Clay Petals
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or its characters, nor am I gaining any profit for putting them in this story. They all belong to Masashi Kishimoto.
Author's Note: This was originally going to be the end of chapter two, but I decided to make it its own chapter because I felt like having the other ending.
Review please! It makes me a happy fanfic author!
Sakura woke up with a start, her bright emerald eyes wide open in shock. Did she just have a dream where she kissed the man who threatened to destroy her home and all she held dear? She shook her head, making her hair fan out in every direction. No, she was just misremembering the dream, is all. It happened all the time.
Glancing at the clock, Sakura found that she had slept a bit late, and would now have to skip some part of her morning 'ritual' in order to get to the hospital on time for Tsunade's medical training. Ugh. She hated skipping one part of her daily activities, as it seemed to throw her off for at least part of the day ahead of her.
Sighing, Sakura decided on not brushing her teeth, as she sat up in bed. Noticing the room seemed to be a little blurry; she rubbed her eyes with the back of her right hand, and proceded to slide off of the mattress and onto her feet.
Giving herself a moment to gain her balance, she looked around the room to see if any items were out of place after last night's intruder. After scanning the room, she found herself satisfied that nothing had been messed with, and proceded to head in the direction of the bathroom across the hall.
If she had searched her room a moment longer, she would've noticed a little note scrawled out on the cover of one of her medical folders on her desk.
After a quick shower, Sakura stepped out of the shower and grabbed a fluffy pink towel from the rack next to the toilet. She dragged the soft material over her hardly curvy body for a moment, before just wrapping the towel under her armpits, and quickly making her way to her room, used nightgown in hand.
As she entered the room and closed the door, she quickly disregarded the towel, and threw the nightgown in the general direction of the hamper. She turned away before she was able to see it fall cleanly in.
Sakura then made her way to her closet, and pulled out some lingerie from the right side, and quickly pulling them on, leaving her shameful body visible for the shortest amount of time possible.
If there was one thing Sakura was unhappy to have, it was her body. It was small and underdeveloped, even when she had reached such an age as fifteen. Whenever she looked in the mirror, it occurred to her that her butt was too small, her chest was too flat, her shoulders were too wide… anything that she could dislike about her body, she did. Because of this, she felt uncomfortable whenever she went to a hot spring with Ino, or if she was ever undressed in front of anyone.
It seemed as though her own body was trying to embarrass her.
Sakura furrowed her brows, and stepped over to the mirror that was on the left of the closet she had just opened. Examining herself in the mirror, she looked at herself from all angles. Yup. Still flat.
With an unhappy sigh, Sakura turned away from the looking glass, and returned to the closet to find some clothes to wear. Not that it really mattered, as all of her clothes looked basically the same, but it mattered to her whether or not the skirt had pockets, and whether or not the shirt had a zipper.
Finally deciding on a black sleeveless shirt with a zipper and a short, tan skirt without pockets, Sakura grabbed her gloves from a drawer in the desk, and picked up the towel. Nicely placing it on the rack in the bathroom where the towel belonged, she then continued down the stairs to the lower level.
As she reached the kitchen, Sakura found that her mother had already finished making breakfast, and there were two plates stuffed full of food on either end of the table. However, as Sakura looked at the place in front of her cushion, she was slightly disappointed to only see a bowl of instant ramen.
With a sigh, she sat down in kneeled down in front of the bowl, and picked up her chopsticks. She hated having ramen for breakfast. As a matter of fact, she hated ramen altogether, and wondered why anyone would eat such a thing.
'Well, I suppose I can eat it quickly so I get to the hospital on time,' she thought to herself, idly slurping her ramen, 'it's just… I really wish that I could stay home and have breakfast like a family with Mother and Ryou. That, and Mother's food is usually quite delicious.'
Upon finishing her ramen, Sakura picked up the bowl and placed it gently in the sink, careful not to shatter its delicate glass. She'd broken one of her Mother's bowls but once before, and it was not a process she had any desire to repeat.
After making sure that the fragile glass hadn't a single chip on its surface, Sakura made her way towards the door, and upon opening it, left her home on the way to the hospital.
As she walked along the nearly empty dirt road, Sakura began to think again about her strange dream. It puzzled her completely and totally, every suggestion she made within her mind, brought back down again by the exact same evidence.
She'd kinda wanted to.
No matter how much she tried to deny it, Sakura had remained unable to have any relationships with the boys her age in the village, and it was really starting to get to her. Though she was mentally set for anything, it still didn't hurt to have a little support. Especially with her father gone, and the only male really in her life her brother…
No, that was no excuse. He's a horrible man, an S-Class criminal, member of the organization Akatsuki, the same as Sasuke's brother! You can't blame sexual tension for wanting to even a little, for wanting something as completely forbidden and horrible as that.
