Sorry for the late update, it was all ready to go last night but I ended up falling asleep! Once again thank you for all the followers, favourites and reviews it really makes me happy knowing you are liking my story. Anyway hope you enjoy this chapter and I shall try and get the next one all ready to be uploaded tomorrow.
Athena xx
...
Sakura sat down on the bench in front of the hospital her head in her hands. It had been rough with her rushing from one critical patient to the next. Three times she had nearly lost one of them but she had not given up and all of them will live to see another day. She had entered surgery as soon as she left the training hall at midday and hadn't left her patients except for her short breaks to nap. She looked at her watch, 9am. She knew that Gaara would have taken care of Ryuu, it was not strange for her to not come home at night. Guilt surged through her at that thought but knew her little boy understood.
'Mama!'
Sakura looked up to find her son running towards her. His face was set in its usual big smile as his little arms spread out. When he came closer she picked him up and spun him around, his squeals of joy were just what she needed after that rough shift.
'Hey there baby, you ok?'
'Yeah Gawa read story!'
'He did?' She looked up to find Gaara standing there with a smile on his face. Ryuu, suddenly remembering someone else was there, struggled to be put down. She released him and he ran up to Gaara who bent down and picked him up.
'Oh so I can't carry you but Gaara can?' Sakura pouted pulling a sad face.
'Throw! Throw!' He called ignoring Sakura.
Sakura watched with her heart in her mouth as Gaara threw her son into the air and caught him at the last minute.
'I hate it when you do that!' Sakura said crossing her arms and giving him a disapproving look.
'I know' he replied grinning, throwing him even higher.
'Gaara!' Naruto called.
Sakura spun round her eyes darting from Ryuu to Naruto who was making his way towards them. She was glad to know he was alone but a feeling of dread still remained knowing that one of these days Kakashi would see Ryuu. Naruto finally reached them and his eyes went wide at the sight of Ryuu.
'Whose kid is that?' He asked his eyebrows rising.
She knew this was coming and took Ryuu from Gaara. She settled him in her hip, him not complaining as was usual when in the presence of a stranger.
'He's my son, Naruto meet Ryuu, Ryuu honey meet Naruto one of my best friends.'
Naruto's mouth hung open in shock as his eyes spun onto Gaara questioningly. He stayed quiet during Naruto's scrutiny until his gaze returned to Ryuu. Sakura could have kissed Gaara for putting a sun hat on Ryuu which hid his tell tale hair.
'You're a mum?'
'Yeah I am'
'How old is he?'
'I'm 3 and a hawf' Ryuu stated, not liking being left out of the conversation.
'Nice to meet you!' Naruto grinned and held out his hand for Ryuu to shake. Ryuu's gaze went to Sakura's silently asking if it was ok and after her nod he placed his tiny hand in Naruto's. The expression on Naruto's face turned from confusion to his usual grin which Ryuu returned.
'Naruto?' A soft voice asked from behind.
They turned to find Hinata holding a toddler in her arms. She wore a light purple and white kimono and had her long hair tied back in a plait. The toddler had blonde hair tied into pigtails and pale eyes like her mother.
'May I re-introduce my beautiful wife Hinata Uzamaki and our daughter Ayame' Naruto beamed with pride as he slung his arm around his blushing wife.
'Nice to see you again Hinata, I am so sorry about not coming to the wedding it's just...'
She nodded down to Ryuu.
'She was in labour at the time, would have ruined your day having her there screaming the place down as she did' Gaara supplied with a slight smile.
Understanding dawned in their faces and Hinata shook her head chuckling.
'Its alright Sakura, Ino said there was a really big reason why you couldn't come, I just never expected that being it'
'Yeah that gets you off the hook!' Naruto added, taking Ayame from Hinata and placing her on his shoulders much to his daughters delight. They caught up for the next 10 minutes until Hinata remembered the reason she was there.
