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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Sasuke POV

After my brief conversation with Karin, I sent her into the room with Juugo and Suigetsu. I told her they needed to rest and that once I got back we would had to the inn for the night. I was still trying to put events together. Sakura's condition and Juugo's short spell was too much of a coincidence. Someone else had been there. I remember the flash that passed by me while I headed toward Juugo. So I left everyone at the hospital and went back to the forest to look for some clues about who had been there.

I got to the tree line and could follow the path of destruction Juugo had left in his wake. The soil had been soft leaving Juugo's heavy steps visible. I followed his path into the forest to the point at which I found him and Sakura. There was a small crater which I could assume which was created by none other than him. It was a bit strange that his feet and placement of the crater was in front of the tree which Sakura had fallen in front of.

After the hitting the ground he had turned around to the tree. His steps started getting smaller and not quiet and deep as they had approached the tree. He must have seen Sakura than and his curse? Did he start bringing himself back from it? I appeared as though his curse had started receding but something triggered him again. But what?

I went to inspect the base of the tree. There were a few pieces of bark scattered on the ground. There was any bark missing from the trunk so it must have come from above. Sakura must have been hiding in the canopy of the trees avoiding any combat with Juugo. She must have fallen from the limbs above. It was also explain the injuries to her ribs. Perhaps whenever Juugo hit the ground, it had surprised her and caused her to lose balance. Seemed plausible, however, Sakura was never that careless to be distracted that easy. And her balance and control was much better than mine or even Naruto. As a genin, she was the first of all of us to even climb a tree with chakra. Something had definitely moved her attention from the Juugo, and for that to happen, it had to have been an even bigger threat.

I started to head back toward the hospital. I needed to tell Juugo what I had found. I thought it would relieve his conscience if he knew he hadn't attacked or hurt Sakura. A glint caught me out of the corner of my eye. In among the leaves and twigs on the ground something was sticking out.

I hunched down and brushed the debris away and examined the contraption. There was a small glass bulb with a needle attached. There was a little plunger inside the bulb that had pushed whatever was inside the bulb out. I wasn't sure what it had to do with everything but I decided to take it with me. I wrapped it in several layers of leaves and placed it into my pocket and walked back into the hospital.

I walked through the hospital room door. Sakura was still asleep. She was laid out on the bed like a dead corpse. The thought of that sent a shiver through my soul. This wasn't right. She had always been the bright light for Team Seven, she wasn't ever meant to be in this position. She wasn't meant to look like she was knocking on deaths door.

The bed covers were pulled up to her chest and tucked underneath her arms. One hand rested on her stomach while the over was to her side with Juugo clinging to it. He sat beside her bed with his resting in the crook of one arm while he held her hand with his other.

Suigetsu sat on the floor against a wall and eating from a can of sardines. He would throw his head back and open his mouth then take a sardine out of the package and dangle it above before finally dropping it in. I wasn't even sure he even chewed them but he would lick is lips after each one.

Karin sat on the floor in a meditative posture with her eyes closed. My guess was that she was reading Sakura's chakra. She had a small noticeable twitch in her right eyebrow every time Suigetsu would snap his mouth shut after swallowing a sardine.

Karin cracked her left eye open and looked my direction.

"We have some rice balls for you," she said and closed her eye again.

"Hn." I walked over to her side where the grocery bag waited. I squatted down to take out the food and pulled the leaf wrapped bundle out of my pocket and tossed into her lap. Karin's eye opened in surprise and looked at the bundle in her lap and then gave me a puzzling look.

I took a bite of the rice ball, which had a pickled tomato center. Karin unwrapped the leaves from the bundle and let the device fall into her palm.

"I found it in the location where I found Juugo and Sakura," I explained.

"So that's where you went." I nodded to affirm her statement.

"Do you know what it is?"

"It's a syringe in a way. Perhaps used for a dart. I think the force of impact is probably what pushed whatever was in the vial out," she vocalized as she twisted it to continue to examine it.

What Karin said seemed plausible. I would need to ask Sakura once she woke up.

"Is there any way to find out what was in it?" I ask Karin.

"I don't think so. There isn't anything left in it, no traces at all. It might have some to deal with Sakura condition though."

"What are y'all talking about?" Suigetsu interrupts. He had come up behind me as I had talked to Karin and squatted down on his hunches. He plucks the dart syringe from Karin's hand and brought it close to his face to examine it. "Who is planning on using this?"

His comment made me curious.

"Have you seen these kinds of things before?" I ask him as I take the dart back from him. I wrap it back up and place it in my pocket.

"Of course I have. The Mist-nin are the ones who developed it," He informed and then proceeded to use his pinkie finger as a pick between two of his teeth. Karin and I look at him, waiting for him to explain more. "What?" he mutters with his finger still in his mouth.

"Can you tell us a little more of their uses?" I ask.

