4: The Reunion
Sasuke had finally come back.
As both men stood in the doorway, Sakura was speechless.
Is he...really back?
"Sakura," Sasuke brought her back to reality, "we need your help."
With a sense of urgency, Sakura ushered them in, "Come in, let me take a look," as she stood holding her door open.
Leaving their shoes in the entrance, Sasuke and Naruto then settled on the floor in the living room, afraid that they would stain the furniture with blood and debris from outside. After all, neither of them wanted to deal with Sakura's angry side - they both knew what her punches were capable of.
"I will be right back," Sakura said as she went to get the first-aid supplies. Her bare feet made several hurried taps against the hardwood floor, as she walked from one place to another in her kitchen.
Sakura's one bedroom apartment was quite spacious. The small kitchen to the left of the entrance was modest– something that only a bachelor person would need. The dual burner stove top was surrounded by a small fridge and a sink. To the right of the entrance was the bathroom, and the bedroom's entrance faced the living room.
As both men quietly waited, the fumbling continued in the kitchen. Inside Sakura's kitchen cupboard, there was an enormous supply of bandages, needles, and bottles with clear liquid in them. Most of these supplies did not have any tag on them since their owner knew what each item was used for.
Grabbing several bottles, bandages, and other items, Sakura made her way back to her silent guests.
Sasuke, finally surveying the damage he had done to his friend said, "Hey Naruto, stop flailing your arms, you're gonna make your wounds worse." As he tugged a piece of a dirty bandage to cover a bloody wound, preventing the blood from staining the floor.
"Thanks a bunch, Sasuke," Naruto gave him a sideways glance and a gentle smile. It was actually ironic that Naruto was thanking the man that had caused him the wound in the first place.
As Sakura crouched and sat in front of them, she set all her supplies around her. As her green eyes looked up from her supplies, she triaged both patients by just casting them a quick glance. Through triage, she was able to access which patient needed the most urgent care, by sensing the heartbeat, temperature, and overall well-being of the patient.
Sakura looked at Naruto intently and said, "You're first Naruto, give me your arm." As she grabbed his right arm she surveyed the initial damage.
Weaving a quick succession of hand signs, Sakura's indicator and middle finger were enveloped in green chakra that casted a soft shadow on the surroundings. "Let me cut this off first." With her chakra scalpel and millimetric precision, she gently cut the bandages without harming the skin.
As the bandages slowly fell off, the exposed skin showed several signs of profuse bleeding derived from Sasuke's attack.
Naruto knew well what the next succession of hand signs were since he had experienced it many times before. The healing wave this time casted an even stronger light, and a faint smell of ozone filled the air. The pain relief came soon after, as the chakra seeped in and worked to heal the deepest wounds. As the warmth touched his skin, his cuts slowly stopped bleeding, and the open wounds slowly started to mend. Soon after, the skin began to present a healthier color, free from the bruises that littered just below the skin's surface.
As the arm was apparently healed, the doctor surveyed her work by stretching her patient's arm in odd directions to survey any hidden damage. Satisfied with the results, she continued her healing.
Next, Sakura turned to look at Naruto's face. Her hands reached toward his eyes and cheeks, and the cuts and bruises on them slowly faded away through a warm sensation.
"Naruto, you've got a concussion. Did you hit the ground hard enough?" Sakura's professional side inquired.
"Eh kinda..." Naruto replied with a bit of discomfort, "I'll be as good as new after a good night's sleep!"
"Please, if you feel any different let me know and we'll run some more tests."
Meanwhile, even though Sasuke was hurting, it was nothing compared to what he had felt in his worst battles and fights. It was something that he could easily tough it out and wait – after all, he did go overboard with his last attack and did protect himself from harm while Naruto got the worst of it.
