(Act 1 – Clock Watching)

"The time is so friggin' slow…" Sakura looked at the clock mounted on the wall in front of her. She was seated on a chair, slouching over at her desk as she lazily watched the hands of the clock tick.

She banged her head gently on the desk in front of her, "This damn job makes me feel dizzy."

Haruno Sakura has matured into a fine young woman and an exceptional and known medic. She was 23 years old… and she had been turning down her countless suitors. Yes, she was still single. For some reason, she didn't want to be engaged in a relationship, yet. She was slightly becoming a man-hater after her last encounter with him 8 years ago. The only men she won't hate are those who were close to her, but those strangers who claim that they wanted to live the rest of their lives with her… she hated them… for the very exact reason, nobody knows, not even she knows. It's just by instinct that she would hate them.

She has been wearing a white sleeveless shirt, covered by a jacket much like that of Tsunade's, the only difference is that the color of her jacket is red and instead of having the word 'gamble' on her back, she has the usual symbol for the Haruno family – the white circle. She was also wearing a pair of pants similar to Tsunade's and the pair of heels, similar to that of Shizune's and Tsunade's. She also had a medic nin's hat on her head. Her hair returned to its long state.

Sasuke has been missing for almost 10 years now. Team 7 was reunited, and then reformed almost 8 years ago. They were able to attain a new team leader named Yamato, to substitute Kakashi, and a replacement for Sasuke named Sai.

When the new Team 7 was in the Grass Country, they planned on dragging him back to Konoha. They encountered with Orochimaru, Kabuto and of course, Sasuke. But too bad, they were all lured into a trap so that these three could flee far away into the unknown.

And now, here they are. Naruto was going to be Rokudaime soon. His inauguration will be within this week. Kakashi will soon retire from his job as a jounin and he will be promoted as one of Naruto's advisors. Yamato was going to retire from the ANBU Headquarters as well, and he was going to be one of Naruto's advisors afterwards, too. And Sai? He is still an ANBU… and yes, he still calls Naruto dickless and Sakura ugly.

They still didn't give up on bringing Sasuke back to Konoha – all of them. Except… Well, except her. She lost all hopes on having Sasuke back to Konoha. Kakashi, Yamato, Naruto and Sai told her they'll bring him back this time for sure. Call her unfaithful, she didn't mind. She wouldn't hope for nothing to come back. Uchiha Sasuke coming back to Konoha was just plain nonsense, just another flight of the imagination for Haruno Sakura… TOO IMPOSSIBLE, she believed.

She didn't want to waste her efforts and go with them, as she believed they will return to Konoha wounded and unsuccessful. It's been a month since they left and they still haven't returned.

"How's Naruto gonna be Hokage if he doesn't return to Konoha?" Sakura yawned as she listened to the tick-tock of the clock, "I already told him… It was too useless."

"Do you think your job sucks that much?" Ino walked towards the hospital desk.

"Visiting hours is over." Sakura pointed to the clock on the wall, "It's already 10:27 in the evening. If you would like to be informed, visiting hours is from 8:00 A.M. to 11:30 A.M, and then at 1:30 P.M. to 9:30 P.M. Sorry for the inconvenience, but you can return tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Wow, you sound so much like a pretty good answering machine. If you were one, I could've bought you and blocked off the calls in the flower shop!" Ino smiled, "Well, I'm just here to have a chat with you. Don't you feel so lonely being alone here in the reception desk?"

"The only thing I can do here is watch the stupid clock." Sakura rubbed the sleep off her eyes, "Now I know what it's like when seconds turn into minutes, minutes turn into hours, hours into days, and days into years."

Ino frowned at Sakura's remarks, "Then why didn't you just go with them instead of watching the time fly?"

The emerald-eyed medic sighed as she sat straight, "I'm sure they won't be able to convince his stubborn Uchiha butt to return to Konoha after almost 10 years. Ino, roughly 8 years ago, we tried to convince him and we all ended up injured, and we returned to Konoha empty-handed. What more 8 years after that? I could remember that event clearly. He had just been away from Konoha for 2 ½ years, and he roughly remembered us. If for 2 ½ years, he almost forgot about us already, what more 8 years after? It's just…" Sakura sighed and tapped her fingers on her desk, "It's just pointless… It's just stupid!"

