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Catching Up

Sakura can't help but look at the wounded man in front of her. All this time, she thought of leaving him in that state but after some considerable thought, being a medical ninja pestered her to do something. Sasuke, however, was not an ordinary man. The moment she slows down her speed or so much as to say something, he would definitely get into his killer mode on. It was a proven fact that Sasuke was psychotic but then she still loved him, even if not as a lover but as a teammate. Love, however was a different subject all together. It will never save her from having this medically ill, psychopathic and probably unstable man pissed off. She knew she wouldn't be having a very leisurely travel afterwards if she decided to offer anything. She sighed. It was either she didn't want to bother or her old self was making an excuse not to confront Sasuke. As for the last time that she did, she almost died... which was more than 5 years ago.

After the war died down, she but herself was considered to be a prodigy in her chosen field. She had never believed the fact that she could walk beside the people that was always in front of her. The fact that she was still looking at Sasuke's back after all these years makes her mad and that probably made her decide quicker than her thoughts would allow.

Choosing her decision, she felt the wind stop when she decided to not hop another step, earning a quick kunai throw from the wounded man in front of her, for which she easily caught with her fingers.

"You better have a good reason for stopping..." his voice was dark and low, and despite the distance, Sakura straightened up and bit her lip. She inhaled slowly and scooted both her brows to the center. 'Why do I feel like he had meant that throw?' she thought as she deepened her frown.

"15 hours Sasuke..." she started. "We're that slow..." Sasuke did not show a single reaction to that but Sasura knew she hit it where it hurts the most... and Sasuke was a man full of pride.

"The next town should be just 7 hours from now." She added. Sasuke, jumped one branch closer to where the pink haired kunoichi was and dauntingly so, his face reflected that he didn't care. "if you let me fix you up, we can get there much earlier." Suddenly, his face reflected realization. He didn't move, probably weighing the options.

"Why would you willingly fix me Sakura?" his eyes bore to her jaded ones. He was staring down at her and the effect of it was overwhelming. She thought she almost forgot the feeling but her old self definitely remembered. She almost took a step back but something kept her from doing that. She stayed where she was and defiantly stared back.

"I almost killed your boyfriend." That ticked her off but still held her ground. "And you saw how I brought him back." Sasuke stopped moving and in a flash of speed, Sakura couldn't react when Sasuke lifted her up with his palm on his neck. She choked but had blocked his fingers effectively with her own to stop him from completely choking her. He wasn't kidding. He will kill her if he wanted to.

"Don't be cocky Sakura, Naruto's not here to save you this time around." Without blinking an eye, sakura was able to catch a glimpse of the man's sharingan and surprisingly so, he didn't will her to submit into a moment of genjutsu.

She wondered why for a moment before realizing what she thought she feared all these years. "Sasuke, you really are going... blind..." he paused for a while to register what she had said. Haruno Sakura was the real deal. He had never mentioned anything to her and yet she knew why he brought her in the first place.  He tightened his grip on her neck as if the frustration of that truth would bring back his sight. Sakura did not flinch. She maneuvered her way out of Sasuke's hands, inducing pain on his nerve receptors using a blue light, emitting from her fingers. Sasuke fell down in agony, taking a sharp intake of breath as he tried to regain his control while leaning his back on the tree. "Bitch."

Sakura smiled at a defeated Sasuke. She imagined this scene more than a thousand times and she finally won against the Uchiha that tormented her for years. She sighed and approached him casually, kneeling down in front of him defenseless from whatever attack he can muster up at that point. "You need me..." Sasuke scoffed at that one. He wouldn't need this chick for anything, unless of course if he wasn't in this predicament of actually going blind. He looked at her for once without disdain. Her pink hair fluttered with the wind gently, her smile almost warmed up his cold, oblivious heart. Her eyes looked at him softly, steadily greeting his own angry ones. She was actually beautiful but he would never admit that in a thousand years. He sighed and looked away and Sakura took that as a hint that he was actually going to allow her to heal him.

Sakura finally smiled and without hesitation, took some bandages from her bag and placed them on her side. She took careful strides towards Sasuke and skillfully took off his broken top with his help. How she actually did that without even flinching somehow irritated Sasuke as he remembered her flushed face when the other cat allowed her hands to roam his chest when he lip locked with the kunoichi some few hours back. Despite that observation, he did not say anything further and just kept quiet. Instead of a blue light, now on her hands was a gentle green glow. Sakura smiled meekly before she carefully touched his chest, giving a bit of color on her face. Sasuke almost smiled when he saw that for some reasons unbeknownst to him. "I still affect her." Was the thought he tried to brush off as soon as he thought about it.

Sakura worked his way into carefully bandaging his chest and up until the time she was done, she just meekly excused herself to wash her hands in the nearby stream just a few hops from where they were. Sasuke looked at how her hair fluttered up when she jumped down, the wind carrying her, almost as if she was flying.

"What do I know about her after all these years?" he asked himself. It was still Sakura but it was not the girl he left behind. She was a better version of whoever she was before. Her movements were not wasted. She moved with purpose, quiet when she needed to be, feisty when threatened and she stood up to him as an equal. Whatever happened to her, he really didn't care... that's what he decided to convince himself to believe as he watched her wash her face. Her pearly skin, moist from the freshness of the stream, accentuated her femininity. He found the water flowed from her hand to her face, down to her neck... and way down the skin on her plump chest. Surprised at what he thought, he looked away.

"I need her for my own purpose..." Was the last thought he convinced his mind on, as he observed her for a couple more seconds before moving away.