Author's Note: Here's the next installment. I think I'm going to rewrite this story in the near future. Look out for that!

title: morphine dreams, written for anonymous
prompt: telling a stranger your life story
pairing: naruto x sakura
genre: romance / general
rating: t

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

Let me know what you think by reviewing! Favorite and follow, also!

The elevator doors closed with a miniature 'ding.'

Sakura absentmindedly watched the numbers above the metal entryway light up, signaling her descent.

Chewing on the inside of her right cheek, the petite woman tried to wrap her mind around one single thought, her temples throbbing as she strived to formulate some type of order to her unmethodological mind.

Typically, the end of her workday was filled with excitement, especially if the end of said shift would be followed by the next two days off of work. Instead of basking in the delight of having some time to herself, Sakura felt thoroughly anxious. There were too many things on her mental 'to-do' checklist, and the pinkette found herself distractedly preoccupied; her attention drawn inward, unintentionally ignoring colleagues and coworkers who filtered in and out of the lift during her downward journey.

There were a few stops she had to make on her way home, the grocery store being the first on her agenda. The food pantry in her apartment had seen better days. If Sakura had another bowl of cereal for dinner this week, she was sure she was going to turn into a Cheerio.

There was also the issue of Ino's birthday present. Her best friend's party was coming up this weekend, and Sakura had yet to find a gift that would be considered perfect for the occasion. Though the blonde insisted on nothing over the top, Sakura still wanted to spoil Ino on her special day.

Maybe she could take a detour on her way home and stop at that day spa? Ino would appreciate a voucher for an all-inclusive day of pampering. With her best friend getting further along in her pregnancy, Sakura was sure that the days Ino was spending out of her home were numbered. It would be a welcomed reprieve before the blonde was placed on bed rest.

The rosette was brought out of her musings when the door to the elevator slid open, revealing the absolute pandemonium that happened to be the emergency room.

Sakura scrambled into the fray of bodies, expertly maneuvering through mayhem towards the large, automatic glass doors on the opposite side of the room.

The scent of blood and anesthetics filled her nose, and for a moment, the cherry-haired woman found herself smiling despite the frantic setting. There was never a dull day at Konoha University Hospital. She had started out as a medical student, thrown into the intern rotation of the emergency ward during the first semester of her junior year.

The ever-changing scene, filled day to day with different doctors, unique patients, and arduous tasks gave Sakura a such a rush; it made her feel alive. There was nothing better than assisting a patient in the fight for their life; to see that person mend and heal under the tips of her fingers.

It was a euphoric high; the elation and adrenaline she felt during those shifts was beyond compare. Though Sakura loved her mentor for taking her under her wing – and thus jumpstarting her career in the neurology ward – she still found herself sometimes wishing for a position that had a little less paperwork and a bit more action.

Halfway to her destination, someone called out to Sakura, breaking her from her reflections.

"Dr. Haruno!"

Begrudgingly, she bit back the groan that threatened to escape her lips, smothering her face with her hands.

Fleetingly, Sakura wondered if she remained like that if the person seeking to get her attention would completely overlook her. Maybe they would just take the hint and find the aid they needed with another physician?

She was so close; so, so, so close to the end of her shift, and there were far too many tasks for her to complete unrelated to the hospital. Now was not the time to be drawn into something that would most likely sidetrack her for the next hour.

Her salvation was beyond those doors, and after a fifteen-hour day, Sakura wanted to do nothing more than to make a run for it. She may not be particularly fast, but she figured she had a good enough head start to make it to the exit before whoever was looking for her caught up with her.

At the constant hail of her name, Sakura knew that she had hesitated too long, and the emerald-eyed woman bitterly concluded that she would not be going anywhere anytime soon. Lifting her face from her palms, Sakura turned to regard the short, brown-haired girl as she drew near.

Straightening upon the nurse's arrival, a small, strained smile playing on Sakura's lips. "Yes?" The pink-haired doctor inquired. "Can I help you with something?"