He pulls his finger out and examines the food particle that is sticking to it before he flicks it off his fingers.

"Well usually assassins would use them to poison and kill their target while they could stay in the shadows. Pussies if you ask me. I'd rather be up close and personal, hacking them to pieces then to hide and attack from a distance." He puffed up his chest while saying the last part.

"So has she been poisoned?" Karin asked.

"I don't think so, wouldn't the doctor catch it?" I responded.

"Maybe they missed it?" she suspected.

"If it was poison, she would be dead in less than a minute from her injection," Suigetsu added. "Whoever used this had a different motive then death, so more than likely he needs her alive."

Suigetsu made a valid point. Whoever did this could have easily killed her but they didn't, so that meant they would come back for her for whatever reason they had, but when?

"Sasuke?" Karin looked desperately at me. "Her chakra is spiking dangerously." She then looked past me to Sakura on the bed. I followed her gaze.

Juugo was now clinging to her hand with both of his. Perspiration beaded and rolled off her skin and she began quivering. She started to jerk her head a bit to the side facing Juugo and small moans would escape her lips. I walked closer to the bed and see her eyes, beneath the eyelids, move rapidly as if she was dreaming. If it was even possible, it seemed as though her skin became paler, almost to death pallor.

We all stood and watched as her lips parted but no sound escaped them. Her lips appeared dry to the point or cracking.

Unexpectedly, her eyes fluttered open. She never fully opened them because they were still heavy from sleep. Her eyes trained on Juugo.

"J….Ju….Juugo," she finally managed to rasp out. Juugo sat there and looked attentively at her, waiting for her next words. "I'm glad you're okay. I'm glad you're here." She gave him a weak smile, only because it was all she could manage.

"Sakura, I'm so sorry," He told her on the verge of tears. He lowered his head lower to the bed to rest upon their connected hands. "I'm so sorry." It was clear to all of us he was begging for her forgiveness.

She then took her hand that had been resting on her stomach and placed it on top of his head and began to ruffle his hair.

"You have nothing to be sorry about."

Her hand slipped from his head as Juugo looked up into her face confused. She gave him a big, well as big as she could manage, comforting smile. It was enough to put his mind at ease. I see to tension leave his shoulders.

Sakura's eyes began to droop heavily.

"Juugo?"

"Yes Sakura?"

"I think," she started to say before slowly closing her eyes one more time. "I think I'm going to sleep some more." Juugo didn't even have time to respond before she had fallen into oblivion again.

I walked up behind Juugo and placed a hand on his shoulder. We didn't need words. See you worried for nothing. She doesn't hate you nor is she terrified of you. He only nodded his head in response.

I also looked at Sakura. She was still profusely sweating and now it was starting to pool upon her skin and drop in rivulets onto the bed sheet.

I would do Juugo no go to stay here and watch her in this condition.

"Suigetsu, will you take Juugo to the Inn for the night?" Suigetsu knew it was more of a command then a request, but appreciated that fact I phrased it as a question. He nodded his agreement.

When I looked back at Juugo, he was partly frowning and giving me an expression that allowed his still felt sense of guilt to appear. He felt like it was his duty to stay and watch over her.

"I can't leave her alone," he tried to reason.

"She won't be alone," I informed him. My statement caught him by surprise. I could also tell it had surprised Karin as well as I heard her sharp intake of air. "It will do neither of you any good if you stay. I need to be rested for when you return in the morning."

Juugo stood from the chair and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. He then rearranged her hands so that they were both lying on her stomach a bit more comfortably. Once he was pleased with her position and sure that she would be comfortable, he walked to the door where Suigetsu was waiting. He paused in the doorway, placing a hand on the doorframe and turning back to look at me.

"Please," he demanded and requested at the same time. Please watch over and don't let anything happen to her. I solemnly agreed and nodded to him.

"Hn." He disappeared out the door. He trusted me with my word.

I turned my attention back to Sakura. I could tell she was feeling discomfort or maybe pain. I could see small muscles around her eyes and mouth twitch and grimace. I placed my hand upon her forehead. She relaxed a bit the moment I touched her. She was burning up. It seemed a little weird that was wasn't flushed though with this fever.

Karin came to stand beside me.

"She's running a fever isn't she?" she asked.

"Hn."

She stepped around me to where she was standing the night stand. Upon the table was a water basin with rag dripped along the side. Karin dipped the rag into the water and rang it out. She wiped Sakura's face with it and rinsed it out once more before she placed it along her forehead.

"It's weird. I've never sensed chakra acting this way," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"It's as though her chakra is fighting itself. I can sense are normal chakra waves being overtaken by the almost unsteady chakra waves. It's like a losing battle." She seemed really worried and paused to process her thoughts. "I'm not sure what's going to happen to her once her chakra is completely enveloped with the other."

