Day 1

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"Sakura, what happened?!"

"Take me to the closest available OR!"

"Sakura, you can't be on the gurney with her—what happened to Naomi?"

"Just get me to an OR, damn it!"

The elevators slid open—to slow, much too slow. She should have just carried Naomi to the third floor. The intern student who had rolled the cart in was hooking Naomi up to a monitor, eyeing Sakura. The doors slid back open and the girl pushed them through; Sakura kept her hand as steady as possible while it hovered over Naomi's head. She ignored the strange looks shot over by doctors as they rolled down the hallway; the sight of her straddling a woman's body on a gurney while flowing chakra into her head was not a normal sight in this hospital.

Once they rolled into an empty room Sakura carefully climbed off the cart and walked around so she was standing over Naomi's head. The monitor the intern had hooked up was now showing her vitals. Sakura took a quick glance at the girl with her; she couldn't have been older than thirteen and was looking exhausted. "Hey," she said slowly, keeping her tone calm. "I need you to listen to me, alright? I need you to keep an eye on her vitals and start checking for internal injuries. Can you do that?"

"I'm just an intern," the girl whispered, eyes wide. "I only work here part time; I help the nurses when they need it." Her breath caught in her throat as she choked back a panicked sob.

"I don't care." Sakura trained her eyes on the child. "You can do this—you will do this. Do you know how to read the monitor?" she asked. The girl nodded, wiping at her eyes. "Good. That's good." Sakura carefully sent more chakra into Naomi's brain tissues, assessing the damage. "Just tell me when it changes drastically. Make sure her breathing is steady. Do anything to keep her alive. I can talk you through this—we are going to get through this," Sakura assured.

Being two floors above everyone below, the room was almost quiet enough for Sakura to concentrate. She and the intern were only in the OR for an hour before Sakura could be sure that Naomi wouldn't die anytime soon. She had managed to stop the internal bleeding in Naomi's brain, but there was severe damage to the tissue.

Now, she was sitting on a stool at the head of the hospital bed, having pushed it far enough from the wall so she could continue sitting directly over Naomi. Her fingers were pressed lightly against the woman's temples, but she wasn't sending chakra through. The brain needed time to rest before Sakura went back in again; she feared risking more brain damage by being too aggressive with her healing. For now, she just needed to think of a way to save her friend's life.

The door to the room suddenly flew open, revealing a breathless Ken, followed by the intern from the OR right behind him. He stared first at Naomi, then his eyes rose to Sakura's. "What happened?"

The intern grabbed his arm. "Sir, I already told you—"

"Shut up," he interjected, giving the girl an icy stare. He walked further into the room and began looking over Naomi's vitals. "What happened to her?"

"Traumatic brain injury," Sakura whispered. "How are things downstairs?"

"Just finished stitching a guy's leg together. Lots of bleeding and broken bones; nothing I haven't done before." He took Naomi's chart and handed it to the intern. "Take her upstairs for a CT Scan," he ordered. Sakura remained slumped on the stool after Naomi was rolled out of the room and down the hall. Ken walked over and carefully pulled Sakura into a standing position. "You're needed downstairs."

Sakura rolled her shoulders back and pushed her hair off of her face. "Don't tell Haru about Naomi," she muttered as they walked out of the room. "Not yet."

Damage control was easy for Sakura, practically second nature at this point, and incredibly mind-numbing. For several hours she directed traffic, discharged patients, healed cuts and burns and bruises. She gave people good news and she gave a lot of families some bad news. The teenager who had been running the lobby earlier was sitting in a corner with her brother; they had just received news that their parents, both shinobi, had not survived. She had released Katsuyu a few hours prior after assuring herself that people had been taken care of. The barrier around the hospital was still up—for security reasons, was the reason given by the Jounin in command. It was heading into the early evening; there was rain pouring outside.

"Excuse me?"

Sakura glanced up from some papers to see a young man holding a small child. The little boy was crying, holding his arm. "What can I do for you?"

"My son, he was burned—we were close to one of the explosions," the man explained, rubbing his son's back soothingly. "We got separated and he got burned; I think something hot had fallen on him . . . He doesn't like hospitals; doctors scare him, but I need someone to try to heal him. He wouldn't let the last one close enough to even try," he said desperately.

