Unfaithful Chapter 2: Hope Scars, a naruto fanfic

(Act 2 – Hope Scars)

Sakura twirled her finger with her hair as she walked around the hallways of the hospital, reading the assignments on her clipboard.

First stop – checkup on Kakashi.

Sakura slid open the door to Kakashi's room.

"Hey there Sakura!" Kakashi greeted, seated up already.

Sakura sighed, "Kakashi-sensei, you're up already? Too bad, because if you were still asleep, I could see you without your mask! When I operated you last night, we didn't take your mask off. When the other medics cleaned you up, as far as I know, they took off your mask!"

Kakashi laughed under his mask, "So you operated on me? Gee, I sure did wish you didn't do anything-"

"Kakashi-sensei, you seriously have to stop reading that perverted book of yours. I didn't do anything perverted on you because I'm not that type of person." Sakura had an eye twitching already, as she immediately cut off Kakashi from saying she did something perverted, which in truth, she did not.

The silver-haired jounin snickered at the jade-eyed medic as she walked nearer to him.

"Okay, I'm going to do a checkup on you, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura said as she pressed her two fingers near his throat, "Right now, I'm going to check on your heartbeat rate, so just breathe deep and relax."

Kakashi did as he was told and Sakura set the stopwatch to 60 seconds and started counting the jounin's heartbeat.

When she was done, she wore the stethoscope and said, "And now I'm going to listen to your heartbeats."

"You might fall in love with me just by listening to my heart!" Kakashi joked.

Sakura's eyes twitched yet again, "With you? HELL NO!"

Sakura placed the other end of the stethoscope on Kakashi's chest and instructed, "Breathe in, breathe out… Breathe in, breathe out…"

She removed the stethoscope and sighed, "You're doing well."

She wrote down her observations on her clipboard, "You will be released by tomorrow or the day after. It depends if your wounds are good already, then you'll leave tomorrow. If we think you still need to rest here, then maybe you'll be released the day after tomorrow. I'll be leaving now. I still have more to do."

Sakura turned on her heel but Kakashi said, "Wait, Sakura."

"Yes?" Sakura replied, without turning her head, "Do you need anything, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi looked weary and he stared at Sakura's back. He diverted his gaze from her and sighed, "None. You may leave now. Thanks for everything."

"No problem, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura replied and left the room.

While she was walking in the hallways, a sudden memory struck her:

--- FLASHBACK ---

"I'll kill him now, while he's defenseless… after all, he almost killed Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, Yamato-taichou, and Sai! It was his fault that those guys pushed themselves just to drag him here! I'll end his life, as revenge for the things he has done, especially to me!"Sakura thought to herself as she was with Tsunade and other medic ninjas trying to heal a critically injured Uchiha Sasuke.

Sakura was dazed from all the thinking. She wasn't at all focused on operating this bloody man struggling in between life and death in front of her. Her healing chakra started to become a cutting chakra… her thoughts had completely overwhelmed her.

Blood spurted on her face, on her clothes and on her already bloody hands. The blood belonged to Uchiha Sasuke.

"Sakura, what are you doing! We're trying to heal his muscles! You just cut an artery! Focus your chakra right!" Tsunade slapped away Sakura's hands as she moved over to the said cut artery and healed it herself.

Sakura was brought back to all her senses as she just realized what she had done – she had just cut a major artery, instead of healing the muscles surrounding and near that artery.

"Tsunade-sama, he's losing a lot of blood!" Shizune panicked as she helped Tsunade heal the cut artery.

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

--- END OF FLASHBACK ---

Sakura stopped walking and her eyes narrowed. She unconsciously ran a hand on her cheek were Sasuke's blood used to be in that memory.

Yes, what was she thinking back then?

"As a medic nin, my obligation is to save lives. As a medic nin, I have the power to take away a patient's life. But as a medic nin, I am known to save lives. I can only take lives when I absolutely have to." Sakura remembered the medic nin code taught to her by Tsunade.

She could only take away the life of a person when she absolutely has to. But in that situation, the scene that had just flashed in her mind… was it a necessity that she had to kill him? The most primary reason for her doing it is because he had hurt her emotionally. But really, is that a good enough reason to kill him?

Is it because he seriously injured Kakashi, Yamato, Sai and Naruto? And now, he has to pay the equal price of putting 4 lives in danger?

Wait a minute, even he was seriously injured! He was far more seriously injured – he was seriously, seriously, more injured than the others.

