Hello everyone! I first want to apologize for not updating this at all, I'm going to try and update once a month from now on, because I've found time in my schedule to do so. Also, I'm working on chapter four now, so you can expect another update as soon as I finish editing chapter three... Thanks to all of you who reviewed, I never thought that just my first chapter would get so many! And also, thanks to all of you who alert-ed or fave'd this story! All those emails in my inbox really make my day! I hope you all enjoy this chapter! –Ori
Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing.
Chapter Two
It was 3:37 a.m when the pounding on her door began and she sat bolt upright in bed, her neck cricking with the speed at which she looked at her alarm clock. At first she thought that perhaps she was imagining it, the incessant knocking. Then, when she realized she was not in fact hallucinating she thought it was Naruto or Sasuke, perhaps even Kakashi, and that maybe they had come back after a mission seeking medical attention. But then she remembered they were currently in the village. She scowled to herself in confusion. Who the hell wanted her at three in the morning? She fell back onto her pillows and lay in her twin sized bed for a moment, trying to process that she did in fact need to get out of bed. She looked to her left where her window was, it's glass panes surrounded by white linen curtains were spattered with water, more appearing and running rivulets downward. She finally pushed her peach comforter off and got to her feet.
…..
At 3: 39 am she greeted a soaking wet chuunin at her apartment door, while wearing one of Naruto's old, oversized orange tee-shirts, a pair of Kakashi's old, blue, baggy and very comfortable sweats, and a much used, overlarge pair of Sasuke's socks.
Sakura ignored the young boy's stammering as he saw her in her nightclothes; at least she wasn't dressed in a negligee for kami's sake she thought as she yanked a scroll addressed to her by Tsunade free from his grasp. She undid it with a professional snap and read it at a speed that would put a sharingan user to shame.
She promptly slammed the door in the poor chuunin's face, leaving him to puzzle and scratch his head, wondering if he should try to knock again…. He was spared from having to do so as suddenly he was nearly thrown back with the force at which the door was opened. A somewhat presentable bubblegum haired jonin-ranked medic nin in standard issue uniform, olive vest and all, stood in place of the tousled girl that had been dressed in overly voluminous sleepwear not a minute before.
Then the hapless boy was pushed aside as she locked up her apartment door and dashed down the hallway and threw herself over the second floor railing only to hit the ground below with the grace of a cat and tear off into the pouring rain.
…..
Sakura's black boots sloshed in the mud as she came to a sliding halt at the doors of Konoha's hospital. She forcefully moved forward, the suction of the mud threatening to pull her boots from her feet as she dashed to and up the cement steps and threw open one of the main doors, ignoring the surprised shouts of the intern medics who were taking their breaks during the wee hours of the morning in the waiting area to her immediate right.
Sakura tramped over to the sign in station and went around the desk to the back area. The secretary looked traumatized as the soaked and muddy pink haired woman stomped into her tidy area and rooted through her things until she emerged with the sign in board and a mission roster that was supposed to be classified, but the secretary was too scared to say so as the filthy woman in front of her was glaring death at everything and wordlessly daring anyone to challenge her.
Sakura turned on heel when she had the document shoving it into her left vest pocket as she went back around the desk and ran through the waiting room again and directly across to the stairwell, and dashed up it, taking two steps at a time.
Sakura narrowly avoided the three civilians who were traversing them in the ascending direction as well.
She could have sworn she heard someone call out to her as she bolted past, but she did not answer and she sped all the way up to level three: the critical condition, operation and top secret ward.
She found the room from the scroll the chuunin had brought, C-27, outside was posted an 'authorized personnel only' notice and she went in without bothering to knock. It was a surgery room, technically two rooms, separated by another set of doors into the room where the actual surgery took place. The room she was in now was intended for scrubbing in. which Sakura did in less than three minutes.
…..
Tsunade looked up at her former student as Sakura came in, and felt relieved. It was just in time, her chakra was not going to be enough for this.
"Poison extraction." Sakura stated, it was not a question. She performed the necessary hand signs for the jutsu she had learned from Tsunade when she was fourteen, and perfected in Suna when she was fifteen.
With precise chakra control and completely sterile water Sakura began extracting the poison from the man under her and Tsunade's care.
The poison was unlike anything she had seen thus far in her life, more complex than even the one Sasori of the Red Sands had created. She told this to Tsunade.
"I agree, it's very different." Tsunade replied taking the other side of the man and doing her own extraction of the foul substance, her load had lightened considerably since Sakura had shown up.
