To Forever

DG32173

Sarah: hehe. Here's chapter one of the sequel to "From Before". And don't ask me how many books I'm going to make in this series, cause I'm not sure yet. And this fic will take me a bit longer to update; I only got about four or five chapters handwritten.

Sakura: so this one is when we're older?

Sarah: yup! In this fic, add five years to the age of the people in the show.

Naruto: Sarah-chan doesn't own my series!

WARNINGS

Rated "M" for very mature content. That should cover all the warnings.

SUMMARY

Fate deals a nasty hand to the hidden villages: great beasts of forgotten legend are being awakened and set to fight all over the hidden villages. The villages team up their best ninja to find who is awakening these beasts and stop whatever vile scheme is being set in motion. Can a romantic relationship between Sakura and Kakashi grow and blossom during these perilous times? Kaka/Saku

REVIEW REPLIES FOR CHAPTER 11 OF FROM BEFORE

There are no specific questions or comments I can answer or explain, but I'm so glad that I got so many reviews for "From Before". Thanks to all of you! And I hope you all enjoy this fic as well. This one will be much longer, but take longer to update as well. I don't have but maybe five chapters handwritten for this already, and I prefer to take my time typing them up and going over the chapters several times to see if I can make anything clearer, more interesting, and some minor editing before I post them. Thanks you everyone!

NOTE

(Authors note)

"Talking"

'Thinking'

Scene change

POV change

Memory

Scene change in memory

INDEX

Baka: stupid, idiot, moron

Hai: yes

Itai: expression of pain

Chapter 1

Baka Kakashi

Sakura sighs as she washes the blood from her hands. "Man, if I could get just one patient who's not cut up, that would be wonderful," she grumbles.

"I guess I'll make your day, then," a voice says behind her.

"How, Tsunade-sama?" Sakura asks, turning to the older woman while drying her hands.

"Broken arm and possible concussion. Just got in from a mission and was dragged here by teammates, literally kicking and screaming. I think you'll know him," Tsunade says, handing over the patient file in her hands with a smirk.

Sakura takes the file and looks at the name, then grins. "Yeah, I know him. Surprised his teammates did get him here," she says.

"One of them got bit on the arm, and it took all of them to get him to his room. I posted four Anbu outside the door and there's no window. The air vent is too small for even you to get through.

"He BIT a teammate?!"

"Yeah, Hinata's taking care of the poor guy," Tsunade replies, grinning. "They say the possible concussion is from Naruto hitting him upside the head to knock him out."

Sakura laughs. "I better go and heal him. He's most likely sulking."

"Obviously," Tsunade says dryly.

Sakura shakes her head and heads for her patient's room. She knocks on the door to let him know she's there. "Go away! I'm fine!" is the sharp yell from inside the room. Sakura laughs softly and opens the door to see her charge pouting in a corner, cradling his right arm.

"Hm, these charts say you aren't fine. But if you want to tend a broken arm at home, go ahead," she says.

He visibly jumps at her voice, and whirls to face her, surprise written throughout his body posture. "Sakura-chan?" he gasps.

"Been a while, Kakashi," she chuckles. "Rumor has it you bit a teammate. Now, that's not team spirit, nor is it very nice."

"So?" he snorts.

"So, your teammate is getting patched up and a tetanus shot in another room because of you. And you earned yourself a knock on the head, I've heard. Now, get on the examining table and let me see that arm," she commands. He reluctantly obeys. Arguing with Sakura is like punching a wall; pointless and painful. Sakura pokes his right arm with her pen.

"Itai!" he yelps. "That hurt!"

Sakura grins at him. "I was seeing if you still have feeling in your arm. You do, so I can just heal the break. I have to realign the break, so be warned," she says. She sets the pen and Kakashi's patient file on the counter, then runs her fingers gently over the break, ignoring Kakashi's hiss of pain. "Huh, you're lucky. It's a clean break, and it's not even completely broken."

"Lucky?" he growls.

She grins at him. "It could have been much, much worse. Your bone could have shattered completely. And shattered bones are very hard to heal, and is very painful to the owner of the bone," she says. He wrinkles his nose, but remains quiet. "Okay, this might hurt a bit, because it's already setting itself; I have to re-break the bone, align it properly, then heal it."

"Re-break?" he asks meekly. "Do you have to?"

"If you ever want to use your hand again, then yes, I do. If you want to stop being a ninja, then no, I don't."

His continence becomes serious. "Break it then," he says through gritted teeth.

"Thought so," she says. She places her hands on either side of the break, then looks up at him. He nods to show he's ready, then yelps as she breaks the bone again. He hisses as she carefully realigns the bone properly. Then she speed-heals the break with her chakra.

Kakashi watches in fascination as her hands glow a soft blue and the bone heals, the swelling and bruising die down and slowly disappear. Finally, his arm is pain-free again. When all the swelling and bruising is gone, Sakura removes her hands and wipes away the sweat that had collected on her forehead.

She grins at him. "Now, about that concussion," she says. He groans; he wants to get out of the hospital now! She chuckles. "Remove your hitai-ate, Kakashi," she says. He pouts and doesn't budge. She sighs. "Then I'll remove it for you," she says, and does just that. She pulls a penlight out of her pocket. She turns it on and, leaning forward to use her other hand to hold open his Sharingan eye, she shines the light right in his eyes.

