Authors Note: Okay, so I uploaded the second chapter. I hope you guys enjoy this. Even thought it is Saturday, I have work in the morning so I will be working on my next chapter after work. Working in a chapel has it's downsides. Please read and review, I would like to hear everyone's thoughts on the story so far. Enjoy [:

Late Night and Early Mornings

I sighed as I drank my coffee. It was getting late and I knew that it would be a slow night. I hated night shift but loved it all at the same time. It was a good time to catch up on all of my work since it was a lot slower than the day shift, but it was also very boring at times and could be hazardous on my mental state. Staying up late so much tended to make me more irritable than usual with an even shorter temper.

Pulling out some records of some previous patients I began to look them over. Grabbing some candy out of the bowl I always kept on my desk, I began to snack on them.

It was a few moments later that I heard some creaking coming from the hospital hallway. Directing my eyes from my paper to the office door I waited. When there was no knock that came I grabbed a kunai from the top drawer of the desk and went to investigate.

My back against the wall I softly turned the knob and cracked the door open. Peeking through the crack I saw a shadow from around the corner and soft footsteps running down the hallway. Could it be one of the nurses doing a run? No. I thought to myself. If it were so they would have no need to be down near the area of my office.

Quickly I flung open the door and ran after sounds echoing through the hallway. Coming to three way stop I paused and tried to decide which way to go. Hearing commotion coming from down one end of the hall I snuck after them. I heard the noises getting louder and louder as I crept to a janitor's closet at the end of the hallway.

Kicking open the door I got in a fighting stance only to lay eyes upon familiar blood red hair. Kicking the door open startled her and she screamed and jumped to the other side of the closet.

"Karen?" I spoke out loud. "What the hell are you doing in here?"

Leaning her back against a shelf of supplies she let out a breath.

"Oh god. Sakura. You startled me." She let out a relieved laugh while fixing her glasses.

It was at this time we both noticed a shuffle from the box sitting near her feet. My confusion only rose more.

"What's in the box?" I asked slowly.

"This? Oh, a raccoon." She breathed out. "Damn thing must've crept in through the back door somehow because I caught it in the cafeteria, creeping through the kitchen."

Holding the box down with one hand I put my ear to the box. Inside I heard scrapes and shuffles.

"Huh."

"What do you suppose we do with it now?" She asked. "How do we get it back outside?"

Standing up I looked at her.

"Okay. This is what we'll do." I explained. "I'll lift up the box and you grab it really fast and that way I'll flip over the box and you can drop it back inside and close the top on it. Then we'll release it outside."

"You want me to grab that thing?" She shrieked. "Why don't you grab it instead?!"

Rolling my eyes I looked at her and she didn't say anything more. Laying my kunai on a shelf nearest me I leaned down to the box.

"Ready?" I asked. She bent over the box, waiting on me. "One. Two. Three."

I picked up the box and Karen flew like lightening and picked up the raccoon with a firm grip. Flinging over the box I set it upright.

"Drop it in! Drop it in!" I ordered.

Looking up I saw her scrambling with it, trying to hold it away from her face. It was twisting and turning, clawing at her face. She had resisted for a while but then it was only a matter of time before she started to scream as it clawed her face.

"Drop it in, Karen!" I yelled.

Scrambling around trying to avoid its claws she dropped it. I flew under it with the box and caught it, dropping it to the floor and folding the top over before it could escape.

Letting out a breath I looked at her. She was frozen still in shock. Her hair a mess, sticking up in all sorts of directions. Analyzing her face she had more than enough scratches on it. I got on my feet.

"Go to my office." I said. "I'll go let the raccoon out and I'll be right there to tend to your wounds. I won't be long."

Picking up the box I headed for a nearest back door to let it loose. Putting the box on its side and opening the top, it ran off without hesitation, into the darkness.

When I arrived at my office Karen was sitting in one of the seats in front of my desk. Hunkered over. I came up to her and put my hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" I asked her softly.

