This chapter is dedicated the nanamisakurachan. I had really nowhere to go with this story but when your review came in I was suddenly inspired and the whole plot came flooding to me. So thanks for helping me get over my writter's block! This chaps for you :D Hope you like it XX
Sakura looked out of the window at the moon rising up over Konoha giving everything a silver sheen in the winter frost, it illuminated everything and made all the little details seem so clear. She shut the blinds quickly and shut out the rest of the world from the small soap opera that seemed to be evolving in her bedroom. She turned around and knelt back down to her position next to the patient, she lay her hand against his chest and could feel his heart beating stronger and a tiny bit faster. She removed it and rubbed her eyes, she now admitted that she was in fact exhausted. Her head and eyelids felt heavy as well as all her other limbs and she knew that she couldn't keep herself up straight very much longer. She moved to pick herself up but she just couldn't; she dropped her head onto the soft, welcoming duvet and felt herself drift off.
Bang! Sasuke rolled over in his sleep and pulled the duvet out from under her, her head dropped down and her forehead smashed against the wooden bed frame.
"SHIT!" she cursed in a hushed voice. She shot her hand up to her forehead and rubbed it in a frustration. She looked down at her "patient" and could help but let out a frustrated sigh in an attempt to hold back her anger. She got up, straightened out her skirt and walked through to the living room and collapsed on to the sofa. She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed loudly. Her mind was buzzing but then again she should have expected that, she hadn't had a millisecond to really comprehend what was going on around her. An ex-team mate was lying in her bedroom as she had already found but what she hadn't really come to realise was that he was still a missing ninja and an S class criminal. Just stepping back into Konoha was precedence for execution so she couldn't bare to think of the consequences for both of them if she harboured him for much longer. She leant forward and leant her elbows on her knees whilst supporting her head in her hands. She gently rubbed her temples and felt fatigue wash over her. She turned the TV onto the medical documentary she had recorded before she left for work and sprawled out across her sofa. She didn't catch a single word of the programme; she had fallen into an impenetrable sleep within a matter of seconds.
The harsh glare of sunlight streaming through the lounge windows caused her to moan and throw her hand up at her eyes to block the light. She grabbed a pillow and pressed it up to her face, she resisted the urge to yell into it in frustration. Why was a decent night's sleep always denied to her?
"I see you're as pleasant in the mornings as always," came a cool voice from across the room. Sakura's breath hitched in her chest, he had scarred the crap out of her. In those few blissful moments when you wake up when you are barely conscious all the worries of your life dissipate. So naturally Sakura had completely forgotten about her midnight encounter with the Uchiha and how she had dragged him home with her. She sat bolt upright and turned round sharply to see him standing in her bedroom doorway. He was slouched against the doorframe with a sarcastic smile gracing his angular features. He was still bare-chested, wrapped up in bloody bandages but he had put back on his tattered bottoms. Sakura looked him up and down several times just to make sure that he was really there. He caught her starring and looked down on her focusing his eyes on hers, he locked in on them finally gaining her attention. They both starred at each other for a moment, her emerald almons shaped eyes captivated by his deep onyx orbs. It was enough to make her feel slighty woozy. She shook herself from her daze and averted her eyes to anywhere that wasn't at him. Sakura felt shaken, around Konoha she was known as a cool but friendly kunoichi who was in control of her emotions. But one look from the Uchiha could shatter that exterior, she gave herself a mental slap and reapplied her cool demeanour. Then finally she looked up at him and leant back into the sofa again.
"So you going to tell me what you're doing here?" she said flatly. She looked straight at him hoping that he would give her a proper answer but he merely shifted further up the doorframe and broke her gaze. Sakura sighed again; it was seeming to become a regular occurrence. She stood up and walked over to him so that she was at least a few feet away, she felt less safe around him now. The other day he had been so obviously frail that she saw him as no threat but now his usual bravado had returned and she felt more exposed.
"It's only been a few hours…" Sakura said simply. "You need more rest." Sasuke looked at her with a critical expression.
"What!?" she bit at him.
