Love is a chaotic crack in the armor.

-'

Late Wednesday evening, Sakura said good-bye to Ino and her parents and walked over to Lee's apartment.

"Sakura!" he said with a smile when he opened the door. Then he remembered the time. "Wait . . . what about your curfew?"

She grinned up at him as she unfastened her boots. "I ate dinner with Ino-chan--my parents think I'm sleeping over at her house."

Lee nodded. Sakura's grin faltered a little.

"Hey," she said, propping a hand on her hip as she stepped into the living room. "This is the part where you're supposed to chide me for lying to them."

"Ah," Lee said, answering her with a similar smile. "Yes."

Sakura glanced at the floor for a moment. Then she exhaled and looked back up, tilting her head. "Did the water all boil out yet?"

"Just about," he replied, moving toward the kitchen.
-

Lee completed his daily set of calisthenics while Sakura drained the leaves she'd been boiling and ground them up.

"I never realized how much I'm used to chakra until today," she said as she applied the paste to three acupuncture needles. "The fact that you can match people's jumps with muscle alone is even cooler now."

Lee finished the last set of push ups and wiped his forehead. Then he gave her a thumbs up. "It's because I believed in myself that the hard work was effective!"

Sakura nodded.

When she was done with the needles, she began writing out the scrolls for tomorrow. Lee helped her drape them around the floor and furniture so the ink could dry without running.
-

Sakura couldn't afford to lose any energy from sex, due to the surgery. Lee couldn't either, because if the drug wore off before he got word that the procedure was over, he would be fighting to keep the anbu member from returning to the village and potentially disrupting everything.

Even though he knew they both needed solid rest, Lee stayed awake long after Sakura had fallen asleep, spooned against him, and cradled her hands in his.
-

When the alarm went off Thursday morning, Sakura could already smell Lee cooking breakfast.

"Ooooh!" She clapped her hands when she saw that he'd cooked her favorite kind of dumplings. "You're spoiling me!"

"Not at all!" he retorted with a grin, ladling the food onto the plates.
-

They walked out of the apartment holding hands.

—

The five met an hour before dawn at Konoha's gates. Hinata informed Sakura that she had had to use an illusion to get out, but the other teenager told her it was okay; and then Naruto arrived, anbu trailing behind him.

Oukei shoved his mask up and gave them an amused look. "I've never heard of trying to have a five-way spar before," he said as they walked out. "Let alone in the dark."

"Well, we've all got things we have to do later," Sakura explained. "This was the only free time we could find."

"You're weird kids," Oukei replied.

That was the last time she spoke directly to him, until dawn was breaking over the trees and they had walked a few kilometers away from Konoha.

Sakura stopped abruptly, and a moment later Lee moved away from her. Naruto cut off the story he'd been telling Hinata.

"Oukei-san."

When he stepped up to the group, Sakura bowed slightly. "I wish someone else had drawn your duty for today, but please forgive us."

Oukei started to frown, and then Lee kicked him in the side of the head.

When he was thrown to his knees from the force of the blow, Sakura pulled one of the needles from her pouch and jammed it into his neck. He collapsed.

"Sakura-chan! Shit, you didn't kill him, did you?" Naruto darted forward and bent next Oukei.

She was staring down at the man. "That was too . . . he didn't have his guard up at all."

"He trusted us too much," Sasuke replied, letting his eyes slip back out of the sharingan. "An anbu should know better."

"Lay off," Naruto snapped at him. He looked back at Sakura. "He'll be okay, right?"

"Yeah," she said. "I didn't push it far enough in for even a momentary death. He'll be up in several hours."

After Sakura kissed Lee goodbye, he dragged Oukei off. Since Sakura had found an excuse to take Hinata to the room at the tower yesterday so she would have the coordinates, the four of them quickly made their way back toward Konoha until they were close enough to just teleport into it. Sasuke hooked an arm through Sakura's and took her with him so she wouldn't have to waste any chakra.

—

He and Sakura arrived in the room first. Sasuke unhooked his arm from hers and said, "If it goes wrong, you know Lee will come back."

"Let me pretend, Sasuke," she replied, and then Naruto poofed in.

When Hinata arrived, Sasuke pulled five ofuda out of his pack, cut his finger, and began writing on them.

Hinata gave Naruto a startled look. "I . . . thought you couldn't do precise jutsus anymore, Naruto-kun."

"Eheh." Naruto sat down on one of the beds. "It's kind of a long story."

Sasuke slapped one of the ofuda over the door and the frame, and pressed his hands together. "On . . . abokya beiroshanam," he chanted slowly as he recalled the words.

Sakura had recognized the small, handleless blade that Sasuke used to cut his fingers from the first time she had dealt with Soundnins. She pursed her lips and said nothing, though; and a moment later she raised both eyebrows and stared at the ofuda. "Where did you learn onmyoujutsu?"