Sakura walked out from behind the desk and approached the pair slowly, motioning for the man to put his son down. The boy quickly attached himself to his father's leg, hiding his face. Sakura knelt down in front of the small child; he couldn't have been older than four, maybe five. "Hey, there; my name's Sakura. Can you tell me your name?" The boy shook his head, refusing to look at her. The corners of Sakura's lips turned down, brow furrowing. "I know this all must be very scary for you. But I'll tell you a secret: I'm scared, too," she said softly. The boy peeked one eye out and stared at her. "So I need you to be very brave for me. Can you do that?" There was a pause, then he gave a small nod. Sakura smiled softly.

"I don't like needles," the boy whimpered.

Sakura laughed a little, adjusting so that she was sitting cross-legged on the floor. "Well, I'm a special kind of doctor that doesn't use needles. Do you want to see?" Perking up a little, the boy slowly moved away from his dad's leg and made his way over to Sakura. Sakura held out her hand and started focusing green chakra into her palm. "See this? All I have to do is put it on your arm, and the pain will go away. And it won't even hurt," she added. The boy hesitantly held out his arm, allowing Sakura to place her palm over his burn. It only took seconds for the skin to stitch itself, the redness going away.

After a small thank you and hug, the boy and his father walked away. Sakura, remaining seated, leaning back against the desk. For a moment she closed her eyes and blocked out all the noise.

"I just need to think," she whispered to herself. "I need time to think . . ."

Day 2

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"Sakura, you need to rest."

Considering this was the seventh time today Ken had told her this, Sakura didn't even spare him a glance. She stood in her office, still wearing the same clothes as the day before; she had gotten used to the feeling and smell of being covered in sweat and dried blood. Naomi's CT scans were taped onto the windows in the office, the sunrise streaming into them; Sakura had been looking at the scans for the past two hours.

"How are the patients in the ICU?" she questioned.

"They're fine." Ken walked over to look at the scans. "People have started going home. They took the barrier down a few hours ago. Main lobby is trashed; all of the interns are exhausted," he commented gravely.

"If all of the wounded have been tended to, then we need to start counting the dead," Sakura commented passively, not taking her eyes off the scans. "There are bodies in the streets and in the morgue that have to be identified and accounted for. That's the next step if you aren't working with patients."

For a moment Ken debated on arguing with her; all of the hospital workers were tired and worn and emotionally drained. But he knew that Sakura was right; there was still more work that needed to be done. "I've got Haru working on plastics; it's been keeping him distracted," he informed as he headed out of the room.

Sakura released a shuddered breath; she had not yet told Haru about Naomi's condition.

By the late afternoon several hospital workers had teamed up with shinobi and civilians to start tallying the dead. A list currently sat in the main lobby with the names of every villager to be used as a way to mark who was alive, who was dead, and who was still missing. The rains from the previous day had killed the fires from the two explosions; the water that flowed through the streets carried the spilt blood with it.

Sakura was back in Naomi's room, sitting on the same stool as before. The scans were now taped onto the windows of this room. Just as before, Sakura sat with her fingers touching the edges of Naomi's head, but refused to send chakra through. There had to be a safe way to heal her without causing more damage; she just needed time to think without any distractions.

There was a knock on the door; Ken poked his head into the room. "Someone is asking for you."

Sakura gave a small nod, signaling the okay to let in the visitor. As the man walked in, Sakura looked up in surprise to see that it was the Jounin officer from before. Checking him over, Sakura noted that he looked just as exhausted as she felt. She idly wondered if he too was refusing to sleep, just as she was. "Is everything alright?" she asked.

The man sat down in one of the guest chairs in the room, reclining back with a stretch. "What do you want us to do about the bodies of the enemy?"

"Why are you asking me that?"

The man sighed. "Because those bodes are all over the village. We can't just leave them in the roads; people are getting upset."

Sakura took her hands from Naomi's temples and turned on the stool to face the Jounin. "No, I mean why are you asking me?" she clarified. "Where is the guy Sasuke put in charge?"

The man ignored Sakura's slip of the Otokage's name; he was too tired to correct her on formalities. "He hasn't been seen since the attack was launched," the Jounin stated pointedly. "So technically, by some default, I'm the one in charge. And I am asking you because I trust your opinion and judgment."