"It's Wednesday. You slept for twenty four hours," he said in a stoic tone, not rising to her hostility. Sakura looked at him questioningly and looked down at her watch. He was right, the date read Wed Dec 15th . She had in fact slept an entire day away, not that the hospital would be missing her, she didn't have another shift until Thursday thankfully. She looked up at him but the smirk had not managed to creep its way back across his face. His face was cold and very serious but she was used to this. It hardly phased her anymore, hardly. She swept past him into her bedroom and knelt back down next to the bed. She looked at him and motioned for him to lie back down. He gave her a sceptical look but he gave in when he saw her fist curl up. He lay down tentatively whilst trying to hide his discomfort to her. He heard her mumble something about how it was the least he could do to let her examine him. Sakura reached out her hand and placed it softly on his upper abdomen; Sasuke flinched at the contact, even through the bandages. This did not go unnoticed by Sakura and she trailed her hand down progressively adding a little more pressure. Only when he audibly gasped did she look up at him with a very I told you so look. She reached round his side and undid the knot in the bandages which she then began to unwrap. The silence between them was deafening but neither of them had anything that would make it less awkward so they both assumed it would be wise to not speak at all. Finally after carefully unwrapping the blood-soaked bandages did she expose his marred skin. The wound on his abdomen was incredibly deep but equally incredible was the fact that it had not stopped bleeding. Sakura reached under the bed to grab the medical kit she had left there earlier and grabbed a small jar of home-made antiseptic and began spreading it along the length of his gash, earning a sharp hiss from her patient. She looked up at him and tried to catch his eye but he was already looking down on her, watching her at tentatively.
"You need stitches," she said simply. He looked down on her and she felt herself shiver slightly.
"Hnn." was his only response and he looked up at the ceiling as if bracing himself. Sakura starred up at him and shook her head a little.
"No you don't get it. You need to go to the hospital," she said urgently. It was at this comment that Sasuke finally clicked and he snapped his head back down at her.
"No!" he said firmly. She furrowed her brow and he leant his head back against the head board. "No hospitals."
"Sasuke, this needs stitches. We can't leave it open like this, it'll turn sceptic," she said leaving out the bit on the end giving away the eventual result of septicaemia - death. She began to stand up but he grabbed her wrist forcefully, pinning her in place. She glared at him with anger and misunderstanding but he starred her down, his onyx eyes were piercing her own which sent another unpleasant chill down her spine. Sakura stood up slowly as to not threaten him and walked over to her chest of drawers and rummaged amongst her drawers pulling out a fresh pair of grey jogging bottoms and a black t-shirt. She tried to covertly go into her underwear draw, fully aware that he was watching. She placed them on the window sill and then walked over to her wardrobe. She pulled out a pair of dark Jounin trousers that were obviously far too large for her and a long white shirt that she could have wrapped around her twice. She threw them on to the foot of the bed behind her and then after picking up her clothes from the window exited the room swiftly. He watched with amusement as she busied herself around the room, trying to avoid his gaze. He watched her swan past him and saw her glide down the hall and enter the bathroom.
Now that she was gone he could grab a moment to take in his surroundings, her apartment was small but cosy by his standards. Much to Sakura's taste, the rooms were filled with small pieces of art and little trinkets she had collected from her various missions, the one that stood out the most was the oddly shaped shuriken hanging above the small fire place in her living room. He also had it on good authority that there was a very valuable katana hanging above her front doorway although he had failed to see it as he was dragged in. He could hear the sound of running water and steam was trickling out from under the bathroom door. Sasuke shifted off the bed carefully and despite a few stabs of pain he was able to stand upright and walk through to the communal area. Her large living room led on to the kitchen, the bathroom and what looked like an airing cupboard further down the hall. He walked through the living room and lowered the blinds quickly and then after locking the front door and the windows the apartment was completely closed off to the outside world. He sighed and leant his head against the cold wood of her door, he pressed his hand against his stomach and looked down. The edges of his hands were blurred but through his skewed vision he could still make out the red stain that spread across his palm. He sighed again, despite the full days rest he was still feeling drained. That residual weakness coupled with his injury made it impossible for his plan of leaving as soon as possible to succeed. He'd have to think of another plan and quick. He turned around and rested his weight against the door in order to keep himself up straight. He had to retain his strength so that when Sakura came back he wouldn't have to show her his pain. He limped into the kitchen and sank into one of her comfortable 50's diner seats sat around the table in the middle of the kitchen. He leant back and closed his eyes trying to focus his chakra into his optical highway so that he could hopefully remove some of the fuzziness. He always felt vulnerable if they were not working 100. And vulnerable was not something an Uchiha was comfortable with or used to feeling.
