Chapter 6

Sasuke had woken up early the next day and made his way towards the back room of the cave. He didn't like going here often as he usually left irritated and in an even worse mood when he left, but Sakura's blatant defiance yesterday had provoked him into taking measures that would ensure she wouldn't try to disobey him again.

Sasuke never did like it when people blatantly went against his commands. Suigetsu would try to, but Sasuke quickly taught him how things went. Juugo was always on his side, and he could deal with Karin pretending to disobey as long as she pulled through in the end.

He raised his hand to knock, but prevented himself from doing so. His Mother had engraved it in his head that you should always knock on a closed door before entering. He debated just opening the door, but a familiar nagging in the back of his head prevented him from doing it. He let his hand rap on the door and then entered without waiting for permission.

"Ah, Sasuke, what brings you here?" Madara asked already awake and looking over reports on his desk. He could always tell it was Sasuke by the fact that he actually knocked. "Usually I have to drag you in here or just go to your room instead." He glanced up at Sasuke, probably trying to guess what Sasuke was there for by judging his expression, and then looked back down at his papers. "If this is about releasing Sakura from your service the answer is 'no,'"

Sasuke leaned casually up against a wall and then let his head rest on the wall as well. He closed his eyes and decided to let Madara figure out his guess was wrong on his own.

"Stop wasting my time and tell me what you want," Madara said after a few seconds of silence.

"I want you to have Sakura teach me medical jutsu," Sasuke answered.

"Why? Haven't you already almost mastered medical jutsu?" Madara asked skimming through his reports and trying to find a specific one.

"That's not important," Sasuke replied.

"Just command her to teach it to you," Madara suggested.

Sasuke shook his head. "I need to command her to do something else today."

Through his mask Sasuke could tell Madara was raising an eyebrow.

"I'm quite busy at the moment, Sasuke," Madara said searching his desk for something. "I also have a mission for Sakura soon."

"I'm just asking you to write her a note telling her she has to teach me medical technique and make it sound as if I have never been taught it before," Sasuke said walking to Madara's desk and sitting on the chair opposite him. "It will only be for today."

"I can't imagine why on earth you need to, but fine," Madara said grabbing a blank sheet of paper and scribbling a note on it. He read it over quickly and then handed it to Sasuke. Sasuke stood up and made his way to the door, but was stopped by Madara's voice. "Whatever punishment you're about to give her, just remember you can't harm her physically."

Sasuke turned to Madara with a smirk on his face before leaving the room.

Sakura stretched out her arms when she woke up the next morning. A grin broke across her face when she remembered what had happened yesterday. She had beat Sasuke. Well, it wasn't a battle, but she had still outsmarted him and that was a good feeling.

She threw the blankets off of her legs and got out of the bed. She made her way towards the bathroom and got ready for the day. After getting dressed she made her way towards the door and was about to leave to report to Madara when she saw a note tacked there. Well that meant she didn't have to report to him at least.

Sakura,

You'll be thrilled to know that you'll be helping Sasuke brush up on his medical jutsu today. He has never learned and I would like him to know the basics before this war actually starts.

Sakura crumpled the paper in her hand. "Oh, yeah," she grumbled, "just absolutely thrilled."

She threw the paper across the room trying to relieve some of the frustration she was feeling upon hearing this news. She took a few deep breaths and was about to head over to Sasuke's room when her door was kicked open.

A very upset looking Sasuke was found leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed and a note similar to hers in his hand.

"I suppose you're here for the healing lesson I'm supposed to giving you," Sakura said pointing out the obvious.

He didn't respond and, instead, made his way to her bed and sat down on it.

"I'm going to go ahead and assume you know absolutely nothing about medical jutsu like Madara said," Sakura said walking to her bed and sitting next to him.

He didn't respond again.

"Didn't think so," Sakura said interpreting his silence. "You always were the kind of ninja that only focused on getting stronger in your fighting."

Sasuke made no response to her baiting, so she continued. "Right, I'm going to give you a little cut on your arm and you'll need to heal it by using healing chakra."

Sakura made a point not to tell him how to make healing chakra. If he was such a smart Uchiha then he could figure it out on his own. She moved to make a small cut on his arm, but her grabbed her hand to stop her.

"Do you honestly think I'm going to let you cut me?" Sasuke asked raising an eyebrow at her.

