Honestly, Sakura had never been more suspicious in her life. Earlier in the morning, she suspected that something was up when her parents and essentially Hinata told her to take a walk through town to re-familiarize herself and maybe buy some new clothes. Now, she was fully convinced something was to happen the moment she returned home. After clearing Ino from the Leaf Hospital (which she still wasn't sure if she should be able to do such a thing), Hinata had whispered something in the couple's ears and reluctantly, they nodded and left in a hurry.

Now, Hinata was walking her back to her parent's new house. But while Sakura may not be as familiar with Konoha's new layout, she was almost positive they were walking the long way, almost as if Hinata was stalling.

Suspicious.

Hinata, herself, seemed calm and collected. Only fiddling with the bag slung over her shoulder when it deemed necessary to prevent it from slipping off and spilling out the grocery contents for her family on the paved floor.

"Sakura?" Hinata paused as something from a store caught her eye, "would it be alright if we stopped in this store?"

The medic-nin looked at the store in question. It was a fairly bright-looking street-side shop, filled with colorful books, and, she squinted, something called X-cards. "Yeah, sure." she replied following Hinata inside. Maybe she could buy some new medical textbooks. She grinned in anticipation, surely medical research and techniques would have advanced along with society. Quickly informing Hinata in which section she would be in, Sakura made her way to the "Medical and Health" category of books. Scanning the shelves, she spotted her mentor's name under the book title Prosthetics and Their Uses. With barely retained excitement, Sakura grabbed the book off the shelf and cracked it open to the first page.

History and Present Day

The use of prosthetics has been dated to centuries previously. Often limbs were crafted with light cedar or redwood or other lightweight materials. However, such materials lacked the durability and chakra capabilities necessary to function for active shinobi. In a recent discovery, I have found that the First Hokage's stem cells can be manipulated to act as a prosthetic limb with the same neural and chakra pathways as an original limb. One major setback is that the First Hokage and the intended patient must have blood compatibility based on origin and race. Further study suggests that-

Sakura's engrossed reading was cut off by a tap on her shoulder. Slightly irritated at the interruption, she turned towards the offender. Her vexation vanished at the sight of a brown-haired girl with black eyes about thirteen years of age, and in her hands she held another book. It was worn and torn with age, obviously bought a long time ago, but to the great surprise of Sakura, the book had her name printed on the front: Toxicology Detection and the Five Basics by Sakura Haruno and edited by Tsunade Senju.

"Umm," the girl stammered, obviously shy, "S-sorry for the interruption, but I-" she paused again, clutching the book she held closer to her chest, "I noticed you were a medic-nin, and I, well, it's my dream to become one!" the girl proclaimed, half-bowing with the force of her declaration. "S-so, I was wondering if you could, um, give me any advice?" she finished hopefully.

To which Sakura responded with a very dignified, "Eeh?"

The girl, the kunoichi, Sakura corrected as she noticed the headband tied to her right arm, seemed to slump, "Oh, sorry. I-I guess that was too upfront. I'm sorry again!" she made a move to leave, but Sakura grabbed her arm before she could escape.

Snapping out of her stupefied state, Sakura smiled, which seemed like the right thing to do as the other girl visibly relaxed, "Aah, no, I'm the one who's sorry."She doesn't know who you are. Sakura reminded herself. Calm down. She released the other girl's arm, bringing the other one to rub the back of her head sheepishly, "Haha, I'm a little out of touch at the moment."

The girl nodded in response, "I understand, you must have just finished your shift at the hospital. I'm really sorry for bothering you then." The girl apologized.

Sakura was about to ask the girl how she knew she just came from the hospital when she noticed white flowing from her personage. She inwardly groaned. She had forgotten to take her lab coat off again. Pushing back the thoughts of Ino laughing at her for forgetting again, Sakura waved the girl's apology off, "No worries, no worries. Anyways, advice huh?" she tapped her chin in thought.

The girl waited eagerly.

The worn book she clutched in her hands brought an idea to the jonin. "Say, are you interested in Toxicology?"

The girl's dark eyes widened, "Yes!"she exclaimed, her nervousness all but forgotten. She held out her book,"This is my favorite book on the subject! Haruno-sama is so insightful with her research on the five different basic types of poison and it even implies she developed a jutsu to detect ingredients used in poisons to create even faster antidotes!" the girl continued to gush praises to, unbeknownst to her, her idol.

Sakura fought hard to keep the embarrassment from the girl's high praise from creeping up her face. She simply nodded her head in semi-agreement with the brown-haired girl's statements to indicate that she was listening.

The girl finished her rant with a sigh, "I just wish I could have met her in person. She died in the Fourth Shinobi World War."