Sakura emerged from the bathroom to a very dark apartment, she walked through to the living room to find that all the blinds had been shut tight so that the morning light was undetectable. She walked over to the window quickly toweling off her hair and tried to pull up the blinds but the chord was tangled at the very top. She reached under the slides and tried to pull up the window but she found it was stubbornly locked. She never locked her windows. She felt a pair of eyes on her back and a tingle down her spine, she turned around quickly but when there was nobody there she shivered again. Her heart was beating a little faster now and she could feel her breathing speed up also. She walked over to her bedroom door tentatively and peered into the room, there was no Sasuke on the bed and she began to feel a little nervous. She tiptoed through the hallway and stopped before she crossed the threshold of kitchen as it was the only place left for him to be. Sakura took a deep breath and dashed across the open archway and pressed herself against the front door. She quickly reached down and tried to turn the doorknob but she found the door locked. Not how she had left it before. She felt adrenaline pumping through her and it was starting to make her feel slightly nauseous. Suddenly she heard the screech of one of the kitchen chairs scratch against the floor. She quickly reached up and tried to turn the lock but it was just as stubborn as the windows. In a panic she reached up high to the top of the door frame and while grasping the sleek sheath, she steeled her nerves.
Sasuke heard the sound of soft foot steps on the hardwood flooring announcing Sakura's departure from the bathroom. He opened his eyes quickly to see flash across the open kitchen archway that lead to the front door.
"Oh crap," he cursed under his breath. He stood up quickly and tried to hurry to the front door to stop her from fleeing but he was stopped the moment he crossed the kitchen door threshold. The sleek blade of a katana was poised right in front of his throat, the cold steel only just grazing his skin but still earning a few drops of blood.
"Sakura," Sasuke said in a raspy voice. Sakura glared at him with a steely resolve showing him she was perfectly serious. She made a quick side motion with her head and barked "Back," at him. He slowly walked backwards until he was pressed up against the kitchen table. Sakura stood at arms length with the katana resting just below his chin. He could feel the smoothness of its steel on his chin and he starred down the blade at her. They stood for a moment in their stale mate, neither one of them willing to break eye-contact for even a second. Sakura's chest was heaving but her hand was perfectly steady, being a seasoned professional she knew perfectly how to handle this weapon. Her ANBU training had also taught her how to quell her emotions so that she could expose no weaknesses but this time it was harder. It was always harder with him. He slowly raised both his arms so that both palms were exposed to her.
"I'm not here to hurt you," he said. Sakura gripped the sword's handle even harder.
"Then why are you here?" she growled. Her eyes narrowed, she was not going to underestimate him now that he was capable of moving. Despite the fact that he was in essence a familiar face and a comrade he had also shown no restraint or remorse in the idea of killing Naruto and herself when they had met only a few years ago. Since that day she had been evaluating whether or not Sasuke was now an enemy. Though she still had no concrete answer she would not make the mistake of thinking that he would not hurt her if given the chance. But then he said something that was unexpected,
"I need your help," he said. Sakura regarded him for a moment and then her eyes were drawn to his hand which was tinted with dark blood which was also seeping through his bandages. Sakura took a step back and lowered the katana, but did not place in back into its sheath either. They stood in silence for another moment that seemed to stretch out into forever, Sakura not once taking her eyes away from his, frightened that at any point they would start spinning red. But suddenly Sasuke swayed a little and his eye lids drooped. Sakura raised the katana again slightly but suddenly realised that something was wrong with him. Suddenly his legs gave way and he crumpled to the floor. Sakura dropped the katana and rushed forward, catching before he hit the floor. He fell against her shoulder and Sakura held him to her tightly for fear of dropping him. Slowly she knelt down to the floor and allowed him to collapse into her lap. The only sound that escaped the apartment for the next few hours were the pitter patter of water beading off her hair onto the wooden floor.
