Author's note: This is most likely the shortest chapter of this whole story and I apologise for the brief length, but I'm dead tired. I'm exhausted after a goddamn long week and tonight was literally the first time I managed to put something down on paper - however brief it is. Consider it an interlude perhaps. Next chapter should be longer, though; for now, sorry for the brief length, I wanted to give you guys something at least.

Thanks to the following reviewers: Richon; solitare1; 666snoopy

Warnings: Mainly an interlude; deviation from the original version obviously

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto owns it.

I hope you'll like it in spite of the short length!

Chapter 47

He had no idea what he should do now.

Tenten's story kept racing through his mind, almost blaring every time he looked at Naruto or at Gaara. Sasuke would have loved to convince himself that this Tenten girl had to have been talking about other people, but people with exactly the same name would already have been too much of a coincidence to believe in one. Add to that the story she had told about what had happened in the mall, which was almost word for word the story Naruto and Gaara had told him …

There was no doubt about it. The girl Naruto and Gaara had talked about, the one who had nearly caused Gaara and by extension Naruto too to die, was Sakura. Sakura had been the one to shoot Gaara in his leg so the zombies would focus on him. Sakura had been the one to leave both Naruto and Gaara to die when she had brazenly taken both bikes when fleeing the mall. Sakura was the reason why Gaara now lived with a limp, might even be the main cause for their cynicism and cold hard take on the world.

Sakura was the one they had been looking for all this time.

Sasuke could dimly recall the conversation she had had with Itachi when she had first arrived here. She had only killed a bunch of zombies, she had claimed, nobody else. Sasuke supposed that in a way she hadn't actually lied about that. She had shot Gaara, yes, and left Naruto to die alongside his friend, but the actual killing blow would have landed at the hands of some zombies. She personally hadn't killed them directly.

It didn't excuse what she had done, however. Far from it. Even if she had only shot Gaara in his leg and not in his chest or head, even if she had only abandoned Naruto and left him with no real means of a quick escape, she would have still been responsible if they had died. It had been her choice to maim Gaara for life. She had deliberately shot him in his leg, ensuring he wouldn't be able to outrun the zombies. She had purposefully made Tenten believe that Naruto had been a goner too, leading the other girl to take the second bike and leaving Naruto with no transport back.

She had left both men to die and didn't even appear remorseful about it. She didn't even appear to actually remember them and that was the part that baffled Sasuke the most. How could she have basically sentenced two men to their deaths and not even have bothered to remember their faces or their names? Was she that callous? Had she done this to more people? How many others had she done this too? Had she caused others to die by incapacitating them in order to save her own hide? How many other people hadn't had the extreme luck or the sheer tenacity that had allowed Naruto and Gaara to survive?

As much as Sakura's apparent inability to remember the people she had sentenced to death bewildered him, just as much did Naruto's and Gaara's inaction baffle him. Obviously they hadn't forgotten how she looked like. Thinking back on it, they had clearly reacted to her when she had shown up during their first day here to offer her medical services. Back then Sasuke had simply believed they had reacted like that because they had been too wary of other people after having spent so much time on the road with only each other's company. What else should he have assumed when Sakura had given no indication that she had recognised either of them bar her only befuddled question whether they had looked familiar?

They had looked vaguely familiar to her. Unbelievable. She had nearly caused two people to die and their faces were only vaguely familiar to her. How callous, how uncaring did one have to be to not even remember the faces of the people you basically sentenced to death? She had spent days together with them, so they hadn't been simply strangers she had barely known for an hour.

Sasuke and his family had always prided themselves on being able to read people well, so this secret part about Sakura's past hit him like a brick to the face. No, he had never been close to her nor had they exchanged that many words with each other in spite of how long she had been living here already, but how could he have misjudged her so badly?

And how could he not have realised sooner that something had been off about the way Naruto and Gaara had reacted towards her? Yes, he hadn't known them for more than a couple of hours by then, but was that really an excuse? Kabuto had managed to trick them once – shouldn't Sasuke have been more on guard? He hadn't seen it, though – no, he hadn't comprehended it. He had seen their reaction towards Sakura that day, but it had been easy to wave it off as the two men being way too jumpy after their time on the road. After all, who wouldn't be jumpy if you had to be on guard the entire time because you could be attacked by zombies – other people – at any given moment?

What were they planning?

It was a question which kept him awake until deep in the night. He had seen with his own eyes just how ruthless Naruto and Gaara could be if they wanted. Hell, during their last run together Sasuke had seen personally how unaffected both men had been when Naruto had killed that guy who had been about to steal their shit. Or before that, with Gaara's father. Or even earlier, with Sakon's group. Naruto and Gaara could be brutal, absolutely merciless when they wanted to be. They saw no reason to hold back if the situation required it – so why hadn't they done anything to Sakura yet?

Sitting up in his bed, he stared out of the window in the direction of Naruto's and Gaara's apartment building. He couldn't see anything; the night was pitch black with the moon barely able to push past the cloudy cover. The compound was utterly silent; the only ones awake aside from him where the ones on guard shift now. Naruto and Gaara would probably be fast asleep as well, unaware that Sasuke knew the truth. Even though he had had plenty of opportunities to ask Naruto and Gaara about Sakura today, the question had never managed to slip past his lips.