"Tayuya came from a clan of onmyouji," Sasuke replied in a tone that told Sakura that explained everything, even though to her it explained nothing. Naruto shifted on the bed.

"I don't have that kind of spiritual power," he told her in a lower voice. "This won't stop it. It might slow it down, for a second."

"I can't fail, then," she said with a half-smile.

Sasuke used more ofuda to set up another barrier around the cot, sealing the four of them inside. Sakura collapsed the legs of the cot so it was on the floor, before arranging the scrolls she'd been carrying around it and telling Naruto to remove his jacket and pants. She sat on one side, while Hinata settled on the other. Sasuke stayed near the foot of the bed on Sakura's side.

Sakura folded her hands in her lap. "I'm really sorry, Naruto, but I don't know if this is going to hurt. But I can't give you any anesthesia, because you have to stay awake. If it gets even a chance to take over. . . ."

"Yeah," Naruto said. "I know. It's been. . . ." He gave her a thumbs up. "I won't let it take control. No matter what."

Sakura nodded once before staring down at her lap. She closed her eyes.

Almost half a minute ticked by while she stayed like that. Hinata eventually glanced over at Sasuke. He shifted to a more comfortable sitting position.

Sakura abruptly looked up. The she slammed a fist into her palm and grinned. "Hell yeah! Let's go!"

—

Sakura worked on the hardest part first, separating the fox demon's chakra from Naruto's in the area around his torso and hips. All Sasuke could see was the glow that the chakra gave above Naruto's skin, as Sakura made small motions with her fingers at the places Hinata pointed to; but that one area took almost the whole first hour, so he didn't let the easy appearance fool him.

By the second hour, Hinata was showing signs of a headache and the coils of the byakugan were straining further against her skin than they had at the beginning. She had taken a small yellow pill, drunk all the water in her canteen, and was currently nursing Naruto's. Sakura had been wiping sweat away from her forehead with her arm until Naruto tore up part of the bed's sheet and gave it to her.

By the third hour, Sasuke and Hinata knew something was wrong. Naruto had closed his eyes long ago to better concentrate, though, so they didn't say anything.

Sakura was so pale that her skin was starting to take on a greenish tint, and she had been swaying slightly until Sasuke braced a hand on her shoulder.

Hinata tried only once. "Sakura-chan?"

"Where's the next strand?" Sakura had replied.

"But. . . ."

"Can you point it out to me?"

Hinata directed her to the location; and after hesitating for a moment, she slipped her hand beneath Naruto's.

Sasuke made sure that Sakura was braced against the bed frame, before pulling four more ofuda out of his bag and silently setting up another barrier.

Another twenty minutes passed, and Hinata said encouragingly, "There's only about a dozen left."

Naruto, eyes still closed, grinned. Sakura tried to nod, and Sasuke caught her when she almost fell forward.

She made another small motion above the skin of Naruto's right index finger, and then whispered to Sasuke, "Don't let Lee do anything stupid."

"He won't have a reason to," he replied.

"Sasuke."

He tensed at the strain in her voice. ". . . Okay. I will."

"Thanks," she murmured, and moved to Naruto's ring finger.

Hinata made a small pained noise, and Sasuke looked over just in time to see Naruto loosen his grip on her hand. He was staring at Sakura with horrified blue eyes.

Sasuke propped her against the bed again, and quickly burned away both of the barriers.

When Hinata pointed to the first knuckle of Naruto's pinky and said, "This is the last one," Sasuke jerked his head toward the door and snapped "Go!"

Sakura made one last finger motion over the area, and then braced her hands on the bed. She was still for just long enough for Sasuke and Naruto to think everything would be okay; and then she started to pitch forward.

Sasuke grabbed her arm and pulled her backwards. She collapsed against his legs.

When Naruto started to sit up, Sasuke shoved him back down.

"She's--!" Naruto started to yell, but he froze as he watched Sasuke slash halfway up his own forearm.

"We're not done," Sasuke said, dropping the blade and smearing the blood on his fingertips.

He rapidly drew the lines of the new seal around the original one. Then he ran through the hand seals, focusing solely on remembering their order and not on the fact that he couldn't feel Sakura breathing. Then he coated his palm with blood before pressing it directly over the nine-tailed fox demon's seal.

Enraged, the fox lashed out in the only way it could. Sasuke clenched his jaw as chakra began burning his hand.

Fuck you, he replied. I'm an Uchiha, I'm used to fire. You have to be cold if you want to hurt me.

He held his hand there, forcing himself to endure the pain. But after three seconds, strangely, the burning lessened slightly. Sasuke felt a wisp of something cooler, soothing, a chakra that was opposite that of the fox demon's.