Sakura didn't recognize the younger girl before her, so she could only assume that she was either a new employee or a student in one of her first rotations.

"I'm really sorry to bother you," The blue-eyed girl apologized, panting as she caught her breath. "Tsunade-sama sent me to come find you. She warned me that you might be on your way out, but I'm glad I caught you in time."

At the mention of her mentor's name, Sakura's lips pursed, drawing down into a tiny frown. There were very few reasons why her boss would send someone to hunt her down, especially when Shizune was working the same shift. Whatever it was, it must have been urgent, because the brunette before her was fidgeting impatiently, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

"What is it? Is there something wrong?" Sakura asked.

"If you could follow me, please?" The girl questioned, half-turning away. She gestured for the pinkette to follow, making a beckoning motion with her hand before she began to weave into the crowd around them.

After only a moment's hesitation did Sakura begin to follow, instantly falling into step beside the shorter female.

"My name is Yuma, by the way," The shorter girl quickly clarified. "An old friend of Dr. Senju's came in a little while ago and brought in a couple of his…friends…for treatment. They're beat up pretty badly. Tsunade-sama said that she would like you to take a look at them."

There was something about Yuma's tone, it was edgy, and it made a wave of unease was over Sakura. Whenever Tsunade had a 'colleague' – and she was using that term loosely – come to visit, her supervisor tended to get herself into some type of trouble. Hospital protocol went out the window when a companion from her mentor's past was around. Sakura, along with most of the other staff, tended to overlook the older blonde's antics. The thought of herself currently being dragged into one of Tsunade's side projects made Sakura slightly cautious.

The duo slipped out of the crisis ward, and Yuma lead Sakura down a separate corridor which housed the wing of private examination rooms.

At the end of the hall they turned down, Sakura observed three figures huddled together. The closer they drew, the more details she could make out. The trio was made up of all men, two of which, were standing with their backs towards her.

One was tall and somewhat lanky, with an unruly mop of silver hair. The other was closer to Sakura's height, though she couldn't get an accurate read on his build because of the loose fitting, navy-blue tunic he wore. The second man's onyx hair stuck out at an odd angle, but what caught her immediate attention was the dark smear of crimson that stained the back of his neck, tinting the collar of his shirt a vibrant purple.

The third and final man easily towered over both of his companions, and he was the only one facing in her direction. Sakura couldn't make out his face; his body was slumped, leaning towards his friends as they continued their discussion.

What caused Sakura to relax slightly, was the third male's mane of white hair, which was quite hard to miss due to its bushiness and length.

She repressed the urge to smile, her nose scrunching up as she fought against the impulse. Sakura would recognize that head of hair anywhere, and though it had been years since she had last seen him, Sakura was confident in her hypothesis of just who Tsunade's guest happened to be.

"Jiraiya…?" The pinkette tentatively called out.

At the sound of her voice, all three men stiffened, the two with their backs facing her pivoted in her direction, movements tense, as three pairs of infinitely dark eyes regarding her suspiciously.

Jiraiya glanced at her from over the heads of his associates, holding the same expression of wary apprehension at the sight of her. After his analytical gaze slid to her bubblegum pink hair, however, a broad, feral grin curled on his lips and recognition dawned.

"Sakura-chan!" He bellowed in welcome, pushing past his two comrades to rush to her side.

Immediately, he enveloped her right hand in both of his own, bringing it up towards his face so that he could brush his lips across the back of her knuckles.

"You're as lovely as I remember," The older gentleman practically purred.

Sakura snatched her hand back as if scalded.

"And you're just as much of a flirt as I remember," The green-eyed woman countered, though there was no real displeasure in her barb.

A tiny smile pulled at the corner of her mouth. "It's good to see you," Sakura said, her voice filling with warmth. "It's been far too long."

"Indeed, it has," Jiraiya agreed with a sagely nod. "It's been, what? Four years now?"

"Sounds about right," She coincided. "I was actually beginning to miss you," She commented dryly, her sarcasm earning her a soft chuckle.

