Author's Note: So somebody in the reviews for the last chapter may or may not have picked up on something… a clue maybe? And because I'm evil I won't say who it was, or what it was about, but it'll be revealed soon!

Also, I removed Naruto as one of the characters in the description for this story, mainly because I hadn't intended for him to have as much spotlight as Sasuke and Sakura do, (As some of you pointed out). To be honest, I added his name when I published this story, not sure why I even did that in the first place, I've been meaning to do it for a while, and I kept forgetting, so thanks for the reminders (haha) Also, because this is basically focused on Sasuke and Sakura's growing relationship, their POVs will be more frequent than Naruto's.

Long story short, this is a SasuSaku fic, so sorry for the confusion.

And finally, I've added a little bit of fluff near the end, so look out!

The early morning sunrise shined into three pairs of tired eyes, the rays sending each of them further into the notion that their destination would soon be upon them. The morning dew was clinging to the crisp green leaves of the branches, and routinely abandoned the plants when the skin on their feet made contact with the droplets, choosing a new surface to stick to. Sakura's feet were soaked, each leap attracting more water droplets and the rush of wind that followed chilled her toes.

They had barely stopped since the incident, only stopping for brief sleeping sessions which usually only lasted for a few hours at the most. It certainly wasn't ideal, sleep deprivation was a major flaw for a shinobi; not only did it decrease chakra supply, but it could quite possibly make or break a mission. Nobody was complaining though, they had decided this together, as a team.

Sakura felt as though she was hit by a truck, her limbs felt heavy and it was a workout to simply jump and travel. Her eyes were stinging from the wind, over watering themselves to stay moist. A few dizzy spells had come and gone, duplicating trees and creating whirls of green leaves. She was breathless with every leap that she took, forcing herself to remember to inhale and exhale the crisp oxygen supply of the forest. The fatigue had hit her the hardest, she confirmed this by routinely glancing over at Naruto and Sasuke, who seemed unaware that their bodies demanded sleep. Yes, there happened to be a few missteps from Naruto as he continuously landed on the branches only to depart them quickly; Sakura noticed that Sasuke's eyes had been their regular onyx color, his bloodline deactivated more often than usual, most likely to preserve the chakra that he was running low on. But regardless, their outward appearances had given the illusion that they were withstanding the pressure like it was nothing. Sakura had made use of her soldier pills, popping one into her mouth every once in a while , and crunching down on its hard shell with her teeth. She knew that Sasuke didn't approve of her constantly relying on the energy that the pills placed into her body. Each time a pill entered her mouth, and the crunch was heard, she would notice him glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, a concerned yet stern look present on his face. Sakura didn't care, and she did her best to avoid that Uchiha look by staring solely ahead.

Besides, it was her fault that they had been forced to keep a constant pace ahead rather than rest. It was always her fault…

"Sakura-chan."

Sakura broke out of her gloomy thoughts and directed her attention to Naruto, who had lowered his pace to match hers. "Just so that we're prepared, can you remember what that guy looked like?"

It wasn't a question that Sakura had expected, let alone coming from Naruto. His blue eyes were vibrant with intense curiosity, and he continued to look at her even when she didn't respond at first. Even Sasuke, who had always usually stayed out of any conversions not directed at him, seemed interested. Sakura watched him continue on straight ahead, but noticed his eyes were slightly shifted to his left, towards her direction.

Sakura sighed. "Nothing too distinctive, physically. Black hair, brown eyes…" she began, pausing to take a breath and leap off another branch. "A bone chilling chakra signature.."

Naruto nodded sternly. "If we see him again, we'll be ready-"

"When we see him again." Sasuke's voice interrupted, catching his teammates' attention. "Think about it, why would he attack Sakura? And more importantly, why would he target us? It can't be just Sakura who he is after, and even if it was, he wouldn't have made the jutsu so easy to release. The only solution is that he's after something related to us, something that we have or will obtain."

Sakura frowned, immersing herself in deep thought. Like Sasuke had said, it didn't make sense.