Sakura pulled her hand out of his grip with a, "fine," and instead cut her own arm without a moments hesitation

"Let's see if you can heal it," Sakura said indicating to the cut on her arm. It was only kind of deep, but it was still a complicated cut to heal. She had cut across the line of cleavage, meaning a scar would be left unless you had some basic understanding of medical jutsu.

Sasuke looked at her with a face that said, "Are you serious? This couldn't be easier."

Within a matter of seconds Sasuke had a green chakra surrounding his hands. He placed it on her arm, and Sakura saw out of the corner of her eye that he was staring at her face and not her arm. Was he expecting her to blush or something?

She looked down when she felt the familiar prickle that her skin was quickly healing She couldn't help when a little "wow" left her lips. Maybe there was something to being an Uchiha. She quickly shook the thought from her head and looked back at him.

"I don't just train with a sword, Sakura," Sasuke monotoned.

Sakura inspected her wound. It was reddish and a bruise was forming. There was a scab, and it also looked as though she would have a scar if she didn't heal it, but overall it was a job well done. Way better than she expected.

"There is slight bruising and what looks to be a scar forming. Though, I must say, you did better than I expected, since I didn't expect you to do anything at all. This is academy student level healing at best, so I suppose I shouldn't have been too surprised."

She grabbed her kunai again and proceeded to cut her thigh and side. Was she imagining the smirk she saw him form? "These are a little more complicated to heal. Let's see if you can handle them."

Sasuke did as instructed and did the same healing job as he had done on her arm. Bruising, a scab, and the looking's of a scar. She nodded in a way that was meant to say good job and was about to put her hand on her thigh and heal it when Sasuke grabbed her hand to stop her.

"I command you to train with me today without healing your wound," Sasuke ordered. He released her hand and got off the bed, hands in his pockets. She blinked at he was already out the door. She felt the familiar burning on her arm that made her follow his commands.

She stood up to go outside to the training ground and felt a sting on her thigh, arm, and side. She looked down at her leg and grimaced.

Sasuke had done a poor job healing her wound on purpose.

Awkward.

That was probably the best way Naruto could explain the situation he was in right now. No one had said anything since the incident and they were all avoiding looking at him. Even Hinata was pretending he wasn't there! He couldn't make light of the situation by making a joke or anything either. There was nothing comical with what had just happened.

The look in Kakashi's eye that Naruto had seen earlier was quickly wiped away with the speed expected of a ninja, and Kakashi had gone into leader mode once again. Kakashi had shouted some commands and everyone had started moving again.

Naruto was trying to keep his mind focused on the mission and not on what had just happened. He hadn't let the nine-tails take control like that in a long time. Heck, he had actually been considering what the nine-tails had suggested to him!

He wasn't entirely sure what was happening with him, but he did know this:

He didn't like it.

Sasuke was already at the training grounds when Sakura got there ten minutes later. She was very cautious to not let her guard down. Sasuke hadn't asked her to train with him just because he got lonely. The smirk she saw when she had cut her thigh and side, the poor healing job, and the command not to heal it. She had a bad feeling about this training session.

Sasuke turned to her in acknowledgement of her presence and crossed his arms. She was getting really tired of the arm crossing thing.

"What are the rules for this training session?" Sakura asked. Underneath all of her caution and bad feelings she was kind of excited. She hadn't trained with anybody in a long time. It had actually been a few years. Her last two years had been very draining and the mission she had given herself was time consuming as well. If she didn't let her guard down, this would actually be kind of fun. She also had to remember not to go all out... If she did - she shook her head. Now was not the time.

"Anything goes," Sasuke answered. "Except, Genjutsu."

Sakura was surprised. He must have known she was skilled with Genjutsu, but even so, she was no match for a Sharingan user. Why would he give himself that handicap as well?

"Go," Sasuke said pulling Sakura out of her train of thought. She had to dodge quickly as Sasuke already had a large fireball plowing towards her. She jumped into a tree and heard a gust of wind as Sasuke appeared behind her about to bring his sword down on her. She quickly dropped from the tree limb she was on and grabbed it with her hands. She swung herself onto another branch and had to immediately drop from that one when lightning was shot towards her. She heard the familiar chirping of birds and dove for the ground before Sasuke could hit her with his Chidori.

She sprinted towards a thicker area of the trees where she could maybe get the upper hand. Before she got to the woods she was ducking again before Kusanagi could cut her head off. She rolled to the side and pushed herself up with her hands and made her way into the trees again.

Sasuke wasn't allowing her any time to play offense.

