OK so it has been a while since I have posted so because of that here is an extra-long chapter!

Hope you enjoy

PLEASE COMMENT and let me know what you think it helps me want to continue the story

The Huga

Sakura had been having a good week. There had been more people coming by to visit her for treatment. Her medical garden was growing nicely. And she was making headway in her training. She was getting accustomed more and more to her new body and surroundings. When it was nice out she would go outside and meditate, more often than not she would find her way underneath the blooming sakura tree.

It was like having a lifeline to her chakra and some more. There was something ethereal and different about the tree that drew her to it. When she meditated under it, it was as though she was under the giant cherry tree that was in the center of the area where she landed. She would often meditate on Kaguya and ways that she could defeat her. How would she survive to that time? Would Kaguya find a way back sooner? Or even worse would it be through Sakura?

These thoughts often plagued her mind. Pink eyelashes fluttered, blinking a few times Sakura stood and began walking down the cliff from where the tree was located near the entrance to her memorial to her fallen comrades. She could smell the cool metallic air of the cave mixed with the incense she would often burn there. Usually, she would go inside and pray or just go in and have a chat with one of them Naruto, Ino, Tsunade, and Kakashi most of the time. She wanted to keep her memories of them fresh. She did not want to forget them even for a day no matter how much it hurt.

She was a kunoichi of the village hidden in the leaves. Her nindo way is to protect the ones she loves, or at least that was her nindo way. Now she didn't know anymore. She wasn't a kunoichi from the village hidden in the leaves because there was not a village hidden in the leaves, at least there was not one yet. Yet. Yet! Maybe that was the key. If she built up the villages stronger than they were before, set up systems of communication between villages. Maybe if she set up better foundations for the villages then perhaps she could even prevent the second ninja war from happening.

But how to accomplish that?

Just when her gears began to turn in her head she sensed her two regular town guards coming down the path. She jumped down from where she had been sitting and met them at the edge of the clearing. There was a sheen of sweat on their faces as they came into view, and Sakura could tell that they had been rushing to get to her.

"Is everything alright? Did something happen in the village?" Sakura asked

"There have been no attacks…" one of the guards said to Sakura awkwardly looking at the other one

Looking a little pale and worried, the second guard explained in more detail, "There are some ninja visitors that have come to our village demanding to meet you. The village is on edge because they are from the Hyuga clan and we have no treaty with them, so a lot of people are worried about a conflict or an altercation coming from their arrival."

"And they are asking for me?" Sakura asked

"We were just told to get you and bring you straight to the Head of the village. And to do so as quickly as possible."

"Well, where is he? I can get there faster than both of you can run, so it is probably better for me to just go on ahead and get all of this sorted out." Sakura said matter of factly.

"He should be in his office greeting the… visitors." the first guard said.

"All right then." And with that, she turned around and went to quickly lock up her house, and from there jumped into the trees. She added the extra boost of some chakra to her step but she wasn't moving as fast as she possibly could, just fast enough to reach the village in a very quick amount of time.

She saw the gate, and in a flash ran past the guards and onto the rooftops running and jumping until she reached the center of town where the Head of the village's office was located. She looked at the building, and even though she remembered what floor his office was on she thought that it would be more respectful to enter in the old-fashioned way instead of barging through the window. As she entered the building she was quickly escorted to the top with little information given to her about what the Hyuga were doing there.

Finally, she reached the office which had an eerie sense of silence to it. When she entered the room she saw the village head sitting at his desk surrounded by his usual large amount of paperwork and she saw 5 Hyuga males. They were easily identifiable by their long dark hair and completely misty white eyes. They were dressed in only what Sakura could guess was traveling gear, they were not covered with weapons or seemed to be wearing armor, but when coming to a civilian village one ninja would not need those things in order to do some damage.

The door closed behind her and there was another stifling moment of silence as they all stared at her until Sakura took some steps forward through the group of Hyuga and bowed slightly to the village head, "I have come as requested. How may I be of service?"

Behind her one of the Hyuga piped up abruptly before the village head could say anything, "She is truly a child, what harm or good could she actually do?"

"I will remind you that she took out the squad that was hunting the two Uchiha boys." The tallest among the 5 said, "They may not have been part of our clan but they were far from weak shinobi."

A look of confusion and horror went across the village chief's face. "Don't worry," Sakura said trying to calm the man, "I healed all of them and they were fine when they left. Only some bruised egos. I promise." she held her hand up, "But is that why all of you are here?" Sakura asked tentatively, "Because I got in the way of you capturing the Uchiha boys? Because if so I can tell you that there is no way that they would have been able to survive fighting those two together. And they missed them by a day's travel too, so they really just already had no chance of success in their mission."

"So they have told us." the taller one said, speaking again, "But no, that is not the reason we are here." He took a pause looking down sternly at Sakura, "We require your healing knowledge. One of our clan members has been sick for some time and our healers have been able to do nothing. Should you agree to come with us and heal the patient, we are willing to sign a nonaggression treaty with this village and the surrounding area."

At this point the village head popped into the conversation, "I am sure that you can understand the importance of having these types of treaties. As civilians there is not much that we can do to avoid the conflict of ninja battles in the area, but as the Hyuga clan is one of the more powerful forces in the war this would be a big step in the security of the village."