Before he had the time to wonder what it was, the last of the blood on his palm had connected with the lines, forming a net and forcing the fox demon back. Sasuke ripped his hand away with a pained hiss.

Naruto shoved himself up. "Hinata!"

He jerked his head over to see her still standing beside the door, shaking. "S-sasuke-kun!"

He'd forgotten to take off the last barrier. Sasuke stumbled onto his feet and skidded to the door. "On kira . . . kirika--shit!"

They couldn't just break the door, and he could see the bloodstains from where Hinata had torn her fingernails trying to scrape the ofuda off . . . all he'd done was lock them--

"On kirikyara harara futaranbaswoha!" Sasuke yelled, slamming his palm over the paper. The ofuda burned away, and he threw the door open before tearing into the hallway.

——

Tsunade was mentally cursing the paperwork that had piled up during the meetings with the Lord of Fire country, when the door to her office slammed open and an anbu burst in.

"Hokage-sama! Uchiha is--"

He had to stop then, to duck the warning shurikan that Sasuke threw at his shoulder. The anbu member drew his sword and slid in front of Tsunade.

She stood up. "What are you--!"

"Sakura is dying," Sasuke snapped, barely looking at her with his sharingan eyes. "Come."

He turned and ran out.

What the hell, Tsunade thought, noticing his bleeding arm--but she followed.

She entered the hallway just in time to see Sasuke ducking beneath another anbu's attack as he kicked the man's legs out from beneath him.

"Stop!" Tsunade yelled when the man aimed several shurikan at Sasuke's retreating back. "Call everyone off! Clear the hall!"

When she reached the second floor, Hinata was in the hallway, surrounded by three anbu members.

"Hokage-sama!" she called, trying to move away from them. She pointed at the small medical room to the side. "Saku . . . Sakura-chan. . . ."

Tsunade slid into the room with remarkable skill considering she wore heels. She barely noticed Sasuke half-collapsed against a cabinet, because Naruto was giving Sakura CPR.

"Help her!" he yelled, shoving her body at Tsunade.

The woman took one look at Sakura before barking for the anbu to fetch Shizune.

—

For almost two minutes, Tsunade thought it was hopeless.

Sakura had just enough energy left in her body that it was possible for Tsunade to feed it with her own chakra long enough to get past the crisis point--but she couldn't do it when she was also trying to keep Sakura's lungs moving and understand what had happened at the same time.

The anbu brought Shizune in enough time, however. The younger woman immediately recognized the signs of chakra exhaustion, and set up a respirator and several scrolls to amplify Tsunade's work.

That would have freed Tsunade of enough strain to question Sasuke and Naruto, but the anbu had moved them into the hallway with Hinata by that point.

Naruto had redressed once Tsunade arrived, and she had been too focused on Sakura to recognize the changes made to the Fourth's seal.

——

Within seventeen minutes, Sakura was breathing on her own, and she was transferred to the better-equipped hospital.

Naruto, Hinata, and Naruto were taken over there as well, and one of the nurses put salve on Sasuke's hand before bandaging it and his arm. They sent a notice to the Hyuuga compound for one of the family medicnins to come and treat Hinata, but so far there had been no reply.

Sasuke had disappeared for two and a half minutes, and had sent four snakes out to find Lee, before joining Hinata and Naruto outside of the room Sakura was in. One of the doctors had tried to make them move out of the hallway, but Naruto had snarled at him. The man didn't recognize that the sound was only an imitation, and everyone proceeded to give him and Hinata a wide berth.

Naruto was slouched against the wall beside the door. Hinata was sitting on the ground beside him, resting her temple against the metal leg of a gurney. Sasuke started to sit down across from them, but he had barely bent his knees when Naruto grabbed his collar and slammed him against the wall.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he yelled. "You said it was safe!"

"We said it was dangerous," Sasuke replied, glaring at him. "That's why we made her stay here in the first place."

"You were watching!" Naruto slammed him against the wall again. "Why didn't you make her quit in the middle, dammit? She could have DIED!"

The gurney rattled as Hinata pulled herself onto her feet. "Naruto-kun, please . . . please, stop. There was no way to quit. She told us. . . ."

Naruto turned his head enough to see her. "The hell there wasn't! She should have stopped and rested for a day!"

Sasuke knocked Naruto's hand away with his good forearm. "And then the massively enraged fox demon would have taken over the second you stopped concentrating on holding it back and killed everyone. Do you have any idea how much she was counting on you to keep it in control, idiot?"

"Bullshit," Naruto replied, glaring at him. "If that were true, it could have killed you guys in there if I'd slipped."

Sasuke didn't reply. He stared over the blond's shoulder at the door.

After several long moments, punctuated by the unnatural silence in the hallway, Naruto took a step back. He looked at Hinata again.