"You do have a point." Ino sighed, "But even for the slightest possibility, won't you hope?"

"I'm tired of hoping." Sakura shrugged, "Hoping leads to nothing after all… Through the years, I hoped and nothing happened. It's not like my hopes can bring him back… We're already shedding our blood just for him to come back and still, nothing!"

Ino took a seat beside Sakura, "How's life as a great medic nin like the Hokage?"

"Sucks." Sakura rubbed her temples, "I can save people, now that's great. But waiting like this to save people, it really, really, sucks."

"Then why don't you go as a missionary?"

"Like Tsunade-sama would even allow me."

"Why not?"

"Konoha doesn't have that much medic nins." Sakura responded, "If I leave, that's gonna be hard."

"Just say you're becoming lazy." Ino chuckled, "Just like my stupid fiancé."

"At least I'm not gaining weight." Sakura smiled, "Even if my job sucks sometimes, I think everything's better this way."

"HURRY! GET MORE MEDIC NINS!" a shout from the outside boomed as the hospital doors flew open.

Shizune and Tsunade came running alongside the jounins carrying 5 people on stretchers. Around five medic nins tailed behind Shizune and Tsunade.

Sakura stood up and when she did… she saw the least person she expected… Her eyes narrowed and her whole body trembled as she saw the bloody body of…

"Sasuke…?" she muttered.

Ino just heard what her best friend said and stood up to see for herself. Even she was shocked.

"Sakura, hurry up! Get here!" Shizune called as the emergency team entered a room.

The next day…

Sakura sighed as she washed the blood off her arms and her hands. There were bloodstains on her shirt and jacket too. She looked at her weary face on the mirror in front of her. She splashed water on her face, so as to remove the splash and smear of a patient's blood on her face, mixed with her own sweat.

She was so exhausted. She helped in healing 5 critically injured people: Hatake Kakashi, Uzumaki Naruto, Yamato, Sai and… Uchiha Sasuke.

Sasuke had been beaten and injured far more than those four. His condition was so bad that Tsunade and Sakura have to team up to get him healed.

Sakura splashed water on the mirror, hating the smell of blood on her… the smell of his blood. The fact that it was his blood that she just washed off and it was his blood that has stained her pristine white shirt.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

Sakura looked at the wall, there was another clock there. She just sighed and she got out of the bathroom.

"You look beat." A nurse told Sakura who had been passing by, "Did you get enough sleep?"

Sakura shook her head, "I've been working."

The nurse noticed the blood on Sakura's clothes, "You better go home. You still have work later in the afternoon, right, Sakura-san?"

Sakura nodded, "Right."

And walking slowly due to exhaustion, she made her way back home.

After a quick bath, Sakura sat on her bed and stared at the clothes stained with his blood on the floor. She picked up the white shirt and looked at the blood. She winced at the thought.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

The only noises that can be heard in her room were her faint breathing and the ticking of the wall clock. She stared at the clock, trying to bore a hole at it, which is seemingly impossible.

She sighed as she dropped her shirt on the floor and prepared to sleep. She stared at the ceiling and sighed yet again.

She thought he would never come back, and yet, her teammates proved her wrong. They brought him back this time. And the very evidence was his blood on her shirt. She felt disappointed with herself… why didn't she hope this time? If so, she would feel a little happier. But no, because she didn't believe he'll return to Konoha, and now that he did… his blood on her skin and on her shirt slapped her back to reality.

Why did she feel so bad?

She should feel great! She didn't hope for him to return, and now he's back! Unlike those times, she would hope day after day for him to return and he hadn't.

It was because she didn't believe in her teammate's nagging about bringing him back home, perhaps. She was the only one who didn't believe anymore. It was like a dream, far too impossible to happen. And now, the dream turned into a living nightmare, because it happened.

--- FLASHBACK ---

"Are you kidding me!" Sakura shouted at Naruto, "Naruto, grow up! It's been 8 years since we tried that! And we failed miserably! Back then, he was only away from us for 2 ½ years, now that he's been away from us for almost 10 years, what makes you think you can bring him back! 10 years Naruto, do you know how long it has been already!"

"Sakura-chan, c'mon, don't be so pessimistic! We can bring him back!" Naruto shyly grinned.

