I'm back! I'm on a roll, people. Gosh, I'm great. Alright, enough of me, on to the reading!

By the way, did you notice that I don't own Naruto?

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Sakura groaned in pain and sat up slowly. She gingerly touched her stomach, relieved to find new skin, but well aware that she would still be tender for a while. What had happened? She could no longer smell any acrid smoke, nor feel any chakra around her. Either everyone was dead or they'd left during the time she had blacked out. Frowning, she touched her wrists for any chakra suppressor bracelet, but didn't find any. No handcuffs, no chakra suppressors. She must not be a hostage.

Wind blew softly against her face, bringing with it forest sounds of all kinds. If she strained her ears, she could hear animals carefully prowling in the underbrush, birds singing, leaves rustling…Her left hand rested on a bed of dry leaves. She clearly remembered that the battlefield had been far from any forest, so where was she?

Frowning, she then had the niggling suspicion that what she was feeling wasn't real. However, once she tried to dispel the genjutsu, the sensations didn't disappear. Her anxiousness didn't, either.

Where was she?

She drew a hand to her eyes, healing the nerves and vessels as much as she could with the small amount of chakra she had left. She sighed, knowing that she would never see again. The technique Hinata had performed could only be done once on a person. It was too straining on the body. She had not had the heart to tell Hinata that all the experiments she had tried it on twice had died. Unless she tried transplants, she would be forever blind.

Once she had soothed her empty eye sockets, she got up and looked through her weapons pouch. She only had a handful of kunai, shuriken and exploding tags, but it would do. It would have to.

The first thing she did was use her ninja wire to set up a few traps to catch animals and enemies alike. She would need food to replenish her energy and her chakra. Then she would be able to heal her broken bones.

Once that was done, she set out to find a source of water. She ran into trees a few times on the way and stumbled just as much, even stubbing her big toe on a rock, but she finally managed to find a river not too far from her initial spot. Thankfully, the water was just short of warm, and very soothing. She quickly washed the blood and grime off her skin and put back on her too-big clothes.

Next on her list was shelter. For the first few days, she remained close to where she had first woken up, but as the days wore on and her wounds healed, no sign came from her friends, and she finally decided to walk up the river. Sooner or later, she would encounter a village along the way, and whenever they came by, her friends would be able to pick up her trail.

-:-

Weeks later found Sakura living alone in a cave hidden behind a waterfall, less than two hours away from a small village. She dressed solely in animal skins, using whatever money she made from healing the villagers and selling them medicine she made with the herbs she could find in the forest to buy whatever she needed for her practice. The only piece of cloth she did buy was a blindfold that she kept on her eyes at all times, for the villagers tended to be horrified by her empty sockets, and she had no intention of being stared at each time she went down to the village.

And so went on her life until an unexpected visitor came by.

-:-

There was nothing worse than getting hurt on a solo mission without any medical supplies left, thought Uchiha Fugaku. It had been so long since he had gone out of the village on a mission that he must have underestimated his opponent. Well, no matter. The man was dead, but he had left him a rather annoying gift. He was not used to getting injured, and thus had only limited knowledge of medicine. And now it came to bite him in the ass. He didn't know a thing about healing broken ribs and curing poisoning. He would stop by the next village and see the local doctor for temporary relief so he could last until he went back to Konoha.

The first village he went by didn't have any doctor or even something remotely similar. However, the villagers told him that the next village had a doctor who visited once in a while. If he was lucky, he would catch the doctor during one of those visits. If he wasn't, the villagers would at least be able to tell him how to find the doctor.

By experience, Fugaku knew that old women were always informed best. They were meddling and gossiping, and nothing could go on unnoticed by their radar, especially in such small and close-knit communities. Thus, as he entered the village, he headed straight for an old woman weaving baskets in front of a small house.

"Tell me, obaa-san, is there a doctor in this village?"

The small woman scrutinized him with perceptive eyes.

"Who's asking?"

He could understand her distrust; in such small towns, strangers were never seen as anything else but trouble. Especially ninja. And Kami knew that his very attire positively screamed shinobi.

"Don't worry, I only want some medical help, then I'll be on my way. I won't deprive you of your doctor."

The shrewd old woman looked at him for a long moment, and despite himself, he had the strange impression that she could read right through him. And then she smiled a cheeky smile with an uncanny glint in her eyes.

"Well, our doctor's a strange one, that's for sure. You still want to see her?"

How strange was that doctor, anyway? And he didn't have any prejudices against women. Some of the best ninja he knew were women, and damn were they good at their job.

