A/N: I just love Kabuto. And no, I haven't abandoned 'Life' yet — though it may or may not end up in a way that this story can come after it.
Warnings: A lack of any actual romance and, indeed, a lack of more than two characters. Oddly enough, no swearing warning for this fic/vignette, considering how much I usually use the word 'fuck'. Oh, and take a warning for shortness and oneshot-ness with you.
Kabuto wound his way through the familiar halls, nodding to the occasional guard and trying not to drip too much blood on the floor.
"You'll always have a place to run to, Kabuto," she'd said. "Even when every Hidden Village has put out standing orders to kill you on sight, you'll always have somewhere to go." The so long as you play by my rules had remained unspoken, but it had been there.
And he'd run here.
He couldn't open the last door without getting blood on it, but he did try.
"Hello, Sakura."
She grinned at him, a man covered in blood and half-limping because he hadn't let his ankle finish healing before running here. "Welcome home, Yakushi."
"What, no given name, Sakura-chan? I'm crushed."
Sakura signed something and set it aside. "Emergency shower's over there; go get cleaned up, and then I'll talk to you."
Kabuto happily dripped blood everywhere he could conveniently manage on his way to the shower.
It was nice to have a friend like Sakura-chan.
"You're going to have to settle for a desk job eventually, you know," she told him later. "Just like me."
He laughed. "Oh, never. Research job, maybe."
"Do that on your own time, sadist. You're one of my ninja; if I give you a desk job, you have a desk job."
Kabuto put a hand to his chest and sighed dramatically. "That's no fun, Sakura-chan . . ."
She punched him playfully in the arm. "Don't talk like that to your Otokage, medic-nin."
"Yes, Sakura-chan . . ."