Eye Contact

Summary: She caught a glimpse of red and knew why she'd been summoned. Oh but she hated him so much. And of course, it wouldn't be the last time she'd meet his eye. SasuSaku reunion, not clichéd.

Disclaimer: Astonishingly, I do not own Naruto. Do you really think that Masashi Kishimoto writes fanfiction for his own manga? Thought not, isn't thinking lovely?

"Fuck." Blood dribbled down her chin as she felt two of her right ribs crack from the force of the blow. With heavily depleted chakra, severe wounds, no backup as far as she could see and two as-yet unscathed opponents, things had looked better for Konoha's little medic.

"I'm disappointed kunoichi," his voice was amused and, ironicly, a little disappointed. "After defeating Kira, I expected more. She was about as strong as me, surely you could have put up more of a fight?"

Not bothering to point out that she had sustained most of her injuries while fighting the rock kunoichi about 5 minutes ago and that taking on two equally strong opponents immediately after such a trial was a bit beyond her abilities, Sakura prepared to block another attack.

It came as kunai disguised under heavy genjutsu, and there it was, a much needed openning for the young rosette. Blocking the visible shuriken with her katana, she pretended to not see the invisible attack. As five kunai pounded into her apparently exposed chest, her overconfident enemies charged towards their 'fallen' foe. The blonde one froze immediately, the genjutsu cast by the chunin proving too much for him. Releasing the genjutsu, the brunette who had been expecting a better fight charged straight into her hail of senbon.

Struggling to remain conscious, the girl walked away from the enemy nin, pocketing the scroll as she did so. It had been a long battle with two dead chunin and a dead jounin to show for it on her part, and with no chakra to heal herself, she was forced to wait until Naruto received her signal. And God only knows how long that could take.

This scroll...

God knows why Tsunade gave the mission to two chunin. If this scroll made it to the Rock Country, it would mean that they would be strong enough to invade. Chiyo's technique. The ability to raise the dead. Imagine every mildly skilled patriotic rock-nin raising the legendary shinobi who were barely defeated by Konoha's most skilled ANBU. Yet her sensei seemed to have so much faith in her. She didn't understand why, she was average at best. All she was good for was her medical skill.

Then how were you able to defeat a jounin and two chunin at once?

That voice, once so fiery and impassioned, now often returned as a sly messenger, voicing doubts and the occasional compliment. The only thing that every one of it's increasingly frequent messages had in common was simple. They all disturbed the natural flow of Sakura's thoughts, and they never set her at ease.

What if her 'Inner' was right? What if Tsunade saw something more in her than a bright chunin. Her last seven missions had all been A-rank. Track down Akatsuki to bring back Gaara. Track down Sasori's subordinate, working under Orochimaru. Back up Team 9 as they battled Akatsuki. Track down Uchiha Itatchi. Go solo to The Hidden Grass village to work undercover as a waitress in a particularly infamous restaurant, eavesdropping on two Akatsuki members who, had they looked at her closely, would know her on sight. Fill in as head medic on the front lines during the Sound's second attempted invasion. And now recover a forbidden scroll from a highly infamous squad, intent on their country becoming stronger than Konoha in order to invade.

Surely it was all too much for one lowly chunin?

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto, looking unhurt but a little flustered, was running towards her, looking terrified for her. "What happened? Were you attacked? Did you get the scroll? Are you hurt? Did they-"

Holding up a hand to stop the flow of questions, Sakura took a deep breath.

"I wasn't attacked Naruto, I saw a chunin holding the scroll and I thought I could take her. Turns out I was right, but her team mates wanted it back. That's where I got most of my injuries," ('A lie,' she thought, 'They were actually easier to take out than the first girl.') "but I managed to take them out with genjutsu. My injuries are: two broken ribs, six minor stab wounds, one stab wound that would have been critical if I hadn't healed myself, a sprained wrist, a shattered ankle, a broken collar bone and I inhaled some unknown poison. It doesn't appear to be fatal, but it depleted my chakra quite heavily to get it out of my system."