Sakura had known the older male from her earlier years at the hospital. To this day, she wasn't exactly sure what the relationship between Jiraiya and Tsunade was, nor did she have any idea as to what white-haired male actually did for a living that brought him around to the hospital so frequently.

Jiraiya had a habit of showing up out of nowhere, either prowling around the nurse's stations or spontaneously showing up in her mentor's office uninvited. Having been working with Tsunade closely then, Sakura was prone to dealing with him and his…amorous tendencies.

Despite his odd behaviors, she felt a sort of kinship with the older gentleman. Jiraiya was a breath of fresh air that the hospital needed, especially on some of the darker days.

"So, it's safe to assume you're the old friend of Tsunade's that came to visit, but who…," Sakura cocked her head to the left, peering around Jiraiya so that she could catch a glimpse of the other two men. "Are they?"

Now that she held an unobstructed view, the cherry-haired woman could fully discern both males and their state of unruliness.

Despite the color of his hair, the taller of the two was younger than she originally anticipated. Though a surgical mask covered a majority of his face – odd, but not unheard of when visiting a hospital – the lack of crows feet around his eyes, paired with a lack of age lines wrinkling his brow, made Sakura believe he had to be in his late thirties, possibly early forties.

Dressed in a simple outfit of baggy, acid wash jeans and a short-sleeved black t-shirt, nothing else seemed out of place save for the excessive number of bandages that covered his right forearm. Whoever wrapped him up did so in haste, and apparently, had no medical training whatsoever for the dressings hung loosely and haphazardly.

Viridian eyes slid to the dark-haired male, who seemed to be more worse for wear than his companion. His face was covered in blotches of purplish-blue, and there was a small gash above his right eyebrow that was still bleeding. He seemed closer to Sakura in age, but she really couldn't tell with all the discoloration caused by the bruising.

The stain she had noticed earlier wrapped around from the nape of his neck, settling into a large mauve pool on the front of his shirt. He had been – and still was – bleeding profusely, and instinctively, Sakura took a step in their direction.

She didn't make it very far. Jiraiya, who quickly caught on to her intentions, sidestepped in front of her, successfully cutting off her path.

Emerald eyes flicked back in the older male's direction, a brow raised in question. In response, the white-haired gentleman rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, releasing a short, nervous chuckle.

"Ah, those two are fine," He stated hurriedly.

Jiraiya reached out then, wrapping an arm around her waist, propelling her - none too gently - towards the examination room that was closest to their group. "Introductions could be made later. Right now, I need you to take a look at my apprentice."

"Apprentice?" Sakura parroted in a disbelieving tone.

"Yes, you see, a…." He toiled with the right word for a moment. "Scuffle broke out, and my dear apprentice found himself smack dab in the middle of it. A wrong place, wrong time scenario, if you would. Usually, Tsunade handles these types of situations should they arise, but she's tied up at the moment. She sent me the next best thing, though: her number one student."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at Jiraiya's sweet words, and her skepticism grew tenfold. Not only was she not fond of his vagueness on whatever it was that was going on, but he was also stopping her from treating a wounded man that was standing right in front of her. And what on earth did Jiraiya do that allowed him to have a pupil?

Shaking out of his hold, Sakura turned to confront Yuma, who had been watching the entire scene with wide-eyes, apprehensive eyes.

"What did Tsunade-sama say to you exactly?" The pink-haired doctor asked, gesturing towards the injured men. "Did she specify who should be treated first? Or if I should be treating any of them, for that matter?"

"Well...not exactly," The young intern replied timidly. "You see, Dr. Senju simply said, 'Whatever Jiraiya says, goes.'"

Slightly confused, Sakura's lips parted and a frown formed between her brows. She merely starting at Yuma, trying to discern why her boss was getting her involved in something like this.

She blinked once, then twice, before her expression morphed into a scowl, her frustration cutting through her surprised stupor.

Sakura growled out her inquiry. "And where exactly is Dr. Senju at the moment?"

Yuma flinched back at her tone. "S-She had a surgery scheduled for this evening. She said that you would take care of everything."

