Howling Love :.
Chapter Twenty-two xx Mornings

Sakura let herself melt into the nearest chair, coughing in breaths as she let her jade eyes roll back to gaze unseeingly at the ceiling above her. Her gloved fingers were trembling slightly as she panted and she felt herself shiver as a single droplet of perspiration slipping down the side of her face to her jaw, where it sluggishly plipped onto the fabric of her shirt.

In the kunoichi's mind, she was horribly out of shape. Sakura had worked thirty-hour shifts at the hospital before without breaking a sweat, and now after a mere twelve, she was already feeling faint. Though she was still working longer than most, if not all, the other staff in the Konoha Hospital, she still felt embarrassed over not being able to work longer. She felt as if she was letting everyone down, and the hours she spent resting and accumulating more chakra were wasting patients lives who were on the line. She cursed herself for her low endurance before getting roughly to her feet, casting a quick glimpse at the patient she'd just recently stabilized before swiftly exiting.

Her hand automatically moved to swipe the clipboard listing all of the critical-care patients from where it hung on the wall outside when a hand suddenly snagged onto the back of her shirt, abruptly pulling her back. She angrily attempted to brush it away, but the sudden movement sent waves of dizziness rocketing through her head and she immediately took a step back, and she felt panic racing through her just as two hands shot out just in time from behind her to push her back onto her feet right before she would have fallen.

She wobbled for a brief moment n the balls of her feet before regaining enough balance to round - this time quite a bit slower - on her culprit. She frowned wearily, pushing back a few loose strands of damp, rose-pastel hair before cocking her brow at the spectacle.

"I would say thank you, but seeing as how you were the one who tripped me up in the first place, I think I'll skip it," she said articulately, olive hues swiveling about the person before her reproachfully.

"Better to almost fall now rather than collapse later," deadpanned the Uchiha sardonically, his perceptive hues flicking over her wavering figure for a moment before narrowing. The kunoichi attempted to draw herself up beneath his gaze, feeling strangely exposed as he looked her over.

"I was not going to collapse!" she snapped finally, though the usual vigor that would have filled her voice was null and void. An amused smirk spread silently across Sasuke's features as he watched her.

"Hn," he finally intoned, shrugged mildly as his arms folded neatly over his chest. The kunoichi rolled her eyes in an exaggerated fashion before turning back towards the patient list to see who was next on the list to be treated.

"So, why are you here again?" she asked dejectedly as she scanned the page. After finding her patient she returned the board to its holder and headed off down the hall towards said person's hospital room. The light and arid footsteps behind her alerted her to the fact that the Uchiha was following right behind. She turned her head to give him a quick, annoyed glare, stopping outside the door she'd meant to go to.

He chose to evade her question, eyes flicking to her face before fluxing slightly. "You shouldn't take another patient," he said finally. It wasn't a statement of opinion; it was a command, meant to be complied with. Sakura found an instinctive shudder ripple down her spine as she glowered rebelliously at him.

"I think I know the limits of my own body, Uchiha. Stop patronizing me," she quipped, glaring at him fervently before turning on her heels towards the indicated door. Her movement was interrupted, however, for the prodigy's hand had abruptly locked around her wrist, pulling her back. She turned on him furiously, emerald hues blazing.

"What?!" she shot at him heatedly. Sasuke scowled darkly before withdrawing his hand from her wrist to pull his thumb suddenly to his lips. With a fluid motion he bit into the tip before holding it out again, small droplets of crimson rolling down the length of his skin from the small mark he'd made with his teeth. Sakura stared at in mute horror as her eyes fluttered to his face in confusion.

"If you can heal this, I'll leave." His expression was blank and as unemotional as his voice. She cocked her head to the side before taking his hand gently in hers, inspecting the self-inflicted injury with wry contempt. She was trying desperately not to think about the little electric spark that flared through her veins with the contact, or how strangely soft the palm of his hand was in comparison to the rough calluses just below his fingers, and that impulsive urge to fling her arms around his neck that she was now struggling to qualm...