As Sakura looked up, she realized that she had arrived at the Konoha hospital. It wasn't exactly a grand spectacle; it was plain white with a hint of red every now and then, with the large kanji for 'hospital' written above the door. However, Konoha being a shinobi village, it was rather large.
Thoughts of her dream fled her mind, as Sakura stepped through the doors in front of her, and scurried up a long flight of stairs to her left. These were the steps that led directly to the emergency rooms; the places where Sakura, Shizune, and other top medics worked. Tsunade also worked there sometimes, but only when she wasn't either drunk, doing her Hokage duties, or on a vacation.
This didn't exactly leave much time for the hospital.
However, as Sakura opened the door to the second floor, she was surprised to see Tsunade tending to a patient that appeared to have his stomach ripped open. It was a miracle already that he was alive with that kind of injury, it would be even more of a miracle if he would be able to live throughout the extensive surgery.
After cleansing her hands, pulling on rubber gloves, and throwing an apron overtop or her clothes, Sakura set to work on a patient next to the Hokage's disemboweled one.
This new patient was a woman with short black hair and tan skin, and it seemed that she was missing an arm. 'It's a clean cut, so probably with a sword,' Sakura thought, 'Strange. Not many shinobi fight with swords.'
As Sakura glanced over to a nearby medical table, she noticed the gory bleeding arm sitting atop it, soaking the table's surface. Holding back the urge to vomit, Sakura picked up the arm, and placed it right next to the place it had originally been in. Carefully adjusting it so it would fit on just right, she was just starting to gather chakra in her palms when—
Oh god, why am I remembering the dream now?
All the images flashed before her eyes within seconds, everything a distant buzz. The only dominating feature was the single gold eye, and the feeling of being watched from every angle. A burning feeling on her lips just as she felt them touch….
"Sakura! What are you doing!" Tsunade cried, apparently finished with her disemboweled shinobi. Sakura nearly jumped in surprise, but quickly reacted in order to mend her error.
'What did I do wrong, what did I do wrong?' she asked herself quickly going over a mental checklist. Find the patient, find the problem, think of the solution, stem any blood flow immediately…
"I forgot to stem the flow!" Sakura cried, rushing to fix her mistake, but Tsunade was way ahead of her. The patient was already fast asleep, her arm attached again to her body, gauze wrapped around the area of connection between the arm and the rest of the body.
Tsunade looked at her, disappointment lingering in her honey-colored eyes.
"Sakura, that mistake could've caused that woman her life, much less her arm! What were you thinking!" Tsunade raged, her voice mounting in anger, "You can't make mistakes like that in a hospital!"
"I know, Tsunade-sama, I just wasn't—"
"You weren't paying attention!" Tsunade yelled at her student, "That's the worst mistake a medic can possibly make!"
"I know, Tsunade-sama, I'm sorry. I won't make the mistake again," Sakura replied, trying to stay calm against Tsunade's fury. It would only get much worse if she reacted as well.
Suddenly, Tsunade was calm. Too calm. She knew this couldn't be a good sign. Tsunade never got this calm after one of her rages, and this could only mean trouble for Sakura.
"Sakura, I think you should take the day off," Tsunade said calmly, before turning to another wounded that had just arrived, "Take some time to collect your thoughts."
Sakura was shocked. Never, in her three years of medical training, had Tsunade asked such a thing of her. 'Well, I've never been so out-of-focus before,' Sakura reminded herself, turning on her heel and heading towards the door, 'I almost killed someone.'
Tossing her apron and gloves in the medical waste bin, Sakura made her way down the steps and out the front door. She calmly made her way back home, but at the last minute, turned on her heel and headed into the woods.
Finally, about a mile into the dense forest, Sakura found a large rock covered in moss, settled by a small stream. 'Perfect,' she thought with content, 'A great place to clear my head.'
Sitting cross-legged on the rock, she rested her elbows on the sides of her knees and her head in her hands, and tried to think. Think about what'd gotten her into this mess in the first place. Think about the cause of that nightmare.
That jerk saying he wanted a kiss.
Why a kiss? Why not something all criminals want, like money, her secret knowledge of the Hokage, or what-not? Or, if he was going down that road, why stop at a kiss? Why not rape her, for goodness sake? Not that she had wanted him to, but why would a criminal care? And, of all things, why ask her permission?
These thoughts and others buzzed through her head, all about the blond criminal. He confused her, in every way possible. More than any man she had ever met. More than Naruto, more than Kakashi, more than even Sasuke.
'Such a mystery,' she thought, 'Such an annoying mystery.'
She chuckled quietly to herself.
'He's the reason I got into this mess with Tsunade, and I still can't keep my mind off him.'