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Reminder: Sakura's clothes; a red, hooded short-sleeve top, black fingerless gloves, low-heeled, knee-high black boots , and black shorts. To complete the outfit, she wrapped a red shawl around her hips.

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Special thanks to my Beta-Reader: GreyHowler

~Gasp!~,

Sakura sucked in air loudly as she jerked up, panting. After catching her breath, she start to observe her surroundings. She was sitting on a futon inside a private room alone with bandage around her waist.

Trying to remember what had happened, she thought long and hard about what happened before she finally fainted from the blood loss, exhaustion and pain she had had to endure while waiting for her team to find her.

xXx

~Before she fainted~

"We need to hurry!" Denka shouted.

They rushed through the forest that was filling with smoke and fire, trying to find Sakura. As Karin was busy tracking the Leaf ninjas, they had to take the long path to avoid encountering them. All their caution might as well have been for naught as the trail of soaked and burnt forestry created by the bursts of Water Jutsu as well have given away their position if anyone was paying attention.

"Sakura!" Sasuke yelled and picked up his speed the moment he caught sight of Sakura on the ground in a clearing just in front of them. Hina was sitting next to her, eyes closed in concentrating to help Sakura hide her presence while also using Wind Jutsu to shield them from the blazing inferno surrounding them.

"T..thank...you," whispered Sakura as she saw Denka leading her team to her rescue. With great sigh of relief, she released the Summoning Jutsu and allowed herself to relax a little.

It was so tempting to just close her eyes and take a little nap, especially now that she knew she was relatively safe. Then again, who cared of she was safe or not; she was so tired. Only the nagging voices of her two former medical trainers, Tsunade and Kabuto, telling her the consequences of falling prey to her body's desires kept her from falling asleep.

"We need to hurry!" Karin shouted, "I used Sasuke's old shirt as a distraction to send them the wrong way, but it won't be long before they pick up on our trail again."

Suigetsu immediately set to work extinguishing the flames around them as the others attended to Sakura. Jugo knelt down by her side and inspected the wound.

"Sasuke, give her the antidote. Hurry. Sakura, I need to pull this out or we won't be able to stop the bleeding once the poison's gone," he said. Sasuke and Sakura nodded and Jugo slowly and gently grasped the hilt and inched the two-foot blade out.

"Ngh!" Sakura only just managed to hold back her scream as black spots danced in her vision from pain and exhaustion. While Jugo was distracting her, Sasuke took the needle with the antidote Sakura's clone had given him and jabbed roughly into her arm. She barely noticed the pinprick against the excruciating pain in her stomach, but she managed to concentrate on following the cold liquid's path as it wound its way through her body.

Now that the poison was gone, Sakura used the last of her strength to stop the gushing flow of blood leaking from her torso. She didn't even notice Sasuke reaching one arm under her legs and the other under her neck to pick her up.

"Karin, can we go back to the inn?" Sasuke asked once he had Sakura, now soundly unconscious, securely in his arms.

"No, we can't," she answered, "But there is another town nearby. For now, it should be safe to go there."

xXx

~Back in the present~

Sakura's cheeks began to turn red. She had, once again, been in his arms. After a few softly squeaking like a fan girl for a few seconds, she began removing her bandages and healed what was left of the stab wound along with other wounds she had received during battle.

She had used the Yin Healing Wound Destruction, a Medical Jutsu she had learned from Kabuto which requires the user to anticipate the area of the body an enemy will attack and preemptively apply medical treatment, on the spot Sasori had stabbed her and thus managed to keep it from being a fatal wound. The Jutsu had been prevented from reaching its full potential by the poison, but it had done its job long enough for her to receive the antidote. Now, she used the chakra she had regenerated while she was unconscious to further heal the wound.

~Creak~

She looked up as she heard the door open and saw Suigetsu peeking through the crack. He greeted her with a smile, relieved to see her awake, then turned away.

"Looks who's awake," he shouted to whomever was behind him, "Sasuke! She's awake!"

"Where are we?" Sakura asked.

"With the Leaf chasing us, we had to go to a different town." Suigetsu replied as he entered the room, followed by everyone else.

Suigetsu walked up to her to check on her wound and was surprisingly amazed at her healing skill. He handed her a bottle containing an antidote her clone had made when Sasuke was resting from his wounds. The poison had been so strong she needed to take two doses of the antidote. She drank the bottle and was finally fully cured of the poison.