Then, carefully, she concentrated on that tiny little cut, gathering her energy as she sought to accelerate cell production around the break in the skin. Very slowly it began to close until finally the small wound was gone, and then she glanced up at the dark-haired youth with a glimpse of a smirk fading across her pale features as she fell into his chest.

"Mmm.... guess you... were right... this time..." she murmured into his clothing, succumbing to sleep just as his hands moved to prop her up again.

Sasuke watched in mute memorization as the kunoichi slumped against him, tilting his head to the side as he moved to prop her up again, only to find that her eyes were now closed, and her breathing was slow and relaxed in slumber. His eyes flicked from her porcelain face up to the surrounding hallway to find it empty, and a slight frown stretched across his lips.

There weren't any nurses watching.... meaning there was no one else available to move her, leaving him as an obvious solution. So in one easy movement he scooped up the pinkette's limp body bridal-style in his arms before ducking into the nearby stairwell, an amused smirk stretched across his lips.

Technically, he wasn't supposed to be lifting anything over five pounds for a good couple of months, then after that nothing more than thirty for a time. However, he estimated that the amount of strain creating a chidori was on his body was about the equivalent of lifting about 150 pounds, and since he performed that particular technique quite often, he figured that actually lifting weights wouldn't be too much of a strain.

And it sure wasn't bothering him as he plodded down to the first floor of the hospital with the sleeping Haruno in his arms, and for that he was somewhat grateful. He'd look like a complete idiot to have to put her down half-way, but chances are if that situation actually had come to pass, he would have kept on walking as if nothing was bothering him and hurt himself in the process.

The prodigy snatched a quick glance down at the sleeping medic as a tiny sigh passed through her lips, followed by a groan as he really looked to see the massive amount of stairs sprawled out before him. Slowly, carefully, he took the first step before gradually sinking into a steady - but safe - rhythm down the steep the first flight.

---

A soft yawn fluttered past the kunoichi's lips as she curled up into a tight ball within the throng of blankets piled around her. She pressed her face into the warm pillow beneath her head, kneaded the edges of a blanket with her hands until finally she blinked into an unstable awareness. After a series of small yawns and blinks, it slowly occurred to her that she was staring up at a darkened ceiling, and that the only light in the apparent room was that which streaked from beneath the door somewhere off to her left.

She made an attempt to sit up by drawing her knees up to her chest, noticing with a start that she was curled up on a very familiar piece of a furniture; the couch in her office. She squinted her eyes tight to see her desk in the dim light, and nodded with satisfaction when its hazy outline came into view.

So she was in her office.... But how did that happen...?

She faintly recalled working in the upstairs Emergency sector, and then... Her train of thought died suddenly when an all-too-familiar face popped up along the tracks. The always-joyful, (and this said with quite a bit of sarcasm,) Uchiha had made one of his sparkling appearances and, as she grudgingly remembered, had patronized her for a good amount of time before tricking her out of her shift by means of knocking her out.

She supposed blandly that he hadn't technically been the one to cause her collapse, but he certainly had known it would be the outcome when she tried to heal his finger, thus he had ample opportunities to stop her. Though she normally would have been furious at him for taking advantage of her like that, for some odd reason she didn't. If she couldn't heal something as simple as a cut without fainting, attempting to heal any serious injuries might have done a lot more damage on her own body. So, although he did it in probably the most humiliating and inconvenient way possible, she supposed he'd done it to protect her. And for that she felt oddly touched.

The kunoichi let a brief yawn pass through her lips before getting hazardously to her feet, pitching to either the side as she made stabbing attempts at keeping her balance. She felt an abrupt shiver run down the length of her spine and immediately swept the blanket back up from where she left it on the couch to place about her shoulders. She then took several tentative steps towards the door before cautiously sliding it open, only to be met with the now quite-familiar-feeling of bumping her nose into the hard plates of a very-male chest.

A soft 'oof' escaped her as she stumbled warily backwards; almost letting go of her cape-like blanket as she finally peeked up at the person in the doorway.

"W-why are you always standing in doorways?!" she finally grumbled testily, rubbing the bridge of her nose with a feminine scowl directed fully at her dark-haired culprit.

