Let It Begin

4. Training

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 bandaged 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 outfit 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 noticed 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.

XXXXX

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 dripping 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?"