"Its properties?" Sakura inquired, not looking up and her pale pink brows furrowing in concentration as she focused on a particularly dense patch of the exceptionally nasty stuff.
"It disrupts chakra pathways." Tsunade replied as she removed a coin-sized amount from the man's torso. "It paralyzes slowly and eats away what chakra reserves a person has left; it also doesn't allow wounds to clot properly." Tsunade continued, looking up at Sakura as the younger woman seemed to absorb the information.
Sakura chewed this over for a few moments as she continued the steady flow of green healing chakra from her palms and focused the water into a tool for extraction.
"So they would bleed out or die of chakra loss, unable to move." Sakura stated, "how do you know all this, how long has he been like this?" she asked referring to the patient.
"He was on the border of the country, around rendezvous point six; his team brought him in half an hour ago. It took the other operatives in the team six hours to get him here. Before then, when this operative was poisoned he was out of contact with the main team for two hours, on a doubles mission with the Captain. When this one was returned to them at the rendezvous point, he was slung over the captain's shoulder, and then the captain must have keeled over and the others had the sense to bring them both straight here." Shizune's voice nearly made Sakura jump out of her skin when she answered the question; how she had not sensed the other medic was beyond her at the moment, best to contemplate that later.
"You talked to the team?" Tsunade inquired replacing the old bowl of water she had with a fresh one as it ran dry.
"Hai, just now. But only for a few moments before they had to return to HQ to write up a formal report for you to read later today." Shizune replied raising an eyebrow at the man on the operating table whose mask was still on. "They said they left a preliminary report with the secretary downstairs, but she said Sakura came and got it."
"I did," Sakura affirmed, "it's in my left pocket."
Shizune maneuvered carefully as to not jostle the other medic and disrupt the delicate jutsu and extracted the report from the other woman's pocket and unfurled it, she then paused a moment, "Ano, Tunade-sama, are you going to leave this operative's mask on during the entire operation?" Shizune questioned Tsunade motioning with the report she held at the prone form, "can he even breathe right now?"
"His lungs are working fine, at the moment, Shizune." Tsunade replied a bit tersely as she went to extract more of the debilitating poison.
"Who is he, out of curiosity Shizune?" Sakura pressed the older medic Nin, looking up seriously for the first time in twenty minutes.
"Uchiha Shisui." Shizune told her, "He and Uchiha Itachi were the two that broke away from the main team on a different assignment. If it were not for Itachi getting in and pulling both himself and Shisui out of there, they would both be dead right now" Shizune explained, "Itachi's strength gave out soon after he reached point six, and he collapsed. Luckily he was not as badly poisoned as Shisui so the other medics can handle his poisoning. The worst thing for him when he wakes up is going to be that he'll feel a bit weak for a while, and he'll have some nasty scrapes and bruises, not to mention that his ribs will be tender as they were broken; but other than that he'll be fine." Shizune replaced Sakura's water with a fresh bowl and removed Shisui mask as she finished her explanation.
Sakura nodded as she finished removing the last of the poison, noting that Shisui was still bleeding it would take a moment for his body to begin registering that it could clot again.
She did not hang around for that to happen, as she immediately began sealing his wounds with her warm green chakra.
As she did this she burned out a potential infection. Tsunade was not far behind as she took care of the other side.
When it came down to it, between herself and Tsunade it took only another hour to finish healing Shisui.
When they completed it, Sakura waited around for Shizune to call in some interns to move the Uchiha to the recovery ward.
When they had come and gone Sakura discarded the once sterile medical apron and mask now covered in blood in a bin marked for the disposal of them in the corner. She then washed down her hands and arms.
Tsunade did the same, and watched her former student out of the corner of her eye, as usual Sakura was thinking deeply about something. When her old pupil did voice her thoughts, it caught her off guard upon walking out into the white, tiled, beige walled hallway at five- something in the morning.
"That poison wasn't like anything I've see before…." Sakura said slowly as she thought through her words. "You said you haven't seen anything like it before too, shishou." She looked over at Tsunade somewhat expectantly and the female sannin could see the gears turning rapidly in the pink haired woman's head.
"If you haven't ever seen that poison before, and it was so deadly, shouldn't we study it and attempt to track down the maker? It could be bad for more of our own shinobi or our allies." Sakura finished squarely, looking the older woman in the eyes.
"I had Shizune save a sample of the poison." Tsunade told the petite girl tiredly, as she rubbed her forehead with the back of a hand, in a show of exhaustion and exasperation at her current conundrum. "I'm going to have an assignment drawn up for you, regarding the poison Sakura." The Hokage announced after a moment of quiet between the two.