"Explain yourself." Sasuke demanded. She took a deep breath before she began telling him the truth;

"Something happened back when we were still living in the Village. I was send on a mission alone, requested by Lady T-...by Tsunade. It was a simple easy mission. I completed it without a problem, but when I was on my way back to the village…..let's just say I was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

"You encountered Sasori," Jugo supplied. Sakura nodded and continued,

"Back then, I didn't know much about Akatsuki. However, I knew right away that he was no good. When I fought him, I was able to break his puppet, but he managed to injure me. It was a superficial wound, but his weapons were laced with his poison. I was paralyzed almost instantly."

"Clearly you are alive. I'm guessing he spared you." Karin spoke unimpressed. Ignoring Karin's comment, Sakura went on,

"He told me that the poison would kill me within three days and left me there on the ground. I managed to move a bit and made my way back to the Village. Due to the poison however, I wasn't able to reach the Village as soon as I could and wasted one of my last three remaining days. I could feel the poison killing me from the inside out. I went straight to the hospital and made all kinds of antidotes, but nothing changed."

"Nothing worked?" Suigetsu asked.

"No…," Sakura answered, "I tried all the herbs I had in any way I could think of, but I didn't know what kind of poison Sasori used. I could ask Tsunade for help or I could go after Sasori, but when I saw you leaving the village, Sasuke….I didn't want yo-...I-I mean, I thought I could use that opportunity to extend my life force with the help of people who loves to experiment on people: Orochimaru and Kabuto."

"Why Kabuto?" Sasuke asked.

"Kabuto knows about medical stuff, maybe he could make an antidote to rid my system of the poison. When I told him what happened and if he knew Sasori, he told me the harsh truth: that it was no ordinary poison. It was poison Sasori made himself. Kabuto couldn't cure me, he could only extend my life until I found Sasori, killed him and obtained his poison. Really, I think he could have cured me but he loved to see me struggle and thought it was the perfect opportunity to experiment on me."

It had gotten quiet around the room again. Everyone was listening to Sakura's story. Sasuke couldn't believe what he was hearing. All of that happened when they were still living in the Village and he hadn't notice a thing. From the sound of it, she had been hurting a lot. The poison had been eating her from the inside and she could have died any day.

"That's why you couldn't sleep and were coughing blood." Sasuke spoke, breaking the silence.

"Yeah...I almost died several times, but Kabuto injected me with all kinds of drugs, medicine and weird stuff." she answered.

"That day when you and Kabuto visited. He injected you with something and you fainted. That's why you didn't want to talk about it." Suigetsu said.

Sakura looked at Suigetsu and slowly nodded. She looked back at Sasuke. She could see his face and neck turning red with anger for keeping such a secret from him.

"That day, when you snuck out of the hideout….it had something to do with the guy you were looking for?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura chuckled, "I knew you had noticed it. During those years, I also studied the scrolls I brought with me which Tsunade had given me. I learned how to extract poison out of someone's body. With my perfect chakra control, I could do it, but it was too late to use it on me because I had already taken so many concoctions."

"Where did you go?" Sasuke continued asking question.

"I heard a rumor that the Akatsuki attacked the Sand Village and someone was poisoned by Sasori."

"What!?" Sakura flinch as Sasuke suddenly shouted, "That was stupid and dangerous!"

"I know!" she shouted back, "But I had to do it….even though I met Naruto and Kakashi there…"

"What?!" he shouted louder. Karin placed her hand on her face and shook her head.

"They didn't notice me. I was in disguise," Sakura continued, "I was able to extract poison from him which was enough to make the antidote. I studied all kinds of herbs and all kinds of poison for the past three years just for that moment. I was able to make the antidote to neutralize the poison...but…" she paused and looked at the ground.

"You couldn't take it for yourself. Instead you saved that person's life." Karin finished Sakura's sentence.

"That was both brave and stupid of you." said Suigetsu.

"Hehehe….I couldn't be so selfish," Sakura replied and laughed softly, "Besides, I encountered Sasori sooner than I expected and was able to defeat him and now I'm fully cured."

~Sigh~

It was the only thing Sasuke could do, nothing else.

"I'm sorry…" Sakura whispered. Everyone was silent for a few moments, analyzing her decisions. One by one, they left the room, wanting to give Sasuke and Sakura what privacy they could have when he blew up at her. Karin at first didn't want to leave, but Sasuke was clearly still pissed and decided not to push it. He managed to keep his voice down,

"Why did you hide it from me?" he asked.

