CHAPTER 1
"Hurry up Sasuke!" a blue eyed seven year old blonde called from on top of the stairs to a panting Sasuke.
"I will if you slow down Naruto-dobe!" yelled back the dark blue headed boy with deep onyx eyes.
"I'm not a dobe TE-ME!" The blue eyed blonde Naruto growled at the fellow six year old who finally reached him.
"You ready?" Naruto grinned at Sasuke who smirked back.
"One," The raven and blonde haired boy began jogging.
Naruto grinned as he began to speed up. "Two!"
Sasuke began running a bit faster as did Naruto "THREE!"
With gleeful laughter the two broke off into sprints. "DASH-!-!-!"
With that the two set off running; all the while avoiding nurses, doctors and patients as they went. They could hear the reprimanding voice of the doctors and started yelps from patients and nurses, but the two chose to ignore them as they ducked under medical carts and rounded IV stands.
Making a sharp turn the two eight-year olds arrived in the private wing of Konoha general hospital.
"TEME! WE MADE IT!" Naruto cheered as they approached the door with the tag 143 on the door.
"Urusai, Dobe!" Sasuke glared at the blonde. "She might be sleeping so don't wake her up!"
"Gomen!" He squeaked as Sasuke carefully opened the door.
As soon as the door opened the scent of cherry blossoms filled their noses, they couldn't help but sigh in content as their whole body relaxed at the soft melody playing from the old music box playing on the night stand next to an oh so familiar teddy bear surrounded by pictures. A book shelf near the window where dozens of books rested in one book missing from the middle row; Their gaze traveled towards the queen sized bed surrounded by multiple machines and tubes all beeping and flashing different colors. On the bed resting carefully a pale looking girl at the age of seven, her short pink hair framed her adorable cherubic face, red ribbons on each side of her head; long lashes kissed the top of her cheeks, A copy of 'Fairytale' tucked under her arm. A serene smile graced her features.
"See dobe? She's asleep so you should keep quiet—Naruto?" He turned to find to the blonde only to see him already beside the sleeping angel whispering for her to wake up.
"Ne! Sakura-chan! Wake up! It's me Naruto!" Naruto whispered not too quietly albeit gently. "Sasuke-teme is here too!"
'THAT DOBE!' Enraged, Sasuke made his way over to the giggling blonde making sure not to wake the sleeping girl grabbed him by the collar and dragged him away from the bed, only for his annoying loud whines to fill the room. Sasuke, being the intelligent one, quickly covered the blonde mouth with his hands to get the irritating squawking to a halt.
"SHHH-!-!" He glared at the now bluing face of Naruto. "I told you to be quiet if sakura wakes up—"
"Sasuke…?"
A soft voice reached his ears instinctively he let go of the blond and shoved his hands into his pockets turning around and gave the slowly awakening rosette a cool and passive look.
"Hn." He replied, smirking slightly to himself as he watched the blonde on his knees huffing for air.
"Sasuke – huff- you-huff- bastard—huff huff—"the two engaged themselves into a glaring match neither one of them planning on breaking the intense contest.
"Naruto…?" As soon as hearing his name, he tore his gaze away from the boy and his whole face lit up with a smile. He turned towards the awakening girl and ran over to her side careful not to trip on anything.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto grinned as he gave the girl a bear hug. "I missed you!"
She giggled in reply slowly wrapping her arms around the bubbly blonde. "I missed you too, Naruto"
Sasuke scowled and turned away from the two glaring at the ground and grumbling to himself about how unfair that Naruto gets to hug her and he can't cuz he's an Uchiha and Uchihas don't do hugs.
"Sasuke." He looked up to the girl calling him only to find her arm's spread wide waiting for him to approach them. "Where's my hug?"
Well maybe there are certain exceptions.
Sasuke couldn't hide the blush that was creeping up to his face and slowly approached the pinkette that wrapped her arms around his neck which he shyly returned.
"I missed you." He whispered hiding his face in her hair.
