Sakura was sat in a squishy armchair stuck in the corner of the cheery coffee shop, she had her feet folded up underneath her and her hands were wrapped around a warm mug. She nuzzled into the soft cushions and sipped at the heavenly coffee she'd been craving for hours; it was 11 o'clock in the morning so by her calculations she had been working for thirty hours straight. It was always the same during times of political instability. Recently there had been a military coup in the Lightning Country that had forced Tsunade to move extra troops to the outlying border. Every time the outlying border was in jeopardy Sakura always found that she would be working for days at a time but Tsunade had reassured her that everything was under control. Before he left, Kakashi had assured her that it was merely protocol and that she shouldn't worry too much and though she had found his words reassuring to start with she was now working non-stop to treat all the patients that were returning injured from the border. The whole business had been going on for almost two weeks now and though the influx of patients had slowed she was still worried sick. Two letters off of Naruto and Kakashi was not enough to quell it either.

She looked up from her book and smiled at the woman brewing tea in the open kitchen; she let her eyes wander to the high street through the large French windows at the front of the café. Everyone outside was in the midst of the midday market bustle, smiling and laughing matrons with their customers, children running down the street, it was a calming image after a chaotic few hours. She laughed softly at the little children playing and looked down at her watch, Ino was late per usual. At that very moment the blonde bombshell burst through the door looking flabbergasted. Sakura raised an eyebrow at her and burst out laughing, she waved at Ino to grab her attention. Her blonde friend walked over and flopped down into the chair next to her,

"Long day?" Sakura asked with a light chuckle. Ino let out a sigh,

"Same as yours by the look of it," she said with a sad smile as she pushed hr fringe from her eyes.

"Yeah it's been a bit rough, but I got a message from Kakashi late last night and it seems that everything is fine," Sakura said leaning back into the chair. Ino sighed and waved over to the waitress,

"I've been hearing that phrase a lot lately, somehow I've lost faith in it," she said sadly. Sakura looked up from her latte; the tone in her best friend's voice was causing a little red flag to go up in Sakura's mind.

"Ino what's wrong?" Sakura said straightening out in the chair. Ino looked up and met Sakura's gaze,

"Chouji was… he was injured out at the border," she said calmly. Sakura let out a gasp and set her mug down quickly,

"Is he alright?" she asked.

"Yeah he's fine," she said and then looked up. "Did I just say fine?" she asked with a giggle in her voice. Sakura burst out laughing again which infectiously spread to her friend. She sighed and lay back in her chair,

"Oh this is not a time to be laughing," Ino said with a sad chuckle. Sakura picked up her mug again and pondered something,

"I'm a bit confused. I thought he was in surveillance," Sakura said.

"Yeah he was," Ino said as she rubbed her temples. "But he saw Kiba getting into a fight that seemed to be headed for the worst so he jumped in to try and help. He got the wrong end of a kunai…" he voice started to warble slightly as her sentence cut off. Sakura leant forward and laid a empathetic hand on hers, Ino looked up and smiled through her glassey eyes.

"The important thing is he's alive," Sakura said trying to be a pillar of strength for her but underneath she was crumbling just as she was. Ino rustled in her chair and looked down at her watch,

"Right my break is over, guess its back to the hospital," Ino said unenthusiastically. Sakura downed the remaining contents and stood up and stuffed her book back into her satchel.

"I'll walk you there," she said with a smile. "You never know Chouji might be back for recovery," she threw in casually and she saw her friends eyes light up in excitement. They emerged from the café after a quick goodbye to the waitress and walked along the highstreet.

"It's weird being the only ones here. Everybody else is out…there. Feels like a bit of a ghost town. I don't like it," Ino said incoherently.

"You get used to it after a while. Being left behind," Sakura assured her. Ino merely scoffed and muttered "Not likely under her breath." They walked through the hospital doors and up to the nurses' station where Ino scrubbed up. Sakura gave her a hug goodbye and heading back down the corridor towards Tsunade's office,

"Doctor Haruno," came a distressed voice from down the hall. Sakura turned around and saw several nurses hurrying down the corridor with a patient in a trolley. Sakura pulled her stethoscope out of her bag and hurried up to the side of the trolley.

