-6-

"Good morning, Sakura-chan." I glared up at the man from my seat on the ground and crossed my arms across my chest as I stood.

"You're late." I couldn't say anything else to convey my anger to the white-haired shinobi lazily smiling back at me. He scratched the back of his neck as his face took on the expression it always had when he made up his excuses.

"Well, see, this little kid challenged me to a short sparring match this morning while I was on my way here. I just couldn't refuse." I continued to glare at him, but felt my anger ebb a bit and couldn't bring myself to yell at him, despite the fact that his excuse was dumber than most. Well, it would be.

"What's wrong?" I cringed at my own lack of tact. He was carrying his weight in a peculiar manner, and I could tell right away that he was injured in some way. He just shifted his weight and pulled out a copy of Icha Icha Tactics. My annoyance rose back to the surface as I grabbed the older shinobi's bare arm, streaming chakra from my fingertips through it and into his body to diagnose what was actually wrong. Not a second later a kunai was pressed against my wrist, threatening to puncture the vein. I didn't let up, already finding a sprained shoulder, and sure I was going to find a leg injury.

"Sakura-chan..." The tone wasn't exactly friendly.

"Cut if you want to, it won't stop me." I pushed up his shirt sleeve with my free hand, reaching under the baggy garment to heal his shoulder. The kunai bit in dangerously. I moved my arm quickly, cutting the heel of my hand on purpose and holding it up. I felt him stiffen up in surprise at my action. I continued to heal him as he watched, my hand pressed to my shorts to quickly stop the bleeding. I cast a glance at him before I dropped to a kneel to start on his knee, which thankfully was only sprained.

"Why you don't use your entire hand to heal, Sakura-chan?" He was watching intently as I threaded chakra through the muscles surrounding his knee to alleviate the pain. I shrugged at his observation, examining my hands, imagining the scars that I knew were under the white fingerless gloves emblazoned with the Konoha leaf.

"I can't. I had a bit of an accident a couple of years ago, which damaged the chakra outlets on my palms irreversibly." I flexed my hands, placing them on my thighs and pushing myself to a stand. I brushed my palms over my shins and kneepads, ridding them from the dirt I had been kneeling in. I turned my gaze to the dismissive shinobi's face to find him watching me over the edge of his little green book.

"Tsunade-sama won't like that. She was planning on recruiting you back to the hospital full-time." I snorted with laughter, provoking an expression of surprise to invade his lone uncovered eye.

"Tough shit, I guess. I'm not a specialized medic-nin anyway. Not to mention that I wouldn't be cut out for wandering around a stuffy hospital all day." I shrugged, thinking back a few years, when I would have gladly stayed within the safety of the village, using my talents to help the numerous wounded. I shook my head. I wasn't that girl anymore, content to let everyone else be the strongest, the best. A smile crept over my face.

"Besides, it was so totally worth it." I thought of the jutsu I had created from that accident, earning another big smile, interrupted by the dark haired jounin that had materialized at my side, very obviously wounded. The sight elicited my irritated glare to dart to Kakashi, who was pointedly not looking at our injured teammate, revealing his guilt.

"A little kid, huh?" I could almost feel the smirk creeping across his face as I moved to Sasuke's side, not in as much of a hurry as I would be normally, because I knew that Sasuke had challenged Kakashi, and gotten in over his head. He was kneeling on the ground, eyes angrily fixed on our former sensei. I huffed, even angrier now that I knew why they were late. I rested my fingertips on the dark-haired man's neck, extending out my chakra to try and pick up the problems, of which there were no doubt numerous. Upon finding that he had several broken ribs and a fractured ankle along with a multitude of bruises and lacerations, I sighed and knelt down to eye-level with him.

"Take off your vest, please." His face took on a dull red cast which I ignored as I took his vest from him and set about taking off his sandal. His ankle was badly swollen and a nasty shade of purple. I let out an exasperated breath as I fixed the bone and started to reduce the swelling and bleeding underneath the skin. I used one hand to pull my hair over my shoulder to one side so that I could see better. My face started to heat as my anger momentarily resurfaced.

"I honestly don't believe you two. Sparring just before a mission so that I have to heal you before we've even encountered any problems, on top of being hours late!" I finished his ankle and replaced his sandal, moving closer and reaching under his navy blue sweater to get to his ribs. He recoiled at my touch, brightening to an unprecedented shade of red. He held my wrist and I was about ready to hit him.

"Let me go and sit still, or I'll cart you to the damn hospital and request a replacement for the mission from Tsunade-shishou." My voice came out in little more than an angry hiss, and whether he actually heard me or not, the point got across. He relaxed and sat back, not looking me in the face as I leaned forward and started mending his ribs. I was finished vocalizing my vexation because it was currently apparent that I would not be receiving an apology for being made to wait. I finished healing Sasuke's wounds and stood up, once again brushing the dirt from my clothes. Inwardly I felt the chakra drain healing those small injuries had placed upon me. I stretched, working out a small kink in my shoulder and shifted my bag.

"Sakura?" I lifted my eyes to see Sasuke with his hand out, looking apologetic. I wasn't falling for that one a second time, and crossed my arms under my breasts.

"Let's go, if you're done." Kakashi had walked right past us and out the gate, carelessly ruffling my hair as he did so. I turned and followed him, arms falling to my side as I tried to match his gait. Sasuke caught up quickly and walked beside me, on the opposite side as Kakashi.

"You can't ignore me, Sakura." I didn't bother looking at him, using both hands to push my hair behind my ears.

"Sasuke, I don't really think you have any idea what a bad mood I'm in this morning." I leaped up into the trees, closely followed by Sasuke and Kakashi, and started jumping from tree to tree, taking out my frustration in speed.

"Sakura-chan, slow down." I pounded my feet off of the branches, feeling gratified at the release.

"Sakura!" I turned my head to glance back at them witheringly, not missing so much as a step.

"You were late, both of you. If you were on time, not only would I not be mad, we wouldn't be rushing." That was the end of that conversation, because he knew I was right, and Kakashi hadn't even tried to stop me.

It continued until just after dark, when we settled into an isolated clearing, almost half of the way to Hanagakure. By now my temper had subsided, and I volunteered to cook dinner, much to the horrified surprise of my comrades. My cooking hadn't been much to look forward to when I was a genin, and though it didn't really seem like they expected any better from me, they didn't object to me cooking for them. Once it was served, I watched as they each took a bite holding their breath. I rolled my eyes and ate normally, sitting a ways away from the pair.

"Sakura-chan, when did you learn to cook?" Kakashi was regarding me with suspicion as I scarfed down my portion. I shrugged, pulling a novel out of my bag.

"I'm not sure, sometime in the last six years probably." I opened the book while the two of them ate quietly, still most likely not wanting to set me off. Silently, with the book in my lap, I watched them eat. While Sasuke ravaged his bowl of food, Kakashi ate much more neatly, but even so still more quickly. I smiled, realizing that I no longer needed to try to see his face while he ate, because I most likely had seen as close to the real thing as I ever would. That is, If Jiraiya told the truth.

I backed up even farther from the two, snuggling my back into a large tree and relaxing. I stared up at the moon overhead, smiling and enjoying the soft light. It was going to be a beautiful night.