Sakura bolts through the doorway to Sasuke who is laying flat on the creaky wooden floors. On instinct she summons her healing chakra and sets to work on his eyes first, in the dark she notices the red streaks caked to his face. She kneels down by him and lifts his head gently into her lap. He's still conscious but he's not quite with it.

"Get…off. I–I'm fine."

Sakura doesn't listen, and immediately feels her stomach drop. Her eyes shut as she focuses on assessing the damage behind his eyes. Her chakra works through what it can but there is so much damage and scarring she's not quite sure where to begin.

"What-what happened…" Sakura whispers under her breath as she studies.

She can feel Sasuke wincing underneath her palm. From her rough assessment Sasuke had somehow done severe damage to his optic nerves, in the process of 'healing' the scar tissue seems to have become infected. He has an infection behind his eyes and it is causing all kinds of disruptions not only to his vision but to his chakra network. If he had been left untreated for a week longer it's very possible the infection could have traveled and he definitely would have developed a nasty case of sepsis that he may never have recovered from.

Sakura needs both her hands to simultaneously work on both of his eyes. The eye containing the rinnegan has sustained the most damage. Sakura lifts his head back down to the creaky wood floor and shifts around so she can use both of her palms, one for each eye. It requires a lot of focus, and mental stamina to heal two different injuries, even if they are in the same vicinity on the body.

She's sweating from over exertion trying to get him to a place of stability if anything. He won't be completely healed for months. With the amount of damage, she's determined he will need daily treatment for the next few months to get back to a state of normal.

There's no clock that she can view and no watch within her reach but the sun is starting to peak out and her chakra has been zapped after working for hours, with pinpoint precision uncovering and working over some of the scar tissue. It seems every time she heals one layer another five layers are underneath. She hasn't even touched the infection she's also noticed on his arm.

While she's been working Sasuke has remained steady, he passed out shortly after he initially told her to get off. He's shifted around a few times but other than that not a lot of movement. He smells terrible, but she's worked under worse conditions. His hair is matted with grease and she's sure there is a layer of sweat covering his body. Deciding to take a brief break she stretches up off the floor and her legs almost give out after being hunched over for so long. Righting herself, Sakura can see the inside of the cabin more clearly now that sunlight is starting to peek in through the covered windows. Sakura walks over towards the kitchen area and winces at the few pieces of rotting fruit and vegetables on the counter top. There is a sink and she's grateful to get some water but upon turning the knob finds nothing but a dry puff of air in place where water should be flowing. She flips the handle off and opens the cupboard directly underneath the sink and finds the lever to the outside, it seems running water had been set to an off position. She turns it and retries the handle. Pipes are heard making clanking noises throughout the house until water starts rushing out of the faucet head. It's probably questionable but she rinses her hands and fishes out a bar of soap from her pack, lathering and rinsing the grime from yesterday off of her skin.

Exhaustion hits her hard.

With Sasuke laid up on the floor of the living room Sakura decides that he's in a stable enough position that she can rest for a moment and gain some chakra back after exerting so much on villagers yesterday and Sasuke last night. All areas of the cabin are covered in a thin layer of dust, so much so that she can see the dust particles floating in the air.

She decides the kitchen floor looks the most manageable to set her bedroll onto. Unfurling it from her pack she rolls it out and collapses not long after.

–

Familiar groaning sounds, similar to the ones Sasuke had made when he was first admitted to the hospital after the war, wake Sakura from her sprawled position on the kitchen floor. Sakura pushes herself up and unwraps her blanket. Sasuke is still where she had left him to rest but his eyes are open.

"I'm awake?" He asks as she steps closer to him.

"You are."

"That's really you, right?" He questions with genuine concern. Sakura, even if she has a lot of feelings that swirl around inside her, directed towards Sasuke and confusion as to what her feelings are for him; still finds herself kneeling beside him and grabbing for his hand, placing it on her cheek.

"It's really me."

Sasuke runs his thumb over her cheek, then removing it he attempts to sit up. He only makes it as high as his stump will perch him. There is so much left to be said between them, that the energy in the cabin is suddenly suffocating.

