Welcome welcome! Happy new year guys!

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kamacori Thank you, I had a wonderful Christmas yes. :)

Now question for this chapter: What's the worst anime you have ever seen?

Special thanks to my Beta-readers: Artist-kun and GreyHowler

Enjoy: (This continue right after chapter 3)

Sakura woke up sweating and gasping after a sleep plagued with nightmares. She looked around the room; the candles were almost out and Sasuke was still lying down on his bed.

'Did I sweat this much?', she thought as she felt something wet on her back.

Her eyes widened when she saw her bloodied fingers. She jumped out of her bed and ran to the bathroom to peel off her bandage and take a shower.

'Good thing I brought extra clothes', thought Sakura. After she had bandage her wound, she chose a red top, short enough to reveal her stomach, with white circular designs etched on it and black shorts underneath a short red apron skirt that matched her top. She looked at herself in the mirror. The style she was wearing, including the bandage around her stomach, reminded her of Ino. She slapped her cheeks to stop herself from thinking about the people she betrayed. She took a deep breath and walked back into the bedroom.

She stared dismally at her bed, which had several dark red bloodstains. "I need new bed sheets", she sighed.

"They are in the closet", a low voice spoke behind Sakura, startling her. She hadn't notice that when she ran to the bathroom, she slammed the door loud enough to wake Sasuke up. When he woke up, he turned around to see what was going on. He wanted to yell at Sakura for waking him up, but changed his mind when he saw the bloodstains on her bed. Now he was sitting on his bed, silently watching her.

"I'm sorry for disturbing you, Sasuke-kun" she said softly as she took a clean set sheets out of the closet.

"Whatever" Sasuke got up and went into the bathroom to change while Sakura put the new sheets on her bed. When she was finished, she sat down and waited for Sasuke to finish.

"Good luck" said Sakura as Sasuke was about to leave for training. Sasuke was confused and wondered why she was still sitting on her bed, but decided he didn't care and left.

'Sasuke-kun is always so short with me', thought Sakura, sighing and looking at the shut door, 'At least he's still the same'.

She crossed her legs, shut her eyes and started to concentrate.

xXx

Sasuke's training lasted for eight hours. During this time, he worked on his Taijutsu, speed, Fire Jutsu and Chidori with Orochimaru. Orochimaru dodged all of them easily, which frustrated Sasuke to no end. By the end of the training, Sasuke was exhausted.

"This will be what you train in every day. Improve your skill and I will teach you new Jutsu. Meet me again tomorrow, Sasuke." said Orochimaru.

Sasuke didn't respond and walked out of the spacious training room and continued down the hall to his and Sakura's room. When he opened the door, he was surprised to see Sakura still sitting on her bed. He was starting to think that she was just wasting her time, waiting for him to return, but that thought jumped out of his head as soon as he saw that Sakura was covered in sweat and blood was dripping from her nose.

"Sakura!", he yelled and ran towards her. She didn't respond in any way and continued her meditation. She finally snapped out of it when Sasuke slapped her. Her face turned beet red when she saw that Sasuke was so close, even holding her.

She stopped blushing when she felt something wet drip onto her leg and looked down. Her eyes widened when she saw blood and touched her nose. She was speechless and, for a second, didn't know what to do. Sasuke walked to the bathroom to get a towel for her. She wiped the blood from her nose silently, too embarrassed to look at Sasuke. She couldn't believe Sasuke actually saw that. She was also confused as to why her nose was bleeding and started to think hard. Then she realized something and asked; "How long have you been gone, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke sat on his bed and answered, "Hn, about eight hours. What were you doing anyway?"

Sakura looked at her bloodied tower and laughed softly, "I was trying to control my chakra. From the looks of it, I was doing it for the whole eight hours."

Sasuke didn't say anything and neither did Sakura, taking his silence as 'I-don't-care' answer.

"Why don't you heal those wounds on your back?"

Sakura was so shocked that she almost forgot his question. "The person who gave me the wounds in the first place asks me why I'm not healing them. Really?...Well, I can't reach them"

"Hn" Sasuke got up and went to the bathroom and took a shower. Sakura was stunned. They actually had a conversation...sort of. She lay down and let her giddy thoughts lull her to sleep.

