"You shouldn't be here," she said, picking up her papers. She had seen her second to last patient for the day and she was preparing for the next. Then her shift at the hospital would be over and she could go home to sleep. These days were always exhausting.
His pale lips almost curled into a smile. "You have no idea what I went through to get in here."
Her green eyes turned to his- stone cold and unfeeling as usual. She hated him so much for that and it was probably the reason she wanted to shoo him out. "Just go. I have another patient to take care of here."
There was a knock at the door and she went to get it. An elderly woman entered the room with a big grin on her face. "I'm not interrupting anything, deary, am I?" the woman asked, looking from the pink haired young woman to the raven haired young man.
"No," Sakura said kindly. "He was just leaving." She stood against the open door, holding it open, and kept her eyes fixed to the ground.
A moment of silence settled between the three of the occupants of the room. Sasuke finally let out a sigh as he moved towards the door and walked out without a word, though his eyes looked to her before he was gone. He should have known.
"Was that your boyfriend? Or your fiancé?" The old woman asked as she crawled on top of the examiner's table. She smiled genuinely and it tugged at Sakura's heart.
Sakura shook her head. "He's not my boyfriend or my fiancé. He's…He's nothing to me now but a lost soul." With that Sakura began the examination. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine, I suppose," the woman replied. "Except for my fading eyesight and this darned shoulder." She patted her left shoulder to emphasize. "I must have hurt it carrying around my grandbabies. I just love them so much I hardly want to let them go."
Sakura's gaze drifted to the side as she took the woman's blood pressure. She had lately been on duty as a nurse in the maternity ward and she had been having thoughts about children, hers in particular and what they'd be like. Would they look like her or like their father or both? What would they be when they're older? Shinobi, maybe?
"Are you alright dear?" The woman questioned, looking down at her.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Sakura placed a hand on the woman's shoulder blade and the other on her arm. "I'm just going to check on how it rotates around to see what can be done. Let me know if it hurts, and it probably will." Sakura began to move her arm in a circular movement and was rewarded with a gasp right away.
"You really know what you're doing for someone who's so young."
"I'd like to think. Alright," Sakura said, moving behind her desk. "I can't do anything about it right now other than prescribe some pain killers. You won't feel any pain the next time you hold your grandchildren as long as you have this and hopefully I can get you a surgery for repair soon."
Another smile graced the thinning lips of the woman. "You are a wonderful young woman. And smart too!" The woman got off the table and sauntered over to Sakura's desk. "You know, I have a nephew who's a bit older than you who is single…I could arrange a date for you, if you want."
Sakura giggled softly. "No thanks. I'm too busy for dating these days. Being the student of Tsunade-sensei, the Hokage, takes a lot from a girl."
"Ah, the slug-princess….I would imagine so. How old is she these days? Must be fifty-four now, I think. She and I went to the academy together. She cheated her way out of this," the woman said, pointing to herself. "No direct family because she cared about gambling and her age too much. Oh, well, can't say it isn't a fantasy of mine to be young looking again."
Handing the prescription over to the woman, Sakura said, "I see. I wasted part of my early years, but now I'm focused on important things like being the best medical ninja, next to Tsunade-sensei of course."
"I'll be looking forward to seeing you again," the woman said, her sincere smile still on her face, as she took her prescription and left the examination room.
"Hmm…" Sakura sighed, pushing all of her papers into the top drawer of the desk. "Time to go home." Sakura grabbed her satchel and clocked out, before heading down the elevator to the main floor, of which she walked out after waving to the information desk.
What did he mean, "You have no idea what I went through to get here"? An elevator? Since he's been back, I've ignored him, made him feel what I've felt for years. Hated, Sakura thought as she walked the pathway along the river. She kept her eyes focused on the ground and noticed the bridge coming up. It was that bridge.
That bridge had been the starting and ending point of a lot of memories for her. She kept her eyes fixed to the wood of the bridge as she began to cross. She grew angry quickly at those memories. She didn't want them now. But then she ran into someone.
"Sakura," the voice of the person she bumped into was almost caring.
"Get out of the way, Sasuke-kun," She said, a certain sharpness in her voice.
Being so close to grinning was becoming a habit of his as he looked down at her. "You can ignore me all you want, but like you used to, you'll find me irresistible and you'll be unable to live without me."
"I did live without you because you left me!" She stormed, glaring at him. "I want you to know that for three years I had waited and when it was over, I decided to move on because you're annoying." She started to walk away but he grabbed her by the wrist. "Get your hands off of me, Sasuke Uchiha!"
"I only have one on you, Sakura," he said, a slight longing in his eyes.
She stared at the bridge. "I…I still feel love for you…I still love you"
"Love is nothing more than chemicals, Sakura." His hand reached to cup her chin. He forced her green eyes to look at him. "It's not a feeling, not an emotion, and you of all people should know that. Being a medical ninja, you should know these things about the human body and how it responds to things." He grinned. "Love is like a drug."
"What would you know?" She questioned almost silently as he brushed his fingers across her cheek.
"Because if love really is…a "feeling" as you say, then…I feel that way about you," he said as his brows curled up in a sympathetic expression. He felt the unusual feeling of her tear hitting the side of his fingers before he drew her in.
"I hate you," she said before she let her fingers curl into fists that she began to pound against his chest. "Let go of me! Don't touch me!" She cried.
"Not this time, Sakura. I want to hold you."