"Condition?" Sakura asked seriously as she surveyed the clipboard that had just been handed to her.

"Severe lacerations to the head and arms. Unconscious for twenty minutes, ten milligrams of morphine," the paramedic rolled off quickly.

"Okay Recess Twelve is free, lets get him onto the cot," she said with a respectfully powerful voice.

"I think you mean her Doctor," a nurse corrected as she began to attach the drip. Sakura looked up and gazed down at the patient,

"Kurenai," escaped her dry lips. She looked down at her senior and friend lying broken in the cot, Yuhi-sensei was the one who taught her about advanced genjustsu before her ANBU exam and she had always seen her as a strong practically invincible woman. Now looking down at her black hair tangled with blood was horrible. Her pulse was weak and her breathing was shallow.

"Doctor?" came a reassuring voice as a soft hand rested on her shoulder. Sakura brought herself back down to earth and pulled herself back into doctor mode.

"I need suction and ten milligrams of diazepam."

She stood over her cot looking down at the results from her CAT-scan and compared them to her blood pressure read out, everything appeared normal and she had been stable now for three hours. Still unconscious thought but it was looking better. Suddenly there was a knock at the door as Sakura span round to see a familiar face, the door opened and he walked in and pulled her in for a slouched hug.

"Hi Shika," she said gently.

"Hey Sakura," he said with a tentativeness in his voice. He pulled away and looked over her shoulder to the dark woman in the bed. "How is she?"

"Much better. She's been stable for three hours and now she's just sleeping off the drugs we gave her," Sakura said comfortingly.

"That's a relief," he said as he walked over closer to the bed.

"So what are you doing here?" she asked trying not to be too judgemental. He couldn't have abandoned his post to come see her, Shikamaru was a level-headed and loyal shinobi but he was lead by his emotions and acted rashly sometimes.

"Don't worry I was ordered to accompany the second flight of injured back," he said, picking up on the hidden concern in her maternal voice.

"Sorry," she said as she ran her fingers through her hair. He turned to her and looked her straight in the eye.

"If she is stable does that mean I can bring Atsuya in?" he asked in a tone that said he was deadly serious.

"You brought him here?" Sakura said with surprise. He nodded solemnly and realised that he was out of line. Sakura walked over to the door and opened it calmly, she peered out of the door to see a nurse stood by the door holding the four year olds hand. Sakura smilled at the nurse and then knelt down in front of the young boy; she looked into his large red eyes and pushed his dark fringe out of their way.

"Hello Atsuya," she said gently. The little boy removed his thumb from his mouth and smiled at her.

"Hewwo Sakuwa," he said in an adorably sweet voice. She took his other hand and nodded up to the nurse who took this as her order to depart. Sakura looked back at him and squeezed his hand,

"Do you want to see Mummy?" she asked softly. He nodded as he put his finger back into his mouth and Sakura stood back up and lead him into the hospital room. They walked in and Shikamaru turned round to watch them, he smiled at Sakura and mouthed a "Thank you." She nodded and smiled back as Shikamaru reached out his hand which Atsuya ran to grab; Shikamaru lifted him up into his arms and held his close to his chest.

"What's wrong with Mummy Oni-san?" he said with a voice that was blissfully ignorant of the war.

"She's just a bit poorly," he said reassuringly.

"What does Mummy do when you're poorly Atsuya?" Sakura asked.

"She kisses it better," he said as he looked down at him mother. Sakura smiled sadly as his eyes looked over her covered in wires and tubes, it practically broke her heart.

"I'm certain that if you give Mummy a kiss she'll get better Atsuya," Sakura said as she pulled him down from Shika's hip. She lowered him onto the bed next to Kurenai. He leant down and gave her a cute kiss on her forehead, he turned round and let Sakura lift him off the bed. She set him down on the floor and ruffled his hair; she looked up at Shikamaru.

"You guys can stay as long as you like. Just don't let him press any buttons," she said as she winked at him. He chuckled and pulled her in for a hug.

"Thank you Sakura, I couldn't stand not being here," he said.

"I know it means a lot to you," she said. "I'll be back in later."