A stranger wouldn't just target them, unless they were involved in something way bigger than they were aware of. Something he wanted…but even so..

Other than her intelligence, strength, and healing abilities, Sakura couldn't see that those traits made her desirable in the eyes of the enemy. She would have to had something else to her, something inexplicably powerful that would attract his attention somehow. She would have to be extraordinary to catch a strange shinobi's attention. She'd have to be a-

"Of course!.." Sakura whispered, but loud enough to catch Naruto and Sasuke's attention.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, but Sakura hadn't hear his voice over the pounding of her ears.

The realization pounded into her heart and spread into every crevice of her body, casting an immediate state of shock and dismay. It was the only thing that made sense, out of all the unexplainable actions that this man had performed on them, this had to be the reason.

"Sakura?" Sasuke's voice flowed to her ears, and she could hear once more.

"I know why he targeted us." she said, lingering on her words as if she were afraid to cast them away from her mouth. She dropped to a lower hanging branch and with all her strength, pushed off of it, sending her flying up ahead gracefully, yet full of power. "I know what he's after."

He could feel her movements; every step, every leap, every surge of chakra. He could feel her muscles tighten as she jumped rapidly across the branches.

One more day was all he needed for his plan to swing into action, just one more day to store up the necessary amount of chakra needed to resuscitate himself into her senses. She had been the perfect one to use, she had just the right amount of control he needed, yet she had yielded to him so easily days before, that he was sure that she would do so once more, not that she had a choice. His chakra was still inside of the girl; dormant and undetectable, but it still thrived in her. And he would no doubtingly use the fact that she had no knowledge of this to his advantage.

As of now he could only see blurs, wisps of trivial colors in his vision of black that clouded over him each time he tried to reach into her mind. But soon, very soon, that would change.

She would be his once more, and then perhaps keep her once she had served her purpose to him.

He'd keep her just like he had kept the other one.

Sasuke hadn't been able to take his eyes off of the kunoichi who had yet to speak a single word to the group, her silence being carried to his ears by the rushing wind and flowed behind him in his trailing hair.

She knew something, and it didn't surprise Sasuke that she had quickly put together the pieces of the puzzle that they had only just begun.

He remained silent, waiting for either Sakura or Naruto to speak, because he had to begrudgingly admit that for once he wasn't on top of things. In the past, it had always been him that put together the solutions and mysteries of their missions, with Sakura creating the foundation of the problem itself. At this moment, their roles had switched. This time, Sakura had the answers they needed, and Sasuke found himself silently watching her as he waited for her to speak again.

"Well, what is it? What's he after?" Naruto pushed, slight impatience peeking through his voice.

"It's like Sasuke-kun said. He wouldn't just target us out of the blue, and even if he did, I doubt that he'd pick a group of Konoha shinobi. We wants what we want, or need." Sakura replied, going into her analytic mode.

"What we need?" Naruto asked, looking slightly confused.

Sakura nodded. "Think, out of every single enemy we've ever faced since you've returned from training with Master Jiraiya, what was the most common goal each enemy had?"

Nobody spoke, not even Naruto, who's face was clearly displaying confusion in the highest levels. Sasuke, on the other hand, didn't speak not because he was confused, but because he might not even know the specific person or group that Sakura had been referring to. The only thing he could think of…

"Think back to what Lady Tsunade told us." Sakura finished, leaving her teammates drenched in silence.

Sasuke frowned. What the Hokage had told them? What did the details of their mission have to do with-

Then an overwhelming click vibrated throughout his mind, sending deep tremors into his brain. Yes, that had to be it, why didn't he realize it sooner?!

"N-No way…" Naruto said at last, his eyes widened with the truth he had uncovered.

"It's the only thing that makes sense. It has to be." Sakura stated.

"These chakra levels are massive, too massive to belong to regular shinobi, massive enough…" The Hokage's words echoed in Sasuke's mind, proving his hypothesis to be correct.

