The loud pounding on her door slightly annoyed her. There's only two people who pounded on her door like that if she had locked her door instead of having it unlocked like she usually does. She peaked up from her pillow and looked at her alarm clock. 6:49 A.M. It read. She groaned, it was so early in the morning! And she only has two more hours before doing her rounds at the hospital. She had just gotten home from her mission and only had at least three hours of sleep.
The pounding continued and she heard her male best friend shouting her name. She finally got up and dragged herself downstairs to greet her guest. She hoped that he better have a good reason for waking her up.
"What is it Naruto? This better be good!" She slightly growled as she opened the door.
"Sakura-chan! Good morning!" Naruto happily chirped as he welcomed himself in. His blazing blonde hair highlighting his bright smile even more than ever. "Teme is coming by later on. And so is Kaka-sensei!"
"Eh?" Why are they all coming to her place? She wondered as she closed the door and made sure her traps were settled in their original place. Kakashi-sensei and the rest had always pestered her to fix her traps because they were too weak and that anyone can get in. She sighs as she walks into the kitchen to fix something for her guests to eat.
"Anything you want besides ramen Naruto? Sorry, I ran out. Haven't had the time to go shopping." She says as she looks through her fridge, grabbing some ingredients to cook with.
"Eh?! You ran out of ramen?! Why Sakura-chan!" Naruto yells from the living room.
She decides to ignore his tantrum and continue cooking. Along the way she heard the rest of her guests thanks to Naruto who just loves to shout everything. She chuckles to herself at the thought.
Her smile slowly faded and she stopped chopping the vegetables. All her friends have their own families except for her. she never knew her family, she was born with no parents or siblings. Her only thing close to family was her teammates and her shishou. But they don't know the true feeling of being alone, they tried to comfort her in any ways possible but it doesn't work like they wanted it to.
"Good morning Sakura. Is something the matter?" The mellow voice of her sensei pulls her out of her thoughts.
"Good morning Kakashi-sensei! Sorry I just spaced out for a second, breakfast is almost ready so just go wait in the living room!" She chirps and resumes her cooking by cracking three eggs onto her frying pan.
Kakashi looks at her for a moment before walking into the living room. Noises from Naruto and Sasuke, mainly Naruto, as they argue about ridiculous things again. After everyone was all settled down, she remembered her question as to why everyone had decided to show up at her place.
"So, why are everyone here?" She asks. Naruto beams as he swallows his food down his throat and shouts out loud.
"Oh yeah I forgot to tell you! Me and Teme are planning to join ANBU! What do you think Sakura-chan?"
She froze, her spoon full of food dropped back down onto her plate. Kakashi's eyes travelled to her and then to the two boys in the room.
"Sakura-chan?" Naruto looks at her with a worried expression. Sasuke doesn't say anything but continues to eat.
"What?" She quietly speaks, "Y-you're going to join ANBU? Both of you?"
"Hn." A yes from Sasuke and a loud yes from Naruto.
"I see..." Sakura looks at Kakashi who nods at her, she sighs and looks at Naruto, she smiles at the man who beams brightly at her, "congratulations Naruto. I hope you two do make it." She meant it.
She left the guys at her place as she took her time on her way to the hospital, her apartment was really close, about one mile away only so walking was never a big deal. She needed to be close in case of emergencies afterall. She wore a white long sleeve blouse and black slacks that seemed to hug her legs as if they were her second skin. Her white coat that is mandatory for high leveled medicnin to wear, is worn over her outfit. By the time she got there, there was nurses buzzing about, more than usual. She turned to the receptionist lady at the table, lifting one eyebrow.
"Ah, good morning Haruno-senpai! It's not big deal, just some genin not paying attention and got hurt. There wasn't any report on major issues that we need your help on. Although there's this for you," the woman handed her a clipboard of a patient, her eyes quickly scanning on the patient's information.
"He uh, said that-"
"No need to explain. He's the type of person who is too blunt for his own good self. Keep up the good work." Sakura mumbles and walks off to the room of her patient.
Sliding the door open, she walks in and puts her hands on her hips as she stares at her patient. "What did you get into this time?"
"Hey Ugly. You're even more uglier than ever." He fakes a smile. Sakura's eye twitch at his normal insult and sighs. Walking to the bed, she pulls out her stethoscope from her coat. "Shut it you stoic man or I will leave you here for the rest of the day and make sure no one is to help you." That shut him up really quick.
"So," she quietly tells him to breathe normally and examine him, "why are you in the hospital? You hate it here."
"Well, I was at your place but the others were there and I didn't want to interrupt the family gathering." Again, his fake smile.
"Don't make me laugh Sai. You know you're more than welcome to join us. You're part of our team too." She says as she grabs a syringe and a small bottle of medicine, inserting the needle to the top and taking out the medicine into the syringe. "Take off your shirt."
"Yes well," he chuckles as he slowly peals off his shirt, "I rather not let Dickless and Emo see me in this state."
Men and their pride I swear. She shakes her head and penetrates the syringe into Sai's arm. "This is just medicine for any infections. You know, just in case you brought something to the village. You should be fine though. Nothing too major. If something happens, make sure to come back here or to my place, got it?"
"Yes Ugly." He nods and puts back on his shirt. "How's Ino?"
Sakura looks at the emotionless man. Sai and Ino, her blonde female best friend, have been in a relationship for some time. It's been rocky since he's so emotionless and quiet where as Ino is so emotional and loud. Two polar opposites.
Sakura shrugs and shakes her head. "Sorry, I just got back this morning. I haven't spoken to her. Why?"
He stays quiet before smiling at her, "I was just wondering. I think she's going to break up with me."
