To Build Your Hopes

Chapter 2

Sakura looked up at the sky. It was almost nightfall, and she was almost to the border of the desert. She continued on, stopping at the edge of the forest and leaping up into a tree. Sighing, she stowed her belongings on a hidden part of branches and leapt down by a stream. Sakura pulled out ten canteens and filled them all with water. She would need them, after all, she would cross the desert tomorrow.

Sakura went back up into her tree and stowed her canteens away, while at the same time, taking off her Konoha headband. She stared at it. Upon her advancement into Journeyman, the Hokage, Tsunade-sama, had etched a symbol next to the sign of Konoha. It was the symbol for Journeyman Medic-Nin. One of the things she learned while studying was that there were only five Journeyman Medic-Nins in the world. Tsunade, Kabuto, herself and two others that were near death in old age. She wondered if she would ever have to fight Kabuto; he was a bad combination of medical knowledge and forbidden jutsus.

Sakura let herself fall asleep, remembering at the last minute to place the heaviest healing jutsus she knew across her neck, throat, middle and above her heart. These four places were the most vulnerable on a person's body and the most lethal. Should someone try to kill her, they would be hard pressed to when those areas healed on their own in less than thirty seconds. She drifted off, her mind wandering to Gaara, Temari and Kankuro, and how surprised they would be when they found out that she finished her training five years ahead of what was expected. She began envisioning a huge hospital with state of the art equipment and the best medic-nins in all the villages. She would create that someday, and the Sand Village would finally have an achievement worth noticing.

Morning came and Sakura got up, pleased to find the camp wards had not been disturbed. She packed up and took a last long drink from the stream before taking off across the desert at top speeds. After about ten minutes she stopped and downed half a canteen before continuing on again. This continued on until she reached an oasis twenty minutes later. She filled up her two canteens and rested, eating a little bit of jerky.

Sakura concentrated and used her locating jutsu that she herself developed. The jutsu pointed her in the direction of North-East and she took off, following the green locator line of energy that led directly towards the Sand Village. Much to Sakura's surprise, she reached the outskirts of the village in hardly no time at all. Perhaps it wasn't that far away? Or maybe she was just simply really fast…

She shook her head and walked into the village, taking in the sights. Off towards the center of the village was a huge tower that had to be the Kazekage's tower. She smiled and walked towards the tower, only to be diverted when she heard the sounds of battle. Following the sounds, she came upon a girl and a boy facing off. The girl was manipulating the wind to force the boy onto his back while she threw kunai at him. The boy had a puppet that was becoming rather disgusting in the way that is was moving like a human, yet not. It had it's head all the way turned around and its arms in impossible positions.

Sakura grinned, recognizing Temari and Kankuro. She stepped into the sunlight and leaned against a wall. Temari looked up and stopped suddenly, surprised by the sudden appearance of Sakura. She had forgotten Kankuro was there and a knife almost hit her right in the arm had she not moved at the very last second.

"Cripes Temari! Do you want me to kill you?" Kankuro yelled, his face going all red.

"Well, you must be blind… your senses are completely dull." Temari snapped. "In case you hadn't noticed, Sakura's here and you know what that means…" Kankuro dropped his puppet and spun around, grinning.

"Sakura! Does this mean you have finally come to your senses and have decided that you love me?" Sakura tapped a foot, eyebrow quirked.

"No, it means I finished my training five years early. And I am here like I said I would be. You didn't think that I would forget, did you?" Sakura asked, her voice carrying a slight sense of teasing in it. Temari shrieked and ran towards Sakura, jumping on her, like a little kid jumps on their parents.

"Yay! This means that we finally will start our own hospital with me learning to heal! Oh, how glad am I that you finished early. I was getting bored of beating Kankuro's butt every time we sparred."

"Just remember Temari, the hospital won't be the best at first. It will take a long time to get the equipment and to train an entire staff in what took me three years to learn. And that's only the fundamentals and common knowledge. The promising people will be taken under my personal tutelage to advance. I'm afraid that for any of you to reach my rank, you will need to report to the Hokage, as she is the closest Medic-Nin Master. But until then, I will take you all as far as you can each go." Temari hugged her again, this time hanging on, whispering in her ear.

"Don't worry," she whispered. "I'll go farther than anyone else. I'm getting to the point where I don't want to kill anymore." Temari laughed and pulled on Sakura's hand. "Come, come! We have much to show you! And of course, you will be staying in the tower with us!"

"Uh, Temari, are you sure that Gaara will be okay with that?" Kankuro asked, worry creeping into his voice.

"Worry-wart… I already asked Gaara about that. He said it was just fine." Temari grinned… "But I expect that he'll be surprised! He most likely won't be expecting you so soon. So, let's go!" Sakura sighed and smiled. She knew she was going to like it here. "Oh, by the way, I love your outfit Sakura… it looks like you've lived your entire life here. You fit right in!" Temari said, still pulling Sakura along.

"Well, that was the point. I mean, why show up in greens and browns and look like someone from Konoha when my official status is Neutral? Anyways, blending in is part of my overall plan. This is so I can be more readily accepted by the citizens."

"Wow, you've really thought this out, haven't you? Well, of course you have. You're Sakura, not Naruto. You think about the actions and consequences." Temari didn't notice when Sakura's face fell. The memories came drifting back… with Naruto running headlong ahead of the squad, chasing after Sasuke. It had ended horribly. Naruto came upon Sasuke and they pretty much started trying to kill each other. It wasn't pretty and Naruto had rushed in without thinking. Sound-nin had been there and they ambushed Naruto while he was alone in the clearing. They had to go in and pull Naruto out. They had to leave Sasuke there. It was known between those three, Sakura, Naruto and Neji, that Sasuke would never willingly come back to Konohagakure.

Sakura looked up at the sky. It was completely clear, devoid of clouds, dust and sand. There was no wind, nothing of anything, really. It seemed to mirror Sakura's feelings at the moment.

"- so we were thinking that it wouldn't be to much trouble if you stayed in the Kazekage's guest room tonight."

"Wait, what?"

"You weren't listening were you, Sakura?" Temari looked at Sakura. She just looked, trying to see if there was something else she was supposed to be seeing.

"Ah, no. I wasn't. I got sidetracked by other things. Now what were you saying?" Temari rolled her eyes.

"As I was saying, the part of the tower you would be staying in isn't finished yet. And Kankuro already smashed up his and my guest rooms, so the only one left is the adjoining room to Gaara's. I hope you don't mind too much. Of course, we weren't expecting you for about another five years. But it really isn't a problem. Gaara could do with a medic near him. Even with Shukaku fully integrated, he still doesn't sleep all that much." Sakura looked over. She supposed, that it might quite be all right, and being near Gaara wasn't really of a problem either. "Well, here we are!" Temari sang out. She gestured at this rather large tower that rose into the sky.

'It's… big.'

End of Chapter

Please Read and Review, Thank You!

-Kimarya