A/N: Ok, I lied. I updated. :x Reviews are always welcome!
Taking a small blank scroll from her weapons pouch and a fountain pen she'd found on Sasuke's desk, Sakura seated herself in the Sound-nin's cramped kitchenette, resting her elbows on the counter. She hummed under her breath, tapping the pen against her lips.
Sasuke walked in, brushing past her to place the fruit bowl on the counter.
"Sasuke," she murmured, sitting up. Her eyes searched his. "I was completely unaware of your medical department's shortcomings. In fact, I wasn't told much about it all. Can you tell me why that is?"
He pursed his lips. "I am not at liberty to say."
Sakura gave him a withering look. "Do you really think that that's a good enough reason for Tsunade-sama to extend the appeal?"
He fixed his eyes on the fruit bowl, scowling. "No one is making you stay, Sakura."
The medic sighed, exasperated. "May I remind you that Konoha didn't volunteer for this? It was Sound who took first action. You do know that the Hokage will immediately pull me out if I put something as vague as 'I am not at liberty to say,' right?"
"You're asking the wrong person," he replied with a shrug. "Ask Kabuto." And with that, he headed for the door and left.
Sakura wrinkled her nose, staring at the door in disbelief. Sighing, she scribbled down a couple of things, also adding that she could use some extra clothes – Naruto had a copy of her apartment key – before retrieving a jutsu scroll from her pouch and performing the necessary hand seals.
A young messenger hawk perched on her wrist, stretching its magnificent wings. She slid the small scroll into a slim metal case on the bird's leg before opening the window, gently placing her hand over its head to allow it to hunch forward as she eased it past the wooden frame.
Sakura watched as it took flight, beating its wings swiftly as it gained elevation. It soared into the sky, heading eastward towards Konoha.
She then walked into Sasuke's room, placing the fountain pen back where she'd found it. The kunoichi placed her hands on her hips, her eyes scanning the room for her things. She found her sandals at the foot of the bed, but the knapsack she'd brought had gone missing. The only thing in there that held any worth was her hita-ite. She hoped that she'd left it in the hospital.
She quickly slid into her sandals and left the apartment building, the sun warming her shoulders as she stepped outside. Sakura scowled when she found that she was in an area of Sound that was unknown to her. She walked a couple of paces and found a street vendor; she politely asked him to direct her to the town hall, and afterwards bought dango from him in thanks.
When she arrived, she found Kabuto just walking in, a thick manila folder in his arms. She sighed in relief before catching up to him. "Kabuto-san," she greeted as she polished off the last of her dango.
"Ah, Sakura-san! Good morning," he replied, smiling pleasantly. "Aya told me to tell you that she appreciates everything you're doing here. She knows that it's quite a handful."
"About that…" Sakura murmured, tossing the skewer into a garbage pail they passed on the way to his office. "There's something that I'd like to discuss with you."
He had his pleasant smile on again. Sakura found him very hard to read. "I anticipated this," he admitted with a chuckle.
The Konoha medic narrowed her eyes. "Did you?"
They entered Kabuto's office, the pink-haired kunoichi taking a seat before he could offer it to her. When he took his position behind the desk, he placed the folder down gingerly, clearing his throat.
"I know that we are rather… behind."
Sakura snorted. "Behind," she uttered, staring at him. "Kabuto-san, why wasn't I aware of Sound's shortcomings from the beginning? And if Orochimaru-sama needed me so much, why isn't he the one meeting with me?"
Kabuto folded his hands on the desk patiently. Sakura wanted to hit him. "I'm afraid Orochimaru-sama has his own handful to tend to, but I will make things as clear as I can for you." He opened the folder in front of him, moving it towards Sakura. "As you can tell, Sound is literally and figuratively in bits and pieces."
Sakura leafed through the documents, gazing at the blueprints of buildings that were still undergoing heavy instruction.
"We are treading on unstable ground just by requesting Konoha's assistance, financially among other things. But it was a risk that we had to take, Sakura-san. And Orochimaru-sama – as well as I, as well as Sasuke-kun – understood that if anyone knew the gravity of Sound's current circumstances, we could be very well setting ourselves up."
"Setting yourselves up? The times are relatively peaceful. As peaceful as they've ever been, in fact." Sakura rebutted cautiously.
He shook his head. "Peace isn't long-lasting, I'm afraid. Sound has many enemies. Although we are attempting to redeem ourselves through this, everyone has had their own guarded opinions about it. It can't be helped. We're at the bottom of the barrel, Sakura-san, but we're going to do everything we can to work our way up."
