Hello again!

I hope everyone is having a great Sunday!

I hope everyone enjoys chapter 8!

There's an AN at the end with some information that I think y'all will want to read!

Without further ado, I give you chapter 8!

...

Akino hadn't been the head medic for long, but he had years of experience, at least in his own mind. He remembered the Fourth Great Shinobi War, but he had only been sent out at the tail end, but once again, he HAD fought. He wasn't a coward by any means, but when he heard the explosions his first instinct had been to run.

Then came the pink haired woman and all that went right out of the window. He couldn't be shown up by some petite woman with PINK hair. He'd heard of her, sure. Who hadn't, really.

The only girl on team seven, student to the fifth Hokage, ex member on ANBU - partnered to none other than Hatake Kakashi, and currently the Head of Medicine at Konoha Hosital.

He thought she was chalked up to be more than what she really was.

But that was his opinion.

He was thankful, though, that the Kazekage had sent her over.

He wouldn't admit that. He wouldn't.

Would he admit he would be in her debt for saving his fellow villagers lives? Of course!

But thankful because he had no idea what to do for major multiple wounded shinobi?

No. He'd never admit to that.

He glanced over at the woman and saw her healing a young man, probably no older than fifteen. He had a gaping wound in his stomach, the kind that would kill. Sakura was bent over him, hands glowing green, as she pumped chakra into the teen. Slowly the wound began to heal closed, and before his eyes what use to be a hole was now a faint pink line. He knew it could be done, had done so himself, but after an hour of healing wounded after wounded? No way. It just wasn't possible.

He looked back to Sakura's face and for the first time noticed the black lines that ran down from the diamond shaped tattoo thing on her forehead. He vaguely remembered hearing something about a Yin Seal that Tsunada and her student had; the thing that enabled them to be the only medic nins that could fight in battle.

Maybe that's why she's able to keep going, he thought to himself. He would look farther into it after everything settled down.

Speaking of settling down, thankfully it seemed that the attack was over. There hadn't been any more explosions and the influx of shinobi had ebbed. Akino finally turned back to his patient and studied the wound on the woman's shoulder. It was slight, and it shouldn't take him long to heal at all. He placed a glowing hand near the cut and began the process of healing the woman. This, he could handle.

After he finished he went back to the central desk. The waiting room off to the side was now empty and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Don't take a breath just yet, Akino-san. The fighting may seem to be over, but those that aren't seriously wounded will start trickling in."

He turned to the woman speaking and saw that Sakura had joined him.

"Surely there can't be too many more."

Giving the man a smile she laid her hand on his shoulder. "It would be nice, but highly unlikely. Take this time to grab a soldier pill and pass them out to the others. We have a long day ahead of us."

Akino resisted the urge to groan, but barely. This wasn't what he expected when he became Head Medic. Maybe he should have thought everything through a little more.

...

Sakura was disappointed, to say the least. She expected more out of the Head Medic, but it seemed like he was cut out for the paper part of medicine, not actually treating patients.

Sighing, she surveyed the area of the hospital that they were using. It was a mess. Blood was all over the floor, people were scattered in all open areas, and all the medics and nurses seemed to be completely done. Suna needed to step up their medic training, that she knew. While she understood that no one was use to this type of thing anymore, they had still only been going at it for a little over an hour. She knew the second wave was due to hit at any time and who knew what kind of injuries would come with them?

"Here, Sakura-chan. You look like you could use it."

Turning, Sakura saw Genma had come up behind her and he had a bottle of water in his hand. She took it gratefully and drained the bottle in record time.

"Thanks Genma. That's just what I needed."

"They're a mess, aren't they?"

Groaning, she rubbed a hand down her face. "They are. I've seen more organization on the battlefield than I have here."

Genma gave her a quick side hug. "Hang in there. The fighting is over it seems."

"That just means more people will be pouring in."

Genma laughed at her tired face. "Hey, at least you have that freaky seal on your forehead. I lost count of all the people you've healed already."

"I haven't used this thing in years. It feels odd, to be honest."

"That's what slowing down does to us. I'll take running after my twins any day."

Sakura was about to answer when three men came bursting in through the doors, heavily bleeding.

Time to get back to work, she thought.

...

Kakashi was tired.

They had easily defeated the three Cloud shinobi before meeting up with Ibiki. After that it had been non stop trying to push all the intruders back. They had managed to round a few up for interrogation, which Ibiki had gleefully volunteered to help with.

Cloud had been a mess. How they had been overtaken so easily by the rouges now made perfect sense, as did the fact that the rouges didn't seem to be with them. It was almost like they wanted for them to fail.

Gaara had left the group to head back to what was left of his office. He didn't envie the man, or what he would have to deal with in the times to come.

The damages seemed to mainly be contained to the central area of Suna. It didn't seem like any residential areas were affected.

"This was a test."

He turned to the man speaking.

"What do you mean, Shikamaru-san?"

"They were testing us. Maybe the troops sent here didn't know that, but I guarantee that's what the point was. Think about it. They could test the strength of Suna and while they were at it, test the strength of Konoha's Hokage. We're next."

"Like hell we are. I know you already have a plan, so spit it out." Kakashi said.

"We need to be proactive. They won't expect us to attack quickly, but that's exactly what we have to do. We need to get back to Konoha and formulate an attack plan. It needs to be carried out in less than a week. We need to ask Gaara-sama to send any spare ANBU he can. We attack together and we speak to no one about it. Even if Rock and Mist aren't part of Cloud's attack, they knew it was happening. That's why they didn't plan on arriving until this morning. My guess is they were told to stay out of they didn't want to be attacked as well."