Sakura did not like this. She did not like this one bit. The Hyuga were a snide and prideful ninja clan, Hinata was the exception, and only later was Neji. But she had made a promise to treat whomever the village head asked her to treat, so she was stuck in between a rock and a hard place. "I assume that the patient is too ill to travel here. Otherwise, you would have brought them with you." Sakura stated

"That is correct, our healers have said that they are to have bed rest until," there was a brief pause and Sakura for a moment caught a flash of pain go through the taller Hyuga's eyes, "until the inevitable."

"Well sir," Sakura said addressing the head of the village once again, "I will go and gather my things and travel out with the Hyuga to heal the patient. I do ask that while I am gone if someone could take care of my garden for me to make sure the herbs don't die. I have put a lot of work into it and it would be sad to have to start over from scratch."

Relief passed over the head's face at Sakura's acceptance of the mission. "Yes, I will have someone care for your garden while you are away."

Sakura bowed lightly and looked up at the rest of the Hyuga, "Well I need to grab some supplies from home, and then we can be on our way." Sakura said with a pleasant work smile, the kind she wore when she had to deal with annoying patients.

It did not take them long to make it to her house, and she invited them in while she began packing various medical supplies that she might need including her weapons and some food for the trip. She asked them about the symptoms of the patient but they were either very tight-lipped about it or they genuinely just didn't know. So Sakura grabbed a bit of everything from her stockpile of rudimentary supplies. And then they were off.

The journey was not terrible. They traveled in relative silence moving at a fairly fast pace for ninja, but it was nothing for Sakura to keep up with. Speed and endurance were two of the most important traits of a combat medic, you had to be able to avoid attacks and have the stamina to stay up and heal for long periods of time. Even compared to her training it was nothing, not that she was about to let them know. They were watching her closely, she could feel their eyes and sensors on her sometimes. And in a sense, she understood why. They were bringing someone unfamiliar into their clan, something that honestly she was shocked about. She would have thought them to be too prideful to do so. But perhaps this person that was ill was so important to the clan that their need for help finally outweighed their pride. Either that or they were interested in her for a different reason.

The trip to the Hyuga base camp would take two days. Their first night after Sakura pulled out her food she tried to make conversation to no avail. The next day one of the members of the group was not looking so well. His complexion had deteriorated and he seemed to have a hard time breathing. Yet he refused to admit that anything was wrong and didn't want her touching him or wasting any supplies that would be used on the patient in their village. So for the second day they moved at a slower pace. Sakura made note of his symptoms and began cataloging what she had that might ease his symptoms or cure him, but soon that line of thought cut off as she couldn't really determine anything without examining him, and that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. So instead Sakura focused on enjoying the wind in her hair and the smell of the forest as they moved swiftly to the campsite.

At mid-day, they began to reach the area of the campsite. Sakura could tell because of the hidden ninja that had begun to follow or just watch them. Most likely some sort of border patrol. By this point, the Hyuga ninja that had not looked so good that morning had deteriorated even more. His complexion looked worse, he was sweating profusely, his eyes were sunken in and had dark circles, and he had developed a cough. As they reached the edge of the city, the taller of the ninja, Sakura had discerned his name as being Yadawa. Not from being told, no that would have actually been a polite thing for someone to do. She overheard one of them addressing him and that was how she learned his name. He seemed to be the leader of the team sent to fetch her.

When they got to the campsite Sakura was surprised by the size of it. It was more the size of a small village. It was bigger than the Hyuuga compound that was in the village hidden in the leaves. There were people of all ages moving around, but she didn't see any children playing or any lively activities. The ninja here seemed to be moving in a very organized manner. They also all had the same sullen looks on their faces. Some of them had face coverings, others didn't. Something was going on here, and it was about more than just one person.

Nevertheless, Sakura knew that her prying would not be appreciated. They were going to tell her what was necessary and that would be what she was going to work with, that was just how most clans were. Secretive to the point of self-harm. All to satiate an idiotic sense of pride.

They moved past the checkpoints with ease as Sakura was rushed to what seemed to be the main building. Most of the people they went by were clearly staring at her, but this did not surprise her, she was not a Hyuuga and she had pink hair of course she was going to stand out in this place. Finally, Sakura was brought inside the main building and through a maze of narrow halls to the entrance of a room.

"You will not speak of this outside of this room. Is that understood?" Yadawa said sternly

"I understand." Sakura replied, keeping her features neutral she shifted into doctor mode as the door in front of her was opened.

There, lying on a mat was one of the most beautiful people that Sakura had ever seen. Even though one could tell that she was deathly ill her beauty still showed through. She had a narrow face with sloping features that were all perfectly proportionate to her face. Her hair though matted with sweat was a dark royal blue that matched the hue of the dark evening sky. But there were still clear signs of the sickness that had taken hold of her. Her pale skin was covered in sweat, and she seemed to be growing more hollow with every shaky ragged breath she took. Her eyes and cheeks were sunken and greying. And Sakura could easily tell that she was having a hard time breathing.

"Well, then I will begin by analyzing her current condition." Sakura started, taking a cloth from her satchel and tying it around her face like a mask of sorts. "Is there anyone that can update me on her health history and condition leading up to this point?"

