Chapter 4

Sakura suppressed yawn for possibly the hundredth time that day. She had gone into Sasuke's room exactly twenty-four hours after the first command. He had been asleep and irritatedly responded that she would have to go another twenty-four hours without sleep. She tallied the number in her head and came up to a grand total of sixty-six hours without sleep.

She groaned inwardly as another yawn tried to make its way to the surface. She readjusted the strap of the bag she was carrying on her shoulder and stomped her way to the training grounds. Sixty-six hours without sleep was not going to keep her from training!

When she got to a secluded area in the woods she threw her pack down and began practices her forms. She moved fluently from one form to another, constricting her muscles at the correct times and adding the correct amount of balance. At every form she would let out a short, "Hya!" and move onto the next one.

She felt the tiredness itching at her eyes and she rubbed them in hopes of getting rid of it. It was an empty hope so she began rapidly punching a tree and performing ten squats every fifty punches. She sort of missed the days when she would train with other members of the Akatsuki and wondered if Sasuke would train with her if she asked him-

She gave her cheeks a few slaps to rid herself of the thought. Was she so tired that she was resorting to thinking of asking Sasuke to train with her? Sure she had never liked training alone, but she would rather ask Zetsu than Sasuke.

She rubbed at her tired eyes frustratedly as she mis-aimed with a punch and injured her wrist slightly.

She let her thoughts wander again after she quickly healed her wrist and continued with the exercise. She vaguely wondered why Sasuke wanted her to go without sleep? He must have been trying to make her miserable or weakened as some sort of revenge. Everything was always about revenge and strength with him. Any time he could prove someone to be weak he would.

She found herself thinking back on what he had said about only considering four girls to be strong. She snorted at his sexist point of view.

Come to think of it, she had guessed who three of the girls were, but who was the fourth? She didn't particularly care about Sasuke's opinion on that matter, but she didn't like not knowing information like that. It irked her

Sakura gave her cheeks a few slaps in an attempt to wake herself up more. Why was she even thinking about that? Was she really that tired? The slaps did nothing to wake her up and instead she accidentally punched the tree down.

"Sakura," a voice greeted behind her.

Sakura turned on her heel and gave a slight bow of her head, "Madara."

"I've come to inform you of a little... Event, you could say," Sakura watched as he leaned up against a tree and plucked a leaf from a limb. His tone of voice suggested it was more than just a "little" event.

"What is this event?" Sakura asked as she sat down on the grass and leaned up against a tree wishing that she could just sleep. She began to drift a little and felt a burning sensation from where her seal was. She opened her eyes again and gave Madara her full attention.

Madara looked down at her and she could almost picture a sneer. His face was as big of a mystery as Kakashi's. Sakura had always been curious as to what Kakashi's face looked like underneath the mask-

She shook her head to get herself to focus on the situation at hand.

"Are you sure you're up to it? You look a little pale," Madara noted. His voice did not contain a hint of real concern.

"I'm fine," Sakura said waving a hand at him. "besides, what do I need to be up to doing?"

"Zetsu will be returning from a journey soon," Madara began.

"What kind if journey?" Sakura cut in.

"The recruiting kind," Madara answered as he began to pace back and forth in front of Sakura. "He and the few hundred people he recruited ran into some trouble on the way back and will be needing some healing upon their return this afternoon. Since you're the only medic-nin I have, it will be your job to heal them."

"A few hundred?" Sakura groaned.

"Is that a problem? Don't tell me you've gotten weak the two years you were gone?"

"No," Sakura protested. "I was just surprised Zetsu recruited that many people. He's not the best negotiator after all."

Usually healing that many people wouldn't have been any trouble, but she had been sixty-six hours without sleep and that made anyone's chakra level low.

Madara left and Sakura let out a sigh. This was not going to be fun.

Sasuke was ticked. It was easy for him to believe that Madara would do this, but the fact that he had made him even angrier. He didn't want to be seated with the weak little girl he had been stuck with on his genin team again. He didn't care what anyone claimed; she was still weak and useless and he intended to prove that with how she reacted to being forty-eight hours without sleep.

Usually that would be a peace of cake for any ninja.

He had been sitting completely still since sunrise was was beginning to feel uncomfortable, but no one said training was supposed to be comfortable. His ears and nose were plugged with pieces of rubber and he kept his eyes shut tight. He was training to use only chakra as his means of sensing his surroundings in case his sight, hearing, and sense of smell were taken away from him.