"Follow it," she commands. He does. "Mm-hmm, now the other eye," she murmurs, and repeats the process with his normal eye. "Hm, Naruto must have hit you good," she says. "Pretty serious concussion; I'm surprised you can move at all. No worries, I'll take care of it," she says, pocketing her penlight and putting her right hand on his forehead. She looks directly into both his eyes.

He feels her chakra seep into his skin, shooing away the pain and dizziness, calming the muscles in his head. He goes into a sort-of trance as she heals him, looking directly into his eyes.

After what seems like an eternity, but is really only a few minutes, she stands up and removes her hand from his forehead. She places her right hand on her hip and grins. "Good as new," she says. "You can leave. But meet me at the park around eight. I get off work then. Don't be late, or I'll give you another concussion and won't heal it," she continues. He just nods and vanishes in a puff of smoke. She laughs and writes some stuff into Kakashi's patient files before closing it.

8:37 that evening

A 'pop' and cloud of smoke signals he's finally arrived. "You're late, Kashi-kun," she says before the smoke has a chance to clear.

Whatever excuse he could think up dies on his lips. Instead, he chooses an entirely different thing to say. "You still remember that?" he asks, twitching

Sakura grins. "I called you that for seven years of my life, the majority of the time I've known you. Just because I haven't used it in five years doesn't mean I forgot it," she says. He walks towards her as normally as possible, but her sharp eyes don't miss the slight limp in his left leg. "Why are you limping, Kashi-kun?" she demands. The silver-haired man refuses to answer her. She scowls, walks over to him, uses her chakra to force him to sit, and uses it again to cut the left leg off of his pants.

"Hey! Those were my favorite pair!" he protests.

She ignores him as she examines the obviously infected, half-healed wound on his left leg. She turns a sharp glare on him. "Two questions, and answer them both truthfully. Why the hell didn't you tell me about this at the hospital where I could have properly healed it?" she demands.

"I don't like hospitals," he says.

Her glare deepens as she scowls at his partial answer. "Two, how the hell did you get this and when did you get it?" she demands.

"I got it a couple days ago when a nin got a hit on me with an old bit of metal," he says duly. He's not sure how, but her scowl deepens even more.

"You baka. You should have told the medic-nin I know was assigned to your team as all B-rank or better missions are assigned a medic-nin to the nins going on them. Now it's badly infected and I'm not sure my skills are strong enough to treat it," she says angrily.

Kakashi avoids her gaze. "The medic-nin got injured in the fight and couldn't even treat herself," he says softly.

Sakura sighs. "Why didn't you inform your teammates so they would know you needed help," she asks, her anger dissipating as she looks at the wound with healer's sight as Tsunade had taught her to. The wound is pulsing an angry reddish-green, showing it's serious, very serious. She bites her lower lip, not sure how to tell him the bad news she has.

"Sakura-chan?" he asks. "Is it that serious?"

She sighs and decides to be blunt about it. "I won't lie to you, Kashi-kun. It's really, really bad. So bad that your leg might have to be amputated to prevent the infection from spreading more than it already has," she says softly. He bites his lip under his mask, and Sakura can tell he's trying to keep his emotions under control. She knows that being a fighting nin is basically his whole life. She sighs. "If we can get you to Tsunade-sama, there's a good chance we can get rid of the infection," she adds.

He nods; Sakura stands up and helps Kakashi stand. They disappear in identical puffs of some to appear in Tsunade's office. Thankfully, she's at her desk, working for once. She looks at them inquisitively and immediately zeros in on the wound on Kakashi's leg. "Oh, my," she gasps.

Sakura looks pleadingly at the Hokage. "Please, Tsunade-sama, is there a way to get rid of the infection?" she asks.

Tsunade nods. "Hai. But it could take several hours," she replies. She turns to Kakashi, who's slouching in one of the plush chairs opposite the Hokage desk. "A team of medic nins will have to use their chakra to draw out the infection. You won't be allowed to stand or walk any more than absolutely necessary for two months. You can't go on missions for at least three months or more. But your leg will be saved."

"Do it then," Kakashi says firmly.

Tsunade looks pointedly at Sakura, who sighs in resignation. "We have to put you in a temporary coma for at least two days, so that your leg can heal up some after the medic nins are done drawing out the infection," the pink-haired girl says. Kakashi nods his assent. At least he won't have to be awake in the hospital. Sakura gently places her right hand on the back of Kakashi's neck. She forces her chakra and will into Kakashi's body. After a few moments, Kakashi slumps forward and Sakura quickly catches him before he can fall out of his chair.

Tsunade nods. "Very good, Sakura," she murmurs. Tsunade presses a button on her desk and says something softly into the speaker next to the button. Minutes later, Shizune and several strong medic nins come in with a gurney. Kakashi is carefully lifted onto it and everyone in the office follows as the gurney is taken to a specialized room for surgeries using chakra.

Tsunade orders Sakura to stay out and wait until they are done as she is too close to the patient, Kakashi, to be of use. Sakura sighs and reluctantly obeys. She heads for the staff room to wait and sulk. They'll know where to find her when they are done. Sakura closes her eyes as she slumps in a plush recliner in the staff room. "Baka Kakashi," she murmurs, fighting to keep her emotions firmly under control.

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Sarah: that's it for chapter 1. I hope ya'll enjoyed it! The next chapter will be extremely short, so don't yell at me about it since I warned ya'll.