"How's your head?" She asks instead.

Sasuke seems like he's looking at her but his vision is not working properly. That was one of the first things she had noticed upon using her healing jutsu. She feels him trying to reach for her hand that rests in her lap. With the damage to his optical nerves she's sure he's on the cusp of being blind. He finally reaches her hand and squeezes it, before letting it go and feeling up the vein from her palm to her wrist.

The ceiling becomes very interesting to her at the moment. It has a lot of loose wooden boards that are clearly decayed and some severe water damage in other areas. Staring above she tries not to focus on the perturbed face he's making and to not let years worth of tears drop from her eyes.

His hand snakes off of her wrist slowly, leaving her skin icy to the touch. She can tell he's disappointed to find she's not wearing the bracelet he had gifted her, but why should she? They had promised each other to wait, and she did. But he couldn't have sent any type of message asking for help? Or informing her he was critically injured? Or explaining how he could send her that money when she specifically told him she did not want it. Which led her to the terrible position of having to divvy it up so the council could not get their grimy hands on it.

She tries to remain level headed about the situation, for now.

Her voice comes out more shaky than confident, "what happened?"

In the daylight she's able to get a better assessment of his appearance. He's pale, more so than ever. His cheeks are hollowed, and he's clearly lost some weight he did not need to lose. His raven locks cover his rinnegan eye completely now. The clothes he's wearing are tattered and covered in sweat, blood, and other mysterious stains. She's seen him post battles, in hospital beds, at the bottom of a prison, but right now this is the worst she's ever seen him.

He looks sick, not injured. Injuries, Sakura could handle with ease. It had always been illnesses and diseases she struggled to treat patients with. Not because it was difficult, or she wasn't able to do it–but because it was painful to watch the process. There was a greater chance some may never get better, that their bodies were always at war with no winning.

She needs to assess his condition again. Last night she had deemed it a fifty fifty chance of his vision ever restoring fully. He's lucky though, if there was anyone who could find a way to heal him, it's her. She's at least confident in her abilities as a healer. The relationship between Sasuke and herself? Not so much.

"There was a typhoon. It was going to wipe out the village." He pauses to clutch at his head. "I used too many abilities in a short span of time without amassing more chakra. I also held planetary devastation for over an hour…or maybe two. I'm not sure anymore. Needless to say I was dealing with ability overuse and chakra exhaustion."

She flashes back to the last time she had seen Sasuke use that jutsu. Before his final battle with Naruto, where he had sealed away the tailed beasts in packed earth. She has so many questions, still. It always seems she has the questions and she amasses more with every passing day. It's gotten to the point she wants to bottle everything away rather than ask him all the tough questions. So she continues with what she does best.

Sakura charges her hand with chakra and places it over his rinnegan eye. If she was in a weird mood after waking up she feels incredibly put off now.

The healing she had done over some of the nerves last night seems better this morning. His left eye is still worse off than his right though. There is very apparent damage to his occipital lobes and the damage travels farther, all the to the back of his brain. She finally is able to see past his optic nerves to the deeper damage that is causing him the bulk of his pain.

Sakura has her work cut out for her here. She's going to have to do daily healing sessions starting from his eyes and the damage on the nerves and once those are at a midway point to healed she is going to start treatment on the lobe damage. She understands now the clutching of his skull and his poor vision. He's having what she guesses are agonizing headaches and migraines.

Sakura informs him, in as neutral of a tone as possible, of her plan for daily healing and that the healing process will likely take months if not up to half a year.

"No." Sasuke answers to her care plan.

"No?" She's going to lose it. Her pent up frustration. Her years and years worth of anger, it's all going to come out.

"Healing me would be a waste of your time. You're of more value to the world than I am. Go back to Konoha. Leave me here, I'll be fine."

Well, there goes her anger.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" She begins.

"Why are you even here?"

"Fuck this." Sakura bolts from her position where she's been examining his eyes and stands, striding her way over to and out the door of the cabin.