As he observed Sakura's efficient work on his friend, his peaked interest made him activate his right eye's Sharingan. Her chakra network was extremely efficient, and there was no waste of energy. He observed the chakra being gathered in her forehead, and the remainder of her energy being focused on Naruto's wounds. As the wounds started to heal, he noted that the chakra activated the regeneration at a cellular level – giving the energy necessary for the healing process to occur faster.
"Alright, let me see your wounds," Sakura snapped Sasuke's attention back the issue at hand. "Does anything hurt?" her voice was filled with concern.
"Ah..no," he was too intrigued to elaborate on his answer. Besides, he knew that she was more than capable of finding where his worse wounds were without him voicing it.
Inches from his face, her hand started releasing chakra into his skin. The warmth that he felt was soothing, and the pain slowly subsided. For the first time, he noticed that she was wearing an oversized shirt with the word doctor in a kanji letter. Fitting... - he thought.
As her hand moved from one cut to another, the flow of chakra she released changed in consistency and intensity.
To think that these skills needed years of training, study and above all, talent..., Sasuke thought as his Sharingan deactivated.
It takes greater skill to heal than to destroy...
"All done for you," she replied as she grabbed a piece of gauze and moved back to Naruto's side. "You both should be more careful next time," she added as she started to rewrap Naruto's right arm, after soaking the wrappings with an unspecified liquid from one the bottles she brought with her.
"We owe you once again Sakura", Naruto smiled as he surveyed her work on his arm, "good as new."
Growl
"Eh, Sakura do you have anything to eat..?" Naruto sheepishly asked.
Sakura got up to survey her kitchen cabinets and drawers.
Eh...I got nothing haha... she thought.
"Will food pills do?" Sakura replied. Her overworking had finally caught up to her living habits. Food pills did not easily spoil like regular food and supplied the right amount of calories and nutrients. Sakura had been refining her food pill flavor for the past few years, and they had gotten considerably better. She briefly remembered when she first made them, and they not only tasted horrible, they also left a bad aftertaste and stickiness to the mouth.
Despite the food pills giving the right amount of nutrients and calories, they still did not substitute food in the long term. This had been Sakura's worst mistake by neglecting herself and allowing food pills to substitute a regular meal.
From a drawer, Sakura pulled out two food pills. Despite the fact that Sasuke did not voice his hunger, Sakura knew well that after an intense spar, he would be hungry and drained as well. "There you go," she said as she brought two small brown spheres in a plate for both of her guests. "Eat," she ordered with her arms folded in front of her.
At the same time, both Naruto and Sasuke reached out for the small spheres their host was giving them. In a hesitant gesture, both shared a quick sideways glance that said everything. In a reluctant gesture, both took a small bite out of their own food pills. Naruto has had terrible experiences in the past with her food pills, and the memory of the bad taste still stung him. Sasuke, on the other hand, knew that in their genin days, Sakura was not the best cook around, and the few times she attempted to cook for her team, ended up in failure.
Surprised, their eyes widened. It tastes good!
Awkwardly, both finished their pills in one swift last bite. It wasn't bad after all.
Slowly, their hunger pangs eased, and their energy started to restore itself.
Having his energy restored, Sasuke decided to finally get up from the floor. In a brief moment, Sasuke took in the sight of the place Sakura now called home. The three photographs she had in her living room were the first to catch his attention – team 7, her parents, and an old lady's photograph. In a brief mental note, Sasuke wondered who this old lady was, and the story behind it. Yet, he decided to inquire at another time.
Next, he noticed when Sakura sat on the couch looking extremely tired – how much she had changed in all these years. She was nothing like the girl that had cried for him when he left the village. She was strong and independent...
She's become a ninja people count on, huh..., was one of his few recent thoughts about his old teammate, while he was in Kumogakure with the Raikage and the freed ninja. While Sasuke thought he was the only one who could dispel the level of genjutsu the human bomb ninjas were in, Sakura and Tsunade had also managed to dispel the genjutsu without any advanced dojutsu.