Her comment made me give pause. What would have to her? I shook away all the negative thoughts. Nothing could happen to her. I am no longer part of Team Seven, but she was our innocence. If she was gone what would happen to the rest of us. To Naruto, to Kakashi, and to me? In a way, she was our hope. My Hope.

Years ago when she had offered to come with me, offered me her love, it wasn't that I didn't want her there by my side, she just couldn't be. It was my burden and I couldn't be the one to corrupt her. Once everything was said and done I knew I would need her to bring me back from the abyss, and she wouldn't be able to do that if she lost herself in my vengeance.

I had failed her and Team Seven on too many occasions but I wasn't going to leave her side this time. Not until I knew she was going to be ok.

"You should go and get some rest too," I told Karin.

"But what about you?"

"I'm staying here tonight."

"Are you sure? I could stay an…."

"I'm fine Karin, besides I need you to tell Juugo what we pieced together. He needs some piece of mind that it wasn't him, that there was someone else there."

Karin looked a little disheartened. I knew she still wanted and hoped for my affection, but I had nothing more to give then friendship, if that's what one would call it.

"Alright, I'm off then. We'll see you in the morning." With that she left the room.

For the first time in a long time it was just Sakura and I. Although I wasn't one to worry and become nervous, but suddenly the prospect of her waking up seem to frighten me. What would I even be able to say to her?

The night went pretty smoothly. She didn't once wake up. She came close to it a few times I think. Mostly when it was apparent she was having nightmares.

During her sleep I would hear her mumble out Naruto's and Kakashi's names and even mine. Of course every time I heard mine I became more attentive, listening to see if she said anything else about me.

Twice she screamed out. The first time, I had just dozed off when her scream startled me. I stood alert with a Kunai ready to fend off who ever had frightened her only to find out it was just a nightmare. After that I can to her side again. She was once again sweating badly. I took the rag and copied the same moves Karin had made earlier that evening. I wiped her face of the sweat and then rinsed the rag and replaced it once again. I could feel the heat of her fever through the cloth.

I sat back down in the chair. After everyone had left, I had moved the chair back against the wall, on the other side of the night table. I leaned the chair back so that I was only balanced on two chair legs. I felt a little poking in my pocket. I pulled out the little bundle and untangled the dart from the leaves. I looked at it once more, seeing if there was anything I had missed. Once I was finished, I placed it on the side table. Resting my head against the wall I closed my eyes and relaxed.

About an hour later, Sakura started thrashing. She was also drenched. I went to her side once again. She whimpering and shaking as though she was scared of something. Her whimpers were progressively getting worse. When she started screaming, I placed one hand upon her one hand she hadn't thrashed off to her side, and tried to comfort her by running my thumb against her knuckles. I used my other hand to take the rag and wipe her face off.

"Shhhh sshhhh," I soothingly comforted her. "You're going to be alright, I'm right here with you."

Her screams subsided soon after I was comforting her but she continued to thrash and whimper for close to 20 minutes. The whole time I needed to wipe the sweat away, I would occasionally wipe down her arms as well. By the end of the 20 minutes her fever broke and she had become silent and was peacefully sleeping.

I returned to my chair to get some rest as well. Now that she no longer had a fever I come breathe a sigh of relief. My guess is that the battle between her chakra was over, but she was ok. At this point it was one problem at a time.

Once again I closed my eyes. I was close to sleep when I felt a breeze lift some of my hair to tickle my face. I opened my eyes to see the source from where the breeze came from. On my other side, the window was wide open. I knew for a fact that window had been closed. I looked to other side. I wasn't sure but I had a feeling, I looked to the table. The dart was gone.

I got up and stood in front of the window with my Sharingan activated. Whoever it was had dared to come into the room. I was furious. Furious at their audacity and furious that I never noticed them. It was certain they were going to be a challenging opponent. It was also definite that we would be meeting soon. They were certainly keeping a closed distance and an eye on her.

As somewhat of a warning and a challenge, I slammed the window shut and glared out into the night.

I never fully slept the rest of the night. I closed my eyes and relaxed some, but I stayed alert after the incident last night.

I noticed Sakura started moving around. She was finally starting to wake.

I stood and came closer to her bedside but I didn't close that distance. I wasn't sure how a fully awake Sakura would take to my presence.

Her eyes finally blinked opened. She was taking note of her surroundings. At first she looked at the ceiling and then off to her other side. I think she had finally realized she was in the hospital room. She seemed to relax and hummed a bit in acceptance.

She turned her head in my direction. I could see the smile on her lips until her jade eyes looked into mine. The joy in her face disappeared but her eyes flashed a multitude of emotions. Emotions of disbelief, happiness, fear, and uncertainty.

Her lips parted and I could see she was trying to put all the pieces together in her head. She was debating what to say and finally she said the only thing she could.

"Sasuke?"

Well there we have, finally Sasuke and Sakura meet. See ya soon!