Chapter 11: Through the Eyes of a Medic

"Again," Sasuke said, pride evident in his voice as he stood over the exhausted form of Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto glared up at Sasuke as he raised himself off of the ground. After standing still for a few moments, Naruto screamed and ran at the tree directly in front of him.

He made it halfway up before intentionally overloading the chakra in his feet, making him shoot of the tree. He collided with the ground a second later and slid until he stopped and found himself staring up at the superior looking Sasuke. Then there was a loud and sickening crack that came from the tree as it started to fall towards them.

Sasuke and Naruto both dived in different directions as the tree came toppling down, and landed with a loud crash. When the dust cleared Naruto picked himself up from the ground, only to receive another glare from Sasuke.

"That was the fifth one," He said. "By the time you even get close to the top of a tree the entire forest will be torn down." Naruto glared at him, but didn't say anything because Sasuke was probably right.

"I'll show you!" Naruto yelled. Then he started focusing chakra to his feet. All he needed to do was almost make it to the top. Naruto let out another battle cry and ran at the tree left of the collapsed one. Once he reached it he ran up, but didn't stop where he did on the last tree. Once Naruto reached a few feet from the last branch he slashed the tree with the kunai in his hand and gracefully jumped down onto the fallen tree to face Sasuke.

Maybe letting his pride control his actions wasn't such a good idea. He probably shouldn't have shown some hidden level of skill. But Naruto knew one thing for sure; the look of astonishment on Sasuke's face would be worth any consequences in the future.

"Ha!" Naruto said, shoving his face into Sasuke's. "Betcha can't do that!" Sasuke grimaced at Naruto's sudden proximity and shoved him away, sending him toppling off the remnants of their previous tree. Before another word could be said, Sasuke was off running at the tree Naruto had just scaled.

Naruto watched as Sasuke scaled the tree, he started out strong enough, but as he progressed he started to slip until he fell halfway up. To Naruto it was painfully obvious what Sasuke was doing wrong. As Sasuke was climbing the tree he would slowly take chakra out of his feet, Naruto guessed it was to conserve as much as possible.

Naruto sighed and walked over to Sasuke, who was getting ready for another go at the tree,

"Sasuke, just listen to me this once, ok?"

Sakura smirked at the looks of utter astonishment on the faces of the other men working on the bridge. Just to add insult to injury, Sakura took yet another bag of concrete off of the ground and added it to the group thrown over her shoulder, bringing the grand total to six.

Smirking the entire way, she carried the bags over to the edge of the bridge where others were stacked and casually threw them off her shoulder. Sakura wiped the sweat off her forehead and glanced around the bridge. They had been working non-stop the entire day and it had definitely paid off. The bridge was at least half a mile longer than it was when they started, and Sakura could see the pillars sticking out of the water ahead that would support more.

"Sakura" A voice spoke from behind her. Sakura turned around and saw Kakashi, one hand raised in a lazy greeting and the other holding a small orange book up to his face. Sakura jogged to her teacher,

"Yes?" She asked.

"Were leaving early for today. Tazuna needs to run some errands but is nervous to go out alone, and with good reason." Sakura sighed, she really just wanted to finish the bridge and go back to her home. This trip had made her ten times more paranoid than any ninja her age should be. But she nodded all the same, and after collecting Tazuna they started their walk to the Wave's main village.

It was Sakura's first time in this part of the Wave, so it was no surprise that she would want to see everything about the main part of an entire country! But what she found made her blood boil.

When they first arrived the first buildings they saw had holes the size of a fully-grown man, and were extremely worn down. The street was sand, nothing more and nothing less. There were many people off to the sides of the town, resting against buildings, buying food from vendors, but none of them wore the happy expressions of the members of the leaf.

They continued down the sandy road and with every step Sakura's hatred for Gato grew. She had never known that one man could have the power to ruin so many lives. Her fists were clenched at her sides and she gritted her teeth, she wanted to hit something, now.

Suddenly there was a slight tugging at the pink dress she was wearing. Resisting the urge to jump ten feet into the air and make a fool out of herself in front of all the people, she took a calming breath and turned around.