Something had moved into his "chakra radar" and caught his attention. That something was a rather large amount of exhausted chakra signatures. He deepened his chakra senses and counted about five hundred wounded people

These must have been the recruits Sakura was supposed to be healing this afternoon. Sasuke smirked; this was going to be interesting. She had been without sleep for at least forty-eight hours and now she had to heal five hundred people? This was the failure of hers he had been waiting for and he wasn't going to miss it.

He opened his eyes, took out the plugs, and made his way to where Sakura would be healing them. He opened the door and saw her staring out a window wistfully.

"What do you want?" she spat. He ignored her and sat cross-legged on a table. "I'm going to need that table."

He decided not to respond and instead smirked while crossing his arms.

"Good answer," Sakura snorted. She had dark purple circles under her eyes and Sasuke guessed that she had actually been more than forty-eight hours without sleep. Yes, this was going to be enjoyable.

The door burst open and Sakura went into medic mode. She completely fazed out anything that was not her patients.

"Form a line!" She commanded to the people all trying to barge into the door at once. The group obeyed and formed a surprisingly orderly line. She began with the first man and kept a steady, quick pace all the way up to somewhere in the three hundreds. Sasuke noticed an obvious dip in her stamina then. He activated his Sharingan and smirked when he saw that she was nearly out of chakra. Would she continue on and pass out, or would she quit?

Her chakra signature was like a candle on its last leg. The light was slowly ebbing away until it gave a short sputter and died out. Sasuke gave a satisfied smirk when at the 463rd man she tipped forward and fell unconscious on the man's chest. The man smiled in a questionable way and was about to put his hand on Sakura when Madara appeared and threw the man away.

The man smacked up against the wall and fell unconscious at Sasuke's feet.

"Hn," Sasuke said addressing Madara. "I knew she was still as weak as ev-"

"Shut your mouth before I rip it off, boy," Madara growled.

Sasuke jumped to his feet, Sharingan activated. He could feel a prickling sensation coming from where his curse seal used to be.

"Are you threatening me?" Madara seethed. Sasuke soon found himself held up against a wall with Madara's hand wrapped around his throat. "You call a girl that managed to heal 463 men of some rather serious injuries when she had a depleted chakra supply because she had been three days without sleep weak?"

Sasuke said nothing but glared defiantly back at Madara.

"I specifically remember telling you that you couldn't give her any commands that would injure or kill her," Madara recalled.

"I didn't," Sasuke coughed out trying to make his voice sound commanding.

"Going three days without sleep is an injury to any ninja. She is my only medic and is very important to Akatsuki if we want to win the war," Madara spat.

"I only commanded her to go two-"

"You make the mistake of harming her strength physically again and you will regret it," Madara warned releasing Sasuke.

Sasuke slid to the floor panting and clutching at his neck

"Why do you even care about her well being?" Sasuke asked looking at Sakura's unconscious form in disgust.

"She has inherited certain... Abilities," Madara said in a purposefully vague way.

"As far as I know nothing special has ever come from the Haruno clan."

"Well, then you know very little. Take her to her room."

Sasuke watched as Madara left. He thought momentarily on the way Madara had said not to physically hurt her. He smirked, a plan formulating in his head on how he would expose Sakura for who she really was.

He stood up and left the room without giving Sakura a second thought.

She woke up quite aware of a head-ache. She was in her bed but had no recollection as to how she got there.

She sat up and had to hold her forehead as it throbbed. She turned and saw a note from Madara.

Consider your 102˚ temperature an excuse to skip your duties today.

Sakura let out a long breath as she sank back into her pillows. 102˚? She felt the seriousness of her illness becoming more obvious as various places began aching.

At least she could finally get some sleep. Perhaps the sickness was a blessing in disguise. She could gather her thoughts and form a strategy.

Yeah, I know, this is another filler chapter where important things are laced in. This story will get moving soon I promise! After all, Sasuke is formulating a plan to prove Sakura's weaknesses and Sakura has to form a strategy for some reason, right?

Reviews are appreciated as usual! Feel free to ask questions, believe it or not your questions sometimes give me ideas to add to the story :)

Big thanks to Ne0nAngel, LadyMartel4000, Katkat024, Minji-Kitty for reviewing, favoriting, and alerting my story :) You guys rawk!