Sakura eyed him warily. "You don't even know me."

A curt nod in agreement. "True. However, the Otokage trusts you. To be quite honest, I think he trusts you more than anyone else in this village." He paused, allowing that to sink in. Sakura turned her eyes away from his piercing gaze, not sure how to process that new information. "My leader trusts you, Sakura. If he can trust you, then I will trust you. So I'll ask again: what do we do about the bodies of the enemy?"

Sakura sat for a moment before answering. "Take them somewhere on the edge of the village; line them up, cover the bodies. I don't know what we will do after that," she admitted, too tired to care. The Jounin nodded thoughtfully, watching as she placed her fingers back on the woman in the bed. "Have you heard from Sasuke?"

The man's face fell slightly. "No." They sat in silence for a few more minutes before he stood up to leave.

"What's your name?" Sakura asked suddenly. The Jounin gave her a quizzical look. "I have a feeling you and I are going to be working together until Sasuke gets back. I'd like to know your name."

He gave her a small smile before answering. "Isamu. And if I hear anything from Lord Otokage, you'll be the first to know."

It had been hours since Sakura had moved from her spot in Naomi's room. The sun had set and the hospital was quieting down. The CT scans were still taped to the window; Sakura had not bothered to take them down, even after the daylight had faded. Instead she stared blankly at the wall across from her, running over different options in her mind, trying to figure out what procedure would be the best to save this woman's life.

In the back of her mind she registered the door opening, the sound of slow footsteps, the door closing with a click. Sakura didn't have to look at him to sense the exhaustion he was suffering. "Who told you?" she asked softly.

Haru pulled a chair over to the side of the bed, careful not to make too much noise. "Looked through the list of current patients this morning; I saw that she was admitted two days ago." He reached over and grabbed Naomi's chart, flipping through the papers, eyes wary as they scanned the information. "Traumatic brain injury . . ."

He glanced up at Sakura. Her fingers were hovering over Naomi's hairline, just barely touching. The room was dim, but Haru could make out the dirt and bloodstains on her white shirt and the rips in her shorts; recalling back, he realized that she had not changed clothes since the attack. He was also willing to bet that she had not slept, either; there were dark circles under her eyes. He watched as three of her fingers shift slighter, now hovering over a different portion of her brain. Her blank stare didn't change, but he knew what was going on—he had seen that look before, but not nearly as intense. Haru let out a tired breath, one hand running over his face while the other reached out for Naomi, giving her limp hand a gentle squeeze.

"Can you heal her?"

He barely caught the slight tremor in Sakura's hands before she lowered them onto the head railing of the bed. "Naomi suffered an electric shock to the back of her skull. We ran a CT scan; she had minor intracranial bleeding. That has already been healed. There are lesions in different areas of the brain, and there will be scar tissue from her injuries. Normally, resistance to the flow of an electric current is lower in the neural tissue than other areas of the body. However, because this was a concentrated hit, that information does very little for us."

Sakura shifted and looked down at Haru. "It's not the same as healing muscle and tissue in any other organ of the body." The woman closed her eyes for a moment, clearing her mind. "The scar tissue and lesions could affect her memory, personality and behavior, motor reflexes, speech . . ." Her grip on the railing tightened. "You can't just go in and heal everything the way you would any other injury because if you make a single mistake, you could ruin everything."

The two sat in silence for a while, both too exhausted to hold up a conversation. At one point, long into the night, Haru had made a mention of his hope that the Otokage would return soon to help get the village back together. The only response that Sakura could muster was a nod of agreement.

Day three

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It had taken a few hours of arguing and pleading for Ken and Haru to get Sakura out of Naomi's room for a while. The two men insisted that they needed help with the recovery, but Sakura wasn't stupid; they just wanted her out of that room, away from the deafening silence. She had walked through the hospital more than enough times to see that ICU was no longer filled with patients, there were no surgeries going on, and the interns had their rounds under control.

The hospital was operating just fine.

Since Naomi was out of commission, Sakura took it upon herself to do Naomi's job of running the main lobby, directing the rest of the hospital, arranging the surgical board (that she knew wasn't going to be used), and discharging patients. It was a slow job, a lame job for someone like her, but it forced her body to move and stretch and allowed her mind to focus on something other than neural tissue and grey matter in the brain.

