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This story will be about seven chapters long, finished within the week. Reviews would be nice, please and thank you.

Length: About six pages, as most of these chapters will be.
Summary: Sasuke is in chains and Sakura can do as she wishes.

They'd brought him back. Kicking, screaming, and bloody, but he was back. For now, that was all that mattered.

Sakura tapped her pen on her clipboard, reading through it. It was a list of vitals, injuries, and all the abilities her current "patient" had. The list of injuries was long, the list of abilities longer. Low blood pressure, possible concussion, serious cuts and abrasions, the possibility of him bleeding out... The list went on, making Sakura's heart squeeze and brow furrow with worry. She wondered who had given him most of them, then decided she didn't want to know.

Sakura took a deep breath and walked down the stairs. Dungeon would be the right word for the jail hidden underneath the Hokage Residence. She didn't want to call it that. It felt medieval, and cruel. She wasn't cruel.

The basement was dark and damp, with only a single bare bulb hanging from the ceiling to lighten it. It was a bright bulb, no doubt, but the darkness of the windowless basement swallowed the yellow glow almost whole. The basement wasn't done and the floors were concrete, the walls cinder block. The uneven concrete pressed through even her thick sandals. In the back of her mind, Sakura felt a bit bad for Sasuke—bloody, with ten broken bones, only half-conscious, and having to deal with the uncomfortable pressing of tiny rocks into his ass to top it all off.

The bulb spread dim light over Sasuke's form, head bowed, hair covering his face, arms chained to a wall. His left arm was bent at an inhumanly angle. His breathing was stalled, and Sakura knew it was because of his three broken ribs and broken nose. His pose would be seen as submissive in any other situation. It wasn't. His was a purely stubborn pose; he would refuse anything they offered him even if it meant a twisted arm for the rest of his life. Sakura took a deep breath. There was a ruffle of cloth; it brought Sakura's head to a swivel, away from the submissive-stubborn position of the captured Uchiha. She hadn't realized she wasn't alone.

Naruto was in the shadows; the shift of clothing was his moving into the light. Sky blue eyes met clear emerald ones, dashed away to the dark cloud of Sasuke's hair, then stared at the ground. He was silent for the longest while. Then: "I brought him home." His voice was low, guilty. Sakura winced. Naruto's eyes clouded in the darkness of guilt. She'd caused that.

Sakura found it within herself to smile. It was soft, just a curl of a lip. The smile of someone who was selfish enough to be glad that Naruto had brought Sasuke back. "Thank you, Naruto-kun," she whispered. Naruto smiled back, soft and selfless. It squeezed her heart and made her lightheaded in gratefulness. This was why Naruto was her best friend. His ability to be so selfless while all she did was take. She was horrible. But then Naruto's smile changed into something warmer, brighter, and Sakura didn't feel so horrible.

"Fix him up right for me," Naurto said. His smile was wide enough to close his eyes. "I want to brake his bones again later." He said later as if there was no doubt in his mind that Sasuke would love being home again. Endless optimism. Sakura sighed and shook her head. "See you both later," Naruto announced, waving Sakura a two-finger salute. He ran up the stairs, leaving Sakura alone with Sasuke.

Sakura sighed. She put the clipboard down on the floor. It clanked down noisily. "Welcome back, Sasuke," Sakura said. She walked closer to him, reaching out to his chin. She wanted to see his face. Her fingers felt cold on his skin, and they looked small against his chin. She'd never realized how small she actually was. How weak. She scowled, lifting his chin up to see his face. Sasuke resisted; it was a small act of defiance, but it weighed the world on Sakura's shoulders. His refusal made something boil in her blood, made her jaw tighten. She pulled a little harder, and in his weakened state, Sasuke couldn't resist. She saw his forehead first—it was bloody, a deep cut marring his forehead. Then his nose. It was broken and bleeding. His right cheek was swollen. She met his eyes last, afraid of what she might see. She was right to be afraid. His eyes were red, tomoe spinning. Sakura pulled her fingers away. "Turn the Sharingan off or I'll do it for you," she growled.

The tomoe spun faster.

Sakura put her fingers on either side of Sasuke's nose. "I said"—slowly, she started putting the cartilage into place—"turn it off." The nose snapped into place; Sasuke winced. Sakura set to healing it. It didn't take long. "Sasuke, turn off the Sharingan or I will block your chakra." She grabbed the broken arm and set it. She didn't miss Sasuke's low hiss. His eyes were still red. "Turn it off or I won't heal you." It was an empty threat; she'd heal him. For him, and for her, and for Naruto. She'd heal him, but Sasuke wouldn't want to be healed. She waited for a bit, but Sasuke kept his eyes red and Sakura growled to herself. Her hands glowed green, letting light fall on the paleness of his skin, bringing forward a series of cuts. She fixed his bone.

