Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Heck of a House Call

What I was doing going to his apartment, I will never know. He had just gotten back to the village a week ago, seriously injured mind you. He had spent four days in the hospital under my expert care, and then he had been sent home. The only person I had ever given a house call to was my former sensei Hatake Kakashi, and that was only because he never went to the hospital unless he was unconscious and unable to argue his way out of it.

It wasn't like he really needed this courtesy call or anything, he should be fine. He was lazy and I bet he would have taken my advice to take it easy to heart.

I guess I missed our conversations that we had while he was in the hospital. He was the village's number one genius after all, and I was up there myself. He had a vast pool of knowledge that even consisted of some medical information because his family had a background in it.

I stood in front of an apartment, which according to his file, should be his. The 21 year old had finally moved out of his parents' house a couple months back.

I reached my hand up to knock on the door.

It opened. A girl shrieked. I jumped. A guy laughed.

"Forehead girl?! What the hell are you doing here?!" Yamanaka Ino demanded to know in a loud and shrill voice.

It took all that I had not to visibly cringe, "What does it look like I am doing Ino-pig?" I asked holding up my medic bag.

"Looks like someone is getting a surprise check-up," Akimichi Chouji smirked as he shoved a handful of chips into his mouth.

"Since when do you do house calls?" Ino asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at me.

"Since we are talking about the village's number one mind and strategist," I told her narrowing my eyes at her as well.

"You didn't last time," she pointed out.

Damn suspicious pig. "Last time he wasn't hurt this severely," I informed her.

"Come on Ino," Chouji said taking her elbow and pulling her out of my way, "You promised me lunch."

"What?! No I didn't," she said shocked.

"Yes you did last night," he said pulling her down the hallway, "See you later Sakura. Take good care of him."

"Bye Chouji, bye Pig," I called after them.

I stood there for a second and took a deep breath, steeling myself up for what I was doing. Seriously, why the hell was I here anyway?

"Ne Shikamaru," I called softly as I headed inside and shut the door behind me. The inside was sparsely furnished, just a tv, and a couch, and in the kitchen was a small table. I turned and headed down the hallway. There was a small bathroom, a closet with the washer and dryer, and then a door at the end of the hall that was closed.

"Shikamaru," I said knocking on the door, "It's me Sakura. I was coming to check on how you are doing."

I got no response. I slowly opened the door and peaked inside. He was lying in bed, the blankets pulled up the mid-chest, without a shirt on, sleeping. I let out a sigh, those medicines could knock a horse out. Why didn't they tell me that he was asleep?

Looking around his room, I couldn't decide if I was surprised to see that there were clothes thrown all over the place.

Now the question was, do I leave or do I stay here and wait for him to wake up? If I leave then I will never get the nerve to come back here and then Chouji will tell him I was here and things will get awkward. If I stay, I could be sitting around for about two hours. I guess if I stay I could clean up in here a bit and make him something to eat so he doesn't have to worry about it. That would be the nice thing to do for an injured friend.

I put down my medic bag and began to scoop up piles of clothes and began to throw them in the washing machine. Once I had what would fit in the washer, I threw the rest in the hamper right next to it. I went back and began to pick up all the discarded weapons and scrolls and began to place them in their appropriate boxes on top of his dresser. It took me an hour to straighten up his room.

He still wasn't up yet so I began to make some ramen for him since I know that he likes it. As it was cooking I began to fold his laundry and started the last load. Honestly, how the hell did he let his room get so bad?

It took me ten minutes to figure out what went where in his dresser. Mostly because there really wasn't anything in his dressers.

This was becoming one hell of a courtesy call.

"What are you doing?" a voice asked lazily.

"You are finally awake," I said turning to face him. He was struggling to sit up as he looked around the room in surprise. "You shouldn't be trying to move around a whole lot right now," I told him.

"You cleaned my room," he pointed out lying back down.

"I can't believe you let it get that bad," I said placing my hands on my hips, "It took me an hour to clean in here."

"Why did you clean my room?" he asked.

"I came to check up on you and you were asleep so I thought I would wait around on you and there was nothing else to do," I told him.

"Since when do you do house calls?" he asked.

Saved by the timer, "Oh look your lunch is done," I said heading out into the hallway. I can't lie to the guy, he would be able to tell. I put the food in a bowl and got a tray and some water and headed back to his room.

He had propped himself up into a sitting position. "You made me ramen?" he said confused.

"I didn't really know what else you liked and I guess I am used to Naruto," I said putting the tray down over his lap. I sat down on his bed as well. I put the chopsticks in the ramen and brought some noodles to his lips. He was definitely startled for a moment before he allowed me to feed him.