"I don't know," Sakura shrugged, "What was I supposed to say? 'Hey, I forgot to tell you, I'm dying due to a poison I don't know how to neutralize and I'm using all kinds of drugs and experiments to extend my life force until I find the person who is responsible for poisoning me'? No way! I would just get in your way."

Before Sasuke could say something, Sakura just continued,

"You already think of me as an annoying girl. I didn't want to burden you with my problem."

"I don't think y-"

"Don't think what?" Sakura asked, unknowingly cutting him off.

"Hn, nothing…go get ready." he replied and walked out of the room. With a confused expression, she watched him walking out of the room.

As soon as she was alone, a smile crossed her face. She was finally free of the poison in her system, the drugs she repeatedly had to take, and the painful experiments she had to go through because of Kabuto.

Now she could put all her focus on preventing Sasuke from walking onto a darker path. On Naruto who wouldn't stop coming for them. She was pretty sure that he was one of the Leaf ninjas who were tracking them earlier and who were still on their tail. Kakashi might also be with them. If not, that guy who introduced himself when Naruto and his team attacked Orochimaru's hideout, Yamato would be there.

Sakura found it rather sweet how Naruto wasn't giving up on bringing them back, but she also wished he would stop. She and Sasuke had work to do. She felt like the more he pursued them, the more likely it was for Sasuke and Naruto to fight again. That was the last thing she wanted.

The first time they fought was when they were still in the Village; on the rooftop of the hospital. They only stopped because she begged them to and stood in between them with Kakashi saving her in nick of time.

The second time they fought was when she and Sasuke left the Village. She had held back and let them fight. She couldn't intervene or Sasuke would have left her there and joined Orochimaru alone.

The third time they fought was when Naruto and his team attacked Orochimaru's hideout. She took care of Ino and Sai while Sasuke fought Naruto and Yamato. He had wanted to use a powerful Jutsu that might have killed them if she hadn't stop him and came up with an excuse for him not to use it.

If there ever will be a fourth time, they'd probably try to kill each other and she wouldn't be able to stop it. She wouldn't be able to stand back and watch again. She might attempt to stand between them like she had the first time, except they would be so blind with adrenaline and rage that they wouldn't see her. There would be no one around to save her at the last second.

She wondered how the others must have felt when she betrayed them; her friends...her sensei….her former master….and her parents. Were they angry? Disappointed? Hurt?

Sakura sighed and berated herself for thinking too much. The near death experience was making her overthink everything.

"I'm not having second thoughts. I'm not having second thoughts." Chanted Sakura silently as she shook her head. She bit her thumb, drawing blood and placed it on the ground,

"Summoning Jutsu!" she shouted. Hina and Denka appeared next to her in a puff. They were relieved to see her fully healed.

"Thank goodness, you're alright, meow." Hina spoke first.

"Is everything alright?" Denka asked.

"Yeah, everything is alright," Sakura replied, "I just wanted to thank you guys for helping me. I want to give you a bottle of catnip as a gratitude."

They happily accepted her gift and sat enjoying their catnip. A few seconds later, Suigetsu entered the room as he had something to tell Sakura, but got distracted when he saw Hina and Denka.

Suigetsu reached down to pet Denka, but the cat hissed and released the Summoning Jutsu. Denka and Hina disappeared in cloud of smoke. Sakura couldn't help but laugh at Suigetsu's failed attempt.

"Very funny." Suigetsu said.

"Sorry, sorry," Sakura replied as she wiped her tears away, "What did you need?"

"Oh, right…" Suigetsu scratch his head sheepishly. He had almost forgot the important part, "Karin said the Leaf tracked us again and are on their way here."

After hearing the news, Sakura immediately stood up, gathered her stuff and walked out of the room. Everyone was busy preparing to leave and head for the location where Itachi was rumored to be.

When Sakura had last seen him, Sasuke was wearing his dark blue pants, over which hung a blue cloth that covered him from his stomach to his knees, secured with a purple rope belt; As was common to Orochimaru and his followers. Sasuke had also had worn a white long-sleeved shirt which he kept open at the torso.

Now, he was in a sleeveless dark grey shirt with the same dark blue pants, minus the purple belt and blue cloth, and had bandages on his wrists.

"Will you be alright, Sakura?" Jugo asked.

"Yeah, my wounds are healed." she answered and slipped her red hoodie on to cover her pink hair, not wanting to hinder the group by standing out in town, "Are you ready to fight Itachi, Sasuke?"

