CHAPTER TEN
The day was turning out to be the worst ever for Sakura, immediately she had gotten to the hospital a code red alarm sounded ,there was no chance to breathe or settle in and as expected she immediately rushed into the E.R where the clueless nurses on duty informed her about the situation.
A drunk women was choking from a tiny piece of shell stuck in her throat, how it got there, she'd never know, an emergency laryngoscopy was performed, Sakura skillfully extracted the external body and now thankfully the woman was stable and now moved to the general ward.
Starting the day like that had been incredibly disorienting, it's not the first time it happened and certainly wouldn't be the last but she would never get used to it. Just another day in the life of a medic.
She had kept her students busy all morning with the fish practical, none of them have been able to revive it yet but she wasn't worried, it was still too early and they were already doing well and making fast progress in other areas.
She glanced at her time piece, Keita was still yet to arrive at the hospital for some reason. She just didn't understand why he'd choose today of all days to be late knowing they both had serious matters to discuss, it was almost going to 10 o'clock and the meeting was by 11am.
She had just finished making her rounds at the general ward and was about to go prepare for the meeting without Keita when she saw him walking briskly towards the direction of his office with a cup of coffee on his hand
"Is he serious right now" she muttered to herself as she followed him at the same pace
"Well, where the hell have you been!" she bellowed behind him just as he was about to open his office door.
He turned sharply, visibly shocked at her presence
"Can you STOP doing that"
Sakura ignored him "Did you forget we were supposed to meet like two hours ago!?"
"Of course I didn't, I've been busy gathering info like we were supposed to" he said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world
"Oh…so what did you find out then"
"Can I at least go into my office first Sakura"
"I guess" she scoffed while following him as he entered shutting the door behind her.
Sakura watched as he arranged papers on his table in one pile, taking sip after sip of his coffee
"Well?" Sakura was getting impatient
"Right -right , so I talked to the nurses like you said and they knew absolutely nothing" he paused , Sakura watched quietly albeit anxious as he took another sip of his coffee
"So… I took matters into my own hands and visited the surviving patient at the psychiatric ward where she was transferred" he continued hurriedly
Sakura's eyes widened "You did what?.You went to a mental asylum ALONE?!"
"Let me finish" he said with a calm voice "she's a bit more stable now so I was able to find out a few things, apparently she started feeling strange after she and her husband got back from their honeymoon she mentioned being unable to control her anger even though she doesn't recall being violent in the past-"
"We'll need to confirm with her spouse on that" Sakura interjected
"Of course I was just getting to that…one more thing , she doesn't remember anything that happened during her violent episodes, it's not much but I think it is worth noting"
"Are you kidding?! That's so helpful. Give yourself some credit"
"Don't make me blush" he joked
Sakura giggled, it felt like some weight had been lifted off her shoulders now that they know more about the illness if she could call it that.
"I found out the something in my research yesterday, I'm wasn't sure of it but after hearing what you said I saw an herb in grandma chiyo's book with similar symptoms."
Keita's face lit up immediately "Wow sakura that's a really huge breakthrough"
"Not quite, it was only mentioned once and it's one I've never encountered before"
"It's still a clue though, good job" he commended
"And you too, it was brave what you did, just don't take such a huge risk without me again."
"Fine - fine" he replied
The discussed a bit more, Keita mentioned that while the woman was stable now she still had showed mild symptoms and due to that he couldn't talk to her for longer. They both agreed to question the spouse later on , they just wished he would be willing…
Sakura was feeling better about her day now, both she and Keita had managed to discover clues that could help. It will be a lot easier explaining to Gaara now. There was still something very important though, they would need another surviving patient to really confirm if it's really a drug.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Sakura stood up from where she was seated deciding that she was just going to take things one step at a time.
"We should get moving Keita, the meeting is in 10 minutes"
Keita nodded his head as he gulped down the rest of his coffee , he hurriedly gathered his notes and was now running after a fast paced Sakura who had completely left him behind, he almost laughed out loud at how much of a stickler to rules she was, he personally didn't care about being late ,he'd never been early to any of his official meetings ,he just couldn't find it in himself to care , she was adorable though he'd give her that , he could see what Gaara saw.