Her emerald eyes widens at his words. Ino breaking up with Sai? No way. That woman may be crazy and all over the place but she's too into Sai to break up. She stares at Sai and gently cups his hand with hers, they both stay quiet for a while. It wasn't meant as a romantic thing. It's one of the many gestures they give to each other that lets the other know that they care, it speaks more than actual words.
Sai. He's like her. He has no family. He was born and raised to be a ninja. That was his life purpose. He grew up not knowing how to feel and only recently coming to Konaha and joining Team 7 as her replacement, did he ever try to show his emotions. He may spill insults but she never minded them. Well, not anymore anyways. They both understood each other in different ways. They spoke in silence than in words and that was the best.
"I heard," he finally broke the silence, "Dickless and Emo are joining ANBU."
He waits and after hearing no answer from her, "I heard from Yondaime-sama that although he was hesitant putting his son in the squad, his son truly wanted to join and was pretty persistent. They're ready and are to expect us soon as it may be today that Yondaime-sama requests our presence to welcome them."
"I see. If Namikaze-sama agrees then I too, welcome them." Sai nods and after another silence he excused himself, leaving Sakura in the hospital room.
Right after he left, an ANBU member showed up and told her to report to the Tower. She nods and they both disappear.
Naruto was giddy. Sasuke was quiet. The two of them were walking to the Hokage Tower to meet the members of ANBU. Naruto couldn't believe it! After so much hard work, he was finally going to become an ANBU. He stopped walking and looked up in the sky, it was clear of no clouds, just a beautiful blue sky.
"What's wrong Dobe?"
"Eh Teme," Naruto looks at Sasuke, "you think we should've asked Sakura-chan to join ANBU with us too? I mean, she's done enough missions as us despite always being in the hospital."
"Shut up Dobe." Sasuke says and continues walking.
"Hey Teme!" Naruto yells as he runs to catch up to Sasuke. "Come on Teme! It's Sakura-chan we're talking about here! I feel kind of bad not asking her as well."
"Dobe, it's better if she doesn't join ANBU. It's best if she doesn't see the real world and just stay as a medicnin here in Konoha."
"I know..." Naruto knew Sasuke was right. His Sakura-chan has faced too much pain in her life. He doesn't want her pure innocence to be taken away by his selfishness. He just wants to protect her, not just him but Teme and Kakashi-sensei as well. Afterall, they're family.
They finally reach the Tower and climb up the stairs to the Hokage council room. When they got there, Naruto tensed and he felt Sasuke tense as well. Naruto has never been to the council room before and he felt the intensity of the room. There was a long table in the shape of a rectangle. In the council room, was all of the ANBU members wearing their masks and his father, the Yondaime, Tsunade-granny, Kakashi-sensei and surprisingly Ero-sensei was there as well. Most of the ANBU were standing but some were sitting in the seats. Naruto guessed that the ones sitting were most likely the captains of their teams. What bugged him the most was because they all wore their respective masks, Naruto wondered if he had to hide his face all the time, whether or not if he's in his own village where he's most safe.
"Naruto. Sasuke. It's so glad you two can make it, of course." His father speaks as he stands, making everyone stand as well in a robotically way. "I would like to welcome Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke to ANBU Black Ops. Please meet your future teammates."
Each one of the members took their mask off one by one and did a very short direct introduction before putting back on their masks. Naruto never saw most of them before in his entire life. In fact, he never knew most of the ANBU members existed. The only one he did knew was part of ANBU was Itachi, Yamato, Kakashi-sensei, and Sai. Surprisingly, Neji, Shikamaru and Kiba were part of them and none of them had ever mentioned it.
The last member took a sharp step forward Naruto and Sasuke, both of them stared at the unknown person, in fact, it was a woman. Her mask was shaped and painted as a fox. Not many women were part of ANBU, most women who were part of them didn't stay long because they were given gruesome missions compared to men.
There was a silence in the room and it didn't make Naruto feel good. His eyes turned to Sasuke, he looked emotionless but he knew, Sasuke wasn't feeling alright either. The room was too tense and the masks didn't make them feel better even after seeing their faces.
The last member took off their mask and pink hair and emerald eyes was shown. Both men gasped and didn't even hide it. The room grew more intense.
"Haruno Sakura. Currently under SOLO, formerly under Uchiha-buntaicho. Specialist in interrogation and assassination."
Naruto and Sasuke slightly winced the way she spoke the last word. Her tone was short and direct, it was sharp and clear, filled with empty void.
The Yondaime cleared his throat. He hadn't want his son and his best friend to find their only best female friend seen like this. He didn't want to keep it a secret but he knew the two boys, they were protective and so was she. They wanted to protect each other in their own way, whether or not it will hurt the other.
"I hereby, announce, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, now part the ANBU Black Ops."
Naruto was stunned. Sasuke was speechless. Neither of them moved as each and every member of ANBU dispersed the room. Except two members.
"Sakura-chan..." Naruto call out her name hopelessly. He couldn't believe it.
Sakura turned her back to them, the black cloth on her back was cut in a diamond shape between her shoulder blade and it showed her ANBU symbol.
"Sorry, Naruto, Sasuke." She turns around to face them and slowly remove her mask once more, her emerald eyes filled with a hint of sadness. "I didn't mean to hide you two in the dark."
A/N: I was lucky to have some time on my hand to finish this chapter and upload it. It was a bit rushed I'm sorry for that hehe.
What do you guys think though? Please review and let me know if there's any suggestions you want to make!
I know. I've twisted the story. I wanted to try a 'no family Sakura' and fiddle around with it. I want this Sakura to have a more deeper reason to sore high, just like Naruto who wants to become Hokage (still his goal in this story).
And don't worry! There wasn't any ItaSaku moments in here at all but there still be in the next chapter!