At the sound of approaching footsteps Sakura looked up to Isamu walking up to her spot at the desk. "I have an update for you," he stated as he leaned over the counter. Sakura paused in her paperwork and gave him her attention. "We are finding spaces for the now-homeless victims of the explosions until their homes are rebuilt. The dead bodies of the enemy have been relocated to the southern border of the village—it's the furthest from where most civilians reside," he explained. "There's something else," he continued, his tone lowering. Isamu glanced around before taking a seat next to Sakura. "The council elders have gone missing, including the one who was supposed to be in charge," he whispered, still keeping watch that no one was eavesdropping.

Sakura's eyes narrowed slightly. "Gone missing?"

He nodded. "Haven't seen or heard from them since the night before the attack." The Jounin scratched idly at the stubble on his face. "What do you make of that?"

Sakura shrugged her shoulders. "They could have been captured, killed before the attack, ran off in fear," she listed off. "But that's not what you think, is it?"

Isamu knew by the tone of her voice that she wasn't asking. He shook his head slowly. He could easily say what they were both ultimately thinking, but voicing it out loud would make it all sound more real.

"Have you heard anything from Sasuke?" she asked.

The Jounin leader stared at her for a moment before standing up and stretching. "You should shower, get some clean clothes, have a meal," he suggested. He watched as her shoulders slumped, brow furrowing at his avoidance of her question. Her head turned away from him, eyes staring off into space. "Sakura, listen to me," he said carefully, turning her chair around so she would look at him. "You're under a lot of pressure; you are responsible for a lot of people. Their lives and wellbeing depend on you. I understand that better than anyone. But believe me when I say that to take care of others, you have to take care of yourself." He knelt in front of her, trying to catch her gaze. "You haven't slept. You've been wearing blood-soaked clothes for four days. I'm willing to bet you haven't eaten more than four, maybe five legitimate meals. Now, I've made a promise to the Otokage to keep an eye on you while he was away, to make sure you didn't overwork yourself or get into trouble. So if promises mean anything to you then you will let me do what I can to keep the one that I have made."

Sakura slowly turned her head and stared at him. "Why would you promise him that?"

Isamu let out a long sigh, giving her a simple look. "Because he asked me to."

When Sakura walked into her bedroom, the first thing she did was close her bedroom window. She had never closed it when she left after hearing the first explosion; she had never come back to her apartment. Her body seemed to move on its own as her feet carried her across the hall to the bathroom. Slowly, the shirt and shorts were peeled off her body, followed by her undergarments, all dropped onto the floor without a second thought. She could feel her body going through the motions: turn on the water, step in, pull the curtain closed.

For a while, she didn't do anything; her body wouldn't move, even if she tried. Sakura stood there, letting the water hit her chest. She could feel the blood and dirt slowly start to slide down her body, pooling around her feet before circling down the drain, the water turning clear once more.

It was a kind of emptiness that was bubbling in her chest. Or, rather, she was only just now having the opportunity to recognize the feeling; perhaps it had been there since getting Naomi to the hospital, growing by the minute ever since. She wanted to know how to cure Naomi; she wanted Ken to stop giving her concerned looks when he thought she wasn't looking; she wanted Isamu to stop giving her bad news.

She wanted Sasuke to come back.

Sakura's feet moved forward, placing her completely into the water. The water drummed against her forehead, further numbing her mind. She could feel the dirt and dried sweat on her face start to break and wash away. She tried combing her hair out of her face, but it was so tangled and matted that she couldn't get a few inches past the roots. Stepping back, she applied a generous amount of shampoo to her scalp and started messaging it into her hair. Then, she started with small sections of hair, slowly separating it from the rest of the mess, combing through the small sections carefully. She continued this, as tedious as it was, working one small area at a time before stepping back under the water to wash everything away.

When Sakura stepped out, she glanced over her appearance in the mirror, narrowing her eyes. Her face was paler than usual, cheeks slightly sunken in, dark circles under her eyes; lack of sleep, malnourished. There were a couple bruises on her shoulders and hip, a small scratch on her neck. Her hands came up and she ran her fingers slowly through her hair, pulling at the ends that came just below her collarbone.