They had gotten to the Kazekage's tower five minutes early and ended up having to wait for the on-going meeting to be over, Keita was so mad at Sakura for making him come so early just to wait, he hated waiting rooms.
Sakura on the other hand was more than happy they made it on time, she'd hate for Gaara to see her as tardy. Thankfully at 11o'clock sharp the previous meeting was over and it was their turn, Sakura thought it was just fitting to his personality to keep to time this accurately.
As she and Kieta walked into the office, she took the chance to make observations. His office was well lit and very spacious, much more than the Hokage's office in-fact. The only form of decoration was the single cactus flower pot on a table by the windowsill, there were various windows giving a nice view of both the village square and the desert, it was picturesque and such a calming veiw. Sakura thought he could see almost everything from there. Ofcourse she didn't expect the infrastructure to look the same after years but wow the difference was too great….Gaara was really doing a great job developing Suna that's for sure. Konoha had some serious competition and they don't even know it yet.
She had felt his eyes on her as soon as she walked into the room and it sent warm feelings from her gut to every part of her body. Even though Sakura was trying hard not to make eye contact with Gaara under the guise of admiring the office, she couldn't ignore how his powerful presence filled the room, it was so present it made her throat tighten that she had to clear her throat a little.
At last she couldn't help it and rose her face to look at him, somehow the air began to feel hotter than before especially when she kept thinking back to the previous day in the library when he whispered in her ear, what did that even mean, that whole night she kept asking herself the same question, could he be that he was possibly intere- , no there was no way , she had to cut that train of thought short, she just wasn't going to do that to herself again, besides this was no place to be thinking of such, she was just going to focus on her job.
'For Kami's sake Sakura you came to work' she chided herself.
After she and Keita had taken their seats in front of Gaara. Sakura cleared her throat to begin, since she requested the meeting she was obligated to start first. Gaara kept his gaze on her making her nerves worse. Keita on the other hand was as oblivious as they come, he was bored already and wanted this to be over soon.
"So to what do I owe this meeting" Gaara spoke first surprising Sakura lightly
Sakura took a silent deep breath before starting "I called for this meeting because of something we think you should know"
"and I'm guessing I won't like this thing" Gaara replied his eyes searching between both Sakura and Keita
"No I don't think you will unfortunately"
Gaara simply nodded his head and indicated for her to continue. She told him everything-almost everything, including the new information she recently discovered, Keita also spoke about what he discovered. The whole time Gaara's eyes were trained on her and his facial expression showed no major change in emotion except for maybe the extra furrowing of his eyebrows.
"So that's basically everything" Sakura heaved a silent breath as she finished, it was as if a huge weight had been lifted from her chest.
A deep silence filled the room, you could literally drop a pen and it would echo. Sakura searched his face for anything even the smallest movement just to know how what was feeling, was he angry?.., frustrated, disappointed?. Her best guess was angry… Tsunade would be flipping tables by now if she were the one receiving such news. The thought of her shishou almost made her smile.
After about what seemed like an hour to her Gaara turned to Keita who looked like he'd rather be anywhere but here.
"How long have you known" he asked Keita.
"Angry it is then" inner sakura muttered
Fuck this was what Sakura had been avoiding the whole time, in her narration she had purposely left out that Keita had discovered it earlier because she feared it would be misunderstood. She should have known Gaara would figure it out regardless.
"A little bit over a month" Keita replied calmly
"And…you didn't think to mention it since then?" at this point it was obvious that Gaara was trying hard to contain his anger
"It's not exactly something that can be reported immediately"
Something about Keita's delivery in response was aggravating Gaara more. She didn't think Keita was intentionally trying to be rude, technically he was right, to avoid false alarm and panic Keita made the best possible choice, but she feared that right now Gaara wasn't seeing it that way. Sakura thought it best to intervene before the matter escalates.