"Hn." He shrugged nonchalantly, though his eyes were darting across her face perceptively, as if scanning to see if he'd actually hurt her. She quickly dropped her hand, feeling heat rise to her cheeks when she found that his intense gaze hadn't lifted, but had instead traveled up so that they bore right into the centers of her jade eyes.

The heavy silence was abruptly broken by an irritable grumble resonating from Sakura's stomach, and her hands instantly flew to the spot in embarrassment. Sasuke, on the other hand, seemed to think it was immensely entertaining, for he managed to crack one of his amused smirks at her, his dark eyes gleaming knowingly.

"Hungry?" he asked blandly.

She blanched at him, but couldn't quite bring herself to deny it. She'd skipped lunch the during her hospital shift, and had apparently fainted before dinner, so her stomach was in need of some sustenance. So she let herself nod cautiously before letting loose another small yawn.

"Put your blanket back." His voice was low, gruff. She frowned, pulling it tight about her shoulders.

"Too cold," she said quietly. He rolled his eyes before shrugging off his own jacket and thrusting it into her unsuspecting hands. She hesitantly took at it, staring at it mutely before peering up at him.

"...But won't you be cold?" she asked him quietly, her eyes carefully swiveling up to his face, an honest concern lacing the jade edges.

"....Just put it on," he said roughly as he turned towards the hallway behind him. So she carefully let the protective shell fall from her bare shoulders to the ground before gently slipping her thin arms through the coat's sleeves, feeling a breath catch in her throat when the warmth she found within graced her skin. The piece of clothing was obviously big for her, hanging unzipped down to the edges of her kunoichi-style skirt. It was made of a thick and deliciously-soft fabric, but had this underlying sense of durability to its jet-black fabric that made the kunoichi feel oddly safe. She numbly inhaled the shinobi's scent from where it clung to the jacket, grinning smally to herself before taking a step forward and following him out the door.

It was a cold morning, and the Haruno was eternally grateful for the thick jacket she had pulled over her thin shoulders. She walked with quiet, distant steps down the dusty main street, her head lowered as she inspected the dust laid out before her with unseeing eyes. The presence of the Uchiha beside her felt nothing more than a shadow, for his footsteps were no louder than hers, and his strides were fluid and easy, as if they took no effort at all. At times during their silent walk she would feel this fluttering urge to say or ask something, only to peer up at his face and see those deep, brooding obsidians and then quickly return her eyes to the ground at her feet with a faint blush appearing across her cheeks.

Her stomach gave another, painfully-loud growl and she blanched before stealing a glaze up at her silent friend, only to see him smirking off into the dimly-lit road ahead, eyes twinkling. She snapped her neck around to avoid eye contact and continued walking with brisk, irritated steps until a hand snagged abruptly about her arm. She nearly yelped in surprise, only to turn and see Sasuke staring at her grudgingly.

"What?" she snapped brusquely, brushing off his hand in her annoyance of having her sulking interrupted. The prodigy merely rolled his eyes before he took her wrist and pulled her towards the door that they're been standing outside of and into the room beyond it.

She found her face turning a delightful shade of scarlet at the room that greeted her found herself wavering in place when the delicious scent of fresh, home-made pancakes reached her starved senses. Her stomach gave another earnest grumble. They're reached a small cafe, and to Sakura's delight, there didn't seem to be many people seated within the maze of empty chairs and neatly-placed tables, meaning that food would come all the more faster when the time came.

Another small tug on her wrist pulled her back to the present, and she quickly bobbed her head and followed as the Uchiha lead her off towards a booth near the window. She hesitantly slid onto one side while Sasuke took the other and she blushed even more fervently when the silence began to worm its way through her abdomen.

"You know, I have plenty of food at my place--" She was stopped by a brief wave of his hand as his dark eyes flicked off to look out at the early morning road they'd just recently left, looking strangely confident. She frowned and leaned back against her seat, examining his placid expression before finally taking up the laminated menu waiting before her.

It took her about three seconds to locate the two things she was dying for, so she was able to return the menu to its original place fairly quickly in order to resume searching Sasuke's face for why he looked so.... not unhappy

"This was closer," he said slowly, eyes darting to intercept her gaze before narrowing slightly and dancing off to look as a waitress approached the table.