The medic-nin coughed awkwardly, "Yes, um, it was a real shame." Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Hinata at the cashiers. She glanced back at the girl. "Here, listen," Taking off her lab coat, Sakura draped the now slightly oversized white cloth on the younger kunoichi's shoulders. The girl's eyes widened in awe. "why don't you hold on to this for me and meet me here tomorrow at 10:00 and I'll give you a tour around the hospital?"

"Really!?" the girl gasped.

Honestly, it was a fair question. Sakura wasn't really sure if she could do such a thing, but considering she just cleared a patient out of the hospital, she didn't think it was too much of an issue. "Really." She repeated, "Anyhow, I'll see you tomorrow," she cut herself off when she realized didn't even know this girl's name.

"I'm Nakamura Aoi!" the girl supplied.

Sakura smiled, "Well, then, I'll see you tomorrow Aoi-san." With that the jonin made her way to join her friend, not before grabbing another medical book off the shelf, which was a newer version to the one Aoi held. When she approached the cashier, she made a motion to fish out the coins in her back pouch, but the man at the cashier stopped her.

"No, please. Those books are on the house." he insisted.

"What? No-" Sakura protested.

"Please," he smiled, "Any friend of Hinata-san's is a friend of mine and especially if they are an old friend of the great Seventh Hokage." He gestured to the endorsement poster hanging above them with Uzumaki Naruto posed with two thumbs up with his signature grin.

The medic-nin was about to protest again, but Hinata nudged her, "Give it up," she said, "Fujio-san is much too stubborn to back down now." She smiled gratefully at the man, "Thank you so much."

Sakura conceded for now, determined to sneak back, err take a walk, in the middle of the night and accidentally misplace the cash on the table. "Thank you."

Securing her two books into a plastic bag, Sakura swung it over her shoulder and was about to leave the store with Hinata, when she saw a girl in a white lab coat run up to her.

"Wait!"

She turned to face her, "Oh, Aoi-san. What is it?"

"I didn't get your name," the girl exclaimed.

The pink-haired medic-nin smiled.

"Sakura," she turned, walking away, "Haruno Sakura."

"Eeh?!"

"Meeting new people already, Sakura?" teased the Uzumaki Matriarch as they continued on their long, drawn out walk back.

Sakura chuckled good-naturedly,"More like people keep meeting me." she paused, "Don't try to change the subject, Hinata," she narrowed her eyes," I know you're planning something. You didn't forget my request did you?"

Hinata hummed, "Of course not. I respect that you want to tell them each individually."

"Why do I feel like there is a 'but'?"

"Well, if you change your mind is all I'm going to say." the former Hyuga said cryptically, but there was a shimmer of hope in her eyes as if she wanted Sakura to give the "Okay" to whatever they were planning.

Sakura huffed in response, taking pause to reflect.

She thought of the others. The torture occuring in Ino's mind. The sadness in Kakashi posture. The hurt behind Naruto's eyes. The disbelief on Hinata's face. The returned happiness in Shizune's speech. The desperate moments of contact from her parents. All because of her.

How would she feel if someone she knew someone who had been dead for sixteen years, who when alive refused to see her because they weren't ready to face such unadulterated joy?

It sounded stupid when she actually fleshed out her own reasoning in her head. She clenched her fists. Forget her own overwhelmed feelings. She had the chance to help her friends by simply existing. What kind of healer would she be if she didn't take it?

She turned to her companion, "You know, actually…"

Hinata smiled.

"SURPRISE!" yelled what Sakura felt like was the entire village as she opened the door. Or at the very least such a scream would have woken up the entire village.

She gasped. Not so much in surprise, she suspected this from the beginning, but in amazement at all the decorations that they had managed to put up within the day. The most prominent out of all the balloons and confetti was a banner that hung from the living room's ceiling with the words: Welcome Home, Sakura!

As she scanned the crowd of people, she inwardly laughed at their own looks of surprised faces at her appearance. It seemed the surprise was on all of them in one way or another.

Following were tears, laughter, smiles, hugs, well-wishes, apologizes, forgiveness.

Naruto, Kaka-sensei, Ino, Hinata, Sai, Shikamaru, Neji, Tenten, Choji, Kiba, Shino, Lee, Gai-sensei, Kurenai-sensei, Mom, Dad.

Despite her tears leaking from her eyes, Sakura beamed.

"Surprise! I'm back."

SURPRISE! I'm back!

No, I didn't write this chapter with a surprise party just to write that line. I don't know what you're talking about.

Okay, I admit the ending is tooth-aching cliche to the T. Sorry. I will probably change it later, or not...Who knows?

Plot's taking off next chapter! Stay tuned and thanks for reading!