Author's Note: So there's been a lot happening recently. I guess my note at the end of the chapter is kind of important.
Sasuke and Sakura each grabbed one of their comrade's arms and wrapped it around their shoulder. Lee was barely conscious so Sasuke traveled slower than Sakura and Tenten. Tenten looked to be in intense agony, grunting with each step they took.
"How far are we from Sai and Ino?" Sakura asked urgently.
Sasuke stared in the direction they had come from. "Not too far. I think they can hear us from this spot."
"Sai and Ino are with you guys?" Tenten asked groggily.
"Yeah, we met up with them on our way back. Sai! Ino!" Sakura quickly shouted.
Seconds later, the pair ran out from the cover of some bushes, looking around to see what the problem was. They gasped and got over their shock quickly, coming to help their injured friends. Sasuke and Sai had to lift Lee off of his feet to keep up with the others. The taijutsu specialist lost what little consciousness he had left, his head falling. The groups jogged their way back to the meeting location, fearing the worst. Sasuke and Sai set Lee down and waited for instructions.
Sakura ran to the fallen male and immediately began to heal him. "Ino, you help me. Sasuke and Sai, you two take care of Tenten."
Everyone nodded and seperated. The guys didn't know the first thing about medical ninjutsu, so they grabbed some bandages and studied Tenten to see which wound appeared to be the worst. She gestured for them to hand the bandages to her. "I can do it myself," she laughed. "I don't want your girlfriends to get jealous."
Sasuke and Sai shared an embarrassed glance. The Uchiha looked at Sakura for an instant before turning his attention back to his current task. "Girlfriend, huh? I wish that I didn't even begin to tell her that I had feelings for her at that time. That would've been really... Awkward." He stared at the ground. "It's not like that."
Tenten cackled again before it turned into a pained cough. "Seriously though, give me the bandages."
Sai hesitated. "Tenten, I don't think you can apply them by yourself. In fact, it would make your condition worse."
Huffing, she snatched them out of their hands. "Oh well. You two don't know anything about this stuff do you?"
They shook their heads and the kunoichi began to wrap a wound on her arm. She groaned every time she attempted to treat an injury. Sasuke and Sai forced her to let them help, not wanting to hear Sakura and Ino nagging them about it. Tenten reluctantly obeyed Sai's orders, Sasuke holding the supplies they needed. The Uchiha was staring mindlessly at Sakura, watching her focus on Lee. He wanted her to return his gaze and for their eyes to lock. "I choked really bad a while ago. Out of all the times for me to be speechless, why then? Doesn't matter because I wasn't thinking straight. Now is not the right time or place to tell her that. Maybe later."
"Hey!" Tenten called as she waved a hand in front of his face.
He jumped, surprised by the sudden action. "What? Where's Sai?"
She crossed her arms and smirked. "He went to get a scroll I dropped back there. How come you didn't notice? Too busy staring at Sakura?"
He angrily rolled his eyes. "No one will leave me alone about it. For the last time, it's not like that. What did you want?"
"I wanted you to hand me another bandage. And, we bother you about it because everyone knows. It seems like you still haven't figured it out yet."
He held out a hand with a bandage in it, raising an eyebrow. "Figured out what?"
Her smirk grew wider. "Need an explanation?"
He sighed and put a hand under his chin, realizing exactly why she was teasing him. "Because you think that we feel the same way towards each other, right?"
Tenten gasped at the male's knowledge. She stared at the ground and scratched her head. "Uh, yeah."
"Hn, let me handle it."
"So does that mean that you do feel the same?"
"No! I... I guess, I mean, I don't know." He was doing his best to deny that he had feelings for Sakura because he wanted everyone to leave him alone about it.
Tenten shook her head. "Men..."
Sai returned but was not alone. Shikamaru and Temari limped together beside him. Neither looked to be seriously injured, but they were obviously in pain. Sai handed a shocked Tenten her missing scroll and made the others sit.
"Let me guess," Sai started, "you were attacked?"
They nodded.
Sasuke looked at Tenten and the newly found pair. "By Kenshi?"
The three gasped in unison and shared a long, astonished glance. They finally turned back to the Uchiha and said that they had.
"How did you know?" Temari questioned.
"So far, everyone that has shown up has fought the master swordsman," Sai explained.
Shikamaru jolted suddenly. "Wait, so not everybody is here yet?"
Sasuke and Sai shook their heads. The group of shinobi turned to face the severly injured Lee. Sakura and Ino were still putting all their focus into healing the taijutsu specialist. Both of them had worried expressions, repeatedly checking to see if the male was breathing.
"Me and Shikamaru can last a while without being healed," Temari stated. The Nara nodded in agreement.
"Sakura and Ino told me and Sasuke to help Tenten. So I guess we could do the same for you two," Sai stated.