She hears her name muffled behind her as she's walking away outside. Then she hears him stumbling through the cabin and clearly bumping into things. He messes with the door trying to catch up to her.

"Sakura, ah, fuck–wait!" Judging by the thud she guesses he's stubbed one of his toes in the doorway.

"Leave me alone!" Sakura slows her steps against her will, her brain telling her to run but her heart whispering to her to hear him out.

"...I'm sorry." Seems her heart won this one.

Her back is facing him. It doesn't matter anyway he can't see more than five feet in front of himself.

"I'm sorry I didn't send an update. I'm sorry I didn't reach out for help. I'm…fucking sorry." Sakura turns and watches as he runs his hand through his greasy dark hair, he's clearly agonizing.

"I…thought of you. Well, I tried not to, it made it harder. You would somehow find ways to infiltrate my mind nearly everyday."

"Sounds annoying." Sakura smirks to herself, crossing her arms over her chest. She watches his face brighten and his eyes widen from her remark. He bites back a smile.

"It was…Is."

Sakura walks closer, into his space and points her pointer finger into his chest.

"I have questions I want answered. A multitude of them." Sakura informs him.

"We have all the time to answer them, at least according to your care plan."

Sakura mockingly clucks her tongue. "As stubborn and arrogant as ever."

Sasuke grabs the finger still pointed into his chest. She's not sure what he plans to do. He shifts his grip and grasps around her wrist pulling her to his chest in an embrace. Her face squishes into his chest tightly, but she melts into him nonetheless. Despite her anger, she's missed him. His arm wraps around her back and gods she's missed him. She fists her hands into the back of his shirt.

Sakura pushes away from him and looks him in the eyes, it takes him a moment to focus his vision but she knows he can at least see her staring at him.

"We are making a deal. During your daily healing sessions we get to ask one question of the other."

"Deal." He responds without hesitating.

—

After airing out the immediate white hot anger she had been feeling, the next couple days after were rather uneventful. They started with easy questions the first couple days, she's waiting until he's a little less groggy and his vision is slightly more improved before she begins delving into the harder questions she has. Right now they have more pressing issues.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news but we need to do laundry and refill the canteens." Sakura speaks out after she's searched her bag for any extra clothes, she finds no more clean options. She knows Sasuke definitely needs to wash his clothes. She'd heard him the night before give himself a sink bath. It worked, she noticed he smelled better the next day. Even so, the whole cabin has started to reek of sweat and mildew from the old age of the wood, and their funk. Between Sasuke's healing and Sakura's exertion to heal them, they've had enough sweat output for a lifetime.

Sasuke is seated against the wall where his bedroll lies. He's still waking up. His moods have been strange. He seemed so passionate when she was about to storm off the other day but after that he's been between moods. He's either sleeping or groggy and she's beginning to worry. She's never seen him so…inactive.

Hopefully doing normal tasks such as laundry and bathing will aid in his comfort and re-discovering his abilities.

"Once you're awake you can carry the canteens. I'll carry the laundry." She doesn't want him carrying anything too heavy and strain himself after the work she's been putting into healing him.

"Mhm." Sasuke sits up and stretches both his arms, one significantly longer than the other. Sakura catches herself staring at the small expanse of his stomach, admiring the toned muscles. Even when not in use or training they seem to not have lost their shape.

She meets his gaze, sure he can't see as far as where she's standing but the way his eyes focus on her gives the impression that he can.

"Let me freshen up and I'll meet you out front." Sasuke says rising from his bed mat. He stumbles over a scroll he's failed to notice. Sakura worries. His vision really must have suffered from the intense and prolonged use of his doujutsu.

"You sure you don't need any help?" Sakura offers, biting her tongue immediately after. She shouldn't have asked. The medical nurturer spoke before the logical part of her mind could chime in.

"I may be close to blindness…but I'm not inept." Sasuke responds, and she can tell from the way his words flow from his mouth that he's teasing her.

"Jerk." Sakura throws back and hoists the heavy laundry sack out through the front door. Before she makes it out of the threshold she hears him mutter something under his breath. She thinks it sounds like he's saying 'annoying.'