She was leaning heavily against the gurney and the wall, but she managed to give him a small smile. "She warned us beforehand, what could happen if . . . that's why we had so much trouble convincing her to do the surgery here, close to the hospital."

"You guys. . . ." Naruto turned back to Sasuke. "You. . . . Why? She and Lee . . . and you, you had Itachi to--"

Sasuke punched him in the jaw.

That was a bad idea, he reflected a moment later, as he cradled his bandaged hand to his chest.

"Stop asking stupid questions," he muttered, still refusing to look at the expression in Naruto's eyes.

—

When Lee arrived, the three of them were sitting silently in the hallway. Naruto had dragged two benches over from another hall, and he and Sasuke were sitting on one while Hinata lay on the other.

Tsunade had left the room long enough to tell them that Sakura was unconscious, that whether she had suffered any permanent damage from chakra exhaustion and not breathing would be revealed once she woke up, and that they were to refrain from speaking about anything from that morning in loud voices in public. Then she called for an IV and closed the door again. She wouldn't let them see Sakura.

Several people had been given orders to find Lee once his part was learned, but one of the snakes reached him first.

The security on the floor let Lee through once he handed the still-unconscious Oukei over to a medicnin. He strode awkwardly up to the three of them, favoring his left leg.

"She's okay," Naruto told him before Lee could even ask. "I mean, Tsunade's acting like she's gonna be okay. She said there could be problems, though, but we won't know 'til she wakes up. . . ."

Lee nodded and touched the door. "Can I see her?"

Naruto shook his head. "She hasn't let any of us in."

Lee let his hand fall. Then he sat down on the floor next to Hinata's bench, beside the door.

"Come here," Sasuke said harshly. Lee gave him a confused look, but then his leg jerked.

"Oh!" Lee said, before pushing down his leg warmer enough for a blacksnake to slide out. He started to hand it to Sasuke, but it moved away from his touch and slithered up to the hand Sasuke set near the floor. It tried to curl around his arm, but Sasuke braced his other hand against his elbow, blocking it.

"I didn't tell you to slow him down," he said flatly, lifting his arm.

The blacksnake draped itself heavily over his wrist and bit at the skin above his elbow. "It's cold," it replied. "And you made us go through this damn village first before even getting to the forest--people kept trying to step on me!"

"Things are different here," Sasuke said.

"But I still brought him back," it finished, in a tone that indicated it had done him a huge favor. The snake pushed its head through the space between his bandaged thumb and index finger and slid partly through, before resting its head on his upper arm. Sasuke grit his teeth to keep from wincing. Naruto made a faint growling sound. "And I want hares," the blacksnake informed him. "Five of them. Hispid hares."

"There aren't any of those in this country," Sasuke told it.

The blacksnake casually wound its tail around his wrist. "Then think of something, genius."

Asshole, Sasuke thought at it. "Where are the others?"

"They went back when I found him."

"Fine." Sasuke attempted to extract his bandaged hand from the snake's grip. "That's all. Thank you, Martel-san."

The snake disappeared. Sasuke wiped away the blood from its bite with his wrist.

"Thank you for that, Sasuke-kun," Lee said after a brief silence.

The other teenager shrugged and didn't look up. "I was already bleeding."

—

Soon after Lee arrived, Tsunade called them all into the room.

She stopped Naruto when he was just barely over the threshold, and pressed her fingers to the scars on his cheek. Then she picked up his hand and examined his nails.

Then she stared. Naruto smiled uncomfortably.

"Shizune," she said, dropping his hand. "Go stand guard. I don't want anyone but you even near this hall."

The younger woman nodded quickly and left, shutting the door behind her.

Tsunade looked at the four of them, carefully guarding her expression. "What the hell did you do?"

—

The first thing Sasuke did was exonerate Sakura and Naruto from the blame of performing something so dangerous in the middle of the village. When Hinata realized that he was wording his statements to make it look like he was at fault, she spoke up enough to state that she had also encouraged Sakura to stay in Konoha, and Lee said that he was the one who had told the two of them about the plan in the first place, so they would help him to convince her to remain. All three admitted that while Sakura had warned them of the extreme danger, she'd made them swear to keep it a secret from Naruto so that he would agree to the procedure in the first place. He hadn't known about the risk at all.

Then Tsunade said fine, she got the point, would they please move on.

When they were done explaining everything they knew, Tsunade examined Naruto's torso. The blood had already dried and seeped in, and the color had shifted to a tan that wasn't much darker than his skin. Tsunade stared at it for several moments, and then had Sasuke unwrap his hand.

She recognized the pattern of the chakra burn on his palm and fingers immediately, having seen it once before on the fourth Hokage's corpse. But there, the man had been burned on both hands, and it had been almost up to his shoulders rather than just to the base of his thumb.