Time passed with each day being fairly similar to their first. Sasuke would train with Orochimaru for about eight hours while Sakura, sitting on her bed, concentrated on her Chakra. Little by little, Sasuke and Sakura got stronger and, encouraged by their progress, started having conversations. Before they knew it, it had already been a week since they left the village.

"Tomorrow I will teach you a new Jutsu" said Orochimaru proudly one day, seeing how much Sasuke was improving.

After his training, Sasuke walked back to his room, expecting Sakura sitting on her bed. When he walked into the room, he noticed a few differences. Not only was she sitting differently, but he was also able to see the wounds on her back.

Sakura was facing the wall and her bandage was off. Sasuke stared at the wounds he had given. They were pretty deep but what was really strange, was the fact that they hadn't healed in the slightest. 'I thought Sakura's wounds naturally healed quickly'

But while he watched, the deep scratches started to knit themselves together until they were completely gone. There wasn't even a scar. Sakura sighed out of relieved and turned around to see Sasuke was still staring at her.

"Gwaa!" Sakura jumped a little, "S-s-s-Sasuke-kun! The hell?! Don't scare me like that!"

Sakura's scream snapped Sasuke out of his thought , "hn...whatever. Expect the unexpected. A ninja never leaves their guard down".

"I-I know...j-just don't do that again!" Sakura was so scared that her heart felt like it wanted to jump out of her chest.

"Hn" ,Sasuke turned around and sat down on his bed. "How did you do that?"

'Sasuke-kun is actually curious about something?' she thought and answered quickly, "I-I told you before that I was busy controlling me chakra. Today, I tried controlling my chakra so I can heal my body without using my hands."

Sakura looked at Sasuke, hoping he might be impressed or interesting, but, again he stayed quiet. She wanted to ask him how his training went, but she knew she'd get the usual answer; "It was interesting."

The next day, Sasuke again noticed something was different. Sakura wasn't sitting on her bed and, now that her wounds were healed, she didn't have any bandages.

"I noticed you are wearing these days different clothes."

Sakura couldn't stop blushing and didn't face him, "Y-yeah, I can move more freely with this short top than my qiapo dress."

Sasuke grunted again and said to Sakura, "Come with me. Orochimaru wants to talk to you"

Sakura nodded, got up and followed him into the hall. They found Orochimaru in one of the other rooms and stopped in front of him.

"Glad you can finally join us, Sakura" said Orochimaru. Sakura only nodded and stood slightly behind Sasuke. "I have a room you requested. Kabuto is already there"

She thanked him and followed a sound ninja to the room. The hideout was way too big and had so many different rooms and corridors that it was almost like a maze. If she hadn't memorized the place yet, she would've easily gotten lost. Then again, maybe that was the point. It would be harder for enemies to infiltrate this place if they got lost every third turn.

When Sakura entered the room, she looked around and noticed Kabuto standing in the middle of it. The room was big and empty just like she asked.

"Good to see you Sakura, let's see what you can do before we begin your training" said Kabuto.

Sakura wanted Kabuto to join her incase she needed his help with something. She started with infusing her chakra into her fist and threw a punch at the ground. The hard tile cracked a little from the impact. Sakura stared at the crack and sighed out of disappointment.

"Heh, good Sakura, you can concentrate your chakra into your fist. Why are you disappointed? This is only the beginning"

Sakura gave Kabuto a small smile as he smirked back and they continued their training.

xXx

While Sakura was practicing her chakra control, Sasuke was learning a new Jutsu; a summoning Jutsu. Orochimaru pulled out a scroll and handed it over to Sasuke. Sasuke cut his finger and wrote his name on it with blood.

Sasuke formed the correct hand sign and placed his palm on the ground. A very small snake appeared. Sasuke stared down at it, annoyed that he was only able to summon such a small create.

Orochimaru couldn't help but laugh at him, which only made Sasuke feel worse. Orochimaru told Sasuke to keep practicing and left, still chuckling.

xXx

After a few hours passed, Sasuke finished his training and was walking back to his room when he heard noises coming from one of the rooms. Once he found the door the sounds were coming from, he opened it a crack.