His broken breath reminded her of his ribs.

It had never been odd to talk to a silent Sasuke when she was little. But, then again, he always grunted in response. This Sasuke didn't say a word. Nevertheless, Sakura had to fill the thick silence with something. "Does your chest hurt, Sasuke? Having trouble breathing?" She pressed a hand to his chest, right above the broken bones, just where his pectoral muscles rose. She added pressure. A sick part of her enjoyed the non-expression of pain that crossed Sasuke's brow. Just a little more pressure. "All you have to do is say it hurts and I'll heal you," she promised. Her green eyes were earnest, honest. But she added more pressure, and more, until the non-expression on Sasuke's face twisted into grit teeth and narrowed eyes. Her hand moved lower, to the first broken rib, and Sasuke growled, loud and animistic. His eyes closed. Chained up to a wall, it was harder to ignore the pain he hadn't felt while fighting. She pressed harder. "Just admit it hurts."

He wouldn't. That would mean weakness, and dependency. Sasuke had neither.

Then she pressed her hand flat over two broken ribs and pressed hard. He almost cried out, but bit his lip before it could escape his mouth. The Sakura he knew would never do this to him.

A sad glare of green eyes. More pressure.

Sasuke cursed. The sound of his voice was like music to her ears. "Sakura." He said her name like a warning, although he was in no position to be making threats.

More pressure. The whisper of her voice saying, "Just say it." Her green eyes stoney in a mixture of anger and sadness and guilt.

Then, finally: "Heal me."

Sakura's lips twitched. "Does it hurt?" she asked.

More pressure. Sasuke hesitated. Then she pressed on his bones again. "Yes." A simple, three-letter word, and yet it pulled the weight of a thousand worlds from his bones. He closed his eyes again. Then his ribs didn't hurt and he could breathe properly. He opened his eyes to find glowing green hands resting on his chest. They were small; Sasuke had no doubt his would dwarf hers.

She stood up, as she had to kneel down to heal him properly. His retrieval team had been kind enough to let him be chained to a wall while sitting. His arms were held above his head by chakra-infused handcuffs. She maneuvered around them and healed his broken knuckles. His hand was twice the size of hers. Throughout this she was quiet, professional.

Sasuke studied her. Her hair was tied in a tail low on the back of her neck and she wore the uniform he'd become used to seeing on her, expect this time she had a white lab coat over it. She carried the distinct scent of blood on her, but she wasn't stained. She moved smoothly, fluidly. Her jaw was set, her eyes cold.

Sakura pressed her lips together. She healed his broken leg and ankle silently. And then she was done, and stood up, looking down on him with green eyes. They had lost their coldness, their professionalism, and now looked like the eyes Sasuke had known. "I expected you to be a bit more broken than this, you know," she said softly. Her footsteps were loud as she moved to lean against the wall. Sasuke scowled. "I'm glad you weren't." She sighed. She gazed over him, healed and almost new, excepting the small cuts all over him and the gash in his forehead. "I half want to kill you." She looked at him as if she were seriously considering bring him to his maker.

This made Sasuke smirk. He didn't know whether to say good luck or do it.

"You know why?" Sakura wasn't talking to him. Or maybe she was—a version of him in her head, the version that she imagined coming back without all this fuss. "Because look at what you've done to this village—to my home. You've ruined us. We were going insane trying to bring you back. We died trying to bring you back. Naruto was beating himself senseless over not bringing you back. I cried over you." She said that last sentence sourly. She didn't like crying, didn't want to admit that she had done and sometimes still did it, didn't like feeling weak. "We're going to go crazy interrogating you. We're going to die rehabilitating you. But you know what? I half don't care. Because you're here, you're home, you're where you belong. Because you made me stronger and you brought this village together over a common enemy." She sighed, and in the back of her head, the words because I love you echoed.

"You talk too much."

A laugh bubbled out of Sakura's lips, humorless and dry. She readjusted herself on the wall, the cinder blocks digging into her shoulder blades. "I'm keeping you from a concussion." She paused. "What's your name?"

"Are you stupid?"

Sakura chuckled. "No, but you might soon be. What's your name?"

Sasuke tch'd. "Uchiha Sasuke."

"Date of birth?"

"July twenty-third."

Sakura pushed herself off the wall and bent to grab the clipboard she'd dropped. Sasuke begrudgingly noticed that the white lab coat made her small ass seem incredibly round. She pulled a pen from the clip of the clipboard and chewed on its end. "I'm going to ask you a few questions, for the medical records. We want to torture you, not kill you." She chucked at her own dry joke. "Answer them for me, neh?"

