Writing this chapter while getting a leg tattoo might not the best idea. WELP, HERE WE GO ANYWAY-

- Walls -

Sakura sits in a sun drenched citrus grove cringing through to her very bones.

"I knew you were crazy, but I didn't think you were depraved." She says, watching in horror as Tayuya lifts a lemon half to her mouth and bites into it, rind and all.

"I'm sorry if I'm not obsessed with boring oranges like some people." Tayuya growls, muttering around a mouth full of lemon. "Do you know what it's like to eat nothing but gruel for seven years? You would crave strong flavors too."

"I'll just take your word for." Sakura says, the back of her teeth involuntarily salivating at the thought of all that citric acid.

Even after all these months, watching Tayuya eat is an event. It's not just lemons she's obsessed with, it's all kinds of weird, pungent foods. She rolls slices of grapefruit into salt and curry powder. She eats firebird chili's until her eyes run with tears. She smears clumsy spreads of wasabi over burnt toast with eggs and drinks ginger shots like they're nothing but spring water. But the thing that really surprised sakura about her new daily companion wasn't all the weird stuff Tayuya eats. It was all the stuff she doesn't.

For all her savagery four months ago, Tayuya is a vegetarian. For ethical reasons, none the less. Who would have thought.

"You ever going to move?" Tayuya asks, gesturing with an elbow to the chess board between them.

"I would if you'd give me a second to think." She says, rubbing fingers to her temples. She'd made the mistake of trying out an untested opening formation at the beginning of their game. Said experiment was currently going very poorly for her. Deciding not to overthink it, she chooses to move her black knight, forcing an exchange of their Queens.

"Hah, Sucker." Tayuya smirks. She purses her lips and trills the tiniest whistle. Before them, her rook slides through to Sakura's back row. She forgoes Sakura's proposed exchange and forces her into check.

As one would expect, Sakura takes this very personally. "Okay, does Shika come whisper chess strategies into your ear while I'm not looking!? I swear, you get better every time we play."

"I don't need his help to beat you." Tayuya deadpans. "Your big dumb face gives away everything you're thinking."

Sakura just glares and glares. They trade rapid moves with clicks and whistles until Sakura is eventually forced to surrender.

"Loooser." Tayuya sings.

Sakura has learned over their many games together that her opponent is an exceptionally bad winner. "Yeah well, that will teach me for trying something new." She grumbles.

Tayuya just bites into the other half of her lemon, working her sharp teeth between the fruit and the rind.

"Speaking of trying new things though…" Sakura leads. "Do you think you might be ready to come out soon?"

Tayuya pauses, looking away. She's chewing over the question like she chews on her fruit. After a few more prying looks from Sakura, she spits the uneaten rind back into her palms, tossing it away into emerald grass that is and isn't there.

"I'm not…I don't think I'm ready yet. But maybe…soon." She says, letting out a heavy breath. She lays back into the grassy lawn, turning her face up towards the artificial sunlight. She basks in it the way you would expect someone to after seven years of solitary darkness. Her face isn't exactly happy, but it's nearly…peaceful.

Sakura just watches as her chess companion runs the backs of her knuckles through clover and fern. She weaves snow angels in the tall grass, retreating into the safety of her body. She gives herself over to the full immersion of their shares Sympathetic Resonance, avoiding Sakura's gaze like it's poison.

It's been nearly four months since Sakura dropped Tayuya into her coma. Once Sakura had been released from her mandatory bed rest, she'd begun visiting Tayuya daily in their shared world, gradually handing over control of their Jutsu. In all that time since, Tayuya has gone from hating her to ignoring her to tolerated her to…this. It wasn't a blinding friendship like the one she shared with Naruto, but it wasn't the formal acknowledgement she had with Tsunade either.

Their relationship had become something in the middle...their own thing.