"Yes, there is someone. I will go and fetch them." Yadawa said closing the door behind him

Sakura did not waste a moment, moving towards the woman she immediately removed the blanket from her body and began scanning her system with chakra starting with just a simple evaluation of her condition. It took a few minutes but Sakura could tell that this was some sort of respiratory or lung bacteria. Something that could be treated fairly easily in her time, but she could understand that treatment of these types of illnesses was very difficult and often unhelpful to the healing process. If gone untreated she would continue to have breathing problems, fever, chills, and coughing until she eventually died.

Sakura bit her lip. She didn't know if she could save this person. She didn't have any of the antibiotics or even the equipment to create them.

After a few minutes, there was a knock on the door. "Come in, the patient is decent." Sakura said

The door opened and there was an older man again clearly Hyuga with his long white hair tied back in a low ponytail with white robes around him. "So I was told that you wanted to speak with me child." the man spoke in a snide tone.

Sakura ignored the comment, she did in fact have the body of a child, but that didn't mean that she enjoyed being treated like such. Especially not when they were the ones that summoned her here to help.

"What have you been using to treat the patient with since her symptoms began?" Sakura asked in a cool tone, "Oh, and what has she been eating." Sakura said once again taking in the slightly emaciated form of the woman.

"Well child, the patient stopped eating a few days ago before she fell asleep. We have been force-feeding her pork and chicken broth." the old man said, "As for treatment we have been using Thyme and Lavender incense for her to inhale into her lungs for them to heal. Then we have also done regular bloodlettings."

Sakura froze for a moment, "I am sorry but could you repeat that last one."

"It is common practice to conduct regular bloodlettings. It encourages good circulation and takes out the bad blood from the system." the old man said in a way that made her seem like she was the one who shouldn't be there.

"Ok ok ok ooook." Sakura said to herself trying to calm down. She reached for the woman's arm and pulled up the sleeve of her kimono to see a few puncture holes. Quickly with her hand she brushed over them and healed them, her back to the older medic. One problem at a time, she thought to herself. "So I am guessing that up until now you have been in charge of the patient?"

"Yes," he said confidently, "And I don't think that an outsider is really-"

"Well, this is my patient now. And we will be doing some major treatment changes. First of all no more fucking bloodletting unless you want to answer to me... and trust me you don't want to have that happen. Second of all, she needs twice as much nourishment in the broth that you make, so boil vegetables in that as well and try to get some of that into her at least three or four times a day especially since we don't have a way to do this intravenously we will just work with what we can get her to do. Third, I think at this advanced stage I am going to have to use chakra to heal her lungs somehow. It will be invasive, and there is some risk to it, but she won't respond to anything we give her unless she is in a better state. We need to complete these steps before I can give her some sort of natural antibiotic. Oh, also prepare her ginger tea with lots of honey."

"I don't know what you mean by healing her with chakra, I have heard that some of the Senju can heal themselves but I have never heard of them healing other people, and even if that is a possibility then why not cure her with chakra?"

Sakura sighed, she wasn't used to being questioned like this, normally people simply followed her orders, "I can heal the damaged tissue in her lungs with chakra and get out some of the mucus and pus, but I can not kill the bacteria with chakra. That is something that medicine and her body will have to do on its own."

"Bacteria? Is that the disease she has? We have not been able to find a name for it."

"No bacteria are… well how should I explain this... bacteria are microscopic… um right no microscopes yet… um, are tiny living organisms so small that they can not be seen with the naked eye or even with a kekkei genkai, and can be found everywhere. They can be dangerous, such as when they cause infection, or beneficial, as in the process of fermentation like how one makes sake and also in that of decomposition." Sakura said trying her hardest to dumb down the subject

"So it is this bacteria that caused this infection?" the older man said skeptically

"Yes, but if you want to give it a name I would say this is probably bacterial pneumonia. It was something that was very treatable in my village. It usually develops in people that already have weak constitutions or immune systems. Was the patient already sick or fairly weak-bodied before she got to this point?"

There was a silence in the room, as the two doctors stared at each other. If one were to look in on the scene it would certainly be an odd look. One of an older man trying to stare down a child that seemed less than impressed with his show of obstinance. "Look, we are not going to get anywhere if you are not going to give me the information I need to work on my patient." Sakura said finally, though she assumed the lack of an answer meant that she was correct.

"I was here for the birth of this girl, and you a child just waltz in talking about invisible bactirum-"

"Bacteria." Sakura sighed correcting the old man

"Whatever you would like to call it, it sounds like some sort of childish made-up creature. How are we supposed to trust the work of a child who claims she can heal with chakra."

"Alright," Sakura said, getting up and walking past the old man to the door. She slid the door open quietly and looked towards the guard. "I think this medic and I are finished talking. Could you please bring another medic that serves this patient so that I may get the information I need and not someone who is going to question my medical knowledge or technique at every turn."

"How dare you child. I am the head of the medical unit in the Hyuuga compound." The old man said standing rather quickly for his age.

"And your efforts up until this point have been duly noted, but your services are no longer required." Sakura said calmly

There was a moment when it looked like the old man was not going to leave but eventually, he collected himself and in a huff walked out of the room. The guard looked on in a bit of disbelief at how the child had handled the situation. She seemed thoroughly unaffected by the older man's presence or even his presence. Children her age were supposed to respect their elders. Not speak down to them. Where in the world had this child learned such awful manners?

