A/N: Short chapter. I apologize if it seems rushed or sloppy. Wanted to get it done before I needed to start studying for an engineering exam I have later this week. Enjoy!


Chapter 2

Dark Haired Shinobi


Sakura's alarm went off as soon as the first rays of sunlight filtered their way through her shaded window. In her half asleep state she rolled over towards Sasuke's side of the bed to find it cold and empty.

That's right; Sasuke is still gone.

She took her usual morning shower, made herself breakfast in their kitchen, and headed out towards the hospital in her medical attire. She met the eyes of a few scornful villagers but she just looked away as their gazes drilled at her back. She was promoted by Tsunade as a head medical-nin a few years back due to her exceptional medical expertise, all thanks to the former Hokage herself. Most of her job was to check in on high risk patients or work in emergency care. Her job was becoming even busier since the patient numbers were steadily increasing with recent demand for Konoha shinobi. To Sakura, it was a stressful, but rewarding job to save so many lives.

Sakura spent all morning with her medic team working on a young, dark haired shinobi who came in with grievous battle wounds. They were able to stabilize him after several hours but they were dangerously close to losing him. Her team congratulated her and she thanked them all in return before cleaning herself off and going on break.

It was hard for her to not see Sasuke in that young shinobi's face as she worked on him. It caused her hands to shake so she had to put additional focus on her chakra control in order to heal him properly. What if Sasuke was out there now, alone and bleeding out without anyone to help him? Sakura knew Sasuke was extremely powerful so he could protect himself, but it was easy for things to go wrong out on the battlefield despite extreme caution. He ventured out alone, Sakura assumed, meaning he had no one to keep an eye out while he slept.

Maybe I should ask him if he'd like me to come with one time, Sakura thought. Yet she was doubtful he would actually want her there with him.

"Dr. Uchiha, we need you immediately!"

Sakura snapped out of her thoughts and turned to the young nurse that had appeared in front of her, unnoticed. "Lead the way. What's the situation?"

Sakura and the nurse power walked at a brisk pace through the hospital's halls. Sakura prepared herself by tying up her hair. "Young male. Chuunin-level shinobi. Unconscious. Lacerations across body and heavy blood loss. We're told he might have been poisoned though this hasn't been confirmed. Also showing signs of muscle tissue damage." The nurse lead Sakura into a room with a team already working on him before she nodded and left.

Sakura caught a few glimpses of black hair behind the scrambling nurses. Her stomach sunk. She knew it was incredibly improbable that this would be her husband, but the thought still crossed her mind after her earlier thoughts. When she hastily squeezed through the team of medics her eyes widened as she was met with a very familiar face.

"L-Lee!" she gasped, horrified.

Her long-time fellow shinobi and friend was laid out on the medical table in front of her, blood seeping through hastily wrapped bandages. His flak jacket was wide open; a medic had cut through his jumpsuit to gain access to a large gash across his chest. There were smaller lacerations across his body that the other medics were pumping chakra into. Not even unconsciousness could save Lee from the pain Sakura could see clearly written on his face.

After recovering from the initial shock Sakura went straight to work. "I can take care of the wound on his chest. Make sure he doesn't lose too much blood!"

"Yes, doctor!"

The medic hovering over Lee's chest moved aside for Sakura. The wound was too wide to heal properly with chakra so Sakura picked up an available needle and skillfully sutured the gash together. She tied and snipped the surgical thread and then hastily put aside the needle to begin working on pumping as much chakra as she could into the sutured wound. The medics around her were doing the same or applying pressure to the wounds bleeding the most. When a gash was properly healed a medic would then bandage the still sensitive wound to prevent it from bursting open again.

Sakura noticed Lee was abnormally pale and cold. His pained expression had faded little by little but Sakura knew this was not a good sign; it was a sign of him weakening.

Lee, you can pull through this, she thought, I know it. Don't give up on me, dammit!

"We have the bleeding under control, Dr. Uchiha," one of the medics declared. "The next matter is to find this unconfirmed poison! This is your expertise; please tell us what we can do to help."

Sakura didn't waste a breath. "Get an IV in this man and hot pads to warm him up. I need a bowl of water and give me plenty of space."

The medic team split. One of them placed a filled bowl beside Sakura. Using her chakra to keep it in place, she picked up a orb of water from the bowl and placed her hands over Lee's chest. The reports were not wrong; as Sakura probed Lee's cells she came across a foreign substance. With pinpoint precision she injected chakra into Lee's cells to coax out whatever toxin was inside him. Little by little she forced the toxin out of all the infected cells she could find. When it came close to the surface of Lee's skin she gave it one last tug to let it seep out of his pores. She then steadily pulled the toxin into the orb of water in her hand until it had turned a saturated purple color.

When Sakura looked up she noticed that the medics had thankfully put hot pads on Lee's sides and an IV was placed in his arm. In her concentrated state she did not notice it happen.

Sakura carefully put the orb back into the bowl and handed it to a medic. "Send this in for analysis right away!"

The medic nodded and rushed off with the bowl.

Sakura sighed in relief and wiped sweat off her brow. She looked at her medic team with a relieved smile. "The patient is now poison-free. I think we're done here. Good job, team. We saved a great shinobi today."

The medics on her team congratulated her similarly. There were proud smiles all around.

Sakura stole a glance at Lee now peacefully resting on the surgical table, although pale and gaunt. It brought back memories of when she and Tsunade helped him recover from the wounds from Gaara's attack when she was still a genin. Lee would get a bit flustered whenever she would visit or examine him during his recovery progress. Sakura gave him a small smile.

Lee is an even stronger shinobi now than he was before. If he could survive Gaara he can survive these wounds.

Sakura look back to her team and put back on her stoic, professional face. "I think I need to sit down for a bit and recover. That took a lot of chakra out of me. As Rock Lee's primary doctor in this case, put him in a good room and keep me updated. I will check his post-surgery status when I've recovered."

With that she left the surgical room, putting Lee back in the medics' hands. She immediately walked to the break room and collapsed in an available chair.

Sakura let out a large sigh. Removing poison from a body was a very draining process. Her eyebrows furrowed as she thought back to Lee's injuries. What kind of mission did Lee go on for him to end up like that? She would have to ask him when he awoke.


A/N: As always, reviews are appreciated! :)