"Yeah. Absorbing Orochimaru's abilities really increased my healing power," he answered, "Let's go."

They quickly made their way out of town and, one by one, leaped into the trees and took off towards the nearby Akatsuki's hideout. Karin used once again, the birds Jugo had called to scatter the strips of Sasuke's clothes around the area to make it difficult for the Leaf ninja trackers to find them.

A little while later, they were each perched on a different tree overlooking Akatsuki's base. They watched for a few minutes before Sasuke ordered them to wait outside while he infiltrated the hideout. Sakura wanted to protest, but obeyed quietly, too tired to argue. Her wounds might be healed but her body hadn't recovered at all.

"Are you okay, Sakura?" Suigetsu asked, noticing her increased respiration.

"Yeah," she managed to reply, "My body hasn't fully recovered from the fight. I also wasted too much chakra."

"I'm sensing someone else's chakra" interrupted Karin as she pointed towards the base Sasuke had entered.

Worried for Sasuke's safety, they each glanced at each other before rushing to the entrance. They skidded to a halt just inside the hideout, expecting an enemy, but only saw Sasuke staring at the ceiling while black feathers floated in the air around him.

"I thought I told you to stay back until I said otherwise." he said as he calmly shifted his gaze to them.

"Karin said she sensed someone else's chakra, so we got curious." Suigetsu replied.

"We're moving. Follow me." Sasuke ordered and walked past them back outside.

They once again leaped through the forest. Sakura wanted to question Sasuke about their new destination and what had happened inside the base, but held her tongue. Her exhaustion was starting to really sink in and she was having trouble keeping up, not that she would say anything to any of them.

Suddenly, Karin stopped and exclaimed, "There's a bunch of people with identical chakra all around us! What the hell is this?!"

'Identical chakra? Shadow clone? Is it Naruto?' Thought Sakura as she leaned against a tree next to Karin.

"Do we need to take another route, Sasuke?" Jugo asked. Both he and Suigetsu were on the same branch, back to back, looking for threats.

"Ignore it. We'll charge straight through." Sasuke replied as he scanned the area.

"Thank God. Detours always wipe me out." said Suigetsu. They started their journey again, expecting enemies but at the same time hoping they would just be able to avoid them. Before Sakura and Karin had managed to jump more than a few trees, Naruto appeared on their left.

"Sasuke! Sakura-Chan!" he yelled.

While Naruto was busy screaming, Sasuke had doubled back on himself and slashed at Naruto with a Chidori. In horror, Sakura put her hands on her mouth and widened her eyes. It happened too fast and her mind was still processing what her eyes had seen. She didn't want to believe Sasuke had finally managed to kill Naruto.

"What the f-" Karin said but was interrupted when Naruto disappeared, leaving in a puff of smoke.

"A shadow clone…" Suigetsu mumbled. Sakura was immediately somewhat relieved. Now more than ever, she didn't want them to fight for the fourth time.

"Naruto…" Sasuke mumbled, "He never gives up…"

He turned and led the group further into the forest. They managed to travel for quite a while without encountering any more clones. Finally, Sakura had to stop, no longer able to keep up with the group at the pace they were making.

"Hold on…" Sakura gasped in exhaustion and stood on a tree branch, trying to catch her breath.

"We need to hurry, Sakura." Sasuke replied, finally stopping a few meters ahead of her and turned around.

"I know….I was just out of breath." She took another breath before lifting her head to show she was alright. They were all staring at her, frozen in place. She looked to each one waiting for an explanation, but never receiving one. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sasuke's expression shift from surprised to furious,

"What's w-" she started to say, but was interrupted.

"Foolish little brother," said a voice echoed behind Sakura. She gasped as she felt her own limbs stiffen with fear. She felt someone's arm wrap around her waist and the voice said, "Big mistake for letting your guard down."

"Leave Sakura alone!" Sasuke shouted and dashed towards them. He stretched his arm out to Sakura as she did the same toward him.

"Sakura!" Suigetsu and Jugo also leaped to her aid, hoping they in vain that they could save her. Karin stood still motionless, still frozen with shock and bewilderment at how she hadn't sensed him.

"S-Sasuke!" Sakura yelled while a tear rolled down her cheek. Her and Sasuke's fingers were millimeters away from each other when she and Itachi disappeared in a puff of smoke.

~To Be Continued~

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