"Naruto, you will be inaugurated a month from now!" Sakura shook Naruto's shoulders, "You have to prepare! You're going to be Rokudaime-"

"And I won't take the title not unless I fulfill my one mission." Naruto interrupted and glared at Sakura seriously, "I made a promise to you right? I made a promise to you, when we were still genins, have you forgotten about that one?"

"Forget about the promise you left to me back then, Naruto!" Sakura's tears starts forming now, "I don't care anymore! He's already a traitor like his brother, so why not leave him alone! Naruto, forget about Sasuke! Think that he never exists; please think that we never knew him! Naruto!"

Yes, it has been quite a long time now since Sakura had removed the suffix –kun in Sasuke's name.

"Sakura-chan, I promised to you that I'd bring Sasuke-teme back to Konoha." The blonde smiled at his teammate, "And unless I fulfill that promise, I won't be Hokage."

"Naruto, if you won't be Hokage, then who would be!" Sakura's tears rolled down her cheeks, "Your dream is to be a Hokage, right? This is it! A month from now, all those years of hardships, all those times of hard work, they will be all worth it! You're going to be Hokage because you're fit for the title! Listen to me!"

"Don't worry about me, Sakura-chan. I promise I'll fulfill my mission this time for sure. I'll bring with me Kakashi-sensei, Yamato-taichou and Sai. Won't you go with us, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura stepped back, her bangs cascaded on her eyes, shadowing them. She shook her head, "You'll just fail to bring him back again."

"Have you given up already?" Naruto said, obviously disappointed at the woman in front of him.

"I have given up all hopes of his return long ago… and you know that!" Sakura faked a smile, "Why should I hope again when it's useless already? I'm sure; time has erased his memories of us."

"Then I'll make him remember us." Naruto reached out his hand to Sakura, "Come with us."

Sakura blinked when she saw Naruto's hand. She sighed and shook her head, "Stop being stubborn, Naruto. This is nonsense. Just stay here and don't go looking for that traitor. Everything's fine without him already."

Taking that as a 'no', Naruto withdrew his hand and sighed.

"I'll prove you wrong, Sakura-chan." Naruto grinned, "I can bring back Sasuke-teme! And that's a Hokage's promise!"

--- END OF FLASHBACK ---

"Good afternoon, Sakura-san." The nurse at the receiving desk bowed at the pink-haired medic nin.

"Good afternoon," Sakura smiled at the nurse, "how's everything?"

"Everything's fine, Sakura-san." The nurse replied, "Weren't you here this morning?"

"Yes, I was." Sakura signed a login paper, "But I'm still on an afternoon 'til midnight shift, so I still have to be on duty no matter what."

Sakura looked around the hospital and sighed, "How come there are a lot of people lately?"

"Err… Sakura-san, we're in a hospital, so it's natural that-"

"I know that!" Sakura chuckled a bit, "What I'm trying to say is… there are more people here today than the usual."

"They've been visiting the upcoming Rokudaime in his room." The nurse smiled, "He just woke up this noon."

"Did you feed him?"

"Uhm… there's still the glucose bag connected on his arm, so there's no need to feed him, right?" the nurse sweatdropped.

The nurse gave Sakura a clipboard, a stopwatch, a stethoscope, and a pen. Sakura took them and said, "I'll be doing my rounds now. Meanwhile, go to the Ichiraku stand and buy 4 bowls of extra large beef ramen."

The nurse's eyes widened while Sakura draped the stethoscope around her neck, "FOUR… BOWLS…?"

"Do you want me to double the number?" Sakura placed a hand on her hips, "Afterwards, give them to Naruto, so that he could eat. Remove the glucose bag and feed him real food regularly… I'll pay you later."

"B-But, Sakura-san!" the nurse tried to complain but too bad, Sakura had walked away already.

TBC…
--- --- --- --- ---
While doing her duties, a memory slaps Sakura in the face. And every now and then, that particular memory torments her.

Act 2: Hope Scars

"Sakura, what were you thinking! You almost killed him!"
-Tsunade

A/N: This multi-chaptered fic was created from a splitting idea from my fics Haunted and Homebound. This was also the ideas that popped into mind after reading Chapter 308 and 309 of the manga. So pretty much, this is the merged results of the splitting ideas of Haunted and Homebound.

Please tell me what you think through your reviews!

Thank you!

+Releina Artemis+