Chapter one: The beginning of the retelling, knowing, fearing, and falling.
"Ah home sweet home!" Choji cried out passing through the gates of khonaha. Sakura giggled and let up her own cheer, one of her terrifying fists flying into the air. She then smiled over at her current teammate; she had to admit at first she'd been apprehensive about the mission. Two weeks away with Choji? He seemed nice enough but she really knew little about the Akamichi heir. But the mission had called for strength and medical skill, so really the team was a no brainer for Lady Hokage to piece together.
And luckily Sakura had been pleasantly surprised; Choji had been wonderful to work with, constantly keeping her spirits up. Especially after a day treating the wounded; they'd been called to the site of a mudslide in a small village about a day and a half out of Konoha. The few lives she'd let slip by, or had missed during their journey to the site had weighed heavily on the young kunoichi those first few days.
But Choji had been there every night, no matter how tired after his long day of repairing the village, to help her in his own sweet way. She thought back to their first night there. She'd stabilized just about everyone but was warned that there were hopefully more survivors in the buildings still buried. She looked at her hands wringing in her lap as she sat on the bed that the village had provided for their esteemed guests.
Choji had come back to their headquarters with a slew of cuts bruises and other slight ailments after his first round tearing through the rubble. "Hey Sakura." He called out opening their small room. When his eyes landed on her he had to rein in his immediate reaction to pull the girl into a tight embrace and promise to hurt whatever had put her in this state. Instead he dropped to one knee before her taking one of her hands in his, "Hey come on what's wrong? Don't cry."
She couldn't seem to quell the flow of tears that had been flowing since she got back to the room ten minutes before. As he attempted to coax her into explaining herself she found her throat was closed. How could she tell him? Tell him that she worried that she'd never be enough. Explain that she couldn't save the people closest to her from their own trials, and now she couldn't save every villager, and that the feeling of failure was killing her.
Crying girls weren't exactly Choji's specialty, yeah sure Ino was known for her breakdowns every now and again. But usually Shikamara took care of it with a snarky comment that got her out of her funk so she could be angry with the shadow nin. He doubted a comment about her forehead would help at this point. 'Crap, Why do I suck at this so much?' he wondered trying to figure out how to comfort the kunoichi without making it worse. He smiled at her thinking to himself, Kami she was even beautiful when she cried.
"Hey, hey, come on, you're too strong to cry like this." He said reaching up to brush some of her hair back and a few of the tears from her cheeks. He pulled his hand back looking for a clean place to wipe the layer of grime from it before touching something as beautiful as the girl before him.
She barely noticed Choji pull away but blinked trying to get a better view of her teammate. Immediately she spotted the abrasions and other small injuries he'd attained from his days work as well as the numerous smudges of dirt and grime. She shook her head at her selfishness and immediately began to channel the chakra necessary for the basic healings into her hands.
Choji jumped as she laid her hands on his right arm while the cool sensation of her healing chakra fell over the dull ache that had taken root in all of his body just a few hours into his day. She smiled and slid to the floor beside him. "Wait here." The sweet raspy order left Choji with little else to do but obey her. She came back with a bowl of water as well as some clean linen. While her eyes were still red from tears and hard to read, that sweet smile left him speechless.
Sakura went to work having Choji sit on the bed and remove his outermost armor. She set to work healing him and wiping away most of the grime. Sakura couldn't help but notice that the barrel chested shinobi was in wonderful shape. She was sure he had a higher amount of toxins from those snacks he insisted on munching on all the time, but she still admired the ninja's form. She was a woman after all.
Meanwhile Choji couldn't help but marvel at the control and beauty of the flower at work before him. He blinked realizing she had spoken again, "What happened here?" she had found the worst of the damage a large bruise that was mostly hidden by his shirt still.
"That second slide you probably heard? Well that involved a tree landing on that shoulder." She seemed upset by this so he continued, "Hey, I'm alright. But you've got to be exhausted you should rest, I'll heal up on my own." She shook her head at that seemingly unable to accept that,
"I'll need to examine it if you don't mind." He shrugged stuffing away his remaining insecurities from childhood, not meeting her eyes as he started to pull at the bottom of his shirt. No girl wanted to see him really. She was doing this purely from a medical perspective he told himself.
"You're the doc." He said pulling the shirt off. As he stretched his arms over his head freeing his mane from the collar of the shirt he had to bite back a grimace as he stretched the damaged muscle tissue of his shoulder. Sakura's frown deepened as she went to work pouring more of that amazing chakra of hers into him. 'Focus'she thought to herself knitting tissue and instructing the blood to carry away the damaged cells to be disposed of. While trying to ignore the amazing body that she no longer was merely feeling, but seeing. While Choji tried to ignore the sensually soft hands resting just above his pectoral.
"There, much better." she said as the glow faded but one hand remained while the other took the cloth and ran the dampness over the newly healed area. Choji's frown was set so deep that Sakura couldn't help but ask, "Are you hurt anywhere else?" He shook his head still not meeting her eyes.
"So you going to tell me what upset you so much?" his voice was devoid of his usual pep and smiles. Sakura startled looking confused. Where was the funny sweet Choji who'd been her cheerful traveling companion over the last few days?
"No?" he asked. When she still remained speechless he stood and walked to their small bathroom explaining that they had much to do tomorrow and that they should get to sleep. His final dig before shutting himself in the bathroom was about her diet. "If you're gonna only eat those food pills you better sleep or you'll lose your strength."
Sakura flushed but was unwilling to shout at him through a door there were refugees just down the hall and she wasn't about to have a fight impede her work. She slipped into bed and was asleep before he returned to the bedroom. He flipped off the light and climbed into bed careful to not disturb or touch the kunoichi. This could be a very long two weeks if he wasn't careful.
