Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, no matter how much I wish I did.
The morning sunlight streamed through the pale green curtains and came to rest upon the face of the sleeping, pink haired girl. Sakura muttered in her sleep and buried her face in her pillow, even as her blankets were roughly pulled off of her. "Wake up sleepyhead!" Chirped an all too cheerful voice.
Sakura turned her head and opened one eye to look up at the blonde who was standing by her bedside. "Ino..." Closing her eye, the pink haired girl curled up into a ball, trying to fall back into sleep, "Isn't it too early for you to be up?" Sakura knew that her roommate was hardly ever up before noon, as the girl spent most nights partying and trying to get the boys to notice her. The unlikely pair had been roommates since they had started college together, first sharing a dorm on campus and then moving across town to the two bedroom condo that they lived in currently.
"I haven't made it to bed yet." Ino reached down and started shaking Sakura's shoulder, until the girl couldn't handle it any longer and sat up, batting away at the hands. "You really breezed in. Shoes in different corners of the room, jacket over one chair, your bad on the back of another one. What were you thinking? It'd be fun to play hide and seek with your stuff for work?"
"Thinking?" Sakura's brow wrinkled as she thought, "I don't think I was thinking. I was too tired by the time that I got home to think. All I wanted to do was go to sleep." Yawning loudly, she stood up and realized with a idle fascination that she was still in her work clothes. "Now that you woke me up, I guess I might as well get ready for work." Muttering, she went through her dresser for some clean clothing and marched through the room, shutting herself up in the bathroom.
After she heard the shower start to run, Ino walked to the bathroom door, knocking on it and calling out to her roommate, "I made coffee for you. And bought doughnuts. Your files are on the kitchen table, and now, I'm going to go get some sleep. You really do need to come out with me sometime, you could use a night of man-hunting."
Sakura shook her head from inside of the shower stall, even though she knew Ino couldn't see her. "No thanks on the men, don't have time for any of those right now, but I'll take the coffee and doughnuts." She paused. "And Ino. Thanks."
"Hey. No problem, what are friends for?" Ino knew that the thanks wasn't just for the offer of the coffee and doughnuts, or for putting the pink haired girl's stuff all in one easy to find and reach pile. The two had been friends since they were children, and Ino liked to take personal pride in how she slowly drew Sakura out of her shell. Sakura was the only child of a well-to-do older couple, who thought they'd never have any children at all, and as such, she was well protected, almost smothered and it wasn't until Ino befriended her, that she had many of the experiences the blonde took for granted. It was Ino who threw Sakura's first surprise birthday party, and Ino who dragged her, almost kicking and screaming, to her first sleep over. And when they got older, Sakura stopped being so timid, and the two of them tried their first cigarette together (neither one liked it, although Ino enjoyed the look of the cigarette in her hand), tried their first drink together (and got their first hangover the next day), and their first date was a double one (mainly because Mr. Haruno wouldn't let her date one-on-one). It only seemed natural that they would go to the same college, and share a dorm.
They were as different as night and day, even now. Ino enjoyed partying and staying out late. She seemed to date a different guy every week and never got too serious with any of them. Ironically enough, she was going to school for classes to help her manage her family's flower shop more effenciently. Sakura, on the other hand, never did have much of a night life. She preferred to throw herself into her studies and never felt like she had enough time or energy to spare on a boyfriend. Not that Ino would take that excuse, nothing stopped the blonde from trying to hook her up with one guy or another.
When Sakura stepped out of the shower, clean, refreshed, and ready for another day of work, the house was quiet. Peeking into Ino's room showed her that her roommate had been good on her word. The lanky blonde was lying in the middle of the bed, in a slumber so deep that if not for the snores, Sakura would have been worried that her roommate had died, instead of fell asleep. Snickering softly, as Ino swore that she never snored, she shut the door, walking out to the dining room to eat her breakfast. The young woman poured herself a mug of coffee and sat down at the table, grabbing a doughnut in one hand, and flipping open the first of the files with the other.
Two hours, four doughnuts and three cups of the strong black coffee later, she finally made it through the stack of files. Once she was reasonably sure that she had a decent idea of the condition of each of the patients, Sakura left the table to wash her hands and the mug. Gathering the files up in one arm, she slid them into her work bag. It was time for another day's work.
--
It took her twenty minutes to find a parking spot, and by the time she made the 5 block hike to the clinic, she was late. She burst through the clinic doors with an apology on her lips.
"Ah, Sakura, I'm glad to see you finally made it." Tsunade greeted her, grinning as the pink-haired woman set down her bag and laid her files on the small desk that she claimed as her own.
"I'm sorry Tsunade. I couldn't find a parking space and I didn't count on the fact that I had to walk so far, and I would have been here on time, if this god forsaken place had any decent parking." Sakura was relieved to see that instead of being angry, Tsunade was laughing, clearly amused.