"He's after the jinjuriki that we've been sent to find." Sakura stated. "There's no doubt now that the source of chakra that has been reported is from a jinjuriki, regardless of Lady Tsunade's guess for it to be one based on the levels of the chakra emitted. He's after the same thing as us, and he wanted us out of the way so he would have no problem retrieving what he wants."

Sasuke nodded. So it was true, they really were sent to find a jinjuriki. But there was something about this ordeal that bothered Sasuke. After all of the time that he had spent in Otogakure, he had never encountered the presence of a junjuriki, and if there had been even the slightest detection of one nearby then Orochimaru would have snatched him or her up. And if he could recall correctly, the Land of Rice Patties was right near Oto, so how long had this jinjuriki been in the area? Then there was the endless question of who was behind this, his identity being hidden perfectly from them.

Grunts of anger travelled to Sasuke's ears, and he raised his head to find Naruto hands clenched into fists and his blue eyes sparking with anger.

"Is it the Akatsuki? Are they finally trying to cause trouble again?" Naruto spat through his teeth, giving nobody in particular a murderous look.

"No, he wasn't wearing one of their cloaks, and besides, all known members of the Akatsuki have been identified and recorded." Sakura replied.

The Akatsuki. Sasuke hadn't known much about them, even during his objective to kill his brother, a full fledged member. Since his focus had only been directed at Itatchi, he couldn't care less about its other members. He knew that Orochimaru used to be a member of the infamous group, however he hadn't talked much about his days in the Akatsuki back when Sasuke had taken him as his new sensei (Not that he ever addressed him respectfully).

Even though Sasuke had been absent during the invasion of Konoha, he had asked Naruto to fill him in on the details. After Pein was defeated, the Akatsuki lost their leader. Even before the attack, many members of the Akatsuki had been killed in battle, and most of their deaths had been related to the actions of Konoha. Even more so, some of their ends have been met from the actions of Team Seven. Sasuke himself had provoked the deaths of Deidara and Itatchi, Naruto saved Konoha by convincing Nagato to give back the lives of the villagers by him giving up his own life, and even Sakura had been involved with the death of Sasori, a man he knew to be a puppet master of some sort. It only made sense that the Akatsuki would be suspects in this case, wanting to target them so that they could finally capture and extract the bijuu that they desired. But like Sakura had said, every member had been recorded, and most of them were deceased. And taking in the fact that Sakura hadn't seen her attacker in the infamous black and red cloud cloak that marked the wearer's involvement with the group had placed them out of this picture.

Naruto slammed his fist into his other hand. "Then we have to hurry! There's no time to waste! I'm not going to loose another jinjuriki to some bastard who thinks of us as just monsters at their disposal! Not ever again!"

Sasuke watched as Sakura turned to Naruto with a worried look on her face, concern engraved deeply into her features. She was clearly worried for him and his overwhelming desire to save every jinjuriki he came across, in the rare times that he ever would.

Sasuke had been told about the mission that Team Kakashi had been sent on to aid Sunagakure and help them rescue their Kazekage, who had been kidnapped by the Akatsuki. The group had lusted after the Shukaku, the Ichibi that was sealed away inside of him, just like they had been after Naruto years before.

He remembered the Kazekage quite well, Gaara of the Desert had been his opponent in the secondary round of the chunin exams, and his opponent when he had chased after him during Orochimaru's attack on Konoha. Their battle had been the exact time when Sasuke had given into his curse mark, and let the ink spread across his skin to lend him the necessary chakra to defeat him, however that had ended up to be a total disaster. If Naruto and Sakura hadn't shown up when they did, he would have been killed for sure.

"Naruto-" Sakura began, but was cut off by Naruto.

"No damn it! We aren't going to loose another one! Not on my account! I won't stop-"

"Naruto! I know how you feel about this, but you can't just go rushing in without a plan! It's dangerous!" Sakura exclaimed. "Under these circumstances-"

"Circumstances? As far as I know there's someone who needs us!" Naruto exclaimed, leaping off a rather large branch, sending vibrations throughout the arm of the tree. "If we wait it'll be too late!"

"But it might not just be that specific jinjuriki who's in danger!" Sakura exclaimed, desperation in her voice ringing out through the forest.

