Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it.
I.
- Colors -
The bags under her eyes seemed to become a deeper violet with every day. Every night, to be precise. If she kept staying up all night, her hairs were going to fall and then what? Her teeth? Her skin?
She puffed.
Being ridiculously paranoid was a daily routine of hers.
Her hand wiped the dim mirror, clearing the view. She just turned twenty-three and her skin was perfect, her teeth too. Only her hair wasn't. As well as her eyes. One of the many genetic mutations the war brought. A victim to one of the many bioweapons that struck The Land of Fire, she knew she was supposed to feel lucky that it didn't hit her with something worse, a form of cancer, cell degradation, neurosis, paralysis or things of that category.
It all started four years ago with an unexpected attack on a square full of people and she happened to be there at the time, with her father. Konoha kept the peace for long, although everywhere in the country rebellions brought destruction and flames. A lot changed throughout these four years, Konoha transformed into a fortress, the police forces were everywhere, there was a new early curfew, a strict regime that allowed not more than a simple walk to the shop and back. The city became quieter, children were no longer heard playing on the streets.
The war continued to this day. A silent war, it was. A game of hide and seek. The Land of Fire, as well as its border countries, continuously took damage, was it another bomb, intentionally crashed vehicles, fires, assassinations both on civilians and state officials. The trained forces maintained the peace as much as they could, staying vigilant at all times but there was always someone who slipped their eye and caused the next tragedy. These were usually groups with radical views and intentions of taking over the political power.
The weapon that struck the crowded square that day was unlike anything she had ever seen. Vastly decreasing the strength of the immune system, it brought down a bit more than a dozen people, mostly children that couldn't fight it. Fortunately, she fought it through. However, the weapon had a side effect that both she and her father took upon themselves. Their hairs and eyes paled with every week.
Her hair faded to that dull, painfully inappropriate, in her eyes, pink and the worst part was not any of the dyes she tried on afterward stayed for long due to the strong issue of the chemical in the weapon they were struck with. Pink. The worst of the color gamma. She felt as if her whole life transformed into a grotesque, the professionalism she previously radiated had now evaporated, leaving a caricature.
Her eyes used to be hazel only with a slight green tinge but now they have faded too, to a hollow green. The celadon nuance of her mother's vases. It was blunt and she didn't like it. As she began to think, she didn't like her forehead too, or the fact that her body hadn't got the appeal of a female. In her frenzy, she tried to change whatever it was in her power and she ended up with an athletic figure. Of course, she reconciled with the fact that she'd never have Ino's curves but at least she was fit. Anyway, it's not as she had any choice.
Sakura brushed back her hair and grabbed her toothbrush, averting eyes from the static reflection.
Hollows, that's what they all were. Walking ghosts. Anyone who survived through the daily horrors and fears of being stabbed, blown to pieces or shot while walking to work or back home, anyone that passed through the days, remaining physically alive but existing as a void, filled with silence and submission knew that this was no way for a person to live. It was as if living constantly under dark clouds, anticipating a storm. That way of living was a confinement to the soul that forced everyone to be dark, uniform and quiet. Nothing changed, for years.
Sakura tied her hair into a ponytail, leaving a few locks free around both sides of her face and went on with dressing up for the day. It was early Autumn and although the leaves still hadn't completely turned golden and red, the temperatures were quite low. Which demanded putting some warm clothes. Quickly finishing with the details, she took her bag and left her apartment, locking it up.
Exactly 7:45, she wasn't a lone figure on the streets since everyone who had a job was obliged to comply with it, wartime or not. The police officers from the night shift were still on their posts, patrolling around every corner. While pacing to the Konoha Hospital, Sakura checked her phone and saw a single unread message from yesterday. Nothing new.
Konoha was not a small city and it always bothered her that the hospital was only one. Having a deficiency of doctors anyway, it was hard to keep up with the patients, especially if they hadn't some ordinary injuries like skin deep wounds or sprains. After working one year as a doctor, she came to the realization that living on the other side of the city, in the house of her parents, wasn't a good idea. She needed to be close, with the schedule always shifting and her, constantly working overtime and that's why she bought an apartment two blocks from the building.
Apart from the hours of disputes with her parents, it turned out a good choice. She understood, they worried about her well-being, living all alone, only on twenty but being a doctor was her call of duty and of heart. Helping people was the least she could do while watching innocent die every day around her. Plus, she couldn't possibly stay at home and do nothing about it, having the degree anyway.
Arriving on time, Sakura hurried through the entrance and headed to the locker room to leave her bag.
"Hey." She heard a greeting behind her and turned to smile at the dark-haired woman that just entered the room - Shizune, one of the main surgeons in the hospital and a respected figure for her knowledge.
"Hey."
Sakura put on the white overall, giving out a faint smile.