–

The two make it to the offset stream that comes from a nearby river and get to work. They first fill their canteens, setting them near their nin packs off the bank ready to be carried back when their clothes have been washed. They would carry the wet clothes back and hang them to dry on the old lines Sakura discovered behind the cabin.

Sakura rummages through her pack trying to find the scroll she keeps her travel soaps. Her fingers brush against the cold stone of the bracelet Sasuke gifted her before he left for his journey. She pushes it further down into her pack. Sasuke is reaching for something within his own beside her before they get to work washing and wringing in the stream.

He may not be able to see far away currently, but she's sure he can see up close much better especially with her efforts over the past few days.

Sasuke zips his pouch up. He stands beside her as she unfurls the correct scroll and grabs her laundry soap.

"You're not wearing it." He states calmly and her stomach drops.

Sakura sighs heavily and tucks the scroll back into her pouch, fastening it shut. "No. No, I'm not."

"Hm." He responds tersely, and walks off without another word.

Her stomach may as well be in her feet, maybe even in the dirt beneath her sandals. She shouldn't be feeling sad! She should be angry! Angry he promised something and left her without answers, only for her to find him half alive in an abandoned cabin.

Her mind is a steady mix of anger and sorrow. Right now she doesn't wish to lash out and she doesn't want to argue. Right now, she just wants clean clothes.

She follows after him and plops herself a distance away from him after snagging a pile of clothes. She begins scrubbing away at some shirts. Some his and some hers. When she tears one of her red tunics from the force of her scrubbing, she finally snaps. The uncomfortable atmosphere has become suffocating.

"Am I delusional?" She asks into the air, daring not to look at him. Sunlight peers through the tree leaves. It was almost midday.

"All that happened between us before you left…that happened? Right?"

She listens as Sasuke sets down his washing and steps over to her.

"Which part?" Sasuke prods.

"The part where you kissed me on the hospital roof? Or staying with me in my apartment? Or when you gave me that damned bracelet as some mysterious promise of courting?!" The volume of her voice is rising.

"Sakura." To her surprise he finds one of her pruny hands with ease and he holds it tightly.

"That was all real."

"Then why did you send me that money? Why did you think it was better to waste away out here alone rather than call for help?" Tears prick at her eyes and she hates how easily they fall.

The last few days have been so pleasant. Why did she have to let one awkward exchange over a bracelet bring forth so much of her pent up anger?

"Do you even want me here?" Sakura spits.

Sasuke abruptly lets go of her hands and trudges a few feet away from her, walking into the knee deep water. His lone hand runs through his dark hair that's grown so long since she last saw him, all that time ago.

Sakura watches in silence, her chest heaving with anger and her eyes brimming with tears.

"Say something!" The frustration courses out her mouth before she can stop it. Sakura's standing now. She watches as Sasuke stops pacing in the stream and turns his body towards her.

"You're fucking ridiculous…" Sasuke whispers but she catches it. His face is red. She feels like she's about to explode but something about his body language says he's not done saying what he wants to say. "I want you so much that it fucking scares me!" Sasuke paces in the water, his steps erratic and water splashes all around him, soaking his dark pants.

"You're all I think about. When I was on the road, I'd see a flower and think of you. I'd help a village and think about how much I wanted you there by my side. I want you so much that it aches." He huffs a heavy breath. "When I noticed you weren't wearing the bracelet I-I was worried you didn't want me." Sasuke huffs.

"And the money. The fucking money! It was a test from the Konoha council. I failed the test either way. What was I supposed to do with all of it? Hand it over willingly?" Water splashes around his wet pants as he steps about, it's the most admission she's ever received from him. "I'm scared because what if I'm not enough? A man with one working arm, and destroyed vision? What would I be able to give you in return for all you've provided me? I-I don't want to go the way Itachi did. I want to live." His voice trails off, he's calming down but his chest is puffing up and down wildly.

