Here is chapter 7. sorry it is a little short.

Disclaimer: DNON

Thanks to my beta iMichelle for betaing.

Enjoy!


Chapter 7

Another Rough Day

Sakura didn't know what to think. Tsunade had been running her like a chicken with its head cut off for the past three hours. She hadn't worked this hard even in an emergency situation at KMC. But this was Tokyo Medical Center. It was much larger; there were more patients, and more emergencies.

For the first two hours, Sakura had followed Tsunade around watching as the woman worked expertly and without flaw it seemed. The woman was confident in everything she did. She did not regret making a decision in what she did and Sakura envied that. In only two hours, Sakura acquired a sense of respect for her once principal that hadn't been there before.

For the last hour, she had been with Kai in the pediatrics. Several kids had already come in seeking medical attention and only one had to be admitted. The poor kid had been a little careless and had ended up breaking his ankle.

Sakura wearily sat down in the chair. She expected to be worked, but when she was this tired after only three hours, it was ridiculous. How did everyone here do it? She heard someone stop by her chair. She tilted her head, lifted her eyes, and saw Kai.

"You look dead." he commented.

"Why thank you. I love getting complimented." Sakura said slightly sarcastically.

"Don't worry, you get used to the strain. I bet in a week you will be just like the rest of us. Able to withstand any stress and not feel like you're going to pass out. But here, this will help." Kai offered her a styrofoam cup with a green liquid inside.

"What is this?" Sakura said looking down into the cup.

"It is a green herbal tea. You do drink tea?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Just drink this and you will feel better. My advisor gave it to me when I started working here." Kai said as he leaned against the wall next to where Sakura sat.

"Are you sure?" Sakura stared warily at the...tea. For all she knew, it could be seawater, because it did not look that good to drink.

"Yes, now drink." Kai ordered. Sakura shrugged and downed a portion of the drink only to cough when she swallowed.

"That is nasty!" She whined. "Where's the water?" Kai just laughed at her antics.

"It's supposed to taste bad, that's why it's so good for you. You know the whole 'the worst tasting things are always the best for you'."

"Of course I do. I just don't like this." Sakura pointed to the cup in her hand.

"Well, finish drinking the wonderful beverage and then let's get back to work. Tsunade wants to see you up in maternity in five." Kai said, pushing himself off the wall and heading back to his own department. Sakura shook her head, finished the nasty drink and went up to maternity.

* * *

Sakura stepped out of the elevator and saw nurses bustling around. This was the maternity ward/floor. Sakura went over to the nurses' station.

"Do you know where I can find Tsunade at?"

"Are you Haruno-san?"

"Hai."

"She's in exam room 7. Just go right and it's the fourth door on the right."

"Arigatou." the nurse didn't say anything but continued to look over several files that were lying on the desktop.

Sakura knocked on door of the exam room and heard a brisk come in. Sakura stepped inside to see a teenage girl with her mother and Tsunade.

"Sakura, you're late."

"Gomen. Kai was speaking with me."

"Don't make excuses."

"Gomen."

"Okay then. Sakura this is Emi and her mother Maiko. She needs a sonogram." Tsunade said, still looking at the file and only spared a glance after telling Sakura what to do.

Sakura nodded and asked the girl to lie down on the bed and raise her shirt.

"The gel that I am going to spread on your stomach is going to be cold." The girl nodded. Sakura squirted the gel. She took the probe and began rubbing the gel over the girl's stomach before settling it to see into the uterus and the child that was growing within.

The girl shuddered as the gel was placed onto her belly. Sakura looked at the girl from the corner of her eye. The girl was young. She looked around 17 years old perhaps. Sakura wished that maybe it was her in the girl's position. She had been waiting for the past three years for Sasuke to ask her to marry him.

Sakura shook her head and looked back at the monitor. The sheet on the bed rustled as Sakura saw from the corner of her eye, the girl trying to get a glimpse of the life inside of her. Sakura moved the monitor a little to give the girl a better view.

Tsunade watched how Sakura handled giving the sonogram. She was professional about it. Staying calm and helping the teenage girl remain calm. Sakura was a natural. She seemed confident around patients and was patient with them. Tsunade knew she made a good choice for Sakura to be her intern.

* * *

After the exam, Sakura was exiting the room when Tsunade's voice stopped her.

"Sakura, wait." the younger woman stopped and turned to face her mentor.

"Yes shishou?"

"I was impressed with you. You seem to handle every situation with ease. That is a good thing to have when wanting to be in the medical world." Sakura smirked, a habit she had picked up from Sasuke. If only she knew.

