Disclaimer: Even if Kishimoto had enough time to read my stories, chances are he'd probably just laugh…Clearly I don't own, although it's a wonderful dream….
Warnings: Nothing, I think. Maybe Strong!Sakura—Kishimoto doesn't seem to love her as much as she deserves.
The ink stains her hands pink, the red ink spread and dissolved by sweat and water. She is scribe and student to the Godaime, and her work shows in her hands. The boxes she lifts and the people she heals have become routine to her, as have the endless hours of reading—medical texts to clan histories—and notating. The Godaime doesn't want another case like Lee's, doesn't want days to go by before she can help someone again. Next time, they might not have that kind of time. So she doesn't complain much about the reading and she doesn't complain at all about the healing and lifting, because the hospital can always use another set of hands and this is what she'd wanted, being a medic
The calluses turn her palms grey, her work roughening the skin and breaking it, patches of red blooming through the grey. Her skin turns a patchy purple, bruises and healed scars given equally by her powerful teacher, but Sakura has learned not to care anymore because the power bequeathed to her is enough to make up for any lack of dainty femininity during these times. And now she's strong enough that she won't need to call on her boys and her friends every time she faces a challenge. Now, her inner self has a chance to become her outer self, and she loves every minute of it, loves feeling strong and powerful and fierce, and it reminds her why exactly she'd wanted to be a medic-nin.
So when she meets him again she is pleased to see he has grown too. She's already admitted, albeit ruefully, that he'll probably be stronger than she is no matter what she does, but with her finesse at manipulation and control her chakra is a weapon far more dangerous than his own, no matter what new techniques he's learned. They spend the rest of the afternoon catching up with each other, exchanging pleasantries and small talk about their mutual friends. He laughs when she accidentally starts lecturing him on infection because splinters shouldn't be ignored, Naruto, they can actually cause several other, more serious problems, and he tells her that she's gotten even smarter in the last two years and she glows with pride. The next day, when they fight Kakashi, and she makes the ground shatter and the trees quake, it's no small amount of pleasure she gets from the look of shock and fear on his face—on both of their faces— and she grins because now, finally, she feels right.