But she couldn't keep Tayuya in here forever. Eventually, the girl needed to rebuild her life as well as face the consequences of her crimes at the lumber mill. It wouldn't be easy, but it needed to be done and Sakura was determined Tayuya wouldn't do it alone.

She still slips into Doctor mode though, unable to help herself. She doesn't want to lecture endlessly, but she is concerned for Tayuya's longterm health. "I don't want to keep you in here too much longer. The human body isn't meant to be in a coma for this long. I can mitigating the side effects as best I can, but as your doctor I can't in good conscience condone a treatment course that might harm you."

Tayuya remains silent, still laying in the grass. She throws an arm across her face, shielding her eyes from the sun and from Sakura. They share a moment of quiet companionship as she mulls over Sakura's words. "Is that what you are to me then? My doctor?"

Sakura swallows, weighing what she should say with what she wants to. Tayuya was right about her big dumb face. She was so bad at hiding the truth.

"I am your doctor, but I'm also your advocate...I'd like to be your friend too, if you're open to it. Not just in here, but out there as well."

Tayuya rolls onto her side, facing away. Sakura starts manically second guessing her answer when Tayuya finally speaks, voice quiet.

"You know, I swore I'd never be put in a cage again. For the first few weeks in here…I hated you. I hated everybody, and I hated myself. But now…I can't believe I'm saying this, but I don't know if I'm ready to leave. For the first time in years, I think I like my own company. I have everything I need in here, and nothing I don't. I'm finally…safe."

Sakura understands, in her own way. Not just conceptually, but empirically. When Tayuya was imprisoned, the bars of her cage had existed to keep her locked in. But here, in the boundlessness of their shared Jutsu…these mental walls existed to keep others out. Others who could harm Tayuya while she was vulnerable. These walls served the same function but with a different purpose. With Tayuya, purpose was everything. In here, she had absolute control over her environment. Control was clearly something she'd been long denied, maybe even before Orochimaru.

Sakura looks down at the red haired girl curled in the grass, eyes still closed.

She has different walls up now, within herself and between the two of them. But these aren't walls Sakura can just punch down. Only Tayuya could look through the rubble of her life and determine is there was anything worth salvaging. Only she could decide if she was ready to save the only life she could truly save.

"Well, like I said. I'll be traveling to River Country this week, so you'll have plenty of time to yourself without me pestering you. Who knows, maybe I'll come back and you'll just be sick of me all together. I'll have to go back to playing chess with Shikamaru, and he's more insufferable when he wins than you are."

Sakura says all of this with a sarcastic grin, even if Tayuya won't look at her. Deciding to occupy herself, she reaches directly overhead and picks a ripe Yume-orange from a low-hanging branch. The zing of citrus floods her nose as she digs in her thumbnail, peeling away the rind. She's just about to bite into her own wedge of fruit when something startles her, nearly dropping it.

Sakura pauses, tilting her head, feeling her heart begin to race. She looks around for the foreign sensation, waiting for it to appear again. There's something here in the Jutsu that she can…feel. Not a sense, not a sound…just a feeling.

As she waits, it brushes over her again. It shifts from foreign to familiar. Sakura leans into the thought being pushed to her through a shared bond. It's different from the bond she shared with Yume. It's fainter, more distant, but none the less it's there.

It's coming from Tayuya.

Sakura slows her breath, leaning further into the sensation. It's a bit like a leap and a bit like a trust fall. She softens the edges of her mind, letting an unspoken question wash over her. She studies Tayuya, looking underneath the underneath.

Worry. Anxiety. Fear.…Alone.

Tayuya is...scared. She's scared Sakura won't come back from River. She's scared she'll end up alone again.

Looking closer now, Sakura picks up on all the details she hadn't been paying attention to before. There's the sudden tension in Tayuya's shoulder, the slightest pinching of her brows. There's the perfectly measured way Tayuya breathes, too carefully controlled to be truly relaxed.

