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CHAPTER TWO

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His eyes traced the thin crack on the pale ceiling with mock interest. The hypnotizing plip-plop sound of the rain tried it's best to lull him to sleep, but the pain on his leg was greater. A couple of times did he actually manage to close his eyes an concentrate on finding a bit of comfort, only to have the waves of pain distract him from said concentration and force him to heed the seriousness of his condition.

Last time he tried to move, which was just a few moments ago, he lost the battle against how uncomfortable it actually was. And with a grunt, he fell back on the soft warm covers, only to stare at the ceiling as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.

Sasuke tried to make memory as to how in the world it could of happened and as to where the hell he actually was. But he didn't recognize the place, nor could he remember how he got there to begin with. He just remembers going up to the school's rooftop to get some air, since his students where finishing up a test. It was a habit of his to leave them when they worked so he could refresh his memory.

So when he got to his sanctuary he sat against the school's cement water tank, staring longingly at the sky like usual. Something he had picked up from a lazy friend of his.

He might of fallen asleep. He thought.

But that still didn't explain how his whole attire changed, or how he was now injured as if he'd just come out of a battle and how the weather outside had drastically changed from nice and sunny to dark and rainy. What he wore appeared very much like a uniform, although he knew as a fact that the military didn't use clothes like it. So perhaps a secret organization? Pfft.

It was silly to even think this, but Sasuke briefly wondered if someone kidnapped him and did all this to him. From stripping him and changing him to the rare clothing and beating him up while unconscious. That thought flew out the window when he remembered that he was actually a light sleeper and that he didn't feel any different as if someone had knocked him out.

"Could I be still dreaming?" he muttered to himself, slowly reaching for his injured leg. He immediately flinched in response, his hand trembled when it came into contact with something cold and sharp. Moving the object only put him through even more pain on that particular area.

The man gave up, looking sideways he could clearly see his blood staining the blue covers. The object appeared to be poking out from one of the belt compartments that was wrapped around his midriff.

He concluded that if he was still dreaming, he wouldn't be feeling this much pain. The fresh cuts along his arms and legs where nothing, only that one on his leg gave him the biggest problem. Enabling him to even sit up so he could nurse himself.

Sasuke was ready to roll out of bed so he could at least drag himself to a hospital, but the sudden slam of a door coming from what he guessed downstairs, stopped him immediately. He listened intently to the soft footfalls approaching in his direction, soon the door opened widely and the sight alone made all the blood go to his face.

There she was in all her glory.

The girl that took a huge amount of space in his head. The young beauty was removing her doctor's coat, leaving her in a form fitted red shirt and white mid-thigh skirt. Slowly she untied her long hair from the messy bun she had made to let the loose curls fall free behind her back. It was then she noticed him laying on the bed in an awkward position, also the small pool of blood forming on the blue covers.

Sasuke held his breath when she immediately ran to his side, just to tenderly touch his injured leg and gasp her concerns that originally fell on deaf ears.

"I've told you to go to the hospital when you're badly injured, Sasuke-kun" the girl spoke softly, with her fingers gingerly removing the rags away from his deep cut. He was just too shocked to reply to her, so he settled for simply nodding.

This girl. Actually, this beautiful naïve woman was the cause of everything going awry in his life.

How many times had he wanted to get her attention?

Way too many that he lost count. But the girl, after getting over her crush on him from back in their school days, never again saw him as anything else but a friend. He tried flirting, testing his abilities at their fullest, but no response. In desperation he tried to reach her with other methods. The biggest error in his life was getting with Karin.

He thought that maybe, just maybe, Sakura's feelings for him would awaken when she saw them together.

But no, it didn't work.

The roseate only ended up scolding him when he ignored his redheaded girlfriend, demanding he paid her more attention. But really, the only thing he wanted to do now was get rid of the annoying woman that refused to leave him.

His stupid tactic didn't work.

Sakura was just never going to see him as something else than friends, and so he was having a difficult time in trying to get used to that.

Back in high school, everything seemed so much easier. He was the heartthrob of the school and everything came to him, he never had to go looking. But the real life was different, because growing up makes you think otherwise and who you thought was irritating through your whole childhood actually comes to be your entire reason for existing.

How he regretted many times insulting her.

Rejecting her.

Taking her for granted.

How wrong and stupid he was.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura called, lifting a brow in question to whether he was alright.

The way she looked up at him actually affected the Uchiha. Her small hands were working on his zipper, so she could remove his pants. That alone made his face flush crimson and pull away instantly from her as if the action alone bothered him.

"What are you doing?"

She gave him a small smile with a quirk of her pale eyebrows. Slowly crawling after him so she could resume. Sasuke touched the edge of the bed, moving no further so not to fall off. It was then that the girl skillfully grabbed onto the flimsy fabric and pulled it off completely, leaving the embarrassed Uchiha in just his black silky boxers.

Her emerald eyes immediately showed concern when she registered the gravity of his situation. The cut was deep, but it wasn't anything she couldn't fix.

Sakura reached again to touch his injury, coming to a stop when his hand gripped hers tightly.