Before Sasuke could turn to help the others, Tenten grabbed the rest of the bandages he had in his hand and tried to shove him aside. "Let's at least have one person that knows what they're doing." He frowned as she continued. "You can go check on how Lee is doing." Sasuke was about to stand up, but the kunoichi pulled him closer when no one was looking. "Go get her," she whispered in his ear.
Turning red, Sasuke got up and walked towards the other group. He heard Sakura and Ino giving each other updates on their progress. The pink haired kunoichi was focused on Lee's worst wound.
"How's he doing?" Sasuke asked quietly.
Sakura looked up in surprise. "Oh, um... He's going to live. If we can heal the major wounds soon, he'll be up and moving in no time."
"Hn," he replied, staying where he was. The Uchiha didn't make another noise, not wanting to distract the pair. Instead, he looked Lee over. He was shocked by how the worst wound appeared, the one on his stomach that Sakura was paying attention to. It was obvious that a sword or something had pierced the spot. "Kenshi..." Sasuke could not wait to put an end to the enemy. Of course something bad was bound to happen whenever the Uchiha had decided to return to his village, his home. No matter what, it always seemed like Sasuke was destined to have a completely miserable life. Frowning, he turned his gaze back to Sakura. "I still can't believe that I blew it that bad back there. Maybe-"
Loud cursing filled the area and everyone who was conscious turned to see an infuriated Naruto carrying Hinata on his back. She looked to be slightly irritated with the male.
"Naruto, I think that I can walk now," Hinata pleaded, attempting to shuffle off of her husband's back.
He ignored her and kept her in place. "Hinata you're hurt!"
"You've been carrying me ever since we finished the battle. Please, at least let me sit."
Reluctantly, the livid Uzumaki gently set her down and crossed his arms. "So that guy Sasuke fought a long time ago showed up with a bunch of other people and tried to take us out! I swear that I've never been angrier! After we beat the crap outta the guys he brought with him, me and Hinata had to fight him! He was kinda beaten up after a while, but then he got Hinata. That guy ticked me off when he did that! I put an end to him with a Rasenshuriken! And after that he sorta disappeared!"
"Stop yelling dobe," Sasuke commanded. "And so far, everyone that's here has had an encounter with Kenshi."
Hinata gasped as she caught sight of Lee. "Everybody that's here? So, not everyone is back yet?"
Naruto copied her expression as he surveyed his surroundings. "That guy, Kenshi, we all fought him? And is Bushy Brow gonna be okay?"
Sasuke answered. "No, not all of us are here. And yes, so far everyone has had a battle with Kenshi. Sakura said that Lee will be fine."
As their newly found comrades continued to look around and see who was missing, Sasuke turned toward Sakura. His eyes widened when he saw that the wound on Lee's stomach appeared to be ten times better than it had been a few minutes ago. Worry took over the Uchiha's mind as he knelt down beside his teammate. "Sakura, don't exhaust yourself."
She huffed. "I'm almost done anyway. Ino, what about the other injuries?"
The Yamanaka wiped sweat off of her brow. "I'm also about finished."
Sakura nodded. "Sasuke?"
"Hm?"
"What was it you wanted to tell me before, you know?"
Ino noticed that the Uchiha turned a light shade of red. "Hm... Don't screw this up Uchiha!" A smirk settled on her features, but she put her head down to hide it.
Sasuke scratched his head and urgently thought of something to say. There were way too many people around for him to say this now. Even if he was going to say it at that moment, would he completely lose his cool like last time? "I-It's not important right now. It can wait."
"Oh, okay."
Silently, the Uchiha breathed a mental sigh of relief. Then, he noticed Ino Yamanaka with a glare on her face that could kill, and it was apparently directed towards him. His lips made a thin line as he looked behind him to see that no one was there. Her glare only got deadlier as their gazes met once again. The frustrated Uchiha soundlessly threw up his hands, basically asking what the heck was she doing. Her response was crossing her arms and tilting her head in Sakura's direction. "How did she know that I was going to-?" Is it really that obvious?" Sasuke thought to himself.
Ino cleared her throat. "Alright Sakura, I think I'm done. Anyway, do you think it would be okay if we built a campfire?"
The Haruno nodded without looking up.
Ino directed her attention back to the Uchiha. "Sasuke, would you be a gentleman and help me gather some wood?"
"Great. I can't get out of this one..." As he began to curse mentally, he stood up. "Hn."
The second they were out of view of the rest of their comrades, Ino grabbed Sasuke's ear and dragged him along. He gritted his teeth and dealt with the pain, trying not to alert everyone else. He knew that he could've dodged her hand, but he wanted to get this over with as fast as possible.
"You big fat chicken!" she spat as she continued to pull him. "Why didn't you say it?!"
"I don't know what you're talking about," he lied.
"Shut up! I know exactly what's going on! Finally, after all this time you can admit it to yourself! What the heck was that?!"
Sasuke was more than irritated at the moment. "Let go!"