Sakura drummed her fingers against the armrest impatiently. "Is Orochimaru-sama's handful so time consuming that it leaves no room for much else?" She looked at him askance. "I asked Sasuke about it, and he told me that he wasn't at liberty to say. But are you more qualified to answer me, Kabuto-san?"
"Orochimaru-sama is taking the necessary precautions that will take Sound where it ought to be," Kabuto answered carefully, "and because he is preoccupied with those duties, I am merely taking care of his neglected obligations. That has left me no room for the medical department, and although it troubles me, I cannot argue with Orochimaru-sama at a time like this. I've left Sasuke to watch over it, but he has not done much, and I doubt that he could, really."
Sakura sighed softly. That seemed more like a drawn out 'I am not at liberty to say' than anything else.
"Sakura-san, we aren't making you stay. But your presence here is a huge benefactor in more ways than one. I'm sure you understand that."
She gave an imperceptible nod. The only thing that she understood was that she wasn't going to get much more out of him. That is, unless she delved a little.
And she knew exactly who to approach.
"Good morning, Aya-san."
Sakura chuckled as the preoccupied woman jumped a little before she smiled at her.
"Ah, good morning, Sakura-san! I really do appreciate you coming to both shifts." Aya murmured, a bit guilt-stricken.
The pink-haired medic nodded absently. She watched rather detachedly as the swinging doors opened, until her mind alerted her to a familiar shade of red. As soon as Nanako came into view, recognition set in and they didn't hesitate to give one another spiteful glares.
"Good morning, Aya-kun," Nanako said quietly.
Aya's head turned in the direction of Nanako's voice. "Good morning, Nana-kun. We have a guest here today," she greeted her, nodding towards Sakura. "Haruno Sakura, the head of Konoha's medical department," she said introductorily.
Nanako stared at Sakura blankly. "I see."
"You're a medic-nin?" Sakura asked, unable to conceal her surprise. And disbelief.
"Yes," the redhead replied. "I was motivated to become one when my father passed away."
Sakura could detect the vagueness in her tone, but she unfortunately knew it all too well. She tore her eyes away from her before settling her gaze on Aya, who was reading over a lesson they were to go over. "Aya-san, may I speak to you after the session?" she inquired.
The brunette nodded. "Certainly. In fact, we have some time now if you'd like to discuss it in my office."
"Can we?" Sakura worried her lower lip.
Aya quickly rolled up the scroll before giving Nanako a polite "Excuse us," leading the Konoha medic into the back hallway and into her barren office.
"I spoke to Kabuto-san this morning," Sakura told her, getting right to the point. She watched the other woman as she closed the door. "Although… he and Sasuke have been very vague. Is there anything that you might know that I should?"
Aya pursed her lips, the space between her eyebrows pinching into a pensive frown. "To my knowledge, Orochimaru-sama is meeting with different council members to clear up any and all remaining hostilities that might have existed in the first place. Kabuto has not told me of his method of approach, though. The villagers don't even see much of him. He's away most of the time, and when he returns, there's always a workload waiting for him. Honestly, I'm surprised that he hasn't burnt out yet."
"I sent out a message to the Hokage, and I mentioned Sound's request to extend the appeal. I really don't know how this will go, especially since I haven't had much information to send her. Everything that's been said to me have all been rather vague, and I don't think Tsunade-sama will stand for that. She'll probably think something is wrong, and the last thing anyone should do is cause a scene when Sound isn't in any condition to respond to it properly." Sakura locked eyes with her. "Aya-san… I honestly do want to help, but I'm not being given enough room to do so. If Sound truly needs my assistance, don't you think these limitations should be eradicated, or at least slightly dulled?"
Aya sighed. "If it were in my power, I'd give you the information you needed in a heartbeat. But I fear for anyone who knows too much. You could be captured and interrogated, among other things; and as you said, Sound isn't in any condition to properly respond to something like that without having it all blown out of proportion. And if anything like that happened, you'd be far off from your intended mission here and you really don't want to be caught up in this."
"I already am, in a way," Sakura laughed dryly. She sighed softly, but she was more relieved than anything else. "I'll… make do with what I have. But thank you, Aya-san."
Aya smiled warmly. "It is you that we should thank, Sakura."
The pink-haired woman returned her smile, clasping her hands together enthusiastically. "Alright! Should we begin?"