There was a boy, no older than five standing behind her. When he saw that Sakura had turned around he held out his small hands. Sakura felt her heart shatter into a thousand tiny pieces right then and there. She stayed rooted to the spot, amazed that someone so small would have to beg for money.

Sakura noticed that the boy had started to draw back, and then she realized that it had probably looked like she was affronted. She quickly reached back to her pouch, drew out her wallet and dropped a rather generous amount of Ryo into the boy's hands.

The boys eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets when he saw the money. His smile grew so large that it looked like his mouth would be as wide as his head soon, and ran. Sakura watched him go up to a man with a bandaged leg resting his head against the wall of what appeared to be an inn. He blinked a few times when the boy showed him the money, but soon turned to Sakura and gave her a slight nod, a small smile gracing his lips.

"You know, that was nice and all, but I was kind of planning on using your money to buy the food..." Tazuna spoke up behind her. Sakura sighed,

"Just go."

"Fine, fine." he said waving a hand in a shooing gesture. They continued along the road until they came across a building that looked so out of place Sakura had to rub her eyes before accepting its existence.

Where all the other buildings were tall, at least two stories high. This building was short, maybe half the size of most of the others, and it was still sturdy... and black. Sakura couldn't find a hole bigger then a rat anywhere on the building.

"Were here." Tazuna said as he stepped into the shop. They were greeted to the sight of a middle-aged man standing on the opposite end of a counter. The man had short dirty blonde hair and had a very rough expression on his face. But the minute Tazuna walked in his gruff expression changed into one of pure disbelief.

"Tazuna?" The man asked tentatively. When Tazuna nodded the man jumped over his counter and put on a large grin. "Man, I thought you were dead! Are you still working on the bridge?" He asked, his voice lowering to a whisper. When Tazuna nodded, his smile grew bigger. The man swung a arm around Tazuna's neck and shoved his fist into the air,

"Ha! Ya hear that Gato! Tazuna's back and that bridge is gunna finish! Just you wait you son of a-" But Tazuna slapped a hand across his mouth.

"Senju!" He said in a angry whisper. "Just run up to Gato and tell him yourself why don't you!" But Senju's smile did not falter.

"Right, right. So whacha' need?" He asked walking up to the small counter. Sakura then noticed that the counter was almost run dry. Was anything in stock? She had thought this was a poor country.

"That explains all the people I've been havin' lately. You've been paying em haven't you? But where'd you get the money?" At that point Kakashi chose to slowly raise his hand, drawing Senju's attention. He glanced at the headband strewn across his eye and paused before continuing.

"Your ninja arn't cha?" He said as if he was discovering the answer to an impossible mystery. "So that's how Tazuna came back! You protected him and now your payin' for him? Tazuna you moocher! Here," Senju walked over to the counter and started pulling a number of fish, vegitables, and fruit from it and threw it to Kakashi, who expertly caught them all.

"That's for all you've done! But don't expect it again ya hear? Now get back to work on that bridge, but tell me when it's done, I want to see Gato's face. Ha! That'll be a sight!"

And they found themselves on the dirt path again, with a very bemused Kakashi holding all the food. Kakashi turned to Tazuna who looked like what just happened was an everyday occurrence and, without any warning, dumped the pile into his hands.

Taking out his orange book he motioned for Sakura to follow him as he jumped on top of the houses and out of sight. Sakura could hear Tazuna's colorful swear words even from outside of the village.

SLAM!

Sakura jumped as she heard the loud bang coming from the entrance to the house. She dashed to the source of the sound to find a severely cut and bruised Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto had a bright smile on his face while Sasuke looked extremely full of himself but also a bit annoyed at the fact that he had ended up supporting Naruto.

"Did it!" Naruto said happily, giving her a peace sign. Sasuke sighed,

"You want to let go of me now?" He asked, gesturing to Naruto's arm draped across his shoulder.

"But I'm hungry!" Naruto whined. "I don't think I could move a single inch!" In response Sasuke threw Naruto on the ground.

"Sleep on the floor then." He said. Sasuke walked up the staircase next to them, muttering about a shower.

