This is my first fanfic! I finally had the courage to post this up. I hope you all enjoy :D
I do not own Naruto!
Subtle rain drops began to fall, washing away the blood and sweat from the fair skin of an exhausted pink haired kunoichi.
"Hang in there Naruto!" two gentle hands trembled, emitting a light green glow as she pushed hard to use all her chakra. There was no way Sakura would let her beloved teammate die without fulfilling his dream. There was no way that this knuckle head will die after everything he has done.
"I will not let any of my friends die!"
"Don't you understand!? If we don't kill the tailed beasts now, everything will happen all over again! I will stop this corrupted system, even if it means killing you." Lightning clashed with wind.
"There are other options; I'll prove it to you. Everyone will live in peace including you, my friend". A flash of blinding light exploded on the battle field.
'Oh Naruto… You did more than enough to save everyone…' emerald eyes began to water up as long eyelashes fluttered down to prevent any tears from falling off her face. She bit the bottom of her lip, suppressing any more emotions to better her focus.
Her concentration was interrupted by the release of a grunt from her raven haired ex-teammate. She opened her eyes as she moved her vision to Sasuke who was on the ground just a few feet away from his former opponent Naruto.
Silence filled the air. This was a moment of peace.
She spoke softly "Sasu-"
"Sakura-chan… That's enough now, Teme needs your help more than I do." Naruto revealed one blue orb and looked up at her, grinning to her cheekly.
Sakura's face softened as emerald met his and curved her lips into a slight smile. The glow on her hands came to a halt, and crawled on her knees slowly towards her fallen ex-teammate. She knelt on Sasuke's right side, and observed the raven-haired shinobi with a serious look of concern.
She placed her hands forward to hover above the Uchiha's chest. A green glow illuminated in the air once again.
The bottom of his rib cage as well as other bones was broken, several organs were severely damaged, and his chakra levels were barely noticeable. Sakura shut her eyes, desperately focusing all her energy to keep his life from slipping away. Tears began to shed.
'Where am I? Am I…'
A vision of his family became vivid in his mind.
'Oni-san…'
Sasuke's life flashed before him. Memories of his family, team 7, and his journey of revenge instantly appeared in only a few seconds. A sudden memory of ocean waves and colorful flashing lights came to his mind as a familiar presence; rather a certain chakra ran through his body, drawing him further away from the light.
Warm drops of tears fell on the surface of ivory white cheeks, bringing him back to reality.
"Sa…Kura," he uttered quietly. His eyelids remained shut. Raindrops continued to fall, washing off the blood that seeped out of his skin.
"Don't talk. You'll use up too much of your strength" Sakura continued to heal, squeezing out the remaining bits of her chakra.
"…I'm surprised you're not sobbing" Sasuke said slowly. His mind briefly drifted to all the times she would come to him with open arms embracing his body as she cried all over him. This was something he wasn't used to.
Sakura hummed "Well Sasuke, things have changed." she could have sworn her eyebrow twitched at his arrogance.
"Hn." He replied.
Soft eyelids slowly opened to reveal onyx orbs that gazed at her soft and delicate features. She looked quite different from their previous encounters. It seemed as if his dear comrade grew not only physically but emotionally as well. Tired eyes drifted to the rhombus mark on her forehead. Yes. She most certainly did look different.
Sakura felt the presence of his stare and weakly looked back at him. "Better?" she asked tilting her head, with a slight smile on her face.
"Ah," Sasuke said with a stoic look, gazing directly into her jade eyes.
"Good. Now it's time for you to come back home." She spoke delicately before collapsing down to the ground. She outdid herself once again.
The world around her faded to black.
The rain stopped drizzling over countless bodies of the living and the dead shinobi. The Uchiha quickly shifted his eyes, watching as Sakura dropped to floor right beside him. Their face in proximity, as he felt her warm breath brushing lightly on his face. How long has it been since he's been this close to her?
He shut his eyes, and let out a sigh of relief.
The war finally came to an end.
"So I was all like 'EAT THIS OBITO!' and Sakura-chan was like 'SHANNARO!' " Naruto made a fist punching the air, imitating the pink haired shinobi beside him. Three months had passed since the end of the 4th shinobi war and many countries as well as ninjas were slowly getting back on their feet from recovering, including Team 7.
A grin was plastered on Sakura's face as she clenched her fists in annoyance. She was on the verge of punching him just like she did with the ten-tails.