Sakura nodded, "I'll need to know where the Uchihas were and who they encountered when they split off from the main team to fulfill their assignment."
"You have my permission to roust the first one of those two that wakes up, and in the meantime you have complete clearance for the files in the ANBU Headquarters related to their mission. If you find anything interesting, come to me first and I'll see what I can do to get you more permanent clearance... as long as the council doesn't hear about this you should be able to access most things freely anyway." Tsunade said looking a bit dark as she thought, her honey eyes gazing over Sakura's head and boring into the wall.
Sakura accepted this response tiredly, wondering silently if she herself was some kind of a glutton for punishment, adding this mission to her already heaping pile of work…"I'll start as soon as possible shishou."
Tsunade cracked a trite smile, "don't forget that you have two classes to teach today, Sakura." The older woman reminded the younger medic.
Sakura ran a petite hand through her hair and let out a sigh of something nearing vexation and simply nodded. Tsunade patted Sakura on her already mussed hair and proceeded to walk away, no doubt to drink some sake' and fall asleep on her desk.
Sakura felt a slight pang of envy at the thought, kami she could use some sleep and a really long shower.
She was weighing the merits of extra sleep and no shower or sleep and shower when a familiar voice cut into her thoughts abruptly and killed both dreams instantly.
"Sakura, you ignored me earlier."
She turned to see her dark haired team mate striding up to her with his parents in tow a few feet behind him.
"Good morning, Sasuke." Sakura greeted, looking rather worn out and unenthusiastic.
He scowled and Sakura felt confused for a moment, and then it dawned on her that she passed him on the stairs at three forty a.m. that morning…. He actually expected her to be paying attention to him when she was summoned for an emergency surgery? How asinine.
She quirked a slender pink eyebrow in annoyance at him, " how silly of me, " she replied with irritation, "I thought that you wouldn't mind my attention being elsewhere, seeing as it was your cousin that I was yanked in here to perform surgery on."
Sasuke blinked at this, and dipped his head in a somewhat unvoiced apology, "I'm just worried…." He mumbled to her.
Sakura sighed at that and let go of her terseness with her old team mate. "Shisui's fine, he pulled through amazingly well, and I was about to go and take a nap in the break room, but… seeing as you're here, I might as well go and check on your brother." She finished.
Sasuke's head jerked to meet her emerald gaze;" really?" he asked quietly, "I would really appreciate that, Sakura."
She inclined her head wearily and motioned for him to follow her. The leading Uchiha family tagged along after her as she went to the nurse's station to check the logs for the elder Uchiha brother's name. She picked up the clip board with the names of all those checked in on this floor it took her half a minute to flip through two pages and locate the name she was looking for and the room number.
"He's in 31-C." Sakura said aloud, "It's down here." She walked with them down the hallway and turned left and all the way down that hallway again until she reached the last room on the right.
She pulled the medical files out of the organizer next to the door and cracked open the freshest manila envelope. They were Itachi's records, so she was now confident it was his room, as sometimes the nurses screwed these things up on the logs. Then she checked the most recent vitals report and was again reassured that he was well enough for visitors.
"You can go in," Sakura said after a few moments of reading, "He'll be asleep though, and he'll most likely stay that way for three or four days."
Sasuke's father, Fugaku was the first to enter the room. When he was out of eyesight Sasuke's rigid posture relaxed visibly and he gave Sakura a one armed hug before he went in.
The Uchiha matriarch, Mikoto was left with Sakura in the hallway.
"I just wanted to say how much we appreciate this, Sakura-chan. I'm glad we know you, it makes me feel better about Itachi being here." Mikoto told the younger woman gently.
"Don't worry Mikoto-san, "Sakura replied, smiling genuinely at the kind woman she had known since she was a genin. "Honestly, Shisui and Itachi-san will both be fine in a few days, we'll probably keep them for a week total, and then they can go home and recuperate for another week or two until they can safely be cleared for active duty."
Mikoto smiled softly and looked very much relieved, the stress lines on her elegant face smoothing out substantially.
"Thank you Sakura, you know," Mikoto continued looking very serious now, "you're always welcome in our home. If you ever need anything, you can just ask."
"I appreciate that Mikoto-san; it's very kind of you to treat me so well. I'm just an old team mate of Sasuke's, really." Sakura replied feeling a bit embarrassed by the sincerity of the woman.