She's a medical professional. One of the best in the world and she can confirm her heart rate is not at a suitable level. Her legs move before she does. She wades through the water that hits her at her thighs and throws herself into him.

"You idiot." Without a thought she stands the tallest she can get and puts her pruny, soapy hands on either side of his face and crashes her lips into his.

It hurts at first, she's misjudged her strength. Their teeth clack against each other and their mouths move out of sync. Until she feels his arm wrap around her lower back and pull her closer to him. Soon, rhythm is found and they kiss in the middle of the stream, surrounded by piles of dirty laundry.

It's perfect.

Sasuke pulls away for breath, his forehead resting against hers. She feels light puffs of breath against her face and then drops of water. No, tears.

He gasps and his hand clutches into the back of her shirt as he cries, clenched teeth and no sound.

"I'm sorry."

Sakura tries to pull away and give him space to cry but he holds onto her tighter. So she holds onto him and lets him sob silently into her shoulder.

—

After they begin the process of airing out their own dirty laundry, they finish washing their clothes. The two work together in the stream. Sasuke scrubbed and sudsed while Sakura washed and wrang out the wet clothes. They developed a routine and finished in record time.

On the way back Sakura carries the full canteens while Sasuke carries their damp laundry.

The two chat quietly and comfortably on the way back to the cabin. Sasuke offers to start cooking dinner while Sakura offers to hang up their clothes on the lines out back.

—

Sakura has been studying him today. Even when they weren't wrapped up in each other in the water. She hasn't failed to notice the way he rubs his eyes, as if trying to clear a fog from them.

She doesn't miss the way he blinks rapidly in a sitting, as if he's trying to will himself out of darkness.

She doesn't miss that there is more salt in their dinner than either of them particularly like.

Sasuke was truly struggling with his vision, more than he was letting on.

That evening after dinner, and after they bring in their laundry— Sakura finally settles down near his bedroll to begin their healing session for the day. The session has been pushed back because of the chores they had to take care of earlier. With their evening session it makes it feel that much more intimate especially with moonlight casting down through the slats of wood along the roof and with the candle she's set up close by. Her knees dig into the floorboards uncomfortably while she's healing.

"Do you mind if I bring my bedroll over so I can kneel a bit more comfortably? I'll move it back when I'm done."

"Ah, that's fine."

Sakura carries it over, the plush of her pillow helps the pain from her legs. She could have withstood the pain but after training and fighting so hard to get where she is in her life, she finally feels like she's in a place to allow herself some comfort.

So Sakura heals Sasuke's shut eyes. They do their daily game of one question as she works. With the darkness, it provides a cloak of courage for her as she gears up to ask her question.

"Go on. I can feel how pensive you are." Sasuke tells her, his eyes shut.

"It's not an easy question."

"What about any part of our lives has been easy?" Sasuke counters his brows scrunching.

"Is that your question?" Sakura returns playfully. In the midst of their banter she focuses on his left eye as she pulses healing chakra into his disrupted nerve endings. The candlelight illuminates the way his face winces from her chakra.

"Are you uncomfortable?" She asks.

"No. It just feels strange. Stop getting off topic."

Sakura sighs and relents. "What did you mean…earlier today, about Itachi?" Under her hands she feels his pulse begin to thrum. He takes a few breaths.

"What do you know of the Uchiha?"

"Only what you have told me and whispers from Kakashi and Naruto."

She remains focused but pays attention to the way Sasuke's body tenses. When he finally speaks he tells her everything. The night his favorite person, his own brother, murdered his clan. How the Konoha council had put him up to it. How he ended up aiding in the death of his sick brother, whose final act was protecting his brother. He tells her about his Aunts, Uncles, his mother and father. He explains the pain he felt and how Naruto had always understood. He explains why he felt like he had to travel so he could learn to see the world without the clouds of his clan, his village, his former self.

Sakura weeps quietly, listening in the candlelight to Sasuke as he steadily pours his story to her. She's left feeling hollow, and devastated for all the versions of Sasuke she's grown up with. She spirals trying to think of all the things she would have done differently to help Sasuke and Naruto had she known the true depths of their suffering.