Silence flooded through the blonde shinobi like water rushing through a dry desert. He looked at Sakura with a serious, yet lost expression that one would have if they had taken a wrong turn on a path.

Sasuke closed his eyes. Of course Naruto didn't understand; always rushing ahead and focusing on the passion for helping others rather than realizing the danger that already approached him.

"What are you talking about-"

"She's right, Dobe." Sasuke spoke up, opening his onyx eyes to blue ones.

Now, Naruto looked very confused. He turned to look at Sakura, who had not put away her concerned stare.

"Tell me, where is the other danger?" he asked Sakura, his voice becoming husky from his suddenly hushed tone.

She turned to look at him, and Sasuke watched and listened as the truth poured from her lips.

"Not only is he after the jinjuriki in the Land of Rice Patties," she inhaled, "He's after the jinuriki traveling with us. Naruto, he's after you."

It was as if she had set off a paper bomb right in his face.

First came the shock, the undeniable shock that spread rapidly through his features like wildfire. His blue eyes that sparked with anger moments ago had now dulled into a matte blue ocean, all emotion being derived from them. His mouth was opened slightly, the wind rushing past his lips at full speed, drying them.

The cycle would never end would it? The endless hunt and lust for the powerful bijuu that he and eight others held in their bodies for safe keeping. He would never be safe, none of them would..

Sakura sighed, worry swimming behind her spring green eyes. "That's why he attacked me. I was alone and he saw his opportunity, and took it."

Naruto could see Sakura shake whenever she brought up almost killing them, biting her lip in an effort to conceal the emotion that he knew wanted to spill out of her mouth and into the world.

She hid her emotions well, she always had ever since Sasuke left..

"But," Sakura had continued, "As much as what has happened, I don't think he wanted me to kill you..as much as I had told you that I wanted to.." she finished shakily.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "He wanted you to just knock me out.."

Sakura looked up. "Yes, I think so."

That had been enough conformation for Naruto, his grim expression turning into a determined one. "Well, that bastard doesn't know who he's dealing with!"

Sakura looked at him once more. "Naruto-"

"Don't worry Sakura-chan, I'll be ok. We'll all be ok." he said with the most reassuring voice he could muster in the intense situation that they were in.

"Naruto's right, for once." Sasuke had added, causing Naruto to roll his eyes. "And besides, we may have an upper hand in this situation."

Sakura turned her head back to Sasuke's. "How so?"

Sasuke closed his eyes. "If this guy wanted Naruto so bad, he would have made the jutsu function so that you would have mainly attacked him. However, you also made the effort to attack me as well."

Naruto's eyes widened at Sasuke's words. "So that means…"

"He doesn't know which one of you is the jinjuriki.." Sakura finished, raising her head up.

Sasuke nodded. "Exactly. As long as we have that advantage, we should be able to take him down. He won't know who to take."

"And we'll be ready for him!" Naruto exclaimed, sending a surge of chakra into his feet to send him forward into the green of the forest.

Night came quickly, and as they had promised they would only rest for short hours to regain some ounce of strength that would get them to their destination. But, now that someone's life was possibly on the line, there all the more reason to heighten their haste.

The three of them had decided on an orderly routine, a cycle between the three of them. While two of them had slept, the other would stay up and keep watch for any suspicious activity. Every hour, they would switch, as planned and the cycle would continue until they had decided that enough rest was achieved.

Sakura had been sitting up against the same tree since they had stopped. Unable to sleep, she volunteered to take the first watch, and watched as her teammates settled into their sleeping bags and rested their heads against their pillows, getting the rest that she needed, but didn't deserve.

It had been over two hours since her shift began, but she had refused to move and forced her eyes to remain open, straining them to their very core. She'd wait another hour, besides, it was such a chore to wake-up Naruto once he fell into a deep sleep. But it didn't matter either way, because staying awake would be her duty to her friends, to keep them safe.

