Well, here she was again. Looking through medical files.
It was something Tsunade did when she was bored--take out the files and records of patients that had come through the hospital, and peruse through them, like library books. She liked to look at the history of the medical technology she had pioneered, and to see her life's work stretched out on pages and pages of records. To look at these people, and see their names and their dossiers, and wonder who they were, and what they were like. It was funny, when you were a doctor--you got to look closer at a person than probably anyone did, and you still didn't know them. You wrote down statistics and diagnoses on pieces of paper, not even knowing or caring who the person was you were writing about.
Tsunade thumbed open another file--they were organized by patient. Haruno Sakura. She flipped through the papers in the folder.
Sakura didn't see much action, apparently; she was only hospitalized a few times for minor injuries. Needle punctures, shuriken piercings, kunai scrapes... the usual fare.
But there was one particular case of Sakura's that caught Tsunade's eye.
The report was written in the neat handwriting of some anonymous nurse. Tsunade could see by the date that it was sometime when Sasuke was still a part of Sakura's team. In fact, Sasuke seemed to be linked to this hospitalization in the first place.
Intrigued, Tsunade read the file. She skimmed through the exact details of the injuries themselves, but at the very bottom, there was a note.
The patient's injuries are minor, but at the scene of injury the medica team found her screaming as though in great pain. Further investigation shows that the patient's injuries, mainly bruises and tiny cuts, are identical in placement to those found on teammate Uchiha Sasuke, who was also at the scene of injury. Uchiha Sasuke's injuries are much more major, and he was also in great pain at the scene of injury. The patient apparently was not involved in the action that lead to Uchiha Sasuke's injuries.
Tsunade stared at the note for a minute or two. Then she smiled slightly.
Sympathy pain. Tsunade remembered vaguely a definition from one of her medical textbooks; something about the brain inflicting injuries upon itself. But basically, it happened when two people were so connected with each other that when one was hurt, the other one hurt too.
Sakura was not involved in the action. She was probably just standing back, watching it all unfold. But her feelings for this boy were so powerful, so relentless, that whenever Sasuke was cut, Sakura felt the same amount of pain, to the extent that she was bruised in the same area. That was why she was screaming; she felt Sasuke's pain.
But sympathy pain usually wore off after a while.
Tsunade shook her head in disbelief. As she put Sakura's file back in the stack, she wondered if now, still, if Sasuke was cut, Sakura bled.
A/N: Eh, it sucked. I wrote it in five minutes, tops. xD;;