"Well?" Sakura said in an impatient tone, "Are you going to bring me another one? I am going to perform the surgery this afternoon and if she lasts the night then I will start contemplating how to deal with the bacteria."

Within the next few minutes, there was a younger-looking medic at the door. Sakura ushered the younger man in and began explaining what she needed. "I require three large bowls or basins of water that have been boiled for at least 10 minutes towels and three or so empty buckets."

The younger man left the room to prepare what she had asked. Then she turned around to scan her patient one more time. The ninja guarding the door couldn't help but grow interested in what the little girl was doing. He saw green chakra envelop her hands as she placed them over the chest of the woman that he had been guarding for most of his life. Almost as if Sakura could feel his worry for the woman, she said over her shoulder, "I am just analyzing what exactly I will need to do during the surgery and where I will need to focus most of my energy." the ninja gave her an ever so slight nod.

Soon the young medic returned with what Sakura had asked for; a few different people bought the supplies in and lined them up in front of Sakura. Through all of this the woman's eyes never opened. She seemed to be too weak to wake up. Sakura was not sure if the woman could hear her or not but she decided to proceed explaining to her what would be happening anyway in a calm loud voice, "Madam, this is going to be a very painful and uncomfortable procedure that you are about to go through. It will feel like you are drowning and the water is tearing your lungs apart before ripping up through them so that you can then cough the water out through your mouth along with the mucus and some of the other things that are hurting you. I don't know if you can hear me or not but if you do wake up while this is going on please do not panic or thrash about otherwise I will have to call in people to restrain you."

After that Sakura turned to the guard, "Call a few kunoichi to be on call for if I need to restrain this woman during the operation."

The guard nodded, opened the door, and made a few hand signals to another guard standing outside. Within the next 10 minutes, there were three civilian-dressed women standing at the door. "I asked for kunoichi. This woman will be thrashing around violently if she wakes and I will need them to hold her tightly." Sakura said plainly

"These are kunoichi," the guard said plainly back to her, "We want to draw as little attention to this as possible so we asked them to dress as regular clanswoman."

Sakura nodded and ushered the women in. All of them had hard looks on their faces as though they were all trying to hold in their emotions at the sight they were seeing. This must be a very important person Sakura thought to herself.

"Alright so I will be forcing this water into her lungs and using that to cleanse them, I will assist her in coughing up the water and whatever is in it into these buckets. While the water is in her she will be on her back when she is coughing up she should either be on her side or sitting upright, actually just hold her upright for when she coughs the liquid up as she will be easier to control in that position." Sakura explained

"There is not a risk of her dying during this is there?" One of the kunoichis asked

"Yes, there is. If I hold the water in her lungs for too long or I am not able to assist her in coughing the water from her lungs she will drown. But, as long as everyone does what I say, I will do my best to have that not happen."

"Have you done this procedure before?" the guard asked her

"This specifically? No. What I generally do is a lot more complicated than this." Sakura said, confidently tying her hair back into a ponytail.

Sakura prepared for the procedure showing the kunoichi how she wanted them to hold the woman down. And she explained to the medic how he was supposed to bring her the freshwater as soon as she was done with one round and to have the buckets ready for when she coughed up the liquids. She wanted to get this done sooner than later but she was also being mindful not to rush anything. She carefully explained away any questions they had about the procedure, and then as she could feel the day shifting into late afternoon she decided to begin the procedure.

One Kinoichi was placed at the woman's feet the other two were on either side of the woman holding her down. They all looked on in interest as Sakura stuck her hands on the top of the water then pulling out a ball of water from that. She brought it over to the woman's body and separated the ball into two. One on each hand. Then she precisely pushed them into the woman's chest. Immediately the woman started gasping for air, but since her lungs were filled with water she made a horrible gagging noise. Then she began to try thrashing about. "Hold her down," Sakura commanded calmly.

The three kunoichis did their best to keep the woman in place. But the one at her side was getting paler by the second looking at the woman. It was the same one that had been asking her questions earlier. "You are killing her!" She finally blurted out.

"No. I am saving her. But If you can not handle looking at her this way we can summon another to take your place. Right now what this woman needs from you is your strength. Even if it is the strength to watch the ones you love or admire suffer." Sakura said, only half paying attention to the kunoichi. There was a part of her that understood, but she was here to do a job and she didn't need this kind of distraction. Sakura's hands were glowing green and still on the woman's chest moving slightly in circles, controlling the water in her lungs and healing where the water tore the best she could. Every few seconds she would look up at her patient to see how she was holding up. Until finally it was time. "Ok," Sakura said hands still on her chest, "You two lift her up, and you," Sakura said gesturing to the medic, "bring the bucket on over to the other side."

They all moved as Sakura instructed. Sakura then began to move the water up through the channels of the woman's lungs so that she could cough out the liquid. The water was where it needed to be, but the woman was not coughing. "Oh come on." Sakura said exacerbated with a tinge of worry, "Cough Damit!" suddenly the woman began a soft cough with some water dribbling down her face that developed into a tirade of coughed that enveloped her whole body spewing the dirty water into the bucket that was being held in front of her face. As the rest of the liquid was expelled Sakura sat back and observed the woman for a moment. Everyone else had their eyes moving between Sakura and the woman. Trying to wrap their minds around what they just saw. She was just a child but her words and actions carried the weight of someone much older. Spouting things none of them had heard before. And she was able to pull disease from inside the body to the outside of the body. Was what they saw even truly possible?