"Gaara, I think what Keita is trying to say is that–" before she could even finish her sentence Gaara turned to her sharply, it was so sudden she almost flinched, his eyes piercing like daggers on her
"I didn't address you yet" he cut her off and then turned back to face Keita who was now as visibly shocked as her
It happened so fast that she almost couldn't believe it, she was flabbergasted, did-did he just shut her down like a bug–
"Like common FLY!" inner was outraged
Like her opinion didn't matter and she was insignificant, it brought back memories of her genin self all over again. Honestly she's not felt this humiliated in a long time, why did it hurt so much coming from him, fuck him and fuck her heart for even thinking for one second that he was maybe interested in her, her anger kept mounting -in fact who the hell did he think he was, she was angry at him and at herself. Well one thing was for sure, she wasn't going to wait for him to address her with that tone again. Gathering her emotions together and mustering the best poker face she had in her-
She stood up gracefully, his eyes immediately followed her and she looked him straight in the eyes before speaking
"The reason I called this meeting was to simply pass information on to you Kazekage". She watched his eye twitch in annoyance at the title she added at the end
"I believe my work as the volunteer medic here is done, if you'll excuse me-" She turned and left without looking back.
Silence filled the room again before Keita finally spoke
"That was unnecessary and rude"
"I don't care" he responded coldly but it didn't even sound believable to him
"Okay" Keita shrugged "Sakura and I, especially Sakura spent half of her day yesterday researching just to get more information about whatever this is , she didn't have to, it's not part of her job description but she did it anyways because she obviously cares about you" he finished, causing Gaara's eyes to widen a fraction. 'she cared about him?' he was still processing what he heard not realizing Keita trying to hand him a file
"This contains everything we learned about it" after handing the report to Gaara he left immediately.
Sakura ended up going home early, it was 5 o'clock sharp by the time she got home , normally she'd at least stay and help out a bit for the evening shift but her mood was too ruined to continue, she'd end up transferring the aggression to people that didn't deserve it and that was counterproductive to her.
"You're home early today" a voice spoke jilting Sakura out of her negative thoughts
Sakura looked up to see Kankuro, who was by the fridge with a cup of water? he looked like he'd been in the house all day. He was clad in sweatpants and no shirt, damn she'd seen Kankuro shirtless before, albeit under much more life threatening circumstances but that was a long time ago and he's certainly more toned and muscled now.
"sheesh did all the Suna boys just get hot overnight or something" inner said
"Ughh go put on a shirt already"
"like what you see?" he jiggled his eyebrows at her while pretending to flex
"you wishhh!" she responded with a small laugh
He gave an imperceptible look as the laugh died down and then said something that surprised her a bit.
"Wanna go out to eat?"
"Tired of being the house chef?" Sakura joked
"Hey I love my job… but I need a break, so what do you say huh?" he prodded
Honestly she thought it was weird that Kankuro was asking her out to eat but she hadn't eaten since morning and she was really famished besides who was she to turn down free food.
So she smiled at him in response "Fine… but I need an hour."
She reeked of antiseptic a freshening up was needed plus she had some file organizing to do.
Finally in an hour Sakura was fully refreshed and ready in a white breezy slip dress and brown sandals .She had decided to dress casual after all it wasn't a date… just dinner between two friends. She went downstairs to see Kankuro already waiting for her. He was dressed in black long sleeves and black pants …not much different from his regular outfit. 'well at least he dressed casually too' Sakura thought to herself .They were out the door in no time Kankuro complaining about his stomach grumbling cause she took too much time and Sakura laughing at him.
"So… what do you think about this one."
"Too fancy and crowded… big no" Sakura replied shaking her head to emphasize
Kankuro groaned "you said the same about the last two we passed, my stomach is rumbling here" . "They have the best spicy food in the game right now are you sure you want to miss out on that?" He couldn't believe she was saying no to his favorite restaurant
"I don't like spicy food much" she stated simply
Kankuro looked gob-smacked, how could anyone not like spicy food.