What would he even say? "Hey, I know that it's Sakura you two want to take revenge on, so what's your plan?" He couldn't do that. At best they would just utterly refuse and claim Tenten had been lying. At worst they might – yes, what would they do? Would they lash out at him in spite of his relationship with Naruto? Or would they sneak away in the middle of the night, maybe after having taken care of Sakura? They could be incredibly quiet, Sasuke knew. If they wanted they would be long gone before any of them would even realise it. The guards looking out on the walls? Sasuke doubted they would form any real threat. He had no doubt at all that Naruto and Gaara would be able to get past the guards without alerting any of them.

The tunnel hadn't been fully destroyed yet either, he remembered, gripping his blanket like his hands were claws. Father had ordered the tunnel to be destroyed but it was a long process as they didn't want to accidentally collapse the building under which the majority of the tunnel ran.

Were they only staying here still because Sakura was here? Was that the reason why they hadn't left yet? They had been rather adamant that the compound wasn't their home, yet they still had to leave. Was that because Naruto wanted to stay with Sasuke – or was it because they hadn't got the perfect opportunity yet to take revenge? What even was keeping them from extracting their revenge? Had they no idea how to do it? That would surprise Sasuke very much considering the two friends could quickly come up with all sorts of plans on the spot. They had been searching for Sakura for so long, there was no way they hadn't at least envisioned how they would take care of her.

So what was the reason why Sakura was still walking unharmed? Was it because they hadn't found a good opportunity yet? Was that it? They hadn't been alone with her so far – at least not together, he acknowledged dimly. Yes, Naruto had driven her to that hospital on his own and yesterday he had been on a run with her, though Inuzuka had joined them. Had Inuzuka's presence stopped Naruto from doing anything to her? But what had stopped him the first time then? He could have easily killed her when he had driven her to that hospital and nobody would even have suspected anything was amiss if he had claimed she had been eaten by zombies. The hospital had been too far from the compound to perform a casual checkup anyways. Naruto could have easily killed her a long time ago, but hadn't.

Why?

Was it because he wanted Gaara to be there with him when he did that? Was that the reason? Gaara had been the one to get shot, after all; it made sense if he wanted to be present when they would make Sakura pay. So far, though, they hadn't had any opportunity to take revenge because they had never been together with her at the same time.

What should Sasuke do? Now that he knew what he knew – there was no way he could just let things play out. He couldn't in good conscience just stand by and do nothing, but on the other hand what could he do? He didn't want to set them off and make them likely to run away. Did he want to give them a chance to kill her, though? What she had done was unforgiveable, but would killing her help them much? Yet he couldn't expect them not to do anything either; they deserved to see her receive some kind of retribution after what she had done to them. What kind of retribution would be good enough for them, though?

What to do, what to do …

Sasuke kept a discreet eye on both Sakura and Naruto and Gaara in the days that followed. Sakura was mostly busy in Tsunade's practice, though, and didn't interact with Naruto again after they had returned from the run – if they had even interacted with each other during the run itself. Naruto and Gaara simply worked on their assignments and when they were done with those, they would spend time with Sasuke or retreat to their apartment. Nothing in their behaviour indicated that they were planning on doing something to Sakura.

Sometimes Sasuke wondered if he shouldn't have tried to convince that Tenten girl harder to accompany him to the compound. She hadn't been interested after their conversation, insisting she was happy that the others were doing all right, but that she had become used to a solitary life and preferred to keep it that way.

Now Sasuke wondered if Tenten hadn't had at least an inkling of what Sakura had done and that was the reason why she had refused to come with him to the compound. Maybe she didn't want to get tangled up in this messy bullshit once Naruto and Gaara decided to make a move and could Sasuke blame her? He had known these two men for far longer than Tenten had and he still had no idea what they were thinking or what they would do if they found out that he knew.

Hell, he himself still had no damn clue what he should do. Confront them about it? Confront Sakura about it? What would that even do when she clearly didn't remember Naruto or Gaara? Had she genuinely forgotten that she had almost caused two people to do or was she just wilfully ignoring that fact? And what would Naruto or Gaara do if they knew Sasuke knew the full truth? Would they sneak away, would they take revenge and then leave or … What would they do?

An update of the run schedule saw Sasuke forced to make a decision quickly after all.

"There's a new run planned?" he asked absently as he walked over to the kitchen counter to make himself some instant coffee.

Father had the schedule laid out in front of him on the table, studying it intently even this early in the morning.

"Yeah, Haruno-san decided she wanted to try and get some more medical supplies from that one storage," Father confirmed. "The group I sent out yesterday didn't notice any big groups of zombies, so I suppose this run wouldn't hurt. It's always good to stock up on medical supplies anyways."

Sasuke nodded absently, pouring hot water in the mug. "Who's going to join her?" he asked curiously and put the water down, picking up his mug next.

Father's reply nearly made him loose his grip on the mug.

"Naruto-san and Gaara-san."

Fuck.

AN2: So yes, sorry for the short length but I'm so fucking exhausted, it's unbelievable. The next chapter should be longer normally.

Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.

I hope to see you all back in the next chapter! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!

Cuddles

Melissa

P.S. For more information about my upcoming and posted stories, please visit my profile.