It couldn't be that easy, to have had her body rid of that awful, icy chakra that invaded her brain and body. It couldn't be that simple as to simply be rid of it completely. She knew he'd be back for them, and this time she wouldn't be caught so easily. She'd protect them both..

Sakura had been broken out of her thoughts when the harsh screech of an owl broke the silence of the night, startling her heart. She shot up, and saw the bird leap from the branch ahead of her, spreading its wings gracefully and silently as it went off on its search for food.

Calm down, she told herself, it's just an owl. You're being paranoid..

She sighed, and settled her back into the bark of the tree, allowing her heart rate to slow back to its steady beat.

Sakura gazed into the blazing fire, the flames cracking the wood and emitting sparks and snaps into the quiet night. The flames were enchanting, shining and glazing reflections shone on her tired eyes, and the heat seemed to be lulling..

No! Stay awake! She shook her head quickly, widening her eyes to break them out of their desire to close.

She glanced down at the base of the fire, the untouched wood reflecting an orange glow. She found it hard to look away, when the fire was so warm..so inviting..

She felt herself slip once more, but she shot her head up once more, refusing to give in to the fatigue. The guilt was stronger than any fatigue that dared to envelop her body.

However, not this night.

Her eyes began to close, the orange glow of the fire reflecting behind her eyelids. She opened them, but saw stars, and closed them once more.

No, stay awake. You have to stay awake..

Stay awake.

Stay awake..

Stay..

"Sakura."

Her eyes flew open, sleep wiping away from her eyes completely. Her surroundings flooded back into her vision, the speaker's voice sending a reaction charging throughout her body. Her energy flowed back into her eyes and she raised them to the person who stood before her.

"Sasuke-kun." Sakura said.

Sasuke was looking down at her, an unfamiliar look hidden behind those endless dark eyes. His hair was slightly more muffled at its ends than its usual spike, yet it added a certain appeal to her eyes. His skin glowed next to the fire, sending chills of attraction throughout Sakura's body, making her want to reach out and stroke his arm. She imagined reaching out to him, and her arm began to raise until flashes of his contorted face swam into her vision, his body flying backwards into the ground. His widespread eyes when she had cast that grotesque genjutsu on him sickened her now, and she let her arm go limp and looked back into the fire, guilt spreading heavily throughout her body as if the fire had invaded her body.

"You should be sleeping." Sakura muttered softly, tearing her eyes away from his form. "My shift's not over-"

"Your shift ended over an hour ago." he interrupted, leaning down slightly.

Not that it was completely unknown to her, yet she didn't give any hint that she was clearly keeping track of time. But apparently he was as well, and at that moment she was absolutely positive that he hadn't really been sleeping as much as he had let her think, that he had been awake the entire time.

"Oh did it? Huh, time flies… when you aren't sleeping.." she responded vaguely ash she looked back into the fire, fighting the pounding urge to blink, which would tempt her eyelids to staying closed shut. There, let him think about what that means, she added to herself.

She watched him out of the corner of her eye, continuing to stand near her, unmoving. Sakura had always hated the awkward silences between them, even as a child she would ramble on about random things to fill the gaps between speeches just so that there would be someone's voice that would be heard. Yet now she allowed the silence to flood over them, until, his voice unexpectedly broke it.

"Why didn't you wake anyone?" he asked, slight annoyance in his voice.

"Wasn't tired." she responded tersely, picking up a small pebble and tossing it into the orange flames. "Now, go sleep for real this time, I promise I'll wake up Naruto in a few more minutes."

Sakura waited for the sound of his footsteps to ring in her sensitive ears, for the shuffling of the fabric of his sleeping bag, then the sound of steady breathing. Yet it did not come, and finally, she looked up at him in annoyance.

Sakura opened her mouth to repeat her words, but his words had been released first, filling her mouth and stuffing it shut.

"Yamete. You're lying." he said harshly, narrowing his eyes.

"I'm not lying! I swear, I'm not tired, and if I was-"

"You'd just take more of these, right?" he asked, reaching into his pocket and bringing out a small plastic bottle filled with small, round pills.