"Hai, I do. Where is she?"

"Follow the river upstream. She lives in a cave under the waterfall. You can access it by a ledge on the left side. There's a small outcrop, you can't miss it. She's good. Very good. Don't get influenced by her appearance."

Wondering how much of a weirdo the woman may be, Fugaku nodded and thanked the old woman, but she merely waved him off with a "Don't worry about it, son. Changes from the usual, anyway. Now off you go."

Somewhat bemused, Fugaku followed the old woman's instructions and ended up in front of the waterfall, almost afraid of what he was going to find. He entered the cave with trepidation, only to stop short at the sight, eyes widening in amazement. Rows upon rows of bottles covered the walls on manmade stone shelves, herbs of all sorts covered a table on one side, and a pile of furs was placed on the stone ground a short ways away, making a sort of bed, he supposed. However, he did not see anybody, so he went further in, going past the table and the bed, and walked through a corridor to a smaller cave that took his breath away. Phosphorescent moss covered the walls, illuminating the cave with a soft green glow. A small source of water came from one side of the cave into a small basin in a little stream and disappeared at the base of the opposite wall. Three round stones outcropped in a row from the middle of the basin and on one of these rocks sat a pink-haired child back to him.

"A ninja. It has been a while since I had the visit of one," said the child, turning her head in his direction.

Without his ninja training, Fugaku would have done more than just gape at the sight. He stood frozen to the spot as the child lightly hopped down from the stone onto the cave floor and bent down to gather furs to cloth herself with them. She then put a blindfold on those horribly empty eyes sockets and asked him calmly, "What are you here for?"

"I have broken ribs and I've been poisoned. I've been told you're good. Can you heal me?"

"Hai, it won't be any trouble. Come with me."

The young girl expertly lead him back to the main cave and motioned for him to sit down on one of the two stone stools next to the table. She expertly healed his ribs in record time, then poured water from a jug in a bowl and came back to his side with the bowl and another empty one that she set on the table. He watched, mesmerized, as she placed a hand over the water and it formed into a ball, then proceed to push said ball into his chest, providing him with mild discomfort.

"What are you doing?" asked the Uchiha, fascinated.

"Don't worry, I'm drawing the poison out now," replied the child.

She drew a ball from his chest, but this time the water was full of a purplish liquid.

"Is that the poison?"

"Hmmhm," she murmured. "Just show to say all pretty things are dangerous."

She repeated the process a few times, until the water came out clean. She then told him that he was ready to go.

"Alright, how much do I owe you?" asked Fugaku, putting his shirt back on.

To his surprise, she waved him off, stating that she had everything she needed.

"I've got food, shelter, and clothing. That's quite enough for me. But it's nice to have some company. Would you care to share my supper?"

It did not take him long to calculate how much time it would cost him, and he quickly came to the conclusion that he could afford to eat with her without it delaying his appointed arrival time in Konoha.

"Alright. But aren't you afraid of a shinobi, especially alone and defenseless?"

"Oh, I wouldn't say defenseless. I can take care of myself, let me assure you," replied Sakura confidently.

"If you are half as good with self-defense as you are at medicine, I don't doubt that. Nevertheless, you are so very small, you're but a child, probably no older than my own son!"

Sakura snorted and motioned for him to follow her outside, surprising him once again when she hauled a deer over her shoulder as though it was nothing. She impaled it and put it over a fire pit to roast, then sat down with a sigh of contentment.

"A deer?" asked Fugaku, shocked to the core by the display.

"Oh, would you prefer fish? I'm quite good at fishing them out with my bare hands. I have no fishing rod, anyway."

"Iie, it's alright, meat is fine."

Sakura nodded happily and began to peel a daikon with a kunai of all things, twirling it expertly in her hands. Once again, Fugaku found himself wondering who she was. How did she know so much about medicine and why did she know how to handle kunai and above all, what had happened to her eyes?

And so he blurted out, "Who are you?"

With a mysterious smile, the pink-haired child answered cheerfully, "Why, I'm but a lowly child, but you may call me Sakura."

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Sooooo? Was it worth reading? I tried my hand at a more approachable Fugaku. You'll see more of him in the future, and I'm thinking of having Jiraiya make an appearance, maybe as a father to Sakura. What would you say to her agreeing to pose as his illegitimate child? I can foresee so many funny events happening with the two of them…Anyway, review, or I won't bother writing this story and will instead focus of some of my other fics in the works.

And before you comment on it, Sakura, as a medic, has to heal whoever comes to her, and for the moment, she's neutral. At least until further notice.