"Wow! Naruto nii-chan! I wish I was there to watch it all happen" Konohamaru's gaze fell onto the table. Naruto made a fist and offered it to the boy in front of him.
"Heh! Don't worry Konohamaru, you did your part too with protecting the village" The blond hiccupped as the brunette looked up to his hero, with a smile returning back to his face and bumped their fists.
"Oi! Hostess-chan! Another bottle of sake please!" He waved his hand obnoxiously in the air to catch the waitress' attention. The young woman couldn't help but blush and smile warmly at him.
"H-Hai!" the waitress quickly went back into the kitchen to retrieve his order. A kind smile never left the blond's face.
"Don't you think you had too much to drink?" Sakura frowned. Did he really want to get punched?
"Sakura-chan, don't you think you're being too uptight? I mean, you should really remove that kunai up your-"
Sakura's arm rose swiftly, and threw a punch at the back of Naruto's head.
"Baka!" She relaxed her muscles, and chugged the remaining contents of sake in the bottle. If she kept this up, she would truly follow under her master's footsteps which included drinking and gambling.
"Naruto nii-chan, you even brought back Sasuke too! I knew you could do it," Sakura's attention snapped from her inner thoughts to her teammate's face. The three of them sat in silence. Sakura recalled her work schedule for tomorrow and how she must perform a check up on the last Uchiha. Avoiding him at this point was futile.
It's not like she didn't want to avoid him. It's not like they've been trying to retrieve him all these years, only to have been almost killed by his lightning fury. It's not like she was trying to get over him but then he suddenly shows up out of nowhere and decides to protect the village.
His return meant nothing to her. Nope. No feelings whatsoever
But, the thought of placing her stethoscope on his rock hard chest made her legs feel like… Jelly.
The waitress returned with a bottle of sake, and retrieved the empty one. She bowed to the three patrons and took one quick look at Naruto before attending another customer.
Sakura smirked at the scene, and grabbed the bottle of sake before the blond ninja could even lay his eyes on it. She poured the contents in her cup and took another shot. She's definitely going to feel this in the morning.
"Heheh" Naruto scratched the back of his head. "I'm glad he's back! He's going to be released out of probation tomorrow! I wonder how interrogation was like with Ibiki-sensei" a vision of Ibiki's intimidating face and distorted head entered the mind of three ninjas. Shivers ran through their bodies.
The blond shinobi reached for the sake and poured it into his cup. A sudden thought came to his mind as he took a sip of the alcohol, feeling the liquid burn down his throat. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion and turned his vision to the set of green orbs.
"By the way Sakura-chan, why did you bring us here to Shogun, you usually never treat us to dinner!" Naruto looked at her with one eyebrow raised, gulping in the remaining sake in his cup.
"Oh! I wanted to announce that I'll be leaving tomorrow night to the Land of Birds. The duration will be three years." Sakura replied in a nonchalant tone.
Naruto spat his drink at the poor little ninja's face who sat in front of him.
"NARUTO NII-CHAN KORE!"
"SAKURA-CHAN, WHAT THE HELL?! Ah! Whoops, sorry Konohamaru!" The blond shinobi smiled warmly at the boy, hoping that he would look past this. "This is so sudden, why are you going there?" Naruto asked as he handed tissues to Konohamaru, who feared to go home knowing he smelled like alcohol.
"I've been planning this trip for a while, but since the war was in progress, I didn't have a chance to go. One of Tsunade's masters lives up there so I'm planning on enhancing all my jutsus!" Sakura hiccupped as she lifted her arm to flex and grinned at the two, who were frantically cleaning up the mess.
"With that being said…" Sakura rose from her seat, and placed money on the table. "I have to start packing now! I'll be leaving tomorrow after work, so don't forget to bid me farewell!" Sakura waved her hand in the air before leaving the two ninjas and stumbled outside of the restaurant.
The nightly breeze brushed through pink locks, as she gazed up to soak in the beauty of glistening stars.
Tomorrow, Sakura was going to embark in her own journey in hopes of becoming a better ninja. The thought of having others look at her back brought a smile to her face.
The next day, Sakura sat in her office in Konoha Hospital, finishing off her paperwork from her most previous patient.
She sighed as she attached two photographs to the medical document.
"Herpes at its finest" She placed the document into a folder and positioned it neatly into the filing cabinet. She looked up at the clock in anticipation of her next patient.
High pitched squeals were heard from down the hall. That was the signal. Sakura began to take out a file that was placed in the cabinet with last names that started with the letter "U".