"I removed all the information that matched what she was taking weeks ago," Tsunade said quietly, looking at Sasuke's palm rather than his face. "I'm not going to ask where you got the scroll Hinata mentioned. But I want it in my office before tomorrow. That's a dangerous thing to keep in public."

"Yes," he replied tonelessly. When Naruto started to say something, Sasuke shook his head once, sharply.

She straightened. "I'm not going to lecture you on how stupid and dangerous what you did is, because you all obviously know. Do not say a word about this to anyone else. In fact, I want all of you to remain in your homes until I find a way to explain what happened that won't cause riots. Don't leave unless you have to buy food. And Naruto, you head to the tower. I want you to spend the rest of the day and tonight with me, just in case."

They all nodded silently.

After that, Tsunade wrapped Sasuke's hand with fresh bandages and told them all to leave.

"Please let me stay, Hokage-sama," Lee replied.

He hadn't moved from the spot he had been in when he first entered the room: standing beside Sakura's bed and touching her fingers below the needle of the IV.

Tsunade studied him for a moment, and finally snorted. "I'm sure the anbu are going to want to know how you managed to take down one of their members. They'll be here for another twenty minutes."

Lee nodded. Tsunade waved at the rest of them. "You, go. Now."

—

When the door was closed behind them, Hinata gave Sasuke a worried look. "I'm sorry . . . Sakura-chan mentioned it to me, so I thought . . . I didn't mean to say anything that would cause you trouble."

Sasuke shrugged a shoulder faintly. "You didn't know."

Naruto walked past him, turning to the left and heading for the back stairs instead of the waiting room. Shizune had cordoned off the entire hallway, not even posting anbu members at the ends. They had to jump over a few tripwires that were only visible to those leaving rather than entering.

As Naruto pushed a gurney that was blocking the way against the wall, he glanced back at Sakura's door.

"I'm not gonna let her down," he said quietly.

"What?" Sasuke asked, taking the opportunity to change the subject.

Naruto didn't reply immediately. Once they got to the stairs, though, he said, "I don't want to be Hokage anymore just to make people acknowledge my existence." He pushed open the door. "Hell, they're already doing that."

Sasuke glanced over. Naruto was almost smiling.

"And I don't really want to be Hokage to protect the village," he added, as the door closed behind them. He started down the stairs. "I don't really like half the people here anymore. They break my stuff, they harass Sakura-chan and Lee . . . Iruka-sensei gets all the troublemakers in his classes. Some people are even assholes to Kakashi-sensei, just because you were his favorite." He looked at Sasuke. "Did you know that first week you came back, someone tore up the garden at your foster parents' house?"

Sasuke had been carefully keeping step with Naruto, while Hinata trailed behind them, but he faltered at that. "What?"

"They got caught, and Tsunade kept them in jail for two days before even letting them talk to anyone . . . but. I don't really care about protecting them or whether they give a damn about me being alive or not."

Sasuke was beginning to curse the fact that Naruto was walking on his right side, so the only way he could draw a weapon would be with his bad hand.

Hinata was biting her lip. She started to reach out, but then drew her hand back. But when they reached a landing, she reached out and touched Naruto's wrist.

He didn't acknowledge the action for a moment; but when he took the next step off the landing, he reached back and took her hand in his own.

"I still will," Naruto said. "Even if I don't care, if anyone died, it might work back so that one of my precious people gets hurt by it. So I will. But, I told Sakura-chan, I'm gonna be Hokage so I can change things."

He squeezed Hinata's hand. "There's too much . . . it's fucked up. The Hyuuga branch house, the way we treat people who flunk out of the Academy or who don't want to join, all this clan-ranking bloodline crap, the way. . . . It's not right." He shoved open the door to the first floor. "I don't want to live anywhere but here, but there's stuff that needs to be fixed."

Sasuke chose his answer with more care than his slighting tone implied. "You can't build a utopia out of a ninja village."

"I'm gonna try," Naruto snapped. "I made promises, dammit."

It's definitely him, Sasuke decided.

He slid his good hand in his pocket. ". . . If it happens, it'll have to be you that does it. No one else would be stupid enough to dare."

Naruto didn't reply to that, but he did almost smile.

—

When they got outside, Hinata jerked her hand out of Naruto's a moment before he and Sasuke noticed Neji standing a little down the path.

(After allowing an hour to pass, Hiashi had given orders to one of the clan medicnins and an uncle to bring his daughter back; but when they learned that she was still in Naruto's company, they returned and the only other Hyuuga that Naruto could still tolerate was sent instead.) The hallway had been shut off by the time he got there, and Neji had found the silence and rumors that were starting to spread annoying enough to keep him outside.

He handed Hinata two small yellow pills and a canteen, which she accepted gratefully.

"Take them both," he said. "Hiashi-sama wants to speak with you as soon as you're home."