"What do you like then?"
"hmm…" Sakura looked like she was in thought for a moment "Syrup coated red bean dumblings!"
Kankuro laughed at how enthusiastic she looked, maybe he should have asked from the start.
"C'mon I know just the place". Dumplings weren't his thing but he could compromise for her, he wasn't a picky eater anyways. She looked happier than she did when she got back from work and that was enough for him.
Gaara sat facing the opened windows lost in thought as the evening breeze blew on his face. He watched as the sky got darker and darker and the stalls began to close-up for the day, people scurried about to and fro, some restaurants set up more seats outside for their evening customers. Suna was known to have the best night life that even attracted visitors from other lands.
Meanwhile, uncompleted paperwork lay on his table, it wasn't like him to leave work unfinished for the leisure of watching the Suna citizens do what they did everyday but his mind seemed to be hell-bent on lacking focus today, there was the unsettling news today that could very well be a catastrophe if not taken care of. When the elders find out about it, he knows for a fact they'll find a way to pin it on him, they never trusted him since the day he stepped in as the Kazekage although none of them will dare say it to his face, he has his ways of finding out way what he wants and he knows they've been plotting to overthrow him for a while now.
He'll need allies now that's for sure, he'd need as much help as possible to stop whatever this was from going any further.
Gaara released a deep sigh as various thoughts went through his head. One thing was for sure he had messed up with Sakura. He didn't know why he had snapped at her or why he was feeling very horrible about it either ,he had snapped at a lot of people before , his siblings …countless times , Keita … for obvious reasons, even the elders were scared of him, it never affected him in anyway but now he kept thinking back to the flicker of hurt that spread on her face after he snapped, it was brief and she had tried to hide it but he was the better person at poker face. It wouldn't stop clouding his head. Was this…Guilt?-
His mind drifted further down to that day in his room, he had previously thought that tasting her just once would stop the effect she had on him but for what it's worth the rendezvous did nothing to sate him. If anything it drove him even more crazy and that was why he had kept his distance before he did something insane. The taste of her lips , her soft skin and her moans, everything was perfect for him. She was perfect for him. He wanted more.
She had been in the library yesterday to help him and he had thrown her help in her face but then this wouldn't have happened if she hadn't omitted things to cover up for Keita and as if that wasn't enough she tried to defend him too! Just thinking about it was pissing him off again. She shouldn't have tried to defend Keita…they were too close, he didn't like it.
Just then a flash of pink crossed his eyes making him sit upright immediately and at first he thought it couldn't possibly be her but he didn't know anyone else with such distinct hair and then when she turned all smiles ,yes… he could identify that smile from anywhere, she always had this air of spring encompassing her that made you want to reach for her when close just to marvel in that beauty.
'She let her hair down' he thought. Previously in his office her hair had been in a ponytail…he liked it better down.
She was standing just one step out of a restaurant facing the entrance, he recognized the restaurant , it was one of his brother's favourite. She looked dazed for second before a smile appeared on her face again, she seemed to be conversing with someone but from the angle he couldn't identify who it was.
He kept watching even as the wind blew, sending wisps of pink hair into her face, she reached to tuck them behind her ears - he wanted to do that- but then he watched in shock as a hand reached out before she did and delicately tucked her hair behind her ear and that was when Gaara saw red because that was definitely not the hands of a female person.
He had been too entranced by her presence that he didn't notice she had been conversing with a man , he watched Sakura return a small smile obviously at the action of whoever that was and that was when he decided he had seen enough.
A dull anger was growing deep inside him and it was frustrating…the beast inside him wasn't helping either, rather amplifying his negative emotions
"He's going to take her from you" Shukaku mocked
Gaara sneered in anger "No he won't . He can't- she's MINE!"
A/N: sorry for taking too long updating I'll try to not be lazy any more btw I'm not a doctor or medical student so if there is any mistake in medical terms sorry about that but I did try