The rosette shifted her hardened gaze towards Jiraiya, who, much to her chagrin, didn't seem to be phased by the glare. After years of being friends with Tsunade, he was probably invincible to anyone's leer.

Slowly, Sakura shifted to peer towards the two other men, both of whom seemed just as unperturbed as Jiraiya. Realizing that she was not going to get any answers out of anyone at this point, Sakura settled her glower on the white-haired male once more.

"Anything else I need to know before I go treat him?" The question was directed towards Yuma, though she kept her eyes level with Jiraiya, who was now grinning at her cheekily.

"Well…" The brunette trailed off, her voice soft. "It seems that the first nurse to see him gave him a dose of morphine to help with his pain. Only after did she notice Tsunade-sama's handwritten note in his chart to not give him painkillers of any kind."

Sakura's head snapped in the intern's direction, her inquiry holding a hint of panic. "Is he allergic?"

Before Yuma could answer her question, Jiraiya placed both hands on her shoulders and resumed pushing the pinkette towards the door.

"The effects are adverse, but not deadly," The older male assured. "He just tends to get a little out of hand. I really just need you to sew him up and give him a clean bill of health. Then, we'll all be out of that pretty pink hair of yours."

Somewhat fed up with being manhandled, Sakura broke free of Jiraiya's grasp once again, rounding on him. This entire scenario screamed 'unnatural,' and if Tsunade wanted to get involved with whatever game Jiraiya was playing, that was her prerogative.

Personally, Sakura would have liked to remain blissfully unaware of her mentor's secret dealings. She should be on her way home right now damn it.

"I may not know the full story of what is going on here," She ground out, forcefully poking the white-haired male in the chest. "But I will have my questions answered when I'm finished with him."

Without waiting for a response, petite woman spun around in a flurry of pink hair, stomping the rest of the way towards the examination room. Yanking the door open, Sakura composed herself somewhat, straighten her spine before she slipped inside, the door snapping shut behind her.

It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the brighter lighting of the hospital room, but when her vision cleared, Sakura finally caught a glimpse of her would-be patient.

Sitting propped up on the large chair in the middle of the examination room was a man, who, much like his onyx-haired friend on the other side of the door, was riddled with bruises. Without a shirt on, Sakura could see that there was not a patch of his sun-kissed skin that wasn't unmarred and she couldn't help but give a cringe in sympathy.

He was tall; taller than her at least, tousled blonde hair damp and clinging to his forehead in certain spots. Most of his weight was shifted to the right side, his awkward lean barely keeping him upright. His left hand pressed a sheet of gauze into his right bicep; red bloomed on the alabaster cloth, the stain visible between his splayed fingers.

He looked up at her entrance, vibrant emerald locking with hazy cerulean.

Momentarily, the rosette thought that she had seen him before, somewhere in passing, but she couldn't quite put her finger on where she should know him from.

Brushing the thought aside, she took a step further into the room.

"Hello," Sakura greeted. "My name is Dr. Haruno. Tsunade-sama sent me to take a look at you."

He didn't reply, and the lack of continued communication caused an unpleasant silence to descend on the room.

After a short stretch of strained noiselessness, he finally spoke. "Oh…" He stated, airily. "You're absolutely gorgeous."

Thrown off canter by the spontaneous compliment, Sakura's eyes widened a fraction, and she almost – almost – found herself blushing like a schoolgirl.

"Um…Thank you?" She hesitantly responded, trying to relax her rigid stance as she cautiously crossed the room towards the cot.

His stance swayed slightly, and a Cheshire grin curled on his lips. "You're quite welcome," He rasped in a tone that sounded suspiciously similar to the one Jiraiya used when he was trying to pick up one of the nurses.

Ignoring the way that his eyes followed her every movement, Sakura focused all of her attention on his wound. Plopping down in the stool next to the examination chair, she reached over and seized his hand in one of her own, gently trying to pry it away from the injury.

Her first two attempts were met with resistance, and after another minute of failing at loosening his grip, Sakura sat back with a huff, green eyes narrowing.