"Got anything to eat? I wasn't joking about being hungry." Naruto said, picking himself off of the floor.

"Go make something yourself." Sakura said. Why should she do anything for him?

"Fine..." Naruto sighed, before walking into the kitchen and yelling, "Tazuna! Got anything to eat?" Sakura shook her head at her friend's antics.

"Hello" Haku spoke from behind her. She turned to him and smiled before noticing a odd sent coming off of him.

"Hey Haku... umm, do you have any other cloths besides those?" She said, crinkling her nose in disgust. When Haku looked at her questioningly she continued nervously, "It's just I haven't seen you in anything else..."

"This is the only clothing I brought to my mission-" Haku started before suddenly going quiet, and Sakura knew why.

"Mission?" She repeated.

"Trip!" Haku answered a little too quickly for Sakura's liking. "I meant trip, not mission, sorry." He gave a nervous chuckle before rushing off.

That night Sakura found herself walking up the long set of stairs. She let out a yawn before continuing to her room. She really had to change out of the dress she was wearing, it was starting to smell. As she passed Naruto's new room that he had opted to change to when he discovered that he would be sharing with Haku if he didn't. Sakura really couldn't blame him, Haku did put a senbon in his chest.

But she noticed a cool breeze coming from Naruto's slightly open door. She blinked before stepping towards it, his room couldn't be that cooler than the rest of the house because the lights were off. Could it? Sakura lightly pushed open the door and looked in the room.

It was empty.

Sakura opened the door wide and stepped in it. The mattress in his room hadn't been touched and when she looked around, she noticed the open window on the wall.

Without a second thought she crawled out of the window herself and jumped into the thicket of trees in front of her.

After continuing forward for what had to be at least a half hour Sakura was about to give up when she heard a yell. Not a yell of surprise or fear but a battle cry, and it was Naruto's.

What if Naruto was being attacked! She was about to turn and get Kakashi, but her intuition told her not too. Naruto could already be dead by the time she and Kakashi got there.

Gritting her teeth she jumped straight to the yells. Putting all her strength into her legs she jumped and finally arrived at a small clearing. As she was about to jump straight into it, there was a bright flash of light, a high-pitched screech and she was blown back into the trees.

When her vision finally cleared she was staring at the clearing, or what was left of it. The center of the clearing was now a massive crater, Sakura stared at it, not knowing what had just happened when a kunai suddenly embedded itself into the tree right behind her, missing by inches.

She yelled in surprise and fell off of the branch she was standing on. She fell forward and into the edge of the clearing that had not been affected by the explosion. She groaned and sat up to come face to face with Naruto.

"Sakura?" He asked. Sakura was speechless, her mouth opened then closed over and over again as she looked at the crater then her teammate.

"Naruto?" She finally squeaked out. Naruto looked at the crater then to her before his expression became panicked.

"I can explain!" He yelled. "I-I Ummmm... I was practicing a new technique but lost control and then it exploded!"

"What kind of technique were you practicing!" Sakura yelled. Later, when she looked back on this moment, she would question why she believed him, but in her stunned state she was having trouble creating coherent thought.

"Uhhh..." Naruto said, the panicked expression still on his face. "Exploding shadow clones?" It wasn't a statement, it was a question, but Sakura merely nodded, failing to come up with any other way that Naruto could have possibly created something so powerful.

"S-so, whatcha' doing?" Naruto asked as if he hadn't almost killed himself with a failed technique.

"What am I doing?" Sakura repeated. "I noticed your open window and thought you had been kidnapped or something Naruto!" She said, looking back at the crater. But she didn't feel amazement or anger when she saw it, instead she felt like something heavy had settled in her stomach.

"Exploding shadow clones huh?" Sakura said and Naruto nodded. "Looks pretty powerful." Naruto could obviously detect the drop in her mood,

"Something wrong?" He asked. Sakura herself didn't know, but every time she looked at that crater the feeling in her stomach increased. After a long pause, she figured it out.

"So I guess your stronger then me now." Sakura said.

"Oh come on, I don't think one technique will really make a difference..." But he trailed off at the end, coming to the same conclusion she did.