Sakura's mouth opened slightly as she looked at her soldier pills clutched in Sasuke's right hand.

His eyes were still narrowed, and he looked beyond annoyed. "If you were alert, then you would have noticed before these vanished from your possession."

Not taking her eyes off of him, Sakura slowly reached her hand behind her and into her pouch connected to her belt, and felt the air of the empty space that the pills had been in a few moments ago. Damn it! He was fast, too fast even for a pair of rested, trained eyes. Sakura had been forcing and straining her body to stay alert, and yet she realized that in truth she had her guard down the entire time. Someone surely could have snuck into their campsite and she wouldn't have noticed. Sakura let her hand fall down to her side in silent defeat.

"Did you ever stop to think that physically depriving yourself of sleep won't benefit you at all? And that if we were attacked again that you would be too weak to defend yourself? You could be killed! You're helping nobody by weakening yourself!" Sasuke exclaimed, clenching his right hand, putting a small crack in the soldier pill bottle.

Watching Sasuke's anger release from his actions triggered something inside of Sakura. It was as if the heat of the fire had jumped into her body and attacked every vein and muscle. She felt her temperature rise, and her mouth closed. His words were the key to the permanently locked door to her heart, and they unleashed a fury that she didn't know existed in her body.

Because Sasuke was standing before her, holding her cracked extra energy source, and told her that she would jeopardize the mission. The hidden meaning behind this had brought back the familiar feeling of worthlessness and helplessness that she had felt all her days as a genin. He thought she was weak. And it made her absolutely furious.

"I'm helping… nobody?" she asked slowly, clenching her fists and watching them shake uncontrollably. Her head shot up, and her eyes were pristine with anger. "NOBODY?"

Sasuke's eyes had widened slightly, obviously surprised by her sudden outburst. She watched as he lowered the bottle to his side, never taking his eyes off of her. She stomped over to him, and stopped just a few feet away.

"Everything I'm doing is to benefit you and Naruto. I'm doing this to protect you two! I almost killed you, and to sit back and let you guys defend me when I was the cause of our delay absolutely kills me!"

"No, what will kill you is not having enough strength to carry on! What will happen when you get hurt? If you died?!" Sasuke had spat out the last word as if it were a hot piece of coal and he needed to get it off of his tongue. The anger that had been in his voice was slowly being replaced with something else, though Sakura couldn't tell what it was. Desperation? But that was a complete anomaly to Sasuke's personality, yet that was the only thing that came to her mind.

He sighed and closed his eyes, Sakura noticing his body was shaking slightly, but she refused to comment on it. Instead, she remained quiet while he suddenly opened his eyes once more and shot Sakura with the smallest pleading expression.

Why couldn't he understand? She just wanted to protect him and Naruto. All she wanted was to show them that she could be there for them just as much as they had been for her all these years.

If we were attacked again that you would be too weak to defend yourself .

His words floated through her mind, bringing truth to her thoughts. If they were to be attacked again, she'd be used again, she just knew. That shinobi would activate whatever virus he planted into her head once more. And the cycle would continue, and she'd watch herself distinguish the lives of her precious friends

"Sakura please, just rest."

She shook her head, tears budding in the corners of her eyes, making them sting "No."

Sasuke stepped forward, grabbing her wrist. "Sakura." he said more warningly.

Sakura continued to shake her head, the salty tears gathering rapidly. Her nose began to burn as it always had before she shed any tears.

"Sakura, sleep!"

"I CAN'T!"

Sasuke's eyes widened, and he immediately let go of her wrist.

Sakura's eyes were widened, green swimming in tears that began to rush down her flushed cheeks. She felt her body begin to shake uncontrollably, and she wrapped both of her arms around her torso and clutched onto her elbows tightly.

"I can't sleep…I can't….I can't…I.." she whispered harshly, sliding to the ground and falling to her knees, the impact sending a small cloud of dust in a circle around her. Some of the dust settled onto her skirt, most of it sprinkling back into the earth from her body shakes.