"May I take your order?" the blond woman asked in a high, sugar-coated purr. Sakura noted that it was most definitely not directed at her, but to Sasuke. The lady giggled loudly when the Uchiha turned to give her a rather annoyed look before snapping a wad of gum around in her mouth irritably. A brief sigh passed through Sasuke's lips as he gestured in Sakura's direction.

The woman turned slowly - almost reluctantly - in Sakura's direction, scowling as she brought up her frilly pen and her pad of paper. Sakura blinked, eyes falling to her menu despite the fact she'd had this specific order memorized since she was seven.

"I'll have a Chai-latte and a waffle. Thanks..." she stole a glance up at the waitress, who was busy scribbling away on her paper with her overly-glossed lips pursed. Sakura chose that moment to look out the window as Sasuke had earlier, jade hues slightly dulled in thought

"Anything for you, sir?" The woman's syrupy voice reached Sakura's ears once more, and she quickly stuffed the feeling of fury that was rising up in her throat back down. As much as she would have liked to sock this skimpily-dressed woman in the face for her attempts at seducing the Uchiha, it was not in her place. Nothing serious was going on in between Sasuke and her, yet she couldn't quite quell this since of jealousy...

"Coffee."

"Room for cream?" Sakura could almost picture the woman bat her huge eyelashes and stick out her giant chest as the words bubbled out of her mouth. She snook a slanted glance down at the almost-flat front of her own shirt, her face going pale as her gaze quickly twitched back to the window. Damn her slow development.

"No." The usual bland monotone resonated from the Sasuke's throat, and Sakura inclined her head forward, grinning sheepishly. It was so Sasuke-esk to go for straight shots of coffee without anything to sweeten it up; picturing him pouring pounds and pounds of sugar and cream into his coffee didn't really fit his character. The corner of his lip twitched as he scrutinized her coy smile, and she swiftly shook her head before eyeing the retreating waitress.

"What?" Sasuke asked gruffly, his dark orbs flicking from her hands which were coiling around in her lap to her face. She shrugged, eyes suddenly widening as another waitress - this time older and much less hooker-like - approached with two steaming mugs. She placed them both on the table before smiling and leaving once again. Sasuke slowly reached forward and took his, eyeing its dark contents before taking a reserved sip and replacing it back on the table.

"Coffee is terrible for you, you know," Sakura said finally, sipping her own drink quietly.

"Longevity usually isn't associated with the lives of shinobi anyway," he said vacantly, his gaze pivoting up to her face and locking there.

"And here I am, working my ass of in that hospital trying to change that..." She grinned wryly, sipping her drink as she watched the Uchiha thumb that one over.

"Tch. You'll only be adding to the numbers if you keep working yourself to death like that."

"Hey, there would have been a problem if you hadn't pulled your finger trick on me..." jibed the Haruno blandly, sipping her drink idly, holding back the childish grin of satisfaction that fought to brighten up her face when the taste hit her tongue. Sasuke stared at her for a moment, blinking in a slightly-perplexed fashion before taking a quick sip of his coffee and speaking:

"If you couldn't heal my thumb, than how do you expect to treat someone with more serious injuries...?" Sasuke asked blankly, eyes flicking to her face before dropping to his coffee as he swished it around in its mug.

"I would have-- Wait, I didn't heal your thumb?" she blinked in confusion. She was under the impression that she'd fixed it before collapsing, perhaps she was mistaken? She held her hand suddenly out across the table for his hand, an expectant expression plastered across her face. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Give me your hand for a second," she ordered blankly, taking his arm when he didn't offer it to pull out from beneath the table. He gave little resistance, though his expression with scrawled with reluctance as she slowly turned over the rough skin of his hand to get a good look at his thumb.