"I'll need you in the Emergency Department." Shizune glanced at her. "Tsunade called me two hours ago, said the helicopters were off last night. We have several serious traumas, gunshots, and God knows what else."
"When do we expect them to arrive?" Sakura furrowed. "Was there another attack? I heard nothing on the news yesterday."
"Get your thoughts together, we have to show our best performance." Shizune closed her locker and walked out of the room, followed by Sakura. "These are Konoha's Special Forces."
"The army?"
"Worse. Elite Soldiers. We'll be in trouble with the authorities if something unwanted happens with any of them. They've invested too much there."
"Elite Soldiers? Why send them here?"
"Don't ask questions, do your job. I'll have you know when they arrive. I'm off disinfecting the instruments. We don't know how severe the injuries are exactly." Shizune spoke evenly and stopped before the doors to one of the surgery rooms. "Tell Ino that if she's late one more day, she's fired."
"Understood." Sakura nodded and followed Shizune with her eyes.
Just marvelous. The constant waves of hurt citizens weren't enough, now this. The Special Forces were the Government's property, which meant that their visit to the Hospital would surely be remarked throughout the media. Tons of obnoxious journalists and reporters asking tons of questions, seeking for more information and juicy details like vultures around a dead body. Most of the information was exaggerated or dramatized way more than necessary afterward anyway.
Sakura sighed.
It was going to be a long day.
A snap of fingers dragged her out of the monotonous line of thoughts in her head as she filled in documents in her own cabinet while still no one requested her presence. It was on the second floor, with a view to the wood beyond a few houses. Previously thick and surrounding the city as a natural fence, now thinned due to the new order. A lot of the trees were cut down and a tall concrete wall served as a border to it. That's why she loved her office, it allowed her a view of the trees, over the wall.
"Forehead, you're called. The guests have arrived." It was Ino, her long golden hair fell down her shoulders, glamorous as always. Sakura always thought she's men's favorite nurse. There were times when some returned to the Hospital with new injuries only to see her again. Seemingly, she had no problem with that.
Sakura glanced at her watch. 9:30.
"Let's go." She stood up and trailed after Ino.
"Okay, Shizune assigned everyone to a different patient. Our main priority are the five ones in the emergency room, the other seven have minor injuries and will be in the ward. You and I, although with another doctor, will be with the serious injuries, Nonō and her team will take care of the rest. Take this." Ino handed her a file.
"Thanks." Sakura grabbed it and they both hurried down the hall.
Once they entered the emergency room, there was a lively presence of medics going all ways, carrying towels and bandages.
"I go this way, see you later." Ino tapped Sakura on the shoulder and left her.
Sakura quickly found her patient, sitting on one of the hospital beds, still and quiet.
"Hello. I'm Doctor Haruno and I'm here to help with whatever I can." Sakura left the file aside, then pulled the neutral colored curtains behind her so that she could isolate the fuss around them and help her focus.
After receiving dead silence from him, she gave up on the conversation and neared him, pulling out the glasses in her pocket and putting on medical gloves. First, she had to take care of the worst, which seemed to be the shoulder wound. Seeing most of the upper part of the uniform soaked in blood, she wondered how many hours did the soldiers spend in that state. Must've been quite a lot, judging from the unnatural white skin on this one.
Sakura carefully pulled wherever the three layers of the dark mattered uniform was torn apart. Clearly, that was a bullet wound. She hoped there wasn't anything broken or dislocated. Now that his shoulder was bare, there was only blood and after a few touches, she was sure at least of something.
"Good news. The bullet's not in." She commented out loud, glancing at him for a second.
There was something in his eyes. She had seen that same look in people that have witnessed death and destruction at first hand. Dry sorrow that could not be mistaken.
"Doesn't look that bad but... It must've been at least a 22 caliber in order to make such a wound." Sakura almost whispered, her eyes feverishly looking for a piece of fabric that might've stuck in between and cause an infection.
Her hand reached for the pincers on the small wheeled table she dragged to herself a few moments ago, as she spotted a small piece after all. She quickly removed it, afraid that the blood loss could be too much for him to handle, the wound still bled. And still, she couldn't let him lay down because the hole in his skin had to be treated.
"This will sting a bit," Sakura warned before applying the soaked with formaldehyde cloth on his skin.
He winced, his brows wrinkling for a moment.
Sakura quickly cleaned the skin around the wound from both sides and put new clothes, pressing them as she bandaged his shoulder tightly. She grew concerned, though, because his breathing was shallow and he was positively dizzy from all the blood loss.
"Do you feel nausea?" Her hand took his wrist to check the pulse after finishing with the bandages.
It was way too fast.
"Yes."
"And a headache, I assume." She furrowed, looking for any other injuries. "Let me see your eyes."