"Well, all that aside, you were late, which means you should be punished." A wicked grin crossed the doctor's face, "There's a young lady in examining room two that needs her MMR shot. I'm sure you can handle it?"
She grimaced, she hated giving shots, especially to kids, and Tsunade knew that. Sliding her white lab coat onto her shoulders, Sakura nodded, heading off to examining room two.
"Oh, and after that, Sakura, there's another stack of paper work that needs to be sorted." It sounded like Tsunade was having fun with this.
The shot went smoother than Sakura had anticipated and she was working her way through the stack of paperwork when the door was slammed open.
"Old lady!" A young man, no more than Sakura's age pushed his way through the open door, supporting a darker boy, who was dripping blood onto the floor. "Old lady! Sasuke's bleeding - he's been stabbed!"
Tsunade ran out from the back of the clinic and helped support the white faced young man, who seemed to be standing by will alone. She noticed Sakura, who was standing in the opening of the cubical, forgotten paperwork held between numb hands. "Sakura!" She all-but snarled, snapping the pink haired woman out of her shock. She had apparently never seen someone who had been the victim of violence. "Prepare examining room one."
Sakura ran ahead of the three, throwing open the door to the small examining room. Rummaging through the cabinets, she pulled out sterile wrapped packages of gauze, stitching thread and needles, and bandages. She laid the wrapped packages on the counter top and washed her hands, filling a basin with warm water and placing a sterile sponge (unwrapped quickly by her deft hands) into the water.
Tsunade and the blond man set Sasuke onto the paper covered table, and the blond held him up straight as Tsunade turned to Sakura. "The wounds seem to be in the upper chest and arm. See about removing his shirt."
Nodding, Sakura stepped in front of Sasuke. Blushing a little, the woman's fingers moved to unbutton his shirt, her hands shaking slightly as she realized that she had never done this before, never had undressed someone else.
Sasuke hissed softly, the air moving from between his teeth, as the fabric was pulled away from the stab wounds, the clotting blood ripping off along with the shirt. With a mumbled apology, Sakura laid his shirt aside, baring the young man's tanned and well muscled chest.
By this time, Tsunade had washed her hands, and gloved them and had picked up the basin of water. Nudging Sakura aside in an absent minded way, the doctor began to gently clean Sasuke's wounds, listening with half an ear as his companion began to talk nervously.
"I can't believe that we trusted them like that. They called for us, says that they just want to talk. Of course we didn't make it out there last night like they wanted, what'd they take us for, fools? So we come by their place today and Sasuke started talking with their leader, and started yelling and next thing we know, they're pulling knives." The blond took a deep breath, and made as though he was going to continue on, when a voice stopped him.
"Naruto. Enough." Sasuke was still pale, but he looked better than when he came in. No longer looking like he was going to keel over right there where he sat, the man turned his head to look at his friend. "You've said enough."
Tsunade wiped the last of the clotted blood away from the wounds and began to apply a anesthetic to numb the flesh of the wound while she stitched it back up. "I'll say he did. You should know better than to go off the way you do. I thought I said I was done with stitching you back together."
"Nah, that was me you said that to." Naruto was visibly relieved, now that Sasuke was out of danger and Tsunade was working him over with her medical tools. "I think this is only the second time that you've stitched up Sasuke."
"Ah yes. The first time was the bar fight, wasn't it?" Tsunade didn't look up as Sakura handed her the gauze and medical tape. Bandaging the wounds, which looked worse than they really were, the doctor glanced up at Sasuke's face, watching him closely. "You've lost a bit of blood. I'll have Sakura go and get you something to eat and drink. I want you just to sit here and rest for a little while."
Sasuke opened his mouth to protest, but Tsunade was too fast for him. Handing a wad of bills to Sakura, she instructed the student to go and get lunch for the four of them, and to hurry back. There were more things to be done around the clinic. As the pink haired woman left the clinic, she could feel Sasuke's gaze following her. She didn't turn back, almost afraid of what she'd see behind her.
--
"Where'd they go?" Kakashi asked of the brown haired man who he had trailing after the two young men. There had been an ambush and a skirmish, and in the thick of it, Sasuke and his second-in-command, Naruto disappeared.
Genma grinned, the toothpick in his lips dipping low, almost falling out of his mouth as he spoke around it, "They went into the clinic, a couple blocks over."
"The Konoha Clinic?" Kakashi ran one hand through his silver hair as he looked in the direction of the plain walled building, staring intensely as though he was willing himself to see through the buildings that stood between him and the young men.
"Yeah, that's the one, it's ran by that angry blonde chick. The one who insists it to be neutral ground." He caught Kakashi's look and laid a hand on the man's shoulder, "Don't worry Kakashi, I have Anko watching the place, when they leave, we'll know about it."