Her chakra sputters out, and she lifts her hands from his face. Quickly, she wipes the tears that had fallen off her cheeks.

"My turn."

"Pardon?"

"I haven't asked my question yet." He states calmly as if he hasn't just shared some of his deepest and most traumatic secrets.

"Oh, of course, go ahead."

"What would happen if you left your bedroll where it was?" Even in the limited light she notices him looking away from her, and a tint of red travels along his neck up towards his ears.

"I suppose I would be sleeping beside you."

"Would that be such a bad thing?" She can tell from the way his voice wavered ever so slightly that he's nervous. Biting her lip to keep from smiling she places her pillow at the top of her bed roll, in line with his own head. Then she proceeds to lay her head down and lie beside him. There is only a scrolls length between their two bed rolls on the rickety wooden floor of the dark cabin.

The sound of their breathing fills the space. The space between them suddenly feels too far, after he's shed his heart to her she decides to further open her own to him. Lifting her body she scoots her pillow closer to his and moves her body towards him.

Careful not to overstep she leans onto her side and faces him. Her arm that rests between them reaches over and pushes the hair that usually covers his rinnegan eye away from his face. Her hand finds its way over his heart where she lets it rest.

"Goodnight Sasuke-kun." The rapid beating of his heart pulls her into a deep slumber. Her eyes are still puffy from tears, but her heart is lighter than the day before.

–

Sakura wakes before Sasuke the following morning. At the corner of her vision she spots the candle from the night before, that has since melted down and sunlight has just started to saturate the cabin.

Next she feels heavy. Heavier than she typically does when she wakes up from sleeping. When she looks down her form she finds that at some point during the night the two of them had tangled into each other.

Her eyes widen and she turns her head to find his own nestled into her neck, his head resting on the corner of her pillow. Sakura's heart thrums madly. They'd cut the tightly wound wire that had been bound between them yesterday. Now that it was cut they had to make repairs to their unsure relationship. They were in a limbo between more than friends, but unsure of the title. While title's don't mean much to Sakura in the first place, she just wants to be sure she and Sasuke are of the same understanding and no more feelings get hurt or convuluted.

Communication has to remain open if whatever they were working towards was going to become a reality.

A puff of air against her neck sends tingles up her spine. She can tell from the familiar thrum of his chakra that Sasuke has woken up.

"Who knew you were such a bed hog?" Sakura nudges him teasingly.

"Who knew you snored in your sleep?" Sasuke responds, his voice gravely from rest. It sparks an ember that had been dormant in Sakura for too long. It was a rare sight to have Sasuke Uchiha being playful so early in the morning.

Sakura turns onto her side, the blankets bunching around their legs. She's face to face with Sasuke when she brings up her pointer finger and thumb and pinches his nose together.

"I do not." Then she releases his nose just as fast as she pinched it.

"Ow." Sasuke flicks her forehead with his pointer finger. Sakura watches in real time as his trademark smirk crosses across his face and he rolls onto his back.

Without thinking Sakura chases after him, this playful fighting oddly enough has her craving more teasing from him.

She throws one of her legs over him and straddles his waist. She realizes this was a mistake after she feels his body stiffen beneath her. When she sits down fully she realizes his body is not the only stiff part of him.

"Oh." Sakura mutters, then starts to lift herself off of him worried she has upset him. To her shock he reaches his hand out and steadies her hip, keeping her in place.

Sakura takes initiative, studying the way his face shifts as she sits down fully over him. The sun illuminates his face perfectly, when it cuts through one of the perfectly positioned slats in the roof.

Swiveling her hips gently she watches in awe as his face contorts. She feels his length underneath her twitch.

His grip on her hip tightens and she's praying he can't feel how wet she is. How the ember that had sparked just a few moments ago has quickly become a wild flame nestled in her abdomen. Their heavy breathing bounces off the wooden walls of the cabin. Followed by three sudden knocks.

The two still. Sakura can practically hear her heartbeat.

A familiar voice calls through the thin door.

"It's Moira! I've brought another basket!"