Sakura can't tell if she's hearing her own heartbeat, or if the rapidly racing noise in her ears is coming from Tayuya's chest. "Hey, what do you want me to bring you back from River?" She asks, the words slipping from her before she can second-guess them.

Tayuya looks up from the grass in surprise. She looks startled, fearful. Exposed. "What did you say?" She asks with a breath.

Had she not…bridged their bond intentionally?

"I'm making you a promise that I'm coming back. So...what do you want?"

Tayuya sits up, turning her body fully away in a single fluid movement. Again, she's retreating deeper into herself.

"River is the epicenter of foreign trade, you know. It's a cultural hub, so they have everything. Wasabi peas, mushroom vinegar, anchovies marinated in exotic spices. Everything gross you could possibly imagine. Maybe when I get back…you can come out of here and we can try some of your crazy-person food together."

Tayuya breathes in fractions, inhaling invisibly between paralyzed ribs. Once more, she is an animal backed into a corner while Sakura holds a blade of friendship to her throat. She turns her face down. She want's to run.

Shit, Sakura's just making things worse. She'd pushed too much, like the idiot she was. She opens her mouth, scrambling for the right thing to say when…Tayuya surprises her.

She whispers a word that Sakura can't hear and has to repeat a second time.

"Music." Tayuya says quietly, keeping her back turned. "Maybe…you could bring back a flute."

"A flute?" Sakura asks, body frozen. Her own voice feels strained and foreign.

"…yeah. I know I can't play anymore but...maybe I could teach you."

Sakura's limbs weigh a thousand pounds. It's definitely her own heart hammering wildly in her chest. Tayuya isn't saying it directly, but she's agreeing to the possibility of coming out. She's open to the possibility of facing the real world again, and…she wants Sakura there when she does. What ever this friendship is, she wants to keep it going.

She didn't want to be alone anymore.

There's so many things Sakura wants to say to this. Excitement, joy, words of support. Instead, she says what she thinks Yume would say, if he were still here with her.

"I…I would love that. As soon as I get back, I'll come strait to you and…if you think you're ready, we can unwrap your care package."

"Together?"

"Yeah…together."

Because if there's one thing life has taught Sakura, it's that very rarely are we broken for good. She can't forgive Tayuya for everything she's done...but maybe someday Tayuya can forgive herself. Not all lost causes can be saved, but women especially are indestructible things when they stick together. We can be broken by loneliness and broken by others…but we can heal through others too. Sometimes it starts by sharing and giving, even when you feel you have so little to give. Even when you feel imprisoned by your past.

But no captivities are forever. Eventually, you learn to be free again. You either find a way home, or you make one.

Finally...Tayuya was willing to try.

- Promises -

Flashing back to her body inside the hospital room, Sakura lifts her brow from Tayuya's forehead. She spends a few minutes tidying up the room, checking Tayuya's vitals and adjusting the radio. She takes one look back to her patient before making her way home. Lost in sleep, Tayuya's face almost...smiles.

Once outside, Sakura walks down Konoha's main thoroughfare, taking in her village in all its springtime glory. River will be just as lovely this time of year, but nothing compares to the beauty of home. She jogs up the steps to her four story walk up, passing the door to Naruto's new apartment before slipping her keys into her own lock.

In the end, Shikamaru had put his foot down, exuding an unusual amount of defiance for someone who normally just goes with the flow. He'd said there was just no way Sakura was going to live with Naruto instead of him, societal norms be damned. They'd spent enough time orbiting each other, he wasn't going to share her with another roommate, no matter how much Naruto complained.

Sakura's heart still flutters every time she remembers the night Shikamaru showed up, duffel bag in hand. "I live here now, deal with it." He'd said, not caring that Naruto was still sleeping on her couch.

Naruto had been suspiciously amenable to being curtly told to seek other housing. It wasn't until she and Shika were helping him move his scant boxes…all of two doors down to the vacant end unit apartment on her level, that they finally understood why.