She looked at me through her hair and sniffled. After a curt nod I stood in front of her and lifted her chin towards me, taking in the view of her face. She had a few scratches on her cheeks and forehead, a cut that was right across her lip.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of it." I told her as I pushed the hair out of her face.

Walking around my desk I grabbed a brush I kept for emergencies. Walking behind her I brushed her hair and pulled it back in a ponytail.

"That thing was quite a handful wasn't it?" I asked.

She hummed in reply.

"Alright, close your eyes." I said.

She did as I asked and I put my palm over her cheek. I let the chakra flow from my palm and into her face, healing her cuts. I'm sure Karen was mad at me for having suggested that she grabbed it but I knew she would get over it in a couple of days. After all, if I really wanted to screw her over all I had to do was not heal her. I'm sure there were a couple of those cuts that would've scarred.

Once her cheek was healed I moved to her lips and healed her cut there. Afterwards I put my palm to her forehead, healing those as well. Once I was finished I removed my palm and took in her face. As good as new. It was as if nothing ever happened.

"Alright." I sighed. "You're good. Sorry about that. It was never my intention to hurt you."

"I know." She smirked and grabbed my hands. "Thank you."

Walking behind my desk I watched her stand up.

"You are welcome to stay if you wish." I offered. "I'm not doing anything but reviewing a few files."

"No, I'm fine." She smiled. "I have to get back to the runs."

"Mmkay." I said. "Let me know if you need anything."

She left and I was once again greeted by the silence of my office. Checking the time I saw that a good forty-five minutes have passed. Well, that was about as much excitement as I'll be getting tonight. I thought to myself before popping another candy into my mouth.


"Sakura."

Twitching I awoke with a startle. Looking up I saw a blurry picture of blonde hair. Something told me it was Tsunade. I was on my feet before I could blink.

"Hai." I said, ready for an order.

"I did not put you on night shift to fall asleep." She scolded.

Looking guilty I looked to the floor.

"Hai, Tsunade. I don't know what came over me."

Kicking myself I couldn't look her in the eye. I hated when I failed her and when I let her down. How had I managed to fall asleep? Chuckling she walked over to my desk.

"It's okay." She said. "I remember when I had to do night shift back in the day." She was looking out the window now. "It was torture."

"It isn't." I replied hardly. "I don't know what happened. I never should've fallen asleep."

She smiled at me as she came over now.

"Go get some rest, Sakura. I'll see you tomorrow night."

She waited for me to gather my stuff and we walked out the door together. I was so embarrassed. I had never let Tsunade see me in such a state. Flustering I looked at anywhere but her.

"Really, it's okay." She said as we walked down the hallway. "You never disappoint me, Sakura. You know you are like my daughter to me and you are my closest ally." She explained.

Smiling at her I wondered if that was what she really thought. I noticed that it had become extremely busy now. I was surprised it didn't even manage to wake me up as loud as it was. The hospital was always busy with commotion and I missed the day shift.

"I'll see you later Tsunade. I'm sorry for falling asleep."

Her grin was the last thing I saw before turning to leave out the front doors.

As I was walking down the street I knew that I had slept through the night when I shouldn't have. I would feel bad if I went home and slept some more when I did not deserve the sleep. Whenever I was at a moment of weakness as I was now I was never able to rest knowing that other people suffer more than I may ever do. What about the people who were on mission who have to work all through the night and day without a meal? I did not deserve to rest and sleep through the night. Especially when that was my duty shift.

Instead of heading home like I normally would have, I headed to Mrs. Minoto's house to help out. I knew they've been wanting their fence painted for a while now and I hadn't gotten around to it.

A couple of hours later I was crouching over paint cans, stirring them up. It was an odd voice that caught my attention.

"You volunteer?" He sounded confused.

I looked at his familiar silver hair and obsidian eye peeking out. Kakashi was someone I haven't seen in a while. I haven't even been on any missions with him since forever ago. I was surprised he even managed to stop by.

"Don't you?" I retorted. "Of course I volunteer. I do in fact work in the hospital. I help out in times of need. I like to help outside of the hospital as well."

