Sakura woke to the sound of running water. It was not unpleasant, but as a ninja any unfamiliar noise upon waking suggested something very bad indeed. Her eyes had to adjust to the darkness of the area, so her first guess was that night had fallen. Then she realised the only source of light came not from stars, but from a smallish barred window to her left. She was captured.

Eyes fixed on the window, she sat up groggily and began to crawl toward it. The back of her head felt like somebody had split it open and it was only just beginning to heal over. Her mouth was dry and tasted like blood. She reached the wall and pulled herself up onto shaky legs. Grabbing the bars of the window for support, she peered out at an empty corridor. The whole place was made of the same stone, roughly-hewn into a living-space. A cave then, she thought to herself, trying to see further down either way. Straining her eyes in the gloom so much that they hurt, she nearly jumped and hit her head again when her ears picked up a low groan behind her. Spinning around, fists raised defensively, she prepared for whatever horror had been placed in there with her. As it turned out, the only horror she had to prepare for was her ex-sensei.

He looked horrible, and Sakura knew why. Her seal had broken the second he had been captured and moved. The green ring was gone and now whatever poison was left would be spreading back into his body. Stumbling toward him, Sakura fell to her knees and placed a pair of glowing green hands on his chest. The damage was still reversible, though if he kept being moved it would take forever to heal.

"Hi Sensei," she said softly as his eyelids fluttered open. He stared at her in bleary-eyed confusion for a second before remembering what had happened. He had been poisoned. She had healed him for the most part. They had caught her. They had caught him. He wasn't sure about Naruto and Sai.

"What's the damage?" he asked her as her attention returned to his chest. His voice was hoarse and he would have killed for a sip of the water he could hear nearby.

"Well my seal broke before I could get back to you, so you've still got a bit of poison in your system. Nothing I can't handle, but if I hadn't been captured too, you'd be a goner." Even as Sakura said it she realised it was true. That was probably why they had captured her; to keep Kakashi alive. "Why didn't they kill you?" she asked brusquely.

Kakashi coughed quietly, and Sakura blushed. "Not that I'm not happy they didn't, it's just that you were totally vulnerable out there, and they could have ended it easily. Why go to the trouble of capturing you?"

"Well, because I was so 'vulnerable', it was pretty easy to get me alive, and my bounty's more valuable like that." He was so manner-of-fact. Didn't the idea of being kept alive now to be killed slowly later scare him?

"I'm sorry you had to save me again," Sakura said quietly, unable to look at him. "I should've been able to dodge that attack, but instead I just got you in trouble." She felt like a fool for thinking she would suddenly become super-ninja after turning eighteen.

"That's okay. You're the medic; we're supposed to go out of our way to protect you." He wasn't sure why he had worded that so clinically. He certainly hadn't been thinking 'protect the medic' when he'd seen the blades heading toward her.

Sakura was saved the trouble of responding to this cold statement by the sound of approaching footsteps. "What'll happen?" she whispered, trying not to sound as scared as she felt. She had never been captured like this before.

"They'll take good care of you because you're a medic." Kakashi could see the panic in the girl's eyes, and tried to keep her focused. "Stop healing me for now. They're probably coming to get you to heal one of their comrades. I know you don't want to, not after they just fought us. But it's better if you co-operate for now. All you have to do is stop the short-term problems and make them look better. Tell them there's nothing you can do for the pain." Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief at her nervous smile. Even when the windowed-wall crumbled away to reveal the earth-user with a leering grin, Sakura didn't falter. She allowed herself to be escorted away, only once looking back at her teammate with a warning look that clearly said 'don't move until I get back'.

The pink-haired girl was led down the dim corridor to a better-lit room where the other shinobi were waiting. Most of them looked like hell; Wind-nin had a deep gash on one arm from the talons of Sai's eagle. The taijutsu giant was covered in minor cuts and bruises, and was having trouble walking. But the worst-looking of the group was the lanky one with the water chakra. There was a gaping wound in his chest that was distinctly rasengan-shaped. He was yelling with pain as the leader leant over him and tried to force him down. With a rough shove from her escort, Sakura fell to the ground across from the red-haired man. He really did look quite young, perhaps only a few years older than she.

"Here she is, Aoi." The earth-nin addressed the young man, and Sakura finally learnt his name. 'Blue': nice.

Aoi looked up from his comrade's wound and eyed Sakura like she was an interesting plant that might be edible or poisonous. "Have you ever been forced to heal an enemy?" He asked her, watching her closely.

Sakura refused to be cowed. "No," she said levelly, "but I take it that I'm about to start?"

Aoi shook his bloody hair and laughed. "Correct. Start with Hayseed here; he got the worst of it from your blond friend."