She nodded before taking a sip of water.

"Hey, hey, she's gonna be okay, right?" Naruto asked. "Don't let them yell at her."

"It's not a--" and then Neji finally noticed that Naruto looked normal but didn't have the faint trace of chakra that an illusion gave off. He turned and looked at him directly. A moment later, he activated the byakugan.

And then he gaped.

Naruto gave him a half-wave. "Yo."

Neji kept staring. Sasuke memorized the look on his face, because he doubted he would see anything like it again.

After half a minute passed, Naruto finally folded his arms protectively over his stomach and said, "Quit staring at my insides already, it's creepy."

Neji deactivated the byakugan and managed to regain his normal expression. He glanced at Hinata. She smiled faintly.

Finally, because he couldn't decide on which response he wanted to give, Neji just turned around and begin walking away. "We're late," he called back to Hinata.

She nodded and said goodbye to both of them, before catching up to his side. Neji belatedly braced a hand on her upper arm to help her walk steady.

Naruto and Sasuke lingered around the hospital for several more minutes, until an anbu came out and escorted Naruto to the tower.

——

Tsunade send Konoha's second fastest messenger bird looking for Jiraiya, with a note that he needed to get his ass back to Konoha before nightfall, if it was possible.

That was all she wrote, but she drew a little spiral in the bottom corner of the page.

——

Early that evening, Shizune arrived at Sasuke's apartment. She redid his bandages, gave him some salve so that he could take care of the burns on his own, and mentioned that he should have something for her to take back to the Hokage.

Sasuke dug the Fourth's scroll out from the hidden spot in the bathroom, briefly debated putting the highest seal he knew on it to be an ass, rejected the idea due to his hand, and gave it to her. Shizune didn't look at it as she tucked it inside the pack she was carrying.

"Do you have enough food for the next day or two?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. She nodded and left.

—

Night came, went, became the next day, and Kakashi stopped by to inform him that Sakura hadn't woken up yet. Sasuke cleaned the apartment, reorganized anything that was capable of being reorganized, and then practiced calisthenics until he was so tired that he fell asleep on the floor.

The day after that, Kakashi stopped by again and commented that he would loan Sasuke a futon if he needed it, before informing him that he and the others were allowed outside again--but unless Sasuke preferred to be mobbed by people with dozens of questions, he might want to stay in anyway. And Sakura still wasn't awake.

Sasuke chose to stay inside.

He made dinner in the early afternoon and took it over to Lee's, tearing across the roofs as quickly as he could. It made him more conspicuous, but it prevented anyone from talking to him.

Naruto was already there. The other teenager had bags under his eyes, but shrugged it off when Sasuke mentioned them, so he left the subject alone. Lee--who'd gone out as soon as he heard the news, visited the hospital, and then exercised until Gai had to drag him home nearly unconscious--told them the full story as he had heard it.

Apparently Tsunade had kept as closely to the facts as she could, with only a few small alterations: Sasuke had not touched the seal at all, and Naruto's chakra had not been as extensively intertwined with the fox demon's, and Sakura had done this with Tsunade's permission. She couldn't add "supervision," since the anbu who had been in the vicinity would know that was a lie.

Tsunade would have had a lot more trouble if Oukei hadn't said that he had been sparring with Lee and lost the long fight. (Quite a few of the anbu knew that Lee didn't use needles as a weapon and Sakura did, but he wouldn't change his story.) Shizune was the one who treated him for the drug Sakura had used, and there was no worry about her telling anyone.

"But," Naruto said, toying with his chopsticks instead of eating, "how'd that work? Any of the Hyuugas could see how bad it was, not just Neji and Hinata."

"It wouldn't do for everyone to find out that the former clan heir did something that dangerous to the village," Sasuke replied, "since it bordered on treasonous. I'm sure the Hokage mentioned that to Hiashi."

Lee made a motion that would have been a nod if he weren't still lying on the couch. "That would be logical."

Naruto continued rubbing the chopsticks together absently.

—

Less than half an hour after Sasuke arrived, Tenten dropped by. She had also brought dinner for Lee, and she told him that neither she nor Gai had heard from Neji. She tried to hide the fact that she was staring at Naruto from the corner of her eye as she spoke.

The Hyuuga compound had apparently closed itself off to outsiders, because as soon as Kiba and Shino heard the news, they tried to go see Hinata; and when they were turned aside at the gate, they also made their way to Lee's apartment. Tenten had left by then, but Ino and Shikamaru had just arrived and were taking advantage of the extra food.

Ino had shown up as Tenten was leaving. Sasuke guessed from the loud (mostly one-sided) argument she was having with Shikamaru that they had already come by several times, but Lee had still been out.

