"What's wrong? Are you to chicken to hurt your girl?" the Jounin sniggered at Sasuke.

               Sasuke glared at the Jounin, which made him step back a little, but didn't say anything. Sasuke knew that what he had to do was attack the Jounin, but every time he made a move for him Sakura would dart in front of him and make some sort of attack to prevent it. The battle was hopeless unless he could attack her.
 

              "I'm not supposed to have any emotions during battles," were Sasuke's thoughts. "But then am I supposed to hurt my teammate?" He suddenly despised Kakashi for putting Sakura and him in a team. It would have been a lot easier if his partner was someone else.
 

              It was that second. He jumped to get away from a shuriken that Sakura threw. Now Sakura was to the right of him, and the Jounin was straight ahead. "I can make it!" he said to himself. He ran forward, kunai in hand, ready to defeat the Jounin and restore Sakura to her normal state.
 

              A shadow appeared in front of him that second and pushed him back, onto the ground. All he could see was a pink curtain, then from behind he saw clenched teeth, and emerald green eyes. But the eyes didn't look angry, the eyes sparkled a little, and he could see a tear form and roll down the cheek of the face. Sakura raised her kunai with one hand, holding down Sasuke's undamaged arm to prevent him from attacking (although he wouldn't have anyway) with the other hand, and was prepared to swing down her arm to kill him with the kunai.
 

              Sasuke saw her eyes, and saw how much they were trying to resist what was being done to them. She was crying, tears were falling down one by one onto Sasuke's face. This was the end, she slowly started to lower the kunai. . .

               "What?" the Jounin exclaimed. Sakura's hand was hovering in midair. Sasuke peered at the Jounin, who was damp with sweat and whose arms were held out in the same position as before but not moving. "What's wrong with my Jutsu? Why isn't she moving?" he exclaimed frantically moving the rest of his body around.
 

              Sakura was frozen for another ten seconds, and then collapsed. Sasuke caught her and glared at the Jounin. His jutsu was broken. "Aaagh!" he screamed as he scrambled onto his feet and tried to escape. "Take this for trying to hurt her," Sasuke cried as he threw a kunai at the Jounin. It hit him, and the Jounin collapsed. It was the Sasuke-Sakura team victory.

               Sasuke made a sigh out of both relief and fatigue as he carried Sakura back to the building. He kept on having a flashback of her eyes when she was resisting the Jounin. "Maybe I still have a chance," he said to himself.

              "Who am I kidding," he sniggered as he looked up towards the moon that was shining fully in the night sky.

 

*               *               *

 

              Sakura woke up in her room with Asahi by the foot of her bed.

              "Sakura, are you all right? When I heard you were unconscious I came right away!" Asahi exclaimed as he squeezed her hand.

              "Y, yes, I'm fine," Sakura assured him, desperately trying to remember what was happening. She noticed that flashbacks of what had happened only came in pieces; she remembered Sasuke's struggling face, and her screaming in her head, "stop, don't hurt him!"
 

              "Sakura, you were asleep for five days," Asahi began.
 

              "Five days!?" shouted Sakura. "But wait, that means that the wedding is. . ."
 

              "The day after tomorrow," Asahi concluded. "If you really don't feel ready we can postpone it. . ."
 

              "No!" she but in. She felt that if she made it any later now than she would make the same mistake she made when she was a girl: fall for Sasuke all over again. "It's fine. J, just let me rest for the next day and I'll be up to it."
 

              Asahi was silent. "Sakura, I didn't really want to give this to you, but Sasuke insisted. I think it's a note." He said as he handed her an envelope.
 Sakura's heart leaped as she stared at it. It was sealed with red wax shaped into an uchiwa (fan), the symbol of the Uchiha clan. "Asahi san," she stuttered as he paced the room. "Would you mind leaving me alone for a while? I promise I'll contact you some time before the wedding." It felt kind of strange talking to her fiance, whom she was marrying in only a few days in this manner, but Asahi agreed and left.
 

              She opened the letter and took out a waxy paper with a message on it. This is what it said:

 

 

-TO BE CONCLUDED-