Thanks for all the congrats everybody. She truly is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

XxXx

Chapter Five

Depend

XxXx

Sakura was woken violently the next morning to someone shouting in her ear and shaking her shoulders. She blearily pried her eyes open, blinking away the sleep, and was startled to see Kabuto's face in her line of vision.

Choking back a scream of surprise, she ground her teeth together. "What the hell?" she demanded.

He looked at her for a moment and gestured to her side. "I thought something was wrong. You were sprawled out on the floor."

She blinked feeling heat rise up to her face. "Sorry." She muttered sheepishly. "No, no. I'm fine. I just… felt like a little nap on the floor."

An eyebrow rose on his face before he stood, offering a hand to her. She batted it to the side, groaning as she stood up on her own, twisting her neck until she felt a satisfying pop.

Letting out a sigh of content she made her way to the table where a steaming cup of tea was sitting, waiting for her. She took a gulp, relishing as the hot liquid coated the inside of her dry throat.

"Mmm, this is good," she sighed content.

"It's Tieguanyin Tea."

Sakura sputtered, choking on the liquid, and inhaling it the process. She felt her eyes water and she gasped for air and turned to Kabuto with a disbelieving look on her face.

"That's a 153,885.00 yen tea."

"A gift from Orochimaru-sama to you."

She eyed the cup warily, "He didn't steal it, did he?"

Kabuto smiled but didn't say anything and sat across from her. "Think of it as a marriage gift."

The tea turned sour in her stomach as she pushed the cup away from her. "I think I'm going to be sick."

Kabuto sighed. "How long is it going to take you before you accept the inevitable?"

Sakura turned to look at him and frowned. "I'm in shock here. What would you do if Orochimaru had said he wanted to marry you?"

Kabuto looked down and fidgeted, redness tingeing his cheeks. "Well, I wouldn't be opposed to it…"

He looked up and started chuckling seeing the look on her face. "Joking, Sakura-hime."

"Oh thank Kami," she breathed out, relaxing in the chair again. She swirled the tea around with a spoon before sighing and stood up. "It's no good. I'm not hungry anymore."

"If my crass remarks had anything to do with it-"

She waved her hand at him, "No it's not you. I just didn't sleep well last night."

He nodded his head in understanding, "No I imagine you wouldn't sleep well outside and then on the floor."

She blinked. "You knew I was in the garden?"

He nodded towards her necklace. "Of course we did."

Sakura looked down at the emerald resting right above her cleavage, sparkling in the florescent lighting, and sighed. "Figures."

The fact that everybody knew where she was when she didn't want them to, unnerved her. She was a ninja and it was her job to disappear into the shadows when she didn't want to be observed; but the necklace prevented that from happening and added to the ever growing list of things that irritated her about this place.

She stood up and went to the bathroom, brushing her teeth, and stepping into the shower. She stood under the spray of hot water until it turned cold before stepping out, feeling more awake than before, but still groggy.

She pulled on a fresh pair of clothes; a simple red shirt and a pair of black baggy pants. She felt a chill as she left the bathroom so opted to grab a sweater to throw over her shirt.

Sakura ran her fingers through her damp strands, trying to make sense of her tangled hair, but gave up after several minutes and pulled her hair up into a messy pony tail.

Kabuto was waiting for her when she finished and offered her a small smile. "What do you plan on doing today?"

"First? Training."

"Sakura," Kabuto began dangerously.

She cut him off, "If you think for one second I'm going to let Orochimaru or you or anybody else for that matter let me wither away into a soft pudgy blob; then you've got another thing coming. I worked damn hard to get where I am and I sure as hell am not going to give that up, marriage be damned."

She stood her ground, ready to fight him over, but he merely sighed and pushed the glasses up on the bridge of his nose, "I suppose exercise would be beneficial."

She relaxed slightly and gave a weak smile, "Right. Exercise. It's not like I can do jutsu anyway."

He nodded his head and stood walking to the door and motioning her to follow. "I'll show you to the training grounds."

She looked at him gratefully and followed after him to a part of the compound that she hadn't seen the day before. He opened the door and was momentarily surprised to see how big it was and how many people were inside training.

She recognized several people in passing, most who had spots in the Bingo Book. Her eyes fell on a familiar raven haired man and felt herself stiffen. Kabuto seemed to notice as he turned to her. "We can come back later."

She shook her head stiffly and moved into the training center and dropped into a stretch. Kabuto moved beside her and began to follow and soon Sakura was stretching all the muscles in her body, relishing as her bones popped and energy seemed to flow into her muscles.

When she finished all the stretches Tsunade had taught her, she started on a jog around the track that circled the training ground. Soon she found herself lost in through as she ran the track, feeling the sweat cling to her back and blood rush through her veins in a familiar way that was almost relaxing.

When that was done she was excited and looked around at all the equipment before landing on one of her favorites. The barbell.

Kabuto followed after her curiously, watching as she kept grabbing fifty pound weighs and putting them on until she had nearly four hundred pounds on each end.