He saw Sakura channeling chakra into her fist and breaking the walls and the ground in various places. After a minute or two, she noticed Sasuke peeking through the door. She lost her concentration and her chakra left her fist. It was too late for her to stop and her hand, traveling towards the floor as fast as she could make it go, hit the tile...

"Ghaaaaa!" she screamed as her hand broke against the hard tile.

"Sakura!" yelled Kabuto and ran to her. He didn't understand what happened; until now she had done it perfectly. Then, Kabuto noticed light was coming from the door to see Sasuke standing in the doorway, speechless.

"Shut the door!" yelled Kabuto in frustration and looked back at Sakura.

She was trying really hard not to cry and held her scream in, but the pain was too much and soon she collapsed. Kabuto picked her up and carried her to her room. He laid her on her bed and turned to Sasuke, who had arrived a few minutes before Kabuto and Sakura.

"Please, don't disturb her training. She is weak and who knows what might happen to her" explained Kabuto to Sasuke, who was sitting on his bed.

Sasuke got up and took a shower after Kabuto tended Sakura's hand and left. He stood under the running water for a few minutes, thinking about what he had done to Sakura. After his shower, he stood next to Sakura's bed, staring at her broken hand. Kabuto did much to heal her hand but not completely mended yet; her hand had turned a blueish purple color. He searched for a bandage in the closet before carefully wrapping her hand and went to bed.

The next morning, Sakura woke up and looked at her wrapped hand. It was throbbing painfully and she moaned. She noticed Sasuke was already up and taking a shower. She sat up and removed the bandage. Kabuto had been able to set the bones in her hand fairly well, but they were still fractured. She concentrated her chakra and started to heal her hand.

Sakura had just finished when Sasuke walked out of the bathroom. They looked at each other in silence for a few moments-Sakura was worried Sasuke would see her as weak now, while Sasuke thought she might be mad at him-before Sasuke spoke.

"How is your hand?" he asked. Sakura saw that Sasuke felt a little guilty and gave him a bright smile to ease him up.

"Fully healed" she answered. She stood up and walked to the bathroom to take a shower. Like every other day, Sasuke met Orochimaru for his training and Sakura met with Kabuto.

"How is your hand?" asked Kabuto when he saw Sakura.

"fine now", she replied.

"Good. Now that you have learned to control your chakra better, I will begin teaching you new Jutsu and strengthen your mind and body."

Kabuto lead Sakura into another room that was filled with poisons, scrolls, medicines, medical tools and operation tables.

"Now, before we begin, is there any particular art you wish to have as your main weapon?"

Sakura was walking around the room, looked at the scrolls and the poisons and after a few moments, replied, "I want to learn all sorts of poisons. How to make them and how to cure them. Teach me everything there is to know about them."

Kabuto stared into her eyes and smirked. While she said it, her eyes were filled with an unquenchable blood lust. What did she want with poison? What did she need it for?

xXx

Soon Sasuke and Sakura had begun to fall into a routine. Day after day, Sakura would learn new jutsu, poisons and healing arts with Kabuto while Sasuke worked with Orochimaru on his summoning and Chidori...but Sasuke soon noticed something was wrong with Sakura. She went to bed later and later every night until she wasn't sleeping at all. Kabuto also noticed Sakura's lack of sleep, but neither he nor Sasuke asked her about it; Sasuke acted like he didn't care and carried on with his training as normal and Kabuto just taught her how to make endurance pills every once in awhile.

.

One day, after Sasuke and Sakura had gone back to their room, Kabuto suggested to Orochimaru "Maybe we should have them fight each other"

Orochimaru became interested in this idea and sent one of his sound ninjas to bring them back to the main room and explained about the idea. Sakura hesitated first, but had no choice when she saw Sasuke taking his position to fight and she charged at Sasuke with a punch.

"Hn." Sasuke dodged her punch and grabbed her wrist. Sakura threw a kick aimed at his arm and Sasuke let go of her and stepped back. Sasuke threw shuriken to distract her and while she was blocking them, Sasuke moved and kicked her in the stomach. Sakura froze and disappeared into a puff of smoke.

"Damn substitution"

From the side, Sakura threw a punch to his face. Sasuke was sent flying across the room and landed on his back. Sasuke tried to get up but felt a cold blade pressed against his neck. He looked up and saw Sakura with murder in her eyes.