She heard footsteps, and saw a shadow cast form the fire that was blazing hotly. She didn't bother to look up, mostly because her body had seemed to betray her. All she wanted was to scream, scream from the mental pain that had been ebbing through her mind throughout the mission.

"Sakura.." she heard Sasuke speak, his voice slightly broken.

"Every time I close my eyes I see you and Naruto dead and bleeding. What's worse is that it's me who hurts you, who takes your life away.." she choked on her last words, and dry swallowed air. "I'll never rest, I'll never get over the fact that I was too weak to defend myself, that it's my fault that I was caught off guard so easily. It's my fault that we're now delayed, it's all my-"

She suddenly choked on her words when she felt a pair of hands place themselves on her shoulders, and instantly her shaking ceased. Her head shot up immediately, and she met Sasuke's eyes.

His face was entirely unreadable, so shockingly different from his normal facial expressions. It almost scared Sakura, to see him act in such a manner that was so different from his usual behavior. He was leaning so close to her, close enough for his actions to be called intimate by anyone who would pass them by. He was..extremely close to her, close enough that she could feel his steady breaths and if she listened hard enough, his heartbeat as well. Suddenly, her right arm froze when she felt her hand being opened from its clenched fist, her fingers spreading out while her fingertips came into contact with something warm. She looked down, and had been utterly shocked to find that it had been Sasuke's own hand that blossomed hers, his fingertips lightly brushing against hers. His fingers slid down the sides of hers, and as if he naturally belonged there, his hand closed around hers. Their flesh met, Sakura's skin welcoming his warm touch, and their hands entwined. A jolt of electricity shot up her arm, and Sakura bit down on her tongue to alleviate the impulse to launch herself forward and wrap her arms around his neck.

Yet she remained still, staring in awe at their hands held tightly together, comforting her despite the emotional turmoil that had been racing in her mind only seconds ago. How curious, she thought, that just simple contact with him could soothe the raging pain she felt for his safety. How, just by the touch of his hand, she could feel the anxiety leave her body, slowly.

"This," Sasuke began, "Is in no such way your fault."

Sakura looked at him as if she were a child, lost in the world with no more tears to spare. Something began to form in her heart, sinking into her stomach.

Sasuke-kun…

He was.. he was an entirely different human being. In all her years of knowing him, Sakura had never seen this side of Sasuke, so comforting and warm. She'd only ever seen him in his impassive, stoic nature. The Sasuke she had come to know all these years… was nothing like the one that was kneeling before her, comforting her.

But nothing had changed in Sakura's mind. She knew that temporarily nameless shinobi would return, he sure wouldn't give up as easily as he had appeared to. And it would be her fight, and her fight alone.

"Don't-" she began, but she cut herself off when she felt his hand leave her shoulder, and travel up to her neck. His fingers lightly traced her skin, tickling her only very slightly. Sparks flew all over her neck, and Sakura fought her body's reaction until his hand finally settled on her skin, gently cupping her neck.

"He targeted you. And that means that if he wants to hurt you, then he wants to hurt all of us. We're a team, and we'll defeat him as one." His voice was gentle, sweet honey to her ears.

Sakura could feel her eyes become wet, however she refused to let the moisture turn into tears as she continued to look sadly into Sasuke's eyes, searching for any sign of mislead. She found none. Without missing a beat, she allowed herself to fall into his arms, his hand leaving her neck to wrap around her shoulders to support her.

Her head fell against his chest, warm and sturdy, and she looked over to her side, and saw in blurred vision that Naruto had still been asleep, without a care in the world.

Unbelievable, she thought groggily, even after all that yelling he still managed to stay asleep..

Sakura felt her eyes begin to droop, but she didn't fight it this time, and allowed herself to be overcome with the sensation of sleep. She inhaled the scent of musk and firewood, and finally let herself go when she heard the soothing words that were whispered by her holder.

"You're strong, Sakura. You're strong.."

I think this might be the longest chapter I've written for this story (20 pgs.) so woo. It's been a few weeks since the last chapter, but I wanted to make sure I was happy with this chapter before I put it up. As always, review! And thanks for being patient! xx