SasuSaku Month 2016

Day 4- Slice Of Life

5:00 a.m.

She stretched out her arm, sleepily searching for the source of the constant beeping. It took a bit of blind groping around, but she located the alarm clock on her nightstand. She turned it off, and slowly opened her eyes, blinking a few times. She stretched herself out at full length, her spine curving and arching like a feline's. The morning sun filtered through her curtains and the dappled light fell across her face. She pulled herself up and sat on the edge of her bed, rubbing the last traces of sleep out of her eyes. Grabbing an elastic from her nightstand, she tied her short hair into a ponytail, and went to her bathroom to freshen up for the day.

7:00 a.m.

The first thing she did after getting back from her morning training session was to go to the fridge and gulp down a glass of cold water. She went to her closet to pick out her standard outfit- red vest, tan skirt, black tights and tank. She took a quick shower, not having the time for anything too elaborate. She pulled on her gloves and tied her forehead protector-cum-headband. She rushed around her kitchen, pouring herself cereal-and-milk, and grabbed an apple from the bowl on the counter. Even though she told all her patients that breakfast was the most important meal of the day, she usually ended up scarfing down a hurried breakfast. If she had the time, she would cut fruits for herself, or make pancakes. But that was on a good day. On a general day, like this one, it was just something she swallowed before her morning shift at the hospital.

10:00 a.m.

She sat at her station, reviewing her agenda for the day. Her mornings usually involved clearing up last night's mess, and taking care of the cases that rolled in during the night. She had made her morning rounds of the patients, and was done with the lesson for the newer hospital staff. It had been Shizune's idea to start a course for some of the junior staff, to train them in certain techniques, so that they could help out when the hospital was short-staffed. And considering the remarkable tendency of Konoha shinobi to end up in all sorts of scrapes, the hospital was generally short-staffed. Now, she would be available for consulting and helping out in general. It was pretty slow, and she would usually end up doing some of Tsunade's work. Being the Hokage's apprentice had its flip side.

4:00 p.m.

She was leaning back in her chair, lost in her own thoughts. She was currently on her break, as she had second-shift lunch. Sometimes, she got her own lunch from home. Other times, she just grabbed something from the cafeteria. Occasionally, Naruto or Ino would show up, and she would go out with them for lunch. She absentmindedly munched her lettuce and tomato sandwich. Her thoughts were all over the place, and she was rather bored. It had been a while since her last mission, the one at Orochimaru's hideout, because of Sasori's intel. She had mixed feelings about the Akatsuki puppet master. Whatever he may have said or done, and however powerful the team of Sakura and Granny Chiyo may have been, she got the feeling that the only reason they had been able to kill Sasori, was because he had let them. However, there was no way to verify her theory, and so, she dismissed it, pushing it to the back of her mind. In the end, it had been him who had given them their only clue to Orochimaru's whereabouts. Their only link to Uchiha Sasuke. Her train of thought took a whole different route, as her mind drifted to her dark-haired, brooding teammate.

"Sakura-san! Hokage-sama wants to speak to you!"

She scrambled to finish the last of her food, and gathered a stack of files to take to Tsunade. Her reverie was totally shattered.

8:00 p.m.

Her exhausting shift was finally done with, and she was sitting at Ichiraku's, watching her blonde teammate inhale his third bowl of ramen. She delicately ate her own bowl- the first one, thank you very much. They had been talking for a while, as Naruto deafened her with tales of his training. Somewhere in between, she had tuned out. It was impossible to understand what he was saying anyway, what with his mouth full of noodles, and the speed at which he talked. She was thinking of the new medical text that she had found in the library. She had found a technique that, if used properly, could possibly speed up the process of healing severe burns. However, it needed slight modifications, and her mind was trying to work out the intricacies of it.

"Oi oi, Sakura-chan! Don't space out, dattebayo!"

Well, so much for that medical jutsu.

9:30 p.m.

She was completely exhausted, as she trudged to her bed. Working on that medical technique had completely drained her, both mentally, and physically. The technique was effective, but needed to be modified so that it used less chakra. As she dove into her pillow, her gaze fell on the framed photo on her nightstand. Her thoughts were suddenly pulled to a certain Uchiha.

'Sasuke-kun...'

It had been a long time since their meeting. He had changed so much. Tall, much taller than she remembered. His aristocratic features had sharpened, all the childish roundness falling away to reveal mature planes and angles. His eyes were the same mysterious obsidian they had always been. He was the same, and yet, he was not. She wondered. How was he? How powerful had he become? Was he happy? Did he ever think of them? Did he... Did he ever think of her?

Shaking her head, she settled down to sleep. Sasuke-kun was strong enough to handle anything life threw at him. She knew it. And they would bring him back home. Until then, she could just train, and hope for the best. She sent out a silent wish, hoping the wind would blow it to him, wherever he was.

'Good luck, Sasuke-kun. We'll meet again, and we will bring you home. Until then, all my love, wherever you are.'