She gently raised his chin up, the light was bright enough for her to see clearly. Unfamiliar feeling pierced through her in the moment her thumbs rested on his face. She was taken aback. Perhaps it was the ink color of the irises or just the overall tiredness, something about his eyes touched her deeply. In a split second, she caught a glimpse of a fathomless pain that was locked up deliberately.
"You seem distracted, doctor." His expression didn't change, though she startled, suddenly feeling her face warmer.
She focused anew and examined his eyes properly. As she feared, the sclera was darker than usual and that meant there was another, internal issue. Finding out exactly what required a blood sample she couldn't take one at the moment. Absolutely not.
"Any other external injuries?" Sakura asked, choosing to ignore the fact that he was now scrutinizing her.
"Bioweapon." He said slowly and won her eyes on him.
"I'm not here to discuss my health, I'm here to discuss yours. If you don't mind..."
"First Lieutenant Uchiha Sasuke."
"Lieutenant." She finished. "If you prove to have more medical knowledge than me, then I'll gladly give up to you my place."
He remained silent and she took a breath, tucking her locks of hair behind the ear.
"I'll have you put on a system, I'm afraid you'll pass out any second now, with that much blood lost."
"I assure you... I've seen much worse." He spoke absently, his thoughts apparently somewhere else.
"You might want to... take off the uniform. The upper part, that is." Sakura said, feeling more inconvenient with every word spoken. "I'm afraid I'll need your forearm bare for the syringe."
Her attention was fully on the blood glucose monitoring device but she could feel his eyes on her back. She put the needle at the end of the narrow pipe and adjusted the dose.
"You can lay down now..." She turned to help him but found herself distracted once again. The skin on his left arm was scarred all over. "Careful." Sakura forced her mind to remain professional and her hands guided him slowly until he rested back on the bed.
Brief silence spread between them as she took the time to search for the right spot where the vein was most visible.
"Left-handed?" She raised her eyes for a second to meet his, now slightly narrowed.
"How did you know?"
"The watch." Sakura carefully inserted the needle in the vein and attached a transparent patch to keep it in place. "It's on your right hand."
He stared at her for a while before relaxing back on the pillow.
"You're lucky you've been hit in the shoulder, lieutenant." Sakura sighed, taking her gloves off.
"I don't believe in luck."
"Well, then." She paused. "God favors you."
He scoffed.
"God forgot about me long ago."
Sakura slowed down her movements, looking up at him again. She knew they weren't supposed to share any information connected with their missions. But she could clearly see their last mission had gone terribly wrong. Did they lose a comrade or being morbid was a constant mood with this one?
"I'll suggest you rest for a while. If the pain doesn't stop," Sakura made a small pause. "I'll come back."
"And if it does?" He asked evenly, but there was a tinge of mockery she didn't fail to notice. Her authority had crumbled down in the moment she lost focus, checking up his eyes.
"I'll come back anyway."
They looked at each other but she averted her eyes quickly and shifted the curtain, taking the file before leaving.
Sakura went to disinfect her gloves next door and returned right away, searching for medics in need of help. She found Ino soon enough, on her way to the disinfectant room.
"How was it with you?" Sakura asked, agreeing to make her company.
"Can you imagine I stumbled across Shikamaru Nara out of all people?"
"I've heard you mention that name before."
"He was a close friend, a neighbor actually. We even learned in the same school. He won the Excellence Award in our graduate class. I haven't seen him in years but he's still a smart-ass."
Sakura smiled at Ino's remark.
"I never understood how can such a lazy bastard get all the A's. Until the very last test, I still thought he's cheating."
"It's great you two met again. Did he recognize you?"
"Well, yeah. But we had to put him unconscious, three fractured ribs too close to the heart. Shizune insisted on having him anesthetized cause the pain is hellish. But he breathes normally, should heal just fine in five-six weeks."
"Good to hear." Sakura exhaled slowly. "I wonder what happened to them all. Seems like they come directly from a battlefield."
"Don't know." Ino shrugged. "I doubt anyone will fill us up on that."
"How are the others?"
"Mm, there's this Temari girl that had some serious grazes on her skin. And the weirdo with the broken leg, think his name was Aburame Shin... Shino." Ino made a sucking sound. "Ah, yes, he has it rough, the skin is practically peeled off, the bone can be seen."
"Awesome."
"Yeah."
"I think you said five?" Sakura put her hands in the pockets of her overall as Ino shook off the water off hers.
"Five?" She furrowed, freezing for a moment. "Oh, yes. The fifth one is the operating room, with Tsunade. I think he's a goner."
"Goner? Why?"
"Third-degree burns. Nasty. And some shrapnel pieces that may or may not have ripped the skin on his back."
