From the mission standpoint, Sakura was the acting medical knowledge and hero of the 4th Great Ninja War. Her mission entailed that she travel from village to village, collecting and sharing information to spur more children's medical programs throughout the land. Her personal mission just so happened to tie along. As a medical specialist, analyzing and researching anything with the potential to be medication (for the children of course) was expected.
She collected samples, making salves, pills, and inhalants. Every prototype that came from Sakura's 'lab' would go on to be revolutionary in the medical field, but none gave her relief her brain so desperately needed.
More than any laboratory or greenhouse could offer her, was her interactions with the locals. Her pink hair and motherly smile, as well as her nation-wide accreditation, made her easy to talk to, and eased in her access of information. What did they use to numb the pain? Opium, sake, and tobacco – it was all just a way to escape the suffering that life dealt.
The opium comedown left an individual delirious, and in physical pain, one that could only be cured with more of the drug. Tobacco covers the lungs in tar and yellows the teeth and lips, caused halitosis and cancer. And as a predecessor of the 5th Hokage, sake didn't do shit for Sakura unless she was willing to completely empty her bank account.
It wasn't until Sakura found herself on her return, ready to throw in the towel and admit defeat, that her savior was thrust directly before her eyes. She decided to treat herself with what little remained of the mission funds, stopping in a resort town at the border of Fire and Grass. She started with the usual, not able to break months of routine, talking to locals and collecting information. As the moon drew overhead, Sakura wandered into a natural looking onsen, willing to wash her troubles away.
It was here, naked and vulnerable, half-submerged with her eyes closed, surrounded by steam and clean air, that she felt the hand of fate tap her shoulder. In reality, it was a busty brunette, holding what looked like a cigarette her way. Ready to refuse – she'd only had 5, max since her first encounter with Shikamaru, and that was enough for her lifetime – the smell of the smoke stopped her in her tracks. It was virtually unnoticeable through the steam and smell of nature that engulfed the spring; it smelled of burning sage and reminded Sakura of her grandmother's home, and the stick was between her lips before she could question what she was smoking.
Passing it back to the brunette, she sunk further into the water, leaving only her nose up visible. The effects were present almost immediately. A warming in her chest, that slowly spread outwards, unrelated to the heat of the water that surrounded her. Her aches and pains worked themselves out, leaving her feeling as though she was floating in midair. The mist caressed her hair and face, and for the first time, she drifted from the awful corners of her mind into a state of contented bliss.
Ironically, her miracle herb had surrounded her from the moment she left the village. Hemp grew like a weed, growing in bushes throughout fields and covering wooded floors with earthy blossoms.
Of course, back to her honest medical roots, Sakura carefully dissected and examined her loot upon returning to Konoha. She reported the power of one component of the plant to numb body pain, calm seizures, and reduce stress. It was the other component, the psychoactive ingredient that Sakura hesitated to report. Sure it had medical properties – hell, it was the only way for her to escape the confines of her mind – but technically so did sake and opium, so she left her report short and sweet, including a part about the euphoria and "release from reality" the combined components provided.
It was, without a doubt, perfect. Citizens, young and old alike, could receive a medical treatment that offered relief from the PTSD's of war. The medical core produced a number of products – edible waxes, pills, IV drips – but smoking the plant itself remained about as taboo as drinking sake.
As Assistant Medical Chief, Sakura could receive and technically prescribe herself any number of the hospital medications. Call it nostalgia from her first break with Shikamaru, or an oral fixation, Sakura kept on smoking.
Now, she wasn't high constantly. In the same way Naruto ate Ichiraku after a long days work, Sakura smoked. Not every night of the week, but enough to get her through to the next one.
It was nearly routine by now. Change out of her gross hospital scrubs, turn on the shower, brew her special herbal blend of tea and load a bowl while the shower warms, clean, put on panties, then retreat to the sanctuary of her living room.
On this particular night, Sakura opened her balcony window and watched from her comfortable position on the couch as her blinds billowed in the wind. She watched the smoke of her pipe and the steam of her tea grace off towards the window before being wisped away into nothing.
She relaxed down onto her couch, tummy rubbing against the fleece blanket she always kept there. With one arm under the pillow that propped up her head, and the other lazily tracing the lines of her wood floor, Sakura let her last drag pool around her face like a gas prison. With a huff the smoke dissipated and Sakura smirked at her perceived power.
Closing her eyes, Sakura allowed her mind to drift in ways she can't allow when she's sober. If she's high, and thinks of something particularly haunting, she knows she'll forget about it in the next 5 seconds. And if she didn't, she knew she'd be able to look at the thought objectively, and that it wouldn't grip into her heart like if she was sober.
For the first time since she returned to the village with her miracle cure, Sakura was thinking of Sasuke. Of course she thought of him every day, but always as fleeting images and feelings. Tonight though, Sakura thought hard. Their history flitted behind her eyelids like time-lapse video, none of it holding her interest as much as just thoughts of him. How he looks. How he acts. The sound of his voice. The stare of his mismatched eyes.
Her thoughts derailed faster than she expected morphing themselves into how he would look on top of her. How he would act if she pleasured him. Does he grunt or moan when in pleasure? Would he like what he sees under my clothes?
When her hand that was so busy admiring the wood grain slips between herself and the couch to skim her fingertips across her exposed belly, she tells herself she isn't thinking of him doing it. She tells herself she's not imagining his lips on hers, no more than she's imagining it's his tongue on her pebbled nipples and not her fingertips.
If observing the situation from a third person perspective, Sakura would tell you it was because she was high. She's touched herself before; orgasms were the next best thing to hemp, but never to thoughts of him. Her sober mind told her it was wrong to use him that way, that it was dirty to think about someone else like that. Her high mind though… her high mind loved it, demanded it really.
Her imagination hit an all time high. She could almost materialize his hands, his tongue, his lips on her body. With her right arm still under the pillow, she buried her face into the cushy surface to hide her sounds of pleasure as she sat on her knees, back arched, with her rump high in the air.
Her left hand ghosted across her underside, over her clavicles, across her nipples and navel, leaving goose bumps in its wake. Without any sign of embarrassment a sober Sakura would have shown, she dove her hand into her skimpy panties, used her index finger to pull up her clitoral hood, and then immediately assaulted her pleasure center. If it was thoughts of Sasuke or the hemp, Sakura couldn't tell, didn't care, all she knew was she was so sensitive. Her vigorous assault of her own nub had her so close in barley seconds, but it wasn't enough. She pulled her right hand from under the pillow to pinch and roll her nipples, then dove two of her fingers into her slick, wet heat. She was so, so close.
With her fingers pounding into her damp center, moans and droll running from her mouth, and eyes snapped shut from pleasure, and high out of her mind, Sakura continued unabashedly.
This was how Sasuke found her.
a/n:: I'm evil. Gotta love a cliff-hanger. I've never written smut before, send your prayers for a believable and steamy final chap ;D
anything you'd like to see in the smut chap? Leave a review, it's much appreciated 3