Her office door opened to reveal the raven haired ninja in his grey high-collared zipper shirt and dark pants with a prominent rope belt around his waist. Hasn't he learned how to knock?
"Hey Sasuke-kun" the kunoichi turned to look at him with a bright smile on her face, ignoring her inner thoughts.
"Sakura" He acknowledged her, closing the door behind him.
"Actually, you're going to have to follow me into the examination room. There are a couple of procedures that I need to follow, but this will only be a brief check up to see how your body has been." Sakura explained in a professional tone.
"Ah" he turned around to walk out of the room and waited till she stepped out to lead the way. This was the first time he saw her since the day they got back to Konoha. He found it unusual that she didn't come to visit him while he was under confinement.
"Do you think they're dating?"
"I don't think so! You know how Sakura-sama is; she never gives men a chance!" Sasuke's ears perked up to the two female nurses that stood behind the desk.
"Ah! I envy her. She gets to inspect and have her hands all over that Uchiha under all those robes!" The young medical nurse whispered to her fellow colleague, letting out a fan girl giggle.
Sakura overheard the conversation of the two gossiping girls, and stomped her way over to the desk, placing her hand on her hip.
"Don't you ladies have any work to do?" she glared at the two young women.
"N-n-no S-Sakura-sama" the young girl trembled in fear, avoiding eye contact from her superior.
Sasuke grew more and more irritated as he stood by Sakura's side. He just wanted to get the hell out of there.
"Well then, there are documents on my desk just waiting to have someone have their hands all over them!" Sakura replied enthusiastically, before walking away with Sasuke following.
"H-Hai!" The sound of scrambling footsteps got further and further.
The medical-nin opened the door to reveal a typical examination room, allowing the Uchiha to enter the facility first. Sakura closed the door behind her and walked over to the counter to review her clipboard.
"Please take a seat on the examination bed" she commanded him as he sat on the edge of the soft surface.
He watched her flipped through the documents, reviewing the text as she took a few locks of her hair and placed them behind her right ear. How come she never took the time to visit him? Does she still resent him, despite the fact that he returned to the village; to his home? How was he supposed to rebuild his bonds with the people of Konoha, especially with her? Why was he asking so many questions?
She looked back at him only to find that he was already looking at her, waiting to hear what she will say next. Sakura looked at him with a confused look. Doesn't he know how a visit at the doctor's was like?
Sasuke gazed into her deep emerald eyes and was locked into a trance. Ever since his life flashed before him at the end of the war, he couldn't help but wonder why he kept seeing a certain pink haired kunoichi in his head.
Maybe she really did changed. Maybe the Sakura he knew wasn't the same anymore. Since when were other girls afraid of her? She looked like she wouldn't even hurt a fly. But then again, he did see what she was capable of doing back then on the battlefield.
"Take off your shirt" she ordered in a flat tone breaking him away from his innermost thoughts.
"What?" Sasuke's eyes narrowed.
"I said, take off your shirt" does she really have to repeat it twice? It was hard enough the first time.
Sasuke obeyed, and took the zipper of his shirt bringing it down slowly. He ripped the clothed material off his skin, tossing it to the side only to reveal beautifully chiseled muscles and milky white skin. His pecs stood out from his body, and a toned eight-pack sat right below it. She made sure her jaw was closed to prevent herself from drooling.
Sakura forced herself to look away and maintain her composure. She looked back and quickly looked away, wearing a pretty blush on the surface of her cheeks.
Sasuke grinned at the sight before him. At least a bit of her is there.
The medical-nin released a sigh, and walked over to the bed where he was sitting; wearing a poker face to show that she will not be affected by his godly like body. She reached for her stethoscope that snaked around her neck, and placed it lightly over his chest.
He hissed at the cool sensation that touched his skin.
"Take a deep breath."
Sasuke took a deep breath. Her scent filled his nostrils. He exhaled.
Coal eyes widened at the realization that her face was only a few inches away from his. She was facing the wall to concentrate on the sounds of his heartbeat and slowly moved around the stethoscope on the other side of his chest. Bright emerald eyes sparkled right before him, as he found his gaze over to her slightly parted pink lips. His heart began to beat faster.
Sakura furrowed her brows and backed away slowly taking out her pen. She reached for her clipboard and jotted down a few notes.
"What is it?" Sasuke examined her as she took off the ear buds of the stethoscope.
"Looks like you actually have a heart!" she smirked and slowly placed the clipboard down, then placed the pen back into the pocket of her medical coat.
"Hn" he glared at her in response.