"Well, well, well. . . So that's what's causing reports of little monsters causing trouble inside my hospital." The three turned to look at the tall blonde woman who was standing by the door a smirk played on her beautiful face as she watched the three interact.
"Okaa-sama," Sakura greeted her mother with a smile as she slowly made her way towards them her white medical coat billowing behind her elegantly.
"Now then…" In a flash her two knuckles found its way towards the two boys' head giving them a painful whack; which rewarded her with two satisfying cries of pain.
"What did I tell you two about sneaking in here without my permission?" She gave them her most bone chilling smile.
"And what gave you the idea to push one of my male nurses down the stairs!-?"
"Ow! Baa-chan!" Naruto whined still rubbing his bruised head. "That hurt! Besides it's not our fault the guy pushing the cart didn't move fast enough!"
"Hn. It's his fault for getting in our way." The Uchiha scowled as he felt a bump forming on his head.
"Yeah!"
BAM!-!-!
"Ow…."
Giggles filled the room as the three stared at the blossom sitting on the bed. "Okaa-sama, don't be too hard on them" She smiled "They're my best friends."
Tsunade couldn't help but smile at her daughter, the kid was too nice for her own good.
"Yeah, yeah Sakura make sure those two don't cause much trouble after all this is a hospital, there are other patients here." With a pat on the head and a kiss on the forehead she headed towards the door.
"I'll be back for your afternoon check up later." With that she closed the door behind her with a soft click.
"So. . . How was school?" The pink haired girl smiled at the two as she leaned back and they positioned themselves at each side of her bed.
"Sakura-chan! It was so unfair!" Naruto growled and grabbed a fistful of his hair and started to pull.
"There was this test in math class today and I was quietly asking Sasuke what the answers were and Iruka-sensei just kicked me out of the class!" He whined thrashing his arms around. "FOR NO REASON!"
Sasuke scoffed at this.
"Please, dobe here was 5 seats away from me and kept shouting 'HEY TEME WHAT'S 100 DIVIDED BY 4!'" He imitated Naruto's shouting voice.
"Well . . ." He stuttered trying to remember something. "H-how about you!" He yelled pointing an accusing finger towards Sasuke.
"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO SPENT THE WHOLE LUNCH BREAK EATING IN THE TOILET!"
"T-THAT'S JUST BECAUSE INO, AMI AND THOSE ANNOYING GIRLS KEPT CHASING ME DOBE!"
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME TEME!-?"
"DOBE!"
"TEME!"
They growled at each other foreheads bumping against each other a glare off to determine the winner, but as soon as they heard the melodious laugh of their precious rosette in front of them all anger vanished and they found themselves laughing alongside her.
"School . . . " Sakura muttered sadly looking away from the two and towards her large bookshelf. "It seems fun..."
The two feeling immediately guilty tried to cheer the pinkette up. "N-no it isn't S-sakura-chan!" Naruto stuttered.
"I-its s-so b-boring and filled with weird teachers!" He continued.
"Y-yeah and really annoying people . . . worse than dobe here." Sasuke supplied, thankful he didn't stutter much.
"Yeah! Worse than m- HEY!" the three laughed again and spent the whole afternoon talking and playing Uno.
"Sasuke-kun, Naruto-kun." Two said boys looked over to the door and found Sakura's aunt Shizune by the door.
"Shizune-neechan" They greeted with a smile.
She couldn't help but smile back at the three. "Aww you guys are so cute!" she cooed as she approached them.
"I'm afraid you two have to go, it's time for Sakura-chan's afternoon checkups." She smiled apologetically at the pouting boys.
"Aww! Do we have to?" Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and sulked.
Sasuke couldn't help but agree at the blonde but opted to follow the older woman's orders; it is for sakura-chan's sake. He got off the bed and waited for Naruto to follow his example.
Naruto grumbled about not being able to spend much time with his sakura-chan, and begrudgingly got off the bed and went over to Sasuke's side.