"I am sure glad we came to get your help," Naruto said as he heaved himself up. Embarrassed, he started to pick up the pieces from his old wrappings, filled with blood, dirt, and leaves from the training ground. The living room was a mess nonetheless. Adjacent to the living room, Naruto caught sight of the destroyed bathroom, "Sakura, what happened here?"
"Sh, she's sleeping you idiot. Haven't you noticed?" Sasuke whispered back. In fact, as Sasuke observed Sakura's work with his Sharingan, he did observe that her chakra levels were very low. It was inevitable and predictable that she would fall asleep like this.
"I better go," Naruto concluded, as he made his way to the door to put his shoes back on. In less than a minute, the future Hokage was out of the door in seconds. As Naruto closed the door behind him he mumbled, "Guess I'll treat her to ramen another day."
With the sun's rays hitting her eyes, Sakura finally woke up to find that her guests were gone. Still dazed by sleep, she accidentally rolled off the couch onto the wooden floor.
Thump
On her lap, a blanket fell right after she reached the floor. As she got up, no trace was left of her two guests – not even the dirt or leaves were left behind. Barefoot, she walked back into her room – she needed to go to work after all. Picking her usual clothes, she made her way to the washroom to freshen up.
I do look tired – she mused as she caught her own reflection in the mirror. She realized that healing her unexpected guests the previous night had cost her the extra chakra reserves she had.
Turning on the light, she first noticed the shower curtain was back in place, and the floor was dry.
"What?" she looked around to survey that her bathroom had been cleaned. "Did they do this while I was sleeping?" she thought out loud, feeling embarrassed.
As she finally washed her face and cleaned up, Sakura was ready to go to the hospital. But first, she needed a food pill so she could tackle her workload with energy in the first hours of the morning.
When she reached the kitchen she looked for her food pills – they were all gone!
Did they take them all with them? - she irritably thought. As she was wondering where the actual food pills went, she disregarded the white plastic bag left on her counter.
When she finally noticed it, her lips slowly parted, and a gentle smile spread over her face. There were two onigiris and boxed juice in the bag...
In a split second, she tried to figure out who would've done all of this for her... Sasuke or Naruto?
Nah, this is very unlike Naruto...but it was also unlike Sasuke...has he changed that much?
She obviously had had a special relationship with Sasuke while he was gone for the past couple of years. Yet, he was not too overly vocal about it – which Sakura did not mind. She knew how Sasuke's mind worked. He did not need constant reaffirmation of what his ideas were. Once he made up his mind towards something, he was usually consistent in his decisions.
There were many questions she still needed to ask him, and the previous night was not the best of times. This conversation was something that she needed to have with him alone. She wanted to know what his plans were after all. Was he going to stay in the village after all, or live a nomad life? She knew his job was important and that he needed time and space to sort out his feelings. However, she did not know how much he had gone through in order to be back at a time like this.
Questions swirled throughout Sakura's mind all day - Would he be leaving soon? Was this all temporary? As she sat in her desk, piles and piles of paperwork accumulated. She knew she was not going to get through anything anytime soon. Her mind was too clouded to understand anything beyond her initial predicament.
Her biggest fear was that he would be leaving once again. Even though it was a selfish thought, she still wanted to be by his side.
Loving him from day one meant that she was ready to face anything for his sake without question.
Resting her head on her hands, she sighed. Why did it have to be complicated? She had made up her mind long ago...It was all a matter of whether or not Sasuke wanted to be with her. At certain times he would show resolve and willingness to be with her, and then it would be all back to zero again.
Knock knock
"Come in," Sakura sighed behind her desk.
Shizune appeared at the gap left by the door, "Um Sakura, we have a visitor, he wants to talk to you," she announced uncomfortably.
Who could it be this time?
Out of nowhere, Sasuke casually strolled in.
AH! WHAT? - the panic set in.
"Sakura," Sasuke calmly began, "I have a few questions to ask you."