Sakura remembered what Kakashi had said about being treated well. So far so good. All eyes were on her, but nobody was moving. She placed her hands over the hole in Hayseed's chest and began knitting the flesh back together. Rather than start with the vital organs, she smoothed the skin over first, making it look pretty and presentable even if it was still a mess beneath. Then she began fixing the rest of him so that it wouldn't kill him straightaway, but it wouldn't do much to help him later on. He had stopped screaming, but he was still groaning in agony.

"There's nothing I can do for the pain," she said flatly, still working on making the wound look good.

Pain burst across her right cheek, forcing her head to the left. Her neck felt broken and her eyes saw only sparkles. When they cleared, she saw Aoi with his hand raised threateningly, ready to hit her again. "Don't lie now. Fix everything or I'll leave you so bruised your friend won't be able to recognise you. Then I'll start on him." His smile returned to his youthful face, so twisted and evil Sakura was too scared to even think about disobeying. She bent over Hayseed once more, using more chakra and doing a more thorough job of erasing the pain. Finally the thin man looked peaceful and Sakura was nearly spent. It was all she could do not to pass out beside him. The other ninja were jeering at her now, acting more boldly after their leader had beaten her down. Sakura knew the right side of her face was probably bright purple, and touched it gently with chafed fingers.

"Don't even think about healing that," The man's voice was sweet but threatening as he placed his fingers around hers, gently brushing her cheek. Then he pressed down hard and unexpectedly, making her gasp and wince. "I want you to cringe every time I do that." His face was so close to hers now that she couldn't even see the hungry look in the eyes of the others.

Aoi moved away once more, waving a bored hand in her direction. "Take her back to the cell. She's almost used up and the others can wait."

The rock-manipulator dragged her back to the little window in the wall and broke it down once more. Sakura stepped in as the rocks re-moulded themselves.

Kakashi looked over from where he was lying as the wall grated away once more. Sakura was in profile, head lowered. She looked tired, even in the gloom. As the little light that came through the wall shrank down to window size once more, Sakura leaned against the wall and slid down it into a sitting position. Her knees were drawn up to her chest and she seemed unaware of Kakashi's presence. "So how did it go?" he asked, trying to engage her in conversation. He wasn't a medic, but he supposed the first time healing an enemy would be weird and difficult.

Sakura raised her head a little, but didn't turn to face him. Instead she looked away, back toward the window. That wasn't like her. Kakashi struggled to sit up and get closer to her. That did get her attention. She whipped her head around with a stern expression as Kakashi flailed weakly on the floor. Then he saw what she had been hiding.

"Ouch." The bruise looked gruesome. Purple blotches outlined in green ran along her cheek in five unmistakeable finger shapes. She turned away once more at his horrified expression.

"What happened?" he couldn't keep all of the anger out of his voice. He expected Sakura to start crying to him as she did when she was twelve, but when she spoke her voice was flat and dead.

"I told them there was nothing I could do for the pain. They disagreed."

Kakashi winced. It was his advice that had gotten the girl injured like that. "I'm sorry," he told her, speaking low and sincere. "For everything," he added, remembering that he had a lot more to apologise for.

Sakura gave a small shrug, then, as if realising something, edged along the wall toward the jounin.

"I almost forgot about you," she said quietly, placing her hands on his chest once more. Her right cheek was still away from him.

Green light sparked in her hands and faded. "You're out of chakra," Kakashi said.

"Not quite," Sakura replied, her voice still flat. She tried to summon chakra to her hands again, but failed.

"Stop," Kakashi scolded, wishing he were strong enough to push her away. "You can't do it, so stop trying."

"I can do it; I just don't have enough left over to focus in my hands." Removing her palms from Kakashi's chest, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. "Luckily Tsunade-sama taught me to focus smaller amounts in other places."

Kakashi tried to see her expression in the darkness, but it was impossible to tell what she was doing. Then her smile lit up like a green ghost, dazzling him. "Super chakra lips," she said simply, grinning like the Cheshire cat.

"Wha-?" Kakashi managed before Sakura's lips touched the bare, tender skin around his senbon-wound. He breathed in quickly. Her lips were hotter than her hands had ever been. They burned his skin, but not in a way he found at all unpleasant. The tightness around his chest eased up and his breathing became deeper, though it still shuddered slightly. At least it wasn't because of the poison anymore.

Sakura continued to press her lips to his collarbone, giving the last of her strength to him. It was easier to concentrate chakra at a small point like the lips, hence why it was so much warmer. She could do this for longer, without wasting any of her precious life-force in the process. But soon it became harder to focus. The chakra faded from her lips and she collapsed forward onto Kakashi's chest. It didn't hurt him like he thought it would. The soft pressure of her head on his torso was quite comforting, actually. After a moment's hesitation, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and closed his eyes too. He was still weak, his body still burned with the damage done by the poison, and his head was aching from the cold, hard stone. But he could honestly say he felt better in that moment than he ever had before…