Sasuke did his best to shrug. He may hate all of this, but he wasn't getting out any time soon with those damned handcuffs tying him to a wall. He would very much like to not die while in here.

"Age?"

"You know how old I am."

Sakura frowned. "Just answer the question, Sasuke."

The "-kun" was noticeably missing. Sasuke scowled. "Twenty."

Sakura hadn't realized she was a year younger than Sasuke. All the records listed months and dates, never years. She'd always thought she was older than him. Sakura inwardly shrugged at herself. The scratch of the pen on paper was the only sound for a moment. "Any physical difficulties?"

Sasuke's face was humorless. "I'm tied to a wall."

A side of Sakura's mouth kicked up in a smile. "And when did these difficulties start?"

"Sakura."

"Oh have some fun, will you?" Sakura insisted, but she rolled her eyes and moved on with the questions. "Are you on any medication?"

Sasuke glared.

"No medication then," Sakura huffed. "What diseases run in the family?"

"Do your research."

Sakura huffed again. "Well then!" But she smiled, feeling incredibly lightheaded now that Sasuke was actually carrying a conversation with her. "Any allergies?"

"Peanuts."

Sakura pursed her lips. "Huh. I didn't know that." Sasuke did not seem like one to be allergic to peanut butter. "Play any sports?"

"I'm a ninja."

"No, you're a nukenin and a prisoner," Sakura reminded. That sick part of her jumped with glee at the glare in Sasuke's eyes. She checked off the "physically active" box anyway. "Drink alcohol, smoke tobacco, use drugs, or anything of the sort?"

"Closet alcoholic."

Sakura laughed. "When did you get a sense of humor?" She shook her head. "Seriously, though. Drink, smoke, get high?"

"Drinker."

"You aren't even old enough to drink!" Sakura protested.

"I'm old enough to kill, but I'm not old enough to drink?" Sasuke asked, a brow arched.

Sakura pouted. "Oh hush." Her pen scratched paper. "Virgin?"

Red crept up the pale expanse of his thick neck. "Why the fuck do you need to know?"

"I'm your doctor now, Sasuke," Sakura hummed.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and set his jaw. "No, I am not a virgin."

Surprise colored Sakura's face. "Oh? I always thought you had a pole up your ass."

"That was Naruto's philosophy."

"So you remember?" Sasuke stayed silent and Sakura almost grinned. "When's the last time you had sex? It's for the papers, not for me."

Sasuke thought back for a while. He'd been bored and there was a bar across the road. He'd made Suigetsu think it was his idea to go for a drink and a break. A girl with blonde-red hair had come to him, half-drunk, begging to be touched. Far be it from him to refuse her. All of this had been a few weeks before this, three weeks at the most.

"Three weeks."

Sakura felt her cheeks redden. She ignored it—and the jealous thump of her heart—in order to write it down in her shorthand: 3 wks. "Any STDs?"

"I'm clean."

Sakura rose a brow. "Says who?"

"We have doctors in the Sound, you know."

Sakura hesitated. "I'm having you tested anyway." She scribbled something down on the page. Then, from her white lab coat, she grabbed a vial and squeezed blood out of one of his cuts. "This'll be back in a week or so." She checked the next question on the list. "Um." Her cheeks turned even more red, her face burning. "Any, um, problems? With...that? Does it, like, stand up when it's supposed to?"

Sasuke surprised her. He chuckled. "Little Sasuke works just fine."

Sakura laughed. "Little Sasuke?"

"Would you prefer I say 'my penis'?"

"Little Sasuke is a fine name." Sakura smiled. Talking with Sasuke felt good. "That's it for now. I might be back later. For now I'm telling Shikamaru to keep you awake. He'll be here as soon as I'm gone." Sakura's green eyes turned to worry. "Please just tell him what he wants to know."

Sakura did not come back and Sasuke was left with an ever-bored ninja. Shikamaru had not changed from what Sasuke remembered, excepting the cigarette hanging from his lip and the height and muscle he had gained. They were silent and Sasuke was not bothered by it. It was a welcome release into his mind. He studied the dungeon around him, but didn't get very far because of the darkness. There were chains lining the wall he was tied to and a staircase right in front of him. Putting him in front of the stairs was a dumb thing to do; it gave him a clear view of his exit. And the second the chains that held him in place weakened, he would exit this place; exit and escape.

The silence dragged as he formulated his plan.

He was just calculating what he was going to do if there were ninja protecting the top of the staircase when Shikamaru opened his mouth and closed his fists.

Whatchu think? R&R!