Secretly, Sakura loved it. It was the perfect compromise for her overly clingy self. She got to hang out with Naruto in the evenings after work and sleep in the same bed as Shikamaru. They did movie nights and Sunday breakfasts and triple dates with their couple friends.

Their couple friends. Because she was part of a couple. She was truly living in some alternate universe.

Unlocking her front door, she pushes her way in and kicks off her shoes with a relieved sigh. Down the hall, Shikamaru hears her arrive and calls out a question as a greeting.

"Hey, what am I forgetting to pack?" He asks.

She doesn't even need to look at his bag, she knows the answer off the top of her head. "Cigarettes and bug spray." She calls back.

Shika pokes his head out of the bedroom, giving her an up-down look of appreciation. "You said I'm only allowed to smoke with Asuma."

"You are correct. That was a trick question, you passed."

She watches as he steps fully from their bedroom, damp hair dripping water down his neck and-

'Oh Sweet God.'

Shikamaru is shirtless and excruciatingly beautiful. Ever since his return to Konoha, team Asuma has been doubling up their group training sessions. Apparently, him nearly dying lit a fire under collective asses and Asuma's been enthusiastically leading the charge. Over the last three months, he's easily put on ten pounds of muscle just in his upper body alone…

'Get your shit together Sakura, you're drooling.'

"So, what do I get for passing your test?" He grins, slipping hands into the pockets of his joggers. He's doing his casual lean against the doorframe thing that makes his obliques pop and drives her crazy. He knows exactly what he's doing, the ass.

She walks over to him, ticking off reasons on her fingers. "Oh, I don't know. Healthy lungs? Low blood pressure? Reduced risk of a dozen critical diseases-"

He cuts her off by looping two fingers into the waistband of her skirt, pulling her in for the tiniest kiss. It's just a quick peck on the corner of her jaw, but it's painfully intimate and all together maddening. "That's not quite the reward I was thinking." He mumbles, searing the side of her neck with his lips.

And then, the asshole walks away-

"By the way, what time are we meeting the team again?" he asks casually, like he's not seconds away from having her tongue down his throat.

You have to understand, things became…different once Shikamaru moved in with her. Near death experiences can change people, but that wasn't really what happened between them. She'd expected Shikamaru's eyes to follow her constantly, always looking at her like she could disappear at any minutes. Instead, his eyes follow her constantly, looking at her like her shorts could combust at any moment and he's prepared to valiantly save her from a fiery death.

Needless to say, they'd had a lot of 'I can't believe we're alive' sex during that first month of living together. But once their initial combustion had cooled, they had become something…better. Something intense and deeply rewarding. He was always intentional in the way he touched her, like every day she was a new puzzle he was eager to solve.

"Oi. You in there?" He calls again, pouring a drink from a container in the fridge. Seriously, Shikamaru shirtless was painfully distracting.

"Uhm, about an hour before we all have to meet at the gates. But you know Kakashi, he's always late and Naruto's probably off making out with Hinata."

"Your new team mate is coming with us too, right?" He asks, hopping up to sit on the kitchen countertop. He takes a long sip from his ice filled glass. She can't help watching his adam's apple bob with each lazy swallow.

Sweet Gods, he's definitly doing this on purpose. She's so proud of herself when her voice is a schooled neutrality. "Yep. You'll finally get to meet the infamous Sai."

"How has the team building been going anyway?"

"Sai…takes a bit of getting use to. But I think I'm getting better at translating what he says into what he means. I'm hoping this trip will help us get to know him better. There should be plenty of time on the road to River to bond."

"We can workshop you Prison Reform bill while we travel too." Shika says, setting his glass down on the counter. "I read it again last night. I think we're close to a presentable draft... You did really good, babe."

He keeps talking, eyes looking her up and down as she spirals from the seductive heat of his praise.

"Once we get to the River castle, I can have the River Daimyo look over it while you do your thing with the General. Maybe you can have her look over it too? Once we get back, I can make any needed changes and send it over to Hitoshi for approval."