The first time Sakura had been in the hospital when there had been a major accident. She had always been a little squeamish with blood, so when the ambulance arrived and she was supposed to take the vitals of the person at the hospital, she had nearly fainted at seeing all the blood. Luckily, she got through it and looked only like a sheet of paper afterwards.

"Arigatou."

"Look, Dr. Rei says that pediatrics and obstetrics aren't your most favorite places to be, but I want you to work in those two departments the most, especially pediatrics. Dr Rei said the kids usually were really good for you." Tsunade said, walking out the door. Sakura watched as her mentor left the room.

"I want you in pediatrics the rest of the day. I will check on you later and Kai will report to me your progress. Though, tomorrow expect to find yourself all over this hospital. I won't be as easy as Kai is."

"Hai." Sakura nodded and went off to find Kai leaving her mentor to give the file back to a secretary at the desk.

Sakura found Kai outside of a room looking at a file. Upon closing it he looked up to see Sakura walking towards him.

"Ah, Sakura how was obstetrics with Tsunade?"

"Good. It was a teenage girl. I felt kind of bad for her."

"Yeah, you always do." Kai said shaking his head. "That's why I like the little kids. Though they can get themselves into messes, they are funnier to be around. I would rather deal with a little temper tantrum than a crabby old woman telling me to get away from her."

Sakura laughed as Kai explained why he had chosen pediatrics. She had to admit the little kids were a lot funnier than the adults and teenagers that were always brought in.

The teens usually had sour attitudes and always had friends trying to visit. The adults always tried to seem too cheerful considering they were in a hospital and the elderly made life miserable most of the times. Though some could be sweet, there were also the ones that made you want to tear your hair out.

* * *

The rest of the day went by fast and when Sakura finally opened up her door to her apartment, she immediately collapsed on one of the leather couches sighing. It had been a good, but rough first day at the hospital.

Kai was right. She definitely needed to get used to this. But now she was starting to think that she wanted to stay in the pediatrics department. She had taken care of several other kids today and she realized that she actually liked taking care of them.

She decided she would inform Tsunade tomorrow that she wanted to be in pediatrics but she figured she would also have to be with the other departments as well. She was there not to stay in one department but to gain knowledge about all the departments that were in a hospital.

Getting up off of the couch, she started towards the kitchen to see what else was in it. After looking through the cupboards and refrigerator, she decided on making stir fry. After getting all the ingredients out on the counter she began to cook away, but not after changing into sweat and a loose t-shirt that belonged to Sasuke. Heck, she couldn't have left without one of his shirts.

* * *

The hangover Sasuke had been a good one. The day afterwards all he had done was sleep and drink lots of water and took lots of Tylenol.

Sasuke grumbled as the sun hit his face. It was afternoon and he had been sleeping all day due to the enormous headache from the few drinks he had last night. Turning back onto his side, he attempted to fall asleep but was rudely awoken when the condo phone went off.

Sasuke grumbled and pulled himself out of the bed, but before he got to the phone the answering machine got it and Sasuke inwardly cursed when he heard the voice. It was none other than Yamanaka Ino.

"Hey Sasuke, its Ino. Hope you are awake and at home because I am coming over. I know Sakura's at the hospital right now so it's the perfect time to finish the proposal plans. See you in a bit. Bye bye!"

Sasuke used some quite colorful words before looking at the clock. She would be knocking at his door in approximately eight minutes. That woman was faster than any woman when she was on a mission.

Then he remembered. She still didn't know that Sakura had left which meant that there would be no proposal going on next week or for that matter several weeks or months. Sasuke cursed again realizing he would have to tell the blond her friend was in Tokyo.

Heading back to his, correction their room, he pulled on pants over his navy blue boxers and threw on an old t-shirt he had left laying around and as usual, he was right. After eight minutes, the doorbell rang. Sasuke moved towards the door and ran a hand through his tousled raven hair.

Opening the door he revealed a very blond Yamanaka Ino and a very bored Nara Shikamaru. The two were polar opposites. But then again, they are the ones that that showed everyone that "Opposites attract". One a bouncing blonde and the other a lazy bum. He gestured for them to come in and Ino rushed into the house dragging a very tired looking Nara behind her.

Sasuke sighed as the blond just dropped herself onto their couch, pulling the Nara with her. Sasuke closed the door and when the click was heard, Ino's mouth started.

"Okay, so I got the tea lights so the place is going to have a glow." Before she got any further she saw Sasuke's look, which looked more like a glare, of 'please stop talking'.

