Sakura sat with her arms folded on the bed, listening to the rhythmic noises of the machines around her and the discordant snores of Shizune and Ton-Ton. Her eyes kept drooping lower and lower and she could feel herself starting to drift off into a comfortable haze. It had been a long, long shift.
First she had been summoned to help the Hokage sort out that awful emergency. It had been horrible: so much blood and no one would tell her why. It wasn't that. She had seen blood before – of course she had, in copious amounts too… It had been the look on her sensei's face: the anger – the downright fury in her eyes – directed at everyone around her… even the still body on the floor… In all the time Sakura had worked under Tsunade she had never seen her get that angry at a patient before.
Shaking herself awake, she glanced up at the machines checking up on their readouts. Everything was normal: unchanged. When everything had been stabilised, they had taken that still, life-less body away – to a local hospital, she thought – and Sakura had been sent back down here into the pit rooms in the medical centre to monitor her other patient; the equally still body of the little grey child.
Rubbing her eyes again, Sakura stood up. Moving automatically, she checked on the IV drip. They would need to be changed soon. Her palm crossed the child's brow and she frowned. It was clammy again, but a least there was no fever. Autonomously she ran his other vitals, checking the colour of his eyes and lips. All was perfectly normal as far as she could tell. Fantastic. She yawned, patting the blankets around the tiny body and glancing across at the monitors. A second brief nod followed again at the sight of the displays: all fine.
Stretching slightly, she let her gaze slip around the room as she worked out the knots in her shoulder blades. Spotting Shizune, resting cramped in a tiny space between some disused machinery, a tiny smirk graced the medic ninja's lips for a second. The older woman was passed out on one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs, legs akimbo and her head lolling backwards against the wall for support. Ton-ton was curled up in her lap, snuggled against the thick black fabric of Shizune's kimono dress.
No one had exactly given permission for the pig to be here, but the Hokage's good luck mascot had snuck in anyway. Veteran of many medical encampments that she was, Ton-Ton could usually find a way to make herself useful and, if not, then at least she was good company. A trotter twitched sudden in its sleeps and the pig blew out a throaty snore, smacking its lips slightly. Sakura smiled again.
The girl moved away from the bed, glancing around. There had been a stack of white cotton blankets under one of the machines in the corner and she didn't want her friend catching a cold. Moving passed several blank displays; Sakura scratched her head, frowning as she tried to remember where exactly the pile was. Carefully she pushed aside a heart-monitor, not too far along from her patient's bed, and crouched down low to check under what looked like a large defibrillator case.
Suddenly she froze, cold in her tracks. Rocking backwards on to her heels, she slowly turned her head, moving away from the machinery. She was sure she had just heard a moan; a low squeaky sound that didn't resemble Shizune or Ton-Ton. Her gaze moved over to the hospital cot. The child was sat upright, facing her, and a large pair of pale hazel eyes gazed straight in her direction.