"Can you please move your hand?" She asked with feigned civility.

He ignored her plea and instead, reached up with his with the hand not clasped against his bicep and seized the lapel of her lab coat, yanking her forward so abruptly that Sakura almost fell out of her chair.

"The name's Naruto," He cooed, breath ghosting against her cheek. "What's yours?"

Their sudden closeness, paired with his brazenness, disrespect, and the downright bizarreness of the entire situation, caused Sakura to flush in anger and mortification.

"Not interested!" She snapped, smacking his hand away. He jerked back and wobbled, unable to get a proper bearing on his balance. For safe measure, Sakura scooted her stool back a smidge.

She was suddenly all too aware of what Jiraiya meant when he said that his pupil became problematic under the influence of anesthetics.

The kid acted like a drunk lecher.

Just how, how, did she end up in these situations?

"I need to take a look at your injury to assess the damage," She explained through clenched teeth, unable to hide her mounting ire. "To do that, I need you to move your hand away. Can you do that, please?"

The blonde's foggy gaze slowly slid from Sakura's face, to where his left hand was gripping the opposite arm. With an excruciatingly robotic stiffness, his slender fingers lifted off the bandage one by one, allowing the sheet of gauze to fall to the floor with a wet 'plop.'

The slash was a thick, jagged laceration, blood now trickling from the wound without the bandage blocking its path. Luckily, whatever caused the injury hadn't torn through too much muscle tissue. Crouching down so she could further inspect the damage caused, Sakura pivoted her head from side to side, appraisingly examining the cut from different angles.

She stood from her chair with a click of her tongue. "That is definitely going to need stitches. Luckily for both of us, you're already sedated."

Sakura ventured towards the cabinets that hung on the opposite wall, rummaging through their contents to gather the supplies necessary to sutra the abrasion closed.

When she turned back around, objects procured, Sakura found the blonde – Naruto – staring down at her legs with appreciation, the skirt she had worn that day hiding nothing from her knees, down.

"Hey, buddy! Eyes up here!" The pinkette barked, shaking one of the metal clamps in his direction.

Naruto's head snapped up so quickly that it threw him even further off his already unstable equilibrium. The momentum propelled his upper body further backward, and he ungraciously slumped back into the pads of the examination chair.

"Woah…" He murmured, befuddled. "The room is spinning."

Emerald eyes rolled skyward, and Sakura released a dejected sigh, shoulders slumping.

"Just do me a favor," She muttered defeatedly. "Please stay there. Don't move. Don't sit up. Just stay."

Naruto released a small snort, awkwardly raising his left hand to give her thumbs-up.

The next few minutes passed with little interruption from the fair-haired menace. Sakura was able to reclaim her perch next to the table and start cleansing the wound. When she began to sew the laceration, shut, she had expected some sort of outburst on his part, but to her surprise, he didn't even flinch.

For an instant, Sakura thought he had fallen asleep, his breathing deep and even. She was proven wrong, however, when she glanced up from underneath her lashes and found sky-blue eyes trained directly on her face. There was something about the way he looked at her that made Sakura skittish, a queasy feeling fluttering in her stomach.

With a grumble, Sakura turned back to her task and only after another lull of silence passed between them did she finally gamble in asking, "Want to tell me how it happened?"

Naruto huffed dramatically before responding, "This is what happens when your caretaker is a pervert, you coach is a lazy piece of shit, and your best friend is a bastard."

Sakura paused in her stitching, looking up from his arm with a raised brow.

"Care...taker?" She repeated, slowly. "Coach?"

The blonde grunted in confirmation, theatrically waving his free hand in the air as he continued to explain. "I live with the old pervert. You know, the one with the crazy white hair and the insatiable need to hit on every woman that breathes?"

At Sakura's dumb nod, Naruto continued. "Jiraiya took me in after my parents died. He's a retired kendo fighter, and after a few years of training me, he noticed that I had a knack for different styles of martial arts. He reached out to the scarecrow with legs, the one outside with the prematurely gray hair and bam I now have a trainer and a coach."

