Aww, hehe, I know I know, a year already? Sorry guys, I got into the period where I didn't have time and then I lost interest in Naruto fanfics. Sorry! But I made the full outline of this story!
p.s. I hate my former writing. Sorry. Had to say it.
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In room 627 of the Recovery Building for Surviving soldiers, an overworked nurse unhurriedly changed the starch white sheets of her patient's bed. It had been over two month's ago when she had first met the funny, clumsy, yet dependable Naruto. When the blonde soldier heard that his Lieutenant had survived and was now a mere 6 minute walk away, he had immediately demanded to see him. Just when Sakura had been ready to halt her protests and allow the blonde to see her patient, Tsunade showed up. Though Sakura wondered if it was really wise to hit a patient over the head with a sake bottle, her boss seemed perfectly at ease as she beat the soldier into obedience.
"Now you listen to me kid, as long as you're in MY hospital being cared for by MY staff, you are to follow MY orders, whether they came directly or indirectly from ME. Understand?"
"Jeezuz Christ old lady, that HURT!" The older blonde smacked the younger again with the bottle of her current favorite brand of sake.
"Look. Uchiha is also one of my patients here. His recovery is our first and foremost priority. Now if YOU go running around and telling him all his past memories that he hasn't recovered by himself, well that wouldn't be good would it? No. Uzumaki, you are allowed to visit fellow patients, but you are not, I repeat NOT, permitted to tell them their memories. That's an ORDER soldier."
"Hai!"
Ever since that day, Naruto has been visiting Sasuke. To tell the truth, Sakura had to admit that the blonde's company definitely had a good impact on her patient. Though he still had the same cold-hearted, stoic personality, Sakura was now sure that it was his natural behavior and not something he had acquired from war. She also knew that Naruto was the reason for her patient's 'nickname'.
"Yo, Sasuke-teme, what're ya up to?"
"Shut up Dobe."
"EH?! Teme, that was uncalled for and rude!"
"Hn. Whatever."
"Tight-ass."
"Idiot."
The pink haired nurse couldn't help but smile as she recalled the many childish fights the two young men have had since then. Though an outsider might view these as pointless conversations that could possible hinder the recovery of the Uchiha's memories, it had exactly the opposite effect. Since meeting Naruto, her patient had been recovering his memories quite a lot quicker.
"Tsunade said that every time you remember something you are to tell me right away. Alright?"
"Hn."
By now, the only parts that the soldier hasn't remembered were who the girl in his childhood was, and what occurred after the ambush. Actually, it was only a week ago when the Uchiha finally recognized his right hand man's voice. It was quite amusing for the nurse when Naruto, who had assumed that his lieutenant recognized him soon after his first visit, burst out indignantly, calling Sasuke a dense, asexual, cold-hearted bastard. The Uchiha responded by pushing the blond off his stool.
Sakura was pulled out of her reverie when her patient, having moved to the adjacent bed, suddenly stood up and started limping towards the door.
"Hey."
"…"
"Where do you think you're going?"
"…bathroom."
"Can you even see where you're going?"
"…hn."
Slightly exasperated with her patient's one worded explanations (or no explanation whatsoever) Sakura returned to folding sheets while Sasuke crutched his way out of the door. She couldn't help but notice how much of the young man had been unwrapped. By now, the Uchiha only had bandages around his upper torso, left shoulder, and right foot. They had followed Dr. Genii's advice; a thin layer of wrapping wound around the soldier's head, covering his still-healing eyes.
With a sigh, the tired nurse fluffed the pillow in her hands one more time, sat on the bed, and stared out the little window in room 627.
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Sasuke closed the blue stall with a sigh and leaned heavily against the door. Slowly, the soldier rubbed his temple, small-circle-large-circle, over and over, trying to ease the pain in his head. Though it had already been over two months since he had woken up in this strange hospital, the Uchiha had still not recovered all of his memories. What he did remember was useful: he was the youngest son of the great Uchiha clan. His mother and father had died in battle when he was just a child. The last time he saw his brother, Itachi had been frantically yelling for Sasuke to run. The older Uchiha and his sect had been ambushed; soon after, Sasuke received news that his brother, along with 67 other soldiers, had been captured and killed by the REBELS. Five years later, Sasuke and his own sect were assigned Suicide Mission 287. Due to some unexpected difficulties and conflicts, they too were ambushed. The leader of the REBELS, Orochimaru, had been at the ambush, along with around 50 of his best soldiers. Recalling what happened at the battle was more than infuriating to the Lieutenant; if he ever saw that man again, Sasuke would do whatever it takes to kill him. Due to blood loss and fatigue, the rest of the Uchiha's memory was blurry: he recalled bodies from both sides, mostly his own, strewn across the soaked grass. He remembered a large explosion (from the REBEL's cries, he could deduce that it hadn't been planned by them), and the silence that followed. His last memory was of lying half in, half out of a cold stream, concealed by large stalks of weeds. He could see the dark smoke rising 50 yards away, and hear the moans and cries of his men behind him. Just before the Uchiha blacked out, an image had materialized before him; pink haired and viridian eyed, a pale girl's smiling face had appeared.