'When did she get that fast? That's it! I'm not playing around anymore' thought Sasuke. He kicked Sakura away, but the blade managed to make a small cut on his neck as he did so.

When Sakura got back to her feet, she noticed Sasuke had activated his Sharingan. 'Great, he's mad. Really mad...Shit! Here he come!' thought Sakura.

Sakura was too slow and Sasuke appeared in front of her and lifted her off the ground by her neck. Sakura tried to break his grip, but the difference in their strength was too vast. It was becoming difficult for her to breath.

"I win" said Sasuke angrily. Sasuke let go of her neck and she fell on the ground, gasping for air.

.

"That was an interesting fight, right Kabuto" said Orochimaru

"Indeed it was, Orochimaru-sama"

Sasuke turned around to face them, "Hn, I'm leaving" said Sasuke and walked off to his room.

Sakura silently followed him and sat on her bed, while Sasuke headed to the bathroom to clean up. When he came out, Sakura's bangs fell in her eyes, hiding her face, and took her shower.

Sakura turned on the shower and let the cold water pour over her as she sat on the floor. She was shaking and scared of what had just happened. She sat there for an hour before she had calmed down enough to go back to the room and face Sasuke.

Sasuke was in bed, skillfully pretending to be asleep. 'Is she going to sleep or will she continue her research in the medical room?' he thought.

After a few minutes Sasuke looked up and saw Sakura was sleeping. Seeing her finally sleeping, actually relieved him. 'Wait? Why do I even care about her?!'

He rolled over so his back facing Sakura and went to sleep

xXx

Two hours later, Sasuke was awakened by Sakura's coughing. Sakura coughed loudly as if she didn't care that Sasuke was sleeping or as if like she couldn't control it. Sasuke turned around to yell at her to keep it down but was startled-though he would never admit it-a little worried when he saw her coughing thick wads of blood.

Sakura noticed she had woken Sasuke up and didn't want him to see her acting weak. She ran to the bathroom, slammed the door shut and stood before the sink' but being desperate to leave the room and hoping Sasuke hadn't seen her like that, she had totally forgotten to lock the door.

Sakura realized her mistake and wanted to lock the door, but couldn't stop coughing blood. Before she knew it, Sasuke opened the door and walked in.

"Sakura..."

She finally stopped coughing what felt like an eternity later and washed her face while Sasuke held her hair up. She knew this wasn't Sasuke; he didn't worry about people, especially not her. No matter how much she cared for him. So, like always, she gave him a bright smile and said; "Don't worry. I'm fine"

Sakura tried to walk past Sasuke, but he pinned her against the wall. Sakura tried to push him away but he grabbed her arms and pinned them over her head. Sakura realized how close Sasuke was to her and her face turned into a tomato. If she didn't calm down, Sasuke might hear her heart loudly thumping heart.

"What are you hiding?"

Sakura eyes widened when she heard his question, but couldn't give him an answer. Kabuto and Orochimaru had warned her not to get in Sasuke's way or distract him. He shouldn't worry about her; he needed to focus on his training.

"I-I'm fine. I'm not hiding anything"

Sakura looked in his eyes, he was looking frustrated. Before she could say anything further, Sasuke slammed his fist into her stomach and she fell limp into his arm. He picked her up and put her down on her bed.

(Next morning)

Sasuke had taken his shower and walked out of the bathroom to see angry Sakura glaring at him from her bed.

"You didn't have to knock me out", she said.

"Hn. You are resting today." he ordered her and left the room.

As soon as Sasuke left the room, Sakura noticed someone was standing in front of the door. It was a sound ninja who was working with Sakura when she pulled all-nighters working on her poisons.

"You didn't show up at midnight, Sakura-sama"

"Sasuke-kun knocked me unconscious. Can you get Kabuto for me?" she asked, sighing.

"As you wish" he said and disappeared.

.

After a few minutes Kabuto entered the room, "You needed something?"

"This may sound stupid", she paused and stood up from her bed, "but I have a favor to ask"

~to be continued~

Hmmm, what is Sakura thinking and hiding?

I think I have one or two more chapters before I skip time. Hope you don't mind.

Reminder: question for this chapter; WHAT'S THE WORST ANIME YOU HAVE EVER SEEN?

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