"We will give the patient a few minutes to recuperate and breathe. Get some more oxygen into her blood. She will need it for the next round." Sakura said, smoothing her hair back, redoing her ponytail as she got up from where she was.

"My lady needs to go through this again!" the kunoichi from earlier asked glaring at Sakura, and immediately received a punch from the other kunoichi next to her. The kunoichi just continued to glare at the little girl, who in turn looked at who Sakura now suspected was the Lady of the Hyuga clan.

"Yes," Sakura said calmly anyway, "And we will repeat this process until I deem it no longer necessary."

The kunoichi stood and jumped at Sakura with a shuriken. In her hand. Effortlessly, Sakura grabbed her outstretched arm and broke the wrist holding the weapon. A cry came from the kunoichi, shocked by the sharp pain. Then as though she were a rag doll Sakura threw her lightly, well for Sakura's standards, at the wooden wall which, of course, splintered.

The guard had been halfway to pulling out a shuriken to block Sakura before she had defended herself, so he holstered it and clenched his jaw in disapproval. Both at his own clanswoman for not being able to control their emotions and for a little girl that, in his eyes, would or could or would obviously not control her amazing strength. He had to admit that he was impressed that a child had the ability to take down a Hyuga kunoichi so quickly, but she had not expected a little girl to know how to defend herself. The stories about what had happened on the mission to capture the Uchiha heirs had been held confidential to only a few ninja and elders till they could ascertain whether or not she was a threat or an asset to them. So far until their Lady was recovered that question was still debatable in his eyes.

"Are you ready to continue, or do we have to replace you?" Sakura asked cooly, walking towards the kunoichi.

The kunoichi staggered to a standing position cradling her wrist. She looked to her other compatriots as if trying to get them on her side, but they simply looked stone-faced at her as did the guard in the room. Finally turning back to the little pink-haired girl she spat, "How am I supposed to hold her down with a broken wrist?"

"I could heal you, but I doubt you would want to take my services. And anyway you are a kunoichi of the Hyuga tribe I'm sure you can manage." Sakura said sarcastically, then she offered out her hand, "Unless you do truly want to help your Lady and do your job here."

After clenching her jaw and looking to the floor for a few seconds she looked back up and placed her broken wrist into Sakura's outstretched hand. Sakura took another step closer to the kunoichi and placed her other hand on top of the wrist. Both of Sakura's hands began glowing green and everyone in the room held their breath as they watched Sakura analyze, straighten, and then heal the broken wrist in minutes. In awe the healer whispers, "H-how did you do that?"

"I would say it is simple, but it is not. It requires a lot of work and long hours of training. I didn't get to this point by accident. I was trained by the best... and surpassed her." Sakura said her mind wandering into the past a bit.

"If she was the best in the world and you surpassed her, how come we have never heard of either of you?" the medic asked

"My clan wanted to stay out of the fighting, out of the war. Under the radar of most of the clans." Sakura said, "We aided those we came across but other than that we secluded ourselves fairly well and moved around frequently. You would not have heard of us. That was the way things were. I am sure there are many reasons that your clan does not mix with other clans. You have secret techniques you don't want stolen and such. It was the same for us. We did not want to make this war more lethal than it already was."

"But you are a healer. Certainly sharing knowledge about saving lives would have mattered to your people." the medic asked confused

Sakura had thought a lot about this question: it was a hole in her story, but she did have a response, "And what good would that do. To bring ninja back from the brink just to send them back out into the field to die? Or even worse coming close to death and then going back out there and coming close to death again and again and again just to be brought back. What would that do to the mind? What do you think that would do to the war? What if just one clan had that ability in their hands? I can tell you this. It would not stop the fighting, it would extend it, and that is why we stayed away."

The room went quiet again. Sakura could see in each of their eyes that they were thinking of those that had been lost and might have been saved by what was starting to sound to them to be some sort of mystical tribe. Sakura felt on edge. She did not like the attention that she was drawing to her 'clan', real or not, so she diverted the attention of everyone in the room back to the task at hand. Though the kunoichi still looked uncomfortable, knowing what to expect helped ease her fears.

They completed the procedure three times in total. The third brought up much more clear water and less of the pus and mucus that had been practically drowning her lungs before. Sakura told the medic to dispose of the dirty water in a safe place where no one would come into contact with it, and she sat down next to her patient, her hands glowing green once again analyzing her lungs and airways.

"How much chakra does this take up?" the guard asked

"If you do it right, and by right I mean with the proper chakra control, then it is the equivalent of shooting off about three mid-tier jutsus per session. This, just checking up on her, is like walking on water to me." Sakura said over her shoulder

"So what is your diagnosis? How is she? It looks like her breathing is much better." the medic said coming back in.

