A/N: Hello my amazing readers! (I love that I actually have those!) Thanks for the support and enjoy the chapter!
She wiped sweat from her brow as she ran across the open sun, Suna having been in sight for almost an hour. She was closing in on the entrance and was extremely glad after three long days of travel. When she finally reached the gates she greeted the guards with pleasantries before stating my name and business. One immediately took off in search of Gaa- the Kazekage and the other led me into the village towards the Kazekage tower.
The guard, a jounin level blonde man who was chatty and pretty friendly, was pointing out different things in the shopping district. Suddenly a rush of air brushed across their skin quickly caught my attention and she turned to face forward in the suddenly silent district. With his arms crossed and gourd strapped to his back Gaara looked almost the same as five years before with the exception of muscles added in all the right places and him being taller. His eyes still looked the same, hard and flickering with cautious doubt. She smiled at him before bowing.
"Thank you for having me Kazekage-sama." She greeted formally, but wanted nothing more than to run up to him and pull him into a hug. The dark bags under his eyes only made the impulse increase as she studied him.
"Suna thanks you for your service, Haruno-san." She stiffened and blinked at his words, somewhat offended by his overly polite way of addressing her. Of course she was required to call him by his title, but if he spoke to her informally it would give her the right to speak to him as a friend. Her posture became even stiffer when she noticed him closely looking her over, meticulously studying her up and down. It made her feel like she was being judged to see if she was worthy of helping his medics.
"May I take a look at the hospital and see where your medics' skills are at right now?" She practically growled, annoyed with Gaara being so formal and just plain rude. He seemed to be pulled out of thought when she spoke because he started before turning his gaze to look right into her eyes, his eyes giving her goose bumps, and he spoke.
"I apologize, but what did you say?"
"Can I see your hospital?" she snapped, her arms finding their way to cross in front of her chest to almost mirror his posture subconsciously. He nodded before waving forward the guard that had gone to fetch him when she'd arrived.
"Jake," and then he looked at the guard beside her, "Nico, please escort Miss Haruno to the hospital." Then, addressing her, "I am needed back at my office so if you need me please go there. You will be residing at the Kazekage home so have Nico or Jake take you home."
She openly glared at him before dryly replying, "Whatever you say, Kazekage-sama."
"I'll take your bag," Jake offered and she removed her bag and pouch before handing them to the guard.
She turned and stormed away from the red head towards where the map of Suna she'd gotten from Tsunade placed the hospital. Gaara looked after her, his face taking on an attempted expression of bewilderment before he asked, "What is her problem?"
~.~.~.S~.A~.K~.U~.R~.A~.~.~.
I entered the hospital, but not without making sure to slam the door behind me. When I walked forward to the front desk I found a brunette girl looking to be in her early twenties chatting away on the phone. At first Sakura's anger was soothed by the sight of the girl talking quickly and jotting down notes, but her anger returned ten-fold when she heard that the girl was talking to a man and saw the writing was a club name along with a phone number.
"What the hell are you doing?" The girl was obviously startled and jumped in her seat, turning her gaze on the pink haired medic.
The brunette's nose scrunched up and she said a quick "Hold on" into the phone before turning to Sakura with a glare. "What do you want?" Sakura blinked, her mind going wild with that phrase.
What do I want? What do I want? What do I WANT? I WANT you to get off the damn phone with your boyfriend or whatever and start acting like a real secretary! "I want you out. Gone. Fired. Bon voyage!" That was when it was the girl's turn to blink.
"Funny, but you're not my boss." In came walking an older white haired woman who looked Sakura over.
"Sakura Haruno?"
"Yes."
"Then she is your boss, honey, so clean out your desk and get going." The brunette, as well as Sakura, was shocked and stared at the elderly woman. "You heard me; Kazekage-sama has put Miss Haruno in charge here at the hospital. Anything she says, goes. You have been released as of-" The woman paused to glance at her watch before announcing, "-10:34 A.M. You have four hours to get all your stuff so be out by 2:34 this afternoon. Good day." She then turned to Sakura with a friendly smile and greeted, "I've heard such great things about you Miss Haruno. Please follow me and I'll give you a tour of the Suna Hospital." She glanced behind Sakura and called, "Nico and Jake, only one of you needs to remain to walk Miss Haruno home later since she'll be here while."
With that the adventure through the winding and familiar feeling from the resemblance to the Konoha Hospital began. I met several patients, saw the different wards, and took an extra long tour of the ICU where I spent most my time at home. There were, as usual, several extremely depressing stories but I refused to see them as hopeless cases. There is always something more you can do. I did meet a few patients I was certain I would be able to cure with a few treatments such as an elderly man with nerve damage in his left arm that none of the doctors could fix. I would just mend the pinched part of the nerve and feeling as well as control would return to the arm gradually.
I was deep in thought about the specific method I'd use on the old man, putting the nerves together and then healing or wrapping them around each other and then healing when I heard my name. I looked up to see Nico and realized in my distracted zone I'd not realized we were heading back to the entrance. "Alright Miss Haruno, have a lovely evening and we will be seeing you here bright and early tomorrow!" I waved good bye to the woman, having later in our tour learned her name was Elizabeth but she preferred to be called Ellie or Eliza.
Nico greeted me with a smiled and dove into questioning me. "So why are you such a well known medic?"
"I trained under Tsunade-sama, one of the sannin. She has extraordinary medical skills so I learned from the best." I blushed slightly under his sort-of compliment. With an unemotional Uchiha, jerkish and still learning the definition of emotions artist, and a hyper and hardly romantic blond compliments didn't come my way often with the exception of Lee's.
"So basically I'm escorting a gorgeous, exotic, and skilled young woman who has amazing strength while still looking delicate?" He smiled as he spoke and I had to avert my gaze as warm enveloped my cheeks.
I managed to mumble through my embarrassment, "Someone did their research, but I'm not that great. I do have 'inhuman', according to my friends, strength, medical skills, and weird colored hair that is pink but they aren't that special or exotic or gorgeous." By that point we had reached the front of the Kazekage mansion and Rico stopped walking.
"Well Miss Not-Special-Not-Exotic-Not-Gorgeous-Haruno, I hope to see you again soon. Later." He then turned and walked away, leaving me to let out a whoosh of breath and try to control the blazing embarrassment obvious on my cheeks.
"Didn't he seem overly friendly?" I screeched and whipped around to find Gaara standing in the doorway leaning against one side of the doorframe with his palm pressed against the other side giving me time to see his muscled arm. I shook myself from my daze and glared at the red head.
"He was just being nice. At least some people understand how that works." I moved towards him and ducked under his arm as I walked into the house. He stared after me with a blank expression and I just stood in the lobby kind of area of the house with my arms crossed feeling vulnerable in the strange place. I glanced around, subconsciously favoring my right leg as I put more pressure on it slipping into a tense standing posture.
"Would you like dinner?"
"Yes."
And we were off; walking towards what I presumed was the kitchen in a silence that made me want to yank my hair out. Where is the Gaara from five years ago, the one that cared about me?