Naruto tried to clap his hands together for emphasis, but Sakura's hold on his right arm kept him in place, preventing any further injury to his person and damage to her work.

Her mind was working a mile a minute, trying to make sense of all the knowledge that he had just graced her with, while also attempting to comprehend why he had told her such personal information.

Well, the morphine was most likely the cause for his loose lips, but then again, none of what he was telling her made any sense.

The one thing that did stick out, over everything else that he had rambled, was that he was a fighter. Emerald hues perused her client, giving a slow once over, honing in specifically on the scar-like whiskers that were hidden under the blotchy, bruised skin on his face.

Realization hit her swiftly, the force of it practically stealing the breath away.

"You're that guy that they're always talking about on the news!" She accused, shock written on her features. "The mix-martial artist!"

The pitch of her exclamation was too high for Naruto's liking, and he cringed, using his free hand to cover his left ear.

"…Pretty and loud…," He murmured under his breath before his hand fell back down to his side, resting limply on the cushion. "But, yeah, that would be me."

"But…but what are you doing here?!" She asked, still flabbergasted.

"Granny's my personal doctor," He explained as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. It took Sakura a second to realize that he was talking about her mentor, Tsunade. And suddenly, Sakura understood exactly what her boss was involved in.

Azure eyes regarded favorably, a smile – one which Sakura could only describe as predatory – pulling on his lips as he said, "Though, I wouldn't complain if you were going to take over that position."

At the waggle of his eyebrows, Sakura shot him a deadpan look. "Still not interested."

Turning back to her work, the pink-haired doctor found herself fighting down the childish urge to poke him unnecessarily with the needle.

"None of this explains why you're here," She spoke offhandedly.

She paused for a moment, shifting the forceps further down along the wound. When she was satisfied with the new grip, she continued with her assignment.

"It's all their fault really," Naruto affirmed. "The old man opened his mouth and hit on the wrong girl. The next thing I knew, the entire bar was after us." After a slight pause, he sulkily added, "Didn't help that neither Kakashi-sensei or Jiraiya just stood on the sidelines. Sasuke and I took most of the beating."

Sakura accepted his explanation, concluding that the two names she didn't recognize must have been the other men who had come to the hospital with Jiraiya. The room lapsed back into silence then, and it didn't take much longer for Sakura to finish sewing his injury closed.

After applying an antibacterial ointment around the sutras, the rosette placed a fresh gauze patch over the area, wrapping it securely in place with cotton bandages.

Relaxing now that her job was finished, Sakura pushed back from the examination chair, standing from her stool. Seeing that she had accomplished her task, Naruto sat up abruptly, wavering slightly with his sudden movement.

"Easy there, tiger," Sakura reprimanded, somewhat amused. "Don't go messing up my handiwork."

Naruto bobbed his head in acknowledgment, though he said nothing. Instead, his focus was directed toward the patchwork on his right arm, curling and uncurling his fist so that he could gauge the soreness in his muscles.

"Leave the current wrapping on for the next forty-eight hours. After that, you can change them daily. Make sure you put ointment on it every time you change the bandages. In about two weeks or so, you can come back, and Tsunade will take them out."

It seemed the blonde's lucidity still had yet to come back because all he did was stare at her absentmindedly, nodding his head every so often.

Blowing out a breath, Sakura brought her right hand up to rub her temple. "I'll have the nurse relay all this information to Jiraiya, and we'll make sure you get the supplies you need on your way out."

Straightening, she turned towards the door, offering a small wave "I would say that it was nice meeting you, but this has been the strangest encounter I have ever had with a patient. Next time, let's hope that they read your chart before administering any painkillers."

"Hey!" Naruto called out to her, causing the petite woman to stall her exit. "Go on a date with me!"

Sakura graced Naruto with a smile, one that was all pearl whites, before she turned back to the door, chuckling under her breath.

"Still not interested!"

Thank you, everyone, for reading!

word count: 4,843
last edited on: 03/24/18

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