AN: And now for something completely different: FILLER. RUUUUUUN FOR YOUR LIVES. Warning: This chapter is absolute crap. Read it anyway. This is also the shortest chapter evar, so you won't suffer for long.

"No," Sasuke declared.

"What the—what do you mean 'no'?" Sakura asked, exasperated, holding out the food and spoon.

"I have limits, Sakura. I am not going to take another spoonful of that vile concoction."

"Sasuke, this is vital to your getting better. It has painkillers, energizers, some cheap steroids, and soldier pills. I thought you were willing to do anything to regain your power."

"This is where I draw the line. That stuff is straight from Hell."

"Look, I know it's not appetizing, but you have to take it. See, I'll eat some myself!" Sakura lifted the spoon to her own lips, making sure not to inhale through her nose, and swallowed.

She proceeded to gag and crawled back so as to vomit under a tree and not onto Sasuke's lap.

"Okay, so it's not tasty, but—"

"Sakura, no."

Sakura stood up, cracking her knuckles threateningly. "Sasuke, you are going to consume this even if I have to force-feed it to you!"

"I'd like to see you try," Sasuke smirked.

With that, Sakura was pouncing on Sasuke, pinning him to the ground and straddling him with food in hand. She placed her knees on either side of his waist and squeezed, making sure he couldn't buck or move his arms enough to push her off. He glared, squirming pitifully, his mouth closed in a thin line. Sakura leered at him and pinched his nose shut so he couldn't breathe.

Ninja were trained to hold their breath, but only so much was humanly possible. The most anybody had gone was six minutes, but that had been hundreds of years ago and the record couldn't be trusted. As far as she remembered, Sasuke's limit had been 150 seconds, or two and a half minutes, at the academy. However, right now he was weakened and the limit was probably a whole lot less.

So she waited. Sasuke glowered as his eyes started to water and Sakura could tell he was really suffering trying to keep his mouth closed. Finally, he tried to discreetly, barely part his lips and suck in air but Sakura caught him, used one hand to hold his jaw still and the other to load the spoon with food and jam it into Sasuke's mouth.

He spat it out at her. It splattered her face and clothes.

"Oh, hell no," Sakura said, and repeated the process with another spoonful. This time, she then snapped his jaw shut when he opened it to make sure he wouldn't spit out the food and re-pinched his nose.

Sasuke's expression was one of utter loathing as he slowly chewed and swallowed with a grimace.

"Alright, are you going to take the next mouthful or do I have to repeat the process?" Sakura asked mildly.

"Screw you," Sasuke responded in the same tone.

"Maybe later. First, eat this," Sakura grinned and pushed the next spoonful down Sasuke's gullet, deliberately using Sasuke's old bloodstained shirt as a rag to wipe the food off her face.

"Hokage-sama," Neji repeated, "Why can't I see?" his eyes were furrowed in confusion. He raised one of his arms.

"That's not a good idea," Tsunade said softly. But she allowed Neji to raise his hand to his face, tracing the contours of it, slowly getting to his eyes. When he outlined the empty eye socket, his mouth opened in horror.

"My—my eyes," Neji stammered, doing so for the first time in his life. "I—I can't see. My eyes…they're gone. The pain is gone. The torture is… what… what happened to me?"

And so, with a heavy heart, Tsunade started explaining, sitting down by Neji's beside and recounting everything. She watched as his facial muscles moved, but without his eyes it was difficult to tell what he was feeling.

"Who…how did I heal?"

"That was my doing," Hinata said quietly, stepping out from the side of the room where she'd collapsed in a chair after the strenuous jutsu. "Neji…Brother… you no longer have the Caged Bird Seal. I took the liberty of removing it."

Neji said nothing for a long time, then laughed bitterly. "Why? I almost killed you, many times. The only leverage you had over me was your status. Why would you take that away? You owed me nothing… and where is your stutter?"