"Hey Sasuke, what's up?" Shikamaru asked, raising an eyebrow at his friend's behavior. It was moody and irritable. Ino looked between her boyfriend and her friend. She too saw the moodiness.

"Sasuke, hey you alright?" Ino asked concerned. Sasuke shook his head.

"Yeah, about the proposing thing." he started.

"I know, isn't it great? Sakura will just love it." Ino said enthusiastically.

"There's one problem though." Sasuke said.

"What?" Ino asked confused.

"Sakura's not here."

"Of course, she's not here. She's at work. If she were here, we wouldn't be talking about you proposing to her."

"No, Ino. She isn't in Konoha right now."

"Oh, is she visiting her parents in Oto. She should be back by next week though."

"No Ino she isn't in Oto either. She's in Tokyo." Silence filled the room. Shikamaru's eyebrows rose.

"What do you mean in Tokyo?" Ino stated.

"It means what it means. She went to Tokyo for an internship." the blonde's eyes widened considerably and her head cocked to the side.

"What do you mean she went to Tokyo? Why the heck is she in Tokyo? She didn't even tell me she was going for the internship. So how the heck is she in Tokyo? Please explain this to me." Ino was waving her arms around by now. The two males had backed slightly away from the angry woman.

Onyx eyes met dark brown ones before going back to the blazing ice blue ones. Both men just waited until the blond would calm enough so either of them could speak. Sasuke was standing in front of the two while Shikamaru had scooted over from Ino on the couch.

As the blond had been expertly giving them a lecture she had stood up from the couch. The blond sighed heavily before wanting to continue with her rant, but fortunately Sasuke stopped her.

"Look Ino,"

"No you don't. Don't you dare go and say 'look Ino'. This is one huge misunderstanding. She probably took that internship because someone here screwed up, namely you Uchiha. I was the one to help her after the jerk before you tore up her heart. She wouldn't have gone. She loves or loved you. You stubborn man. Get it through your thick head that the world doesn't revolve around you. Now what the heck did you say to make her leave?"

Ino was furious. Both men could see that. The blond had her hands on her hips and was staring angrily at the Uchiha. He had said some things, but that didn't make her, did it? In her letter, it hadn't said exactly why she left and she hadn't told him why she left either. Sasuke started to feel guilty.

"I didn't say a dang thing, got it? She made her decision and we have to live with it. It's good she went. Now she can study to do what she really wants to do. She'll be back in six months and then I will propose to her, but I don't need you telling me how I screwed up." Sasuke lashed back.

Ino raised her eyebrows at him.

"Fine. If that is how it is going to be, just call me when my friend gets back into town." Ino stalked out of the condo. "Shikamaru!" her voice carried inside to the men's ears. Shikamaru grumbled and got up.

"Sorry Sasuke. If you need someone, I'm still here." Sasuke nodded and thanked his friend. Shikamaru closed the door behind him leaving Sasuke alone again in their condo. It would still be theirs. Even if she wasn't there, it would still be theirs. She made this place a home for them.

* * *

Sasuke sighed and went to the kitchen. It was nearing six and he hadn't eaten anything all day. He knew how to cook, but it wasn't as good as Sakura's cooking. She just had a way with cooking, especially her stir fry.

Sasuke was making some miso soup when the phone rang. Sasuke turned to burner to low and walked over to pick up the phone. Caller id was again unknown. He figured it was Sakura though.

"Hello."

"You could sound a little more cheerful when you answer the phone you know."

"Nice to hear you too." he said.

"Nice to hear you as well. How have things been even though it's only been two days?

"Ino is mad at me."

"What? Why?"

"She thinks I said something to make you accept the internship." Silence was heard on the other side. "Did I say something that made your decision?"

"No. It was my decision. Though, the fight before hurt. I made the decision. I'll call Ino and straighten things out. Don't worry, she'll be fine."

"Thanks." Sasuke said dryly.

"Look, I am pretty tired. Tsunade gave me one heck of a first day, so I am going to sleep. I will call you later. Okay?"

"Aa."

"Love you Sasuke."

"Me too." the dial tone was heard.

Sakura stared at the phone in her hand. He always said me too. She rarely heard the 'I love you' from him. But that was okay. He was Sasuke. He never really said it unless it was of high importance that he needed to say I love you. Glancing at the clock, she noticed it was eight.

Deciding to call it an early night, she changed into her sweat pants and shirt before climbing into the big bed and drifting off to sleep.


Hope that was good for you. i wasn't too sure.

So please review. last chapters reviews were a little scarce. i was kind of down.

REVIEW!! PLEASE!!!

Ja

yoyo