And else, didn't those four want to bring him back? They volunteered to do the mission when Tsunade didn't command them to do so. If so, they didn't need to retrieve Uchiha Sasuke, they want to retrieve him.

And being an adult that she is right now, she should know the differences between want and need.

"Sakura-san?" a fellow medic nin, who was doing rounds as well, called, "Sakura-san, are you okay?"

Sakura snapped out of her reveries and faked a smile, "Oh yes, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" the medic nin asked.

"Yes." She nodded, "Thanks for the concern."

And so, they went their separate ways so as to do the duties assigned to them.

Sakura stared at her clipboard. The next task was…

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the list of assignments on her clipboard.

Her next duty is to do a checkup on Uchiha Sasuke. The very same person she almost killed last night. She started walking and prayed that he was still asleep.

She now stood before the door that will lead her inside the Uchiha's room. Her heart was pounding fast and hard in her chest. A bead of sweat from her temple rolled down until it reached the tip of her chin; she wiped it away with the back of her hand and sighed. She placed her hand on the handle of the door and slowly slid it open. She observed the man on the bed – his eyes were shut tight, and his breathing tells her he's asleep. She noticed the countless bandages on his body.

She silently sighed again and stepped inside the chilly room, closing the door behind her quietly.

She walked towards the window, her footsteps feather light so as not to make any sounds. The sun's rays were illuminating the room and the sleeping man. She placed her hands on the dark blue curtains and she fisted her trembling hands in it.

"Sakura, what were you thinking! You almost killed him!" Tsunade's words echoed in her mind.

She gnashed her teeth and her fists loosened as she shoved the curtains to cover the windows.

She now stood beside the only known heir to the Uchiha Clan. She placed her two fingers near his throat and set the stopwatch to 60 seconds.

"Sakura, what are you doing! We're trying to heal his muscles! You just cut an artery! Focus your chakra right!" Tsunade's scolding disturbed her.

Her eyes narrowed and she quickly withdrew her hand from the lad. She stopped the timer of the stopwatch and reset it. Sakura placed a hand on her face and closed her eyes, trying to put all her pieces together.

"I can't do this." Sakura thought as she opened her eyes and looked at the man in front of her.

Blood spurted on her face, on her clothes and on her already bloody hands. The blood belonged to Uchiha Sasuke.

Her eyes narrowed even more and she took a step backward. She placed a hand on her cheek and placed it in front of her just to see her palm. There was blood on it. Her whole body trembled and she blinked. She looked at her palm and saw that the blood was gone. She has been hallucinating.

She bit her lips and shoved open the door. Before she could step out, she heard: "Coward."

Her eyes trembled at the voice of the Uchiha. She closed her eyes and finally got out.

She ran back towards the receiving desk and she asked the nurse, "Who's going to do the checkups for Sai, Yamato-taichou and Naruto?"

The nurse looked at the login book and replied, "That's going to be Maya, a medic nin… Oh here she is now."

Sakura turned around and saw a medic nin in uniform reporting on the other side of the receiving desk. She had just arrived from the hospital and she's signing in on the login book.

"Hi, you're Maya?" Sakura smiled sweetly at the medic.

"Ah yes, Sakura-san." Maya replied, "Can I help you?"

"Yes, you can." Sakura inched closer and whispered, "Look, can we switch assignments for today?"

"But that's against the-" Maya was cut off when she noticed the deadly glare in Sakura's eyes.

"It's only against the rules if a medic nin swaps assignments with a nurse or vice versa. If a medic nin swaps assignments with a fellow medic nin, then it's okay." Sakura reassuringly said, "Remember the Medic Nin Codes? It's on Code 64 of the Konoha Hospital Handbook."

Maya didn't look like the reader or keep-in-mind-this-and-that type, so she had no choice but to listen to Sakura. Anyway, Sakura is one of the best, right? So she knows better!

Maya nodded and gave her clipboard to Sakura. Sakura smiled and gave Maya her clipboard, "Thanks."

"Coward." The voice of Sasuke echoed through her ears.

She faked a smile as she walked in the hallways of the hospital.

"I guess… I really am." She thought.

TBC…
--- --- --- --- ---
Sakura successfully changed her course of assignment for the day. She stopped to see her patients: Yamato, Sai and Naruto. She was able to have a good chat with Yamato and Naruto. However, that night, she didn't feel too comfortable with her job… someone was awake when they should be sleeping.

Act 3: Amidst the Pain

"Aren't you happy to see Sasuke-teme?"
-Uzumaki Naruto

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+Releina Artemis+