Surprisingly, she complied wih his request and released his now red and throbbing ear. He knew what she was going to say even before she began to speak. Let the rant continue.
"Why else would you want to speak with her in private a while ago?! I'm the only one that would've heard you wimp!"
He stopped rubbing his ear and crossed his arms. "I'm only going to say it when it's just me and Sakura."
"So are you finally going to confess?!" The excited look on her face was nothing compared to the annoyed one on Sasuke's.
"Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not."
"Don't you dare play around with me Uchiha!"
"Look, I'm handling it so you and the rest just stay out of it."
"I'm handling it," she mocked. "Just stay out of it. How long is it gonna take for you to handle it?"
"As long as I need," he retorted.
"She has been waiting for who knows how long? I don't know why she hasn't left your sorry butt in the dirt, but I'm with it if it makes her happy. You need to suck it up and be a man."
"I've already said that I'm going to tell her when we're alone."
"You had plenty of time to do it a while ago. What happened?"
He did not answer.
Before long, Ino realized the truth and began to laugh. "Who would have thought that this is what Sasuke Uchiha would be afraid of? You chickened out didn't you?"
He huffed and turned red.
"Wow..." She shook her head repeatedly.
"For the last time, I can take care of it. This is between Sakura and I. No one else. So all of you leave us alone."
After a minute of an intense stare down, Ino sighed and threw her hands up. "Fine. You are impossible you know. Anyway, if you say that you've got it then go ahead. Don't screw it up though. And you can't keep waiting."
Sasuke rolled his eyes. He knew that he couldn't wait too long.
"I said that we would get some wood for a fire. So I guess we better get started on that."
Sasuke did not waste any time in turning around and moving at a quick pace. He hated being lectured no matter what it was about. Why couldn't they understand that he could do this on his own? Sure, that first attempt was pretty bad, but he felt slightly more confident about it this time.
After the both of them had silently collected wood, they headed back to the campsite, only to stop in shock and relief as they realized that all groups had arrived. Kiba had both of his hands covering his face while Sakura healed Akamaru. Sasuke deposited his pile of wood and sat down close to the group.
"What happened?" someone asked the distraught Inuzuka.
He didn't remove his hands. "That Kenshi guy threw a kunai at my neck and I was still dazed so I didn't have time to move. Akamaru took the hit for me. I wouldn't let any of those guys get near him after that."
After another minute of listening to all the stories from the groups, they learned that everyone had been attacked by Kenshi, not so surprising. The male had supposedly disappeared for all of them, too.
Sasuke noticed that there was a line waiting to get medical attention. He moved out of the way and quickly traveled to the front. Sakura was still working her butt off. Akamaru was unconscious in front of her, a nasty wound near his right shoulder. Sakura wiped sweat off of her forehead and continued to work. Sasuke immediately became worried for his teammate.
"You okay?" he asked as he knelt beside her.
She glanced at him for an instant. "Yeah. I'm probably going to be up all night though."
"Don't overdo it. I'm here to help."
"Thanks," she responded.
Minutes turned to hours as Sasuke watched Sakura heal countless injuries from many comrades. The fire was the only thing that kept the area lit. No one knew how late at night it was and no one really cared. Gaara thanked the Haruno and went to join the others, him being the last to be treated. Everyone wanted to share their tales of their battle with Kenshi, but only if all of the shinobi were listening. They were all sitting in a tight circle, waiting for Sasuke and Sakura to join. However, the medic was breathing heavily and had her hands on her knees, staring at the ground. Sasuke did not hesitate to rub one hand across her back, not caring if anyone else saw.
"I told you not to overdo it."
"With this many people needing help..."
Sasuke glanced at the large group through the corner of his eye. Currently, a few were chatting or looking over some of their bandaged wounds. He turned his attention back to Sakura. "You need to rest. I'm not taking no for an answer."
She had no strength left to argue. Instead, Sakura nodded and let him gently put an arm around his shoulder. Now, all the others were watching soundlessly as Sasuke led her to one of the sleeping bags that had been set up.
As Sakura crawled into the sleeping bag, she remembered something from earlier. "Are you gonna tell me what you wanted to a while ago?"
He waited a moment to reply. "Hn, later. It's not important right now. You need to get some rest."
She smiled when she closed her eyes. "You're so difficult."
He didn't respond as he sat down and watched her.
Author's Note: So this chapter was also shorter than usual and I apologize for that. Lately, I've had a lot to do. I had family visit and I had to go to a ton of places. Anyway, I've also been depressed recently as well. That's kept me from writing and I'm just trying to get over that. I'm literally finishing this up at about midnight. I'm going to try and get back to my normal self so until then, my writing may be a little shorter. Thanks so much for your support! It really helps!
OTHER UPDATES
I don't know when the next chapter of Family Struggle will be out. I haven't started on that because of the reasons above.