blood in all sorts of places on her green robe.

Sasori stared into Tsunade's eyes with hope but all she did was staring back firmly with an impassive expression, her lips narrowing into a thin line

This can't be…

"Tsunade-sama?" Shizune called out with a puzzled tone as she stood behind the door, wondering why was Tsunade blocking her path out.

Sasori's confused eyes were then turned to the teenager who was gazing weirdly at Tsunade until she finally gave up pondering about her teacher and turned to look at Sasori, adding a huge beam.

"She's fine now! All she needs is plenty of rest."

Sasori could have sworn he almost wanted to jump onto them to give a thankful hug. But he was able to stop himself from doing that when his legs were too numb to even move due to the news he heard. Taking in a deep breath, the redhead gave a swift bow, looking up with gratitude to the two women before departing calmly into the room when both of them made way for him. The door quietly shut behind him in a second.

"How on earth did she get injured anyway?" Shizune wondered aloud before debating her own question with herself. "Could it be an ambush?" She started nodding to herself before turning back at Tsunade who was still staring in space.

"What's wrong? Are you tired?" The young teenager asked.

"No." The Slug Princess stared in mild shock at her apprentice, disbelieving that her young student actually looked down at her like that. "That boy seems familiar."

"Really?" Shizune spoke.

"Ah." Pieces of her memories finally came back to her. "He looked just like Chiyo's son." Tsunade gave a tiny smirk when she mentioned the old lady, remembering how furious she looked when Tsunade managed to come up with an antidote for her ingenious poisons.

"But… I thought the group of Sunagakure ninjas who were sent for back up during the mission were all killed by Konoha white-"

"Yes." Tsunade muttered. "I just said that they looked alike, nothing else." The Slug Princess spoke as she decided to step away from the door, proceeding down the corridor while her bubbly apprentice followed quickly behind her.

"Come, Shizune. We'll get some ingredients and medicines for the girl to take so the poison in her could be fully purified."

"Alright." Shizune grinned happily, being glad that her teacher was back to her old self instead of gambling every day.

"But after that, are we leaving?" The teenager said with her hopes up high.

"No." Tsunade replied deadpanned. "We can't leave."

"Why not?" Shizune questioned sadly, not understanding why was Tsunade still so defiant in leaving this town.

"I know the answer to who had injured the girl to that state."

"What?" Shizune almost yelled, quickening her steps to catch up with her teacher.

"Because I'm certain that one of the weapons that was used to injure the girl-" Tsunade suddenly narrowed his brows, her eyes filled with hatred and despise and Shizune felt so cold suddenly.

"-Was coated with one of Orochimaru's original poison collection that he had created not long before he was defected from the village." She spoke in a deadly tone, her two ponytails swinging behind her back with every step she took down the hall.

0o0

Sasori didn't knew where the two beneficial woman had gone, but it would be out of his mind to go search for them and having Sakura staying here alone.

After a whole ten minutes had passed since Sasori entered the room, Sakura finally responded and stirred in her lying position, her eyes slowly opened before blinking a few time to accommodate to the sudden brightness.

Her head then slowly turned to the redhead sitting tiredly on a stool by the bed.

"…"

"Don't speak. Just rest." Sasori said, knowing Sakura well.

Sakura felt more relieved than ever when she realized she was still alive and well. She thought she couldn't go back to the future, seeing Naruto and the rest and watching Sasuke finally stepping into the village and be a part of their team once again.

The pinkette was afraid too, afraid that she couldn't tell Sasori she would miss him as an arrogant travelling partner, and how she hated him for being so mean to her some times when she didn't understand why was he like that to her.

But what she truly wanted was to finally witness the new Sasori, the changed Sasori. And to know whom would he become if she had managed to change his fate, turning him into someone different and actually helpful to the good side rather than people from the Akatsuki. Maybe one day, she would walk into the Kazekage office to send a secret scroll from Tsunade, to find Sasori sitting behind the desk in his Kazekage robes.

Sakura closed her eyes thoughtfully, almost wishing that what she imagined could come true.

"Sasori…"

He looked up, wanting to tell Sakura to just sleep and rest already, but something inside of him made him stop from saying any words.

"I'm sorry… " Sakura bit her lips miserably, forcing herself not to cry even though she knew she was too weak to even do so. "I wasn't there for you like how you were there for me when you were hurt before…"

"Brat, I said just rest. Don't speak anymore." Sasori commanded.

A small smile soon formed on Sakura's lip as she mouthed the two words she had been dying to say before tiredly returning back to sleep.

"Thank you."