"We need to figure out who's really behind all of this."

"Capture the man they have in change of Cloud. We need to get him to talk. Using that village is only a cover for something else."

Kakashi felt his brain begin to hurt. This has spiraled into a mess quicker than it began, and it only seemed to be getting worse.

"Shikamaru-san, please go gather your things and leave immediately for Konoha. Begin to make plans.I know you can make it back in a day and a half and I'll send Genma to meet up with you when I find him. Ibiki will stay here until they can finish the interrogation. Sakura and I will leave tomorrow at sunrise. She'll need the night to recover as I'm sure she's over done it; she'll heal and heal until she passes out. I'll speak with Garra-sama in the meantime. It's Wednesday, plan to have to teams move out by Saturday. We do this quick and silent. I only want one team to know of our plans to take the leader. ANBU team six will do. They need to leave Friday night and scout out the area before the rest get there. We need to get to the bottom of this ASAP."

"Hai, Hokage-sama. Be safe."

Kakashi nodded at the younger man before he jumped away. After he lost sight of Shikamaru he turned and began to make his was to the hospital to check on Sakura.

It only took him a few minutes before he was walking through the doors. He found Sakura, her Yin Seal released, healing a young woman.

To some, there would be nothing attractive about her at that moment. Her hair had been pulled back out of her face, there was blood all over her clothes and arms, black lines ran all over her face, and she looked exhausted.

But to Kakashi? Well, he had never seen a more beautiful sight before. She exuded strength and compassion. She was focused on her task and never broke concentration, pumping healing chakra into the woman until all her wounds had closed. She gave her a weak smile, before pulling a sheet up to the woman's chest and murmuring to her. She took a few steps away and began to sway. Kakashi was by her side in no time, placing an arm around her and allowing her to lean into him. She gave him a grateful smile and rested her head on his shoulder. "You're okay." She whispered.

He gave her a kiss to the side of the head and squeezed her reassuringly. "Can't get rid of me that easy. You, on the other hand, look ready to drop."

"Three hours of trauma surgeries will do that to you."

"You released your seal."

"Had to. There were people to save."

"You give to much." He said as he guided her to a chair. After he sat her down her sunk down besides her. She leaned back into him, the last bit of her energy draining fast.

"Sakura, there's a lot we need to discuss. I sent Shikamaru back to Konoha. We need to leave in the morning at sunrise. Ibiki will follow after they all get finished interrogating some of the Cloud shinobi we captured."

"It's bad, isn't it?"

"Yes. I'll fill you in more when we head out. You need rest."

"I will soon. I still have a few more things I need to take care of here."

"Sakura, you can't even stand."

"Then I'll take a quick nap and recharge."

"Our rooms are still intact. How, I'm not sure, but they are. I'll take you back there and let you rest, I need to speak to Gaara anyways."

Sakura finally nodded to that, knowing he was right. She was exhausted and trying to carry the slack of the other medics had caused her to drain her chakra quicker than normal. Actually, now that she thought about it, she still shouldn't be this drained.

"Come on then, we need to find Genma. I'll send him to catch up to Shikamaru."

Kakashi rose and helped Sakura up. He was worried about how tired she looked. He knew she had been doing a lot, but he had seen her do so much more and not be nearly as tired. He doubted she would be going back to the hospital unless she did a complete 360.

"Akino!" She called to the dark haired man passing by.

"Yes, Sakura-sama?" He asked. He spared Kakashi a glance before looking back to the pink haired woman by his side.

"I'm leaving you in charge. Everything has seemed to slack off, so you should all be good. Try to take turns resting. I'll check back in after a few hours."

The man nodded, and thanked Sakura for all her help. He then turned and went back to the room he was headed to.

"Okay, let's go. Genma should be right outside."

Kakashi nodded. He felt a deep down gut feeling to get Sakura somewhere to rest. His worry for her fatigue was getting worse the more exhausted she become. This wasn't normal for her, but he had to push that aside for now. They needed to take care of business and head back to Konoha. His village depended on their actions.

...

Somewhere outside of Suna...

"Yes, I know. They were stronger than originally thought, but no matter. These ninja were disposable; when they feel the attack of our real troops they will see all they care for crumble to the ground." The man with black hair said to his companion.

Yes, when Suna and Konoha felt their real power they could crumble. He couldn't wait.

They would all pay for what they had done; Konoha for their direct actions and Suna for supporting them. He would enjoy watching them fall.

"Do you think they will figure it out before we can attack?" His companion asked.

"No. They won't see it coming. They won't see it coming until they watch all their loved ones die."

And die they would. Every one of them.

...

Ah! Who could be behind all this?!

And what's wrong with Sakura? Poor thing.

Anyways, thanks so much for reading! For all the reviews, follows, and favorites!

Because this story reached 50 reviews I'll be doing an OVA!

Yay!

I decided that I'll do another one when we hit 75 reviews and another when we hit 100 - so that means I'll be doing all three of the choices I gave in the last chapter.

First up, what happened after the mission in the prologue!

Then I'll do an ANBU mission Kakashi and Skaura did, and then finally one about their first kiss!

Wooooo!

I'll be posting them as one shots, so look out for them!

Thanks again guys!

Until next time!