"I'm pretty darn useless aren't I? I didn't do a thing against the demon brothers, and even with Haku, all I did was sit and watch..." She said. Sakura didn't know why she was telling Naruto of all people but, somehow she just felt she should do it.

Then Naruto was nose to nose with her and stayed like that. Then he started to slowly walk around her, examining everything he could see.

After a good minute of circling, Naruto stopped right in front of her and smiled.

"What?" Sakura asked. Naruto simply smiled and pointed at her.

"You should become a medic." He said it so plainly and simple that it took Sakura some time to process what he said. When it did, she cocked her head to the side,

"Huh?" Was the unintelligent response.

"Medics are the healers on the team, but they also have the strongest punch on the team. Sounds familiar right? I mean, you've already got one hell of a punch up your sleeve right now! How about making it better?" Sakura's confusion only grew, a healer but the heaviest hitter? Seeing her confusion Naruto continued,

"Have you ever heard of Tsunade?" Sakura nodded slowly, Tsunade was one of the legendary sanin, but last Sakura heard she had become a drunk and a gambler. Not someone she exactly admired. "Tsunade is a sanin and she's a medic, and her punch is legendary!" Naruto's eyes seemed to brighten with every word he said. Sakura never knew that Naruto was a fan of Tsunade.

"I picked up this technique in the library, I could never do it with my chakra control but I bet you could!" Sakura felt overwhelmed, since when had Naruto been so knowledgeable? "All you do is focus all of your chakra into your fist then punch something while releasing the chakra out of your fist all at once, go on try it!"

Naruto said it like it was the simplest thing in the world, but nonetheless she walked up to the tree in front of her. She started to focus chakra into her hand, which was the easy part, probably easer then focusing chakra into her feet. Sakura raised her fist and punched while releasing the chakra.

When Sakura pulled her fist back she saw a small dent in the tree. It was only slightly more powerful then her normal punch. She was slightly disappointed that it hadn't been stronger, but she had mastered it in one try so it was a success.

"You released the chakra too early." Naruto spoke next to her.

"But it worked! My punch is stronger!" Sakura said, surprised.

"If it had worked then that tree wouldn't still be standing." Naruto replied.

Sakura sighed and prepared to try once more, but then the chakra exhaustion hit her. She staggered back before righting herself,

"Looks like you used too much chakra." Naruto said. "That makes two of us. Come on, we'll do this again tomorrow if you want to. Right now I just want to sleep." Sakura nodded. She and Naruto decided to walk back, due to their exhausted states.

"You won't tell will you?" Naruto spoke after a long silence. Sakura just stared at him. She had been expecting something more along the lines of "With my awesome new badass technique I'll become hokage for sure!" or "Ha! Sasuke, next time we fight your idiot butt is gunna get fried!" but now he was asking her to keep something like that quiet!

"Why? I would think you would want to go and brag to Sasuke the minute we get back." Sakura replied. Naruto stayed silent for a second then quickly said,

"That's just it! I want to take Sasuke by surprise! Imagine his face!" He started to laugh, and Sakura couldn't help but smile. Besides the fact that she felt that she could collapse at any moment, this felt nice.

The constant fear Sakura had been feeling was quickly draining out of her and soon she was laughing at Naruto's antics and proclamations on exactly how he would defeat Sasuke. Which is when she stepped in, saying that Sasuke would still be able to beat him. Naruto looked at her with a false mortified expression on his face and went on ranting on how he would absolutely beat Sasuke.

Soon they arrived at Tazuna's and entered, Sakura's mood significantly brighter. But they saw something they did not expect. Kakashi and Tazuna were seated at the large wooden table in a heated discussion while Sasuke leaned against the nearest wall, listening intently.

When they heard the door close, Kakashi and Tazuna turned to them but Sasuke turned away.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked. Sakura however did not need an answer. She had been looking around, analyzing, the minute she saw the expressions everyone was wearing. Finally she came to a conclusion.

"Kakashi-sensei," She started. Sakura didn't know if she was wrong, after all he could be just sleeping in his room, but something in her gut told her he wasn't.

"Where's Haku?"