Over the past three months, she'd become more and more like this. Very efficient and matter-of-fact and also rather distanced and less fiery. She was the same old Sakura, but less prone to over reacting and much more calm. Naruto didn't know if it were a good or bad thing. On one hand, it meant a lot less head injuries for him. On the other, the cool smirk she wore when he did or said something stupid reminded him painfully of Sasuke.

"Then you'll be low on chakra and needing medical attention?" It was a ridiculous question, she was clearly exhausted and rather badly beaten up. But it was always nice to ask.

As she nodded, he rested his palms on the back of her hands, tapping into his huge reserves of chakra. It was protocal for every medical-nin to learn how to tap into other people's chakra. After all, when the medic got tired, their team were on their own.

Slowly, so slowly it was hardly noticeable, the obscure bumps in her clothing smoothed away and the bleeding in her side died down and eventually stopped. Satisfied, the two exhausted ninja ran to return the stolen scroll to Konoha. Half a day of constant running left them both exhausted, but complaining was out of the question. Especially for Sakura who was in charge. Again, she frowned in confusion, why was she in charge? Sure, Naruto was an over excitable idiot who couldn't realisticly be trusted to lead an important mission, but in most cases like these, Tsunade would rely on their teamwork to pull them through without a leader.

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"Sakura!" Grimacing, the pinkette turned to face her best friend. Not used to being mothered so much after her 14 day mission, Ino's nagging and concern wasn't welcomed. But she still felt grateful to be dragged to hospital so, entrusting the scroll to her team mate, she fell into a much needed sleep.

'Oh God.' A most annoying Naruto and a wailing Sakura. A groaning Shikamaru and a lecturing Kakashi. An angry hokage and a host of teary fangirls. If he was very, very lucky. He was in the bingo books, wanted by every ANBU in Konoha. They'd probably just kill or banish him, and if they did then he wouldn't mind. Half of the sound village was working on killing his brother. If Konoha killed him then he'd have achieved his goal. If they banished him then his ridiculously emotional team mates would stop attempting to track him down.

But a wave of nostalgia hit him and he realised that he longed to have Naruto challenging him to a fight and screaming about becoming Hokage. For Sakura to cry for protection and fuss over his well being. For Kakashi to be unfashionably, unreasonably late and drive them insane by reading his porn at ill timed moments.

Hell, he wanted to be home.

Even a furious hokage wouldn't ruin the image.

A cry went through the village, a boy had been beaten to near death and was now dragging himself across to the Hokage's office, or was it the hospital he was seeking?

A blissfully unaware Sakura remained in a dreamless sleep, not caring about her injuries or anyone elses for that matter. She didn't even care for the boy who had stolen her heart so long ago, who had changed her, made her stronger and had set a spark in her that grew under her cool exterior to a burning hatred for the one who had hurt her.

Yes, she hated him. And yes, deep down she loved him. Yes, even if he proposed to her tomorrow she would still reject him and push him away.

But it didn't matter. All that mattered was a deep, soothing sleep.

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"I see." Naruto's uncharacteristically calm voice shook slightly as he looked at his former comrade.

"He should be awake tomorrow." The Hokage spoke softly, so as not to awake the other patients who needed rest, but her voice trembled with silent rage. "We wont decide what to do until Sakura wakes up. I'll promise Shikamaru a trip to Suna to visit Temari if he manages to convince the elders to cancel the trial. His fate should be decided by you, Sakura and Kakashi, not some ancient fools who don't know a thing about his story."

Grateful for the consideration the Hokage had given Team 7, Naruto nodded. A bastard, a fool, a traitor, a backstabber...

But a comrade. And, deep down within him, a friend. If Sakura could see that, then together they'd bring him back into their lives. Unfortunately, the chances of her forgiving and forgetting were slim. But he needed her support, the convince the rest of the Konoha 12 and the elders and the jounin.

If they suceeded, they'd have him back.

The bastard.

The traitor.

His best friend.

Sasuke.

So what do you think? I still haven't come up with a fixed plotline but I'm sure I want Sakura to hook up with either Sasuke, Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji or Kiba. So whoever thinks of the best reason for her to end up with any of these by the time I write chapter 5 will have their idea used. If you really don't care, please review still, it's really lovely to read comments.

Ja ne,

Niamh.