He was silent, digesting what I had said. With him being my former sensei the teenager tendencies came back and silently I wondered if he was judging me; if to him I was doing something wrong.

Blowing the hair out of my face that the wind stirred up I bent down and picked up the paint can, moving it a few steps over so I could start painting the bare slits. Kakashi still had yet to say anything although he was still hanging around. Why was he even here in the first place?

"So uhm…" When did talking to him become so hard? "Are you wanting to help out or something?"

"Me?" He scoffed. "No thanks. Not my scene." As he said this he moved to walk off.

That was until Minoto's children showed up.

Minoto's children were hard for even me to handle. There were four of them and they all seemed to have endless energy that never subsided. Energy that seemed to just suck out of everyone and anything around them. The first three were around the same ages. All a year in length. They were the cutest kids. Akio and Nobu; blond hair, green eyes. While Riko was more of a brownish color with blue eyes. Leaving Takeshi to be the cutest of all. He was 4. And annoying as hell. He never could be apart from you no matter where you were going; he hated to be alone. Although this was very much true about him, he was also very quiet. He had the biggest and brightest green eyes with the darkest hair. He was so cute you couldn't stay mad at him, even if he was driving you insane by begging for your attention.

Laughing they all bombarded him, grabbing onto his leg.

"Mr.!" Akio said while grabbing onto his left leg. "Are you helping out with Sakura in painting the fence?" He questioned.

"Yea! Help her!" Nobu had said backing his brother up while latching onto the other leg.

Kakashi looked like he didn't know what to do. He looked like he had never been more uncomfortable in his life. I laughed silently to myself as I took in the appearance. I doubt Kakashi had been engulfed in so many children before. I never took him as the father type.

Riko and Takashi followed up the rear. Only instead of running to Kakashi they ran to me.

"Sakura, are you helping father paint the fence?!" Riko asked me.

"Yes, I am." I smiled while dipping the paint brush in for more paint and slapping it against the wooden fence.

Takeshi ran up to me, sticking his fingers in the paint while I wasn't watching. I happened to notice when I turned around to dip more paint on my brush.

"Takeshi." I scolded. "I don't think your mother would like that very much if she knew you were dipping your fingers in paint."

Giggling he ignored me and continued to paint a smiley face on the fence along with some other symbols.

Turning back around to finish painting the wooden piece I was on, I looked for Kakashi. He had actually ended up grabbing a paint brush and began to help paint the fence. It seemed he was having a bit of harder time than I was though with Akio and Nobu over there giving him a hard time. I saw him trying to paint neatly on the wooden stakes but every time he painted a neat line, Akio and Nobu would stick their fingers in it and claw down the wooden slat, ruining it all.

Secretly, I was glad that they had picked him as his victim instead of me.

"Regretting your decision to talk to me yet?" I asked.

He looked at me from the other side of the fence.

"I don't know if talking to you is ever a good idea." He said.

This made me frown with my eyebrows furrowing. What did he mean by that? What was he talking about? I thought to myself. Should I take offense to this? I had never brought any embarrassment or pain towards Kakashi. Every mission we had ever followed through with, I was there, I was there along with him to complete it. Maybe I was being sensitive but it hurt in more places than one when he said that. I decided I would save it for another time to ask him.

We worked hand in hand with the little kids. Me willingly but him not so much as the kids continued to give him a hard time.

When we finished the last the slit of wood and there were no more spots to paint, we threw our paint brushes in the bucket.

"Well…" I began. "Thanks for helping. Even if you were forced rather than talked into." I said with a laugh.

He looked at me. I don't know what kind of message he was trying to send, I just knew he was trying to say something to me. He sighed.

"Yea. It's been one hell of day." He said. "I'll see you around, Sakura."

He said this as he walked away. As he waved half-heartedly with his hand. Sakura watched his retreating figure walk away into the sunset. As he walked and disappeared. What a weird day it was. I thought to myself. As the kids rushed up to me and engulfed me in laughter, I picked them all up and spun them around, walking them to the house for supper. Mr. and Mrs. Minoto would almost be done with supper by now.