Sasuke had opened the door when she banged on it, since Lee's left knee popped whenever he moved too much. Ino had taken two steps into the apartment, demanding to know what nonsense was spreading all over the village; and then she saw Naruto.

"Oh shit," Ino said quietly, an arm reflexively lifting toward her heart before she stopped it. "It's true, isn't it? They wouldn't let me in at the hospital."

Naruto nodded.

They had to explain everything in vague comments, and then had to start over when Kiba and Shino arrived, and by the time Gai appeared (also bearing food) and chased everyone out, Sasuke had been planning his escape anyway.

"It's like I'm on display or something," Naruto muttered beside him as they took the long route along the walls to their respective apartments.

Sasuke made a wordless noise of agreement, and Naruto looked back over his shoulder. "Are you sure it's okay to leave him alone? I mean, he can get . . . kinda nuts."

Sasuke nodded. "Gai's there. And he won't try to commit suicide until after Sakura's death is confirmed. As long as she's still okay. . . . Besides, the Hokage wouldn't inform him before us. We'll know to stop him."

Sasuke suspected that Iruka and Gai would be the first ones told, and Iruka would contact him and Kakashi for help in handling Naruto while Gai dealt with Lee, but he didn't mention that.

Naruto stared at him. "You really think. . . ?" He clenched his hands into fists. ". . . Yeah. He would, I bet. Shit!"

"Keep your voice down," Sasuke said, looking up at the window of a nearby building. "I'm sick of people asking questions for tonight."

Naruto didn't reply.

He didn't speak for a long time; and when they were only a few streets from the blond's apartment, Sasuke was beginning to think he should say something before leaving.

"Hey," Naruto said suddenly, interrupting Sasuke's thoughts.

"What?" he asked when the other teenager didn't continue.

"You . . . you hate feeling indebted and stuff. Did you agree because you thought you owed me? Because I said back then, about training to find you. . . ?"

"Yes," Sasuke said.

Naruto nodded once.

They crossed onto another street, finally pulling away from the walls, and Sasuke slid his good hand into his pocket and began tapping his fingers against his leg.

When they turned onto the block that Naruto's apartment building was on, Sasuke clenched his hand into a fist before stopping. Naruto paused beside him.

"It wasn't just that," Sasuke said abruptly, glaring across the road.

"Yeah," Naruto replied, "I know."

Sasuke let his fist relax. Then he snorted and began walking again. Naruto kept pace.

". . . doesn't make you less of a jerk," the blond said a moment later.

"Doesn't make you less of an idiot," Sasuke replied.

Naruto grumbled a retort under his breath, but he let the subject drop.

—

The next morning, about an hour after dawn, Naruto showed up bashing on his door.

"Damn it," Sasuke swore as he opened the door, "I told you--"

"She's up!"

He blinked. "What? Who said that?"

"No one, I just can tell." He grabbed Sasuke's collar and tried to drag him out of the room. "C'mon, we gotta get Lee!"

"I need pants, idiot."

Lee was already gone from his apartment, so they tore off for the hospital. Sasuke noticed with a frown that Naruto was using way too much chakra just to run over the roofs, but didn't bring it up.

At the hospital, one of the nurses yelled at them for running through the halls.

"Come on!" Naruto argued with the woman who was trying to stop them from getting into Sakura's room. "We just want to talk to her!"

"Visiting hours start at ten," she replied irritably. "You can come see if she's awake then."

Naruto made a frustrated noise and shoved his way under her arm. He darted for the door, and Sasuke slipped past on the other side while the woman was trying to grab Naruto's jacket.

"Hey, Sakura-chan!" he called, pulling the door open.

Sakura had been staring at the vase of flowers on the stand, but she started and looked over at Naruto and Sasuke with that. Behind them, the woman froze.

"Oh!" she whispered, before turning and striding down the hallway. "Haruno-san's awake!" she called to the nurses' station. "Send someone to the Hokage!"

Sasuke pulled the door shut behind him. As an afterthought, he locked it.

Naruto was already by the bed. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Sakura said. "Yeah, I'm fine. Hi, guys."

Naruto exhaled heavily, and slumped down to the floor. "You scared the crap out of me," he said, looking up at her.

Sakura paused. "You're not mad at me? For not. . . ?"

Naruto shook his head.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "So you already took it out on Sasuke?"

"No," Sasuke replied, at the same time that Naruto sheepishly admitted "Yes."

Sakura stared at them for a moment, before she began laughing. She pulled her knees up and folded her arms on them. "Okay," she said, shaking her head.

Then her grin faded, and she asked, "How much trouble are we in?"

"Tsunade confiscated that scroll Sasuke brought you," Naruto said, standing up again.

Sakura's eyes widened, and she looked over at him. Sasuke shrugged. "No one's said anything yet. I hid the rest."