Apparently her healing hadn't worked. She felt her whole body go suddenly numb as she stared at the little thing that had turned in to quite the problem, feeling her lower lip trembling as she abruptly snapped it shut. The skin around the once completely-unmarred extremity had turned a nasty shade of purplish-red; a color which spread not only so that it covered the entirety of his thumb, but a large portion of his palm and several other fingers as well. The original cut itself looked nasty and unhealed, the opening inflamed and unnaturally rigid, as if the skin was being kept apart by an unknown force within. Sakura immediately lightened her touch, careful not to jar his hand around too much as she continued to inspect it.

"How... When did this happen?" she stammered finally, turning her horror-struck gaze on the Uchiha, who was taking another gulp of his coffee with an uncaring expression on his face.

"After you healed it..." he answered slowly, his hand instinctively jerking away from the kunoichi's touch when she prodded a joint with a bit too much force.

"I'm so sorry....All of the nerves are out of place too... I can't believe I did this..." The Haruno placed the hand carefully onto the table before slumping forward onto her elbow, expression set in a discontented frown. Her eyes suddenly flicked up to her counterpart's face, holding his gaze for a moment before darting back down again. Finally she reached out and took up his hand again, her own hands now glowing a resilient green. Though the original wound he'd inflicted had been minuscule, she'd accidentally used fighting-style chakra on him rather than healing chakra, thus reversing any intent she might have had going in. Infusing her fighting-style chakra into the wound had set off his own chakra system into a furious storm, leaving his hand to be the battleground as the two opposing forces fought it out in the intricate chakra channels beneath his skin. It appeared to Sakura that, although his own chakra had been the obvious victor due to being an overall stronger and much larger force, the small bit of chakra she'd tried to heal him with was continuing to worm his way through his hand like a virus, despite its earlier loss.

"Don't be. It doesn't hurt." Sakura glanced up at him as he spoke, wanting to believe him, but knowing full well that he was lying through his teeth about the pain. She continued to work on his hand through grit teeth however, choosing to wait until the giant bruise that had formed receded before speaking.

"Sasuke, I've been working at that hospital for six years. I can tell when a person is in pain, even when it's a stoic idiot like yourself," she said critically, picking out her words with a careful ease. Her eyes remained on her hands as she worked until she felt all traces of injury were gone from his hand. Then she rose her gaze and fixed it on the Uchiha's face, a small smile spreading across her lips. He was staring at her with a surprised expression, thus his paper-thin lips quickly twitched into one of his usual smirks.

She found herself smiling cheerfully at him suddenly. Amidst all of events that had taken place in both of their lives, it was nice to know that some things would never change. He would always be that silent, stoic prodigy who excelled at everything, and she would always be that pink-haired girl who never really stopped loving him.

That was just how it was.

A/N: I HATE THIS STUPID WEBSITE. "Check back in a couple of minutes" my BUTT, the log-in system was down for FOUR DAYS! MY GOD. I was sitting on this finished chapter all weekend and felt absolutely HORRIBLE about not being able to upload it, so thank god everything's up and running. :D

Okay, well I took all this time to type out a detailed description/list of all of the reasons behind why this update is so late. It ended up being about three paragraphs of endless jabbering that really could have been summed up in a few sentences. Though I planned to update last weekend, I managed to catch one of the worst colds I have gotten in a really long time, which left me miserable and sick for the duration. I was too out of it to think properly, thus didn't update. I had softball practice all week after that, despite the fact that its spring break, and a game on Thursday, (which we lost,) and have a frickin' LOAD of homework to do by Monday.

...So that is my summary. :D If you thought it was long... well... you're lucky I deleted the other version. BLEHHH worst vacation week ever. I was looking forward to skiing all week too.... TT^TT Oh, but I do have some good news; MY ART IS BEING FEATURED ON THE FRONT OF A MAGAZINNEEEEE~ It's like some weird children's magazine but its still AWESOME. Oh, I also hit the first home-run for my high school team on Thursday. That was funnnn. :D

BACK TO THE TOPIC OF TEH FIC~ :D

Thanks to the several anonymous reviewers that commented on that last chapter! You guys are really sweet, and though I can't say thank you in a review reply, know that it is much appreciated! :D And to be compared with the amazing works like Ripples and Color Theory was such an honor and I'm simply humbled to have someone say that. :]

Thanks for reading and please review!!
--xxIndigo