"Well, her lungs went through a lot of trauma today. We will have to see how she holds on through the night, but for right now I think she is out of the woods. But, she will get back to that point and eventually die if I can not come up with the right concoction of medication for her. And also just to be clear to all of you," and she turned to the guard, "No more fucking blood lettings. That is hurting her chances of survival and will just make her weaker. If someone comes in here while I am asleep and tries to do that, restrain them, then try and punish them for endangering the life of your Lady."

After that Sakura was escorted to a room not far from the Lady whom she was in charge of healing to go to bed. It wasn't that Sakura was exhausted from healing or that she needed rest, but she did need to clear her mind to try and think back to all her old medical textbooks and scrolls. Some food was brought to her room and she finished it all wanting to get as much nutrients as possible for her to remember all she could. Sakura meditated for a few minutes and then went to bed. But as she lay there on the cusp of sleep a memory flashed through her mind. It was one of the last non team 7 group missions that she had gone on, and coincidentally Sai had happened to be assigned to the same team as her. On their way back they got stuck in a terrible rainstorm and took shelter in a cave. Even though they had not been stuck in the rain for too long before finding shelter Sai had started shivering, coughing, and developed signs of a bad cold or worse. As the rain abated the team decided that they would take turns carrying him back to the village. On their second day running, Sakura recognized a special tree that was native to the area, a Commiphora myrrha also known as C. molmol. It produced myrrh, which is a reddish-brown dried sap from the thorny tree. They mixed it into Sai's rations every day and by the time they got back to the village, he was much better.

Sitting up in her bed Sakura thought to herself that could work, that really could work. It was a natural antibiotic that was just strong enough to help fight off infections and boost the immune system. Getting up from the floor and lighting the lamp in her room again Sakura walked over to the sliding door. Turning to the guard placed at her door she said, "I need a map of the area, some paper and drawing utensils, and a team to leave and forage a substance. Then call the ninja in charge of this operation because I think I have the key ingredient to an antidote."

Not too long later there was a knock at her door. "Enter." Sakura said, sitting by the table in the center of her room. Yadawa entered, the same ninja that had been in charge of bringing her to the village, camp, or whatever they wanted to call it.

"I have brought the item that you requested." Yadawa said in an even tone

"Good, you can bring them here. The better we get the scavenger hunt going the better for your Lady." Sakura said. Yadawa came forward and placed the items on the table. "First of all," Sakura began, "Have you ever heard of the Commiphora myrrha also known as C. molmol?"

"No." Yadawa said almost immediately

"I see then that will make this a little bit harder. It is a thorny tree that excretes a sap that has some health benefits that I think will heal your mistress, or at least give her a fighting chance to fight off the bacteria." Sakura unrolled the map first. After locating where the village she was previously in was she wanted to know their location to see how close they were to the trees and so she could point them in the right direction, but there was little to no chance of them giving away their location to an outsider. So instead she looked up and pointed to the correct area on the map. "This is where you should find the trees. I don't know how fast you will be able to mobilize a team to gather the sap or if it is in another clan's territory but that is where you will find the trees and sap."

Then Sakura pulled out some of the parchment and ink that Yadawa had brought and started drawing, "Drawing was never my strong suit, I used to have a teammate for that he really had an artistic eye for everything really now that I think about it... But I think this will do." she said, holding up the paper blowing on it and pushing it towards Yadawa on the table. "This is a rough sketch of what the tree looks like."

Yadawa picked up the sketch and nodded. "I will gather a team tonight and we will head out as soon as we receive permission from the head."

The next day there was a new guard at Sakura's door. She could feel the difference in their chakra, this one was much weaker than the previous one. She didn't put much thought into the change other than they must have had a shift change or they trusted her more. After having breakfast served to her in her room again she decided that it would be a good time to check on her patient. So she washed her face, put her hair up, and made herself more presentable in general. The day before she had been traveling and probably looked like a mess while she was working on the patient, but today she would at least try to look presentable, after all, if her patient was able to make it through the night then there was a high likelihood that she would be waking up today.

Walking down the hallway she spotted her current 'assistant' walking down from the other end. He bowed towards her and Sakura greeted him also with a shorter bow. "Have you gone in to check up on the patient this morning?" Sakura asked

"No, I am just arriving like you are. I wouldn't dare check on the patient without your permission." the medic said

Sakura nodded her head, "Well then let's go in and check on her lungs and vitals." and with that, the guard stationed at the door moved to the side opening the door and Sakura and the young medic entered.

The patient was still sleeping but she seemed to be breathing evenly and without pain, and she had lasted the night. Both good signs, Sakura thought to herself. Moving into the room she knelt by the woman and grasped her hand putting two fingers on her wrist she checked the woman's pulse. It seemed steady. Sakura put her hand to the woman's forehead, no fever. Now for the main check of the day, her lungs. Sakura's hands glowed green and the medic and the guard watched on in awe at what she was doing. Other than being raw from the procedure her lungs looked clear for the time being. Sakura healed a few of the places where the water therapy had bruised the lung but the raw areas she left to heal on their own.

As Sakura was finishing her healing of an area near the top of her left lung she could feel the woman's heartbeat increase some. Slightly averting her eyes from the minor work she was doing, to the woman's face, Sakura watched as the woman opened her eyes. They were the same pale white as the rest of her clan's and they slowly looked around the room as though she was trying to gather her bearings.