The pink haired ninja reached for the blood pressure meter that sat on a hook, and wrapped the cuff around his toned biceps. She placed one hand on her hips, as the other squeezed on the bulb.
He watched as she did her job, feeling the pressure around his arm tighten. He observed how flawless her porcelain skin looked, and how perfect her pink hair fell into place. He cursed himself. Why was she annoying him in his head?
Her gaze met ebony eyes. She smiled warmly at him and released the cuff around his arm.
"I need to check if your wounds have been healing correctly" Sakura placed her hands in front of his chest and looked at him for approval.
"Ah" he nodded and watched as her hands began to emit a green glow.
She traced the glow over his chest as she struggled to suppress a blush. This would have been a dream come true if she was still a kid.
"Tsunada-sama performed her surgery flawlessly as expected" She smiled as she continued to examine his body.
Sasuke watched as delicate fingers hovered downwards to his lower abdomen. He tightened his jaw.
She got on her knees and began to observe the muscles on his right thigh. He watched as she concentrated on her job, oblivious to the fact that a slight blush was plastered on his face.
She was so close to his… Sasuke referred back to the rare yet naughty dreams he had of his pink haired teammate, which occurred not only when he was in confinement, but also during his quest of revenge.
He felt his blood rush to the lower part of his form as he looked at her parted lips. 'Shit… Okay, Kakashi in a maid outfit. Wait, Sakura would look good in that. Dammit. Orochimaru taking off his dentures, and making a slobbery mess... Yes, that's pretty gross' He bit his bottom lip in concentration as he continued to stare at the medical-nin.
"Well, the wounds you had are healing fine but it will leave a scar" She got up to her feet and looked right back at him.
"Hn."
"Sasuke quit staring. I know you hate visiting the doctors but you're almost done! Just one shot and-"
"Wait, what? Shot?" he snarled as he gave her an Uchiha death glare.
"Now now Sasuke, you're a big boy now. I'm sure you can handle a poke on your arm" she released the cuff from his limb and walked over to the drawer, pulling out a syringe.
Sasuke looked franticly around the room for an escape.
But there was no way out.
Maybe if he put her in a genjutsu, he could escape using the door.
She looked back at him with a devilish grin and pushed the end of the syringe, giving it a little squirt. Who knew that this cold bastard was scared of this?
"Sa-suke-kun" she purred "You're not scared of... This little thing, are you?"
"Tch" He looked away and stared at the needle in her hand.
Were needles always this big? She must have taken the biggest one for him! Why must she despise him?
He looked at the door and prepared to bolt out until all movements were stopped. Since when did he have chakra restrains on him?
The kunoichi was now standing in front of him with a smirk on her face.
"Hold still" she chimed as she began to move closer to his form. A bead of sweat fell down on the side of Sasuke's face.
His onyx eyes flared into crimson, oblivious to the fact that she was standing between his knees.
Genjutsu it is.
Before his sharingan could transform into its second stage, he froze at the warm and soft sensation of plump lips that kissed his forehead.
He looked at her with a surprised expression before turning it into a frown. No one has ever dared to make such physical contact with him. Except for the dobe.
"What do you think you're doing?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
"Giving you your shot!" she grinned at him before placing a pink band aid on his arm.
"All done." She said casually before walking away and dispensing the syringe.
Sasuke growled. She caught him off guard once again.
"You can't just do that and then-"
Sakura shoved a cherry flavored lollipop into his mouth and patted the top of his head "Relax Sasuke-kun, that wasn't too bad, was it? I usually pull sneaky tricks like this on Naruto when he needs a shot."
She smiled for a second before Sasuke grabbed her wrist and pulled it away from his head. His other hand pulled out the lollipop away from his mouth. She knows he doesn't like sweets, yet this lollipop wasn't too bad and the taste reminded him of her scent that he inhaled earlier. He smiled inwardly.
He glared at her and turned away his head.
"Thank you, Sakura."
His gaze turned back to her and released his grip from her wrist. She looked back at him and nodded before walking away. Maybe the kiss-on-forehead trick wasn't a good idea. She felt a slight familiar feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"Anytime, you're lucky we did the check up now before I leave. If someone else did it, I don't know how they would even manage getting close to you." she removed her coat and placed it on the hook.
'Before you leave?' he didn't bother asking. He just wanted to go home.
She opened the door and looked behind to find him putting back his shirt on. She smiled softly and turned away "See you later Sasuke."
"Ah."
And just like that, she was gone.