"I renounced the Hyuuga," Hinata told him as Tsunade stepped out of the room along with a flustered Shizune. "My father wouldn't remove your seal on account of it would be too controversial with the elders. So I went to go and live with…a friend. Then I snuck into the Hyuuga compound and read the seal removal scroll. And, well, you know the rest. I would hazard a guess that the seal prolonged the genjutsu you were— "

Just then, the door burst open and TenTen rushed in. She took one look at Neji sitting up and threw her arms around him. Neji was confused for a moment, before he caught the scent of her hair. "TenTen…is that you?"

"Yeah, Neji. It's me." And Neji definitely felt the tears spilling down TenTen's face and onto his, their saltiness bringing his lips alive with sensation after they'd felt nothing for so long. Then she let go, and Neji heard the ruffle of fabric as she hugged Hinata almost equally as hard. "You saved him, Hinata. I…I don't know how to thank you."

The smile was visible in Hinata's words. "Konoha couldn't do without him." The clap of sandals as she turned to go out of the room. "Now I'd better get back to Naruto. He'll be wondering where I went…"

Neji registered this for a moment as the door slammed shut. Then: "Wait… Naruto?"

TenTen giggled giddily and silenced his roar by pressing her lips to his.

Neji forgot what he was mad about. He forgot most of everything, actually.

Kakashi woke up to a throbbing pain in his skull. He remembered vaguely a kunai flying toward his face.

Sakura…what have you done?

You always had the highest respect for me, your sensei. Now you've attacked me and you have to be an enemy of Konoha…it's betrayal. Now we have to hunt you.

"Kakashi-sensei!" said a worried voice. Kakashi frowned. It couldn't be…

"Sakura?"

A moment of silence. "No, it's me, Ino. How are you feeling?"

Kakashi groaned, opened his eyes, and tried to sit up. "A bit dizzy," he answered as he flopped back down. "What happened to me?"

"The kunai hit you. It could have done serious damage, but I managed to fix it up in time…you should take it easy though."

"And Sasuke and Sakura?"

"Sasuke was seriously injured…they sort of limped away. It sounded like they collapsed, but…we needed to get you back to the Sand to regrow the flesh the kunai took out. And it turned out right afterwards that one of the puppets got a claw into Kiba—he's still recovering from the poison, which a woman was able to find an antidote for. Somebody called Chiyo, I think."

"The s—wait, what?"

Kakashi bolted up and realized that he was, in fact, in a hospital room. Not Konoha; the walls were cement and sand and out the window was indeed Suna. "H—How long has it been?"

"Two days. You were out for an unnaturally long time. I was starting to get worried!"

"…and Shikamaru?"

Ino hesitated before answering, "He and Temari went out for a cup of tea at some café or other."

"…and Gaara?"

"I'm here," said a voice form the bed next to him. Ino jumped.

"Gaara-sama! You're talking? The painkillers must not be—"

"I don't need the painkillers," said the redhead, sitting up. "I feel good as new. In fact… I slept. And obviously did not blow up the whole village, so that is an improvement."

Just then, Temari and Shikamaru entered the room, laughing and Temari's hand on Shikamaru's shoulder. "And then, I told her, 'Uh, you do realize that there's a freakin' huge leech on your shoulder?' and she freaked—" Temari stopped talking when she realized they had entered the hospital room.

"Ah," Shikamaru said a bit too innocently, hands in his pockets. "Kakashi, you're awake."

"Gaara!" Temari cried, letting go of Shikamaru's shoulder and running to Gaara's side.

Ino pushed past Shikamaru and ran out of the room, before anybody could see her wiping her eyes with her sleeve.

"What the—Ino?" The door slammed shut. "Troublesome woman."

Kankuro mindlessly opened the door to the hospital bathroom only to find Ino sobbing on the ground. "Hey—what—" Aww shit, I dunno how to deal with crying girls…He decided he could hold it, and avoided the situation altogether by closing the door and walking down the hall whistling.

AN: Filler is filler is crappy, but I needed to wrap up the loose ends before I can get to the good stuff. Anyway, definite SasuSaku moment there, they just don't know it ;) Also, somebody is jealous.Also, at least Neji and TenTen have an uncomplicated relationship: Neji gets angry, TenTen kisses him, everyone's happy.

Reviews would be nice.