Sakura raised up the file and started reading through the names. Four pages ahead, she found the missing name among the ones Ino shared with her.
"Second Lieutenant, Uzumaki Naruto."
"Yep, that one. We'll see about him later. You wanna go take a look at the minor injuries?"
Both left the room and headed to the other side of the corridor slowly.
"How was it with you? You're being unusually quiet, forehead."
"Awkward."
"What you mean?" Ino's curiosity was sparkled.
Sakura let out a quiet moan.
"Ino, how do I get people take me seriously with that hair color?"
"Don't ignore the question, tell me what happened." Ino narrowed eyes at her.
Sakura was still thoughtful. Was it really the hair color this time? Or it was her mistake? Perhaps he was just that kind of a person. Not relying on anyone, looking down on people. It was possible, being a first lieutenant at such an early age, surely such accomplishments aberrated his mind into thinking higher about himself. Perhaps doctors were below his dignity. Or... she just screwed up.
"Was he cute?"
"Ino, stop it." Sakura snapped. "We're not in a shopping center. You don't look at your patients that way."
"Who are you trying to fool here? Your whole face is red." Ino scoffed. "He was cute, wasn't he?"
"Shut up, Pig."
Ino pushed the door to the ward and almost clashed into a tall figure.
"Sorry." She murmured and raised her eyes up.
"Hello there, Beautiful." Were the man's first words, to her great surprise.
Ino wasn't moving and Sakura waited for any of them to do something but they just stood still for a while.
"And you are?" Ino finally uttered, being used to flirty remarks of all sorts.
"Sai. Nice to meet you." He offered his hand but when Ino replied, instead of shaking it he took and kissed it.
Sakura hadn't seen her friend so dumbfounded and speechless.
"Uh... Ino. Yamanaka Ino."
"Ino." He repeated, his eyes slowly scanning her form.
"This is Dr. Haruno Sakura."
"You have a rather ludicrous appearance, doctor." He smiled, offering a hand but Sakura just stared at him, hands squeezing the files.
"I'll go help the nurses." She said firmly and passed by Sai, pacing ahead in anger.
Unbelievable. Didn't anyone teach that man some manners? And that smile, she barely handled the impulse to bash him with her fist.
"Doctor Haruno." A boy with the name Iyashi greeted her with a nod. "Are you alright, doctor?"
Sakura took a breath and exhaled sharply. Was she... really that funny? She swallowed back the lump in her throat, threatening to destroy her whole day.
"I'm fine." She smiled at him, not sure if she'd hold back the bitterness that layered inside of her with every disapproving look and glance at her.
"Sakura." She heard Ino's voice coming closer.
"Did everyone get the needed medical attention, Iyashi?" Sakura asked.
"Yes, doctor."
"Sakura, you okay?" Ino asked, turning her shoulder to look at her.
"Of course I'm okay." Sakura gave her a warm smile but Ino just looked at her silently for a moment.
"Don't mind him, he's another one of these assholes. You know I'm like a magnet to those."
Sakura chuckled hollowly.
"Yeah, I know."
"Forget about this, ok?" Ino held Sakura's arms tightly.
"Ok."
"Goodness, is that Chōji?!" Ino marveled, letting her go.
"Who's Chōji?" Sakura raised a brow, tracing her gaze.
"We were besties at school!" Ino clapped with happiness. "Can't believe my two besties are Elite Soldiers now. I am so proud."
Sakura shook her head as she watched Ino hurrying to meet her friend to the other side of the room. She gave the files in her hands to Iyashi and walked out of the ward slowly. As soon as she entered the ladies' room, her hand pulled out the phone from the pocket of her trousers and dialed a number.
There were two free signals before the other side picked up.
"Hello, Dad." She paused. "I'm fine. Just wanted to see you. Can I come this weekend?"
A wide smile blossomed on her lips in the next seconds.
"Great. See you in two days, then. Bye."
She hung up and looked at her phone for a long time, deciding to put it back in her pocket not until a teardrop fell on its display.
A/N: Thanks for reading. I have seen multiple fanfics with military!Sasuke and but I don't think I've seen a RL AU like that. Thought I'll give it a try. Also, I might rewrite those first five chapters after I'm finished because I messed up too many things.
This is M but I have to say I'm not the swearing type and the language is minor course, it'll contain non-explicit sexual situations and some detailed description of violence/injuries/blood etc. (By the way, I'll have Sasuke's left arm scarred instead of missing here. Thought that'd be an interesting concept and a change.)
Oh and also I'm having some major KakaSaku here but don't raise your hopes much. I include tiny fragments of InoSai, ShikaTema and NaruHina too. I appreciate any kind of feedback 'cause I want to get better at writing. It's gonna be a long journey, I have ~100k words planned out for this, just so you know. Thanks, again and hope you like it.