"I have to heal your leg or it will get infected"

"I can do that myself"

Sakura giggled in response to his stubbornness, "No you can't silly"

It shocked him when she easily brushed away his hand.

The roseate jumped out of the bed and ran into the bathroom, a moment later she emerged with a small white box he presumed was the first aid kit. She kindly asked him to lean against the fluffy pillows she had piled up, to which he unsure complied. Then she continued by helping him remove his white vest, telling him she needed to check on any other injuries he might have. In the end, Sasuke was left in only his dark boxers and sleeved wife beater.

It was really hard to get over her if she was this close and pretending like she's something more to him. It was almost like she was his girlfriend.

He played with that word in his mind for a bit.

Girlfriend.

How nice would it be if she actually was. The thought alone almost made him smile.

He was then interrupted when a pale green glow began to form near his injury. Looking closely, the glow actually came from Sakura's hands.

Sasuke jolted back against the pillows in attempt to pull away from her glowing hands which stopped immediately when he dragged himself backwards. His dark eyes never left her small delicate hands that just moments ago glowed a faint viridian.

"Sasuke-kun stop moving or I'll mess up" she told him sternly and with a tug, he was back in place and the glowing resumed.

He was beyond shocked. This couldn't be possible!

A myriad of questions plagued his mind about how it was not humanly possible. People's hands didn't glow!

The uncomfortable feeling and painful sting was gone, leaving his leg without feeling. She had the needle ready, which she used to skillfully stitch his deep cut.

Minutes later, Sasuke was still in shock.

Her hands began to glow again, healing the swelling of the skin until it looked as if it was almost healed.

Over the next half hour she worked on bandaging his wounds and cleaning up some cuts so they wouldn't get infected. Through the entire time, Sasuke looked ready to leap out the window, which didn't go unnoticed.

Sakura finished her work with a big smile on her face.

"I'm sure you haven't ate, I'll go fix you up something really quick"

She made her way out of the room with the small first aid kit in hands. He heard the footfalls get farther away then stop, it was then he guess she had reached the kitchen.

What she could do still had him baffled, but he came to the conclusion that if it wasn't for her, he'd probably gotten his leg infected. Even though the greatest question of them all still remained freshly imprinted on his mind.

How did all this happen anyways?

There had to be a reasonable explanation as to why her hands were glowing. Why he was even injured in the first place. Why of all people, Sakura was the one next to him and not the irritating Karin. Everything had a reasonable explanation and he was mind set on finding out the current occurrences.

"I talked to Ino today," Sasuke jumped at the sound of her voice, looking wide-eyed at the woman he didn't even hear walk up back into the room. The roseate observed his odd behavior with an amused smile, since it wasn't everyday anyone could see the Uchiha Sasuke act abnormal. "she told me she will be in charge of the flower arrangements"

Sakura poured him some warm tea after she set the tray on the nightstand with a couple of onigiri. With a smile, she offered him the tea and waited until he took at least a sip of the brew.

"It surprised me really, she had been distant and this change made me happy," Sakura's smile disappeared after she handed him one of the onigiri. Her emerald eyes were distant as they stared into space in deep concentration. "but it still feels like she's not all into it"

The conversation didn't seem to make any sense for him, so he chose not to speak and let her finish. Sasuke opted to eat and listen, maybe then he will learn what actually had happened to him.

"I think she resents me"

Sasuke stared back in confusion when the roseate observed him intently.

He immediately swallowed the bite, "Why?"

"Because of you"

"Me?"

Sakura looked down at her lap in that moment, her eyes glassy with unshed tears which she refused to let free. It was that moment Sasuke realized this conversation was far more serious than what it initially sounded, and that he needed to carefully work on what he would say next.

"Sasuke-kun you know I love you very much and that nothing would make me happier than to marry you," Sakura briefly bit her bottom lip as a set of crystalline tears rolled down her flushed cheeks. She didn't look up when Sasuke instantly sat up on the bed, but merely clutched tightly onto the wrinkled blue covers. "but it's hard to go through with it when I know that my best friend still loves you"

"Sakura…"

"Sasuke-kun I just– "

It's been a long time since he's last seen the young woman cry. That's why he was surprised that her unhappiness still affected him so, and thus, he couldn't stop himself from suddenly embracing her.

It made him immensely happy to hear that she loved him, but it tugged at his heart to learn that she felt troubled because of her blonde friend. To learn that for her to be happy, her childhood friend would be miserable. It seemed to destroy her and Sasuke didn't like it one bit, he didn't like it that Sakura wanted to put a pause to her own happiness so that her friend would get over him. Sasuke really didn't know when the blue-eyed blonde even started liking him again, since the last time he checked the woman was happily dating one of his anti-social friends.

Sasuke didn't want to think further about it, nor did he want to understand.

All that mattered to him in that moment was the fact that the girl he loved reciprocated his feelings.

"I love you too, Sakura"

It didn't matter either that she had actually stopped crying in that specific moment.

After all, he didn't know that was the first time the roseate had heard him say those words.

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To be Continued

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A/N: Thank you to those that reviewed! I deeply appreciate it and I will try to update as soon as possible.