"Ano . . ." The two boys and nurse turned to look at the girl who was sitting up from the bed.
"S-Shizu-neechan, c-can they stay for a bit?" She pleaded.
"Demo, Sakura-chan . . ." She started only to be cut off by her pleas once more.
"P-please? I. . . I missed the two off them yesterday since I was asleep, a-and I want to spend more time with t-them." She looked down sadly.
"Please?"
Shizune sighed and rubbed her temples before giving the three a stern look.
"Sakura."
Said girl frowned knowing what her answer would be. . . "You got ten minutes."
"I know- Eh?" She looked up to see a winking Shizune who slipped out the door.
"Yay! Ten more minutes with Sakura-chan!" Naruto cheered and pounced on the pink haired girl.
"Sakura-chan . . . are you sure? You're sick a-and-"A hand stopped him as she gave him a reassuring smile.
"I missed you two." She smiled again.
"Teme!" Naruto shouted giving him a hard slap on the back. "Lighten up a little; this is the only time we get to spend with Sakura-chan so let's have more fun!" He said slapping him once again.
"Right Sakura-chan?"
"Y-yeah" She nodded weakly.
"So Sakura-chan did I ever tell you the time when teme here was surrounded by fan girls while he was tied up to a tree?" He grinned wickedly at Sasuke's suddenly pale face.
"You wouldn't dare."
"Oh come one Sasuke! I'm sure Sakura-chan would want to know that story! Right Sakura-chan?"
"..."
"Sakura-chan?"
". . ."
"Sakura . . . chan?" Both boys froze in place at the sight they saw, Sakura was sweating bullets and her hands clutched tightly to her chest, her whole form shaking as tears prickled her eyes.
"S-sakura-chan?" Naruto stuttered inching towards the shaking girl.
Sakura looked up at the two and tried to give them a reassuring albeit forced smile "I-I'm f-fi—" She never got to finish her sentence as she once again started a coughing fit her body collapsing down to the bed, blood trickling down her mouth.
Sasuke snapped out from his reverie and ran towards the door slamming it open in the process.
"HELP! SHIZUNE-NEECHAN! SAKURA IS- SAKURA IS-"he never got to finish his sentence as nurses flooded the room, Naruto being ushered out by a frantic nurse. As soon as they were in, they immediately came out sakura being pushed on a bed to who knows where.
"SAKURA!" The two yelled running, trying to catch up to their precious friend.
"Naruto! Sasuke!" Both boys turned and saw Tsunade running up to them Shizune close behind. "What happened?"
"S-Sakura-chan, s-she-"
"TSUNADE-SAMA, SHIZUNE-SAMA." A middle aged nurse approached them.
"PLEASE PREPARE FOR OPERATION! SAKURA-CHAN WON'T LAST LONG IF SHE WAITS ANY LONGER HER CONDITION IS WORSENING BY THE MINUTE!"
As soon as she finished her sentence all of them were running full speed towards the emergency room. Tsunade threw the double doors open already barking at everyone present to get in their station and prepare for surgery. Shizune stayed back and guided the two boys to sit by the waiting area.
"Onee-chan?" She looked down to the crying face of Naruto. "W-will sakura-chan be alright?"
"Let's just wait and see okay, Naruto-kun?"
"It's our fault… isn't it?"
Both turned to Sasuke who was silently crying.
"I-It's our fault r-right? IT'S OUR FAULT SAKURA-CHAN IS HURTING RIGHT NOW!"He screamed curling up into a ball.
"I-It is?" Naruto stood there mouth ajar at his best friend's statement. "I-It's our f-fault?"
"No! Don't you dare blame yourselves for what happened!" Shizune scolded.
"Shizune-sama!" A nurse called from the door her hands covered in blood.
"You two stay here, and remember what I said it's not your fault." With a kiss on both their foreheads she ran into the room leaving them in a dim hallway the bright red OR sign glaring at them, thoughts running around their head but for one person only.
"Sakura-chan. . ."
re-written: 10/31/11