Sakura lay her head on the cold staff room table fifteen hours later, she could feel every muscle in her body screaming at her and her chakra was so incredibly low she felt like she didn't have enough energy to keep her eye lids open. She looked up at the clock that read 1:17, she calculated that it had been almost 48 hours without sleep and only a twenty minute break to refresh herself. The injured had come in hard and fast for the first ten hours and then began to slow down gradually; according to the accompanying captain there had a been a very sizable skirmish about twenty miles north of the border and a large number of ANBU had been surrounded. She heard quite a story about the Copy-nin and the Konoha Kyuubi managing to fight off fifty enemy ninja together with perfect teamwork, she was very proud of her boys.

She took a sip of the cold sludge that was passed off as coffee and looked down at it with disdain. She got up from the table with a pained moan and pulled on her long white medic coat as she walked back out of the staff room door. She walked down the corridor and stopped at each room to check on the patients. It was sheer will power driving her now, the idea that soon she would be in bed and get to drift off to sleep for at least eight hours straight for the first time in weeks. Everything seemed fine with her triage patients; the night nurses were readdressing their wounds and checking their vitals each time she went in. She was incredibly proud with how the staff operated, they ran a very efficient hospital. She reached the last room on the corridor and opened the door slowly and quietly; Kurenai was sound asleep and her heart beat and white blood cell out were much higher which was an encouraging sign. She turned around to find the boys dozing off in the chair, Shikamaru was leaning his head against the wall and Atsuya was cuddling into his chest, she wished her had a camera. She walked over to the arm chair they were occupying and bent down slightly.

"Shikamaru," she said as she shook him gently. He stirred slowly and she ceased and she placed her hand on his shoulder reassuringly. His eyes fluttered and opened to look up at Sakura in a daze, she smiled softly,

"How bout you take Atsuya back home with you? Put him to bed," she said kindly as she straightened out and looked back at the cot. He looked on also and stood up slowly,

"Yeah you're right," he said groggily. He rubbed his eyes as he walked around the side of the bed and delicately lifted the small child from the bed and held him against his chest. Sakura readjusted Kurenai's blankets and checked the monitor one last time; he looked over her shoulder trying to understand what information she was gaining from the machine. She turned back around and gave him a smile,

"How is she?" he asked with the same concerned tone he had had for three days, never wavering. The soft smile never left her face,

"She's fine now. Like I said she's just sleeping off the drugs we gave her to fight in infection in her thigh. She'll be awake by tomorrow," she said. A wave of relief seemed to wash over his face as he sighed softly. The little man stirred in his arms and they both looked down at him, Sakura placed her hand on his thick head of black hair. She loved watching him sleep peacefully, she could remember the day she helped deliver him and it never failed to bring a smile to her face. He was a beautiful child with the sharpest mind she had ever encountered; the most hilarious thing she had ever seen in her entire life was two fully grown Jounin men in the forms of Nara and Hyuuga fighting with a four year old in regards to the rules of Sho. It had been hard to watch him crawled up in the bed with his mother when she couldn't know he was there, but she was sure that Atsuya didn't mind. Sakura was sure that he knew that his mother felt him there and that in him being there she was given some form of strength. He was a bright child.

"Let's go home. All of us," Shikamaru said with a smile. Sakura hummed in response and followed him out of the room, she shut the light off as she left and gave Kurenai one last fleeting look. She walked out and ambled along side Shikamaru and laughing at his passing grunts and struggle,

"What does she feed this kid, rocks?" he said as he shifted him further up. Sakura laughed,

"No just dirt like other little boys. I had to give him the mud eating lecture the other day," she giggled at the memory. Shikamaru rolled his eyes,

"He's getting that off Chouji, eating anything," he noted. They passed the nurses' office and Sakura stopped,

"I've got to brief the night nurses and shut down the hospital for the night," she said.

"Oh okay we'll wait for you," he said as he shifted Atsuya further up onto his hip.

"No it's fine you two go on ahead," she smiled. He paused for a moment in hesitation but let out a yawn and realised how tired her was.

"Okay Sakura take care. We'll see you tomorrow," He said as he turned to go down the hall.

"Night night boys," she said as they walked away.