"Nonsense, Sakura." Mikoto responded immediately," you're like the daughter I would have loved to have. You used to come over more often, and I don't see you at the teahouse anymore when I go on Wednesdays and I miss having another girl to chat with."
Sakura smiled at that, she, Ino, Ino's mother Sasaki and Mikoto used to have tea almost every Wednesday for the last several years and Sakura had missed almost every one of them for the last half a year now, due to the increasing workload of taking on more and more duties at the hospital.
"I'll try to make it to tea this next Wednesday." Sakura promised, hoping secretly that she wouldn't have to break it for work and feel like an idiot later when she apologized for missing….
Mikoto looked satisfied with this answer and hugged Sakura in quite possibly the most motherly embraces Sakura had ever had, and then she too disappeared into the room housing her eldest son.
Sakura felt inexplicably better after her chat with Mikoto, and thought about it for a moment. She then determined it was because Mikoto was understanding and had one of those naturally motherly personalities her own mother had lacked.
Sakura let out a breath at the thought of her own mother and cringed, she had died two years ago and Sakura was sad to say that she could not really think of any memory she particularly liked that included the woman. Her mother, Haruno Yuka had been completely disapproving of Sakura's aspirations to be a shinobi and vocalized them every chance she could find. She had been a narcissistic woman who only cared about who she was keeping up appearances for that week, and the amount of money she could spend on clothes that month. Even at the expense of buying no groceries for weeks at a time. Yuka had spent so much on herself that from the time when Sakura was very little to when she finally became a chuunin she would often go to the refrigerator or the cabinets looking for something to eat, and find virtually nothing; this forced Sakura to fend for herself out of the meager amount of genin pay she made for D-rank missions. All those years she had spent saying she was 'on a diet'… when in reality there was just nothing to eat, and Sakura saved up all the money she could manage from missions in the secret aspiration that she could afford her own apartment by the time she became a chuunin. Which she did, and then she moved out as quickly as possible. Her mother hadn't cared.
Sakura's mind wandered from that line of thought when she realized that she was slowly tipping over where she stood, exhausted and ready to fall asleep on her feet. It was definitely time to find a cot and go to sleep.
…..
When the sense of touch came back to him, he was a little happy. The pain, he could have done without, but the relief of knowing he could control his limbs again without failure was fantastic. His hearing had come back the day before, and he had not tried opening his eyes yet, or speaking, but he was determined to do so by the end of the day.
There was a little movement to his right, and then a slight dip in the mattress as somebody rested a small amount of weight there. There was the sound of the room door opening, a slight click in the mix of beeping machines. He resolved to force his eyes open.
The eyelids he was loath to call his own at the moment felt like they were cemented shut. He struggled for a moment and after a few irritatingly long seconds he was victorious.
He opened his dark eyes and was immediately blinded by the relative brightness of the room. He winced a bit of sound coming out of his parched mouth stirring something next to him. When his eyes adjusted, he looked down, he was what it was. His little brother was asleep sitting in a chair next to him, his arms folded, cushioning his chin, and slumped over onto his hospital bed's pristine white sheets.
"Oh, good." A voice said quietly from the doorway.
He looked up; a jonin medic with the most ridiculously pink hair he had ever seen was smiling at him. He wondered for a moment if it was some sort of extreme mutation of strawberry-blonde, but decided that logic simply did not apply to this situation. It suited her nonetheless. Her viridian green eyes were smiling too, even though they looked like she hadn't had much sleep.
"It's good to see you awake," she continued seemingly unbothered by his lack of response, "you've been unconscious for three days now." she went into a cabinet on the wall opposite from him and fished in it for a moment, pulling forth a water bottle. She uncapped it as she walked over and then offered it to him by holding it quite close to his face. He mustered a bit of strength and moved his arm, lifting his hand to grasp it from her. She grasped his hand and placed it gently around the bottle, then helped him guide it to his mouth. Normally he would be extremely irritated by this level of assistance but at the moment, he simply did not care.
He drank the bottle down in less than twenty seconds, taking massive gulps.
"Thank you." He managed to croak afterward, his throat feeling a little less like a desert now.
"Sure," she replied, going back to the cabinet and finding another. She uncapped this one in the same fashion and repeated the process.
This time he only drained half. She then recapped it and put it on his bedside table, which was obnoxiously littered with flowers and cards in the shapes of glittery hearts and boxes of foodstuffs his fan girls had left for him. He must have made a face when he saw them, because Sakura laughed softly and said, "We told the lot of them to leave it all at the front desk, so you wouldn't be literally drooled over in your sleep."