'Naruto, Tsunade is looking for you, there is going to be a meeting soon and as her successor you need to be there' Hinata said with a smile to the group.
'Successor?' Sakura asked grinning at her long time friend.
'Yeah Tsunade will be stepping down in a few years so she is teaching me the ropes' Naruto replied and Sakura felt pride well up inside her knowing his dream was coming finally coming true.
'It's a good idea, sure wish I had someone walking me through it' Gaara added holding his hand out to Naruto, 'congratulations'
Naruto shook Gaara's hand and with a wave, led his family away. After they had disappeared round the corner, Sakura looked down at her watch and sighed.
'I need to get back to work, I have so much paperwork waiting for me, why did I accept the position of head of the hospital again?' Sakura joked giving Ryuu a hug and a kiss before passing him back to Gaara.
'Because you knew you were the best person for the job?'
She rolled her eyes and after waving the pair off she made her way back to her office. Opening the door she found a steaming cup of coffee waiting for her on her desk.
'Thought you might need that, I put some hazelnut syrup in as well'
She turned to find Kaito lazily stretched on the sofa in her office. He was very good looking, all the nurses went into a tizzy when Doctor Kaito was on duty and Sakura could see why. His blue eyes sparkled with mischief and his black hair fell about his eyes. He had a strong jaw and an easy going smile but what everyone like most about him was his personality. He was always in a good mood, laughing and joking with the other staff, he was always the one to cheer people up during a bad day. He wasn't only nice to he staff either as he always went out of his way to help people and would always go that extra mile for a patient. He and Sakura had hit it off right from the get go, they had an easy friendship which some mistook for feelings deeper than friendship but they both knew better.
'Ok who has filed a law suit against you that you need me to fix?' Sakura joked taking a sip of the coffee. She let out a little moan of delight as she tasted the hazelnut goodness, no one made coffee like Kaito did.
'Careful making sounds like that Sakura, I'm only human'
Sakura looked up with a grin on her face as she saw the humour in his eyes. Their relationship was full of innocent flirtatious comments being sent back and forth, it was the kind of harmless fun Sakura needed in her life.
'A woman with my life takes her pleasures where she can get them' she replied with a wink.
'Your place around 9 o'clock then?'
She gave a mock gasp of outrage, putting her hand on her chest to further her performance.
'I'm not that kind of woman! I am a respectable mother with a respectable job!'
'I agree with everything except the respectable part, this is the woman who I had to carry home during the Christmas party after she had too many cocktails' He threw back with a triumphant smile.
'I blame you for that'
'Thought you would'
'Anyway don't you have plans tonight?' Sakura asked wiggling her eyebrows.
'Don't do that, it just looks creepy and no I don't, with the Chunin exams and everything we have decided to leave it for a bit' His eyes lost that gleam and instead turned sad. Sakura's heart went out to him but she knew what was at stake and so kept her mouth shut.
'Film and ice cream at 9 then?'
'Do I look like a teenage girl?' He replied looking affronted for just a moment, 'You choose the ice cream and I choose the film, the last one you picked was god awful'
'Dirty Dancing is amazing, it's practically a classic! It's better than that one you chose before!'
'Pulp Fiction is a classic, it has a cult following! Yours on the other hand just has a mum following'
'Your point?' Sakura asked indicating herself.
'Anyway tonight is going to be another classic, your film knowledge is dreadfully limited unless it's a romantic film'
'Don't you have work to be getting on with?' Sakura asked, not wanting to start this age old debate between them again. He sighed and after checking his watch stood up.
'Need to do the rounds'
'Well then get on with, you don't get paid to sit around chatting' Sakura scolded with a smile.
'Yes boss'
Kaito grinned at her and saluted as he left her office. Putting the empty coffee cup down she stared at the mountain of paperwork that needed sorting.
I'm going to need more coffee.
Sakura finally left the hospital at around 3 o'clock. She practically ran for the door hoping nothing else would happen that meant staying even longer. Over 24 hours at the place was long enough and Sakura was in desperate need of a bubble bath.