"Okugata!?" The medic and gard said moving towards her

"Do not excite her too much. I know you must be happy to see her, but remember there is still a lot that must be done." As Sakura spoke the woman's eyes drifted towards the pinket with the glowing green hands.

The lady opened her mouth as though to speak but no words came out. Sakura finished up quickly on the woman's lung and turned to the medic. "Ginger tea with honey should help. And tell the kitchen to prepare something hearty but soft." Sakura said, the medic left the room quickly, then Sakura turned to the woman, "Don't worry, your speech will return to you soon. It is probably hard now due to how long you have been unconscious and all of the coughings you did last evening. Just relax, you are in capable hands."

The woman looked from Sakura to the guard and a small whisper came from her lips in a question, "Bozan?"

The guard shook his head and gestured towards Sakura.

"Who is Bozan?" Sakura asked

"He is the head medic of the clan." the guard replied as the medic got up to go get the tea for his Lady.

"Ahh, yes the one doing the blood lettings." Sakura said, "I presume there was no trouble with him or one of his associates trying to come in last night and try and do that while I was sleeping?"

"There was a medic that came by that was not the one you were working with that had tools with him, but I quickly turned him away. Though I will say he did not seem too pleased."

"Well good I don't care if he was pleased or not. Thank you for doing your job on the behalf of my patient." Sakura said

The woman looked on, confused. When Sakura saw the confusion on her face she smiled and turned to the woman and gave a small bow from her sitting position. "It is nice to meet you. My name is Sakura and I was brought here to treat you. When I first arrived you had been unconscious for a few days already under treatment by this Bozan. And, I do not mean to offend you, but there was very little he was doing for you that was right. I immediately decided to do a slightly invasive procedure on you to clear you of the build-up of mucus and other fluids in your lungs and airways. It seems to have gone fairly well as I have just taken a quick look at your lungs and other vitals. Now we just need to wait for Yadawa to come back with his team with an ingredient for the medicine that I will be making for you. If you have any questions please feel free to ask, but I must ask you to wait until you have at least had the tea and are able to speak without hurting yourself."

The Lady nodded and tried to rest back against her pillows. They could all hear the running of the medic bringing the tea down the hallway. Then there was a brief moment of silence before he knocked on the door.

Sakura smiled to herself for a moment at the earnestness of his devotion to his lady. "Come on in." Sakura finally said

In came the medic and Sakura helped the Lady up so that she could drink a cup from the tea set that the medic had brought in. After the first taste, the woman shuddered. "What? Not a fan of ginger?" Sakura asked

"No, my lady is not a fan of sweets." Said the guard

"Ah well, the honey is actually good for your throat so unfortunately, that will have to be on the menu for a while." Sakura said

The woman gave Sakura a reassuring smile and continued to drink the tea while Sakura explained to her the treatment regimen. They were going to up her diet from just broth now that she was awake and could eat solid foods. "Lots of protein and vegetables with a healthy mix of herbs." Sakura explained, "I know your stomach is small right now so we will have you eat small courses throughout the day. And the rest depends on how long it will take for the team to get back from collecting the sap that is needed for your medication."

"You are a very composed little girl." the woman said, "You must be the pride of your clan."

Sakura just smiled. It hurt her heart to hear that. The guilt just poured in and it seemed there was nothing she could do except put on her medic face and pretend that the pain wasn't there. "Your words are too kind Lady Hyuga."

"Talented, composed, and humble, that is more than I can say for my own children." the Lady gave a rough laugh, her throat still sore, "My eldest is older than you, and he has talent but he is not very composed or humble. I hope that as he grows older so will his patience. My youngest girl is too shy. She has a duty as part of the main family yet she has yet to show potential. That is probably my fault. Always having a sick mother I think tampered with her spirits. You know what, I think I would like you to meet them while I am up and feeling well. Would that be possible for them to come here; am I contagious?"

"Well though I think you caught this from the community, from someone coughing or sneezing into the air without covering their mouths. I do not think that this will be as dangerous to your children as it has been for you since you have a weakened immune system. So as long as they wear a face covering, just for precautionary purposes I think a short visit should be perfectly fine."

"Oh good, I think you would be a good friend to them. They don't have many friends at all being from the main branch."

It took a few minutes but soon there was another knock on the door. The guard opened it and bowed to the young master and young miss as did the medic. Sakura sitting by her patient gave a nod of greeting. This apparently irritated the Young master as his eyes furrowed for a moment at the pink haired girl. He stood a head or two taller than Sakura and was probably around 14 or 15. Gosh, what a terrible age to be at Sakura thought to herself. But at that age he had probably been on the battlefield for around 6 years, so he was an experienced fighter. Behind him was an adorable little girl. You could tell she took after her mother and that she was going to be a looker when she grew up. But right now her little hands gripped tightly to her brother's kimono, shaking as she looked from her mother to Sakura. The girl couldn't have been more than 5 or so and her nerves were apparent on her face, in a way it reminded her of Hinata when she was young.

"Well don't just stand there, come in." their mother said softly gesturing for them to come towards her

The brother put on his mask and then tied one around his sister before they entered the room. Sakura scooted back so that they would have a clear line to get straight to their mother. It had probably been a scary few days for them. Their mother had been sick and unconscious and no one knew what it was or what to do.