They told her the official explanation Tsunade had put out--Sakura snorted when she heard that she'd had permission--including their suspicions of how the Hyuugas were going to be kept quiet. When Sakura asked if Naruto was supposed to never take his shirt off for the rest of his life, he showed how the secondary seal wasn't all that visible over the original, especially from a distance.

"Cool," Sakura said. "I don't know how many people are going to believe it, but I guess as long as they don't know the truth. . . ."

"The Hyuuga clan has blackmail over all us, now," Sasuke muttered, leaning against the wall. "She could have thought of something better. Isn't age supposed to bring wisdom?"

Naruto snickered as he shrugged back into his jacket. Sakura covered her mouth.

A moment later, she shrugged a shoulder. "It could be worse."

Sasuke nodded. A brief silence fell.

"We were gonna bring Lee," Naruto said, "but he was already gone when we got to the apartment."

Sakura hesitated for a second before waving her hand. "Let me guess--he's out trying to work himself to death. 'If I run around the top of the walls of Konoha two hundred times, Sakura will be okay!'"

"It's probably five hundred," Naruto said with a grin. "He was pretty exhausted when we saw him last night."

Sakura made an exasperated noise. "And Ino-chan's pissed at me, isn't she?"

"Huh?"

Sakura pointed a thumb at the vase. "That is the ugliest flower arrangement ever made. I don't think it could be worse unless she'd thrown weeds in there."

Naruto gave the vase a curious look. "It looks fine to me," he said.

"She dyed the chrysanthemums blue!"

". . . I like blue?"

Sakura gave up and shook her head. "This is why you guys didn't have to learn all this stuff."

The door jerked, then rattled once. Then there was a pause.

"Oi," Tsunade said, and that was sufficient.

Naruto let her in.

—

Tsunade made them stand to the side while she ran several tests on Sakura's reflexes and memory. Sakura answered all her questions easily enough, but when Tsunade asked her to create enough chakra for a simple illusion, Sakura winced painfully.

"Don't try to force it," Tsunade said, pushing the teenager's hands apart.

The room was quiet enough for the thin hum of chakra to be heard as Tsunade examined Sakura further. Sasuke leaned against the wall, watching, while Naruto fiddled with the curtains.

"It doesn't feel permanent," Tsunade finally said. "You just strained yourself badly. In a week, two, you should be able to do most jutsus. You really were born on a lucky day, you know that?" she added.

Sakura nodded.

"I assume they filled you in on the last few days?" When Sakura nodded again, Tsunade took a step back. "Good. You have to stay in here for at least another day, so they can make sure you're stabilized. I'll speak to you afterward."

"Yes, Tsunade-sensei," Sakura said, carefully, as though she weren't sure that was the term she could use anymore. She folded her hands and pressed her thumbs together.

Tsunade gave her another glance, before studying the whole team. Sasuke was looking out one of the windows, and Naruto was staring at her, and Sakura was gazing at the blanket.

Tsunade shook her head and settled her hands on her hips. "Hell," she said vehemently. "You guys are the most trouble. . . ."

"Please don't run!" one of the nurses called outside.

A moment later, Lee skidded past the door, barely managing to catch the frame and shove himself back toward the entrance. He leaned heavily against the frame, staring at Sakura. She stared back.

After a moment, Sakura put on a smile. "Hey, don't wear yourself out! You didn't have to run. . . ." She paused, and then gave him a victory sign. "I promised you, didn't I?"

Lee nodded, and his grin almost hid the tears that were starting to form. "Yeah!" he said, giving her a thumbs up in return. "I'll always believe it."

Sakura's smile faltered, and she bit her lip. When her shoulders started shaking, she covered her face with her hands.

Lee sat down on the bed and hugged her tightly. Sakura gripped his shoulders and hid her face in them, sobbing.

He rocked slightly, stroking her hair and kissing it and anything else he could reach. "Sakura," Lee kept murmuring. "I was so . . . Sakura."

She just tried to pull him closer.

Sasuke stood up and walked out of the room. Naruto and Tsunade followed him a second later, and she pulled the door shut behind them. Tsunade leaned heavily against the frame for a moment.

"Fifteen," she finally murmured, before straightening up. She looked over at Naruto and Sasuke. "You guys . . . just go home." She waved them away. "Go do what you want. Don't start any fights."

She turned away and headed toward the exit.

Naruto briefly watched Tsunade depart before turning back to stare at the door to Sakura's room. "I've never seen her cry," he said quietly. "Not since you. . . ."

Sasuke nodded once.

Another minute passed, while they stood outside the door.

When it became obvious that Lee wasn't leaving, Sasuke looked over at Naruto. "Do you want to leave a message for Hinata before getting breakfast?"

"Yeah," he said, nodding once. "That's . . . yeah. Okay."

They left quietly.
-

Through the cracks we breathe.

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