Sakura scrunches her face, eyes wide in horror. "I am not talking politics with the River General while I'm delivering her baby, Shika!"

"Come on, you know what she's like." He says, snagging her wrist as she tries to walk past him for her own drink. He drags her over between his legs, spinning her so her back is pressed against his chest. He grinds his hips into her low back, his lips finding the dip where her neck meets her shoulder.

"I bet you a whole pack of smokes she'll be stone-faced editing some other bill between contractions."

Shit. He was distracting, but he was also right. That totally sounded like something the General would do, not that she'd ever admit it out loud.

Sakura moves to turn and face him, only to find…that she can't. She tries to arch her neck or lift her arms, but something has her frozen to the spot. Shikamaru must be looking down her shirt, because she feels her own head dip, gazing down her body.

Their shadows form a collective pool beneath her feet, ribbons of it spiraling up her legs.

"Or…we could bet on something else." He whispers, breath brushing over the shell of her ear.

Her limbs are trembling for more reasons than one. Shikamaru is playing her favorite game- edge Sakura until she breaks. Ribbons of shadow constrict around her upper thighs, dragging over her skin like cool fingertips. They slip higher up her skirt and between her legs, dragging an audible gasp from her dry throat.

Oh Gods, this was payback wasn't it. She was making him travel again and he was getting even.

"Don't start something you can't finish." She begs, voice breathy with the thrill of his attention. "We still have to meet the boys in an hour…"

As if in answer, a hand slips up the front of her shirt, a fingertip swirling whirlpool patterns around the edge of her nipple.

Between her legs, a mimicking tendril of shadow creeps inside her panties, buckling her knees. His other hand sinks into the silk of her hair, gently turning her mouth up towards his.

"I think…I'm going to need more time than that." He brushes his lower lip against hers, simultaneously promising sweetness and heat. It's the comfort of years of sarcastic friendship wrapped in the bonfire of still new love.

Uhg. He's speaking directly to her soul right now. Intensely passionate methodical sex was practically what Shikamaru was built for. "If I agree to your demands...you have to promise me we can still be kind of on time." She begs.

He puts his lips against the bend in her neck and makes a single word promise that burns her through.

"No."

Shit shit shit shit-

She looks at him, hopeless and undone. She's blushing madly, but he is too. He might desperately be trying to play it cool, but she knows he wants her as badly as she does him. Not just them physically, but their everything. She knows this because she's memorized the exact look he's giving her now.

He's begging her with his eyes to just say 'yes'. He's waiting for her to give him permission to solve the puzzle of her body again before they leave. She knows exactly what will happen if she does.

The second she so much as nods, he'll take her back to their bedroom and they will lose themselves in each other entirely. They will lingering in the delicate agony of trying to share a body until they belong wholly to each other. He's going to remind her through body language that they are each other's home, even as they leave Konoha. His fingers are still painting nonsense words across her ribs, making her head foggy and her breath come thin. Down at her sides, his shadows swirl up her arms. They bind her wrist together in a tight constriction, one she couldn't break out of even if she wanted to.

'Okay, that's new.' Her mind supplies.

Sakura blinks once. Twice.

"Fuck it, the boys can wait-" She rushes out.

Shikamaru kisses her like their lives depend on it, pulling moans from her mouth like he survives on them. He slips down from the counter and scoops her up, wrapping her legs tight around his waist. She throws her bound wrists around his neck, knowing she's going to get in so much trouble for this.

After three months of living together, Shikamaru knows her apartment like the back of his hand. He carries her backwards into their bedroom, kicking the door shut with a heel.

And because Shikamaru has proven he keeps his promises, Sakura knows she's going to be very, very late.

- Authors Note -

The final two chapters will be the promised Lemon and a time-skip proposal that will be comedic yet adorable. I love you all so much. Please consider leaving a comment if you have been a silent reader up till now, even if you just spam hearts.

- XOXO, VB