Her mind froze suddenly as she stared at her now-clean hair, free of tangles and dirt.

"Just one section at a time . . ."

Day 4

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It was late into the morning. Sakura knew this, she could feel it, but she was too awake now to care. She had already been awake for over four days straight, but now she felt awake. Her mind was racing, formulating a plan of action. All of Naomi's brain scans were hanging on the light board, taking over almost the entire room. It had taken her only a few hours to mark off small sections of the brain to work on, and it would be a long process to go through so many small areas, and they would have to be done in a certain order. But Sakura knew—really knew this time, she could feel it—that it was possible. She was going to bring Naomi back.

"Have you been here all night?"

Sakura turned to see Isamu standing in the doorway. "Yes," she said defiantly, proudly. "And before you ask: no, I have not slept yet; I have eaten recently—bagel and coffee from downstairs; also, I showered yesterday and put on clean clothes," she added. Isamu raised a dark eyebrow at her, noticing the black pants and blue sweatshirt. "I figured out how to do it," she continued turning back to the scans. "It's taken days, but I think I know how to heal her brain." Sakura nodded to herself, exhaling a deep breath. This was one less thing that was going to darkly plague her mind; she figured it out, and that was the all that mattered in that moment.

"I'm glad to hear that," Isamu replied. "But I have an update for you."

Sakura could feel herself tense slightly, preparing for whatever bad news he was going to throw at her. For the first time in days, she felt good about something; she didn't want anything to kill the buzz she was on.

"We've got someone running the office now," he informed. "Your presence has been requested to update the leader on everything that has happened through the hospital and medical units."

Sakura felt the air rush out of her body, now just feeling defeated. She supposed that it was about time someone else start running the village if Sasuke was still absent. She only hoped that his return wouldn't take much longer.

On the way to the Otokage Tower the two went over all of the events and information gathered over the past four days. They double-checked the order of events, cross-referencing each other to make sure they gave a completely accurate report of the attack and what followed. Sakura did not initially know that Suigetsu and Jugo had guarded the tower and kept it safe from attack. Isamu was interested in the fact that none of the council elders were ever at the hospital, leading the pair to believe that they were left unharmed and therefore suspects.

As they walked through the tower up to the Otokage's office, Isamu began giving her small warnings. "The guy is extremely stressed, especially walking into such a mess of a situation," he said. "So maybe don't be so pushy and demanding answers and such. Also, he looked tired when I saw him, so we probably can't stay for very long." Sakura rolled her eyes as they approached the thick double doors to the office. The Jounin gave her one last look. "Ready to do this?" When she gave him an answering nod, he knocked on the door before pushing it open, allowing Sakura to enter first.

Upon walking into the office, Sakura probably could have cried.

"You're back…"

The Uchiha looked up from what he was scribbling on, immediately locking gazes with her. Sakura forced her feet to move as she strode over to him, keeping their eyes locked. Without hesitation, Sasuke quickly moved around his desk and met her halfway, catching her as she fell into his chest, arms wrapped around his torso. A muffled "asshole" came to his ears. "What took you so long?" Sasuke shared a look with Isamu, who gave him a small nod before exiting the room and closing the door.

Sasuke lowered his chin to rest on the crown of her head, breathing in the smell of her hair. His arm instinctively tightened around her waist. When Isamu had warned him about how much Sakura had worked since the attack, that she was exhausted and weak, Sasuke wasn't expecting much else than for her to nearly collapse in his office. Since hearing about the attack on his village, the woman had constantly been on his mind; he could only hope that she would handle everything and help keep the village together. And while he logically knew that she would still be alive—she had fought in the war, he knew her strength—he still worried. The fear from knowing absolutely nothing of the situation had nearly driven him to a breaking point.

Now that he was back, there were a million things he needed to do, people he needed to find and interrogate and possibly fire. Sasuke knew that these things needed to happen, but he could spare a moment. He couldn't explain why, but he knew that he needed just another moment where they stood. He needed to allow his mind to process the fact that she was ok.

This was the last chapter I wrote before going on my hiatus for almost 2 years. So glad I finally get to share it; I loved writing this one.

Reviews are welcomed! See you soon :)