The Uchiha rubbed his face in frustration. For the past two months, he had mentally exhausted himself attempting to discover the identity of the girl from his past. He'd been able to get quick flashes of her face, and his memories retained her voice quite clearly. It annoyed him to no end that he just wasn't able to get the girl's name. The only thing that annoyed the soldier more was the nagging feeling that he must remember her name; the Uchiha knew this girl had been a childhood companion, but why did she seem like such a key thing to his memories? And that damned nurse wasn't helping him much either; she was always interrupting his train of thoughts, making jokes, arguing with him…it made it difficult to concentrate. At the same time though, it was relaxing, to spite her and listen to her vent and attempt to tick him off in return. Naruto wasn't bad company either (though he'd never admit it to the idiot); it was quite easy to find some way to insult the blond and—
"Hey! Are you done yet? There are people that need to go, you know!"
Scowling, Sasuke unlocked the stall and stepped out. A white haired middle aged man stepped past him and quickly shut the door; the Uchiha heard him give a sigh of relief. Stepping out of the bathroom, the soldier headed back to room 627. Who knows, maybe Sakura would start bickering with him for leaving without the fluffy slippers she'd ordered him to wear. Smirking, the Uchiha picked up his pace.
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It's already been 15 minutes. What's taking him so long? Sakura frowned as she waited for her patient to return from the bathroom. He's just asking for a fight, that Uchiha. Though Sakura would never admit it, she rather enjoyed the small arguments she had with her patient. It was one of the very few ways to get him to talk. In a way, quarrelling had allowed the two to grow closer to each other, these past months. Sasuke would do something that annoyed her; she would retaliate by questioning him; he would answer with one/no word explanations. She would call him a jerk. He'd call her annoying. Though these arguments seemed pointless and a waste of time, Sakura found that she grew more and more attached to the Uchiha after every fight. Too stubborn to look deeply into those feelings of attachment, Haruno just classified them as a tighter bond between a nurse and her patient.
Sakura jumped as the door to the now-tidy room creaked open. "Hey. What took so long?"
"Nothing."
"Teme, it's okay. You can tell me if you needed to take a dump. I'm your nurse after all…"
"…and an annoying one at that."
"Did you say something?"
"No, Haruno-sama."
"Oh, so now you're getting your sarcasm on?"
"Baka, just get that book out," Sakura stopped her retaliation and blinked.
"Wait—what? Oh, you mean Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince?"
"Hn."
Sakura suppressed her giggle as she turned toward her desk to search for the book. Surprisingly, this lieutenant was a bibliophile; though he obviously couldn't read right now, Sasuke always forced Sakura to read one novel or another to him each day. Sakura, finding nothing wrong about reading to her patient, had agreed without hesitation. They'd started this routine a little over a month ago; their current novel was Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the 6th book of a very famous classic.
"Eh? Gomen Teme, I think I left it with Hinata this morning. I'll be back in ten." The green eyed nurse left, leaving her patient standing in the middle of the room.
"…baka…" After a few moments of standing like a dummy in the middle of the room, Sasuke turned toward the direction of the desk and began feeling the surface. If he had learned one thing about the nurse, it would be that she was as talkative as she was forgetful, and Sasuke could have sworn that Sakura had left the novel on the desk. Having failed finding it on the surface, the Uchiha started fishing through the drawers; Baka, not only are you forgetful, but you're messy too. Apparently, Sakura found cleaning her desk the last of her priorities; stacks of papers, wads of tissues, a box of tootsie pops…those were just some of the many items that the soldier found while searching for the book. It was only when he reached the bottom left drawer that he found something worth taking a look at.
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Sighing heavily, Sakura said goodbye to Hinata and left the room, disappointed. Where did I put that book? Hmm… Turning on her heels, the pink haired nurse started heading toward the cafeteria. Maybe she'd left it on one of the many lunch tables…
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What the hell? Standing alone in room 627, Sasuke was holding onto what seemed like a mutated, furry pillow. Dropping his crutch to the ground, the Uchiha felt with his hands, trying to decipher just what the object was; two legs…arms…paws?...head, ears and nose…WTF? A teddy bear?
Suddenly, a wave of nausea overcame the patient, causing him to clutch the wooden edges of the desk for balance; his head started spinning, spinning, spinning, and just when the Uchiha thought he was going to crash to the floor, a bright white flare exploded in his head. Thousands of images began flashing behind his eyes at a seemingly impossible speed.
-Flash-
-Crackle-
"—I like your name—"
"—you're weird—"
"—You'll, you'll still keep your promise right?—"
-Static-
"—Don't 'hn' me!—"
"—Teddy?"
-Static-
On unsteady feet, Sasuke clumsily ripped off the bandages covering his eyes. Blinking rapidly, he fumbled with the teddy bear he held in his trembling hands.
-Static-
"Yes, my Teddy bear. Hand it over Uchiha!"
"Hm…no."
"…SSSAAAASSSSUUUUKKKKEEEEE—"
-Flash-
"—I'm happy you're my friend—"
-Static-
—Her white teeth glistened with the fading sunlight. A cool breeze swept up her windblown hair, and curled around her dimpled face. At that moment…she was all he could think about…but his child brain didn't know why.
"I lo—"
-Crackle-
"I lo—"
-Flash-
"I—"
-Crackle-
"I love you, Sasuke!"
"—Hey Sasuke, guess what? I left Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in—" Sakura froze as she caught sight of her haggard patient clutching a familiar stuffed animal. The nurse paled even more at the contemptuous look the Uchiha sent her through icy eyes. Onyx orbs scrutinized the young woman with vehemence; they finally rested on wide, frightened, green eyes.
"…you?"
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