"Sakura-hime," Kabuto started slowly, watching as she went to pick up another weight. "Are you sure you can dead lift that much weight?"

"Of course she can't. She's showing off."

Sakura snapped her eyes up and looked at Sasuke who had walked over to the two, sneering at the pink haired girl who was attempting to find room for the extra weight.

She scowled. "I can too."

She felt slightly childish saying that but Sasuke's words had wounded her ego.

Kabuto rolled his eyes. "I mean, without your chakra…"

She nodded understandingly and looked down at the extra weight in her hand before tossing it over her shoulder. "Good point. I should go light."

One of the nins who was in a bench next to her mouthed the word "light" and eyed the eight hundred pound bar bell warily and then turned and looked at his bar bell which only had 250 on each side.

She dusted her hand and grabbed the bar, ignoring the fact that by now most people had stopped what they were doing to watch her. She picked it up, dead lifting it above her head easily much to the stunned crowd. She paused for a second and looked at Sasuke and smirked who narrowed his eyes at her and scowled.

She continued that for several more minutes before switching to squats.

Somebody whistled quietly. "Now there's a girl after my own heart."

"I would take her right now if she wasn't betrothed to Orochimaru-sama."

Sasuke snapped his head around to look at the crowd who look one look at the rage on his face and blood red eyes and scrambled away.

He turned back to Sakura. "So you can lift some weight. Big deal."

She paused mid-squat and looked at him, frowning for a second. "I know it's not a lot, but without my chakra, I can't really do much."

The sulking nin at the bench next to her seemed to grow more depressed due to this revelation much to the amusement of Kabuto.

She stood and walked to Sasuke, holding the bar out to him. "Here. I'm done."

She dropped it in his hands and Kabuto could see the strain in his eyes as Sasuke fought to keep a hold the barbell up. Sakura turned and began walking towards the door, muttering that she was no longer in the mood to exercise anymore and that she'd come back later when there was more pleasant company.

Kabuto followed after her and closed the door behind them just in time to head Sasuke drop the bar and grunt in relief. The silver hair man grinned mockingly.

He turned and caught up with the green eyed girl who was fuming. "I can't believe him! Fucking Uchiha. The last time he saw me I could barely lift twenty-five pounds! The least he could do is acknowledge that I've gotten stronger and am no longer the baby faced genin he once knew."

An eyebrow rose on Kabuto's forehead. "You want his… approval?"

"No!" Sakura snapped. She seemed to deflate. "Yes. Maybe. I don't know."

She ran her hands through her hair, ruining the pony tail in the process, "I don't know." She repeated. "His opinion mattered to me a lot when we were kids. I guess, I still have some of that inside of me. Stupid, right?"

He shook his head. "I don't think so, no."

She looked at him in disbelief, "Really?"

"It's normal to want to gain approval from other people. Though, I fail to understand why you'd want Uchiha's approval. His opinion is not very valuable. He's nothing but a spoiled brat."

Sakura laughed. "That describes Sasuke, alright."

Kabuto smiled at her briefly. "So if you would like to return to the training grounds…?"

"No." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "My headache from last night returned."

"When was the last time you drank any water?" he asked suddenly

"Aside from what was in the tea? Two or three days ago."

"Dehydration." He answered and the two turned and began to walk into the kitchen. When they entered, she grabbed a large glass of ice water and downed it; ignoring as her stomach turned sour again.

Kabuto turned and busied himself with cooking the two of them breakfast. The smell of the food hit her nose suddenly and she put her hand over her mouth feeling her stomach do flip flops in her abdomen.

"Sakura=hime?" Kabuto looked at her concerned and she smiled weakly up at him.

"I'm not very hungry. Thanks."

"You need to eat something."

"No, I'm okay, I'm not feeling very well to be honest."

Kabuto was suddenly next to her, his hand touching her forehead. "You're burning up."

She blinked up at him. "I'm freezing."

He narrowed his eyes. "You're a doctor and you didn't notice that you were sick?"

"I haven't exactly had the most normal of weeks you know," she snapped. He looked at her and for a moment she was sure that he looked almost… regretful. The next second it was gone and he stood straight.

"You're correct. I am sorry Sakura-hime." He made his way to the fridge and put more water in the cup for her. Heading for the door he turned and looked at her, "Stay here. I'm going to get you some medication. I will be back swiftly."

She nodded her head, and placed it in her arms that were folded over the table. She stayed that way for a while, shivering even in her sweat shirt. Why had she gotten so sick suddenly? She was fine just an hour ago and now she felt like she was dying.

The sound of the door opening made her raise her head and she froze seeing Sasuke standing in the doorway.

"Sakura…" he started and looked uncomfortable for a moment before several people appeared behind him. A look of irritation slid over his face as he turned to address the new comers.

She turned to focus on the faces, hoping that maybe one was Kabuto, but the room swam. She room began to tilt and she was vaguely aware that the ground was rushing up to meet her.

"What the-?!"

"Sakura!"

"What happened!?"

"I don't know she just fell over!"

And then her world turned black.

XxXx

Sasuke's kind of a dick but I promise he'll have character development.