He looked more relaxed when she said this, clearly she was not a fan girl of his, and he did not have to worry about her trying to accost him later. She went about checking his vitals in a very professional manner, and the entire time, he was left wondering why she looked so familiar. He was often on assignment, so it was no wonder that he did not know her name, rank or affiliations, but there was something about the shape of her face and that hair that made him think he'd seen her once before.
"I think it's sweet that Sasuke cares so much." She said softly as she took his pulse, nodding to the younger Uchiha who was still asleep.
It clicked then, she was his little brother's team mate, and he had seen her before when she was a twelve year old genin…. Seven years ago. So she was nineteen then.
"He's a good little brother." Itachi replied quietly after a moment.
"He must be." Sakura replied mildly, "he's been here for days."
"What?" Itachi asked, a strange tone coloring his voice.
"Your mother keeps trying to get him to come home, but it's been three days and Sasuke hasn't budged. I think she's just resigned to letting him stay."
"He is foolish." Itachi said in return, not sounding harsh or condescending, but more, matter- of- fact, like an older sibling should. Sakura was internally a bit surprised by this, the way people usually talked about Itachi she had gotten the impression he was cold and standoffish, he was actually just quiet and thoughtful.
"He's a piece of work," she answered pulling his clipboard onto her lap and jotting down some numbers.
Itachi cracked a tiny smile.
"How is Shisui?" Itachi asked a few seconds later.
"Awake and acting like a playboy." Sakura huffed, "he keeps flirting with the nurses, especially Yamanaka Ino, and she's going to sink her claws into him for real if he's not careful."
Itachi snorted lightly in amusement, "it would serve him right."
Sakura smirked," yeah, it would."
"whatwouldwha-?" a sleepy voice asked.
"Shisui deserves Ino." Sakura volunteered to the younger brother.
Sasuke looked sleepily horrified, "no one deserves that." He whispered, like he was saying no one deserved to contract Ebola.
Sakura laughed, "Alright Itachi-san, you're doing well, and I'm going to start you on a better, solid diet. If you can keep to it I can let you out of here in three days instead of another week, ok?"
The elder of the brothers inclined his head agreeably, "that is acceptable."
"Alright, then." She hung Itachi's clipboard back up on the foot of his bed, and moved to exit, "see you two later."
This left Itachi with even more questions than he had originally had.
….
Uchiha Shisui realized that his first mistake was alienating all the other medics. His second mistake was flirting with the pretty blonde. He really shouldn't talk to her, he knew it was going to be trouble.
She was gorgeous, no doubt, but she had a shinobi's swearing mouth on her. She destroyed him when they argued, and he knew the worst part was, he enjoyed every moment; even though he routinely lost.
He was picking at her for being blonde for the thirty-seventh time that day when she snapped, "When boys pick on pretty girls it means they like them, right? So why don't you just man up and ask me out already, and be done with it? She nearly shouted at him.
Shisui's eyes widened to the size of saucers.
There was a tense silence for a few moments and when she realized he wasn't going to say anything she scowled even harder and walked out of the recovery room, slamming the door behind her.
Shisui cursed himself silently. He liked Ino; he was just surprised that she had been so forward.
He resolved himself then. He made a sweat breaking effort to get out of his bed, and wobbled a bit while clinging to his I.V. pole. He shuffled unsurely to the door and pulled it open. It was cold in the hallway, and the tiles seemed to suck all the heat out of his bare feet. The hospital gown that no doubt made his ass completely in full view to the public was not all that much help either.
He ignored these things and ventured toward the sound of slamming cabinets.
He found her in the break room, forcibly making a cup of coffee.
He cleared his throat, she paused and turned around, her eyes widening when she was him. She was beginning to open her mouth furiously, clearly about to chastise him for being up and about. He cut her off.
"How do you ask out a dumb blonde?" he asked, hoping he would understand his joke reference.
She glared but replied, "How?"
"I dunno," Shisui replied, "she walked away before I could." He finished.
"That was a really stupid way to ask a girl out," she snarked at him, a grin spreading slowly over her face.
"Yeah, well, what's your answer?" Shisui asked, smirking slightly.
"I'm releasing you from the hospital in three days; take me out that evening at seven." Ino replied.
"Alright," Shisui agreed, "seven, where do I pick you up?"
"The flower shop, you know where that is?"
"I know where everything is, sweetheart." Shisui retorted, finally turning to leave, feeling victorious. He began his long shuffle down the hallway once more, this time smiling.
Ino was beaming behind him in the break room and decided to make him a cup of coffee too.
…
TBC