I saw the questioning look in his eyes, "Your levels are still really low," I told him. Though they were actually ok. He was perfectly able to feed himself, and to be up….well basically he was ok to do anything but heavy training.

Once he was done I took the tray back to the kitchen and washed all the dishes and put them away. As I did I heard him in the bathroom. I let out a sigh as I went and took the last load of clothes out of the dryer. I took them back to his room and began to put them all away.

"This is one hell of a house call," he muttered as he slid back in bed.

I quickly straightened up feeling ashamed of myself, "I am sorry, I had no right to mess with your room without permission…"

"Troublesome woman," he muttered and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, "That was not what I meant."

I threw the rest of his clothes away quickly and grabbed my bag and sat down by his bed, "I will get to it then," I said quickly.

He let out an annoyed sigh, "Don't rush," he said, "It would be troublesome if you rushed my check-up," he said.

I nodded and began to unwrap the bandages that wrapped around his stomach. There was a nasty red scar near his left side. I put my hand on it and began to see how it was doing.

"When do you have to be back at the hospital?" he asked.

"I am off today," I told him.

"You came on your day off?" he asked amazed.

I didn't say anything but began to heal the wound a little more since it wasn't coming along like I would have liked it to. Once I was done I rewrapped it with fresh bandages. I then moved on to his lesser injuries.

Half an hour later I was done.

I began to pack my stuff up. "Well I am going to go to the hospital and will fill out your evaluation, I will need to you to go to the hospital in three days and have them check you out," I told him.

"Ne Sakura," he began.

I turned to face him, "Yes?" I asked.

"How about a quick game of shougi?" he asked.

"Well I have nothing better to do," I said putting down my bag. He directed me towards the board and I set it up on the tray so he didn't have to get up from bed.

XXXXX

It took us an hour and a half to finish just one game. The whole time we talked about some medicines that his family knew that were great in treating most poisons. Since I specialize in poisons, I was excited to learn all about them. Of course he won, he has only lost the game once after all and it was to his father.

"Well it is five, so I better get going," I said standing up and moving the tray off to the side.

"You know, I am getting kind of hungry again," he muttered.

I turned around and gave him a smile, "Would you like me to fix you something for dinner?" I asked.

"If you don't have other plans you could eat here," he began.

"I'll go whip something up for us then," I said and headed into the kitchen.

XXXXX

An hour later I came back into his room with some chicken and rice with some vegetables. We ate in silence, sharing the tray over his lap. After we ate we played another game of shougi.

"Well that was fun," I said getting up. It is a good thing that I have gotten better when it comes to loosing over the years. Otherwise I would be throwing a fit right now.

"Yeah it was," he agreed leaning back against the pillows.

I got up and took care of the dishes. I came back into the room and picked up my bag again. "Well it is after 8, and you should get some rest and take your medicine," I told him.

"Alright," he sighed.

"Do you need anything before I go?" I asked.

"Um…could you get me a glass of water?" he asked.

"Sure," I said and got said item.

"Thanks," he said taking it.

"Well I will see you later," I said giving him one of my most brilliant smiles.

"Ne, Sakura," he began.

"Yes Shikamaru?" I asked.

"Thanks for coming over," he said.

"You are welcome, just get better ok," I said and headed down the hall. Sighing I put down my medic bag by the door and was about to reach down and put my shoes on. Suddenly I couldn't move.

"What is going on?" I said trying to get my body to move. On its own it turned around. I saw about five feet away from me was Shikamaru.

He lowered his head and I was forced to as well. I saw that he had used his shadow imitation technique on me. We looked back up at each other.

We stayed like that for a couple minutes.

"Is there something else that you needed?" I asked him.

"Not really," he confessed with a sigh as he scratched the back of his head.

I had to as well, "Then why did you use the shadow imitation on me?" I asked confused.

"I ran out of excuses," he muttered.

I was slightly confused. Though thinking back on it I had tried to leave a couple times now, but then he asked me to play shougi, then make dinner, then play again, then the water.

I gave him a smile, "Shika, if you wanted me to stay you should have just asked," I told him.

He began to mutter something about something being troublesome.

"Well now release me," I told him, "We need to get you back to bed. I am not sure if you are well enough to be doing this."

"Will you…" he trailed off.

"If you want me to stay then I will," I told him.

He nodded once then released me from his jutsu.

I walked over to him and took his hand, "Now let's get you back to bed," I said giving him a smile.

"Troublesome medic," he muttered and allowed me to pull him back into his room.

8/28/06