Aya nodded, feeling more hope than she's had in a long while. "Lead the way."
Sakura allowed herself to drag her feet a little. The sessions were becoming a little bit easier to manage, but they were still relentlessly tiring. She was pleased that it ended a few hours before sundown, though. It always seemed to bother her if she couldn't manage to fit enough sunlight into her day.
She ate a late lunch at a yakiniku stand, and then afterwards decided to stroll around the village. The sky was already pink with the setting sun, and she found herself at loss at what she could do in the meantime.
It was only until the air cooled down significantly did she retrace her steps to possibly find a hostel. She didn't get very far though, as Sasuke had appeared from God knows where with a knapsack over his shoulder.
"I'm leaving for a mission," he said by way of greeting.
Sakura stared at him blankly.
He shoved a set of keys into her hand. "You can stay in my apartment for the night." He shoved the knapsack against her chest. "That's yours."
She caught it, unlatching the flap and reaching in, sighing in relief when her hand touched the cold metal of her hita-ite. "Sasuke," she called out as he began to turn away. "I am by no means getting comfortable here. Don't get used to it."
The Uchiha gave her his own blank stare. "You can trust me on that," was his only reply.
The kunoichi tore her gaze from his retreating back, shouldering the knapsack and pocketing his keys. She only made it a couple of paces before she was met with another encounter. A masked nin dropped in front of her from a nearby tree. Anbu.
Sakura leapt backwards, on the defense. "Identify yourself," she hissed, her hand reaching for the weapons pouch on her thigh.
The nin didn't make any attempt to approach her any further. "Haruno," he greeted, his voice muffled by the porcelain mask.
The kunoichi tilted her head. "Hyuuga-san?"
Neji nodded. "Tsunade-sama wasn't too keen on the message you sent. She figured that you might be in danger. I have an Anbu team at my beck and call, if need be."
"I knew she'd do that!" she muttered under her breath. "Tell her she has nothing to be alarmed about at the moment. Orochimaru is out of town and I haven't been able to get any straight answers. Tell her that I'll write her another message – a detailed one – and she should just wait for it. At this point, it isn't a very good idea to jeopardize Sound or Konoha, so you should probably leave the area. What Tsunade-sama will want you to know, she'll tell you."
He nodded. "I am by Tsunade-sama's instructions not permitted to leave until sunrise. We will be on the eastern border, near the outskirts of Sound if you need any assistance."
She sighed. "So be it."
He paused briefly before unloading a black messenger bag. "This is from Naruto. He apologizes if any of the colors don't match," he deadpanned.
Sakura groaned. "Thanks anyway," she muttered. She walked towards Sasuke's apartment building as soon as he departed from view.
She walked into Sasuke's bedroom as soon as she entered his apartment, digging through the messenger bag to find that Naruto had packed mostly black and solid colored apparel, a couple of dresses, some sleepwear, as well as the essentials. She also found two cups of instant ramen, much to her amusement.
Sakura cooked the instant noodles, eating them while looking through Sasuke's books. He didn't own many, and those that he did were either textbooks or technical stuff. The entire apartment was rather austere aside from his plaid beddings, barely consisting of the bare necessities. His icebox contained a jug of water, a grocery bag full of tomatoes, and an empty milk carton. She wasn't sure how he lived like this.
Sometime later, she couldn't find anymore corners to poke around and became bored. After washing up and putting on a pair of shorts and an oversized shirt, she climbed into bed and pulled the covers over her, staring at the ceiling.
She fell asleep shortly afterward, her face buried into Sasuke's pillow.
She awoke with a start, glancing out the bedroom windows. It was still dark outside, but there were peculiar noises coming from the apartment door. Grabbing a kunai from her knapsack, she dragged herself off the bed and slowly made her way to the door, her back to the wall.
The door swung open, and a tall, lanky figure limped through the threshold.
Sakura turned on the light.
Sasuke stood in front of her, his lip split, his nose bloodied, his arms covered in deep scratches.
"What the hell happened to you?"
Sasuke wiped the blood from his nose, but only managed to smear it across his face.
He recalled a particular incident that night, on his way back to Sound:
"Hyuuga Neji," Sasuke deadpanned as the Anbu lifted him by the front of his shirt.
"Yes," the man replied, lifting the mask from his face. "Uchiha Sasuke, this is a message from Naruto."
Hyuuga Neji paused. He then punched him square in the nose.
Sasuke walked past her, grumbling something about needing more training. "I don't want to talk about it."