On her way home she was just passing the park when she saw a familiar sight. Ryuu was playing tag with some of his friends while Gaara was sat on one of the benches in deep conversation with Hiro. She made her way towards them wondering what they were discussing, Gaara did not look happy.
'Everything ok?' Sakura asked when she stood in front of them.
They both looked up and Gaara shook his head.
'When you get a lot of ninja from different villages together in one place it never goes smoothly. Are you ok to take Ryuu back now as I need to go deal with this?'
'Of course, I've finished now so just let me know if there is anything I can do.'
Sakura noticed Hiro looking pointedly at Gaara as she said those words and just barely saw Gaara's slight shake of his head.
'Don't worry about it, nothing I can't deal with.'
They left quickly towards the Hokage Tower but Sakura knew he was holding something back, something that Hiro thought she could help with. Her thoughts were cut short as Ryuu came running up to her, his hair had turned almost blonde due to the sand he had been playing in getting caught in it. His face was red from all the running about but her motherly instincts knew he was getting tired.
'Ready to go home?' She asked standing up and holding her hand out to him. He shocked her by raising his arms, asking to be carried. He had not done this in months always preferring the push chair or walking as soon as he was able. Sakura picked him up and he snuggled into her, resting his little head in her collar bone.
'Missed you' he whispered.
Those two little words tore at her heart, she had been working non stop lately with preparing for the Chunin exams. Her little boy often acted a lot older than his age which made her forget he was still just a baby. She carried him home, hoping that with him nestled into her as he was he could not see the tears that ran down her cheek.
When they got home Sakura made sure all of her attention was on her son. She bathed him which ended in a water fight, they played with the Lego set that Tsunade had got him for Christmas last year, and then they started on his training.
Ryuu, although only 3 and a half, was a genius with chakra manipulation. She had screamed blue murder when she had walked into the living room one day to find him walking along the ceiling, giggling as he went. The next day he had mastered standing on his bath water. It wasn't just chakra manipulation he was good at either, justu's also seemed to come easy to him. Just last month Kankuro had shown Ryuu a basic puppetry jutsu and now his play times were a lot more interesting. The only thing he had not tried yet was sparring and weaponry use, she had put her foot down on that one, he was only 3 after all! One thing was for certain though, he had a bright ninja career a head of him.
Like father like son she thought to herself with a sigh.
She went to the cupboard under the stairs and lifted the training dummy out she had borrowed from the hospital training facility. Recently she had started teaching him basic medical ninjustu and she decided that today would be a good time for him to practise what he had learnt.
'Right remember what I told you last time?' She asked setting the dummy on the floor and filling it with fake blood.
'Yes mummy, I need to make medical chakra go to hands' he replied, a little furrow appearing in his forehead with his concentration. She suppressed a giggle at how serious her son looked, he took his training very serious even for one so young. She watched his attempt to draw out his chakra for healing and a few seconds later his little hand was glowing green.
'Ok that's good Ryuu, now i'm going to make an incision on this training dummy and you are going to try and heal it like I showed you ok?'
She nicked the dummy's arm with a kunai and watched her son get to work. She watched as the flow of blood slowed, then stopped altogether. Then slowly the wound began to close, Sakura sometimes couldn't believe how far training equipment had come since her days of training medical ninjutsu. A few seconds later Ryuu jumped up and ran into her arms.
'I did it mama!' He exclaimed giving her a hug then running round the living room excitedly.
She clapped and made a show of congratulating him as he grinned from ear to ear extremely impressed at what he had just done.
I can't believe how fast he is growing up.
A few hours later he was tucked up in bed and with a sigh she collapsed onto the sofa. The doorbell went and with a groan she got up again, after a confused look at the clock she went to the door.
Kaito's early for once, she thought to herself.
Opening the door she felt her jaw hit the floor as there stood Kakashi, the one person she really did not want to see.