"Just so you know your mother is still weak so try not to excite or upset her." Sakura said gently to the two siblings

"Well that is obvious otherwise she would not still be bedridden." the oldest spat at Sakura

"Hira!" Lady Hyuga exclaimed,

"I'm sorry, do you have a problem with me?" Sakura asked

"Just for your information I did not agree with father 's decision to bring an outsider into the clan to heal you, I think Bozan is perfectly capable of healing you mother." the young master Hira said cooly making eye contact with Sakura

Lady Hyuga turned to Sakura, "Sakura, do not listen to him, I am grateful for your service. If not for you, who is to say if I would have even woken up again."

"No mother, she is an outsider! How do we not know that she is not from some clan that wants to scout out our location or poison us from the inside!" the young master Hira said

"Hira! She was brought here to heal me. Isn't that right, Sakura?" Lady Hyuga asked

"I have a house of healing in a civilian village that has just barely accepted me. I have no clan. If you keep attacking my character I will begin to take offense and then I think you will find yourself in the midst of a problem that you will find very humiliating."

"Oh really and what would that be?"

"You would either lose a spar to a ninja who is primarily a healer and is younger than you, or you would injure your own mother's healer that was brought specifically to cure her of something that the medics here could not identify. Either way that is not a good look for a young master who is planning to be the head of the family." Sakura said, pouring another cup of tea for Lady Hyuga to drink.

Lady Hyuga reached out towards her sons arm and weakly gripped his hand, "Be kind to Sakura she is a good medic and had a good plan to take care of me, and Sakura told me that Yawada is already out there with a team collecting the primary ingredient for my recovery."

"Yes, I have heard. She has sent them straight into the midst of the Uzumaki territory to get it too." the young master Hira said snidely, "Sending one of our best teams out to collect an ingredient in the middle of enemy territory. It would be a good way to weaken us."

"Ok, that was not my fault." Sakura said calmly, but she was slowly starting to get irritated with the kid, "The map that was provided to me to show where the trees were did not have any clan locations on there. And it wouldn't have mattered if it did anyway, knowing that the Uzumaki clan is there wouldn't somehow magically move where the trees were or put them in a safer area, I just pointed out where they most likely would be."

"Ha" Hira scoffed, Sakura was beginning to take the young master from his title as her opinion of him began to quickly fall.

"You know it is good that I am a medic. Maybe I can help get that stick out of your rear end so you can think with a little more clarity." Sakura said, immediately regretting it seeing as it set the young Hyuga off.

"How dare you!" Hira said, shaking off his mother's hand and pointing it at Sakura, "That's it! I want you out of here!"

"Well too bad that is not your call. I am your mother's medic and was hired by your father. But don't worry just because you have a problem with me that does not mean that I will treat your mother with anything less than the best care." Sakura said handing the second cup of tea to Lady Hyuga, but just as she did Hira smacked it from her hands, its scalding contents and cup fling in the air hitting the medic to the side of them. Sakura's eyes narrowed at Hira, but she immediately looked towards the medic, "Are you alright?" she asked

"Yes, just a little wet now. I will go grab some cloth to clean this mess up with." and with that, the now nervous medic rushed out of the tense room.

"I don't want you giving mother anything more from this moment on." Hira said

"I am so sorry for my son's actions, please forgive him!" Lady Hyuga said, "He is just worried about me and does not know where to properly put his frustrations."

"I apologize Lady Hyuga, but I must ask for your son to leave the room. I asked him not to upset you yet that seems to have been all he has done since he has entered. Your daughter may stay." Sakura said calmly

"Who are you to dictate where I can go!" Hira said

"I gave you clear instructions when entering the room about not upsetting your mother, and I believe that you have crossed a line. Your conduct has been extremely rude and non-beneficial to your mother's condition. And as her medic, as assigned by the authority of your father, I have the right to have you ejected from the premises, in other words just as I gave you the right to come and visit your mother I can take that right away." Sakura said smoothly

"You're a dead girl if you think that's how you can treat me." Hira said in as low a tone as a boy going through puberty could go.

"Hira!" Lady Hyuga gasped, before looking at Sakura, "I promise I did not raise him to talk like this."

"Oh Lady Hyuga you have been lovely. I highly doubt your son got his personality from you. But unfortunately for him he has crossed a line for me by threatening my life, something that I hold very precious to me. Your choice Hira." Sakura said with a pleasant smile on her features

"My choice for what." Hira asked

"We are going to have a spar of sorts. If I win you will apologize for all you have said and then will keep your mouth closed when it comes to me and my work. If I lose. Which just so you know I will not. I will leave your clan's lands entirely and go back to the village that I was living in. You can have your head healer come back in and slowly watch as he speeds up your mother's death. I am giving you the choice of whether or not you would like a day to prepare or if you would like to now."

Hira scoffed, "I don't need any time to prepare to fight you."

"If that is your choice... it is a very poor one."Sakura said standing, "Well Lady Hyuga, if you can, enjoy some tea with your daughter for a while. I will be back in a few minutes." and with that, she left the room closely followed by a young ninja that was soon going to regret his words and actions very much.

OK so we have Sakura deep in Hyuga territory

I was going to put the fight in here too but the chapter was getting a little long so I decided to hold off on it...

but please tell me what you think so far! Comments feed my desire to continue my stories!