She weaved between the trees, a plan forming in her head. She had used a similar move when she was with Sasuke on a mission. He would probably remember it, but she was crossing her fingers that he wouldn't. As she wove between the trees she placed paper bombs on some of them. She had made a full circle and proceeded to jumping to the very top of the tree in the middle. She knew Sasuke had been right behind her, but she didn't know he was literally right behind her!

He went old-school on her and used his Lion's Barrage. The breath was knocked out of her, and she was hurtling to the ground at a very dangerous speed. She saw something whiz past her ear and caught a glimpse of a paper bomb.

Sakura let out a curse and tried to right herself, so she could get out of the way of the explosion. She grabbed onto a branch and then immediately pounced up into the air. The explosion sounded and she could feel the force of it push her higher into the air.

After a few second she was falling again, this time purposefully. She grabbed a branch and landed lightly onto the ground. She couldn't see anything. There was too much smoke. She ran in one direction hoping to get out of the smoke, but she felt herself get kicked in the thigh - hard. She saw red and knew Sasuke had the upper hand at the moment with his Sharingan. She felt something oozing down her leg and guessed that her wound had opened.

She dodged a few more of Sasuke's attacks while concentrating chakra into her fist. While she managed to dodge very well she couldn't see very well and that allowed Sasuke to reopen the wounds on her side and arm as well. Sasuke wasn't giving her anytime to breath, much less dodge all of his attacks. She brought her fist down to the ground and watched as Sasuke jumped away from the huge crater giving her enough time to jump out of the smoke. She pulled a tree out of the ground and intended to use it as a baseball bat, but Sasuke used his fire style to remove it from the equation. She couldn't help but think that Sasuke was also holding back in this fight. She had seem him fight many times and knew he was far more skilled than this. Was he holding back just because he still thought she was an annoying little girl?

She felt a familiar tingle at her eyes and fingertips. She had to resist the urge to go all out. Sasuke couldn't know about that, not yet.

The breath was knocked out of her when Sasuke dove onto her and pinned her effectively to the ground. She tried to struggle, but he drove his knee into her injured thigh, effectively stopping her.

She glared at him and resisted the urge to spit in his smug face.

"Weak, just as I thought," Sasuke said.

This time Sakura did spit in his face. "You know nothing about me!"

"I know that you're weak," Sasuke responded, "and that is all I need to know about anyone. I don't know how you were allowed to be in the Akatsuki, but I suggest you leave and go back to your precious Konoha."

She could tell he was surprised when she smirked. "You think you know so much Sasuke, but you really don't know anything. Your like a little boy that has convinced himself he knows all there is to know, when really he hasn't learned the smallest thing about life. Naive is the best word to describe you."

"I am not-"

"Your so blinded you don't even see that Madara has you wrapped around his finger. You can't even hurt me because of his command!"

Sasuke squeezed the cut on her arm, and making sure his nails dug into it, while pushing his knee even harder onto her thigh.

"You forget. I own you. One command from me and I can hurt you and I can make you regret your defiance."

"How? You weren't even allowed to hurt me severely during this spar because of Madara's command! You can do nothing to me."

Sasuke suddenly leaned down and she felt him kissing her neck and jaw while his hand snaked around her waist, and she froze.

He wouldn't- He dug his other hand onto the cut on her side and she lost her train of thought because of the pain.

His lisp made their way to the corner of her mouth, and she could feel him smirk against her skin.

He pulled away with a glare on his face and leaned in close again, this time to her ear. His warm breath tickled her ear, and she tried to pull away. "I don't need weapons to hurt you. I don't need jutsu, and I don't need my fists. There are other ways to hurt a person other than physical pain."

Sakura blinked and he was gone. She sat up and began shaking. She didn't know when she had started crying, but she felt the tears cascading down her face.

For the first time in four years, Sakura Haruno was scared.

That's right people! This was a fast update! I have pretty much had this chapter in mind since I started the story and I am excited to finally have it out!

I know, I know, the chapter still isn't that long... I don't think I'm good at writing long chapters.

My last chapter was probably my most popular one, so a huuuge thanks to those that made it so popular: Ash2000, peppermintginger, MuffinYum, TwistedxWhispers, X. summergrey .X (I had to put spaces in your name because it kept cutting your name out), Your Hoshi, arravis, rainfurr26, aisling28XxX, LadyMartel4000, ChibiVampireQueen, and all you other people that read it but didn't review or story alert or favorite! You guys RAWK! All of the alerts I got about this chapter made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :)

The Fuzz \|/ (Bonus points for anyone that knows what the symbol is)